Final Mend (9 page)

Did she know? Had she witnessed her father's death? Had the cops questioned her on what she'd seen, heard? And how in the world could he question her without scarring her for life?

Amy had been found when she'd walked into a café. She'd claimed she and the man she was with had been playing hide-and-seek, and she was supposed to be looking for her daddy. The police had searched all the nearby homes and businesses, and an ongoing investigation was in full force.

Amy had given them a description that a sketch artist had released to the public to help search for him, but it was vague. Even Amy's description of everything that had happened to her had been vague. She showed no sign of sexual trauma or injuries, and she claimed to have nothing but a good time.

Jake couldn't understand it, but the feeling Lillian was involved would not go away.

“Hey.” Winona slipped from his body and scratched his head, her fingertip tracing along his jaw.

“Hey.” His voice sounded rough, but Winona smiled.

“Are you always this grumpy in the morning?”

“You call this grumpy?”

Winona nodded.

“And I suppose you're one of those jump-out-of-bed-first-thing-in-the-morning-and-annoy-everyone-with-your-
joie-de-vivre
people?”

Winona palmed his chest, striding her nails along his skin and down to his pelvis. She grasped his hardness and lightly squeezed. “Am I annoying you?”

He shifted to his side and faced her, trailing his fingers up her inner thighs. “I don't know. Am I annoying you?”

She blinked. Slowly. Seductively. “Not at all.”

He grasped her wrists and straddled her. “You are wild and wanton, aren't you?”

She giggled as he tickled her.

“Am I annoying you now?”

“Yes! Stop it. Stop it,” she squealed as she thrashed across the bed. “I have to pee.”

He laughed as he rolled off her. “Okay. I'll meet you back here in five.”

• • •

Winona thought it would be the perfect day to lie in bed and spoon with Jake, but the phone rang.

“Ugh,” she moaned as grabbed her phone, recognizing Chayton's ring.

“Big brother is calling,” Jake said.

“Actually, he's my little brother. And if I don't answer, he'll send out a search party. Yeah?” she quipped into the phone.

“Well, good morning to you, too.”

“Yes. Keyword: morning. Did you really feel the need to call me this early?”

“It's eight o'clock. You're usually up by now.”

“Doesn't mean I want to talk to you this early.”

“I'm actually looking for Jake,” her brother said, all innocent-like.

“Why are you looking for Jake?” She swept her gaze to the man under discussion, who lay on his side with his head propped in his hand, his free hand skimming her lower leg. He lazily watched her as he flicked away the covers and inched his fingers up her inner thighs, all while her back remained against his chest.

“Wanted to see if he was interested in going out on the mountains four-wheeling with me today. I'm looking for someone to go with, and I thought he might like that kind of stuff.”

“Oh. Well, let me ask him. We'll call you back in a few.” She thought getting Jake out on the mountains was a grand idea. She had plans to look more into Lillian, possibly traveling there, and she didn't want Jake or Chayton to know.

“Okay, well, don't waste my time. I'll be ready to head out in about an hour.”

“We'll let you know before then.”

Jake had his fingers playing on her by now, and she pressed end on the phone and tossed it in the pillows.

“What did he want?”

“I can't remember.” She vaulted around and grabbed his shoulders, nibbling his ear, her tongue skating along his jawbone. “Oh yeah, something about wanting to know if you wanted to go four-wheeling with him today.”

“Can we take a shower first?”

Winona landed a kiss on his mouth before crawling over his body and jumping off the bed on the other side. Wiggling her butt, she darted into the bathroom.

She did her business and switched on the shower, adjusting the temperature. She poked her head out. “Coming?”

“Oh, I plan to.”

As Winona stepped into the shower, Jake grabbed her neck, digging his fingers into her hair as he pulled her mouth to his. Water coursed over their bodies. She hooked her hands around his neck and giggled.

“How in the world can you possibly think of doing this again?” Winona asked.

He slid his warm hands up and down her sides. “What, you don't want to?”

“Yes, I want to.” His lips wouldn't stop spanning her wet skin, his hands coursing over her body with the water, so it'd be impossible to ignore him if she did want to.

“But?” He stopped kissing her and looked at her, his brow furrowing.

“But I didn't know it was possible.” She giggled and glimpsed his hardness. Dropping her hands from his neck, she slid her fingers down his chest and cradled him. “You know, for you to be ready again.”

He pinned her against the wall as the water continued to stream out of the showerhead. “You make me hot.” He traced his teeth against her breasts, her nipples pebbling under his touch. He kissed, licked, and nicked her neck, shoulders, and jaw before landing his mouth on hers, sucking and tasting. She bucked into him, working his cock up and down.

He lifted her thigh to rest against the lip of the bathtub and thrust his finger inside her. She moaned.

“Damn, woman.”

She giggled as water sluiced over their bodies. “The TV makes shower-sex look much easier.”

“What kind of television are you watching?”

“You'd be amazed at what the local channels have nowadays.”

His fingers thrust deeper and he grabbed her ass, holding her. She moved against him, trembling as her pressure continued to build. He stopped kissing her and touched his forehead to hers, gasping as he gyrated his hips in time with her hands.

“Fuck,” he groaned.

She grabbed his balls, continuing to massage his length. “Come,” she breathed. She longed to feel him inside her, but they were in a shower with no condoms and what he was doing to her body felt too good to stop.

He kissed her again, groaning in her mouth, as she felt his cock tremble, shake, and explode. She continued to move with him, his fingers digging deeper into the waves of her orgasm.

They slowed. Shifted aside. Jake adjusted the water temperature, kissed her gently, then grabbed the washcloth and soap and washed her body. She took over and did the same to him.

He killed the water. “We'll turn into prunes if we don't get out.”

He stepped out of the shower, grabbed a towel, and wrapped it around Winona before grabbing one for himself.

She slapped his bare ass. He swung around and whacked her with the towel, but the long and bulky towel barely hit its target. She poked her tongue out and dried herself as she watched him dry off, admiring the strong lines and muscular curves of his body.

He bent and grabbed a pair of jeans hanging on the door. “So what do you think?” he asked as he pulled on the jeans.

“I think that's the best damn sex I've ever had, aside from last night.”

His eyes twinkled as he looked at her. “I mean about Chayton's proposal.”

She shot out of the bathroom and grabbed her skirt. “I think it's a great idea,” she called from the other room. “I have some shopping to do today. You can go bond with my brother.” Not that their relationship required a bond or even a friendship with her immediate family.

She returned to the bathroom, pulling a shirt over her head, to find him standing in front of the mirror, unmoving.

“Yeah, it sounds like it'd be fun, and I've been cooped up for a long time.” He ran his fingers through his wet hair.

“So go.”

“What about Amy?”

“Give her another day or two. Get out and have a good time. She's okay now.”

“You sure he doesn't just want to take me out and bury my body somewhere?”

Winona giggled. “Do you think everyone is a murderer or kidnapper?”

• • •

Jake continued to watch Winona in the mirror until she whirled away and stepped out of the bathroom. He followed, pulling on his shoes with no intention of leaving.

He needed to be here, needed to be doing something about Amy, and he wanted to talk to Winona about investigating Brandon.

“My brother's getting antsy,” Winona said, waving her phone. “What should I tell him?”

Jake groaned, doubt flickering in his chest. It'd be fun to get out and do something, but he didn't feel he had that right.

“I don't know. I was hoping we could talk.”

“About what?”

“About you investigating Brandon's death.”

“Haven't we already talked about that?”

“Not near enough.”

“You still want to hire me?”

Jake nodded.

“For what? Sex?” she asked, but he could tell she was teasing by the curl of her nose and the twinkle in her eye. He grabbed her around the waist and pulled her forward.

“I'm sure you're way too expensive for me,” he said. “But I'll pay you whatever you ask.”

She bumped her nose with his then pulled away. Grabbing her brush from the dresser, she pulled it through her hair and met his eyes through the dresser mirror. “I'll talk to some contacts, do a few things, but I can't promise I'm going to take the case. I'm not even sure there's a case to take.”

Jake rubbed a hand across his face, despair clenching his shoulders. “But you'll at least look into it? I mean, I haven't even heard what happened to Brandon. All I know is that someone came into his home and shot him and took Amy. I don't know any other details. Hell, most of what I know is from what I've seen on the news, and who knows if that's true?”

Winona dropped the brush and came back to him, circling her hands behind his neck. Her fingers combed his hair at the nape of his neck, inciting waves of heat and cold on his spine. “If you promise you'll go out today and have a good time, I promise I'll make a few phone calls and try to get some information for you.”

He nodded. He couldn't promise to have a good time, but he could at least go out with her brother. It'd do him good to get out in the fresh air. “Okay.”

“Okay.” She slapped his butt and tried to move away, but he cinched his hands around her waist. “We'd better call him before he gets impatient,” she said, wiggling out of his grasp. “He said he was leaving in an hour. And hell, that was almost an hour ago.”

Jake pressed his nose to hers. “Oh good, that's plenty of time for one more quickie.”

• • •

After Jake left, Winona returned to her condo and spent the morning researching Lillian. Amy's return dominated the news, and Winona had to admit her optimistic return rang a discordant tune. As Winona watched Internet videos, nausea welled within her, surfacing into flu like symptoms—the sickness she always felt before taking on a big case.

The news splashed pictures of the little girl, and Lillian's boyfriend held her hands and supported her as tears ran down her face. He smiled a benevolent smile for the cameras. Winona immediately disliked him.

Her instincts were back in full force. Either that, or they were severely distorted by Jake's presence.

She'd made a few phone calls to agencies she knew from her previous days working as a PI and had called in a few favors with friends. What she learned made her blood run cold. Lillian, a charming and attractive socialite who was currently separated from her husband of seven years, had a gambling problem. Possibly a drug problem. And a million dollar insurance policy on her estranged husband. Who was now her dead husband.

After her separation from Brandon, Brandon had taken the child out of mutual agreement until Lillian had decided to involve the courts. The media had gone crazy, especially because of Brandon's stature in the sports industry. As his cousin's manager, he'd shot to the top and was one of the most sought-after sports managers in his field, which included not only triathlon athletes like Jake, but football, basketball, and soccer players as well. Many athletes mourned his death; many more fans.

The paparazzi had caught pictures of Lillian with several different men. They'd caught her partying at a high-end club the night before her daughter had been kidnapped and husband killed. Ever since, she'd tried to stay low-key. Until Amy was found.

Winona tried to respect her for that. At least she had realized what she was doing was wrong, and had taken steps to correct it.

After watching Internet videos and reading every online article she found, she mapped out tomorrow's destination. Lillian lived eight hours from here, but Winona knew a pilot who could get her there much faster, if he'd agree.

She would pay the woman a visit. Questioning her didn't mean she planned on taking the case.

She had no intention of telling Jake her plans.

She considered asking Garret for help but feared Reagan's disapproval. His experience as an FBI agent would help, plus having a man there with his background would offer protection she might or might not need. But he was retired, and for all she knew he might feel exactly how she felt when taking on a new case.

Garret was Chayton's half-brother, but not Winona's. They still shared a familial love, though, from the moment she'd met him and Reagan. They'd accepted her before Chayton had.

From what she gathered, Lillian was a charmer and loved to be charmed, so she'd probably be more willing to talk to Garret than she would to a woman. It was worth asking.

She called Nick first. Nick, a friend and pilot, owned his own company. He piloted skiers wanting to heli-ski in the winter, or sightseers who wanted to experience the unmanned depths of Montana. His company chartered helicopters and small planes. She'd ask him to fly her to Wyoming, praying he had no last-minute plans.