The Wharf (3 page)

Her gaze slid to his face and she folded her arms across her chest. “I think maybe I should get back to my room, get some clothes on and report this to the hotel.”

“I’ll help you.” He scooted his chair back and held out his arm for support as she rose from the chaise.

She ignored him, but not for long. As she straightened up, she swayed to the side and clutched at his proffered arm.

He curled the other one around her bare waist. “Take it easy. Just lean on me.”

She took a few shuffling steps and then dragged in a long breath. “I think I’m good now.”

“I can carry you up to your room. It’ll make your complaint to the hotel even better.”

Her dark eyes flashed and he felt their heat. He’d gone too far.

He raised his hands, palms facing forward. “Just a thought.”

She swept her robe from the back of a chair and folded it around her body. The entire pool deck seemed to drop a few degrees.

By the time she reached the door to the hallway, her steps were steady. She turned toward him. “What are you doing at the hotel? I wasn’t expecting you until tomorrow.”

“I left work early and decided to make the drive down tonight instead of in the morning. Don’t feel compelled to move up our meeting time from lunch tomorrow just because I’m already here.”

“Lunch still works for me.” She shook her head and smiled. “Crazy way to meet.”

“I’m just glad I decided to hit the gym for a late workout.”

“Me too.”

She checked out his shoulders and arms, visible in his 49ers muscle T, making him glad he’d just been pumping iron.

He ushered her into the elevator before him. “Floor?”

“Fourth.”

He got off on the fourth floor with her, and she raised her eyebrows. “Are you on this floor, too?”

“One more up, but I’m not leaving you alone.”

“I’m not going to faint, Brody.”

“You never know. You were sweating buckets.”

“That must’ve looked...attractive.” She shoved her key card into the door and a row of green lights flashed.

“That looked scary. You lost a lot of fluids in that sauna.”

She shoved her door open and then spun around, wedging her hands on either side of the doorjamb. “You can wait out here while I change. If you hear a big thump, you know I went down.”

The door slammed in his face, and he jumped back. A little hostile, but he could understand why she wouldn’t want a strange man lounging in her hotel room while she got dressed.

And they
were
strangers, despite their intimate beginnings on the pool deck.

When she’d first called him a few months before, he had recognized the name. Hell, he’d already read her book on Daniel Walker. Fascinating stuff—former college-football player, respected businessman, Pop Warner coach—went berserk and murdered his entire family.

When she’d proposed writing a book on his own family tragedy, it piqued his interest. Kacie Manning, like many others, believed in his father’s innocence, and she had the resources, research skills and platform to prove it.

In the end, he’d had to run it by his brothers, especially Sean and Eric, the two oldest. They’d known Dad the best and had been affected by the dark cloud over the Brody name more than he and his younger brother, Judd, had been.

He’d braced himself for their opposition, but they surprised him by agreeing, or at least not objecting. They’d even uncovered a few pieces of evidence about the old case that Ryan planned to hand over to Kacie.

A loud thud resounded from Kacie’s room, and he banged on her door. “You okay in there?”

The door eased open and she poked her head out. “I’m still upright, but my suitcase isn’t—fell off the stand.”

“Are you ready?” He nodded at the water bottle in her hand. “Keep hydrating.”

“I’m so hydrated I’m ready to float away.” She stepped out of her room, pulled her door shut and shoved her key card in her back pocket.

As he followed Kacie down the hallway, he scanned her fully clothed form. The addition of a faded pair of jeans and a baggy T-shirt did nothing to conceal her attractiveness. Damn. At the pool, he’d figured his male libido had just been reacting to the way she filled out that bikini.

But this new iteration of Kacie Manning heated his blood as much as the bikini-clad one. The soft denim of her jeans tightened in all the right places, accentuating her rounded derriere. She’d finger-combed her shoulder-length copper hair into tousled, damp waves that looked as if she’d just had a roll in the sheets.

He couldn’t help it. Her appearance tweaked all his male parts. He had a hard time reconciling this lush body with the mind that had written that unflinching portrayal of a killer and sociopath.

Of course, if he ever admitted that thought to his brother’s fiancée, Christina, she’d slap him upside the head.

Passing the elevator, she pointed down the hall. “Stairs.”

He reached the door before her and held it open. “After you.”

Walking closely behind her down the stairwell, he had a hard time concentrating on the steps and almost tripped on the last one.

“I thought I was the unsteady one.” She pushed through the fire door and strode into the deserted lobby. Her flip-flops slapped against her feet as she marched to the front desk.

The hotel clerk put down his coffee and met her eyes across the counter. “Good evening. My name is Michael. Can I help you?”

Kacie flattened her palms on the shiny wood and hunched forward. “Well, Michael, someone locked me in the sauna over an hour ago.”

The man’s eyes bulged from their sockets. “The sauna doesn’t lock from the outside.”

Pushing the waves from her face, Kacie shook her head. “I don’t mean locked. Someone used the handle of the pool net to wedge the doors closed.”

“That’s terrible! Are you okay? Do you need a doctor?”

“I’m fine...now.” She jerked her thumb over her shoulder. “He was in the gym and noticed the net. He let me out.”

“It’s lucky you’re both night owls. Did you see who did it?”

“No. There were some teenage boys in the hot tub earlier, but I don’t have any proof that they did anything.”

Ryan rested his arm on the counter. “Do you have a camera out there?”

“Sorry. We don’t.” He grabbed the receiver of his phone and barked into it. “Wesley, we have a situation in the lobby.”

Kacie sighed and straightened up. “Then I don’t know what you can do about it. The pool area and gym were empty when I went into the sauna. I heard a noise at the door about five minutes after I went in there. That must’ve been when the idiot decided to play his dangerous joke.”

A security guard crossed the lobby, his rubber-soled shoes squeaking on the marble tiles. “What’s the problem?”

“Miss...?” Michael raised his brows at Kacie.

“Manning, Kacie Manning.”

His forehead furrowed. “Wesley, Ms. Manning was the victim of a rather dangerous practical joke. Someone wedged the sauna doors shut while she was in there.”

Wesley tipped back his hat and scratched his forehead. “You don’t say. That’s a pretty stupid thing to do, especially at this time of night. Did you see anyone?”

“Just a few teens earlier, but they’d left by the time I went into the sauna.”

“Yeah, I saw those boys. I had to kick them out of the business center tonight. They were dripping water all over the computers and accessing porn sites.” Wesley cleared his throat. “Sorry, ma’am.”

Kacie waved her hand. “Oh, I know all about pornographic sites and that teenage boys—and even grown men—are big fans of them.”

Ryan slid her a sideways glance. Was that for his benefit? He’d better get his mind out of the bedroom and keep his eyes off her assets.

He stood tall and squared his shoulders. “If the boys were still wet, it sounds like they came straight from the pool. Where’d they go after you kicked them out of the business center?”

“I watched them get into the elevator, and I didn’t see them again. I’m assuming they went back to their rooms, but they could’ve snuck back down to the pool.”

Drawing her brows together, Kacie said, “I don’t think they had enough time if they were fooling around in the business center after they left the pool.”

The security guard turned to Ryan. “Sir, did you see anyone in the gym?”

“Nope.”

“The best I can do is talk to the boys if I see them again.” He wagged his finger at Kacie. “You need to be more careful, young lady. Didn’t your mama ever tell you to let someone know where you’re going at all times?”

Kacie covered her twitching lips with her hand. “No, sir, but that’s good advice.”

Wesley tugged his pants over his significant belly and sauntered away.

“Sorry about that, Ms. Manning. Wesley’s kind of old school.”

“I didn’t mind.”

“We do want to make this up to you, however. I’ll check with management, but I’m going to suggest we comp your stay with us, Ms. Manning.” He bent his head over his keyboard and started tapping.

“Thanks, Michael.” Kacie pointed at Ryan and mouthed the words
You too?

He shook his head. He hadn’t been the one sweating it out in the sauna.

Michael looked up from his task. “Oh, this is a coincidence.”

“What is?” Kacie folded her hands on top of the counter.

“I left a message on your hotel phone earlier, probably when you were by the pool. I knew your name sounded familiar.”

“Oh? What was the message? I didn’t notice one on my phone.”

“It’s a package, actually. Some transient came in here with it, said a woman had dropped it out front. Your name was on it, and when I looked it up, I discovered you were a guest at the hotel.”

“A package?” She shoved back from the counter and shrugged at Ryan. “I wasn’t carrying anything except my purse when I walked back to the hotel tonight.”

Michael rubbed his chin. “It had your name on it. I put it in the back. I’ll get it.”

“That’s weird. I didn’t bring any package with me.”

“Maybe someone was supposed to deliver something to you and left it with a doorman or bellhop, and it got left outside. At least your name’s on it, and the transient brought it in here.”

“I hope it’s not important. That’s a pretty shabby way to treat something important.”

Michael scurried from the back, balancing a lumpy, brown paper−wrapped package on his outstretched palms. He presented it to Kacie, her name scribbled in black felt pen across the outside. “Here you go, Ms. Manning. If there’s anything we can do to make your stay more comfortable, please don’t hesitate to ask.”

“Thank you.” She took the package from his hands and spun around. “I’m going to open this now.”

She crossed the lobby and sank to the cushions of a love seat facing the door.

Ryan sat across from her and whipped out his knife. “Do you need something for the twine?”

“Yes, please.” She held the package out to him, and he sliced the blade through the twine wrapped around the brown paper. It covered something soft and shapeless.

Placing the package in her lap, Kacie began unwrapping it. When she folded back the last piece of paper, she gasped and jerked back.

He lunged out of his chair, falling on his knees in front of her. “What is it? What’s wrong?”

Holding the object with the paper, she turned it toward him. A rag doll with blond braids smiled at him with her stitched-on mouth.

His pulse slowed down. “A doll? Are you a collector?”

She shook the toy at him, and the braids flopped back and forth. “This isn’t just some random doll.”

His gaze tracked from the black button eyes of the doll to Kacie’s own round eyes taking up half her face. “Obviously. What is it?”

“Daniel Walker’s daughter was clutching this doll when he murdered her.”

Chapter Three

The doll grinned at her with a mouth that resembled a slash of blood, calling up images of the original doll at the Walker murder scene. Kacie pressed two shaky fingers to the red yarn on the rag doll’s face just to make sure it wasn’t blood.

“Kacie, what does this mean?”

She raised her head, her eyes locking onto Ryan’s as he put a steadying hand on her bouncing knee. The gesture had an immediate effect on her and she took a deep breath. She didn’t have to face this alone right now. “Zoe Walker had a doll just like this one. When they found her body, she had one arm wrapped around her doll—this doll.”

“I remember the doll from your book. This one’s not yours, is it?” He flicked the paper with his fingers.

“No. This is the first time I’ve seen a doll like this since I saw the original. Someone sent this to me. That homeless guy didn’t find a package outside the hotel. Someone probably paid him to deliver it to this hotel.”

As a shiver rolled through her body, she pushed the doll from her lap, where it landed on the carpet still cradled in the brown paper.

“Wait.” Ryan picked up two corners of the wrapping. “This might contain some evidence—fingerprints, hair, clothing fibers.”

She shifted away from the doll as he placed the package next to her on the cushion and carefully folded the paper around the toy.

“Do you want to tell me why someone would want to send this particular doll to you?” He sat back on his heels as if he had all night to wait for an explanation.

She had no intention of making him wait that long. Despite her revulsion toward all things Brody, she couldn’t deny the trust this man fostered in her bones.

He’d saved her from the sauna. His capable hands, square jaw and broad shoulders signaled stability and security. His green eyes reflected sincerity—when they weren’t darkening to something more like lust, which happened anytime they wandered over her body.

The fears of the night, beginning with the fratricidal ex-con, flooded her senses, and her pulse rate galloped a mile a minute. She filled her lungs with a deep breath from her nose and expelled it through parted lips to ward off the rising panic and rushing adrenaline.

“Kacie, are you okay?” Ryan squeezed her knee.

“Fighting off an anxiety attack.” She pointed to the ceiling. “I’ll tell you all about this doll and who sent it from the comfort of my own room while holding a glass of wine in one hand.”