by Deborah Camp
Car’s with me. Busy now. Hang tight.
Trudy stared at the screen and the words seemed to pulsate. Busy? Doing what? She pressed the button on the side of the phone and the screen went dark. She dropped it onto the table beside her, not liking it anymore. What was he up to? Where the heck was he that he was so damned busy he couldn’t . . ! An answer blasted through her and she hoped to God she was wrong.
Hurrying to the television in the bedroom, she grabbed the remote off the top of it and switched it on. Frantically punching in numbers, she finally found the right channel. A commercial was ending. She sat on the bed and waited, tapping one bare foot on the carpet.
And then, there she was in all her platinum blond glory – Sissy Franklin. And there he was in all his black-suited smolder – Levi Wolfe.
“We’re back,” Sissy announced with a big, beauty pageant smile. She looked to be in her thirties. She had a voluptuous figure and wore necklines to show off her cleavage. A few years ago, she’d been a hotshot prosecutor in Austin, Texas.
“Tonight our special guest is the always fascinating Levi Wolfe,” Sissy said, glancing down at her notes. “He’s coming to us tonight from Florida where he’s chasing down a vicious serial murderer.”
The picture divided in half to show Sissy on one side and Levi on the other. His features were set in his “I’m a mysterious, paranormal, sex god” visage that he reserved for TV audiences. Trudy hated that particular mask of his because she knew it for what it was – a façade. She guessed that she’d always known that about him.
“Before we cut away for those commercials, you were telling us about how serial killers keep souvenirs,” Sissy said. “Do think the madman who is murdering women in the Keys is doing that?”
Oh, no, he didn’t! Trudy stared at the television, her mouth dropping open. That two-timing rat!
“I wouldn’t be surprised if he does,” Levi said, lowering his brows to make his eyes seem even darker, his expression more ominous. “It’s sick, but most of them do take something that belongs to the victim. It gives them a perverse thrill.”
“That sends chills through me,” Sissy said, rubbing her hands up and down her arms and, in the process, squeezing her breasts together to show more cleavage. Could Levi see her? Trudy wondered. Of course, it didn’t matter. She was fairly confident that he’d not only seen Sissy’s ample breasts but they’d also been in his hands and mouth on more than one occasion.
“Are you confident that you can assist the police in finding this monster?” Sissy asked, her blue eyes wide with hope.
“Sissy, this person will be stopped,” Levi said, his voice low, each word clipped for full effect. “I’ve made this my top priority. But, I could use the help of your viewers.”
“Of course! What can we do for you, Levi? Anything.” Sissy leaned closer to the camera, her pink lips shiny with gloss.
Trudy placed her hand over her mouth, afraid she might barf. The woman was shameless.
“If anyone out there knows anything about this case, please come forward. We showed that sketch earlier of the woman we’re calling Zelda. If anyone has seen her or even heard about her, please call the Key West police. It’s imperative. These murders must end tonight.”
“Absolutely, Levi!” Sissy’s eyes were bright with excitement – or maybe with raging hormones. “Have you talked to the spirits of the murdered women?”
“I have.” Levi nodded and sadness blanketed his features. Trudy wondered if he was putting on an act. Was this all just for show?
“Did they know their attacker?”
“No, I don’t think so.”
“But Zelda knows him?”
“Zelda is involved, yes, and she could be in danger.”
“Levi, my viewers are fantastic and I know they will come through for you.”
The sadness lifted from him and he nodded. “Thanks, Sissy. I appreciate that.” He looked directly at the camera and gave his trademarked, all-out, dazzling smile. Trudy was amazed that the television screen didn’t melt.
She aimed the remote at the TV and switched it off. “Bastard,” she hissed. She leapt up and paced, fighting off the stab of jealousy and clutching, instead, to her anger. Why did he sneak off like that? Did he hold no regard for her feelings whatsoever? She jumped when the cell phone rang in the next room. Was that him already?
Bounding into the kitchen again, she grabbed the phone and stared at the screen. Tom Sinclair.
She pressed the phone to her ear. “Hello?” Nothing. It rang again. “Oh, for pity sake! How do I answer this stupid thing?” Punching the screen over and over again and not able to make the phone stop ringing, she paused and tried to remember Levi’s instructions. Oh. Right. She ran her index finger across the screen to unlock the phone and then tried again. “Hello?”
“Hi, there! It’s your friendly neighborhood detective.”
She walked into the bedroom and sat on the bed again. “Hi, Tom.”
“You busy?”
“I was watching TV.”
“Yeah, I saw Wolfe on Sissy Franklin just now. On her show, I mean.”
Despite her sour mood, Trudy had to grin, sarcastically.
“Are you there with him?”
“No. I don’t like to appear on those shows.” And he didn’t ask her to go. She was just his fuck buddy.
“Roger, Dodger. Do you like to eat? Because I’m starving and I could use a pretty dinner companion.”
A refusal rose automatically to her lips, but she stifled it. Rebellion blazed through her. “Yes! I’m ravenous!”
“Well, then I’m one lucky guy. Where are you staying? I’ll pick you up.”
“My RV is parked at the Stirring Palms on Crescent Key. Do you know it?”
“I sure do. Back when I was a rookie, I set up a mighty fine speed trap near that place. Let’s see . . . it’s eight. I’ll be there in about half an hour.”
Trudy nodded, listening intently. “I’ll be ready.” She pressed the button on the side of the phone to increase the speaker volume because she had barely been able to hear Tom. Punching the button a couple more times, she slid the phone into her purse. How long would it take Levi to drive back here? Then she frowned. What did she care? But that was the problem. She did care.
###
After dinner at a nearby restaurant, Trudy stood outside her RV and knew that Tom Sinclair was going to kiss her. With a deft move that surprised her, she was able to turn her cheek just as Tom moved in to kiss her on the mouth. He froze, clearly disappointed.
“Was it something I said?” he whispered against her cheek.
“I had a nice time. Thank you for dinner.”
He straightened away from her. “You’re not going to invite me in for a nightcap?”
“Not tonight. It’s late . . . after midnight. Maybe next time?” She rested a hand on his arm, then turned and fitted her key in the lock on the RV’s door. “I’m beat. It’s been a long day.”
“Guess I’ll take a rain check. Be sure to let me know how it goes tomorrow with your museum search.”
“I will.” She opened the door and climbed the two steps, then turned to look at Tom’s expectant expression. “Good night, Tom. See you soon.”
He grinned. “You can count on it.”
She went inside and closed the door. Standing in the living room, she watched out the windows as Tom got into his sporty car and drove away. She took Mouse outside for a few minutes and looked toward the cabins. The Nissan was back and there were no lights inside the cabin. Good, he’s asleep. He sure had made it back fast from Miami! She had assumed she would arrive at the RV park before him.
She took Mouse inside and put her in her crate for the night, smiling when the dog circled three times on the cushion before finally settling down.
The rapping on the door swung Trudy around and she felt her eyes stretch wide. “Who’s there?” Was Tom back?
“Open the door, Trudy.”
She sucked in a breath. Crap
! Levi.
Responses flitted through her mind. Go away, you bother me. I’ll see you in the morning. I’m not decent. She shrugged them all off, knowing they would be useless against him. She could hear the heavy resolve in his voice. He would not be denied.
Unlocking the door, she opened it to a frowning Levi. The sight of her changed his frown into a dark scowl. He was still wearing his dress shirt and suit pants, but the jacket, tie, and vest were gone. His hair was mussed as if he’d been running his hands through it, and there was a bruised, haunted look in his eyes that she found very disturbing.
“You went out with Sinclair?” he asked without a how-do-you-do.
“Yes. We had dinner.” She jutted one hip. “Do you need something, Levi?”
“Yes, I need to come in for a minute.” He took both steps at once, making her back up or be run over. Pulling the door shut behind him, he looked right and left, his eyes taking in the RV’s interior. It was the first time he’d been inside it.
Trudy moved toward the living room area, thinking that the motor home had never seemed so confining before. Levi loomed large in it.
“I finally realized that you might have gone out with him, so I called him, but he had forwarded calls to his work phone at the station.”
“Why did you call him instead of me?” she asked, irritated that he had tried to phone Tom. Who did he think he was . . . her lover? Her man? Well, he was, but he didn’t want to be, so he could damn well quit acting as if he had some claim on her.
“I have been calling you all evening – and leaving texts – and e-mailing.”
Blinking at him, stunned, Trudy shook her head. “I didn’t hear anything . . . I must have . . . I guess I messed something up.”
“May I see it, please?”
“The phone?”
He tipped his head to one side in a gesture that was becoming familiar to her. “Isn’t that what we’re talking about?”
“Um . . . yes.” She grabbed her purse off the end table and fished the phone out of it. “Here you go.”
He examined it and nodded. “Yes, you’ve silenced it. It’s fairly useless this way other than to be used as a goddamned doorstop.”
She winced, only then realizing that he was fuming. He was really, really, royally pissed. He pressed his thumb against the side of the phone and it beeped, the volume of the beep increasing with each flex of his thumb.
“I’m switching on the GPS tracker, too. It will pinpoint your location – or, rather, this phone’s location. It’s a safety precaution that can come in handy. You’ll also be able to see where I am.”
Trudy swallowed the tickle of nerves in her throat. “I didn’t realize . . . What did you want?”
“I wanted you to answer me. I wanted to be sure you were all right.” His voice was so gentle that it was chilling. “There’s a serial murderer roaming around here, you know.”
“Right. Sorry if I worried you.”
“Sorry if you worried me?” he repeated, ever so softly. “Wasn’t that your goal?”
“My goal?” she asked. Was he accusing her of silencing her phone on purpose just to annoy him? She planted a hand on her hip. “No, it was not! It was a mistake.”
“I agree. Going to dinner with Sinclair without extending me the courtesy of a note or a call or a goddamned smoke signal was a colossal mistake!” His jaw flexed with bunched muscles as he gritted his teeth.
“And leaving here and appearing on that show tonight without a note or a call or a goddamned smoke signal was a colossal mistake, too!” she bit out at him.
He stared at her, eyes shooting blue fire. “You knew I was going to be on that show.”
“I knew because you told Tom Sinclair about it and I happened to overhear your conversation, but I didn’t know that you were going to be on it tonight! I didn’t know where you were or what you were doing until I happened to see you on television. I texted you and you texted back that you were too busy to deal with me. So, climb down off your high horse, Wolfe. You’re going to give yourself a nosebleed.”
He drew in a deep, deep breath, banking the fiery anger in his eyes. “I didn’t think you cared when I was going to be on the program. You said you didn’t want to be part of it.”
“I didn’t want to be part of it. But you could have told me you were leaving.”
“You were supposed to be taking a shower and resting. I didn’t want to disturb you.”
“When did you know that you were going to tape the remote for Sissy’s show?”
Wariness flitted across his face. “A couple of days ago.”
She gave him a tight smile. “Right.”
He spread out his hands. “You didn’t want to have anything to do with the show, Trudy, so why do you give a damn when I was going to be on it?”
“You should have told me where you were going,” she shot back.
He raised an index finger to stop her from saying anything else and his eyes were suddenly ablaze again. “And you should have told me where you were going. Women are being killed, Trudy. Women like you!” Pivoting away from her, he pushed his fingers through his hair. “Not answering your phone. Not answering your e-mail. Ignoring my texts. I was fucking scared for you!”
What he said and what he didn’t say curbed her sharp tongue and squeezed her heart. Trudy stared at his broad back, her mouth going slack and emotion tightening her throat. He hadn’t insisted on that new cell phone just so that they could communicate about the case – although it would make it easier. He wanted her to have it so that he could be sure she was safe. He did care for her. Damn him.
“Did you catch any of the show?” he asked, his voice low and strained as if he were trying hard not to shout at her.
“Just the end of it when you were telling Sissy about serial killers collecting souvenirs. That really chapped me.”
“Why?”
She gave him a dubious look, then shook her head to dismiss that whole discussion. A different thought struck her as she recalled feeling something during her dinner with Tom – a sense of urgency, of something not being quite right. She had kept thinking about Levi and had wondered if he was thinking about her. “Did you try reaching out to me – you know, psychically?”
“No!” He glared over his shoulder at her. “I’ve told you that I can’t read your mind, Trudy.”
“I know, but I thought that maybe . . .”
“If I could have reached you that way it would mean that you were dead. So, no, I didn’t give it a try.”
“Oh.” She swallowed, wishing she hadn’t gone there. “I didn’t think about that.”
“I did,” he snapped. “Endlessly.”
She rolled her eyes, surrendering. “I’m sorry I worried you, Levi. It was not my goal. I was hungry and Tom happened to call and ask me out to dinner. Of course, I accepted.”
“Of course,” he repeated in a sarcastic way that made her want to strike out again.
“You could have asked me to dinner, you know,” she said. “In fact, you should have. You should have told me you were driving to Miami – I assume that’s where you went for that remote – and asked me to come along and we would grab dinner on the way. But you didn’t want me there.”
He turned sideways to look at her. “You told me you didn’t want to participate in the show.”
“I didn’t!”
“Then what the hell are you talking about? Why would I ask you to join me when you made it abundantly clear that you weren’t interested? You aren’t making any sense.”
“You should have checked in with me. You could have called me and told me you were headed for Miami. You aren’t the only one who might worry, you know.”
He turned to face her, imposing in the narrow space. “Okay, damn it! I’m sorry I didn’t tell you I was driving to Miami.” He waited a beat. “Now you’re supposed to tell me that you’re sorry you had dinner with Sinclair and you had a lousy time and you wouldn’t let him kiss you good night.”
She
felt a smile tug at her lips. “I’m sorry I didn’t let you know I was going out to dinner.”
“And?” he prompted.
“And Tom was a good dinner companion.”
“And?” His eyes darkened.
“And he did kiss me good night. On the cheek,” she added quickly when she saw the fury in his eyes. She brushed a finger against the right side of her face. “Right here.”
“Right where, exactly?” He stepped closer so that she had to tip back her head to see his face. He was suddenly so solemn!
“Here.” She touched her fingers to the spot.
“I’m going to erase that kiss,” he stated.
“What?” she asked, looking up into his face and laughing nervously. Oh. He wasn’t kidding!
“I’m going to obliterate it.”
Her mouth went dry and she couldn’t have moved if a bomb went off right beside her. Passion uncoiled in her belly and spread down between her thighs as he dipped his head and his lips hovered above the spot on her cheek.
“Did you say . . . right here?”
“Yes.” She could barely make a sound, her heart thundered and her knees suddenly began shaking.
His lips touched her cheek with feather lightness. The tip of his tongue wet the spot and then he sucked gently before his mouth lifted. “All gone,” he whispered against her fevered skin. But he wasn’t finished. His lips found the spot again and then slipped sideways until they covered hers. She moaned and brought her hands up to clutch his forearms, using his strength to keep her upright as his kiss flamed from longing to voracious in the space of a breath.
He framed her head between his hands, holding her still so that his tongue could slip inside and ravage her mouth. She moaned again, her emotions whirling, swirling around inside her head and then spiraling down to her belly. He gave an answering moan and rocked his hips into her, making her blazingly aware of what she was doing to him. And, oh! What he was doing to her. How could this be happening to her? So fast! Around men, she’d always moved slowly. But not with this man. With Levi, he couldn’t move fast enough to suit her. She wanted him naked and inside her. Not now. But ten minutes ago.
When he lifted his mouth from hers, she was breathless. So was he. He leaned his forehead against hers and closed his eyes. “I don’t want to share you, Trudy.” His hands fell away from her and he stepped back. Then took another step back, as if for good measure. “I won’t share you.”