Page 71 of Deadly Attraction
Chapter Fifteen
They woke to rain.
Rivulets ran down the bedroom window and Emma nearly laughed. The one, brief blip of the weather report they’d heard the day before had been on the money. Santa Claus, or Jesus, or whoever one attributed miracles to, had come through.
In the yard below, she spotted Will heading to the house in his slicker and wide-brimmed hat. Lady trotted along behind him, both of them wet and kicking up water, and neither seeming to care.
“Oh, crud,” Emma swore, seeing the time.
Mitch yawned from the comfort of the bed where he lay on his stomach. “What’s up?”
The pie plate sat on the floor, licked clean by two obvious culprits who’d somehow ended up in bed with them. The dirty coffee cups were on the nightstand, Mitch’s cell phone next to one.
Wrapping a robe around her, Emma chased the dogs off the bed and smacked Mitch on his butt through the covers. “Danika will be here in an hour if her driver can get here. We need to get moving.”
“You’re kidding, right? I thought you were going to cancel your appointments.”
“I did, but not this one. I recommended to Danika’s social worker that she be allowed to come here on Christmas and I couldn’t in good conscience take that back once I knew we were staying. The girl is lost, Mitch. She’s a decent kid who made a terrible mistake and I truly feel like she’s on the edge of making another. It’s one day, but an important one emotionally and psychologically for her. If I can get her through today, she stands a fighting chance of turning her life around.”
He sat up and swung his legs off the bed. Long, sturdy legs that had put her through her paces all night. “Got it. Save Christmas, save the kid.”
His hair was ruffled, his voice husky. Emma dropped to her knees in front of him and looked up at his sexy eyes, still drowsy from lack of sleep. She’d put him through his paces during the night as well. “Last night was amazing. I’ve never experienced anything like it. Thank you. I’ll never be a basket case on Christmas Eve again.”
He reached down and stroked her hair, a crooked grin lifting one side of his face. “My pleasure, ma’am. You get dressed and I’ll start coffee. I need to check in with Cooper anyway and see what happened with Goodsman.”
She rose up on her knees and kissed him. At this point, she didn’t care what had happened with Chris and Linda. All she cared about was enjoying every last minute she had with Mitch.
He kissed her back, drawing her in close between his legs and letting her feel his morning erection. A part of her debated whether getting dressed was all that important. Climbing back into bed and helping Mitch out seemed like way more fun.
But then she heard Will knocking on the back door downstairs and the Labs went tearing off, barking like the Second Coming, and Mitch broke the kiss and helped her to her feet.
“Last night meant a lot to me too,” he said, holding her hand. His serious tone lightened and he winked at her. “I’m hoping I can get a replay tonight.”
Smacking him playfully, Emma went to find clean clothes.
While Mitch threw on the blue flannel and his pants and headed downstairs to let Will in, Emma washed up, dressed, and put a touch of makeup on. Coming out of the bathroom, she paused for a moment to look at the bed.
The comforter was on the floor, the blanket and top sheet askew, pie crumbs and dog hair in the creases. The pillow Mitch had used was dented from his head, and hers was tucked up close to it. The bottom sheet had come off the bottom right corner.
The room hummed from the night’s intimate sharings. She and Mitch had shared their bodies, their stories, their secrets. She’d let him into her inner sanctum, a place few people had ever been. The old Emma wanted to straighten the covers and brush off the crumbs. The new Emma smiled and left it all exactly as it was and hoped the two of them would, indeed, replay their night of fun tonight.
The scent of strong coffee and the murmur of male voices hit her at the top of the stairs. A sense of rightness, of belonging, hit her as well. It was good to have purpose with one’s life. It was even better to have hope.
As she blew into the kitchen, all three dogs greeted her, and she realized one of the voices she heard came from Mitch’s cell phone. Will was putting the coffee carafe back on the burner. When he saw her, he handed her his just-poured coffee and grabbed another cup for himself.
The small TV she kept in the corner on the counter was on, but the volume was muted. Mitch didn’t look at her, his arms crossed over his chest, his gaze locked on a spot on the table near the phone. “And you have no other leads?”
“It’s Christmas,” the man on the other end stated over the speaker. “People are with their families or trying to get back home from the evacuation. They aren’t out shopping or grabbing groceries or hanging out at the local bar. Outside of some die-hard paparazzi or a crazy fan, I doubt anyone’s looking for our guy.”
Emma’s stomach dropped. “Chris?” she asked Will softly.
He made a stony face. “He wasn’t in the house. They don’t know where he is.”
Her stomach dropped farther, hitting somewhere around her ankles. As she listened to Mitch end the call with Cooper Harris, she tried to sip her coffee, tried to wrap her brain around the fact that Chris was still out there. The coffee burned like acid down her throat. She set the cup down on the counter.
Mitch pocketed his phone and turned to face her. “The SWAT team went in just before midnight, found two people in the house. Neither was Brown or Goodsman. The couple inside the house claimed they’d never been there, but Cooper found a receipt for clothes, makeup and a couple of wigs that the couple claimed ignorance about. None of the items from their shopping excursion were in the house. Coop and Dupé think Goodsman and Brown might have been there and left wearing disguises before the team arrived.”
Emma had to lean against the counter. “So they’re still on the loose and no one knows where they’re headed?”
