by Cara Summers
Jase noted that in crossing the room to take Maddie’s hand, D.C. moved with only a slight limp. A little knot of tension inside him eased.
“Sorry I’m late. It took me a little time to turn Adam Ware over to Tony and Carter. They’ll be on-site from now on filming. That ought to help with security issues for Maddie.”
“Thanks, bro.”
“No problem.” Easing himself into a chair, D.C. looked first at Dino and then Jase. “What did I miss?”
Jase leaned a hip against his desk. “We’re just getting started. On the surface there seem to be three cases. The first is the robbery at Eva Ware Designs. Before she died, Eva Ware hired me to investigate that. Detective Dave Stanton worked the case. He and I believed it was an inside job. Someone not only had the security codes, but they knew how to disable the alarm. A top-notch pro could have done it, but the thief was very selective about what he or she stole. Eva estimated the value of the jewelry at somewhere around a hundred thousand dollars. Another half a million dollars worth in the display cases was left there—untouched.”
“Interesting,” Dino said. “You’re thinking someone had a certain sum in mind, knew the value of what he or she was stealing?”
“That’s my hunch. I have a contact who may be able to give us a line on who might have fenced the jewels locally. I’ll put him on it. The next thing we have is the strong possibility that Eva’s hit-and-run wasn’t an accident but a homicide. Perhaps connected to the robbery. Maddie, Jordan and I all think that she either guessed or discovered who the thief was and perhaps confronted them. Finally, we have the attempted hit on Maddie.”
D.C. stretched out his good leg. “The question is, do we really have three separate cases?”
Maddie studied the three men continuing to discuss details as if she weren’t in the room. All three were good-looking, with Dino being the most classically handsome. On the surface, D.C. and Jase didn’t look at all alike. D.C. was a little shorter and his coloring was darker. She also sensed that the hint of recklessness she’d seen in Jase might be more pronounced in his younger brother. Her gaze returned to Jase. In the park she’d gotten her glimpse of his ruthlessness. And now she was seeing a focused intensity as he and his partner and brother picked away at the puzzle.
“Good question,” Dino was saying. Leaning back in his chair, he laced his fingers behind his head. “A mother killed and a daughter almost killed within a week? Hard to believe there’s not a connection.”
“I’m not a great believer in coincidence,” Jase put in. “But there’s plenty of motivation to get rid of Maddie without it being connected to her mother’s death and the robbery.”
Maddie felt a chill move through her. “Why would someone want to kill me?” Her mind had been trying to avoid that question ever since Jase had given her that hard shake and told her that someone wanted her dead. Of course, that hadn’t been much of a problem because her mind kept returning to those endless minutes when Jase and the hit woman had been rolling around on the ground.
“The will.”
When the three men spoke in unison, Maddie steadied herself by leaning against a desk.
“If you’re dead, the terms of the will can’t be fulfilled, and there are others who benefit,” Jase said. “Money’s a powerful motivator.”
Maddie swallowed hard. This morning her biggest worries had to do with getting to know her mother, finding out why her parents had separated her from her sister and figuring out what to do about Jase Campbell. And now someone wanted to murder her. Mentally, she gave herself a shake. One thing she’d learned from her father was that it never worked to play ostrich and try to ignore a problem.
“Okay. Someone wants to kill me because of the will. So far, we’ve been thinking about the robbery being connected to my mother’s death. Could it be connected to the will also?” she asked.
“She may be onto something,” D.C. said. “What if someone expected to get a lot more when Eva died and they wanted to hurry her along?”
“That’s a possibility,” Dino agreed.
“It still goes back to money,” Jase said. “We have to find the money trail.”
“I’ll get right on it.” D.C. pulled his notebook out and turned to a computer.
Dino moved to look over his shoulder. “Why don’t I take Cho Li, Michelle Tan and Arnold Bartlett. Then you can concentrate on the Wares and the Ware Bank.”
Maddie turned to Jase. “You suspect Cho Li?”
“Until we learn otherwise, everyone’s a suspect. It pays to be thorough.”
“We have to warn Jordan,” Maddie said.
All three men turned to stare at her.
“If someone is trying to kill me over the will and they haven’t succeeded, they could try her instead.”
“Or perhaps the plan is to get rid of both of you.” Jase picked up the office phone and handed it to her. “Call the ranch. Leave a message if you have to. Tell Jordan it’s urgent. Tell her to use my cell number to get back to us.”
Maddie nodded and her stomach knotted when she got the answering machine. “She was planning on going into Santa Fe today to visit the venue for the jewelry show. If they’re there, Jordan’s cell might work.”
She punched in the number, and to her relief, Jordan answered. “Jase?”
“No, it’s Maddie. We’re at his office.”
Jase punched the button to turn on the speakerphone.
“It’s Jase too, Jordan. Something more has happened at this end. Is Cash with you?”
“Yes, he’s listening.”
“Someone—we think someone at Eva Ware Designs—hired a hit woman to shoot Maddie this—”
“Maddie, are you all right?” Cash interrupted.
“I’m fine.”
“I’m worried about Jordan,” Jase explained. “So’s Maddie. It could be that the attempt on her life is connected to Eva’s hit-and-run—and we’re thinking all of it may be connected to the will.”
“The will,” Cash said. “Because if one or both of them is eliminated, someone else inherits?”
“Correct.”
“That’s what I’ve been afraid of. Can you keep Maddie safe?” Cash asked.
“I’ve put extra men on it. I want to send my brother out to Santa Fe to play back-up on your end.”
There was a beat of silence on the other end of the line. “That might be a good idea.”
“I’ll take care of it,” Jase said and disconnected.
“I’ll handle the background checks.” Dino got to his feet.
“I’ll book my flight,” D.C. said.
Maddie wanted to feel relief but Jase merely frowned at the phone. “What’s wrong?” she asked.
“The cowboy,” Jase said. “He agreed pretty easily to the back-up. My impression before was that he thinks he can handle pretty much everything.”
“That would describe Cash in a nutshell. He’s a lot like my father was.”
Jase met her eyes. “I’m thinking that something has happened that Cash and Jordan haven’t shared with us yet.”
11
WHEN THEY LEFT the office, Jase bypassed the elevator and opted for the stairs. Her borrowed sneakers helped Maddie keep pace with him. At ground level, he steered her to an exit door that opened onto an alleyway.
The scents of beer, human sweat and ripe garbage assaulted her senses. “I see we’re taking the scenic route back to the apartment.”
“We’re not going back to the apartment.”
“I really need to change my clothes.”
“We’ll buy something.” At the end of the alley, he drew her with him toward the nearest corner. “For the time being, I’m not letting you go anywhere near that place. Whoever is behind this has to know you’re staying there. And they also know who I am and where I work. This time we’re not going to give anyone the opportunity to tail us—or to know where we’re staying.”
The light changed and they crossed the street.
“So your cover of actin
g as my brand-new lover probably didn’t fool the killer.”
“It didn’t have to. The hit had to have been set up before we got to the store. It might have been arranged as soon as Jordan told them when your first day at Eva Ware Designs would be. This way.” He drew her with him into a coffee shop on the corner.
At three-thirty in the afternoon, the lunch crowd had thinned. A black woman in a deep purple waitress’s uniform was leaning over the counter, flipping through a newspaper.
“Edie,” Jase said when he reached it.
The woman straightened and her face lit up. “Long time no see, sweet cakes. I missed you.”
“I’ve been working an out-of-town case for a couple of weeks. Just got back.” Jase circled behind the counter, gripped her shoulders and kissed her cheek. “I missed you too.”
“Go on now. You missed my apple pie.”
Maddie could have sworn that the woman was blushing. And Jase…well, it was the first time since they’d left the park that she’d seen the easygoing Jase Campbell. She wasn’t sure which side of the man fascinated her most.
Jase grinned. “That too.”
“Sit down. I’ll fix you a piece.”
“No time. I just stopped in to say hi.” He slipped a folded bill into the pocket of her uniform. “I need to use your back entrance.”
Edie glanced at Maddie, then back to Jase. She waved her hands in a shooing motion. “You’re working another case. Go ahead.”
At the swinging doors to the kitchen, Jase paused and looked over his shoulder. “If anyone comes in and asks, the lady and I are—”
“Using the facilities,” Edie finished. “I know—the usual cloak-and-dagger stuff. I’ll save you that piece of pie.”
A few of the people working in the kitchen smiled or waved at Jase as they headed toward the back door.
“Get followed a lot, do you?” Maddie asked as they exited.
“Now and then.”
She noted that the moment they left the coffee shop, Jase was back in security mode. After cutting through another alley, he crossed to the edge of the sidewalk and hailed a cab. Once inside, he leaned forward and said, “The Donatello.”
Five minutes later, Maddie found herself walking into one of the most luxurious hotels she’d ever seen—except in the movies. Couches and chairs offered spacious seating to guests in the lobby, and the soft sounds of a Mozart string quartet could be heard beneath the muted conversations.
They passed an array of shop windows displaying high-end clothes and jewelry. Everywhere she looked, mahogany shone and brass gleamed. Three crystal chandeliers hung from a carved ceiling, and a vase of fresh flowers as tall as a Christmas tree graced a marble-topped table.
When they arrived at the registration desk, a young woman wearing a black suit with a nametag that read Jessie beamed them a smile.
“I’d like to speak to Mr. Benson,” Jase said.
“Certainly, sir.” She disappeared through a door and a few minutes later a man of medium height with dark hair and a perfectly trimmed mustache stepped out of the same door. He wore the black suit that seemed to be the uniform of the hotel staff and the same nametag. His read Louie. The moment he saw Jase, Maddie noted that the serious expression on his face lightened just a bit.
He bowed slightly when he reached the counter. “Mr. Campbell, welcome to the Donatello.”
Jase leaned forward. “Louie, I need a favor.”
“Certainly, sir.”
“I need a room for a few days. The lady here is in a bit of a jam, and I need a place to keep her on the q.t.”
His expression still perfectly serious, Louie Benson raised one eyebrow. “You’re using the Donatello as a safe house?”
Maddie detected a slight note of horror in his tone.
“So to speak,” Jake said. “And I can’t use a credit card. It’s too easy to trace them. You’ll have to bill my office.”
“Very well.” Louie typed rapidly into a computer and within seconds tucked a plastic key into a folder and passed it to Jase. “Your suite is on the top floor. You access it by taking the private elevator down the corridor to your left. Press the button for the penthouse.”
Jase nodded toward the row of shops. “Can you make some credit arrangement with the shops? I’ll have to get her some clothes.”
“No problem,” Louie said. “I’ll tell them to put any purchases on your bill.”
Jase smiled at him. “Thanks, Louie.”
“No.” Louie’s smile was thin, but it reached his eyes. “Thank you, sir.”
“How did you do that?” Maddie whispered as they moved down the short hallway to the private elevator.
“What?”
“Get us a room in this hotel with no reservation. We don’t even have any luggage.”
“I know,” he said on a sigh. “There goes my reputation.”
Maddie couldn’t prevent a laugh. “I’m serious.”
Jase punched the elevator button. “I did a favor for Louie about six months ago. Someone was stealing from the guests by breaking into the in-room safes. The police had been called in twice and everyone was being discreet. But if the thefts had continued, it was bound to get into the papers, and the reputation of the Donatello would have been irreparably damaged. Louie called my office and asked me to solve the problem. I did. The thief turned out to be one of the hotel detectives.”
The elevator doors slid open, and they stepped through them. The three walls were lined with mirrors. As the car began its ascent, it was suddenly very quiet, and the air seemed closer. No Mozart, no chatter of guests. For the first time since they’d left Jase’s office, Maddie let herself think about the fact that she and Jase would be alone once they reached the suite.
She could see Jase reflected endlessly in the mirrors. Perhaps that was why he seemed to fill the space. He was leaning against the brass rail on the wall across from her. He’d been easy and relaxed when he’d been talking to Louie, but he wasn’t now. There was tension in his jaw, in his shoulders, and the knuckles of one hand showed white where he gripped the railing. The fact that his face looked a bit battered from their encounter with the hit woman made him look tougher and sexy as hell.
In the back wall of the elevator, she could see the profile of that lean face and the length of that rangy, male body. A body that she had touched. A body that she could touch again. All she had to do was take a few steps to close the distance between them and she could slip her arms around him, run her hands over those taut muscles and feel his heart pound against hers.
Her bones were already in meltdown when she met his eyes. What she saw stopped her breathing. She was trembling, aroused by the fantasy she’d spun—and by the man.
It was shocking how much she wanted to make love with him. Terrifying. In her mind she’d always been practical, cautious. She should be worried that her life was in danger—that her sister’s life might be in danger too. But right now all she could think of was making love with Jase again. It was as if she was a totally different woman with Jase Campbell.
Worse yet, she had no desire to return to what she’d been before she met him. What she wanted was for him to touch her again, really touch her. To feel his hands skimming over her naked flesh, making it burn, taking her to a place where there were only the two of them. Only the now.
“Maddie?”
His voice was hoarse, raw.
Her throat went dry. “Yes?”
“I promised myself that when we got to the room, I would let you sleep. I’m not going to do that. The moment we get to the room, I’m going to make love to you.”
Maddie wondered if her heart had actually stopped. Somehow she found her voice. “Why do we have to wait until we get to the room?”
He moved then, very quickly, first to punch the button that stopped the elevator between floors. As the car jerked to a halt, Maddie felt her heart skip a beat. Then he trapped her against the wall. And at last, his body was pressed against hers.
A sc
orching wave moved through her. Everything about him was so hard—his hands, his chest, the angle of his hip, even the long length of his thigh as it moved between hers. She arched helplessly against him.
His mouth hovered a breath away from hers. “I was going to bring you here for lunch. You looked so tired. Instead, I took you to the park. I told myself it was so I could keep my hands off you.”
She wrapped her arms around his neck and threaded her fingers into his hair. “That didn’t work out.”
“No. I can’t stop wanting you.”
“Same here.”
“I have to figure this out.”
“Me too.”
“Later.” They spoke the word in unison.
He brushed his mouth over hers, drawing back just enough to nip her bottom lip before sliding his tongue between her lips.
She arched helplessly against him. Even his mouth had grown harder, more demanding, as if he believed that there was some flavor that he had yet to discover.
And all the while his hands, his clever, ruthless hands were moving over her, pressing, molding, claiming. When those lean fingers slipped beneath the hem of her skirt and pushed it up, flames seared her nerve endings.
Still gripping her waist, he sank to his knees, slipped her panties down her legs and tossed them aside. In her peripheral vision, Maddie saw the white lace arc before settling on the floor of the elevator. The sight had a hot thrill shooting through her.
To steady herself, Maddie wrapped both of her hands around the brass rail as he eased her thighs farther apart. With his thumbs, he separated her folds, then he began to use his mouth on her.
She was sinking, drowning in a storm of sensations, each one more erotic that the last—the soft texture of his tongue, the scrape of his teeth. First she burned, then she shivered.
And still she wanted more. Widening her stance, she arched her hips to give him more access. His fingers dug into her buttocks at the same instant that his tongue pierced deeply into her.
He knew exactly when her orgasm began, and when she peaked he heard her cry his name. The sound urged him to send her flying again. And again.