Sensual Stranger

by Tina Donahue

  An unbelievably beautiful woman.

  This morning, her hair stuck out in all the wrong places. She wasn’t wearing makeup. Faint maroon circles darkened the skin beneath her eyes. On a good day, well-rested and made up, she wasn’t beautiful. Today, she looked drab, plain, completely unattractive.

  Chewing the side of her thumb, Toni wondered if Zach saw something she didn’t because he did have feelings for her. Or if he’d eventually consider her ordinary, not appealing, once the newness of their sexual encounters wore off.

  Her mind raced with uncertainty, her stomach twisting with too many negative thoughts.

  Back in the bay, the metal doors had just finished their upward journey when Robbie and Angel shuffled inside, looking wilted. Even Robbie’s usually stiff hair sagged.

  “Bad night?” she asked, noting the smell of stale beer on them.

  Heading for the john, Robbie muttered, “Drank too much after we dropped you off.”

  Angel folded his burly arms over the metal tool cabinet and lowered his head to them. “I should know better. I got a kid.”

  Toni opened her mouth, closing it promptly before she commented that having a child didn’t necessarily make for a good parent. At least Angel was trying, just as her father always had. Like him, Angel was a good man. She squeezed his beefy shoulder. “You always make certain to take care of your son, see to his future, that’s what counts.”

  “I’d die for him.”

  Nodding, she brought back her hand and rocked on her heels. “Can I talk to you about something?”

  He winced as the sun streamed over the hills and buildings to skim his face. Turning it away, he asked, “Is Robbie out of the john yet? I really gotta use it.”

  Toni looked at the closed door. “Want me to ask him to hurry?”

  “He won’t.” Angel hauled in a deep breath and spoke on a pained sigh. “What did you want to talk about?”

  Certification. Him helping her to get it. Having him put in a good word to Zach about her staying here.

  The door to the john popped open. Water streamed down Robbie’s face and throat, dampening the front of his overalls.

  “Is he out?” Angel asked.

  “Yeah.”

  Moaning, he hurried past her.

  Zach approached the bank where he had a business account, driving by it without a glance. Yesterday’s receipts were still locked in his desk, forgotten until he’d lied to Toni about wanting to deposit them this morning.

  The auto parts store he’d claimed to be heading for was a block past the bank. He drove by it too.

  Last night, while he’d held Toni in bed, he’d troubled over how to ask her to stay, to tell her the truth about what he knew. No way could he keep the trust fund a secret. She had a shot at a real future now. She could go to any college she wanted, get a business degree or study whatever field she liked.

  She could also give all the money to Belle and Lucky, then continue to work even if it meant returning to the circuit.

  Bile rose to Zach’s throat at the thought of Toni doing that out of a sense of loyalty to the Starrs. Even if she didn’t want to stay with him, she deserved so much more than the uncertain existence her mother and Bauchmann had forced her into.

  He drove past the town limits, entering unincorporated county. An isolated landscape of dry washes and hard brown earth Toni had hiked through to get to his shop that first day, arriving tired, hot, thirsty. And why not? Outside of those areas bordering the washes, only a few cottonwoods and manzanitas dotted the arid stream beds, providing little shade.

  Zach recalled how dust had clung to her biker boots and leather jeans. He remembered the gratitude in her eyes when he’d given her his bottle of water. At the time, he’d had no idea how very alone she was. He did now. Swallowing quickly, pushing sorrow back, he concentrated on his plan to let her know about the trust her father had set up, to ask her to stay, while also giving her the chance to leave. If that’s what she wanted.

  Steeling himself against the uncertain future that awaited, he made a right onto another county road and headed for the sheriff’s department.

  Four cups of coffee and two Tylenol had Angel functioning enough to regain his sweet, giving nature. Bent over the engine of a Lexus, checking its fluids, he called over to Toni, “What did you want to talk about before?”

  She looked up from the work order for a new radiator and went over to him. “What you mentioned last night at the pizza place. Certification. Helping me.”

  He gave her a limp, hung-over smile. “We’ll start right away if you want. How’s tonight sound?”

  Toni shook her head. After work, she wanted to talk to Zach, get confirmation that he’d let her stay at the garage. She’d sweeten the deal by telling him she was going for her certification and looking for an apartment so as not to crowd him. “Tomorrow night would be better.”

  Angel nodded. Robbie joined them, looking a bit less pasty than he had an hour ago. “I’ll help too. I got one of the best scores ever.”

  “Not better than mine,” Angel countered. His eyes flicked to Toni. “Passed it on my first try. A piece of cake.”

  Robbie snorted. “Yeah, right. You threw up before taking it.”

  “I had the flu.”

  “Whatever.”

  Toni cut in. “I’d be grateful to have both of you help me.” If Zach had any doubts about keeping her on, she hoped Angel and Robbie would be able to convince him otherwise.

  “Hey!” a gravelly male voice called out, his tone pissed. “Is anyone in the office?”

  Toni looked over, seeing an elderly man dressed in a knit golf shirt and navy Bermuda shorts that accentuated his skinny legs.

  “Morning.” She smiled. He did not. Toni got as serious as him. “We’ll be with you in a sec, sir.” Swinging her head to Angel, she whispered, “Want me to take this?”

  “You better,” Robbie said, his voice low. “I can still smell booze on his breath.”

  “No different than yours,” Angel shot back.

  “Tell you what, I’ll take this,” Toni said to them both, then spoke to Angel. “If I need help, I’ll just ask.”

  She gestured the customer into Zach’s office. “What can we do for you?”

  “My air-conditioning’s doing the same thing it did before. I expect you to fix it right this time.” He pulled the ignition key from a metal ring and dropped it on the desk. “Name’s Yacobi. You have me in the system.” He gestured to Zach’s computer.

  Toni glanced at it. She’d set up a similar system for Belle and Lucky’s new shop. It should be an easy matter to figure out where Zach kept the accounts. Surely, there was an icon for Excel or accounting software on the desktop.

  In an easy voice, she said, “Let’s get you taken care of.” Sinking into Zach’s chair, she realized suddenly how horny and distracted he’d been last night, forgetting to shut off his computer. The Windows logo flashed on a black screen. Moving the mouse so the desktop would come up, Toni stared at the page prompt requiring her to log in.

  “Excuse me for just a sec.” She gave the customer another smile and hurried into the bay area, heading toward Angel. Voice lowered, she asked, “What’s Zach’s password to unlock his computer?”

  “Meg forever. All one word.”

  Toni nodded even as her heart sank at the reminder of what Zach truly wanted, the life and woman he’d never have again.

  Shaking off sadness, she returned to the office and rounded the desk. “Sorry for the delay, Mr. Yacobi. I’ll have your account information in a minute.” She logged in. The desktop came up, along with several bars at the bottom of the screen.

  Yacobi muttered something beneath his breath.

  In a hurry, not wanting to piss him off further, she clicked on the first bar without really looking at it. What appeared to be a report jumped on the screen. She caught the word “Seattle” and the name of a neighborhood she knew, before glancing at the other bars.

  “Did you find my acco
unt?” Yacobi asked.

  Toni’s eyes jerked to his, but she couldn’t answer. The neighborhood’s name kept playing in her mind. What was it doing in that report? Why would Zach have it on his computer? Confused, she returned to the document and began reading.

  Blood rushed to her throat and face, its heat biting her skin. Disbelief, then dread turned Toni’s stomach as she stared at her name…her real surname. Feeling ill, she scrolled up, reading the title of the report, its date, the person who’d requested it.

  Why had Zach done this? What had he hoped to find? That she wasn’t a thief?

  With too much clarity, Toni recalled how he’d insisted on waiting for her last night, not wanting her to sleep on the sofa in here. Because she’d have access to the shop’s invoices or clients’ credit card numbers? And when she’d offered to take the receipts to the bank this morning, he’d refused. Did he think she’d run off with them?

  Yacobi let out an exasperated sigh. “What are you doing?”

  As too many others had done to her, Toni lied easily. “Searching for your account.” She hit the page down key, staring at pictures from her life in Seattle, memories she’d held onto years ago when there’d been little else.

  One of the investigator’s statements caught her eye. We have concluded that she made no effort to locate her daughter.

  The comment’s bluntness, its brutality hit harder than Toni would have expected, bringing tears to her eyes. Scrolling farther, she saw a newspaper photo of her mother, a woman she resembled closely, a parent she still longed for.

  One who hadn’t taken a moment to look for her.

  Shaken, Toni forced down a swallow. In the photo, Joe stood next to her mother, his grin wide, his soul untroubled. He’d just won a local election. The hero police officer was now a well-respected politician.

  Too quickly, his remembered voice filled her mind.

  No one will believe you. You’re just a stupid kid. I’m a decorated cop.

  Frustration and rage stole Toni’s breath. She imagined Zach calling Joe, with the man claiming she’d run from home for no good reason. How she’d been trouble from the start. How he’d tried to help her, but she wouldn’t listen. She wouldn’t do as he’d asked.

  “Hey,” Yacobi said, his voice sounding confused. “You okay?”

  She blinked back tears, refusing to cry. Never again would Joe Bauchmann make her cry. Nor would Zach. What she’d hoped was his growing affection for her last night, his insatiable need to have her close, proved to be nothing more than his acceptance of what she was, what Joe had probably told him. That she didn’t deserve respect.

  “Hey,” Yacobi said again.

  “I’m fine,” she answered, her voice sounding dead. She pushed away from the desk. “I can’t find your account. I’ll have to ask Angel to look for it.”

  Rounding the desk, she started for the door, then changed direction and went to the board that held customer keys. Selecting the ones for the Lincoln, where Zach had taken her repeatedly last night, she went into the garage area and spoke to Angel.

  “I can’t get into the accounts. You’ll have to help Yacobi.”

  “Where you going?” Robbie asked.

  Toni slung her saddlebag into the front seat of the Lincoln. “I’m taking it for a test drive.”

  “You’re through with it already?” Angel asked.

  She continued to lie. “Yep.” Slamming the door, she started the motor and pulled out of the garage, driving away quickly, the first move back to her old life.

  One she should have never left.

  Back from his errand, Zach entered his office and nodded to Angel who sat behind his desk.

  The younger man pushed out of the chair. “Yacobi came back. He claims there’s still trouble with the air-conditioning. We’re gonna take a look at it.”

  “Good.” Sidestepping Angel, Zach went behind his desk and sat. “Everything go okay while I was gone?”

  “Only Yacobi came in.”

  He nodded, closing the man’s account on the screen. In its place, Anunciata’s report jumped up.

  “Toni tried to help him,” Angel said, “but she couldn’t find his account on your computer.”

  The skin on the back of Zach’s neck crawled, his flesh growing cold as blood drained from his face. Eyes darting to Angel, he asked, “Toni was on my computer this morning?”

  “Yeah. I gave her the password to log in.” An odd look swept across his features. “That was all right, wasn’t it?”

  Zach tried to swallow, but could not. His thoughts raced. Had he turned off his computer last night or had he stupidly left it on with the report still opened? He couldn’t recall.

  Had Toni seen the damn thing? Or had Angel brought it up?

  “Did you have trouble finding Yacobi’s account?” Zach asked.

  Angel shook his head. “Not at all. Why?”

  “I had some personal papers on the computer, and—”

  “Oh hey, I didn’t read nothing but the account.” Angel held up his hands. “After Toni left, I saw she had some kind of document on the screen, but I didn’t read—”

  “What’s she doing?” Zach stood so quickly pain shot up his leg. It echoed in his voice, “Where is she?”

  Angel rubbed the top of his shaved head. He looked worried. “She took the Lincoln for a test drive.”

  “How long ago?”

  “I don’t know. Maybe ten minutes or— Hey,” he called out as Zach hurried from the office. “What’s wrong?”

  Chapter Fifteen

  Zach slammed the heel of his hand against his pickup’s steering wheel. “You fucking idiot.” How could he have been so stupid and careless? Jaw clenched, he drove as fast as he dared to his house, figuring that’s where Toni had headed.

  I’m not a thief, she’d said.

  After seeing Anunciata’s report, she’d probably figured he hadn’t believed her and that’s why he’d hired an investigator. Once she grabbed her things from the guest bedroom, he suspected she’d head to the main road and hitch a ride to god-knows-where. She didn’t even have her damn cycle. She might disappear into one of the thousands of small towns in this country. He might never see her again.

  “Fuck.” Eyes sweeping the road, Zach searched for her standing on the shoulder, thumb out, her stance all sass because she had nothing else.

  His chest collapsed with a sigh when he didn’t see her. His shoulders began to relax, until he considered someone might have already picked her up.

  Too fast, he took the turn leading to his place. His Ram fishtailed. What he’d picked up for her earlier bounced in the vehicle’s bed.

  Fighting for a full breath, Zach stared at the Lincoln parked near the front porch. He prayed she was still inside the house.

  Teeth gritted against his protesting muscles, he took the stairs two at a time, hurrying down the hall, stopping at her door.

  His chest ached at what he saw.

  She’d changed into her black tank top and leather pants, her overalls tossed to the side on the bedroom floor. Profile to him, tears dripped from her chin as she stuffed her things, so few and meager, into the saddlebag.

  Zach’s heart tore a little more. He stepped closer, the floor groaning beneath his weight.

  She didn’t look up. The tremor in her voice, her words said it all. “I wasn’t planning to steal the Lincoln.” Clearing her throat, she continued, her voice still gravelly. “The keys are on the dressing table, along with cash for the gas I used. I’m not a thief.”

  “Toni.”

  She went to the dressing table, grabbing the keys and crumpled bills. Bringing them to him, she avoided his gaze. “Here. Take it.”

  “I didn’t think you’d stolen the car.”

  Inhaling deeply, she insisted, “Just take it.”

  “No.”

  Returning to the bed, she dropped the cash and keys on the mattress. “I’ll be out of here in a sec.”

  Zach’s heart beat out of control. His throat
ached from unbearable sorrow, making his voice rough. “You don’t have to go. Please, listen to me. I’ve never had any doubt about your honesty. Never. I only hired an investigator because I wanted to know about you, where you came from, your people, why you ended up without anyone except the Starrs. You wouldn’t tell me anything about yourself.”

  She stuffed another tank top into the saddlebag. Breathing hard, tears slipping down her face, she spoke in a halting voice, “Maybe that’s because I didn’t want you to know.”

  “I understand that…at least I do now.”

  Her shoulders sagged. Her voice sounded so small. “Because you talked to Joe? Because he told you about me?”

  “Toni.” Zach edged closer, wanting to touch her, afraid to try. “I didn’t speak to him.”

  Her head jerked up, a look of surprise on her face. Her eyes touched his for a second before she glanced away.

  “Even if I had,” Zach murmured, “I wouldn’t have believed anything he said.”

  The tank top she held slipped from her fingers. Her shoulders shook with a quiet sob.

  Zach went to her. Just as quickly, Toni backed away from his touch. “Don’t.” Her voice shook with sadness. “No matter what the investigator found out or what Joe would have said, you have no idea who I am.”

  Bringing back his hands, Zach spoke in his gentlest voice. “I knew enough even before I got the report. You’re a remarkable woman. One of the finest I’ve ever known.”

  Toni’s chest heaved with her ragged breaths. She shook her head, clearly not believing him.

  Zach spoke quickly, trying to reason, desperate to make her understand. “I was worried about you not having any money or anyone to help. Weeks ago I’d gone online and found pictures of you with Belle and Lucky. Given the dates on the pictures, I knew you were still a kid when you hooked up with them after you ran away from home, and—”

  She interrupted in a cry. “I didn’t run away, Zach. I wanted to stay more than anything. But my mother told me I had to leave. She had a choice between Joe and me. She chose him.”