The thought made the hair on his neck lift gently.
He looked again at the steps and measured the distance. The man who’d taken the bullet that would have struck Berry had been two steps up—too far away to have planted a hand in the center of Tyler’s back and pushed, and that was what Tyler thought he’d felt.
“I … uh … saw a gleam of light reflected off what looked like a gun barrel,” he said.
He just hoped the lie was believable. Something told him the truth would be regarded as highly suspicious.
Chapter 9
Tyler figured the only redeeming feature of the next few hours was Berry’s company. She clung to his arm, shivering in the cold interrogation room at the police headquarters. Fortunately, she was still so dazed; she had no idea why they were being questioned with such thoroughness.
After two hours of hearing her repeat her story, Tyler grew exasperated with the official attitude. It was a relief when official attention focused on him for a change.
“Now, Mr. Reid,” the detective said, looking at Tyler’s written statement for the third time. “You say that you were warned of the danger by catching a glimpse of a gun barrel a fraction of a second before the shooting began. Yet witnesses say that the car windows were tinted so you couldn’t see inside.”
He had realized the police would pick up on that. “The car was cruising so slowly, I began to watch it. Someone rolled down the car window, and I saw light gleaming off what looked like a gun barrel.”
It sounded logical. He just hoped it proved possible.
“You saw a gun? What kind of gun? What made you think you and Miss Challoner might be a target of gunfire?”
Fury raced along his nerve endings. He tightened his muscles and maintained his cool demeanor.
“I didn’t think we were the targets,” he said dryly. “I did, however, think we might turn out to be among those statistics known as ‘innocent bystanders.’ And I know nothing about guns.”
The detective was silent a moment, eyeing him steadily.
Tyler stared back. In his heart, fury fought with the chilling conviction that Berry had indeed been the target. Something within him kept insisting that was the case in spite of his every attempt to squelch it.
“How well could you see?”
“Very well indeed,” Tyler replied. “The sun was still up.”
“What kind of car was it?”
“I didn’t notice, except that it was a dark car. The parking lot attendant said it was a black Corolla with one man inside.”
“You state that in spite of good light, you didn’t notice the color or the make of the car?”
“Cars were never a hobby of mine.”
“Your own vehicle is a late-model Porsche?”
“That’s right.” Tyler allowed himself to look amused at the implied rebuke. “I followed the recommendation of my father. He’s been a car buff since his teens, but he would never allow himself to buy a Porsche. So I bought it for him.”
After a moment of silence, the detective let the car pass and went on to a new topic. “Now, Mr. Reid, were you aware of the identity of the man standing somewhat behind you who was shot in the upper right thigh?”
“Of course I wasn’t,” Tyler said irritably. “Should I be?”
“What about you, Miss Challoner?”
Berry drew herself up. “No. I’m new to Houston.”
Tyler congratulated himself on telling her to give the police her real name. He just hoped her name and picture didn’t appear in any newspapers.
The detective scribbled something on a note pad. “When did you arrive in Houston?”
“About five days ago,” she replied. “I told you, I graduated from the University of Texas two weeks ago.”
Tyler shifted impatiently. “Well, who is the man who got shot? I’ve lived in Houston all my life, and I don’t know the guy.”
The detective looked at him steadily. “His name is Jackson Jacobs, a reputed drug dealer. His major clients are supposedly among the rich and famous.”
Tyler let out his breath on a sigh of profound relief. Everything inside him sagged.
The insistent voice inside him called Jackson Jacobs’s presence a coincidence.
Shut up! Tyler told the voice vehemently.
Berry hadn’t been the target after all. The bullets belonged to this Jacobs fellow. Now that he knew that, he couldn’t maintain his anger at the apparent police suspicion that he’d known about the hit ahead of time.
He ignored the dark—very similar—car he’d seen cruising around his apartment building. It was probably a coincidence.
“Since I’m neither,” he said, “that explains my ignorance. Is there anything else you want to ask us, officer? I need to get Miss Challoner home.”
“Just another few questions, Mr. Reid.”
Tyler was so mellow from realizing Berry hadn’t been the intended victim, he couldn’t even work up a good snarl.
After taking them through the events of the shooting two more times, the police let them leave.
“Have you ever heard of Jackson Jacobs?” Berry asked as they exited via a side door.
“No.” Tyler smiled grimly. “However, I’ll make sure he isn’t dining at the same place I am in the future.”
He carefully helped Berry into his Porsche. In the hours since the shooting, he’d been growing steadily more stiff and sore, and he knew Berry was, too.
It was over. Berry was safe. The whole affair was a case of being in the wrong place at the wrong time. He gunned his engine and backed out swiftly.
“Are you sure you’re all right?” he asked quietly.
“Do you mean other than my three cracked ribs, my bruised knees, and battered elbows? Yes, thank you.” She chuckled faintly. “I’m glad you happened to see that gun. Otherwise, we’d probably both have been killed by accident.”
Tyler agreed, although he had noticed what the police had noticed—that Berry Challoner was the only bystander who’d have been struck by the bullets meant for Jackson Jacobs.
They were meant for her! The words skittered across his mind like a black spider.
Tyler stiffened and let himself consider the idea. What if Jackson Jacobs had been the innocent bystander? Berry would have looked like the innocent victim of another senseless shooting, and no one would have delved any further into reasons.
Tyler shoved the thought aside. He had seen no evidence to suggest such a thing, and if Jackson Jacobs was known to the police as a drug dealer, then of course the bullets were meant for him. Berry had simply been standing in the wrong place when the delivery of lead arrived.
• • •
Berry limped into Tyler’s living room. Every muscle in her body protested. Tyler had protected her well, but she’d still bumped and scraped a great many areas. That meant Tyler had to be twice as sore and bruised as she was.
“I hope I don’t have any huge bruises on my legs,” she grumbled, looking at her elbows and forearms. “It won’t do for Felix to notice any damage to the merchandise.”
“Shut up, Challoner. I’m not in a very good mood at the moment.” Tyler scowled at her. “At the moment, I wouldn’t mind ruining Felix’s dental work if he so much as looks at you.”
He did sound very much on edge. Berry edged away cautiously.
“In that case, I’ll just vanish into the bathroom and soak my soreness away in a hot tub of water,” she said.
“You owe me, Miss MacGregor. Come here and pay up.”
She glanced over her shoulder. His voice had dropped to almost a whisper, and he was frowning in the way Daniel used to frown when he was about to flatten someone.
Well, she wasn’t exactly in any sort of good mood herself after rolling down a long flight of concrete steps like a snowball, losing a bit of skin at every bounce.
“You’d better watch yourself, Tyler Reid, or I’ll—”
He crossed the floor in two easy strides. Berry tried to flee, but was hampered by her
sore muscles. At least that’s what she told herself. When Tyler’s hands closed around her waist, she pretended to struggle.
“Why, Mr. Reid,” she said, in Mary MacGregor’s fluting voice. “I do believe you’re jealous of Mr. Farley. Shame on you.”
“Felix gets to look at you in those sexy getups all day, while I’m stuck with running at top speed up and down warehouse aisles stacked with automobile parts I never even knew existed. Something is definitely unfair about this arrangement.”
She smiled at him as he lifted her in his arms and carried her toward the bathroom. “In that case, I’ll see what I can do to even things up. We can’t have any unfairness around here.”
“That’s more like it” he said, and set her feet on the floor beside the bathtub to take her gently in his arms and kiss her. “You taste like that police station coffee.”
“So do you. Strong stuff, but it definitely restores your vigor.”
She waited while he turned the faucets of the bathtub on and adjusted the temperature of the water, then stood in unresisting silence as he undressed her slowly, taking note of every scratch on her hands and the bruises on her elbows.
“I’ll have to wear long sleeves for a week,” she said. “Anything is better than trying to tell Felix what happened.”
“True.” He held her away from him and took his time just looking at her. “But I’ll bet you can blame a lot of things on those high heels of yours. If you didn’t look so delectable in them, I think I’d banish them to the dumpster out back.” He pulled her into his arms. “Thank God you’re not hurt. I don’t know what I’d do if you’d broken an arm or something.”
“I’m fine, Tyler. You broke my fall and kept me from banging my head all the way down. Considering that, I’m glad you’re okay.”
She slid her hands down his back. He felt so warm and solid, so dependable, definitely someone she could turn to, someone who would protect her from danger with his own body. Someone who had gone out of his way to help her. Someone she found irresistible.
Someone she loved.
She loved Tyler. Berry examined the idea with one part of her brain while the other part concentrated on the incredible pleasure kissing Tyler gave her.
She had never loved any of her three former fiancés. She could see that easily now that she understood the real power of love. She had been infatuated with the idea of having someone who cared about her, someone to call her own. But she had never loved any man. She’d gotten engaged as a cure for loneliness.
She shivered and kissed Tyler greedily. This was love, this longing to become one with a man. She couldn’t get close enough to him. His clothes were in the way of that need. She struggled to get her hands beneath his knit shirt so she could feel his hot, bare skin beneath her palms.
“You’re going to burn me alive,” Tyler said, stringing kisses along her jaw. “But you know that already, don’t you?”
“You’re doing the same thing to me.” She gasped and arched her neck when his lips found the sensitive skin behind her ear. “I’ve never felt like this before.”
“You haven’t?” Tyler nipped the soft, fragrant skin on her neck. “Then let’s see if we can get the fire started.”
He groaned softly as her questing hands brushed across his bare chest. Berry thrilled to the sound, sought to make him groan again, but he framed her face in both his hands and pressed his lips to hers in a kiss that sought a deeper response from her.
She gave herself up to his touch and felt him lift her and set her gently in the tub. To her joy, he stepped in behind her and pulled her back to lie partly on him as they soaked in the warm, soothing water.
“This feels like heaven,” she said on a sigh.
• • •
Much later in the night, Tyler awakened and turned onto his back. He drifted in that pleasant state between waking and sleeping.
Time shifted. He was back in his dormitory room at Rice University. He knew that because Daniel Challoner’s distinctive cologne scented the air. He registered the thought that his roommate must have just finished his morning shower.
Tyler sighed deeply and prepared to go back to sleep. The scent of cologne meant he had another hour in bed. Daniel always got up early. A man with four girlfriends, football practice, and a full course load had to get up early.
“I thought I’d try another way of getting through to you,” Daniel said. “See if you can keep your mind in that dreamy state. Manifesting the image you expect is impossible if you’re fully awake.”
Tyler muttered in sleepy annoyance when Daniel touched his shoulder. Daniel knew how much he hated being bothered in the early hours of the morning.
The bed dipped slightly as Daniel sat down on the edge. Tyler half-opened his eyes. Daniel, his dark hair freshly combed, and smelling freshly showered, smiled reassuringly. His blue eyes crinkled at the corners in the way that kept four girlfriends enthralled, and his polo shirt matched his eyes.
Tyler was not a girlfriend and the crinkles at the corners of Daniel Challoner’s blue eyes left him cold. “Get lost, you Neanderthal. I’m trying to sleep.”
“Don’t talk,” Daniel said. “Just listen. Berry is in serious danger. This Grady Craig—”
“Grady Craig?” Tyler interrupted sleepily. “What about … ?”
His voice trailed off. Something was wrong somewhere.
He remembered suddenly. Daniel Challoner was dead.
No, that was impossible. How could Daniel be dead when Tyler could feel the weight of his body pressing down the edge of the bed?
Maybe the reports of Daniel’s death had been a mistake.
“Don’t wake up,” Daniel commanded sharply.
Tyler came awake with a vengeance. His heart pounded as he sucked in his breath and shot up in bed. He had attended the funeral and had looked upon his friend’s face for the last time. Daniel was dead.
Daniel faded. Tyler saw his lips moving but could no longer hear his voice. Within a second, Daniel’s image had completely vanished, along with the dent in the bed.
“You can’t come in here saying something like that and then just fade away,” Tyler said aloud.
But Daniel had. Tyler glanced at the clock he kept at his beside. It was just after five and still dark outside. He stared suspiciously around the room, but there was no hint of Daniel’s presence. Still breathing hard, his heart pounding madly, Tyler plumped up his pillow and leaned back. He hardly knew what to contemplate first, Daniel’s appearance, or Grady Craig.
Beside him, Berry slept soundly. If anyone was going to have some kind of visitation from Daniel, by all rights it should be Berry. Look at all she had gone through on Daniel’s behalf. He curled his body around hers and let her warmth and comfort seep into him. Berry’s presence guaranteed him a deep and peaceful night’s sleep as nothing else could.
Grady Craig. Tyler thought suddenly of the man he had surprised knocking at the door of his apartment several nights before. The man had worn dark clothing, and Tyler had never gotten a glimpse of his face. In fact, now that he thought about it, the man had tried to avoid being seen.
Moreover, he had carried something under his arm that had been wrapped in a dark windbreaker. Could it have been a gun?
He thought back to the few facts he’d been able to glean about Daniel’s death. The bullet, they claimed, had been fired from a .223 carbine. He had no idea whether that was a pistol, a rifle, or a shotgun. At the time, he hadn’t asked.
Could the man have been Grady Craig? Tyler had no idea. This whole thing was nothing but a bad dream, most likely because of the Chinese food he’d eaten the night before.
Besides, why would Grady Craig want to kill Berry Challoner? More to the point, why would Grady Craig kill Daniel Challoner?
Nothing added up. That meant it had been a dream.
Tyler tucked the covers closely around Berry. He had another hour before his alarm would sound. He breathed deeply and closed his eyes, noting absently that the room still sme
lled of Daniel’s favorite cologne.
He lifted his head and sniffed carefully. The spicy, metallic scent couldn’t be anything but the expensive cologne Daniel had favored.
Did that mean the experience hadn’t been a dream?
Tyler didn’t know, but he did know one thing. Something weird was going on, and he was going to get to the bottom of it.
On that thought, he drifted slowly back into sleep, pleasantly conscious of Berry in his arms and her dark curls tickling his nose.
Later in the morning, after a good breakfast with Berry across the table from him, he dressed in his cheap clothes for another day at the Westheimer number two store and frowned at his own image in the mirror. He had questioned Berry thoroughly about her great-aunt, but she knew little other than where the woman had lived when Berry and Daniel were children. Before leaving his apartment, he called a private detective, a former policeman who was a friend of his father. He gave the detective all the information Berry had given him and asked for a callback as soon as possible.
Hopefully, he told himself as he drove to the Westheimer number two store, Berry’s great-aunt was still alive and hating all her relatives, and her alleged money was either non-existent as Berry insisted or had nothing whatsoever to do with that dark car and the shots fired last night. Things would be much simpler if this was all about Felix Farley and not about Berry Challoner.
Tyler drove to his usual parking spot about two blocks from the Farley Brothers store and walked the two blocks. When he got off, he’d meet Berry at her office. By then, he might have some news for her.
“That your car, Reid?”
Tyler experienced a sinking in his stomach upon seeing Bernard Warren approaching. “Actually, it belongs to a friend.”
“Must be a good friend,” Warren said, eyes narrowed on Tyler’s Porsche half a block away. “Not many people would entrust that baby to just anyone.”
Endless talk about cars bored Tyler, and he’d heard enough car talk the past two days to make him want to buy a bicycle. But he’d learned a few things, too, and he was prepared in case anyone noticed the Porsche.
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