Fatal Intimacies (Romantic Suspense)

by Ali, Isabelle

  “Good night, ma’am.”

  She shut the door and locked it. Then went to the balcony and looked down on the hotel’s pool. Scanning the courtyard, she only saw a few employees and some people in the hot tub. She locked the balcony door, too.

  Though she’d already had a shower, she felt like she needed another one. Without digging too deep into why, she just succumb and took a shower and changed into her robe. She had taken the gun out of the purse and had it on the sink while she showered. Afterward, when she was watching television in bed, she had it on the nightstand next to her.

  It was too difficult to focus on anything that was on. But she had been raised in that generation when the television was always on in the house, even if no one was watching it. The noise soothed her. But she turned it down as she called home to speak to the kids. No one answered the line and she left a voicemail. She did happen to know that the family didn’t like answering their phone after 8 p.m., as that’s when they began putting all the children to bed.

  After a few minutes, Jessica went to the mini-fridge and took out a Diet Coke along with a small bottle of Jack Daniels. She mixed the whiskey and Coke together and then sat on the bed and drank it down.

  After another one of those, she turned out the lights and lay in bed. Knowing sleep was going to be tough.

  Within an hour, Jessica knew she wouldn’t be sleeping at all. The image of the photograph kept breaking into her thoughts. She tried to remember her sister’s face the way it was at a happy time. Around Christmas before her sister rebelled, or on a double date in high school. But those thoughts were always shattered by the one of the innocent eyes looking up at a monster’s camera.

  So instead of sleep, she read on her iPhone. She read so much that her eyes hurt and she nearly finished an entire novel. Finally, she placed her phone down and decided to see if the officer was still really there.

  Crossing the room, she debated grabbing her gun, but thought that was paranoid, so she left it on the stand. She looked out the peephole… and didn’t see anyone. The chair the officer had been sitting on was empty.

  Jessica backed away from the door, her pulse pounding in her ears like a jackhammer. She looked to the gun and stared at it in frozen silence a moment before going over and picking it up. She held it in front of her.

  When nothing happened, she felt silly. He’d probably just gone to the bathroom or to get something to eat. She walked back to the door and peeked outside. The chair was still empty.

  She placed her fingers on the knob and pulled it open.

  The hallway was empty on both sides. The iPad the officer had been reading was gone, too. As she was about to close the door, she heard the elevator ding. Her heart jumped. Instinctively, she went to shut the door, but stopped herself. She wasn’t the type of woman to cower. She would die before cowering from this man.

  She kept her eyes down the hallway and saw a man step around the corner.

  Garcia was rubbing the bridge of his nose with his thumb and forefinger. He didn’t notice her as his eyes were closed a moment. But when he opened them and saw her, he grinned. And she wasn’t entirely sure he had meant to show her that little gesture.

  “What’re you doing up?” he said.

  “What’re you doing here?”

  “We’re taking shifts.”

  “When you said that, I thought you meant just the uniformed officers.”

  “They have families to get home to.” He sat in the chair and leaned back. “I don’t.”

  She was silent a long time as the two exchanged stares. “You don’t need to stay here. I’m not helpless.”

  “No, helpless is definitely not a word I would use to describe you. But we all need help sometimes. Besides, this is my case. If there’s a chance I can catch the son of a bitch just by sitting out here, I’m going to take it.”

  His eyes went down to the gun and she felt silly having it to check the door. “Well, good night then.”

  He didn’t move, his eyes locked onto hers. “Good night.”

  She shut the door, and leaned against it. Glancing out the peephole, she saw him lean his head back against the wall and stare at the ceiling. This was ridiculous. The chair was uncomfortable and he had nothing to do out there.

  She hesitated a moment. If she opened that door, something might happen that they could regret. Something that neither one of them was prepared for. But if she didn’t open it… well, she wasn’t sure what that would do. It seemed every choice in life was just one unknown paired against another.

  She opened the door and their eyes went to each other again. “Do you need anything?” she said.

  “No, I’ll be fine.”

  “You don’t even have anything to read out here.”

  “I used to do stakeouts when I was with the narcotics unit a few years back. I’m used to the boredom.”

  She swallowed. “Well at least come inside.”

  He didn’t move or say anything. “I don’t… I don’t think I should.”

  Silence a moment. “Well, if you need anything, just ask.”

  She turned around and attempted to close the door but found it didn’t close all the way. Jessica turned to see Garcia standing behind her. He held the door open with one hand. She let him inside, their eyes never leaving each other. She backed in and the door shut behind him. They didn’t say anything. They just stood in silence, as though the moment were frozen in time. The room was dark but not pitch black. Light came through from underneath the curtains. A dull blue from the pool outside.

  With one movement, he was against her. She felt the warmth of his body, the muscles that bulged underneath his clothes as he pressed her against him. His lips touched hers. Her heart was pounding against his chest as his hands came up to either side of her face and gently lifted her so she was looking at him.

  She shoved him away. They stood watching each other again. He closed the distance between them, his arm wrapped tightly around her waist as their lips pressed together.

  She tasted him, took in his scent, and knew this was right. It was impossible for something to feel like this and be wrong.

  Here, in the semi-dark with the blue light, his eyes looked like green crystals. Emeralds that glowed in the night. He kissed her again and her robe slowly slipped off her shoulders and fell to the floor. The gun dropping with it as he thrust her onto the bed.

  16

  The morning light was harsh. Jessica could see it through the curtains and the edge of the windows. She had slept the entire night. No nightmares, no images.

  Garcia sat on the edge of the bed shirtless. He was staring down at something. She reached up and ran her fingers along his back until she realized what he was looking at: his engagement ring.

  Jessica had been engaged once before. A man she had met in college. He was a mechanic who had sworn up and down to her that he was studying to become a doctor. Dallas. He was sensitive to the point that he had to leave a restaurant once when a waiter, a friend of both of theirs, made a joke about his hair. He also had a temper. Though he’d never struck her—something that Jessica would not have tolerated for a second—he did scream at his own mother constantly. To the point that Jessica would feel uncomfortable and have to tell him he needed to stop or she would leave.

  Within a few months of their engagement, she had decided to pop into one of his classes. She thought it’d be sweet and perk up his day if she came and sat next to him. She went to the University of Texas campus in Austin. He had told her he had a calculus class every morning. She went to the math building. There was a calculus class at that time, but he wasn’t there. She texted him, asking if he was in class and he replied that he was.

  Jessica quickly checked the other classrooms. It was possible the class was held somewhere else, but she had gone to UT and knew they kept their mathematics classes in the math building. She went to the registrar and explained that she was Dallas Mitchell’s fiancée and just needed to know what class he was in.

&nb
sp; She would never forget the shock and humiliation when the registrar told her that no Dallas Mitchell was registered at the school. Jessica thought it was some mistake and had her check again, but the search came back negative.

  When she confronted Dallas about it that night, he at first denied it. Then admitted, in tears, that he wasn’t registered in college. He wasn’t working to become a doctor and had no plans to be one.

  It wasn’t that he didn’t want to become a doctor. At that point, Jessica was nearly at a 4.0, and was destined to get into the law school of her choice. She wasn’t worried about money or status. It was the fact that someone she thought she loved could lie to her every single day they knew each other and not have the decency to come forward. To not even feel bad about it. She immediately broke off the engagement and had never seen him again.

  But, as she watched Garcia twist the ring on his finger, she knew what he felt. The ring was the future. It meant something that was hard to put into words.

  “You okay?” she finally said.

  He didn’t answer for a moment and then said, “You know, my parents were married forty-two years. Forty-two. And not once did my dad ever have a wandering eye. My mom was his entire world. I thought I would have that. That I would marry Miriam and we would be together forty-two years. That we would have children and grow old together.” He looked to her. “I forget all that when I look at you.”

  Neither of them spoke. They held each other’s eyes until he rose and dressed. He watched her as he pulled out his keys and said, “An officer will be here all day.”

  And then, he left.

  Garcia let the door close behind him. He closed his eyes and leaned his head back against it. Nothing in the world sounded as good as getting back into that room and into bed with her. Last night had been something he would never forget. Every part of him felt drained and relaxed. Even his mind was clearer, more focused. He had never known anything like it. He didn’t even think it was possible.

  “Get some ass, Detective?”

  He opened his eyes and saw the uniformed officer walking down the hall toward him, a cup of coffee in his hand.

  “Excuse me? What the hell did you say?”

  The officer, a younger guy with a smooth, hairless, face said, “N—nothing, Detective.”

  Garcia nodded, taking a step closer to the man. “You stay with her. She leaves, you better be right behind her. Understood?”

  “Sure. Yeah, no prob.”

  Garcia glared at him a moment longer before leaving.

  When he was outside, he let the sunlight wash over him. Seattle had over two hundred and fifty days of either rain or gray skies. When the sunshine came, it had to be savored. He thought about calling in sick and taking… taking Miriam somewhere. But he knew, deep in his belly, that wasn’t the person he wanted to take. He glanced back to the hotel, and then got into his Mercedes.

  The day grinded away slowly. Garcia couldn’t concentrate. He’d speak with people on the phone and then hang up and not remember a single word of what was said. He filled out the same intake sheet twice on the same case. And to top it off, he spilled bottled water over his suit.

  “You alright?”

  Mark Curtis stood behind him. Garcia grabbed some tissues from a box and dabbed at his pants.

  “Fine.”

  “I just wanted to follow up on the Barlow thing. I feel terrible about it.”

  “I told you, there’s nothing you could have done.”

  “If anything happens to the sister because I screwed up—”

  “I’m not gonna let that happen.”

  Mark nodded and leaned back against the desk. Garcia noticed his bright red Nikes. New Air Jordans, the shoes that Mark always preferred to wear.

  “So nothing so far, huh?” Mark said.

  Garcia threw the wad of tissues away and leaned back in his chair. “Photo’s being run through the lab right now. So far, they think it was taken on a cell phone and printed somewhere else. Latent didn’t get a hit on any prints. So I’m hoping the paper it was printed on can tell us something.”

  “Tough case, brother. Glad it’s not mine.”

  “That’s helpful, Mark. Thank you.”

  “Just sayin’. Homicide doesn’t always live up to the glamour you think it has.”

  He nodded, straightening up a few things on his desk. “No, it certainly doesn’t.”

  “Well, if you need anything else, let me know.”

  When he was alone again, Garcia rubbed his face. He felt tired, though he’d slept a solid eight hours. A stack of files was on his desk, cases that needed follow up, but the last thing he wanted to do was go through them right now. Make calls to grieving family members asking them minute details about their lost loved ones. The wound was too fresh. And they would usually respond by breaking down on the phone, or aggression toward him.

  But, this was his job. And some poor widow needed the closure he brought her. He picked up the first file, and then his phone.

  17

  By the evening, Garcia had spent nearly six hours on the phone. Eventually, he had to switch to speakerphone because his ear throbbed.

  When night had fallen, he grabbed his jacket off the back of his chair, and headed out. He’d picked up his phone at least three times to call her. But each time, he put the phone back down. Instead, he texted the two officers that were taking shifts watching her hotel room and made sure that everything was going well.

  Garcia got into his car and drove. He wasn’t certain where he was going at first, and then he sped around downtown and got onto the interstate. He headed to Miriam’s house, though he hadn’t called or texted ahead of time. The likelihood was she wasn’t even home, but he had to go over. He had to see her and confirm… something. The fact was, he didn’t know what the hell he was doing right now.

  Miriam’s home was well lit and the front door was open. He parked out front and walked in. He could hear laughter from the kitchen. Several of her friends were gathered around as Miriam’s part time chef whipped something up for them.

  “Thomas,” she said, excited. She ran over and kissed his cheek. He could smell the wine on her breath and saw the two empty bottles on the counter. “We’re celebrating. Charity’s getting married.”

  “That’s great,” he said, looking to Charity. “Congratulations.”

  “Thanks, Thomas.”

  Miriam said, “So what are you doing here?”

  “I just wanted to come see you. Can we talk?”

  “Sure. Hold on.” She ran back and grabbed a half empty glass of wine. “Okay.”

  They walked through the home and took the winding staircase to the second floor. A balcony was there with French doors and Garcia opened them, a cool wind filling the room. He stepped outside. Many of the clouds had cleared and the moon was a bright slit in the blackened sky.

  “What’d you want to talk about, hon?” she said.

  He hesitated. He looked to her, feeling the smooth metal of his engagement ring. A promise. A promise he had made knowing what it meant. “I want to set a date.”

  “A date?”

  “Our wedding, Miriam. Let’s do the end of August.”

  “Oh, that’s so sweet. Well, I’ll talk to my daddy and we’ll see.”

  “Forget August. Let’s go now. Let’s just drive to Vegas and get married. We can deal with everything else later.”

  She sipped her wine. “Don’t be ridiculous. This is going to be the wedding of the year. We can’t just elope like we’re two teenagers.”

  He put his hands around her waist. “It’d be adventurous. Let’s go.”

  “Thomas, what’s gotten into you? We’re not getting married in Las Vegas. How tacky is that?”

  “A beach then. Let’s go to the Caribbean and find a priest and do it in front of the ocean.”

  “No, Thomas, I have people that need to come to this.”

  He turned away from her, placing his hands on the banister. Another car drove up on the gra
vel driveway, parked, and two women got out. They stumbled inside, clearly drunk.

  “Nevermind,” he said. “You’re right. It’s a silly idea. I better get going and leave you to your friends.”

  “K, love ya,” she said, kissing him on the cheek again.

  He slipped out without having to say anything to anyone else. When he was in his car, he watched Miriam through the windows. Something was missing there. Some connection they should have had wasn’t there and he felt himself slipping away.

  There was only one place in the world he wanted to go right now, and it was the one place he knew he couldn’t. He had to stay away, no matter what. As he pulled out, his cell phone rang.

  “This is Garcia.”

  “Detective, this is Kyle. I’m over here at the hotel with the victim’s sister in—”

  “I know who you are, Kyle. What’s going on?”

  “We had a near break-in. You better get down here, Detective.”

  Garcia’s heart dropped. “I’ll be there in ten. Don’t let her out of your sight.”

  He slammed his foot down on the accelerator and his tires screeched as they hit the pavement of the road.

  Garcia slammed his brakes and stopped in front of the valet. He flashed his badge as he got out of the car and threw the boy his keys. He ran into the building as the boy was shouting for him to grab a ticket.

  The elevator was taking too long so Garcia sprinted up the stairs. He got to the hall and two uniformed officers were mulling around outside, chatting about the Mariners.

  “What the hell happened?” Garcia said. “I told you not to move from this door.”

  “We didn’t,” Kyle said. “Someone tried to break in through the balcony. She heard the noise and came out and got us. Balcony door’s all scraped up. Like someone tried to force it open.”

  Garcia went inside the room and straight to the balcony. He looked at the door. The lock had deep grooves cut into it, as though someone had tried to use a knife to open it. He searched the room for Jessica but didn’t see her.