by Marie Force
“It’s funny how your uncle, who grew up with all this, is so normal,” Travis said as he helped her out of the car.
“He’s the loveliest man.”
“I was always so relieved when he came to the pre-wedding meetings with Edith and Enid,” Travis confessed.
Liana laughed. “Believe me, I know what you mean. He keeps them under control.”
“He’s the only reason I didn’t kill the two of them before the wedding.”
“Oh, you’re bad,” Liana said with a teasing grin. “That’s my aunt and cousin you’re talking about.”
“Then I don’t need to tell you.”
“No, you certainly don’t.” She stopped him at the foot of the stone stairs and reached up to kiss him. “Thanks for coming tonight.”
“Happy to,” he said with a grimace.
Liana laughed and kissed him again.
The door opened, and Enid let out a squeal when she saw them kissing. “I’ve been reading about you two all over Europe! Quit that lip locking and get in here, will you?”
Travis nudged Liana to go on ahead of him.
She and Enid embraced at the door.
“You and I are so going to talk later,” Enid said in what she considered to be a whisper.
“Liana doesn’t kiss and tell,” Travis said.
“She does to me,” Enid informed him. “And how are you, Mr. North?”
“Just fine, Mrs. Littleton,” he said, resorting to the phony tone he reserved just for her. “And you?”
She reached up to kiss his cheek. “I’m divine, but I have a bone to pick with you.”
“Why? What did I do?”
“I just asked you to drive her home not create an international incident.”
Travis laughed. “I believe you put a few other ideas in her head that went far beyond a simple ride home.”
Liana blushed. “Travis . . .”
“I sure did.” Laughing at her cousin’s discomfort, Enid looped her arms through theirs and escorted them into the living room where the others were enjoying cocktails. One full corner of the room was piled high with wedding gifts waiting to be opened. Travis and Liana were greeted with hugs and kisses and handshakes.
“There they are!” Uncle Charlie said. “We were beginning to worry.”
Travis and Liana exchanged guilty glances, and he smiled when her cheeks turned bright red.
“Sorry to worry you,” Liana mumbled.
“We had a little trouble getting through the media’s defensive line,” Travis added.
“Well,” Edith said when Charlie had fixed drinks for the new arrivals. “Let’s have dinner.”
Chapter Twenty-Five
The first chance she got, Enid spirited Liana upstairs to her old bedroom and closed the door. “Was it sweaty?”
Liana flopped down onto the bed. “Super sweaty.”
“It’s about damned time!” Enid clapped her hands with delight as she lay down next to Liana. “Details. I need details. He’s so sexy. If it wasn’t for Brady, I would’ve wanted a go-round with him myself.”
“You can’t have him,” Liana teased. “He’s mine.”
Enid studied her cousin for a long moment before she pushed herself up on one elbow. “Oh my God. You’re in love with him.”
“Completely.”
“Oh, Leelee, really?”
Liana nodded and then began to laugh from the burst of pure joy that accompanied her confession.
Enid reached for her and hugged her. “I’m so glad to hear that. I knew he’d be perfect for you. You’re going to quit modeling and come home to marry him, right?”
Liana shrugged. “I don’t know yet. I mean he wants me to—marry him, that is—but I can’t make life decisions based on two weeks. That would be foolish.”
“You’d be foolish not to. It’d be the best thing you ever did. It’s so obvious he’s wild about you.”
“I don’t want to be pressured into anything.” Liana got up from the bed and walked over to look out the window. “I need to make my own decisions.”
“Liana, if you let this man go, you’ll regret it for the rest of your life.”
Liana turned to her. “I know that, but I don’t want to have other regrets, either. I just want some time to figure it out.” She threw her hands up with frustration. “Why does everyone think I’m being so unreasonable because I don’t want to make life decisions after two weeks of great sex?”
Enid shook her head. “If that’s all it was, you wouldn’t be facing any life decisions, and you know it.”
Liana sat back down next to her on the bed. “Don’t look so disappointed in me. I can’t stand it.”
“I’m not disappointed. I just want you to be happy, Leelee. And I think you have a real chance for that with the oh-so-divine Mr. North.”
“My true north?”
“Only you can know for sure.” Enid’s eyes sparkled with mirth. “But enough about all that. You have to tell me something about the sweaty stuff. Just one little detail.”
“Travis was right: I don’t kiss and tell.”
“Oh, come on!” Enid said, giving Liana a push.
Liana nibbled on her lip as she mulled it over. “All right, but just one thing. That’s all you’re getting.”
“I’ll take it,” Enid pulled her legs up Indian style.
“Tonight, just before we came here? That was when he told me he wants to marry me.”
“Did he ask you?”
“Not officially, he just said he wants to. So anyway, we had a really intense conversation, and then he said he needed to be with me, you know . . .” Liana felt her face grow hot with embarrassment.
“Uh huh.” Enid hung on Liana’s every word. “In bed.”
Liana smiled and nodded. “He asked me to look at him while we were . . .”
“Doing it,” Enid filled in for her.
Liana laughed at her outrageous cousin. “Yes, but it was different this time. It was almost . . . spiritual. That’s the only word I can think of to describe it.”
“Wow,” Enid said on a long exhale.
“Yeah, it was amazing. I’ve never felt as connected to another human being as I did to him in that moment.”
Enid snorted. “You were connected all right.”
“Enid!” Liana said, laughing as she pushed her cousin over on the bed. “Anyway, I guess we’ll see what happens.”
Enid reached for Liana’s hand. “Don’t walk away from him and think you’ll find that connection with someone else, Liana.”
“I have a lot to think about,” Liana acknowledged. “There’s no doubt about that. So what about you? Was it a sweaty honeymoon?”
Enid’s eyes grew dreamy. “The sweatiest honeymoon ever.”
Liana screamed and held up her hands to discourage her cousin from sharing the details.
Jessie paced from one end of her apartment to the other. What had felt spacious and open a few days ago had now become a prison cell as she hid from Spector and the threat he posed. Peter wasn’t answering his phone, and he had asked her not to go anywhere without him. But how could she sit here wondering where he was and if he was serious about quitting his job?
As night fell over North Point, she couldn’t take it anymore. Grabbing her key and the phone he had given her, she summoned the elevator.
Since his truck was parked in its usual place she asked for him in the clubhouse, but no one had seen him. They even called out to the gate to learn he hadn’t been by in a couple of hours. A sick feeling settled in her stomach as she wondered if he planned to quit her along with his job. He couldn’t. She wouldn’t let him.
Wandering out to the boardwalk, she walked toward the beach hoping she’d find him brooding in the encroaching darkness. “Where are you?” she whispered. The idea of returning to the life she’d led before she knew him was unimaginable. With one look, one touch, he had changed her forever, and she would do whatever it took to hold on to him.
Between the
lights on the boardwalk, the inky darkness had her walking a little faster. Maybe being out here alone wasn’t the best idea she’d ever had. Reaching for the phone, she was about to dial Peter’s number again when something clamped down on her arm.
“Hello, Jessie.”
A hand over her mouth muffled her scream.
On the way home, Travis held Liana close to him and brushed his lips over her hair. “So what did your bossy brat of a cousin get you to tell her?”
“Nothing.”
“Why don’t I believe you?”
“Because you have a suspicious nature?”
“Let me ask you just one question: Did the word sweaty come up at all?”
Liana was convulsed with laughter.
“I knew it! You do kiss and tell! I don’t believe it!” He tickled her ribs, which sent her into another fit of laughter. “What did you tell her?”
Liana kissed his neck and then skimmed her tongue over his ear.
“Jesus,” he muttered. “Are you trying to get us killed? I’m driving a car over here.”
She did it again, but this time she also whispered what she wanted to do with him when they got home.
“Liana!” he sputtered. “Stop.”
But instead she got more descriptive and slid her hand up his thigh.
Travis sucked in a deep breath and veered the car off the road, into the parking lot at First Beach. The moment he had shifted into park, he reached for her. The kiss was almost violent, his tongue tangling with hers, and he was panting by the time he pulled back from her. “I just want to stop time. I don’t know what I’m going to do without you for one day, let alone months on end.”
“I never wanted to cause you that kind of pain, Travis.”
“No regrets,” he whispered. “No matter what, no regrets.”
“None,” she agreed, reaching for him again.
Several long, hot minutes later, he asked, “Now, what did you tell your cousin?”
Liana replied with a coy smile. “I never kiss and tell.”
“You’re as much of a brat as she is, but that’s all right,” he said confidently. “I’ll get it out of you.”
“Oh, I think I’m going to enjoy that.”
When they had once again inched their way through the crowd of reporters waiting for them at the North Point gate, they were surprised to find two police cruisers parked outside the club.
“Wonder what’s going on?” Travis said, a muscle in his cheek pulsing with tension.
Liana reached for his hand. “Beck would’ve called you if something was wrong.”
“Yes, you’re right.”
They parked at the club and went inside, forgetting how anxious to get home they had been just a few minutes earlier. Holding hands with Liana, Travis went straight to his office where Beck was talking with two police officers.
“What’s going on?” Travis asked, noting that Beck looked considerably better than he had a few hours ago.
“Oh, hey,” Beck said. “I was just going to call you. They’ve made three arrests in the vandalism and the fire.”
“The film we got from that photographer after the fire led us to two Portsmouth High School students,” the police sergeant said. “Long story short, turns out they’d been hired by Jim Silvestri.”
Travis’s eyes widened with surprise. “The Town Council president?”
“The one and only.”
“Apparently, this land used to belong to his family, and he was trying to buy it back,” the other cop said. “He had almost raised enough money when you swooped in and beat him to it. He’s confessed to everything—from putting roadblocks in front of your permits, to using his office to exert influence on others. When that didn’t get rid of you, he hired two well-known local punks and set them loose over here.”
“Whose idea was the fire?” Beck asked.
“His. The kids claim they had no idea anyone was in the house. They purposely waited until late on a Friday so no one would get hurt.”
“How old are these kids?” Travis asked.
“One’s fifteen and the other’s sixteen.”
“I don’t want to press charges against them.”
“But Travis—” Beck sputtered.
Travis held up his hand to stop his friend. “I want to see them here tomorrow,” he said to the sergeant. “Can you arrange that?”
“They’re going to be charged for the fire, Mr. North,” the sergeant said. “The attorney general’s office is prosecuting that case. You can request leniency, but they’re going to face charges.”
“I’d still like to see them.”
“We’ll arrange it.”
“Are they in jail?” Travis asked.
“No, they were arraigned this afternoon and released on personal recognizance to their parents.”
“What about Silvestri?”
“He’s being arraigned tomorrow.”
Travis reached out to shake hands with the cops. “Thank you very much for the time and effort you put into this. I appreciate it.”
“We’re sorry it took so long to crack this one.”
“It wasn’t for a lack of trying on your part,” Travis said.
The sergeant’s eyes shifted to Liana. “Without those photos, this would still be an open case. They led us to the kids who pointed the finger at Silvestri.”
Travis exchanged satisfied smiles with Liana.
Beck saw the cops out a few minutes later.
“Unbelievable,” Travis said to Liana when they were alone. “I can’t get over that it was Silvestri and that those photos made the difference. We have you to thank. Who knows how long this would’ve gone on without your traveling band of photographers giving us just the evidence we needed?”
“I’m so glad for you that it’s over.” Liana looped her arms around his neck. “What are you planning to say to those boys?”
“Since they owe me a ton of money, I’ll give them the chance to work it off around here.”
“And maybe take them under your wing?”
He shrugged. “Maybe.”
“You’re a good man, Travis North, and I love you very much.”
He caressed her face and leaned in to kiss her.
“Aww jeez, don’t you two ever take a break?” Beck asked when he returned.
With a smile for Liana, Travis turned to his friend. “So I guess this means we can get back to normal around here.”
Beck shrugged. “I still think you’d be better off with someone else running security.”
“I don’t agree. I need you here, Beck. I need someone with me who I can count on.”
“I’ll think about it.”
“Have you talked to Jessie?” Liana asked.
“Not since I saw her earlier,” Beck said.
“I know you’re mad about what we did, but try to see it from her point of view,” Liana said. “The waiting was getting to her.”
“Still, to stick herself out there like that and to drag you along with her. . .”
“She didn’t drag me anywhere I didn’t want to go,” Liana said. “Stop being a fool, and go talk to her.”
Beck grinned at Travis. “Does she pull that with you, too?”
“Yep.” Travis glanced down at Liana. “It’s just one of the many things I love about her. Go find your lady and kiss and make up, will you?”
“All right, I’m going. In light of the arrests I’ll be ending some of the surveillance on the property lines and focusing more people on the mob scene at the gate.”
“Sounds good,” Travis said. “See you in the morning, Beck.”
“Have a nice evening,” he said on his way out the door.
“We need to celebrate,” Travis said as he led Liana from the office.
“What did you have in mind?”
“We’ll start with the most expensive bottle of champagne I can find in the bar.”
“Then what?”
He whispered the rest in her ear and laughed when her che
eks flamed with color.
“Stop it,” she hissed.
“Be glad you weren’t driving a car when I did that to you,” he retorted.
She smiled at him, but her heart ached when she remembered they had just two more nights together.
Chapter Twenty-Six
Beck practiced what he planned to say on the way to The Tower. Jessie needed to know he didn’t approve of what she’d done, but he understood what had motivated her. He wondered if she was mad at him for leaving her alone all evening. At least he had some good news to share for once. The relief at knowing the vandals had been caught took the edge off his anger from earlier. He wished he could have been the one to snag them, but what really mattered is they wouldn’t be causing Travis any more grief.
And how just like him to go easy on a couple of misguided kids. Sometimes Beck wanted to smack some sense into his kind-hearted friend. But Travis had excellent judgment, so Beck had to assume he knew what he was doing. If it had been up to him, he would’ve thrown the book at the punks who had caused them so much trouble.
He stepped off the elevator on the fifth floor and took a moment to prepare himself to talk some sense into Jessie. When he felt ready, he knocked on the door. “Jessie?” Well, what’d you expect? That she’d be waiting for you? Yeah, kind of. Maybe she’s asleep. Using his key, he let himself in, but right away he could tell she wasn’t there. In an immediate panic, he quickly searched the apartment and then reached for his cell phone to call the number he had given her.
She didn’t answer, and he forced himself to calm down and remember the last time this had happened when he found her safe and sound in the gym. “She’s probably there again,” he said, using his radio to call to the clubhouse.
“She was here looking for you an hour or so ago,” he was told.
An hour? “Can you check the gym?”
“I’m headed back there now, but the lights are off. I don’t think anyone is there.” A moment later, his colleague confirmed the gym was deserted.
Beck switched the radio frequency to one that encompassed every unit on the property. “This is Beck,” he said, struggling to keep the panic out of his voice as he asked if anyone had seen Jessie. After a series of negative replies, he said, “I need every available staff member in the clubhouse conference room in five minutes.”