She realized her own teeth were clenched. “Dana,” she said tautly. My sister’s best friend. Who was married to someone else.
His gray eyes abruptly shuttered, becoming unreadable. “And?”
Olivia’s mouth fell open. “And? That’s all you have to say?”
He shook his head hard. “No. That’s not what I meant.”
And? Like it was nothing. Like I was nothing. “Let me go.”
“Olivia, wait.”
She shoved at his shoulders. “No. Let. Me. Go.” She twisted, her dress falling back down around her legs. He reached for her and she smacked him away.
“Olivia, wait.”
A sob was building but she’d be goddamned before she let him see her cry. She made it out of the room, grabbing her purse from the kitchen counter, him on her heels. He made it to the door ahead of her and slapped his palm against it.
“Listen to me.”
“I did,” she spat. “That’s the problem. Let me go or I swear to God you’ll be sorry.”
Slowly he backed away. “I am. I am sorry.”
“Yeah, right,” she scoffed and yanked the door open. She stopped herself, forcing herself to calm down. Driving when she was this angry was dangerous. She stared straight ahead, not trusting herself to look at him again. “I don’t do one-night stands, David. Believe it, or don’t. I don’t care. But hear this clearly. I don’t play second-string. When I’m with a man, I want him to be thinking of me. Only me.”
“Olivia, please. I… don’t have any excuse except I’d had too much to drink.”
“And?” she asked sardonically. “From now on, stop watching me. Please.”
“All right,” he said hollowly. “I won’t bother you again.”
“Good.” She got to her car and out to the main road, then the shakes hit and she pulled over. This always happened when she got emotional. That’s why she didn’t like to get emotional. She groped for her cell phone in her purse and hit speed-dial one.
“Well?” Paige asked, bypassing greeting.
“Sal’s Bar,” Olivia said darkly. “In thirty.”
“Then… it didn’t go well?”
“Y’think? I’m gonna text Brie, see if she can meet us.”
Paige sighed. “Are you okay?”
“Oh, sure. I’m just peachy. See you in thirty minutes.”
David stood in the doorway of Glenn’s cabin, knuckles pressing into his throbbing temples. And? And? His stomach was churning. He’d blown it again. And he’d hurt her. Again. “You stupid, dumb fuck.”
But standing here wouldn’t help anything. Shoulders heavy, he closed the front door and started to clear the unused table when his cell phone rang. It was Paige.
Of course it was. “What?” he asked wearily.
“You know, for a gorgeous guy with a really sharp brain, you are a stupid SOB.”
He closed his eyes, too tired to fight. “Thank you, Paige. See you tomorrow night at the dojo. You can rip me a new one then.”
“I’m on my way to Sal’s to meet her and Brie for major mojitos. What did you do?”
“This is none of your business. Really.”
“I’m going to have to tell her you know us both. I’ve never lied to her. I won’t start.”
Terrific. “Go ahead. Not much you can tell her that’ll make it much worse.”
“That bad?”
“Oh yeah.” I don’t play second-string, she’d said. “Paige, who hurt her?”
“You mean, besides you?”
He flinched. “You know, you’re not helping here.”
“I’m sorry. I just hate to see her this upset and I’m going to have to make it worse by saying you and I are friends.”
“Well, at least we’re still friends,” he said morosely.
“God. David, I’m sorry. I don’t mean to twist the knife. You want to know who hurt her? Most recently, it was her ex-fiancé.”
David’s eyes narrowed. “Micah Barlow?”
“You know Micah? Oh, wait, he’s in Arson now, so you would. Well, yeah, Micah was in it, but he wasn’t her fiancé. That would have been Micah’s best friend, Doug.”
Second-string. “He left her for someone else, didn’t he?”
There was a pause. “Yeah. And it almost killed her.”
Good going, Hunter. “Just do what you need to do to make her okay. Say what you need to say. Call me anything you want. I won’t bother her anymore.”
“David… Dammit.”
“Tomorrow at the dojo, just let me know that she’s all right.”
“We’ll think of something. Just hang in there.”
I hung on too long. That was the problem. But how could he fix it?
Monday, September 20, 11:15 p.m.
“It’s easier when the stuff is already here,” Albert muttered. Like Eric, he carried a gas can in each hand. Mary quietly brought up the rear, carrying the spool of fuse line. Her eyes were still red-rimmed and swollen.
I should be grieving, Eric thought. Joel was my friend. But all he could think of was getting this job done and getting the hell out of Dodge.
“Last time we got lucky,” Eric hissed back. “The glue was there. I told you, the fork trucks here run on propane and the tank is out back. We can’t use it to light the fire.”
Dressed all in black, each of them wore gloves and this time, ski masks over their faces. They stepped over the dog, who’d finally gone to sleep after eating the steak they’d injected with a narcotic Mary had left over from a back injury. She looked back.
“He’s breathing,” she said. “Good. I don’t want anyone else hurt.”
“He’s a dog, not an ‘anyone,’” Eric muttered, putting his gas cans down next to the back door. Not a girl. Whose face he could still see every time he closed his eyes.
“Let’s dump the gas outside,” Albert urged. “Don’t risk triggering the alarm.”
“We have to destroy what’s inside.” Eric sliced a hole in the door’s window and broke away enough glass so that he could crawl through. “Plus the video from the security cameras is inside. We need to take that with us. Give me a boost.”
Grumbling, Albert did so and prepared to come through himself.
“Wait,” Eric said, staring at the alarm panel. “The alarm’s not set. Whoever was last out must’ve forgotten.”
“Or we’re about to get caught,” Albert said. “Open it. I want to do this and get out.”
Eric opened the door and took his gas cans, then stepped aside to let the others through. “I’ll get the video first, then I’ll pour my gas. Mary, you start laying the fuse.”
The video was where Tomlinson’s secretary said it would be. Eric imagined she’d remember his phone call when the police began asking questions, but that was okay. He’d used the bastard’s disposable phone. Let it lead the cops to the real bad guy.
He popped the tape from the recorder, then spread his gas among the boxes stacked near the loading dock before meeting Albert and Mary at the back door. “Got the video. Mary, light the fuse.”
“For Joel,” she said, then touched the flame to the fuse. “Let’s go.”
They ran to their car, Eric looking over his shoulder, watching for the moment flames became visible inside. When they did, he snapped a photo using the texter’s cell.
“What was that for?” Mary asked as they drove away. “Why did you take a picture?”
Eric and Albert shared a glance. “Let’s get out of here,” Eric said. “Then we’ll talk.”
Albert drove quickly, then pulled onto a side road where they’d be shielded by trees. They jumped out and replaced the license plates they’d taken from Eric’s car, then got back in and took their ski masks off. Once they’d climbed back in, Albert started driving again and Eric turned back to Mary. “It’s like this,” he began.
Her face went pale as she listened. “Oh my God. We just… Oh my God. The guard… He’s dead? Are you sure?”
Eric nodded. “He was shot in the ch
est.”
She closed her eyes. “I can’t do this.”
“You must,” Albert said harshly. “Until we find this guy and kill him ourselves.”
Her eyes flew open, widened. “Kill him? Us?”
“How else can we be sure he won’t leak those pictures to the cops?” Eric asked.
She shook her head, hard. “I can’t kill anyone else. I can’t.”
“You already did,” Albert said again, more harshly. “Don’t even consider running away, unless it’s to off yourself like Joel did. He saved us a hell of a lot of trouble.”
Her jaw clenched. “I hate you.”
“The feeling is mutual,” Albert said. Then silence fell over the car as the three of them drove back to the city.
Thoughtfully he tapped the steering wheel of his unobtrusive white panel van. Interesting. The three of them had turned on one another but seemed to be sticking together—for now anyway. He’d have to see how that played out over the next few days and whether or not they decided to run away.
He’d waited until they were out of sight of Tomlinson’s warehouse before pulling out behind them. Now he stopped on the side road, just as they had and changed his plates, too, in case he’d been caught on the security cameras of the other warehouses.
Back behind the wheel, he reached for his video camera. He’d been parked at the fourth warehouse down from Tomlinson’s, sitting in the back of his van, filming the three of them going in, then coming out. They’d worn black ski masks tonight, but he got their eyes—especially Mary’s as she looked back to check on the dog. He’d even gotten Eric on tape, taking a picture with the disposable cell.
The video would provide some excellent clips to send to Eric and his pals. Now, home. He still had work to do. It wasn’t like Eric and the gang were his only concern. No, sir. He hadn’t gotten to where he was by putting all his eggs in a single basket. Nor had he gotten to where he was by being afraid of sacrificing a few eggs. What was left of Tomlinson was frying up right now. It was time to start a new omelet.
Monday, September 20, 11:55 p.m.
Olivia pushed her glass to the middle of the bar. “I’m done.”
“I thought you were going to drown your sorrows,” Brie said, sitting on her left. “You’ve nursed that one glass all night.”
“Maybe you just need time to process whatever happened,” Paige said quietly from her right and Olivia gave her a sharp look. Usually Paige egged her on, fanning the flames of ire at the injustice of men, but she’d been uncharacteristically muted tonight.
The three of them sat at the bar, morosely looking at their reflections in the mirror behind it. A redhead, a blonde, and a brunette, all in a row. “The two of you could be on magazine covers,” Olivia said. “But between us, we can’t find a decent guy. Why?”
“Because men are dogs,” Brie said disgustedly. “And you’re beautiful, too.”
Olivia smiled at her in the mirror. “And you’re drunk, babe.”
Brie sighed. “One of us needed to be.”
“It wasn’t easy seeing Micah today, was it?” Olivia murmured.
Brie’s eyes closed. “No.”
Paige’s black brows winged up. “You saw Micah today?”
“It’s an arson case,” Olivia said. “Barlow’s assigned. We needed cadaver dogs.”
“That’s surprising,” Paige said. “I thought he’d die before asking Brie for anything.”
“He called everyone else on the list first,” Olivia admitted. “But he knows his job.”
“His job was never the problem,” Brie muttered. “But we’re talking about you. I can’t believe you had sex with a fireman in Chicago and never told me. I’m still mad at you.”
“No, you’re not.” Olivia sighed. “And I didn’t have sex. Exactly.”
Brie leaned forward, chin on her fist. “What did you have, exactly?”
“Maybe she doesn’t want to talk about it,” Paige said uncomfortably.
Brie frowned. “Whose side are you on anyway?”
Paige flinched. “Why would you even ask me that?”
Brie leaned forward more so that she could see Paige. “What’s with you tonight?”
Olivia turned toward Paige. “Yeah, what’s with you?”
“Nothing. I just think that sometimes there’s more to it than meets the eye.”
Olivia sighed. “He obviously didn’t think there was anything wrong with screaming someone else’s name… in the throes of passion.”
Brie patted Olivia’s hand. “Although, sometimes ‘And?’ means more than ‘And.’”
Olivia shook her head. “We need to get you some coffee.”
“No, I don’t wanna be sober. I was just wondering what he thought he’d said.”
“Or what he’d done,” Paige added. She signaled to the bartender. “Sal, can we get a cup of really strong coffee for our friend, here?”
Brie frowned. “Spoilsport. When did you become the responsible one?”
Sal put three steaming cups of coffee in front of them. “You need a cab, Brie?”
“I guess so,” Brie said glumly. “Dammit.”
“I’ll drive her home,” Paige said, then drew a breath. “Liv, I just think you should reconsider. This guy’s nice. From what you said, I mean.”
Brie was still frowning. “No, he’s not nice. Focus, Paige. He’s a jerk.”
Paige hesitated, then blurted, “Look, Liv, I need—”
Olivia’s cell phone buzzed in her pocket. “Wait a minute.” She checked the caller ID. “It’s Barlow. I have to take it.”
“He’s a jerk, too,” Brie muttered.
“Shh,” Olivia hissed. “Sutherland. What’s up?”
“Another fire,” Barlow said. “You should come.”
She slid off her stool. “Where?”
He gave her the address. “We’ve also got another homicide. Guy looks like he was shot in the head, then left in the building to burn. And Liv, we’ve got another ball.”
Olivia’s pulse started to race. “I’ll call Kane and we’ll be there as soon as we can.” She hung up and put enough cash on the bar to cover her tab. “Gotta go, girls.”
Chapter Ten
Tuesday, September 21, 12:10 a.m.
The garden behind David’s apartment house was his hideaway. The Gorski sisters kept it up beautifully, and for that he cut them a deal on the rent. The seventy-two-year-old identical twins had identical green thumbs and the air was fragrant with the last roses of the season. At least it wasn’t honeysuckle.
Behind him a sliding glass door opened, then closed. A minute later Glenn settled himself in the chair next to him and drew a deep breath. “God bless the Gorskis.”
David lifted his mug of hot tea. “Hear, hear. Did I wake you?”
“Nah. Couldn’t sleep. Saw the light from your laptop.” He gestured to the computer on David’s knee. “You still reading that asshole’s shit?”
David glanced at the Preston Moss speech he’d been rereading. “Somebody copied this guy last night at the condo fire, by design or smoke screen.”
Glenn looked amused. “And you’re playing detective?”
Annoyance prickled because he’d been trying to do exactly that—to understand the motive behind the arson that had killed that young girl. To understand how it had morphed into the cold-blooded murder of the guard. “That, and wondering if these environmentalists would quote Preston Moss after pulling a few dead bodies from a fire,” he said, then shook off his mood. “Did you and my mom have a nice dinner?”
“Yeah, except that Martino flirted with her shamelessly.”
David chuckled at Glenn’s sour tone. “What time did you get her home?”
“A little earlier than you rolled in, Dad. Thought you’d stay out longer.”
David’s smile faded. “Yeah. Well, it didn’t work out that way.”
“Sorry, boy.”
David sighed. “Me too.”
For a while they were silent. “So what di
d you do to your pretty blond cop?”
David leaned his head back to stare at the stars. “Did you ever mess up, Glenn?”
“With a woman? Time or two,” he said easily. “How bad did you mess up?”
It was something about Glenn, something about the night, or maybe David was just damn desperate for advice. “I, uh, said someone else’s name when we…”
“Oh.” Glenn’s face creased in a prolonged wince. “You didn’t just mess up, boy. You royally fucked up.”
“I got that,” David said dryly. “Thank you.”
“You’re welcome. Was the other woman current or past?”
“More like never.” He stared at the sky again. “I believe they call it unrequited love.”
“Ah. Well, that sucks.”
“Indeed it does.”
“So, why did you do it? Say the other woman’s name, I mean.”
“Got drunk on champagne,” David muttered.
“Why’d you do that?”
“It was a wedding. I hate weddings.” But he didn’t get drunk at weddings, no matter how miserable he’d been. Hell, he hadn’t even gotten drunk at Dana’s wedding. So why at Mia’s? Why in front of Olivia? He’d been asking himself that for two and a half years.
“Did your lady cop buy the champagne excuse?”
“No,” he said grimly.
“Didn’t think so. So what are you gonna do?”
“Talk to her again.” He’d promised not to bother her again, but sitting among the Gorski sisters’ roses, he’d decided that was a stupid promise to have made.
Glenn’s gray brows lifted. “Planning to wait another two and a half years for that?”
David huffed a surprised chuckle. “No.”
“You know,” Glenn mused, “I’ve never seen you drink more than one beer.”
“I don’t get drunk,” David said flatly, then amended it. “Hardly ever, anyway.”
“What happened the last time you got drunk? Before the lady cop?”
David closed his eyes. Someone I cared about died. “Something very bad.”
“But you got drunk again that night at the wedding anyway. I think you need to figure out why before you try to smooth things over with your lady cop.”