The Perfect Couple (34 page)

"What'd he say?" Jonathan asked.

Shaking her head, she put her phone aside. "Nothing." She couldn't explain her former neighbor's odd behavior. And she certainly didn't want Jonathan to accuse her of what Colin just had: You think every guy wants you.

He nudged her knee. "You hungry?"

Did they really have to face the day already? It was Sunday. Mother's Day. They wouldn't be able to get any more rental records, wouldn't be able to talk to people without the risk of interrupting family celebrations. What could they do to find Sam?

Nearly a whole week had passed, and they didn't even know where to look.

She reached over to smooth the hair out of his eyes. "Can we just go back to bed?"

He studied her for a moment. Then he swept her into his arms and carried her into the bedroom.

That was stupid.

Closing his eyes and shaking his head, Colin shoved his phone into the middle of the table so he wouldn't chuck it across the restaurant. He shouldn't have lost his temper with Zoe. He'd worked too hard to become her friend.

And now she wouldn't trust him anymore.

"Shit!"

The old woman in the next booth had been gaping at him since his outburst on the phone. He glared back, but when she wouldn't look away he flipped her off.

Her eyes bugged out and she insisted her husband get up and move to a different table with her. She was complaining to the manager when Tiffany returned from the restroom.

Leaving forty dollars on the table to cover their check, which hadn't come yet, Colin got up and motioned for his wife to go out ahead of him.

"We're leaving?" she said in surprise.

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"I'm standing up, aren't I?" He spoke quietly so he wouldn't be overheard. He'd drawn enough attention.

She glanced longingly at her plate. "But I wasn't done."

"You are now." He wasn't about to stick around so some stupid, overweight manager making fifteen bucks an hour could waddle over in a grease-stained tie and reprimand him for his language.

"Why?" Tiffany asked. Then she noticed the tension in the room.

"What's going on? This was supposed to be my Mother's Day celebration. I get to eat whatever I want today. You said so."

"I changed my mind." He waved her through the door but she didn't move.

"I only had a couple bites."

"So? You're not a mother," he whispered.

"Because we've chosen not to have children. But I'm a woman. I could be a mother if you wanted children."

"Just shut up. You had enough to eat. It's all I can do to keep you from turning into a whale. Now move your ass!"

"Colin--" She eyed the old folks and the manager conferring together, and lowered her voice. "What'd you do?"

He didn't answer. "If you don't come now I'm leaving you," he ground out.

Finally, she walked outside, and he used the button on his key to unlock the car doors. They were about to get in when the manager poked his head out of the restaurant.

"Next time you come to this establishment, please remember your manners," he said.

Colin wasn't about to put up with any shit. "That's what I think of you and your establishment," he said and flipped him off, too.

The manager came out farther--but not far enough to constitute a real challenge. "Hey, mister, don't ever come back!"

"You couldn't pay me to eat here again!" Colin said.

Tiffany, her face bright red, ducked into the car. "What's gotten into you?" she asked as several of the waitresses came to peer out at them, too.

"We're in public."

"Yeah, well, I hate this dump."

"It's not a dump. It's a nice restaurant. You're the one who chose it."

"That was before I tried their lousy pancakes."

He started to back out of the parking space, then realized he'd left something behind. "Son of a bitch!"

"What now?" she asked.

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He pulled in again. "Go get my phone. It's on the table."

Fortunately, she didn't argue because he wasn't in the mood to tolerate it. But when she returned, he could tell by her expression that she was upset.

"You called Zoe," she said as soon as she got in.

"So what?"

"So what? We were lucky last night, to get out of the mess we were in. Why can't you leave her alone? We have her daughter, Colin. Isn't that enough? What is it about her?"

He wished he knew. He wanted Sam, but he wanted Zoe more, especially since he'd had her tied to his bed. He'd been so close to becoming a god to her--master of her pleasure, master of her pain, master of her every breath. But then his father had ruined it. And now Zoe was spreading her legs for someone else, or she wouldn't have had a man in her motel room at eight in the morning.

She came across as so circumspect. You have a wife, Colin. But she was a whore, just like most women. Why couldn't he get her to respond to him? Wasn't he good enough for her? He was young, attractive, successful.

He'd never tried so damn hard or been so ineffective with another woman.

"Are you going to answer me?" Tiffany asked.

"She's...stuck up," he said. "She needs to be taken down a few pegs."

"You've already done that. You stole her daughter--"

"You stole her daughter," he broke in.

"For you! And I regret it, okay? I was trying to make you happy, but all it's done is make me unhappy. Do you love Zoe, Colin? Do you love her and not me? Is that what this is about?" She broke into a full-blown sob. "If you're not going to kill her, you might as well kill me!"

He was losing control of the situation when he most needed to retain it. He'd gotten through yesterday by the slimmest of margins. He couldn't fall apart, couldn't allow Tiffany to fall apart, either. His stepmother was expecting them in less than an hour. They had to be at their best so they wouldn't make any blunders.

Slipping out of the flow of traffic, he turned onto a residential street and pulled to the curb.

"Why are you stopping?" Tiffany said with a sniff. "What're we doing here?"

"We're talking."

"About what?"

"You have to calm down."

"I can't calm down. Every time I think Zoe's out of my life, you drag her back into it!"

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"You could change that, if only you'd help me lure her to a secluded spot--"

"No!"

He held up a hand. "Just listen. All I want is to take her up to the cabin and make her watch what I have planned for Sam. Then I'll kill them both."

"We need to quit taking risks. We need to live like normal people.

What we've been doing is wrong, Colin. And you know it."

"We'll stop. This is it. I promise. I love you enough to do anything."

Struggling to rein in her emotions, Tiffany wiped her eyes. "You do?"

"Of course. How could you not know that?"

"Sometimes it doesn't feel that way."

"That's just the doubt talking, the old insecurities."

"So...if I help you this one last time, you're done with it all?"

"I am."

"No more pets, nothing?"

He leaned over to kiss her, using his tongue, making it convincing.

But even then he was thinking of Zoe's lips, Zoe's body. "Of course, babe.

It'll be just you and me," he said, gently wiping her tears. "You and me, together forever."

She clung to him, shaking. "That's what I want. That's all I've ever wanted."

"Then bring me Zoe. Give me one weekend with her--and you'll never have to worry about her again."

She stared off into the distance for a moment before meeting his eyes.

"This'll be the end? I have your promise?"

"That's what I said, isn't it?"

She nodded. "Okay, I will."

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The twittering of birds was louder than Sam had ever heard. That meant something had changed. But her eyelids were too heavy to lift. She remained where she was, curled up tightly, not quite sure whether she wanted to wake up. Where was she? The air was cold, the smell was awful and she was in a box.

Had Colin and Tiffany buried her alive?

With a gasp, she managed to open her eyes. She was in a small space but it was a suitcase, not a box, and it was unzipped. Above her, sunlight peeked through cracks in what appeared to be a ceiling of wooden planks.

She was in a shed of some sort; she guessed from the smell that she'd be lying in mud if not for the suitcase.

Had she ever been to this place before? She didn't recognize it--and that frightened her. How would her mother ever find her if she didn't know where she was herself? And where were Colin and Tiffany?

She searched her recent memory, but it was blank. She'd been unconscious; she had no idea for how long. She remembered Colin's footsteps pounding down the hall. Colin unlocking the door and banging it against the wall. Colin whispering his hate in a dark, angry voice. Colin nearly choking her to death for making noise. She'd thought her life was over. His father hadn't come to her rescue; no one had.

I'm going to kill you as soon as I have the time to do it right, Colin had said. You're a dead girl. Then he'd held her head back by pulling on her hair and nearly drowned her as he forced her to drink a glass of water that had the bitterest taste.

And now this....

Was she dreaming? Or was she dead? The sound of birds was like something she'd expect from paradise, but surely God had a better place in mind for her than a smelly old shed.

She wasn't dead. She wasn't even dreaming. When she tried to move, the cold, heavy weight of the collar around her neck told her that much.

Colin and Tiffany had probably abandoned her here. Which meant she might be able to find her way home--or at least try to find help.

In order to do that, she had to get up, make her move while she could.

But her limbs wouldn't cooperate. She was so weak, so cold...

It was no good.

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Falling back, she stared at the black lining of the suitcase wondering how much longer it would take to die.

Jonathan had to get out of bed. In February, his parents had gone to their hometown in Iowa, to nurse his mother's dad back to health following a moderate stroke, and they were still there. His sister was spending Mother's Day with her in-laws. So it wasn't as if he had to dedicate much time to the family today. But a call was imperative, especially since he'd only mailed his mother's card yesterday. With the week he'd just had, it was surprising he'd remembered it at all.

Raising his head to see the clock, he yawned. "I gotta get up."

Kino seemed to agree. He nudged Jonathan with his wet nose, no doubt ready to go out.

"Already?" Zoe was sleeping half on top of him. They'd made love twice since he'd carried her back into the bedroom. And now that he was finally sated, he was beginning to feel guilty. What was he doing? Even if she could give him the "more" he was looking for, he wasn't sure he'd be satisfied with it. He was in love with someone else.

As incredible as the sex had been, he was an asshole for touching Zoe, and he knew it.

"I have about fifteen minutes to reach my mom or she's going to burst into tears," he said. "And then my dad will call me to tell me how disappointed he is that I didn't show more consideration. At which point, I'll explain that I've been busy, but neither of them will understand because they haven't seen busy in a long time."

"Oh. Right. You'd better call her, then." She moved off him and buried herself in the blankets, and he knew he needed to get her up and dressed before she slipped into such a deep depression she couldn't get up.

She was teetering dangerously close. There'd been a fatalistic abandon in her lovemaking this morning that hadn't been there last night, a recklessness that suggested she didn't care as much about her own life as she should.

She had a lot to face, but she needed to face it, or matters would only get worse.

He pulled on his boxers and a pair of jeans. "Ready to grab a shower?"

"Not especially. If you've got stuff to do, go ahead. I'll wait here,"

came her muttered response.

She needed a purpose, something to do for Sam's sake. "I've got another idea."

Her head popped out of the covers. "What?" she said, but it wasn't a hopeful what. It was a "if you're not staying in bed, leave me alone" what.

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"Let's go over to the hospital to see Toby. I'm sure his parents could use a break. We can sit with him while Mr. Simpson takes his wife out for brunch."

She rubbed the sleep from her eyes but continued to watch him with an uncertain expression. "I'm sure they have other family members."

"Who might also like a break. What do you say?" he prompted.

"What can I say?" she replied.

He smiled. "You'll feel better in a bit. Towels and washcloths are in the hall." He thumped the closet door to show her where as he and Kino passed through to the kitchen.

"Got it," she said, but he barely heard the response and didn't follow up on it.

It was going to be a hot day in Sacramento. At eleven the sun was bearing down on his glass door, heating up the kitchen.

He let Kino out in the backyard, then called his mom, who was fortunately in a great mood. He promised to take her to her favorite crepe place once she got home, then visited with his father for a few minutes and, having fulfilled his familial obligations, felt slightly less guilt-ridden about taking advantage of someone with as little to lose as Zoe. He'd make it up to her somehow, be more restrained in the future. It'd just been too long for him; that was all. And she was such an attractive woman.

He fed Kino and was heading back to the bedroom to see why she wasn't up when his BlackBerry rang. Caller ID indicated it was Sheridan.

He hesitated, wondering if he should pick up. He hadn't spoken to her since that short encounter at The Last Stand the day he'd found out about Sam. But they couldn't avoid each other forever. It wasn't even fair of him to try. It wasn't as if she'd cheated on him or given him false hope. He hadn't even made his feelings clear. He'd been too busy waiting, expecting it to happen when she was ready.