by Becky McGraw
And it was all her fault. Cole had said it was his, but he was wrong. She was the one always causing Luke problems...trouble. If she'd just come back to Phoenix alone like she'd planned, Luke wouldn't have gotten hurt. She didn't want to mess up his life with her drama. Maybe she just needed to end things now...make him go back to Bowie without her.
But the promise she made him to talk about things rather than running, or doing something hasty, because she was emotional or confused came back to taunt her. Luke had done his best today to keep his promise to her, and she needed to make the first step toward fulfilling hers to him. Changing her standard mode of operation, by talking to Luke about what was going on in her head instead of hauling tail. She pushed off the wall and walked back into his room.
Luke was off the phone and held it loosely in his hand, while he just stared at her in the door, something like fear shining from his eyes, his jaw tight. "Thanks for not running off."
"How did you--"
"Your eyes, cupcake...they always get this panicked look in them before you take off...like a scared horse. I'm starting to recognize the signs," his voice was low, gravelly and intense. "My getting hurt was not your fault...wasn't Cole's either. That blame lays only on James Barton."
"But I brought you here. If you weren't with me, you--"
"Would still be a cop and probably have a bullet in my head instead, killed doing a job I didn't even like. And I'd be miserable as hell without you."
Tears stung her eyes and Cassie swallowed hard against the emotion flooding her. "I don't want to be without you either...but I don't want my selfishness or drama to get you hurt."
"I couldn't imagine a better way to die, darlin'. I'd at least be in your arms when I did."
She gave him a watery smile and walked over to gently kiss his lips. Luke's arms wrapped around her and she sighed letting go of all her misgivings. He loved her, and wanted to be with her no matter what. The feeling was mutual.
"That's more like it," he said and kissed the top of her head. "Now, go call the police and have them come here to take my statement. I have a helluva lot to say."
"Luke, you're hurt. You need to rest," she said looking seriously into his dark eyes.
"I want to get this wrapped up quickly, so we can get back home."
Home. Bowie. That never sounded so good to her, because Luke was going to be there with her. They'd raise horses and babies, and be happy...finally. She found his business card and dialed Officer Melton and related Luke wanted to give a statement.
"Did you convince Cole not to come?" she asked him curiously, hoping he had talked some sense into his friend.
"Nah, he's pretty damned hardheaded, he thinks he can help us. He'll be here first thing tomorrow. I won't get out of here til around noon...can you go pick him up at the airport at ten?
"Sure, no problem...Luke, I have to tell you something." she told him gnawing her lower lip.
Worry came into his eyes, and his lips flat lined. "What now?"
She couldn't blame him for expecting the worst...more trouble. It's all he'd gotten since he'd been with her again. She laughed and his eyebrows raised. "It's not bad..."
"What is it?" his voice was short and impatient.
"I kind of stole James' car to get here. You had the truck keys, and I needed to get here fast...so I thought about that car he was trying to get to when you tackled him, and saw the keys were in the ignition..."
"Jesus, Cassie!" he yelled and sat up grimaced then laid back down. "That car might have been stolen by him! The police probably need it for evidence. You could've been arrested!"
"Well, here's the thing..."
"What else?" he asked and groaned.
"I found a long flat metal box with a lot of money in it under the seat."
A smile crept over his face and his eyes danced. "Oh, yeah? How much money?"
"Looks like it could be all that's missing. It was all banded together--large bills."
Luke whooped and pumped his fist, which brought a nurse running into the room. Cassie stepped aside as the woman ran over to the bed and started checking machines and making sure his wires were still affixed. "Sir, you're going to have to stay calm. You set our monitors off, not to mention you're disturbing our other patients."
"Sorry..." he said sheepishly and let her check him out. The nurse shot him one more warning look, then left them alone again.
"See, I'm always getting you into trouble," she said with a brittle little laugh.
"You're the kind of trouble I like, darlin'...the best kind," he told her with sincerity sparkling in his eyes. "The kind I'd gladly welcome for the rest of my life."
She almost believed him.
Walking back to him, she took his hand, "What do you think I should do about the money?"
"Give it to the cops, and get a receipt. Once the case is settled, they'll return it to you... probably."
"I can't do probably...I need that money, it's mine."
"You know any good attorneys here?"
"Yeah, I know a few, what kind?"
"Criminal, Civil...either one would probably work."
"I think I'll just deposit it back in my account then tell the cops," she told him petulantly.
"You could be charged with tampering with evidence, darlin'...or maybe even obstruction. Hell, they might even charge you as an accomplice."
"I'll get the attorney if and when that happens. I'd rather ask for forgiveness than permission. I need my accounts unfrozen." She needed to get her business settled so they could get out of this godforsaken state, and away from James.
"Don't even think that, honey. I need you with me, not in jail. Just do it the right way...we'll deal with the money issue when it comes up."
She dropped her chin to her chest. "How the hell could I have so stupid to not see what James was doing?"
"This isn't your fault either, so stop blaming yourself and stiffen up your backbone. We're in this together, baby," he reassured her with a squeeze of her hand.
She sat on the beside him and leaned her head on his chest again. "I'm so glad."
A few minutes later, Officer Melton walked into the room followed by a pretty female officer in a black skirt suit. Cassie stood up, but didn't let go of Luke's hand.
"Hello Miss Bellamy, Mr. Matthews..." he nodded at them then turned to the petite dark-haired woman with him, "This is Detective Sabrina Roberts from our vice division. She's been assigned to your case, and has some questions for both of you."
Sabrina Roberts walked over and shook each of their hands and then pulled a chair up beside the bed. She pulled a small notepad from her purse and a pen, then flipped it open. Officer Melton stood over at the other side of the room observing. The friendly, but professional, woman asked them a succession of questions about James, Cassie's business and how he was involved and what they believed he'd done, and then she took detailed notes on Luke's statement regarding the shooting.
When she was done, and was about to shut the pad, Cassie piped up. "There's one more thing you need to know..."
"What's that?" the detective asked and reopened her pad.
Cassie's eyes moved to Luke and he encouraged her with a squeeze of her hand and his eyes. Looking back at the detective, she said, "When Luke tackled James, he was trying to get to a black car he had parked down the street at the curb. After the ambulance took off, I realized Luke had the keys to his truck, so I took that car to get here..."
"You stole a car?" The other woman's deep blue eyes widened and her shoulders tensed.
"Not exactly...I borrowed it. I didn't have any other transportation, and didn't think James would mind considering he stole thirty thousand dollars from me."
A wry grin kicked up one side of the woman's full lips. "And?"
"Well, when I got here and went to get out, and a metal box slid from under the driver's seat. I looked inside and I think it might be the money he stole from me. There's a lot of large bills in there."
The detecti
ve shut the notebook and shoved it and the pen in her purse, then stood and smiled at her. "Let's go have a look."
Cassie led her out of the room and down to the parking lot, then went to where she'd parked the black sedan in the emergency room lot earlier. She fished around in her purse and pulled out the keys handing them to the detective, before stepping back.
The woman took the keys, but didn't open the door. She reached into her purse and pulled out a pair of blue latex gloves and put them on, before she opened the door. Cassie gulped and said, "I guess my fingerprints are in the car now, since I drove it here."
That could be a problem, if they wanted to make it one, Cassie thought, as she ran over the possible implications in her head. Thank god Luke had talked her out of depositing the money in her account. Thinking about the implications of that now, made shivers run down her spine. It could have looked like she had stolen the money, instead of James, or that they were in cahoots to defraud their clients.
"I don't think you'd be giving back thirty thousand dollars in cash, or giving us this car instead of just wiping it down and dumping it, if you were involved, Miss Bellamy. I think you're smarter than that, even though your ex-fiancé isn't," Sabrina said then she assured her, "I'll have the techs take your fingerprints for exclusion."
Walking around the back of the car, she jotted down the license plate number. "Todd, can you call in this plate and see what you get?" She looked over at Officer Melton who'd followed them outside, but had remained silent.
"Sure, Bri..." he said with a smile, then walked behind the car. Detective Roberts walked to the driver's door and opened it, leaning inside to look around. She pulled out her phone and took several pictures then reached under the seat and pulled out the metal box and snapped a photo of it. She pulled it out of the car and put it on the hood, where she opened it then whistled. "Wow...you may be right, Miss Bellamy. This is a lot of money," she agreed then leaned in and took more photos of the banded money.
Officer Melton walked up beside them and whistled too, putting his hands on his hips he said, "Car's stolen, Bri."
"This gets better and better..." Cassie said with a groan.
"Well, the good thing is Miss Bellamy...I think your ex-fiancé' doesn't have much wiggle room now. We'll probably get him to plead, which will get this money back to you much sooner than if we had to go to trial."
"He's a lying weasel, so he might not," Cassie informed her.
"Oh, he'll plead. All of these charges combined could mean thirty years or more in prison for him, unless he does. We also found out he has a prior record for embezzlement in New Mexico, which won't look good in court, if it's admissible."
Cassie gasped, she really hadn't known James at all. And she felt like ten times the fool, for not checking him out better before she went into business with him. "If he pleads, how fast will I be able to get the money back, so I can straighten out my business?"
"That's up to the judge, but if you get a good attorney, probably not long."
That was Luke's advice too, so she'd do that right away. Sabrina Roberts carefully took out each band of bills, and counted them, with Cassie standing there watching. She counted a second time, and came up with the same total. After she finished, she gave Cassie a receipt for the money, and took the box over to her car and locked it in the trunk.
The detective and Officer Melton told her they were staying around until a tow truck came for the vehicle, but Cassie decided to go back to Luke. She thanked them and then went back up to his room. When she went into the room, he was dozing peacefully and she didn't wake him. Instead, she sat down in the chair beside the bed and called her real estate attorney for a recommendation on an attorney to handle this situation.
After she talked to Mike Peterson, the attorney he referred her to, Cassie felt tons better. He heard her tale, then assured her with all the evidence against James and Diana, he felt sure he could convince the judge to release the money to her immediately. She called the woman at the real estate commission next, and told her what was going on, and that the money had been recovered.
The woman told her that if James took a plea agreement and admitted guilt, that she would close the investigation immediately. Cassie agreed to keep her informed, then called her banker and told him that James had been arrested, and that the police had recovered the money.
After a few minutes of her needling the man, he agreed to unfreeze her accounts after he called the police and verified what she'd told him. That wouldn't really do her any good until she could redeposit the money, because all of her accounts were all empty. But at least she could close her pending deals, because she would use her own money to get the escrow account fixed. As much as it galled her, she'd dip into her personal savings account to take care of that.
She saw Luke move in the bed, then his warm brown eyes popped open and he gave her a sleepy sexy smile. "God, I love waking up to see you," he said in a low voice.
Love for him poured through her, filling her heart to near bursting. She stood up and placed a soft kiss on his mouth, then whispered, "You're going to get tired of seeing me, because I'm not going anywhere, Luke. You're stuck with me for good, cowboy."
"Can't think of anywhere I'd rather be stuck..." he told her and kissed her again, tasting testing, trying to deepen it, his hands moving up to her waist.
She pulled back from him, and sat back down. "None of that right now..." she smiled smugly then said, "I need to tell you my good news..."
He lifted an eyebrow and smiled. "I need some good news...shoot."
"Well, Detective Roberts took the money, and gave me a receipt..."
"That's good news?"
"She said that with all the evidence they have now against James, he'd probably accept a plea deal, so we don't have to go to court...which means I'll get the money back soon. I talked to an attorney and he agreed. He's going to contact the judge they assigned to the case and work it out."
He grinned broadly, then said, "Now that is good news. Congratulations, darlin'."
"There's more..."
His other eyebrow raised and he put his hand over his heart. "Be still my heart..."
"The banker is going to unfreeze my accounts, and the real estate commission is closing the investigation, once they verify everything I told them."
Luke sat up and then cringed, grabbing his side. She put a finger of her mouth to shush him from the whoop she knew he was about to let loose, then pushed him back down on the bed. "Stop that!" she ordered in a harsh whisper.
He grabbed her by the shoulders and dragged her down to him, then claimed her lips in a kiss that curled her toes, one that got interrupted by the nurse who cleared her throat behind Cassie.
Cassie pulled away from Luke and spun to see the dour woman standing there with an angry expression, her hands on her round hips. "You two are something...this needs to stop. Mr. Matthews needs his rest," she said disapproval pinching her thin lips.
"What Mr. Matthews needs is to get the hell out of here," Luke said in a feral tone, and began ripping the adhesive patches off his chest, flinching as they pulled the hair on his chest.
The nurse gasped then ran over there and took them out of his hands, and shoved him back down onto the bed. "You're going to make your wound start bleeding again!"