Everything She Wanted

by Jennifer Ryan

  “Where were both of you tonight from about four o’clock until we arrived?”

  Mrs. Faraday jumped. “You think we had something to do with this?”

  Ben had to give her credit. The outrage in her voice almost sounded genuine. More than likely she resented all these tedious details that kept her from getting control of her husband’s money.

  “Standard procedure, ma’am. When someone is murdered, it’s usually the spouse who did it. Or a close family member.” The detective made a point of staring at Evan.

  “Well, look at someone else,” Mrs. Faraday snapped. “We’ve been here all night. Together.”

  The detective expected that answer. So did Ben unfortunately. Too much to hope they’d simply confess and this would all be over. He’d like to spare Kate the pain and hardship of going through all this.

  “When is the last time you saw Donald?” the detective asked both of them.

  “Today,” Mrs. Faraday confessed. “Early afternoon. He arrived with another man to serve me divorce papers.”

  Ben perked up. “He actually served you the papers today?”

  “Yes. Not that I was surprised. We’ve been living separate lives for some time even though we share a roof. Obviously, he’d decided to move on with his slut.”

  “Did you know about Margo?” the detective asked.

  “Of course I knew. A wife always knows when her husband strays.”

  “I find it very coincidental that your husband is murdered the day he serves you with divorce papers,” Ben said.

  “Don’t you think it would be stupid of me to kill my husband on the very day he asks for a divorce?”

  “Sometimes the obvious is the right answer,” the detective shot back. “It’s a simple matter to rule you out. Provide your fingerprints and a DNA sample.”

  Alert now, Mrs. Faraday eyed the detective. “Of course we will, as soon as you present a warrant to my lawyer. We’re done here. Please leave.”

  The detective stood and handed her his business card. “I’ll be in touch. If you have questions or information related to your husband’s murder, please let me know.” The detective took two steps away before turning back. “Those are some nasty bruises on your jaw and ribs, Evan. How did you get those?”

  “Bar fight.” Evan didn’t even blink, but turned and stared down Ben, daring him with a look to contradict that’s how he got the bruises.

  “I bet they hurt like hell.” Detective Raynott cocked his head and plastered on a thoughtful look. “Kate told me her sister, Margo, was an expert kickboxer. I bet she got a few licks in before that bastard shot her in the head.”

  “Maybe if she’d been better, my father would still be alive,” Evan said under his breath.

  Mrs. Faraday snapped her head in Evan’s direction and glared.

  Detective Raynott gave Ben a look. The show of remorse surprised even Ben. He expected the cocky, arrogant asshole who’d done everything, including buying off Ben’s clients to get out of going to jail, not someone with . . . feelings. Killing his father went far beyond a drunken brawl.

  How long would Evan’s remorse last? Would he confess? Not likely. Not with all that money on the line. Not with the possibility of life in prison and the death penalty looming over his head if he couldn’t pull off a miracle. No way he bought his way out of this mess if they found evidence that proved he killed his father and Margo.

  “About the child. Alex?” Mrs. Faraday asked, and the detective nodded she got the name right. “If he’s my husband’s son, then perhaps it’s best if he’s here with Evan and me. Evan is his brother after all.”

  “Alex will remain with his aunt. She will take care of him and oversee his inheritance until he comes of age,” Ben swore.

  “Well, we’ll see about that.” Mrs. Faraday tilted her chin up. “If he is my husband’s son, then Evan and I will want to protect his interests as they are ours as well.”

  “Be assured, Kate and I will protect Alex. Someone already took his parents.” Ben stared down Evan, then turned his glare back to Mrs. Faraday. “No one will take anything more from him.” He echoed Kate’s earlier vow.

  Evan leaned forward. “So, it’s you and Kate, huh? I can’t wait to meet her.”

  The implied threat in those innocuous words sent a bolt of rage through Ben’s system. “Stay away from her.”

  “I’d like to meet my brother.” Evan’s cocky grin said he really wanted to meet Kate just to piss off Ben.

  “I doubt Kate will bring him to see you in jail.”

  “I’m slick, man, nothing sticks to me. Ask my lawyers. Oh, wait, you already know that.”

  “We’ll see about that. Your father isn’t here to make it all go away anymore.”

  Evan fell back into his seat and plastered on a fake air of arrogance with his arms crossed over his chest in a defensive gesture Ben relished.

  “There’s nothing to make go away,” Mrs. Faraday defended her son. “Evan had nothing to do with what happened to Donald and that woman.” She turned her cold eyes on Detective Raynott. “Shouldn’t you be out looking for the person or persons responsible for this heinous crime?”

  Detective Raynott smiled. “I’ll contact you once I have that warrant for your prints and DNA.” He eyed Evan again. “Of course, we already have your prints from the numerous times you were arrested.”

  “Get out.” The deadly tone in Evan’s quiet words brought a smile to Ben’s lips he couldn’t contain. They’d made Evan nervous. Good. He’d botched the cover-­up of the murder-­suicide. Ben couldn’t wait to see how his overconfidence and arrogance nipped him in the ass next.

  Ben walked out the door with Detective Raynott. Evan slammed it at their backs.

  “He’s guilty as hell.” The detective shook his head and stuffed his hands in his pockets.

  They stood on the path. Ben turned and stared back at the front door. “Margo gave him those bruises. He tried to hide it, but he’s favoring his right leg. I’ll bet that’s where she cut or stabbed him.”

  “Without the blood evidence back, prints, something to prove he was in that house, I’ll have a hard time getting a judge to sign a warrant to get his DNA and a look at his person.”

  “His lawyer will do everything possible to keep you from getting it. You need to find something, however small, linking him to the crime besides the obvious motive.”

  “I’m working on it.”

  “Test Donald’s blood against the blood on the knife. See if it’s a familial match. That will get you the warrant for Evan’s blood.”

  “The lab guys will test everything, but it could take weeks.”

  “Put a rush on it. If Evan leaves the country, we’re screwed.”

  “God, he’s an asshole.” The detective rolled his eyes.

  “Assholes with money always think they can get away with anything. Let’s prove him wrong.” Ben headed back down the path to their car. “Drive me back to Margo’s. If Kate’s not there, I’ll call her and fill her in.”

  Ben stared out the car window on the short drive, thinking about Kate and all she’d been through tonight. The next few days and weeks wouldn’t be easy. One thought nagged at him.

  “They don’t want Alex to get anything,” he said, thinking out loud.

  “They hinted they’d like to take control of him and whatever inheritance he might get.”

  “Never going to happen.”

  “It might if Kate’s not in the picture.” The detective pointed out Ben’s worst fear.

  They’d already killed Donald and Margo to ensure their financial future. Ben’s gut soured knowing they’d remove any obstacle in their way. Kate’s sad eyes and tear-­streaked face came to mind. He’d protect her. Nothing and no one would harm her or Alex.

  Was he this determined to protect her simply because of what Morgan told him
? The building urge to help her said otherwise. The overwhelming need to see her again came from a deeper place. One he didn’t know existed. One no other woman had sparked to life.

  EVAN LEANED HIS back against the door and hung his head. “Fuck.”

  “We will be if we don’t control this situation. I’ll contact our lawyer first thing in the morning. Is there any possible way they can tie you to this directly?”

  Evan rubbed his hand over his aching thigh. The cut stung and throbbed under his palm. “I forgot to pick up the fucking knife.”

  “What? No! How could you be so stupid?” his mother spat out.

  “I’d just killed my own father and blown that woman’s head off,” he yelled back. “I wasn’t thinking straight. I thought it would be easy, but it wasn’t.” He held his hands up and stared at them. “My hands were shaking, I tried to set up the scene to look the way I wanted between the two of them, and I forgot she’d cut me.” He dropped his hands back to his sides. “I didn’t really feel it until I was on my way back here.”

  “This is a mess.”

  “Only if they get my DNA. Otherwise, they can’t link the blood to me.”

  “Maybe we can get someone in the police department to destroy the evidence.”

  “Seriously, how are you going to do that?”

  “Pay them off.”

  “You think that won’t be traced back to you?” Evan shook his head and tried to think. “If they do pin this on me, I’ll leave the country before they lock me in a cage. You’ll still get the bulk of the estate. You can send me money to live on.”

  “Your father’s bastard is going to get half the estate, if not all.”

  “How do you figure that?”

  “Your father served me with divorce papers. My lawyer will fight that I am still his legal wife and entitled to the estate, but if your father signed papers saying he left everything to that boy . . .”

  Evan came to the inevitable conclusion. “We’re fucked.”

  Chapter Eight

  BEN PULLED UP in front of Kate’s condo. He got her address from Detective Raynott and drove over, deciding not to call her this late at night. After the day she had, he expected her to be crashed out in bed. Instead, the downstairs windows showed all the lights on. If they’d been out, he’d have driven home and called her first thing in the morning. Those lights drew him in like a beacon.

  He parked in the visitor parking area, got out of the car, and dragged his tired ass to her front door. He liked the pots of yellow pansies flanking the dark green door.

  Alex cried at the top of his lungs. The sound made Ben’s chest tight. Anxious and nervous, he knocked. His gut knotted with anticipation at seeing Kate’s pretty face again. He liked her. They had a lot in common. They both spent their lives trying to help others in their own ways. She as a social worker, helping teen runaways and foster kids. Him working with abused women and their children. He wanted to get to know her better. He wished they didn’t have her sister’s murder and Alex’s inheritance to deal with while he did that.

  If she was even interested in getting to know him better. She’d never given him any indication she liked him more than an acquaintance and colleague, except for that kiss. It played in his mind and made him want. He wanted that feeling she evoked in him back.

  He’d play it by ear.

  Kate opened the door with Alex in her arms. Her gaze met his and the relief he saw there unknotted his stomach. “Thank God you’re here. I didn’t hear from you and got worried.”

  “What’s wrong with him?” Ben tilted his head toward Alex.

  “I think he knows his mother is gone. He wants her. Nothing I do is good enough. He just keeps crying.” Tears shimmered in her red-­rimmed eyes and spilled over. “I don’t know what to do.”

  Ben stepped into her apartment, making her back up. She didn’t exactly invite him in, but the desperation in her voice prompted him to act. He closed the door behind him. Kate stood close, looking up at him, waiting for him to do something. He wanted to kiss her and make this all go away. A crazy thought he didn’t act on.

  “Give him to me.” Ben held out his hands.

  Kate handed Alex over, sighing and shaking out her arms. The boy didn’t weigh much, but she must have been holding and carrying him for quite some time. She’d changed out of her slacks and blouse from earlier into a simple navy blue tank dress. She’d pulled her long curls up into a messy knot at the back of her head. The fatigue etched lines on her forehead and made her shoulders sag. Nearly two in the morning, she and Alex should both be sleeping. Neither looked ready to call it a night, too wound up to relax into sleep.

  Ben tucked Alex in the crook of his arm and held him close to his chest. He snagged the pacifier off the coffee table and pushed it into Alex’s open mouth. He tried to spit it out, but Ben held it gently in place as Alex cried around it. He bounced the boy up and down. “Shh. It’s time for you to sleep, buddy,” he whispered.

  Kate stood in the middle of the room, wiping the tears from her cheeks, a lost look in her eyes that tore at his insides. Alex’s cries softened, but he wasn’t quite ready to give up yet.

  “Turn most of the lights off, Kate. The darkness will help him calm down and fall asleep.”

  Kate automatically started hitting switches on the kitchen wall and turning off one of the lamps in the living room space.

  “Which one of those stuffed toys is his favorite?”

  Kate picked up a black and white spotted puppy. “I gave him this in the hospital when he was born. Margo said he doesn’t sleep without it.” Kate placed the puppy on Alex’s belly and fell into the corner of the sofa, sobbing out her grief.

  Ben didn’t think, just went with instinct. He sat beside her, bounced Alex in one arm, and held Kate to his side with the other. She came willingly and pressed her face into his shoulder. Alex held the puppy in his hands, sucked his pacifier, and slowly drifted off to sleep, hiccupping a few times after all those tears.

  Kate’s tears ran out, but she didn’t pull away. Her head turned, and she laid her cheek against his chest and sighed. Though her body pressed against his, she kept her hands tucked between them at her side. She didn’t really touch him, but he wanted her to. It felt so right to have her next to him, even with Alex tucked close in his arm. The baby’s sweet face softened in sleep.

  “It’s going to be all right,” he assured Kate. Comfortable with the two of them, he propped his feet on the coffee table and settled into the sofa, ready to stay as long as they needed him.

  They needed him.

  A warm glow flared to life inside of him that spread to all the cold abandoned places he’d hid deep within himself. He helped others who needed him, but it didn’t feel like this.

  “It wasn’t supposed to be like this. Alex hates me. He wants his mother.”

  Ben smiled and leaned his cheek on top of Kate’s head. “He doesn’t hate you. He misses his mother like you miss her. He sees that you’re upset and sad and he feels that too. He needs you, Kate.”

  “What happened tonight with Donald’s wife and son? Did Detective Raynott arrest Evan?”

  “I wish I could tell you that he did and this will all be over soon. Evan showed a few glimpses of remorse for his father, but he didn’t confess anything, or really give anything away. I did see some bruises on his face and ribs. He’s trying to hide a limp.”

  “Margo got a piece of him.”

  “Margo tried to kick his ass.” Ben brushed his cheek over Kate’s soft hair. He absently traced circles on her bare arm with his fingertips. He felt her awareness of him beside her. She didn’t move away, so he kept touching her softly, hoping to comfort her and draw her closer to him. “I like your sister.”

  “She was amazing in her sweet way. You look at her and see all this softness in her hazel eyes, blond hair, and light complexion, but under it al
l she could be strong and tough.”

  “Not as tough as you though, right?” he guessed.

  “We looked out for each other, but I took care of her more than she took care of me. I loved her for holding on to her optimism and dreaming for all those pretty things we didn’t have growing up. That’s all she wanted—­a husband, a child, a happy home and life. She almost had it all and they took it away from her. I can’t—­I won’t—­let them get away with it.”

  “We won’t let them get away with it.”

  “Why are you doing this? Why are you here? What do you want?”

  Ben tried to sort out the many answers circling his mind. “You and I have a mutual enemy in Evan. I want to see him pay for his sins just as much as you do. I’m here to help you with whatever you need. We want the same thing, Kate, and if we work together maybe we can both get what we want.” He meant Evan behind bars, but something deep inside of him whispered that he wanted a hell of a lot more from her.

  “I’ve never really been good at being a team player. I look out for myself. With my background in the system, I am fully aware of my hang-­ups about trusting others, let alone relying on them.”

  “You can trust me. I won’t let you down. I want you and Alex to get everything that’s coming to you, and that includes justice for your sister and Alex’s father.”

  “I believe you. It’s so unexpected and strange that you showed up tonight. After what happened before . . .”

  The kiss. “That was the past. Someone I know would simply say this was meant to be.”

  “Whatever this is, I’m glad you’re here. And that surprises me too.”

  No more than Morgan’s prediction coming true surprised him. Where this thing went with Kate, he didn’t know, but he was committed to seeing it through to the end.

  “Speaking of surprises, Evan and Christina Faraday didn’t know about Alex.”

  Kate tilted her head up to look at him. Her lips parted with surprise. Her soft breath washed over his skin. If he bent a few inches, he could kiss her. She kept her gaze locked on his, ignoring or oblivious to the pull between them.