Deadly Influence

by Lakes, Lynde

  A butterfly fluttered near Meta and landed on her shoulder. She seemed oblivious to it. She removed her rimless glasses and wiped the lenses with her lace handkerchief. The dark eyeglass indentations on the sides of her nose gave her a tired look, but her hazel eyes were bright and alert. Lisa felt a tenderness welling in her. She couldn’t bear it if anything happened to Meta. She would uncover the one behind the attempted murders, or die trying.

  Although things were adding up that led Lisa to doubt some of the people close to Meta, she hadn’t ruled out Gus. He was dangerous. If he was the intruder from last night who tried to smother Meta, he was more than dangerous—he was deadly. Damn. Speculating was getting her nowhere. She prayed the contact lens would provide a concrete lead.

  Lisa looked up when the hinges of the side gate creaked. “Meta, Howard’s here.” His stride had a side-to-side rock, as though one leg was shorter than the other. His slightly hunched shoulders reminded Lisa that he was not a young man. Surely, this old gent who seemed to care for Meta wouldn’t be mixed up in a plot against her.

  “Hi, ladies,” Howard called. “I spotted you two from my upstairs window.” He closed the picket gate behind him. His Chihuahua pup, Tiny, was peeking out from his cardigan pocket.

  “Finish your business, Howard?” Lisa asked.

  “Yep. Telephone’s a nifty invention.”

  Lisa smiled at the girlish way Meta smoothed the loose strands of platinum hair back from her face. “We’re having tea,” Meta said. Lisa heard the joyful purr in the dear lady’s voice and noticed that she sat a little taller. Meta patted the chair beside her. “Please, join us.”

  “I brought my checkerboard.” Howard’s craggy face beamed. “Thought you might be up to a game.”

  “Only if you promise not to whine when I whip you.” The coquettishness in Meta’s tone and manner was adorable.

  “Whip me? Not a chance.” Howard puffed out his chest. “I’ve figured out a foolproof way to beat you.” He stuck his hand in the sweater pocket not occupied by the pup and brought out a small bouquet of violets. His hand dwarfed the flowers. “For you, Meta,” he said, his tone shy and his voice raspy.

  Meta raised an expressive brow. “Advance spoils for the winner?” Her heart-shaped face glowed.

  Howard chuckled. “Consolation for the loser!”

  His rough, caring manner made Meta smile. Lisa hoped he wasn’t there only to charm her into selling her property.

  “Why don’t you take a walk, Lisa?” Meta said. “You haven’t been off this property in weeks. A little walk would be good for you.”

  “I can’t leave you alone.”

  Howard wrinkled his leathery forehead. “She isn’t exactly alone. I’m here, and I’ll stay ’till you get back.”

  Lisa shook her head. “Gus Dunn is out of jail, and he’s been hanging around the Roberson’s place. He hasn’t forgotten that your testimony in court sent him to jail.”

  “She’s the most courageous lady I know,” Howard said. “Because of her, I got my coin collection back.” He patted Meta’s hand. “Tell you what, Lisa, I’ll get my rifle, if it’ll make you feel easier.”

  Meta smiled at Howard as though he were Wyatt Earp and she were the damsel he just rescued from the villain in the dusty hat. “Get your rifle then, cowboy,” Meta said.

  Lisa sighed. It was clear that Meta wanted Howard to be her protector, if only for a little while. Lisa had seen the old gent’s sharpshooter medals—he could do the job. What the heck? A walk might help her vent her frustrations from dealing with Meta’s dark and disturbing grandson.

  “Promise you won’t leave Meta alone, even for a second, Howard.”

  “Ya’ don’t have to worry about a thing.” Howard stood and quickly strode through the garden. “Back in a jiffy with my rifle,” he shouted over his shoulder.

  Jay was almost home when he spied Lisa walking along the street, carrying a large bag of groceries. Even though she was a quarter of a block ahead, he recognized her slim hips and long legs. A guy on a motorcycle was riding slowly along next to her. Would Bud care if he saw her encouraging other men? Jay knew that if she were his girlfriend, he would. Very much.

  The biker circled Lisa, getting closer. Jay thought at first the guy was flirting with her, but as he drove past them, he saw Lisa’s narrowed eyes and “get lost” expression, and realized she wasn’t enjoying the game. He whipped the van around and skidded to a stop next to them. “Hey, buddy,” Jay shouted. “Leave the lady alone.” The biker ignored him and aimed the motorcycle into Lisa, knocking her off her feet as he went by. “No!” Jay shouted. He leaped out of the van and ran toward Lisa. She had fallen to the sidewalk on her knees. Food spilled out of the ripped bag. Before Jay reached her, she was back on her feet. Her stance told him she intended to try to kick her attacker down on his next assault. Brave, but too risky. “Back off, buddy, or I’ll kick your ass.”

  The biker spun his motorcycle around, but instead of aiming at Lisa, he aimed it at Jay. Jay sidestepped the roaring missile. On the next pass, he crouched, ready to spring. He grabbed the biker by his black T-shirt and yanked him off the seat, leaving the riderless motorcycle to careen into a fire hydrant. The biker recovered his footing and wrestled Jay to the ground. Although the guy was the same size and build as him, he was younger and quicker. They struggled. Jay brought his knee up and managed to kick him in the groin. While the biker recovered, Jay somersaulted to his feet.

  “Jay, watch out!” Lisa screamed. “He has a knife!”

  Jay shifted to the side to avoid the glistening steel, but the blade grazed his forearm. Ignoring the cold sting of the sharp edge, Jay jumped backward out of reach. The biker danced around him, threatening with short jabs to the air. Suddenly he drew the knife back, close to his body, and looked at Jay’s stomach—Jay knew the next jab would be there.

  Jay shifted his weight, preparing to do a judo kick. He had only a fraction of a second to disarm Gus, or he was a dead man.

  A gunshot broke the silence. The biker’s knife clanged onto the concrete. Blood dripped from his hand. Lisa was pointing a gun at him. What the hell! Lisa carried a gun to buy groceries? Neighbors rushed out of their homes, but they kept their distance. “I’ll call the police,” someone shouted.

  “Get on your motorcycle, Gus,” Lisa ordered, “and leave. Now! Or the next bullet will shatter your kneecap!” Gus’s narrowed eyes raked over her. Then he leaned over to pick up his knife. “Leave it!” Lisa ordered. Gus glared at her while he stood and slowly wrapped a handkerchief around the flesh wound on his hand. His taut jaw told Jay that Lisa might have turned a skirmish into a full-scale war.

  Gus reclaimed his motorcycle from where it had crashed into the hydrant and slowly straddled it, his right hand held lamely against his chest. “So you want to play with firearms, huh, Lisa? Well, I can dig it. Next time I’ll bring my gun.”

  Chapter Six

  Lisa bandaged Jay’s arm in Meta’s downstairs bathroom, trying not to let the close quarters distract her. His breath feathering across her cheek sent her heart into double time. If she looked up into his eyes, she’d be a goner. She locked her gaze on the gold watch gleaming against his rich copper tan. Then he flexed his magnificently shaped forearm, hard and tense under her fingertips, and she nearly had an orgasm. What the hell is wrong with me? If he’d been seriously hurt, she could’ve concentrated on the wound, but the shallow slash didn’t even require stitches, so her sneaky dormant hormones snapped to life and ran rampant.

  Reining those hormones in while her mind stayed on Jay was impossible. He wasn’t just a gorgeous-looking guy. It took cold, steel nerves to face down Gus the way he did. “You’ve got guts,” she said past the constriction in her throat. He hadn’t even backed down when Gus drew the knife. His jump to action was quick, controlled, and agile. Real hero stuff.

  “I’d be dead or close to it if you hadn’t disarmed that guy,” Jay said in a smoky voice that played havoc on her slipping self-possession.<
br />
  Seeing a flicker of censor in his eyes, she tensed and waited for the punch line that was sure to come.

  “I heard what that punk said about bringing his gun next time,” Jay said. “Don’t you think you might’ve escalated things with your bring-it-on retort?”

  Lisa shook her head. First, Jay thanked her, and then he chastised her. “Guys like Gus are cowards at heart.”

  “That makes them even more dangerous—they turn sneaky and slip up on you in the dark.”

  He was right, and despite the concern in his voice, she decided to play it sassy. “That’s where I do some of my best work.” Then the sexual connotation hit her. Oh, damn.

  Jay’s eyes glinted, then darkened. “You were pretty smooth with the police.”

  “Thanks.” And thank God he didn’t pounce on my suggestive words.

  “It wasn’t a compliment.” His voice hardened, and he searched her face with a scalding gaze. “Now spill it. Who the hell are you?”

  His question swept through her like a tornado, leveling the composure she was struggling to hang on to. “Forget already? Meta introduced us.” She refused to look into his eyes.

  “You flipped your ID at the cops,” he growled, “and they left. Do you have an in with the men in blue?”

  She shrugged and continued to bandage his arm, trying to ignore the faint scent of maleness and shaving lotion. The silence in the room weighed on her like the quiet before a storm. He grabbed her shoulders, winced in pain, but didn’t ease his hold. “I never heard of a housekeeper who carried a gun to the grocery store!”

  She nodded to his wound. “As you can see, this neighborhood can get rough.” She looked up to see how the quip went over. It was a mistake. His eyes bore into hers, overwhelming her with their intensity. Her sassy retort had failed to defuse the sizzling tension. She needed time to think. But thinking was nearly impossible with those dark eyes searching hers and his fingers pressing hotly into her skin, stirring feelings she wanted kept at bay.

  “My intention was to protect you.” His deep baritone rumbled through her like earth tremors. “But it seems you didn’t need my help.” His accusatory tone demanded some kind of explanation and the stony set of his jaw made her wonder if a rescue by a woman had bruised his ego.

  How much did she dare tell him? “You’re wrong. I needed your help. Gus appeared out of nowhere. If you hadn’t intervened, he would have done more than just skin my knees.” She glanced down at her legs. Jay looked at them, too. His long scrutiny set her pulse racing and her body aquiver. “You distracted Gus long enough for me to draw my gun.”

  “Your gun. That’s the real issue.” He searched her face as though trying to strip away a mask. She tried to look away, but he lifted her chin with his fingertips. Her breath was shallow. It would be easy to escape his touch, yet she couldn’t seem to move, spellbound by his piercing brown eyes.

  Suddenly Jay’s image seemed to be everywhere—in front of her, next to her, in both mirrors, filling the room with his presence. She gripped the roll of gauze, crushing it with her fingers. She had to get out of the close quarters. She wrapped one more round of gauze, fastened it with tape, and fled the room, leaving the first aid kit open on the sink.

  He was right behind her. “So what’s the real story?” he asked, following her into the kitchen.

  Lisa turned on the stove, grabbed the teakettle, and set it over a flame. She couldn’t avoid his questions much longer. Abruptly, Jay grabbed her shoulders with strong hot hands, whirled her around, and lifted her chin again, forcing her to look into his piercing eyes. His questioning expression deepened to a smoldering look. Her breath caught. She wanted… needed… good grief, her desire for him was unthinkable, impossible. She must be in shock or something.

  “You’re stalling, Lisa!” His hold tightened.

  She might as well tell him the truth. He suspected it anyway. Maybe the whole neighborhood suspected it by now. She had taken that risk when she fired a gun on a neighborhood street.

  “The attack on your grandmother last night wasn’t the first. Before that, someone pushed her in front of a moving bus.”

  His jaw tightened. “I know. My cousin told me.”

  Tears sprang to Lisa’s eyes as she imagined the sight of a bus hurtling toward Meta. What if the bus driver had failed to stop? Dampness gathered on Lisa’s lashes, blurring her vision. Stunned at her own vulnerability, she tried to blink them away. She stepped out of Jay’s arms, knowing she would do something stupid if she stayed there. She pressed her fingers to her mouth to compose herself. Her hard shell had cracked in a thousand places and was disintegrating around her. She forced herself to keep talking. “When Meta came home from the hospital, she found her cat nailed to the front door.”

  Jay’s face paled. “Gulliver?”

  Lisa cleared her throat and nodded. “It was monstrous. Then the sick bastard called and told Meta that she’d die just like the cat.”

  Jay’s hands curled into fists. “If it’s that Gus guy, I’ll tear him—”

  “I don’t know if it’s one person or—” She stopped before she got into her conspiracy theory. “Howard said the cat wasn’t there when he left to pick up Meta at the hospital. So whoever did it… did it during the half hour Howard was gone.”

  “What about other neighbors? Didn’t they see anything?”

  “Everyone else was working or shopping.”

  Moisture glistened in Jay’s eyes. Lisa wanted to reach out and comfort him, but she feared he’d misinterpret her touch. “Where were you?” he asked, his tone biting.

  She winced. It was a fair question, but the accusation that lay there between them stung. That surprised her—she hadn’t let anyone get close enough to hurt her since she was eleven. “I was in Bud’s car, following behind her.”

  “Of course, cavorting with Bud instead of sticking by Grandma’s side.”

  “Oh, hey. You’ve got it all wrong. Bud isn’t even my type, and he didn’t even want me in this house, especially after—”

  An odd expression darkened Jay’s features “After what?”

  Oh, God. She wished her emotions were in better balance. She made a quick decision to omit the part about Bud’s aggressive pass. He resented her even more after she flatly turned him down and brought him to his knees in pain. “After Dr. Hendricks insisted that I take care of Meta,” she told Jay in a quick save. “And it wasn’t just him who wanted me here. It was at your grandmother’s insistence that I took the job. So the three of us sorta’ ganged up on Bud. The doctor threatened to keep Meta in the hospital unless I was part of the home-care package.”

  Jay arched an eyebrow. “I’m going to have a few strong words with that grandmother of mine. She mentioned getting a few crank calls. And Tom told me a few things, but not all this. What about the police?”

  “They suggested she change her number. And she did. But the caller got the new number.”

  “None of that explains the gun. You handle it like a pro.”

  “I used to work for the police department.” She was telling him too much. Soon he’d know everything.

  “When we struggled in the dark that first night,” he said, “I knew you’d had high level self-defense training.” Jay drew his brows together. “But I’m missing something here.” His gaze searched hers. “With a law enforcement background, why take a job caring for a sick person?”

  “It’s a little more than that.” Lisa was finding it hard to breathe. It was risky to feel this emotional connection with a man she had known only a few days. But after seeing him so close to death, she couldn’t keep up the charade any longer. “I’m Meta’s bodyguard.”

  His expression didn’t change. He was staring at her in his piercing way. “Does Bud know?”

  “No. Meta didn’t want me to tell anyone.”

  “But you told me.”

  Lisa shrugged. “What are you going to do about it?”

  “Talk to Grandma, for one thing.” A muscle in Jay’s jaw
twitched. “Who was the SOB on the motorcycle?”

  “Gus Dunn. He robbed Howard’s house awhile back, and it was your grandmother’s testimony that sent him to jail. Now he’s out and making threats against her.”

  “What does he have against you?”

  “I’m in the way. And he didn’t like it when I told him to stay away from your grandmother.”

  “Now two of us are in the way,” Jay said in a deadly tone that sent shivers through her. “And next time, I’ll be ready for him.”

  What was she getting herself into? It was playing with fire to team up with a man who set her off-balance, a man whose mere nearness made her go weak with desire. A man who might still be behind— She cut herself off. Jay’s closed look gave her the sneaky feeling he could read her thoughts.

  “What’s the matter?” he asked. “Haven’t you ever had anyone in your corner before?”

  She shrugged, fearing her voice would give away how close he’d come to the truth.

  “Look, if you suspect Gus is the guy making the telephone threats and causing all the trouble around here, we need to dig up some evidence and slam his sorry butt in jail.”

  She laughed without humor. “Putting him there is the easy part. Keeping him there is nearly impossible.”

  Jay studied the feisty .38-packing ex-cop in front of him. Why ex-cop? Had they kicked her off the force? If so, why? Was he making a mistake trying to talk her into working with him? Reason told him not to jump into anything without knowing more about her. What if she was part of some conspiracy? What if she and the biker staged the street attack? What if they were all in on it, Bud, too? Jay had only Lisa’s word about her background. And what little she told him was sketchy as hell. He recalled her earlier words, “I come from a rough neighborhood.” His heart skipped a beat as he thought about the danger of working with a woman who sent his blood coursing through his veins like wildfire. Years ago, he’d adopted a code of strict discipline that fortified the mental barriers he erected. The result was numbed feelings and diluted emotions—and he liked it that way.