The Safe Bet (Hidden Truths #1)(47)

“Michael . . .”

Hearing his name, even mumbled, caused him to stop in the doorway.

She was dreaming. About him.

He pressed his palm to the inside of the doorframe and bowed his head as he stifled the sudden stiffening between his legs.

He glanced over his shoulder at her, wishing he could sleep next to her. To feel her in his arms again. But the nap they had earlier today was the closest he’d come to sleeping with someone since he’d been out of the Marines. And even that had been a mistake.





CHAPTER FOURTEEN




“David Adams?”

The man was not who Michael would have expected. He knew David Adams was a powerful defense attorney in New York City, but he wouldn’t have pegged him for a shorts-and-wrinkled-T-shirt kind of guy. He decided that Kate’s looks must have come from her mother—her father had dark cropped hair, brown eyes, and a plain, oval face. Something about him screamed lawyer, though—or maybe it was that Michael didn’t trust lawyers, and he definitely didn’t trust Kate’s father, who had lied to his daughter all her life.

“Michael Maddox?” David closed the distance between them but didn’t meet Michael’s extended hand. “Where’s my daughter?” He looked around the busy lobby of the hotel and back at Michael.

“How’d you know who I am? I didn’t think Kate mentioned me.” Michael shoved his hands in the pockets of his black business pants and trained his attention on David’s brown eyes, trying to get an accurate read on his character.

“Doesn’t everyone know who you are?” He echoed Michael’s pose. “Besides, you’re the reason my daughter is here, right? She planned your event. And I want her to come back to New York.”

“You don’t even know what’s going on,” Michael said with a deeper than normal voice. “We need to talk. I’ll take you to my office.”

“I have no intention of going anywhere without seeing my daughter. This is her hotel, correct?”

“It was. She’s staying at my place now.”

David took a step back from Michael and removed his hands from his pockets. “What the fuck is going on?” His tan faded, replaced by bright cheeks. “If you think you’re going to manipulate her—I know your reputation, you son—”

Michael held his palms up. “Hang on, man. I’m trying to help, Kate. She’s in danger.” And that was all he had said before he made for the exit, assuming that David would follow.

“What’s going on? I want to see my daughter,” David demanded as he trailed after Michael.

Michael spun on his heel and motioned toward his Audi. “Get in. I’ll explain.”

David huffed out an exasperated breath and shook his head, but at least he followed instructions.

As soon as Michael was behind the driver’s wheel and pulled out into traffic, he spoke. “Kate has a stalker. Someone began following her the minute she arrived in Charlotte. It looks like he’s trying to scare her away.” He glanced over at David out of the corner of his eye. He was pressing his palms against his knees and staring out the passenger window. “I called in a favor from a friend of mine in the FBI. He told Kate about her mother’s murder.”

“This is crazy.” David looked over at Michael as they stopped at a red light. “Jesus, I told her not to come to this city. I told her.”

“My friend in the FBI doubts the stalker is connected to her mother’s murder, given that the police think Elizabeth’s murder was the result of a burglary, but he wants to pursue every possible angle.”

“I didn’t want her to find out. I didn’t want her to know that her mother was shot. Do you blame me?” His face pinched together as anger, or maybe guilt besieged him.

Michael pulled off to the side of the road and parallel parked a few blocks from his office. He looked over at David again, studying him, but found himself unable to get a read on the man. Had he lost his touch? “It’s between you and Kate as to why you lied, but I need to know if you think there’s a chance that there’s a connection between her mother’s murder and her stalker.”

David looked like a man who had just lost a child. Or a wife. Sadness replaced his hollow stare, and the muscles in his face sagged, as though gravity had become heavier. “I don’t think there’s a relation,” he said at last.

“Why’d you run away from Charlotte when her mother died? Why the hell did her grandparents abandon their home—sadness? Or fear?”

David straightened his slouched shoulders and wet his dry lips. He wondered if Kate received her nervous energy from her father. How could a powerful attorney be so weak? Maybe it took having a child to understand what David was feeling.

“Tell me the truth,” Michael said with a flash of warning in his voice.

“I don’t know if her mother’s murder was premeditated.” David rubbed his forehead. “Her mother, Elizabeth, told me that she felt like she was being followed. She couldn’t prove it, though, and I—a pre-law student to the core—demanded evidence. I wanted to help her, but I said that without proof there was nothing to go on. Soon after she told me that, she died.”

“What did the cops say?”

“Same as I said to Elizabeth. Without proof . . .” He shifted in his seat and pulled his wallet out of his back pocket. His hand fumbled inside before retrieving a folded photo. He handed it to Michael.