Jack looked into Kate’s eyes and said, “You never realize how much you’re going to miss someone until they’re gone. I learned that lesson the hard way.”
Goose bumps trailed up Kate’s arms.
“Annie was lured from the house by a man on the Internet.”
“That’s horrible. Did they find the person responsible?”
“Yeah, but they couldn’t find Annie. With no proof to hold the suspect in custody, they were forced to let him go.”
“Is this why you went to work for the FBI?”
He nodded. After a long pause he said, “She was just shy of her fourteenth birthday when she was taken. She’ll be twenty-four next month.”
A chill crawled up Kate’s spine. He thought his sister was still alive. His sister’s disappearance explained Jack’s obsession with finding her, maybe with finding all missing persons. From the first moment she laid eyes on him, he’d seemed overly concerned about her welfare, sticking to her side like glue. His sister’s disappearance explained why he was so adamant about her not going off on her own. He was transferring his concern for his sister onto Kate. “I’m not your sister, Jack.”
When he didn’t respond she added, “Protecting me isn’t going to make things right again or change what happened to Annie.”
“Maybe not.” He moved the dog aside and stood.
Kate reached up, and he didn’t hesitate to take her hands in his and pull her to her feet. Once she had her balance, he cupped her face in his palms. “Promise me you won’t do anything you might regret.”
“I can’t promise you anything.” But Kate found herself wanting to promise him that...and more. A rapidly beating heart alerted her to the fact that she was falling for Jack Coffey. The notion made her head spin. She was weakening and all because Jack Coffey wanted to keep her safe. She needed to stay strong, stay focused. She couldn’t let him get to her. Not now. Maybe not ever.
“Revenge isn’t the answer,” he said, reading the wrong message from her frown. His mouth quirked. He leaned forward and kissed her with the confidence of a man who knew she would let him. The palm of his hand cupped the back of her head and pulled her mouth closer. The rejection she’d received the other morning breezed through her mind, along with the thought of pushing him away, and a zillion other things. But she didn’t do anything...not really...not unless kissing him back counted for something. His lips felt warm and inviting, intoxicating.
“Yoohoo! Hello!”
Kate pulled away, jerking her head in the direction the high-pitched perky voice had come from. Damn. A woman was headed their way, more than likely a neighbor. “What are we going to do?”
“Relax,” Jack said. “I’ll do the talking.” He released his hold on Kate and turned toward the woman as she approached.
“Hello,” the woman said again, out of breath. Her light brown hair was pulled back, her eyes half hidden beneath a straw hat. “Barbara Matthews,” she offered, extending her hand.
After Jack shook her hand, the woman gestured toward the house in the distance, past rows of tall pines. “My husband, Rob, and I have rented the house next door for the summer. My daughter and I saw you jump in the lake. We thought maybe you needed help, but from the looks of things,” she said, her cheeks blushing, “everything’s fine.” She sighed. “Sorry if I caught you at a bad time.”
“No worries,” Jack said. “We’re renting, too. And everything’s fine.”
“Mom!” a young girl shouted.
“I’m down here,” Barbara Matthews shouted, “with the—”
“Samantha and Fred Reed,” Jack blurted.
“With the Reeds,” the woman finished. “Tell Dad that everything’s fine.”
The woman looked toward the dog whining at Kate’s ankles. “Oh, what a sweet little dog. What’s its name?”
Jack looked at Kate.
“Barney,” Kate said.
Barbara picked the dog up, laughing when Barney licked her face. After a moment she set the dog loose again. “Well, I should be going. Glad everything is okay. If you need anything, feel free to—”
“Mom, you better hurry,” the approaching teenager warned. “They’re at it again.”
Everybody turned toward the young girl coming their way. The girl wore a baggy red and white striped shirt, a black and white long layered skirt and mauve fluffy slippers.
“Brooklynn, honey, I’d like you to meet Fred and Samantha.”
Brooklynn stayed where she was and lifted her chin in acknowledgement. Two eyebrow piercings and a gold ring clamped to her nostril added to Brooklynn’s hardened look. Her eyes were lined with black liner and a chain-link tattoo encircled her upper left arm. Her fingernails were painted black, contrasting with her white spiky hair.
Kate stepped forward and shook Brooklynn’s hand. The young girl didn’t back off, but neither did she appear receptive to shaking a stranger’s hand. “Nice to meet you, Brooklynn.”
“Yeah, okay. Is that your dog?”
“Sure is,” Jack cut in. “His name is Barney.”
Brooklynn bent forward and picked up the ball of fluff. “Fred and Barney,” she said. “Cool.”
Jack smiled. “I tried to get Sam here to change her name to Wilma, but she wouldn’t go for it.”
Brooklynn smiled.
A loud crash sounded. A shouting match quickly ensued from the house Barbara Matthews had said she was renting...two male voices from the sounds of it.
Barbara tensed. “We better get going. It sounds like there’s trouble brewing at the Matthews’ home.”
Brooklynn rolled her eyes and set the dog on the ground. “There’s always trouble brewing at the Matthews’ home.”
Kate didn’t know how to respond to that, so she kept quiet and watched Barbara and Brooklynn head back up the trail through the tall pines separating the two houses.
“Fred and Samantha?” Kate asked Jack under her breath after they were out of earshot.
“It’s the best I could do. If we came off as stiff and unapproachable, we would trigger suspicion.”
“I don’t think they recognized us, but what if they did?”
“If they had, I would have seen fear or recognition in those big blue eyes of hers.”
“How could you see anything under her floppy straw hat? You don’t miss a thing, do you?” Kate asked.
“Photographic memory, remember?”
Kate raised a skeptical brow. “You remember every detail of everybody you meet?”
“Almost always. If it’s someone I find interesting, definitely.”
She crossed her arms. “What was I wearing the first time we met?”
“Hiking boots, cargo pants, white shirt, and a brown vest with mesh lining. Long red hair in a single braid, no jewelry, mesmerizing green eyes, small chin, upturned nose, five-foot four, 32 B.”
“Close enough,” she said before she went down on bended knee. “Come on, Barney. It’s time to go inside.”
More shouting could be heard from the Matthews’ house.
“Do you think Barbara and Brooklynn will be okay?”
“I don’t know,” Jack said, his voice troubled, “but there’s not much we can do about it. After we leave, I’ll have A.J. pay them a visit.”
Kate nodded, relieved to know they could do something, even if it meant waiting a few days. “No wonder the poor girl dresses like that. She’s trying her damnedest to get attention. Something I never had to worry about when my parents were alive.”
“Your father was quite a man...a great scientist and I’m sure an admirable father, too.”
She followed Jack toward the house. “The best father a girl could ask for.”
Jack stopped outside the sliding glass door. “Tell me about him.”
“Right after you get out of those wet clothes.”
“Good idea.” After Barney went inside, Jack waited for Kate to enter. She put a hand to his jaw. “Are you alright?”
He put his hand over hers. For the fir
st time since she’d met him, he looked distant and sad. “I’ll be fine. Just tired and hungry. I saw eggs and cheese in the refrigerator. Help yourself while I get changed.”
Less than ten minutes later, they were both opening and shutting kitchen cupboards in search of a frying pan.
“I don’t think A.J.’s sister does much cooking.”
“I’d have to agree,” Jack said, spying another empty drawer.
“Here’s a wok,” Kate said excitedly, hoping to pull Jack out of his doldrums. “This used to be my father’s favorite cooking utensil.”
“You don’t say?”
“I do say.” She put the wok on one of the four burners and turned the knob. “My father could work magic with a wok. You name it, he could make it. In fact,” Kate said, “I remember him once telling me he yearned to be a famous chef when he was a child.” Kate laughed. “He said he had become so adept at mixing ingredients in the kitchen that he excelled in all of the lab classes he took in college. To my father, beakers and flasks were no different than measuring cups and colanders.”
It warmed Kate’s heart to hear Jack chuckle as he pulled eggs from the refrigerator. “Let’s find out if you take after the old man,” he said.
Kate took an egg from Jack and cracked it into the pan before heading back to the refrigerator to gather a few more ingredients. “At night he used to tuck me in and recite recipes instead of goodnight stories.”
“As in, turn the oven to three-fifty, mix three eggs, two cups of flour, and don’t forget the dash of oregano?” Jack asked.
“Exactly.” She cracked another egg into the wok, added a splash of milk, and stirred the eggs with a fork. “His favorite recipes were salad dressings, anything from your basic coleslaw dressing to prickly pear puree. He said if he ever changed careers, it would be the Lyso-Lemon Dressing recipe that would make him famous.”
“What was it?”
She added cheese to the eggs as she tried to recall. She shook her head. “It was one of his more playful recipes. Hmmm...something like, a drop of Lyso-lemon juice, a cup of vinegar...” Kate smiled at Jack’s grimace.
“Lyso-lemon juice?”
“You would have to know my father. He was always joking, you know, not your stereotypical serious-minded scientist, that’s for sure.”
He retrieved two plates from a cupboard. “Go on,” he said. “How does the salad recipe end?”
“Well, after adding a few drops of Lyso-lemon juice, cup of vinegar, dash of Ribo-Rosemary nucleas or fresh minced tarragon, stir well. Add one spoonful of superfine ground mustard and whisk gently until emulsified. Add the usual adjuvants and thimersol. Pour over crisp lettuce wedges and...damn!”
“What’s wrong?”
Kate flipped the omelet and pointed the spatula at him. “There was something else. I always used to forget this part and it drove my father crazy. He would tickle me, we would laugh, and eventually I would fall asleep.” She shook her head. “I can never remember the last little ingredient.”
“Maybe I could tickle it out of you,” he said, moving toward her, his fingers splayed, ready for the attack.
She kept the spatula directed at him. “Don’t even think about it.”
“Oh, I’m thinking about it,” Jack said, his melancholy mood all but changed as he came up fast behind her until she felt his chest against her back. His hands slid around her waist, pulling her close against him. “Why now, Jack, but not before?” she asked, her voice a whisper.
“Because we weren’t ready.”
One of his hands left her side and she heard the click of the stove being shut off and the wok being moved, but she didn’t see a thing. Her eyes were closed and all she could think about were his long fingers pressed firmly against her hips. “We’re ready now?”
“Oh, yeah,” he said as he slid his palms lower over her hips and thighs. He removed the tie from her robe. She moved against him. He pulled off her robe and nuzzled her neck. “We’re definitely ready.”
A moment ago all she could think about was food; now she just wanted Jack. She turned about, grabbed hold of the bottom of his shirt and pulled it up and over his head. She kissed his collarbone and chest as she tugged at the button on his jeans. She felt ridiculously frantic, as if the clock was ticking and they were running out of time. Afraid he might stop her again, she unzipped his pants but that’s as far as she got before he took her by the waist, picked her up and placed her on the granite counter. The smooth stone felt cool against her lacey covered buttocks. Her legs straddled his waist and their mouths came together in a hungry frenzy.
He pulled his mouth away and left a tingly trail of kisses across her neck, between her breasts and over her navel. Her breathing grew ragged. She let out a low growl and used her feet to slide his pants to his ankles. His desire was clear. She reached out to touch him just as the doorbell rang.
They were cursed.
Jack had his pants on in a millisecond. He tossed Kate her robe, grabbed his gun from the table, and stood rigid by the door. “Who is it?”
Kate muttered obscenities as she tried to get the robe turned right-side out. She slipped the robe on and used her fingers to keep it shut while she picked up the sash from the floor.
“Umm—it’s me—Brooklynn—from next door,” came a timid voice from outside.
Jack looked over his shoulder at Kate, making sure she was dressed before he opened the door. She couldn’t read the expression on his face, but if he was feeling even half of what she was feeling, he was frustrated too. He hid the gun inside the potted plant near the door.
Of all the rotten luck. Kate used her fingers to brush tangles out of her hair before she took hold of the spatula and began pushing the eggs around the inside of the wok.
Jack opened the door.
Kate gave the teenager a quick wave of her utensil, trying her best to look relaxed even though she was anything but. Her body still hummed with the excitement of having Jack’s hands and mouth on her bare flesh. The sooner Jack talked to the girl and found out what the problem was, the sooner they could get back to what they were doing.
Jack raked a hand through tousled hair. “What can we do for you, Brooklynn?”
“It’s my dad. He has a drinking problem...one of the reasons Mom brought us here.” She sighed. “Mom thought a long trip away from home would fix everything. She was wrong. He’s drunk again. My little brother is scared. I thought maybe...since you two looked sort of normal...that you might let us stay here for a few hours, at least until my dad’s feeling better.”
Kate felt disappointed, extremely frustrated, and guilty all at once.
Jack looked at Kate. “What do you think, Kate?”
“I thought her name was Samantha?”
Jack rubbed his temple. “It is...Samantha Kate Reed.” He looked at Kate and lifted a tense brow. “Um, Sam, would it be a problem if they stayed here for a few hours?”
“No-no, of course not,” Kate said, her gaze drifting longingly over his bare chest. A big tease is what he was. “We had nothing planned,” Kate said before forcing a smile. “Nothing going on here.”
A flash of disappointment crossed Jack’s handsome features before he turned back to Brooklynn. “Why don’t you get your brother and come on over.”
“He’s right here. Adam,” she called. “Come on. They said its okay. They aren’t doing anything.”
Adam walked inside, his shoulders hunched. Kate guessed Adam to be younger than Brooklynn by at least three years. His long stringy hair touched his bony shoulders. Only one piercing punctured his eyebrow and a skeleton tattoo the size of a quarter decorated his neck.
The kid didn’t make eye contact with either of them. Jack tousled the boy’s hair, and if looks could kill, Jack would have fallen over dead. Jack led the kids into the family room and showed them the assortment of DVDS and board games. He told Adam to go ahead and use the computer when he saw the kid staring at it.
When Jack finally made his way back into th
e kitchen, Kate threw his shirt at him. “Put that on, will you?”
Chapter 16
Dr. Elizabeth Kramer stared out at the Pacific Ocean, hoping the gentle lapping of the waves upon the shore would help douse some of the fire bubbling in her veins. “I told you never to come to my house,” she said to the man standing nearby.
“I left three messages,” Roger told her. “You can’t ignore me as you do all your other lap dogs. I want out and I want out today.”
She let go of the railing encircling the balcony and turned to face Roger. The same reptile said to have tempted Eve was tattooed across his chest, revealed through the V of his open shirt. “You want out? What does that mean? This isn’t the mafia. You don’t hurt innocent people, and then come traipsing around my home. Call Lou if you have a problem.”
“Nothing has gone as planned. Lou is about as easy to get a hold of as the Wizard in Oz. I need help.”
Elizabeth gritted her teeth. Roger Cott was the most audacious, unreasonable man she’d ever met. “An investigator was here asking me questions about Amy Long,” she told him. “Apparently, she’s in critical condition. He wanted to know how she came to live and work with me,” she said, her voice amazingly calm considering the resentment she felt building inside of her.
“It’s standard procedure for an investigator to come calling. You know that.”
“If the girl talks, you’re on your own. Lou will not be happy.”
The overconfident man hardly flinched. “I want half a million dollars put in my offshore account before the end of the week. Otherwise, I’ll have no choice but to ask Harrison to shut down your operation.”
“My operation?” There was no stopping hot air from spewing out this time. She looked past him and into the house to make sure there weren’t any servants standing about with nothing better to do than to listen in on her private conversation.
All was clear, so she came up close to Roger, breathing in his cologne. “Lou told me that Dr. Forstin might have left a disc behind.”
“What about it?”
She sighed. “If there is a disc and you and your friends were at the lab the night of Forstin’s death, I’d say you were in no position to threaten me or anyone else.”
Finding Kate Huntley Page 13