The elevator dinged in the distance. Within moments, two security guards appeared.
“They’re checking surveillance now. If we caught this guy on any of the cameras, we’ll nail him,” the dark haired guard said to Ben.
“Cops should be here soon.” Ben pointed to one of the guards. “Keep an eye on her and the baby. I want to check out the car.”
Kate took Alex from Ben and moved toward the wall, some fifteen feet from Ben’s car, with the guard. Ben swore several times as he rounded the car. She had to admit, the damage looked extensive. New tires and windows would cost him a fortune.
Kate glanced back up the ramp and sucked in a startled breath when a woman who looked shockingly like her sister walked past the entrance. The wind blew her long blond hair into her face, so Kate didn’t get a good look at her as she disappeared out of sight. A trick of the mind?
“I’m sending you back to Haven House in a cab.” Ben’s deep voice startled her and made her turn to him before she ran up the ramp to get a better look at the woman. Why? Her sister was dead, not walking the downtown streets in San Francisco.
“Kate, I can’t drive you and this is going to take a while. The guard will go with you and see you back safe. I’ll call you later.”
“What aren’t you telling me?”
“He slashed all the seats with a knife and left a note.”
“What did it say?”
“You don’t want to know.”
“Ben, you can’t keep me out of this. I’m the one he’s after.”
“That’s the point. I’m trying to keep you safe.” Anger filled his words, but behind that came a deep need to protect her.
“Ben, please, I need to know what I’m up against.”
“That bastard killed your sister. He shredded the leather seats and left a note saying next time it will be you. What you’re up against is a man who will stop at nothing to make sure he doesn’t lose everything. Do you get it? Do you understand why I want to surround you with guards and lock you in a room?” Frustration at the lack of an enemy to fight made him shove his hands into his slacks pockets and glare past her at the wall. He wanted to fix this, make it right and safe for her to go home and be on her own.
“Okay.” Her easy answer made him frown even harder.
“Okay? Just like that. Okay?”
“If I only had myself to look out for, I’d fight you on this and win, because let’s face it, I don’t like being told what to do. But I have to think about Alex. He needs me. So I won’t be stupid about this. I’ll take the guard and go back to Haven House and wait for you to call me.”
“Thank you.” He pulled his hands free from his pockets and reached for her face, cupping her cheeks in his warm palms. He stepped close, blocking her from view of the two guards. “You forgot one thing in that nice but totally unbelievable statement.”
He got it. She’d said the words, but didn’t really want to leave him here to deal with this mess alone. She didn’t want to take a backseat and let others handle things for her. Not her way, but the safest way in this case. “What’s that?”
“Alex does need you. And so do I.” He pressed her back against the wall as he leaned in for a kiss. She expected there to be all heat and need scorching her lips and insides. Instead, he kept the kiss light and filled with warmth that spread through her in a wave of heat. His hard body pressed against hers. She slipped her hands inside his jacket, around his lean waist, and up his back, pulling him close. He held himself against her with one arm braced at the wall next to her head; the other hand held her face, his thumb pressed under her chin to tilt it up for him to take the kiss deeper. His tongue traced her bottom lip. She opened for him and he slid his tongue along hers in one long sweep. Sexy as hell. She moaned, and he did it again. Slow, controlled, every movement of his mouth over hers was meant to get and hold her attention. He had it. She wanted more. She wanted to lead him deeper into the fire and watch him burn. She wanted to see him lose control. At the moment, she barely had her desire to rip his clothes off leashed. They were in public, being watched by two armed security guards. Alex sat on the floor right next to her feet. Still, the man knew how to kiss and make her melt.
“Cops are here,” one of the guards called out from further away than she expected. They must have moved back to give her and Ben some space. Either that or the heat coming off of them might scorch the bystanders.
Ben ended the kiss with a brush of his lips to hers, then he kissed the tip of her nose. His thumb pressed her lips and rubbed across them. “You taste so damn good.” The words came out rough and filled with the passion still riding through her own veins.
“I want to stay with you.” To prove it, she fisted her hands in his shirt at his back and held on.
Ben pressed his forehead to hers and closed his eyes. “You. Are. Killing me.” He opened his eyes again and stared into hers. How he found the strength to be tender, she didn’t know, but she appreciated it so much when he caressed the side of her face with his fingertips. “Please, Kate. Go back to Haven House where I know you’ll be safe.”
Kate slid her hands back around his sides and up his chest and over every strong muscle. She pushed him back as she stepped away from the wall. “Okay. You win. I’ll go.”
“Kate, honey, it’s not that I want you to . . .”
She pressed her finger to his lips. “I know. It’s okay. Call me when you’re done here. I’m going to put Alex to bed.”
“You need to sleep.” He swept his thumb along the dark circle under her eye. At this point, she probably looked like a raccoon.
“I will. After you call me and let me know what they find here and that you got home okay.”
“Worried about me?”
She pressed her hand to his over her face, turned, and kissed the inside of his palm. “Yes.”
Ben let out a sigh, his chest heaving under her other hand. He moved aside and gave her space to reach down and grab Alex. “Get moving before I can’t let you go.”
Kate walked away with the security guard and left Ben to deal with the police and the building’s security people. His parting words stuck with her because what she wanted to say back was, “Don’t let me go.”
Chapter Sixteen
THEY STOOD IN the shadows a block from Haven House. The man stared at the money, trying to decide how bad he needed it. Bad enough to commit a crime.
“Look, if you’re not up to the task, just say so. All I’m asking is that you bring me the baby.”
“No one gets hurt?” he asked again.
“That’s up to you. I don’t care how you get the baby, but you don’t get the twenty-five grand unless you bring him to me.”
Parked outside the gates surrounding the small play yard at the back of Haven House for hours, opportunity finally arrived. A way into the heavily secured shelter. The coconspirator talked to his wife through the bars. The man wanted his wife back, but needed the money to pay his legal fees and provide for his family. Easy enough to talk him into doing this with the right amount of cash as incentive.
“You said you could do this for me. If you can’t, well, I’m sure I can find someone else who needs the cash.”
“No. I’ll do it.” He narrowed his eyes and strode off like a man on a mission.
Finally, someone who understood how to do a job. You get it done. The alarm system at Haven House proved its worth, keeping people out. The stunt with Ben’s car had been a half-baked idea to get back at the cocky lawyer. A complete waste of time. The lawyer didn’t matter. Killing that woman and the kid gained them the total inheritance.
Victory.
Chapter Seventeen
KATE CLOSED THE door to her room, ready to crash for the night. In the five days since Evan destroyed Ben’s car and got away with it because the only thing on tape was a dark figure in a mask, she’d barely slept, w
orrying about what Evan would do next. Would he go after Ben to get to her? The thought nearly stopped her heart.
Ben turned on the romance these last few days. He called her several times a day to talk. Really he called to assure himself she was okay. She found it sweet and charming, because he filled up those phone calls with snippets of his day and stories from his past. Out of the blue he’d say, “Did I ever tell you about the time I went fishing at the creek with Jimmy? We played Indiana Jones. Jimmy fell off this fallen log we tried to cross the stream on and I had to fish him out of the water. Biggest catch of my life.”
This inevitably led her to tell him about something she and Margo did when they were young. Like boosting two teenage boys’ bikes when they were eleven and fourteen, riding down to the grocery store to pick up two jugs of chocolate milk, and hiding out in the branches of their favorite tree at the park. When those boys came looking, those bikes were still at the grocery store two blocks down, and they never looked up. Just called out a dozen gruesome threats while they beat all the bushes looking for them.
It took her four of those phone calls to figure out that when he asked her a direct question about her growing-up years, she blew him off each time. But if he told her something about himself, she inevitably tried to top his story with one of her own. She scolded him for tricking her. All he said was how cute she sounded when she was mad. Which made her hang up on him.
So he sent her a gorgeous bouquet of flowers. She leaned down and smelled the sweet spring blooms. Roses, lilies, daisies burst in red, pink, and white and made her ridiculously happy every time she came into her room and saw them.
Kate pulled her shirt off over her head and tossed it on the chair by the window. She undid her bra at the back and sighed when it landed on her shirt. She snapped up her favorite cotton nightgown with the spaghetti straps, white with little blue flowers. She smoothed her hands over the material, straightening the skirt over her jeans. She pulled it up just enough to unbutton and unzip them and slide the denim down her legs. Free of her day clothes, exhausted, she went into the bathroom to scrub her face clean. The warm water helped relax her. So did the cup of tea she’d shared with Jill and Mariana in the dining room. Thank God Mariana begged her to take Alex for the night to earn some extra cash. With assurances from Jill that the teenager had babysat for other babies, Kate gave in and let Mariana take Alex. He’d had a good day. Played a lot during their sit-down tea. He’d sleep well and probably would only get up once in the night for a bottle. She’d made Mariana swear to come get her if Alex woke up more than once, or Mariana couldn’t handle him. She tried to remain relaxed after washing her face and using the toilet, but something nagged at her. She blew it off as missing Alex.
Kate climbed into bed, but grabbed her phone off the side table when it chirped a text message. She smiled before she even swiped the screen to read Ben’s message.
BEN: Sweet dreams.
KATE: Sweeter when you’re in them.
BEN: Then dream of me.
Okay, so maybe she liked cheesy lines. She must, because her heart did that flutter thing she’d gotten used to since Ben became a real part of her life.
Kate settled into the blankets and let her tired body relax into sleep and a dream filled with Ben and the passion that had been building since the moment she saw him again at her sister’s place. In her dream, those sultry kisses they shared weren’t enough anymore. She needed him close. And naked.
He joined their bodies and made love to her. With his body pressed to hers, his hand clamped around her thigh, his hungry mouth pressed to her lips, he loved her into oblivion.
She woke with her heart pounding against her ribs, her breath sawing in and out, and sat up, wondering what made her freeze with fear. Something pulled her from that dream and alerted her to danger.
Muffled whispers in the hall drew her attention. This late at night, most of the residents, if not all, were fast asleep. No alarm sounded, so it must be someone who lived here. Still, the tightness in her gut and the dread flowing through her veins made her slip from bed and her room, headed straight for Alex. The halls were dark but for the soft streetlights glowing from the hall windows.
Her thrashing heart refused to settle, even as she approached Mariana’s door. Voices sounded through the wood.
“You can’t do this,” Valentina shouted.
“Don’t tell me what to do,” a man’s voice shot back.
“He’s just a baby.”
“Papa, please, I promised to watch him.”
“Let him go,” Valentina wailed.
Something thumped and glass crashed to the floor and shattered.
Kate turned the door handle and threw the door wide open, ready to protect her son against whatever threat loomed. She spotted Valentina on the floor by the sofa. Broken shards of glass from the lamp lay spread around her. She struggled to get up, leaned on one hand, and pressed the other to her red, swollen cheek.
Kate glared at the man in front of her. Dark hair, even darker eyes, he stared back at her and sneered.
“So, you like to hit women. Well, come on,” she taunted. “See if you can get past me.”
The man reached down to take Alex from his playpen. Mariana grabbed at his back and pounded with her fists. “No, Papa. Leave him alone.”
The man shoved Mariana aside, sending her sprawling to the wood floor. Mariana scrambled up and kicked her father in the leg, dropping him to his other knee.
Kate stepped in before the teen got hurt. The man stood up, ready to go after Mariana again. Alex wailed from the playpen, spooked when the man jostled it sideways. Kate jumped on the guy’s back and wrapped her arm around his throat. She held her hand and pulled tight, choking him. His hands wrapped around her arm at his throat. He tried to pry her off of him, but she held tight. He spun one way, then the other, trying to throw her off. She used her thighs to hold on to his waist and keep her body stable. When he couldn’t swing her off, he turned and backed into the wall. She banged her head and back, but didn’t let go, not until he shifted and slammed her into the window, breaking the glass. They nearly fell through the window, but the man kept his feet and pulled her back into the room. She lost her grip, slid down his back, and shoved him with both hands the second her feet hit the floor. He swung his arm wide, spinning to face her, and clocked her in the side of the head. Flashes exploded behind her eyes. She squeezed them shut and opened them to help clear her vision.
The man plucked Alex out of the playpen. Mariana stood in front of him, her hands on Alex’s torso, trying to pull him from her father’s grasp. “Let him go, Papa,” she screamed.
“Stay out of this, chica.”
Mariana held tight to Alex and kicked her father in the knee again. He fell sideways, but caught himself. Kate punched him in the kidney, then the ribs under his left arm. He released Alex. Mariana pulled him close, spun around, and ran. Unfortunately for Kate, the man turned and threw a punch right at her face. She blocked the blow, but he wasn’t done and came after her, rushing her head-on. He grabbed her around the waist, picked her up off her feet, and slammed her to the ground, landing on top of her. He punched her in the side three times, planted his arm across her throat, and scrambled up her body to straddle her hips.
“Who sent you here to take my son?”
“Fuck you, bitch. You hide my wife and daughter here, you get what you deserve.”
“Is that right?” She punched him in the nuts.
“Fuckin’ A,” he wailed, grabbing his junk. She tried to buck him off her, but he smacked her across the face. She leaned up and punched him square in the nose. His head snapped back and he fell off her. She scrambled to her feet and kicked him in the jaw, knocking him out cold. Blood flowed out of his broken nose and down his face, pooling on the floor where he lay immobile.
“Fucking asshole.” She pressed her hand to her face, hoping to e
ase the throbbing sting.
Valentina cowered in the corner, her back to the wall. The second she saw her husband lying on the floor, she scrambled forward and shook him. Her tear-streaked face rose up to her. “What did you do?”
“I gave him exactly what he deserved. Why the hell did you let him in here?”
“He loves me. He misses me.”
“Yes, it’s written all over your face how much he loves you.” Kate tried to find her compassion, but couldn’t. The asshole tried to take her son.
Three cops rushed into the room, guns drawn and at the ready. Kate put her hands up in front of her and froze.
“Kate Morrison?” one of the officers asked.
“Yes, where’s my son?”
“Outside with the girl. He’s fine.”
Another officer subdued Valentina while they handcuffed her husband. “No, please, don’t hurt him,” she pleaded. “Don’t arrest him. He didn’t mean it.”
The cops pulled the man up from the floor. Not quite awake after she knocked him out, he swayed. The officers held him up. “She broke my nose,” the guy whined.
“You probably deserved it,” the officer said, dragging him out of the room and out of sight but not earshot.
“Fucking bitch, I’ll get you for this.”
“Come and get it,” she shouted back, still pissed off he’d gone after her son. Mostly, she felt guilty for leaving Alex with Mariana. He was her responsibility. She’d left him, and he’d nearly gotten kidnapped and, probably worse, killed if Evan got his hands on him.
“Miss Morrison, why don’t you sit down,” the remaining officer suggested.
She didn’t so much sit as fall onto the couch cushion. The adrenaline wore off and she felt every cut on her back from the glass window, every bruise to her ribs, and the pounding ache in the back of her head where he’d slammed her into the wall.
She rubbed her fingers over the small lump. “Fuck, that hurts.”
Everything She Wanted Page 17
