“I believe in my heart that he force-fed Carrie drugs that night under the orders of his boss, Greg Jansen.”
Law’s words painted a brutal picture that made Kinley shudder and wrap her arms around herself. Unfortunately, she didn’t have to stretch her imagination to think Dargo capable of that. But Greg ordering him to do it? “Why? Why should I believe you? And why should you care what happens to me?”
He stood up and seemed to fill all the space in the room. “I’m not a gentleman, Kinley, but I’m going to be very honest with you because too many people in your life haven’t.” He sucked out a harsh breath. “I’ve been watching you for months.”
She took a step back. “You’ve been stalking me.”
“I suppose you’ll probably use that word in court. I had to figure out who you are. I had to know if you were going into this marriage as Jansen’s partner or his victim. And I figured something out about you.”
“Really? I’m sure this is going to be impressive. You don’t know me at all. Taking some pictures from a safe distance can’t tell you anything about who I really am.”
“Talking to you for the last week certainly has.”
She froze. What was he saying? Not what she feared he was. Please, no. “I’ve never talked to you in my life before yesterday.”
“Yes, you have.” He stared down at her. His voice changed completely, becoming a bit higher and more nasally, the accent flattening out. “You know it. And it wasn’t all a lie, Kinley.”
Tears of complete humiliation flooded her eyes. “You’re Mike.”
“It’s my middle name, if that helps.” The voice was Law’s again. All hint of “Mike” was gone.
“It doesn’t.” She turned away and paced, unable to look at him. “Wow, I’m a complete idiot.”
But he’d spoken in a different voice, damn it. And why would she have expected California Mike to be in New York City?
Regardless, she should have known he was too good to be true, but she’d wanted so badly to believe that someone could like her for her. To escape to a fantasyland were a decent guy just wanted to spend time with her, regardless of her name or lineage.
“You are not an idiot! Trusting, yes. But not stupid. And once this whole thing is through, we’re going to talk about your bad habit of insulting yourself. I won’t have it.” His low voice had taken on a sexy growl.
“You must have laughed at me, at how much I told you about myself, the feelings I shared…”
“No, if I laughed at anything, it was the fact that I never talk much. I especially never open up. To anyone. It’s why they felt safe having me talk to you.”
“They? Oh, you mean the other guys.”
“I was supposed to get in, ask a couple of questions, figure you out, and be done. I was not supposed to talk to you for hours, but I couldn’t help myself. God, Kinley, when I heard you laugh for the first time, it was like…I could see color in the world. That sounds dumb. Forget it. I’m not fucking good at this. Riley’s supposed to handle this part.”
She wasn’t sure what he meant. She was still reeling from her own complete naïveté. “I made this snatch and grab so easy for you. I told you about the wedding and what suite I would be in.”
“You told me how scared you were and how much you wished your mother was still around to give you advice. You told me I shouldn’t be ashamed of what I wanted in life, even though I knew I’d shocked the hell out of you when I explained I wanted to find a woman to share with my brothers.”
He’d talked about how he’d grown up so poor. How, after his father had left the family, his mother had turned to prostitution to feed them. He’d claimed that he knew what it was like to wear faded, secondhand clothes to school because that was all he and his brother had. She’d cried for him. She’d hung up the phone and cried because she’d felt so much pain for the little boy he had been. “How could you lie like that?”
“None of it was a lie, baby. I told you all about my life. My mother died when I was barely eighteen. I worked two jobs so Riley could finish high school, then I followed Dominic into the Army. I only had to work two jobs because Dominic fed us any cash he could. So the three of us have been family for a really long time.” Law put his hands on his hips and blew out a deep breath. “And I’m going to go for broke and lay it out there, Kinley. I think you could be the woman to complete our family because you showed ‘Mike’ just how sweet and real you are. God, Kinley. You can’t listen to your sister or the tabloids. You’re smart. You’re loyal. You’re…damn it, you’re just good. And I know that this whole situation is completely fucked up, but I want you—and not just for a few nights. I think I would be a better man with you in my life. In fact, I think you would make us all better.”
A million thoughts crashed through her head. Law was Mike, and Mike could act. Such a pretty speech…but what if he’d been sent to win her trust and cajole information from her again. Dominic obviously thought she knew something and wanted the information, but… Was he too angry to ask her the questions himself? Maybe they all just thought she was pathetic enough to fall for the same act twice. Or maybe—
Law leaned over and brushed his lips against hers, cutting off all thought. And breathing.
Her heart pounded. Her skin flared with instant heat. What the devil was that?
He cupped the sides of her face so tenderly, looking at her like she was the key to solving all the mysteries of his universe, so perfect and precious. Kinley found herself standing there in half horror and half anticipation as he took her mouth.
Soft. She hadn’t expected his lips to be so soft. Or for time to stand still for one amazing moment. She’d been kissed before, sloppy stolen embraces that had done nothing but make her wonder what all the fuss was about. Even her fiancé’s kisses were casual. A peck here. A peck there. He claimed he wanted her to feel securely married when they first had real intimacy, but she’d known the truth. He didn’t really want her like that.
The thing was…she’d never cared or thought sex mattered.
Law was making her rethink that. He treated her like she was a sweet to be savored. Like she was something rich, and he was a man who had never tasted anything so good and might never again. Law held her like she was priceless.
She couldn’t help but close her eyes and catalogue the moment—the way his nose nestled against hers, his lips nibbling along her lower lip, making her shiver in delight. She took in every gentle brush of his tongue and the fact that each stroke had some electric connection to her nipples. He smelled good, all clean and minty. He’d brushed his teeth before he’d come in because he’d wanted this to happen. He’d wanted to kiss her.
Of course, he’d also duped her, abducted her.
God, she was kissing her kidnapper.
She jerked away, her lips still tingling. “Don’t.”
Law stared at her, his jaw firming stubbornly. “Kinley, I know none of this makes sense to you now, baby, but it will. I swear. I’ve been thinking that I’m too rough for you, but I see now that you need a man like me.”
“Leave me alone. I don’t need a criminal.” She backed away, but with every step, her body protested and wanted to run back to him.
“You need all three of us,” he insisted. “We’re going to take care of you. I won’t let anything bad happen to you. I’m crazy about you, Kinley. We’re going to make sure Jansen can’t hurt you like he did Carrie. Once he’s behind bars, if you want to leave, I’ll let you go. But I’m going to do everything I can to make you want to stay with us.”
“Law? If you’re done here, we need you in the office.”
She gasped and turned. Riley stood in the doorway. She hadn’t heard him come in, but then she’d been the stupid girl kissing her abductor. And enjoying it. Not to mention wondering what it would be like to kiss him back. She’d missed her chance, and suddenly her lips ached at the loss.
She turned away, refusing to meet Riley’s stare, and clutched Gigi close. She hadn’t been able to press her body against Law’s because Gigi had been in the way. What if she hadn’t been holding the puppy to her chest? Would Law have pulled her close? Would she have felt his erection pressed against her belly? Or not because it was all an act.
She felt his big hands cover her shoulders. “I’ll be back, Kinley. Be good. And Gigi, don’t bite Riley again.”
Her first reaction was to ask him to stay, but she bit it back. He was playing her again. He’d committed a criminal act. She shouldn’t feel safe with him. He was simply a smart, gorgeous man who would use any weapon at his disposal to keep her compliant.
She had to remember that. Greg—the man who’d sworn to help both her charity and her father—was her future.
No matter what her heart wanted to believe.
Riley locked the door behind him before rushing to catch up with his brother. “What the hell was that about?”
He’d stood there watching them together, his brother more tender than he’d ever seen with a woman. It was like watching a different human being altogether. Law was…fuck. He’d seemed almost happy.
His brother turned to him. “I was just talking to her. I returned her dog before Butch could eat it. We don’t have to scare her into helping us. She’ll be a much better ally if she’s happy. I can make her trust me.”
“I walked in on more than a friendly chat. You were kissing her.”
A little smile tugged at Law’s lips. “Yeah.”
Riley felt his jaw drop. “You understand that you sound like a fucking prepubescent boy making out for the first time.”
Law shrugged, looking almost euphoric. “Maybe that’s how I feel. With her, it’s like…everything is new.”
“She is up to her neck in this shit, Law,” he snarled. “You know that better than anyone.”
“I know that she needs saving. Jansen is using her. I have proof that she isn’t the one cashing those checks. You and Dominic think you were investigating her, but I found some surveillance photos of her when the first check was being cashed. Neither of you asked me before you accused her of stealing from her charity, but she was twelve fucking blocks away. Someone is forging her signature. I’ve got three guesses who it is, and the last two don’t count.”
If what Law said was true, then Riley had a pretty good guess who’d forged Kinley’s signature, too. And if she was innocent…she would soon be devastated. Of course when she inevitably broke Law’s heart, he would be the one devastated. Even if she’d never so much as spoken a cross word to anyone in her life, the girl came from money. She wasn’t going to marry a whore’s son, much less two of them, and take on a third husband for kicks. Her friends and family would be shocked. Their opinions would mean a lot to a girl like Kinley.
“Do yourself a fucking favor and don’t kiss her again.”
“Why shouldn’t I? I’m not forcing her. I’m being gentle. If she tells me to stop, I will. But she didn’t tell me to stop and she didn’t move away.”
“Dude, for starters, you kidnapped her. You’ve still got her under lock and key. Don’t you get it? She’s terrified of you.”
Law paled a little. “You think so?”
His brother had lost his damn mind. “I know so. You outweigh her by at least a hundred pounds. Twenty bucks says that if you’d tried to lay her out, she would have let you because she doesn’t want to piss off the badass. Think about this for two seconds. You’re trying to…I don’t know, ask her on a date. She’s just trying to survive the day.”
“I told her I wouldn’t hurt her.” Law seemed to stumble over the words.
“You also told her that you were Mike. Did you really vomit up all that shit about Mom?”
Riley had never told a soul, and now he felt a bit betrayed. He’d left their town and found new friends who didn’t know that he was the son of the town whore. Friends who didn’t know that his mother had died in a car accident with one of her johns.
Law shrugged like it was no big deal. “She’s easy to talk to.”
“It won’t feel so easy when she stabs you in the back with that tale of woe and walks away from you. Think, man. A debutante and a prostitute’s boy? Yeah, she’s really going to show you off at all her fancy society parties. I mean, she might take Dominic because he’s got some polish, but the whispers that we all share women are attached to him. People will talk. She won’t be able to take it. And she’ll break your fucking heart then. Don’t say I didn’t tell you so.”
“Kinley isn’t like that. When I told her our past, she didn’t judge me, you, or Mom. She said Mom amazed her because a woman had to really love her kids to do something like that.”