Double Down (30 page)

Charlene spoke up. “That day he came in the office and saw the package from Mrs. Combs, I remember thinking that he was acting really weird. He went all pale staring at the package, but I thought it was because Alan kept insisting that it could be a bomb. That’s when I called you.”

I nodded. “Why did they wait until the next day to attack me?”

Delgado answered, “Because they had to establish an alibi for Darryl. Darryl was already scheduled to be in Los Angeles at a conference. Thursday after Darryl left your office, Hugo drove him to Los Angeles, where Darryl checked into the hotel. Then Hugo drove back here, and Darryl hitched a ride on a private plane with a high roller on his way to Las Vegas, the Dubai official. Darryl also arranged to fly back to Los Angeles the same way, giving him the perfect alibi. Their plan was to break in, drug Valerie, and then set fire to the house. With both Valerie and the diaries gone, there would be nothing to connect Darryl to Joey Green.”

I leaned over and kissed Delgado on the cheek. “Thanks to the alarm system you had installed, I managed to escape that fate. What I’ve never figured out is why Hugo didn’t just shoot me before dumping me in the desert.”

Brian answered, “That’s what Darryl expected him to do, but the only gun Hugo had was one that was registered to him. He knew if he shot you, we’d be able to trace the bullets back to his gun. Before he left the police force, he’d been involved in a shooting and he knew that the ballistics from his gun were already on file. Any bullet recovered from you would have showed up as an automatic match. He assumed that by leaving you far enough outside the city limits, you’d be dead long before we could find you. Just for good measure and to make sure you couldn’t walk back, he gave you a couple of good kicks to the ribs.”

Delgado put his arm around me. “Obviously he seriously underestimated you.”

I shivered, remembering the pain. “From what you told me in the hospital, even with my testimony, Darryl and Hugo were in the clear. Why did Hugo take the risk to try and kill me in the hospital?”

Brian perched on the arm of the couch next to Mom. “It was partly due to Hugo’s ego. He couldn’t stand being outfoxed by a mere woman. Hugo wanted you dead; therefore, you should be dead. Darryl, on the other hand, needed you dead. Everything Darryl has, his job, his wife, his reputation, is based on being Darryl Collins. Even if he continued to deny being Joey Green, once you told your story, there would always be doubt. He couldn’t afford to take that chance.”

We discussed the case for another hour. A short while later, Charlene and Evan left. Delgado’s arm tight around my shoulders kept me from reacting when Brian said he’d take Mom home. After they left, Delgado and I stood out on the balcony watching the lights below. We could see the shaft of light shooting up from the Luxor pyramid and the changing colors on the walls of the Royal.

When I shivered, Delgado put his arm around me. Turning to face him, I pulled his head down for a kiss. It was just like the first time. His lips burned into mine, inflaming every nerve throughout my body. My pulse raced, and I leaned into him, wanting to him to envelope me in his warmth. And, just like the first time, he broke the kiss and stepped away.

I felt rejected. “I thought you said you loved me.”

He looked puzzled. “I do.”

“
Then why do you do that?”

“
Do what?”

“
Stop kissing me.”

He looked away from me, turning once more to the view below. “Because if I continued kissing you for one more minute, I wouldn’t be able to stop myself from carrying you into the bedroom and ripping your clothes off.”

I slipped between him and the railing of the balcony, and put my arms around his neck. Smiling up at him, raising my eyebrows I said, “So who’s stopping you?”

He looked down at me. He wasn’t smiling. He took my arms from around his neck and stepped back. “You are.”

Waving my hand in front of his face I said, “Hello, I’m not the one backing away.”

He put his hands on my shoulders. “Really? Tell me, exactly how many men have you slept with?”

I pushed his hands away, turning back to face the view once more. “What’s that got to do with it?”

He moved so he was once more standing beside me. “Okay. I’ll tell you . . . one . . . and he was your ex-husband.”

I was starting to get angry. “What are you saying? That I don’t have enough experience for you?”

He snorted. “Don’t be ridiculous.” Turning me to face him, he lifted my chin so that I had to look at him. “What I’m trying to say is sex isn’t recreation for you. It’s a commitment. I love that about you. But you’re not ready to make that kind of a commitment.”

“
How do you know?” How could he know, when I didn’t know myself?

“
Valerie, I know if I made love to you, I’d never want to stop. It would take over our whole relationship.”

At the moment, I rather liked that idea. “Still not seeing the downside here.”

He smiled then. “At some point, you’d begin to wonder if that’s all I wanted. You need time to be able to trust me, trust that I love you, and I won’t be leaving.”

“
I trust you.” It came out feeble, not at all like I intended.

He paused, took a deep breath, and then said, “Really? What would you say if I asked you to marry me?”

Whoa, that’s not what I expected. My instant reaction was panic. “I’d say that marriage didn’t work out that great for me.”

He held his hands out in front of him. “Exactly, you think all men are like Neil.”

“
No. It’s not that. I know you’re not like Neil.” It was hard to put into words, but I needed to make him understand. “You’re everything any woman could want. I feel extremely lucky to be here beside you. It’s just that I’m afraid someday you’ll realize that you deserve someone better than me.”

“
I’ll admit that I’ve met more beautiful women, smarter women. . .

“
Wow, way to make a girl feel better.”

He took me by the shoulders. “Would you just listen? I didn’t fall in love with any of them. I can’t tell you why I love you. Men don’t think like that. We don’t analyze love. I just know that I’ve never felt about any woman the way I feel about you. I also know that’s not going to change. When I make love to you, I want you to be able to give yourself to me without reservation. I’m not willing to settle for less.”

“
So, what you’re saying is no sex until I’m willing to marry you?”

He dropped his hands, “I hadn’t really thought about it in those terms, but yes, I guess that is what I’m saying.”

We both turned back to the view. After several minutes, I sighed.

“
What are you thinking?” he asked

“
Now that Darryl and Hugo are in custody and I’m no longer in danger, I should probably go home.”

“
Except, you don’t have a home to go to.”

“
Thanks for reminding me. I don’t have a car either. My insurance company will probably be sending me a cancellation notice any day now. I guess that means back to Mom’s.”

“
You could always stay here.”

“
No, I don’t think I can.” I turned to face him putting my arms around his neck and looking deeply into those beautiful green eyes. “I don’t have your willpower. If I stayed, I’d be tempted to rip
your
clothes off. We might not even make it to the bedroom.”

He groaned. “You’re not going to make this easy for me are you?”

I smiled up at him, “No, probably not.”

Here’s a taste of the next book

From Vicky De Leo

JEALOUSY

Chapter One

One, two, three, four, five, blood seeped through my fingers as I pumped as hard as I could on his heart. Kneeling beside him, covered in his blood, I stopped long enough to blow air into his lungs.
Where was that ambulance?
His eyes were closed. Long dark lashes fanned out against his cheeks. When I found him lying in the cold wet grass, in the shadow of the bushes next to my front door, he was still breathing, ragged gurgling breaths.
How many minutes had passed since I’d heard him breathe on his own?
My arms ached.

“
Don’t die,” I told him again. “Damn you, don’t you dare die
.” How could this happen? Why?

As I counted again, I strained to hear the scream of a siren. The open cell phone lay next to me on the grass where I dropped it after calling 911.

“
Where’s that ambulance? Tell them to hurry,” I screamed, hoping the operator could hear me. If she answered, I didn’t hear. I was too busy trying to keep him alive. They always tell you to stay on the line. How you’re supposed to hold the phone, and do CPR at the same time was beyond me.

One, two, three, four, five.
How long had he been here before I found him?
It seemed like ages since I came home from work, turned into the driveway, and hit the garage door opener. My headlights illuminated the lawn, revealing a body lying next to my porch. I slammed on the brakes, threw the car into park, grabbed my cell phone off the seat, and bolted from the car. He was still alive. Blood gushed from the wounds in his back. I called 911and then dropped the phone. I slipped out of my jacket and laid it on the ground next to him, and then rolled him over and wrapped the sleeves around him, tying them together in front as tight as I dared, in an effort to create a kind of a pressure bandage to stop the bleeding.

One, two, three, four, five. I wasn’t even sure I was doing it correctly. I’d only had one class in CPR over two years ago.
What if this made it worse?
What else could I do? He didn’t have a pulse and he wasn’t breathing. Finally, sirens and flashing lights turned onto my street. I didn’t look up. There’s no way they could miss us spotlighted in the headlights of my still running car.

“
We’ll take over now.” Hands pulled me away. I stepped back and sank down on the porch, watching. Everyone moved so slowly. They seemed to be taking their time
. Was he dead? Did I kill him?
I looked down at the blood, all over my hands and my clothes. This felt wrong. “Those shots were meant for me,” I whispered.

Three months earlier

“
Valerie Peterson, you mean to tell me Nick proposed and you turned him down?” Charlene, her eyes so wide they were practically popping and eyebrows receding under her bangs, made it clear what she thought of my IQ. My secretary and best friend, privy to all my secrets, was having a hard time grasping why I moved out of Delgado’s penthouse, and back in with my mother, my only other choice since the fire at my house had left me temporarily homeless.

“
Well, he didn’t exactly propose and I didn’t exactly turn him down. It was all sort of hypothetical.”

Hands on her hips, she glared at me. “Why didn’t you haul his hypothetical butt down to a wedding chapel before he had a chance to change his mind? You know you’re crazy about him.”

Crazy was the operative word. Whenever he came anywhere near me, I couldn’t seem to think. My insides turned into super heated molten lava, which apparently melted brain tissue. Detective Nicholas Carmen Delgado, gorgeous and rich, wanted me to believe he loved me, believe that I could actually have him all to myself, and believe that he would never want anyone else. He wouldn’t settle for anything less and I couldn’t allow myself to believe.

“
Hey, I got his Porsche,” I said, dangling the keys for her to see.

She rolled her eyes, shook her head, and then flounced out. Even in four-inch heels, no one flounced like Charlene. Petite, not much over five feet, she weighed maybe 100 pounds and had spiky red hair. Pin on a couple of wings and she’d make a perfect pixie, complete with attitude.

She went back to her desk, leaving me sitting in my office and thinking about that last night in Delgado’s penthouse. He’d brought me there from the hospital to protect me until he could arrest the man who burned down my house.

During our hypothetical conversation on the balcony, Delgado stated that he wouldn’t have sex with me, because I wasn’t ready for a commitment. When I disagreed, he’d said, “What would you say if I asked you to marry me?” I’d considered it more of a challenge that an actual proposal . . . or so I’d been telling myself. After Delgado and I went to bed, each in a separate room, I tossed and turned most of the night, waking early the next morning with a headache. Still in the tank top and panties I’d almost slept in, I tiptoed to the kitchen for a glass of water to wash down two aspirin.

Delgado stood in the kitchen, bare-chested, pajama bottoms riding low on his hips. Cover of GQ handsome, dark hair and flashing green eyes, he could stop traffic fully dressed. Half naked, he was nothing short of spectacular, broad shoulders, long muscular arms, and six-pack abs. If gladiators looked like him, I could understand women going to the games. They wouldn’t even notice the blood and gore.

We stared at each other, neither of us moving. His eyes held mine, and then traveled down the length of my body and back up. My pulse spiked. His eyes smoldered with glints of green fire. Self-consciously, I tugged on the hem of my tank top, which ended slightly above my hips and couldn’t possibly stretch to cover the length of legs and hips exposed to almost my waist in the bikini panties I wore. I knew, just knew, if I took one step toward him, neither of us would be wearing anything for long. Lungs constricted, I finally managed to drag in one ragged breath, but my legs refused to move. He waited, his eyes never leaving my face. My heart raced. Sweat trickled down my back. Here was my chance. He wanted me. I could see it in his eyes. I willed my legs to move and yet something stronger than gravity held me back—fear, mind numbing fear. He’d been right the night before, when he said that for me sex was a commitment. I couldn’t give him my body without surrendering my heart. As much as I wanted him at that moment, I couldn’t trust him with my heart, couldn’t survive having it broken again.