Speak of the Devil (15 page)

“Come on in,” I said, gesturing him toward the living room. He and Saul exchanged nods of greeting.

“Do you mind if I talk to Morgan in private for a bit?” Dom asked Saul.

Saul looked as startled as I felt. “Anything wrong?” he asked.

Dom managed a rueful smile but didn’t answer the question. “If you hear any sounds of violence, please come running to my rescue, okay?”

Saul laughed at that and gave Dom a pat on the shoulder. “Sure thing, buddy.” He must not have been as amused as he sounded, though, because he gave me what I can only describe as a warning look before he retreated to the guest bedroom.

That almost made
me
laugh. I’m tall and strong for a woman, but Dom is more than six feet and two hundred pounds of muscle. If Saul thought I was capable of physically hurting Dom, he had an exaggerated opinion of my abilities.

Dom and I sat on opposite ends of my hard-as-a-rock sofa. Between his facial expressions and his little interchange with Saul, I was afraid I had a pretty good idea what had happened.

I fixed him with my fiercest stare. “Tell me you didn’t do what I think you did!”

He tried a sheepish smile. His shoulders were hunched a bit, making him look like a turtle seriously considering retreating into its shell. “That depends on what you think I did.”

“Dominic …”

“I talked to Brian.”

I groaned. Sometimes being right really sucks. I covered my eyes with my hand and shook my head.

“I figured he might listen to me when he wouldn’t listen to you,” Dom said. “And I also figured you’d be too stubborn to try to talk to him yourself.”

I wasn’t sure if I wanted to hit him or hug him. Maybe he was just too nice for my own good. “I’m sure your heart was in the right place,” I said through gritted teeth, “but that really wasn’t your call to make.”

He shrugged. “I know that. But since I was in the house when Adam…” He let his voice trail off. I didn’t think he was much more comfortable with what Adam had done to me than I was. “I could tell Brian what really happened, and he’d have no reason not to believe me.”

My eyes stung with the tears I still hadn’t allowed myself to shed. “I repeat: That wasn’t your call to make.” And since it was Dom here talking to me right
now, not Brian, I figured it hadn’t gone as well as Dom had hoped.

“Doesn’t matter. I did it anyway.” He gave me a piercing look of his own. “Are you going to tell me you’ve never stuck your nose where it didn’t belong with Adam and me?”

I grimaced. He had a point, unfortunately. I’d been very judgmental about their relationship when I first knew them. I’d even urged Dom to “get help” because I thought he was a “sick puppy” to stay with Adam. Since then, I’d come to the startling realization that theirs was the healthiest romantic relationship I’d ever known.

“Sorry,” I mumbled. “I was a real bitch to the two of you.”

“Was?”
he asked with an ironic lift of his brow.

I leaned over and smacked him on the shoulder, though I couldn’t help smiling a little.

“Ow!” he teased, rubbing his shoulder as if I’d punched him with brass knuckles.

Half a second later, Saul poked his head out of his room. Running to Dom’s rescue as requested. Dom and I both looked at him and then at each other. We burst into laughter, and Saul withdrew.

When the laughter threatened to morph into tears, I bit the inside of my cheek and sucked in air for all I was worth. Control was hard to find, especially since Dom kept laughing. I guess he was kind of tense and needed the release. I didn’t dare look at him, or I really would cry.

So I stared at the coffee table when I said, “I appreciate the thought.”

My serious words killed the laughter, and I kind of wished I’d kept them to myself, at least for a little while. Tension and discomfort crept over both of us almost immediately, and the air felt heavy.

A waiting silence descended. I knew Dom was waiting for me to ask what Brian had said. I also knew I wasn’t going to ask. I’d already deduced that it hadn’t gone well. And really, even if it had, I wasn’t ready to face the question of whether the relationship was worth repairing.

Eventually, Dom got the hint that I wasn’t going to ask. He sighed, and I could see him shaking his head in my peripheral vision.

“You’re really going to hold it against him that he believed the story, given the evidence?” Dom asked, sounding incredulous.

I glared at him. “Imagine how you would feel if Adam believed you’d cheated on him.”

He thought about that a moment, then nodded. “I’d feel like shit. And I’m sure I’d be pretty pissed at him. But I’d also understand.”

“Well, you’re a nicer person than I am,” I snarled, even as I told myself not to take my anger out on Dominic. Yeah, I thought he should have kept his nose out of it, but he’d meant well.

To my shock, Dominic grabbed both my arms in a firm grip and turned me to face him on the sofa. I was startled enough that I met his gaze. His eyes were narrowed almost to slits.

“I’m not as nice as you think I am,” he said, and he sounded really pissed. “And Adam’s not as mean as you think he is. And Brian isn’t as saintly as you think he is. And even Raphael isn’t as evil as you think he is. Why do you always have to slap some neat little label on everyone? And then refuse to see anything that doesn’t fit under the label?”

Being yelled at by Dominic was kind of like being bitten by an adorable, fluffy kitten. It was shocking enough to really get my attention, that’s for sure. I didn’t know what to say.

He let go of my arms and slumped back into the cushions of the sofa, crossing his arms over his chest. He was still fuming, and I shook my head.

“I don’t get it,” I said. “Why do you care so much if Brian and I are together or not?”

He caught my gaze and didn’t let go. “Why do you care if Adam and I are together or not?” he countered.

“I don’t!” I snapped, but we both knew it was a lie.

I cared about them being together because they were my friends—yes, even Adam, in his own bizarre way—and I knew they were happy with each other. A lump formed in my throat.

Did Brian and I make each other happy? Sure, we had our moments. But we had a lot more moments of fighting. Didn’t there come a time when a wise person admits defeat?

Dominic rose to his feet. “I’ve never met anyone who makes being miserable such a point of pride.”

The lump still ached in my throat, so I couldn’t muster a snappy comeback. I didn’t look up as Dominic crossed the floor. He hesitated a moment on the doorstep. I don’t know if he was trying to find the magic words to make me see things his way, or if he was hoping I’d ask him to stay. But I didn’t ask him to stay, and he didn’t find those magic words, so he stepped out into the hall and closed the door behind him.

When Dominic left, I was still in the unpleasant situation of having nothing to do. Except brood, that is. I don’t do well with inactivity in the best of times, which these weren’t, so I decided to go shopping. Window shopping, really, because I could barely
afford to buy food, much less anything fun. But at least it got me moving for a while.

One of the good things about living in Center City as opposed to the suburbs is that just about everything is in walking distance. That allowed me to chew up some of the hours of the long afternoon just by getting from place to place.

I tried to amuse myself by trying on clothes and shoes in various fashionable Walnut Street shops, but it wasn’t much fun when I couldn’t afford to buy. Still, it was better than sitting in the apartment gazing at my navel. Or talking to Saul.

When I got home, I ate the remainder of the Thai food for dinner, while Saul tried to stay unobtrusive and watched TV. In my now habitual attempts to win the Good Housekeeping award, I hand-washed the dishes when I was finished, then put everything away. By that time, my feet were aching pretty bad from all the walking I’d done earlier, and I decided I’d have to spend the rest of the evening vegging in front of the TV, even with Saul there.

I had just sat down on the love seat—declining to sit beside Saul on the sofa—when my phone rang. Saul had an old
Seinfeld
rerun on, and someone cued the laugh track immediately after the first ring. If I didn’t know better, I’d swear my TV was mocking me.

Saul was obviously still trying to win me over with his world’s-best-roommate act, because before I mustered the energy to haul myself to my feet to answer the phone, he picked it up and tossed it to me. I caught it easily and checked the caller ID. It was the front desk. I’d been hearing from them way too much lately.

“Hello?” I said wearily. If anyone was hoping to pay me a visit right now, I fully intended to send them away.

“Ms. Kingsley?” the clerk asked. He had a raspy smoker’s voice, and I realized it was Carl, one of the nicest of the building staff. Too nice, sometimes. Engaging him in conversation could kill an hour of your time, easy.

“Yes.” Keeping responses to monosyllables was always wise when talking to Carl.

“Is your car a blue Civic with license plate EXY 1902?”

I closed my eyes and pinched the bridge of my nose. What now? “Yes,” I responded reluctantly.

“I’m sorry, Ms. Kingsley, but one of the other residents reported it had been vandalized. Do you want me to call the police for you?”

Great. Just great. I’d ask him how bad the damage was, but since he wasn’t the one who saw it, I assumed he wouldn’t know. “No, thanks, Carl. I’ll take care of it myself.”

“I’m sorry,” he said again, sounding genuinely distressed on my behalf.

I heard him take a breath, and instinct told me he was about to sympathize with me some more. Knowing him, about fifteen minutes more. So I cut him off before he got started.

“Thanks for letting me know,” I said. “I’d better go check and see how bad it is.” Then I hung up without saying good-bye.

I fought an urge to fling the phone against the wall. Maybe it was time for me to consider taking up residence in some remote little shack in Tibet. A life of peaceful seclusion might be just the thing. But knowing my life, trouble would follow me all the way there.

“What’s up?” Saul asked me, turning off the TV without having to be told. I gave him a reluctant brownie point for that.

“Apparently, someone’s vandalized my car.” I dragged myself to my feet. “I’m going to go see how bad it is.”

He stood up. “I’ll come with you.”

My usual inclination would be to tell him to stay here, but I was feeling beaten down enough not to bother tonight.

We rode the elevator in silence down to the parking level. It was about eight o’clock in the evening, which wasn’t a busy time for garage traffic, so we had the place to ourselves. Saul’s sneakers made squeaky new-shoes sounds as we climbed the ramp up toward where I’d parked. I couldn’t see my car yet because the vehicle next to it was one of those super-sized SUVs that made cars like mine look like toys in comparison.

When we got a little closer, I saw crumbles of broken glass, both red and clear, littering the floor. Great. I’d tried to hope that the vandalism had entailed only some damage to the paint job or some nasty messages written in soap on the windows. You know—the kind of stuff you don’t have to pay to fix. But it looked like I’d be forking out money for new taillights, if nothing else.

I closed my eyes for a moment.
Please let it be nothing else
, I prayed. Then we got around the SUV, and I stopped in my tracks.

“Holy shit!” I said with what little voice I could muster.

To say my car had been “vandalized” was the understatement of the century. It looked like an army of gorillas armed with baseball bats and tire irons had attacked it.

Every window was shattered. The tires had all been shredded to ribbons. There were so many dents in the doors, they resembled that “hammered copper”
look that was popular in decorative plates and vases. Inside, the dashboard had been smashed, and stuffing oozed out of huge rents in each of the seats.

But bad as all that was, it wasn’t half so disturbing as the message that had been painted in what looked suspiciously like blood on the car’s hood. It was short, simple, and to the point.

Die, bitch
.

I hugged myself and tried to keep my teeth from chattering as Saul pulled his cell phone off his belt and dialed 911.

As soon
as Saul got off the phone with 911, he called Adam, which meant that even after I’d answered five thousand thirteen questions and been given the hairy eyeball by what seemed like thirty cops, the ordeal wasn’t over.

I recognized Adam’s car when he drove by, but he didn’t stop to talk with his fellow men in blue. Instead, he parked in the visitors’ area and waited for all the excitement to die down. I was very aware of him sitting there in the dark, watching, and I’m sure Saul was, too. The officers never noticed. That would have really sucked if Adam had been the homicidal maniac who’d been making my life just that much brighter lately.

Okay, it’s true, we weren’t sure the guy was a homicidal maniac. As far as we knew, he hadn’t killed anyone. Yet. But it sure did look like he was escalating, and I didn’t want to know what his next move would be.

When the last police cruiser’s taillights disappeared down the ramp, Adam finally got out of his car and headed in our direction. He was wearing
heavy black motorcycle boots with sinfully tight black jeans, a faded blue T-shirt, and a black sport coat. Ah, the off-duty look. Gotta love it. Out of the corner of my eye, I caught Saul giving him a similar once-over. Adam had the grace to pretend not to notice either of us ogling him, but I didn’t believe for a second it had escaped his attention.

Without saying anything, he examined the car, which the police had kindly left for me to dispose of. They’d have towed it away if the love note had actually been written in blood like I’d first thought. Turned out it was just paint, which was a relief.

Adam circled the car, looking at it from every possible angle while Saul and I watched. What he thought he’d see that the others had missed, I don’t know. Bored with watching Adam and his scrupulous examination, I let my eyes wander. Beside me, Saul was grinning faintly, a look of mingled lust and amusement in his eyes. I followed his gaze and saw the mouthwatering back view Adam was giving us as he bent over to scrutinize the broken taillights. If he’d wiggle his ass a bit, he’d look like he was auditioning for Chippendales in that pose. And he’d probably be hired in a heartbeat.