Page 24 of Silverstorm

He checked caller ID. It was Lance.

“Yep,” he said, short and to the point.

“Sorry to disturb you.” Their trainee was on shift till midnight, helping Brady sort through witness statements. Brady had asked—no, demanded—that Jude work late too, but he had looked Brady square in the eye and told him no. Jude knew Hank would back him up, as he hated it when out-of-town detectives thought they could bully his staff. Lance, however, was young and inexperienced, and easily swayed. But he was also enthusiastic and mature for his age and would make a good deputy.

“We just got a call from the medical examiner doing the autopsy on Tango Cusack, and I thought you might want to know the results.” Brady had requested a rush on toxicology, and so Tango’s bloodwork had been sent to the lab yesterday. But a twenty-four-hour turnaround was good by anybody’s standards. Brady either had a connection he could lean on in the lab, or he’d been his normal bloody annoying self and they’d rushed it through just to get him off their back. It was late in the night to be getting this sort of information sent through, and so Jude decided Brady had been particularly annoying, until the results had finally been faxed through.

“Yes, please. Go ahead.”

“The cause of death wasn’t through the knife wounds. Those were mostly inflicted postmortem. Directly following death, but not the cause of death.”

“Okay,” Jude said slowly. This was interesting. But perhaps a few things were making sense now. Tango’s body had been badly mutilated and there’d been blood spattered everywhere. To an untrained eye, it looked as if he must’ve bled out and died. But when forensics had come to inspect, they’d spent time going over the blood spatters in the kitchen, and Jude had overheard one of them say it looked too random, as if someone had thrown blood against the wall. If the blood had spurted from a severed artery in the neck, or arm while a person was still alive, then there would be a certain pattern to it. But that pattern was missing, according to forensics. So if the mutilation had happened very close after death, then the blood would still have seeped out, but not flowed or spurted.

“Cause of death was by poison,” Lance stated simply.

“Oh, shit.” Jude closed his eyes. This complicated things.

This would put Aria squarely in Brady’s sights.

He turned to find Aria watching him with those intense, dark eyes, waiting to find out what this turn of events might mean.

CHAPTER ELEVEN

THE HIGHWAY OUT to Stargazer wasn’t busy at this time of the morning. She could count on one hand how many cars she’d passed, and Aria drove almost on autopilot, her mind buzzing with Jude’s revelation last night.

Her father had been poisoned. It was completely nonsensical to her. Why poison someone and then inflict physical wounds all over their body just as they were dying? It was barbaric, and the more Aria thought about it, the more confused she got.

Jude’s face had gone ashen as he’d listened to his trainee on the other end of the line, and he’d turned to stare at her, compassion and something else written in the lines on his face. Then he’d sat next to her on the couch and told her the terrible news, stroking the back of her hand and watching her carefully. But this news didn’t clarify anything for Aria, instead it made the whole thing more puzzling.

The other day, Aria had asked Jude if he thought her father’s death was connected to Iliana’s disappearance, and perhaps even to her mother’s death so many years before. But she couldn’t see how they could be connected. Her mother had died by being hung from the rafters in the barn—whether she did that to herself, or it was done to her, was still to be proven. Her father had been poisoned and his body mutilated as if by someone in a terrible rage. And Iliana had merely…disappeared. There was no pattern to these deaths, Jude had himself admitted. None of it made sense.

That wasn’t the only thing her mind was buzzing with. She also couldn’t get images of that scorching kiss to leave her alone. They flickered behind her eyelids every time she closed her eyes. As if she didn’t have enough to worry about with this new development in her father’s case, now she also had to deal with her body’s untamed reaction to Jude’s second kiss. If his phone hadn’t rung, what might’ve happened?

Surely she wouldn’t have been brazen enough to sleep with him? She couldn’t start a relationship with him. Not with anyone. Not with the mess her life was in. And not with the baby growing inside her. She couldn’t do that to him; lead him on or form an attachment, before he knew the full truth about her. Even one night of hot sex wouldn’t be fair to him. Although, the idea had a certain kind of merit. One night, where she took everything he had to offer and gave everything she had to give, before she had to tell him the truth. Would it be worth it? Maybe. But there were other things to take into account. She also had no idea if it was a breach of protocol for a deputy to be dating a suspect, or a witness, or whatever the hell she was.

Her mind drifted back to those moments they’d spent on the couch together, where he’d almost overwhelmed her senses. There was a pure masculine aura around Jude. No other man had ever caused such a visceral reaction in her. An insistent tug deep down in her belly, telling her to get closer. Press him tight to her body. Tighter still. So close she wouldn’t be able to tell where her body ended and his began.

Then he’d looked at her, hazel eyes going dark, and her pulse had thudded in her neck as time seemed to slow. She knew he was going to kiss her. And oh God, she’d wanted him to.

She’d stared into his eyes, which were as deep as the ocean; and then she knew how people drowned.

If she got involved with Jude Wilder, she was surely going to drown.

Aria’s gaze was suddenly drawn to something farther down the highway. A figure was standing in the middle of the road, waving their arms in the universal signal for someone requiring aid. As she drew closer, she could see a white van pulled over onto the verge and the figure morphed into a tall man. She slowed, studying the scene in front. Crap. Should she stop?

Jude would be along any moment, he said he’d follow her as she pulled out of the driveway of his house. Said he had business at Stargazer this morning and he may as well escort her out there. Aria knew his behavior went deeper than that. He was worried about her and wanted to make sure she got there okay. She’d seen him caught at a set of traffic lights that’d turned orange as soon as she went through the intersection. She wasn’t worried, and had continued driving, knowing he’d catch up with her soon.

The man was still waving madly as she approached, not attempting to get out of her way. So she either stopped to help him or ran right over him. She guided her car onto the verge behind the van.

“Thank you. Oh, thank you.” The man ran over as she stepped out of her car. “The last person wouldn’t stop,” he puffed. “My van broke down and I’ve got my pregnant wife in the back. I think all I need is a jumpstart. I have jumper cables, come and take a look.” The man looked to be in his mid-fifties, smartly dressed with a black sports coat over black trousers, his longish hair was well groomed, with gray speckles peppering his designer stubble. His eyes were light-blue and kindly. He looked like the guy next door, so she nodded that she would follow him. But as he turned back toward the van, something in the line of his jaw, the slight upturn of his nose, was somewhat familiar. But the flash of familiarity was gone as soon as it’d appeared. She must’ve been imagining things.

She walked along the edge of the road to where the man had his head inside the engine bay and was pointing to the battery. “I’m sure it’s just a flat battery,” he said. “The car just sort of died, and I had to pull over.”

“Hmm.” Aria wouldn’t have a clue what was wrong with the car, but if it was as simple as a jump start, she could help. “As long as it’s quick. I’m on my way to work. And I don’t want to be late.”

“Sure, sure,” the man agreed. “Come and help me with the jumper cables.” He beckoned her toward the sliding door in the side of the van that opened into a cargo bay behind the front seats.

Where was his wife? He’d mentioned a pregnant wife, hadn’t he? There was no one sitting in the passenger seat. She shrugged and followed him, walking between the edge of the road and the side of the van. The man had his hand on the door handle when he looked up and muttered something under his breath.

---