Zach spoke to the back of her head; at some point Karen nudged him and directed his attention across the room.
Judy glanced back at her brother for less than a second and then moved across the crowded room to him.
If being married meant owning this feeling his entire life, he was in. All-in. This he could get used to.
“Feel better?” Judy asked when she walked to his side.
He laughed. “Prison showers . . .”
She cocked her head. “You didn’t drop the soap, did you?”
Laughter exploded from his lips, catching the attention of everyone around them. “I thought you were from a small town. What do you know about prison soap dropping?”
“Hey! I watch TV.”
He pulled her close, dropped his lips to hers as if he had the right.
When the kiss went for longer than socially necessary, Meg shoved in. “Save it for later, kids. You have company.”
Rick growled.
Judy broke their kiss and slid her arm around his waist.
Neil placed a beer in his hand and someone handed him a plate of food and drew him away from Judy’s side.
“So why are we having a party?” he asked Blake and Neil, who sat with him on the living room sofa.
“According to my wife,” Blake started, “appearances are important and letting the media know we expected you to get out of jail today by hosting a party is the perfect distraction.”
Rick’s head spun. “Parties for distraction?”
“It won’t take long for the media to find out that you married while in jail. If it appears that you married only to get out of jail, there’s no telling what can happen.”
Rick shook his head. “It doesn’t matter what anyone thinks. Judy and I married and public opinion doesn’t hold court.”
Blake waved his drink in Rick’s direction. “Except if the media and public deem you innocent, it will be much harder for a trial of your peers to ever convict you. Therefore, a seemingly happy celebration between you and your new bride will go over well with the adoring viewers of the evening news and magazines. It’s brilliant, really.”
Rick had known Blake for a couple of years and seldom heard the British accent from his lips . . . tonight he did.
“The only way to really clear my name is to find the guy who attacked Judy.” Rick looked at Neil. “Are we any closer to finding him?”
His friend shook his head. “I called Dean earlier.” Dean was a friend in the police department. “All eyes were directed at Judy. If you were with her those eyes were on you as well.”
“If Raskin and Perozo think I’m the bad guy, why wouldn’t they have been watching me? How is it they didn’t know I wasn’t near the woman in the second attack?”
“Eliza,” Blake answered.
“Excuse me?” Rick had met Eliza and Carter, the first lady and governor of the state of California, on many occasions, but their names weren’t ones he expected to hear in this conversation.
“Eliza asked that if extra eyes were following this case, they be on Judy. She has a huge soft spot for the victims. Feels the attention needs to be on people like Judy and not on not yet convicted felons.”
Neil picked up where Blake let off in the explanation. “The police department hardly has the funds to keep detectives on cases . . . making sure any extra help watched Judy and not you was an easy request.”
“Easy for the governor’s wife to request,” Rick said.
“Only now we need to follow your path on the day the woman was murdered.”
All this play-by-play of his life was a huge pain in the ass. “I grabbed a cup of coffee from the café outside Judy’s office and left. I went home and caught up on some sleep.”
Neil nudged his knee. “You don’t have to tell us. We know you didn’t have anything to do with the woman’s murder.”
Rick leaned back and closed his eyes. “Clearing my name . . . proving I’m innocent . . . When did this become my daily life?”
Blake glanced behind Rick, letting him know someone was standing there.
He tilted his head back. Judy’s smile wasn’t as big as it had been and Rick knew instantly that she heard him and took his complaint personally. “Hey.”
She handed him the beer she’d obviously brought over for him and attempted a grin. “Thought you might like another one.” He took it, but she didn’t meet his eyes before turning and walking away.
“Excuse me,” he told the guys.
Rick set the beer on the coffee table and moved to catch up with Judy as she headed out the back door.
She was several yards from the house before he caught up to her. “Hey, hold up.”
She kept walking, an audible sniffle proved she was upset.
Stepping in front of her, he cut her off. “Judy,” he said softly.
There were tears on her cheeks, each one a knife to his chest. “I’m sorry. I’m sorry this is happening to you.”
“Hey! Don’t.” With one finger, he lifted her chin to bring her eyes to his. “This isn’t your fault.”
“You just spent three nights in jail because of me.”
Rick shook his head but before he could say anything, she kept going.
“You get out of jail by getting married and you still have to prove you’re innocent.” She pulled her chin away from his hand and swiped a finger under her right eye, then her left.
He placed both hands on her arms before running them down to clasp her hands. “I spent three nights in jail because the police are blind to how much I care about you. Getting married to get out so I can be here . . . right here beside you, was brilliant.” He squeezed her hands and bent his knees to meet her eyes. When he finally captured them, he slowly smiled, desperately trying to coax a grin from her. “I’m frustrated . . . but not with you. You’re the only bright light in my day.”
She blinked and shook her head.
“C’mere,” he said as he pulled her to a two-person swing that sat on the edge of the yard. Holding one of her hands, he gave the swing a little push. “Remember when we met?”
She didn’t say anything, just gave a half smile.
“I remember that day like it was yesterday. You tried so hard to hide the spark you obviously felt. You were so damn cute I couldn’t get enough.”
Her smile was a little more genuine now and he kept going. “When I came back to LA, Karen told me you went to college in Idaho.”
“Why did she do that?”
“I don’t know . . . a practical joke? You’ll have to ask her sometime. Anyway, I had planned a trip to Idaho, thought maybe we could accidentally meet up. When I mentioned to Michael that I’d be in your neck of the woods, he corrected me. I scrambled and spied and found your address in Washington.”
Her tears had dried up and she seemed genuinely intrigued.
“How come you didn’t call?”
“I don’t really know. I guess I knew you wanted to finish school and a distraction might actually work against me. When Michael told me you were applying for internships here, I just waited. Then I saw you hustling pool and that spark was just as strong as the first day.”
“I don’t hustle pool,” she denied with a grin.
He released her hand only to put his arm over her shoulders and pull her closer.
“The denomination of the money earned doesn’t define a hustle . . . knowing you can kick someone’s ass in the game and betting makes it a hustle.”
He sighed and when Judy’s head hit his shoulder, he felt himself starting to relax. “Wanting to date me, hook up, isn’t the same as going to jail and getting married for me.”
He kissed the top of her head. “We definitely get a nomination for craziest dating dance ever . . . but in light of everything that’s happened I wouldn’t change it. So if I’m frustrated, or you’re frustrated, we need to talk about it and not assume we’re upset with each other. With the serious nature of everything going on, we need to be open and honest. Agreed?”
<
br /> “Agreed.”
This was good.
“Right now I’m really frustrated,” he told her.
“Oh?”
“Yeah . . . we have a house full of people celebrating us and all I really want to do is unwrap that red dress and see the color of your panties.”
Chapter Twenty-Two
Everyone had left and Meg disappeared into her room. Judy kicked off her shoes and wiggled out of her pantyhose, but left the dress on while Rick locked up the house. They’d come to an understanding in the garden. She was going to do her best to not blame herself for the craziness of their lives, and they were both going to keep their conversations open and honest.
When Rick didn’t follow quickly behind her, she sat up on the bed and grabbed her tablet.
The game she’d played obsessively hadn’t called out to her in weeks. She saw the icon and clicked into the game. Sure enough, there were many chat messages, all asking where she’d been. A few closer players, people she’d talked to off the game, asked her to send a private chat. All that could wait. She went through the routine of collecting money from her virtual buildings and restoring those that had been bombed by others. It was silly and mindless . . . and it felt strangely comforting to have a desire to pick it up.
Rick stepped into the room while she was vaulting the money she’d collected. While the dial spun, she glanced up and noticed him smiling at her.
“You’re beautiful,” he told her as he slid next to her on the big bed and looked at the game in her hand. “War games?”
She closed the tablet and tossed it aside. “Stupid, I know.”
Yet he was grinning even bigger, his hand found her knee and started a slow ascent up her thigh.
She was pretty sure she purred.
“I think it’s cute,” he told her, his lips going straight for the V of her dress. Judy closed her eyes and slid lower in the bed.
“Cute? I’m a three-star general on that game. I kick serious ass . . .”
Rick’s fingers were dancing up her thigh, sending shockwaves up her body. She arched into him.
“Tough as nails on the Internet, soft and supple in real life.” He pushed the edge of her dress aside and exposed her breast.
His tongue ran over the tip, bringing it to attention and making her moan. She was warm, everywhere, instantly.
Rick started to move to the other side and paused . . . the hand on her thigh tightened.
When he didn’t move, she opened her eyes to see him staring at the tablet.
“Don’t stop now,” she said, teasing.
He went from touching her, tasting her, to staring without an ounce of humor in his face. “Do you talk to people on that game?”
“What?” Her head wasn’t following his thoughts.
He pulled away, his hands left her and reached for her tablet. “This. Do you talk to people on the game?”
“Yeah.” She sat up, readjusted her dress so she wasn’t hanging out of it. “We have chat rooms set up for wars . . . allies for battles. Enemies to conquer. All in fun.”
He opened the device and glanced at the screen, which opened to the game since she hadn’t shut it down before closing it. “Is it all in fun?”
“For me. Once in a while there will be a die-hard gamer that thinks everyone should dedicate their life to this . . . spend money to win wars. We weed those players out of our team once they start pitching a fit.”
Rick’s green eyes found hers and didn’t let go.
Chills, and not the kind she wanted while in bed with Rick, made her shiver.
You’re not so tough now, are you?
You’re not much of a fighter, are you?
“Oh, God. You don’t think . . .”
“Do you use your real name?”
“No . . . but . . .” But she knew many of the real names of those on her team. They’d been playing for over a year. She hadn’t worked terribly hard to keep her name out of the game.
Rick tilted his head. “It’s a lead, Judy. Our only one.”
Without Rick’s help, she changed into a pair of cotton pajama bottoms and a T-shirt and met him back in the kitchen, where he’d set up the tablet and her laptop. She freely admitted that her knees knocked a little as she made her way to Rick’s side.
“What are we looking for?” she asked as she sat beside him.
“A link. A direct path to you from this game.” He pushed her laptop over to her. “Log in to your Facebook account, Twitter . . . whatever you use.”
She brought up the Internet while Rick brought a cup of coffee for her from the kitchen.
“Hey.” Meg had on a long pink robe, her bare toes sticking out from under it. “I thought you’d be . . . well, I didn’t think you’d be in here. What’s going on?”
Judy exchanged glances with Rick.
“Rick thinks that maybe someone from the game I play online might be behind the attack.”
“The war game?”
Judy nodded.
“It’s a game.” Meg’s confusion was written in her eyes.
“A game where the top players spend serious cash to be in the top slots and get pissed if their team doesn’t play with the same intensity.” The more Judy considered the possibility that Rick was right, the worse she felt.
“But it’s a game.”
“I know, Meg. I feel the same way.”
“It’s also a sick world out there,” Rick added.
Meg tucked into a chair. “I’ve heard of pedophiles using online games to find victims, but adults falling into the same trap?”
“Internet crime against adults isn’t limited to monetary extortion.” Rick pushed close to Judy and leaned over the tablet. “OK. Tell me how this game works.”
While Judy explained the details of the game, Meg brought out her computer and looked up information about the game, the complaints, and the chat rooms.
The game wasn’t complicated, and since there wasn’t an active war going on there weren’t a lot of people online chatting. Judy explained the chats and the way to have private chats. “There are very few women playing, so those of us who do have hooked up elsewhere.”
“Where?”
Judy showed him her Facebook account and pointed out two women who knew her real persona. “My privacy settings are such that you have to be a friend to see all this.”
There were pictures of her friends at college, a shot of her with Meg and Mike at graduation.
Rick started writing down names of her Facebook friends and a list of all those on her team in the game. “This is going to take some time.” He looked over at the sofa and they both noticed that Meg had fallen asleep with her laptop on her knees.
“She’s been a real trooper. The night you went to jail, we were up until after two, fact-checking marriage and testimony laws. Sometimes it doesn’t feel like we’ve left school.”
“You should go ahead and go to bed.” He patted her hand.
She patted his back. “I don’t think so, babe. I’ve been in a cold bed for three nights, and when I finally crash, you’re going to be in there with me.”
Judy woke Meg long enough to motivate her to bed and took her friend’s place on the couch. She went through old messages on Facebook, searching for anything sketchy. She and Rick worked in a rhythm, she’d say a name, and he’d write it down or cross-reference it as a fellow student, a friend from Utah, or a friend of a friend or virtual stranger. Rick grew quiet while he was following people from her list around the Internet. Not sure what else to look for, she clicked into the topography of the Santa Barbara project until her eyelids gave up the fight and she fell asleep.
Rick took another look at the names of the women from Judy’s game, his mind working backward. There were four of them, two were middle-aged housewives and the other two were both college students. Because he was on Judy’s computer and acting as her, he was able to access everything on these ladies’ accounts. Both girls had picked a picture off Judy’s page of Judy and Mi
chael. Rick was sure the draw wasn’t Judy, but her famous brother these girls were all over. There were comments galore with plenty of likes from numerous friends. He started writing down names, clicking over to pages to see if any of them were unsecure. He was surprised at how many people put absolutely every piece of information about their lives on their pages. Phone numbers, addresses, where they partied every Friday night, who they had sex with and the when and where of it.
It boggled his mind.
Judy’s page was conservative by nature. There was very little information about her day-to-day life with the exception of where she went to school and what she was studying. She hadn’t even updated where she lived from Seattle to LA. Probably an oversight since she had posted a couple of pictures of the paparazzi pointing their cameras at her. There was something here . . . he felt it.
His eyes were crossing and he looked up to find Judy sound asleep. Her soft pink lips were parted slightly with the steady rise and fall of her chest.
What a resilient woman she turned out to be. His memory flashed to her beaten face from the ER and he flinched. He would find the man who touched her, and then the police would have cause to arrest him.
He powered down the computer and removed the tablet from Judy’s lap. She twisted into a ball and rolled on her side. Instead of waking her, he scooped his hands under her and picked her up.
“Time for bed?” she mumbled as she snuggled closer.
“Shh.”
She said something he didn’t quite understand and he carried her to bed.
It took some time for his head to turn off. He lay there with Judy curled up beside him and simply cherished holding her.
When he’d returned to the States with Neil and what remained of their team, Rick wasn’t sure he’d ever sleep an entire night through again. He learned quickly that he managed much better with a woman in his bed, but he still didn’t turn off completely. Until Judy. Even thinking about her in the past year helped his brain find some form of hibernation at night. Now, as his eyes were drifting closed and the fresh scent of spring curled even closer, he realized what made Judy stand out from all the rest.
Taken by Tuesday (Weekday Brides Series) Page 20