Trust in Me (7 page)

“I decided to surprise her.” Surprise her. Horrify her. Something like that.

“I don’t think Susie is up for any more surprises today.”

“Why? What happened?”

Amanda’s hands went into flap mode. “Shhhh!”

Locke waited, the only thing he could really do when it came to his sister. Of all his siblings, she was the one who couldn’t be rushed, who had the usually laudable quality of thinking for herself. She also had to come to things her own way, and unfortunately, that included sharing information.

So he watched silently as she looked over her shoulder to check if anyone was listening before pulling bags out of his arms and shoving them onto the checkout counter. Then she grabbed his sleeve and led him around the small corner to where her boyfriend sat like a flattened cockroach in the desk chair. Locke frowned at the intense hunch of Cole’s shoulders as he typed on Susie’s laptop. The screen had a number of windows open, as well as a few black-backgrounded ones, the type basic and white and flying upward with each line Cole put in.

Locke didn’t know much more about computers than the programs he used for his businesses, but if he remembered correctly, that was programming junk. “What the hell are you two doing with Susie’s computer?”

Cole jumped, but that might have had more to do with Locke’s volume than any real fear. The smartass had lost that over the summer thanks to a small fistfight where he hadn’t died at Locke’s hands. Times like these, Locke rather missed the younger man’s instinctive terror.

Amanda’s hands unleashed their flapping fury on his shoulder again. “Geez, Locke, I told you to be quiet.”

“Because Susie doesn’t know you’re hacking her system?”

“Yes!” his sister hissed.

Locke drew back. She always did surprise him with her honesty. “Explain.”

“Look, we get a lot of questionable email. Most of the time it’s spam and we just delete it. It picked up when the catalog went out over the summer and we were just deleting them and keeping the orders. We also got a lot of requests for the models’ contact information, which we of course never gave,” she added almost as fast as his brows rose.

Though it was a tastefully sensual lingerie catalog, he’d been beyond pissed when he found out she and Susie had posed for the pictures themselves. Neither one had exposed their faces, which might have been a relief if anyone in town had missed the memo concerning their identities. The knowledge that his sister and his woman were both likely pinups for any guy lucky enough to have snagged a copy wasn’t his favorite factoid, but he’d come to terms with it. Mostly.

“But there were a few coming in that were getting under Susie’s skin for some reason. They just didn’t take no for an answer and you know how she hates that.”

Cole choked on what had to be laughter, making Amanda cringe.

Locke waited for her to go on.

“I wasn’t sure why, but I could tell they were bothering her more than the spam. I haven’t been getting the email, so I was shocked when I saw the one that came in today. It was…” She looked at the computer, her brow creasing, her frown pulling the corners of her lips into a deep frown.

Locke looked from her to Cole and back again. “Was what?”

“Vicious.” She looked as if she tasted something foul. “Susie read it and then, next thing I know, she’s practically running up the stairs. She locked herself up there and she won’t answer me.”

His teeth ground together. “And you didn’t come get me?”

Irritation flashed over Amanda’s face. “Excuse me if I was more concerned with my friend’s well-being than running to my big brother, whose business—I might add—this actually isn’t.”

She could add all she wanted. They both knew it was
his
job to subtract anything that might threaten either her or Susie. Especially Susie. “Show me the letter.”

“I don’t know if I—”

“Not that I’m a fan of interrupting Jackmans on a tear,” Cole suddenly said, still not bothering to turn his chair. “But I think the point is moot, Amanda. You wouldn’t have told him this much if you weren’t going to tell him all of it. And from what I’ve been able to dig up, none of these emails are particularly suspicious anyway.”

Locke moved closer to the computer, trying to make sense of any of the screens. Cole’s fingers moved over to the mouse and drew one program to the front. The website email.

Subject: Notice Of Legal Action

Dear Ms. Susanne Packard,

This is our sixth attempt to reach you concerning the matter of identifying the models used in your most recent July catalog, be that an agent or some other external point of contact. We have even offered to purchase the information from you, to no avail. All manner of communication has been met with negativity. Our client, who chooses to remain anonymous, is not satisfied with these results. As you can see, we have been left with no other options to acquire the necessary information from you.

This letter is to inform you that we were authorized to investigate your company and discovered that you maintain a business loan with First National Bank for the principal amount of $32,089.03. This loan has been acquired by our client and your payment information will be mailed to you directly in the next few days. Please read the terms thoroughly to ensure that you remain in good standing with your loan payments. Failure to comply with the new terms will result in immediate foreclosure and seizure of all properties, files and equipment related to the business “Susie’s Suite Shoppe”.

However, if you would see fit to send the information concerning the models in your catalog—as previously mentioned, an agent’s address would meet our client’s requirements—the debt will be forgiven immediately.

This letter was sent to expedite the time required for your response. It will also be sent in printed form to your business address. You have two days to respond before we move forward in person. We strongly suggest you take the offer as it has been presented to you. Our client’s belief is that you are purposefully and maliciously keeping the information that we are seeking from us. We have been further authorized to take this matter as far as is necessary to acquire it from you.

If you insist on making this difficult, you will only have yourself to blame for the results.

“That letter would scare the shit out of me too,” Cole commented with a shake of his head. “Though, legally, they don’t have a leg to stand on. It’s intimidation, pure and simple. I’m tracking the email, all the other ones too, but all appearances are that it’s from a legitimate law office out in Chicago, just like they show in the address of the last one.

“That’s about the only thing that stands out to me. The other emails weren’t officially coming from the firm, just an individual lawyer using his own credentials, but if you trace the address you end up at the same place. And that firm isn’t your average ambulance-chaser type either. In fact, they look pretty damn impressive. I can’t believe they’d send something like this.”

Locke read the letter again, trying to see the words through the haze of his growing anger. “Why?”

Cole shrugged. “Look at this place.” He flipped the windows on the screen. A stately looking legal site. Formal. Snooty, really. “Some quick research about them says they’re a nearly hundred-year-old firm, practically an institution in Chicago. Old guard, mostly they handle business ventures of Ivy Leaguers and corporations. Something like this seems too…well, tiny for them. Plus, I can’t see them going out of their way to own a lingerie store in the middle of Nowhere, California. Hell, I’m surprised they could find RDC on a map.”

“Clearly, they did,” Amanda bit out, crossing her arms over her chest. Locke almost reached out to her, not liking how shaken she seemed by it all. But before he could, Cole was there, pushing out of his chair to pull her into his arms. She went too, without even thinking about it.

Locke pushed out a breath, chest clenching as he turned to stare at the red curtain blocking his view of the stairs to Susie’s apartment. He wasn’t sure what felt stranger, watching his baby sister turn to someone else for support or knowing he was jealous because Susie had never—might never—turn to him the same way.

He grabbed his groceries and started toward the curtain. Behind him, there was a muffled complaint, but whatever Amanda meant to say never reached him. At least Cole was good for something.

He mounted the steps carefully, pushing his anger down so Susie wouldn’t catch wind of it. She’d already be on the defensive and feeling vulnerable. In his experience, she’d be looking to take a bite out of someone out of sheer panic. Pregnant women in panic mode were never good for anyone, especially not their babies.

“Susie, it’s Locke. Can you open the door?”

Silence had him straining his hearing, but there wasn’t a thing to be heard.

“Come on, Suze. I thought we were past this.”

More long seconds, then he heard the click of her deadbolts. One, two, three, then the chain. The knob turned, just enough to pull the door open, then her footsteps as she walked away.

He’d take it. Pushing through the opening, using his booted foot to hook the door closed behind him, he made it a point to take the food to her little table before he said anything. Always best to have his hands free when she started in on him in case anything flew at his head.

But once everything was safe and he’d turned, he realized why she’d stayed so quiet. She stood there, jaw tight, watching him with a haunted expression. And two bags of luggage at her feet.

Just like that, all his good intentions went to hell.

Chapter Five

“What the hell is this?”

Susie flinched so hard her entire body shook. She hated the fear that had swallowed her whole as she read the email Amanda had opened. No, not fear. Unadulterated terror. The kind someone like Locke couldn’t possibly understand.

“I h-have to go—” Not that she had the first clue where she was going. Anywhere but here, where
he’d
find her.

“No, you don’t.” Locke’s brows were drawn, his mouth an implacably flat line. His eyes, though, the ice blue was so intensely angry she felt singed. “There’s not one good reason you need to leave me. Not one.”

Susie squeezed her eyes shut. “This has nothing to do with you—”

“The hell it doesn’t! Were you even going to say goodbye?”

No. Because in her panic, all she’d been able to think about was running. She had almost no idea what was in those bags in front of her except for the few items she kept in there as a precaution. Things she’d packed before ever arriving in Rancho del Cielo—her birth certificate and social security cards, a folder of papers she never wanted to think about and money. Enough to help her find somewhere to start over again.

He read her answer in her silence. “Did you think it wouldn’t affect me if you suddenly disappeared? That it wouldn’t break me?”

Her whole body shook now. Couldn’t he see how hard this was for her too? “Locke, I wasn’t—”

“Wasn’t what? Wasn’t leaving?”

Her own anger ignited, tempting her to grab something, anything, and throw it at him. “You’re not listening!”

“Fine, I’ll listen.” He stalked closer, those long legs of his eating up the pathetically small space of her living room until he was right in front of her, one hand slipping around her waist, the other cupping her jaw with a gentleness at complete odds with the rage in his eyes. “Tell me what’s going on in that damn stubborn head of yours, Susie. Tell me anything you want, just don’t tell me you’re walking out of my life.”

She swallowed, slipping her fingers around the wide strength of his wrist. Even now, her heart beating almost out of her chest, a cold sweat spilling down her back, she wasn’t afraid of his touch. In fact, she’d give anything to lean into him. Let him protect her. But she’d made that mistake before and she remembered too well the price that had been paid. In blood. In so much more…

“You won’t understand.” He couldn’t possibly.

“Try me, baby. I swear, I won’t fail you.”

She rubbed her face against his rough palm, eyes closed at the first surcease she’d found since he’d left that morning. “You don’t know how to fail.”

“Sounds like a great reason to trust me, doesn’t it?” He ran his lips over her forehead, groaning when she shook her head at his words. “Please, you’re killing me like this. Tell me why you’re so afraid. I can feel you shaking. You know I’ll help any way I can. Is it that bullshit letter from that law firm? Because we can take care of that. I know a guy who will tear them a new—”

“Stop,” she whispered, surprised to find a smile tugging at her lips even as she cupped her hand over his. “This is what I’m talking about. You don’t have the first clue what it’s like to be afraid.”

His gaze softened and he pressed a kiss to her fingers before twisting his face out of her hold. “If that’s what you think, you’ve still got a lot to learn about me.” Another kiss, this one to the corner of her mouth. A kneading stroke to the small of her back, pulling her flush against his body. Luring her to lean on him, let him take the strain from her body. “Stay,” he whispered. “I’ll teach you everything you need to know.”

She melted, her entire body going lax in his arms, and all her arguments died in her throat. When his kisses moved across her mouth, she couldn’t even think of stopping him. Didn’t want to. Instead she let him hold her, because he seemed to need it as much as she did. Let him kiss her, because she was greedy for more of him. Because touching him, feeling him surround her, pushed the fear down far enough that she could finally breathe again. But soon his kisses weren’t enough…

She pulled at his shirt collar, trying to force the buttons free. She had just gotten a tantalizing inch or two of golden skin exposed when his hands closed over hers and he pulled away.

“No, Susie.”

She stared up in surprise.

“This time, we have to talk.” And his expression promised he wasn’t going to budge on it. He backed up to her couch, towing her along with him. When he sat, he tugged her down to straddle him. For a brief second, she thought she might get her way after all, because he moaned at the fit of her over his erection. Instead of kissing her again, though, all he did was pull her over his chest and tuck her head onto his shoulder. His arms encircled her, his hands stroking down her back. Trying to calm her. Soothe her.