As he forced his fingers to loosen, he looked at her again and reminded himself of all the reasons why he couldn’t want her. Having to keep a cool head and an objective eye on this case was just the first one. If he forgot what had happened two years ago, he would be doomed to repeat his mistakes again. And he knew he’d never survive a second time in hell.
Julia looked around her apartment and wondered why it looked like a stranger’s home. It had only been a few short hours ago that she’d left it, but it didn’t seem the same somehow. Shaking herself, she began to walk toward the kitchen. She’d never been so fanciful before.
“Would you like some coffee?” she asked over her shoulder.
“Sounds good.”
Luke’s voice was muffled, and she stopped and watched him for a moment, curious. He had the door to her entertainment center open and he seemed to be fiddling with something in the back of her television. When he backed out and went to stand in front of her bookcase, she shrugged and turned back to the kitchen.
She’d just poured the water into the coffeemaker and was about to turn the switch when his hand reached out and circled her wrist. She turned around with a start to find him standing too close, his face grim.
“What is it?” She searched his face. “What’s wrong, Luke?”
“Don’t turn that on. Don’t touch anything in here, in fact.” He tugged on her wrist and led her out of the kitchen. “Someone’s been in your apartment since we left this morning. And in light of what happened in my office, I don’t think we can take any chances.”
“Someone’s been in here?” she whispered, looking around, feeling sudden fear tighten around her like a vise.
“Yes. Someone involved with this case is playing hardball. I didn’t think they’d go after you, but I don’t want to play the odds on that. I think the safest thing for both of us is to assume that this apartment is wired and get the hell out of here.”
“What do you mean, wired?” she said dumbly. Her brain was frozen. She heard Luke’s words, but they didn’t register. She knew she looked like an idiot, standing there and repeating everything he said, but she couldn’t help herself. The fact that someone had been in her apartment was all that registered. She shivered and wrapped her arms around herself. Someone had violated her home and her privacy.
Instead of the impatient disgust she expected to see in his face, his eyes suddenly softened and a rueful smile flitted across his mouth. “Your usual Internal Affairs cases aren’t like this, are they?”
She could only stare at him, amazed by the transformation.
Misunderstanding her silence, he said softly, “Julia, someone searched your apartment while we were gone. That’s probably all they did, but I don’t want to take any chances. I’m afraid they might have stashed a bomb in here.”
When she continued to stare, he shook his head. “You’re a damn good investigator, Julia, but obviously you’ve never been a part of this kind of case before. There’s a lot at stake here for everyone involved. They’ve demonstrated once that they don’t object to a little violence, and I don’t want you to be the next victim of it.”
Finally she shook her head. She couldn’t tell him the reason she was speechless was the concern in his voice. And even if she could, she told herself, he wouldn’t want to hear it. “I’m just surprised, that’s all,” she finally said. “I didn’t think they were that desperate. After all, I don’t have any real evidence yet.”
“But they don’t know that,” he replied. “All they know is that you’re investigating this, and they’ve obviously figured out that you’ve hired me to help you.” His mouth thinned. “I told you yesterday that you were going to have to prove to me that you had a case, but someone is doing a damn good job of proving it for you.”
He looked around the room again then headed for her bedroom. “Come on, Julia. Grab some clothes and let’s get out of here.”
She didn’t need to be told again. Hurrying into her bedroom, she opened her closet and stared at the rows of suits, trying to decide which ones to take. Behind her, she could hear Luke rummaging in her drawers.
“Don’t bother with those monkey suits,” he said impatiently behind her. “You’re not going into the office for a while, anyway. Here.” He handed her a stack of jeans and sweaters. “This is the kind of stuff you need.”
She accepted the clothes and stood staring at him while he turned back to her dresser. He went through her drawers, pulling out her clothes and inspecting each article before handing it to her. Something stirred inside her and a faint throbbing began, deep in her belly. Never before had a man performed such an intimate task for her. As she watched him, a faint whisper of the desire she’d felt in the park echoed through her.
“Here you go.” He turned around and handed her another pile of sweatshirts and sweatpants. “You’re going to have to get your own underwear. I draw the line at—”
He stopped abruptly as his eyes met hers. Desire that answered hers bloomed in his eyes, and she took a step backward. She didn’t want this. She couldn’t want this, she told herself desperately. She knew only too well what happened when you mixed business with pleasure. That lesson had been burned into her. Luke was working on this case with her and she had to keep her wits about her when she was with him. She couldn’t afford to forget what was at stake.
And every time he’d touched her she’d done just that. Thoughts of Bobby and what she was risking came flooding over her, and she took another step backward and spun around, fumbling on the top shelf of her closet.
Pulling down a suitcase, she turned around with a bright smile plastered to her face. “This should hold everything.”
Luke watched her for a moment, then turned on his heel and walked out of the room. “Get everything packed and do it fast.” His voice was flat and carefully controlled. “I want to get out of here now.”
Her hands trembled as she folded her clothes into the suitcase. Was it because she was afraid to be in the apartment, or was it because she was afraid of the feelings Luke aroused in her? a small voice in her mind asked. Ignoring it, she grabbed a handful of the silk-and-lace underwear she wore and stuffed it all into the suitcase, then slammed the lid shut.
Walking into the living room, she said, “I’m ready to go.”
She looked around again as Luke led the way to the door, wondering if there really was a bomb in her home. Would she ever see her belongings again? Impulsively she stopped in front of the bookcase and reached for her photo albums. She couldn’t bear it if twenty-eight years of family memories were to disappear in a flash of smoke and flame.
As she bent to pick up her suitcase the blinking red light of her telephone answering machine caught her eye. “Just a moment, Luke,” she called. “There’s a message on my answering machine.”
“Forget it.” He reached for the doorknob.
“What do you mean, forget it? It could be something related to this case.”
He strode over and grabbed her hand just as she was about to push the button. “I mean don’t touch it. That’s one of the newer ways of detonating bombs. Who can resist a message on the answering machine? You see the light flashing, you push the button, and bam, next thing you know you’re wearing wings and playing a harp.”
Her hand froze in midair. Luke’s fingers were warm on her suddenly cold flesh. This was real, she thought numbly. She had been one second away from pushing that button and possibly killing both herself and Luke. Her hand dropped nervelessly to her side and she backed toward the door, never taking her eyes off the telephone answering machine. Instead of the harmless piece of plastic and wires that stood on the shelf, she saw a living, breathing monster, just waiting for the opportunity to devour both of them.
Luke closed the door behind them and locked it with a quiet click. Then, setting her suitcase carefully on the floor, he touched her shoulder. “I’m sorry, Julia. I’m sorry I had to scare you. But there’s no getting around the fact that someone has been in your apartme
nt. Maybe they just wanted a look at those files that you carry around with you. Maybe they planted a bug so they could hear what we were talking about.”
He paused, and she wondered if he knew how much his eyes revealed. There was concern in their dark blue depths, and real fear. Fear for her, she realized slowly, feeling some of the warmth return to her skin.
“Maybe there wasn’t a bomb in there at all. But I didn’t want to take that chance.” He smiled slightly. “At least not until you’ve paid me.”
He was making a joke so she’d forget about her fear, she tried to tell herself. But it didn’t work. Memories came flooding back of the time in the past when she’d made the mistake of thinking someone cared for her, only to find it was her job he cared about. It was the same thing now, except that this time it was her money. That’s all she was to Luke, a paycheck, and she’d better not forget it. Perhaps he thought the paycheck had a nice body, but that was as far as it went. He’d made that clear enough.
“Don’t worry,” she said in a cool voice. “I’ve left a note in my files regarding your employment. You’ll get paid, regardless of what happens.”
The smile faded from his face. “Dammit, Julia, that’s not what I meant and you know it. It was a joke, for crying out loud.”
“Was it?” She gave him a frosty look. “It sounded like the simple truth to me.”
They’d reached the bottom of the stairs, and he yanked open the security door and stormed through it. Just as he was about to bolt through the outer door of the apartment building, he stopped so abruptly that she bumped into him. She jumped backward as if she’d accidentally stepped onto a live wire, and watched as he looked out the door.
“Is there a back door to this building?” he asked in a low voice.
Her anger and hurt dissolved instantly, replaced by the fear she’d thought she’d left upstairs. “There’s a door from the laundry room into the alley.” She began moving toward the door half-hidden under the stairs as she spoke.
“Is it locked?”
She wondered at the tenseness in his voice as she nodded. He handed her the keys without a word, and she fumbled for a moment until she found the right one. Her hand shaking, she unlocked the door and reached for the light switch.
He stopped her just before her hand touched the switch on the wall. “There’s enough light from the window. We don’t need to advertise that we’re here.”
She nodded again, jerkily, and began to lead the way through the narrow room. The building maintenance man left most of his tools propped against the wall, and in the semidarkness the odd shapes took on a menacing appearance. She kept her eyes firmly on the light from the door at the back of the room and steadily made her way toward it.
When she reached the door she stopped. There was nothing to see through the dirty window except the tiny square of grass that constituted the backyard of the building, and the tall fence that surrounded it. Luke unlocked the door and eased out into the yard, signaling for her to follow him.
There was no one in the alley when they slipped out the gate in the fence. She gulped in fresh air as they walked toward the street. This alley was suddenly as sinister as the one in Humboldt Park where they’d visited Raul earlier that morning. The narrow walkways next to each garage made perfect hiding places for an ambush. Their footsteps seemed to echo as loudly as gunshots, and each piece of gravel they kicked down the concrete sounded like the click of a safety being drawn off a gun.
By the time they reached the end of the alley, sweat had run in rivulets down her back and sides. Her heart was pounding so loudly in her ears that when Luke spoke, she had trouble hearing him.
“What did you say?” she asked in a harsh whisper.
“I said it was a good thing we parked around the corner from your apartment.” His voice was matter-of-fact. “Our friend in the black sedan was sitting right in front of your building, waiting for us to come out.”
Or waiting for the sound of an explosion. Luke didn’t say the words, but she could see them in his eyes. “What do we do now?” she said through stiff lips.
“We get in the car and leave. If they follow us, I can lose them.”
He began walking toward his car, and she hurried to keep up with him. She felt numb inside. In the space of a morning, she’d been threatened by a gang, warned that her apartment might be rigged with a bomb, and now told that someone waited for them at the entrance to her building, not even concerned about keeping himself hidden. What had happened since yesterday that had set her world on its end?
She looked at the man next to her. Lucas McKinley had begun to disrupt her carefully constructed world from the moment she’d walked into his office the day before. But then, she’d known all along that he would, hadn’t she?
Chapter 7
Julia turned around in her seat again and peered out the rear window. “It’s kind of strange, isn’t it?” she asked Luke.
“What is?” He didn’t look over at her as he continued to drive, his eyes moving almost constantly to the rearview mirror.
“That we were able to get away this easily. Shouldn’t they have had someone following us?”
He scowled, never taking his eyes off the road. “Yeah. Which is why I’m worried. Either I’m a genius or they’re the dumbest bunch of dirtbags to ever come down the pike. And I know I’m no Einstein.”
“Maybe they really are that stupid.”
He shot her a quick glance then looked back at the street again. “Never underestimate your enemy, Julia. It could be a fatal mistake.”
She studied him for a moment, his hands gripping the steering wheel and his eyes watching everything, then glanced around. They were on Lincoln Avenue, on the north side of Chicago. She was a Chicago native, but she’d never been in this part of the city before. The street was lined with motels, one after another for blocks. All of them looked identical—seedy and run-down, with a furtive air about them that made her want to look over her shoulder.
“Is this where we’re going to stay?” she asked as Luke pulled into one of the motel parking lots. The blinds were tightly drawn on all the tiny windows of the three-story building. Quiet and almost deserted, it looked like the kind of place that hugged its secrets to itself.
“It looked as good as any of the others.” He tore his gaze away from the street to glance over at her. “It won’t be luxury accommodations, but these places don’t ask many questions.”
“Why are there all these motels in the middle of nowhere, anyway?” she asked, glancing over at him. “It’s not like they’re close to downtown or any of the typical tourist attractions.”
He shrugged. “Who knows why they were built here originally? Now, I suspect, they serve a clientele that demand discretion.” He slanted a look in her direction. “You have heard of no-tell motels, haven’t you?”
She let her gaze drift over the string of motels once more. They did look like the kind of places that would cater to the long-lunch-hour crowd, she reluctantly conceded. Her eyes shifted to the man sitting next to her and she shivered. She was going to be staying here with Lucas McKinley.
Refusing to let her mind diverge in that direction, she looked instead at the highway in front of them. After a while she began to feel dizzy, watching one car after another zip by. Just as she turned to Luke to ask him how long they had to sit here and watch, he turned the key in the ignition and pulled around to the back of the motel.
“I’m going to go in and register. You wait in the car.”
Without waiting for an answer, he got out of the car and strode away. As she watched his long-limbed, flowing walk, she realized there was no trace of the stiffness she’d noticed earlier this morning. He must heal quickly, she thought, letting her gaze linger on his lean, tough frame. That toughness was deceptive, she thought. For a man of his size, he’d been surprisingly gentle when he’d held her that morning.
She closed her eyes to block out the memory of the kiss they’d shared. They were both just reacting t
o stress, she told herself. That’s all there was to it. When she opened her eyes again, Luke was the first thing she saw. He stood at the door to the hotel, adjusting his jacket. When he moved, she saw the flash of metal at the small of his back.
She stared at the spot until he’d disappeared into the office. She’d known the gun was there, had seen it earlier, but it still repelled her. It was an ugly symbol of everything they were hiding from.
It seemed like only a minute before he came striding out the door and toward the car. The wind picked up his long dark hair and blew it around his face, and he hunched his shoulders against its force. When Julia found herself watching the way he moved, she swung around in her seat and fished for her bag in the back seat. She was tugging the bulky bag onto her lap when Luke got into the car.
“We’re all set.” He reached into the back seat for his own bag, then slid out the door. “We’re on the third floor, in the back. If anyone asks, you’re Sally Smith.”
Her heart boomed as she wondered whether he’d thought to ask for two beds in their room. “And I suppose you’re John Smith?” she asked waspishly.
He looked wounded. “I’m more original than that. I’m John Jones.”
Some of the tension eased, and she forced herself to smile. “I beg your pardon, Mr. Jones. Lead the way.”
They walked up the stairs and through the dimly lit corridors of the third floor until he stopped in front of a room. When he unlocked the door and stepped inside she followed him, trying to see the layout of the room in the darkness.
He flipped a switch on the wall, and bright light flooded the room. There was one king-size bed that seemed to take up the whole room, and she felt color flood her face as she stared at it. Surely he didn’t expect her to sleep in that bed with him. It looked enormous from here, but she knew it would feel minuscule if they were both lying in it.
An Honorable Man Page 10
