Daphne straightened, pulling Joseph up with her. ‘There. Now if you need to come in the house when I’m not here, she’ll most likely leave you alone.’
She hadn’t let go of his hand. That was very good. He needed to ask his question and leave her alone to sleep. He wanted to kiss her senseless.
He wanted too many other things that he couldn’t have right now. ‘I need to go.’
She held tight to his hand. ‘Not yet. What was your question?’
With difficulty, he brought his body into check. ‘Why didn’t you tell your friend about the blood in the basement?’
‘Hal? I didn’t want to upset my mother and Maggie. They hate Travis, but hearing about all that would terrify them more than they already are.’
‘That’s it? I thought maybe you didn’t trust him.’
‘I do trust him. He would never hurt me. But Joseph, he’s a friend, no more.’ She met his eyes. ‘You have nothing to fear from him.’
The need to have her hit him like a brick, and before he knew what he was doing he’d started to reach for her. He backed away. ‘I have to go.’
‘Wait.’
He stopped, hanging on to his control, but barely.
‘I did tell Hal something that wasn’t true. I told him that I’d been scared every minute of this horrible day. But there were a few seconds when I wasn’t scared. When I believed everything could be all right.’
‘When?’ he whispered.
‘When you kissed me. That moment with you in the conference room was the only time all day that I didn’t feel afraid.’ She swallowed hard. ‘I know you have to go, but . . .’ She looked up then. ‘Please?’
The air left his lungs in a slow steady exhale and he let her see how very, very hungry he was. Her breath hitched when he lifted his hands to her face, cupping her face the way he’d wanted to all day. The way he’d wanted to for nine fucking months.
‘My hands are shaking,’ he whispered.
‘Why?’
‘I’ve wanted this for so long . . . I’m afraid I can’t go slow.’
‘Then don’t. Don’t go slow. I don’t want to be able to think.’
God. With a groan he snapped, taking her mouth with no finesse, no control. Just . . . need. Raw need. He devoured her in a big greedy surge. He couldn’t get enough. Never enough. And then she was kissing him back. Her arms were around his neck and she was lifting herself higher. Closer.
More. His hands slid down her body, down that beautiful body that he’d watched so many times. Mine. His hands closed over the roundness of her butt and he kneaded hard and fast. She was on her toes, her arms straining, her hips lifting. Seeking.
He spun them, pressing her against the door, pressing himself against her. Rocking up into her. Good. She felt so good.
And it still wasn’t enough. Need boiled over and he ripped his mouth away, forced his hips to freeze. But his cock failed to get the memo, throbbing against the softest part of her. He rested his forehead against hers, watching her face, waiting for the moment she opened her eyes. He needed to see her eyes. Needed to know she needed this too. Needed to know he hadn’t gone too far.
‘Daphne?’ Her name came out gravelly. She opened her eyes and he managed to swallow his groan. The blue was dark with desire. Alive with need. ‘I want you. You understand that?’
She nodded, the pulse at the hollow of her throat beating so fast. He kissed her there, felt her go languid in his hands. She was still staring up at him. Wonder and want swirling in the blue. ‘Joseph.’
‘Soon,’ he whispered. ‘Soon I’m going to do all the things to you that I’ve dreamed about.’ She swallowed hard, bit her lip harder. He kissed her there, taking her lip between his teeth and tugging. ‘I’ve dreamed a lot, Daphne.’
She licked her lip. ‘So have I.’
‘I need to stop. Or I won’t be able to.’ He lowered her feet to the floor, unwilling to let her go. ‘I need to stop. God, I want you naked.’
She closed her eyes, opened her mouth to breathe. ‘You do things to me.’
‘You have no idea what I’ll do to you.’
‘Soon.’ It was uttered on an exhale. ‘Please. Oh, God.’
He forced himself to step back, forced his hands to let her go. ‘Soon.’ He removed her hands from his neck and pressed them together, kissing her fingers. ‘I’ll be back for you tomorrow morning. Try to sleep.’
She nodded. ‘I’ll try. Thank y—’
He silenced her with a last hard kiss. ‘Don’t you thank me. Not yet. Not until I give you something to be thankful for.’
Exercising every ounce of discipline he possessed, he left her there. When he looked back she stood in the doorway, her fingertips lightly covering her mouth, the big black dog at her side.
Tuesday, December 3, 11.20 P.M.
Clay tapped his foot impatiently. The elevator was so damn slow.
‘Clay,’ Alec said softly. ‘You can’t go to her family like this. They’re scared enough without you barging in looking like a drug dealer on meth. Your eyes are wild, man.’
Clay closed his wild eyes, slumping against the elevator wall. The kid was right. ‘Okay. I’m calm.’ He opened his eyes. ‘How’s this?’
‘Sixteen cups of coffee and a handful of uppers. But down from meth. Keep going.’
Clay had to smile. ‘You know, you’re actually proving useful, kid.’
‘Gee thanks. I’m touched.’ But Alec’s tone was amused and his eyes were kind. ‘Sometimes I’d be at Ethan and Dana’s when they’d get a new foster. Those kids can be wild too, like a wounded animal in a cage, ready to bite even a friendly hand. Ethan’s just a rock, you know? He can get them calm when nobody else can.’
‘So you’re channeling him?’
‘Something like that. He’s pretty much been my dad for the last six years. There are worse people to wanna be when you grow up.’
Yeah, like me. Helluva dad I turned out to be. His daughter wouldn’t even see him, no matter how many times he’d tried. ‘Not many better.’ The elevator opened, but instead of running out like he wanted to, he looked at the kid seriously. ‘Now?’
Alec studied his eyes. ‘Okay, now you’re down to a case of Red Bull. If you promise to play nice, you can go in.’
‘Thanks, Alec. I mean it.’
The kid’s cheeks heated. ‘That’s what you pay me for.’
No, it wasn’t, actually. They walked down the hallway to the ICU security door, but Clay didn’t push the call button. ‘I’m not trying to get rid of you.’
‘But?’
‘But, while I appreciate the many wild-animal-calming skills you’ve picked up from Ethan, what I pay you for are the technical skills he taught you.’
Alec’s brows lifted. ‘What do you have in mind?’
‘I’m not sure yet. But I got loose ends flapping around in my head. One of them that I keep thinking about is the webcam stuck in Gargano’s vent. That was a crime of opportunity that Doug made work for him. I mean Kimberly was invited to the party through an outside association. She didn’t crash it. But it worked.’
‘And because it did, maybe Doug and Kimberly tried it again?’
Clay nodded. ‘Exactly. But in a planned way instead of relying on chance party invitations to homes of cops. Kimberly was arrested for stealing from a cleaning client.’
‘Working for a maid service would get her into people’s houses. But if she had a record, nobody would hire her.’ Alec considered it. ‘Maybe she worked for herself. If so, we’d need to find her clients.’
‘Gargano filed an insurance claim,’ Clay said. ‘I’m wondering if any of Kim and Doug’s other victims did the same thing.’
‘Gargano was suspected of insurance fraud but they couldn’t prove it. Maybe there have been other insurance claims that were denied or dicey – places where Kimberly might have worked.’ Alec’s eyes had begun to sparkle. ‘Let me see what I can do.’
‘I’m not asking you to hack into anything,??
? Clay warned.
‘I would never do anything like that,’ Alec said sincerely. ‘Unless absolutely necessary,’ he added under his breath. ‘Hey, you’re down to a pot of hi-test Starbucks. I think you’re safe.’
Clay watched the kid jog to the elevator and disappear through its doors. Then he set his shoulders and told the hummingbirds crashing around in his gut to settle down as he hit the call button and requested admittance to ICU.
When he got to the waiting room he was met by Stevie’s parents, their faces beaming. A man Clay hadn’t met earlier rose deliberately from the chair in which he’d been sitting, watching silently as Stevie’s parents welcomed him back.
Zina Nicolescu reached up from her tiny four foot, eleven inches and grabbed Clay’s face, dragging him down to kiss both cheeks soundly. ‘I hoped you’d come back,’ she whispered.
Like anything on this earth could have kept me away. ‘I was a few hours away. I had to drive,’ he whispered back, ‘or I would have been here already. How is she?’
Zina shrugged happily. ‘Trying to give orders, even though she can’t say a word.’
She let him go and Clay straightened, having to look up at Stevie’s father. Clay didn’t have to look up to most men, but Emil was extremely tall. ‘I would like to see your daughter for just a minute, if I could.’
Emil nodded and Clay got the uncomfortable feeling that the man saw a great deal more than Clay would have liked. ‘Of course. But first, you need to meet Stefania’s brother, Sorin. He just arrived from California.’
Sorin crossed the small waiting room, his eyes scrutinizing. ‘She never mentioned you,’ he said abruptly, earning him a swat from his mother.
‘Sorin. Your manners. This is the man who saved your sister’s life.’
‘I see,’ was all the man said. He shook Clay’s hand, but only because his mother appeared ready to swat him again. ‘What do you do for a living, Mr Maynard?’
‘I’m a private investigator. Please call me Clay.’
Sorin nodded, clearly not convinced. ‘I see,’ he said again, giving him a once-over that made Clay look down at his clothing.
And then the source of Sorin’s blantant disapproval was clear. ‘Oh. I don’t normally look like a drug dealer. This has been a long day.’
‘I’ve traveled across three time zones,’ Sorin said. ‘And still I found the time to shave.’
‘Sorin!’ his mother snapped.
Clay drew a breath. ‘My friend was murdered last night and we have two missing college kids and one missing teenager. That was before your sister was shot.’
Sorin had the good grace to look ashamed. ‘I suppose shaving wasn’t foremost on your mind.’
‘No. It was nice to meet you, Sorin. I’ll go see your sister now, if that’s okay.’
‘It’s more than okay,’ Emil said. ‘Before I forget, Stefania’s daughter made this for you.’ He handed Clay a folded up piece of paper. ‘She wanted to give it to you herself, but we sent her home with our youngest daughter, Izabela, to get some rest.’
When Clay opened it, he sucked in a breath. Cordelia Mazzetti had made him a thank you card. With crayon she’d drawn her mother in the hospital bed, a frown on her face. A man stood next to her, crudely drawn blood dripping from his clothing. With a yellow ring over his head. An angel. Clay didn’t have to ask who the angel was – Cordelia had drawn a bold arrow pointing to the ring with his name written over the line.
Clay almost laughed, but his throat was too damn tight. ‘I think this is the first time anyone’s ever called me an angel,’ he murmured.
‘Sometimes Cordelia gets scared when Stefania is at work,’ Emil said. ‘Especially since last year.’ When a killer had held a gun to Cordelia’s head, then Stevie’s. ‘We tell her that both she and her mother have guardian angels watching over them. Today that angel was you.’
Clay stared at the paper, remembering the art on the back of Ciccotelli’s door and wishing that he had a crayon drawing of his own. Now he did. He rubbed the back of his hand across his mouth, hard. Then swallowed harder.
Very carefully he folded the paper and slid it in the inner pocket of his jacket. ‘Tell . . .’ He had to clear his throat. ‘Tell Cordelia that I will keep this forever.’
‘I will.’ Emil patted his back. ‘Now go see my daughter so that you can go home and sleep. You look exhausted.’
Clay nodded, waved to them lamely, and hit the call button to be let into the unit itself. He sanitized his hands as he waited, aware that the three Nicolescus watched his every step. Finally the door opened and he was waved in.
‘You only have a few minutes,’ the nurse warned. ‘Did you wash your hands?’
‘I used the hand sanitizer.’
‘Well, wash your hands here.’ She pointed to a sink, then scrutinized his face. ‘Your face too. Especially if you plan on kissing her again,’ she added in a mutter.
Clay’s face heated. He hadn’t even considered that anyone had been watching him before. ‘Yes, ma’am.’
‘But first, lose the dirty jeans. I’ll get you some scrubs.’
‘Yes, ma’am,’ he said again. He changed into the scrubs, then washed his hands, scrubbing until it was a wonder he had any skin.
Then he steadied himself and walked into her room. She was asleep again, her face still so pale. But maybe she had a little more color. Or maybe that’s just what he wanted to see.
He sat on the edge of the chair by her bed, elbows on his knees, hunching over until his forehead rested on the cold metal of the bed rail. I’m so tired. But not just of this day. ‘I’m so damn tired of my life,’ he whispered.
He wasn’t sure how long he sat there with his head down, certain that any minute the nurse would make him leave. Then the bed rail trembled and his hair was brushed off his forehead. Stevie. Slowly he lifted his head, afraid he’d scare her. Or that he’d been dreaming again.
Her eyes were open and staring at him. Her hand had fallen back to the bed, as if that was all the energy she’d had to spare.
‘Hi,’ he said quietly. ‘I won’t stay long. I just wanted to see you.’
She shook her head, just a little, and his heart sank.
‘All right. I’ll go now.’ He stood and her eyes flashed annoyance. She lifted the hand that wasn’t connected to any tubes and crooked her finger before letting the hand fall again. She wanted him to stay. ‘Okay.’ He started to sit again when she rolled her eyes. ‘What?’ he asked, frustrated.
The look she gave him left no doubt that she was more frustrated. She crooked her finger again and he bent close. ‘What?’ he whispered.
She searched his face, then once again lifted her hand. To touch his lips. She touched the corner of her own mouth before sinking into the bed, her body drained. Her eyes were narrowed in question.
‘Did I kiss you?’
A single nod.
‘If I say yes, am I going to get yelled at?’
Another nod. And the slight curving of her mouth around the tube.
His heart began to race. ‘If I do it again, what will you do?’
Her eyes changed, grew very serious. Sad. Her shoulder lifted.
His racing heart slowed, stuttering. ‘This didn’t change anything, did it?’
She looked away.
‘I never took you for a coward, Stevie,’ he said quietly and her gaze swung back, angrily. ‘Did I make you mad? Good. I’m glad. Because you make me mad. If today didn’t change anything for you, then you’re either a liar or a fool. And I never took you for either of those, either.’ He leaned closer, until he could see every dark eyelash. ‘I’m not a coward or liar, but I might be a fool because I’m not giving up on you. Nor am I giving you up. So consider yourself on notice, Detective Mazzetti. Things will be different when you get out of here. I’m not going to wait forever, because we don’t have forever. If things had been any different this morning, we might not even have this moment. So if you’re not “ready”, then you’d best spend your ti
me in here figuring out how to get “ready”.’
He let the words hang between them while she stared up at him, her nostrils flaring slightly. ‘And you need to know that if that tube weren’t sticking down your throat that I’d be kissing you the way I’ve wanted to for a long, long time.’ He flicked a glance at the heart monitor, his lips quirking at the jump in her pulse. ‘That’s really cool. I can see exactly how much that affects you.’
Her eyes narrowed dangerously and he knew he’d pushed too far. ‘I’m going now,’ he said, softening his voice. ‘But I’ll be back. I promise.’ He brushed his lips over hers, watched her eyes drift closed and all his bravado fled. ‘God, Stevie.’ His voice broke. ‘I thought I was going to lose you before I ever had you.’
Because you’ve never had her. You just have a lot of wishes.
He straightened with a weary sigh. ‘You know, just forget what I said. I can’t make you want me. I can’t make you be ready. I won’t stalk you or force you in any way. That’s not who I am. If you decide you want to see what we could have together . . . well, you know where to find me.’
His step heavy, Clay walked back to the waiting area. Sorin was waiting by the door, blocking his path. ‘What?’ Clay asked dully.
‘She’s my twin, you know. I’m five minutes older.’
Clay shook his head. ‘No, I didn’t know. I hope she recovers.’
Sorin huffed a rueful chuckle. ‘I know Stefania better than anyone. She will recover because she’s too damn stubborn to do otherwise. She’s also doomed to be alone for the rest of her life for the same reason. Which makes her a coward and a fool.’ He lifted a shoulder. ‘I listened at the door of her room just now.’
Clay’s jaw clenched. Keep it together. Don’t knock his head off his shoulders in ICU or that nurse will yell at you again. ‘I suppose that’s your right.’
‘No, it wasn’t, but I did it anyway. You were right, you know. Up until the end when you folded.’
Clay’s chin lifted. ‘I didn’t fold. I reconsidered.’