He bit back a curse, stood and grabbed a towel from the stand next to the sink. “The water is getting cold,” he said.
Ellie stared at him for a long moment, as if she were trying to read his expression. Then she slowly stood, the water sluicing off her naked body. Liam quickly wrapped her in the towel, unwilling to tempt himself any further. He was this close to dragging her down to the bathroom floor to really make love to her.
“You’re not angry that he called, are you?”
“Why would you think that?” Liam asked, tucking the towel tight around her breasts.
“You just seemed a little…perturbed.”
It wouldn’t do to have Ellie suspicious, Liam mused. But he wasn’t about to deny his feelings. “Maybe I am, a little. But that shouldn’t stop you from seeing him. He said something about banks. Maybe he can help you find a new job.”
A slow smile curved Ellie’s lips. “I never thought about that. He said he had some contacts here in Boston. Maybe he can give me a few leads. In fact, that’s probably what he wants to talk to me about.”
“Why don’t you finish drying off and I’ll go get us some lunch?” Liam said. “I’ll pick up a couple of sandwiches and we’ll just relax.”
“The sun’s come out,” Ellie said. “Maybe we should go out to lunch and then go sight-seeing. I’m feeling much better now. And the fresh air and exercise will do me good.”
In truth, Liam was anxious to get out of the apartment so he could give Sean the news. Ronald Pettibone was in town and Liam knew exactly where to find him. If things went well, Liam would have answers to all his questions soon. And then he’d finally know exactly where he stood with Ellie Thorpe.
T
HE BAPTISM BRUNCH
was already in full swing by the time Sean arrived. Liam watched him walk through the door of Conor and Olivia’s apartment. In truth, Liam hadn’t expected his brother to show up since Fiona was going to be in attendance. When he’d left their flat, Sean had been lying on the sofa, watching a basketball game.
The relationship between Liam’s long-lost mother and her son had grown more and more strained since she’d come back into their lives, and Sean avoided her presence whenever he could. Liam hadn’t minded that Sean might not show up. He had been hoping to get at least a little break from his brother’s constant concern about their case.
Liam glanced over at Ellie. She was standing near the baby-buggy-shaped cake, chatting with Brendan’s fiancée, Amy. He had wondered how Ellie would get along at a Quinn family gathering, considering that his family could be a bit overwhelming at times. And he almost hadn’t asked her to come. But then he’d decided it would be easier to keep an eye on her if he just kept her close.
Bringing a date to a family function had caused more than a few raised eyebrows, but no one commented out loud. Liam’s sister, Keely, had come up first, introducing herself to Ellie, then motioning her husband, Rafe, over to join the conversation. It had been a year since their wedding and though Rafe and the Quinns had had issues in the past, everyone could see that he made Keely very happy. Along with Olivia, Meggie and Amy, Rafe had become part of the ever-expanding Quinn clan.
Olivia and Conor wandered among the guests, introducing their son, Conor smiling from ear to ear and Olivia looking more beautiful than ever. They came up to Amy and Ellie, and a moment later Ellie had the baby in her arms. Liam’s breath caught in his throat as he saw her smile sweetly at Riley, then kiss the soft dusting of hair on his head.
No matter how much time had passed, Liam was still amazed by the circumstances that had brought them together. Had he seen her sipping a drink at Quinn’s Pub or walking along any sidewalk in Boston, he probably wouldn’t have given Ellie a second look. But something had happened to him when she’d hit him over the head with that lamp, something that had jarred loose in his brain, and by the end of that night he’d become completely smitten.
“Will you look at this?” Brendan muttered, walking up behind Liam. “Sean decided to put in an appearance. Conor told me he wasn’t coming.”
Sean stopped short when Fiona approached, then deftly turned and headed toward the table. But he was halted again, this time by someone Sean hadn’t expected—Ellie Thorpe. Liam winced and knew that he was about to catch holy hell.
“Maybe you should introduce him to your new girlfriend,” Brendan suggested.
“She’s not my girlfriend. Besides—”
“What the hell is she doing here?” Sean murmured under his breath as he approached Liam.
Liam grabbed Brendan’s plate. “Looks like you could use a little more to eat, Bren,” he said. “I’ll just go get us a few of those sandwiches.” He headed for the tiny kitchen, but Sean just followed him, cornering Liam at the refrigerator.
“Answer my question,” Sean demanded.
Liam snatched up two sandwiches and shoved one at Sean. “Have something to eat and relax,” he muttered.
His brother tossed the sandwich back onto the plate.
“That’s really good chicken salad,” Liam said. “You should try it.”
“I told you to get close to her. But I didn’t mean this close.” He gave Liam a shrewd look. “Are you sleeping with her?”
“Not right now. I’m talking to you and thinking that I might just have a few of those shrimp over there. Con and Olivia really went all out here, didn’t they? This is quite a spread.”
“Do you think this is funny?”
“No,” Liam replied with a low chuckle. “But I didn’t have much choice in the matter. I think someone is trying to kill her.”
Sean gasped, then grabbed Liam’s arm and dragged him out to the small porch off the kitchen. The sky was gray and a light mist hung over the city. “What happened?” he asked.
“A lot of things,” Liam replied, glancing back over his shoulder to make sure no one could overhear. “And all of them pretty strange. First, there was the burglary. Then Ellie told me she nearly got hit on the head by a brick falling off her apartment roof. And then, yesterday, she almost got run down by a car just outside her apartment building. The burglary might have been random, but that car was aiming for her.”
“Did you get a plate on the car?”
“Yeah.” Liam reached into the pocket of his sports jacket and pulled out the two photos he’d developed that morning. “I enlarged these and you can see there’s a rental sticker on the back bumper. I went to the place, but they wouldn’t give me any information about who rented the car.”
“I’ll see what I can find. If they won’t tell me, maybe I can get Conor to give me some help.”
“Listen,” Liam said. “I don’t know who Ellie is or what she’s done, but I do know that if I don’t keep an eye on her, she might just end up dead. So don’t give me any grief, all right?”
“All right,” Sean said. “But from now on I’m keeping an eye on you while you keep an eye on her.”
“Here you are!” Liam and Sean turned to find Ellie in the doorway. The cool breeze ruffled her hair and, at that moment, Liam hadn’t seen anything quite as beautiful as Ellie in his whole life.
“Ellie, this is my brother Sean,” Liam said. “Sean, Ellie Thorpe. She lives over in Charlestown. She’s new to Boston.”
Ellie held out her hand and Sean reluctantly took it. “Pleasure,” he murmured.
“I’m not sure I’m ever going to remember all these names,” she said with a warm smile. “You all look so much alike, the dark hair and the…eyes.”
“Right,” Sean said.
As usual, in the presence of a woman, Sean didn’t have much to say. He shoved his hands into his pockets and watched them both with an uneasy smile. “So, how did you two meet?”
“Liam saved me from a burglar who’d broken into my apartment.”
Sean nodded, as if he were really interested. Then he shrugged. “I gotta go.”
“It was nice to meet you,” Ellie said.
“Nice meeting you.”
They watched him walk back inside the apartment, then Liam turned to Ellie. “Don’t worry about him. He’s a little shy.”
“You mean, not all the Quinns are as charming as you?”
“Sean has his own special way with women. He ignores them and they can’t seem to resist the challenge.” Liam slipped his arm around Ellie’s shoulders. “Are you ready to go? I think I’ve snapped enough photos to fill a few albums. No one can say I shirked my family responsibilities.”
“We don’t have to go. The food looks good. And Olivia was going to show me the gifts she got for the baby.” She held up her champagne flute. “And I’m going to have another mimosa.”
“I’ll get you one,” Liam said, dropping a quick kiss on her lips. He was tempted to linger, but knew that they’d already generated enough curiosity without adding more fodder for speculation to the mix. He left Ellie in the kitchen when she offered to help Olivia slice more baked ham for sandwiches. The champagne was on ice in the dining room and he found Sean staring at the cake, a perplexed expression on his face.
“What is this?” he asked.
“A cake.”
“I know it’s a cake.”
“It’s a baby buggy.”
“I thought it was a clam with wheels.”
“Don’t let Olivia hear that. Conor said she spent two days making that.” Liam glanced over at his brother, considering what he was going to say to him next. He’d thought about his options over and over again over the past few days, trying to decide how to handle the situation. “There is one more thing I should tell you,” Liam murmured. “Ronald Pettibone is in town.”
Sean’s head snapped around, his attention focused.
“He’s been in Boston for about a week,” Liam continued. “That was him outside the coffee shop—the guy I mentioned who was arguing with her.”
“How do you know?”
“She told me. He looks different from the photo. He’s not wearing his glasses anymore and he’s changed his hair. It’s lighter. And he has a tan, too. He’s staying at the Bostonian, Room 215. Pretty ritzy digs for a guy who is out of work, don’t you think?”
“How did you find all this out?”
“He left a message on her machine while I was at her apartment.”
“Was she there?”
“Of course she was,” Liam said. “We were…together.”
Sean sent him a suspicious look. “How did she react?”
“It was a little hard to see, since she had her back to me. But I encouraged her to call him back and she said she would. Until then, I think you should keep an eye on the guy. And find out if he rented a black sedan a few days ago.”
“You think
he
tried to run her down? Then she’s got to be mixed up in this. What motive would he have to kill her? Unless he didn’t want to split the take.”
“He’s her ex-lover. Maybe he’s obsessed,” Liam replied. “Just keep an eye on him.” He paused, wondering about his next move. He reached into his pocket and pulled out a set of keys. “Here.”
“What’s this?”
“It’s the keys to Ellie’s apartment. I put in a new security system for her in case Pettibone came calling again. The code is 3-5-5-4. Make sure you get it right or you’ll set off the alarm.”
“All right,” Sean said. “Three-five-five-four.”
“I’ve got tickets to the Sox home opener on Tuesday. I’m supposed to photograph the mayor doing some pregame presentation and then he’s going to throw out the first pitch. None of their sports guys want to do it, so they hired me. I’m taking Ellie. She should be safe in a stadium full of thirty-six thousand people.”
“Good. That should give me plenty of time.”
Liam’s jaw went tight. “Just don’t make a mess, all right? I don’t want her to be all upset again.”
Sean nodded.
Satisfied that the matter had been taken out of his hands, Liam sighed. “I’m going to go talk to Ma. Why don’t you come with me?”
“Nah, not today.”
“Why not today? It’s as good a time as any. Sean, you can’t carry this grudge any longer. Da has forgiven her. So has Keely—and they had a whole lot more to be pissed about than you and me.”
“She walked out on us, Li. You were just a baby and I was three years old. She says she had to get away and she did. But why didn’t she come back?”
“Why don’t you ask her?”
“Because I don’t want to hear her answer.”
Liam shrugged. “Suit yourself.” With that he grabbed a bottle of champagne and decided to find Ellie. Right now he needed to hear her voice, to remember what they’d shared together in her bathroom and how good it felt to touch her. He didn’t need to worry about whether he was lusting after a criminal or whether her boyfriend was out to cause her harm.
He caught Ellie’s gaze from across the room and motioned her to meet him near the front door. She sent him a coy smile and then a tiny frown, but Liam wasn’t about to give up. He slipped out of the apartment, leaned up against the wall and waited for her. A few seconds later she poked her head out the door. He reached over and grabbed her, pulling her out into the hall, the door slamming behind her.
“Come on,” he murmured, heading for the stairs. They walked down two flights until they reached the street. Liam shrugged out of his jacket and draped it around Ellie’s shoulders as they stepped outside. After they sat down on the front stoop, he popped the cork on the champagne bottle. “I didn’t bring glasses,” he said. “We’ll have to drink from the bottle.”
Liam took a sip, then handed the bottle to Ellie. She tipped it up, but the champagne bubbled in her mouth. She wrinkled her nose as she swallowed, then coughed softly. Liam used the opportunity to pull her into his arms. “I should never have brought you here,” he said, pressing his mouth against her neck.
“Why is that?”
“Because I prefer to kiss you whenever I feel like kissing you.”
“Then you’d better get kissing,” Ellie teased, “because if we stay out here too long, we’ll be missed.”
Liam pulled back and looked down into her pretty face. There were times when he felt he could see into the corners of her soul. And then, other times, he wondered if he was just fooling himself. But as he captured her mouth with his, tasting the sweet champagne, all of his doubts seemed to dissolve. For now, Ellie was simply the woman who made his blood run hot and his heart pound hard.
For now, that was enough.
“N
OW YOU’RE A TRUE
Bostonian,” Liam said, tugging on the brim of Ellie’s brand new Boston Red Sox cap. “You’ve been to Fenway and seen someone hit a home run over the big Green Monster. Unfortunately, it wasn’t one of our players.”
She stared out the front window of his car as they waited for the light to change. “I’ve never been much of a baseball fan. In New York, you have to choose sides—Mets or Yankees. I never knew enough about baseball, so I stayed neutral and didn’t get involved.”
“I’ve loved baseball since I was a kid,” Liam said, turning the car onto Charlestown Avenue. “I remember the first time I went to Fenway, I must have been about seven or eight. I walked in and it was so green. We’d come from Southie on the T and it was the middle of a heat wave. Our neighborhood was dry and dusty and everything was faded by the sun. And then we walked into Fenway and it was like an oasis—although I didn’t know what an oasis was back then.”
“Did you go to a lot of games as a kid?” Ellie asked.
“No. We didn’t have the money for tickets. But Conor had a couple of buddies who sold popcorn at the park, and if the crowd was thin, they’d let us in before the seventh inning stretch. We never got to see a complete game, but we’d hang around outside afterward and get the players to sign our baseball cards.”
“Sounds like fun,” Ellie said.
“It was. We didn’t have much, but we always had fun.” He chuckled softly. “When I first saw Fenway, I thought it was Ireland.”
“What?”
“I’d always heard my older brothers and father talking about how green Ireland was. They were all born there. And Fenway was the greenest thing I’d ever seen, so I thought it was Ireland. I wasn’t ever good with geography, at least not in second grade.”