PM09 - Supernatural Born Killers
Page 25
Jack crossed his arms over his chest. “Hate to tell you, honey, but I’m beyond caring. At least about that. But him…” Another look to where Quinn and the police department representative were saying their good-byes. I saw Quinn shiver. “The kid was all full of himself when he passed that exam. He was all full of himself when he started at the Detective Bureau. He’s still…” The looked he aimed over my shoulder toward Quinn packed so much punch, I’m surprised Quinn didn’t topple off the chair he was sitting on. “He’s still full of himself.”
I wasn’t going to let that kind of jealousy keep me from pointing out the truth. “Too bad, so sad. Quinn made it through the investigation just fine. Get over it.”
“Yeah, he made it through. This time.”
My heart stopped. I swear it did. I had faced plenty of bad guys in my day, but I had never felt the sort of malevolence that rolled off Jack with the never-ending rhythm of the lake waves that hit the rocky shoreline twenty feet below where Jack was sitting. “Are you telling me…” The words felt heavy on my tongue. I swallowed and gave it another go. “Are you telling me you’re going to try again?”
“To get even with Harrison?” Jack’s laugh was anything but funny. “You’re damn right. You may have noticed…” He leaned in close enough for me to feel the waves of cold that pulsed off his ectoplasm. “Ghosts may not be able to touch things or move things, but we can do all sorts of things to influence the living, and your boy Quinn there, he’s got a mighty dangerous job. I didn’t get to teach him a lesson this time, but I’ll get plenty of other chances. Heck, I’m not going anywhere, I’ve got all the time in the world to keep trying. Until Quinn Harrison is as dead as I am.”
Instincts, remember. Mine told me exactly what to do. It started with keep Quinn safe. It ended with keep Quinn safe. What happened to me in the middle didn’t much matter.
Bracing for the freeze, I used every last ounce of strength I had and pushed Jack Haggarty as hard as I could.
He wasn’t expecting it. I mean, how could he when he knew that touching him would shoot icicles up my arms and freeze me to the bone?
His mouth fell open when he toppled off the wall, and I can’t say for sure since I still don’t know exactly how the whole ghostly universe thing works, but something told me that before he hit the water, he knew the drill. Ghosts could die if they were dispatched the way they’d been killed in life. That’s what Chet had told me.
I owed the guy a new cigar and the chance to write about all the burlesque queens he wanted to for that little piece of info.
Jack Haggarty tumbled toward the lake, screaming at the memory of the way he’d drowned when he was alive and the realization that this time, there would be no second chances. He hit the water and burst into sizzling phosphorescent fireworks.
* * *
“Were you playing with a flashlight over there?” Quinn’s voice was almost back to normal. But then, I had a feeling he was riding a caffeine and sugar high. There was an empty coffee cup on the table in front of him and about twelve of those little sugar bags. They were empty, too. When I sat down next to him, shivering like mad and hoping he wouldn’t notice, he looked back toward the wall that overlooked the lake. “I saw a flash.”
“Must be the aftermath of those drugs Blackburne gave you. How are you feeling?”
When he scrubbed his hands over his face, the blanket that had been around his shoulders drooped, and I tugged it back into place.
“You don’t need to baby me.” He shrugged the blanket away and heck, if he wasn’t going to use it, I knew an almost-bride who was so cold she was pretty sure she was turning blue. I grabbed the blanket and wrapped it around my bare shoulders. “I’m fine.”
“It’s kind of nice. Babying you, I mean. You’re the one who’s usually taking care of me.” There was a coffee carafe on the table and I poured another cup for Quinn, who took one sip and made a face.
“It’s ice cold,” he said. He sized me up and reached for my hand. “You’re ice cold, too. What’s going on? Where’s Jack?”
I shrugged, only since I was wrapped in that blanket, I don’t think he saw. “He said he…” It’s not like I’d never lied to Quinn, I just wasn’t sure if I’d ever lied to him about anything this personal. “He had to go.” Not exactly a lie. “I won’t be seeing him anymore.”
Quinn twined his fingers through mine. “You really are ice cold,” he said, and he got to his feet, dragged me up beside him, and pulled me into his arms.
“Better?” he asked, wrapping me in a hug.
“Way better.” I put my head on his shoulder. And call me crazy, but that’s also when I realized something was wrong. I mean, it wasn’t like it wasn’t a great hug. Or that Quinn isn’t a great hugger. Believe me when I say I have experience with these things, and I know quality when I see and feel it. Still, I couldn’t help but sense a little bit of hesitation. I pushed away so that I could look into his eyes.
Quinn glanced at his feet.
I bent to catch his gaze. “What’s bothering you?”
“It’s just…” He bit his lower lip. “Back there in the Fortress of Solitude…I said some pretty crazy things.”
I knew it would come to this.
Which didn’t explain why the cold inside me got a little icier.
“Hey!” Was that me, managing to sound like it was the most natural thing in the world to hear a guy take back a marriage proposal? “I get it. You were under the influence of some pretty heavy-duty drugs. I knew you didn’t mean it.”
“Did you?”
Was that relief I heard in his voice? Yeah, I was pretty sure it was.
Just like I was pretty sure hearing it left me feeling as if I’d been sucker punched.
Before I could find a way to get out of the situation and still save face, Quinn pulled me into his arms again.
“Yes, I was drugged. Yes, I know I was acting like a goof. But believe me, I remember everything I said. And I remember…” It was dark there on the patio. All the better to see the fire in his eyes when he looked into mine. “I remember I meant every word of it.”
I hadn’t realized I was holding my breath until I let it go. “Are you saying…”
He looked over my head. “The minister’s still here, and you’ve got the dress.”
“Yeah, the dress.” I looked down at the gown that had surely come straight out of some warped designer’s worst nightmare. When I looked back up at Quinn, though, something in his smile told me it didn’t matter. Not really. “I guess wedding gowns aren’t as important as the weddings themselves. And they’re sure not as important as a lot of other things.”
“Like the way you were willing to sacrifice yourself to save me.” The wistfulness in Quinn’s voice was momentary. He held me far enough away to peer into my face. “Are you crazy?”
I shrugged, then regretted it. That wire in the bodice of the dress, remember. “You keep telling me I am.”
“And apparently, all this time, I was right. Still…” One corner of his mouth lifted in an irresistible smile. “Your craziness doesn’t change the way I feel about you.”
I hooked my arms around his neck.
“And the way you feel about me,” he added.
I gave him a kiss to prove it.
From across the patio we heard glasses clink and the sound of my mother and Ella laughing.
“Looks like we’re just in time for a celebration,” I told Quinn, and tugged him toward where Mom, Dad, and Ella were sitting with a bottle of champagne they’d somehow managed to get their hands on.
Quinn didn’t budge. “I was just thinking about something else, Pepper. About all this crazy Superman stuff.”
I was feeling pretty darned good about life in general. I mean, what with saving Quinn’s life, breaking up a major theft ring, solving three murders, dispatching a son-of-a-bitch ghost, and not ending up the day as Mrs. Milo Blackburne. I laughed and closed in on Quinn.
“I have been looking for a man of st
eel,” I said, snuggling up to him.
Quinn grinned and tugged me even closer, the full length of his body pressed to mine.
“Looks like I found him.” I smiled, and kissed him one more time.
“Yeah, but…” Quinn, never the wallflower, hesitated. “You know,” he said, “a while back, there was a show on TV about Lois and Clark.”
I’d never watched it, but I’d heard about it. I nodded.
“I’ve seen a few of the episodes,” Quinn went on. “The show, it doesn’t emphasize Superman’s powers so much as it does the relationship between Lois and Clark.”
Another nod, but then, I didn’t want to say anything because I didn’t know what he was getting at and I didn’t want to interrupt the flow.
“The show was really popular,” he said. “That is, until Lois and Clark got married. People stopped watching, and the show got canceled. Apparently, viewers were more interested in the romance than they were in the happily ever after.”
Pardon me for being slow. My nose squinched, I gave him a look.
“I was just wondering. That’s all.” Quinn Harrison, mule-headed and ridiculously brave. Sounding just a little unsure of himself.
It made me love him all the more.
“If we were in some kind of TV series,” he said, “and if we were about to launch into our own happily ever after, and if we knew that if we did, our series might get canceled…Would you still do it?”
Honestly, there are times when even gorgeous doesn’t make up for thickheaded. I took his hand in mine and smiled. “There’s only one way to find out.”
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Prologue
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