Love.com (33 page)

“I’m not so worried now,” Emily said in relief and sighed. “At least she’s not after me anymore.”

“She’s not gone yet, Emily,” Ian reminded her with a shake of his head. “Don’t think you’re safe. She’s killed possibly three people already. Don’t think she’d hesitate for a minute.”

“I would think she would want to get away now, more than get even
with me.”

Ian chuckled and reached down to pet Willie. “That’s what I always liked about you, Emily. You don’t
ever act like most women. No, I’d say that revenge is still on her list before she leaves town. Count on it.”

~
~ ~

Emily drove with Ian in his Porsche, using her cell phone to try and track down Evan. It was past eight
in the morning. They got his voicemail repeatedly on his cell. She tried both the townhouse in Manhattan and tried the house on Martha’s Vineyard. She was told by a sleepy maid who answered at the summer house the family was on their way to the airport. They were going to Europe for a couple of weeks.

“He’s
on his way to Europe. That’s why his phone is shut off. They’re in the air already. It’s too late.”

Ian slowed down with the realization they couldn’t possibly find Evan’s safe deposit boxes on their own.
She could tell this while he estimated the number of banks in the city as she did. Tabitha was armed and on her way to stealing whatever Evan left behind.

“Keep trying, Emily
. We have fifty minutes until the banks open.”

Emily kept dialing Evan for the next fifteen minutes, hitting his voicemail each time. She was about to give up when he finally answered
, sounding irritated.

“Evan! Thank God I caught you!” Emily exclaimed and explained about the break-in the night before and the keys being the motive. “I need to know where those boxes are, Evan.”

Emily listened to Evan rattle off the list of banks and wrote them down on a pad in her lap. Ian was on his cell, snatching the pad off her lap as she said good-bye, promising to call him when he landed to give him the details.

“The banks all open in twenty minutes, Emily. I can’t get through to the detective who gave me his card.”

“What do we do?”

“We hope she’s greedy enough to hit every one of them
. We sit and wait for her to show up,” Ian responded grimly. “We just don’t know which one she’ll go to first.”

Emily called Nadine to
discover the keys in her top drawer were gone when the girl checked. She informed her she would be coming in late and to forward all her calls. She excused Ian’s absence while she was on the phone, earning a grin from him.

“It’s always
good to play hookie with the boss lady.”

“Don’
t get used to it. I don’t miss a lot of work these days.”

They pulled in to the SunTrust bank lot and watched as the tellers used the side door to go into work. Already customers sat out front waiting for the bank to open. A line formed in the drive-thru.

“What are we going to do if she shows u
p, Ian,” Emily said as she watched the front doors, hardly able to breathe. “Don’t forget, she has a gun.”

“
Than that makes two of us,” Ian replied and reached under the seat to withdraw a leather case. He took out a 9MM pistol and looked over at her. “Don’t worry; I have a permit for this.”

“You think this is
all really necessary?”

“Emily, until those toxicology reports come back in Florida, I’m definitely of the opinion this girl is a murderer. Why else would she be running? She’s had to have seen the stories on the news. If she’s not guilty, she’s sure acting like it.”

“You had a bad feeling about her all along, didn’t you?” Emily regarded Ian with a knowing look. “You followed her and Stu, didn’t you? That’s why you knew they were using the hotel to make their plans.”

Ian rolled his eyes at her words. “I
just did it as a favor to Evan, Emily. He suspected she was stepping out on him. He wanted to be sure he could trust her. I was only acting as a good friend.”

“A good friend who
just happens to bug a hotel room?”

“I had those lying around from my last assignment,” he said in amusement. “I followed them and realized they used the same room every time they met. I didn’t think I’d find out what I did.”

“So you realized she was up to something, and then what?”

“Your payroll clerk did all the real
footwork,” Ian informed her with a pleased smile. “I still thought she was who she said. I had enough dirt on her by then to take it to Evan, proof she was a gold-digger, but not that she was sleeping with someone else like he thought.”

“
So that Friday morning when you resigned, you let him listen to all the recordings?”

“Yeah, and he dumped her immediately,” Ian disclosed with a grin. “He sent me over to change the locks on her apartment. He didn’t want her to know until she went home that night. He didn’t want a scene in the office.”

“So, when I told you what I heard outside the conference room, why didn’t you tell me you were investigating her for Evan?”

“He asked me to do it as a personal favor
for him, Emily,” Ian reminded her and shook his head. “It was just guy-business, ok? I didn’t keep you in the dark for any other reason. He was embarrassed he was being played. He didn’t want anyone else to know.”

It all made sense to her now. She was still miffed about being kept out of the loop. Obviously guy-business was a lot like girl-business. It was on a need-to-know basis.

“I still think we should call the police, Ian,” Emily said and never took her eyes off the front of the building. “Why are we taking all these chances for Evan’s money?”

“Because it’s not Evan’s money, Emily, it’s mine.”

Her eyes widened and she swung to look at him. “Why is your money doing in Evan’s safe deposit boxes?”

Ian tucked the pistol in his lap. “I asked him to hold onto it for me until I got back from Germany, Emily. I didn’t have time to go open my own account. You
recall; everything happened pretty quickly? Well, he did it as a favor to me. How was I to know he let Tabitha in on it?”

“How much money are we talking about, Ian?”

“All together, over three million dollars, in cash, I might add. That’s why he had to put in all these separate boxes.”

Emily’s eyes bugged out. “So your life’s savings is in all these boxes?”

“Pretty damn close to it,” Ian muttered in a disgusted tone and shook his head. “It was stupid of me, but I guess that tells you I planned to come back here one day, doesn’t it? Doesn’t that show my commitment?”

“Yeah, to your money!”

Ian laughed and regarded Emily with a teasing look. “I was coming back, Emily. Not just for the money. I thought about it for over a year, every since I left here. I was just scared.”

“Scared of what?” Emily stared at him, unable to help the flutter of hope
forming in her middle at his words. The blissful night in his arms made her long to hear these words.

“I was scared you were going to begin and end like everything else in my life
does,” Ian said with a sigh. “I needed to get away to figure it out. That’s why I took the assignment in Germany. I never stopped thinking about you, Emily. I didn’t just come back here for the money. I came to try.”

“Try what?”

Ian looked at her, his blue eyes filled with sincerity. “I can’t promise you anything, Emily. I can only say I want to try and be
that
guy for you. Can’t that be enough for you right now?”

Emily was rendered speechless. She stared at him, unable to respond. Never in a million years did she think Ian returned her feelings. From the very beginning she thought it all one-sided, unable to see he might have grown to like her, even care for her along the way. It was a shock, one that she didn’t recover from for a full two minutes.

“I can see that got your attention,” Ian said with a chuckle. “Ok, before we have that girlfriend-boyfriend talk, we have business here. You keep an eye on the lot
. If you see her, let me know.”

Ian got on his cell phone to the police detective finally. They spoke quietly for several minutes before he hung up. He stared at the front doors of the bank, his expression tense.

“Are they coming?”

“He’s sending a unit to the other three banks.
He said to sit tight until he gets here.”

“I hope you see the sense in keeping a bank account after this,” Emily said and shook her head disapprovingly. “Who walks around with their whole life’s savings in a bag, I mean really?
Who does that?”

“Emily, I don’t need lectures
from you right now. After we get my money back, you can suggest some good investments. Right now, I’d like to focus on the task at hand.”

 
Emily rolled her eyes. “It would serve you right if she took your money and ran.”

“Easy! Try to recall she poisoned three old people. You want to see her get away with that?”

“That hasn’t been proven,” Emily replied pertly, her eyes glued to the bank doors.

“
No, but I’m going with my gut on this. She’s coldblooded enough. Look at what she intended for Evan? She has knowledge of drugs too. She had opportunity and motive.”

“Things aren’t always as they appear, Ian. I learned that the hard way.” Emily refused to elaborate on her past with Eddie. Some things just weren’t meant to be discussed with anyone.

“Always the optimist, aren’t you?”

“Beats pessimism,” Emily countered and looked at him out the corner of her eye. “I try to give the benefit of the doubt
if I can.”

“Even for me?”

“Especially for you,” Emily said and looked at him with a softened expression. “Don’t let me down this time.”

Ian regarded her with an intense look. “
I want this to work with us, Emily. I want you in my life.”

“
Than it’s a start,” Emily said quietly, her heart beating faster to know his feelings for once. “I never thought you’d ever feel that way for me.”

“Why not?” Ian regarded her with a raised eyebrow. “Despite your weird little quirks; I dig you.”

Emily laughed then, eyeing him in amusement. “What do you know about my quirks?”

“If I told you, I’d ruin all the progress I’ve made
since last night,” Ian admitted with a grin. “Let’s just say, you’re a trip Emily Jones; one I wouldn’t mind hanging out with.”

“Fair enough.”

“Just promise me you will seriously consider taking showers more,” Ian disclosed with a naughty grin. “They’re quicker and will keep you out of trouble.”

“How did you know?” Emily glared at him, her eyes narrowed. “You bugged my house! You’ve been listening all this time? For how long?”

Ian grimaced. “Since that night I was at your place. I don’t know why I did it. I wanted to know what you were thinking, how you felt.”

Emily’s eyes widened to think of her conversations about Eddie since then
with Joan, her family, and him. There wasn’t much he didn’t know about her. She was angry, feeling violated by his intrusion. To think of the nights she soaked in her think tank unaware of being bugged made her grimace. “Where did you put it?”

“
You mean where did I put ‘them’? Under your bed, in your kitchen, and your living room,” Ian admitted and smiled apologetically. “I just wanted to hear you. Imagine my surprise to know you talk in your sleep?”

“I do not!” Emily was mortified at what he had to have heard. The nights she masturbated to his image came to mind, his name escaping her lips at the last.

Ian chuckled delightedly as she swatted his arm. “I’m sorry. I couldn’t resist. I wanted to know you, Emily. I wanted to know everything about you.”

“You could have asked me! Instead, you just bugged my
house? Who does that? You’re more of a weirdo than me!”

“No, you got me beat there,” he defended with another naughty grin. “Do you realize how many times you said my name in your sleep this last year?”

Emily gritted her teeth at his smug amusement. “Why don’t you tell me?”

“Three thousand, four hundred and forty-two times,”
Ian informed her and chuckled at her outraged gasp. “And then, of course, there were those nights you…um…entertained yourself rather thoroughly thinking about me out loud. I have to say; I was flattered.”

“You’re a jerk! How could you?” Emily was so embarrassed she could hardly breathe, knowing he was listening to her the whole time, knew how obsessed
she was with him.

“Emily, I’m not proud of it. I wanted to know if you were seeing other men. You have to admit; you dated a lot back then. I thought if I learned you were sleeping around; I’d stop thinking about you so much.”

“So what if I had slept with other men? Is that any of your business? You probably weren’t celibate in Germany this last year.”