Every Breath You Take Read online

  A very early riser as a rule, she usually took her coffee into her tiny living room, opened the drapes, and curled up in a chair beside the front window to watch the neighborhood slowly come to life. This morning, however, she was three hours too late to watch the “show” and she was in no mood to do anything except go back to bed, crawl under the covers, and try to get warm.

  After stopping in the hallway to turn up the thermostat, she carried her coffee into the bedroom, put it on the nightstand, and got back into bed. Trying to encase herself in a safe cocoon of sheets and down-filled comforter, she propped pillows against her headboard, drew her knees up to her chest, and wrapped her arms around them. Ethel hopped off the dresser and curled up at her feet; Lucy settled deeper into the pillow near her hip.

  By nine o’clock, she’d already drunk the hot coffee, but she was still shivering inside from the aftermath of everything that had happened in Anguilla and St. Maarten. She decided to call Holly and tell her she was back, and engaged to Evan, and maybe ease into the story about Mitchell after that. Holly’s hours on Tuesdays and Thursdays were from noon to nine PM, and since Holly lived only twenty minutes away, they might even be able to get together.

  She was already reaching for the phone when it began to ring.

  “Kate,” a cordial, but unfamiliar, male voice said, “this is Gray Elliott. You probably don’t remember me, but we’ve met a few times when you’ve been with Evan.”

  “Yes, of course I remember you,” Kate said, wondering if “Chicago’s most eligible bachelor” was actually that unassuming, or just pretending to be.

  “I phoned Evan this morning, and he told me how to reach you and that you’re engaged now. I hope you’ll both be very happy.”

  “Thank you.”

  “I know this is short notice, but I was wondering if you could drop by my office at ten-thirty this morning.”

  Kate sat up abruptly and swung her legs over the side of the bed, dislodging Ethel in the process. Apparently, being engaged to a successful young attorney with the right social connections had some definite perks. Before this, she could barely get the detectives handling her father’s case to call her back. Now, the state’s attorney himself was calling her voluntarily. “Is this about my father’s case?”

  “Indirectly.”

  “What does that mean?”

  “I’d rather explain that in person.”

  There was something about his voice that unsettled her. At first his tone had been affable, but the invitation to his office sounded businesslike. “Should I bring a lawyer along?” she asked, trying to joke.

  “You may bring anyone you wish,” he said warmly, and just as Kate began to chide herself for being edgy about his call, he added, “However, I don’t think you’ll want Evan to be present.”

  Kate hung up the phone and immediately dialed Holly. “Hi,” she said when Holly answered. “I got back late last night. Gray Elliott—the state’s attorney—just called me and asked me to come to his office at ten-thirty. It has something to do with my father’s case. I could use a little moral support if you have the time.”

  “I’ll make the time,” Holly said. “I’ll pick you up in forty-five minutes, and you can tell me about your trip on the way there.”

  Exactly forty-five minutes later, Holly stopped in front of the house in her sporty SUV. She smiled as Kate got inside, then she sobered. “You look awful. What happened down there?” she asked as she pulled away from the curb.

  Kate was so glad to see her that she immediately fell into their time-honored habit of turning even bad events into material for lighthearted banter. “Let’s see, what happened down there? I fell in love with a new guy and got engaged.”

  “To Evan, or the new guy?”

  “I got engaged to Evan. Max is my new love.”

  “Then everything is perfect, right?”

  “Right.”

  “Then why do you look so … unhappy?”

  “Because I also took your advice and went to bed with someone.”

  Holly shot her a long, amazed glance and had to slam on the brakes to avoid running a stop sign. “How did that go?”

  Kate leaned her head back and closed her eyes, trying to force her lips into a smile. “Not very well,” she whispered.

  “It couldn’t have lasted more than a couple of days. How bad could a thing like that go in a couple of days?”

  “It could go really bad. Really, really, really bad.”

  “Let’s hear the details,” Holly persisted.

  “Later—on the way back. Evan was wonderful about it, though.”

  “You told him about it?”

  “He’d brought a ring with him,” Kate said, opening her eyes and smiling more naturally. “Look—”

  Holly reached out and took Kate’s outstretched fingers. Holly was wearing faded jeans, scuffed boots, a white turtleneck, and a bulky navy peacoat that had seen better days. Her long blond hair was scrunched into a big tortoiseshell claw clip at the crown to keep it from falling into her face, and she was wearing no makeup. “Very impressive,” she said sincerely. “A little over four carats, E in color, nice proportions.” Holly was the errant daughter of wealthy New York socialites. She knew her jewels. She had a trust fund, which she refused to touch, and which she said was obscenely large. She also had the knack of looking delicate and feminine when she was dressed like a lumberjack and the extraordinary ability to morph herself into a haughty former debutante on a moment’s notice and hold her own in any social situation.

  She rarely talked about her family in New York except to say laughingly that she and her sister both felt honor bound to atone for their robber-baron ancestors by serving the less fortunate. Holly took care of animals; her sister, Laurel, was a lawyer who worked pro bono on cases involving women and children.

  Chapter Thirty-two

  “THANK YOU FOR COMING BY ON SUCH SHORT NOTICE, Kate,” Gray Elliott said after she’d introduced him to Holly. “Let’s sit over there,” he added, gesturing to a sofa with a coffee table in front of it and a pair of chairs facing each other at opposite ends.

  Kate sat down on the sofa and Holly sat next to her. Curious and tense, Kate watched Elliott pick up some folders from his desk; then he carried them over to the coffee table and sat down on the chair nearest Kate.

  He smiled sociably and leaned his forearms on the tops of his legs. “How well do you know Mitchell Wyatt?”

  Kate stiffened in shock, her heart thundering all the way up into her throat. “I thought you said this was related to my father.”

  “It may be. That’s what I want to find out. How well do you know Mitchell Wyatt?” he repeated calmly.

  “Did Evan tell you I know him?”

  “No, he did not, and he won’t hear it from me, which is why I suggested you not bring Evan along.” That was definitely a kindness on his part, Kate realized, trying to reassess her opinion of him. “Let me ask a different question,” he said patiently. “How long have you known him?”

  “A couple of days. We bumped into each other in Anguilla.”

  “And you’d never met him before then?”

  “No.”

  “How well do you know him?” he asked, returning to that question.

  “Not well at all,” Kate said half truthfully. “You’re quite certain?”

  “I’m positive.”

  His expression was disappointed, regretful as he held her gaze and opened the top of the folder. With a flick of his wrist, he sent enlarged color photographs of Kate and Mitchell, locked in passionate embraces, sliding across the shiny surface of the coffee table.

  Kate stifled a moan and jerked her gaze from the proof of her intimacy with Mitchell.

  Holly leaned forward for a closer look. “Holy crap,” she breathed. She picked up one of Mitchell and Kate on the balcony at the Enclave right after they checked in. He was standing in front of her with his hands braced on the wall on either side of her, grinning at her—the moment when she had be