Obsession (Southern Comfort) (26 page)

“Mmm,” Kathleen said again, her hand drifting up to pat him on the shoulder before falling
back to the bed.  They lie like that, limp and wrecked, as the minutes ticked by on her digital clock. They should get up, get ready to face the day ahead, but he just couldn’t make himself care at the moment.

“I’d say that makes this a
very
good morning,” she eventually said.

His lips curved against her neck.

“That wasn’t the way I envisioned our first time, but I’ll take it.”

“I would ask what your vision entailed, but my synapses are still misfiring.  Hopefully, I’ll have full brain function again before I start work.”

The mention of work was, unfortunately, the motivation Justin needed to roll himself off of her.  Then he looked to the side, studied her face.

She smiled, sleepy and satisfied.

He grabbed her hand, brought her fingers to his lips.

Her smile faltered.

“Problem?” he had to ask.

“No.
  Of course not.”

Her smile came again, bright, and false.

“Kathleen,” he said, and when she looked away, he grasped her chin and gently forced her head back around.  He wasn’t going to let her slide away into whatever little emotional hidey-hole she’d been aiming for.

“It’s just…” she looked at the ceiling again, finally took a deep breath before turning back.  “That kind of gesture, the romantic thing, has never meant that much to me before.  I mean sure, it’s nice, but I don’t need it or expect it.  And it certainly doesn’t make me go all gooey.”

“And now?”

She studied his expression, her own turning wry.  “Gooey, okay?  I’m a puddle over here.  But you don’t have to look so self-satisfied.”

“Of course I do.”
  Kathleen Murphy, discomposed and gooey?  Hell, he wasn’t just self-satisfied.  He felt like a king.

“Yeah, okay.  I’m feeling pretty satisfied myself.  I figured you wouldn’t be able to keep your hands off me.”

Justin grinned, stroked his thumb over the palm of her hand.  “So what you’re saying is this was all a plot.”

“Of course it was.  I didn’t buy that box of condoms
as a decorative item.”

“Ah.”  The grin slid from Justin’s face
as he remembered the condoms.  The condoms that were still sitting on his kitchen table.  “Yeah.  About that.”

“I’m on the pill,” she told him.  “And I’m clean.”

“So am I.  Clean, I mean.  I generally try to avoid ingesting estrogen and progestin, as I like my testosterone just fine.”

“You’re such a geek,” she told him.

“A geek who makes you gooey.”

“Don’t let it go to your head.  You surgeons have big enough egos.”  She sat up, stretched, and Justin’s gaze followed the long, lean line of her body. Improbable as it seemed, his
own body began to stir with interest again. 

She tilted her head, considering.  “We both need to shower.  Any chance we could do that together without things getting out of hand?”

“I don’t know.  The sleeping together platonically thing worked out pretty well.”

Kathleen laughed, the sound sexy and amused.  “Can you at least be quick?”

“I’d like to say no, no, of course not.  I have entirely too much stamina for that.  But the fact is, it’s a miracle I lasted past two minutes this first time.”

“We’ve got ten.”

“Well hell,” he said, rolling to his feet and scooping her – naked and laughing – off the bed.  “What are we waiting for then?”

KATHLEEN
strolled into Murphy’s, the familiar smells of good food and even better whiskey grounding her in a way that few things could.  The pub had been such a constant in her life, a home away from home during childhood, a hangout and source of spending money during her teens – she’d washed more than her share of dishes – and an unexpected source of pride as she watched her younger brothers take over the reins from their father, just as he had taken them over from his father before him.  Murphy’s wasn’t just a thriving Charleston landmark, it was a family institution. 

The institution was currently sparsely populated, as she’d hit the lull between the lunch and dinner crowds.  Spotting the reason for her visit standing at the far end of the copper
-topped bar, a pencil tucked behind his ear as he leaned over some paperwork, Kathleen took a moment to simply appreciate the man her brother had become.  Declan had always been the black sheep, the problem child of the family.

Responsibility – and happiness – looked good on him.

“I didn’t realize they had a Hooked on Phonics, Bar Edition now.”

Declan raised a brow as she slid onto a stool.
  “You keep wearing skirts to work and someone’s going to mistake you for a woman.”

Obligatory insults out of the way, Declan pushed the paperwork aside.  “What’s up?”

“Something has to be up?  I can’t just pay a visit to my baby brother?”

He snorted, but there was concern in his eyes.  “Is everything okay? Maureen – ”

“Maureen and the baby are fine,” she said, reaching out to squeeze his hand.  “I followed them home from the hospital.  And Ben seems to have a handle on things.”  Maureen’s husband was a criminal defense attorney. Aside from making for some interesting debates at family gatherings, Kathleen knew that it also meant he was well aware of the things of which human beings were capable.

Relief ea
sed some of the tension from Declan’s shoulders.  “Any word on that?”

“The lieutenant shut me out
completely.  But Josh broke ranks and slipped me a little information this morning.  They have a lead on the doll.”

“Harding,” Declan snorted again, more out of habit, Kathleen thought, than real derision.  The two of them had always yank
ed each other’s chains. “Teddy Bear Patrol seems right up his alley.”

Then he grew serious.  “I’m trying not to overreact to this, but it’s tough now, with Sadie and the baby.  How much of a threat is this guy?
Sadie balked, but I’m ready to move us into Maureen’s old apartment if I need to.  It would be easier to keep an eye on things until you catch him.”

By “things,” Kathleen knew he meant Sadie.  His protective gene had gone
haywire since they’d discovered she was pregnant.  But Kathleen couldn’t blame him.  She shared the same gene.

“I will absolutely let you know if I think that becomes necessary.
”

“Tough for you to know how necessary it might be, since you’re shut out of the investigation.”

Kathleen tapped her fingers on the bar.  “I, uh, have Anthony checking out a couple things for me.”

Declan’s brow arched skyward.  “Bucking the system?” he said
, his tone interested.  “How naughty of you.  I always knew you’d come around to my way of thinking eventually.”

“You could help me out instead of being a smartass.”

“I’m afraid the smartass thing is a permanent feature, like eye color, but I’ll be glad to help you out.”

Kathleen glanced around before leaning on the bar, motioning Declan closer.  “The new waitress you hired
, the one Sam Harding recommended.  Shelley?”

“What about her?”

“She giving you any… problems?”

“
No. She’s reliable, efficient and the customers seem to like her.  Although,” Declan considered, “she did do something a little odd last night.  She switched tables with another server because she didn’t want to wait on a couple customers.  I didn’t pay a whole lot of attention at the time, because we were busy, and the customers still got waited on.  But now that I think about it, I‘m pretty sure the customers in question were Justin and Anthony.  Which is weird, because I was under the impression she liked Wellington.  A lot. What’s going on?”

“I don’t know.” Kathleen tapped her fingers again.  “And I don’t want to accuse her of anything of which she might be perfectly innocent.  Just… if you notice anything else unusual, let me know, okay?
”

“Of course.”  And then, because he was constitutionally incapable of maintaining a serious conversation for very long, he leaned back, crossed his arms.  “By the way, I had to come in early this morning for a delivery. 
There was a strange SUV in the lot.  You wouldn’t know anything about that, would you?”

Kathleen felt heat creep into her cheeks.  Which was simply ridiculous.  She was a grown woman, and whom she chose to spend the night with wasn’t anyone else’s business.  Particularly her pesky little brother.

“No idea,” she told him.

“Maybe I should call Harding and ask him about it.  Considering you have this threat hanging over you and all.  We really can’t be too careful.”

“Do and die.”

Declan chuckled, low and evil.  “That’s what I thought.”

Kathleen slid off the stool, straightened her jacket.  “Tell Sadie I’ll be happy to take her to the psychiatric hospital when you finally drive her insane.” 

“Sadie’s crazy about me.”

“Crazy being the operative word.”

The sound of her brother’s laughter followed her out the door.

CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

JUSTIN
turned the key in the SUV’s ignition, but the engine almost immediately choked.  Frowning, he waited a minute before trying again, pumping the gas a little, only to experience identical results.  Three more attempts had him sighing and admitting defeat.

He climbed from the driver’s seat just as James came out the door, rubb
ing a hand through his sleep-mussed hair. 

“Problem?”
he called from the porch.

“Sounds like the fuel filter is clogged.”  Justin
reached into the foot well, finding the latch that released the hood.  Yawning, his breath clouding in the early morning air, James came down the steps to stand beside Justin as he checked out the SUVs engine.

“Can you grab me a wrench and a pair of pliers from the garage?”

“Sure.”  His brother came back, slapped the tools into Justin’s palm, and Justin loosened the clips so that he could extract the filter.  When he pulled it out, it was covered in a brownish gunk.

Justin frowned.

“That can’t be good,” James surmised.

Setting the filter aside, Justin rounded the car, pried open the cover to the gas tank.

And squinted at the fine crystalline substance dusting the well around the cap.  “Son of a bitch.”

“What is that?” James asked.

“Sugar.”

“I thought that was a myth.”

“It’s a myth that it’ll ruin an engine.  It will, however, clog a fuel filter, effectively rendering the vehicle inoperable until the filter is changed.”  There was no telling exactly when the sugar had been dumped in there.  Certainly after he’d last filled the tank yesterday evening.  No way he would have missed that.  Depending on the amount of sugar, it could take minutes or hours to effectively clog the filter.  That meant it could possibly have happened last night.  Yesterday afternoon when he’d been at work. 

Or even the night before, when he’d been at Kathleen’s.
 

James was silent, and Justin knew that his brother was trying to figure out what to say.

But really, what was there left to say at this point?

“I’ll pick up a new filter on my way home.  But I’ll have to take my truck to work, which means you’ll be stranded.”

“You’ve got the security company coming today to install your alarm.  I’d planned to be here anyway.”

“James.” Justin closed the door to the fuel tank.  “This may not be the best time for you to be staying here.
”

“Bullshit,” James said with feeling.

Justin sighed.  “Look, it should be obvious by now that Mandy is crazy.  Seriously mentally unbalanced.  This?  This is just petty.  But the coffee, the shredded shower curtain, the
fucking cameras.”
He took a deep breath, held onto his temper with both hands.  “Those are pretty good indications that the woman is utterly unstable.  And she has a vendetta. I don’t want you caught in the crosshairs.”

“Are you finished?” James said, crossing his arms.  “
Because you know that you’re wasting your breath.”

“James –”

“Screw. That.”

Recognizing the absolute implacability in his brother’s expression – it was a distinct Wellington trait – Justin reluctantly backed down.
  For now.

“Just… be careful, okay.”

“I think that you’re the one who needs to be vigilant.  I also think you should be armed.”

“Hell,” Justin muttered.  He had nothing against a person’s right to
defend themselves by whatever means necessary, and most of his family owned guns.  But having seen firsthand the damage wrought to the human body by a bullet, he’d always been reluctant to carry one himself.  “I don’t want to shoot her, James.”