5. Chapter 5

Chapter 5

Caleb

L aney showing up came as a shock, at first, until I figured out her reason for being here. She came to play. In what sense, I discover about five minutes in, and I test that theory pretty fast. The look in her eyes says that she’s going to eat me for breakfast, like she did last night at the bar, but then her gaze cowers from mine, surprising me. She’s vulnerable. Why, I don’t know, since I’m the guy here for a murder investigation. But then, as my gaze sears through hers, it’s like I mentally tear her down. Or at least, that’s what I think, until I test that theory.

When my eyes go to her lips, she pulls back slightly. “Caleb, don’t even try it.”

“Try what.” I say, voice low and intentionally sultry.

“I have no interest in you.”

“Really. Well, actions speak louder than words, and you’re still sitting here.”

She swallows, and I swear to God, I see a bead of sweat roll down her temple. But I’m not looking at her temple, oh no, I’m looking at her eyes. Those big blue eyes with so much mystery yet so transparent, all at the same time. As I draw closer to her, she doesn’t move. It’s like she’s frozen in time, battling with herself, knowing that she feels the same magnetism as I do, but also knowing that she’s already created certain boundaries between us, boundaries that I’m trying to break, and she can’t decide if they’re ready to be broken yet or not.

“Caleb…” She says, voice soft, almost begging, making my cock stand right up.

“Laney…” I murmur, so close to her skin I can feel the heat from her, yet I’m not touching her. My guess is it’s been so long since she’s been with a man, that her body is wide awake, yet her mind has objections. When she says my name, it’s a cross between begging me to stop and begging me to continue. My lips graze hers, barely making contact, and then I slide to her neck, doing the same, just a taste, but not enough to say I even touched her, but enough for her to beg for more.

The knock at the door jars her thought. She all but pushes me aside, breaking the spell. “You son of a bitch!” She snarls. “I can’t believe you did that!”

Another knock.

“What the fuck!” I shout at her and at the door.

Laney rises abruptly, all but shuddering, shaking off whatever just happened.

“Did you get what you wanted?” I shout at her.

“Asshole.” She mutters, walking to the door, opening it.

“Oh, that’s rich.” I tell her, watching the girl from the front observe us like she’s watching a ping pong match. “You’re the one that accosted me here, remember.”

“Fuck you.” She spits, stomping away, like an errant child.

“I…is this a bad time?” Luwanda asks.

“No, not at all. What’s going on?” I ask, walking to her.

“Oh, um, your lawyer just called. I think your phone is dead.” She explains, handing me a charging cable.

I pull my phone out of my pocket. Sure enough, it’s dead. “Shit. Thanks.” I say, taking the cable from her. “Any progress with the prints?”

“No, but you can go anytime you like. Chas just left. We have everything we need for now.”

I lift a brow. “Then, why give me a charging cable?”

“Well, I didn’t know how long you and your lawyer would be in there for.”

My eyes roll. “That was not my lawyer. In case you weren’t aware, lawyers don’t typically talk to their clients the way that she talked to me, for the record.” God, how dumb is she? I decide that if Chas is out, then so am I. A constable is handy so he gives me a ride back home, where I take a shower, change my clothes, and do everything to avoid answering my phone to my da, who has left me three messages, all irate, all demanding to know what the fuck is going on, his words, but instead of doing the smart thing, I do something stupid instead, and head over to Chas’s house.

His truck is in the driveway, so I bang on the door. He answers a minute later, by simply holding the door open, and not saying a word. “Still not talking to me, huh.”

“I’m not talking to anyone, for the record. My brothers’ orders.”

I close the door behind me. “You always do what your brothers tell you?”

“No. But I figure since I may need their help on the stand, I better fucking listen this time.”

As soon as I sit down, the door knocks.

“Fuck. That’s Beckett.” Chas rises and opens the door for his brother. Beckett has coffee and donuts, and he’s got a laptop bag hanging on his shoulder.

Beckett sees me and gives me a weak smile. “I didn’t see any of your brothers at the station.” He’s matter-of-fact, like he’s almost disappointed. In fact, the only person that showed up aside from my lawyer, was Laney.

“Yeah, well, they’ve got better things to do. Besides, da probably told them to stay the hell away, to avoid any further muddying of the fucking family name.”

“You should probably call him.” Beckett states. “He even went so far as to call me, looking for you, when he showed up at the police station, and you weren’t there anymore.”

“Fuck…me.” I whine, resting my head on the back of the couch.

Beckett takes a seat across from me, on the armchair, while Chas sits on the opposite side of the couch, next to me. “So, it looks like we’re fucked for prints.” Beckett states. “No viable prints on the goddamn knife.”

I look at my fingers, with still some scant remnants of the ink they used to take the prints from me, on them.

“Where’d they find the knife?”

“Tossed in the bushes from what the lawyer said.” Chas explains.

“Yeah, but the neighbors are reporting a shitload of people going in and out of her place at all times of the day and night, so a lot of questions.” Beckett adds.

“That’s probably why they weren’t so inclined to keep us there.” I volunteer.

“Hey, was that Laney McAdams I saw leaving just after me today?” Chas asks.

“Yeah.” I answer, not wanting to divulge anything further, but I know that it can’t be avoided.

“What was she doing there? What, is she following you around now?” Chas guffaws.

“I don’t know. I guess a girl tends to do that once you tell her that your da wants you to marry her.” I shrug.

“She was sweet on the idea?” Beckett inquires.

I snort. “Exactly the opposite. She came there to interrogate me. Torture me.” I leave out the part where I came so close to her I could smell her perfume, where my cock woke straight up, and where I could have pushed her onto that shabby couch and fucked her brains out until she begged me to stop.

Beckett furrows his brows. “Why did they even let her in?”

“The chick out front is as dumb as a bag of fucking rocks.” Chas snorts. “So, what now, man?” He asks both me and Beckett.

“Well, we wait it out.” Beckett shrugs. “Lay low until the cops decide if there’s enough evidence to make an arrest.”

“Fuck, am I ever glad that our folks aren’t alive to witness this shit. Now I’ve seen everything.” Chas says, laying his head on the back of the couch. I notice that nobody is eating the donuts, so I help myself to one, and one of the coffees, without asking, but neither of them seem to care.

“Thanks, man. Both my mama and my da are still alive and are going to kick my fucking ass for this shit.”

“I guess you’re going to have to come to some sort of an agreement with Laney now, huh.” Chas jokes. “To get back into your dad’s good graces, anyway.”

“I’ve got a bigger chance of sprouting a third fucking leg, man. She hates me and the feeling is mutual.” I add, especially since she also appears to be a huge fucking cock tease, something I absolutely cannot stand in a woman. But I still can’t wipe that look on her face out of my head. It was as sexy as hell. Those needy, vulnerable eyes, the want in them. It makes me shudder just thinking about it. “Fuck, I better get out of here and go see my da, man. Before he finally hunts me down and tears me a new one.”

“Sounds like a sensible plan to me.” Beckett says.

I rise and head for the door, taking the coffee and the rest of the donut with me. Before reaching the door, noting that neither brother is seeing me out, I turn to say one last thing. “You guys…you guys are still going through with the investment plan, right?”

Beckett gives me a ‘level with me’ look. “As far as I’m concerned, yes, but it all depends on what unfolds with all this shit. If anyone loses confidence in us on account of Chas’s alleged involvement, we could be in a heap of shit, you understand.”

I nod. “Yeah. Same goes for me, too, I guess.”

“It’ll all come out in the wash somehow, man.” Beckett adds. “The truth will set us free.”

Another nod. “Yeah. Yeah, you’re right. I’ll see ya.”

“See ya, Caleb.” The boys say simultaneously, as I walk out, closing the door behind me.

But instead of going home or to the office, I do something stupid…again.

After discovering through my resources that she’s at the office, I head there, wondering what my plan is. It occurs to me that she’s accosted me twice now, so I owe her one. Technically, I showed up at the bar last night, and I minded my own business, even though I knew that she’d be there, but in the end, she was the one that approached me and gave me the lashing. I figure I owe her one at least.

Laney

“You did what ?” Brandy barks into the phone, eating a bagel. “Let me get this straight. You dressed in your fuck suit, traipsed your way down to the police station, got nothing on him, and then you almost kissed him?” By the end of that summation, her voice is a squeak. “This…this is like a trashy romance novel without the heat. You gotta give me something, Laney!”

“Why am I suddenly the one responsible for your entertainment?”

“Because I’m divorced. The only entertainment I’m going to get now is from my girlfriends.”

“Why would you say that? You can have a life, too, you know. Isn’t that why you got a divorce?” My laptop is open on my desk. I just saw a client, and I don’t have another one for an hour, so while I’m catching up on emails and daily numbers research that my assistant brought to me, I decided to let Brandy off the hook, and give her the goods on this morning’s field trip to the local police station.

“Quit changing the subject. How did you almost kiss him?”

I pretend like it wasn’t as hot as it was. “Don’t make me gag.”

“Did you slap him?”

“No, but I told him to fuck off and called him an asshole, before storming out of there.”

“What gave him the idea that you might want to kiss him?” She asks, either confused, or digging, not sure which. If she were here, I could tell by her face.

“I have no idea.” I lie. It was my face. I wanted it. I wanted to kiss him. It’s an odd feeling, when you can’t stand someone, but they’re so goddamn gorgeous, sexy, and you have so much in common with them, that the magnetism can’t be ignored. “But I didn’t let him have it.”

“Did you want to?”

“Like I said. Don’t make me gag.” I’m a good liar. I lie for lots of reasons. It’s mostly for good. I’ve won several contracts because of my inherited trait. We McAdams’s are great actors. Da is no exception. In fact, if I didn’t know him better, I’d say he already knew that Caleb was going to approach me with his da’s strategy to have us wed. He’s just going to use reverse psychology to make me think that it’s a horrible idea, knowing full well that I love a challenge. We know the Harris family well. People in this business tend to mingle a lot at different functions and events, so over the years, we’ve grown to learn that they have risen to the cream of the crop, being the largest investment company in the state, and the second largest in the United States.

If Harris Brothers Investments were to take us over, that would make them the largest in the U.S., giving Dougall Harris all the more reason to force his most eligible bachelor son to marry the heir to the McAdams throne. “He smelled like beer and old baloney. He hadn’t even showered from last night.” I add, knowing that truthfully, it was more of a turn-on than I care to admit. What I also won’t admit to is how my mind has been juggling the idea of taking Caleb like he was today, or cleanly showered, in a fresh suit, and I haven’t decided which scenario makes me hotter.

“Ew. I’m surprised you let him get that close to you.”

“I didn’t. The ditz at the front desk knocked on the door.”

She gasps, chuckling. “Oh, so you’re saying you were interrupted?”

My voice is flat. Unimpressed. “Fuckoff. That’s not what I said.”

I get a message on my screen, saying that I have a visitor, and I know that my next client isn’t due for an hour, so I wait for Mandy to tell me who it is, but before she can, my door opens abruptly, and Caleb Harris himself storms in. “Shit. I gotta go.” I say quickly, hanging up on her, readying myself to fly at him for walking in like that, when he has no business doing so.

Mandy trots in behind him. “I tried to stop him!” She cries, but he slams the door in her face.

“Do you want me to call security?” Mandy asks. Her voice is muffled from behind the door.

Caleb stands there in a fresh suit, freshly showered, smelling as fucking good as he looks. His jaw muscles are working. His eyes are wild. He looks as sexy as hell as he stands there, waiting for me to respond to Mandy, as if asking permission, or daring me to tell her to call security. It takes me a beat, but I finally answer. “No, Mandy. It’s fine. Thank you.”

It's like we’re at a stalemate. He’s not moving. I’m not moving. But both of our chests are heaving. He takes a step back and engages the lock on my door, making me half nervous, half thrilled. As he swallows, I watch his Adam’s Apple bob up and down, and his eyes are on mine. The look in his gaze is so intense it makes me shiver. I’ve never seen a look in a man’s eyes like that before. Is he pissed? Is he ready to give me a piece of his mind? Or is he ready to take me up against the wall? It’s tough to tell if it’s the latter, since he's wearing a double-breasted jacket, which covers his zippered area, but I’d be willing to bet money that he is as hard as he was for me last night. I took him down first last night, then he tried to take me down this morning, and my best guess is that he’s ready to finish his try, since we were interrupted during his attempt.

…but will I let him?