Cherish her: Laws of Seduction, Book 4

by Ava Hayworth

  Becca stiffens, “I don’t want to go home.”

  Her father gives her a measuring look that does not bode well for Becca. “There is a houseful of people down there, so you are going to have to decide. Are we going to do this the hard way or the easy way?”

  “Daddy, I don’t know what someone has been telling you, but there is no reason for you to have come all this way.” Her needling tone and imploring eyes do nothing to sway her father. I watch as large crocodile tears fill her eyes.

  “Those tricks may have worked on me when you were little, but we are long past that. No amount of pleading and begging will get you out of this one. This time you have gone too far.”

  The door opens once again, and Mark and James walk in. Mark’s look of confusion at the meeting being held in his bedroom is almost funny. James, on the other hand, shows no trace of emotion. This sets my nerves on edge and squelches my humorous reaction to Mark. Becca’s father ignores the interruption and continues to sternly regard his daughter. “We spoiled you too much when you were little, gave you everything your heart desired. By the time I realized what a holy terror you had turned into, it was too late. I hoped you would grow out of it. When things got out of hand when you were in high school, we hired the best psychiatrists that money could buy. We have done everything for you, and this is how you pay us back. I don’t know what to do with you. Your mother and I had hoped that those psychiatrists had done some good and that you would grow up, but I can see now that we were just fooling ourselves.”

  During this speech, Becca’s denials had grown louder and louder. “They’re lying Daddy. Everyone is against me. They are all jealous of me and just want to get rid of me.”” When she realizes that her father is not going to back down, she becomes angry. “I hate you. I have always hated you.” Then she turns to face me. “You did this. I wish you had died.” I look away from her, and the shocked expression on Mark’s face makes me feel sorry for him.

  As I look back at Becca, something in her expression sets off my instincts for self-preservation. I jump back just in time as Becca flings herself in my direction. Moving quickly, James grabs her arm before she gets a chance to strike again. Feeling shaken, I move closer to Nick, who reaches down and holds my hand, giving it a tight squeeze. James, who has Becca’s arms pinned down, turns to her father. “What are you going to do with her?” Becca’s father nods his head at the man who had accompanied him, and he walks over to Becca, who has begun to struggle. To my horror, the man pulls a syringe out of his pocket. When Becca sees this, she goes wild. It takes the three of them to hold her down so that the man can inject her with the shot. Becca’s screams have reached an ear-splitting level, and I am surprised when no one else from the party appears at the door.

  I am relieved when Becca finally winds down. We all stand in shocked silence listening to Becca’s quiet sobs. When her father speaks, everyone turns away from Becca and looks at him. “That was a sedative. It takes effect almost immediately.”” I look over at Becca once again, who is now standing limply in James’s arms. Obviously not as unaffected as he appears, Becca’s father clears his throat before continuing. ““This is Dr. Morris. I hired him to accompany us.” The doctor appears to be in his mid- forties. He has a gray beard which contrasts starkly with his black hair, giving him a raffish appearance. He nods his head to acknowledge the introduction.

  We turn back to Becca’s father as he explains. “I didn’t think Becca would come willingly, and I want to avoid involving the authorities.”” Becca’s father looks directly at me. “I’m very sorry for what Rebecca did to you. Sorry and ashamed.”” He glances at the listless Becca before turning back to me. “I also want to thank you from the bottom of my heart for giving me this chance to take care of her without involving the police.”

  Mark breaks in. “What are you going to do with her?”

  “I have called in some major favors and have managed to schedule a private flight for us to Switzerland. There is a facility there that takes cases like hers. She won’t be able to leave, if that is what you are worried about.”

  I feel bad for Becca’s father and hurry to reassure him. “We are just happy that she will be getting the care that she needs.”

  Her father nods his head, but the sad droop to his mouth remains. “Thank you. We are going to do our best. I had better get going. Her mother is waiting at the airport.”

  After Mark escorts Becca, her father, and the doctor out of the room, the silence stretches. I don’t know about Nick and James, but I am trying to assimilate everything that just happened. Slowly I become aware that they are both regarding me intently. “What?””

  Nick looks at me with something like admiration. “Lainey, your plan worked. It actually worked.”

  The disbelieving tone in his voice has me giving him a dirty look. “Of course it worked,” I say as if I never had any doubts. My eyes slide over to James, who is still silent. “Are you mad at me?”

  “Furious, but we’ll talk about it in the car.” James extends a hand for Nick to shake. “I know you brought her, but I’m taking her home.” Nick can’t hide his delight at the direction things seem to be moving in and gives me a tight hug before making a quick escape.

  I cross my arms over my chest. “What if I don’t want to go home with you?”

  “I’d say tough luck, baby, because I seem to be your only ride.” He says with a satisfied smile.

  I narrow my eyes at his smug assumption that I will just hop in his car with for the ride back. When I gird myself up for a fight, he takes the wind out of my sails by simply rubbing his hand against my cheek and whispering, “Please.”

  I look into the deep blue eyes that I have missed so much and know that I have only been fooling myself. Wild horses couldn’t keep me away from that car ride.

  CHAPTER 15

  James pounds his palms down on his steering wheel, and I jump into my seat. “Hey, you shouldn’t do that while you are driving. You might cause an accident.”” The glare James sends my way makes me slouch back down in my seat. After a long pause, during which he flexes his grip on the steering wheel as if trying to get a grip on himself, he relents. “Sorry.” A few more moments pass before he continues. “The thought of you alone with that madwoman… What could you have been thinking?”

  “I told you before. I wasn’t in any real danger. Nick had my back.”

  “Except he didn’t. He was busy trying to keep me from stopping you.”

  “So when Paulson called and told you that I was at Mark’s childhood home, you immediately dropped everything because you thought Becca might be there?”

  “It took him awhile to figure out whose house you were visiting. Once he identified the owners as Mark’s parents, I remembered that picture you showed me of Becca and Mark together. I wasn’t taking any chances.” Taking his eyes from the road, James pins me with a reproachful look. “That phone conversation I overheard on Friday, you were talking to Mark weren’t you?”

  Shame at my silly attempt to make James jealous makes me sink down in my seat. “Yea.”

  “I need to spank you more often.” I feel a rush of heat at his words and shift around in my seat.

  “Is your seat uncomfortable? You know there is a lever there that you can use to adjust the settings.”

  “Thanks.” Feeling around the side of the seat, I begin pressing the buttons. I shift the seat backwards and forwards until I am satisfied.

  “Better now?”

  The low rumble of James’s voice reminds me of more intimate times. I clear my throat. “Yes, thank you.”

  “Then tell me again how you came up with this infallible plan.” The bedroom voice is gone. I wonder if this is the way he interrogates witnesses in a courtroom. This hot and cold action is making my head spin. I let his sarcasm go without comment and once again relate how it had started when I had gone out with Patti on Friday afternoon. It was then that I realized that I needed a plan in case I saw Becca again. After on
e-too-many gin and tonics, I had found myself pouring out my troubles with Becca into Patti’s sympathetic ears. I told her about Becca locking me in a room and pushing me off the boat. Patti had been horrified. Then I had told her my suspicions about Becca starting the fire in my office. It had taken a while for Patti to calm down, but then we had put our heads together and had come up with a plan.

  Our first idea had been to contact the police and let them pick her up when she showed up at the party. This seemed the most logical course of action. Then I thought of the fallout that would inevitably follow and had balked. The press might get their hands on the story, which would cause a major scandal. James was one of New York City’s most eligible bachelors, and the gossip rags would have a field day. There was also the firm’s reputation to consider. It would not look good to have a lawyer from the firm arrested for attempted murder and arson.

  As a lawyer I also knew the case against Becca would be very difficult to prove. Even if the case went to trial, it would probably take a long time. I would have to be a witness, and in the end, she could be acquitted. A jury would undoubtedly take one look at her and fall in love with the innocent act she was so good at. The boating incident was my word against hers, and the evidence in the arson case was circumstantial at best. True, Becca matched the description of the woman in the stairwell, but so did half the women who worked in the building. We had almost decided that contacting the police was our only recourse when Patti had hit on another course of action.

  Patti, being deviously minded, had the idea of contacting Becca’s parents and telling on her. It was risky, since we didn’t know how they would react. We didn’’t even know if she had a relationship with her parents, but we decided it was worth a try. The first step in our plan was to steal a look at Becca’s personnel records to see who she listed as her emergency contact. Since she didn’t have a husband, we thought it was pretty likely that she would put down one of her parents. I gloss over how we had managed to access confidential employee records, feeling the less said on that matter the better. Let’s just say it would be a very bad idea to get on Patti’s bad side.

  Once we had the number, we just had to make the call. I think back to how my heart had been pounding and my palms were so sweaty I could hardly hold on to the phone. Her father had answered, and I laid out the events of the past month. I hadn’t known what to expect, but immediate acceptance of Becca’’s guilt in every instance surprised me. It seems like he knew his daughter well. Things had become easier after that. We decided that it would be best if Becca’s father were to wait somewhere nearby. I would try to get Becca alone so that she would not have a chance to get away, and Nick would call her father and let him know when to come. Miraculously, everything had gone according to plan, with the exception of James crashing the party. Luckily, that had not lead to a major disruption.

  When I finished telling James how everything had come together, I sit back and contemplate how things could have gone wrong. I am amazed that Becca’s father had the foresight to hire a doctor who had come prepared with a sedative. It had certainly made things easier. As the silence lengthens, I glance over at James. His expression reveals none of his thoughts. I consider pushing him for a reaction, but instead force myself to be patient. He pulls off the highway onto an exit. Instead of heading for a gas station, James pulls over into the parking lot of a fast food restaurant. “Are you hungry?”

  “No, I am not hungry. I didn’t want to be driving for this discussion.”

  “Oh.” I can’t think of anything else to say.

  “Do you have any idea how many things could have gone wrong with that plan?”

  “But they didn’t.”

  I watch as James gets out of the car. He moves to the front of the car and starts pacing back and forth in front of it. Placing his hands on his hips, he stops to glare in at me through the front windshield before once again resuming his pacing. I observe this behavior for several more minutes before opening my car door and stepping out. When I am standing in his path, James stops again. “I was wrong.” He must read the confusion on my face because he continues. “I shouldn’t have sent you away.” I am so thankful that he has changed his mind that I can barely keep myself from jumping into his arms. His sheepish look endears me to him further. “I thought I could protect you by staying away from you, but I see now that you have no sense of self-preservation. I can’t stand the thought of you coming up with some crackpot plan and there being nothing I can do about it. Besides… I missed you like the devil.”

  “You did?” My eyes burn, and I hope I don’t start to cry.

  “God yes, every second of every day. Last week was hell on earth.”

  “For me too.”

  James gives me a dirty look. “You wouldn’t have thought it by your behavior. Every day you seemed to grow more beautiful before my eyes, and you sure did seem to enjoy your new freedom.”

  I can’t help the smile that blooms across my face. He had noticed the attention I had been getting. I think it is better that I don’t tell him that most of it was just the guys’ way of getting his goat. It wasn’t every day that an ordinary guy could get one up on someone like James McAllister.

  My smile fades. He missed me this week, and God knows I had missed him, but had anything really changed? I wasn’t even sure if he wanted me to move back in with him, and if he did, was I willing to risk him shutting me out again? My heart and body longed for him desperately, but I needed to be careful of where this is going. We stand a foot apart, neither of us moving, staring into each other’s eyes, when his phone starts to ring. We listen to the rings until it stops. James moves a step closer and starts, “Lainey, I….”” He is interrupted by his phone ringing again. Whoever it is seems to be persistent. With a mumbled curse, he fishes it out of his pocket and looks at the display. Turning his back to me, he accepts the call. As I watch, he strides over to a grassy patch of land and resumes his pacing. From this distance, I cannot hear what is being said, but from his body language I know it is nothing good. Finishing the call, he re-pockets his phone and walks back to me.

  “Who was that?” I ask.

  From the way that his eyes shift away from mine, I know he doesn’t want to say. “Well?” I prompt again.

  Raking his fingers through his hair, he looks off into the distance before turning back to me. “That was Rex.”

  I regard him silently waiting for more, but when nothing is forthcoming, I press. “Okay… Was it something to do with Tobin?”

  I don’t think he is going to answer and am surprised when he speaks. “They have a Jane Doe at the morgue, and they think it’s Davis’’s ex-girlfriend.”

  “The one taken by Tobin?”

  “Yes, her name is… was Chantal.”

  I remember hearing her name the night of his grandfather’s party. I stand for a moment letting this information sink in. “Do you think Tobin is responsible for her death?””

  James shrugs. “It doesn’t matter what I believe. It’s what we can prove, and that is nothing.””

  “And now Tobin is out to get you. How did he find out that you were investigating him?”

  “That’s a very good question, for which I have no answer.”

  “What now?”

  “I want to tell you to stay away until I know it is safe again, but if the last week has taught me anything at all, it’s that I can’t stand being apart from you.””

  “You have to stop pushing me away when the going gets rough.”

  After a long pause James concedes, “I’ll try.”

  I know it won’t be easy for him, and I probably shouldn’t expect miracles overnight. My despair at the thought of spending another day without him overrides my conviction that James will probably continue to want to exclude me when trouble comes around. I look up into his brilliant blue gaze and longing washes over me in a hot wave. “You had better.”

  He opens his arms and I throw myself into them. His arms clu
tch me tightly as his mouth descends on mine. I have missed the feel of him. He feels like home.

  I vaguely hear the sound of cat whistles as James draws back. A couple of guys holler at us to get a room as they get into their car. James laughs down at me, making me smile. “I love you, Lainey Hart.”

  “Right back at ya, James McAllister.”

  “Maybe we should take their advice.” At my look of confusion, he clarifies, “You know… get a room. I don’t think I can wait until we get back to the city.”

  “What happened to enjoying the anticipation?”

  He groans. “I did say that, didn’t I?”

  We climb back into the car, and James pulls back onto the highway. He taps his fingers on the steering wheel a couple of times and stops. When he does it again, I know something must be bothering him. “What is it?”

  He glances quickly in my direction before returning his attention to the cars in front of him. Clearing his throat, he begins, “I should probably mention some office news I heard last week.”

  “Yes?”

  “Valerie informed me on Friday that Elizabeth will be coming back to work next week.”

  I sit for a moment absorbing this information. Am I happy about it? No. Can I live with it? Maybe. “How do you feel about that?”

  James shrugs. “As long as she doesn’t come between us, it really doesn’t concern me.” He slides another look my way. “You are the most important thing in my life, Lainey, and I will do anything to keep you safe and happy.”

  His words send my heart tripping. In the face of such sweetness, I can hardly put up a fuss about Elizabeth’s return. Still, I can’t help wondering if she is truly over James. “Maybe we can find someone to set her up with.” I run this scenario through my head. “Or maybe not.”

  The traffic is surprisingly light for a Saturday, and we reach the Tribeca condo in record time. We don’t touch as the elevator takes us up to the apartment, because we both know that as soon as he touches me again, there will be no stopping the inferno to follow no matter where we are. When the doors open, James holds his arm out, and I exit first. Looking around, I see that the apartment looks the same as when I left it. The blue glassware in the kitchen and the other personal touches that I had added make it an inviting home. James stands by the couch and follows my movements around the apartment with his eyes.