Cal stood up. “I’m going to go take a shower. Sam, great to meet you. I’m looking forward to seeing more of you while I’m here.”
I shifted my attention to Cal. “You’re staying for a while?” Gabe hadn’t told me his brother was coming to visit. But from the looks of things, I wasn’t sure Gabe had been expecting him anyway.
Gabe said, “Cal’s on a time-out from work. He’s going to give us a hand with the construction.”
“Oh. Well thanks, Cal. And don’t leave on my account. I need to get going anyway.”
“Go away, Cal,” Gabe added.
“Gabe!”
Cal laughed. “See you later, Sam.” He headed out of the kitchen and down the hallway to the guest bedroom.
I looked back at Gabe. “That was rude!”
“Come here.” He pulled me down to his lap.
I settled across his thighs, hoping his brother wouldn’t come back out and see us. “What’s going on with you and Cal? Why were you fighting?”
Gabe’s mouth thinned. “We weren’t fighting, we were sparring. And he’s a pigheaded idiot.” Then he grinned. “But I like you on top of me a hell of a lot better than Cal. Now tell me what’s up.”
I studied his face. The trouble with Gabe was that he made everything look easy. But I knew he had to be concerned about his brother. Should I add this weirdness with Grandpa and Shane to it?
“Sam?” He put his hand on my thigh and searched my face.
I faced the truth—I needed Gabe’s input. “You remember this morning I told you that Grandpa’s been all upset about the magician Shane Masters coming to town to perform his spoiler show this weekend?”
He nodded.
I tried to ignore the feel of his warm hand spread out on my thigh just below the line of my skirt. “Well apparently the place where Shane Masters is staying was broken into last night, and someone tried to kill him. One of Shane’s guard dogs bit the attacker and ran him off.” I took a breath.
Gabe didn’t say anything. He waited.
I went on. “Shane told the police that he believes the man who attacked him is a hit man and that Grandpa hired him.” I snapped my mouth shut. Just saying the words was absurd.
“I see. And you saw Vance because he brought your grandfather in for questioning?”
I nodded. “He apparently tracked him down at Jack in the Box and asked him to go down to the station in front of at least half a dozen gossip-loving seniors.”
“What did Shane give Vance to back up his accusation?”
That was Gabe. Coldly logical. “An e-mail. Grandpa sent Shane an e-mail that said something like Shane wasn’t welcome in Lake Elsinore, and a bunch of other people sent him e-mails with a similar message. And when Vance contacted a few of those who e-mailed Shane, they said it was Grandpa’s idea.”
Gabe shook his head. “Barney didn’t hire a hit man, and Vance doesn’t believe he did. He’s fishing. But he must believe that it’s possible someone hired a hit man.”
I was still annoyed about this part. “Grandpa wouldn’t tell Vance where he was last night.”
Gabe’s expression didn’t change. “Do you know where he was?”
I shook my head. “Last night he said he was going out, and I didn’t ask where. I assumed he was playing cards with his friends. I was reading in bed when he got home; he stuck his head in and said good night. I asked him where he was today, but all he would tell me was that he was with a friend and that I should trust him the way he trusts me.” I gritted my teeth and added, “And that I shouldn’t be like my mother.” That had been low.
Gabe smiled. “Barney’s smart. He knows how to keep you out of his business. Maybe he’s got a girlfriend.”
“Why wouldn’t he just tell me?” The idea felt odd, but I wouldn’t be mad. I know how much my grandfather loved my grandmother, but she had been dead over two years now.
Gabe’s face shuttered. “Barney might be wrestling with feelings of guilt or betrayal.”
I studied the way his eyes lost focus and his jaw clenched with his own dark memories—memories of his wife who had loved and adored him. And depended on him so much that she hadn’t had enough of her own strength to save herself and their unborn baby. Did Gabe feel he was betraying her with me?
God knows I didn’t feel I was betraying Trent. Not with Gabe. Trent had cheated on me in our marriage, and I had refused to see it. I had betrayed myself then, but now with Gabe? That wasn’t a betrayal to Trent, that was taking a chance on love. A chance that scared the hell out of me, but it didn’t make me feel guilty.
But Grandpa had been married to Grandma for fifty years, and they had a good marriage. What Gabe said made sense. “You could be right. That would explain why he was angry with me. If he is seeing someone, he might be dealing with some guilt.” I hated that. Had I made him feel that way? I looked up at Gabe. “So what do I do?”
“I’ll check with my source in the police department and see what all I can find out. It may be that the hit man theory has no credibility at all.”
I shook my head. “But Vance questioned Grandpa.”
Gabe smiled. “Because Vance is very smart. Didn’t you say that this Shane Masters is pretty well known? This way Vance can show he’s taking Mr. Masters’s problems seriously. But it might have just been a simple break-in or something like that. Even a jealous girlfriend, or the husband of a girlfriend—any number of scenarios.”
My shoulders dropped in relief. “You mean like someone scaring Shane Masters?”
“Could be. Let me get some more information, then we can talk. In the meantime, try to coax Barney into talking about where he was last night.”
I put my hand over his fingers on my thigh and smiled in relief. “Thank you. I know you are worried about your brother, so I appreciate your doing this.”
“Cal will come to his senses. And I’m sure Barney will be fine. As soon as Cal’s done showering, we’re going to get back to the office. What about you?”
“I have to get back. I’m already a half hour past when I told Blaine that I’d be there.” Then I leaned down, putting my mouth on his.
Gabe reacted by wrapping his left arm around my waist and taking his hand from my hold to slide his fingers up my thigh to the edge of my panties. Then he plunged his tongue deep into my mouth. Heat rushed into my body, filling up every crevice. But I also could feel the tension in Gabe.
And that reminded me of his brother. I pulled back from the kiss. Grabbing hold of his wrist, I moved his hand. “Talk to your brother, Gabe. You two are too old to try solving your problems with violence.” I stood up.
He grinned at me. “You’re the one that attacked him.”
I glared down at him. “A slight miscalculation.”
“And funny as hell.”
“Try to grow up before you get to work, Pulizzi.” I turned and left.
Driving to work, I was still puzzling over Gabe and his brother. Had they been fighting? Or were they just messing around? Gabe was a very physical man, though with me his physical side ran to sex, or touching. He was never violent. Cal had been in a fight, and Gabe mentioned he was on a time-out from work, so what was going on?
Why didn’t Gabe just tell me?
I didn’t know the answer. I passed the lake, then veered right on Lakeshore and left on Limited, catching sight of the police station. That reminded me of Grandpa. That was even more confusing. Why would Shane claim Grandpa hired a hit man? The more I thought about it, the more convinced I was that Grandpa knew Shane.
More secrets. It was enough to give me a complex. So when my cell phone rang, I took my eyes off the road for a second to stare at my purse suspiciously. Now what? I came to the stop sign at Main Street and reached over to the passenger seat to get my phone out of my purse. The screen told me it was Rosy. I took a deep breath, put the phone to my ear, and turned right on Main Street. “Hi, Rosy. Grandpa is fine.”
“Glad to hear it. Sam, we need to meet.”
That c
omment struck me right in the center of my chest. Rosy had been a friend of both my grandparents for decades. And she had stayed good friends with Grandpa after Grandma died, just being there as a calm and steady friend. So the distress or worry in her voice urged me to agree to see her. “I’m on my way to the office, how’s that?”
“How about McDonald’s? Can you stop by there on your way to the office?”
Why not? My whole day was shot. Besides, I wasn’t going to get any work done with Heart Mates currently a construction zone. “Sure, Rosy, I’ll be there in five minutes.”
“I’m already here,” she said, and cut the connection.
That was the efficient side of Rosy that I knew well, and it also meant that she had something serious on her mind. Quickly, I dialed the office.
“Heart Mates.”
“Hi, Blaine. I have to make another stop before I get to work. Everything okay there?”
“Nothing’s on fire.”
I took that as a yes. “Okay, I have my cell phone if you need me.”
“Now I can sleep nights.” He hung up.
Sheesh. A little respect would be nice.
The McDonald’s on Mission Trail has historical pictures of Lake Elsinore dating back over a hundred years. They included the railroad, Main Street, and the Chimes that once boasted of hot springs used for therapy and relaxation. The Chimes has been renovated and still stands on Graham Street, but the hot springs were closed. McDonald’s always struck me as an odd place to hang historical pictures, but on the other hand, more people would probably see pictures of Lake Elsinore’s history in a busy fast-food place than in a museum.
Rosy sat below the picture of old Main Street, wearing a blue top stamped with huge white flowers, munching on a hash brown patty and drinking a large cup of coffee. I ordered a cup of coffee and joined her. Lord, I was tired.
“Hi, Rosy. So what’s up?”
After patting her mouth with a paper napkin, she met my gaze and said, “I want to hire you.”
Surprised, I leaned my elbows on the small rectangular table. “Hire me? Or are you looking to sign on as a client at my dating service?” Maybe she was lonely? Rosy had lived alone since her husband died a decade ago. She regularly hung out with the seniors in Lake Elsinore, did some volunteer reading tutoring in the middle school, and met up with her old friends at the university regularly. But even though she had a full life, she might long for a little romance.
Rosy moved her coffee aside with her blue-veined hand. She had her short, neat fingernails polished a shell pink with sparkles. “I want to hire you to investigate Shane Masters to find out exactly which magician’s act he’ll spoil this Saturday night.”
I didn’t know what to say. In the last several years, Shane had made a huge splash by revealing the secrets of the magic behind the acts of magicians. It was usually a magician who was breaking out into big success. But why would Rosy try to find out whose act Shane was spoiling? Trying to think this out, I started with the obvious. “Rosy, he keeps the identity of the magician a secret. No one knows until Shane goes on and starts the show. And then he never says the magician’s name, he always just says things like, ‘This act is performed by a well-known magician.’ And of course, it’s all from a single magician’s show. It’s the media that names the magician.” It was ridiculously clever. The damage to that magician was very real, while Shane gained more and more fame.
Rosy nodded and started twisting her napkin. “I know, but Sam, this is our town. Someone must know. Surely you can find out. We will pay your fee, whatever it is.”
An uneasy sensation skittered down my back. “We? Who is the other part of the we?”
I heard the slap of rubber sandals on the floor just as a new voice said, “I’m the other part of we.”
I looked up at a tallish woman in her twenties wearing a pair of baggy jeans, flip-flops, and a Harley T-shirt. She held a large bottle of soda and had dark circles beneath her hazel green eyes. Her short, spiky, black hair looked tortured by finger combing. I recognized her. “Nikki.”
Rosy swiveled out of her chair and stood up to hug Nikki.
In the meantime, my mind reeled. Nikki Eden was Rosy’s granddaughter and an up-and-coming magician. She was building her reputation by doing high-cost illusions that intrigued and mystified audiences. In her opening illusions, Nikki rode a motorcycle onto the stage, then she vanished the motorcycle. It got the audience’s attention right away. Combined with girl-power attitude expressed with her leather stage wardrobe and expertise with a whip, Nikki was heading for hard-earned fame. “Nikki, what are you doing here? What’s this all about?” My brain was jumbled with possibilities. And I couldn’t help but wonder if any of this had to do with Shane’s accusations against Grandpa.
Rosy sat down, and Nikki slid into the seat next to her. “Hi, Sam. I’ll give you the short version—Shane and I had an affair.”
Cripes. I was astonished that smart and savvy Nikki would fall for someone like Shane Masters. I hadn’t met Shane, but Nikki had to have known who he was when she’d met him. “What happened?”
She shrugged. “Hormones, pheromones, chemistry, brain damage, it’s hard to explain. Probably arrogance,” she added. She unscrewed the cap from her bottle of soda and chugged a healthy dose. “I need the caffeine and sugar.” She flashed a grin, then went on. “I thought I could outsmart him. I arranged to meet him, planning to find out his weakness. Every magician is afraid of him, of becoming his next target. I was trying to convince some of them that we had to stop being afraid and stand up to these spoilers.”
A small smile pulled at my mouth. That was so Nikki—not afraid of anything. Her parents had divorced when she was a teenager, and she’d turned into a hellion. At Rosy’s request, Grandpa had taken her to one of his magic shows, and she’d been hooked. She held on to her rebellious edge, but she took to magic with a passion. “And then?” I asked.
She glanced at Rosy, then said, “He turned on the bad-boy charm, and I fell for the illusion he created. I thought he loved me. We had a secret affair.”
It made more sense now. They were both rebels and edgy. And Nikki was still young, around twenty-six, while Shane had to be closer to forty, judging from the recent picture I’d seen of him. “So he broke up with you?”
Her jawline, cheekbones, and nose all had knife-cut edges. The memory sharpened her face even more. “Yep. Right after I told him that I loved him and wanted him to give up doing spoilers so we could develop an act together.” She picked up a paper napkin and unfolded it, then pulled it through her fingers like a scarf trick. “Then he told me to get out of his hotel room or he’d have security escort me out.”
Ouch. What a bastard. But that made me look at Nikki in another way. “I bet you were furious.” Furious enough to hire a hit man?
She dropped the napkin and drank some more of her soda. “If I wanted to kill Shane, I wouldn’t hire someone to do it for me, I’d do it myself.” She fixed her tired but vivid gaze on me.
Gotta respect that, I thought to myself.
“Nikki,” Rosy said, reaching over to put her hand on Nikki’s arm in a calming gesture.
“Sorry, Grandma.” She smiled at Rosy, her face softening. Then she shifted back to me. “As soon as Grandma called and said Barney had been arrested, I got in my car and started driving.”
“From Vegas?” She had a show in one of the newer casinos.
She nodded. “We knew it had something to do with Shane Masters. It just had to. Grandma called my cell an hour or so ago to tell me that we were right, that Shane Masters accused Barney of hiring a hit man.” She twisted her mouth in disgust. “God knows there must be a long line of people who want to kill him.”
I tried to stay on track. “So you think that Shane might have used your affair to learn about your illusions so he could reveal them in his show this weekend? That’s what you want me to find out?” And how would I do that?
Nikki nodded.
Rosy added, “
And since not many high-profile magicians vanish a motorcycle in their act, we thought that maybe you could see if Shane has a motorcycle in his props.”
Boy, nothing like an answer to my unspoken questions. “That’s a possibility. Or I could ask around to see if anyone else has seen one, or knows if an illusion involves one.” My mind raced along at a dangerous speed. “But what if I do find out Shane’s spoiling your show, then what? How will you stop him?” Nikki had real reason to hate Shane. I had to be careful. If Gabe let me take this case, it was his PI agency’s reputation that was on the line.
Calmly, Nikki said, “I won’t stop him. I can’t. But I do have a little revenge planned.”
Uh-oh. “What kind of revenge?”
She smiled and ran a hand through her wilting spikes. “I can’t tell you my plan. I’ve signed a confidentiality agreement. But it’s legal.”
Confidentiality agreement? What kind of things required that? My curiosity bubbled and oozed over. “Can you tell me anything?” I thought that might have sounded like begging.
She shook her head. “I’m not going to risk my chance by breaking the agreement. But I would like you to keep trying to find out whose show Shane is spoiling. Even if it’s not mine, I want to know. And if some magician is trying to have him killed, I want to know that too.”
I narrowed my gaze and studied both women. Did Rosy know what Nikki had signed the agreement for? Maybe. Her face was determined. And Nikki? She looked dead tired, but a resolute tenacity was stamped over the fatigue.
I believed them. But I still had one problem. “I want to help, but Grandpa has asked me not to interfere. He insists he can handle Shane and his accusations that Grandpa hired a hit man.”
“Stubborn old coot,” Rosy said, then reached across the table to take my hand. “Barney didn’t tell you, did he? He and Shane have reason to hate each other.”
4
“So Grandpa does know Shane.” I knew he had to. Otherwise Shane’s accusations didn’t make any sense. My anxiety pumped up. What was Grandpa and Shane’s story? Why hadn’t he told me?
Thrilled To Death Page 4