“Of course,” he promised. “Take Cole into his new room so he can lie down. Mags and I will clean this up.”
Chapter 36
After cleaning up the watermelon fiasco, Maggie and Seth left. Not that I blamed them. Cole and I spent the evening alone at his house trying not to talk about my father, but the conversation just kept coming back to him.
“I should get out of Port Fare, Cole. If I leave, he’ll follow me. He’s dying, you heard how bad he sounds. Daddy’ll spend his last breath trying to find me.”
“No, Lilah. I’m not letting you out of my life.” He wrapped his arms around me as we stared out the living room window, watching a mother bird push her babies out of the nest in an attempt to teach them to fly.
Cole reached into the pocket of his jeans, drew out a small box, and removed a ring. He held it out to me, a vivid fiery-orange, heart-shaped stone, surrounded by small diamonds.
“It’s a Spessartine garnet. It took me forever to find the right shade of orange. Do you like it?’
“No,” my voice a whisper. “I love it.” I flew into his arms and we stumbled back a few steps. “Oops. I’m sorry. Are you okay?”
He nodded. “I wanted a unique ring for a unique woman. I designed it myself.” He slipped it on my finger. It fit perfectly.
“Lilah, I know this is terrible timing. I hadn’t planned on all this going on today. Let’s just call this a ‘thank you for decorating the house I want to share the rest of my life with you in’ gift. When you’re ready for it to be more, we’ll call it an engagement ring.” He grinned. “I’m taking those tears as a yes.”
I stiffened slightly. “Cole, you need to think about this. Booker will never accept me, and I don’t want you to lose a friend over me, not one that means as much to you as he does.”
“Booker will have to get over it.” He ran a hand over my hair. “Don’t answer right now. Like I said, the timing’s terrible.”
“‘The course of true love never did run smooth,’” I quoted, with a trivial smile.
“A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Act I, Scene one.” He took my hand. “Come on, I want to show you the other bedroom.”
“You finished the man-cave? I didn’t know you’d started.”
“Call me Mr. Spontaneous. Okay, that’s a mild exaggeration, but I’m doing better.” He opened the door and turned on the light. My mouth dropped.
“This is not just your office. This is . . .”
“An artist’s studio. I spoke with the girl at the shop I bought the supplies from before the surgery. She said you could exchange them if they weren’t what you needed. Seth and Maggie set this all up last night.”
Aside from a roll-top desk and some bookshelves for him, the room held three easels and several different types of paints, including oils, my favorite. Chalks and notepads rested on the desk next to several different brushes.
“I don’t deserve you.”
Cole gathered me in his arms and whispered into my hair, “I love you, Lilah.”
He kissed me thoroughly to prove his point.
**
Looking down at my beautiful ring, I snuggled in closer to Cole as we sat on the couch. I loved the ring. I also couldn’t keep it. Cole must have paid a fortune for the thing. After the watermelon incident earlier, I’d made up my mind. As soon as I could lose Booker’s tail again, I was leaving. Cole deserved so much more than a gangster’s daughter. I listened to him making plans about our life together, and each word tore at my heart.
“How many kids did you say you wanted?” I asked, keeping the delusion going because in my heart I truly must be a sadist.
“I’d like a large family. I’ve dreamed about having seven, you know, to carry on the seventh son tradition, but you’re the one who has to give birth so I’ll leave that up to you.” He stretched his arms over his head. We’d been talking for hours; he had to be tired. I didn’t want to sleep, fearing the nightmares.
“I’ve always wanted a large family, though I’m not so sure about seven. We’ll have to move.” I looked around the living room. “Maybe we can renovate an old bomb shelter. That should be rigid enough to outlast seven boys.” He laughed. “So not even one girl?”
“I’ll try, but there hasn’t been a girl born into the Colter line in three generations,” he said, looking doubtful. “We could adopt.”
“True.” I nodded. “I can’t promise seven. But I do hope we have a houseful. A girl at my high school had ten brothers and sisters. I remember going over there once and being amazed at the sheer noise of her home. My father forbade noise at our house.”
“Ours was fairly noisy growing up. I think my dad came up with the Brain Game as a way to keep us quiet. As I said, it’s up to you. If two’s good, then two will be the magic number for us. If ten—”
“Not ten.” I shook my head adamantly.
“Maybe we can hire Birdie to help us raise the boys. She did a pretty great job with you,” Cole said.
“I’d like that. She’s a wonderful woman. And stern. She’d keep the boys in line.” Thoughts of Birdie brought thoughts of Daddy back.
“Do you have any idea how much longer it will be before we hear anything about my dad?”
“Not a clue. I can call Booker if you want,” Cole suggested.
The thought of waking Booker in the middle of the night definitely appealed to me, but I decided to play nice. “No. Maybe in the morning. Speaking of morning, I’d better get going. You need your sleep.” I stood, helping Cole up off the couch.
“Lilah, it’s five-thirty in the morning. Going home to sleep’s a little moot at this point.” Cole stretched, adding, “This is one comfortable couch, by the way.”
“Is it really five-thirty?”
“Yup. My head is killing me. I’m going over to Seth’s. My pain pills are over there and as much as I don’t want one, I really need it.”
“I’ll take you over there, Cole.”
“No. I want things to get back to normal, and babying me will not help that,” he insisted.
“Babying you? You just had surgery, Cole,” I frowned.
“Please, Lilah. Seth lives a few minutes from here. I need to do this.” He kissed my forehead as I grudgingly nodded. “Why don’t you go crawl into my bed and get some more sleep? I’ll come back over after I’ve rested. Maybe we can go for a walk along the canal later. The temperature’s supposed to be almost bearable today.” He kissed me good-bye, waiting for me to set the alarm before leaving.
I closed the blinds in his bedroom to the early morning light, happy to see that the blackout shades worked well. With Cole working nights so often, I thought they’d be a nice touch for when he had to sleep during the day. I climbed up on his new bed. It was like floating on a cloud after sleeping on the lumpy mattress in my apartment. I laid back and stared up at the ceiling, wondering what was going on with my father and hoping they’d found him. Thoughts brewed in my head, and I fell asleep wishing I’d been born the daughter of an accountant from Milwaukee.
I woke some time later to the sound of a man’s voice entering the bedroom, and it wasn’t Cole’s. Something dropped on the bed. I bit my lip to keep from screaming and quietly searched my pockets for my cell phone before remembering it was on the counter in the kitchen.
The man’s voice muttered something about darkness. He fumbled for the light switch. The only light coming in the room was from the open door, and I still couldn’t make out who the man was. I scooted to the far edge, opposite of where the voice came from and climbed off, staying low in hopes of slipping underneath it before being seen. Unfortunately, not as stealthy as I’d hoped, I stumbled. The man wheeled around, spewing out a string of cuss words as he did, and producing a gun so fast I had no idea where it came from. Now I stared down the business end of a Glock.
“Delilah!”
I tore my eyes away from the gun and looked at the man holding it.
“Booker! Are you trying to scare me to death?” I crossed the room a
nd flipped on the light before sinking onto the bench at the foot of the bed. I planted my elbows on my knees and dropped my face in my hands, forcing myself to calm down. “By the way, I believe you owe your curse jar seventy-five cents.” I looked up. Booker had yet to move. “Please put that thing way before you accidentally shoot me.”
Booker released the hammer of the gun, and then lifted the right leg of his jeans and slipped the small gun into a holster strapped to his leg.
“That’s handy.”
“Very,” he replied, his voice and hands both shaking. Only then did I realize just how close I’d come to being a corpse.
“What are you doing in Cole’s bed?”
“The usual. What do you do in bed, Booker? Wait, never mind. I don’t want to know the sordid details of your life. I was sleeping.” My knees were too wobbly to support me. I didn’t even try getting up.
“I realize that, but why?”
“I slept here last night. And before your mind goes where it shouldn’t, nothing happened. I slept. Period. You should know that. I’m sure one of your spies told you I never left yesterday.” I flopped my head and shoulders back on the bed as I tried to erase the vision of Booker’s gun in my face.
“I’ve decided not to have you followed anymore.”
I sprang up so fast I almost came off the bench. “Why?”
“You helped us find your father. You let us put a trace on your phone, and he was exactly where you claimed he was all along. I canceled the tail we had on you last night.”
“Thank you.”
He nodded. “I’m not going to say I trust you one hundred percent, but I believe I went too far.”
It wasn’t all I hoped for, but it was a start. “Now that we both know why I’m here, why are you here?” I asked.
“I brought Cole’s stuff from my house,” he said, pointing to the clothes on the end of the bed.
“Lilah, the police are raiding the spa as we speak. Your father should be in custody within the hour if all goes well.” He didn’t look as happy as I would have thought.
“I know you don’t care, but my dad’s real sick. Emphysema. He needs his meds.” I didn’t know what to expect from Booker and hesitated to ask.
“Seth told me. I can’t do anything about it while he’s in Mexico, but he’ll be seen by a doctor as soon as he gets here. I promise.”
“Thank you.”
He nodded and turned to leave. “Oh, you did a nice job here. Cole’s house looks terrific.” He smiled, sort of. I’d take it.
“I’m sure Cole’s told you about my family,” he said quietly. “I’m really trying, Lilah, honest I am. But I’m going to need more time.”
Fair enough. With Daddy in prison soon, we’d have time. Maybe, just maybe, I’d be able to stick around, too. But I also knew Daddy wouldn’t go down easily.
**
“You’re walking too fast.” I insisted. “You just had surgery, Cole. Slow down.”
“I feel really good this afternoon. My head doesn’t hurt. My house looks awesome, and I’m quasi-engaged to a beautiful woman.” He looked back at me, grinning. “You’re just upset I’m beating you, even after the head start you had,” he teased. He reached his front yard first, and promptly tripped over a tree root. He caught himself with the tree.
“Are you okay?” My heart just about stopped beating.
“Yes,” he assured me.
“Good.” I turned and ran up the steps, opening the front door. “I win,” I gloated as Cole stood in the shade of the enormous maple tree.
“What do you mean? I stepped on my property first.” He leaned back on his hands. He had on a pair of khaki shorts that showed off his sexy, muscular legs, probably from all the running he did. Oh yeah, he had it going on.
“Opie, remember what you said? The first one home wins. Unless you live in your front yard, I’m the first one home.”
“Lilah, my lawn’s part of my home, so I win.”
“Not even. You’re so cheating, Cole. I can’t—” he let out a groan and sank onto the grass.
“Cole!” I jumped off the porch and ran over to him. “What’s wrong?”
“Pain.” His breathing turned shallow and rapid, agony twisting across his face.
“I’ll call an ambulance.” I went to jump up when Cole grabbed my hand.
“No, Lilah. Please. Just help me up.” He wrapped his hand around my wrist.
“What hurts?”
He looked up at me and smiled. “My pride.” He grabbed my other wrist and pulled me down next to him.
“That’s not funny.” I smacked his arm.
“Oh, yeah it was. You should have seen your face. You were so worried.” He turned onto his side and looked down at me. His smile softened. “You’re so beautiful.” He kissed me, more than once.
“We’d better go inside. Don’t want to freak out the neighbors.” Cole helped me up off the ground and brushed the stray leaves off my back. We walked up the porch when suddenly he stopped and pulled me back. His eyes stared hard at the bottom door frame.
“Lilah, did you actually go inside or did you just open the door?” He reached down and ran his fingers over the rug just inside the entry way.
“I only opened the door. Why?” I asked, my heart pounding hard again.
“Because that means I won.” He stepped inside the house.
“You are so mean!” I pretended to pout. He came over and wrapped his arms around me, nibbling on my neck. Yeah, he knew how to work me already. I was mere putty in his hands. We were soon lost in another wonderful kiss.
“You’re very good at this,” I said breathlessly. “And I’m loving this house. Think of all the different rooms we can kiss in.”
His eyes darted around the house, Brain Gaming the situation, I was sure.
“While you’re thinking, I’ll make some lemonade.” I headed into the kitchen. He nodded as he followed. I doubt he even heard me, probably still counting rooms.
“Your head still doing well, even after that long walk in the sun?” He didn’t have to wear a bandage, but the angry red scar looked just as intimidating. He assured me it would fade with time. Plus his hair would soon grow back and cover it.
“No pain today, so far. I think I’ll try working one day a week starting in August.”
“That’s in two weeks. Are you sure you want to start back so soon?” I know I didn’t want him to.
“Knock, knock.”
“Hey, Book, how’s it going?” Cole asked as Booker entered the kitchen.
I held up a glass to him, but he shook his head.
“I wanted to let you know the authorities in Laraso have your father in custody.”
I nodded soberly.
“One of our agents questioned him already, but Laraso’s fighting extradition. We may need you to come down to the station again, Lilah. Any information you can give us to help persuade the authorities there would be greatly appreciated.”
“I’ve already told you everything. I didn’t know my dad was a criminal until the end of my senior year.”
Booker pulled out a chair and sat. “He’s claiming he’s innocent. He says we should be looking at you and your activity here in Port Fare. He said he’s not in the import business anymore. He told the investigator you’re angry that Seth and I killed your brothers. According to your father, you were very tight with them growing up, and now you’re out to avenge their murders, even though he’s tried to talk you out of it.”
“That’s insane,” I said. You could’ve knocked me over with a feather. My own father threw me to the wolves to save himself.
“He produced a receipt for a hotel in Raleigh, North Carolina last month. He said you met up with a hitman and paid the guy a large sum of money to take us out. Does the name Clive Johnson ring a bell?”
“Clive works for my dad. He’s a foreman, or was the foreman, at my dad’s warehouse.” I paced over to the window, pulling back the curtains to allow more daylight in the house. It suddenly
felt very closed in. “He’d come by the house all the time. He had this huge crush on me, but he was afraid to ask me out, insisting my dad wouldn’t approve.”
“Johnson’s a known hitman,” Booker said. “Your father handed over a copy of a check made out to Clive for five hundred thousand dollars. The check was signed by you.”
“There’s been a mistake. Where would I get that much money?”
Booker took a deep breath and scrubbed his hand across his jaw. “Lilah, your father also gave us the number to a secret bank account in Mexico that he claims is yours. He said the only reason he knew about it was because you’ve been paying for him to get treatment at the clinic and he inadvertently saw the number written in his chart one day.”
Cole stormed over to Booker. “And he just happened to memorize it. Please tell me you’re not buying this load of bull—”
“It’s common for criminals to feed the police false leads in hopes of messing up the investigation. There are a lot of holes in his story, but those holes will buy him time until his lawyer can come up with a better one. The Laraso police agreed to hold him for two weeks. If we can come up with convincing enough evidence, they’ll extradite him. Otherwise he’ll be set free.”
“I’ll come down to the station. When do you want me?” It felt as if I’d been kicked in the gut. My own father willingly lied about me so he could be free. Birdie had it right. Spawn of Satan.
“It’s five o’clock now,” Booker said, looking at his watch. “We want to start building a case against his claims as soon as possible. How about early tomorrow morning?”
“Sure,” I said weakly, sitting down at the table.
“We have him, Lilah. He won’t get away this time. Also, for the record, I don’t think he believes these charges against you will stick. He’s just trying to buy time, remember that. Don’t internalize this,” Booker said. Then, to my surprise, he gave my hand a quick squeeze. “Nice ring,” he said as he left.