Harlequin Romantic Suspense July 2021 Box Set

by Carla Cassidy

  Within two minutes of having the case called, they were through. Jasmine had managed to get through the whole thing without looking to see if Greg was in the courtroom. She hadn’t seen or spoken to him since he’d left her house Monday night. She wished she could say the same about his presence in her thoughts.

  He’d been there constantly. Going through her days with her. At the grocery, when she’d bought noodles to make lasagna because Bella and Josh both loved it, she’d wondered if Greg liked Italian food. While she’d cooked Tuesday night for Josh’s Wednesday dinner visit, she’d pictured Greg in her kitchen opening a bottle of wine to go with the pasta dish.

  He’d shown up in other more intimate spaces as well. But sitting there in court Thursday afternoon, Jasmine was never more aware that Greg worked for the other side. The other side of the case. People working on it were sitting on the other side of the courtroom.

  She knew Heidi was there. Had heard the woman answer when the judge asked if she was present in the courtroom. She just hadn’t looked.

  Was Greg sitting with her brother’s beautiful and manipulative ex-wife?

  Were he, and maybe the prosecutor, too, taken in by her seemingly fragile countenance? Her soft voice?

  She couldn’t blame them. She and Josh had both been fooled, too, for a while. Until they’d heard that kind, tender voice screech with hateful insults...

  “Hey, sis, Ryder’s asked me to hang back for a brief meeting with him.” Josh was there, standing next to her as she picked up her purse and prepared to leave the courtroom. Reaching up, she hugged him, her heart filled with tears and her mind with so many things she wanted to say to him. And she would, later that night when he called.

  Eyes squeezed shut, she poured all of her love and support and encouragement into that hug, felt Josh’s usual, less emotional, pat on her back, and opened her eyes—to find herself staring straight into Greg Johnson’s gaze. The detective, in a brown suit and matching sedate tie, stood alone toward the back of the room.

  “I’ll call you,” Josh said, leaving her there—seemingly unaware of the detective’s gaze on her.

  And why wouldn’t he be? This wasn’t about her. Her brother’s mind needed to be solely on that lawyer meeting and finding out what he needed to do to get his daughter back at home with him.

  Greg left the courtroom as she headed toward the door, not waiting to hold the door open for her. She was simultaneously relieved and disappointed.

  Because her emotions were running high. Josh’s case hadn’t been dismissed, which made her feel vulnerable. Hearing Heidi’s voice behind her, not the words she was speaking, but her voice, she hurried her step. And pushed outside the courtroom to see Greg standing there in the hallway, speaking to another suited man—another attorney from the prosecutor’s office? Another detective, like himself?

  Passing them was the only way to the elevator that would take her to street level and back to The Lemonade Stand to collect Bella. Head turned, Jasmine wrapped her arms around her middle, hooking her fingers into the belt loops on her long-sleeved navy T-shirt dress, and moved quickly. Made it without incident. Pushed the down button and was gratified when the ding signifying an arriving car sounded almost immediately. Placing herself squarely in front of the designated door, she stepped inside the empty car, pushed for the ground floor and... Greg slipped inside with her just as the doors started to close.

  She’d pulled her hair up and back into a bun before court, going for a proper, respectable look. And now couldn’t hide behind the long dark curtain it often afforded her. It would look just too weird and creepy if she were to suddenly yank off the scrunchie holding it in place.

  “I need to speak with you.” Greg’s tone wasn’t all that friendly, adding to the surreal court experience. Her brother on the defendant’s side. Being accused of abuse.

  And Greg no longer on their side?

  “What’s up?” she asked, forcing herself to look at him. Needing to really see him, and yet, not at all sure anybody ever did.

  Or if she ever could, at least. Her issue. And maybe him, too.

  “You’ve been holding out on me.” His chin was firm, his gaze harder than she’d seen it.

  Frowning, she shook her head. Really? Was he kidding? She’d told him about Desmond! “I have not!” she stated, insulted. He could accuse her of wanting to—of liking him too much, thinking about him too much. Then, he’d have her.

  But this?

  Two floors had passed. They had ten more.

  “You didn’t tell me that Heidi was living with your brother.”

  Had he gone mad in the two days since she’d seen him? “You knew they were married. And had a child. One would assume that meant they shared a house.” Her words bore sarcasm without apology.

  And more intonation than the situation warranted.

  How could he doubt her? She’d given him more of her true self, told him more about her relationship with Desmond, than she’d ever told anyone. Including Josh.

  “I’m sorry I failed to point out that while they were married, they also lived in the same home,” she added, jabbing the ground-floor button again, as though the act would make the car reach its destination more rapidly.

  “Not while they were married,” he said. “For the past three months.”

  Four more floors to go. Then, two. She stared at him.

  “Are you kidding? You think my brother had Heidi...” She shook her head. And the door opened to the lobby. Jasmine stepped out. Greg kept in step with her and then, with a light touch to her forearm, stepped in front of her.

  “I know he did,” he said, softly. Convincingly.

  She shook her head. No. This way-too-attractive man of power was not going to convince her of things her own mind knew better than to believe.

  “I’ve got proof.”

  He had proof? Her mind went briefly blank. She was aware of her surroundings. Of people coming and going. A little girl holding the hand of a young woman. Someone in a red dress that just walked past.

  Did they all think the day was normal? Or did they know it wasn’t?

  “What proof?”

  Heidi was staying at Josh’s? Had her brother betrayed her?

  “Neighbor’s testimony, for one.”

  And Bella. It dawned on her. Bella would know if her mommy had been sleeping at Daddy’s house. Was he about to tell her they were planning to compel the child’s testimony?

  She shook her head again. Thought about shaking it so hard her hair fell out of her bun. Hard enough that reality would return, the judge would dismiss Josh’s case and life would go on.

  The world stayed exactly the same. Her in the lobby of the courthouse with a detective she’d somehow fallen for in the space of nine days and she now couldn’t trust. And Josh was upstairs getting ready to fight a case that hadn’t been dismissed. People were swarming around them.

  She wasn’t sure what to say. But knew her brother was the one person in the world she could trust.

  Greg was studying her. Thinking she was his bug under some personal microscope? Had he detected how she was struggling not to think about him every minute of the day?

  He couldn’t involve Bella. Couldn’t use an innocent three-year-old in the fight between her parents. She’d take her niece and run if she had to.

  “You didn’t know.”

  Greg’s tone had noticeably softened. So much so that her entire being yearned to relax into him. She forbade it. Immediately.

  “It’s more of Heidi’s lies,” she said, just a few words away from begging him to believe her. To leave Bella out of it. To help them. “It has to be.”

  He didn’t nod, but the one simple tilt forward of his head felt to her like the same thing. Like a yes. “Just ask him for me, will you?”

  She wasn’t going to ask her brother about the allegations. She w
as going to tell him about what Greg had said, as soon as she knew he was out of his meeting and they were alone. She nodded like some smitten idiot, letting him hold her gaze captive.

  But... “Why don’t you ask him yourself?”

  He tilted his head slightly to the side this time. “His lawyer will be present.”

  Oh. That made sense. He wanted an honest answer. “You think his lawyer will...”

  “...tell him not to say anything.”

  Right. She’d been going to ask if he thought Ryder Michaels would ask Josh to lie. And where that thought came from, she didn’t know. Like they could trust this detective who worked for the other side over her brother’s paid attorney...

  “You asked me to find the real truth,” he reminded her.

  She had. Still needed him to do so. Lord knew they weren’t going to be able to fight Heidi on her own with a judge who leaned toward female victims and a prosecutor falling prey to her manipulative and creative spins on tiny pieces of truth.

  Josh was going to sink under the weight of it all if she couldn’t figure out a way to hold him up. Temporarily losing custody of Bella. Losing his motion. And now hearing that Heidi was claiming to have proof that she’d been living with him. That she’d somehow apparently managed to get his own neighbors to corroborate the story.

  “I’ll talk to him tonight,” she said, before she could think and knowing as soon as the words were out that she shouldn’t have put a time on it. Should have left herself an opening of time before he’d be expecting an answer...

  “Jas? Is that you?”

  With a small lift of her spirits, she swung around when she heard the feminine voice off to her side coming closer. “Wynne!” She reached to return the hug she knew was coming. A hug that was a little longer than either of them hugged others, one that held a love that, while benign now, would always be present between them.

  “What are you doing here?” Wynne’s words asked as her warm, personal gaze asked if Jasmine was okay. She included a sideways glance toward Greg in the silent question.

  Jasmine understood immediately, of course. Wynne needed to know that Jasmine wasn’t in trouble. That she hadn’t fallen under the spell of power and supposed protection once again. Jasmine’s counselor had pointed out to her that, in truth, she never did fall. She always got out before she lost herself.

  She was a strong, capable woman.

  One who could struggle when it came to falling in love.

  “Heidi’s accused Josh of abuse,” she said softly, moving more closely to the state representative who always seemed to have people around her these days. “I’ll tell you about it later.”

  “What? Heidi’s back at it again?” Wynne glanced toward Greg a second time. He’d chosen not to wander off on his way, as Jasmine had half hoped he would, but rather, stood there, watching the two of them. And she remembered that he’d been impressed that she knew Wynne Anderson.

  “Where are my manners?” she exclaimed with a last glance at Wynne, needing the other woman to keep her counsel until they could talk alone. “Greg, this is Representative Wynne Anderson. Wynne, Detective Greg Johnson. He’s working on my brother’s case. We’re just coming from a preliminary hearing.”

  Glancing around, Wynne asked, “Where’s Josh?” And then held out her hand to Greg. “Nice to meet you,” she added, almost as though it wasn’t an afterthought. Jasmine knew her better than that, though. Wynne had reservations about Greg.

  Old jealousy rearing its head? Or valid concerns of a close friend?

  “Josh is still upstairs with his lawyer,” she said, trying to walk the three of them toward the door where she could make her escape before her too-complicated world exploded into painful shards.

  Wynne stopped after just a couple of steps. “I actually have to get upstairs myself,” she said. “I’m late for a meeting. But...you going to be home tonight?” The look she gave Jasmine was adamant, in an almost sisterly way.

  “Yes.” Please go. Let me go. Make him go. Let’s all be gone...

  “I’ll call you,” Wynne said and with a quick “Nice to meet you” aimed in Greg’s direction, she sped toward an opening elevator door.

  Turning her gaze back to Greg, Jasmine found him watching her. “You know her well.”

  “I told you I did.”

  “You’re close.”

  “We used to be.” She started walking. Needing to get Bella and keep the child close until she figured out the best way to win the current war they were facing.

  There was no doubt they’d win. They were survivors.

  “We don’t talk that much anymore,” she continued, since talking about Wynne seemed to be getting her closer to the door, the parking lot across the street, her car. “She’s busy, I’m busy...” Wynne hadn’t known about the charges against Josh.

  “Does she know what Desmond did to you? To keep you from meeting up with her?”

  “No.”

  He kept looking at her. She didn’t meet his gaze. On emotional overload already, she was in no state to get into the Wynne thing. Had no idea where he’d stand on the sexuality spectrum and didn’t have the energy to find out.

  Balmy air and a glorious blaze of sunshine hit them as they walked past a security guard and made it through the door.

  “Once she got heavier into politics, you didn’t have as much in common?” he asked, hands in his pockets. They walked in tandem toward the streetlight that would hopefully change by the time they got there and let her just head straight across the street without another delay.

  She shrugged at his question. “We just got busier with other things,” she said and then cringed inside. What things was she busier with that she hadn’t already been busy with during the time that she and Wynne Anderson were close? She’d already told him she was teaching back then. And other than the recent advent of Bella into her daily routine, what else did she do?

  Truth was, she still respected and appreciated Wynne’s opinion on any matter she brought up to her. The woman was incredibly smart. Analytical. And generally spot-on when it came to powers of observation, as well.

  She’d just been way too possessive for Jasmine. Wanting them to be so far into each other’s lives they never went anywhere alone. Not personally, at least. And then, once, Wynne had screamed horrible, demeaning things at her when she’d failed to comply and didn’t seem to want the same things for them. She’d later come to understand that Wynne had been dealing with her own tensions, her political aspirations and sexual orientation at war with each other, as well as her own insecurities about being a lesbian. The fact that Jasmine was bisexual made it more difficult for her to trust that Jasmine wanted her and only her. It was Jasmine’s belief that Wynne had shocked herself as much as Jasmine when she’d lost control that last night. She’d accepted the break in their relationship without a fight. Had asked only that Jasmine not say anything about her outburst and had taken an extended vacation, “caring for her ill mother across the country.” In reality, she’d put herself in private anger counseling, just in case, in another state.

  But Jasmine just wasn’t up to telling any of that to Greg Johnson as they walked across the street. Or admitting out loud that Wynne’s wife seemed to feel a bit threatened by Jasmine.

  She didn’t want to think about any of it.

  “So, you’ll talk to Josh tonight?” Greg asked as she reached her car.

  She’d said she would. He knew that she talked to him every night for Bella’s good-night story. And he’d know that after their day in court, of course they had to talk about his case. “Yes.” She pushed the button on the door handle that unlocked her car electronically in partnership with the fob in her purse.

  He turned away, tapped the hood of the car as though a form of goodbye, and then turned back. “Jasmine?”

  “Yeah?”

  “Is Wynne the s
econd one?” She knew what he was asking. The ex-lover that she still talked to.

  With one foot in the car, she hesitated. Was cornered. Him there, asking for truth. Her not wanting him to have it. But needing him to trust her so that he’d believe her about Josh...

  “Yes.”

  CHAPTER 12

  Greg waited for Jasmine’s call. He knew Bella went to bed fairly early. He didn’t actually start watching the clock until nine. By ten he was actively staring at his phone. Checking to see if he’d missed a call.

  Forcing himself to focus on things other than Jasmine Taylor. Fighting a mind that wanted to give him a continuous thread, running over and over, including every picture his memory had stored of her. From the moment that she’d opened her door to him almost two weeks before until she’d told him that Wynne Anderson had been her lover and then ducked into her car and drove off without looking back.

  She hadn’t even given him a chance to react, to show her that he saw her exactly the same, whether she’d had a female lover or not. She was loyal and kind, steadfast in her devotion to her loved ones. Her sexuality was a part of her. It didn’t define her.

  And she hadn’t trusted him to get that.

  At 10:20 he had a text.

  Talked to Josh as requested. Will be available to speak with you tomorrow after class.

  She wanted to talk in person, then? His body jolted. No reason. Just a jolt. He started typing immediately. Phone is fine.

  He wanted to hear what she was going to tell him now. Didn’t want to wait overnight. He knew that Heidi had been living with Josh. There was security camera coverage of her car in his driveway all night. Provided willingly without warrant by Josh’s next-door neighbor. What Greg needed to know was whether Josh was lying to Jasmine or Jasmine was lying to Greg.

  Why he needed to know he didn’t question at the moment. He was working a case. And if that particular piece of information didn’t directly affect the case, well, then, that would be something he’d figure out some other time.

  Okay, good, I’ll wait to pick up Bella from daycare until after you call