Dangerous Secrets (22 page)

Luke wrapped his arm around her, tugging her to his side a little too roughly. “Behave, sweetheart,” he said in a tone that was sharp and unfamiliar, ”you know I hate it when you act out in public.”

She looked up at him, barely managing the wimpy girl routine. “I’m sorry, Luke, I just–“ There was a flash of warning in his eyes that the judge was meant to see before she zipped her lips and then added, “I’ll make it up to you later.”

Luke kissed her forehead as if he was rewarding a child for correcting poor behavior. “Good girl.” Then he turned his attention back to the Judge. “I hear we have a mutual interest.”

 
The Judge was looking at the pair with a dumbfounded expression, like he didn’t know Julie any more than she did herself. But that was the idea. She was supposed to come off as someone different, someone he was to believe was the real woman beneath the tough attorney that Luke had the power to expose and manipulate.
 

“Is that so?” Judge Moore asked of his and Luke’s mutual interests, looking at Luke with a little more interest now. “What exactly would that be?”

“I have a knack for getting my hands on unique pieces of art that,” he hesitated, “shall we say, others could not. According to your ex-wife, so do you.”

“Luke!” Julie exclaimed, as planned. “I told you not to repeat that. I’m sorry, Judge. I’m very sorry. I just…I”

The Judge’s eyes went wide for a split second before a carefully placed mask slipped across his features. “I’m not certain I know what it is you’re talking about.”

Luke eyed Julie. “Run along, doll. Let us men talk.”

“Luke–”

He pulled her close and kissed her. “Run. Along.”

She wet her lips. “Okay.” She turned and headed down the hall, her stomach in knots. Please let this plan work.
 

***

“Interesting,” the Judge said, watching Julie walk away. “How’d you take such a feisty one like that and make her heel?”
 

“Secret submission fantasy,” he said. “The best kind, in my opinion.”

“Indeed,” he agreed, narrowing his eyes and seeming to test Luke, by adding. “Who wouldn’t want to dominate that fine piece of ass.”

Luke gritted his teeth, barely contained the urge to jack the guy against the wall. “And she’s useful. She has a powerful client list that suits my, shall we say, interests.”
 

“Meaning what?”

“I cater to special requests. I could be quite useful to the right people.”

“Useful?”

“For example, if someone thought to get their hands on a unique piece of art that would otherwise be impossible to obtain, I could make it happen.”

The Judge laughed, short and abrupt. “If you’re saying what I think you’re saying, I’m not buying it. Your brother just married Lauren Reynolds who’s a damn prosecutor for the state.”

“Interesting that,” Luke said. “They have no idea why I really came home. Lauren has put me in the path of a few people I might not have otherwise met.”

“And Julie? What does she know?”
 

“How to please me,” he said, with a lift of his lips. “Let me know if you decide you have any special requests.” He started to turn. “And by the way, Judge. I did some digging. I know you have an offshore account and I know how much you’ve deposited into it. I want to work for whoever you’re working for. If you’re smart, you’ll introduce me. I might even throw in a little something special for your private collection, hmm? If not,
 
it would be interesting to see your sweet setup spiral horribly out of control.” He turned and sauntered away.
 

The instant Luke was out of the corridor, Julie was by his side. “Well?”
 

“He’s panicking right now,” he said, taking her hand. “Let’s go the bar and give him a chance to pick himself up off the floor and decide what to do next.”

A few minutes later, they leaned on the bar and Julie sipped champagne. “You know,” she said. “I’m going to make you pay for that ‘good girl’ comment back there.”

His lips curved as he repeated the question she’d asked him earlier. “Promise?”
 

She smiled, a miracle considering her nerves were still in tiny, tight knots. “Oh yes. I promise.”

He laughed, low, deep, and sexy. “Sweetheart, I’ll pay any way you like.”

 
She eased closer. “Whips and chains?”

He arched a brow. “A new side to you I should know about?”

“Drastic measures to remind you that your submissive little mouse isn’t submissive at all.”

“I can’t wait,” he said with a grin, and set her drink down, drawing her hand into his, “but for now, be a good girl and follow along with me. I want to make sure the judge knows just how deep I am in his world. Let’s walk.”

 
They spent the next hour feigning interest in random conversations throughout the room, until a waiter appeared with a champagne tray.
 

“None for me,” Julie said automatically.
 

The waiter looked at Luke, “A message, sir.”
 

Luke reached for a glass and the note laying with it.
 
The man nodded to Luke before moving through the crowd. Luke tucked the note in his pocket.
 

“Go check on whoever you need to check on,” Luke said in a clipped tone as he covertly checked out the room to see if anyone was watching them. “And then we’re leaving. Can you do it in fifteen minutes?” They’d already planned this. Luke didn’t want her here late, when the crowd thinned and she was an easier target. She was right on board with that.

“Yes,” she said, wondering if her heart could take much more of this night. “That’s plenty.” She rushed away, checking on the closing team, thankful that Elizabeth had one heck of a volunteer team, many of whom Julie knew from past events.
 

***

Luke didn’t look at the note in the museum for a reason. He didn’t want to seem eager. The valet brought the truck to the door and Luke helped Julie inside.
 

Once they were in his truck, he still didn’t read it, afraid of watchful eyes. And they were being watched, he was sure of it.
 

At the first red light they came to he yanked the note from his pocket and unfolded it. He read in silence. Then he cursed running a hand through his hair.

“What?” Julie asked urgently.
 

Luke tucked the note back into his pocket, and then tugged his tie loose. He flicked a quick look her direction before refocusing on the road.
 

“I need to think before I can talk about this.”

“What does that mean? Luke, please. Tell me what’s going on.”

“It means I need to think. Give me a minute.” His tone was clipped, something she wasn’t used to from him and he knew it, but he wasn’t himself. In fact, he was someone else who made a stupid mistake that got people killed.
 

“Luke–”

“It says there’s a house party on Staten Island Friday night. The exact location to be disclosed later.”

“And you’re invited.”

His tone was clipped. “Yes.” He could feel her attention, her need for more.
 

“What aren’t you telling me?”
     

“I’m not going.”

She was silent a long moment, as if she was trying to read his mind, understand him. When she spoke, the anger was gone from her tone. “But you said children are dying and this was what you wanted?”

“Not only are children dying,” he said. “The one agent that was inside is now missing.”

“I still don’t understand what you’re telling me here.”

“There are conditions to the invitation that make the risk too high. The end.”

He felt her confusion, but for the fifteen-minute ride until he pulled his truck under the Walker building, and into the parking lot, she didn’t press him. He killed the engine and sat there, unmoving, staring into the darkness.
 

She touched his sleeve. “Luke? Talk to me.”

He let out a heavy breath and forced his gaze to hers. “My invitation is contingent on you coming with me.”

He watched her eyes go wide, the shock slide over her features. “I…see. Why would he want me there?”

“Perhaps to test me. To see if they pass you around I’ll flinch. These people are bastards who only want to deal with other bastards. It’s all part of their manipulation tactics.”

“Can you stop them from…passing me around?”

“We aren’t taking a chance that will happen at all. I’m not going. You’re not going.”

“This is bigger than both of us,” she said. “You know that or this wouldn’t be eating you alive. We have to do this.”

He pulled her to him. “I said no.
 
You are not going.” His mouth closed down on hers, hot and demanding. He would not risk her life. He would not let anything happen to her. Luke wasn’t sure what happened to him then. He wasn’t someone to lose control, but he did now.
 

Luke had her flat on the seat, her soft curves beneath him, the thick ridge of his shaft pressed between her thighs in a matter of seconds. And he kissed her. God, he couldn’t stop kissing her. He thought of Blake, of his brother losing the woman he loved, of the danger of losing Julie. Love. He loved this woman. His mouth trailed down her neck, then lower, to the trim of her dress over her breasts. His hand inched up her dress.
 

“Do you,” she panted, “know how terrified I was for you tonight?”

“Then you know,” he said, pulling down her top to tease her nipples, and kissing his way back to her mouth, “why I’m not letting anything happen to you.” His mouth closed over hers, and the craving for her, the burn, seemed to expand. His hand slid under her and he lifted her hips, settling more fully in the warm heat he wanted to lose himself in. He had to have her. Here. Now. This instant.

A loud knock sounded on the window.
 

Chapter Eighteen

Luke looked up to find Hendrix staring at them from the window, and every instinct in him screamed with warning. Luke knew right then that he didn’t trust the man. Not even a little bit.
 

“Give us a minute,” he said, fighting the urge that told him to go for his gun. His brother appeared where Hendrix had just been. “Jezus,” Luke added. “I said give us a damn minute.”
 

“I’m not alone,” Blake called. “Just thought you would want to know.”

“Like we don’t know that already,” Luke mumbled under his breath and tugged at the top of Julie’s dress. “Our peeping Tom was one of the task force members. I’m sorry. I don’t know what got into me. I knew we’d have a parade chasing us tonight.”
 

“It got into me too, Luke,” Julie said, telling him that despite the hellish situation, she was with him for the good and the bad. It was something he wanted to deserve, to own, and not make her regret.
 

“This is so embarrassing,” Julie said. She sat up and reached for her coat where she’d slid out of it back at the valet area.
 

He adjusted her dress where a little too much of her breast remained in view. “Don’t be. You’re beautiful, and they’re just going to be jealous it was me and not them.”

“That doesn’t help,” she said in a hoarse voice. “Not when we were just talking about men passing me around.”

He pulled her close. “That won’t happen. Ever. I won’t let it.” He kissed her temple and motioned to the door. “Let’s get this over with.”

Luke pushed the truck’s door open and walked around to help Julie out. Once he brought her into view, she sat there for a minute not moving. He held out his hand in encouragement. “Come on,” he said softly. “Who cares what these guys think?”
 

She inhaled and let it out before sliding from the vehicle to stand by his side. He took one look at her swollen lips, now lipstick free, the whisker burn on her delicate skin, and knew no one would doubt what they had been doing.
 

With a sigh he stepped forward, pulling her coat tightly around her, and brushed his lips over hers. They walked toward the stairwell to find Blake waiting, and he wasn’t kidding about not being alone. Murphy and Hendrix were with him, which was expected, considering they’d known his plan. That made his losing control in the truck all the more out-of-character.
 

“Both from the task force,” Luke told Julie when she cast him a questioning look.
 

She gave a barely there nod. “Nothing like making an impression.”

“They need to worry about that far more than you do.”

“You don’t like them?” she asked softly.

“I don’t know them well enough to say.”

They stopped several feet from the group and Luke quickly introduced Julie. “Why don’t I meet you all in the office after I take Julie upstairs?” he suggested. He didn’t want her in on this talk. These guys wanted to catch Arel. He wanted to protect Julie. Those two things didn’t necessarily coincide. Talking through the evening’s events with Julie present wasn’t going to work either. She’d put herself at risk, when he wasn’t going to let that happen.