Carla Cassidy - Special Agent's Surrender

There was a moment of silence. “Are we talking about the same Layla West? Usually Layla tells anyone who will listen whatever crosses her mind. I imagine you shut her down before she could say much of anything about it to you.”

Tom was right. Jacob had made it clear to Layla the night before that he didn’t want to talk, that all he wanted was for her to shut up and go to bed. A sliver of shame worked through him.

As he listened to Tom relating the details of the attack, a grudging admiration for his roommate filled him.

She’d fought back. It sounded like she hadn’t panicked, but rather had fought back using whatever resources she had at her disposal, in this case her shoe.

Even though she’d acted unconcerned about the attack, it was obvious from her nightmare that she’d been affected more than he’d initially thought.

“When you get a chance, I’d like to sit down with you and hear about these cases you’re working on,” Jacob said. He could tell he surprised Tom by the moment of stunned silence that followed.

“I’d like that,” Tom finally replied. “Maybe a pair of fresh eyes will see something that we’ve all missed. You want to come here or meet me someplace else?”

Jacob still wasn’t ready for his presence in town to be known. “Why don’t we meet this evening after dinner at the big house? I’m sure Benjamin and Edie won’t mind.”

“I’ll check with Benjamin and set it up. I’ll bring Peyton and Lilly along. The women can chat while we talk.”

“Sounds like a plan,” Jacob agreed. “Then unless I hear something different from you, I’ll see you this evening about seven.”

The men hung up and by the time Jacob had poured himself another cup of coffee and settled back in his recliner, Layla was out of the bathroom. She was clad in a pair of jeans and a royal blue sweater that did amazing things to her eyes.

“Now I feel more human,” she said as she sat on the sofa.

As he told her about the meeting with Tom that evening her lips curved in a happy smile. “I adore Peyton and little Lilly and I’ve been looking forward to getting to know Edie better. This will be a perfect opportunity.”

Peyton and her daughter had been relative newcomers to Black Rock when Peyton’s daughter, Lilly, had been kidnapped. As Sheriff, Tom had been on the case and when Lilly was found alive and well, the two had realized they’d fallen in love.

All of Jacob’s brothers had found the loves of their lives, although none of them had married yet. They all were waiting for Brittany to return, a study in futility as far as Jacob was concerned.

“How about some pancakes?” Layla asked as she got up from the sofa.

“I’m really not hungry,” he replied.

“Nonsense. Didn’t anyone ever tell you breakfast is the most important meal of the day?” She flashed him a bright smile and then disappeared into the kitchen.

Jacob released a small sigh. There was no question that he had a strong physical attraction to Layla, but the last thing he wanted to do was follow up on it.

He didn’t want to get involved with any woman; he still remembered too clearly the pain of Sarah’s rejection. And if that wasn’t enough he had a head full of dead women silently accusing him for botching their case, for being the impetus that had resulted in their murders.

He was a man meant to be alone and that’s the way he liked it.

It was what he wanted.

It was what he deserved.

Layla was grateful when it came time for them to leave for Benjamin’s place. Jacob had been a bear all day, barely speaking to her and playing his television loud enough that the cows in the distant pasture had probably heard the noise.

There was a tension in the cabin that palpitated with its own energy. She wasn’t used to being cooped up and after a single long day she was ready to scream. If Jacob had been living this way for the past six months it was no wonder he was half-mad.

She now gave herself a final check in the bathroom mirror and wondered if Caleb and Portia would also be at Benjamin’s house. Portia Perez was dating Caleb Grayson and she was also Layla’s best friend. Layla hadn’t talked to Portia since she’d been attacked, although she was certain that Caleb had probably told her what had happened.

She and Portia talked to each other almost every day and at the moment Layla would love to see her friend and tell her about the horror of what had happened. She’d also like to whisper to Portia that despite his grumpy attitude, in spite of his brooding and downright rudeness, she was intensely drawn to Jacob Grayson.

“If that’s not a heartbreak waiting to happen, then I don’t know what is,” she muttered to her reflection in the mirror. Not that she was a stranger to heartbreak, most of her relationships ended in that state.

She’d realized long ago that she was a woman who seemed to inspire great lust in men, but nothing deeper, nothing more lasting. She’d given up on finding true, long-lasting love a long time ago.

You aren’t good for anything, girl. No man is ever gonna want you . Her father’s voice thundered in her ears and she shook her head to cast it out.

From the time her mother had died when she was a child to the time of her father’s death four years ago, she’d felt inadequate, lacking in any qualities that would make her worthwhile to anyone.

Her father had been a brutal man, both physically and mentally abusive. “But you survived,” she whispered to the woman in the mirror. “And you thwarted an attack by a madman.”

“You going to be in there all night or are you ready to go?” Jacob’s voice called from the other side of the bathroom door.

“I’m ready,” she replied and left the bathroom. He stood by the front door, car keys in hand and a familiar scowl riding his features. She grabbed her coat and pulled it on, then gave him a bright smile. “What are we waiting for?”

He opened the door and they walked out into the cold night air. “Wait here,” he said and then he walked off into the darkness of the night.

She stood on the porch, wondering where he had gone, but moments later a black pickup pulled up in front of the cabin with Jacob at the wheel.

“Where did this come from?” she asked as she slid into the passenger seat.

“There’s a shed not far from here. I figured there was no way you could walk the distance to the house in those shoes.”

She glanced down at her blue pumps and then looked at him. “You’d be surprised what I can accomplish in a pair of sexy high heels.”

He grunted and pulled away from the cabin. It took only minutes to travel the lane that led to the big ranch house that had been the Grayson family home where Benjamin and Edie now lived.

All the lights were on, creating a welcoming glow as Jacob pulled up beside Tom’s car. Edie greeted them at the door and ushered them inside as Benjamin’s dog, Tiny, danced at their feet.

The house smelled of evergreen and cinnamon, and Christmas decorations adorned every available surface. Layla shoved aside a wistful twinge as she thought of the little tree she’d intended to unpack and put out the night she’d gotten attacked.

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