Chapter 36
Startled, Harper spun her head around, half expecting to see the farmer with his face pressed against the window, or an axe murderer wielding that particular chopping tool. There was nothing but darkness and moonlight on corn stalks.
Puzzled, she lifted her brows.
“Leg cramp,” he said through gritted teeth.
“Oh, thank goodness.” Biting off a smile, she managed to extricate herself from under him. Turning to search the floor for her dress, she snatched it up and pulled the item over her head, shoving her arms through the holes.
A snort-wince brought her attention around. “You have a seatbelt imprint on your ass,” Noah said.
“I probably have goat hair everywhere else.”
Taking charge with a clinical eye, she quickly took care of the condom, placed his shirt on his lap, then rubbed her hands together. “Where?”
“Right calf.”
Having spent much of her life with leg cramps from the acrobatics required for cheerleading, she had knowledge of techniques for rubbing them out. She started low on his ankle and worked her way up. As a stoic alpha male, he didn’t whine, scream, or weep, though his face contorted into something resembling an enraged Incredible Hulk.
“Better?”
“Some.” He grunted. “Higher.”
She moved up and massaged behind his knee. That seemed to help. Hulk vanished. Noah was back. “Good?”
“Higher.”
They were moving out of calf range, but fine. He managed to give her an orgasm in the limited confines of the car and with kicked balls. She was happy to help him out.
“Higher.”
The man had nice thighs. She did a version of a deep tissue massage of his rectus femoris. “Higher.” His voice had gone low.
It didn’t take a rocket scientist to see where this was going. They’d moved out of calf cramp massage range minutes ago. Yet, she wasn’t complaining. She liked having power over big, tough Noah. “Higher.”
Up she went. “I’ve never heard of a traveling cramp. It’s one for the medical books.”
He grinned, realizing she knew the game. “Higher.”
She moved inward to his adductor longus. The muscle wasn’t the only thing getting long-gus. The tented shirt couldn’t hide his intentions. “I’m running out of leg.”
“I’m running out of patience.” He swept the shirt aside. He was fully erect.
“Well, look at that.” She gently poked it with one finger. “That must hurt. Too bad we don’t have any more condoms.”
He pulled up his left leg, where his tuxedo pants were still hooked around his foot. He dug around in the pocket and pulled out a foil package. “Look at that. A back-up plan.”
She pushed his feet to the floor and climbed onto his lap. “I do love a man who comes prepared.”
* * * *
Noah sensed that Harper needed space after two rounds of lovemaking in the car and a quiet ride home. He’d kissed her at her door and said good night. Since she hadn’t protested, he knew he’d been right.
And as morning brought sunlight into his bedroom, he wondered how she felt about him. Them.
They’d made a huge step forward last night, he thought, when he rolled from bed and dragged himself into the shower. Every part of him ached. Making love to Harper in the back seat of that damn car had contorted his muscles, and stretched the limits of his sexual creativity. He was not yet thirty and already feeling too old for sex in the backseat of a car.
Still, for Harper, he’d twist into a pretzel if it meant making her happy.
Thirty minutes later, he whistled as he walked to her door after sending her a text. The door was unlocked. When he walked inside, she rushed past him and around the living room, shoving stuff into her bag.
“Summer called,” she said in way of acknowledging his presence. “She found something big.”
“Did she say what?” So much for talking feelings, and about their future. Thank you, Summer.
She finally came to a stop before him. “Only that the new clues will help me.” She threw him the keys and almost took out his eye. “You drive. I can’t drive.”
Anxious and keyed-up, she hurried past him.
He didn’t take the brush-off to heart, nor did he expect loving glances. Last night was a release of pent up sexual tension. At least that’s what he told himself. It was time to get back to work.
Aiming Harvey in the direction of Brash & Brazen, he felt her fidget without glancing her way.
“Can’t you go any faster?”
Great. He had his own backseat driver. “I’m going three over the speed limit.”
“Go ten,” she ordered. Twitch. Twitch.
“We’re in a school zone.” He pulled up behind a row of buses letting kids out at the curb in front of an elementary school. “I’m not running over the rug rats.”
“Right. Sorry.” She slumped back. Twitch. “What do you think Summer found?” Her foot spun in circles.
Huh. She was hopped up. “How much coffee did you have this morning, HJ?”
She faced him. Her pupils were shuttering open and closed like a high speed camera at a wedding reception. “Two cups.”
“And…”
“I mixed in an energy drink that I found in the back of the pantry.” She blinked over red eyes. “I didn’t sleep well last night.” He readied himself for a prideful puff up when she added, “Crank phone calls again.”
So much for a post-orgasm ego stroke. “Can you get Summer to run the number?”
Twitch. “She did. It’s a burner phone.”
Concerned for her health, and despite her protests, he drove through a fast food drive-thru and picked her up the jumbo waffle breakfast and an orange juice. He hoped the waffles would soak up the coffee and energy drink.
Harper made a face as she lifted a plate-sized waffle out of the to-go container. “This is bigger than my head.”
“Eat them or I’m taking you home.”
“Yes, boss.” She shoved the corner of the waffle, without syrup, into her mouth and chewed it down. “Not bad.”
Fortunately, Harper plowed through one and a half waffles in record time. It would be best described as watching a LSD-laced beaver chew through a giant redwood tree.
Crumbs flew everywhere. When she came up for air, she smiled. “Happy?”
“Very, though I may never eat waffles again.” Shaking his head, he covered the last few miles to Brash. By the time they got to the elevator, her pupils resembled normal, and the twitching had diminished to slight tremors.
“I’m throwing out the rest of those energy drinks,” she said sheepishly. “I think they were expired.”
Noah rolled his eyes. “Good idea.” He hooked her around the neck and kissed the top of her head as the elevator dinged and the door slid open. “Now, let’s go find Summer.”
Gretchen sat behind her desk and waved them back. Summer was at her desk on video phone with Jess. Jess appeared to be in a parking lot. They were chatting about babies and how many diapers one small human could go through in a day.
“I might need a second job,” Jess said, smiling.
Spotting them, Summer said, “Hey, come on in.” Noah and Harper took seats. “Taryn should be here in a second.”
Taryn appeared in the doorway with her phone clutched in her hand. She smiled at Harper and Noah.
“Did you get anything good?” Jess asked eagerly.
Taryn walked over and opened her phone. “They were talking in the hallway.” She held up the screen for Jess, then passed the phone around. Harper and Noah shared an amused look over the image of Gretchen and Alvin standing near a door indicating a cafeteria. There was nothing unusual about the pic.
“You people are obsessed,” Harper said.
* * * *
Not one of them denied her accusation. She probably shouldn’t have mentioned the Gretchen-Alvin connection. He suspected the mystery made her friends crazier than normal.
“Shoot, I have to go,” Jess said and looked to her left. “I see a sale on baby clothes.” The feed went dead.
Harper chimed in lest they get back on Alvin and Gretchen. “Would it be possible to get to my case?”
Summer smiled and nodded. “Wheel on over.”
Harper and Noah rolled their chairs to her. The three of them huddled around the computer screen. She pulled up and paused video image of the back of a building. The shot was dim.
“What are we looking at?” Noah asked.
“It’s surveillance from a Taco Bell parking lot camera.” Summer clicked the video. “This is the back of the Rosemont Hotel on the night before Gerald’s murder. Two lights are out in the hotel parking lot so the quality isn’t good.”
His heartbeat kicked up as the video played. “How did you find this?”
She looked over her shoulder. “Taryn and I went out there and looked around. Several businesses had cameras, but the Taco Bell was the only one that showed the back of the hotel.”
“If this clears me,” Harper said and glanced at Taryn, “I’m purchasing stock in Taco Bell and buying you the biggest burrito on the menu.”
“Hold your credit card, sweetie, this gets better.” Summer fast forwarded the tape, then stopped. “Watch closely.”
She slowly forwarded the video. In the dim light of the parking lot, it took a minute to realize what he was seeing. From out of the darkness, a figure in dark clothes appeared on a balcony. The person looked around, down to the ground, and stood at the edge of the sixth floor railing.
“He’s climbing up,” Harper said, awed.
“That he is,” Summer said. “The guy has guts.”
The figure wobbled on the rail and used the nearby wall to steady himself. Then, like a movie spy, stepped the distance to the next balcony. “Are you shitting me?” Noah said. “What is that? Six feet?”
“Five,” Taryn said. “Summer and I measured it.”
Harper frowned. “That probably rules out a woman as the suspect, unless she’s very tall.” She took a breath. “Berit? She’s a tall woman.”
Noah knew what she was thinking. Betty Anne could be ruled out as the actual killer. Her assistant could not. It didn’t take her entirely off as the possible mastermind behind a murder-for-hire.
Taryn shook her head. “I don’t think the acrobat is female. See that way he moves. That’s all male.”
As they watched, Noah figured Taryn was right. “I agree. I’d be surprised if the figure is female.”
The guy pulled the same move twice more, steeping between the balcony spaces. Then he fiddled with the sliding glass door on the third balcony for several minutes. He disappeared inside the room with a flutter of curtains.
“I always felt a measure of safety taking a room on an upper floor,” Harper said. “Those days are over.”