Blood and Roses Read Free Page B

emailed it to her contact at the insurance agency. It was difficult showing progress when she didn’t want to give up any names. Even using the guard’s name was tricky, because he might flip on Frankie or Eric if he felt the heat. So she’d reported that she was researching the backgrounds of all the store’s employees, which didn’t make her look any more competent that the local cops, but she’d dug up a couple dark spots that would’ve been viable leads if she didn’t already know who was responsible for the crime. The information should be enough to make it look like she was worth her fee... at least for today.
    As for her hunch, she’d discovered that Terence had two brothers—one was a tenured professor in Virginia and the other had a sealed record that she’d hacked. Richard Parker had a previous armed robbery conviction when he was fifteen and a variety of petty larceny and drug charges. His record was clean as an adult, but her parents proved that not getting caught didn’t mean you were straight.
    Shutting down her laptop, Ana slid off the barstool and went to check on dinner. She’d done a quick check of Jake’s fridge and pantry earlier and hadn’t been surprised to find both well stocked. After debating her options, she’d put a pot roast in the oven and a salad in the crisper. Then she’d opened a bottle of red wine and left it to breathe on the counter. Because she’d prepped in advance, she had time to take a shower before Jake got home.
    She grabbed her bag off the couch and headed to the guest bathroom, admiring the tile work in the shower that she knew was another of Jake’s projects. When he’d inherited the place from his parents, it hadn’t had such upgrades. It had been a cookie-cutter house, one of the first homes built by a developer who’d thought the town would grow much faster than it had. Now it had Jake’s stamp over most of it, but the guest bathroom was clearly Eric’s domain. The razor on the edge of the sink was a bright lime green and the men’s body wash in the shower was the kind marketed to hormonal young men.
    Jake had assumed responsibility for his brother at the tender age of nineteen, when the Monroes had been killed by a collision with a drunk driver. Ana had supported him through that rough time and offered him what comfort she could, considering how young she herself was, but he’d been good with Eric from the beginning. Jake was a born leader, firmly anchored by his moral compass and unshakeable confidence.
    She’d needed his quiet strength as much as Eric had, having been raised by two of the flightiest people ever to be parents. And even after all these years, Jake was still her touchstone.
    Ana scrubbed, shaved, and perfumed herself like a woman bent on seduction, a mindset she hadn’t adopted for a very long time. She hadn’t packed anything sexy, so her simple cotton baby doll nightgown would have to do.
    “Ten years,” she murmured to her reflection in the mirror, fluffing out her damp curls with her fingers. “You’re bound to be a little rusty.”
    When she opened the bathroom door, she knew immediately that Jake was home. There was a palpable energy in the air and it flowed over her, awakening her senses. She could hear the shower running in his bedroom and appreciated the time to finish prepping dinner. She smiled when she saw the white roses in a vase on the dining table and when she went to pull out the salad, she found one of Victoria’s famous cheesecakes in the fridge.
    She was tossing the salad when she heard Jake pad into the kitchen behind her. A moment later, his arms were circling her and his lips were pressed to the side of her neck.
    “Hi,” he murmured, his voice low and husky.
    “Hi back.” Her head fell against his shoulder and she allowed herself the temporary luxury of leaning into him. His chest was bare, hard, and warm. “I like the flowers.”
    “Good.” The tip of his tongue touched the lobe of her ear; then