“Bridget’s been told that you have to handle investigating this case on your own.”
“Excuse me?”
“The other partners decided that since you are doing another case pro bono, they can’t afford to have Bridget do more work when you’re not bringing in any billable hours. They really need her working on the Schultz Auto case.”
“Damn it.” Schultz Auto Sales was a big client who paid our firm a lot of money. I understood that it took top priority. “I knew we should have hired another investigator.”
“You tried, remember? You didn’t like any of them.”
“Right now, a bad one would be better than no one.” This was really going to cut into my time on other cases.
“Do you still want me to get her?”
“No.” I was just going to handle it myself.
By the time Friday evening rolled around, I was exhausted. Despite being busy, I still missed Tommy. Unfortunately, I hadn’t had a minute to spare to talk to him on the phone, and I’d barely texted with him.
It was a good reminder that relationships didn’t work for me.
When I got home that night, I was on alert as I entered my house, but as usual, nothing was wrong. I hadn’t received any more threats in the mail either. I didn’t quite think everything would be back to normal until Tate’s case was over, but I hoped the mail that had been delivered to my home was the peak of terrorization I received from the mysterious person. And I was still optimistic that there would be a DNA match sooner rather than later.
I quickly grabbed a yogurt and banana from the kitchen and went to my room. I stuffed food down my throat as I got ready for bed. These days, I was all about multitasking.
When I was finished, I threw the container and peel in the garbage and headed to bed for another lonely night of sleep.
Right before I crawled in, I ran my fingers over the book Tommy had left at my house. I should put it on my bookshelf, but for some reason, I couldn’t bring myself to do that. Every once in a while, I looked to see what he was reading on Kindle, too. So far, he hadn’t signed up for his own account, and it pleased me way too much.
Someday soon, I was going to have to push him out of my mind and forget about him because he clearly had a home and a life back in Virginia, and he had never indicated he wanted anything more than hot vacation sex.
Today wasn’t going to be that day.
The next morning, all thoughts of exorcising Tommy from my mind were gone when I stepped outside.
37
Tommy
I had just finished hauling in a load of drywall to Maddox’s basement when my phone rang.
It was still early in the morning. The weather had been very humid lately, so Maddox and I had been getting up at dawn to start work before we felt like we were being suffocated from the heat.
Whoever was calling me at this hour was either an early bird or they were calling about something important.
Turned out to be both.
I was surprised to see Olivia’s name on my caller ID. We’d barely exchanged any messages all week, which let me know just how she felt about me. It was apparent that I felt more for her than she did me.
“Hello?”
“Hey, Tommy.” She sounded hesitant, as if I wouldn’t want to hear from her.
“Hey yourself.”
“Are you busy?”
“Um”—I looked at Maddox—“just working on the basement, but we were about to take a break.”
He nodded and went upstairs.
“Is there something I can help you with?”
Jesus, we’d gone from spending every night together to some weird formality. As if I hadn’t made her come multiple times.
“I’m not sure. I have a situation, and I guess I was looking for your input.”
My chest puffed out. Of all people, she had come to me with her problem.
“I’ll do my best. Hit me.”
“When I woke up this morning, there was a dead cat on my doorstep. Do you think I should be worried?”
“I’ll be there in forty-five minutes.”
“But I live at least an hour away.”
“Not with the way I’ll be driving.”
“You don’t have to come, Tommy. I called you for advice.”
“Olivia, we’re not going to argue about this. I’m coming.”
“I don’t think it’s that big of a—”
“Call the police. I’ll see you in forty-five.” I hung up the phone and took the stairs two at a time.
Maddox gave me the keys to his SUV without hesitation, and I took off for Olivia’s after stopping to pick up my bag. I wasn’t planning to come back to Brook Creek anytime soon.
Because of the small detour to grab my stuff, it took me an hour to get to her place. When I arrived, I called her as I pulled into her driveway.
“Open your garage door,” I said after she answered.
I hopped out of Maddox’s SUV and marched into the garage to see her standing in the doorway.
“Did the police show up yet?”
“No.”
I cursed. I understood this wasn’t an emergency situation and Olivia’s life wasn’t in immediate danger, but I was frustrated that they hadn’t shown up yet.
I couldn’t help but picture her dead on her doorstep instead of a cat.
“Come inside,” she said. “I’ll show you that poor animal.”
We walked to the front door. When she opened it, I knelt down and studied it the best I could without stepping outside in case there was evidence I might disturb. It was the reason I had come in through the garage.
The first thing I noticed was the absence of blood. The second was the marks on the cat that suggested it had been hit by a car. Those two things made me feel slightly better, as whoever had brought the cat here had found an animal that was already dead instead of killing it on her front step. Or worse, torturing it.
Just as I stood, a police car pulled up in front of the house. The two officers who had come to Olivia’s office last week stepped out of the car. It made sense that they would dispatch the same officers, and that might explain the delay in them showing up. Didn’t make me feel any better about their late presence though.
“Next time, don’t open the door,” I told Olivia. “Someone could have placed the cat here in order to lure you outside, where they could attack you.”
She snorted her laughter, and I shot her a look.
“I’m not joking, Olivia. You need to take your safety more seriously.”
“I think you’re overreacting.”
“And I think you’re underreacting.”
The cops were reaching hearing distance.
“We’ll discuss this later,” I said, pausing any further arguments from her.
38
Olivia
I didn’t know where Tommy got off on ordering me around. This was my life, my house, and my profession being targeted.
But I bit my tongue to keep from saying any more until after the police left.
I could tell they were less than impressed with the present that had been dropped off on my doorstep. This made me feel both satisfied that I knew Tommy was overreacting yet simultaneously worried that if something did happen to me, the police wouldn’t care.
At least they had taken the poor cat with them to the lab, and I wouldn’t have to dispose of it myself.
I shut the door and faced Tommy. “Let me make one thing clear. You are not the boss of me.”
He took a step back and frowned. “When did I ever say I was your boss?” He laughed. “I am very well aware that you are your own person. It’s one of the things I find sexy as hell about you.”
I crossed my arms over my chest. “You and I were fighting, and you decided when to cut the conversation short and that we would talk about it later.” I really hated that he’d had the last word. “Maybe I wasn’t done talking about it.”
A truly confused look crossed his face, and I swore the corners of h
is mouth twitched. If he was laughing at me, I wasn’t going to be held responsible for my actions.
It took several seconds for Tommy to speak. “Okay, first of all, we were having a discussion. We were not fighting. Secondly, I did not cut you off because I get to decide when and where we talk about things. I stopped the conversation because the officers were walking up to the front door. If we were fighting, as you put it, would you have really wanted them to hear us?”
I pursed my lips together because I didn’t want to answer. “No,” I reluctantly admitted.
“And when I said we would discuss it later, I was merely letting you know we could finish when we were alone again. That’s all I meant.”
Now, I felt like a fool for overreacting. Something I had just accused him of doing earlier. “Go ahead. Laugh.”
He shook his head. “I wouldn’t dare.” He stepped forward. “I really would like to kiss you though.”
“Then, what are you waiting for?”
Tommy hauled me into his arms, and I practically inhaled him when he put his lips on mine.
He carried me into the living room, and we fell onto the couch. His shirt went flying, and he attacked my pants. “I’m sorry, Liv. This is going to be a quick fuck. It’s only been a few days, but I need to be inside you.”
I had no complaints, and I went for his fly as soon as I was naked on the bottom.
Tommy’s shaft sprang out into my hand, but I barely got to touch it before he pushed my hands away and drove inside me.
I cried out in pleasure. Oh, yes.
If I had Tommy fucking me before bed every night, I had a feeling I would be a lot more ready to take on the day the next morning.
He lifted my ass and pounded into me. With every thrust, he dragged my clit over his pelvis, and it wasn’t long before I was panting and begging for him to make me come.
Two more lunges forward, and we both exploded. I bucked my hips as he held on and poured his seed into me.
After we both collapsed, I could still feel him twitching inside me.
I pushed his hair off his sweaty forehead. “I needed that. It’s been a long week.”
“Did you put the cat there yourself, so you could finally have an excuse for me to come here?”
I smacked his arm. “Bad joke.”
He smiled. “You’re right.” He kissed my chest over my breastbone even though we hadn’t bothered to take off my shirt. “Is you being busy why I barely heard from you?”
I replayed the words in my head. Could there be a chance he’d missed me, or was he just asking out of curiosity?
“Yes. I’ve been working on Tate’s case, plus helping a first-year associate with another. Our firm’s investigator is pretty much working full-time on a big-name client that we can’t afford to lose. She doesn’t have much time to do anything else even though I know she’d help me if I needed her to.”
“When is the big-name client’s case going to court, so your investigator can help you?”
They weren’t going to court. At least, not yet.
“They are starting negotiations next week. If things don’t work out there, court would be next. It’ll be a while. Court is always the last step because it costs the most money and time.”
“Is that what’s going to happen with Tate’s case?”
“Maybe.”
Tate and I were probably going to try to sit down with the Scotts and get them to dismiss the case, but I had a feeling we were going to have to threaten to countersue in order to do that. And knowing the Scotts, they probably weren’t going to back down even though we had a good case. They had slandered Tate’s name all over the media. If we went to court, I was going to make sure Tate saw a good amount of money. The poor kid deserved it.
Tommy lifted his eyes. “You can’t say any more because of privilege, right?”
I smiled. “You got it.”
“I get it.”
“Thank you. Guys I’ve dated in the past didn’t understand.”
“Same for me. I usually couldn’t even tell girlfriends where I was going when we got sent out of the country. Some people don’t understand that a job requirement is to keep our lips sealed.”
I’d never really thought about Tommy and me having things in common because his job had been so different from mine. It was a relief to not have someone press me for answers simply because they were curious.
And I was really glad I would never have to worry about Tommy being sent out of the country without me knowing where he was going.
I closed my eyes.
I was thinking about him in future terms way too much, and I needed to make it stop.
“You okay up there?” he asked.
“I’m fine.” I pressed on his shoulders. “But we’d probably better get up. I have some work I have to do today.”
That was just an excuse. I really didn’t want to lie in his arms and think about how much I was going to miss him.
39
Tommy
Sunday afternoon, I dropped Olivia off at work. She had insisted on going in to work on a few things, and I had insisted that I would be the one to take her. I worried about her being in her office building on the weekend, but she assured me many lawyers worked seven days a week and she wouldn’t be alone.
That was reassuring information, but what made me feel even better was when I talked to the security guard near the entrance. I took him for former military and knew just how to make him a new friend of mine. By the time I left, he was more than happy to keep an extra eye out for any suspicious activity, especially regarding Olivia.
I headed back to her neighborhood and parked in her driveway. Then, I took out a notebook and began writing down house numbers. After that, I strode up to the front door of the house directly across the street and knocked firmly.
A woman who was old enough to be my grandmother answered.
I gave her my best golly-gee-whiz smile as she eyed me through the screen door.
I took off the baseball cap I had been wearing and said, “Afternoon, ma’am. I was wondering if I could talk to you real quick.”
She looked down at my notebook and then back up at me. “I don’t want to buy anything.”
“Oh, no, ma’am, I’m not selling anything.”
“Then, what are you here for?”
I pointed to Olivia’s house. “Do you know the lady who lives there? She’s my friend, and recently, someone has been causing her trouble. Did you happen to see any activity late Friday night or early Saturday morning?”
The woman shook her head. “I don’t know her. She’s rarely home. And I didn’t see anything.”
Before I could get another question out, the lady slammed the door in my face.
“Nice speaking with you, too.” I crossed her house number off my list.
The next two neighbors to the right hadn’t seen anything. Neither had the house two doors down from Olivia. Her next-door neighbor wasn’t home. I walked to the other side of Olivia’s home and knocked there, too.
I was feeling defeated when I knocked on the door on the other side of the grumpy, old biddy. I had successfully made a full circle without a single thing to show for it.
The door opened to a man about my age, but I no longer had the energy to give him a hundred-watt smile. My half-assed one was going to have to do.
“Can I help you?” he asked.
“I’m not selling anything,” I said first. The old lady wasn’t the only one who’d thought I was soliciting. “I just have a few questions for you, if that’s okay.”
“I can sure try. It depends on what you’re asking.”
I pointed to Olivia’s house and asked him if he had seen anything the night before.
He shook his head. “Sorry. No.”
“Thanks anyway,” I said and turned on my heel to leave.
“But you’re more than welcome to check my security cameras.”
The neighbor, Troy, not only had a camera pointed at Olivia’s house, but
he’d also caught the whole incident. The best part was that it was all uploaded to the cloud. All he had to do was send me the link.
The image showed an individual in black, carrying a bag to Olivia’s front door and dumping it out. They were covered from head to toe, so I couldn’t see any identifying features, but from the person’s height, build, and walk, I’d bet my left nut it was a woman.
The frustrating part was that the car was parked on the street. From the angle, there was no way to get a full license plate. It was an Iowa plate that started with a six. But I did know it was a dark Mercedes.
I hopped in my car, ready to show the evidence to Olivia to see if she recognized anything and then send it on to the police. I left the neighborhood, following the same direction the car had pulled away from her place, and I wasn’t far when I noticed a cluster of businesses. A bank, some restaurants, a few other miscellaneous stores.
I made a quick right turn and headed into the parking lot. I really wanted to check the bank’s surveillance cameras because banks always had the highest security, but it was Sunday, and they were closed.
Unless…
The bank was part of a large chain, and those big banks often had twenty-four-hour customer service. Figuring I had nothing to lose, I pulled out my phone and Googled for phone numbers. I found one immediately and hit dial.
A woman answered with the name of the bank and a cheerful tone. “My name is Marci. How can I help you today?”
“This is an odd request and one you’re probably going to have to forward to your supervisor. I’m looking into seeing if I can access a local branch’s security cameras. I realize that today is Sunday, but banks often have security guards do patrol. Is there any way I can speak to them and potentially have them give me access?”
“I’m sorry. What did you say your name was, and who do you work for?”
Take Me in the Dark (Take Me #2) Page 16