Lethal Attraction: Against the Rules\Fatal Affair Read online

  “Oh, I needed that,” Tracy, who at forty was the oldest, said as she exhaled a steady stream of smoke. She shared Sam’s height but had held on to ten extra pounds after each of her three children.

  Angela, at thirty-six, had bounced right back to her svelte shape after giving birth to her son Jack five years earlier.

  The door swung open, and Angela stashed the cigarette behind her back.

  “Mom, Jack is walking back and forth in front of the TV and won’t stop,” whined fifteen-year-old Brooke, brimming with indignation. Her long dark hair, bright blue eyes and porcelain skin gave her a delicate beauty that was a source of great consternation to her parents as the boys began to take an avid interest in her.

  “Sorry,” Angela said. “I’ll get him.”

  Tracy stopped her sister and said to her daughter, “Turn off the TV and spend some time with your cousin. All he wants is your attention.”

  In a huff, Brooke stomped back inside.

  “Sorry about that,” Angela said. “He loves being with the kids.”

  “Don’t worry about it,” Tracy said. “They watch enough TV at home. They don’t need to do it here, too.”

  The door opened again, and this time Sam stashed the cigarette behind her back when she saw it was Nick.

  “I was wondering where you all had disappeared to, and your father suggested I check the front porch where I’d find the three of you sharing a cigarette that you think no one knows about. I said, ‘What do you mean, Skip? Samantha doesn’t smoke.’”

  Behind her back, Sam transferred the cigarette to Angela in a move they had perfected over the years. She smiled at Nick. “Of course I don’t smoke. Did you need me?”

  “I was going to ask if you’d mind if we go to my place tonight.”

  “I don’t mind. I’ll be in shortly, and we can take off.”

  “Okay.”

  The moment the door closed behind him, Angela took a drag off the dwindling cigarette. “Mmm. Hubba hubba.”

  Her sisters stared at her.

  “Did you seriously just say ‘hubba hubba’?” Tracy asked.

  “Well, come on. He’s yummy. And did he call you Samantha?”

  Sam shrugged as her cheeks heated with embarrassment. “He likes to call me that.”

  “You must really dig him to put up with that,” Ang said. “How’s the sex?”

  “Angela!” Tracy said.

  “What? Don’t tell me you don’t want to know, too.”

  They waited expectantly for Sam.

  “It’s…you know…amazing.”

  “I remember amazing sex,” Tracy said with a sigh. “At least I think I do.”

  “Stop,” Angela said, bumping Tracy with her hip. “Mike’s still hot for you.”

  “Yeah, I guess. So, Sam, I didn’t want to ask in front of the kids, but this insanity with Peter…Are you okay?”

  “It’s kind of overwhelming to know he hates me enough to want to kill me.”

  “I think it’s more that in his own sick, twisted way he loves you that much,” Tracy said.

  Angela nodded in agreement.

  Sam told them about meeting Nick years ago and what Peter had done to keep them apart.

  “Motherfucker,” Angela muttered.

  Sam laughed as she extinguished the cigarette. The sick feeling in her stomach and the lingering foul taste reminded her of why she’d quit smoking years ago. “Tell me how you really feel, Ang.”

  “I hate that bastard.”

  “So do I,” Tracy said. “Divorcing him was the best thing you ever did. I couldn’t stand the way he always had to know where you were and what you were doing. He never would’ve gone back inside the way Nick did just now. He would’ve wanted to know what we were talking about.”

  “I know,” Sam said. “When I think about him not giving me those messages…I really wanted to hear from Nick after that night.”

  “You might’ve missed the whole Peter saga altogether,” Tracy said.

  “Maybe everything that happened with Peter, with the babies and stuff, would’ve happened with Nick and it would’ve screwed us up just as bad.”

  Her sisters each slid an arm around her.

  “There’s no point in going there, Sam,” Tracy said.

  “I haven’t had a chance to tell Nick the whole story.”

  “It won’t matter to him,” Ang assured her. “He’s mad about you. He never takes his eyes off you, but not in the creepy way Peter used to. More of an adoring way.”

  “He didn’t have a family growing up, and I know he wants one.”

  “There’re other ways, hon,” Tracy said. “You know that. Don’t worry about it right now. Enjoy this time with him. You deserve to be happy after everything you’ve been through.”

  “Thank you,” Sam said, hugging them. “I’m so glad you guys like him.”

  “Hubba hubba,” Ang said again, and they all laughed.

  “Now how about Dad and Celia?” Sam said.

  *

  Just as Sam and Nick were getting ready to leave Skip’s house, Freddie called. “We’ve got another body, Sergeant.”

  A burst of adrenaline zipped through Sam. “Who?”

  “Tara Davenport.”

  “Oh, shit,” Sam sighed, remembering the timid Capitol Hill waitress they’d interviewed. “Where?”

  “Her apartment.” Freddie rattled off the address. “It’s bad, Sam. Whoever did this made sure she suffered.”

  “I’m on my way.”

  Nick insisted on driving her to the scene. On the way, Sam pumped him for information about Tara.

  “She was so sweet,” he said. “We always requested her section when we went in for lunch. I can’t believe anyone would want to harm her.”

  “No way this is a coincidence. This has got to be tied to O’Connor. Did he tell you he was dating her?”

  “He never came right out and discussed it with me, but I knew. He was so much older than her. I’m sure he thought I wouldn’t approve.”

  “Did you?”

  “Not really, but they were both consenting adults, so I kept my opinions to myself.”

  Since emergency vehicles had surrounded Tara’s apartment building, Sam told him to double-park.

  Freddie met them at the door to Tara’s apartment, his expression grim. “Beaten, bound, raped and strangled.”

  Steeling herself, Sam followed him into the bedroom. “God almighty,” she whispered at the sight of a bloodbath.

  Behind her, Nick gasped.

  Sam spun around. “You need to step back.” Realizing he was on the verge of passing out, she rushed him into a chair and pushed his head between his knees. “Breathe.”

  “I’m okay,” he muttered, looking up at her. His eyes glazed with shock, he shook his head. “Who could do that? Who?”

  “I don’t know, but I’m going to find out.”

  “Go ahead. Sorry to wimp out.”

  Sam left him in the living room and returned to the bedroom as Freddie took photos of the scene. Tara had been bound, gagged and, judging by the bloody pool between her legs, repeatedly raped.

  “Who found her?” Sam asked Freddie.

  “One of her coworkers got the super to let her in when she didn’t show up for work for the second day in a row.”

  Dr. Lindsey McNamara, the medical examiner, stepped into the room. “Damn. Just when you think you’ve seen it all…”

  “No kidding,” Sam said.

  One of the crime scene officers lifted a baseball bat from the floor. Blood stained the thick end of the barrel. “Looks like this was used for the beating, among other things…”

  The women in the room winced.

  Sam studied the young waitress who’d been so distraught over her breakup with John O’Connor. “How long has she been dead?”

  Lindsey pulled on latex gloves and reached out to close Tara’s eyes. “Looks like twenty to thirty hours, but I won’t know for sure until I get her into the lab.”