“She wanted to see you—very much. But she wanted to be clean and sober before she called, wanted to straighten herself out first.”
Chrissy had been trying to turn her life around. Kate blinked against the tears burning behind her eyes.
“She wanted a better life, but she was murdered before she got the chance,” Jase said.
Lollie shook her head. “That isn’t what happened. A few days after she started working for Eli, Tina found out about the rehab center. It’s a place called New Hope, a big old house just around the corner. Tina talked to the people who worked there, told them she was ready to change her life, but she needed their help. They don’t take many girls, but they agreed to take Tina. The day she moved in—that’s the last time I saw her.”
Silence fell in the shabby motel room.
“So Tina was living in the rehab center when she was killed?” Jase asked, while Kate was still trying to wrap her head around the fact that her sister had been trying to get clean, that she had wanted to see Kate again.
“I’m not sure if she stayed there. They have strict rules. Most of the girls who try to get clean don’t make it. Maybe the folks over at the center will know more about what happened.”
“Did you tell this to the police?” Jase asked.
Lollie shook her head, moving her short blond hair. “Snoopy doesn’t want me talking to the cops.” She looked at Kate. “But you’re Tina’s family. I figure she’d want you to know.”
Jase walked over and placed a wad of folded bills on the dresser. “Snoopy expects you to get three times your usual fee. The extra’s for you.”
Lollie picked up the bills and started counting. She stashed the money in the drawer and looked up at him. “Thank you.”
Kate walked over and hugged her. “Take care of yourself, Lollie.”
The woman made no reply. There was really nothing else to say.
Kate and Jase left the motel. All the way back to her apartment, Kate thought of her baby sister.
Her eyes burned. So far she’d been able to compartmentalize, keep the emotion she was feeling under control. After talking to Lollie, knowing her sister had wanted to reach out to her, emotion tightened her chest.
She thought of the short, terrible life Chrissy had lived. When she’d found herself in trouble, why hadn’t she called home? Surely she knew her family loved her. Even if Kate hadn’t been there for her, Chrissy had to know their mother loved her.
What had happened to her after she’d run away? How had she ended up a prostitute? Kate was desperate to know.
As the Yukon turned down her street, her insides ached with the awful sense of loss and grief. She blamed herself, blamed the system that had somehow failed a sixteen-year-old girl, knew she wouldn’t be able to get the terrible things she had learned out of her mind, and suddenly she wasn’t ready to face the long night ahead.
She wiped tears from her cheeks and turned to Jase. “Do you think you could...? Would you...come up for a while? Just for a while. Maybe have a beer or something?”
His beautiful blue eyes held a trace of pity. “I could use a beer,” Jase said, though she doubted he was looking forward to such dismal company. Instead of pulling up in front, he parked in a visitor’s space in the garage, came around and helped her out of the Yukon.
She rode the elevator upstairs in silence, her mind spinning with troubled thoughts. Guilt and regret made her heart hurt. If only Chrissy had called her, somehow reached out to her. Together they could have beaten her addiction. Chrissy would still be alive and she would be safe.
Her chest tightened as they walked into her living room and Jase closed the door. His eyes ran over her, took in the track of tears that had dried on her cheeks. He was standing so close she could feel the heat of his big, hard body.
“You want that beer?” he asked, his gaze locked on her face. “Or do you want something else?”
The last time she’d felt this terrible pain was the night she had met him. That night she had wanted him to take away the awful ache she felt inside. To make her forget, if only for one night. She wanted that same thing now.
“I want something else,” she said softly, her arms sliding up around his neck. “I want you, Hawk. You’re what I want tonight.”
Arousal burned through him. Jase was already hard by the time he pulled Kate into his arms and kissed her. She needed him tonight, and he damn well needed her. Had since that night at the Sagebrush Saloon.
He forced himself to slow down, to kiss those soft full lips, taste the heat and need he had seen in her eyes, a hunger that matched his own. Desire rose up, thick and pounding, strengthening his arousal, running hot in his blood.
His hands slid over the perfect round globes of her ass and he settled her in the vee between his legs, let her feel how much he wanted her. Her body was toned and strong, and yet her skin felt soft as silk wherever he touched her.
He kissed his way down the side of her neck, claimed her mouth again, delved deep, took what he wanted. Her fingers dug into the muscles across his shoulders, and Kate took the kiss even deeper.
He wasn’t sure how they managed to reach the sofa, but it was exactly where he wanted to be. Her panties were gone by the time he sat down and pulled her on top of him, her knees straddling his lap, the powerful erection beneath the fly of his jeans pressing into the sweet spot beneath her short skirt.
