Key West

by Stella Cameron

  “I was never in his head, kid. I’m sure the cops are doing their stuff and finding out as much about his background as they can. That’ll give us a clearer vision of what kind of guy he was.”

  They reached the motel and approached Aiden, who sat on Chris’s bike again. He saluted. “I’ll stick around the Laundromat and bring back Sοnnie’s things, if you like.”

  “Good man,” Chris said. “You comfortable at my place?”

  “Cushy,” Aiden told him.

  “Good. Bring the laundry to Roy and Bo’s then. Sonnie can’t go back to her place until it’s secure anyway.”

  Sonnie felt herself being drawn into a web that was only partly of her own making. “I should probably go to the club,” she said. “This place is nice, but Billy and Romano will make my life a misery if I don’t make an attempt to smooth things over. I will have to stay long enough to deal with the house; otherwise I’d head back to Denver right now.” She tried to avoid Chris’s eyes. When she gave up, what she saw shouldn’t please her so much. He didn’t want her tο leave him. Vey soon she’d have to find a way to remind him that she wasn’t free, and she’d have to make him not want her.

  For the first time in her life, she’d found a man she responded to as a mature woman, both a thinking and a sexual woman, and she had no right to him.

  “If you want to go to the club later, okay. But would you come back with me first? To put Roy’s mind at ease? And so we can talk? Please? Alone and for as long as it takes?”

  So that he cοuld wear her down and wipe out her resolve to break away from him? She wasn’t strong enough to refuse. “Okay. But I can’t stay.”

  “l’ve got to take my car to Roy and Bo’s,” Aiden said.

  She glanced at him. Just as she’d already noted, he was built like an athlete. But his slender face with its high cheekbones and sensitive mouth had an irresistibly intense quality. Relaxed on his thighs, his long-fingered hands bore scars on their backs, but they were hands that invited touch, and would probably invoke a longing to be touched in many women. He had to be in his mid-thirties. Another man who shouldn’t still be alone.

  Chris gave Sonnie one of the two helmets that hung on the bike. “You’ve probably got time to do that other thing we talked about and still be back in time to get the laundry,” he said to Aiden. “What d’you think?”

  “Wally Loder’s on the case.”

  “Efficient man, Wally,” Chris said. “See you later, then.” He mounted the bike and waited for Sonnie to settle herself awkwardly behind him.

  Aiden Flynn was already walking away.

  “Who’s Wally Loder?” Sonnie shouted from inside the hated helmet.

  “Keep your voice down,” Chris bid her mildly. He half turned on the bike and leaned into her. “For reasons we’ll explain when the time’s right, Aiden is sometimes Wally Loder. And he needs to be while he’s down here—at least in some instances. Our job is to keep that straight.”

  “Being here is dangerous for him?”

  Chris raised his eyebrows. “He’s used to danger. Aiden does what has to be done. I wasn’t happy to see him, but I’m getting used to the idea of having him with me. You’ll get used to him, too.”

  “We won’t spend enough time together for that to happen.” He settled a hand on her thigh. “Kiss me, Sonnie.”

  She parted her lips, and he wasn’t sure if she’d do as he asked, or cry. She bent forward and kissed his jaw. He had to plant his feet more firmly on the ground on either side of the bike.

  When he could speak again, he said, “l’d like to take you riding across the country with me. Leave everything behind. One day we’ll do that.”

  She let her head fall back, and he figured she was making sure any tears went back where they came from.

  He put a knuckle under her chin and took her bottom lip gently between his teeth. The way she sucked in a breath made him feel more than good.

  “Mmm,” he murmured. “I’m only saying this once for now, but I’m surely thinking that loving you would be easy.”

  Sixteen

  Romano let Billy into his room. He checked the corridor before closing the door and turning to face her. “What are you doing here? I told you not to come again.”

  “And I told you not to tell me what to do. We’re in this up to our necks. Both of us. That means you don’t get to hand out orders.”

  As long as he’d known Billy, since she was a self-destructive kid on the tour, she’d been impossible to control. The best approach was the placating approach. “If it got out that you and I have something going, it could cost us everything.”

  She gathered her hair into a bundle on top of her head and secured it with a band she took from one wrist.

  “Billy,” Romano said, clinging to patience. “We can’t look as if we’re involved with each other. Do you understand that one slip could ruin all I’ve worked for?”

  “You haven’t worked alone, but I understand.”

  “Good. I’ll call you.”

  “She’s in some motel or hotel,” Billy said, swaggering in a neon, orange string bikini. “Banyan something. We’ve got to bring her here where we can keep an eye on her. And the sooner she’s back in Denver, the better. We must have my father’s cooperation. He’s got to be convinced she’s a danger to herself, and needs care she can’t get at home.”

  He agreed, but he wasn’t about to let Billy think he respected her opinions. “My first priority is to find out exactly why that man was in her house. He doesn’t fit.”

  “Of course he doesn’t. He was a coincidence, that’s all. And he’s brought a lot of attention that could mess things up for us if we’re not careful.”

  He laughed shortly. “Don’t be hysterical. I won’t allow any interference.”

  She stretched out on his bed and stacked her hands behind her head. The effect she achieved was no accident. “Cory Bledsoe’s sniffing around. He thinks he should teach me how to play golf. And he’s making noises about my helping you coach.”

  “What the fuck does that mean?”

  Billy smiled at the ceiling and settled her bikini-clad curves more comfortably. “He’d like to keep me company, of course. But he could also be curious about what brings both of us down here like this. He’s probably right in thinking I’d be an asset, and he just likes opportunities to look at me.”

  Romano seethed. The vain bitch thought every man was drooling over her. “He knows Sonnie’s here. He also knows the story about how very close our combined families are. How we look after our own. Unless we make a stupid mistake and disillusion him, Bledsoe won’t have any reason to think anything different.”

  She hummed.

  “Right?” he said.

  “It’s possible Cory’s a little smarter than you think. There’s talk. The big, strong Harley rider isn’t a man who doesn’t get noticed. Cory wonders if there’s something going on that’s making us nervous. Like Sonnie wanting to forget she’s got a husband—or may have a husband.”

  “Shut up,” he told her, and his hands itched with his desire to take hold of her. “The next time you suggest my brother may be dead, I’ll make you wish you hadn’t.”

  “So masterful,” she said, winding her body from side to side. She kicked off her sandals and ran the sole of one foot up and down the opposite calf.

  “Υou are such a willful child,” he told her, but it was impossible not to look at her nipples through the open mesh of her bikini top. “Will you never grow up and stop using yourself like a whore to get what you want?”

  She jackknifed to sit up. “I don’t have to take that from you. If looking at me disgusts you, don’t look. Let’s hurry up here. I’ve got a date.”

  “With whom?”

  “That’s my affair.”

  “Are you telling me Bledsoe’s been asking questions about Sonnie? About you or me?”

  She wouldn’t look at him. “That’s what I’m telling you,” she said.

  Alienating her could be v
ery dangerous. “I’m sorry I’m edgy. It’s all coming down to this, Billy. What happens here and now in Key West. Sonnie’s forced our hand.”

  Billy’s expression softened a little. “She behaves as if she’s better than me. Holy. But she’s catting around.” She looked at him. “She’s catting around behind Frank’s back.”

  He knew she was only pretending she didn’t think Frank had been murdered. “Yeah,” he said. He was convinced Frank was still alive.

  “Call this Banyan place and ask to speak to Sonnie. Be sweet, Romano. You’re good at that when you want something. Tell her how worried we are about her and that I’m beside myself. Say Jim had to sedate me again today, and tell her I need her with me.”

  “I must have time to think first. We don’t move until we know exactly where we’re going. There can’t be anything messy.”

  Billy got up and walked slow circles around him. “Perhaps you’re thinking too much. Perhaps you should do what you’ll do in the end anyway—whatever I decide I’ll allow you to do.” Her arrogance was wearing his nerves to nothing, but she was doing exactly what she wanted to do: turning him on.

  He’d ignore her bait. “We’ve got to keep up the image that we are family, Billy. Nothing more than family. Your friend, Dr. Lesley, he is here to help us keep up that little charade, yes? Your current boyfriend happens to be a psychiatrist, but his only interest is in you.”

  She began to dance. “I like Jim. He’s not as boring as you think he is. Not nearly as boring. Especially in bed. He’ll do anything to help me.”

  “That’s nice.” He grew more heated by the moment. “Let’s go over our plan just one more time. Then you will promise me never to come to me like this again.”

  “We’ll go over the plan, lover.”

  Always so difficult. “This is simple. As long as we both do our parts. With Sonnie out of the way, I hold the purse strings. I shall be very charming to you and your father—and Sonnie’s mother. They won’t be happy, and you will convince them you are not happy either. After all, they know you are jealous of your little sister. If they get even a hint that you might benefit from the tragedy of Sonnie’s unfortunate mental illness, they will cut you out of their will.”

  “That won’t happen…” With her hands on her hips, she continued to dance, but with less abandon. “You will help me make sure it doesn’t.”

  “But of course. I’m trying to do just that. After all, my dear, it is bound to be a very big will. So be careful about your dates. Or should I say, be careful what you say to your dates. You have a history of becoming drunk rather quickly, and the drunker you are, the more you talk.”

  Romano didn’t see the blow coming. She hit his face with the flat of one hand and followed with a slap from the other hand that knocked his head to one side.

  He stumbled, but regained his balance.

  She breathed hard and squared off to hit him again. “I’m not a drunk. That’s what you’re suggesting. That I’m a drunk. And that I talk too much. I won’t listen to any of this from you. A few words from me and you’re finished. I could talk about what you ship from your warehouses. The way you milk people.”

  While she paused and eyed him, Romano worked to keep his anger from erupting. Billy was a strong woman. His face stung.

  “You can’t afford to make an enemy out of me,” she said. “I know everything, remember?”

  The room grew warmer. Romano took off his jacket. She could sometimes be frightened into submission—if that was a game she wanted to play. He threw the jacket on the bed and unbuttoned his shirt.

  “Don’t bother,” she said, her voice flat and hard. “Touch me without permission and I’ll scream. Now that’s a risk you ought to run, don’t you think?”

  She was bluffing. He took off his shirt.

  “I can get you arrested,” Billy said, and she walked directly at him. When she was close enough, she shot the stiffened fingers of her right hand toward his face. “There’s nothing you can say or do to defend yourself against me.”

  The fingers darted toward his eyes, and he flinched, flinched and stepped back. “That’s enough,” he said. “I don’t have time for this.”

  “No? But you have time to give orders, and to show me what a big man you are.”

  He made a grab for her hand and missed—walked backward some more and thudded into the wall.

  “There are people in high places who would love to talk to me about you. You would go to prison until you’re very, very old.”

  For an instant he felt disoriented, but only an instant. There was no way she could know everything, was there? “Go to prison because a jealous woman suggests I cheat foreign markets by charging too much for surplus goods?” He laughed, and his jaws ached. “You little fool. Charging what the market will bear has never been a crime.”

  “Maybe you’re right. But maybe you’re wrong. Do you want to take that risk?”

  This wasn’t going as it should. “Look, Billy, you should go now. Just be careful what you say and everything will be fine.” The look in her eyes actually frightened him.

  She shot out her hand again, but this time she went for his throat. Her hard little fingertips pressed into the flesh on either side of his windpipe. “I will go when I’m ready to go.” With her free hand she batted his face lightly, first in one direction, then in the other. “There is always the time for drawing lines in the sand. Isn’t that what they say? Now is the time for our line.”

  “Yes. You’re absolutely right.”

  “You want to kill me, don’t you, Romano? You could. But that would be the end of everything—for both of us.” Her laugh was an ugly sound.. “You want to kill me so badly you’re afraid even to touch me.”

  “You’re sick. Yes, I could kill you, and that ought to warn you to go away, to go away very quickly and quietly.”

  “It would warn most people, but I’m not most people. And I know you so well. You and your brother. Neither of you has any guts.”

  The feverish light in her eyes was unmistakable. Danger had aroused her. Once more she tapped each side of his face—and she began to pant. Her breasts rose and fell and her stomach sucked in flat.

  “You are mad,” he told her.

  She tightened her hold on his throat.

  Romano stared into her face. “Take your hand away,” he said.

  “Not yet. Not until you tell me you’ll do whatever I tell you to do.”

  “Never,” he said.

  He didn’t see her next move coming until her knee connected with his crotch. Doubling over, he heard his own yell. Too late he remembered the vulnerable back of his neck. Billy’s two fists landed there and sent him slipping and sliding down the wall. The next sounds he heard were from the radio she turned on loudly.

  Then she was upon him, shrieking and laughing, pummeling and tearing at him.

  They fought, rolled across the carpet landing blows where they could, and the mad ecstasy in Billy’s cries testified to how much she reveled in the violence.

  Somewhere in the struggle she lost the bikini. Her delight in her own body showed in the pose she made of each move.

  “Tell me what you want now,” she said in a breathy voice, and grew still. Stretched out on her back on the floor, she said, “You can have anything you want.”

  Sitting beside her, he inclined his head to see her face and wished he could also look inside her head.

  The door slammed so loudly the walls vibrated.

  Billy clapped a hand over her mouth, and her eyes opened wide.

  Holding still, Romano waited. Slowly he turned his head and saw Cory Bledsoe’s ruddy, grinning face. The man came toward them and dropped to his knees beside Billy’s shoulders.

  “Romano,” Billy said softly. “We wouldn’t want to spoil a lovely friendship, would we?”

  He didn’t understand but said, “Νο.”

  She narrowed her eyes and said, “I’m glad we agree. Let’s invite Cory to join our game. He’s a friend, after
all. We believe in sharing with our friends.”

  Her deliberate coldness struck at him as fiercely as any of her blows had done. Now he knew what she intended. “Of course we do.” It would be pointless to argue with her.

  Billy sat up and shot her hands around Cory’s neck. “This is what you want, isn’t it?”

  Swallowing visibly and passing his tongue over his lips, Cory Bledsoe nodded. He looked at her breasts and turned bright red before he touched them.

  “That’s right, Cory,” Billy said. “Romano, let’s show Cory how right it is.”

  Seventeen

  The scent of salt from the ocean had grown stronger. It was hot, hot, hot, and the wind that constantly blew didn’t cool Chris’s skin. Even the locals were staying indoors this morning.

  “We should have ridden over,” he said to Sonnie. “You shouldn’t be walking in this heat.”

  “I need to walk,” she said. “You don’t have to come.”

  So she’d already told him—several times. “I want to come. How can I help you if I’m not with you? It’s time to ask our own questions and demand answers. Why not see if Ena can give us some hints? This Edward can’t be the total mystery the local boys insist he is. The poor devil has to have come from somewhere.”

  Sonnie tried not to look at him, but failed. She wanted to tell him she was afraid something would happen to him because of her, but she didn’t dare. Admitting she cared about him that much was too personal.

  “What are you thinking?” he asked. The intense colors of the day emphasized his tan, the darkness of his hair, his brows, the sharp hazel of his eyes. A blue-mauve day that tinted him brilliant.

  Sonnie turned her face away. “I’m not thinking.” This was a flirtation with an exotic male whose attention she should question. “Except that you ought to have better things to do than hang around with me.”

  “I don’t have better things to do.”

  “Because you have no ambition? You’re drifting? That ought to bother you.”

  He figured she was trying to goad him. “You’ll have to do better than that,” he told her, but the words had stung.

  “How long do you think you can hide?” she said. “Don’t you worry about waking up one day and realizing the only one you’ve been fooling is you? What then? You’ll have to stop whining about being washed-up. You’ll have to do something with yourself—with the rest of your life.”