Jack.
Tossing an arm over her eyes, Tess groaned.
The image of Jack’s taut, tan skin glistening in the sun as he worked stirred her desire unlike any before.
After the fiasco in the garage, it had taken her no more than a minute to realize Jack was now working shirtless. And while she’d acted as though his shirtless state hadn’t affected her, it had.
After laying eyes on his muscular physique, she’d been useless the rest of the day. She hadn’t been able to work more than five minutes before she caught herself staring as his muscles rippled and rolled with every movement as he stroked the paintbrush gently against the railing.
With a single glance, Jack could set her body ablaze. He was a force to be reckoned with.
Jack’s stunning good looks would leave even the most chaste of women questioning her decision.
She needed to tread carefully, or she’d find herself falling for his irresistible charm.
“Just go to sleep.” She groaned as she forced herself to relax. But just as sleep threatened to claim her once again, a soft creak reached her ears, and this time she recognized the sound … footsteps on the stairs.
Her eyes popped open as she bolted upright in bed. Narrowing her eyes against the darkness, she listened carefully, training all her senses on the sounds around her. She willed herself to stay calm.
When another creak sounded, Tess knew for certain she wasn’t alone. Slipping quietly from the bed, she tiptoed to the dresser.
Easing open the top drawer, careful not to make a sound, she reached in and pulled out her gun.
She slid the clip into place, flicked the safety switch off, and then crept quietly across the room to stand beside the door. When it opened, she’d be behind it. The door itself and the shadows would give her the cover she needed to conceal herself and get the drop on the intruder without being seen.
Tess had been a cop for a very long time, but all those years of experience didn’t curb the fear creeping up her spine as she waited for whoever was in her home to make their appearance. Slowly, the knob turned. Getting a better grip on her gun, Tess took a deep breath as the door eased open with an eerie creak straight out of a horror flick.
Hiding in the shadows, Tess eased away from the wall to peer around the edge of the now-open door. She watched quietly as a tall, black-clad figure stepped into the room.
Taking a quick survey of the intruder, she noted his medium build.
He wasn’t as tall as Jack, but he still stood a foot taller than she did.
She held perfectly still and watched as the trespasser crept to the side of her bed. Stopping as though he were surprised to find her gone, he seemed to panic as he raised his head and looked quickly about the room.
Who was he, and why was he in her house? He was obviously looking for her, but why?
There’s only one way to find out, she thought to herself.
Stepping quickly from behind the door, Tess held her gun on the prowler.
“Don’t move.” She hoped her voice sounded as stern as she wanted it to. As he raised his hands into the air, she took a step farther into the room. “Turn around,” she said sternly. As he did so, she kept her gun trained on his chest.
Stepping sideways, she reached out and flicked the light switch on. Bright light spilled into the room, illuminating the intruder, but with his black mask and clothing, she couldn’t determine any real characteristics other than his build.
“Who are you and what do you want?” she asked forcefully while scanning his body for visible weapons.
A large hand forcefully clamped over her wrists knocking the gun from her hands before twisting her arm behind her back. She was then hauled back against a hard chest as a second hand clamped over her mouth, smothering her scream. The man she’d been facing lunged forward and grabbed the gun she’d lost. He walked to her.
Fear spiked within her as she fought against the other man’s vise-like hold. Fiercely, she fought with as much power and strength as she could muster, but the man holding her was a brick wall. Nothing she did seemed to faze him.
The first man, now holding her gun level with her face, smiled beneath his mask.
Adrenaline rocketed through her as, without thinking, she kicked out and her foot connected with the gun.
A shot ripped through the air as the gun went off. It hit the floor and slid beneath the bed as the man holding it lost his grip on the weapon.
“She’s a wild one.” The voice at her ear sounded rough as she continued her struggle.
“He said she would be,” the other replied. The man in front of her cautiously came forward and, timing her kicks, grabbed her legs then pulled a roll of duct tape from the pocket of his hooded sweatshirt and began taping her ankles together before moving on to do the same to her hands.
“Slap a piece of that on her mouth and let’s get her to the old man. Someone might have heard that shot, and I don’t wanna have to come back and do this again.”
Nodding his agreement, the other man did as he was told and covered her mouth with a thick piece of duct tape.
A million questions raced through her head as she was tossed over the man’s shoulder.
Who was the old man, and why did he want her?
Breathing deeply, Tess racked her brain for ways to get out of this situation but drew nothing more than a blank as she watched the stairs pass beneath her view.
* * * *
Jerking upright in bed, Jack frowned.
“What the hell was that?” He feared he already knew, as this wasn’t the first time today he’d heard that same sound … a gunshot.
“Tess.”
Leaping from the bed, he grabbed his discarded jeans and pulled them on as he stumbled to the dresser. He removed his gun from a drawer and shoved it into the back of his jeans. Sprinting down the stairs, Jack flew out the main door and across the street. Looking up, he noticed her bedroom light was on, and more than one shadow caught his eye. Someone was up there.
Reaching Tess’s front door, Jack twisted the knob and scowled. It didn’t budge. Acting on a hunch, he bent down and lifted the welcome mat. Bingo! Like some, Tess kept a spare key there. Bending down quickly, he removed the key from under the mat. Just as he was about to place it in the keyhole, he stopped as the sound of heavy footfalls sounded in the entry.
Turning to the left, he peeked through one of the door’s side windows.
Two men were coming down the stairs, one holding a bound and gagged Tess over his shoulder like a sack of potatoes; another led the way toward the kitchen and rear exit.
Running, Jack leapt over the freshly-painted porch rail and rounded the side of the house.
Fear coursed through his veins as he made his way as quickly and quietly as possible to the rear of the house.
Sliding close to the back door, he pressed himself close to the wall and waited.
Who were these men, and why were they kidnapping Tess? What kind of people kidnapped a cop?
He knew the answer to that question. He just didn’t want to answer it. First the attack in the garage today, and now someone trying to kidnap her? Someone was after Tess, but why?
The knob turned, and the men exited the house. The lead man stopped to hold the door open for the man carrying Tess.
Jack watched for a moment, evaluating his situation.
Leaping into action, he slammed the grip of his gun into the base of the second man’s skull. With a grunt, he dropped like a stone at Jack’s feet.
The man holding Tess turned, and beneath the mask, Jack could see his eyes widen with surprise before he turned and started a mad dash toward the rear wall lining the backyard.
Able to reach the man quickly, as Tess undoubtedly weighed him down, Jack wanted to tackle him, but that action would jeopardize Tess.
Fortunately, he didn’t have to act. Just yards before they reached the wall, the man dropped Tess, closed the distance, scaled the wall, and leapt over.
Out of nowher
e, the second man sprinted past Jack and Tess, hand holding the back of his head, as he too, leapt over the wall and out of sight.
Dropping beside her, Jack grasped the duct tape’s corner. “Quick like a Band-Aid,” he said as he ripped the tape from her lips.
“Son-of-a-bitch that hurt!” she bellowed as she reached up and gingerly touched the irritated skin.
“I’m sorry. It was the best way. Doing it slowly would have only prolonged the sting. What the hell happened?” he asked as he went to work on the tape at her wrists and ankles.
“I wish I knew,” she said irritably with a shake of her head as she recited the detail of her latest attack.
Jack listened to her recount what happened then sat back on the balls of his feet.
If she tried to tell him this was just some teenager, as she had earlier in the day, he was going to scream. Someone was obviously after her. She needed protection until they knew who they were and had them in custody.
“Are you going to try to tell me they were just a couple teenagers out looking for a thrill, or can we call the police now?” he asked with just a hint of sarcasm.
She looked at him; one eyebrow lifted, then she shook her head. “Hell no, those guys tried to kidnap me. I know when I'm in over my head. I want to know what’s going on and put a stop to it.”
Jack couldn’t stop himself from looking her over.
She wore nothing more than a small pair of what looked like boxers, but they were formfitting like panties, and a thin strappy shirt.
Tearing his eyes away from the sight of her perky nipples pressing against the thin material of her top, he asked, “Are you hurt? You hit the ground pretty hard.”
He took her wrists in his hands and examined them before moving lower to her ankles, hoping his lustful gaze at her breasts had gone unnoticed in the dim moonlight.
Shaking her head, she answered, “No, I'm fine. My skin just burns a little where the tape was. After I wash it and put a little cream on it, it’ll be as good as new.”
Nodding, he stood up and helped her to her feet.
“We need to get back in the house and make the call. The sooner someone can get out here and document what happened, the sooner they can find out who’s after you and why.”
“I know,” she said a bit testily, and when he looked at her in question, she cocked a brow. “Didn’t forget I'm a cop, did you?”
“No,” he answered tightly.
As a matter of fact, that fact weighed heavily on his mind.
“I didn’t forget. I just want to protect you.”
The moment he’d heard that gunshot he’d been wound as tight as a bowstring. Only now that he had her next to him, safe and sound, did he start to calm down. The blood pounding in his veins slowed to normal.
“That’s sweet, but I’m a big girl. I don’t need protecting.”
“Didn’t I just save you?” he asked with mock confusion. “You looked very much like you needed help … or was I mistaken?
He watched as she blew out a breath, ran a hand through her disheveled hair, and started moving toward the house.
Following her lead, he trailed after her. She could be mad all she wanted. She wasn’t leaving his sight if he had anything to say about it.
He had the feeling this latest incident wasn’t the last. If someone wanted Tess bad enough to try to kidnap her, they’d be back. Whether she liked it or not, he was going to have to keep a close eye on her … a very close eye.
Chapter Seven
Tess pressed the palms of her hands to her eyes and leaned against the hard back of the chair.
She hadn’t been surprised when two men she recognized as friends from the force, Officer Danny Holdings and his partner, Officer Marty Flynn, knocked on her front door, but what really knocked her socks off was the sight of her street clothes-wearing captain, Richard Lewis. He wouldn’t have been in the office at this time of night, which meant someone had called him at home to inform him what had taken place.
Her skin prickled with suspicion.
Leading them into the house, she led the way into the kitchen and seated them all at the large table.
Once everyone was settled, she told her story as they took notes. Once she finished, they then turned and took Jack’s account of what transpired.
“You and Dean arrested a lot of bad guys. There's no telling who’s after you, if there’s anyone after you at all,” Captain Lewis said on a sigh. When Tess leaned forward, he continued, “But from what you and the PI here tell me, that’s what it sounds like, especially what they said about the old man wanting you.”
There was something in his voice, in his expression, that held Tess on the edge of her seat. She’d known Captain Lewis for over ten years. She knew when he was holding something back. Narrowing her eyes momentarily, she let the question die on her lips. Prodding him wouldn’t do any good. If he felt she needed to know, he’d tell her.
“Can you think of anyone who might be angry enough to come after you?”
Turning her head to the left, she met the deep green eyes of Danny Holdings. He was a handsome man with thick blond hair, a firm masculine jaw, and an astonishing build beneath his form-fitting uniform.
There's no doughnuts in his diet, she mused.
Shaking her head, she frowned. “No one I can think of off the top of my head, but apparently there is someone or you guys wouldn’t be asking so many questions.”
Reaching across the table, Officer Holdings squeezed her hand gently before releasing it to resume his note-taking duty.
“Why did you come, Captain?”
She didn’t mean the question to sound as harsh as it did, but the situation had to be really bad before the captain came out to investigate. When he drained the last of his coffee and plopped his mug on the table with a thunk, that small niggle at the back of her mind tugged, and she grew even more certain he was hiding something. Something she wasn’t going to like.
Rubbing a palm over his balding head, Captain Lewis blew out a breath before answering.
“The truth?” he asked, raising his thick graying eyebrows.
When she nodded, he did the same and, looking to the officers to her left and right, began. “Have you watched the news or read the paper today?”
Shaking her head at the odd question, she answered, “No. We’ve been too busy working on the house to see much television, and I haven’t subscribed to the paper yet. Why?”
“We found Melanie Camillo dead this morning.”
“What?”
“Who’s Melanie Camillo?” Jack asked from where he stood behind her.
The feel of Jack’s strong hands on her shoulders anchored her, calmed her nerves. She didn’t have time to consider why or what it might mean that he was able to ease her with such an innocent touch.
Looking up into his face, she explained, “Dean’s wife.”
When he nodded his understanding, she looked back to the captain.
“What happened?”
“The maid found her. Apparently, she’d had the weekend off, and when she came in this morning, she found her. It looks like she was murdered.”
Tess couldn’t wrap her head around it. She and Melanie were far from friends, but why would someone kill her? As far as she knew, she was nothing more than a money-grubbing whore.
“Was it a robbery?”
“Doesn’t look like it,” Officer Holdings said.
“What aren’t you telling me?” she asked irritably, narrowing her eyes once again on the captain.
“There wasn’t anything missing from the house. She was tied to a chair, and it appears as though she was tortured.”
Tess swallowed thickly. “Tortured? Are you sure?”
Nodding, Captain Lewis took a deep drink of his coffee.
“What does all of this have to do with Tess?” Jack asked from behind her.
Officer Flynn spoke up. “That’s just it. We’re not sure it has anything to do with her at all. But with her being the
victim’s deceased husband’s partner, there's a possibility that whoever tortured and killed Mrs. Camillo is after something. This person may come after Tess, thinking she can help them get whatever it is they’re after. That’s why the captain asked us to call him at home, should you call the station for anything out of the ordinary.”
“That makes sense,” Jack said thoughtfully. “What now?”
Again, Officer Flynn spoke, pushing the black hair from his eyes. “We don’t have much to go on. We could take you to a safe house until—”
“No,” she interrupted him, holding up her hands. “I won’t run. You said yourself you don’t know for certain the same guys that killed Melanie are after me.”
“And we don’t know that they’re not. Tess, you don’t know what these people are capable of. You didn’t see Melanie.” Officer Holdings spoke gently, once again placing his hand over hers and rubbing his thumb over the back of her hand. “Nothing was taken from her house, but you never know what these people might be after. Do you have a safe or anything of monetary value in the house that anyone might know about?”
“Why do you ask?” she asked with a hint of suspicion.
“I’m only asking because, if you do, that might be what they’re after. Whoever knows about it might be the ones after you.”
Tess still didn’t know what her safe had to do with anything. If the men who attacked her tonight had wanted her money, wouldn’t they have asked for it instead of trying to kidnap her?
“No,” she lied. The truth was she had all of the money Dean had left her in a hidden safe in the attic, but the only people who’d ever known about it were Roman and Dean.
But everyone knows your aversion to banks… “Besides, didn’t you say nothing was taken from Melanie’s house? I know for a fact she has a safe; everyone knows that.”
Holdings replied quickly as all eyes turned to him, each holding a question. “I'm just covering all the bases. Like I said, they might not have taken anything from her, but she might not have had what they were looking for, whatever that might have been.”
The Stranger Next Door Page 6
