His Captive Lover (The Thorpe Brothers Series) (15 page)

“Why would you ask that?” he demanded.  “Do you know the man in that photograph?”

Cricket glared up at the man, her irritation increasing as she lifted the photo up higher. “These two people are the heads of the charity my boss wants me to look into as a tax deduction.  I was with them yesterday afternoon.  Are you telling me you haven’t had someone following me?”

Ash stepped in front of the blond beauty but his brother pushed him out of the way.  Ash didn’t have time to castigate his oldest brother right at the moment.  He had to clarify this latest twist.  “I don’t know who you are…” he started to say.

Ryker interrupted him.  “This is Cricket Fairchild.  She’s one of my clients.”

The woman rolled her eyes.  “Okay, so now that we’ve established who I am, would someone mind telling me why you are investigating the person I’m investigating?”

The police officer stepped in at that moment.  “Ma’am, are you telling me that you were with this man yesterday afternoon?”

Cricket nodded her head, causing her blond curls to dance merrily around her stunning features.  “I was with both of them.  Isn’t that what I just said?  It was a lunch meeting at their request,” she explained. “He ordered steak and she had some sort of disgusting fish meal.”

“And you would be willing to testify to this?” the officer asked.

Cricket looked around, her green eyes trying to figure out why everyone was tense.  “Of course.  Why?  Has someone bankrupted his charity or something?  They’re very passionate about saving the whales off the coast of Greenland.”

Ash watched with amusement as his older brother rolled his eyes.  “Cricket, the police believe this man was murdered last week.”

She laughed and shook her head.  “No.  He wasn’t murdered last week.  He was giving me a pitch to help him fund the next ship they are trying to acquire.”

Ryker looked over her head at his younger brother.  “I think that sort of clinches things for you doesn’t it?” he asked, a smile in his eyes as he glanced back to the brunette. 

Ash was grinning broadly.  “Pretty much,” he said and turned to the officers.  “Do you need anything else?” he asked them.

The officers shook their heads in amazement but they were all grinning.  “We’re all good here, Mr. Thorpe.”

“Call me Ash,” he said, slapping one of them on the arm jovially.  “I think there are cupcakes in the break room,” he offered.  “Stop by and grab one.  I’ve heard they’re fantastic.”

Mia bit her lip, her whole body waiting tensely.  She only started to relax when one of the officers nodded politely to her.  “I think we’d better skip the cupcake for now but we’ll take a rain check.  Can I have these two pictures?” he asked.

Ash quickly nodded.  “Let me know if you need additional copies.  We’re more than happy to print more for you.”

The police officer took the pictures, but hesitated in front of the blond woman.  Ryker immediately understood what they were afraid to ask and stepped in to reassure all four of them.  “Ms. Fairchild will make a statement if you need one,” Ryker was offering. 

“I will?” Cricket asked, looking up at the man she seemed to dislike intensely.   “What will I be stating?”

“That you had lunch with a murder victim yesterday,” he stated succinctly, not clearing up any of the woman’s confusion before he took her arm and led her back down the hallway.  “Come along.  You and I have a lot to discuss.”

Mia watched with fascination as the oldest of the Thorpe brothers dragged the beautiful woman down the hallway.  She obviously didn’t want to go, but she didn’t fight him either. 

Mia’s smile started off small.  But as the realization hit her, that grin expanded over her entire face, growing in intensity and she was almost light-headed with the relief that surged through her.  And she was startled when the blond woman smiled brightly right back at her, waving her fingers in the air before she disappeared around the corner. 

“In my office,” Ash snapped at her.

Mia jumped and tore her eyes away from the disappearing blond woman and looked up at Ash.  Gone was that feeling of freedom that had been starting to bubble up inside of her.  All that anger she’d felt only moments ago surged right back to the front of her mind.  “I’m not…” she started to say but Ash didn’t wait for her to respond.  He moved in closer, his face barely an inch from hers. 

“Don’t say another word, Mia.  Just go right into my office.  We have some things to discuss and I’m definitely not going to do them in front of my staff.”

Mia pulled back slightly and looked around.  Sure enough, just about every person in the area was frozen in place, waiting to see what she would do.  No one disobeyed a direct command from Ash Thorpe.  But some of them suspected that she might.  She could see the hope in their eyes. 

Unfortunately, she didn’t have the courage to ignore him either.  At least not this time. 

She stepped back and marched into his office, just about to slam the door behind her when she felt it stop. 

Swinging around, she glared at him, her hands on her hips defiantly while she watched him walk into his office behind her. 

She waited a fraction of a second for his office door to slam closed before she started in on him.  “Don’t you dare ever speak to me like that!” she almost yelled.  “I can’t believe I slept with you last night!” she said, this time her voice definitely was louder.  “I can’t believe I let you into my house, that I thought I was in love with you and I slept with you!”  Her hands went into her hair.  “Good grief, there was almost no sleeping anyway!  So I can’t really say that, can I?  No, I had to go sleep with the enemy!  Not that you’re really the enemy,” she clarified for herself, pacing back and forth in his office, her fury rising higher as she contemplated all that she’d messed up in her life.  “I was such a wimp!  I can’t believe it, every time you touched me, I thought you were feeling the same thing I felt!  I thought that you cared for me!  When all that time, you were just having a good old time, weren’t you?  And all that time, you thought I was not just a murderer, but a thief!  And a thief who steals from the schools!  The kids!  I’m a horrible human being because I steal money that the kids need for their education.  It isn’t bad enough that some of them can’t even afford clothes or food, but now there’s a horrible woman who is stealing the equipment right out from under them.”

She was really working herself up into a good lather now.  “And I wasn’t even smart about it!  No!  A smart thief would have used an alias to embezzle the funds.  I had to use my own name.”  She gasped and turned around.  “I can’t believe you thought I was so stupid that I wouldn’t know how to embezzle money!”  She realized how ridiculous that sounded and shook her head.  “Okay, so maybe I don’t know how to embezzle money, but believe me, I’m not so stupid as to use my own name!”

“I know,” Ash said softly, leaning against his door with his arms crossed over his chest, just watching her work herself up in anger.

She didn’t listen to him, going on and on about how she’d been such a sap last night.  “And believe it or not, I was actually hurt this morning when I woke up and found you no longer in bed.”  She slapped her forehead with exasperation at her naiveté.  “I actually made excuses for you!  I had this all worked out in my mind that you just figured something out in the middle of the night and left early, letting me sleep in because I was exhausted from the nightmare of the last few days.  But all you were doing was finding more evidence of my crimes!”

The door opened and both of them turned to look at Ash’s administrative assistant poke her head in.  “I’m sorry to interrupt,” she said, her face red for some reason, “but the DA is on the phone and wants to talk to you.  He said it is urgent and he didn’t sound happy.”

Ash turned to look at Mia.  “Stay here.  We have more to discuss,” he said and walked out the door, giving her privacy in the hopes that she would calm down. 

As soon as he left, the middle aged woman stepped inside, carrying a cup of coffee.  “I thought you might need this,” she said softly.  “I’m Jeanie,” she said.  “I think we’ll be getting to know each other very well soon.”

Mia took the cup gratefully and took a fortifying sip.  “Thank you,” she whispered, all of her energy gone now that her target was no longer in sight.  “I appreciate the coffee, but I really need to get out of here.”

Jeanie was quiet for a long moment, looking at the gorgeous brunette with understanding.  “You’re wrong about him,” she said in a soothing tone of voice. 

Mia halted her pacing and stopped to turn to the kind woman.  “I’m sorry?” she asked.

Jeannie smiled gently. “You’re wrong.  About Mr. Thorpe.”

Mia shook her head.  “How do you…”

The kind woman smiled gently and took a step closer, as if she needed to emphasize her next words.  “Mr. Thorpe never gets involved in investigations,” she explained.  “He manages at a high level, working on trial strategy, overseeing more than twenty different cases.  He goes to court representing clients in only a small number of those cases.”  She let those words sink in before continuing.  “Mr. Thorpe was at the school this morning interviewing your co-workers.  He then went over to the high school after Mark called him about some odd issues.”

That irritated her.  “I know. That’s where he started to think I was a thief as well.”

Jeannie smiled and looked down, trying to figure out how to help this beautiful, young woman understand her point.  “This case was different,” she tried a different approach.  “It wasn’t that Mr. Thorpe was trying to get you acquitted.”

Mia took a deep breath and tried to listen, tried to understand her point.  “He always tries to get people acquitted.  That’s his job.”

“Exactly.  Mr. Thorpe wasn’t trying to get you acquitted.  He was trying to prove your innocence.”

Mia knew the kind woman was trying to tell her something important but she just wasn’t getting it.  “I’m sorry, I’m just not getting your point.”

Jeannie laughed.  “Mr. Thorpe is a high level director.  People hire him from all over the country because he’s the best at getting people acquitted.”

“That just means he doesn’t care where he gets his money as long as he’s still raking it in.”

Jeannie once again shook her head.  “You misunderstand.  The man you’re in love with has one of the highest codes of honor I’ve ever experienced in this business.  Mr. Thorpe doesn’t take cases when he’s sure the defendant is guilty.”

With those words, Jeannie turned and walked out of the office, leaving Mia to think about what had been revealed. 

She was exhausted from a night of not sleeping well, plus the stress of the past several days.  She wasn’t sure what was going on and didn’t completely understand what Ash’s assistant had been trying to say. 

Unfortunately, or maybe it was a good thing, because Autumn rushed into the office and grabbed Mia into a bear hug.  “I just heard the news!” she screamed.  “I’m so relieved.  I told you Ash could get you out of this mess!” she said, rocking back and forth with her arms around Mia’s shoulders.

Mia laughed and tried to nod her head, but Autumn’s grip was too tight.  “You were right.  He got everything all cleared up.  I can’t believe it’s actually over!”

Autumn laughed, delighted.  “We have to go out and celebrate!” she exclaimed.  “Let’s go do Durango’s!”

“Yes!” Mia agreed, knowing that a margarita was exactly what she needed right now.  She needed to work her mind through Jeanie’s comments, not completely understanding what she’d been trying to say.  Perhaps she was too emotionally charged at this point.  She needed to relax and wrap her mind around the fact that prison wasn’t looming in her future.  “I’m totally in!”  She didn’t tell her friend that she wanted to just drink herself free of the confusing man.  Nor did she tell Autumn that her boss had told Mia to stay in his office.  She wasn’t going to listen to him, still feeling betrayed after last night. 

It occurred to her that she should be more grateful to Ash.  Without his help, she would be in a jail cell right now.  His investigators had discovered the truth and he’d had the skills to put it all together.  But staying here where he would come back and confuse her even more was not a good idea.  She never thought clearly when Ash was around so it was better to figure things out far away from him. 

She stopped when she was out in the open and looked around at all the smiling faces.  “Thank you everyone,” she said softly, but with sincerity.  “Thank you so much for figuring this out.  I’m so grateful to all of you for your efforts.  All of you are amazing people!” she said.  Everyone smiled right back at her, some raising their coffee cups in salute and she bowed her head in respect to their success. 

Autumn pulled Mia out of the office, waving to the crowd as well, each of them celebrating for a moment before they moved on to the next case.  She stopped at Jeannie’s desk.  “If Ash is looking for Mia, tell him I’ve kidnapped her and taken her to Durango’s, okay?”

Jeannie’s smile widened in approval.  “Will do.  Have one for me!”

Autumn hesitated and smiled right back.  “Want to come along and celebrate?”

Jeannie waved her hand. “Thanks but I’m leaving early today so I can get my kids to a dentist appointment.  Go ahead and have a great time.  Make sure she relaxes,” she told Autumn, referring to Mia who was obviously not as relaxed as she should be in the face of her absolution from the crimes she’d been accused of less than a week ago.

Autumn looked down at Mia, then back at Jeanie before saying, “Definitely.”

At the elevator, Autumn and Mia were laughing, the realization that Mia was truly free slowly sinking in.

“Men!” the pretty, blond woman sighed as she pressed the elevator call button over and over.  Mia and Autumn watched her touch the diamond ring on her finger reverently, then shake her head.  Mia looked at Autumn and both women nodded at the same time, obviously having the exact same idea. 

Mia smiled at the woman with genuine appreciation.  “You’re the woman who just helped me stay out of jail,” Mia said.  “Are you okay?”

Cricket spun around and noticed the two lovely women behind her.  “I’m sorry,” she said and took a deep breath while closing her eyes.  “Nothing a good martini can’t fix,” she said, trying to calm down.  “Men are just so confusing!” she snapped, the calming breath obviously not working too well.