He let his gaze sweep the street below. It was shortly after eleven, and pedestrian as well as vehicular traffic had picked up. He was about to turn around and check on Maddie again when he shifted his eyes back to the corner diagonally across from the store on Madison. Something had caught his attention. What?
Then he spotted her—the same matronly woman who’d been examining jewelry when he and Maddie had first entered the salon. She was wearing the same pillbox hat, the same pink suit. She stood in the recessed entranceway to a designer leather-goods store, but she wasn’t window-shopping. Instead, she seemed to be watching Eva Ware Designs.
“Earth to Jase. Are you still there?”
The woman in the pink suit chose that moment to turn and walk into the Louis Vuitton store. Jase refocused his attention. “I’m here.”
“Anything else you need?”
“Yeah.” Jase flicked a glance toward Maddie. She was chewing on her bottom lip and beginning to wield that hammer like a pro. A few strands of hair had fallen loose from the knot she’d twisted it into.
“This is a job for you and it takes priority over the research for now. I want you to call Eva Ware Designs and ask to speak with Adam Ware. Identify yourself as a freelance writer. You’re working on an article for Vanity Fair on up-and-coming jewelry designers. Ask him for an appointment ASAP.” Jase glanced at his watch. Eleven-ten. “As soon as you hang up, if possible.”
D.C. laughed. “Sounds like fun. I suppose you’re not going to tell me why.”
“Later. Just put the plan in action.”
“Dino just came in so it shouldn’t take us long. Anything I should know about this Adam Ware?”
“He has an ego the size of Australia.”
“That should work. What do they say—the bigger they are, the harder they fall? Am I stuck with your scenario or can I make up one of my own?”
Jase bit back a grin. “Going to improvise, are you?”
“When we were kids and got into scrapes, I always came up with a better story than you did.”
Jase wouldn’t admit it out loud, but it was true. Not only was D.C. inventive, but he had a real flare for playing his audience. “Just keep it believable. And while you’re creating your scenario, see if you can keep Ware busy for the next few days or weeks if possible.”
“Got it. You know the military police never get assignments like this. Maybe I ought to get out and come to work for you.”
“Anytime,” Jase said before he closed his cell. If D.C. was serious, he and his brother would have to have a talk.
Later.
Cho and Maddie were now holding up the pendant to compare it to the sketch of the design. Neither of them glanced up when he moved to Adam’s chair, sat down and propped his feet on the desk. It was his favorite position for thinking—and there were several things he needed to mull over.
At the top of the list was Maddie Farrell. Even now when he should be thinking of solving the puzzle of who’d robbed Eva’s store and then run her down, he couldn’t keep his eyes from returning to Maddie.
What he was feeling for her was growing beyond that initial chemical connection that had ignited between them. Little by little he was coming to know her as a person. She was smart, brave, certainly not afraid to try new things. Her spunk reminded him of his mother and sister. His lips curved as he thought of the game way she’d taken on the challenge of walking in Jordan’s killer shoes, then handling her cousin. And now, she was also throwing herself into the task of working on one of her mother’s designs.
As he watched, she picked up the pendant again and held it against the sketch. Though her back was to him, he knew that a little line was furrowing her brow. She’d inherited at least some of her mother’s focus. And she shared Jordan’s energy. And he’d experienced both of those qualities when they’d made love.
Just thinking about the night they’d spent together had his body hardening and desire moving through him with rusty claws. It wasn’t just that he wanted to make love to her again. He had to. He needed to taste her again, touch her, to thrust into her when she knew it was him and not some dream lover.
The only question was, how long could he wait?
IT WAS two hours later when Jase and Maddie walked out of the work studio. Adam had checked on them once early on. Other than giving Maddie and Cho a frustrated look, he’d done nothing to interrupt them before leaving. “That was quite a design you finished.”
“Thanks,” Maddie said. “How did you manage to keep Adam distracted for so long?”“Charm.”
Maddie snorted. “I didn’t think your brand would work on him.”
“Piece of cake. All I had to do was ooh and ahh over his designs. And then he got a phone call from his mother and left.”
“My impression is that she rides him pretty hard.”
“He certainly didn’t look like a happy camper when he got the call. What did you learn from Cho?”
She drew in a deep breath and let it out. “That my mother wanted me here.”
Jase stopped dead in his tracks and turned to her. “That’s the first time you’ve referred to Eva as your mother.”
“I know.”
“Did Eva tell Cho she wanted you here? Did he know about you?”
“No. Cho says Eva never mentioned me. He never knew that Jordan had a sister until I was invited for the reading of the will. But Cho said the will proves that my mother wanted me here. I hadn’t thought about it quite that way before.”
“He’s right.”
“I still have questions, hundreds of them, but it helps to look at the will that way—as proof that she really wanted me here. That she wanted to unite Jordan and me. Cho also told me that she specifically wanted a store on Madison Avenue because she believed it would bring her luck. Am I foolish to think that means she was thinking of me?”
Jase raised their joined hands to his lips and kissed her fingers. “No, it’s not foolish at all. You’ve had a good day, Maddie Farrell.”
“Yes. The next thing I’m going to do is to ask Michelle about my mother’s appointment calendar.”
But when they stepped into the office area, Michelle was on the phone and Dino Angelis was filming her with the video camera he had resting on his shoulder. Jase realized that when D.C. had promised fast action, he’d obviously meant it. Through the open doorway to one of the offices, Jase spotted Adam sitting behind his desk. Facing Jordan’s cousin, with a cane hooked over the arm of his chair, was D.C. Adam seemed to be hanging on his every word. Jase wondered if the cane was a prop or if D.C. needed it for that leg injury he’d mentioned. The latter, he bet. He made a mental note to stop by the office later in the afternoon.
Putting down her phone, Michelle waved them over, and Dino moved toward the door to Adam’s office.
“What’s going on?” Maddie asked.
Michelle leaned closer and though her voice was pitched low, there was a thread of excitement running through it. “Those two men came to talk to Mr. Ware. The one with the cane is Mr. Duncan Dunleavy. He’s producing a new reality TV show about artists in the city. They want to feature Mr. Ware on it. They’ve already taken some footage of him downstairs in the main salon.”
“Wow,” Jase said.
Maddie shot him a look, then turned back to Michelle. “And they just showed up out of the blue?”
“Oh, no. They phoned first, but they were in the area, and Mr. Ware told them to come right over. And he told me to send them right in when they arrived even though he was still talking with his mother.”
“Dorothy Ware was here?” Maddie asked.
“She still is.” Michelle put her fingers to her temples. “I was supposed to fetch you from the workroom, but I forgot. Then we all got distracted by the filming. Mrs. Ware too. She had a lot of questions for Mr. Dunleavy. She’s waiting in Jordan’s office to talk to you.”
Maddie’s nerves began to jitter the moment that she entered Jordan’s office and saw Dorothy Ware sitting ramrod-straight in one of the chairs. The older woman was wearing a linen suit in raspberry red, a pair of black patent-leather pumps and her hands were resting over a designer clutch bag on her lap. It was ridiculous to be intimidated just because she looked as if she’d just come from a cover shoot for Vogue magazine.
Reminding herself of the things that Cho had told her and of how she’d felt when she’d been working on the pendant her mother had designed, Maddie circled around Jordan’s desk, sat down in the chair, and folded her hands in front of her. “What can I do for you, Mrs. Ware?”
“I’m here because I want to know what your plans are for my son. He doesn’t seem to have the capability or the ambition to ask that question himself. If he’s not marked for success here, his father can always find a place for him at Ware Bank.”
The cool detached way Dorothy Ware was speaking about her son and his future sent a little chill through Maddie. “From what I’ve seen, Adam is a talented designer and he’s been very successful here.”
“Not successful enough for my sister-in-law to leave him the business. And when I called him a few hours ago, he felt threatened. I had to cancel a very important meeting to come over here. Carleton and I are chairing a fashion show to benefit a new children’s cancer wing at Mount Sinai Hospital.” She glanced at her watch. “I’m due back there right now. So I’d like to clarify this matter once and for all.”