Jackson Chamberlain’s House

Los Angeles, California

 

Orion was sleeping deeply enough that he was dreaming. He knew he was dreaming because he was floating in the middle of the ocean, something he’d never do in reality. He didn’t like the ocean, didn’t like the sensation of all that salt water against his skin. But in the dream it was kind of nice, warm and relaxing. Like lying in a woman’s embrace.

As though the thought brought her to him, Caterina came floating toward him on a device of her own. He couldn’t see what it was they were floating on, but it didn’t seem to matter all that much. What really mattered was Caterina’s pretty face, the smile on her full lips.

“How have you been, Orion?” she asked in that breathy tone of hers.

“I’m okay.”

She regarded him for a long moment. “You’re not okay. You’ve been feeling guilty.”

He frowned, but as she said the words, he felt the emotion rush through him.

“You always felt so responsible for everything, even when it was out of your control.”

“I should have protected you.”

“You did.” She took his hand between hers. “You always did more than you had to. You always tried so hard.”

“I wanted to save you.”

“I was the only one who could save me, Orion,” she said, her smile a little sad. “I made my choices.”

“I’m sorry.”

She touched his face in a way she’d never done in real life, her touch as satisfying as he’d always known it would be. And then she smiled again.

“Go be happy.”

He woke with a start, sitting up so quickly he felt a little twinge of discomfort in his lower back. Jane rolled over, mumbling something in her sleep. He watched her for a moment, coming back to reality, remembering all the things that had passed between them in the past twenty-four hours.

It’d only been twenty-four hours. Somehow it felt so much longer than that.

There was a knock on the door just as he started to slide back down against the pillows, the idea of sleeping beside Jane’s warm body an inviting one. He reluctantly slipped out from under the blankets and pulled on the pants he’d discarded hours ago. He pulled the door open, expecting Gracie. Instead, he was confronted with a tall, older man.

“I’m Randall, Mr. Chamberlain’s butler. Mr. Masters has requested your presence downstairs.”

“Durango’s here?”

“Yes. In the living room.”

“I’ll be down in a minute.”

Orion ducked back into the room and went to the closet. He’d found a plentiful supply of clothing in many different sizes in the other guest bedroom. He was hoping there were a few in this one, as well. And, sure enough, he found a nicer selection than he’d had to choose from. It was tempting to pick one of the many suits that lined one wall of the closet, but he settled for a t-shirt to replace the one Jane was at that moment wearing.

Durango was with Gracie in the living room, whispering something near her ear as they sat on the couch. She smiled and glanced back at him, a sight Orion was more than used to. They were that way at the office back in Springfield, too.

“Durango, I can’t thank you enough for allowing us to take up space in your father’s house.”

Durango stood and held out a welcoming hand to Orion. “No problem. Jackson’s in New York with his wife, so the place is open for our use.”

They took seats across from each other on the heavy furniture, Orion choosing a narrow loveseat while Durango returned to his place beside Gracie.

“I’ve had a conversation with Andres Maldonado,” Durango began. “I know you were concerned about information flowing too easily from his office to the client, but I can assure you that Andres is on our side. He insisted that he only spoke to Mason Trueblood once, on the morning he offered you the case. He hadn’t spoken to him again until this afternoon while I was actually standing in his office. Trueblood wanted an update on the case.”

“An update? He seems to know more about all this than the rest of us.”

Durango lowered his head slightly in agreement. “As we discussed, I didn’t tell Andres what went down early this morning. The man is so overwhelmed with wedding plans, I don’t think he even noticed that I was holding back.” Durango glanced at Gracie. “But I believe if you have any more trouble, you can turn to Andres.”

“Do we know any more about Trueblood and this Porter fellow?”

Durango sat back. “I have our people back in Illinois checking into them. So far we’ve learned a few interesting tidbits. Turns out that the men you shot back in El Segundo are with Martin Security, a small firm across town. You actually shot Kyle Martin himself.”

“He hired two security firms?”

“And had you both looking for the same thing, just by different means.”

“That doesn’t make sense. Why hire me to be discreet, and hire them to be stampeding elephants?”

“He wanted to make sure he got those pictures back.”

“Is Martin still coming after Jane? You know they threatened to kill her. Would have, too, if I hadn’t been there.”

“I don’t know. But I know Trueblood’s still looking for the pictures. He hired this guy”—he pulled a picture from a narrow file he’d had on the table in front of him and handed it across to Orion—“to come after the two of you. He’s a hitman who worked for the Mahoney Cartel. You remember them, don’t you?”

“Sure. We got a lot of their messes up in New York back in the day. But I heard they’d been wiped out.”

“They have. But there’s still a few stragglers hanging around, guys who don’t know what else to do with their lives. This guy could be trouble.”

“Do we think Trueblood has connections to the cartel, too?”

“I wouldn’t put it past him.”

That would make sense, considering what was in those photos Jane took.

“I’d like to call a contact I have with the LAPD. I think they should have the pictures.”

Durango lowered his head, quiet for a long moment.

“I realize we made promises when we took the case,” Orion said, “but you haven’t seen these photos. They’re insane!”

“It’s not that. I just…if he’s connected, we don’t want to stir up a hornet’s nest.”

“No one has to know they came from us.”

“They’ll know they came from Jane.”

That was the only problem with all of this. Jane was the vulnerable one here, and the last thing Orion wanted was to place her in more danger than she was already in.

“Could the cops work with us?” Gracie asked. “Could they put her in some sort of protection detail?”

Orion looked down at his hands. “The LAPD doesn’t really do that sort of thing.”

“Even for witnesses?”

“Witness protection is low on the list of priorities. And we don’t even know what we have here, if it will lead to a prosecution. They won’t be willing to put themselves out there for her based on that.”

“Then we’ll just have to do it,” Durango said.

Orion nodded his agreement. “I’ll call my contact, make arrangements to bring her in.”

“I’ll call Zeke to back you up.”

It seemed like their only choice. He just wasn’t sure how Jane was going to feel about the whole thing.

She was awake when he walked back into the bedroom, standing by the windows with the waning sunlight burning through the thin t-shirt that was the only thing covering her curvy body. He walked up behind her and slipped his hands under the shirt, moving them around her ribs and up under her breasts to hold them firmly in his grip.

“Where were you?”

He kissed her temple lightly. “Durango had some information he wanted to share with me.”

“Anything I want to know?”

“Probably not.”

She leaned back against him, sliding her own hands over his arms. They stood there like that for a long few minutes, taking strength just from this sort of intense intimacy they’d developed in such a short time. He almost wished they’d met under different circumstances, that they had time to get to know each other a little better. But they hadn’t, and if they had, he probably wouldn’t have given her a second glance.

“We have to get going. I’ve arranged for you to meet with the LAPD in an hour.”

“The LAPD?”

Her body stiffened slightly against his. He moved his hands back down to her ribs, sliding them down and around her waist, pulling her closer to him for a moment.

“I have a friend,” he told her. “He’s going to take the pictures and give them to the district attorney, see if there’s something that can be done about them.”

“You mean, he’s going to investigate a potential murder that’s probably been covered up already.”

“Yes.”

“What are the chances they’ll do anything about it? That they’ll actually arrest Porter or Trueblood?”

“I don’t know, Jane. These pictures are incriminating, but they don’t really show proof of a crime.”

“So, what you’re saying is that I’m basically putting myself on the line for something that might or might not mean anything?”

She pulled away from him before he could respond. He watched as she paced the length of the room, that t-shirt dancing against her upper thighs like the skirt of a micro dress. It was so distracting, what with the way it swung upward just enough to give him a hint of what was hiding underneath. He wanted to grab her and toss her onto the bed, but he just stood still, his hands clasped together behind his back.

“What I caught on those pictures is a crime. He did something to that girl, tortured her or something.”

“I know.”

“And then he just let his mother and Trueblood in there like it was nothing. Like he’d called them to help him clean it up.”

“I know.”

“And we’re just going to hand that over to the cops and let them cover it up?”

“Jane, that’s not necessarily what’s going to happen here.”

“It’s not necessarily not what’s going to happen here, either.”

Orion pushed away from the windows and walked to the bed, settling heavily against the end of the mattress. “The thing is, Trueblood has hired people who are willing to kill to keep you from selling those photographs. He’s already tried to kill you once by sending those goons to my house. And now we have reason to believe he’s hired another hit man, a guy connected with a pretty serious crime cartel. He knows how to make you disappear before breakfast, you understand?”

“But giving the pictures to the cops doesn’t necessarily end that. Trueblood will still want to keep me quiet.”

“That’s true.”

“How are you going to protect me from that?”

“I’m hoping the cops will arrest him and Porter, that they’ll keep him so occupied with his problems that he won’t have time to think about you.”

She stopped and faced him, her hands on her hips causing the shirt to ride up again. “Are you really that naive, Orion?”

“I’m that confident in my ability to protect you.” He stood up and took her face in his hands. “You’re stuck with me until this is over, Jane. Until we can honestly say that Trueblood can no longer hurt you.”

“Yeah?” Her eyes filled with something like hope. “What if it takes months?”

“All the better.”

He kissed her, his lips lingering against hers. After a moment, she relaxed, her body molding to his as their kiss developed a little more heat. He let his hands slip under her shirt again, pulling it up over her head before lifting her into his arms.

They had a few minutes.