“The cops are regularly patrolling the streets where the gangs and prostitutes hang out. They’re bringing in everyone they see for intense questioning, keeping most of them overnight, and then loading them into a van and taking them out of town.”
“Can they do that?” What about Starr? If she were arrested, I’d lose my informant.
She shrugged. “I don’t know if they can, but they are. Only those they know for sure belong to one of those two groups, though. Looks like the women from Norma’s party won’t be around for long.”
“We might never find out who killed her.”
“That isn’t our business, Stormi.” Her shoulders slumped. “I’ve thrown all my skin care products in the garbage. I’m doomed to be a receptionist for the rest of my life.”
“There’s nothing wrong with being a receptionist.”
“I wanted more out of life. I wanted to marry a rich man. Instead, I got two children out of wedlock and still don’t have a steady boyfriend. Why do you get all the luck?”
I didn’t count myself as very lucky. I worked hard writing my books. If Angela wanted to trade luck, she could have mine. There wasn’t anything lucky about having another psycho after me.
I didn’t understand. I tried to be a good Christian girl, writing my books, and helping my family where I could. Instead, I ended up fighting for my life on a regular basis. It kind of sucked.
“Thanks for the dress. I’ll try to take care of it.”
Back in my room, I put on the long-sleeved dress. Angela was right. It clung to every part that needed to be clung to and swayed when I walked. I felt like a fiery temptress in with my red hair and black dress. A pair of red heels completed the outfit.
The doorbell rang. I grinned. I planned on kissing Matt thoroughly enough to knock both our shoes off. A night without fearing that someone followed me. A night secure in the affection of a handsome man. These were all I wanted.
Whether I got them or not was to be seen. Our last dinner date had ended in a bullet through a window.
19
Matt’s eyes widened as I descended the stairs and he let out a whistle. “You clean up good, girl.”
“You’re not so bad yourself.” He wore black slacks and a royal blue button up shirt that brought out the blue in his eyes. I was a lucky woman.
Slipping my arm in his, he led me to his car and opened the door for me to slide in. Since the dress fell to knee-length, I kept my modesty. It was a sign of a good evening ahead.
We parked in front of our favorite restaurant. Matt hurried to open my door, holding out his hand to help me from the car. Excitement at having some time alone with my man bubbled in me like carbonated soda. I linked my arm in his and pressed close to his side as we stepped inside the restaurant to muted lighting, the clink of eating utensils, and the smile of a waiting hostess.
“Follow me, please.” She grabbed two menus and led us to a back corner with a window looking out on a fountain.
“I called ahead,” Matt whispered, his breath tickling my neck. “Tonight, it’s just us. No case, no gang, no family.”
I couldn’t agree more. I slid into my side of the booth and glanced out the window. Bushes surrounded the fountain, blocking the view of the street. A feeling of de ja vu swept over me. It wasn’t the same window that a bullet had shattered months ago, but I still felt exposed. No, tonight was about Matt and me. I wouldn’t let anything else cloud my mind.
“You look beautiful.” Matt smiled over the top of his menu.
“Thank you.” I wasn’t good with compliments. I ducked my head and immersed myself in the large selection of dishes printed on the menu. While I had never considered myself unattractive, I didn’t think I would ever get used to the fact that a man as handsome as Matt was interested in me. Especially with my tendency to get in trouble.
“What can I get for you two?” The waitress, dressed in black slacks and a white blouse with a bow tie, stopped at our table.
Matt raised at an eyebrow at me.
“I’ll take the Salmon,” I said.
Matt ordered the same.
I opened my mouth to tell him about Stinger’s tattoo, but stopped before saying anything. I wasn’t going to spoil the evening.
Matt reached across the table and took my hand in his. “Let’s talk about us.”
“As in?” Please, don’t say you took me out to dinner to break up with me. I’d tried putting the brakes on our relationship not too long ago, only to find out at that time, that Matt wasn’t in agreement. Had he changed his mind?
“Where are we going, Stormi? After a year, we need to discuss our future.”
Uh-oh. This was serious.
“Stormi, I l—”
The waitress brought our salads, interrupting his use of the “L” word. While I felt the same, I had a phobia about being the first one to say it. Life hadn’t been kind in the romance department.
Matt sighed and picked up his fork. “Maybe now isn’t the time.”
“It’s the perfect time. What were you going to say?” I glued my gaze on his face, silently begging, pleading for him to finish his sentence.
The waitress arrived with our bread. “Oh, I forgot to take your drink order. What can I get you? I’m new and not very good at this I’m afraid.”
“Tea for me,” I said. I bit my tongue in order not to be rude, when all I wanted to do was tell her to stay away.
“Same.” Matt smiled at me. “It will wait until there are less interruptions.”
Great. I slumped back on the seat. I’d almost heard the words I longed to hear, only to have a bumbling waitress spoil it.
We talked about mundane things, tiptoeing around Daisy’s murder and Ryan’s shooting. By the time our main meal arrived, I was frustrated beyond measure. I set my fork on the side of my plate with a clatter. “This is ridiculous. I love you, Matt. You’re the most important person in my life, despite my lack of showing it.” I took a deep breath. “And Stinger has a tattoo.” There. I felt cleansed.
He looked shocked for a moment, then gave me a smile that started with a crook on one corner of his mouth and spread to the other. “I’m not sure which statement to address first, but I’ll go with I love you. You’ve made me a happy man.”
“Is that what you were trying to say?”
“Yes.” He took my hand again. “I’ve been wanting to for weeks, months. I love you, Stormi Nelson. Wanna be my one-and-only?”
I laughed. “I thought I was.”
“Darlin’, no other woman comes close.”
“You love me despite the way I drive you crazy?”
“You make me crazy in more ways than one.” He winked.
My face heated. “Stop it.”
“I like it when your face turns red. It’s cute.”
I tossed my napkin at him, which he caught in mid-air, kissed, then tossed back at me. I wasn’t quite as graceful. The napkin hit me on the nose.
At that moment, I almost wished I hadn’t made a pledge in high school to wait for sex until marriage. So many people didn’t, but I wasn’t most people. I wanted to make sure, without a doubt, that a man loved me no matter what before I gave up what I could only give once. Matt had never pressured me, for which I was grateful. I gulped my ice tea before I made an indecent proposal to him and made a fool of myself.
“Now, about the tattoo. How do you know this?”
“Oh, I have my sources.” I tried to act coy. From the way he looked at me, his features growing more stern, I had failed miserably. “When I was in jail,” I stared back, “I made some very important friends. One of them happens to be a … you know. I’m paying her to be my informant. She told me.”
His jaw dropped. “Since you’re so determined to get involved in law enforcement, why didn’t you become a cop instead of a writer.”
I shrugged. “I thought writing books would be safer. How wrong I was.”
“If you didn’t get your picture in the paper every six months, you might have accomplished that g
oal.” He shook his head. “I don’t want to fight tonight. I want to talk about us.”
“Don’t you want to know who my informant is? Of course, she won’t talk to anyone but me, but I thought you might be curious.”
“I’m very curious.” He tossed his napkin on his plate. “So, who is she?”
“Will you keep it a secret?”
He narrowed his eyes.
“Okay. She goes by the name Starr.”
He couldn’t have looked more surprised if I had announced I was really a man. “Seriously?”
“Yes, why?” There was definitely something he wasn’t telling me.
“Short, blond, looks like she’s sixteen?”
“Yes.”
He stared out the window, a muscle ticking in his jaw. “I don’t have a clue what to do about this,” he muttered. “What does the tattoo look like?”
“An upside down cross.” I figured I might as well tell him everything. “Rumor is that Reed is Stinger. Is there anyway you can see him with his shirt off? I thought about sneaking into the gym, but that really isn’t my thing.”
“You know too much.” He transferred his attention back to me. “I’ll find a way.”
“Hurry. He’s the one guarding Ryan’s room.”
“Yeah, there’s something fishy about that.”
“I thought so, too. Greta and I were thinking—”
“Stormi, please. Let me handle this. I appreciate the information you’ve dug up, but things are escalating. The police are cracking down hard on the gang and things are getting ugly.”
“But, I’m helping you, and it keeps me from going crazy locked in my house.”
“I really don’t know why I waste my breath.”
He looked so sad, tears burned my eyes.
“I’m being careful, and wearing a disguise every time I question someone.”
“With your looks, a disguise isn’t enough.”
“Thank you, I think.” I twisted my napkin.
“Greta, especially, should know better. She was an officer.”
“Behind a desk.”
“Doesn’t matter. She knows the rules.” He raised his hand for the check.
I’d done it again. I’d ruined a wonderful evening by talking about things I had no business talking about. “Let’s take a walk though the restaurant garden. I don’t want the night to end.”
“That’s the second best thing you’ve said all night.”
Minutes later, hand-in-hand, we strolled through crunchy dried leaves and evergreen trees. Matt pulled me into the bushes. “Let’s celebrate saying I love you.”
“That’s the second best thing you’ve said all night.” I wrapped my arms around his neck.
He pressed close. A tree trunk stopped us from going farther, the bark rough against my back. Matt lowered his head and nuzzled my neck. My breath hitched in my throat as his kisses deepened, moving to my lips.
“You’re my heart, Stormi,” he whispered, his breath hoarse against my lips.
I couldn’t think of anything but the way his kisses felt, his strong body against mine, his hands caressing my back. I should’ve said no, but gave into the passion instead. All coherent thought fled my mind and I returned his kiss with all the passion pent up inside me.
When I could no longer breath, I pulled away and rested my forehead on his chest. His heart raced under my hand. My kisses seemed to affect him as strongly as his did me. It wasn’t wise to spend too much time alone. While I knew we couldn’t step over the line in a public place, passion tended to make people lose all reason.
“We should go,” I said, my chest heaving.
“Yeah.” He cupped my face, staring into my eyes, his glittering in the moonlight. “You make me lose my mind. You’re a fire-haired temptress, Stormi Nelson, casting a spell on me that I can’t break.”
“Do you want to break the spell?”
“God, no.” He kissed me again, this time with a tenderness that brought tears to my eyes and down my cheeks. He rubbed them away with his thumbs. “Don’t cry. Love is a wonderful thing. I’m blessed to have someone like you love me.”
Voices coming down the path caused us to step apart. Matt took my hand in his. We strolled without speaking around a small man-made pond. I was content to walk in silence and soak in the beauty of my surroundings and the love of the man beside me. The night had been more than I’d hoped for. No bullets or shattering glass. No crazed maniac staring at us through the window. It was possible to have a date night without almost getting killed. The fact my borrowed dress was unharmed was an added bonus.
Matt pushed open a wrought iron gate and ushered me ahead of him. We rounded the corner of the restaurant.
“What in Hades name?” Matt sprinted for his car.
I followed as fast as I could go on my stilettos and pulled my gun from my purse, fully intending to protect Matt from any harm that might come to him.
He stopped beside his car. All four tires had been slashed. He glanced at me. “Why are you carrying a gun on our date?”
“I won’t let someone shoot you like they did Ryan.”
As if my words had woken him from some dream state, he took my pretty pink Glock from my hand and shoved me behind him. “Get down.”
I crouched beside the car, pulling Matt down with me. “Do you see anyone?” I asked.
“No.” He grinned. “If someone would have told me that I’d be hunkered down with a beautiful woman next to a disabled car, I would have said they were crazy. Life won’t ever be boring with you around.”
He stood and pulled me after him as we sprinted for the restaurant.
20
We barged through the restaurant doors and Matt motioned me to a seat in the waiting area. So much for a romantic evening.
I smiled at the sight of Matt, cell phone to his ear, and pink gun in his hand. He could make anything look manly.
“Maryann is coming to give us a ride home, the department is sending someone to take our statement, and I’ve called a tow truck.” He sat beside me. “Are you okay? You looked a bit … shell shocked.”
Ooops. Got caught staring with a goofy look on my face. “I’m fine. At least there weren’t any bullets flying.”
“I think they’re sending a message for me to back off.” He stretched his legs in front of him and crossed them at the ankles. “I must be getting close to solving this.”
“We’re getting close.” I stared out the window in front of us.
A man, all in black, watched from the other side of the street. I grabbed my gun out of Matt’s hand, and in my usual ‘not thinking before acting’, raced out the door toward him. “Stop! I will shoot you.” Not really, but hopefully he didn’t know that.
Matt thundered after, yelling my name. I ignored him and kept going. The man I chased dashed down the sidewalk, arms pumping. I kicked off my heels and kept running. Maybe I really did need to go to the gym.
My breath came in painful gasps and a painful stitch in my side had me almost bent in two. Matt caught up with me in seconds and passed, giving chase. I loved that man. He didn’t stop to question why I was chasing someone, only that I was, and must therefore have a reason. Sometimes that reason might be a bit off-the-wall, but I tended to trust my instincts.
“Wait.” I stopped and leaned against a wall. Matt had left me behind. I took several deep breaths, and ran again.
My barefoot caught a ridge in the sidewalk. My ring toe snapped. I cried out and fell, sliding several feet on my stomach. My gun clattered into the street. Angela’s dress ripped down the side. She was going to kill me, either that or I owed her a new wardrobe.
I sat up and glanced at my toe. It was already swollen, purple, and throbbing like a drum. My giving chase was over. My hands, raw from the sidewalk, and still showing some of the rash from the poison ivy burned as if I’d touched a hot stove.
Glancing around the dark sidewalk, and realizing I was very much alone, I got to my feet. If someone wanted to grab me
, now was their chance. I hobbled to retrieve my gun, then headed back toward the restaurant as fast as my broken toe would allow.
Where was Matt? He was unarmed since I had so thoughtlessly taken my gun back. I hadn’t heard sounds of a scuffle, and prayed he had either caught the man without a fight or the man had gotten clean away without harming my boyfriend.
I shuffled into the parking lot like a zombie, my scraped hands held out at my sides. My heels, which I’d retrieved on the way back, dangled from my fingers. Maryann and an officer I didn’t know, rushed toward me.
“What happened?” Maryann grabbed my wrists. “Where’s my brother?”
“I fell, and he is chasing a suspect.”
“Which way?” The officer asked.
I pointed, and he raced away.
“Let’s get these scrapes cleaned up.” Maryann shouted for someone to bring water and clean cloths and sat me in the back seat of her car, my legs on the outside. “I miss all of the excitement.”
“We weren’t looking for it,” I said. “We were on a date.”
“I only have a few more months of teaching before I become your full time literary assistant. I intend to accompany you on all your sleuthing expeditions, which, in your case, is really research.”
“I hope there aren’t anymore,” I hissed as I lifted my dress, or what was left of it, above my knees.
“Don’t say that.” Her face fell. “I’ve always wanted to be like Nancy Drew.”
“I’m Nancy Drew. You’re her friend.”
She shrugged. “Whatever. The point is, my life is boring. Your’s isn’t.”
“You sound like Angela.” Did everyone seriously think being in danger for your life was fun?
“God forbid I’m anything like your sister.” She turned and took a bowl of ice water and cloth napkins from a waitress.
“Who in the heck were we chasing?” Matt leaned against the car, hardly sounding as if he’d just sped after someone.
I definitely needed to get in shape. “That guy was staring at us through the window. I think he might have been the one who slashed the tires.”
“Right.” He shook his head before taking over the washing of my scrapes from his sister. “That was foolish on both our parts.”
Nosy Neighbor: All 7 complete Nosy Neighbor cozy mysteries PLUS: 2 short Christmas stories (A Nosy Neighbor mystery) Page 43
