Careful What You Kiss For (12 page)

Scraggly man was back. He ventured closer this time, bending down to look at her. Tensley flipped on the ignition and laid on the horn, hoping to frighten him away. He shook his head and kept walking.

She stared at her fingers, resting on the steering wheel. Minus her customary large, sparkling rings, they looked like someone else’s hands. Bare. And vulnerable.

Then again, they
were
someone else’s hands. A felon’s.

To hell with it. Tensley got out of the car, slamming the door hard on her thoughts. So she’d see Max for a few minutes. Tomorrow, she’d be back at Madame Claire’s and back to her life. And she’d get some new mental Tupperware to put him in. With a better seal.

She tried throwing open the door to “Sol’s Good Eats” for dramatic effect, but the doorknob was greasy and it took her three tries to make it work. As soon as it did and she stepped inside, she grabbed a paper napkin from the table, her nostrils constricting at the smell of onions and coffee.

The welcome mat and the checked curtains were in need of a wash. Stuffing poked out of the red barstool seats at the counter, leaving vinyl edges that looked as though they could shred the butt of the toughest pair of jeans. Two customers sitting a few stools apart, denim butts still intact, sat hunched over their plates of food. One glanced up at Tensley, but then went back to his French fries, drowning one in a puddle of ketchup before shoving it in his mouth.

No greeting. No wait staff. A sign by the door that said “Please seat yourself.”

She looked around the place. Also no sign of Max.

A twenty-something woman bounded out of the door to the kitchen, giggling at the man behind her, who was wiping his hands on a stained white apron.

The woman pulled up short at the sight of Tensley. “Hey. Sit anywhere you want. I’ll be with you in a sec.” She tossed a smile over her shoulder at the cook, who grunted and turned away.

“I was supposed to meet someone — ” Before Tensley could finish, the woman had disappeared again.

If this was Max’s idea of a joke, she was going to kill him. She told herself to leave, but the message didn’t make it all the way to her feet, which stayed rooted to the mat. Then she saw a man lean out of a booth in a back corner. Max. He beckoned to her.

Go
, she told herself. Stay.
No, go.

This time, she managed to take a step back toward the door. He tipped his head, questioning.

Stay.

Her heart, traitor that it was, had sped up at just the sight of him and heat flooded through her until she felt as though her crotch must be glowing its own neon “Ope” sign.

The waitress swung through the kitchen door, a glass carafe in her hand, following Tensley to the booth. “Coffee?” the woman asked as Tensley slid onto the dark red leather seat opposite Max.

“Please.” Vodka would be better, but she doubted it was on the menu at Sol’s.

The waitress turned over a cup and splashed dark liquid into it. “Something to eat?”

Max lifted a forkful of scrambled eggs to his mouth. He’d sprinkled them liberally with pepper, Tensley noted, but there wouldn’t be any salt on them. He didn’t like salt.
Damn
. She didn’t want to remember little things like that. Butterflies took off inside her, bumping against her rib cage. “I’m good with coffee,” she managed to say.

The waitress refilled Max’s cup of coffee. “How’re your eggs?” she asked him, hip thrust in his direction. “They okay?”

“They’re fine. Thanks,” he said, never taking his eyes off Tensley.

The woman bounced away, sneakers screeching. She’d been gone less than a minute when the giggling began again.

Tensley took a sip of her coffee while her heart engaged in a full-out battle with her head. Her head won, but barely. “So what’s up?” She averted her eyes, mentally talking the butterflies down, mid-flutter.

“How well do you know Gary?”

“I don’t. Please tell me that’s not what you wanted to talk about.”

He didn’t answer. After the silence had stretched over several seconds, she looked back at him. He was gazing through the window, his jaw working, as though trying to decide what to say next.

When he turned back and his deep blue eyes locked on her, the butterflies took off in a panic. She leaned forward, knocking the coffee cup with her hand and splashing hot liquid onto her skin.

“Here.” He grabbed a napkin and her hand, blotting the coffee. “Did it burn you?”

Her skin tingled at his touch. She shook her head.

“It’s red — ”

“I am never going back to that place.”

Max’s chin lifted. “Fired?”

As if. She bristled. Tensley Tanner-Starbrook had never been fired from anything in her life. “No. I wasn’t fired.” Wait. Had she been?

“You can go back then.”

She wasn’t so sure she liked Cop Max, who seemed to have a single-minded focus. “Why should I? So you can watch?” Narrowing her eyes, she folded her arms in front of her. If he ever saw her naked again, and he should be so lucky, it was going to be on her terms.

The butterflies, no longer needed, flew an escape route.

He dipped his head, staring at his coffee. When he raised his eyes, his half-lidded gaze washed over her. “Because I need your help.”

A dish crashed to the floor somewhere in the vicinity of the kitchen, followed by the raised voices of the waitress and the cook, one accusing, the other defensive. A barstool squeaked as a customer left. The door banged shut.

And Max needed her help.

Her cup had a hairline crack that had turned brown. She ran a finger along it, thinking. “I don’t understand.” She wanted to, though.

“Gary’s a bad dude.”

She looked up. “Tell me something I don’t know.”

“I can’t tell you much until you agree to help.”

“And you’re saying that to help you, I would have to go back to Gary’s Gorgeous Grecians.” Just saying the name made her want to vomit.

He nodded, his eyes never leaving hers.

“I can’t.”

“That’s hard to believe.”

He had no idea what she’d just been through. Anger flashed through her. “I haven’t even seen you for years, Max. All of a sudden, you show up at that — place. And then at my apartment and now you have me come here, just so you can ask for a favor. How exactly does that give you the right to not believe me? You don’t even know me anymore.”
Ow.
Really.
Ow.
This conversation wasn’t going well.

“You’re right.”

Of course she was. But she didn’t know what to do about it, maybe because it occurred so rarely. A half-snort escaped before she could catch it.

Neither of them spoke for a few minutes.

Then Max’s fingers covered hers. He dropped his voice to barely above a rumble. “I’ve been working on building a case against Gary, and whoever he’s working with, for months. But I’ve hit a wall. I need someone on the inside who can help me put the pieces together so I can nail this guy.”

The butterflies were back, their wings banging against her ribs at the touch of Max’s warm, strong fingers on her skin. “So let me be sure I understand.” she paused to clear her throat. “Are you trying to say you want me to be that person on the inside?”

“You work there.”

Not anymore. After tomorrow morning, she wouldn’t have even heard of the place.

“And you’re tight with Razor,” Max went on. “You have access I don’t.”

Razor. Razor Burns. She shuddered.

Max’s face hardened. “Has that asshole hurt you?”

“It’s not that.”

“Then what is it? Gary?”

“You wouldn’t understand.” Events would unravel most unpredictably, Madame Claire had warned, if she told anyone what had happened. “Just leave it alone.”

He drew his mouth in tight. “Guess I can see why you wouldn’t trust the police, after what you’ve been through.”

Tensley rolled her eyes. “I’m still trying to figure out how you talked them into letting you be a cop.”

“Want to see my badge?”

“Bet you say that to all the girls.”

He ducked his head, having the sense to look embarrassed.

“I knew it.” She took a long sip of coffee, looking at him over the rim of her cup. “Does it work even better than showing a girl how to outrun the police?”

“You remember that night.” He was trying not to smile, but he couldn’t manage it.

“Of course I remember. Now that you’re ‘the law’ do you kick people out of that spot?” A dark little alley. Just big enough to hide a car and the two teenagers inside it, victorious after a slightly illegal street race. Max had said it was private enough to make love. No one would find them. No one had.

A twitch at the corner of his mouth. “Not even when I was a patrol officer. I had too many good memories. I didn’t want to ruin them by finding someone else there.”

“Oh.” It came out as a squeak. She took a hasty sip of coffee.

The waitress came swinging back by, a carafe of coffee in her hand. Both Tensley and Max put up their hands and she left.

“Is it the house rent? Is that why you don’t want to go back to Gary’s?”

She searched his eyes. “Why me? There are other girls who work there.”

A smile teased at his mouth. “You and I have a history.”

“A history.”

His coffee cup seemed to suddenly fascinate him. “Maybe I wasn’t exactly disappointed at the idea of spending time with you.”

My God. This was not happening the night before she would return to her real life. She slapped back the hope that surged inside her before it could take hold. Max the teenage boy had been amazing. Max the man was far more dangerous. Now his confidence was backed up by something real, something fascinating, something pulling her toward him faster than she could peddle backward.

This had to stop. Before things went any further. “So it’s got to be me, you’re thinking.”

He nodded.

“Gary’s a bad guy.”

“Yes.”

“Underhanded?”

More nodding. His gaze rose to meet hers, nearly undoing her resolve. But she kept going.

“Criminal? Violent?”

“Yes. And probably.”

“And you want to put me, not someone else, just me, back in that place. Working for him.”

Max stopped mid-nod.

Maybe he’d even made up that whole story about why she’d found him with Rhonda, to try to get on her good side. The skeptical side of her, the one that chimed in with an unhelpful I-told-you-so every time Tensley got hurt, urged her on, giving her words a clipped edge. “In fact, you want me to be the one responsible for getting the goods on him. Not that he’ll be pissed off about that or anything. But it doesn’t bother you at all. You’re ready to send me in.”

“Tensley — ”

Back on solid ground, instead of emotional quicksand. “This is great, Max. Just great.” Tensley snatched her purse from the seat and pulled out a couple of dollar bills, throwing them on the table. “After all we meant to each other, you would put me in danger and not even think twice about it.” She stood, her knees knocking together. “Good to know what you really think about me. If I get shot up, you’ll just move on to the next girl.”

“It’s not like that. I’ll protect you.”

“Like you protected me from seeing you with Rhonda?”

His mouth opened. And closed. He didn’t answer.

She arched her brow. Damn. It was trembling like the rest of her. Just once, she’d like to be able to make a dramatic exit. “Goodbye, Max. Hope you find someone to help you catch your bad guy. It isn’t going to be me.”

Another dish crashed as she walked toward the door. More yelling followed. She hoped Max was watching her newly thin ass, but she wasn’t about to give him the satisfaction of turning back to see. He could actually kiss it, as far as she was concerned. She was never falling for him again, no matter how gorgeous those blue eyes, that dark hair, that hidden poet’s soul was.

Never.

After tomorrow morning, if everything worked out the way it should, she wouldn’t remember this brief, insane part of her life.

• • •

Kate was late. It took everything Tensley had not to charge through Madame Claire’s door on her own. But she didn’t. Her toe tapped on the pavement until she had a severe toe-ache, but she waited.

Finally, Kate came around the corner, head down. She glanced up. “Hi.”

“Hi.” Tensley scanned the worry lines on her best friend’s face. “It’s okay. Nothing bad is going to happen. We’ll go in, tell her to make this right and then we’ll leave once she does.”

“It’s just — ” Kate shoved her hands in her jacket pockets. “I’m worried about what will happen if we have her try this again.”

Dread began to ripple through Tensley. Kate couldn’t back out now. “She has to. Nothing could be any worse than it is now. Trust me.”

Kate looked over one shoulder and then the other. “I wasn’t supposed to remember anything, once the mistake was erased.” She focused her anxious gaze back on Tensley. “Then she
inserts
a mistake into your life
and
you still remember your old life. The woman screws something up every time. Can we trust her?”

“We can’t afford not to.” Tensley put her hands on Kate’s shoulders. “Listen to me. I’m a college graduate, with a great condo, a closet of Jimmy Choos, plenty of successful men to date, and a good job. Once I get it back, anyway. But would anyone know that? No. Because they think I’m a stripper with a record.” Her grip on her friend tightened. “And a boyfriend named Razor.”

“Razor?” Kate lips pursed like she’d tasted pickle juice. “You can’t be serious.”

“Dead serious.” Tensley grabbed her friend’s arm, pulling her toward the door. “And that’s why we’re going in.” She opened the door, the tinkling of the bell and the smell of incense sending chills up her spine. The last time she’d been here … She loosened her hold on Kate and drew her shoulders back, focusing on breathing through her mouth.

The door at the back of the shop opened and Madame Claire appeared. Today she was dressed in black, with a heavy gold necklace around her neck and on her feet, leopard print heels.

“So you have come,” she said gravely. Once her gaze swept upward to take in the two women, she blanched and her eyes widened. “Oh.”