“Promise me you won’t sit here all night drinking.”
I crossed a couple of fingers and hid them under the desk. “I promise.”
She frowned like she could see my crossed fingers, but then she nodded. “All right. I’ll see you on Monday.”
I watched her go, waiting until I heard her footsteps fade down the hall before I opened the bottle. I poured myself a hefty finger into a glass, gulping most of it down in one swallow. I topped it off and then settled back, turning to look down over the city. This used to be my father’s office. Sometimes, when I sat here like this, I wondered if he ever did this.
I used to think I knew my parents well, especially my father. We weren’t close when I was young. Father was a cop, working the night shift most of the time, sleeping during the day. He always managed to get home just in time to help Mother get us children ready for school, always there to share breakfast with us. Then he’d go to bed and be up by the time we got home from school, a hard task master who was charged with making sure we got our homework done. Mother would come home from her job at the university and we’d have a quick supper, then he’d be gone again, off to keep the streets safe while Mother got us into bed.
It was a routine that I took for granted. After Odette died, things were never the same. Mother drank, then lost her job. Father tried to keep things together, but he spent less and less time at home. I’d thought, when he’d opened this place and begun bringing Oliver and I here, that things had changed, that we’d got to know him better.
How wrong I was!
My father was not whom I always thought he was. And this lawsuit was proving that more than anything that could have gone down between him and I ever could have. The things I’d learned when I first took over the company, the things I’d seen… I’d made excuses for them. I’d told myself lies so that I wouldn’t have to see the truth. But now, with the things these people were saying in the depositions, with the things I’d been forced to revisit with the lawyers, it was becoming clear I’d never known my father at all.
It saddened me to realize that.
“Mr. Winn.”
Detective Salazar knocked on the door as she walked in, her face a mask of indifference.
“There’s no one here.”
She looked around before turning to close the doors. I got up and went to her, sliding my arms around her waist as she stepped back. For a moment, she rested her head against my shoulder, sighing as she slid her hands over the back of mine.
“What a day!”
She twisted in my arms and I pushed her back, stealing her lips as she fell back against the doors. I’d only had this pleasure a handful of times before, and each time it felt new, like some flavor of ice cream that brought my taste buds to life in a way nothing else had ever done before. We’d worked together for more than a year, coordinating on cases that involved the local police department, but it was only a month ago when, over a late-night case review, we just… we gave in to what had been building between us all that time.
“We shouldn’t do this,” she said, pressing a hand against my chest.
“Then push me away.”
She pushed, for a moment, then let her hand slide up over the back of my neck. She drew me closer and we were kissing again, exploring each other like the new lovers we were. I couldn’t get enough of her, couldn’t get enough of the way she tasted, the way she felt in my arms, the way she sighed whenever I did something that pleased her.
“It drives me crazy when you argue with me in front of my people,” I said against her lips.
“It drives me crazy when you think you know everything.”
“I do know everything.”
She laughed softly against my lips. “You don’t have an ego the size of Texas, do you?”
“It’s well earned.”
“Is it now? Aren’t you the one who lost an agent today?”
“We got her back.”
“Because of some crazy clue she gave her partner. And then he went off half-cocked! You could have gotten everyone in some serious trouble today if that had gone differently.”
“But it didn’t.” I brushed a hand over the side of her face. “You need to learn to trust me.”
“Oh, you want me to follow you blindly like all these minions you have so well trained around here?” She shook her head, rubbing her nose against mine. “Not likely.”
“I don’t want you to be a minion. I love a woman with a mind of her own.”
“Yeah? Who said anything about love?”
“Is lust a better word?”
She groaned, her hand sliding further down the front of my body, slipping from my chest to my belly and down, just below my belt. “Lust is a very good word.”
“We could move this party to your place, if you’d like.”
We hadn’t yet taken that step, but there was something about the success of our little operation that made me think that tonight was the perfect night for such a thing. Perhaps it was about helping get Max and James together. Or maybe it was more about the success of an operation that had appeared to be a complete failure just a few hours ago. Not that it mattered what the reason. She was a beautiful woman and I was a single man. It was a good idea from all angles.
But she ducked under my arm and crossed the room, wiping her hands on her skirt like she was suddenly nervous.
“What’s up?”
“Nothing. I just… I don’t think I’m quite ready for that yet.”
I can’t say disappointment didn’t rush through me, aching deep in places I didn’t want to ache. But I prided myself on being a gentleman.
“Maybe some other night.”
“Maybe.”
I crossed to my desk and picked up my whiskey, drinking another large gulp of the burning liquid. “Your bosses must be happy with you today.”
“They’re not mad. But they would have liked if everything had gone down a little differently.”
“I’m sure.”
“You have to stop showing them up, Ox. You keep honing in on all these cases and solving them before we can. It’s rubbing the brass wrong.”
“We all need a little help sometimes.”
“Yeah, well, you don’t want to make enemies of the people who enforce the laws around here.”
I frowned, her tone setting off bells in my head. “What’s going on, Kinsley?”
She was quiet for a long moment, staring at the toe of her shoe like it was incredibly interesting. I finished my whiskey—thinking I was going to need it—then went to her, holding her waist as I pulled her toward me.
“Tell me what you’re trying so hard not to say.”
She studied my face a second, hot anger suddenly lighting her eyes. “You weren’t ever going to tell me, were you?”
“What?”
“That there’s this huge lawsuit coming against you? That there’s a group of eager lawyers looking for anything to take you down?”
“I didn’t want to involve you in my problems.”
“Have you told anyone? Does Skylar know? Akker? Oliver?” Her voice rose a little when she said my brother’s name. “Have you warned any of them of the storm that’s coming?”
“No.”
“Damn it, Ox!” She slammed her hand against my shoulder. “How could you do this? How could you put us all in this position?”
“It’s my problem. I’ll deal with the fallout as it comes.” I touched her face, drawing her jaw up toward me. “Don’t worry about it.”
“I have to worry about it,” she said, jerking away. She began to pace, walking the full width of the room like someone trying to get a little exercise in on a busy workday. “Did you know that one of those lawyers hired an ex-cop to do some checking on you? Did you know that he was digging into some of your father’s files?”
“I didn’t know that.”
“Do you know what he found?”
I sighed, sitting heavily on the edge of my desk. “I have a good idea.”
“If you had given me a heads-up, I could have done something. I could have slowed this thing down, given you time.”
“To do what?”
“To hire a better lawyer! To get your own investigators on this thing!”
“Why? I’m not going to fight something that hasn’t happened yet, and I’m not dragging people I care about into this mess. It’s bad enough that my brother and I have had to deal with all my father’s drama for all these years! My father and my mother… she let my brother go to prison for her! Doesn’t that tell you what kind of people my folks are?”
“Then why are you letting them continue to punish you? Christ, Ox! Aren’t you going to fight for yourself?”
“Sure. When the battle comes to me. In the meantime, I’m doing all I can to protect this company and the people who work for it.”
“You haven’t done enough,” she said, sadness filling her expression. “You should have told me.”
“Why?”
“Because then I wouldn’t be here with an arrest warrant in my bag.” A single tear slid down her cheek. Because I wouldn’t be here trying to head off the detectives who wouldn’t be so kind or gentle with you. Because I wouldn’t be here trying to give you one last chance to make this right.”
“Then it’s come?”
Her eyes widened. “You knew it would?”
“I had a good idea.”
She charged at me, fist swinging. She punched my shoulder before I could grab her, forcing her arms behind her back as I pulled her hard against me.
“It’s okay.”
“It’s not okay.”
“It is. I’m going to be okay. I’ll find a way to survive this just like everything else.”
She looked up at me, another tear slipping down her cheek. I gently wiped it away and kissed the tip of her nose.
“Do your job, detective.”
She hesitated a moment longer, but then that hard look of indifference filled her features again. She pulled a set of handcuffs from a little pouch she wore hooked to the back of her skirt.
“Oxley David Winn, you’re under arrest for the murder of your father, James David Winn.”
She slapped the cuffs on my wrists, another tear escaping her eye.
As painful as it was to watch her hurt, I was almost relieved.
At least the waiting was over.
~~~
OXLEY
Chapter 1
Kinsley
He’d shown them up again.
My lieutenant was pissed. He’d told me specifically to tell Ox Winn to stay away from Zaki Ahsan, but Ox doesn’t listen to anyone. One of his operatives had been kidnapped, so he’d run a raid into Zaki’s personal home. The fact that he’d found eleven missing teenagers was the only thing that had kept my lieutenant from arresting him. The fact that he’d found eleven missing teenagers was also part of what had caused my lieutenant to be so frustrated with him. The man was stepping on their toes despite the fact that he gave all the credit to the department when the press showed up. However, the press wasn’t stupid. The fact that Ox was there proved his firm had something to do with it. The press loved to see Ox at a crime scene because they knew there was drama brewing underneath the surface despite everyone being polite to one another and Ox giving accolades to the police department for all their hard work—hard work that his operatives had actually done.
If my lieutenant would just listen when I told him about the evidence Ox had…
But I couldn’t exactly save any of them from their own egos if they outright refused to listen to me!
I finished filling out the report required of me after a big to-do like this thing today. James Duncan was safe, and eleven teenagers had been returned to their families. That was what was important in the long run.
I exited out of the program I was in and was about to shut down my computer when I noticed a new alert on the warrant list. I’d been waiting for a warrant in a case—a minor assault case that was probably going to go away before I could get the guy behind bars—so I clicked on it. Much to my surprise, I recognized the name of the suspect on the warrant.
Oxley David Winn.
My heart sank as I opened the order and began to read through the charges. I’d heard rumors, but I’d thought it was just that: rumors. A couple of low-life lawyers had been doing some investigating on their own and had come up with witness statements and some conjecture, nothing really solid. But I guess someone around here thought it was enough to get a judge to order an arrest warrant. I wasn’t terribly surprised to see the filing detective’s name at the bottom.
Chad Lindsay.
Chad was one of those old-school cops who had his own way of doing things. He believed in the law, but only as far as he could bend the laws he didn’t agree with. He’d come up against Ox in a case a year ago, once of those embezzlement cases involving some guy who worked for an insurance company. Chad had had more than enough evidence to take the guy down, but it had turned out that the guy was a friend of a friend of a cousin of his wife’s college roommate, or something like that. So Chad had swept the evidence under the carpet and had a talk with the guy, told him to tone things down a little. The insurance company, unhappy with the department’s work on the case, had hired Caballo to take a look. Ox and his team had had the embezzler called to rights within twenty-four hours, making Chad look like a fool. Chad Lindsay had been out to get Ox ever since.
Looked like he’d found a way in.
Chad Lindsay had a few judges in his back pocket. That was probably how he’d gotten the warrant. The problem was, now that it was in the system, there was no making it go away. Ox was going to be arrested no matter what anyone did.
I turned off the computer and got up, trying to keep my heart from pounding right out of my chest. I was a cop. I knew how to keep a neutral expression even under the most intense situations, but this one was pushing me to my limits. Oxley Winn was a unique human being, a man’s man who could also be as chivalrous as the medieval knights from the British Lit class I’d loved so much in college. We’d met on that same embezzlement case. My lieutenant had had me liaise with Caballo to keep things from getting too heated with Ox and Chad. Ever since, my lieutenant had had me dealing with every case that involved Caballo. There were quite a few of those cases.
You could only spend so much time with a guy as charming and intelligent as Ox before you started to develop certain feelings. Ox was… I didn’t know how to define him. But I didn’t mind spending time with him.
I definitely didn’t want to see him in jail for something he couldn’t have done. Not the Ox I knew.
“Hey,” I said, moving up behind another detective in my unit, Andy Alvarez, “do you know where Lindsay is?”
“Interrogation. He’s beating a confession out of some perp on that robbery downtown.”
I nodded, fighting to keep a relieved smile from jumping to my lips. “That’ll be an all-night thing—am I right?”
Andy shrugged, focusing on the report he was writing. “Could be all night; could be just an hour or two. All I know is he just headed in there a little bit ago.”
That gave me time to go get Ox myself. If I arrested him, I could control what happened while he was booked. If Chad picked him up, the narrative would be very different.
“I’m headed out,” I said.
Andy grunted, not really replying.
I grabbed my jacket, sliding the print of the warrant I’d sent to the printer on my way out, shoving it into my bag. I worried the situation over all the way to Caballo’s offices, telling myself that Ox had a good explanation for the whole thing. There couldn’t be much to the accusations. I’d heard what those lawyers had, a few disgruntled investors telling a story that was mostly based on rumor. I’d also overheard Chad bragging that Ox’s mother had said some things, but the woman was a drunk. What kind of witness was she going to be?
It was all just a bunch of bullshit and Ox would set everyone straight the moment he heard wh
at was happening. I had to believe that.
The security guard on the front desk sent me straight up. The halls were quiet, most of the lights turned out. Even Skylar was gone, and Skylar never left until Ox was on his way home. But light was shining from under his double office doors. I’d known he’d be here, decompressing after another case had been resolved successfully.
“Mr. Winn.”
I knocked on the door as I walked in, forcing myself back into that expression of indifference, forcing myself to hide the emotions churning inside me.
“There’s no one here,” he said, a suggestive smile lifting the corners of his mouth.
He was sitting behind his desk, a glass of whiskey in his hand. He set it down as I turned to close the doors, crossing to me. He slid his arms around my waist as I stepped back. For a moment, I rested my head against his shoulder, sighing as I slid my hands over his. It felt good, being in his arms. I wasn’t a woman who trusted easily, but I trusted Ox, and with that came this comforting sense of security that I was quickly learning to love. I really didn’t want anything to screw that up.
“What a day!”
I twisted in his arms and he pushed me back against the door, stealing my lips. I slid my arms around his neck, sliding my fingers over the soft bristles of his hair, teasing the longer strands toward the top of his head. Damn, he smelled good! Even after a full day of chasing bad guys, he smelled like pinewood and this spiciness that was just him. I could live inside his scent all day long and never get tired of it.
The first time he’d kissed me… it was just a little peck while we were locked up in a conference room reviewing notes on a case a little over a month ago. He’d just leaned over and stolen a kiss, this bold, beautiful man. I hadn’t known what to think. So, I didn’t think. I returned that kiss with a deeper, more passionate one of my own. We’d shared dozens of kisses since then, but always like this, always behind closed doors and in a rush, never anywhere we could get caught. Or anywhere that could lead to something more than just a few kisses and rogue touches.
Caballo Security Box Set Page 77