minute believe it,” Fee asked.
“They’re friends of Kit’s. They’ve come to help me with the center. I’ve been having all sorts of problems.” Mandy said with a sigh, unsure how much she could or should tell Fee. “They have some questions for you. Please answer them as completely as you are able.”
Fee frowned. “I don’t know anything about what’s happening here. I just got back from school.”
Mandy nodded. “This isn’t only about the center.”
Fee looked at Kit and Owen. “My stepfather’s in trouble, isn’t he?”
“What makes you think he’s in trouble?” Owen asked.
“He was always a little off.” Fee got up and started pacing. “I’ve always wondered about him.” She looked at the men. “I never understood why my mother married him. She wasn’t in love with him, I don’t think. They didn’t even know each other. I was a senior in high school. She came home one day and said she’d found a way for me to go to college. They got married, and we moved up here. They seemed happy enough. And he did pay for my college. It was just odd, that’s all.”
Mandy watched as Fee moved around the room, gesturing with the blanket as she spoke. “And when my mother died, I really became suspicious. They said she ran off the road in a drunken stupor, that her blood alcohol level was higher than.14.”
“That’s good and drunk,” Kelan commented.
Fee glared at him. “She was a teetotaler. She never drank. Ever.”
“Was her death investigated?”
“No. I had a fight with Alan over it. He didn’t want me to raise any questions, or make any noise. I did anyway, but the sheriff couldn’t see beyond the coroner’s irrefutable conclusion that she’d been drinking. They had only been here a year by then. No one knew my mother very well. No one could vouch for the fact that it was exceptionally odd behavior from her.”
“Does your stepfather ever have unusual visitors? Is he a member of any associations or groups that you know of?” Kit asked.
“I don’t know about his professional organizations. I don’t think he belongs to any social groups. That’s another weird thing about him. He doesn’t have friends. He’s been in half of the houses in Wolf Creek Bend. Everyone knows him, yet he eats by himself at the diner most nights. He doesn’t socialize with anyone. Every now and then, he’ll go down to Denver unexpectedly. I usually work in his office in the summers. Several times I’d have to rearrange his schedule so that he could take a day off and drive down there.”
“Do you know where he went?” Owen asked.
“No. He never talked about it.”
“How would you describe his demeanor those days?”
“I don’t know. Edgy. When he got back, he’d take out his whiskey and finish off whatever he had left in the bottle.”
“Kit,” Mandy looked at her brother, “I don’t think she can go back. I think she should stay here.”
“Agreed,” Kit said. “Give her my room,” he offered.
Owen gave Mandy a dark look, clearly not pleased to have to deal with this complication. “Get her settled. Fiona-hold off calling Alan until we talk in the morning.”
She glared at Kelan. “I can’t call anyone. He’s got my cell phone.”
Owen nodded to Kelan. “Good. We’ll give it back to you in the morning.”
Rocco tossed Buchanan’s phone to Max, who immediately started digging into the plumber’s online accounts.
“Any problems-besides the obvious one upstairs?” Blade asked Rocco.
“None.”
“You look around while you were there?”
Rocco handed him the appointment book. “Seems at least once a month he clears out an entire day, as if he decides to take off without any forethought or planning. The bounced appointments all get rescheduled. No idea what that might mean, but it’s a pattern worth checking into.”
“Can you tell what he texted the night we came in, to whom, and how?” Blade asked Max.
“He’s got an email account, but there are no in-coming or out-going emails stored. He has no saved drafts, either. The only social networking app on here is Twitter. Last night, he sent a direct message to @A__akbar. No text, just a picture of our guys.”
“Who’s A Akbar? That short for ‘Allah Akbar’?” Rocco asked, remembering the crazed battle cry of Afghan insurgents.
“There’s no profile data for that account. I don’t know.”
“What was Akbar’s response?”
“No response. @A__akbar has never interacted with our plumber. He isn’t even following him. The next thing @A__akbar posted, barely an hour later, is, ‘Lovely evening to drink coffee in Denver. I’ve ordered a single espresso.’”
Blade and Rocco looked at each other. “Does he say something like that a lot?”
Max shook his head. “Can’t tell from this phone. A search shows nothing. He might have deleted his Tweets. Let me get into Twitter’s database to see what’s passed through his account.”
“I’ll a make copy of his appointment book,” Rocco said. “I want to return it and the phone before Buchanan wakes up.”
Kelan came downstairs after Fiona was settled. He handed her phone to Greer. “This is the girl’s phone. Best check it out before we give it back to her.”
The house was silent as Rocco made his way to Mandy’s bedroom later that night. He felt an unexpected rush of joy at the prospect of spending a few hours with his woman-sleeping and anything else that might happen while they were together. He stripped, then sent the dogs to their pillows. Slipping beneath the covers, he pulled Mandy to his side. This was the closest he’d been to heaven his entire life.
He eased her long T-shirt up, hoping not to rouse her too much. He liked her this way, warm and sleepy and soft, wanted to feel her skin against his. She shrugged out of the tee when he had it up about her arms and head, then snuggled back into his side. Rocco tossed it off the bed. He pulled her over his chest, then drew the covers around them. Slipping his hands under the blankets, he rubbed her back, her hips, her buttocks. She sighed and nuzzled her cheek against his chest.
He lifted his knees between her legs, nudging them apart as he rocked himself against her core. He captured her nipples, rubbed them, pinching just slightly. She sucked in a sharp draw of air as she responded viscerally to his touch.
“Shh. Don’t wake up. Don’t move,” he whispered. “I want you like this.” He pulled back and positioned himself at her opening, then slowly entered her, letting his cock stroke her feminine channel as his hands stroked her back. In and out. Up and down. Slowly.
“Rocco-”
He held her to him, keeping her from rising. He didn’t hurry this coupling. He wished it could last forever, leisurely and sweet. “We’ll go slowly.”
“Rocco-”
He could feel her body tightening, urging his to a faster pace. He took hold of her upper thighs, just below her bottom, keeping her still. “Not yet. Go back to sleep. I’m gonna fuck you for hours, so relax. Dream. Of me. Of this.”
He moved in her, his cock like hot iron. The restraint he imposed on himself strained his entire body. He could feel her passion heating up, rippling through her body. She cried out, her body tightening like a fist over him, pumping, grinding into him. She arched up and rode him hard. Rocco could feel his balls tightening, seizing. He gripped her hips, lifting and driving into her, over and over as he reached his own climax.
