Deadly Fallout (Red Stone Security Series Book 10) (7 page)

“I’m sorry for your loss,” he murmured, even though he wasn’t sure he was sorry at all. Not after the report he’d read from Zoe Hansen.

“I’m not.” Mallory’s voice was so quiet he almost didn’t hear her. In her late thirties, she had long, honey-blonde hair and long, lean limbs. She was conventionally attractive but there was an almost regal air about her. The type of women he so often came into contact with in Miami from the upper crust had a plastic quality about them. Not Mallory Tate. She was the kind of woman who would definitely age gracefully.

He raised an eyebrow. “I take it that it wasn’t a happy marriage?”

“At first it was. Or I thought it was.” She tucked a strand of hair behind her ear, her fingers trembling. For a brief moment he saw a flash of fear in her gaze, the type he’d seen on the faces of countless battered women before.

Well, hell. She’d never filed any reports and there’d been nothing in his measly information file on her to suggest Klein had abused her. She hadn’t said much when she’d been at the station earlier, had let her attorney do most of the talking. “Nothing you say has to leave this room. Just let me know what’s on the record and off.”

His words seemed to trigger something in her because she straightened. “I don’t care who you tell. I’m tired of being afraid of him. I…know people thought I married him for his money or status, but it’s not true. I loved him. Well, the version of him he let me see when we were dating. His previous wife seemed so vindictive and he convinced me she’d say anything to keep us apart, that she just didn’t want him to be happy. Now I wish I’d taken the time to listen to her, but I was just so blinded, so in love. He was very charming but about a year after our marriage that veneer started to crack. I won’t bore you with details because I’m sure you’ve heard the same, tired story a hundred times before.” She laughed, the sound brittle and self-deprecating.

“I want to hear your story.” He meant it. After speaking with her at the station he thought he’d had her pegged. He’d been wrong. It didn’t happen often.

She gave him a wry smile. “He changed, or I guess he just started showing his true colors. It was little stuff at first, nothing I did was good enough. Or I embarrassed him at a hospital function—which was complete crap considering he was the one who always got drunk, but that’s not the point. At a fundraiser I caught him fooling around with a woman I know. We’re not friends, but we belong to the same country club. I was angry and went to see a divorce attorney that week. I tried to leave him but…he made it clear I’d never be allowed to do that.”

Bastard.
“How?”

She swallowed hard and glanced down at her hands, clenched tightly together in her lap. For a moment he thought she wasn’t going to answer. Then her voice came, quiet and sure. “He drugged me and raped me. More than once. He kept me drugged up for a week. I was too weak to fight him but I was aware of what he was doing the entire time. At the end of the week he broke one of my arms. He made it clear that if I tried to leave him again, my punishment next time would be worse.”

Carlito clenched his jaw, anger pulsing through him. He was supposed to stay objective during all cases, but it was hard to care that Klein was dead. Everything he heard about the guy was bad, that being an understatement.

“From that point he started monitoring my spending, accounts, everything. It was like living in a prison, until… I can’t know for sure, but he must have started seeing someone because he started paying less and less attention to me. It was a godsend. I was able to start siphoning money away and I was getting ready to run when he left on that medical trip overseas.” She snorted at that, bitter amusement on her face.

No wonder she’d been glad to see him go. Only years of experience in law enforcement allowed Carlito to keep his expression impassive.

“He divorced me before he left and it was the best thing that ever happened to me. Like being released from prison. I heard about what happened to Doctor Hansen later, from a friend whose husband works at the hospital, and I believe every word of what she said that he did. Braddock has—had—a God complex in the worst way. He would have been ballsy enough to attack her at the hospital and think he could get away with it. What’s worse, he
did
.” She shook her head, disgust clear on her face.

After taking note of the names of the two women she’d mentioned; the one she’d caught her ex-husband with and the friend with ties to the hospital, Carlito talked with her for a few more minutes before letting himself out.

It wasn’t case-breaking evidence, but it was a start. He was going to find out who’d killed Braddock Klein, and more importantly, who’d tried to frame Zoe Hansen for it.

Chapter 6

Sawyer glanced up from scanning the news on his phone and set it on Zoe’s island countertop as she walked into the room, a silky multicolored robe cinched loosely around her slender waist.

“Coffee,” she rasped out, blinking blearily at him before stumbling to her one-cup maker.

He bit back a smile and waited for her to get what she clearly needed. Last night hadn’t gone remotely how he’d hoped. After their scorching kiss, the party had gotten louder and busier and people had stayed until almost three. Finally Tanice had politely cleared everyone out because Zoe had been barely staying on her feet from exhaustion—and some drinks.

While he’d wanted nothing more than to pick up where they’d left off, Zoe had had a few more glasses of wine and a couple shots from friends so he’d carried her to bed. Clearly she was feeling the effects now.

“Oh my God,” she muttered, after taking a sip of her coffee. “I haven’t done shots since I was twenty-two. What was I thinking?”

He snorted. “That you weren’t in jail.”

She grinned and pulled out a seat next to him. “Well, there is that. I can’t believe you’re still here.”

He lifted an eyebrow. “You’re really surprised?”

“Yeah. I was clearly not able to, you know…” Her cheeks flushed prettily as she trailed off and raised her cup to her mouth.

A mouth he’d had plenty of fantasies about before he’d finally dozed off in her guest room. There’d been no way he could have left her last night, not after everything she’d been through.

“Thanks for tucking me in last night. That was sweet.” Before he could respond her eyes widened and she softly groaned. “Does Vincent know you stayed over?”

Sawyer stilled at her question. Her brother was the last person he wanted to think about right now. “Would it matter if he did?”

“No. Not for the reason you’re thinking. Or I think you’re thinking. Gah, I need more coffee.” Glancing down, she took great interest in focusing on her drink.

Nope, he was having none of that. Reaching out, he snagged an arm around her waist and tugged her onto his lap. She let out a yelp of surprise, but moved willingly, settling across his thighs as she turned to face him.

“I just don’t want to explain to my brother about whatever is happening between us. I’m a grown woman, but he’s still my brother. And you two have a history.”

As long as she didn’t want to hide him. “Fair enough. Why were you surprised I was still here?”

Her cheeks flushed again and he had to bite back a groan. Seeing her like that brought up thoughts of what she’d look like naked, face and body flushed from pleasure. “I just thought, well, you know.”

“That I’d bail because we didn’t fu—end up in bed together?” He was used to talking bluntly, but he didn’t like the thought of what he and Zoe would hopefully share soon as simple fucking.

“Yeah?” She lifted her shoulders slightly.

His jaw tightened but he didn’t respond. They didn’t know each other well enough for him to be annoyed about her assumption, even if it rankled him. “Go out to dinner with me tonight?”

She blinked, probably from the sudden change in subject, but nodded, smiling softly. “I’d like that. And, not that I don’t like this position but, if you get between me and my coffee this early in the morning, we might have words,” she murmured, reaching out to grab her mug.

“Duly noted.” His lips twitched as she took another sip of the hot drink then let out an orgasmic-sounding sigh. He couldn’t believe she woke up looking so fucking sexy. Her hair was wild and curly even though she’d tried to tame it back into some sort of clip thing. It didn’t matter, the corkscrews bounced everywhere. Visions played in his mind of what it would be like to see her hair around her face and shoulders as she rode him, her back arched and her breasts bared for him to hold, kiss, lick.

“So how did you end up working for Red Stone?” she asked after another sip followed up with one of those sexy sighs.

God, those sounds were making him hard. He shifted uncomfortably, hoping she didn’t notice. He’d always been in control of his body. Except around her apparently. “It was sort of a perfect storm of things. I’d hit my twenty year mark in the Navy—”

“Twenty?” Her eyes widened then she winced. “Sorry, didn’t mean to interrupt.”

“Interrupt all you want,” he murmured, tightening his grip around her. “And yes, twenty. I joined when I was seventeen so I’m thirty-seven, if that’s your way of asking.”

“I wasn’t, but I was curious. So, it was a perfect storm…”

He grinned, loving the feel of her sitting on his lap, in his arms. This light banter with a woman was new territory for him. It had been years since he’d been in a relationship and even then, his last one had been all physical, something he hadn’t realized until too late. “It was just one of those things. The job offer came in and I had to take it.”

“You were in California for a long time though, right?”

He nodded. “Yeah. I wasn’t home often but that’s where I was stationed for the majority of my career.”

“Do you miss it?”

San Diego was beautiful, but bases were pretty much the same wherever you went. And the Navy had been his home, not a city. “I miss my men and I miss the structure, but I’m adaptable. A nomad, my mom always says.”

Zoe raised an eyebrow. “Your mom?”

“Well I wasn’t spawned.”

She snorted. “I just meant are your parents, or your mom, still alive?”

He nodded. “Yep. They run an alpaca farm in Missouri with two of my brothers. They’re starting to downsize this year, but I don’t know that they’ll ever give it up completely.”

“That’s pretty interesting. So how many brothers do you have?”

“Four total.” He loved all of them, but never could have stayed in Missouri. He’d wanted to see the world too much and the need to protect his country had been an almost inborn thing. There’d never been another option other than the military for him and he’d known it since he was a kid.

“Let me guess, you’re the oldest.”

He shook his head. “Middle child. What about you? Oldest?”

“Nope. Two older sisters and you know Vincent is the baby.”

Sawyer snorted at that. “I’m sure he loves being called that.”

A smile played on Zoe’s full lips and she shifted slightly against his lap. When she did, her hip brushed right over his erection—and she froze, her expression turning to one of surprise.

“You’re really surprised?” he murmured.

Her eyes grew heavy-lidded as she watched him. She shook her head and ran her tongue along her bottom lip, almost nervously as she set her coffee cup down.

He didn’t bother fighting his groan as he watched her moisten that full lip. “What are you thinking right now?” he whispered.

Her gaze narrowed on his mouth and she leaned forward, gently brushing her lips over his. “What do you think?”

Sawyer didn’t want to screw things up with Zoe by going too fast, but damn, the woman was making it impossible not to. When she playfully nipped his bottom lip between her teeth, he knew this was a battle he was going to lose because no way was he turning away from her. From this.

But he
was
going to take control of the situation. Wrapping his hands around her hips, he lifted her off him until she was sitting on the edge of the island. Her silky robe parted, revealing a light pink slip thing he was pretty sure was called a chemise. Her cheeks were flushed with arousal and he could see the outline of her hard nipples through her clothes.

Keeping his gaze on hers, he slowly slid a hand up her inner thigh. Her breath hitched, growing ragged, and he didn’t stop until he teased the edge of her panties.

He couldn’t see them yet, but his imagination was going wild as to what color they were. “I want to kiss you here,” he murmured, cupping her mound as he leaned in to cover her lips with his. Her legs spread under his hold and he shifted so that he was perfectly in between her thighs. The blinds in her kitchen were still closed, but plenty of natural light streamed in through the cracks in the slats, letting him see her every expression.

She nodded and made a moaning sound he felt all the way to his cock. Touching her was making him crazy. Last night had been a tease of what was to come and now he wanted to see all of her.

When he feathered kisses down her jaw, she arched her back, letting her robe fall farther open. He slid it all the way off, letting it glide to the countertop without a sound.

Her fingers trailed over his chest as he made his way down to her shoulders, nipping at her skin. Impatient to see her breasts again, he pushed the straps down, letting the silky covering pool around her waist.