Runaway Heiress

by Jennifer Morey

  “My past has nothing to do with why I joined DAI,” Jasper said.

  “That’s debatable,” Dwight said. “You resigned from the Detroit PD. Why?”

  That sounded like a leading question Dwight already had the answer to.

  Jasper didn’t talk about why. Dwight must have read some news article covering what happened.

  “It was best for everyone involved.”

  “You shot a man while you were off duty. The details were kept real quiet, but it was your uncle. Who shoots their uncle, and why? Seems your boss liked you enough to spare your reputation.”

  “I left Detroit with my reputation intact.”

  “How is anyone supposed to know that? News said it was a family dispute. Your uncle attacked and you shot him.”

  “I just gave him a warning. I didn’t kill him.”

  “A warning for what?”

  That he wouldn’t discuss. “He didn’t press charges. My uncle realized his mistake and backed off. That’s all that matters. He came to his senses and I didn’t have to kill him.” And he would have. His uncle had known it and thankfully he’d chosen to salvage what might be left of his relationship with his favorite nephew.

  Jasper would never understand why his uncle had favored him. It could have been because he’d been the only boy in the family who’d pushed limits. Nothing scared him as a kid. Maybe that’s all it took to please his uncle. But Jasper hadn’t pleased his uncle. He’d never tried and up until he’d left Detroit, hadn’t cared. He’d never respected his uncle, first of all. He was the polar opposite from his father. Jasper’s dad had taught him how to be a real man, not one who needed money and women to feel like one. Jasper needed to impress no one. He only needed to stand up to evil in all its forms.

  “Why did you shoot him?”

  “My uncle had been drinking and lost control, just like the news said.”

  Dwight contemplated him a moment. Then he took an intimidating step forward, as though not satisfied with Jasper’s vague explanation.

  Jasper wasn’t intimidated. He’d stood up to bigger, badder men. And he would give no more information on what happened that day. Or the days leading up to that.

  “I’m only going to say this once,” Dwight said. “If you hurt Sadie—in any way—I’ll take the appropriate form of punishment into my own hands.”

  He didn’t waste his breath by saying Dwight had nothing to worry about, at least not because of what happened between him and his uncle. He couldn’t promise anything about his personal relationship with Sadie. He lived by truth—what truth he could reveal—and he wouldn’t be telling the truth if he said he was sure he’d never hurt Sadie.

  She wasn’t one to engage in a casual affair and he wouldn’t give her the impression that he’d offer anything more. But their attraction had alien power over him. He suspected she felt the same. He wouldn’t intentionally hurt her, but if neither of them could resist passion, he might...when he walked away. Because that day would come. He may not understand why he needed the excitement of the new and unknown, but he did. Living so tucked away from civilization would drive him insane.

  “It seems we both have secrets worth protecting,” Jasper said.

  “So you admit you have secrets.”

  “Not a secret, just something I’m not willing to discuss with just anyone. What about Sadie? What kind of secret are you keeping for her? What is she hiding?”

  Dwight didn’t respond, which only confirmed Jasper’s suspicions. Sadie was hiding something all right. Was she a victim or a perpetrator?

  “Maybe Sadie isn’t the one in danger of getting hurt,” Jasper said. “Maybe I should be the one taking things into his own hands.”

  Chapter 3

  The following evening, Sadie found Jasper out on the turret-top patio. He stood with the setting sun spraying color across the darkening sky and the silhouette of jagged Teton peaks succumbing to blackness. But he didn’t seem to be up here for the view. His head moved slowly, scanning the property below where lights illuminated carefully cultivated landscaping. Sadie hadn’t wanted to build her castle in the middle of trees. She wanted to be able to come out onto a patio like this and see the landscape. Her security team hadn’t complained. Like Jasper, they preferred to see the property.

  “You’re missing the sunset,” she said as she came up beside him, leaning her forearms on the rise of a stone sawtooth.

  “I’m not missing a thing.”

  She wasn’t fooled. He hadn’t come up here for leisure. He may have seen the setting sun but he hadn’t seen it. “Do you ever savor the moment? Take in a sunset—and I mean really take it in? Smell the grass and flowers? Or is it all rifle scopes and gunpowder for you?”

  “You do have a way with words, Sadie Moreno. Are you a secretly aspiring to be a writer?”

  He liked how he joined in on the teasing. “No, but I do have an artistic streak in me. Must have gotten that from my mother.”

  “She was creative?”

  “She painted. I saw her paintings from when she was a girl. She was pretty good.” Clasping her hands over the stone wall, getting the feeling he’d asked to probe rather than out of genuine curiosity. He’d asked as though her mother was still alive and she’d already told him she died after she was born. She looked out toward the horizon. She’d steer clear of any more talk of her mom.

  “What kind of creative streak did you get from her?” Jasper asked.

  “Interior decorating.” She looked over the stone wall toward what she could see of the lower levels of the house. “Maybe even exterior. I had a lot of input into the design of this house.”

  “It’s a nice house.” She caught him regard her warmly for a few second before he said, “I savor more than the sight through a scope or the smell of gunpowder. But thanks for that visual.”

  She turned to lean her back against the stone wall, elbows on the top sawtooth, taking in his wide shoulders. “What things do you savor, then?”

  He looked down at her mouth and then lower. Then his eyes lifted and she felt the burn of the man inside. He didn’t have to say the first thing that came to his mind.

  Women. And he could savor her.

  Sadie straightened and once again faced the view. Time to change the subject...real quick. “So...what made you bury yourself in work?”

  She saw a subtle flash of unguarded surprise. She bet people rarely surprised him.

  “Why do you think I do?” he asked.

  She shrugged. Where had she gotten the idea he buried himself? “Just something about you. And the things you said. Meeting your match with Dark Alley Investigations. That must keep you busy.”

  “It does, but why does there have to be a reason to love what I do?”

  “Do you love it?” All the death and sadness? Of course, that wouldn’t be the part he loved. He loved being a hero. The good guy.

  He took some time to mull over his response. She could see the calculation in his deliciously blue eyes.

  “It satisfies my craving for excitement.”

  His gently mocking tone reminded her of when she’d asked if women gave up trying to keep him excited. She put her attention on the setting sun, the sky deeper tones of red and orange, lighting streaks of cirrus clouds.

  “I shouldn’t have said that. I said I was sorry and I meant it.”

  “Don’t be. The truth is never something you should be sorry for.”

  Amazement brought her gaze back to him, the low light shadowing the Nordic planes of his face. She wasn’t sure if she’d call him humble, noble or chauvinistic. “You need women to excite you?”

  He grinned. “What man doesn’t?”

  While he definitely charmed, she remained serious. He must have thought on this awhile after they last talked. Maybe he hadn’t thoug
ht of himself that way before. Had he known what made him that way? Certain men avoid long-lasting relationships, but only as they matured. Some required more time than others, and maybe some men never graduated to the family level. Was Jasper that kind of man? He might only be about striving in his professional life.

  Still, mysterious attraction, whether welcome or not, compelled her to be sure. “Is it really the excitement that keeps you from settling down? Or did a woman break your heart?”

  His flirty grin wiped flat. The spark left his eyes and he turned to the darkening view. Perimeter lights began to dominate now.

  “Don’t want to get hurt again, huh?” She joined him in watching the last of the sun’s rays give the show over to the stars. “Me neither.”

  When he didn’t respond, she found she couldn’t let go. “She must have been some lady.”

  Slowly he turned his head. The profound emotion struck her and penetrated deep. She felt it. Without even speaking he told her how much the woman had meant to him.

  “I’m sorry,” she apologized again, facing the grounds, the horizon a dark blue with the rugged black outline of the mountains.

  “She was very special.”

  Startled that he’d responded, Sadie’s curiosity only intensified. She didn’t interrupt him, only let him take his time.

  “Kind. Never jealous. She believed in herself, and that made her more than physically beautiful to me.”

  Sadie pictured the confident woman he described and felt the bond he had with her. Although he didn’t say much, what he had said revealed the depth of his regard for the woman. How many men could say that about their women? Her father certainly had never spoken that way about her mother. Had Jasper had true love with his woman? It seemed that way.

  “What happened?”

  The warmth of memory faded as the end of something he’d considered good, if not life-lasting, came to an end. “The usual.”

  Someone’s heart gets broken.

  “Could she not handle your profession? The hours you work?”

  “She could have handled it.” Jasper offered no more. She’d already asked what happened between them and he clearly didn’t want to say. The usual. But she had been strong and he’d admired her no small amount. Yes, she must have been quite a woman to capture this fascinating man’s heart.

  Sadie didn’t welcome the flowering spark of envy. She rarely felt this way. When she was under her father’s reign, she’d been too busy feeling sorry for all of his subjects. And afterward, too busy crusading for the homeless. No man had threatened her femininity that way, whether intentionally or not. In this case, Jasper hadn’t intended to make her feel like that. She’d done that all on her own, and by no conscious will of her own. What an odd sensation.

  She stood with him under the stars, seeing one of her security guards making his patrol on the inside of the fence, disappearing into some trees. It provided an adequate distraction.

  “What about you?” Jasper broke the silence. “Has a man ever broken your heart?”

  Broken her heart? Had she ever really loved anyone? “No one’s ever broken my heart but I’ve been betrayed.”

  “An ex-husband?”

  “Fiancé. He was an impulsive decision. We met and moved in with each other within six months.”

  “How long ago was that?”

  “Five years. I had a really nice townhouse I left to be with him.” She sighed. “You don’t get to know anyone until you live with them, right?”

  “My experience was different than that.”

  Meaning he’d known his woman well. “Then you were married?”

  “No.”

  He’d had a lengthy relationship with the woman and something had split them up before marriage had a chance. Had the woman not felt the same as him?

  “Did you meet yours in San Francisco?” Jasper asked.

  Yours. Sadie would not think of her ex-fiancé in such kind light. He’d treated her like a piece of property. If anything, she’d been his whether she liked it or not. With her mind on that, she didn’t have to sweat too much when she said, “Yes.”

  “What made you move somewhere so remote?”

  She shouldn’t have opened the conversation to this. “I’ve always loved the mountains.” A partial truth.

  “But you belong to social clubs and drive a flashy car.”

  Hearing his skepticism in the well-planted question—ever the detective—Sadie tried to counter. “You think it’s odd I like mountains? Can’t I be social and live reclusively? I happen to enjoy my alone time as much as I do my friends. The car is an investment and I don’t drive it very much.”

  “San Francisco fits a social, material-loving kind of woman more than all this does.” His eyes went from her face down over her front and back up. “Flannel doesn’t really match your tastes.”

  “You know my tastes?” Now he was being cocky.

  He grinned and didn’t answer.

  Playfully cocky? She resisted how the discovery appealed to her baser instincts.

  He’d interpreted her tastes with little or no provided information. The Ferrari gave her away. Maybe she should park it in the garage and start driving the Jeep instead.

  “I do love San Francisco.” She didn’t have to hide the truth in that statement.

  “What did your ex-fiancé do?” he asked, more digging.

  He asked as a detective rather than an interested suitor. She had a quiet debate with herself over whether to answer. She toyed with the temptation her infatuation presented. But temptation might prevent her from making smart choices.

  “He manufactured parts for spacecraft.” At least that wasn’t a lie. Talking about Darien depressed her. Mostly because she felt so stupid and insignificant for being so easily duped. A girl was supposed to feel important with her man. Special. Like Jasper’s lady must have felt.

  “How did you meet?”

  “He tripped me as I came out of a restaurant.” She’d scraped her palm on the concrete and he’d retrieved an alcohol wipe and bandage from inside the store. “He didn’t catch me like I starred in my very own fairy tale, either. I should have seen that as divine intervention, a sign to stay away from him.”

  “How did he betray you?”

  He sure was quick with his questions, like he had them all planned ahead of time and had only to wait for her next answer.

  She decided to echo his words. “The usual.”

  Feeling him linger on her profile, she sensed he hadn’t missed her response and maybe suspected her betrayal may not have been all that usual. Maybe his broken heart hadn’t, either.

  The faint sound of breaking glass from a distance preceded Sadie’s notice that one of the perimeter lights went out.

  “What was that?”

  “Someone shot out the light.” As Jasper started to turn, the next light went dark along with more shattering glass.

  Taking Sadie’s hand, he rushed with her back into the house, where they ran into one of the security guards.

  “Take her to her room!” Jasper said.

  “Roger.” The man took Sadie’s other hand and Jasper let her go, seeing her look back at him as though she considered going with him. He was glad when she faced the other way and went with the guard. He’d fight to keep the attackers from getting into the house.

  * * *

  Jasper ran to the gatehouse where he’d seen an equipment room. On his way, he spotted Dwight running from another direction, intersecting his path and running beside him.

  “You heard it, too?” Dwight asked.

  “Saw it. Sadie and I were up on the turret patio.” They reached the gatehouse, where the guard inside was on the radio talking to the guards in the mechanical room where all the surveillance cameras fed into.

 
“Dwight’s here now.” He dropped the radio and saw Jasper and Dwight enter and go into the equipment room.

  Dwight tossed Jasper a body armor vest.

  “Mechanical counted at least five on the video,” the gatehouse guard said. “The silent alarm tripped with the first shot at the perimeter light.”

  Five? Jasper ignored what that implied and secured his vest. “Who’s inside?” He’d left Sadie locked in her room.

  “Jacobs and McKenzie.” Dwight finished securing his vest. “They’re with Sadie now. Two more are in the mechanical room.”

  “Where did they last see the intruders before they took out the cameras?” Jasper asked the gatehouse guard.

  “Shooting out the northwest corner light. All the lights are out on the northwest side.”

  “They’ll go after the cameras next.” Jasper handed Dwight a radio and connected his before going to the gun rack. “They’re going to try to get inside.”

  Two other guards joined them. Jasper put on a helmet and Dwight handed him a night vision device. He strapped that to his head.

  After checking his automatic rifle and pistols already in his waist and thigh harnesses, Jasper went to the video monitors and searched with the gatehouse guard for movement outside the gate. There was none.

  “Have they breeched the wall?” Jasper asked.

  “Mechanical said no, not yet. But they disabled the sensors so we won’t know where they’ll try.”

  From his surveillance on the turret patio, the trees would hide them from sight, so they’d likely make the attempt somewhere along the fence in that location. He pointed to a section of fence where the trees were the thickest. “They’ll try right there.”

  “How do you know?” Dwight asked.

  “It’s what I would do.” He turned to Dwight and the other two guards. “You two go around the northwest side. Dwight, you come with me.”

  Dwight turned to the gatehouse guard. “Stay here and wait for police. You’re the gate defense until then.”