Forbidden Secrets Page 10

  “Lennox.”

  “All my life, I’ve been scrutinized, lied about, and judged. It’s been nothing but torment. No matter how nice I am, or what I do to balance the wrongs in the world, I’m still just one more Easton.”

  He gave her the respect he’d stripped away before and let her speak.

  She deserved it.

  “My father was an asshole, and I have to carry that on my shoulders. My mother was a hot mess. My grandmother was a power hungry idiot who let her kids run wild, and my uncle was a lecherous jerk who tried to get into my pants. Still, I’m not them. I don’t live my life that way. I’m tired of people believing I can’t possibly be different. You can’t come into my home to break me. It’s not fair, and I don’t deserve it. This is the only place I have where I can hide. It’s the only place I have left to feel safe.”

  Then came the flood of tears.

  She was right.

  Hart had been a jerk. Already, he could feel her wiggling beneath his armor. He knew what was coming. He could already feel it beginning to sprout.

  He wanted to protect her.

  Damn it!

  Once a man like him got the notion to protect a damaged woman, it was bound to be a bumpy ride.

  “I’m scared enough. I don’t need you riding my ass, Mr. Rose.”

  He was really bad with crying women, but he knew how to make her feel better. Gently, he pulled her against his body and held her to him. Hart let her cry it out, he didn’t try to stop her, and he didn’t try to speak.

  Yes, he’d provoked the fight, but there was more there than his insult. She was hurting, and this might help her in the end.

  “It’s okay. I have you, Lennox.”

  It occurred to him that as she was against his body, she felt so very fragile.

  “I shouldn’t have hurt you with my words. It wasn’t called for, and you didn’t deserve it.”

  “Why do you hate me? What did I do to you, Mr. Rose? Why do you think I’m a horrible person?”

  His heart skipped.

  Where to begin?

  “I don’t hate you.”

  Instead, he knew the truth, and that was a million times worse for him. Truth be told, Lennox Easton scared him to death. She was someone Hart knew he was susceptible to, and that would be his downfall.

  She was the damsel in distress, and he was the cop to his core. He wanted to protect and serve in the worst way.

  He wanted to keep her like this, safe and protected.

  Hart wanted what he couldn’t have.

  Instead of being honest, he tried the next best thing.

  “Can we start over? I’d like a chance to redo this, if you’ll forgive me, Lennox.”

  She sniffled. “I forgive you.”

  He dropped his chin to the top of her head. He was screwed, but here it went anyway.

  “I’m Everhart Rose, and I’m a jerk. Can we be friends?” he asked.

  “You wouldn’t want to be my friend. We have nothing in common.”

  “Let’s find some common ground.”

  “Like?”

  “Do you like sports?”

  “No.”

  “Do you like camping?”

  “Yeah, no.”

  “When’s your birthday?” He was desperate now, and he was going to try the whole ‘we share the same sign’ bullshit that he’d seen his other male friends whip out at the bar.

  “Valentine’s Day. In fact, my middle name is Valentine.”

  He stared down at her. “Seriously?”

  She nodded. “Do you need to see my driver’s license, Officer?”

  He laughed. “No, I believe you. Here’s why I’m surprised. My birthday is Valentine’s Day, too, and my mother named me Everhart Rose to be funny. Hart. Rose. Valentine’s Day.”

  She looked up. “Really?”

  “Do I need to prove it? I can show you my driver’s license if that’s what it takes,” he teased, handing her the same line she’d given him.

  She stared into his silvery eyes. “I believe you.”

  He smiled at her. “Thank you for that trust.” It wasn’t lost on him that he’d hurt her and she still gave him that. She was braver than he was—that was for sure.

  “I’m sorry I cried. I’m not normally like this, but I’m having a really bad day.”

  He could see that.

  “Technically, I made you cry, so I should be the one saying sorry.”

  She clung to him.

  It was difficult not to notice that his body was hard beneath his clothes. The man’s chest felt like a wall, and she was curious what he’d look like out of his clothes. Lennox knew she shouldn’t even go there, but curiosity killed the cat.

  Every.

  Single.

  Time.

  Plus, he smelled really good. It was hard to ignore the scent of his cologne as she was tucked beneath his chin. This was a feeling a girl could get accustomed to, and quite easily. His big strong arms made her feel safe.

  It was so wrong, but yet…so right.

  It amused her that no other men made her feel like this, and the one man who did, didn’t intend to be nice to her. Everhart Rose didn’t like her, and he never would.

  Still…

  This one moment was worth looking like a fool and crying in front of the investigators she hired. She moved closer into his body, crowding him, and she could hear his heart skip beneath her ear.

  It made hers do the same.

  She’d been with a few men in her life, and that usually signaled one thing. Someone did like her.

  His body was giving him away.

  Lennox wanted to celebrate, but instead, she simply wrapped her arms around him and held on.

  This was Heaven.

  “We should talk about the case,” Hart muttered, trying not to notice that she felt really good against him. This part of his life was long buried.

  He had a child.

  He had responsibilities.

  He couldn’t go there.

  Since Ivy came into his life, he hadn’t had time to think about sex, let alone find a woman to copulate with who understood they’d never come first over his child. Everything was about the little girl he loved more than his own life.

  She was his priority.

  His libido…it was dead. Hart had to keep it buried and locked away. Four years ago, he’d thought with his dick, and it nearly destroyed him. He wasn’t sure he could do it again. Despite how much he wanted her, he was afraid.

  Nothing good came from letting your penis drive the choices in life.

  Well, that wasn’t true.

  Ivy came from that moment, so he wouldn’t trade it for the world. It didn’t mean he wanted to have another baby and be the single father of two kids.

  That was sheer insanity.

  There were days he didn’t think he’d survive one, but another? Yeah, that was something that cooled off his libido and fast.

  “Sure. What do you want to know about the case?” she finally asked. It wasn’t easy to concentrate, but she could tell his body was going rigid.

  The moment had passed.

  “We came across a name, and I’d like you to tell us what you know about him.”

  “Who?”

  “Milo Perkins.”

  Just his name caused a reaction in Lennox. Her whole body tensed, and she tried to pull away from the protection of his body. That spoke volumes.

  Hart stopped her.

  When he lifted her chin, she tried to avoid his eyes. He wasn’t going to let it happen.

  No, they needed her to work this case, and for some damn reason, he needed her to rely on him.

  He’d keep her safe.

  “What did he do to you, Lennox?”

  She stared at him.

  “You can trust me. I’ll keep you as safe as I can, but you have to trust me to do it. If you hide things, we won’t find the person trying to hurt you.”

  That registered and untied her tongue, and fast.

  �
�We dated in college. I found out that he was after my family’s money, and I tried to break it off. At first, he would belittle me, be mean to me, and then it escalated.”

  He waited. “You can tell me.” Hart brushed some of the hair from her cheek. “What did he do to you, Lennox?”

  “Milo didn’t like that I wanted to get away from him. So, whenever he could trap me, he would. If that didn’t work, he’d sneak into my apartment. Once, he hit me.”

  His eyes narrowed.

  Even though Ivy’s mother ran him through the ringer, he never once thought to hurt her. He couldn’t tolerate when men abused women. Yes, he was a dick, but he was a dick who wouldn’t raise his hand to a woman.

  “Go on, honey.”

  “There’s not much left to say. I tolerated him until I could get away. When school was over, I left and came home. It didn’t take him long. He followed me.”

  He wanted to hurt the man for her.

  “You show your art at his studio. If you are afraid of him, why are you allowing him in your life?”

  Hart didn’t really have to ask that. He knew that abused women often reverted back to their abusers because they’d been programmed to believe they deserved it.

  She didn’t.

  Lennox, despite her family, money, or anything else, didn’t deserve to be some man’s punching bag.

  She was well aware. This was the hard part to explain.

  “I had no choice.”

  “We all have a choice, Lennox.”

  She shrugged. “What can I say? There aren’t that many places in this town that will allow me to show my art. If I want to keep selling it, then I have to play the game. I don’t like him at all, but it’s the nature of the beast.”

  He didn’t like any of this. He hated to point out the obvious, but Hart saw a simple solution.

  “You could stop selling your art.” He didn’t get why she bothered. The woman was an Easton. She was richer than rich, and she could do whatever she wanted.

  He’d seen it before.

  “It funds my charities. It’s a way to get people to donate, and to make them socially responsible.”

  “Ahhhh, a socialite with a conscious.”

  “Are you making fun of me?” she asked, looking up at him. “People don’t take Lennox Easton seriously. When I sign my art, they don’t always know it’s me. They are buying it because it’s pretty, or it speaks to them. If I keep that part of my life separate from this part, I can give without feeling like it’s the family helping. With me using MY money, it’s me helping. It’s Lennox, and that matters.”

  Yes, he could see it did.

  Hart grinned. “I'm not making fun of you at all, Lennox. I get what you’re doing, and I happen to think it’s a pretty amazing thing.”

  She relaxed.

  “That being said, he shouldn’t be anywhere near you. You fell at one of your showings in his place. How do you know he didn’t push you?”

  He touched her cheek, trying not to think how soft her skin felt against his fingers. He loved that she wore no makeup. Lennox was beautiful au natural.

  “He follows me around, but he’s harmless. On the day I was pushed, he was at the bottom of the stairs. I watched him as I tumbled. He wasn’t the one who pushed me.”

  She tried to keep from becoming defensive.

  “Has he touched you since?”

  She shook her head.

  “That was a lie.” His bullshit detector was going off, and it was screaming. “What has he done?”

  “It’s overt touches. He’ll try to hold my hand, when he hugs me hello, it’s a little too lingering, and he’s always trying to corner me. I stay where he can’t, and it’s all good.”

  Yeah, no, it really wasn’t. He had to make her see that. Milo Perkins was a manipulator, and he was trying to keep her attached to him.

  Still, he didn’t own Lennox. He wasn’t her boyfriend, and he worked for her. If she wanted to keep that scumbag in her life, he had no choice but to accept it.

  Like Tori had said.

  She was the client.

  They were providing the service, and not their opinions. It was time to tread lightly.

  “When did he come here?” Hart asked. “Was it before or after your mother was killed?”

  She thought about it.

  “Before.”

  That put the man on his list of suspects. He was guilty of manhandling a woman, stalking, and being an asshole. That alone put him at the top of his suspect list. He couldn’t wait to tell Julian and Tori. While he might not be able to get Lennox to ditch him, he could make sure they dug into the man’s life.

  It looked like they had a direction.

  “Do you think he killed my family?” she asked. That sent chills right down her spine.

  In fact, it creeped her the hell out.

  He wasn’t sure.

  At this point, it was too early in the game. It’s a little odd that he’d stalked her all the way back from college, and he’d been abusive.

  What man sticks around?

  He must really want her money. Having to live life like that, always wondering if someone was after you for what was in your bank account was a horrible thing.

  “How did you meet? Was it random in college?”

  She shook her head. “My grandmother arranged it. I was supposed to marry him. She wanted the Easton blood to mix with the Perkin’s blood. It was supposed to be a marriage of convenience.”

  He looked horrified.

  Was she serious?

  In this day and age?

  “Uh, it’s not the nineteen hundreds. I’m not a big dater, but I think it’s pretty odd that someone picked a man for you.”

  Yeah, and deep down it pissed him off. Again, those territorial feelings were back.

  She was aware.

  “Preaching to the choir, Everhart.”

  He liked when she said his name. Most people called him ‘Hart’, but his full name sounded really great coming from her lips.

  Those full, plump…

  He nearly had to shake his head to refocus.

  Jesus!

  He was a mess. One embrace and he wasn’t thinking like an investigator. He was thinking like…

  Oh, yeah—the man that knocked up a woman and got to be a single parent.

  Yeah, he refocused, and fast.

  “When I came back, my grandmother wasn’t happy. She tried to make it work. I wasn’t having it. I had to start earning my own way in life. I started selling my art because in all honesty, until she and everyone else died, I figured I was booted from the will. When I found out it was all left to myself and my brother, I was shocked.”

  He hadn’t thought about that. She was trying to survive on her own money in case her family ditched her. That had to suck. Hart’s parents would never have done that.

  Ever.

  Then the ex-cop kicked in.

  Had Lennox been anyone else, that would be one hell of a motive. Only, he could read her. She wasn’t lying.

  But just to be sure…

  “I have to ask you something, and I need you not to take it personally. I have a little gift, much like Tori.”

  She focused on him. “Uh, okay.”

  “I can tell when people are lying. I know that you know that, but that’s not going to make this any easier to ask you. Please don’t get mad, and please don’t take it personally.”

  “You want to know if I killed them all for the money, don’t you?” she asked.

  “Yes. Lennox, did you kill them?”

  “No.”

  Hart relaxed.

  “Did I pass, Mr. Human Lie Detector?” she asked, never looking away from him.

  “Yeah, you did.”

  Lennox was being completely honest with him.

  “When did you see Milo last?” he asked.

  She thought about it.

  “I don’t go to his studio all that often. I think it’s really only three times a year. After the night I fell and bro
ke my arm, he came by a few times to see me, but I didn’t let him on the estate,” she offered.

  “That was probably smart,” he admitted. “How do you conduct business with him? You mentioned when you arrived that you had a show coming up.”

  “I do. We converse on the phone or by email. All my paintings are shipped to his studio. They’re too big for me to transport in my jeep, so I have a company move them. Honestly, I try to avoid him as much as possible.”

  That was a damn good thing.

  “Can you tell me about that night?”

  She told him the whole story.

  The entire time, he listened without saying a single word. During the retelling, Lennox realized something. This man had to have been a cop at some point. Yes, she’d called him officer, but she’d been busting his ass. Until that moment, when she watched him, she wasn’t sure.

  Now she was.

  Lennox had seen that look on Lincoln Brooks’s face when she told him about the push.

  “Were you a cop by any chance?”

  “Pardon?” he asked, caught off guard at the random question thrown into her story.

  “You know…cop. Shield? Gun? Bad guys?”

  “Yes, I was a homicide detective. Why?”

  If she told him it was sexy, she was pretty sure he’d have a stroke. Everhart rose was nervous around her. She could see it. Instead of repelling her, that made her want to torment him even more.

  “Were you a good cop?” she asked.

  “I’d like to think so.” And he did. Truthfully, he was always honest, did the job, and had respect of all the cops he’d worked with on the force. “Why?”

  She took a chance.

  Going into his body, she held onto him.

  “Please don’t let this person win. Please save me. I don’t want to die.”

  His heart skipped.

  He didn’t want her to die either.

  And for more reasons that the obvious.

  * * * L i t t l e m o o n * * *

  Wednesday Night

  Outside the Estate

  He’d just gotten there, and already, he could see there was something going on at the house.

  He loved that he could sneak onto the woman’s land and right up to where she thought she was safe.

  Boy was she wrong.

  She was anything but safe in the house. Oh, he’d get to her tonight, and while she was sleeping, she’d join her family.