“I don’t know. Maybe if I’d said something about Ava when she came on to me, I could have prevented all of this.”
“You had no way of knowing she was some sort of—” she paused, trying to find the right word to describe the woman she now thought of as pond scum “—predator.”
“I guess you’re right.” He ran a hand through his hair and sighed. “But seeing Trey so devastated and vulnerable tonight made me realize that, for all his bravado, he’s still young. While we were talking to him, I felt this overwhelming need to protect him—like I would if he were my own son. That’s why I’m going with you tomorrow. Plus, I’d like to tell the police that Trey came to me with his concerns about Ava when we first got to Denver. They need to know that piece of information.”
Tears welled in Katherine’s eyes. She blinked to keep them from falling. She’d always known Tom would be a wonderful father. That he’d never gotten the chance wasn’t right. “Trey’s lucky to have you in his corner.”
“Well, you’re right there with me.” He gave her a half grin. “Even though he’s been a pain in your and Kelly’s ass for the last two years.”
She smiled at him. “I deal with a lot of pain in the asses.”
Tom’s brows arched with amusement. “Would you be referring to me?” He lifted a hand and smiled. “Scratch that. I don’t want to know.” He glanced at his watch. “I should go. It’s late.”
“Before you do, I—I’d like to say something,” she said, then hesitated. Now that she’d acknowledged her shoddy behavior, she needed to own it. “I’m sorry.”
Surprise flickered in his eyes. “For what?”
“For being so judgmental.” She clasped her hands together to keep from fidgeting; her palms were sweating. “I had no call to assume you were an alcoholic, or project my bias onto you.”
“Your bias?”
“Drunk drivers. It’s a hot button for me.”
“I see,” he said, and to her relief he didn’t ask her to elaborate.
“Anyway, it dawned on me tonight that I’ve been behaving exactly like the idiots out there convicting Trey before they have all the facts. And I’m… I’m ashamed of my behavior. You’ve never once given me or the team any reason to think you have a drinking problem.”
“You weren’t wrong, Katie,” Tom said in a low voice after several seconds. “I am an alcoholic. But I haven’t touched a drop since the night of my accident eight years ago. That night was my wake-up call. I joined AA right after I got out of the hospital.”
Katherine’s cheeks burned as she remembered all the snide comments she’d uttered to him in the past several weeks. “Then that makes how I’ve acted even more deplorable.” She moved to stand in front of him. “Whatever our past issues, I want you to know that I think you’re a great manager, and an amazing role model for the players. The Blaze organization is lucky to have you.”
Something indefinable sparked in his expression, and the air in the room shifted as their eyes locked and held. “Thank you for saying…” he finally said, then trailed off as her phone rang.
She put her hand on his arm, then quickly withdrew it as the innocent touch sent a tingle through her body. She tucked her hair behind her ear to hide his effect on her. “Don’t leave yet. That might be Martha. She’s due back in the office tomorrow, but I left her a message regarding Trey’s sexual harassment complaint right after you told me about it, and I left her another one regarding Ava’s accusation as soon as I got back here to my room tonight. In hindsight, I should have called her assistant right away. Maybe if I had, things wouldn’t have escalated.”
She tamped down her guilt and stepped around him to pick up the phone. “Hi, Adam,” she said after looking at the small screen. “Did you get a flight reservation?”
“Yes.” Adam’s voice was edged with tension. “We’ll be arriving in Denver around eleven forty-five. I’ve made arrangements with a friend of mine to let us use his office. He says it’s not far from the main police station. I’d like us to meet there and then go over to the station together. That will give Trey a chance to talk to his attorney.”
Katherine turned and found Tom watching her intently. His prolonged stare sent a tingle over her skin. She averted her eyes, but she could still feel his gaze on her. “That’s a good idea. Oh, and Tom Morgan will be traveling with us. He has some information we believe will help Trey.”
“Great. We can use all the help we can get.” Adam sighed wearily. “Anyway, I know it’s getting late and you’ve had a long day so I’ll let you go. I’ll text you the information on where to meet us tomorrow. Let’s shoot for around two.”
After she and Adam had said their goodbyes, she set the phone on the table. “Adam’s arranged for us to meet up before we go to the police station.” She frowned as Tom’s eyes drilled into hers. “What’s wrong?”
“Are you and Logan seeing each other?”
Katherine’s mouth fell open. She hadn’t expected that. “What does that have to do with anything?”
“Just answer the question, Katie.” He moved toward her. “Are you and Logan lovers?”
“Now, wait a minute.” She put up a hand. “Aren’t you getting a little personal?” She lifted her chin and tried to ignore the heat emanating off of him. Suddenly he seemed dangerous. But it wasn’t fear causing her heart to beat a mile a minute. It was something much more primal. “And why do you care?”
His eyes darkened. “Because he’s not right for you. And he’ll never satisfy you.”
“Maybe he already has,” she retorted, then let out a surprised gasp as Tom snaked his arm around her waist, yanked her against his hard body and crushed his mouth to hers.
Chapter Twelve
With Katie’s soft body pressed against his, Tom could hardly think. How could he when instead of pushing him away, Katie parted her soft lips and their kiss notched up about a million degrees, turning into a blazing inferno that threatened to burn him up from the inside out?
Since Katie walked out of his life, he’d kissed a lot of women. But not one of them affected him the way this woman did. The way she always had. He’d almost convinced himself he was over her. Hell, he should be over her after what she’d done, but the truth was, he’d been aching for this moment since the day he’d signed on with the Blaze. And if he was being completely honest, she was the real reason he’d taken the job in the first place. Why else would he leave Texas?
Her tongue meeting his obliterated any further thought. He slipped his hands to the curve of her ass and pulled her against his erection. She reacted with a soft gasp, then lifted her arms and wound them around his neck. The kiss deepened, becoming hotter, if that was possible. She pressed her warm and soft-in-all-the-right-places body even more closely to his, and suddenly he was about ten yards shy of losing his mind.
Pure animal instinct had him backing her up toward the bed. He wanted her. Right here. Right now. Nothing else mattered.
“No. Stop,” Katie murmured against his mouth, then pulled back and stared at him with a dazed expression. Her lips were moist and swollen, and her breathing as erratic as his. She disengaged her arms from around his neck; with great effort, Tom released her. She stepped back and ran a hand through her disheveled hair—hair that shone like shimmering copper in the dim light of her room.
“Damn it all.” An accusing glare replaced the softness in her eyes. “Why’d you have to go and do that?”
The crossness in her voice annoyed him. All right. Yeah. Maybe he’d started it, but she’d been a willing participant. “I didn’t hear you complaining,” he shot back, and shifted his weight from one leg to the other to ease the ache in his groin. Shit. He hadn’t gotten this hard, this fast, since he was a teenager.
She opened her mouth as if to protest, then closed it. “You’re right,” she said, after a few seconds. “You kissed me, and all of a sudden it was like…like we were eighteen again. All those feelings and memories came rushing back and I couldn’t stop them.” S
he held up a hand. “But that doesn’t mean anything’s changed between us. And there’s some—”
“I know. Someone else. Logan,” Tom interrupted with a scowl.
“No. I was going to say there are some things we need to talk about. You said it yourself. We’ve danced around our past for too long. There are things that need to be said. By both of us.”
“How about now?” he asked, impatient to get his questions answered.
She shook her head. “We’ve got too many distractions right now. We have to go to Denver tomorrow and support Trey. We can talk after the road trip. When we’re back in San Francisco.”
Tom heaved a frustrated breath. He supposed she was right. As much as he wanted answers, neither of them could afford to be distracted when Trey’s reputation and career were on the line. “Fine. We’ll wait.”
“Okay, then.” She straightened her shoulders and reverted to business mode. How quickly she did that ticked him off. His body still ached for her and she didn’t appear affected at all. “I’ll make airline reservations for the three of us for tomorrow morning. And since I’m sure the media will be camped out front, I’ll talk to the concierge. The hotel values our business; I have no doubt she can arrange for a private car to pick us up at the back service entrance.” Katie gave him a smug smile. “And I’ll suggest that a decoy car arrive about five minutes before our car. That should keep the media distracted.”
“Good idea,” he said, impressed but not surprised by her forethought. “I’m sure Trey will appreciate it. He’s used to being in the spotlight, but not for allegedly committing a crime. I doubt these photographers will be as much of an ego boost for him as they’ve been in the past.”
Katie started to nod, then leaned her head to the side and frowned. “Cameras,” she said, after a few seconds. “Trey said Ava was in his room for less than five minutes. That doesn’t seem like enough time for him to rip her clothes to pieces and try to force himself on her.” Excitement lit her eyes, and she moved to the dresser and picked up her key card. “Come with me.” Brushing past him, she hurried to the door and opened it.
“Where are you going?” he asked, and followed her into the hallway, where she moved at a fast clip down the carpeted corridor.
“I’m looking for something,” she said, over her shoulder, then abruptly halted and pointed at a black half-domed cover attached to the ceiling. “Security surveillance cameras.” She turned and flashed a triumphant smile. “I’ve never paid that much attention to them before, but I’m pretty sure all hotels have them. All we have to do is see if the hotel in Denver has them, then get a copy of the tape from Trey’s floor and give it to the police. That should prove Trey is telling the truth about the amount of time Ava was in his room, and it would show that her clothes were in perfect condition when she left.”
Tom admired her gumption but raised a hand. “Stop the truck, darlin’. We’re not doing anything.”
Her jubilant smile faltered and she threw up her hands in exasperation. “Why not?” She walked toward him. “The video could prove Trey’s innocence.”
“I agree. But we can’t march into the hotel’s security office and demand it. The Denver PD should request it as part of their investigation. For all we know, they may have already done that.”
“But if they haven’t, we could stop by the hotel tomorrow after we get in and then give it to the police when we meet with them,” she said, halting in front of him.
“First, we don’t know if the hotel will release it to us, and second, if they did we could be accused of doctoring it by Ava and her lawyers. I’m not a cop, but even I know about chain of custody.”
She groaned. “Damn it all. I thought I had the smoking gun.”
Tom chuckled. “Could be you do. But we can’t risk going anywhere near it.”
“But…” Her eyes brightened. “A friendly call to the Denver PD suggesting they request it wouldn’t hurt, would it?”
“Probably not.”
“All right, then. I’ve got a call to make.”
* * *
Early the next afternoon, Katherine paced the well-appointed conference room inside the downtown Denver law firm of Adam Logan’s college friend, where she, Tom and Trey were waiting for Adam and the attorney representing Trey to arrive.
After being in the air for ninety nerve-racking minutes, she was in no mood to sit and wait patiently at the large rectangular conference table where Tom and Trey sat talking quietly. It was more satisfying to wear out the multi-hued blue carpet and silently seethe at Ava McCandless in the process.
She assumed the last flight she would endure on the road trip would be the one back to San Francisco, but because of Ava, flying to Denver and back to Phoenix today had increased the number of flights on the road trip by two. For most people it wouldn’t be a big deal. But two additional flights to a person who hated to fly was tantamount to torture. If there was any justice in the world, the woman would pay not only for lying about Trey, but for causing Katherine extreme emotional distress and anxiety.
It was all due to Tom that she’d made it to Denver without freaking out. She lucked out and had been able to purchase three seats in the same row, and after they’d buckled themselves in—with her in the middle seat—he’d covered her shaking hand with his warm one and started talking baseball with her and Trey. His steady voice and the constant conversation calmed her fears and made the flight easier to bear. As it also seemed to do for Trey, who had looked stiff and uncomfortable in his dark blue suit ever since she’d met up with him and Tom at the service entrance at the back of the hotel.
About halfway through the flight, her fear had abated, and instead of worrying about an imminent plane crash she found herself reliving the scorching kiss she and Tom had shared in her room the night before. She wasn’t sure it if was his hand on hers or the scent of his subtle cologne, but several times while he was talking all she wanted to do was to lean into him and shut him up with her mouth.
A kiss. She—a high-level executive of a professional baseball team with a well-deserved reputation for remaining calm and cool under pressure, and the woman several of the players referred to as the Ice Queen—was worked up over a single kiss. Ice queens didn’t melt over a kiss. Ice queens didn’t melt, period.
In the years since she and Tom were together she’d kissed her fair share of attractive men. And slept with a few of them. It would be a lie to claim she hadn’t enjoyed the physical act, because she had. But she’d always been able to keep her emotions in check. Like a lot of men she knew, she’d mastered the art of having sex just for the pure release of it.
That changed the second Tom’s lips touched hers. The emotions she’d kept bottled up inside for years had been unleashed with a vengeance. The only reason she’d been able to stop him from making love to her right then and there was the little voice in the back of her mind reminding her of how much he’d hurt her.
A soft knock pulled her from her thoughts. The law firm’s receptionist opened the door and politely informed them that Adam and his associates had arrived. Then she stepped back, and a young woman Katherine didn’t recognize, Adam, and another man, whom she assumed was Trey’s attorney, entered the room.
Both Tom and Trey rose from their chairs, but instead of looking relieved that his agent and attorney had arrived, Trey’s face darkened with a scowl and he pointed at the woman, whom Katherine guessed to be about the same age as Trey. “What’s she doing here? She hasn’t liked me from jump.”
Whoever the woman was, with a shining curtain of dark brown hair that fell to her waist and equally dark eyes, she was stunning, not to mention extremely stylish.
As a devout connoisseur of fashion, there wasn’t anything Katherine loved more than tailored yet feminine business attire, and the outfit the woman was wearing was gorgeous. She’d seen the belted ivory sheath dress and matching shorter length jacket at Nordstrom and had come seriously close to buying it herself.
“I’m here at Adam’
s request. And you’ve never given me a reason to like you.” The young woman’s tone was even, but her eyes were every bit as hostile as Trey’s.
Adam smoothly interceded, “I asked Jade to accompany us to record our discussion and to handle any administrative tasks that might come up.” He glanced at Katherine and smiled. “Katherine, this is Logan-Johnson’s executive assistant, Jade O’Brien. She’s been with us for a couple of years, and I’m not exaggerating when I say we wouldn’t accomplish a thing without her.”
“It’s nice to meet you.” Katherine nodded at Jade. “Adam’s spoken highly of you.”
Jade shifted her caramel leather tote bag from one hand to the other and returned Katherine’s smile. “It’s nice to meet you too,” she said, in a much friendlier tone.
Adam motioned toward Tom, who, judging by the grim line of his mouth, wasn’t overly thrilled to see Adam. “And this is Tom Morgan. The manager of the Blaze.”
“Hi.” Jade’s cheeks turned pink as she shook Tom’s outstretched hand. “I recognized you right away. My family has been Blaze fans since before I was born. My brother and sister will be jealous that I actually got to meet you.”
Tom’s tense expression relaxed a bit. “Thank you. It’s always a pleasure to meet longtime Blaze fans.”
“Well, I’m glad I get the chance to personally thank you for leading the team to the World Series the season before last,” Jade said. “Hopefully, we can get there again this year.”
Out of the corner of her eye, Katherine caught Trey rolling his eyes and wondered what could have caused the animosity between him and Jade. In any event, it seemed there was one woman in the Bay Area immune to Trey Gentry’s lethal good looks, and other assorted attributes.
“It was a team effort,” Tom said, with a modest smile. “And I hope we get there too.”
The attorney cleared his throat, and Adam quickly turned toward him. “I’m sorry. This is Michael Channing. Mike has agreed to represent Trey.” He swung his attention back to Trey. “I know you two haven’t met before so we should sit down and go over what that entails, and what our strategy will be.”
Stealing Second Page 15
