His Captive Lover (The Thorpe Brothers Series) (14 page)

“And the mulch,” she said belligerently and moved even farther away from him.  She couldn’t be too close.  She might just throw herself into his arms and beg him to save her.  She didn’t want to be saved.  She could do this on her own. 

“Mia, I’m not letting you pay for anything.  Would you just hold on?” he asked, taking her arms before she could move even farther away from him.  She kept inching away as if he were contaminated somehow.  And after last night, it irritated him beyond words. 

“You can’t just…” she sniffed and shook her head.  “Just stop.  I’m not letting you do this,” she said firmly and started to turn away.  She had to get out of there.  She would hire another lawyer.  There had to be others in the Chicago area that were as good, or even better, than Ash Thorpe. 

“You’re not letting me do what?” he demanded, turning his full attention to her, hands on his hips as he glared down at her. 

Mia refused to be intimidated by his angry attitude.  He might be taller and stronger, but she wasn’t bowing down to his glare.  “All of this,” she waved, indicating the numerous people around her who were rushing about, trying to solve this puzzle.  “I want it to stop.  I’ll find someone else.  Someone who believes in me and doesn’t think I’m a criminal.”

Ash stared at her, stunned.  He wasn’t sure what to say to get it through to her, but more importantly, he could almost feel the police and district attorney as they bore down on the details he’d discovered earlier today.  “Mia…” he started to say, but shook his head.  Instead, he grabbed her arm and pulled her into his office.  Slamming the door, he pulled her into his arms, kissing her.  She resisted for only a moment before he felt her arms go around his neck and his body relaxed somewhat. 

The relaxation lasted only a moment before her soft body and the delicious taste of her hit him full force.  He’d meant to just give her the most expedient reassurance he could, but that plan had backfired on him as soon as he’d taken her into his arms.  As was always the case when he touched her, the intense heat of his desire inflamed his senses and it took every ounce of willpower to pull back.  “You’re not going anywhere,” he told her firmly. 

He took her hand and pulled her out of his office, smiling with the stunned and flustered look in her eyes which told him he hadn’t been the only one who had been thrown by that kiss. 

“Okay everyone!  We need to get things in order.  Bring whatever you have to the conference room,” he called out. 

When everyone was assembled, he looked around.  “Mark, tell everyone what you discovered.”

Mark swiveled in the leather chair so he was looking at more of the group.  “We found that there was approximately one point two million dollars in school equipment and hardware that was ordered ostensibly through Ms. Paulson.  That’s not counting the equipment that everyone assumed Ms. Paulson had borrowed but hasn’t yet been returned.” 

That captured Mia’s attention and she leaned forward, obviously ready to argue her side of things but Ash held up his hand, silently asking her to hold off for the moment.  Mia snapped her mouth closed, irritated that he wasn’t even letting her defend herself!  How rude!  And arrogant, she thought, leaning back against the irritatingly comfortable leather chair and glaring at the man. 

Ash ignored her irritation and continued to look at Mark.  “Do you have a breakdown of what was borrowed versus which items were bought and never delivered?” he asked. 

Mia shook her head.  “I never…”

Ash stopped her yet again and Mia sat back in her chair with a huff.  She glared at Ash, furious that he wouldn’t let her talk.   

After all they’d shared last night, she had thought that he was starting to care for her.  She was so furious with herself for falling for his charm.  Damn him!  She’d believed in him!  She’d believed they could share something together. 

Okay, so they’d known each other for only a few days.  And all of those days, he’d been defending her on murder charges.  Add to that, she was a thief now. 

Good grief, she didn’t even know how to order some of these supplies, much less what they were.  She was a kindergarten school teacher!  What did she need with football equipment she thought mutinously as Mark read through the list of the items he’d discovered which had been borrowed?  And why on earth would she tell Jeff that she needed that equipment for a field day at her school?  They had their own equipment!  High school sports equipment was too big for elementary aged children.  Even the basketballs were smaller! 

She crossed her arms over her chest, tapping her foot with impatience at how ludicrous this story was.  Not to mention how betrayed she felt when she realized that Ash wasn’t even arguing that she hadn’t borrowed or stolen any of this equipment.  He was being very clinical about the entire discussion while she sat here fuming with fury. 

After last night, she would have thought that he trusted her more.  But the way he was treating her, he was acting like she was a worse criminal than before.  As if being a murderer versus a murderer as well as a thief….she stopped and thought about that.  Okay, being a murderer versus a thief was worse.  Taking a life was much more reprehensible than stealing material things.  Not that she would do either, but still…she had to admit that murder ranked higher up on the “badness” scale than embezzlement and theft. 

She crossed her legs, the top one swinging back and forth with impatience and anger.  Her mind was whirling, trying to figure out why someone would even say that about her.  She didn’t really know the teachers and administrators over at Jeff’s school.  Of course, she’d met them at social functions.  Jeff was the principal so as his girlfriend and fiancée, she’d had a few opportunities where she’d interacted with his staff. 

She gasped.  “That gives me motive!” she exclaimed, sitting up straight, her worried eyes moving to Ash’s, begging him for reassurance. 

Ash shook his head one more time and turned back to his team.  “Kiera?  It looks like you might have something.”

The new lawyer on the team nodded her head, her eyes skimming over the report she’d pulled right before the meeting.  Kiera’s eyes were in a quandary.  “I might.  I started looking into Ms. Knightley’s financials, like you asked,” she explained.

That couldn’t be good news, she thought, a lump forming in her throat and her stomach starting to twist into knots.  “I didn’t do this, Ash,” she whispered up to him, begging him to believe her. 

His only response was to place a firm hand on her shoulder, silently telling her to keep quiet. 

She jerked her arm free and shook her head.  “No!  I won’t shut up!” she cried out, furious with him and also with herself for putting herself into this kind of a position.  She’d thought Jeff was nice and sweet.  As soon as she’d figured him out, she’d tried hard to get out of his clutches but she’d been too naïve to do the right thing.  Now the same thing was happening with Ash and she felt duped once again.  She wasn’t going to put up with it any longer. 

She stood up and glared at Ash, desperately fighting for him to believe in her.  To believe she wouldn’t do these kinds of things.  “I tried to get away from him,” she explained to Ash, fighting back the tears and the panic.  “And after…” she stopped herself, her body straining not to punch his arm because she did not believe in violence but there was a limit to a person’s control.  And right now, he was straining at her limits. 

She couldn’t say anything else without breaking down and she definitely didn’t want to do that in front of all these people.  “I have to get out of here,” she said, realizing that everyone was staring at her, waiting for her to finish that sentence. 

Before she embarrassed herself and broke down in tears, she rushed out of the conference room. 

“Mia!” Ash called out, wanting to go after her, but his gut was telling him that whatever Kiera had to say was important. 

He sighed, running a hand through his hair in frustration.  He’d catch up with her once he’d figured this out.  Everything inside of him was telling him to ignore the evidence against Mia.  It just didn’t jive with what he knew of her character.  He was fully aware that people weren’t always what they appeared to be, but he simply couldn’t believe that she could so completely fool him.

Besides, she had an enormous army of people who were supporting her.  Worst case scenario, he pulled in every single one of her co-workers and neighbors as character witnesses.  Each one of them could give a story about what Mia had done to help them.  Hell, she didn’t have time to do any of the crap people were now saying about her because she was always baking a cake for someone, making soup for a sick person or helping someone in some other way. 

No, Mia didn’t embezzle over a million dollars from the school system.  And she definitely didn’t murder her ex-fiancé.  He would bet his career on it.  Hell, he was betting his life on it. 

              He smiled at the thought.  Yes, he was going to have a pretty long, happy life.  Filled with surprises and saved earthworms, but he could handle that. He wouldn’t push the spiders out of the house though.  Those things were road kill and she’d just have to get over it. 

He looked back at the group with grim determination. “Okay, Kiera, whatcha got?” he prompted.

Kiera shifted in her chair.  “This is just preliminary, mind you.  I was looking through the data yesterday and found nothing, but something caught my attention this morning.  Mia’s finances are spotless.  There’s no evidence of any additional bank accounts, her expenses are miniscule except for the purchase of her house.  All of her expenditures match the income of a school teacher with her level of experience.  So I looked further into Jeff’s finances.  When I didn’t find anything, I went on to his relatives and anyone who was close to him.”  She looked down at her papers and pulled one out.  “Jeff’s new fiancée is a nurse,” she said carefully, passing the paper over to Ash.  “Nurses make a good salary,” she cautioned, “but I’m not sure they can afford a brand new, black BMW with all the bells and whistles.”

Ash looked up sharply from the paper.  “BMW?”

Kiera nodded confidently.  “Bought the day after Ms. Paulson was arrested,” she added.

Ash’s face looked serious as he read through the details of the woman’s purchase.  But when his eyes fixed on the price, his eyes cleared.  When he saw the date, he stood up and his face cleared of worry.

“Ladies and gentleman, I think we just found a new suspect in the murder of Jeff Richardson,” he said. 

Leslie, one of Mark’s investigators rushed into the conference room, out of breath and obviously a bit frazzled.  “Sir?”

Ash turned away from the conference room windows, trying to push his worry away from Mia.  Focusing back on the group, he looked at Leslie, nodding his head for her to go ahead.  “What did you find?”

Leslie pushed some pictures towards the center of the table.  “You asked me to sit on the new fiancée,” she said. With a grin, she pulled the most important one out of the pile. 

Ash picked up the pictures she’d taken of the woman’s house and looked at them, his smile growing when he realized what he was seeing.  “And this is what you saw?” he asked, but it wasn’t really a question since he was staring at the evidence. 

Leslie nodded her head with a huge grin on her face.  “I couldn’t get a good shot,” she cautioned, “but I’m pretty sure that’s Jeff Richardson.”

Ash was just about to laugh when a commotion outside the conference room caught his attention.  Just as he’d anticipated, there were four police officers standing in the reception area. 

Ash took the two pictures and walked out of the conference room.

Mia watched with growing terror as the police officers spotted her and moved in her direction.  There were four of them!  Did they really think she was going to run? 

She held onto the desk behind her, her whole body feeling faint.  This couldn’t be happening!  It was simply a nightmare and she was trapped in sleep, desperately fighting to wake up.

As the police officers came closer, she knew that it wasn’t a dream.  This was a nightmare, of course, but it was a real life nightmare in which she was about to be arrested, her bond revoked because everyone thought she had stolen over one million dollars from the school system and had the means to flee the country. 

She didn’t even have a passport!

And then Ash was there, his strong body placed between her and the police officers. 

“Gentleman, you can’t arrest Ms. Paulson for a murder that she didn’t commit,” Ash was saying.

“Mr. Thorpe,” one of them, obviously the one in charge, had his hand on his gun.  “I appreciate your efforts on behalf of your client, but we have a warrant for her arrest on suspicion of embezzlement.  A judge signed the order just after lunchtime and her bail has been revoked.”

Ash was shaking his head and holding up a picture. “You can’t arrest someone for a crime that hasn’t even been committed yet,” he was saying. 

Mia was completely confused.  She tried to peer around Ash’s shoulders, but his hand pushed her right back behind him.  She should be irritated, but he was being protective and she kind of liked that.  It might be old-fashioned, but in this one situation, she preferred being protected by a huge, heavy handed, supremely intelligent man who obviously had some sort of get-out-of-jail-free card.  Because the police officers were staring at the photograph carefully.

“Is that…?” one of them started to ask. 

“Yes, gentlemen, that is Jeff Richardson in the kitchen of his current fiancée.”  He pulled up another picture, one of a sleek, shiny new car.  “And this is Ms. Knightley’s new car, purchased, in cash, one day after Ms. Paulson was arrested.”

Leslie came closer and handed him another photograph.  “I know the first picture is a bit blurry, so here’s a clearer picture of the two of them from their engagement photograph.” 

The police officers looked at the first, then the third picture, obviously confused. 

“Where did you get that photograph?” a new voice chimed in.

Everyone turned to face a blond woman approaching the officers fearlessly.  She snatched the photo out of the officer’s hands and turned around.  “Are you having me followed?” she demanded of Ryker Thorpe who was walking up behind her, a look of mild irritation on his handsome features.