Courting Suspicion

by Kimberly Dean

  It was comforting to know he was armed, but this wasn’t business. It was dirty politics.

  ‘I’ll just step in when needed,’ she said.

  He gave her a warning look, but that was as far as she was willing to compromise.

  They climbed the front stairs to the pretty porch. Hanging planters of petunias hung from the rafters. Josh rang the doorbell, and Nina smoothed her hair.

  Murphy’s son answered, the one who was always in the background shots of his father. Gunderson might have aides, but the Murphy campaign was a family affair.

  The young man seemed surprised by their arrival. ‘Can I help you?’

  Josh showed his badge. ‘We’re here to speak with Kevin Murphy.’

  ‘Oh, I see my guests have arrived.’ The senior Murphy appeared in the hallway with a glass of scotch in his hand. ‘Jerod, let them in.’

  The son opened the door and held it for Nina as she stepped inside. His gaze was concerned, and she nodded in greeting. ‘Thank you.’

  ‘Here,’ the elder Murphy said. ‘We’ll talk in my study.’

  Josh’s hand lit on her lower back, and Nina could feel how tense he was. She was primed for battle, too. This man had come after her company and her people. Worse, he’d gone after her detective.

  She wasn’t about to play nicely.

  ‘What a beautiful home you have, Mr Murphy,’ she commented as they closed themselves into the study.

  It was a large, comfortable room with a desk, a seating area and a fireplace. It was spring, but a crackling fire had been lit anyway.

  ‘Please, call me Kevin.’ The man gestured to the sofa and chose a place for himself on the loveseat facing them. He put his drink on the side table and leaned back into the cushions. ‘I’ve been in too many war zones and disaster areas to lean on formalities.’

  ‘Kevin,’ she said politely.

  ‘Would either of you like a drink?’ he asked. ‘I apologise my wife isn’t here. This is her bridge night.’

  ‘No, thank you.’ Nina sat on the flower-patterned upholstery and crossed her legs. She saw the man’s gaze drop to her shoes, and she rolled her ankle leisurely.

  Josh dropped onto the open space beside her and leaned forward with his elbows on his knees. ‘Let’s just cut to the chase.’

  Murphy smirked. ‘Easy, Detective. I wasn’t going after you. My intent was to bring down Gunderson.’

  Nina’s toes pointed. Beside her, she felt Josh stiffen. OK, so they really were tossing aside formalities here.

  ‘You admit that?’ Josh said, his voice like ice.

  Murphy shrugged. ‘I’ll deny it if you repeat it, but there’s no need for the three of us to be enemies. I went after Gunderson, but you two got caught in the crossfire. I apologise for that.’

  How gracious, Nina thought.

  ‘So you were the one who tipped off the reporters at TMI News?’ Josh asked.

  ‘Reporters,’ Murphy scoffed. ‘They don’t deserve to carry the title.’

  ‘But you called them. You told them where Gunderson was and what he was doing.’

  ‘And with whom.’ Murphy sent an apologetic nod in her direction. ‘No offence intended.’

  But offence was taken.

  Nina smoothed her skirt and twined her fingers around her knee.

  Josh lifted an eyebrow at her, but she remained silent. He was doing fine. The discussion really was enlightening.

  ‘I was just trying to expose the truth to voters who’ve been too blind to see. That man …’ Murphy shook his head and paused to drink some more scotch. ‘He’s been a blight on the state for long enough. He’s lazy and incompetent. It’s time for his constituents to know where his attention really lies – between the legs of a sexy redhead.’

  ‘Perhaps you could rephrase that?’ Nina said, her voice razor-sharp.

  Murphy dipped his head. ‘My apologies, your girl was just doing her job. It’s Gunderson who can’t keep it in his pants.’

  Her girl? Nina’s foot began to tap.

  ‘So you let Hoodie and Bieber know,’ Josh said.

  ‘Those idiots.’

  Nina’s brow furrowed when the man didn’t even question who that might be.

  Murphy gazed into the fire. ‘I gave the information to them on a silver platter and look what they did with it.’

  ‘You didn’t direct them to break into the hotel room?’

  ‘I told them to get the scoop. They’re the ones who went above and beyond.’

  Nina let out a calming breath. And they’d taped her employee in the midst of sex. Doing her job or not, that was incredibly violating.

  ‘Why them?’ Josh pressed. His shoulders were bunched, and his hands were clenched together tightly. ‘Why not take the information to someone who knew what they were doing?’

  Murphy smiled wryly. ‘I would have run the risk of being caught. I worked with those people. Someone might have recognised my voice or my wording. Besides, I figured TMI would hop on it quicker. The big stations would have found a second source, and that would have taken too much time. The opportunity would have been lost.’

  ‘How did you know that Genieve was a … professional?’ Nina asked.

  Josh quickly piled on. ‘Did you get that from Margaret Harris? Were you partners in this?’

  ‘Partners,’ Murphy said with a chuckle. ‘That girl has stars in her eyes.’

  He shook his head. ‘I’m not sure about today’s youth. She didn’t even know the goldmine of information she had in her hands. She was just jealous of the senator’s … ahem … lovely lady. She’d whine to her mother, who would then repeat the stories to my sister.’

  ‘Who all live in Kenosha Falls?’ Josh asked.

  Murphy smirked again, and Nina wanted to rip the expression right off his face. His condescension grated. She’d dealt with enough of it in her lifetime.

  ‘You’ve found me out,’ the man said.

  Josh leaned back into the cushions beside her and spread his legs in that cocky jock way. ‘So you went after Gunderson, but it didn’t work.’

  Burn.

  Nina bit her tongue to keep from smiling. She liked watching him like this, from the same side. His gaze was intense, and his body language was aggressive.

  The smirk slid right off of Murphy’s face. ‘No, it didn’t.’

  When the man took another drink of scotch, it went down hard. His glass clanked when he set it down on the table. ‘No matter what that man does, his numbers just keep going up.’

  ‘And that’s frustrating for you,’ Josh said, jabbing the hissing snake with a stick.

  ‘Damn right it’s frustrating!’ Murphy ran a hand through his dishevelled hair but only made it worse.

  ‘Why did you send that photo of the two of us to the stationhouse?’ Josh asked.

  He said it quietly, but even Nina got a shiver.

  Murphy held up his hands. ‘Again, it wasn’t personal. The case wasn’t going as I wanted. You weren’t pushing the prostitution angle – apologies, Nina – and I needed to fix that.’

  Nina looked at her orange fingernails. ‘It’s Ms Lockwood.’

  Murphy was taken aback, but then he laughed. ‘Of course. I forgot your position.’

  Nina saw Josh’s hand clench on the grandmotherly sofa.

  ‘I did some digging into your life, Detective, to find out how I could give you a nudge in the right direction. Imagine my surprise when I found out you were romantically involved with Genieve’s madam. I thought I’d struck gold.’ Murphy sighed heavily. ‘But again, it turned out to be fool’s gold.’

  ‘How did you get the picture?’ Josh said, his voice flinty. ‘Were you at the game?’

  ‘No, but I was an investigative journalist.’ The man met their gazes without flinching. ‘I was very, very good at my job.’ He shrugged. ‘I was just trying to get you working on the case or off it entirely.’

  ‘You pushed too hard,’ Josh said quietly. ‘There was no case, not the way your TMI boys handled
it.’

  ‘I know. I know.’

  ‘So the break-in at Genieve’s?’ Josh asked.

  Murphy shook his head. ‘That was all Margaret, the little loon.’

  Josh lifted an eyebrow.

  ‘I’m being honest,’ Murphy said. ‘Isn’t that what we’re all here for? No harm, no foul?’

  Nina wasn’t quite sure about that.

  ‘I know you’d like to arrest me, Detective,’ their host continued, ‘but I’ve done nothing illegal. I blew the whistle on Gunderson and provided information to the police that you should have volunteered in the first place. You know that’s the truth. You should have recused yourself from the case, Morgan.’

  Murphy looked at the two of them over his scotch glass. ‘But then again, I can see why you didn’t.’

  Nina nearly reached for Josh to keep him from lunging off the sofa.

  ‘So where does this leave us?’ he said. He sounded dangerous.

  He felt dangerous.

  Murphy laughed. ‘At my mercy, I’d say.’

  ‘I wouldn’t.’

  Nina crossed an arm over her waist and toyed with her earring when both men looked at her.

  ‘Mr Murphy might think he has something over us,’ she said, ‘but he won’t use it.’

  The man sat back in his seat and crossed his legs so that his right ankle rested on his left knee. He cupped his ankle and watched her with his eyes crinkled in amusement. ‘I wouldn’t if you made one of your pretty young escorts available to me.’

  ‘No.’

  His eyebrows rose.

  She hadn’t raised her voice or gotten excited. The answer was just a flat no.

  ‘Excuse me, but I don’t think you’re in a position to bargain, Ms Lockwood.’

  ‘I’m not bargaining. The answer is no.’ She tilted her head and looked at him. ‘I decide if a client meets my company’s baseline requirements, and you don’t.’

  ‘You should rethink that.’

  ‘I don’t need to. I already have one Murphy on my client roster – your son Jerod.’

  A log in the fire snapped, and the hiss sizzled across the room.

  Nina held Murphy’s gaze steadily, not blinking. ‘I believe we’re now at what they call an impasse.’

  Murphy looked as if he was seated too close to the fire. His face flushed, and his eyes rounded as if he’d just gotten singed.

  ‘You’re new to this game, Mr Murphy,’ Nina said, ‘And frankly you don’t play it well. You can drop all your threats now and walk away, or you can try to come after me. Just know that if you do so, your son’s proclivities will come to light.’

  Murphy got up suddenly. Josh’s hand move reflexively to his hip, but the Senate candidate had just begun to pace.

  ‘The detective falls under that stipulation, too, it goes without saying.’

  Murphy looked at her with new respect. Nina uncrossed her legs and turned to Josh. ‘Did you have anything else you wanted to talk about?’

  His onyx eyes burned. ‘No, that about covers it.’

  Nina stood. ‘It’s getting late. We really should be going.’

  Josh followed her lead.

  She took his arm. ‘Thank you for the talk, Mr Murphy. Good luck in the election. We’ll see ourselves out.’

  Nina’s back was rigid as they walked from the room, but she made herself relax and fall into a more normal rhythm. She saw the younger Murphy watching from down the hallway as they let themselves out, and she felt a pang of guilt. She didn’t like breaking her promises, but his father had backed her into a corner. She’d had to protect what was hers.

  Including the man at her side.

  As they went down the steps he slowed to accommodate her shoes, but his pace picked up again as they strode towards the car. He opened the door for her, and Nina slid into the passenger seat.

  She looked at the house as they pulled out of the drive. The two men inside would never discuss it. The younger Murphy would never be made aware that his father knew. That was just the way it was between fathers and sons. It wasn’t like parents could divorce their children.

  She sat back in her seat as they drove along under the moonlight and waited for her tension headache to ease.

  Josh was quiet beside her. Too quiet.

  He stared straight out of the window, but she reached out and caught his hand resting on the console between them. He turned his hand over to hold hers.

  ‘Is that how it’s done?’ he asked quietly.

  She nodded. ‘He threatened us. He’s neutralised now.’

  ‘That part about his kid. Is that true?’

  ‘Yes.’

  He looked surprised that she answered.

  Nina shrugged and snuggled deeper into the bucket seat. ‘If Murphy still wants to play, I have more ammunition.’

  Josh’s head swung around.

  ‘Mrs Murphy isn’t playing bridge tonight.’

  ‘Holy –’ He looked back at oncoming traffic and shook his head. ‘I’ve got to admit it, Nina. You were a bit scary back there. Hot as hell, but scary.’

  She ran her thumb over his. It was what she’d learned. It was what men like Murphy had taught her. It didn’t work for her to ask for respect; she had to rip it away with both hands and command it.

  And to think she’d been intrigued by his politics.

  It was a shame, really.

  ‘You reminded me of the detective who used to come into my office and interrogate me,’ she said. ‘All dark, intimidating and sexy.’

  ‘You thought I was sexy?’

  ‘You drove me crazy.’

  ‘Why do you think I kept coming back?’

  She smiled, but he shifted in his seat. She knew he wasn’t entirely comfortable with her way of handling things, but she was confident the threat had been addressed. She didn’t put people behind bars, but she knew how to handcuff them.

  ‘So do you think Brody has convinced Margaret Harris to keep quiet, too?’ Josh asked.

  It sounded like the neophyte didn’t truly know Genieve’s occupation, but Nina was sure Brody had gotten to her. ‘Her lawyer will work to keep her out of even more trouble.’

  ‘And how does Genieve feel about that?’

  Nina wove her fingers through his. ‘It’s her and Brody’s problem to work out.’

  She just cared about theirs.

  * * *

  He took her to his house for the night, and Nina relaxed when they walked up the sidewalk to her dream house. She still couldn’t believe he owned it. She’d longed for a house like this for ever. It might be simple and old-style to some, but to her it was a true home. The quiet, pretty neighbourhood soothed her, and her headache eased. She tilted her head from side to side to stretch the tight muscles in her neck.

  She didn’t like what she’d had to do, but she didn’t regret it. It just sometimes took a lot out of her.

  Josh squeezed her hand, but let go once they moved into the house. ‘Let me just do a walkthrough, and I’ll be in.’

  Always the cop.

  She walked down the hallway. She made use of the facilities and then found a stack of folded clothes just inside the bedroom door, waiting to be put away. The MPD T-shirt was too tempting to ignore. She heard Josh opening and closing the refrigerator in the kitchen as she took off her clothes and pulled the T-shirt over her head.

  She let it drop down to her thighs. The soft fabric swam on her, enveloping her body. She loved it.

  She sat on the bed to take off her shoes and, finally, flipped back the covers. She turned on the bedside lamp and waited for Josh.

  He wasn’t long. She heard him in the bathroom and then he was in the bedroom with her, closing the door behind him.

  He lifted an eyebrow when he saw her choice of nightwear. ‘Clotheshorse.’

  She rolled a shoulder. ‘I don’t know. With the right orange belt, I think I could wear it out on the town.’

  His jawline smoothed and he reached for his tie. ‘Maybe that should stay an insid
e outfit.’

  ‘Too much for the kiddos?’

  ‘And the grandpas and the teenage boys.’

  He took off his shirt and unzipped his pants. His shoes went next, and he was soon moving naked towards the bed. He wiggled his finger at her. ‘My house. I get to sleep on my side of the bed.’

  Nina let out a huff, but scooted over. The bed shifted as he climbed in with her, and he doused the light.

  They lay there in the darkness. She heard every foreign sound, every creak of the old house and every whisper of the wind through the leaves of the tree outside. She moved closer to Josh, and he slid an arm under her. She rolled onto her side and cuddled against him.

  ‘Is it over?’ she asked.

  ‘The case? Yeah, but it doesn’t feel like it.’ He rubbed a hand over his bare chest. ‘I’m used to arresting people or having to do a lot of paperwork at this point.’

  ‘Does that bother you?’ She knew she’d taken over. She hadn’t discussed things with him. She’d made the decision on her own how to end it.

  ‘It will take some getting used to,’ he confessed.

  ‘But we’re safe?’

  His arm tightened around her. ‘You made sure of that.’

  Yes, she had.

  It was only then that her body melted.

  Safe. They were finally safe. All of them. Her company, her people and the two of them.

  The silence fell over them again.

  ‘Why the son?’ Josh asked a moment later. ‘Why didn’t you use the wife as leverage?’

  Nina stared past him at the numbers glowing on the clock on the nightstand. ‘If they ever divorced, he’d have the information over us again. Besides, his wife just likes to go to movies and the theatre.’

  ‘She just wants someone to go with her?’

  Nina nodded, and her cheek rubbed against his chest. ‘She just wants an escort.’

  It really was sometimes as simple as that.

  Josh stretched out his long legs. The silence came back, but it was weightier. More dense. Nina pressed a kiss to his collarbone and brushed her hair back. He’d seen her in action tonight, the kind of action that she rarely resorted to. She not only dealt in flesh, she dealt in information. It wasn’t always pretty.

  But she wanted this to work.

  She wanted it badly.