by Lora Leigh
"You're lying to me, Jarvis." Nik turned back to him, his voice hardening.
"No, man, I swear," Jarvis cried out, the fear in his voice returning. "I'm not lying. No one on the job knew I was gay until Eddie found out. My boyfriend, he works for the government. His boss doesn't know he's gay. Eddie threatened to tell. I wasn't going to say nothin' about what I knew."
"Is that why Eddie fired you?" Nik questioned, his voice smooth, dark. Jarvis tried to shake his head, but the fingers wrapped around his neck held him in place. "No. Eddie was having problems. . . ." He tried to swallow. "The money kind. He wanted me to use some inferior materials. Cut costs. He had some kind of racket going, but I don't know what."
Now this was interesting. Mikayla watched curiously, as fear began to loosen Jarvis's tongue.
"Stop lying to me, Jarvis," Nik ordered, his tone becoming more threatening.
"You're pulling this story out of your ass. Otherwise you would have spilled it last time we spoke."
"I swear, it's not a lie. I wanted to find out who it was. I wanted time to work on it myself. I could make a buck or two." He tried to smile again. That curve wobbled in fear.
"I wouldn't do it for him. For Eddie, that is. I told him I would at first; then I backed out. He was real pissed, maybe even scared. He said I was fucking him over. He fired me, then told me if I ever let anyone know what he wanted me to do, then he would tell them I was gay."
"You know I'm going to check this out, Jarvis," Nik warned him. "Just as I'm going to check your boyfriend out. What's his name?"
"Come on, man," Jarvis whined. "Don't do this to me. I want him to move me to D.C. with him. Cause him trouble and he never will."
"His name, Jarvis." Nik's fingers tightened once again around Jarvis's throat. A tear slipped down Jarvis's cheek as misery filled his eyes. "Darnell." He gave the name Nik wanted. "Darnell Waters."
Mikayla's lips tightened at the name Jarvis gave. She hated to tell him that Darnell Waters would never move him to D.C. with him. Darnell Waters had a wife, a family, and a possible political career. He wouldn't risk the future being carefully mapped out for him by his senatorial father-in-law.
"Who else saw you there?" Nik growled. "Give me names or I'm going to make sure you hurt before I leave."
Jarvis's lips trembled, but he did as Nik ordered. Naming the bartender as well as several regulars whom Mikayla knew as well.
"Very good, Jarvis." Nik smiled, the hard, cold curve chilling in the danger it represented as he released the other man and stepped back. "I will be checking this latest story out, you understand."
With his fingers massaging his throat, Jarvis nodded jerkily. 164
"Do you know if Eddie found anyone else to do the work he wanted you to do?" Nik asked as he moved to the door.
"I don't know." Jarvis's voice wavered. "But I know he was still scared that last day, when we argued. I knew Eddie, and I know there was fear in his eyes that day." Nik didn't turn; he didn't ask more questions. Opening the door, he escorted Mikayla from the house and back to the truck.
"Do you believe him?" Mikayla asked as Nik backed out of the parking space and turned to leave.
"I think I do," Nik sighed. "And that just fucking pisses me off. Because he was damned good suspect material."
Mikayla's lips thinned. "He looks nothing like Maddix." Nik nodded. "And he leads us right back to Maddix. I have no doubt in my mind Maddix wouldn't kill Eddie if he caught him attempting to sabotage that project." Mikayla stared at Nik silently, nearly holding her breath.
"Now what?" she asked, wondering if he would even mention Maddix Nelson.
"Now?" Nik shot her a resigned look before turning the truck to the interstate.
"We see if we can't catch Holbrook again; then we check out this newest tale of Mr. Dalton's."
But Reed Holbrook, this time, couldn't be contacted. According to his secretary, he was unavailable and she had no idea when he would be in the office. It was more than obvious they were being avoided, and Mikayla could feel Nik's ire as he glared at Reed Holbrook's closed office doors.
Leaning his palms flat on the desk, Nik lowered his upper body until his face was only inches from the obviously wary secretary.
"Inform Mr. Holbrook he has twenty-four hours to contact me," Nik told her quietly. "After that, I know how to get nasty."
Rising, he lifted a pen from the desk, scribbled his name and cell-phone number on the pad on it, and turned away.
With his hand riding on Mikayla's lower back, he led her from the offices and back to the truck.
"Another wasted trip," Mikayla murmured as they headed back to Hagerstown.
"Supposedly." His voice was tight and hard.
"He obviously has no intention of talking to you," she pointed out. "He was seen meeting with Eddie; maybe he was the one Eddie was working for."
"Anything is possible," Nik growled as he slid a pair of dark sunglasses over his eyes and headed for the interstate.
"Why don't I just sit over here and keep my mouth shut while you continue to pout?" She crossed her arms over her breasts as she glared at his profile. He had been like this most of the day. Short answers, his manner controlled and obviously patronizing. She was getting sick of it. She wasn't a child he needed to keep information from.
"Why would I be pouting, Mikayla?" His lips thinned, a muscle at the side of his jaw clenched and unclenched in obvious annoyance.
"I have no idea why you're pouting," she bit back in irritation. "But I have three brothers; I know the signs. If you're still put out because I insisted on coming with you, then I personally think you're taking it to extremes."
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"I'm certain you do," he agreed.
God, she hated it when her brothers did this to her, and it was even worse now that Nik was doing it.
"What is your problem then?" she huffed out. "It's not as though I'm asking you to take me into a war zone here. Nik, I have every right to be a part of this."
"You have no right to distract me, Mikayla." Anger simmered in his tone now.
"You're my lover, not a mark, a suspect, or a client. For this moment in time you're my lover, and every minute you spend with me places you in more danger. Do you think I enjoy that?"
Nik could feel a dark awareness crawling through him ever since he had picked up the tail just out of D.C. They were being followed, and rather than stinging the bastard and jerking his balls off for information, Nik found himself trapped in the truck because Mikayla had insisted on accompanying him.
How the hell was he supposed to protect her like this? He couldn't work efficiently if he had to check his actions because of her presence.
"Do you think I enjoy hiding in a back room all day awaiting word? Pacing the floors while you decide what information you will and will not give me when you return?"
Pain and anger shadowed her voice, but he heard something more as well. Vulnerability, a sense of helplessness. Her world had suddenly changed on her, as had her security. The battle to accept that was clear in her voice. He glared back at her in frustration. "It's not like that," he argued. "I tell you what I know."
"What you know, not what happened, their expressions, their actions, or the tidbits of information they give out," she protested. "Nik, I need to be a part of this." And he needed to protect her. The protective urge was eating him alive from the inside out.
Glancing at the mirrors again, he could still see the plain tan sedan that had shadowed them since they had left Hagerstown earlier in the day.
"You're doing that a lot," she said.
"Doing what?" He frowned back at her.
"Checking your mirrors. Are we being followed?"
Hell, she was more intuitive than he wanted to give her credit for.
"We picked up a tail earlier," he finally admitted. "One of Holbrook's flunkies, I'd guess."
He'd find out later, he promised himself. If he had to slip into Holbrook's bedroom and prick his balls with a blade, then he'd
get the truth.
"Is he very close?" To give her credit, she didn't turn and look behind them.
"A few cars back." So far, whoever it was represented no threat, but Nik knew that could change at any time.
"Just give me the word and I'll duck," she promised. "But please stop acting like a five-year-old without his PSP. It really irritates me."
He almost laughed at the comment. The tone of voice was one that a woman would use only with small children or belligerent young men.
He was neither.
"What time does the bar open?" He changed the subject before his own irritation 166
became more apparent.
"It will do you no good to arrive before ten," she told him. "The bar opens at six, but to make certain the regulars are there to question them it would be best to arrive later."
He had to agree with that, and he hated it.
"Dinner then," he sighed, checking the mirrors once again to locate their tail. He was there, same position.
"Fine, dinner." Her voice lowered as she propped her elbow on the armrest and rubbed at her forehead.
The tension was like a live wire between them, sizzling with too much damned awareness. Arousal.
Taking her the night before hadn't stilled the hunger for her; it had done nothing to ease the ache that flared inside him. It did nothing to ease the hunger. The hunger wasn't going to ease anytime soon, either. Nik admitted that hours later as they pulled into the parking lot of the nightclub Jarvis Dalton swore was his alibi. The little bastard was too incompetent to have actually committed that murder. But a trail was a trail, and at this point Nik was becoming desperate to finish this. If he didn't get away from her, then he was going to lose his soul to her. The fact that she had insisted on returning to the house to shower and change should have clued him into the fact that she was going to make him crazy tonight. Seeing her dressed in that snug stretchy silk violet dress, her hair pulled to the crown of her head to cascade to her shoulders in luscious waves that still confused him. How had she managed those waves? Because he knew her hair was a beautiful straight ribbon of rough silk.
If he'd thought she looked like a fairy before, then she sure as hell looked like one now. One in four-inch-high sandals that made her feet look so much smaller and more delicate than ever before.
With his hand against her lower back he escorted her into the club, paid the entrance charge, and nearly grimaced at the clash of music as it assaulted his ears. On the dance floor bodies gyrated and moved in synchronized seductive intent. Moving along the edges of the dance floor, he followed Mikayla through the chaos to the long wooden bar. The journey there was a hell of a lot slower than he would have liked, though. It seemed Mikayla knew just as many people here as she knew anywhere else they went.
By the time they moved onto two of the empty bar stools, Nik was gritting his teeth in pure irritation. Between the invitations to dance, the offers of a drink, and the social chitchat, it took more than half an hour to get to their destination.
"Mikayla, sweetheart. Darling, did you make that perfect creation?" The bartender's nasal tone coupled with the approving look as his gaze went over the dress had no sexual connotations. "You didn't mention new designs, darling."
"Nothing new," Mikayla promised him before turning to Nik. "Nik, this is Kevin Mackey. He does some sewing for me sometimes."
"Precise, delicate stitches can make or break the creation," he told Nik seriously.
"Of course." Nik shot Mikayla a speaking look.
"Kevin, is Sam working tonight?" she asked, referring to the bartender Jarvis swore could alibi him.
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"She should be in anytime." Kevin waved toward the bar area. "She called in late. Her girlfriend had a little meltdown. You know how it goes." Kevin rolled his eyes as he stroked the small patch of his short goatee before glancing down the bar. "Excuse me, dears. Customer."
Nik felt like rolling his eyes himself. He didn't think he could name a single mission quite like this one. He knew he'd never met another woman quite like Mikayla.
"Here you go." Kevin returned with an amused smile and a whisky, which he set in front of Nik.
Nik looked at the glass, then the bartender.
As Kevin lifted his brows, his petite face reflected amusement and he glanced down the bar.
An older man sat watching, lifted his own glass with a smile as he mouthed, Enjoy.
Nik turned to Mikayla.
She was watching the exchange with a smile and as Nik turned to her gave the other man a dainty four-fingered wave before she picked up the glass herself and shot the whisky back.
She didn't even grimace.
The facets of this woman were beginning to amaze him, and that wasn't a good thing.
"Mikayla, sweetheart, does your daddy know you're here?" The man from the end of the bar appeared at Nik's side.
"Ryan, if you tell Daddy I was here, then you're going to have to tell him you were here, and you know he's going to have that talk to you about picking up strange men again." She wagged a finger at him playfully as Nik stared back at her with narrowed eyes.
Ryan laughed. "Speaking of strange men, you going to introduce me?" Mikayla's amethyst eyes gleamed with laughter. "Ryan Bhats, meet a very good friend of mine, Nik Steele," she introduced them. "Nik, Ryan Bhats, my third cousin and a general troublemaker."
"Mr. Bhats." Nik nodded.
"So you're the guy trying to find Eddie Foreman's killer," Ryan commented.
"Bastard. Killing Foreman would have been okay if he hadn't drawn our Mikayla into it." The fact that Eddie Foreman wasn't well liked wasn't the issue.
"Maybe you could help us, Ryan." Mikayla smiled. "Were you here the evening Eddie was killed?"
"I was. Got here when the doors opened with some friends." He nodded.
"Would you mind answering a few questions for us?" she asked. Ryan turned to Nik, his gaze going over him slowly. Nik understood how a woman felt now when she complained of being looked at as though she were a piece of meat.
"Maybe," Ryan drawled. "Do you think tall, dark, and dangerous here would grace me with a dance?"
Nik turned, stared back at the other man, and it didn't take Ryan Bhats more than a second to figure out that wasn't going to happen.
Bhats grinned again. "What do you need, darlin'?"
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"Jarvis Dalton," Nik answered for her. "He says he was here that night." Ryan nodded slowly. "Yeah, he was. Showed up 'bout the same time I did, just at opening. About five thirty, I'd say."
"You're certain it was Jarvis?" Nik asked.
"Positive. He and his friend come here pretty regular. Darnell, I think his name is. Some guy from D.C. They were here until closing." He glanced at Mikayla. "You know how it is. We all just get together and bullshit sometimes. That was one of those nights."
"Thanks, Ryan." Mikayla smiled back at him.
"Look, sweetie, I know what you're going through. Maddix is a big fish, but I might have something that could help. It's just, ya know, I work for him, too." Ryan's hand settled on her shoulder and Nik had to grit his teeth to keep from knocking the touch away from her even as he waited for the information.
"Your name won't come into it," Nik informed him.
Ryan drew in a deep breath, dropped his hand, and looked around for a second.
"Maddix says he was at a meeting. That was in the papers. Well, I saw Maddix as I was heading here. He was at the station just off the exit before you get to the job site. Seemed kind of strange, because he was using the ATM."
Nik stared at Bhats as his jaw set in potential fury. It kept coming back to Maddix. Each thread was slowly coming together to create a noose for the construction company owner's neck and Nik was beginning to wonder just what made Maddix think he could manipulate this.
Hell, Nik had been as certain of Maddix's innocence as he was of Mikayla's and learning he could be wrong enraged him. God help Maddix if Nik proved the other man had used not ju
st him but also Mikayla to get away with murder. And as far as Nik was concerned, using Mikayla was a far greater crime.
"I think we're finished here." He rose from the bar, helped Mikayla down, and turned to Ryan Bhats. "Thank you, Mr. Bhats."
"Look, just keep my name outta this." Concern darkened the other man's eyes. "I like Mikayla. She's a good girl. But I have a job, I have a mortgage, and I enjoy my life, ya know?"
"Your name isn't a part of this," Nik promised before turning and urging Mikayla to the exit.
She was quiet, her expression somber as she glanced up at him. He couldn't look back at her. He'd followed the line that she must have mistakenly identified Maddix. That somehow someone could have tricked her. It was beginning to look as though somehow Maddix Nelson had managed to trick him instead.
"Nik?" she questioned him as she stopped him outside the bar before they headed back to the parking lot.
God, he loved her eyes. Loved the scent of her, the feel of her. Hell, he even enjoyed the hell out of her being with him, questioning those involved, when he knew he shouldn't enjoy it. Yet having her with him was an experience he knew he would miss when it was over.
"When I prove it, he'll pay for it," Nik swore to her. "I promise you, Mikayla, I'll make sure he pays for every moment of fear, every second you were in danger."
"He'll pay for it anyway," she told Nik. "The proof will put him in prison." He hoped.
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"We have to break his alibi, but first I need more information," Nik told her.
"Come on; let's get back to the house. I need to get on the computer." He needed facts. He needed to find proof, not supposition, which was all he had at this moment.
"Then let's go." Walking ahead of him, she moved smoothly and gracefully, despite the height of the heels.
Shaking his head, he started to follow her. He should have stayed closer to her. He should have never let her get so much as an inch ahead of him. He was jumping for her as he heard the motor rev, as lights suddenly blazed, blinding him as the car shot from a parking spot too close and with a sharp burst of speed headed for Mikayla.
His hand went for the gun at his side as his arm wrapped around Mikayla's waist and jerked her from her feet.