Hidden Hearts

by Marci Bolden

  She didn’t know when or how he’d gotten his slacks to his knees, but when she finally caught her breath and looked at him, he had a condom packet pinched between his hands. She met his gaze and clenched her teeth to stop herself from begging him to hurry as he tore the foil open. She needed to feel him buried deep inside her, needed to feel his breath and hands on her as she fell over the edge again.

  He got on his knees—still wearing his dress shirt and dark blue tie—and grasped her calves, resting them on his shoulders. Seeing him like that, a hunger in his eyes as his lips glistened from his taste of her, made it that much better when he shoved himself as far inside her as he could with one hard, solid thrust. He stared at her, a powerful and demanding look in his eyes, as he pulled out and slammed into her again.

  She smirked, not really meaning to taunt him, but he must have taken it that way, because the determination on his face grew as he fucked her harder. She wanted to close her eyes and relish in the feel of him but refused to break his stare. She knew he wasn’t trying to dominate her—not in the true sense of the word—but letting him feel like he’d won some small sexual battle between them wasn’t something she was ready to do yet.

  Instead, she tugged her shirt up and cupped her breasts as he watched. The fire in his eyes grew as the muscle in his jaw tightened. She clenched her body tight around him as he slid in and out of her.

  “Shit. Holy shit.” He breathlessly thrust harder.

  She’d decided the victory was hers—she’d won—and closed her eyes as she let the feel of him overtake her. The sound of their bodies smacking against each other and the sound of him nearing his peak filled her ears. Pinching her nipples hard, she cried out. She thought she said his name, demanded he screw her harder, possibly even screamed, but she couldn’t be sure. Her mind came completely undone as she finished, and she lost all sense of self until he eased her legs down and collapsed on top of her, planting a lazy kiss on her lips.

  She licked his lips, tasting herself on him. That had never been something she’d cared to do before, but in that moment, it was so perfect. He was so perfect, and that caused a battle of emotions somewhere deep inside her.

  Laughing softly, she wrapped her arms and legs around him. “Your suit is going to smell like sex.”

  “Good,” he said in her ear. “I want that part of you with me all day.” Planting several kisses along her neck, he finished the trail with a light peck on her lips. “You’re spoiling me.”

  She ran her fingers over his permanent scruff. “I’m spoiling myself, Jack. You’re just benefiting from it.”

  “I can live with that.” One more kiss, and he pushed himself up.

  She moaned as he left her body. Pointing toward the hall, she said, “Bathroom’s that way.”

  By the time he’d returned, she’d put her underwear back on and was eating her now-cold breakfast.

  He plopped down beside her and took a drink of his coffee. “What’s your plan for today?”

  “I’m going to call the cable provider as soon as I get to the office. I’m hoping they will tell me which of their employees had contact with Fredrickson and Nelson. If any of them match, I’ll run a background check and see what I find.”

  “If any of them match, call me. I’ll go question them.”

  “Jack—”

  “Look, they probably won’t talk to you. They won’t feel obligated to. I have a badge I can flash at them.”

  “A badge that you’ll be abusing if you flash it at them. Meyer told you to keep off his case.”

  “Let me deal with Meyer. He’s worried I’ll compromise the case because of my personal attachment, but I’m not an idiot. I know how to handle evidence and witnesses without tainting his investigation.”

  “I don’t want you losing your job.”

  He brushed his hand over her hair. “You let me worry about that. If you find probable cause for us to look deeper into someone, then we’re looking deeper into someone. I can’t toss it at Meyer again, not until we have something solid. If I solve his case for him, he can’t give me shit. Right?”

  She frowned, seriously doubting his logic. “I don’t know where to look after this, Jack. If we hit another dead end, I’m just not sure what is left.”

  “Let’s turn our attention back to the businesses on the volunteer list,” he suggested. “We got distracted from that, but someone from the shelter had to have given Julia a sticker. Someone took the photos of her with the dogs.”

  Holly raked her hand through her hair. “Maybe…”

  “What?”

  She hated to say it. She’d spent so much time convincing herself that Julia was perfect. “Maybe she has a lover who is a volunteer at the shelter. He could have gotten her that sticker and taken a bunch of pictures of her to send to her husband on Tuesday mornings to cover their tracks. To make her alibi seem solid.”

  He nodded. “So we start sorting through the business employees and see if one of them fesses up to knowing Julia.”

  “That’s a long list of local businesses,” Holly said.

  Jack gave her a quick kiss. “Then I guess we’d better get started.”

  Jack waited for Holly to join him in front of her car.

  “Are you sure about this?” she asked as he started for the building.

  “Yup.”

  “You could get in serious trouble for this.”

  “Yup.” Even so, he opened the front door to the small office that Appleseed Landscaping company used. Holly met his gaze as she walked in, frowning her disapproval. She’d been doing that ever since he’d shown up at HEARTS and insisted he go with her as they hit the businesses on the shelter’s volunteer list. He couldn’t quite stop his gaze from dropping to her ass as she stepped into the building, but he recovered quickly, remembering they were there on business. The cable service provider wouldn’t give Holly names, but they did confirm two different men had worked inside the Nelson and Fredrickson homes, eliminating them from their shrinking pool of suspects.

  Almost every company on the volunteer list was happy to offer up the names of employees who took advantage of the opportunity to help the shelter. There were only a few who said that information wasn’t available. Appleseed was one of them. The woman on the phone had clammed up as soon as Jack identified himself as a police detective.

  Jack smiled at the woman behind the desk. Her name plaque confirmed she was the same person he’d talked to earlier. Seeing her in person made his heart pick up its pace, though. She perfectly fit the description for both Penelope Nelson and Julia Fredrickson. Early forties. Shoulder-length blond hair. Blue eyes. A glance at Holly confirmed that she had noticed as well.

  “Hi, Susan,” he said to the receptionist. “I’m Detective Tarek. I called earlier.”

  She gave him a nervous smile as she cast a glance at Holly. “Detective, I told you all I could on the phone.”

  He took note of her words. Could. Not knew. She’d told him everything she could.

  “I know, and I appreciate that so much. My friend and I just happened to be in the neighborhood, so I thought I’d drop by. See if maybe you could tell me something else.”

  She exhaled as she glanced around. The lobby was empty, but muffled voices drifted from somewhere in the back of the building. “I’ll lose my job,” she said quietly. “My husband had to cut back his hours after hurting his back. I’ve got kids in college. I need this job.”

  Leaning on the partition between them, he held her gaze. “We’ve got two missing women. The only link we have—the only hope we have of finding them—is here. I just need your help finding out who may have volunteered at the shelter.”

  She licked her lips and glanced around again. “We have a small team. They all rotate the responsibility.”

  “Okay. That’s a start. You happen to have a photo of this small team?”

  She shrank back in her seat. “There’s one on our website.”

  He looked at Holly. She was already tapping away at
her smartphone. A moment later, she turned the phone to him. Two men fit the very loose description they had from the security footage. He took her phone, turned the screen to Susan, and pointed at one man.

  “Who is this?”

  Susan again scanned the room before quietly answering, “John Middleton. He’s the owner.”

  “And this?”

  “Vance Pearson.”

  The way she said the last man’s name, how she lowered her gaze and almost whispered, set Jack on edge. “Have you ever had problems with Vance Pearson, Susan?”

  She didn’t respond.

  He opened his mouth, but Holly put her hand on his arm and jerked her head, indicating that he should step away. The last time she’d dismissed him had been with Gary Nelson and Jack had been furious, but he understood this time. Women who had been victims of harassment tended to shy away from sharing details with men. He stepped away but not out of hearing range.

  “Susan,” she gently pressed, “tell me about Vance.”

  The woman scoffed. “It’s nothing. You know how men can be.”

  “He’s been harassing you?”

  Jack glanced back, but when Susan caught him, clearly embarrassed, he turned his back, giving her as much privacy as he could without leaving. He wanted to hear what she had to say.

  “He comes in, strutting around, hovering. He made me uneasy, but he never crossed the line until…”

  “Until?” Holly pressed.

  “About two months ago. We always took the shelter dogs to the dog park and let them run since they spend so much time in cages. While we were watching them, he cornered me. Started saying how much he wanted to…” She closed her eyes as her cheeks turned bright red. “I pushed him away, and he grabbed me like… I thought he was going to kiss me. Before he could…do whatever he intended, the dogs started barking at someone coming to the park, so I was able to get away from him. I went to my boss as soon as we got back, but he wouldn’t do anything, so I told my husband. He brought me to work the next day and confronted Vance. My husband’s a big guy. Vance was intimidated. He’s kept his distance from me since, but I’ve caught him staring at me when he comes in. I’ve been looking for another job, but I can’t quit until I have one. We’ve got two kids in college,” she justified again. “We need my income.”

  “I get it,” Holly said. “I do. Other than that one instance, has Vance ever threatened you or made you feel threatened?”

  She hesitated. and even though Jack wasn’t looking at her, he could tell there was more she wasn’t sure about telling Holly.

  “He’s a charmer,” Susan finally said. “He has this way of coming on to you without you even realizing it. Do you know what I mean?”

  “Yeah.”

  “Before you know it, he’s in your space, touching you, and you didn’t even realize you’d done something to make him think it was okay.”

  “Hey,” Holly said with a soft sternness, “you didn’t do anything wrong.”

  Lowering her voice to the point that Jack had to hold his breath and focus to hear her, Susan whispered, “I thought he was just…being friendly. Friendlier than most. I was pretty comfortable around him, so I didn’t…I didn’t realize what he was doing. I refused to volunteer after that. I’m not sure who helped him then, but if he kept going to the dog park, he couldn’t have handled it alone.”

  Julia. Jack realized Holly had come to the same conclusion as he had when she glanced at him. Somehow Vance had lured Julia into helping him and convinced her she was volunteering for the shelter. Handing her a sticker would certainly convince most, and—a tactic used on so many children—telling her that he had a puppy to show her would easily tempt her to go to his vehicle.

  “Susan,” Holly said again, “if he got out of line, that is not your fault.”

  “He came in one day and got real close, but I didn’t think much about it because he was like that. Then he leaned down and whispered in my ear that he could see my nipples pressing against my shirt and he was glad I was as turned on as he was. It was freezing in here. That had nothing to do with him. I told him to back off. That he’d crossed the line. He just laughed. After that, he got it in his head that I liked him, so he always found a way to come in the office alone and say things he shouldn’t.”

  “And your boss knew this was happening?”

  She nodded. “John is Vance’s uncle. He said Vance was just being a guy and I needed to toughen up.” She frowned. “Vance gave me the creeps before, but after my husband confronted him, he really started to scare me. He looks so mean. I’m afraid to be alone with him.”

  “You think he’s capable of hurting you?”

  Jack glanced back in time to see her nod.

  “Do you have any other information on him?”

  She rolled her eyes back, not dismissing Holly but clearly debating. After a moment, she moved her mouse to bring her computer back to life, clicked a few times, and then the printer whirred to life. “Please keep me out of this.”

  “We will. I promise. I want you to do something for me. Do you have sick time built up?”

  “About a week.”

  “Is your boss here?”

  “No. He works with the guys.”

  “Call him. Tell him you’re sick and you’re going home. Then you call in sick tomorrow and the next day and every day after until you find a job.”

  “I’ve been looking.”

  Holly pulled a card out of her pocket and handed it to Susan. “E-mail me your résumé. You’ll have a new job before your sick time runs out.”

  Susan gave her half a smile. “I don’t know if—”

  “I do.” Holly gave her that look that Jack figured was rarely argued with. “Now, what about the other guy? The owner. What was his name again?”

  “John Middleton. He keeps to himself. He’s quiet. Other than him not standing up for me, I’ve never had any problems with him.”

  “Okay. Thanks. Make that call. We’ll wait and walk you out.” She joined Jack, and he smiled at her.

  “How you going to find her a job, Hol?”

  “I know people who could use the help, but I’ll hire her at HEARTS if I have to. She shouldn’t be here. She shouldn’t have to put up with that.”

  He wanted to touch her, silently soothe the anger that was alive in her eyes. “She won’t have to anymore.”

  She looked over the papers Susan had given her. “She gave me his résumé. He never seems to stay at one job long. Wonder if his previous employers stood up to him when he harassed their secretaries.”

  “Administrative assistants,” he corrected. He smiled when she cocked a brow but didn’t look at him.

  “Ready,” Susan said, approaching them. She had her purse and a picture frame in her hand. Apparently she’d already cleared out the rest of her personal belongings.

  They walked out into the warmth of the autumn afternoon and watched Susan climb into her car and drive away before turning to where Holly had parked.

  Jack put his hand to the small of her back as they crossed the parking lot. “She’s a perfect match to Julia and Penelope.”

  “I noticed.” She pushed the button on the fob to unlock the car. “Think he’s using them as a substitute for her?”

  “From what she described, he has a healthy obsession with her. I doubt she even realizes how deep it runs. If he came that close to assaulting her at the dog park and harassing her at her desk on a regular basis, he could be capable of much worse.”

  Inside the car, she reached for the seat belt with one hand while the other turned the key in the ignition. “Can you run him through the system and see what comes up?”

  “Yeah, and I intend to.”

  She glanced at him. “Discreetly, so you don’t get fired?”

  Touched that she was concerned, he put his hand to her knee and squeezed it. “You could always hire me at HEARTS.”

  She dismissed his suggestion with a laugh.

  11

  Holly shook
her head as she finished reading over the information Jack had managed to find on Vance Pearson. While she had spent the afternoon calling associates, looking for a job opening for Susan, Jack had dug deeper into their latest suspect. She had agreed to not talk about the case over dinner, but as soon as they tossed their trash, she dragged him to the bedroom.

  He was probably thinking something else was about to happen. She just wanted to stretch out and read his research. Jack eased back against the pile of pillows he’d fluffed up against Holly’s headboard and aimed the remote at the TV on the wall across from her bed while she read the report.

  And what he had found was disturbing Holly deeply. “How do guys like this keep getting jobs? He clearly has a problem. Four jobs in less than two years, and he was let go from all of them?”

  “Unfortunately, a lot of people still blame the woman for sexual harassment. She shouldn’t have dressed like that. She shouldn’t have smiled like that. She should have a better sense of humor. See it all the time.”

  What he said was true. The Army hadn’t exactly been free from conflict between men and women. Nothing put men in the mood to break a woman down more than feeling threatened that she might out-man him, but most of the time the COs drew a line that wasn’t crossed. Sexual harassment was taken seriously by her superiors. Women were equals. They didn’t get favors or special treatment, but they sure as hell weren’t going to tolerate men making them any less because of their genitals. If a female could pull her weight, she deserved to be there and would be respected for her contributions the same as any man. The way the modern world should be.

  Focusing on Jack as he turned on the news, she wondered if he’d ever been so insecure he had to push others down in order to build himself up. He didn’t seem that way. He seemed to take her independence for what it was—to take her for who she was—without issue. She was curious if the novelty of her strength would wear off, though. Too many men in her past had taken her on as a challenge, only to grow angry or bored when they couldn’t make her subservient to them.