In This Together

by Kara Lennox

  It would be great at first. She probably could organize his business, maybe increase his bottom line by making his operation more efficient, allowing him to take on more work. They would fix dinner together, and the nights would be paradise.

  But then the routine would start to get old. Elena would realize that Travis didn’t have the extreme ambition of someone like Daniel Logan, that he didn’t aspire to be rich or to impress the neighbors with fancy cars or belong to a country club. Her attention would wander. She would hear about other jobs she was qualified for, high-paying jobs. She would see her friends married to suave, sophisticated, wealthy men, and she would realize how she’d limited her choices.

  By then, of course, he would be hopelessly in love with her. Hell, he already was. And when she left him, he would be a broken man.

  That was why he hadn’t encouraged her.

  He would miss her terribly. He’d gotten used to having her around—the sound of her voice, her womanly scent, the way she touched him, so sweet and soft on an arm or a shoulder, when she wanted to offer comfort or encouragement.

  But he would survive her departure. He had Eric’s release to look forward to. In fact, this house would come in handy when that happened. Eric and MacKenzie could live here with him while Eric got his feet back under him. That would serve to distract Travis from obsessing about the huge hole in his life created by Elena’s absence.

  In a year or two, it would be much harder to let her go.

  He probably should go do some work. Believing that he would be busy welcoming MacKenzie into her new home, he’d arranged for Leo to run things for a couple of days. But now Travis needed to be busy.

  He should at least call and find out when the roofing crew would arrive. That hole in his roof wouldn’t fix itself.

  As he dialed, he heard Elena’s footsteps coming down the stairs, and he braced himself for the reaction he had every time he laid eyes on her.

  She’d changed into a plain skirt and blouse, a very modest, businesslike outfit, but the color and sheen of the fabric, which was a rich olive green, reflected the light and accentuated her curves in a way that was anything but ordinary. She’d pulled her hair up off her face and added a pair of heels that did wonderful things to her legs.

  A less pleasing sight were the suitcases she carried.

  “You look fantastic,” he couldn’t help himself from saying.

  “Thanks. I left a few things—I’ll come get them tomorrow maybe, while you’re working, and I’ll leave my key on the dining room table...if that’s okay.”

  Too fast. It was happening too fast.

  “Sure, but...can I ask where you’re going?”

  “I have a couple of options,” she said breezily. “Please don’t worry about me. I promise I won’t sleep in my car.”

  Of course she had options. She wasn’t destitute. She had credit cards and friends with guest rooms.

  “You’ve got my number,” she said. “Please, let me know how it goes with Eric and MacKenzie.”

  “I will. I really hope you all can meet someday. I think you’ll like Eric.” But not too much, he hoped. Eric was the kind of man women fell for, hard and fast. Not that he didn’t believe Eric and Elena would make a fine couple. But watching the courtship would be like having his teeth pulled one by one without anesthetic. Watching Elena with anybody other than himself was an experience he hoped never to have.

  * * *

  ELENA MANAGED TO make it to her car without breaking down. It wasn’t that she would never see him again. If her plan worked out, she would be there when Travis saw his brother walk out of prison a free man. But this was the end of Elena and Travis, the couple, the team.

  He believed this was for the best. She disagreed; but maybe where Travis was concerned, she wasn’t thinking straight.

  As she made her way to the freeway, she allowed one tear to roll down her cheek, but that was all. She had work to do, and she couldn’t do it with a red nose and her makeup smeared everywhere.

  The winter sun was already sliding toward the horizon as Elena reached River Oaks, but it wasn’t yet full-blown rush hour. All too soon she was turning onto Daniel’s street.

  When she got to Daniel’s imposing front gate, she didn’t even attempt to put the security code into the keypad. Daniel changed it every week. Instead, she pushed the intercom button.

  “Yes, may I help you?” an unfamiliar female voice asked.

  Damn. She’d been hoping to deal with someone who knew her. This woman, whoever she was, probably had heard Elena Marquez was persona non grata around here.

  “Hi. I’m Elena Marquez. I have an appointment with Daniel at four.” Daniel might have changed the security at his gate, but he hadn’t changed his computer password recently. She still had access to his calendar, and she’d given herself the appointment.

  The motor hummed as the gates slowly opened. One hurdle down of many to cross, but it was a start.

  Out of habit, she almost drove to the garage and her old assigned parking place. Only at the last minute did she catch herself and stop in the drive near the fountain. She checked her appearance in the visor mirror, then got out and stood before the front door. She was five minutes early. Daniel abhorred people who were late, and she intended not to get on his bad side. She rang the bell.

  The heavy front door opened, revealing a humorless-looking woman with steel-gray hair cut very short. Thick, black-framed glasses perched on the bridge of her pointed nose, and she pursed thin lips disapprovingly as she surveyed Elena.

  “Good afternoon,” the woman said, because protocol dictated she be civil. “I keep Mr. Logan’s schedule, and I wasn’t aware of this appointment.” She looked confused, probably wondering how Elena’s name had magically appeared on her boss’s calendar.

  Daniel had already replaced her. Well, she shouldn’t be surprised. It wasn’t as if she’d given any indication that she might want her job back.

  Elena chose not to explain how she came to be on Daniel’s schedule. She just smiled pleasantly.

  “Well, right this way. He’ll see you in the library.”

  Daniel had probably decided to hire someone more mature this time, since his previous two assistants’ personal dramas had caused them to flake out.

  Elena wondered how this woman would have coped with being kidnapped. She probably wouldn’t have fallen in love with her kidnapper.

  The library door was ajar. The woman tapped lightly. “Mr. Logan? Your four o’clock is here.”

  “Is she, now? Send her in. And, Mrs. Drury, would you see to it that the passwords are changed on all of my computers?”

  “Yes, sir.” Mrs. Drury opened the door and allowed Elena inside. Daniel sat in one of the wing-back chairs in front of the huge stone fireplace reading a newspaper on his tablet. His golden retriever, Tucker, lay at his feet.

  Daniel stood. “Elena.”

  “H-hello, Daniel.” Good heavens. She was stuttering.

  He indicated that she should take the chair opposite his as Mrs. Drury closed the library door.

  “You didn’t have to resort to subterfuge, you know.” He reclaimed his chair and put the tablet aside on a nearby table. “I’d have agreed to see you. You’re the one who’s angry, not me.”

  Oh, he was angry, all right. He might be the picture of civility to anyone who didn’t know him, but she saw that muscle ticking in his jaw.

  “I’m not angry anymore.” She settled into the chair, setting her briefcase beside her. “I overreacted. In my defense, my emotions were running high.”

  “Understandable, given what you’d just gone through. And for what it’s worth, you were right. The SWAT team was too much. I could have called them off well before you and Travis arrived, and I didn’t. I wanted to see him suffer.”

  “And my parents
? Did you want to see them suffer, too?”

  Daniel shifted in his chair. “I’d convinced myself that you were experiencing some kind of delusion where Travis was concerned, brought on by stress. I thought your parents should know what kind of man had influence over their daughter.”

  She would not get mad all over again. That wasn’t why she was there. This wasn’t about her. It wasn’t even about Travis. It was about Eric and MacKenzie, two completely innocent parties.

  “Aren’t you supposed to be nannying?” Daniel asked.

  “The job fell through. The social worker found out about the kidnapping, and she withdrew her approval of Travis as a foster parent. So MacKenzie didn’t come live with him.”

  “Oh. Well...I’m sorry that didn’t work out for you.”

  “Yeah, me, too. That’s kind of why I’m here. It’s about MacKenzie. She’s a very fragile little girl. From what I understand, she wasn’t exactly thriving in her former foster home. It was a bad situation. But now she’s been put in some kind of shelter for abused children because there’s not a spot for her anywhere else, and I’m worried about her.”

  “A child without a home is a very sad thing. What do you propose I do to help? I don’t exactly have any sway with Social Services. Are you suggesting I become a foster parent?”

  She smiled at the thought. Any foster kid who came to live with Daniel would feel as if they’d hit the jackpot. “No, nothing like that. You see, MacKenzie’s problems would all go away if only Eric were free.”

  “And he will be, if it’s possible. The case is in the queue. Travis got what he wanted.”

  “And I’m so appreciative. Really. But here’s the deal. I’ve already solved the case. I have a witness ready to testify to the fact that she rang Tammy Riggs’s doorbell at three o’clock and heard her arguing with a man who definitely was not Eric.”

  Daniel’s eyebrows rose. “Around the time Tammy was murdered?”

  Elena nodded, glad she didn’t have to explain. Daniel really had looked into the case, in some detail, if he remembered the particulars.

  Now that he was interested, she took her time describing what she and Travis had discovered and how. With every word she spoke, Daniel leaned in closer.

  “Then she heard a crash, and the arguing stopped. But no one answered the door, so she left. This witness, April, undoubtedly heard the murder taking place. A bar stool was knocked over during the struggle—that was the crash she heard. And Eric has a solid alibi until three-thirty. We also found this.” She opened her briefcase and pulled out a handful of plastic zipper bags. “A card from Tammy’s lover. Pretty self-explanatory. His name starts with a J, and it might possibly be the yardman, Jimmy LeSalle.” Elena had found several checks made out to Jimmy in the papers she’d taken from Eric’s house. “He, or maybe his wife, was probably a member of the neighborhood coupon club Tammy belonged to.”

  “Coupon club?”

  Of course Daniel, with his über-wealthy background, probably hadn’t ever clipped a coupon in his life. She explained about the club, as she understood it. “It should be a simple matter to find this person. There might be fingerprints or DNA on this stuff, or the handwriting could be identified.”

  Daniel laid out the plastic bags on a library table and studied them briefly. “It’s astounding to me the police never found this, never pursued any other leads. Then again, I guess I shouldn’t be surprised, with as many times as I’ve encountered police apathy or downright laziness.”

  “April said the police did question neighbors, but her parents shielded her from the investigation. And the card...”

  Daniel picked up one of the plastic bags again. “Postmarked a week before Tammy’s death. This card was undoubtedly in her personal effects. This coupon file you found was probably given a cursory glance and deemed insignificant.”

  “It’s enough, right? To get Eric’s conviction overturned?”

  “Maybe. We’d have a shot, anyway. Do you want me to turn this evidence over to whichever of my investigators gets assigned the case?”

  “Actually, I was hoping for a bit more. I thought maybe you could talk to the district attorney. Like, now. Today. The sooner we can get the ball rolling, the sooner we can get MacKenzie out of that shelter and into a stable home with her father where she can start to heal.”

  Elena knew she was asking a lot. Daniel didn’t owe her anything, and he did not like to make exceptions when it came to protocol. His foundation was often under tight scrutiny by detractors of every stripe, and any appearance of granting special favors to friends or employees had to be discouraged. He’d already bent the rules a little bit by agreeing to take on the Riggs case to begin with. Now she was asking him to move the case into a priority position.

  Daniel was thinking. He gazed into the fireplace, reaching down absently to scratch Tucker behind his floppy ears. Elena resisted the urge to fill the silence with more arguments. She knew better than to interrupt him. He had all the information he needed to make a decision. The fact that he was even considering her request filled her with hope.

  Finally, he returned his attention to her. “So, you’re asking me for a favor.”

  “Yes.”

  “Can I ask you a question?”

  “Of course.”

  “Are you and Travis romantically involved?”

  Where had that come from? Daniel didn’t usually ask such personal questions out of idle curiosity. Perhaps he was simply trying to understand her motives. She decided to answer the question as honestly as she could. He was definitely making concessions; she should, too.

  “I confess, I’m strongly attracted to Travis. From the moment I met him, I sympathized with him. He was in so much pain because of his family members’ dire situation. I guess that devotion to his brother and niece got to me.”

  She expected Daniel to argue with her about Travis’s character. But he didn’t.

  “The attraction wasn’t one-sided. We did become physically involved. But for whatever reason, Travis doesn’t want me around anymore. Maybe I’m a reminder of something he deeply regrets. Maybe he just doesn’t want the responsibility of a real relationship. Maybe he’s still gun-shy from his marriage. I don’t know. But I’ve moved out. I know you don’t see it, but he’s a good man. A really good man.”

  “So, if the two of you aren’t...together, why are you still so involved in his cause?”

  Dios, Daniel didn’t ask easy questions. “I want to finish what I started. I want to do this one thing, this one really important, good thing for Travis. So few people have truly cared about his welfare. I want him to know what it feels like to have someone do something with no expectation that he do anything in return. That’s the best I can do to explain my reasoning.”

  “So you don’t harbor some hope that if you do this grand thing, he’ll take you back?”

  She shook her head. “It’s not like that. I know it’s over between us. I don’t expect to see him again. Well, that’s not true. I do hope to see his face when he finds out Eric is a free man. I want to remember him smiling. But that will be it.”

  Daniel nodded. “If I do this favor for you—and all I can do is talk to Jamie. I can’t guarantee results. Are you willing to do something for me in return?”

  “I’ll do anything you want me to do.” She answered without hesitation, knowing Daniel would not ask her to do anything illegal or immoral.

  “Come back to work for me.”

  For a few moments, she was too stunned to answer. She hadn’t expected that. But finally she found her voice. “What about Mrs. Drury? She seems the competent, no-nonsense type.”

  Daniel groaned. “It’s like having my grandmother work for me, and believe me, if you’d known my grandmother, that’s not a pleasant thing. I’m terrified of her. She has no sense of humor. She’s trying to run my
life like an army general. This morning, she actually turned off the hot water heater. She claims cold showers are healthier and will make me more productive. She switched my coffee to decaf without asking!”

  Elena couldn’t help it—she laughed.

  “It’s not funny.”

  “Sorry.” Could she go back to work for Daniel? Her anger toward him had tempered; he’d admitted he was wrong and apologized. If she got her old job back, it would solve a multitude of problems, not the least of which she could resume sending money to her relatives still in Cuba. She wouldn’t have to find another job, or apartment, or buy a car, or health insurance. But was that just laziness on her part?

  “I can see you’re not wild about the idea.”

  “Actually...the idea is very attractive. I was just examining my conscience to see if it would be okay to accept.”

  “If you could give me a month or two—just long enough to find a competent replacement—that would help.”

  She gave it only a moment’s further consideration. “Okay. Okay, I’ll do it.”

  CHAPTER TWENTY

  THREE DAYS LATER, Elena was back into the swing of her job. It was almost as if she’d never left. Whatever lingering tensions remaining between her and Daniel were dissipating. She admired him too much to hold one or two mistakes against him forever.

  But there was still one problem: She wasn’t the same person she’d been before meeting Travis. Oh, she still performed her job with her usual efficiency. She dressed the same way, ate the same foods, joked around with the security guys.

  But at night, when she lay down in her cozy bed with its down duvet and the perfectly controlled temperature, she no longer felt the satisfaction she used to experience. During the day Daniel kept her too busy to think much about Travis. But at night, she literally ached for him.

  She would have much preferred to be in Travis’s cute little house, even if it did have a hole in the roof, uninsulated walls and creaky floors. Travis would keep her warm, and she could focus on the comforting sound of his heartbeat and breathing rather than house noises.