You Really Got Me (3 page)

He tried to focus on the task at hand. He’d discovered soon after moving in that all the woodwork in the old Victorian-style house was original oak. He’d ripped out carpet and ugly vinyl flooring to reveal sweet hardwood floors beneath, and he planned to refinish those too, once the baseboards and doors and banister had been stripped and refinished. And the walls painted.

It was a work in progress. Kind of like his life. Starting over, rebuilding.

When a voice spoke behind him, he almost seared the skin off his hand as the heat gun jolted. He looked up at his gray-haired neighbor, Denny, standing there laughing at him.

“Scared ya, huh?”

Jason shook his head and shut off the power tool. Although Denny was a good thirty years older than him, they’d gotten to be friends since Jason had moved in a year ago.

“You couldn’t scare a fly, old man,” he replied with a grin.

“I knocked, but you didn’t hear me.”

“No shit.” Jason held up the heat gun. “Did you come to help, or just stand and watch?”

Denny was pretty handy and Jason had actually learned a lot from him. Jason suspected the main reason Denny came over ostensibly to help was because he was lonely, but he’d never say that to him and hey, he didn’t mind the old guy helping him out.

Denny grinned too. “You only got one gun.”

“True. But I’ve got some chemical stripper we could start using on these baseboards.”

Denny picked up the can sitting on a drop cloth and studied it with a frown. “How do you use this stuff?”

“You brush it on, keep brushing until the old varnish softens and then scrape it off.”

Denny shrugged. “Okay, sounds easy enough. I think I can probably handle that.”

Jason fired up the gun again and the two of them worked together, unable to have much of a conversation over the loud whine of the heat gun. And that was okay.

A while later, when he’d reached the top of the staircase, he glanced at Denny below him on the main floor, almost done stripping the baseboard along one wall of the entrance hall. He turned off the gun. “Looks good,” he called to him.

“Yeah. It does. But I’m lucky I have any skin left on my hands.”

“Don’t put your hands in it, for chrissake.”

Denny laughed and held up gloved hands. “I’m not that stupid.”

“I need a beer. How about you?”

“Sounds good.”

They cleaned up, Denny always meticulous about cleaning tools when they finished work, a good habit Jason had learned from the older man, and then Jason pulled a couple of beers out of his fridge.

He leaned against the counter in the kitchen, the second room he’d finished since moving in, the master bathroom being the first. He rarely cooked so he wasn’t sure why the kitchen had been a priority, but for some reason the kitchen always felt like the center of a house. If the kitchen wasn’t a good place to be in, it wasn’t a home.

So his kitchen had gleaming granite countertops, new maple cupboards and shiny stainless steel appliances that had barely been used.

“As usual, a good-looking single guy like you is at home alone all weekend.”

Jason shook his head, a smile tugging his lips. The old guy liked to bug him about his lack of a social life. “I’m not alone. You’re here.”

Denny snorted. “Ha. You should be out with some pretty girl.”

Kendall’s face appeared in his mind. Definitely pretty. No, more like stunningly beautiful and hot as hell. Absolutely, submissively perfect for him. And, therefore, way the hell off limits. Jason washed down his sigh of disappointment with another mouthful of beer. He smiled at Denny. “Never mind me. Why don’t
you
have a hot date tonight?”

Denny snorted out a laugh. “Yeah, right. I’m too old for that shit. But you know…I could fix you up with my chiropractor.”

Jason almost choked on his beer. “Uh. No thanks.”

Denny launched into a discussion about the back problems that had led to the recent chiropractor visit while Jason drank his beer and tried not to think about Kendall at his mercy, crying out with an exquisite pleasure that punched through him to his core.

“She was last seen Saturday afternoon.”

Jason nodded, sitting in his office at the Las Colinas Police Department Monday
morning, listening to his staff brief him on a new missing person case. “At the research center.”

“Yes. We need to talk more to her fiancé. He apparently was there with her for a while. Says he left her there,” Officer Greg Hart said.

Fiancé. Fucking great. Jason shook his head. He could see exactly where this was going.

“The fiancé is Kevin Vioget.”

Jason’s head snapped up. “Kevin Vioget?” Kendall’s brother. Jesus Christ.

“Yeah.”

Jason nodded slowly. “Okay. Did he report her missing?”

“No, actually, it was her roommate. Laurel Dearing. They’re both students at UCLC. When Debarros didn’t come home Saturday or Sunday, her roommate assumed she was with her fiancé. When she still didn’t show up Monday morning, not even at class, Dearing called Vioget, who hadn’t seen her since Saturday.”

Kevin hadn’t made the missing person report. He’d gone nearly two whole days without talking to his fiancée and still hadn’t realized she was missing. Son of a bitch.

“I’ll go out to Vioget Estates with you.”

Shit. Why was he doing that? As police chief, he didn’t need to be involved in a missing person case.

Officer Hart eyed him. “Weren’t you seeing Kendall Vioget?”

Jason kept his face neutral though he wanted to scowl. “Yeah. That was a while ago. Things didn’t work out.”

The Vioget family was wealthy and well-known in Santa Barbara county, hell, in
several
counties, with their prestigious wine empire, although now the empire consisted only of the two siblings, Kevin and Kendall, who’d run the winery for the last ten years since their parents died. Well, from what he knew, it was pretty much Kendall who ran the show. This made the missing person case a little more high profile with Kevin Vioget being involved. Reason enough for him to tag along with Hart.

Jason followed Hart out to the cruiser car. The drive from downtown Las Colinas out to the Vioget estate took only about fifteen minutes, out along Highway 154, then they turned onto a winding road lined with cypress trees. With Officer Hart driving, Jason had the chance to take in the views, the rolling green hills of the Santa Ynez Valley, some striped with vineyards, the sky a clear cloudless blue above, the Santa Ynez Mountains dark and craggy in the distance. So different than his life in Los Angeles.

The winery building came into view as they rounded a corner, creamy stucco with a red clay tile roof and arched windows. Several cars lined the first row of parking in the small lot, and Officer Hart pulled in beside one and parked.

They approached the building, quiet in the warm sunshine, the sound of water splashing gently in a fountain growing louder as they neared it. They walked across the terra cotta tiles of the patio, past palms and small fig trees and clay pots spilling colorful flowers and greenery. A peal of laughter in the distance caught Jason’s ears and he looked over to where a group of people were playing croquet on a lush green lawn.

They entered the dim coolness of the high-ceilinged room. Two couples stood at the long wooden bar lining one wall while a young woman behind poured them samples of wine, offering a description of the wine as she did so. Jason recognized the girl as one of Kendall’s employees, although he couldn’t remember her name. She looked up, eyes widening at the sight of Officer Hart in his uniform. She excused herself to the couples and left them to their tasting as she approached the officers.

“Can I help you?”

“Kevin Vioget. Is he here?”

“Uh…yes. He’s in the back. I think he’s doing some testing. I’ll go find him.”

“Thank you.”

She disappeared through a heavy oak door. Jason surveyed the room, searching for any sight of Kendall. His lips tightened. He hadn’t seen her since she’d walked out on him that night. But she wasn’t in the tasting room.

Fresh sunflowers in shades of gold and russet sat on small tables, and antique pine armoires held a variety of gift items. The couples at the bar spoke in murmurs in the hushed room, and their glasses clinked as they finished and set them down.

“Nice place,” Hart said. “I haven’t been here for years.”

Jason lifted a brow at him. “I didn’t know you were into wine.”

Hart grimaced. “Not me. The wife. She wanted to come here on our anniversary. We did the horse-drawn carriage ride through the vineyard, drinking wine. Actually, it was kinda romantic.”

Jason grinned, then turned his attention back to the young woman who’d emerged from the back. “He’ll be right out,” she told them, returning to her place behind the bar and picking up another bottle of wine.

A moment later Kevin Vioget opened the oak door and strode out. Jason had met him briefly a couple of times, but couldn’t say he knew him really well. What had Kendall told him about their breakup?

“Hi,” Kevin said. “I’m glad you’re here. Come into my office.”

Jason watched him carefully, studying the young man’s facial expressions and body language as they followed him into an office. Kevin was four years younger than Kendall’s twenty-eight, and a good ten years younger than Jason. His family resemblance to Kendall with his dark hair and eyes, smooth golden skin and high cheekbones made Jason’s jaw clench.

“Have you found her?” Kevin asked as soon as the door was closed.

“No.”

The guy looked genuinely concerned. He rubbed his face. “Shit.”

Officer Hart went through the usual questions, Jason observing. When they asked him to list everything he’d done since he’d last seen Natalia Debarros Saturday afternoon, Kevin’s eyes flickered and his mouth tightened, although it was barely perceptible.

“I left her at the lab,” he told them. “I drove her there, went in with her. She was going to spend the afternoon working on her research project, so I left. I…” Another barely observable pause. “I came home and spent the rest of the day working here, mostly in the office.”

“Anyone else here?”

“No. It was Saturday. The tasting room was busy, but I didn’t go in there, just worked until late.”

“You and your sister are the only ones living here,” Hart said.

“Yeah. Well, not here. Our house is up the road.” He jerked his head.

“So she can confirm you were home Saturday night?”

Another micro-pause. “Yes. Why are you asking me this?”

“Standard procedure.” Hart smiled at him. “Don’t worry. I’m sure she’ll turn up eventually. I understand you two are getting married this weekend.”

“Yeah.” Kevin blew out a frustrated breath. “Jesus. Why would Natalia take off so close to the wedding?”

“I was about to ask you that. Cold feet, maybe?”

Kevin shook his head slowly, looking glum. “I don’t think so. She wanted this big wedding so much. It’s all she’s been thinking of for months.”

“Her parents say she’s not there with them.”

“I know. I called them this morning, after Laurel called me, all in a panic. I thought maybe she went to visit them, though why she’d do that when they’re coming here later this week for the wedding, I have no idea. But they haven’t seen her or heard from her.”

“Okay.” Officer Hart wrapped up the meeting. “We’ll keep you posted. Let us know if you hear from her.”

“Yes. Of course. Uh…are you going to talk to Kendall?”

Jason watched his face again. “Any problem with that?”

“No. It’s just…she’s not home. She, uh…went shopping.” Then his eyes narrowed a little as he looked at Jason, and Jason knew what he was thinking—Kendall probably didn’t want to see him.

Jason lifted his chin, kept his face neutral. “Okay. We’ll catch up with her later. Tell her to call us when she gets home.” He left his card with Kevin, and they strolled out of the building, back into eye-stabbing sunshine.

Hart looked at Jason questioningly as they crunched across the gravel parking lot toward their cruiser. “Whaddya think?”

Jason shrugged, pulled open his door. “Why would a girl run away a week before her wedding?”

“Well…” Hart started the car, threw an arm behind Jason’s seat and looked over his shoulder as he reversed. “Either she got cold feet, like we said—or she didn’t run away.”

Chapter Three

“Yeah,” Jason muttered, with a glance up the road toward the house where Kendall lived. Or should he say, the
mansion
where she lived. “Dammit.”

In a similar style as the winery, two stories of blinding white stucco with big arched windows gleamed and glinted in the sunlight. Lush lawns spread out around it, some shaded by olive and oak trees. He’d been awed the first time he’d driven out there to pick up Kendall, but she regarded it all so matter-of-factly.

It was hard to buy that Natalia Debarros had run away a week before marrying into that kind of money. Kevin Vioget would be considered a catch by any woman’s standards—tall, handsome, charming and rich. Which then brought up the idea of a kidnapping. Jason’s eyes narrowed as he considered the possibility of ransom. Kendall had implied in some of their conversations that it was no longer the case, but everyone thought the Viogets were rich. However, there’d been no contact from anyone wanting money. It was possible, but unlikely.