Bare Witness (11 page)

Justine hesitated and then shifted on his cock until he was positioned at the portal of her body. He was big and as she tried to lower herself on him, she couldn’t get him inside.

She shifted again, determined to take him. She felt Nigel’s hands on her butt, holding her, and then reaching lower to part her body around his cock. He slipped inside her body and she shifted on him, then he slid deep inside her.

“You feel so good,” he said, his words a hoarse whisper in her ear.

She thought so, too. She’d never really enjoyed having a man in her body before this. He kissed her neck, biting gently, and then whispered for her to move.

She shifted on him, pulling up until only the tip of his cock remained inside of her, and then she brought her body down on him, until he was once again deeply seated inside of her.

She moved against him, varying her rhythm until she found one that allowed her to grind her clit against him when he thrust up inside of her.

The motion felt so incredibly good that she came almost at once, but he gripped her waist and called her name.

“Come with me this time.”

She didn’t know if she could. “I’m going to come, Nigel. Any second now.”

He nodded and clutched her buttocks in his hands. He took control of her motions, rocking her body up and down on his cock. He kissed her hard until she was completely surrounded by him. Overwhelmed by the feel of his mouth on hers, his body inside hers, his breath in her ear.

“Now, love. Now.”

She looked into those serious eyes of his and came when he commanded it. Pleasure rippled out from her center, and she felt like she was reborn in his arms.

She held on tightly to him until she realized what she was doing, and what exactly she was feeling. She couldn’t need Nigel Carter. She wasn’t going to allow that to happen.

But as she closed her eyes and inhaled deeply, the scent of his body surrounding her, she wanted nothing more than to cling tightly to him.

To hold on as tightly as she could to those big shoulders of his, and rest her head right over his heart.

Hell, no, she thought. She wasn’t falling for Nigel. Not after the rough time she’d given Charity for falling in love with the wrong man at the wrong time.

She couldn’t possibly be making the same mistake Charity had. But Justine knew she wasn’t. She was nothing like the former supermodel.

And Nigel was nothing like Daniel. He wasn’t lying to her to protect her. He was simply holding her and making love to her, probably to distract himself from the fact that his daughter was missing.

She understood that and leaned down to drop a soft kiss on his shoulder and ran her finger over the bandage there. One she hoped he didn’t even feel, because that kiss was for her. That kiss was her way of thanking him for making her feel like the woman she always wanted to be.

N
igel separated his body from Justine’s and realized he’d come inside her without giving a thought to birth control. Watching the way Justine turned on the shower and kept her back to him, he guessed now wasn’t the time to bring up the subject. He went to the sink to wash his penis, and when he heard her step into the shower, turned to join her.

He saw tears in her eyes and they were so out of character for her, he was alarmed.

“Justine?”

“Don’t say anything,” she said, her voice low.

“What’s the matter? Oh, fuck, did I hurt you?”

“No, you didn’t hurt me.”

“Then, what is it?”

“I said I don’t want to talk. Let’s shower and get back on the road.”

There had been many times in Nigel’s life when he’d slept with a woman and walked out the door as quickly as he fallen into her arms, but he’d never suspected it felt like this. He wanted to draw her back into his arms and cuddle her close. He wanted to spend five minutes enjoying the aftermath of their lovemaking, and instead, she was rushing him.

“Move over, then,” he said. “We’ve wasted enough time.”

She didn’t say anything else as they both washed, climbed out of the shower, and dried off. She got dressed, reminding him to put on his Kevlar vest. Then she changed the bandage from his earlier gunshot wound.

“Thank you, Nigel.”

“For what?”

“For that. I’ve never really enjoyed sex before…. I didn’t know it could be like that.”

“You don’t have to thank me for that. It was my pleasure.”

“I’m not dealing well with everything. I’m not used to taking care of anyone but me away from the job…I’m making a hash of this.”

“It’s okay. I think I know what you mean.”

She shook her head. “Then explain it to me, because I don’t understand it.”

“You’re a loner, and you just realized you like having someone else in your life.”

Nigel finished getting dressed and tucked his gun into the holster at the small of his back. He noticed that Justine had done the same. She checked out the window. The first rays of dawn were breaking over the horizon.

He watched the woman he made love to disappear as the bodyguard came back to the fore. She was professional and quiet as she opened the bathroom door and scanned the room. She swept her gun from left to right, then signaled him to follow her.

They made their way downstairs, thanking the attendant for the shower. The Humvee was where they left it. Nigel opened the passenger side door, and since Justine was right beside him, he caught her around the waist and lifted her inside.

“I’m driving.”

“I thought—”

“You thought wrong. I’m going to be driving from here on out. You can read and text and protect us with your gun.”

“Nigel, you can’t tell me what to do just because we had sex.”

“I had already decided to drive. Don’t waste your breath. I’m not changing my mind.”

He got behind the wheel and was glad when she didn’t argue any more. They were finally on their way, and he realized Justine was the woman he’d spent the most amount of time with in a long time. And he didn’t mind it. Normally he needed space, but not with her.

“What are you thinking?” she asked.

“About calling my office,” he said, pulling his mobile phone from the dash where he’d left it.

“Good idea. I’m going to check in with Anna and Charity, and see what they’ve uncovered.”

Nigel called his office to see if they’d received any further threats, but his administrative assistant didn’t have any messages for him. She did have a document from HR that had a list of all the people who’d left the company in the last year.

He was impressed with how quickly Derrick had gotten the information together, and dictated a thank-you memo to him via his secretary.

He hung up the phone.

“Well?” Justine said.

“Derrick got the list together and my assistant is emailing it. We should have it shortly.”

“Good. Anna hasn’t found anything more on any of your employees, but she did determine that the car that forced Jesse off the road was a large truck. She is running it through her database to see who uses that type of vehicle in this country.

“Charity is on her way to your factory just in case whoever has Piper shows up there with a threat. There wasn’t anything delivered to the house you were supposed to stay at last night.”

“I’ll call my office here.”

“Good idea.”

Nigel had to call his office back in the States in order to get the number for the Cusco office. He was patched through, and Alfred Tamlin, who was the security officer in charge, was very glad to hear from him. There had been a package dropped off for him just before dawn.

“What’s in the package, Alfred?”

“I haven’t opened it.”

“You may do so now,” Nigel said, covering the mouthpiece and turning to Justine. “I’m going to put this on speaker.”

He activated the speakerphone.

“It’s a letter, sir. It says…you have twenty-four hours to bring two million dollars to the ruins if you want to see your daughter and her nanny alive.”

Justine wasn’t surprised by the threat, and from the look on Nigel’s face, he wasn’t either.

“Is there a signature or a name?”

“No, sir, I don’t think so…wait a minute. Just some initials, J.E.B.”

“Alfred, this is Justine O’Neill from Liberty Investigations. Do you have a fax machine?”

“Yes ma’am.”

“Good. Will you please send a fax to this number?” Justine gave Alfred Anna’s mobile fax number. She could receive faxes anywhere in the world from that number.

“Sir, is that okay?”

“Yes, Alfred. Let me know if anything else arrives. Here is my mobile number.”

Nigel hung up once he’d given the man his number.

“Do those initials mean anything to you?” Justine asked.

“Not off the top of my head. I’m going to call back my assistant and have her check for any names on the list.”

“Check your email first. The fewer people we involve in this the better.”

“Here, you check while I drive,” he said, handing her his smart phone. She accessed his email program and saw that the list had arrived. She forwarded a copy to Anna and then opened it up.

She scanned it, looking for the initials, but they weren’t on there. “No one jumps out as having those initials.”

“Is Piper’s GPS signal still stationary?”

Justine checked it. “Yes, it is.”

“Well, that’s one good thing,” he said.

“All of this is good, Nigel. The kidnapper has made contact and demanded money. We know what he wants and where he’s going to be. Do you have two million? Do you want to pay the ransom?”

“I have the money and I’d pay anything to get Piper back, but I don’t want to leave her a target for kidnappers.”

“Okay. We will get her back without paying if we can; I just had to know if you’d be able to pay. What would you do to raise the money?”

“I’d have the money wired from my account in Switzerland to a bank here in Cusco.”

“I think you should do that so he thinks you are following his orders. I’m going to ask Anna to drive with someone who looks similar to you from the safe house to Cusco. If they leave now and the kidnapper has someone watching the house, he’ll believe you are following orders.”

Justine knew she was dumping a lot on Nigel, but she felt like talking this way was the best thing for him, particularly after hearing that death threat to Piper. And Justine couldn’t handle anything sexual right now. She was dealing with some odd feelings from their lovemaking. There was the pleasure he’d given her, which had been nice, but she had wanted to stay in his arms.

She’d wanted to rest against him, which wasn’t like her at all. It was like one moment in his arms, and she forgot that she couldn’t rely on any man. She could only trust herself.

“What else do we need to do?”

“That’s it for now. I’ll take care of those details. You just drive.”

“I’m glad I’m behind the wheel,” he said.

“Why?”

“Otherwise I think I’d lose it. I can’t believe this kidnapper threatened her life.”

Justine reached over and patted Nigel’s thigh. He glanced at her hand for a second, and then brought his down on top of it. He joined their fingers together.

“I’m so glad I hired your company.”

“Me, too,” she said, meaning it. She had thought working for Baron Industries was going to be a nightmare, but meeting Nigel was actually helping her put to rest some nightmares from her past that she’d never been able to lose before.

She squeezed his fingers before letting go of his hand. She started sending messages off on her mobile phone to both Anna and Charity. She ended up talking to Anna on the phone.

“Have you heard from your contact inside?” Justine asked.

“Yes. He’s seen the girl and she’s well. Unharmed, and being kept in a nice room. The nanny, Constance, has a minor injury, and she was treated for it. They are keeping them both in separate rooms for right now.

“When will he check in again?” Justine asked.

“In three hours.”

“We won’t be in Cusco then, but we should be there by early afternoon. Can he meet up with me in the city somewhere to give me the layout of the buildings, and all that?”

“I’ll set something up. How’s the drive?”

“Not bad. The road is pretty nice, it’s just the terrain that’s slowing us down.”

“Good. How’s Nigel?”

“Fine.”

“How are you?”

“Uh, fine. Why are you asking all these questions?”

“Because you were weird at the airport when I came outside. What was going on with you?”

“Nothing. I just needed a minute. I’m fine now.”

“You know there’s no shame in admitting you need to talk,” Anna said.

“I don’t need to talk. Everything’s fine. Call me when you have my meeting set up with your guy.”

She hung up without saying good-bye. She knew Anna meant well and had only been trying to be a supportive friend, but the last thing she wanted to do was talk about personal stuff.

Especially personal stuff about Nigel when he was sitting right next to her.

“You okay?”

“Yes. Sorry about that. Anna is going to set up a meeting with her guy on the inside for me. I think if we know the layout, we’ll be able to go in there and get Piper and Constance out.”

Nigel could tell something was bothering Justine by the way she kept fidgeting in her seat. She’d cleaned and checked the ammo on every weapon in the Humvee, and kept checking her mobile phone.

“What’s the matter?”

“Nothing,” she said. “I’m not really in the mood to talk.”

He wasn’t, either, but he was tired of the scenarios in his head that involved Piper and Constance. “Have you ever made love like that before?”

“No,” she said. “I’m not big into sex.”

“I’m not either, but I’ve made love in different positions.”

“Well, until you, I was a missionary-position person.”

“Really?” he asked. “Why?”

Nigel saw her hesitate and he knew she was contemplating telling him to mind his own damn business. Which would be understandable, but he needed the distraction and he wanted to know everything there was to know about Justine.

“I just didn’t like it.”

“Like sex? I would think that the missionary position wouldn’t work for you since you don’t like a guy crowding you.”

“I don’t like it. But I was trying to get over my fears when I experimented with sex.”

“When was that?”

“About ten years ago.”

“You were quite young to be afraid of sex and men,” Nigel said.

“Yeah, I was. Don’t ask me anything else, Nigel. I’d have to lie to you and I don’t want to”

He nodded. “I guess that’s fair. But you know, some things, when you hold onto them, just grow bigger over time.”

“This one can’t get any bigger than it is.”

“I’m not sure about that. Like right now in my head, I’m thinking of all the horrible things that could happen to Piper while the kidnapper has her, but talking to you is alleviating that.”

Justine saw his point, but there was no way she was telling him about her past. There were only two people alive who know who Justine O’Neill used to be, and that was one too many as far as Justine was concerned.

“I’m glad that talking to me is helping you. We’re not going to let any of those bad things happen to Piper. I promise.”

“Don’t make promises you can’t keep,” Nigel said.

“I’m not. We have a jump on this guy thanks to your secret GPS, and that’s all we need.”

“I never thought that bunny would save her life.”

“It’s always the things that seem like the little pieces that end up saving the day,” Justine said.

“Really?”

“Yes,” she said, and told him stories from past jobs where it seemed like they were up against big odds and still they were able to save their client.

“Liberty Investigations doesn’t lose. We aren’t going to let anything happen to Piper. And we’ll find out how the kidnapper knew where Jesse was going, and fix that leak as well.”

“The leak might be on my side,” Nigel said.

“That’s true. Your office knew where you were flying to and when you’d be arriving. We will keep looking into it. Does J.E.B. mean anything to you? Not a name, but a project, or anything?”

Nigel didn’t say anything, but kept driving. She could tell his focus had turned inward. And she let him think about the question she’d asked. Figuring out who the kidnapper was would give them a big leg up in their investigation.

But even without that information, Justine knew they’d get Piper back alive. The same way she’d known Franklin would go after Millie the night he had…the night she’d finally killed him. She had an instinct when it came to kids and crimes. She always had.

“I can’t recall anything,” Nigel said after a few moments.

“I wonder if the initials aren’t meant to be a word,” she said. “Does JEB mean anything to you? Do you know anyone with that nickname?”

“No, I don’t,” he said, then pulled his hands off the wheel and slammed them down again. “Dammit. I can’t think of anything. The harder I concentrate, the more blanks I draw.”