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Entry tags:
Fic: Riverside Inn (Veronica Mars, Lamb/Veronica)
Title: Riverside Inn
Fandom: Veronica Mars
Pairing(s): Lamb/Veronica
Word Count: 2659
Rating: NC-17
Summary: Lamb and Veronica seek shelter at a deserted motel.
Notes: A sequel to Clear As Mud, but can be read on its own. Basically all you need to know is that Lamb and Veronica got hot and heavy (and wet), and are stranded without means of transportation or communication. Also, this is unashamedly bad Psycho horror movie pastiche.
"And where exactly is home?" Veronica asked.
She was shivering again, and as Lamb put his arm around her, she huddled against him. She knew they had to get dressed again eventually, knew they couldn't stay here forever, but was still surprised when a part of her wanted to.
Lamb looked down at her, and he was smiling. Veronica smiled back. "I have no idea," he admitted.
Veronica laughed, pulling away from him. "I told you we were lost," she said.
Lamb picked up her underwear with a smirk, and Veronica took it from him. They didn't speak as they pulled their wet clothes back on, pausing momentarily to look for pieces that had gone missing. When Veronica finally found her shirt resting on top of some nearby bushes, she turned back to Lamb. He looked as cold as she felt, and she took his hand.
"What now, hot shot?"
Lamb looked back at the cruiser, stuck on the other side of the river, and she could read what he was thinking. There was no way they were getting it out of there without a tow truck, at least.
"I guess we walk," he said, pulling Veronica towards him as they started forward.
"Do you have any idea where we are?" she asked then, trying to keep her teeth from chattering. The slight breeze that had sprung up around them wasn't cold, but it chilled her to the bone, and she was only too aware of the mud and the water in her clothes as she walked.
At least, she thought, her shirt wasn't white.
"Some," Lamb said. He shrugged. "I know what road we were on. I don't think it's too far out of town."
Veronica nodded. She tried to say something else, but realised she really didn't have anything to say; and anyway, it was difficult enough to keep her breathing steady as they walked.
She didn't think they'd been walking long when they saw lights in the distance.
In unspoken agreement, they started to walk faster. It didn't take them long to reach the source of the lights - an old, weather-beaten building with the words Riverside Inn printed on a sign above. Lamb smiled at Veronica briefly before they entered the building.
"Hello?"
Lamb glanced at Veronica as he called out, and she looked around the room for signs of life. The lights were on, but nobody was around, and she was about to suggest that they move on when a man came out of what she guessed must have been a back room.
His clothes, if possible, were even dirtier than Lamb and Veronica's own. He wiped his hands down his shirt, smearing it with a substance Veronica didn't care to identify, and grinned.
"Can I help you?" he asked.
Lamb stepped forward. "Do you have a phone?" he asked. "Our car got stuck in the river a few miles back, and we need to call someone."
"There's a payphone outside," the clerk said, his grin never wavering. Lamb turned around. "Doesn't work, though. It's broken."
Veronica sighed. Of course it was. "Well, do you have a phone in here we could use?" she asked, looking pointedly at the desk.
The clerk turned to her, and Veronica definitely didn't like the way he was leering at her. She shivered again.
"Official use only."
"Please," Veronica said. "It's an emergency."
The clerk was silent for a while, and then he smiled, his expression suddenly normal. "Tell you what," he said. "Why don't you get a room. Take a shower, get some rest. You can call whoever you want in the morning."
Veronica paused. She could definitely use a shower. And she was almost certain that this place wouldn't seem so creepy in the morning. The clerk, she wasn't so sure about.
"Fine," Lamb agreed beside her. Pulling out his wallet, he handed over a couple of wet bills.
The clerk handed him a key. "Last room on the right," he said.
It didn't look to Veronica like anyone else was staying at the motel, but when she entered the room behind Lamb, she breathed a sigh of relief.
Lamb shut the door behind her, and flicked on the light switch. The bed looked like it had seen better days, and the television in the corner was probably broken, but it was a room, and it was dry. Beyond that, Veronica didn't really care.
"Let's get you out of those wet clothes," Lamb said, looking down at her, and Veronica smiled.
"I'm going to take a shower," she told him.
Undressing, laying her clothes out beside the bed, Veronica moved towards the bathroom. She stepped into the shower, turning on the water.
And let out a bloodcurdling shriek.
"What is it? What's wrong?" Lamb rushed into the bathroom, looking at her in alarm.
"No hot water," Veronica gasped.
She expected Lamb to leave after that, but he stayed where he was, looking at her appreciatively. After a moment, she stepped out of the shower and wrapped herself in a towel.
She shouldn't be embarrassed, she knew. Lamb had seen her naked already; had been inside her little over an hour ago. But that didn't stop her from blushing.
As she moved to step around him, he reached out, catching her in his arms. "Clean?" he asked her suggestively.
"As much as possible," she said, smiling at him.
When he leaned down to kiss her, Veronica didn't pull away, but kissed him back, tasting him as he moved his hands up to her shoulders. She was still freezing, and Lamb was warm despite his wet clothes, so she leaned into him, forgetting to object when he unwrapped her towel and let it fall to the floor.
He drew back, pushing her wet hair away from her face as his eyes travelled over her naked form. He smiled, and Veronica laughed as it occurred to her finally how bizarre the entire situation was.
She was standing, naked, in front of Don Lamb. And the only thing she wanted to do was to kiss him.
He reached out and took her hands, pulling her back into the bedroom. When he smiled at her again, she reached up to unbutton his shirt, tossing it onto the floor. She kissed his chest, stepping back as he unbuckled his belt, and then his pants.
His boxers were still wet, and Veronica rolled them off him slowly, brushing her hand against his erect cock as she stood.
As Lamb stood naked in front of her, Veronica reflected that there was no way this should feel as normal as it did. And then he lowered his head to kiss her again, and Veronica stopped trying to think at all.
When he ran his hands down her side, she shivered, and not from the cold. She kissed him, hard, her tongue playing against his, and felt his cock, even harder, as it pressed against her hip.
Veronica put her arms around Lamb's neck as he kissed along her collarbone, running his tongue across her shoulder. He raised a hand to gently graze her breast, pressing her nipple between his thumb and forefinger, and Veronica's grip on his neck tightened. She pushed her whole body against him, feeling him grinding against her thigh, and let out a soft moan.
When Lamb pulled back again to look at her, she let her hands drop, pressing them against his chest. She smiled and pushed him onto the bed, crawling between his legs.
"Oh, god," Lamb moaned as she ran her tongue down the length of his cock. Her fingers splayed against his stomach, she took him into her mouth, feeling him buck beneath her.
"Oh, god, Veronica," he said again after a minute, and Veronica drew back. "If you keep doing that, I'm going to come," he told her seriously.
Veronica smiled, and crawled up so that her face was close to his. "We're just getting started," she said.
Running her hand back down his stomach, Veronica took hold of his cock gently, and guided it slowly inside her. Lamb drew a sharp breath.
Leaning back, Veronica rocked on top of him gently as he reached a hand up to stroke her hair. Titling her pelvis, she let out a moan, barely hearing Lamb as he called out her name.
Her moans grew louder, her breath coming in ragged gasps as her movements sped up, Lamb's body rising to meet her. When she finally came, she bit her lip to keep from screaming, and Lamb shuddered beneath her, groaning something that might have been "Veronica."
When she rolled off him, Lamb put his arms around her, and Veronica moved her body closer to his.
"You know I'm going to pretend this never happened," she said sleepily, after Lamb had drawn the covers over them. "When we get back home."
"No," Lamb whispered in her ear. "I'm never letting you forget this."
-
Veronica wasn't sure what woke her; it was still dark when she opened her eyes. Beside her, she heard Lamb draw an uneven breath, and she knew that he was awake, too.
"Veronica," he said, his voice barely a whisper, and she wondered why until he spoke again. "I think there's someone in the room."
Then Veronica heard it, too; a soft shuffling near the door. Trying not to let a sudden rush of fear overcome her, she quickly gathered up what clothes she could find, and ran towards the window.
As Lamb climbed out behind her, she heard a scream of pain from inside the room, and turned around to see that he had slammed the window on the intruder's fingers.
She froze as she recognised the clerk's face.
"Go!" Lamb growled at her, then, and she did, running along the side of the building, realising too late that she was running away from the office, and from their only source of light. Hearing Lamb breathing hard beside her, she stopped when she had got as far away as she could manage, and checked her clothes. Jeans, shirt, underwear. No shoes. It would have to do.
She pulled them on quickly, not caring any more that they were still damp. She turned, and saw that Lamb was already shrugging into his shirt.
He didn't have to tell her to keep running. She had no idea where she was going, except that it was hopefully away from the psycho clerk following them. When she curved around to see another building in front of them, she managed a sigh of relief.
Until the clerk stepped out from behind it, carrying what she was pretty sure was an axe.
He was on top of them almost before Veronica had time to react. She had only taken four steps when she stopped again at the cry of pain beside her.
The clerk had hit Lamb in the back with the axe. The blunt side of the axe, she had time to register, and even through her fear she felt relief. Lamb fell to the ground as the clerk grinned in the moonlight.
"Veronica, run!" Lamb said insistently, and feeling a sharp pang of guilt, Veronica did so. Her chest burned as she pulled in air frantically, cutting her feet on the hard ground, running as fast as she could force her legs to move. After a moment, she heard footsteps behind her, and she couldn't hope that they were Lamb's.
She kept running, somehow forcing herself to move faster, and when she reached the main building once more, she could no longer hear anyone following her. Veronica didn't stop as she hit the lights of the office, but ducked inside, pulling the door shut behind her as she ran into the back room.
It was dark - almost completely so - but Veronica didn't have time to worry about that. A few minutes after she had entered, she heard someone in the main office, and recognised the voice she had heard only hours before.
"I know you're in here."
Veronica suppressed the fresh surge of panic that threatened to overwhelm her. She scrambled away from the door only moments before it was thrown open, and searched the room desperately for anything she could use to defend herself.
The clerk's face was twisted into a sneer as he advanced towards her, and Veronica backed up until she was pressed against the wall. Fear and exhaustion made her breath come hard and fast, and the clerk smiled until he resembled something almost human.
When he was so close Veronica could smell the dirt and grease and what she hoped wasn't blood, he reached out and grabbed her, pulling her by her hair until her face was almost pressed up against his. He laughed, then, low and cruel, and her stomach clenched. He sniffed like he could smell the fear on her, and Veronica thought he probably could.
Tears running down her face, Veronica almost didn't notice when the door to the office opened. She looked up, trying not to let the glimmer of hope show in her eyes.
But the clerk turned, too, letting go of Veronica roughly. He rushed at Lamb, who raised a tire iron, swinging. He caught the clerk on the side of the head, and the clerk crumpled to the ground, blood trickling from a gash on his head.
Lamb smiled faintly at Veronica, and she ran to him, letting him hold her so tightly she could barely breathe. Her breath came in rasping, uneven gulps, and she pressed her face into his chest, not sure if she was more relieved that he had saved her or that he was standing there at all.
She pulled back after a moment, tears drying on her cheeks, and forced herself to smile. Lamb was still holding her with one hand, the tire iron in his other, and he was looking down at her, his face pinched with concern.
"It took you long enough," she said weakly, and Lamb laughed, but she could hear the pain in his voice. When he pulled her over to the desk, not letting go his grip on her, Veronica thought he was limping.
He laid the tire iron on the desk, picking up the phone with the hand not holding her. "Dial tone," he whispered hoarsely, the relief plain in his voice.
"Sacks," he said into the phone after a minute. "I need a couple of cruisers down here, stat. The Riverside Inn, on Creek Ridge Road."
After Lamb hung up, he put his other arms around Veronica, planting a kiss on her forehead. They were still standing like that when the cruisers arrived, and Veronica ignored Sacks' bemused glance as he walked around the desk to the clerk.
When the clerk shifted, Veronica jumped, even though Sacks was already holding him, cuffing his hands behind his back.
"Sampson. Ramirez. Take him back to lockup." Lamb pulled away from Veronica finally, and gently pushed her hair back from her face. "Sacks. We need a ride back to Neptune. And call a tow truck."
When Veronica slid into the back of Sacks' cruiser, Lamb got in beside her, shutting the door behind him. He put his arm around her, pulling her towards him, and Veronica relaxed into him, pretending that Sacks wasn't watching them in the rear view mirror. Outside, the sky was getting lighter. It was almost dawn.
Nobody said anything as they drove back into town. Lamb was looking at her, and Veronica smiled into his shoulder.
When they finally reached the Sheriff's department, Lamb took her hand, and Veronica let him lead her into the building.
"Do you need a ride home?" he asked her quietly, after they were inside and one of the deputies had brought them mugs of hot coffee. "Should I call your dad?"
"No." Veronica shifted closer to Lamb, until he put his arms around her. "I'm fine right here."
Fandom: Veronica Mars
Pairing(s): Lamb/Veronica
Word Count: 2659
Rating: NC-17
Summary: Lamb and Veronica seek shelter at a deserted motel.
Notes: A sequel to Clear As Mud, but can be read on its own. Basically all you need to know is that Lamb and Veronica got hot and heavy (and wet), and are stranded without means of transportation or communication. Also, this is unashamedly bad Psycho horror movie pastiche.
"And where exactly is home?" Veronica asked.
She was shivering again, and as Lamb put his arm around her, she huddled against him. She knew they had to get dressed again eventually, knew they couldn't stay here forever, but was still surprised when a part of her wanted to.
Lamb looked down at her, and he was smiling. Veronica smiled back. "I have no idea," he admitted.
Veronica laughed, pulling away from him. "I told you we were lost," she said.
Lamb picked up her underwear with a smirk, and Veronica took it from him. They didn't speak as they pulled their wet clothes back on, pausing momentarily to look for pieces that had gone missing. When Veronica finally found her shirt resting on top of some nearby bushes, she turned back to Lamb. He looked as cold as she felt, and she took his hand.
"What now, hot shot?"
Lamb looked back at the cruiser, stuck on the other side of the river, and she could read what he was thinking. There was no way they were getting it out of there without a tow truck, at least.
"I guess we walk," he said, pulling Veronica towards him as they started forward.
"Do you have any idea where we are?" she asked then, trying to keep her teeth from chattering. The slight breeze that had sprung up around them wasn't cold, but it chilled her to the bone, and she was only too aware of the mud and the water in her clothes as she walked.
At least, she thought, her shirt wasn't white.
"Some," Lamb said. He shrugged. "I know what road we were on. I don't think it's too far out of town."
Veronica nodded. She tried to say something else, but realised she really didn't have anything to say; and anyway, it was difficult enough to keep her breathing steady as they walked.
She didn't think they'd been walking long when they saw lights in the distance.
In unspoken agreement, they started to walk faster. It didn't take them long to reach the source of the lights - an old, weather-beaten building with the words Riverside Inn printed on a sign above. Lamb smiled at Veronica briefly before they entered the building.
"Hello?"
Lamb glanced at Veronica as he called out, and she looked around the room for signs of life. The lights were on, but nobody was around, and she was about to suggest that they move on when a man came out of what she guessed must have been a back room.
His clothes, if possible, were even dirtier than Lamb and Veronica's own. He wiped his hands down his shirt, smearing it with a substance Veronica didn't care to identify, and grinned.
"Can I help you?" he asked.
Lamb stepped forward. "Do you have a phone?" he asked. "Our car got stuck in the river a few miles back, and we need to call someone."
"There's a payphone outside," the clerk said, his grin never wavering. Lamb turned around. "Doesn't work, though. It's broken."
Veronica sighed. Of course it was. "Well, do you have a phone in here we could use?" she asked, looking pointedly at the desk.
The clerk turned to her, and Veronica definitely didn't like the way he was leering at her. She shivered again.
"Official use only."
"Please," Veronica said. "It's an emergency."
The clerk was silent for a while, and then he smiled, his expression suddenly normal. "Tell you what," he said. "Why don't you get a room. Take a shower, get some rest. You can call whoever you want in the morning."
Veronica paused. She could definitely use a shower. And she was almost certain that this place wouldn't seem so creepy in the morning. The clerk, she wasn't so sure about.
"Fine," Lamb agreed beside her. Pulling out his wallet, he handed over a couple of wet bills.
The clerk handed him a key. "Last room on the right," he said.
It didn't look to Veronica like anyone else was staying at the motel, but when she entered the room behind Lamb, she breathed a sigh of relief.
Lamb shut the door behind her, and flicked on the light switch. The bed looked like it had seen better days, and the television in the corner was probably broken, but it was a room, and it was dry. Beyond that, Veronica didn't really care.
"Let's get you out of those wet clothes," Lamb said, looking down at her, and Veronica smiled.
"I'm going to take a shower," she told him.
Undressing, laying her clothes out beside the bed, Veronica moved towards the bathroom. She stepped into the shower, turning on the water.
And let out a bloodcurdling shriek.
"What is it? What's wrong?" Lamb rushed into the bathroom, looking at her in alarm.
"No hot water," Veronica gasped.
She expected Lamb to leave after that, but he stayed where he was, looking at her appreciatively. After a moment, she stepped out of the shower and wrapped herself in a towel.
She shouldn't be embarrassed, she knew. Lamb had seen her naked already; had been inside her little over an hour ago. But that didn't stop her from blushing.
As she moved to step around him, he reached out, catching her in his arms. "Clean?" he asked her suggestively.
"As much as possible," she said, smiling at him.
When he leaned down to kiss her, Veronica didn't pull away, but kissed him back, tasting him as he moved his hands up to her shoulders. She was still freezing, and Lamb was warm despite his wet clothes, so she leaned into him, forgetting to object when he unwrapped her towel and let it fall to the floor.
He drew back, pushing her wet hair away from her face as his eyes travelled over her naked form. He smiled, and Veronica laughed as it occurred to her finally how bizarre the entire situation was.
She was standing, naked, in front of Don Lamb. And the only thing she wanted to do was to kiss him.
He reached out and took her hands, pulling her back into the bedroom. When he smiled at her again, she reached up to unbutton his shirt, tossing it onto the floor. She kissed his chest, stepping back as he unbuckled his belt, and then his pants.
His boxers were still wet, and Veronica rolled them off him slowly, brushing her hand against his erect cock as she stood.
As Lamb stood naked in front of her, Veronica reflected that there was no way this should feel as normal as it did. And then he lowered his head to kiss her again, and Veronica stopped trying to think at all.
When he ran his hands down her side, she shivered, and not from the cold. She kissed him, hard, her tongue playing against his, and felt his cock, even harder, as it pressed against her hip.
Veronica put her arms around Lamb's neck as he kissed along her collarbone, running his tongue across her shoulder. He raised a hand to gently graze her breast, pressing her nipple between his thumb and forefinger, and Veronica's grip on his neck tightened. She pushed her whole body against him, feeling him grinding against her thigh, and let out a soft moan.
When Lamb pulled back again to look at her, she let her hands drop, pressing them against his chest. She smiled and pushed him onto the bed, crawling between his legs.
"Oh, god," Lamb moaned as she ran her tongue down the length of his cock. Her fingers splayed against his stomach, she took him into her mouth, feeling him buck beneath her.
"Oh, god, Veronica," he said again after a minute, and Veronica drew back. "If you keep doing that, I'm going to come," he told her seriously.
Veronica smiled, and crawled up so that her face was close to his. "We're just getting started," she said.
Running her hand back down his stomach, Veronica took hold of his cock gently, and guided it slowly inside her. Lamb drew a sharp breath.
Leaning back, Veronica rocked on top of him gently as he reached a hand up to stroke her hair. Titling her pelvis, she let out a moan, barely hearing Lamb as he called out her name.
Her moans grew louder, her breath coming in ragged gasps as her movements sped up, Lamb's body rising to meet her. When she finally came, she bit her lip to keep from screaming, and Lamb shuddered beneath her, groaning something that might have been "Veronica."
When she rolled off him, Lamb put his arms around her, and Veronica moved her body closer to his.
"You know I'm going to pretend this never happened," she said sleepily, after Lamb had drawn the covers over them. "When we get back home."
"No," Lamb whispered in her ear. "I'm never letting you forget this."
-
Veronica wasn't sure what woke her; it was still dark when she opened her eyes. Beside her, she heard Lamb draw an uneven breath, and she knew that he was awake, too.
"Veronica," he said, his voice barely a whisper, and she wondered why until he spoke again. "I think there's someone in the room."
Then Veronica heard it, too; a soft shuffling near the door. Trying not to let a sudden rush of fear overcome her, she quickly gathered up what clothes she could find, and ran towards the window.
As Lamb climbed out behind her, she heard a scream of pain from inside the room, and turned around to see that he had slammed the window on the intruder's fingers.
She froze as she recognised the clerk's face.
"Go!" Lamb growled at her, then, and she did, running along the side of the building, realising too late that she was running away from the office, and from their only source of light. Hearing Lamb breathing hard beside her, she stopped when she had got as far away as she could manage, and checked her clothes. Jeans, shirt, underwear. No shoes. It would have to do.
She pulled them on quickly, not caring any more that they were still damp. She turned, and saw that Lamb was already shrugging into his shirt.
He didn't have to tell her to keep running. She had no idea where she was going, except that it was hopefully away from the psycho clerk following them. When she curved around to see another building in front of them, she managed a sigh of relief.
Until the clerk stepped out from behind it, carrying what she was pretty sure was an axe.
He was on top of them almost before Veronica had time to react. She had only taken four steps when she stopped again at the cry of pain beside her.
The clerk had hit Lamb in the back with the axe. The blunt side of the axe, she had time to register, and even through her fear she felt relief. Lamb fell to the ground as the clerk grinned in the moonlight.
"Veronica, run!" Lamb said insistently, and feeling a sharp pang of guilt, Veronica did so. Her chest burned as she pulled in air frantically, cutting her feet on the hard ground, running as fast as she could force her legs to move. After a moment, she heard footsteps behind her, and she couldn't hope that they were Lamb's.
She kept running, somehow forcing herself to move faster, and when she reached the main building once more, she could no longer hear anyone following her. Veronica didn't stop as she hit the lights of the office, but ducked inside, pulling the door shut behind her as she ran into the back room.
It was dark - almost completely so - but Veronica didn't have time to worry about that. A few minutes after she had entered, she heard someone in the main office, and recognised the voice she had heard only hours before.
"I know you're in here."
Veronica suppressed the fresh surge of panic that threatened to overwhelm her. She scrambled away from the door only moments before it was thrown open, and searched the room desperately for anything she could use to defend herself.
The clerk's face was twisted into a sneer as he advanced towards her, and Veronica backed up until she was pressed against the wall. Fear and exhaustion made her breath come hard and fast, and the clerk smiled until he resembled something almost human.
When he was so close Veronica could smell the dirt and grease and what she hoped wasn't blood, he reached out and grabbed her, pulling her by her hair until her face was almost pressed up against his. He laughed, then, low and cruel, and her stomach clenched. He sniffed like he could smell the fear on her, and Veronica thought he probably could.
Tears running down her face, Veronica almost didn't notice when the door to the office opened. She looked up, trying not to let the glimmer of hope show in her eyes.
But the clerk turned, too, letting go of Veronica roughly. He rushed at Lamb, who raised a tire iron, swinging. He caught the clerk on the side of the head, and the clerk crumpled to the ground, blood trickling from a gash on his head.
Lamb smiled faintly at Veronica, and she ran to him, letting him hold her so tightly she could barely breathe. Her breath came in rasping, uneven gulps, and she pressed her face into his chest, not sure if she was more relieved that he had saved her or that he was standing there at all.
She pulled back after a moment, tears drying on her cheeks, and forced herself to smile. Lamb was still holding her with one hand, the tire iron in his other, and he was looking down at her, his face pinched with concern.
"It took you long enough," she said weakly, and Lamb laughed, but she could hear the pain in his voice. When he pulled her over to the desk, not letting go his grip on her, Veronica thought he was limping.
He laid the tire iron on the desk, picking up the phone with the hand not holding her. "Dial tone," he whispered hoarsely, the relief plain in his voice.
"Sacks," he said into the phone after a minute. "I need a couple of cruisers down here, stat. The Riverside Inn, on Creek Ridge Road."
After Lamb hung up, he put his other arms around Veronica, planting a kiss on her forehead. They were still standing like that when the cruisers arrived, and Veronica ignored Sacks' bemused glance as he walked around the desk to the clerk.
When the clerk shifted, Veronica jumped, even though Sacks was already holding him, cuffing his hands behind his back.
"Sampson. Ramirez. Take him back to lockup." Lamb pulled away from Veronica finally, and gently pushed her hair back from her face. "Sacks. We need a ride back to Neptune. And call a tow truck."
When Veronica slid into the back of Sacks' cruiser, Lamb got in beside her, shutting the door behind him. He put his arm around her, pulling her towards him, and Veronica relaxed into him, pretending that Sacks wasn't watching them in the rear view mirror. Outside, the sky was getting lighter. It was almost dawn.
Nobody said anything as they drove back into town. Lamb was looking at her, and Veronica smiled into his shoulder.
When they finally reached the Sheriff's department, Lamb took her hand, and Veronica let him lead her into the building.
"Do you need a ride home?" he asked her quietly, after they were inside and one of the deputies had brought them mugs of hot coffee. "Should I call your dad?"
"No." Veronica shifted closer to Lamb, until he put his arms around her. "I'm fine right here."