Stolen Seduction (12 page)

“Hold on.” The cell in his pocket vibrated, and he pulled it out, reading the text message he’d sent

to himself from another phone. “Speak of the devil.” He held it out to her so she could read it.

Srry, will b l8. drinks on me. call u l8er.

Nicole handed him the phone. “That’s too bad.”

“Yeah,” he said, faking disappointment. “Guess I have a little free time after all.”

She bit the inside of her lip. And took all of two seconds to make up her mind. “You could come

hang in my room for a while if you want. I need to get out of the sun anyway. And I’m sure I

booked a much better view than she did.”

His smile was slow and sure. Goddamn, but he loved sisters.

“I think that sounds like a fun idea, Niki.”

“Not yet,” she said, gaze sliding down his chest once more. “But it might be.”

“Tell me something I want to hear.” Hailey shifted the bag to her other shoulder as she walked

briskly through the Lake Geneva municipal airport. A smattering of blue plastic chairs filled the only terminal in the building. A lunch counter and a couple small airline check-in stations occupied the

open walls. She felt like she’d stepped into an old version of Wings without a young Tim Daly anywhere in sight.

“I have good news and bad news,” Allie said through the phone at her ear. “Which do you want?”

“I could use some good news,” Hailey said on a sigh. “Gimme whatever you’ve got.” She pushed

the glass door open and headed across the tarmac toward Roarke Resorts’ Bombardier already waiting to taxi. The roar of the engines made it hard to hear, so she stuffed one finger in her free ear to

block out the sound.

“Unfortunately you get both at the same time. Dad wrangled a copy of your father’s autopsy report.

He’s looking through it now, and a few things stand out, but he doesn’t have anything concrete yet.

He’s trying to get a copy of your father’s medical records.”

“Can he do that?”

“Unofficially, he can do anything he wants. Just depends if someone will give it to him. Where the

hell are you, anyway? There’s a ton of background noise.”

“About to get on a plane. Tell me how this is good news.”

“It’s good if you’re trying to find answers to unasked questions, H. You think his death wasn’t from

natural causes after all, don’t you?”

Hailey didn’t want Allie involved, but she’d never been able to keep a secret from her friend. “I’m

not sure. It’s a theory.”

“Not a bad one in my opinion. It’s a little coincidental that your father died only a month or so after

stepping back because of stress. The question you should be asking yourself isn’t really how he died

but who wanted him dead and why?”

“That’s a little obvious, isn’t it?”

“Okay, maybe not the who so much as the why. Why now, H? If your father really was murdered,

what triggered all this?”

“The fact he changed his will just over six weeks ago triggered it.”

“And why did he do that?”

Frustrated, Hailey stopped in the middle of the tarmac. “I don’t know. I don’t know why he did any

of the things he did. It’s no secret we didn’t have a good relationship. Hell, the last few years we

haven’t had any relationship at all. So I think it’s safe to say he didn’t confide in me about whatever

started this whole nightmare in the first place.”

“He did, though.” At Hailey’s exasperated huff, Allie added, “Look, don’t get all worked up about

this. Think of it like a case. One step at a time. One clue that leads to the next. It started with you,

H. He called and asked you to step in for him at the resort. Why you?”

Why her indeed? She’d been asking herself that question for weeks and still didn’t have an answer

that made sense. At least not one that went with the whole died-of-natural-causes and I’ve-decidedto-send-my-loony-relatives-on-a-random-treasure-hunt scenario.

“I don’t know, Allie. If I did I wouldn’t be in this mess. Is that it?”

“No.” It was Allie’s turn to sigh. “I thought you might like to know. The prodigal daughter has returned. Flipped on the TV this morning and one of those rag shows had footage of her at the Ritz in

Miami Beach yesterday.”

“Lovely.”

“Your face was also up there. Which is why she was on, answering questions about her reaction to

Bryan’s death and your possible involvement.”

Well, Hailey had expected that, hadn’t she? She just hoped Billy’d had enough time to get what she

needed. “I can only imagine what she said.”

“Trust me when I say, you don’t want to know.”

“Roarke!”

Phone in hand, Hailey turned at the loud voice and glanced over her shoulder toward the terminal’s

glass doors. Then cursed under her breath when she saw Shane striding toward her across the pavement, looking righteously ticked and seriously pissed off.

“Double shit,” she muttered. “This just keeps getting better, doesn’t it?”

“You can say that again,” Allie said in her ear. “So now that your meeting’s over, are you coming

home?”

Shane pointed at her as he drew close, dark eyes blazing, hair ruffling in the wind created by her

jet’s engines. “I want a word with you.”

“Allie, I gotta go. Talk to you later.”

“Wait. H—”

Hailey flipped the phone closed quickly and stuffed it in the pocket of her slacks. “What are you doing here?” she yelled. The wind whipped her hair in her face, and she pushed it back with irritated

hands.

He glanced at the plane, down to the bag that had slipped to her hand, then up to her eyes. “Don’t

tell me you’re running.”

Her frustration with everything was nearly at a breaking point. “Did you come here to arrest me or

just push me over the edge?”

“Hailey—”

That answer was good enough for her. “Then I’m not running. See ya around, Maxwell.”

His large hand wrapped around her upper arm and pulled her to a stop at the base of the plane’s

steps. “What did your father leave you in his will?”

“What?”

“Tick ‘em off for me. Right now. And I don’t care about the money. Anything specific or with sentimental value?”

She had no intention of telling him the truth, but at the moment all she wanted to do was get away

from him, so cooperating seemed like her best idea. She glanced down at the brown leather jacket

stretched across his broad shoulders. He was wearing only a thin navy henley underneath, the coat

unzipped. He had to be freezing out here in the wind but either didn’t care or hadn’t noticed.

“Nothing much. Most of his holdings are still waiting to be disbursed. The only things he left me

were a safety-deposit box key and the deed to his sailboat.”

“What about a letter opener?”

Her stomach tightened. “I don’t—”

“Small. Italian, looks like a dagger. Initials LdM carved into the handle. Think hard, Roarke.”

Oh, shit. “Why are you asking me this?”

“A dagger just like that one was found at the scene. Forensics is running it now. No more games. I

think it’s time you tell me what the hell’s really going on.”

Her chest went cold. And suddenly all those what-ifs she’d been worrying about the last day became reality. “I have to go.”

“Dammit, Hailey.”

She jogged quickly up the steps and ducked into the cabin of the jet. “I’m ready, Steve.”

A muttered response came back to her, but she barely heard it because Shane was there behind her

again, grabbing her arm and whipping her back to face him. “This isn’t a joke. If you run now

you’re going to wind up in deep shit. It’s not going to take them long to figure out that dagger was

in your possession only days ago. If you didn’t really kill him or if it was an accident, tell me now

so I can help you.”

She pulled her arm from his grasp and stepped back. “Get off the plane, Maxwell.”

“I’m not letting you do this.”

“I don’t need your help. And I’m leaving. With or without you. So either get off this plane now, or

you’re going to be in as much hot water as I am.”

His jaw clenched and unclenched. The fiery indecision in his eyes said he was inches away from

losing it. And for a fleeting moment she considered asking why her situation was so important to

him, but then bit her tongue. There was something driving him, something deeper than the attraction

that had flared between them from the first. Secrets she wasn’t sure she wanted to know brewed in

his dark eyes, as did the hint of danger she’d always sensed in him.

The heavy sounds of the cabin’s door closing echoed through the room. Followed by Steve’s voice

telling her to take her seat as they were next in line for takeoff. As the plane started to rumble toward the runway, only one thing was clear.

Shane Maxwell had just sacrificed his career for her. Without knowing if she was innocent or guilty.

When his department found out he’d not only let her go but had joined her, everything he’d worked

for the last twenty years would be gone.

What kind of man did that for a woman he barely knew? And more importantly, what would he do

next?

As soon as they reached cruising altitude, Hailey flipped off her seat belt and headed for the back of

the plane. Shane dug his fingers into the armrest of his chair as she brushed by him without a word.

Since he’d been sitting here fuming for the last ten minutes, he figured enough was enough. His seat

belt landed with a thump against leather as he followed her into the galley.

The Roarke company jet was impressive. A main cabin with a leather couch, four chairs that

swiveled, grouped in twos with low tables between them. A door at the front of the plane led to the

cockpit. At the rear, it opened to the galley and the lavatory, and behind that he didn’t know what.

Since Hailey wasn’t in the galley he ignored the luxury and kept going, pushed the back door open

and found her sitting on a large bed with her head cradled in her hands.

Ah, hell. For all her tough-girl attitude, she looked nearly ready to break.

She glared up at him when the bedroom door opened. “What do you want now?”

He held up both hands in surrender. “Just to talk. There’s not enough room in here for you to kick

my ass again, and I’m really not in the mood for it anyway.”

Her heavy sigh said she agreed but didn’t really want to. And he wished he knew what to say to get

her to smile at him the way she had in Puerto Rico. Or a few days ago in his apartment.

“I didn’t kill him,” she said quietly.

His relief at hearing her admission was more than he expected. And it eased a space in his chest.

“What were you doing at his house?”

“It’s not his house. It’s part of the Roarke holdings.” She glanced warily up at him. Her blue eyes

held his, and this time when his chest grew tight it wasn’t because of stress or worry, but because of

something else. Something that lit a tingling deep inside. Something he wasn’t sure how to define,

even if he wanted to. “I’m not sure you’re going to like what you hear next. Or that you’re even going to believe me.”

“Try me.” When she bit her lip, he added, “Like you said. I’m in this now, too, whether you want

me here or not.”

She looked back down at her hands. “It’s complicated.”

“Most things are.”

Her silence sent his blood pressure up again, but then she surprised him by saying, “I already told

you my father asked me to step in and help out with the company when his health went downhill. At

first I said no, but he made the deal one I couldn’t pass up.”

“What deal?”

She pursed her lips, seemed on the verge of not answering, then said, “He promised if I helped him

out with this, he wouldn’t ask me for anything again. He’d stop pestering me to come back to Miami and join the business.”

“You never wanted to?”

“Never.”

He glanced around the fancy plane. Teak walls, plush carpeting, big mirror over the bed, down comforter and pillows on the thick mattress he could easily see himself tumbling over with her.

The Roarke Resorts up and down the East Coast were all five-star accommodations. Though not on

the same scale as the Hilton empire, Garrett Roarke had made a lasting impression on the travel industry the past ten years. And it showed in this plane and the new resort being built in Lake Geneva.

“Why not?”

She shrugged. “No interest. When I was old enough, I walked away from it all. Working with them

—my family—wasn’t something that appealed to me.”

“All of it?”

“I told you you wouldn’t believe me.”

He tipped his head and studied her. And thought back to the way she’d looked when he’d been in

Florida. Someone he’d been able to talk to and laugh with for the first time in…hell, a long-ass

time. A beat cop, he’d been dazzled by her from the first look. She was as far removed from all this

wealth and prestige as he was. “I do believe you,” he said slowly. “But if that’s the case, why would

he ask you to take over? You’re a cop, not a CEO.”

She rubbed her hands down her arms as if she were cold. “I have an MBA from Harvard.” She

quickly added, “I also grew up around the company. My father made sure I interned there every

summer until I graduated from college. I know more about Roarke Resorts than most people who

work there.”

“Then why are you a police officer?”

She shrugged. “The job interested me.”

What she didn’t say, and what he was slowly picking up on, was that being a cop was also the exact

opposite career her father had selected for her.

“I still don’t understand why he asked you to step in and help out when he was sick. Why not one of

the other officers of the company? There had to be a VP, someone with more experience or seniority. Was that the root of the problem with your cousin?”