“It seems okay,” he said with a critical glance around the room. She had no idea what the rest of the room looked like. The only thing she saw was the bed. When she realized she wasn’t sure if she was appalled or secretly thrilled at the idea of sharing it with him, her face flamed even hotter.
“My room is the next one. That door connects them.”
When she realized what he was saying she tore her gaze away from the bed and looked at the door in the wall right next to it. He wasn’t sharing this room with her. He had his own room, right next door. Willing the color to recede from her cheeks, she mumbled, “Okay.”
“You’re blushing.” He sounded thunderstruck. “You didn’t think we were sharing a room, did you?”
He was standing much too close and studying her too carefully. “I had no idea. But you can be sure I’m relieved that we’re not.” Snapping her mouth shut, she refused to look at him.
“You’re not the only one,” she thought she heard him mutter as he turned to pick up his bag. “Open the connecting door,” he instructed. “And keep the chain on the door to the hall.”
He closed the door gently behind him. After a moment, she heard him moving around in the next room and she unlocked the connecting door. When she heard him push it open a few minutes later, she was kneeling in front of the lopsided dresser unpacking her suitcase.
“Like I said, the accommodations aren’t luxurious, but they’re nice and anonymous.”
She turned around to find him leaning against the doorframe, watching her with expressionless eyes. He looked relaxed, but tension seemed to pour off him and the muscles in his arms looked tight and hard.
“No black sedans in the parking lot?” she asked, trying to make her voice sound light.
“Not a one,” he drawled. His eyes left her and drifted over the pile of clothes she’d placed on the bed. Following his gaze, she realized that the underwear that he hadn’t wanted to see back at her apartment was spread over the rest of her clothes, out in plain view. She snatched it up and stuffed it into a drawer without looking at him.
“I hope you brought something to do.” His voice was remote, and when she looked at him, she saw he was looking at a spot over her head. “We’re going to be here for a while.”
“It’ll be the perfect chance to go over my notes again.” Putting the last of her clothes away, she stood up and faced him. Taking a deep breath, she added, “Maybe this time I’ll find something.”
“Maybe you will.” He brought his gaze to hers and added, “Why don’t I look at some of them? In all the excitement, I’ve never had a chance to look at all your notes.”
“That’s a good idea.” Maybe if they were working on this case she could ignore the charged atmosphere in the room. Maybe if they were both looking at her notes, she wouldn’t feel as if she’d been burned every time he looked at her.
As she took the pile of file folders out of her briefcase, she remembered the blinking red light on her telephone answering machine. “Would it be all right if I called my answering machine?” she asked. “There was a message on it, remember? It might be from someone connected with this case.”
He shook his head. “I’m going to get the Bomb Squad in there first. If they don’t find anything you can get your messages.”
An hour later, Luke got an all-clear, so she called her phone number and punched in the security code for her answering machine. After listening to her own voice asking the caller to leave a message, she heard a click and then her brother Bobby’s voice, startlingly loud.
“Hey, Skinny, how’re you doing? I thought I’d make good on that rain check I owe you tonight, if that’s okay with you. Meet me at the usual place at eight o’clock. If you can’t make it, give me a call. Otherwise, I’ll see you there.”
The machine clicked off, and Julia stood staring down at the telephone that stood on the night table. Bobby’s words had sounded light and jovial, but underneath his voice was strained. Beneath the casual, teasing words was a desperation that was barely concealed.
Oh, Bobby, what’s going on? she cried silently. What’s wrong?
Slowly she replaced the receiver in its cradle and looked up at Luke. His eyes had sharpened, as if he’d heard Bobby’s words.
“There was a message from my brother Bobby.” It took every bit of effort she could manage to make her voice sound casual. “He wants to go to dinner tonight.”
Luke watched her for a long moment. He’d shuttered his eyes, so she had no idea what he was thinking. Finally he said, “That sounds like a good idea.”
Julia stopped twenty feet away from the door to the restaurant and turned to Luke. “All right, you can come into the restaurant with me. But you can’t sit with us. You sit at a table by the door and I’ll sit with my brother.”
He shook his head. “No way, Julia. Either I’m with you or we’re going back to the motel. I’ve already told you, this isn’t negotiable. If you want to have dinner with your brother, that’s fine. But I’m going to be there.”
She looked at him, frustration and desperation burning a hole in her stomach. When he’d told her to have dinner with Bobby, she’d been surprised and pleased. Bobby obviously had something important to say to her, and she had to hear what it was. But when Luke had added that he’d be joining them for dinner, she’d panicked.
Whatever Bobby had to say wasn’t for Luke’s ears. She knew that with every instinct in her soul. The whole reason for hiring Luke was to protect Bobby. And now, when Bobby was apparently finally ready to tell her what was going on, Luke insisted on being there.
She stopped at the restaurant door. “Luke, Bobby is my brother,” she pleaded. “Surely I can trust my own brother, can’t I?”
“You’d think so,” he said, pulling open the door. “But we don’t want any nasty surprises, do we?”
She stared at him, speechless, as he stood waiting patiently for her to go inside. “What is that supposed to mean?” she finally demanded.
“I mean that until we know who’s involved in this mess, we don’t trust anyone. Not your brother, not your best friend, not even my mother. No one. That’s how we stay alive to find out what’s going on.”
The smell of garlic and butter drifted out of the restaurant into the cool spring air, but Julia had completely lost her appetite. She wanted to turn around and run back the way they’d come, but she didn’t dare. Luke would immediately wonder why she didn’t want to meet with her brother in his presence. No, she’d have to bluff her way through this evening.
And so would Bobby. Her troubled gaze searched through the restaurant until she found her brother, lounging back against a booth and drinking a beer. If her suspicions were correct, bluffing was something Bobby had become very good at lately.
“Hey, Skinny,” he began, standing up with a broad grin when he saw her approaching. “I was beginning to worry that—”
He stopped abruptly when he saw Luke behind her, and the grin faded. “I didn’t know you were bringing someone.”
“Luke wanted to get to know you better.” Her eyes pleaded with her brother for understanding, and his nod was almost imperceptible.
“Any particular reason?” Bobby looked at Luke, challenge in his eyes, and Luke obligingly slipped an arm around her waist.
“The usual,” he answered smoothly. Looking down at her with what she figured was supposed to be fondness, he added, “I want to know everything about Julia.”
Julia wanted to gag. Stepping away from Luke, she said to Bobby brightly, “I hope you don’t mind that I brought company. Luke just insisted on coming with me.”
Her eyes warned her brother to be careful, and Bobby grinned at her reassuringly. Turning to Luke, he said, “Ain’t young love grand?”
“You could say that.” Pulling out a chair, Luke sat down at the table between Julia and her brother and smiled blandly. “How about a bottle of wine?”
An hour and a half later Luke leaned back in his chair and watched Julia talk to her b
rother. At first she’d been stiff and uncomfortable, and the conversation at the small table had been stilted. Even when she wasn’t looking at him he felt the waves of anger and resentment that rolled off her.
But as the evening progressed there had been a gradual lessening of the tension that hovered over the group. Bobby Carleton had gone out of his way to be charming and sociable, telling stories about his precinct that had even Luke smiling. Luke had been very careful not to touch Julia again, and as he’d watched Julia he’d realized that she was gradually relaxing her guard.
Why she felt she needed to be on her guard in the first place was another question altogether. On the surface Bobby and Julia were a typical brother and sister, teasing each other and talking about their siblings and their parents. But Luke sensed a wariness about Julia, as if she were watching Bobby too closely. And Bobby was too glib and too charming, Luke thought. It made him wonder if Bobby had something to hide.
Glancing at her watch, Julia pushed away from the table. “I guess it’s time to get going.” She reached for the check, as did Luke, but Bobby snatched it away.
“This one’s on me, guys,” he said with a grin. Looking over at Luke, his eyes calculating, he added, “Think of it as a welcome to the family, McKinley.”
“Knock it off, Bobby,” Julia said, looking uncomfortable. “I’ve only known him for a few days.”
“Love at first sight, huh?” Bobby raised his eyebrows. “How romantic.”
“You got it.” Luke rose from the table and reached for Julia’s coat. “Thanks for the dinner, Carleton.”
“Anytime,” Bobby answered easily. “You’re always welcome when Skinny and I get together. Right, Skinny?”
“Don’t call me that, Bobby.” Julia’s voice was sharp, and Luke looked over at her, surprised.
Her eyes were stormy and the anger was back. But this time it was directed at her brother instead of him.
“Hey, sorry, Julia.” Bobby held up his hands in mock surrender. “It’s just a nickname.”
Luke held her coat as she slipped her arms in, then slid his hand down to her waist. “But not a particularly apt one,” he murmured. Her hip was soft and curved under his fingertips, and he let his hand linger there for a minute before he placed it in the small of her back. He wasn’t sure if the heat was coming from him or her.
He felt her stiffen next to him, and she tried to move away. Smiling blandly at Bobby, Luke said, “Thanks for dinner. We’ll be seeing you.”
They stepped into the windy night and he had to fight the urge to wrap his arm around her and pull her close. Just to protect her from the cold, he told himself. In silence they walked the two blocks to where he’d parked the car.
When he’d started the car and pulled into traffic, Julia said suddenly, “I’m sorry.”
Looking over at her in surprise, he asked, “For what?”
“For making a scene in the restaurant when Bobby called me Skinny.”
His lips curved into a smile. “Honey, if you call that making a scene then you must live the life of a saint.”
She smiled briefly in return, then looked down to play with the buttons on her coat.
“Does he always call you that?” he asked carefully after a while.
She sighed. “Yes, and I don’t know why I got angry at him tonight. Maybe it’s because he doesn’t take anything seriously. Skinny is a stupid nickname that he used to call me when we were kids, and it reminded me of all the other things that Bobby does that sometimes irritate me.” She turned to look out the window.
“Like what?”
Biting her lip, she shook her head. “Life in general, I guess.” With an effort, she pulled herself together and turned to him. “So. Did you enjoy crashing our party tonight?”
“It was interesting.” As well as informative, he said to himself. Bobby Carleton was only a rookie cop, but he seemed to know a lot about the workings of his old precinct. And Julia seemed awfully worried about him. Making a mental note to look into Bobby Carleton a little more closely, he drove back to the motel.
The third-floor corridor was dark and deserted. The only light came from low-wattage light bulbs in dirty fixtures that dotted the ceiling, and all the doors in the hallway were firmly closed. Not a sound came out of any of the rooms. Luke waited next to Julia as she fumbled in her purse for her room key.
“You should always have your key in your hand before you get to your door, you know.” His voice was a low rumble, but it sounded shockingly loud in the quiet corridor.
She shot him a look that brimmed with resentment as she pulled the key out of her purse. “I know that. But since you insisted on coming along to ‘protect’ me, I assumed I wouldn’t have to use my key as weapons tonight.”
Taking the key from her hand, he gently pushed her against the wall and said, “Don’t assume anything, Julia.” Unlocking the door, he kicked it open and stood aside.
The sound of the door bouncing against the wall reverberated down the corridor and echoed in his ears. There was no sound coming from the room, so Luke reached in and turned on the light. A quick search showed everything in its place and nothing disturbed.
“Lock your door behind me,” he instructed, pausing in the doorway to turn and look at her. That was a mistake. She stood next to the bed, looking lost and alone, and he grabbed the door handle to keep himself from going to her. Dammit, didn’t she know that Julia Carleton was always supposed to be composed? She looked too vulnerable when she let her guard down. It made him want things that he had no right to and ache to do things he knew he would regret later.
She nodded, a brief jerky movement, and he swore to himself. He took a step forward before he was able to stop himself. “Keep the connecting door unlocked,” he added in a harsh voice. “If there’s trouble I want to be able to get to you quickly.”
She nodded again and sat down on the bed. “All right.” Looking around the room, avoiding his eyes, she said, “I’ll probably try to get some work done tonight. I don’t think I can sleep yet.”
So who could? Luke thought to himself savagely. Out loud he said, “Fine. I’ll see you in the morning.”
Pulling the door shut, he waited until he heard the rasp of the chain sliding home. Then, opening his own door, he went through the same routine as he had in Julia’s room. As he expected, there was no evidence that anyone had been in his room. They were safe so far.
Throwing himself onto the huge king-size bed, a twin to the one in Julia’s room, he stared at the ceiling and tried to concentrate on the case and not on Julia. She’d been right, it was odd that no one had followed them here from her apartment. The black sedan had been sitting in front of her apartment, big as life, making no effort to hide. There should have been someone else lurking near his car, ready to follow them if the black sedan missed them.
Maybe there had been, he thought uneasily, and he just hadn’t spotted them on the way here. Easing off the bed, he turned off the lights in his room and walked over to the window. Cracking the curtain just enough to see the parking lot, he scanned the cars that sat in the darkness.
None of them looked suspicious, and as far as he could tell they were all empty. Letting the curtain fall back into place, he flicked the lights back on and stared at the door that led to Julia’s room.
He had to get this case solved and get away from her. Until the day she’d walked into his office he’d been content, his soul and heart numb and nothing able to touch him, and he wanted to stay that way. Dammit, he didn’t want to lie awake at night and think about any woman, let alone Julia Carleton. For two years she’d been the one thing that could keep his anger alive and his guilt at bay. When he thought about her and her role in his firing, he could concentrate on the shaft job he’d gotten from the police department instead of his own culpability for his wife’s death.
And now Julia was ripping the carefully sewn fabric of his life to shreds without even trying. Hell, it was obvious she didn’t want to get involved with him. B
ut the more he got to know her, the more he craved her.
It was only physical, he told himself. It had nothing to do with the kind of person she was. He pushed the picture of her standing up to the street gang out of his mind. So what if she had courage? So what if she had more guts than any two women he’d ever met?
He remembered the way she’d trembled in his arms afterward, and he wanted to punch something. Sitting there in the park, she’d looked at him as if she thought Luke McKinley was more than a brutal cop, more than a seedy, lowlife private investigator. She’d looked at him as if she cared about him.
A hesitant knock at the connecting door interrupted his thoughts. Walking over to the spot that had been tempting him ever since he’d walked in the room, he yanked the door open and stepped aside. She’d managed to pull herself together since he’d left her, and she stood in front of him composed and calm.
“I needed a few files that I think you have,” she said in a low voice.
“Come on in. They’re all over on that table,” he said, jerking his head in its direction.
He left the door open as she walked toward the table. The room would be too small if the door was closed. She flipped through the files quickly and pulled out a handful, then turned to go back to her room.
“I have to ask you something,” he said suddenly. Stop, a voice inside his head warned, but he couldn’t stop himself. He had to know, and the question was eating at his gut.
She inclined her head, waiting. She was the self-composed ice princess, and he had to smash that facade, make her open up to him. Just once, he had to know what was inside her.
“Why did you crucify me the way you did two years ago? Why did you insist I be dismissed from the force instead of just giving me a reprimand?”
He watched as she paled, then she seemed to stand straighter. “There were five of us on that panel, Luke,” she said carefully. “I was the chief investigator, but I wasn’t the only one making the decision. And we felt that you left us no choice.”
“That’s crap and you know it. You had a lot of other choices. You could have suspended me for ninety days and everyone would have been satisfied. So why did you do it?”
An Honorable Man Page 11
