Worst Date Ever (Scandals #3) (20 page)

“What’s that?”

“Snakes.”

There was a pause. 
“Snakes?”

“Copperheads…in my condo…at least three…minus one.  I need some help corralling the rest and getting them out of here before one of us gets bit.”

“Three?  Us?”

“Oh …that’s a long story.”

“Were did the one snake go?”

“It had its head pinched in some channel locks, and we threw it over the balcony.”

“So, why can’t you do the same with the others?”

“Can’t…the channel locks went with it.  They landed on a Mini-Cooper in the parking lot.”

“That’ll make the news.  I’ll notify Animal Control and send a rig over to your place to check it out.”

“Great.  Hurry, this is freaking us out.”

“Cody?”

“Yes Captain.”

“Is your girlfriend afraid of snakes, too?”

“It’s not what you think…hey, code 3, okay?”

“Will do.”
  The phone went dead.

“Code 3?” I asked.

“Lights and sirens.”  He cringed and looked down at his crotch.  “It’s an emergency.  I need a shower.”

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

It was after six when Cody’s pals and two Animal Control guys left with five snakes in their bag.  They also found a small burlap bag on the floor of the pantry.  Since Cody had no idea where it came from, it was presumed to be how the snakes got into the condo.  How the bag got into the pantry was another question entirely.  After repeated reassurances, Cody finally got his shower.  I checked on the computer and saw that
Yukon King
hadn’t nabbed its man yet.  The sound of the shower made me itch all over.  I wanted more than anything to have the nerve to strip off my clothes and join him.  After what seemed like an hour, the water shut off.  I sighed.  Another missed opportunity to seize the moment.

I heard the pad of his bare feet as he approached, and I swiveled around. Wearing nothing but a pair of gym shorts and a dark blue towel wrapped around his neck, he had never looked sexier.  His wet hair was rumpled and falling across his forehead, and his eyes sparkled.  I noticed his skin was red as if he had rubbed off a couple of layers.

“Feel better?”

“Much.  I left you some clean towels and there’s shampoo in the shower.”  He jerked his head toward the bedroom.  “Go ahead.  I’ll watch the computer.”

I had brought a change of clothes in case we had to stay a couple of days waiting.  Even though it had been less than twenty-four hours, I felt grungy.  “I think I’ll take you up on that.”  I picked up my backpack and exchanged places with him, being careful not to brush against him.  My resistance was at an all-time low, and I really wanted that shower.

Thirty minutes later, I came out of the bathroom feeling thoroughly refreshed.  I was still a little creeped out by the snakes, so I kept an eye on the floor as I passed through his bedroom.  For just a second I paused at the foot of his huge bed.  The stories it could tell!  I tried not to be too disappointed that I wouldn’t be part of that legend.  Just a tumble on the floor…but oh, what a spectacular tumble!

I was smiling as I returned to the living room.

“Liberty called,” Cody said.  “You look great.”

I could feel my cheeks blush from the compliment.  “Thanks.  It felt wonderful.”  I raked my fingers through my hair, trying to spike it, but it was still too wet.  “Did you talk to her?”

“No, I saw her name in the caller ID when your phone rang.”  He handed me my cell.

I saw she hadn’t left a voice mail, so I hit redial and listened to the ring until she answered.

“Thank God you called.”
  Liberty sounded normal. 
“I’m ready to break out of here.  They moved me out of ICU around three, then checked on me every thirty minutes.  I haven’t gotten any sleep at all.”

“I was hoping you’d be all rested up because I’m beat.”

“As soon as the doctor gets here, I’m going to leave.  Anything happen?  Did the programs work?”

“Yes, the packets from Michael’s computer arrived just after you left. I’ve stayed up all night waiting for the BOT to bounce back from the hacker’s computer.  Oh, then there were six copperhead snakes, one of which crawled out of Cody’s pajama bottoms.”  I didn’t add the part about it crawling around his dick first.  I figured that was on a need-to-know basis, and it wasn’t my story to tell.

“Wait…wait…start over again.  Snakes?”

“I dropped one over the balcony, but the fire department and animal control came and picked up the rest.”

“What?” 
Liberty practically screamed.

“I’ll explain when you get here.  Is Christopher or anyone still there?”

“No, I shooed them out of here around midnight.”

“Can one of them come get you or can you grab a taxi?”

“Actually I’ve never ridden in an Uber before…I thought I’d try that.”

“An Uber isn’t a car.”

“It’s not?”

“No, it’s like a taxi service that you order from their website…someone, driving their own car, comes by and picks you up.  It’ll cost you maybe twenty, twenty-five bucks, and they only take credit cards.”

“I’ve got one.  Gerald gave it to me a couple days ago.”

“Be careful.”

“Hey, I already got poisoned and survived.  Surely, an Uber trip won’t be that dangerous.”

It couldn’t be as dangerous as hanging out here
, I thought to myself.

The chime on the monitoring panel by the door activated and I tripped over Cody’s blanket as I hurried to the security panel. Cody had left on a coffee and croissant run, but I figured it wouldn’t be him because he had the code.  I was relieved to see a high-def image of Liberty with an excellent peripheral view of the lobby behind her.  I touched the microphone icon on the screen.  “Come on up.  You’re all set in the retinal check.”

She nodded, then disappeared into the open elevator. Cody couldn’t put a camera in the elevator since it was public, but a view from his door showed down the hall, so that as soon as the elevator door opened, I could see Liberty step out.  I was so glad to see her looking well that I opened the door and waited for her.

Liberty smiled and covered the last ten feet with open arms.

“Glad you’re all right,” I whispered and hugged her.

“Me, too.  I’m getting pretty tired of hospitals.”

I held the door open and then followed her into the condo.  The door locked behind us with authority.

“Where’s Cody?”

“He’s gone out to get us some breakfast.”

“Oh, good.  You’ll have time to catch me up on everything before he gets back.”

I gave her a quick rundown on the programs and explained what I was looking for. 

“So as soon as
Yukon King
identifies the computer, we can get into it and see who it belongs to?” Liberty asked.

“That’s the plan.”

“Now tell me about the snake thing.”

I shivered at the very thought of the slithery creatures.  “There were copperhead snakes crawling everywhere last night.”

“Technically, they don’t crawl.”

“Yes, and they don’t fly either.”  I led the way to the patio door, and we looked down at the unfortunate Mini-Cooper.  On its hood, still clamped in the pliers was my snake.

“Do you think the fall killed him or the strangulation?” Liberty mused.

“I really don’t care as long as he’s dead.”

“Snakes are very beneficial creatures,” Liberty stated.  “I had a few as pets on the farm.”

“I’d rather have a puppy.”

“You’re sure they’re all gone?”

I looked around nervously.  “Not a hundred percent.  I’d be careful opening any drawers and stuff.”

“So how’d they get in here?”

“They found a burlap bag in the pantry.  Someone must have slipped in here when Cody was out and left them.”

“Why would someone do that?”  Liberty was baffled.

“Why would someone kill Tamara?”

“I guess it couldn’t have been an accident.  I mean, how would they have gotten up here…on the elevator?”  Liberty giggled.  “I was just picturing snakes stretching up and punching the buttons.”

“I think that poison is still affecting you.”  I shut the patio door, and we went back to the office.

“None of this makes sense.”

I shook my head.  That was the puzzle that had been running through my mind all morning.  “It’s all connected, I’m sure.  The closer we get, the more incidents seem to happen.  Whoever this guy is, he knows where we’re at, what we’re doing, who we’re talking with…and who knows what the fuck else?”

“Have you heard anything about the pizza?”

“Not yet.  The APD lab will figure out if it’s cyanide and look for fingerprints on the box or the note.  Christopher wasn’t very hopeful when I talked with him.  There haven’t been any fingerprints so far.”  This guy was too smart for that.

“Do you think the delivery girl was in on it?”

“They said they would find her and question her today,” I told Liberty.  “Did you talk with your mom?”

“Yes…she’s doing good.  She may come down in a couple of weeks and stay for a few days.”

“You didn’t tell her about the poison or that you were in the hospital, did you?”

Liberty shook her head.  “Are you kidding?  She would have been on the next bus to Austin so she could smother me.”

The front door opened and Cody walked in with a box of fresh pastries and another box with coffees and juice. 

“Hey, Liberty.  Glad you’re okay.”  Cody flashed a friendly smile.  “I brought some orange juice just in case you got here in time for breakfast.”

“Good, I’m starved. They didn’t feed me anything at the hospital.” Liberty eagerly opened the box of pastries and took out a giant cinnamon roll.  She unscrewed the top of the orange juice bottle and took a big drink.  “Um…delicious.  Tastes fresh squeezed like my mom used to make.”

Cody nodded. “Yes, my mom lives in Florida now…near Disney World. Every time I visit, I pick oranges off one of her trees in the backyard, and she makes the best juice.”  He turned to me.  “How about your mom?  Do they grow oranges in Oklahoma?”

I hesitated.  I had never tasted fresh-squeezed orange juice until I was out on my own and bought a bag of oranges from the grocery store. I couldn’t remember ever having seen an orange tree in Oklahoma, but that didn’t mean there weren’t any.  There just hadn’t been any in the neighborhoods where I lived. 

Liberty piped up, “Tulsa never knew her mom.  She was raised in foster families.”

Cody’s frown reflected his concern.  “That must have been awful for you,” he said softly and with genuine sympathy.

There was something in the gentleness of his tone that touched deep inside me.  I ducked my head to hide the unexpected flood of tears that filled my eyes.

“I had a friend in high school that lived in several foster homes.  The last one kicked him out because he stayed out too late, and he lost his football eligibility because of it,” Cody told us.  “He used to tell me how bad it was and how much he missed having real parents.”

I tried to shrug it off, but I just couldn’t play the game with Cody.  I always had the feeling he could see inside me, so I knew it would be futile to pretend it didn’t matter.  I didn’t know how I could miss something I’ve never had…but God, I missed my mother with every breath I took.

“Neither of us ever knew our dad, but, gosh, I can’t imagine life without my mother,” Liberty went on, blithely unaware of the pain she was causing.  “Mom’s a pain sometimes…a little clingy, you know…but I always know she’d drop everything and come help me if I needed her.”

The bite of donut I had just taken felt like sawdust in my mouth.  I pushed away from the table and fled the room.  The condo had closed around me, and I needed some air, so I headed for the small balcony.  Once outside, I leaned on the rail and tried to swallow back all the emotions that were lodged in my throat.  Hot tears rolled down my cheeks.

I blamed it on my exhaustion.  A lack of sleep and too many hours staring at the screen, anxiously waiting for something to happen, combined with the terror of having poisonous snakes lurking in every corner and the brush with death of my sister left me with frazzled nerves.

I heard someone come up behind me.  I hoped it wouldn’t be Liberty.  I loved her, and I didn’t blame her for saying hurtful things out of innocence.  But right now, I just didn’t want to hear her perky voice say another thing about her wonderful mother or her great childhood at The Farm.

But it wasn’t her.  I felt two strong, slightly hairy arms wrap around my waist and pull me back against his warm body.  He didn’t say anything, he simply held me close.  At first, I resisted, but he didn’t move away.  He offered me nothing more than comfort and kindness.  I gave up and let my body mold to his.  We stood there, basically spooning standing up.  The tears slowed, but I didn’t move away.  I wasn’t sure I had the strength to stand alone…nor did I want to. 

I had no idea how long it was before he sat in a chair and pulled me onto his lap, cradling me as if I was a small child.  Slowly, the pain oozed out of me, replaced by a calm I rarely experienced.  It occurred to me that Cody was well suited to his career.  Anyone would be lucky to be rescued by this man.