“That’s because you’re in love with Max Savage,” Madge said. Her body had stiffened and she stood straight.
Annie opened her mouth, but closed it again.
“You can’t argue, can you?” Madge said. “Be careful, Annie—you know what I mean. But don’t you give up on that man. I’m supposed to be a good judge of character and I don’t feel anythin’ bad about him.”
Annie could have kissed her. “Neither do I. But I’m not a fool. I was hurt before…you know how it is. We all have our brushes with thinking we’ve found Mr. Wonderful.”
“I know how it is. Here comes Cyrus.”
Once he was alone with them, Cyrus drew them to a row of chairs along one wall. “Sit,” he said. He remained standing. “She says she thinks she had some sort of “turn” and went off the road,” he said. “Ended up in a ditch and doesn’t remember getting out of her car. Thinks she got disoriented and wandered off.”
Annie waited.
“She says Millie was with her,” Cyrus said. When Madge looked up at him, he failed miserably at an attempted smile. “That was before she went off the road. She didn’t think about her afterward.”
“Where’s the car?” Madge said, shifting to the edge of her seat.
“They’re looking for it now. Lil’s pretty unclear.” He touched Madge’s hair and dropped his hand immediately. “There is something else, though. Lil says she was frightened off the road.”
“You said she had an attack.”
“Uh-huh. After she got frightened.”
Annie’s muscles had tensed until they ached. “Is that it? Just vague talk?”
“Not quite. She says someone ran across the street like they were going in front of her car. Instead he rushed at her window. That’s why she thinks she swerved.”
“I would, too,” Annie said. “How awful. Did she recognize the person.”
“No. You know how dark it must have been. And she says it was raining then. All she saw was a good-sized man. She’s sure it was a man. In a jacket or coat with a hood pulled forward.”
M
ax:
Tonight should have taken Annie out of the picture. She should have realized you’re a dangerous man. I am getting very angry with interference in my affairs. I will not wait forever.
What do you think you’re doing with the country girl? You know you’re poison to any woman. She’s a complication I don’t need or want but if anything happens to her, we’ll know who to blame.
I like that! You didn’t think I had a sense of humor, did you?
Don’t worry, I won’t lose my focus. I know exactly what must be done. All there is left for me is to wait and watch, then act. Soon I will write again and tell you how the end will come.
“Y
ou’re sure you’ve got something?” Spike said, dropping inside Guy Gautreaux’s gray sedan in the hospital parking lot.
“Sure,” Guy said. “You didn’t mention me in there? About it being me who called you?”
Spike yanked the creaky door shut. “Nope. When I go in again I don’t want a bunch of questions about you comin’ here. What’s up?”
Guy took his time working a notebook out of a back pocket in his jeans. “How’s Lil doin’? Still not talkin’?”
“She’s talking now. Once she saw me she wouldn’t shut up. I’m not sure she’s okay. She’s quieted down in the last half hour. There’s a pretty good bump on her head. They’re doin’ more blood work. And they’re fussing over bruises on her neck.”
Guy looked sideways at him. “Why?”
“Beats me.” Spike shrugged.
Guy pushed his rangy body deeper into his seat. Even in semidarkness the prominent bones in his face showed. “We could go round some more on this one but I’ll wait,” he said. “Who’s with her?”
“Cyrus and Max.”
“Max, huh?”
“He wasn’t invited to come. I figured if he was so eager to find out if Lil was talkin’ I’d see if she announced he was the thug who scared her when she was driving.”
“You didn’t mention that,” Guy said.
“I haven’t had a chance,” Spike said and told Guy a brief version of what Lil had said.
Guy drummed his fingers on the steering wheel. “That’s interesting,” he said. “There wasn’t an opportunity to tell you about Max and Annie.”
“Other than how they look like they’ve got something going?” Spike said. “Do they?”
“Could be. She’s protective of him. Wazoo persuaded me to keep an eye out for Annie last night. She’d gone to an undeveloped lot near St. Martinville. She went on her own.”
Spike considered the thought of Annie going to some deserted place at night, alone. “Why was she there?”
“She’s going to have to explain that herself. I found her with Max.”
“At this lot?” Spike asked.
“Yeah. Things were tense, I’m tellin’ you. I didn’t hear much before they saw me but he was tryin’ to persuade her over something and he wasn’t gettin’ far. She’d made the marks on him—the ones we saw at the rectory. I think she’d fought him.”
“What about the marks on her?” Spike said. He looked toward the hospital. “They’re together. They were standing together at the rectory.”
“Annie reckoned she fell. She had a lot of thin excuses. She’s coming to see me late tomorrow—today now.”
“I think I need to step in right away,” Spike said.
“On what grounds? What reason do you have apart from what I say I saw? She’s with him of her own will. You saw her run after him at your place and asking to ride with him. Would she do that if she was afraid of him? When I started to intervene she told me to back off.”
“So let them be?”
“He’d be a fool to lay a finger on her when everyone knows they’re together. Max Savage is no fool,” Guy said.
“I’ll want directions to where you found them. Sounds like we gonna have to take a good look at it.”
“I can see that,” Guy said.
“I don’t like the two of them bein’ together, alone,” Spike said. “I want them followed. You said you’ve got something on Lil’s accident.”
“If it was an accident.”
Spike leaned a shoulder against the window and waited.
“Where did she say she was goin’?” Guy said.
“Home to Toussaint.” Spike took a stick of gum Guy offered and folded it between his teeth. “She’d been to Loreauville to visit a sister and take Madge’s dog to the vet. She was going home.”
“That’s what I thought you’d say.” Guy did some chewing of his own. “Only she wasn’t.”
“She what?” Spike sat up straight. “Where the hell do you think she
was
goin’. Lil isn’t the secret-life type.”
“People can surprise you. If she’d been headed to Toussaint from Loreauville, she’d be going northwest. If I’m right, and I know I am, Lil went off the road on Landry Way.”
“I’ll be…” Spike slipped his Stetson to the back of his head and rubbed at his beard stubble. “Landry Way. Landry Way? Gimme a minute.”
“It’s—”
“I know where it is now, dammit.” He laughed. “Just didn’t recognize the name. Drive it every day. I never think about what it’s called. It’s the cut between the road Rosebank’s on and the main drag into Toussaint. If you’re right, Lil did lie, or she didn’t bother to tell the real details.”
“Question is, why?” Guy said. “After Loreauville she must have driven away from Toussaint.”
“Not far, though,” Spike said. He tapped a wobbly hula girl cemented to the dash. She bobbed on her spring. “You think Lil drove around a half mile south, more or less, and turned onto Landry Way. Do you know how far she got on Landry before the accident?”
Guy pressed his head into the rest. “She was maybe a hundred yards from the road to Toussaint, only she was driving toward it, not away.”
“How do you know?” Spike said slowly.
“Skid marks—and a flare. You didn’t ask why I was on Landry.”
“Gimme,” Spike said, beckoning.
“I decided to go looking for some sign of where Lil went off the road. Couldn’t figure out why your guys didn’t find anything. I couldn’t either at first. But I’d passed Loreauville before I knew it, so right away I took the first side street. That was Landry. Then I made a U-turn and started back. There were the skid marks. And residue from a flare.”
There had better be more than skid marks to place Lil at that site. Spike said, “And?”
“She drives a blue Hyundai. Two door. I think she saw the guy she told you about and speeded up instead of slowing down. She lost control. I found the vehicle buried pretty deep in the trees there. It must have been really movin’ to go that far. The plates checked out.”
“But you’re sayin’ she got out of the car, got back to Landry and lit a flare? And then wandered away and wasn’t found for hours?”
“No, I’m not saying that. Did she tell you she lit it?”
Spike gave a single shake of the head. “No.”
“That’s because she didn’t do it.”
“Who did?”
“The man in the hood. Looks like a setup to me. He threw down the flare and waited for her.”
Spike couldn’t fault the logic, nor could he buy it whole. “She’d have told me. I don’t suppose there was any sign of Madge’s dog?”
“No, I wish there had been. Lil wouldn’t tell you if she’s got something she wants to hide.”
Spike let out a long breath. “If the Hyundai isn’t where you say it is, I’ll know small-town life is getting to you.”
“That man who scared her,” Guy poked a finger into Spike’s arm. “He wanted to make sure she kept whatever secrets she’s got.”
“Maybe,” Spike said. “Maybe.”
“I
still don’t see why Spike said we should leave the hospital,” Annie said. She stood in the middle of Max’s sitting room, exactly where she’d been for the five minutes since they arrived. “Not the way he did. He dismissed us.”
“He’s got a lot on his mind,” Max said. He hadn’t liked being “dismissed” as Annie put it, not when the action had picked up. First he was sent out of Lil’s room, then he’d seen a new doctor go in and have a nurse put screens around the bed. Next came a lab technician followed by another doctor and Max wished he could find out what was going on. He hadn’t liked the changes he had noticed in Lil’s condition.
“I should have stayed at my apartment,” Annie said. She had insisted on going there first to shower and to check on Irene. The cat hadn’t been pleased when they left.
“I’m glad you didn’t stay there,” Max said, keeping his distance from her. He didn’t want to do anything to scare her off completely. “Would you like a drink?”
She shook her head, no.
“You haven’t had anything for hours. I can make coffee, if you like.”
“Coffee keeps me awake.”
Their eyes met. “I wouldn’t want to do that at this time of the morning.” He tried a smile. “You need your rest.”
“Don’t we all?”
Did they?
“Yes.” He could hardly grasp that she had agreed to come back to Rosebank with him—even if she was expressing doubts now. She’d brought a small bag of things she’d taken from her apartment and insisted they come into the house just as he would on his own. Not that it made any difference when the place was silent and they hadn’t encountered anyone on their way through the front hall, up the stairs to the second floor, and along another hall to Max’s rooms.
“You feel awkward, too,” Annie said.
“Not really.” Just like a man hanging from a frayed rope over a tub filled with eggs. “Please sit down.”
“It’s a nice room.” She meant it. A man’s room, classy, clubbish, with dark wood paneling and leather furniture. Books hogged horizontal spaces, some in bookcases, a lot in piles—some open and turned facedown, others stacked on the floor. He favored landscape paintings and the ones he had looked original and old.
“You don’t look comfortable, Annie.”
Green velvet draperies stood open over linen roman shades. “Neither do you. We’ll get through it.” She liked the way that had sounded. Sophisticated. Nonchalant.
Spike’s announcement that Lil had mentioned a man in a hood had shaken Annie badly. An immediate check of Max’s expression revealed no reaction, but it was fact that after he stormed out of her apartment on the night they’d been together, she’d seen a figure in a hooded garment pass the gate to the alley outside. And she was almost sure she saw the same or a similar person at St. Cécil’s, only she’d been waking from a dream and didn’t trust much of what she’d thought at the time. But the coincidences were piling up.
“If I haven’t already told you,” Max said, “I’m happy to have you with me in what I call home these days.”
“Thank you.”
Annie waffled, unable to decide whether to mention her own sightings to Max. He would think she had piggybacked onto Lil’s comment and dreamed up hooded menaces of her own. Spike would probably decide the same thing.
“Bobby Colbert came into Pappy’s yesterday evening.”
“Yes, so you said earlier,” Max said. She couldn’t tell if he was worried or furious.
“I didn’t intend to mention it at all. I don’t know why I did.”
“Yes, you do,” Max said. “The guy scares you. I’ve seen it in your eyes when he’s mentioned.”
Of course he was right. She had brought up Bobby’s name deliberately. “He was nice to me.” Yet there had been that one sideways stare that menaced her.
“He’s not nice,” Max said. “He…”
“What. He what?” This wasn’t the first time she believed Max stopped himself from saying more about Bobby.
“He bugs me. I wish he’d stay wherever he’s supposed to be. Doesn’t he have a job?”
“I think so. He always worked in his father’s insurance office.” Her voice trailed away. Bobby Colbert’s parents were people she had tried to wipe from her mind. “Let’s not talk about Bobby anymore.”
“Did he try to get cozy with you?” Max asked.
Men were always suspicious of any potential competition. She shouldn’t expect Max to be any different. “No,” she said. He didn’t need to get hot under the collar because Bobby pressed for a date.
Max narrowed his eyes as if he were deciding whether to believe her.
“I’m good at looking out for myself,” she told him.
His hand shot out so fast, he had a tight hold on her arm before she could react. “I want you to stay away from him.”
She looked at his hand but it stayed there. “I didn’t ask him to come by.”
“Promise you’ll call me if he comes near you again.”
Men didn’t get to push Annie Duhon around anymore, no matter what excuse they thought they had. She wrenched her arm away. “Thanks for your concern.”
He looked her in the eyes and nodded. “Sorry. I got carried away. Put it down to…” His chin rose. “I care what happens to you. Friends are allowed to do that.”
“As long as they don’t get overbearing,” Annie said. She scarcely recognized herself as she was now, determined, at least outwardly, even when she was shrinking inside. She patted his arm. “Thanks for caring.” Again she felt proud of sticking up for herself. She’d come a long way.
Max smiled, a gentle smile. “It’s good to know what you like.”
“I feel so awful for Madge,” Annie said to change the subject. “Millie isn’t likely to survive, is she?”
“Probably not, but it isn’t cold, so that’s not a problem. We can always hope. If there weren’t so many animals around out there, and if I thought she had any skills to take care of herself…Poor little devil.”
Annie looked away. Her eyes stung and she didn’t want him to see her reaction. Would Madge stay at the rectory tonight, or come back here? When Annie and Max left the hospital, Madge and Cyrus were still there, sitting on chairs outside Lil’s cubicle. Annie wouldn’t like Madge to see her at Rosebank and know she’d been with Max all night. If she decided to leave, Max would have to drive her.
“I like your desk,” she said. The silences were long and awkward. “It’s big. Looks like it’s meant for a man.”
“Thanks,” he said. “I’m glad you like it.”
“The whole room looks as if it was done with you in mind.”
He smiled and bowed. “Thank you. That means I know what I like. And you understand me. The furniture’s mine.”
His delight amused Annie.
The smiles faded and with them, the slight thaw.
She had come to sleep with him. They both knew it. Annie smiled again. And Max smiled back. He came close enough to put a finger under her chin and tilt his head sideways to study her.
“In a day or so you’ll hardly see any marks on your face,” he said, vaguely removed, professional even. Then he looked into her eyes and there was nothing professional about that look. Intensely, deeply blue in the warmly shadowed room, his gaze probed for answers. He expected to make love to her and he was searching for clues to how she felt, what she wanted, how to break through any doubts she had.
Annie didn’t turn away, or even try. “I shouldn’t have hit you with the rock.”
He finally moved his attention to her mouth. “No, you shouldn’t have. But I don’t blame you. You were shocked and you were scared. And the other thing was going on—the fire stuff.”
She swallowed, tried to swallow again but her mouth was too dry.
Max frowned. “Are you afraid of me?”
“No.”
“Too fast, cher. Think about it. You know my history, and you know I’m under suspicion now. The only reason I’m not in custody is because they don’t have any evidence—or a body. Are you sure you’re not scared to be alone with me?”
Annie stiffened her spine and kept her head up. “I’m sure.” And she was—almost. A telephone call from a stranger had sent him after her in St. Martinville. “But I do wonder how you found me.”
Of course she did, Max thought. “I got—”
“A call,” she finished for him. “And you don’t know who it was.”
“No, I don’t. Annie, I automatically went back where we’d been before. You had that episode there. I thought you might be there trying to figure it out.”
“You’re starting to know me, too,” Annie said.
“I followed your flashlight. Then it went out. I was trying to get to you without scaring you to death.”
Her wraith of a smile, the flash of humor in her eyes reminded him again why he liked her so much.
“I believe you,” Annie said. “But Guy’s goin’ to tell Spike all about it and who knows what he’ll believe?”
“I know,” Max said. “All I can do is wait. I don’t expect anything from you. It’s just good to have you here.”
“But you want something from me.”
No smile from her this time.
“Don’t you?” she said.
“Yes, I do.”
“Then we’re even. Too bad the stuff before, the dancing around each other, scares me nuts.” If she was a fool to tell him the truth, she’d be a fool.
“You call the shots,” Max said.
“I think I did that last time. Mostly.”
“And it still wasn’t easy on you, was it?” He moved in and held her head, rubbed little circles at the sides of her face with his thumbs. “So what’s the answer?”
For once she wished someone else would make decisions for her. She could tell him that, straight out, only her breath blocked her throat.
Above his eyebrow, where the rock had landed first, a circle of skin had gone leaving raw redness and specks of blood behind. A thin welt spread into his hair. Her blow hadn’t been too solid.
Annie spread his collar apart and saw where she had scratched him. She’d been thinking about DNA because she expected him to kill her. Now she was alone with him in his rooms.
And glad. If he’d wanted to get rid of her he’d already had his chances.
“Wish I could read your mind,” Max said, even though he wasn’t so certain he’d like what he saw.
“I’ve never attacked anyone before.”
Only been attacked.
Impetuously she blew softly on his marred skin. “My mom used to do that if I hurt myself.”
“Oh, yeah, you can blow on me anytime.”
She closed her eyes and her lashes flickered.
Max hesitated. She seemed so vulnerable.
Get on with it or stop.
He kissed her. Kissed her again. And Annie stood there, her face turned up to his, her arms at her sides, responding with her lips alone.
If she wanted to unnerve him, she’d succeeded, but the taste of her, the feel of her mouth, spurred him on. He was hard. Looking at Annie was enough to arouse him. Kissing her, sensing her warmth, imagining her naked in his hands—against his body—drove in the fiery stake.
“You feel good,” he said between kisses.
Annie opened her eyes, soft blue eyes. She took a moment to refocus on him. Soft to touch, soft to look at—warm and responsive to hold. When he stroked it, her pale hair flew, fine, reminding him of watching a child blow on a dandelion puff in the sunshine.
Pull yourself together, Savage.
He didn’t usually have to remind himself he was a scientist, not a dreamer.
“Max,” Annie said. “I owe you something. You need to know some things about me.”
“You’ve got a criminal record? Oh, good. That makes me feel better.”
Annie frowned at him. Some men couldn’t resist turning serious moments into jokes. “This isn’t easy for me.”
He rested his forehead on hers. “I’m not usually flip.”
“I’m…” No, she wouldn’t ask him to decide where she should start. How did he know?
Max kissed her again, for a long, hot time, and shifted his hands from her waist to her breasts. He spread his fingers and rubbed, and Annie’s belly tightened. Her breasts felt swollen and sensitive. She put her arms around his neck, her hands in his hair, and he covered her bottom, ground her pelvis into his.
No pretending this time. “Max, I want to show you something.”
He groaned and pulled her face into the crook of his neck.
“I know,” she told him. “I don’t want to stop, either. Let me go, please.”
His sigh, his convulsive grip on her, didn’t help. Max dropped his arms and stepped backward but Annie wished she had done this a better way, sooner, before she’d excited him.
“I’m going to take my clothes off,” she said. “Is this the best place?”
Confusion clouded Max’s eyes. He scrubbed at them with the heels of his hands. “Are you going to put me on a roller coaster whenever we’re together this way?”
For a moment she couldn’t make herself say another word.
“I don’t think this is a good idea,” he said when she’d been quiet too long.
Annie cleared her throat and looked over her shoulder to the only door in the room. “Could we go in the bedroom?”