Home for the Holidays (Siren Publishing Classic)

by Diane Leyne

  “And as for us. I don’t know where we are going, but it’s more than just physical for me and I want to take this journey with you. If you don’t want the same, let me know now and I’ll take you to the garage and arrange a loaner car and you can drive away and out of my life. But not until the cops have whoever tried to hurt you. Until then, I’m keeping you close to me and I’ll do whatever I have to in order to protect you. You’ll be by my side or in my apartment, in my bed until the bad guy is caught. And I’ll be spending that time trying to win you over. Do you understand me?” he almost shouted at her.

  “You mean you’ll take advantage of the fact that my life might be at risk to keep me in your bed and have sex with me as frequently as possible?” She kept her face composed and her voice as neutral as possible.

  His stared at her, his eyes a little wary, and nodded, unsure of her mood. Obviously once he started expressing his feelings, the words had just come tumbling out, and he had lost control for a moment. It was adorable and hot, and she did the only thing she could in the circumstances. She undid her own seat belt, leaned toward him, and kissed him back. Then she put her hand on his zipper. He was hard and straining against the fabric. She undid the button and slid down the zipper. Carefully, she freed him from his boxers. He groaned in anticipation as she lowered her mouth to him. She could already see a drop of pre-cum leaking from his slit. Which matched the liquid she could feel oozing from her pussy and dampening her panties.

  She opened her mouth and took his cockhead inside. He groaned again and gripped the back of her head to hold her steady and pushed into her mouth as far as he could go and then flexed his hips, pushing in and out of her mouth, but it wasn’t enough. She was wearing jeans, but he could deal with that. He pulled her off mouth off his cock. It came free with a popping sound as she kept the suction right until the end. She groaned in disappointment.

  Jack found himself as impatient as a teenager. He had to get inside her and he couldn’t wait any longer.

  He flipped her on her hands and knees on the big bench seat. Then he reached around her, unfastened her jeans, and pulled them and her underwear down together. He pushed her head down, bracing her arms against the car door, positioning himself behind her and pushing into her dripping pussy. He heard her groan at the abrupt invasion, but he couldn’t stop. The feel of her pussy clamping down on him so hard almost made him come right away. He hadn’t been so out of control since he was a teenager fumbling in the back seat with Jenna.

  He felt her trying to move her hips, but he held her still, enjoying the sensation of being inside her. He burrowed on big hand up under her top to find her breasts. He didn’t bother unclasping her bra. He just pushed it up over her breasts, massaging them hard, pinching the nipples, tugging on them, as he started to move within her. His hands left her breasts to hold tightly onto her hips.

  Nelly felt overwhelmed, surrounded by him as he pressed her down into the seat, his upper body pushing her head and torso down, his hands holding her still to receive his cock, his cock driving into her as if claiming her as his. It was raw, primitive sex. He was dominating her, riding her hard. From this angle, his cock felt bigger than ever. She worried that she couldn’t take all of him, but she could just take what he had to give her, and he rammed his cock in deep. He was claiming her body in the most primitive way possible, and she could feel her orgasm building from the moment his cock entered her pussy.

  She felt like her body was exploding in a thousand pieces as her climax rippled through her. Her pussy contracted around his cock and her body bucked and writhed, but he didn’t even slow down. He just held her tight and rode her. She felt like her bones had melted, and she was limp from her explosive release, but he was still hard inside her and showing no signs of stopping.

  He continued to ride her, pushing her hard until she felt another orgasm. She didn’t think it was possible, but slowly it began to build, and when one of his hands left her hips and snaked around to her front, burrowing between her slit. He pushed his fingers between her folds and pinched her clit hard. She began to convulse as an even bigger orgasm tore through her. He pinched her clit again, and then both hands gripped her hips hard as he held his cock deep, his own release pulsing within her.

  He stayed in that positing for a few moments, both of them breathing heavily, his deflated cock still inside her. He fumbled with the glove compartment, pulling out a package of extra-large wet wipes. She smiled to herself. He must have kept them for cleaning garage fluids off his hands but which would do sex-cleanup duty today.

  She felt him slide carefully out of her and then put the wet wipe between her legs. Then he helped her sit up. She coloured. “I can do that.” The feel of his hands between her legs, even doing this mundane task, was getting her aroused again.

  He swatted her hands away. “I know you can, but I want to look after you. Please let me do this.”

  He carefully cleaned up their fluids and tossed the used wipe in the small garbage container he kept behind the passenger seat. Then he tucked his cock back in and zipped up before watching her straighten her clothes.

  Once she was tied up, he turned the key in the ignition and put the truck in gear. It was time to face the police.

  Chapter Ten

  Even with their detour, they arrived about thirty minutes before their appointment with the police. The car was up on a hoist. She walked over to it, staring. The mechanic was an older man almost her dad’s age. He walked over, pointing. Jack stood beside her, holding her tightly.

  “You can see right there where the lines were cut. The break is too regular to be caused by anything but a knife. The cuts are small, but deliberate.”

  He turned to look at her. “Are you okay?” There was concern in his voice.

  She looked at the mechanic. He had the name Phil on this shirt. He looked tired, like he’d seen it all. He had sympathy in his eyes, but he was also wary, and he took in Jack’s arm around her.

  “Phil, were you able to get the boxes from the trunk?”

  “Yup. The boxes and the computer. Miss—” He turned to Nelly. “Miss, everything looked fine. I’ve already moved it to the office.”

  “Nelly, why don’t you go with Phil. He’ll show you where he’s stashed your stuff. I’m going to have a quick look at your car before the cops get here.”

  Phil led her to the office at the back. It was larger than she expected with several desks and a smaller private office at the back.

  “Normally this place is humming with activity, but Jack insisted everyone stay away until Monday, except for a skeleton staff. And before you say anything, I didn’t mind working Thanksgiving. I’m taking extra time off at Christmas this year. The whole family is going to Florida for the holidays.”

  He led her to the little office in the back. There, stacked by the guest chair, were her two boxes. She opened the top one and saw the laptop on the pile of papers below. She turned to Phil and smiled.

  “Thank you so much. These papers belong to my law firm and I can’t let the police see them without a warrant as that would violate attorney-client privilege.”

  She smiled warmly at Phil. She was surprised to see him stare back at her, his face serious. She figured it was because of the cut fluid lines, so she was surprised at his words.

  “Please don’t hurt him, miss.”

  “Please call me Nelly. And do you mean Jack? Why would I hurt him?”

  “I’ve known Jack since he was a boy and used to come to the original O’Dell’s garage with his dad. The boy had a talent for cars and we all loved having him in the shop, teaching him things. Then he grew up and it was sad that he was going away to college, but exciting, too. The boy was smart and we wished the best for him.

  “It was a shock for all of us when he ended up back here a year later, married, a college dropout and a baby on the way. But he wanted to do right by Jenna and the baby. They had been high school sweethearts and she was a lovely girl, but this wasn’t the type of relationsh
ip that was meant to survive into adulthood. But they had the baby and they both wanted to do right by Tyler.

  “I don’t know if he’s talked about Jenna and Tyler and it’s not my place to tell you if he hasn’t. I’ve probably said too much already…” he fretted. “I probably shouldn’t have mentioned them at all, but we all love him and don’t want him hurt again. He turned off his emotions for ten years, throwing himself into building the O’Dell business. There are a half dozen garages now, but he still goes home alone. It’s not right.”

  “He told me everything, Phil.” She put her hand on his shoulder, her voice soft. “He told me about how they were going to split up and then the accident.”

  Phil looked at her in amazement and then, to both their surprises, gave her a big hug.

  “Glory be, Nelly. He never talks about her or Tyler. Ever.” He took her hands and looked at her. “Please don’t break his heart. If you don’t love him or don’t think you can love him, don’t drag this out and make a clean break. But if you want this to work, go after him with everything you have. If he pulls back emotionally, from fear of taking another chance, don’t let him. He’s a good man, Nelly. If you really want him, fight for him when the time comes.”

  “I know.”

  He stood up. “Well, I’ll leave you to your boxes. I’ll come get you when the police arrive.”

  He walked out, but she didn’t notice. She was already digging into her boxes. “Aha!” She triumphantly pulled out her cell phone charger. Her phone had died a few days ago right around the time she had the accident, but she’d been too distracted to worry about finding a way to get it recharged.

  She took the charger out of the box and plugged it in and dug her phone out of her purse and set it in the charger and then started taking the files out of the first box. She didn’t get far before Phil returned.

  “They are here.”

  Chapter Eleven

  There were two cops, both in plain clothes. Detective Ramirez was your classic tall, dark, and handsome. He looked like a television cop. Detective Clouder was female. She was tall, blonde, and very attractive. But no one would ever mistake her for a dumb blonde. The intelligence shone from her eyes. Nelly liked her on sight.

  “Is there somewhere we can talk to you alone?” asked Clouder.

  “Anything you can say to me you can say in front of him,” said Nelly. “I don’t want to have any secrets.”

  “We’d rather talk to each of you alone, if you don’t mind.”

  Jack looked at her.

  “I’ll be okay, Jack.”

  “Okay. I have a few errands to run, but I’ll be back within half an hour. If you two aren’t done with her by then, I’m not leaving again.”

  “Fair enough.” Clouder smiled as Jack stalked away

  “Can you walk us through the events leading up to when you lost control of the car and crashed?” asked Ramirez.

  “It was the Wednesday before Thanksgiving. I wanted to make an early start, so I worked through lunch copying some key files and printing out others because after spending the holiday with my family, I planned to spend a few days working at home on this really important brief for the senior partners. It could make my name and give me a shot at Junior Partner. So I didn’t want any distractions, which is why I didn’t want to go back to the office after visiting my folks. I figured if someone saw me, I’d get loaded down with other work and have no time for the brief.”

  “We’ll get back to what you were working on. Describe what happened when you left for the day.”

  “Well, I’d already taken the boxes down to the car after lunch, along with a company laptop so I could sign into our network, and a cell phone charger.”

  “Did you park in the same place every time? A reserved spot, perhaps?”

  “Only partners get reserved spots. Us associates were on a first-come, first-served basis which usually meant a long walk to the main door. But one of the partners had left a day early for the Thanksgiving holiday and his assistant let me use his spot by the door so I didn’t have to carry the boxes too far.”

  “Which spot, exactly, were you parked in? We’ll have someone in the city force go and have a look before everyone gets back to work tomorrow and any possible evidence is lost.”

  “It was Mr. Abernathy’s spot, right beside the elevator on B2. His name is on the spot. They won’t be able to miss it.”

  Ramirez walked away to place the call while Clouder asked her to continue. “Remember, don’t leave out any details. You never know what might be important.”

  “There’s not much to tell. I left at three thirty. Oh, and I passed Mrs. Abernathy coming off the elevator when I got on. She was looking like a thundercloud, so I didn’t talk to her. I remember being surprised to see her since her husband was gone for the weekend. I did wonder if she was mad because there was a car in her husband’s spot and she couldn’t use it. And then I was worried she had blocked me in out of spite. Or maybe scratched it or something. I heard that he cheated on her once and she went ballistic. He showed up at work with a black eye and the paralegal he’d been fooling around with never came back to the firm.

  “But I digress. When I got downstairs, my car was fine. No scratches. No car blocking me in. I got in and headed home. And my timing was perfect. I made great time, even with the rain, until, of course, my power steering and power brakes went out. At least I still had some control, even though it was like trying to steer through wet concrete. And the emergency brake was still working. But I knew better than to engage it until I had some control over the steering and my speed lessened. So I took my foot off the gas and let the car naturally slow down. I almost got it under control when I hit something on the road and started skidding sideways again. I yanked on the emergency brake and managed to slow it down enough so I hit the tree on the passenger side. I was shaken up, but only a few bruises from the seat belt. Nothing major. I got lucky.” She exhaled sharply. Describing it in detail like that brought it all back. “I don’t know what else I can tell you.”

  “Can you tell us about the case you are working on? Could it have any connection to someone trying to kill you?”

  “You know I can’t tell you any specifics due to lawyer/client privilege. I can’t even tell you the name of the client. I can tell you it is a simple product claim case and I believe it has no merit. It’s important because if we lose this one, then our client will be flooded with similar cases and even if they all have no merit, it will cost a lot of money to defend the suits.”

  “What about your personal life? It seems you are involved with Mr. O’Dell. How long have you two been together?”

  Nelly coloured. “We actually just met when he rescued me after the crash.”

  “You never met him before then. Never saw him?”

  “Well, actually, I met him briefly. I stopped for gas just after I turned off the highway. He pumped my gas and told me the cost. I paid him and said thank you.”

  “And that was it.”

  “Yup.”

  “No other talk. No other meeting?”

  “None that I can remember. Look, where is this going?”

  “When he pumped your gas, did you see him at all times? Did he ever look under your car?”

  “I don’t know. I—well, I went to the ladies’ room while he was pumping the gas. I don’t know what he did.”

  “And how long were you in the ladies’ room?”

  She coloured. Ramirez and Clouder exchanged glances. Ramirez stepped away to make a call.

  “I don’t know. A couple of minutes at most. Wait. Do you think Jack did that to my car? But he rescued me from being stranded. He even told me that he saw the fluids on the gas bay ground and deliberately came after me because he was worried. And then he called his staff to look at my car and report anything suspicious to the cops.”

  “It wouldn’t be unheard off for the perpetrator to also play the hero. Happens more often than you’d think. And are you sure he told his guy to
report things to the police? Maybe the employee did it on his own?”

  “Why would Jack even send anyone out to my car if he’s the one who sabotaged it?”

  “He owns a garage. You’d be suspicious if he didn’t.”

  “You are trying to confuse me. I’m a lawyer and I think I’m a decent judge of character. Jack didn’t do it.”

  “Look, you are a lawyer. That means you examine evidence before you draw a conclusion.”

  “Yes.”

  “Come with us to the station. We have a few more questions. And we have someone going out to examine the spot where you parked at the law firm. If there is any evidence at all that the tampering was done there, then O’Dell is in the clear. If there’s no evidence, then you promise us you’ll keep an open mind.”

  “How about this. I’ll wait here. Jack’s coming back shortly. You all go and get your report from the parking garage. If there’s no evidence there, then and only then will I listen to your alternate theories. And before you try to persuade me to come with you, remember I am a lawyer and I know my rights. I’ll be waiting in Jack’s office.”

  Ramirez’s phone rang. He stepped away to take it.

  “Was that call from the city?”

  “No. Smith and Durance have picked up O’Dell for questioning. They’ve taken him back to the station.”

  “You are kidding me.” She was furious.

  “He had the skill and opportunity. And he seems to have wormed his way into your life pretty quickly. I’d say he was a person of interest in this case.”

  “Bullshit. He’s an easy target. You haven’t even got the report back from the city cops. If there’s any evidence that the tampering was done there, then there’s no way Jack could have done it. He was working at the garage all day. You couldn’t even wait a few hours?”