GirlMostLikelyTo (22 page)

“We called you. Ever think of checking your phone?”

“Lost it.”

“Fuck.”

Where’s his accent gone?
“Will you take me home,
please?”

“No.”

Her heart stuttered as fear surged. She was surprised she
had any adrenaline left to flood her bloodstream. Where was he taking her?

She twisted her fingers. “I won’t say anything.”

He gave her a wide-eyed glance. “Afraid of me?”

“Not of you, but I’m afraid of Veton and Dragen and Marco.”

“I warned you.”

“I know.” She inhaled. “You didn’t want me to see the
truth.”

Tomas said nothing.

“Going to take me to some dark place and kill me now?” She
was joking but her throat thickened around the words.

“Never. I promise,” Tomas said quietly.

Wren took a deep breath. “Walk away from Marco and this job.
We can go abroad and find work. I can teach English anywhere. We can persuade
Adam to come too. Leave all this behind.”

His silence settled like a lead weight on her chest.

“We-we could leave tonight,” she whispered. “Go now. This minute.”

“You don’t want to tell the police what you know?”

“I don’t want to hurt you and if I speak out, I
will
hurt you. Run. Go where Marco can’t find you. Start again somewhere else. You
have to run, Tomas. With me or without me. Even if you go with Adam, you need
to go. Tonight. Right now. Please.”

Tomas pulled through the gates of a large detached house
with a gravel drive and parked in the turning circle.

“Where are we? Not Marco’s house? Oh God.” Her heart pounded
as she unclipped her seat belt. “I was scared. That’s why I ran out of the
restaurant. Did he tell you what he said?”

Tomas turned with a puzzled look on his face. “What?”

She sprang from the car, clutching her purse, and sprinted
down the drive. She didn’t get far before Tomas snagged her sweater. He jerked
her off her feet and into his arms.

“Let me go,” she yelled.

“It’s not Marco’s house,” he said. “Trust me.”

She stopped struggling and he put her down. He wrapped his
fingers around hers, retrieved the folder from the car and tugged her toward
the house. The door opened moments after he’d rung the bell and when she saw
who stood there, she jerked her hand free.

Oh shit.
Either her father had been kidnapped by
Marco to persuade her to keep quiet. Or Tomas wasn’t who she thought he was.

A middle-aged woman in a blue suit came into the hall and
glared at Tomas.

“Wren, this is Detective Superintendent Julia Markham,” said
her father. “The man next to you is Detective Inspector Tomas Eldridge.”

Even though her dad outranked them as a Detective Chief
Superintendent, Wren knew she was in a lot of trouble.

“You’re in a lot of trouble,” said the woman. As a DSI she
was Tomas’ boss. “You’re wrecking an investigation that’s been going on for
months. Maybe you’ve already wrecked it.”

Wren pressed her lips together.

“Come into the drawing room and tell us everything,” said
the DSI.

She wouldn’t be telling them
everything
. She didn’t
dare look at Tomas, but felt relieved and angry in equal measures. As she
walked past her father, into a drawing room with a large fireplace and
mismatched leather chairs and couches, he squeezed her shoulder and she shot
him a little smile.

“Sit.” The DSI pointed to a couch adjacent to the tiled
hearth.

Wren put her purse on the floor and sat. “Tomas, make
notes,” the woman said. “Wren, don’t leave out any detail regardless of whether
you think it’s relevant or not. We need to know if Tomas is in danger.”

“And if Wren is,” Tomas muttered.

Her father let out a gruff exhale as he sat next to her, the
sort that usually indicated harsh words. She winced.

Wren started at the point she’d seen the extra names on her
register. She took a deep breath when she’d finished and waited for them to
praise her ingenuity and resourcefulness. Instead, she came in for a barrage of
criticism from the DSI and at times from her father, while Tomas stayed largely
silent. Wren fought her corner, but it quickly became clear that while she was
expected to tell them every minute detail, they’d divulge nothing. She had no
choice but to mention Matt and her father stiffened. When she explained exactly
why she’d run from Marco, Tomas was the one who tensed. She took the note
Jovana had given her out of her shoe.

“Why did you put it there?” the DSI asked.

“If I was killed and dumped I thought it might be a clue for
the police.”

“Christ, Wren,” muttered her father.

Tomas had hardly moved since she’d started to speak.

“So has the operation been compromised?” asked the DSI. “How
much is Jovana going to tell Marco?”

“She won’t want to tell him she passed me the note or that
she asked me to find her friend,” Wren said.

The DSI frowned. “How is she going to explain you met her on
Church Street and got in that car with her?”

“She might not.”

Tomas pinned her with her gaze. “The other woman saw you.”

“Coincidence?” Wren suggested. “It’s on the way to Dock
Street.”

“And what’s on Dock Street?” asked her father.

“Where I live,” Tomas said.

Wren suspected only
she
heard the low growl at her
side.

“And why did you get in the car?” The DSI stared at her.

“Maybe I was trying to persuade Jovana away from
prostitution. Marco would accept I’d guessed what the women do. Not exactly a
huge leap. Though I er…told Jovana my brothers are policemen. And then the guy
that picked us up? I…I read him his rights.”

Her father gave a short laugh. “Did you quote some imaginary
act?”

“I might have done. Like the one about not treading on frogs
on a Friday, or selling sheep on a Sunday.”

Her father patted her knee. He’d remembered the games they’d
played.

“So we can add impersonating a police officer to the list of
charges,” the bitch said.

“Julia!” Wren’s father snapped. “Don’t frighten her. I think
that was quite smart actually. And there won’t be any charges. This is not
entirely her fault.” He glared at Tomas, who swallowed hard. “So how do we move
forward?”

The DSI stood and began to pace. “We have to assume Jovana
will inform Marco of everything, whether she’s under duress or not. She’ll tell
him Wren’s brothers are policemen.”

“I might have lied,” Wren said. “I said I was a policewoman
and I’m not. Matt and James don’t have the same surname as me.”

“How long is it going to take him to find out exactly who
you are?” her father asked.

“Even if he did, I’m not sure that compromises Tomas.” The
DSI sat again.

“What about the Ezispeke folder?” asked her father. “Jovana
saw her look through it. Why would Wren have it?”

“I might have asked her to copy it for me,” Tomas said.
“Much easier for Wren to do it. Marco would accept that.”

“So why didn’t she give it to him earlier tonight?” her
father asked.

“Because I’d asked her to get it for me to give Marco. The
guy scared her and she ran.”

“The
scaring her
is a worry.” The DSI tapped her
fingers on the arm of her chair. “We could say a previous boyfriend abused her.
That would make her wary of a guy who claimed to like pain with his pleasure.”

“I want Wren somewhere safe,” her father said. “I don’t like
the way this conversation is going.”

“And she needs money.” The woman shot Wren her first
sympathetic glance. “The fact that your ex-boyfriend stole so much from you
actually works in your favor as far as Marco is concerned.”

Floor drop away and earth swallow me now.
Wren’s
father patted her knee again.

“I want my daughter out of sight,” he said to Julia and then
turned to Wren. “We’ll talk about Brendan later. You should have told me.”

She squirmed. “If I hide, doesn’t that show Marco he’s under
suspicion? When you think about it, I can excuse everything I’ve done as being
for Tomas or Jovana. I have this note from her. There’s no reason to think
Marco knows I started this off myself.”

“You should go into a safe house,” Tomas said. “I can tell
Marco you dumped me once you found out you were teaching English to
prostitutes.”

“Dumped you?” Wren’s father raised his eyebrows. “I wasn’t
under the impression you were going out with my daughter.”

She wondered what Tomas would say.

“I told Marco that so that he’d keep his hands off her. But
it seems to have made the bastard even more eager to get into her p—personal
life.”

Her father cleared his throat. “If you dump Wren, what’s to
stop Marco pursuing her?”

“I think he only wanted to teach me a lesson.”

Wren wished that didn’t annoy her, but it did. Not that she
wanted Marco to fancy her but still…

“Best if everything carried on as normal tomorrow,” said the
DSI. “We need a warrant to search Ezispeke. I think Tomas and Wren are safe
enough for the time being.”

“Think?” snapped her father. “That’s not good enough. I
don’t want Wren anywhere near the place.”

“But it will look suspicious if I don’t go in. Anyway, I
only have a couple of classes tomorrow.”

“Then I want someone else in undercover,” said her father.

The DSI nodded and handed Wren the note Jovana had written.
“If pushed you can tell Marco the truth, that Jovana asked you to meet her and
wanted you to search for her friend.”

Wren’s father tapped her arm. “Tonight you’re coming home
with me.”

“It would look better if I was with Tomas.”

That was greeted by silence.

“She’s right,” the DSI finally said.

Wren’s father turned to Tomas. “You let one hair on her head
be harmed and you’re finished. No more chances. Understand?”

“Ah,” Wren said to Tomas. “He likes you.”

Her father was the only one who laughed.

Chapter Twenty-Two

Tomas clipped on his seat belt and turned to Wren. “Two
calls and then we need to talk.”

Well,
he
needed to talk, to apologize and convince
her to leave Leeds. He called Adam first.

“Found her?” Adam asked.

“She’s with me now.”

“Thank God. She’s okay?”

“I’m fine,” Wren said.

“Nice to hear your voice, sweetheart. I thought you must
have forgotten how to use a phone.”

“I lost it.”

“Ah, right. Guess that’s better than leaving it on the roof
of your car or dropping it in the toilet. Both of which I’ve done. We’ll have
to handcuff you to your new one.”

“Should be back in about thirty minutes,” Tomas said. “Adam?
Don’t talk to anyone in the meantime. Stay in your apartment. Don’t open your
door until we get there.”

“Unless I set fire to the place?”

Tomas mustered a laugh from somewhere. “You’re allowed to
leave then.”

“I need some clothes,” Wren said.

“Make that forty-five minutes. We have to swing by Wren’s
place.”

“Okay.”

After he ended the call, Tomas put her postcode in the sat
nav. “I’m ringing Marco now. If he talks to you, go along with what I say,
okay?”

She nodded. He took a deep breath and pressed the button.
Marco picked up immediately.

“Tomas.” He tsked.

“You fucking bastard,” Tomas snapped. He didn’t need to
pretend to be angry. Fury bubbled in his veins.

“Wh—?”

“Don’t pretend you don’t know what I talk about. You scare
her. Wren
my
girlfriend. You had no right to ask her for meal. No right
to talk to her like that. She’d done you a fucking favor, you stupid asshole.”

When silence followed, Tomas hoped he hadn’t gone too far,
then wondered why he cared.

“What are you talking about? What favor? Having dinner with
me? She didn’t stay long enough to consume anything. Come to Cirque. I want to
talk to you. Bring Wren and if I upset her, I’ll apologize.”

“Not good idea. I too mad to talk.”

“Calm down.”

“Don’t you fucking tell me to calm down, you prick. Wren
think you going to hit her. Last boyfriend broke her arm.”

“I can be gentle.”

Tomas sucked in his cheeks. He doubted the bastard even
broke an egg gently. “You don’t need be anything with Wren. She’s mine. I race
up and down motorway for nothing but speeding ticket. I had enough of this
shit. She got what you asked for and you fucked up.”

Please pick up on that.

“What are you talking about?”

“You want to know about students and courses at Ezispeke. I
ask Wren to get. Easy for her. She bring to Headingley tonight, had in
restaurant, but wanted to give me to give you because she want you to be
pleased with me.”

“Bring them then. Make me pleased with you.”

“I don’t care if you fucking pleased with me or not,” he
yelled. “Now you wait. Tonight I busy.” He broke the connection. His heart
hammered so hard it had given him a throbbing headache. “Shit.”

“Is pissing him off a good idea?”

“It’s the old cliché—attack being the best form of defense.
He’d expect me to be angry. With a bit of luck, it might distract him from
thinking too hard. I wish Marco was stupid, but he’s not.”

He pulled up outside Wren’s building and switched off the
engine.

“I won’t be a minute,” she said.

“Oh no. You’re not going in on your own. Stay behind me.”

Once she’d unlocked her door, he made her wait while he
checked inside. He felt reasonably sure he’d done enough to keep Marco at bay
for the time being, but he knew better than to trust the guy. He paced as Wren
put clothes and toiletries in a bag.

“Want to bring those shoes?” He pointed to a pair of high
heels in the bottom of her wardrobe.

“Can’t walk in them.”

“You don’t need to. Lying down will work just fine.”

She smiled, but she was quiet and he wondered if he’d blown
it. He ought to pray he had. She was better off without him.

“Okay. Ready,” she said.

He lifted the bag from her hand, put it down and stood in
front of her. “I’m sorry.”

Wren looked straight at him. “I know.”

“I couldn’t tell you. It’s too risky.” He searched for a
sign that he still meant something to her.

“Does Adam know you’re a cop?” she asked.

He shook his head. “No, but he
does
know I’m
affecting the accent. He thinks I’m doing it because Marco wouldn’t have
employed me otherwise. He’ll be wondering why I wasn’t using it with you beside
me when I called him earlier.”

“Are you going to tell him the truth?”

“Yes.”

Wren stepped into his arms and pressed her face against his
neck. “I don’t like you playing this game. It’s dangerous. Why don’t you do
something safe like alligator wrestling or snake wrangling?”

“Ha ha.”

“I don’t want you to get hurt,” she whispered. “In a way,
nothing’s changed even now I know the truth. I still want you to run, us to
run.”

Tomas choked up. He wasn’t used to being cared about. He
lifted his hand to her face and traced the curve of her jaw, the line of her
cheekbone, trailing his fingers over the arch of her brows.

“Oh Wren,” he whispered.

He almost felt as though he were seeing her for the first
time. He let his fingers slip down her forehead, over her nose to her lips. She
opened her mouth and trapped the tip of his middle finger between her teeth,
sucking the pad before she released him. He angled his head and kissed her. The
ache in his chest was instant. His headache gone, lust roared along his veins
as her tongue slid against his. She clung to him and he wasn’t sure if the
groan came from him or her.

Need, want, lust, love. Oh Christ.
Some primitive
part of him felt she was as essential to his well-being as the air he breathed.
His already swollen cock went fully hard in a heartbeat, pressing against his
zipper. She was so delicate and sweet, so different to Adam. His throat
tightened as he danced his tongue against hers. They moaned down each other’s
throats as they welded themselves together, each trying to sink inside the
other.

He wanted her now, this minute. He ought to wait until they
were with Adam, but he couldn’t. He ought to wait until they were safe in
Adam’s apartment, and couldn’t do that either. Still kissing her, he eased her
arms out of her sweater, and only broke from her mouth to lift the material
over her head. He struggled with the buttons of her blouse until he felt her
hand caressing his cock through his pants, and then nothing was fast enough. He
kept telling himself to slow down but Wren was just as frantic, tugging at his
clothes as he wriggled to get free of them and squirming out of hers as he
dragged them off her.

They barely made it to the couch, Tomas hopping out of his
boxers as they tumbled together, kissing and laughing. Once he’d pinned her
against the back of the couch, he took a deep breath, forced himself to calm.
He looked into her eyes and then kissed her while he drew circles on her
stomach, his hand edging lower until it slipped under the waistband of her
panties to the hot place between her legs. Wren pushed herself into his touch
and he was lost.

Soft, hot, wet.
The words cycled in his head as he
stroked her. He dipped his fingers between her soft folds and when he rubbed
her clit with his thumb, her muscles tightened around him. Her breathing grew
choppier as she rocked into him. Her clit swelled under his touch and he kept
teasing until she stiffened and unraveled with a series of little breathy
cries. Hard to think of when he’d ever seen anything so beautiful—apart from
when he and Adam had played with her.

Her face gradually relaxed as the intensity of the orgasm
faded, but the look of satiated bliss remained, her lips curved in a smile. She
opened her eyes and the need to come nipped harder at the back of his head. As
he reached for his cock, she knocked his hand away. The pad of one small finger
smoothed over his crest, scooped up pre-cum and brought it to their lips. His
neck and spine bowed with longing, his heart clamoring to leave his body to
kiss its mate in hers.

“Wren?” Tomas could only manage one word and hoped she could
interpret it.

“Yes. Now.”

He flailed one-handed for his pants, found them, retrieved
his wallet and sheathed his cock with the only condom he had. Even touching
himself to do that tested his mettle.

“Fuck me,” Wren whispered.

“Don’t talk to me. I can barely keep from coming as it is.”

She laughed and the sound rippled through him.

“Off that top board, Tomas. Dive straight in. Be brave. No
testing the water. No checking how far you’re going to fall.”

Oh God. She makes me so happy.
He thrust deep into
her and she exhaled as if he’d pushed the air from her lungs. A growl burst
from his mouth as she tightened her muscles around his cock.

“Fast,” she whispered.

While he didn’t usually like women giving him orders, this
time it turned him up another notch. Maybe he’d never had the right woman
giving orders before. He shifted his hips in a lightning fast push and pull,
the grip of her body around his cock sending shudders of delight rippling the
length of his spine to trickle into his balls. On every down thrust, he jammed
his hips tight to hers as she bucked to meet him.

He couldn’t last long like this, but even as he felt the
telltale tremors building in his head, he sensed Wren on the rise again too.
Tomas tumbled in sensation, lost to the decadent pleasure of the act, and he
moved faster, harder. He couldn’t think. He could do nothing but this until
he’d driven them over the edge. He dropped his mouth to her neck and kept
thrusting into her as she gasped and panted and dug her fingers into his back.
Tomas wasn’t sure he was breathing, wasn’t sure he cared.

Then he was coming, a rush of prickly warmth skittering down
his backbone to his balls, triggering his release, and he spurted into her,
crying out against her neck as the spasms racked his body. He pulled Wren over
with him, the rhythmic clamp of her sex a mix of pain and pleasure.

He’d stopped thrusting after he’d come, but once his pulse
calmed, he moved again, slowly now, withdrawing until only his tip remained
inside before he sank back fully into her silken warmth. He had to be careful
not to spill from the condom. Wren sighed beneath him, rolling her hips into
his.

“That was lovely,” she whispered. “Lovely, lovely, lovely.”

The sound of his phone rang out in the room and he snagged
it without withdrawing from her.

“Stop fucking each other and get over here,” Adam said. “And
don’t shower.” He cut off the call.

“Oops.” Wren widened her eyes.

Tomas laughed and let his cock slide from her. “Let me go
and get rid of this.”

When he emerged from the bathroom, Wren stood waiting,
wearing the high-heeled shoes and a knee-length blue coat. He dressed quickly
and picked up her bag.

“Sure you have everything?” he asked.

“Yep.”

“We’re going to be just as careful leaving as we were
coming.”

She rolled her eyes.

He frowned. “I’m serious, Wren. We don’t know for certain
Marco isn’t suspicious. I don’t want either of us in a position where we’re
being
made
to tell the truth.”

“Okay.”

She did exactly as he told her and the ache in his shoulders
eased after he’d driven up to the main road. His frequent checks in the mirror
revealed nobody tailing them.

“How long have you known who I was?” she asked.

“Since last night. After bowling, before…”

“The glass of wine?”

He smiled.

“And it didn’t put you off?”

Tomas glanced at her. “Scared the hell out of me, but didn’t
put me off. Though I think it might be wise to be careful what you say to your
dad. I’m rather attached to my balls.”

She sniggered.

“Not funny. Assuming we survive this, we have to figure out
what to say.”

Wren gulped. “You think we’re in that amount of danger?”

He slid his hand onto hers. “Yes, but I didn’t mean that. I
meant assuming we survive as a three, but we
are
in danger because I
don’t know how much Marco knows.”

“I’ve been wondering. You think he might own Ezispeke?”

Tomas frowned. “Then why would he want me in there
undercover getting information for him?”

“Maybe he thinks he’s being cheated. Olive’s husband ran the
school when I first started. Everything was less expensive, much more
laid-back. Maybe it wasn’t being run well, I don’t know, but he died, Olive
took over, got in a hopeless mess and brought in Jolene to whip everything into
shape. Jolene’s brother-in-law is Olive’s accountant. Prices went up, but
students kept coming. Now Olive can’t stop talking about profit.”

“You think she sold out?”

“She might have. In more ways than one. Maybe Marco expected
to be making more money.”

“She’d be foolish to cheat Marco.”

“He might just want to know they’re doing what he tells
them. I wish I’d signed the damn registers without making a fuss. Now
everyone’s going to be out of a job pretty soon.”

He glanced at her. “You’re probably right.”

Wren groaned. “I feel really bad about that.”

“As bad as you feel about Marco abusing women and threatening
their families?”

“Yes, of course, but they’re my friends and colleagues. They
have families to support. And what about the students? They’ll be booked in for
flights and accommodation for months ahead.”

“There might be a way to let the school tick over, I don’t
know. I’ll speak to Julia.”

He doubted there would be. Once the police went into the
building, it would be the end of Ezispeke. He took a roundabout route to Dock
Street and only fully relaxed when they’d parked and were inside the building with
the door closed behind them. In the elevator, Tomas dropped her bag and pulled
her into his arms, her back to his chest. He slid his hand inside her coat and
froze. Well, all but one part of him froze.