Good Chemistry (16 page)

She recounted her actions over the past week. But she couldn’t shake the feeling that she was outside of herself. Watching herself do all of these wildly out of character things. Oddly, she realized that she only felt alive when she was with Alex.

Debra really only listened to her feelings when it was a gut hunch about a case. But now they seemed to be the only things guiding her actions. She felt like her mind was short-circuited by recent events. Her mind was always aligned with her father’s rules and the law she lived by every day as a police officer.

But, it felt fake to her now. The critical ingredient of belief was gone. The words and the ideas behind them were all still there. But the bottom had fallen out for Debra as she finally and painfully realized that they were only that . . . words. Empty words. Apparently, spoken by all and truly believed by none.

Everything her life had been founded on was inexplicably crumbling at her feet. The only person in her life whose words and actions were consistent was Alex. Debra didn’t have to force herself to take into account her feelings. They were just taking over and driving her onward.

Debra glanced up at the rearview mirror in the middle of her musing. Kane and Meacham were gone. She’d managed to buy Alex a couple hours head start. It was the best she could do. Debra was just beginning to feel loved. Now she’d never see him again.

Debra’s eyes got a little red and stung as she slowly drove home and parked in her spot in front of her apartment. She wanted nothing more than a hot shower, and to go to bed early. Tomorrow was a mess that could wait until then to be resolved.

She grabbed her mail out of the box. She turned the key and pushed open the door. She flipped through all the mail, throwing out the junk. Just then, a noise caught her attention. Instantly she had her gun out, safety off, and she began to search the apartment room by room.

She eliminated everywhere but her bedroom. She kept her body out of the line of fire, as she pushed the door open with the barrel of her nine millimeter.

“Freeze!” she screamed.

Alex nearly jumped out of his skin.

“Hey, easy. It’s me. Don’t shoot. I surrender.”

“Alex, what in the hell are you doing here? You have to get out of Miami, now. Kane and Meacham are either going to arrest you or kill you. Either way you have to get out of here.” Debra’s words trailed off as the sight of Alex’s firm chest and arms glistening with moisture from the shower he’d just stepped out of caught her attention. The towel around his waist looked as if it could fall away to the floor at any moment.

“Alex, I’m serious. You have to go. Now.”

“There’s something I need to show you,” Alex said to Debra as he walked into the living room.

Debra turned away, blushing at the suggestiveness of his words.

“No, not that you cock hound. Here, listen to this.” Alex produced a tiny tape recorder from his jacket pocket that was slung over the back of a living room chair. He sat in the chair and Debra was on the edge of the couch facing him.

Alex hit Play.

“Listen, either she’s the thief herself or at the very least she’s his partner. That was why she wanted the case so badly, so she could run interference for him. Trust me. If we just stay on her, she’ll lead us right to him and all that loot.

Then, after we have it, we say we conveniently stumbled onto them while doing follow-up interviews. A gun battle ensued. They both end up dead and we say that we only recovered a small fraction of the cash and jewels. We lay low for a couple of months and then discreetly put in our papers and retire in style.”

Alex clicked the stop button and looked deeply into Debra’s eyes. “You see, my dear, my running won’t do any good, not for you at least. They’ll hound you even if I’m gone, and there’s about a zero percent chance that I’m going to run away from a couple of pricks like them. Especially, if it means abandoning the woman I love.”

Alex got up from the chair and pulled Debra to her feet and into his strong sinewy arms. The towel finally fell free to the floor.

She melted at his touch. Her old instinct told her to never show weakness. Debra pulled back far enough to look into Alex’s eyes. Debra went for a long swim in the deep pools of soul she found in his steely gaze. She knew she could tell him anything and he would never use it hurt her.

Being vulnerable had nothing to do with weakness, she finally understood. Debra laid her head against his chest. His height put Debra’s ear right at the level of his heart, and his heart took Debra to a level she’d never reached before.

“Debra, since my wife and son died, I’ve been dead inside too. Just running on rage. I can’t go on. Not with the rage at least.” Alex looked into Debra’s smoldering passionate eyes. “I don’t know if I can make you believe me.” Alex paused, pulled her tight to his chest, kissed her lovingly, and whispered in her ear.

“Debra Manning. I love you. I can’t explain it. I just do. I have to have you in my life. If what I do really bothers you that much I can stop. But this isn’t what you think.”

Debra put two fingers over his mouth. Tears began streaming down her cheeks. She’d seen with her own eyes what
this
was. The image of that frail child riddled with cancer being held in Alex’s strong protective arms flooded Debra’s mind. This was the reason he was robbing rich greedy arrogant pricks.

And Debra Manning loved him with her whole heart for it.

Debra took hold of Alex’s hand and guided it up to the top button on her blouse. Alex gently, skillfully undressed Debra. Her clothes fell to a heap on the floor at her feet.

Alex scooped her up in his arms. A spot in Debra’s heart felt just like that poor girl with cancer. Debra’s body wasn’t that fragile, but her heart would be, if she ever opened it. Alex laid her on her bed.

Debra squished down in the comforter under his weight. Her breath quickened with anticipation as Alex kissed her neck playfully. His hand found its way down to her ticklish breasts.

Debra giggled as he caressed her. He touched her in ways no one ever had.

Each kiss started a small fire of smoldering passion before moving on to the next spot. Always working his way further and further down. Her stomach was so ticklish that he passed it over. He had somewhere else he needed to be.

Debra’s eyes began to roll back in her head. With two handfuls of Alex’s hair, she held on tight as his tongue entered her.

“Oh . . . oh . . . oh my God,” she said as she began to writhe and buck. Her entire body shook. No one had ever made Debra cum that hard before. The first wave of orgasm had barely finished when Alex plowed into her. Debra groaned as she bit her lower lip. Her back arched as she held his sensual mouth to hers.

Alex rolled over onto his back pulling Debra up on top of him as he did. As their bodies crashed together in a steady rhythm, Debra gazed into his eyes. He returned her warm glance. She felt as though they were merging into one being. For Debra, it was the first time she’d ever made love. She’d had sex before. Now, she could recognize the difference.

It left her a little sad too. The realization that she’d gone her entire life without having felt truly loved by anyone.

After they spent the last of their energy, they lay back, with Debra curled up in his arms. Drawing tiny circles, Debra played in his chest hair as the pair silently enjoyed the moment they were sharing. But then, a strange pulse of worry ran through her. Could she really trust this man? Everything was happening so fast.

Chapter 17

A few weeks earlier

Andrew arrived at his folk’s house and handed his mom the case. It usually held ordinary hypodermic needles but today it carried a pair of blow darts instead.

“Here, just as you asked. What are—”

“No questions, remember?” Joanna took the case from Andrew, kissed him on the cheek, then Lewis, and headed out the door without a word of explanation to either one of them. Lewis just shrugged his shoulders as Andrew searched his eyes for answers.

Meanwhile, Joanna was executing her rescue plan. She stopped at a florist a few blocks down and bought a nice bouquet. The flowers were irrelevant. She was only concerned with the length of the stems. She took the bouquet to her car and quickly worked the blowgun up through the center of them. The mouthpiece was well-hidden among the irises.

As she made the drive to the sanitarium, she went over her plan once more in her head. The craziness of all this was obvious to Joanna. But this was her son’s future happiness she was dealing with. And her only shot at having grand kids. Therefore, she wasn’t going to let anything get in her way.

The guard at the gate looked her over carefully. She was already becoming a familiar face to him after her third visit. Joanna parked and headed for the main entrance. The building loomed over her casting a shadow across the grounds. It was mere happenstance that the building was situated this way. Nevertheless, the long gloomy shadow beating back the Florida sun gave her a sense of foreboding.

Joanna took a deep breath, checked again to see that the dart gun was hidden and then pushed open one of the massive oak doors. She stopped at the reception desk. Sally, the morning receptionist, was becoming familiar with her as well.

Joanna signed herself in and then chatted her up as casually as possible, trying not to look down at the flowers she was holding.

Sally glanced at the flowers for a second. She seemed about to say something, but then she just said, ‘okay’.

Joanna made her way to the visitors lounge at a brisk pace. Judy and Bernie were both sitting on a massive overstuffed brown leather couch. It made Bernie look smaller and more impish than usual.

“Hey, girls.” Joanna squeezed in next to Bernie. “So here it is.” Joanna handed the bouquet to Judy and breathed a sigh of relief. This part of the plan had gone as smooth as ice.

Bernie was determined to see Andrew’s research through to the end. Tricking him was bad enough. She figured he could forgive her that, as long as the research was done on someone and done right.

“Are you guys sure about this?” Joanna puckered up her mouth in a distressed frown.

“Trust me. This is the only way. We need to test this batch and get out of here as soon as possible,” Bernie assured her. The longer Andrew was left to his own devices, the more likely it became that he would use the stuff on Heidi and ruin everything.

Little did Bernie know that lunk-head Andrew had already screwed things up. He’d already set in motion a train-wreck of events that would change all of their lives forever.

“Now go and ask the nurse to page Dr. Rodero to the visitors’ lounge. He’ll come if it’s relevant to one of his patients.” Bernie coaxed Joanna up off the couch. This was her last part in the plan. Joanna went to the desk and asked for Dr. Rodero to be paged.

Meanwhile, Bernie pulled out the dart and checked it over carefully. The antidote was still tucked away safe and sound in Joanna’s purse. Bernie pushed the dart into the gun just as Joanna came back in. Dr. Rodero was right behind her.

“Well, ladies, how may I help you today?” His chipper enthusiasm seemed to wilt the instant he spotted Judy on the couch, initially hidden from view by Bernie’s hair. “Oh, Ms. Marx as well.”

“Hello, Doctor.” Judy smiled with a coy mischievous look in her eye.

If Bernie hadn’t been looking, she would have missed the doctor’s look of irritation, quickly masked with a forced smile.

“I need to go get these in some water.” Bernie glided stealthily behind the doctor. She put the bouquet up to her lips and with one good puff, she drilled the doctor right in his neck with the blow dart when she was sure no one was looking. She let him thrash and roar like a lion in the wild as the dart slowly took effect. Bernie glanced down the corridor nervously. None of the staff were within earshot.

“I swear to God Almighty that I’m going to have the both of you put in restraints until further notice.” The doctor huffed and hissed as he pulled the dart out of his neck. He stared at it with an expression of befuddlement.

Then he began to shake noticeably. His eyes began to bulge out. He loosened his tie and undid the top button to his shirt. Small beads of sweat began forming at his temples. Then the quaking subsided. His gaze went to Judy, who was striking a pose as if she was modeling her hospital gown.

A wildfire sparked to life in Dr. Rodero’s eyes. Then like a horse at a steeplechase he leapt over the coffee table separating them in one bound.

“Oh, Doctor.” Judy moaned the instant he pinned her to the couch and buried his tongue in her hungry mouth. His hands searched and groped like the tentacles of an octopus.

“Oh, Doctor,” Judy cooed.

“Judy!” Bernie said, as Judy was going off script.

“Oh, sorry. Doctor, dear, would it be too much trouble to ask you to get us out of here? Then, my sweet, when we’re finally alone, I’ll give you everything you ever dreamed of.” Judy’s eyes twinkled as she ran her fingers through his hair.

The doctor’s lips barely brushed hers as he murmured, “Oh yes. Yes. I know just the place.” He grabbed her by the hands and practically dragged her past the reception desk. Bernie, followed by Joanna, kept right on his tail.

“Sally, I’m discharging Ms. Marx from the sanitarium and into my care.”

“Hey, what about Bernie?” Judy put the tip of her tongue to his ear as she spoke.

A visible shudder ran through the doctor.

“Of course. Her, too,” he shouted over his shoulder. Then he tossed Judy into the back seat of his convertible and was backing out of his spot before Joanna and Bernie could even get out the front door after them. Sally was already dialing nine-one-one. She didn’t know exactly what she was witnessing, but the doctor was clearly out of his mind.

All Bernie could do was get in Joanna’s car and scram while she and Joanna had the chance. Judy would be fine. She’d already crawled over the seat and was cuddled up next to the middle-aged, balding psychiatrist.

As she stroked her hand up and down his inner thigh, he nearly wrecked the car. He was already around the corner and barreling down the boulevard when the cops arrived.

After a short, passionate, sticky drive, the doctor pulled into his private parking spot at the marina. He’d always taken all his hooker-dates to his boat so his instincts were just pushing him along. As he tried to exit the car, Judy pulled him back in. Wrenching his head around, she buried her tongue in his mouth. She began ripping at his clothes.

In a flash, she had his pants unzipped. Judy dug around in his briefs like she was trying to grab a roll of dimes before they rolled under the fridge. Oh, wait. Now it was a roll of quarters. He managed to pull her off long enough to get out of the car.

Panting wildly, the doctor fumbled with the latch to the gate in the Marina fence. He was tottering as he passed through the gate. He had Judy wrapped around his waist like an inner tube. He slammed the gate with a clatter. It drew the attention of anyone who wasn’t already watching the spectacle with wide eyes and slack jaws.

His pants started to slide down around his knees. With one hand, he was holding them up in a wrinkled, cockeyed bunch. As he waddled Judy down the pier to his slip, they both nearly fell off into the water.

At last, they made it. His boat, the
Lou Sea,
bobbed up and down as the pair scrambled aboard and collapsed onto the deck in a getting-naked heap. Judy took a side of his shirt in either hand and ripped it open, sending buttons skittering in all directions.

Next, his left shoe flew over the side and sank into the murky depths. The other lodged itself under the handrail. Judy tore the crotch out of his neatly pressed pants. They, too, wound up in a heap at the edge of the deck.

The doctor pulled the two drawstrings that held Judy’s hospital gown in place. It snapped in the wind as Dr. Rodero let it flutter and fly away.

Judy pushed him back down on the deck and straddled him like a rodeo rider. She groaned as she pushed his rock hard member deep inside herself. Up and down, Judy slammed her bottom on his hips grinding the last few inches from side-to-side. “Oh . . . oh . . . oh . . .” Judy softly moaned with pleasure.

The doctor moaned as Judy latched onto his mouth like she was trying to suck something from between his teeth.

From about a block away, Bernie peered through her bird watching binoculars. She furiously scribbled notes in her notebook.

Joanna suddenly leaned over and laid on the horn causing Bernie to jump half out of her skin. But her ploy worked.

Judy looked up just in the nick of time as the first cop was climbing aboard. Thinking quickly, she grabbed the cop’s ankles and pulled, sending him into the water between the boat and the pier. He clawed for anything as he went over. He had a hold of the boat for a second but it was too late.

He went into the drink and all the cops behind him suddenly shifted their focus to getting him out of the water. It gave Judy and Dr. Rodero enough of a head start to leap off the back end of the boat and run up the slippery gangplank. They were naked as Jaybirds.

The cops quickly regrouped and lit out after them in hot pursuit.

Judy and the doctor made it all the way to the other side of the marina in a flash. Unfortunately, she quickly realized they were cornered. They had a chain-link fence in front of them, the Atlantic Ocean to one side, and a herd of police, wishing they’d worn rubber gloves, closing in from the other.

Judy began scrambling up the fence. It was hard to do naked. The tips of the fence wire were razor sharp against bare flesh. Judy was stuck at the top trying to negotiate the fence without cutting herself.

Bernie looked on with wonder as the doctor had both of his hands pressed into Judy’s chunky ass. He looked like a baker kneading a pile of dough. Then, at the worst possible moment, it happened. The elixir failed once more.

The doctor began to shimmy as he became light-headed. He looked awakened from a deep sleep.

Doctor Rodero saw the cops rushing at him. Then looked to see where he had his hands buried.

He peered straight up into Judy’s vagina. It didn’t wink at him. It didn’t need to.

“What the hell? How did I get here? And what the Hell am I doing with a naked woman?” Exasperated, he jerked his hands away instinctively, and went to wipe his palms on his pant legs. All he felt was hair.

“Oh my God! I’m naked!” His knees buckled and gave out. He crumpled onto the wet fishy pier. Judy came tumbling down on top of him.

He groaned in humiliated agony as Judy’s butt made a perfect three-point landing on his nose.

He was muttering some half-garbled expletive as he wormed around trying to get free. Muffled by an actual muff . . . They never covered that in med school.

The cops finally hoisted Judy off the doctor and onto her feet. Next, they dragged him to his feet as well.

“Arrest this woman immediately. She’s insane!” Dr. Rodero bellowed in his most authoritative doctor’s voice. He was used to his orders being followed without question, so he was truly shocked when they slapped handcuffs on him. They dragged the naked pair to separate police cars.

Judy was having too much fun to care. “Doctor, oh Doctor. Don’t despair, we’ll be together again soon.” Her voice rang with a melody of pleasure as she peered lustily at him.

“Shut up, you crazy bitch! You’ll never get out of that asylum now.” And he meant every word. However, his spirits were quickly dampened when he realized that would only ensure he saw more of her. Either as a doctor or as a fellow patient.

The cops pushed Dr. Rodero’s head down so he wouldn’t crack it on the edge of the car as they stuffed him in the back seat.

From Joanna’s car, Bernie continued to scribble away like mad. Then when she was finally done she looked at Joanna with a look of grave concern on her face.

“This is a complete disaster. We’ll never get Judy out of there now, and Andrew’s
new
formula doesn’t work any better than the last one.”

“Yeah, but look on the bright side, Bernie. You’ve already led Andrew on a nearly naked romp through the neighborhood once. So it should be easier this time.” Joanna chuckled softly.

A big tear welled up and rolled down Bernie’s cheek. She couldn’t help it. She could only see Andrew slipping away from her and right into the arms of Heidi. She should have been glad the formula didn’t work. But she knew that the formula working was the only way Andrew would forgive her for deceiving him the way she had. All of it was becoming too much for Bernie.

As she finally broke all the way down crying, Joanna pulled her in across the car seat and held her tight. “Don’t you worry, Bernie. You’re not alone in this. We’ll figure something out, I promise.” Joanna rocked her gently while she wiped away the tears from Bernie’s eyes.

All of this had forced Bernie to overcome so much of her fear already. And deep down, she knew what she had to do next. She had to tell Andrew the truth. If she could only get him to focus on the fact that she had never been under the influence of the elixir, then, perhaps, he would finally see the truth.

He would understand that everything she expressed to him in these crazy damned tests was really all her. It came straight from her heart. She loved Andrew. Surly he would see that. Surly, that would break his obsession with Heidi. Either that or it would drive him into her arms forever.