His Captive Lover (The Thorpe Brothers Series) (5 page)

Mia looked out the window, shaking her head. “I teach kids,” she said.  “They’re all young and impressionable.  They won’t understand what’s going on, especially if the media start showing up at the school.  It will scare them and be confusing.  I’ll lose my job over this.”

Ash wasn’t going to allow that.  “We’ll clear your name, Mia.  Just hang in there.”

She looked up at him, feeling his strength and power, but not sure she could trust it.  “Even if you can clear my name of the criminal charges, there will always be some people out there who will think I did it.”

She was right, he thought.  “Then I’ll just have to make sure there’s no doubt in anyone’s mind.”

She sighed and slumped down into the soft, luxurious leather seat.  “I’m not really hungry anymore.  If you can just drop me off at my house,” she asked. 

“You can’t go back there,” he said again.  His voice was hard and firm. 

“Why not?  Surely they won’t be searching my house for the whole day, will they?” she asked.

“They might, depending on what they find or don’t find.”  He considered his next words, “And even if they finish today, your house might not be habitable for a few days.  Besides, we’re not finished today.  We have much more to do and we need your help.  You’re not off the hook.”

He pulled into a sandwich shop and they got out.  “Besides, you haven’t eaten yet today.  You have to grab something to eat.  This is a long, tedious process and you’re going to need your strength.” 

Mia started to follow him inside, but he waited at the front of the car for her and she felt that warm, squishy feeling in her tummy again.  Darn him for being a gentleman!  Why couldn’t he just walk into the sandwich shop and wait for her to catch up to him like most guys?  She was used to that.  She could handle that.  His gentlemanly manners combined with his gorgeousness were making her think and feel things that were completely inappropriate! 

He even pulled out her chair for her while the waitress handed them the paper menus.  She suddenly realized something and her whole face flamed with color. 

“What’s wrong?” he asked, instantly aware of something changing within her. 

She shifted in her chair and put her menu off to the side.  “Nothing,” she replied nervously. 

Ash’s eyes narrowed towards her.  “Something is wrong.  Did you think of something relevant to the case?” he prompted, laying his menu down as well.

She couldn’t even look at him, so horrified by her current predicament.  “No.  I just realized that I’m not very hungry after all.”

Ash didn’t believe her for a moment.  “You’re getting some food, Mia,” he replied, his tone gentle but firm.  “You haven’t eaten all day and I’m going to need you alert tonight for more questions.”

She sighed and closed her eyes briefly, but then her stomach betrayed her by making hunger noises.  She placed her hand over her stomach and tried to play it off.  “I’m just nervous that’s all.  It isn’t every day a girl gets arrested,” she said, pretending to laugh but the sound was more nervous than humorous.

Ash suspected what was wrong and tried not to smile.  “How about a bowl of New England clam chowder and a Rueben sandwich?” he suggested.  “Or a burger with extra cheese and onion rings?” he asked, watching her carefully.  When her mouth dropped open slightly with the second option, he put his menu down with a satisfied nod.  “Burger it is, then,” he said and signaled to the waitress who had been standing by the counter waiting for him to be ready.

“No!  Really.  I’m fine.”

Ash looked at the waitress and ordered their cheeseburgers with onion rings and an extra side of French fries.  “Can you bring some vinegar with that as well?” he asked.

Of course the waitress nodded her ascent, eager to rush off and do his bidding as quickly as possible.  Mia glared at the woman, wanting to spit when the hussy swayed her hips in an obvious invitation. 

Mia looked back at the man, wanting to see if he was ogling the waitress.  She needed something to calm these crazy feelings that were swimming through her mind.  But the man wasn’t watching the waitress!  He was watching her watching the waitress.  And was that amusement on those firm, sexy lips? 

“I don’t have my wallet,” she finally admitted, needing to throw him off the scent of her jealousy over the waitress and onto new territory.

“I figured that out,” he laughed.  “Did you think I was going to make you buy your own meal?”

She glanced down at her fingers which were tangled tightly together on her lap, nervous with those blue eyes on her once again.  “I’m not sure what I’m thinking today.  It’s been one of those crazy, unpredictable days that I hope never to experience again.”

He chuckled softly.  “And I’m here to make sure this one blows over quickly enough.”  He paused a moment, looking at her soft, worried and tired eyes.  “Do you really save earthworms?” he asked, unable to stop the question once it popped into his mind.

She looked up at him, not sure what he was talking about.  “Save earthworms?” she repeated, confused. 

“Autumn was telling me what a stellar human being you were as she was pushing me out of my office to get to the courthouse faster.  One of the things she said as a way to convince me of your innocence was your need to save earthworms from the heat of the sun.”

Mia flushed and looked down again.  She wasn’t exactly sure what she could say, but she shrugged her shoulders slightly.  “I don’t like to see them suffering,” she said in almost a whisper. 

The possibility that earthworms had the ability to actually experience pain and suffering struck him and he threw back his head and laughed.  He knew he was making her uncomfortable and he tried to hide his amusement, but every time he looked down at her from across the table, the laughter started up again.  He couldn’t help it.  She was so cute and actually sincere about her need to save the same worms that he and his brothers speared onto hooks whenever they went fishing. 

Thankfully, their burgers arrived at that moment and she was able to hide her flushed cheeks behind the burger which actually tasted fantastic, despite her worry over her current legal problems.  He let her get halfway through her burger and fries before he started in on the questions again.  This time, she wasn’t sure why he was asking some of the questions, but she answered them as honestly as she could.  But they were things like what her favorite color was, were her parents still alive and why she’d chosen teaching as opposed to a profession that might be more lucrative. 

“We can’t all be dynamo lawyers and billionaires, can we?” she asked with a smile, used to people wondering why she chose teaching.  “It isn’t a big secret,” she explained, wiping her fingers on her napkin.  “I love the kids.  I love seeing them learn.  When they enter my classroom at the beginning of the school year, most of them don’t know how to read and can barely identify the alphabet.  By the end of the year, they’re excited to read me books, some have started math skills, and they are more confident and eager to please.  It’s just an exciting process,” she said to him and then grabbed the last onion ring, not even sorry either.

He looked back at her with a blank look and she wondered what he was thinking.  Most people thought she was crazy to be stuck in a room with twenty-five to thirty kids.  They pictured a room filled with chaos and screams but that wasn’t the way it was.  She had fun with her students

They drove back to the office and Mia wearily followed him back to the elevator, grateful that all the reporters had left the area, but still nervous about whatever additional questions he might have for her.  She’d never talked about herself as much as she had today and it made her uncomfortable. 

Once inside the building, she shifted over to the other side of the elevator, feeling odd when she was too close to the man.  She knew he didn’t like her and it irritated her beyond anything to know that.  There was something about this man that struck her deeply, made her feel….okay, this was cliché, but he made her feel weak in the knees. Him buying her a burger and fries didn’t help either.  Most men were horrified by how much she could eat but this guy, he just looked at her with admiration. 

She just needed to keep telling herself that he didn’t believe in her innocence.  He was working this case because it was his job and he was getting paid an incredible amount of money to get her out of jail and keep her out.  He didn’t care about her innocence or guilt.  He just cared about the next almighty dollar and how many hours he could bill against her poor, beleaguered bank account. 

As she stepped out of the elevator, she turned so that he couldn’t touch her back.  Her body might think he was the sexiest man alive but her mind recoiled at the idea of any man who didn’t think she was good and honest, and more importantly, not a murderess, to touch her. 

Ash’s eyebrow went up as she turned so as to ensure that he couldn’t touch her.  Fine, he thought with irritation.  She wasn’t even his type.  He preferred blonds, he told himself.  Tall, leggy blonds! 

So what if he couldn’t keep his eyes off of her adorable, sexy derriere?  And he wasn’t actually staring at her long legs, wondering what it would be like to slide his hand down her calf, see if the back of her knee was ticklish. 

Ash shifted his belt buckle slightly as he led her into the conference room where everyone was already assembled.  She started to take a seat over by the conference room wall but he grabbed her arm and forced her to sit next to him.  Why the hell he cared where she sat was a mystery he wasn’t going to think about.  He just wanted the damn woman where he could see her.  Call it suspicion or maybe even an instinct for survival.  He was going with his gut this time around.  To hell with logic. 

“Okay everyone, settle down,” he called out to the assembled group.  He didn’t want to stifle their thought processes, but he needed those thoughts organized and going in the same direction.  “We have a new face in the group.  If you haven’t met her already, please introduce yourselves to Kiera Ward.  If you haven’t heard about the case she just won in California, well, then you’re fired because you should be keeping up with all court cases no matter where they were tried,” he said and the rest of the group laughed.  “Don’t let her age confuse you.  She’s a hard hitter who brings passion and a dedication to the team that is admirable.  Her ability to win cases in several high profile trials recently will be an asset to our team.  Don’t be shy and make sure you include her in the progress of this trial.”  Obviously all of them had heard about the case so he moved on.  “What do we have?”

Ash remained standing at the head of the table while the rest of his investigative and legal team briefed him on their progress of the morning. 

Mark, the lead investigator, stood up and read from his notes.  “First of all, there’s the assumed victim’s blood on a baseball trophy with Ms. Paulson’s fingerprints all over it.  The police have bagged it but I’m trying to get the placement of the fingerprints to determine hold.”

Mia glanced up to see Ash’s expression.  He looked just as hard and tough as normal, no reaction to the fact that her fingerprints were on what everyone assumed was the murder weapon. 

She spoke up, trying to offer help wherever possible.  “I know that trophy.  Jeff showed it to me when we were first dating,” she interrupted and felt nervous now that all eyes were on her.  “It was his pride and joy,” she explained. 

“That’s a good explanation for how your fingerprints got onto the trophy.  Mark will get more information on the placement.”

She bit her lip, confused but afraid of speaking up again.  She wasn’t one who liked the spotlight and this was an intimidating group of men and women. 

Ash noticed the change in her eyes and reacted to it.  He wouldn’t normally slow down to explain with so many people here, but he seemed to be doing everything differently with this woman.  Including wanting her so badly he was tempted to order everyone out of the conference room so he could finally kiss her and taste those lips of hers that she kept biting.  He wanted to bite them himself, see how soft they were and….

Getting off track, he reminded himself once again.  “The placement of the fingerprints can show that you were holding it in a certain way.  If you were to grab it at the top so that the heavy bottom side could strike the victim’s head, that would be different than if your fingerprints were at the bottom of the trophy.  That would indicate that you were holding it to look at it instead of using it as a weapon.”

Mia smiled, grateful for his explanation but her mind instantly went back to the moment when she’d been holding it.  She tried to picture it in her mind and she was relatively sure that she’d held it at both the top and the bottom, knowing how proud Jeff was about the trophy and not wanting to break it or drop it. 

Ash was already onto the next problem with her defense.  He turned back to Mark, nodding for him to continue with his discoveries.  “The most obvious issue, the assumed victim has been missing for more than a week.  He hasn’t called in sick to work, none of his co-workers have heard from him, he just didn’t show up.  There’s been no visible movement at his house, according to the neighbors I spoke with this morning, but that doesn’t mean much since it doesn’t appear that anyone really knew the guy much.  The neighbors don’t seem to be the type to socialize with each other.”

Mia agreed with that.  It had been one of the fights they’d gotten into during their relationship several times.  She’d hated his neighborhood and he’d fought hard to keep her from buying her little cottage.  But she’d fallen in love with both the house and the neighbors even before she’d moved in so she’d ignored his suggestion to save her money for something bigger. 

Again, Ash didn’t show any type of reaction to the news that Jeff was gone, missing and hadn’t been seen.  He didn’t even look in her direction for her reaction. 

Oooh!  She really was starting to hate that man.  But how could one like a guy who thought she’d killed her ex-fiancé? 

“What else?” he prompted, writing something down on his notebook. 

Mark signaled to another investigator.  “A co-worker at Ms. Paulson’s school gave a statement to the police that Ms. Paulson and the assumed victim were fighting on several occasions.  No one heard what the conversations were about, but they explained that the arguments were heated.”