The Negotiator: A Games People Play Christmas Novella

by HelenKay Dimon

  Wren worked miracles but the slamming in Garrett’s gut didn’t ease. “How?”

  Matthias nodded in the general direction of the older man, the only one not in uniform, coming in Lauren’s front door. “Detective Rick Cryer.”

  Garrett knew him, had worked with him before on the case where Wren met his girlfriend, Emery. “He’s retired.”

  This wasn’t his jurisdiction or even his job. Thanks to the media firestorm following Emery’s case, Detective Cryer was now considered a cold-case specialist and in high demand. Garrett couldn’t imagine how many favors and how much maneuvering and ego-stroking Wren had done to get a friendly ear like Cryer on this case.

  “I guess you owe Wren.”

  Understatement. Garrett owed Wren—all of the Quint Five—for a lot more than this. “He should just clear me, so we can get on with finding out what really happened here.”

  “Any clues?”

  “None. I’ve heard mumbling that the area around the body and in the kitchen had been wiped free of fingerprints, including Lauren’s, which should logically be in her own house. She has an alarm and locks and someone got around all of it.”

  Matthias exhaled. “Well, I think Cryer would be more amenable to making your presence here go away quietly if we weren’t also dealing with the dead guy’s former silent business partner, his brother and his girlfriend, the same woman Carl left Lauren for.”

  That last part struck Garrett as out of place with Carl’s insistence he be allowed to move back in with Lauren. “That woman is in town?”

  “Yes, as are the other two. Apparently all three of them are demanding answers.”

  “Great.” Garrett’s mind flipped to the people he saw huddled outside. Some were neighbors. Others demanded to speak with someone in charge. He’d bet at least one of them had a vested interest in Carl.

  “How’s Lauren?” Matthias asked.

  Garrett’s gaze traveled back to her, toured her face. Exhaustion tugged at the corner of her mouth. The shock still hadn’t left her wide eyes. “Stunned.”

  “Understandable. It’s not every day a supposedly dead husband shows up really dead—re-dead, dead again . . . I’m actually not sure of the proper terminology here—on her carpet.” Matthias said something under his breath that sounded a lot like the stupid fucker.

  “I’m thinking he’ll only really be dead this one time.” And he deserved justice, so Garrett vowed to get it for him. For Lauren, really, but Garrett was fine with Carl benefitting in some small way from that.

  “Good. It would suck if this kept happening.”

  Garrett barely heard the words but then the comment hit him full force. “Was that a joke?”

  Matthias shrugged. “Kind of.”

  “The whole girlfriend thing suits you.” Garrett took the opportunity to sneak a peek at Kayla. She hovered right behind Lauren as they shook hands with Detective Cryer.

  Kayla had been a surprise. Garrett had come to Annapolis with Matthias months ago at Wren’s urging to learn more about Matthias’s brother’s murder years before. The sexy waitress with the reddish-brown hair knocked Matthias right off his game and Garrett had loved every minute of watching the big man fall.

  “You have no idea.” Matthias’s wide grin came and went. “But, one warning for you. Kayla is Lauren’s best friend. You might want to remember that.”

  “Meaning?”

  “Don’t fuck Lauren over. Kayla might look sweet but she will break you in half if you hurt Lauren.” Matthias shook his head. “She’s got a mean streak and her love for Lauren is absolute.”

  “I know firsthand how tough Kayla is.” She’d actually saved his life months ago, which was not something Garrett was likely to forget. “Besides, if she can tolerate you she must have nerves of steel.”

  “You’ve been warned.”

  A few minutes later Lauren headed for them with Kayla trailing right behind her. She kept walking until she stood next to Garrett. When she leaned against him, he wrapped an arm around her and pressed a palm against her lower back. If she needed support, he was more than willing to provide it.

  “Hey.” Her smile didn’t reach her eyes.

  She was tall, almost five-nine, but he still had a good four inches on her. Still, for the first time ever, she slumped. Seemed vulnerable when she usually radiated strength. “You okay?”

  “Not really.”

  “Yeah, I guess not,” Matthias said as his gaze switched from Garrett to Lauren and back again.

  Lauren never stopped moving. She shifted her weight and bit her lip as she talked to her friends. “Thanks for coming.”

  “We’ll be here for whatever you need.” Kayla reached out and grabbed Lauren’s hand.

  Lauren held on for a few seconds then dropped her hand. “Right now, I just need to sit down. The endless questioning has my head spinning.”

  “What are the police saying?” Matthias asked in his usual cut-through-the-bullshit kind of way.

  “That I can’t leave town.”

  Garrett wasn’t surprised. “Standard procedure.”

  Lauren glanced up at him. “You mean there is a set way of handling a situation where someone comes back from the dead?”

  The woman had a point. “Admittedly, this might be uncharted territory.”

  “You can come back to the house and stay with us for as long as you need to.” Kayla reached for Lauren’s arm as if to lead her toward the front door.

  Garrett pounced. He didn’t mean to, but his voice rose and he instinctively stepped in front of Lauren. “No.”

  “Interesting. Do you have another suggestion, Garrett?”

  Garrett ignored the amusement he heard in Matthias’s voice and saw in Kayla’s raised eyebrow as he answered. “I got her a suite at the Carsley Inn.”

  For a second the rest of the group stared at him. If there was such a thing as a group frown he could now honestly say he’d been on the receiving end of one. The women managed to look baffled and skeptical. Matthias clearly fought off a smile. The asshole.

  “This suite . . .” Matthias’s annoyingly light voice trailed off. “You’ll just happen to be sleeping in it as well?”

  That was enough to break Kayla’s stare. She rolled her eyes. “Subtle.”

  “I can stay here.” Lauren looked around, her gaze bouncing off the walls and furniture—everywhere but at Carl and the experts buzzing around his body, collecting evidence and taking photographs of everything and everyone.

  “It’s a crime scene. You have to leave for at least a short time.” Garrett wanted to get her out of there. That meant heading through the crowd outside and possibly being stopped by someone who knew Carl.

  “My office—”

  “Lauren.” She still wasn’t getting this, so he tried again. “This isn’t up for debate.”

  Fire flashed in her eyes. “Excuse me?”

  About damn time. There was the Lauren he knew. Sharp, aware and not easy to push around. The last few hours had beaten her down but she rose right back up again. Garrett couldn’t think of anything hotter.

  Matthias leaned closer to Kayla but didn’t bother lowering his voice. “Watching these two work through this is going to be fun.”

  Lauren’s head shot up. “This?”

  The tone suggested she was not in the mood for jokes. If Matthias heard it, he ignored it. “Do I really have to spell it out?”

  Kayla sighed at him. “A man is dead.”

  “Right.” Matthias cleared his throat. “Sorry.”

  That led them right back to Garrett’s point. He wanted to get settled in, call Wren and try to get a read on Detective Cryer’s initial thoughts on the case. First, he had to convince Lauren she needed a roommate. “Matthias and Kayla don’t live in town. You need to be close to work and available for . . . questioning.”

  Kayla winced. “Not your best argument since I work twenty feet away from her office.”

  A man could not catch a break. Garrett wanted to tell both Matt
hias and Kayla that he could handle this, but he was pretty sure Kayla would punch him. He spared her a quick glance before looking at Lauren again. She was the one he needed to convince. “My point is the Carsley Inn is a neutral location. We can watch over you there. I’ll be nearby.”

  Matthias shook his head. “We’re finally getting to a bit of truth.”

  “Shut up,” Garrett shot back.

  “It’s not fun having your personal life picked apart, is it?” Matthias asked. “Having a friend all up in your dating business.”

  Lauren frowned at Matthias. “We’re not dating.”

  It figured that was the part of the conversation she’d focus on. Garrett couldn’t imagine what Matthias would do with that information later.

  “Are you sure?” Matthias asked.

  Lauren’s frown only deepened. “Wouldn’t I know?”

  “Given Garrett’s skill with women? Possibly not.”

  “Okay, stop. Let’s focus.” Garrett moved Lauren out of the direct path from the front door to the body as two members of the forensic team headed for Detective Cryer. Garrett tried to ignore all the activity spinning around them and focus on the woman in front of him. “Come to the Inn for a few days. I’ll ride the detective to get you back into the house as soon as possible.”

  “And where will you be while all of this happens?” Matthias asked.

  Garrett didn’t even look at his friend. He kept staring at Lauren, willing her to agree. “On her couch. For protection.”

  Matthias exhaled. “Of course. Who wouldn’t want a finance guy as a bodyguard?”

  Oh, come on. “Do you even know what I do?”

  Matthias shrugged. “Not really.”

  Garrett was about to shoot off a two-word response when Lauren answered. “Fine.”

  Kayla’s eyes widened. “What?”

  “You’re making it too easy on him, Lauren,” Matthias said at the same time.

  “I don’t want to put either of you in danger, especially so soon after all that happened to you.” Lauren’s voice grew stronger the more she talked to Kayla.

  “You’re saying you’re okay with Garrett being in danger?” Matthias got the question out but Kayla elbowed him in the stomach right after.

  “Let me get the okay from Detective Cryer and we can leave.” Lauren headed back to the kitchen before Garrett could stop her.

  As soon as she was gone Kayla pointed at Garrett. “You behave.”

  “What are you—”

  A sharp shake of her head stopped him from saying anything else. “Garrett, her idiot husband is dead—”

  “Again,” Matthias added.

  Kayla talked right over him. “She is on a wild emotional ride. Don’t add to it.”

  “Did we stop getting along and you didn’t tell me?” Back when she started dating Matthias, Garrett had been her ally. An ally to both of them, really, but they didn’t know that at the time.

  “I like when you keep Matthias in line.”

  Matthias threw his hands up in the air. “Hey.”

  “But I’m not sure if I want you crawling all over my best friend.” Lauren’s eyes narrowed. “I’ve seen how you look at her. All those trips down here for pie. Please. As if they don’t serve pie in DC.”

  Not pie that came with a view of Lauren, but Garrett decided not to explain that. Not when Kayla was in protective momma-bear mode.

  “I don’t plan to . . .” But he stopped because he actually did plan to. Not right now because he had some level of control and decency, but he didn’t have any plans to leave Lauren alone unless she asked him to. And he sure as hell hoped that didn’t happen. “Okay, I do have some finesse, you know.”

  Kayla studied him for a second. Her half-angry, half-skeptical gaze roamed all over him. “Then use it. Lauren might be tough on the outside but Carl is her weak spot.”

  “She’s not in love with him.” He was positive that much was true.

  “He hurt her, Garrett.” Kayla’s voice dropped lower. “You better not do the same.”

  Chapter Four

  It took them another hour to pack up the few things the police let Lauren take, answer a few more questions and get out of there. Checking into the suite ran smoother. Then the pacing started. She walked back and forth in front of the small couch in the living room area and tried to clear her head. Looking at the one king-sized bed hadn’t done it. That took her mind in another, very wild direction.

  This might be the right place, but it was not a reasonable time. Carl was dead. The police were asking questions. But still, the revving inside her wouldn’t stop. It was as if energy pinged around, begging to escape. She felt as if she were out of control and careening toward some invisible edge.

  The only thing that made sense to her right now was Garrett. Strong, reliable, oh-so-tempting Garrett.

  She’d held him off for months but he kept coming back. At first, his tenacity weirded her out. Not that she thought he was dangerous. She just didn’t get why he bothered. The man was tall and fit with shoulders she ached to climb. He’d shoot her a smile and her insides would melt. Turn her into one big puddle of longing and need.

  Back then she’d been so careful. She might have convinced the court Carl was dead but she knew better. The lingering worry he’d be back never left her mind. She’d never been a lucky person. She’d gone from taking care of a mother who battled depression and darkness with pills and alcohol, until the day she followed through with her threats to drive her car into that tree, to a husband who demanded she handle all the physical work while he kept her at an emotional distance. It was quieter, safer, to be alone.

  Out on the boat. Laughing with clients. None of that was real. She could leave it behind at the end of the day and not be responsible for anyone else’s happiness or health.

  Then Garrett stormed into her life.

  He was funny and charming and made no secret about how much he wanted her. He whipped her up in this storm and she’d never experienced anything like it. She took wealthy successful people out on the boat all the time. They tried to impress her. A few idiot men even attempted to touch her. One “accidentally” landed in the water and to this day believed he got there because he slipped and was grateful to her for fishing him out. She knew that because he continued to recommend her boating expertise to friends and business acquaintances.

  Garrett didn’t fit that mold at all. He was confident without being an asshole. Up until him she had thought those two things were irrevocably linked.

  She watched him now as he set their bags down next to the bed. Her first thought was that she actually liked him. The second had to do with how much she missed sex and was ready to restart that part of her life even though the thought of caring about anyone, even short term, scared her witless.

  All of those thoughts ran through her head but she went with a more neutral topic. “Did Kayla give you the shovel talk?”

  He glanced over at her with that sexy grin that made her knees buckle. “What?”

  “The ‘hurt her and I’ll bury you in the desert’ shovel talk.”

  He hummed as he nodded. “Sort of.”

  “She’s being overprotective. It’s sweet.”

  He frowned. “I wonder why.”

  “Me, too.”

  He treated her to one of those long-suffering male exhales. “I was being sarcastic.” He walked over to her and ran a hand up and down her arm. “Hey, sit for a second.”

  “You got a room with one bed.” Nothing like stating the obvious, but there it was.

  “It’s a suite. I plan on sleeping on the couch.”

  “You don’t have to.” The words popped out and sat there in the roaring silence.

  She sure did know how to kill a conversation.

  “I think that . . .” His hand dropped to his side as his eyes narrowed. “Wait, what?”

  In the history of sex conversations this might not be the easiest one. It sure didn’t fill her with confidence to have to beg him to
understand her.

  Those hands and that almost unbearable hotness—she got the sense Garrett McGrath knew what to do with a woman. That made the wide-eyed, openmouthed stare he kept sending her even odder. No way he lacked experience. Everything about him telegraphed sex. Since she didn’t think it was from a lack of interest either, she tried again. “We can share the bed.”

  “I want to make sure we’re not experiencing a misunderstanding here.” He hesitated between each word, as if giving her a chance to jump in and stop him.

  Then his mouth kicked up in a grin and relief whooshed through her. For all his talk, he got it, or at least he was starting to. “I don’t think we are.”

  He held up a hand but the confused look had vanished. No, the emotion in his eyes could only be described as explosive interest. “Okay, tell me what’s happening right now? Use small words. I’ll keep up.”

  “I’m all churned up and pissed off.” She started to pace, or she would have if he hadn’t been standing right there. One step and she ran into him, had to put a hand on his chest to steady herself. “It’s been a long time . . .”

  “Since?”

  He had to be playing with her now. “Are you really this slow?”

  His hand covered hers. That thumb brushed over the back of her hand in a gesture so sexy and soft that she almost jumped on him.

  “You’re talking about sex.” His voice dipped lower now, right into the it’s-time-to-get-naked range.

  Took him long enough. “Yes, Garrett. Hot, strip-our-clothes-off, climb-on-the-bed sex. Or against the wall. I don’t care how as long as it happens. With you.”

  That last part seemed important so she added it. It took mindless sex and plunged it to a deeper level, but she didn’t care. It was the truth. She wanted him. Specifically, him.

  His hand froze and he visibly swallowed. “You refused to have anything we could even call a dinner date for three months and now you want to get naked?”