Olivia’s eyes widened for a split second before she burst into laughter. She stepped back and put her hands over her mouth. “I’m sorry! I didn’t mean to laugh in your face like that. It’s just… I’m not a farm animal!”
“Believe me,” Duke agreed. “I know that. But you asked what my parents would think.”
“And are you worried about my child bearing hips?” Olivia’s brown eyes gleamed with mirth and he could tell she was having a tough time keeping a straight face. “Are you worried that I won’t birth babies big enough for you? You know, that our children will become dancers instead of football jocks?”
Duke grabbed her and drew her in close. He gently pressed his cheek to hers and whispered in her ear. “I’ll tell you a secret.”
“Yeah?”
“I don’t want to have any kids.”
Olivia drew back, obviously shocked. She stared up at him with a look of uncertainty, as though she were pretty sure he was being ridiculous or something. “Are you sure? No. How can you be sure? You’re not even married!”
“Nope, but I’m pushing forty. I’m pretty set in my ways.” The more he spoke, the more conviction that Duke felt. “The world is plenty crowded with other people’s kids, Olivia. Why do I need to add my contribution to the problem? My sister wants to pop out four. She’s already got two. That’s plenty to run the farm and more. I just don’t want kids to clutter up my life. I don’t like them.”
Olivia began to laugh then. She grinned up at him in a way that made his heart sing. “I totally get what you’re saying. I love kids, when they belong to other people. I like to teach them. I used to really enjoy helping the younger girls when I was one of the oldest girls in the studio. But the idea of having my own has never really appealed.”
“Then I suppose we need to get you a dance studio,” Duke told her firmly. “That way you can get your kiddie fix somewhere other than your own household.”
“Is that your strategy then?” She was teasing him again. He liked it.
Duke took hold of her hands and drew them up around his neck. He gave her a long look and wondered if she was going to let him kiss her. That was pretty much the only thing on his mind right now. Kissing her. Being close to her. He’d never felt like this before. The woman was everything he hadn’t been looking for and she’d taken him totally by surprise.
The way she looked up at him made Duke feel like a million bucks. He could barely hang onto his composure. He felt seventeen again and totally unsure of himself. He dipped his head, just a little. Lightly kissing her petal soft lips, he waited. When she did nothing more but look up at him as though he was her one and only, Duke took her mouth in a searing kiss that made his toes curl in his sandals.
She tasted like sunlight. Her fragrance was intoxicating. She felt so perfect that Duke was almost afraid to move. His hands were splayed against her back and he could feel the delicate, almost birdlike musculature and bone structure beneath her soft skin. But she kissed like a goddess. Her mouth moved against his, the soft noises of arousal she made in the back of her throat were driving him absolutely mad with desire.
Duke lightly stroked the seam of her lips with his tongue. She opened like a flower. He swept his tongue inside her mouth to mate with hers. She moaned and rubbed against him. He folded her closer to his body, feeling her breasts against his chest and her body’s full length against his. Something about this woman made him feel powerful, as though he could take on the whole world and win. He wanted to be her hero. He wanted her to look at him just like this for the rest of their lives.
“Duke, Duke,” she whispered breathlessly as she pulled back just enough to speak. “You’re making me dizzy.”
“That means I’m doing it right,” he told her in a rough voice. “You’re making my head spin too.”
She stood on tiptoe and lightly trailed her lips over his jaw. “I’ve never met a man quite like you, Duke Dunbar. Handsome, strong, good, you’re the whole package. Like some Disney prince I’ve picked up in the unlikeliest place.”
Duke snorted at the idea of him being the prince of anything. “Does that make you the princess in one of those frilly dresses?”
“Don’t laugh,” she whispered in his ear. The feel of her breath on the shell of his ear sent a shiver racing down his spine. “I love a frilly dress and a tutu, as you might imagine.”
“And I would love watching you dance right before I rip them off,” he promised.
“Duke!” She looked both scandalized and intrigued. Then she laughed and flung her arms around his neck. “You’re such a guy!”
“Would you rather I be something else?”
Her entire tone sobered in that one instance. The way she looked at him! It did funny things to his heart.
“No,” she finally told him. “I don’t ever want you to be anything but yourself. When I first saw you, I thought you were just one of those muscle heads. A guy who was all brawn with some totally primitive thoughts and opinions.”
“And now?”
“And now I think you only look like that,” Olivia informed him. She brushed a kiss across his lips. “You’re the opposite almost. A guy who looks like a meathead, but who has the mental intelligence of a Rhodes scholar.”
Duke snorted. “I don’t think I’d go that far.”
“I would!” Olivia hugged him and pressed her face against him as though she never wanted to let go. “You’re everything I was looking for when I didn’t know I was looking.”
“Funny, but I was just thinking the same thing,” Duke murmured. “I suppose that means all of this was meant to happen.”
“That’s a scary thought,” she mused. “But in this case, you might be right.”
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Olivia was still walking on air when she got back to her apartment that night. Her lips were tingling thanks to Duke’s kisses and she continued to lift her fingers to her mouth just to remind herself of the thrill of kissing Duke.
Her tiny apartment was located on a winding road tucked into the landscape of the hilly, rocky terrain between Branson and Branson West. It wasn’t really in an apartment building per se, as they were more like old guest cabins converted to rental units. They were hot in summer and cold in winter, but the rent on the tiny one bedroom unit was cheap and the neighborhood was incredibly quiet.
Olivia closed her front door and immediately turned on the little window air conditioning unit in the living room. There was water leaking from one corner of the old metal box. As soon as it revved up to a dull roar comparable to a prop plane engine, the water began a steady drip, drip into the bucket she’d placed beneath it.
Tonight, not even the dismal digs she had called home for the last six years could dampen her spirits. Things were really changing. Riley was going to jail for theft. Yes. That meant the show was going to close, but this was the beginning and not the end. After all, the Riley Saunders Show had nothing to do with Olivia. Not really.
With a sigh, Olivia kicked off her shoes and wondered if she had the time or energy to take a shower. Of course, a shower was pretty pointless when it was this hot. She’d just get wet and never dry until morning anyway, if she ever dried at all. Sometimes, it felt as though her hair was constantly damp. Her curls kind of flopped instead of bounced. It was sort of disgusting, but at least once autumn returned the temperature would start to drop and being outside became bearable once again.
Olivia hummed to herself as she moved from the living room to her tiny bedroom. She did a little twirl and an arabesque with her hands fluttering gracefully in the air as though she were some kind of prima ballerina in a stage production. Then she laughed at herself because she was being ridiculous.
“I’ve always wondered what was wrong with you, girl. Now, I’m beginning to think you’re just soft in the head.”
Olivia spun around. The sound of her uncle’s voice was as unwelcome as it was unexpected. Her heart jumped into her throat and for a moment she thought she might be sick. H
e couldn’t be there. He just couldn’t be. That was impossible. He was in jail. They were supposed to keep him.
“I bailed out,” Riley explained as though he were reading her thoughts on her face. His expression turned ugly. “They can’t just keep a man on bullshit charges without offering him the chance to bail or bond out of lockup. It’s innocent until proven guilty, my dear.”
Olivia swallowed. She mustered her courage. She could not just cower. Not even when what she wanted to do was scream her head off. “Then what are you doing here? You should be at home. The first thing you did when you got out of jail was to break and enter?”
“The door was unlocked, hon.” His lips twisted into a cold smile. “And you’re my beloved niece. Of course I’m going to come here first just to make sure you’re all right and to let you know I’m out. I’m sure you’re thrilled to hear it. You know, because you’re my family.”
The rough anger in his voice made her skin crawl. Olivia swallowed back the bile that threatened to creep up her throat. “You need to go.”
“Where’s Chili?” Riley demanded. “I want my dog, Olivia.”
Olivia had sent Chili home with Clara, but she wasn’t about to tell Riley that. He would go bang on her door. “It’s late. Chili went home with an employee who has a fenced yard. I didn’t think it would be fair to bring her here when I can’t let her outside to stretch her little legs.”
“Oh right.” Riley snorted. “Don’t be stupid. You hate animals. You always have. You’re a prissy bitch with an ice queen heart. Don’t pretend you’re not. You could have helped me a dozen times over the last decade or more and you chose not to! Instead, you’ve been running my show into the ground and now you’ve gotten me arrested!”
Olivia was dumbfounded. “What are you talking about, Uncle Riley?”
Her heart was hammering so fast against her ribs that she was afraid she was going to pass out. Her mind spun like a top. But as Riley pointed his dirty finger in her direction, Olivia remembered that Duke’s number was still the first thing to come up on her phone screen. She had just put his contact information into her phone.
“What am I talking about?” Riley fumed. He grabbed a neat stack of catalogues and magazines from Olivia’s kitchen counter and began throwing them at her one by one. “How can you be that stupid? You and your stupid dance dreams! You’ve been taking an enormous salary from my show. My show! You’ve been banking that money and keeping it all to yourself!”
“A salary?” Olivia carefully withdrew her phone from her pocket. She ducked a catalog flying through the air at her face and spun around to put her back to Riley for just a moment. It was long enough to unlock her screen and push call. “Of course I get a salary, Uncle Riley. Am I supposed to work for free? You took my parents’ house and all their money for yourself! How was I supposed to live?”
“You didn’t need that much!” Riley snarled. He made a vicious gesture to indicate her modest apartment. “Look at this place! It’s trash filled with more trash! It doesn’t cost nearly what you’re charging me for your salary!”
Olivia felt her temper ignite. She clenched the phone in her hand. The call had connected. She’d heard the soft sound of it ringing. If Duke was going to come to her rescue, he was going to have to do it fast and she wasn’t even sure he knew where she lived.
But maybe that wasn’t the only thing on her mind right now. She could feel the outrage boiling up inside her. Outrage toward her selfish uncle. The man who had so callously disregarding her hopes and dreams for so long that Olivia had watched the best years of her life slide on by.
“How dare you!” Olivia growled. She pointed at Riley and felt as though she was done being afraid of him. “How dare you?” She screamed it at the top of her lungs. She didn’t care anymore. It didn’t matter. “You think that I should have what? Given you my savings so you could buy yourself a jackass? Huh? Is that what this is? You tried to steal money from that woman’s checking account to buy yourself a freaking donkey and you’re mad at me because it didn’t work? Why should I scrimp and save and pinch for you? What good are you, Riley? What good have you ever done me?”
“I gave you a job,” he spat at her.
Olivia reached for a dance magazine, but this time she threw it at Riley. He looked surprised, ducking easily out of the way, and curling his lip at her in obvious disdain. “You gave me a job?” Olivia shouted at him. “Seriously? You think I can’t get a job elsewhere? Do you have any idea how many different theaters have offered me a job over the years?”
He looked absolutely taken aback. His eyebrows went up, and then they crashed down as though he were convinced that she was lying. “That’s not true. They would have asked me about it. Not you.”
“Are you honestly that full of yourself?” Sometimes Olivia was absolutely sure Riley was a clinically disturbed individual. “That’s a load of crap and you know it! They don’t have to ask you anything. They don’t care about you. You’re an old washed up showman with nothing but a few animals and the reputation that I built for you, Riley! If any of those people knew what you were really like, you wouldn’t have a show.” The floodgates were open and Olivia could not stop the shouting words coming out of her mouth. “You’re nothing! You’re navel lint in the show business world! Do you not get that? People come to your show because I have a whole effing team that spends every waking second on social media trying to drum up good press for a man who is such an asshole that the whole world should know it so they can hate him accordingly!”
The room was utterly silent in the wake of her outburst. Olivia’s sweaty hand was still clutching the phone as though it were a life line. She had no idea if Duke had picked up or not. She couldn’t hear anything on the line. She couldn’t even tell if it had connected or not. With her luck, there wasn’t enough signal in this hole of an apartment to even get a call through to someone who could help her. But maybe she didn’t need help.
Riley reached behind him. He withdrew a small revolver from his pants. At least she could only assume it had been tucked into the waistband of his jeans. The sight of it made her even angrier. Not frightened. Not worried. Pissed off.
“Really?” Olivia snarled. “You’re going to stand there and aim my father’s gun at me? My father, Riley. Your brother’s gun. My father. You’re going to kill me with a revolver that my mother gave to my father a few months before he died. That gun shouldn’t even be in your possession. It should be in mine. It’s just another thing you stole from me.”
Riley fumbled the gun and put a hand against the side of his head. “Shut up! You keep saying that, but it’s not true! My brother died. He left me everything.”
“No. He asked you to take care of me. That was what was in the will. You were left as my guardian. That’s it. You were supposed to be on your own, Riley. You were thirty-years old.” Olivia gazed at the revolver as the snub nosed tip wiggled around with each and every erratic motion of Riley’s arm. “Put it down, Riley. You’re not going to kill me. It’s not worth it.”
The gun came back up and pointed steadily at her face. Olivia swallowed as she gazed into the eyes of the man she had called her only remaining family member for far too long. There was no doubt in her mind he could shoot her and walk away. But how far would he get?
“Suicide,” Riley said breathlessly. “You’re going to commit suicide. You’ll be so upset about what happened and what an awful part you played in telling lies about me that you’re going to kill yourself because of it.”
Olivia exhaled a shaky breath and lifted her phone. “I dialed Duke Dunbar’s number a few minutes ago, Riley. He’s been recording ever since. You want to make it look like I committed suicide? That’s going to be a bit hard when Duke just heard you say it out loud.”
“What?” Riley’s eyes opened wide, like saucers. He had a crazed expression on his face that made her sick to her stomach. The man had lost his mind. There was no doubt about it. But what would he do? That was the real question. “Give m
e that phone!”
“What? No!” Olivia dodged as Riley lunged at her. She had to dance backwards to try to avoid his grasping hands. “Get away from me, Riley!”
He was still holding the gun. She had her smartphone clutched just as tightly. The gun waved in the air as Riley tried to snatch her and pull her in. Olivia spun gracefully out of his grasp. She’d never expected to use her dance training quite like this. But if it was keeping her alive, she was grateful for every single second of all those years at the barre.
“Stand still!” Riley snarled.
But there was no way Olivia was going to do that. She jumped over her coffee table and onto the couch. Bouncing on the cushions, she waited for Riley to leap at her before bouncing to the right. She put her bare toes on the arm of the sofa and leaped off in an assemble. She positioned her feet just as Riley hit the sofa cushions right beneath her and landed hard on his knees.
Olivia landed in plie position and stood on her toes to be ready for whatever came next. Riley was struggling to get up. He still had the gun in his hand. Turning his head, he tried to speak but was panting like a dog in need of water. “Stop jumping around! You’re being ridiculous.”
“Oh what?” she said snidely. “I need to stand still so you can kill me? No thanks, Uncle Riley.”
The door was behind her. She could leave. Olivia knew that she should. She was already dancing in that direction, her feet moving quickly as though she was doing a bourrée across the stage. It was distracting enough that she hoped Riley wouldn’t see where she was about to go until it was too late.
But he wasn’t that distractible. “Hey! Where the hell do you think you’re going?”
Olivia bolted for the door. The loud pop of gunfire stopped her in her tracks. She hit the floor as the bullet punched a tiny hole through her flimsy front door. Rolling and rolling, she gained her feet gracefully and pointed at her uncle. “Are you crazy? Do you honestly think you can shoot me from across the room and make it look like suicide? Have you never watched Crime TV? They know it’s not suicide. No powder burns on my skin from the barrel.”
Rock Wolf Investigations: Boxset Page 21
