Distant Shores, Silent Thunder

by Radclyffe

  “How did he account for the drug overdose?”

  Reese grimaced. “He swears that he only had one can of Budweiser. Somewhere in the course of the evening, his buddies disappeared. And someone slipped him a heavy dose of ecstasy. His tox screen confirms that he had a very small level of alcohol in his system and a great big dose of MDMA.”

  “So where does that leave you?”

  “Well, we’ve got a first name for the victim, and we’ve got a general location for the party. Robert vaguely remembers hearing that the parties are a regular occurrence in the area, so we’re going to do some discreet questioning in the bars and among some of our known area drug users. Chances are they’ll at least have heard of these parties.”

  “You’re going after the dealers, then?” Tory’s voice was even, but her eyes were fathomless pools, swirling with dark undercurrents.

  “No choice.” Reese’s tone was matter-of-fact, because the course of action was obvious. “They’re responsible for that girl’s death.”

  “You’ll be careful, won’t you?”

  “I always am.” Reese leaned forward and brushed her fingers through Tory’s hair, letting her palm rest against the nape of her neck. “I’ve got two very good reasons to be very careful.”

  Tory leaned into the caress and wrapped her fingers around Reese’s strong forearm. She turned her face, rubbed her lips over Reese’s wrist, and murmured, “I love you so—”

  “Hey, Tory, what’s the deal with this new cholesterol—” KT stumbled to a stop just inside the door. Her eyes moved from Tory—who leaned forward with half-closed lids and her parted lips against Reese’s skin—to the woman who gazed down at her with undisguised adoration. The image was cuttingly beautiful, and KT felt a slash of pain as exquisitely sharp as the knife blade that had brought her there. “Oh. Sorry.”

  Slowly, Reese swiveled on the desk toward KT, giving Tory’s hand a squeeze as she shifted away from her. “Hi.”

  “Hi.”

  “How’s the first day going?”

  “Actually,” KT replied, smiling grimly, “I’m getting my ass kicked. Between the little old ladies who won’t take their medication and the screaming kids who won’t sit still long enough for me to listen to their hearts, I’m beat.”

  Reese laughed. “Tough crowd, huh?”

  “Give me a multiple trauma any day.” KT looked apologetically at Tory. “I just had a quick question about a patient’s medication. I’m in exam room three when you get a chance.”

  “I’ll be right there.”

  “Thanks.” KT nodded to Reese. “Take it easy.”

  “You too.”

  When KT left, Reese stood and tucked her cap under her arm. “I should get back to work.” She inclined her head toward the now-empty doorway. “Everything okay there?”

  Tory stood and slipped an arm around Reese’s waist, walking with her toward the hall. “A few minor bumps, but basically okay.”

  “Good.” Reese kissed her one final time. “Don’t stay too late, okay?”

  “I won’t. I promise.” Tory stroked Reese’s cheek. “Regina and I will see you at home, Sheriff. Be safe.”

  Tory rested a shoulder against the doorjamb and watched until Reese disappeared through the far door. When she finally turned away, she found KT contemplating her with an expression she had never seen on the surgeon’s face before. It was a mixture of tenderness and sadness. Silently, she walked to join her. “Ready for that consult?”

  *

  Pia paced, an extremely unusual activity for her. Ordinarily, she was calm, centered, and generally in control—not in a rigid, inflexible fashion, but merely in a studied, organized way. Her life was like her work—ordered and with a definite direction, but with no particular timetable attached. Consequently, she was able to adjust to small changes with alacrity. But now, she found herself unaccountably agitated. Actually, there was nothing unaccountable about her present mood. She knew exactly to what she should attribute the uneasiness and sense of foreboding. She had done something impetuous, something that probably skirted the edges of unprofessional at the very least. Although she wasn’t a physician, she was a healthcare worker, and KT O’Bannon was her client. There wasn’t the usual sort of power dynamic at work that made relationships between physicians or therapists and patients improper, but still, the surgeon had come to her in a professional capacity, and here she was—

  What? What exactly am I doing?

  Pia halted at her front door and looked out the window toward the street. At just before 7 p.m., there was still plenty of light, but the sun was low on the horizon, and the sky was tinged with the purples and pinks that preceded the midnight blues of impending darkness. Between the closely crowded houses on the opposite side of the street, she caught glimpses of the harbor and the white swatches of sails tilting in the wind.

  She was about to go out to dinner with a woman—a client—she had just met and show her an apartment in the same complex where she lived. In the complex that her mother owned.

  How many more ways can I impinge upon boundaries, I wonder?

  As she contemplated informing KT that she would be happy to show her the apartment, but that she couldn’t accompany her to dinner, the woman in question turned in the driveway and started down the flagstone path toward the house. Tonight, KT wore black jeans with a wide black belt, black boots, and a white shirt with the cuffs turned back twice. She looked like a knife blade turned edge on, glittering and sharp and enticingly dangerous. Unmindful of the danger, Pia opened the door.

  *

  As KT walked the mile from her temporary quarters on Bradford to Pia’s, she thought about her day, remembering the look on Tory’s face as she’d kissed Reese. Try as she might, KT couldn’t ever remember Tory looking at her in quite that way. They’d had passion and they’d shared dreams and they’d celebrated victories, but she didn’t believe they’d ever had that depth of simple communion. So simple as to be profound. She wondered for the first time whose fault that had been. Hers, probably. She’d always had another goal to meet, another obstacle to overcome, another rung on the ladder to climb. There’d always been part of her that was somewhere else, so that she was never completely there with Tory. Never completely there for her.

  Why didn’t I ever know that?

  The faint scrape of wood on wood brought KT out of her reverie. Pia stepped out onto the porch, and KT slowed to take her in. She wore a blue-and-white striped boatneck tee, white capri slacks, and sandals. Her bare arms and legs were a rich brown against the white, and her dark hair fell in loose velvet waves around her face. She was stunning in the earthy, sensual way of some women, and KT felt a welcome stirring of desire. Lust always chased the blues away.

  “Hello,” KT called as Pia came down the steps. “You look great.”

  “Thank you,” Pia said easily, revealing none of her recent misgivings as she fell into step beside KT. “How was your day?”

  KT laughed. “Humbling.”

  Pia smiled, liking the low, rich timbre of her voice. “Oh? How is that?”

  “I discovered how much basic medicine I’ve forgotten in the last fourteen years. They say that you know as much medicine as you ever will on the day that you graduate from medical school, and that from that point on you know less and less. I never believed that until today.”

  “You’re a surgeon. You’re not supposed to know general medicine.”

  “Yes, well,” KT said quietly, “for the time being, I’m a general practitioner. Maybe that’s all I’ll ever be again.”

  “Is that what you think?” Pia asked in surprise. “That we’re not going to get your hand back?”

  KT met Pia’s eyes, finding the deep brown ones totally serious and startlingly intent. “Isn’t that something I need to be prepared for?”

  “Possibly. But certainly not now. We haven’t even started.” In a completely spontaneous gesture, Pia reached out and squeezed KT’s right hand. “If there comes a time when I think we
’re not going to get you back into the OR, I’ll tell you. Until then, I want you—need you—to believe that’s exactly where you’re going to be when we finish.”

  “You really believe that makes a difference? The mind-over-matter thing?” KT’s voice was free of sarcasm. Pia’s conviction was too genuine to castigate. And in addition to not wanting to criticize her beliefs, the warmth of Pia’s fingers curled around KT’s was too peaceful to risk losing.

  “You must have seen it yourself,” Pia replied quietly. “The ones who should have died but didn’t because their will to survive was so strong, and the ones who gave up and slipped away even when there was no medical reason for it. What I know is that you and I have to share in the belief that we’re going to bring you back. All the way back.”

  Bring me back. Back from where? To where? For the first time in her nearly forty years of living, KT didn’t know where she was going, or more disconcertingly, where she wanted to go. She sighed. “I’m going to do something completely out of character.”

  Pia slowed and stepped away enough to turn and face KT on the sidewalk. Their hands were still joined. “What?”

  KT smiled faintly and swung Pia’s hand between them in a gentle arc as she allowed herself to relax in the warmth of Pia’s dark eyes. “I’m going to let you be in charge.”

  Rather than laughing, Pia nodded solemnly, intuiting—without truly understanding why—that this was a momentous statement. “Thank you.”

  Suddenly self-conscious, yet another extraordinarily rare emotion, KT shrugged as if her heart had not just done a tiny cartwheel. “So. What about that dinner you promised?”

  “Since I’m in charge,” Pia answered as she gently withdrew her hand from KT’s, “why don’t you just follow me.”

  “All right.” As she fell into step once more, KT found the feeling of not being in charge surprisingly pleasant.

  *

  The restaurant turned out to be a tiny place tucked away in an unassuming building that was little more than a shack on the far end of MacMillan Wharf. There were eight tables, each of which had a stunning harbor view, and waitstaff who were friendly but unobtrusive. Pia was obviously a regular, and she and KT were immediately shown to a corner table that commanded the best vantage point from which to appreciate the spectacular sunset.

  “I’ll bet this place is a well-kept secret,” KT commented as they were seated.

  “It’s one of those places the townspeople don’t talk about. We don’t want it to be taken over by the tourists.” Pia smiled up at the small blond in black T-shirt and jeans who handed them menus. “Hi, Lor.”

  To KT’s astonishment, the young woman leaned over and brushed a quick kiss over Pia’s lips. “Hi, baby. We got the Dão Quinta Cabriz in today. Wanna try a bottle?”

  “Red wine okay?” Pia asked of KT, who nodded in agreement. “Sure. That would be great.”

  “Girlfriend?” KT inquired as the cute waitress hurried off. She tried not to sound overly interested, but she’d found the casual kiss disconcerting.

  “No,” Pia answered evenly. “Cousin. This is my uncle’s place.”

  “Ah. Convenient.”

  “Definitely.” Pia leaned back in her chair. “This is Provincetown, but not everyone here is gay, you know.”

  “Including you?”

  Pia smiled and shook her head. “No, not including me.”

  “Is there a girlfriend somewhere, then?”

  “No.”

  “Hard to believe.”

  Lori returned at that moment with two glasses and an open bottle of red wine. Pia was grateful for the interruption, because she’d found the mild flirtation enjoyable and it hadn’t been her intention to do that with KT O’Bannon. Her intention had been to keep everything between them on a friendly but professional level. For some reason, KT made her forget her best intentions with unnerving regularity. She fell silent as Lori poured a half inch of wine. She lifted the glass and breathed the bouquet before taking all of it into her mouth. Partially closing her eyes, she rolled the richly nuanced wine over her tongue, losing herself in the smooth taste and aromatic scent.

  KT watched the wine tasting attentively. It was a ritual she had observed dozens of times, but watching Pia was an experience in itself. KT sensed her pleasure in the sensuality of the process—she could see it in the faint flush of Pia’s skin, in the curve of her lips and the slightly unfocused look in her eyes. Watching her respond to the pleasures of the wine, KT couldn’t help but imagine how Pia would respond to her touch. And she realized that she really didn’t know, but that she wanted to—very much.

  “That’s perfect,” Pia said to Lori, who nodded and moved away. As she set down her glass, Pia smiled across the table at KT. Her smile faltered when she saw the expression in KT’s eyes. There was hunger there like none she had ever seen before. She wasn’t a stranger to being desired, but the look in KT’s eyes went far beyond desire. Her dark eyes were ravenous and so fiercely focused that Pia felt the heat on her skin. Softly, she murmured, “Stop.”

  “Stop what?” KT asked, her voice barely a whisper. The air between them danced with suggestion.

  “You can’t look at me like that in here. My uncle is likely to come out of the kitchen and thrash you.”

  The corner of KT’s mouth lifted, and a second later, she laughed. “How big is he?”

  “A lot bigger than you are.”

  “What about later? Can I look at you this way then?”

  Forcing her gaze away from KT’s painfully handsome face, Pia picked up the menu, which she knew by heart. “Everything on here’s great, but I’d recommend one of the seafood-and-pasta dishes.”

  KT was unused to women putting her off. Moreover, she never gave in when there was someone she wanted, even if just for an evening. She did the playing, and she didn’t like to be played. She knew—not cognizant of how but believing it completely—that Pia was not a woman who played or allowed herself to be played. Rather than being annoyed, KT was intrigued.

  “You order for me.” KT settled back in her chair, barely recognizing herself. “You’re in charge, remember?”

  Pia only smiled and gave their order.

  They lingered over dinner, enjoying the exquisite food and the breathtaking sunset.

  “It doesn’t matter how many times I see it,” Pia said, swirling port in a heavy glass as she watched night eclipse day over the water. “It’s always so beautiful.”

  “Yes.”

  The contemplative tone in KT’s voice drew Pia’s gaze from the harbor back to the woman seated across from her. She had enjoyed talking with KT over the meal, finding her sharp, quick intellect challenging and her dry humor pleasant. And she couldn’t deny that she’d enjoyed the undercurrent of sexual innuendo that charged their conversation. She wanted to tell herself it was harmless, and of course, it was, as long as she allowed it to go no further. But still, she couldn’t remember the last time she had been so swayed by a woman’s charms. The heat was back in KT’s eyes, and Pia liked knowing she was the cause. “I like to walk through town after dinner. Would you mind?”

  KT shook her head. “Not if it means spending more time with you.”

  “There’s only one stipulation.”

  “What would that be?” KT asked as she slid her wallet from her back pocket. She managed to extract her credit card one-handed without undue difficultly. Getting better at that. Despite Pia’s protests, she passed the card to Lori before Pia could grab the check.

  “You don’t have to do that,” Pia said quietly.

  “I know. But I want to, so please let me.”

  “Then I’ll buy next time.”

  “Good enough.” KT slid her right hand across the white cotton tablecloth and covered Pia’s hand with hers. “What’s the stipulation?”

  Pia slowly slid her hand from beneath KT’s and dropped it into her lap. “That you stop flirting with me.”

  KT’s brows rose. “Why?”

  “Because we hav
e important work to do together, and I need to be able to concentrate on it. And so do you.”

  “We’re not working now.”

  “No, but it’s best that we keep things simple.”

  “Simple.”

  Pia nodded. “Yes.”

  KT grinned. “All right. I can do simple.”

  “Good,” Pia replied as she stood, wondering why getting the response she wanted didn’t feel very satisfying. Nevertheless, she said nothing more as she led the way from the restaurant and started toward the east end of the village with KT walking quietly by her side.

  They spent two hours walking the length of Commercial Street, window shopping, people watching, and talking easily about the unique village’s history and charms. It was nearly eleven when they turned into the path to Pia’s cottage.

  “The apartment is the top floor rear of the main house,” Pia explained, pulling the keys from her pocket.

  “Have you seen it?”

  “Yes.” Pia stopped just opposite the rear entrance to the house. “I’m very familiar with it. My mother owns the building.”

  They stood in a pool of moonlight that afforded them just enough illumination to see one another. KT laughed.

  “Just how much of this town does your family own?”

  Pia smiled. “On the Portuguese side of my family, quite a lot of it. Remember, we all stem from a few settlers, and most of us are related in some fashion.”

  “I’ll take the place.”

  “Don’t you want to see it?”

  “Not at the moment,” KT said quietly, stepping closer and slipping her arm around Pia’s waist. She leaned forward, lowering her mouth toward Pia’s.

  Pia extended her arm, placing her palm flat against the center of KT’s chest. “Stop.” Her voice was tender and soft, as was her touch.

  KT immediately grew still, relaxing her hold on Pia’s waist but keeping her hand lightly on Pia’s hip. “Earlier you told me not to look at you as if I wanted you. I tried very hard all evening, but it was a struggle. Now, no kisses either?”

  “I’m sorry. It’s just not a good idea.”