by Beth Andrews
Using the back of her hand, Tori brushed her long bangs aside. “Not you, too.”
“Me, too, what?”
“You’ve joined the Layne Brigade,” Tori said, tossing silverware into the bin with a loud clang. “Bad enough she sent Nora over here to fetch me like I’m some sort of disobedient child, now you’re waving at me from the front seat of the bandwagon? For God’s sake, don’t drink the Kool-Aid, people. Fight the power.”
She wasn’t surprised Celeste knew about Layne’s important meeting. Layne probably called her, too. Or else Nora had swung by the kitchen to tell Celeste Tori was being stubborn.
Nora always had been a little tattletale.
Celeste pressed the tips of her forefingers against her temples as if seeking inner peace or warding off a headache. “Times like this make me wonder if you and Layne will ever outgrow your sibling rivalry.”
“She started it.”
Layne always started it with her judgmental attitude, bossiness and overinflated sense of superiority. As if she had some sort of holy light shining down on her just because she was the firstborn.
Celeste shifted out of the way of a customer, smiled and greeted him before edging closer to Tori and lowering her voice. “I’m officially giving you the time off. Now go be with your sisters.”
Tori didn’t want to leave, didn’t want to fall into line just because Layne demanded it. “Thanks, but I’d rather finish my shift.”
She gathered the crumpled napkins and empty containers of creamer and tossed them into the bin. But she felt Celeste watching her, studying her. It was annoying. Unnerving.
Not that she’d ever let anyone see even the slightest hint of nerves, of doubts. People saw only what she allowed. Her thoughts, her feelings were her own until she decided to share them.
“Patty,” Celeste said to the other waitress as she walked past, “could you cover Tori’s tables? She has a family emergency.”
“Sure thing. Here,” she said to Tori, “I’ll take that back for you.”
But when Patty took a hold of the bin, Tori’s fingers tightened. A subtle tug-of-war ensued, causing the dishes to clank together. Patty’s eyes flashed and she yanked hard. Tori’s grip slipped. She stumbled back, bumping into the table with enough force to knock it against a chair.
With a triumphant grin, Patty tossed her head and walked away.
Tori straightened and stepped toward Patty’s retreating back, ready to…well…she wasn’t sure what exactly but she was afraid it included her lunging at the older woman and taking her down in a headlock.
Knowing Tori all too well, Celeste blocked her path. “Let’s go to my office. We can discuss—”
“There’s nothing to discuss.” Fighting her building temper, Tori smoothed her skirt over her hips, tugged down the hem. “I’m not leaving.”
Celeste raised her eyebrows. “My office. Now.”
Damn. Celeste rarely used that no-nonsense tone with anybody, let alone Tori, which only made it that much more effective when she did resort to it.
Aware that they’d drawn several curious glances, Tori forced her lips up into her patented coy smile and sauntered across the dining room. Kept her movements graceful and unhurried even when she reached the empty hallway.
At the end of the hall, she entered the office. Weak sunlight filtered in through the two narrow windows, casting shadows on the dark carpet. Framed photographs of Tori and her sisters, along with one of their father, Tim, and Celeste decorated the wall to her left. Several smaller ones, all of Tori’s son, Brandon, ranging from newborn to last year’s school picture, were scattered on the bookshelf to the right. A huge, ugly cherry desk that had belonged to Celeste’s grandfather took up more than its fair share of space, along with a three-drawer metal filing cabinet and two wooden chairs.
Walking in, Celeste flipped on the overhead lights then shut the door.
Tori crossed her arms. “I cannot believe you played the boss card on me.”
Okay, so technically Celeste was her boss. But in addition to that, she was also her father’s girlfriend and before that she’d been her mother’s best friend. Celeste had been one of the few people who’d seen something valuable in Valerie Sullivan.
And in Tori.
Celeste loved her without expectation, without judgment. Some days Tori thought she was the only person who did.
“I do whatever it takes,” Celeste said as she sat behind the desk. “You know that.”
She did. Tori admired her for it and for what she’d made of her life. Celeste had her own successful business, one she’d built by herself from the ground up. The only thing Tori didn’t understand was why Celeste gave her heart to men whose only real love, their obsession, was the sea.
Maybe it was in her blood. Her grandmother had married a fisherman, and her mother eloped with a navy petty officer, only to be left alone when he chose the sea over his young wife and baby daughter. At nineteen, Celeste lost her fiancé when the fishing boat he’d been on had gone down during a Nor’easter.
And now, for the past eight years, she’d been in a relationship with Tori’s father, another fisherman who always, always, chose the call of the ocean over her. Just as he’d done with his wife and daughters.
Which proved that no man was worth giving your time, your attention and most especially your heart to.
“Sit down,” Celeste said, gesturing to the chair in front of the desk, “and tell me what’s going on with you.”
Tori plopped onto the chair. “Nothing’s going on. Since when is wanting to cover my own shift, my full shift, a crime?”
“Honey, you were fighting a woman twice your age over dirty dishes.”
“Patty’s stronger than she looks. Those water aerobics are really working.”
“I’m sure they are.” Opening a drawer to her right, Celeste pulled out a bag of mini chocolate bars. Tori didn’t think it was a coincidence Celeste’s stash of candy and the loaded handgun she kept for protection were housed in the same space.
No one touched Celeste’s chocolates without permission.
“What’s wrong?” she asked, taking three candies from the bag before sliding it toward Tori.
Her voice was kind, worry clear in her brown eyes. It reminded Tori of when she’d sat in this very same chair as a scared, pregnant teenager. Only they knew Celeste was the first person she’d told. The person who’d held her as she’d cried, more terrified than she’d ever been in her life. So afraid of disappointing her family, of Greg turning his back on her, of being responsible—completely, totally, fully responsible—for the life growing inside her.
Humiliated and angry that she’d ended up just like her mother.
“What’s the point of my going?” Tori asked, unable to stop the words from spilling out. “No matter what evidence they found or new theory Layne has, it won’t change anything.”
She wanted to move forward and forget the past. Not rehash it.
“Don’t you want to know what happened?” Celeste asked quietly. “Don’t you want to know the truth?”
Tori didn’t believe in the truth. It was too easily manipulated, too easily hidden. She should know. Her own life was nothing but smoke and mirrors, shifting and reflecting what she wanted people to see. Giving them only what she wanted them to have.
“The truth is that Dale York killed Mom. And now he’s dead. What else is there?”
She didn’t expect a real answer but the look on Celeste’s face told her the older woman was keeping something from her. See? Everyone lied. Everyone kept secrets. Even someone as good and honest as Celeste.
“What’s going on?” Tori asked, her fingers aching from gripping the arms of the chair so tightly.
Unwrapping a candy, Celeste glanced around as if someone was going to suddenly materialize out of thin air to overhear their conversation. “I think Layne might be in trouble.”
Tori exhaled a short laugh, the tension in her easing. “My big sister doesn’t get into troub
le. She gets everyone else out of it.”
Layne had always been there to help Tori and Nora with their homework, made sure they had dinner, lunch money and went to bed at a decent hour. She’d been more of a mother to them than Valerie had ever been.
She never let her sisters forget it.
Tori appreciated the sacrifices Layne had made, how she’d taken care of them. She also resented the hell out of her for not seeing that she and Nora no longer needed her to be their substitute mom. They needed her to be their sister.
“Donna called me,” Celeste said of her good friend and Chief Taylor’s secretary. “She told me Mayor Seagren and the district attorney had an early morning meeting with both Ross and Layne.”
“Ross and the mayor are always huddled up about something.” Billy Seagren loved nothing more than hanging out at the police station. She wouldn’t be surprised if he hadn’t asked Ross to make him some sort of unofficial deputy complete with shiny gold star.
“A special investigator sent from the attorney general’s office was there, too. Donna isn’t sure what’s going on but there’s been some sort of complaint against both Ross and Layne. Something is wrong,” Celeste said. “I can feel it. And I think you should go to this meeting, not because Layne told you to, but because she needs you there.”
Her mouth twisting, Tori tucked her hair behind her ear. Layne didn’t need her. No one did. Not her sisters or her father. Not even her own son.
“Can I get back to work now?” she asked, sounding as petulant and defiant as Brandon. That he came by his attitude naturally only irritated her more. Would it kill him to mimic a few of her positive traits?
Celeste sighed, her disappointment clear. Nothing new there. Tori was always disappointing someone. “If that’s what you really want…”
“It is,” Tori said, already walking out of the office. She headed toward the dining room, but stopped at the doorway, her stomach turning. Whirling around, she crossed to the break room, circled the table, her stride short because of her tight skirt.
The guilt was back. As if she didn’t have enough of the useless stuff already. She was a mother, wasn’t she? She’d been dealing with guilt on a daily basis ever since Brandon was born. Was she good enough? Smart enough? Did she have enough patience? Give him enough time and attention and love?
It had only increased since she and Greg had told Brandon they were splitting up a year ago. She’d seen the accusation in her son’s eyes. He’d known she’d instigated the divorce, blamed her for ripping their family apart. He’d yet to forgive her.
So, yeah, full quota of guilt here, thanks just the same. And Layne did not need her. She prided herself on not needing anyone. It was a sentiment—one of very few—she and Tori shared. One learned by watching their parents’ dysfunctional marriage, by having a selfish, vain mother, a father who ran off to sea every chance he got.
It was too risky to count on someone to be there for you. Better, safer, to rely on yourself.
Besides, it shouldn’t matter to Tori what was going on with Layne. They weren’t close, not like Tori and Nora. Or at least, she and Nora had been close until her baby sister decided to hook up with the son of the man who’d killed their mother.
Discovering the truth about their mother should have brought them together, but instead they’d drifted apart. Living their own lives.
Whatever trouble Layne was in was just that. Hers. Tori had enough problems of her own to deal with.
She grabbed her purse from her locker and headed back into the hallway. Celeste stood in the kitchen doorway talking with Joe, the café’s breakfast cook. Tori kept her gaze straight ahead as she passed them.
“Hey,” Celeste called, stopping Tori at the door. “Let me know as soon as you find out what’s going on.”
Tori lifted a hand to indicate she heard then hurried outside. The sun peered through the clouds and a cool breeze lifted the ends of her hair as she clicked the unlock button on her car keys. She slid behind the wheel of her ancient Toyota, cranked the engine and pulled out, heading toward the police station.
Family ties. They bound and choked and twisted and tangled a person up until they couldn’t break free. But if you took on one Sullivan, you took on all of them.
God help you then.
* * *
THE BRUNETTE KNEW how to make an entrance.
She demanded attention. Walker studied the woman gliding into Chief Taylor’s office, her heels tapping against the floor. A lot of it.
A small smile playing on her lips, she slid her gaze around the room before landing on him. Though her expression didn’t change, he had the sense she was sizing him up, trying to figure out how big of a threat he was.
Her eyes met his and attraction, instantaneous and primal, slammed into him, had his next breath lodging itself in his chest with painful intensity. Jesus, but she was like a walking wet dream, all lush curves, long legs and full, slicked red lips. Her hair was chin length, the ends razor sharp, with a heavy fringe of bangs.
Awareness, feminine and powerful, entered her light brown eyes as she drew closer. If they’d been anywhere else but the police station—a bar, the grocery store…hell…a car wash—he would’ve tried to get her number, her name, her interest. An invitation into her bed.
But they weren’t somewhere else. So he gave her his most intimidating scowl.
Her smile amped up a few degrees, her walk turned into an out-and-out slink, the movements sensual and, if he wasn’t mistaken, practiced.
She knew what effect she had, knew what men thought of when they saw her.
It wasn’t sex. Or at least, not just sex. It was something darker, more dangerous. She brought out a man’s natural instincts to mate, to possess a woman in the most heated, basic and elemental way possible.
“Hail, hail,” she murmured, her tone smoky and seductive, her features too similar to those of Captain Sullivan to be anyone other than the missing sister, Tori Mott, “the gang’s all here.”
He felt Taylor watching him, judging his reaction. Deliberately turning away from the brunette, he met the chief’s gaze coolly. To prove he was in charge, of this case and his body.
“You’re late,” the assistant chief said in a brusque, disapproving tone.
Mrs. Mott lifted a shoulder in a negligent shrug that caused her sister’s lips to thin. “Am I?” she asked. She sat next to Nora Sullivan and crossed her legs, her skirt sliding up, exposing her thighs. “So sorry.”
Captain Sullivan balanced her weight on the balls of her feet. “No one is checking out your legs, so tone down the sex kitten act.”
“I don’t have an act. Although it really is a pity about no one noticing my legs. I’ve always considered them my best feature.”
“God, Tori, do you have to antagonize her?” Nora asked, sending Walker a nervous glance.
“A girl has to find her fun somewhere.” She glanced at Walker, her lips curved as if inviting him in on the joke, but her eyes were watchful. Guarded. Hiding secrets and her true intentions.
And he realized her legs weren’t her best feature, not by a long shot. Those eyes were.
Leaning forward, she held out her hand. “I’m Tori Mott. And you are…?”
“Satan,” Captain Sullivan said under her breath.
Chief Taylor sighed heavily. Nora Sullivan made a choking sound. And still, Mrs. Mott held her hand out to Walker, her eyebrows raised in question. In challenge.
“Detective Bertrand,” he said, taking her hand.
He maintained eye contact as he held on for the proper amount of time. She pressed her lips together as if fighting a smile. Because of her sister’s comment? Or because he hadn’t been able to hide his reaction, not completely, at the sharp sting of desire that had accompanied the contact of her soft skin against his?
He wasn’t sure he wanted to know.
“I thought Satan was your special pet name just for me,” Griffin York, the dark-haired man next to the blonde, said to Captain Sulli
van. “I’m hurt.”
Sullivan didn’t blush. Didn’t squirm in abject embarrassment or worry over retribution. The set of her shoulders, the tightness of her mouth, told Walker she didn’t respect his authority or the job he was there to do.
So be it. There was nothing he liked more than a challenge.
If Sullivan thought she could intimidate him with her bad attitude and sharp tongue, she was way off base. Hostility, both blatant and subtle, came with the job description. Most cops weren’t thrilled at having an outsider come into their department, digging into their lives, jeopardizing their careers and reputations.
Then again, he wouldn’t be here if Taylor and Sullivan had followed the rules.
“Bertrand is from the state attorney general’s office,” Taylor said, linking his hands together on top of the desk. “He asked us to call you all together for this meeting.”
Asked. Demanded. Walker gave a mental shrug. As long as he got the result he wanted—a jump start on his investigation—he wouldn’t quibble with the chief’s word choice.
“Is that so?” Mrs. Mott asked, scrutinizing him as if there was more going on in her head than which skirt would best showcase that top-notch ass of hers. But then she blinked and her expression turned sultry again. “And why would a detective from such a grand and lofty state office be interested in the five of us?”
“Things like conflict of interest, mishandling of cases, corruption, misconduct and, of course, murder always interest the state.”
The blonde Sullivan slid to the edge of her seat, her knees pressed together. “What are you talking about?” She turned to Captain Sullivan. “What is he talking about?”
The captain opened her mouth but Taylor held up his hand.
“There have been several complaints made against Assistant Chief Sullivan and me,” Taylor said as calmly as if he was discussing the score of last night’s Red Sox game. Either he had that much confidence the charges were unfounded or he put up one hell of a front. “Bertrand is here to launch a formal investigation into those allegations.”
The blonde’s eyes widened and Walker wondered if they were going to pop out of her pretty head and roll across the floor. She leaped to her feet. Walker stood as well, his hand hovering over his gun.