He moved closer, so his face was above hers. “Well, the beauty of working for Dark Alley is I don’t have to follow any rules. You better get used to that.”
Ooo, he was incorrigible. “I didn’t hire you to invade my privacy.”
“Your life—the secret part of it—has everything to do with Bernie’s murder,” Jasper said. “I don’t appreciate you lying. You’re hindering my investigation.”
Was she? He seemed so sure Bernie’s murder was linked to her past. She hadn’t been convinced. She wasn’t sure she was now.
Maybe she denied the possibility, because if Bernie’s murder was linked to her past, her life and the loves of anyone close to her were in danger.
Sadie couldn’t get enough air all of a sudden, picturing Darien appearing before her, evil face conveying his desire for revenge—and to permanently silence her.
“Why didn’t you tell me why you really wanted to come here?” she asked, not liking how much that bothered her. Even after Darien’s betrayal, she still harbored the hope that trustworthy men existed.
“Why did you meet Steven without telling me?” he countered.
“Steven is none of your business. I only need you to find Bernie’s killer.”
“You may as well give that up, Sadie. I’ll solve Bernie’s murder. He’s the innocent one in all of this. But I’ll also find out whatever it is you’re hiding.”
“Why?” All her frustration over not being able to make him back off came out in the question. He didn’t know what he would open, what he’d bring down upon himself—upon her.
“Why not just tell me?”
As he waited for her response, she struggled for a way to end this conversation. But the longer she took, the more aware she became of him standing so close, of the masculine planes of his face. Wide jaw, blond stubble and wise, strong blue eyes.
Vivid memory of him over her in bed seized her. Only the light of day differed. The shadows had helped keep reality at bay last night.
She noticed a change in him as she continued to stare up at him, captured just as she in this unexpected moment.
“Why did you leave the room without telling me?” she asked.
Why did she ask that? “It was time to get the investigation going in high gear.”
“No, that’s not why, Jasper. You needed to escape. You turned to the nearest thing that would capture your attention—anything other than me,” She watched his face carefully. “Tell me I’m wrong.”
For a moment he absorbed her face, making her wish she could climb inside his head and see what he was thinking.
“It was time to get going on the investigation.”
Disappointment curdled inside. While that was true, the timing might have been different if they hadn’t become intimate. “Would you have wanted to fly to California if we hadn’t had sex?”
“Sadie, don’t go there.”
“Why not?”
He sighed and she saw his growing irritation.
“Would you have?” she demanded.
“I don’t know.”
“You wouldn’t have. Why can’t you admit it?”
“We don’t know each other very well.” He put his hand on his hip. “That night was...intense.”
That made her feel marginally better. He’d felt that, too. She hadn’t been alone. “That unsettles you?”
“Doesn’t it unsettle you?”
She had to be honest. “Yes.”
“Because you don’t trust men.”
“And you’re petrified of commitment.”
After a few seconds, he said, “I wouldn’t use the word petrified.”
He said that with such charm she couldn’t be offended. Still, she had to be smart for her heart’s sake.
“Do you regret it?” she asked after a while.
“That’s a loaded question. I could ask you the same.”
She wasn’t sure if she regretted last night. When she didn’t answer, he looked around as though checking to make sure they were still safe. Then he spotted the guard who had accompanied Sadie here. He cupped her elbow and gave a hand signal that he was taking her with him. The guard saluted back and headed for his own vehicle.
Jasper started walking toward the parking garage. She allowed him to guide her there.
Inside the garage he took her to the car he must have rented and opened the passenger door. “Get in.”
Again, he scanned every inch of the garage before looking expectantly at her when she didn’t do as he said.
They weren’t quite finished with this discussion. The one about last night, yes, but not the other. “How did you know I met with Steven?”
“I was in the trunk. I saw you with him.”
She moved her head back a fraction, stunned he’d been with her the whole time. “Really?”
“Please. Get in the car, Sadie.” She heard his tight tone and realized he dealt with his own frustration over her keeping secrets from him.
“We aren’t finished yet.” She wasn’t sure she wanted to get into any car with him.
“You’re right about that,” he said. “Steven isn’t your security officer.”
Of course, that was why he’d paid a visit to her company.
“I also had an interesting conversation with George Moreno’s ex-wife.”
A second bomb. How many would he detonate? Sadie didn’t even flinch that time. She supposed she should have expected him to unearth that much. So much. She had hired him, after all. She’d hired the best, but she hadn’t anticipated Bernie’s murder being linked to her past. Would she have done anything different had she known or at least suspected?
She leaned her head back and closed her eyes, unprepared for all he dredged up from her dicey past.
“George didn’t have a daughter,” he continued with the third bomb.
She lowered her head. “He didn’t know about me.” She had to make him believe her. If he didn’t, then he could find himself in more danger than even he could handle.
Jasper stepped closer, again looming over her. “Cut the bull, Sadie. George didn’t want kids. He gave his money to charity and a portion of it to his ex-wife, the closest person he had to family. You aren’t his daughter.” After that forceful assertion he asked, “Who are you?”
The most dreaded question anyone could ask her. “Don’t.” She started to move out from between him and the car.
He took her arm, a little rougher than before. “You didn’t get your money from George. Where did it come from?”
She didn’t respond. She couldn’t. Instead, she tugged her arm. “Let go.”
He pulled her to him, so that his arm hooked her by the waist and she had no choice other than to put her hands on his chest.
“It didn’t take much effort for me to find out,” he said. “Whoever you’re running from could have easily done the same.”
Did he think that someone had? She didn’t stop her alarmed inhalation.
“Who are you?” he repeated.
“You have no idea what you’re asking.” She felt clammy with rising anxiety. If she told him...then what?
“Tell me who you really are, Sadie. Why are you running? Who are you running from?”
As she stared at his urgent, coaxing face, she almost felt compelled to spill everything. Somehow after their night she felt closer to him. But she could not mistake a night of passion as a green light to blindly trust.
She pushed against him. “Let me go, Jasper.”
At her solemn voice, he looked deep into her eyes and must have seen not only her resolve but also her helplessness. She could not tell him.
He released her and took a step back. “Who is Steven?”
Another question she couldn’t completely answer. “He
is my security officer. I didn’t lie about that.”
“Just not for the Revive Center?”
“No.”
“Then how do you know him? Where is he from? Who is he?”
“Stop asking questions I can’t answer.” She walked toward the garage exit.
He walked beside her. His guard had already left but she could catch a ride from someone at her company.
“Why can’t you answer them, Sadie?”
Could she reveal that much? She didn’t think he’d back off otherwise. “Because doing so might get you killed.”
For a moment she thought he might concede she had a valid reason for keeping secrets.
“You’re running from someone dangerous.”
That was an understatement. She didn’t respond, not feeling she had to.
They left the garage and walked along the sidewalk, back in the same direction they’d come.
“I can protect you,” Jasper said. “DAI has professionals who deal with people like that. You have to trust me, Sadie.”
“I can’t trust anyone. And I will not risk another person’s life by involving them in my situation.”
“Another person? Someone was killed other than Bernie? Who?
“I can have a team of former Delta soldiers here tomorrow,” Jasper went on. “Nobody will get past them. It would take an army of thirty or forty.”
“The person who’d like nothing more to see me dead and anyone next to me has the means to send a lot more than that.”
“He sent only five to your house.”
“He wasn’t anticipating you and my security team. Next time he will.”
“Nobody that powerful sends anyone in without already knowing what kind of security you have.”
That made her falter. She slowed her steps and glanced at Jasper.
He took her arm, stopping her completely. “Trust me, Sadie. Please. I know how this works. I’ve seen DAI in action. Their security team is among the best in the world. We have the best security lead any company like ours can find. He’s been in war-torn countries, fighting where there is no US support. These aren’t former homeless people or corporate security guards. These are men who know weapons and war. They’re fighters.”
She heard his heavenly words and wished she could just throw up her arms and say, “Okay, send them in.” But there was too much on the line. “I can’t risk anyone else’s life. I can’t.” On that she could not bend. “Steven is my inside man. If anyone can help me bring Darien down, it’s him.”
“Darien?”
She inwardly cursed her slip and averted her face.
“Trust me, Sadie.”
She wanted to. She wished she could let down her guard and hand over her troubles to someone capable. But she could not. Not only her fear of Darien stopped her. She wouldn’t trust anyone unless she felt sure she could.
“I can’t,” she whispered. She backed away. “You already know too much.”
He searched her eyes, willing her to stop denying him. But at last his persistence waned. He seemed to accept she wouldn’t tell him anything more.
“Let’s go back to the hotel and talk,” he said.
About Darien? She wasn’t prepared for that, or ready.
Jasper took her hand and gently tugged her back in the direction of the parking garage. “Come on. We don’t have to talk about Darien until you’re ready.”
While his words soothed, they delivered his full intent of making her tell him everything.
“What are you going to do?” she asked. And she wasn’t asking about what he’d do once they reached the hotel.
“I’m going to protect you and find out who killed Bernie.”
She believed him. Part of her shied away from how good that felt and part of her exulted in awe over such a powerful man...a good man...a man nothing like Darien Jafari.
* * *
Jasper didn’t bother Sadie all the way up to the top-floor penthouse. He’d chosen this hotel because it required a room badge key to take the elevator to the top floors. But once there, he looked for easier things to talk about, to get things going.
“I asked Dwight to fly out. He’s in the next room. Backup.”
“Good.” She nodded idly, distracted.
She moved awkwardly around the living space.
“Tomorrow I’d like to question the homeless people who saw Bernie the day of his murder and also the day before.”
“The police already talked to the other homeless people,” she said. “Why go and talk to them again?”
“I’m not the police.”
She didn’t comment further. He sensed her contemplating the night ahead, with last night still so fresh between them.
Making another pass in the living area, she caught his look and stopped. As with other times, she didn’t turn away and neither did he. A sizzle crackled the air.
She faced the window, another repeated action. “Can we do something? I don’t think I can just hang out in this room the entire night.”
He heard the unspoken with you in her statement.
“I’d rather not risk being seen any more often than we have to.”
Facing him, she hugged her middle with one arm and bent the other to put her index finger along her cheek, thoughtful but inventing a way to avoid boredom—or time alone with him.
At last she lowered both arms. “Since we can’t do anything fun, let’s have fun right here.”
“Order room service?” He didn’t add that fun might lead to another tumble on the sheets.
“No. Make candy. Chocolate.” Her face lit up. “I haven’t made chocolate in so long.”
“Candy?”
She went to the phone and spoke to the concierge, who must have agreed to arrange for someone to go get all the ingredients.
“Why do you want to make candy?” he asked.
“It will take my mind off...everything.”
He knew exactly what she meant. But in the meantime they had a while to wait for the ingredients to arrive. “About that...”
She held up her hand. “Let’s not talk about it. Let’s just agree not to let it happen again.”
“I don’t think either of us planned it in the first place. And I think we need to talk about it.”
“Are you all right with chalking it up as something casual? A one-time thing?” she asked.
“Are you?” He didn’t believe she would be.
“Yes. I am.”
“What if it happens again?”
She had nothing to say in response to that. If they hadn’t planned the first time what would stop them from partaking in a second? He wouldn’t be against it but he had to know what her expectations were.
“Then we don’t have very strong willpower.”
“I normally do,” he said. “Except not with you.” He let her fill in the blanks that his concern was he wouldn’t be able to stop if there was a next time. And he suspected she felt the same.
“What are your expectations?” she asked.
“I have none. When my investigation is finished, so are you and I.”
She visibly flinched. “Are you always this charming with women you sleep with?”
“I didn’t mean for it to sound so harsh.”
“Well, don’t worry. I’m not ready for another serious relationship, and I don’t know if I ever will be.”
They at least shared that in common. But he felt he needed to clarify. “I’m not saying I’m all out against a serious relationship. But I’m with you on feeling that I’m not ready.”
“Good.”
The way she said that made him wonder if he’d insulted her or hurt her somehow. That hadn’t been his intention. And he was pretty sure that even if he h
ad offended or hurt her it wouldn’t change her sentiment. She didn’t want serious and neither did he.
A hotel staffer came to the door with a bag of ingredients. Sadie took it to the kitchen and began taking out things she’d need. Placing a baking pan on the counter, she lined it with tinfoil.
“Are you going to help?”
She wanted him to? “I’m not much of a baker.” He joined her behind the island counter.
“Get the graham crackers,” she said.
“I can take orders from a pretty woman, though.” He grinned as she glanced over at him uncertainly.
The she got busy greasing the foil.
He removed some crackers.
“Line the entire pan with a layer of them.”
He worked at doing as she asked, hoping she’d relax enough to trust him with the truth. “What got you started baking?” What did she like about it?
“My... I grew up doing this. My father’s kitchen staff let me bake with them. What kid doesn’t like licking the spoon?” She retrieved a saucepan. “This is for the caramel and half-and-half.”
He took that out of the bag and she put some of both in the saucepan, heating the mixture and stirring. He believed when she spoke of her father she told the truth, but what about her mother? She had told him her mother was dead. The way she’d looked at that photo, the way she kept it hidden, and now the way she’d stopped herself. My...would she have said mother? Was her mother really alive and she avoided talking about her or had she told the truth and simply had difficulty talking about her?
“Is this your recipe?” he asked.
“Yes and no. This recipe has been around but the baker in the Philadelphia house added a few touches. She was my favorite to bake with.”
He didn’t think she realized her slip. “I thought you grew up in San Francisco.”
Her stirring slowed a fraction. “We had more than one house.”
He bet that was true. Still, she seemed to cover for herself. And they both knew she wasn’t Sadie Moreno. He doubted she was from San Francisco as she’d said.
“You must have made it a lot. You don’t need the recipe.”
“I’ve made it a few times.” After the mixture was melted together, she poured it over the graham crackers.
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