Jaded (10 page)

Jase laughed again at his friend’s misplaced concern. “Look, Ricco, I appreciate your concern, but even if I twisted up the sheets with Jade Devereaux, she’d be the one clinging on. Life is too good. Why mess it up with emotional bullshit? I don’t do relationships, on any level.”

“Lust ain’t a relationship, man. It’s a drug. Addictive. It’ll kill you. Take it from a guy whose been there and done it and has the damn T-shirt to prove it. And you forget, brother, I’ve seen her, and you know how damn selective I am, and she gave me a twenty-four-hour boner!”

Jase laughed. How could he fault his partner for what he and every other man in the state would be guilty of in her presence?

“Jase, I Googled her, and the pics that come up with her on the arm of every Fortune 500 CEO in the world tell me she is trouble. Big trouble. She—damn, I can’t explain it, she has some serious mojo going on. Steer clear.”

“So noted, amigo.”

“Yeah, I can hear it in your voice.”

Jase laughed and hung up the phone. But when he pulled up in front of the Fairmont, he didn’t get right out. Ricco’s words echoed in his brain.

He had always been an aesthete in his hygiene, clothes, work ethic, and in keeping his emotions in close check. He made no bones about his distrust of women. He had every right to his feelings. And he had never felt the need to augment them. He was a loner, a guy who liked women but who didn’t like any enough to trust them. And he was okay with that.

Jase shrugged off Ricco’s warning. He was in complete control of his dick. He got out of his car and tossed his keys to the valet, then strode into the San Jose Fairmont. He liked the San Francisco version better. The new one was new flash, whereas the grand dame in the city had a few age spots.

As he made his way up the elevator, he wondered what Jade was going do with her night off.

W
hen he’d seen her on Fox News two months ago on the arm of some upstart California congressman, he’d recognized her immediately. Her face was forever burned into his brain. It didn’t take long for him to track her down.

And while she fooled those around her and even herself, she didn’t fool him. Ruby Leigh Gentry might be more of a looker than she was eleven years ago, but she still had that air about her, like she was smarter than everyone else. Otis choked back a scornful laugh and tried the handle on her back door. Locked. But Ruby was careful that way. She probably had an alarm system, too. He stood back on the small back porch of the town house and scanned the roof line. No box, no camera.

He ran his fingers along the top of the doorframe and just as he was about to retreat, his fingertip touched cold metal. “Not so smart are you now, Ruby Leigh?”

Quickly, he let himself in and carefully locked the door behind him. He’d find the proof he needed, and when he did, he’d make her life so miserable she’d have to give him what he wanted. And if she didn’t? Well, he knew all her dirty little secrets and so would everyone else.

He bypassed the tidy kitchen and the meticulous living room. He knew she was too smart to have reminders of who she was and where she came from out in the open, but there was a place somewhere in the house where her secrets lay hidden. He’d find that place and when he found the proof he needed, he would have her.

Hastily, he made his way up the stairs, the plush carpeting silencing his steps. His heart rate accelerated when he pushed open her bedroom door. Her lingering scent enveloped him and for a minute he stopped and let it engulf him. His dick twinged and his hands balled into fists. The colonel had wanted her all for himself, but when Daddy couldn’t get it up, he sicced that lowlife stable manager Donavan Le Blanc on her.

Donny, the girls all cooed.
Donny, my ass.

Otis’s breath quickened as his hand slid to the bulge between his thighs. He’d watched Ruby and Donny Boy, watched Donny hump her till she couldn’t move. He watched her cry afterward. Anger consumed him. He’d wanted to kill Le Blanc, strangle him slowly and watch his eyes bulge out of his head while he struggled to breathe for what he’d done to his girl. Didn’t he know Ruby was his?

But when Otis told Ruby Leigh he could do more for her, she slapped him and told him he was the last person on earth she’d let touch her.

Miss High and Mighty was in love, and he could never fill Donny’s shoes. No matter how much money he had or who his daddy was. Didn’t he know Donny and her were getting married as soon as she turned eighteen? Then they were taking Crystal and leaving Sykesville for good.

Furious and realizing his precious Ruby Leigh was slipping away for good, he shattered her schoolgirl dreams right then and there. It gave him more pleasure than fucking her ever could have. He’d never forget the day Ruby Leigh Gentry’s perfect world blew up in her face. It was the last time he saw her, and his daddy never forgave him.

Otis stepped into the room. The soft inviting colors meant nothing to him. He would find what he needed to rightfully take back what was his, and he didn’t care how hard he had to play. He had nothing to lose.

His eyes scanned the room. Everything about Ruby was neat, tidy, and cold, except this room. Here, her personality seeped through the chilly walls of the town house. For a common whore, she had expensive taste. Always did. Made sense if what Daddy said was true about her father being some Yankee blue blood her mama screwed when she went up north for a winter. But she’d never know about him.

Otis carefully scanned the room, and his eyes settled on a tattered brown fabric bear on her pillow. He went to it and touched it. Closing his eyes, he brought it to his nose and inhaled her scent. It was burned into his DNA. Stupid girl, if only she’d loved
him.
His eyes flashed open and he threw the bear hard against the wall. A small crackling sound caught his attention.

When he picked the bear up, a gravelly sound, like broken glass, rumbled from inside the floppy thing. He turned it over and found a zipper. He smiled and unzipped the toy. “You can run, girl, but you can’t hide from Otis.”

He pulled out a small framed picture surrounded by shattered glass. A miniature version of Ruby sat beside her on the tree stump behind the trailer. Crystal Blue, Ruby’s baby sister. The “baby” would be about eighteen now. It was obvious the girl didn’t live here, but he knew Ruby better than that. She was a tiger when it came to her sister. Crystal was close but untouchable. Well, he’d just see about finding her and see how Ruby wanted to handle matters when he did.

In the meantime, he slid the picture into his pocket. He had what he’d come for: Proof that the darkly exotic, cold-as-ice bitch who called herself Jade Devereaux was none other than Ruby Leigh Gentry, whore to his daddy and murderer of her own mother.

As Otis began to leave the room he stopped midstep, then slowly turned around. His gaze swept across the room again. The slow rage that had simmered for eleven years boiled over. He stepped back into her lair, her sanctuary, the place she went to get away from her life. She didn’t deserve this place, not after what she’d done to him. He closed the door behind him. When he was done she’d have nowhere to hide.

The minute Jade walked into her house from the garage, she knew someone had been there. She could smell salty male sweat. Carefully, she set down the two bags of groceries in her hands and backed into the garage. Always prepared, she went to the planting bench in the corner and opened the drawer. She pulled out a small-caliber pistol.

Silently, she made her way into her house. The large living room was undisturbed, as well as the formal dining room. She hugged the walls and crept into the family room. Nothing looked out of place. The kitchen was intact.

She turned and made her way up the circular stairway, her steps slowing. The door to her room was wide open, as she had left it. She listened for any sound and was greeted with silence. Letting out a long breath of relief, Jade walked into her bedroom and screamed.

Jase walked out of the Fairmont, unable to locate Thibodeaux, when his cell phone rang. “Vaughn.”

“Detective Vaughn, this is Jade Devereaux. My house has been ransacked.”

“Don’t touch anything, I’ll be right there.”

Jase hung up, jumped into his car parked at the curb, much to the valet’s rancor, and made a quick U-turn, calling Dispatch with her information.

He called Jade back. “Hello?” Her voice sounded scared, like a little girl.

“Where in the house are you?”

“In my bedroom.”

“Go into your bathroom and lock the door. The perp might still be in the house.”

“I checked, he—”

“Do it now!” Jase didn’t mean to yell, but dammit, she could end up dead before he got there.

“I’m in the bathroom and the door is locked.”

“Good, now tell me what happened.”

“After I left the club I went to the grocery store, then came home. I knew the minute I entered someone had been in the house.”

“How?”

“The smell, sweat.”

“What’s damaged?”

“My bedroom is trashed. It looks like someone went on a rampage, like they took their hate out on my personal belongings.”

“Who has such anger toward you?”

“I—I don’t know.” But she did.

“Jade, I have a feeling this may be connected to Townsend somehow. You need to think hard—who has it in for you, and him?”

“What are you saying?”

“I’m saying I think you are the connection between these two crimes.”

“Are you accusing me—?”

“I’m not accusing you of anything, but there is a connection.” He heard the siren through her cell phone. “That’s the uniform I had dispatched. Let him in.”

“Okay.”

“Try not to touch anything. The techs will go over every inch of your house.”

Jade didn’t argue. Instead, she hung up on the arrogant cop and opened her front door to a cop barely out of high school.

Minutes after she let him in, Jase screeched to a halt in front of her house. Great, the neighbors were gonna never let her hear the end of this.

Jase hurried up to her, his eyes scanning every inch of her body. “I’m fine,” she said, exasperated.

He nodded to the uniform. “Stand by.” Then he took Jade gently by the elbow and steered her into the house. He let go and hurried up the stairs, she followed. What greeted him was not a big shock, but he had to admit the length the person responsible went to—single-handedly destroying every piece of furniture, clothing, and accessories—was unmatched.

Stuffing from the pillows and comforter littered the floor. It reminded him of a Tahoe blizzard. The bed was broken, the headboard smashed, the mirror on the listing dresser shattered. Her stuffed animals were torn and strewn and her clothes were shredded, the heels ripped off her shoes. Strangely enough, the bathroom was untouched.

Pictures were ripped, their frames broken. Hate fueled this attack. Jade choked back a sob as she darted into her room and grabbed the teddy bear Jase remembered seeing on her pillow last night. Only now it was shredded, the brown fur hanging in slivers from the eyeless head.

“Jade, you can’t touch anything, you might destroy evidence.”

“My bear! He killed my bear!”

Jase had noticed last night it had seen better days. Now it looked ravaged. Her sobs intensified and then her anger surfaced. “Son of a bitch! Who does this?” She turned angry eyes on Jase.
“Who does this?”

“Someone who wants to hurt you. Tell me about Otis Thibodeaux.”

Vehemently, she shook her head. “I don’t know him!”

“Talk to me, Jade. Tell me what the hell is going on.”

She shook her head. And clutched the skin of the bear to her chest. “I don’t know.” In a sudden realization, she cried out: “My picture!”

“What picture?”

Jade closed her eyes shut and held the bear closer. “The one of my baby sister and me.”

Jase scanned the room. “It’s probably somewhere under all of this mess. Once the techs go through it, it’ll turn up.”

It occurred to him that he hadn’t seen any other pictures of her or her family. “Is that the only one you have?”

She nodded, her eyes far away.

For the second time in twenty-four hours Jase resisted the urge to comfort Jade. The feelings that spurned him to such an uncomfortable gesture confused him on a most basic level. It wasn’t because he was an unempathetic asshole and didn’t want to comfort another human being. With Jade it was the complete opposite. His powerful urge to go to her went deeper; it was more. He felt her pain, and her fear, and he wanted to be the man to make it all go away.

Jase heard voices downstairs. He moved to the landing and called down to Ricco and the techs, “Up here, but put the bunny slippers on, and bring me two pairs and some gloves.”

As Ricco entered the bedroom, he and Jase exchanged a look before Jase gave him the rundown.

“Why don’t you get her out of here and I’ll take over from here,” Ricco offered.

In a mild state of shock, Jade allowed Jase to take her downstairs. He sat her down at the kitchen table and told her not to move. Quickly, he slipped on the booties and gloves and moved around the house, checking every point of entry. Nothing forced, no windows unlocked. He moved through the door to the garage and checked the door to the backyard. Locked. He opened it and walked to the gate. He looked down at the immaculate lawn. The grass was cut so short, footprints were impossible to detect, yet he followed it to the decent-size backyard. He scanned the flower beds.

There at the edge of the deck was a heel imprint in the dirt. Another a foot away, and some of the dirt on the deck. The sprinklers must have just been on when the intruder walked on the lawn, because the dirt had caked into mud. The partial imprint of what he figured to be a size twelve was clearly visible. Jase followed the natural course of the criminal: he reached up and found the key. He slipped it into an evidence bag, then knocked on the back door.

As Jade opened it, he held the bag out to her. “Do you always make it so easy?”