Cutthroat: Sutton Capital Series, Book Eight Read online

  “It seems several other homeless people have died recently either at the shelter or the clinic in the last few months. All of them from heart attacks. That seems unusual.”

  She looked like he’d struck her, and if he wasn’t mistaken, he thought he saw real sorrow there. Carrie Hastings might not seem like she belonged in this environment, but she sure as hell seemed to care about the work they did here. “I’m sorry. What?”

  “You weren’t aware?”

  “Yes. I am, but it’s not something I’m going to discuss with you, Mr. Cutter.” Her walls had gone up and he knew he wouldn’t get anything more out of her.

  The phone began to ring again and she glanced at it, then back to him. “I’m sorry, Mr. Cutter. I’ve really got to take this. The gala is only a few weeks away and I’ve got a million things to do. Would you like me to get you some material on donations for the gala?”

  “That’s all right,” he said. “I can see you’re busy. I’ll come back another time.”

  She nodded and picked up the phone, answering before he’d even walked away.

  After texting Jarrod the names Branson Medical, Warrick, Jonathan, and Simms to look into, Jax found himself on the road to Hartford without any conscious thought. All he knew as he drove was that he wanted to see Mia again. He’d felt more connected to her than he had to any woman. He liked being with her, and it wasn’t just about the sex. He liked her as a person. He wanted to talk with her as much as he wanted her in his bed.

  She made him feel good, happier than he’d been in a long time. He hadn’t realized, until now, how empty his life had been. He had good friends, a job he loved, but with her, everything seemed better. Like the lights had been turned on or something. He shook his head at how stupid and corny his thoughts were at the moment, then grinned when he realized he didn’t care.

  He pulled up to her house and was relieved to see her car in the driveway. He waited after knocking and realized he was damned near holding his breath.

  Confusion crossed her face for a brief moment before that mouth he loved to kiss broke into a wide smile.

  “Surprise,” he said, stepping through the door and into her arms.

  “You’re crazy,” she said laughing as she wrapped her arms around him. “You’ll be exhausted from all this driving back and forth if you keep coming up here on weeknights.”

  “True,” he agreed before catching her mouth in a kiss and putting an end to their conversation. He was going to be very tired in the morning, but he had a feeling it would only get worse. He couldn’t go through the week without seeing her. Without holding her, making love to her. And if that meant he was worn out for meetings at work and had to walk around like a zombie most days, he was good with that.

  * * *

  Mia’s heart raced as Jax rested his head on her stomach, one arm running lazy trails over her hip.

  She knew now why she had been with Nick. She could see it so clearly, it almost made her laugh at how obvious it was. Nick had been safe. She never would have felt anything powerful and overwhelming for him. It was why she’d also not felt anything when she’d decided it was over.

  If Nick had walked away from her at any point, her feelings and her pride would have been hurt. That would have been the extent of it, though. She’d have been bruised, but not broken.

  With Jax, the strength of her feelings frightened her. Because if he left, if it ended between them, she knew she’d be crushed.

  Even knowing why her dad had left her and her mom hadn’t quieted the doubts that were tearing through her. She’d thought maybe knowing the truth would make it better, but it simply hadn’t.

  All the times she’d heard her mother crying alone in her bedroom when she thought Mia had gone to bed echoed in her mind. She’d thought she would never let herself be that way with a man. She wouldn’t let her feelings grow so powerful they could take over like that and make her weak.

  But she had. She was halfway there with Jax. Oh, who was she kidding? There was no halfway about it. She was there. And it terrified her.

  She traced a long jagged scar on the inside of his thigh with one finger. The raised skin was smooth, in a way that belied the violence done to his body.

  “Close call,” she said, as she reached its end, a mere few inches from his groin.

  He laughed, and she smiled back at him, but her heart was pounding. She had a feeling that had been a very close call and she was no longer talking about the loss of anatomy he might have suffered. She couldn’t imagine what it had been like to serve in the war the way he had, and to come that close to death.

  Jax lifted up on an elbow and stared into her eyes, making her want to look away.

  “You’re thinking too much. I can feel it.” He stated it as a simple fact, but there was questioning in his eyes.

  “I’m sorry. I don’t think I can help it.” Mia didn’t know what to say. Wasn’t she the one who should be wanting to talk about her feelings? Shouldn’t the guy be the one to avoid talks like this?

  He raised his brows and kept his focus on her, waiting her out.

  She let out a slow breath and ran a hand over his chest, avoiding his eyes. “I just didn’t want to feel this way with anyone. I told myself I’d avoid it.”

  She could almost feel him freeze in place, but he covered it well. “Feel what way?” he asked quietly.

  “Out of control. Overwhelmed.” She sought for the right words to tell him what she was feeling.

  He ran a warm, solid hand over her arm and brushed a kiss to her lips. “What else are you feeling?”

  His voice was soft, low and somehow held a quality that soothed her. Steadied her. She took a breath. “Excited.” A pause, then, “happy.”

  “And scared?” he asked, reading her mind.

  She nodded. “And scared.”

  He put a hand on her cheek and turned her face to his, the caress of his thumb on her cheek firm and strong. “I want this with you, Mia. Not the sex.” He smiled and she blushed. “As amazing as making love to you is, that’s not what I’m talking about. I want us. I want to be with you, to find out everything there is to know about you. To build on this.”

  She raised her arms up and kissed him, needing to end the talk. It was becoming all too real for her, and she knew he couldn’t make any promises. They were only just beginning this relationship. It’s not like she expected him to declare his love and promise to never leave her. She didn’t expect that.

  She just hated the feeling of knowing she was putting herself on the line with this. Of knowing she was making herself vulnerable to him. Because that’s what she was now. Vulnerable and spread open.

  She let his kiss take over, let the feelings of his hands and mouth on her make all of the worry and unease fade to the background. He found his way to her breasts, grazing one nipple with his teeth, then suckling as it beaded beneath his tongue, before moving to the other. The sensation shot straight through her, bringing all of her nerve endings to sizzling attention.

  She spread her legs as he rolled to settle himself between them and she clung to his shoulders while his mouth continued to torment and tease. This. She would focus only on this and force her frantic mind to shut down. To stop the panic. Because being with this man might be frightening, but it was also the most incredible feeling she’d ever experienced. And for once, she was going to allow herself to experience it fully and not focus on what might come down the road.

  Chapter 23

  Mia tried to keep herself from walking around with a dopey smile on her face, but she had a feeling she wasn’t succeeding. Her assistant had asked her a few times that day why she looked like she had a secret she wasn’t sharing.

  She walked down the stairs of the three story building that housed the law firm and let the smile spread across her face. No one could see it now, so she might as well enjoy it. Jax had spent the night, leaving early in the morning to drive to New Haven. He’d said the commute was worth it.

  Again, she grin
ned. “This is getting ridiculous,” she said aloud. She wondered briefly if anyone could die of an overdose of happy.

  She saw the flash of movement in the shadow behind her as she rounded the staircase to the second story. It wasn’t in time to do anything about it. She was hit in the side of the head and pain reeled through her. She fell to the floor, a large body pressing down over her, pinning her to the ground.

  “Close your eyes.” The voice was terrifying and cruel and fear like she’d never known pressed down on her chest, making it all but impossible to breathe. Why hadn’t she had her mace in her hand?

  She didn’t have time to think. She shut her eyes, part in response to the directive as the man pressed down on her, pain ramping up, and part in response to the bright light that shone in her eyes. She couldn’t move.

  “I just need a little video for your boyfriend.” He laughed like he’d said something funny. “It’s too bad we don’t have more time together. We could have fun.”

  The man ran his tongue up her face and Mia sank back away from it, trying to press herself into the ground. Trying to move away from the grotesque gesture.

  He shook her a little and she pressed her eyes closed even further. She had the sudden thought that maybe if he knew she couldn’t identify him, he’d let her live. “Now, say something for your boyfriend.”

  She let out a sob through clenched teeth. He shook her again, her head cracking on the pavement beneath her. “Say something for the camera bitch.”

  “Please,” she gasped as pain and fear battled for control.

  “Not your best performance, but it’ll have to do,” he said, almost cheerily.

  A door slammed above them and the sound of footsteps came from the stairs above.

  The light suddenly disappeared and the man fled, leaving Mia in a heap on the ground. She curled up in a ball, tears streaming down her face as she struggled to breathe.

  “Mia! Jesus, Mia!”

  She cried as arms wrapped around her. Familiar and safe.

  * * *

  “Ma’am?” Jarrod knocked on the door to the Medical Examiner’s office and poked his head in.

  Cal was looking into the names Jax had given him, trying to find out all he could about the shelter sponsors and the medical companies who might be connected to the clinic. If one of the large pharmaceutical companies was funding the clinic, maybe they’d managed to convince the clinic doctors to do some illegal drug testing in exchange for the influx of cash.

  In the meantime, Jarrod had filled the medical examiner in by phone on their theory that someone was using the clinic to test a drug illegally, and asked her to pull the files she had for the deceased homeless people that had come up in their search.

  “Hello, Detective Harmon.” The dark haired woman in her fifties waved him in. Jarrod was always surprised when the ME remembered him. Dr. Carlson apparently remembered everyone’s name and even remembered details about people’s kids and pets. Jarrod didn’t have either.

  “Thank you for seeing me.”

  She nodded, then picked up a stack of files, leafing through them as she spoke. “I pulled the files for all of the deaths of persons without permanent housing in heart-related incidents in the last three months. Three were claimed by a family member in another state. The others went unclaimed.”

  “So you have the bodies?” He said and then realized he sounded a little too excited about that. She frowned at him.

  “No. Unfortunately, those cases were more than thirty days ago.” At his blank look, she expanded: “They were cremated after thirty days according to law.”

  “What happens to the ashes?” He was no longer asking because of the case. He felt the need to know if these people had been given any kind of service. To know what happened to their remains when they weren’t claimed by family.

  She smiled but it was a tight, sad smile. “They’re scattered in the city memorial garden. Myself and a minister from one of the local churches always attend and say a few words. Sometimes there are a few other people from our church who attend. Volunteers.”

  Jarrod didn’t know what to say. It had never before occurred to him to think about what happened to the men and women he saw on the streets when they passed. In some ways, as a cop, you had to tune those things out or you’d lose your mind.

  She gave him the kind of look that said she knew this was dawning on him for the first time. “This was a life, just like your life and my life. Somewhere, someone once shared a life with this person, loved them. My friends and I believe someone should be there to memorialize their death. It’s a small thing, but it’s something we committed to a long time ago, and it’s a practice we’ve maintained.”

  She said the words very matter-of-factly, but he could see there was a lot of feeling behind them.

  Jarrod nodded. They both seemed to take a moment before she dragged them back on course. “So,” she said, picking up the folders again, “the remains of the unclaimed gentlemen have already been scattered. Because their cases crossed my desk, I do have blood and tissue samples on file, but I would need a court order to run any tests on those. There aren’t any tissue samples on file for Leo Kent.”

  Jarrod nodded. “His case never came through your office, right?”

  “That’s correct. He was under the care of a doctor who signed his death certificate, so his body was cremated without any tissue or blood collection. I think your best course of action is to contact the next-of-kin for one of those who were claimed. I’ve got tissue and blood samples on file, but I’ll need next-of-kin to sign off on the tests.”

  She handed him the folders. “The forms they’ll need to sign are on top.”

  Jarrod stood. “Thank you, doctor.”

  “Oh and one more thing. If there is a pre-market drug involved, it will take some time to track down what it is. You need to be prepared for that.”

  “Wouldn’t the FDA have that on file?” Jarrod asked, brows coming together.

  “Uh huh.” She nodded her head. “But getting that info involves us jumping through some hoops. There are trade secrets and things that have to be protected. The FDA will give law enforcement access to the info, but we’ve got to sign non-disclosure agreements and things first. Just know it’s not going to be an immediate result. It takes time for us to make it happen.”

  “Thank you.” He had to bite back a sigh. It never was easy, was it?

  She nodded as if answering his unspoken question, then turned back to her desk, already moving on to her next project. He had a feeling her work was a lot like his. It never ended.

  Chapter 24

  Jarrod finished a call with Jax and looked to his partner. “We ready?”

  “Yeah,” Cal walked down the hall toward the deputy director’s office as he gestured toward Jarrod’s phone. “Who was that?”

  “Jax. He’s just finishing up work for the day and wanted to see if we had anything new. He was able to talk to Darla the other day, and she said she and Jimmy were never married. She said she’d ask around about the other men who suffered heart attacks recently, but she just called him and she hasn’t been able to find anything out.”

  “Damn, so if she and Jimmy weren’t married, she can’t give us permission to run any tests on the blood and tissue samples.”

  “Nope. We either need to find the next-of-kin for one of the others, or get a court order to perform the testing.” Jarrod rubbed his forehead. He felt the start of a headache coming on and made a mental note to get some caffeine into his system one way or another as soon as they finished up here.

  “We don’t have enough for that.”

  Cal wasn’t saying anything Jarrod hadn’t been thinking. He gestured down the hall. “Let’s see what Carrisa Hastings has to tell us.”

  They knocked on the deputy director’s door and a tall blonde woman opened the door.

  “What can I do for you, Detectives?” Carrisa Hastings asked after introductions were made and identification had been produced. She off
ered a polite smile and he immediately wished for a warmer one. The kind you’d give someone you were genuinely happy to see, not a cop.

  He frowned to himself at the odd thought. He often noticed people’s reactions to the badge, but he never wished for a warmer reception while on the job. The people they interviewed were simply people he needed information from. Nothing more.

  “We’re just doing some follow up on the death of Leo Kent,” Cal said smoothly. Jarrod was happy to let Cal take the lead on this one as he watched the woman in front of him intently. If he’d hoped to see any kind of reaction to Leo Kent’s name, he would have been disappointed. She kept her mask in place.

  “I’m not sure what I can tell you, but go ahead and ask.”

  The men stepped further into the room. “Do you know if Leo Kent was taking part in any drug trials?”

  They’d decided to begin with asking about Leo Kent, then see what happened when they brought the other men’s names into the conversation.

  She sighed. “I’m afraid drug trials are all too popular around the shelter.”

  “And you’re not fond of them.” Jarrod said. It was a statement not a question. He’d seen it in her face as soon as Cal asked the question.

  “Not at all.” She shook her head and waved a hand at the two empty chairs in front of her desk. “Drug trials can seem like a panacea to the homeless. Some are outpatient but they’re paid for participation. Others have the added bonus of being in-patient, in which case, they get a roof over their head for a time, meals and snacks, and video games all day long.”

  “Tempting for someone who has very little, if any prospects.” Jarrod had never thought about it before, but it made perfect sense. Many drug trials needed people who didn’t have the targeted illness at first, just to test how the drug was handled by the human body, if it had any side effects, that kind of thing.

  “That’s not the worst of it. We’ve learned over time that homeless people will even go so far as to begin using heroin or other drugs to get into a heroin cessation trial, for example.” Now she seemed to be thawing a bit. She seemed to genuinely care about the medical testing that was being done on the population she served.