Dark and Deadly

by Jeanne Adams

  “Jeez, Pam, you asked him?” Torie said, a little stung that Pam thought about her cousin that way.

  Not like…Torie shied away from the thought. Instead, she focused on her friend.

  “So, you fought? You yelled at him, some of your men came by, what?”

  “No.”

  “No, what?”

  “Nothing like that. One minute we’re rolling around on the floor tearing each other’s clothes off…” Pam said it with such gusto that Torie blushed. Pam was, after all, talking about doing the horizontal mambo with Dev. Hot as he was, there was a kind of “ewwww factor” in knowing her friend and her cousin had slept together. “Then the next thing I know, he’s saying he hit his head, has a headache. I’m getting aspirin, joking about how, well, you know, saying the way I do, that doing the wild thing will cure anything, up to and including hair loss.”

  “Yeah, as always I agree, but then again,” Torie stopped. Her standard answer to Pam’s hair-loss quote was that she wouldn’t know since she wasn’t getting any. She’d gotten plenty just that morning, so she couldn’t say that with a straight face.

  Fortunately Pam didn’t notice the lapse. “Yeah, well. So then his phone rings.”

  “He answered it?” Torie was shocked that someone could resist Pam in full siren mode, offering aspirin and wild monkey sex on the floor.

  “Yeah, that bummed me, too,” she said, closing her eyes again. “He checked the caller ID, then went really funny looking.”

  “Funny looking?” Dev?

  “Yeah. He answered it, really sharp and almost mean sounding. Then he made some bogus excuse, and left.”

  “Just left?”

  “Yeah.”

  “You’re stuck on him, aren’t you.” Torie didn’t ask it as a question. She knew the answer. For the first time since high school, Pam was actually smitten with someone.

  Heart touched.

  “But why would he just leave? I’ve tried to call him, he didn’t answer.”

  Torie frowned at that. “How long ago did he leave?”

  “Four hours. An eternity.”

  “Jeez, Pam, snap out of it,” Torie said impatiently. “That isn’t like Dev. He’s too straight-up about things. If he was just here for a fling, he’d have bought you something pretty to remember him by and had you drive him to the airport. That’s his style, which is to say, he has some style.”

  “But he just left.”

  “You’re always telling me not to live in the past, Pam. Not to keep living there. You rag on me not to let what happened to me, all the pain of it, rule my life.” She drew a shaky breath, realizing this pent-up need to speak was not going to be stalled. “Well, you’re right. But don’t you sit there and tell me that again, just like you have all these years, and then do it yourself.”

  “What are you saying?” Pam demanded, her eyes firing with hurt and frustration. “That I ran him off?”

  “No!” Torie exclaimed. “Of course not.”

  “Then what are you saying?”

  “I’m telling you that you were right,” Torie said, thinking about Paul, about what she’d done to keep him away. Had she been afraid of him all along? Afraid of what they could do to one another? Afraid of the power of their connection?

  “About what?” Pam managed around her tissue.

  “Not getting over what happened in college. About Todd. Life.” Torie got up to pace. “A lot of things.”

  “Well, halle-fuckin-lujah. This isn’t about you,” Pam fired back, still angry. “Why are you attacking me, saying I ran him off?” She was on her feet now, the blanket she’d had wrapped around her shoulders dropped to the floor, tissues scattered like mutant snowflakes.

  “Whoa. I’m not attacking you.” Torie put up her hands in defense. An irrational Pam, wrapped in a blanket, was nothing to fool with. “I’m telling you to take your own advice, and not live in the past. Just because you had some jerk leave you and break your heart doesn’t mean every man is going to leave you and break your heart if you get close to him.” She was nearly shouting now, standing toe-to-toe with one of her oldest friends in the world. “So just back way the hell down and take a fucking compliment.”

  There was a heartbeat of silence. Neither she nor Pam blinked. Torie didn’t know whether or not to hug her, or duck.

  “You said fuck.” Pam was wide-eyed now. Amazed.

  “So what?” Torie growled. “I think I’m entitled. I have no home, I have no clothes, my laptop’s toast, my dog’s got a plate and five screws in her leg and is costing a fortune in vet fees, and I slept with Paul.” It was Torie’s turn to yell.

  “You what?” Pam screeched.

  “I have to go.” Torie realized she had just admitted to what Pam might consider the worst sin in the world.

  “Oh, no. Uh uh. You opened this bloody can of worms, sister. You’re gonna pour ’em in a bowl and eat ’em with me.”

  “Oh, that’s just gross.” Torie picked up her purse, and started for the door.

  “Bite me,” Pam said, grabbing Torie’s arm and dragging her back to the sofa. “Spill.”

  “Dev’s missing. I have to let Paul know, tell the cops.”

  “Yeah, yeah. And I’m miserable because of the bastard. Whatever. We need to find him. Five minutes isn’t going to make a difference. What happened with Paul?”

  Sorry she’d let it slip, Torie refused to sit. “Five minutes could matter, Pam. If someone were after him, like they’ve been after me, five minutes could matter a lot.”

  Pam eyed her suspiciously, which was quite a sight given her reddened eyes, puffy lids, and swollen lips. Now that Torie was taking inventory, she could see that Pam also had a pretty serious case of beard-burn on her neck.

  “Is that from Dev’s beard?”

  Pam slapped a hand to her neck to cover the mark. Torie nearly laughed at the futile gesture.

  “What?” Pam protested, the distraction working. “Where?”

  “I guess it is. Do you have a rug burn on your ass to match it?”

  “Hey,” Pam protested, shooting a guilty-looking glance at the colorful wool carpet. “That’s beside the point. We’re fighting here. You better sit down and tell me what the hell is going on. How did you sleep with Paul? When? I thought you hated Paul?”

  “Cripes, I’ve never hated Paul. Why does everyone think that?” Probably because I’ve said it or shown it in a hundred ways. Torie answered the question in her own mind.

  “Uh, duh.” Pam pantomimed slapping her forehead. “You asked your fiancé to ban him from the house. Hello? Pretty strong request for someone you’re just ambivalent about.” Pam said it, but somehow her mind must have been a step ahead of her mouth. “Hey, is he…Oh. My God. You never told me who got you home that night. It was Paul?”

  “I’m not doing this now, Pammie. We have to find Dev.”

  Her phone rang. She’d never been so happy to have it ring, never been so glad of a reprieve. “It’s him. It’s Paul.”

  Pam frowned at her as she answered the phone.

  “Torie, where are you? Marco said you took off like a bullet, then pulled into some house. Where are you?”

  “With Pam. Dev’s missing.”

  “Damn. How long? Since when? Like missing, missing, or he left, like he went home?”

  Guys. “If he’d have left, I wouldn’t be worried, Paul,” she explained, only slightly sarcastically. “He got a call, acted really funny, and left.”

  “Did he say he was coming back?”

  Well, duh. Now Torie wanted to slap her own forehead. “Pam, did he say he was coming back?”

  Pam shook her head, hanging on every word of Torie’s conversation. “No.”

  “Well did he say he wasn’t coming back?” Paul continued to probe.

  More Man Logic, Torie decided. As if Dev would say one way or the other. “No.”

  “Christ on a crutch. Just what we need—one more weird thing about this whole deal. I’ll call Tibbet. Are you going to come
back and pick me up, or should I get a cab?”

  “I’ll pick you up, I do have your car, after all.”

  “If you need more time, I can—”

  “No, it’s okay. I’ll pick you up,” Torie insisted. It would get her away from Pam’s prying. She hadn’t meant to blurt out what she’d said about Paul. Hell, she hadn’t managed to think about it. About the ramifications. She surely didn’t want to discuss what had happened at college, nor what was going to happen next. Especially since she had no idea.

  She didn’t need anymore insanity, past or present, to add to the mix.

  “I have to go. The bodyguard called Paul. Besides, I’ve got Paul’s car. He’s going to report Dev missing. I have to call GoodMama,” she added, seeing the steel of determination in Pam’s eyes. Pam pursued girl chatter like a dog with a bone. The saving grace was GoodMama intimidated Pam, so she backed down. Of course, GoodMama intimidated everyone, including Torie. But it would be far worse to not tell her Dev might be in trouble.

  Escaping Pam was easier than she’d hoped, given the fierce determination Pam had for getting Torie to deal with her past. Any sign that she’d moved toward that was a bonus for Pam. Dev must have some amazing hold on her to have her give up so easily on hearing all about Paul.

  “Don’t think I’ve forgotten what you said.” Pam’s parting shot made Torie wince. Damn. She wasn’t forgiven, or off the hook. “We’ll be talking.”

  “I know. I gotta go.”

  “Yeah. Call me if you hear anything.”

  “The very minute.”

  Torie hurried into the car, whipping out of the driveway with the same speed with which she’d pulled into it. Heaven only knew what was going on with Dev. He was an enigma. On one hand, his specialty was green construction, save-the-planet type stuff. On the other, he had been a bodyguard, and in his wilder days, a mercenary. At least that was her guess. He wouldn’t talk about it, and neither would anyone else in the family.

  Her phone rang again. Paul.

  “Hey, I’m on the way,” she told him. “Is everything okay there? What was the emergency?”

  “Someone hacked into the company computers. We’ve lost a huge amount of data. We’re trying to reconstruct what happened. The partners are meeting about how to respond.”

  “Aren’t you a partner now? Shouldn’t you be in the meeting?”

  There was a moment of silence, then Paul laughed. “Yeah, I guess I should. I’m not used to that yet.”

  “It happened quickly, I guess. And with me screwing up your life at the moment, I’m sure it’s hard to get excited about it.”

  “You’re not screwing up my life, Torie.”

  “I’m not sure about that. I seem to screw up everything I touch,” she murmured.

  “No. Don’t take responsibility for something someone else is doing to you. You’re not to blame in this, Torie. Anymore than you were to blame in college.”

  That very phrase had started their knock-down, drag-out fight at the end of their one tempestuous, hot, sexy, and disastrous college date.

  “I don’t want to talk about that,” she interrupted. “It’s old news.”

  “Maybe,” Paul said, but let it drop. “Anyway, what’s happening now is the work of someone who’s really crazy, Torie. Two people are dead, you could have been hurt or killed in the fire. It’s a miracle you weren’t.”

  “I know.”

  His voice dropped into a more intimate range. “I would never have recovered if anything happened to you.”

  Stunned, Torie missed the turn that would take her to Paul’s office. “Uh…” She finally got a word out beyond her surprise. “Thank you.” Focusing on him, she realized that if she lost him, if something happened to him…

  “Torie? Are you still there?”

  “Yes, yes. Sorry, I missed my turn.” What could she say to that? How could she say she felt the same? Did she? What had she done?

  “I know we shouldn’t get involved, you know that, right?” He didn’t sound like that made him happy.

  “No, no, we shouldn’t.”

  “You’re my client. I’m not supposed to—” Paul started.

  “I’m in such trouble, and I don’t—” Torie spoke at the same time.

  They both laughed. Paul cut off her line of thinking. “Trouble is what I’m good at, Torie. It’s my job. We’ll figure this out, get you back on track. I want to help.”

  “My life just sucks.”

  Paul laughed, but his voice had turned professional. “Yeah, it does. Oh, excuse me,” he spoke to someone in the office. “Okay. Torie? Seems like I am expected to be in that meeting. Just park in the slot, and come on up. Martha’s here, and she’ll get you situated. You can use my office for whatever you need.”

  “Okay, thanks.”

  “And Torie?”

  “Yeah?”

  “Want to go out to dinner tonight?” Paul said in a rush, his voice muffled, as if he’d cupped his hand over the phone. “To celebrate the partnership?”

  “Uh,” Torie began.

  “Just think about it. Okay?” He quickly said good-bye and hung up.

  Torie wasn’t sure what had just happened. She circled the two blocks necessary to get her back to the garage entrance, mentally apologizing to Marco, the bodyguard, for making him do the same. She had yet one more civil conversation—almost lover like—with Paul Jameson. Had he just asked her on a, well, a real date?

  She was living in his house, but she was a guest. It was temporary. She wasn’t…

  A memory of Paul’s amazing hands, the way his body had felt above hers, caressing her, flashed into her mind.

  Stress made you do funny things.

  She pulled into the garage and parked. Leaning her head onto the headrest, she closed her eyes. What the hell had she done? What had they both done? They’d unleashed something between them in the early morning. Something that had slumbered for a long, long time.

  That something, however, was hemmed in by pain.

  Torie felt her body quiver, remembering how deeply she’d felt him, how fully. It had been a mistake. But she’d needed to feel alive, feel like something, anything, was good in the world.

  And it had been good. It had been earth-shattering and fabulous. She’d always enjoyed and appreciated sex, but wondered why people would kill for it. Or die for it. Sex with Paul had the kind of dangerous quality that gave her an inkling of why people would have affairs, throw caution to the winds. Do anything to have more.

  Had that been why she’d driven him off, accused him of asking her out for all the wrong reasons? He hadn’t forced her to have sex. Then, like now, she had started it. Was it her fear keeping them both prisoner?

  Maybe.

  All she knew was she wanted more.

  A knock on the glass jerked her, screaming, from her thoughts.

  Her heart pounded furiously as she looked into the eyes of Melvin Pratt Jr. She took a relieved breath, and smiled at him.

  “Lord in heaven, Melvin,” she said getting out of the car. “You scared a year off my life.”

  Melvin eyed the car and Torie’s face, and smiled. “I’m so sorry, Torie. I was worried about you, just sitting there. I didn’t mean to scare you, though.”

  There was something about the way he said it, the look in his eyes, that made Torie uneasy. Melvin had always been a bit smarmy.

  “Thank you. I was just trying to gather my thoughts before I went upstairs. Paul said that your father wanted to meet with me to review everything that’s going on.” She wasn’t sure why she said it, but she wanted to get away from Melvin. He’d always made her feel uncomfortable. He’d asked her out several times after she and Todd had broken up, but she’d always declined. When she’d started dating again, she hadn’t wanted to date him.

  “Ah, well, I’ll walk you up then. I haven’t had a chance to thank you for helping dear old Dad the other day when the fire alarm went off.”

  “You’re welcome.” Torie didn’t know h
ow to keep the conversation going as they rode up the elevator. She always hated the sense of forced proximity of an elevator, and for some reason it was worse with Melvin.

  “You seem uncomfortable, Torie.”

  “Oh, I’m sorry,” she apologized, though she wasn’t sure why. “I have a lot on my mind.” She smiled at him. “There’s so much I have to do. You never realize how much you count on the little things you’ve accumulated until you lose everything.”

  “Yes, I’m so sorry about the fire. It’s horrible to have to replace everything. I know you’ll be glad of all the extra money when you get to the point of repairing things.”

  Torie was puzzled. What money? “Well, the insurance will cover the house. That’s the basics, however. I’m afraid I’m going to have to put a lot out and get reimbursed,” she said ruefully.

  “Oh,” Melvin seemed surprised, then wary. “I’m sorry. I thought that you would have…the will…” He stopped. It was an awkward pause, but the opening doors saved him from having to complete the thought. “Here we are. I’m sure Martha will have whatever you need until Father and the others are done.”

  He stepped aside, motioning her off. She wanted to ask him what he’d been talking about. What about the will? What extra money?

  She vaguely remembered Paul saying something on the beach in North Carolina, something about Todd leaving her something. It made her unbearably sad. Todd had felt so responsible, so determined to make sure that she never felt any repercussions from his decisions. He was just like that. But, as she’d told Paul, Todd had long ago paid any debt he might have owed. She had always felt so strange that he’d paid for everything, given her so much.

  The idea that there was more made her heart ache. She’d rather Todd had spent it all, enjoying life in the big way he’d had.

  “Good afternoon, Ms. Hagen,” Martha greeted her. Still as cool as ever. Torie had no idea what Martha thought of her.

  “Good afternoon,” Torie began. “Paul had said…”

  “Yes, he let me know that you were to have the use of his office. Would you like some coffee? Tea? Perhaps a soft drink?”

  “I don’t want to be any trouble.”

  “It isn’t,” she declared with a tight smile. “I would do it for any guest.”