Intimate Caresses (The Love and Danger Series) (16 page)

“Bingo,” Brock stated.  He looked down at the technician.  “Any fingerprints on the bottle?”

“Only the wife’s,” he said, knowing exactly what he was
implying with his answer.

“Good job,” Colt said, a grin forming on his handsome features. 

They both looked over to where the wife was speaking rapidly on her cell phone, her hands gesticulating wildly. 

Brock and Colt looked at each other. “Shall we have a chat with her down at the station?” he asked.

Brock nodded grimly and started walking towards her.  “Let’s bring her in.”

Colt’s eyes snapped to his partner and friend, worried now.  This was the point in an investigation when they both knew that things were falling together.  But Brock looked like he was still ready to kick someone’s bu
tt.  Definitely not like him, Colt thought. 

“Ms. Silverberg,” Brock broke through the woman’s
feverish conversation. 

Meredith Silv
erberg’s mouth fell open as the two detectives towered over her.  “I didn’t kill my husband,” she asserted.  “And I’m on the phone with my lawyer right now.”

Colt moved in, acting as the stern one this time.  “How about if you tell your lawyer to meet you down at the police station?” he suggested. 

Her eyes looked back at the two men, obviously seeing their intent.  “Why?  I didn’t do anything wrong!”

Colt took her elbow and led her over to one of the police cruisers.  “Let’s just discuss this down at the station, okay?”  He took her phone out of her hands and pressed the end button. 
“You can call him or her back when we get down to the station,” he explained when she uttered a horrified squeak. 

Colt then did the ultimate insult.  He took her purse and handed it to the uniformed officer while he pulled her arms back. 

“What the hell are you doing?” she demanded, trying to pull away. 

“Ms. Silverberg, you’re under the arrest for the attempted murder of your husband,” Colt explained
while he finished reading her the Miranda warning.  He snapped a pair of cuffs on her wrists, ignoring her screeching as he tucked her head down so she wasn’t knocked out as she was stuffed into the police cruiser. 

“You’re making a huge mistake!” she screamed.  But Colt just slammed the door on her outrage,
then turned his back so he didn’t even have to look at her face while she raged at him through the window. 

Colt and Brock looked at each other.  Colt said,
“For some reason, I don’t think this confession is going to come as easily as the first one today.”

Brock nodded grimly, but the
y both moved over to Brock’s truck, ready to drive back to the station.  There, they would question the lady who was practically throwing herself against the police car’s door while demanding to be released. 

“Probably not,” Brock agreed.

Two hours later, they sat across the metal table from the lady, her lawyer right next to her.  She’d been righteous in her indignation, blaming everyone for the medicine being in her husband’s coffee, including her kids and the nanny as well as her husband’s administrative assistant.  “They were having an affair, you know.”  She nodded her head as if that were the biggest revelation of all.  “I never caught them, but I knew.  I saw them drive up to one of those gross, filthy hotels off of the highway.  It was during the middle of the day and she was all over him.  It was disgusting.”

Brock wrote that down, confirming her motive.  One of the officers stepped into the interrogation room at that point, handing Brock a report.  He opened the file folder and read through the details before handing it to Colt. 

“What’s that?” Meredith demanded, keeping her arms crossed over her stomach defensively but her eyes moved from the report on the metal desk to the detectives’ eyes and back again. 

Colt tossed the report onto the table,
then spun it around.  “This is the final report from the crime scene technicians,” he explained. 

Meredith’s lawyer leaned forward, already frazzled at the amount of effort it was taking him to keep his client calm.  H
e pushed his glasses higher up on his nose while he read through the report. 

“Can I have a moment alone with my client?” he asked.

Meredith’s eyes snapped to his, then back to the report. “What does it say?  It can’t say anything bad because I didn’t do anything wrong.”

Brock tilted his chair back so it was balancing on two legs.  “It states that fingerprints were lifted off of some capsules.” 

Her body jerked.  “But I threw away…” and she stopped herself, aware of what she’d just revealed. 

Brock would normally smile triumphantly at that slip, but he didn’t really care at this point.  He just wanted this over with. 
“Yes.  The technician found them in the garbage can by your sink in the bathroom,” Brock confirmed. 

Meredith shook her head
, frantically trying to figure out how to talk her way out of that piece of evidence.  “Anyone could have put them there.”

Brock rolled his eyes.  His long finger pointed to the words that condemned her.  “The technicians only found your fingerprints on the outside of the capsule
s, Ms. Silverberg.”  He sighed with disgust.  “Next time you try to kill someone, just flush the capsules down the toilet.”  With that, he walked out of the interrogation room, sickened with the whole mess.

Or maybe he wasn’t disgusted with this situation, but still furious with Nina for not trusting him. 

Dammit!  Didn’t she know what they had together?  He stomped back to his office, feeling guilty for leaving Colt with the cleanup, but they had a solid case.  If the stupid woman didn’t want to confess, she’d go to court.  She could claim she was trying to get her husband to take the allergy medicine or whatever it was she thought would work to get her off.  He didn’t even care at this point.

And that might be what was bothering him so much.  He cared.  Dammit!  He cared too much.  He’d never felt pain when a woman didn’t wa
nt to be a part of his life.  In fact, except for that one time with his ex-girlfriend, he was the one walking away, or simply fading away because he didn’t take the time to even notice that the woman he’d been dating was no longer a part of his life.  And he’d moved on.  Even Laura had just angered him.  It hadn’t caused this gut-wrenching pain that made him want to punch a wall. 

He wasn’t sure how to move on from Nina. 

He wasn’t going to move on!  He was going to fight for her!  He had no idea how, but he could figure it out.  He loved her and he was sure that she loved him.  There was no way she could give her body so completely to him every night and not love him back.  She wasn’t a shallow person and he knew she didn’t do casual sex. 

No, her nature wouldn’t allow her to be such a generous, affectionate lover and not care deeply.

So having come to that conclusion, what was his next move? 

“Hey,” Colt stepped into his office. 

Brock jerked back to reality and grimaced at the concerned expression on Colt’s face.  “Sorry back there,” he said, rubbing his face wearily. 

“I understand,” Colt replied, but he didn’t.  Not really.  But as guys, they didn’t break into each other’s business unless invited.  Brock wasn’t inviting.  So he did what guys do to help.  “Need to get drunk tonight?”

Brock thought about that for a moment, then nodded.  “Yea.  That would be good.”

“
The guys are coming to my place for poker night.”  He stood up and walked to the door of Brock’s office.  “Oh, and Meredith Silverberg confessed.  She’s writing up her statement now.”

Brock sighed.  “Good work.”

Colt simply pounded the doorframe in response which was a guy’s way of saying, “Don’t worry about it, dude.”

Brock leaned back in his chair, ignoring the neck tightening squeak.  Just staring out the window, he contemplated his plan of attack with Nina.  He wasn’t going to let her go.  He’d been with too many women, been in too many casual relationships.  So he knew that she was definitely worth fighting for.  She was too beautiful, too smart and too much fun to be with.  And she was sexy as hell!

Nina glanced at the clock on her computer for probably the tenth time.  Why wasn’t he calling?  Why didn’t he come over and just sweep her into his arms?  That’s what she was used to.  It is what she’d been anticipating. 

Was he just accepting that she didn’t trust him and moving on?  Her heart ached at the possibility. 

But here it was, after midnight and he hadn’t called.  Not even a text. 

She hadn’t gotten anything done on her computer game,
she was exhausted and irritable.  That might be because she hadn’t eaten anything.  The cup of yogurt she’d tried to eat earlier in the evening was still sitting by her elbow, now looking watery and gross. 

She stood up and tossed the uneaten yogurt in the trash bin and glanced at her cell phone for probably the fiftieth time tonight, checking to see if he might have left her a text or a voice mail and her phone just hadn’t given her the signal. 

Nothing.

With a sigh, she walked over to her computer and shut everything down.  It was pointless to lose sleep trying to w
ork when she wasn’t able to concentrate on anything.  She couldn’t focus because her mind kept turning back to how wonderful it felt to be in Brock’s arms, to feel his body against hers while she slept.

She got ready for bed and slipped under the cove
rs, but as soon as she turned off the light, she knew she wasn’t going to be able to sleep.  She’d been with Brock for the past several nights.  She was used to him now.  She liked sleeping in his arms.  When she was with him, she fell asleep with a smile on her face and his muscular arms wrapped around her body, knowing that he would wake her up with a kiss.  And usually a lot more.  The man was a very sexual being. 

Nina had never thought of herself as being very sexual.  Her experience with Steven had left her cold, but Brock’s touch had fired something inside of her that had been
lying dormant.  Brock had woken that part of her up and he couldn’t just leave her like this!  She needed him!  If only to fall asleep, but there was so much more! 

Goodness, she loved listening to him talk about his day, about t
he funny things that happened at the police station.  She supposed those kinds of antics happened in other office environments but she’d always been so introverted, so focused on getting her work done so she could get home and work on her gaming program, that she’d never really paid attention.

And she didn’t even know how the investigation was going!  Shed’ given him the code breaker on the directions.  The least he owed her was an update! 

She rolled over and punched her pillow, furious with him for leaving her hanging this way.  In so many ways, actually, she thought as her body ached to be held by him, to be filled with his. 

Nina groaned and rolled onto her back.  She needed to sleep!  She needed to get some work done tomorrow and if she didn’t sleep, she wouldn’t be able to focus. 

Damn Brock!  This simply wasn’t fair!

She padded through the darkness an
d found her cell phone, texting a message to him.  “How did the investigation go?” she asked. 

Carrying the cell phone back to bed, she curled up with it in her hand.  She wasn’t expecting a reply.  But a few moments later, Brock texted back, “All finished.  Wife confessed to attempted murder.  Assistant confessed to shooting him.”

She smiled into the darkness as she read the words.  “Good job!” she immediately texted back.  “I knew you could do it.”  On the one hand, she felt bad that he was still awake at this time of the night.  But on the other hand, she needed this silly communication with him.  It was selfish, but she loved it.  Craved it. 

“Thanks. 
Couldn’t have figured out the messages without you.”

Nina smiled but wasn’t sure how to reply.  So in response, she sent him a wink.
Then laughed into the darkness when he sent her a wink right back. 

“What are you doing awake at this time of night?” he texted.

She thought about telling him that she missed him, but that would make her too vulnerable.  “What are you doing awake?” she came right back. 

“Thinking of you.
  Wishing you were here.”

She gasped at how open he was with his reply and her body ached even more. 

He texted again and she groaned at the words.  “Wishing you were on top of me.”

She buried her head in the pillow but her phone pinged again.  “Wishing I was inside you right this second.”

“Stop!” she gasped, then texted that word to him.

“Why? 
Because you feel the same way?”

She bit her lip, wondering how she could reply. 
In the end, she just texted back, “Yes.”  Somehow, she could actually hear his smile. 

“So what are you going to do about it?” he texted. 

Nina stared at the words, not sure what to do or what to say.  Finally, she texted in, “I’m scared.”

He came right back with, “I know.  But it’s going to be okay.”

Her chest ached as she said, “How can you promise that?”

“Because I love you.
  And you love me.”

She shivered, not sure what to say.  And wonderful man that he was, he gave her an out.  “Goodnight.  Sleep well.”

She curled up with her pillows, wishing that it was Brock instead.  And she fell asleep.