Blood for Her

by Serenity Snow

  “Ace will find who wants her dead, trust me.”

  “I know, Cat,” she said softly. “Then, I’ll end them.”

  Chapter Twelve

  Chloe was seated on the floor in the den when Darice joined her. She’d planned on something a little more lavish, but she’d been too distracted to whip up anything more than sandwiches, a veggie, cheese, and fruit tray with wine.

  “Hi,” Darice said quietly. “How was your day?” Darice joined her on the floor where she’d spread out a quilt in front of the coffee table where she’d lit candles.

  Chloe wasn’t in that romantic a mood, but the soft light soothed her jangled nerves.

  “Okay.” She tried to smile, but it fell flat judging by the look on Darice’s face. “How was yours? How did your shoot go?”

  “Fine,” she answered with a faint smile. “The client wasn’t too much of a pain, but the actress was an ass. She seemed insulted by the fact I’m a lesbian who was paid to shoot a commercial of her half-naked ass. She wasn’t even fine.”

  That crack was meant to be a joke, she could tell, but it didn’t go down well.

  Chloe reached for a celery stick more to have something to do with her hands than any other reason.

  “You sound like my father,” she said softly. “He was always checking out other women, and he even asked my mother why she didn’t dress a certain way or wear her hair a different way.”

  “I know why you dress the way you do, sexy woman,” Darice said, sliding her hand over Chloe’s thigh.

  She was wearing a short gown with spaghetti straps and an empire-waist. Darice had bought it for her and the panties that barely covered her ass cheeks that she wore beneath it.

  “He wanted to change some aspects of her,” Chloe said, and Darice glided her hand up her side under the gown to stroke the curve of her breast, and Chloe shivered.

  “I don’t want to change you,” Darice assured her. “I wouldn’t love you if you were one of those women. Some of them are vain and shallow bitches, but you’re a sweet treat that makes me crazy.”

  “Is that all?” she asked in a teasing tone.

  “You let me be the strong one,” Darice said.

  “I like that about you,” she murmured. “That you’re an ex-assassin scares me, but I know you’ll protect me as much as you can. I like that, too.” Loved that actually. She’d always wanted a woman similar to her father without his roving eye.

  Chloe was certain her father had cheated on her mother at least twice, and she didn’t want to be that woman who stayed with an unfaithful lover because of the life she could have.

  Darice kissed her hungrily, and Chloe kissed her back, curling an arm around her neck while Darice’s hands slid up her back.

  “You wanted a woman just like dear old dad, huh?” Darice teased with her lips against Chloe’s.

  Chloe opened her eyes and looked into Darice’s. The heat of the copper pools made her shiver. “Not quite.”

  “What about him do you want?”

  “A woman who’ll provide for me, let me stay at home and raise our children without giving me shit even if we’re barely making ends meet.”

  “I can give you all that, Coe, and I cherish you and look forward to the future with you.”

  “What about Marie? I mean is there any evidence that she’s behind this?”

  Darice pulled back from her and picked up a sandwich. “No, but Ace is looking,” Darice told her quietly. “I want to handle this right, leave no stone unturned before I go accusing her.”

  Chloe sighed in relief. Darice had followed her train of thought without getting pissed off and storming out, not that that was her style. Still, a woman could only deal with being accused of being unfaithful for so long before she took real offense especially if she was innocent.

  “What if she is behind this?”

  “Then, she and I will come to terms this time, Coe,” Darice told her in a hard tone. “No compromises.”

  “I don’t want to know what that means,” Chloe replied even though she had a clue.

  “I wasn’t going to tell you the truth,” Darice admitted. “I know you don’t want to know.”

  She shook her head. The truth was, the less she knew about that dark side of Darice, the better.

  “My parents are coming next weekend, but my sister will be here tomorrow. She’s nearby on a business trip. She wants to have dinner with me or us.”

  “I don’t think that’s wise considering what’s going on, but Cattail can join us if necessary. She’ll make sure your sister is safe, and I’ll protect you.”

  Chloe smiled and reached out to touch her. “I’m counting on it.”

  “You won’t be disappointed.”

  Chloe nodded, a knot in her stomach loosening. She’d been cheated on more than once and didn’t want to go down that path again, but it was time to enjoy what she had without assuming Darice was anything other than the woman she’d shown herself to be.

  Now, that assassin thing, well, that was still going to take some getting used to.

  ****

  Chloe was out like a light twenty minutes after Darice put the sleeping tabs in the creamy dip Chloe had made for the fruit. Now, Darice was out of the house on the other side of town while Cattail and Slate watched over Chloe for her.

  Darice had to do some of the surveillance on the chief herself because she needed to see him in action with her own eyes once before she killed him. She trusted Ace, but it was her intuition on this that would decide if she pulled the trigger.

  She sat in the borrowed truck with a communications link in her ear listening to a conversation being carried on by the chief of police and his guest, the sheriff. Ace’s contact in the police department had wired the chief’s office.

  “There’s nothing to find, Ray,” Collier, the chief said. “I promise you that girl is lying. I never touched her and neither did any of my officers.”

  “I’m asking because the mayor and I were talking this afternoon. She said the girl’s sister has filed a wrongful death suit against the city and named you, as well as both of those cops as primary respondents.”

  “Let her,” he said with humor in his tone. “Her sister was a cop-whore. She fucked any cop who’d have her. And hell, I admit, she approached me, but nothing ever happened.”

  “The family compelled a second autopsy looking for DNA evidence. What is going to be found?”

  “Fred did his job, Ray. He didn’t find anything that will link me to that girl.”

  “The mayor asked me to look into this, so we’d have something to fight back with in this suit,” the sheriff replied. “Be honest with me, Collier. Save us all the grief of finding out you had something to do with this girl’s death.”

  “I didn’t,” he snapped.

  “You have a lot more to lose than that beat cop. Their over-zealousness with that girl can be made to go away just like you’re trying to do. However, the chief of police who asked his men to participate in a cover-up will have so much more to lose.”

  “I know what this could cost me,” he snarled. “Now, get out. Go do your fucking job and find that girl’s killer.”

  There was a little more conversation before the sheriff left. Soon after, Collier came out and climbed into an unmarked car and took off. Darice followed, hoping the drip wasn’t going straight home, but to meet up with someone.

  Ace’s girl had planted a tracker on Collier’s and a transmitter under the seat of his personal vehicle so whichever agent tailed him could easily find him.

  Darice hoped the reception from the bug in his car would be clear as she passed him as he pulled into the empty lot of a closed nail salon. She turned in further down in the shopping center and parked before donning a pair of night-vision binoculars to watch.

  The chief of detectives climbed into the car, and she waited, picking up nothing but static at first.

  “I don’t know who’s doing the autopsy,” the chief of detectives said. “Mia or Fred.�
��

  “Find out or your ass is grass,” the chief said. “I meant what I said this morning about that video.”

  “You’re a real bastard you know that, Collier,” he muttered. “We fucked up, but you, you screwed the pooch.”

  “Shut up. That slut was going to tell everyone what happened that night, and don’t think you’ll walk away from this unscathed. If I go down for raping that girl so do you.”

  “She said yes to me, and I didn’t kill her,” the other man said. “I didn’t have officers kidnap her and drag her to her death. That was messed up shit.”

  “She was fucking drunk, and she wanted me as much as you wanted you. Either way, no one is going to call you holding her in place while I took her anything less than rape.”

  “I’m an asshole, but that ends here,” the chief of detectives retorted. “Show that tape and then explain why you didn’t walk away when she said no.”

  “You’re the chief of Ds—do you think it’s all going to be that easy?” Collier demanded.

  Darice shook her head, thinking both men deserved a bullet to the head.

  “Don’t threaten me, Collier,” the chief of detectives warned. “I’ve got a few friends who’ll be more than happy to make sure I come out of this unscathed.”

  “The sheriff? The mayor?” Collier demanded. “I’m not flushing my career over a piece of ass. You do what you have to to get that report squashed.”

  “I’m not doing anything,” the other man muttered and climbed out of the car, starting back to his own.

  “Hey, Walker.”

  Walker turned and flashes of light lit up the night.

  Chapter Thirteen

  Marie took a sip of her drink and smiled at Adrian Andrews, the half owner of one of the most successful child clothing lines in the country. He was facing some problems just as she was, thanks to Frankl’s nasty proclivities.

  “How is everything going?” she asked. She’d invited him to her home for dinner and drinks, not wanting to risk anyone seeing them together, especially Darice.

  “She’s interested,” Andrews told her with a Cheshire cat grin. “I don’t think she’ll turn us down.”

  “Are there any points she’s not happy with? Darice will back out if she thinks you’re trying to pull something over on her.”

  “The shoot,” Andrews replied. “She doesn’t want to do it there.”

  “Convince her,” she urged with a smile. “You’re good at what you do. You can sell her whatever she needs to be comfortable with this job.”

  He shook his head, doubt on his face now. “She won’t take it if I don’t shoot it here and, honestly, I don’t have a real problem with that. She is the best. I’ve asked around and the fact she fit me in makes me lucky.”

  “Money talks.”

  “Not a language that everyone understands,” he said grimly. “I think we’ve found one we can’t buy, and I’ve been asking around. The two of you had some issues apparently. You warned a few companies against using her.”

  “It was a disagreement,” Marie said coldly.

  “I’ve asked a friend to check into that for me,” Andrews replied. “We can’t afford any other problems and if I find out you’re connected to some kind of wrong doing, you’re out.”

  “You’re going to make it without my money? I don’t think so. You can’t buy me out.” She didn’t make children’s clothes, but she did own forty percent of his company because he’d been floundering years ago.

  Her father had bought into the company to keep it from going under with the stipulation that he would only run the day-to-day operations of the business.

  “I’ll take the company public,” he told her. “That will gain me the investors I need once I buy you out.”

  “You’ll be in for a very nasty fight,” she told him. “Just get McMasters on board!”

  Andrews put his drink down. “I’m making no promises,” he said and headed for the door.

  She glared and threw her glass after him.

  ****

  Chloe rolled onto her back the next morning with a sigh. She felt more rested than she had in the last week.

  Her lips tipped into a smile and she yawned, stretching, hands over her head. Then, she pushed back the covers and sat up. A glance at her phone’s clock made her shriek.

  “Darice!” She hurried into the bathroom to clean up. She was so late.

  When she stepped back into the bedroom, Darice was there and dressed with a cup of coffee in hand.

  “Sleep well?”

  “I slept fine, but I’m late,” she exclaimed.

  “You’re fine. Sabrina and I think you need to work from home today. The windows are being replaced downstairs, and anyone could claim to be a worker and get in and up to you.”

  “Oh.” She’d rather be at work instead of cooped up in the house all day, but she was probably safer.

  “So, relax. You’re safe here,” Darice assured her. “Cattail and Slate will be here all day and if your sister calls, they can take you to pick her up.”

  “I’d rather only one of them went, so I wouldn’t have to explain to her someone is stalking me.”

  Darice shrugged. “Okay, but promise you won’t attempt to ditch Cattail.”

  Chloe chuckled. “I won’t.” She caught Darice’s hand and gave it a light squeeze. “You just don’t work too hard.”

  “Goodness forbid,” Darice said and pulled Chloe to her. She kissed her softly, and Chloe rested her fingers on Darice’s nape holding her close as she savored the contact.

  “Miss you already,” she murmured when Darice broke the kiss.

  Darice rubbed her nose against Chloe’s. “I miss you more.”

  Chloe grinned. “You better go before I drag you back to bed and try to convince you to work from home with me.”

  “I can’t, babe,” she said. “I have a meeting with this guy who wants me to shoot a commercial in California.”

  “California?”

  “Yeah, and I need to go over a few things on his company before that,” Darice told her.

  “Is something wrong with his company?” Chloe asked.

  “They’re in trouble over some shots a pedophile took of one of the kid models and the company’s stock has fallen,” Darice replied.

  “Do you really want to do business with people like that?”

  “I’m not sure they fostered an environment for that kind of behavior, but that is why I’m going over a file before signing my X on the line.”

  “Good. They’d just make you look bad.” She pulled Darice’s tie lightly.

  “Call me if you need me, okay? This meeting is the only thing on my agenda I don’t want to reschedule.”

  “I’ll be fine.” She gave Darice a peck on the cheek. “I’ll see you later. Don’t be late for dinner. I’ll text you where we decide to go.”

  “I won’t.” She lightly bit the side of Chloe’s neck, and she let out a squeal. “Stop being so bossy.” Darice released her. “Later, sweetheart.”

  Chloe smiled as Darice exited the room. She’d have a leisurely breakfast and then get to work. She wanted to be available if her sister called about lunch instead of dinner. Plus, she wanted to send her stories in before eleven.

  ****

  Darice hated the country club, but Andrews had insisted on meeting there for breakfast. She arrived early, though she had no intentions of dining with the man. She simply wanted to read over the file she’d received from Jo.

  Jo was an ex Mojo employee who now worked for the FBI, but she was always willing to help when she could.

  Darice sat down at a table near the window overlooking the tennis court and opened her day planner which contained notes, her schedule, and other items of importance. She checked her schedule and turned to the notes page to see if there was anything pressing to send texts to Angeline on.

  Finding nothing that couldn’t wait, Darice left the section open and removed the multi-ink Bic and began reading the information J
o had sent her. Finding Andrews had a connection with Marie tightened her stomach.

  Marie handled the manufacturing end of the business, though she didn’t interfere in the day-to-day operations. However, Marie was facing as many problems from Frankl’s arrest as was Andrews.

  Marie’s company, Be U, was catching some of the backlash, but with Frankl dead, some of that just might go away.

  Darice was jotting down some notes when a hand caressed her back. She stiffened, recognizing that too loud and obnoxious perfume.

  “Good morning, Darice,” Marie murmured in her ear. “It’s nice to see you.” She moved around to take the chair in front of Darice. “How’ve you been?”

  Darice studied her, lifting a brow at her. “Marie.”

  “Don’t be so cold. You put me in my place before, but that is no reason we can’t be friends.”

  “I’m sure it’s not, but the fact you can’t keep your hands to yourself or accept that I’m off-limits does.”

  Marie laughed. “Oh, please.” She put her hand on Darice’s and stroked lightly with her thumb. “That’s all water under the bridge. Why don’t we have drinks some time?”

  “No.” Darice pulled her hand from beneath Marie’s. “Keep your hand to yourself.”

  “I’m the member here,” she drawled. “I can have you thrown out.”

  “Which proves you’re as much a spoiled little brat as ever before, and I wouldn’t so much as spank your ass with a long-handled spoon.” Her tone was chilly, and the flicker of anger in Marie’s eyes reminded her of what Chloe had said.

  “Ooh.” Her lips curved in a smile. “I’d like that. Would what’s her name?”

  “Chloe is my fiancée and our life is none of your business. So, if you don’t mind—and if you do—get lost.”

  “I hate losing,” Marie said, eyes flashing with fire. “But I guess I have to take this one, for now. She won’t keep you, and when you’re ready to stray, I’ll be here.” Marie rose, her face red with her anger, and her hands clenched into fists.

  Yeah, she was pissed, and Darice knew where that had led before. This meeting had only made her certain Marie was behind the attacks on Chloe. The operative who found any connection between Marie and the shifter would get a big bonus.