For His Daughter

by Dani Sinclair

  “You were married,” she justified.

  “Not anymore.”

  She brushed at her bangs. “I think we’d better change the subject.”

  “Chicken.”

  Kayla straightened up.

  “Chicken?”

  Her eyes glittered with the sudden light of battle.

  “Chicken,” he confirmed.

  Before he realized her intention, she reached up, grabbed his face in both hands and planted her lips on his. Shock held him still for her not-so-tender assault.

  She drew back her head and smiled triumphantly. “Who’s chicken?”

  Lee slid his arms around her. “Let’s find out, shall we?” He tugged her against him for a real taste of those incredibly soft lips. Kayla shivered as he slowly savored a kiss that rocked him to the soles of his feet. He slid his hands to tangle in the silken fall of her hair while her scent filled his head.

  Her lips clung so sweetly, his ability to think melted away. She was vibrantly, wonderfully alive in his arms. She parted her lips on a soft sigh, allowing him to surge inside the incredible warmth of her mouth. Longing sent fierce shards of desire flying through him.

  There was such passion in her, just waiting to be tapped.

  While he still could, he tried to draw back, but she sent her tongue slipping between his teeth to probe tentatively. Lee was lost, drawing her more deeply inside, sucking lightly until she moaned softly with desire.

  The small sound fed his need. He kissed her greedily, hungrily, the way he’d been wanting to kiss her for a long time. She was so responsive, so yielding. She clung, deepening the kiss with a sweet yearning that stole his senses.

  His hands sought and found her breasts beneath the thin layer of the cotton T-shirt. He felt the buds of her nipples straining into his hands.

  And the sound of giggles doused his passion more effectively than a bucket of water. He opened his eyes and turned around. Two mirthful urchin faces stared up at him from the backyard.

  Kayla’s lashes fluttered upward, the sensual haze only gradually slipping from features softened by passion. Her cheeks were delicately pink and her lips were swollen from the kisses they had shared. His desire didn’t lessen at all.

  “Oh, my—” He pulled her head against his chest, giving the little girls a mock scowl as he shooed them away with his other hand. Still giggling, they turned and ran toward the trees that grew along the banks of Rumble Creek.

  “Shh. It’s okay. They didn’t see anything.” But only because they’d started giggling before he could pull up that flimsy shirt and explore what his hands had so eagerly stroked to hard nubs.

  She pulled back, her face fiery red. “I can’t believe we...right out here in plain...oh.”

  “Yeah, well, I couldn’t have said it better myself. Let’s get inside before the munchkins go for reinforcements. The last thing we need is to give sex education demonstrations to seven-year-olds.”

  “They’re ten and they live down the street. I’m going to die of embarrassment every time I see them.”

  “I sincerely hope not. I have other plans for you.”

  For just a second, Kayla looked outraged. Then her lips began to quiver. Before he could reach for her again to apologize, she burst into a peal of laughter.

  For no good reason at all, Lee found his own lips twitching. As she started up the stairs, his laughter joined with hers.

  “You have...to stop,” Kayla panted.

  Lee chuckled. “I will if you will.”

  “I don’t even know why...we’re laughing. It’s not funny.”

  No, but Lee suspected they needed the release of laughter after the intense emotional strain they’d been under the past couple of days. They were still chuckling as she opened the door to her kitchen.

  He stepped inside on her heels, bumping into her. Kayla turned around to say something and all traces of humor died a swift death to be replaced by instant desire.

  Laughter forgotten, they stared at each other. Her blue eyes softened. “What are you doing to me?” she whispered.

  “Nothing...yet.”

  Lee had to taste her. Or maybe it was Kayla who reached for him. He pressed her back against the wall, letting her feel the need she’d created in him.

  “I want you, Kayla.”

  “Yes.”

  Her purse thudded to the floor as she came eagerly into his arms. Their mouths fused. Lee ran his hands restlessly over her back and sides. She squirmed closer, her kiss all but branding him. Lee slid a hand between them, seeking and finding the firm mound of her breast. She moaned urgently into his mouth.

  He kissed his way down her neck until his mouth closed over one breast right through her T-shirt. Eyes wide, Kayla arched her back, crying softly in excitement as he bit gently at the stiff hard peak.

  His hands went to the hem of her shirt, drawing it over her head in one sure motion. The T-shirt fell to the kitchen floor beside her purse. Lee stared at the sexy white bra.

  “I like your taste in lingerie.”

  “I’m glad. Maybe you should have bought a pair of those satin briefs, after all.”

  Their eyes met, sharing a smile.

  “If you like the bra that much,” she said, stroking him through his pants, “you can have it. But first you have to take it off,” she dared.

  “Deal.” He kissed the exposed flesh that rose above the lacy bra cups before his fingers reached behind her, seeking the clasp.

  “How the heck do you undo this thing?” he demanded in frustration when he couldn’t find the release.

  She giggled and reached between her breasts. “It fastens in the front.”

  And the sudden bleat of a police siren out front froze them where they stood.

  “Wait here,” he said.

  Lee ran to the front room. On the street in front of the house, a blue Fool’s Point patrol car had pulled over a large Harley-Davidson. Alex Coughlin removed his helmet and dismounted with casual insolence.

  The policeman stepped from his cruiser and Lee opened the door of Kayla’s front porch. He eased outside when he saw the officer’s hand hovering near his weapon.

  “You got a problem, Officer Osher?” Alex demanded. His voice carried clearly in the silent summer air. The sneer in his voice at the cop’s title set the man to visibly bristling.

  “Lean over the hood of the car and spread ’em, Coughlin. You know the drill.

  “For a traffic stop? I don’t think so.”

  Lee tensed. The cop laid his hand on his gun butt. Behind Lee, Kayla gasped. She clutched the T-shirt to her chest, her eyes wide.

  “Now, Coughlin!”

  For a second, Lee thought Alex was going to refuse. Slowly, anger in every stiff line of his body, her brother leaned over the hood of the car. With a triumphant smile, the cop ran experienced hands over him, searching for weapons.

  When he came up empty, Lee wondered where Alex had hidden the knife he’d displayed the other day.

  “What’s the charge?” Alex snarled, finally standing up.

  “Failure to signal.”

  “I signaled.”

  The cop bared his teeth. “Prove it.”

  Lee wondered why the cop was baiting Alex.

  “So write me a ticket,” Alex demanded.

  Alex easily outweighed the cop, which might be why the man seemed so nervous. He pulled out his citation book and began to write a summons. “Where’s your sister, Coughlin?”

  Lee stiffened.

  “How should I know?”

  “Mrs. Strongmore said she left the house with a man this morning. Now that man wouldn’t happen to be Lee Garvey, would it? Because that would be aiding and abetting a fugitive, Coughlin.”

  Lee could see the way Alex’s posture tightened.

  “Not unless you charge him with something.”

  “Oh, we’re going to charge him, all right. Murder one. And your little sister’s going down right beside him.”

  Alex bunched his fingers at his s
ides. Lee’s own fists curled, as well. The cop was pushing Alex and pushing hard. There was obviously some sort of history between the two men.

  Alex rocked back on his heels. “You gotta have proof of something first, Cop.”

  The officer narrowed his eyes. “I have a witness who saw them leave here together.” He ripped the ticket from his book and held it out.

  “But nothing to tie either one of them to the murder,” Alex taunted.

  “We will. As soon as the lab results come back. Garvey shot his wife and we’re going to nail him. There’s nothing worse than a dirty cop.”

  “You would know.”

  Osher set his jaw but refused to rise to the bait. “Your pretty little sister should have picked her lover more carefully. Taking up her friend’s leftovers wasn’t smart. Garvey’s going down and she’s going with him as accessory after the fact.”

  Alex started to swing one fist. At the last second, he stopped. Osher had flinched, his hand going to his gun once more. They stood frozen in anger, staring at each other for what felt like an eternity.

  Alex slowly lowered his fist. His rage was banked but clear even from this distance. Lee shared the sentiment. Part of him wished Alex had pasted that gloating face.

  “Prove it, Cop,” Alex taunted. He turned away and started back toward his bike.

  Lee turned quickly. He’d forgotten all about Kayla standing behind him. She stood watching the scene, knuckles pressed against her mouth, her T-shirt hanging forgotten in her fists, eyes glittering with bitter anger.

  “No wonder you hate cops,” he said. “Come on.” He took her arm and hustled her back through the kitchen. “Get your shirt on.”

  “What are you doing?” But she struggled back into her T-shirt.

  “We have got to get out of here right now.”

  “But—”

  . Lee scooped her purse off the floor and handed it to her, snagging her keys from the back door where they still dangled in the lock.

  “As soon as that cop finishes baiting your brother, he’s going to look toward the house. When he does, he’s going to see your car sitting boldly in the driveway. What do you think he’s going to do next, Kayla?”

  He practically dragged her outside and down the back stairs. “If you don’t want your brother to kill that son of a bitch, we need to get away from here right now. Let’s go!”

  Kayla stopped protesting. Lee was right. Alex and Thad Osher hated each other. She didn’t know what was behind the animosity and she didn’t care. They were clearly on opposite sides and it would only take one small push to set them at each other’s throats. Kayla wasn’t going to be the one to add that push if she could help it.

  As she and Lee sprinted across the backyard toward Rumble Creek, Thad Osher’s words suddenly hit her. The police wanted to arrest her!

  THE CREEK WAS HIGH from the spring rains they’d had, and Lee made no attempt to cross it. He led her along the bank until they came to the two-lane overpass where the water traveled beneath Main Street. They waited for two cars to pass before crossing.

  “Where are we going?” she panted.

  “Good question. Is there any place we can rent a car?”

  “The gas station. But it’s right across from City Hall.”

  “You could rent one.”

  She shook her head, pushing her bangs out of her eyes. “Not without questions. Iggy’s my mechanic. He’ll want to know where my car is and what’s wrong with it.”

  “Good. Tell him it’s running rough, stalling out so bad you’re afraid to drive it.”

  “Then he’ll want to know why I don’t just bring it in.”

  “Tell him you can’t get it started. Let him go pick it up. Tell him you need to go into D.C. for an appointment or something.”

  “Dressed like this?” She shook her head. “He’d never believe it. But I guess I could tell him I have to go home and change to meet a client later.”

  “Whatever it takes.”

  “But Lee, he’ll just tell Thad that we’ve rented a car.”

  “Not until he’s asked. Besides, it doesn’t matter. We can’t avoid the police indefinitely. This just buys us some time.”

  “To do what?”

  “To find out who really murdered Fay.”

  KAYLA WAS SO NERVOUS she couldn’t believe Iggy bought her crazy story about her car refusing to start. He only had one rental car left. His favorite most recently restored car, a 1966 Super Sport. Iggy only used his restored vehicles as rentals for the people he knew and trusted. He generally didn’t keep the cars long, selling them quickly once they were refurbished. Lee’s eyes gleamed when he saw the vehicle.

  “Get that look out of your eyes,” she ordered, stepping from the car into the parking lot behind the movie theater.

  Lee feigned innocence. “What look?”

  “Like I just brought you a Christmas present.”

  He grinned. “You did. It’s a 396 with a V-8 engine.”

  “Whatever that means. This was the only car he had. He’s so backed up with jobs right now he doesn’t have time to go get my car until tomorrow. But if I so much as scratch the paint on this one—”

  “You won’t.”

  “Lee, we’re going to stand out like a neon sign driving this all over town.”

  “It’s not that bad. Though I wish it hadn’t been red.”

  “Maroon,” she corrected, getting out and handing him the keys.

  Lee grinned. “It suits you, you know. Sleek, sexy and a little wild.”

  “I’m not any of those things,” she denied, trying to ignore the flutter his words created inside her.

  “In my arms, you are.”

  Kayla tried desperately to control the blush stealing up her cheeks. Lee had the power to disarm her totally. Her body still wanted what it had been denied earlier, and she could see from the spark in his eyes that he felt the same way.

  “Will you stop teasing me like that?”

  “You don’t really want me to stop.”

  He was right, darn him.

  “Want to try out the back seat?”

  “Lee!” But she found she was grinning back at him like a fool. A happy, lovesick fool.

  The thought was sobering. She couldn’t be falling in love with Lee. She mustn’t. Yet she knew she’d get in the back seat of the car with him with hardly any coaxing at all if that’s what he wanted. She’d obviously taken complete leave of her senses where Lee Garvey was concerned.

  Instead, she came around to the passenger side and slid into the low bucket seat beside him. When had he slipped past all her carefully erected barriers? She’d fallen desperately in love with a man who was all wrong for her. A man who was wanted for murder.

  “What are we going to do now?” she asked in an amazingly level voice.

  “Let’s go check out Matt Williams. Do you know where he lives?”

  “On Basil off Main Street.”

  “We’ll see if he’s home.”

  “Lee, we can’t just drive around openly with the police looking for us.”

  “Why not? It’s the last thing they’ll expect. Besides, what choice do we have?” He covered her hand with his. “It’ll be okay. Trust me. If they stop us, I’ll tell them I kidnapped you.”

  “You will not!”

  Lee merely smiled and turned right on Basil. “Which house is his?”

  “The last one on the left-hand side.”

  Basil was a short, dead-end street that looked as if the builder had run out of money during the construction phase and simply stopped after he finished Matt’s house. Unlike the rest of the neighborhood, an air of neglect lay over the wood-frame split-level. The residence badly needed a coat of paint and someone to spruce up the weed-choked front yard. The doorbell didn’t work and there was no answer to their repeated knocks.

  “Now what?” Kayla asked as they returned to her car.

  “Now—” Lee suddenly shoved her to the ground beside the car. The sound of the shot reg
istered in her brain after her face smashed a dandelion flat. “Get against the tire,” he ordered as a hail of bullets bounced off the car.

  Kayla scrambled to obey, heart pounding wildly.

  “Stay there!”

  Before she could protest, Lee ran, drawing the shots away from her. He was working his way toward the house across the street, she realized.

  Motion caught her attention. A man with a rifle ran full out through the backyards across the street, heading toward Main Street. The gunman had probably left his car on the side of the road in front of the development, she realized. Lee must have seen the man running, as well, because Lee stopped trying to stay out of the line of fire and took off in pursuit. He would never catch the gunman before the man reached the main road, Kayla realized. She ran to the driver’s side and climbed in. She was pretty sure the large, blocky form belonged to Barney Trowbridge.

  She reached for the ignition and discovered Lee had the keys.

  Kayla cursed in frustration. The only way she could help was to call the police. She dug through her purse for her cell phone and stopped. She couldn’t call for help. She was no longer one of the good guys in the eyes of the police. The thought was almost as shocking as being shot at. Her heart pounded. Frustrated, scared and more than a little angry, she got out of the car. Lee was running toward her.

  “Get in! We need to catch him before he gets too far ahead of us.”

  Rather than argue, Kayla hurried around to the passenger side. Iggy was going to kill her. She hadn’t scratched the paint, but somehow, she didn’t think he’d like the bullet holes any better than scratches.

  “I’m pretty sure it was Barney,” she told Lee as he climbed inside the car, jamming the key in the ignition.

  “Yeah. I saw him.” He threw the car in gear and peeled out of the driveway. “Fortunately, he’s a lousy shot.”

  “But why is he shooting at you?”

  Lee spared her a glance. “Good question. We’ll ask him as soon as we catch him. Did you see which way he went?”

  “No.”

  She braced her hands on the dashboard at they hurtled onto Main Street, heading away from town.

  “It doesn’t make sense, Lee,” she went on, praying they wouldn’t wrap Iggy’s prize car around a tree when they came to the sharp bend where Main Street turned into Maple Ridge Road. Lee drove so fast she was sure they would overturn. But he also drove with an ease and precision that must have been part of his police training.