Charmed and Dangerous

by Lori Wilde

  “Nope.” This time she frowned. David could see it was bugging the hell out of her that her twin hadn’t confided in her. “I do know one thing about Cassie.”

  “And what is that?” Maddie asked suspiciously.

  “She was raring to prove herself to somebody and after making your acquaintance, I’m guessing that somebody is you.”

  “What’s that supposed to mean?” Her emerald green eyes flared a warning.

  “I don’t have time for this.” He stalked toward the Impala. “She’s your sister, you figure it out.”

  “Wait, wait, wait.” She placed a restraining hand on his shoulder.

  “What?” He wanted to brush her off but he was afraid of what might happen to his libido if he touched her. Disconcerted, he stepped back and she voluntarily removed her hand.

  “I’ve been abrupt,” she said. “I’m just worried about my sister. Please forgive me.”

  “You’re forgiven.” He punched the alarm control on his keypad and his car chirped twice indicating the doors were unlocked.

  “Great.” She hurried around to the passenger side.

  “Oh, no, no, no.” He quickly reactivated the locks just as she reached for the handle.

  “You’re still not taking me with you?”

  “That’s right.” He unlocked the driver’s side the old-fashioned way and slid behind the wheel, but before he could get the door shut and the car started, Maddie flew over to jam her body between him and the door. She wrapped her fingers around the steering wheel, anchoring herself to his vehicle.

  “You’re fast,” he said.

  “And don’t you forget it.”

  “Physical talents aside, you’re staying here.” He keyed the ignition and the engine rumbled to life.

  “You’re a rude, rude man.”

  “Bingo. Now get out of the way if you don’t want me to back over you.”

  “Okay, you asked for it. I didn’t want to have to resort to dirty tactics, but you’ve forced my hand.”

  “Are you threatening me?” He narrowed his eyes and met her gaze. Damn if a thrill of sexual excitement didn’t blast straight through his groin. Nothing tickled him more than a worthy opponent.

  “Yes I am.”

  “Bring it on.”

  “I will.”

  “I think you’re bluffing.”

  “I never bluff.”

  He eyed her for a long moment. “What do you have up your sleeve?”

  “I’ll got to the media. Tell them that you involved a private citizen in your cops-and-robbers game and now she’s missing.”

  “She’s not missing.”

  Maddie waved a hand at the empty park. “You see her anywhere?”

  “She’s a flake. Maybe she just forgot.”

  “You know better than that,” she chided. “Admit it, you screwed up, David Marshall. You placed my sister’s life in peril when you recruited her to spy on your art thief.”

  She was right. And he loathed her rightness. He couldn’t allow her to go to the media. They would be all over this story like hot on chili peppers.

  And then his boss would be all over him.

  He couldn’t let Shriver win. No way, no how. Better to tolerate this smart-mouthed pop tart than ruin years of detective work.

  “Take me with you or I go to the news stations,” she reiterated.

  “You wouldn’t dare.” He felt obligated to call her bluff one more time, test her commitment before giving her the green light.

  “When it comes to my twin sister, I’ll dare anything.” The look on her face told him that she was dead serious. He admired her devotion to her sibling while at the same time he cursed it.

  “This is not the optimal way to get in good with me.” He glowered, doing his best to quell her with a withering glance.

  “I could care less about getting in good with you.” She defiantly thrust out her chest, which just happened to be at his eye level.

  Trying hard not to notice what a truly exceptional pair of ta-tas she possessed and fantasizing about how they would look out of that sports bra and in a low cut va-va-va-voom dress, David clenched his jaw and unlocked the passenger door.

  “Get in.”

  “Thank you.” Tossing her head, she pranced around the car and climbed inside. David slammed the Impala into reverse and plowed out of the parking space, tires squealing as he burned rubber.

  Fuck! He hated this. Bested twice in one morning.

  David made Maddie wait in the employee lounge of the Kimbell Art Museum while he and his team assessed the crime scene. She was none too happy about it.

  Before they got out of the car, he’d threatened to handcuff her to the steering wheel if she didn’t agree to obey his orders. The ‘I’ve-reached-the-limits-of-my-patience-don’t-push-me-one-more-millimeter’ expression on his face told her that he meant every word.

  And then, just to rub his power in her face, he’d positioned one of the museum security guards in the doorway to keep her from wandering off and doing a little investigating of her own. Jeez. You’d think he didn’t trust her.

  Stuck with the situation, she had called her assistant and asked her to find a replacement instructor for the remainder of the week. She had no idea how long it was going to take to resolve this thing with Cassie, but it was better to be prepared for the worst.

  She spent the remainder of the time calling all of Cassie’s friends to see if they knew where she was, pacing the lounge and imagining the most terrible things when no one had heard from her. What if Shriver had taken Cassie hostage? What if this Blanco person had hurt her sister and she was lying helpless somewhere calling Maddie’s name?

  She reached up to finger the half-a-heart necklace she never took off. Hang on, Cassie. Never fear. I’ll find you.

  “Maddie.”

  She glanced over to see David standing in the doorway looking grim. Immediately, she was at his side. “What is it?”

  “I sent a man over to Cassie’s apartment.”

  “Was she there?” Maddie bit down hard on her bottom lip. Don’t worry, don’t panic, until there’s something to panic about.

  He shook his head. “The place was turned upside down.”

  “Ransacked?”

  “No. It looked more like she had packed in a hurry.”

  “What are you saying?”

  “You might want to prepare yourself for the possibility that Cassie has switched sides and become Shriver’s accomplice.”

  Maddie shook her head. “No way.”

  “I’m going to search her locker. I thought you might want to be present,” he said quietly.

  For the first time since she’d met him, Maddie saw a look of compassion in his eyes. His sympathy scared her more than his aggressiveness. He was being way too nice. Why?

  “Let’s go,” she said.

  They stepped into the corridor together and that’s when she saw the extent of his entourage. A half-dozen Fort Worth cops, a couple of plainclothes detectives, the mayor, the police chief, the museum curator and two other FBI agents.

  Oh boy.

  The curator gave her a pink plastic shopping bag decorated with black-and-white Picassos. “For Cassie’s things,” he said as if she were already dead.

  The dull throbbing in Maddie’s heart ratcheted into a sharp, steady hammering as they waited for a security guard to break into Cassie’s locker. When the officer got it open and her locker had been dusted for prints, he stepped aside and let David at it.

  Maddie held the bag outstretched while David removed items from Cassie’s locker. He studied each object intently and then dropped them one by one into the open bag.

  Hairspray, extra hold. Eyelash curlers. A wand of mascara. Lancôme Firecracker Red nail polish. Curling iron. Cinnamon flavored Altoids. A blue cashmere cardigan. A package of shrimp-flavored ramen noodles and an empty box of Godiva chocolates.

  Maddie pressed Cassie’s sweater to her nose, inhaling the scent of her twin before reluctantly drop
ping the cardigan into the bag. Her sister was in trouble. Really deep trouble. Wherever she was, Cassie desperately needed her.

  David passed Maddie a photograph. It was a picture of Cassie and a very handsome dark-haired man of about forty at Billy Bob’s in the Stockyards. Cassie’s arm was draped over the guy’s shoulder. They were standing in front of a mechanical bull, longneck beers in hand and mugging tipsily for the camera.

  Maddie caught her breath, raised her head and met David’s gaze. “Peyton Shriver?”

  He nodded. “They certainly look like a couple.”

  “Appearances can be deceiving and besides, didn’t you encourage her to fan a romance with him?”

  “I didn’t mean for her to fall in love.”

  “She didn’t.” Maddie glared. “You got her into this, I can’t believe you’re going against her.”

  “I’m not going against her, I’m simply following the evidence.”

  “If by some wild, ridiculous stretch of the imagination Cassie did fall for Shriver, then it’s all your fault,” she accused. “You’ve got to assume responsibility for getting her involved.”

  David turned away, leaving her with the frustrating urge to kick him in the seat of his obstinate pants. He kept digging through the locker.

  A copy of Vogue. Two hair clips. Four ballpoint pens.

  “Ah-ha.”

  Maddie jerked her head around to peer over his shoulder to see what he was ah-ha-ing about. It was a travel brochure for Grand Cayman Island.

  “What?” she snapped. She didn’t like his self-satisfied expression. Men. They were so predictable. Gloating when they were certain they were right.

  “The smoking gun.”

  “Since when is a travel brochure considered a smoking gun?”

  “Since the world’s biggest dealer in stolen art lives in Grand Cayman and he just happens to be very friendly with Peyton Shriver.”

  “Oh come on, that’s quite a stretch, don’t you think?” she said, even as fear tightened her gut. “I bet a lot of people have travel brochures to Grand Cayman in their locker.”

  “But those people don’t work in a museum where a Cézanne just got heisted, nor are they dating art thieves,” David said.

  He was right and she knew it, but Maddie still couldn’t accept the fact that Cassie might be a willing participant in a crime.

  He touched her arm. “I know it’s difficult sometimes, to accept the truth.”

  She gritted her teeth. She didn’t want or need his pity. What did he know about the truth? All he cared about was bringing Shriver in.

  “You’re a cop. You should know a travel brochure proves nothing.”

  “It’s a step in a treacherous direction.”

  The people behind them were murmuring, discussing the significance of David’s find, but Maddie paid them no mind. Her attention was on the man standing to her left. The man with the penetrating dark gray eyes.

  Eyes, that if he were on your side, could comfort you. Eyes that said, You can always rely on me. But if he wasn’t on your side, if you were his enemy, those mercurial gray eyes issued an entirely different message: Do wrong and I’ll make sure you pay.

  Maddie shivered. She had no doubt that he could back up either message. He wasn’t a guy you’d want to tangle with in a dark alley.

  Or even a well lit one for that matter.

  She shifted her weight, her anxiety escalating with each passing moment.

  David’s cell phone did the Dragnet thing. He answered with a terse, “Marshall.”

  She tensed and leaned forward, straining to hear the voice on the other end. She couldn’t make out much of what he was saying but she did hear Cassie’s name bandied about.

  “Good work,” he said and switched off the phone.

  She raised her head. His eyes glowed with the thrill of his job. The man was a bloodhound through and through. Pick up a scent and he was off on the chase.

  “What is it?”

  He took a deep breath and she saw him trying to curb his excitement for her benefit. “Shriver and your sister caught the six-oh-five to Atlanta on Delta Air Lines. From there, they took a connecting flight to Grand Cayman.”

  Her heart slipped into her Nikes. “That still doesn’t mean Cassie went willingly.”

  David steepled his fingertips. “I know this is hard for you to deal with, but you’ve got to accept the possibility your sister is a fugitive from the law. I know it’s an ugly thought. I know you don’t want to believe it. But Shriver has a Svengali effect on women. He can make them do almost anything for him.”

  “If you knew that about him, then why did you ask Cassie to work for you?”

  “Shriver had already marked her as his next victim. She’d started dating him before I ever asked for her help.”

  “You could have warned her. Given her a chance to break things off with him.” Maddie studied his uncompromising grimace. “But you weren’t about to do that. Admit it. Nailing Shriver is an obsession with you. You don’t care about the cost.”

  He shrugged but didn’t deny her accusation. The jackass.

  “Cassie did not fall in love with him,” she said adamantly. “You don’t know my sister.”

  Flighty though her twin might be, Cassie was honest to a fault, had never stolen so much as a gumball in her life and no man, no matter how charming, could cause her to commit a crime.

  “Like it or not, here’s something else you’re going to have to be prepared to deal with,” David said. “So just brace yourself.”

  She notched her chin up and met his challenging stare. “What’s that?”

  “If Cassie is involved with the theft of the Cézanne in any way, shape or form, when I catch her, I’m going to bring her to justice right along with Shriver. No excuses. No exceptions. Got it?”

  Chapter

  THREE

  WHAT WAS IT with women?

  David lined up behind a handful of business travelers at the ticket kiosk outside the Delta Air Lines counter at DFW airport. Why did they invariably fall for charming bad boys? Did they honestly think they could rehabilitate such men with their undying love? Or did they just get off on the thrill of danger? What had caused Cassie to throw her life away over the likes of Peyton Shriver?

  He pondered these questions because he wasn’t too keen on examining his role in Cassie’s turncoat behavior. David rejected guilt as a useless emotion.

  “David!”

  He raised his head, saw Maddie barreling across the terminal toward him. He had the distinct impression she wasn’t here to see him off.

  She was dressed in a short denim skirt, a Hawaiian floral print blouse, a floppy, red straw hat and matching strappy, high-heeled sandals. The flirty ensemble looked like something Cassie would wear. She pulled a wheeled carry-on bag behind her and, over her arm, a denim jacket.

  She was dolled up like Miss Hawaiian Tropics. Why? It was fifty degrees outside.

  Helplessly, he found his gaze drawn down the length of her long, lean muscular legs to the tips of her toes painted a cheeky pink.

  Uh-oh. This didn’t look good. Not good at all.

  “Wait up,” she called to him.

  He moved to one side to let the other travelers go ahead through the checkpoint. He needed to get rid of her. Now. His flight left in twenty minutes and he was determined to be on it.

  “Thank heavens,” she said, not even breathing hard although she’d sprinted to reach him. “I was afraid I was going to miss our plane.”

  “Our plane?”

  “I’m going to Grand Cayman with you,” she said brightly. “Do you like my outfit? I thought if I looked like a tourist I’d blend in better.”

  David stared, unable to believe she’d just invited herself along on his investigation. This was one pushy dame. He peered into her eyes and spied a determination so staunch he’d seen it in only one other place.

  The mirror.

  “You’re not coming with me.”

  “I have to. You’
re convinced my sister is in league with Shriver but I know better. Cassie might be a ditz and I’ll grant you, at times she’s impulsive and misguided and easily distracted, but she’s got a heart of gold and you simply cannot put her in jail. I won’t allow it.”

  “You won’t allow it?” He smirked, amused. Her vehemence was almost cute.

  “I don’t mean to be aggressive, but I’ve already figured out you don’t do subtle. One way or the other, I have to get your attention. Cassie is not in on this heist with Shriver.”

  “And you’re not the least bit prejudiced.”

  “I know my sister.”

  “Your loyalty is commendable, but it’s clear you have a huge blind spot where your twin is concerned. Look at the evidence. Cassie has romanticized Shriver and she’s picturing herself living some kind of outlaw, movie star lifestyle.”

  Okay, so he was sorry he’d ever recruited Cassie. But he wasn’t going to let Maddie dream up some fanciful scenario that ignored the truth in favor of exonerating her sister. If he expressed regret, she might seize upon that as a loophole she could exploit.

  Maddie shook her head. “You’re wrong. Shriver has kidnapped her. I feel it in my bones.”

  “All I want is to see justice done. If Shriver kidnapped your sister, then you’ll be the first to receive an apology. In the meantime, you’re delaying me from my flight. If you’ll excuse me.” He turned back toward the security scanners.

  She marched right along behind him. He stopped and she plowed into his back. He took her by the wrist and pulled her around to face him.

  “You cannot come to Grand Cayman with me. Got it? The matter is not open for discussion.”

  “It’s a free country, bub, I can go anywhere I want.”

  “And I could have you arrested for interfering with an officer of the law.”

  “You wouldn’t dare.” She jerked her wrist away from him and sank her hands on her hips. Her steely-eyed gaze challenged him to make good on his threat.

  Dammit. Why did he have to admire her spunk and the open way she defied him? No covert sneaking around for this woman. If she was half this feisty in the bedroom, look out.

  Ah, but then a slight quiver of her lower lip gave her away. She wasn’t nearly as self-confident as she wanted him to believe, but she was sure giving it hell.