hers, much to her disgust.
But his looks didn’t make him less dangerous. From all accounts, he was an ends-justifies-the-means sort of man. Any means.
“The caterer and party staff were instructed to use the downstairs facilities,” he informed her.
Kelly nodded. “I’m sorry, sir. I didn’t know that.” She turned to walk away.
Nick Lattimer shifted to the side and blocked her exit. He didn’t stop there. He blocked her a second time when she tried to go around him. Then he circled her. Slowly. Like a hungry jungle cat stalking his prey.
Outside the window, lightning stabbed across the sky, quickly followed by thunder. The November storm only added to the menacing energy simmering around him.
“I wasn’t joking about having to go to the ladies’ room.” Kelly tried to keep her tone light. She failed. Her heart was beating so hard and fast that she thought her ribs might crack.
He was behind her when she heard the whisper-soft sound. She might not have even known what it was. But she was a cop’s widow.
It was a gun.
Oh, mercy.
It’d been a serious mistake coming here, but it was too late to turn back.
She got a good look at the weapon as he finished circling her and came to a standstill directly in front of her. Yes, it was definitely a gun. An expensive, high-powered Glock. Not an amateur’s weapon of choice. It was too much to hope that he didn’t know how to use it.
Her stomach tightened into a cold, hard knot.
Kelly forced herself not to panic. The stakes were too high for her to lose it. “Listen, I’ve obviously upset you by being here. It won’t happen again.”
“I don’t doubt that. Only a handful of people have ever managed to upset me more than once.” His narrowed gaze slid over her. “Who sent you?”
She’d anticipated a lot of questions. But not that one. Kelly shook her head. “What do you mean?”
“I mean… Who. Sent. You?”
Okay. It was clear from his sarcastic tone that he had his own issues and wouldn’t let her just walk out. It was time to show a little backbone.
She hiked up her chin. “I understood what you said, but I thought the answer was obvious. I work for the caterer you hired for your dinner party.” She pointed to her clothes. “You didn’t think I was wearing this tacky polyester uniform to make a fashion statement, did you?”
“No. But it did occur to me that you were wearing it so you could gain access to my home. And to this particular room.”
Without taking his lethal gaze off her, he reached out, snagged her by the shoulder and pushed her against the wall. Her right cheek landed next to a cheery cherub mural.
Other than a startled sound of protest, Kelly didn’t have time to react before his left hand was on her. Moving across her back. To her sides. And her stomach. She battled with her instincts to fight back. But this wasn’t a fight she could win. Not with his size and that Glock. Maybe once he realized she wasn’t armed, he’d back off. Of course, he might find the vial. Even so, he likely wouldn’t know what it was.
“So, is this how you treat your hired help?” Kelly snarled.
“It is when I find them in places they shouldn’t be.”
That searching hand went lower, to the stretchy waist of her dark-blue skirt. And even lower. He slid his palm along the outside of her legs. Then, the inside.
All the way up.
When his fingers made it to the lower front of her panties, Kelly grabbed his wrist and clamped onto his hand. Too bad she hadn’t opted to wear her sturdy cotton underwear. Or her big-girl panties, as her grandmother used to call them. Instead, she had a little swatch of silk and lace that allowed her to feel every inch of his touch.
A touch she didn’t want to feel.
She glared at him over her shoulder. “This isn’t necessary.”
“Oh, but it is,” he countered.
Kelly had stopped his search in her panty region. Not the best idea she had ever had. Maybe it was her grip on his wrist, or maybe he was just a jerk—either way, he kept his hand there.
“Look, if this is your idea of foreplay—”
“It isn’t.” He threw off her grip and resumed his search. “Trust me, if it were foreplay, at least one of us would be enjoying it.”
Apparently finished with the zinging smart-aleck comebacks and the search of her midsection, he caught on to her shoulder and whirled her around to face him. Kelly had to look up to meet him eye to eye. She was five-six, and he had a good seven inches on her. Plus, there was the weight difference. He outsized her by sixty pounds or more.
All muscle, no doubt.
He didn’t look like the excessive-body-fat type. His size and strength would be a definite liability if she had to fight her way out of there.
Unfortunately, she might not have a choice about that.
“Were you trying to kidnap the baby?” Lattimer demanded.
That didn’t do much to ease the knot in her stomach. Whatever she’d been expecting him to say, that wasn’t it. “No! Absolutely not.”
“Good. Because you would have failed.” He tucked his gun inside a holster hidden beneath his jacket, reached over and threw back the blanket.
Stunned with his abrupt movement and with the fact that the baby didn’t react to that movement, Kelly glanced in the crib. She didn’t need the overhead light to realize it wasn’t a baby but a doll.
A doll!
All of this had been for nothing.
“Listen carefully,” Lattimer continued, speaking through nearly clenched teeth. He also got right in her face. “I don’t tolerate thieves, even when they pose as polyester-wearing employees. I’m especially not fond of money-hungry opportunists like you who try to come in here and kidnap a child. No repeats of what happened to the Lindbergh baby. Understand?”
Somehow, Kelly managed to find enough breath to speak. “I’m not a kidnapper.” This time, all the rehearsal in the world couldn’t have stopped her voice from trembling. “I was just looking for the bathroom.”
That repeated denial obviously didn’t please him. His eyes, those dark dangerous gray eyes, narrowed to slits. He grabbed a fistful of her blouse, and without taking his gaze from hers, he reached inside. To her bra. It only took him a second before he retrieved the thin plastic vial.
Judas Priest. He must have seen her reach for it earlier.
“Did you plan to drug the baby?” he asked.
Lattimer
