“Great guns, what in hell is it? It looks like a giant cup and saucer with legs.”
“Oh, you’re right.” Toni flung herself across the seat and gave him a quick, impulsive hug. “And I thought you had no imagination.”
“I think I’ve just taken one of those unscheduled trips into the Twilight Zone.” He opened his door and stepped out onto the neat red-brick drive. “What do you think about this, Annie? You can always go back to jail.”
“And miss all this?” Annie crawled out the side door and shook her head in wonder. “I didn’t know they taught this kind of building over at that school of yours.”
“Anyone can live in a square box, Annie,” Toni said. “The idea is to live … in a magic place. Come on up.”
“Will it take off into space when we get inside?” Adam asked, grabbing the grocery bags and following Toni.
She laughed. “The prototype flew, but this one is anchored on the ground.”
They mounted a set of narrow steps that took them up past a series of landings to a redwood deck that encircled the entire house. The structure, made of glass and redwood, was shaped like a giant bowl. On one side was a second set of steps that led to the roof. From the distance those steps gave the appearance of a handle on a teacup.
“Are we talking flying saucers here?” Annie asked as Toni led the way into the kitchen. “If so, couldn’t we take off from the ground next time?”
“In a manner of speaking,” Toni answered. “There is a Russian folk tale about a witch named Baba Yaga. She had a magic cup that flew. I wanted to fly away in a teacup so bad. When I grew up, I wanted a house that soared above the ground, so I built my own teacup. What do you think?”
Adam walked out onto the deck. Over the tops of the trees he could see the nighttime city. He knew about being a child who wanted to fly away from home in a teacup. Toni was right. She’d created a kind of magic there. And it scared the hell out of him.
She joined him on the deck. “What do you think?”
“I think I must have hit my head harder than I thought. There can’t be a magic teacup in the middle of Atlanta. You have to be a figment of my imagination. I’m going to wake up with an awful headache any minute now.”
“There’s nothing wrong with you that the right food won’t fix, Captain,” Annie called from the kitchen. “You two come back in here before you go floating off into the night. I don’t know nothing about Baba Yaga, but I know when there’s magic in the air.”
“No thanks, ladies. This has been interesting, but I’ll have to pass on the food. I have a busy day tomorrow.”
He spoke the lie easily. Tomorrow was his day off, but he needed to get away from Ms. Antoinette Gresham before he acknowledged that her magic was intoxicating. She was leaning against the deck rail, gazing out at the night with a look of wonder on her face. All he wanted to do was pull her into his arms. He was losing it, definitely losing it, and he knew he’d better run.
“Good idea, Captain,” she said, glancing over her shoulder at him. “Annie and I have to get an early start too.”
“You and Annie? What does that mean?”
She paused, remembering Annie’s suggestion about getting Adam on their side. Maybe that wasn’t such a bad idea. And maybe trying to stroke his fur would be fun.
“Well, Captain,” she said, “I doubt I could fool you anyway, so I’ll just come right out with it. There’s a meeting of the Peachtree Vigilantes over at the Swan in the morning. Annie is going with me.”
“Dammit, Ms. Gresham.” He reached out suddenly and jerked her into his arms. “Haven’t you heard anything I’ve told you tonight? You can’t keep breaking the law. Some other officer won’t let you off with only a warning.”
“I know,” she said softly, pressing herself against him. The feel of his hard body confused her for a moment. Instead of remembering her plan to enlist him, she was remembering that too-brief kiss in the park. With effort, she yanked her thoughts back into line. “That’s why I’m choosing you to be my consort.”
He choked, and this time it wasn’t from swallowing his cigar. “Consort?”
“Yes, as in consorting with the enemy. I need a man on the inside.”
“Inside?” He was past choking. He was smothering to a delicious death.
“Come by in the morning, Adam, and we’ll make our plans.”
Dimly he realized that she’d twined her arms around his neck and was tangling her fingers in his hair.
“What are you doing, outlaw?” His voice was tight with emotion.
“I’m stroking your fur, Adam Ware. If I do it right, will you purr?”
Her lips were hot and demanding, and the force of her kiss hit him like a bullet from a .357 Magnum, burning his body with its fire.
“Go home, Adam,” she whispered, and pulled herself from his grip. “I … you still want me to respect you in the morning, don’t you?”
“I think I like the idea of us having an ‘in the morning,’ but respect isn’t exactly what I had in mind.”
“I know.” Toni’s voice was throaty and her mind was muddled with thoughts that had nothing to do with her vigilantes or Annie. Somewhere along the line she’d stopped enticing the man for humanitarian reasons. Except that she was a human being. For a moment she allowed herself to have her own personal human dream about waking up with this man beside her. Yep, an “in the morning” would be wonderful, if it weren’t forbidden.
She forced away those wickedly exquisite thoughts and said the first thing that came into her mind. “By the way, I love your executive socks, Adam, but do put on your pants before you come in the morning.”
She stepped back into the house and closed the door, leaving Adam standing in the saucer, starting stupidly at the house shaped like a teacup.
Four
“Annie, you look wonderful.”
“Yeah, I clean up nice, don’t I? Better get your clothes on. Coffee’s perked and I’ve got biscuits in the oven.”
Toni stood in the kitchen doorway, savoring the warm smells of bread baking and trying to convince herself that the motherly woman in the blue and white gingham dress, with the clean face and neatly combed hair, was the same scruffy character she’d rescued from the holding tank at the jail.
“You look so different,” she said. “Are you certain you’re Omni Annie?” She yawned and rubbed the sleep from her eyes.
“You mean the clothes? I always keep a real dress and shoes in my bag. Never know when I’ll be invited to a party.” She covered her pleasure with a gruff voice and turned back to the stove. “Fred called. He’s on his way over with bad news.”
“Did he say what?”
“Nope, but he ought to be here in a few minutes.”
The ringing of the doorbell sent Toni scurrying across the great room that was the center of the house and into her bedroom. She wondered what kind of bad news Fred was bringing.
Except for Fred, the identity of her elderly helpers had been protected the night before when they got away. Since she hadn’t been formally charged, Adam had no reason to go after any of them. There was nothing illegal about what her vocational students had been doing to help the Swan residents either. Of course, someone might not think that if they saw the old thread mill complex where they kept their supplies. Everything stored there was legitimate, but it could look suspicious. No doubt about it.
She was just jumpy. Gresham Mills had been closed since the sixties. Nobody knew about that place except her family, and none of them ever went there. Beside, the old mill still belonged to the Gresham family and she was a Gresham. At least her parents had agreed to keep most of the mill complex when her grandfather died, even if they had closed it down. Since she’d inherited an interest, there was nothing illegal about her storing donated building supplies there for use by the students of the Peachtree Vocational School.
Still … “A tisket, a tasket, a green— Oh!” This time a nursery rhyme didn’t work. “Dammit!” She should have checked i
n with Fred last night instead of mooning around the house with that police captain on her mind.
Adam Ware. Even his name made her shiver. She blushed as she remembered what had happened on the deck. She’d kissed him, actually kissed him, and she didn’t even want to think about what she’d promised him with that vamp routine.
Toni Gresham, who hadn’t had a truly serious relationship since college, seemed to be infected with a temporary case of moondust madness. She’d always been accused of being like her grandfather, living, and breathing her work, and her other causes had always been for someone else. This preoccupation was personal. Even now her pulse quickened at the remembrance of the man with the dark hair and intense frown.
Enough was enough, she told herself. No matter how attractive Adam Ware was, she couldn’t allow herself to be distracted. He was an example of the kind of person she most disliked, a man who refused to acknowledge people as individuals. She simply wouldn’t see him again. There would be no reason for their paths to cross if she was careful. She’d post a lookout, bribe a mole. There must be somebody in the the police department who could keep her informed of the man’s activities. Sure, and maybe the tap-dancing whales would swim down Peachtree Street and picket city hall.
Except—jellybeans! She’d invited him to come back that morning. She must have been out of her mind. He wouldn’t come. There was no reason for him to come. They had nothing in common. He’d done his duty and that was that. A police officer and a renegade were incompatible. She’d seen the last of her Mel Gibson look-alike.
Toni took a quick shower and towel-dried her hair, threading her fingers through the thick, short curls as she did every morning. She set her mind on the problems her arrest had caused, resolutely refusing to think anymore about the man who’d arrested her. There was precious little she hadn’t already considered about Adam Ware. She’d spent a good portion of the night not thinking about him.
He’d done his job. There was no reason for him to come back there. They weren’t interested in each other. They were about as much alike as sun-shine and lightning. It had been Annie who’d suggested that Adam Ware was a pussycat and that she should stroke his fur. Well, if Annie wanted any fur stroked, she’d have to do it herself. Toni had never dealt in favors and she wasn’t about to begin now. The last thing she needed was Adam Ware in her life, even if she could convince him to look the other way.
Fortunately she’d decided to take the summer off from teaching. The dean didn’t need to know that her latest research project was in law enforcement. That her project was humanitarian rather than educational was her secret—for now. If she ever published her results, it wouldn’t be in a technical journal.
She pulled on her usual jeans and gaudy T-shirt, tied the laces on her scruffy Reeboks, and headed back to the kitchen. Fred was there. She heard the murmur of his voice as she walked down the hall. They’d have to lay low for a while, until she could figure out what to do.
“Captain Ware?” He was sitting at her breakfast table. Dismay turned her tone of voice from determination to desperation. “What are you doing here?”
“I’m here for that ‘in the morning’ we promised each other. Did I misunderstand the invitation to join you?”
Did he misunderstand? Did the very sight of him make her blood pressure play hopscotch with her breathing? Caught off guard, Toni didn’t have a chance to protest. The man was a chameleon. This morning he was wearing jeans and running shoes more scruffy than her own. Toni leaned against the edge of the table to support herself as she tried to still her jangled nerve endings.
“Captain Ware, I think that we—”
“—have plenty,” Annie interrupted smoothly, winking at Adam as she set a plate in front of him. “Scrambled eggs all right with you, Toni?”
“But Annie. I thought you said Fred was on his way over.” Toni’s warning went unheeded as Annie handed Adam the coffeepot and he began to fill their cups.
Toni sank weakly into a chair and lifted the cup to her mouth. It was hot, too hot. “ ‘Simple Simon met a pieman going to the fair’ And that’s where I ought to be, in a carnival.”
Adam grinned. “Another children’s rhyme?”
Toni blew into her cup and didn’t answer. There was no point in letting the man know how his presence affected her.
Annie divided the pan of scrambled eggs into four parts and spooned a portion onto each of their plates, leaving the last serving in the pan on the stove. She placed the plate of hot biscuits on the table and sat down.
“Do you know,” she said, “that the doorbell plays ‘We’re off to see the wizard’?” She didn’t wait for Adam to acknowledge her remark. “It’s like living in a fairy tale. The bathroom has swans on the wallpaper and a yellow-brick floor.”
“Swans? Of course.” Adam nodded and began to eat.
“What do you mean, of course?” Toni asked. She bit into a biscuit, trying hard to regroup her aberrant nerve endings into some semblance of order.
“Tarzan?” he said. “Baba Yaga and her flying teacup? Nursery rhymes? Fairy tales? What else would we find in a magic place? Do you allow dragons and goblins in your enchanted land?”
“Only the two-footed kind who sneak in when my back is turned.”
“I didn’t sneak. I was invited.”
“My mistake.”
“Why do I get the feeling that nobody knows I’m here?” Annie said wryly. “Maybe I ought to go and make up the bed or something.”
“Don’t mention beds,” Toni snapped. “I mean, you stay right where you are. You offered Captain Ware breakfast. Let him eat.”
“Well,” he said, “technically breakfast wasn’t specified, but this is a welcome change from the Waffle House.”
“Then,” she continued in a rush, ignoring his intimate smile, “he’ll have to go because you and I have a meeting to go to Annie. We wouldn’t want to interfere with the Captain’s carrying out his official duties.”
“No problem, Ms. Gresham,” he said. “As of last night, you became my official duty.”
She stiffened. “What do you mean? Surely there must be more desperate criminals breaking the law in Atlanta, Georgia.”
“I thought I told you. The City Council assigned me to stop the muggers any way I could. I haven’t even seen a mugger. You have. And since I know you aren’t going to follow orders, I think I’ll just join your band. I thought I’d attend the meeting with you two ladies. Afterwards, I suspect I’ll have a hankering for a Varsity hot dog and fries for lunch. What do you think, partner?”
“You mean you’re going to follow me?” She was incredulous. “I won’t allow it. You can’t force your presence on me. And we’re not partners!”
“Not yet. But as I recall, outlaw, last night you offered Plan A,—food, which you failed to provide. Then there was Plan B, a matter of this morning that you seem to have forgotten about. So, I’m taking the situation into my hands officially with Plan C.”
“And what is Plan C?”
Adam smiled. The curve of his lips came slowly, revealing strong white teeth and changing his stern expression into one of conspiracy and secrecy. That smile created a picture in her mind of being drawn into his arms as surely as if she’d moved around the table.
“I’m joining your band of merry men.”
Toni exploded with furious indignation. “Not in this lifetime, Kojak! If you think for one minute that you’re going to move in on me, you’ve got another think coming.”
She sprang to her feet and resolutely crossed her arms over her chest, every movement a dare, every step away from the man a breath-giving move.
“Well, darling, it’s up to you. We can do this amicably, or we can do it the hard way. As long as if I’m with you, you’ll know where I am. If I’m not, you can never be sure.”
“You mean you’d shadow me, stake out my house?”
“Yep.”
Toni knew he had her backed into a corner. Sitting at the table with that maddeningly inno
cent smile, he drank his coffee and continued eating with a deliberately slow pace. They might as well be back in the woods. He might as well be holding her down on the ground. She couldn’t be any more aware of his physical presence.
She tried another tactic. “What if I gave you my word that I won’t set up any more stakeouts in the woods?”
“You mean like you wouldn’t run away while I looked for my gun? I don’t think so, babe. Your word isn’t reliable. I think I’ll just stick around.”
“Why?”
Adam laid his knife across the top of his plate and considered his answer. He could tell her that he’d had no intention of being at her breakfast table when he’d left her the previous night. He’d already made that decision when he pulled out clean jeans and a shirt and dressed. Halfway to her house he gave up lying and justified his action by telling himself he’d warn her that any further rule-breaking wouldn’t be treated so lightly.
Now as he lifted his gaze to hers, he knew he was facing a problem that wouldn’t easily be solved. For ten years he’d played it safe, avoiding any entanglement that might lead to a permanent relationship. He’d seen too many of the men he worked with go through depression, bouts with alcoholism, and divorce, and he’d determined long ago that the only person he wanted to depend on was himself.
Then this woman sailed through the night, crashed into his heart, and dismantled every good intention he’d paved his future with.
“Why?” he repeated. “I’m sure as hell don’t know.”
“We’re off to see the wizard,” the doorbell trilled happily, announcing another visitor along for the ride.
“Shall I?” Annie asked pleasantly.
“Yes. No, never mind. I’ll get it.” Toni circled the table and started across the kitchen.
“Toni, girl—the sun is bright—I’m glad you’re out—’twas such a fright. Oops, the fuzz.” Fred’s broad smile and lazy amble into the house came to an abrupt stop when he saw Adam at the table.
“Morning, Fred. I’d recommend the biscuits. They’re pure magic.” Adam pulled out the chair beside him and motioned for Fred to sit.
Adam’s Outlaw Page 5
