She had thirty-five, forty minutes tops to go through his personal files and get out.
On the drive over, she went down a mental list of charges Kyle could bring against her if he caught her snooping around his apartment. Invasion of privacy, theft, breaking and entering—if he could convince Sheriff Snider she wasn’t invited—to name a few. She was certain there were other charges she hadn’t thought of. On the other hand, what was a little breaking-and-entering charge when she had a kidnapping charge hanging over her head?
The key was exactly where she’d told Alex it would be, taped above the door. Casting a guilty glance left and right, she quickly unlocked the door and replaced the key. Once inside, she secured the lock. If Kyle came home, she would hear his key in the lock.
It would be precious little warning, but thieves couldn’t be choosey.
The layout of the apartment was simple and easily maneuvered even in the dark. There was a living room, a small state-of-the-art kitchen, a bedroom, bathroom, and another small room Brooke knew Kyle used as a combination library/office.
It was the room that Brooke knew housed the filing cabinet.
She turned on the desk lamp and hurried to the metal cabinet, yanking at the handle so hard she broke a nail. Locked! Frustrated, she began searching through his desk drawers for a key as she’d done in Peggy’s office.
The only thing she found was an assortment of condoms and an interesting little attachment she was certain she didn’t want to touch, let alone identify.
Willing herself to calm down and think, she systematically lifted every object on his desk, from a smoke-tinted pencil holder to a glass paperweight.
She found the key taped beneath the elegant green desk lamp. Thank God for Kyle’s penchant for losing keys! Breathing a sigh of relief, she opened the filing cabinet and began to leaf through the files. She dismissed the ones labeled receipts, household accounts, bills paid, bills due.
Nothing of interest in the first one.
She quickly opened the second drawer and flipped through the folders. One folder in particular snagged her attention: Landco Synthetics, Inc. Frowning, Brooke withdrew the file. It contained a dozen or so order sheets and figures from a company she didn’t recognize. While it meant nothing to her, it could mean something to Alex. She took them out, folded them and placed them on the edge of Kyle’s desk. Once she was finished gathering information, she would hide them inside her jacket.
Pulling open the top drawer, Brooke took a few sheets from several folders and placed them in the Landco file so that at first glance, Kyle wouldn’t notice anything amiss. She paused to take a quick peek at her watch, hesitating. There was one last file drawer to search, but Kyle had been at the restaurant a full twenty minutes now.
Should she cut her losses and get out before Kyle returned? Biting her lip, she stared at the closed drawer. What if this was the drawer that contained the answers? It would be a waste to pass up the opportunity to look inside after taking such a risk—
A distinct clicking noise snagged her attention.
She drew in a sharp gasp, recognizing the sound of a key in the lock followed by the low murmur of voices.
Kyle was back, and from the sound of it, he wasn’t alone.
Glancing wildly around, Brooke searched for a suitable hiding place. It took her only a second to realize that if she remained in his office, she would be trapped.
She darted out and into the next bedroom just as the front door swung open. Soundlessly, she dived under the bed and scooted along the carpet until she reached the middle. She worked on breathing slowly and quietly.
What now? she wondered. Wait until Kyle slept, then try to sneak out? How long would that be? It was Friday night, not normally an early night for a popular, single man.
Brooke swallowed a groan. She knew she wasn’t Nancy Drew material! Instead of wasting time trying to decide if she should continue searching, she should have left while she had the opportunity.
The voices grew closer, louder. Brooke breathed shallowly and listened.
“I wonder what happened to her?” a female voice asked, sounding worried.
Brandy Clevenger! What was she doing in Kyle’s apartment? The technician had stressed to Brooke on more than one occasion that she didn’t see what other women saw in Kyle.
“Chances are she was lying, anyway,” Kyle said. “After the way that P.I. drilled me about her, I think our little ice princess has made someone very suspicious. She was probably hoping to pick my brain.”
“Whatever she’s done, she couldn’t have picked a better time,” Brandy responded with a nasty little chuckle.
“Exactly.”
Brooke really hated the way he said exactly, and what were they talking about? Why would the P.I. drill Kyle about her, when Kyle was the one under investigation? Granted, Dixie had mentioned the P.I. was asking everyone questions, but Kyle made it sound as if she’d been singled out.
“It must be something serious for that guy to travel all the way back to Quicksilver,” Kyle said as if to himself.
The bed springs suddenly creaked and sagged, startling Brooke. Her nose came into contact with cold iron. Prudently, she turned her head to the side. If they moved around much, she’d be wearing squares on her face in the morning.
“Hm. Enough of business,” Brandy purred throatily. “Let’s get down to a different kind of business.”
“Good idea. Did you bring the good ones?”
“Of course.”
Good ones? Brooke swallowed quietly, praying they weren’t talking about what she thought they were talking about. Risky or not, there was no way in hell she was going to stay under the bed while they—they—
“You don’t think I’d be stupid enough to use our own, do you?”
Brandy’s laugh sent shivers down Brooke’s spine. What did she mean by that remark? The bed dipped again, bringing the springs perilously close to her check. Brooke squeezed her eyes tightly shut, anticipating having her face crushed.
“You’re so clever...and hard,” Brandy whispered—unfortunately loud enough for Brooke to hear.
She also heard the rustle of clothing, and the sound of a zipper. Dear God, they were going to do it right on top of her. She was going to kill Alex for this!
“Hm, I missed you.”
“Me, too. It makes me crazy to think of you with those other women.”
“Appearances, my dear.” There was a groan and a grunt, and more rustling and creaking. Kyle was breathless by the time he added, “They mean nothing.”
“Not even little ole Brooke?”
“Especially not her. I’m not an expert, but I’d say that woman has serious problems.”
“Oh?”
Brooke’s thoughts exactly!
“She’s dysfunctional. Sexually. I think she might even be a virgin. Or maybe she prefers toys to the real thing. You saw for yourself the way she was handling that ridiculously oversized test model.”
Despite the fact that the couple rolling around on the bed had no idea she lay listening beneath them, Brooke’s face flamed with humiliation. She was not dysfunctional! Just because she had instinctively sensed Kyle was a rat and hadn’t jumped into bed with him, he assumed she was dysfunctional. A cheap stab at salvaging his ego.
Wasn’t it?
“What do you care?” Brandy asked, her voice laced with unmistakable jealousy. “You went out with her so people wouldn’t become suspicious about us, right?”
Kyle was quick—and smart—to respond. “Right, darling. Same as the others. Pretty soon we won’t have to worry about appearances...or money.”
Mulling over Kyle’s last statement, Brooke nearly shrieked out loud as an ear-splitting alarm began to sound.
“What the hell?”
It was Kyle, and he sounded frustrated. The bed squeaked as the couple leaped to their feet. Brooke let out a sigh as the springs moved away from her face. Clothes rustled, zippers zipped in haste.
“Sounds like the
building’s fire alarm!”
“It does. Guess we should check it out.”
Brooke couldn’t believe her good luck! Their voices faded and a few seconds later, she heard the front door open and close. Knowing there wasn’t a second to waste, she scrambled out from under the bed and made a dash for the door.
Just before she reached for the knob, it began to turn.
Chapter Twenty-Two
She froze in place, staring in horror as the door slowly swung open. Her hastily constructed explanation died in her throat as she recognized the figure standing in the doorway.
“Alex!” She had to nearly shout over the raucous sound of the fire alarm. “What—how—”
He grinned at her stunned expression. “I borrowed Elijah’s horse.”
He was joking, of course, because Elijah didn’t have a horse. But he owned an old, temperamental Ford pickup that jarred a person’s teeth loose. She knew from experience.
“Actually, Elijah gave me a ride,” Alex confirmed.
“But—but why?” To spy on her? To find out if she was really friend, or foe? After what she’d heard Kyle say, Brooke couldn’t help but wonder if Alex’s apparent trust in her was all a sham—and had been all along.
His eyes darkened with an undefined emotion. “Because I hated the thought of you being here, alone, with Lotus. When I saw your car out front and Lotus going upstairs with a strange woman, it didn’t take me long to figure out that you’d changed the plans.”
“So after throwing me to the wolves, you had second thoughts and decided to rescue me.”
Ignoring her sarcasm, he gestured to the door. “We’d better go before they figure out it was a false alarm.”
“But they’ll see us—”
“Not if we take the fire escape down. Elijah’s waiting in the alley.”
Brooke allowed herself to be tugged through the door and along the hall. She had questions, but she realized that now was not the time for asking. With the fire alarm blasting in her ears, she followed Alex down the fire escape to the street below.
She smelled burning motor oil before she spotted Elijah’s black truck idling in the alley. Smoke billowed from the tail pipe, punctuated occasionally by a loud backfire.
Her old friend gave her a toothy grin as if he were thoroughly enjoying himself. He reached across the seat to open the passenger door, throwing it wide. Brooke climbed in and scooted to the middle; Alex quickly climbed in beside her. He slammed the door, but it popped open again. With a muffled curse, he opened it again and slammed it harder.
This time it stayed shut.
It was a tight fit, leaving Brooke no room to pull away from Alex. Her thigh pressed against him, and their shoulders touched. She placed her hands in her lap and ignored the contact. Or tried to.
They had cleared the alley and bounced onto the main street in front of the apartments before Brooke remembered the papers she’d left on Kyle’s desk.
“Damn!”
At her furious curse, Elijah hit the brakes, nearly sending Brooke through the cracked windshield. She braced herself against the dashboard, noticing that Alex had to do the same. “I’ve got to go back inside.”
“Out of the question.” Alex sounded adamant.
Brooke bristled at his bossy tone. “I found some papers you might be interested in seeing, but Kyle came in...and I left them lying on his desk. He’ll know someone’s been there!”
“You’re not going back.”
In the distance, Brooke heard the wail of a fire truck. Howie, the town’s fire chief, was going to be madder than hell to find out it was a false alarm. She didn’t relish running into Howie any more than she relished running into Kyle or Brandy, but after what she’d had to endure...
She ignored Alex’s stubborn glare and turned to Elijah. “Let me out, and wait here for me.”
“You’re not going back!” Alex growled.
“I’m not on the clock right now, Bradshaw. Besides, you’re the one who sent me in there—have you forgotten?”
“No, I haven’t forgotten, which is precisely why I’m not letting you go back.”
Stunned by his answer, Brooke froze. Was this Alex’s off-hand way of apologizing?
Elijah steered the old truck to the side of the road as the fire truck drew closer. Brooke looked at Alex as she asked cautiously, “What do you mean?”
“I mean that I shouldn’t have sent you in the first place. It could have been dangerous.”
Was this the real reason? Brooke wondered. Or did Alex have second thoughts only when he realized he couldn’t witness the conversation between herself and Kyle? Kyle had said the P.I. had returned to Quicksilver with the specific purpose of asking more questions about her.
She’d caught Alex talking to his secretary. He could easily have instructed the P.I. to return. In fact, as head of the company, he was very likely the one who had ordered his return.
A queer feeling settled in her chest. It was hurt, she realized. The knowledge that Alex didn’t trust her hurt, which was absurd, really. She’d kidnapped him. Of course he didn’t trust her.
But he also knew the reason she’d kidnapped him, and that it had been an honest mistake. Still...breaking the law was breaking the law, and someone who would break the law wasn’t generally someone who could be trusted.
Unfortunately, knowing this didn’t ease the hurt.
****
Something was bothering her, Alex realized shortly after they arrived back at the cabin. Elijah had dropped them off at her car, which she’d parked on a side street out of view from Kyle’s apartment. They’d stopped for burgers on the way out of town.
Brooke hadn’t touched hers.
Yes, something was definitely bothering her. And she was keeping something from him. It was there in her eyes, which were normally so expressive. Now they were shadowed and intense, black as night with zero visibility.
His jaw clenched when he thought of what might have happened had Kyle caught her in his apartment. The thought of that bastard touching Brooke made him want to smash something. He was mostly angry with himself for being such a selfish brute.
He dipped a cold French fry in ketchup and popped it into his mouth, noticing that she hadn’t touched her fries, either. “So, you had no idea Kyle was seeing Brandy.”
Brooke shook her head. “None. In fact, I was under the impression she didn’t particularly care for Kyle.”
“Tell me again what they said while you were under the bed.”
“Are you hoping my story will change?”
Alex was tempted to reach across the table and haul her onto his lap for that snide remark. Reluctantly, he quelled the urge. “No, I’m just trying to make sense of the conversation.”
“Well, listen up, because this is the last time I’m repeating it. I heard the key in the lock, so I made a dash for the bedroom and hid under the bed. They came into the bedroom and Brandy suggested they get down to business. Kyle asked Brandy if she’d brought the condoms. They began to make out and the fire alarm went off. End of sex, end of Nancy Drew’s disastrous attempt to ransack Kyle’s apartment.”
“How did that make you feel, hearing your ex-boyfriend making out with another woman?”
Her eyes finally came alive. They sparkled with disbelief and anger. “You think I was jealous?”
“Were you?” Alex countered.
“If I were,” she drawled bitingly, “It certainly isn’t any of your business.”
Speaking of jealousy...Alex rose and came around the table. He brought her to her feet and closed his arms around her, trapping her to his heated body. “I need to know. Is it over between you and Lotus?”
Her fiery gaze clashed with his at close range. The impact made Alex’s knees weak.
“Why do you want to know?” she taunted. “Are you looking for reassurance because you think eventually I’ll give in and—and—”
“Make love with me?” Alex slowly, erotically rotated his hips against hers, watching
the awareness, mingled with alarm, flare in her eyes. “Have the time of your life? Is that what you’re afraid of, Brooke? That you’ll enjoy yourself too much?”
“Of all the conceited—”
“Don’t change the subject,” he interrupted in a low growl. “You want to as much as I do, don’t you?” Again he moved his hips against hers, leaving her in no doubt about the state of his arousal.
“Let me go.”
He did, satisfied to see that she had to grab the top of her chair for support. He had to go one step further and sit down.
****
Why had she lied?
As Brooke tossed and turned, seeking sleep, she also sought an answer to her impulsive decision to remain silent about her discoveries.
If her suspicions proved true, Alex suspected she was involved; if he found out she had lied about the conversation between Brandy and Kyle, he’d be convinced.
So why had she lied? True, she didn’t know if the Landco file she’d found in Kyle’s filing cabinet held any merit in the investigation, but she also didn’t know that it didn’t.
And she had not only forgotten to grab the file, she had pretended to forget what the file contained. Forgetting the file had been an honest blunder. Forgetting about Landco Synthetics was deliberate.
He hadn’t believed her. She’d seen it in his eyes, a glimpse of disbelief...and glimmer of suspicion.
Brooke sniffed. So? What did she care what he thought? Apparently Alex had suspected her all along, or he wouldn’t have sent that nosy P.I. back to Quicksilver to ask more questions about her.
It was pride, she decided with a sigh. Her blasted stubborn pride had prompted her to keep quiet. All along Alex had obviously suspected her, watched her, and waited for her to stumble. Yet he’d sent her in to do his dirty work...hoping he’d catch them making plans together? She bit her lip, ignoring the curious pain in her heart. Had it been Alex’s plan to storm the apartment after she and Kyle arrived? Catch them in a compromising situation? Sneak in and eavesdrop on their conversation?
Well, he must have been disappointed when he saw Brandy and Kyle heading into the building. It was Brooke’s first nice thought all evening, the possibility that Alex was disappointed. He and that nasty, suspicious mind deserved to be disappointed.
A Perfect Fit Page 17