10
I
walked Gabe to his truck. He leaned back against the door and pulled me into his arms. “You will call if there are any problems?”
I looked at his face and felt my heart catch. It was getting harder and harder to keep our lives separate. Gabe was making it harder. “All depends who will be answering your cell.”
His mouth twitched. “I’ll tell Dee that if you call, she’s to give me the phone.”
Gee, thanks. What had he told Dee yesterday? Piss off my girlfriend if she calls? I shoved it aside. “I’ll be fine. Angel and I are going straight to the police station with the necklace.”
He arched an eyebrow. “Leave the necklace in the sex toy kit, Sam. Give it all to them.”
I sighed. “Yeah, yeah, evidence and all. I know.” I just couldn’t wait to explain to Vance why Angel and I had a sex-toy kit. Vance already thought I was a trailer-trash bimbo Barbie. On the other hand, Vance hated that I appealed to a part of him he wanted to deny. A part of him that wasn’t so high-nosed and sophisticated and desired a woman like me, who wore tight jeans and had breast implants. Seeing Gabe’s steady gaze on my face, I said, “I’ll take the diamond necklace in the sex-toy kit. Give Vance a thrill.”
Gabe’s hand, which had been resting on my back, flexed. “I’ve changed my mind. I’m going with you.”
I shook my head. Vance and Gabe had gotten into a slugging match not too long ago. If Vance starting shooting off sex-toy innuendoes about me in front of Gabe, there was no telling what would happen. They both had guns! “Go film your workman’s comp guy. Vance may have already arrested Zack if he found him. And once Angel and I give Vance the diamond necklace, there’s no reason for Zack to threaten Angel.” But it bugged me. “How did Zack know there was a diamond necklace in there, when Mitch St. Claire gave that box to Angel and me? It just doesn’t make sense.”
He used his hand to cup my chin. “Not your problem. You have an open house to worry about tomorrow night.”
I smiled. “You remembered.”
“Don’t insult me, sugar. I’ll see you tonight.” He brushed his mouth over mine, then added, “Unless you need me sooner, then you’ll call, right?”
I stared back at him. “Gabe, once I give the—”
He still had ahold of my chin. “Sam.”
Stubborn Italian. But he’s also the Italian who remembered my open house at Heart Mates because it was important to me. I forced the words out. “I’ll call you if I need you.”
He laughed. “That looked like it hurt. Later, babe.” He turned, opened the door, and got into his truck.
I went back inside. The boys were sitting at the table eating cereal. Ali crunched her breakfast in her spot by the sliding glass door while Grandpa drank coffee and read the paper.
“Hey, Mom,” TJ said between bites of Fruit Loops, “Grandpa said the skate pro is in the paper. He had an accident in practice and had to get stitches. He’s going to reschedule the demonstration in a week or two.”
I smiled at TJ, while wondering about this mystery girl Joel had said TJ liked. “Great, TJ. It’ll probably be in the newspaper. Do you boys have your homework? I put lunch money out for both of you.” I went to the coffeemaker, got down a cup, and poured some coffee. How long would it take Angel to get there? Auto Club should have had her tire changed by now.
“I have a permission slip for a dance.” Joel waved the white paper back and forth while drinking down his orange juice.
I took the permission slip and read it over. Dance on Friday night. I got a pen, signed the permission slip, and handed it back to Joel. “Do you have your homework?”
Exasperated, he answered, “I didn’t have any homework, remember? You left your pepper spray on the counter.”
I smiled. “Thanks, Joel.”
TJ got up and took his bowl to the sink. Tilting his head toward the can of spray, he asked, “Did you think Gabe was a robber or something, mom? Grandpa said you should have expected him to show up, since you locked his assistant in the closet.”
“Grandpa said that?” I glared at Grandpa. “What kind of example does that set for the boys?” I demanded of him.
He laughed, folding up the newspaper and going to his computer. “Probably lets them know that no one should mess with their mom.”
I grabbed the pepper spray from the counter by the stove.
Joel shut the dishwasher. “Hey, Mom, do you know what Gabe’s gonna do to get even?”
No. The only clue I had was that it probably had something to do with that picture Dee took of me. “This isn’t a game, Joel. Gabe and I are adults. Now it’s almost time to go to school.”
Joel and TJ laughed all the way to their bedrooms. Sighing, I took the pepper spray and my coffee to the table and sat down. “Grandpa, I can’t believe you told the boys that I locked Dee in Gabe’s closet!”
He had signed on to his Internet service. “Don’t start on me. I figured it was better to tell them that, than about the diamond necklace you found in a sex-toy kit.”
“Gabe told you.” He had told my grandfather! It was my morning for hot embarrassment. “At least now we know what Zack wanted from Angel.” I frowned, looking at my watch. “Where is Angel?”
Swiveling his chair, Grandpa fixed his milky blue gaze on me. “He told me because he loves you, Sam. He wants someone watching your back while he’s out of town working. Call Angel if you are worried about her.”
I dropped my gaze to my coffee. All true. Gabe wasn’t a liar and wouldn’t say he cared about me if he didn’t. But telling my grandfather about sex toys? Nothing much embarrassed Gabe. Or Grandpa. I played with the can of pepper spray and said, “I’ll give Angel a few more minutes.”
“All right,” Grandpa said and turned back to his computer screen. “Here’s what I have on Zack so far. He was arrested as a juvenile for theft and breaking and entering. His record was expunged.”
Unease spider-skittered up my back. “Any adult arrests? How old is Zack?”
“No adult arrests, and he’s twenty-two. He was sixteen and seventeen when he got into trouble.”
“How did you get the information, Grandpa? If his record was expunged—”
“There’s always a trail, but I found this out by connections. Found the arresting officers who remembered him. They said that Zack was following older kids, had average intelligence but didn’t think things out, and that he believed he was owed by society.”
“Connections” meant Grandpa’s Triple M society of magicians that spread far and wide. If the National Security Agency ever found out how much information that network of magicians accessed, they’d become a secret weapon. I had learned to trust that information, but I didn’t like what I was hearing. “Guess Zack grew up and is trying to think for himself now. He must have stolen that necklace from someone at Daystar, but how did he come across Mitch’s sample sex-toy kit?” I bit my bottom lip, realized what I was doing, and took a sip of coffee. “Mitch carried the sample kit in a briefcase. I guess Zack could have found an opportunity to stash it in there—maybe not realizing that Mitch would give that box away. But then, how had he planned to get the necklace back? And how would he have found out that Mitch had given it to Angel? From there, he’d have to get Angel’s address—”
Grandpa cut in, “Sam, the main thing is to get the necklace to the police.”
Snapping my gaze up, I nodded and tried to let go of the puzzle. “And maybe they’ve already arrested Zack, anyway.” And I could make Vance satisfy my curiosity about Zack and the necklace.
Joel rushed out. “Mom, I have to get to school early to turn in my dance slip!”
Grandpa stood up. “Come on, guys, I’ll drop you off on the way to my meeting. I have important news.”
Meeting, my ass. Grandpa was going to Jack in the Box to huddle with the gossipy senior citizens in town and to tell them all about the sex toys and the diamond necklace. I hugged the boys good-bye, then watched as Ali ran out with them to Grandpa’s Jeep. She raced around, barking and playing with them. At last they were all settled inside. Once Grandpa started the Jeep, Ali ran back up the steps to the porch and sat next to me. We watched them leave.
I looked down at my watch. It was about twenty minutes to eight. “Come on, Ali.” We went inside. I headed down to my bedroom, where I got my purse and double-checked to make sure the sex-toy kit was inside.
The doorbell rang.
“Finally, Angel’s here,” I told Ali.
Ali barked and ran to the door.
I reached in and took the sex-toy kit out of my purse to show Angel the necklace. Hooking the strap over my shoulder, I hurried down the hall to the door.
Ali stood impatiently at the door, and looked back over her shoulder at me.
“I’m getting there, Ali.” Shifting the sex-toy kit to my left hand, I opened the door. “What took so long? I was just about—Zoë!” What was Zoë doing here? Where was Angel?
Zoë clomped past me into the living room. This morning she wore a bright yellow sleeveless T-shirt with green cargo pants and combat boots. She had the length of her thick black hair pulled through a black baseball cap of some kind.
“Zoë, what are you doing here?” How did she know where I lived? Why was she here?
The tightly toned muscles in her upper arms rippled as she thrust two framed pictures at me. “Your sons like skateboarding, right?”
Shifting the velvet box under my right arm, I took the pictures. “My sons?” I stared at Zoë. “What do you mean, my sons?” How would Zoë know about TJ and Joel? I glanced down at the top picture in my hand. It was a signed eight-by-ten shot of the skateboarding pro who had been scheduled to do an exhibit the night before. The top one had, “To Joel,” written across the picture, and a signature. The second framed picture was the same thing, only with TJ’s name.
Apprehension rolled my gut over and tightened up my sore neck muscles. Zoë knew I had two boys, and she knew their names and their interests.
Ali whined low in her throat and nudged my leg.
I looked down at my dog. She cocked her head and stared at me. She didn’t know what to make of my confusion. Neither did I. “Zoë, what’s going on here?” I held up the pictures.
Her gaze was on the sex-toy kit under my arm. “It’s business, Samantha. I do something for you, you do something for me.” She looked up at me. “I met TJ and Joel at your office, remember? They told me they liked skateboarding. Since that pro couldn’t be at the skate park last night, I thought your sons would like signed pictures. Now give me R. V. Logan’s real name and address.”
Ali made a low rumble in her chest at the boys’ names. Not a growl exactly, more like a warning that she was paying attention.
I put my hand on her head and struggled to keep calm. “How do you know the boys were at the skate park last night?”
“I saw them there.”
My brain screamed
stalker!
Psycho romance stalker-fan. Or was she some kind of pervert who liked teenage boys? Struggling to keep calm, I took a couple of steps to the coffee table and set down the signed and framed pictures and my purse. Then I moved the sex-toy kit from under my arm and tucked it inside my purse. Ali sniffed around the items I set on the table, while I fixed my sight on the pepper spray on the kitchen table and moved past Zoë in that direction. With my gaze on the can of spray, I asked over my shoulder, “You went looking for my sons?”
“You make it sound sinister. I saw that there was going to be a skateboarding exhibition in the paper. I am into extreme sports and went to watch. Obviously, since I like the sport, R. V. Logan likes the sport, so I took a chance that I might run into him there. Instead, I saw your sons.”
OK, maybe I shouldn’t turn my back on a lunatic. I pivoted around with the pepper spray in easy reach of my right hand. Ali headed toward me, her toenails clicking dully on the linoleum. Zoë stood a step closer to the coffee table. “Zoë, how did you get those signed pictures?” I didn’t even want to know how she thought she’d recognize her beloved R. V. Logan since she claimed she’d never seen him.
She glared at me across the room with her deep-set brown eyes. “You’re not very grateful. I overheard that the pro skate guy had an accident and went to the hospital, where he was getting stitched up. The hospital people were as ungrateful and suspicious as you are. But I managed.”
I’ll bet. She had probably read Stephen King’s book
Misery
to get some ideas on how to manage. I had to get her out of my house and keep her away from TJ and Joel. I tried to phrase my words carefully. “Zoë, I appreciate your thoughtfulness in getting the boys these autographed pictures, but I’d rather you stayed away from them. Now, I’m on my way out to work. You need to leave.”
She barely blinked. “I will leave just as soon as you give me R. V. Logan’s real name and address.”
I closed my hand around the pepper spray. The knotted muscles in my neck and shoulders had developed into a full-blown headache. Turning for a second, I watched Ali stretch out on her blanket by the window while I debated in my head. If it came to a choice between my sons and Vance, otherwise known as romance writer R. V. Logan, Vance would lose in a heartbeat. But I didn’t think it was coming to that yet. And I needed Vance to cooperate when I took the diamond necklace to him. I looked back at Zoë in her multipocketed cargo pants and yellow sleeveless shirt. “Zoë, I don’t know who R. V. Logan is. I just don’t know how else to convince you.”
Except with this pepper spray,
I thought as I tightened my grip on it.