Cavanaugh's Secret Delivery

by Marie Ferrarella

  “C’mon, Toni,” he sighed. “Don’t make this harder than it is.”

  “Why not?” she asked, then said, “You obviously are.”

  “We’ll argue about this when I get back,” Dugan told her.

  Then, because she still wasn’t moving, he reached into the vehicle and took her arm. She knew that he was a great deal stronger than she was, even if she dug in and refused to budge. Dugan would still be able to pull her out of the car and she didn’t really want to cause a scene out here. Because if she did, that meant that she would be behaving too much like a petulant child and that wasn’t what this was all supposed to be about.

  This was about her wanting to be there with him when he captured the drug shipment, which she firmly believed that he would. And she wanted to be there just in case Padilla was there with the shipment because she was confident that Dugan would protect her.

  But if he couldn’t understand any of that, then there was no way that she could make him.

  So, just as he took a better hold of her arm, she surrendered and slid out of the passenger seat on her own.

  “All right, you win. I’m out of the car. I’ll go into the house and cower in the corner somewhere until you come back and give the all-clear signal,” she ground out between clenched teeth.

  “You’re being silly now,” he told her as they walked up to the front door.

  “No, I’m being obedient now. Isn’t that what you want?” she challenged. “For me to be obedient?”

  “What I want,” he told her, “is for you to be understanding. And when you finally calm down, you will be. But for now, I don’t have any more time to argue with you about this.”

  “So go,” she told him.

  He looked at the door. “Just as soon as you lock the door behind you.”

  “Don’t insult me,” she told him. “I know how to lock my door and rearm the security. Go!” she all but yelled at him. “Go be the hero and try not to get yourself shot. I don’t like damaged goods.”

  “I’ll remember that,” he told her.

  Because she had made him late as well as crazy, Dugan hurried away.

  Chapter 20

  Toni deliberately stood in front of the door, watching Dugan until he got back into his car. She remained standing there until he pulled away. And then she finally disarmed the security alarm and let herself into her house.

  She was still angry at him.

  She felt exactly like someone’s little sister who wasn’t being allowed to tag along to the big party. Toni knew all the reasons she was being kept from going with him, and on an intellectual level, she grudgingly had to admit that she understood them.

  But just because she understood them didn’t make her feel any better, didn’t change the fact that she was furious at Dugan because she had been deliberately excluded from this phase of the operation. She didn’t like being left behind this way.

  She fisted her hands at her sides, wanting to pummel something.

  Maybe if she was angry enough at Dugan she wouldn’t immediately dissolve into a mass of nerves and worry about him. Because he had sentenced her to spend the next day or so wondering if he and his team had found the right tunnel. And it didn’t end there, because if they did manage to find the right tunnel, one or both of the cartels might show up to wage war over the drugs. Worrying about that would drive her completely out of her mind.

  With a huge sigh, she engaged the security system. “Lucy, are you home?” she called out.

  Within moments, Lucinda came walking into the room, emerging out of the kitchen. She looked surprised and perplexed to see Toni there in the middle of the day.

  “What are you doing back here at this hour?” Lucinda asked, looking around the room. “Is your detective with you?”

  “He’s not my detective,” Toni snapped. “Sorry,” she apologized. She shouldn’t be taking it out on the other woman.

  “Uh-huh. Trouble in paradise?” Lucy asked. She eyed Toni closely. “What did you do?”

  “I didn’t do anything,” Toni answered sharply, annoyed at Lucinda’s assumption. “Not a damn thing.”

  Lucinda looked at her doubtfully. “Then why are you here and he isn’t? I’ve gotten kind of used to seeing him shadowing your every move for the last couple of weeks or so,” Lucy confessed.

  Toni moved around the room, not knowing what to do with herself. “He’s chasing a tip.”

  “What kind of tip?” Lucinda asked, obviously curious.

  “The kind that’s too dangerous for me to follow up on, apparently,” Toni bit out. She sat down only to get up again. She couldn’t seem to find a place for herself.

  Having Lucinda grin at her like that certainly didn’t help any, she thought darkly.

  “He’s trying to protect you,” the other young woman told her.

  Was that supposed to comfort her? Well, it didn’t. Turning, she saw the expression on Lucinda’s face. “What are you grinning about?”

  Lucinda shook her head, clearly amazed that Toni was oblivious to this. “Don’t you see? This proves that he really cares about you.”

  “No, it doesn’t!” Toni argued. “What this proves is that he doesn’t want me getting in the way.”

  Lucinda shifted around so that she was in front of Toni again, then cocked her head, staring at her. “You’re not really that dumb, are you?”

  Toni’s head instantly jerked up as her eyes narrowed. Lucinda had never spoken to her like that before. “What?”

  Lucinda didn’t back off. “You heard me. I have always looked up to you, Toni, thought you were the most talented, prettiest, most intelligent woman I had ever met. After all this time, are you going to make me reevaluate my initial impression of you?” she asked. “Because if you don’t believe that man is crazy about you, then you’re not as smart as I thought you were.”

  Toni blew out a breath. She knew exactly what Lucinda’s judgment was based on.

  “Sleeping with someone doesn’t mean you’re crazy about them,” she said flatly.

  “In general, no,” Lucinda readily agreed. “But one look at that man’s face when he’s looking at you and I just know Detective Cavanaugh’s crazy about you.”

  “Right,” Toni bit off. “Whatever you say.” Her tone completely dismissed the subject. “Anything else you want to talk about?”

  Lucy thought for a moment, then came up with something neutral to mention. “Well, I think that Heather’s cutting her first tooth.”

  “What? Why didn’t you say so?” Toni cried, already on her way to the stairs.

  “I just put her down for her nap,” Lucy protested, coming up behind Heather’s mother.

  “I’m in crisis mode. I need a distraction,” Toni said. But halfway up the stairs, she stopped and turned around. She was being selfish, she thought. “I guess I should add ‘lousy mother’ to the list,” she said, frowning. “I was about to wake up the baby just to satisfy my own curiosity.”

  “But you stopped,” Lucinda pointed out. “And there is no list, Toni. You’re wonderful at everything you do, you know that. C’mon,” she coaxed. “Why don’t you come and help me make dinner?”

  Toni glanced at her watch. “Isn’t it kind of early to be making dinner?” she asked.

  “Okay, an early dinner, then,” Lucinda said, relenting. “Or we can call it a late lunch if it makes you feel better.”

  Toni laughed, shaking her head. “Sounds good.” She appreciated Lucinda tolerating her behaving this way. She turned to look at the younger woman. “Why do you put up with me?”

  Lucinda looked at her, her expression growing somber. “Because you saved my life,” she answered simply. “And besides,” she added, “you are the nicest person I ever met.”

  Toni’s mood lifted a little and she put her arm around the younger woman’s shoulders. “You really need
to get out more.”

  * * *

  “Something wrong, Cavanaugh?” Jason Nguyen asked. He and half of the team were encamped around what they had discovered was the exit point for one of the tunnels.

  Beneath them was three quarters of a mile of freshly constructed walls and floor set deep in the bowels of the earth. What they’d initially found there would have made any contractor proud. The department had concluded that it took a specialized group of men to construct these passageways so that men and drugs could go safely from point A to point B.

  Dugan thought of it as wasted talent.

  Right now, though, Dugan’s mind was on something else. He was working his lower lip, trying to decide whether or not he should be concerned or if he was worrying needlessly.

  He looked at his partner. “I just called the officers who are supposed to be acting as Toni’s bodyguards. I told them to be posted on either end of her block.”

  “And?” Nguyen asked, waiting for more.

  Dugan frowned. “And they’re not answering their cells.”

  Nguyen shrugged. “It’s probably nothing. She probably invited them in for dinner. It would be the kind of thing that she’d do. She’s really nice like that.”

  He knew she was, but he still felt uneasy. “They wouldn’t both go in,” he said, frowning. “They know better.”

  “Yeah, but she can be pretty persuasive,” Detective Wayne Patterson said, overhearing the conversation and speaking up. He came over to join the other two detectives.

  Dugan shook his head. “I don’t know,” Dugan confessed. “I’ve got a bad feeling about this.”

  “Oh, lord, not a gut feeling,” Nguyen groaned, rolling his eyes. “Look, were the officers there when you left?”

  “Yes. At least, their cars were,” Dugan amended. And then his eyes widened as it dawned on him. How could he have forgotten? “Their cars.”

  Patterson wasn’t following him. “What about their cars?”

  “I didn’t check them,” Dugan realized. Toni had gotten him angry and he’d just taken off. That wasn’t like him. “I should have checked them before I left.”

  “Did anything look suspicious?” another member of the team, Detective Ramon Gomez asked, putting in his two cents.

  “No,” Dugan answered.

  “Then give yourself a break and stop worrying,” Nguyen advised. “This whole operation has you second-guessing yourself.”

  But once the thought had been planted in Dugan’s head, it wasn’t about to leave.

  Dugan tried calling the police officers’ cell phones again. “Still no answer,” he complained, terminating the call after more than a dozen rings.

  “You want to call dispatch and have them send someone to check it out?” Nguyen asked.

  “Yeah,” Dugan answered. He was already heading toward his vehicle. “Me.”

  “What if all this turns out to be nothing?” Nguyen called after him.

  “Then I’ll look pretty stupid, but I’ll be relieved,” Dugan said just before he closed his car’s door.

  * * *

  Heather had woken up cranky. But after being changed and fed, then played with, the baby was placated. Before long, she began to drift off to sleep again.

  “I think I fed her too much,” Toni said. “All that formula made her drowsy,” she speculated. “I should have taken the bottle away sooner.”

  “Babies are the best judge of when they’re full,” Lucinda said. “She’s too young to need comfort food yet,” she pointed out, trying to make Toni feel better about the situation.

  Most of the dishes from dinner had been washed and were in the process of being put away. There was only one large pot left to deal with. Toni ran hot water into it, soaking the pot to make it easier to clean.

  “How come you know so much about babies?” she asked Lucinda, feeling rather inadequate right now.

  “I helped raise three younger siblings before I screwed up, remember?” Lucinda answered her matter-of-factly.

  Toni winced, hearing the note of self-blame in the other woman’s voice. After all this time, Lucinda still hadn’t forgiven herself.

  Drying her hands with a kitchen towel, Toni confided, “Well, I really don’t know how I would have managed without you. I—”

  She stopped abruptly, listening. Was that a noise coming from inside the house?

  “Something wrong?” Lucinda asked, putting the last of the plates into the cupboard.

  Whatever she’d heard was gone. Toni shrugged. It was probably something from the house next door. “Nothing, I guess. I just thought I heard—”

  She stopped again. Whatever she had heard, she was hearing it again. Her breath stopped in her chest. Dugan had definitely spooked her, but she couldn’t shake the feeling that something was wrong.

  “Lucy,” she said, her voice lowering just a shade, “why don’t you go upstairs to the nursery and lock the door while I check things out?”

  “But we have a security system,” Lucy pointed out, falling back on that comforting fact. “We’re safe in here, right?”

  “Right,” Toni confirmed in a deliberately cheerful voice. “I’m just being overly cautious. So humor me,” she requested, then added, “Please.”

  Lucinda looked at her for a minute before hurrying up the stairs.

  Toni heard the younger woman enter the nursery, then heard the click that occurred when she locked the nursery door. Confident that Lucinda had followed her instructions, she went to the living room window and peered out.

  Everything looked just the way it did before. There was nothing to suggest that there was anything really wrong.

  She couldn’t see either of the police cars, but in order to see them, she knew she needed to open the front door and go outside. Right now, that didn’t feel like a good idea.

  “Damn you, Dugan, you’ve got me spooked. Are you happy now?” she muttered under her breath.

  Feeling uneasy, she called the police officer’s cell. Dugan had given her the number just before she’d gotten out of his car. Each unanswered ring made her more nervous. She stopped at the tenth one.

  This wasn’t right, she told herself.

  She moved back toward the front door and checked the keypad. The security system was armed.

  The walk to the rear door and the other keypad felt as if it took forever. When she finally reached it, she found that the door was still locked.

  All that uncertainty Dugan had planted in her head was getting the better of her. So what if the police officers he’d left posted outside her house weren’t answering their cells? There could be a dozen reasons why they weren’t picking up.

  A dozen, she insisted to herself.

  So why was her skin suddenly crawling?

  And why did her stomach feel tied up in one big knot?

  You’re making yourself crazy. There’s no one in the house except for you and Lucy and the baby, she told herself. Heather’s in her crib and there’s nobody else here. It’s just your imagination. Or it’s the wind. The house creaks sometimes, remember? It’s—

  She let loose with a scream. Turning around, she found herself looking at a thin five-foot-seven man. He was standing in her living room.

  The same man who had entered the restaurant that night.

  The most sinister-looking smile was curving the dark-haired man’s lips. His dark-brown eyes were gleaming with a relish that instantly made her blood run cold.

  “What are you doing here in my house?” she demanded, forcing herself not to sound intimidated.

  “That is not a very hospitable way to greet a guest, Antonia,” the invader chided. He was obviously enjoying the fact that he had caught her by surprise and that she was visibly nervous.

  “How did you get in?” she asked. “I’ve got a security system.”

  The sm
ile grew nastier. “Oh, please, you cannot be that naive, can you?” he mocked. “The system is pure child’s play for someone like me.”

  She had to hide her fear, Toni told herself. He’d pounce on her if he saw fear. She threw back her shoulders, doing her best to sound angry.

  “There are police officers outside,” she told him. It worked, her terror was evolving into anger. “You should get out now while you still can,” she ordered.

  “There were police officers outside,” Padilla corrected smugly. “I am afraid that they cannot hear you. Or help you,” he added with a laugh that echoed with pure evil.

  She thought she was going to throw up. Supreme effort kept down the bile that rose in her throat.

  “I don’t believe you,” she said, doing her best to brazen it out.

  “I do not particularly care if you believe me or not,” Padilla said dismissively. His eyes darkened. “That is not why I am here.”

  Again her breath caught in her throat. Breathe, damn it, breathe! “Why are you here?”

  “Oh, I think you know why,” he told her. He appeared to be getting a great deal of pleasure from drawing the moment out. It was as if he was feeding on her fear and he was doing his best to terrify her. “Are you alone in the house?”

  “Yes,” Toni answered instantly, never taking her eyes off him.

  “You said that a little too quickly,” Padilla judged. “Tell me, if I went upstairs right now, who would I find there?”

  “No one,” she snapped. “But go ahead. Go look,” she urged him. “I’ve got weapons stashed all around the house. It’ll give me time to get one and use it on you,” she declared.

  “You are a regular little spitfire, I see. I should have guessed as much when you shot me in the restaurant.” The smile on his lips was cold, frightening. “Too bad your aim was not so good.”

  She said the first thing that came to mind, trying to keep him talking until—she didn’t know until what, she realized, but the longer he talked, the longer she stayed alive and that was at least something. “I wasn’t trying to kill you.”

  “Really?” he asked, the single word mocking her. Laughing at her. “Then why would you bother shooting at all?”