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Authors: Terry Odell

Tags: #fiction, #romance, #romantic suspense, #mystery, #romance adventure

What's in a Name? (32 page)

BOOK: What's in a Name?
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Kelli’s gaze went beyond him, glazed
into nothingness and there were tears in her eyes, although he
could tell she was trying to hide them. One tear escaped and
trickled down her cheek. He longed to wipe it away.

She pushed away from the table and went
toward the living room. He carried the plates to the sink, then
found Kelli on the couch, head in her hands.


What did I say?” He
lowered himself beside her. “Please, don’t cry.”


You don’t see it, do
you?”

He fisted his hands in his hair. This
was uncharted woman territory. “See what?”

She scrubbed her cheeks with the heels
of her hands. “My … Lucas … loved to draw. Paint. Make stuff out of
Play-Doh. Do you think I’d throw it away because it wasn’t
perfect?”

He sat there stunned, as if she’d
zapped him with a high-voltage cattle prod. “Are you saying—?”


When you love
something—or someone—you cherish it, flaws and all. Maybe you
cherish it more because of the flaws.”


He never … If he’d
only said it … one time … that he—” He couldn’t go on past the golf
ball in his throat.


He loved you, Blake.
I’m not saying what he did was right, but from what I’ve seen, he
raised two fine sons and there had to be a lot of love for him to
do that. Maybe he couldn’t say it. That’s not right. Not fair to
kids, but you have to know, now, he loved you. The chair is
proof.”


Too goddamn late. For
both of us. He thought I hated him. I thought he hated
me.”

She pulled his face toward hers, so he
was forced to look at her. With her hands on his jaws, she stared
into his eyes. “You don’t believe that. You knew he didn’t hate you
and he knew you didn’t hate him.”


Maybe.” He took her
hands and brought them to his lips.


Promise me
something.” Her voice was low, but there was an earnest desperation
in her tone.


What?”


You won’t hide your
feelings from me. You’ll be honest with me.”

Somehow he could have no secrets from
Kelli. She read him and understood him, like no one he’d ever
known. And when he realized that instead of making him wary, the
power she held over him made him long to be closer to her,
something grabbed his chest, like his heart was clamped in one of
his father’s vises.


You undo me,
Sweetheart.” He sat beside her for several long moments, feeling
the warmth where their thighs made contact. He slipped an arm
around her shoulder and pulled her against him. “I can’t seem to
get close enough to you.”


Like white on rice.”
With a deep exhalation, she patted his chest. “But there’s work to
be done.”

He drifted back to reality. “Speaking
of work, I’ve been running numbers on the Whitaker account, but if
you could spare the computer for a while, it would be a lot
faster.”

She narrowed her eyes. “You going to
decide which thirteen people lose their jobs?”


Actually, I was
looking for another solution. You made me think. I’ve gotten too
complacent, solving problems the quick and easy way. Hollingsworth
likes it, but he might have to give in a little more on this
one.”

When her eyes brightened, his mood
lifted, along with something else. Oh, yeah. If her smile could do
that to him, he had it bad.

 

 

 

 

 

Chapter Twenty-Five

 

Kelli followed Blake to the kitchen,
where he picked up his papers from the table and she set up her
laptop.

She touched his arm. “Do you think you
can save those jobs at Whitaker?”


I don’t know.
Probably not all of them.”

In his eyes, she saw frustration. With
her? Or his job? “But you’ll try?”


Sweetheart, the real
world isn’t like that. Whitaker made some stupid business
decisions. He’s overextended and can’t support the staff he has
now. That’s not my fault and it’s not Hollingsworth’s fault. If
Whitaker—and Hollingsworth—will listen to what I think I can
propose, there might be a compromise.”

His brow furrowed. “Hollingsworth
doesn’t do a lot of compromising, but maybe he’ll ease up. His
business dealings are bound to come under close scrutiny once he’s
on the campaign trail. He’s not going to want to come across as a
cold-blooded tyrant.”

Something flickered in Kelli’s brain.
“Wait. Do you have a list of all of Hollingsworth’s holdings?”

Blake’s eyebrows arched. “A list? No.
There are too many. He owns companies that own companies. Bits and
pieces of other companies. Lots of fingers in lots of pies.”


Anything you can give
me? Save me hours of computer searching. Maybe days.”


Sorry. Nothing that
simple. Can you tell me why?”


It’s what you said.
Hollingsworth is going to be put under a microscope. Maybe there’s
something going on he doesn’t want discovered.”


And you know what
this something is?”

She gave a wry laugh. “Not a clue. But
if he thinks I know something, it must be big, or he wouldn’t have
sent goons after me—and you, apparently by association. Like he
thought I might have told you something.”


But I told him you
weren’t Casey and he bought it.”


You
think
he
bought it.”

He rubbed his temples. “I’m getting
another headache. Can I do anything? Whitaker can wait, I
guess.”

She got up and paced. “Let me mull this
over for a while. Go count your beans, crunch your numbers,
whatever. I’ll let you know if something comes to me.”

The kitchen grew too small to contain
her impatient pacing. She expanded her path to include the dining
room, then added the living room.

How had Hollingsworth connected her to
Casey? Did it matter? Was it enough to assume he had? Did he
consider her a threat to his gubernatorial campaign? Had he
believed Blake? If not, was he desperate enough to send yet another
thug after them?

She felt hand on her shoulders and bit
back a scream. “Windsor. Didn’t I tell you not to sneak up on
me?”


Sweetheart, I hardly
think calling your name five times counts as sneaking.” He held out
a sheet of paper. “Here. I don’t have your computer skills, but I
can Google a little and I played a hunch.”


What?” She snatched
the paper from his hands and took it to the brightly lighted
kitchen. “Jesus H. Christ. I never saw this. I would never have
approved this. Shit, shit, double-shit on a stick.”


You think Jack
Stockbridge set you up?”

Kelli sank to a chair, still staring at
the printout of a publicity brochure for Camp Getaway. “No. All he
knew was I didn’t want to work with people—especially male people.
I’m sure he suspected something had happened in my past, but he
never pressed. He accepted my eccentricities and let me do my
work.” She tilted her head at Blake. “Kept an eye out for me.”

Blake grimaced. “So he had no idea
about Robert?”


I’m sure he didn’t.
He’s an honest man. If he knew I’d killed someone, I’m sure it
would have come up.” She looked at Blake. The concern in his eyes
both warmed and unnerved her. “I don’t even know if Stockbridge
would have seen this brochure. Marketing and PR would have done
it—they got a picture of me from some preliminary site visits.” She
stared at the photo again and read the caption.

Environmental Biologist Kelli Carpenter
works to make sure no endangered species will be disturbed by Camp
Getaway.

She was pictured crouched beside a
rhododendron bush. The Sherman trap she’d tucked under the branches
hadn’t been captured by the camera, but her profile had. Like an
“after” picture in a plastic surgeon’s photo album.

Camp Getaway was Thornton’s
project.

She rubbed her eyes and Blake crouched
down beside the chair. He laid a hand on her knee. “What can I
do?”

Kelli shook off her exhaustion. “Let me
know when it’s my turn on the computer.”


It’s all yours. I’ve
downloaded everything I need. Files are printing now. I’ll work
from hard copies.” He stood and twisted his back muscles. “If you
don’t need me, I’m going to work out for a while to clear my brain.
Maybe I’ll come up with some ideas.”


Wait.” She reached
for his hands and he helped her up. “It looks like whatever’s going
on is all because of me. I think you should go back to work and put
as much distance between us as possible. I’ll figure out what
happened and see if I can fix it. You’ve been caught in the middle
of something that can’t possibly have anything to do with
you.”

Blake took her fingers and placed them
against his midsection, where Scumbag’s knife had done its damage.
“I’m in this, Kelli. Whether or not it was part of someone’s plan,
I’m not leaving you.”

She opened her mouth to protest, but he
pressed his fingers to her lips. “Shh. I’m going outside. I’ll be
back in half an hour, forty-five minutes, tops.”

She covered his hand with hers and
kissed his fingers. When he traced her mouth with the pad of his
forefinger, she shuddered at the pleasure of his touch. Refusing
the desire to forget everything except Blake for the next few
hours, she gave his hands a final squeeze.


Take an hour. I
should know something by then.”

Blake turned and walked away. At the
door, he stopped and swiveled his head to give her a smile that
melted her insides to jelly. She savored the feeling for several
heartbeats, then picked up her laptop and took it to the
office.

After setting up a program to search
for Thornton on Stacey’s computer, she carried her laptop to the
recliner, plugged it in and started going through the Hollingsworth
files she’d collected.

The sheer volume of data overwhelmed
her. There had to be something to narrow down the useful from the
meaningless. Maybe once she had something about Thornton’s
holdings, she could cross-reference them. That could take forever.
Where to start? Phone records? Private or business? Bank records?
Hunt for hidden bank accounts?

There had to be a connection between
Thornton to Hollingsworth. All she had to do was find it. She
scrolled through endless files.

Sometime later, she looked up to find
Blake had returned. Shirtless and glistening with sweat, he was
breathing heavily, but his face looked relaxed.

He crossed the room and leaned over
her. “Got anything new?”


Does a headache
count?” She massaged her temples.


I need a shower.” He
grinned. “Want to join me? I could use someone to wash my
back.”

What she wanted was a bed. An empty
bed. Sleep. “I have to check the other computer.”

He stepped away and she trudged to the
desk. There was too much data to deal with. “Help me think,
Windsor. What do we have?”

He took her hand and pulled her away
from the desk. “We can talk in the shower as easily as out
here.”

Following him to the bedroom, where he
stripped off his pants, she protested. “I had a bath while you were
shopping. And I’m not in the mood for back-washing, if that’s what
you’re calling it. It’s like I’ve got a million bugs crawling all
over me, inside and out. I’m one huge itch.”


I can probably figure
out a way to scratch it.” He gave her a crooked smile and went into
the bathroom.

She heard sounds of water running and
sat on the edge of the bed. “That’s not what I mean.” Her voice
cracked. Frustration mounted and tears welled. Shit. Her throat
tightened.

Blake returned to her side, but didn’t
touch her, as if he sensed she’d crumble. The caring in his eyes
nearly drove her to the breaking point.


Hey. I’m sorry. It’s
late and you’ve hardly slept for the last few days. You’ve got to
be exhausted. I’ll shower and you try to get some sleep.” He
retreated to the bathroom.

Kelli flopped onto her back and stared
at the ceiling. She knew how to get information out of computers,
but not what to do with it once she had it. She was a programmer,
not a detective. And a pretty rusty programmer at that. Her mind
whirled, trying to figure the easiest way to correlate the
thousands of pieces of information she had about Hollingsworth with
what she was gleaning about Thornton.

The glare of light when the bathroom
door opened washed over the bed. Blake stood there in silk boxers,
leaning against the doorjamb, staring in her direction.


What?” she snapped.
“What are you looking at?”


A beautiful
woman.”


Windsor, I told you,
I’m—”

He cut her off with a raised hand,
turned off the light and crossed to the bedside. “You need help
getting undressed?”

Indignation filled her and she lifted
herself to her elbows. “I said, ‘no’. What part of that don’t you
understand?”


And I said you need
to sleep. You’ll be more comfortable out of those clothes. Tell me
where to find whatever you sleep in and I’ll bring it to
you.”

Mollified, she sat up and started
undressing. “Shirt on the bathroom hook.”

He returned with the oversize cotton
shirt she’d worn in place of a robe earlier. Holding it between
thumb and forefinger, he waited for her to take it. “I thought I’d
read for a while. If you want, I’ll crash in Torrie’s room so I
won’t bother you.”

She shrugged into the shirt. “Where?
There’s no bed.”

BOOK: What's in a Name?
12.3Mb size Format: txt, pdf, ePub
ads

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