Watch Me (Last Stand #3)(61)
Author: Brenda Novak

From the look on Tiger’s face when he answered the door, he wasn’t pleased to be rousted from his bed so early.

“Why are you pounding on my door at the freakin’ break of dawn?” he snapped, wincing against the sunlight as if he had a headache—or more likely a hangover.

“I assumed you’d be up and getting ready for work.” Tiger owned a transmission shop in town and repaired tractors, too.

“I’m taking the whole week off.” He scratched his stomach. “So what do you want?”

“Were you at my place last night?” Cain asked.

Tiger didn’t answer. Behind him, his two-bedroom house was completely dark, and it reeked of alcohol and sweat.

“Tiger? It was you, wasn’t it? Drinking tequila and watching my house?”

With a sigh, he pressed his palms into his bloodshot eyes. “Yeah, it was me. So what?”

“So what?” Cain echoed. “So I want to know why. My neighbor claims you’ve been coming up there quite often. He says Amy visited even more.”

Tiger’s lips twisted into a bitter sneer. “You can’t seriously need me to explain that.”

“You told me on the phone that you know I didn’t touch her.”

“I do know that. I also know she was in love with you.” His expression was so sullen, he looked like a thwarted child. “She would’ve taken you over me any day of the week and twice on Sundays.”

Cain had always assumed Tiger was oblivious to Amy’s true feelings. He’d certainly acted that way. At times, Cain had pretended to be oblivious himself, mainly to salvage Tiger’s pride. Which was why he chafed at such a bald admission—and hesitated to examine it further. He hadn’t asked for or wanted Amy’s undying love. He found it more annoying than flattering. But something was going on that made it impossible for him or Tiger to ignore or deny the truth any longer. “That doesn’t tell me what she was doing up at my place so often.”

“She was peeking in your windows, Cain,” he said, spelling it out as if he was addressing a five-year-old. “Watching you. Hoping you’d undress or touch yourself.” He lowered his voice. “Pretending you were touching her, no doubt.” He snorted. “Isn’t that f**king amazing? That a woman could be so clueless when you didn’t even care enough to notice?”

No, it was sad. What had he done to trigger her obsession? Sure, he’d stupidly gotten involved with her early on, but he’d been honest from the start. And as soon as he realized he couldn’t love her the way she wanted him to, he’d backed off. She’d been the one who kept coming on to him, pulling at his clothes, begging to make love. The fact that he’d indulged her had been an even bigger mistake. That was how she’d ended up pregnant.

Cain felt guilty about all the mistakes he’d made in his life, but he knew with Amy he didn’t have anything to feel especially bad about, not in the last ten years. “So you followed her to see what was going on?”

“I was afraid you might break down someday. That you’d get lonely enough out there to decide that maybe she was better than nothing. So I bought a pair of binoculars and watched her watch you.” He laughed without humor. “We were both pathetic, eh? She was up there probing her worst pain and I was doing the same.”

“What was there to see?” Cain asked. “I don’t do anything very interesting. I eat and work, like everyone else.”

“She would’ve been happy just to watch you sleep. Her favorite spot was right outside your bedroom window.”

Cain grimaced at the image that conjured up in his mind. Too bad he hadn’t built the dogs’ cage on the other side of the house. “Why didn’t you tell me so I could put a stop to it?”

Despondency seemed to replace Tiger’s anger. “I wanted to win her over. I wanted her to think of me, desire me, without you having to chase her off. And I felt like that was happening. She quit going to your place so often. I actually believed she’d finally stopped. The last couple of times I checked, she wasn’t there. And then this past week…it proves she was still waiting for you. I was never good enough.” A muscle flexed in his cheek as he challenged Cain’s gaze. “The only two women I’ve ever loved both wanted you.”

Cain rubbed his neck. “You’re talking about Sheridan.”

“You took her virginity as if it was nothing. And I would’ve given anything to be in your place.”

Once again Cain had to face what he’d done as a screwed-up kid. “It wasn’t nothing,” he said.

“How was it different?” Tiger asked. “She was just one of many.”

She’d been different. Very different. But Cain wasn’t about to discuss that with Tiger. “It was a long time ago—”

“So? Why couldn’t you have stuck with those other girls? Did you have to have her, too?”

“Tell me one thing,” Cain said.

Tiger leaned back to grab an open beer from a side table. Who knew how long it’d been sitting there. He didn’t seem to care. “What’s that? If I had it to do over again, would I have moved the hell away from here, from you and Amy? You bet. Now look at me. She’s dead, and I’m the only one of us who even gives a damn. That’s f**king sad.”

“I didn’t want anything like this to happen to her, Tiger.”

“But you’re glad she’s gone, aren’t you?”

Cain wasn’t going to get anywhere with him, not when he was like this. “Just tell me why you were at the house last night.”

Tiger scraped a hand over the whiskers on his chin. “Damned if I know.”

“As far as I’m concerned, you’re the only one who would know.”

“I guess it was my way of saying goodbye to Amy—and admitting at the same time that I was stupid to try winning her away from you.” He downed the rest of the beer. “Shit, that’s warm,” he muttered in disgust.

Cain didn’t want to deal with the jealousy issue. Amy was gone. It no longer mattered whom she’d loved the most. They had other things to worry about right now. “Do you know who might’ve killed her, Tiger?”

He stared off into the distance.

“Tiger?”

With a blink, he focused. “Whoever it was knew her well.”

“What makes you say that?”

“He wrote something in the dirt not far from her body.”