ROMANCE: Bear Naked Passion (Billionaire Bear Trio Book 2) (29 page)

Chapter 2

              Maddie showed up to work the next day, her soft voice clear of a cough. Katherine handed her the reports from the day before—ticket stubs, car maintenance—and filled her in on what she’d missed.

“Eighty-
seven
?” Maddie gaped, reading the copy of the ticket. “Speeding down Fortress Street?”

              “Yup,” Katherine nodded, typing away at the computer. “He’s Richard’s brother.”

              Maddie whipped her head to glance at the police chief’s empty office. “
Our
Richard?” she asked. Katherine just nodded.  “Holy…” Maddie shook her head, her red bangs flying against her pale forehead. “Man, I’ve got to stop taking sick days. Shit always happens when I’m not around.”

              More like sick weeks. “You feel better though?” Katherine asked, giving her partner a sideways glance as she set a document to print.

              “Don’t give me that look,” Maddie waved her off. “I’m fine—not infectious at all.”

              Katherine scoffed, but didn’t otherwise comment. Maddie had always had the odd habit of catching colds – at least, she had since Katherine had been moved to uptown as her partner six months ago. For a good while, the constant call outs had led Katherine to believe that Maddie was just as soft and green as the rest of her new coworkers; a lazy bunch, the lot of them. Maddie herself came from one of the old families, after all – why on earth would she ever take the force seriously?

              It was only after a few months that Katherine finally decided to do something about it. She knew where Maddie lived, where most of the rich cops lived: in a house around Jameson Park, overlooking the city. Katherine knocked on her door, surprised but not discouraged when Maddie’s husband, Mark, answered it instead. He led her to their bedroom where an unconscious Maddie was lying down, breathing hard with a scorching fever. 

              “It’s not that she’s sickly,” Mark had tried to explain. “But—”

              “But she’s sickly,” Katherine had finished for him.

              Mark had paused before nodding. He was a tall man, thin and lanky, but in that moment he had seemed rather small. “She’s so hard headed. I can’t watch her all the time,” he said, wringing his hands.

              “I’ll keep an eye on her,” Katherine had promised.

              “Anyway,” Maddie said, bringing Katherine back to the present, “I’m driving tonight.”

              Katherine raised an eyebrow. “Are you?”

              The two left at midnight, three hours after the start of their shift. Maddie took the keys and ran to the driver’s side, leaving Katherine to roll her eyes and walk to the passenger door. It wasn’t that Katherine always drove; it was just that, normally, Maddie wasn’t feeling up to it. Something about her nausea, not that Katherine was one to pry. She didn’t mind driving, even if it meant that Maddie was only going to fiddle with the radio all night long.

              Honestly, though, it was nice to relax and let Maddie do all the work for a change. 

              Maddie drove them around for the entire shift, not that there was much to drive for. They’d finally gotten a call from dispatch around six a.m. for assistance, but it had only been to pay an apartment full of college kids a visit, and to remind them to keep the noise level down. Finally, at eight, Maddie turned the steering wheel back toward the precinct.

              “Tomorrow’s your day off,” Maddie said, unbuttoning her uniform back in the locker room. Katherine just laughed.

              “And yours,” she said. As partners, they always had the same two days off together that gave them a full forty-eight hours of rest. “Any plans with Mark?” Mark was a freelance photographer who worked from home, so a day off for Maddie was a day off for him.

              “Mm-nhm,” Maddie shook her head. “It’s the first week of December, so nothing is going on. I think we’ll just call it good and stay in.” 

              “Sounds fun,” Katherine said honestly.

              “Stop by,” Maddie said, staring at her friend. “If you want. You’re always welcome.”

              “Thanks,” Katherine smiled. “But I’ve got plans.” She didn’t.

              “Can’t wait to hear all about them on Thursday!” Maddie giggled, pulling on a t-shirt. “Have fun!”

              Maddie did not return on Thursday. She was out sick again, not that Katherine was surprised. She was, however, more than a little startled when someone else showed up instead.

“Katherine Joanne Silver.”

              Katherine glanced up from her work at the familiar voice, but the moment her eyes connected with the speaker she felt her blood run cold. Philip Candor, dressed in a black trench coat and armed with a leather briefcase, stared down at her.

              “Alone again today, Katherine? Or may I call you Kat?” he asked, his eyes suddenly turning kind as he swept up his jacket and dropped elegantly into the creaking chair across from her.

              “As I’ve already told you, it’s Officer Silver,” she said curtly, leaning back in her chair as she assessed the man that she’d caught flying through her streets six days ago. Why he’d come to visit her she hadn’t the slightest idea, though by the fierceness of his eyes she had half a mind to wonder if it was to threaten her. Rich men didn’t usually like fat girls ruining their fun.

              “Silver, then,” Philip nodded, his own hands clasped upon his knee. “Tell me, do you always work the night shift?”

              She blinked at him, and slowly leaned forward with a furrowed brow. “And what business is that of yours?”

              “None,” the man cut a hand through the air, waving her off. “Though it would have been more convenient if you worked normal business hours, so that a sinner such as myself may have come to find you while it was still daylight.”

              “And why did you want to find me?” Katherine asked. Then, thinking better of it, “Exactly
how
did you find me?”

              Philip just laughed. “It wasn’t hard,” he shrugged, plucking a pen off of her desk. He twirled it between his fingers, fixing her with that hard blue stare. “To find someone so…” he looked her up and down with a grin. “…unique.”

              Katherine flushed an angry blush and stared right back. “An aggressive black woman in your nice neighborhood, you mean.”

              The look of utter shock on Philip’s face almost disarmed her. “No,” he blurted, his hands splaying out in front of him as if to appease her. “No, of course not. I meant your admirable work ethic, and your badge number.”

              Katherine scowled. “You mean to tell me that you memorized my badge number and tracked me down at the station?”

              “Eight-Five-Eight-Nine-One,” Philip rambled off, shrugging himself into a comfortable position once again. He had apparently regained his composure, and his bright blue eyes burned Katherine’s brown ones. “I’m here, aren’t I? Obviously your badge number was worth knowing.”

              “So, what?” Katherine growled. “Can’t pay your parking ticket?”

              “Oh, it’s been paid in full,” he said smoothly. “The same day that you handed it off to me. Funny, but I’d paid a visit to the station later that evening, only to find that you were five hours away from the beginning of your next shift.”

              “And who told you that?” Katherine fumed, glancing around the empty office. Most officers were out on patrol at this time, but she was stuck doing paperwork before going on her own. Maddie was sick again, after all. “Why would anyone—”

              “Richard Candor,” Philip interrupted, knocking his knuckles against the wooden armrest of his chair. “My younger brother.”

              Katherine wished she could say that she was surprised. The Candor’s were a common name in uptown, so the fact that his brother was the police chief and apparently so eager to help his older brother only explained Philip’s nonchalant race down the streets the other night further. The man probably thought himself untouchable.

              “And he told you my work schedule?” she asked coldly.

              “Oh, I wouldn’t go assuming that my brother tells me anything,” he muttered, glancing away for a moment. “But he has expressed that most of his people do keep to a set schedule, and I could only assume that the cop who’d been bold enough to ticket me wouldn’t be in until much, much later.” Shrugging, he added, “My guess is that you’ve been on the night shift for a while. It was past midnight when you’d stopped me—”

              “It was two in the morning,” Katherine cut him off. “What do you want?”

              “Does a man need a reason to visit a lady?” he challenged smugly.

              “I’m a police officer,” Katherine reminded him.

              “Which is exactly why I’m inviting you,” he said, pointing the pen he’d stolen at her, “To the Citizen’s Gala.”

              Katherine frowned at him. “I’m already going.”

              “Ah, as a helping hand, maybe—a volunteer to give out raffle tickets and receive someone’s coat. But if you come with me, then you’ll be the one taking off a coat rather than hanging it up.”

              Katherine wasn’t sure of what to say. She didn’t trust Philip, that was for sure, but what was his end game? “Earlier, you said that my hours weren’t convenient for you,” she said slowly. It was midnight now, surely a number that was well past the usual time for a Candor to be in bed. “If it was so inconvenient, then perhaps you shouldn’t have come.”

              “Nonsense,” he said quickly, his blank face matching her confused scowl. “I merely meant to thank you.”

              “Yet now you’re here, inviting me as a guest to a gala?”

              “It’s my thanks,” he responded easily.

              “And what, exactly, are you thanking me for?” she asked quietly.

              Glancing at his watch, Philip gave her a wolf’s grin as he stood up. “For having the balls to serve justice to a Candor,” he said simply.

              “I’m a woman,” she said, watching him stand. “I’ve got no balls to speak of.”

              “Which is precisely why you’ll wear a dress to the gala,” he nodded, placing an envelope on top of her desk with the pen that he’d taken earlier to weigh it down. “Till then, Katherine Silver.” With a curt nod, he was gone, his long coat swirling behind him as he left the dimly lit office.

              “Fuck,” Katherine breathed, watching him leave. “Where’s Maddie when you need her?”

Chapter 3

              “This is our suspect.”

              Katherine watched from the corner of the room as two detectives pointed to a police sketch of the Store Corner Robber. At least, that was what the papers were calling him; what everyone had been calling him since he’d killed his third store clerk and stolen every penny that was in the man’s till.

              Katherine called him by another name:
mine
.

              “He likes to kill his victims at point blank range, even when the clerks surrender and give in to his requests completely.”

“We’ve got footage,” the other detective added. “Of the man shooting a girl square in the head after he’d made her pack him a bag full of the store’s money.”

“He’s a short man, and he’s been described by three witnesses as blonde and blue-eyed.”

              The mention of blue eyes had Katherine thinking about Philip. He was a stupid man, one who seemed to think that flattery and gala tickets would make her lower her guard. But to what end?

              “Silver,” a sharp voice snapped.

              “Sir?” Katherine jumped up, her body ramrod straight as she looked at Richard Candor, the man who had called her.

              “What’re you doing in here?” he asked calmly. “You were pulled off of this case months ago.” The unspoken,
when you came here
, was heard loud and clear.

              “I…” Katherine mumbled, her eyes fixed on her superior’s face as she tried to rack her brain for a professional reason. If she were honest, she was attending the briefing because she’d gotten close to catching the man, too close to just pack it up and leave well enough alone. But it was because she’d gotten so close that they’d pulled her away, sending her off to safer streets where men didn’t track slow, stupid girls wearing a police uniform to murder.

              “Go back to your desk, Silver,” Richard sighed.

              The look of pity on his face made Katherine see red, and she blurted, “Am I to sit out on information that could potentially save my life?”

              A few policemen looked at each other, and Richard fixed her with a stare that she supposed was meant to be intimidating. It fell short compared to his brother’s though, and so Katherine was able to meet the younger brother’s gaze easily. After a moment, Richard closed his eyes and shook his head.

              “If you stay, you are not to use this information to attempt an arrest,” he said gruffly.

              “Yes sir,” she said slowly. Then, licking her lips, “But if the moment drops itself at my feet—”

              “Then your partner shall sweep it off your doorstep,” Richard growled. “Stay out of this case, Silver. That’s an order.”

              It was with a heavy tongue that Katherine said, “Understood, sir.”

              On the drive that night, Katherine was quiet, not that Maddie couldn’t have had a conversation with a brick wall if she’d wanted to. But she’d heard from some of the other patrol officers about the briefing, and aside from the painfully obvious glances that she’d been throwing Katherine, she was quiet, too.

              Katherine couldn’t stand it for more than an hour.

              “What?” she snapped, turning to face Maddie just as the redhead gave her another look.

              “Do you want to talk about it?” she asked sympathetically.

              “No,” Katherine crossed her arms over her seatbelt, her chest heaving. “I don’t want to talk about the police chief calling me out and instructing me to stay away from a man who tried to kill me.”

              “But,” Maddie said slowly, as if choosing her words carefully. “You can see why he’d want you to be extra careful.”

              Katherine snorted. “Careful? Yes. Stay away completely? No.”

              After another hour of silence on the police radio and barely anyone to scan for a speed, Katherine pulled over and set the car in park.

              “Philip Candor came to visit me a few days ago,” she admitted.

              Maddie rounded on her, eyes wide. “Wait, what? Mister eighty-seven miles per hour?”

              “Yup,” Katherine nodded, staring straight ahead.

              “Well, what did he say?” Maddie asked quickly. “Was the chief there?”

              “It was midnight, of course Richard wasn’t there,” Katherine scoffed. “He said he’d paid his speeding ticket, and…” she shrugged helplessly. “He asked me to the Citizen’s Gala?”

              “The gala?” Maddie repeated excitedly, leaning forward in her seat. Katherine wasn’t sure why she was so excited – as an old family name, Maddie attended as a guest with her husband every year. 

              “I’m not sure what he’s planning, but it can’t be anything good.” Katherine usually prided herself on being a great judge of character – you had to be, working downtown. But no matter how many times she’d gone over their conversation in her head, she still couldn’t get a read on Philip.

              “Katherine,” Maddie said with a giggle, giving her partner a face. “Have you ever considered that the guy likes you and just wants to take you out on a date?”

              She had. She’d thought about Philip with his hard blue eyes and square jaw, his broad shoulders and bulging arms underneath his suit, and always came to the same conclusion – he was not interested in a fat twenty-four year old black woman. Especially when he was no doubt surrounded by women like Maddie, tall girls with flat stomachs, straight hair, and round noses.

              “He isn’t,” Katherine said simply, biting the inside of her cheek.

              “He told you?” Maddie asked dubiously.

              “He said he asked me to the gala as a thanks,” she shared. “For pulling him over.”

              “Oh,” Maddie said, confusion in her tone.

              “He pities me,” Katherine summed it up for her. “And he probably wants to see me make a fool of myself.”

              “What, you?” Maddie laughed. “You’ve been a volunteer at that event for years, Kat. You know how it works, inside and out, and you’d be the last one to trip over a formality or do the wrong thing.” Staring at her partner, Maddie cleared her throat and said, “I think you should go.”

              “Why?” Katherine said, finally looking at her.

              “Why
not
?” Maddie smiled, throwing her hands out as she shrugged. “You like the gala – you go every year. Go this year as a woman in a nice dress, and enjoy the festivities that you’d normally be putting on. Plus,” she said, leaning on the console between them. “If you feel bad about being MIA at the events, just make your Candor donate enough money to make up for it.”

              “
My
Candor?”

              “Your
date
, then,” Maddie winked. “Think about it.”

              It was hard not to, especially as she and Philip started spending more time together. The man liked to show up whenever Maddie called in sick. Which, sadly, was happening more often than usual as the December nights grew colder. 

              “Officer Silver,” Philip greeted her on one such a night, dropping a brown paper bag onto her desk as he took his usual seat opposite her.

              “Mr. Candor,” Katherine replied, not bothering to take her eyes off of her computer screen as she typed away. The overwhelming smell of ham made her glance at the bag, though.

              “Brisket,” Philip answered the unspoken question. “I met with an associate near downtown earlier, and he took me to a lovely little brunch at a diner on Seventh Street.”

              “Mama Wilk’s?” Katherine supplied, opening up her email as Philip pulled off his black leather gloves. For being a fair skinned blue-eyed blonde, he certainly liked dark colors.

              “Mama Wilk’s,” Philip nodded, shrugging off his jacket as he made himself comfortable. He’d stay for an hour or so, she knew, to keep her company while they shared his leftovers, and then he’d head for his mansion and crawl into his warm bed. Katherine would just be getting home to her apartment when he’d be waking up again.

              “I’m surprised that your friend knew about it,” she said slowly, her focus on the message she was writing. “It’s a hole in the wall—a place that only the locals like to eat at.”

              “Jamie is a local,” Philip replied, unrolling the bag to pull out two small foil containers. He set one in front of her keyboard with a plastic fork on top, and took the other for himself. “He grew up in downtown and still lives there to this day.”

              Katherine paused in her typing. “And you know him?”

              “I told you,” Philip chuckled. “He’s an associate. A business partner, if you will.”

              “Hard to imagine a Candor conversing with some guy from downtown,” she muttered.

              “Just as hard as it is to imagine a Candor asking a cop from downtown to the gala?” he inquired innocently, opening the tin lid on his food.

              Katherine just sighed. That again. The gala was only a few days away now, and Philip was still insistent that she join him. It was rather annoying and mostly unbelievable, though deep down it was just a little flattering.

              “I’m volunteering this year,” she said simply, just like she’d answered him all the other times.

              “No, you’re not.”

              Katherine looked up at him. “Excuse me?”

              “I know Caroline, the woman in charge of the event. I had her take your name off the list,” he said, eyes sharp and searching as he spoke.

              Katherine felt her heart stutter in her chest. She’d always volunteered at the gala—it was her way in, as a common grunt of the police force. And now some intimidating bastard had taken it away?

              “You can’t—” she argued.

              “Already done,” Philip said, bringing a slice of brisket to his mouth. “Don’t look so betrayed, Katherine. You can still attend with me.”

              And let him win? “Get out.”

              Now it was Philip’s turn to frown. “I beg your pardon?”

              “I said get out,” Katherine said as calmly as she could, though her tone betrayed the rage that she was shaking to keep down. “And it’s Officer Silver.” Standing, she took the foil container he’d given her and dropped it back into the bag, uncaring if it fell right side up or not.

              “Kath,” Philip tried, standing up too. But she just kicked out her chair and grabbed her patrol car keys, marching to the back door. “Officer Silver!” he called again.

              Katherine half-turned, fixing him with a glare as she said, “Don’t come back here.” With that, she shoved open the door, and stepped outside into the flurry of snow to find her car.