Hostage Midwife (8 page)

“I didn’t believe him when he said he was following you to send me a message.” Nick had already turned onto the street where his condo complex was located. His
place was less than ten minutes away from the Spencer Building. “There’s something else going on with him.”

“I can’t think of anyone being interested in me, other than for Samuel’s last words.”

Nick didn’t want to bring this up, especially after her reaction to the blog, but another thought had occurred to him. “There’s something about the timing. Why are these people following you now?”

“I don’t know.”

“Could it have anything to do with your ex-husband?”

Chapter Ten

Tuesday, 10:21 p.m.

The anger and frustration she’d struggled to contain after reading the blog returned with the raging violence of a wildfire, tearing through her and destroying her self-control. She’d been followed. Because of her ex? If that was true, her past was tainting the present situation. Kelly hated to think that her poisonous marriage and divorce would
affect anybody but her. She’d been humiliated. She’d been cheated on. And she had to deal with it. Nobody else had to be involved.

But her ex-husband’s influence spread wide. He was a public figure. He was making a run for a seat in the senate. His campaign ads showed him and his attractive, appropriately dressed new wife and their towheaded toddler, looking like the embodiment of the American
dream.

An angry ex-wife didn’t fit into that picture.

Nick parked his SUV in a numbered slot facing a landscaped hillside with three-story wood-sided buildings on each side. His condo complex wasn’t the sort of upscale place where she’d expect a top executive to be living, and she was glad that Nick didn’t need to be surrounded by luxury.

He came around the front of the SUV and
opened her door. “My condo is on the third floor of the building on the right.”

She unfastened her seat belt and stepped out. Through tight lips, she said, “This can’t be about my ex. Trask never mentioned his name. And I don’t think Radcliff gives a damn about him. But the stranger who was following me in Valiant might have been looking for a story about my divorce.”

“Why wouldn’t he
talk to you?”

“I don’t know.”

“What was he looking for?”

“Scandal.” Anger flared inside her. “He must be looking for a story.”

Nick scanned the parking lot where nothing else was moving. “I didn’t notice anyone following us tonight, but how will it look if you spend the night at my place?”

“Why would it matter? Neither of us is married. We’re consenting adults.” A horrible
thought occurred to her. “Are you ashamed of being involved with someone like me?”

“God, no.”

“That was the headline in the blog. Will I have better luck this time? That reporter already turned us into a couple.” She didn’t want to make his life more difficult than it already was. “You should take me somewhere else. A hotel? I can—”

Before she could finish the sentence, his mouth
covered hers and stole her breath away. His firm lips pressed hard, demanding a response, and she gave herself over to their kiss, melting into his strong arms. Overwhelmed by a trembling sensation she hadn’t felt in years, had maybe never truly experienced, she abandoned conscious thought. Every cell in her body yearned for the intense relief that comes with making love. She was desperate, driven
by the fire that burned inside her. The night breeze swirled around them, and she was grateful for the cool that soothed those flames.

He ended the kiss but still held her against him. “You’re not going to a hotel.”

“It might be easier.”

“I’m not looking for easy. I want someone real.”

She buried her face against his chest and tightened her embrace. Closer, closer, she wanted
to be so close that she was a part of him, and they were joined together. “Take me upstairs.”

At the front entryway, he used his key to open the outer door. The carpeted foyer had an elevator and a staircase. The layout reminded her of a mountain condo where she and Ted had gone on a skiing vacation. Damn Ted Maxwell! Why was she thinking about him? Why wouldn’t her memories of him shrivel
up and die?

As she and Nick climbed the staircase, she paused on a landing to kiss him again. Her tongue plunged into his mouth. He tasted sweet and hot and slick. Her passion overwhelmed her regrets. Her needs were fierce and demanding. With Nick, she wasn’t making a mistake. Her luck had changed for the better.

Unaware of anything but him, she ascended the rest of the stairs. By the
time he unlocked the door to his condo, she could barely contain her desire. The inferno inside her consumed her thoughts and drove her to the brink.

As they tumbled into his condo, she was utterly unaware of her surroundings. Nothing existed but her need to make love to Nick. He was her salvation. When she felt his muscular arms holding her, she forgot everything else. She could lose herself
in the blue of his eyes. He was the antidote to her memories.

Her hands became claws as she tore off his tweed jacket. Her eager fingers fumbled with the buttons on his shirt, and she plucked open one after another.

He caught her hands and held them, forcing her to slow down, and she moaned. She needed to touch his flesh and feel the beating of his heart against hers. He lightly kissed
her forehead. He caressed her shoulders, sending shivers down her spine.

There was a time for gentleness, and this wasn’t it. She wanted to be ravaged, to forget all the embarrassment and the hurt. The only thing that would quench the burning rage and humiliation inside her was fierce passion.
Fight fire with fire
. If she didn’t make love to him right now, she would surely explode.

He whispered her name. “Are you all right?”

Hell, no, she wasn’t all right. She was nearly insane. “Make love to me, Nick.”

“You bet I will.” But he took a backward step. “Let me take my time, to make love to you the way you deserve.”

“Now,” she said hoarsely as she threw her body against his. Her hand slid down his chest and lower until she grasped his rock-hard erection. “I know
you want me.”

He sucked in a breath. “Damn right I do.”

“You won’t be disappointed.” The one place she and her ex had never experienced difficulty was the bedroom. Maybe that was because he’d been practicing with other women. Her rage burned with a higher flame. “Ted used to say—”

“Ted?”

She didn’t want to think of him, but there he was—front and center in her mind, ruining
everything. The realization stopped her short. What was she doing? Fighting her anger at Ted by making love to Nick? That was wrong, so very wrong.

This had to end. She pulled away from Nick, pivoted and ran blindly through the front room of his condo. Frantically looking for escape, she went to the sliding glass doors, threw them open and rushed outside into the moonlight. Her hands gripped
the wood railing on the small balcony. Her heart thumped against her rib cage, and she was breathing hard.

The desire was still there, but she wouldn’t use Nick for angry sex. He deserved better...and so did she.

He stood beside her on the balcony. The branches of a tall conifer nearly brushed the edge of the railing. The view below was landscaping that led to a manicured golf course.
She stared down at the shrubs, hoping she hadn’t destroyed her relationship with Nick. She liked him a lot. This was a man she could have a real relationship with.

Quietly, she said, “I’m sorry.”

“I don’t need an apology.”

“It’s just that—”

“And I don’t need an explanation,” he said. “All I care about is that you’re safe. I’m not going to let anyone hurt you, not physically
or in any other way.”

She forced herself to gaze into his face. In the pale moonlight, his features were shadowed and rugged. She could tell from the way his brow pulled down that he was concerned about her. Who wouldn’t be? She’d been acting like a crazy person. “This isn’t me.”

“Who is it?”

She was usually calm and stable. A midwife, for goodness’ sake. People trusted her to deliver
their babies. “Tonight was a distortion, like in a fun-house mirror.”

“It’s okay.” His voice was gentle. “I can live with the crazy streak as long as you’re honest with me.”

“I swear I’ll be honest.”

“And I’m going to trust you, Kelly.”

He smiled, and she felt acceptance. She’d behaved badly, but he wasn’t kicking her to the curb. He was the kind of man who would stand by his
friends. Was that what she was to him? A friend? Her relationship with Nick had the potential of being so much more than friendship.

Now wasn’t the time to discuss it. “I think I need some time alone.”

“Not a problem. I’ll take the bedroom at the end of the hall. You take the other.” He raised her hand to his lips and brushed a kiss across her knuckles. “Sleep tight.”

She watched
him disappear into the condo. The hand kiss was sweet and gallant, but it told her that he wanted to keep his distance, and she didn’t blame him.

Her gaze lifted, and she looked up at the stars. Tears burned behind her eyelids. With all her heart, she wished that tonight had turned out differently.

Wednesday, 9:45 a.m.

T
HE
NEXT
MORNING
after a shower, Kelly slipped into her tired
khakis and shirt from yesterday and went to the front room of the condo where Nick was sitting at the dining room table.

“Good morning.” He saluted her with his coffee mug. “I brewed a pot, but it’s sludge. I want decent coffee from the diner in the Spencer Building.”

After last night, she wasn’t sure what to say. She’d already apologized, and he’d specifically told her that he didn’t
need for her to clarify her behavior, which was good because she wasn’t sure she could tell him exactly what was going on in her head. He’d said that he wanted her to be honest. That, she could do.

She cleared her throat and said, “Going to the Spencer Building is fine with me. My van is there, and I need to pick up some fresh clothes.”

“You carry a wardrobe in your van?”

“While
I’ve been living at Serena’s, I’m kind of a gypsy. Most of my stuff in Texas is in storage, but I have a couple of boxes of clothes that I’m dragging around with me.”

“Ready when you are.” He was already striding toward the door. “We get your clothes, then breakfast.”

Before she could indulge in one more second of angst, they were on the move. Action was exactly what she needed. As they
ran through simple tasks, her mind cleared and her spirit lifted. First, the van. Then, the diner. By the time she’d eaten her Denver omelet and guzzled her second cup of excellent coffee from the diner, Kelly felt as though she could take on the world.

“You stick with me today,” Nick said. “If anybody starts following us, we’ll take them on.”

“Even if they’re looking for a story about
my ex?”

He leaned back in his chair and regarded her steadily. “Is there a story you want to tell them?”

She could have smeared Ted Maxwell’s reputation and revealed him for the truly obnoxious jerk he was, but she preferred not to dredge up the nasty secrets of the past. “There’s nothing I want to talk about.”

“Honestly?”

“I don’t care about my ex-husband’s image. That’s his
problem. Honestly, I don’t want to talk to the media because my past is awful, and I don’t want to be hurt anymore.”

“Fair enough.”

His brisk tone indicated that he really didn’t want to talk about this, and neither did she. “What are we going to do today?”

“I want to figure out what Uncle Samuel did with the money. His office is no longer considered a crime scene. That’s where
we’ll start.”

“I don’t know how helpful I’ll be.” Tracking down a million dollars was way outside her experience. “I’m not good with money. I can barely balance my checkbook.”

“We’re not going to do accounting. I’ll leave that part to Marian and Rod. We’re going on a quest, and I have a feeling that you’ll be good at it.”

“Why?”

“You’ve got a talent for reading people.” The
waitress delivered another coffee for Nick in a to-go cup. “It always helps to have fresh eyes on a problem.”

Like many creative types, he assumed that other people were as bright and clever as he was. She doubted that her fresh-eyed view would provide any new perspective, but she was willing to try. She owed him that much for putting up with her.

On the ninth floor, Nick greeted the
receptionist and led Kelly down the hall to his uncle’s office. The atmosphere in Spencer Enterprises had changed slightly. Kelly noticed the employees sitting up straighter and showing more respect when Nick walked by. They had to be concerned about keeping their jobs. Even in a midsize corporation like Spencer Enterprises, the death of one of the principal owners meant reorganization.

In Samuel’s office, Nick sat behind the desk and pulled open the top left drawer. After emptying the back portion of the drawer of files, he reached underneath and did some kind of manipulation. The bottom of the drawer popped up.

Delighted, Kelly said, “A false bottom.”

“Uncle Samuel stored his cigars in here where Julia wouldn’t find them.” He removed the fake panel and looked inside.
“Nothing here. The forensics team from the police must have figured this out.”

She leaned against the edge of the desk. “Did your uncle have a lot of these hidey-holes?”

“He liked to create illusions. Once, he told me that if he hadn’t been an architect, he would have been a magician.” He walked around to the front of the desk and waved an invisible wand. “Hocus-pocus, and a million
dollars disappears.”

“Do you think he hid the cashier’s check?”

“That’s too eccentric, even for Samuel. I’m looking for something that might indicate what he was doing with the money.”

“Like a treasure map?”

“God, I hope not.” He leaned down to inspect the molding on the front of the desk. “Somebody already opened this one, too. See how the pattern doesn’t line up exactly?”

She imagined that the forensics investigating team had a ball going through this office with all the interesting little twists and turns. Samuel’s cleverness extended beyond the desk. A shoe-polishing machine popped out from underneath the credenza. The wall clock twittered like a mocking bird. And a panel slid aside in the back of his closet providing a hiding place large enough for someone
to hide.

The closet space worried her. “If your uncle was killed, the murderer could have been hiding in here.”

“That was one of the first things I thought of. When you were trying to revive him, I looked in here. The police dusted it for fingerprints. They found only Samuel’s and mine.”