by Lynn LaFleur
Her fingertips danced up and down his back. “Maybe not better, but…different. There are a lot of things we haven’t tried yet.”
“That’s true. And I’m very willing to try them all with you.” He nuzzled her neck, nipped her earlobe. “I promise you, I can do kinky.”
“You mean like that last question you asked me?”
“For starters.”
“Mmm, I like the sound of that.”
Slade kissed her, deep and long. “Are you as hungry as I am?”
“Famished.”
“Let’s eat our breakfast, then we can make love again before we go to my dad’s suite.”
Kari smiled. “I like your ideas.”
Chapter Twelve
Slade rapped his knuckles against the door to his father’s suite, then used his key card to open the door. Placing his hand on the small of Kari’s back, he led her into the living room. Madeline looked up from the desk next to the windows and smiled. “Good morning.”
“Good morning. Madeline, this is Kari Winchester. Kari, Madeline White, Dad’s assistant for the last ten years. The hotel would fall apart without her.”
She stood and walked toward them. “I don’t know about that.” Still smiling, she gave Slade a quick hug, then held out her hand for Kari to shake. “It’s a pleasure to meet you.”
“For me too.”
“Leon and Alora are so grateful that you found Brenda.”
“I’m glad I could help.”
“Where are Dad and Alora?” Slade asked. “He told me to meet him here at noon.”
“They should be here any minute. They picked up Brenda at the hospital about an hour ago.”
The sound of a key card in the door drew Slade’s attention. He turned to see Alora holding the door open. His father pushed a wheelchair-bound Brenda into the room. The white cast on her lower leg contrasted with the black sweats she wore. His gaze quickly passed over her face. Other than some bruising where she hit her head, she looked good.
“Hey, Bratchild,” he said, calling her by the nickname he’d given her. He knew that’s what she would expect.
“Hey, back.”
He knelt beside her chair and squeezed her knee. “How’re you doing?”
She shrugged. “Okay. I have to wear this dumb cast for at least a month. A month! How am I supposed to drive with my right foot in a cast?”
Slade looked up at his father and grinned. “She’s back.”
“Yes, she is.” Leon touched Brenda’s hair in a loving caress. “You said you wanted to wait until we were all together before you told us what happened.”
Biting her lower lip, Brenda looked from their father to her mother and back to Slade. Then her gaze landed on Kari. Indecision filled her eyes. Slade squeezed her knee again. “Hey, you can talk in front of Kari. She saved your life.”
“Slade, it’s all right,” Kari said. “Brenda doesn’t know me. I understand why she doesn’t want to talk in front of me.”
Madeline touched Kari’s arm. “How about some coffee in the kitchen?”
Kari smiled. “Sounds good.”
Leon rolled the wheelchair farther into the living room. “Let’s get you comfortable on the couch while we talk.”
“I’ll do that, Dad.” Slade lifted Brenda from the chair and set her in her favorite corner of the couch. He gently raised the cast and Alora slipped a pillow under it. “How’s that?”
“Wow, all this attention,” Brenda said with a nervous laugh. “I don’t know how to take it.”
Slade didn’t understand her comment. Her parents—especially Alora—doted on Brenda. He’d nicknamed her Bratchild partly to aggravate her, but mostly because she was a spoiled brat.
Alora sat at the end of Brenda’s feet. “Do you want something to eat or drink?”
“No, Mom, I’m fine.” She folded her arms across her stomach. “I don’t know where to start.”
Leon sat on the coffee table in front of the couch. Slade sat next to his father, his hands clasped between his knees. “Maybe I should call Meka first, before you say anything, and have him bring a sketch artist.”
Brenda frowned. “Why would do you that?”
“So you can describe your kidnapper. I want to catch the bastard who did this to you.”
The frown faded from Brenda’s face. She bit her bottom lip again and looked down at her lap. “You don’t have to do that,” she whispered.
“Why not?” Leon asked. “He has to pay for taking you away from us.”
She blew out a breath and lifted her head. “Because I wasn’t kidnapped.”
Slade was so shocked at Brenda’s statement, he had no idea what to say. His father didn’t have the same problem. Leon’s eyes narrowed and turned stormy. “What do you mean, you weren’t kidnapped?”
“I-I left on my own….with Carlos.”
“Who the hell is Carlos?”
“Leon, please.” Alora touched her husband’s shoulder. “Let her talk.”
Brenda hooked her fingers together and twisted them. Slade recognized that as a sign she was about to say something she did not want to say.
“Carlos works in the kitchen of the main restaurant. I…met him a few times after his shift. In the supply room.”
Leon ran his hand over his face and back through his hair. “Do I want to ask what you did?”
“Nothing, Dad, I swear.” More finger twisting and lip biting. “Well, we…kissed a little. And kinda…touched a little.”
Leon surged to his feet and took several steps away from the couch. Slade winced at the rage on his father’s face. Oh, man. Dad is not a happy camper.
Returning to the corner where Brenda sat, Leon pointed a finger at her. “You tell me everything, right now. Do not leave out one detail.”
“Okay,” she said weakly. Brenda’s desperate gaze swung to Slade, as if asking for help. He gave a small shrug, silently telling her he couldn’t help her. Not this time.
“Carlos said he wanted to see the ocean. It was just a…spur of the moment thing. He said he didn’t have the money for a trip, so I said I’d pay for it if he’d take me too.”
“Where did you get the money? From your mother?”
“No.” Tears flooded her eyes and she blinked quickly. “I-I took it from your safe.”
“And how do you know the combination to my safe?”
She glanced at Alora. “I saw Mom open it one day and memorized it.”
“Oh shit,” Slade muttered. He was about to see his sister get killed, right here in his father’s living room.
“How much?” Leon asked through gritted teeth.
“T-ten thousand.”
Alora gasped. “Brenda, how could you?”
“Carlos told me to get as much as I could. I didn’t know how much we’d need! I don’t know what anything costs.”
Slade figured that was probably true. Brenda never had to pay for her own gas, her food, her clothes. Alora took care of everything, including giving Brenda a generous allowance and credit card to use. His sister might pay to go to the movies out of her pocket, but she’d been sheltered otherwise.
He leaned closer to his sister. “How did you end up at the wolf wall if you and Carlos were heading to the ocean?”
“He-he told me his brother owned a cabin and he wanted me to see it. He dropped me there and said he’d be back in a couple of hours, that he was going to his brother’s house a few miles away and pick up some supplies. He never came back. I knew I couldn’t stay in that cabin without food or water, so I started walking.”
She wiped the tears from her eyes. Slade ached to hug her. She looked so miserable and a lot younger than seventeen right now.
“I recognized the area once I left the cabin. I knew I’d hiked there with you. And if I could find the wolf wall, I could make it to the road.”
“Did Carlos have the money when he left?” Leon asked.
Brenda nodded. “I gave it to him before we started the trip.” She looked at Slade.
“I trusted him. I thought he’d be back.”
“But he didn’t come back,” Slade said. “Why didn’t you call me for help?”
“I left my cell phone in his truck.”
“No phone in the cabin?”
She shook her head. “There wasn’t much of anything in that cabin.”
“He left you there to die, Brenda. That’s reckless endangerment. A good prosecutor could get him for attempted murder.”
“Murder?” she squeaked. “But he didn’t kill me.”
“He left you, knowing you wouldn’t be able to get any help.”
“Madeline!” Leon roared. “Madeline, come here.”
She came scurrying into the room, Kari right behind her. “You bellowed?”
“I have an employee who works in the main restaurant, Carlos…” He speared Brenda with a look. “What’s his last name?”
“Morales.”
“I want to know everything about him. Now.”
Madeline hurried to her desk and computer. Slade wondered if he could sneak out with Kari before the fireworks began.
No such luck. His father turned his fierce glare back to Brenda. “There will be changes made as of now. Your mother coddles you far too much. That stops.”
“What?” Alora sputtered. “How dare you—“
“I dare that and a lot more. If you hadn’t—“
Slade stood and faced his father. “You need to calm down before you say something you’ll wish you hadn’t.”
Leon rounded on Slade with fists clenched, as if he planned to flay him the same way as everyone else. Slade stood his ground, looking his father straight in the eyes. Leon was normally a kind and generous man. When angered, he turned more ferocious than a lion.
He could see the struggle in his father’s eyes as Leon gained control of his rage. “You’re right, son. Nothing is solved when done in anger.”
Madeline walked up beside them. “Leon, Carlos Morales quit Tuesday without any notice.”
“He quit? How long had he worked here?”
“About two months. I talked to Cynthia in the kitchen. She said he told her he was going home. He’s from a small town somewhere in the middle of Mexico.”
Slade cursed softly. “Did Cynthia know what town?”
“No, but she’s going to pull his application and get back to me.”
“Leave it alone,” Leon said with a sigh. “He’s gone.”
“Dad, I can find him and bring him back.”
“No. Brenda is safe. That’s all that matters.”
He didn’t agree, but he wouldn’t go against his father’s wishes…even though he’d love to find the little punk and smash in his face for taking advantage of a naïve seventeen-year-old. “I think Kari and I should leave so you and Alora can talk in private.”
Leon nodded. “All right.”
Slade squatted next to his sister and took her hand. “Be good, Bratchild.”
“I’ll probably be grounded for life.”
“Nah. Just ‘til you’re thirty.”
Her lower lip trembled, her eyes glittered with tears. Slade squeezed her hand. “I’ll call you later, okay?”
“Okay.” A tear rolled down her cheek. “Please don’t hate me, Slade.”
“Hey, I could never hate you.” He wiped away the tear with his thumb. “Sometimes I’d like to spank you, but I could never hate you.”
Slade kissed Alora’s cheek and hugged his father. “Go easy on Brenda. She’s been through a lot.”
Leon nodded, then looked at Kari. “Thank you again for finding my daughter.”
Taking Kari’s hand, Slade led her out the door. Once in the hall, he released a deep breath. “Well, that was fun.”
“Why was your dad so upset?”
“Brenda wasn’t kidnapped.” He pushed the down button on the elevator panel. “She ran off with one of the guys who worked in the restaurant.”
Kari said nothing. Slade let her enter the elevator before him, then pressed the button for their floor. “You knew.”
“Not…exactly.”
“What, exactly, did you know?”
“I never sensed anyone else with Brenda. If she’d been kidnapped, I would’ve known.” She held up one hand, palm toward him. “Don’t ask me how I’d know. I have no control over my visions.”
“Yeah, I know.”
She lowered her hand, slipping it into the front pocket of her jeans. “Does it bother you that I’m…different?”
“You aren’t different. You’re special.”
Her tender smile lit up her face. “Thank you.”
The elevator doors slid open. Slade took Kari’s hand again as they walked toward the Alpine Suite. “My mom was a Seer. That’s what the Maidu call people who have visions. Knowing that about my own mother should’ve made me believe you without any hesitation.”
“But you didn’t.”
He opened the door to the suite and ushered her inside. “I haven’t been very trusting of women in a long time. Ten years, to be exact.”
She curled up on the couch, her legs beneath her. “Why not?”
Slade sat beside her and laid one hand on her thigh. “I got involved with a woman ten years ago. Meka was my partner when I was a cop. He didn’t like Joyce, didn’t trust her. So he set up a sting with his girlfriend, Lisa. Lisa invited Joyce to lunch. She had a tape recorder in her purse.”
“Oops.”
“Joyce talked freely about how she’d been looking for a rich guy and how she’d love spending all of my money.”
“Which you didn’t have.”
“Hell, I was barely getting by on my pay. A cop doesn’t exactly earn the big bucks. She’d met my dad, seen his hotel and casino. She assumed I had money too.” He blew out a breath. “She did give me a compliment. She said it wouldn’t be hard to stay with me for a while since I was so good in bed.”
“Well, that’s definitely true.” Kari laid her hand on top of his. “Did you love her?”
Slade nodded. “Yeah, I did. Stupid, huh?”
“You didn’t know she only wanted money.”
“Meka suspected it. I didn’t listen to him. Instead of the ruthless gold digger he saw, I saw a beautiful woman who was kind and caring and seemed to love me as much as I loved her.” Turning his hand over, he interlocked their fingers. “Meka’s a good friend. He looks after me. That’s why he ran a check on you. He figured you were a gold digger like Joyce, using your so-called visions to get money from my father. You wouldn’t be the first woman since Joyce who’s looked at me like I’m a walking wallet.” He squeezed her hand. “I’m sorry I believed him.”
“It’s over. We won’t talk about it anymore.” She released his hand and straightened her right leg. “Since you’re being so honest with me, I need to do the same with you.” She reached into her pocket, pulled out a piece of paper and handed it to him.
Slade unfolded the paper to see his father’s check, drawn on his and Alora’s personal account. He released a low whistle. “Damn.”
“Yeah, that was my reaction when I saw all those zeroes.”
“Will this pay off your and your mom’s debt?”
Kari nodded. “Easily, with a lot left over. I’m trying to decide whether or not to cash it.”
“There’s nothing to decide.” He folded the check and handed it back to her. “Cash it.”
“I didn’t expect payment for finding Brenda. That’s not why I wanted to help.”
“I know that, babe, but my dad wouldn’t have given it to you if it wasn’t important to him for you to have it. He’ll be hurt if you don’t cash it.” Since she still looked uncertain, Slade teased her. “Besides, it’ll be a nice change for me to chase the woman with money.”
Kari chuckled. “There is that.” She gazed at the check again. “I could pay off my debts and give the rest to my mom. It would pay off what she owes and leave her with a nice amount in the bank.”
“Sounds like a plan.” Slade laid his hand on her l
eg. Her consideration of her mother warmed his heart. “You’re a very special lady, Kari.”
Her eyes turned smoky. He liked when that look filled her eyes…the one that said she wanted to make love. “Are you in a hurry to head back?”
“Not really. I’m supposed to have tomorrow off, but figured I’d go in since Brenda is safe.”
“So you don’t have to be back in Sacramento until Tuesday?”
She shook her head. “Nope.”
He drew tiny circles on her thigh with his fingertip. “We can go back to my place and use the hot tub.”
She smiled, slow and sexy. “We could try out the one here first.”
“That’s right, we could.”
Kari jumped up off the couch and ran toward the bedroom. “Race you!”
Laughing, Slade took off after her. He was going to paddle that luscious ass when he caught her.
He liked that idea…and all the other sexy, wicked images floating through his head. He planned to take at least fifty years to try all of them with her.
The End
About the Author
Lynn LaFleur’s writing career has included winning several writing contests. She was a semi-finalist twice in the prestigious Golden Heart Contest of Romance Writers of America. She served on the board of the RWA Chapter in Sacramento, California, for four years, as secretary and activities director.
Lynn can’t imagine ever writing anything except romances. “I love writing about a man and a woman falling in love. If you enjoy the story I tell enough to smile in places, shed a tear at times, or get a warm and fuzzy feeling, that is my greatest reward.”
After living on the West Coast for twenty-one years, Lynn is back in Texas. She works for her small-town newspaper during the day and writes books of romance at night.
Lynn welcomes comments from readers. You can find her website and email addresses on her author bio page at www.ellorascave.com.
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