L eaning over to kiss Spenser, Mitchell fought back fatigue. Applause rang around them and water pitchers clanked against crystal glasses. Huge chandeliers hung in the main ballroom of the banquet facility. Mitchell sipped his coffee as Spenser took a delicate sip of her water and lemon.
Mitchell’s heart turned over in his chest. Spenser was a beauty, blonde, blue-eyed, small and delicate like Brittany Donovan, and heavy with their fifth child. Sadness dimmed the light in her eyes, dulling their robin’s egg color. He wasn’t sure what to do. He regretted using their night out to drag her to this event but the Reverend Karl Wilson was the honoree, having donated an exorbitant amount of money to fund a new gym and youth center, named in honor of his father, the Wayne Wilson Gym and Resource Center.
Karl strode to the podium, accompanied by a standing ovation and what seemed like a never-ending round of applause. Reverend Wilson was bowing, smiling gently, almost shyly. Once the noise quieted, Karl lowered his hands, as if he were heading a church service and instructing the congregation to reseat themselves. The guests sat and fell silent, staring toward the center of the stage in rapt attention.
“I wonder if he’s going to do a short sermon,” an elderly black woman seated at their table commented. “You would love him. He’s so full of fire and has such a close relationship with Jesus. After listening to Reverend Wilson, your hope is renewed and so is your faith.”
What a fucking paragon, Mitchell thought with distaste. He smiled at the old lady. “I’ll take your word for it, ma’am.”
The lady beamed, finely turned out in a pink pillbox hat and a beaded pink suit.
“Let us pray,” Karl began.
Mitchell tuned Karl out, studying him, his movements, his mannerisms. Mitchell’s gut screamed he was staring at Brittany’s rapist. He wondered if Karl had seen Brittany yet and if Trey had seen Karl with Brittany.
Mitchell just needed Trey’s personal stake in this case to trample his instincts only a few days more. If Trey figured out what Karl had done before then, Karl was a dead man and Trey would be ruined.
If the stubborn son-of-a-bitch was taking his advice, he was too busy making love to Brittany to consider who might’ve raped her.
“Amen.”
The word echoed all around Mitchell, and the old lady across from him smiled. A guilty flush crept up his neck, so he uttered a hasty, “Amen.”
“I have to take a moment to thank my beautiful lady, Miss Destiny Anders.”
Another round of applause rang out, as a pretty woman in a short, glittering-gold dress rose to her feet, beaming at Karl. Cameras flashed, the local newsmen waiting in the wings for a live report.
As Miss Anders reseated herself, another camera panned to her table. The live shot of her appeared on the huge screens on each side of the stage.
“Holy fucking shit,” Mitchell bit out, drowning out the old lady’s gasp, his eyes widening.
Spenser yawned. “What is it, Mitch?”
“That woman, Destiny Anders, has a strong resemblance to Brittany Donovan.”
Spenser swung her attention to the screen and shrugged, not offering a comment. She was tired, seven weeks away from delivering their baby. This pregnancy seemed to have stolen her spirit and Mitchell’s tie suddenly felt too tight, his pain raw. He was losing his wife. Maybe he’d already lost her. The only way he knew how to counteract his helplessness was to work.
Goddamn it, but how could he give up a lifetime of church teachings and give in to what he knew Spenser wanted?
She called him a hypocrite. He’d made love to her—and other women before her—outside the bounds of matrimony. If he followed one church rule, he should’ve followed the others. Mitchell admired her so much. She was a freelance graphic designer with a very good clientele, so good she had to turn away clients nowadays. She could support herself with or without him. As independent as she was, she also could’ve gone against his wishes and gotten on birth control. And yet she wanted to make him happy, knowing that inside the marital bonds, Mitchell didn’t believe in birth control. He believed man shouldn’t interfere with God’s will.
It was so heartbreaking Spenser had grown so miserable and withdrawn in the process.
His cell phone rang and Spenser gazed at him with bland disinterest. Leaning back, she rested her hand on the mound of her belly.
“Thomas,” Mitchell answered in his usual curt, no-nonsense tone.
“Lieutenant?” Dianna Chilton’s voice rang loud and clear.
Spenser was close enough to hear the woman’s voice.
Dianna was in CSU and Mitchell saw her often. If his relationship with Spenser wasn’t complicated enough, he’d been dating Dianna when he’d met Spenser.
“What do you have, Chilton?”
“Um, er, Mitch… Lieutenant Thomas.”
Guilt hit Mitchell as Dianna floundered. They’d remained on good terms and he’d never been so brisk with her, whether Spenser was there or not. Even if Spenser seemed to have forgotten, there was only one woman in this world for Mitchell. Her.
Mitchell sighed. “Talk to me, Sergeant.”
After a heartbeat of silence, she said, “There was evidence collected from Miss Donovan. At the request of the woman who brought her in. Apparently she didn’t believe Miss Donovan’s story but since the girl stuck to it, everyone’s hands were tied.
“I’ve ordered her records and asked to have the slides sent to our lab for analyzing.”
“Fucking A!”
Mitchell slapped the table in anticipation. A few heads turned toward him.
“You do understand we can get into a shitload of trouble since this isn’t an official investigation, honey?”
“I don’t know what I’d do without you,” he crowed, so lost in satisfaction he spoke without thinking. “Great job, Anna.”
“Yeah,” Dianna returned with meaning, “you owe me one, Mitch.”
Nothing should’ve taken place without a court order. They shouldn’t have gotten one without Brittany’s consent. But he’d do anything to remove a monster from society. Even if it meant going to jail. “I promise to visit you every week in jail,” he said low, so he wouldn’t be overheard by the other guests. His wife, however, sat next to him.
Spenser slid her chair back, tears rushing to her eyes.
“Fuck! I have to go, Dianna.” He didn’t wait for her to respond but hung up and ran after Spenser. One day, he’d have to tell her the truth about his parents. That they hadn’t just died when he was a boy. They’d been slaughtered and their killer never caught.
But that wasn’t the only thing that drove him with Brittany’s case. The young woman deserved peace. He doubted she’d ever rest at night, while her rapist roamed free. Mitchell spent most of his childhood and all his teen years battling to overcome his trauma over his parents’ violent deaths.
While he relived shit he’d prefer to forget, his wife was escaping him.
“Spenser, wait!” he called, realizing he’d somehow missed Karl’s entire speech. As he rushed after Spenser, he nearly collided with the man, Destiny Anders, and the retinue following them.
Karl smiled pleasantly, obviously recognizing Mitchell from the times Karl had visited Trey at the precinct. “Lieutenant, what brings you here?”
You, Mitchell thought, but he wouldn’t say that. He’d followed an instinct that saved his ass more than once. But just remembering Brittany, her long silences, her flare of panic, her dull pain as they’d discussed Karl, made the need to see this madman behind bars burn within Mitchell.
While he understood her reluctance to name Karl, Mitchell believed her silence had more to do with a fear of turning Trey against her. She believed family would be more important to Trey than she was. Mitchell, on the other hand, had no doubt Trey would leave little pieces of Karl Wilson scattered from one end of Harris County to the next if he ever discovered the truth. With or without the evidence Mitchell was amassing.
Karl’s serenity shattered beneath Mitchell’s hard scrutiny. The man’s eyes narrowed and a muscle ticked in his jaw.
Mitchell glowered at him. Karl was an arrogant son-of-a-bitch.
“Mitchell, I’m ready to go.”
Spenser’s soft drawl snapped him out of his standoff. She had backtracked in her retreat. Perhaps she’d noticed Karl leaving. Or maybe she’d stopped when he’d called out to her. It didn’t matter. Whatever chasm existed between them, she recognized Mitchell’s tension and was trying to settle him.
He transferred his gaze to Destiny Anders and plastered a charming smile on his face. “A pleasure, Miss Anders.” He reached into the pocket of the jacket he wore and pulled out a business card. He held the card out to Destiny. “I work with Karl’s cousin.”
Karl snatched the card from him and ripped it in two. “If you have something to say to me, Lieutenant Thomas, say it to me. Don’t question my lady.”
He pulled Destiny to him and kissed her lips. She smiled at Karl but Mitchell noted her faint glimmer of panic, her stilted motions.
Mitchell smiled placidly. “I didn’t mean to convey any insult, Reverend.”
He and Karl stared at each other a moment longer. Two of the men broke from the group behind Karl and flanked him and Destiny. Mitchell slid back his jacket, resting his hands inches from his gun, staring at the two men with cold warning.
Spenser tugged at him, and Mitchell saw Destiny still hadn’t moved, her hands at her sides as if she couldn’t touch Karl, although she remained at his side.
“Good evening, Reverend Wilson,” Mitchell said then allowed Spenser to drag him away.
On the way home, Spenser was quiet. Still not speaking as they arrived at their house located in one of the numerous subdivisions popping up in Southwest Houston, they went inside.
Once Mitchell walked home the two neighborhood girls who babysat his and Spenser’s kids whenever he took Spenser out, he showered then padded to his bedroom. Spenser was curled up on her chocolate-colored chaise, tears falling. The mound of her belly pushed against her long nightgown. She gave no indication she recognized his presence but Mitchell knew she was aware of him by the stiffening of her shoulders.
He’d promise her the moon and the stars if he could just make her happy.
“You’re having an affair with Dianna,” she blurted in a wobbly voice.
At the satiny chaise, Mitchell knelt and thumbed away her tears. “I haven’t touched another woman since the day I met you.”
“And you haven’t touched me since I told you I was pregnant,” she said bitterly.
“Spenser—”
“The damage was already done. I was already pregnant.”
And he’d felt guilty as hell. She’d left him after their fourth child had been born. Then he’d wooed her back and he’d been so damn happy, he’d forgotten the promise he’d made to himself. That at least he’d withdraw from her before he came. Of course he couldn’t have been lucky enough not to get her pregnant. All he had to do was look at Spenser too hard and she was pregnant.
“I love you,” he whispered, his head spinning with worry that she’d leave once and for all. “You’re my life. I love you.”
“Yes but you loved her first. And I stopped being your lover years ago. The mother of your children, yes. But not your lover. You don’t see me as a desirable woman. Just a mother and a wife.”
Was she serious? He jerked off every fucking night and fantasized about her and she thought he didn’t desire her?
He brushed his fingers through her hair and bent down to taste the salt of her tears, the sweetness of her mouth. A soft, yielding mouth. Groaning, Mitchell gathered her in his arms and carried her to their bed. Sitting her on the edge, he removed her nightgown then laid her on her side. Her bare legs brushed against his. Nuzzling her neck, he touched her buttocks before he reached her slippery heat.
“God, Spenser,” he groaned, pulling his cock out of the opening of his pajama bottoms and sliding into her. She was hot and wet and it wasn’t long before their mutual orgasms were upon them.
Spenser didn’t say anything more to him. Instead she fell asleep in his arms. And for once in his life, Mitchell was truly afraid. He’d told her he loved her but she hadn’t once repeated those words to him.