Stolen Seduction (5 page)

before she found the ignition, then just sat with her hands gripping the steering wheel and the engine idling while she looked out into the darkness on the quiet Lincoln Park street.

Not exactly what she’d planned. All she’d wanted to do was maybe run into him. Possibly see

where he hung out. Find out how he was doing. Prove to herself he wasn’t as fabulous as she remembered. Going back to his apartment was her first mistake. Learning he was as incredible as she

remembered was the second. Kissing him was the third.

Kissing? Yeah. No. That wasn’t kissing. That was second base, rounding for third.

But, oh, God, that mouth. She lifted a hand to her lips, rubbed her fingers over the swollen tissue

where he’d kissed her senseless. When he’d had his hands on her body, his tongue in her mouth and

she’d been surrounded by all that sweet masculine scent, she’d forgotten everything else that had

happened tonight.

Oh, man. She’d even forgotten her pledge that she was never having sex again. Apparently, Bryan’s

little sexcapade hadn’t scarred her nearly as much as she thought it had.

Disgusted with herself, she frowned. The absolute last thing she needed right now was to get distracted by a guy. By Shane Maxwell, for crying out loud. She’d finally committed to the terms of

her father’s will. She needed to focus on fixing what was wrong with the Lake Geneva property,

then get serious about finding those statues. Maybe when she was done and her life was back to

normal and she was back at her old job in Key West…maybe then she could think about running into Shane again.

Reality dropped her hopeful heart into her stomach. Not likely. Not from the way he’d pushed her

away. Obviously, something had turned him off in the midst of rounding second. What had he said?

You’re you and I’m…Yeah, she could only imagine what that meant.

A sharp sound sent her heart into her throat, and she jumped at the shrill notes playing her favorite

Bon Jovi song, then let out a breath when she realized it was just her cell. “Yeah.”

“Where the hell are you?” Billy’s voice was edged with more than alarm; it bordered on irate. And

with that clip to his words, he sounded way too much like his brother.

She put the car in gear and headed toward the freeway. “I’m on my way back right now.”

“You’re still in Chicago?”

“Relax, would you? Everything’s fine.”

“Everything will be fine when you get your ass back up here. This whole thing was way too close

for my taste. I knew we shouldn’t have taken two cars.”

“We didn’t want anyone to see us together, remember? And they didn’t. Stop worrying.”

“Where the hell have you been?”

“I stopped to get a bite to eat.” A brewsky. Have one helluva make-out session. And a big ol’ boot

right back out the door.

“Jesus. You really know how to give a guy a coronary.”

She pushed thoughts of Shane Maxwell out of her head for good, then felt her heart warm at Billy’s

concern. For all Billy’s shortcomings, she could say this about him: when something mattered, he

pulled through. “I’ll be there in about an hour. Do me a favor, would you? Have a martini ready for

me. It’s been one helluva night.”

“Will do.” She heard the victory in his voice. “We need to celebrate anyway. We got exactly what

we needed tonight, and no one’s the wiser.”

Nope. No one was. But part of her wished Bryan knew. Too bad he wouldn’t ever have a clue.

Shane had never been so happy to be called back to work.

As he walked across the icy street and headed for the front walk of the mansion that had just become a crime scene, he popped two Tic Tacs into his mouth, snapped the plastic lid shut and stuffed

the small box into the pocket of his jeans.

Chicago had taken a nasty hit from Mother Nature two days ago, and remnants of the storm were

still evident in the cars and trees covered in snow. While being out in the subzero temperatures in

the middle of the night wasn’t usually his idea of fun, it was way better than staring at the ceiling in

his bedroom, replaying what had happened with Hailey and dreaming about a bottle of hooch.

His partner for the past two years, Tony Chen, was just pulling to a stop as Shane made it to the

front walk. Police vehicles were parked on the quiet street, and a handful of officers were milling

around, keeping rubberneckers back. Dressed in jeans, a sweater and a light jacket, Tony slammed

the car door of his sedan and gave Shane the once-over. “Well, shit, wife. You had a date.”

Shane frowned. “You always lead with that. Don’t you think it’s getting a little old?”

Tony slid a piece of gum into his mouth and grinned. At five-eleven he was a good two inches

shorter than Shane, with dark hair reminiscent of his Chinese roots, but pale, almost teal eyes that

just didn’t seem to fit his face. “This time I’m serious. You’ve got that I’ve-just-been-screwed look

on your face, and not in a good way.”

Shane flipped Tony the bird as they both headed up the front steps. “A lot you know.”

Tony chuckled, took the gloves a rookie handed him when he stepped into the house. Shane did the

same as the door snapped shut and the cold was left behind

The three-story brick was fronted by a wide porch and massive columns. A tall entryway with

gleaming tiles and a circular table holding a fresh display of flowers screamed of wealth. No doubt

whoever lived here had bucks, but obviously that hadn’t been enough to keep the grim reaper away.

Not that it ever was.

They headed toward the living room, where the brunt of officers were milling around, collecting evidence. Amanda Kent, an investigator with the Cook County medical examiner’s office rose from

where she’d been examining the body on the far side of the room. “Chen, Maxwell. Nice of you

boys to finally show up.” Her gaze raked Shane. “Dismal date?”

Shane frowned at Tony. “Why the hell does everyone keep asking me that?”

“I don’t know,” Tony mumbled. “Maybe because you’re so freakin’ tense it’s obvious you need to

get laid.”

Shane glanced back at Amanda, who held up a gloved hand in protest. “Don’t look at me. My husband would kill me.”

Shaking his head, Shane glanced down at the body, hoping to get things back on track. “What have

we got?”

Amanda sighed. “White male. Roughly thirty-five years of age. Contusions to his neck and abdomen.” The man, dressed in gray slacks and a white dress shirt covered in blood, lay on his back

on the hardwood floor, staring up at the ceiling. “The attacker hit from the front. If you look at the

wound here, you’ll see the angle of the cut indicates it came from a horizontal direction. My guess

is his attacker was probably several inches shorter than him.”

“Right or left-handed?” Tony asked.

“Right. Definitely. And I’m willing to bet he knew his attacker. There was no sign of forced entry,

though the two did struggle.”

Shane glanced around the room. A small table lay on its side, throw pillows littered the floor, some

kind of crystal had been shattered into a hundred pieces and amber liquid puddled in the glass.

“Man or woman?”

“Hard to tell at this point,” Amanda said. “Could be either. But it would have to be someone pretty

strong to get the upper hand. He wasn’t a lightweight.”

No, the guy had to be close to 190. Maybe 200 pounds. “Any evidence under his nails? Hair

fibers?”

“Nothing yet. But we’ve just started.”

“Murder weapon?” Shane asked.

Amanda shook her head. “Afraid even I’m not that good. Gotta leave something for you boys to do

to earn those paychecks.”

“What about time of death?” Tony asked, ignoring her joke.

“Based on body temp only? I’d say three to six hours ago. They’ve got the girlfriend upstairs. Says

she was asleep. Didn’t hear anything. Woke up alone, came down to find out where he’d gone.

Found him like this.”

The front door opened, and a blast of cold swept into the house.

“Look alive, boys,” Amanda muttered. “Jim Hill’s here. That’s fast, even for him.”

At the mention of the DA’s pompous investigator, Shane glanced at Tony. “I’ll give you my opening-day Cubs tickets if you take the girl upstairs.”

Tony pinned him with a look. “And leave you alone with Hill? No way. I leave you two alone, and

you’ll deck him or he’ll find a way to screw us on this. Either way, you wind up back on IA’s hot

list and I’m stuck bailing your ass out again.” He nodded toward the stairs. “Lock it up. It’s your

turn anyway, Romeo.”

Shane glared at the stairs as Amanda went back to the body. He’d much rather deal with Hill than

get stuck with another hysterical female witness. The last time he’d done that? Yeah, he didn’t even

want to remember the last time.

“Yo, Manda,” Tony said before the ME could dive back into her work. “You get an ID on the guy?”

Across the room, Amanda looked down at the clipboard in her hands. “Yeah. Let’s see.” She

scanned the page. “Bryan Roarke. Florida driver’s license. Business card in his pocket says he’s

with Roarke Resorts.” She glanced up. “Hey, didn’t I hear Roarke Resorts was building in the Lake

Geneva area?”

Shane froze with his foot on the first step.

No way this was a coincidence.

Lake Geneva, WI

“You’ve been in there for almost an hour. Hurry up, girlie-man.”

Hailey pounded her fist on the bathroom door one more time. The shower was still going, and humming came from the other side of the door. At this rate, he was going to use up all the hot water.

Considering the Lake Geneva resort wasn’t up and running yet and this wing was the only portion

of the place that had hot water, that wasn’t completely unlikely.

“Is the coffee here yet?” Billy called from the other side of the door. “Because I’m not coming out

until there’s coffee. It’s frickin’ cold in this place!”

“Southern boy,” Hailey mumbled. “Take him out of the sun, plunk him in the deep freeze and he

turns into a five-year-old.”

“Hey,” Billy called, feigning shock. “I resent that comment.”

Hailey chuckled. “Maybe if you grew some—”

“Okay, now you’re just getting personal!”

A knock sounded at the door in the other room. Hailey’s ears perked. “I think I hear the coffee now.

You just got spared, princess.”

“Very funny,” Billy yelled.

One side of Hailey’s mouth curled as she headed for the living area of her suite. Suite was a generous term. This one was close to the offices and the kitchen and was one of only a handful that had

been active for a few days now. It boasted a living area, one bedroom and a veranda that overlooked

the lake. It wasn’t fancy, but she wasn’t staying more than a few days. Since she’d gotten what she

needed from Bryan last night, she could put at least one worry out of her mind. The meeting with

her staff here this morning to go over the construction timeline, budget and the cause of the delays

would take care of the second.

Three days max. Then she’d be back in Florida, worrying about the rest of her father’s cryptic will.

She pulled the door open, expecting to see Liam, the head chef’s new assistant, but instead an attractive Asian American man filled the doorway. He held up his badge. A badge she immediately

recognized as being from Illinois. “Ms. Roarke? I’m Detective Chen with Chicago PD. Can I have a

minute of your time?”

Chicago police?

Hailey pulled her white terry robe tighter to her chest. “What’s this regarding?”

“Do you know a man by the name of Bryan Roarke?”

Oh, crap. Bryan had figured out the security system had been down last night.

Hailey kept her face neutral. “Yes, I do.”

He glanced up and down the hall. “Mind if I come in? I’d really prefer not to discuss this in front of

your staff.”

Hailey hesitated, then realized, yeah, whatever he had to say, she didn’t want said in front of her

staff, either. She eased back a step. “Sure, Detective—”

“Chen.” She made a move to close the door after he stepped in the room, but a hand that seemed to

shoot out of nowhere stopped her. Chen gestured with his chin. “This is my partner, Detective

Maxwell.”

If she’d been sucker punched in the stomach, Hailey would have been less surprised. Her blood

warmed at the memories from last night as Shane walked into the room—his mouth, his hands, the

things he’d whispered in her ear.

Then she remembered how he’d pushed her away.

Hailey let go of the door and stepped back into the living room, trying to keep her hands from shaking. If Detective Chen noticed any sudden tension in the room, he didn’t show it. She purposely

didn’t meet Shane’s gaze. Couldn’t.

“Were you in Chicago yesterday, Ms. Roarke?”

Hailey looked toward Chen. “I’m sorry. What was that?”

Chen’s eerily light eyes narrowed. “Were you in Chicago yesterday?”

Though her pulse was kicking up in her chest, her brain was slowly coming back online, and the

tone of Chen’s question finally registered. Two Chicago detectives were standing in her living room

asking her whereabouts from the day before.

She chose her words carefully, knowing if she got caught in a lie it would just make things worse.

But if Bryan had squealed about her being at the house…If he’d lied to get her out of the

way…"Yes, I was.”

“Where about?” Chen asked. “What were you doing there?”

“I had some errands I needed to run and then got a drink.”

Chen and Maxwell exchanged glances. And in the time it took for Chen to look back at her, Hailey

knew something was seriously wrong.