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  The rest of her body followed suit, Steve plowing his way in and out to match her need. When he reached his climax, there was nothing left of her body but a limp rag, a bag of skin covered bones and muscles so lax that she couldn’t lift a finger if the house was falling down upon them.

  He eased out of her body, the remnants of his release coating her labia and inner thighs, and quiet descended. For the first time in her life, she cherished the complete quiet he’d given her. Peace and contentment settled over her, every inch of her body, and even her mind, was relaxed.

  She felt his fingers first, and then the silence lessened as he pulled the plug from her ear. Whispering, he said, “Sweetheart, we’re going to leave the mask on for a few more minutes, and I’m going to bathe you.”

  The wrist restraints came off one at a time, the rip of the Velcro an enormous sound after the silence. Strong arms slid under her body and she settled against his chest for the short trip to the bathroom. He slipped her into the water, its temperature perfect, and she lay against a plastic pillow he’d positioned behind her head while he bathed her. Focusing on the sound and the feel of his hands or the washcloth, she was content to let him take care of her as he wished. And he was careful, easing the cloth over and across painfully sensitive breasts and between her legs.

  “Beautiful Dena,” he whispered, “I’m going to take care of you for a very long time, if you’ll let me.”

  Chapter 17

  Dena’s phone rang as Steve was helping her into the truck and she showed him the caller ID before answering it. Yes, he was a little paranoid, but she didn’t mind much. He had more than a few good points, definitely enough to keep him around.

  What really worried her was the caller. Her friend was known for taking jobs that didn’t start until almost noon and it was barely seven thirty.

  “Hey, Susan, you’re early. What’s going on?”

  “Have you seen Sara? She isn’t answering her phone.”

  The anxiety in Susan’s voice echoed in Dena’s chest. Susan wasn’t the hysterical type, and after the events of the past week, Dena was already on edge. Swallowing her own fear, she tried to be a strong friend.

  “No, not for a few days. Maybe her battery died. What does Kellie say? Have you talked to her?” A logical step for Dena, since the three of them had shared a house off and on since their first year in college.

  “Kellie hasn’t seen her in two days, either.”

  “I thought Sara was living with the two of you.”

  “No. She got a one bedroom apartment closer to downtown when she got that job in June.”

  “Did you check the new apartment?”

  The ragged sigh wasn’t welcome, but Dena didn’t mind.

  Susan was beyond worried.

  “I’m here now, and there’s no sign of her.”

  “Hold on,” Dena said to her friend, covering the phone to speak to Steve. “Can you take me to Sara’s apartment instead of work? Susan’s upset because she can’t locate Sara.”

  “How long has the girl been out of pocket?”

  Before Dena could reply, Steve said, “Get the address and we’ll head over now.”

  “Thank you,” she told her Dom. “Susan, give me the address and I’ll be there in a few minutes.”

  It took them a little more than a few minutes, since the apartment was in the opposite direction from her office, but Susan answered the door before the bell finished ringing.

  “It’s like she walked out the door with nothing. It’s not like her to go out of town without telling me.”

  Dena stepped into the room and hugged Susan while Steve went past them into the neat as a pin apartment. Hands in his pockets, he wandered the open living area and disappeared into the bedroom. When he came back out, he sat on the sofa and crooked a finger at Dena. She went to him immediately and Susan followed.

  “I think you should call the police. I don’t see any sign of struggle, but that doesn’t mean much. Have you called local hospitals?”

  “Oh, no. I didn’t think about that possibility.”

  Steve pulled out his phone and paged through numbers until he found his local emergency room. With an electrical crew out on jobs daily, he liked to be prepared for any emergency. He hit send and handed his phone to Dena while her friend looked for other hospitals to try.

  Twenty minutes later, they had nothing.

  Steve took his phone back and went into the bedroom to take a business call. When he returned, he held Dena tight and whispered, “Go hold onto your friend. She needs a hug.”

  “Susan, I talked to a friend with the county. They have an unidentified woman at the morgue. From the description, she has your coloring. Are you identical twins?”

  Dena sat next to Susan, her arm around her shoulders. “No, they’re not, but generally speaking, yes. Same coloring and build.”

  Susan’s body crumpled into Dena’s arms and Steve came to the rescue, squatting in front of them and taking Susan’s hands in his. “Listen. We can’t be sure yet. We need to go down there and take a look. It could be someone else, and Sara will call you in the morning. Okay?”

  He walked away and came back with a box of tissues, and Dena wanted to grab hold of him and never let go. He dropped to his haunches and spoke soft words of support to both of them, his hand on Dena’s knee while Susan wiped her face.

  She was well past gone over him and it scared her half out of her mind. But the way he was helping her friend, taking care of things that had nothing to do with his own life, putting her needs ahead of his. How could she not fall in love with him?

  They took his truck to the Dallas County Morgue, Steve paving the way through the red tape and shoring both women up as much as possible, making him that much more important to Dena.

  One of the techs showed them the body and Susan confirmed it was her sister. Since she had been found by the owner of a motel in town and been the victim of foul play, the police were notified of the identification of the victim.

  They went there next, spending several hours with detectives at the substation and then at Sara’s apartment. The day stretched into evening with no break and when Susan was ready to go home, Steve insisted they stop and eat first. He also suggested Susan stay in his guest room, but she insisted on going back to the townhouse she shared with Kellie. She’d called her parents in Denver and her roommate, but there were still people to contact. Arrangements to be made.

  Steve helped both women out at the townhouse and grabbed Dena’s hand when Susan went up the walk. “I’m sorry you had to go through this, sweetheart. I wish I could’ve spared you in some way.”

  She leaned in tight to him, taking comfort from his warm body and his care of her. “She was a wonderful friend. I can’t imagine who would do this to her.”

  “There are bad people all over the world. It’s not fair for whoever did this to walk free when a beautiful life’s been snuffed out.” He kissed her gently on the mouth, a soft brush of sweetness after a long, painful day. Still holding her, they went into the house to help in any way they could. Much later, he took her back to his home and tucked her safely next to him, convinced he could protect her and hold her safe in his arms.

  The morning brought more news in the form of the local paper. Sara’s murder was front page fodder for the gossips and busybodies, but she’d led an exemplary life, giving time to people in need on the quiet and working for a company that adored her, equally mourned her loss, and vowed to help locate her killer.

  The office was quiet, her brothers offering sympathy early in the day and leaving her alone. Simon had suggested she take the day off, but she chose to stay busy, clearing her desk of all the little things she’d put off in the last week.

  The solitude and productivity helped and she appreciated her family’s care. If only the rest of the world was so kind. Dena’s cell rang incessantly and she finally put it on silent to screen the calls.

  Steve worried, but his schedule was tight and he couldn’t stay
with her all day. Derek was in the same fix and Mark had a meeting uptown. His solution, after she shot down the private security guard, was to have Mark’s driver and longtime friend sit in her office area and watch for problems.

  He was a nice guy, built like a bodybuilder, with broad shoulders and long, fit legs and he had a mischievous smile to go with sparkling blue eyes. He kept quiet, keeping an eye on the doors and on the book in his hand.

  With several single friends, she thought seriously about asking if he was married, but it didn’t seem like the right time. Besides, if he worked with Mark, there was a good chance he was a member of Private Delights, and she wasn’t ready to share the club with any of her friends.

  After listening to her complain about her overprotective, bossy brothers, they wouldn’t understand why she’d let Steve dominate her. Explaining wouldn’t be easy, so she’d rather leave them out of that particular part of her life for the time being.

  Chapter 18

  Lloyd stumbled out of his bedroom and into the tiny kitchenette, the need for caffeine pushing his feet forward more than the thought of work and a steady paycheck. He’d been up most of the night, trying to break the code for Lindsay’s damn passwords. He hadn’t heard from Ethan in two days, but it was coming. He could feel it in his bones, and he was seriously considering skipping town.

  Ethan had ‘bad shit’ vibes all over him. The kind that ended on death row. The simple robbery had turned into a fiasco, and the last time he and Ethan were together, the fear of God had surrounded Lloyd.

  The feeling hadn’t dissipated.

  And the longer Ethan was MIA, the more Lloyd wanted to bail.

  He booted his laptop while the coffee finished spitting. A few minutes with the sports page and the comics would help the coffee wake up his brain. He needed a plan, and brain power was imperative.

  Pouring a hot cup, he scrolled the front page and stopped at the first major story. Damn. He’d gone to high school with the Henley girls and now one of them was dead. Murdered.

  He read through the article and his hands iced up around the coffee mug. The police didn’t have much evidence at the scene, but the girl’s bank accounts had all been hit in the last twenty four. One of the ATMs caught a fuzzy picture of the guy. The picture in the paper wasn’t much to go on, but Lloyd recognized enough.

  Understanding dawned at Ethan’s absence. The man had been fucking busy and most likely wouldn’t be showing his face anytime soon.

  The coffee mug shook on the way to the table. The chair under him pushed back and he pressed his feet to the floor, one hand on the tabletop until his knees started supporting him again.

  He wouldn’t survive this. The robbery. The break in at Dena Lindsay’s house. The attempted kidnapping. And now, a murder. Sure, he’d only actively participated in the robbery at the brokerage, but the DA could call it conspiracy and he’d be in prison for most of his natural life.

  “Ethan, you sorry son of a bitch. What have you done to my life?” he asked of the empty room. Knowing he couldn’t put the full blame on Ethan, he paced the small living room on wobbly legs. There must be some way to get out of this mess. He had a college degree. A law degree. He couldn’t fall to his knees and give up. He sucked down another cup of coffee and took a hot shower.

  Between the shower and the coffee, he felt scalded inside and out, but the numbness in his hands persisted. Under the spray, he’d come up with a rudimentary plan. Still wouldn’t get him a free ride, but maybe, just maybe, he’d get a reduced sentence.

  He picked up his cell and dialed.

  “Hey.”

  “Hey, man. Where you been. I’ve been working on this code day and night.”

  “Busy.”

  Lloyd didn’t blame him for being short. Proved his supposition, to a point, but he needed a little more. “You coming by tonight? I’m getting close to breaking this thing.”

  “Naw, man. Road tripping. Something for the uncle. I’m gone till tomorrow night. Maybe later. Meet you then?”

  Damn fucker was already running, he could feel it in the short, choppy way Ethan spoke. “When do you want to meet?”

  “Don’t exactly know. How about I call you?”

  Lloyd stalled for a minute. “Sure. Sure.” He listened to the whine of wheels flying down a highway. “Where in the hell are you going, anyway? Thought you were all hot and bothered about this Lindsay deal?”

  “Fuck you. Uncle Alan asked me to pick something up in Galveston and offered to pay me. I’ll call when I get back.”

  The line went dead. So much for conversation.

  At least, he had a working theory and a recording of the conversation. He made one more call, waking up a friend from work, and asked him to meet him at the diner across the street from the police department.

  “Are you sure you want to do this?” Don asked him.

  “I don’t really have a choice,” Lloyd told him. Don Step was a friend from law school, one of the top graduates, and he’d taken a job at the Legal Aid office to get some real-time experience before moving to his father’s firm. He was smart and cautious, just what Lloyd needed.

  “With the information you have, we can try to make a deal. How involved were you in the robbery at the office?”

  “I watched the back door while everyone else went inside. And I represented John Kent and Bill Faar when they were arrested after the burglary.”

  “The one you participated in? That’s not going to go well with the court or with the Bar.”

  “I know. Don, all I’m asking for is break. I royally screwed up, but, man, Ethan has gone off the deep end with this shit.”

  Don leaned back in the booth, his eyes tracking the room behind him, and Lloyd’s neck itched to turn around, wondering if Don set him up. Too late to worry about it now, though.

  “He owes a lot of money to a loan shark. Don’t know who or how much, but I know he’s running now. I think he saw the girl’s bank account and decided it was easier than his other options. But that’s just a guess.”

  Don tipped his head to the side and his lower lip flowered out like he was working it over in his head. “Okay, maybe. Well, you ready to do this?”

  “No, but I have to.”

  * * * *

  Steve’s phone vibrated in his pocket. He started to ignore it, knowing he was already behind schedule on this job and all of his employees were working with phones off, but he didn’t want to let a call from Dena go to voicemail.

  The contact info was Mark’s.

  Just as important, since he had contacts all over the state. “Tell me.”

  “A friend downtown just called. Someone walked in this morning and identified the man from the ATM. Ethan Jenkins.”

  “Do we know him? Name sounds familiar.”

  “He’s a member, one of Connor’s relatives. And he was at the opening.”

  Steve’s fist clenched at his side. “How much you want to bet that’s who Dena saw?”

  “There’s more. You alone?” Mark asked.

  “Give me a minute.” He walked out of the building and leaned against a shade tree. “What else?”

  “The dead girl was in bad shape, and we might take some flak from it. Seems Connor’s nephew played rough. Multiple penetration and strangulation before he cleaned out her bank accounts.”

  “Son of a bitch. That won’t be in the papers, will it?” He’d do his best to keep Dena from hearing about her friend’s last minutes. Fucking psychopath was in their club on opening night. Holy shit.

  Chapter 19

  The last two weeks had been horrendous. Sara was gone, Susan and their parents were devastated, and everyone she knew was grieving. She’d been unable to connect with Steve since the funeral three days ago. The thought of being aroused and enjoying the moment made her ill. He’d been kind. Understanding, to a point, but she knew it was wearing on him. He wanted to hold her and have sex when all she could feel was cold sadness.

  She’d run him out of her kitchen, needing
some time alone to think about things. Just things. Nothing specific, because her brain hadn’t been capable of much for days. As long as she kept her hands busy, she was fine. Sitting around drove her crazy and that was all Steve wanted.

  He wanted to hold her. Comfort her.

  Sooner or later, she’d have to either allow it or force him to go home. Reluctantly, she made one more swipe at the already dry counter and left the dishcloth on the island. She tried on a smile and went into the living room.

  He patted the spot next to him on the sofa and she went to him, hoping she could thaw enough to respond. Maybe a little cuddle would help. It couldn’t hurt, and she needed something, just couldn’t figure out what.

  His arm wrapped around her waist and he pulled her in close and kissed her temple. He’d been wonderful when everything fell apart for Susan, and she appreciated the way he handled so many things for her friends. Steve Gladston was an ace, a wonderful man with deep empathy for his fellow man. But he had his rough spots. Demanding. Controlling. Fiercely sensual.

  When they’d first met, she wanted all those things in a man. Now, she wasn’t so sure.

  The show he had on stopped as the news broke in with an update.

  A sharply dressed woman with short black hair sat at a desk. “As we’ve reported earlier, an arrest in the murder of Sara Henley was made in Galveston ten days ago. The suspect, Ethan Jenkins is being transported from Galveston to a Dallas jail today. We’ll show his transfer into the system when he arrives, but for now, we have some background information to share.”

  Dena leaned against Steve’s chest, comfortable for the first time in a while, and tried to let go of the pain. Every time the news came on, there was something about the murder. “Can’t they just leave it alone?” she said into his chest.

  He held her tightly to him, his hand soft on her while he stroked from shoulder to hip and back. “It’s their job, sweetheart. They don’t have anything else to do.”