You Really Got Me (4 page)

Las Colinas was a quiet city nestled in the hills of the lovely Santa Ynez Valley in Southern California, with minimal crime—a nice easy job for Jason as police chief, which was exactly why he was there. A kidnapping or—God forbid—a murder would be pretty unexpected. But whatever this was—they had to solve it.

Back at the station, he did some budget projections and reviewed progress on a couple of other cases before checking in on the missing person case. Natalia had last been seen at the lab, not by her fiancé, but rather by a fellow grad student who’d also been at the lab that day working on his own research project. He’d seen her briefly, but said she’d left about half an hour before him.

Easy enough to confirm that story, and everyone else’s. The lab was a part of the UCLC campus, located just outside Las Colinas. It was known as the Vioget Research Center, funded by—who else—the prominent Vioget family. The building featured hi-tech security, with swipe cards needed to not only enter the building, but to travel from department to department, lab to lab. Computer records would confirm who’d been there that day and where exactly in the building they’d been. Jason looked forward to getting that information.

UCLC’s Department of Viticulture and Enology was world-renowned. What the hell kind of research did they do about wine, anyway? Jason shook his head and grimaced, then rubbed his abdomen. He had a burning feeling in his stomach that needed to be fed with a bag of donuts from Mel’s Churros. Yeah, a cop cliché, but damn, he loved donuts.

“Lie to the police?” Kendall stared at her brother in horror. Every muscle in her body tightened. “Why, Kevin?” She narrowed her eyes at her younger brother. “Now what did you do?”

She dropped onto the beige leather couch in their family room and skewered him with her sternest big-sister gaze. Which wasn’t very stern, apparently, much as she tried.

Bob Dylan’s raspy voice sang “Like a Rolling Stone” from the stereo speakers.

“I didn’t do anything! I mean, I just…just tell them I was here Saturday night, okay? All weekend basically. It’ll make things easier.”

“Kevin.” Kendall’s neck and shoulders contracted into rock-like tightness. She twisted the rings on her right ring finger, the rings that had been her mother’s, round and round. “What’s going on? Do you know where Natalia is? What happened to her?”

“I swear I don’t know! I’m as lost as you are about this!” He rubbed the back of his neck as he paced back and forth across the carpet in front of one arched window, and he did look worried, the charismatic sparkle gone from his eyes, his engaging grin nowhere to be seen. “She must have taken off somewhere.”

“If she took off less than a week before this damn wedding because she had freakin’ cold feet, I’m gonna kill her when I see her,” Kendall muttered. “Geez. This is
not
the time to disappear.”

“I know, I know. I don’t know where she went!”

She hated to even say the words, her stomach cramping as she uttered them. “Should we cancel the wedding?”

Kevin blanched. “Cancel the wedding? No. No, we can’t do that. She’ll show up. She will.” The look on his face had Kendall’s heart contracting. He loved Natalia. Was he being jilted, practically at the altar? Oh hell.

“Oh, Kevin. I’m sorry. This is so awful.”

She leaned back into the cushions of the couch and stared at the high ceiling, watching the fan twirl above her. She hated when things shot out of control.

After all the work she’d done to plan this wedding, the bride had disappeared. She almost groaned aloud. Yesterday she’d been pissed off at Kevin and determined that after this wedding was over, things were going to change. No more would she let Kevin take advantage of her. Now…
God.
Never mind all the time she’d invested. Never mind all the money she’d spent on the wedding. Those weren’t the most important things. It was far worse for Kevin to get dumped days before the wedding.

If that was what was happening. It was still possible Natalia might show up. But if she did, it was going to be a toss-up whether the dominant emotion would be relief or freakin’ pissed off anger. Kendall wanted to growl. She drew in a long breath and sat up. “I’m supposed to call the police?” Just saying those words made her insides tighten.

“Yeah.” He dug in his jeans pocket and pulled out a crumpled card. “Uh…Jason.”

Kendall slowly took the card and looked down at Jason’s name printed there. “He came out here?”

“Yeah. With another detective. But he said to call him.”

Kendall’s stomach swooped. She swallowed. “Okay.”

“He sat there scowling at me and didn’t say a word.” Kevin tugged at the collar of his golf shirt. “He made me nervous.”

“Why? You have nothing to be nervous about.” She shot him another sharp glance. “Do you?”

“What the fuck! Does everybody think I killed my fiancée or something? Why would I do that? I love her, for chrissake!” His hands curled into fists at his side, then he turned and stalked out of the room and down the hall.

Kendall’s throat constricted as he stormed out, and she bit her bottom lip. Of course she didn’t think he’d killed his fiancée, that was crazy ass stupid. But Kevin
had
been known to get into trouble, and she’d been known to bail him out. Not big trouble, just crazy kid trouble, but still, he was the only family she had and she’d always looked after him. She
had
to look after him.

He must be worried sick about Natalia.

They had guests arriving from out of town, starting in a few days. They had a rental company from Santa Barbara arriving Friday to deliver and set up chairs and tables for both the ceremony and the reception. They had a caterer ready to descend upon the vineyard at the end of this week to begin preparations for dinner for two hundred people. Gifts were already piling up in the den. On top of that, the unseasonably warm weather was causing the grapes to ripen on the vine much too early. They’d planned this wedding to happen well
before
harvest, which was the busiest time of year at the vineyard. Her heart picked up pace a little, and her breathing grew shallow.

No no no. This was not time to lose control. She jumped to her feet and rubbed her palms over her khaki shorts. She could do this. She’d call Jason and find out this was all just some hilarious misunderstanding. They’d all be laughing about this, at some point.

And she’d be cool and courteous when she spoke to him. As if her heart wasn’t pounding against her breastbone.

She pulled out her cell phone and stared at it for a moment before getting her nerve up to punch in Jason’s cell phone number. When he answered, his rich and deep voice, authoritarian and sexy, was immediately recognizable.

“Kendall. Hi.” His tone softened into a husky rasp that made her go soft and warm inside. “How are you?”

“I’m fine.” She tried to control the way her heart thumped and her fingers trembled on the phone. “Good. So. Have you found anything? Any clue of where Natalia might have gone?” Hope rose inside her. Maybe…

“No. Nothing.”

“Oh.” Her bubble deflated. “Damn.”

“I need to talk to you.”

“Really?” She bit her lip.

“Yes. About the case.”

“Oh. Of course.”

“I’ll be there in fifteen minutes.”

She ended the call. Jason was coming.

Chief of police. He wanted to talk about “the case”. This was official police business.

She remembered how Kevin had looked when he’
d walked in–pale, red-rimmed eyes and wrinkled clothing, as if he
’d just been on an epic bender, but with an air of abject misery that went deeper than just a hangover.
Kevin, damn you, where were you?

Was she really going to lie to the police…again?

She played with the rings on her right ring finger, her mother’s wedding, engagement and anniversary rings soldered together into one wide band. The sharp claws of the large center diamond pricked her index finger and her thumb rubbed over the smoothly worn band at her palm as she tugged the rings up and down on her finger. She gazed at her hand, the stone sparkling and flashing, the gold gleaming in the sunlight pouring through the arched window.

Mom. What would Mom do?

Mom always tried to protect her husband and their family. Kendall’s stomach churned remembering being in this very room when her mom told her Dad wasn’t feeling well and couldn’t go to her dance recital. Being in this very room, the ceiling fan twirling above her, as she told the police she didn’t know how much her father’d had to drink the night of the crash. And she remembered being in this very room the night Kevin had called her after another accident, and she’d agreed to try to make things right without getting the police involved. Those same feelings, a sick burning in her stomach, a cold feeling of dread and fear sweeping through her body returned now, and she fought down the nausea and trembling that threatened her.

She had to protect Kevin. She just wished she knew what was going on with him.

She rubbed her hands up and down over her upper arms and headed to the kitchen for a bottle of water. She tried to ease the tightness at the back of her throat with sips of San Pellegrino, fighting for control of her emotions.

Jason arrived soon, accompanied by another man in a suit, and she let them into the house through the front door. Their heels echoed on the terra cotta tiles of the foyer as they followed her into the living room. When she turned to face them, her gaze collided with Jason’s intense blue one and heat washed down through her. It felt like forever that their eyes held, and nerves fluttered in her stomach, this time not about talking to the police but at seeing Jason again.

God, he was so beautiful. His deep-set eyes regarded her steadily from beneath thick straight brows. He wore his dark hair cut short with deep sideburns, and a shadow of whiskers darkened his square jaw, almost hiding the small pale scar, a scar she’d traced with her fingers and tongue.
 

“Kendall, this is Detective Paul Janko. He’s the detective in charge of the investigation.”

She collected her scattered wits, gave a quick smile and a nod. “Um…can I offer you something to drink? Coffee? Water? Iced tea?”

“Coffee would be great,” Jason replied.

“Nothing for me,” Detective Janko said.

“Please have a seat. I’ll be right back.”

Kendall jetted into the kitchen and dumped the last of the coffee she’d made that morning into a cup. She carried it back into the living room where they both still politely stood, hoping her shaky hands wouldn’t spill it. She handed Jason the cup of black coffee, just how he liked it. Once again their eyes met in a jolt of heat.

Then, as The Doors started singing “Light My Fire”, one of Jason’s eyebrows rose. She sank her teeth into her bottom lip and hustled over to the stereo. “Sorry. I’ll turn this off.”

Once that was accomplished, she sat on the long couch, facing them across the coffee table in front of the stone fireplace, and crossed her legs. Jason’s gaze dipped to her bare legs in short shorts, then back up as he sipped the coffee.

He gave off an air of authority and command. Her gaze dropped to his beautiful mouth and her stomach did another flip of lust.

The detective began asking her questions, which she answered honestly and truthfully, one after the other. Then he asked, “Why is the wedding being held here?”

She blinked at him. The fingers of her left hand went to her right and played with the rings there. “Um…because that’s what Kevin and Natalia wanted.”

“Why not at the bride’s home?”

Her cheeks heated a little more. Jason knew all this and she cast him a reproachful glance. Did they need to go all through this? “Natalia’s parents are not well off,” she said evenly. “They couldn’t afford the kind of wedding Natalia wanted. And they live a long way from here. Natalia and Kevin’s friends are all here.”

“So you’re paying for the whole wedding?”

“Not entirely.” What the hell was this about? “Natalia bought her own dress.”

“That’s it?”

“They don’t have much money, Detective Janko.” Her flush heated to scorching. “That’s nothing to deride her for. Every girl wants a fairy tale wedding, to be a princess for a day. Kevin’s my only family, so I was happy to do that for them.”

“Natalia’s marrying into a rich family.”

She drew back and focused her coolest gaze on him. “What are you saying?”

He lifted a shoulder. “Just what I said.”

Jason cleared his throat and she looked at him, in time to catch his quelling, pointed gaze at the detective. “So Kevin was home all weekend?” he said.

“Yes.” The word slipped out easily.

“What time did he get home on Saturday?” Detective Janko picked up the questions again.

“I’m not sure exactly.” Her heart thudded slow and heavy in her chest. “He was working at the office when I popped in there to see how things were going in the tasting room.” She held the detective’s gaze steadily, avoiding looking at Jason. Her stomach cramped as she continued to answer their questions, which seemed to go on forever, and she had to use every bit of control she had to keep her hands from shaking, her voice from quivering.

The detective and the police chief both stood.