“Getting in, Kitten. That alright with you?”
Nodding, I scootched myself closer to the wall as James slid himself between the sheets. We both lay on our backs, staring at the ceiling for a moment. I continued to hug my teddy bear to my chest, both of my hands tucked neatly beneath my armpits. No way was I making a move. Addison’s words from the previous night echoed loudly in my head.
After a few moments of mutual silence, James rolled to face me and propped himself up on his elbow. He watched me carefully, saying nothing. I continued to study the ceiling, even as his gaze on me intensified. “What?” I finally asked, snapping my head towards him. I was feeling incredibly self-conscious, but trying not to make it too obvious.
“Nothing,” he sighed, laying back down. He rolled to face the other direction and I shifted my gaze upwards again. An old poster of Justin Timberlake was still sticky-tacked on the popcorn ceiling, smiling down at me with those adorable, bleached curls. Why couldn’t I go back to being a kid in the ’90s, when everything was simple and my worst fear was getting a pimple? Come to think of it, that was still a pretty regular fear. Granted, it was nothing compared to laying next to a gorgeous specimen who couldn’t man up enough to make a move. Did I even want him to make a move? I wasn’t sure. I really liked Mika. I wasn’t totally ready to make my final call.
“Screw it,” James muttered suddenly. With that, he turned, took my face in his hands and kissed me. Hard. Teddy was squashed between our bodies, straining to keep them a few inches apart. He was clearly unhappy that he’d been replaced.
Eventually, I pulled away. “What are you doing?” I gasped, breathless.
“What any red-blooded man in his right mind would do,” James responded.
“I can’t sleep with you. Not here. Not in my parents’ house!” I hissed frantically.
“I’m not going to take advantage of you,” James assured me. “But I fought to be in here with you tonight and I’ll be damned if I don’t prove it. If I don’t at least kiss you, I may as well sleep on the floor.” With that, he kissed me again and I felt myself slowly melting into his chest, my hands sliding around his back, clutching it tightly. My defenses were down. He was a damn good kisser. And all of those rippling muscles weren’t too bad either.
At some point during the night, James and I had fallen asleep wrapped in one another’s arms. I awoke to my phone alarm going off, alerting me that it was 4am and time to go wake Janet. I was sure she was capable of waking up all on her own, but call me a control freak. It was my niece’s life we were talking about.
As quietly as I could, I peeled back the covers and went to crawl over James. I was straddling him incredibly carefully when he reached up and gripped my hips, pulling me down against his groin. It was rock hard and very, very stallion-like. God help me. “Morning,” he murmured with a wicked grin.
“I have to turn off my alarm,” I whispered nervously.
Expertly, he ground up against me, pulling hard at my hips. “Right now?”
Moaning quietly, I tried to wriggle from his grasp. “Yes,” I answered, trying to push myself off of him. He was strong. Hadn’t I just been admiring his muscles last night? Now I was cursing them. Them and all of their rippled glory.
“You sure?” he asked. Slowly, he rose from the bed and wrapped his big, burly arms around my upper back. Leaning towards me, he slowly licked the length of my neck, pausing just beneath my chin. I felt my breath quicken as James growled quietly.
My resolve was dissipating when the bedroom door creaked open. “Marian, I was wondering if you wante- oh, God! I’m sorry! I’m so sorry!” Janet whispered embarrassed, pulling the door closed tightly behind her.
James instantly let go of my hips and I rolled out of the bed, falling hard onto the floor. Flailing for a moment, I finally managed to grab my phone and silence it. With a dirty look to James, I stood and chased Janet out into the hallway. I finally caught up with her just outside the bathroom, where she’d begun unpacking her shower supplies. “It’s not what you think!” I told her as quietly as I could, tugging at the hem of my t-shirt and hoping Addison and Mika weren’t awake to hear us. I was suddenly very aware of how little clothing I had on.
“Hey, I’d totally go for the other one, but it’s not my call,” Janet teased.
“Oh my God,” I moaned, dropping my head into my hands. “What am I thinking trying to date both of them at once?”
Janet’s eyes nearly fell out of their sockets. “You’re dating both of them?” she hissed. “Are you joking?” I shook my head miserably. “Girl! You’re crazy.”
“I know,” I told her. “I’ve been doing this for a month and I’m no closer to a decision.” I paused. “Well, that’s not really true. But every time I think I want to spend more time with Mr. Dark and Dreamy, James actually steps up and does something unexpected.”
“Did you sleep with him last night?” she squealed.
I shushed her and pressed my ear against Addison’s door. Nothing behind it seemed to be stirring. “No,” I finally admitted. “I haven’t slept with either of them.”
She let out a low whistle. “That’s disturbingly impressive.”
“I hate to admit this, but I’m proud of myself,” I giggled, thinking about how gorgeous both of the men actually were.
“You’re coming with me today,” she said with a pat on my arm. “We have a lot to talk about and I could use a buddy on such a long drive.”
Nodding, I shooed her into the shower and closed the bathroom door. Leaning against it, I again tugged down the hem of my t-shirt and bit my lower lip as I imagined going back into my room to get dressed. No question — I might never come back out.
Freshly showered, we jumped into Janet’s rental and started towards Chicago. James had, thankfully, fallen back asleep so grabbing my stuff for the day hadn’t been an issue. Janet and I were well outside of town before we came across a pit stop that served breakfast. That was the big challenge with small-town life. Starbucks was, surprisingly, not on every corner. We stopped for coffee and bagels before aiming ourselves back towards the great big city of Chicago. The sunrise was a beautiful wash of purples and oranges and pinks, dancing off of fluffy clouds. I found myself wondering what we would find — if anything — at The Quill, and prayed that we weren’t too late.
Without warning, my phone began to ring. Assuming it was someone back home, wondering where we’d run off to so early, I quickly answered, not bothering to take in the caller ID. “Hello?” There was some crackling and a garbled voice on the other end of the line. My heart began to pound. I sat up quickly and pressed the phone harder against my ear. “Hello?” I asked again. More crackling. More garble. “Riley?” I asked. “Riley, is that you?”
“Ipson,” I was finally able to make out.
“Ipson?” I asked. I looked to Janet, confused. She’d been struggling to listen in, so I switched my cell over to speaker just as the static and garble broke free and my signal grew clear as day.
“It’s Carly Ipson! Hello? Can you hear me?”
“Yes, I can hear you!” I shouted, clutching the phone tightly.
“Hey, Carly! It’s Janet,” my driver called cheerfully. “How’s it hanging?”
Carly laughed on the other end of the line. It was melodic and infectious. “Isn’t that what they say in California? Thought you’d moved to Florida, friend.”
“Great to hear from you,” Janet said, “seeing as how you weren’t much help to Marian in her last unsolved mystery.”
“I was on vacation!” Carly cried.
“I know, I know,” Janet teased. “Three weeks in Europe and completely unreachable.”
“Though in hindsight, Barry always gave me the creeps,” Carly admitted.
“Good to know now,” I told her dryly.
“So tell me what’s happening,” Carly said. “Marian, you just asked for me to call. Is this about Barry again? Because if you need testimony, I’m glad to say whatever I need to, to ensure that
, that nutcase goes away for a really long time.”
“It’s not Barry,” I sighed. “I wish it were.”
Carly let out a low whistle. “Then this must be really bad.”
I didn’t really know Carly from just some random Joe on the street, but I felt myself trusting her instantly. She had a calming personality. Plus Janet liked her, which was good enough for me. Janet and I took turns filling her in over the next few minutes. “That’s all that we know,” I told Carly, finishing.
“What can I do?” she asked us. “I’d love to help, but I really have no idea how. Unless-”
“Unless what?” I asked her eagerly. I was ready for some new ideas, considering the only ones my group had come up with were hanging from a thread.
“Well, you said that that old guy- Gregson- was affiliated with some used bookstore down in Chicago. Ever think that maybe Riley’s kidnappers took her there? Chicago, I mean. It might explain why no one has been able to find her in your hometown, Marian. I bet I could get some Chicago buddies to look into it.”
“Why didn’t we think of that?” Janet asked, me, excited. “Carly, what do you need from us?”
“Can you email me photos of anyone that you think could be involved in this mess? Your niece. That Gregson guy. Rachel. Anyone that may have been down in that area.”
“I’ll have someone back home do it,” I assured her. “That’s a great idea. What’s your email address?”
As she rattled it off, I wrote it down as best I could, given the bumpy road. We were trekking through some well-packed snow, which wasn’t making our drive very smooth. “I can’t make any promises,” she said before hanging up. “But at least it’s something.”
Janet and I both thanked her profusely. She promised to meet me for coffee when things were settled and I was back in town, and then we signed off. For the first time since I’d found out Riley was missing, I felt hope seize my heart.
“What’s on your mind?” Janet asked me. We’d been moving along in comfortable silence since Carly’s phone call. Now we were on the outskirts of Milwaukee, just a short hour and a half from our final destination.
“Just how messed up this whole thing is,” I admitted, sipping at the last of my coffee, which had gone stone cold. Somehow, coffee always tasted more bitter when it was cold and I felt my tastebuds cringe. Janet nodded sympathetically, so I continued. “You always say it’ll never happen to you. I do it all the time when I’m photographing grisly crime scenes. But here we are.” I paused for a moment and turned to stare out the window as I asked my next question. “What if this whole thing really is Rachel’s fault? What if all of this was building up and no one noticed or bothered to care? I’d have never pinned anything like this on my sister-in-law, but now? Now I honestly have no idea. This could destroy my family, you know?”
Janet reached across the car and squeezed my arm. “You can’t think like that. We’re just speculating but, the truth is, everything we’ve thrown out is just a theory.”
I nodded. “I know. You’re right. I’ll just be happy when this whole this is over and Riley is home safe.”
“Me, too,” Janet said quietly. She moved her hand back to the steering wheel and we drove the rest of the way to the big city in companionable silence.
Just outside the Chicago city limits, my phone began to ring again. This time, I checked to caller ID. It was James. “Where the hell are you?” he asked when I answered. “I fell back asleep and when I woke up, you were gone.”
“I’m with Janet,” I told him. “I was already awake and she needed company. It’s such a long drive. Plus, it’s my mess, you know?”
“Oh,” he answered simply. There was a pause and I could tell he was debating asking me another question. I looked at Janet and smiled. “Spit it out, Cowboy,” I told him.
“Did I upset you?” he asked worriedly. “Did you leave because of how things went after your alarm went off?”
He sounded so concerned that I almost laughed. Almost. “No,” I finally told him. “I promise.”
“Then I’ll see you when you get back in a few hours?”
“Count on it. And by the way, I have an assignment for you and Mika.”
“Anything,” James assured me.
I took a moment to explain my call with Carly and shared her email address with him. “The most up-to-date photos you can find,” I said. “I’m sure my mom even has some of Gregson.”
“Why would she?” James asked. I could almost hear his brow wrinkling in confusion and I fought a smile as I imagined it.
“It’s a small town thing,” I assured him with a shrug he couldn’t see. “I’m sure he’s in a family photo at a town picnic somewhere.”
“Call us if you come across any new information at the bookstore,” he said.
“We will,” Janet shouted, having heard every word of our conversation. With that, I clicked off. “He means well,” she murmured, turning to look at me briefly.
“I know,” I admitted, tucking my phone back into my pocket. “But Mika does, too.”
“Must be rough,” Janet teased as I shrugged helplessly. “Well,” she said, eyeing me critically, “if we’re going on looks, I’d have to say that Mika has that whole dark and smoldering thing going on, which, as you know, is kind of my thing.” Janet’s husband, Rob, was nearly six and a half feet of gorgeous Brazilian with the sexy accent to boot. “But that whole sensitivity thing really gets me every time,” she admitted.
This didn’t surprise me at all. Sensitivity was Janet’s middle name. Were I ever in a sticky situation that Addison wasn’t present for, with her fierce looks and spitting wit, I’d want Janet, with her level-headed demeanor and kick ass attitude. I’d seen her chase down and tackle a suspect or two, some of them three times the size that she was. It never seemed to matter. The girl was kick ass.
Janet’s husband, on the other hand, was much more of a worrier and had an incredibly difficult time making quick decisions. I adored the man, whom I’d been lucky enough to meet and spend some time with on more than one occasion, but Janet, without a doubt, wore the pants in their relationship. In fact, when her husband was offered the amazing opportunity in Florida, he had agonized over the decision for days. This being in the middle of a frozen Milwaukee winter. Janet was the one who finally called into his boss and said they’d take the assignment. Rob just couldn’t seem to do it.
“Don’t you get tired of running the ship?” I asked curiously.
She shrugged. “Sure, but that’s about the time that he takes over. I like being in charge. Seventy-five percent of the time, that is,” she laughed. “And when I need a break, Rob steps up. It’s not like he’s incapable, it’s just not his primary way of handling things.” As we eased off the interstate exit and paused at a light, she turned to stare at me critically. “The thing is, you may need something totally different than what I need. You’re not me.”
“I don’t know what I need,” I told her softly.
“Sure you do.” She smiled and tapped my chest. “Listen to that little voice in there. You’ll find the answer to everything. Except, perhaps, the meaning of life.”
I closed my eyes and tried hard to listen. “What if I don’t get a response?” I mumbled.
“It comes,” she promised. “Sooner or later, you’ll just know.”
We’d gotten turned around on the Chicago streets several times. Additionally, neither one of us was used to as much traffic as the big city had. It was a shock to both our systems, especially after having spent the last several hours in such a small town. Eventually, we found The Quill, tucked off a quiet corner, and even scored a nearby parallel parking spot, which is pretty much unheard of in a city as large as Chicago. When we went to open our car doors, my stomach growled loudly. Janet laughed and checked her watch. “We’re here about 20 minutes early,” she told me. “May as well walk to that pastry shop we passed and grab a bite.”
“Sounds good,” I agreed, slightly embarrassed. A few min
utes later, we’d worked our way through the line and were retrieving our items from the counter. Janet checked her watch again. “It’s showtime,” she told me, walking fast towards the front door. I followed in hot pursuit, trying to balance my coffee in one hand and a pastry with various fillings and toppings in the other. We made our way down the crowded sidewalks, eating as we raced along. About half of my pastry dropped to the sidewalk as we hustled along, and a murder of crows took full advantage. Hearing them caw gave me the willies and I struggled to walk even faster, slipping and sliding as we went.
I’d just popped the last of my second breakfast into my mouth when Janet cut a sharp left and we dipped into an alley. “Where are we going?” I asked her, nearly sliding past across the snow covered ice.
“Shortcut,” she promised. Once through the alley, we curved right and paused, smack dab in front of the bookshop. Stopping, we glanced over the elaborate gold lettering that spelled out the store name in the front window. The inside looked dark and crowded, but a small sign on the door read “OPEN” in bright, green lettering. Taking a swig of my coffee, I went to tug on the handle. “Wait,” Janet said, grabbing my arm. When I looked at her confused, she shrugged. “I just have a weird feeling,” she told me. Glancing left and then right, she motioned for me to follow her. Back in the alley, she moved along the long side of the building, her hand softly touching the brick.
“What are we doing?” I asked her.
Allison Janda - Marian Moyer 02 - Seduction, Deceit & a Slice of Apple Pie Page 9
