I swallow hard. “I hate this,” I whisper.
“Of course you do, but you’re strong—proven by the fact that you keep all the Maxwell’s in line—and anyone who does something like this is weak. You called me, Cat. I’m here. Let me really be here.”
“I didn’t want you to get sideswiped if she went public.”
He arches a brow. “You didn’t want my help or support?”
“You aren’t really one to dish those things out.”
“I am always here for you, Cat. The fact that you don’t know that needs to change, but right now, let’s go talk to Reese and Gabe and end this woman.”
“I’d agree about ending her but what kind of person does this? She must be mentally ill.”
“Or just greedy, Cat. I see it all the time in ways that I’m glad you’re naive too. Thank you, mom, for urging you to chase your dreams, because I wanted you to come inside our world where you wouldn’t be naïve to this kind of stuff.”
“Or you’re just so jaded that all you see is greed.”
“I wish that were true. I wish what I’ve seen could be undone, but it can’t.” He motions to the door. “Shall we?”
“Yes,” I breathe out. “We shall.”
I round the island and he catches my arm, turning me to look at him. “Why do you look different?”
My God. My brother is going to guess. “Because you’re actually looking at me.”
“I always actually look at you. More than you know. What’s different?”
“I’m not myself right now. I’m rattled when contrary to what you seem to believe, I’m a Maxwell by blood. I don’t get rattled.”
“He didn’t cheat, Cat. I’ve looked in that man’s eyes for years now, and all I see is intelligence, skill, and a man who loves his wife. I watch for changes. They aren’t there. I’d tell you. As painful as it would be after reading that letter from mom, I’d tell you.”
“I know he didn’t cheat. I never once doubted him. I just hate that he’s distracted during his trial and that he thinks I might doubt him. That hurts our relationship, too. I don’t want what is perfect to get hurt.”
“We are perfect, Cat.”
At the sound of Reese’s voice, Reid releases me and I turn to find my husband in the doorway. “You’re perfect,” he adds when my eyes meet his.
I rush toward him and he pulls me against him, hugging me, becoming my sanctuary as always. I love this man so very much. “You okay?” he whispers, his lips at my ear.
“Yes,” I say, looking at him. “Reid wants to represent you and us if we need it.”
“You do need it,” Reid says firmly.
“Agreed,” Reese replies.
Gabe steps into the doorway. “I guess we’re back in here.”
“Yes,” I say, pushing out of Reese’s arms. “We’re here.”
Gabe grabs me and hugs me. “We’ll beat this together,” he promises in my ear.
“Thank you,” I whisper, so very confused by both of my brothers right now, but not in a bad way. In a bit of a sad way. There have been so many lost years between me and them with a lot of built up baggage from that divide.
He releases me and Reese links our arms, leading me around the island again. Reid steps to the spot in front of me again, and Gabe steps in front of Reese. “We should file a restraining order,” Reid states.
“Not yet,” Reese says. “We’re going to try to trap her into blackmailing me on tape.” He goes on to explain the plan Royce and Lauren came up with earlier.
“A restraining order could keep her from going public,” Gabe interjects. “I’ve seen an order intimidate people.”
“I’m the criminal attorney here,” Reese says. “And the person who’s dealt with Debbie. She’s unstable. We will need protection and we have it. I hired helped. But what I’m telling you all right now, is that I need us to have multiple plans, and they all need to consider that as I just said, she’s unstable. I don’t want to set her off, if we can get her on tape, and get the police to get involved on a broader scale, than an order, that might trigger some rash action on her part.”
“She won’t go public,” I say. “If she does, she won’t get the money.”
“Not true,” Gabe says. “I had a big wig I represented that was getting blackmailed over a pregnancy. The baby wasn’t his which is exactly why she went public. She wanted my client to pay her off to retract the story and say she lied. And he did.”
My stomach knots. “In other words. She might go public to force Reese into protecting his reputation.”
“That’s the worst-case scenario,” Gabe confirms.
Reid disagrees. “The worst case scenario is her coming after Cat because she’s a crazy fucking bitch who’s obsessed with Reese.” He looks at Reese. “She needs protection.”
“Arranged,” Reese confirms. “And I agree. Protecting Cat is everything.”
In other words, I’m pregnant with his child, and a crazy pregnant woman might well come after me. Which is believable, since I’m the one she came to at the courthouse.
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
Cat
Protecting Reese is what’s important. Protecting my baby is what’s important, I think. Protecting his or her father is what’s important. “Crazy stalkers kill the people they get obsessed about, too,” I say, turning to Reese. “You will have someone with you tomorrow, right?”
“Royce has it all taken care of. I’m fine. You’re the one I’m worried about”
“Lauren’s going with me to the doctor in the morning. I have a feeling Royce will be tagging along.”
“Why are you going to the doctor?” Gabe asks.
I glance in his direction. “Nothing that’s going to kill me,” I say and needing an escape from all these watchful eyes, I quickly refocus on Reese and add, “I have to write my column and you need to get your team here working.”
“You’re my team tonight,” he says.
“Reese—”
His hands come down on my arms. “There’s nothing that happened today in court that changes my strategy. You were there. You know that. I’m going to win. We’re going to win. Write your column. I’ll finish up here and you can help me prep for tomorrow the way you always help me prep.” He kisses me. “Go. Write. I’ll find you when we’re done.”
He’s decided he’s not having his team over. He’s affected by this Debbie thing and worrying about me to the point that it’s affecting his case. “Just to be sure we’re on the same page. You’re not telling your client yet, right?”
“No,” he says. “I’m not telling Dana until we find out where this trap we’re setting for Debbie leads us and I hope like hell that’s a good decision.”
“It’s a good decision,” Reid says. “We’ll end this one way or the other. You have my word.”
I am suddenly glad Reid’s involved because he’s intelligent and hard in every way, brutal even. When Reid makes a statement like that, he doesn’t fail. I know. I’ve felt his wrath.
I kiss Reese and head out of the kitchen. I’m two steps down the hallway when Gabe catches my arm. “You okay?”
“I’m not used to you and Reid acting like you care.”
“Come on now. The past two years you and I have come a long way. That’s not fair.”
He’s right. “You’re right. I’m sorry. It’s Reid that I’m not used to, but I’m fine.” I hug him. “Thank you, Gabe.”
“Call me after the doctor tomorrow, okay?” He pulls back to look at me. “Reese will be in court. I’m free tomorrow, so I’m going to come watch Reese with you after your appointment.”
“You want to sit with me in court?”
“Yeah. I might learn something from that husband of yours.”
“You don’t even practice the same kind of law and you’re a master at your job.”
His eyes light with what is apparently a naughty private joke of some sort. “I won’t even go w
here that comment could take me. Call me when you leave the doctor.” He kisses my cheek and heads back to the kitchen, leaving me with a smile that I appreciate today more than usual.
I turn away and a few minutes later I’m on the bed in master bedroom, my laptop in my hands. I think of the day in court that ended with Debbie confronting me and one word comes in mind: Lies. This DA is all about lies which is why I’ve been working on a book with Lori to expose him. We’ve also decided to release it after he leaves the office for one reason: Protecting the firm and its clients. I don’t like it and this trial is stirring the pot for me. I start typing and that one word is back on my mind: Lies. Debbie’s lies. The DA’s lies. The prosecutor’s lies. And so I start my Cat Does Crime column now with that word: Lies.
When a person is charged without evidence to satisfy an elected official’s need to appear active in an investigation, to, of course, support reelection, is that a lie? Are they lying to the public they want to elect them? Lying to the judge? Lying to the jurors? Like many of you, I followed a case recently here in our very city where the district attorney charged a man with serial murders. Even after the jury acquitted, he did not reopen the case. The real killer then killed again.
As I sat in the Dana Warren trial today I thought of that case. Someone killed her father. In my legal opinion, Dana was charged prematurely without evidence. The opening statements today read to me as fluff and drama, meant to downplay the lack of evidence. In opening statements, the prosecutor seemed to prosecute Dana Warren based on her inheriting money, not for killing her father, which would make sense since thus far, I’ve seen no evidence that supported charging her, let alone convicting her. Am I biased because of my husband? No. He won’t take a case if he believes the person to be guilty. Nothing he has seen, nor I have seen, supports guilt. So unless I’m presented with evidence that says otherwise, I am not convinced she killed her father. If the prosecutor charged Dana, not on evidence, but a need to charge someone, where is the real killer? And if they killed once, can they kill again? When do we hold law enforcement criminally liable? When does political position become lies? When does it become criminal?
I don’t like lies. To those of you who lie with no concern about who you hurt, I am not your friend. I will write about it. I will expose the lies. I will tell the truth. That’s who I am and I hope that you, my readers, embrace my words as truth. And so, I’ll be in court tomorrow, and look for the truth to share with you, my readers. Until next time —Cat
I’m done and in that column is a message for the DA, yes, but also to Debbie. I send it to my editor and shut my computer. Reese appears in the doorway in that moment, looking deliciously male and perfect. He narrows his eyes on me. “What did you do?”
“What does that mean?” I ask, a hint of a smile on my lips. I feel empowered through my writing. I needed that outlet.
“I know you, Cat.” He crosses to join me on the bed, and before I can blink I’m beneath him and he’s leaning over me. “You’re different. You’re not tears and fear. You’re fierce and in control. What did you write?”
“Fuck you to the DA and Debbie, though I didn’t mention Debbie. Just liars that I will go after.”
He drags my shirt over my head and tosses it. “You said fuck you, to the DA and Debbie.”
“Yes,” I say, sliding my hands under his shirt. “I did.”
“What happened to not poking the beast until we finish setting her up?”
“I’m not rewriting my column. I sent it to my editor.”
“I didn’t ask you to, but if you’re fucking everyone else,” he pulls his shirt over his head, “why aren’t you fucking me?”
And suddenly his hard, hot body is my reward for everything I’ve been through today. “Get naked, Reese Summer.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
Cat
Reese does get naked and so do I but when he comes back down on top of me, with all his hard perfection, we are not edgy and intense as we were right before we met with my brothers. Not yet. Not in this moment. We are softer, our lips coming together in a breath, our bodies pressed close, but we don’t move. This is us, alone, the rest of the world gone. Feeling each other. Loving each other. Needing each other. I can feel this man in every part of me, inside and out, and that is nothing I knew or understood before Reese. That is why he is the man I want to have a family with, share my life with. The man I love so very much.
His fingers stroke my cheek, a tender touch that sends a shiver down my spine. His hand then closes down on the side of my neck, his mouth over mine, his tongue licking past my lips, and I moan with the touch, with the thousands of sensations this man creates in me. My nipples ache, my sex clenches, my fingers dig into his shoulders. He pulls back, breathing with me again, and it is everything to just be here like this with him, savoring every moment. He kisses me again, this time a deeper stroke of tongue, a deeper connection and then his mouth is gone again and he’s kissing a path down my neck, over my shoulder.
His hands cup my breasts and he shifts lower until he’s licking my nipples, one at a time, then sucking, teasing, driving me wild. I want him inside me. I want so much right now, but his mouth is on my belly now, and his fingers are stroking a line along the wet seam of my body. “I want you, Reese,” I whisper. “Please.”
He licks my clit and looks up at me. “This is me,” he says, suckling me and I moan and arch into him, but God, I just want him inside me.
“Not like this,” I insist. “Not this—time.” The last word comes out as a pant, as he runs his tongue in all the right directions and places and I melt into the mattress, no longer fighting what comes next. He’s too good at this. He knows my body too well. And I’m too aroused to do anything but tumble right over into orgasm in another few licks of his skilled tongue.
He doesn’t linger or slowly take me to completion. He knows exactly what I need. He’s on top of me, pressing inside me, letting those last spasms of my sex happen with him buried inside me. It’s perfection and I am arching into him, even as he pumps into me, his mouth now on my mouth, the salty taste of me on his lips. Lips that travel my jaw, my breast, my shoulder. Lips that are back on my lips as we sway together and time stands still. There is just us and there is nothing between us, but us. I don’t want this to end, and I can feel that in him, too. We go slow and savor each other but at some point we snap. At some point we become urgent and there is no more holding back. We ride the high of need together and shudder and quake into orgasm. The next thing I remember, I’m pressed to Reese’s side, my head on his chest, and the heaviness of sleep overtakes me.
I wake to darkness and the roll of my stomach, which has me scooting away from Reese and glancing at the clock to read two am. I hurry into the bathroom, and without turning on the light, kneel in front of the toilet, and heave up nothing. When the wave of yuck passes, I grab a gown from a hook on the back of the door, push it shut, and then brush my teeth.
I’ve just finished when Reese opens the door, now in pajama bottoms, his hair a sexy rumpled mess. “You okay?” Am I okay? I’m having his baby. I’m perfect, and Debbie doesn’t get to change that fact.
I walk to him, hug him and say just that. “Perfect,” I say. “Let’s go back to bed.”
He strokes my hair, kisses my temple, and a few minutes later, my alarm is set and my husband is wrapped around me. I smile into the darkness. A few hours from now, I’ll officially confirm the pregnancy I know is real. Yes. I am indeed, perfect. And I decide this moment, these very thoughts, with him holding me, must be a part of my journal.
***
I wake at six in the morning and thankfully I’m feeling better, because Reese carries me to the shower and makes a vow to fuck me every day before trial, not just on day one of new trials. I am not going to complain about the lofty goal, not one bit. Mr. Hotness is all mine. I dress in a pink dress that I decide means I want a girl, though a little boy who could grow up to be just like his father has
just as much appeal. Reese dresses to impress, as he always does, in a blue pinstriped suit with a striking royal blue tie that brings out his blue eyes. The jury doesn’t have a chance with this man. He’s already in the kitchen on his laptop when I join him to wait on Lauren who will arrive any minute.
“Well?” I ask, stopping across from him, aware that he reads my column every morning.
“It’s you, Cat. A fighter all the way in every way. I like it.”
“I poked the bear. Bear meaning Debbie, by telling her I’d out a liar and in hindsight, Gabe seems to think she might come forward just to get us to pay her to later say she lied.”
“We don’t fight any war scared. That’s not who we are. I’m glad you did this. If she comes at us, we’ll come at her. We, Cat.”
The doorbell rings. “That will be Lauren,” I say.
“I hate I can’t take you to the doctor.”
I sigh. “I hate I’ll miss the beginning of the court proceedings.”
“I’ll update you at the food truck.” He says as we meet at the end of the island.
“It’s a date,” I say, smiling and pushing to my toes to kiss him.
“I’ll walk you down,” he says, grabbing his briefcase. “I want to get an update from Royce.
A few minutes later, we’re standing on the sidewalk with Lauren, Royce, and Savage. “One of our men is following Debbie,” Royce says. “She hasn’t returned my calls, which means we’ll approach her today in person.”
It’s not grand news, but Reese and I both accept it, and he departs in a vehicle with Savage as I leave with Lauren and Royce. “How are you holding up?” Lauren asks, sitting in the backseat with me. “I read your article.”
“What did you think?”
“That you’re a badass pregnant princess who takes no shit from anyone.”
I laugh. “Pregnant Princess. I’ll take that description and right now, I’m perfect. I’m excited about confirming the pregnancy. I’m excited about telling Reese on his birthday. I’m going to set Debbie aside and embrace that feeling.”
Two Years Later Page 10