Causing a Commotion (26 page)
Read Causing a Commotion Online
Authors: Janice Lynn
Tags: #Humor & Entertainment, #Humor, #Literature & Fiction, #Romance, #Contemporary, #Romantic Comedy
He shut Jessie’s door and climbed into the back seat, cursing his own stupidity. Once inside the car, he pulled out his cell phone, determined to at least let someone know where he was.
J.P. turned, spotted the cell phone, and cursed. “Don’t use that, boy. Don’t you watch the movies? They can track your location through that phone.”
This was getting weirder by the second. “What? Why would anyone be interested in my location?”
“The police are in the building.”
“The police?” Jessie gasped. “Why would the police track Colin? He answered all their questions and let them search through his things yesterday.”
“To arrest him for Tamara’s kidnapping.”
“Oh God.” Jessie’s head jerked to J.P. “Tamara’s really been kidnapped? I was hoping it was all just a misunderstanding. That she’d be found out with some Wolf hunk.”
“Because someone says they saw her go into my office yesterday?” Colin’s head spun, too. He was being sucked back in time, back to Karen’s death. “I’m telling you she wasn’t in my office. At least, not while I was there. And, even if she was, that’s not enough to make an arrest.”
“The police lifted a strand of her hair from the backseat of your car.”
“Impossible.” Colin’s ears roared. This wasn’t happening. Not again. “Tamara has never been in my car.”
“Impossible or not, they did, and the police want to talk to you again. I’m not sure if an official arrest is being made or not and wasn’t going to stick around to find out.”
“There must be a mistake. Colin didn’t kidnap Tamara. The entire idea is preposterous,” Jessie defended. “Who would do this?”
“Now there’s the million dollar question.” J.P. motioned for Colin to duck as they drove out of the building and past the security booth at the garage entrance. “My guess is whoever painted Colin’s walls is also who planted the hair.”
“How the hell would it get inside my car, though?”
“Good question, although I imagine it’s not too hard to shimmy a lock.”
“It’s not.”
Both men looked at Jessie.
She shrugged. “It’s not like you don’t know I went through a wild stage and broke a few laws once upon a time. Breaking into a car is quite easy when you know how.”
“Question is how did someone get one of Tamara’s hairs?” J.P. pulled the SUV onto Wolf Boulevard and driving toward the highway.
“Where are we going?” Colin asked, calculating how he would deal with this. He’d go back to jail. Memories of the six nights he’d spent there two years ago threatened to close his throat. He didn’t think he could live through that hell again. That caged in feeling. Did he have a choice?
Hell, yes. He could figure out who had framed him and nail the bastard. Finding out who supposedly saw Tamara going in to his office would be a great place to start. The Wolf tipsters’ identities hadn’t been released.
“Well, I haven’t quite figured that out yet.” J.P. scratched his head, the vehicle swerving slightly when he did. “The important thing was getting you out of there before the police found you.” J.P’s gaze met Colin’s in the rearview mirror. “Not so you can run, mind you, but to give you time to figure out what’s going on before things get out of control.”
Things already felt out of control. Horribly out of control.
“How did you know?”
J.P. glanced over his shoulder, meeting Colin’s gaze. “Seems you have someone watching out for you.”
Interesting. “It would also seem I have someone out to destroy me.”
* * *
Jessie couldn’t quite believe what was happening around her. Tamara was missing. Colin accused--falsely accused--and sort of on the run from the law. Dear God, were she and J.P. obstructing justice or some such legal term as that by sneaking him out of Wolf? She’d have to ask Jill.
Jill. Her sister would choke her if she knew what was going on. Which was just one of the many reasons why she wouldn’t tell.
“San Padre.”
J.P. cast a glance toward her. “What?”
“Let’s go to the house in San Padre. We can talk there. It should be safe.”
J.P.’s thick white brows met in a vee. “You want to hide him in a cop’s house?”
“Jill moved her things out of the house before the wedding.” Jessie turned, staring at a tight-faced Colin. He looked more uptight than she’d ever seen. Damn whoever had done this, because not for one second did she believe Colin guilty. “Is there some place you’d rather go?”
“If it’s discovered you two knew the police were looking for me, you’ll be as caught up in this mess as I am.” He ran his hand through his hair, tousling it slightly.
“We don’t know a damn thing. You just went with us to lunch. That’s it,” J.P. cut in.
“Right now, no one knows anything the wiser. If I go to San Padre, it’ll implicate you. I can’t do that. Plus, I’ve already been advised not to leave town.” Colin swore, his face taking on a steely edge. “Hell, the sooner you two dump me somewhere the better. I won’t have you involved, Jessie.”
No. He was not going to shut her out. Not now. Not ever. He needed her. She needed him.
“I’m not leaving you.”
“You have to.” Colin met her eyes, then looked away. “Take me to the Community Boys Home and Center. I’ll be safe there until I can figure out what I’m going to do.”
Colin gave J.P. the directions and told him to pull around to the back of the school when they arrived.
“Colin, please.” She didn’t want to leave him. Not at the boy’s school. Not anywhere.
“Look, you have to return to Wolf with J.P. If you don’t, you’ll be dragged in to this regardless.”
“But—”
“He’s right,” J.P. said, pulling a cigar from his shirt. With a rueful look at Jessie, he stuck it in his mouth unlit. “Your car is there.”
“So is Colin’s.”
“Which will buy him a little time.”
Jessie didn’t like to think J.P and Colin were right. Didn’t like to think that for the first time she was with the right man and yet things were happening to tear them apart.
She unbuckled her seatbelt and twisted in her seat. Without too much trouble she climbed into the back of the SUV amidst complaints from Colin and J.P. Too bad, because Colin was going to look her in the eyes when she asked what she had to ask.
“What are you doing?”
“Sitting beside you.”
“The front of the car not good enough for you?”
“Not when you’re back here.”
He sighed, his expression softening. “What have I gotten you into?”
“You haven’t gotten me into anything. I choose to be here.” She placed her hand on his cheek as they pulled in front of the boys’ school.
J.P. drove around the building to the service entrance and parked the car in front of the door. He made a gruff sound, mumbled something about needing a smoke and got out of the car.
“He shouldn’t have gotten involved,” Colin said. “Shouldn’t have involved you.”
“I’m involved whether J.P. included me or not.” She defied him to say otherwise. “If it has to do with you, I’m involved. Got that?”
A small smile played on his lips. “You are something else.”
She stroked her fingers across his cheeks. “Promise me you’ll still be here when I come back.”
He didn’t look away, but the tiny twitch of his eye gave him away. He’d planned to disappear after she and J.P. left. She’d known it.
She cursed. “You are not leaving me, Colin Crandall. Do you understand? I won’t let you.”
“You have to go back for your car.”
“No, I don’t. The only thing I have to do is be with you.”
“Jessie, don’t be ridiculous. I may never prove my innocence and really have to decide whether to stay or disappear for good if Tamara doesn’t turn up and set the record straight. If that happens, I’ll always be looking over my shoulder. That’s no way to live.”
She didn’t so much as blink. “Without you is no way to live.”
A determined look settled onto his face. “I don’t want you with me.”
“Yes, you do.”
“You’re nothing but trouble.”
“Always,” she agreed. “But you do want me.”
“No, I—”
She didn’t let him finish, just pressed her mouth to his, kissing him with all the emotions bubbling through her.
“Promise me, Colin.” She stared directly into his eyes. “Promise you won’t leave me.”
“I can’t.”
“Then I won’t go back for my car. I won’t risk losing you. I’ll stay, and we’ll figure out what’s up with the hair in your car.”
“You have to go and not come back here in case you’re followed.”
“Then promise.”
He didn’t want to. It was plain on his face. He swore under his breath, against her lips. “I promise.”
She kissed him again. Deep and soulful.
J.P. rapped on the window. “The longer I sit here, the more likely someone is to see my car and make a connection.”
He was right, but letting go of Colin took more strength than she had. Tears filed her eyes.
He wiped them away. “All I’m doing is buying time to figure out what’s going on. One way or the other, I’ll be okay.”
She nodded. He would be. She’d make sure of it. Somehow.
Blindly, she dug into her purse that was between the two front seats and wrapped her fingers around her cell phone.
“Take this. J.P. said you can’t use yours. If you need anything, call J.P. via this phone. The number’s stored in the address book.”
He took the phone, probably just for her benefit because he wouldn’t call and they both knew it was more for Jessie to feel a connection to him.
Then again, perhaps she shouldn’t have given him a way to call and break his promise.
* * *
Colin didn’t break his promise. Instead, he placed a phone call to J.P. to make sure Jessie didn’t return to the boys’ home since it was likely she’d be leading the police, or whoever the real culprit was, right to him. J.P. swore he’d make sure she understood, but didn’t make any promises about whether or not she’d listen if her mind was made up to return.
If she came back to the home, he was as good as caught.
Which shouldn’t be so bad. If it were that simple. It wasn’t. Every instinct told him that if he went to jail, he’d never be a free man again. He didn’t want to run, but he couldn’t go to jail.
The urge to take a drink twisted his insides. He needed a drink. Badly. So badly his mind whispered to risk everything to go to a liquor store and feed his addiction. That one sip would ease the fire burning through his mind.
One sip wouldn’t. Neither would the whole bottle.
Not tonight. Not ever. To take that first sip would be allowing Karen’s death to be in vain. Since her death, he’d learned to control every aspect of his life. He wouldn’t lose that. Well, he’d learn to control all aspects except for Jessie--and whatever was going on at Wolf.
Maybe he hadn’t been as in control as he’d thought.
Jessie. He closed his eyes and envisioned the trust, the longing on her face when they’d said goodbye.
He didn’t need a drink. He needed her. But to be with Jessie he first had to figure out what the hell was going on.
Via a friend within the boys’ home, he had use of a private room and only two people other than J.P. and Jessie knew where he was. One of the men provided Colin with a key to his office so Colin had access to the computer.
First scrambling his location and identity, a trick he’d learn during his investigative journalism days, he logged in to the Wolf mainframe computer system to see what he could find out about Tamara Harrison. The press was having a field day with the actress’s disappearance.
Colin was sure he’d been set up. All the pieces had fallen in to place for all fingers to point in his direction too smoothly for it not to be. But what about all the mishaps around the set? Was there a connection? Then there was the lead on the military contracts he’d been digging into. How did that fit into the picture?
He typed in the name of the company who’d repeatedly won military contracts, Senator Bill Thomas, and Wolf television. Not that he expected anything to pull up. That would be too easy.
Only something did pull up.
Chapter Eighteen
Jessie went the only place she knew to go. The same place she’d been going her entire life when trouble knocked on her door. To her sister.
She hated it. Hated having to bother Jill with this. But not so much that she wouldn’t bury her pride yet again and ask for help. For Colin.
Her heart ached for the steely resolve in his eyes. He was shutting the world out, trying to hide within that frigid iceberg again. She wouldn’t let him. Not while breath was in her body.
Only when she got to the police station, Jill had already left. Fortunately, Jill’s partner hadn’t.
“Jess? What are you doing here?” Dan exclaimed, wrapping her in a brotherly bear hug. “Tell me you haven’t been arrested for indecent exposure again.”
“I haven’t been arrested for indecent exposure.” She flashed a weak smile and winked at the tall, lanky blond. “Only because I haven’t been caught, though.”
