She looked out the door and down the hallway. It was clear. She didn’t know which room belonged to Garth, but it had to be one of these doors. Her purse and bag were inside. After she located her gear and fixed her makeup the best she could, she headed back to the living room. There were four men and two women seated in the living. The two men with their back to her seemed unusually large.
“There you are.” Garth swept over to her and led her to the guests. “Everyone. I want you to meet Nikki Wilder.” He squeezed her waist. “To your left is Conner Gillespie and next to him is his cousin, Harper Anderson. They own the Mountain High Casino, the same place where you and Dani were gambling last week.”
Her heart nearly jumped out of her chest. It took all of her control to drag her gaze to the other four guests. The blood pounded so hard in her head that she didn’t even hear their names.
The doorbell rang and Zane jetted down the hallway to answer the door. Garth must not have been aware what kind of men they’d invited to their house. She needed to warn him.
“—long have you been in Freedom?”
Garth nudged her. “Nikki? You okay? Conner asked you a question.”
“Sorry. Your name sounded familiar. How long have I lived here?”
“Yes.”
“Four months.” Or was it only three?
“How do you like it so far?”
Even the small talk was messing with her mind. “Love it.” She turned to Garth. “May I speak with you in the kitchen?” Since her back was to Conner and Harper, she mouthed, “Please?”
“If you’ll excuse us. Nikki wants to make sure we have enough hors d’oeuvres. Be right back.”
He guided her into the kitchen. “What’s wrong?”
“What do you know about Conner and Harper?”
He studied her for a moment. “They’re good friends. Why?”
“Do you know them well?”
“Yes.” He clasped her shoulders. His brows pinched in concern. “Nikki. What’s this about?”
“You know how we’ve been going down to Black Hawk for a job?”
“Yes.”
“We’ve been hired to find evidence linking Conner and Harper to human trafficking.”
He stepped back and laughed. His reaction shocked her. He should be outraged.
“No way. They’re totally innocent. I’d stake my ranch on it.”
She tamped down her anger. “Dani and I found evidence last night. We have photos of women being transported into vans right behind their casino.”
He shook his head. “Just because something illegal occurred behind their casino doesn’t mean Conner and Harper are guilty.”
“It does when their names were mentioned by the men delivering the women.”
Garth stabbed a hand over his head. “I need a drink.” He strode over to the refrigerator and pulled out a beer. “There has to be an explanation.”
“Such as?”
“Let’s ask them.”
That was a terrible idea. All she could think of was what had happened to Dani when she saw the man who killed Mark’s mom. He’d hounded her until the deputy killed the SOB. She couldn’t put Dani at risk again—or Mark.
“What if they’re guilty? They could come after us.”
“They’re not.”
Garth and Zane always seemed so damn sure of everything. “You aren’t always right.”
“I am in this case.” He winked. “Come on. Trust me.”
What if he was wrong? He clasped her hand and walked her into the living room. His strong grip implied he thought she might bolt. There were at least six more people at the party who’d arrived since she dragged Garth into the kitchen.
Garth walked her up to Zane. “There’s been a development. Grab Conner and Harper and ask them to meet us in the office.”
Zane’s brows pinched but he turned to do as Garth asked. Without comment, he escorted her down the hall. “Do you have these pictures?”
“No, Dani has them. She sent them today into the man who hired us.”
His grip tightened. “Can you ask her to e-mail them to you? Conner and Harper need to see the evidence so they can clear this up. ”
“Sure.” Her phone was in her pocket. She didn’t want to be without it in case Mrs. Cunningham had a question or concern about Mark. They stopped in the middle of the hallway where she punched in Dani’s number.
Her friend answered on the second ring. “What are you calling me for? You should be naked and tied down in bed.”
Her outrageous comment actually relaxed her. “That’s later. You won’t believe who’s at the party.” She didn’t wait for her to guess. “Conner Gillespie and Harper Anderson.”
“What?”
She had to hold the phone away from her ear. “Listen. I only have a few minutes. Can you e-mail me the photos so I can show Garth and Zane the evidence?” This was probably unethical, but she didn’t care. Lives were at stake.
“Sure. I’ll do it now.”
“Thanks.”
“Be careful.”
“Always am.” She disconnected and waited for the photos to arrive.
Garth led her into a large office where two desks sat perpendicular to each other on the far end of the wall. A seating area with a sofa, two chairs, and a coffee table took up the rest of the room. She’d just sat down when Zane and those two men showed up.
Her cell chimed, indicating her e-mail from Dani had arrived.
Zane motioned the men sit on the sofa across from her. Garth pulled up a desk chair and Zane took the remaining chair. He faced her. “What’s this about, Nikki?”
She couldn’t believe she’d be confronting these two scum. However, she hadn’t personally seen these men do anything illegal. She inhaled. “I, along with one of my co-owners, Dani Milan, run a security company through which private investigators hire us to watch people.”
Conner glanced at Harper then back at her. “You came to the casino to watch us?”
Even though Garth had mentioned she’d been there to gamble, if he jumped to that conclusion, maybe he had something to hide. “Yes.”
“Why?”
It was a logical question. “Most of the time, the man who hires us gives us little information, but not in this case. He told us you two were suspected of conducting human trafficking out of your casino.”
She’d been trained by the best to study people’s reactions. She watched to see if their eyes shifted or if their fingers twitched. A tic along a jawline or an increase in respiration could indicate a person was lying. She saw none of those tells now.
“She has photos and an audio tape,” Garth said.
“May we see what you have?” Harper asked. His voice was raw with anger, but he managed to keep the volume low. She couldn’t decide at whom he was directing his rage. Hopefully, it wasn’t at her.
She pressed the file on her phone. “Just scroll through these. Without the tape to go along with this, it might just look like a bunch of drugged women being hustled into the back of a truck with no ties to you. My partner also took some video. I have the audio files at the office.”
Both men huddled around the picture. They kept looking at each other and shook their heads. “We don’t recognize any of these people,” Conner said. He leaned back. “What I do know is that we’ve been set up.”
His denial was the usual response and one she expected.
Harper grabbed the phone from Conner. “Wait a minute.” He scrolled back a few pictures. “Now I remember. I know that motherfucker.” His clenched hand told it all. The man wasn’t acting. He turned to Conner. “Remember when Jack begged us to hear his side of the story in jail?”
“Yeah. So?”
“Don’t you remember the guy next to Jack? They both kept looking at each other. They’re in this together.”
Could it be true that they were innocent? “Do you have a name?” she asked.
“No, but I bet I could find out.” He returned his attention to her. “Le
t me tell you a little something about our former partner, Mr. Jack Marr.” His story matched what Holly had found out. “Last week he called us again. Said he’d been released and wanted to buy back his share of the casino. We turned him down.”
According to Holly they were close to broke. “Why didn’t you agree?”
Conner’s lips firmed. “While I doubt you’ll believe us, we’ve got principles. Sure, we could have used the money, but Jack Marr is bad news. I don’t care how poor we get. I’ll shut down the casino before I go into business with him again.”
His vindictive comment convinced her he was telling the truth.
Harper handed her back the phone. “What did you do with the evidence?”
“We sent it to our boss who in turn will send it to his client.”
“Who is this client?”
She shrugged. “He never tells us.”
Conner looked at Harper. “Do you think Marr hired her boss to get evidence that would incriminate us?”
That didn’t make a lot of sense. “What would Marr gain if you two got thrown in jail?”
“He knows we’d be forced to sell the casino to pay our legal fees. He’d come in and swoop it up.”
“You said your business was losing money, so why would he want to buy a losing company?”
Harper leaned back and glanced over at Zane and Garth. “You got a smart one here.” He faced her. “Because he doesn’t want us to succeed. Logic isn’t in the forefront of Marr’s mind. He’s the vindictive type. We found that out the hard way.”
Holly had looked into Jack Marr’s background and the man was scum.
Conner leaned forward. “If Marr is behind this, he’ll send the tape and pictures to the FBI. They’ll shut us down while they investigate. They won’t find anything, but the loss of revenue will kill us.”
What if they were telling the truth? She’d seen nothing of these men’s behavior to indicate they were evil. Being good friends with Garth and Zane gave them a lot of credibility. “It’s really out of my hands. As I said, our boss has the evidence. He told my partner that as soon as he fills out the report, and the client pays, he’ll turn the evidence over to him.”
“How thoroughly did he investigate this person’s claim?” Harper asked.
“I have no idea.”
Harper’s foot bounced. “I think Marr used a reputable private investigation firm and your company to bring us down.”
Someone was lying and the finger was pointing to Marr. “I could speak with Sussman tomorrow and see what he says. He might know more than he’s telling us.”
Zane reached across the expanse and grabbed her hand. “For us, call him now. Tell him he might have been duped.”
A one-day delay wouldn’t hurt Sussman. He wasn’t going to turn in the report until Monday anyway. “Okay.”
She didn’t feel comfortable with the men listening, so she stepped into the hall. Fortunately, none of the men followed her. Sussman answered on the second ring.
“It’s Nikki and I have a really strange request.” She could hear voices in the background as if he, too, were at a party.
“Go on.”
She detailed how the two men who she trusted implicitly happened to be friends with Conner and Harper, and that they insisted she show them the evidence.
“Are you crazy? They could target you and Dani.”
She blew out a breath. “It’s possible, but I don’t think they will. I now believe the whole transfer of women into the van was staged for our benefit because it went down too easily and took place where we’d be able to record their actions. If Conner and Harper were trying to hide this sale, they wouldn’t do it inches from their back door where someone might stumble onto their operation.”
“What evidence do you have that this was a hoax?”
She explained about Jack Marr. She thought as soon as she stated the man’s name that Sussman would say that was the man who’d hired him, but he didn’t.
“What you’re saying is that you believe this ex-con used us to pull off a scam?”
“It’s possible. Conner and Harper would like to meet with you tomorrow. My two men and I will be along. Maybe we can come up with a countermeasure.”
His hesitation had her heart hammering.
“How about two tomorrow afternoon? I’ll have to make a special trip into the office.”
Thank you, thank you. She didn’t expect this to be so easy. “We’ll be there. And thank you.”
“You better be right.”
Wasn’t that the truth? More than her future was at stake.
As soon as she disconnected, she called Holly.
“Why aren’t you at the party?”
She gave her the short version. Noise from a bar sounded in the background. “Can I ask a favor?”
“Anything.”
She told her about the man who was in jail with Marr. “Find out who else was released this past month. I don’t know how you’d do this, but see if there are any connections between Marr and the other released prisoners.”
“You got it.”
Nikki disconnected and hoped she hadn’t dug herself in deeper.
Chapter Eleven
Shortly after Nikki told Conner and Harper about the meeting time with Sussman, they left to plan their counter move, and to find more information on Marr and his whereabouts. She breathed a sigh of relief as soon as they left. Their sudden departure, however, put a pall over the party, and the other guests began to leave within the hour. Garth and Zane didn’t try to stop them. A few asked questions, but her men declined to comment.
Once the last person left, she glanced around the living room. Most of the food was still on the table. “I’m sorry I brought down the party.”
Zane gathered her in his arms. “Nonsense. In the end, it worked out well.”
She looked up at him. “How so?”
“If you hadn’t told Conner and Harper what was happening, Marr could have gotten away with something bad. Our friends’ lives would have been ruined.”
He did have a point. “I guess so.”
Zane kissed her forehead then scooped her up in his arms and headed down the hallway. “Besides, we get to start the good part of the evening sooner. The party was just an excuse to get you in our bed anyway.”
She laughed. “Seriously?”
“Babe. Don’t you understand what you mean to us?”
“Not really. You hardly know me.”
Garth opened the door to his bedroom and Zane carried her in and set her on the bed. “We know you better than you know yourself.”
“How so?”
“You have a heart of gold, but it’s encased in a body of steel. You take control because you’re afraid to let people in, but inside, you are a beautiful woman who is yearning to be free.” He waved a hand. “Don’t misunderstand me. We both think you’re gorgeous on the outside, too.”
He left her speechless. “I don’t know what to say.” He was right about her fear of trusting others. Maybe it was because her dad never told her he loved her. She believed he did, but he attacked life as a stoic, which meant expressing his feelings didn’t sit well with him.
It was why everyone said she made a great cop. She was analytical, rational, and always in control. Even she saw the irony when at the end, it was her heart that ruined her.
“You don’t have to say anything. For the rest of the night all we want is for you to let go and feel. Believe in the fact that we know how to bring out the best in you. Can you do that?”
It all sounded so wonderful but getting over old habits would be hard. “I’ll try.”
“That’s our girl.”
Zane leaned a knee on the bed and cupped her face. “In order for us to bring you the ultimate in fulfillment, we always need to know if there is anything we do that you don’t like. Okay?”
She nodded.
“This might sound a little corny, but if you absolutely want us to stop what we’re doing, just say the word re
d. If you’re slightly uncomfortable, you can call out yellow, and if we ask you how it’s going and you’re totally turned on, say green.”
No man had ever asked about her comfort before. “Like a traffic light.”
“Exactly.”
His request sounded easy and safe. Garth was doing something by the dresser, but she didn’t want to move to check him out. The lights suddenly clicked off and the room was bathed in candlelight. She smiled. “Nice.”
Since Zane’s back was to the light, his face became obscured, but she could see the outline of his body clearly.
“It’s more romantic this way,” he said.
That might be true, but she thought they’d turned off the lights because they knew she preferred making love in dim light. Overheads would show every flaw. “I agree.”
Zane stroked her cheek. “Don’t be surprised when I make more requests as the night progresses. Now lie back and let me and Garth love you.”
His whispered words made her forget about the job and any issues that might arise because of what she’d said tonight. For the next few hours, she wanted to be free of worry.
As soon as Garth returned to the bed, each tugged off her shoes followed by her socks. Then Zane got off the bed and went to the dresser. The drawer opened and paper rustled. She ignored what he was doing because Garth had climbed on top of her.
“I’ve wanted to devour your lips for so long.” He threaded his fingers through her hair and pressed his mouth to hers.
The kiss was simple but intense. He then dragged his lips over her chin and down to the hollow of her throat. Sweeping lust shot through her. She inhaled and her belly pressed against his cock.
As if she’d touched a button, he flipped them over in one quick move so he was on the bottom. His lips returned to hers, and he edged open her mouth so that their tongues could meet. He tasted of beer and cheese. They dueled and parried. With each swipe, their breaths increased. She cupped his face and dipped in farther, savoring him to the max. He lowered his hands and caressed her rear.
He turned his head to suck on the bottom of her ear. “What you do to me.”
Freedom to Trust [Freedom, Colorado 2] (Siren Publishing Ménage Everlasting) Page 10
