“I will, but I’m taking Annie with me. She’ll have a bed and breakfast and some clean clothes. The only thing that’s going to be bleeding is you, if you call me outlaw again. My name is Antoinette Gresham, Ms. Gresham to you.”
Adam reached into his pocket and pulled out a half-smoked, thoroughly chewed stump of a cigar and clamped it between his teeth. He rolled it around for a moment, then removed it, glaring at it with great regret.
“Ms. Gresham, are you threatening a police officer?”
“I think so. In fact, Captain Ware, I’m absolutely positive about the matter. So, either you release Annie or I’ll give you a reason to send me back to my cell, a nice vocal, public reason.”
He took in her words, even while most of his mind was intent on a minute inventory of her body.
“Consider yourself a physical person, do you, Ms. Gresham?” He stood up and stuck the cigar between his lips again, rolling it around for a moment as if savoring its taste.
“I never thought about being physical before I met you, Captain Ware. Since then I’ve rarely thought of anything else.” Damn, she thought. Open mouth, insert foot.
She didn’t know whether it was the cigar or her statement that made him choke, but the cigar disappeared and he began to cough violently. He swallowed the damn thing.
As he tried valiantly to clear his throat Toni stepped swiftly behind him and wrapped her arms around his abdomen. With two quick squeezes she forced enough air from his lungs to pop the cigar stump out. The good captain began to breath normally. She tried to remove her arms but he grabbed them, holding on as if she were a life jacket and he were drowning.
“What the hell are you doing?” he asked.
“Heimlich maneuver. You were choking on that nasty thing.”
He swallowed hard and tried to still his racing heartbeat. “I guess I should say thank you.”
“You’re welcome, Captain. Now, release me. Everyone out there is looking.”
Adam whirled around and gazed down at the woman who’d just performed a lifesaving procedure on a police captain in the middle of the squad room, with every officer in the station looking on. “Does that bother you?” he asked.
He’d moved so quickly, Toni’s arms were still looped around him. She felt as if she were back on the motorcycle with the man who’d come crashing into her life with all the grace of the Schlitz Malt Liquor bull.
“Absolutely not,” she snapped, taking a step back.
She forced herself to think of Adam Ware as one of her father’s executives, wearing a custom-tailored silk suit with a paisley print tie and a soft blue shirt. Making him into a businessman ought to erase the sensual image her mind insisted on replaying. It didn’t work. Even a well-disciplined mind rebelled at clothing a man with a body like Adam Ware’s. And when had she ever been well disciplined at anything?
She continued to visualize him in formal, executive dress. Her separation ploy might have worked if she hadn’t noticed his knee-high black socks and soft black Italian shoes. “Oh, fudge!” In her vivid imagination, the man was perfectly dressed from the waist up. He just wasn’t wearing any pants.
“I beg your pardon?”
“Snakes and snails and puppy-dog tails!” she whispered desperately as she backed around the desk for safety. She glanced quickly around. If any of the men in the squad room had been watching, they had averted their eyes from their boss’s unprofessional actions.
“More nursery rhymes?” Adam said. “You say you’re not an outlaw and I didn’t think angels had bad habits.”
Toni wearily combed her fingers through her hair. “I’m no angel, and I have as many bad habits as the next person. I don’t suppose you have any vices.”
“Vices? Oh, yes. I have vices all right. You just saved me from choking on one of them.” She had just saved his life, he thought again. He was still holding the cigar stub, and he glared at it. He didn’t smoke cigars. He’d stopped long ago. It was just there, a childish panacea he used to distance himself from a situation or a person. He studied the mangled cigar, then threw it into the metal wastepaper can beside the window.
“What about Annie, Captain Ware?”
Adam turned away from the wide-eyed innocence that radiated from Toni Gresham’s heart-shaped face and walked to the window. He needed to give himself time to erase the myriad feelings her touch aroused in him.
He wanted to shake her, punish her for what she had done to his peace of mind for the last two hours. When she’d sent word that she wanted to see him, he’d snapped at the sergeant. The last thing he wanted was to see Ms. Toni Gresham again—ever. That’s why he’d dropped the charges.
He had been chagrined to find out that the woman he’d arrested was a member of one of Atlanta’s wealthiest and most prominent families. But that wasn’t enough. She was also well-known for her charity work with the elderly. And standing there, dressed in second-story man black, she was beautiful. He’d told the chief he was willing to let her off with only a warning. The problem was that he’d planned to delay her leaving until morning and allow the officer of the day to administer the warning.
“Why do you want to take Annie home with you?” he asked her, staring out the window. “You aren’t operating a halfway house illegally on the side, are you?”
“What I am is tired, hungry, and sleepy. What I want to do is get out of here, and if you won’t let Annie come home with me, maybe we’ll both go home with you. That way you could keep us under surveillance.”
She was tired, Toni thought. She was talking crazy. The last thing she wanted to do was go home with Captain Adam Ware. He just seemed too tough. She wanted to jar some of that sternness from his demeanor.
“I don’t take women home with me. I prefer my ladies one at a time. But if I were to, Toni Gresham, it wouldn’t be for surveillance.” He walked back to the desk and pushed a button on the phone console. “Sergeant Prince, bring Annie from the holding cell and pick up both Annie’s and Ms. Gresham’s personal items.”
“Thank you, Captain Ware,” Toni said softly. “Now, why was I released?”
“We’re dropping the charges, with the stipulation that you stop your clandestine vigilante raiding.”
“I don’t think I can promise that, Captain. But I will promise not to involve anyone else.”
“That’s just about what I thought, Ms. Gresham. Would you like me to call you a cab?”
“Yes, thank you. No, wait. I forgot. I don’t have any money.”
“Wonderful. All right. Let’s go. I’ll drive you.”
“On the motorcycle?”
“No, in my van. Three on a bike is illegal.”
“Of course, and we don’t do anything illegal, do we?”
“Not yet,” Adam said, wondering if mental ravishment was against the law.
They met a confused Annie in the lobby just inside the back door. “Where am I going, Adam?”
“We’re going to a spend-the-night party, Annie. Ms. Gresham has invited both of us.”
“Hot damn! Are we having food?”
“I hope so. I missed supper, playing Tarzan in the woods.”
“That’s another thing I forgot about,” Toni admitted with embarrassment. “I don’t have anything in my refrigerator.”
“I arrest you and agree to turn you loose. Then you remember that you don’t have any money. Now you tell me you don’t have any food for the guest that you insisted I allow to accompany you. Lady, you are some disorganized criminal.”
“You’re right. I’m afraid I didn’t stop to think. Could you lend me ten dollars? I’ll pay you back tomorrow, with interest.”
They looked at each other for a long moment, each considering the wisdom of ever seeing the other again.
“I’ll buy dinner,” Annie said, breaking the tense silence. “Just stop at the all-night market.”
“No way,” Adam snapped. “No telling where you got that money.”
“She doesn’t rob people, does she?” Toni asked
under her breath, stepping closer to Adam to hear his answer. That was a mistake. As soon as their bodies made contact, the spark arced between them. They stared at each other again, wide-eyed in astonishment.
“I don’t know,” Adam managed to say after a minute. “For all I know she has a million-dollar trust fund somewhere. There’s talk that she used to live in one of those fine old apartments on Ponce de Leon, one of those that got torn down years ago.”
“Really?” They’d stopped walking just outside the back door. Now they were standing in a patch of darkness, almost as close as they’d been in the woods when she’d kissed him. Her body remembered. Her lips remembered. She swayed toward that memory.
Adam swore. What in hell was happening to him? He didn’t know how long they’d been staring at each other. He didn’t know how long he’d been fighting his need to sweep her up in his arms and charge through the darkness to the clearing where he’d found her.
Annie’s chuckle broke the silence. “Say, I don’t mind acting as chaperone, but could you lust after each other someplace else?”
“Shut up, Annie. Get in the van.” Adam jerked open the back door of a sleek black vehicle, resplendent with black chrome and a continental kit on which he’d had a gold fleur-de-lis painted.
When Toni made a move to follow her, Annie closed the door in her face. “Better ride up front with the fuzz,” she said. “I don’t trust the bum.”
“Good idea,” Toni agreed as she climbed in the passenger side.
“Fasten your safety belt,” he directed gruffly.
“I never fasten my safety belt.”
“Then we’ll just spend the night right here,” he said agreeably.
“No way,” Annie said. “The back of this thing only has one bed and it’s mine. Unless you’d like me to take a powder and leave you two alone.”
“Bed? No.” Toni grabbed the seat belt and snapped it shut across her chest. “I’m buckled up, Captain.”
“Then you can follow orders. I was beginning to wonder if you just automatically did the opposite of what you’re told.”
“Only when the orders are contrary to my instincts.”
Instincts? Adam wondered as he backed the van out of the parking area. There’d been no mistaking his instincts when he’d kissed her. The instinct to hold her was as strong now as it had been a few minutes ago, and she hadn’t been resisting him then either. This woman was trouble in Atlanta City. With a capital T that rhymed with P and that stood for pure. This woman was pure trouble any way he went.
“What about law and order?” he bellowed in frustration. “Don’t you have any respect for rules?”
“Sure. Rules are wonderful. It’s the rule makers that I don’t have any respect for. They never take into account the human element. Rules? Sure, but there’s never been a rule that hasn’t been broken sometime.”
“Right. People kill other people. You want us to let them go?”
“Have you ever killed anybody, Captain Ware?”
“Well, yes, but that’s different.”
“Different? I rest my case.”
“It’s not the same thing and you know it.” He was sorry he’d begun the conversation, sorry he’d arrested the woman, sorry he hadn’t taken her home in the beginning. They might have—
“No,” she said, “it isn’t the same thing. But those same people might have families that need help. Do you want them killed along with the murderer?”
“Of course not. I’m not heartless.”
“But you refuse to let me help protect those who are no longer able to protect themselves?”
“Oh, lady, I can see that this spend-the-night party isn’t going to be gossip and giggles.” He wheeled into an all-night grocery store and killed the engine. “I’ll be right back.”
Toni watched him walk into the store. This time the camouflage suit didn’t disappear. This time his broad shoulders and strong legs were concealed, and the fatigues were more sensual than her imagination could ever have been.
“Like him, do you?”
Annie’s voice broke into her thoughts. For an angry moment Toni had forgotten she was there.
“He’s the most egotistical, irritating man I’ve ever had to deal with. It’s like talking to a stone wall. Doesn’t he ever give in?”
“Not when he thinks he’s right. But don’t give up on him. He needs somebody to stand up to him. A little honest fussing is good for the soul, and it ain’t bad for stimulating the body either. That Adam is some man, ain’t he?”
“I suppose he is, if you’re interested in that sort of thing.”
“And you aren’t?” Annie’s street talk “ain’t” turned into “aren’t” at the same time her voice developed a surprisingly polished modulation.
“Absolutely not. I don’t have time in my life for … fooling around. That just takes up energy that could be better used somewhere else.”
“Too bad. It’s been a long time since I’ve seen two people sizzle like you two do. Ah, well, Adam would probably be too much of a man for some half-baked society girl to get to anyhow.”
Toni refused to rise to the bait. “Why on earth would anybody want that kind of challenge?”
“Well,” Annie said musingly, “if I understand it right, you’re trying to help the elderly. It wouldn’t hurt your cause any to have somebody like Adam interested in it, purely for … What’s the term? Humanitarian reasons? I mean, you wouldn’t have to do anything you didn’t want to do.”
“Do you really think Captain Ware would help us?”
“No, but I think Adam isn’t so tough.” Annie’s voice cracked with amusement as she reverted to her normal way of speaking. “The man’s a pussycat, Toni. He just don’t know it. Stroke him right and he’ll purr.”
“He’ll purr?”
“Just a figure of speech, honey. With the right ammunition, the man could be had. Of course, I wouldn’t imagine that you’d ever want to use his influence or do anything underhanded, but it’s worth thinking about, isn’t it?”
“I’m sorry, Annie. I don’t like being dishonest, even for my people. I’m just not that kind of person.”
“You know, that’s exactly what I thought. You and Adam, both straitlaced and upright. I wouldn’t expect either of you to do anything underhanded. Whatever you feel for each other would have to be above board and open, wouldn’t it?”
“Exactly!” Toni said just a little too loudly.
“Then how come you’re both hugging them car doors like you’re afraid you’ll burn each other if you get too close? There’s Adam. Looks like we’re going to have a big party from those sacks. Can you cook?”
“Eh, not very well.”
“That’s about what I thought. You can build a house over at that vocational school, but you can’t cook a meal. Well, no matter, I’ll teach you.”
“But Annie, I’m not interested in impressing our illustrious Captain Ware. I—”
The van door swung open.
“I don’t know what you can cook,” Adam said, “so I played it safe.” He slung the bags of groceries behind the seat and climbed in.
“I can cook whatever you have in that bag,” Toni said bravely, “and I find it hard to believe that you know anything about playing. As for being safe, forget it.”
“I can play any game I want to, outlaw, as long as I know the rules.” He slammed the door and started the engine, allowing the vehicle to idle a moment before turning the force of his gaze on her.
“Of course you’d have to have rules, wouldn’t you?” she said. “Don’t you ever just turn loose and fly with the wind?”
“You mean like a kite broken free of its string? No. Eventually it gets caught by a tree branch or struck by lightning somewhere in some black hole in space.”
“Ah, but think of the great wonders it sees, floating free in the heavens. And who knows, it might hang on a star or reach the Milky Way.”
They weren’t talking about kites, Adam knew as he pulled o
ut into the street. They were talking about taking risks, about pitfalls and rewards, about passion and control. And the wide-eyed woman beside him was shimmering with excitement. He didn’t want to recognize the secret arch of response in his own body. He deliberately closed out the wild images flooding his mind. What he was thinking was foolish, and if there was one thing Adam Ware wasn’t, it was a fool.
“Where to, madam?” He’d meant to sound like the chauffeur he was pretending to be. Tangled emotions colored his voice, though, and he was sure even Annie knew that the directions he was asking for weren’t for driving.
“Out Peachtree to Sherwood Forest, and take a left on Stardust Drive.” Toni risked a quick look before she added, “Third drive on the left until it dead-ends.”
“You live in a house? I expected a cloud or a tree.”
“Well, let’s just say you’re right on both counts. My friends call my house eccentric. I don’t know what you’ll think. Appreciation requires a certain amount of imagination. We’ll see.”
Shaken by the look glittering in her eyes, he took a long time answering.
“I don’t know much about looking at the stars. I suppose I’ve spent too much time looking at the ground. Maybe that makes me a dull man.”
“Ah, Captain Ware, you have more energy than anyone I’ve met in a long time. You just need to learn how to direct it.”
“If I ever want to, I think I may have found the master instructor.” He gave her a lazy smile.
One smile and she knew he didn’t need to learn anything. He was already directing his energy. He radiated power. The very air around them seemed charged. If they hadn’t been enclosed in the van, they might have caused a spontaneous combustion as they gazed at each other. “We’ll talk about it later,” she said under her breath.
From the back of the van came a mumbled whisper. “Lordy, I hope whatever he’s got in that bag isn’t burned to a crisp before we get home.”
Annie’s observation was just a murmur to Adam, a sound he couldn’t focus his attention on. It was all he could do to follow Toni’s directions to her house. Years of programmed action took over, and he didn’t even realize he’d reached the dead end until he saw the house.
Adam’s Outlaw Page 4
