by Debra Webb
“I take it you and your brother-in-law aren’t the best of friends.”
Natalie thought about the question for a moment. “We’ve never had any real disagreements beyond our differences on political issues. I suppose I always felt that he married April because she was a Drummond. I’ve never felt close to him, but he has reached out repeatedly since my fall.”
Clint’s gaze narrowed. “So you felt he wasn’t good enough for your sister? He didn’t meet the financial criteria or was it something else that made you feel that way?”
The question surprised her. “It wasn’t about the money or that he wasn’t good enough. The Keating family is quite well to do. They moved here about twenty years ago. He and I went to high school together. What I meant about the Drummond name was his impression that the Drummonds were among the founders of the city. I believe that was important to his political aspirations, but it’s possible I’m wrong.”
Clint looked away. “We should talk to Mr. and Mrs. Clark.”
Confused by his odd question, Natalie took a moment to weigh his recommendation. She didn’t want to believe that Suzanna might be hiding something from her, but her abrupt departure suggested otherwise.
“If you’re up to it,” he amended, obviously taking her hesitation for something else.
Natalie squared her shoulders. “Of course.” She smoothed the hem of her sweater. “I’m ready.”
Two people were dead...because of her. She couldn’t think of resting until she found the truth.
Chapter Fifteen
Crestwood Circle
Birmingham
5:45 p.m.
Clint knocked on the door a second time just in case the doorbell wasn’t working. Natalie surveyed the yard. She looked nervous. Considering what she’d remembered last night and what she learned from her sister this morning, apprehension was understandable.
Her life had been twisted into a few dozen knots the past couple of years. She deserved a break. He wanted to help her get her life back. He wanted it badly. Maybe more than he’d wanted anything in a long time. He was still kicking himself for questioning her thoughts on David Keating. His feelings of inferiority had nothing to do with her and he had no right dragging her into it.
The door opened and Suzanna Clark schooled her startled expression as she looked from Natalie to Clint and back. “I’ve said all I have to say.”
Clint had a feeling pressure tactics wouldn’t work with the older woman. Not even he would give a lady who reminded him far too much of his mother a hard time. Still, the situation was urgent. Time was not an available luxury at the moment. “Mrs. Clark, I feel compelled to warn you that if you don’t cooperate with us, the police will be knocking on your door.”
Her face paled. “Leonard!”
Clint winced at the fear he heard in Mrs. Clark’s voice.
Natalie reached out to the woman she had known most of her life. “Suzanna, please. I need your help. Please, help me.”
“What’re you doing here?” Leonard demanded as he bellied up to the door.
“I just want the truth,” Natalie pleaded. “I’m certain the two of you have done nothing wrong. This is—”
“Just stop.” Suzanna put a hand to her chest. “Come inside.”
Leonard sent her a look that spoke loudly of his disapproval.
“Let’s just get this over with,” Suzanna argued, defeat in her voice. “The police can help them sort it out but we’re not helping anyone by remaining silent.”
Clint never understood anyone’s desire to keep secrets as a means to protect the innocent. The innocent did just fine when secrets were revealed. It was the guilty who didn’t fare so well.
Leonard stepped back and Suzanna led them into their home. The brick rancher had a larger than expected living room. Clint sat next to Natalie. Leonard settled into his well-worn recliner next to the matching one his wife chose. He made no bones about how unhappy he was they had appeared at his door. He’d washed his hands of the situation and wanted nothing more to do with Natalie’s troubles.
After a lengthy and somewhat awkward silence, Suzanna spoke. “It started a few months before your accident.”
Leonard shook his head. “Your folks raised you girls better, but somehow it didn’t take as well with April as it did with you.”
“April told me about the affair,” Natalie spoke up. “The man she was seeing lured her into the relationship. He’s the same man who came into my house and tampered with my car.”
The couple exchanged another one of those looks. “We,” Suzanna said, “suspected he was not a nice man.”
Clint was as surprised by the statement as Natalie appeared to be.
“You met him?” Natalie asked.
Suzanna nodded. “She brought him to the house four—”
“Five.” Leonard held up one hand, fingers spread wide. “Five times.”
“Five,” Suzanna amended. “While you were at work. April said they were working on a surprise for you.”
“For me?” Natalie shook her head. “What sort of surprise?”
Leonard harrumphed. “The first couple of times they worked in your daddy’s study. Then they moved their work upstairs.”
Damn. Clint had hoped April was as innocent in all this as she claimed. “This work,” he asked, “was it something more than sex?”
Suzanna’s cheeks flamed. Leonard’s jaws puffed. “I don’t believe so,” Suzanna said. “I never found any evidence of anything else.”
Leonard shook his head. “The girl should have known she would get caught.”
“Wait,” Natalie leaned forward a bit, “did you say she got caught? By David?”
“Well,” Suzanna hedged, “I can’t say that they had any kind of confrontation, but there—”
“He had to know,” Leonard protested.
“Why do you think so?” Clint asked. “Was Keating watching the house?”
“He was doing more than that,” Leonard said. “He brought some fellow to the house with him. A security technician or so he said. Claimed there was something wrong with the security system.”
“That’s preposterous,” Natalie argued.
“I’m just telling you what he said. I knew he wasn’t exactly telling it like it was because the technician only worked in the entry hall and upstairs.”
“In April’s old bedroom,” Suzanna put in. “I was changing the sheets in your room when they went in there.”
“So David suspected.” Natalie clasped her hands in her lap. “What else did he do that I don’t know about?”
The edge of frustration in her voice told all present that she was not happy to learn there had been so many goings and comings in her home without her knowledge. Clint could see how the Clarks didn’t feel comfortable reporting April’s activities since she, too, was a Drummond and had grown up in the house. Natalie had likely never given them reason to believe she didn’t want her sister on the premises when she wasn’t home.
“As far as I know,” Suzanna said, “David wasn’t in the house again until you came home from the hospital.”
“There was that one time,” Leonard reminded his wife. “He said he had to get clothes for Natalie.”
“I was at the hospital,” Suzanna said. “You were in bad shape.”
Natalie blinked a couple of times but not before Clint saw the shine of emotion there. Reliving those days was hard enough on her, but to hear that her own family was somehow using her added insult to injury.
“He went upstairs and then he piddled around in the entry hall.” Leonard reached for the sweating glass of iced tea on the table next to his chair. “I imagine he was taking out the cameras and such he’d had his technician install.”
“April came through, though,” Suzanna offered. “She a
nd David have tried their best to help since you were hurt. I was hoping everything would be all right now.”
Leonard nodded. “He called me or came by every week or two to see if there was anything I needed. Being a husband, I figured he had a right to know what his wife was doing so I put the whole business behind me and tried not to hold his behavior against him. A Christian should never hold bad thoughts against another.”
“Me, too.” Suzanna looked to her husband. “Until I found the bloody clothes and the gun.”
“When Suzanna told me,” Leonard said, “I told her we were done. We couldn’t be involved with the likes of that. It was bad enough Suzanna could have been there alone when that intruder broke in.” Leonard nodded toward Natalie. “I knew you were telling the truth no matter what the police thought. You’ve never lied or made up nonsense in your life.”
Clint resisted the urge to take Natalie’s hand in his. She listened patiently but he could feel her tension mounting.
“We’re getting older,” Suzanna said gently. “It was just too much.”
“April said you were there the day she left the gun and the bloody clothes,” Natalie ventured.
“We’d been to the grocery store. Leonard always drives me,” Suzanna explained. “When we came back her car was in the drive and she was in your shower. I knew she was the one.”
“I didn’t even want to know what she’d gotten herself into,” Leonard admitted. “It was best that we just walked away.”
“I wanted to tell you all of it,” Suzanna said, “but Leonard didn’t want me to get in the middle of it.”
“I understand,” Natalie assured her. “Please know that you’re welcome to come back and I guarantee none of this will happen again. April and her husband have spoken to the police about what happened with the gun and the bloody clothes. There will be an investigation but it has nothing to do with either of you. She and David are standing together on this. He, as you know, is focused on winning this election as a stepping stone to bigger things. He’s not going to risk that goal with a nasty divorce.”
The couple seemed to consider her offer for a moment. “It’s time we retired,” Suzanna confessed. “We need to spend more time with our grandchildren.”
“I can’t blame you.” Natalie stood. “Thank you for telling me. If you think of anything else, please don’t hesitate to let me know. When I spoke to the police, I didn’t mention your names in relation to the gun or the bloody clothes. They have no idea you saw it,” she said to Suzanna. “They won’t bother you.”
Clint had to give her credit, Natalie held it together exceptionally well until they were out of the house and in his car. Even then he wouldn’t have known how very upset she was if not for the tears sliding down her cheeks.
“We’re taking the evening off,” he said. “You need a break.”
“What I need is a plane ticket to take me far away from here.”
“I’ll see what I can do.”
He hoped that was a promise he could keep.
Athens-Flatts Building, 2nd Avenue
8:30 p.m.
NATALIE STOOD IN the darkness and watched the lights of downtown Birmingham twinkle. She did love this view from Clint’s penthouse. She’d come out onto the grand terrace to feel the cool breeze and to inhale the night air. Her senses came alive just standing here, soaking in the atmosphere. Maybe it was time she sold the house and moved into something more manageable.
Would her parents have wanted her to keep the house if they’d known how much heartache she would suffer there? But then her parents had left her the home because, of their three children, they had known she would be the least likely to sell it or allow it to fall into disrepair. She thought of all the happy years the family had shared in the home. Endless Christmases and birthdays. So many happy memories...and a few devastating ones, as well.
She was not in a good place for making that kind of decision. The aches she felt went deep. Her sister had used Natalie’s home and her trust. Her brother-in-law had done the same. Sadly, those were only the beginning of the injustices. The firm, the colleagues she had trusted and supported with every part of her mind and spirit, had let her down so egregiously that she could scarcely permit the thought without feeling sick to her stomach.
How had she surrounded herself with those so filled with greed and selfishness? She hadn’t known these people at all. She laughed. Clearly, she scarcely knew her own sister. What did that say about her?
How had she been so oblivious to the deceit? Her father had once said that her need to see the best in people would be her downfall. Regrettably, his sage words had seen fruition. As difficult a pill as it was to swallow, she had learned a great lesson. She would not be so gullible moving forward.
The silver lining amid all the darkness was that her memories continued to return and she felt far less confused and uncertain. She had reason to believe a great deal of the uncertainty and confusion she had felt in the past several months had been about those around her attempting to hide their treachery. The interference hadn’t permitted her mind to properly put the pieces back together.
She could see clearly now.
Clint joined her. “Aren’t you cold?”
The breeze had picked up but she’d ignored it. Now that he mentioned it, she shivered. “A little.”
“Dinner’s ready.”
She smiled. “I smelled the ginger and something else, maybe garlic.”
“It’s one of my favorite entrees from Belinda’s.” He handed her a glass of wine, and then sipped his own.
“I’ve heard about that shop. She does gourmet meals for you to take home and heat up at your leisure.”
“That’s the one.”
Natalie sipped her wine. It was fresh and sweet on her tongue, bubbly in her throat. “Thank you for bringing me here. I don’t think I could have gone home tonight.”
“Sometimes home isn’t where we need to be.” He leaned forward and braced his forearms on the steel railing. “Sometimes we just need to disappear from all that we know.”
“Do you ever do that?” She downed a swallow of wine, needing courage. “Disappear, I mean?” She leaned against the railing.
“Sometimes.”
She thought of the elegant home just beyond those disappearing doors that allowed for an unobstructed extension of the main living space onto this amazing terrace. Clint Hayes had an enviable home, a wardrobe that would make the most impeccably dressed man jealous and he was incredibly handsome. Yet, Natalie recognized a sadness in him. Maybe even a little loneliness. She almost laughed out loud at the idea. He could have any woman he desired. His relationship with his detective friends was proof that he possessed the ability to develop and maintain relationships.
“Why are you alone?” Her breath caught. She hadn’t meant to say the words.
He straightened, downed the rest of his wine and took the two steps to a table to place his glass there. “The same reason as you, I suppose.” He moved back to where she stood frozen, desperate to hear more. “Wouldn’t you say?”
He felt so close standing out here with only the city lights and the stars to chase away the darkness. She drained her glass. More courage, she told herself as she placed it next to his. “How can you compare your choices to my reactions to events over which I had no control?”
He waited until she returned to stand next to him. “Your recovery has been nothing short of miraculous. Despite recent events, you’ve come through amazingly well. So what’s stopping you now?”
His deep voice and the intensity in his eyes made her shiver. “Do you mean right now? This very moment?”
“Why not?”
Heat seared through her body. Was he inviting her to be with him? He’d certainly had a different attitude last night. “Is that why you brought me here? I thought—”
/>
He touched her hair. Her voice deserted her as he let his fingers glide through the length of it.
“I don’t want to want you.” He reached up, traced her lips with the pad of his thumb. “I don’t want to lie awake at night thinking about how it would feel to be deep inside you.”
Her thighs trembled. “I...don’t know what to say.”
“Don’t say anything.” His mouth swooped down and claimed hers. “Let’s just do this before I lose my mind.”
He picked her up and carried her to his bedroom. He lowered her to her feet, his hands sliding up her torso, drawing her sweater up and off. He stared at her breasts for a long moment before dropping to his knees and removing the sandals she wore. When his fingers unfastened her jeans, she gasped. He leaned forward and kissed her belly button and heat funneled beneath it. The whirlwind was so ferocious she could scarcely breathe.
She sank her fingers into his dark hair, relishing the silky feel. He dragged her jeans down her legs, and she stepped out of them one foot at a time and kicked them aside. He stood and spun her around. His fingers trailed up her spine leaving a path of pure fire in their wake. He unfastened her bra and pushed it off her arms. His lips followed the path of fire he’d ignited, all the way down to her bottom where he teased her relentlessly, tugging down her panties with his teeth. He kissed and licked and tantalized his way back up her legs and then along her spine, taking extra time at her neck. She was burning up, need building so fast she wanted to beg for mercy, but her lips wouldn’t form the words.
He turned her around and the instant he took her nipple into his mouth she lost all control. She pushed him away and tugged at the buttons of his shirt. He joined her, tearing at his buttons, pulling loose the shirttail. Her fingers tangled in his fly, slipping loose the button and lowering the zipper. The trousers and the boxer briefs came off in one quick sweep.
He lifted her onto the bed and lowered his body next to hers. She vaguely remembered the last time she’d made love, but this was something far stronger, wilder...soul awakening. He kissed every inch of her, made her come so many times she was certain her mind and body couldn’t possibly bear one more moment.
