Guarding Kelsey ((Books We Love Romantic Suspense)) (25 page)

At six o’clock, Martinez stopped by on his way home from work.
When Wolf had called earlier, requesting a folding chair, his partner had wisely asked no questions. However, when he arrived at the condo to find Wolf banished to the hall, he couldn’t hold back a roar of laughter.

“She kicked you out?
I knew that girl had brains.”

“Shut up,” Wolf growled.
Kelsey was intelligent, but she wasn’t thinking with her brain right now.
Then again, he hadn’t been using his when he got personally involved with her, either.
If he had kept
his
ass in a chair by the door, like he should have instead of sharing a bed with her, he wouldn’t be in this situation now.
He couldn’t very well explain to Martinez why she was so angry with him without going into detail about how close they had gotten.
“I got that information you asked for on her father’s death.
I’m not sure it will be helpful.”

Wolf grabbed the report. “There must be something in it.”

“The local police didn’t find any information to make them think it was anything more than a tragic accident.
There was a
Nor’easter
blowing through town.
Driving conditions on the narrow, winding road were deemed unsafe.”

Why had Richard Carlyle gone to his hunting lodge in western New Jersey when it wasn’t hunting season?
And what made him try to return late at night?
“Why was he driving in conditions like that?”

“No one knew.”

“They didn’t try to find out?
The man was killed in a hit and run accident and no one thought to check if he had received any calls, faxes, pages?
Nothing?
He might have been lured out on a night like that.”

“The man had no enemies and the only one who stood to gain anything— his daughter— was in Florida with her grandparents at the time of his death.”

Small town police on limited budgets often had to squelch their intuition if overwhelming evidence wasn’t thrown at their feet.
Since Kelsey would be the only natural suspect of foul play, her father’s death had never gotten an in-depth investigation. That might have left someone free to kill again.
And Kelsey might be the next target.

“I need more
.
.”

“I’m on it.
I’ll have all his phone records by morning.
I knew you’d want ‘em.”

Martinez was already
one-step
ahead. Like Marc used to be.
He and Martinez worked well as a team, even if Wolf had fought it in the beginning.
He hadn’t wanted another partner, who had a wife and kids, depending on him.

“Thanks.”

“Anytime.”
Martinez raised a crooked grin.
“Will you
need
a cot as well?”

“You just couldn’t let it go without a comment, could you?”

His chuckle carried down the corridor and followed him into the elevator.
Once he was gone, Wolf was left alone in the silence again.
His stomach rumbled with hunger.
Kelsey wouldn’t give him the time of day so she wasn’t likely to feed him.
The woman was stubborn, he’d grant her that, but he had the distinction of being down right bullheaded.

He hoped she would accept that he wasn’t going anywhere when he had a pizza delivered for his dinner.
Of course, he’d made sure the doorman called her by mistake
so she knew he was eating outside alone.
He played on her sympathies but
n
ever claimed to be nice.

He wrapped his knuckles against the door.
“Pizza delivery.”

When she opened the door, he offered her a slice.
“Pull up a corner of carpet and join me, Kelsey.”

“This is ridiculous,” she muttered. “You look like a homeless tramp.”

“Then let me inside.”

“So that I can listen to you make accusations against my family.
No thanks.”

He took a bite of his pizza and swallowed without tasting.
“Are you one hundred percent sure you’re right?”

“Yes.”

“Then prove me wrong.”

She didn’t slam the door in his face.
Instead she shot him a questioning glare. “How?”

“I’m not going to discuss it in the cold,
drafty hall
.”
Not while he had a shot at getting back inside.

She didn’t move at first as she seemed to mull over her choices.
Finally she opened the door wider and motioned for him to enter, although reluctantly.

He followed her to the kitchen.
She slumped into a wrought iron chair and folded her arms defensively across her chest.

He placed the cardboard carton on the counter. “Pizza?”

“How can I prove you wrong?”

“Would you relax a minute and then we can talk.”

“To see if you can take some more of my comments out of context and pin all your unsolved cases on my family?”

Did she think he was waging some
sort
of vendetta against the Carlyle family name?
Or, given his past, did she believe he had it in for the wealthy?
For her sake, he hoped she was right about her family, but gut instinct told him she wasn’t.
“You need to eat.
You can’t think on an empty stomach.”

“I’m not hungry,” she said.

“Humor me.”

She shook her head.
“Seem
s
to me, I’ve been humoring you for a while.
How long have you been harboring these delusions about my family?”

“You’re blowing it out of proportion.”

“Right.
Financial records, surveillance reports, and interviewing the coworkers and neighbors of every member of the clan
are
standard operating procedure. Does the word,
overkill
mean anything to you.”

“No.
But the words
victim killed
have an indelible meaning.”

She paled at his blunt words.

“If you’re right, you can have a billboard erected in Times Square saying,
I told you so.
Until then, I’m not going to back off on any possible suspect.”

“Fine.
But you won’t get any help from me.”

And he could pretty much give up on getting another raspberry torte from her again, as well.
He glanced at her
tension-riddled
body.
He could use the emotional distance to his advantage.
His attention could
remain
focused on the case without having to worry about distraction from her.

“The only thing I ask is that you tell your family I’m no longer here.
Tell them the case was closed and the
hit man
found.”

A droll grin lifted the corners of her full, red lips.
“The truth, in other words?
And what if they come to visit?”

“I’ll stay out of sight.”

“You can hold a stakeout in the closet if you want.
You’re going to feel ridiculous in the end.”

He would rather feel ridiculous than guilty any time.

“In return
.
.” she said.

He should have known there would be a catch. “Yes?”

“I want to see all the information you get regarding my family.
Give me a chance to prove they’re innocent of any wrong doing.”

“If it’s relevant to the investigation.”
The last thing he needed was Kelsey playing sleuth in counter point to his investigation.
Didn’t she realize that she couldn’t prove a person’s
innocence
?
The most she could hope for was to prove the suspicious party not guilty.
In the end there would always be doubt.

“I’ll take what I can get,” she grumbled.

Wolf exhaled deeply.
He might have wanted this distance with her at the start of the case, but now that he had it, he would give anything to wrap her in his arms and hold her again.
He had finagled his way back into her home.
He was a long way from being forgiven.

In her mind, he was trying to break her faith in the people she trusted most. Once she started to question her relationships, her family’s motives would always be suspect, no matter what the outcome of this case.
That would be his legacy to her.
Not much to offer in return for the love she had given him.

* * *

*

Kelsey planted her elbows on the
butcher-block
counter and glanced into the living room where the suspicious and misguided detective was sprawled out in a reclining chair.
The sight of his face, boyishly charming in rest, tugged at her heartstrings.
She quickly suppressed the warm feelings.
He had lived with her, he had slept with her, and all the while he had been investigating her family like they were criminals.

She didn’t doubt his commitment to his work.
She had been foolish to believe he had any commitment to her.
Good sex did not equal emotions.
She couldn’t accuse him of seducing her under false presences.
He had not been the one doing the seducing.
Her entire body flushed with heat.
When would she learn?

Her father had always told her to follow her heart. He never warned her that her heart might lead her to places she wasn’t wanted.

Face it, Kelsey.
Your record with men is zero for two.

She took a slice of cold pizza and nibbled the edge. It was time to give up the male sex and get herself a dog.
They were faithful, dependable and they loved their owners unconditionally.
Everything she wanted in a man, without the aggravation.

Chapter
Twelve

The following morning, Kelsey rose with the sun.
To her surprise she had slept soundly despite the inner turmoil she wrestled with the day before.
As she shuffled across the carpet to the door to collect her Wall Street Journal, her
ever-present
shadow tailed behind her, looking rumpled, tired and thoroughly sexy.

Lord, someone tell me how to turn off my hormones.

“I’m just getting the paper,” she mumbled.
He didn’t leave her maneuvering room to turn without bumping into his solid frame.
And did he have to smell so damn good this early in the morning?
She had a devil of a time maintaining her deserved anger when her body wanted to kiss and make up.