Page 33 of Tracking Down the Lawman's Son

“I’m a cop,” he said as if that explained everything. Maybe in his mind it did. Maybe he would have done that for anyone. After all, he’d run out into the parking lot to rescue Ronnie.

It was a bad time for her to make direct eye contact with him, but Bree found herself doing it anyway. As usual, things passed between them. Unspoken but still intense. Things always seemed intense between Luca and her.

Yes, the eye contact was a mistake, but she made it much worse when she stepped toward him. And into his arms. Lucapulled her to him, brushing a kiss on the top of her head. A kiss of comfort. So was the hug when he tightened his embrace. It was wrong to take this from him, but Bree couldn’t make herself back away.

She stayed there where it felt so safe. So right. The first part was the truth. The second, wasn’t. Luca and she weren’t together, and this was not only playing with fire, it was wrong. As if she were leading him on.

That gave her the steel to move back, and he eased his grip to let her do that. But it was another mistake. Because now they had the intense eye contact and the body-to-body touching. Definitely not good.

Bree felt the heat slide right through her. Of course, it did. There was always heat whenever she was around Luca. Heat and need. Another bad combo. Still, she stayed put, looking at him. Holding her breath.

Waiting.

Luca didn’t stay put though. He lowered his head and brushed his mouth over hers. This was not a gesture of comfort. No. This was about the fiery attraction. And she felt it. Felt it not only on her mouth but in every inch of her.

He pulled back, looked at her, no doubt gauging her reaction, and he muttered some profanity. She didn’t think his reaction was because he saw any objection on her face but because he probably saw the invitation she could feel her body sending out to him. An invitation that could complicate an already complicated situation.

Did that stop her?

No.

Bree moved in and kissed him. Really kissed him. Hard pressure of her mouth on his. Then, more. She was the one who deepened the kiss, the one who slid her hand around the back of his neck to pull him down to her.

Luca certainly didn’t resist. Just the opposite. He made a sound that came from deep within his throat, and he snapped her to him. Not that she could get much closer, but instead of merely touching, they were now pressed against each other. Like lovers.

Her body knew just how to react to the feel of his chest against her breasts. Everything inside her went warm and soft. Then, hot. Everything inside her pushed her to take more, more, more. She had no doubts, none, that Luca would give her that more, but there was another sound.

Gabriel whimpering.

That sent Luca and her flying apart, and both of them whipped their attention to their son. Gabriel stirred, stretching and making a face before he sucked at a nonexistent bottle and went back to sleep.

Luca and she stood there. Breaths racing. Heartbeats, too. She knew that because she could see Luca’s pulse on his neck. A neck she wished she could kiss. Heck, she wished she could do a lot of thing with Luca, but the timing was all off. Might always be off if she couldn’t set aside the horrible flashbacks.

“Saved by a whimper,” he muttered. Luca shook his head. Then, he surprised Bree by smiling. “I’m not sure I want to thank Gabriel for the interruption.”

He seemed to be waiting for her to agree. Which she did. That whole not being sure was front and center in her mind. But so was the heat. Since she didn’t want to give in to that heat, which might lead them straight to the bed, Bree motioned toward the laptop instead.

“The receipts,” she reminded him, keeping her voice at a whisper.

Luca nodded, sighed and picked up the computer. He took it to the small seating area in the corner, booted it up and set it on the table that was between the two chairs. The email was indeedthere with the large attachment of the receipts. Bree’s heart dropped a little when she realized it was well over a hundred pages, and each page had at least two dozen transactions.

“These are for the three weeks before Brighton’s death,” Luca pointed out.

So, Manny had been thorough. Or it appeared he had been on the surface anyway. If he was the person who’d murdered Brighton and was now responsible for the attacks, then he might have turned over the receipts only because he knew they wouldn’t incriminate him.

“Neither Tara nor Manny have alibis for the attacks,” Bree said, “but we didn’t ask them where they were when Brighton was murdered.”

Luca nodded. “I’m sure Duncan will do that. If anything pops in their background checks, he’ll have cause to bring them back in for interviews. The same could happen if we get that warrant for their financials. If one of them held your mother captive for all these months, there could be a money trail.”

True, and that was a trail they’d have to find since neither Tara nor Manny would likely confess to something like that. Kidnapping and imprisonment were serious crimes that would carry long jail sentences. Ditto for the attacks. Added to that, if the kidnapping and the attacks could be linked to Brighton’s murder, then life with no parole could be doled out. Heck, even the death penalty.

First, they had to find evidence to prove their guilt or eliminate them as suspects. They probably weren’t going to be able to do that based solely on the receipts, but it was something that needed to be investigated.

“Email me a copy of the list,” she said, standing so she could get her laptop she’d had brought over from her house. “I’ll start at the bottom. You can start at the top.”

Luca pulled his computer onto his lap to send her the email. “Flag anything that seems suspicious,” he muttered.

Bree made a sound of agreement and settled back in the chair to get busy. Since she had no idea what the usual daily revenue was for the bar, she flagged large charges, those over a thousand dollars, just in case Manny or Tara was using the Hush, Hush to launder money. Still, she supposed charges that high wouldn’t necessarily be anything sinister but rather a single payment for large group.

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