“Just remember—if Taylor is busted, Connie’s job goes with her.” Saluting, Tony put the car in reverse and backed down the street with his headlights off.
Stepping back on the sidewalk, Delta opened the van door. “Everybody ready?”
Connie leaned out the window, her face a mask of seriousness. “It looks like Wainwright is home.”
Shrugging at this news, Taylor walked over to Delta and fingered her clip-on tie. “No problemo. I’ve done it before in a pinch.”
Delta looked over at Connie. “We’re in a pinch.”
As Taylor stood closer to her, Delta could smell the black leather outfit.. “Luckily for you guys, pinch happens to be a forte of mine.” Putting her arm around Delta, Taylor squeezed her. “And if you just spoke tenderly to me, Delta, I’d love to pin—”
Palming the Ladybug, Delta patted Taylor on the back, leaving the tiny device square between Taylor’s shoulders. “This is business, Taylor.”
Taylor’s eyes seemed to glitter. “Oh? And if it weren’t?”
Delta pulled away and shook her head. “Just don’t get caught.”
“For you, anything.” Standing on her tiptoes, Taylor planted a kiss on Delta’s cheek before reaching her hand out to Connie. “Thank you, Connie, for not kicking my butt back there. I know how much Delta means to you, and...well...I’ve kinda been driving her crazy.”
Connie studied Taylor. “She needed the diversion, Taylor.”
With that, Taylor disappeared between two houses.
“You trust her?” Connie asked after Taylor vanished into the hands of the night.
Delta chuckled. “Hell no. She’s a loose cannon with a short fuse. There’s no telling what she’s liable to do in there.”
Connie reached out and touched Delta’s arm. “It bothers you, doesn’t it?”
“What?”
“The fact that you like her so much.”
“Bite your tongue.”
“Hello? It’s me. You haven’t fooled me for one second, Delta Stevens. I see the way you look at her—how you try to hide your admiring smiles. I see how you two look at each other. It’s so damn obvious.”
Delta did not respond.
“And if I didn’t know how crazy you are about Megan, I’d almost be worried.”
“Almost?”
“Okay, I get it. You’re trying to drive me crazy, aren’t you? Is that it?”
Delta looked into Connie’s eyes and smirked. “You’re being ridiculous.”
Connie took Delta’s face in her hands. A sound from Connie’s mouth—a language Delta had never heard before, whispered passed her lips as she read the truth in Delta’s eyes that no woman but Connie could ever decipher. “Uh-huh. You may never admit it, Delta, not even to yourself, but I can see the truth in your eyes.”
Delta tried to shrug noncommittally. “So I admire her work—the way she’s perfected her craft, so to speak.”
“So to speak. And now,” Connie continued, reaching into her purse, “we have...” Stopping suddenly, Connie pulled her purse into her lap and furiously began digging through it.
“Con?”
“Where’s the tape? Goddamn her, she stole the tape.” Jumping from the van, Connie looked under the seat and in the back. “It’s not here.”
Delta ripped open the passenger door and started pawing through the cassettes and books scattered about the floor of the van.
After frantically searching for a minute, Connie threw her hands up in exasperation. “I don’t know how, and I don’t know when, but that bitch copped the confession tape.”
Delta pushed the seat back and sighed. “Like we said—”
“I’m sorry, Del. I had it in my purse. I don’t know—”
Delta retrieved a small black box the size of a television remote from her pocket. “Ladybug, Ladybug, fly away home...”
Connie sighed with relief. “I’d forgotten about that.”
“Maybe because you were too concerned with my love life.”
Connie chuckled. “Maybe. I can’t believe that little shit tried to burn us.”
Delta nodded and flipped a button. “It’s all just one big game to her.”
“But if she’s got our tape, why would she need to go to Wainwright’s house now?”
Delta looked down at the blinking green light on the receiver. “Shit. Stay here.” Jamming the receiver back in her pocket, Delta took off toward Wainwright’s house, leaping over the hedges. When she landed near the porch, she pulled the receiver out and saw the green light was flashing faster. Only then did Delta notice the large dogs barking at the chainlink fence. As she carefully approached the fence, the receiver’s light went wild.
Delta didn’t need to look at the receiver to know what had happened. Somehow, Taylor had managed to find the transmitter and, as per her own strange sense of humor, put the receiver on one of the dogs. How Taylor had gotten close enough, how she even knew it was on her back, Delta did not know. What she did know was that Taylor, the international jewel thief, had outplayed them to the very end.
Trudging back to the van, Delta shook her head. “Don’t tell me—”
“I won’t.”
“She burned us?”
“Like french fries.”
Connie looked up at the sky. “What now?”
Delta closed her eyes and rubbed her pounding temples. She’d let Taylor’s game playing get out of control, and now, it’d cost them.
“Think she’ll burn me?”
Delta shook her head. “No way. All Taylor wanted was to get away. Wainwright will never find the bug.”
“Maybe not, but what if he finds the cameras?”
“So what? If he’s guilty of any wrong doing, he’ll simply destroy them and any evidence along with them.”
“But Alex—”
“Hey, Con, we tried. I gambled more than I should have and lost. I’m sorry.”
Connie put her arm around Delta’s shoulder. “You gave it your best, Storm.”
“Bullshit. I let her get to me. We should never have made a deal with her. We had her right here, Con, right in the palm of our hands, and I let her—”
“Snuffy-Smith us?”
Delta paused and barely grinned. “Yeah. That’s exactly what I let her do.”
Connie got in the van and motioned for Delta to get in. “Let it go, Del. This time, we weren’t anybody’s heroines, that’s all.”
Delta sighed like a deflating balloon.
“Hey, we win our fair share of fights.”
“But Alex—”
“Is on her own. She’s a big girl, and you don’t owe her any more. You’re not responsible for Alex and her career. Hell, for all we know, Taylor could have been lying about the cameras just to buy some time.”
“Buy? Hell, Con, I gave it to her for free.”
“You’re being too hard on yourself.”
“She suckered me, Connie.”
“Yes, she did. But what’s done is done. You finish your shift, go home, and call your woman. You’ll feel a lot better after you talk to Megan.”
Slowly getting out of the van as it rolled to a stop in front of her patrol car, Delta sighed once more. “Let’s just hope I don’t let Megan slip through my fingers as easily as I let Taylor.”
“You won’t. Now, pick your bottom lip off the ground. Forget about it. We’ve won our share of games, and this just wasn’t one of them.”
Closing the door, Delta shook her head. “I hate losing.”
Connie grinned. “I know. Me, too. Try to have a good night.”
“You, too, Chief. Good night.”
After three unsuccessful attempts at connecting with Megan, Delta pulled her uniform off and flopped on the bed. Pulling the flannel sheets up to her neck, she closed her eyes and tried to forget how awful she felt. All she could see was Taylor’s face smiling at her—how she must be enjoying her victory. Delta hated it.
When one of the cats jumped on the bed, Delta opened her eyes, grate
ful for the company. For some strange reason, the house felt quieter than usual. Maybe it merely echoed the emptiness Delta was feeling.
She’d blown it tonight and had nobody to blame but herself. At least, if Megan were here, she would hold her and tell her everything would be all right. That’s what she missed most. Not the sex, not the laughter, but Megan’s consistency.
Enjoying the warmth of her cat’s body against hers, Delta relaxed enough to try to sleep. Carefully reaching over so as to not disturb the cat, she turned out the light, her hand paused mid-stretch as she gazed at Megan’s picture on the night stand. Before Megan left for Costa Rica, Delta had asked her to marry her. It was a huge step for a woman who was afraid of any commitment not involving a badge and gun; but she had asked nonetheless, and Megan promised her an answer when she returned from Central America. Wouldn’t that be something, Delta mused as sleep curled itself around her. Marriage...settling down...
She didn’t know how long she’d been asleep when she heard it, but Delta knew it meant trouble. Without opening her eyes, Delta listened for the exact location of the growling noise coming from the cat’s throat. She’d only heard him make that sound a few times—always when a stray cat tried to enter the house. Focusing on the low, guttural noise he projected, Delta guessed his location to be atop her chest of drawers, which was not someplace he usually hung out. As Delta became more fully awake, she felt it—she was not alone.
Delta continued breathing as if she were asleep. Someone was in her house—maybe even in the same room, frightening the cat enough to send him scurrying for higher ground. If she could get her left hand out of the covers, she could reach her nine millimeter hanging in her ankle holster on the bedpost.
Cracking one eye open, Delta saw the silhouette of someone standing at the foot of her bed. Instantly, her left hand shot out from under the covers and grasped for the holster, which, to her surprise, was empty.
“Tsk, tsk,” came Taylor’s voice as she flipped on the light. In her left hand, she held the Beretta, in her right, a brown paper bag.
“You?”
Taylor grinned. “Miss me?”
Tossing the covers from the bed, Delta’s feet hit the floor. “I ought to strangle you.”
Still grinning, Taylor turned the Beretta around and tossed it on the bed. “Nasty things, guns. I had to make sure you wouldn’t shoot me.”
Perplexed, Delta looked at the Beretta. “I should have shot you back at the house.”
“And ruined my beautiful jumpsuit? I hardly think so.”
Delta picked the Beretta up and jammed it back in the holster. “Are you trying to drive me nuts, or what?”
Taylor looked Delta up and down. “Pretty sexy lingerie you wear to bed, Storm. Sweats? Very attractive. Someone hold me back.”
Delta looked down at her clothes and suddenly felt vulnerable. “You didn’t break into my house to discuss my nightwear, Taylor.”
“True. But I had so hoped that you slept in the buff.” Taylor’s eyes flitted over Delta flirtatiously. “Maybe in the summer, eh?”
“Maybe. What do you want, Taylor?”
Taylor stepped closer, bridging the distance between them. “Aren’t you just a teeny bit curious about what I have in this little bag?”
“Actually, I’m more curious about how the hell you got in here past the guard.”
Taylor, still smiling, shook her head. “Sorry, trade secret.” Taylor tossed the bag on the bed. “Don’t worry, I won’t tell anyone how sexy you look when you sleep. You’re one of the few women I’ve ever seen who look beautiful even when you’re drooling.”
Heat rose in Delta’s cheeks. If she’d missed it before, she wasn’t now. Taylor was indiscriminately flirting with her, and for the first time, Delta noticed the shapely curves and mounds of flesh tucked neatly inside the skintight leathers. God, where had she seen that jumpsuit before?
Taylor’s grin stretched into a smile as she noticed Delta’s appraising look. “Well?”
“Well, what?”
“Aren’t you going to look in the bag?”
Delta slowly reached for it and peered inside. Three black videocassettes lay on the bottom. “Are these what I think they are?”
“I don’t know. What do you think they are?”
Delta pulled three VCR cases from the bag and looked at them.
“I told you, Delta. I’m a woman of my word. I told you I’d get you the tapes, and there they are.”
Delta slowly looked up from the tapes. “Are these Wainwright’s tapes?”
Taylor nodded. “Yep.”
“Then, why’d you take off?”
“Because it pissed me off that you didn’t trust me.” Stepping right up to Delta, Taylor reached up and lightly caressed Delta’s face. “Delta, we’re mirror images, me and you. You gave me your word, and I believed you. You insulted and hurt me by placing that stupid bug on my back.”
“Trusting a criminal isn’t something that comes naturally to me.” Delta gently pulled her hand out of Taylor’s. Connie was right, and Delta could no longer deny her attraction to Taylor. “I apologize for insulting you.”
“Luckily for you, I have a very forgiving soul. I forgive you.”
“You put me through the ringer, you know. I thought I’d never see you again.”
Taylor stepped so close that they were touching. “Oh, really? Was that important? Seeing me again?”
Delta swallowed and took a step back. “Sure. I...thought I’d never see those tapes. I thought you—”
“I know what you thought, Delta Stevens. You thought I’d take the tapes and laugh at you on my way out of town.”
“Why didn’t you? You were free.”
“I still am.”
Delta’s left eyebrow rose. “Are you sure of that?”
Taylor nodded. “We made a deal. I stuck with my end of the bargain, and you’re going to keep your end. It’s that easy.”
Delta gazed down into Taylor’s eyes. She doubted anything involving Taylor was ‘easy.’ “Well, I’m glad you came back.”
“Because of the tapes?” There was a slight hint of hope in Taylor’s voice.
“Because...” The heat on Delta’s cheeks spread down her neck, through her arms, and landed somewhere in the pit of her stomach. Only her mind kept it from spreading any lower. “...of the tapes. Yeah.”
Turning away to hide her disappointment, Taylor sighed. “I suppose I should be going.”
Delta swallowed. Why was this so hard?
Taylor stopped at the bedroom door. “I’m gonna go somewhere warm and sunny. I think I’m going to retire after this.”
Delta grinned and joined her at the door.
“That certainly fits. You’re a free spirit, Taylor, that much I know.”
Taylor started through the house, flipping lights on as she went. “You have a nice place here, Storm.”
“Thanks.”
Taylor stopped at the front door and leaned against it. “If you were my lover, you better believe I’d never let you sleep alone.”
Somewhere in her, the flicker of desire ignited and Taylor’s cool touch seemed to fan the flames.
“She’s...uh...out of town.”
Taylor’s eyes smiled as she reached out to finger the Excalibur sword necklace hanging around Delta’s neck. “I know, and it might make all the difference in the world.”
Delta swallowed hard, but found no verbal response.
Gently tugging on the pendant, Taylor pulled Delta to her. “But then,” Taylor breathed huskily into Delta’s mouth, “leaving would be that much more difficult, wouldn’t it?”
Their mouths inches apart, Delta allowed the fire to burn beneath her skin. “Would it?”
Inching closer, Taylor slid her arms around Delta’s neck. “Another time, another place, and I could make you love me...” Slowly moving her face up to Delta’s, Taylor brought her mouth to Delta’s lips and kissed her very lightly, very tenderly. Bracing herself with both hands a
gainst the door, Delta returned the kiss. As Taylor’s lips caressed hers, they slowly transformed the gentle, tender kiss into one of eager passion. Taylor’s tongue searched Delta’s mouth, and for a long moment, their lips moved in the unison of two lovers who had known each other’s pleasures for a lifetime. Locked in an embrace which neither fully understood, their lips slid over each other’s, tongues meeting and departing, teasing, yet stretching for more. And as Taylor slowed her mouth and retracted her tongue, she took Delta’s face in her hands and gazed longingly into it.
“You are one hell of a woman, Delta Stevens. You were way worth the risk of getting caught.”
Delta kissed the center of Taylor’s palm “And you, my friend, are one hell of a thief.”
Gently pulling away, Taylor reached one finger up to touch the small scar on Delta’s left eyebrow. “Good enough to steal your heart?” Moving her finger from the scar to Delta’s lips, Taylor grinned. “Rhetorical question. I’d rather leave with my hope of the answer.” Turning, Taylor ducked under Delta’s arm and grabbed the knob. “We’ll meet again, you know.”
Delta nodded and smiled. “I sure hope so.”
“And when we do, Delta, your girlfriend had better be ready to put up a fight for you.” Opening the door, Taylor stood on her tiptoes and kissed Delta’s cheek. “And you know what a formidable opponent I can be.”
Delta held the door open for Taylor and took in her jumpsuit one last time. “Take care of yourself, Taylor. The world wouldn’t be the same without you.”
Winking at her, Taylor nodded. “You, too, Storm.” With that, Taylor disappeared quickly into the night, leaving a faint scent of leather, her warm touch, and her passion on Delta’s lips.
Alexandria stood in front of the door, wrapping her robe tighter around her. “This is a nice surprise,” she said, stepping aside and waiting for Delta to enter. “You okay?”
Pushing quickly past Alexandria, Delta tossed her new bomber jacket on the couch. “Hang on to your hat, Counselor. The cavalry has just arrived.”
Alexandria’s eyes opened wide. “At five in the morning? Does the cavalry ever sleep?”
Delta grinned. “Let’s just say I get by with a little help from my friends.”
“Well, while you’re singing old Beatle tunes, mind if I get some coffee?”
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