Chain of Custody

by Carol Ericson

  “If Lanier was being honest, we have one less person to worry about. But that doesn’t explain why Brett kidnapped the baby. The only use Wyatt is to Brett is as a bargaining chip, and he wouldn’t be much of a chip if Lanier were the happy father.”

  Emily folded her hands around the bottle. “I wish we would’ve been more insistent about protection for Wyatt.”

  The knock on the door saved her from Nash’s retort. He snapped his mouth shut and held up his hand. “Food.”

  Nash returned to the room balancing a pizza box on his palm. “Let’s eat and strategize.”

  She hopped up from the chair and followed him into the kitchen. “Plates?”

  He swiped some paper plates from the top of the pizza box. “I had them include the plates and napkins. All we have to do is eat and throw away the trash.”

  “That’s my kind of meal.” She pinned a plate to the counter with her index finger as he dropped two slices of pizza piled with meat and veggies onto it. She carried the plate back to her chair and tore the slices apart.

  Nash joined her, taking the couch and plopping his plate on the coffee table. “Brett’s not going back to the apartment he shared with Jaycee in Phoenix. He knows the cops are after him now to question him about Jaycee’s murder and Wyatt’s disappearance. Where would he go?”

  “I’m trying to think.” She pulled a string of cheese from the top of her slice and sucked it into her mouth. “When the two cartel guys came looking for him at the apartment, Jaycee pretended they’d split up. He’d been gone a few days by the time those men showed up, so he probably knew they were looking for him.”

  “You were bugging the apartment prior to that, right? While Brett was still there?”

  “I was.”

  “Video?”

  “Video and sound.”

  “You saved it?”

  “I have it on my phone. I can download it to your laptop.” She licked her fingers, although she hadn’t yet managed a bite of pizza. Nervous excitement now fizzed through her veins. “He could’ve mentioned some place, right? A place where he was going to hide.”

  “That’s what I’m thinking. It worked so well the first time. Those guys never did find him. If he did take Wyatt, maybe he headed back to his safe place.”

  “Yeah, yeah.” She bounced on the chair. “They for sure talked about his plans, but I didn’t pay much attention at the time.”

  “Then that’s a good start.” He wiped his hands on a clutch of napkins and pushed up from the couch. “Let’s do that right now.”

  Emily retrieved her phone while he set up his laptop on the coffee table, next to their plates.

  “We can do the download via the Wi-Fi. Our tech guy in the department showed me how to do a bunch of stuff like this.” He tapped the table. “Bring up the videos and put your phone here.”

  She accessed her video files for the dates before Brett left the apartment and read off the file names to Nash, who entered the information into his laptop.

  “Voilà.” He waved his hand over his laptop. “Now we have entertainment while we eat.”

  Emily munched on a piece of pizza while hunched over Nash’s computer, her gaze following the figures on his display as they moved in and out of Jaycee’s living room.

  “Whoa, who’s that?” Nash leveled a finger at another woman in the frame.

  “That’s Jaycee’s roommate. Jaycee tried to tell the cartel guys that Wyatt was the roommate’s.”

  “They obviously didn’t believe her.” Nash shook his head. “Did these two fight all the time like this?”

  “Pretty much.” Emily felt a smile twist her lips despite herself when Jaycee came into the frame from the back carrying Wyatt. “There’s our boy.”

  “I’m going to turn up the sound, but they probably won’t say anything important with the roommate there. We can take turns keeping an eye on it.”

  “You know what’s weird?” Emily held her hands over her plate and brushed the crumbs from her fingers. “If they did have this blackmail plan for Lanier, I never heard it.”

  Nash lifted a shoulder. “Doesn’t seem like they talk about much at all—mostly snipe at each other.”

  “Jaycee had bad taste in men...except for one.” Emily crumpled her napkin and tossed it onto her paper plate with her crusts. “You.”

  Nash finished off his beer and clinked the bottle onto the coffee table. “I’m no prize. I work too much, I prefer superficial relationships and there’s that rodeo fetish.”

  “It sounds like you’re trying to warn me off.” Emily scooted to the edge of the chair. “And why do you prefer superficial relationships?”

  “Because of this.” He swept his arm to the side. “This property, this business. My family has a lot of money, and women seem attracted to that.”

  “How can you be so sure it’s the money and not the man?” She assessed the handsome face in front of her, the pure masculinity emanating from the lanky frame that housed a sinewy strength. Was he fishing for compliments?

  “Let’s just say I had a couple of bad experiences that made me wary.”

  “You weren’t too wary to hire a nanny on the spot in the supermarket parking lot.” She swirled the remaining sips of her beer in the bottle.

  “There was something about that freckled face I trusted.” He hunched forward, elbows on his knees, a light smoldering in his blue eyes. “And I wasn’t wrong.”

  “Ha!” She slammed her bottle next to his. “You couldn’t have been more wrong. I was a nanny under false pretenses, and I almost absconded with Wyatt.”

  “For what you thought were the right reasons. You turned on a dime when I explained things to you.” He had inched closer across the table.

  “So did you.” She wound a lock of her hair around her finger. “For a distrustful sort, you accepted my story pretty quickly, even inviting me to your side.”

  “Like I said—” he reached across the coffee table and cupped her face with one rough hand “—something about that freckled face I trusted.”

  Emily parted her lips. Her breath came out in short spurts. “I can’t imagine why.”

  “Neither can I.” He pulled her close and slanted his mouth across hers, right over their paper plates, greasy napkins and pizza crusts.

  The spicy pepperoni on his lips mingled with hers, and she braced a knee on the edge of the table to dive deeper into his kiss.

  He rose to his feet, hitching an arm around her waist to take her with him. Their bodies created an arch over the table, and when she wrapped her arms around his shoulders, she took them off balance.

  Nash steadied them and broke their connection. Then he took one long step over the coffee table and took her in his arms properly...or very improperly with the way his hands wandered down to her derriere, cupping and lifting her to fit their hips together.

  She sighed against his mouth, and he murmured, “Do you want this?”

  This time she broke their kiss to gaze into his eyes, the smolder more like a blue flame now. “There’s nothing more I want right now, except...”

  He placed a finger against her throbbing lips. “We both want Wyatt back, but I need to know you want me, too.”

  Did she want him without Wyatt? Would she see him again if he refused custody?

  Falling against his chest, she entwined her arms around his neck. “I do want you, Nash Dillon. I wanted you the minute I saw you fumbling with that baby in the parking lot.”

  He pressed his mouth against hers again, and this time it seemed as if a barrier had been lifted between them.

  The kiss scorched her lips, branding her somewhere deep inside, taking possession of her soul. If she had doubts before that she could separate the man from the baby, Nash’s kiss torched those doubts and turned them to ash.

  He turned around with her in his arms and sank to
the chair she’d just vacated, pulling her against him.

  She bent her knees and wedged her legs on either side of his hips as she straddled him. She plucked at the hem of his T-shirt and yanked it up and over his head.

  Running her hands along the hard ridge of muscle on his chest, she planted a kiss on his collarbone. “Mmm, if this body is the result of your rodeo fetish, I wholeheartedly approve.”

  He lifted one eyebrow in that sexy fashion he had and said, “Let’s see if you approve of my other fetishes.”

  “If one of those is making love in a recliner, again you have my stamp of approval.” She ditched her blouse and tossed it over her shoulder.

  Nash unhooked her bra with an expertise that gave her pause, but only for a second, as he took one of her nipples between two of his fingers and rolled it slowly.

  She gasped and arched her back.

  He bent his head and took her other nipple between his lips as she squirmed in his lap. He caught his breath and slammed his head against the back of the chair.

  “You’re gonna have to stop moving against me like that. I’m only a simple man.”

  “Nothing simple about you, Nash, but I’m no tease.” She pulled at his fly, undoing the buttons at the top and then yanking down his zipper.

  He lifted his hips in all eagerness, and she pulled off his shorts and briefs in one motion. She rubbed her bare thighs against his, and he groaned.

  He lifted her skirt and ran his hands beneath her panties, caressing her bottom. He grabbed the edge of her underwear, and she awkwardly rose to her knees and tried to disengage one of her legs from between the chair and his thigh.

  “Go ahead, rip ’em. I’ve got others. Better ones.”

  “I can reimburse you.”

  “Don’t worry. I’ll give you an itemized receipt.”

  Nash chuckled in her ear, gathered her panties in his hand and gave a quick tug. The lacy material ripped, and she lifted her hips and skimmed her tingling flesh along the tight skin of his erection.

  The chuckle in her ear turned to a moan, and he dug his fingers into her backside. He positioned her body so that his tip caressed her wet folds.

  In a rough voice he said, “We can take it slower later or if we ever make it to a bed, but right now I want you so much it aches.”

  She whispered. “I feel it, too. I need you to fill...to fill me up.”

  Did she need to feel whole after losing Wyatt? She didn’t want to think right now.

  When Nash plunged into her, she stopped thinking altogether. Her body and mind became a mass of feelings and emotions. She moved against him and up and down, bracing her hands on his shoulders.

  She rode him just as surely as he rode those bulls in the rodeo.

  He slowed his thrusts and shoved his fingers into the crease where their bodies met. He stroked her flesh. “Tell me how. I want you to reach your climax before I explode inside you.”

  She had no words. Whatever he was doing at this minute was driving her to a pinnacle she’d never reached before. She just nodded, and he kept caressing her in the same spot, in the same way.

  She held her breath as the tension built in her body. She’d stopped moving and her rigid muscles made her feel as if she were ready to shatter.

  Then she did shatter. Her climax whipped through her, lashing her over and over. She thrashed her head back and forth, her hair creating a red wave between them as Nash pumped her harder and faster.

  Before she even came to her senses, Nash’s body stiffened and he drove into her, lifting her to her knees. A red flush spread across his chest and his jaw clenched.

  He gave a harsh cry and pulled her in for a kiss as he reached his peak and plunged into her again and again.

  She slipped off his lap to the side, one leg still hitched over his leg, her skirt crumpled around her waist, her head on his shoulder. All she could manage was a faint “Oh.”

  Tracing a finger down her spine, he said, “Maybe we can brush our teeth, bring Denali in and slow this down in the bedroom.”

  She ran her tongue along her teeth. “I definitely need a toothbrush.”

  “I’ll get the dog.” He planted his hands on her bottom and shifted her off his lap. Then he struggled to his feet and crossed the room to the patio door. He stuck his head outside and whistled.

  As Emily swept up her tattered undies from the floor, she glanced at the video they’d left running on the laptop. They’d have to backtrack and see what they’d missed while they were otherwise engaged.

  The roommate had left and Jaycee and Brett were discussing his departure. Her pulse bumped up a few notches as she pulled the computer closer to the edge of the table and turned up the volume. She listened to their conversation for several seconds, the thumping of her heart almost drowning out their words.

  She let out a squeak, and Nash jerked his head up as Denali ran through the door. “What’s wrong?”

  Jabbing her finger at the laptop, she said, “I know where Brett took Wyatt.”

  Chapter Fourteen

  Nash almost tripped over the dog as he rushed to Emily’s side, and he still ended up stubbing his toe on the coffee table. The throbbing pain didn’t even faze him. “Whaddya got?”

  “Listen to this.” Emily dragged the time back on the video and clicked Play.

  Nash peered at Jaycee, clutching Wyatt to her chest. “Where will you be?”

  Brett winked. “Somewhere no one can find me. One of my mom’s husbands had a place in a trailer park. He’s dead and gone, but I’ve used that trailer on and off for years. Nobody knows about it.”

  “Where is it?”

  “Down by the border.” He continued giving Jaycee the particulars, but Nash didn’t even have to listen.

  “I know that trailer park. I wouldn’t even call it a trailer park, and it’s not official—just a bunch of people who brought their RVs and campers together. These places dot the desert.”

  Emily bunched her ripped underwear in her fist and pounded her knee. “He must be there now with Wyatt.”

  “If he has him.” Nash stopped the video and shoved the computer back on the coffee table. “We don’t even know if Brett has Wyatt.”

  “He tried to kidnap him from us. That’s good enough for me.” She swept her bra and blouse from the floor and stuck her arms through the straps.

  Still naked, Nash pulled Emily’s skirt down around her legs and smoothed the material against her thighs. “Where are you going?”

  “We’re going to get Wyatt.” She grabbed his briefs from the floor and tossed them into the air for him.

  Nash caught his underwear and shook them at Emily. “Hold on.”

  “No, no, no.” Emily whipped her head back and forth. “You’re not going to tell me that we’re turning this information over to the police, are you? Do you think they’re going to rush over there immediately and grab Wyatt? They’ll need a search warrant at the very least. If they come rolling in with lights and sirens, they’ll spook Brett and the other residents.”

  “Brett Fillmore is a person of interest in a murder and kidnapping. The Pima County Sheriff’s Department will do this the right way.” His words faltered at the end as he caught sight of Emily’s face, her liquid eyes and thin lips conveying both sadness and determination at the same time.

  “Please, Nash. We did it the right way when we turned Wyatt over to DCS and look what happened.” She grabbed his hands. “Of course, we’ll go through proper channels if we find Brett, but let’s try it my way this time.”

  “Your way got you fired from your job.” But those shimmering green eyes were already weakening his resolve—and Emily knew it.

  “Okay, we’ll slow down. I need a shower—” she dangled her lacy panties from her fingertips “—and a change of underwear, and then we’re going out there to rescue Wyatt.”

  Th
ey both showered—separately—and changed into dark clothing. If he hadn’t made love with Emily, would he be so quick to chuck all his good sense out the window and rush into the desert to confront Brett? He loaded his weapon and clicked the chamber shut. Guess you’ll never know, Dillon.

  Emily strapped her purse across her body, her hand resting against the gun pocket. “How far is this place?”

  “Now you ask?” He hitched a backpack containing all kinds of gadgets over one shoulder. “It’s about an hour. We head south and then we veer east toward New Mexico. Let me warn you. The kind of people who inhabit these desert compounds are not big fans of law enforcement. They’re not fans of outsiders at all. Brett must be known there to feel comfortable, and the inhabitants wouldn’t blink an eye if he showed up with a baby.”

  “Even more reason for us to contact him on our own without the law.”

  He cocked his head. “Do you think Brett’s going to give up Wyatt without a fight?”

  “No.” She licked her lips. “But from what I saw of him, he doesn’t pose much of a threat.”

  “Really? If he did take Wyatt, he murdered a DCS worker and kidnapped a baby in broad daylight. Dude may be stupid, but he’s got guts and that’s a lethal combination for anyone who gets in his way.”

  Emily widened her stance and crossed her arms. “He has Wyatt, and we’re gonna get him back.”

  He stalked toward her and planted a kiss on her forehead. “I know you mean that, but if I sense you’re in any danger, we’re pulling out.”

  “I hear you.” She dropped her head to adjust her purse strap, and Nash’s gut tightened.

  He knew he’d have to physically remove her from rescuing Wyatt in the face of danger, and he wouldn’t have it any other way—but he’d be ready.

  Nash locked the sliding door to the patio in position with just enough space for Denali to squeeze through it. He set up some dry kibble and water in the kitchen. Scratching the dog behind the ear, he said, “Sorry, boy. Clay is never going to let me dog sit you again when he hears about this.”