Playing with Fire (29 page)

This is getting harder than I thought. I can’t ditch the crowd too many nights a week or they’ll start asking questions, but now I have three wonderful admirers who can’t wait to give me presents and money. Well, a smart person like me will just have to figure it out.

She looked up at Griff, hating the things she would have to tell him.
Well, just blurt it out
. “She was seeing three men on the side, three no doubt married men, who gave her gifts and money. Diane wasn’t much better than a prostitute.”

“Ask me if I’m surprised,” he growled.

Cassie hated the look of pain on his face. He hadn’t loved Diane, but he had tried to do the right thing for her. She had repaid him with her self-destructive behavior. Without much thought Cassie kept turning the pages, hoping for a clue to a name. She stopped, however, when she came to a page that had the words
The baby
at the top, underlined.

I will not have an abortion. I’ve heard too many scary stories. No, I’ll find someone to marry me, have it, then go back to the way things were. But they’re all going to pay for this mistake, you can bet on it. Or I’ll set this town on its ear.

There was a lot more of the same, including the notes on her marriage to Griffin. Cassie hurried over them, not wanting to read the mean things her sister had written. Then, a week before her death, an entry was written with anger.

None of them want to take responsibility. Fine. Then I’ll make them all pay. I told them each to meet me next week at our usual time and place or they’ll see their names on the front page of the paper. If I have to have this kid, I want money to hightail it away from here when it’s done. Griffin says he always wanted a family. Well, now he can have one.

Underneath the entry was a string of letters that at first glance made no sense at all to Cassie. She needed to figure out what they meant, but, for a moment, she needed to close the book. She felt as if she’d been wading through slime and would never be clean.

Griff stared at her, questions burning in his eyes, his face set in grim lines. “Well?”

“All right.” She sat up and took a swallow of her drink. “Here’s the bare outline. Diane was blackmailing three men. Any one of them could have killed her. She never identified which one actually fathered the baby, but she was heading for a showdown with all of them.” She opened the book again to the last entry. “Maybe if I could figure out what all these letters mean, we’d know who she was meeting.”

She held the book so he could see the page, but he sat like a statue, eyes averted, not saying a word. She got up and sat on his lap, curling her arms around him and laying her head in his shoulder.

“Think of this as an abstract puzzle,” she told him. “The one thing that’s real is us. We’ve put a down payment on our dreams, Griff. Let’s not lose sight of that.”

“You’re right.” He held her against him, arms banded tight around her. They stood like that for long moments before took a deep breath and released it. “But the sooner we find the answers to this, the sooner we can close the book on Diane and this town altogether.”

“Meanwhile, let’s get some sleep.” She cuddled against him. “We can tackle this tomorrow.”

But as tired and emotionally spent as they were, tonight the need to lose themselves in each other was stronger than ever. They made such gentle love Cassie thought her heart would burst from the sensations she felt. She had not believed Griff could be such a needy lover in a quiet way, his emotions greater than his physical needs.

He suckled her breasts, pulling at her nipples with his mouth until they throbbed from his touch. His teeth nipped at the underside of her breasts then his tongue soothed them, while his warm hands massaged their fullness. Then he did it again. And again, until she thought she would come just from his attention to her breasts.

He licked every inch of her soft abdomen, teasing her navel with the tip of his tongue until every nerve was inflamed. With a gentle touch he tugged at her pubic curls with his teeth before opening her legs wide. With the same easy touch, so light it sent shivers through her, he slid his tongue from her clit down the length of her slit to the very soft, very tender, very sensitive flesh just below her opening. Searing heat flashed through her, every nerve sizzling.

“I could taste you forever,” he told her, his words ramping up the heat even more.

He gripped her knees and pressed them back toward her chest, opening her wide for whatever he chose to do. She’d learned it was his favorite position, except when he had her on her hands and knees. With his fingers inside her, he sucked her entire clit into his mouth and Cassie almost levitated off the bed.

“Get ready, darlin’,” he said in low tones. “My fingers are good and soaked with your cream now, so this will feel so very good. Remember how good it is?”

He slid one then two into the opening between the cheeks of her buttocks, his mouth still fastened on the swollen bud of her sex, his arm holding her in place while she bucked under his touch. He stroked in and out of her hot rectum, touching every sensitive place inside, driving her higher and higher. But he never allowed her to peak. Every time she neared the crest, he backed off, soothed her then started again.

Then there was no talking, only touching and feeling.

At the moment she was ready to scream with frustration, he rolled over onto his back, took her hand, and placed it on his thick erection.

Giving him the same careful attention, Cassie licked the length of his cock until it was wet with her saliva, probing the tip of the soft head with her tongue until he begged her to stop. She stroked her hand up and down his shaft while her other hand caressed the heavy sac between his legs.

When she felt his balls tighten, she moved over and straddled him. Taking his shaft in her hand, she positioned it at her vaginal entrance then slid down so he was completely inside her.

Tonight, she set the rhythm, moving in the slow cadence he had set, not wanting to rush, feeling him stroke every inch of her sex he could reach. Her fingers found his flat, hard nipples and rasped them with her nails until he cried out. And then, almost in slow motion, a shuddering orgasm rolled over them. Cassie could feel Griff’s body shaking in tempo with hers as they were caught up in wave after wave of sexual ecstasy.

Finally, finally it ebbed and abated, leaving them spent and exhausted.

Cassie leaned forward and rested her head on Griffin’s chest. His heartbeat thudded in time with hers. As much as he’d teased her tonight, plundered her, sent flames of scorching passion through her body, there was none of the usual frenzy or intensity. With every touch tonight, he was telling her what an important part of his life she was.

She wanted to weep with the love she felt for him. She kissed his warm lips then rested her palm on his cheek and slept.

***

Carol Markham called in the morning to tell Cassie she had a client with rental properties who would take all her furniture if she made him a good price.

“Get whatever you can,” she said. “I just want to be rid of it.”

“You know I’ll bargain well for you,” Carol promised.

Cassie could almost see the other woman setting her shoulders back. “Of course. Thank you.” It would save hassling with the man from Kerrville and leave one less thing for her to attend to.

When she was finished, Griff took the phone and Cassie listened while he explained he wanted to list his place, also. The conversation was brief. After he hung up, he told Cassie, “She had a hard time concealing her surprise. I’m guessing she assumed like everyone else will that we’d be living here.”

“Not anywhere in this town,” she said with emphasis. “So, when is she coming by with a listing agreement?”

“Maybe later today but she’ll call my cell to let me know.” His mouth curled in a wry grin. “I think the gossip line will be heating up again in a very short time. Think how much excitement we’ve brought into their lives.”

Cassie giggled. “Think how bored they’ll be when we move away from here.”

She called the real estate agent in Marble Hills to inquire about rentals. Then Griff placed an ad in the Stoneham newspaper as well as San Antonio and Austin to sell his business. Then they sat for a minute and looked at each other.

“We’re really doing it,” he said at last.

“Yes, we are.” Cassie smiled. “Any second thoughts?”

“You’re kidding, right? I’m kicking myself because I didn’t come looking for you a long time ago.”

“Tonight, we need to take a good look at what we want from your house and start packing,” she pointed out. “I know we’ve got some time, but maybe we’ll get lucky and your house will sell as fast as mine did.”

Carol came by late in the afternoon, trying to balance her distaste for Griff with her greed for a commission. She kept up a running chatter about nothing in particular while she took inventory of the rooms and the yard. The tension in the air was like thick wet cotton. Her gaze kept straying to the ring on Cassie’s finger. The expression on Carol’s face said plainly she wanted to ask a million questions, but couldn’t figure out a way to do it gracefully.

Griff conducted his business with her then he and Cassie sat back and waited for her to leave.

“Well, I’ll get a photographer out to take pictures and this listing in the computer as fast as I can,” she told them, fussing with the signed contracts. “I’ll call as soon as I get a nibble.”

“Thank you.” He opened the door and ushered her out onto the porch.

“Bye, then.”

“Good-bye.” Griff smiled as Carol hustled to her car then he turned to Cassie. “She had her cell phone out of her purse before she even cranked the ignition. Can’t wait to spread the word, I’d say.”

“Let’s order a pizza and go to sleep,” Cassie said. “You’ve got a lot of work to make up tomorrow. You’ve got to start telling your clients what you’re doing. My morning project is going to be trying to solve the puzzle of the diary.”

Good luck with that, she thought.

In the morning, Cassie stopped by the police station to turn over the money and jewelry from the safety deposit box to Dangler as evidence of Diane’s blackmail. The one request she made was after the case was settled it be used for some community purpose. The chief nodded, his eyes troubled. When he took the envelope from her, he touched it as if it burned his fingers. In a way, it was possible it did.

“Maybe this will give you the urge to open the case again,” Cassie taunted. “That money didn’t come from Griff, and you know it.”

“We’ll see,” was all Dangler said, but he looked uncomfortable.

She picked up a few things at the grocery store then went home and made herself a sandwich. Then, with her laptop booted up, she opened the diary. She tried every type of code she could think of, but nothing seemed to work. By the time Griffin came home, her head was throbbing and she felt physically ill.

“Bad day, sugar?” He dropped a kiss on her lips.

“Frustrating. I’m not getting anywhere.” She threw down her pencil. “Go take your shower. I bought some thick steaks today for you to grill while I throw a salad together.”

He gave her another quick kiss. “Sounds good to me. Give me ten.”

She splashed cold water on her face at the kitchen sink then took two bottles of beer from the refrigerator. She opened them and drank from one as she looked at the diary again. At the moment, she was about to close it and toss it down again, something clicked in her brain. She opened a clean document on her laptop and constructed an alpha code. By the time Griff came downstairs, she was both excited and dismayed.

“Got something?” he asked.

“Yes.” She took another swallow of beer. “I think I know who the three men were that Diane was sleeping with and blackmailing. And it isn’t pretty.” She turned the laptop so he could see the screen. “I don’t know why I didn’t remember this before. Diane and I made this up as kids to write notes to each other our parents couldn’t read.”

“Yeah?” He cocked an eyebrow. “How does it work?”

“Much too easy. We split the alphabet, then substituted letters. See? A equals N, B equals O, and so on. I used that to decipher the three lines at the end of the diary.” She bit her bottom lip. “Look what I came up with.”

They both stared at the names. In the end, the answer to the riddle had been simple, staring them in the face if they had just looked beneath the surface of the town.

“This isn’t proof, though.” Her shoulders slumped in discouragement. “There’s nothing in here to identify them except what I’ve figured out. If I took it to Dangler or any cop, they’d laugh in my face. We need to set some kind of trap for them.”

Griff shook his head. “I am not letting you put yourself in any kind of danger. It isn’t worth it.”

“But we have to do something,” she protested. “I refuse to let these people get away with this. No way will I let this town continue to lay two murders at your doorstep.”

“Cassie, they’ve already got blood on their hands,” he reminded her. “A little more won’t make a difference. I say we go to Dangler.”

She glared at him. “You don’t think he knows this already and has been covering up for them?”

“I think, when we show him the diary, he’ll cave.”

She wished she had as much confidence as Griff did. Of course, she wasn’t anxious to put herself in a dangerous situation, either. “Fine. I guess that’s the smartest thing to do. But we can’t wait to do it.”

“Just until the morning, okay?” He stroked her cheek with the backs of his fingers, and she leaned her head into them.

“Okay. I guess.”

“No one’s going to do anything tonight, anyway.”

Cassie nodded and went to take out the stuff for dinner.

Later, in bed with Griff sleeping beside her, she thought again of the men involved. She would never have imagined any of them being part of something this sordid. But then she thought, did you ever know all about anyone or know what they would do under certain circumstances?