Spontaneous - Brenda Jackson [32]
She stood and began pacing. “There is so much we don’t know about him. So much that Mom doesn’t know. Maybe we should go back there tonight and tell her that we’ve decided to stay at her place instead of at the hotel so we can keep an eye on things.”
“And how do you suggest we explain our decision to do that without her getting suspicious of anything?” he asked.
She slid her hands into the back pockets of her jeans and threw her head back. “Do you have any better ideas?” she snapped.
This woman knew how to pump up his adrenaline, Duan thought, for the good and for the bad. He felt her anger, he understood her frustration and knew her mother was her main concern. And knowing that, he would deal with anyone who dared to hurt her or someone she cared about. Mainly because he was beginning to feel this connection to her that he didn’t want to feel.
He stood and moved toward her and she gave him a look that all but said, Don’t mess with me. He shrugged. She was a spitfire and was having one of her moments. He would help her through it.
He came to a stop in front of her. “Yes, I have a few ideas that we can discuss in detail later. Most of them involve those blue sticky notes I’ve placed throughout the report. But right now I think you need to chill and work off some anger. I’m going to help you do that.”
She rolled her eyes. “I bet. And how do you plan to accomplish that?” she asked with a look that said quite simply that whatever he had in mind, now was not the time to try it.
Duan smiled, reading her thoughts and knowing her assumptions were wrong. “Give me a couple of minutes and I’ll have things ready for you,” he said, moving away and heading toward the bedroom.
Kim looked confused. “Have what ready for me? Where are you going?”
He turned and a smile touched the corners of his lips. “You need to be pampered so I’m going into the bathroom to prepare your bubble bath.”
KIM SANK DOWN DEEPER in the tub beneath all the bubbles and closed her eyes. No man had ever prepared a bath for her. Duan had done more than just run the bathwater; he had made her feel special. And what she found so amazing was that he probably wasn’t even aware he’d done so. Certain kinds of deeds seemed to be an ingrained part of his nature. She figured it had to have come from being the oldest and looking out for his younger siblings. Although she couldn’t imagine him ever being Terrence’s keeper, Olivia was a different matter.
When she’d come to the Keys to be fitted for their bridesmaid dresses, Olivia had told her and Sherri that both of her brothers had been overprotective while she was growing up, Duan more so than Terrence. There were some things she could pull over on Terrence that she wouldn’t dare try with Duan. Kim could believe that.
Kim breathed in the scented bubbles as she thought about her mother. More than anything she wished there weren’t so many unanswered questions in the hundred or so pages she’d already read on that first case involving Edward. With all the evidence and eyewitnesses interviewed, no one would have reason to suspect foul play of any kind.
It seemed that Mandy Villarosas had been a bona fide flirt. Even the girlfriends with whom she’d gone away for the weekend had verified she had met some man in the club the night before she disappeared.
That was close to ten years ago, before video cameras were used in most businesses. After reading that report one could almost sympathize with Edward for having a wife with loose morals.
But what she wanted to gather from the reports—and she still had the second case to read—was whether there were similarities between the two women, physical or emotional. And more important, whether there were similarities between her mother