Deadly Exposure

by Linda Turner

  “I’ll talk to Angelo in the morning, and he’ll get someone in here to make the place more secure,” he told her as she walked with him to the front door. “In the meantime, you can either jam a chair under the doorknob or move the couch in front of the door if it will make you feel safer. And here’s my number.” Quickly jotting down his phone number on a piece of paper, he handed it to her and said, “I don’t care what time it is, call me immediately if you get another phone call or you’re scared for any reason. I can be here in thirty seconds.”

  Her smile tremulous, she clutched the card like a lifeline. “I don’t know how to thank you. This makes me feel a lot better.”

  “Don’t worry,” he assured her as he opened the door. “I’m going to get this guy if I can. And if the caller really is the same man who tried to run you down, then he’s the one who should be putting his affairs in order. His days are numbered.”

  Lily had never seen him so grim before…or so determined. Reassured, she wished him a quiet good-night, then closed the door behind him and quickly locked it. She told herself she was fine—there was no reason to be afraid now that Tony was aware of the situation. Still, her heart was pounding as she turned off the lights and crawled back into bed.

  Later, she couldn’t have said how long she lay there, staring at the ceiling and waiting for sleep to come. Time dragged in the night. She heard every sound outside, including the low growl of a motorcycle blocks away. Resigned to the inevitable, she sighed in disgust and threw back the covers. She might as well get up and spend the rest of the night working on her homework. At least she’d be doing something productive, because she sure as hell wasn’t going to get any sleeping done.

  Before she could even turn on the bedside lamp, however, the phone rang, shattering the quiet of the night. Startled, she bolted upright in bed, her heart racing. “Don’t answer it!” she said aloud, trying to calm herself. “He’ll only scare you again, and that’s what he wants. He enjoys it. Don’t play his game.”

  She almost didn’t, but she was already afraid, and the ringing phone was only making it worse. With a muttered curse, she jerked up the phone. “Hello?”

  “Lily? Are you all right? When you didn’t answer the phone, I was afraid something was wrong.”

  “Oh, Tony, I’m sorry!” she said, wilting in relief. “I was afraid you were him.”

  He cursed in the darkness. “No, I’m the one who should be apologizing. I should have told you I was going to call before you went back to bed. I just wanted to make sure you weren’t lying there in the dark, scared to death.”

  Laughing shakily, she sank back onto the bed and positioned her pillow under her head. “I don’t know that I would go that far, but I blocked the front door with the couch and put your number on speed dial. I’m not expecting to sleep tonight, but I’m not as jumpy as I was. Or at least I wasn’t until the phone rang,” she added wryly.

  “Sorry,” he chuckled. “You know what they say about good intentions. Well, I guess I should go and let you try to get some sleep. You had a rough day and it’s late.”

  “No!” She spoke too quickly and sounded more than a little desperate, but she didn’t care. He was her link to sanity in the darkness, the one person tonight who could make her feel incredibly safe. She tried to tell herself it was because he was a policeman—it was his job to make people feel safe. But it was more than that, and she knew it. It was Tony, himself. When she’d opened the door to him and thrown herself into his arms, she’d felt as if nothing in the world could hurt her as long as he held her close.

  Later, she knew she was going to have to think about that, but for now he was on the other end of the line and the only person between her and the demons of the night. And all she wanted to think about was him. “Don’t go,” she said huskily. “I wouldn’t sleep, anyway. I was hoping we could talk.”

  “Sure,” he said easily. “So what would you like to talk about? Me, right? It’s okay. I know I’ve bowled you over with my charm. I have a habit of doing that. It’s a genetic thing—all the Giovanni men have it. Ask Angelo. He can be a real charmer when he sets his mind to it.”

  “I’m sure he can,” she said dryly, enjoying his teasing. “Of course, he doesn’t flaunt it like you do.”

  “Are you kidding? I guess you haven’t seen him when the Rose Club has its monthly dinner at the restaurant. I’m telling you, it’s embarrassing. He falls all over himself flirting with the little old ladies, and they love it. I just don’t understand it.”

  “Stop!” she laughed. “Angelo’s not like that. And neither are you. I’ve seen you working in the restaurant. You don’t flirt with the customers…though the old ladies do seem to be especially fond of you,” she teased.

  “Hey! What can I say? What’s not to love?”

  Lily chuckled. “Has anyone ever told you you’re outrageous?”

  “On a regular basis,” he replied promptly. “What about you? Do you have your outrageous moments?”

  “Only when I left a government job to chase a dream,” she said ruefully.

  “There must be other times in your life when you did something outrageous. What about when you were in school? You must have done something that would have raised your father’s eyebrows if he’d known about it. All teenagers do.”

  She wouldn’t have ever described herself as outrageous, but then she remembered a night when she was in high school that she’d nearly forgotten about. “Actually, now that you mention it, I did help TP a boy’s house one night when I was a junior in high school.”

  “You didn’t! Why, Ms. Fitzgerald, I’m shocked!”

  “I was, too,” she said. “I’d never done anything like that in my life. I felt so guilty about it that I talked my friends into helping me clean it all up before anybody saw the mess. My father would have had a stroke if he’d found out.”

  “My dad would have laughed, then made me confess the next day and clean it up.”

  “And are you the same kind of father your dad was? Do you laugh at things Quentin does, then make him do the right thing?”

  “Do you even have to ask?” he said in amusement. “That kid knows exactly what to do to make me laugh. Not that I let him slide on the serious stuff,” he quickly amended. “Just because Janice and I are divorced doesn’t mean I play Disneyland dad. He knows what the rules are, and most of the time he doesn’t push his luck. He’s a good kid.”

  “He’s lucky to have a father who knows how to laugh,” she said quietly. “I didn’t.”

  “What about your mother?”

  “She died when I was six. Sometimes it seems like yesterday.”

  “I know what you mean,” he replied in a voice that was as husky as hers. “My parents were killed in a car accident when I was sixteen. I don’t know what I would have done if it hadn’t been for Angelo and Aunt Tootsie. They were both there for me.”

  “Tootsie? That’s Angelo’s sister, right?”

  “Yeah. She’s something else. You should see her and Angelo dance. Even now, people clear the floor for them when they dance together. Aunt Tootsie always used to say it was in the blood. Then she tried to teach me

  “Why do I have a feeling that that was a disaster?” she asked.

  “She gave me lessons at her house, and she’s got all this dainty furniture that I kept bumping into. By the time the dance lesson was over, I’d broken a footstool and a side table and Aunt Tootsie’s little toe.”

  “Oh, no!”

  “It’s a good thing I’m her favorite or she would have disowned me for sure.”

  Lily smiled in the darkness as he told her about his childhood, his wild Italian family, and even perps that had led him a merry chase before he’d managed to arrest them. And in the process, he made her laugh until she cried. And as one story led to another, she forgot all about her fear and the threatening phone call earlier in the evening. The hands of the clock on her bedside table passed an hour, then another, and she never noticed…until it was nearly t
hree-thirty in the morning.

  “Oh, my goodness! Tony, do you realize what time it is? I shouldn’t have kept you this long. You have to work tomorrow.”

  Far from concerned, he only laughed. “I don’t go in until noon. Anyway, I wouldn’t care if I had to go in at dawn. I enjoyed talking to you.”

  “It was very sweet of you to keep me company through the night,” she said softly. “Thank you.”

  “My pleasure,” he said huskily. “Do you think you can go to sleep now?”

  “Mmm-hmm,” she said drowsily. “I can’t seem to keep my eyes open. Did I say thank-you?”

  “Yes, you did. Good night, Lily.”

  Smiling, already sinking into sleep, she murmured, “Good night.” She’d hardly hung up before she was dreaming of him.

  Sometime during the night, the first cool front of the season blew into town, and Lily woke to find the sky robin’s-egg blue and the air crisp and cool. She’d always loved fall—it was her favorite time of year—and as she watched leaves blowing in the wind, there was nothing she would have liked more than to grab her camera bag and head for the park. But after what had happened the last time she’d set up camp there, she had no desire to stray that far from home.

  Not that she was going to take many pictures without a camera, she reminded herself with a grimace. Since hers was beyond repair, she had to buy another one, and she didn’t fool herself into thinking it would come cheap. Resigned, she hurriedly dressed, pulling on black slacks and a green tailored shirt, then secured her hair off her neck with a clip.

  Surveying herself in the mirror, she grinned. Not bad. The bump on her forehead was concealed with makeup, and in spite of the terrifying phone call she’d received last night, she felt surprisingly relaxed and rested. And she had Tony to thank for that. Long after she’d hung up and gone to sleep, he’d been with her in her dreams.

  Smiling at the thought, she grabbed her purse and stepped outside. A cool wind kissed her on the cheek, and she could smell the scent of burning wood on the morning air. Somewhere nearby, someone was ening the first fire of the season in their fireplace. Just that easily, she was transported back to the mountains of Colorado…and home. Fall came early in Liberty Hill. Friends and neighbors she’d grown up with had, no doubt, already started burning leaves and making apple cider and chopping wood so their woodpiles would be well stocked by the first snowfall. Just thinking about it made her homesick.

  “Don’t go there,” she said aloud. “You can’t live in the same town as your father, let alone the same state, and you know it. You took the job in D.C. to get as far away from him and his control as possible, so be happy. You’re where you want to be.”

  Watching the leaves fall and people hurry down the street at a brisk walk, she saw dozens of pictures she wanted to snap. Once again, she was reminded that she had no camera. Normally, she would have walked to the camera shop two blocks away, but she hadn’t forgotten the threats made against her last night. She wasn’t going to live in fear, but neither was she going to take any unnecessary chances. So she walked around the corner to where she’d parked her car and drove the short distance to the camera shop.

  Fifteen minutes later when she walked out of the store, she’d bought a Nikon that was just like the one that had been destroyed, then she’d given in to temptation and splurged on the enlarger she’d been promising herself. The enlarger would be delivered to her apartment later, but she took the Nikon with her. One day in the not too distance future, she hoped she’d be able to afford a Hasselblad, but she still intended to keep her Nikon. It was the first real camera she’d ever owned, and she loved it. She could take a dozen rolls of film, change lenses from telephoto to wide angle and back again without even having to think about it. Eager to get started, she hurried back to her car, loaded one of the rolls of film she’d bought with the camera and headed back home.

  It only took a few minutes to collect her camera bag and tripod, and then she hit the streets. She didn’t, however, go far. She had a mural to do for Angelo, and she decided that the place to start was outside. The restaurant just wasn’t the building and its customers—it was the neighborhood, too, the families that lived in the area, the street itself. So setting up across the street from the restaurant, she began snapping pictures.

  Not surprisingly, she drew more than her fair share of interested looks. A young mother, pushing a stroller with a baby that was bundled up against the cool air, nodded and smiled at her, and halfway down the block, Mrs. Parnelli, the owner of the neighborhood market, stopped in the middle of sweeping the sidewalk in front of her store to watch her. Amused, Lily waved and kept snapping pictures.

  She wanted photos from different times of the day, different angles of light, different weather conditions, and that could take months. Pleased with what she’d taken for now, she was in the middle of repacking her camera bag, when a voice suddenly said from behind her, “You’ve got quite a setup there.”

  Surprised, she turned to find a man watching her with curious eyes. Tall and lean, with sharp, hawklike features and dark brown hair that he wore slicked back like a sophisticated banker, he was dressed in a black suit that Lily knew cost a small fortune. “It makes the job easier,” she said with a half smile.

  “Do you mind if I ask you a few questions?” he said easily. “My girlfriend wants to get into photography and I thought I might buy a camera for her for her birthday. Are you a professional? What do you recommend?”

  “Oh, well, that depends on how much you want to spend,” she said with a smile. “And yes, I’m a professional. I’m still taking classes, though.”

  “No kidding? My girlfriend’s been thinking about signing up for some classes. Where are you taking them? Are you happy with what you’re taking?”

  “Oh, yes!” she replied. “I’m taking three classes at Georgetown, and they’re excellent.”

  “I’ll have to tell my girlfriend. What kind of camera did you say I should buy?”

  “It just depends on what kind of bells and whistles you want it to have. Personally, if money wasn’t an issue, I’d get a Hasselblad. But there’s nothing wrong with a Nikon or Cannon, either. You need to talk to someone at a camera shop. They can advise you better than I can.”

  “Okay, I’ll do that,” he said easily. “Thanks. You’ve been very helpful.”

  With a nod and smile, he strolled on down the street and had just reached the corner when a patrol car pulled up beside her. “Well, if it isn’t Ms. Fitzgerald,” Tony drawled with a wide grin. “You’re looking awfully pretty for someone who didn’t sleep much last night. I take it there were no more phone calls in the middle of the night?”

  Delighted to see him, Lily couldn’t conceal it. Her blue eyes smiling into his, she stepped over to the car as if drawn by a magnet. “No calls,” she confirmed. “I slept like a baby…thanks to you.”

  “It was my pleasure,” he said, his green eyes twinkling with mischief. “For a first date, I thought it went pretty well.”

  Not surprised by the turn of the conversation, she laughed. “That was not a date, Tony. We were in two different apartments.”

  “Well, that’s easily rectified,” he retorted with a grin. “Let’s go out to dinner tonight.”

  “Okay.”

  For the first time since Lily had met him, she caught him off guard. Stunned, he blinked. “Are you kidding?”

  She shook her head. “Not at all. I think it’s about time, don’t you?”

  It was past time, as far as Tony was concerned. But he had to admit that there was a part of him that was tempted to tell her that all this time he’d just been joking with her. She was changing their relationship, and in some ways that scared the hell out of him. He had so much on his plate already—how could he find time for a woman in his life? And then there was Janice. Not only had she broken his heart and betrayed him, she was now trying to take his son. He’d sworn he’d never give another woman a chance to hurt him again. He could flirt and tease,
but that was as far as it would go.

  But there was something about Lily. He hadn’t been kidding when he’d told her he really, really liked her. He’d been thinking about her all morning, so much that he’d found himself heading for Angelo’s without even sing to think about it. And that stunned him. He couldn’t remember the name of the last woman who’d interfered with his work. But then again, he’d never met anyone quite like Lily. How could he not go out with her?

  Grinning, he said, “I was beginning to think this day would never come. There is one thing you need to know, though. I have Quentin tonight.”

  “That’s okay. He’s a great kid. Bring him along.”

  Reassured—what could happen with his son along as chaperon?—Tony said, “It looks like we have a date. What time should we pick you up?”

  “What time do you get off work? Is six-thirty too early?”

  “We’ll meet you in the hallway,” he replied just as his police radio crackled to life. Listening, he grimaced. “Duty calls. I’ll see you later this evening.”

  Switching on the light bar on the roof of his car, he waved and drove off. Staring after him, her heart pounding, Lily couldn’t stop smiling. What had she done? And why didn’t she regret it?

  Chapter 8

  “We’re just going to dinner—it isn’t a real date. We’re just going to dinner—it isn’t a real date.”

  Lily repeated the mantra over and over again, but her heart wasn’t buying it. Her cheeks were pink with excitement, her eyes sparkled, and she felt as if she’d just won the lottery. She was humming, for heaven’s sake. And to make matters worse, she changed clothes three times before she was satisfied with the jeans and red cover girl–style sweater she finally chose. Then she redid her makeup when there was nothing wrong with it. She had to be losing her mind.