Everything She Wanted

by Jennifer Ryan

  He stood and wrapped her in his arms. He tried to kiss her, but she leaned back, grabbed his belt, and used it to spin him around. His head spun. She pushed his bare belly and he fell back on the bed. The room spun around him like a merry-­go-­round. He pressed the heels of his hands to his eyes and tried to steady himself.

  Mandy unbuckled his belt, undid his button and zipper, and pulled his jeans down his legs. “I guess I have to do all the work.”

  Evan was happy to let her.

  “What happened here?” Mandy traced her fingertips over the scar that ran around the side of his right thigh.

  “An accident.”

  “It looks like it got infected.” Her fingertips traced the red marks.

  “It did. I had to have it cleaned and stitched at the Emory Urgent Care after it happened.” He’d cleaned and bandaged it himself, but after several days the deep wound got worse. He’d had no choice but to get a doctor to fix him up.

  “Well, I’ll make you forget all about that nasty cut.”

  “It doesn’t hurt anymore. I wish it would go away,” he slurred, sleep creeping in. He shook his head to clear out the cobwebs, but that sent the room spinning again.

  “Give me a minute to clean up in the bathroom. I’ll be right back.”

  “ ’K.” He stared at her ass and smiled back at her when she closed the bathroom door. His eyes closed along with it.

  Chapter Twenty-Six

  KATE PARKED FIVE cars over and one row back from Evan’s Range Rover. She kept her eyes on the motel room door, waiting for Mandy to come back out. Sam parked behind the building and stood in the covered space between the office and the rest of the building by the ice and vending machines. He blended into the shadows. Ben parked two cars over. He kept his gaze trained on her. It burned into her like a brand. She felt his anger and knew she’d have to answer for her actions. He wouldn’t be happy. He may not understand, but she had to do this.

  It seemed like hours passed before the motel room door opened. Mandy walked out only twenty minutes later and stared at all the cars, looking for her. Kate stuck her hand out the window and waved. Mandy spotted her and trotted over.

  “He passed out when I went in the bathroom. I got it,” she said, leaning down to stare at Kate through the window.

  “Let’s see.”

  Mandy held up her phone. Sure enough, she’d captured Evan sprawled on the bed, a long angry red line across his thigh. It seemed like a long time for that cut to heal.

  “It’s a nasty scar. He said it got infected. He had to have a doctor fix it up.”

  “Did he say where he got medical care?”

  “Emory Urgent Care.”

  “Did you post this to your FB page?”

  “Oh, yeah. I forgot that part.”

  “Make the picture public, so anyone can see it. If he asks why you did it, just say you thought he looked cute.”

  “He does, doesn’t he?”

  “Don’t forget to tag it with his name and put the caption we talked about.”

  “Okay, done.” Mandy turned her phone to show Kate.

  “Perfect. Thanks, Mandy. I hope you enjoy your new car.” Kate handed over the forty-­five hundred dollars.

  Mandy counted it quickly, smiling and holding the stack of cash to her ample chest.

  “Can I drive you somewhere?” Kate didn’t want to leave her stranded.

  “No, thanks. I’m going to walk to the Denny’s on the corner and get something to eat. I’m starving. I’ll catch a cab or call a friend to take me home.”

  “You’re sure? I hate to leave you here alone.”

  “Evan and I have stayed here a few times. I’m good. Thanks for the money. This will really make things easier.”

  Mandy waved and walked away, down the driveway and sidewalk toward the corner.

  Kate found the picture on her phone and emailed a copy to Detective Raynott with the information for the clinic Evan used.

  Sam and Ben met at her car, staring down at her through the window. She held up her phone, showing them the picture.

  “He’s injured,” Sam said.

  “My sister sliced him open. The blood on the knife has to be his.”

  “But the results came back, Kate. It’s not a match,” Ben pointed out.

  “They never tested it against Evan’s DNA. The test was to see if the blood found on the knife was a familial match to Donald. It’s not.”

  Ben swore, put his head back, and looked up at the night sky. Morgan’s words rang in his head and came out his mouth. “The truth is in the details.” He stared down at Kate. “Evan isn’t Donald’s son.”

  “Christina cheated on him from the very beginning of their marriage. She passed Evan off as Donald’s son. That’s what he found out. That’s what prompted his sudden move to divorce her and cut off Evan.”

  “The DNA test you found in his papers,” Ben said. “Not to find out if Alex was a match, but Evan.”

  “Exactly. Evan killed them to ensure he got his inheritance. I’ve sent the photo to Detective Raynott. Let me leave him a message. Hopefully, when he gets the DNA results back they ran to see if Christina’s blood was on the knife, it’ll show that the blood is a familial match to her. That will be enough to get a warrant and arrest Evan.”

  She called the detective and hoped to leave him a message, but he answered on the second ring.

  “Raynott.”

  Kate put her phone on speaker for Ben and Sam to listen in. “This is Kate Morrison. I’m sorry to call so late.”

  “Don’t worry about it. I caught a break on one of my cases and stayed late to see it through. What can I do for you?”

  “I have some information on my sister’s case. Check out the picture I sent to your email.”

  “Got it. Is that Evan Faraday?”

  “In the flesh.”

  “Nice scar. So your sister did cut him.”

  “You’re staring at the proof. I sent the name of the clinic. You can get the medical records from the doctor who worked on him.”

  “Got it. I’ll contact them in the morning.”

  “You do understand what this means?” she asked.

  “The blood on the knife is Evan’s. He’s not Donald’s son, which gives him the perfect motive to kill his father before that fact came to light and Evan lost his big, fat inheritance.”

  “We’re on the same page. How long until you get the DNA results?”

  “I expect them Monday morning. Once I’ve got that plus what you sent me, I’ll have all I need to arrest Evan. We’re almost there, Kate.”

  “Thank you, Detective. Keep me and Ben posted.”

  “Will do. Try to have a good weekend.”

  Kate said goodbye and hung up. She gripped the steering wheel and stared straight ahead, wishing the wheels of justice didn’t grind along so slowly.

  “Elizabeth and I will keep Alex for the night. I’ll drop him off at your place first thing in the morning. You two good?”

  “We’re fine.” Ben bit out the words.

  “I’ll say good night, then. Kate, nice work tonight.”

  Kate stared up at Sam from her front seat. She didn’t miss the scowl on Ben’s face. “Thanks, Sam, for watching my back and taking care of Alex.”

  “You’ve got an outstanding backside to watch.” Sam winked and walked away.

  Kate laughed under her breath.

  Ben glared down at her. “Are you okay to drive?”

  “I’m fine.”

  Ben opened his mouth to say something, but closed it before he uttered a single word. He stuffed his hands in his pockets and continued to stare down at her. The anger rolling off him washed over her, making her chest tight. She’d really pissed him off with this stunt.

  “Shall we go home to your place, or would you rath
er I stay at mine?” She held her breath, hoping she hadn’t screwed everything up.

  “I don’t care where the fuck we stay, so long as we do it together.”

  “Okay, so we’ll go to your place, since Sam will bring Alex there in the morning.”

  “If that’s not where you want to be, Kate, then say so right now.”

  Unexpected tears filled her eyes. She hadn’t just made him angry, she’d hurt him. Deeply. The thought of losing him made her stomach sour and her heart crack and bleed.

  She pushed her car door open, stepped out, and threw herself into his tall body. She held on with her arms locked around his neck. “I know you’re mad, but please don’t end this. Don’t push me away.”

  “You did that tonight by leaving me out of your plans and sneaking around behind my back.” Despite the harsh words, he held her close with his hands banded at her lower back.

  “I’m sorry. I’m so sorry. I knew I shouldn’t have done it, but I did it anyway. I’ve never had anyone but Margo to rely on.”

  “That’s bullshit, Kate. You know you can count on me. Haven’t I proven that to you by now?”

  “Yes. But you would have tried to talk me out of doing this. You wouldn’t want me to put myself in danger.”

  Ben’s hands clamped onto her hips. “Because that asshole has proven he’s willing to kill to keep what he thinks is his.”

  “I had to do it. No one ever stood up for Margo and me the way we did for each other. I owed her this.”

  “Tell me something. If you hadn’t gotten the woman to get Evan naked, did you plan to do it yourself?”

  She tried not to smile, but it came anyway. She leaned back in his arms and looked him in the eye. She owed him that. “No. In my younger days, I was known to haunt a lot of bars just like that one.”

  One of his eyebrows cocked up.

  “I was a messed-­up girl, looking for love in all the wrong places. I thought my self-­worth was tied to a man’s devoted attention. A hard lesson to learn my worth is only calculated by me.”

  “You are one in a million, Kate.” Ben reached up and traced her cheek with his fingertips. The soft gesture belied the frustration and anger still in his dark eyes.

  “In any given bar, there is always a woman willing to earn some cash. I didn’t need Mandy to sleep with him, though she’s done that plenty in the past. That worked to my advantage.”

  “You didn’t feel right about her taking the money and sleeping with him, so you made sure to get him drunk enough to pass out.”

  “You get that about me, which pisses you off more, because I left you out of this.”

  “If you’d told me your plan, I might have actually gone along with it and watched your back.”

  She smoothed her hands up and down over his shoulders, trying to soothe him. “You did. It worked out just like that.”

  “Just because Sam caught you in a lie and followed you, and I ended up here, doesn’t make you right.”

  “I’m not right. What I did worked, but making you mad wasn’t my intention.”

  Ben’s grip on her hips tightened. He let loose his frustration and gave her a little shake. “Do you have any idea how I’d feel right now if you got hurt or killed tonight pulling this stunt?”

  She kept her gaze steady on his. “Ben, I’m sorry.”

  “Right. Sorry you got caught.”

  “No. I’m sorry this has torn a rift between us.”

  “Kate, I’m angry, but I’m not leaving you.”

  “You think I don’t trust you.”

  “You trust me to a point. That’s not enough for me.”

  She pressed her hand to his jaw. “The thing is, I do trust you. I trust you to be you. To be the kind, caring man who will take care of my son if anything happens to me. To be the voice of reason when I’m unreasonable.”

  One side of his mouth drew back in a grim line. “Like tonight.”

  “Yes. I didn’t want you to talk me out of this. I didn’t want to hear all the reasons I shouldn’t have done this, knowing you’d be right. Tonight, I had to set Margo free. Let her rest in peace knowing the man who killed her will pay for his crimes.”

  “Why tonight?”

  “It’s my birthday.”

  His grip went loose. One hand came up and rested on her chest; his fingertips lightly rested on the base of her neck. “What? Why didn’t you tell me?”

  She covered his hand and held it tight to her skin. “Not my actual birthday. Margo and I celebrated two, the day we were born and the day we were set free.”

  “This is the day you killed your father.”

  “Yes. All I thought about all day is that I’d freed myself from my past, but Evan held my future hostage. Locked up in your apartment, a prisoner, unable to even go to the grocery store without worrying that he’d do something to me or Alex. I can’t live like that. Never again.” She hoped he understood her past had come back to haunt her. Living every second of her young life in fear of her father wasn’t any different than doing the same now, only it was worse because she had to protect Alex. If something happened to him, no telling how far she’d go to avenge his death, no matter the cost to herself.

  Ben cupped her face and tilted it up to meet his gaze. “I know you’ve been struggling.”

  “I’ve been falling apart little by little on the inside, Ben. I’m not the kind of person to sit back and let others do the dirty work. My grief for my sister wages war against my feelings for you. The happiness I feel when I’m with you and Alex adds on to my guilt that Margo isn’t here to experience the same. My anger builds that all this death and devastation is over something as stupid as money. I want to just give it to them to make them stop, but know that doesn’t really solve anything. I’m frustrated and feel completely inadequate to end this, be the mother Alex deserves, and find my way past all of this to be the woman you both need me to be. Look at how I fell short today with you.”

  Ben crushed his mouth to hers. His anger vanished with every word she spoke with such honesty. He thought he understood her frustration and feelings, but to hear her admit how much she struggled with her emotions and trying to be everything for everyone in her life made his heart ache. He didn’t want to be one more burden, but the person who held her up, the soft place she fell, the reason she endured and was happy.

  He admired her strength. So much so that he figured there wasn’t anything she couldn’t handle. Just because she could, didn’t mean it was easy for her.

  He softened the kiss, brushing his lips over hers again and again to settle her and him. He tasted her tears and wiped them away with a brush of his thumbs over her damp cheeks.

  “I’m not a crier. Lately, it seems I have no control.”

  She pressed her forehead to his chin and gripped his shoulders for support. She never lost it in front of anyone else. She held it together, but with him she let her guard down, trusting that he’d comfort her.

  Maybe he’d overreacted tonight. Not about what she’d done, but that she’d done it with no regard for how it would make him react and feel.

  “I’m sorry, Ben. I really am.”

  “Promise me you won’t pull a stunt like this again, and I’ll forget the whole thing.”

  Kate stepped back and stared up at him. “I’ll tell you first the next time I need to pull a stunt like this, and I’ll listen while you try to talk me out of it.”

  He couldn’t help the smile. “Damnit, Kate, you just can’t help making me crazy.”

  “Are you still crazy about me?”

  “If it’s crazy to want you the way I do, then I should probably be committed.”

  “I’d bust you out.” The soft, seductive smile on her face did him in.

  He pulled her back into his arms and kissed her softly. “Let’s get out of here before that asshole wakes up and catches us.�
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  One side of Kate’s lush mouth tilted down. “He drank so much he won’t wake up for hours. When he does, I hope his head feels like it’s going to split open.”

  “You’ve got a mean streak in you, Kate.”

  “Only for those who deserve it. For you, I’ve got a soft spot that keeps growing.”

  He leaned down and kissed her on the neck, exactly where he’d learned made her shiver and melt in his arms. “Like right there.” He slid his tongue up her neck and pressed a kiss behind her ear. “Or right there.”

  “Ben, take me home.”

  “I’m taking you to bed and keeping you there until you’re too exhausted to plot behind my back.”

  “Oh, well, that’s going to take a while. I have a very active imagination.”

  “Use it for good and come up with ways to make tonight up to me.”

  That seductive smile he’d grown addicted to bringing out in her spread across her face and brightened her eyes with mischief. “Oh, I’ll come up with something.”

  “I’m counting on it.”

  The drive home seemed to take forever. He kept his thoughts on how much he loved Kate and wanted to make love to her tonight. He put this whole incident in the back of his mind, knowing that once their lives were back to normal and the threat the Faradays posed was eliminated, Kate and he could finally settle into a normal life.

  Kate parked beside him at his place. He tugged her out of the car and to the elevator. They held it together in front of the security guys, but the minute he had her alone in the elevator car, he kissed her the whole way up to his floor and had her panting when the elevator doors opened. She giggled and ran after him as he pulled her down the hall to his door. Once inside, he spun her around and pressed her against the back of the door and buried his face in her neck, kissing a trail down to her breasts, peeling her purple blouse aside to taste and lick her soft skin.

  Her nimble fingers worked the buttons open on his dress shirt. Impatient toward the end, she dragged the material over his head and tossed it away. Her palms pressed to his chest and slid up over his shoulders and down his back.

  He cupped her breasts. She moaned and arched her back, pressing her breasts into his hands. He wanted to tear her clothes off, but gave himself the pleasure of sliding his hands down over her body and around her hips to her gorgeous ass. He squeezed and kneaded. She pushed her hips forward. He slid one leg between her thighs and pulled her against him. She rocked against his leg, rubbing herself against him. Her thigh rubbed against his aching cock, making him groan in sweet pain. Her fingers dug through his hair and grabbed on. God, but he needed to be inside of her now.