Taken by Tuesday (Weekday Brides Series) (14 page)

Chapter Fourteen

Rick shook himself awake a few hours later, realizing that he’d fallen asleep with Judy’s feet in his lap. She was sound asleep as well. He eased off the bed and tucked the blankets around her. Chances were she’d wake in the middle of the night, uncomfortable with the amount of clothing she had on, but there was no way in hell he was going to take the liberty of undressing her. Maybe at a different time in their life, that would be acceptable. Not today . . . and not in light of everything she’d been through.

After dimming the lights, he made a quiet exit with his shoes dangling from his fingertips.

Down the hall, he noticed the flickering of a television set and poked his head inside.

Sawyer, Judy’s father, and Zach were both propped on easy chairs watching the late news. Seemed everyone else had gone to bed.

“Hey.” Rick made himself known with a simple greeting.

Sawyer sat up, his face a mask of worry.

Rick tossed his shoes to the floor and sat on the sofa between the two of them.

“How is she?” Zach asked first.

“Sleeping.” But that wasn’t the real question. “Your sister is a strong woman, Zach.”

“Didn’t seem strong tonight at dinner,” Sawyer scoffed.

“No. She didn’t. Those things are to be expected, Mr. Gardner. She’ll get through this, not let it beat her down.”

“She should come home with us. It’s safer in Hilton.”

Rick might not be a father, but he understood the need to keep Judy safe.

“If she hides in Utah now it could cripple her forever. The world isn’t any more unsafe today than it was yesterday or will be tomorrow. The sooner she joins the world again, the stronger she’ll be.”

Sawyer glared at him. “I can’t watch over her from home if she’s not there.”

“Are you suggesting you’ll stick to your daughter’s side every hour of every day? My guess is the days of you doing that passed a long time ago.” Rick was too tired to get in a pissing match of right and wrong with Judy’s dad, but the stubborn man wasn’t listening to reason.

“This wouldn’t happen in Utah.”

“C’mon, Utah has problems, too, Dad,” Zach told him. “Judy has us here.” Rick was happy to see Zach nod in his direction to be included with the “us.”

“I hate this, Zach. Didn’t want her here to begin with.”

“We all hate this. We all want her safe.”

Rick sat forward and met Sawyer’s eyes. “Judy will have round-the-clock protection, not only with a physical bodyguard taking her to and from work, but weekends and evenings. Michael already approved more audio and video monitoring of his home. We will find who did this to her, and she will be protected while we search for him. I want this bastard more than you can possibly know, Mr. Gardner. I’ll keep your daughter safe.”

Sawyer pointed a finger in his direction. “I’m keeping you to your word.”

Judy’s father grumbled as he lifted his tired frame from the chair and retired for the night.

Zach and Rick sat in silence for a several minutes, the newscast flashed images of all the awful things happening in the greater Los Angeles area. The media had grown tired of the criminal activity around one of Hollywood’s elite, which suited Rick just fine. The picture of Michael and Judy dancing was the primary shot the media managed to use over and over. The same feed of the parking garage filled with police and caution tape was a constant reminder when Rick turned on the TV.

“Maybe she should go home for a while,” Zach said.

The skin on Rick’s arms chilled. “I have more resources here to protect her.”

“No one is after her in Utah.”

It was time to bring Zach closer to a truth realized by the authorities. “This man is after her. He targeted her and there’s no guarantee he wouldn’t follow her to Utah or anywhere else to hurt her again.”

“Are you sure?”

Almost 100 percent.
“In the service, going with your gut often saved your life.”

“So keeping her here is going with your gut?”

Didn’t sound like Zach agreed. “Judy wants nothing to do with going home. In fact, she wants everyone visiting to return to their lives. She’s going back to Michael’s on Monday, where I will have someone shadowing her every moment she’s not at her desk at work.”

“And if this dirtbag works with her?”

Rick had thought of that, too. He and Neil had already placed a temporary worker at the office building who would watch her there as well. Between the undercover spying and the monitoring of everyone surrounding Judy, they should know if there was any unusual attention given. “She’s covered there as well. Just not an obvious shadow.”

Zach sighed. “I guess that’s all we can do. I don’t think any of us are going to rest easy until this guy is caught.”

Rest easy.
Hell, the only restful sleep he’d had was the past two hours at Judy’s side. The mention of sleep had him covering a yawn.

“You can crash here,” Zach offered.

Being close to her, even a few bedrooms away, would give him some peace for a few hours. He knew he needed to reboot his brain. The only things waiting at home were blank monitors and an empty house. “I think I’ll take you up on that offer.”

Zach pushed off the chair, turned off the TV. “C’mon. The advantage of having a house this size is accommodating a large family.”

“We wouldn’t be doing our job if we didn’t question you, Mr. Evans.” Detective Raskin had taken over the investigation from the reporting officers. He and his partner, Detective Perozo, sat on opposite ends of the table. From the defensive pose of Perozo, he was playing bad cop, where Raskin kept a smile on his face.

“Damn right it’s your job,” Rick told him. “Should have questioned me within twenty-four hours.”

The detectives glanced at each other then back at him.

Rick knew the delay had more to do with his personal circle of friends and diplomacy. But in his opinion, those things shouldn’t ever take precedence over some protocols. Questioning a boyfriend, or in the case of him and Judy, a romantic interest, should have been a major priority.

Rick let them lead the questions. They started with the usual suspects, when had he met Judy, what was the nature of their relationship. Where was he when Judy was attacked and was he with anyone?

“I arrived at Mr. Wolfe’s Beverly Hills home at ten minutes before seven. Our date was set for seven.”

“Where were you prior to that time?”

“Experiencing the joys of traffic. Before that, I was at my residence in Tarzana. My home and that of Mr. Wolfe have twenty-four-hour video surveillance which will show me leaving and arriving.”

Detective Perozo leaned forward. “But at six thirty you weren’t captured on any videotapes.”

“None that our team monitors. I gave myself forty minutes to get to Judy’s. I left my house at six twenty, give or take a few minutes.”

“What do you drive?” Detective Raskin asked.

“A Ducati.”

“A motorcycle?”

“Yes.”

“So you can weave in and out of traffic but you left forty minutes early for your date on a route that should have only taken you what . . . twenty minutes, less even?”

“I picked up flowers.”

“Where?”

After Rick told them, they both grew silent.

He knew what was coming, even before the next words were uttered.

Perozo pulled a chair from the table, turned it around, and straddled it. “So you leave your house at six twenty. It’s possible with a Ducati to make some good time and arrive close to Beverly Hills, or say Westwood by six thirty.”

Rick’s fist clutched in his lap. He hadn’t mapped out his own timeline and realized now how bad it might look. “Looking in the wrong direction will only delay you finding the right man.”

“You said yourself we wouldn’t be doing our job if we didn’t look at every possibility.”

They asked questions for the next half hour, which Rick answered, but with as minimal information as he could offer.

With the police station behind him, his firearm secured to his side where it belonged, Rick dialed Neil’s number.

“I need you to pull up all the surveillance tapes of the Tarzana house and Michael’s on the night of the attack.”

“Wanna tell me why?”

Rick straddled his bike and kicked the stand up. “Because I just became their number-one suspect. I’ll meet you at your place in fifteen.”

An hour later Rick would have been pulling his hair out if it wasn’t already military short.

Neil sat quietly and studied the tapes. “There’s no way they can pin this on you.” He backed up the Tarzana feed, watched as Rick walked through the house and set the alarm. The next time they witnessed Rick was driving into the Beverly Hills estate. He removed a single rose from the back pocket of the bike. It was banged up from the drive, but it was there. The time stamp said 6:52.

“We’re looking at this knowing I didn’t do it. They are looking at this thinking I did. I leave my home at six twenty, haul ass to Westwood, manage to ditch the bike somewhere nearby and wait for Judy to leave her work.”

Neil stopped him. “How do you know she’s at work? Did you call her?”

He grew hopeful, then the hope faded. “I tapped her car.”

“You did?”

“Shortly after she moved in. She thought the security was a joke.”

Neil kept staring at him.

“You telling me Gwen’s car isn’t tapped?”

Neil broke off eye contact.

“Exactly.” He went on. “So I know she’s at work. A court order will find the tap, and removing it now or denying it makes me look guilty.”

“And you know about cameras in parking lots. Have you been to her work?”

“I drove by it once before she moved here. Never went in and didn’t go in the garage.”

“But a lawyer will twist that.”

Lawyers sucked that way. “They’ll assume I know the garage, know her routine.”

“Her routine changed that night. She stayed late, got caught up talking to her boss. How would you know that?”

True. “I wouldn’t. I left my home to get to hers for date night.” For the first time since he left the station he started to breathe again.

“We do specialize in surveillance. Military background . . . they’ll assume and look for some way that you’d know she was still in the office or see what she was doing.”

“They won’t find anything.”

“But they’ll look.”

“OK. What’s my motive? I like this girl. She finally agreed to go on a date with me. Why would I attack her twenty minutes before?”

Neil shrugged. “You’re upset she wasn’t preening for you? Upset she didn’t take the date serious enough to get home early? Your manhood wasn’t strong enough to endure all the rejection and you’re twisted up now that you are going on a date.”

Rick rolled his eyes. “Lame.”

“Each potential motive will have to be proven wrong. And that will keep them from arresting you.”

He ran a hand down his face as if wiping it would erase all this bullshit.

“They will also conclude that because of the nature of your current employment and your taping of Judy’s initial questioning, and our involvement from the beginning, that you’re making sure you cover your tracks.”

“Jesus, Mac, you’re not helping.”

“Oh, am I supposed to be helping, Smiley? I thought I was supposed to think logically. You want sugarcoating, go to the candy store.” The use of their old names back in active service sobered him.

“All that aside, driving to Westwood in ten minutes on the 405, even with a motorcycle, would take quite a daredevil act. The route through Beverly Hills isn’t exactly a swift entrance and exit.”

“I bought the flowers.”

“Most flower shops aren’t magnets for crime. Chances are there won’t be any cameras and even if there are, the likelihood any footage was kept would be slim after a week. Best we can hope is for an eyewitness that can ID you.”

“That can ID me and give a time I was in the shop.”

“Exactly.”

No matter what angle he looked at, he didn’t look good.

“We’re doing exactly what the cops are doing. We’re focused on me and not on who did this.”

Neil nodded. “If we don’t focus on you, clear your involvement, they will never look for anyone else.”

Chapter Fifteen

Rick and Neil arrived at Zach’s house together, both wore stoic masks, and neither of them volunteered anything before Rick whisked her out the door.

The offshore winds kept Judy’s hair blowing in every direction. The way Rick kept glancing at her as they separated from everyone in Zach’s house made her nervous.

“How’s your day been?” he asked, which he’d already managed to ask when he walked in the house.

When she didn’t answer, he finally met her eyes.

“You’ve already asked that. Something’s happened.”

They reached the bench overlooking the sea and he encouraged her to sit. Sitting before talking was never a good sign.

“Did you find out something about him?”

He shook his head with a heavy sigh. “No.”

It wasn’t often Rick didn’t have a smile close to the surface.

She reached for his hand, and for the first time since the attack tried to cheer someone else up. “How bad can it possibly be?”

His beautiful green eyes kept hold of hers. “The police questioned me today.”

It took a moment to process his words. “You?”

“Normal procedure, actually. They should have brought me in before now.”

“Why you? I don’t understand.”

He squeezed her hand in his. “It’s normal to obtain alibis from husbands, boyfriends, guys that you’re dating.”

She’d seen enough crime fiction television to understand that.

“And since you didn’t see this guy, they need to check the whereabouts of all the men in your life.”

Judy didn’t like it, but she understood it. “I get it, I guess. I don’t have many men in my life so the list isn’t that long.” Rick still wasn’t smiling. Being questioned really bothered him. “If you knew they were going to question you, why are you so upset?”

His gaze moved to the waves below them. “The night of the attack I left my place to pick you up at six twenty, picked up flowers on the way, and pulled into your drive at ten to the hour.”

Judy swiped at her hair blowing in the wind. “Outside of the part where I never got the flowers, I don’t see the problem.”

He didn’t even laugh at the flower joke. “I drove my motorcycle. The police believe I could have made it to your office in ten minutes, give or take . . . then back to your brother’s house . . . after.”

She blinked, too stunned to speak.

“Neil and I are positive they are working hard right now to prove I could have attacked you.”

“That’s absurd.” Rick,
her Rick
, who had been her protector from the moment she arrived in LA, was not the villain here. “They’re wasting their time.”

“I know that. You know that. But they don’t.”

Judy released his hand and jumped to her feet. “Well I’ll tell them.”

She turned toward the house, determined to get one of the detectives on the phone. Rick reached out and held her arm. “Tell them what, Judy?”

“That it wasn’t you.” She didn’t even try to tame her hair. It blew in the wind like her temper.

He stood at her side and placed both hands on her shoulders, trying to calm her.

“They won’t listen to you.”

“I’ll make them listen. I was the only one there. I know it wasn’t you. If they focus on you they won’t look for the real asshole who did this.” Frustration made her tremble. That and anger toward the police, who were supposed to be smart enough not to go after the wrong guy. Rick was the wrong guy.

Rick lifted his chin in challenge. “Tell me how well you know Rick.”

“What?”

“I’m the detective. Tell me how well you know Rick.”

Oh, she got it now. He wanted to role play. Fine! She could do that. “I met Rick last year when he helped a poor, innocent girl escape her abusive parents.”

“You’ve been dating Rick since last year?” His questions came fast.

“No. I finished college and we met up when I moved here.”

“He works for your brother?”

“Yes. As a security specialist and sometimes bodyguard.” She puffed out her chest, happy she knew all the answers to these questions and none of them made Rick look bad.

“How long have you been dating?”

She knew he was trying to corner her with that question. Instead of being vague, she took the opportunity to derail him a little. “We’ve been flirting around dating more than dating. Our first technical date was set for the night of the attack.”

“Why didn’t you date earlier?”

She narrowed her eyes. “Trying to pry answers from my lips, Rick?”

“As much as I want the answer to that question for my own reasons, I know the detectives are going to ask. You don’t have to answer me.”

Judy’s chin pushed out to meet his attitude. She didn’t have anything to hide, and in light of everything they’d been going through, playing a game wasn’t necessary. “Well,
Detective
, if you really need to know . . . I grew up in a small town where it seemed every girl there went to college, met a guy, and then never did another thing in her life other than have babies and go to PTA meetings. I want more in my life, so I picked plan B. I fell in love with design on my first trip to LA during one of my brother’s premiers. I want a career. Something that will define me more than a married last name.”

Her confession sank in slowly. She saw it meet Rick’s brain and shake hands.

“Rick triggers something inside me that makes me feel like he’d derail my plan.” Her confession continued to roll. “Agreeing to a date felt like putting the pieces into place to make plan A move forward without permission.” Maybe her brush with death the week before gave her confidence, or maybe she realized, after said brush, how important it was to have someone in her life to share the good
and
the bad.

They stood in silence for a few seconds. Any questions Rick may have had were certainly flowing out to sea now. The wind whipped her hair around her face but she just met his green-eyed gaze and set her jaw.

One of his hands traveled up her arm and cupped her face. He stepped into her personal space and took ownership of her lips. The kiss was desperate and so damn raw, tears ran down her cheek when she closed her eyes and sucked in the essence of the man delivering it.

She might as well sign up for PTA president now. Maybe she could design a carnival booth for the elementary school fundraiser.

He kept kissing her, chaste kisses that tingled everywhere but she knew weren’t meant for complete surrender.

When Rick finally let her go, he ran a gentle finger under the bruised eye. His eyes weren’t completely dry and that warmed her more than any kiss could.

He leaned his forehead against hers and closed his eyes. The pain in his face ran over her when he started in again. “Did Rick know any of this before the attack?”

“No.”

They stood at the edge of the sea cliff, holding each other and continuing with the ridiculous questions. Each time Rick spoke his voice was more detached. Less him. “So he might have thought you were just leading him on?”

“Is that what you think?”

He shook his head. “It’s what they’ll think.”

“If I was leading him on I wouldn’t have agreed to a date.”

“Maybe Rick doesn’t know this . . . maybe Rick is a sociopathic womanizer that doesn’t like the word
no
. Maybe he has relationship issues of his own and he’s scared of dating you . . . of rejection.”

“That’s so stupid. I don’t know a more confident man than you. You can bottle it up and sell it and make a fortune.”

Rick smiled for the first time in their conversation. “Thanks for the confidence, Utah. But the detectives are going to come up with their own answers to these questions and work them into their theories.”

She didn’t like the thought of this . . . any of this.

“I know where you live, what you drive. I had the ability to know you were still at work and if I drove like a man on a death wish I could have made it to your work in the time that you were being attacked.”

The tips of her fingernails dug into his thick arms with every word. Deep inside she knew he wasn’t capable of hurting her. How could anyone think differently?

She started to speak and he covered her lips with a finger.

“I could have made it in and out and been in Beverly Hills for the cameras that I know are there.”

“They can’t do this.”

“They can. And unless we find another direction for them to look, they will.”

Judy wrapped her arms around him, absorbed his heat, his strength. Why had she pulled away from this man . . . ever?

They walked back to the house, his arms sat on her shoulders as he attempted to shelter her from the strong winds blowing off the ocean.

So many emotions swam inside Rick on that short walk he felt like a pot of stew filled with tons of beef and the perfect amount of vegetables to add color and spice to the blend. He knew that with time what he and Judy had going could be the most amazing thing they’d ever tasted . . . ever experienced.

She hadn’t wanted to date him, not because of anything he did . . . but because of her fear of losing herself in the process. Did she not know that her drive, her spunk was what drew him to her in the first place?

Rick stopped her two feet before the front door and stepped in front of her. Words tumbled out of his mouth as if they’d just finished the conversation in his thoughts. “I’d never keep you from your dreams, Judy.”

There was no hesitation in her response. “A week ago someone tried to steal my entire life. Dating you isn’t nearly as scary. We’ll get through this.”

He reached over and pulled her against him as they walked in the house. “We have to try a real date. So far our track record sucks.”

Laughter met his ears when he opened the doors.

Worried gazes met them when they walked in the living room.

Neil looked at him while everyone else stared at Judy.

Neither Rick nor Neil had wanted anyone in the family, mainly Judy, to learn about the detectives’ conclusions before the two of them expressed them. Rick had the easy part. He spoke to Judy . . . Neil had to take on the entire family.

“You OK?” Meg asked first . . . the question directed at Judy.

Judy tilted her chin higher. “I’m fine. Ready to go home.” She looked at her parents. “To the home I made here in California, and get on with my life.”

Sawyer took a step forward. Janice caught his arm. It had to be hard for a father to let his child make her own decisions.

Rick stood back and let this play out.

“Dad . . . Mom . . . I love you. I know you want me safe but so does everyone here. Moving back to Utah means this guy won. Yeah, he didn’t kill me, but he would have killed my dreams, my life. I can’t give him that power. I belong here and I’m not going to let this stop me.”

Rick squeezed her shoulder in silent support.

Janice stepped forward and hugged her daughter. “You always have a place with us.”

“I know that, Mom.”

Sawyer made eye contact with Rick. “You need to keep my girl safe.”

Rick drew in a breath, pushed out his chest. “I will.”

While Judy said good-bye to her family, Rick shook Neil’s hand and pulled Zach aside. “We’re ready for round-the-clock supervision,” Neil told Zach. “In light of the new situation we’ll have more patrols at the house even if Rick is there.”

“Nobody thinks you did this.” Zach’s confidence made him stand taller.

“The surveillance isn’t to clear my name, but to watch for whoever might think no one’s eyes are out there. In order to catch this scumbag, you need to think like him. If he thinks all the protection is on the inside, he might roam the outside.”

Zach forced air from pursed lips. “See . . . this is why I like construction and not all this conspiracy shit. My mind doesn’t even go there.”

“By-product of the military, I’m afraid,” Neil said.

Rick extended his hand, shook Zach’s. “I’ll keep her safe for as long as I can.”

Zach stopped shaking his hand, his grin faded.

“The police will pick me up. It’s only a matter of time.”

“You’re serious.”

“Even if it’s for a long interrogation. I’ll be picked up unless this guy strikes again in a short amount of time.”