“It’s the only one I ever did. Who knows—maybe one day when I’m long gone someone will discover me, and the painting will be worth a lot of money.’’
“Maybe,” Sheldon agreed.
Tyanna flashed Sheldon a wry smile and rolled her eyes. “Yeah, right. Well, one can always dream.” She strolled into the living room. “You want anything to drink? Water? Soda?’’
“Naw,” Sheldon said, following her. “I’m fine.” He gave the entire room a quick perusal, then sat on the sofa.
“All right.” Tyanna casually walked to the armchair, where she took a seat.
He didn’t blame her for putting some distance between them. Even as he’d looked at the sofa, he had remembered her naked there. Which wasn’t hard, because she had often walked around naked. Who needed clothes when they’d spent the better part of their time
indoors making the kind of love that made their toes curl?
Tyanna crossed one leg over the other, and the first thing Sheldon noticed was the toe ring on her extended foot. He had never thought of himself as the kind of guy who’d have a foot fetish, but Tyanna had the most beautiful feet. Aside from her sparkly toe ring, her toenails were painted a bright red. It was a hot combination.
He had loved the feel of those feet stroking his thighs, or wrapped tightly around his back as he’d thrust deep inside her.
Sheldon’s eyes went higher. He allowed himself a good, long look at her sexy body. She was in amazing shape, even better than he remembered. She had long, lean legs that were beautifully sculpted. Her arms were slim, yet the muscles defined. With all the working out she had done, she was firm but had remained feminine. Her mocha-colored skin was smooth and flawless on every inch of her perfect body.
But what got to him most were those sexy dimples. She had the kind of smile that made him think warm, cozy thoughts
and
get hard. Which was a deadly combination.
He remembered the New Year’s Eve they’d spent together, how she’d drawn her slinky black dress over her head to reveal a sparkly bra-and-panty set. He’d had a hard-on so bad, he hadn’t bothered to take the extra time to slip the items
off her body. He had simply pushed her panties aside and entered her warmth….
“Sheldon?” Tyanna was looking at him with a weird expression.
Aw, shit. So much for not thinking about sex. He was as hard as a flagstaff. He hoped she hadn’t been able to read his thoughts.
“Um…I think I’ll take that drink,” he said.
“Oh.” Tyanna stood, and her navel ring twinkled at him. Oh, yeah. He remembered the navel ring.
“What would you like?” she asked.
“Water,” he answered quickly, darting his eyes to her face. “With ice.’’
That was the closest he could get to a cold shower, and he hoped to hell it would work.
Wendy pulled her convertible LeBaron into a parking spot on Washington Avenue, then killed the engine. It was late and not even a weekday to boot, but considering Phil was at the office this Sunday evening once again working overtime, she figured she’d hazard a chance at seeing him.
Wendy got out of the car and put money in the parking meter. She walked the short distance to Phil’s office. Peering through the window, she couldn’t see him. He must have been in the back part of the office, which made sense, as the front area was a reception and waiting area.
Stepping back, Wendy used the glass as a mirror. Her stomach began to contract painfully as she saw her reflection.
Good Lord, she looked like one of the tramps who frequented the South Beach strip.
She stared at herself a moment longer and realized that she was being hard on herself. She
didn’t look low-class. In fact, the outfit she wore flattered her well-toned body. But she was suddenly self-conscious, not sure if her outfit was too much.
Well, “too little” might be a more accurate description.
It wasn’t like she wasn’t used to dressing in slinky outfits; she routinely wore HotSkins, a popular choice among many fitness buffs. Popular and sexy. But she couldn’t help wondering if this black skirt was too short, her form-fitting white cut-off T-shirt too revealing. It was the kind of outfit many trainers wore when they wanted to be sexy, but was it appropriate now?
She tugged at the hem of her tight skirt, but it didn’t move much lower on her thighs. She did the same with her shirt, but her breasts nearly popped out of the low-neck number—and wouldn’t that have been a wonderful scene!
She huffed out a breath and realized that she was either going to have to head into the office or head home. And she’d come here this evening with a plan. Sexy was part of the plan, right from her tight T-shirt down to her high-heeled sandals.
Normally, she wasn’t shy about what she wore. Working at the gym required form-fitting clothing. So why was she so nervous now?
Because she was trying to impress Phil.
And she wasn’t used to going to see him in an outfit she deliberately hoped would turn him on.
She couldn’t help wondering if he would see
through her motives. But then, maybe that’s exactly what she needed. One of them had to make the first move.
Wendy had known Phil for nearly four years, ever since they were neighbors at her last apartment complex. From day one, she had found him attractive. Attractive and nice. Attractive and living with his girlfriend.
They had quickly become friends, which had been fine with Wendy. She hadn’t pictured him as anything more than that back then.
Over the years, they had both dated other people, and even though Wendy had since moved from that apartment, she and Phil had stayed friends. They got together every once in a while. In the past few months, though, Wendy had felt her attraction to him grow. Ever since his relationship with Laura—his most recent girlfriend—had ended.
Phil had talked to her a lot about Laura, about all the games she used to play with him, and Wendy had known that his heart was going to break in a big way. For some reason, he had really been attracted to Laura, more so than some of the others in the past, but Wendy had known from the beginning that the buxom model was as flaky as a piecrust.
It was during his relationship with Laura that Wendy had realized she was interested in Phil—not simply because of her extreme disapproval of Laura, but because she felt a stab of jealousy
whenever he talked about her. Somewhere along the line, Wendy’s attraction had snuck up and bit her in the butt, and, quite selfishly, she had been relieved when Phil’s relationship with Laura had ended. As far as she knew, he wasn’t dating anyone at this point.
Wendy had given him her shoulder to cry on after Laura, as she had done in the past—as he had done for her as well. And after that, any time she got together with Phil for dinner or a drink, she was overly friendly with him. She had tried, subtly, to get him to notice her in a way he hadn’t before. Being somewhat old-fashioned, Wendy wanted Phil to make the first official move. Until that point, it was clear she was going to have to use all her feminine wiles to gently push him in that direction.
The problem was, Phil had never looked at her with even so much as a hint of interest, and didn’t seem to get the idea that she was interested. The way Wendy figured it, that was because they’d always been “good buddies.”
Tonight, she hoped to change that.
Her stomach tickled with nerves as she opened the door to the offices of The Right Touch Production Company. She had called Phil earlier and told him she would stop by to discuss the plans for the video shoot. He was a workaholic, not letting the weekends stop him. And because it was Sunday, she knew he would be alone.
She stepped into the office. “Hello?’’
“Back here,” Phil replied.
Wendy slowly walked toward the back. Seeing Phil standing over a desk full of pictures, she smiled.
“Hey, you,” she said.
Phil looked up, greeting her with a grin. “Wendy.’’
They walked toward each other, meeting for a hug. Wendy savored it, inhaling his distinct masculine scent mixed with a light hint of cologne. Man, did it ever feel good to be in his strong arms.
Just as she closed her eyes, Phil pulled away. It was as jarring as a douse of cold water. She popped her eyes open with lightning speed, hoping he hadn’t noticed that she was enjoying the hug just a little too much.
Flustered, she looked up at him. “It’s so good to see you again, Phil. You’ve been keeping way too busy with work.’’
“I know. But business is booming.’’
“That’s always positive.”
He nodded. Then, he gave her a quick once-over. “You’re looking good.’’
“Thanks.” But Wendy felt a tickle of disappointment in her stomach. He’d said the words in much the same way one would say, “Nice weather we’re having.” Like it was mandatory conversation, but not necessarily true.
“Let’s sit down.’’
Phil walked back to the desk and Wendy followed him. He pulled a chair up beside his and patted the seat.
Sitting down next to him, Wendy glanced at the array of headshots on his desk. “What’re all these for?’’
“We’re shooting a music video for a local rap group. They want women—hot women—and these are the headshots we’ve gotten from agents.’’
Wendy nodded her understanding. “They’re pretty.’’
As Wendy watched him, Phil lifted one picture for closer examination. His eyes narrowed; he was suddenly in work mode. “Ginelle’s a definite yes.” He placed her picture to one side. “She’s gorgeous.”
“Hmm,” Wendy replied. For some reason, she felt a twinge of jealousy. Not in a possessive way, but she suddenly wondered if Phil saw her as pretty.
Considering the way he had looked at her—or rather, the way he hadn’t—Wendy couldn’t help wondering if he thought of her as pretty in a sisterly-type way.
Which would suck.
“Anyway,” Phil said. He slapped a palm on the table and turned his attention back to her. “I know you didn’t come over to discuss headshots.”
“No.” Wendy chuckled softly, then leaned back
in the chair. She crossed one leg over the other, giving Phil an ample view of her thigh.
If he noticed, he didn’t show it. “Give me the details of the project.’’
“Like I told you, Tyanna and I need to shoot a fitness video. We hadn’t thought we would be doing one so quickly, but we heard back from Ronnie Vaughn’s office sooner than expected. Anyway, we’re hoping to shoot this video as quickly as possible. It’s not going to be the best, we know, but hopefully good enough to get him interested. I know we have to work around your schedule, so we’ll have to be as flexible as possible. If need be, Tyanna and I can reschedule our shifts at the gym. But if you can work it for a Sunday, that would be best, since Tyanna and I are both off on Sundays.’’
Phil pursed his lips, deep in thought. “And how soon is ‘as quickly as possible’?”
“Hopefully in the next couple weeks. I still need time to figure out what our routine will be.’’
Phil nodded, still thinking.
“But if that isn’t doable—’’
“No,” Phil said, cutting her off. “I’ll figure something out. You know I’ll always be there for you, any way I can.” He gave her a soft smile. “Let me see what my schedule looks like for late next week. I should be able to do Sunday for sure. Even if it means bribing my guys with a few incentives.”
Wendy leaned forward in the chair. She reached out and placed a hand on Phil’s leg. “I will love you forever if you can work this out for us.’’
“Yeah, that’s what they all say.’’
But they don’t all mean it
, Wendy thought.
Silence fell between them, and Wendy pulled back her hand. Had Phil even checked out her cleavage? She wasn’t sure.
Phil turned back to his desk and scribbled some notes on a paper. Wendy bit her inner cheek, nervous. Should she take this moment to come on to him and make it real clear what her intentions were?
Before she got the chance, Phil pushed his chair back. “All right. I’ve got the info. I’ll try to get next Sunday nailed down for you.” He stood. “I hate to cut this short, Wendy, but I’m finally going to head home. It’s been a long day. A long week.’’
Wendy stood as well. “I’m sure it has. You need to take a break.’’
“Hopefully one day soon.’’
He walked the few steps toward her and gave her an impromptu hug. “As always, it’s a pleasure to see you.” Then he kissed her on the cheek.
The kiss was…sweet. Not electric. Not exciting. Just…sweet.
But it was
something
. She had to cling to that.
And as Wendy made her way back to her car, she analyzed the possible meanings of the peck Phil had given her. Maybe it wasn’t quite as chaste as it had seemed….
“Oh, who are you kidding?” she asked herself as she got behind the wheel of the car. Her grandmother had given her more exciting kisses.
But she wasn’t going to give up on Phil. At least not yet.
It was simply time for Plan B.
The glass of cold water helped somewhat, though what Sheldon had really wanted to do was dump the entire contents right on his crotch. Since this was out of the question, what he did was get down to the business of why he’d come over to Tyanna’s place—and that was to discuss Dino.
He placed the empty glass on the coffee table, then cleared his throat. “So, Tyanna. Exactly what did you want to know?’’
“I know you were surprised to hear from me, but I’ve been doing a lot of thinking,” she began. “About what you told me. And—” She blew out a harried breath, suddenly nervous. Just the mere idea that Dino was some corrupt character had her feeling like she was living out a
Miami Vice
episode. “Anyway, I was thinking—the Sheldon I knew would never lie to me. Keep things from me, maybe, but not outright lie. Certainly not something so outrageous. So I’m figuring your story about
Dino is true.” She didn’t want to tell him she had talked to Leona. Telling him that would make her sudden interest in his story seem less genuine, like she couldn’t believe him without proof.
And she truly was interested in hearing what he had to say. By keeping her chat with Leona out of this, she would avoid offending him.
“I’d like to hear the complete story,” she continued. “If you don’t mind sharing it.’’
“I don’t mind.’’
“All right. Can I ask you something first?” Sheldon nodded, and she went on. “When you started working at the gym, did you know Dino Benedetto was a…a criminal?”
Criminal
was an understatement. The man was a low-life S.O.B., but Dino had covered all that with a charming smile.
Like coating dog turd with honey
. “Yeah, I knew he was a criminal. When I first started working at the gym, my brother had already been murdered.”
Tyanna shivered visibly.
“I know it’s not a nice word, Tyanna, but that’s exactly what happened.” Sheldon swallowed painfully, remembering. He wondered if it would ever get easier. “He was found in an alley with two bullets in the back of his head.’’
Tyanna gasped, throwing a hand to her mouth. “Oh my God.’’
Sheldon’s face twisted as the image of his brother, alone and dying in that alley, flooded his brain. “Yeah, it was tough.’’
“And you’re sure it was Dino?’’
“I can’t be sure if Dino was the one who actually pulled the trigger, but if not him personally, then it was one of his henchmen. When I told you that Dino is connected to organized crime, I wasn’t kidding. He grew up in New York, and apparently is affiliated with some mob family. I know—it sounds too incredible to be true. And at first I thought he was talking a big game, trying to sound like some tough guy no one could mess with. But I learned other things that made me believe his connection to the mob was fact.’’
“I know a lot of them love Florida for the weather,” Tyanna commented. “At least that’s what I’ve seen on some of A & E’s crime shows.’’
“I think Dino would have stayed in New York, but it sounds like he pissed some people off there and his father sent him to Florida. Gambling debts or something, which his father had to pay for him. I know that even though he ran the juice bar, wore a Rolex and drove fancy cars, he claimed poverty when it came to his taxes.’’
“What?”
“Everything was in his father’s name.’’
Tyanna rolled her eyes. “Brother.”
“Tell me about it. His father had a lot of money, and so did he. He had a legitimate business with the juice bar, but it wasn’t enough for him. It was like he couldn’t be happy unless he was doing something underhanded. I’ll never understand that mentality.”
“Neither will I.” Though Tyanna had parents who were well off, she had taken care of herself since college. And while there were times when she’d had to do some penny-pinching, she had never even considered anything illegal. Why would someone with money even bother to take the risk that came with committing crimes? She supposed they must get some sort of high out of it.
She asked, “What did the police say about the murder?’’
“Not much. They investigated, of course, but there wasn’t enough evidence to lock Dino up and throw away the key. I’m not sure Dino actually pulled the trigger. Actually, I’m sure he didn’t. The police said he had an ironclad alibi. But I know he ordered the hit.’’
As much as Tyanna wanted to believe that the bad guys always got what was coming to them, she knew that wasn’t true. Criminals often got away with murder, simply because they were smart and took the time to carefully plan their crimes. “I don’t know what to say, Sheldon. If anything ever happened to any of my sisters—especially something senseless like that—I have no clue what I’d do.’’
“The first few months were unbearable. The police couldn’t act without evidence, and each day that went by—watching my mother go through hell—I knew I had to do something. Because I was working in fitness, it was easy
enough for me to get a job at the gym. And from there, I started hanging around the juice bar, getting close to Dino.’’
Tyanna looked at Sheldon, watched the pained expression on his face. She wished there was something she could do to take away his agony, but knew there wasn’t.
After a moment, she said, “You know, that’s one thing I’m confused about. Not that I talked to your mother every day, but she never mentioned Dwight.’’
Sheldon shrugged. “I guess it brings her down. It was pretty hard for both of us to even talk about it together. I just knew I needed to take action.’’
It was a plausible explanation. Tyanna could understand the subject being too painful even to mention. “So you got a job at the gym,” she prompted, reminding Sheldon where he had left off.
“Mmm hmm. About a month before you did.’’
“Help me understand this, Sheldon. Why didn’t you tell me about Dwight before now?” She thought of all the nights they had lain in her bed, how she’d shared her dreams and heartbreaks with him. How could he not tell her about something so important in his life? He had left before her brother-in-law’s tragic accident, but if he had been around she would have leaned on him for support. Why hadn’t he felt he could do the same with her?
He didn’t have to tell her the circumstances of Dwight’s death if it was too hard to talk about, but he could have at least shared with her that he had had a brother.
“When I started working at the gym,” Sheldon began in reply, “I had one purpose. To get enough evidence to put Dino away. When you started working there—you weren’t part of the plan. You were actually a snag. And when I say that, I mean that I’d hoped I could work at the gym and see Dino put in jail without forming any attachments with anyone.’’
Tyanna remembered how they’d met. How she had been more intrigued by his quiet nature than put off. What had started off as “hi” and “how are you” had progressed to slightly longer conversations, then longer still. Eventually, she had been the one to ask him out for a drink, and was almost surprised when he accepted.
Sheldon was hard to read, but there was something about him that drew her to him. Her parents would say that she was attracted to trouble, but that wasn’t it. There was a vulnerability in Sheldon’s eyes, even when he tried to hide it, and that had intrigued her.
Like her, Sheldon was a personal trainer at Ultimate Fitness, working with clients on a day-today basis. But after a couple months, she noticed that he was spending more and more time with Dino behind the juice bar. Helping out if he didn’t have a client at the time. Staying after his sched
uled shift was over to work with Dino. She hadn’t thought anything of it, other than that Sheldon and Dino were forming a close friendship.
“You and Dino seemed pretty tight,” Tyanna pointed out.
“And that’s exactly the way I wanted it. I had to get to the point where he would trust me. Let me into his inner circle. It wasn’t like I had applied for a job at the juice bar. But that was where I needed to be. To get the information I needed.” He paused. “Surprisingly enough, Dino trusted me after a while. I’d drop a hint here and there that I’d had a violent past, as if I was testing him, and he slowly started to open up. If he had someone else from New York down here, he probably wouldn’t have taken me into his confidence, but he really needed help with his operation. He had mentioned having a cousin who had lived in Florida for a while, who worked with him at the juice bar, so I assume that’s who was doing his dirty work. Apparently, that cousin had moved back to New York.
“Anyway, I didn’t want Dino to know that I cared about anyone at the gym, which is why I kept my personal life totally secret. Because if he did know, that could have been dangerous for anyone I was involved with. These guys stop at nothing when they want to get back at someone. He could smile with you one day, and dump you along Alligator Alley the next—just to make sure he hurt me.’’
“Gosh, that’s the stuff of all those crime movies.’’
“Exactly. As it turned out—since I got caught going through his stuff—it was a good thing that Dino didn’t know we were involved. He would’ve gone to you immediately after he made me. And if I had told you about Dwight, you could have mentioned it in passing to someone else, and it could have gotten back to Dino.” Sheldon paused. “Why are you looking at me like that?’’
“I don’t know. You almost seem like a different person. I guess you never spoke so…freely to me before.” Which was true. Even when she thought about it now, she wondered what had attracted her so fiercely to him. In the seven months they’d been together, he had never showed her any affection at work. Well, nothing special anyway. He pretty much kept her at arm’s length in the gym, which was difficult because she loved being romantic.
And for her, romantic meant being touchy feely. It meant giving impromptu kisses and hugs, and handholding if she felt like it. Which had surprised Tyanna as much as anyone. She couldn’t remember having felt that way about someone before—wanting to be so openly demonstrative. Not even in eighth grade when she’d had her first crush, on Stan Carlton. So in a way, it had hurt her when Sheldon had not returned her affections.
Of course, he had more than made up for his lack of public attention in the privacy of her apartment.
“I had to be a different person then,” Sheldon said simply.
Tyanna brought the conversation back to Dino. “You said Dino was selling steroids? Tell me about that.’’
“Hell—where do I start? I knew about that right from the beginning, because of my brother, but it took Dino nearly five months to trust me enough to let me know he was selling steroids at the gym. Like I said, I figure he needed someone, and he thought I was a badass because of some of the stories I’d told him. Willing to do anything.
“As for the steroids, he had his hand into all kinds of stuff. Anabolic and anti-catabolic steroids, fertility drugs for testosterone production. Growth hormones. There was a ton of money in it. Some of the serious bodybuilders spend over a hundred grand a year on all this stuff.’’
Wow. That was a lot of “stuff.” Sheldon made it seem like the juice bar must have been a steroid junkie bar. “I never saw anything,” said Tyanna.
“Some people did. They suspected what he was up to. Proving it was another matter. Even for me, proving it was tough. And I think he was giving the gym’s manager a cut to keep his mouth shut.’’
“Stranger things have happened.”
“My brother had told me about Dino’s ex-girlfriend—and this is where Dwight really got into trouble. Apparently, when Maria broke up with Dino after dating him for four months, he wanted her killed.” When Tyanna’s eyes widened, Sheldon said, “I’m serious. I know. This all seems too strange to be true.’’
“Wait a minute,” Tyanna said. “Back up. What ex-girlfriend?”
“Before I started to work at the gym, Dino had been dating a girl named Maria. It sounds like they moved in together after only a month. She apparently knew everything about his business operations. The guy wasn’t particularly bright, sharing that kind of information with a lover so quickly. But it was all part of the New York mobster image that he was so desperate to convey.’’
“I never saw it. But then, I didn’t really hang out with him.’’
“Anyway,” Sheldon continued, “Dino apparently had a real temper, and when he and Maria fought, he scared her. She had grown tired of the relationship and wanted to get away from him. Plus, she found God, and after that, she didn’t want to support his illegal business operation any longer.’’
Tyanna chuckled sarcastically. “She found God?’’
“So my brother said. She used to talk to Dwight about Dino, about how he scared her when he got angry. She wanted to get away from him, but wanted to leave so he wouldn’t find her. Dwight
helped her do that. Told her how to hide. According to Dwight, when Maria up and moved out one day when Dino was at the gym, Dino questioned him about it. Several times. He knew that Maria and Dwight had become friends and he suspected Dwight had helped her. Even though he didn’t have any proof, my brother noticed a difference in Dino’s attitude toward him.’’
“Good Lord.’’
“One of the things Dino wanted me to do when he started to trust me was find Maria. And I knew why—because he still wanted her dead.” Sheldon held up both hands at Tyanna’s startled gaze. “This has the makings of a TV movie, absolutely. I know that. But it’s true. The guy was so obsessed with her, so pissed, he wasn’t thinking rationally. So I told him how I had an ex-girlfriend who did me wrong, and how I hoped she would die a painful death.’’
“Sheldon!”
“Because of what Dwight had told me, I knew that Dino had it bad for Maria. So, I played like I had an ex I really hated. And it worked. I made this ex out to be a total tramp, someone who’d cheated on me, taken money from me. But as for Maria—I couldn’t figure out why Dino was so angry with her, except for the fact that she’d left him. I guess no one was allowed to leave him and get away with it.’’
“Brother.”
“Anyway, after looking for Maria for a couple
months, Dino suddenly puts it on the table that he wants to see her dead for a price. I know this was Dino’s way of testing me, considering I’d made myself out to be a guy with a temper and a dislike for certain members of the opposite sex. So I had to act as if I would be down with that.’’