by Christa Wick
When the cops were gone and Max was back to snoring, Craig hooked my bag and gave the lapel of my red jacket a flip. "This wasn't what you went out in."
"Nope."
He shrugged, willing to let me keep it a mystery for the time being.
"Ray's jacket won't mean much until trial," he warned.
"I know." I wasn't looking forward to explaining it to Dante. Even if Alex's DNA wasn't on the jacket -- hell, even if they pulled a serial killer's DNA off the jacket -- the prosecutor would likely just change the theory of his case and keep Alex as a co-conspirator in the murder of Ray Epps. It was all about saving face. Having worked both sides of the crime scene, I'd seen it done a million times.
I held little hope that Alex's case wouldn't be a million and one.
Chapter Nine
The dumpster dive proved fruitless. The cops didn't find the cell phone or bag anything else. They did, however, leave with a CD capture of the video stream from the cameras pointed at the drive-thru window and inside registers.
Leaving Craig to collect contact information from the employees working the late evening shift last Friday, I drove to my office for a solo strategy session. I felt down. Sure, I'd made progress on Alex's case, but it wasn't enough to get him out of jail.
Whatever was on the Arby's video wouldn't do any good any time soon. The prosecution would sit on it as long as they could, even if it meant a killer was walking the streets of Masonville. And there was no way in hell Arby's corporate overlords would give me a second copy any sooner. They'd direct my inquiry to general counsel, who'd call the prosecutor and that would be the end of that.
Fuming, I stepped off the elevator to find Dante standing outside my office. He had a tube of papers in his hand and was impatiently slapping it against his outer thigh. When he saw me, he stopped and thrust the tube forward.
I unrolled the papers to find three pages worth of names, contact information and notes on who saw whom on the site and at what time. I didn't want to think how many of his employees he'd sat on to get that level of detail. "Impressive. How long have you been here?"
"About ten minutes. Craig said you were on your way back." He moved with me as I stopped in front of the door and inserted the key in the lock. "Your phone was going straight to voicemail."
"Sorry." I scooped my cell out and tried to switch it on. "Battery's dead."
"Happens."
He didn't sound nonchalant and I tensed when he followed me into my office. He wanted a run down, no doubt, even if Craig had given him a partial one already.
I plugged the phone into its charger before dropping my bag next to the desk. "So you know about the jacket?"
"Yeah, and the empty dumpster."
Sinking into my office chair, I felt the day descend on me all at once. My shoulder hurt like a motherfucker and I felt only a fraction closer to getting Alex out of jail. That meant I was only a fraction closer to getting Dante out of my life once more and that couldn't happen fast enough, as far I was concerned.
He paced around my desk, then took up a position behind me at the window. Trying to track his movement was pure torture. That little fender bender had done a number on my neck, too, and I felt all the more fragile for it.
"So what happens with the jacket?"
"It gets sent to the state crime lab..." I paused, bracing for Dante's reaction at what came next. "A month or so from now, they'll come back with results."
I felt the chair tilt slightly as he rested his hand on its back.
"A month!"
"Standard time. Could be longer." I swiveled my head to look at him and winced from the pain. "And it won't matter if Alex's DNA isn't on the jacket. All the prosecutor has to show at the preliminary hearing is that a crime was committed and there's reason to believe Alex did it. The threshold of proof is very low. Between the fight and a shaky alibi--"
Dante glowered at me when I said the alibi was shaky. I raised my hands in mock supplication. "I'm not saying you lied about Alex being with you, but it doesn't cover the whole window of time Ray could have been killed in and lots of family, friends and lovers give fake alibis. So the court won't care."
"This whole thing..."
"Is fucked up, I know." I rested against my chair back, my head unintentionally pressing against Dante's hand. "It's why I mostly do defense work now."
"So what's next?"
I felt him finger a strand of my hair. He had always been a hands-on lover, only curbing the constant display of affection when we were around my parents. Reminding myself we weren't lovers any more, I tried to shake his hand away.
Another bolt of pain shot through my neck and I cried out.
"It's that bag of yours," he said, his hand closing around my left shoulder. "I noticed in court you were babying this side."
His thumb pressed against the muscle in gentle exploration, but I cried out again.
"It's not the bag." I corrected. "It's from the fender bender I got into this morning leaving--"
I froze, realizing I was about to mention Gabriella. Alone with him in my office, both of us clearly feeling vulnerable, I didn't want to open that can of worms. "Leaving the dry cleaners," I finished.
"Mm-hmm." His other hand on my opposite shoulder, Dante held me in place. He started to massage the sore spot. His breath left him in a loud, shaking exhalation. "Was that before or after you visited Gabriella?"
My whole body went stiff. I was in dangerous waters, swimming with a shark. Dante may be out of his comfort zone with Alex's case, but he knew how to handle people. Most of all, he knew how to handle me.
I tried to slide forward, out of his reach and away from the hypnotic rub of his hands on my body. He moved with me until he had me blocked by my desk in front and the chair around the rest of me.
"Liv, baby..." His hand moved up from my shoulder to stroke my neck. "You know--"
I raised my hands, brushing him away and pushing back from the desk. "I know your son is sitting in jail and either one of us dredging up the past isn't going to do anything to get him out in the time I have left."
I stood and gathered the papers he had brought. When I went to move around the desk, he stepped in front of me. "You won't quit after the week, Liv. You'll see this through."
Shaking my head, I tried to spin on my heel and go around the other side of the desk, but Dante gently caught me and turned me back towards him.
"Look," I whispered. "Most of this is up to the attorney now."
He cupped my face. My psyche still recovering from yesterday's kiss, I was terrified he was going to do it again. He didn't -- not yet. Instead, he looked into my eyes for a long, hard minute. "No, it's not. There's a killer to catch. That's what it will take to get Alex out and clear his name."
His hands moved through my hair and he stepped close enough I could feel the brush of his chest against mine as he breathed. I forced my eyes to stay open. I wanted to close them, to lean the rest of the way into Dante's body and let him wrap his arms around me.
"You'll see Alex the rest of the way through, Liv. You won't walk out on him."
Walk out.
That was exactly what I needed to do -- before this went too far. I untangled from Dante's embrace and headed for my cell phone. I felt his chest brush against my back as he planted a thick arm on each side of me.
"Livvy, you're not walking out before we talk. Love, please..."
"Stop calling me that!" I spun in his arms. Not the smartest thing I could have done; it put us chest to chest.
"It just comes out, Liv." Capturing my head, he eased me away from the small side table my phone and charger were on and gently pushed me against the wall. "My leaving twenty years ago is clouding things right now."
No, his body pressed up against me was clouding things. I brought my palms up and pushed at his chest, but he was too solid for me to move.
His fingers threaded through my hair and he bent so that our foreheads were touching. "I tried to call you at the hospital when T
onio was still alive."
"I don't want to hear this!" I turned my head to the side, tried to squirm away. My shoulder and neck wouldn't allow any quick or forceful moves, so I just closed my eyes to shut him out.
"I can't not tell you, baby." His free hand cupped my chin but he didn't force me to look at him. His touch was careful as his lips brushed against my ear. "Everything happened so fast."
I shook my head as I whispered my accusation. "You had to wait ten days to marry her, and then you had two decades."
"I tried to sneak out before the ceremony to talk to you." His fingers caressed one cheek as his mouth caught a tear escaping my eye. "Nicole caught me -- busted a bottle and put it to her stomach."
I sucked a deep breath in, wishing desperately I could unhear every last word.
"I called again -- after the wedding to make sure Gabriella had told you. Your father…"
Dante trailed off. If he was telling the truth, if he had really called and daddy answered…
The breath I was holding in broke free. I didn't have the will to pull another one in. Gabriella had lied to him and me. Daddy had lied. I shook my head -- Dante still had almost twenty years of keeping his silence. If he had come to me after the wedding or Alex's birth, maybe we could have worked things out. But each day after that was another day of him rejecting me.
"Shh…" He kissed my cheek then closer to my mouth as his thumb started to tease my lips apart.
His other hand slid down, traced the push of my breast and then the heavy dip and curve of my stomach and hip. His hand slid behind me, his grip on my ass possessive as he slowly forced me to turn my face toward his.
He cinched me to him, our bodies touching from my breasts to halfway down my thighs. I could feel him through his jeans, his cock thick and long as it pressed against my lower stomach. I moaned, unable to stop the sound. The hand gripping my ass slid around front to rub a thick knuckle slowly up and down the center seam of my dress pants.
My head dipped back as a wave of need washed through me. His lips landed on my throat to lightly suck the flesh as his fingers became more insistent against my mound.
How many times had we started like this? Me pushed against something as I tried to deny my arousal while Dante drew it out stroke by stroke.
I reached for his hand, stopping him. My voice wet and raw, I tried to warn him away. "You're not getting me to stay on past the week, Dante. You can't seduce me into it."
"This isn't about the case, Livvy." A deft twist of his wrist and his palm cupped my pussy again. He gave a hard squeeze and tried to kiss me.
I turned my head. "Everything you or I do right now should be about the case."
"It's driving me crazy, Liv." He growled, no hint of retreat in the sound. "Don't tell me it's not doing the same to you."
He pressed on my chin until I was looking at him again. He dropped his hand to my throat, his thumb lightly stroking one side of my neck as my body started to take control.
"I know that face, baby." He kissed me again, slow and soft, his tongue making its own strokes inside my mouth as the hand between my legs started to rub little circles against the fabric covering my clit.
"I remember how wet you would get, love."
I gasped at the slide of my zipper then groaned as his fingers found me. I reached for him again, intent on pushing him away. My hands curled around his shoulders as my body started to vibrate.
"And that little shake before you surrender." He purred the words against my lips. His fingers moved up and down, in and out. My hips took up the rhythm, my pussy contracting when he entered to squeeze him tight.
Another kiss, rougher as we both started to grind, his hand trapped between our bodies as he worked the fingers deeper and thicker into my cunt.
I couldn't…
So wrong…I couldn't…
My body jerked. I rose up onto my toes. A groan clawed its way out of my throat. Dante kept rubbing and pressing, heightening my climax with sharp kisses and bites that I could feel from the hard peaks of my nipples down to the tips of my fingers and toes.
"You're still my girl, Liv," he whispered hot against my face. "The only one I've ever wanted."
Short mewling whimpers were my only reply. I was still coming. My pussy flooded his palm. I heard the squish of my juicy flesh as Dante found another sweet spot and attacked until a long shuddering moan left me.
"I want you, love." He kissed my neck, the hand wrapped around it dropping to knead my breast. He plucked at the nipple through the layers of fabric, his eyes riveted on the roll and bounce of my body as I drew his fingers deeper.
No control. Poof-gone-vanished. This was exactly what I had been afraid of.
I started to cry as another climax slammed through me, my tears a mix of pleasure and heartache. He tried to stop the tears, his hands slowing as he kissed my cheeks and mouth. Little breaks of hush baby splitting the space between kisses.
"Love--"
"No!" I pushed him away, my tears coming harder. Evading his attempt to hold me, I set my clothes straight. Moving to my desk, I shoved papers in my bag, then grabbed the phone off the charger.
"Olivia, baby…"
I stopped moving long enough to glare at him for a second then I threw my door open. I had been an idiot to let him in. He could stay -- I was leaving. And I'd be damned if I would be anywhere alone with him again.
He followed after me, making soft calming sounds as he tried to caress and arm or cheek. I didn't let him make contact again. Out in the hall, I locked the outer door. Pressing the elevator call button, I prayed the lift wasn't empty.
The doors opened and three people stared out at us. I could tell from their expressions I looked a mess. I could just imagine the streaked mascara. I stepped inside, shouldered pass them until I was tucked into the back corner. Dante slid in next to me, ignoring the people around us as he watched me.
The elevator stopped at the next floor and two more people got on, one with a stroller. Dante moved closer. The elevator bounced on restart. He curled an arm around my back to steady me.
"Alex," I said, keeping my voice low but firm.
"I don't need reminded." He lowered his head and breathed the words against the side of my face and neck, reigniting the flame that had been burning through me minutes before.
One person got off and three on at the second floor, pushing Dante even closer against me. I could smell his cologne and feel his body heat and the possessive grip of his hand around my hip.
When the doors opened to the ground floor, I shoved my way past everyone else and onto the street where my car was parked. Dante stayed right behind me every inch of the way. I clicked the door unlocked but he beat me to the handle, holding it as if he was either going to open it or keep me there all night.
"You have to think about Alex," I hissed. "Not...the past."
Or five minutes ago when I was creaming in his hand.
"I am thinking about Alex." His free hand curled around my shoulder. "I'm thinking about Alex, you, and the future, Liv."
My back was to the traffic, the rush hour commuters speeding past me as the office buildings around us emptied for the day. Dante let go of the handle and pulled me closer to the car and his body.
"It's a public street, Dante."
"I know, baby--"
"Stop it." I tried to squirm free but he kept me drawn tight to his body.
"No." He dipped his head until we were face to face. "I'm not going to stop calling you baby or love, not when you're this fucking close." He took a deep breath, his head lifting and turning as he brushed his lips across my forehead. "I can think about you and Alex. I've done it every day of his life. I won't ever stop thinking about you, Liv, and there's not a thing you can do to change that."
His speech finished, Dante lowered his mouth to mine for a final, light kiss that still managed to sear my lips. He was restraining himself, only barely, but I knew he wanted more by the way his hand danced against my side and his slow, reluct
ant withdrawal before he finally opened the car door.
He tucked me, still reeling from the last half hour, into my car and then he walked away.
Chapter Ten
I waited in my car for my head to stop spinning before I pulled into traffic. My heart threatened to override my mind. Little flushes of heat broke out across my skin and large sections of flesh rippled with goose bumps as I remembered what Dante had just done to me.
My need to find the killer had magnified. Dante had no intention of letting me go -- not while Alex was still in jail. Different story, I was certain, once the case was closed.
So close it!
Right -- find the killer and then watch Dante walk away again before the hurt was too deep to heal.
With my hands too shaky to even fit the key in the ignition, I decided the car was as good a place for a strategy session as the office. Leaning my head back, I closed my eyes. Maybe the vertigo I felt would help me see what I hadn't been able to see at either of the crime scenes or with the witnesses.
I imagined Max, remembered his worried gaze when he asked if I was on the pipe. He didn't like the pipe and I hadn't smelled any other drug on him. So why was he at the shelter? And why had he gotten caught outside it after curfew? My mind drifted across the street from Arby's. I had the vague memory of a liquor store there. Was Max's vice alcohol? Had he shuffled and hacked his way from the shelter to the liquor store, had a pint and fallen asleep in the alley, waking up after curfew?
I needed to go back to Arby's, to the liquor store and the other surrounding shops. I grabbed the phone and dialed Ivy.
After four rings, the wrong voice answered. "Hello?"
"Momma, what are you doing answering Ivy's phone?"
"Ivy?"
"Ivy, momma, she's spent all day with you."
"You mean the maid?"
I groaned. At least momma still had no trouble remembering me. "Just call Ivy's name for me, I need to talk to her."
She complied, giving such a loud, good ole Southern come-to-dinner call without taking the phone away from her mouth that I felt my eardrum retreat. I yanked the cell away from my face and waited until I heard Ivy take the phone.