A Date on Cloud Nine (26 page)

“It’s my fault. I’m sorry.”

He started to argue, but she forestalled him by raising her hand. “I’m the one who used the spray. I’m the one
who took extra minutes. If we’d left when you were ready, maybe we could’ve been in front of this.”

If he hadn’t come to her rescue with the bread, patiently feeding her morsels until the fire in her mouth was extinguished, he’d be miles ahead. Boy, she’d never try anything like that again. If she’d gotten her tongue as far as him, he wouldn’t be walking, much less driving.

“How can they sell something like that?”

“Trust me, most people don’t have that reaction. You must be really sensitive.”

Yeah, thanks a lot, Elizabeth.
“What if I’d gotten it in my eyes?”

“Then we’d be on our way to the hospital.”

She squeezed his hand, aiming to comfort him. “Hey, there’s no reason for you to miss your meeting over this. What time was your arrival?”

“Twelve-thirty.” The look she tossed him must have said
Then what’s the rush?
because he shrugged and said, “Hey, all I could get was a connection through Phoenix.”

“Piece of cake.” She speed dialed the hangar and made arrangements to use her own plane.

“I thought you sold it.”

“Not yet. It’s ours for three days. If you need more time than that, I’ll have to fly it back alone.”

“All
right
.” When the cell phone rang, he amended that to, “Don’t answer it. They’re calling back to change their minds.”

“It’s your phone.” She handed it to him.

After a minute of conversation, all he said was an ominous, quiet, “Shit,” that gave her the shivers.

He flipped the phone shut and said nothing. He didn’t
have to. His lips were tight with anger. The pulse in his neck jumped at an alarming rate.

“What?” she asked, watching him work the inside of his cheek. She had to know.

Finally, he spoke, his voice terse and low. “Marquettes strike again. My dad just received a notice of foreclosure.”

“The house?” The home he’d been reared in, decorated and tended lovingly by his mother.

He nodded, twice, then shook his head with thoughts left unsaid.

“But your dad built it.” The home his sisters and their families filled on holidays and birthdays.

“And my grandfather. My uncles. Some of my cousins.”

Jake called the bank and confirmed that the check had been sent automatically, as it was every month.

“Then there’s a record of it,” she said.

“But no proof they ever received it, of course.”

“That does it,” Lilly snapped. “Take the next exit.”

He waved a hand around uselessly. “We’re not moving.”

“There’s a shoulder.”

“I can’t—”

“For heaven’s sake, it’s not as if you’re going to lose your taxi license. We’re in a Mercedes. No cop racing to an accident is going to pull you over for driving on the shoulder.”

He muttered something under his breath, then nosed the car to the right. Crossing the shoulder altogether, he headed down the hill to the access road. “Pray there’re no bottles hidden in the grass.”

“
You
want me to
pray
?”

“Hey, you seem to think you’ve got connections.”

“I wouldn’t count on them for this. Go right.”

“The airport—”

“Can wait. We’re going to pay a little visit to the Marquettes.”

“We’re going to leave it to my dad’s attorney.”

“Maybe.
After
I have my say.”

“Yeah, like that’ll make them change their minds.”

“Look, if we don’t handle this before you get to California, are you going to be able to concentrate on what you have to do there?”

“It’s my problem, not yours.”

Lilly held up her cell phone. “Either drive me over to Donna’s, or I’ll call a taxi and get there myself. If I have to, I’ll jump out of this car,”

The tiniest grin tugged at the corner of his mouth. “Wait’ll I get to the bottom.”

When he didn’t turn right away, Lilly sighed with purpose, holding the back of her hand up to her forehead as if checking her temperature. “Darn, I think that spray has residual effects. I shouldn’t fly today, I might be under the influence.”

“Damn, you’re pigheaded.” He rolled his eyes, but he turned right onto the access road.

“Yeah, you love that about me.”

His grin widened. “Yeah, I do. I can’t wait to see you give Donna a piece of your mind.”

“It’s time.”

Unaccustomed to John’s upbeat tone, Elizabeth frowned and cautiously said, “What?”

“It’s time to set Lilly free.”

Elizabeth bubbled with joy and confidence. “You mean—”

“No more help. No more shocks. It’s time to see if our little bird can fly on her own.”

“She’ll do just fine, I know it. Oh, John, you’ll be so proud of her.”

“I didn’t approve of your bracelet idea when I first saw it, but now I believe it might have merit. If this works, if Lilly’s finally learned her lesson, how would you like to try it on a few more people?”

“Oh yes! I could help so many souls.”

“But if Lilly fails—”

She cringed inwardly. “She won’t, you’ll see. I hardly ever zap her anymore.”

“See that you don’t, not under any circumstances. From here on, the bracelet will be a lifeline only. Let’s see if she’s truly learned anything.”

J
ake trotted up the broad, brick-edged steps of the Marquette mansion a half step behind Lilly.

She was hell-bent on reading the riot act to her former mother-in-law. Jake favored the attorney route himself, but he’d enjoy watching Lilly throw her weight around. He always enjoyed watching Lilly do anything, but if it involved one-upping a Marquette, all the better.

In fact, he was looking forward to it so much that he almost missed appreciating the determined sway of her hips as she ascended all ten steps. Almost, but not quite. And since he knew she had on a slinky red teddy under her jeans, he was eager to get this over with quickly.

But when no one answered the doorbell after two rings, he grew restless about missing his meeting in Silicon Valley. “Let’s go, she’s not here.”

“Oh yes she is.” Lilly stabbed the bell again. “The investment club meets here every other Friday for lunch, and I guarantee Donna’s inside making sure everything’s
perfect. We couldn’t pick a better day, actually.” She grinned. “Don’t be surprised if I have to mess up some stuff to force her hand.”

“What kind of stuff?”

“Oh, whatever I can get my hands on.”

“You don’t throw china, do you?”

Lilly’s grin blossomed into a full smile, lighting up her face with impish determination. “If you’re squeamish, you’d better wait out here.”

He chuckled that thought aside. “Wouldn’t miss it. But look, we’re the last people she’s going to open the door for.”

“The last thing you need is this nagging at you while you’re trying to create new technology.”

She plucked a key from her purse, much to his surprise.

“Do they know you have that?”

“Well, they did.”

“Geez, if I were Donna and drugged somebody, I would’ve at least had my locks changed.”

“Lucky for us, she’s not as smart as you.” Once inside, Lilly swung the door wide, then hauled back and slammed it. “That ought to bring someone. If not”—she raised her voice—“I’ll start in on more fragile stuff.”

“Uh, when you’re breaking china, keep in mind that today’s not a good day to get arrested, okay?”

“Is that a numerology thing?”

He snorted. “Please. Or hey, how about that lamp on the table? It’s simple, but it’ll still make quite a racket.”

“It’s a Galle. Don’t let Donna hear you call it simple.”

He took a second look at the squatty red-and-amber table lamp, which looked ridiculously small, almost lost, in the huge foyer. “Old? Or expensive?”

“Yes, and yes.”

“So you don’t really know.”

“Are you kidding? I touched the table once and got the full lecture. It’s over a hundred years old. She paid sixty grand for it.”

He choked at the thought. In fact, it pissed him off. How many more people could Lilly help with that amount of money? He was about to say just that when he noticed her circling the foyer, idly fondling the trunks of the two soaring palm trees as if they were her lost children.

“Hey, Jake, you know anybody with room for these?”

He glanced up to their full height, closing in on the second-story ceiling. “Are you kidding? Even if I did—No, you wouldn’t actually break in here some night.”

“It’s not breaking in if I have a key.”

“Still.”

She grinned wickedly, and he could practically see the wheels turning to a plan that he wanted no part of.

“Stop that. I’m not going to help you.” He resisted an impulse to kiss her grin away, but just barely.

“Well, she owes me.”

“That’s beside the point. We’re not breaking or stealing anything.”

“Let’s call it repossession.”

“She’s probably listening to you and calling the police.”

“Then I guess I’d better move this along.” Lilly punched the intercom button and said, “Donna, I know you’re here. I’m in the foyer and I want to talk.”

That sounded like a war declaration. Jake braced himself, feet slightly apart, arms crossed over his chest. He strove to appear formidable, the better to dissuade Donna from throwing the first punch at Lilly. Taking time to put the bitch in her place would slow him down too much.

Then, utilizing CATS’s latest feature, which he’d developed for just this sort of occasion, he activated the software remotely with the key word. “I sure as hell hope you brought an
angel
with you.”

“If that’s your way of sweet-talking me, it won’t work.”

“How about throwing you over my shoulder?”

“Ooh”—she winked up at him—“later.”

He didn’t get to throw out a sexy retort that’d put Lilly’s body on full alert, because Donna strode into the foyer from the back of the house, nothing tentative in her step, nothing soft about her all-black garb. She faked surprise and pleasure to see Lilly. Him, she ignored.

“Why, Lilly dear, when did you get here? I must have been in the greenhouse arranging the centerpieces for lunch—today’s the meeting, you know—and I guess I didn’t hear the bell.”

“Then how did you know I rang it?”

Way to go, Lilly!

Donna’s smile faded. To make a point, she checked her watch. “I haven’t much time.”

“That’s fine, I only have a minute. I’d like you to drop the foreclosure on Mr. Murdoch’s house.”

“Why certainly, let me get the papers. I’ll just be a minute.” Stiff-backed, she disappeared into the study.

Stunned, Lilly whispered, “Well, that was easy,” to Jake.

“Careful, it doesn’t take long to dial 9-1-1.”

Donna returned with a typewritten statement, which she handed to Lilly. “Just sign at the bottom. Then I’ll call Frank with the good news, and we’ll take care of all of your accounts.”

Lilly barely glanced at it with disbelief before crumpling it into a ball. “A power of attorney?”

Jake added his two cents with a derision-laden snort. “Just so there’s no misunderstanding, I’m here for a receipt.”

Donna’s nose wrinkled at the indignity of acknowledging him. “For what?”

“The monthly mortgage check.”

“I didn’t receive one.”

“Funny, but I already called the bank, and they confirmed mailing it to you.”

She admitted to nothing, and Lilly lobbed the crumpled ball at her feet. “The receipt?”

Donna held her silence. Jake remembered her doing this from time to time with Brady, who’d referred to it as her collection technique. She was so used to people gushing to fill quiet gaps that she usually got her way with it.

Well, not with him!

Maybe she wouldn’t agree to drop the foreclosure, but he had a backup plan. He never understood accusing someone of a heinous crime without a tape recorder. He’d gone one better and improved the CATS program, when activated, to instantly copy a transcript to the detective who’d first expressed interest in the software. It was transmitting from his basement office as they spoke. Steered in the right direction, Donna would tighten her own noose.

“How can you live with yourself, Donna, drugging Lilly the way you did?”

Knowing the program’s one weakness was voice recognition, he made it a point to identify her by name. He’d add diagnostic voice wave patterns on the next go-round.

“I’m afraid I don’t have another copy.” Donna picked up the POA and smoothed it on the foyer table, then handed it back to Lilly. “I’m sure a few wrinkles won’t matter.”

“It was you, wasn’t it, Donna?” he prodded.

“Otherwise, I’m afraid Mr. Murdoch will drop dead from the stress, and then poor Mrs. Murdoch will be spending what should have been her golden years in one of her children’s back bedrooms.”

Jake kept at her. “I doubt you could make Andrew do it. He’s kind of headstrong. He’d be hard for you to control, I guess.”

Donna sniffed, but otherwise ignored him.

Okay, so he wasn’t a natural born detective, but in the right hands, CATS could be a dynamite tool.

“You owe me, and you know it,” Lilly snapped. “Now give Jake—”

“Really? I owe you? Oh, you must mean when you took those drugs and set off the alarm, and I covered for you?”

“I was thinking more along the lines of my never having told Frank why you’re really wearing black.”

Say what?
Jake was all ears now.

“I’m mourning my son.”

“Right.” Lilly rolled her eyes.

“Don’t go getting all high-and-mighty with me,” Donna sneered. “I’m not the one cohabitating with my dead husband’s partner less than six months after his death. If that doesn’t scream conspiracy, I don’t know what does.”

“How about still mourning your sister’s dead husband?
The same one you visited every Tuesday night for the last ten years?”

Donna gasped.

Jake glided away so if anything started, Lilly’d have plenty room to get in a few good punches before he pulled them apart.

Instead, she kept her cool as she slowly advanced on Donna, indirectly, like a cat playing a mouse to the end.

“Wasn’t it convenient that Brady and Uncle Quentin died so close together? Everyone thinks you’re grieving over your son, but I know better. Now, I see two options here. I can stay until lunch, and we can play this out in front of your investment group. In fact, I’ll bet your sister’s coming today. Mm, that could be awkward. Or you can give Jake his receipt. But I’m telling you, do it soon—”

Donna bristled.

“—or find a way to write off the whole damned mortgage.”

Donna sniffed her displeasure. “I suppose, this one time, if I receive another check, I could overlook its lateness. It must be right now, though.”

“I don’t carry a checkbook,” Jake said.

Lilly’s hand dived into her purse. “I do. You can put a stop on the first check and pay me back next week.”

“What’re we waiting for then? Let’s get it done.” Relieved that he hadn’t sidetracked her checkbook today of all days, Jake clapped his hands together, signifying that all discussion was over and he was ready to leave for the airport.

Lilly flipped open her checkbook. “You know, Jake,
just so this doesn’t happen again, like month after month”—she needled Donna with a momentary glare—“how about paying the whole thing off now?”

“I knew it!” Donna went theatric, throwing her hands up in the air. “You have absolutely no concept of how to handle money.”

“Oh, so if I do it, it’s stupid, but if you do it, it’s a good investment?”

Against a strong desire to see Lilly kick the living shit out of Donna, Jake stepped between them. No sense wasting time on a catfight now that they’d reached an agreement. Besides, if they didn’t get out of there soon, they could have breakage. China was one thing; an irreplaceable sixty-thousand-dollar lamp was quite another.

“It’s not up to me,” he said to Lilly, putting himself between her and the lamp, “and it’s not that I don’t appreciate the offer, but it’s never a good idea to mix love and money.”

The lines around Lilly’s mouth softened, as if she’d just blown him a mental kiss. He almost forgot where they were, and his body was certainly leaping ahead to Lilly in a red teddy, so much so that he had trouble following her logic.

“I’m lending it to your dad, not you. And I’ve never met him, so there, no mixing. Besides, I’ve seen your work. You’ll have enough rolling in soon to pay him back, and then he can pay me.”

“All the same—”

“So call him. No wait, we’re in a hurry.” Lilly signed a blank check and tore it out of the book. “Shoot, that’s the last one. Well here, fill it out for this month’s payment.
I’ll write a second one when we get home. If your dad wants it—and knowing the Marquettes, I strongly advise him to take me up on this—he can use it until my birthday. If he doesn’t like borrowing from me, he can refinance. Donna,
dear
, you can start writing that receipt now.”

One-upping Donna and solving Jake’s problem without getting zapped made Lilly feel really positive that things were finally heading in the right direction. There was a flow now, a current that invited her to follow its lead, almost as if John and Elizabeth had stopped fighting her.

She was restless to get in the air. In Silicon Valley, she could get down to the real business at hand and do what needed doing today. And tonight. And tomorrow.

Oh, how I’m going to enjoy this!

“I’d be very careful about accepting a loan from her,” Donna warned Jake, the preposterousness of which made Lilly laugh out loud.

Jake didn’t bother to keep his distance from Donna as he traded the check for a receipt, and his smile, if you could call it that, was chilling. “She could be the devil’s bride, and I’d still choose her over you.”

His deep, rumbling delivery gave Lilly goose bumps. She hoped it scared the living daylights out of Donna.

“That would be a very big mistake.” Donna, whose view had been out the sidelights of the front entry, strode over to the door and threw it open.

Andrew bounded up the steps.

“Well?” she asked eagerly.

“Good news, Mother.”

Jubilant, Donna rounded on Lilly and Jake. “They’ve agreed to exhume Brady’s body!”

Lilly froze on the spot. This was absolutely ludicrous. She couldn’t believe what she was hearing. Her gaze darted back and forth between mother and son, waiting for one of them to laugh and say, “Ha, fooled you.” But they didn’t. When she found the strength to speak, she hoped she didn’t squeak.

“Whatever for?”

Donna circled her, taking her time now, strutting in victory. “Everyone knows, dear, that you’re quite accomplished with plants, so I called in an expert from the university. He’s examined your atrium thoroughly. He’s confirmed that you were growing toxic plants that could easily mimic a massive heart attack in a healthy young man.”

Lilly was so appalled, so angry, she could barely see straight. But she couldn’t let Donna know she’d gotten to her. She wouldn’t give her the satisfaction.

“Yet,” Lilly said with a cool smile, “you’re the one with a history of drugging people.”

“I hadn’t seen my son for a week before he was struck down.”

Could this bitch really poison her own son?

Had it been long-term?

Was that the underlying cause of Brady’s physical problems?

Oh God, Brady, I never suspected.