"So you were explaining the crying thing."
"I'm going to try to explain it without crying." "Then you don't have to explain anything," he said quickly.
That made her laugh again. "If I start getting choked up, I promise to change the subject immediately."
"Good. Because that last bout nearly killed me. You sounded like your world had collapsed. I can't take it."
"My world is collapsing, and not because of Joey." She took a deep breath. "For the first time tonight I found out what it felt like for Dexter not to need me."
"He still needs you. That's not—"
"Of course he does, but he's branching out, and that's what he should be doing. It's just that I've never had to share his affections before. And eventually he'll grow up and start living his own life. We won't be a team forever." She got that much out, but noticed that her voice quivered on the last part.
It wasn't leaving Dexter that was so hard, although that wasn't easy. But mostly it was leaving him and knowing it was the first of a whole string of goodbyes. She'd never faced that before, hadn't had to. Tonight both she and Dexter had passed a milestone.
"Makes sense," Harry said. "But you have a lot of years before Dexter moves on to a life of his own."
"They'll go fast." Lainie swallowed a lump in her throat as they rounded a turn and caught their first glimpse of Hoover Dam, awash with lights. Once they crossed the dam, she'd be in Arizona, a totally different state from Dexter. But she wouldn't think about that. "The dam is beautiful, isn't it? A real marvel."
"Uh-huh." Harry glanced over at her. "A real marvel."
She didn't think he was talking about Hoover Dam. It wasn't every day—or night, to be more accurate—that she was called a marvel. She decided to enjoy the warm glow of his praise. They'd only come a short way from Vegas, but so far, this had been a most excellent trip.
Joey was thinking he needed to get back to his surveillance of Lainie's car, when a hot-looking blonde slipped into the seat next to him. Joey took in the long legs and the great boobs and immediately pegged her as a dancer. He had a real fondness for dancers, with the exception of Lainie, who was giving him major grief at the moment.
"Hey, Smart, give me a JD on the rocks," the blonde said. "I've had one helluva night."
"Comin' right up, Gina." The bartender who had served Joey scooped ice into a squat glass and splashed a generous amount of Jack Daniel's over the cubes.
Joey tweaked to a couple of things. If the bartender knew this Gina, then maybe she was a dancer here at the Nirvana. If she was a dancer at the Nirvana, she might know Lainie.
He turned to her. "Nobody who looks like you should ever have a bad night. Let me buy you that drink."
She glanced at him. "No, thanks."
He held up both hands. "No strings attached. This is not a pickup, I promise."
"I get a discount anyway. It's no big deal." She pulled some money out of her purse as the bartender set her drink down on a cocktail napkin.
"Okay." Joey smiled. He had a terrific smile, thanks to good orthodontia, and he'd used that smile to get himself many things in life. Unfortunately his creditors had offered to rearrange his smile. "Just trying to convince you the world's not such a bad place."
"It's not." Gina sipped her drink. "But our last number got fouled up, so we got yelled at, and it wasn't our fault. One of the dancers took off right before we were due to go on, and she's an important part of the number."
Pay dirt. Joey had predicted his luck was about to change, and bingo. "Sounds damned inconsiderate, to me."
"Yeah, well, I shouldn't complain. From the looks of things, she's got big problems. Something to do with her kid. She left so quick, I have to wonder if she has some legal problems with custody."
"Wow." Joey signaled for another beer. "Must be, if she didn't even stay to finish the night's work. She had to know she was making it tough on the rest of you."
"Yeah." Gina took another swallow of her drink. "Oh, well."
"You have a good attitude about it, at least." Joey sat there drinking his beer. If Lainie had taken off with Dexter, then whoever had taken the kid out that back window had also driven him to the casino and likely driven both of them away from here, since Lainie hadn't used her own car. Joey needed to find out who that was.
But maybe he shouldn't head right for the subject. "So how long have you been a dancer?"
"Six years. Well, six years getting paid for it. I've been dancing ever since I could walk."
"I'm sorry I missed the show. I'm here on business and it's kept me going until a little while ago. This is my first chance to relax."
As she neared the bottom of her drink, she became more friendly. "What kind of business?"
"I work for my dad. You know those plastic toys in airports, the ones parents buy to take home to their kid? He contracts overseas for the manufacture of that kind of stuff. Plush toys, too."
"Really?"
"Yeah. It's kind of a goofy way to earn a living, but he's made it extremely profitable. Want another drink?" "Sure, why not?"
Joey motioned to the bartender. "Yeah, my dad works with manufacturing plants all over the world, but none in Nevada yet. I'm supposed to check that out for him. So why don't you tell me about your family?" Actually, Joey had talked long and hard to get the old man to fund his trip out here.
His dad would have a fit if he knew Joey was paying a private detective out of his trust fund account. And even his trust fund wouldn't be enough to bail him out of the fix he was in. Man, did he owe a lot of money. But at least now he had the company credit card in his wallet.
He was going to use it tonight for these drinks, in fact. He'd used it earlier tonight, too, but he wished now he hadn't stopped off at the little bar before heading over to Lainie's apartment. He'd been pooped after the flight and had decided to relax a little before doing the hard work of picking up the kid. But as he'd sat there drinkin' and thinkin', he'd gotten riled up about the whole situation. He'd come on a little strong.
Even so, he might have been okay if the usual babysitter had been there. He'd been told she was an older woman named Mrs. Flippo, and he'd figured handling her would be a piece of cake. But he'd bet the keys to his Vette that Mrs. Flippo hadn't been the one who'd carted Dexter out a second-story window.
Unfortunately, after four beers, Joey had needed to pee and hadn't been in shape to run around the building and catch them before they left. He suspected the person was a guy, because it would have taken upper-body strength to get the kid out the window and down the tree. Either a guy or a very athletic woman.
"So my sister was, like, 'I'm going to be a dancer, too,' but she has no sense of rhythm," Gina said. "She might have the body for it, but not the moves."
Joey clicked back into the conversation and realized Gina had been telling him about her family, exactly as he'd requested. He hadn't heard a word of it, but that was okay. He'd always been able to fake being a good listener.
"I really would like to see you dance," he said. "And I'll bet by tomorrow night you'll have that last number all fixed."
"I'm sure. Tim's interviewing dancers in the morning."
"So you think your friend is really gone for good?"
"Tim seemed to think so, but I'm not so sure. Something's going on with that accountant. I just don't know what."
"Accountant?"
"Oh, this guy who's an accountant in payroll, Harry Ambrewster. I'm sure he has a major crush on Lainie, and considering that he looks like he has bucks, I think she should go for it. But she keeps saying there's nothing between them. Then, tonight, there he was, with her kid. And he looked like he'd been wrestling with the kid in the grass or something. The whole thing's weird."
"Sounds weird." Harry Ambrewster. This investment in a couple of drinks had paid off in spades. And Joey had a strong hunch he'd met this jerk in the parking lot. Tree trimming, indeed.
Joey finished off his beer and handed his credit card to the
bartender. "Well, Gina, it's been a pleasure, but I have several appointments tomorrow, so I have to call it a night."
She looked at him in surprise. "So you really aren't going to hit on me?"
"Nope. Just wanted to share some friendly conversation."
"You don't even want my phone number?" She acted disappointed.
"That's okay." He quickly signed the credit card slip. "Maybe I'll make it to the show tomorrow night. If I do, I'll send a note backstage."
"You do that. Except... I don't even know your name."
"Steve. Steve Horton." Then he flashed her his killer smile and left. Belatedly he realized that maybe he shouldn't have used a fake name at the same time he was paying with a credit card, but he was so used to giving fake names to women in bars that it had become a habit. Ah, the bartender probably hadn't heard him, anyway.
As he headed for the exit, he reached for the cell phone in a holster on his belt. His phone call would get the private detective out of bed, but Joey didn't give a damn. He needed info on Harry Ambrewster, and he needed it like yesterday.
He was standing outside, finishing up his call to the detective, when security approached him. He flashed them the famous Joey Benjamin smile. "How's it going?"
"We need you to come with us," said the larger of the two. "It's been brought to our attention that you introduced yourself to a young lady using one name, and signed a credit card with a different name."
Joey chuckled. "I gave her my drinking name, gentlemen. You know how that is, right? You never give a woman your real name unless you plan to see her again."
Neither of the guys smiled. "If you'll just come with us, sir, we can get this all straightened out."
Shit. Maybe his luck hadn't completely turned around, after all. "Certainly, gentlemen. Whatever you say."
Chapter Seven
About midway between Kingman and Flagstaff, Lainie fell asleep. Harry had encouraged her to roll up her raincoat and use it for a pillow, and finally, after several big yawns, she'd taken his suggestion. In no time she was in dreamland.
Harry checked the gas gauge and decided he wouldn't fill the tank in Flagstaff, after all, because the stop might wake her. He was sure she could use the rest. By all rights he should be exhausted, too, but adrenaline pumped through his system, more powerful than caffeine. For the next three days, and more significantly, two nights, he'd be spending all his time with a woman he found way too appealing. More so every hour they were together, in fact.
He glanced over at her. Leo's glasses had slipped down her nose, making her look like a bookworm who had dozed off in the middle of a chapter. He wondered if she read books. He'd been so preoccupied with her dancing— face it, with her body—that he hadn't considered her mind. Wasn't that chauvinistic of him? Instinctively he knew she was smart, though. With a son like Dexter, she would have to be or he'd drive her crazy.
From Dexter Harry had learned that Lainie didn't like to sit still long enough to play board games, but that didn't mean anything. Some people didn't like board games. He tried to remember if he'd noticed books lying around in the apartment. All he remembered were kids' books, which Dexter was already reading by himself, of course.
Thinking of the boy reminded him of what Lainie had said about Dexter, that she was beginning the process of letting him go. She'd organized her whole life around that kid, and she was right that someday he wouldn't need her to do that. In Rona's case, Leo had come along at the perfect time. Harry remembered being thirteen and wondering if his mom would be lonesome when he went off to college.
Sure, she had her girlfriends, but even at thirteen Harry sensed they might not be enough company for her. Then along came Leo, who soon became like a member of the family. He must have felt very much like a family member the night he'd managed to get an underage Harry out of a sleazy strip joint minutes before a police raid.
Then there was the night a couple of years after that when Leo convinced an irate hotel manager not to press charges after Harry had organized a chess marathon in one of the suites. He'd felt so worldly, booking a suite for this event, but the jocks had crashed it and in no time the party had raged out of control. All Harry's attempts to be cool had turned out like that. Finally he'd given up and accepted his boring nerd status.
At least being a nerd paid well, so he could buy toys like a Global Positioning System for his Lexus. The GPS indicated he had a choice of routes to Sedona, and he decided on 1-19 out of Flagstaff instead of the winding road down through Oak Creek. The hairpin turns on US 89 would have jostled Lainie awake, and she looked so peaceful.
But when he turned at the exit for Sedona, the sun peeked over the horizon, a fiery ball of gold, and he decided he couldn't let her sleep through the next few minutes. He'd been here for an accounting seminar a few years ago and he knew that sunrise on the red rocks of Sedona should not be missed.
"Lainie." He reached over and touched her arm.
"What?" She came awake in an instant. "What's wrong?" She glanced around, disoriented, then squinted at Harry. "Oh." She collapsed against the seat. "Whenever somebody wakes me up like that, I think something's the matter with Dexter."
"I'm sorry. Didn't mean to scare you." He wasn't a parent, had no idea what the instincts of a parent could do to a person. Watching Lainie was making him a little nervous about the day when he would become a daddy. Apparently he'd turn into one big throbbing nerve.
He grimaced. One look at Lainie, all rumpled and pink from sleep, and he was one big throbbing nerve, although this nerve was located in a very specific spot. "I didn't want you to miss the drive into Sedona. I didn't think you'd ever been here before, and with the sun coming up, it's . . ." When he heard a soft snuffle, he glanced over and discovered she'd drifted back to sleep.
He didn't want to shake her again and bring on her emergency response, but the sun made the red rock formations glow like huge embers rising into the blue Arizona sky. She would be sorry if she didn't see it. So he began singing the title song from Annie. He didn't have the greatest voice, but he knew the words. A guy raised by a showgirl knew his show tunes.
She opened one eye. "Do you do this kind of thing a lot? Not ever dealing with you first thing in the morning, I wouldn't know, but I should warn you I'm not a morning person, and someone who sings about the sun coming up is not getting a special award of merit from me. And FYI, you're flat."
"Lainie, you have to sit up and look at this. Here you are, driving into Sedona for the first time, and the sun's coming up. This is a peak experience. You don't want to sleep through this. People pay thousands of dollars and travel hundreds of miles to see this, and sometimes it's cloudy, and they don't see anything."
With a martyred sigh, she straggled to a sitting position, complaining all the way. "I hope this is worth it, because I was having such nice dreams, and I— Oh... my . . . God."
"Told you."
She whipped off Leo's black glasses. "Harry, this is like out of a movie. Am I awake?" "Finally, thanks to me."
"Look at that rock! It's gorgeous! It's incredible. It's .. . exactly the color of my favorite lipstick!"
Harry laughed, happier than he remembered being in ages. "You'll have to show your lipstick to me sometime."
"It's at home. Or what used to be home."
"Don't think about that now. Just enjoy the view."
"I'm enjoying. I had no idea. When your mother said
'You can go to Sedona,' I thought it might be some tourist trap. But these red rocks are awesome. I wouldn't have missed this for the world."
"So you're not mad at me for waking you up?"
"Good grief, no! I've seen pictures, but I never thought... You figure the pictures are touched up, you know? What's in that rock, that makes it so reddish? When I tell Dexter about this, he'll definitely want to know."
"Oxidized iron." He was pleased that he could tell her. "It's sandstone with oxidized iron in it."
"Harry, I love this
place. I totally love it."
"Good. Then I'm glad we came."
"Me, too! Okay, I see signs of civilization ahead, so I'd like to request a bathroom and a cup of coffee, in that order. And if we can have a cup of coffee with a view, that would be awesome."
"I can arrange that." He glanced at his watch. "After breakfast we'll call the time-share people."
"What if they won't give us a room?"
"We'll find somewhere else to stay in Sedona. But we're not leaving, if that was your question."
"That was my question."
"Well, that's my answer. I want you to get your fill of red rocks." And he couldn't help wondering if, in the process, she'd get her fill of Harry Ambrewster. According to the saying, familiarity was supposed to breed contempt. That didn't seem to be working for him. Familiarity was breeding lust. But he couldn't speak for her.
"In case I forget to say it later, thank you for bringing me here," she said. "I know it's just a dodge to confuse Joey, but it's a pretty darned wonderful dodge. I feel as if I've landed in paradise."
"Yeah, me, too." Now if the snakes would stay out of the garden, they'd be all set.
Rona couldn't throw Leo out at two in the morning after he'd spent the past few hours making drinks for the TITS and periodically climbing the stairs to check on Dexter. So she'd told him no funny business, and he'd promised her he was too tired for funny business. They were both dead asleep when the phone rang at three.
Rona switched on the light and answered it, her heart pounding. She hated middle-of-the-night calls. Fortunately, it was for Leo, one of his boys checking in with some information. She passed the phone over.
Leo's "boys" weren't really his sons, but sometimes he treated them that way. Rona didn't ask too many questions about Leo's business. From comments he'd dropped, she thought he might be mixed up in the underworld somehow. She'd seen all the Godfather movies, and Leo fit the profile.
Another clue was that he didn't talk about work. Men in the underworld didn't discuss their jobs with their women, for obvious reasons. Rona had once asked Leo if he'd ever killed anybody, and he'd said no. However, that didn't mean anything. If he was the boss, he'd have someone else do the dirty work. Rona had decided it was safer not to pry. With her, Leo was a pussycat, and that's all she cared about.
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