Once Upon a Holiday

by Beverly Jenkins

  “Oh, of course not. I’ll call down. Just have a seat.” Then as if suddenly remembering Eve, “You too, Agent Dawson,” she said.

  “It’s Clark, Ms. Randall.”

  She waved off the blunder. “I’m sorry. Terrible with names.”

  Eve decided to stand. “I’m fine. Thank you.”

  While the principal made a call to his daughter’s room, Palmer and Eve shared a silent look that affected Eve much like it had back at the briefing earlier. A part of her wanted to drop the shield and let him in, but other parts were more skeptical. And she wasn’t sure which side held her vote. He was certainly gorgeous and seemed to accept her for who she was, and that, more than anything else, helped tip the scales in his favor.

  A few minutes later, a little girl, sporting dreadlocks and who looked a lot like Palmer, entered the office. Upon seeing him, her face widened into a grin, and she squealed, “Daddy!”

  He stood. She ran to him and he hugged her up. The happy scene touched Eve’s heart. She remembered running to her late dad in much the same way and being swept up into strong arms. It was one of the clearest memories she had of him, and she wondered if Kia knew how lucky she was.

  “Did you bring the smoke detectors?” Kia asked him.

  “Yep.”

  She hugged him around the neck. “You’re awesome.”

  He put her back on her feet, and when he did, she seemed to notice Eve for the first time. “Who’s she?”

  “This is Agent Clark. ATF.”

  “Nice to meet you, Kia,” Eve said.

  “Nice to meet you, too. You look real fierce in those sunglasses and your gear.”

  Eve grinned. “Thanks.”

  Kia said to Palmer, “Daddy, next Halloween I don’t want to be Mae Jemison again. I want to be ATF.”

  He looked over at Eve and laughed. “Okay.”

  Eve smiled. “I’ll send your dad a hat. How’s that?”

  “That would be really nice.”

  Everyone seemed to be having a great time except for Principal Randall. She had a smile plastered on her face, but there were no smiles in the dark look she shot Eve before turning to Kia. “Kia, you should get back to class now.”

  “Okay,” she replied, still checking out Eve.

  Her dad said, “Give me another hug before you go.”

  They shared a short, intense hug, and it was easy for Eve to see how much they loved each other.

  “You coming to get me Saturday so we can go to the Science Museum?”

  “Gonna do my best.”

  “Okay. Nice meeting you, Agent Clark.”

  “Same here, Kia. I won’t forget the hat.”

  “Thank you.”

  A second later she was gone, and although Ms. Randall tried to get Palmer to stay a bit longer by asking about the big fire at Morgan Foods that was all over the local news and in the papers, he politely declined to comment and said goodbye.

  Once they were in the car and rolling again, she said, “I like your daughter. Anybody who wants to be ATF for Halloween is all right with me.”

  “She’s something. She’ll probably make me buy her shades like yours just as soon as she gets in the car on Saturday.”

  “I’m impressed she was dressed like Mae Jemison.”

  He shook his head in amusement. “The Charles H. Wright African-American museum had Mae Jemison’s space suit on display. Kia made me take her downtown to see it so many times I had to get us a family membership. Angie and Oliver use it when I can’t take her. The Wright and the Science Museum next door are her favorite places. If they’d let her move in, she would.”

  “It’s easy to see you two have a good relationship.”

  “I’d give my life for her. You and your dad get along?”

  Eve turned away to watch the city roll by. “Lost him and my mom to arson when I was seven.”

  “I’m sorry,” he said softly.

  “Thanks. That’s something you don’t ever get over, I think. Probably the reason I’m in law enforcement.”

  “Where’d you start out?”

  “San Diego. Moved there after college. It was a combined force so I was a street cop first, then got certified to ride an engine. When ATF needed some women to do undercover, I applied. My dad was a firefighter, too.”

  “So was mine.”

  “Here in the city?”

  “No. Dallas. He and my mom divorced when my brother and I were small. She moved us here when I was four.”

  “Who’s the oldest?”

  “I am by three years. He’s a firefighter, too.”

  “Runs in the family, huh?”

  “Guess so.”

  “Lots of cops and firefighters in my family, too.”

  “Based here?”

  “Some yes.”

  “Give me names. Maybe I’ll know one.”

  So she did, and when she got to her cousin Victor, he turned to her with surprise. “I know Vic Reed. He’s in the same engine house as my brother. That’s your cousin?”

  “Yep.”

  “Wow. Small world.”

  “Yes it is.” She didn’t know why that made her smile inside, but it did. He knew her family and his family knew hers.

  “Do you have any siblings?”

  “Nope. Only child, but my uncle and aunt who raised me have a daughter. She’s a year older so we may as well be sisters.” Thinking about Shelly made her remember that she hadn’t had a chance to call and tell her how the Halloween party turned out. As if cued, the centurion floated across her mind and she pushed him away.

  “Was the arsonist who set the fire ever found?”

  “No.”

  “Damn.”

  “Yeah.”

  Leyton could feel his heart opening to this complicated woman and not just because he felt sorry for her loss, but because of how damn impressive he found her to be—beauty, brawn and brains. Cop. Firefighter. Undercover. A man would have to be crazy to be turned off by such a powerful combination, but apparently at least one man in her past had been. “So, where do you want to eat?”

  “Doesn’t matter.”

  “I’m a Coney fiend, so how about the place we went to yesterday? We sit inside and eat this time, though.”

  “Why?”

  “Just to power down a minute.”

  “Okay.”

  She held his gaze for a moment longer than necessary before looking away, and he wondered if she was feeling whatever this was, too. It was subtle and new, but it was there, sprouting like the first green seedling of spring, and he had no idea what to do with it. “You ready?”

  She nodded and they got out.

  Because their stop at the Coney Island yesterday had been so brief, Eve hadn’t paid much attention to the clientele, but this time as she and Palmer got their orders and claimed a small table by the window, she did. “Is this a cop joint?” she asked as she bit into one of the best corned beef sandwiches she’d had in ages. Uniforms and plainclothes personnel filled the small interior. The music was old-school Motown.

  “Yeah. The owner’s a former county sheriff. When she retired ten years ago, she opened this place.

  “Corned beef is fabulous.”

  He smiled at her from his seat on the other side of the table. “What else do you like?”

  “Sports. Blueberries. You.”

  He stilled. “Really?”

  She wiped her mouth with a napkin and then shrugged. “Yeah, I do. No drama does a girl good.”

  “So how am I supposed to take that?”

  Again, she shrugged. “No idea. Just thought I’d be up front.”

  Leyton studied her.

  “What?” she asked, smiling over her sandwich.

  He shook his head. “I wasn’t expecting that.”

  “Good. Sometimes the unexpected works best.” That said she slipped off her shades, set them on the table and met his eyes.

  Leyton was struck dumb. From the curve of her perfectly arched brows to the full sweep of her lip
s, she was stunning. “Wow.”

  Amusement curved her lips, and she put the dark glasses back on. “Now, you know.”

  Yeah, he did and understood. No woman with her face should be slogging through burned-out buildings looking for flash points or chasing perps. She’d probably been beating off her male colleagues with sticks for years. Beauty like hers was more commonly showcased on the covers of magazines or on the arm of some celebrity. Damn! He had no idea what he’d done to deserve having two drop-dead gorgeous women show up in his life the way they had that week, but he’d take it, no questions asked. “So, do you kill me now?”

  She chuckled. “Your Coney’s getting cold.”

  Grinning, Leyton went back to his food.

  Chapter 6

  On the ride back downtown, Eve wondered if she’d done the right thing by revealing herself to Palmer the way she had, but she instantly tossed out the second thoughts. It wasn’t as if they were in high school. They were both grown and unattached. Her night with the centurion had reminded her just how long it had been since she’d enjoyed male companionship, and it wasn’t just because of the off-the-chain sex. They’d had a nice evening. His helmeted face shimmered across her mind’s eye. As much as she wanted to, she doubted she’d ever know his true identity or see him again. And because of that, he would always remain her private fantasy, but she had to live in the real world, and Leyton Palmer represented that. When he had walked into the meeting the first day wearing his cowboy boots and long leather coat, she hadn’t expected to be attracted to him but she was. The old Eve would never have opened up to a man she’d known a total of two days, so the only thing she could attribute it to was the interlude with the centurion. Dressed up as the goddess Oya, she’d taken a walk on the wild side and now her alter ego seemed to be whispering to her to let go and enjoy life. Although Eve was a risk-taker in her profession, she was a lot more cautious when it came to her private life. With her losing record, it was justified. There was no guarantee Palmer would be any different, but the Oya inside was willing to explore the possibility that he could be.

  “I’m used to working out a couple days a week,” she said to him. “Do you have a weight room in your shop?”

  “Yeah. Basement level, near the locker rooms. You lift?”

  “Yes, I do. You?”

  He nodded. “I prefer mornings, though.”

  “Evenings for me. It helps burn off the stress. Can I get in there tonight, you think?”

  “Sure. Do you need a spotter?”

  “I do.”

  “Then I’m your man.”

  “Thanks.” It was always better to have someone with you just in case the weight slipped. Eve had been in gyms where the guys spotting for her had been so focused on her curves, the weight bar could have dropped down onto her throat and they would have been too mesmerized to notice. Palmer didn’t give her that impression. “My gear’s in a bag in my trunk.”

  “How about we swing by and pick it up after we file our paperwork? I’ve room in my office where you can use your laptop, if you don’t mind the clutter.”

  “Sounds good.”

  “And by the way. I like you, too.”

  She laughed softly and enjoyed the light dancing in his brown eyes. “Good to know.”

  When he turned his attention back to driving, Eve turned hers to the city moving by, and the Oya inside smiled.

  By the time they filed their reports and got her gear out of the trunk of her car, the sun had set. It had been a long couple of days. She couldn’t wait to work up a sweat by challenging herself both mentally and physically. Palmer showed her the way to the ladies’ locker room and she went inside to change.

  When Leyton entered the weight room, he spied a few familiar faces amongst the men and women working out and nodded a silent greeting. Because of the time of day, the place wasn’t very crowded. He looked around for Clark, and for a moment didn’t see her but then saw her stretched out on a weight bench across the room. For a moment he stood and watched her as she went through a series of slow reps. From the size of the weights on each end of the bar and the ease with which she was pumping, he assumed she was in the process of warming up and in no immediate need of a spotter. The other men in the room were doing their best not to stare at the beauty effortlessly pressing 150 pounds, but they were having a hard time, and so was he. She was wearing a pair of loose gray sweats, black sneaks and a gray midriff-length sports bra. It was standard female attire in gyms everywhere, but on her it didn’t look standard at all. He found himself admiring the strong flex of her arms and the tight cut of her abdomen as the bar continued rising and falling. He couldn’t ever remember wanting to make love to a woman on a weight bench before, but he did then.

  Deciding he needed to get moving before she caught him drooling, he walked over just as her phone rang. She sat up, grabbed the towel lying beside the bench and quickly wiped her face. Phone to her ear, she acknowledged his approach with a nod and began responding to the person on the other end of the call. “When was this?” she asked.

  She glanced up at him and her expression made him sense something had happened.

  “Okay,” she said into the phone. “We’ll be there soon as we can.” She ended the call.

  “What’s up?”

  “That was McBride. A man in Grand Rapids was just admitted to a local hospital with shock and fourth-degree burns on his hands, legs and feet. And get this. His name—Phillip Brandywine.”

  Leyton froze. “The developer?”

  “Apparently so, and the person who rode in the ambulance with him was Marvin Crenshaw.”

  Leyton stared.

  “That’s too much of a coincidence for me, so you up for a road trip?”

  “Oh, yes.”

  “Meet you upstairs in ten minutes.”

  She hastily walked off in the direction of the locker room and he followed. He was so focused on the question of how Brandywine and Crenshaw might be connected, he almost missed the winning answer to another burning mystery. Glancing up, he saw that on Clark’s back, in the bare space between the bottom edge of her bra and the top of her sweats, floated a familiar-looking butterfly. He stopped, blinked and stared hard. Heart pumping and wide-eyed, he fought to make sense of that even as he quickly gauged her height and the way she moved before she disappeared through the locker room door. The last time he’d seen that butterfly the woman it belonged to had been walking away from him in much the same manner. Oh, my God! His knees went weak. It was her! Never in his life had he imagined finding her right under his nose. He wanted to shout hallelujah. He was grinning like an idiot because he couldn’t help himself. She was going to have a fit when he revealed himself, he just knew it. And the thought of the look on her face made him laugh so joyously he drew stares, but didn’t care. The centurion had found his lady!

  On the drive to Grand Rapids through the dark, the pleased Leyton kept his eyes on the road and his mind on the goddess riding shotgun. It was still hard to be believe that he’d found her, but in his gut he knew he wasn’t wrong. Hard-assed ATF Agent Eve Clark was in reality the warrior goddess Oya, and it was taking all he had not to let her know that he knew. The knowledge had him smiling so broadly he was glad his features were hidden by the shadows.

  “McBride said Brandywine was supposedly burning leaves and used too much gasoline,” she said.

  “Who uses gasoline on leaves? Burning leaves has been illegal for years.”

  “I know, and I suppose there are people dumb enough to still be doing something like that, but the Crenshaw connection makes me wonder.”

  “Did McBride know when the accident happened?”

  “Crenshaw told the doctors today, but the doc told McBride that from the looks of Brandywine’s condition when the EMTs brought him in, it might have been a few days ago.”

  “Which would place it within the timeline of our fire.”

  “Exactly. Hopefully this won’t turn out to be a wild goose chase.”

 
“Nice night to be driving either way.”

  Eve agreed. It was a nice night. The moon was fat and full, and there wasn’t a lot of traffic. “I’ve never been to Grand Rapids.”

  “I was up here last summer for some training. Surprised to find out it’s the second-largest city in the state.”

  “Never knew that,” she admitted. With the jazz playing softly in the background, it was easy to believe that they were just a couple out for a late-night drive and not two arson investigators hoping for an interview with a potential suspect. Eve looked his way and reminded herself that they were working. “Obviously Crenshaw knows the developer, so why did he play dumb with us when we asked about their relationship?”

  “He did seem to stumble, but maybe he was telling the truth about not knowing anything about threats.”

  “Well, I want to know what he was lying about.”

  “Which is why we’re out here in the middle of the night.”

  Eve looked over his way. The dark interior hid his features. “If we have to spend the night, I’m authorized to pay for a couple of rooms.”

  “Good to know. If we can’t question Brandywine until the morning, we’ll need a place to catch a few winks.”

  Eve wondered what it might be like to spend the night with him. Would he be a generous lover? Before speculating further, she chastised herself and pushed the thought aside. He might be intriguing and fine, but no way were they going to sleep together this early in the game. The last time she threw caution to the wind she was left wanting a man she had no hope of ever seeing again. She allowed herself a few quiet moments to think of her centurion and the fantastic night they’d shared before she let the bittersweet memories go and stepped back into reality.

  At the hospital, they weren’t allowed to question Brandywine. He was sedated. The floor nurse did allow a quick peek through the windows of his room in the ICU, and all the monitors and drips he was hooked up to showed how serious his injuries were.

  After the solemn appraisal, the nurse told them, “I don’t think he’s going to be able to give you any kind of statement for a while. He’s pretty messed up.”

  “Were there any witnesses that you know of?” Eve asked.