by Diana Palmer
She shook her head, dazed.
He caught her upper lip in his mouth and toyed with it. His breathing grew unsteady. His hands on her face became insistent. “I got drunk when Margie told me you’d overheard us,” he whispered. “It took two neat whiskeys for me to even phone you. Too much was riding on my ability to make an apology. And frankly, baby, I don’t make a habit of giving them.”
She melted into his body, hungry for closer contact. “I was so ashamed of what I’d done…”
His mouth crushed down onto hers with passionate intent. “I loved what you did,” he ground out. “I wasn’t kidding when I told you that. I could taste you long after I went to bed. I dreamed about it all night.”
“So did I,” she whispered.
His lips parted hers ardently. “I thought you were hung up on damned Brody,” he murmured, “until you aimed that car at the gunman. I prayed for all I was worth until I got to you and knew that you were all right. I could have lost you forever. It haunts me!”
“I’m tougher than old cowboy boots,” she whispered, elated beyond belief at what he was saying to her.
“And softer than silk, in all the right places. Come here.” He moved her against the wall. His body pressed hers gently against it while he kissed her with all the pent-up longing he’d been suppressing for weeks. When she moaned, he felt his body tremble with aching need.
“You’re killing me,” he ground out.
“Wh…what?”
He lifted his head and looked down into soft, curious brown eyes. “You haven’t got a clue,” he muttered. “Can’t you tell when a man’s dying of lust?”
Her eyebrows arched as he rested his weight on his hands next to her ears on the wall and suddenly pressed his hips into hers, emphatically demonstrating the question.
She swallowed hard. “Alexander, I was really only kidding about having a dress with prophylactics pinned to the hem….”
He burst out laughing and forced his aching body away from hers. “I’ve never laughed as much in my life as I do with you,” he said on a long sigh. “But I really would give half an arm to lay you down on the carpet right now, Jodie.”
She flushed with more delight than fear. “One of us could run to the drugstore, I guess,” she murmured dryly.
“Not now,” he whispered wickedly. “But hold that thought until I wind up this case.”
She laughed. “Okay.”
He nibbled her upper lip. “I’ll pick you up at work about nine in the morning,” he murmured as he lifted his head. “And I’ll drive you down to Jacobsville.”
“You’re really worried,” she realized, when she saw the somber expression.
“Yes, Jodie. I’m really worried. Keep your doors locked and don’t answer the phone.”
“What if it’s you?” she worried.
“Do you still have the cell phone I loaned you?”
“Yes.”
She produced it. He opened it, turned it on, and checked the battery. “It’s fully charged. Leave it on. If I need to call you, I’ll use this number. You can call me if you’re afraid. Okay?”
“Okay.”
He kissed her one last time, gave her a soulful, enigmatic look, and went out the door. She bolted it behind him and stood there for several long seconds, her head whirling with the changes that were suddenly upsetting her life and career. Alexander was trying to tell her something, but she couldn’t quite decide what. Did he want an affair? He certainly couldn’t be thinking about marriage, he hated the whole thought of it. But, what did he want? She worried the question until morning, and still had no answers.
“You’re going to leave for three days, just like that?” Brody exploded at work the next morning, his face harder than Jodie had ever seen it. “How the hell am I going to manage without a secretary?” he blustered. “I can’t type my own letters!”
The real man, under the facade, Jodie thought, fascinated with her first glimpse of Brody’s dark side. She’d never seen him really angry.
“I’m not just a secretary,” she reminded him.
“Oh, hell, you do mail and requisition forms,” he said coldly. “Call it what you like, it’s donkey work.” His eyes narrowed. “It’s because of what you did to Cara, isn’t it? You’re scared, so you’re running away!”
Her face flamed with temper. She stood up from her desk and gave him a look that would have melted steel. “Would you be keen to hang around if they were gunning for you? You listen to me, Brody, these drug lords don’t care who dies as long as they get their money. There are two dead little children who didn’t do a thing wrong, except stand between a drug dealer and their mother, who was trying to shut down drug dealing in her neighborhood. Cara is part of that sick trade, and if you defend her, so are you!”
He gaped at her. In the years they’d worked together, Jodie had never talked back to him.
She grabbed up her purse and got the few personal belongings out of her desk. “Never mind holding my job open for me. I quit!” she told him flatly. “There must be more to life than pandering to the ego of a man who thinks I’m a donkey. One more thing, Brody,” she added, facing him with her arms full of her belongings. “You and your drug-dealing girlfriend can both go to hell, with my blessing!”
She turned and stalked out of her cubicle. She imagined a trail of fire behind her. Brody’s incredulous gasp had been music to her ears. Alexander was right. She was wasted here. She’d find something better, she knew it.
On her way out the door, she almost collided with Phillip Hunter. He righted her, his black eyebrows arching.
“You’re leaving, Miss Clayburn?” he asked.
“I’m leaving, Mr. Hunter,” she said, still bristling from her encounter with Brody.
“Great. Come with me.”
He motioned with his chin. She followed him, puzzled, because he’d never spoken to her before except in a cordial, impersonal way.
He led her into the boardroom and closed the door. Inside was the other dark man she’d met briefly during the drug bust at the warehouse, Colby Lane, and the owner of the corporation himself, Eugene Ritter.
“Sit down, Ms. Clayburn,” Ritter said with a warm smile, his blue eyes twinkling under a lock of silver hair.
She dropped into a chair, with her sack full of possessions clutched close to her chest.
“Mr. Ritter,” she began, wondering what in the world she was going to do now. “I can explain…”
“You don’t have to,” he said gently. “I already know everything. When this drug case is wrapped up—and Cobb assures me it will be soon—how would you like to come back and work for me in an area where your skills won’t be wasted?”
She was speechless. She just stared at him over her bulging carry-all.
“Phillip wants to go home to Arizona to work in our branch office there, and Colby Lane here—” he indicated the other dark man “—is going to replace him. He knows about your computer skills and Cobb’s already told him that you’re a whiz with investigations. How would you like to work for Lane as a computer security consultant? It will pay well and you’ll have autonomy within the corporation. The downside,” he added slowly, “is that you may have to do some traveling eventually, to our various branch offices, to work with Hunter and our other troubleshooters. Is that a problem?”
She shook her head, still grasping for a hold on the situation.
“Good!” He rubbed his hands together. “Then we’ll draw up a contract for you, and you can have your attorney read and approve it when you come back.” He was suddenly solemn. “There are going to be a lot of changes here in the near future. I’ve been coasting along in our headquarters office in Oklahoma and letting the outlying divisions take care of themselves, with near-disastrous results. If Hunter hadn’t been tipped off by Cobb about the warehouse being used as a drug drop, we could have been facing federal charges, with no intentional involvement whatsoever on our part, on international drug smuggling. Tell Cobb we owe him one for that.�
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She grinned. “I will. And, Mr. Ritter, thank you very much for the opportunity. I won’t let you down.”
“I know that, Ms. Clayburn,” he told her, smiling back. “Hunter will walk you outside. Just in case. Not that I think you need too much protection,” he added, tongue-in-cheek. “There aren’t a lot of people who’ll drive into gunfire to save another person.”
She laughed. “If I’d had time to think about it, I probably wouldn’t have done it. Just the same, I won’t mind having an escort to the front entrance,” she confessed, standing. “I’m getting a cab to my apartment.”
“We’ll talk again,” Ritter assured her, standing. He was tall and very elegant in a gray business suit. “All right, come on, Lane. We’ll inspect the warehouse one last time.”
“Yes, sir,” Lane agreed.
“I’m just stunned,” Jodie murmured when they reached the street, where the cab she’d called was waiting. She’d also phoned Cobb to meet her at her apartment.
“Ritter sees more than people think he does,” Hunter told her, chuckling. “He’s sharp, and he doesn’t miss much. Tell Cobb I owe him one, too. My wife and I have been a little preoccupied lately—we just found out that we’re expecting again. My mind hasn’t been as much on the job as it should have been.”
“Congratulations!”
He shrugged. “I wouldn’t mind another girl, but Jennifer wants a son this time, a matched set, she calls it. She wants to be near her cousin Danetta, who’s also expecting a second child. She and Cabe Ritter, the old man’s son, have a son but they want a daughter.” He chuckled. “We’ll see what we both get. Meanwhile, you go straight to your apartment with no stops,” he directed, becoming solemn. He looked over the top of the cab, saw something, and nodded approvingly. “Cobb’s having you tailed. No, don’t look back. If anyone makes a try for you, dive for cover and let your escort handle it, okay?”
“Okay. But I’m not really nervous about it now.”
“So I saw the other night,” he replied. “You’ve got guts, Ms. Clayburn. You’ll be a welcome addition to security here.”
She beamed. “I’ll do my best. Thanks again.”
“No problem. Be safe.”
He closed the door and watched the taxi pull away. Her escort, in a dark unmarked car, pulled right out behind the cab. She found herself wishing that Cara and her group would make a try for her. It wouldn’t bother her one bit to have the woman land in jail for a long time.
Alexander was waiting for her at her apartment. He picked up the suitcase she’d packed and then he drove her down to the Jacobsville ranch. She didn’t have time to tell him about the changes in her life. She was saving that for a surprise. She was feeling good about her own abilities, and her confidence in herself had a surprising effect on her friend Margie, who met her at the door with faint shock.
Margie hugged her, but her eyes were wary. “There’s something different about you,” she murmured sedately.
“I’ve been exercising,” she assured the other woman amusedly.
“Sure she has.” Alexander chuckled. “By aiming cars at men armed with automatic weapons.”
“What!” Margie exclaimed, gasping.
“Well, they were shooting at Alexander,” Jodie told her. “What else could I do?”
Margie and her brother exchanged a long, serious look. He nodded slowly, and then he smiled. Margie beamed.
“What’s that all about?” Jodie wondered aloud.
“We’re passing along mental messages,” Margie told her with wicked eyes. “Never mind. You’re just in time to try on the flamenco dress I made you for our Halloween party.”
“Halloween party.” Jodie nodded blankly.
“It’s this Saturday,” Margie said, exasperated. “We always have it the weekend before Halloween, remember?”
“I didn’t realize it was that far along in the month,” Jodie said. “I guess I’ve been busier than I realized.”
“She writes poetry about me,” Alexander said as he went up the staircase with Jodie’s bag.
“I do not write poetry about you!” Jodie called after him.
He only laughed. “And she reads it on stage in a retro beatnik coffeehouse.”
“For real?” Margie asked. “Jodie, I have to come stay with you in Houston so you can take me there. I love coffeehouses and poetry!” She shook her head. “I can’t imagine you reading poetry on a stage. Or driving a car into bullets, for that matter.” She looked shocked. “Jodie, you’ve changed.”
Jodie nodded. “I guess I have.”
Margie hugged her impulsively. “Are we still friends?” she wondered. “I haven’t been a good one, but I’m going to try. I can actually make canapés!” she added. “I took lessons. So now you can come to parties when Jessie’s not here, and I won’t even ask you to do any of the work!”
Jodie burst out laughing. “This I have to see.”
“You can, Friday. I expect it will take all day, what with the decorating, and I’m doing all that myself, too. Derek thinks I’m improving madly,” she added, and a faint flush came to her cheeks.
“Cousin Derek’s here already?” she asked.
“He’s not actually my cousin at all, except by marriage, although I only just found out,” Margie said, drawing Jodie along with her into the living room. “He’s got two brothers and they’re on the way here. One of them is a cattle rancher and the other is a divorced grizzly bear.”
“A what?”
Margie looked worried. “He’s a Bureau of Land Management enforcement agent,” she said. “He tracks down poachers and people who deal in illegal hunting and such. He’s the one whose wife left him for a car salesman. He’s very bitter.”
“Is Derek close to them?”
“To the rancher one,” Margie said. “He doesn’t see the grizzly bear too often, thank goodness.”
“Thank goodness?” Jodie probed delicately.
Margie flushed. “I think Cousin Derek wants to be much more than my cousin.”
“It’s about time,” Jodie said with a wicked smile. “He’s just your type.”
Margie made a face. “Come on into the kitchen and we’ll see what there is to eat. I don’t know about you, but I’m hungry.” She stopped suddenly. “Don’t take this the wrong way, but why are Derek and his brothers moving in and why are you and Alexander here in the middle of the week?”
“Oh, somebody’s just going to try to kill me, that’s all,” Jodie said matter-of-factly. “But Alexander’s more than able to handle them, with Cousin Derek’s help and some hard work by the DEA and Alexander’s drug unit.”
“Trying to kill you.” Margie nodded. “Right.”
“That’s no joke,” Alexander said from the doorway. He came into the room and pulled Jodie to his side, bending to kiss her gently. “I have to go. Derek’s on the job, and his brothers will be here within an hour or two. Nothing to worry about.”
“Except you getting shot,” Jodie replied worriedly.
He opened his jacket and showed her his gun.
“I know. You’re indestructible. But come back in one piece, okay?” she asked softly.
He searched her eyes and smiled tenderly. “That’s a deal. See you later.” He winked at Margie and took one last look at Jodie before he left.
“How people change,” Margie murmured dryly.
But Jodie wasn’t really listening. Her eyes were still on Alexander’s broad back as he went out the door.
Alexander and his group met somberly that evening to compare notes and plan strategy. They knew by now where Cara Dominguez was, who her cohorts were and just how much Brody Vance knew about her operation. The security guard on the job at the Ritter warehouse was linked to the organization, as well, but thought he was home free. What he didn’t know was that Alexander had a court order to wiretap his office, and the agent overseeing that job had some interesting information to impart about a drug shipment that was still concealed in Ritter’s warehouse. It
was one that no one knew about until the wiretap. And it was a much bigger load than the one the drug unit had just busted.
The trick was going to be catching the thieves with the merchandise. It wasn’t enough to know they were connected with it. They had to have hard evidence, facts that would stand up in court. They had to have a chain of evidence that would definitively link Cara to the drug shipment.
Just when Alexander thought he was ready to spring the trap, Cara Dominguez disappeared off the face of the earth. The security guard was immediately arrested, before he could flee, but he had nothing to say under advice of counsel.
When they went to the Ritter warehouse, with Colby Lane and Phillip Hunter, to appropriate the drug shipment, they found cartons of drilling equipment parts. Even with drug-sniffing dogs, they found no trace of the missing shipment. And everybody connected with Cara Dominguez suddenly developed amnesia and couldn’t remember anything about her.
The only good thing about it was that the operation had obviously changed locations, and there was no further reason for anyone to target Jodie. Where it had moved was a job for the DEA to follow up on. Alexander was sure that Kennedy had something to do with the sudden disappearance of Cara, and the shipment, but he couldn’t prove a thing. The only move he had left was to prosecute Kennedy for giving secret information to a known drug dealer, and that he could prove. He had Kennedy arraigned on charges of conspiracy to distribute controlled substances, which effectively removed the man from any chance of a future job in law enforcement—even if he managed to weasel out of a long jail term for what he’d already done.
Alexander returned to the Jacobsville ranch on Friday, to find Margie and Jodie in the kitchen making canapés while Cousin Derek and two other men sat at the kitchen table. Derek was sampling the sausage rolls while a taller dark-eyed man with jet-black hair oiled his handgun and a second dark-haired man with eyes as green as Alexander’s sat glaring at his two companions.
“She’s gone,” Alexander said heavily. “Took a powder. We can’t find a trace of her, so far, and the drug shipment vanished into thin air. Needless to say, I’m relieved on your behalf,” he told a radiant Jodie. “But it’s not what I wanted to happen.”