Shame on Him (16 page)

“Aw, shit,” she mutters.

Before I can react, she grabs on to my arm and hauls me into the house, slamming the door closed behind her.

She drags me into the living room and pushes me onto the couch.

“You! You’re the one who attacked me last night. Who the hell
are
you?” I ask, standing back up from the couch.

She stalks over to me and places her hands on my chest, shoving me down again.

“Sit there and shut up. I need to think,” she tells me angrily.

“YOU need to think? Screw you! Are you covering for Stephanie? Did she hire you to come to my house because she killed her husband and she knows I’m onto her?” I fire at her.

“Sweetie, your tea’s getting cold.”

I look up as Stephanie walks into the room, stopping in her tracks when she sees me there. “Oh, dear.”

Standing up from the couch again, I shoot the crazy, manhandling woman a dirty look before she can shove me back down.

“Mel, what did you do?” Stephanie asks, turning to the woman currently glaring at me.

“She attacked me in my home last night. And you killed your ex-husband, so you’re both going to jail,” I tell her.

“What?! I didn’t kill Richard! What are you talking about? Mel, what is she talking about?” Stephanie asks, turning to this Mel person.

“Oh, cut the bullshit, Stephanie. The medical examiner’s report is in. They found traces of taheebo bark all over Richard’s shirt the day he was killed. If I remember correctly, you drink taheebo tea, don’t you?”

Stephanie glances down at the cup of tea in her hand and quickly sets it down on an end table. She looks back and forth between Mel and me nervously.

“Oh, Mel, tell me you didn’t?” Stephanie whispers.

Mel sighs and walks over to Stephanie, placing her hands on her shoulders.

“Baby, I had to do something. He was gonna shut down my business and tell everyone about us. I couldn’t let that happen.”

What the hell is going on right now?

I watch in strange fascination as the two of them embrace. Stephanie pulls away first and looks over at me.

“Lori, this is my herbalist and . . . lover, Melinda. She really didn’t mean to do this. Can’t we just pretend like it never happened? I mean, you’re just a reporter. You could say I wouldn’t comment or something, can’t you?” she begs.

“I’m not a reporter and my name’s not Lori Wagner. It’s Lorelei Warner and I’m a private investigator. I was hired to solve Richard’s murder,” I explain.

Well, technically I was only hired to deliver a subpoena to Richard for their divorce. She doesn’t need to know I coerced my way into solving Richard’s murder with a man I thought I was falling in love with and thinks I’m worthless when it comes to this job. Those are just silly little details when I’m standing in front of a murderer and her accomplice.

“What? You lied to me? How DARE you!” Stephanie shouts. “I can’t believe this. I even had Mel put together some herbs for you and run your astrology chart. Your third house is in Neptune, by the way, which means your rational mind is going to try and deceive you in your pursuit of the truth in your heart.”

I have no idea what she’s blathering on about. Ignoring her, I reach into my back pocket for my cell phone to call the police. As soon as I pull it out, Melinda smacks it out of my hand.

“What the hell are you doing?” I scream at her, moving to pick up my phone.

As I bend down, I hear the click of a bullet being loaded into the chamber of a gun. I pause, and lift my head slowly to see Melinda aiming a gun at my face.

“Melinda! Put that away! You know how I hate guns. They completely mess with my aura. I feel a headache coming on,” Stephanie complains.

“Yes, listen to Stephanie. How about you put the gun away and we can talk?” I tell her, trying not to freak out that there is a loaded gun aimed right at me.

“What’s there to talk about? I love Stephanie and she loves me,” Melinda says with a shrug. “Her loser of an ex-husband found out about us and was gonna tell everyone. It didn’t matter that he only married her so no one would know he was gay and that the affair he was having was with another dude, his secretary, no less. He said if I didn’t leave town for good, he’d have my business shut down. I didn’t want Stephanie’s reputation ruined, and without my business we wouldn’t have any money. So I went over there one day and got rid of the asshole.”

Well, that explains Stephanie’s anger when she walked in on Richard having sex with his secretary. I suddenly feel her pain.

Stephanie covers her heart with her hand. “Melinda, I can’t believe you did this.”

Melinda turns to look at her and nods. “I might as well tell you I killed Andrew Jameson too. Richard told me right before I shot him that Andrew knew all about us. He confided in Andrew back when they were still friends, before Richard fired him. I’d been keeping an eye on him for a few days and it seemed like he was too busy drinking to care. But then this one showed up at his house and I knew he would tell her,” Melinda says angrily, pointing in my direction. “You probably hate me now, huh?”

Stephanie shakes her head back and forth frantically before running up to Melinda and throwing her arms around her. “I could never hate you! That’s the most romantic thing anyone has ever done for me.”

With the gun still aimed at me, Melinda wraps one arm around Stephanie’s waist and plants a passionate kiss on her lips.

“If you knew about Richard, what was the point of telling everyone he had a porn addiction? Wouldn’t it have just been easier to tell everyone he was gay?” I ask Stephanie.

She pulls away from Melinda and shrugs. “I was afraid. I figured if people knew about him, it would only be a matter of time before they found out about me and Mel. I wasn’t ready for the world to share our love. He never had a porn addiction. I just made that up so people wouldn’t find out the truth.”

Right then, the front door bursts open and Dallas charges in with his gun drawn. “Drop the weapon! NOW!”

CHAPTER 20

A
s happy as I am to see someone else here to help me, I’m downright pissed off that it’s Dallas.

Melanie turns her gun away from me and aims it at Dallas. “I’m not putting my gun down. YOU put your gun down.”

Dallas takes a few careful steps into the house, glancing over at me. “You okay, baby?”

I scoff at him and roll my eyes. “Don’t call me ‘baby.’ And while you’re at it, fuck off.”

He stares at me in shock and I turn away from him. Melinda shoves her gun into my ribs. I wince at the pain.

“Put your gun down or I shoot her,” Melinda tells Dallas.

He puts his free hand in the air as he bends down slowly and places his gun on the floor by his feet. “I’m putting my gun down. You don’t need to shoot anyone.”

“But, hey, if you’re in the mood, feel free to shoot him,” I tell Melinda, nodding in Dallas’s direction.

“Lorelei? What the fuck?” Dallas asks in confusion as he stands back up.

“I wasn’t born yesterday. Kick your gun away from you,” Melinda tells him.

Dallas huffs and uses the toe of his boot to slide the gun across the room.

“Now, let’s have ourselves a little chat and see what we’re going to do about this situation,” Melinda says.

“Oh, that sounds like fun. I think he should go first. He could tell us all about how he’s a lying sack of shit,” I say angrily, staring at Dallas.

“What in the hell is your problem?” Dallas fires back.

“MY problem? That’s rich coming from you. Hmmm, let me think.” I tap my finger against my chin and pretend to contemplate. “I don’t know what I’m doing, you only slept with me to make sure I didn’t screw anything up—am I forgetting anything? Oh, that’s right! The sooner you can solve this case, the sooner you can stop babysitting little old me.”

The anger on Dallas’s face melts away and he closes his eyes.

Melinda whistles next to me. “Wow, that’s pretty low, dude.”

Dallas sighs and finally opens his eyes, ignoring Melinda and looking right at me. “You heard Ted and me talking.”

I roll my eyes at him. “Don’t even think about denying it. I was standing right there.”

I refuse to let the pain in my heart show. I will not be broken by another man.

“I’m not denying it. I said every word,” Dallas admits.

I think my heart might actually still be intact right now if he had tried to deny it. Hearing him openly admit what he really thinks of me makes it shatter into a million pieces.

“The chakras in this room will never be the same. I’m going to have to move,” Stephanie complains with a sigh. “At least your aura isn’t gray anymore, Lorelei. It’s a lovely shade of pink, so that means you’re in love. Congratulations!”

My eyes widen and I quickly glance at Dallas, hoping he didn’t hear that last part. He’s staring at me with a smile.

“You’re in love with me?” he asks.

“Oh, please! She has no idea what she’s talking about. You can go right to hell!” I yell at him.

“I’ve studied auras for years. I definitely know what I’m talking about,” Stephanie adds.

I roll my eyes at her and cross my arms over my chest.

“Lorelei, I didn’t mean what I said to Ted. I swear,” Dallas confesses.

“You expect me to believe that line of bullshit?” I shout.

“Yes, I do! After what’s happened between us, I sure as fuck expect you to believe that I’m in love with you, Lorelei, and I would never do that to you,” he argues back.

My jaw drops at his admission, but it doesn’t change anything.

“Miles actually went to the department and said something about us working together. Ted headed him off, but he was worried the guy would just go talk to someone else. I was covering for you. I didn’t mean any of those things I said to him. He suspects we’ve been lying to him, but as long as he’s not sure, there’s nothing he can do.”

I shake my head and look away from him.

Could he be telling the truth? I don’t know what to believe.

“Um, hello? Can we get back to the important matter at hand? I’m the one with the Goddamn gun here!” Melinda yells.

“Honey, just put the gun down. We can pack up some things and run away together,” Stephanie tells her.

Melinda looks at Stephanie for a moment and then back to me. She forcefully shoves me away from her and I stumble, falling to my hands and knees in front of Dallas while she runs over to Stephanie and scoops her up in her arms.

Smacking away Dallas’s outstretched hand, I push myself up from the ground and watch as Stephanie and Melinda embrace.

“Do you mean it? We can just leave and go wherever we want?” Melinda asks Stephanie excitedly.

“Holy shit, are we in a porno?” Dallas mutters next to me as he stares at Stephanie and Melinda while they kiss.

I start to laugh and then realize I’m still pissed at him. Dammit!

“I meant it, you know? I love you, Lorelei. Think with your heart and not your brain for once. You know damn well I was lying when I said all of those things to Ted,” Dallas whispers. “You didn’t need me to solve this case. You never needed me to look after you. You beat the shit out of your attacker last night and you solved this thing. I’m so fucking proud of you.”

I bite down on my lips and refuse to look at him. I know if I look at him, I’ll be lost.

“Put the gun down and we can leave right now,” Stephanie tells Melinda.

There’s a few feet separating Dallas and me right now and his gun is even farther away. Out of the corner of my eye, I see him slowly inching his way closer to where he kicked the gun.

Melinda suddenly looks over at him and the smile falls from her face.

“Were you going for your gun?” she asks.

Dallas just shrugs.

And then everything happens all at once. Melinda raises her gun, Dallas crouches down to spring across the floor to his own weapon, and I throw myself toward Dallas right as the thundering boom of a gun going off fills the quiet room.

My body slams into him and in his crouched position, he falls to the ground with me on top of him. Pain radiates through my body when we hit the floor and I know I must have jarred something loose from my scuffle with Melinda last night.

Dallas wraps his arms protectively around my body and rolls me onto my back, cradling me close to him as shouts fill the air and a stampede of police officers with guns drawn comes flying into the house.

Dallas lifts his head away from me and we both watch as Melinda and Stephanie are taken to the ground and handcuffed.

“You guys okay?” Ted asks as he flies into the room with his gun in front of him, heading over to the chaos across from us.

“Yep, we’re good. Lorelei here just saved my ass. I’m pretty sure that proves she loves me too,” Dallas tells him as he looks down at me and smiles.

I try to smile back, but I feel a little woozy. I must have slammed into Dallas a little too hard. The room is starting to spin and I blink quickly a few times to try and settle everything.

Dallas pulls away from me a little bit and I stare in shock at his shoulder.

“Oh, my God, you’re bleeding. You’ve been shot,” I mutter.

His face scrunches up in confusion and he looks down at himself. His gaze slowly makes its way back to me.