Beautiful Storm (Lightning Strikes Book 1) (17 page)

"Bartender witnessed marital fight days prior," Michael read. "That's interesting."

"And what about this?" she said, tapping her finger at the next line. "Housekeeper overheard loud argument with male outside the house three days before murder." She looked at Michael. "Who was that?"

"Beats me." He sucked in a breath as his gaze drifted toward the bottom of the page. "Did you see this? MDT-RP, Will Jansen," he read aloud. "Then there's an arrow to my name."

"Looks like she did want to talk to you about your grandfather and MDT. I don't know what RP stands for? Maybe someone in the company?"

He stared at his grandfather's name, reeling from the fact that he now had some concrete proof of why Liliana had wanted to talk to him. But what did his grandfather have to do with anything? As far as he knew, Will Jansen had never set foot in Texas. And he was about as low-tech a person as you could find. He barely answered emails. What would he have to do with MDT?

"Where did you find this?" he asked, looking up from the paper to meet her excited gaze.

Alicia gave him a smug look. "Tucked between the pages of a second edition of
Emma.
"

"Are you serious?"

"It was sitting on top of a pile of magazines next to the couch. I'm guessing Liliana was making notes and either used the note page as a bookmark or just stuck the notes in there so they wouldn't get tossed out accidentally."

"How did you think to look in the book?"

"My mom used to hide money in books. I looked through Liliana's bookshelves and didn't see anything hidden away. Then I saw
Emma
by the couch. I remembered your sweet story, and I actually just opened it up to see the copyright date. I wasn't really expecting to find anything, but I did."

"That's amazing.
You're
amazing," he said, truly in awe of how Alicia kept finding her way back into the mystery no matter how many doors slammed in their face.

"I am pretty good," she said with a proud smile. "I just found us some more clues to follow."

"You certainly did." He stared into her bright, sparkling eyes and felt an incredible pull. This woman was turning his life upside down, taking him out of the darkness and moving him toward a very hopeful light. His nerves were on fire. His pulse was pounding. And he wasn't thinking about the notes anymore, but about the woman standing in front of him, the woman with the heart of a lion and the mouth of a goddess.

He couldn't fight it anymore. He didn't want to fight it anymore.

He folded the paper in his hand, shoved it in his pocket, and then stepped forward, slid his arms around her waist and kissed the look of surprise right off Alicia's sweet, sexy lips.

Thirteen

Michael was kissing her
!

Alicia couldn't quite wrap her brain around what was happening. It wasn't just a brief kiss of gratitude. It was filled with emotion and heat.

The sparks that had been smoldering between them burst into flame, and after her initial surprise, Alicia found herself sinking into his kiss. She loved the feel of his mouth on hers, the strength of his hands on her waist. He held her as if he never intended to let her go.

As if she was his, and he was hers…

But he wasn't hers
.

And this kiss was just an emotional release, a spontaneous idea…something…

Michael lifted his head, his breath coming hard and fast, his light blue eyes glittering with what looked like hunger.

Her breath caught in her throat. There was no denying the desire in his gaze, the feeling that he needed her as much as she needed him. Licking her lips, she almost went back in for another kiss, wanting to feed that hunger, but Michael abruptly stepped back. It happened so quickly she almost stumbled, but somehow she managed to stay on her feet.

He ran a hand through his hair, his gaze troubled now. "Alicia, I'm—"

"Don't say you're sorry." She put up a hand to ward off the apology she knew was coming. "It's really awkward when someone kisses you and then says they're sorry, they didn't mean it."

He stared back at her, and even though he hadn't said the word, the apology was still in his eyes. "It's not that I didn't mean it," he said.

"Was I a stand-in?" she couldn't help asking.

Shock moved across his face. "What? You mean for Liliana? No!"

His emphatic denial killed that little niggling worry.

"Alicia, I told you that Liliana and I had a brother-sister relationship." He paused. "You asked me why I need you to know that. This is why. I've been attracted to you since we met in the park. There's something about you…" He shook his head in bewilderment. "You're honest and brave and sexy as hell, and I find myself thinking about taking you to bed when I should be thinking about the case we're working on."

She licked her lips at his direct words, her entire body lighting up at the idea of going to bed with him. How could that be? She didn't jump into bed with men she barely knew. But Michael was different. She'd learned more about him in two days than she'd learned about her last boyfriend in three months.

"We can't do this now," he said, digging his hands into the pockets of his black jeans, his expression now grim and determined. He'd made a decision and he'd put his walls back up. She was not scaling those walls today.

Not that she wanted to. Well, she did
want
to, but she couldn't. Michael was right. This wasn't the time.

"Are you going to say anything?" he asked, his words tinged with worry as his gaze searched her face for a reaction.

"You know I feel the same connection with you. I keep telling myself it's just the situation. We're both running on too little sleep and too much emotion. This isn't real life, so what we're feeling can't be that real." She paused. "But it feels real."

"Yeah," he said softly, meeting her gaze. "It feels like something—important."

A knot grew in her throat at his words. In the past she'd been a little afraid of feelings that were
important
. She'd made a habit of keeping relationships light, because love terrified her more than anything.

"That scares you, doesn't it?" he asked, cocking his head to the right, a bit of wonder in his gaze. "The girl who chases lightning is afraid of love."

"We're not talking about love; we're talking about sex," she said, feeling a little desperate to remind both of them of that fact. "And we shouldn’t be talking about either one. We should be concentrating on the note I just found."

"You didn't deny that you're scared of love."

"And you're not scared of love? I don't see you having a lot of serious relationships."

"A counterattack is always a good defense."

"We're not talking about this now. Let's move on."

He hesitated for a moment, then said, "All right. Let's get in the car. I'll call my grandfather, see if he can shed any light on his appearance in Liliana's notes."

"Good idea," she said with relief.

Michael called his grandfather while she settled into her seat and fastened the seatbelt.

"He's not answering. I'll leave a message." He paused, and then said, "It's Michael. Can you call me back as soon as you can? I have a question for you." Michael set the phone down on the console. "He's probably on the golf course. He has a regular Monday game."

"Does that mean he's retired?"

"No, it just means he plays golf on Mondays and Fridays and usually the weekend," he said with a smile. "But he still goes into his office, and he definitely knows what's going on in his company. I don't think he'll ever retire. He's seventy-six years old with no sign of slowing down yet."

"What's your grandmother like? I've never heard you speak about her."

"She's quiet, always lets her husband do the talking. She's probably what you would call a corporate wife. She has spent her entire life supporting her husband's business efforts. She's always entertaining people, participating in charity fundraisers, that kind of stuff."

"I wonder what kind of relationship your mom had with her."

"My father said that they weren't close. My mother was more of a free spirit. She really didn't have much in common with either of her parents."

As Michael finished speaking, her phone rang. "Speaking of parents," she said with a sigh.

"Your mother?"

"Yep."

"Go ahead and answer it."

"I don't know." She hesitated long enough that her phone went to voicemail.

Michael sent her a thoughtful look. "What's the problem? We can see her for a few minutes. We can make time for your mother."

"She'll ask a lot of questions about why we're here and as soon as lightning comes up, you'll find out just how crazy she thinks I am."

"I don't need her opinion for that," he teased.

She made a face at him. "It's not like you were dying to talk to your dad the other day, so you should give me a break."

"Hey, you can do what you want. I'm just saying that I would support any attempt you want to make to see your mother. What does she do anyway? Does she work?"

"Yes, she works at the university," she said idly, as she considered whether or not to call her mom back.

"Hold on."

Michael's energetic words brought her gaze to his. "What?"

"Your mother works at Texas A&M?"

"Yes, she's in admissions." As soon as she finished speaking, she realized what she'd just said. "She probably knows Professor Bryer."

"I would think so. You need to call your mom back. Sorry, Alicia, but we need to speak to her. She might be able to give us information about the case. You're just going to have to suck it up."

She raised an eyebrow. "Suck it up? That's the extent of your pep talk?"

He gave a careless shrug. "I didn't know how else to put it."

She knew he was right; she just didn't like it.

"Fine, I'll call her back. But I know I am going to regret this." Pulling out her phone, she punched in her mom's number. "I'm not going to give her the whole story yet. We should do that in person."

"Good idea. Let's get in the door first."

Her mother answered on the second ring. "Alicia?" Joanna Monroe said. "It's about time you called me back."

"Sorry. What's going on?"

"Your sister just got a fabulous new job. She's going to be working for Senator Dillon. She's moving to D.C. next month, and I want to have a party for her. I know it's far for you to come, but I think you should make the effort."

"That's great." Her sister Danielle had worked very hard on the senator's election campaign, so it was nice that she'd been rewarded with a good job. Dani had been trying to move up the ranks for the last several years. "What's the date?"

"Probably the last week in October."

"I'll see if I can come," she said.

"I want a yes, not a maybe."

"We'll talk about it." She saw Michael giving her a pointed look and knew she'd stalled long enough. "I'm actually in Corpus Christi right now."

"What?" her mother asked in shock. "What are you doing here?"

"It was a last-minute trip. That's why I didn't call until now. I was wondering if you're free, if I could come by and see you."

"Well, of course. When?"

"Are you still at work?"

"I'll be leaving in a few moments. I should be home in half an hour."

"We'll come by the house then."

"We?" her mother queried.

"I'm going to bring a friend with me."

"A female friend or a male friend?"

"His name is Michael Cordero. We'll see you soon." She ended the call before her mother could ask any other probing questions. "My mom will be home in thirty minutes."

He nodded approvingly. "Good. Let's go back to the hotel and check in with the front desk to see if Lieutenant Hodges has left us anything. Then we'll head back out."

"Before we meet with my mom, we need to figure out how much we want to tell her. She's going to ask questions."

"And some of those are going to be about who I am and why I'm with her daughter," he said knowingly.

"Those will be the first two questions. I know we need to talk to my mother, but I don't have a good feeling about this, Michael."

"Why? Do you think your mother is going to instantly dislike me?"

"Worse. I think she's going to like you too much."

* * *

"I can't believe Lieutenant Hodges didn't send over any information," Michael complained after a brief stop at the hotel. "I really thought she'd come through for us."

"It hasn't been that long, and she was on her way to court when we saw her," Alicia reminded him.

"True."

"I'm sure my mother will be able to tell us a lot about the professor's death," she added as they got back into the rental car and headed to her mother's house. "She's been at the university for fifteen years. She's also the kind of person who knows everything that's going on. In fact, she makes it her mission to know everything."

"You must get some of your curiosity from your mother."

His words surprised her. "I don't know about that. I've always thought I was exactly like my dad. He was more of a dreamer. His curiosity was about the universe. My mom was more interested in gossip—not that gossip can't be entertaining—but her world always seemed a lot smaller than his." As she finished speaking, she felt a little guilty for what she'd just said. "I'm not putting her down or anything."

"Aren't you?" Michael challenged, giving her a quick look.

"Well, maybe I was. Growing up, I was closer to my dad. We had more in common. We loved to spend time together. With my mom, it was contentious. We were always arguing. I constantly disappointed her. She disapproved of most of my choices. With my dad, love felt unconditional. With my mom, love came with achievement."

"What about your siblings? Were they close to your mother or your father or both?"

"Jake was close to both of our parents. He was the oldest, the son, and he was very even-tempered. Danielle was closer to my mom. She's the middle child and two years older than me. She was a girly girl. She and my mom liked to shop, get manicures together, go to the spa, decorate the house, and they spent a lot of time together. My mom is really going to miss Dani. She apparently just got a job that will take her to Washington, D.C. next month. It will be the first time anyone in the family besides me has left Texas for any length of time."