“But, Aydan…”
“Do it now, Lola!” My voice snapped out like a whip.
“O-Okay…”
“See you in few minutes. Don’t open the door for anybody but me. Call Tom,” I repeated, and disconnected.
“What…?” Nora began.
“I have to go. Somebody’s threatening Lola.”
“But I’m your mother…”
I let the door slam on her words.
Chapter 37
Sprinting down the corridor of the Silverside Hotel, I punched the speed dial for Hellhound’s cell.
“Hey, darlin’,” he began. “How ya-”
“Get to Lola’s shop, now!” My words came out jerky from running. "Secure the perimeter!”
“On my way.”
No questions, no arguments. He was worth his weight in gold.
I rocketed through the lobby and stiff-armed the door open, nearly bowling over a couple who were approaching the hotel.
Less than five minutes later I slammed on the brakes at Lola’s shop. As soon as my car slid to halt at the curb I punched Hellhound’s speed dial, sprang out, and raced for the front door.
“Status?” I barked when he picked up on the first ring.
“Secure. Rossburn’s got the front; I’ve got the back.”
I spotted Tom as Hellhound spoke, and I slowed and let out a breath. “Okay, thanks. Stay in place. I’m going in the front.” I disconnected as Tom strode up.
“What’s happening?” he demanded. “Helmand met me here and told me to watch the front door but not to go near the building. He made it sound like some kind of military operation. Is he…” He hesitated and made a tentative rotation of his finger at his temple. “…okay?”
I forced a chuckle. “He’s fine. He spent a lot of years in the army, so it’s just reflex for him to secure a building like that. So Lola called you?”
Tom’s shoulders relaxed. “Oh, I didn’t realize he’d had military training. Yes, Lola called me and said she’d had another threatening phone call and that you’d told her to lock the doors and stay inside, and not to open up to anyone but you. I was down at the fire hall, so I was able to get here fast.”
“Good. Thanks for coming.” I took a deep breath, trying to slow my pulse. “I’m just going to call and make sure she’s okay in there and then I want to talk to you.”
He nodded, and I dialled Lola’s number.
When she answered, I said, “It’s Aydan. Are you okay?”
Her deep chuckle rolled out. “Of course I’m okay, honey; I have a bathroom, a lunchroom with food in the fridge, and all the mechanical boyfriends I could ask for. The worst thing that could happen to me in here would be running out of lube.”
I laughed. “That’s ’way too much information, but I’m glad you’re okay. Just hang tight. I’ll be there to get you in a few minutes.”
When I hung up, Tom asked, “You really think she’s in danger, don’t you?”
“I don’t know, but I don’t want to take a chance.”
“Do you think it’s those religious extremists again?” Tom’s frown deepened. “We should call the police. The last time those freaks came after her, they were serious enough to kidnap her and tie her to a bomb.”
“You’re right,” I agreed, grateful that the cover story for Lola’s abduction was still intact. “I know the police can’t do anything unless a crime has actually been committed, but at least if we file a report about the phone calls we’ll be justified if we have to take desperate measures.”
“Not so fast.” Tom shook his head. “There’s no ‘we’. I don’t want you in any danger, and I’m sure Helmand doesn’t, either. You and Lola lie low, and let us take care of this.”
Biting back the urge to tell him exactly how misguided he was, I said, “You’re forgetting that you’ve been targeted, too. I haven’t.” He shook his head again and began to speak, but I kept talking over him. “And I have to go out of town on business, so I can’t stay with Lola. She doesn’t know Arnie very well so I think she’d be more comfortable with you guarding her.”
Putting two potential victims in one place might not be ideal, but at least if Tom took the threats against Lola seriously, he’d be better equipped to handle anything that came his way, too.
I gave him my best imploring look. “Could you please stay with her tonight? Or could she stay at your place?”
“I need to get home and see to my livestock, but she’d be welcome to stay out at the farm…”
“That would be great,” I said before he could add any conditions. “Arnie will watch her house and the store, and you can call him for backup if you need it.”
Tom laughed. “I have a shotgun. I won’t need backup.”
If only I could believe that.
I fluttered my helpless bookkeeper’s eyelashes up at him and cooed, “Thanks, that makes me feel so much better! I’m going to go and get Lola now.”
Hurrying away before he could object, I gave thanks for his stubborn cowboy chivalry. Lola would be as safe as I could make her without actually blowing my cover.
After considerable arguing, the three of us finally convinced Lola to cooperate with our plan, and Tom’s big half-ton carried her safely away.
“So, we’re gonna stake out her house an’ the store tonight?” Hellhound inquired.
“Yes. If anybody was hanging around the store earlier, they’ve probably been scared away by all this activity; but that’s fine. It’ll give me a chance to install a couple of cameras. We can monitor them remotely, nice and warm in our vehicles.” I slid an arm around him. “Thanks for dropping everything again.”
“No problem. I was just hangin’ at Eddy’s.” Hellhound grinned. “Lucky I left my guitar behind so they’ll know I didn’t dine an’ dash.”
“Eddy and Darlene would know that anyway, but they’re probably worrying because you ran out so fast.” I reached up to kiss him. “I’ll go and get the cameras and put them in place, and then I’ll meet you at Eddy’s and give you the monitor.” I grimaced. “I ran out on Nora so she’s probably pissed at me. I’ll have to go back and suck up. Maybe I’ll take her out for dinner.”
“Fuck her,” Hellhound growled.
I sighed. “I can’t. She’s my mother. And I’m going to be in deep shit with Dermott if I can’t get her talking tonight…”
Fear shivered my bones. Don’t think about that.
“Good thing she loves to talk about herself,” I added. “At least I don’t have to waste a bunch of effort deciding what to tell her about my life.”
His arms came around me. “You’d think she’d at least pretend to give a shit.”
Burrowing into the comfort of his embrace, I mumbled, “If she’s trying to influence me, shouldn’t she be all lovey-dovey? And if she’s making it so obvious that she’s not that interested in me, does that mean she isn’t a criminal? Or does it just mean that she’s smart enough to know that falling all over me won’t work so she’s trying to suck me in by making me work for her approval?”
“I dunno, darlin’.” Arnie pressed a whiskery kiss to my forehead. “Far’s I can see, it just means she’s a shitty mother.”
I kissed him again, feeling unaccountably better. “Thanks. I’ll see you at Eddy’s in a few minutes.”
Driving back to Sirius Dynamics, I had time to consider the consequences of running out on Nora.
Dammit, if she’d called Sirius again, I’d be in even deeper shit. I had abandoned my mission for a personal matter that wasn’t even a demonstrable emergency; and now Dermott would think it was my fault that Nora was leaving.
Hell, if he found out I’d fucked up both my missions, I’d be locked up for the rest of my life.
Sliding to a halt in the Sirius parking lot, I yanked out my cell phone. Maybe it wasn’t too late. Maybe Nora hadn’t called Dermott yet.
I punched in her number.
“Yes?” Her voice was cool.
“Hi, it’s Aydan.” I tried no
t to sound too ingratiating. “I’m sorry I had to run out on you like that. I have to go to the office for a while, but I’d like to take you to dinner afterward. I could pick you up around five-thirty.”
“Don’t bother,” she snapped. “I wouldn’t want to inconvenience you.”
The last of my stale adrenaline combusted into fury. I tried to hold my tongue.
I really tried.
Fuck it, I was doomed anyway.
“Listen,” I grated. “I’m sorry you don’t like it, but this is my job. If you’d given me more than ten seconds warning before you showed up, maybe I could have arranged it so I had more time for you. As it is, I’m damn well doing the best I can. So you can quit the drama-queen head games and make the most of the time we have left together, or you can keep pissing and moaning and playing the martyr and I’ll say goodbye right now; and good fucking riddance. Your choice. You have ten seconds to decide.”
“Now you listen here, young lady,” she began.
“Nine!” I barked.
“I am your mother and you can…”
“Eight!”
“…treat me with respect!”
“Seven!”
“You will not use that tone with me…”
“Six!”
“You owe me an apology!”
“Three!”
“What? You skipped five and four!”
“Two!”
Silence.
My pulse hammered in my ears. “One!”
“Let’s go out for dinner,” Nora said hurriedly.
“I’ll pick you up at five-thirty.” I disconnected and collapsed in my seat, sucking in gusts of air and waiting for my heart rate to stabilize.
Score one for me. So either she wanted something from me; or she loved me. I was banking on the former, but my idiot heart gave a little skip of hope nonetheless.
“Don’t get excited,” I growled, and got out of the car.
A few minutes later I hurried past Dermott’s open door with every nerve on alert, but he didn’t stop me. Nora hadn’t called him. Whew.
But I still had to tell him she was leaving tomorrow. That would go over like a fart in a spacesuit.
I’d tell him later.
Scooting into my office, I filed a quick report outlining the events to date and my worries that someone was targeting my friends in an attempt to gain leverage over me; or possibly Arlene Widdenback. I kept a wary eye on the doorway, but Dermott didn’t walk by. Hurrying out, I ducked into Stores, grabbed the camera gear, and fled.
When I walked into Blue Eddy’s, the warmth and music wrapped around me like a hug and my stomach growled in a Pavlovian response.
Fighting off an almost-irresistible hunger for hot chicken wings, I made a beeline for my usual table where Hellhound and Eddy sat with their heads together. Hellhound’s clever fingers danced over the strings of his guitar while Eddy nodded in time. Then Hellhound stopped playing and they conferred for a moment before repeating the process.
“Hi guys,” I said as I slid into a chair across from them, acutely aware that my back was exposed to the rest of the bar.
“Hey, darlin’,” Hellhound greeted me. “Ya ready to go?”
“What, no dinner?” Eddy gave me an incredulous look. “Are you feeling okay?”
“I want hot wings so badly I’m nearly drooling on your table.” I mimed wiping my chin. “But I can’t have any,” I added hurriedly as he jumped up. “I’m taking my mother out for dinner in less than an hour.”
“I hope you’re bringing her here.” He smiled. “I’d love to meet her.”
Shit. Nora would hate Eddy’s. And I needed to talk to her without worrying about Eddy overhearing us as he came and went from our table with his usual attentiveness.
“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to pressure you,” Eddy added quickly. “I’m sure you have plans already.” He was still smiling his usual warm smile, but I saw a flash of hurt in his eyes.
Oh, God. I couldn’t hurt big-hearted Eddy.
“I’d love to bring her here,” I blurted. “I was just… I’m kind of… messed up about the whole thing. It’s complicated.”
Concern furrowed his forehead as he pulled up a chair beside me. “How can I help?”
I sighed. “I wish you could help, but I’m just going to have to muddle through on my own.” I hesitated. I hadn’t told him anything about Nora, but he was a bartender in a small town. “Have you heard any gossip about her?”
Eddy nodded. “I heard she’d faked her death and taken off with another man when you were only seventeen; and now she’s back with some crazy story about being in witness protection for the last thirty years.”
I winced. “That about covers it. And you still want to meet her?”
“I listen to gossip, but I never believe it.” Eddy met my gaze squarely. “I form my own judgements of people when I meet them, and not before.”
Relaxing in my chair, I looked into his clear honest eyes and smiled. “Well, in that case, your professional opinion of Nora would mean a lot to me. We’ll be here around five-thirty.”
“I’ll reserve your table.” He rose with a smile, patted me on the shoulder, and headed for the bar.
“Sure that’s a good idea?” Hellhound asked when Eddy was out of earshot.
“Nope.” I blew out a breath. “It could turn out to be the dumbest thing I’ve done in a long time; or it might help. Eddy’s a great judge of character; and like you said earlier, Nora’s got me so twisted up that I can’t tell my ass from my elbow.”
“She’s a mind-fuckin’ bitch,” Hellhound growled. “Ya don’t need Eddy to tell ya that.”
“You haven’t even met her.” My voice came out sharper than I’d intended.
“An’ I don’t wanna.” He scowled. “Eddy says he judges people when he meets ’em; well, I judge ’em by what they do. Last week that bitch lied to ya just ’cause she fuckin’ felt like it. She didn’t give a shit that it put ya through hell; an’ she never fuckin’ apologized for it, did she?”
I picked at a ragged cuticle, pretending absorption.
Hellhound’s voice softened. “I know she’s your mother an’ ya wanna give her the benefit a’ the doubt, but ya been programmed all your life to make excuses for people even when they treat ya like shit. I’m just sayin’ ya need some perspective.”
“I know, but…” I shook my head and tried again. “I…” Hissing out a breath, I knotted my fists in my hair. “Fuck it, I can’t handle this right now. It doesn’t matter anyway. It’s my job to find out whether she’s a criminal, and the only way I’m going to do that is by spending more time with her.” I stood. “I’m going to go and install those cameras, and then pick up Nora.”
Hellhound sighed and rose. “I’ll come with ya an’ set up for the stakeout.”
Chapter 38
An hour later Nora stopped a few paces into Blue Eddy’s, her lip curling. “This isn’t my kind of place. Let’s go somewhere else.”
Eddy was already hurrying over, smiling.
“Tough,” I muttered. “It’s my kind of place, and we have a reservation. I’m staying. If you want to walk back to the hotel, feel free.”
“That is so inconsiderate…” Nora began.
“This is my friend Eddy Carlson,” I said firmly as he arrived. “And Eddy, this is my mother, Nora Taylor.”
“Mrs. Taylor.” Eddy gave her his friendly, open smile and a polite half-bow. “What a pleasure to meet you. I can see where Aydan gets her beauty.”
My face went hot.
Nora flushed, too. “Oh, my!” She smiled and leaned confidentially toward Eddy. “Flattery will get you everywhere.”
He gave her a wink. “So I’m told. But it’s not flattery if it’s true.”
“Ooh…” Nora fluttered a coquettish hand. “You’re such a charming liar.”
“Not at all, Mrs. Taylor. May I show you to your table?”
“Oh, yes, please.” She took his proffered elbow. “And please ca
ll me Nora.”
“Thank you, Nora. And I hope you’ll call me Eddy.” He ushered her to our table as though escorting a queen to a state dinner.
I followed, trying not to let my jaw dangle. Somehow my down-to-earth friend had transformed into a suave lady-killer.
Good God, he even pulled out Nora’s chair and seated her. When he pulled out my usual chair for me and waited politely behind it, I nearly choked. Somehow I managed to keep a straight face while he seated me, too.
“Now, what can I get you ladies to drink?” he inquired. “Mrs. Taylor, do you have a favourite?”
“Oh…” She batted her eyelashes at him. “It’s just Nora, please! And… I rarely imbibe, but… maybe you have a specialty…?”
“Mixing drinks is my passion,” Eddy confided, his voice dropping meaningfully on the word ‘passion’. “Do you like your drinks sweet or tart? Or… spicy?” He gave her a slow smile.
Oh. My. God.
Eddy. Flirting.
He was devastating.
“Oh…” Nora flushed again. “I’m afraid I don’t dare try anything spicy.” She batted her eyelashes some more. “Can you do something sweet, with a little tart?”
I clamped my hand over my mouth but a snicker exploded in spite of my efforts.
They both turned to me, Nora with a frown and Eddy with a devilish twinkle in his eyes.
“Aydan!” Nora said in a tone of rebuke.
I opened my mouth to apologize but laughter burst out instead. “Sorry,” I gasped. “You just… You asked if he could do something sweet with a little tart. Who’s the little tart?”
Eddy spun to face the bar, his shoulders shaking with suppressed laughter. Fortunately Nora was too busy glaring at me to notice.
“I’m humiliated that any daughter of mine would have such a low mind,” she snapped.
Suddenly I just didn’t give a shit anymore.
“Sucks to be you, then.” I slouched in my chair and stretched out my legs, crossing my ankles. “Eddy, would you bring me a beer, please?”
“Of course.” Somehow he managed a grave expression as he turned back to Nora. “And Mrs. Taylor…” He gave her that deferential half-bow again. “If you will honour me with your trust, I would like to create a special cocktail just for you.”
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