Accomplice by Kristi Lea Page A

tried to break into your house.”
    She didn’t look surprised. “I saw it on the news.”
    “What were they after?”
    She rolled her eyes. “Cash? Electronics? My
underwear? What are thieves usually after.”
    Was that a quiver in her voice? “What about your
jewelry?”
    Her hand balled into a fist, pulling the doily off
the table and toppling a stack of crystal coasters. They hit the wood floor
with a discordant ring, the glass disks sliding across the floor. One stopped a
few inches from Noah’s feet.
    Noah knelt down on the floor to pick it up. The
sunlight refracted through the facets, shooting tiny rainbows around the floor
as he picked it up. “Lucky they didn’t break.”
    He collected two more coasters and the small
silver-plated holder. He reached for the fourth coaster, near the toes of
Jessica’s dirty sneakers. He winced as he stretched out his arm towards it and
pulled up short as she set her foot on top of it.
    Noah sat back on his knees and looked up at her,
still perched on the sofa.
    “You were the cop who was shot, weren’t you?” The
words were a whisper and her eyes were wide, the pupils dilated. Fear or
surprise? Or something else?
    Taking a deep breath, he weighed his options. One
call to Cole and the local Feds would be on the doorstep to take her into
custody. But unless Cutlass had plugged all the leaking holes in the case
against her, she would be released after a few hours. And be on a plane to some
country without an extradition treaty.
    Jessica held all the keys to the mystery.
    “Yeah. That was me. How did you guess?”
    “Your shoulder is bleeding.”

Chapter 11
     
    Idiot man.
    Jess stared at the wide red splotch oozing through
the cotton of Noah’s shirt. “You need a doctor.”
    He glanced at the wound and frowned. “Probably
just a new bandage. I will take care of it.”
    She waited. He tried to reach for her again with
his good arm and she recoiled. Then she remembered the coaster still under her
shoe. She pulled her foot back towards herself, scooting the crystal. She
plunked it back on the side table and cast another look at Noah and the red on
his shirt. “So go take care of it.”
    He all but growled. “I am fine.”
    “Idiot man.” She stood up.
    He still sat on his haunches on the floor, looking
blankly back up at her. He looked pale around the edges, and she could see the
whites of his knuckles on clenched fists. She felt a familiar void at the base
of her stomach like that first huge hill of the roller coaster. It sucked her
breath down and away. He was in pain and hiding it from her.
    “Do you have supplies to change the dressing with
you or do we have to go back to Walgreens?”
    “In my room. Upstairs. I’m fine.” He stood up
quickly. Strongly. But she didn’t miss how he put a hand on the edge of the
chair to steady himself.
    She forced herself to breathe slowly. There was no
reason to panic. Noah Grayson was young and healthy. If he were here, the wound
couldn’t be that bad. Nothing to worry about. “Look, I’m coming with you. I
won’t run away. Upstairs, right?”
    He hesitated for a few more heartbeats, then
nodded.
    He ushered her in front of him up a wide wooden
staircase and down a cream-and-floral wallpapered hall to a tall polished
mahogany door. Once upon a time she dreamed about living in a house like this.
A stately Victorian, full of chintz and vases of freshly cut flowers, carved
furniture and sparkling crystal. A house like Tallie’s.
    Inside the room, Noah grabbed a small navy blue
duffel bag off of a luggage rack and walked through a door that lead to the
bathroom. Jess shut the door to the hall behind her and looked around. In the
middle of the room was a massive poster bed, a pair of wing chairs like the
ones from the parlor, a small dresser. Both bedding and walls were covered in the
same black-and-white fleur-de-lis patterns. The effect was a bit dizzying.
    She could hear sounds of a fabric rustling and
running water in