The Forbidden Bride

by Debra Cowan

  That lying SOB hadn’t told her anything.

  She still had no idea why Nate had interfered in her wedding.

  Chapter 5

  Three hours later, Nate was still thinking about the fact that Emrick had told Robin nothing about why he had called off their wedding. Neither had Robin’s sister. Neither had Nate.

  He should tell her. Shouldn’t he?

  The whole time he and Robin had reinterviewed Bane’s neighbors, Nate thought about it. If it had been his place to tell her, he would have already done it. But it wasn’t his place. Until he had started working with Robin, he had barely known the woman, had seen her a total of two times, both at her wedding.

  Robin’s being in the dark as to why Nate had convinced Kyle to walk away was just one thing Nate was still trying to process. The hot, hungry look Emrick had run over Robin’s body had wound something tight inside Nate. A need to protect that had taken him completely off guard. He wasn’t sure what to do with that. Daly carried a gun, for crying out loud. She didn’t need his protection.

  When an older woman in Bane’s neighborhood confirmed seeing a red T-bird and the woman driver, who matched the description given of Tiffany Jarvis, Nate and Robin had what they needed to question the secretary further.

  En route to the woman’s office, they stopped at Presley’s police department to pick up the e-mails and photos printed from Dennis Bane’s laptop. The tech wasn’t finished examining the computer, but Nate and Robin planned to go through what was available so far on their way downtown.

  Since their conversation about her ex, Robin had been quiet. Now, as she and Nate strode down the dimly lit hallway toward the homicide room, she slid him a sideways look. “I can pick up Tiffany on my own, if you have other things you need to handle.”

  The cool remoteness of her tone had him wondering if she was trying to get rid of him. She didn’t seem irritated, which she had plainly been when he had asked about communication between her and Emrick, but what did Nate know? “This is what I need to be doing. It’s my case, too.”

  “Right.”

  He could read nothing in her blank expression. Following her into the squad room, he nearly ran into her when she stopped short.

  “Beau Tyler!” she exclaimed.

  A big man in an Oklahoma City police uniform bent over her desk, writing a note. As he straightened, a grin stretched across his face. “Hey, Detective.”

  “Knock it off.” She quickly reached the sandy-haired man who was a couple of inches taller than Nate’s six foot three.

  Tyler bent down to meet her hug. She pulled back, looking him up and down. “How are you?”

  “Great.” He glanced over her head and Robin turned, following his gaze. There was a warmth in her eyes that had never been there when she looked at Nate. She gestured to him. “Beau, this is Agent Houston with the fire marshal’s office. We’re working some cases together.”

  “Nice to meet you.”

  Nate nodded, shaking the man’s hand.

  The other man hitched a thumb toward Robin. “I guess you’ve figured out by now, this one will keep you in line.”

  She chuckled and Nate studied her face. This was the first time he had seen her so open with anyone. What was her relationship with the younger man? Though there was no mistaking the adoration on Tyler’s face, it seemed born more of respect than desire. Like brother and sister.

  Beau grinned, dark eyes twinkling. “If Robin hadn’t straightened me out, I’d probably be doing a stretch at McAlester.”

  “Oh, you would not.”

  “When I was fifteen,” he went on, “she arrested me for trying to steal a car.”

  Sliding his hands into the pockets of his slacks, Nate listened as Robin and Beau asked about each other’s families. His gaze did a slow hike up her slender figure, and an odd tightness settled in his chest. She was slight, seemed even more delicate next to the friend who towered above her.

  Her curvy, petite frame was deceptive. After the vertigo episode, he’d seen a raw vulnerability in her, but there was a core of strength there, too. It would be hard for her to hear that the woman Nate had caught with her ex-fiancé was her sister, but his gut said she could handle it.

  Still, it wasn’t his place to tell. Not then, not now. That information should come from Kyle or her sister. Seeing as how five years had passed without either of them confessing, Nate didn’t see that happening.

  He clicked back into her conversation with Beau, who said “I have a reason for coming by.”

  “You know you don’t need one.”

  The affection on her face lit her up from the inside and Nate couldn’t tear his gaze away. Her sun-kissed skin glowed. He found his attention on the curve of her pale, pink lips.

  Tyler eased down onto the edge of her desk. “I wanted to let you know I was accepted to the FBI Academy.”

  “You’re going to Quantico to train as a special agent!”

  He chuckled. “Can you believe it?”

  “Absolutely.” She hugged him again. “When do you go?”

  “In a month.”

  “Congratulations. I knew you could do it.”

  “Thanks to you,” he said earnestly.

  “You did the work.”

  “You gave me a chance, and I appreciate it.” Before she could respond, he said, “And now the other reason I came. Lauren and I are getting married in two weeks.”

  She glanced down as he handed her an invitation. “It’s about time she made an honest man of you!”

  “That’s what I told her,” he said with a grin. “I know you’re not big on weddings, but it would mean a lot to us if you came.”

  “Of course I will. I may not want a wedding, but I don’t mind other people having them.”

  Her view on marriage was the same as Nate’s. Not hard to understand why, in her case. Tyler had obviously heard about her being left at the altar, could’ve been there that day for all Nate knew.

  Beau got to his feet and bent to hug Robin again. “I have to get out of here.”

  “All right. I’m so glad you stopped by.”

  He started out the door, saying to Nate, “Nice to meet you.”

  “You, too.”

  “Two weeks, Robin,” Beau reminded.

  “I’ll be there.” After the man disappeared, she studied the invitation with a smile.

  “You mentored him?” Nate asked. “Seems like a good guy.”

  “He is.” She sobered, looking thoughtful. “Maybe if I’d given my sister as much attention as I did Beau, things would be different between us.”

  “Wendy, right?” Not that he was likely to forget her sister’s name.

  Robin’s gaze shot to his, as though she hadn’t meant to say that out loud.

  “At your wedding, wasn’t she engaged?”

  “Yes.” She carefully placed the invitation in the middle drawer of her desk. “That didn’t work out.”

  “Are you guys close?”

  “Not really. We never have been,” she said matter-of-factly. “Are you close with your sister?”

  “Yeah. Becca’s always been there for me, especially when we were kids.” He thought about the hellacious years he and his sister had weathered during and after their parents’ bitter divorce. “She put me first too many times to count.”

  “That’s really nice. My relationship with Wendy has never been like that.”

  “Why not?”

  “We just never seemed to click.” She frowned thoughtfully. “She always wanted what I had, even after we were adults. Clothes, shoes.”

  Fiancé, Nate thought.

  She waved a dismissive hand. “It’s not like we hate each other. There just has never been much to our relationship.”

  And if he told Robin what part Wendy had played in ruining her wedding, there would be even less to it.

  She picked up the folder left by the computer tech, walking out the door with Nate. “You want to drive while I look through these e-mails?”
/>   “Sure.” Reaching over her head, he pushed open the front glass door of the P.D. and waited for her to precede him outside.

  As she passed, his gaze traced the graceful line of her spine, rested on the sweet curve of her backside for a moment.

  She seemed to have reached a place where her head wasn’t stuck in the past. He remembered all too well how long it had taken him to get to that point after his divorce. Finding out about her sister would only cause Robin pain, and he didn’t want that.

  There was that urge to protect again. Not telling her made him feel guilty, but this wasn’t about him. He forced himself to examine his reasons for wanting to tell her about Kyle and Wendy. Did he want her to know the truth about her aborted wedding because he thought she had a right to know? Or because he wanted to clear his conscience? Or even because he hadn’t liked the too-interested look Emrick had given Robin earlier and he wanted the man away from her?

  Nate dragged a hand across his nape. Telling her the truth would change nothing. It would cause her more pain, especially regarding her sister.

  He still remembered the hurt in her eyes the day of the wedding, and he didn’t want to see such anguish there again. He sure as hell didn’t want to be the one who caused it.

  Hadn’t Emrick hurt her enough already? Hadn’t Nate?

  He couldn’t tell her he had walked in on Kyle having sex with her sister. He wouldn’t.

  Nate was really doing a number on her, Robin admitted to herself, reluctantly. She hadn’t liked talking to him about Kyle, mainly because she preferred to give the guy as little air time as possible, in her head or aloud. But also because she was starting not to want to think about Kyle and Nate in the same sentence.

  Her emotions were churning, though not due to her ex-fiancé. No, this turmoil was caused by a keen, sharp-edged awareness of the hunky fire marshal currently working cases with her.

  When he looked at her, her body went soft in ways—in places—she didn’t appreciate. She hadn’t been able to completely erase the feel of his hand on her arm, his touch on her face this morning.

  With only feet separating them in his SUV, Robin breathed in his clean, spicy scent, as her gaze traveled over powerful thighs, the broad hand that palmed the steering wheel, the arms that were hard muscle and sinew. A little shiver worked through her. Okay, so her hormones were paying attention. That didn’t mean she was going to do anything about it. She wasn’t going to.

  As they traveled south on Centennial Expressway, she opened the file folder of Bane’s e-mails, a stack almost an inch thick. Nate called Eastman and Associates and asked for Tiffany.

  After a brief exchange, he hung up. “She’s out to lunch, should be back in an hour. Want to stop and get some lunch ourselves?”

  “Sure, if we can go somewhere that serves relatively fast.”

  Before she could do more than note that the tech had sorted all the pictures together and laid them on top, Nate stopped at a small deli. Once back in his SUV, it only took a couple of minutes for Robin to flip through the printed photos that had been on Bane’s computer.

  “No pictures here of Tiffany or body parts that might be Tiffany’s.”

  Nate grinned as he changed lanes. “You mean like naked, headless shots?”

  “Yes.” Sliding the pictures to the back of the batch, she skimmed several e-mails before she spotted Tiffany’s name. “Ah, here’s one from her. ‘Dennis, I’m going to crawl under your desk and unzip your—’”

  Robin slapped the paper facedown. “Okay, we get the gist.”

  A wicked grin tugged at Nate’s lips. “It sounded like you were just getting to the good part.”

  Her face flamed as she gave him a look. “You can read that for yourself later, if you want.”

  She thumbed to the next message, which was just as explicit. As was the next one and the next. “Good grief,” Robin muttered.

  “What did you find?”

  “So far, nothing except sex stuff. Did this girl think about anything else? I’ve read five, and they’re basically the same with a couple of…special things thrown in for variety. It looks as though there are more. Let’s just say Tiffany had a plan for Dennis Bane.”

  “If she told the truth, and he really wasn’t interested,” Nate said, “he was probably already getting plenty somewhere else.”

  “Right.”

  Nate exited the highway and a few minutes later turned into the parking lot of the tower that housed Eastman and Associates. “Maybe Tiffany returned in the time it took us to get down here. I’ll drive through the lot and see if I can spot her car.”

  “Good idea.” Robin read message after message, her skin heating. All the stroking and licking and kissing going on in the explicit e-mails had her shifting uncomfortably on the seat.

  She adjusted the closest air-conditioner vent in her direction to cool off. Ignoring the amused look Nate flicked her way, she continued to work her way through the stack. Finally, she came to a message that wasn’t from the secretary who seemed to have fixated on Dennis Bane.

  Relief shot through her. “Oh, good. Here are e-mails from other people, most about work projects and closings. One about the company picnic, another about a blood drive.”

  As Nate drove slowly through the lot, he again called Tiffany’s office. “She isn’t back yet. The receptionist volunteered that all their employees use the underground parking garage, so we might find her down there.”

  Robin nodded. “There are several emails from Bane’s wife, Sheila.”

  Nate took the ramp into the underground parking garage, the light dimming considerably as they moved out of direct sunlight. Open sections around the garage saved the area from being dark, though Robin had to let her eyes adjust to the change from bright to shade. Being out of the sun’s heat made the space cooler, but the air was still warm and heavy with humidity.

  As Nate drove up and down the aisles, he checked the vehicles on one side while Robin scanned the other. The faint tang of car fuel hung in the air, as well as a mix of scents from nearby restaurants.

  Neither of them spotted the red Thunderbird. Nate pointed to the end of their current row. “There’s only one bank of elevators. If we park close, we’ll be able to see her going inside, in case we miss her when she drives in.”

  He pulled into a nearby space, glancing at her. “I’m going to keep the truck running so we can have the AC. Want me to look at half of those?”

  “I can just imagine which ones you want to look at,” she said dryly.

  He chuckled. “I’ll take half of the ones you haven’t read yet.”

  “Okay.” She passed him a batch. “I wish we could find something from Dennis to Tiffany. So far, any correspondence between them has been from her to him.”

  For a moment, the only sounds in the car were the hum of the air conditioner, the faint sound of the radio and the occasional crinkle of paper.

  Nate pulled out one of the messages. “I may have found something. This one is from Dennis to Tiffany. Short and to the point. ‘Don’t call my house or come by there again. I will call the cops.’ It’s dated about two weeks before the fire that killed him and his wife.”

  “So we know Tiffany was seen near his house at least twice in the weeks leading up to his death, after he had specifically told her to stay away.” Pleased, she shifted toward him. “That’s good, Houston. Really good.”

  “Want me to keep going?”

  “Yes. Everything we find gives us more to ask about when we take her in for questioning.”

  They fell silent, both reading. They were separated only by a console. Now that they had stopped moving, Robin became absurdly conscious of the fact that they were alone. In a small, enclosed space. Enclosed enough that she could see the tic of his pulse in the hollow of his strong throat. Watch the subtle changes of his expression as he read.

  The shadows did nothing to soften his solid jaw or hide his dimple. That killer dimple.

  Her gaze went to his left hand. An
d bare ring finger. She remembered Meredith telling her that at the time of Robin’s wedding, Nate had been trying to work things out with his wife. She wondered what had happened between them. It was really none of her business. Still, he hadn’t minded quizzing her.

  He already knew about the most humiliating experience of her life. Why shouldn’t she ask questions, too?

  “At my wedding, you were trying to work things out with your ex-wife. Weren’t able to, I guess.”

  Without looking up from the sheaf of papers in his hand, he shook his head.

  “Think you’ll ever give marriage another shot?”

  “No.” No hesitation, no doubt in his voice.

  Robin felt exactly the same way. “I know why I won’t. What’s your reason?”

  A sudden tension vibrated in him, and his gaze shifted to hers. “Why do you want to know?”

  “You know everything about my reasons.” It might have been a trick of the light, but she thought he stiffened. “It seems only fair.”

  Apparently, he didn’t like talking about it. Big surprise. Neither did she. Maybe from now on, he wouldn’t ask any more questions about her wedding-that-wasn’t.

  She expected him to continue reading. Instead, he angled one shoulder into the corner against the door and draped a hand over the steering wheel. His eyes glittered like blue steel in the shadowy light.

  “Just after our fourth anniversary, I found out my ex-wife was cheating on me.”

  “Yeow. I’m sorry.” Robin’s heart tugged hard. She wanted to take his hand or hug him. Comfort him. Something she didn’t do with a lot of people. The unfamiliar impulse had to be caused by her crazy attraction to him.

  “When my sister and I were kids, our parents split up. It got ugly fast and stayed that way for a few years. I swore if I ever got married I wouldn’t get a divorce. Put anyone, including me, through that kind of hell.”

  The rich baritone of his voice set off a ripple of sensation under her skin. Robin found herself leaning closer.

  “I was willing to do whatever it took to keep my marriage together. My ex said she was, too. We saw a counselor for two years, until I realized I was doing all the heavy lifting and she was drifting farther away.” He dragged a hand down his face, a terse edge in his words. “So, after six years, we called it quits, and that’s how I bombed out at my one and only try. Not going back there again.”