Undercover Fiance

by Sheryl Lynn

  Janine and Daniel stopped by the party-supply store. The custom-printed napkins, balloons and streamers for the Victorian romance party theme were ready. She purchased extra gold-and-ivory tablecloths, and gold lamé place mats. After that, they visited a hobby store to fill Kara’s supply list.

  “You’re actually having fun,” Janine told Daniel as they lugged bulging bags of cloth, candles and Victorian theme decorations to her Jeep.

  “I like to shop.” He flashed an endearing smile. “I like shopping with you.”

  Despite some hassles, she’d had fun today. No worries about Pinky spying on her. No looking over her shoulder in apprehension. Nobody glaring at her as if she were the enemy, or worse, as if she were an idiot with an out-of- control love life. Daniel proved an affable companion, interested in her errands—interested in her.

  “What?” he asked.

  Caught staring, she averted her face.

  “Forget something?”

  She sorted idly through the ring of keys and smiled to herself. “First day I’ve had fun in I don’t know how long. You actually are a nice guy.”

  He leaned a shoulder against the Jeep. “Told you so.”

  He’d done more than tell her, he’d proved it. She wondered why she had such difficultly accepting him. Why her impulse was to think the worst. Time after time he acted gallant, charming, loyal and protective. He was everything she admired: patient, pleasant, even-tempered and quick-witted, but never a pushover, never weak. She suspected the flaws she so persistently sought had more to do with herself than with him. The insight disturbed her. “I think we can be friends.”

  “Just friends?”

  Leave it alone, she warned herself. She couldn’t help it. “For now.”

  Chapter Nine

  Janine and Daniel drove to the studio where J.T. waited for them. The martial arts studio didn’t look the way she’d expected. She’d imagined something flashy, but it was an unassuming gray building with a small sign next to the double glass doors. Full Circle Karate was emblazoned over a logo that pictured a dragon biting its tail. The noise inside astonished her. High-pitched yells and shrieks bounced off the walls.

  She peeked through a doorway. A man and a woman guided children through exercises. With each movement the kids yelled at the tops of their lungs, and bare feet clomped the mats. At another doorway she paused to watch a woman kicking the snot out of a man wearing heavy padding. Her bare foot thudded against the padding while her ferocious shouts rang from the rafters. A dozen or so women watched the action as they knelt at the edges of the mats.

  “Self-defense,” Daniel said. “It’s a great class. You ought to take it.” He guided her through a doorway marked For Employees Only.

  “I’m not athletic.” She couldn’t shake the image of the woman kicking the instructor. She’d looked so powerful and self-assured.

  “That’s the cool thing about karate. It teaches you to use what you have. We have one student who’s in a wheelchair. She’s no sissy, trust me.” He walked through an open doorway and called, “J.T., my man!”

  J.T. McKennon rose from a crouch and closed a filing cabinet drawer. He wore black trousers and a red T-shirt marked with the Full Circle logo. He opened his arms for Janine. She hugged him and offered her cheek for a kiss. He searched her face, his eyes questioning. “How are you doing?”

  “I’ve been better. I take it Daniel filled you in about Pinky?”

  J.T. grunted. “No luck rooting him out?”

  “Not yet.” She slid a small smile toward Daniel. “Did he tell you about his truck?”

  Daniel grumbled and flopped onto the chair behind the desk. He idly sorted through a bundle of mail while he told J.T. about the vandalism and the death threat.

  J.T. whistled softly. “At least it wasn’t your Vette.”

  A Corvette. It figured Daniel would own such a fancy sports car. She imagined it was bright red, probably a convertible.

  Janine asked to use the telephone. The men moved to the doorway to give her privacy. When she reached her father and he sounded normal and healthy, such a rush of relief washed through her she sagged on the chair. He assured her that all was well, but he groused about the rumors and gossip circulating through the staff.

  “Any problems?” Daniel asked.

  “All is well. Nothing in the mail, nothing in my box. Is that a good sign or a bad sign?”

  “As long as your dad is okay, we’ll take it as a good sign.”

  Rhythmic squeaking preceded the appearance of a wheelchair. Frankie McKennon pushed her stepson into the office. At the sight of the tiny boy in the wheelchair, Janine forgot her woes.

  Little Jamie McKennon had been in a terrible car accident which had killed his mother and put him in a coma for nearly four years. Despite having little use of his legs and left arm, and with the left side of his face paralyzed, he was the happiest child she’d ever known.

  Frankie kissed her husband and shrugged off her coat. Janine’s gaze locked on her cousin’s swollen belly. Her baby was due in two months.

  “Look at you!” Janine cried.

  “Please don’t look at me,” Frankie said. “I feel like a tomato on toothpicks.”

  Daniel slid an arm around Frankie’s waist and loudly kissed her cheek. “I think you’re gorgeous. When will you dump your old man and run off to the Bahamas with me?”

  “If I send J.T. on one more midnight run for ice cream and Fritos, he’ll pay you to take me.” She winced and clutched her belly.

  J.T.’s face twisted in concern.

  “I’m okay.” She laughed and playfully pushed her husband away. “He’s kicking me in the bladder, that’s all.”

  Daniel placed a hand on Frankie’s belly. He appeared delighted by the activity going on underneath her maternity sweater. “We’ve got a future kick-boxing champ in here, J.T.”

  “Tell me about it,” Frankie said anxiously. “Take off Jamie’s coat. I’ll be right back.” She rushed out of the room.

  Janine crouched before Jamie. “Ga-deen!” he cried joyfully. “Ga-deen. Gammy? Gampy?” He called Elise Gammy and the colonel Gampy.

  “Gammy and Gampy aren’t here, slugger,” she said. “But you get to see them on Saturday. We’re going to have a big party. Won’t that be fun? Cake and balloons and presents.”

  He bounced on the chair and wriggled so much she nearly tore a button off his coal She finally got the coat off his arms and he grunted beseechingly for her to pick him up. She hugged him until he squealed. “He’s getting so big, J.T.”

  “Strong, too.” J.T. rolled out the desk chair for her to sit on. He ruffled his son’s silky blond hair.

  Frankie returned, looking much relieved. Her smile had a hesitant but knowing quality. Janine guessed her cousin knew exactly why she was here with Daniel. She also suspected Frankie hadn’t merely happened to show up at this particular time.

  She rocked Jamie on her lap and inhaled his clean-little-boy scent. At her age, she figured her odds of finding a decent husband and becoming a mother were slim. Still, holding Jamie and seeing Frankie so gloriously pregnant filled her with bittersweet longings.

  “Jamie and I just dropped in to see if J.T. would take us out for hamburgers. If you, uh, I mean—”

  “I know J.T. told you about Pinky.”

  “Well...” Frankie grinned sheepishly at her husband.

  “You girls chat while I talk to J.T.,” Daniel said. The men left the office.

  “You girls?” Janine mocked and rolled her eyes. She bussed Jamie’s neck until he giggled. “Your mama won’t let you grow up to be a macho knucklehead, will she?”

  Frankie carefully settled on a chair and stretched out her legs. “So how bad is it?”

  “Pretty bad. Pinky burned down the garage where the colonel stored his old Jeep and he destroyed Daniel’s truck.”

  Frankie winced. “Was anybody hurt?”

  Janine played patty-cake with Jamie. She and Frankie had grown fairly close in the p
ast year. Even so, she didn’t know how much to say or how Frankie would react. “No one was hurt,” she said. “We’re getting the situation under control.”

  “Good thing you have Daniel,” Frankie said. “He’s a great guy.” She glanced at the door. “The greatest. He treats J.T. like a brother. And I’ve never met anybody so generous in my life. The only way we were able to buy the house was because Daniel paid J.T. a fat bonus. He didn’t have to.”

  Jamie gabbled something, but Janine couldn’t understand what he wanted.

  Frankie hoisted herself off the chair. “He wants down.” A square mat covered with red vinyl hung by straps on the wall. She laid it on the floor. From a cabinet she brought out a lumpy leather ball and a pair of thick, polished wooden sticks. Once on the mat, Jamie used his good arm to pull himself atop the ball, where he rocked back and forth on his belly. Frankie closed the fingers of his weak left hand around a stick.

  “He’s a terrific baby-sitter, too. He loves Jamie.”

  Janine laughed, more at her cousin’s overt matchmaking than at the way Jamie used a stick to pound the mat. His progress amazed her. The last time she’d seen him he couldn’t hold anything in his left hand. “I can’t believe how strong Jamie is.”

  “He’ll be walking before we know it. So, no comment about Daniel?”

  Janine recognized the signs. The blissful gleam in the eyes, fiddling with a wedding ring, the beatific smile. Invariably, whenever friends or relatives got married, her single status became a sorry condition in need of repair.

  She knelt next to the mat and picked up the other stick. Jamie began jousting with her. “I’m not interested in a relationship right now.”

  “You don’t think he’s...cute?”

  “Cute as a bug. But I’m not in the market.”

  Jamie slid off the ball. Janine reached instinctively to help him, but he scowled and waved her away. She sat back on her haunches and rested her fists on her thighs. Frankie held her breath until Jamie climbed back on the ball Both women exhaled in relief.

  Frankie caressed her belly, smiling dreamily. “The first time I met Daniel, I thought about you. He actually appreciates smart women. He doesn’t play those fragile-male-ego games.”

  She figured he appreciated long legs and large breasts even more. The uncharitable thought shamed her. “I hired him to help with a problem. Nothing more.”

  “You haven’t even thought about it? Look me in the eye and tell me you don’t imagine what he’d—”

  “Stop it, Frankie! Shees. I know he’s nice, and smart, and yes, extremely attractive. But I’m not interested in a Quickie affair. I don’t operate that way.”

  Her cousin bristled as if genuinely offended. “He isn’t like that.”

  “Hate to burst your bubble, but yes he is. He’s been shitting on me since we met.”

  “Uh-uh! He isn’t interested in quickie affairs, either.”

  “Please.” Her position felt shaky, but she stood her ground, anyway. “He can have any woman he wants, and I Imagine he isn’t picky about taking whatever is offered.”

  “I can’t believe you’re saying that.” Frankie’s voice crackled with fierce protectiveness. “He’s not some—” she glanced at her son—“S-L-U-T. He’s a lot more serious than you think. And,” her voice lowered, “he’s looking to settle down. All he needs is the right woman.”

  The idea intrigued as much as it unsettled her.

  Daniel and J.T. returned. “My ears are burning,” Daniel said. “Talking about me?”

  Frankie leveled a smug smile on Janine, as if daring her to prove her wrong about Daniel. Janine suspected she couldn’t do it, no matter how hard she tried.

  He shoved his hands in his pockets and rocked on his heels. “We have good news and bad news. The good news is, J.T. doesn’t see a problem with installing surveillance cameras.”

  “And the bad news?”

  J.T. answered. “There aren’t any local suppliers for that type of equipment. I’m going to check around and see if anyone has stuff on hand I can borrow. Otherwise it’ll take at least a week to get it shipped in.”

  Janine rested her face on a hand. The more she’d considered the idea of capturing Pinky on videotape, the more excited she’d grown. Disappointment weighted her soul.

  Daniel dropped to a crouch beside her and rested a companionable hand on her shoulder. “J.T. knows everybody who’s anybody. He’ll come up with something before the party.” He beckoned to Jamie with his fingertips. The boy poked at him with the stick.

  Janine watched the rapport between the boy and man. Daniel seemed to understand everything the little boy said—no easy task since Jamie’s facial paralysis garbled his speech. He’d be a good father. Thinking such a thing gave her a funny feeling.

  “We’re going to dinner,” J.T. said. “Care to join us?”

  “Love to, but I need to get home. I don’t want to fall asleep on the road.” She scooped Jamie into her arms and covered his face with kisses. He kissed her enthusiastically in return. “I’ll see you Friday, slugger. We’ll have tons of fun at Gammy and Gampy’s party.”

  A wave of melancholy rolled through Janine as she left the studio. Daniel offered to drive. She strapped on the seat belt and snuggled inside her coat, cold more from leaving the warmth of her cousin’s than from the temperature. She’d tried marriage, failed miserably, and over the years convinced herself that a career was enough. She didn’t need a man or romance or children.

  When she died, would anyone remember fondly how well she’d managed the resort? How well she managed the books? Her expertise in handling suppliers? Always Aunt Janine, never Mom. Her heart felt empty.

  Daniel patted her knee. “Don’t sweat it. J.T. will come through for us.”

  “Pardon?”

  “The cameras.”

  She watched passing traffic and brightly lit stores and restaurants. “I know he will.”

  “You looked bummed.”

  Bummed described her mood exactly. She studied his profile. Lights from traffic and the dashboard outlined his straight nose and strong chin. Could he be lonely? It didn’t seem possible. Then again, it didn’t seem possible she was lonely, either.

  The trilling of her cellular phone broke her thoughts. She pulled it out of her purse and opened it. “Hello?”

  “Where are you?” her father asked.

  The edginess in his voice set off alarms. “We’re just leaving the Springs. What’s the matter?”

  “We’ve had an incident. Pinky has made his displeasure clear yet again.”

  DANIEL SURVEYED THE DAMAGE inside the small room on the second floor of the lodge’s east wing. Kara had been using this room to create and store the decorations for the anniversary party. Pinky had thrown a major tantrum while Daniel and Janine had been in the city.

  Shredded fabric, lace, ribbon and paper littered the floor. Broken fabric flowers lay as if storm tossed. Strings of lights had been cut into pieces and the bulbs were ground into the carpet. Pinky had emptied jars of paint, rubber cement and white glue all over the floor, walls, furniture and finished decorations.

  “That disgusting little...” Janine picked her way through debris. “How could he?”

  Kara snuffled loudly. Her eyes and nose were red. She swiped at her face with a tissue. She picked up a ripped gold-foil heart, edged in lace. “I worked weeks on this stuff. He trashed everything!” She flung the heart on the floor. “I’ll kill him!”

  Daniel cringed inwardly. The very first thing he should have done was insist that locks in the east wing be changed and the new master keys issued to family only. Imagining what might have happened had Kara walked into the middle of Pinky’s tantrum sickened him.

  “What time did you find this?” he asked the young woman.

  “Around seven-thirty. Debbi and I finished shift at six-thirty, then we ate, then we came up here to work on the decorations. And—and—” She flung both hands wide. “We found this!”

  “Were you
in here earlier? Before you went on shift?”

  “This morning. Debbi, Kevin and Carol were helping me.” She pushed a cut piece of light string with her toe. “We untangled all the lights and replaced all the burned-out bulbs.”

  “What time did you go on shift?”

  “Noon.”

  “Did you see Jason, Lanny, Devon, Ellen or Brian in the east wing?”

  “Brian works in the kitchen,” Janine said. “He’s always in the east wing.” She rubbed the pads of her fingers against her temples. The thin skin under her eyes had a greenish cast.

  Daniel’s shame deepened. He should have been more aggressive in setting up security measures.

  Glum-faced, Kara shook her head. “We were really busy this afternoon. Both those big ski-tour groups checked out. The Barker wedding was today. Their reception started at three o’clock. It’s still going on in the ballroom. A million people were in and out of the lobby. It was a zoo.”

  Daniel stepped through the door and studied the hallway. The east wing of the lodge had two floors, not including the attic. The Dukes and their managerial staff lived on the second floor. Two stairwells led to the first floor. Another led to the attic. Anyone who wanted to sneak around up here unnoticed could easily do so.

  He faced the room, recognizing a textbook example of rage in action. He could almost see Pinky at work, his face flushed, teeth bared, eyes glazed, shredding, flinging, kicking and destroying. Most telling were the ripped hearts scattered like broken petals. Pinky hadn’t missed destroying a single heart.

  Why?

  Janine’s room was two doors down. The same master key that fit the lock for this room fit the lock to hers. Pinky should have broken into her room and attacked Daniel’s belongings.

  Janine touched his hand. “What is it?”

  “This isn’t right.”

  She drew her head warily aside. “What are you thinking?”

  “He should have attacked me.”

  “Maybe he’s scared of you.” She brushed a hand over the pistol on his hip. “He might have noticed you’re armed.”

  He chewed his inner cheek. This was wrong, all wrong, but he couldn’t pinpoint why it felt so wrong.