Big Easy Temptation (5 page)

“Yay! Margarita!” Courtney’s eyes widened as the bartender placed the fishbowl-sized
cocktail in front of her. “This afternoon was so pleasant. I swear I could look at
that man all day. We were supposed to go over how we’ll lay out the training materials,
but mostly I just looked at his arms. Do you think I could convince him to work without
his shirt? I mean, writing training manuals is a really hard job. Oh, I’ll tell him
the air conditioner is broken and see if I can fast-talk him down to his underwear.”

Courtney’s antics usually amused her. They’d become fast friends right after Holland
had taken the New Orleans job. It was good to have a girly friend. Most of her work
colleagues were male. The lone exception was Berta, who looked as if she’d been a
former pro wrestler in a past life. She was a nice lady, but she didn’t give a damn
about mani pedis or where to get her hair done. Courtney was smart and funny, if a
little shallow when it came to men.

The problem was Courtney was talking about
her
man.

Stop. Halt. Do not go there, Holland. He is not yours and he never will be.

It had been a whole ten hours since Dax had made her coffee and then left to go back
to his mother’s house. He’d slept on her couch and she’d let him. What had she been
thinking? She’d taken a shower and hustled into work after he’d left this morning,
but all she could concentrate on was the file he’d given her. And how masculine he’d
looked standing there wearing nothing but a thin T-shirt and a pair of khaki pants.
They’d rode low on his hips, and that white, almost transparent tee had shown off
how well shaped his body was.

“Earth to Holland?”

She shook her head. “Sorry. I was thinking about something else.”

“Yeah, I can tell. What’s his name?”

Holland stared down at her beer, wondering how much to tell her friend.

Courtney put a hand on her shoulder. “Hey, seriously, what’s wrong? Did I say something?”

“I know Captain Spencer personally.”

Courtney sat back. “I was wondering about that. You don’t like to talk about it, but
I know you were friends with Joy Hayes. That means you probably knew the PGs.”

She hated that nickname. The Perfect Gentlemen. The press used it all the time. Somehow
Captain Awesome was a better fit for Dax Spencer. “I wasn’t his girlfriend or anything.
We’ve never been anything but friends.”

Courtney stared at her with disbelieving eyes. “Really? That’s good because I’ve got
a date with him tonight.”

She felt herself flush. Well, she’d told him flat out she wouldn’t date him. She’d
said it in no uncertain terms. Somehow she hadn’t expected him to give up so easily.
But she’d also thought that maybe he’d give it a few days before he moved on to the
next woman. This underscored one of the main reasons she refused to get involved with
him.

“There it is.” Courtney sat back with a shake of her head. “Damn. I was hoping that
was all one sided, but it’s plain to see you like him, too. I don’t have a date with
him. I just wanted to see your reaction.”

“What are you talking about?”

“I’m talking about the fact that once the man found out you and I are friends, he
very subtly tried to get as much information out of me as possible. Give me the scoop
because if you don’t want Captain Spencer, I’ll go after him.”

The idea of Courtney—gorgeous, fun Courtney—with Dax made her flush all over again
and it wasn’t with embarrassment. She was angry. Holland forced herself to calm down,
but Courtney was making her think. She wouldn’t be so irrationally angry if she didn’t
care at least a little. “We never had a relationship, but I do have some feelings
for him. I can’t seem to help it.”

“I think he likes you, too. Otherwise, he wouldn’t have been able to resist the girls.”
She thrust her chest out. “They were on full display
today and I got nothing out of him. Not even a lingering glance, just questions about
how I met you and what we do in New Orleans. So he got to hear about our hairdresser
and our favorite spa. No man listens to spa stories if he isn’t interested.”

Holland sipped her beer. He’d left her a message today, asking for a meeting to discuss
the case when she had the time. She’d called back and gotten his voice mail. It wasn’t
so surprising. They were both busy professionals. The next few days were fairly packed,
and so she’d offered him a meeting on Friday. In her office. In the morning after
breakfast, but not so close to lunch that he could persuade her to join him.

She was feeling weak where Dax was concerned and she didn’t dare tempt fate.

“I walked away from him once before,” Holland admitted. “He wanted to move past friendship,
but I couldn’t do it.”

Her friend blinked. “You know you’re insane, right? That is the hottest man I’ve ever
seen. How could you sleep with him and not want to be with him?”

“I didn’t sleep with him. Like I said, we didn’t move past being friends.”

Courtney waved her off. “I sleep with lots of my friends. How am I supposed to figure
out if I want to be more than friends if I don’t take a test drive, so to speak? The
last thing I want to do is get all emotionally invested in some dude who can’t find
my clitoris.”

“Dax Spencer? Bad in bed?”

“He could be,” Courtney said with a shrug. “I mean some guys who are that good looking
and have that much money don’t even need to try. Women fall into their beds. They
get lazy.”

“Somehow I doubt a man whose penis has its own Twitter account is bad in bed.”

Courtney snorted. “That’s not Dax. That’s Maddox Crawford.”

“Well, I’m sure they’ll all have them soon. He kisses like he would be good in bed.”

“So you’ve kissed him. What was that like? Too much tongue? Not enough?”

“There was exactly the right amount of tongue. Why are we talking about this?”

“Because we’re girls and that’s what we do. Also because you haven’t slept with anyone
interesting in the last couple of years, so I’m all kinds of on board for you jumping
into bed with the captain. I have the biggest crush on him, but I know the girl code.
Thou shalt not sink your well-manicured claws into your best friend’s dream guy.”

Holland opened her mouth to dispute that claim and then sighed. “I like him a lot.
But his lifestyle . . . God only knows how many women that man has gone through.”

“It’s a lot according to
Star
. They have a timeline and everything,” Courtney supplied helpfully. “They also tend
to exaggerate. He’s a Naval officer. He’s working most of the time. I think you’re
damning him for his misspent youth. The last few years the man has been doing his
best to protect his country. That should count for something.”

It did. “Any woman who dates him is going to have to deal with his past and the press.”

“You’ve dealt with shit before. Listen, if you’re seriously not interested I would
like to take a shot with the guy. He’s gorgeous and kind and really smart and funny.
I know this might make me a bitch, but I’m not going to stand back and let him go
if you’re too scared to even try.”

Once again hot anger filled her. “Can I have a couple of days to settle into seeing
him again before you jump him?”

Courtney nodded. “You may. And again, I point out that I’ve never seen you get this
emotional about a guy you were actually dating, so maybe you should think about taking
a chance for once in your life. I know you think I take too many of them.”

She thought Courtney might jump into bed with guys way too soon, but it didn’t make
her a bad person. “I think you get hurt a lot.”

“But one day it’s going to pay off. One day the right guy is going to
make me an offer and I won’t refuse it. I won’t stand back because I’m scared I’ll
get hurt or it won’t work out. I’ll jump in with both feet and never look back. It
looks like I won’t be doing that with Captain Awesome. The good news is he’s got two
friends in town.”

She shuddered to think about who was here. She prayed it was Connor. Connor was levelheaded,
if a bit dark. Gabe Bond was nice. If Maddox Crawford was in town, then she should
really alert the authorities because that man was trouble. “I’ve got more problems
than his lifestyle. He wants me to reopen his dad’s case.”

“That’s why you didn’t join the watercooler chat.” Courtney took another drink. “I
always wondered. Everyone else was gossiping up a storm and there you were with the
scoop. I thought you were being all stoic and NCIS we-don’t-talk-about-our-cases girl.
You were protecting the man you loved. That’s really romantic.”

Courtney could go way out there. She was the very definition of overdrama at times.
“I knew the admiral. I liked him and his family. I wasn’t going to gossip. But now
I’m faced with the dilemma of working on a case where I have feelings for a person
directly involved in the outcome.”

“It’s not an official thing, right? It’s off the books. You’ve done that before. You
found Mrs. McCallahan’s granddaughter when she ran away. And you found George’s cat.”

Mrs. McCallahan lived in her building. She was a nice older lady raising her wild
grandchild. It hadn’t been hard to find the girl and bring her home. As for the cat,
it had been up a tree. No real investigative work there. She’d simply followed the
meows.

“This feels different. I didn’t start the investigation, so I’m at a bit of a loss
about where to begin. I’ve read the case file a hundred times. I’ve talked to the
NCIS investigators.” She’d tried to avoid thinking about this all day, but she wanted
to have something to tell Dax when she saw him on Friday. Something beyond “I read
over the reports again.”

“You should do what we do in tech writing. Start at the beginning of the process and
work your way through. You already know everything NCIS does, so start outside your
group.”

“I have to talk to my uncle.” Her uncle had advised her against touching this case.
He’d called her after some gossip rag had reported that Dax was in town and warned
her away from it. He wasn’t going to be happy that she was diving in now.

“I think you do. Tell Beau hi for me. Now, let’s talk about potential double dates.
You and Dax and me and whoever he has with him.”

Courtney chattered on, but Holland was already thinking about how to approach her
uncle. It would not be a pleasant meeting.

But her friend was right. It was time to start over, at the
beginning.

W
hy are you doing this, honey? This case is closed and all you can possibly do now
is kick up a mess of trouble. What did I teach you about a hornet’s nest?”

Holland had to give it to her uncle. Beau Kirk could likely make anyone feel as if
they were twelve years old again. Even though she was a grown woman with a career
and responsibilities, when her uncle looked at her, his eyes narrowed ever so slightly
and that Cajun drawl deepening, she would almost swear she was sitting in his big
office at the house along the bayou, hoping she didn’t get grounded.

After her mother had died, she’d lived with her aunt and uncle. She’d seen her dad
when he came home on leave, but her aunt had been the steady influence in her life
and her uncle the authority figure.

“You taught me not to kick one,” Holland replied. “I’m not trying to cause trouble,
Uncle Beau. I’m simply trying to give a friend some peace of mind.”

Her uncle frowned, sitting back in his massive chair. He’d moved up the ranks of the
NOLA PD and now occupied a large office and
headed a division of men who handled some of the city’s worst cases. “You’re talking
about the son, right? Daxton? Isn’t he some sort of war hero?”

Her uncle knew exactly who she was talking about, but she played along. “Yes, Captain
Spencer is considered one of the Navy’s finest.”

“I’m sure he was on track to follow in his daddy’s footsteps.” Commander Beauregard
Kirk was in his mid-fifties, but he was still a powerfully built man. He wasn’t one
to slide into middle age gracefully. He still trained with his men on a daily basis.
“I doubt he’ll make it past captain now.”

Holland frowned. Dax was meant for bigger and better things. He was certainly capable
of them. The minute she’d met him, she’d known he would go far in the Navy. “What
is that supposed to mean? He’s great at his job.”

“Oh, the Navy will certainly move him around and give him bigger ships, but they won’t
want the Spencer name to ever again come anywhere near the rank of admiral. Too much
bad press.” Uncle Beau shook his head. “That story took forever to die. The Spencer
boy has to know his career in the Navy has an invisible wall he’ll never scale now.”

“He’s not pursuing this investigation because he wants a higher rank,” Holland tried
to explain. “He’s doing this because he loved his father.”

Her uncle sat back, scanning the office. He left the blinds open as though he was
watching and waiting for something to happen. “I’m sure he does. That’s the problem
with parents and children, though. As a child, you tend to see your parents in the
best possible light. It’s hard to understand that they’re human like the rest of us.
Some people can’t handle it. I remember how disappointed I was when I realized my
father was a drunk. Growing up, I always thought he was the life of the party. A truly
happy man. Then I realized he was happy because he didn’t have to face a thing. Momma
did all the work and it wore her
out in the end. I had to face two facts: my father was an irresponsible asshole and
my mother let herself become a doormat.”

Her uncle had always been terribly good at giving lectures.

“I think his case is different,” she argued.

He sent her a cool stare. “Yes, it’s much worse. He thought his father was a hero.
It turns out the man was a criminal. Which is precisely why I told you to stay away
from this investigation in the first place. You did the right thing by recusing yourself.
Why would you go back and screw things up now?”

She’d known she would have to endure this lecture. That’s why she’d put off seeing
her uncle until this afternoon. But she planned to meet with Dax tomorrow and she
wanted to have something to tell him. Otherwise, she might never have forced herself
to come here. “This isn’t a formal investigation. This is me looking into a few questions
for a friend.”

“A friend or a lover?” He managed to make the question sound like an accusation.

Holland sat up straighter, fingers curling around the arms of her chair. “Uncle Beau,
I love you, but I’m an adult. My relationship with Captain Spencer is none of your
business.”

“It damn straight is if he’s causing trouble for you at work.”

“There won’t be any trouble.” Sometimes, like now, Holland really missed her aunt
Dixie. She’d divorced her uncle a few years back and moved to Texas with her sister.
If her aunt was still here, Dixie could have reasoned with her stubborn uncle. Of
course, his stubbornness had been one of the major causes of the divorce in the first
place. “Uncle Beau, I’m asking as a favor. You’ll save me some legwork if you’ll let
me read the file. Think of it as a professional courtesy.”

“I’m sure NCIS has the file somewhere,” he replied with a sour expression.

“Again, I’m not doing this on the clock. It’s why I came to you and not my colleagues.
I want to peruse the file, maybe close some of those
open-ended questions and make Dax feel more comfortable.” She wasn’t about to mention
that she thought Dax could have a point. She didn’t want her uncle to think she was
seriously considering building a case to bring to her superiors.

Uncle Beau ran a frustrated hand across his almost nonexistent hair and cursed under
his breath. “Fine.” He picked up his phone and asked his assistant to get a hard copy
of the file. “I still don’t understand what that boy thinks he’s going to prove. That
his father wasn’t guilty? Because he was, Holland. I wouldn’t have sent the accusation
to NCIS if I hadn’t found it to be credible. I didn’t like ruining the life of a man
so many people admired.”

Finally they were getting somewhere. “I know you didn’t.”

“If I’d found even a hint that it might be false, I would have tried harder to disprove
it before the press got hold of the story. I knew the minute I found out the admiral
was involved that the incident would blow up in everyone’s faces. There are days I
wished that call had never come in. Not on my watch.”

Yes, she had some questions about the call that had led her uncle to that seedy motel.
“So the original tip came from an anonymous source?”

“Yes, we didn’t realize the tip involved a high-ranking Naval officer at the time.”
Beau seemed to settle in as though he realized she wasn’t going away.

She could be stubborn, too. She’d learned through the years that she had to be if
she was going to survive her uncle. He’d taught her to be like a dog with a bone.
“So you got a call?”

“Yes, to this very precinct, shortly after midnight on the day in question. I’ve attempted
to ID the caller, but it’s impossible. The caller reached out via a landline from
somewhere inside the motel the admiral had taken that girl to.”

“But he was gone by the time you arrived?” She wanted to get the timeline down. “I’ve
heard surveillance cameras caught him going into the motel but not coming out of it.”

“Yes. The cameras in the motel are stationary. Cheap security, nothing that you couldn’t
buy at a local electronics store, so they don’t swing.” Her uncle rolled his eyes.
“There were only a few cameras in high-traffic areas. Apparently the admiral left
through a different door than he entered. Besides being captured by the security camera
in the hall, the motel employee I spoke to identified him. As far as I can tell, the
caller was most likely another guest of the motel. She didn’t leave her name because
she was probably a working girl.”

The motel that had become the scene of the crime was well known for its hourly rates.
A prostitute likely wouldn’t want to deal with the police on any level. It was surprising
that anyone who frequented the place would call in at all. “I can hardly imagine the
admiral going to a rattrap like that.”

“Men have their secrets, Holland. I believe I taught you that, too,” he said with
a sad sigh. “What men present to the women they love tends to be a shiny, happy surface
they don’t ever want their wives and daughters to scratch past. We’re dark creatures,
especially someone like the admiral. You know he’d cheated on his wife for years.”

“I heard that rumor.” There had been any number of salacious bits of gossip floating
around after the story broke. The tabloids had speculated about everything from numerous
mistresses to orgies in the name of Satan.

Her uncle’s voice softened in sympathy. “No, honey. That was what his wife told us
after his death. She accepted who her husband was, though she didn’t know about the
underage girls. I think that’s what broke her. She thought she was the only one Hal
Spencer was hurting.”

Holland’s stomach took a nosedive. She definitely didn’t want to be the one who had
to tell Dax that his mother believed the accusations. “Why don’t you start at the
beginning and tell me everything you know. I’d also like any and all information you
have on the victim.”

She didn’t say alleged victim. One way or another that girl had been victimized. She’d
been fifteen. Holland had seen Amber Taylor’s picture on the evening news, watched
as she’d been escorted into the
police station by two burly officers at her side. She’d been a pretty girl who, with
a little makeup, could definitely have passed for much older. She had the body of
an adult, but Holland had been haunted by her eyes. They’d been what truly made the
girl look older. She’d had the blank stare of someone who had seen far too much and
no longer cared.

Had Admiral Harold Spencer put that look on the girl’s face? She didn’t want to believe
it, but then she knew enough about criminals to know the smart ones could fool the
people closest to them. The most successful pedophiles, rapists, and killers came
with nice faces and demeanors that hoodwinked those around them.

Holland started taking notes as her uncle ran through the basics of the case with
her.

Almost an hour had passed when she stood and stretched. “I know you’re against me
looking into this. So thank you for sharing your information with me.”

Her uncle approached from behind his desk and enveloped her in a bear hug. “Now, honey,
you know I’d do anything for you. I love you like you were my own. That’s why I’m
going to tell you to be careful with that Spencer boy.”

She gave him a squeeze and then pulled away. “I’m not dating him.”

“But you’d like to.” He gave her a little shake. “Hell, if I was female I’d want that
boy, too. He’s handsome and rich and charming. Apparently he’s got a very large—”

“Uncle Beau!”

“Heart.” He laughed out loud. “You didn’t let me finish. I was going to say that he
must have a big heart since he’s done so much charity work. You hush that nasty mind
now, girl. All I’m saying is I understand the impulse to be around the boy. But he’s
asking something of you that you might not be able to give and I don’t know how he’ll
handle it if you tell him something he doesn’t want to hear.”

If she had to tell him all the evidence pointed to his father’s guilt, he would be
so angry. He could possibly turn that anger on her. No
one liked to hear bad things about their loved ones. Yes, cops got to hand out bad
news all the time. It was part of the job. Still, she couldn’t stand the thought of
Dax Spencer hating her. Even though they weren’t together, knowing they liked each
other was somehow a comfort.

“I’m sure it won’t cause any trouble. I’ll be professional and he will, too. He’s
given this over to me, so you shouldn’t have to deal with him at all.”

Her uncle raised his brows. “Really? Not even once? Because it looks like I’m about
to deal with him right now.”

She turned and sure enough Captain Spencer was standing in the middle of the precinct,
staring at her with his eyes narrowed. He wore civilian clothes, slacks and a dress
shirt. No tie. He didn’t need one. He looked cool and in charge. And fairly angry,
if she read the set of his shoulders right.

He stormed over. She could practically hear the clomping of his probably ridiculously
overpriced loafers as he made his way toward her.

“So it’s all professional?” Her uncle sounded entirely amused.

“It is on my side.” But something about Dax’s expression looked as if he had other
ideas.

He strode up to them, his stare never leaving her face. “Hello, Holland. I thought
we were meeting tomorrow.”

“I did as well.”

“I thought we were going over the case tomorrow at lunch.”

“No. I never said anything about lunch.”

His face turned a bit pink. “Holland, I thought we were partners. Tell me you’re not
here talking to your uncle about my case.”

Was he serious? They had some misconceptions she needed to clear up. “No, we’re not
partners. I’m looking into your father’s case. And why, pray tell, are you here, Dax?
Do you have some parking tickets? Because those should really be dealt with at the
parish courthouse.”

He fell quiet for a moment, but that didn’t mean she couldn’t feel his anger. “We
had a long talk about this yesterday. I thought we’d been clear.”

“Then why the hell are you here, Spencer?”