The Defender

Sadie’s gaze flew to his face and she saw a gleam of humor there. Could the man read her mind? Was she that transparent to him?

His lips curved as he moved to the table and set the plate of cheese between them. Then he sank into his chair. “I’m not the best fisherman in the family, but I’ve been wearing this outfit ever since I was in college and I never fail to catch the biggest fish on these weekends with my brothers. Nik has his special pole and Kit has a lucky hat, but neither has ever beaten this outfit. My brothers are hoping that one day soon the cloth will just disintegrate and fall off of me.”

In her mind, she pictured them doing just that—first the T-shirt, then the jeans. Was he wearing any briefs beneath them? As heat pooled in her center, Sadie ruthlessly focused her attention back to what had brought her here. She was not going to get anywhere if she continued to imagine him naked.

What in the world was wrong with her? She had to get away from him. Rising, she said, “I have to find Kit. Where is he?”

Theo took a sip of his wine while he met her gaze steadily. “Are you dating my brother?”

“What?”

“It’s a pretty straightforward question, counselor. Are you dating my brother Kit? Is that why you’re here?”

“No.” Puzzled, she narrowed her eyes on him. “Why would you think that? I’ve only met him a few times. And why are you asking?”

“Curiosity. You came all the way out here in the middle of the night and you want to know where he is.”

“I need his help. It’s about Roman.”

“Roman?” Theo straightened. “What is it?”

“I have to find Kit.”

“Why don’t you sit back down tell me what’s wrong?”

“Roman told me to go to Kit.”

His brows rose. “There’s an expression that sailors use—any port in a storm. You said it was urgent and since Kit isn’t here and I am, why don’t you tell me what made you drive up here at this time of night?”

He was right. She was letting his effect on her and the difficulty she had handling it interfere with what she needed to do to help Roman and Juliana. She had to tell someone what had happened and figure out what to do next.

In spite of Roman’s advice to trust no one but Kit, she trusted Theo Angelis. Sadie sat back down at the table and told him everything she knew.

WHEN SHE WAS FINISHED, Theo leaned back in his chair and studied her for a moment. She was bearing up very well considering the kind of day she’d put in. No wonder she’d nearly slid to the floor in a dead faint when he’d scared her. He was still kicking himself for that. He’d promised himself while he was changing out of his bathing suit that he wasn’t going to upset her again. And his resolve had only grown stronger now that he knew what she’d been through.

She had an attorney’s mind and laid the facts of her case in a logical order. He’d only stopped her once to take her back over the sequence of gunshots that had been fired and the locations of each of them. She’d heard two when she’d first entered the church.

“So Roman could have fired those before he burst through the vestibule doors in pursuit of the guy he chased up the stairs into the choir loft.”

She clasped her hands together in front of her on the table and her knuckles went white. “Yes. Roman could have fired those shots.”

“And the lady you met outside, she said that she’d heard the cops talking about one dead person.”

“Yes, but—” She cut herself off and met his eyes. “Yes. And you’re going to say that Roman could have killed that person. That could be why he’s the suspect in a homicide. But the man he was chasing could be the killer, too. He had a gun, and there was more gunfire from inside the church after Roman and that man came out. So neither of them fired those shots.”

Theo nodded. He had to give her points for control. He wondered if he would have done as well if she were cross-examining him about the possibility that one of his brothers might have killed someone. “From what you’ve described, more than one person came to that church prepared to stop your sister’s wedding and prepared to use force to do so. That could include Roman. He did bring his gun.”

Sadie leaned forward. “Roman always carries a gun. My father insists that all his executives be armed because his father had always insisted on it. Even Michael Dano who heads up the legal department has a gun. I think it goes back to a time when my family wasn’t so…let’s say legitimately connected.”

“Do you carry a gun?”

“No. I’m not employed on the executive level at Oliver Enterprises.”

There was something in her tone that caught his attention. Was it disappointment? Hurt? Resentment? Before he could pursue it, she hurried on. “I’ve never known Roman to use his gun.”

“Perhaps the need never arose before.”

Temper flared into her eyes, turning them almost black. But she reined it in. Here was the passion he’d glimpsed in the courtroom. And Theo knew that he wasn’t going to be able to walk away from it easily.

“You’re right. That’s exactly how the police will see it. He’s—” She broke off and her knuckles turned even whiter.

“Roman’s in trouble on two fronts,” he continued for her. “He may have serious injuries from the fall he took, but he also may be the prime suspect for what went on at that church. That’s what you want to see Kit for. You want him to investigate and find out.”

“I also want Kit to help me find Juliana. Roman thought she was in danger.”

Theo studied her for a moment. “From what you’ve said, she’s with the man she loves, Paulo Carlucci. Don’t you trust him?”

“I don’t know. I’m not even sure that Paulo and Juliana got away. That van may have been following them. Maybe they got her. If the Carluccis learned of the wedding plans, they’d want to stop it as badly as—”

“Your father and Roman would.”

Her chin lifted and she drew back a little in her chair. “If I had gotten to the church on time, I would have tried to talk Juliana out of getting married, too.”

“The difference being that you didn’t bring a gun.”

“Yes.” She met his eyes. “But as I said before, Roman wasn’t the only one who came to the church armed. And I had some time to think on the drive up here. I received my invitation to come to the church at around four o’clock. It was signed: ‘Please, Juliana.’ What if Roman received a similar note? I had no idea that the invitation was to a wedding, let alone that Juliana intended to marry Paulo Carlucci. What if Roman was in the same situation? I’m not saying that he wouldn’t try to stop the wedding. But he would only have used his gun in self-defense.”

Theo didn’t know Roman Oliver as well as Kit did. But ever since Roman and Kit had roomed together in college, he had been a frequent visitor at both their home and the restaurant his father ran, and Theo was inclined to agree with Sadie. Roman, like his sister, had a temper, but he knew how to control it. Keeping his eyes on Sadie’s, Theo sipped his wine. “Let’s bottomline it. You suspect your father sent some men to stop the wedding, don’t you?”

Her chin lifted. “Did I say that?”

“You didn’t have to. Actions speak louder than words. You avoided your father when you were at the hospital.”

Temper flashed in her eyes as she slammed a hand down on the table. “What was I supposed to do? Go up to him and ask him if he’d sent men to shoot up the church and stop the wedding? Not that he would have answered any of my questions—my father plays his cards very close to his chest. Sometimes he doesn’t even let Roman know what he’s doing. Roman never knew about it when he—” Stopping, Sadie reached for her wine and took a sip.

“When he what?” Theo prompted.

“It happened a long time ago. I haven’t thought about it in years. Perhaps it’s because the circumstances are so similar.”

Theo raised a brow. “Did your father stop you from marrying someone?”

“No.” She ran her finger around the rim of the wineglass. “I was a year younger than Juliana is now. I’d begged to come home from boarding school and finish my senior year here in San Francisco. I took a theater class and ended up playing Rosalind in As You Like It. The male lead was Jackson Rayburn, and we started seeing each other. The short version of the story is that I fell in love the way that you do when you’re that young and you think that everything is possible.”

“Were you lovers?”

“No.” Her chin lifted. “But we would have become lovers. We’d already made plans for the future. I was going to apply to the same college that he was going to so that we could be together. Then I made the mistake of bringing him home to meet my family and my father took immediate action.”

Theo poured more wine into both their glasses. “What did he do?”