Reluctant Suspicion Read online

  ‘Still, it’s nice to know that my effort is noticed,’ he said. ‘I have a workout room at home.’

  ‘It doesn’t sound like you’re short of a few bucks,’ Molly said, becoming aware of the nip in the air. ‘Again I ask, why would someone like you need a job in a shitty bar?’

  ‘Your bar isn’t shitty,’ he said. ‘I enjoy it. My parents ran a bar when I was a kid. I know what I am doing, and I’m good at it. What more reason do I need?’

  ‘You must have another job. You couldn’t afford gym equipment if you didn’t.’

  ‘It’s hand-me-down stuff from my brother,’ Blake said, as his mouth tipped up again.

  ‘You really take advantage of that brother of yours, don’t you?’

  They forged on, and as she turned to look at him she found that Blake’s eyes were already on her, proving that he had been staring at her again. His hair hung just above his brow, creating sharp shadows across his face against the moonlight. He should be terrifying; he wasn’t the type of man you would want to meet on a dark night like this.

  His dominating figure with its broad shoulders and the confident tilt of his chin would intimidate even the bravest of men. Except Molly wasn’t scared of him as she should have been. His hair curled in hooks around his ears, and in this light his stare was fierce.

  ‘Why do you do that?’ she asked.

  ‘Do what?’

  ‘Look at me like that.’

  ‘Like what?’ he asked.

  ‘Like… I don’t know. Like you have some kind of interest to protect, but you have no idea what it is.’

  ‘Oh, I know what it is,’ he said. ‘I know exactly what it is.’

  ‘What is it?’

  While slipping his jacket off, he drew them to a stop. On hooking the apparel over her shoulders, he ran his fingertips down her arms underneath the warming cloak.

  ‘You’re cold,’ he said, edging in closer.

  ‘It’s a cold night,’ she said.

  His palms moved up and down her arms. ‘I don’t want you to be uncomfortable.’

  ‘Uncomfortable of what? I’ve been cold before.’

  ‘Not of the cold,’ he muttered.

  Their proximity became apparent when her chest met his ribs. The darkness shrouded them. The huge expanse around them evaporated to nothing as his intent gaze zeroed in on her. Tipping her head back was automatic, not a conscious gesture, when Blake stooped in front of her. Touching her temple with his first two fingers, he urged her hair from her face, and then they slid down her cheek to her chin.

  ‘You’re so soft,’ he murmured. ‘I had no idea how delectable you would be to touch.’

  His fingertips stopped under her chin, and he tilted her head back further. His hot breath cascaded across her face, causing her eyes to drift closed, and then his rough lips barely touched hers. The blare of a car horn made her jump away from his embrace.

  ‘Mol?’ a voice shouted through the darkness.

  It took Molly a moment to shake herself to her senses and see that there beside them on the road was a beat up red Honda. ‘Alex,’ she breathed, going towards the car.

  The driver’s side window was down when Molly reached it. ‘Did you run out of gas or something? I saw a truck by the side of the road back there, that yours?’

  ‘Alex!’ Molly beamed, so pleased to see him. Alex had been in her brother’s year at school; she’d known him since forever ago. He was Mr Fix It, and had a way with mechanics that baffled her, and the friends he shared with Cal in school. Of all the people in that group Alex probably had the most promise, yet all he’d ever wanted was to settle down with the right girl. For some reason, he’d failed to find her yet. ‘What are you doing out here so late?’

  ‘Chrissy had a fit,’ Alex said, in reference to his long-term girlfriend. ‘Something about me staying out too late last night. She knew I was working, I don’t know what her problem is… Who’s your friend?’

  Molly glanced over her shoulder to see Blake a few feet behind her with his thumbs hooked into his jeans, standing in concealing darkness away from the glare of the car headlights. ‘Blake,’ she said. ‘New hire.’

  ‘He works for you?’ Alex said. ‘Him? Since when?’

  ‘Tonight,’ Molly said. ‘Can you take him back to his car?’

  ‘What’s wrong with it?’

  ‘Nothing. It’s a long story.’

  ‘Where are you going?’ Alex asked.

  ‘Home,’ Molly said.

  ‘Hop in.’

  Molly opened the back door and nodded to Blake, but he shook his head. ‘I’m fine,’ Blake said. ‘You go home.’

  Slamming the car door shut, Molly closed the gap between them. ‘I’ve known Alex since I was a kid. There is nothing to worry about, he’s a great driver.’

  ‘I’m not worried,’ Blake said. ‘I’ll walk back to the car.’

  ‘Alex will give you a ride,’ Molly said.

  ‘No need.’

  Molly slipped her delicate hand into his and gave it a squeeze. ‘Please. I will sleep easier knowing that you got back ok.’

  The harsh rise and fall of his chest confused her because he appeared angry, but she didn’t know why. His brow was set above his heavy eyes, further increasing her suspicion of his bristly mood. The apparent tension across his shoulders had no source, as far as she could decipher.

  ‘Fine,’ Blake said.

  Molly began to return to the car, but Blake’s fingers clamped around hers, holding her hand firm. When she peeped at him over her shoulder, he was staring again. After a few seconds of that, he started past her toward Alex’s car. In all the time that he held the door for her, and slid into the car after her, he didn’t relinquish her hand. Alex turned the car, and in barely a blink they were back at Blake’s vehicle.

  ‘She’s beautiful,’ Alex said, as they drew up beside the pick-up.

  ‘I know,’ Blake muttered.

  Molly’s cheeks warmed when she realised that Blake’s eyes were on her and not the car. ‘I’ll see you tomorrow.’

  ‘Thought I was fired,’ Blake said.

  ‘Maybe if I had any other choice you would be. Vanessa is in tomorrow, and I want someone in to look out for her. I’d rather have you there than risk having to call the cops on rowdy customers. So be in tomorrow at six… but you’re on probation.’

  ‘I’ll be there,’ he grumbled, and the deep tone in his voice sent shivers through to her soul.

  Keeping their vision locked, he traced his lips on her knuckles. Molly tried to steady her breathing, but heat rushed through her to that point of contact. Then he was gone, out of the car and back in his truck.

  ‘He’s pretty intense,’ Alex said.

  ‘Tell me about it,’ Molly said, watching Blake return to his vehicle as Alex changed gear and spun the car back toward town.

  After a few beats, she twisted to peek past her head rest and out the back window. The pick-up’s lights came on and it spun onto the road behind them. At least she could be sure he was on his way. Forcing herself to look frontwards, Molly tried to ignore her urge to glimpse out the back window again. Blake was fine and that should be enough for her, yet somehow it wasn’t.

  Chapter Four

  ‘What time do you call this?’ Jason demanded, when Blake walked into their office at their station the next day. ‘I thought you were coming back here last night. The battery on your wire died after an hour. We didn’t know what the fuck was going on.’

  ‘I didn’t get back until later than I thought. I didn’t expect to pull a shift, and then things got… social,’ Blake said. ‘It’s a long story.’

  ‘Great,’ Jason said. His dark blonde hair and casual demeanour made Keane the more approachable one in their partnership. ‘So we can eliminate her from our investigation?’

  ‘What?’ Blake snapped, dropping himself down to sit at his desk while shoving the papers that lay in front of him out the way.

  ‘You were home late after a social event. You
scored, right?’

  ‘No,’ Blake said. ‘Barely even kissed her.’

  ‘You were with her all night,’ Jason said. ‘Are your skills slipping?’

  Blake lifted his shrouded eyes to his partner, who sat at his own desk, the length of which abutted onto Blake’s. Keane swung back and forth in his chair as he gnawed on the end of his pen. The expression of amusement on his partner’s face was almost enough to rile Blake.

  ‘No,’ Blake said.

  ‘Nothing to be ashamed of, man, you’re getting long in the tooth. Molly is a hot little thing, she probably gets her pick. Shame that it appears she kills her pick.’

  ‘I’m not convinced,’ Blake said.

  ‘No?’ Jason asked, and stopped swinging.

  ‘Carson!’ The office door opened and Lieutenant Williams, their superior, entered.

  ‘Sir,’ Blake said, and switched on his computer.

  ‘I had to send someone over to your place last night... Check in next time.’

  ‘Will do,’ Blake said.

  ‘She could have had your balls on a stick and we would have had no idea,’ Williams said, taking a seat at the end of their desks.

  ‘I think I could take her down, if I had to,’ Blake said.

  ‘I’m sure that’s what the victims would have thought,’ Williams said.

  Until he transferred to Schenectady to be closer to his family, he’d been a New York City cop. This city was smaller, but the politics weren’t much different. The small-town cops who couldn’t deal with Choker had put in a request for a loan of their best, and here that meant Detective Blake Carson. He’d expected to be in and out, but Choker was good. That didn’t mean all of his other cases disappeared or that their Lieutenant was happy about having two of his best detectives spending all their time beyond the sticks with yokels.

  ‘Honestly, sir, I’m not convinced that Ashton is our girl,’ Blake said

  ‘What did you get?’ Williams asked.

  ‘Her customers gave me a few ideas.’

  ‘Leads,’ Williams said. ‘I want leads, not ideas.’

  ‘I understand that, sir. But if it was as easy as one night on the job, we’d have the janitors do it and we wouldn’t have been called in to head this up. Ashton isn’t going to be an easy one to crack. She has a lot of issues.’

  ‘She’s a woman,’ Williams said. ‘They all do. I’m married to the queen of fucking issues.’

  ‘Yes, sir,’ Blake said, and began doodling on the notepad in front of him.

  ‘If Ashton isn’t going to confess to you, then get into her panties,’ Williams said. ‘We don’t have time to pry information from her. If it’s her, we don’t want any more victims. If it’s not, we can’t afford to waste the time. I want this solved and you two back here full time.’

  ‘Yes, sir,’ Blake said.

  ‘His talents are slipping,’ Jason chimed in. ‘He didn’t even get close enough to kiss her last night.’

  Williams blinked at Blake. ‘Carson… I’m disappointed. Isn’t that a first?’

  ‘Yes, sir,’ Blake said.

  ‘Before this case you hadn’t done any undercover for a while, a year or so, right? You losing your nerve?’ Williams asked.

  ‘No,’ Blake said, entering his login details on the computer. ‘It was an unusual night. I only saw her for a very brief portion of it.’

  ‘Did you ask her out?’ Jason asked.

  ‘No,’ Blake said. ‘Like I said, there wasn’t time.’

  ‘Do you want Keane in there?’ Williams asked, and nodded at Jason. ‘We need her to have the chance to take one of you fools to bed. If she pulls out the scarves, we know we’ve got our man.’

  ‘No, sir,’ Blake said.

  ‘Women don’t find him as attractive in that terrifying and mysterious way that they find you,’ Williams said. ‘They don’t have the same “rip off my panties and fuck me stupid” attitude to him. But he has that baby face thing going for him.’

  ‘I’m only a couple of years younger than him,’ Jason said, and started chewing on the end of his pen again.

  ‘Yeah, but you’re a squirt,’ Williams said. ‘You can’t claim to have Carson’s brilliance.’

  ‘Few can,’ Jason said. ‘But he’s apparently losing it.’

  Blake didn’t want to admit that the frustration of last night still coursed through him. Molly’s smiling mouth and glowing eyes had distracted him outside the bar. The reaction she had to his truck was an opening, a chance for him to push their relationship from vocational into social. He’d jumped on it, and hoped to rev her engine a little with the music and the speed, but boy had it backfired on him.

  Cal Ashton’s fatal car accident was mentioned in Molly’s file. But Blake had no idea that she would react to speed with fear and anger. When he’d seen the panic in her face, his heart had torn itself from his body, and in that moment, he hated himself. Her shaking fingers and pale complexion showed just how the ride got to her, and it wasn’t the reaction he’d anticipated.

  Molly’s elegant fingers between his on the gearstick had drowned him in testosterone and for a minute he’d lost focus. At that point, his only thoughts were of her femininity and his own masculine nature.

  The case required him to take her back to his place, because Choker did her work in the home of her victim. But the case wasn’t in the forefront of his mind when he observed her tentative touch on the dials of the car. Watching those fingers made him speculate about how they’d feel on his body and what they would be capable of doing to him. Just the sight of them sent his heart pumping into overdrive and brought a lump to his throat. Blake had envisioned them on his body, her fingertips against his lips, and how that delicate pink in her cheeks would glow as he pleasured her.

  He knew how her father died, and her brother too. But Blake had asked if her reaction was in relation to her father to further his cover. In truth, after he realised how she was affected, he’d known her reaction could only be related to how Cal, her brother, had died.

  Molly Ashton was going to be a tough nut to crack. Not just because of her cautious, suspicious nature, but because of her effect on Blake’s anatomy. The clear concise mind that earned him his reputation around here had been sporadically clouded when she was at his side, and that spelled trouble. Being attracted to a woman wasn’t a problem under normal circumstances, but he’d never found himself attracted to a suspect before. He would have to control it…somehow.

  ‘It’ll get done,’ Blake said.

  ‘When?’

  ‘I’m there again tonight,’ Blake said. ‘I’ll do the job.’

  ‘You better,’ Williams said, and got out his chair. ‘I’ve got the Captain up my ass. No time for bullshitting on this one.’

  ‘No, sir,’ Blake said.

  ‘I want your report on last night on my desk by lunch,’ Williams said. Blake nodded and watched the lieutenant leave.

  ‘Will you get it?’ Jason asked.

  ‘I’ll get it,’ Blake said, and brought his focus to his computer.

  ‘Need any tips?’

  Blake drew his eyes to his partner. Jason held up his hands and sat back. ‘Just saying,’ Jason said. ‘I’m here for you, man, whatever you need.’

  Blake read the enjoyment in his partner’s expression, but he would have reacted in the same way if Jason had failed. For Blake, his irritation wasn’t in the humiliation of not coming up with the goods, it was in his sustained ignorance to the taste of her full cherry lips.

  Working between two stations was getting tiresome for Blake and for Jason too. But they had to follow up as many leads as they could. Molly was their prime suspect, but that didn’t mean that there weren’t others. The biggest problem they faced was that in this town everyone was connected. They could find dozens of ways to link the victims so far from neighbours, social and family connections, through to places of employment and education. Checking out each of those links and other people associated with them was taking time, and the weigh
t of the clock on them was heavy. The last thing that they wanted was more victims.

  To top that off, he was having trouble getting in touch with his brother Brandon, who was staying with their parents at the moment. His brother and Lucy, Brandon’s fiancée, went up there regularly to stay, and his mother constantly harped on at him about how he too should come up and spend “family time” with them and that he should bring any woman who happened to be in his life. The last thing his mother could be accused of being was subtle.

  Before he walked into the bar that night, Blake rolled his shoulders and reminded himself to concentrate. Whatever happened tonight, he had to have his game head on. Focus and vision were required, because solving this case was paramount.

  He pushed open the heavy wooden door of Ashton’s and was assaulted with sounds of laughter and music. The place was much busier than it had been the previous night. All of the seats were taken, it was standing room only, and most of that was taken up too. Women in the room paused to watch his journey to the bar. The hum of whispers surrounded him as he traversed the floor.

  If he could fade into the background he would, but in this scenario it was unlikely, because there was no background. Women with too much alcohol in them tried to talk to him, but he ignored them. Some tried to touch, but he shrugged from their grasp because he was interested in only one woman tonight.

  ‘Where’s Molly?’ Blake called over the bar.

  ‘Why hello to you too,’ the serving blonde said, and then she tossed her hair over her shoulder and flashed her pearly whites. ‘You must be Blake.’

  ‘You must be Vanessa,’ he said, without bothering to be personable, because she hadn’t answered the question. ‘Where’s Molly?’

  ‘In back,’ Vanessa said. ‘But I—‘

  Now that he had his answer, Blake didn’t loiter to hear the end of Vanessa’s sentence. The crowds parted as he walked through the bar; few people ever had the gumption to get in Blake’s way. Without hesitation, he took the step to behind the bar and threw open the door to the back area. As the door swung shut behind him, he faltered.

  There, to his left, was Molly, but she was sitting on the shoulders of a tall man with fair brown hair, both of whom had their backs to Blake. Her shrieking laughter echoed when the pair wobbled as she reached above her head.