Courting Suspicion

by Kimberly Dean

‘I have time.’

  The soft words came from around the corner. When Nina entered the room, Josh felt the jolt like he always did. She looked like a million bucks. She was wearing a fitted blue suit with a necklace that dangled low in the V between her breasts. Her heels were the serious ones this time. No flower-patterned designer sneakers. The four inches of additional height told him just how ready she was for battle.

  He felt the tiredness overtake him. He didn’t want to fight with her. He didn’t want to know if they were on the opposite sides of the law. All he wanted to do was take her home to his place, to the soft bed that awaited. It was more than big enough to fit both of them. They could pull the covers over their heads and forget about the world outside. All their problems.

  And everything that stood between them.

  ‘Detective Morgan.’

  Fuck. They were back to that?

  ‘Ms Lockwood.’ His voice sounded like sandpaper.

  Just … fuck.

  ‘I won’t take much of your time,’ he said. ‘I need to ask you a few questions about one of your employees, Genieve Hart.’

  Rielle’s chair squeaked as she spun away and became interested in her computer.

  Nina folded her arms around the folders she carried. ‘Genieve’s not here. She’s still shaken from what happened last night.’

  ‘She called you.’

  ‘Yes, she asked for the day off. I gave it to her, of course, with pay.’

  ‘How kind of you.’

  Her brown eyes flared. Finally. There was the reaction he was used to.

  She tapped her fingers against the folders and reined it in. ‘Thank you for helping her. She told me you came to her aid.’

  ‘No problem. It’s my job.’

  The silence became uncomfortable.

  ‘So,’ she finally said, ‘you’re here because …?’

  ‘Just doing some follow-up work. Your employee was the victim of a pretty bold crime last night. I’m trying to figure out why she might have been targeted.’

  ‘Her boyfriend obviously was the target, Senator Gunderson.’

  Josh cocked his head. ‘Maybe. I still need to check all the angles. You know that about me by now, Nina.’

  Her eyes widened. She set the files on Rielle’s desk and gestured to the hallway. ‘Come to my office. We can talk there.’

  His gaze swept down her form as he followed her. It was beyond habit now; it was a compulsion. Her skirt cupped her backside like it had been custom made, and the slit up the back gave him glimpses of sleek legs. She thought those sky-high heels of hers could help her kick ass.

  Come to think of it, they did. The first time he’d seen her, he’d been knocked on his.

  They hadn’t kicked him out the door, though, and he’d kept coming back.

  He looked around the familiar office. It screamed sophistication with plush grey carpeting and lighter grey walls. Pops of royal blue were sprinkled around from the pillows on the sofa to the decanter on the wet bar. He’d guessed long ago it was her favourite colour. He sat down in the chair in front of her desk – the normal one, not the funky blue one. You couldn’t pay him to sit in that thing. Yet when he sat, he felt all of her menagerie staring at him. Blue glass figurines flashed at him in disapproval from the shelves on the walls. The elephant on the corner of her desk even flailed its trunk in outrage.

  I know, buddy, Josh thought. I know.

  He didn’t know why he felt guilty. He’d had inklings all along about Luxxor’s mysterious line of work. Inklings that, in truth, had been big, glaring red neon signs. He just hadn’t looked too hard at them.

  He’d been looking somewhere else.

  He watched Nina as she moved behind the big oak desk and sat in that oversized leather chair of hers. ‘Now, what is this about, Detective?’ she asked.

  ‘I thought you might be able to help with our investigation.’

  ‘Into the break-in at the Emissary Hotel? How?’

  ‘I’m looking for a motive.’ He held up his hands. ‘You don’t have to answer anything you don’t want to. This isn’t an interrogation.’

  She arched an eyebrow at him. ‘So if I ask you to go away, you really will this time?’

  He lowered his hands and wrapped them around the arms of the chair. ‘I wasn’t the one who ran away, Nina. You were.’

  Colour lit her cheeks, and she fussed with her pen. They both knew that, the last time they’d seen each other, they’d been in a lip-lock that had lit up a 40,000-seat stadium.

  She tucked her hair behind her ear. ‘I apologise. That was rude of me.’

  He didn’t mind so much. He intimidated most women. He didn’t mean to, but he couldn’t help his size. OK, maybe he could fix his attitude, but when he was working he focused. He’d focused hard on her, and she hadn’t flinched. He liked the way she stood up to him, itty-bitty thing that she was.

  He looked at her more closely. He hadn’t seen her for a couple of weeks. Her ash-blonde hair looked soft and shiny. Her lips were a soft pink to match the colour on her fingernails. She looked put together, but with enough femininity to balance the seriousness of that suit. With the morning sun coming through the windows behind her, though, he could see the tiredness written across her face.

  He frowned. When had Genieve called her? He’d bet his lucky nickel it had been before she’d made it down to the car. Which meant that Nina had been up nearly as long as he had … Unlike him, she’d tried to hide her fatigue with the magic of makeup, but he could see it.

  She sat behind that huge desk looking tired and way too calm, and he just couldn’t take it. The behemoth desk had stood between them more than once. Not this time.

  ‘Where’s that coffee Rielle talked about?’

  Nina’s eyebrows rose. ‘In the breakroom. Would you like her to bring you some?’

  She reached for her phone.

  ‘No, let’s go down there.’

  ‘What? Detective Morgan?’ he heard her sputter when he stood and left the room.

  She followed him, like he knew she would.

  He caught Rielle’s eye when he stepped back into the lobby. Her head was bent close to Sienna Blakely’s, Luxxor’s communications manager. Wonder what they were talking about?

  ‘Breakroom?’ he asked.

  Rielle quickly unfolded her long legs and started to rise.

  He held up his hand to stop her. ‘Which way?’

  She pointed, and he found it just one door down. The office lunchroom area was like a gourmet kitchen compared to the breakroom down at the police station. The refrigerator was stainless steel, as was the dishwasher. At the station, they used paper cups and plastic silverware. Here, a bowl of fresh fruit sat on the counter, along with a basket of power bars. He headed for the coffeemaker and found real coffee mugs. He poured himself a cup and had one waiting for Nina when she marched into the room.

  ‘What are you doing?’ she demanded.

  ‘You look about as good as I feel.’ He pointed at the coffee cup already on the table.

  Her chin came up at that, and her hand lifted self-consciously to her face.

  ‘Oh, don’t give me that. You’re a knockout and you know it, but I can see how tired you are.’

  She glared at him. ‘You’re such a sweet-talker, Detective.’

  Wordlessly, he passed her a packet of creamer and two sugars – just how she took her coffee. He knew. He’d been paying attention. He gave her a spoon, too, a real one from a fancy silverware set in the first drawer he opened. No plastic stir straws for this place.

  The stiffness in her jaw softened. At last, she took a chair, prepared her coffee and took an appreciative sip. ‘Thank you,’ she said.

  ‘You’re welcome.’ He sat down in the ladder-back chair at the end of the table. It put him right next to her, and he much preferred this set-up. There was no desk between them, no zoo of glass figurines watching. They were still on her turf, but not in her fortress. They could talk now.

  ‘So �
��’ he began. ‘Genieve dates a senator.’

  ‘Yes.’

  ‘How long has that been going on?’

  ‘I’m not sure. A month or so? I don’t follow my employees’ love lives that closely.’

  ‘Really?’ He grunted. ‘It seems we’ve had a front-row view of some of them.’

  She considered that for a moment and shrugged.

  Josh ran a hand through his hair. Even when she shrugged she was graceful. How could he ask the questions he needed to ask? What he’d seen in that hotel room hadn’t been nice and proper. If Luxxor really was what he worried it was, and Nina was its president, that also made her …

  No. One step at a time. He couldn’t get ahead of himself.

  ‘How did they meet?’

  ‘Through business.’

  ‘Your company’s business?’

  Her gaze met his over her coffee cup. ‘Yes. I introduced them. What does that have to do with the invasion of their hotel room?’

  It took him a moment before he decided to answer truthfully. He had to see her reaction. He had to know. ‘The reporters claimed she was a prostitute. They thought the American people should know what their elected officials are doing. Or should I say, “whom”?’

  Nina flinched hard enough to make her hair sway, and the fight came into her eyes. ‘So that gives them the right to break the law? They can enter a hotel room by force and film a couple during a moment of intimacy based on hearsay?’

  ‘No. That’s why I arrested them.’

  The tension in the room ebbed.

  ‘Yes. Right. Thank you for doing that.’ She stared down into her coffee. ‘The video … can the part after the break-in be erased?’

  ‘No. That would be tampering with the evidence.’ And he wouldn’t do that – not even if she asked him to. His shoulders pulled tight as he waited to see if she would.

  ‘Even if it’s a terrible invasion of privacy?’ she asked.

  ‘The judge could rule that portion impermissible – for this crime.’

  Her lips thinned, and she folded her hands tightly. ‘The accusation is offensive. Genieve’s been seeing the senator exclusively for a while. Do your homework, Morgan.’

  Exclusive. There was that word again. It hit Josh’s ear wrong. He’d heard it before … from Genieve …

  ‘Interesting you should say that.’ He took a drink of his own coffee. It was the good stuff, but he’d long since passed the need for caffeine. When he set it on the table, he leaned in towards her. He gave her credit. He felt the electricity between them jump, but she didn’t pull back. ‘I did a quick Internet search on the senator. He seems to show up in lifestyle stories more than political ones.’

  ‘I’m shocked.’

  ‘There were photos of him at events with Genieve on his arm.’

  Nina lifted her coffee cup and an eyebrow. ‘Don’t make me say I told you so.’

  ‘There were even more photos of her doing the same with other men. Rich men.’

  She took her time sipping her coffee. When she set it back down, the cup didn’t even clink against the table. ‘She dates. That’s not a crime.’

  ‘Maybe. Not usually, but the senator had your business card in his pocket.’

  He watched as her pretty eyes narrowed. ‘Probably because his girlfriend works here.’

  ‘And what, exactly, is it that Luxxor does, Nina? You’ve never really shared that with me.’

  The muscle in her temple pulsed. ‘I don’t know what you’re implying, Detective, but Luxxor will not tolerate slander. From reporters or you. I thought this discussion was supposed to be about the crime that was committed – the break-in. Do I need to call my lawyer?’

  Josh sat back in his chair and stretched out his legs. Their feet bumped, and she shifted. They were back to the magnetic push/pull dance they liked to do. Skirting around the subject … and each other … He’d always wondered at the cause behind it. Serious attraction had always been the pull, but the push had always been a mystery.

  Was her job the reason why she’d told him they couldn’t be together?

  He drummed his fingers against the table top. ‘Have you noticed anyone hanging around the place? Has this TMI website reached out to you in any way?’

  ‘No.’

  ‘Does Genieve have any enemies?’

  ‘Everyone likes her.’

  Yeah, he’d seen proof of that. The boys in blue at the hotel room had liked her a lot. ‘How about the senator?’

  She rolled her eyes. ‘He’s a politician – and he’s running for office.’

  Point taken. Dumb question.

  ‘How about you?’ he asked.

  She reached up to touch her earring. It was a little thing, but the question unsettled her more than he liked. ‘Not that I know of.’

  ‘Would you tell me if you did?’

  She didn’t answer.

  Suddenly the tension in the room pissed Josh off.

  ‘Nina, the reporters got an anonymous tip.’

  ‘From someone obviously very hurtful.’

  ‘That’s what worries me.’ The energy he’d been missing for most of the night returned with a surge. He turned in his seat and leaned towards her until he was in her space and in her way. ‘Just tell me, is there anything I need to know?’

  She concentrated on her coffee, but the pulse at her temple fluttered wildly. ‘No.’

  ‘Do you trust me?’ he asked.

  The tip of her tongue darted out to run across her lips, but she kept her silence.

  Apparently, not enough.

  The spurt of energy left him, and the weight of the night jumped on Josh’s back. If she’d just shared a little, he might have been able to let it go. But now? Now he had to keep digging, and in places she might not like.

  Wearily, he pushed himself to his feet. She looked up at him, her beautiful face pale.

  He wanted to touch her so badly, his fingers ached. To stop himself, he planted his hands on his hips. ‘I knew some new scandal would eventually bring me back here. I just wasn’t expecting this.’

  ‘Detective …’

  He shook his head. ‘Get some rest, Nina.’

  He had a feeling they both were going to need it.

  Chapter Three

  Nina wasn’t ready when her employees flew into the breakroom seconds after the main office door clicked shut. It was such a quiet sound after all that energy Josh had been giving off – and somehow so much worse than if he’d yelled or broken something. She set down her coffee cup. Her hand was trembling so badly, some of it sloshed onto the cherrywood table.

  ‘What just happened?’ Rielle asked. Her hair streamed out behind her as she spun around the corner.

  Sienna was hot on her heels. ‘Are you OK? What did he want?’

  ‘More importantly, what does he know?’ Rielle asked.

  Nina carefully mopped up her spill with a napkin from the holder on the table. ‘He suspects too much. He just has no proof.’

  ‘That’s good, isn’t it?’ Sienna asked.

  ‘Mmmm,’ Rielle hummed worriedly. She was involved with a man who worked in the shadows. She knew better than anyone that it wasn’t good to arouse that kind of person’s curiosity.

  Josh wasn’t that different from Darien, in a lot of ways. He was just more conscious of what was right and what was wrong. Did he even see the shades of grey between the two?

  Nina felt her coffee settling in her gut like a witch’s brew. She’d disappointed him; she knew she had. It had been a long time since she’d cared what anybody else thought, but this? It hurt.

  She brushed her hand across her cheek. He’d called her a knockout.

  Images from her dream returned. It seemed as if it had been ages ago rather than hours, but the ache was even more intense after seeing him … and feeling that snap in the air between them … She crossed her legs and bit her lip. He’d looked so tired. There had been dark circles beneath his eyes, and his five o’clock shadow had been rough and sex
y. When she’d first seen him, her immediate impulse had been to take him home and take care of him. In every way possible …

  In every way a madam could …

  She closed her eyes. She couldn’t let him find out the worst, no matter how much guilt pulled at her. That would only seal his opinion of her and put her in an even worse spot. She needed to protect Genieve, Sienna, Rielle, Mr Howard and the rest of her staff. ‘It’s war room time.’

  They needed to develop a strategy. They needed to get on top of this early.

  Her cheeks heated. Pun strictly unintended.

  She gathered up the sopping napkin and threw it away in the trashcan under the sink. She rinsed her hands and patted them dry. ‘Rielle, please lock the door to the offices and have Security let us know if any visitors arrive.’

  There shouldn’t be any – at least none she wanted to see. She’d already cleared her schedule for the day.

  ‘Sienna, could you please turn on the television and check if the local channels are reporting anything yet?’ There had been nothing on the national morning news shows. She’d missed the early news because she’d been out, taking care of an important task.

  Sienna crossed the room and turned on the flatscreen TV that hung on the wall. The tall blonde flipped through channels and muted the sound when she found nothing pertinent to their situation. ‘I haven’t seen anything about the senator. I can’t believe they’re not reporting the hotel break-in yet.’

  Haynes had gotten on it early.

  ‘It’s inevitable,’ Nina said, her voice steady.

  They just needed to be ready to react when it did.

  With a sigh, Sienna took an orange from the fruit basket and a plate from the cupboard. She sat in the seat where Josh had just been and began to peel the fruit. ‘I’ve changed the pick-up and drop-off points to the back-up location tonight, as you requested. If anyone arrives here, Security will redirect them.’

  ‘Good.’ Nina glanced out the window at the DC skyline. The morning was bright and sunny, much too pretty for the ugly machinations they were going through. But that was DC now, wasn’t it? All the grit and grime of the city were hidden behind the pomp and circumstance. ‘Hopefully nobody will be followed.’

  Rielle returned and poured herself a glass of water from the filtered pitcher in the refrigerator. ‘Security says they haven’t seen any reporters.’