Bassist Instinct (The Rocker Series #2)

by Vanessa Lennox

  “How can you not be? He’s a ‘wham bam thank you ma’am’ kind of guy. Dylan is a user, Fi,” Liam said. She held up a hand to stop the flow and grimaced.

  “Please don’t, Liam.” Her voice cracked just a little. “I’m not interested in what you think you might know about Tate, you know him even less than I do. I can’t believe you’re being so judgmental and unfair. The real issue here is that you’re using Tate as a delay or avoidance tactic, and I don’t want to change the subject. You were in Morocco less than 24 hours ago, and you sent Sam Gooding, Special Forces bodyguard, here to keep me safe, but you failed to mention from what, and you pulled a gun on my date. I know I’m naive, but I’m getting red flags.”

  Sam’s eyebrows shot straight up. He had no idea she knew, she was a lot wilier than she let on. He smiled at her and sat down on the sofa next to where Liam stood.

  “Maybe you are related,” Sam said with an appreciative smile.

  Fiona had considered getting angry and shrill, but Liam looked completely exhausted. “What’s going on?” She asked softly.

  “I keep underestimating you,” he chuckled and sat down across from her leaning forward, his forearms on top of his thighs. “I’m going to give this to you straight.” She nodded. “Or as straight as I can. I think the people who killed Dean are coming after you next.” Her mouth fell open.

  “But…” She couldn’t manage more than that. Her big eyes searched his face and then moved to Sam’s. They both looked apologetic and a little bit guilty.

  “I know it’s a shock, but we’ll keep you safe.”

  “But Liam, Dean’s death was a random mugging.” Liam shook his head.

  “I’m sorry Fi, it wasn’t. Dean took somebody’s blood diamonds, and he didn’t give them back when they asked nicely. They want them, and they are willing to kill for them.”

  “Diamonds?” She couldn’t believe she was having this conversation. “Dean was a diamond thief?”

  Liam made a face. “We don’t think so.”

  “But…” She had to stop saying that, she would stop tomorrow, maybe. She shook her head to clear it. “Tell me exactly what a blood diamond is.”

  “Blood diamonds, conflict diamonds, war diamonds, these are terms used for the diamonds mined in African countries that are at war, and the warlords are using the money from the diamonds to fund their insurgencies. They are traded and sold for weapons, while the miners starve. There is a certification process for the diamonds to curtail this kind of crime, but ways to get around it.

  “We think Dean saw the diamonds and pocketed them on the spur of the moment. Dean was into dodgy business dealings Fi, he was a type. When he found the pouch of diamonds in the pocket of a dead man, he took it and ran. It took weeks for them to figure out who took them, and by the time they caught up to him he was abroad again.”

  “Did Dean kill him?” Fiona hated to ask, and suddenly didn’t want to hear the answer. Liam glanced quickly at Sam and then away.

  “That’s unclear.” Fiona nodded, that was better than knowing. “We can only assume he didn’t give up the whereabouts of the diamonds because his known associates have been systematically picked off.” She gasped. “I know this is a shock, and that you loved him…” Fiona was shaking her head.

  “I didn’t.” She put her hand over her mouth and felt awful for saying it, but it was the truth. “By the end I could barely stand him. Oh God, there it is.”

  “Oh, Fi. Why did you say you’d marry him?”

  “Certain things… came to light, eventually. Once we were engaged, things became… clear. I broke it off right before he left for Paris.” She put her head in her hands. “I was supposed to go with him.” Liam was astonished, and completely relieved.

  “Did he hurt you, Fi?” She didn’t look up.

  “I… we had irreconcilable differences.” Liam knew a non-answer when he heard one, but didn’t push her.

  “Anything about what he did for a living come to light?”

  “No, nothing like that. He told me he was in sales.” Liam laughed an angry snort.

  “Hey Fi, don’t feel bad, the guy was bad news.”

  “Whoever it was he stole the diamonds from, I think they’ve found me,” she said and both Sam and Liam jumped off the sofa and went to the window. Sam took a quick look and moved silently to the kitchen to look out the back. Fiona’s naturally large eyes got even larger.

  “Tell me everything,” Liam said turning out the light and pulling the curtain an inch away from where it hung.

  “On Thanksgiving, God, was that just yesterday?” She sighed. “I went for a bike ride and an SUV swerved into me. I dodged it barely, but then rode my bike right into Tate’s car.” She looked at the scrape on her palm again. “I didn’t have the presence of mind to get a plate number then, but today Tate did.”

  “Were you hurt?” Liam asked. She showed him the palm of her hand and shook her head.

  “Just a little banged up,” she said.

  “What happened today, and why didn’t you have your phone, we’ve been trying to reach you since you gave Sam the slip at the Georgetown Inn?” She hadn’t known Sam was following them, she blushed when she thought of what he must have seen.

  “I forgot my phone, I was a little flustered when I left. We went out to the Old Angler’s Inn and hiked a little, and two big men in suits followed us to the river and then back, but Tate lost them on MacArthur Blvd. He got the plate number that time, and sent it to a guy he knows to find out who they were.” Liam walked to her phone and brought it to her.

  “Call Tate and have him give you the plate number,” he handed her the phone. Sam shook his head from the doorway.

  “It’s clear from what I can see without infrared,” Sam said. Fiona felt suddenly like she was in a dream, it was so odd to have people talk of infrared and blood diamonds.

  She looked at her phone. “I don’t have his number,” she said. “Oh wait, yes I do, he sent me a picture.” She quickly looked at Liam and blushed crimson thinking of the picture Tate took.

  “What kind of picture?” Liam asked suspiciously. She ignored him and called Tate.

  “Yes,” he answered the phone shortly.

  “Hi Tate, it’s Fiona, do you have a minute?”

  “Fi! I didn’t recognize the number. Is everything all right? Shall I come back and kiss you again?” She smiled at his eagerness.

  “Everything is fine,” she stood up and walked out of the living room and up the stairs, ignoring the heavy sighs from her brother. “I wondered if you heard back from Mikey about the plate number you gave him. Liam is desperate to know.” She heard him hesitate, but he opted to tell her what he knew.

  “Fiona, Mikey said the plates were fakes, probably from a stolen car. I don’t know what that means to us, but I have to say, I’m glad your brother’s there with you.”

  “Fakes?” She breathed. “Oh.” There was a long pause.

  “I dislike the phone, I’d rather be there with you, I’d very much like to hold you right now.” She smiled.

  “I’d like that, too,” she said and heard what could only be his nephews giggling impishly in the background, and a woman laughing. She was pretty sure it was Christie, and then she heard Ryan say “You’re supposed to pick a woman, Genna,” and she smiled at the resulting laughter. “Sounds like a party over there. Could you text me the plate number, Liam will want to double check it if I know him. I’ll let you get back to your nephews, it sounds like they are up to something.” He laughed.

  “They always are, love. But they keep me from moping about because I wish I was holding you.” She inhaled softly.

  “What a lovely thing to say,” she whispered.

  “It’s true, I’m not sure I even want to go to New York now.” What he wanted was to kiss her all over that delicious body, and not come back up for air until spring. “It will be…a trial.”

  “As it will be for me, too,” she said.

  “That’s good to hear,” he sai
d and one or both of the boys started crying. “I’ll text you the plate number, love, but right now they need a bit of attention. I will miss you terribly until I see you tomorrow at 9:00.”

  “Thank you, Tate. Goodnight,” she said and hung up and sat on her bed staring blankly at her wall, wishing she was laughing with Tess’s family and holding Tate. One lovely day together and she was already growing attached. Big mistake. A minute later her phone made the message sound and she went downstairs to Liam in the living room. He stood at the window watching quietly.

  “Anything?” She asked.

  “Maybe,” he turned and looked at her. “You?” She handed him her phone and he pressed the message icon.

  “Tate said the plates were fakes,” she said and he looked at her with surprise, then looked at the new text.

  There was the plate number which he memorized, and above it was the picture Tate sent her earlier that day. Liam looked at her, but she didn’t notice, she was lost in thought, and who could blame her? He tapped the picture to enlarge it, looked more closely at her face and felt a weird mix of emotions.

  Initially he wanted to wring Dylan’s neck for taking such liberties with his little sister, but the look on her face was something he’d never seen before. Maybe she deserved a little passion, and from what he’d read in the tabloids, not that he made a habit of reading the tabloids, Dylan was just the man to give it to her. It didn’t mean that he wouldn’t happily kick his ass when he dumped his little sister and moved on. He looked at Fiona. She looked worried, but happy. He sent the plate number on to his own team, and Fiona moved her gaze up to meet his.

  “What?” She asked him.

  “Nothing, you look good. Are you okay?”

  “I don’t know, I have a hundred questions, but I’m too tired to focus on any of them, and you must be exhausted. Sam’s in the front room, I’ll go make the office bed, you can sleep there.” She stood and he walked with her to the stairs.

  “Just find me sheets and towels, I’ll make the bed,” he said and handed her phone back to her.

  “Then come up and help me,” she said putting her phone in her pocket. “You can tell me what you were doing in Morocco.”

  “I really can’t,” he said.

  “Oh.”

  “Why don’t you tell me what you did for your birthday? I’m sorry I missed it.”

  “I played piano for my birthday. Your secretary sent me a lovely bright yellow chrysanthemum plant full of paper pumpkins, which I planted in the backyard, the mums, not the paper pumpkins. You’re off the hook.” He smiled at her.

  “Not if you know my secretary sent them. Let me take you out to dinner tomorrow,” he said.

  “I think I have plans for dinner tomorrow,” she couldn’t help the grin that spread across her face.

  “Oh.” He stopped. “I don’t think that’s safe, Fi.”

  “Oh? Because you think he’s a user? Or because of the SUV people?”

  “Both, but you’re a grown up, I have to concentrate on your personal safety, not your love life.”

  “I’m going to spend the day with Tate, he’s coming at 9:00 to pick me up. I’m afraid the car is a two-seater.”

  “Yeah, I heard. Did Dean give you a safe deposit key?”

  “No, but the garage is full of his things, feel free to look through it. I packed everything up when he left for Paris, I wasn’t expecting him to die. His parents can’t quite bring themselves to take it, and I don’t know if they ever will.”

  “The ring on the piano, it was from him?” Liam asked as she handed him a stack of clean towels.

  “Yes, when he asked me to marry him last Valentine’s Day. It’s not a blood diamond, is it?”

  “Not if he gave it to you in February,” he said and she nodded, relieved.

  They climbed up to the third floor and Fiona moved the cello off the bed and propped it up in the corner. It started sliding down and she took it out to the hall and put it on its side so it wouldn’t be damaged. “It’s the one thing of Dean’s that I wanted to keep, I just don’t know where to put it.”

  Liam turned and gathered her up in his arms. He loved Fiona so much, she had always been his favorite person. He loved her more than he loved his somewhat estranged full sister, and he had since he first clapped eyes on her when they were little. It was clear from the beginning that his parents didn’t want her around, but felt obligated, like taking in a homeless kitten found behind a dumpster. It made him want to protect her, and that had become his job. He had a busy time of it, too, because his other sister, Kathleen, went out of her way to make life miserable for her. His mother had, too. Their father was just apathetic, but they all were on the receiving end of that.

  He never understood their animosity when he was a kid, Fiona was so sweet, how could they not love her as much as she deserved? Later he understood their jealousies, but at the time it made him pull away from them, and make his urge to protect Fiona even stronger.

  Now as they stood holding each other, all of the stress he’d had during the day of her disappearance fell away from him. “I was very worried about you, Fi. Don’t just disappear again, you took years off my life.” She chuckled and they released each other.

  “You took a few off mine when you met us at the door,” she said. Tate had put himself in front of her, she realized, that was brave and stupid of him. “Poor Tate.”

  “I’m pretty sure that wasn’t the first time someone’s big brother drew down on him,” Liam looked disapprovingly at her.

  “Don’t be so judgmental, that’s not like you,” she said throwing him the bottom sheet. He laughed.

  “It is exactly like me, Fifi. It’s in the job description. By the way, I’m sending Sam with you tomorrow, don’t fool around and try to lose him. I’ll stay here and go through Dean’s things if it’s okay with you.”

  “Sending Sam with me on a date? Won’t that be a little awkward?”

  “For him or you?”

  “Everyone involved, I should think.”

  “That’s the reason why I’m not going. Sam is the best at what he does, just let him be your bodyguard for a few days while we figure this out.”

  “Okay.” They finished making the bed and she put her hand on his arm. “Thanks, Liam. Sleep well.” She went down to her own room and took a long shower. When she was relaxed and happy she climbed into her bed and closed her eyes. Fragments of the day bombarded her. The images of Tate’s smile, his eyes and hands on her body, his lips searing her own and his well-defined yet slim body pressed against hers tormented her and kept her from falling to sleep for some time until her weariness finally took over and she slept.

  Chapter Five

  When Tate walked by his sister’s suite he heard a burst of laughter behind the door. He knocked, not wanting to be alone. Ryan answered and pulled him in.

  “If you were to sleep with a man, who’d it be?” Ryan asked in greeting.

  “Michael Fassbender,” Tate said without hesitation. The room erupted in laughter. “What?”

  “You came up with your answer mighty fast, Tate-o,” Christie said still smiling. Tate grinned.

  “I have given it a great deal of thought,” he said to more laughter. “What about the rest of you?”

  “No one else has answered yet,” Genna said grinning. “Come on, Connor. I’m on the edge of my seat.”

  “I know you want me to say Tom Hiddleston, my love,” Connor finally said gazing at his wife. “But I’d only do it for you, love.”

  “Thank you!” They laughed together. “Edgar, you’re next.”

  “Absolutely not, I’m not even peeking into my psyche for that information.” Piper leaned over and whispered something to him and he pulled away from her for a split second and then had a thoughtful expression on his face. “With you?” Piper nodded.

  “Oh yeah,” she said and the room erupted again when Edgar grinned.

  “Ryan, don’t think you’re getting away with not answering,” Christie sai
d.

  “Idris Elba,” Ryan said. “If it’s got to be a man then I want the manliest one I can think of.” Tate’s phone rang while everyone in the room was recovering from Ryan’s statement.

  “Yes,” he said not recognizing the number.

  “Hi Tate, it’s Fiona, do you have a minute?” Even her voice got him hot, he thought. But how he hated the phone, he’d so much rather be there with her, or better yet, have her here with his friends and family. He stepped into the doorway to the bedroom, but was loathe to go in. The twins were playing on the floor there and he sat down with them.

  He told Fiona much of what Mikey told him on his walk to the hotel, but he decided against telling her that Mikey’s man hit a brick wall when he tried to find out any information about her. In fact, the brick wall started pushing back trying to find out who was asking and Mikey’s man had to back off quickly. He wondered what Liam really did for a living, it felt like the heavy hand of the government. As long as he keeps her safe, Tate didn’t care.

  The boys were crying by the time he finished talking to Fiona, and the adults had moved on to tormenting the women.

  “I’d sleep with Genna,” Christie said.

  “You are so sweet, Christie,” Genna responded.

  “How about it, Piper?” Christie said.

  “No, not Genna, she doesn’t do it for me in the least. I’d have to say Emma Thompson,” Piper said.

  “Ooh, good one,” Christie said, and Edgar stood abruptly and pulled Piper over his shoulder and took her to the door as she shrieked with laughter.

  “I think I must have a thing for beautiful older women,” Edgar said and headed for the door. “’Cause that is hot.”

  “You’re lucky you said beautiful older women,” Piper said.

  “Hey Tate, Mikey gave me a heads up, sounds like you need a little security,” Edgar said to his Tate as he went by.

  “Do I ever. If Mikey filled you in already, can you get someone for me tomorrow?” Tate asked.

  “Edgar, put me down,” Piper said.