by Sylvie Kurtz
“That’s what I thought.”
“It’s circumstantial, though. He could argue it was just coincidence and that he never saw the paper.”
“But it’s one more link of the chain.”
She took back the newspaper article and placed it under the pad of paper. “I talked to a couple of people today. Jill’s ring?”
“What about it?” Dom loosened the tie and pulled off the choking noose. Why couldn’t Swanson take on a jeans-and-T-shirt kind of role?
“It wasn’t Laynie’s ring,” Luci said. “Warren also gave Carissa Esslinger, victim number three, a similar one. If it’s not the same ring, then it’s a dead ringer. What if he gives the ring to all his victims?” Prickles of excitement punctuated Luci’s voice. Seeing her shimmer with life like that brought back the Luci he’d fallen in love with all those years ago.
“And Jill’s necklace?” Luci continued, energy bouncing off of her like solar flares. “The one that reminds him of her smile? He gave a similar one to Laynie and Carissa.” Luci scoffed and shook her head, bouncing her braid over her shoulder. “Along with the same tired line. He’s got his act down to an art.”
“Yeah, that he does.”
Luci tapped the end of her pen against her notes. “I’ll need to confirm with the other two victims, but if the pattern holds, doesn’t that go toward intent?”
“It sure will.”
The satisfaction beaming on her face attracted him like the sun. She was so damned sexy with her blond hair all messy and her green eyes so vibrant. He wanted to kiss her, wrap himself around her, make love to her again until they were both breathless. He wanted to do it slowly until, when she looked at him, she saw him and the picture pleased her. But to her, he was nothing more than Cole’s friend, part of her nightmare. Cole was every woman’s dream of a lover with his bad-boy looks and his high-voltage energy.
He wasn’t Cole, but he wasn’t a consolation prize, either. He’d get the job done, nail Swanson, then he’d court Luci like he should’ve done twelve years ago. He could give Luci the stability she’d wanted and never had with Cole. He grabbed a sponge off the counter and started in on the peanut butter and jelly smeared table.
“It feels good, you know.” The hint of longing in Luci’s voice made him look up from his task. She leaned against the archway between the kitchen and living room. “To be doing something.”
Never letting go of Luci’s gaze, he handed pieces of plastic track to Brendan to wash. He lowered his voice, so only she’d hear his words. “Why are you hiding here?”
Her arms crossed under her chest. “I’m not hiding. This is the life I want. The life I’ve chosen.”
“You can’t hide what you are, no matter how hard you try. Maybe that’s why you’re having a hard time fitting in with the soccer-mom crowd.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?” Her body went ice-stiff.
Definitely a sore spot with the lady. “You’re a fierce, intelligent woman, Luci. You were meant to lead, not cow your spirit to some artificial code.”
“I can never hold a weapon again.”
Interesting the leap she’d made. He hadn’t suggested she go back to a sniper’s life. “You’re not holding a weapon now, but your true colors are showing. Did you hear yourself? It feels good to be doing something. Those are your own words, Luci.”
Her chin cranked up. “This is the way I always am.”
“Really?” He cocked his head and narrowed his gaze. “That’s not what I saw at the soccer field. Stop trying to bend yourself into a shape you’re not.”
“You have no right to—”
“All done!” Brendan yelled, cutting off Luci’s harsh whisper. He lifted his arms above his head, dripping water all over himself, the chair and the floor.
“That’s great, sport. Why don’t you climb down and put those cans where you took them?” Dom handed Brendan the first two cans he’d used to elevate part of the track, his gaze holding Luci’s face like a target. As Brendan went across the room to the pantry, Dom leaned toward Luci and said in a low voice, “You tie me up in knots, Luce. You always have. I stayed away because you asked me to. I can see now I didn’t do you any favor.”
“Dom, don’t—”
“Hear me out, Luce. There’s something right between us, something good. After this case is over, I’m not leaving. I’m going to shake you up. I’m going to turn you inside out. We’re going to talk about Cole. And we’re going to settle things once and for all. Then, and only then—if you still want me to—will I walk away.”
She opened her mouth to speak, but he cut her off. “No arguments, darlin’, not unless you want to start now.” He brushed up close to her, gave her the full bore of his intentions. Her eyes flared wide. Her throat worked hard. And the pulse at her neck gave a jump that revved his blood. But she didn’t run away and that, more than anything, gave him hope. Why had he waited so long? He deepened his drawl to a low rumble. “Next time we make love, it won’t be to fight off a demon.”
DOM’S PROMISE had echoed through every cell of her body and kept her awake more efficiently than a pot of double-strength coffee could have. She’d tossed and turned all night to the memory of the soft thunder of his voice. The seed of the image he’d planted in her brain budded and bloomed until she wished he’d put an end to the torture by walking through her bedroom door and into her bed.
Crazy. Really crazy. This was Dom. Cole’s best friend. The guy she’d cursed by every name in the book while she’d pushed Brendan out of her body. Was there any more undignified moment in a woman’s life than that? In spite of her earlier lapse in judgment, she couldn’t want him that way. That was crazy. Wasn’t it?
But he’d said he loved her.
At least she hadn’t had to deal with him this morning. He’d left while she was out milking the goat. Even then, even across the yard, he’d packed his grin with the promise of return that thrilled inside her. Shut up, Luci. There wouldn’t be a next time. There couldn’t be.
In the living room, Luci stared at the piece of paper in front of her.
1. Sell the goats.
As much as it pained her, she’d have to sell her does. The weather was turning too cool for them to be in the outdoor pen, and there was no way she could rebuild a shelter for them fast enough. Their milk production had already halved. Which was just as well, since she had nowhere to store the milk.
2. Try Sharlene Vardeman and Katheryn Chamber again.
Odds were she’d catch them at home sooner or later.
Before Luci could get to three, Jill’s Lexus pulled into the driveway. Luci scrambled to hide the evidence of her search before Jill unlocked the door with her key and stepped into the kitchen. She didn’t think Jill could handle the truth until it was irrefutable.
“What happened to your barn?” Jill asked, plunking her purse on the table.
“It burned down.” Luci stuffed the last of her notes into a folder.
“How?” The scrape of a cup and the pouring of coffee traveled across the room.
Luci jammed the file into the desk’s tiny drawer. “A tree fell on the electric wire.”
Jill stepped inside the living room and winced. “How are the goats taking it?”
Luci swiveled the chair and let out a sad sigh. “I’m going to have to find them a new home.”
“That’s too bad.” Jill cocked her head. “Are you okay?”
“I’ll deal with it.” She always did.
“Does that mean our date’s off?”
Date? What date?
“You forgot, didn’t you?” Jill’s face melted.
Jill had called last night when Luci was still reeling for Dom’s promise to make love to her again. “No, the wedding dress. I’m all over it. I just got off the phone with the insurance company and I’m a bit rattled. Everything in triplicate, you know.”
“If you’re too busy…”
“No, I want to go. I don’t need to be here when the adjuster does his
thing. Besides, it’s not every day my sister gets to buy a wedding dress. I’m really glad you asked me. We haven’t had a chance to spend much time together lately.” Not with Warren cooping Jill up from those who loved her in order to keep her fully under his control.
Jill’s face lit up. “Mom’s going to pick up the boys from school, so we don’t have to worry about getting back in time. You know how unpredictable Boston traffic is.”
“Let me change and I’ll be ready to go.”
She grabbed the phone and hurried upstairs. Dom’s line was busy, so she left him a message with her plans, regret trickling through her that she’d missed the caress of his voice. Black pants, red sweater, leather clogs. That would have to do.
Jill talked nonstop all the way into Boston. She parked near an exclusive bridal shop and was received like a queen by Zelda, the ancient shop owner.
Zelda’s gray hair was pulled back into a dignified twist. The soft drape of her purple dress flowed around her trim figure smoothly. Her makeup, tasteful and natural, brightened a face unafraid to show the character it had earned. Luci hoped she looked half as good as Zelda when she reached that age.
She was thankful all she had to do was sip coffee and ooh and aah at each dress Jill tried on. Knowing how the whole affair was going to end pressed a heavy weight on Luci’s chest and made it hard to work up real enthusiasm. Jill was so happy and Warren was going to crush her with his betrayal. Not spilling all she’d found took all of Luci’s control. Jill wouldn’t believe her. Not yet.
Zelda allowed Jill to try on all the frilly and fussy dresses she wanted, then skillfully maneuvered her toward a leaner style that showed off her curves and allowed her baby sister’s natural beauty to shine through. “Wow, Jill! That’s the one. You look gorgeous.”
Color flooded Jill’s cheeks as she twirled in the three-way mirror. “I do. I feel like a princess.”
Zelda’s chest puffed up. “Was I right or was I right?”
“You were right, Zelda,” Jill said, her hazel eyes dewy with moisture. “I love it.”
“Okay, then. Let’s hem you up properly. Are those the size heel you’re going to wear?” Zelda helped Jill up a small platform, then set about pinning the hem of Jill’s dress. “So tell me about your young man. You’re doing things right, I hope. Protecting yourself. So many silly young girls come through here with stars in their eyes and not much upstairs. I can tell you’re one of the smart ones. Me, I’ve seen enough heartache to know how the real world works. Cross the T’s, I say. Dot the I’s.”
“He’s a real gentleman,” Jill said. Her fingers admired the flowing cowl of the cream silk. “He would never hurt me.”
“That’s what they all say before the wedding.” Zelda’s knees creaked as she shifted position. “Then after the honeymoon, everything changes. Have your lawyer draw up a prenuptial agreement. Trust old Zelda on this, honey.”
Luci gripped her flimsy coffee cup with both hands, breath held, waiting for Jill’s answer.
“Warren insisted on one,” Jill said, pride filling her voice.
He had? That didn’t sound right for a guy who planned on sucking her dry. Was Jill really different to him than all the others? She fit the pattern so well.
“Ah, you got a winner, then,” Zelda said through the pins in her mouth. “Lucky girl.”
“I told him it wasn’t necessary. That I trusted him.”
Luci swallowed her groan with a sip of coffee before it escaped. The guy was brilliant. Offer the one thing that would make his pigeon trust he wasn’t after her money. Once she was satisfied he was for real, there was no need to go through the exercise.
Zelda tsked. “Take him up on it, honey. If you’re right, it makes no different. The paperwork stays in the safe. If you’re wrong, you’re protected. A quarter turn to the right, honey.”
Jill turned, her face now hidden from view. “Zelda’s right, Jill. You need to protect Jeff’s future, if not your own.”
Jill’s shoulders heaved in a series of fast hiccups.
“Now, now, honey. Zelda didn’t mean to make you cry. I tell all my girls to look out for themselves.” Zelda pulled a tissue from the accent table beside her and handed it to Jill.
“I’m sorry,” Jill sniffed. “It’s all just such a lot of fuss. I love Warren and he loves me. All we want to do is be together. Everyone else is making such a big production out of the whole thing.”
“Of course they do. The wedding is not for the bride.”
Jill frowned down at Zelda. Zelda winked at her. “The wedding is for the bride’s mother.”
Jill laughed through her tears, dabbing the tissue at her eyes. “You are so right, Zelda. My mother is driving me crazy. We just wanted family to witness our vows, then a catered dinner at home. Now there are at least two dozen guests on my mother’s list and it’ll be held at the country club.”
“What did I tell you? Weddings are for the mothers.”
Shopping had energized Jill and left Luci with all the pluck of a wet dishrag. Getting Jill to talk about Warren on the ride home wasn’t hard. All Luci had to remember was to keep her doubts to herself.
So far, each aspect of Warren’s courtship matched the stories Luci had gotten from Laynie’s friend and Carissa’s sister.
As they crossed over the New Hampshire border, Luci broached the subject of how Jill had met Warren and finally to Amber Fitzgerald—the woman who had, as Luci was beginning to suspect, so conveniently introduced prey to predator.
“I didn’t realize you and Amber were such good friends,” Luci said, wishing her cup of take-out coffee wasn’t empty.
“We weren’t. I mean, I knew her. From the gym. We took a yoga class together. Then when Dana Booth went on maternity leave, Amber took over running the fitness center.”
“So Amber’s been around for a while.”
“Yeah,” Jill answered, distracted as she changed lanes for her exit. “She joined last April. And we’ve gotten to be good friends.”
April. Right after Jill came back from Florida. Coincidence? Running a background check on Amber might be worthwhile. Warren couldn’t be working alone.
“Do you see her outside the gym?” Luci asked.
“We meet at the country club for lunch once a week. That’s how I ended up running into Warren. And she introduced us. She’s really down-to-earth, you know. She’s been a great sounding board with Mom being so difficult to deal with about the wedding and the reception.”
Which was just what Warren needed. Jill turning to a stranger instead of her own family. It made conning her that much easier.
Amber looked so plain with her mousy hair and brown eyes. An ordinary and sympathetic friend. And when this mousy woman introduced the pigeon to her dashing friend, well, then, the pigeon knew Amber wasn’t competition and that because he was a friend of someone so ordinary, he had to be safe.
Such a perfect ploy.
Luci couldn’t wait to get home and run a background check on Amber. If she and Dom could prove that Amber had been involved in all the other cons and had introduced each victim to Warren, they might be able to get Amber to turn evidence against him.
Preferably before the wedding.
IN THE QUIET DARKNESS of Jill’s home, Warren contemplated his fate. What had gotten him here, where the road would lead him next. He was tired, he realized as he sipped Jill’s expensive cognac and sank into the luxurious leather of her couch. Tired of teaching the same lesson time after time, knowing he could never reach them all.
Yesterday, he’d taken the next step. He’d put down a deposit on the sailboat of his dreams. The forty-two-footer would allow him to sail the world at his leisure and fall asleep in the soothing arms of the only woman he’d ever loved—the sea.
Then his mind filled with images of the woman who’d made his life hell.
He’d thought he’d wait until he could shove his triumph in her face to reap his earned reward, but she’d already lingered longer than he’d expected
and wasn’t showing any signs of fading—or remembering what she’d done to him.
He couldn’t help himself, he reached for the phone and dialed the number from memory.
“Blue Skies Resort,” the cheerful voice chimed.
Blue skies for the doctors who ran the place, maybe. Certainly not for the patients confined within the “resort’s” walls—as gilded as they were. “Room 203.”
“One moment please while I connect you.”
The phone rang six times before someone answered.
“It’s me,” he said. “How is she?”
“The same.”
“Is she awake?” Some days were more lucid than others.
“Yes.”
“Is she talking?”
A creak of hesitation. “Yes.”
Fortifying himself with a swallow of cognac, he asked, “Has she asked for him?”
The licking of lips. “Billy, don’t torture yourself this way.”
“Has she?” he insisted.
“Yes, Billy, she has.”
He closed his eyes, swallowed the burn of bile etching his throat. “Has she asked for me?”
A sigh of regret. “No, Billy, she hasn’t.”
She’d asked about the man who’d treated her like dirt, but not about the one who’d once worshipped her like a queen.
“Thank you.”
He lay the phone carefully back on its cradle. Then hurled the fine crystal of the snifter at the stone fireplace. “Bitch!”
Chapter Eleven
The dream started much as it always did, with darkness sucking her into its deep hole, with Cole, bigger than life in her scope, rushing into that Texas shack. But this time, the darkness mutated to a scene Luci didn’t recognize. A river, waves roped like veins and silver like liquid mercury, flowed and oozed over its banks. A black-clad figure that reeked of evil stood among the pitchy lances of trees against a bloody sky. Outfitted in white, standing out like neon among the black grass, she lay in a forward firing position, aiming her rifle at the trace of evil, an eerie green shape planted in the crosshairs of her night-vision scope. She kept squeezing the trigger at the offender, but the bullets never reached their target. They stopped midair and dropped to the ground, useless.