Breathless (14 page)

She rolled her eyes. “Not you too. She squeezed tons of guilt into that one call, you don’t have to add any more.”

“What do you mean?” He opened the outside door and scanned the parking lot before allowing her to step outside.

Standing behind him gave her a moment to feel how broad his shoulders really were. They blocked the light from the foyer window.

“Why did you walk away from me?” she asked. He’d gone for a shower, of course, but he’d left in the middle of a critical conversation, putting an end to the discussion. That wasn’t Stack’s way. He finished whatever he started, much to her satisfaction.

“Not the time, Tawny.” He kept moving, but since he sped up, she figured she had him on the run. A man who ran this fast was scared.

Stack was scared.

Of
her
.

Didn’t that beat all? He wasn’t afraid of anything that she’d ever seen. He’d walked into bar brawls and come out unscathed. He’d spent nights supervising coked-out rock stars and little-girl pop stars, and even survived depressed soap stars. Nothing fazed him.

Something joyful woke in her chest. Tawny James had Stack Hamilton on the run. Secret glee made her want to laugh, but she couldn’t. Whatever had spooked the man, he had to work it out himself.

Laughing at him would be wrong.

Very wrong.

She chuckled to herself as he pulled the Escalade’s door open and waved her into her seat. His head turned, neat ponytail in place again, and checked the parking lot, before he strode around the hood of the vehicle like a man barefoot on hot coals.

She might not laugh at him, but she could smile.

Once in the vehicle, she gave him her previous address so they could check with the new tenant to see if a package had been delivered.

The interior of the SUV became comfortably silent. Whatever thoughts were running around in Stack’s head, he kept to himself. She was no better because her thoughts revolved around her grandmother’s secret love and all the downstream effects the marriage to Frank had on Pansy, and by extension, Tawny. The behavior that Tawny saw as reckless might have been nothing more than self-preservation.

Maybe she came from sterner stuff than she thought. She glanced at Stack. His features looked cut from granite as he drove.

As much as she’d shown him her intelligence and wit and friendship, he’d done the same for three years. The sex they shared last night was spectacular and in no way diminished all the other feelings they had for each other.

A quiet hope grew as she looked at him.

“What?”

“Nothing,” she said with a secret smile. But his expression lightened.

“We’re here. And I know that wasn’t a look about nothing.” He climbed out cautiously, looking in every direction for anyone on their tail. When he motioned her to climb out, she sighed in relief. She wasn’t built for all this skullduggery.

She was relieved she’d buried her fear and called Stack. No one else would have taken her seriously, nor would they have offered her round-the-clock protection. She didn’t want to think of all the other things Stack had done for her, but a blush stole into her cheeks as they knocked on her old apartment door.

Mrs. Jenkins peeked out her door and after some small talk, and some obvious interest in Stack, explained that Tawny and her friend had just missed the new tenant. He was off for a day in his kayak. Thank God for observant neighbors, Tawny thought, wondering how often her own comings and goings had been noted. Not to worry, came the other half of her mind, you lived such a boring life here, Mrs. Jenkins would have nothing to say anyway. Tawny smiled serenely.
What would she say now?

“Thanks, Mrs. Jenkins,” she said. “Did a package come to this apartment for me?”

Her former neighbor shrugged. “You could check with Stanley, see if he knows.” With that, she popped back inside her apartment and Tawny heard the slide of a chain lock.

Stack took her hand. “Who’s Stanley?”

“The landlord. He keeps a pretty sharp eye on the front door because he’s too lazy to fix the buzzers.”

He nodded grimly. “That may play in our favor.”

However, the landlord gave her a notice from the postal service that a delivery attempt had been made. She could pick up her package from the local post office as soon as it opened in the morning. “But you’re not the only one who’s been looking, Ms. James. Some guy was here, trying to…” he trailed off.

Stack leaned in over Tawny’s shoulder. “Trying to what?”

Stanley looked nervous and directed his gaze to Tawny. “He said he was your boyfriend and that you’d sent him to check on a package.” He rubbed his balding head. “But, ah, I figured you didn’t have a fella, at least, I’ve never seen you with one before.” He flicked a glance at the looming Stack.

Stack relaxed and gave the man a grin. “Glad to hear it,” he said, and slipped his arm across her shoulders. “So, what’d you tell him?”

“He came across a little tough, if you know what I mean. All I said was that the post office had left a card for you. I didn’t tell him which office, though!”

Stack nodded and backed up. Tawny accepted the notice card and they walked away. When they were out of earshot, she said, “I’m shaking.”

“No worries, we’ll have all the backup we need.”

Tawny laughed nervously. “The good thing is, Stanley thinks everyone looks tough.”

Back in the truck, Stack flicked the corner of the delivery notice. “At least now we can assume that this guy’s not after your body or your underwear,” he said as he frowned in thought. “And where did he learn about whatever’s in the costume, if Pansy only recently read the letter Loretta left her.” He didn’t direct the question to Tawny, more to himself.

“I can’t imagine why this person would assume I’d put my grandmother’s Vegas costume in with my own underwear, either. I can’t think of one good reason for that. It’s weird.”

He slanted her a glance. “You may find this hard to believe, but men don’t understand the workings of a woman’s mind. To a guy, a bra is a bra is a bra.” He grinned. “Unless it’s industrial strength like yours.” He waggled his brows.

“Hey, I like my breasts perky, and I aim to keep them that way.”

He gave her a salacious look and she warmed deeply.

“Works for me.” He settled with his back to his door, facing her. “Maybe he figured you wouldn’t know there was anything hidden inside, so he looked in your lingerie drawer. Why wouldn’t a woman put it in there?”

“And he thought I’d want to wear a rhinestone-studded bra under my T-shirts?”

“With what I’ve seen you hide under your clothes, anything’s possible.”

“Very funny.”

She pondered what she knew of the last year of her grandmother’s life. “He could have visited my grandmother in the nursing home. Pansy went twice a week: Wednesdays and Saturdays. Loretta got lost in her memories a lot toward the end. Maybe she said something about her secret stash.”

“Call Pansy, find out when she’s getting in. Ask her if she’s got any ideas for us to pursue while we’re waiting.”

She caught Pansy at the ticket counter in the Reno airport. Her mother had no idea who might have visited Loretta but promised to think about everything on the plane. “Gotta go, Tawny, I’ve been asked for a drink once we get through security.”

Tawny laughed and disconnected. “Pansy will think on it,” she said.

As far as Tawny was concerned, she didn’t want to pursue anything. She wanted Stack. In bed. She wanted to climb all over him and make it impossible for him to ignore or forget her ever again.

“We can’t get the package from the post office until tomorrow. What will we do until my mom gets here?”

He slid his sunglasses up to his forehead so she could read his focused gaze. “We’ll go back to bed.”

“Oh.”

Stack pulled the SUV into a drug-store parking lot and jogged into the store, while Tawny called her mother one more time. As much as she wanted to leave all this behind while she enjoyed Stack’s attentions, she wouldn’t relax with him until she had more answers.

Pansy’s voice went low. “I won’t talk about this on the phone.”

“Now you’re scaring me.” She told her mother about having her underwear rifled at home and the man in the parking lot of the Wash ’n’ Suds.

“So that’s why you’re staying with Stack? That the only reason?”

The tone said,
Don’t be stupid, Tawny
. Just like it always did when Tawny showed interest in a man. A classic case of “do what I say, not as I do.” Pansy had always wanted Tawny to be careful with her heart and stronger than the generations before.

Loretta had hidden so much from Pansy that she’d grown up confused and lonely for attention. When it was Pansy’s turn to set an example for an impressionable daughter, she swung like a pendulum and became overprotective. Pansy used dire warnings to frighten her daughter into believing her figure was a curse. No wonder she’d grown up hiding her body!

What a messed-up family. And all for love, Tawny realized. Her voice broke. “Mom, I love you and I know you love me enough to want to protect me. But because of that, I’ve lived a lot of my life afraid. I can’t be afraid anymore. Sooner or later, I have to trust a man. Stack’s the man.”

“You’re sure?”

“Yes.”

The man in question abruptly opened the driver’s door, tossed in a brown paper bag with the pharmacy’s logo on it, and buckled up. “Well?”

“We’ll pick you up tonight at six,” she said, as much to let Stack know what was happening as confirming with Pansy. “See you then.”

“Love you, Tawny,” Pansy said with a hitch. “Stay safe, honey bun.”

“I love you too. And I’ll be with Stack the whole time. I’ve never been safer.”

His hand slid to her thigh and gave it an easy squeeze to reassure her.

S
tack wanted nothing more than to make good on the promise he’d made Tawny about spending the rest of the day in bed. But there was one thing they needed to do first.

“I’m betting your guy knows you spent the night away from home. Tell me how your place is set up. Is there a back way out of the building?”

“Out by the garbage bins and visitor parking. Why?”

“We should check out the apartment. See if it’s been searched more diligently. You said the only thing you noticed was your dresser drawers being messed up.”

“Not messed up exactly. Carefully rearranged, as if he didn’t want me to notice. And I didn’t, not at first, but yesterday at the Wash ’n’ Suds I added things up.”

And today, she had been informed this guy had been diligent enough to get her former address. Stack was glad he’d been there for her.

“He was careful because he didn’t want you to know he’d been there. But if he noticed you didn’t come home last night, he may have broken in for a more thorough search. How’s your lock?”

She shivered and crossed her arms over her chest. “The lock’s nothing special. In fact, it’s old and the handle needs tightening.” Her eyes widened with fear. “And obviously he knows that because he got into the place before.”

Stack pulled her to him and held her to his chest. Her hair felt soft against his chin; her underlying scent brought back memories of the night before. “He’s not after you.” He smoothed her back until he felt her muscles relax some. “He’s after whatever’s sewn into Loretta’s bra. If he took advantage of the empty apartment, we may find clues to his identity. Maybe he left fingerprints or something. He doesn’t sound like a pro, and it’s a good bet he’s working alone.”

She pulled back to stare up at him. “Are you saying you want to go to my place? Is it safe?”

“I’d never suggest we go together if it meant putting you in danger. I’d go in alone if that were the case. But this is about that package, not about you. I seriously doubt your life’s in danger. This guy doesn’t want to hurt you.” He had to believe that. It would kill him if he were wrong, but he’d go down himself before he let anything bad happen to Tawny.

“I believe you. And I believe
in
you, Stack. I always have.”

“I need you to come with me because you’re the only one who’ll know if anything’s missing, especially if you’ve just moved in. All your belongings have been recently packed and unpacked, so they’re fresh in your mind. You can get anything else you need to stay with me and I can take a good look around to see if I can spot the guy watching the place. If there’s a possibility of fingerprints, I’ll lift them and send them off to a lab I use.”

She swallowed and thought for a moment. “You’re sure he’s working alone?”

“I’d bet on it.”

“Me too. He wants whatever’s in the package.” She nodded and flashed him a relieved smile. “He could have hurt me anytime but didn’t. In fact, he’s been in more danger of being caught. Let’s do this now before we go home and forget everything but each other.” She took the pharmacy bag off the dashboard and slid it into her purse. She grinned and looked away from him, out her window. “So we don’t forget them.”

“They’re the last things I’d forget.” He smoothed his palm up her thigh. “You’re shy about this,” he noted. She went pink in the cheeks and still refused to look at him.

“It’s not that. I’m just happy is all.” Finally, she faced him. “This”—she waved from her chest to his—“this is good, don’t you think? It’s nice to be with you again.”

He stopped at a red light and took the whole time just to look at her. “This is good, Tawny. I missed you more than you know. I missed talking to you, missed making you laugh, missed your lousy coffee, missed that perfume you like.”

Her mouth dropped open. “I make lousy coffee?” She put a hand to her chest in shock.

“Ugly truth? It’s watery.”

“So that’s why you always came in with those gigantic travel mugs from that kiosk. I assumed the bikini-clad baristas made you drive through there every morning.”

He shrugged. “Hey, I’m a red-blooded male; those bikinis didn’t hurt. But I loved the way you smelled. I missed the scent of you in the office, missed your smile too.”

Her cheeks went redder, making her look pretty and young. “That was just my shampoo.” She refused to mention her smile.

He gave an exaggerated sniff. “You smell even better today and you used
my
shampoo.”

“Drive, big man, the light’s green.” But she smiled, the insult to her coffee forgotten. Almost. “That’s why you made the coffee while I showered this morning.”

He turned onto the freeway ramp to head north. “I’ll teach you. It’s not that difficult.”

“I like my coffee my way,” she grumbled. He chuckled.

From the freeway, she gave him directions, and within twenty minutes they’d parked a block and a half from her three-story apartment building. They walked along the sidewalk, holding hands in a display to emphasize they were in a relationship.

To an observer, it would seem they were returning home from a night out. He slung his arm over her shoulder, pulled her into a brief kiss designed to make her feel wanted.

It worked. Oh! To have the real thing with Stack. “You make us look connected,” Tawny commented.

“We are. At least I am,” he replied, as he swept the block with his eyes.

His casual admission made her falter, so that he stopped moving and caught her to him. “What?” he said into her ear. “Did you see someone you recognize? Is the truck here from the parking lot?”

“No, ah. You said, ah, you said, you’re connected. To me.”

“Yes, so?” He cupped her cheek and made her look up into his face. His worried face.

“I am, too, Stack. More connected than I thought I could be.” A thrill chased around her belly and settled near her heart.

“That’s good, right? Let’s move, it’s one thing to look like we’ve been together all night, it’s another to re-enact the bedroom action.” But his gaze heated her through.

She shivered with need and nodded.

He slid his palm down her arm to take her hand and kicked the pace into high gear.

She quickly led the way into the building. Inside, they took the stairs. Her apartment faced the street.

Tawny opened the apartment door and gasped. “It’s been ransacked. Totally trashed.”

“He’s getting pissed that he can’t find what he’s looking for.” Stack stepped inside, and closed and inspected the locking mechanism. “Jimmied. He’s sloppy, but this lock’s a piece of shit. Maybe he didn’t bother with gloves and I can lift a print.” He carried a kit with him and knelt to check the lock mechanism.

She wrinkled her nose. She’d put off installing a deadbolt until her next pay.

“He knows you’d find this mess sooner or later,” Stack added. “But obviously he thinks you’ve already got the costume. He has no idea the package hasn’t arrived.”

He ran to the front window that overlooked the street. “Just as I thought.” He rummaged into his denim shirt pocket and pulled out his notepad. He jotted something. “I saw a man duck behind some trash cans across the street. He just climbed into a rental car. I’ll make a couple calls and we’ll get his name.”

“I want him charged,” she said, appalled and chilled by the scene of destruction. The whole living room had been tossed. Her sofa cushions were sliced open, the back of the sofa exposed and gutted. Even her fish tank had been emptied, the colored stones from the bottom scattered across her soaking carpet. Tiny gold bodies glinted in the sun. “He killed my goldfish! What kind of sick prick is this guy?”

She knelt and used a half-dry magazine to scoop up Ariel One and Two.

“He didn’t just dump the tank, Tawny. He combed through the stones.”

They were strewn around, clear swipe marks from where the man had swirled through the pile that would have landed when he turned the tank upside down.

“I can’t wait to find out what my mom has to say.”

He made his calls, gave the car information to a contact, and flipped his phone closed. “We need to be quick here and go out the back way. If this guy’s watching from a distance, he’ll think we’re still here for a while.” He pulled out his fingerprint kit and got to work quickly.

“Won’t he expect me to call the police?”

“If we do call them in, he’ll probably figure out that you don’t have the package yet. He might up his game and get dangerous. Until we know what it is he’s after, it’s best to keep this under wraps.”

“I’ve got a clear print here, and here,” he pointed to the lock and the door, and dusted lightly with powder. After he lifted the prints, he checked his watch. “He probably came here, tossed the place, then found your previous address and went there. Now he knows as much as we do.”

“Except he knows that whatever’s sewn inside that bustier is valuable enough to cause all this damage.”

She raided her fridge for food that would spoil and watered her plants. Stack took care of her goldfish while she collected her mail. Her laptop was smashed.

They jogged down the back stairs and out the service door to the alley. No one was watching the exit. A trio of boys shot hoops a couple buildings over, but other than that the area was quiet. They headed down the alley to the cross street that would take them to the Escalade, and left her neighborhood and her trashed apartment behind.

If her stalker was watching the front of the building, he’d think they were still inside cleaning up his mess.

Back at Stack’s, she put away the food that needed refrigeration while he made more phone calls. Next, she used his laptop and checked her e-mail, thinking that there might be a message from her mother or her mystery man. No luck.

She skimmed her e-mails, found a few pieces of spam mail that promised her the ability to enlarge her penis, but nothing important. Stack set his large palms on her shoulders and gave her a gentle rub when he found the tightness she lived with.

She gave in to the seductive pressure of his hands and dropped her head to let him knead her flesh. She moaned with the heated, gentle pressure. “I thought penises enlarged pretty much on their own,” she said.

“Mine does. Wanna see?”

“Sure!” She used a surprised tone, as if amazed at the idea he’d make the offer.

She looked up in time to see his humorous twinkle turn dark as he considered. “Maybe there’s a clue in older e-mails. Did your mom ever give you any reports on how Loretta was doing?”

“Of course, I should have thought of that myself.” She did a search for all the e-mails Pansy sent from the year previous to Loretta’s death. He pulled up another chair and read along with her.

Through piecing together various comments, Stack and Tawny discovered that Loretta had battled a series of infections that left her with a case of delirium. She ranted about the mob in Las Vegas.

“There’s a comment about a guy named Lenny who went out one night and never came back. She thought he was still in the desert, trying to find his way back to her.” Tawny shuddered at the image.

“Pansy say anything else that was in the letter?”

“Just that Frank wasn’t my real grandfather.” Grandpa Frank had been one mean son of a bitch, and no one knew why Loretta stayed with him. “My grandmother suffered years of abuse because she had to let her husband think Pansy was his child.”

“She must have had good reason to be afraid for Pansy.”

“I think he may have murdered this Lenny. Why else would she have said he was still in the desert? Lenny must have been the man she really loved.”

Stack’s jaw jumped as he shook his head. “Love can make us do terrible things.” He turned and his eyes softened in affection. “Or it can bring out the best in us. Your grandmother sacrificed a lot to keep her child safe.”

Tawny’s throat closed and she blinked. “If there’s any justice where she is, she’ll be with Lenny at last.”

“Good thought,” he said with a nod. “Hold on to it.”

“I will.” If Loretta and Lenny were finally together, maybe she could hope that love would come her way too.

“The package is safe inside the post office for now. I’m glad she sent it registered.” He leaned in close and set his hand at the base of her neck. Warmth suffused her and she turned to find herself nose-to-nose with Stack.

“If your mother knows his last name, we should be able to learn something about Lenny’s disappearance.”

“So we wait for her?”

He nodded. “But not here.”

“Where?”

His eyes flared into a blaze of desire. “I’ll show you.” He took her hand, then stood.

She rose and let him lead her to his bedroom.

“If I didn’t know better, I’d say your bed had been searched as thoroughly as my living room.” The sheets were topsy-turvy, torn from the mattress corners, the pillows hung over the edge while the comforter draped a chair by the window.

“You’re a wild woman,” he said, and tossed her on the mattress. She squealed as he landed on top of her with a bounce that rocked the bed.

She fingered the leather thong out of his hair. Then she arranged his black waves to flow to his shoulders. She skimmed her palms up his chest under his shirt, luxuriating in the silky feel of his chest hair.

Before Pansy called, Tawny had wanted his touch, his kiss, his hands on her. She’d wanted him. But he’d walked away instead. Whatever had ruined his intention to kiss her wouldn’t happen again. This time, she’d take charge.

She slid her hands to his shoulders and pushed until he gave in and rolled to his back. “You took me with your mouth before. Now it’s my turn.”

She peeped at him from under her bangs. The corner of his mouth turned down. His voice, rusty with need, deep with want, scored her flesh as it scraped over her from head to toe. “Thank you,” he said. “I’d like that.”

Heat flared and she bloomed open for him. She flashed on images of long, slow kisses and delicious mouth work.

Her mouth work. She could hardly wait. “I’m going to blow your mind.”