He hadn’t realized that as he spoke he’d continued to walk closer to her until he stopped talking and found himself close enough to her to touch her, to take her into his arms and kiss her.
The minute the thought jumped into his head, it was all he could think about...kissing Marlene. Her eyes shimmered with a light he hadn’t seen before, and despite the fact that he moved another inch closer to her, she didn’t step away or do anything to indicate that she wanted him to stop.
He wrapped her in his arms, her body warm from the heat of the stove, and as she tipped her head up to gaze at him, he took the opportunity to cover her lips with his.
He’d intended only a gentle, quick kiss. He’d only wanted to reassure her that somehow, someway, he’d right her world for her. But the moment he tasted her, the kiss became something much different.
Her lips were pillowy soft, her mouth hot, and as she opened it to him, he delved his tongue inside, swirling it with hers as the kiss immediately went from gentle and quick to deep and fiery.
Her arms wound around his neck as their bodies molded together. The loneliness that had been at the core of him for so long disappeared and the kiss continued, filling him with a desire he hadn’t felt for years.
She apparently sensed his spiraling desire, for she broke the kiss and took a step back from him, a stunned look on her beautiful features.
“I guess I should apologize for that,” he said.
She offered him a small smile. “You don’t sound very apologetic.”
“I’m not sorry that I kissed you. I’ve wanted to for a long time, but I am sorry if I offended you.”
Her smile fell. “You didn’t offend me, but I need you to understand that if we kiss, if we make out or make love, it will never lead to anything else. If you’re looking for a life partner, you’re not going to find her with me.”
His brain had stopped working when she’d mentioned making love. Hell, he hadn’t even been able to make her agree to have dinner with him.
He forced himself to focus on her words and not on the images they evoked in his mind. “I won’t lie to you. I’m attracted to you, and after kissing you I’m even more attracted. But I’m definitely not looking for a life partner, either. Why don’t we just let things take a natural course and see where we end up?”
She raised her chin, that steely blue ice shining from her eyes. “I’m just warning you, Frank, that’s all. You’re a nice man and I wouldn’t want you to get hurt, and I will hurt you if you’re looking for something permanent.”
“Duly noted,” he replied. “And now I’m going to take a shower before dinner.” A very cold shower, he thought as he headed out of the kitchen.
Minutes later, standing beneath a cool spray, he thought about what she’d said. Had her marriage damaged her so much that she would never find happiness with another man again?
He’d sworn to himself that he’d never again get involved with an emotionally fragile woman, that if and when he decided to marry again it would be to a mentally healthy woman who could be a partner not just in his bed, but in his life.
Maybe he needed to get a handle on his attraction to Marlene. The kiss had definitely been magic, but probably shouldn’t be repeated.
He’d already had more than his share of heartbreak and the last thing he wanted to do was invite more into his life. The first priority was to keep Marlene safe, do his job as a detective working a case. He needed to find the bad guy, assure Marlene’s safety and then walk away from her without looking back.
* * *
It was as if she were a major movie star in a suspense film. Marlene got in the backseat of Frank’s car while it was in his garage and then hunkered down on the floor mat so that nobody would be able to see her.
“You okay?” Frank asked as he punched the garage door opener and backed out of the garage.
“Fine.” What else could she say? That she wasn’t fine at all, that his kiss had shaken her up almost as much as the fact that somebody wanted her dead?
It had been difficult confessing to him that she’d been a battered wife, but she knew it was information he needed to have. She knew it was possible that Matt McGraw might consider her a target that he wanted dead. A dead woman could never tell secrets that might expose a powerful man.
She suppressed a shiver that threatened to seep up her spine. If Matt really wanted her dead, would he wait an entire year before coming after her? It didn’t make sense to her, but then she’d never understand a man like her ex-husband.
“Still doing okay?” Frank asked from the driver’s seat as the car picked up speed.
“I’m good.” She attempted to keep an upbeat tone despite the fact that she felt as if she wouldn’t ever be good again. All the safety and security she’d worked so hard to build over the past year had been snatched away from her.
The only people she trusted were her sisters and Frank, and there was definitely a different kind of danger with Frank. That kiss. She reached up and touched her lips, remembering the hunger she’d felt in his, a hunger she’d responded to instantly.
Although she couldn’t see him at the moment, a vision of him was emblazoned in her mind. His square jaw gave the impression of strength. His nose was straight above his generous mouth and the silver strands at the temples of his dark hair gave him a dignified appearance. But it was his eyes that drew her, royal blue when pleased, a tad darker when in thought, and midnight blue right after he’d kissed her.
She couldn’t think about that now. What she needed to stay focused on was that for however long it took for Frank and his partners to find whoever was after her, she’d be a virtual prisoner in her missing aunt’s home.
She’d already given Frank a key fob that would allow him to drive right into her aunt’s garage. Whenever she came over to bake, she always parked in the garage, not wanting to interact with neighbors who might want an update on her aunt’s case or just to visit.
She could tell when he turned off onto the mountain road that led to her aunt’s neighborhood, for the car began to climb. Within minutes she’d be inside her aunt’s house. Would she be safe there? There were certainly no guarantees, but right now this seemed like the best option they had.
Vengeance is mine.
It definitely sounded personal, as if somebody wanted to punish her. She’d been found guilty of something and now someone had decided it was up to them to exact vengeance.
Had Aunt Liz received any kind of notes before she’d mysteriously disappeared? Surely she would have mentioned getting strange notes to one of them. And yet Aunt Liz hadn’t mentioned her relationship with Edward Cardell to any of the three girls she’d raised like her own daughters.
Still, Marlene couldn’t help but wonder if what she was experiencing now was somehow tied to her aunt’s kidnapping. The problem was that no matter how she twisted things around she couldn’t see any connection between whatever had happened with her aunt and what was happening to her now.
“We’re here.” Frank’s voice pulled her from her thoughts. His voice held a soothing calm that she embraced and, once again, she found herself thinking about the kiss they’d shared.
As the garage door came down, Frank turned off the engine and turned on a flashlight. By the bright small light they unloaded her things from his trunk, and went into the kitchen and to her aunt’s bedroom, where the blackout curtains wouldn’t allow any light to seep out.
Marlene set her overnight bag next to the double bed and turned on a small bedside lamp that pooled a circular glow around the nightstand and faintly lit the room.
Frank closed the bedroom door, placed her large duffel bag on the floor, shut off his flashlight and sat on the foot of the bed. He frowned as he looked around the dimly lit room. “Maybe this isn’t such a great idea. Basically you’re going to be a prisoner in this room with
your only contact being me or Steve or Jimmy when one of us can come by, and we can’t come by very often or it will look odd to the neighbors.”
“I’ll be okay,” she replied. She’d be okay because she had to be. This was the only plan they had that had a chance to work.
“Won’t you get lonely in this empty place with no life, no sound?”
She sat on the opposite end of the bed from him, touched by the concern she heard in his voice. “To be honest, I’ve lived with loneliness for a very long time. It’s nothing new to me. Really, Frank, I’ll be fine here. I’ve always felt safe here. You just focus on finding out who wants me dead and I’ll deal with being lonely on my own.”
A deep weariness stole over her. The past few days had been more than stressful and it was as if it all struck her now, weighing her down with a need to sleep, a desire to escape. She got up and walked to the door, a nonverbal indication that she was ready for him to leave, for this night to be over.
He stood, obviously getting her message. “Call me if you need anything. Jimmy stocked the fridge earlier this evening with fresh groceries, so you should be okay for a week or so.”
“I’m hoping you’ll have all of this solved long before a full week passes,” she replied wryly.
He reached out and stroked his fingers across her cheek, the gesture so gentle, so tender it forced an unexpected surge of emotion up inside her. “Marlene, you deserve so much better than what you’ve had. I’m going to find the person responsible for this, and when it’s all sorted out, I’m hoping you can find a place, a person, who will forever take away your loneliness.”
He dropped his hand from her face and took a step backward. “You don’t need to see me out. Unpack and settle in and I’ll talk to you sometime tomorrow.”
He turned and disappeared down the dark hallway. A few minutes later Marlene heard the sound of the garage door opening and then closing once again.
She sat back down on the bed and touched her cheek, where the feel of his gentle caress still lingered. Unexpected emotion welled up inside her. She couldn’t remember the last time she’d been touched tenderly by a man, and she hadn’t realized until now how badly she’d hungered for gentleness, for tenderness.
She pulled herself off the bed, swiped at the tears that had begun to blur her vision and then quickly unpacked the few things she’d brought with her.
She hung her slacks and blouses in the closet next to the clothing that belonged to her aunt Liz and then found a half-empty drawer in the dresser to place her underclothes.
In the morning she would unpack her toiletries in the adjoining bathroom. The last thing she took out of the duffel bag was her laptop, which she placed on the top of the double dresser.
Although she knew it was silly and childish, she cracked the bedroom door and slid down the darkened hallway to the bedroom she’d once shared with Sheri. It took her only a moment to pull off the pink bedspread and carry it with her back to Liz’s bedroom.
She spread it out on the bed, knowing that it would bring her a sense of security and well-being. Finally she changed into her pink silky nightgown, slid into the bed and turned out the lamp. Instantly the room was plunged into utter darkness.
Thank God she wasn’t afraid of the dark. The house was quiet as a tomb and the lilac scent that Aunt Liz loved lingered faintly in the sheets.
This was the same bed that had held her aunt and three little girls on many a stormy night. When the thunder boomed and lightning slashed the skies, Sheri was always the first one to run from the room she shared with Marlene to Aunt Liz’s bed. Marlene would be the second to need to be with them.
Roxy always tried to be tough, but eventually she’d join them and Aunt Liz would tease that she was the pod and they were her three little sweet peas.
If only she had a time machine. Marlene would cast herself back in time, back to this bed with her sisters and Aunt Liz all snuggled together.
If only she could go back to the time before she’d met Matt McGraw, before the whirlwind romance that had bound her in marriage to a monster.
Tears once again burned her eyes and she squeezed them shut, trying desperately not to think, not to feel. Despite her desire to the contrary, memories rushed through her, memories that had been stuffed in a box, but had been released when she’d told Frank about her marriage to Matt.
Every slap, each punch she’d endured from him was emblazoned in her brain. Every derogatory word he’d ever said to her was branded on an endless loop that played inside her head.
His sin was that he was a wife abuser. And her greatest sin was that she’d stayed too long. She’d known what he was, what he was capable of, and yet she hadn’t left him before he’d pushed her down the stairs and she’d lost the five-month-old baby girl she’d carried inside her.
That was how she’d killed her baby...by being afraid, by being a fool and, ultimately, by staying too long.
Vengeance is mine.
The words whirled around and around in her head. Was it possible that Matt was behind the attack? She knew he owned a handful of guns. Had he harbored a rage toward her that had been triggered by some event or some crazy thought in his head?
She squeezed her eyes more tightly closed and drew in deep breaths of the lilac scent that soothed her, ran her fingers across the pink bedspread.
Frank would get to the bottom of this. She just needed to stay here and be patient and trust that Frank and his team would keep her alive.
* * *
The Avenging Angel sat at his kitchen table and stared out the window at the blackness of night. Rage pulled a bitter taste into the back of his throat.
He’d lost her.
First he’d missed shooting her and now he didn’t know where in the hell she was. He hadn’t even managed to shoot the detective. He frowned and rubbed the center of his forehead, where pressure pulsated with beats of pain.
Anger always gave him a headache. He should just go to bed. There was nothing that could be done tonight to find out where Marlene Marcoli had been stashed. He suspected she might be in Detective Delaney’s home, but he wouldn’t be sure until daylight, when he could stake out the place, maybe get close enough to peek into the windows.
The headache began to abate as a surge of confidence filled him. He’d find her. It might not be tomorrow. It might not be the next day, but sooner or later he’d find Marlene Marcoli and deliver his justice.
When he was finished, Marlene would be dead, Frank Delaney would mourn and the Avenging Angel would dance with happiness.
Chapter 9
Even though it was Sunday morning, by eight Frank was in the police station with his two partners, brainstorming what needed to be done to find out who might want Marlene dead. They all had coffee cups in front of them and a fierce determination to make some kind of headway in the investigation.
Frank had the list of names that Marlene had written down before him on his desk. “Yesterday I called the Pittsburgh police to do another check-in on Marlene’s ex-husband. My contact called me back and told me he still isn’t at home, so my next move where he is concerned is I’ve got somebody trying to hunt down his secretary or assistant to find out where he is. I’m hoping to hear something sometime this morning.”
“Since it’s Sunday, this afternoon might be a good idea to check out the Amish community and the people who sell their goods through the store,” Jimmy said.
Frank nodded. The Amish would have church this morning, but on Sundays they didn’t work in the fields, but rather observed the day by visiting friends and neighbors and celebrating family and community. “I’ll plan on heading out there around two or three this afternoon, even though I’m relatively sure it’s probably a dead end.”
“Why would Marlene think her ex-husband might be involved in any of this?” Steve asked. “I mean
, he’s a judge, not exactly the usual type of man who would be part of trying to kill anyone.”
Frank hated keeping secrets from his partners, but he also knew that if he shared the sordid details of Matt’s abuse of Marlene with Steve, Steve would probably tell Roxy, and Marlene had been clear that she didn’t want her sisters to know about what she’d endured during her two-year marriage.
“He’s just a person of interest because he was the last man Marlene had any kind of a relationship with,” Frank said. “I’m checking out any potential suspects, you know, leaving no stone unturned.”
“Speaking of unturned stones, I think we’ve definitely hit a wall in Liz’s disappearance. We’ve turned over all the stones we can think of and have come up with nothing,” Steve said and then took a sip of coffee.
“It’s pretty much up to the search team now,” Jimmy added. “Hopefully they’ll find something in one of the mountain cabins to either give us clues or give us closure on what happened to her.”
They were all silent for a moment. Closure would mean either finding Liz alive or finding her body, and Frank knew all of them believed that was what might be found.
“Where is Michael Arello on your person-of-interest list?” Steve asked.
Frank reared back in his chair as he thought about the young man who had confessed to trashing Marlene’s apartment, but had denied having anything else to do with her. “To be honest, I don’t know. When I questioned him about the note she found and he denied leaving it, my gut instinct was that he was telling me the truth, but I’m beginning to question the veracity of my gut instinct.”
“That’s never a good sign,” Jimmy replied. “It still bothers me that both times Michael has been caught stealing, it’s been food for more than one person.”
Frank leaned forward. “Yeah, that bothers me, too.”
“Maybe he’s just feeding buddies who have the munchies,” Steve said.
“Or feeding a woman he’s holding captive somewhere,” Jimmy said darkly.
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