His Captive Lover (The Thorpe Brothers Series) (3 page)

Ash tore his eyes away from the lovely brunette and glared at his office manager.  Autumn was smiling up at Ash, then at her friend and back again, trying to gauge their reactions to each other.  That look told him that she knew exactly what was going through his mind. 

Looking back down at the other woman, he extended his hand and enveloped her tiny one in his hand.  He felt her trembling and every instinct inside of him ordered him to pull her into his arms and hold her tight, to reassure her that he would take care of everything.  Where this protective instinct had come from, he had no clue.  Women were nice and soft and warm and he loved when one was in his bed.  But Mia Paulson didn’t appear to be that kind of woman.  Which was a problem, because not only did he want to hold her close, taste those full lips and discover all the secrets of her slender figure, but he wanted to hold her close and tell her that all this craziness would go away. 

But he couldn’t guarantee that.  This woman might be a murderer.  He knew almost nothing about her, about her case or about her past. 

So why was he feeling like someone could tip him over with a feather? 

Clearing his throat and pulling his eyes away from those soft, grey ones, he straightened up and told himself to not be fooled by a pretty face.  “Let’s go back to my office,” he grumbled.  He dropped the woman’s hand and pushed his way through the crowd, grabbing onto the lovely Ms. Paulson’s arm to make sure she stayed close to him.  It wasn’t that he thought she would spirit away from him.  No, it was more that he needed the physical connection.  Strangely, after holding her hand in his, he didn’t feel right without that link.  He’d touched her hand and now he wanted to touch all of her.  He didn’t want her out of his sight.  Not because he thought she was guilty.  Only because he wanted to feast his eyes on her beautiful features for the next….twenty hours or so.  Yes, perhaps that would be enough time to get over the impact of those pretty, soft, grey eyes.

Mia scrambled to keep up with the taller man’s longer stride but she couldn’t seem to break his hold on her arm and she was practically running to keep pace with him.  Even Autumn had problems matching his pace as they raced through the marble hallways and her friend was looking at her boss as if he’d just grown a second and third head. 

“Ash, wait up!” Autumn called out, trying to slow him down.  She couldn’t keep up in these shoes and she caught Mia’s desperate, confused look as well. 

Ash didn’t listen.  He walked out to Autumn’s car and opened the back door, placing the mystery woman in the back.  “I’ll drive,” he said and plucked the keys out of Autumn’s fingers. 

Thankfully, Autumn didn’t argue but got into the passenger seat while he walked around to the other side.

“I have no idea what’s gotten into him, Mia,” she said while both women watched his long stride as he walked around the engine of the car.  “He’s usually much more charming.” 

Mia wanted to reply, but the man she’d just thought of as handsome and delicious, but now knew was arrogant and a big, huge jerk, was now getting into the driver’s seat and pushing back the seat to accommodate his longer legs.  Did he care that Mia had to swiftly move her legs to the other foot well because there was now so little room in the back seat?  Of course not!

They drove in silence to Autumn’s office.  Mia had been to this building before, but only to pick up Autumn for lunch or happy hour.  She’d never actually been inside.  She wanted to ask questions, figure out what was going on, what the man knew and what he wasn’t telling her.  He drove through the streets of Chicago and she watched his hands, unaware that she was forming silly, romantic dreams or, even worse, sexual fantasies about those hands until the sun disappeared and she blinked, coming back to the present with a thud. 

Chapter 2

They parked in the underground parking garage and Mia took a deep breath as she followed her friend, who smiled reassuringly as they walked to the elevators, and her new lawyer, who looked like he was sucking on lemons, inside the elegant, granite and glass office building. 

Stepping out of the elevators, she blinked at all the signs of wealth and success as she looked around.  The law offices of The Thorpe Group were all black granite, shiny steel and sparkling glass with intelligent looking people bustling around in every direction as if they had an urgent purpose in life.  Autumn had spoken of her co-workers before, but only in general terms, telling her that there were four brothers who partnered in the firm. 

In Mia’s mind, this wasn’t a law firm.  This was an enormous corporation.  She had no idea how many floors each brother occupied, but it was intimidating to walk into the beautifully decorated office area wearing only jeans and a pink tee-shirt while everyone else wore immaculate, sophisticated suits with silk shirts or power ties.  Mia tucked her hair behind her ears, wishing she could have put on something more sophisticated herself, or even done her hair, but she followed meekly along behind these two, wishing she were anywhere else other than following this disturbing man into his opulent office in her jeans and tee-shirt. Just a little lipstick, she thought as she stepped into the elegantly masculine room, would make her feel a bit more in control and presentable. 

“Wait in here,” the horrible man said, opening a door for her and waiting until she was inside before he closed it once again, with her on the inside and everyone else on the outside.

Mia stared at the closed door, her throat closing with the returning fear of being locked up for the rest of her life.  Taking several deep breaths, she pushed the panic back down.  She’d never been afraid of closed spaces before, but after this morning’s experience, she suddenly felt clammy and nervous, as if the air around her were thicker somehow. 

She backed to the center of the room and looked around, telling herself mentally that he hadn’t locked her in here. 

He probably thought she was guilty and should be in prison, Mia thought as she wandered around the room, concentrating on anything other than the fact that he might have locked the door.  Had he put her in here to keep her from stealing the office supplies?  She was being ridiculous, she knew.  The door most likely locked from this side so the possibility that he’d locked her into his office was pretty low.  That thought calmed her down a great deal and she was able to think more clearly. 

Looking around, she noted all the various items in his office.  And since he’d closed the door and told her to stay put, she wasn’t above snooping.  She told herself it was just her way of finding out if the man was any good at his job, but a small part of her also accepted that she wanted to know more about him personally. 

The degrees on the wall caught her attention and she wandered over to look at them.  Hmm…she thought, Stanford Law School.  Impressive!  Why were these over in the corner where most people wouldn’t see them?  She’d always thought people who went to the big, high-profile schools would broadcast their degrees as loudly as possible. 

Wandering over behind his desk, she saw the pictures on the bookshelf.  There weren’t any children or women, so she assumed that Ash Thorpe wasn’t married and didn’t have kids.  There were several pictures of four men, one of whom was Ash and the other three must be his brothers since they all looked so similar.  There were several with the four men, one on a boat in crystal blue waters, another with snow falling around them, obviously a ski trip to some mountain she couldn’t identify from the picture, another picture with all four men in tuxedos….she looked at each of the pictures slowly and grudgingly had to acknowledge that Ash Thorpe really was the most handsome of the group. 

With a sigh, she ignored the pictures, not wanting to think of Ash Thorpe as a handsome man any longer.  Looking around, she bit her lower lip and wondered how in the world she was going to be able to afford this man’s hourly rate.  She’d bet it was about two or three hundred dollars per hour, and there was no way she could cover that. 

Of course, this was her life she was dealing with.  If the man was willing to take her case, shouldn’t she let him?  She stared out the window but didn’t see anything.  Her mind was going over her assets.  She had a retirement account, but she was only twenty-six so there wasn’t a great deal in there yet.  She could mortgage her house, but since she’d only bought it last year, there wasn’t a whole lot of equity there either.  In other words, she didn’t have a big savings or huge assets to fall back on.  These ridiculous charges were going to bankrupt her, she realized with sadness. 

She’d been so careful all her life.  She’d worked her way through college, saved as much as she could and bought a house because every investment expert said that real estate was the best investment.  So she’d followed their advice.  She’d wanted to get married and have a house full of children.  Jeff had looked like the perfect candidate for a husband and father.  How could she go wrong with a high school principal?  But she’d slowly realized that she was going to marry him simply because she wanted the fantasy of a house and kids, not because she loved him with all her heart and soul.  So she’d broken off the engagement, wanting to be honest and kind, to do the right thing so that Jeff could find someone who could love him like he deserved to be loved. 

But after she’d given him back his ring, he’d gotten nasty, flinging insults at her.  When she’d walked out on him during one of those conversations, he’d gotten even angrier, to the point that she’d had to block his calls on her cell phone.  A month after she’d broken up with him, he’d reverted to sending her flowers, which she’d refused, candies, which she’d returned, small gifts which she’d sent back to him with a note telling him to not contact her again.

The entire fiasco had been one bad nightmare after another.  She’d thought it would stop when she’d heard through one of her friends that he’d become engaged to another woman.  Mia had relaxed her guard, which obviously had been a mistake.  That was how she ended up here, standing in a stranger’s office, snooping and fighting down panic.  

She sat down in one of the comfortable chairs set up in a square by the window, her head falling into her hands as she contemplated how this was going to completely derail her life.  Jeff had done this to her somehow.  She didn’t think he was dead.  There was just something about this situation that didn’t smell right and Jeff had been warning her to come back to him or he’d punish her.  But for the life of her, she couldn’t figure out what to do or how to prove her innocence or even her suspicion that he was behind all of this.  How could she tell the police that the man they thought she’d killed probably wasn’t even dead? 

This was definitely a conundrum! 

Ash ignored the chaos of his department, knowing that there were several high profile cases underway.  Mia Paulson’s case had suddenly become a higher priority, although he didn’t completely understand his reaction as he walked up the stairs to the top floor.  The Thorpe Group worked off of the top four floors of this building, each of his brothers having a separate floor with their staff of lawyers and support personnel filling in all the available spaces.  The top floor was where his brother, Ryker, worked and was where he was headed now.  He’d called an emergency meeting a moment ago and he knew that all of his brothers would drop what they were doing and get to the top floor conference room within the next five minutes.

He’d been wrong.  As soon as he’d stepped into the room, his three brothers were already there.

“What’s going on?” Ryker asked as soon as the door was closed.  The oldest, and most emotionless, stepped forward, concern written all over his features. 

“I’m taking a case pro bono,” Ash said without preamble.

The three other men continued to look at Ash.  “And?” one of them asked, prompting more information.

Ash was relieved.  All three of his brothers were supporting him, not a single word voiced against such an action.  He knew they’d always been there for each other, but this was an unusual circumstance.  He wasn’t even sure he could explain it to himself, much less his brothers.  Ash looked at the table, his hands fisted on his lean hips.  “It’s a murder case where a woman is involved.”

Xander crossed his arms over his chest.  “Is this woman in some sort of danger?”

Ash hadn’t thought of that.  He knew he wasn’t thinking clearly on a number of subjects, which also meant he probably shouldn’t take this case.  But he was going to anyway.  “She isn’t in danger that I know of, but I’ll keep you informed as the information unfolds.”

“So what’s special about this case?” Axel asked, watching his brother curiously. 

Ash took a deep breath before finally saying the words that might invite a different reaction but he had to be honest with his brothers.  They’d never lied to each other outside of the normal sibling teasing and joshing.  And he wasn’t going to pussy-foot around this.  Something inside of him was signaling that this was too important.  “This is personal.  To me.”

The three men looked at their brother, stunned.  “How personal?” Ryker finally asked, voicing the question they were all thinking, including Ash himself.

Ash considered his words carefully.  “I don’t know.  My gut instinct is ‘very’.” 

All three men thought about that.  Then slowly, as they always did, nodded their heads indicating their full support.  “You’ll let us know how we can help,” Axel came back.  It wasn’t a question, it was a command.  The brothers were close in age, only about a year or a year and a half apart.  Their parents had died in a car accident several years ago and it had brought them closer together, forming a family unit instead of letting their relationships disintegrate.  Ash was the youngest at thirty-three.  Axel, the next oldest, was thirty-four and always laughing about something.  He was the tease in the family, but also the one that received and gave out the most poundings at the gym.  They worked out together frequently in the boxing ring, a sport at which all four excelled.  Xander was thirty-five and constantly fighting with their office manager, Autumn, who the three other brothers suspected that he was in love with.  None of them were brave enough to step into that minefield though, afraid of the explosion that might occur.  Ryker, the oldest and now the head of the family, was heading into old-man territory at thirty-six.  But his old-man status wasn’t because of his age, but more because he was always serious, rarely cracking a smile for anything these days.