Dugan tried to appeal to her as a mother. “Don’t you want to stay home for a bit, watch that beautiful little girl of yours grow?”
He had inadvertently hit on the wrong strategy. This whole thing was about Heather, as well as Lucinda before her. “What I want is for that beautiful little girl to be proud of her mother.”
“And she can’t be proud of you unless you’re instrumental in bringing down a drug cartel?” he asked sarcastically.
Toni merely smiled at him as she finished the last of her coffee.
Dugan shook his head. “You are really in a class all by yourself, O’Keefe.”
Toni inclined her head. “I’ll take that as a compliment.”
“I’m not sure if I intended it to be one,” he told her honestly.
He took a breath. There was no point in pursuing this matter. He had a feeling that she could probably argue this thing right into the ground without a resolution.
Dugan changed the subject. “Say, it’s almost Saturday,” he said out of the blue. “What are you doing this weekend?”
He’d caught her totally off guard. “Why?” she asked suspiciously.
“I’ve got this family get-together to go to and I thought maybe you’d like to come along.” The more he thought about it, the more convinced he was that this was the right way to go with her. “Might do you some good.”
She almost asked “why” again, but the import of his unspoken intent suddenly hit her. “Are you asking me out, Cavanaugh?”
“More like ‘in’ actually,” Dugan corrected. “I’m asking you in to a family gathering.”
“What’s the occasion?” If this was a gathering, it had to be for a reason.
He shrugged. “No occasion,” he answered. Andrew had decided he felt like having the family over and that was enough for everyone else.
No occasion. That didn’t make any sense to her. “There has to be an occasion,” Toni insisted.
Dugan laughed. “Not with my family there doesn’t.” And then, because he could see that didn’t satisfy her, he gave her a little background. “My uncle Andrew used to be the chief of police here in Aurora. He misses the charged energy that entailed,” he told her. “Having a house full of cops makes him feel like he’s still in the game, so to speak.”
Toni pressed her lips together, shaking her head. “Well, I don’t understand any of it, but sure, why not?” She felt it would give her another layer to add to the article when she finally wrote it. “You sure he won’t mind my coming along?”
“Mind?” Dugan laughed again. “Hell, he’s the first one who always says the more the merrier.” Which made Dugan think of something else. “As a matter of fact, why don’t you bring Heather?”
She stared at him. “You’re pulling my leg.”
The smile that curved his mouth was nothing short of sexy and hot. Tired though she was, Toni felt herself growing decidedly warmer.
“Not that that might not be an interesting endeavor,” Dugan said, “but no, I’m not. Kids are invited, too. Uncle Andrew likes having family around.”
“You forgot one little thing—I’m not family,” she pointed out.
Strictly speaking, she was right. But there was nothing about Andrew that made the man slavishly adhere to any rules.
“No,” he agreed, “but you’re the next best thing. You’re a lady with a baby.”
“You really are serious,” she realized in surprise.
“Completely,” he answered simply.
“Okay, you’re on,” Toni said gamely. And then she looked at her watch. “But right now, I need to be getting home. It’s getting really late and poor Lucy’s been taking care of Heather for a really long time today.”
She knew that there were no hard-and-fast rules when it came to the amount of time that Lucy put in, but she felt this was taking advantage of the young woman.
“How much work can a two-month-old baby be?” Dugan asked, amused.
Toni could only shake her head. “Spoken like a man with no children,” she told him. And then she remembered something. “Oh, are you sure that someone will drive my car to my house?”
“Already done,” he assured her. “I gave Braden your address when I left with you,” he said, mentioning another officer.
Her head felt as if it was spinning. “You do think of everything, don’t you?” she marveled.
“I try,” he answered. “You ready to go?”
Rather than answer him, she slid out of the booth and stood up.
“Okay, I guess you are,” he acknowledged. “After you,” he said, gesturing for her to lead the way.
* * *
“You really don’t have to bring me right up to my door you know,” she told him. “I’m perfectly capable of reaching it by myself.”
His smile was easy. “My mother taught me to always make sure a woman got home safely.”
“I’m sure she meant that about your dates, not women you’re working a case with,” she pointed out.
The moment she said them, the words sounded rather lofty to her. She really wasn’t working this case with him, she was being swept up in the ensuing tide. But that didn’t change the fact that she really wanted to be of help.
“My mother didn’t really differentiate,” was all he said. They were at her door now. “I’ll be by to pick you and Heather up tomorrow around noon. Is that all right with you?”
“Sure, noon’s fine,” she told him. “I’ll see you then.”
Toni put her key in the lock, then hit a combination of numbers to disarm the security system. Turning to look over her shoulder, she saw that Dugan was still exactly where she’d last seen him. She’d just assumed that he would have backed away by now and gone to his vehicle.
“You’re still here,” she said.
“Just waiting for you to go inside and rearm your security system,” he told her simply.
“Are you always this thorough?” she asked.
His smile was wide and beguiling. “As a matter of fact,” he told her, “Thorough happens to be my middle name.”
She merely shook her head. That wouldn’t have been the name she would have gone for. “Persistent” was more like it.
“If you say so.” Opening the door, Toni crossed the threshold and then closed the door behind her. She hit the numbers on the keypad located by the doorjamb. Because she knew he was still standing there, she asked, “Satisfied?”
“Is it armed?” Dugan asked, his voice coming through the door.
He heard her sigh. “Yes, Cavanaugh, it’s armed.”
“Then, yes, I’m satisfied,” he told her. “Good night, O’Keefe.”
He heard her laughing on the other side of the door. “Good night, Cavanaugh.”
Dugan had parked his car at the curb right in front of her house. He walked to it now. Getting in, he started it up, then pulled away.
Knowing that she was watching him, he waved once as he drove off.
“Good night, Cavanaugh,” she repeated to herself before she let the curtain on the living room window drop back into place.
Kicking off her shoes, she went up the stairs.
* * *
“That police detective didn’t spend the night here, did he?” Lucinda asked her the following morning as she walked into the kitchen.
Because it had been late by the time Toni came home, Lucy had decided to spend the night rather than drive to her place. She was seriously considering Toni’s offer to give up her apartment and just live at her house. It would certainly save her some money, and she did like Toni’s house better than her own place.
But she didn’t want to get in the way, and if Toni was entertaining the police detective, that might complicate matters.
“No, he did not,” Toni informed her. She saw the expression on Lucy’s face and decided to be
honest with her. “Not that I wasn’t tempted to invite him in after yesterday—”
“Why? What happened yesterday?” Lucinda asked eagerly.
Toni realized her mistake. She didn’t want Lucy being worried, especially not needlessly. So she waved her own words away.
“It’s too complicated to get into before my morning coffee,” Toni told her. “Maybe even too complicated to get into after my morning coffee,” she added with a self-deprecating laugh.
It wasn’t that she hid things from Lucinda, but she didn’t want to worry the other woman, either. She wasn’t certain just how Lucy would take the news about the shoot-out that she’d found herself in the middle of last night. Toni decided that she needed to put time and distance between herself and the incident before she could honestly talk about it.
“Why would you ask me that, anyway?” Toni asked.
Having gotten herself a large mug of coffee, she sat down with it and took her first long, bracing sip, letting the hot liquid wind almost seductively through her system.
“Because I think that’s his car outside,” Lucinda answered.
About to take another sip, Toni stopped with the mug just halfway to her lips. Her eyebrows drew together.
“What? No. That’s impossible. I saw him drive away last night,” Toni told Lucy. “You’ve made a mistake.”
Lucinda shrugged, letting the living room curtain drop.
“Guess that’s just another car that looks like his. But the funny thing is, it’s been parked across the street most of the night.”
Putting the mug down on the table, Toni crossed over to the living room to look out the window. “How would you know that?”
“I got up at two to make sure that the security system was armed—I thought that maybe you forgot to do it,” Lucinda explained.
“Once,” Toni told her, holding up her index finger. “I forgot to arm it once.”
Lucy flushed. “I know, but I just wanted to be sure. You did, by the way,” she added. “Arm it, I mean,” she explained. “But I saw that car parked across the street and I thought it was rather odd. Anyway, the car’s still parked there, so I wondered if maybe you and the detective had, you know...”
“No, the detective and I didn’t ‘you know,’” Toni told her. She took another, longer look at the car that was parked across the street.
“What are you going to do?” Lucinda asked her. She glanced at the one landline in the house that Toni kept in case the cell phones went down. “You want me to call the police?”
She had to admit that calling the police was the first thought that crossed her mind, as well, mainly because of the previous night’s shooting and the rival cartel gunman who had managed to escape. Her bullet had been in his leg. For all she knew, it still might be, but even if it wasn’t, she was certain that he was the type of man who would want revenge for that.
All sorts of thoughts were crowding into her head, such as that somehow the shooter had managed to follow her home and was staking out her place, waiting for her to emerge.
Toni paused, taking a breath. She was getting carried away. In all likelihood, the car parked across from her house belonged to someone else in the area—or maybe it belonged to someone who was entertaining an overnight guest.
There were a hundred and one possible reasons that particular car had been there all night. However, that didn’t help calm her down.
“Is something wrong?” Lucinda was asking her. “You look like you’ve just gotten a little paler than before.”
“It’s the lighting,” Toni answered quickly. “These lightbulbs always make me look like I’m washed out.” She thought a moment and then made up her mind. “Lucy, I’m going to check out that car. Close the door behind me when I leave. If you see anything go wrong, anything at all,” Toni stressed, although still trying not to alarm the other young woman, “I want you to call 911 immediately.”
Lucy looked at her, growing nervous and distressed. “Wait, what do you mean, ‘go wrong?’ Toni, are you sure you don’t want me to call the police? Who’s in the car?” she asked.
“I’m not sure,” Toni answered truthfully. “Probably nobody.” Toni paused, looking out the window again. She could make out someone in the car, but not who it was. “Just do as I say, all right?”
“Why don’t you stay in the house?” Lucinda asked, catching hold of her arm. “We’ll call the police together.”
“I never liked being a sitting duck,” Toni told her. “Just do as I say, all right?” she repeated.
The next moment, she went outside, closing the door behind her.
Chapter 14
By the time Toni was halfway across the street, she could make out the features of the person who was sitting in the driver’s seat. It was Dugan. He appeared to be dozing.
Why was he out here?
Walking up to the car, she knocked on the window, managing to startle him.
Dugan’s hand was instantly on the butt of his weapon before he realized it was her. Taking his hand off his gun, he turned the engine key in order to roll down his window.
“What are you doing here?” Toni asked the second he could hear her.
Dugan rotated his shoulders, doing his best to get out the kink between his shoulder blades.
“Sleeping, apparently,” he answered ruefully.
Dugan couldn’t remember when he’d fallen asleep. The last thing he remembered was that it was a little after three thirty. The activity on the street had been nonexistent for hours by that time.
“What were you supposed to be doing here?” she asked, rephrasing her question. The last she knew, he was driving home. He had to have doubled back. “Have you been here all night?”
He answered her questions in the order received. “Guarding you and yes.”
“Guarding me?” Toni echoed, her eyes widening as she looked at him. “Why?” she asked. “Am I in some kind of danger? What have you heard?”
She looked back at the house, concerned. It was one thing to put herself in danger, but quite another to involve Lucinda. Maybe she should send the young woman home right now.
“No, you’re not in any danger,” he told her quickly. “I’m just being overly cautious—and apparently not doing too good a job at it.” He could see he wasn’t convincing her. “If you were actually in danger, I wouldn’t have fallen asleep,” he said. “I’m a better detective than that.”
Toni pressed her lips together, thinking. She could spot most people lying a mile away, but Dugan was another matter.
Giving up for the moment, she asked him, “You want to come in for some coffee—and breakfast?”
The detective didn’t answer her immediately. Instead, he had an expression on his face that she couldn’t quite read.
Instantly on edge, she asked him, “What’s the matter?”
That was when she saw the glimmer in his eyes. “I’m trying to decide whether to be noble and turn you down, or be honest and say yes.”
“Honest is always better,” Toni assured him firmly.
“Then yes,” Dugan told her, opening his door and getting out. “I’d love to come in for coffee and breakfast.” He judged that he had a little time to spare, but not all that much.
“You know the way, detective,” Toni told him, turning around and walking back to her front door.
When he followed her into the living room, he found that Toni wasn’t alone. Lucinda was standing in the doorway leading to the kitchen, holding the baby in her arms.
“Welcome back, detective,” she told him cheerfully. “Are you staking us out?”
“Just keeping the peace,” he replied, smiling at her. “Where’s your bathroom?” he asked, turning toward Toni. “I’d like to splash some water in my face, try to look human.”
“You look pretty human to me,” Lucinda murmured, return
ing his smile.
“Thank you,” Dugan said, then looked toward Toni, waiting.
Toni pointed to the far left of the house. “There’s one down here, right off the family room before the garage door,” she told him.
“Be right back,” Dugan replied.
Lucinda waited until the detective had disappeared around the corner before turning back toward Toni. There was a big grin on her face.
“The detective seems pretty interested in you,” she commented.
Caught off guard, Toni mumbled something unintelligible under her breath, then said, “Lucy, you’ve been watching too many romantic comedies. Detective Cavanaugh is in the middle of an investigation, and if he’s interested in anything at all, it’s in finally bringing down a major drug dealer, not me.” Even as she said the words, Toni rolled her eyes.
But Lucinda merely smiled. “If you say so. Let me just change Heather and I’ll make breakfast,” the younger woman offered.
“That’s all right. Just change the baby’s diaper. I’ll take care of breakfast,” Toni said, heading into the kitchen and grabbing an apron.
Lucinda stood in the doorway, about to leave. “That’s right. I forgot. You can cook.”
“Very funny,” Toni answered. Opening the refrigerator, she took out six eggs as well as a loaf of bread and placed them on the counter.
“What’s very funny?” Dugan asked as he came into the kitchen.
“Nothing,” Toni told him. Then, because he continued looking at her as she poured a cup of coffee for him, she said, “You wouldn’t understand. It’s a private joke.”
Approaching him, she grew serious as she lowered her voice. “Tell me the truth, are we in any danger?” she asked, shifting the subject back to him and why he had spent the night in his car, watching over her.
“I am being honest,” he answered. “It’s just me, being overly protective. But if you’re worried,” he added, “I can post a police officer in a squad car to keep watch for a few days.”
Toni shook her head. “No. I guess that I’m the one being paranoid. Padilla doesn’t know who shot him and he certainly doesn’t know where I live. Besides,” she went on, “I’ve been threatened before and it never turned out to be anything.”
Cavanaugh's Secret Delivery Page 13