Dead Ringer (40 page)

Every time he read it he was filled with pride; not many other men could boast that their woman was a superhero.

Of course, she wasn't his woman. Not yet anyway.

The gunshot wound healed faster than the leg did, but both required extensive convalescence. He bided his time, waited for his leg to bear weight again, and through Roper, kept track of Angelina's whereabouts. She'd asked him not to reveal them to Finn, but Roper was never very good at keeping promises, so Finn knew that she'd moved out of Beaman's Memphis home. But where she went after that was anybody's guess.

She'd told Roper she was going to stay with a friend in Nashville, but when Finn called that number, it turned out to be a dry-cleaning shop where no one had heard of Angelina or her friend. On every document the TCF required her to fill out, she'd written a different contact number. Finn tried them all and they were all dead ends.

Nice going, Angel.

He spent most of his medical leave tracking her down. He had access to every database in the country; credit bureaus, the FBI's National Crime Information Center, state-by-state police and courthouse records. But she didn't show up on any of them, not even through a trace of credit card purchases.

As the weeks passed and no sign of her turned up, he gritted his teeth and refused to give up. He had to find her and talk to her in person. Tell her how much she meant to him.

And how much he meant to her.

Because no way was he falling for her bullshit.

Besides, he owed her a big-time apology for all the attitude he'd given her. Not to mention a world-sized thank you for saving his life.

A month after his release from the hospital, Roper banged on his apartment door.

"Thought you could use a beer," he said, lifting the six-pack he'd brought along.

Finn let the smaller man in. "Didn't know you drank beer. You must want something."

Roper smiled, not at all embarrassed to be found out. "I want you to come back to work."

Finn shrugged. "I've still got medical leave."

"The Finn Carver I know wouldn't let that stop him."

Finn grinned. "Someone once told me that all work and no play led to atrophy of too many important body parts."

"So?"

"So I'm getting a life. Isn't that what everyone's been telling me? I even went to the movies yesterday. Crutches and all."

"Did it take?"

"What?"

"Your experiment in ordinary living."

Finn thought about it. The movie had been silly and trivial, and despite himself, he'd enjoyed it. "I don't know yet."

Roper nodded, clearly unconvinced. "Well, I think you've just exchanged one obsession for another. And not that I want to encourage you down that road, but here." He took a piece of paper from his pocket.

"What's this?"

"An application for a bank loan from the Lone Star Bank in Ruby, Texas."

A bolt of pure energy shot through Finn. He glanced at the paper, then back at Roper,

His boss smiled. "Go ahead, check it out. She got the loan, by the way."

"You verified?"

"Twice."

Finn stared at the piece of paper disbelieving. He popped one of Roper's beers and leaned against the counter, drinking and rereading the same sentence over and over.

Ruby, Texas. "Why the hell did she go back there?"

"It's home, isn't it? She's got family there, unfinished business."

"Confront her past instead of running from it?"

"Stranger things have happened."

He fished in his pocket for the pearl monitor he'd found pinned to his hospital pillow. He'd kept it close to him ever since, taking it out a thousand times and wishing it was still pinned to her breast. Running his fingers over the smooth surface of the gems, he wondered what the hell she was up to.

Stranger things have happened.

Maybe catching the bad guys this time helped her see they don't always get away.

His hand closed around the brooch. Not much she could do about her own personal bad guy, though. Not after so many years. Not by herself.

He looked over at Roper. "Who do we know in Ruby?"

Roper shrugged. "No one. It's a small town. No TCF presence. Why?"

"I've got a bone to pick with the sheriff there."

Roper smiled. "How right can I be, Carver? If it's not one thing, it's another. Where's a piece of paper?" Finn tore off a sheet from a pad near the phone. "Here's the nearest FBI field office and the name of the Special Agent in charge." He pushed it across the counter to Finn. "So much for your medical leave."

* * *

Angelina adjusted the line of the halter top in the front window of Undercover Angel, the lingerie shop she'd opened with help from the Lone Star Bank. The nearest Victoria's Secret was sixty miles away, and even the Godfearing women of Ruby wore bras and panties. Why not give them something to show when they took off their clothes at night?

Of course, she'd been perfectly aware mat the shop was a long shot, especially in a small, uptight place like Ruby. But coming back and taking a chance had been like thumbing her nose at the whole town. After all she'd been through, all she'd accomplished, she no longer cared what anyone thought.
Take me or leave me, you'll never forget me.

And big surprise, the shop had been a success.

She had Adele to thank for that. Her mother had burst into tears of joy when she saw Angelina at her front door. For the first time, Angelina accepted that Adele was truly glad to see her. And she found herself ready to forgive her mother for what happened all those years ago when she took the town's side against her daughter.

People made mistakes. They deserved a second chance.

This time, Adele got it right. Though the shop might have been denounced as sinful, she talked it up to all her church buddies and threw a lingerie shower for every bride and new mother in a fifty-mile radius. She not only eliminated the potential taint, she made the shop popular.

And now it was almost Labor Day. Women liked to buy when the seasons turned, and fall was just around the corner.

Angelina hummed as she changed the window display, switching out a hot pink camisole for burnt orange, and a turquoise bra and panty set for tiger-striped. A movement outside caught her attention and she looked up to see Sheriff Dodd being led in handcuffs from a Texas Ranger car toward the county courthouse.

It was early, but Ruby was an early-waking town and other people stopped to watch the spectacle, especially those in front of the Courthouse Cafe, who stood in little clumps of twos and threes. Angelina gaped along with everyone else, window display forgotten.

She hadn't seen much of the sheriff since her return; she'd stayed away from most of the trouble spots where she was likely to run into him. No bars, no back alleys- not that there were many in Ruby-no late-night parking-lot assignations. She'd lived quietly, and left lawbreaking and law enforcement to others. Once or twice she'd seen him on the street, an older, heftier version of the rooster she'd faced all those years ago, still recognizable enough to send a bolt of nausea ping-ponging around her stomach.

As for Andy Blake, she hadn't seen him at all. Adele told her he ran a car lot on the other side of the state, the kind of place that attracted used-up people and their used-up cars. He'd gone fat and bald and was working on his third marriage. Somehow that pleased them both.

Now she watched, dumbstruck, as a Texas Ranger escorted the sheriff around the car toward the courthouse steps. Well, what did that drama signify? She knew Max Dodd was an evil little twit, but she never thought he'd be caught at it.

The passenger side of the car opened and a man in a suit got out. He paused to say something to the Ranger, then turned in the vee of the door and gazed over the car roof across the wide expanse of road to the shops across the way. To her shop.

Her heart started thumping.

The man closed the door and strolled around the car to the curb and the street. Frozen, Angelina watched him cross, the same dark, lean strength she'd known and loved embedded in every stride. Whole again, safe, alive. Just as she knew he'd be.

But what was he doing here?

She stopped breathing. Her mind refused to work, refused to process the sight of him on the streets of Ruby, coming up to her window as if he'd lived there forever. Wordless, he looked at her through the glass. She couldn't move, her hands stuck to the stretchy tiger-striped material as though it were Velcro.

Then he tapped on the window and she jumped, released from the spell.

"I'm looking for Angelina Mercer," he said loudly, his voice distorted through the glass.

A rush of heat filled her face and she backed out of the window space, jumped down onto the floor, and unlocked the shop door, barring the way. She knew now she didn't need his approval; she could succeed on her own just fine. But she didn't want to face the possibility of his condemnation either.

"She's not here," she said, looking him straight in the eye.

A slight smile played around the corners of his mouth, and he leaned against the doorjamb, blue eyes taking leisurely inventory from top to bottom and back again. She straightened, hoping he wouldn't see through the changes. The shorter hair, the new color.

"That's too bad," he said at last, "I wanted to thank her for saving my life,"

Another rush of embarrassed heat. Gratitude was definitely not what she wanted from him. "No thanks necessary," she mumbled and started to close the door, but somehow his foot got in the way and instead of getting turned out, he let himself in.

"And..." he said as he closed the door behind him, "I need her expertise."

She eyed him. How the hell had he managed to get inside? "I don't think she's doing much hi your line of work these days."

He strolled around the shop, picked up a lacy camisole, and held it up to the light. "I was hoping to talk to her about something else. A gift. For a... special woman." He replaced the sheer garment and smiled pleasantly. "I know her measurements. Thirty-eight, twenty-" He stopped to give her another once-over. "Actually, she's about your size. But her hair"-he walked around her-"is longer, down to here"-he touched her shoulder and a buzz of unwanted electricity jolted her-"not here." He touched the nape of her neck where the soft curls stopped just below her ear, sending another electric quake through her. "And it's blond, not-" He was back in front of her now and he cocked his head curiously. "What is that color?"

"Natural," she snapped.

"Natural," he repeated. "Like in... God-given?"

"Exactly." She marched over to the door and swung it open. "We're closed."

He stuck his hands in his pockets and strolled toward her. "I like it. Kind of a reddish brown."

A treacherous tingle of pleasure threatened, which she quickly suppressed in a scowl. "We don't open until ten-thirty."

"Like honey with sunlight shining through it."

Now how was she supposed to ignore that? He closed in on her and she scooted away, if only so she could keep breathing. But that left the door unmanned, and he closed it again, resting against it with his arms and legs crossed.

"Here's the thing," he said softly. "I might not be here after ten-thirty. And I really wanted to buy that gift I have a major apology to make."

An apology? Seemed like she was the one who should apologize. Not that she would.

She raised her chin and challenged him with a look. "And you think a present will make it easier?'

"I don't think anything's going to make it easy. This woman... she holds a grudge."

"She does not."

He shrugged. "I know a grudge she held against a certain party for over eleven years. Now, I'm not saying this party didn't deserve it. In fact, he pretty much deserves everything he gets, and believe me, he's going to get the full treatment." For a moment his mouth hardened into a grim line, then softened again. "But me..."

She eyed him closely. "You're not as bad as him?"

"Let's just say I'm prepared to do my share of groveling."

"Starting with this... gift."

"Uh-huh." He pushed away from the door. "And anything else that's necessary."'

"Anything?" Her eyes narrowed.

"Anything this side of the law."

Always the lawman. But wasn't that delicious uprightness part of the attraction? She smiled, then quickly looked away to hide it. She'd always be the party girl to him, and she couldn't live that way, no matter what he did to her breathing.

He sidled up beside her, close enough for her to feel his hip jutting into hers. Her stomach lurched and her heart did that jackhammer thing it always did around him. She dodged away, escaping behind the L-shaped cash-register counter against the wall.

"I think you better go."

"I will. I promise." But instead of heading for the door, he came right in after her. "In a minute."

Now she was trapped between him and the counter end. Her heartbeat ratcheted up another notch and wildly she looked for a way out, but there was none and he knew it. He smiled.

"First I want to return something that belongs to her." He fished in his pocket and came out with a circle of pearls. She let out a surprised gasp and felt tears at the back of her throat.

Before she could stop him, he was pinning it to her blouse, just above her heart. She was faint with his nearness, dumbstruck and dry-mouthed.

He didn't seem to care.

He stood back, cocked his head as he eyed the position of the pin on her chest. "The thing is, this woman I told you about? I'm nuts about her. Well, she drives me nuts, but I kind of like it." His gaze rose to her face, his expression heating and softening at the same time. "No, I love it. I love her." He stepped forward until he was so close she could feel his warm breath on her face. His hands cupped her cheeks and he tilted her head up so she was soaring into the depths of his blue, blue gaze. "I love
you.
I am sorrier than I can ever say about being the bastard I was. No excuses. I said a lot of things I regret. I misjudged you and hurt you, and I'll do whatever it takes to make it up to you."