She held her blowing hair out of her eyes and peered at him closely. She could not tell if he was joking.
“All right,” she said finally.
He startled her with a fleeting grin. “That’s one of the things I always admired about you. You were never afraid of the Big Bad Wolf.”
She waved a hand toward Winston. “These days I’ve got my own wolf.”
Rafe eyed Winston with an assessing expression. “Five will get you ten that I can take the dog with one hand tied behind my back.”
“Don’t count on it, tough guy.”
An hour later Hannah emerged from Fulton’s Supermarket with a sack in each arm. She looked down the rows of pickups and SUVs parked in the small lot and saw the silver Porsche. Rafe had collected the mail and was waiting for her. He lounged against a gleaming fender, arms folded. A pair of mirrored sunglasses added to the gangster look.
Winston stood on his hind legs in the driver’s seat, front paws braced against the edge of the door, nose thrust through the open window. It warmed Hannah’s heart to see that he was watching for her return. You could always count on your dog.
She was halfway back to the Porsche when, to her astonishment, Rafe gave her a cool, arrogant smile. Very deliberately he uncrossed his arms and reached out to scratch Winston behind the ears.
It was glaringly evident that Winston did not object. Hannah saw a pink tongue emerge to lick Rafe’s hand. Irritation shot through her. Winston never got chummy with strangers, especially male strangers. Winston had standards.
Somehow, during the short time that she had been inside the grocery store, Rafe had co-opted her dog.
“Uh-oh.”
She quickened her steps, so intent on the spectacle of Winston and Rafe’s buddy-bonding that she never saw the big man who had climbed out of a battered pickup until he was directly in her path.
“Heard you and Madison were back in town,” Dell Sadler said. “Come back to screw on the beach for old times’ sake?”
Hannah skidded to a halt, barely avoiding a collision. But the abrupt stop sent a shudder through her that dislodged her grip on one of the grocery sacks, and it slipped out of her grasp. She heard an ominously squishy thud. The tomatoes, she thought. Luckily the eggs were in the other bag.
“Hello, Dell,” she said quietly.
She knew very little about Dell Sadler other than that he operated a towing service and a body shop on the outskirts of Eclipse Bay. He was a heavily built man in his late thirties with thinning hair and beefy hands. There had always been a grim, morose air about him, as though he had found life to be a serious disappointment and did not expect matters to improve.
“You two got a lot of gall coming back here after what you did.”
“If you’ll excuse me, Dell—”
He stepped toward her, hands balled into fists. “Think I’d be gone by now? Or that I’d forget what happened to Kaitlin? Or don’t you even give a damn?”
“This isn’t a good place to talk.” With an effort she kept her voice calm and soothing. “Maybe some other time.”
“Just because everyone else in this town bought that story about you and Rafe Madison getting it on at the beach the night my sister died, don’t think I did. I know damn well he killed her and you lied for him.”
“That’s not true, and I think that deep down inside you know it.” Hannah took a cautious step back, preparing to dart around him. “Please get out of my way.”
He thrust his face forward, raised a hand, and stabbed a finger at her chest. “Don’t you tell me what to do. Maybe everyone else around here kowtows to you Hartes, but I sure as hell don’t. Far as I’m concerned, you and Madison are both scum.”
“I’m sorry about what happened to Kaitlin,” Hannah said. “Everyone was. But I promise you, Rafe had nothing to do with it.”
“He must have screwed you silly to get you to cover for him the way you did.”
“Stop it.”
“I hear you’re back in town on account of that big house. Word is Madison wants the whole place for himself. Probably thinks if he does you long enough and hard enough, you’ll turn over your share.”
Hannah retreated again, clutching her one remaining sack of groceries. She came up hard against the unyielding fender of a big SUV. Dell closed in on her.
“Get out of my way,” she said very steadily, preparing to make a run for Rafe’s car.
