by Lori Wilde
“We can trust him.”
“Well, if you’re vouching for him, that’s good enough for me.” Mel sat down beside Marlie. “Nobody gets past your radar unless they’re completely trustworthy.”
Joel felt a twinge of guilt at Mel’s statement. He had fooled Marlie and slipped past her radar. He’d been trained to be proud of such an accomplishment, but he was not. He felt like a traitor.
“What happened in your store?” Marlie asked.
“NCIS came in and confiscated my copies of Angelina Avenger,” Mel said.
“NCIS? But why?”
“Dude wouldn’t tell me, but he did ask all kinds of questions about you. Don’t worry, I didn’t tell him anything. You know my zero cooperation policy when it comes to government agencies.”
“Thank you,” Marlie murmured and touched Mel’s forearms in a gesture of appreciation that made Joel stone-cold jealous.
“Hey, their appearance at the store just underscores the things you write about in your comic books. Big Brother is watching.”
“Did they get all my comic books?”
Mel nodded. “Didn’t pay me for them either and didn’t say when I’d get them back.”
“I’m sorry.”
“It’s not your fault,” Mel said. “I called a lawyer.”
“Do you know who might have more copies of my comic books?”
Mel shook his head. “I already got calls from other comic book dealers in the town. They got tapped too.”
Why were her comic books being pulled from store shelves by NCIS? Joel wondered. It made no sense.
“Damn. I need them.”
“Don’t you have copies of your own?”
Marlie shook her head. “I can’t go home to get them. Cops are watching my house.”
“One of your conspiracy theories was right.” Mel nodded. “You’ve pissed off the wrong people.”
“But I don’t know which ones. Joel’s here to help me figure it out. He’s an ex-Navy SEAL.”
Mel narrowed his eyes at Joel. “You’re trusting a SEAL?”
“Navy did him wrong too,” Marlie said.
“Ah, okay. So he’s cool.” Mel extended his hand across the table. “Sorry, dude, I’m just naturally suspicious of the military, after what happened to Marlie’s dad and all. No hard feelings?”
“No hard feelings.” Joel shook the other man’s hand. Apparently by getting thrown out of the SEALs he’d passed Mel’s criteria for trustworthiness. That was a sad state of affairs.
“But don’t you know what’s in your own comic books?” Mel asked. “Why do you need copies?”
“Of course I know, but I’ve been racking my brain to figure out which one could actually be true. I thought if Joel helped me look through them, he might see something I don’t. I’m too close to the material.”
“You know what you need,” Mel said, snapping his fingers.
“I’m open for suggestions.” Marlie canted her head in that cute little way of hers that grabbed Joel’s gut. “What’s on your mind?”
“Something to distract the cops so Mr. Special Forces here can slip into your house and get those comic books for you.”
Actually, Joel thought, it wasn’t a bad suggestion, but he could have done without the Mr. Special Forces crack.
“But what kind of distraction,” Marlie said, “that wouldn’t put me in jeopardy of getting arrested?”
“I’m thinking what Angelina did in ‘Spy Queen of the Yukon,’” Mel said.
Mel and Marlie looked at each other and in unison said, “Flash mob!”
“Huh?” Joel asked.
“Never mind, dude,” Mel said. “You just get inside her house. We’ll handle the distraction.”
“We’re also going to need a different vehicle, Mel,” Marlie said. “You willing to exchange your car for a Dodge Durango?”
“Hell, yeah.” Mel pulled his keys from his pocket. “This is exciting.”
“The Durango’s a little worse for wear,” Marlie said.
Mel grinned. “You’ve seen my car.”
“Touché.”
That’s just great, Joel thought. What was she getting him into?
“You need a place to stay?” Mel offered. “My mom’s always looking for company.”
“Thanks,” Marlie said. “But we’re okay at the Villereals’ warehouse. We don’t want to get anyone else involved in this mess unless it’s absolutely necessary.”
Mel nodded.
“Can I speak to you in private?” Joel inclined his head.
“Sure.”
He took her elbow and led her to a secluded corner of the restaurant. “Do you think it was smart telling Mel where we’re staying?”
“I’ve known him a long time,” she said. “And Mel hates the government. He’d never rat us out.”
“What if he was threatened or tortured?”
Marlie’s eyes rounded. “Oh, gosh. I hadn’t thought about that.”
“I’m sure no one will torture Mel, but do remember to watch what you say.”
“Hey, who knew? You’re more paranoid than I am.”
“While you and Mel set up this flash-mob thing, I’ve got a few recon details to handle. Meet you at the Internet café at 1500.”
“Gotcha.”
“Be careful, Marlie.”
“You too.” She went up on tiptoe and gave him a quick kiss on the lips that sent Joel’s heart reeling against his rib cage as he realized it was far too late to play it safe.
The Corpus Christi police had sent Kemp to stake out Marlie’s house. Of all the frickin’ luck. He would recognize Joel on sight, which was probably why Kemp had been selected for the detail.
Joel also knew that there had to be an NCIS agent secreted somewhere nearby, probably inside his house, watching Marlie’s place on the surveillance camera they had no doubt repaired. It might even be a whole team. Dobbs wouldn’t leave this mission strictly in the hands of the locals. Hell, Dobbs might be in his house right now, cocked back in his chair just waiting for him to show up.
Joel grinned. NCIS might be good, but the SEALs were better.
He’d left Marlie parked inside Mel’s 1979 Chevy Impala, which looked like it hadn’t been cleaned out since 1979, on the next street over from Oleander Circle and slipped silently through the yards of the surrounding houses. He was dressed all in black to blend in with the gathering dusk and he’d synchronized his watch with Marlie’s and Mel’s.
Five minutes until six P.M.
He blended into the shadow of a palm tree by the house on the other side of Marlie’s. His body tensed, his senses on full alert. He waited.
At precisely six P.M. they descended.
Appearing seemingly out of nowhere, car after car started turning onto Oleander Circle. People materialized on the sidewalks, in the street, gathering quickly until there were four hundred or more.
The flash mob.
Called up by mass E-mailings Mel and Marlie had sent out from the Internet café to college students and activists and conspiracy theorists and comic book aficionados.
And they were all carrying bowling balls and singing “Anchors Away.”
Joel had exactly five minutes to get in, get the comic books, get out again, and blend in with the flash mob before they dispersed, or Dobbs would fry his ass for breakfast and Marlie would be on her own.
Down the block, Marlie hid in a hedge of red-tipped photinias. She clutched a pair of Bushnell binoculars that she’d borrowed from Mel. His flash-mob idea had been brilliant, particularly since his brother Kelvin ran a bowling ball manufacturing plant and he’d just been piling up the imperfects in storage for years. The E-mail had instructed the mob participants to stop by Kelvin’s, pick up a ball, and head on over to Oleander Circle by six P.M.
Marlie pushed her glasses up onto her forehead, raised the binoculars to her eyes, and watched gleefully as more than four hundred people stood at the head of the street. They were singing at the top of their lungs. In
rhythmic waves they began rolling their bowling balls down the cul-de-sac. The people at the front of the line would roll their balls and then they would peel off to the sidewalks on either side of the street and let the next group take their place.
Kemp jumped from the patrol car parked in front of her house. He looked taken aback.
Would Joel make it? Marlie’s palms sweated against the metal of the Bushnell.
Neighbors popped from their houses, staring agog at what was happening to their quiet little street.
With four hundred bowling balls bearing down on him, Kemp must have realized what a bad idea getting out of the vehicle had been. But it was too late to get back into the car, and he ended up jumping onto the trunk as the balls whizzed toward him.
The door to Joel’s house opened and two men came running out. Marlie recognized the lead guy as the NCIS agent from Mel’s store. They quickly assessed the chaos, then the lead man motioned his partner back inside Joel’s house while he drew a weapon and headed for Marlie’s place.
Oh, dear! Were they going to catch Joel inside?
Marlie glanced at her watch. Three minutes after six. In two minutes the crowd would be gone, and Joel would be exposed with no human shield to cover him.
The winter twilight was deepening, making it harder to see. She propped her elbows on her knees to keep her arms steady while she scanned the remaining crowd. The cul-de-sac was a sea of bowling balls.
Where was Joel?
Everyone had finished throwing their bowling balls and were hurrying away. Gingerly, Kemp climbed down from his patrol car.
Where was Joel?
Kemp slid behind the wheel of the car and hit the lights and siren but there wasn’t anywhere for him to go. He was hemmed in by four hundred bowling balls.
Where was Joel?
“Looking for me?” When he tapped her on the shoulder, Marlie startled and would have let out a shriek if she hadn’t been gnawing her thumbnail.
“Come on.” Joel grabbed her hand. “Keep your head low.”
Marlie slung the binoculars around her neck and dropped her glasses back down on her nose. Ducking their heads, they scurried along the hedge row to the next street. Laughing and panting, they tumbled into Mel’s Impala.
“Didja get the comic books?” Marlie asked as Joel put the jalopy in gear.
He lifted up the waistband of his shirt and pulled out the last six issues of Angelina Avenger. “That answer your question?”
“I guess you didn’t have time to get me a change of clothes like I asked, huh?” Unless he had something more stuffed down his pants, an affirmative answer did not seem in the offing.
“Look in the backseat.”
She turned her head and spied a sack from The Gap, where he’d bought his black outfit at the mall while she and Mel had been sending out the flash-mob notifications.
Several police cars sped by them on the opposite side of the road, headed in the direction of her house.
“You bought me something at the mall?”
Joel grinned.
“That’s so sweet.”
Marlie dragged the sack into the front seat with her and dug past the clothes Joel had changed out of in the mall men’s room. At the bottom, she found a gauzy, romantic feminine dress. It was a floral print of forest green and pink.
Her heart punched strangely against her chest as she removed it from the sack. Last night, he’d asked her what color she would wear if she couldn’t wear black or white and she’d said forest green and then he’d told her she looked like a “pink” to him. Not only had he remembered the silly conversation, but he’d used the knowledge to buy this incredible dress that was a combination of them both.
She didn’t know what to say. No man had ever bought her a dress before.
“Do you like it?” He sounded anxious, eager for her approval. His nervousness was as touching as the gift. “If you don’t like it, I’ll take it back, get you another.”
“Joel.” She breathed.
Dazzled, she raised her head. She couldn’t have been more moved if he’d given her diamonds or rubies.
“You needed something clean to wear. Is it too fancy? It’s too fancy.” He answered his own question. “I knew I should have gotten you jeans and a T-shirt.”
“No, no.” She blinked against the mist of happy tears pushing against her eyelids. “It’s perfect.”
He was at his most alluring: dark eyes filled with anticipation, his mouth quirked up at one corner, warm, inviting, sexy.
And she was at her most suggestible. In a flash of sudden knowledge that almost knocked the breath from her body, she recognized she was in love with him.
Deeply and irrevocably in love.
She loved his masculinity, his cleverness, his intricacy. She loved his bravery and his code of honor and his loyalty. She considered what he was revealing about his feelings by giving her this dress. She touched the mother- of-pearl buttons on the dress. They glimmered in the dome light he’d switched on when she’d reached for the sack. The buttons were so delicate. The dress so utterly feminine. Was he saying that he saw something special in her? Something no one else had ever seen?
Wings of panic fluttered against her rib cage. The new understanding that she’d fallen in love with him altered her reality. She wanted to make love to him.
Now and for always.
But how had this come about? She didn’t believe in love. No, that wasn’t true. She believed in it all right, had seen the evidence of it resonate throughout her parents’ marriage. And she had seen the loss of that love almost destroy her mother.
She was scared, terrified, that this glimmer of happiness would evaporate if she studied it too hard. How could she trust in this tenuous feeling? She barely knew him. She felt as if she barely knew herself.
Confusion wrapped her in its grasp and the most she could manage was a simple “Thank you.”
Joel said nothing, just sat there watching her with the engine running.
She didn’t expect him to love her back. It was too much to hope for. But the dark expression in his eyes told her that he wanted her. Badly. That was easy to read. His eyes roved over her body and his jaw tightened.
Could sex be enough?
She swallowed hard, enveloped by unexpected melancholia. Marlie shook her head, mentally warding off the sadness. She wanted him. She would take whatever she could get. If sex was all he had to offer, she’d convince herself that it was enough.
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
Twenty minutes later Joel and Marlie were back at the float warehouse on the opposite side of town.
“Time to get down to business.” Joel extended three of the comic books out to Marlie and kept three for himself.
“Do you think I could change first?” Marlie held the dress to her chest. “I’m sick of wearing these clothes.”
“Sure.”
“I’ll be right back,” she said and hurried into the apartment to change while Joel climbed up on the Jean Laffite float and walked out to sit on the gangplank.
Marlie took a quick shower in the apartment’s tiny cubicle of a bathroom, toweled herself dry, and slipped on the dress Joel had bought for her. There was no mirror so she couldn’t see how she looked. Which was just as well. She had no makeup with her anyway.
Lightly, she fingered the floaty material of the dress. She hadn’t worn such a frilly garment in a long time and she would never have chosen it for herself. But she loved it and not simply because Joel had picked it out. The pairing of colors, although unusual, worked. In the dress she felt like a tulip in springtime, like a ripe, desirable woman. It was fitted to her curves but not too snugly, and the V-neckline showed off just the right amount of cleavage.
Sexy but not blatant.
She wondered how Joel had known her size. Had he been with so many women that he just had an instinct for knowing what a size 12 felt like?
Oh, dear, he was so much more experienced than she. How could she hope to compete with all t
he other women that had come before her? How could she hope to measure up to someone as wild as his ex-wife?
Maybe he’s had enough of wild, Angelina said. Maybe he just wants you.
And that’s when Marlie knew she was going to seduce him.
The problem was, she wasn’t exactly sure how to go about it.
One step at a time.
She brushed her hair and removed her glasses and set them on the shelf above the sink. She looked down at her sneakers and realized she had no shoes to wear with this gorgeous dress. Better to go barefooted than clomp around in unglamorous sneakers.
Resolutely, she kicked off her shoes, took a deep breath, and almost ran into the bathroom door as she turned to go back into the warehouse.
Slow down, she warned herself; maneuvering without either her glasses or her shoes on was going to take some extra effort.
Joel didn’t hear her approach. He was deeply engrossed in the comic book, sitting on the gangplank with one leg bent at the knee and the other dangling off the board. She paused a moment to admire him in the dim glow of the overhead lighting.
Even in studious repose, the man exuded a raw animal sexuality that took hold of Marlie and wouldn’t let go. He scared her a bit.
Maybe that was the very reason she wanted him so much. He brought life and color and excitement into her drab, colorless world.
She ran her hands along the dress, touching the soft, cheery material. How much she wanted him!
And how afraid she was to go for what she wanted.
Tentatively, she licked her lips and then climbed up onto the float.
She heard the sound of something slithering to the floor, looked up, and saw the comic books falling from Joel’s hand and hitting the ground one by one as she toed the gangplank toward him.
“Jesus, Marlie.”
Startled, her hand flew to her throat. What? What had she done wrong?
“You look so damned hot.”
The gleam in his eyes sent a flush of pride pumping through her body. He thought she was hot. The atmosphere couldn’t have been any tenser if she’d been a palsy victim juggling nitroglycerin.
Okay, she was just going to do it.
Marlie took a deep breath, looked Joel straight in the eyes and gave him the sultriest look she could muster, even though her heart was hammering so loudly she feared he could hear it.
