White Hot

by Elise Noble

  “That’d be my friend’s assistant. He gets excited about new guests.”

  Bradley must have been waiting for us, because the instant the car pulled to a halt, he bounded out of the door. This morning, he’d done his hair up in green and silver stripes, which matched the feather trim on his sweater.

  “Okay, I’ve set up a room and arranged new clothes. I wasn’t totally sure of the sizes, so I just ordered extra and I can send the rest back.” He bounced around to Ethan’s door. “What do you like to eat? Mrs. Fairfax hasn’t started dinner yet. Oh, I’m Bradley by the way.”

  I recognised the look in Ethan’s eyes. The shutters had come down, the same way they did when I first met him. His head dropped so he looked at his feet, his face barely visible under the hood.

  “Bradley, leave him alone. I’ll bring him down to the kitchen when he’s had a chance to settle.”

  “I’m only trying to help.”

  Bradley may be pushy, but he had a heart of platinum. I put an arm around his shoulders. “I know, and believe me, we both appreciate it. It’s just that today’s been a bit overwhelming for Ethan.”

  “I suppose I can understand that.”

  “Why don’t you ask Mrs. Fairfax to surprise us with dinner? Anything she makes is going to be delicious.”

  “Okay, I will.”

  He shuffled back into the house, a little deflated.

  “Is he always like that?” Ethan whispered once he’d gone.

  “Yeah. You’ll get used to him. He means well.”

  “I guess. I’m not used to this. I’ve only ever lived on my own before. Well, at least since I was twelve.”

  Twelve? He’d been alone since he was twelve years old? “What about your parents?”

  This time it was me who got the shutters. “I don’t talk about them.”

  I put a hand on his arm, feeling hurt when he flinched. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to pry. I won’t ask any more questions.” Not when they upset him so much. “Let’s go inside.”

  He followed me meekly, his earlier good spirits evaporated. Why had the mention of his parents upset him so much? By the sound of it, the issues were all in the past, but that didn’t stop me from burning with curiosity. I needed to have another chat with Mack.

  CHAPTER 33

  NOW THAT ETHAN had been released, I had a little bit of breathing space, and I needed to catch up on some of my other cases. This morning’s team meeting had been a marathon of reports, planning, decisions, and briefings that lasted four-and-a-half hours, but I’d survived it, and before I started work on the stuff I couldn’t delegate, I deserved an iced caramel macchiato.

  Ethan had made it through dinner last night and even managed a smile when Bradley brought out a cake shaped like a miniature jail with a hole blown in the wall. By Bradley’s standards, that ranked as tame on the scale of offences against taste.

  This morning, I’d left Ethan in the kitchen talking to Lyle and Oliver over breakfast. Mrs. Fairfax had the day off, so Stefanie had made them all scrambled eggs.

  All that meant I was on my own as I walked out of the coffee place next to Blackwood’s Richmond office, juggling a to-go cup and a bag containing a chocolate muffin. I deserved that too.

  “What the hell do you think you’re playing at?” a voice behind me growled.

  Fuck. I’d forgotten he knew about my coffee habit. “Care to elaborate?”

  “You’re sabotaging my case.”

  “No, Jay, I’m looking at the evidence objectively, which is more than can be said for you.”

  “Bullshit. You’re just trying to get back at me for whatever you imagine you saw the winter before last. Talk about holding a grudge.”

  “There was no imagining necessary. You were going through my files.”

  “Yeah, yeah, you always did believe what you wanted to believe, and now you’re doing it again.”

  “You’re the one who’s talking bullshit.”

  “Ethan White’s a murderer, no matter what your so-called forensic expert says. He was covered in a hooker’s blood, for heaven’s sake.”

  “That was circumstantial.”

  “Daniela, did your ceaseless partying finally kill off the last of your brain cells? Or is there another reason you’re defending a madman?”

  Jay peered closely at me, and I forced myself not to wither under his gaze. He was a tall man, and he used his size to dominate, both in court and out of it.

  “Ah, I get it,” he continued. “You’re fucking him, aren’t you? You got seduced by a celebrity and that’s blinded you to the truth.”

  “No, I’m not fucking him. You have no clue what you’re talking about.”

  Even to my own ears, my words lacked conviction, because while I may not have fucked Ethan, as Jay so eloquently put it, I found it more and more difficult to deny that I wanted to.

  “If I’d known that was all it took to get you on my side, maybe I’d have dragged you into the sack a few more times.”

  He caught my fist half an inch from his face. The muffin bag hit my foot and bounced away.

  “Now, now, there’s no need to be so hot-headed. You always were a feisty one, weren’t you?”

  “I hate you.”

  He laughed at me, and a drop of spit hit my cheek. “Just wait until the end of this case. I’m going to send your boyfriend to the chair, and that’ll give you something to really detest me for.”

  It was a good thing I’d left my gun in the office, because threatening to shoot a prosecutor wouldn’t be a great career move. Instead, I forced myself to speak calmly.

  “Ethan’s not going near the inside of a jail cell again.”

  “What are you going to do? Smuggle him to a non-extradition country?”

  If it came to that, yes. “I won’t have to.”

  Jay took a step closer, then another, until we were toe to toe. “If you do anything to fuck up my election chances, little girl, I’ll rip you apart.”

  “All you’ve got is words, Jay, and they’ve got no power over me. We’ll see you in court.”

  I refused to let him have the last word, so while he took one of his customary dramatic pauses, I turned on my heel and strode off, making myself walk steadily rather than sprinting like my feet wanted to.

  But a few steps out, anger hit me and I swivelled around, wound back my right arm, and hurled my coffee at him. It hit him dead centre in the chest, a perfect bull’s-eye. I resumed my tactical retreat while it dripped down his custom-made suit, ignoring the obscenities he shouted after me.

  Fuck.

  I was still shaking when I got back to Blackwood. That bastard. That utter, utter bastard.

  “Is everything okay?” Leah asked.

  “Would you be a doll and get me an iced caramel macchiato and a chocolate muffin from the place down the street?”

  “But I thought you just went… Sure.”

  She grabbed her purse and ran out as I slammed my office door behind me.

  Why did I let Jay get to me so much? I knew what he was like by now. He wound people up to breaking point then waited for them to snap.

  The last time we’d spoken was over a year ago, after he lost the case we’d split up over. My evidence had swung the acquittal, so the defence lawyer told me, and Jay was far from happy about it, something he’d made quite clear in the parking lot afterwards.

  A bit like today, really.

  I’d wondered if time might have mellowed some of Jay’s bitterness, but clearly it hadn’t, just as it hadn’t lessened mine. It looked as if we’d be going up for round two.

  Maybe I should just avoid parking lots.

  My door cracked open, and I was about to tell my unwanted visitor to piss off when I realised it was Emmy. Might as well save my breath. She wouldn’t listen, anyway.

  “What’s up?”

  “I just had a run-in with Skinner.”

  “Ouch. Is he still the same twisted prick he always was?”

  “I think he might have got margi
nally worse.”

  She walked around my desk and gave me a hug. “Just ignore him. That man’s so full of shit his eyes are brown.”

  “I’m trying, but he knows which buttons to push, and he keeps fucking pushing them.”

  “Want me to have a chat?” Which translated as, “Want me to tear him a new asshole?”

  Tempting though it was, this was one battle I had to fight for myself. I was the one who’d been stupid enough to get involved with Jay, and I was determined not to drag others into my mess.

  “No, it’s all right. I’m just going to ignore him.”

  “Well, you only have to say the word if you change your mind.”

  And that was another reason Emmy was my best friend. She may be irritating as hell and so damn good at everything it sometimes made me want to scream, but at the end of the day, she had my back. She’d had it for the last decade, and she’d held me up through the worst times of my life.

  I hugged her back as hard as I could. “Love you, bitch.”

  “I know.”

  CHAPTER 34

  THE CONFRONTATION WITH Jay left me in a shitty mood for the rest of the day. Rather than biting people’s heads off in the office, I went out with one of my teams. Yes, I know I was technically the second-in-command of the entire division, but paperwork bored me, so I often hit the streets. Today, we were hunting for a bail jumper who’d been charged with robbery, and he’d already gotten away from us twice.

  “Third time lucky, do you think?” Isaiah asked.

  “Damn right.”

  We found him in a bar downtown, drinking beer as he chatted up a skanky blonde. Evan shouted from inside before our jumper skidded out the front door and took off down the street. I’d worn sneakers, but it was amazing what desperation could do to a guy. He sprinted three blocks like an Olympian then turned left into the park. Through the trees we went, then he spotted Isaiah coming from the left and cut right, splashing through an ornamental stream and heading for the trees. Fucking fantastic.

  I followed him through the wooded area, branches clawing at my face and clothes. The asshole was still ten yards ahead when he vaulted the perimeter fence into a building site, and I vaguely remembered Mack’s research notes mentioning he ran track in college. Next time I decided to chase a criminal, I’d pick one too fat to run. Fuck this shit. We dashed past a half-built wall, and the jumper glanced back and stumbled. I seized the chance, leapt forwards, and rugby tackled him. Even then, he didn’t give in and began kicking and screaming until we both fell into a bloody great hole.

  Isaiah hauled me out, and between us, we dragged the prick’s unconscious body into a company Explorer, shackled him to a ring in the floor, and dropped him off at the precinct.

  “Well, that was fun,” Isaiah said. “Are you coming back to the office?”

  I’d had enough. Of everything. “Just drop me back at Riverley, would you?”

  “Sure thing.”

  No matter how bad my day had been, I still smiled when I saw Ethan. His face lit up when I walked into the kitchen, but the light in his eyes quickly dimmed when he looked me up and down.

  “Dani, what the hell happened?” He reached forward and picked a piece of twig out of my hair. “Your knees are bleeding.”

  “Oh, that’s nothing. Occupational hazard.”

  “It’s not nothing. Is there a first aid kit here?”

  “Uh, yeah.”

  I led him over to the cupboard off the hallway where Emmy kept the supplies.

  He did a double take. “What are these people trying to do, equip their own hospital?”

  “Emmy believes in being prepared.”

  Even more so since the incident with an assault team that resulted in the death of one of her employees and the serious injury of another.

  “I can see that. Do you want to change your pants?”

  The slut in me wanted to do my hair and slip into a dress, but then common sense overruled and I put on pyjamas instead. I was planning to go to bed right after I’d eaten, and nobody stood big on ceremony in this house. And I absolutely did not want to impress Ethan.

  I rolled the legs up and tried not to wince as he picked gravel out of my knees with a pair of tweezers then doused me with antiseptic. Hell, that stung. He taped dressings over the top and stood, knees cracking.

  “Now all you need is for your momma to kiss it better.”

  “The only thing my mom ever kissed was a crack pipe.”

  Might as well get that out there. If Ethan was going to be around for a few months while we fought this case, he’d most likely find out anyway.

  “Are you serious?”

  “Yeah. I was the thorn in her side.”

  “What about your father?”

  “What father?” I hoped if I told him a bit about my family, he’d reciprocate. “He left two months after I was born and never paid a cent in child support.”

  But Ethan didn’t say a word. Instead, he dropped to the floor in front of me, dipped his head, and placed a soft kiss on each of my knees. Goose bumps worked their way up my legs and across every bit of my skin, and my family, his family, and anybody else who might have happened to roam the planet slipped clean out of my mind.

  In fact, the only words on the tip of my tongue were, “Could you go a little higher, please?”

  I bit them back. Totally inappropriate.

  Ethan got to his feet again, cheeks flushed. “I’m sorry.”

  I wasn’t sure whether he was apologising for what he’d just done or for my shitty childhood. Either way, it didn’t matter.

  “You’ve got nothing to be sorry for.”

  Nothing but giving me another sleepless night, anyway.

  My phone rang in the dark, vibrating and flashing as it played “Trouble in the Message Centre” by Blur.

  Shit.

  I jumped out of bed in an instant, the first trickles of adrenaline already running through my veins. No matter how tired I was, I followed the same routine every night: brush my teeth, check my gun was in my purse, ready and loaded, put my shoes next to the purse, then lay out my phone and headset on the nightstand.

  That meant I was always ready for an emergency, and the late-night invasion by a team of mercenaries at Riverley two years ago left me the tiniest bit on edge whenever I stayed there.

  Headset on: check.

  “Perimeter breached in the gallery. One of the French windows,” a voice from the Blackwood control room told me.

  “Dan here, heading downstairs now.”

  “Diamond to control, armed and ready.”

  “Ana’s already on her way,” the control room said. “She’s on radio silence now.”

  Of course she was ahead. Ana was always ahead. Sometimes, I doubted she even slept. She was like a vampire—permanently out for blood.

  Since I didn’t have anywhere else to put my gun, I kept it in my hand as I hotfooted it down a hidden staircase. Emmy, also known as Diamond, met me in the hallway complete with her Walther P88 and wearing one of her husband’s T-shirts.

  “Do we have visual?” she asked.

  The control room linked into Riverley’s entire security system, cameras included. “One target identified, looks like a male, wearing dark clothes and a hood. He’s heading for the barn.”

  A hood? Could it be…? No, surely not.

  Emmy’s hand tightened around the grip of her gun. Nobody messed with her animals, although if anybody paid a visit to her horse, Stan, and didn’t bring either fruit or extra strong mints, the grumpy bastard would probably kill them himself.

  “Let’s go.”

  A wide gravel path led to Emmy’s barn, but we stuck to the grass at one side so we didn’t make any noise. And I use the term “barn” loosely. Because Stan came from Spain, it looked more like a fancy villa, complete with stucco walls and a terracotta roof. That was what happened when Bradley was left to renovate unsupervised.

  I heard the crunch, crunch, crunch of footsteps ahead, and a figure came
into views, hands in pockets and head down. Dammit, what was he doing out here? I put a hand on Emmy’s arm, stopping her, and she raised an eyebrow.

  “Ethan,” I mouthed.

  The other eyebrow came up, and I shrugged. No, I didn’t know why he was out there either. My heart rate slowed as the danger receded, only to stutter when a black-clad figure materialised from the trees ahead.

  “Stop. Raise your hands. Slowly.”

  “Ana! It’s Ethan.”

  Her gun didn’t waver.

  “Why are you out here?” she asked him.

  His hands were above his head by now, and they didn’t look too steady.

  “Ana, put your fucking gun down,” I told her.

  Good grief, was that a grenade on her belt? Unlike yours truly, she was fully dressed, wearing black from head to toe. She’d also brought night vision goggles, two knives, and enough ammo to take out an army battalion.

  Me? I was in my underwear.

  Emmy lowered Ana’s gun for her and patted Ethan on the shoulder “You’ll have to excuse my friend here. She’s a little touchy.” She held a hand out. “Emmy Black. Interesting to finally meet you.”

  He shook her hand but stayed silent.

  “Seriously, why are you wandering around in the dark?”

  Nothing.

  Oh, Ethan.

  “I’ll deal with it, okay? You two go back to sleep.”

  Ana stalked towards the house, pausing next to me on the way. “You should handcuff him to the bed if he’s going to keep walking off.”

  “I’ll take that under advisement.”

  And try damn hard to resist the temptation.

  Once Emmy had followed Ana, I took a deep breath. “Ethan, why are you out here? It’s one o’clock in the morning.”

  “I just needed air.” His eyes widened as he turned and took in my attire, or rather the lack of it, and he struggled to take off his hoodie. “Here, have this.”

  “Thanks.” I shoved my arms into the jacket and zipped it up. Now that the excitement had died down, it was kind of chilly outside. “You can’t just go in and out at night, not without deactivating the security system. Everywhere’s monitored. The second you opened the window, an alarm rang in the control room.”