The Christmas Clue (8 page)

“Probably. In fact, they’re likely at the airfield ready to take off in Dominic’s jet.”

Matt’s relief vanished.

His daughter was about to be airborne en route to the doctor. Cass and he could drive to El Paso, but without the name of the pediatrician, it’d be a needle in a haystack search. The only thing good was that if Molly was truly in El Paso, it meant Annette couldn’t whisk her out of the country.

“Molly will be back tomorrow,” Cass said as if comforting Annette.

But Matt knew she was really comforting him.

And she was also reminding him that it’d be tomorrow before he could take his child and get away from the estate. Matt had no choice but to agree. However, he didn’t get a chance to voice that agreement because something caught his attention. He spotted the silver-framed picture over the mantel.

It was Molly. Her face beaming, the smile so bright that Matt could feel it.

Annette must have followed his gaze, and she smiled. “I just had that picture taken last week. Isn’t she a sweetheart?”

Matt was sorely tempted to try to take the photo, but it would be a stupid risk. Besides, the picture was a paltry substitute for the real thing, and with luck, tomorrow he’d have his daughter.

“Do you have children?” Annette asked Matt.

He nodded. “A daughter.”

Annette returned the nod. “Then, you know how I feel.”

“I do.”

They shared a glance and a quiet moment. “I haven’t properly introduced myself, even though you probably know who I am—Annette Cordova.”

“Bill,” Matt lied. “And this is Sandy.”

“Well, it’s nice to meet you. I’m sure you both miss your little girl as much as I miss mine.”

Matt settled for a semi-grunt. Odd, that Annette had considered Cass and him to be parents. A couple. He hoped they weren’t emanating something that would make others think that. Best for everyone at the estate to believe they were workers and nothing else.

Outside in the hall, he could hear two men. They were discussing the problem with the security system. Judging from the snatches of what Matt heard, Dominic had been called and was on his way back.

Cass and he had to get out of there. Annette didn’t know Cass, but Dominic did. One glimpse of her, and he would likely order the guards to kill them.

“You must think I’m spineless,” Annette said, just as Matt was ready to say goodbye.

“No.” Cass took a few steps toward her. “But it sounds as if you need help.”

Annette’s breath shuddered. She opened her mouth. Closed it. And looked up at the tiny surveillance camera mounted in the corner of the room. “I’m sorry. I misspoke. I said things I shouldn’t have said. It’s because I’m tired. I didn’t sleep very well last night.”

The woman was obviously afraid that Dominic or one of his men was listening. Ironic, since Matt had used the jammer to prevent the possibility of that happening. Still, he couldn’t very well confess that tidbit to Dominic’s sister, because he couldn’t trust her. But Annette was a woman practically begging for help.

Help that Matt wanted to give her.

If he knew this wasn’t some kind of act. Heck, she was Dominic’s sister, and this could be her way of ferreting out untrustworthy employees.

But Matt had seen her cry earlier in the garden room.

Annette hadn’t known anyone was watching her, and those tears did not look fake.

Still…

“I’ll give you my cell number,” Cass volunteered. She passed Matt the box, used a small strip of paper and a pen from the pink desk to write down the number. She pressed it into Annette’s hand. “Call me if you think there’s anything I can do to help.”

“There’s no reason to call. Everything’s fine,” Annette said. But her hand closed in a tight fist around the slip of paper with Cass’s cell phone number.

“Let’s go,” Matt insisted. “We need to put up these decorations.”

Cass gave Annette a reassuring glance before she took the box from him and headed out.

“Dominic’s on his way back,” Matt whispered to her.

That caused Cass to move a little faster. They threaded their way through the hall maze and went to the garden room. The guard was there, as Matt had expected. Other than a nod, Matt offered the man no greeting.

And no explanation.

Matt figured if they looked as if they belonged there, then the guy wouldn’t try to stop them.

It worked.

He glanced at the gold tinsel dangling over the edge of the box, returned Matt’s nod and actually opened the door for them. Still keeping with the we-belong-here act, Cass and he didn’t hurry, though it was still cold and drizzling. They practically strolled across the yard.

Until Matt heard the footsteps.

Buck stepped out from a cluster of Texas sage bushes. He wasn’t armed with an AK-47 this time but with an equally lethal Glock that was rigged with a silencer. “I’ve been watching for you two. Now, mind telling me who the hell you are?”

“We’re part of the crew that’s decorating the place for Christmas,” Matt offered.

Buck shook his head. “I just went through the pictures of all the temporary hired help, and your faces aren’t there. That’s real bad news for you two. I have orders from Dominic to shoot any and all trespassers.”

That was the only warning Buck gave them before he pulled the trigger.

One second Cass was on her feet, wondering what in the name of heaven they were going to do.

The next second she was on the slippery cold ground where Matt had shoved her.

He fell on the ground, too, just as the silenced bullet swooshed past them.

A second shot quickly followed. Matt had a quick response to that, as well—he shoved her on the other side of a thick Texas sage bush.

Then Matt came up ready to fire.

Or at least that’s what Cass thought he was going to do until he tossed his gun aside and launched himself at Buck. Matt tackled the man, and his momentum sent them both flying backward.

Cass retrieved Matt’s gun, shoved it into her coat pocket and scrambled toward them so she could help. But all she could see was a tangle of body parts.

The fight was obviously on for Buck’s gun, and Cass figured out why Matt hadn’t just shot the man when he had the chance. Matt’s gun wasn’t rigged with a silencer. One blast from his Glock, and the sound would alert Dominic’s men.

All
of them.

A blast like that would have essentially meant that Matt and she would be killed. This way, they had a chance.

The wrestling match turned into a fist fight. Cass tried to maneuver herself into a position to get Buck’s gun. She also tried to keep watch of their surroundings to make sure no one had noticed the disturbance.

Matt slammed his forearm into the other man’s jaw. Buck’s head flopped back, but what he didn’t do was let go of the gun. He did manage to recover quickly enough to land a wicked punch to Matt’s jaw. The men were obviously a close match in body size and skill, and Cass couldn’t take the risk that Buck would win.

She dove at Buck. Specifically at his right hand and the gun. Cass caught a knee in the thigh, and the impact shot pain through her. She ignored it and kept moving so she could latch on to his wrist. It didn’t do her any good. As if she had zero strength, Buck slung off her grip, and instead of Cass retrieving the gun, it bashed her in the cheek.

This time, the pain was a little harder to ignore.

Still, she forced herself to do just that because this fight had to end here and now before they were detected by one of the other guards.

Cass kicked at the gun. No success. The men exchanged blows again, and she saw the blood on Matt’s mouth. They rolled over the ground, both men jockeying for position. Cass jockeyed, too, and this time she aimed her kick at Buck’s elbow.

Buck yelled in pain.

Which meant time was running out fast since anyone could have heard it.

But her kick caused the man to loosen his grip on the gun, and Matt was able to wrench it from his hand. Temporarily. Buck locked his hands around the gun, too, and a new fight was on.

She saw a finger on the trigger, but before Cass could determine whose finger it was, she heard the sound. The swoosh.

Someone had pulled the trigger.

She bit her lip to stop herself from shouting, but she couldn’t do much to stop the horrifying feeling that slammed through her.

Mercy, was Matt hurt?

Someone in the body heap moved. She couldn’t tell if it was Matt or Buck. She forced herself to do something, so she could help Matt. And all the while she prayed that help wasn’t necessary.

More movement. She saw the blood. God, there was a lot of blood, and it was soaked across the front of Matt’s shirt. Cass knelt beside him. Still praying.

And that’s when she realized Buck wasn’t moving.

Matt shoved the man off him, and Cass soon realized the source of the blood. It was definitely coming from Buck. Or rather
had
come from him. She pressed her fingers to his neck and found not even a trace of a pulse.

“He’s dead,” Matt informed her. With his breath coming out in rough gusts, he stood, caught Buck and began to drag him toward the sage bushes. “We have to hide the body.”

Cass nodded and knew she had to help him. Matt was right, of course. Buck had tried to kill them and was now dead himself. Calling 911 or an ambulance wouldn’t help, and a call like that would mean they wouldn’t be able to rescue Molly. Still, Cass’s stomach turned when she grabbed the dead man’s hand and helped Matt pull Buck into the shrubs. Thankfully, the bushes were thick enough to hide him.

Now she only hoped that no one had seen them.

She did a quick search around them. Matt grabbed the box of Christmas decorations, disks and equipment.

“Let’s go,” Matt insisted.

He didn’t have to tell her twice. Cass was more than anxious to put some distance between herself and the body. She felt herself tremble. It didn’t stay a tremble, either. By the time she made it to the stone cottage, she was shaking from head to toe.

“My clothes are damp,” she mumbled to Matt when he gave her a questioning glance.

He shut the door, locked it and stared at her. He obviously didn’t believe that was the reason she was shaking.

Cass didn’t believe it, either.

In fact, she was having a hard time believing what had just happened. But the proof was all over Matt’s face and clothes. His lip was bleeding, and there was a cut on his forehead. Plus, there was all that blood on his shirt and jacket. He peeled off both items, tossed the jacket over the back of the chair. The shirt went in the kitchen sink.

“I can’t burn it,” he whispered. He reached down and turned the small space heater on high. “Someone might see the smoke and get curious.”

She nodded. Just nodded. And she watched while he doused the shirt with bleach and dishwashing liquid that he took from beneath the sink. Because she had to do something, anything, to occupy her mind, she grabbed a rag from the counter and wiped the blood off his jacket.

“Are you okay?” he asked.

Cass was about to answer “sure,” but her teeth began to chatter. Great. Now, she was trembling and chattering. “I’ve never seen a dead man,” she admitted.

“Yeah. I figured that out.” He left the shirt to soak, dried his hands and went to her. Matt pulled her into his arms. “We did what we had to do back there.”

“I know. I just regret that it had to happen in the first place.” She was so weary. So drained, both physically and emotionally. And Cass allowed her head to drop onto his shoulder. “I thought I was tough because I’d been on the run for so long. But I’m not tough.”

“You kicked a hired gun. That’s tough.”

“I was afraid he was going to kill you.”

He pulled back slightly. Looked down at her. He pushed the hair from her face and smiled. “You’ll have a bruise on your cheek.”

She could feel the sting of it. Ditto for the spot on her thigh where she’d been kicked. “You have a cut on the corner of your mouth,” she let him know. But she definitely didn’t return his smile.

She hoped he would say something light and even smart-mouthed to break the wave of emotion flooding her body. But he didn’t. He leaned in and kissed her.

And he immediately winced.

“The cut on your mouth,” she reminded him.

But he didn’t heed the reminder. He kissed her again.

This time he didn’t wince.

Neither did she.

Cass felt that kick that she desperately wanted. His kiss broke the wave of emotion inside her. She could feel the tension drain from her and the heat spread through every inch of her. Until she wasn’t cold. Until she wasn’t shivering. It was warm and comforting. Like snuggling with a familiar blanket.

Until she realized he wasn’t wearing a shirt.

His bare chest was against her. And his bare arms were holding her. There was nothing, however, bare about his kiss. Despite the cut lip, Matt was doing an adequate job of heating her up from head to toe. And Cass did absolutely nothing to stop him.

In fact, she was the one who escalated things.

She pressed herself against him, drawing on the warmth from his skin, his strength. All she wanted to do was forget the terrible images of the guard’s death. She didn’t want to feel the pain, the weariness or the dread. She only wanted to forget.

When she pressed against Matt, he pressed right back. He pushed her against the wall, holding her in place with his body while his mouth took hers as if he owned her.

And for this moment, he did.

The wild kisses got even hotter when his mouth went to her neck. Cass reacted to the not-so-gentle coaxing of his tongue. She melted. The heat kicked up a notch, and the ache escalated.

She angled her hips against him, seeking some kind of relief from the heat and the ache. Matt accommodated her unspoken request. He hooked his arm around her waist and lifted her, wrapping her legs around him until the center of her body met the center of his.

The fit was so perfect that it took her breath away.

She slipped her hands between them to reach his zipper. Cass encountered a very aroused man on her quest, and she was ready to wrap her fingers around him. But Matt moved her hand away.

“I need to keep watch,” he said.

That didn’t make any sense to her, until she noticed that while he was racking her body with pleasure, he was also glancing out the window.

“Talk about multitasking,” Cass mumbled. “This is crazy, Matt. We should stop.”

But she didn’t want to stop. Still, she knew this situation was out of control and had the worst timing possible. So, that meant she had to do the right thing and call it quits. She would have, too, if Matt hadn’t taken multitasking to the next level.

He went after her zipper.

Cass was about to tell him that she could stand watch, too, but she suddenly couldn’t speak. He inched her zipper down, and his hands went in her panties.

Just like that, without nearly enough warning, he touched her in the one spot that could render her speechless. He used his fingers to send her flying.

Cass would have preferred a different part of Matt for the penetrating task—but after a few of those clever finger strokes, she was satisfied with what he was doing. Those maddening fingers slid through her slippery heat and created the friction that both soothed and fed the ache that was now raging inside her.

Matt didn’t stop. He didn’t slow down.

Cass didn’t even try to fight to hang on to the pleasure a while longer. She couldn’t. Everything was moving too fast until it was speeding out of control, exactly the way she wanted.

Matt’s clever fingers and kisses sent her over the edge.

And when she fell, he was right there to catch her.

She had to wait a moment, just to gather enough breath to speak. And even then Cass kept it simple.

“Your turn.”