Justice Hunter

by Jennifer Morey

  Clearly, Rachel didn’t have the reputation or the connections to pull that off. She watched him assess her.

  “Let her go, Suarez. Stop asking questions I can’t answer. The chief called and demanded we let her and Curran go. So do it.” The man left the room.

  Detective Suarez stared at her for long seconds. “Who do you know who could call the chief and have him set you free as though no crime had ever been committed?”

  “No one,” she said.

  He continued to stare at her. Then he finally stood. “Well, you heard the man. You’re free to go.”

  Rachel stood and went to the door in a surreal fog. Once out in the hall, she walked past darkened offices on her way to the front of the station, where only two officers worked, one at the desk, surfing the internet, the other typing at his computer across the room.

  Lucas stood by the double doors, looking as fresh as though he’d just emerged from a shower.

  Backing up, he pushed a door open and beckoned her to precede him.

  Rachel walked past him, not appreciating his nonchalance. Outside, a car waited—one of Joseph’s, with dark-tinted windows and sleek, black paint.

  “How did you do it?” she asked.

  “The chief supports a charity on missing children. Kadin explained what we were doing here, and the chief asked Jared and Eldon if they really wanted to press charges. They both said no.”

  “Just like that?” She stopped at the back door of the sedan.

  Lucas faced her, putting his hand on the car behind her, his muscular arm close to her head. “I’m sure he also asked if he needed a search warrant to finish what we started.”

  “We shouldn’t have had to call him. I thought you were a hotshot detective. You could have gotten us out of there.” She couldn’t help lashing out; his nearness stimulated her in ways she didn’t welcome. The detective had made her feel the way she had so often felt after her parents died. Helpless. Worthless. Guilty. Lucas had thrust her into that situation. She believed she’d go to jail. She’d believed she’d lose everything. Even a college degree wouldn’t help her with a felony on her record.

  “Thanks for your high opinion of me, Rachel, but I wasn’t going to shoot innocent people to get us out of there. Those guards thought we were criminals. They didn’t deserve to die for that. I knew I could call Kadin.”

  “You could have taken on four guards all on your own?”

  “Yes.”

  She took in the rugged planes of his face, made sophisticated by his buzz cut and clean shave.

  “I could have gotten us out of there.”

  But at the cost of lives. Rachel had to agree his strategy had been the best, given the circumstances.

  “You could have told me you were going to call Kadin.” That would have spared her a lot of anxiety.

  “When? While the guards were telling us to put up our hands?”

  Rachel averted her eyes.

  With his free hand, Lucas touched her jawbone, gentle and warm. She looked up at him at his coaxing.

  “I asked you to trust me,” he said.

  Rachel moved her head away from his touch and turned to open the door. Lucas went around to the other side.

  “Did they take the USB device from you?” she asked after he closed his door.

  “No. Still have it.”

  Good. She’d put all her energy into that, not him as a man. Maybe she could redeem herself for staying quiet all these years. Maybe she could at last have the courage to stand up to a killer.

  The driver took them to Lucas’s house, and Rachel went with him into his office. She sat beside him on a chair she’d dragged close, and together they inspected each folder.

  Most of the contents were business related and seemingly legitimate. Some personal items came across the screen. Emails to women. Pictures, some of Jared at a party, two women on each side of him.

  “I can’t believe I was ever interested in him,” she said.

  “You didn’t know him like this,” Lucas said.

  She thought of how deftly Jared had fooled her. He’d portrayed himself as an honest, hardworking family man. Successful. Charitable. Wholesome. He didn’t have kids yet but he wanted them. He’d taken her to dinners and movies like any other normal date. He’d been a dream, until she’d been shocked into reality.

  “I tried to break into HealthFirst after I found out about Luella,” she said. He needed to hear the rest of this as much as she needed to finally say it.

  He stopped looking through files.

  “I stole someone’s badge, just like you did.” She propped her chin on her palm, elbow on the edge of the desk. “I made it to my desk but my login was already changed. I went through Jared’s desk until someone walked in and asked where Jared was. I didn’t recognize him, and he didn’t recognize me. I said he was in a meeting if he’d like to wait. The man waited and I left.

  “Jared paid me a visit after that. He behaved strangely, asking me if I’d been to his office. I said no, of course. After that I followed the case in the news and even struck up a friendship with a reporter. They never discovered anything new. A year went by, and I began to feel compelled to risk going to the police. I drove to the station and noticed a car following me. I left, and the car followed. I drove until the car turned and then I went home. A few days later I came home to a package on my doorstep. Inside was my dead cat.” She looked over from the computer screen to Lucas. “I never stopped looking over my shoulder after that. I still contemplated going to the police, looking for opportunities to slip in and tell all, but I didn’t know what would happen after I did. After I told the police what little I knew, what would they be able to do with the information? They’d have to get evidence. What if they didn’t get any? What if Jared didn’t kill Luella? What if he wasn’t the one who threatened me?”

  “I’ll say it again, Rachel. You have me, now.”

  She melted into his blue-gray eyes, letting herself enjoy the sweetness for a time before putting a clamp on it. He’d support her through this investigation, but what about after that?

  “I just wanted you to know that I did try. I tried, Lucas.”

  “I believe you.”

  “Do you?” He resented her for not going to the police no matter what.

  “You were afraid,” he said. “That I understand. But you need to stop being afraid, Rachel. You don’t have to isolate yourself or hide from the law. You’re innocent. You may not have been when you were a teenager, but you are now.”

  She suspected he left unspoken, unless you prove me wrong.

  “Do you think you’re unworthy of your friends?” he asked.

  “No.” Why did he ask?

  “You haven’t seen Nan in a long time.”

  She turned away. Okay, so she did have issues with that.

  “You don’t have to climb out of poverty to earn worthiness. Your friends are your friends no matter what. Nan would probably like to hear from you, but you’ve been in hiding.”

  “I’ve been busy.” Not hiding. There was a big difference between fighting for a future and hiding from life.

  “Busy getting a college degree you’re convinced will make you worthy.”

  “All right. A college degree will help me get a good job. That will make me a worthy contributor to society. What’s wrong with that?”

  “Nothing, except you let it consume you. Just like, I’m sure, Luella’s murder did.”

  Luella, though a complete stranger and the wife of a man she’d thought had true potential, had touched her. That Lucas brought it to light disconcerted her. Did he do it out of manipulation or sincerity? He knew her secrets now, so why manipulate? Maybe he didn’t trust her. Or...maybe he felt he could, and that had him at odds.

  “I’ve told you all I know,”
she said. “No more games, please.”

  His gaze fell to her mouth as she said the last, as though tempted to fall for those words, so easily spoken but so much more difficult to practice.

  “I’m not playing right now. I’m sharing observations.”

  That she’d secluded herself because of Jared’s fraud, out of a sense of unworthiness. Partly true.

  “I believe worthiness is earned,” she said.

  “In some cases, yes.”

  “Have I earned it with you?” That should put him on the spot.

  Just as she suspected, he turned his head.

  She had not earned her worthiness with him. Her path had woven different curves than his. He had the privilege of a loving home growing up; though scarred by the loss of his father, he still had two parents who loved him and brought him into adulthood with strength and integrity.

  At last he faced her again. “I only mean that I can see it took a lot out of you not to come forward with Jared’s fraud before now. And that you’re still plagued with guilt.”

  “I wouldn’t be human if I wasn’t.”

  “Some can easily walk away from that burden if it makes their lives easier. I don’t see that in you.”

  Did he mean that? He did. “Lucas...”

  “I wanted to be angry with you, to resent you, to blame you,” he said. “But I can’t. Because I see you now.”

  Rachel felt dangerously close to falling deeper into an intensifying eddy of desire. Did he mean that? She asked the question to herself again. Did he? She teetered on the edge of giving in to whimsy. The whimsy of being one of those women she often saw, those women who always caught her eye, the ones whose energy beamed love. Those women were loved by their men. They shopped for groceries with a slight upturn to their lips. They said hello to her with confidence and an overall joy of life. Their laughter infected others. Their hair, skin and eyes glowed with health and abundance.

  Never had Rachel felt like one of those women. But Lucas, with his piercing eyes so full of masculine strength and integrity, captured her heart in this moment.

  He leaned down, his chair creaking.

  Caught off guard, Rachel drew back a fraction. But his eyes, riveting and willing hers to stay with him, made her stop. Dominating. But in a purely sexual way.

  Did he really see her?

  Rachel had never met a more intriguing, mysterious man. His depths would take time to explore. The product of distrust? Or a man who required assurance before he gave his heart? She supposed it could be both. In a way, the two of them had key elements in common. Trust being the most significant. And loss. His loss had guided him as much as hers had guided her. Well, maybe not as much, but still a common thread.

  He leaned some more, touching her jawbone as he had before, sending shivers through her. He pressed warm, soft lips to hers. After all she’d been through, after having to remain cautious every waking moment, this sprinkle of love made her surrender to its wonder.

  She moved her mouth with the magic of his. His hand slid to the back of her head, and then he pressed her more firmly to him. Rachel wrapped her arms around his neck, the arm of her chair digging into her side. The kiss grew hotter.

  Lucas stood, hooking his arm around her waist and lifting her easily. He kicked her chair out of the way. She hooked her legs on his hips as he moved them away from the desk. Out into the hall, she kissed him back as he devoured her.

  In the living room, he stopped and withdrew. She put her feet down but reveled in the feel of his hard body against her. She could so easily strip naked and do him right now. Just forget principle and let loose her animal passion.

  But he put his hand on her face and made her focus on him.

  “I need you to help me, Rachel,” he said.

  She began to cool.

  “Trust me now,” he continued. “Do you?”

  Still hot for him but appalled by what he’d just said, Rachel gave him a shove. “Oh!” She stepped forward and slapped her hands onto his chest. “How could you?” She shoved him again.

  “What are you doing?” He grabbed her wrists as she went after him again. “What’s wrong with you?”

  “With me?” She yanked her hands free. “You did that on purpose!”

  “What?”

  “Kissed me!”

  “No.”

  “I need you to help me, Rachel,” she sneered. “Trust me now...” She scowled at him. “Really?”

  “Okay, I can see how that seems. I didn’t kiss you to get you to trust me. I never planned on kissing you. I do need you to trust me, though. Rachel.”

  Ooo...

  “Trust this.” She gave him the bird and stormed off, fully intending to leave. She’d been on her own for four years with a killer stalking her. She was pretty sure she could handle herself now. The only thing that had kept her from getting rid of Lucas before was this annoying attraction she had for him and his fit, manly body.

  Fit, manly bodies had led her to successful men who weren’t worth the time.

  Worthy. She’d put too much importance on her offering of worthiness. She wouldn’t make that mistake again. The man who made her feel worthy better be just as worthy.

  Lucas caught up to her at the door, taking her hand and pulling her to a stop. She faced him.

  “Don’t go.”

  “Why not?”

  “I wasn’t playing games. I’m sorry I kissed you. I didn’t mean to. It just...happened.”

  Maybe that was a good enough reason to leave.

  He tugged her hand. “Come on. We need to find out why Angie Johnson contacted Jared.”

  She did want to know that.

  “And then we need to talk to her. She may know something important, and like you, was afraid to come forward.”

  She pointed her finger at him. “Don’t do that.”

  “I’m not manipulating. I’m trying to solve a case.”

  Rachel pulled her hand from him. “Okay, but only because I need this as much as you do.”

  They went back to the office.

  This time Rachel sat at the keyboard, resuming the search. Lucas stood behind her, a distracting force, a sexual one. Rachel wished she could dismiss his effect on her.

  “There,” Lucas said.

  Rachel saw the file name along with him. AJ, and the date. She opened it. And together they read.

  Rachel inhaled her shock. “Jared denied her claim.”

  Angie had outpatient surgery, and the policy stated it was covered, but the letter of denial she and Lucas looked at now said otherwise.

  “It’s a fake policy,” Lucas said.

  “Why is Jared the primary contact for this?”

  “He’d want to cover his tracks. Involving others would be a risk.”

  “He involved me.”

  “Unwillingly. You may have sent notifications like this without knowledge of its legality.”

  The words on the letter blurred for Rachel as she recalled all the correspondence Jared had asked her to transmit. Trusting and eager for her good, honest new life, Rachel had done whatever he’d asked. Little had she known what trouble she’d get into.

  “Look at this.”

  Rachel focused on the screen again. It displayed what appeared to be a background report.

  “Is that me?” Seeing the date preceded her first date with Jared, she moved to lean on the desk. It was a sloppy report. Short and lots of typos, but it had all of the pertinent information. Rachel Delany: Juvenile Delinquent.

  She stepped back, slapped in the face with the extent of Jared’s betrayal. She’d been too trusting. Too naive. He had taken advantage of her past, singled her out and pursued her.

  Well, it was time to fight back. “What’s next?”

 
Lucas faced the computer again. “We find Angie Johnson. We start with her.”

  She watched him do a quick internet search. Some people let their addresses be shown in directories online. But with Angie, they didn’t need an address. One of the first things that came up on her was her obituary—right after a news story covering her murder...her unsolved murder.

  Chapter 10

  Lucas woke to bright sunlight and thick brunette hair tickling his face. Blinking his eyes clear, he grew aware of Rachel lying half on him, her thigh draped over his, her arm on his stomach and chest. Her fingers lay on bare skin above the unbuttoned neckline of his shirt. At around dawn, they’d finally moved to the couch, still talking about Jared and about Angie’s murder. He’d nearly fallen asleep sitting up. He had fallen asleep when Rachel had leaned against him and they’d reclined out of pure tiredness.

  “Rachel.” He nudged her. If she stayed there any longer, his body would react regardless of what his brain said.

  “Mmm.” She stirred, moving her hips as though aching from lying in the same position for hours on the confined space of the couch.

  He began to get hard. “Rachel. Wake up.” He nudged her again, giving her shoulder a shake.

  She lifted her head and moved sleepy eyes to him.

  “Unless you’d like to take this into the bedroom, I suggest you get up,” he said.

  That wiped the sleep out of her eyes.

  “Oh.” She pressed on his chest as she rose to her hands and knees. Straddling him to get off the couch, she went still in that position, her crotch against his.

  She tipped her head down, looking at his body to where they pressed together. When her devouring gaze moved back up to his face, her fire set him alight. He reached up and put his hands on her breasts, their shape pushing out the blue-striped blouse she wore and beckoning him. She arched into the caress and rocked back and forth on his erection.

  Lucas tore the blouse open. Buttons bounced off his chest and onto the floor. At some point in the night she’d removed her bra. Beautiful bare breasts enticed him from between the ripped material. He touched them. Rachel inhaled a passionate breath, and another when he stroked his thumbs across her nipples.