Pippa shook her head frantically. “No way, Jose. Find me an acrobat or a longshoreman, but keep me away from your country club friends and the silk tie crowd. They’re all vampires. You should have seen Natalie Whatever-She-Calls- Herself-Now. I’d like to put her in a sack with Taylor and watch them go at it, fang to fang.”
Meg laughed, a real laugh and not one of those forced imitations she’d used so much lately. Pippa relaxed and tried to summon an even more dramatic characterization of Seth’s ex-wife. She hated to see Meg worrying, but she was beyond helping her now. She’d already pushed Seth as far as she could without tumbling over with him. Probably into the first available bed. Pushing for the printing plant was out of the question.
“I’ve seen her in action,” Meg admitted. “She’s taken up residence in the bed-and-breakfast down the road. Jean quoted her triple the going rate after Miss Bitch demanded silk sheets and coffee served in bed in the mornings. And Jean’s rates are ridiculous to start with.”
“Natalie is staying in town?” Astounded, Pippa sat back in her chair and took a deep draw on her coffee as she contemplated this new development. “You wouldn’t happen to know if she’s still a rich bitch, would you?”
Meg watched her suspiciously. “What scheme are you dreaming up now, Phillippa Cochran? You can’t possibly want that poor man to get back together with a viper like that, can you?”
Pippa grinned. “So Seth’s a ‘poor mam’ now, is he’? When did that happen?”
Embarrassed, Meg squirmed in her chair. “Well, he sent this insurance adjuster out to examine the damage to Mikey’s chair. At least, he said he was from the insurance company. We didn’t file any claim. We figured it was the school board’s property. But the guy said Seth had liability coverage, and they’d replace the chair. The one they sent looks just like Chad’s.”
The heat in Pippa’s belly flamed on full force, and the damned man wasn’t even in sight. Seth Wyatt was a heartless, thoughtless monster, right?
Pippa sighed and gave up that particular fight. “He’s warped, that’s all I can say. He hates this town and everyone in it, for no good reason that I know of. But every once in a while, just occasionally...” She drew out her hand expressively. “Sometimes, he’s almost human. Almost.”
“Cracked,” Meg agreed. “He doesn’t operate in a normal fashion anyway. Maybe he doesn’t know how.”
“I think that’s it,” Pippa said gloomily. “Which doesn’t help matters any. Anyway, what I started to say was that if Natalie still has money, we could appeal to her poisonous instincts. Maybe she even has maternal ones, who knows? Pull her into your sewing circle or whatever, brag about how Seth’s renovating the gym for the kids, wistfully mention his obstinacy about the swimming pool, and see what happens.”
Meg giggled. “Think she’ll show her checkbook out of spite? Pippa, you’re devious. You could be the best thing that’s hit this town in years.”
Pippa shook her head. “Nah, I’m just new and don’t know any better. Sometimes it takes someone with a fresh outlook to see the possibilities.”
“Hmpf. I bet Natalie isn’t seeing any possibilities right now. But I’ll call Lisa and see if she knows Natalie. I like the idea of warring factions doing good instead of evil.”
The doorbell rang and Meg started up from her chair to answer it. Pippa pushed her back down. “I can get it. You just sit here and dream up ways of bringing Lisa and Natalie together and into your clutches.”
“My clutches,” Meg snorted as Pippa headed for the front door. “If I had any clutches at all, I’d use them to wring Seth Wyatt’s neck,” she muttered to herself. Pippa didn’t deserve to be used and tossed away like a toy by a spoiled child. Pippa was a keeper. Any man in his right mind should know that. Of course, that was assuming Seth was in his right mind.
The doorbell continued ringing, more furiously than earlier. Puzzled, Meg glanced up to see what was taking Pippa so long.
Pippa stood in the doorway, her usually rosy cheeks paler than the low-fat cream in the pitcher on the table.
“Billy,” she whispered. “It’s Billy at the door.” She sat down and let the bell chimes echo.
* * *
An hour later, Meg watched in mild astonishment as four large men paced and lounged around her very tiny living room. Or at least, one paced. The others just stayed out of his way.
She’d at least had the sense to send Pippa upstairs to entertain the children for a while. She should have the sense to do the same herself. All this testosterone raging in one confined place would rattle the plaster off the wall. But she couldn’t relinquish her fascination with the curly-haired man stalking back and forth across her Berber carpet.
She’d never thought of Seth Wyatt as a particularly tidy man, but he was in a decidedly disheveled state right now. He looked as if he’d just crawled out from under a demolished house. Plaster dust sprinkled his turtleneck, and his worn jeans had a rip in the back pocket. He didn’t wear socks, and his mangled docksiders flapped up and down in time to his irritated pacing. Normally, she’d think those the outward signs of a worried man who’d just run out of the house at a frantic cry for help. But Seth Wyatt emanated vibrations of anger and frustration so strong, she was surprised her walls were still standing. She checked the plaster again just to be certain.
“He tracked her clear across the country!” Seth shouted, as if the room’s other occupants weren’t a mere foot or two away. “If that’s not stalking, what is?”
“A man’s entitled to patch it up with his girlfriend,” the police detective said mildly. “All he did was ring the doorbell. He left peacefully enough after we arrived. It’s not enough to warrant an arrest.”
“What if Pippa gets a restraining order?”
Meg smiled proudly at her husband’s sound suggestion. George might be balding and slightly paunchy, but he displayed more calm intelligence than any other man in the room. She loved him for his practicality, not his volcanic emotions.
The kind Seth Wyatt displayed now.
“Restraining order!” he shouted, clenching his fists and glaring at the circle of men. “Have any of you ever heard of a maniac stopping his depredations because of a restraining order!”
“It gives us reason to arrest him if he should try to see Miss Cochran again,” the detective replied with a trace of irritation.
“And then what do you do? Throw his ass out of state? Pat him on the back and say, ‘No, no, bad boy’?”
The tall black man watching out the window shifted nervously and shot his employer a warning look. “The man’s got a point, Wyatt. Listen to it.”
“Dammit, Doug...”
Meg raised her eyebrows in incredulity as the furious tornado halted his pacing and visibly curbed his temper at his chauffeur’s warning. It was akin to watching a storm halting in mid-downpour. She threw Doug Brown a swift look, but he’d returned to watching out the window. Very strange dynamics.
Seth shoved his hand through his hair. “All right, I assume you questioned him?”
The detective shrugged. “He’s a cop. He knows the ropes. He’s sticking to his story that he simply wants to make up with his girlfriend. He doesn’t know anything about any package from Kentucky. He’s pretty convincing.”
“Most abusive men are,” a weary voice replied from the stairway.
Meg didn’t like seeing Pippa pale and defeated. Pippa was a fighter, a street scrapper from way back. Billy had taken something out of her friend that Meg couldn’t find a way to replace. She shot a look of hope in Seth’s direction.
He looked grim and more frightening than his two-ton chauffeur. Meg couldn’t discern anything soft or affectionate in those sharp-planed features. Seth looked as capable of snapping Pippa’s head off as of protecting her. So much for that little fantasy.
Both George and the detective started to speak, but Seth ignored them. Eyes widening, Meg watched as all that intensity suddenly shifted to Pippa, and Seth drifted in Pippa’s direction
as if pulled by a magnet.
This couldn’t be happening, she told herself. Men who looked as grim and stony as Seth did not drift toward women. They threw them down on the floor and banged them maybe. They punched men in the face for looking at them. But they did not drift. They did not lower their voices or visibly relax just because a woman walked into the room.
Seth did.
The threatening bunch of his shoulders and biceps eased. His fists unclenched. His tight expression warmed. Meg thought she’d faint if anyone looked at her the way Seth was looking at Pippa. Hunger wasn’t even the beginning of it. She threw a hasty glance at George, but he was looking at his watch and not even noticing. Men!
“The car’s outside,” Seth said softly. “Let’s go home.”
Home. A definite husbandly word to use. Meg knitted her brow as Pippa nodded without arguing. Pippa always argued, and Seth Wyatt had just opened up a can full of arguments. This was Not Good.
“Miss Cochran, if you’re feeling threatened, I recommend you take out a restraining order.”
“That and a cup of tea should do the trick, Detective,” Pippa replied mockingly, then immediately softened. “I’m sorry, I’ll do that. It will at least give you the opportunity to do your job.”
The policeman nodded curtly. “Without any other evidence of a threat, that’s all we can do.”
Pippa cut off Seth’s growl simply by touching his arm. “I left no visible trail, Detective. Billy had to use his connections in the department or some other influence to trace me out here. You might want to check with some of my friends back home to see if they’re all right.”
The detective nodded, snapped his ballpoint closed, and stuck it in his pocket. “I’ve got their names. I’ll have to check with your police department first. It’s not my jurisdiction.”
Pippa didn’t smile. “The police back there are his friends, not mine. You won’t get far in that direction.”
There wasn’t much anyone could say to that, Meg noted. The policeman left. George pressed a worried kiss to his wife’s cheek, shook Seth’s hand, and hurried back to his store. Doug ambled out to start the car.
“I’ll be fine, Meg,” Pippa said bracingly, hugging her. “I probably just overreacted.”
“She’ll be fine, Meg,” Seth repeated with much more assurance. “I intend to see to it personally.”
Meg heard the threat and wondered how Pippa could not. Smiling for the first time since Billy’s appearance, she stood up and held out her hand to Seth. “I’ll hold you to that. And you may let it be known that I’ll cut the heart out of any man who hurts her. Understood?”
Seth winced, but a grin flickered around the corners of his mouth. “Understood. I want you in my corner if it comes to a showdown.”
Ignoring this exchange, Pippa sailed for the door. “The two of you can share your caveman tactics some other time. I’m hungry.”
Seth did grin then, and Meg practically swooned at the sight. Damn, but insane men shouldn’t have smiles with enough voltage to fuel a power plant.
Pippa didn’t stand a chance.
***
“I want you inside the house, Doug. Get extra security for the perimeters, maybe staff that guardhouse.”
“For pity’s sake, Seth!” Pippa cried, her neck aching from watching him prowling the carpet. “Billy’s just a good ol’ boy, not a demented criminal mastermind. We don’t need Batman and Robin.”
“Shut up, Pippa,” Doug replied brusquely. “I been tryin’ to get him to do this for years. There’s warped people out there and no knowin’ when one will turn up on the doorstep. Even Stephen King’s been stalked.”
Pippa shut up. It irritated her knowing Seth wouldn’t protect himself but he’d protect her. She didn’t like the role of helpless female. But she didn’t like the idea of anyone harming Seth either. Confused, she just sat tight-lipped and listened.
“The guard at the gate will report to you. Don’t let anyone in you don’t know, and don’t let Pippa out unless you’re with her.”
“That’s it. That does it. That burns the cake. I’m out of here.” Pippa leapt from the couch and aimed for the door.
Seth stepped in front of her. She’d never considered herself particularly small, but when he propped his hands at his waist and flexed all those muscles, he dwarfed her. That wide expanse of black cotton-covered chest was definitely intimidating.
“Don’t do this, Seth,” she warned.
“I have a damned book to finish, a sick kid on my hands, and a mother you brought out here just to make me crazy. I’ll damned well not let anything happen to you until Miss MacGregor returns.”
Anger gave way to amusement at Seth’s odd slant on the world. Pippa tilted her head back to look up at him. “You certainly know how to push all the right buttons, don’t you? And here I thought you had problems with interpersonal communication.”
He tried to look grim. He tightened his formidable jaw and narrowed his eyes to slits. But she recognized the tilt at one corner of his chiseled lips. She crossed her eyes, wrinkled her nose, and stuck out her tongue at him.
He choked on a chuckle. She wiggled her tongue, and he lost restraint. The chuckle emerged as a whoop of laughter.
Unable to see Pippa’s face, Doug shook his head. “You two are fit for an institution. I’m the one outta here.”
Pippa scarcely noticed his passing. Laughter transformed Seth’s face. She could see the child in him, the happy boy, and the dangerously sexy man at the same time. Definitely dangerous. He should have been snatched up and put out of circulation years ago. Only isolation and his defensive attitude had saved him from the clutches of some woman before this.
His laughter turned into a sloppy grin as he watched her. “Careful, Pippa, I haven’t taught you all the kicks yet. I want you fully prepared to take me out when I make my next move on you.”
“A simple ‘no’ won’t suffice?” she asked dryly.
His grin became positively wicked. “Probably not. Remember, I know how to push all your buttons. You just said it yourself.”
“That’s all right. Just remember I can push yours back.”
The grin slipped away from Seth’s face as soon as the door closed behind Pippa. In her presence, he could almost feel as if everything were normal, better than normal, but left alone...
The mention of Miss MacGregor had him reaching for the phone to call Dirk. He’d forgotten that Mac knew the workings of his household. He still couldn’t believe anyone was trying to harm him. The candy was almost certainly Pippa’s imagination, but the bomb was not. Unless he wanted to believe Doug or his mother or Durwood was responsible, he’d have to believe Pippa’s ex had sent the bomb. But he’d forgotten Mac. If anyone had the capability to make a bomb, Mac did.
Or if anyone wanted the information on how to get a bomb to his desk, Mac had it.
Chapter 27
“I’m afraid Darius handles our financial affairs.” Natalie shifted her muscular legs nervously as she addressed the question directed at her by Lisa Morgan. “Although, I’m certain if you have created a charitable trust for the gym project that he will be happy to contribute.”
Lisa appeared triumphant. “And I know Taylor’s bank will donate funds for such a good cause. Meg, you are positively brilliant. What we need to do now is start a fund-raising committee.”
Pippa groaned mentally and turned her concentration elsewhere. Meg was undoubtedly brilliant in gathering this assortment of unrelated people together and wringing money out of them for the children’s gym and pool. But fund-raising and committees were not Pippa’s pet projects. She’d much rather be back at Seth’s, waiting to see how he’d changed those last chapters he’d torn to shreds a few days ago. Or sitting with Chad playing Monster House. Or any of a dozen other things besides listening to these women chew on one another’s pocketbooks.
Her gaze drifted to one of the few men in the room. Ronald Dawson, she remembered, the school board president. He looked as supre
mely bored as she was. He glanced at his watch again, and she calculated he’d make his excuses and be out of there in a few minutes. But she remembered Seth’s comments to him at the school board meeting. Here was a man who had grown up with Seth. She’d really like some answers from him.
Picking up the coffeepot, she wandered over to refill his cup, despite his protests.
“Nonsense, Mr. Dawson. Caffeine is essential to survive these meetings.” She settled on the sofa cushion beside his and sipped from a cup she’d poured for herself. “Of course, it also helps if you can watch the action as an audience watches two prima donnas on stage. Will the school board approve the swimming pool if funds are raised?”
She set her voice low so as not to disturb the ongoing discussion about committee chairs.
“The liability insurance will be tremendous,” Dawson replied gloomily. “With our declining enrollment, I can’t see how we can justify it.”
“That could be why Seth wouldn’t sponsor the project,” Pippa commiserated. “It is a shame that his interest in the town occurs just as the population is declining.”
With hidden glee, she watched the board president struggle to hold his tongue. She hadn’t been nominated Best Busybody in high school for nothing. Another prod, and she’d have him spilling the beans. “I never have understood his reluctance to talk about Garden Grove. It’s such an idyllic setting. I don’t see how he could bear it any ill will.”
Dawson let out a lungful of air and eyed Pippa warily. “You won’t quit until you hear it, will you?”
She beamed in delight. “Probably not. If you’re in a hurry to go home, you may as well spill it now.”
He ran his hand over his balding head, cleaned his wire-rimmed glasses, and returned them to his nose, all the better to stare her down, she surmised. She didn’t relent.
“No one comes out looking pretty from where I stand,” he said gloomily. “You’d be better off just leaving it alone.”
Blue Clouds Page 24