Shut Up and Kiss Me (29 page)

Sky sat on Lucas’s porch—the same spot he’d sat all night before Shala found him and doused him with milk—hoping like hell he could find the words to stop her from leaving. To stop her from being so damn angry. After several hours, he still hadn’t found them.

He stared at her car. It was parked out front; Lucas had gotten up at the crack of dawn and driven Sky to the hotel to pick it up. All Sky could think about was being forced to watch Shala leave.

The door opened. Sky’s heart jumped into his throat. He shot to his feet, thinking it was her. Lucas stepped outside and handed him a cup of coffee.

“Thanks,” Sky said. When Lucas didn’t look away, he shrugged. “Go ahead and say it.”

“Say what?” Lucas asked.

“Whatever is on your mind. You’re gritting your teeth to keep it in.”

Lucas nodded. “You’re an idiot if you let her leave.”

“Fine. Now all you have to do is tell me how to stop her.”

Lucas sighed. “If you don’t know, you’re more of an idiot than I suspected.” He walked back inside.

Thirty minutes later, Shala came out. She didn’t meet his gaze, but that didn’t stop him from noticing the dark circles under her eyes.

“Are you sure you’re up to driving?” he asked.

“I’m fine.” She stepped off the porch.

He followed. “Your camera and things from the hotel are in the car.”

“Thanks.” She didn’t sound very grateful.

“I’ll call you,” he said, having no other words.

“I’d appreciate it if you didn’t.”

She got into her car and drove off. He held his breath, praying she’d stop, turn around, and come running back into his arms. He remembered the line of a country-western song that said, “I’d have been happy for a slowdown.” He’d never realized how powerful that line was. When Shala left, she hadn’t slowed down. She hadn’t glanced back. She’d simply driven away as if leaving didn’t hurt at all.

Three days after leaving Precious, Shala sat at her brother’s kitchen table. Beth, her sister-in-law, was pouring a round of decaf coffee. Shala had arrived that afternoon, calling from LAX to tell them she’d arrived. They’d been a little surprised. She’d spent four glorious hours playing board games and computer games with her nephew and niece, and she’d had a blast. Five minutes after the children were down for the night, she booked the six
A
.
M
. flight back to Texas. She suspected explaining her unexpected and very short trip might be difficult.

Beth set the cups down and dropped into a chair. Cory said, “Okay, sis, don’t you think it’s time you come clean?”

“Clean?” she echoed.

“What’s up? If it’s money, I can help out some.”

“No.” Shala shook her head. “I don’t need—”

“You’re not pregnant, are you?” he asked.

“No!”

“Oh, shit, you didn’t kill your ex-husband like you threatened, did you?” Beth asked.

“No!”
And just like that, the tears started flowing. “I just needed to see you guys, to have family around me.” She’d spent the last three days crying about Sky and his family and feeling sorry for herself because she had no one. Then it hit her that the reason she didn’t have anyone was because she’d put up barriers. Her family’s standoffishness was a status quo that Shala herself had mandated.

She wiped her cheeks, and her breaths were short. “I’m sorry.”

“What’s wrong, sis?” Cory leaned in, concern etching his brow. That only made her sobs come faster, harder, and deeper.

“Don’t,” she managed to say. “Don’t look at me like that.”

“How am I looking at you?”

“I’m sorry,” she repeated. “It’s been a rough few weeks.”

Beth got up and passed Shala a box of tissues. “What happened?”

“I went to Precious and…some people didn’t want me there.”

“Precious?” her brother asked.

“Precious, Texas.” She hiccupped, and it all came pouring out. Even though she knew she was jabbering, just like Sky accused her of, she couldn’t stop. “I picked up a stalker, and then Sky thought I took his picture and he stole my camera.”

“Who did what?” her brother asked, but Shala couldn’t stop to explain.

“Then I went to the Funky Chicken to find out—”

“You went where?”

“I had to find out where he lives, but first I had to dance disco with this other guy. I finally found where Sky lives and I went there. I called the police, but he is the police. Then a stalker showed up and I grabbed a knife and cut myself.” She held out her palm. Cory looked at it and frowned.

“Then Sky forced me to go the hospital”—her tears were rolling faster down her face—“and you two know that I can’t stand hospitals. But it was almost okay because he was so nice. Then the stalker tried to run me over, and Sky saved me, but then a friend of his got shot. The Texas Rangers showed up. Then things really got crazy, and we had curl-your-toes-up sex on top of his desk and…”

“You had sex with the Texas Rangers?” Beth asked, clearly shocked.

“No.” Shala blew her nose. “With Sky. And then they found the dead man and I found out that Sky’s foster father thought I was Sky’s soul mate, and Sky accused me of jabbering, but the worst part is that he doesn’t believe in love.” She dried her eyes. “And I think I’m
this
close to being in love with him.” She looked up at the befuddled expressions on Beth’s and Cory’s faces. “I know—I do jabber, don’t I?”

They didn’t say anything, but their heads bobbed up and down in unison.

“I’m sorry. It’s a lot to digest, isn’t it?”

Their heads bobbed again. Shala’s sister-in-law held up a finger. “Someone tried to run you over?”

Her brother followed with, “You had sex on a desk?”

Beth elbowed him. “Please, someone is trying to kill your sister and you’re worried about her having sex?”

He shook his head. “It’s the top-of-the-desk part that disturbs me.”

Beth rolled her eyes. “We had sex on your desk.”

“You wouldn’t have if I’d stolen your camera,” he insisted.

Suddenly, Shala started laughing and Beth and Cory joined in. They laughed for a good five minutes. Afterward, she answered a few questions. Okay, a lot of questions—she’d obviously done a terrible job explaining.

They were still at the kitchen table when Shala’s phone rang. She reached for her purse, looked inside at the number, and tossed it back.

“Don’t tell me,” her brother said. “That was the camera-thief, sex-on-the-desk guy?”

She nodded.

“You’re not taking his calls?” Beth asked.

“No.”

Beth grinned. “The sex must not have been
that
curl-your-toes-up good.”

Shala sighed. “I can’t chance getting my heart broken again.”

“I think it’s too late for that. If this isn’t you suffering from heartbreak, I’d hate to see you when it happens.”

Shala ignored that. “I should tell you, I’m leaving in the morning.”

“You just got here,” Cory and Beth said at the same time.

“I know, but I’m miserable.”

“I thought misery loves company,” her brother replied.

She shook her head. “I promise to come back soon. When I’m not miserable.”

Her brother called her the next day as she stood in the crowd, waiting for her luggage at Bush Intercontinental Airport. She’d checked the screen to be sure it was him. “Hello.”

“You make it to Texas?”

“Lovely flight,” she muttered.

“You still sound miserable.”

“I’ll be okay.”

“Yeah. Well, I don’t know if you want to hear this but…we’ve gotten two messages on the home phone this morning from a Sky Gomez.”

“Sorry,” she replied.

“That’s the camera-thief sex-on-the-desk guy, right?”

“Right.” She heaved a sigh of dejection.

“Well, I’m not going to get into your business, but he sounded worried about you.”

“He doesn’t have a right to worry,” Shala snapped. “I’m not his soul mate.”

They talked a few more minutes and hung up. She was still holding her phone when it rang again. She checked the screen. It wasn’t Sky, but did she want to talk to Maria? No. Yes. No—

“Hello?” she answered.

“I’m so glad you picked up,” Maria said. “Sky’s so worried.”

“I’ve been in California, visiting my brother and his family.”

“Sky drove to Houston yesterday, and if one of your neighbors hadn’t said she saw you leaving with your bags, I think there’d be a missing-persons report on you right now.”

“Is he still in Houston?” Shala asked, and actually looked around.

“No, he came home last night. But…I know it’s none of my business, but it’s so hard to see him hurting like this. All he does is go around growling. He’s miserable, Shala.”

“You’re right. It’s none of your business.” Shala tempered her words with a soft tone. “I’ve got to take care of myself right now.”

“It’s just—”

“Maria, I didn’t interfere with you and Matt.”

“You’re right. I’ll shut up.” There came a pause. “How was your brother’s family?”

“Good, thanks.”

They talked a few minutes before Maria asked, “Can I at least tell Sky that I spoke to you and that you’re okay?”

“Sure,” Shala said.

“One more thing.” Maria paused. “You’re not going stop working with the Chamber because of this, are you?”

Shala had spent the entire flight contemplating that very question. In the end she’d decided that she wasn’t going to let Sky stop her from doing her job. She would just have to pull up her big-girl panties—which would
not
be a thong—and avoid him at every turn, crosswalk, and stop sign.

“No, I’m not quitting.” Saying it made it official. Mentally, she reached down and yanked up her big-girl panties.

Damn it, it felt like a huge string had crawled right up into her mental crack.

“She’ll take Maria’s calls but not mine,” Sky muttered, sitting on his front porch and staring out into the darkness. “What the fuck is up with that?” When he dropped his cell phone beside his leg, Butch and Sundance looked up at him and whined. “You miss her, too, don’t you?” he asked them.

Sky closed his eyes. Misery, his constant companion, bumped around his chest. Everywhere he looked, he saw Shala: on his desk at work, at Lucas’s place. Yesterday, when he drove by the hospital, he’d visualized Shala standing out there, teasing him about not being a Hollywood cop. Hell, right now she was standing on the porch demanding he return her camera.

The visual got interrupted as Redfoot’s truck pulled into his driveway. Sky watched him and…was that Matt? Each man carried a six-pack. When they got to the porch, Redfoot chose the swing and Matt dropped down on the planks beside Sky.

“Did I send out BYOB invitations and forget?” He was definitely not in the mood for company.

Redfoot opened a beer and started drinking. Matt handed Sky a beer and—oh, what the hell—Sky took it.

“So we’re all gonna get drunk and pout, huh?” he asked.

“No,” Redfoot said. “We’re gonna get drunk and come up with a plan.”

“A plan to do what?” Sky took a sip of cold beer.

“To get your women back,” Redfoot said.

“What about your woman?” Sky asked. Not since Estella passed away had his foster father been this depressed.

Redfoot glanced into the night sky. “My case is hopeless. I think I pissed off the spirits.”

That night, Shala lay in bed pretending to watch television but mostly watching her phone. He’d called again this afternoon. This time, he’d left a message. She wasn’t going to listen to it, though. Why hadn’t she deleted it?

“Oh, screw it.”

She picked up the phone to get rid of the message, but her hand didn’t obey her command. Instead, it hit the message button. She needed a good cry anyway, since it had been a whole ten minutes since her last. She put the phone to her ear.

Her heart lurched at his voice. “Hi, Blue Eyes. I know you’re not answering my calls, and I didn’t even expect you to this time. Thing is, something happened today. Something good, and I wanted to tell someone, and it
occurred to me that the person I wanted to tell was you. Because…I don’t know, I think you’d understand.” He paused, and Shala’s grip on the phone tightened.

“Candy Peterson—the woman whose husband beat her—she came in today and signed the papers to press charges. She’d just come from a divorce lawyer, too. She said that something I told her had finally sunk in, that she didn’t want her little girl to grow up and let some man hit her.” He cleared his throat. “I know she could change her mind, but I think…I think I made a difference. It felt good, you know? Anyway, I wanted to tell someone who—”

His time ran out, and the message ended.

Shala dropped her phone, curled up against her pillow, and cried herself to sleep.

On Friday morning, three days later, Sky was over at Redfoot’s. He’d taken the day off to help set up. The mayor had also seen fit to help with their plan. His help had included calling Shala and insisting she come down for a town meeting and the night’s spur-of-the-moment powwow. Of course, Sky’s threatening to hand the mayor his resignation had probably increased the man’s help-fulness.

Sky looked at his watch. Shala was probably already on the road. His heart swelled at the thought of seeing her again, and he hoped Redfoot was right about this plan. So far, it was bringing Shala back to him. That in itself felt like a miracle.

His cell phone rang. Probably it was Matt wanting to know how things were going. Sky looked around for Maria before answering, but when he glanced at the screen, it wasn’t the right number.

“Hey, Lucas.” These last few weeks, his loner friend had changed. He’d even agreed to help set up the powwow.

“Where’s Shala?” Lucas’s tone was gut-clenchingly serious.

“On the way here. Why?”

“We were wrong. Not you, but your buddy Phillip and I. Charlie Rainmaker wasn’t behind those attempts on Shala’s life.”

“What do you mean?” Sky demanded.

“She’s not out of danger yet, Sky.”

“Fuck! Who is it?”

“I’m not supposed to say, because the investigation is ongoing, but…ah, screw the investigation. It’s Senator Blanton and his people.”

“What? Why? And how long have you known this, Lucas?” Fear was rioting through Sky’s heart.

“I just found out. I mean, I knew he’s being looked at for some nasty stuff. Let’s just say, when he travels, he’s not real particular as to the type of brothels he visits. He likes girls young, and he doesn’t care how they got to him. Doesn’t much care what condition they are in when he leaves them, either. The guy was going to be renouncing his run for presidency and stepping down from the senate in a few weeks. He just hadn’t gotten that memo yet.”

Sky felt sick just listening. He also felt confused. “What does that have to do with Shala?”

“It appears the married senator spent a weekend in a rented cabin outside of Precious, accompanied by his play toy. It was the same week Shala was taking pictures. I’m not even sure if she got him on camera, but remember the shot she took of two people going at it in a car? I think that’s our man. They are running that image now, seeing if they can get anything for sure.”

“Aw, shit,” Sky said. “All this because the guy couldn’t keep his dick in his pants?”

“I’m afraid it’s more than that.”

“What do you mean?” Sky’s grip on the phone tightened.

“You heard about the girl’s body that was found about sixty miles west of Precious.”

“Yeah, but I hadn’t heard they’d indentified her. I’m assuming you’re saying that the girl was the play toy.”

“That’s what I’m saying.

“It hasn’t been leaked yet, but when they checked her place, well let’s just say she wasn’t as discreet as the good senator would have liked. There’s evidence linking him and the girl in an earlier affair. But…no evidence putting him with the girl the week she died.”

“Except Shala and her pictures,” Sky said, and gritted his teeth.

“Right. And while the senator is scum, it may not even be him connected with Conners. They leaned hard and heavy on some of his hired bodyguards, mostly idiots with guns, figuring someone helped him make ‘the problem’ disappear. The FBI has been watching and waiting for one of them to screw up.”

“And?” Sky asked.

“They got one of them on tape, talking to a Bradley Conners. They couldn’t say for sure, because they talked in mumbo jumbo. But the FBI said from the conversation, they surmised that the man had originally just hired Conners to steal something, but due to some new discovery, the stakes went up. Which is probably because they now have the senator connected to the girl. And while they couldn’t swear on it, it sounded like the guy on the line was ordering a hit.”

“Shala?” Sky asked.

“He called her a reporter,” Lucas said. “But yeah, we think it’s her.”

Sky still was trying to grasp it. “How the hell do you know all this?”

“When they ran a check on Conners, it came up that my friend had just done the same thing. They called him, and he told them it had been for me, and then I got pulled in for questioning.”

Sky tried to think. “Okay, I’ll find out exactly where she is and send state troopers to find her.”

“Which way is she coming? I can start that way,” Lucas suggested.

“I think she’d take the freeway. I’ll have to call her.”

He hung up, his heart thudding against this breastbone, and started dialing Shala’s number. Then he remembered she wouldn’t answer. Instead he dialed Pete with the highway patrol, who was still at his office, and told him what he was going to need. With Pete on hold, he yelled out, “Maria?” She called back, and he followed her voice to the kitchen, finding her sitting at the table. “Give me your phone,” he ordered.

She frowned. “Why?”

“I need to talk to Shala,” he growled.

“No! I’m not tricking her like that.”

“Get me your god damn phone! She’s in danger!”

Maria’s eyes grew round. Running to the counter, she snatched up her phone. She started to hand it over, then pulled it back. “One condition. When she gets here, you tell her you love her.”

“Deal.” He grabbed the phone and started punching in her number. “But for the record, I was going to do that already.”

He started outside. Shala’s line rang, and he prayed she’d answer. Her voice spilled over the airways. “Hi Maria, I’m about an hour from Precious now. Do you want to meet me at the café?”

“Shala? Don’t hang up. We just found out that Charlie Rainmaker wasn’t behind those attempts to take the camera or to hurt you. We know who it is, and he could be following you. Shala?” He repeated her name when she didn’t answer. Reaching his car, he dove behind the wheel.

“I’m here,” she said. “But I swear, if this is a trick—”

“It’s not.” He heard her inhale. “Where are you at right now? What road, and I need a mileage marker.”

“I…don’t see one.” Her voice sounded tight, scared. He pulled out of Redfoot’s driveway, his own gut a pretzel of fear.

“Wait, there’s one.” She called it out. “Do you want me to pull over?”

“No, just keep driving.” Sky headed toward the freeway, tallying in his mind where she’d be by the time he met up with her. “And I need you to hang on one second—don’t hang up, okay? I’ve got DPS on another phone and need to let them know where you are, okay?”

After hearing her weak agreement, he switched phones and spat out the mileage marker to Pete. He heard Pete repeating the information into a radio. Then he told the trooper to call Lucas on another line and give him the info, too.

“Sky,” Pete said a few seconds later. “There’s a car within a few miles of her. He’s going to catch up and escort her here.”

“Great! I’m already on the road, too. Tell them to look out for my truck and Lucas’s.”

“We don’t need a motorcade,” Pete grumbled.

“Well, you’re getting one.”

Shala could hear Sky on the line, and just his voice sent mixed waves of pain and calm into her. Pain, because she’d given up trying to convince herself that she didn’t love him. She was undoubtedly in love with this man who wanted nothing to do with commitment or happily ever after. Calm, because somehow he helped her forget that one of the four cars behind her on the freeway could have a man with a gun in it who was thinking her head made a good target.

“Shala?”

“Yes?”

“We’ve got a trooper only a few miles off. He should be pulling up any minute. And I’m on my way. Lucas is, too. It’s going to be okay.”

“Sky?” Even saying his name hurt.

“Yes?”

“Who is trying to kill me and why?”

He explained some, but she assumed he didn’t tell her everything. Silence filled the line.

All of a sudden, a car pulled up next to Shala, close. Too close. “Oh, God,” she muttered.

“What?” Sky asked.

“A car’s trying to pass me, coming up along the median. I think he’s trying to run me off the road.”

“Is it a DPS car?” Sky asked, sounding panicked.

“No.” Shala saw the man reach down, and when his hand came back up, he held something out. Shala didn’t look carefully. She just punched the gas.

“Where the fuck is your guy?” she heard Sky yelling right before she dropped her cell.

“I said, where the fuck are your guys?” Sky shouted into the phone.

“He’s there,” Pete answered. “She’s running from him. Tell her slow down. The guy is trying to show her his badge.”

“Is he not in a squad car?” Sky demanded. Pete didn’t answer. Sky heard him talking into a radio.

“No.” Pete came back. “He’s off duty. He’s driving a blue Saturn.”

“Shala!” Sky yelled into his phone. “Listen to me, is the car trying to pull you over a blue Saturn? If it is, he’s a trooper, baby. Talk to me, Shala. Talk to me.”

Seeing the
WELCOME TO PRECIOUS
sign should have eased the burning in Sky’s stomach, but it didn’t. This wasn’t just about saving Shala’s life; this was about convincing her to share her life with him. But Sky would still love to kick the trooper’s ass for neglecting to inform Pete that he wasn’t in a black-and-white. The idiot had put everyone through some unneeded panic.

Shala’s phone was low on battery, so after the situation calmed down, and after he’d met up with her, they both hung up. Sky had since called Phillip, who was going to meet them at the station house in a few hours.

Sky’s gaze kept shifting to Shala driving behind him. He’d run onto the curb twice trying to catch glimpses of her in her car.

The trooper escort phoned and said he’d let Sky take it from there, which was fine. Sky called Shala back and told her to head to the police station/jailhouse.

“I’m supposed to meet Maria at the café,” she argued.

“Not until we know it’s safe,” he snapped.

He heard her sigh, but she turned down Main Street the right way. All he could think about was getting her out from behind the wheel and into his arms. And into his life. Permanently.

When she parked, Sky leaped out of his car to meet her. His heart lurched at the sight of her. She wore jeans that fit like an oiled glove, and the same red shirt he’d once watched her slowly strip off in his office. Awestruck at the sight of her, he didn’t even acknowledge Lucas walking up. As Shala got closer, Sky ached to touch her. Then Sky watched as Shala ran straight into his friend’s arms.

He swallowed a lump of disappointment when he heard Lucas whisper, “It’s going to be okay. I got you.”

It hurt like hell to know she’d turn to Lucas and not him, but he deserved the pain. Lucas was her friend, and Sky would bet his right arm that never once had Lucas told her that he was just a temporary fixture in her life, that as soon as the new wore off the relationship he was out the door. And that’s exactly what Sky had told her—maybe not in those words, but after replaying their argument in his head, he begin to see how Shala would view his fucked-up excuses.

“We should get her inside,” Sky said, hoping his jealousy
didn’t show. Then he looked around again to make sure it was safe.

He obviously didn’t look hard enough. The moment they turned for the door, the bullets began.