His Captive Lover (The Thorpe Brothers Series) (4 page)

Ash breathed a bit easier with the statement of their support and nodded, relief flooding through him.  “I will.  It could be a difficult case.”

“And a difficult issue,” Axel said, but he was starting to grin. 

Ash turned to Xander, holding his brother’s gaze.  “She’s a good friend of Autumn’s as well.”  He wanted to give his older brother the warning and fought the urge to step backwards in case Xander exploded, which had been more often lately for some reason. 

Xander immediately scowled and crossed his arms in the air.  “You’re going to need all of our help then,” he said, implying that Autumn was the issue and not his client.  “She only brings trouble.”

Ash opened his mouth to say something, then looked at Axel and Ryker.  Both men were thinking the same thing, but as their eyes connected, they all three decided to leave it alone. 

“I’ve got to get back to her,” he finally said.  “I’ll have Emma send each of you a brief on the evidence as soon as I get it from the prosecutor.”

Back down on his own floor, he signaled to his investigator, Mark.  “I need you to find out everything you can about these people,” he said and handed him a list which contained the names of the assumed victim, the new fiancée and the very lovey Mia Paulson.  “This is a rush issue.  Get your team on it immediately and report back to me with whatever you can find,” he ordered and Mark instantly nodded his head and moved back to his office. 

Mark was one of those unassuming men who blended into all situations.  But his powers of observation bordered on the supernatural and he had the best technical mind Ash had ever seen.  The man could rig a camera to the most bizarre places, all to get evidence that would help their clients.  He had a team of investigators that all had a scary expertise, having come from the intelligence communities or other investigative branches.  Their combined expertise was worth their weight in gold because they continued to find evidence that exonerated their clients. 

With the investigation starting, Ash looked towards his own office and wasn’t surprised when he saw the pretty, dark head peek out of his office.  He almost chuckled to himself if he hadn’t felt that irritation start up again.  There was just something about Mia Paulson that struck him in a way that no other female had ever done before.  He couldn’t define it, but he knew she had some powerful force that he wasn’t going to ignore. 

“Oh no, my little lady,” he mumbled under his breath as he watched her pretty, grey eyes scan the room for an escape.  “You aren’t going anywhere.”

He moved quickly and was in front of her before she even took two steps out of his office.  Nudging her right back inside, he leaned against the doorway and looked down at her, amused when he saw her biting that full, pink lower lip.  “Going somewhere?” he asked with a slight drawl. 

Mia hid her hands behind her back.  “I have to leave.”  At his raised eyebrow, she sighed.  “Look, you’re one of the best of the best,” she said, pushing her hands into her pockets, unaware that the posture pulled the tee-shirt tight against her breasts, showing the hardened nipples and making his body harden as well.  “I have no idea how much you charge per hour, but I simply can’t afford you.”

“Mia, you can’t afford to walk out of this office,” he said, ignoring her comment about his hourly rate. 

She shook her head.  “You probably charge two or three hundred dollars per hour, don’t you?” she asked.

Ash shrugged one of his shoulders, her worried, grey eyes solidifying in his mind what he’d already decided earlier.  “What’s your point?”  He didn’t tell her that he charged closer to seven hundred to one thousand dollars an hour, depending on the complexity of the case.  That was just his hourly rate and in her situation, it would be closer to the grand mark not to mention the hourly cost of all the investigators he’d just launched on the city as well as the support staff and the potential legal filings. 

“I can’t afford you.  I can’t raise nearly that amount of money,” she explained, desperate now to get out of this office before more charges accumulated.  She was so humiliated that she would even have to admit such a thing to a man like this who could probably afford anything his big heart desired. 

“Mia, sit down,” he commanded and walked over to his desk, indicating she should take a seat in one of the leather chairs in front of him.  “Don’t worry about the cost of your defense.  Let’s figure that out after everything is settled.”

She stood there for a long moment, her mind battling with her instincts.  She knew, deep down, that this man was trouble and her life would never be the same again. 

He was sifting through some papers on his desk but when she continued to stand there by the door, he looked up at her.  When he realized she was still worried, he walked back to stand in front of her.  Taking one of her hands in his large one, he noted how cold her fingers were, and that they started trembling once again. 

“I know that you’re scared and not sure of what’s going to happen next.  But you’re going to have to trust me.  I’m very good at what I do, Mia.  Just relax and let’s take this one step at a time.  You’re no longer in jail, but I doubt you can work, so let’s just take it slow and figure things out as they come along.  Let me worry about the high level strategy and you worry about answering my questions.  Does that work for you?” he asked softly, trying to reassure her but he was also fighting his instinct to pull her closer and kiss her.  Instead of following on that instinct, he said, “So let’s go through the issues,” he suggested, trying to give her some sort of comfort but not sure how.  “What was your fiancé like?” he asked, leading her over to his desk so she was sitting next to him. 

Mia answered all of the man’s questions, over and over again he found a detail in her story that she had to explain.  People came into his office and handed him papers, which then shifted his interrogation.  He was relentless in his questions, not letting her hide anything.  Occasionally, someone interrupted about another case and Mia prayed that the man would give her a slight break from his interrogation, but he answered the person’s question efficiently before coming right back to his questions to her.  She told him about their dating relationship, the engagement, the ring, his reaction when she broke it off with him and all the small little gifts he’d sent to her, trying to convince her to come back to him. 

By noon, she was exhausted.  She’d been over and over the issue a million times, her fingers almost tearing her hair out.  “I don’t know!” she finally screamed at him.  “I don’t know where Jeff is!  I told you, I haven’t spoken to him in over a month.  I threatened to put a restraining order on him because he wouldn’t leave me alone!” 

“And did you?”

“No!” she replied, exasperated and defeated. 

“Why not?”

She sighed, shaking her head.  “Because I didn’t know how!” she snapped right back at him.  She stood up and paced in front of the window in his office that looked out onto the Chicago skyline.  “I know that sounds ridiculous to you, but normal people don’t know what to do in these situations!”  She was flustered that her stupidity was being brought up over and over again.  “The only reason I know there’s such a thing as a restraining order is because of television.  But in those situations, the police are enforcing the restraining order that is already in place!  The shows never explain how to actually go about putting one in place!”

She fell back down into the comfortable leather chair, bracing herself for his next question.

“Did you eat breakfast?” he asked.

Mia looked up, startled by the softer tone of his voice.  When she could look at his eyes, she sighed.  “No.  They were too busy putting my wrists in handcuffs.  They didn’t give me a chance to grab my morning cereal,” she replied sarcastically. 

Ash thought that would be a very good look for her, but pushed that thought aside when his body instantly reacted to the visual that popped into his head.  Of course, she wouldn’t be clothed while the handcuffs were on.  And he wouldn’t be arresting her either.  He cleared his throat which helped to dissipate the image a bit.  “Wasn’t there something offered at the jail?”

Mia looked startled by the gentleness in his voice now.  “I guess so,” she answered, but shrugged. “I wasn’t really in the right frame of mind to grab food though.”

“Come with me,” Ash said, standing up and grabbing his jacket once again.

Mia stood also, but she wasn’t sure she wanted to go anywhere with this man.  “Where are we going?” she asked, her feet moving, but not as quickly as might be needed to keep up with his longer stride.

He looked down at her, a slight smile on his handsome face as he touched the dark circles under her eyes.  “You need something to eat.  And probably a few more hours of sleep, but unfortunately, that’s not going to happen yet.  Food, I can do.  Rest is a luxury I can’t offer you at this point.”

Mia’s shoulders drooped, but she knew he was right.  “Food would be good.  If you could drive me home, I can just grab a sandwich.”

Ash hesitated and she looked up again. “What?” she asked, not sure if she wanted to hear what he might tell her.  The look on his face promised that she wouldn’t like anything he was about to say. 

Ash wished he could drive her home and tuck her into her bed.  He pictured her in a full sized bed with a handmade quilt draped over the top and hand embroidered pillows for decoration.  She looked like the kind of woman who would embroider and quilt and he thought the idea was delightful.  “You can’t go home.  Not yet, anyway.”

Her whole body tensed with his words as well as the hard if wary look in his eyes.  “Why not?”

He put a hand to the small of her back and led her out of his office.  Several people handed him papers or notes and he grabbed all of them as he continued to walk out of the office.  “Because your home is still being searched by the police,” he said a moment before the elevator doors opened up.  He nudged her inside, realizing that she was probably stunned by the news. 

Mia thought about that for a moment, the news going over and over in her mind.  And then it hit her.  “They haven’t found anything yet, have they?” she asked, her smile brightening.  “That’s a good thing, isn’t it?”

Ash was impressed.  When given that news, most people became either angry or defensive.  Mia had found the bright side, which was usually what he told his clients when the police reached this point.  “That’s correct.  It’s good news.”

“So they’ll eventually drop the charges, right?”

He couldn’t lie to her, even to give her a short period of hope.  “Probably not. There is precedence where cases were tried, and the prosecution won, even when there wasn’t a body.  And that’s what they’re looking for in your yard.  Apparently you have a lot of new shrubs, so the police are digging up those areas, thinking that you’ve buried the body in the garden.” 

Mia sighed, her shoulders drooping once more.  She watched as his hand pressed the button to the parking garage and shook her head.  “I wouldn’t be so stupid as to bury anyone’s body in my backyard.  Not even my cats!” she grumbled. 

Ash chuckled despite the seriousness of the situation.  “Not even your cat’s body?  And why not your ex-fiancé?  I thought everyone wanted their loved ones close by in the afterlife.”

Mia shook her head while rolling her eyes.  “Are you kidding me?  Jeff bothered me enough over the past few months.  If I killed him, which I didn’t,” she cautioned, “do you honest think I’d want him in my backyard?  The obnoxious man would haunt me!”

Ash couldn’t help but laugh at her logic.  It might not be true, but it made sense.  “You have a point,” he said, his laughter subsiding to a chuckle as the doors to the elevator opened up. 

He led her out of the building but, as the flashbulbs popped unexpectedly, he put his arm around Mia’s shoulders protectively.  His mind was frantically trying to pick up the pace and figure out what was going on. 

Chapter 3

The crowd seemed to move in closer, blocking their way.  The only reason they moved was because Ash was so much larger than they were and he was moving fast.  Anyone not getting out of his way was libel to be crushed.  “Has Ms. Paulson confessed to killing her fiancé?” one reporter shouted at them.  “Are there any other suspects?” another called out.  “She pleaded not-guilty, but why are the police digging up her yard?  Do they think he’s buried there?” someone else called out.  All the while, the cameras were clicking away, catching Mia’s stunned surprise. 

Mia held onto Ash’s hand, allowing him to guide her.  She couldn’t see a thing with all of the press gathered around them.  He was more than a head taller than all of the other reporters so he could see over their heads.  When he almost shoved her into a car, she didn’t even care whose car it was, as long as it got her away from their cameras and questions.

Ash got into the car after her and drove away, his hands expertly handling the powerful vehicle. 

After several moments, he said, “I’m sorry about that, Mia.  I should have anticipated that happening.”

“What was that all about?” she asked, still not sure why the press were so fired up about her case.

“You’re a kindergarten teacher accused of killing your fiancé…”

“Ex-fiancé,” she corrected quickly.  She still didn’t understand.  “And don’t people get accused of murder all the time?  What’s so special about this case?”

“The details seem to have caught the media’s attention,” he explained.  He pressed a button on his steering wheel and a moment later, a voice came over the line.  “Judy, make sure that security clears away the press in front of the building.  Get a restraining order put in place for her home as well.”

Mia’s mouth formed a perfect “O” as she listened to him speak, ensuring that she had a clear path to her house whenever she was allowed to enter it again.  “The media think I did it?” she asked weakly.

Ash didn’t like the worry in her voice.  She’d just started to stand up for herself a few moments ago.  This was no time to get weak.  “The press don’t care if you did it or not.  On a slow news day, anything is fair game for a story.”