Whispers of Danger and Love (5 page)

“There’s a concrete block over there. Help me slide it over closer to the house.” Cheryl waded through the almost-shoulder-high weeds carefully avoiding the tickseed cling-ons and motioned to Jane to help her tug the heavy block.

“Perfect.” Jane jumped up on the block and peered through the window. “Ewee. Dirty. Nice room though. Wow, wait until you see. The chandelier is still there complete with all the crystals. Must be hundreds of them. They need a good cleaning but still lovely. Here, take a look.” She stepped down and moved over to allow Cheryl to take a peek.

Cheryl stepped on the block and was squinting through the dirty window when a movement caught her eye and she took a quick breath. Something . . . someone was inside the house. She braced her hands on the wall in front of her and moved closer to peer inside.
What was going on?
She reached down and grabbed Jane by the shoulder, her finger against her lips shushing her.

“There’s a man inside with a gun!”

Jane’s gasp had Cheryl scrambling down and slamming her hand over her friend’s mouth.

“Quiet!” Cheryl said. “Let me see what’s going on and then we’d better get out of here.” She stepped back on the concrete block and strained to see inside the darkened room. Nothing. Whoever was inside had passed through the room and left.

Just as Cheryl was about to step down, a man entered the dining room again holding a gun pointed at a second man. She could hear the menacing tone as one threatened the other. The voice was faint but she recognized it. She knew the man. Sam Toledo. David was right! This was no place for the two of them to be. She froze when she heard the sound of a gunshot. Dear God! From her vantage point, neither of them was visible.
Did Sam kill someone?

Her involuntary scream was stifled as someone grabbed her from behind and covered her mouth firmly with his hand. Terror seized her, and her blood froze. She resisted, pulling fiercely against the force holding her. She sidestepped off the concrete block and almost fell to her knees. A strong arm encircled her waist and steadied her upright.

“Shhhh. Be quiet, Cher. I’ve got you. Come quickly.” The familiar fragrance of Larkin’s shaving lotion penetrated her consciousness. She recognized him before she turned around to see David and another policeman who had an arm around Jane and was hurrying her back through the garden. David was holding her around the waist snugly and way too familiarly. He rubbed his face against hers as they walked rapidly away. She glared at him only to be faced with a wide grin.

“Now, Cher, we got to get you out of here, honey. This is no place for two young ladies to be.”

Never mind that she agreed with him, Cheryl deeply resented being told what to do by the same pushy neighbor.
Where in the world had he come from?

“What’s going on, David? I saw a man with . . . it was a gun!”

He leaned over and gently kissed her on the mouth, causing her to gasp as the sensation bolted throughout her system.

“So tasty, little Cher. You always were so tasty.” He tugged her behind an ancient yew tree and dipped his head.

She grabbed on to his shoulders to brace herself, her thoughts scattering for a minute before she could regain her composure.

“Wait a minute. Stop that! You can’t just decide to kiss me any time you please. Who do you think you are, David Larkin? I know you’re trying to distract me.” It took all her will to look him in the eye while her body betrayed her longing and nudged her otherwise. Never had her hormones been so close to rebellion. Okay, once before when he kissed her, but that didn’t count. She’d been a child and didn’t know better.

“No? But it’s so much fun.” He gave her a tender swipe, nibbling her lips and trailing kisses across her cheek, and then turned reluctantly away. “I’ll make a deal with you if you’ll go quietly with me out of here.” He turned them toward the back gate as night fell and the shadows deepened around them.

In the distance, a streetlight shone weakly. She could just see the white grin on David’s face as he peered down at her. Cheryl looked behind her at the hulking figures created by the wild yews and other neglected shrubs. She shuddered, wondering what evil was roaming in this overgrown garden abandoned for so many years.

“I’ll let you know exactly what’s going on after we get back to your house,” David said. “Deal?”

Reluctantly she nodded, forgetting about her spade and basket. He took her by the hand and, smiling down at her tenderly, wound their way back through the weedy path, only once trailing his hand—now in the guise of a Frenchman or was he still in Italian Stallion mode?—too low on her back. By the time they returned exhausted and tired, Jane and she agreed to forgo the meeting until the following day.

“You promised! You know you did.”

It was early the next morning and Jane sat watching the two of them.

“Hey, you two, I feel like a spectator in a tennis match,” Jane said as Cheryl raged at her old nemeses.

David had unwisely chosen to play the “I’m an undercover cop” card and was keeping mum about the men Cheryl had spotted in the old Hansen mansion.

“Look. No one was shot. One of those men was threatening the other, but he didn’t shoot him. Actually I think they’re partners, but we aren’t sure of that just yet.” Larkin stood at the kitchen sink making baloney sandwiches from a package of meat he had brought over from his refrigerator.

Cheryl suppressed a shudder as she watched him. As if she would ever buy such disgusting food as that. Without speaking, she watched him slice into one of her beautiful homegrown tomatoes and slap mayo liberally across a slice of wheat bread. He added a lettuce leaf before topping it with the slice of bread and plunking it down on a paper napkin in front of her.

“Jane?” He raised his thick, black eyebrows at her friend who nodded enthusiastically.

“I saw Sam Toledo, David, with my own eyes. You said he was a criminal and now I believe you. He was holding a gun pointed directly at the other man, and then I heard a gunshot. How can you say nothing happened?”

“I just can. Leave it at that, will you? You are the most annoying, nosy, little sweet thing I ever met. Eat your sandwich, honey. Everything is under control. What were the two of you doing out there in the first place? On an owl prowl?”

“Oh, no! My shovel. And my basket.” Cheryl locked eyes with Jane who shook her head vigorously.

“Not now, not never! I’m not going back into that jungle for anything. You can just forget it, Cheryl.” Jane picked up her sandwich and bit firmly into it.

Larkin grinned as he sat down at the table with his.

“I see you found some seeds to share.” He tugged an embedded seed from the back of her hair.

“Tick seeds in my hair too? Ack!” Cheryl twisted around as if she could see the back of her head and felt for the irritating seeds tangling her unruly mop.

Jane pushed her hand into her matted red head and tugged on an embedded seed. “I have a few I picked up myself.” She yanked and then squealed loudly when the tickseed resisted. Cheryl beckoned and then, stepping to Jane’s back, began to deseed her friend. It was a tedious job, but finally she located every one. She patted her friend on the shoulder and regained her seat at the table.

“Antique peonies. We were trying to rescue a plant or two of those gorgeous old peonies over in the corner adjacent to the house. I heard the bulldozers were on their way. We forgot our basket and spades,” she said regretfully around a very satisfying mouthful of baloney sandwich. She didn’t want to waste the bread since it was already made into a sandwich.

“Are you saying that Sam Toledo bought the property?” She watched Larkin’s face change from her congenial neighbor to the cop persona again.

“Cheryl, sweets, I am not saying anything. The subject is closed. You and Jane stay away from that place. You have your clients to take care of, remember?”

“No way! I’m calling Toledo tomorrow and canceling the job. He might shoot me if he thinks I haven’t done a good enough job.” She poured hot coffee for the three of them.

“Err, about that. Let’s not be so hasty. You’re being paid a lot of money to do that design job. And you’re hoping that it will build your business. Perhaps you should keep it for now.” He blandly munched a large bite of his sandwich.

Cheryl turned around and stared at him with her mouth hanging wide open. She closed it and sat down, sticking her face right next to his.

“Why, now that I agree with you about the criminal aspects of Sam Toledo, are you encouraging me to continue to work for him?” A kernel of suspicion crept through her brain only to be forced back. Surely not.

“Shot! She might get shot!” Jane said in a half panic. “You don’t want Cher to get shot, do you?” She reached over and grabbed on to Cheryl’s arm and squeezed it hard.

“It’s okay, Jane. I have no intention of continuing the association, no matter what brain freeze David has gotten himself into this time. Probably all that volleyball he plays. When you are as old as he is, it’s dangerous to your health.”

“Do me a favor, hon. Just sleep on it.” He stood up, patting her hair, before sliding his hand down the side of her face. He cupped her chin forcing her to look up at him. Cheryl tried to still her pulse. The beast was on the loose again. No telling where he might land. She would resist as usual.

“Jane, I’m asking you to keep this episode quiet for now, will you? As a personal favor just for me?” He impaled Jane with his chocolate-brown eyes, and Cheryl watched her visibly melt.

“I won’t tell anyone, David, I promise,” Jane said, her hands clasped beneath her chin as if in prayer.

Cheryl snorted.

The floor of the cottage vibrated as the Neanderthal detective crossed the kitchen and left by the back door, his absence creating a vacuum of sound and movement. Jane finally stirred, whispering wistfully that she thought she’d better head for home.

Cheryl just nodded, sitting quietly for a moment before rising and seeing her to the door.

“Weird adventure this time. I’m sorry, Jane. I’ll call you tomorrow.” 

Cheryl heard the rattle of the back door and roused herself from a deep sleep. Had she thought to put the inside latch on? More rattling, then silence. She lay awake, a sliver of a moon causing almost no threat to the darkness. What were her feelings for David Larkin, playboy cop of the county? She was certainly aware of what her girly hormones thought, but who could trust those? He was a big bruiser of a man, ruggedly handsome with a smile that could strip the bark off living trees. He’d been in and out of her life from childhood, careless of her feelings, but irresistible all the same. She’d always been drawn to him like a magnet clipped to the refrigerator. Thank goodness they hadn’t connected all that often. He alternately treated her like a big brother with an annoying little sister or a casual would-be lover who was attracted to her when he paused long enough to really take notice.

She twisted in the sheets. It was hard to practice deception when she was alone with her private thoughts. In all honesty, she had a thing for Big David. Had had since she endured puberty at age twelve going on thirteen. Her grandmother had consoled her once when her friend had made a promise and then forgot about it.

“He’ll take a bit of growing up before he’s worth anything to a good woman,” she said to a sobbing, disappointed Cheryl.

Wonder just how much more growing up he needs yet?
She turned over, thumped her pillow, and was just drifting off to sleep when she heard a
tap-tap
on her window.

“I don’t believe this,” she said, getting up and finding her robe. She drew the curtains aside and raised the window just an inch.

“Cher, honey. Let me in. Just for a minute, okay? I really need to talk to you.”

“Call me on the phone, David. I’m sleeping. Call me in the morning.”

“I won’t keep you long. Honest. Let me in, please?” His voice had dropped an octave and had reached the sultry, sexy range. The Italian was here again. She struggled against the sound, determined to resist the pull of his call.

“What do you want that can’t wait until morning?” she asked, knowing she was failing.

“Just a point or two that needs clearing up. I need to be gone very early in the morning. Can we chat just for a minute?”

“David.” Her exasperation was more for herself than for him. He was just the same as he always was, his selfish needs preceding hers as usual. Situation normal, nothing changed.

“Please, Cher, sweetheart?”

She wondered who else in the neighborhood he was waking.

“All right. Just for a minute. Do you promise?”

“I do, I swear!”

She could hear rustle in the shrubbery at the side of her house. For a moment she wondered if he had been about to climb in through the window.
David, David. You are probably the reason I can’t make a match with more eligible men.
She belted her robe and stepped in bare feet toward the back door where indeed she had found on a hook an ancient key to his house. Their grandmothers, living next door to each other, had been best friends as well as neighbors.

As she slide the latch back, the door popped open and she was enfolded by the warm, firm arms of David Larkin, cop by profession, plant killer by day, and seducer of random women by night. He snuggled his head on her neck pulling her tight against his body.

“What is it about you that I need in the night, sweet Cher?” He trailed kisses down her neck and headed south toward her breasts.

“Whoa, big fellow. That’s enough of that.” She pushed him backward, noting to herself that it was quite clear what it was that he needed in the night, and she thought it prudent to put as much space between his need and her as she could manage. Certainly she could agree that it was a big need indeed. Her own needs she squelched as quickly as she could manage.

“So?” She re-belted her robe wondering how he managed to undress her so adroitly. She hadn’t felt a thing.

“Can’t I come in?” he asked plaintively.

She could just make out the lines of his face in the almost complete darkness. Trees rustled in a slight breeze and stars twinkled overhead. The night was enchanted and she was in danger of being seduced by a sorcerer. She pushed against his massive chest gently then found his hand and tugged.

“Let’s go into the garden, shall we?”