Sweet Seduction Surrender (24 page)

"A witness against ASI and Nick."

"Yes," he murmured.

"Why am I not a suspect?"

"Should you be? You designed his interior, your contract was for that."

Oh boy. I ran a nervous hand through my hair, flattening it into its ponytail.

"Katie?"

"Did Nick not mention I held the contract to liaise with ASI on security instalment at Tremayne Arts? Tremayne signed nothing directly with Nick."

"Jesus fucking Christ!" Dominic burst out. "No, he did not."

Nick was covering for me, giving me time, because it would come out in the wash eventually. He would have guessed that. I sighed.

"The job was unusual from the start," I murmured. "Tremayne had a ridiculously short time-frame in which to have the design and showroom completed. I only took the contract because he wanted a look and materials similar to the Montgomery-Smith's. Plus I had already several hard furnishings in mind that I hadn't yet used elsewhere, which meant I didn't need as long as usual to draft a concept, or even to acquire the finished decorations."

I wasn't going to mention I was distracted by a broken heart at the time and not of sound mind, and
that's
probably the main reason why I took a job with such a short lead-in time. It wasn't really going to help my case, I didn't think.

"Go on," Dom encouraged, making notes here and there throughout my speech.

"From the start I found him changeable, one minute flirting, the next distant and demanding."

"Flirting?" Dominic interrupted. I couldn't tell if his shock was due to the fact I'm his sister and he wouldn't want
anyone
flirting with me, or that it was highly inappropriate for a client to flirt.

"Yes. He made it clear, and has repeatedly done so, that he wanted us to be more than just business acquiescences."

"How did you react?"

How did he think I reacted? "I turned him down, as politely as I could."

"How did he take that?"

"Again changeable. One minute politely resigned, the next petulant and then he'd try all over again to convince me to either start an exclusive contract with him, for his planned art rooms all over Australasia, or invite me to dine or share a drink."

Dom sat back in his chair looking contemplative. "Eric mentioned that Tremayne seemed unreasonably fixated on you. Gushing your praises to him on Friday when they went over the security system. So much so, that it even surprised Eric, and we all know how relaxed he normally is with that sort of thing." That sort of thing being flirtations.

"Did it surprise Eric so much that he was distracted?" I asked, my mouth ahead of my mind as I was just connecting the dots and coming up with Eric's unprofessional behaviour riling Tremayne up in the shop.

Dom's shrewd eyes flicked down to mine. "I think that could be assumed. What are you suggesting, Katie?"

"Someone falsely installed or changed that security system. And we both know Eric is the best in his field. He would not have made a mistake."

"So, he was distracted, and Tremayne did something to thwart the instalment. Very clever, sis. Not just a pretty face."

"Insurance fraud?" I asked my earlier theory.

"It is something Pierce and Stone have questioned. At this point, however, they have to be seen doing their jobs, hence the entire team from ASI being interviewed right now."

"They're all here?"

"The artwork was worth several million dollars. This is not small fry."

"Tremayne said it was estimated between one and one point five," I replied, stunned.

"Did he write that figure down?"

Oh. "No, just mentioned it in passing."

"It's insured for six million," Dominic advised, voice serious.

I sank back in my chair appalled. Why the hell did that man choose us for his misdeeds?

Just then a knock sounded on the door and Detective Ryan Pierce walked in. He looked calm and collected, but a muscle was jumping along his jawline, making his dark brown goatee beard quiver. He was not a happy camper and Ryan Pierce angry, was not something I wanted to ever witness again.

"Dom," he said with a nod of his head, then turned intense brown eyes on me. "Katie, you doing OK?"

I shrugged. "I'll be all right when this is all sorted, Ryan."

"I can imagine."

"My client will cooperate with any questions you may have," Dominic said in his lawyerly tone, getting up and moving himself around to my side of the table to take a seat.

Tension rode the air and I sucked in a breath, while my stomach plummeted at the change of atmosphere and what it would mean for me. Dominic wanted to establish a professional environment right off the bat, but from the look of Pierce, he wasn't impressed with the brush off.

"Katie's free to go," Ryan ground out, making both Dom and I jerk our heads back in surprise. "And for your information, Anscombe, I'm putting my neck on the chopping block over this."

My gaze swung between the two men, Dominic bristling from Pierce throwing his
professionalism
back in his face, and Ryan scowling from, I should think, the whole sordid affair.

"Thank you," Dom forced out between stiff lips.

"Yeah, well. For some reason a certain piece of evidence has been misplaced. It'll be found by five pm tomorrow, in amongst Harvey's car magazines on his desk."

Dom coughed, it was meant to be a laugh. I was just trying to think about what the evidence would have been. I was going with my contract, the one that outlined my liaising with ASI for the security instalment at Tremayne Arts.

"You've got until then to do what you can to clear Nick and the others," Pierce was saying, his eyes on me and not my brother.

But Dominic was the one to answer. "You think Katie can do something about this?" He sounded mildly incredulous.

Pierce swung his now tired looking eyes at Dom. "I think Katie has someone ideally suited on the outside of ASI who can."

He meant Jason. Who was no longer an employee of Nick's and therefore, as yet, not being pulled in for questioning.

Pierce turned towards the door to leave. "You've got fifteen minutes to get her out of the building, at which point the Captain will be back from his barber's appointment and if he sees her, he might just be reminded of her involvement in this case. Oh, and another thing," he added, not looking over his shoulder as he stood at the opened door, "we're concentrating on hard copy evidence from ASI as well as interviews today, by first thing tomorrow we'll be sending the technical forensic team in... if this case follows the path it's currently on."

With that he let the door click shut at his back. Dominic glanced down at his watch to check the time, I was guessing to see how long he had to get me out of the building before the Captain returned, and then started gathering his notepad and pen from the table's surface.

"Come on, let's get you out of here. Where's Jason?"

"Probably sitting in his SUV out the front of the building," I replied, following behind him.

Dom swung his head over his shoulder and smiled. It was a knowing smile, mixed with a huge dollop of relief.

"I knew there was a reason why I liked that man," he quipped, then strode through the open door.

Brothers!

Jason jumped out of the driver's side of his car as soon as he saw us walking through the front doors of Central Police Station. I was wrapped up in his arms before we'd made it across the street, his face nestled in the curve of my neck, his chest expanding on an obviously relieved inhale of air.

"Kate," he murmured, lips coasting over my skin. "Are you OK, baby?"

Dom cleared his throat. "Can we do this out of sight of the cops? Katie's got a reprieve, not a complete pardon."

Jason flashed the most threatening glare towards my brother, making Dom take a slow step back, well out of reach.

"Cain," he said evenly, "we need to bury the hatchet. For Katie," he added.

"He's right, baby," I said softly, placing a kiss on the edge of his firm jaw. His whole body melted at my touch and the use of our nickname for each other. It had been loud enough for Dom to hear, evidenced by another clearing of his throat, this time uncomfortable.

I think Jason liked that; making Dom uneasy, making him witness openly how much I belonged to him. Why did I do it? I know my crazy man.

"The car then," Jason conceded, leading us both back to his SUV. He opened the front passenger door for me and helped me inside, but left Dom to his own devices to slip into the rear. Jason rounded the hood and sat behind the steering wheel, he didn't start the vehicle up, just turned to face the back seat. "What happened?" he demanded.

Dom outlined the entire wretched business, by the end of it I was exhausted and nervously wringing my hands in my lap, picking up on Jason's anger, feeling the rage pouring off him in waves of heat.

"What do we know about this Tremayne guy?" he asked, hands clenched in fists on his thighs. I wished he'd reach over to soothe me, but Jason was in no mood to offer affection; he was fit to throw a fist, not entwine fingers in mine.

"Nothing," Dom admitted. "Harvey Stone admitted he's just popped up out of nowhere. No priors, no history. Zip. We only know what Katie's told us."

And that brought Jason's anger filled gaze back to me. I shrank back in my seat, not missed by him, and he sighed. Ran a hand over his face in frustration and then purposely reached out to clasp his fingers with mine. His thumb running over the skin of my knuckles was too quick to be considered soothing, but it was progress, nonetheless.

"Something Pierce said," Dom added speculatively, "just before we left. The tech forensic team won't be trawling through ASI's systems until tomorrow morning. He wouldn't have mentioned that if it hadn't have been helpful to our case."

"I'm not an employee anymore," Jason pointed out. "I wouldn't have access to their systems. Nick would have seen to that."

"I'm not sure. I'm going to head back in and have a few quiet words with my brother, if I hear of anything that could help, I'll phone." Dom opened up the door, ready to climb out. "In the meantime," he said looking back up at Jason, "if you've still got contacts in the Army, now would be a perfect moment to reinstate them."

Dom offered me a warm smile, which was shadowed by the concern obvious on his face, and then he slipped out of the car and crossed the street back towards the entrance to the Police Station. Silence followed his exit for some time, then Jason reached his free hand up to wrap around the nape of my neck softly.

"How are you really?" he asked.

"Scared," I admitted. "None of this makes any sense. If it is insurance fraud, why choose ASI and me to make it happen?"

"Easy target? Wrong place wrong time?" Jason suggested, but from the tone of his voice he didn't believe his words either.

"Tremayne sought me out," I mused. "He knew of me when he approached me at that party. I'm beginning to wonder if he even knew the Montgomery-Smiths at all. He never went inside, I never saw him with them. He cornered me on the terrace and then left."

Jason sat back and let a long controlled breath of air out. I realised why he was being so careful when he next spoke; eyes forward, staring out of the windscreen and not at me.

"Did you invite him to Gen and Dom's barbecue, or did he invite himself?"

His hand had stilled in mine, his body had tensed all over. He was still breathing, but I think that had more to do with his training than his emotional state.

Thankfully I could answer this question easily.

"He cornered me. Told me he had to fly away on business the next day and the time constraints of the project made it seem logical we meet that evening for drinks to discuss his requirements, in particular the pieces he wanted the design crafted around."

"You could have arranged to meet him after the barbecue," Jason all but accused.

"Yes," I admitted, feeling dreadful revisiting this. "I was not myself," I offered as an excuse.

His head turned on his neck, still resting back against the headrest, and sad eyes looked at me.

"Is that all?" he asked. What did he mean is that all? I was not myself because of him!

"That's quite enough, don't you think?" I spat back.

"Kate, do you know what I felt when I heard you at the door to Gen's house telling Dom you'd brought a friend? A friend called Richard?"

I swallowed painfully, my throat thick with emotion. I knew exactly what he felt, because I'd been immobile with fear that he'd have one of his blonde busty bimbos with him, and I'd have to see her fawning all over his body. A body I had claimed as mine for such a short period of time.

"It could have gone any number of ways," I pointed out, turning my head away to stare blindly out of the window.

"You think I wouldn't have been hurt?"

This was not all about him! "
You
left me, remember?! Not the other way around."

"It doesn't matter," he said dismissively, releasing his grip on my hand and starting the car.

"Of course it matters," I mumbled. "It mattered to me."

"What did?" he bit out, pulling the vehicle into mid morning traffic.

"If you'd brought one of your bimbos," I said softly. Silence met my entirely too honest admission. Then the car rolled to a stop around the corner in the first vacant carpark he could find.

He turned to me, a small smirk playing on his lips. "Is that why you caved to his suggestion? So you could wear him like armour when faced with a potential date on my arm?"

"Blonde busty bimbo," I said through gritted teeth. "Let's not call them something they were not."

He started chuckling. "Baby."

"Don't call me baby."

He laughed harder.

"It's not funny either. You're a playboy. Everyone knew it."

"Was," he whispered, the laughter stopping completely.

I frowned at him in confusion.

"I
was
a playboy, Kate, you're right. But none of them meant a thing. Nothing. And there were no
blonde busty bimbos
after I'd tasted you. There was no one, after you. How could there be? There's only one you."

I stared at him, my chest tight for lack of breath. My mind spinning trying to catch up on where this conversation had taken us. I let a slow breath of air out and then blinked a few times to clear my head.

"I brought Richard to the barbecue because I thought you'd have a woman with you and I couldn't face it," I whispered. "I'm not sure if it was coincidence, or if he took advantage of my state of mind to turn up and talk shop with Brook, making it look like chance. Instigating the entire evening, in order to scope out ASI and my connection to it, in order to put his master plan in place."

"There now, baby," Jason purred, reaching up and cupping my nape again, then leaning forward to lay a soft kiss on my forehead. "That wasn't too hard to admit, was it?" And he wasn't referring to my speculation on Tremayne.

"Jackass," I muttered, but my lips were twitching.

"Language, baby. It doesn't suit you." But he was smirking too. "So," he said, getting the car started and out in traffic again, "the fuck-knuckle could have planned this all along. You were a mark, a means to an end." His dancing eyes flicked towards mine. "A sex-kitten means to an end, but thankfully you've got taste and he didn't get far on that front."

Taste. I was smitten with someone else. A smitten sex-kitten. A bubble of laughter sprang up my throat. I coughed to clear it away.

"So what now?" I said, bringing myself, more than Jason, back on track. "We don't even know where Tremayne is. He didn't tell me where his business meeting was being held, if it was a business meeting at all."

"Exactly. He could still be in Auckland, or as I suspect,
is
out of town, providing himself a decent alibi. My guess though, is he'll come to us. How many people have their workplace burgled, over six million dollars worth of artwork stolen, and not return to the scene of the crime to liaise with the Police? If he wants to keep this charade up, he'll be back, if not already landed."

"But what then? He's here, the artwork's... where?"

"
That
is the more pressing matter," Jason admitted. "We'll get to Tremayne tonight, I should think. The artwork and the trail leading there is more important for now."

"Can you get anyone in the Army involved? Would that help us?"

"I doubt it, but I can make some calls. The Army has access to satellite imagery. If we can get coverage of Auckland from sun-up, we might find something of use."

"What about during the dark, when the shop was supposedly burgled?"

"That's going to require another source. Radar."

"Radar? As in radio waves to determine distance?"

"No, as in Auckland's underground radar. The one Nick uses to see what's hot and what's not in the underbelly of Auckland crime."

Oh. "And to use that...?"

"I need access to ASI."

Great. "Great," I said with defeat.

"Kate," Jason chastised. "Why do you think Pierce warned Dom about the tech forensic team?"

Oh. "Letting you know how long you had to use ASI's systems before you'd be caught."

"Exactly, baby. Your brother is not stupid. Either he already had my access cleared, due to some intel he'd heard on the radar. Or Pierce gave him sufficient unobserved time, after the arresting officers arrived at his door, to reinstate my clearance. Either way, Pierce knows that's what I'd have to use in order to get any leads. He's giving us time."

And the means to figure this out and get Nick and his team out of custody.

"Do we go to ASI now?"

Jason scoffed. "
We
are doing nothing.
You
are going home and waiting for my or Dom's call.
I
am going into ASI, stealthily. The place could still be under surveillance. The cops aren't stupid either, even if Pierce is making their jobs more complicated than usual."

"Now wait just a minute, Jason Cain," I started, turning in my seat and placing my hands on my hips.

"Ah-oh," Jason joked, shaking his head and keeping eyes forward, smirk in place.

"I am more than capable of helping. You might need a look-out."

"Pfft," was his reply.

"I'm good on a computer, I spend all day on one. I've watched Eric work. Are you good on a computer?"

"Of course! Do you think the Army just teaches us to disassemble a rifle and rub mud on our faces for camouflage? They're a little more technologically savvy than that, Kate."

My turn to
pfft.

I received a glare for that comeback.

"I will be armed," I offered.

"No you won't be. Because you won't need to be. Because you won't even be in danger in the first place."

"It's ridiculous to do this alone, when you have resources at your command and...

"You're not a resource," he interrupted, "even if you are at my command." Smirk.

I huffed in frustration. "I'm coming with."

"Kate," he warned.

"Jason," I imitated his growly tone.

He pulled the SUV to an abrupt stop, making me fall forward in my seat and have the seatbelt dig into my chest. I wheezed out a breath and looked out the window. We were home.

"Get out of the car," he growled.

"No," I replied, crossing my arms over my chest and glaring back.

"Woman! Don't make come around there and haul you out over my shoulder."

"It won't work."

"Three."

Oh God, he was giving me the countdown from three.

"Nah-uh," I replied ineloquently. I shook my head to emphasise my inarticulate response.

"Two," he ground out between clenched teeth.

"What? You're going to go all caveman on me and make a scene in the middle of the street?" What happens at one? We didn't get to one last time. One was still a mystery. Would I like one? I was thinking, right now, probably not.

"One!" he shouted, making me jerk as he opened his door and stormed around the hood of the car. I reached up and slowly lowered the lock at my window, my eyes meeting the furious chestnut of his.