Читать книгу The Prosecutor - Adrienne Giordano, Misty Evans - Страница 11

Chapter Four

One thing Zac didn’t expect to hear at seven o’clock on a Saturday morning was his crazy sister pounding on his door. The sound drove through his skull like a pickax. What the heck was she doing? Couldn’t a guy get a break and sleep in on his day off? He should never have given her a key to the first-floor entry. And for that matter, why didn’t she use her other key to open the inside door?

He rolled out of bed, blinked a few times against the shaft of sunlight seeping through the blinds and grabbed a pair of track pants from the chair. Too damn early for this. The way she was carrying on she’d wake up the other two tenants in the house. Worse, he was on the second floor, so the two remaining apartments would have equal opportunity to hear the racket. After jamming his legs into his pants, he grabbed last night’s T-shirt from the floor and decided it would do. Temporarily.

“Zachary! Open this door.”

“Keep your skirt on, Pen. I’m coming. Why didn’t you use your key?”

Prepared to broil her, he ripped open the door and there she stood in a blinding bright pink coat. He closed his eyes, drove his fingers into them. “You look like a popsicle. Seriously, you need to tone that down.”

When he opened his eyes again, his gaze shot to movement behind the popsicle. Instantly his face got hot. A sizzling burn straight to his cheeks because his crazy sister had brought Emma Sinclair—in a knit cap and white trench coat that made him think about stripping them off her—to visit.

Pen pushed by him, stomped into his apartment and jerked her thumb behind her. “She’s why I didn’t use my key. How did I know if you’d be naked in here? Or if you had company.”

Emma remained standing in the hallway and he waved her in. “You might as well come in. Excuse the mess. And that I’m not appropriately dressed for a business meeting.” He turned to his sister. “In my apartment. On my day off.”

“Blah, blah, blah,” Penny said. “You won’t believe this one, Zachary.”

“I’m sure you’ll enlighten me.”

“Bet your butt, I will. Detective Ben Leeks visited Emma last night at her house. He was waiting for her, stalking her, when she came home from work at one o’clock in the morning.”

Zac shifted his gaze to Emma who stood quietly in the middle of his living room, staring at him and his bed head. He might be a little slow on the uptake this morning but last he’d checked, his hearing was pretty good and he thought his nutty sister had just told him Emma had received a visit from a potential suspect’s cop father.

“He did what?”

The thing he did not need in this already puzzling case was some amped-up detective with a direct link to the proceedings screwing around.

Penny, ever the drama queen, threw her hands up. “Marched right up her driveway and scared the daylights out of her.”

Zac went back to Emma, studied her face for any sign of trauma. Nothing there. Only soft lips and those lustful wide eyes. “Are you okay?”

Pen’s phone rang. The theme from The Godfather. “Ooh,” she said. “This is Dad. Hang on.” She retrieved the phone from the suitcase-slash-purse she carried. “Hi, Dad.”

He faced Emma. “She gave my father The Godfather theme as a ringtone. I told you she was whacked.”

Penny’s eyebrows hitched up. “Sure. Got it. I’m on it, Dad.” She disconnected. “I have to go.”

“What?” Zac said for what felt like the tenth time. “You drop this on me and you’re leaving?”

He gestured to his clothing, then to Emma.

“I have to go. The son of one of our clients got arrested. Mom and Dad left for Wisconsin early and they’re already at the lake house. He needs me to get the guy out of lockup and I’m not telling our father no.” She turned to Emma. “I’m sorry to do this to you. Can you fill Zac in and then grab a cab home?”

Emma slid her gaze to Zac, hesitated, then went back to Penny. “Um, sure.”

In a blur of pink, Penny strode to the door and Zac pulled it open for her. Leave it to her to install Emma and her gorgeous brown eyes in his apartment and then bolt. Bad enough that his thoughts had been dropping to the gutter ever since Emma had put her hand on his chest a day-and-a-half ago, now he had to be alone with her in his apartment. Did he mention alone? Damn Penny. “I’ll take her home. Why should she take a cab?”

His sister patted his cheek. “Good boy, Zachary. Don’t forget, we have to be at the lake by five today. Don’t be late. Mom will kill you. And me because you’re my driver.”

“I won’t be late.”

He shut the door and faced Emma, the woman he was terrified to be alone with in his apartment. Only slightly awkward, this situation. “Sorry about waking you up,” she said. “I made the mistake of telling your sister I had the morning and early afternoon open. Apparently she thinks that means it’s okay to call me at 6:00 a.m.”

Zac laughed. “I swear she’s a vampire. She’s always been this way. She can function on five hours’ sleep and I need a ton. How is that fair when we come from the same gene pool?”

“I don’t know. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not complaining. I appreciate her dedication.”

“She’s dedicated all right. I love that about her. Just not on a Saturday. When I’m sleeping.”

Emma glanced around the apartment. Her stare landed on the kitchen doorway at the end of the hall. Excellent idea. Safest room. He could throw a pot of coffee together. The caffeine would jump-start him and give him something to do with his hands. Considering his hands wouldn’t mind stripping that coat off Emma Sinclair. “How about coffee?”