She Walks the Line (Harlequin Super Romance)

by Fox, Roz Denny

  “I’d say you’re teasing me, and loving every minute of it.”

  Mei Lu laughed. “You’re so transparent. That’s one thing I love about you.”

  “Ah. You pick a fine time to toss out a statement like that. Compels a man to ask for a list of the other things you love about him.”

  “Hmm. If I named them all, I think it would go to your head. So, maybe I’ll let you figure it out.”

  “I need to know something—is any part of this serious?”

  The smile she wore faded a little, and Mei Lu flipped the collar of her jacket high up under her chin, as if to ward off a chill.

  “My feelings for you are real, Cullen. You’re in my thoughts day and night.”

  “I hear a but coming.”

  “Yes. Maybe we’re going too fast. Three or so weeks ago, neither of us even knew the other existed. Until today, you thought I might be playing fast and loose with the law, even looking the other way for my father.”

  “We’ve already settled that you’re not, and that Michael’s above suspicion.”

  “I know, but we haven’t cleared Stephen.”

  “So? He’s far removed from you.”

  She studied her short, well-kept fingernails. “I’m an extension of my family and they’re an extension of me. We call it the circle of life. All the members of a family are tied together by thought, word and deed. When the name Ling is cleared of all suspicion, I’ll be free to offer you my love. Not before.”

  He parked the BMW outside her house. As they unbuckled their seat belts, they noticed her car had been returned. Shutting off the engine, Cullen clasped the hand Mei Lu had been studying so intently. He kissed her fingernails, then her knuckles, and afterward turned her palm over and pressed a kiss there.

  “I don’t ever want to make light of your beliefs, Mei Lu. But I married one woman who put her family, her parents, ahead of me. Sue and Hal ruled Jana’s life. Their wishes, advice and suggestions always counted for more than mine. Their money meant more. They formed a circle, all right, and left me on the outside. If you and I are going to act on the feelings between us, I’ve got to know that my love means more to you. The most. That you and I stand shoulder to shoulder, no matter what happens in the world around us.”

  Mei Lu felt as though she vacillated between the customs taught her from birth, and her friend Crista’s contention that to find happiness, she needed to take a chance—see where it took her. As if happiness were lying around for the taking. Yet Crista had managed to find happiness in spite of her past. So had Risa. She hadn’t let her family dictate her future. Neither had Abby, nor Lucy. Their backgrounds were all so different from hers, though. Mei Lu was still confused. But…deep down she couldn’t imagine living like her parents. “I—I want everything you’re offering, Cullen.”

  The troubled dark eyes she slowly fixed on him shone with love and hope. He took that shaky declaration as gospel, because he wanted to so badly. She looked so fragile that Cullen thought maybe he wanted too much. Because he needed her. Tonight he was running on empty. Watching his children’s heartache, sharing their fears, had left him completely drained.

  Reaching out blindly, he wrapped Mei Lu in a massive hug and literally lifted her across the console. The arms she twined around him spoke of her strength and conviction, not her fear or fragility.

  Much later, cocooned in each other’s embrace in Mei’s soft bed, Cullen couldn’t recall the steps that had landed them there. It was anyone’s guess how they’d managed to make it from the car into the house without leaving a trail of clothing for the neighbors to see.

  “Do you have to leave?” Mei Lu murmured as Cullen thrust a leg out of the bed. She didn’t lift her head, but let her lips graze the fine hair on his chest. “I’m not sure I can move. And anyway, I love listening to your heart beat.”

  He laughed, then rained kisses on her hair.

  Feeling his laughter, too, Mei Lu traced a string of tiny kisses to his heart. “The Chinese character for love, ai, is the sign for a person, under which is the sign for a heart. Surrounding that is an all-embracing hand.” Mei ran light fingers up his chest and let her palm rest on his sternum. Earlier his heart had slowed to almost normal following their frantic coupling, but now it started thudding faster again.

  “Is that your indirect way of saying you love me, Mei Lu?”

  “Indirect?”

  “I believe I said ‘I love you’ at least six times in the last hour, but what I get from you is more like a lesson in philosophy.”

  “True love, like the Tao itself, can be alluded to but never really captured. It can be described, but never fully explained.”

  “Is that where all this wisdom comes from? The Tao?”

  She shrugged. “I certainly don’t understand love.” She pulled herself up until their heads rested side by side on the pillow. “Mother taught Stephen and me from the lessons of Tao until Father objected. Traditional Taoists are too rigid, he said. And they don’t talk in terms of love. In fact, I remember Mother saying there’s no such thing as star-crossed lovers, and there is no perfect mate.” Mei flopped over on her stomach, resting her chin in her hand. “I know I’d rather be with you than not,” she admitted.

  Cullen smoothed her tangled hair. “I think that’s a fair description of love,” he said, letting his fingers absently stroke the gentle slope of her shoulder.

  She latched onto his hand and caressed the length of his index finger. “I sensed great resistance in Bobby…to us.”

  “Their mother dealt both kids a huge blow today, Mei Lu.”

  “Even before. The very first day, Belinda invited me back to lunch. Bobby escorted me to the door and couldn’t close it behind me fast enough. It was as if he knew I was already attracted to you.”

  “You were? Attracted to me then?” Cullen’s patently satisfied grin complemented his tousled appearance.

  Mei Lu jabbed him in the ribs, wiping the smile away fast. “I’m trying to have a serious conversation here. Quit giving out the mating call of a bull moose. I’m afraid Bobby’s resistance may be minor compared to flak we’ll get from my family. Well, my mother and probably my brother.”

  “I realize your mother was less than impressed with me. But your brother and I have never met. We might hit it off.”

  She rolled off the bed and slipped into a robe, sashing it at the waist. “Stephen won’t take kindly to being investigated by Interpol. He’ll like being summoned home by Father even less.” She walked over to a corner desk and booted up a notebook computer sitting there. “I haven’t found a single discrepancy in Stephen’s books. Do you want to take a look, Cullen?”

  “I’d rather have a second go at what we were doing, but…” He swung his legs over the bed’s edge and picked up his pants. Once he’d donned jeans and boots, he threw on his shirt and joined Mei Lu. “I somehow doubt that the people involved in an operation of this magnitude would be stupid enough to let it show in their books.”

  “Something would show. Receipts that don’t match legitimate purchases. Unexplained payouts. Or deposits not matching listed sales. Going through cooked books is part of my job, Cullen. The crook hasn’t been born yet who doesn’t slip up somewhere. Money trails simply don’t lie. Those couriers were paid—maybe not handsomely by U.S. standards, but plane tickets from China aren’t cheap.”

  He positioned his chin in the hollow between her neck and shoulder, and peered at frame after frame as she scrolled through Ling Limited’s records. She talked so fast and pointed out so much that Cullen was prompted to say, “Hell, woman, I’m determined to marry you quick, if for no other reason than to hand over my budget.” Laughing, Cullen ducked when Mei Lu slapped at him with the pages she’d just printed. In the midst of their fun-loving scuffle, her cell phone rang.

  The caller’s voice was so soft, Mei Lu had to press the phone tight to her ear and motion for Cullen to stop laughing so she could hear. “Oh, Mr. Wu. From the kite shop? Of course I remember you.” Mei L
u’s heart thumped so loudly she had to listen extra carefully. This may be our break in the case, she mouthed to Cullen. “Thank you for calling, sir,” she said in Cantonese. “I promise I will not place you or Mrs. Wu in any danger, nor your friends, the Hsiaos, who confided in you. I’m glad you told them of my interest in learning if someone new arrived in the neighborhood—someone wearing the tattoo of a tiger.”

  The old man reminded Mei of her promise. “I understand. I’ll keep you safe. Yes, I wrote down their address. Goodbye.”

  “What was that? Calling about kites this late at night?” Cullen asked after she clicked off. He could feel her excitement as well as see it.

  “I’d told the Wus to phone me day or night if they saw or heard anything out of the ordinary. Another man with a tiger tattoo is in town. He’s at the home of a neighbor of Mr. Wu, the kite maker. Got in earlier this evening.”

  “What are we waiting for? Let’s go nab him,” Cullen said, swiftly buttoning his shirt.

  “Not tonight. The host family has gone to bed. We’ll stake out their place at first light. I gave my word that I wouldn’t put the couple he presented his guanxi letter to in harm’s way. Their names are Mr. and Mrs. Hsiao.”

  “What if Tiger Man slips through our fingers?”

  “He won’t do any business until after breakfast. That’s the Chinese way, Cullen. We’ll meet early and follow him after he eats and leaves his host’s home.”

  Cullen plainly didn’t want to wait. He might have argued more, but this time his cell phone rang. “What now?” he grumbled. “Oh, Freda, hi.” He listened briefly, frowning all the while before hanging up. “It never rains but it turns into a hurricane—for Bobby, anyway. He woke up with a hundred-and-four-degree fever. His stomach and back are covered in red spots. Freda thinks it’s chicken pox. I’ve gotta go, Mei Lu.” Cullen was clearly torn.

  She trailed him to the front door without question. Only after he opened it and she was hit by a blast of night air did her brain begin to function. “Kids can get really sick with chicken pox. That means you won’t be able to go with me tomorrow morning.”

  “Damn, you’re right,” Cullen muttered, brushing his lips across Mei’s pleated brow. “Maybe I can work it out. Freda said the more pox that pop out, the better the chance that Bobby’s fever will drop. In any event, Mei Lu, I don’t want you going alone. Don’t you have a partner on the force you can call? Some backup?”

  “Cullen, I’m a cop. I can’t just wait and let another courier go off to kill or be killed. And my biggest concern is warning him with too obvious a police presence.”

  All the emotions Cullen was feeling exposed themselves one by one in his anguished eyes. “Please don’t go without calling me first. Give me a chance to see if I can make other arrangements for Bobby.”

  “You’ll need to notify Ron Yee, too. Not only to cancel Saturday’s barbecue, but to warn them of possible contagion. The day before kids actually break out is when they’re most apt to pass the germ to others. I know. Stephen got them first and gave them to me.”

  Cullen groaned. “Our first break in the case, and this happens. But my kid has to come first.”

  Mei Lu nodded. “Of course.”

  “Mei Lu. I don’t care if you are a cop. I love you, and I can’t imagine letting you head into potential danger alone.” He kissed her. Softly at first, then more possessively.

  “I feel the same about you, Cullen,” she said when they broke apart. “I suppose that’s what philosophers mean when they say love transcends the best and the worst in a person’s life. You drive carefully on the way home. Tell Bobby that as soon as his fever breaks and he feels a bit better, I’ll bring him a Chinese paper-folding kit and teach him how to make animals. Doing paper art kept me from scratching when I had chicken pox. My mother taught me how. Funny, I’d forgotten that she sat beside my bed for hours. She had patience then.”

  “So do you, Mei Lu. Patience and a huge capacity for love.” Cullen bent again and gave her a deep kiss. He paused a moment more to trail a hand over the curve of her cheek, then reluctantly dug his keys from his pants pockets.

  She blew him kisses, because he kept glancing back at her on his way to the car. Clutching her robe tight, Mei Lu waved as he drove off, her heart frantically skipping beats. That, too, must be love, she supposed. That feeling of never wanting to be apart…

  Bobby’s fever would go away within days; she wasn’t sure hers ever would.

  CHAPTER FOURTEEN

  MEI LU’S PHONE RANG AGAIN almost immediately after she went inside. She assumed it was Cullen, missing her already. That would have been nice. But instead of his voice, she heard Catherine Tanner’s.

  “I realize it’s late but I’ve got some good news,” the chief announced. “The heads-up you gave Shel Murdock the other night resulted in our rounding up a boatload of half-starved illegal immigrants, three flesh traffickers, and five high-level ringleaders. Three are already out on bail, though.”

  “Murdock gave me credit?” That astounded Mei Lu.

  “Are you kidding? Of course not. He strutted like a rooster and hogged credit with the press as usual. But one of the perps, a guy by the name of Burgess, was so pissed at you he freely flung your name around. As a result, Sheldon had to back off. I hope you know that did my heart good. Except it won’t do the department’s image any good to make a flap over it that gets into the papers. I’m sorry to cheat you out of your fifteen minutes of fame, Mei Lu. I have stuck a commendation note in your file, which I hope to parlay into a raise.”

  “Hey, I’ll take that over having my picture on the front page any day.”

  “Maybe next time you’ll get both. How’s the special case coming?”

  “Chief, the smugglers have lain low since killing that last courier. Tonight, we’ve picked up a possible lead. Not that this case will be as simple to solve as sending a team to the port to meet a boat.”

  Catherine made sympathetic noises.

  Mei thought she heard a fax chattering in the background. “Don’t tell me you’re still at the office?”

  “This is the only time I can get any solid work done. Otherwise, there’s a line a mile long waiting to dump new problems in my lap.”

  “I’m up checking computer reports, too. In fact, Cullen only just left, after his housekeeper phoned to say his son broke out with chicken pox.”

  The airwaves hummed vacantly for a moment. “You seem to have come a long way from calling him Mr. Archer in that disapproving voice.” Catherine said pointedly.

  Mei Lu swallowed, hesitated, then decided not to feel or sound guilty. “A very long way, Catherine. We’ve, uh, discovered mutual…feelings. Is that a problem? I swear it won’t interfere with the outcome of our case.”

  “I trust you, Mei Lu. Personally, I’m pleased. I hope he’s worthy of you and that things work out long-term. I’d like to meet him in a social setting sometime.”

  “I’d love it if you—well, everyone from our old group—get to know Cullen.” Shyness edged into Mei Lu’s voice. “Soon, maybe, if everything works out.”

  “Like marriage, you mean? I don’t recall your ever mentioning marriage. And I can’t imagine that you’d want a big, splashy wedding of the type Archer’s social set is probably used to.”

  Mei Lu laughed. “I never wanted any wedding at all. But…I’m starting to give it serious thought. Definitely nothing splashy, though. Cullen’s a real homebody. Come to think of it, his house has the perfect staircase for a bride to walk down…. Catherine, nothing’s for sure, so I may be telling you all this for no reason.”

  “Huh, if Archer passes you up, he’s a fool. If it’s a matter of cold feet, I’ll be happy to hold his to the fire. Blast, here comes another fax. I think somebody’s figured out where I spend my nights. Good luck on your case. If you need resources, call. I expect a full report on it—and an invitation.”

  Warmed by the positive reaction from a woman Mei Lu admired so much, she said goodbye, crawled into
bed and dreamed for the first time of what life would be like as Mrs. Cullen Archer.

  MORNING ARRIVED before Mei Lu was ready to release her dreams. She discovered that her body ached pleasantly, which brought Cullen immediately to mind. Smiling in her half-asleep state, she gauged the time in North Carolina. Owing Abby a call, she found the number and punched it in. Abby’s enthusiastic greeting lifted Mei Lu’s spirits. As Mei Lu had suspected, her friend had called to say she and Thomas had tied the knot. But she’d never expected Abby’s next piece of news to be that she was pregnant. The friends talked about that, and progressed to discussing Cullen. Too soon, Abby had to go. But she extracted a promise from Mei Lu to keep in touch and to keep her informed. Basking in a return to a closeness reminiscent of old times, Mei Lu felt a lot better.

  With visions of Cullen refreshed, Mei suddenly recalled the new lead. That spurred her to quickly shower, dress, and then brew a cup of strong black tea. She carried it to the kitchen table where she could watch the sunrise. Ordinarily she’d sit in her back courtyard while Foo chased chipmunks. Mei wondered how he and Cullen’s kids were getting along. It wasn’t really a surprise when her cell phone started to vibrate. She’d already clipped it to her belt, along with her Taser. Both would be hidden by a hip-length khaki jacket she’d pulled from her closet.

  Expecting Cullen to call early, her voice held a smile when she sang out, “Hel…lo.”

  “Miss Lieutenant, you please come quickly,” a hushed voice said in broken English. “You know who this is, yes?”

  “Mr. Wu?” Mei Lu’s hold on the phone tightened. She panicked, thinking he was about to deliver bad news about their man with the tiger tattoo. Either that he’d been killed or that he’d vanished.

  The caller lapsed into Cantonese. “Come soon,” he urged. “Our friends, the Hsiaos, came to borrow rice ten minutes ago. Their houseguest is up, demanding breakfast. He claims to have an important early-morning appointment across town. I proposed that Mrs. Hsiao cook a big breakfast to delay his leaving, but she does not like him or his attitude. She and Mr. Hsiao will be most happy to say goodbye. They owe much guanxi for help with their passage to America, and are delighted some is paid back. But this man frightens them.”