Deadly Influence

by Lakes, Lynde

  The nurse smiled. “Yes, Meta, you’re a lucky woman all the way around. But we need to clear the room and run some vitals.” She gave Lisa and Jay a pointed look. “You can come back at regular visiting hours at 2:00 p.m.”

  A replacement guard stuck his head in the doorway, and the two security guards silently changed places. The nurse gave the new arrival a dirty look. “You’ll have to stand guard outside. The inside party is over!”

  Lisa hung back to talk to the nurse. “Are you aware of this patient’s special security needs?”

  “We all are,” the nurse said. “Dr. Hendricks briefed us on the attempt on her life. Don’t worry. We won’t let anyone into the room without the presence of a guard.”

  Lisa hesitated, and then returned to the corridor expecting Jay to be waiting, but he was gone. She shrugged. It appeared he’d changed his plans about going with her this morning. Fine, she was used to working alone. She decided to go home to take a quick shower and then begin her rounds, calling the local optometrists on her list.

  Twenty minutes later, dressed in a navy business pantsuit and polished boots, she hurried down the stairs and found Jay all spruced up and waiting at the bottom step in a soft knit shirt, pressed trousers, and spit-polished loafers. As always, he stood militarily erect and looked alert and surprisingly well-rested.

  “Ready?” he asked. He didn’t smile, and his tone was less than cordial.

  She nodded, dreading getting into a car with a man who looked so angry—worse yet, with a man who radiated such damnable sexual energy.

  The optometrist bent down and examined the lens under his microscope. Lisa exchanged an anxious glance with Jay over the man’s head. Jay’s dark eyes were masked, and strands of black windblown hair brushed his forehead. For a disciplined man, there was an unruly quality about him. She had an urge to brush his hair from his forehead and feel the touch of his warm skin under her fingertips. Her thoughts were uncontrollable and inappropriate. With some effort, she shook them off and fixed her gaze on the optometrist.

  He finally looked up. “The contact lens is a soft toric lens worn to correct astigmatism. This particular lens has only a power of twenty-five.”

  Lisa thought of Gus. “I suppose with such a low power it’s likely that the wearer is young. How do I get a list of the names of patients with matching prescriptions?”

  The optometrist met her gaze. “I usually require a court order, but Police Sergeant Martin told me to give you whatever you need. I’ll have my assistant check the files.”

  Lisa suppressed a giddy laugh and glanced at Jay. “Good ole Martin came through for me. Again. Guess I owe him big time.”

  Jay frowned. “Guess it pays to know the right people.”

  Going from office to office, Lisa found that Martin had called ahead to all the optometrists on her list, paving the way for her. “That Martin, isn’t he the best?”

  Jay mumbled something, his tone disagreeable. He had never met Martin, so he couldn’t dislike him. She guessed Jay was still upset about her following him to the hospital. Get over it, she thought. She felt energized by how smoothly things were moving along. The only delay came at the last office. The optometrist’s assistant was out to lunch, and the eye doctor told her to come back in an hour or so.

  “I don’t know about you,” Jay said, his voice suddenly more cordial, “but I’m hungry. There’s a coffee shop across the street. How about a sandwich while we wait?”

  Lisa nodded. “But I must warn you, waiting isn’t what I do best.” Lisa’s face grew warm. That didn’t come out the way she intended. She had given him fuel for one of his comebacks.

  Jay smiled as he guided her across the street. “Exactly what is it you do best, Lisa?” His voice was deep, his tone teasing.

  He hadn’t reacted the way she expected. She figured he would make a big thing out of the lack of trust she had shown by following him to the hospital. But he hadn’t even mentioned it. The trust issue just lay there, brewing between them.

  She forced a smile. “I’ll let you decide that yourself.” Lisa’s heart thudded in an odd rhythm. Her mouth was saying things in opposition to her brain. Jay was bringing out a flirtatious side to her nature that she didn’t recognize, didn’t even want to recognize. She studied his strong profile. He was either oblivious to her turmoil or chose to ignore it.

  “One thing you’re good at is dodging questions about yourself,” he said as they slid into a booth by the window. His infectious grin and appraising look made her heart beat faster.

  “I think we should stick to our problem.” Cheeks hot, she straightened her shoulders to reinforce her shield of professionalism. In spite of his disarming charm, their relationship had to stay strictly business. Lisa took a small notebook out of her purse. “We’ve checked out every optometrist in Redlands. If none of them lead to anything, we’ll have to cover the eye docs in Loma Linda and San Bernardino.”

  An anorexic-looking waitress carrying a coffee pot interrupted their conversation long enough to take their order. Before leaving, she turned their cups up and filled them.

  Jay went right back to the conversation as though they hadn’t been interrupted. “That could take time,” he said. “And that’s something we don’t have. Dr. Hendricks told me that since Grandma is doing well he could release her day after tomorrow. And she’s not safe at home.”

  Hendricks must have been the person Jay called after they left the second eye doctor’s office. She had wondered about that… worried about that. “Meta’s not safe anywhere until we discover who’s after her.” Lisa met his steady gaze. “We’ll have to finish up before she’s released so I can stay at her side.”

  “You were at her side the other night. How do we keep an attack from happening again?” There was no malice in his tone. And she saw nothing in his expression to indicate that he’d enjoyed that jab to her ego.

  “We’ll have to make the kitchen off-limits to everyone except the cook and keep the doors locked at all times. The key will be to get your grandmother to cooperate.”

  “She’s always been stubborn and proud.” His voice was husky with admiration.

  Lisa smiled. She and Jay had that in common—their admiration and love for Meta. That thought soothed Lisa’s bruised ego, and she relaxed. “You know her well, don’t you?”

  “I should. She raised me.”

  “And Bud?”

  “Him, too. But since he was older, Grandma didn’t have the same influence on him.”

  Perhaps that was why Jay was the opposite of Bud, Lisa thought. “Any other brothers or sisters?”

  “I have a sister somewhere, but Mom gave her up for adoption. And there was another brother, but he died.”

  “I’m sorry,” Lisa said.

  “It was all a long time ago.” He crumpled a napkin into a tight ball. For a minute Lisa thought he was going to throw it across the restaurant.

  Lisa swallowed. “Do your parents live out of state?”

  Meta had never talked about them, so Lisa had assumed either they were dead or there was an estrangement.

  “Mom lives in Florida. Dad died when I was about eleven.”

  “I’m sorry. It must have been tough to lose your father at such a vulnerable age.”

  “I lost him long before that.”

  Jay’s jaw muscle twitched. He looked down at his bruised, enlarged knuckles. Then his expression went blank, closing Lisa out.

  He hadn’t had an easy childhood, she could see that. It was something they had in common. Watching Jay struggle with his emotions convinced her he wasn’t the selfish, uncaring man that she’d first believed. He reminded her of the warrior who always wore his armor—even to bed.

  Her mind was doing that opposite thing again—the stark image that came to mind didn’t include armor. Her face heated. Maybe what I’m feeling is simply empathy. But empathy and trust aren’t the same thing. Watch out, her internal voice warned. When it comes to trust, your own heart can’t be trusted. That m
eant, as much as she wanted to, she didn’t dare completely trust Jay.

  Jay shredded the napkin with his fingers. Knowing she didn’t trust him hurt, and now she was trying to get into his psyche. He couldn’t avoid looking at Lisa forever. Finally he met her gaze. He hoped the pain didn’t show in his eyes. Talking about his childhood had always hurt. In self-defense, he decided to turn the tables. By letting her in, even that little bit, he had earned the right to ask a few questions of his own. He could hardly wait to peel away some of the wispy veils of mystery that drifted like an enticing mist around Lisa.

  “What about you, Lisa? Are you from a big, happy family?”

  “There was just my dad and me until I was seventeen. Then he married Connie, and I moved out on my own.”

  “Sounds tough.”

  “It wasn’t that bad.”

  “How did you get into police work?”

  “Dad was a cop. I cut my baby teeth on handcuffs.”

  “Why did you give up the force?”

  “I discovered it wasn’t what I wanted.”

  The monotone in her voice signaled that there was more to the story, but clearly she didn’t want to discuss it. That made him even more eager to hear the details. But the uneasy look in her eyes warned him that now wasn’t the time to press her. First he had to gain her trust.

  He made his tone light and teasing. “And exactly what did you want?” he asked, raising a brow.

  She laughed. “I’m still trying to figure that out.”

  He loved the spontaneous, easy way she laughed. He didn’t want to like her so much. It was dangerous to his goals, but he couldn’t seem to help himself. “Did you work closely with that cop, Martin, when you were on the force?”

  She shot Jay a wary look. “We were partners for a short time while he was in training.”

  “Is that why he’s going out of his way to help on this case?”

  “That, and we’re buddies.”

  “Buddy” was a long way from “lover.” His spirits lifted, and he had an urge to clarify the buddy relationship further, but her brilliant green eyes made him lose all concentration. What the hell was this turmoil he was feeling? And why did he want to touch her so badly? He started to reach across the table to take her hand when the waitress brought their clam chowder and a heaping basket of sourdough bread.

  It was for the best, he thought. For the last five years, acting impulsively hadn’t been his style, and he knew it was smart to keep it that way.

  He passed the bread to Lisa, then took a hunk for himself. The parents with two giggling tots in the booth across the aisle had captivated her with their laughter. He studied her face. All signs of her former bodyguard toughness disappeared, replaced by the gentlest expression he’d ever seen—her smile unbelievably loving, her eyes sparkling with a wistful longing.

  Jay didn’t realize how hard he’d been gripping his spoon until his fingers cramped. He relaxed his hold. Damn, it was clear he had no idea who this woman really was, and he had a strong hunch that finding out would be more emotionally dangerous than anything he’d had to face up to now.

  His body suddenly felt like a tightly coiled spring. He had an overwhelming urge to get out of there, to go somewhere high like the Empire State Building in New York, or the Space Needle in Seattle. Anyplace where he could see for miles would do—anyplace away from stifling walls. Only then would he be able to think clearly. His thinking place had been the highest point of Grandmother’s roof when he was a boy. As a teenager, it had been Redland’s Scenic Point.

  Jay shoved away his empty soup bowl. The breadbasket was empty, too. He hoped he hadn’t eaten more than his share in his haste to get going. As Lisa scooped up her last spoonful of soup, Jay glanced at his watch. “The assistant should be back by now and have our printouts ready.”

  Lisa nodded and wasted no time in sliding out of the booth. He threw some bills on the table and followed her, smiling at her quick-to-react ways.

  Chapter Eight

  Lisa delved into the first batch of data from the optometrists. The patient list and eye exam records told her more than she needed to know about these strangers, but nothing to finger the intruder who had left the lens behind. She was barely aware of Jay’s route away from the Redlands business district until the car swerved and the seat belt dug into her chest. Startled, she looked up. They were traveling on a narrow road with hairpin curves. Before she could ask Jay what he was up to, he swerved into a turnout that overlooked Redlands, and stopped. She laughed. It was Scenic Point, the local make-out spot. “What the devil are we doing here?” Imagine, the most unlikely lovers in town coming to this place.

  “This used to be one of my thinking places.”

  “No kidding,” she said, betting he had never done much thinking here. She wondered how many girls he had brought here and how many broken hearts he had left behind when he joined the Air Force.

  He pulled a printout from her lap, his fingers grazing her thigh. She swallowed a gasp and tried to ignore the heat slipping up between her legs. Before she could shake off the impact, he said, “Now let’s see what we have here.” His low, commanding tone vibrated through her, heightening her trigger arousal. The shrinking space between them in the van’s front seat closed in on her.

  She cleared her throat. “I already checked that one. But maybe you’ll find something that I missed.” She wondered if he noticed the lack of conviction in her tone. If a lead was there, she would have found it—she was good at finding red flags. And damn it, right now there were red flags waving wildly between them, signaling danger ahead.

  Skin aflame, she rolled down the window. A breeze swirled into the car, carrying the sweet scent of orange blossoms. It caught a strand of Jay’s inky hair and tumbled it to his forehead. She had an urge to brush it back. If common sense hadn’t stopped her, his serious profile and erect posture would have. He scanned the pages with alert eyes, reminding her that he was a military man who’d lived on the edge and would soon go back to his life of danger and adrenaline rushes. She imagined him in his lieutenant’s uniform, tall, sharp, and gorgeous.

  Fighting musings sure to get her in big trouble, she looked out the front windshield and allowed her gaze to wander from the purple peaks of the San Gabriel Mountains to the blue crowns of the San Bernardino Mountains. Then she lowered her gaze to take in the expanse of green valley below, thick with citrus and palm trees and the stately, historic Redlands homes nestled in between. An odd euphoria lifted her spirits. With the right man, at the right time, this place could be extremely romantic.

  Damn, she needed to stay on track. Quickly, she divided the remaining sheets of data and handed half to Jay. She brushed his arm as she tapped the printout he was holding. “See if this gives you any ideas,” she said, blushing at how suggestive the words came across and how low and sexy her voice sounded. He met her gaze, his eyes narrowing, questioning. Resorting to the habit that seemed to help her think, she tapped her lips lightly. Jay’s gaze fixed on them. She cleared her throat. “It was dark when the intruder tried to smother Meta, but even in the darkness I could make out his build. He was built enough like you that I thought it was you.”

  Jay snorted. “I remember. I still have a bruise or two.”

  “Me, too,” she admitted, “but the point is, we’re looking for someone fit, with broad shoulders and trim hips.”

  Jay’s eyes glinted. Oh God, was he sensing that she was admiring how great he was put together? She looked down and studied the next printout more intently than the meager data warranted. She tried to ignore the rustle of papers as Jay sifted through his stack.

  “Whoa,” he said. “Here’s an interesting one! Cory Drake, age nineteen.”

  Lisa leaned close to scan the sheet he held, trying to ignore the light aroma of Brut aftershave. “He could be related to the land developer, Cornel Drake,” she said, her voice surprisingly even.

  “Right, and if he fits the description of the intruder, we have a serious suspect
.”

  The word “we” echoed in her head. A feeling of warm support heightened her growing attraction to him.

  He put the printout on the dashboard and flipped through the other sheets. “Before we check the guy out, let’s look for a backup suspect.”

  She grabbed the sheets from him. “I’ll look,” she said. “You drive.” She had to get them moving again. Sitting in the close quarters of the van and inhaling Brut and orange blossoms was eroding the emotional walls she had erected.

  He sent her a doubtful glance. “Four eyes are better than—”

  “Drive!” she said. He muttered something, then complied.

  Lisa concentrated on her stack with renewed determination, sorting through it until she came to a familiar name. “Bingo!” she said. “Perry Roberson.”

  “Who?”

  “Our neighbor across the street—Gus’s sidekick. Perry and Gus are thick as thieves and could be in it together.”

  “Guilt by association,” Jay said, without taking his attention from the winding curves.

  “Not only that, he’s been inside your grandmother’s house and knows the layout. Moreover, he has a motive.

  Jay raised his brow. “And that motive is?”

  Ignoring the way Jay’s wickedly arched eyebrow sent seducing shivers up her arm, she said, “Revenge for his buddy. The only glitch is lack of opportunity. If we assume the perp pressing the pillow over Meta’s face is the same person who switched the garlic, then we have a problem.” Her deductive excitement dwindled at the discovery of the hole in her theory. “After I minced the garlic, I went upstairs to shower, but I locked all the doors and windows and set the security alarm. If Perry got in, he had inside help.” She immediately thought of Bud.

  A tic in Jay’s jaw throbbed. “Let’s stick to the evidence. I don’t know this Perry kid, but I’d like to nail Gus.”