A Reclusive Heart (Hollywood Hearts 2)

“She hasn’t been in the state in the last two months,” Rick said, sounding just as confused as he felt.

The Detective cleared his throat. “Well, it appears that Mrs. Briggs hearing aid was not only set too high, but she also has difficulty pinpointing the direction in which sounds come from. As it turned out it was the neighbor on the other side that was causing the problems, five twenty year old college kids.”

“And Mr. Ames?” Nick found himself asking when all he wanted to do was hunt down his little recluse and pull her into his arms.

“He was convinced that she’d been stealing his mail.”

“Why exactly would he think that?” Rick asked, pouring himself another drink, Nick noted. If this conversation wasn’t enough to drive a man to drink he really didn’t know what was, he decided as he snatched Rick’s drink and downed half of it in one swallow before shoving it back into Rick’s hand. With a grumble and a glare Rick finished it off and placed the glass on his desk.

“According to Mr. Ames, he doesn’t trust quiet people because they’re always up to something. So he felt it was his obligation to see what she was up to. After he broke into her mail slot and discovered letters addressed to J.L. Lewis he determined that she was a criminal and that Jamie Harris was the alias. When he didn’t win the Publishing House Clearance after sending them ten entries every day for the past year he concluded that it was because of Miss. Harris. He believed that Miss. Harris didn’t have a job because she was living off his prize money.”

“Were they working together?” Rick asked, sounding somewhat amused and pissing him right the hell off.

This wasn’t funny. These two nut jobs had gone out of their way to scare the hell out of his little recluse and almost cost him any type of a future with her. That thought made everything in him still.

A future?

Did he want a future with her? He loved her, absolutely adored her, but he hadn’t given any real thought to anything long term mostly because he was scared out of his mind that he would hurt her. It made him wonder if a future with her was even possible. Did he trust himself not to hurt her?

Surprisingly, yes.

He’d rather die than hurt her and he knew that feeling would only intensify over the years. But just to make sure he tried imagining touching another woman.

The thought left a sour taste in his mouth and he knew he would never want to stray. Jamie turned him on like no other woman and she was f**king fantastic in bed. Of course she was still pretty new to sex and would only get better in time, he thought, fighting back a huge shit eating grin.

He was a lucky bastard and damn well knew it.

“No. As far as we can tell neither one of them was aware of what the other was doing,” the detective explained, thankfully pulling him out of his thoughts before his body gave away his thoughts. The last thing he needed was a hard on with two guys in the room, he thought dryly.

“What does Miss. Johnson have to do with this?” Rick asked and Nick was thankful that the man was focused because he sure as hell wasn’t. All he could think of was grabbing his little recluse, hunting down a jar of hot fudge and letting her go to town licking it off his body.

With a silent curse he forced himself to focus again.

“We’re not exactly sure yet, but we do know that she was behind the videos in Texas. We were actually hoping that you could help shed some light on the subject before we spoke with her.”

He felt every muscle in his body go rigid at that announcement. “She was the one that threatened Jamie?” he demanded in a cold even tone as he contemplated killing someone for the first time in his life.

“It would appear so. When the boys at the IT department in Texas went through the hotel’s surveillance videos again they spotted her in the corner of the lobby watching you as you spoke with the manager, we’re presuming it was when you asked for the pool keycard. Then they went back two more hours on the employee hall surveillance camera and found her sneaking in the back door of the pool area and slipping into one of the dressing rooms. We weren’t sure until we zoomed in on that spot because the fitting room area was nearly pitch black while you were using the pool, but we spotted slight movement when you entered the pool area and spotted her running into the employee hall minutes after you and Miss.

Harris left. Unfortunately there are no cameras in the guest elevator or the halls so we can’t prove that she was the one who recorded the audio CD, but we did manage to lift a partial print from the CD. I just need you to confirm that you didn’t speak with her the next morning and that as far as you know she didn’t handle the CD.”

Nick shook his head. “She was supposed to leave that day. I don’t think she was around the next morning.”

Detective Michaels pulled a small notebook out of his pocket and flipped through several pages before he found what he was looking for. “She caught the ten a.m. flight to Los Angeles, California the next morning.”

“Of course she did,” he said, rubbing his hands down his face and feeling like an idiot. “She had to be there the next morning to drop the envelope off at our room.”

“Do you know where Miss. Harris is at the moment? I need to speak to her while my men look for Miss. Johnson.”

“She’s probably looking for a fix,” Nick said.

“She has an addiction problem?” the detective asked, looking less than pleased with the announcement.

“Yeah, she’s a sugar addict and if we don’t find her soon she’ll probably be too wired to answer your questions,” he said, sighing as he gestured for the man to follow him.

******

“The key to what?” Jamie found herself asking as she desperately tried to ignore the sharp pain in the back of her head and the hot liquid seeping over her scalp.

Holly slammed her against the wall, again. This time Jamie gave up her useless struggles to push the woman off since it was clear that the woman was clearly stronger than her and focused all of her attention on kicking the woman. She got in one good kick and was instantly rewarded with another shove into the hard wall behind her before she moved her legs out of kicking distance, leaving Jamie with no way to protect herself. How in the heck did the woman get so freakishly strong?

“To get to the top. What else?” Holly asked with a mocking smile. “It shouldn’t have been too hard. The man seemed to f**k anything and everything.

When I first came here I waited for him to make his move and when he didn’t I had to initiate it, but apparently the male whore has a rule about f**king co-workers.