Colton's Unusual Suspect, page 19
She needed to be afraid. In her situation, a good dose of fear would go a long way toward keeping her safe.
But he wasn’t totally without empathy. “I’m calling a cab to pick us up outside the judge’s secure entrance,” he told her as he ushered her down the less used stairs rather than heading toward the elevator she’d intended to use. “Make a list of whatever you need and where to find it and I’ll send my sister, Eva, to pick it up. She’s always up for any favor I ask, and I am for her, too. She’s in uniform, a noob, but fearless, in case anyone’s lying in wait. And if someone is watching your place, he knows the police are watching it, too, watching for him.”
“You never said you were close with your sister.”
There were a lot of things he hadn’t told her. Some genetic... He paled. “I also never told you I’m a twin.” He dropped the information as lightly as he could. “Not identical, though, so I don’t think that’s a thing.”
Two sacs, not one, so hopefully not genetic. But it wasn’t like he really knew beans, one way or the other.
She’d stopped on the stairs, one up from him, mouth open, staring. Hard to believe that fit, lusciously curvaceous body with the dark wavy hair tumbling around it, that the determined woman who so confidently owned it, was pregnant with his baby.
“You’re a twin.”
“Yeah, but like I said, not identical.”
“Brother or sister?”
“Brother. His name’s Liam.”
“Is he local?” With her standing up there looking down on him, he felt compelled to answer.
“Yeah. We’re all working the Humphrey Kelly case together. My brother Sean, the detective—” he’d told her about Sean during the case work that had brought Cormac and Emily together in the first place “—Eva, Liam and I.”
“Liam’s a cop, too?”
“No, he’s a stupidly rich dude who runs an awareness program for the precinct.” He was also an ex-con, but that was a story for another, less stressful, probably-never-going-to-happen day. Unless she needed to know due to the kid.
He turned to head down the steps and heard her voice behind him.
“We were together seven nights in a row and you never thought to tell me you’re a twin?”
She hadn’t budged. So maybe the genetic thing was an issue still. Or she was just freaking out because it was a freaking out kind of day.
“I didn’t tell you I had a sister who was a rookie cop, either.”
“Yes, you did. The night you saw a missed call from her and then when you called her back, she didn’t pick up.”
Yeah. Eva had been on duty. He’d panicked for a second. Until Eva had texted that she’d get with him later. He’d forgotten about it the moment Emily’s lips had touched his.
“You weren’t used to her being on the streets yet,” the assistant ADA reminded him as they continued down the stairs.
And he was reminded of just how good she was at remembering every detail about everything—and drawing concrete conclusions from the mix. It made her great at her job.
It had also made her a compelling and unforgettable companion. Emily Hernandez, unlike most women he’d spent time with, stimulated him, captivated him as much mentally as she did physically. Which was why he’d had to run, not walk, out of her door and not look back.
And while he was going to keep her firmly in his sights until he knew she was safe, he still wasn’t looking back. With a baby on the way, him keeping his heart free from the kind of emotional entanglement that blinded him was now more critical than ever.
Chapter 4
Eva Colton wasn’t the one who brought Emily’s things. Emily had been curious to meet the young woman who’d followed her brothers into law enforcement.
Instead, as she stood in the spacious living area of Cormac’s apartment, clutching the satchel hanging from her shoulder, trying to pretend she hadn’t had sex on the couch just feet away from her, she watched him open his door to a Colton she did know, Cormac’s older brother, Sean.
“Detective Colton,” she said, stepping forward, reaching out her hand for a shake, needing to assert control over the situation before she lost hope of gaining any. That was before she realized he wasn’t just there to see Cormac on business.
She didn’t notice the duffle he’d had slung on his back until it slid forward as he reached for her hand. Instead of giving her a brusque shake, he slid the strap of the gym bag–looking carryall down his arm and handed it to her. “Eva asked that I give this to you.”
So much for being the professional in control. Now they all knew she was staying with their brother. How embarrassing.
And...how to explain...
“Cormac told me that he gave you little choice but to use his guestroom until we get some things sorted out,” Sean continued, seemingly having no trouble commandeering all of the control she’d been hoping to obtain. “I apologize for my brother’s heavy-handedness in this matter and want you to know that if you’d rather be in a hotel or someplace else, we can assign an officer to keep you company. At least until we get an initial look at things...”
“I told Sean that I, um, insisted that you stay here, so that I can provide you with protection and also work with you to figure out who’s after you. Since, you know, your abduction follows so closely behind Humphrey going missing, both events in or near the courthouse, and with both of you associated with the same case...”
He hadn’t told his brother she was pregnant with his child, Emily translated the slightly awkward, completely unlike Cormac explanation.
She nodded. Looked Sean Colton in the eye, and said, “I’d just as soon stay here, if you don’t mind,” she told him. “I don’t go anywhere I don’t choose to go. I want this settled as soon as possible and intend to be as involved as possible in figuring out what happened this morning and why.” Then she added, “In case Cormac didn’t tell you, I’m paying your brother for his protection. I worked with him on a case a couple of months back and have hired him to work for me on this matter.”
Cormac’s gaze shot to her. She read the argument there, but didn’t think he’d call her out in front of his brother. And she didn’t budge from her stance. She’d come up with the idea of having Cormac officially work her case during the drive over from the courthouse. To keep things clean and tidy between them. She just hadn’t mentioned her plan to him. But now it was official.
He’d argue when they were alone. And she’d offer to leave. She held the trump card in that particular matter.
And needed not to feel as though her pregnancy made her dependent on him.
“He didn’t mention the money, no,” Sean said, sliding a glance toward Cormac, who took her bag and headed toward the hall leading back to the bedrooms.
“We hadn’t decided on terms when I spoke to you,” Cormac said over his shoulder.
The way he’d taken her bag, brooking no argument, she knew she’d pissed him off, making him look bad in front of his brother. And, she acknowledged silently, that she probably could have found a better way to handle the situation.
“I’m here to let you know that I’m the detective who’s been assigned to your attempted abduction case,” Sean said, moving toward the far end of the room, just off the kitchen, to take a seat at Cormac’s six-chair dining table.
Oh. “Does Cormac know?” she asked, as the father of her child came back out to join them.
“I did know, yes,” he said then, his tone challenging as he looked at her. “Sean texted to say he was on his way over.”
Okay, fine. Neither one of them was doing so well in the trusting-each-other-with-communication department. A complete antithesis to their dealings in the past.
She flashed Cormac a glance, nodded and looked at Sean with equal gratitude and acceptance as she pulled her laptop out of her satchel and said, “I can send each of you a list of my current cases right now. It’ll take a little bit of time to research recent prison releases to gather up previous cases that would be more likely to have been involved, but I’ll get on that right away.”
Both men nodded, and Sean said, “I wanted to let both of you know that we got a license plate number on the SUV from witness statements and have already talked to the driver. He’s employed by a private car service and was dispatched to a corner just a block from the courthouse to pick up a Tom Jones. That name mean anything to you?”
A slice of fear shot through her as Sean Colton’s intent gaze focused on her. The near kidnapping...it had been real. Attached to a man with a name.
Frantically searching her memory banks, she shook her head slowly. Then turned back to her computer, and with fingers fumbling on the keyboard, ran a quick document search.
“I come up with Jones. And with Tom. But not together,” she told both men.
“It’s likely not the guy’s real name,” Cormac told her, his tone more empathetic than anything. Soothing her in the way he’d had from the first day she’d met him.
Emily wasn’t, and never had been, a woman who needed soothing.
Finding her gaze holding on to the man for too long, she quickly glanced back at her screen and then over to Cormac’s brother. If Sean noticed anything passing between the two of them, he was professional enough not to acknowledge it. Instead, he said, “Jones told the driver that his sister had gone off her meds, that she was out of her head and a friend of hers had called him and told him that she was headed to the courthouse to insist on seeing the judge who’d ordered her remanded to a mental health facility. He warned the driver that there was a possibility she’d risk being picked up.”
“Where was the driver supposed to take them?”
Sean named a professional building not far from the courthouse. “Jones said that his sister’s psychiatrist had offices in the building. We’ve got a basic sketch of the guy, but not much from surveillance footage so far. With the winter coat, it’s hard to tell his build, and the hood he was wearing along with the scarf concealed his features.”
She’d never even seen the man’s face. Only the black leather of his coat on the arm around her, black gloves and shoes.
“Officers are going around the building now with a description and the sketch,” Sean continued.
“And when the pickup went askew?” she asked, shuddering in spite of her attempt not to do so.
“The driver said Jones apologized, asked to be dropped off around the corner, paid cash and bugged out. The driver had the impression that the guy was frantic for his sister’s safety because as soon as he paid, he ran off in the direction of the courthouse. The driver also called the police. We have a record of his 9-1-1 call coming in just after it all happened.”
“What about surveillance tape from the pickup or drop-off sites?” Cormac’s question was succinct.
“We haven’t been able to locate any. Officers are still canvassing.”
The brothers exchanged a serious glance, and Emily knew any hope she had that everyone would just blow off her little incident as a fluke—so that she could try to convince herself that’s all it was—had died a painful death.
Until they found her would-be abductor, she was in real danger.
From him. And from her forced proximity to Cormac Colton, too.
The intensity of feelings the private investigator raised in her should be criminal.
* * *
The two cases Sean was most interested in, as far as Emily’s involvement was concerned, were the two he was also most familiar with—the one involving Humphrey Kelly’s testimony and the Lana Brinkley murder that Sean had had to turn over to investigate the Kelly disappearance.
The case involving Kelly’s testimony had been put on hold due to the psychiatrist’s absence, just until another expert could be called in to take Kelly’s place. Getting Emily out of the picture wouldn’t make any difference to that or in any way prevent the district from continuing on with the trial . With her gone, another ADA would simply be assigned to take over for her.
Same with the Brinkley murder in terms of its trial, but if Emily was onto something there that their prime suspect, Wall Street mogul Wes Westmore, didn’t want getting out, he could have hired someone to get to Emily. To intimidate her into silencing some evidence he might suspect she has.
“I can’t imagine what it would be,” Emily told Sean as Cormac reached for the file cabinet in the closet behind his table, spun the dial to unlock it and pulled out his Westmore file.
He liked things spread out in front of him, where he could take them in all at once, a big picture, rather than flipping back and forth between screens.
“You all have more on the case than I do,” she said, opening her own Westmore file. “But I’m still going through it all, so there might be something here I’m going to pick up on. I’ll jump in again as soon as we’re done here.”
A fist tightening in Cormac’s gut had him biting his tongue rather than suggesting that Emily take a day or two off from work. At least until he’d had time to get a handle on things—both the kidnapping attempt and the baby she was carrying.
She wouldn’t listen to him.
And truth was, he wasn’t sure she should. As long as she worked from his place, she’d be reasonably safe. He didn’t have a say in the rest of her choices.
Except...she did plan to have the baby, didn’t she?
Did she even know?
He had a say in that.
And in what would happen to the child after it was born.
If she didn’t want it, he’d take it.
And if she did...he’d insist on doing his part.
Thoughts flew through his mind as Emily let Sean know that she wasn’t thrilled that he was off the Brinkley case. And with a blink, Cormac wondered how he could know, in the space of an hour or two, that he was ready to commit himself to being a father.
Well, not ready, at all, but committed to getting that way. He’d lost his dad young. Knew what it was like to get through high school without one. He wasn’t doing that to his own kid.
“No offense, but I think Mitch Mallard is a blowhard,” Emily was telling Sean, talking to Cormac’s older brother as though they were familiar associates.
He supposed they could be. Just...when she and Cormac had been together, she’d never mentioned his brother.
But then neither had he. Quite purposely.
Family didn’t play into what they had going on.
Family was the antithesis to it.
And they’d made a kid from that?
He’d long ago lost any fondness he had for fate. But this...twist of circumstance... Well, it...blew.
But... “We share your opinion of Mitch.” Cormac jumped back into the conversation—to put an abrupt end to his own internal wanderings, but also to tell her what his brother technically could not.
“With the body nabbing happening so close to the courthouse, we have to consider that the perp could be someone within the courthouse,” he said. Then, something that had occurred to him on the ride home. “Someone who knows your schedule.” He spoke to his new houseguest, but looked to his brother as well.
Saw Sean nodding before the detective asked, “Can you think of anyone there that might have it in for you for some reason? Not necessarily work related.”
The way Emily’s brow furrowed when she was looking for answers had been one of the first things that had attracted his attention the first time he’d worked with her. The shape of her brows accented those big dark eyes, which were pools he could drown in.
And he nearly had the first time he’d jumped in. He’d come close to throwing away everything that mattered most to him, to forgetting all the painful lessons he’d learned. Had barely been able to get himself out.
No way he could go back in...
“Not that I can... I mean, there’s this guy in the DA’s office. He’s young, egotistic, a good mind, but needs to slow down and think before he speaks if he hopes to make it... Anyway, he made a big deal about discovering some evidence that turned a case into something else entirely, one of my cases, and tried to go over my head to get his day in the sun, but it turned out that he almost blew my case and I called him on it. In front of people.”
“What’s this guy’s name?” Cormac asked.
“Jason Willoughby.”
“I’ll look into him,” Cormac told them both.
“You think it could be him? That this was just payback for embarrassing him?”
“If it was, don’t for one second think that it means you’re in less danger,” Sean interjected. “Someone who’d go to those lengths to get back at a colleague... There’s no telling what else he might do.”
The stark expression that flitted across Emily’s face made Cormac want to shut his brother up, even as he knew he’d have given her the same warning if Sean hadn’t spoken first.
“The incident did have a personal feel about it,” he said then.
“He wasn’t just dragging me into the car—he was holding me up against him,” Emily added slowly, looking between the two of them. “I didn’t even think about that until now.”
Sean nodded, then offered, “Could be the only way he could get you into the car.”
“Yeah, but the way he told her he’d get her next time... I heard his words,” Cormac said. “It sounded like he had it in for her. Like he was making a promise specifically to her, not just to an ADA on a case. I heard real hate in his voice. We’ll make a list of all possibilities from cases, but I want to pursue this personal angle, too,” he told his brother.
Sean nodded, as Cormac had known he would. His brother might have age and experience on him, but he knew that Sean also respected his judgment implicitly. That the detective respected and relied on him.
