Mind Play (Bennett Sisters Book 3) (6 page)

Butch
nodded
, agreeing with Jake’s assessment. He prayed this was one
of the few times Jake was wrong
,
but his gut was screaming at him that he was right as usual.
Butch clenched his empty fist tight. He’d kill anyone who e
v
en look
ed
at her the wrong way, and he bet she got her fair share of looks. Her petite lean body begged to be
worshiped like the shrine it was.
He took a sip of his coffee
,
deciding on a plan of action. “You’re right. I’ll handle it. One way or
another
, I’ll figure out what’s going on
.
I just hope it’s not what you’re thinking. Her sisters aren’t going to be happy if it’s more than just a clerical error.”

Jake patted Butch on his shoulder
. “That’s why
we took
the long walk for the coffee.”

Butch stopped at the elevators with Jake. “I think I’m going to head home.
It s
eems I’ve
got some packing to do.”

****

The drive back to his place had been short.
He hadn’t expected the little town of
Southall
to grow
on him
, but it had
. Residence walking
down the sidewalk had waved as he passed. Jake’s company hadn’t been there long, but the
locals
had all been friendly to him. There were a few new faces in town he didn’t know, but
he
kne
w that would change soon enough on his next trip to Emma’s café.
Butch
unlocked his door and walked in his apartment
e
xhausted from the last few days. He
wouldn’t be going to bed anytime soon.
His realtor had shown him a dozen houses this week, and yet he couldn’t decide
on one
, so he’d been stuck in the townhouse
Mrs. A had rented him
,
located
smack dab
in
a
retirement communit
y
.
The one good thing about the place was it was peaceful.

He tossed his keys on the
counter, walked into the kitchen,
and pulled a beer from the fridge.
After t
ossing the bottle cap in the garbage
,
he walked to his office and hit the switch on his computer.
This had been one of the rooms he’d insisted on changing. The do
i
lies and flowers that graced the room were the first thing
s
he removed.
He s
e
t his beer on the desk
, pulled out his black bag
,
and started
gathering the
things
he thought he might need.
  He grabbed two of his guns and some extra
ammo
and placed them next to
his computer
. Claire wasn’t going to know w
hat hit her when he showed up.
What was she going to say when
s
he couldn’t get rid of him
this time
?
Butch chuckled and took a swig of his beer.

Butch logged into his computer and pulled up his
unread
email
s
. The f
irst four messages were from
Regina, his ex-girlfriend in
Virginia
. Well
,
not really his girlfriend, more like a booty call when he
’d
needed one.
Regina was a stripper from the club he’d visited while
working
detail for the last
s
enator.
He hadn’t used her
. T
hey’d both known the score
from day one and that
whatever they had wasn’t
serious
.
H
e was surprised to see she had emailed him so many times. Butc
h opened the first email to see that it was
a naked picture
of her lying on her bed
.
“Huh?”

The second was one saying she missed him. The third, telling him to get his ass back to Virginia, and the fo
u
rth cussing him out for not replying to the previous emails. Bu
tch shook his head and took another sip of his beer. He
ignored all of her emails. Scanning the rest of
the unopened email
s
, he didn’t see anything important
requiring
his attention
, so he just shut the computer down,
grabbed
and packed his laptop
,
and
drained his beer
before
heading
off to bed.

****

Claire arrived home to an empty house. It was always empty unless she was having a fundraiser or entertaining for a politician.
No one would ever
guess she liked
her solitude and peace
with as many guests that came to her house. All she wanted was a nice lon
g bath, a light
dinner
,
and to climb into
her
bed. The last few days had exhausted her,
not only with the party and with
Emma having the baby, but
because of
the energy it took to deal with Butch
.
He was
frustrating
and demanding and just sexy as hell. Claire
wasn’t sure how much
longer
she
could
be around him and keep her hands to herself when there was nothing more she would have loved th
a
n to jump up in his arms and kiss him all over
just to give him a taste of his own medicine
. It might not be the appropriate thing to do, but
,
damn
,
it would have helped her cravings. Claire promised herself that
,
one day, she’d do just that, if for
no other reason then to
enjoy the
look of
shock on his face.
H
e’d proba
bly lay off his advances if
she
ever got the opportunity to show
her true self and turned the tables on him.

Claire
turned the knob and watched the water fall from the faucet as she poured in her favorite lavender bubble bath. The stuff was sure to help soothe away all of her worries and help her relax.
She placed
her cell
phone
within reach in the
event of another emergency
,
as she always
did
. S
he
undressed and climbed in
, relaxing in the steaming water
in her large garden tub
.
Her bones felt like mush,
and
the tension
coiled in her shoulders
almost instantly released
.
Claire closed her eyes and listened. There were no sounds of her sibling
s
arguing, no caterers roaming around, no clinking glasses, only the
slow drip from the drain into the tub.
Drip. Drip. Drip.
Claire opened her eyes and sat up, inspecting the infuriating drain. She tightened the knobs until it stopped and eased back down against the incline of the tub, resting her head on her little pillow and sighed.
She stayed in that position until the water started to cool and her skin turned wrinkly before getting out
,
drying off
,
and slipping into her
nightgown
. Claire grabbed her hairbrush from the drawer and ran it thr
ough her blond
curls
.
She
glanced into the mirror and set the brush down, poking her finger around the puffy edges of her eyes
, exhaustion and age hav
ing
set in.
She really was tired, and it was showing. From her lack of sleep,
she’d have thought
it
had been
her who
’d
deliver
ed a baby,
not Emma.

There had been countless nights over the last year that Claire hadn’t slept well.
Between
all of the crazy stuff that had happened to her sisters and Mike’s dangerous job,
she c
ouldn’t
remember one day during the past twelve months
when she wasn’t worried about her family. Claire left her bathroom and climbed
into the soft embrace of her bed coverings,
c
ocooning herself in the
vast
white down comforter and sheets
.
She glanced at the red numbers on her alarm clock
,
noticing it was only ten o’clock and closed her eyes.
S
leep came fast. S
he didn’t
dream. She didn’t worry.
N
o one
was chasing
her or her sisters. Her mind just turned off.

Chapt
e
r 4

Claire
blinked open her eyes
to the s
un shining through her open curtains
, the rays
making her face feel warm.
Claire stretched under t
he covers and yawned as she
wiped the sleep from her eyes
and rolled away from the intruding sun
. The smell of fresh brewed coffee wafted to
her nose
,
and she smiled
.
Jenny must be here.
Claire
turned toward her ala
rm clock;
the red digits re
a
d ten o’clock.
Her mouth fell open in disbelief; s
he’d slept twelve
hours straight
, a first in a long time that she hadn’t been up at the crack of dawn.
She felt refreshed
,
ready to start the day and
face
whatever it m
ight
bring.
Claire
wasn’t looking forward to digging into the numbers again, but
she would
. The coffee sitting on
the
bedside table was still steaming.
Jenny must have brought it in.
Claire sat up and grabbed the hot brew, carefully sipping it so as not to burn her mouth. The hot liquid with a hint of French vanilla slid down her throat. It was just the way she liked it.
Claire slid
out
from under the covers and got ready to start the day. Today was going to be a great day, full of promise. She could feel it.

Claire
descended
the stairs toward the kitchen to refill her mug,
pushing
through the doors
to her expansive
open kitchen.
That had been one of the reasons she
’d
bought the place to begin with. She imagined her entire family here for dinners and needed a big enough place where her family could grow.

Jenny
was
perched
at
the
table
with the newspaper open wide
,
entranced in an article
.
“Good Morning
,
”
Claire said
as she walked to the coffee pot
for her second cup that would help to get her day started
. Claire was addicted to the stuff and couldn’t function without at least two cups in the
mornings
,
and
even with the added sleep
,
today was no different.

Jenny lowered the paper and picked up her own coffee. She really was a sweet girl.
It wasn’t a stretch for
Claire
to determine that Jenny hadn’t taken the money.
Jenny deserved the benefit of the doubt
,
and Claire was going to give it to her. Only as a last resort would she read the young girl
’
s mind.

“Good
m
orning
,
Ms. Bennett. I didn’t wake you
when I brought you coffee
,
did I?”

Claire waved her hand
.
“Oh no, I needed to get out of bed. How is everything around here this morning?”

“Mr. Pearson called from the bank twice this morning.”
Claire raised a brow in acknowledgement.

“What for? Did they find the money?” Claire asked as she took a seat across from Jenny.
She couldn’t imagine him calling for any other reason.

“He didn’t mention it, and I didn’t feel it was my place to ask. Would you like me to call him back?”

“No
,
that’s
o
kay
. D
id he say what he needed?”
Claire drained her second cup of coffee and was debating a third when Jenny answered.

“He’d like for you to come by the bank today to sign some account papers for your next fun
draiser. He said he’d be
personally handling your accounts
from now on
and would like to meet you.
”

“That’s no problem
.
I’ll
go by there
in just a bit
and introduce myself
.
” Claire pushed herself from the table and took her
now empty
cup to the sink
, turned on the faucet
,
and was in the middle of rinsing it
when her doorbell chimed.
Claire
glanced back over her shoulder toward Jenny. ‘Would
you mind
seeing who that is
?”

“
Not at all,” Jenny said as she left Claire leaning over her sink washing out her cup.

“Uh…Ms. Bennett, which room would you like me to put your houseguest in?”

Claire paused
.
S
he wasn’t expecting a houseguest.
Her nex
t party wasn’t for another two
weeks
,
and even then
,
she hadn’t invited anyone to stay the night.
She couldn’t imagine
whom
Jenny might be talking about. “I wasn’t planning for a houseguest
. W
ho
’s here
?” Claire asked as she turned to face Jenny
and tilted her head
. Jenny’s cheeks were a bright shade of red. Was she actually blushing? There was only one man that had gotten Jenny to blush in the last few days, and he
definitely
wasn’t scheduled to be a houseguest.
Butch.

“That gentleman, Butch
,
you introduced me to is
waiting in
your
library
, and he has a few bags with him.
” Jenny glanced back at the door she’d just
walked
through. She seemed
just as
baffled by the turn of events
as Claire was.
“
He looks like he
’s planning
on staying awhile.”

Clair
e waved her hand in the air as she stomped out of the kitchen. “He won’t be staying. He’s just here to help me look into a few things. He
definitely
won’t
be staying the night
,
” Claire mu
ttered
under her breath, more to herself than Jenny.
What could that man possibly be
thinking
? S
he hadn’t invited him to do more than review her security tapes.

Jenny had told her the truth
. Butch stood in her library
dressed in a black suit with a black bag thrown over his shoulder and a suitcase sitting at his feet. Claire had seen him in a suit before, but there was something about him today.
Something different, intriguing
,
that had her mind racing.
Her eyes traveled down the length of him and back up until their eyes met
,
each one silent as they took in the other.
She
cocked her he
ad
.
S
omething was
different
, but she couldn’t put her finger on it
.

“I shaved,
angel
.”

Claire could feel the heat traveling
into
her
cheeks. How had
he known what she was thinking?
Was she really that transparent that all he needed was to watch her to know what she thought?

“It’s a good look for you.” Gone was the five o’clock stubble she
had
grown accustomed
to
seeing on his face
. Claire walked to him and stopped out of arm
’s
reach. She wanted to take her palm and rub it across his face to feel the smoothness but was afraid she’d be unable to stop. She gestured to his bags. “What’s in the bags?”

Butch
grinned; there was something lazily seductive in his look that made Claire shiver in apprehension
. The look alone set her on edge. She’d seen that look on him before. The same look he’d had in her bed before he asked her to get back in it only two days before.

“Everything I’m going to need,
angel
. You remember Jake telling me that you’re my next assignment
? W
e
ll
…
I’m reporting for duty.”
Butch s
e
t his large black bag down next to his suitcase and took a step in her
direction;
she could almost see Butch
anticipating
her next move as if she were his prey.

Claire instinctively took a step back
,
and Butch stopped. “You don’t have to run from me
,
angel
. I’m not going to hurt you.”