Arouse Suspicion

by Maureen McKade

  "There's a set of binoculars under your seat if you're interested," Danni said, her intent to change the subject clear.

  "Voyeurs R Us," Nick said wryly as he reached for the binoculars. He raised the glasses, but all he could see were dirty blinds covering dirtier windows, so he rested them in his lap. "Do you miss being a cop?"

  She continued to peer at Willy's lot. "Sometimes."

  "Can you be a more specific? What do you miss?"

  Something flickered across her face that Nick couldn't quite identify. Regret? "Why do you care?"

  "I'm a writer. I'm curious about everything." Especially you.

  After a few beats of silence, Danni replied, "I can tell you what I don't miss: night shifts, office politics, and shitty coffee."

  Nick chuckled.

  She placed the camera beside her and lowered her sunglasses back in place. Nick had an idea she was shielding her thoughts more than the sun's rays, especially since the sun was being overtaken by dark clouds.

  "I miss some of the people I worked with. I miss the feeling that I was doing something useful," she said quietly.

  "And the donuts?" Nick teased. She chuckled and looked at him. "Only the custard-filled ones."

  His gaze lingered on her mischievous smile, and he felt an odd little hitch in his breathing. It wasn't a reaction he expected. But then, Danni was turning out not to be what he expected either.

  "So what's the biggest difference between being a cop and a PI?" he asked, surprised his voice was so steady.

  "More writerly questions?" Her eyebrows canted upward.

  He grinned. "Humor me."

  "Don't tempt me, Sirocco." Her teasing tone softened the words. She glanced at the car dealership, then answered him. "Accountability. As a private investigator, I'm accountable only to my client and myself. When I was a cop, I spent half my time filling out forms. That's another thing I don't miss. There was a friggin' form for everything."

  "The military was the same way. It's the bureaucratic bullshit used to try to keep everyone honest."

  Gus whined and did a familiar dance on the seat. Nick sighed and opened his door.

  "Where are you going?" Danni asked.

  "Gus has to use the facilities."

  "Stay close."

  "Yes, ma'am," Nick said with a lazy salute.

  He closed the truck door behind him. There was nothing but concrete on this side of the street, so he and Gus crossed to a vacant lot with an equal amount of weeds and rocks.

  An old Chevy sped past with a flashy redhead behind the wheel. As Gus took care of business, Nick watched the car turn into Willy's lot. A man carrying a bag came out of the building and jumped into the front seat with her.

  "That's him. Get in," Danni called out to Nick.

  Caught off guard, Nick called to Gus, who'd found a fascinating scent to follow.

  "Hurry!" she yelled. "They're leaving."

  "Get over here, Gus," he hollered, but the dog was caught up in whatever she'd discovered. Nick strode toward the disobedient animal.

  An engine roared, and Nick spun around to see Danni taking off after the Chevy.

  Leaving him and Gus in a cloud of exhaust.

  Chapter Three

  If Danni had still been a cop, she would've nailed Willy's piece of fluff for speeding, reckless driving, failure to yield, and a host of other moving violations. Danni alternated between cursing the occupants of the car she followed and herself for abandoning Nick. After her talk about him possibly being in danger, she shouldn't have left him behind.

  She clamped her lips together and concentrated on keeping the blue Chevy in sight. She'd never slacked on a job, and she didn't plan to start now. Sirocco was a big boy; he could take care of himself for a few minutes.

  For ten more minutes she sped through yellow lights and jockeyed around slowpoke drivers, all the while trying not to draw Willy's or a bored traffic cop's attention. She was rewarded when Willy and his paramour turned into a motel parking lot. Sleepy Bye Motel, Hourly and Daily Rates. Danni wrinkled her nose as she parked on the street and watched the redhead sashay into the lobby. With a thigh-length skirt, skintight halter top, and three-inch heels, there'd be no question why the woman was there.

  When she came out of the office five minutes later, she waved a key at Willy. The two-timing worm got out of the Chevy carrying a small nylon duffel bag with his car dealership logo on the side. A two-timer and an idiot.

  Danni stayed long enough to snap some pictures of Willy and the woman entering their room. She hated leaving a job half done even for a short time, but she headed back to find Nick. Although she didn't drive back as recklessly, Danni broke a few speed limits, especially when raindrops began to tap-dance across the windshield.

  Arriving back where she'd left Nick, she could find no sign of him or his dog. Damn! Where had they gone? She drove slowly, peering through the rain and down each side street. The longer she searched, the more worried she became. If someone was after Nick...

  Finally, she spotted a familiar denim-clad backside with a dog walking beside it and was surprised by the extent of her relief. Nick had his hands in his pockets and his shoulders hunched against the rain. Both he and Gus looked like drowned rats, which made Danni feel like crap.

  She pulled up alongside them and leaned over to shove open the passenger door. "Get in."

  Nick halted and glared at her. Gus, however, didn't seem to hold a grudge and hopped in, wet fur and all.

  "C'mon, Sirocco. Even your dog has more brains than to stand out in the rain," Danni said, guilt making her tone sharp.

  Without a word or a lessening of his rigid features, he slid into the passenger seat and slammed the door. He sat with stiff shoulders and a rigid backbone, his hands jammed in his leather jacket pockets.

  Danni's guilt turned to irritation. Fine, if he wanted to act like a five-year-old, so be it. She didn't have anything to apologize for. She was only doing her job. She should be taking incriminating pictures for her client right now instead of putting up with his temper tantrum.

  Gus shook, spraying water droplets everywhere, including Danni's eyes. She used her sleeve to wipe her face and grimaced at the wet dog smell, which now permeated the cab.

  After a long sigh, she drove back to the motel, trying to keep her mind off her pissed-off passenger. His silent treatment, however, grated on her nerves even as she swore she wouldn't be the one to break the strained impasse.

  Nick sneezed.

  "Bless you," she said automatically.

  He glared.

  She glared back.

  "I'm surprised you came back for me," he finally spoke.

  Danni squirmed in her seat. "Jobs like this are my bread and butter. I can't afford to blow it." She glanced at him. "Know why I drive this pickup? Because it's all I can afford."

  Nick scrubbed his rain-dampened face with his palms, then lowered his hands to gaze at her somberly. "I was worried about you."

  Warmth fluttered in Danni's chest, startling her. But she was unable to say she was concerned about him, too, even though she had been. Self-preservation was job one in her book. "I came back as soon as I could. There's a blanket behind the seat," she said awkwardly.

  "Thanks." He reached back and nabbed the soft thermal blanket Danni used for cold stakeouts. He wiped his hands and face, then the dog's wet fur.

  Danni parked across the street from the motel but didn't turn off the truck. The warm air coming out of the vents would ease the damp chill for Nick and Gus.

  "Is this where they came?" he asked, looking through the misty rain.

  "Room one-thirteen. I'll have to see if they were considerate enough to leave a curtain open." Danni peered at the smoky gray sky and placed the camera in her backpack to keep it dry while it wasn't in use. "I'll leave the truck running."

  "I'll go with you." His crooked smile caught her off guard. "It's not like I could get any wetter."

  Danni paused, her hand on the door handle. "You don't h
ave to."

  He shrugged. "I've never seen a PI in action before."

  "You're going to see a whole lot of action you probably don't want to see," Danni warned.

  "TMI stuff?"

  "Oh, yeah. Definitely too much information." She switched off the truck. "Gus will have to stay here."

  Nick nodded and climbed out. Danni joined him.

  "Keep down and keep quiet," she said.

  "Don't worry. I used to be a Ranger."

  "Lone or Power?" Danni smirked.

  Before he could retort, she jogged to the end of the motel. She pressed her back against the peeling paint and motioned for Nick to join her. Mumbling about smart-ass women, he scrambled up beside her.

  "At least if I was the Lone Ranger, I'd have a faithful companion," he muttered.

  "You've got Gus." Danni turned away before he could catch her amused smile. "There should be a window to their room around the corner."

  "What if they closed their curtains?"

  "Then I keep following Willy until they forget to close the curtains and I can get some dirty pictures."

  Nick stared at her. "You enjoy this way too much."

  Although Danni could think of a hundred things she'd rather be doing than snapping some raunchy pictures—like cleaning hair out of a drainpipe or unplugging a stopped-up toilet—she waggled her eyebrows. "You ought to see my videotape collection."

  "You have videotapes?"

  Danni rolled her gaze heavenward, amazed that a former Army Ranger would be so gullible. She blinked fat raindrops out of her eyes. "Come on, let's see if we can finish up here."

  Keeping her back close to the wall, she followed the ell of the building. As she did, she was too aware of Nick beside her, his arm occasionally brushing hers. She didn't need this distraction, even though it was one of the more pleasant distractions she'd had in a long time.

  "Won't the manager call the cops if he sees us skulking around?" Nick asked. His warm breath caressed her cheek, reminding her how long it'd been since she'd been with a man.

  "Puh-leeze. I doubt the scumbag would even call the cops if he found a body in one of his rooms. A dead body."

  Stopping at the corner, Danni leaned close to Nick, her nose almost touching his short, soft-looking hair. "Their window should be the second one. Try not to trip."

  "Yes, ma'am." He gave her a sharp salute, which wasn't too surprising since he'd been in the army. She doubted, though, that he'd used the same husky voice with his commanding officers as he did with her.

  Danni crept around the corner and sank into a crouch. She ducked even lower as she passed under the first window, then dropped into a squat, hugging the wall. They were on the back side of the motel, away from the parking lot but facing a gas station less than a hundred feet away.

  Nick joined her, his soggy arm pressing against her drier one. If possible, he looked even more waterlogged than when she'd picked him up.

  Figuring she was alongside the right room, she set her backpack against the wall, raised up to find a six-inch gap between the curtains, and peeked in. She blinked once... twice... and hurled herself back against Nick's shoulder, which was only negligibly softer than the wall. Propping her elbows on her drawn-up knees, she buried her face in her hands as she tried to gather her composure. Her shoulders shook with the effort, but it was a losing battle.

  Strong hands gripped her upper arms. "What is it? C'mon, tell me. What's wrong?"

  Nick's concerned tone shimmied through her bones. It was even better than his husky "Yes, ma'am."

  She lifted her head from her hands. "It's Willy. King of the jungle," she managed to say past her muffled laughter.

  He jerked his hands away from her like she had a social disease and plopped down on his backside. He stared at her as if questioning her sanity... or lack thereof. "You're laughing."

  Danni struggled to get her mirth under control. "Good one, Sherlock." She panted as she wiped at her tearing eyes. "Willy's standing on top of the dresser."

  Nick appeared even more bewildered.

  "He's wearing a loincloth," she barely managed to say. The memory of his skinny limbs and concave chest nearly sent her into another spasm of laughter. Now she knew what had been in the duffel bag. "And, uh, Ms. Big Boob Redhead is tied spread-eagle on the bed."

  "And what's she wearing?"

  "Nothing."

  He tipped his head back and thumped it against the wall. "Shit."

  Danni nudged him with her elbow. "Looks like I could've used the camcorder for this one, huh?"

  Nick rolled his head toward her. "You're sick, Hawkins. You know that?"

  "Prerequisite for the job. Wait here. I'm going to take some pictures."

  She retrieved her camera and removed the lens cap. Rising to her knees at the window, she focused the camera on Willy, who beat his hollow chest with his fists, and she clicked four pictures in rapid succession. She shifted and took more shots of the bound woman on the bed, with the loinclothed Willy on the dresser in the background. Pleased with her results, she settled back against the wall and grinned cheekily. "That's a wrap, folks."

  A sudden shout and thump, followed by a spine-tingling scream, startled her. She frowned as she met Nick's gaze.

  "What the hell?" he asked and rose up to peer into the window. "Goddamn."

  Danni crowded up next to him to see what Willy the jungle king and his redheaded temptress had done to produce such a reaction. Willy was lying motionless on the bed between the woman's naked thighs, and she was screaming like a banshee, but the screams weren't ones of ecstasy. "Oh, shit."

  Danni tossed her camera back in the pack, snagged a strap, and raced around the motel, peripherally aware of Nick close on her heels. She splashed through puddles formed from the still-falling rain. At room 113, she tried the doorknob, but it was locked. She pounded on the door.

  "Help! He's dead! Ohmygod, he's dead!" The hysterical voice came from within.

  The locks were the old key type, not the fancy kind with the slide card. Danni dug out her wallet, looking for her one and only credit card to slip between the door and the frame. As she searched, Nick took hold of her arms and moved her away from the door.

  A loud crash made her snap her head up. Nick had kicked in the door.

  "Way to keep a low profile," Danni muttered, glancing around anxiously to see if anyone had witnessed his testosterone display.

  "Hey, it worked, didn't it?"

  Danni couldn't argue that, and she rushed into the room, which held a double bed, a dresser, one chair, and a TV. And a scene that could have been from an X-rated movie, except the stud wasn't moving.

  Danni grabbed an extra blanket from the shelf above the clothes rack and tossed it over the woman's naked torso. Although Danni was pretty certain Willy's playmate didn't care if another man ogled her attributes, especially one like Nick Sirocco, Danni felt, somehow, less exposed.

  As Nick untied the woman, Danni knelt at the end of the mattress and examined Willy, who appeared to have hit his head on the foot of the bed. She rolled him onto his back.

  He groaned, and his eyelids flickered open. "What the fu—"

  "Lie still," she ordered in her no-nonsense cop voice. Although confused, Willy did as she commanded. Danni probed the rapidly forming lump on the man's fore- head. Fortunately, the skin hadn't split open, and the skull didn't appear to be damaged.

  "You should go to the hospital. You probably have a concussion," Danni said.

  "What the hell happened?" Willy demanded in a reedy voice that matched his reedy body.

  "Don'tcha remember, sweetie? You and me was playing. I was the helpless captive, and you was the jungle hero who was comin' to rescue me." The redheaded bimbo's gaze slanted toward Nick, who held the pieces of rope from her "captivity" in his hands. She winked at him.

  Nick winked back.

  Danni stifled a colorful comeback. She gave her attention back to the injured Tarzan.

  Willy's flush matched the floozy's hai
r color. "Shut up, Bambi! Just shut up."

  Danni glanced at Nick, who mouthed Bambi? and she had to look away before she lost it.

  "Who are you?" Bambi asked Sirocco.

  "Ni—"

  "We were just walking by when we heard you scream," Danni interrupted. She wasn't in the habit of kicking a man when he was down, and with the pictures she'd taken, she suspected Willy would find out soon enough why they'd been there.

  "We appreciate your help, but you can leave now," Willy said, trying ineffectually to cover the front of his loincloth with his hands. He had obviously lost his excitement for the game.

  "You should have your head examined," Danni said, stifling her grin at the unintentional pun.

  Willy sent her a sharp look, or as sharp as he could under the circumstances.

  She didn't think he appreciated her humor.

  "I'll think about it," he said.

  Nick gazed down at Bambi and winked. Again. "You and your hero have fun," he said.

  The flicker of disappointment on Bambi's overly made- up face told Danni she would gladly trade her ape man hero for the ape who'd kicked in her door. Stifling the urge to roll her eyes, Danni left the motel room, only to find rain pouring down in black sheets. Just great.

  Nick joined her after leaning the door, which he'd kicked off the hinges, against the frame. She checked to ensure her camera was safely stowed in her backpack. They scurried across the motel lot toward the truck and paused to look for traffic before starting across the street.

  A squeal of tires was Danni's only warning. She jerked around to see a car barreling through the storm directly toward them. She felt a tug on her arm and fell to the street. Then she was rolling across the wet pavement, another body glued to hers—a bigger and harder body that protected her on the concrete. They stopped abruptly, and Nick groaned, his breath hot against her ear.

  Danni scrambled up to try to see the car that had almost run them down, but it had disappeared into the inky rain. She spotted her backpack lying in the middle of the street and grabbed it before it was run over by a vehicle. Hurrying back to Nick, she squatted beside him and laid a hand on his chest. His heart thundered as fast as hers.