The morning of Christmas Eve was, in a word, amazing.
Holden held Grace close, his fingers tracing over the curve of her hip. Her head was on his chest, her fingers playing in his hair, her slender leg draped over his thigh, her naked body pressed against his bare skin. He had never been happier.
After a passionate night, they snuggled in bed until a decadently late hour. Xavier had her set of keys from closing the previous night and was able to open Delgado’s. Holden found himself actually thanking Judge Don Rumpke for insisting on issuing the warrant later in the day.
“I never thought it was possible to feel like this,” she said, her breath brushing across his skin, tickling his chest hairs.
He stroked her wild curls back from her face. “Like what?”
“Everything is right in the world. Perfect. Just because I’m with someone who gets me, loves me as much as I love him, makes me feel safe. I know you have my back no matter what and it...” Her voice was no more than a breathy whisper as it trailed off. “It’s hard to put into words.”
He understood. The deep connection. The serenity it brought. The exhilaration. The hunger. “I get it. I feel the same.” For the first time in his life. Like he could stay here in this one-bedroom apartment forever with her and not need anything else.
“The great sex doesn’t hurt, either,” she said, smiling.
“Great, huh?”
“Well, it was for me.” The enthusiasm in her voice dimmed. “I haven’t been with many guys. And my ex, Kevin, told me I wasn’t very good at it and that he wouldn’t miss it when we broke up.”
Instantly, Holden hated a man that he had never met. “He said that to you?”
“Kevin said a lot of mean things at the end. In bed, he was always in such a rush, so forceful, like the only pleasure he cared about was his own. It didn’t feel good.”
His father had told him, and the rest of his brothers, that it was important for a man to take his time with a woman. That the longer he spent making certain she was ready the better it would be for them both.
He’d made sure that Grace had been more than ready and had relished teasing her, drawing out her pleasure like warm honey from a comb.
In the future, every time they were together, he wanted her to enjoy it as much if not more than him.
“Kevin sounds like an idiot. Any man who knows what he’s doing understands that foreplay is half the fun. Not an appetizer that could be skipped.”
She laughed. “What about you, Mr. All-State Football Star? I’m sure you’ve probably had better.”
It was easy to have sex, and yes, he had experience, but with Grace it was different, more than physical. He made love to her with his whole heart.
“For the record, I haven’t. Nothing has ever come close to what I have with you. On any level.” He caught her chin in his hand and tipped her face up. “God, you’re so beautiful.” He kissed her and she sank into it, clutching him, gliding her hands over his body, in his hair, in every way possible drawing him deeper, closer until he craved being inside her again.
A sensation he would’ve liked to experience a lot longer. But a knock at his front door ripped a groan from him.
“One minute,” he called out before going back for another quick kiss.
He wanted an hour or twelve. Hell, since he was fantasizing, he might as well wish for a whole day of Grace without any distractions, no interruptions.
But that was not to be.
Holden pulled himself out of bed, grabbed a pair of sweatpants and walked through the living room as he tugged them on. Bracing for the slap of cold wind, he opened the door.
His mother stood on the landing with her hands full of shopping bags. “Sorry it took me so long, but I went to Cheyenne. Better stores.”
“It’s fine.” Too bad she didn’t drive to Casper. It would’ve bought him more time with Grace. Not as though she could go to work without any clothes.
“I can see that.” His mother beamed. “I love being right.”
“I know you do.”
“Take Grace’s Christmas gifts.” She handed him the bags. “I got everything on her list and then some. Do you want me to send up some food for you two?”
“No, thanks. I’ll cook something quick.” He held up the bags. “You’re the best, Mom.”
She kissed his cheek, waved and hurried down the steps.
Kicking the door closed, he headed to the bedroom. He dumped the bags on the bed.
“Goodness.” Grace sat up. “Holly went overboard.”
“Is that possible considering you have to replace everything?”
“I just can’t afford all this.”
Holden sat on the bed and put a hand on her back. “Hey, my mom knows how important you are to me. You’re family. She’d be insulted if you tried to pay her back. So I guess you’re stuck with all this stuff. Merry Christmas.”
She flashed him a dazzling smile that never failed to give him a punch to the gut.
“Why don’t you shower and dress while I cook us something to eat? I need to go in soon. I’m expecting Judge Rumpke to sign the warrant.”
“You cook?”
“As a matter of fact, I do. My mother made sure all her boys know how to cook, clean, do laundry and sew. I’ll never be a tailor, but I can mend my socks and put a button back on a shirt.”
“I’m impressed.” She gave him a kiss.
“As well you should be. How does pancakes and eggs sound?”
“Delicious.”
“Hey.” He caressed her cheek, letting the humor fade from his face. “Once I’m finished dealing with Todd, we’re going to figure out who tried to kill you. Until we do, I don’t want you closing Delgado’s alone.” She was staying at the ranch, and he was driving her to and from work, but there was still a window of opportunity when she was vulnerable, and he wanted to close it. “Okay?”
“I can close and stay safe.”
This was not a debate or a negotiation. Grace could be stubborn, but this was a fight he was going to win.
“Will you do it for me? To put my mind at ease. It’ll be a whole lot easier to focus on work if I’m not worrying about you.”
With a sigh of resignation, she nodded. “Okay. For you.”
“Thank you.” He kissed her cheek. “I’ll pick you up from work at six. We’ll have dinner with my family at seven, and you can meet everyone.”
“I’m looking forward to it. I want to get to know them.”
Relief seeped through him that she was going to use more caution and not close on her own and also that she wanted to be a part of his life.
He couldn’t ask for anything more.
Now that that was resolved, he could enjoy what was to come next. Getting his warrant, then slapping handcuffs on Todd and hauling him in for formal questioning.
HOLDEN SLID THE evidence bag with the Shining Light necklace across the table in the interrogation room, putting it in front of Todd and his lawyer, Mr. Friedman. As soon as Holden had shown up with other deputies and the warrant, Todd had invoked his right to an attorney. They had to wait two hours for his lawyer to arrive to question him.
“We found that, Emma’s necklace,” he said, gesturing to it, “in our search of your room at your clubhouse. How did you come into possession of it?”
Whispers were exchanged between Todd and his lawyer before the outlaw biker said, “I don’t recall.”
“I saw those everywhere,” Mr. Friedman said. “It’s entirely possible that he stumbled upon one. There’s no proof that it belonged to the deceased. My client had no motive to kill his sister. And I believe there’s no eyewitness putting him at the scene of the crime, is there?”
“There’s no witness that has identified Mr. Burk,” Holden said. “We were able to obtain the warrant because your client lied about his alibi. I followed a hunch and have several witnesses as well as credit card receipts putting Nikki Adams in Cheyenne at the Wild Pony at the time your client claimed she was with him. And as to motive, he does have one.”
Todd whispered in his attorney’s ear.
Then Mr. Friedman smirked. “We’d like to hear this supposed motive.”
Holden folded his hands on the table. “Emma was approaching the one-year anniversary of her rebirth.”
“You mean brainwashing,” Todd said, and his lawyer put a hand on his shoulder.
“In the days prior to the ceremony, Starlights share with Matthew McCoy all the nasty tidbits about their former life. Specifically related to people. Allegedly, McCoy uses that information to blackmail those who aren’t members. It’s my understanding that Emma had intimate knowledge regarding the illicit activities of the Iron Warriors. It would only make sense that Todd would want to silence her.”
More whispering ensued as the two conferred.
“The Iron Warriors and the Shining Light have an understanding,” Mr. Friedman said, straightening his tie. “They stay out of each other’s way. As for blackmail, well,” he chuckled, “no one has ever successfully extorted the Iron Warriors. I think they’d welcome anyone to try. Besides, Emma was a known junkie, liar and a thief among other things. Anyone who took her word as gospel regarding anything and tried to capitalize off it would’ve been a fool.”
Todd smiled.
That piece of garbage thought he was going to win and walk out of there triumphant.
Holden hated him with a passion and would do anything, within legal bounds, to nail him.
In their sophomore year of high school, one of his best friends had witnessed Todd dealing drugs on the school premises and reported it. Before the sheriff’s department had a chance to investigate, his friend was found dead. Beaten to death.
The authorities couldn’t prove it was Todd, but everyone at school knew he had been responsible.
That was when Holden had decided that one day, he would become a law enforcement officer to put a stop to scum like Todd.
He hoped that the day of reckoning had finally come.
Holden flipped the bag over, showing the other side of the necklace. “When someone is reborn a Starlight and gifted this,” he said, tapping the pendant, “their name is engraved on the back of the medallion. There are many like it, but only one belongs to each Starlight. And this one is Emma’s. I also have an eyewitness who saw her wearing it less than two hours before she was killed.”
Todd’s smile slipped from his face. His black eyes narrowed and his jaw clenched.
Mr. Friedman shrugged. “That’s circumstantial.”
“Her killer,” Holden said, “was riding a black motorcycle that night—”
“So what?” Mr. Friedman said, cutting him off. “Do you know how many people ride a black Harley around here? Do you have a witness who saw his bike? His license plate?”
They kept fishing, wanting him to imply the sheriff’s department had Grace as a witness.
That bait wouldn’t work on Holden. There was nothing they could say that would cause him to endanger her.
“No, we don’t,” Holden said, which was true since she never saw a license plate, “and we don’t need one. Because we have forensic evidence from the scene. The motorcycle scraped a parked car as it fled, and paint was transferred. Once we verify that it came from your client’s motorcycle and along with this—” he held up the bag with the necklace “—we’ll move from circumstantial to concrete. Then you can expect the district attorney’s office to file formal charges for obstruction of justice, giving false statements to the sheriff’s department when questioned, fleeing the scene of an accident that resulted in injury,” he said, clenching his fist at how Grace had almost been killed, “and of course, murder.” This time Holden smiled. “There’s one more thing. We know Emma called her killer from a pay phone. All we have to do is request the records.” And wait until the cows come home. “Once we get them, this case will be airtight.”
Todd went still with a suddenly unreadable expression, but the concern in his eyes was plain to see. He leaned over and whispered to his lawyer. The more Todd said, the more Mr. Friedman’s grimace deepened.
“Well, yes, that’s possible,” Mr. Friedman said in a low voice, in response to his client, “to save on resources.”
Todd resumed whispering furiously.
“What?” Mr. Friedman said, shrinking back with alarm and looking at Todd. “You can’t.”
“Yes, I can.” Todd scowled at his attorney, and Holden wondered what was unfolding in front of him.
Mr. Friedman put a hand on his client’s shoulder. “It would be a mistake to do this. There are other ways to handle it.”
Todd shoved the older man’s hand away and straightened. “I’d like to confess.”
Surprise knocked Holden back in his chair, the shock gripping the pit of his stomach like a cold fist.
“I must advise against this.” Mr. Friedman’s voice grew frantic. “Don’t say anything else. Not another word. Do you hear me?” The lawyer turned to Holden. “He doesn’t know what he’s saying. He’s confused. I need a minute to confer with my client in private. Right this instant.”
Holden stood to leave, per protocol. The two were allowed to speak in complete privacy, with the sound shut off in the observation room and video recording halted.
“We don’t need a minute to talk,” Todd said.
Holden didn’t take another step toward the door and stayed planted where he stood.
“Yes, we do,” Mr. Friedman insisted, his face reddening. “You pay me a lot of money for my legal advice. I urge you to heed it now by shutting up!” His attorney cut his gaze to Holden. “Get out and let us talk. Or I will file a complaint against this department and have your badge.”
Todd leaned forward, resting his arms on the table, and stared Holden straight in the eyes. “It was me. I killed Emma.”