Landon closed his eyes and tried to shut out the sound of water running in the bathroom. As soon as they had returned to her house from the jail, Jocelyn had headed to the shower—needing to wash off her visit with Luther Mills.
Landon wanted to join her in the shower, but guilt was already weighing heavily on him. While his assignment was to protect Jocelyn, he was also part of a team—a team he hadn’t been supporting as much as he should have been. He was worried about his friends.
Fortunately, Clint and Hart were safe now—since the people they were protecting had agreed to go into safe houses far from Luther’s reach. But since they were safe, Keeli and Tyce were in even more danger. Especially Tyce.
He had to be trying to find the judge’s daughter. Landon didn’t want to bother him, but he had to know if he was all right.
Even though he expected the call to go straight to voice mail, he punched Tyce’s contact on his cell screen. When a male voice answered, he nearly dropped it—especially when he realized it wasn’t Tyce who’d picked up the call.
“Parker?”
“Yeah...” His boss uttered a ragged-sounding sigh that rattled the phone.
“What’s wrong?” Landon anxiously asked. “Why are you answering Tyce’s phone?”
“He was shot. He’s in surgery.”
Landon’s stomach flipped as it filled with dread. “What happened?”
“He rescued the judge’s daughter.”
“Is she all right?” Landon asked. Or had Bella Holmes been shot, too?
“She’s fine,” Parker said. “Tyce found her and saved her—all on his own. But he got shot in the process. I’m not sure if it happened before or after we arrived as backup. We got there just as Luther’s backup arrived. It was...” His voice cracked. “It got crazy...”
“Is anyone else hurt?” Landon asked.
“I don’t think any of Luther’s crew survived.”
“What about the Payne Protection bodyguards?” Landon asked. “Are they all okay?”
“Everyone is except for Tyce.”
“How bad is it?” he asked, fear making his voice gruff.
“He carried her out of the warehouse, got her to safety, made sure she was treated before he collapsed,” Parker said.
But that was because Tyce was a beast. He was big and strong and determined.
“How bad is he hurt?” Landon asked again.
“I don’t know,” Parker said. “He’s been in surgery for a while.”
Which meant that there was considerable damage. “Damn it...” he said.
“It was weird how Luther’s crew showed up,” Parker said. “It was as if they’d been tipped off that Tyce had found her. What the hell did Ms. Gerber say to him at the jail? That was where you brought her, right?”
“Yeah...” he conceded. “But I wasn’t in on the meeting.”
“So you don’t know what she told him.”
“She wouldn’t have said Tyce found her,” Landon said. “Until now, I didn’t know Tyce had any idea where to find her.” But he should have known that he would figure it out. Tyce had been undercover for a long time as part of Luther’s crew. So he might have had some idea where she was being held.
Parker sighed. “I don’t know.”
“What?” Landon asked.
“I don’t know if we should trust Jocelyn,” he replied. “You might have been right about her this whole time.”
“No, I wasn’t,” Landon said. “And you know it. All the attempts on her life prove she’s not working for Luther.”
“But you’re the one who’s gotten hurt all those times,” Parker said. “Not her...”
“That’s not...” And he remembered he hadn’t told Parker about the attempt in her office—when she’d nearly been strangled. So he did it now.
Parker cursed him.
“That’s why we disappeared for a while,” Landon said.
“Because you didn’t trust anyone?” Parker asked. “Because you believed her about Tyce being in collusion with Luther? I don’t know what happened in her office, but I think you were smart not to trust her. And I don’t think you should now, not after what happened to Tyce.”
Landon knew his boss was upset, so he wasn’t going to argue with him—even though he wanted to hotly defend Jocelyn. “Let me know when Tyce is out of surgery,” he said.
“Don’t bring her near the hospital,” Parker warned him. “Nobody wants her around here.”
That wasn’t true. Landon wanted her. Badly...
Understanding that Parker was rightfully worried about Tyce, Landon just disconnected the call. He was sliding his cell into his pocket when he heard the ding of another cell phone receiving a text. It wasn’t his, or he would have felt it.
And he could have sworn Jocelyn had brought her cell upstairs with her when she’d gone to take her shower. The sound dinged again, and he realized it came from the briefcase she’d left on the coffee table. Curious as to why she would have two phones, he walked over to it. She must have shoved something in it as they’d come inside because the briefcase wasn’t fully closed. Usually it was shut and locked.
He took the opportunity to flip it open, and his stomach pitched when he looked inside. Lying on top of a pile of folders was the phone and a prescription bottle with the label torn off. What the hell had been in the bottle?
The sleeping pills that had drugged their backup bodyguards? Why would she have drugged them, though?
He stared down at the phone. The text highlighted on the screen said, Thanks for the heads-up that Tyce had found our insurance policy.
He sucked in a breath, feeling like he’d been sucker punched. He’d wanted to go into that room with her and Luther to protect her. But he’d needed to be inside to protect his friend and himself.
Because not only his stomach hurt; his heart ached, too, feeling as if it was breaking.
He’d been such a fool to change his mind about her. An even bigger fool for trusting her. And the biggest fool for beginning to fall for her.
Jocelyn had been hoping that Landon would join her in the shower. Once she’d washed off the revulsion she’d felt from her visit with Luther Mills and his sleazy lawyer, she’d still felt chilled. Scared that Luther might just get away with murder again.
And she’d needed Landon’s arms around her, holding her, comforting her, keeping her safe.
She’d needed the heat of their passion to chase away all her fears and concerns again, like it had this weekend. But the weekend hadn’t lasted forever, no matter how much she’d wished it had. And because she’d wished they could go back—to the weekend and that safe hotel suite—she’d gone downstairs, in only her towel, to find him.
She found him leaning over her briefcase, and she gasped in shock. “You’re still snooping through my stuff?” she asked. And despite the towel wrapped around her, she felt completely naked and vulnerable and incredibly hurt. “You can’t still think I’m working for Luther?”
“I can’t?” he asked, as he turned toward her. His handsome face was flushed with anger, his jaw rigid with it. “When he sends you a text thanking you for the tip about Tyce knowing where Bella Holmes was being held?”
“What?” she asked. “My phone’s upstairs.” Out of habit, she’d brought it with her into the bathroom. She never knew when her boss might call her. She’d also wanted it close in case someone called her about the situation with the judge’s daughter.
“Not that phone,” he said. “This phone.” And he pointed to the cell phone lying atop the folders in her briefcase. “The one you use to communicate with Luther Mills.”
She shook her head. “That’s not my phone.”
“The bottle isn’t yours either?” he asked.
“No,” she said, and now anger gripped her, that he could actually suspect even for a moment that those things were hers. “I found the phone and bottle in my filing cabinet in the office...” Her voice cracked with that anger now as it overwhelmed her. “...right before someone tried to strangle me to death.”
Before they’d left her office, she’d shoved them into her briefcase with the intent of turning them over to the chief when she felt safe, when she’d been confident that she could trust anyone besides Landon.
Clearly now he didn’t trust her. He closed his eyes as if he couldn’t bear the sight of her.
“Do you honestly think I did that to myself?” she asked. “After everything you know about me now, how can you think I would ever work for Luther Mills?”
He sighed and opened his eyes, which were full of regret. “I’m sorry. I just talked to Parker—”
“Have they found the judge’s daughter?” she asked.
He nodded.
“Is she okay?”
“She is,” he confirmed, but there was fear yet in his voice.
And she knew. “Tyce isn’t...”
“He was shot rescuing her,” Landon said. “Parker said it was as if someone tipped off Luther and he sent in reinforcements.” He held up the cell phone. “Then Luther sent this text to this phone.”
She looked at the screen now, reading the thank-you message. She shuddered in revulsion and felt as if she needed to shower again. “That’s not my phone,” she repeated. “And, unfortunately, there’s probably no way to prove that message came from Luther.”
But why had he sent it? Did he know she had it now? Was he just messing with her?
Tears stung her eyes, and she blinked furiously to fight them from falling. “But it is my fault,” she murmured as guilt pressed on her lungs. “I was trying to scare him into giving up information that might lead to where Bella was being held, so I bluffed that Tyce had already found her.” She shook her head at her stupidity. “I should have known that Luther was too smart to fall for it.”
“You weren’t bluffing,” Landon said. “Tyce had figured out where she was being held.”
“Is he going to be okay?” she asked, her heart pounding hard with dread and fast with fear.
Landon’s broad shoulders lifted in a weak shrug. “He’s in surgery.”
That didn’t sound good.
“But Tyce is tough. He got her out and got her to the hospital to be checked out before anybody even realized he’d been shot.”
What kind of people were the Payne Protection bodyguards? Shot in the neck, blood gushing from his wound, Landon had still managed to save her.
She pointed toward the pill bottle. “That must have been what was used to drug the backup bodyguards,” she said. “Why would I do that? Why would I help Luther Mills? You know I don’t need money. All I need is justice.”
And him—she needed him. But he couldn’t trust her. So they had no future. Hell, even if he could trust her, they had no future. She had to focus on her job, on making sure criminals like Luther Mills were brought to justice.
Landon stepped closer and cupped her bare shoulders in his big hands. “I’m sorry,” he said. “I shouldn’t have doubted you.”
“I understand why you did,” she admitted. “I can’t believe Luther sent that text.”
“Who else—”
“No,” she said. “I know it’s him.” Even if they would never be able to prove it. “But I don’t know why he would have.”
“To mess with you,” Landon said. “To make you feel guilty, to knock you off your game—because he knows he’s going to court now.”
She sucked in a breath as she realized he was right. She would soon have to face Luther Mills again—in court. And she could not lose or he would be free and even more dangerous than he was behind bars.
“That’s not all he’s going to do, though,” Landon said. “He’s going to step up his efforts to try to take you out, so that whoever is working for him in the DA’s office can take over his case.”
She shivered, very cold despite his touch on her bare skin. But she was not about to back down—from Luther Mills or from Landon.
She wanted him. But she was afraid that wasn’t all. She needed him. Hell, she might even love him. She lifted her arms to link them behind his neck, and she pulled his head down to hers.
“Jocelyn...” he murmured, his brown eyes even darker with desire and something else. Fear. For her or for him?
It was clear he wanted to say more—about Luther, about the case, about her prosecuting the case—but she didn’t want to hear it. She didn’t want to think about it.
She only wanted to feel that passion only he had ever made her feel. She rose up on tiptoe and pressed her mouth to his, kissing him deeply.
A groan emanated from his throat as he kissed her back with the same intensity and hunger she felt for him. He pulled away and murmured her name again. But then he lifted and carried her toward the stairs. He rushed up to her bedroom, where he set her on her feet again.
The towel had loosened and dropped from her body, leaving her naked before him. But she wasn’t just physically naked. She felt emotionally stripped, too.
Hurt that he’d doubted her. Vulnerable that she’d cared so much that he had.
Did she already love him?
She was more afraid that she might than she was even afraid of Luther Mills. She didn’t want to be in love.
But Landon was her hero in so many ways. She reached for the buttons on his shirt, needing him as bare as she was, needing to feel his heart beating against hers. As she attacked the buttons, he slipped off his holster and placed it on the table next to the bed. Then he shrugged off the shirt and unbuttoned his jeans, dropping them and his boxers to the floor.
He obviously wanted her as badly as she wanted him. His erection jutted toward her. But when she reached for him, he pulled back. Then he leaned down and fumbled in his pocket for a condom.
Before he could roll it on, she reached out and closed her fingers around him. Then she leaned over and made love to him with her mouth.
He groaned and tangled his fingers in her hair, gently pulling her back. “I need to be inside you,” he said, his voice gruff with desire. “I need to be part of you.”
That was how it felt when they made love—like they were no longer separate, like they became one being. She lay back on the bed and held her arms out for him.
His hand shook as he rolled on the condom. Then he joined her on the bed. She parted her legs and he knelt between them, easing gently inside her. She arched up and wrapped her limbs around him, holding him tight as she took him deeper.
A low moan tore from her throat as the first orgasm moved through her. The tension had been wound so tightly inside her, that was all it took. But he built the tension again with slow, deep strokes, as he lowered his head and kissed her.
First he brushed his lips over hers. Then he moved them down her throat. She gasped as his tongue stroked across her bruised skin.
“I’m sorry...” he said.
The strangling wasn’t his fault, and he knew that. She was the one who’d gone out with no protection. So she suspected he was apologizing for earlier—for those brief moments he’d doubted her.
Warmth flooded her, but it wasn’t just desire this time. She felt so much more for Landon, things she’d never wanted to feel for anyone or anything but her job.
He slid his arm under her back and lifted her up as he eased back on his haunches. She straddled his thighs, then locked her legs around his waist. In this position, her body was aligned with his, so that her breasts were nearly on the level with his face.
He took advantage of that fact, and he closed his lips around a taut nipple. He gently tugged on it, and she moaned, the tension winding so tightly inside her again.
He thrust up, sliding even deeper inside her. Desperate for release, she moved and rocked against him as she clutched at his broad shoulders. Then she lowered her head and nipped at his shoulder.
He chuckled, then groaned as she swiped her tongue across it. Then she shifted her lips to his throat and then his mouth, kissing him deeply. They moved as one, their rhythm completely in sync, and that was how they found their pleasure, crying out as it overwhelmed them.
Shaken and spent from the powerful orgasm, Jocelyn felt boneless and limply sank into the mattress when he released her. Within seconds, after cleaning up, he was back with her, pulling her into his arms. His chest rose and fell with pants for breath and the powerful beat of his heart.
Hers beat with the same intensity. Even though she’d found release, she’d also found more fear—because she knew without a doubt that she loved him.
He had his emergency bag packed, complete with a forged passport and a substantial amount of cash. He would get more—so much more money—if he stayed and made sure that Luther Mills got away with murder again. But if he stayed, he risked getting caught and losing his freedom.
And despite the money he’d made working for Luther, he didn’t have enough to get away with his crimes like Luther did. And once it was known what he’d done, he would have no allies—only enemies.
A phone vibrated on the table near his bed. Two of them sat on it, the one on which Luther called him and his real cell phone. He stared at them, wondering which it was.
Luther calling...wondering if he’d killed Jocelyn Gerber yet. Or Jocelyn calling...wondering why the hell he wasn’t at the office yet.
He stepped away from the suitcase he was packing on the bed and stared down at the phone. Judge Holmes...
Was it a trick? Was the man calling to put him on speaker for his daughter to identify his voice? He’d been careful to disguise it when he’d spoken to the judge during her abduction. He’d even used a special device to digitally alter the sound of his voice. But because he hadn’t thought Bella Holmes would make it out of captivity alive, he hadn’t bothered disguising it around her.
Of course, he’d met her only a couple of times in the judge’s chambers. And being the social butterfly she was, she met new people all the time. He doubted that she would be able to place him.
So he punched in the accept button.
“This is Judge Holmes.” The older man needlessly identified himself. “I am trying to get a hold of ADA Gerber. Do you have any idea where she might be?”
Before he answered, he coughed and sputtered, so that the judge would think he had a cold. “No, Your Honor. I’m sorry. I don’t know where she could be.”
“She’s not at the office.”
“I’m not at the office either,” he replied. “I’ve been battling a flu bug for a couple of weeks now.” An illness would explain his disappearances and absences over the past couple of weeks—if anyone had noticed.
“I’m sorry to hear that,” the judge replied. “I thought you might be Ms. Gerber’s second chair for Luther Mills’s trial.”
He should have been first. “I think Jocelyn has determined she can handle the prosecution on her own. And isn’t that trial a couple of weeks off yet?”
“An opening came up in the docket, and we’re able to start sooner than expected,” he replied, “as long as the lawyers have no objections.”
Luther would have objections and more demands on him. Jocelyn had to die now before the trial could start. Of course the judge was eager to begin the trial, because he wouldn’t be able to bring his daughter home from wherever he’d hidden her until it was all over.
“I will be heading into the office soon, Your Honor,” he said. “If I see Jocelyn, I will tell her to contact you.”
“Thank you.” The judge clicked off the cell.
He tossed his phone down and uttered a low growl of frustration. He had no choice now. He could not fail again. This time—when he tried—he had to make damn certain he killed Jocelyn Gerber.