Dance With Me (5 page)

“
And why would someone set your client up? Her mother is a resident of Fluvanna prison, and her studio was headed to foreclosure until this morning. Where did that money come from, I wonder? Not from dancing.”

Carter knew where the Detective was going with this, and knew he was fully aware of the source of the money. “Her fiance, Mason Everett, paid the mortgage on the studio. Her mother is immaterial here.”

Davis stood up, leaning over the table even more. “Mila Nemecek is a convicted felon, yet you say she is immaterial.” Turning his attention to Kat, he asked, “Why would you sell drugs if you got yourself a sugar-daddy?” He looked her up and down, sizing her up. “You are a mighty beautiful woman, too. Surely you could work off your debt.”

Carter stood up then, inserting himself between his client—his friend's fiancee—and the detective. “This interview is over, Detective. We will wait for the judge to hear our bail request.”

“
Suit yourself.”

~*~

“
Bail is set for five hundred thousand.”

“
A half million dollars is excessive, Your Honor. Katerina Nemecek has been nothing short of an upstanding citizen, and poses no flight risk.”

“
I am told the estimated street value of the drugs recovered from your client's place of business is in excess of five hundred thousand, Mr. Jamieson.”

“
True.”

“
It is also the understanding of this court that your client is engaged to be married to Mason Everett, a man from a very influential and affluent family. Bail stands.”

Kat sat quietly through Carter's exchange with Judge King. A half million dollars? If
 
Law & Order
 
was to be trusted, that would mean Mason would have to ante up fifty-thousand to bring her home. After buying her a gorgeous diamond, paying off her overdue mortgage, and now posting her bail, she would be twice as expensive as his house! She held back a laugh. She should be paying attention to Carter and the judge, and here she was tallying up Mason's expenditures.

“
So, now what?” Kat asked Carter and Mason as they sat in a booth at
 
O'Dell's Bar & Grill
. “I mean, I get that we have to prove this wasn't me, but how?”

“
I have great investigators on my team, Kat. We'll find what we need.”

“
What if there's nothing to find?” Mason asked. At Kat's sharp intake of breath, he elaborated, “What if Priscilla hired a professional and there's nothing to find?”

Carter adjusted his glasses before answering, “We won't know until they look, will we?”

“
The police won't help.” Kat shook her head. “Longwood is disgusting, and at first I thought Davis was better, but he's not.”

Mason pinned her with his chocolate gaze. “What happened?”

“
We handled it,” Carter answered.

“
What happened?” Mason asked again, never taking his eyes off Kat.

“
He insinuated you were my sugar-daddy and I didn't need to sell drugs for money when I could sell myself instead.”

“
Bastard,” Mason muttered.

“
He was trying to shake her up.”

It had worked. Kat was quiet for long minutes before breaking the silence with a revelation. “How the hell does locking me up for drugs make you fall in love with her? What kind of delusional bitch is she?”

“
The rich kind.” The thought made him shudder. What else might Priscilla do? “God, I'm so sorry about this. I never thought...” He trailed off, unable to find the right words. If he'd had any idea Priscilla would stoop to this, he would have confronted her years ago. He knew she was possessive, he knew she put something in Melanie's drink a couple years back. He couldn't prove it, and he hadn't pursued it. He and Melanie had parted on amicable terms—truth told, they had been better friends than lovers, and Priscilla had just brought that to light. Breaking things off with Melanie had been easy, but he couldn't live without Kat.

She took his hands in hers. “It's not your fault.”

Carter had been quiet through the whole exchange, but chose then to assert himself. “Mason, you can't take responsibility for other people's mental illnesses. You dated the woman sixteen years ago. It's not your fault she's fixated on you.”

“
I still don't get it,” Kat started. “I mean, we love each other, and we're getting married. So, she has the drugs planted and now I'm going on trial for trafficking. Let's say I end up convicted—”

“
You won't be convicted,” Carter interjected.

“
For the sake of the hypothetical situation, let's say I am and sent to Fluvanna with my mother. Does she expect Mason to fall heartbroken into her arms?”

“
I'm no profiler, but I'd say she feels you are a distraction to Mason. If she removes the distraction, then the attention will turn to her.”

“
My God, she
 
is
 
a crazy bitch.”

With a gasp, Kat asked, “You don't think she'd kill me, do you?”

“
Don't even think that!” Mason exclaimed.

“
She's already had drugs planted. It's not like, 'You killed my woman, now I love you,' makes any more sense than, 'You put my woman away, now I love you.'”

His stomach dropped. “Carter, I need her protected.”

“
Of course,” Carter agreed.

~*~

“
What happened? Why is that little bitch cooling her heels at Mason's house right now?” Priscilla shrieked.

“
Judge King allowed bail, and it was posted. She was released pending her trial,” Brandon explained.

“
I don't care, I don't care, I don't care!” she protested with a stomp of her feet.

He stood back and watched the deceivingly pretty blonde throw a tantrum like a four year old. “Planting evidence is one thing, Prissy, but I have no control over Judge King. She allowed bail, and there's nothing anyone can do about it.”

“
Don't you dare call me Prissy again, Brandy,” she answered, a glint in her blue eyes. At his perturbed expression, she asked, “How do you like it?”

“
Fine. Priscilla.” He walked away from her, choosing to brace himself against the far wall instead of sitting on any of her precious antique furniture. “Have I told you lately how happy I am our parents were only married for two years?” he murmured, loving the disgust lighting her face. “I did my part. I helped. I even called you Miss McClaren and acted like you could tell me what to do.” He pushed off the wall then, his long legs eating the distance between them in seconds. Toe to toe with this tiny ball of fury he called sister for a few years of his life, he warned her, “Against my better judgment, I did you a favor. Don't make me regret it.”

“
I will own you, Brandon Davis,” she hissed.

“
Not a chance in hell.” He chuckled softly when she flinched. “You asked me to plant evidence, asked me to risk my career so you could have some man. What do you think I could do to you, Prissy?” He paused, letting the threat sink in along with the diminutive name. “I could hang you out to dry right along with Katerina.” He grabbed her arms then. “Or, I could clear the beautiful Miss Nemecek and toss your bony ass in jail.” He released her, propelling her away from himself. “The decision is yours.”

Stumbling on her heels, Priscilla pointed to the door. “Get out.”

He gave her a mock salute. “My pleasure,
 
Prissy
.”

~*~

Kat snuggled into the cushions of the window seat. She'd been warned about staying away from windows for fear someone would take a shot at her, but this was her favorite spot in the house and she really didn't believe Priscilla would have her killed. She didn't want to hide and she didn't want to hunker down like a prisoner. She gave herself a mental kick. Just a few hours ago she had been a prisoner. She'd just opened her book when Mason appeared in the doorway.

Alarmed, Mason snapped, “What are you doing in the window?”

“
Reading,” she answered as calmly as possible. “No one is going to shoot me.”

He crossed into the room then, stopping inches from picking her up bodily. “You were in jail this morning, Kat. You're the one who posed the damn question to Carter in the first place. You are supposed to be here to be protected, not to offer yourself for target practice in the middle of a bay window.”

Hating to see him so upset, even if it meant abandoning her favorite place in the house—maybe anywhere—she stood. “I know I asked the question, but do you really think she'd try to kill me?”

“
I wouldn't have thought she'd give a damn about me after sixteen years, wouldn't have thought she'd have coke planted in your ceiling, so just because I don't think she'd try to kill you doesn't mean I have any idea what she might do.” He pulled her close, dropping a kiss in her hair. “I won't let you take any chances.”

“
I'll go read in the bathtub then,” she offered.

The arms around her relaxed a fraction. “Please be careful. I can't lose you now that I've caught you.”

She giggled at his statement. “Caught me? Now I'm a fish?”

“
That's exactly what I meant, of course,” he remarked, a smile on his lips.

She pushed on her toes to kiss him. “Of course.”

FOUR

She needed to step up her game. That little ballerina was with her Mason, and she needed to take care of her. Permanently.

She toyed with the letter opener on her desk. A perfect replica of Romeo's dagger, she longed to plunge it into Mason's whore. Priscilla could picture it in her mind, the blood flowing to the floor, the life draining from the dancer's eyes. Instead, she put it down. She couldn't be so close, she couldn't be implicated and she couldn't do it herself, no matter how much she wished she could. She clenched and unclenched her hands, the bite of her nails digging into her palms calming. The pain was welcome, soothing, grounding. She couldn't fantasize about killing—she had to bring the fantasy to life.

She paced her office, mentally running down her contacts. She wasn't calling Brandon again, no matter that he could help her—she didn't want to speak to him again as long as she lived. He was a brute and didn't understand true love. She could call any number of men to do any number of things, but she didn't know an assassin. She stomped her feet. Dammit! The longer she let Mason think he could marry someone else, the further away her children were. Time was running out.

~*~

Carter's office had called a security and protection firm, requesting assistance protecting Kat and securing Mason's home and the surrounding acreage. True to the lawyer's word, shortly after Mason's freakout with Kat in the window, Alec Cartwright and Sean O'Dell from Trent, McKenna and Buchanan arrived. Carter assured him the two men were the best of the best, but Mason wasn't sure what to think about the operatives he'd allowed into his house. One was four or five inches taller than himself, with an obvious military haircut; the other was a couple inches shorter and less overbearing in appearance. Each carried a pistol under his left arm, and Mason was sure there was another somewhere else he couldn't detect. After introductions had been made, the four of them sat down to discuss what he hoped was superfluous—protecting Kat's life.

If she hadn't been completely in love with Mason, she would have been more than impressed with her bodyguards. Both incredibly attractive men, Sean O'Dell had to be nearing six and a half feet tall, his black hair still cut like the Marine he had been for years, his eyes a startling emerald green. Alec Cartwright was a few inches shorter but no less impressive, his sandy hair a bit longer and his eyes a warm moss. Fleetingly, she thought of calling her girlfriends to come over and ogle the hard-bodied men before the reason for their company hit her full force. These men were here to keep someone from killing her.

“
So, how does this work, exactly?” Kat asked, a tremble in her voice.

“
One of us will be with you at all times,” Sean started to explain, only to be cut off by a growl from Mason.

“
Not
 
all
 
times,” Mason stated.

“
One of us will be around at all times, most likely both of us.” Sean shot a look at Mason that clearly said, 'I'm not interested in your woman,' as he went on, “We will not only secure the house, but the perimeter, installing cameras and motion detectors. If you feel your life is in danger, Miss Nemecek, we will insure your safety.”

“
Do you really think Priscilla will try and kill me?” She knew she'd asked the question before, but before these men set up camp in Mason's home, she wanted to be sure.

“
Jamieson filled us in on the details and the set-up,” Alec answered. “If you were my woman, I'd be protecting you from the likes of her.”