“I’m okay.” She curled her arms around him. “I was afraid he’d hurt you or burned down your house.”
He eased away from her an inch, then brushed her cheek with his thumb. “My house is fine. But...”
“But what?”
“He killed the deputy watching the inn. I’ve already called Jacob.”
Emotions flooded her. Sorrow. Guilt. Hatred for Robert.
And a deep fear for Mitzi and for Griff that cemented her decision to meet Robert alone.
* * *
GRIFF’S HEART WAS hammering so fast he thought his chest would explode. He soaked in the sight of Ginny’s beautiful face riddled with panic and fear, and sadness twisted at his gut.
“Oh, God,” she choked out. “Another man is dead because of me.”
He regretted telling her, but he’d had no choice. She had to know the lengths Robert had gone to today. That it was imperative she stay with him so he could protect her.
“The deputy understood the dangers of the job, Ginny.”
“That still doesn’t make it right.” Tremors rippled through her body, and he hugged her tighter.
“I know it’s not right. He was a good man.”
She gulped back tears. “Did he have family? Was he married? Did he have children?”
“No, no and no,” Griff said. “He was divorced, had just moved here. I don’t think he had family either, at least not that I know of.”
A small cry broke from her, and he rubbed slow circles along her back. “Shh, it’s all right.”
“Nothing about this is all right.”
“I know,” he murmured. “But he did his job and we will find Robert. I promise.”
“How many more people have to die before he’s caught and locked away?” Ginny asked, bitterness darkening her tone.
“Hopefully no more.” Griff pressed a kiss to her cheek. “I need to go back downstairs and wait on Jacob. I just had to make sure you were safe first.” Although he’d left the body alone. That didn’t sit well in his gut either. What if someone messed with the crime scene?
“What about the innkeeper?” Ginny asked.
“She’s fine. The two guests who were registered checked out when they heard a policeman was stationed outside.” He squeezed her arm. “Lock the door and stay in the room,” Griff ordered.
Ginny shook her head. “I’ll go with you.”
“You don’t need to see the deputy like that,” Griff said. “I promise I’ll return as soon as Jacob arrives.” A siren wailed from outside, and she pulled away from him. “All right. Go. I’ll be here when you get back.”
He hoped to hell she was, and that she didn’t do anything stupid like try to leave without him.
* * *
GINNY LOCKED THE door as soon as Griff left the room. Then she walked over to the window, pushed the curtain aside and watched as Jacob climbed from his police car and hurried to the deputy’s car.
Griff met them just as a hearse appeared and parked. It had to belong to the ME.
God, the day kept getting worse.
The men gathered around the deputy’s car, but Griff’s body blocked her view of the man inside. A van veered into the parking lot, and a team climbed out, wearing jackets with ERT on the back. They would work the crime scene and collect evidence.
Her stomach knotted as they snapped pictures of the car and deputy, then began to take ones of the surrounding ground and area. She hoped they gathered conclusive evidence, although if she found Robert first, they wouldn’t need it.
She’d take care of him herself.
The thought made her feel sick inside, but she couldn’t live with people dying on her account.
Tears for the deputy spilled from her eyes, and she brushed them away angrily. Griff spoke to his brother, then glanced up at the window, and their gazes locked.
He was the kind of tough, stubborn strong man who made a hero. She could so fall in love with him if things were different.
She might even learn to trust again.
He left Jacob and the ME and search team and walked toward the inn.
The phone Robert had left for her taunted her from the nightstand. Griff would want her to confide about the phone call.
But sharing with him would only endanger him. Tonight, she’d meet Robert and take care of him then everyone else would be safe.
The thought of dying didn’t frighten her. Her life the past three years had not really been living. She didn’t want to go to prison, but justice for her sister and all the others whose lives had been destroyed by Robert would be worth it.
A knock sounded at the door. “Ginny?”
She inhaled a calming breath, then turned the lock. Griff looked so handsome and sexy and worried that she wanted him more than she’d ever wanted anything in her life. Just one night with him.
Anything could go wrong when she met Robert. He might kill her. She might kill him and go to jail.
She didn’t want to do either without the memory of one blissful night in Griff’s arms.
Granted, she didn’t deserve to be with him.
But she reached for him anyway. “Griff?” Her voice broke. It was full of need and desire.
He pulled her to him and kissed her with such longing and tenderness that she used her foot to shut the door, then tugged him toward the bed.
* * *
GRIFF HAD BEEN so pent up with fear and frustration that he desperately wanted to hold Ginny and feel that she was alive in his arms. Her sweet lips moving against his triggered desires that heated his blood and nearly shattered his self-control.
No, he could control himself. If she wanted, he’d stop.
She teased his lips with her tongue, probing, searching, asking for more. Erotic sensations shot through him, stirring hunger and passion.
But the reminder of the dead deputy outside and how Ginny had suffered barreled through his brain at full speed, and he slowly ended the kiss and pulled away so he could look into her eyes.
“Ginny, I can’t do this.”
Her lips parted. Her breath panted out. “Why not? You don’t want me?”
God, she was killing him.
“I do,” he murmured. “But I like and respect you too much to take advantage of you after the way you’ve suffered.”
She threaded her fingers through his hair, then rose on her tiptoes and kissed him again. “You aren’t taking advantage.”