On His Honor (15 page)

Then she couldn’t resist. Just one little touch…she reached for the kitten, but it jumped and hissed.

Then it started batting at her finger.

She remembered this, the hours and hours she’d spent playing with her own kitten as a girl. She glanced around her for something to use as a toy and found a twig that had fallen from one of the trees shading this beautiful old porch. She brushed it along the floorboards while the kitten stared, mesmerized.

Then it pounced. Violet chuckled and kept dodging and darting the stick around, drawing the kitten closer and closer until finally she could drop the twig and stroke one finger down the spiny little backbone while the kitten attacked the vicious enemy.

A few more strokes, then the kitten stopped attacking and arched its back against her hand, purring like a tiny motor. She scooped it up and held it against her, the vibration of the purr making her smile. She lifted it up, and a quick glimpse answered their question. “Where’s your mama, little girl?” she asked as she cuddled the small gray and white. The kitten let her cuddle and pet her for a couple of minutes, then Violet’s hair swung too temptingly, and the kitten leaped. Her claws tightened and she clung for dear life, frantically trying to climb upward to something stable…in this case, Violet’s scalp.

“Ow!” The yank on the roots of her hair made her eyes tear. She tried fruitlessly to untangle the kitten, who was getting ever more entrapped as she struggled.

Behind her, JD’s laughter warmed her. “Want some help there?” He set his mug down and knelt beside her, using one hand to capture the kitten and still it while the other held onto Violet’s hair before it could be yanked out by the roots. The kitten yelped, and JD nearly dropped her, setting up a further struggle. “Hang on,” he said. “I’ve nearly got it free…ta da!” He held the kitten up in triumph, but a tiny screech had him instinctively bringing the cat to his chest.

Immediately the kitten rubbed her head against him and resumed purring.

Violet completely understood the reaction, surrounded by him as she was. One powerful thigh brushed her back, his other leg bracketing her where he crouched on one knee and held her within the vee of his legs.

She shivered. Never in her life had she felt the potent combination of being both protected by and so powerfully attracted to a man. JD made her feel safe…but in some thoroughly delicious ways, not safe at all.

“Are you all right?” His eyes were bright with both concern and suppressed humor. “I can’t really blame the kitten for wanting to get lost in that beautiful hair. I’ve wanted to just roll around in it myself.” Humor quickly slid into heat.

“Her,” Violet said absently, lost in his eyes.

“Oh.” JD’s were locked on hers as his head lowered until his lips brushed hers. “Did I say good morning?” His voice was husky.

“Yes, but don’t let that stop you,” she murmured, stretching upward into him like a daisy reaching for the sun.

A screech jerked them apart.

They shared a laugh, and Violet realized then just how seductive shared laughter could be.

JD set the kitten down by the dish of milk, and she returned to her eager lapping.

He didn’t move away but stayed right where he was, surrounding Violet with a warmth that was both physical and an indelible part of his personality. He slid his fingers into Violet’s hair, cradling the back of her head as he watched her solemnly. “Now,” he said, his voice low and intense, “where were we?”

“A proper good morning,” she said, staring at that mouth that had given her so much pleasure already.

“Right.” He bent to her, cupping her cheek with his free hand and stroking her skin with his thumb. “Let me know when I get it right,” he murmured.

She closed her eyes and sank into his kiss. Small sips at first, then faint, tantalizing tracing with his tongue until her nipples ached and her body trembled with need for him. “JD…” she said against his mouth. Then she rose to her knees and took the lead.

“God—” he gasped when they both came up for air. “You absolutely kill me, Violet.” He clasped her head in his hands and restrained her. “You are so damn sweet. I wish…”

His eyes were dark and sad and a little haunted. She understood completely. Hadn’t she started that same sentence? She was bewildered by how quickly this had accelerated, since she’d sworn never to fall hard and fast again.

But this was JD, and he was, she realized more every second they spent together…special. Absolutely unique.

She could trust him, surely. His background was like hers. He came from the same kind of people, the same moral code. He’d shown in the last couple of days that he was a Boy Scout, he was John Wayne, he was Sir Galahad.

“Violet…we have to talk. I—”

“No.” She stopped his words with her fingers, replaced them with her lips. “You make me believe in dreams again.” Another kiss, then she threw her arms around his neck and whispered in his ear, “Let’s enjoy the magic.”

He crushed her to him with a fervor that gave her hope. He pressed his face into her hair and held on so tightly she could barely breathe.

The very thought of saying goodbye to him sent an agonizing pain stabbing straight to her heart.

She used every last bit of strength she had to hold on and not beg.

Inside on the kitchen counter, his phone rang. She started to release him, but he only lifted his head and looked at her with an echoing pain in his own eyes. “I don’t care who’s calling.”

Fiercely he kissed her, and they let their bodies speak, letting them drown out the words neither wanted to hear.

And when her cell chimed, ruthlessly she ignored it, as well.

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

A
VERY
STOOD
IN
HIS
OFFICE
and listened to Violet’s phone ring then go to voice mail.
Damn it, Violet, pick up! Where the hell are you?

He didn’t want to leave a message, but he was afraid not to. “Violet, I know it’s early, but I have to talk to you. It’s important. Call me back the second you get this.” He disconnected and stood at the one-way glass, staring out at the darkened club, trying to think his way through an alternate plan if it turned out that he had to go over to the hotel to talk to Violet in person.

The connecting door opened. Sage strolled in.

“Pretty early for you, isn’t it?” he asked.

“I never left. Someone has to take care of things around here.”

“Yeah, like you took care of Bately?”

“I don’t know what you mean,” she said coolly.

“The hell you don’t.” Rage swept over him. “What were you thinking? Aren’t we in this deep enough, Sage? Now, thanks to you, we could have cops looking at us for murder?”

“Us?” She arched an eyebrow. “I wasn’t at that warehouse. You own it. There’s no connection to me.”

Fear stabbed an icy finger in his gut. “What are you saying?”

“You didn’t think I was smart enough to know you were cooking up a little side venture and leaving me out?” Her expression was withering contempt. “I’m the smart one, Avery. You’re only the greedy one.” She turned toward her office. “And I don’t need you anymore.”

The shock staggered him for a moment, then fury came to his rescue. “I’m all that’s kept us from going down already. You’re impetuous, and your impulses are going to get both of us killed. Lima listens to me, not you—”

“Are you so sure of that?” She examined her manicure. “The pieces on the board are changing.” A smug lift of an eyebrow. “And you lack some essential assets Jorge likes very much.”

“You—” He blinked. “You’re screwing him? You whore.” His hand made a fist.

“Touch me, and your little girlfriend is dead meat.”

“What?” Horror made all his muscles go lax. “No.”

“Did you think I wasn’t having you followed when you conveniently disappeared every day? When I already knew you were double-crossing me?” Her smile was vicious. “Imagine that…Violet James…” She stared upward, her expression calculating. “I wonder what the gossip rags will say about her when they find out America’s Sweetheart is connected to a sordid little murder in Houston. Poor thing, she doesn’t choose men well at all, does she?”

“You leave Violet alone.” He took a menacing step toward Sage. “She’s got nothing to do with this. You’d better not harm one hair on her head. If I hear the slightest whisper about her…”

“You’ll what? I could have her picked up—” She snapped her fingers. “Like that. I could make things much, much worse for her than simple rumors. At a minimum, won’t she be distraught to find out her lover is a criminal?”

“We’re not lovers,” he snapped. “She’s…” If he said she was his best friend, would that put her in even greater danger? His blood went cold with dread. Violet was the only good thing in his life.

He had to turn this confrontation way, way down, so he shrugged negligently. “She’s only someone I knew in L.A. She did me some favors back there, and I owed her. But there’s nothing between us.”

“Then why the threats?” Her eyes narrowed.

Terror for Violet gripped him. He had to do more to soothe Sage. “Look, I’m sorry. It’s—” he exhaled heavily “—been a long day. A long drive.” Apologizing to her stuck in his craw, but the stakes of not appeasing her were too high. “Violet’s a nice person, that’s all.” A quick smile of conspirators. “Something neither of us knows much about.” He watched Sage carefully, and when her posture eased, he took his first real breath. “She’s had some hard times lately. She needed to get away, and she asked me about Austin. So when she decided to come here, I couldn’t just ignore her.”

Sage shrugged then, but he knew she was still a viper poised to strike; he couldn’t discount the threat she presented. “Poor little rich girl. Boo hoo.”

“I feel a sense of debt to her—and, anyway, think about it, Sage. If I keep my connections with Violet, we could go out to L.A. sometime. I could introduce you. She’d give us access to all the best parties. You could meet anyone you wanted to.” Appealing to Sage’s vanity was never a bad move.
Take the bait, Sage. Leave her alone.

“Maybe.” But he could see her calculating the possible benefit.

He seized the moment to buy himself some time, too. “Look, you were right to do what you did, I get that now. Bately would have talked. And, yeah, he was trying to get me involved in a side deal, but I’d already told him you and I are partners and there was no way I was cutting you out. That’s why I wanted to be the one to talk to him.” He was spinning lies like crazy, hoping she’d buy it. Sage wasn’t stupid, but she wasn’t completely rational, either, and her immense ego could override her brain. “I had to work on Bately some more so he’d understand how important you were to making the deal work.”

She stared at him, but her eyes were the flat, empty stare of a predator. “Don’t you ever call me a whore, Avery. I simply have assets it would be foolish to disregard. Sex is no big deal, after all.” Her shoulders relaxed a little, but he didn’t let himself relax, not yet. Then she smiled. “You certainly enjoyed my…assets once.”

The bait was out there, should he want to take it. Sage was thoroughly amoral, and she also had the sex drive of any five women.

It would be like having sex with a crocodile, though…any second, those jaws could snap you in half. He pulled out the stops on whatever bravado he could muster. “I’ve never found anyone to replace you.” He summoned his own smile. “And God knows I’ve tried.”

“I seldom revisit lovers.”

A pause ripe with an invitation to flattery he’d better not discount.

“You sure?” He put just a tad of pleading into his voice and thanked every acting class he’d ever taken.

Her expression was a mingle of contempt and pity. “I break a lot of rules, but never that one.”

It wasn’t hard to sigh convincingly, even if the sigh owed more to the relief of a man seeing the specter of pardon when he was one step from the gallows.

Then he added the coup de grâce of humility. “I’m not absolutely sure what I touched in the warehouse. How bad is that going to be?”

“I’ll send someone to clean it up.” She turned to leave, then paused. “Don’t doubt me again, Avery.”

He swallowed his pride. “I won’t.”

“It’s been a long night,” she said. “I’m tired.”

“You go on home and get some sleep. I’ll handle things here.”

“You sure? You haven’t slept, either.”

“I might go for a massage once the crew shows up,” he said, thinking fast. “But for now, I’ll catch a nap on my couch until Leslie and the crew get here.”

“Maybe you can take the night off once I return.”

“Sounds inviting, but you take your time.” As if he was going to hang around after this. He’d wait until their manager, Leslie, arrived, then make some excuse to run an errand.

The errand would be getting everything lined up so that if things went south again, he could escape at the first opportunity.

* * *

W
HEN
JD'
S
PHONE
RANG
AGAIN
,
Violet went still in his arms, and he cursed under his breath. “I’m sorry.”

“It’s okay. I’m the one on vacation, not you, I know that.” Her smile was both brave and sad. “Want me to fix you some breakfast while you shower? What time do you have class?”

Inwardly, he swore again. He wanted to come clean with her so bad. “I have to be there by nine. Unless—” He made a face. “That call was about work.”

“Another consultation?” She rose and extended a hand to him.

The trusting gesture made him feel even more of a scum. “Something like that.” As he followed her inside, in his mind he tried out and discarded every half explanation he could think of, searching for a means to both honor his duty to the job and still do right by a woman who had her delicate fingers wrapped firmly around his heart.

He picked up his cell where he’d left it on the counter and listened to the voice mail Doc had left.
Candy has turned up. She’ll only talk to you. Need you ASAP.

Crap. He’d never wanted more to toss his phone out the window and pretend he hadn’t received the message. But Candy could break the entire case. “I’m sorry,” he was saying as he turned toward Violet. “I have to—what is it?”

She was looking at her own cell. “It’s Avery. He sounds frantic, and he wants me to call him immediately.” She smiled past her worry. “I’m sorry. What did you say?”

“I can’t hang around for breakfast. They need me there right away.”
Another instructor is out sick,
he was going to say to explain, but the lie stuck in his throat.

“I understand. I should call Avery back, anyway. I’ll just…you go ahead and shower, and I’ll see what he wants. This is very early for him to be calling.”

He didn’t want to move out of hearing. And at the same time he wished he could warn her,
Don’t—don’t call him back. He’s a lying piece of shit.
He didn’t want her anywhere near Avery Lofton. Maybe Doc was right, and Lofton hadn’t killed the guy in Houston, but that didn’t mean he wasn’t a threat to Violet simply because of the company he kept.

Like it or not—and increasingly he didn’t—his job was to learn what Lofton would tell her.

“Go ahead. I’ll make a fresh pot of coffee. Least I can do before I take you back to Sophie’s.” Where, of course, there would be perfectly good coffee waiting for her.

But she didn’t point that out, only nodded and punched a button to call Lofton. “Oh! The kitten—” As she waited, she pointed to the porch.

Hell. He’d completely forgotten the cat. He nodded and headed onto the porch, leaving the door between them cracked. He’d have to make arrangements with his neighbor next door about the cat. The kitten had probably just wandered off from a home nearby, but he didn’t have time to canvass the neighborhood to find her owner. If his neighbor couldn’t come right away, he could put the kitten in his utility room with food and water—the lack of a litter box wasn’t ideal, but it wasn’t like she could do that much damage before his neighbor could come get the cat with the key he’d given her a while back.

“Avery?” he heard Violet say. “What’s up? Are you all right?”

He picked up the kitten and petted her while he stayed out of sight.

“I don’t know exactly when I’m leaving Austin.” Her tone held a tinge of hurt. “What, are you ready to get rid of me?” Her jocularity was forced. “I guess…in a day or two, probably.” She sighed. “My assistant is getting restless, as is my agent. Work is stacking up, and rehearsals begin sooner than I want to think about. I’d like to see you before you go, though. Let me buy you dinner to thank you for everything. Do you have a free hour or two?”

No. Stay away from him, Violet.

“That would be great. Call me back, and we’ll set a time.” Violet disconnected but remained still, staring off into space.

JD grabbed the kitten’s dish and walked inside holding both. “Everything okay?”

She frowned. “I don’t think so. He sounds almost…scared. Definitely worried. It’s not like him to keep his concerns from me. We tell each other everything.”

Not everything, sweetheart.
“You said he seemed overworked. Maybe he just needs to get away.”

“Maybe.” She sounded doubtful. “But I’ll find out when I see him.”

“No!” He hadn’t meant to bark it out like that, but the threat to her chilled him.

She frowned. “What do you mean, no?”

“Sorry.” But he wasn’t, really. He had to proceed carefully, however. “It’s just that I’d prefer it if you’d wait until I could go with you.”

She blinked. “Why on earth would you say such a thing?”

He made his decision. If Doc was upset, so be it, but no way could JD risk Violet putting herself in harm’s way because she didn’t know what was going on.

“Look…I’m not sure how to say this, but there are…rumors about Danger Zone.”

“What do you mean?”

He exhaled and raked his fingers through his hair. “I know he’s your friend, but there have been reports of criminal activity in connection with the club.”

“Avery would never be part of something criminal.”

If you only knew… .
But he wanted to go gentle on her. “Are you so sure?”

Her eyes flashed. “I know him as well as I know myself.”

“I don’t think you do.”

“Tell me exactly what you’re implying. There has to be some sort of misunderstanding. I’ll ask him and he can explain everything.”

“No. Absolutely not.”

She bristled visibly, and he forced himself to speak calmly. This was surely a shock to her. “Violet, you can’t say one word to him about this. There’s an investigation—”

“An investigation?” she echoed. “Of my best friend? How long have you known this? Why didn’t you say anything?” She reached for her phone. “You’re wrong—he would be horrified that anyone could think he’d ever be a part of something illegal. He deserves a chance to defend himself.”