by Linda Turner
“Son of a bitch!” Sly muttered, and quickly, soundlessly, sank deeper into the dark belly of the alley. Did the old goat ever move at any speed other than crawl? he wondered, glaring at him. It was late, dammit! Why didn’t he hurry up and go upstairs to bed? Sly wasn’t worried about him hearing anything that might go on in Lily’s apartment—old strokes slept like the dead. He had to be tired after working all day. So why didn’t he go upstairs before the cop came back and ruined everything!
Frustrated, he could almost hear the clock ticking in his head. It seemed the cop had taken the kid home. How long would he be gone? he wondered…just as the black Toyota sedan that belonged to the cop turned the corner at the end of the street and headed straight for him. His heart slamming against his ribs, he swore and pressed up against the building. He was busted, he thought, panicking. All the damn cop had to do was glance over to his right and he was bound to see him plastered to the front of the darkened building like a fly on the wall.
Trapped, he almost bolted, his shiftin searching frantically for an escape. He could run down the alley and disappear into the night. The subway entrance was only two blocks away. Or he could go three blocks to the west, where there was a rabbit warren of old buildings in the process of being remodeled. They were linked by underground tunnels that would make it virtually impossible for the cops to find him.
But before he could decide which way to run, the cop pulled over to the curb in front of Angelo’s and stepped out of the car to talk to his uncle. He never even looked Sly’s way. Relieved, he didn’t know whether to laugh or curse. Damn pig! Was he blind? Or just stupid? Either way, the cop hadn’t seen him, and that was all Sly cared about. Now if he just had to work the late shift tonight, everything would go just the way he wanted.
But if one of the city’s finest had to report to work, he showed no sign of it. He and the old man stood talking as if they didn’t have a care in the world. And with every passing second, Sly found himself growing more and more angry. Did they know he was out there, watching them, waiting for his chance to sneak upstairs and kill Miss Candid Camera? Is that why they were lingering? Were they deliberately trying to infuriate him?
His teeth clenched on an oath, he silently ordered himself to get a grip. But the two men across the street didn’t make it easy. Five minutes passed, ten, then twenty, and still, neither man showed any sign of calling it a night. And that’s when he knew there was no way in hell he was going to be able to kill Lily tonight.
Damn them! he raged as he carefully eased farther back into the darkness of the alley, then turned to silently make his way to where he’d left his car two blocks away. He hoped they enjoyed themselves, destroying his plans. That was all right—his time was coming. And when it did, he’d make them and Miss Shutterbug regret they’d ever been born.
“So Lily went out to dinner with you, did she?” Angelo teased, his green eyes glinting with humor. “I thought she had better taste than that.”
Tony tried and failed to scowl. “Don’t go there, old man. It wasn’t a real date. Quentin went with us.”
“So? She’s single and you’re single and you went out to dinner. Sounds like a date to me.”
“I don’t have time for a woman in my life—”
“Of course you do,” his uncle retorted. “You made time tonight.”
“The last couple of days have been rough on her,” he said with a shrug. “I thought I could take her mind off her troubles if we went out.”
Angelo made no secret of the fact that he didn’t quite believe him—his doubts were clearly visible in his eyes—but he let the little white lie go and said instead, “What’s going on with her case? You did report that threatening call she got, didn’t you? What do you think about this bastard who’s harassing her? Does she have a clue who it is?”
Tony shook his head grimly. “She swears she doesn’t have any enemies—she certainly can’t think of anyone who hates her enough to want her dead. But somebody’s got it in for her, and from the sound of it’s a loose cannon. Although I tried to down play the danger and not make her any more scared than she already was, still, she has reason to be afraid.”
Angelo agreed. “I’ve hired her to do a photographic mural for the restaurant. Hopefully, she’ll be safer if she sticks close by until the guy is caught.”
“Good. The last thing she needs right now is to be out on the streets alone.”
“Do you have any idea yet why someone’s trying to kill her? She’s a sweet girl. What could she have done to make someone so angry he’d want to kill her?”
“I don’t know,” Tony said with a frown as he took the broom from Angelo so his uncle could sit and relax while he finished sweeping the sidewalk. “Whoever this bastard is, he’s been damn clever so far. The only clue he’s left behind is the abandoned pizza-delivery car he stole, and that hasn’t done us a hell of a lot of good. He wiped it free of fingerprints and no one saw him steal the damn thing. We’ve got nothing on him, and he knows it. Hell, we don’t even know why he’s doing this!”
“Were you able to trace where he made that phone call from last night? Maybe someone saw him.”
He shook his head grimly. “He made the call from a pay phone on Fourteenth Street. At that time of night, there wasn’t a soul around, and he didn’t leave any prints. I warned Lily that would probably happen, but damn, I hate to be the one to say I told you so.”
“You’ll catch the jerk,” Angelo said confidently. “If he called her once, he’s bound to call again.”
“He was taunting her and us,” he retorted. “I’d bet a million bucks he won’t call again, but we’ve got the line tapped just in case.”
“Good,” Angelo said in satisfaction. Changing the subject, he said, “So when’s your next date? This time, Quentin should stay with me. You can’t wine and dine her with your son along.”
“I’m not wining and dining—”
“That’s obvious,” his uncle retorted with a grin, ignoring his warning tone. “I can’t believe you took her to Mr. Moon’s.”
“Quentin was with us—I thought she’d be more comfortable if we went someplace casual.”
“But a kid’s pizza parlor?” Rolling his eyes, Angelo sighed. “I can see right now that you’re going to need some advice or you’re going to totally blow this. Not that I’m criticizing you,” he added quickly, grinning. “I think it’s great you’re dating again. You should have been doing more of it all along.”
“You’re pushing me, Angelo.”
“Well, somebody has to. You can’t even remember the last date you had.”
“Yes, I can,” he said. “It was with Janice two nights before we got married. She’s the only woman I ever loved, and now she’s trying to take my son away from me. I’m not looking for another woman, Angelo. All I want is my son.”
There was no doubting his sincerity, and Angelo ached for him. Life hadn’t been easy for him over the last two years. But locking himself up in his home whenever he wasn’t at work was not the way to deal with the problem. “I understand that, and you’re going to get him. But don’t judge all women by Janice, Tony. From the first moment I met her, I thought she was all wrong for you. She was cold and self-centered and interested only in her career. From what I’ve seen of Lily, she’s the exact opposite.”
“I agree,” he said. “I would never describe her as cold…or self-centered, for that matter. I like her! But I don’t think anything is more important to her right now than her photography. She waited a long time to follow her dreams, and I get the feeling she’s not going to let anyone get in her way. Who does that remind you of?”
Angelo scowled. “Will you stop, already? She’s not Janice. She’s not driven the way Janice is. Of course she wants to succeed with her photography. There’s nothing wrong with that. But if she had a son, I’ll bet she wouldn’t sacrifice his happiness for her own. She’s not wired that way.”
Tony had to agree. “She’s great with Quentin, and he li
kes her. Just don’t get any ideas about the two of us getting together, because it’s not going to happen. Okay? Maybe if she’d come along before I met Janice, something could have come of it, but not now. We’ve both got too much going on in our lives to even think about getting involved with anyone right now. The timing’s all wrong.”
He half expected Angelo to tell him what he could do with that argument, but he only shrugged. “You would know that better than I. It’s your life. I just want you to be happy.”
“I’ll be happy when I have custody of my son. Nothing else matters but that.”
Angelo couldn’t argue with that. He knew how much Tony loved his son Quentin and wanted him with him. Right now, nothing else was more important than that. That didn’t, however, change Angelo’s opinion of Lily. She was just what Tony needed.
Don’t judge all women by Janice.
Long after he’d told Angelo good-night and gone upstairs to bed, his uncle’s words echoed in his head. And all he could think of was Lily. She smiled at him in his dreams, teased him, touched him, kissed him until he groaned with the pleasure of it. Somewhere in his head, a voice reminded him that this was just a dream…a very hot, vivid, seductive dream…but it didn’t matter. He wanted her. In his sleep, he reached for her, and suddenly the dream shifted, and instead of kissing him as if she couldn’t get enough of him, Lily was walking toward him…in a wedding dress. And he couldn’t wait to say I do.
“What the…!” Abruptly coming awake, Tony bolted up in bed, his heart pounding. He was losing his mind. And it was all Angelo’s fault, he thought with a scowl as he punched his pillow into a more comfortable position. If his uncle hadn’t kept singing Lily’s praises and teasing him about their date, he might have been able to fall asleep without dreaming of her.
Had he really dreamed about marry
No, he told himself firmly. Even if he had, it didn’t mean anything. He wasn’t getting married again. He wasn’t even going to fall in love again. He’d had his heart ripped out once, and he wasn’t about to give another woman a chance to do it to him a second time. If he was attracted to Lily, if he couldn’t stop thinking about her, it was only because he was physically attracted to her. It was just chemistry. The kiss they’d shared had proved that. His emotions weren’t even involved.
So why do you keep thinking about how she felt in your arms?
Swearing, he tried to push the memory away, but he might as well have told himself not to breathe. The second he laid back down and closed his eyes, he could feel her in his arms, taste her on his tongue. And then there was her perfume. It wasn’t anything heavy or cloying, just a subtle, seductive scent that lingered in his mind, teasing his senses, constantly reminding him of her. With no effort whatsoever, he could imagine himself touching her, caressing her, spending what was left of the night slowly driving her out of her mind with pleasure.
Instead, he was the one who was going out of his mind. He didn’t sleep at all.
Thankfully, he didn’t have to report to work the following morning—it was his day off at the police department—but he was scheduled to work for his uncle the entire day. Groaning just at the thought, he drank what seemed like a gallon of coffee, then took a cold shower to wake himself up and clear his head. Unfortunately, nothing helped much. Resigned, he headed downstairs and hoped Angelo didn’t notice that his eyes were bloodshot and he looked as if he’d pulled an all-nighter. Knowing Angelo, he’d figure out that thoughts of Lily had kept him awake and he’d never hear the end of it.
He needn’t have worried. Angelo had a meeting with his accountant, then a major problem with one of his suppliers. He was on the phone for what seemed like hours, and by the time he emerged from his office, the morning was half gone. Already behind schedule and the day had hardly started, he didn’t have much time to talk.
Relieved, Tony helped in the kitchen and was busy making meatballs for his uncle’s famous Italian wedding soup, when Lily walked in with her camera slung around her neck. Dressed in jeans and a T-shirt, with her hair pulled back in a ponytail that swung with every step she took, she looked cute and perky and far more rested than he. And he couldn’t take his eyes off her.
Irritated, he frowned. “What are you doing here? I thought you’d be working.” Then he had another thought. “You haven’t gotten any more threatening phone calls, have you?”
“Oh, no. I’m fine,” she assured him. “Didn’t Angelo tell you he’d hired me to do a mural for him? I need to take some candid pictures of the staff and customers, then take some measurements of where Angelo wants the mural to go. I’ll probably been in and out all day.”
Great, Tony thought with a groan that he quickly swallowed. Now he didn’t just have to dream about her, he had to work around her all day. Frustrated, he tried to convince himself it wouldn’t be that bad. She had her own work to do, and once the lunch crowd arrived, he’d be too busy to even notice her.
And ducks ate lasagna, he thought in disgust hours later. She didn’t come near him, but every time he looked up from what he was doing, there she was, right in his line of vision. And then there was that damn haunting scent of hers. It wafted through the restaurant, drifting under his nose when he least expected it, reminding his senses that she was near. As if he could forget it!
To make matters worse, he had to wait on her at lunch. If she’d just been in a bad mood, he wouldn’t have had a problem with it. He could have been all business, taken her order, then brought her her food without a single personal word exchanged between the them. But how was he supposed to keep his distance and just do his job when she was so damn friendly? She only had to smile at him to make him want her.
He had to be losing his mind.
The day only went downhill from there. When Quentin came in from school, he saw Lily step into the kitchen with her camera to photograph Angelo as he started doing some of the prep work for dinner, and he immediately headed straight for her. “Whoa, boy,” Tony said, stepping in his path. “Where do you think you’re going?”
“To talk to Lily,” he said, surprised.
“Lily’s working. She doesn’t have time to talk right now.”
“But I have to interview her for a project for school,” he insisted. “Mrs. Carl, my English teacher, wants us to talk to someone with an unusual job for career week. Nobody else knows a photographer, Dad. Lily’s cool!”
No one knew that better than Tony. She was cool, all right, but it had nothing to do with her job. It was her smile and the light in her eye when she saw through his flirting and called him on it. Her skin was as soft as an angel’s, and when she was scared, she’d clung to him as if she would never let him go. How could he resist a woman like that?
He didn’t have an answer for that, but he had to find a way to keep his distance, and Quentin did, too. “I know she’s cool, but she also has to work. Don’t get in her way.”
“But she told me I could ask for help whenever I needed it. If she couldn’t help me right then, she would later. I’m going to go talk to her.” And before Tony could stop him, Quentin took a quick step around him and made a beeline for the kitchen.
Swearing under his breath, Tony had no choice but to follow him. Hurrying across the dining room after him, he pushed through the swinging door of the kitchen just as Quentin asked Lily if she could help him with his homework. “I’m sorry he’s bothering you,” he told her, shooting his son a disapproving scowl. “I told him you were working, but he insisted he needed you to help him with some homework.”
Far from bothered, she only laughed. “He’s not bothering me. I was just about to take a break. Anyway, I told him I’d be happy to help him whenever he needed help if I was home. I’ve got some chocolate cake upstairs. Why don’t we go up to my apartment and have a snack, then work on your homework?” she told Quentin. “It’ll be quieter there and you’ll be able to concentrate better.”
“Can I, Dad?” he asked eagerly. “Then you won’t have to help me when you finish your s
hift. Maybe we can go to the park later or
“Brat,” Tony said, ruffling his hair. Bringing his gaze back to Lily, he said, “Ever since I told him I needed to find a way to change my schedule so we could spend more time together, he’s been using that to his advantage. Are you sure you don’t mind? I can help him with his math later, but he needs to interview you for an English project, if that’s okay.”
“I never turn down a chance for free publicity,” she said with a grin. “Of course I’ll help him.”
“Send him back downstairs if he starts to bother you,” he replied. “Angelo always needs someone to bus tables.”
“Dad!”
“I don’t think you’ll have any trouble with him,” he told Lily wryly. “He hates busing tables.”
“I can’t say I blame him,” she retorted. “I don’t know about you, Quentin, but that chocolate cake’s starting to sound better and better. I think we should get out of here while the getting’s good.”
She didn’t have to tell him twice. Grabbing his backpack, he headed for the kitchen door that opened onto the apartment stairwell. “Bye, Dad. See you later.”
When the door swung shut behind them, Tony knew he should have been relieved—at least he no longer had to worry about seeing Lily every time he turned around. But as he returned to work, he found himself looking for her, anyway. That’s when he knew he was in trouble.
Chapter 9
At five-thirty the band Angelo had hired to play in the evenings started to play a medley of Dean Martin songs, and by six, nearly every table in the restaurant was taken. Pleased, Tony reminded himself that he would have to thank Lily for keeping Quentin distracted for so long. Quentin had always been good about grabbing a seat at one of the tables and working on his homework whenever Tony had to help out Angelo in the restaurant, but that all changed when Janice announced she was moving to Florida and taking Quentin with her. Since then, Quentin had had a difficult time sitting still for very long, and Tony couldn’t blame him. His mother was turning his world upside down for a damn job. That had to hurt.