Love Me if You Dare (15 page)

“You did nothing wrong, and of course it’s okay to be excited,” Sara said. “I’m thrilled for you!”

Angel smiled. “I have to go clean up for my guests. And I need to cook!” She started back down the street, when suddenly she turned. “Nick?”

“Yeah?”

“Come help me?”

Nick paused, obviously surprised by the request.

Rafe nudged his mute brother in the side. “Go.”

“I have to work.”

“Call in sick,” Rafe said wryly.

Nick nodded, his brain seeming to catch up. “Right. Coming!” he called out to his wife. “See you later, bro.”

Rafe inclined his head, grinning.

Nick raised one hand in a wave and walked away.

Alone at last, Rafe turned to Sara. “Do you want a break from all this? We can figure out what to do about the features editor later.”

Her eyes lit up. “Always. What do you have in mind?”

“Going out on my boat. Away from people, places and things.” His favorite place on earth that he wanted to share with her. “Are you game?”

She nodded. “Sounds like heaven.”

He could not agree more.

S
ARA STOOD HOLDING
on to the rail in front of her as Rafe propelled the small speedboat across the lake. There was not another boat in sight; the peace and solitude was all-encompassing. The wind blew her hair, and the sun baked down on her body, freeing her mind and her spirit.

“This is fabulous!” she called to him.

“I’m glad you like it.”

She liked the view more. Not the beautiful trees and shoreline landscape, but the sight of shirtless Rafe in bathing trunks that hung low on his hips and revealed his tanned body and hard abs. Then there was the scar, which was a constant reminder that he’d taken one for the team.

For her.

Sunglasses covered his eyes, and the wind blew his dark hair off his forehead, giving him a sexy, rakish look.

She appreciated the fact that he’d sensed her tension and brought her here to ease it. He always knew just what to say or do to fix things in her small part of the world.

“Have you ever been on a boat before?” he asked, slowing the motor and letting them bob on the calm surface of the water.

She pulled her hair off her face. “Does the ferry to the Statue of Liberty count?”

He grinned. “Not really.”

“Then, no.”

She eased herself down on one of the padded benches that stretched across the width of the deck and leaned back, resting on her hands.

“I take it you grew up on a boat?” she asked him.

He nodded. “My dad would take us out. The boys one time, the girls another. Sometimes we’d get alone-time with him, and that was usually the best day,” he said, obviously remembering good times.

She smiled. “Sounds great.”

“It was. I always told myself I’d take my own kids one day.”

The notion, once spoken, was out there between
them, and she couldn’t help but imagine Rafe and his son or daughter spending time together on this boat. The image stuck with her, making her melancholy and sad, knowing that meant she’d be long gone out of his life.

She shook her head hard. She usually wasn’t so wistful in her thinking, but lately that seemed all she was able to be. Well, no more. When would she ever have the opportunity to enjoy summertime on a boat on a lake again?

She cleared her throat. “Did you ever bring a girlfriend out on the lake?” she asked.

He lifted his glasses and met her gaze, obviously surprised by the question. “Back in high school, if I could convince my father to lend me the boat, and then only if I could smooth talk a girl into trusting me alone on the lake.” He treated her to a wink.

“Were you a bad boy?” She was curious about what kind of reputation he’d had.

“Hang on one second.” He turned to drop anchor, so they could hang out for a while.

He stepped toward her, settling down on the bench beside her, leaving no doubt in her mind he was every inch the bad boy.

“Now, where were we? Oh, yeah, was I a bad boy? Hmm. I was the guy everyone knew wanted to leave the small town behind as soon as possible. That made me a risky proposition.”

“I can imagine.”

He grinned. “I bet I could have sweet-talked you onto my boat.”

She shook her head and laughed. “You just did.”

“So… What kind of kid were
you?
”

She figured turnabout was fair play. “Considering most of my family was on the force? I had a pretty solid good-girl thing going.” She made a face at the reminder. “But at the same time, I was pretty stubborn, had my opinions and wanted things my way, which made the guys steer clear. Needless to say, I caught on and became much more male-gender friendly.”

“Do tell.” He traced the outline of her bathing suit with one finger.

She trembled as the heated touch set off sparks inside her belly, between her legs and everywhere else. She licked her dry lips. “Have you ever had sex on a boat?”

His eyes darkened with need. “No.”

She glanced around the sparkling lake. “Do you think anyone will pass by and see us?” she asked nervously.

He laughed. “Is the big bad police officer scared of getting caught?”

“More like being exposed.”

He rose and took a good look around. “Not if we hurry.”

Her heart skipped a beat. “Then what are you waiting for?” She barely recognized her husky voice.

He leaned close and pressed his lips to hers, seducing her with his hot mouth. He followed as she lay down on the bench, coming down over her until his erection pulsed, hard against her stomach. She gripped the back of his head as her tongue dueled and tangled with his, mimicking sex, making her burn. The kiss was as hot as the sun overhead, consuming her just as he wanted to be consumed. A trickle of moisture settled between her legs, and her desire to have him inside her grew.

His lips moved from her lips to her jaw, trailing moist kisses down her neck to her collarbone, traveling lower until he settled between her breasts. He paused there, drawing lazy circles over her skin. She moaned and arched beneath him, the sensations arousing but not nearly enough.

With an easy pull on the string, he released her bathing-suit top. He yanked, and the bikini came off in his hands. Then he cupped each mound.

“No matter how many times I see you like this, you take my breath away.” Intent on his task, he slid his hands down her waist and over her stomach.

She quivered at his touch. And once more he pulled and released her bathing suit, tossing the bottoms to the floor. She bent her knees, and without missing a beat, he thrust deep inside.

She exhaled hard, accepting all of him, and together they soared to completion.

A short time later, they were dressed and heading to shore. She stood beside him, wind blowing her hair, his arm looped around hers as he steered them home.

Home.

She really needed to get out of here before she became too comfortable with the word.

P
IRRO BOTH LIKED AND
respected Rafe, and he took his advice to heart. After his poker game last night, he’d headed home, intent on reassuring his wife that there were no other women in the world for him, but she’d been fast asleep, a box of tissues by her side.

She was still sleeping when he woke up and left for work this next morning. He headed to the office, which was built on the same land where the spices grew in green houses that regulated the temperatures to ensure healthy plant growth all year round. He had a full day of meetings, and he worked through lunch. By five o’clock, he was ready to call it quits for the day.

He stopped in town for flowers and walked out of the florist, hopeful he’d make Vivian understand his stress had nothing to do with his feelings for her. In his hands, he held a dozen red roses in a crystal vase so large that it blocked his view. He bumped into someone on the sidewalk.

“I’m sorry!” he said, righting himself before he stumbled.

“No worries. We were waiting for you anyway.”

Pirro dropped the flowers, and the glass shattered. Whatever they wanted, it couldn’t be good.

R
AFE TOOK A QUICK
shower while Sara checked in with the captain in the city. While she showered, he put marinated steaks on the outdoor grill.
Thank you, Mom,
he thought silently. He’d snuck in a phone call earlier, asking her to check on the alarm company and stock the fridge. She’d taken over everything while he was out for the day. The alarm upgrade was complete, and now he placed a chilled bottle of wine, grilled steak and corn on the cob on the picnic table outside.

Sara walked out of the house. Her damp hair hung loose around her shoulders, ripped denim shorts showed off her long legs and bare feet, and a large V-neck T-shirt still somehow looked sexy.

“What’s all this?” she asked, her gaze sweeping over the set table.

“Dinner is served. Have a seat.”

“Well, well. This is a nice surprise!”

He shrugged. “It’s basic enough that I can handle it.”

She laughed and dug into her meal. “Delicious,” she said when she’d finished her first taste.

“I’ll tell Mom you like her marinating,” he said with a grin.

“You are a bad boy.” She waved her fork at him in a chiding manner, laughing along with him.

“Don’t I get points for coming up with the idea?”

“That you do.” How could she resist that dimpled grin? Sara wondered.

They finished their meal in silence and, with their wineglasses, moved to the porch swing. She curled her legs beneath her and sipped from her glass, not-so-covertly watching Rafe.

He stretched an arm along the back of the seat, his fingertips grazing her shoulder. “So, tell me about your family.”

She wrinkled her nose. “Really? Why?”

He rolled his eyes. “Why do you always question me when I want to get to know you better?”

She paused, taking another sip of her wine. “It’s just that nobody has asked before.”

“Ahh. Want to know why?”

She nodded.

“Because before me, you’ve only dated men interested in one thing,” he said pointedly. “So, tell me about your family. You said they’re all cops?”

On the job, she admired his interrogation tactics. Off the job, she could do without them. “They’re all cops. My grandfather, my dad, an uncle…” She paused in thought. “My aunt was the first female cop in the family,” she said with pride.

“All divorced?”

She should have known he’d get around to that point eventually. “Yes, all divorced. Well, all but one,” she amended, thinking of her cousin.

“Then I definitely want to hear about him.”

“Her.”

His eyes opened wide. “Really, now.”

Sara let out a sigh. “Yes, really. My cousin Renata. She lives in Hoboken.”

“New Jersey.”

“Yeah. Reni said it’s easier to maintain her family life outside of Manhattan,” she said wistfully. She missed having her cousin close by. “When she lived in the city and Reni was single, we’d hang out a lot.”

“And now?”

She shrugged. “Not so much. Different cities, different lives with her married, me single. But when we were kids, we were like this.” She crossed two of her fingers together.

“And you miss hanging out with her, don’t you?” he said, his tone sympathetic.

He read her so well. “How did you know?”

“It might have something to do with how much you enjoy my crazy family.”

She couldn’t suppress a smile. “Well, I do.”

“Then why don’t you make an effort to spend more time with Renata?”

Because every time she saw her cousin with her
husband and kids, Sara left depressed. In the past, she was never quite sure where the melancholy came from. But now, she realized, her sadness stemmed from watching her cousin’s happiness and the family life Sara would never have because of the choices she deliberately made.

Choices that made sense, she reminded herself.

“You’re right. I should spend more time with her,” Sara said to Rafe.

Finished with the subject, she rose and headed inside.

R
AFE LET
S
ARA GO
. For whatever reason, the subject of her happily married cousin rattled her. He never meant to upset her, but he couldn’t deny being pleased that here was a chink in the armor she used to defend against happily ever after.

His cell phone rang. He pulled it out of his pocket, looked at the caller and groaned. “Hi, Aunt Vi,” he said through gritted teeth.

“Hi, honey. Rafe, he’s on the run again!”

He didn’t have to ask whom she was talking about. His head began to pound, and he pinched the bridge of his nose in frustration.

“Aunt Vi, I e-mailed you the picture of his car outside Jonah’s house last night. And I told him to go home and make peace with you. Didn’t he do that?”

She sniffed loudly into the phone. “I was asleep
last night and this morning. But he came home from work in a mood, barely said a word through dinner. He barely ate my manicotti! And then he said he had to go out. He wouldn’t say where. He just left!”

That’s it. Rafe had had enough of Pirro’s games. “I’ll take care of it, Aunt Vi.”

A few minutes later, he and Sara were once again driving around town looking for Pirro’s car.

“Do you think he’s playing cards?” Sara asked.

“I don’t know what he’s doing, but he’s obviously hiding something, and I’m going to get to the bottom of whatever it is.”

Except this time there was no sign of Pirro’s car by any of his poker cronies’ houses, and a distinct feeling of unease settled over Rafe.

“What do you want to do now?” Sara asked.

Rafe made a U-turn and headed back toward Aunt Vi’s house. “Now we wait for him to come home and find out what’s going on once and for all.”

Thankfully, they didn’t have to wait long. Pirro’s car turned into the driveway a short time later. It wasn’t late at night, still early enough for Pirro to run any normal errand, but he’d tell his wife about one of those.

Rafe opened his car door and gestured for Sara to come along. “Last time I appealed to him man-to-man. This time we can both interrogate him,” Rafe muttered.

“Pirro!” Rafe called to the man before he could disappear into his home.

“Rafe! You startled me.” The older man’s hand flew to his chest. “What are you doing here?”

“We’re going to have a talk, and this time you aren’t going to stonewall me.”

Rafe waited for Pirro to hem and haw, or stutter while he struggled to find a believable excuse.

“You’re right,” Pirro said instead. “I can’t do this alone.”

Startled, Rafe glanced from Pirro to Sara.

She shrugged, as if to say she was equally surprised. “Do you want to go inside?” she asked, her voice gentle.

Good cop, bad cop. They played the old cliché well.

“You’re such a nice girl,” Pirro said, then turned to Rafe. “She’s such a nice girl. You hang on to that one.”

Rafe shook his head, knowing the older man would get off track if he let him. “Do you want to go inside to talk?”

“No!” Pirro waved a hand in the air. “I don’t want Vivian to hear any of this. She’s upset enough, and this will only send her over the edge.” He inhaled a long, tortured breath.

A look at his tired, wan face told Rafe his suffering was real. “What’s going on? Talk to us.”

“Maybe we can help,” Sara said.

“I hope so, because I’m at my wit’s end. How could such a simple act of kindness lead to this kind of thing?”

Rafe placed a hand on Pirro’s shoulder. “Why don’t you start at the beginning.” Maybe then he could make sense of the problem.

“Right. Okay. You see, when I married your aunt, I discovered she was…how do I say this delicately?”

Rafe winced, knowing exactly where this conversation was headed. “Just say it fast and keep going.”

“My Vivian is insatiable. It takes a real man to keep up with her. I was afraid I would disappoint her, and so I spoke to my doctor, who gave me a few samples of Viagra.”

Rafe’s cheeks burned. He really did not want to have this conversation with his aunt’s husband.

“Go on,” Sara said, encouraging him and ignoring the embarrassment factor.

“It worked, but I couldn’t fill an actual prescription. I mean, can you imagine if Gertrude at the pharmacy got hold of that kind of information?” The older man shuddered. “A friend told me about a friend who had a friend that had access to an unlimited supply in Canada. He hooked me up, and soon I was…in the groove whenever I needed to be.”

Rafe remembered the comments outside the barber shop and realized he’d been right about Pirro taking
Viagra. “But what does this have to do with you sneak ing around town at odd hours?” Rafe asked, frustration building along with the accumulation of useless information. He wished Pirro would make his point.

“I’m getting there!”

“Take your time,” Sara said, shooting Rafe a warning glare.

“I shared my little secret with my friends at poker, and they asked me to get them some, too. So I contacted the guy, and soon we had a regular thing going. I’d meet him to place orders and pick up the pills.”

Rafe raised an eyebrow. “And that’s where you go when you’re ducking out on your wife?”

Pirro nodded. “That, and sometimes the guys want to meet privately to place or pick up their orders. Either they don’t want the other guys to know they’re using, too, or they’re afraid of being overheard at home. Plus, they shared the news and my customer base grew.”

“You’re dealing in Canadian Viagra. And that’s what has you so upset?” Rafe asked, appalled.

“That’s not all.” Pirro shoved his hands into his pockets and shifted from foot to foot.

“You’ve come this far,” Sara said, her voice soothing. “You can tell us the rest.”

“Two men approached me at the festival and told me they wanted access to my supplier so they could
traffic real drugs from here to Manhattan in the Spicy Secret’s delivery trucks,” Pirro said, his voice cracking. “I said no, of course. I’m not a drug dealer!”

Rafe figured now wasn’t the time to argue semantics. “So…”

“First my Angel’s pie stand burned down, and they made it clear they could get to my family if I didn’t cooperate, so I agreed. I bought myself some time, though. I told them I couldn’t reach my supplier until our scheduled meeting, which was a lie. They came to me and said I had until Friday to put the deal in motion. Or else.”

Rafe wondered how in the world this simple man had gotten himself involved with something so dangerous.

“You did the right thing telling us,” Sara reassured him. “Rafe and I will figure out a plan.”

“They said it would be a pity to hurt her…but I don’t think getting your brother out of the way would bother Biff and Todd so much. I’m so sorry!” Pirro trembled as he spoke.

“Biff and Todd are drug dealers?” Sara’s voice rose into the night.

“Shh!” Rafe reminded her. “Boy, you really stepped in it,” he said to his uncle.

Pirro, looking like an old, beaten man, met Rafe’s angry gaze. “I said I’m sorry!”

“You should have come to me immediately.”

“And have you look at me like you are now? At first I thought I could say no and they’d go away.”

Man, he was naive, Rafe thought.

“And then I thought I could stall them long enough to think of something. But most of all I was afraid you’d send me to jail, and how long do you think I’d last with a cell mate named Big Al?”

Rafe glanced at the starry night sky, praying for strength. “I’m glad you told me.” Now he had to come up with a plan. “Today is Tuesday. We have four days.”

Sara placed a hand on Pirro’s shoulder. “There’s nothing more you can do now. Why don’t you go inside and get some rest?”

“And reassure Aunt Vi, while you’re at it,” Rafe said. “We’ll be in touch.”

“Thank you!” Without warning, Pirro launched himself into Rafe’s arms.

Rafe awkwardly patted the man on the back. “We’ll figure out a plan,” he promised him.

He and Sara locked glances. She inclined her head, her subtle way of letting him know she had an idea. He wasn’t surprised she’d thought of something so quickly, and, not for the first time, he was damned glad she was here.

B
ACK AT
R
AFE’S HOUSE
, Sara put a call in to her uncle Jack, who really wasn’t her uncle but was a good
friend of her father’s from his police academy days. Uncle Jack was a retired DEA agent and still had contacts in the Drug Enforcement Administration and would tell her who to contact for help.

She hung up Rafe’s cell phone and walked back into the kitchen to find Rafe pouring himself a tumbler with Scotch.

She didn’t blame him.

“Are you okay?” she asked.

He nodded. “I just can’t believe Pirro’s been supplying Viagra to the old men in this town.” He shook his head in disbelief.

Sara laughed. “He’s a character, but I truly believe he meant well.”

“Did you reach your father’s friend?”

“I left Uncle Jack a message and said it was urgent. He’ll call your cell as soon as he gets it.”

“Thanks. Now that that’s in motion, let’s check my machine.” Rafe hit the play button on the answering machine on the kitchen counter. “Sara, it’s Coop. You left this number with me in case of emergency. It’s an emergency. Call me ASAP.”