Breathless (17 page)

O
n the way to the post office, Stack recited what he’d heard on the phone. He’d set an operative to work on Lenny’s disappearance. This time, Pansy had insisted Tawny take the front seat.

“The last known sighting of Lenny Tucco seems to be an interview he had with the Las Vegas police. He was questioned with regards to their investigation of a theft of jewelry from a private home. It was a very successful break and enter. The thieves got away with the wife’s jewelry case that contained over twenty thousand dollars’ worth of necklaces, bracelets, and earrings. All diamonds. Her husband was a jeweler, so she had the best.”

“So it wasn’t armed robbery?” Pansy asked.

“No, in fact, no one was home at the time. The wife had apparently picked up her collection from her husband’s store vault to wear for a family wedding. They were out at the rehearsal dinner the night before.”

“Someone knew the jewelry would be there that night,” Tawny suggested.

“Absolutely,” Stack said. “The wedding was a somewhat connected event.”

“Connected?”

“A mobster acquaintance or business partner of the jeweler was invited to the wedding. So it’s possible he sent Lenny to the jeweler’s house.”

Pansy nodded. “If Lenny worked for this mobster, it could be that Lenny broke into the house and took the case and never handed it over to his boss?”

“Possible. Not likely to ever get the real truth now.”

“If he did, he was pretty ballsy.”

“Or stupid,” Tawny said.

“Agreed on both counts,” Stack said with a chuckle. “But remember, he was in love with a pregnant Loretta. Maybe he wanted a fresh start with her. Could be he wanted out of the life.”

“For love,” Tawny said. Stack reached over and clasped Tawny’s hand in his.

“Love can make men do stupid things to get what they want.”

He pulled into the parking lot of the post office and found a spot near the door. It was a tight squeeze because he was next to a huge black car. Large and boxy, the car was clearly a collector’s favorite.

“Look,” Pansy said from the back seat. “It’s a sixty-four Chevy. Frank had one just like it.”

“I saw a picture of it. You were at a picnic with Loretta. That car stood in the background.” Tawny jumped down from the passenger seat and walked toward the post office door. They’d missed the opening by five minutes, but to her mind, those five minutes had been well spent back on Stack’s bed.

She turned to see what was taking Stack so long to catch up with her.

He was staring into the Chevy, like a love-struck fool. Men, they couldn’t resist gawking at their dream cars. She liked old cars as much as the next person, but she had business inside.

She opened the door and walked in. There were a couple of other people ahead of her, though the doors had only just opened. There was an old lady who needed to mail a package. A birthday gift, she explained to the clerk.

The other clerk was reading a pile of identification cards that a man had handed over. “I swear!” he was saying. “This is my sister. She’s sick and can’t come in.”

The conversation reminded her that she would need to produce photo identification. She dug through her bag for her wallet.

Pansy stepped up beside her and gasped.

“What?” Tawny looked at her.

Her mother stared hard at the guy harassing the clerk. “It’s—he—looks like Frank! Just like Frank.” Pansy grabbed her arm. “Tawny, that car!” she whispered tensely. “It doesn’t just look like Frank’s, it
is
Frank’s.”

“But Stack said he saw a rental car at my place.”

“I guess he wanted to switch cars to confuse you if you noticed him.” Pansy shrugged. “I’m sure it’s Frank’s car. When he died it went to a stranger. The guy went to the law firm, proved he was the one named in the will. Loretta woke up one morning and the car was gone. She was so happy to have it out of the driveway, she laughed like a loon.”

The man turned, caught sight of Tawny and Pansy, and went red in the face. He stalked toward them, slamming his shoulder into Pansy’s on the way by. She had to take a step back to keep from falling. He slammed out the door and stepped straight into Stack and Jeff.

Both men slipped their arms under the stranger’s armpits and lifted him off the ground. His feet dangled three inches above the concrete.

They sidestepped until they were out of view of the gawking onlookers and postal clerks.

Pansy’s eyes went wide as she stared into Tawny’s. “We have to get my package. Now,” Tawny said.

She stepped up to the counter, produced her identification, and received the package her mother had sent. The clerk gave her license photo a good check, then allowed her to sign for receipt of the package.

“Guess you saw that guy trying to steal it out from under you, huh?” the clerk said with a nod toward the door.

“Yes, and my friend noticed too. We’ll go see what the police have to say about it.” She pulled out her phone and pretended to place a call as she and Pansy dashed back outside.

The package weighed little compared with the heavy silence that waited for them. Three men glared at each other, each one ready to spring if one wrong move was made. “Meet Frank LaMotta Junior,” Stack said with a sneer.

Jeff had the man’s wallet open and shoved it back at him. Frank Junior grabbed it and jammed it into his jacket pocket.

“You’re Frank’s son!” Pansy demanded, her voice fierce and protective. Tawny gaped at her. Her mother was never fierce; she usually kept her cool. “And what do you mean going through my daughter’s belongings?”

The man with his back to the wall swiveled his head and leveled a malevolent gaze at her. Mockery filled his expression. “That’s right! I’m your brother.”

He flicked his eyes down Pansy and Tawny’s bodies in a dismissive glance. They stalled when he reached the package Tawny had tucked under her arm. “That’s mine!” he said, and tried to snatch it.

Stack moved fast as a snake and had Frank’s arm in a viselike grip before he could move a fraction.

Jeff was a second behind Stack and Pansy gasped. She went to stand beside her new man, obviously grateful for his presence.

Stack nodded to the right toward a quiet area of the parking lot. “Let’s move this to the end of the building.”

“That’s Frank LaMotta’s car,” Pansy said.

“My father left it to me.”

Pansy grinned. “Good for you because he wasn’t my father. And that’s a huge relief.”

“What?” The man stuttered. “What do you mean he wasn’t your old man?” He clenched his fists, but Stack slapped a hand on his shoulder, gave him a squeeze, and kept him walking.

“Loretta was already pregnant when they hooked up.”

“That bitch passed you off?” His eyes burned with rage.

Angry heat filled Pansy’s eyes, and Tawny read the signs the way any daughter would. “You want to be careful how you malign my grandmother,” she said. “Loretta had her faults, but she did what she had to. She was a strong woman married to a difficult man.”

The sneer on Frank’s son’s face made a mockery of Tawny’s words.

“My mother should have been his wife.” He slapped his chest. “I’m Frank Junior!” He turned red in the face and Tawny had a glimpse of Frank. Her belly clenched in fear.

But he wasn’t finished yet. “My mother loved that son of a bitch until he treated us like garbage. And for what? She got tired of waiting for him to leave Loretta. When she tried to leave him, he went crazy, slammed her around something awful. After that, he didn’t give a shit. Passed her around like a whore.” The bitterness, the images broke Tawny’s ice-hard barriers.

“Frank LaMotta was an evil, evil man,” Pansy muttered, deep in her own memories. She shivered and Jeff put his arm around her.

“I was his son and all I got was his lousy, stinkin’ car.”

Jeff cleared his throat. “Hey, it’s a beauty. If you hate it so much, why is it so cherry?”

“Investment,” Frank Junior muttered, putting the lie to his earlier statement. He was glad and proud to have Frank LaMotta’s Chevy. Maybe it was the only thing Frank ever gave him. “I gotta boy I want to hand it down to. He’s sixteen next year.”

Pansy said, “You’re welcome to it, Frank. My mother hated that car. Said it gave her a bad vibe whenever she climbed into it. She refused to drive the thing.”

All five of them turned and stared at the heavy black Chevrolet. An Impala SS, the long square box of a car, was a 1964 version of a Super Sport. But the shine gleamed sultry black from the loving attention Frank and then his son had given it.

“Frank loved that car,” Pansy muttered. “I remember stretching out in the back seat. It was so long I couldn’t reach from side to side until I was about ten.” Her voice sounded far away while she stared.

“I remember him taking us for ice cream in it,” Frank broke in. “Once I let the cone drip on the back of the front seat and he cuffed me a good one.” His hand stole up to cup his ear in memory. “Last time he ever took me with them.”

Pansy eyed him with sympathy. “I don’t think he liked kids, period. I thought he hated me because I was a girl.”

“He hated me because I was his bastard. But maybe he was pissed because I looked like him but never wanted to act like him. Never wanted to be anything like him.” He hung his head and studied his shoes. “I never would have hurt anyone to get those diamonds. I just want my son and daughter to have a chance at college, you know? When I found out about the diamond heist, I kind of lost it. One more secret. One more thing he wouldn’t give me.”

“If it means anything to you, he didn’t die easy,” Pansy offered. “It was painful and he was alone. Loretta didn’t care enough to go.”

Frank nodded. “My mother wouldn’t go either. If there’s any justice, he’s burning in hell.”

Tawny’s eyes met Stack’s and flashed him a message. Stack nodded and relaxed his guard. Frank was no threat, not anymore.

“Your father never knew about the diamonds.” Tawny explained that Loretta and Lenny planned to run away together, that Lenny and Frank had gone for a drive and only Frank returned.

Frank Junior spun, slammed his hands to his head, agonized. “Maybe we should take that car out to the desert and burn her to the ground. I knew my old man was a bastard, but a murderer?” He looked at the car again and horror filled his features. “Burning it sounds about right.”

Pansy put her arms around him in communion. She whispered words no one else heard, but eventually Frank nodded in agreement.

Whatever passed between them, Frank calmed. His rigid stance eased. Tawny ended their painful private conversation with a buss on his cheek.

They were done.

B
ack at Stack’s apartment, Tawny and Pansy sat on his bed, with Loretta’s showgirl costume laid out between them. “Here goes,” Tawny said, and stripped out of her bra.

Pansy lifted the white cotton contraption. “Aren’t you taking this a bit far? This looks more like a straitjacket than a desire for support.”

Heat rose in Tawny’s cheeks. “Stack doesn’t seem to mind it.”

Pansy snorted. “You can find a bra that’s pretty and supportive. We’ll go shopping.”

Tawny felt an eye roll coming on but stopped the childish gesture. “The last time we went bra shopping together I was eleven.” And in full eye-roll mode.

“I remember, now try this on.” And she handed Tawny Loretta’s diamond-studded costume. The heavy top glittered in the light.

She stood in front of Stack’s dresser mirror and gasped. It fit perfectly. Pansy’s eyes glittered as she held Tawny’s hair up in a mimic of Loretta’s upswept beehive. It seemed as if the three of them were together, all young, lovely, and connected in a way they’d never been before.

“She loved you more than her own life,” Tawny said.

“I know that now.” Pansy smiled and gazed into the mirror at their reflection. “I told Frank Junior that by the time that car goes to his son, all the evil would be cleansed. Now that we all know the truth, there’s no reason to hold on to the old feelings.”

“He wants to give his son and daughter an education,” Tawny said. She leaned in to inspect the bodice properly. She counted at least six good-sized diamonds. “I’m going to sell these and split the money with him. How would you feel about that?”

“I’d feel that you were a kind and generous woman, and a gesture like that would wipe out a lot of the past ugliness. Giving two innocent children an education could never be wrong.”

“Something good will come out of that long drive into the desert.”

Stack shut off the ignition and removed the key. He and Tawny were back from dropping Pansy to spend the day with Jeff, ostensibly to look at boats. Stack had his doubts they’d ever get out of Jeff’s hotel room.

“I want to know this and I’ll ask it only once.” Tawny’s hand sat on his thigh, burning a hole through to his flesh. “If this is not what you want,” he ground out, “I mean, longer term, I need to know now.”

His gut contracted as she slid her hand to his bulging cock. “Long term?”

Without meaning to, his thighs spread so she could stroke and cup him more fully. His jeans nearly cut off the circulation to his legs. “Right now, long term apparently means holding on long enough to get my fly open.”

Something about her using a question to answer a question drilled a hole into his head. His bloodless brain still had enough function left to know this was a loaded moment. He lifted her hand from his bulging, straining cock.

It nearly killed him. “Tawny, we need to get out of this truck. Now.” He opened the door and the cab light illuminated her flushed, beautiful, distressed face. He lifted his hand to her face and let his fingertips trail from her temple to her chin. He tilted her head gently.

Her lips parted, her breath slowed, her eyelids drooped.

If he kissed her, he’d be gone. He’d fall into the essence of Tawny. An essence that would grab on and not let go. He’d be lost to himself and given to her.

He kissed her anyway.

By the time they got inside the lower door, he had her against the wall, tight. Her mouth tasted better than ever before, her hands moved faster, her thighs opened at the first brush of his hips. No one could imagine that the woman in sack dresses was a wild cat.

He pulled back, stared into her glassy, come-fuck-me gaze, and said, “Why did you run off like that? You quit me, you moved. You fucking disappeared!” He wanted to pull back completely, get his cock out of touching range, but his hips wouldn’t obey.

So he pressed hard instead.

She squirmed against him, sending his arousal through the roof. “I saw the way you looked at me and figured I’d killed our friendship. My stupid jealousy about that woman in your office ruined everything!”

It was more than that, he figured. It had to be. Whatever had driven Tawny away had been deep. Rooted down where her reactions were fight or flight. She’d chosen to fight by showing him her body, got scared, and her flight response kicked in. Women didn’t usually light out that way when they wanted a guy.

He should know. He’d been aimed at by some of the best heat-seeking missiles ever created by woman.

Tawny was different. Always had been. Always would be.

And with any luck at all, he’d be there to live with it.

His next thought threw him against the other wall. He pressed his shoulder blades hard into the drywall. Crap, he loved her!

Wanted her.

Goddamn it. He even figured he needed her.

“Stack? What’s going on?”

“Nothing. We’ve got to get to a bed. Right now.”

She sucked her lower lip into her mouth, then headed up the stairs at a dead run.

He had to move slower because his cock was throbbing to the point of pain.

Each step was agony, but he went as fast as the heavy throb allowed. She waited at the top, doing some kind of little bouncy thing. Her ankles and knees were bobbing.

“I hope that bounce means you’re as excited as I am.”

She grabbed his ears and slammed her mouth against his.

He fumbled in his pocket for his keys, managed to get them inside, and kicked the door shut.

His jeans were undone and her dress was up to her waist before he knew what was happening. Once this woman got going, she was fast as a train.

His kind of woman.

Thank God he liked her so much, he planned to have her in his life a long time.

“Forever,” he said against her lips.

“What?”

“Condoms. Bedroom. Now.” He broke free, stepped out of his jeans, and lifted her into his arms. She gave a girly whoop, grabbed on to his neck, and let him carry her through the living room and down onto the bed.

He moved all over her, sliding and lifting and moving until they were both naked and needy. She helped as much as he’d let her and then settled back on the bed so he could look his fill.

She didn’t plan to take the money from the diamonds and run. She planned to stay here, near him. That had to mean something. “I love you, Tawny.”

The words hung between them, bald, flat. But he felt free, complete, now that he’d said them.

He waited, expecting some reaction other than the one he was getting. Tawny chewed her lip, her eyes wide. “Why?” she asked, her voice quiet, hesitant.

Suddenly, everything fell into place. Everything. “I love you not because you’re the most spectacular woman I’ve ever seen. Not because you have long, shapely legs, perfect calves, and long, lean thighs.” He slipped his hands to the flare of her hips. “Not because your waist is small, your belly’s flat and soft. Not because you have the barest shadow of ribs and full, round breasts with dark strawberry nipples. Do you have any idea how much you make my mouth water?” But he didn’t give her time to answer. “You’re full, luscious, long, and all woman. I want all of that, Tawny. In my bed, in my life. I want you to bear my children, to live with me when we’re old and getting a little off the wall.” He grinned and tapped his temple the way Pansy had.

She went to speak, her eyes full of fear and some kind of excitement he was too wound up to read. He held up his hand to forestall any questions.

“I’m not done. I love your body, Tawny. Don’t ever doubt that. But I’ve missed you so much. You. The woman inside.” He shrugged. “It’s simple, I guess. I love you. Just you.”

He finally stopped, afraid that he’d missed something she needed to hear. But he tracked back and couldn’t see anything he might have said differently.

If she took off now, she’d be lost to him for good.

“You’re scaring me here, Tawny. You could say something now.”

She stopped his mouth with a fingertip against his lips.

“You want children?”

He nodded.

She bit her lip. “So do I. More than one, please.”

He was on her then, fully, deeply engaged in every slick, sliding part of her. He scooped her hips up to meet his, held her close, and let the naked tip of his cock slide in. “Let’s start now.”

The slick, wet feel of her sheathing him made him shudder. “Tell me, Tawny. I need to know.”

“I love you, Stack. I always have.”