Claire folded her arms and leaned against Ivory’s desk. “She might have had a midwife, but something tells me that didn’t happen either, so we’re working blind here.”
Ivory pulled out her appointment book and scanned her list of contacts for the city. “I could talk to Nathan. Find out if he can do anything,” she said.
Claire furrowed her brow. “Are you sure you want to do that? How long has it been since you saw Nathan last?”
Ivory fiddled with her book, then closed it. “It’s been a while. At least a year,” Ivory said. In fact, it had been a year. The last time she saw Nathan had been at the Governor’s Ball. He’d been with his girlfriend, Emma, and Ivory left early, unable to see the two of them together.
“You don’t have to talk to Nathan,” Claire said.
Ashley deserved everything Ivory could do for her. “Yes, I do.”
Chapter Four
“Chief of Police Nathan Jordan, please.”
Ivory took a seat in the waiting room after the secretary motioned for her to sit down. City Hall bustled with people, the old building with its Gregorian walls and tiled floor housed some of the city’s most powerful people. The waiting room consisted of a vending machine, several vinyl chairs, and even a water cooler.
“Ivory?”
When she heard Nathan calling her name, she felt the crack in her heart open a little and bleed. She pushed back the sensations, taking a fortifying breath. She turned to face him. Nathan. The love of her life. The man who had broken her heart into pieces with his love.
He hadn’t changed one bit. His dark blue eyes still held a hint of mystery, his black hair a little longer than the last time she’d seen him. His tan had faded a bit, but the slate gray suit he wore showcased his long legs. “Hello, Nathan.”
“It’s good to see you.”
His deep voice resonated inside her mind, pulled memories out of the locked box there of whispered words of love, long nights spent in each other’s arms. Moonlit dances and heated kisses. She swayed a little. “It’s good to see you, too.”
They stared at each other for a moment, all that was there passing between them, memories flitting across his eyes. Ivory sucked in a breath through her teeth at the remembered passion, and the loss. He stepped toward her, his six foot height making her look up.
“Can I help you with something?”
Ivory noticed new wrinkles at his eyes, some laugh lines around his mouth. He was happy, obviously. Interwoven in his black locks were a few strands of gray dotting his temples. His square jaw was clean shaven. Ivory itched to reach up and feel the smooth skin beneath her hand.
“I’ve got a case I’m working on. It’s a bit troublesome,” she said, proud her voice did not waver.
His lips flattened, and when he took her arm, a familiar sense of loss rocketed through her. She inhaled his earthy scent. She knew the way to his office well. The former chief of police had been very helpful with Claire’s workload when Ivory had been an intern two years before. She often spent time with Claire at City Hall studying her boss’s work ethic and learning from her.
When they reached the midsized room on the second floor, Nathan closed the door behind her. Ivory felt a wave of dizziness overcome her. She sat down on one of the visitor’s chairs before her knees gave out. Nathan didn’t bother to sit down behind his desk but leaned against the mahogany piece, right in front of her. She wondered if she looked as pale as she felt.
“Tell me about the case.”
Ivory cleared her rapidly closing throat and looked around the office for something to focus on besides the man in front of her. She settled on his prized possession, a football signed by Tom Brady of the New England Patriots. The signature had faded a bit, but the football still remained in good condition.
“Her name is Ashley, she’s six months old. Mother died, and no father to speak of. I’ve got a half brother, but Mr. Morgan is reluctant to accept the child.”
Nathan fished around on his desk for a pad and pencil. She glanced up at him, the fringe of his eyelashes beautiful, long, and thick. “Does she have a last name?” he asked.
Ivory settled back in her seat and crossed her thighs. “She didn’t even have a first name until Jenny named her.”
Nathan smiled. “How is Jenny?”
Ivory glanced up at her ex-fiancé. “Fine. Still working harder than ever.”
“Two peas in a pod, you two.” Nathan frowned a bit, something lingering in his eyes akin to wistfulness. “What else do you know about Ashley?”
“Nothing. That’s the problem. No birth certificate. Mother didn’t work in the conventional sense,” Ivory said. A lot of girls turned to prostitution when dough ran out. “And Jax Morgan is no help. He didn’t even know his half sister.”
“Wait,” Nathan said, “Jax is the half brother?”
Ivory’s heart stopped. “You know him?”
“Sure. We went to high school together. Played football, too,” he said. “He’s coming in, actually. Should be here any minute now.”
Dots swam in front of Ivory’s eyes, and a buzzing sound filled her ears. “Of course you know Jax. You know everyone.”
Her stomach somersaulted when a brief knock on the door sounded. She felt like she would throw up in Nathan’s trash can any second now.
“That’s probably him, in fact.”
Nathan opened the door to his office, and Ivory’s world washed white. Jax stood there, a large cup of coffee from Starbucks in his hand. His green eyes settled on her, and Ivory’s face burned. His eyes flicked back and forth between Nathan and Ivory. She wanted to die in that moment, and if she didn’t, the humiliation would at least render her comatose.
“Hey, Jax, we were just talking about you, buddy.” Nathan gathered Jax into a brotherly hug.
Ivory’s world was growing smaller and smaller by the second. With the two men who’d turned her world upside down standing side by side, crippling the space in the small area, she felt like the rabbit who had wondered into the wrong foxhole.
“I bet you were,” Jax rasped in his baritone voice.
Ivory couldn’t look at either man. She pressed a palm to her heated cheek and took a deep breath that felt coated with bile. Nathan sat behind his desk then, and Jax took the seat next to her, his overly long legs causing her knees to bump with his. Each time she felt the impact, a wave of electricity sizzled between them. The memory of him moving over her flashed hot through her head, making her breasts grow heavy.
Nathan studied them both. “I take it you two have met already.”
“Yes,” Jax stated.
“We met yesterday.” Ivory couldn’t believe how hollow her voice sounded. Where she avoided looking directly at Nathan before, now he had became her anchor in the swirling emotions that filled her. Nathan, rock solid.
Ivory chanced a look at Jax, but he kept his gaze focused on Nathan as well. She shifted in her seat and tried to keep her knees safe from the assault of his larger body.
“I came to see you, Nate, because I wanted to know if there is anything you could find out about my sister,” Jax said.
“And I the same,” Ivory agreed.
Nathan, assessing her with his blue eyes, sat back in his chair. “I’ll find out as much as I can,” he said. “But I can’t promise anything.”
Ivory nodded, gathered her purse, and stood to go. She made it to the door when Nathan stopped her. He opened it for her, his larger body pushing her out the door. When he looked down at her, his blue eyes blazed. “How did you really meet Jax?”
Ivory stepped back, the vehemence in her ex-fiancé’s voice staggering. “I told you, Ashley is his niece. He’s the only living relative.”
“I get the feeling you two are more acquainted than either of you is letting on.”
Her sharp breath echoed off the empty hallway, the acoustics great for amplifying her shock. “What do you care? You dumped me. Remember? For Emma.”
“Emma and I broke up six months ago.”<
br />
Tears gathered in the corners of her eyes. “I have to go. I’ve got work to do.”
She ran away before Nathan could say anything else, her heart shredding with each step she took. Outside, she sucked in a lung full of freezing air, then let it out on a burst, the moisture cloud misting in front of her. I need to swear off men altogether, she told herself. They were nothing but complications, and in her line of work, personal lives often got waylaid by the job anyhow. Her night out with Jenny would do her good. She planned on getting shit-faced drunk and forgetting how Jax made her body scream with release and how Nathan pummeled her heart every time he reminded her of his betrayal.
* * * *
Jax waited in Nathan’s office, the words outside between Nathan and Ivory echoing in his head. Obviously they’d been involved at some point, and Nathan didn’t like the fact Ivory could be interested in him.
Shit. Women were trouble.
He watched out the window as Ivory made a mad dash, her lithe little body bolting for her car parked across the street. She glanced up, as if she sensed him watching her, and for a second, she stared at him watching her. She ducked inside her Jeep and pulled away from the curb with a screech of tires.
Nathan slammed back into his office. Jax didn’t even turn around.
“You fucked her, didn’t you?”
Jax slowly faced Nathan, the other man’s blue eyes raging hellfire and brimstone at him. Nathan unbuttoned his suit jacket and tossed it over the back of his chair. Jax shrugged. He didn’t have to apologize for his actions . . . or hers.
“My sister, Nathan. I came to talk about my sister.”
The chief of police wasn’t so keen to let the subject of Ivory drop. “I was in love with her, you know.”
“Sounds to me like you still are.”
Nathan snorted. “I care about her, all right? Ivory isn’t the type of woman you can just hit and run, Jax.”
Didn’t he know it. “She’s a grown woman. She knows the score.”
“Stay away from her.”
Jax shrugged. “I won’t stop her if she comes back for more, Nate. Now, about my sister.”
Nathan tossed a pencil across the room, aiming it at the filing cabinet a few feet from Jax. Jax didn’t flinch, only stared at the other man. He understood. Ivory was a hell of a woman, and he couldn’t refute his interest in her. Nathan would just have to deal with it.
“I’ll find out what I can, but I’m sure you’ve already got Mickey digging around in Boston’s underbelly. He’ll be more help than me.”
Jax pulled out his keys. “Mickey is looking for some answers, but I came to you because I’m on a time limit. I’ve got to go back to the job the first of November.”
“I’ll see what I can find out, and do yourself a favor, leave Ivory the hell alone.”
Jax moved to the door, his hand on the knob. He looked back at his high school friend and teammate. “I don’t intend to hurt her, Nate.”
“You never intend to hurt anyone, Jax, but you always do.”
With those parting words hanging in the air, Jax left City Hall. Sure, he always hurt someone. Good old Jax, good for nothing, lowdown and dirty soldier, whose only skill was taking lives. Nathan was right. There was no good in him. Not anymore.
He swung by the grocery store, stopped at his favorite seafood restaurant to grab lunch, and then headed back home. He unloaded the food, filling his fridge with steak, ham and fish. He pulled out his take-out menus, tacked them to the cork board next to his kitchen sink. He went up to the bedroom, his sheets still messed from that morning. He laid down, the scent of Ivory filling his nose. Nathan had been right. Ivory Black’s soft heart would never hold up under his soldier code of ethics.
What the hell did he care? He was leaving as soon as he found a home for Ashley. Ivory Black would be just another face in the layers of one-night stands he’d had over the years. She wouldn’t register a blip on the radar, but he knew that was a load of crap. Something stood out about the woman. Something different. She didn’t put up with his bullshit, for one. The way she’d handled him afterward that morning, the way she put him in his place, made his cock tighten with need. A good challenge. The perfect dance partner countering his steps, his moves. She retaliated, and Jax enjoyed a good game of hide-and-seek.
* * * *
Ivory followed Jenny through the crowded, exclusive Rayon Underground night club. The hot spot hosted some of the most famous names in the music world, as well as a diverse clientele. Jenny’s uncle worked as a bouncer and got the girls in on occasion.
With Ivory’s day, her run-in with Jax at Nathan’s office and the morning, she needed to get out, dance, and in general let loose. She wore her favorite little black dress, the short hem flirting with her bottom. Jenny dressed similarly with a red number and thigh-high boots. Hey, who said social workers had to be prim and proper all the time?
She settled herself at the bar, the strobe lights flashing dramatically all around her. Lasers filtered through the white flashes, a fog machine creating the low lying smoke that ate up the ground. She ordered herself a double shot of tequila, gulped it back, and winced as the tart liquid rolled down her throat and coated her empty stomach in a delicious burn.
“So, want to tell me why you’re taking a double shot?” Jenny shouted over the reverberating soul music pouring through the various speakers embedded in the black leather walls of the place.
Ivory ordered another drink. Jenny led her to one of the low slung couches and tables draped in red satin pillows and black velour. Candles flickered and danced with the movement, the atmosphere smoky. Ivory dared not inhale too hard due to the fog, and the synthetic smell it created.
“Men,” she shouted back.
Jenny nodded, her foot dancing in tune with the music. “Isn’t it always men?”
They toasted, downed the second shot of tequila, and chased it with a diet soda. She pulled on the short skirt of her dress, and waited for the alcohol to loosen her tensed muscles. She tucked the change from her drinks into her push-up bra, then fanned herself with her hand. The humid air caused sweat to bead on her upper lip. Even in the sitting area, several patrons danced erotically to the sultry beats. Jenny’s foot still tapped, and she knew her dancing-fool friend would dominate the dance floor once they got out there. Jenny took dance all through her high school and loved to cut loose when she could get away from Heron House.
“I saw Nathan today,” Ivory shouted.
A look of concern passed over Jenny’s brow. She laid a hand on Ivory’s bare shoulder. “How did it go?”
“It would have gone fine if Jax hadn’t shown up.”
Jenny looked thoroughly lost at Ivory’s statement, and Ivory backed up. The first round of shots had already circulated through her blood, and her words were spilling from her mouth without censure. “I slept with Jax.”
Jenny’s mouth formed into a wide O. “When?”
“This morning. Before I went to see Nathan.”
“How was it?” Jenny’s eyes lit up, the brown twinkling even in the dim light of the club.
Ivory swallowed past the lump in her throat and ordered her body to behave as she recalled the morning. “It was the best damn sex I’ve ever had.”
“Are you going to do it again?”
“I don’t know. I don’t want to think about men right now. Let’s go dance.”
Jenny bounced out of her seat, their discarded drinks left for a waitress to find. They made their way down the metal staircase to the floor of the club. The mass of bodies swayed in time with the music, grinding and bumping against Ivory as she headed for the middle of the crowd. She wasn’t a great dancer, and when she did, she liked to be in the center where the only thing you could really do was shake your hips a little.
Ivory felt the notes of the music infuse her bones, make her limbs move of their own accord, the invisible thread of the lyrics jerking her in time with the song. She threw her head back, let the sound caress her as a l
over might. She rolled her hips, dipped low when the song instructed to do so, lifted the hem of her dress a little higher.
By the time the second song came on, her hair had matted to her cheeks. Rivulets of perspiration disappeared beneath the low cut of her dress and slid between her shoulder blades. She closed her eyes and let the music take her someplace else. Let the singer tell her how beautiful she is, seduce her into believing her latent sexual talents were sought after.
The tequila reduced her inhibitions, and when someone gripped her hips from behind, she didn’t think twice until a familiar smell of cool water enveloped her. She opened her eyes, threw her gaze over her shoulder, and stared straight up into Jax’s ruggedly handsome face. A shiver of delight coursed through her. He pulled her back against him, and the ridge of his erection pressed against her buttocks. She licked her lips.
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