Mine to Entice

by Karen Anders

  And it frightened her more than anything else ever had.

  He looked up at her, his eyes burning, paying homage to her in her wickedness. Softly, his voice ringing with power, he said, “Come here.”

  Adrenaline surged into her body and she dropped her skirt and pushed away from the wall. Snatching up her keys, she turned and ran down the hall.

  “Kate!” Jericho’s voice echoed in the hallway and for a moment, the torture, the need in his voice almost stopped her. She was sinking in too deep. Too deep. She had to get away. To hell with proving herself to anyone. She needed to forge her boundaries. She needed to protect herself.

  She needed to run.

  She pulled open the front door and flew down the stairs. Her hands shook so badly she fumbled with the keys. She chanced a glance at Jericho’s open door and when he materialized there, she panicked. Shoving the key in, she pulled the door open and jumped inside, jamming the key into the ignition. He was coming down the stairs when she put the car into drive and sped off.

  He would follow her. She knew that he wasn’t going to allow her to get away from him. So she couldn’t go home. She couldn’t go to either Lana or Sienna. He would find her there. She didn’t know how, but he would.

  Paige would be safe. He wouldn’t think to look for her there. She would be able to gather her composure and to squash these intense feelings roiling around in her.

  How could she have been so bold, so wicked? How could she have let herself go like that in front of him? Those weren’t difficult questions. She wanted to. She wanted him to look at her like that. She wanted him to suffer, to want her, to need to touch her. She wanted to bring him to his knees. And she had.

  It felt so good, so very good. A man like Jericho wouldn’t succumb easily. It had taken everything she’d had to entice him.

  Her cell phone rang but she ignored it. She didn’t know what to say to him. She had enjoyed him watching her while she pleasured herself. It wasn’t like her to be so free, to abandon all propriety.

  Or was it?

  Had this wanton woman always existed in her, waiting for the right, darkly sensual man to goad her into it? Or had she always been this way and was too afraid to let herself go as she had tonight?

  She parked in front of Paige’s house and ran up the walk, knocking on the door.

  Paige opened the door with sleepy puzzlement, only to have her face change to alarm. “Dear God, Kate. What’s the matter?”

  “I took your advice,” she said softly and burst into tears.

  8

  JERICHO SWORE VEHEMENTLY as her car disappeared into the night. Turning, he ran back to the house and up to his bedroom, spending precious minutes fighting his pants’ pocket for his keys.

  He ran back down the stairs and got into his car. He squealed out of his driveway and drove as fast as he could to Kate’s house. Once there he parked and bolted out of the car. He banged on her door, but no one answered. Swearing again, he went back to his car.

  Inside the vehicle, he rested his head against the steering wheel. Christ, he was still hard and hot, his blood throbbing heavy through his veins. What the hell had happened?

  Ha. Don’t you know, hotshot? It had finally happened. Kate had come into her own and it had scared her. She was also probably embarrassed as hell that she had gotten herself off in front of him.

  He, on the other hand, wanted to howl at the moon. He didn’t want her to wallow in her embarrassment tonight. He felt desperate to get to her. Desperate to tell her how much she turned him on. How much he wanted to slide into her. He could think of nothing else.

  Then, after he had sated his body, he wanted to hold her against him, to fall asleep to the rhythm of her heart. He wanted to breathe her fragrance and float in the sheer gift of her presence.

  He picked up his cell phone and dialed in the police station. When the voice answered at the end of the line, he said, “This is D.D.A. Jericho St. James. I need the addresses of Sienna Parker and Lana Dempsey.”

  TWO HOURS LATER he was even more frustrated than before. Sienna had been no help, saying that she hadn’t even talked to Kate that day. Lana had been ruder. She’d said that if he’d screwed up and hurt Kate, she’d kick his ass.

  Now both women were up and worried about Kate, just as he was.

  He picked up the phone again and dialed. This time he got Eric Banner’s address.

  When he banged on Banner’s door, the light came on after a few minutes and Eric opened the door, squinting against the harsh outside light.

  “What the hell, Jericho?”

  “Is Kate here?”

  Eric looked utterly confused. “Kate?”

  “Banner, just tell me if she’s here.”

  “She’s not,” he assured, his hands coming up in front of him as if to ward Jericho off. “What the hell happened?”

  “It’s a long and very private story.”

  Eric ran his hands through his hair. “Come in. Maybe I can help.”

  Jericho went into Eric’s neat house and sat on his comfortable sofa.

  Eric brought out a whiskey bottle and two glasses.

  “What is that for?”

  “I’m helping. If Kate doesn’t want to be found, the only thing you can do is drown your sorrows in a bottle.”

  Jericho picked up the bottle, pulled off the top and took a long swig.

  “Damn, man. You don’t fool around.”

  Jericho closed his eyes as the alcohol burned a long, hot trail to his stomach. The look of panic on Kate’s face twisted like a knife in his gut. He couldn’t stand the fact that he would frighten her. He took another hefty slug and Eric grabbed the bottle.

  “Whoa, Jericho.”

  Jericho ran his hands over his face and closed his eyes to gather his composure.

  “What happened?”

  “Kate and I had…an argument. She left and I’m sorry. I want to tell her so, but I can’t find her.”

  “Do you want my advice?”

  “Not particularly.”

  “I’m going to give it to you, anyway. Kate does things in her own time. She can’t be goaded or pushed into anything she doesn’t want to do. And when she gets mad. Hoo boy, watch out.”

  “How come you know so much about her?”

  “I don’t have any designs on her, St. James, but if you break her heart, I’ll have to punch your lights out.”

  “Thanks for the warning.”

  “Sure. Now back to Kate. She’s really smart.”

  “I know…”

  “I mean really, really smart. I’ve seen her find evidence that all of us have missed. She’s relentless, tough, and never gets discouraged.”

  “I believe that, Banner.”

  All the while they talked, Jericho drank. The drunker he got, the more he worried about Kate.

  “You know, the last time I got this drunk, I got a tattoo.”

  “Where?”

  “Groin.”

  “Ouch. Did it hurt?”

  “Don’t remember a damn thing, but when I woke up in the morning with a mother of a hangover, it hurt like hell. I’ve got a feeling I’m going to feel the same way when I wake up tomorrow.”

  Jericho’s eyes drifted shut and his last thought was for Kate.

  KATE STARED open-eyed at the beach scene in Paige’s spare room. Paige had coddled her and soothed her and given her a room to sleep in for the night.

  To keep her mind off Jericho and her performance, Kate turned her thoughts to Danny’s case. She went over the crime scene in her mind, bit by bit. She was convinced that someone had surprised Marie LePlante. She believed that the woman had been knocked to the carpet by Danny’s blow and he’d left the apartment. She had gone to the bathroom mirror to check her wound and to clean it. That’s what most people would do. She’d been staring in the mirror and…he’d been hiding in the shower. Kate was sure of it. Mrs. LePlante had seen him and had whirled away from the sink to confront him. Kate didn’t believe that she would have run.
Maybe she’d recognized him and it had momentarily paralyzed her? The assailant had jumped out of the shower and grabbed Mrs. LePlante around the neck, shoving her into the full-length mirror. There’d been an indentation in the glass that was the exact size of her head, but there’d also been another one below it. The blood on the sink and the depression in the glass could have come from the assailant shoving her into the mirror. Kate replayed her encounter with Ken Mitchell over in her mind….

  He’d had his hands in his pockets. Could he have been hiding his hands to cover small cuts? It occurred to her that he’d told her there were a rash of burglaries in her building. It would make sense that Danny was committing the crimes because he had access to every apartment. But Danny wouldn’t do such a thing.

  She made a mental note to go see Sienna after Danny’s arraignment tomorrow morning.

  The thought of Danny’s arraignment made her remember that Jericho would be there. Paige had called Sienna and Lana to let them know where Kate was. Sure enough, Jericho had been there.

  Kate hadn’t been up to talking to them. She’d told Paige that she promised to explain everything tomorrow.

  Losing her cool at Jericho’s had been nothing but cowardice. She was ashamed of herself for acting like such a fool. She was going to tell him tomorrow as soon as she got the chance.

  With that resolution, she closed her eyes and fell asleep.

  JERICHO BOLTED UP off the couch for a moment, disoriented. Then he grabbed his head and groaned.

  As Eric came out of the kitchen, the aroma of bacon twisted Jericho’s stomach.

  “I was just about to wake you. Do you have court today?”

  “What time is it?”

  “Six.”

  Jericho relaxed back into the cushions. “I don’t have to be there until eight.”

  “Head hurt?”

  “Like a bitch.”

  “There’s aspirin in the bathroom and water in the fridge.”

  “Thanks, Banner.”

  “Sure. Give Kate some space, she’ll come around. She’s stubborn.”

  Jericho groaned when he got to his feet, heading directly to the bathroom, he took care of his insistent bladder, grabbed aspirin and water. In his car, he wanted to go by Kate’s apartment to see if she was home, but he realized that Banner was right. He needed to give her space. She’d come around. At least, he hoped that she would.

  One hour later he was showered, shaved and dressed in a charcoal suit. He slipped his dove gray tie around the pale gray shirt and had to knot it twice but still couldn’t get it right. Damn, the woman had turned him inside out last night. She should have been in his bed this morning, in his shower, in his damn arms right now.

  He cursed the tie and pulled it from around his neck. With another curse, he undid the top button of his shirt because he felt as though he was strangling.

  He’d do the damn thing when he got to court.

  HE WALKED INTO the courthouse and realized that he was running late. He took the stairs up to the courtroom, but stopped outside the doors to put on his tie.

  He couldn’t get it done, because there wasn’t a mirror.

  A feminine hand slid over his and his head jerked up to find Kate standing in front of him.

  “Here. Let me help you with that.”

  “Kate,” he breathed as she took the two ends of his tie and deftly tied it right. The first time.

  “I’m sorry.”

  Her head jerked up and she smiled softly. “Thanks. You look like hell, by the way.”

  A grin spread across his face. “Talk to Banner. It’s his fault.”

  The bailiff went to close the courtroom doors and Jericho had no more time to talk to Kate.

  The first three arraignments went quickly, and then Danny was brought in. He was dressed in a suit that Stephen must have gotten for him. Already she felt better about asking him to defend Danny. He would do the best job he could.

  The judge read Danny his rights. The rights Kate had explained to him the day before.

  The judge asked. “How do you plead?”

  Danny said, “Not guilty.”

  “Mr. St. James, bail?”

  “The state requests the court set bail at five hundred thousand dollars.”

  “Objection,” Stephen said. “Mr. Hamilton is a handyman with a diminished capacity. He is no risk to the community.”

  “Your Honor, Mr. Hamilton violently strangled a woman to death in her apartment. I’d say his temper is questionable and he’d be a threat to the community,” Jericho argued.

  “Bail is set at five hundred thousand dollars.”

  The judge scheduled a preliminary hearing for one week later, any pretrial motions for four weeks later, a pretrial conference for six weeks later and trial for seven weeks later. Then he banged his gavel and said, “Next case.”

  The schedule would give Kate time to analyze the blood and the fibers found at the crime scene and that exculpatory evidence would give Stephen ammunition to blow holes in Jericho’s case.

  Kate looked at her watch. She really wanted to talk to him, but she wasn’t sure how long he would be.

  She rose and caught Stephen Castle’s eye. He looked as though he wanted to talk to her.

  He followed her out of the courtroom and she cast one more look over her shoulder. Jericho was watching her with the same longing on his face. She smiled at him and left the courtroom.

  She spent an hour with Stephen going over all the evidence. He asked numerous questions and got permission from her to visit the crime scene.

  “So, I guess that the look you threw Jericho St. James would make it a moot point for me to ask you out to dinner?”

  She smiled. “Yes, I’m afraid so, but I appreciate the invite.”

  “You look good, Kate. St. James was always a lucky bastard.”

  After he left, Kate went over to Jericho’s office. She went up to Sandy and said, “Is Jericho in?”

  Sandy shook her head. “Sorry, he’s in court until five.”

  “Thanks.” Thwarted from talking to Jericho, Kate headed over to the precinct to talk to Sienna about the rash of burglaries.

  The minute Sienna saw her, she rose from her desk. “Are you all right?”

  “I’m fine. It was just a case of cold feet.”

  “Have you talked to Jericho yet?”

  “Briefly, but he had to do arraignments this morning and is in court all afternoon.”

  “What happened?”

  “We had this contest going about who could lose their cool first. He challenged me and I…got myself off in front of him.”

  “You what? Ohmigod Kate!”

  “Afterward I got scared.”

  “Why?”

  “I should have taken my cue from you and Lana. This isn’t as simple as it seems on the surface. I have feelings for him.”

  “Have you told him?”

  “No, not yet, but I will. I wanted to ask you about the fact that my building has been burglarized. Did you know about that?”

  “No, but I can find out for you.”

  After a few moments on the phone, Sienna hung up. “Burglary said they had no leads, guy wore gloves, stole small things, never cash. It was always something sentimental to the victim.”

  “Couldn’t they trace the stuff after it was fenced.”

  “Never fenced.”

  “So, no profit?”

  “No. Burglary’s not sure why. They did say that all the apartments showed no signs of forced entry.”

  “Someone had a key?”

  “Looks that way. They checked out Daniel Hamilton, who’s the super, but couldn’t pin anything on him. They even watched him for a week. He never went into an apartment unless he was fixing something. He was a dead end.”

  “Who would have duplicate keys?”

  “The owner?”

  “Bingo.”

  “They checked out anybody who had access to keys, Kate. They were all clean.”

  “Yeah, well, we
’ll see about that.”

  THE MITCHELL CORPORATE offices were located in the heart of the city in the prestigious and posh Cooper Building.

  She walked up to the receptionist’s station and asked for the senior Mr. Mitchell’s office. Stepping into the elevator, she rode to the twenty-seventh floor and walked into his office.

  His secretary looked up at Kate over her half glasses, like a librarian who’s sure she’s found the perfect candidate to be loud in the library.

  “May I help you?”

  “I’d like to see Mr. Mitchell.”

  “Do you have an appointment?”

  “No, but I think he’ll see me.”

  “Why is that, miss?”

  “It’s about the murder that took place in his downtown building. The one I live in.”

  “Just a moment.” She picked up the phone and buzzed his office.

  Moments later he came out of his office. “Miss Quinn. What a surprise to find out it’s you who wants to see me.”

  “I have a few questions for you, if you have a few minutes.”

  “Certainly.”

  Kate was ushered into his office and she sat in one of the posh chairs.

  “What can I do for you?”

  “I want to know who has control of the master keys for our apartments?”

  “Why, I do, of course.”

  “Where are they kept?”

  “In my safe here in the corporate offices.”

  “Who has access to that safe?”

  “Just me.”

  “Your son doesn’t have the combination?”

  “Ken? What does this have to do with Ken?”

  “I’m just asking the question, Mr. Mitchell.”

  “Is this about the burglaries?”

  “As a matter of fact, it is.”

  “I thought you were a forensic specialist. Why would you have any interest in burglaries?”

  “I do live in the building. One woman was murdered there and three apartments have been burglarized.”

  “But you’re not here because of that. You’re here for that Hamilton fellow. The one arrested for the murder of my tenant.”

  “I think Danny’s innocent.”

  Mr. Mitchell’s face got red. “Balderdash. He’s as guilty as the police believe he is. I’ll see him behind bars for putting a stain on my reputation as an apartment owner. I should have never listened to Ken when he wanted to hire the man. This interview is over.”