“Yes, and I’m not going to rush her or anything. We’re going to Paris.” Adam held up his hand to stop the comment he could see Logan wanted to make. “And there will be two bedrooms. When we get back I’m going to continue to take her places, you know, get to know her better. The dating scene is new to me, but for Katie I’ll try the whole thing out. I’ve already spent some time at her place watching movies with her and Oscar.”
“You have?” Logan’s tone of voice was neutral. Adam couldn’t tell if he approved or not.
“Yes, just last weekend. Katie’s been working with me for years. She just sort of grew on me. Then one day out of the blue I realized I wanted to spend my life with her. That was easy. Now I have to convince her that she feels the same way.”
“I think I’ll have that drink now.” Logan walked to the overstuffed chair he had vacated to pace.
Adam poured two fingers of premium scotch and handed the glass to Katie’s father. The poor man almost looked like he was in shock. Adam knew the feeling well. He’d had a clenched gut since he’d discovered he was in love with Katie. The timing couldn’t be worse, with the murderer still at large. Not only was Katie in danger with their plan, but he wasn’t free to douse the fire that was building.
* * * *
“Dad got there before I could warn him.”
“At least you tried. I just wanted you to be prepared. I wished you had told us. Luckily for you, I don’t share your father’s sentiments. I think you two make a great couple.”
Katie smiled as she threw her arms around her mom in a hug. “Thanks. I didn’t think it would hit the papers so fast.” Katie improvised to try to explain why she hadn’t called.
“Well, we know now, so I’ll wish you luck with your father. I better get home so I’m there when your father returns.” Bonnie went into the living room to leave. “Sorry to interrupt your movie with Oscar.”
“‘Bye, Mom.” Katie stood by the door and watched her mom a moment before closing it and stepping back into her living room.
Freda poked her head in from the hall. “All clear?”
Katie settled into the cushions on the couch. “So how much of that did you hear?”
“When you went into the kitchen I snuck back in here. I don’t normally eavesdrop, but if something came up when I’m you, your mother might wonder.” Freda settled herself across from Katie. “I heard most of it. Poor Mr. Russo will have his hands full convincing your father he’ll be good for his precious little girl. I didn’t even think to advise you to let your parents know. But then Detective Novak wanted your parents to act naturally when they found out.” Freda shuffled her notes she had been reviewing while Katie had talked to her mother.
“Except, normally I would have told my mom. But, you know hindsight is twenty-twenty, as they say. I’m glad when we get home from Paris I’ll be able to fill my mom and dad in on everything, since I’ll be staying with them. I do have one question. Will you be going to work for me or just staying here?”
“I’ll pretty much be living your life from the moment we change places at the airport. You better fill me in on all the office gossip.”
“That will be easy. We are small, just Adam, myself, and Jody the receptionist. I hardly see her. She’s a shared receptionist for a couple of small companies in the building. My office is accessible from the hall. I don’t even have to go through the reception area to get to it. You may not even meet her.”
“Good. The less people I have to interact with the better. The more I have to learn and remember about your life makes it that much harder. Hopefully, it won’t take too much time to set the trap. After all it’s only been a matter of days before he has struck after the weekend trips.”
“I hope so. I will work from my parents’ home and email Adam what he’ll need. You’ll just need to look busy, surf the internet or whatever. Oh, I always read the society page to see what they say about Adam. The cleaning lady, Mrs. Oakman, and the office go-fer, Jordan Goddard, often join me in discussions about ‘the great man’, as Jordan calls him.”
“Good to know.” Freda scribbled the information in her notes.
Katie and Freda talked into the night. Katie ended up pulling out the sofa bed for Freda to use so she wouldn’t have to drive home late and alone. Plus, the two had gone through a couple of bottles of wine and the evening ended in giggles when Katie had finally found enough nerve to confess to Freda she was in love with Adam.
* * * *
Katie sat at her desk when Adam arrived at the office the next morning, startling her when he opened the door. She guiltily put down the paper and looked at Adam to see if there were any battle scars from her father’s visit the previous evening.
“You look pretty good. How did things go?”
“Fine. I think we have your father’s blessing. Why don’t we start planning our trip today?”
Katie raised an eyebrow. She couldn’t decide what to think about Adam’s statement. Damn it, she wanted details. Not a vague comment. Was Adam acting the part, or like her, looking forward to the trip for real? God, how would she make it through this charade? At least when the murderer was caught, she’d know if Adam wanted their relationship or not.
“Do you want me to do a little research and bring the file into your office so we can decide things that we both want to do while we are there?” Katie was sure she sounded like a bad actor in a play—the words to her own ears sounded stilted and rehearsed. Had the office been bugged? Was there someone listening and, if so, would they be able to tell? She stood and nervously walked around the desk to stand in front of Adam.
Adam wrapped her into an embrace. His lips captured hers. Vaguely, after a moment of surprise, the rattle of the door registered on her brain. A ripple of disappointed raced down her spine at the knowledge this was for show. But as the kiss deepened, she blocked everything from her mind and let herself drown in the tingles running up and down her body. Her arms snaked around his neck to pull him closer. She molded her body to his hard one. She heard a groan and realized the sound came from her.
A loud cough startled her out of her euphoria. God, she’d forgotten they were standing in her office. She jumped back as if they’d been caught doing the down and dirty.
“Hello, Mrs. Oakman. How are you today?” Adam pulled Katie back to his side and placed an arm around her shoulders.
“Uh oh, it looks like I interrupted something. I’ll just go into your office and clean there first, Mr. Adam.” She winked at Katie.
The two watched her go into the office and shut the door. Katie tried to remove Adam’s arm from her shoulders, but he swung her back into his embrace. Katie looked up into his eyes and gulped, as a shiver of sensation rippled through her at the gleam she saw. It was decidedly wolfish. His head swooped down and his lips captured hers again, and she lost the battle of trying to stay uninvolved.
“Well, what do we have here?” a voice startled them.
Katie jumped and pulled out of Adam’s embrace and swallowed as she turned to stare at Jordan. He stood in the doorway shaking his head, his arms full of large envelopes. He sauntered to Katie’s desk and dumped them there.
“Hi, Jordan. What’s up?” Adam slipped an arm around Katie, pulling her to his side once again. The move screamed territorial, and definitely caveman, as if to say, “She my woman!” Katie’s stomach tightened in response. She held her smile, because Adam had nothing to worry about where Jordan was concerned, even though this was an act. Or so she tried to remind herself. It was an act—maybe on his part. Not on hers.
“Are you two planning a trip?”
“Yes, that’s what we were just discussing,” Adam replied.
“So, that’s what you call a lip-lock like that. Discussing,” Jordan said.
“We’re thinking of France. Have you ever been there?” Time to step in.
“Oh, like I could afford France on my salary.” Jordan laughed.
“Sorry,” Katie said.
“Well, I need
to go. I have a class this afternoon. I’ll talk to you later to find out what your big plans are. It’s kind of fun to know the woman going on the trip this time. I won’t have to wait to read it in the paper.” Jordan gave a little wave and left the office.
“Why don’t you get the research done and bring everything you find in when you’re done? I need to go through those packets. If what’s in them is what I think, I’ve got a lot of work to do before we leave. And you will too.” Adam finally removed his arm.
The air in Katie’s lungs came out in a whoosh, then she inhaled to fill them again. She’d swear she’d been holding her breath since Adam had kissed her. Questions reeled through her mind. Did he have feelings for her? Did he know how his kisses affected her equilibrium?
Chapter Twenty-Two
“Good morning, detectives.” Freda walked in and set her cup on the table as she joined Novak and Jones for morning coffee to review their case.
“Freda, did you have a good evening with Ms. Sinclair?” Detective Novak asked.
“I did. I hope we find the bastard, because I don’t want anything to happen to her. She’s in love with Mr. Russo—you knew that, right?”
“Duh, like that’s hard to figure out. It’s not like she doesn’t wear her heart on her sleeve or anything.” Detective Jones smirked as he sipped his coffee.
“And he feels the same way. What I don’t understand is how neither one of them seems to know how the other feels.” Detective Novak stood and walked to the table holding the coffee pot. He really needed to kick the habit before the black oil ate a hole through his stomach.
“Any bets on how soon after this mess is cleared up that they tie the knot?” Freda wanted to know.
“I think we’d all bet the same thing, so we’d cancel each other out,” Jones said.
“True.” Freda swirled the black liquid around in her cup. “Sorry, I guess I should have grabbed you guys some coffee on my way to the station, so you wouldn’t have to drink that stuff you call coffee.”
“What time are you going over to Ms. Sinclair’s tonight?” Detective Novak asked when he sat back at the table. Taking a sip of his coffee, he nearly choked. The black crude tasted burnt and about three weeks old. If the sticky substance got any thicker, he could probably use it in his car.
“We covered everything last night. She had all of her scrapbooks out and had everything ready. She was very thorough. I don’t think I’ll have a problem.”
“Good. So Ed, do you have anything new on the three murders?” Detective Novak asked.
“No. The one eyewitness we have is the woman who saw the old lady go into Ms. Westwood’s apartment. We only have a vague description of the car that hit Ms. Beeman and there were no witnesses to Ms. Thomas’ adventure on Mount Rushmore. The only connection we have is Adam Russo, and of course the movie connection.” Ed Jones sighed. They really had nothing.
“You know when we first started to investigate, I really wanted it to be Russo. Every Sunday, all I hear from my wife is how romantic the guy is. I thought he’d be entirely different than he is. I expected him to be a cocky, arrogant, son of a bitch.” Brandon grinned. He couldn’t have been more wrong, and damn, but he actually liked him.
“You’re right. He doesn’t seem to understand how people really see him. He acts like he’s just your run-of-the-mill guy. I was prepared for an insufferable bastard, looking down his nose at the distasteful police guys.” Ed shook his head as if to dispel the notion.
“You guys sound like a couple of old women. Let’s get this briefing over so I can get back to my desk. I have a load of files to go through before I have to take over the life of Katherine Elizabeth Sinclair,” Freda said.
“Sorry. Usually my gut instincts of someone turn out to be on the money.” Brandon walked to the sink and dumped whatever passed for coffee in his cup down the drain.
“Mine, too, but we couldn’t have been more wrong this time,” Ed agreed.
Several hours later, Freda stood closing the file she’d dubbed “Classic Murder.” “I’ll give you guys a call when I get the date for the trip. Katie promised to have the particulars by the end of the day.”
“Good. As you can see, all the women we’ve interviewed so far have all had nothing but good things to say about Russo. Do either of you have any theories of who or what we’re dealing with here?” Detective Novak asked as if not ready to end the meeting.
Freda’s foot tapped an impatient tattoo at the delay. She really did have to break herself of the habit. But hell, she had so much to do before her new assignment started. “We’ve been over this. Everyone so far said they had gone on the trips knowing they wouldn’t lead anywhere. So they just went for the adventure and had enjoyed themselves. Do we need to keep beating a dead horse? There are no leads.”
“Someone is not happy.” He stopped to glare at her, and she shifted in her seat. “If only we could figure out what set the maniac off. And why now and not a year ago?” Brandon ran his hand through his hair in frustration.
“I’ve interviewed every woman who has been with Russo in the last two years. Not one of them gave me any indication anything went wrong. No clues for us to follow. No prints at the Westwood apartment. No car identified in the hit and run. And the latest murder, there were no prints on her jacket, or anything to lead us to the assailant. Nothing. Nada to go on.” Ed’s voice sounded with frustration to match his partner’s.
“We may never know if we don’t catch him. I suggest we stop beating our heads against the wall and focus on what we can do. We’ll make sure our plan has no holes in it for the perp to fall through. And a day or two after the couple come back from Paris, we’ll have the guy in custody and all of our questions will be answered.” Freda opened the door and left, not letting either man respond.
* * * *
“Adam, this plane is incredible. Even my Dad’s isn’t this fancy,” Katie called from the bedroom. Exploring Adam’s custom-built plane, she kept a little distance, something she was going to need to make it through this weekend. She already knew her heart would take a beating if they returned and he let everything return to business as usual with no personal attachments.
“Suits my needs. Katie, you better come buckle your seatbelt. Jamie just informed me he’s been cleared for takeoff.”
Katie strode back to her seat and snuggled into the overstuffed chair. Could this be any better? Reaching to either side of her seat, she grasped the sides of the belt and fastened the safety. Filling her lungs with air, she closed her eyes and counted to ten.
God, just the thought of takeoff made her stomach pitch and roll. There was nothing under the plane and the weight of the metal aircraft sailing through the air defied logic, as far as she was concerned. At least when the plane landed, she knew solid land supported her and the scary part was over. Everything in between caused a tingle of electricity to run through her body. The thrum of the engines vibrated her chair, and beads of nervous perspiration bubbled down her back. She swallowed and tried to force herself to relax.
Adam must have understood her fright because she felt the warmth of his large hand cover hers and give a gentle squeeze. As frightened as she was at that moment, prickles of heat ran up her arm at his reassuring contact. Would she have this sensation at every touch of his until she was old and gray?
* * * *
Adam smiled at the picture Katie made all snuggled up on the couch, reading a book, relaxed and happy. God, what he would give to see that sight every day for the rest of his life. After Jamie had given the go-ahead to undo their belts, Adam had begun working at his desk. Not Katie. She’d been smart and left work at the office, declaring she was on vacation. There was no one to blame but himself. Instead of work the past few days, he’d daydreamed about their private time together in France. Now he had to pay the piper and review several files.
Back to work for him. He needed to finish so he could be on vacation too. Might as well enjoy this time with the woman he loved. To hell wit
h waiting, he’d prove to her what his feelings were and by their return to the states, he vowed Katie would be in love with him. The only blight on the plan was the murderer lurking somewhere. For the hundredth time, he reassured himself she’d be safely tucked away at her parents’ home until the culprit was caught.
Katie turned and caught him staring. He smiled and blew a kiss at her. He watched the blush bloom from the top of her turtleneck, climbing up to filter over her cheeks. Why had it taken so long for him to figure out his feelings?
To hell with it. Work could wait. “You ready for some lunch? I’m starved.” Adam closed his file. The mini-fridge in the kitchenette separated the main cabin and the bedroom. He bent over and considered the contents.
Katie moved to peer over his shoulder, trying to see what there was to eat. Her soft breath trickled down his back, and awareness skipped in its wake.
He straightened and her body flattened against him, her nipples pinpricks to his back. Not one to miss a good opportunity, he turned and pulled her into his embrace. He heard her soft gasp just before his lips settled on hers.
He traced across her top lip, then her bottom, urging until she finally opened to him. Deepening the kiss, his tongue dancing with hers, he let his hand drop to her bottom and pulled her close. He ran his other hand up her arm and then cupped the back of her head. He couldn’t get close enough. He wanted to pick her up and take her to the soft bed that beckoned.
Reminding himself he didn’t want to scare her, that he wanted to entice her to his bed, he let his hands loosen and gradually let the kiss taper off. He rested his forehead against hers until he caught his breath.
Since picking her up this morning, Katie had been keeping herself aloof and at arm’s length. Now he’d decided to show her his feelings. There was no way he’d let her get away with being unapproachable. He hoped France would have a lot of surprises in store for her. With any luck, one would sweep her feet out from under her. She wouldn’t know what hit her.
Martinez, Mary - Classic Murder: Mr. Romance (BookStrand Publishing Romance) Page 24
