Finding Justice (26 page)

When he didn’t say anything, Cat took a deep breath. “When I
knew about the money, I thought in all probability the killer was still
here.”

Cat crossed her fingers and pressed them against her forehead.
“So what happens next? Am I under investigation? Suspension?”

“You must have wanted Bennett’s balls in a freaking vise.”

Cat smiled. “Something like that. He played me. He let me
believe he cared about Sarah. That he was doing everything he could to find her
killer. Yes, I wanted his balls in a vise and I wanted to be the one turning the
handle.”

“As much as I understand that, there’s one thing that concerns
me. One thing you’re going to have to prove before this goes public.”

“Sir?”

“Why the bloody hell did you believe a drug lord told the damn
truth? You’ve got to give me more than this. I’m not willing to go to Internal
Affairs or anywhere until I know we can make what you did comprehensible. If you
were wrong—”

“I wasn’t wrong, sir. It was him. He wanted me close for a
reason. He wanted to see where I was going, who I was with, who I talked to. He
was one step ahead the entire time. I saw it in Kyle Jordon’s eyes, too. He
wanted Bennett caught as much as I did. I trusted my instinct. Usually that’s
enough for you.”

“This is entirely different and you damn well know it.”

Angry heat pinched her cheeks and Cat tightened her hand around
the phone. “He was guilty, sir. He killed my best friend.”
And lost me the love of my life.
“And he’s been laughing about it
behind my back the entire time I’ve been here. He knew I was coming and he
waited.”

Another pause. Cat’s stomach knotted with fear Harris would
order her back to Reading before she’d had time to explain to Jay why she’d had
to ask him again if he’d killed Sarah. Why she had to hear him say it under the
worst pressure possible. A pointed gun. Time passed, and with it the chance of
her anticipated future with Jay.

Harris cleared his throat. “Right. This is what’s going to
happen. You get a statement from this Kyle Jordon. A statement we can use in
court. If you can’t get me that, I cannot see how I can put my career and yours
on the line because you had a feeling about him. It’s not enough, and if you
don’t know that, I haven’t taught you a damn thing.”

Cat released her held breath and met Jay’s eyes, a tentative
smile pulling at her lips. “Fine. I’ll get the statement. Not a problem.”

Harris was right. She would have little more than suspicion and
Kyle’s finger-pointing to back her up when the enquiry came. And it would
come.

“We also have Sarah’s letter, sir. She named Bennett as her
killer.”

“That’s not proof.”

“She expected me to find it and named him. If I hadn’t found
it, whoever did find it would figure out they found money connected to a murder
and hopefully hand it in. If Bennett was the one to find it—”

“He was home free.”

“Yes, but that was a risk she was willing to take.”

Cat squeezed her eyes shut and waited. At last Harris exhaled
heavily.

“Just get this Jordon to give a statement and we’ll take it
from there.”

“Yes, sir.”

“You have until this afternoon to call in with a status.”

She looked at Jay and gave a thumbs-up. He turned away and
Cat’s heart sank. With Harris’s backing, a weight should’ve lifted. He was a
good inspector and she hadn’t enjoyed conducting the investigation without his
knowledge. Everything should now be slipping into place. She stared at Jay’s
turned back and fought the urge to cry.

“Forrester?”

Cat snapped to attention. “Yes, sir?”

“Don’t go doing anything else that’s going to get you killed.
You hear me?”

“Absolutely.”

He grunted and the line went dead.

Cat gripped the phone. “He’s on my side, Jay. It’s going to be
all right.”

He huffed out a laugh. “Funny, I don’t think anything will be
all right ever again.”

Cat opened her mouth and then shut it as Jay walked away and
didn’t look back.

* * *

C
AT
STARED
AT
THE
CEILING
of Jay’s guest bedroom, her tears now dry and itchy on her
cheeks. Morning had broken, and with it any hope of Jay leaving his room and
seeking her out in the night was gone. He didn’t want her, didn’t trust her and
she couldn’t blame him. She had no right to ask anything of him. Not even his
friendship.

Reaching her arm out of the bed, she slid her BlackBerry from
the bedside table and reread the text Inspector Harris had sent her at midnight.
Harris had set the ball rolling for the investigation into Bennett’s part in
Sarah’s murder along with other things. She needed to leave the Cove today and
report for duty in the morning. That was fine. There was nothing to keep her in
Templeton anymore and plenty waiting at home.

Dragging her behind out of bed, Cat whipped her robe from a
chair and headed for the door. If she was leaving, she needed to speak to Jay
before she left. She would not walk away leaving things as they were. It was now
or never. If he rejected her explanation again, then she could go home to
Harris...to her mother, knowing she had at least tried to right her awful wrong
with Jay.

She slowly walked along the landing and stopped in front of his
bedroom door. After silently counting to three, she lifted her fist and rapped
her knuckles on the door.

“Come in.”

Cat hesitated. Half of her had hoped he would be sleeping. The
coward’s half. Swallowing hard, she took a deep breath and pushed open the
door.

“Jay, we need to talk...oh.”

“What?” He glared at her from the bed. He was sitting up,
ramrod straight against the pillows. His beautiful chest was bare, his gorgeous
floppy brown hair disheveled and his sexy jaw grayed with shadow.

“What are you doing? I thought you’d be sleeping.”

“I haven’t slept all night. What do you want to talk about? Are
you leaving?”

The coldness in his voice shivered down her spine but Cat
dragged her feet forward until she stood at the end of his bed and grasped the
bedpost with one trembling hand. “Yes.”

“Right.”

His gaze bored into hers for a long moment until Cat closed her
eyes, blocking out the knowing way he studied her, the spark of pain that flared
in his gaze. He locked his hands behind his head.

“Go ahead.”

Dread dropped into her stomach. “There’s going to be an
investigation. Plus, my mother needs me. Chris needs me. It’s time for me to
go.”

He continued to watch her, his silence speaking more than words
ever could. The tension hummed around them, surrounding her heart and squeezing
tight. “Mum’s in a really bad way. She needs the kind of help I can’t give her
anymore. Chris thinks it best we get her into rehab sooner rather than later,
but I have no idea how we’ll ever get her to admit she’s in trouble.”

“I’m coming with you.”

She flinched. “What?”

“I’m coming with you.” He ripped back the bed covers and
brushed past her to the bureau.

She stared at his back, her mind whirling. What was he saying?
Had he forgiven her for asking about Sarah? Her gaze zoomed in on his naked butt
before Cat caught herself and looked to the ceiling, her cheeks on fire. “Jay,
this is ridiculous. After what I did...you can’t—”

He continued to step into clean boxers, pulled on a pair of
black jeans. “I said I wouldn’t leave you to deal with Julia alone again, and I
won’t. I’m coming with you.”

“But everything’s changed.”

He whipped a T-shirt from one of the drawers and turned. “Not
everything, Cat. You could throw a vat of hot tar in my face and I’d still care
about you. Damn, I’d still love you. What’s changed is you don’t trust me. That
means we’re stuck.”

“Jay, please.” The regret in his eyes burned into her soul, the
softness of his voice even more so. “I was scared. I let Bennett scare me.”

He pulled the T-shirt over his head and stared at her for a
long moment. “I know that...but it still hurt to see the suspicion, the doubt
after everything we’ve been through these past few days. That doesn’t mean I
won’t help Julia.”

Pushing her guilt aside, Cat straightened her shoulders when he
brushed past her. He leaned down and pulled a pair of sneakers from beneath the
bed. She cleared her throat. “I won’t let you try to fix this for me, Jay. I
need to prove to myself I can do this on my own. Prove that I haven’t completely
let down the woman I love most in the world when she needed me.”

He turned and pinned her to the spot with the blaze of burning
frustration in his eyes. “That’s crazy. Don’t ever think that. This isn’t about
you letting Julia down. This is about her grief for your father and how it
manifested itself.” He shook his head. “God, if there’s one thing my addiction
taught me, it’s that it’s no one else’s job to save an addict, it’s theirs.”

Cat shook her head. “I won’t be free to live my own life until
I know I did everything I could to make her life good again. When Chris left, it
came down to me and I always felt Dad beside me, begging me to stay. Coming here
is the best thing I did...for me, not for her. Now it’s time for me to go back.
Alone.”

He blew out a breath and wiped his hand over his face. “If I
let you go, then what?”

Hope rose inside Cat that he understood. Understood her regret
of doubting him, that they still had a chance. She stepped closer, stopped just
a few feet away from him. Her fingers itched to touch him so she curled them
into fists at her sides. Tears pricked her eyes. “Then I’ll be back...if you
still want me.”

For a long moment his gaze locked on hers, his jaw tight but
his eyes soft. “I don’t know if... I can’t let you go, Cat. I love you.”

She inhaled. His dark brown eyes shone with desire in the muted
light, the strong contours of his face set in concentration, his lips ever so
slightly apart. He looked so roguishly handsome, Cat struggled to maintain eye
contact.

He leaned forward and the soft welcome warmth of his lips
brushed the sensitive flesh beneath her earlobe. Somehow managing not to melt to
the floor with her legs wide open, Cat shivered. Any words froze on her tongue.
He slipped his hands to her waist and kissed her.

Helplessly, Cat lifted her hands and gripped thick, muscular
forearms as Jay groaned into her mouth. Any possibility Cat might resist him
puddled like liquid in her stomach. His warm soft tongue sought and took hers as
desire twisted and turned inside her. His musky masculine smell, the way he
towered over her made Cat believe he could take care of everything.

Her eyes snapped open and she eased him back. He couldn’t take
care of everything. Only she could. Only she could fix her mum, find Sarah’s
killer, live her life. She shook her head and looked to the floor.

“Jay, I have to do this for myself.”

“Why are you running away again?”

She snapped her head up and her tears blurred his face. “I’m
not running. I’m surviving.”

“It feels good be back here, doesn’t it?”

Cat stared. It felt so good being there with him, being with
George and Marian, seeing the beach and the tiny boutique shops. The thought of
going home became more and more of a dread every day. She took a step back. “It
feels better than good. It feels absolutely right.”

“That’s what I thought.”

Without warning, he lifted her off her feet and laid her on the
bed. Cat quivered. Fighting her love for him was futile.

CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

H
E
WANTED
TO
MAKE
HER
his so much it was more than he could stand every time she insisted on
having to deal with Julia alone. With Bennett arrested, Jay’s heart had ached
all night knowing she would leave in the morning—their words hanging cold and
unfeeling between them. He loved her and she was going nowhere without him. He
would show her, not tell her how much he loved and wanted her, how much he
wanted her in his bed and in his life.

It had always been Cat, and over his dead body would he let her
go again.

His heart beat a mad tattoo in his chest as a wave of feral
possessiveness stormed through him.

“I love you. When you go back to Reading, I’m coming with you.”
He stared deep into her eyes, willing her to see how firmly she held his heart
in her hands.

Her eyes were wide. “Jay, please. I’m not doing this because I
don’t want you there. I’m doing this because I have to. Don’t make this—”

He swallowed any further protest by crushing his lips to hers
and her body stiffened for an imperceptible moment before she melted beneath
him. He slowly moved his body over hers. Her arms came up and her fingers
splayed over his shoulder blades. She pulled him closer, breathed his name into
his mouth and masculine pride rose like a lion’s roar inside his body.

His tongue found hers. They fought, they claimed and Jay’s
heart burst wide open. There was no going back. Pulling away, he rolled over,
taking her with him. She stared down at him, her gaze darting over his face,
their vivid green beauty shining with love and laughter.

“Say it,” he demanded. “Tell me how you’re feeling right
now.”

The skin at her neck shifted, her cheeks flushed and her
wanting gleamed undisguised in her unwavering gaze. “I love you, Jay Garrett. I
love you so damn much.”

A lone tear escaped over her lower lid and he thumbed it away.
“Now we’re getting somewhere.”

Her gaze changed to something infinitely more dangerous, more
demanding, and the air around them charged with electricity. She shimmied back
and sat up in his lap, her breasts showing high and pert beneath her nightdress,
her nipples spearing the satin. Jay’s heart beat wildly, his penis waking
beneath her.

She shrugged the matching robe from her shoulders before
clasping the hem of the nightdress and pulling it over her head, revealing her
perfectly round, deliciously full breasts. Her skin was pure cream, the nipples
soft brown and budded with arousal. The pain of wanting her shot straight to his
erection, filling every muscle in his body with red-hot fire.

“I swear to God cops never looked like you when I was growing
up.”

She grinned, her eyes impishly delighted, full of laughter and
blatant desire. God, he loved her more than life...loved her more than he
should. She scored her index finger along his jaw, down the side of his throat
and under the neck of his T-shirt, making every hair on his body rise. Cat was
in control and she damn well knew it. Jay was hers for the taking, whether he
liked it or not and he did—a lot.

Leaning forward, she kissed him. Jay tried to ignore the
sensation of her breasts against his chest, tried to focus his mind wholly on
the then and there. They parted and she gently touched his lips. Jay caught her
fingers in his hand. Their gazes locked.

He kissed her fingers one after the other and the soft scent of
her perfume seeped into his nostrils. Jay committed the smell to memory along
with the way she looked at him as though he was the most amazing man in the
world. He couldn’t hold her as his prisoner. He had to let her go if that’s what
she wanted but, God, how he wanted her with him forever. Wanted her to be his
wife, bear his children.

Cat pulled her hand from his and dropped her gaze to his chest.
Torturously, slowly, she ran her fingers down his torso toward the waistband of
his jeans. Her forehead was slightly creased in concentration, her body
trembling like a flower in the softest breeze. She sharply pulled his shirt from
his trousers and ran it up over his body. He lifted his head and she pulled the
shirt effortlessly off and tossed it behind her.

Jay’s breath caught; his desire flared as if her touch were
paraffin thrown on a fire. Her gaze traveled with her hands over his chest hair,
over his sensitized nipples, driving him to insanity and back. She slipped off
him and her hands moved to his jeans, her red hair falling like a velvet curtain
across his stomach. She unbuckled his belt and lowered the zipper. He couldn’t
see her face but felt her smile as his erection burst free and no doubt tented
his boxers like a damn pylon.

He curled his hands into fists to stop from reaching for her,
to stop from dissolving the rare and mind-blowing moment of her guard being
down, of it just being them. Alone. Together. The outside noise and all their
problems forgotten. Leaving his jeans, she shimmied lower and his shoes hit the
carpet, the two soft thuds followed by his socks. She tossed him a smile, his
breathing the only sound in the silent room. Shifting and lifting his pelvis to
aid her seduction, the jeans were soon discarded, his boxers following straight
behind them.

“My turn.”

Her smile dissolved. “Who said this was a game of equal
participation?”

Grinning, Jay growled and sat up straight. She fell backward,
giggling, onto the bed, her hair cascading out around her like a sheet of fire.
Jay’s heart beat fast as animal lust pumped through his veins.

“Turn over,” he demanded.

Her eyes widened and then darkened. “What?”

“You heard me. I’m taking these panties off right now.”

Smiling, Cat slowly, erotically, turned over and Jay’s arousal
increased as he slid his hands over the silk of her underwear. They were cut
high on her buttocks and he moved his hands over the softness and gently
squeezed. She groaned into the duvet and Jay smiled. Payback.

She lifted her pelvis and Jay dragged her panties down over her
hips, her legs and feet. He tossed them to the side. She moved to turn and he
placed his hand firmly on the base of her spine.

“Did I say you could move?”

“You’re a bad, bad boy, Jay Garrett.”

Jay smoothed his hands in soft circles over her flawless back,
reveled in the feel of her ribs beneath his fingers, the way her body dipped and
curved from waist to hip. His breath shuddered. Cat Forrester was all woman.
Sexy, successful, her body lean and strong, the internal power she so often
forgot she possessed radiated from her every pore, turning heads wherever she
walked.

He would make her his if it was the last thing he did. Images
of Sarah threatened at the periphery of his mind and he closed his eyes, pushing
them away. Before the drugs, he’d promised Sarah he’d go to Reading and get Cat.
Beg her to stay. Now Sarah was dead and there was no way he wasn’t delivering on
that promise. No way in hell.

Jay dug his thumbs harder into her flesh, massaging them up and
over her shoulders. She sighed as he kneaded the strain from her, banishing the
pressure of everything she kept from him, both here and at home.

“Jay, you’re killing me.” The smile in her voice belied her
words.

Sarah left his mind as he focused on the most beautiful woman
in the world. “Do you want me?”

“I want you.”

He stared at the back of her head. “
Really
want me?”

She stiffened beneath his fingers and he silently berated
himself for pressuring her. He wanted to hear it before he took her, wanted to
know she couldn’t deny the power between them any more than he could. After a
long moment, her body collapsed into the bed and she slowly rolled over.

Her steady green gaze, slightly glistening with unshed tears,
bore into his. “I really want you.”

His mouth came down hard on hers. She didn’t need to say any
more. She wanted him and he’d find a way for them to be together. He would coax
her fears out of her and help her fight them. Going back to the crack house had
further fueled an unending desire to right so many wrongs. He wouldn’t forget
the people they had left there and he wouldn’t lose the woman he loved.

One of her hands gripped his biceps, the other his shoulder. As
his mouth and tongue battled with hers, Jay reached lower and found her hardened
nub.

He touched her and Cat clung harder. He smoothed his fingers
over and over her most intimate place and she trembled beneath him. He slipped
lower into her wetness, hovered and then thrust two fingers deep inside.

“Oh, God.”

Her mouth lifted from his and her eyelids fluttered closed as
he stimulated and loved her. Jay’s erection ached with want. When he sensed her
need for him, felt her throb around his fingers, Jay moved away from her and
reached over for a condom from his side dresser. He sheathed himself and moved
back to her. Silently, he hovered above her, his body poised for the possession
he desperately wanted.

Once her eyes locked on his, shining bright with unadulterated
trust and love, he thrust deep inside her. She cried out and Jay’s heart left
his body and merged with hers.

Slowly, he drove his shaft deep into her warmth. Her eyes
misted with longing, her lips parting as she called his name on a soft
exhalation. Together they rode and took, loved and promised. When she called out
his name and her body shuddered and tightened around him, Jay closed his eyes
and savored the strength of his orgasm as it ripped through his body. They were
joined and nothing would ever separate them again.

* * *

T
HE
RINGING
OF
HER
CELL
phone shook Cat from her
peaceful slumber. “Damn it.” She sat bolt upright. What time was it? The sun
shone bright and warm through the windows bathing Jay’s naked body in golden
light. Cat’s mind wandered...the phone.
Focus.

She slipped from the bed, just managing to evade Jay’s hand as
it whipped out to grab her. She laughed. “I thought you were asleep.”

“I am.”

Cat shook her head, his eyes were still closed. She walked to
the dresser where her phone lay on its surface. She hummed happily to herself,
her entire body alert and warm from Jay’s incredible lovemaking. She glanced at
the display and her smile dissolved. The digital name told her in no uncertain
terms that nothing was as it should be at home. She pressed talk and looked at
Jay as he flipped over and shimmied up the cushions, watching her. Her gaze
locked on his.

“Mum?”

“I’ve done it, Cat. It’s all over, my love. You’re free.”

Nausea rose bitter in Cat’s throat. Her mum’s voice was barely
above a whisper, her words slurred and incoherent to anyone else but Cat who
knew her so well. “Done what, Mum? Where’s Chris?”

“Gone. They’ve all gone. And now I’ll finally get to see your
dad.”

The line went dead and Cat dropped the phone to the floor. “Oh,
my God, she’s taken something. She’s trying to kill herself.”

Jay scrambled from the bed and rushed toward her. The entire
room spun making her nauseated. His arms came around her but Cat stiffened. She
couldn’t allow herself to weaken, to give up, to sink to the floor and cry. She
shook him off.

“No, no. I’ve got to go. Now. Where’s my bag?”

“Cat, wait. You’re shaking. You can’t go like this.”

“Yes, I can. Just you watch me. Where’s my bag?”

She gripped the dresser as she leaned down to retrieve her
phone and the carpet rose up to meet her. She teetered backward and Jay’s arm
came around her once more. “Give me the phone. I’ll call Chris.”

Cat wavered, suddenly wanting his help more than anything in
the world...but then she slammed down her emotions, thoughts and feelings. Her
mum tried to kill herself. Tried to end her life because Cat wasn’t there. The
only person she trusted, her only constant. Holding her hand to her mouth, she
shoved the phone into Jay’s hand.

“Call him. Do what you want. I have to pack a bag.”