“Okay, that’s enough. Break it up.”
To her surprise, it was Patterson, her own partner, who came up to step in between the two men and separate them. She knew for a fact that while Patterson liked Longwell, he had very little respect for Williams.
“No reason to throw your lip around, Williams,” he said. “Cavanaugh just wants to talk to her former partner, that’s all.” Patterson looked at Cole pointedly. “Right, Cavanaugh?”
Cole did his best to look innocent, even though they all knew he was more than willing to take a shot at separating Williams from his attitude. “Right.”
“Well, he’s not here,” Patterson told him, then looked at Rayne. “Won’t be back until tomorrow, maybe the day after. Now why don’t you take any other questions out of here?” he suggested, talking directly to Rayne.
The words were strict but the look in his eyes, for the first time that she could recall, was kindly.
To ensure her compliance, Patterson purposely walked out the door with the two of them.
But once they were outside, it was another story. His quiet demeanor flew out the proverbial window.
“What the hell is wrong with you?” Patterson demanded, his ire reserved for Rayne. It reminded her of a hundred similar scenes she’d played out with her father when she was younger. For the first time, she felt as if she and Patterson had finally made a connection.
“You have a death wish?” he railed. “Right now, until this thing goes to trial, Cavanaugh or no Cavanaugh, you’re a pariah in their eyes. You should know better than to go waltzing in there—even with a bodyguard.” He jerked his thumb in Cole’s direction.
She heard only one thing and it wasn’t blotted out by his loud words. Thanks to her father, she’d become fluent in grumpy. “Thanks for sticking up for me.”
“I’m not sticking up for you, I’m sticking up for me,” Patterson corrected her. “I’m your partner. Guilt by association, remember?” He looked at Cole. “And you, you’re lucky they didn’t tear you apart. You’re the enemy. Anyone who threatens the reputation of the boys in blue is the enemy,” he underscored.
And then he paused as twenty-seven years of being on the force came to the fore. “What do you want with Longwell, anyway?”
It was best not to let anyone know she and Cole suspected Longwell of doing more than his duty in this case. “Just need to get some things cleared up,” she answered.
Patterson shook his head. The look in his eyes told her he knew better. “You’re as closemouthed as your old man.” He snorted. “Must be hell at your house when it’s just the two of you.” He looked at his watch. It was getting late. “I got a wife and a burnt dinner waiting for me. Thirty years and she hasn’t learned how to cook,” he grumbled, walking away.
Cole lost no time in getting them back to his car. They were living on borrowed time in more ways than one. If Williams followed them out, there was no telling where things could end. He’d do his brother no good from the wrong side of a set of bars.
“I want to talk to Kathy’s neighbors again,” Rayne told him the moment he got into the vehicle. “Show Longwell’s picture around.”
It didn’t take a genius to know what was on her mind. “You’re going to ask them if they noticed Longwell coming by a lot?”
She nodded. “There has to be one busybody in the complex to confirm what Klein told us.”
That was going to take more time and who was to say the one person they might want to talk to would be in just then? “Got a better idea,” he told her as they pulled out of the parking lot. “Why don’t we check her phone records against his?”
She blew out a breath. “I should have thought of that.”
“You would have,” Cole assured her. “Eventually.”
It was dark in the car, but she could have sworn she saw him grinning. Or maybe she just felt him grinning, felt the way his mouth moved as it curved.
She turned on the radio in self-defense.
They went to his hotel room. Rayne immediately got busy with Cole’s computer.
The sophisticated programs she found loaded on the hard drive took her breath away. They weren’t anything that could be found in the average businessman’s bag of tricks.
She nodded her thanks at the cup of coffee he put down beside her. “Just what business did you say you were in, again?”
“Remodeling,” he told her glibly. “But you never know when you might need some extra information.”
In her wilder days, she’d gone with a computer genius who liked challenging himself by hacking into hack-proof sites. His hobby had eventually landed him behind bars, but not before he’d taught her a few things about the art of making a computer perform mind-boggling feats.
She paused, her fingers poised over the keyboard. She thought like a cop these days, even at times against her will. “This is illegal, you know.”
He needed answers now. And no one needed to know they’d done a dry run first. “The law has gray areas. You can get a proper warrant in the morning and do this again. Right now, we need to see if we’re on the right track. No sense in bothering a judge for no reason.”
In his place, she knew she’d use the same reasoning. “Okay, let’s see if there was any phone talk that led to pillow talk.”
As she set about getting into the phone company’s records, Rayne tried to recall if there’d been anything in Longwell’s manner that should have alerted her. But there hadn’t been any indication that he was hiding anything, only that he resented her questioning his findings. At the time, she’d chalked it up to his pride, not any kind of apprehension on his part.
Was she wrong then?
Or was she wrong now?
There was more than one phone company to choose from and some had better safeguards than others. It took her a while, but she finally found what she was looking for. With triumph, she pointed to the screen.
“Kathy Fallon and Longwell definitely talked on the phone. There’s a total of twenty one-minute calls between the two once she took out her restraining order on Eric and I haven’t even looked into their cell phone calls.”
His hand on her shoulder, Cole leaned to look at the screen. He’d been less than three feet away the entire time she’d been conducting her search. At times, it was a little hard concentrating on what she was doing. The man was working his way under her skin.
“She could have been calling him about Eric.”
She looked at him in surprise. She would have thought he’d jump at this information, not try to discount it. “Whose side are you on?”
“Just playing devil’s advocate.”
She typed in another combination of keys, preparing the program she’d hacked into to bring up Kathy Fallon’s cell phone account. “I’d say you had that down pat, at least the devil part.”
And she was playing with fire, without an extinguisher in sight.
She felt something for Cole Garrison, had always felt something, however recessed she’d tried to keep it. And if she wasn’t careful, it was going to upset the order she’d always kept her affairs in.
Cole turned her chair around so that she faced him. Something quickened inside her stomach, but she brazened it out. “What are you doing?”
They’d been at this all day and for the most part, they’d been successful. But there was little more they could do, officially, until at least the morning. That left them with the night. And he knew what he wanted to do with it. “The devil has this very strong urge to play.”
She could feel her pulse revving up. “Is it overwhelming?”
He smiled into her eyes. What
was
it about this woman that made him want to throw all caution to the wind? “Several notches above overwhelming.”
She rose to her feet, her body coming in instant contact with his, sliding along it as she straightened. Electric waves undulated all through her. Telegraphing messages to the desires that were threatening to ravage her if she didn’t do something about them.
“Can’t have you causing havoc if you don’t get your way.”
Taking the hem of her sweater, he pulled it up over her head and then discarded it to the side. He’d been envisioning the way her breasts rose and fell, unencumbered by clothing, all day. “Nope.”
Not to be outdone, she yanked off his shirt, sending it to the floor. “I’ll guess I’ll just have to make the sacrifice to save mankind.”
He grinned and created a tidal wave in her stomach. “Very noble of you.”
She inclined her head, humor curving her mouth. “I’m a noble kind of girl.”
She felt his fingers brushing against her abdomen as he undid the button of her jeans. “Noble is not what I’m looking for right now.”
She grinned, her invitation clear. “Then why don’t you scratch the surface and see what happens?”
Chapter 14
T
he look in his eyes undulated its way into her system. “Scratching isn’t exactly what I had in mind, either.”
“Oh?”
Rayne shivered with anticipation as he opened the clasp behind her back. Her bra slipped forward. Sliding his thumbs along the swell, Cole coaxed the lacy blue material away from her breasts. She could feel everything quickening inside of her.
Ready.
“And just what did you have in mind?” Her mouth felt dryer than the desert after a three-year drought. The words all seemed to stick together on her tongue.
“Why don’t I show you instead?” He tugged down her slacks.
She stepped out of them, hardly daring to breathe. The next second, her pulse was racing as he grasped her buttocks, kneading the firm flesh to him. She could feel the hot imprint of his body against hers.
“I’m not very good with words,” he told her.
If her heart raced any faster, she could swear it was going to pop out of her chest. To keep from gasping, she measured out each word separately. “I guess you tend to be better with your hands.”
There was a hint of mischief in his eyes. “You tell me.”
As he kissed her, his fingers began to explore the inner core of her, each movement bringing her closer to the edge of a climax.
How did he manage to do that so fast? Was it her anticipation that urged the process on so quickly? It seemed as if she was halfway there from the very first moment he touched her.
His chuckle vibrated against her lips, echoing in her head. She didn’t stop to ask if he was laughing at her, her needs were too great. The only thing she was aware of was that she wanted him. Wanted him now, before she erupted.
Like a huge, overwhelming celebration, the first climax exploded within her even as she struggled to get Cole’s jeans off him. It was disorienting and wonderful. Temporarily forgetting everything else, she shuddered, her body moving against him as she gloried in the sensation he’d created for her.
And in moving, she was causing earthquakes to begin inside of him. Kicking his jeans aside, Cole lost no time in pursuing the vein of pleasure. Swiftly he pushed her back on the bed, then began to weave a network of exploratory kisses over her entire body, leaving imprints of his lips, his tongue, his teeth everywhere.
Rayne twisted and turned, moaning his name, moaning things that remained, for the most part, unintelligible to both of them.
When she arched against him in open invitation, Cole accepted it in his own fashion. Rather than forge the union she silently begged for, he held himself in check a little while longer. For the sake of their mutual gratification. So instead, he continued anointing her body.
The circle of openmouthed kisses grew dangerously close to her core. When his tongue finally darted in, Rayne was certain she couldn’t handle the exquisite sensations that were assaulting her body.
She wanted them to stop.
She wanted them to continue.
But most of all, she wanted him.
Forever.
Cole had the upper hand here. No matter how much she wanted to deny it, to make it equal, or take control, it was Cole who held that position, Cole who reduced her to a pulsating mass who could barely think. The only consolation she had was the moan that escaped his lips when she grasped him, her long fingers stroking him. It told her that the ecstasy that was being created was not strictly one-sided.
And then, just as swiftly, he entered her and they were joined together. Together, the way she felt they always had been.
The way she wished they always would be.
She found herself cleaving to him in ways she had never imagined before. Heart and soul. Body and mind. Completely.
She’d never been happier in her life. And never more afraid.
When the final explosion came that took them both over the top, Rayne held on to him so hard, she thought her fingers would snap off.
He waited until his heart had settled down to a peaceful beat instead of a vibrating drumroll before he trusted himself to roll off her. Before he ventured saying anything.
With a huge satisfied sigh, he cradled her against him and thought of absolutely nothing, just leaving himself tucked into the moment. When she stirred, he pressed a kiss to her forehead and surprised himself. He hadn’t thought that he was capable of tenderness, and yet he’d taken to it like a duck to water. It felt good.
“I’ve been wanting to do this ever since the last time.”
Fears began to grow inside of her. Tiny fears that threatened to obliterate everything. She felt herself scrambling inside to hold them at bay. A farm girl armed with a pitchfork against nuclear warheads.
“Don’t say last time,” she begged quietly, “Don’t say next time. There’s only now. This time.”
“Living in the moment?”
She could feel herself growing defensive and knew that she shouldn’t be. “It’s all any of us know we have.”
“I used to feel the same way. Until I started helping people find their future.” Looking down at her, trying to see her expression, he said, “There’s nothing wrong in planning for tomorrow.”
That was where he was wrong. She let out a shaky breath. “There is if it doesn’t come.”
This was about her mother and he knew it was something she had to work out for herself. He could only be there for her when and if she did. Pulling Rayne to him, he began making love to her once more, slowly this time, so that they could each savor the moment.
Her body began to heat again, even though she would have sworn in any court of law that every fire, at least for now, had been summarily extinguished. “What are you doing?”
“Tipping the scales in my favor,” was all he told her before he kissed her.
When he woke up, night enshrouded most of the room. He turned into her only to find the place beside him was empty.
Had she left?
Bolting upright, he realized that a soft humming came from the area of the desk. A soft humming and dim lighting from the single lamp she’d switched on to the smallest setting.
Rayne sat in front of his laptop, deeply engrossed in whatever she’d managed to pull up on the screen. She wore his shirt, the ends seductively brushed up along her thighs. He was willing to bet she didn’t have anything on underneath.
He could feel himself wanting her all over again.
Taking care not to make any noise, he slipped out of bed and walked up behind her. She appeared to be so taken with what she was reading, she didn’t seem to hear him. He smiled to himself and gently slid his hands along the sides of her neck, caressing her throat.
“Come back to bed,” he urged softly.
Startled, she jumped beneath his hands.
“Hey, easy,” he soothed, then laughed. “I thought cops were supposed to have nerves of steel.”
“Right now, mine are mush.”
And turning softer by the minute, she thought as she turned to look at Cole. He was as naked as the day he was born and a hell of a lot more magnificent. But she couldn’t afford to be sidetracked, not now. What she’d discovered had to be shared.
“I think I found something.”
Raising the hair away from her neck, Cole pressed a soft kiss there. “So do I.” And it might just be the rest of his life, he thought. The concept was beginning to become less and less frightening the more he thought about it.
If she didn’t get him to stop, she wasn’t going to be able to think in another moment. She could already feel herself responding to him on all levels.
With superhuman effort, she moved her head away. “No, I’m serious. It’s about Eric.”
That caught his attention. Straightening, he looked at the screen. “What?”
She had a nagging little feeling that she’d overlooked something basic. Maybe it even was the reason why she felt she had to look into the case against Eric. She’d finally been able to pull in the vague memory that had been playing hide-and-seek with her mind. It was just a brief moment, really. Eric sitting beside her in English class, writing notes.
“Eric’s left-handed, isn’t he?”
He wasn’t sure what that had to do with anything, but he nodded. “For the most part, yes, although he does do some things with his right hand.” When she raised a quizzical brow, he explained, “He broke his left arm when he was ten. With his arm in a cast, he had to learn to use his right hand. Never got very good at it. Why?”
She wanted to follow this line of thinking for a second. “So to the casual observer, Eric might seem right-handed, just like a good deal of the world.”
“Right…” Dragging the word out, Cole waited for her to make her point.
“I just looked at the autopsy report again.” She didn’t bother telling him how it had found its way from the M.E.’s computer to his. The less he knew about that, the safer he was. “And—” She couldn’t continue. “Damn it, Cole, please put on some pants. I’m having trouble stringing words together.”
“I’m sorry.” But the grin on his face as he pulled on his jeans told her he was no such thing. Zipping up, he waved for her to continue. “Go on.”
“Among other things, the autopsy report describes the fatal stab wound—left to right, the way a right-handed person would do it,” she enunciated carefully. “A left-handed person would deliver the blow from right to left. We still may not know who did do it, but it’s for sure that Eric didn’t kill her. The initial thrust wouldn’t have been as deep as it was.”
Overjoyed, Cole bracketed her shoulders with his hands and scooped her up from the table. He kissed her mouth long and hard. Leaving them both more than a little breathless.
“That’s for Eric,” he told her.
She grinned, very satisfied with herself. “Kisses pretty good for a man behind bars.” Rayne glanced at her watch. It was a little past two. She doubted if anyone from the D.A.’s office could be roused at this hour. She knew that Janelle could, but she didn’t want her cousin going out on a limb for her. The limb belonged to her alone. She’d carved her initials into it. “Now I’d like Eric’s brother to kiss me, please.”
Cole slipped his arms around her, pulling her closer to him. “No sooner said than done.”
He found he didn’t need his jeans for long.
They split up.
By seven Cole had already gotten in contact with Eric’s lawyer, rousing him out of bed. Holland stopped complaining bitterly when Cole explained what they had uncovered about the fatal wound that had killed Kathy Fallon. In short order, he made arrangements to meet with the lawyer at the D.A.’s office within the hour.
Watching him hang up, Rayne made her decision. There was something she needed to do. “I’ll hook up with you at the police station.”
Her announcement caught him by surprise. He’d have thought she’d want to be there every step of the way. “Aren’t you coming with me?”
She shook her head. “Not right away. I have to go home.” She’d given this a lot of thought, wrestling with her conscience all night, when she hadn’t been wrestling with him. “I have to tell my father what I found out.” She could guess what he was going to say. “I know it’s been fifteen years and another few hours isn’t going to matter, but—”
“Go,” he told her. “He deserves to know, to go see this woman for himself.”
She had no idea why she felt so relieved to hear him support her decision. Even now she was plagued with doubts about it. “I just hope this isn’t going to turn out to be a wild-goose chase—”
“Only one way to find out.” He flashed an encouraging smile at her. “I’ll see you later.” About to leave, Cole stopped and crossed back to her. Taking hold of Rayne by her shoulders, he kissed her soundly, then forced himself to release her. They both had errands of mercy to run. “Good luck.”
She nodded. “To both of us,” she added after he’d shut the door.
Andrew didn’t bother to look up when he heard the back door open.
“You missed breakfast again.” He’d just finished putting away the last of the dirty dishes into the dishwasher. Flipping the dial, he began the wash cycle. “This is getting to be a habit.”
She stared at his back. How was he going to react? Would this be too much for him? And what if it
wasn’t
her mother? Now that she was here, she could feel some of her bravado, some of her convictions, slipping away. “Twice isn’t a habit.”
“Okay, it’s the beginning of a habit,” he allowed. Reaching for a towel, he wiped his hands. “You going to split hairs with me?”
She was stalling, she thought, because she was afraid to say the words out loud, afraid of it not being true. Afraid of hurting her father the way he’d been hurt so many times before.
When she didn’t answer, Andrew finally turned around to look at her. The moment he did, he read the expression on her face. Everything inside of him came to attention. “What’s wrong?”
“What makes you think anything is wrong?” Her voice no longer carried with it the conviction that had infused it only a few years ago. Over time, she’d lost some of her false bravado.
Andrew found he was short on patience this morning. He’d spend the night worrying about her and the morning thinking he was too old for this kind of thing.
“Cut the stalling tactics, Rayne. Whether you like it or not, I can read you like a book. A mystery novel sometimes, but—”
There was only one way to get this said and that was to blurt it out. “I think I saw her.”
“Her?” He looked at Rayne, the word echoing in his chest. Mocking him. His thoughts converged in one direction, but he couldn’t believe that his daughter meant what he wanted her to mean. There was caution in his voice as he said, “Who?”
Rayne took a deep breath, trying to steady nerves that had come out of nowhere to take control. The word still came out shaky.
“Mom.”
Her father looked at her for a moment that stretched out so far, so thin, she could almost hear it creaking. There was no other sound in the room. No music, no cars passing outside, no birds singing. Nothing.
“Say something,” she begged.
Exercising extreme control, Andrew held himself in check. He didn’t trust his voice beyond a single word. “Where?”
Now that she’d begun, the words came out in a flood. “Up the coast, on the way to Bainbridge-by-the-sea. She’s working at a diner.” Her words played back in her head. “I know this sounds crazy—”