by Terry Towers
"So what does he think?" she asked, opening the container containing a quarter chicken dinner and unwrapping the set of plastic utensils.
Flipping open the top to his foam container, Lincoln shrugged and then looked up at her, a frown across his features. "You're expected to be delivered in two days, I can buy us three by claiming car trouble, but..." he reached across the table and took her hand in his, "I just don't know. Jeff is the best and is putting all of his other work on hold as well as pulling together a team to investigate the three potential leads, but it's not much time."
The news both excited and alarmed her. She had no savings, how was she going to pay for it? Even if he worked for virtually nothing as a favour to Lincoln, she had no idea how she'd pay. "How much is it going to cost?"
Pulling his hand from hers he grabbed his fork and focused his attention on the food in front of him. Jabbing a French fry with his fork, he thrust the food into his mouth and shrugged, avoiding eye contact.
Eyes narrowed, she glared over at him. "How much, Link?"
Swallowing his mouthful of food he waved a dismissive hand at her. "Personal favour from him to me. Nothing to be concerned about."
"You're lying and by the way you're avoiding looking at me, I think the cost is going to cause me have a heart attack. How much?"
****
Lincoln sighed and met her gaze. "A lot. But that's nothing for you to be concerned about. I have it covered." He reached over and took her hand in his again. He'd decided the previous night that he'd do whatever it took to make her a free woman. He was a simple man, and his expenses were minimal so he had a sizable nest egg, one that he was willing to pass over to Jeff, if it meant her freedom.
"Link..."
"Look, Angelique, I have a fifteen thousand dollar bounty coming my way for delivering you, which actually makes me sick to my stomach at the thought of taking. As far as I'm concerned that money is yours to pay Jeff."
"What if it ends up costing more?"
Lincoln sighed, brought her hand to his lips and kissed her palm. "You worry about figuring out anything that can be useful in getting to the truth. Let me worry about everything else." She still didn't appear convinced. "I promise, it's going to be alright."
Chapter 9
Lincoln, NE - Day 4
Angelique was going out of her mind from the suspense as she listened to Lincoln's half of the conversation to his private detective friend. It was close to midnight and they were due to arrive in Denver tomorrow, however, Lincoln planned on stalling one extra day by claiming car trouble.
Lincoln kept giving her reassuring nods and gentle squeezes to her hand as he spoke to the other man. "Yeah, of course, whatever it takes."
Angelique nodded her agreement not knowing what it was she was agreeing to, but whatever it took worked for her.
Lincoln talked to Jeff for another five minutes before hanging up the phone. As soon as the 'End' button was pressed on his mobile Angelique was on him, literally, pressing him back against the bed and straddling his waist, her hands pinning his over his head as she stretched out over him.
"So! What did he say?"
In one powerful, fluid motion Lincoln turned the tables on her, flipping her over to her back and settling himself between her legs. His mouth lowered to her neck and he strung a line of kisses from her collarbone to her ear lobe.
Wrapping her legs around his waist, she pulled him down tight to her, and moaned as his cock hardened against her stomach sparking her desire for him. It was as though she couldn't get enough of him. She could have happily spent days doing nothing but lying in bed, naked with him and being fucked into exhaustion.
He pulled up slightly to look her in the eye. "Well, apparently the witness that claims to have seen you leaving Nathan's house in bloody clothing has come into a windfall of cash recently."
"Hmmm. Really? She was bought off?"
Link nodded. "Jeff did some digging and suspects that's the case. She just got a little anxious and started spending too soon. He's going to visit Mrs Greenberg tomorrow and see what he can find out."
Her brow furrowed, and she chewed at her bottom lip in thought for a moment. "Well, how is he going to get anything out of her? It's not as though she'll just tell the truth."
"Jeff and his men have ways of getting to the truth."
Angelique eyed him suspiciously, wondering what he meant by 'ways of getting to the truth,' but kept her questions to herself. Mrs Greenberg lied to the police and seemed to have no issues seeing her go to prison for the rest of her life, so whatever happened to the old nosebag was none of her concern.
"Okay, so they find out she's lying; and say she comes clean, then what?"
"Then if the prosecutor won't drop the case you go to trial, with the prints on the weapon and the bloody clothes in your trunk as evidence. No motive and no eye witness. But even if you do get off, which, as long as Jeff gets to the truth with Mrs Greenberg is probable, there is the issue of failure to appear in court."
He flipped onto his back again, taking Angelique with him and she cuddled against him, laying her head on his chest and being soothed by the thump of his heartbeat. She was grateful for his hard body, and the emotional support he'd given her. She had hope now and it was because of him.
"Will you be there?" she looked up into his eyes. "For the trial... If there is one?"
Cupping her chin in his hand, he kissed her softly. "Oh course I will, and if you have to go to prison I hear that conjugal visit sex can be pretty wild."
Laughing she swatted at his shoulder and rested her head back on his chest. "You're such an ass, you know that? You shouldn't even be joking about that," she murmured as she kissed his shoulder.
Chuckling he kissed the top of her head and pulled her tighter to him. "You know how to bring out the best in me, Angelique."
****
Denver, Co - Day 6
Angelique was a ball of nerves sitting in the holding room waiting for her lawyer and Lincoln to show up. Jeff had come through for them. The nosy neighbor, Mrs Greenberg had cracked under some intense interrogation, admitting to lying about seeing Angelique that night so all the evidence they had against her was the clothing with his blood on it and the knife. And of course her jumping bail didn't look too great on her record either, but there was nothing she could do about that now.
Her lawyer had told her that he doubted the prosecution would drop the charges; there was some sort of push to get the case wrapped up. But he was in the process of speaking with them now and she was hopeful, otherwise she was going to be stuck locked up for the next four to five days while the trial was in session. It wasn't so much the few days or so that bothered her, it was the lifetime in prison that scared her senseless.
Voices sounded outside the room and then the door was unlocked to reveal her lawyer, a young dark-haired man fresh out of law school, followed by Lincoln. Her heart raced at the sight of him. It had only been six hours, but after spending five full days with him, six hours since he'd dropped her off had seemed like an eternity to be apart from him.
Standing, she rushed over to him and fell into his arms, burying her face against his shoulder. "Is it good news?" She didn't want to hear the answer, but needed to know.
His body tensed against hers and she knew immediately. Pulling away slightly, but still wrapped in the security of his embrace, she looked up into his eyes and waited for his official reply with baited breath.
"The trial starts tomorrow and there is no chance of bail for the trial, Angel. You're stuck here for the next four or so days."
Nodding she fell back into him and savoured the feel of him against her, allowing the smell of his cologne to wash over her.
The sound of a man clearing his voice brought Angelique back to reality. "Miss Donovan."
Slightly embarrassed, Angel turned to face the young attorney assigned to her case. "Sorry." She quickly took a seat across from him at the small four person table, Lincoln following suit, keeping h
er hand firmly in his grasp.
"Well, the prosecutor is going ahead with the trial and we start tomorrow morning."
She nodded, she knew that.
Opening his brown leather briefcase he began pulling out the folder he had on her case. "Well, let's get down to business, Miss Donovan. The sooner we get this over with the sooner you can get on with your life."
She looked up at Lincoln and he caught her gaze, then brought her hand up to his lips and kissed her palm. There was so much she wanted to say to him. Soon, she promised herself, soon the nightmare would be over and life would be good again. Soon.
****
Denver, Colorado, One Week Later
"Has the jury reached a verdict?"
Angelique's heart was in her throat and her eyes jumped back and forth from the stern-looking, middle-aged male judge to the twelve members of the jury and then back again. She then chanced a glance back at Lincoln; he caught her gaze and gave her a reassuring nod and smile.
Despite his age, her attorney seemed to be a natural in the courtroom over the past days of her trial. There was still no clue as to who had murdered Nathan and framed her, or why, but her attorney had done a great job, at least she and Lincoln felt, in putting the doubt in the jury's heads.
One, I just need one to say not guilty.
So lost in her thoughts was she that she actually missed the verdict, but the murmurs behind her gave her a good feeling. Looking up into the jury she noticed a couple of smiles. They wouldn't be smiling if she was guilty right? She looked back at Lincoln and she immediately knew all she needed to know, his grin said it all.
The next hour seemed to go by in a haze for her, and the whole thing seemed surreal. It didn't actually seem to be over until she was standing outside, next to the Impala and clinging to Lincoln.
The one thing that bothered her was that Nathan's killer was going to walk away. It wasn't right, but this was now down to the police to solve, not her. She’d opened up new possibilities for them and hoped that they would follow the leads. After the ordeal she'd experienced over the past six months, for the moment, she was grateful to be free and no longer needing to run and that was all because of Lincoln.
"Hey, get in the car I have a surprise for you." Opening the door, with a hand on the small of her back he ushered her into the car.
Getting in, she closed her eyes and leaned back into the leather seat. She couldn't help but think about how thankful she was that this was all over. After some time, once the relief of being outside and free had finally sunk in, a problem occurred to her that hadn't even crossed her mind until that moment. She had no place to go and not a cent to her name!
Opening her eyes, she glanced over at Lincoln who was slowing down the car and signalling to turn off onto a street to their left. She realized that they were in the suburbs. Cute little houses with white picket fences lined both sides of the road.
"Where are we going?"
"You'll see." Grinning over at her, he pulled the car into the driveway of a duplex. A sweet house with a red brick exterior and a cosy, well kept front lawn. Her eyes spotted the 'For Sale' sign that had a big red 'sold' sticker over it.
He quickly shut off the car and hurried over to her side, to open the door for her. Stepping out and onto the paved driveway she gave him a bewildered look. "Whose house is this?"
Leaning back against the car, he took her hand and pulled her over to him, closing the door behind her. "Well, I know you’re homeless."
She scowled at him. "I'm not... Okay, yeah, actually, I am."
He slipped his arms around her, pulling her tightly to him. "I know we've only known each other for a couple of weeks and one of those weeks you were in jail…"
She was about to protest, but he placed a finger to her lips, silencing her.
"But I know you feel the connection we have. You drove me insane the week we were on the road, but those were also some of the most enjoyable days of my life. I'm not asking for marriage or anything like that, yet, but I want you in my life, and I feel this is right."
She looked around them. The house and the neighbourhood were quiet and serene. It was perfect. She looked up at the man who'd stood by her, believed in her and protected her for the past couple of weeks and knew what he was saying was true.
Cupping her chin in his hand he brought her eyes to meet his, "This is the part where you tell me you love the house and would like nothing more than to spend every night with me. And sex, by the way, is required."
Laughing she flung her arms around his neck and kissed him soundly. "I love the house and I would like nothing more than to spend every night with you, enjoying every inch of your magnificent body."
"Just what I wanted to hear."
She squealed in happiness and surprise as he scooped her up into his arms and carried her into their new house to begin the rest of their lives... together.
The End
The Assassin
And The Girl From The
Coffee Shop
by
Terry Towers
Chapter 1
While replacing the milk bag in the milk machine, Lily's heart filled with dread. She was one of the two women at the coffee shop working the overnight shift and from what she could gather from her co-worker, who was currently in a heated argument on the telephone with her husband, she may be the only one for the remainder of the night. It wouldn't have been so bad if the dining room were closed, the front doors locked and it was only the drive-thru window open, but that wasn't the case. Any lunatic could stroll on in.
The sound of sobbing came from the kitchen and Lily sighed.
"Fine, you son-of-a-bitch!" Her co-worker screamed into the phone between sobs before slamming the receiver down. Lily was tempted to go out back and into the kitchen to check on Angie, but what could she say? Was it any of her business? Really? Lily was fairly new at the coffee shop and was just getting to know Angie, so she simply didn't feel comfortable consoling her when she had no idea what was going on.
There was a rustling of clothing, which Lily knew to be the sound of Angie throwing on her jacket. Damn it.
Several minutes went by before Angie, who had already removed her headset, brown visor and hairnet emerged from the kitchen, her dark eyes swollen and puffy from crying.
Lily opened her mouth to say something, anything, but was at a loss so snapped it shut again and waited for her co-worker to tell her she was leaving.
"I've gotta go home," Angie raised a hand, as though to silence any rebuttal Lily may make. "But I'll be back; give me an hour, tops. I swear I won't be long."
Giving the middle-aged dark-haired woman a weak smile, Lily nodded. "Take all the time you need. I'll be fine." She took a deep breath in and exhaled. "Honest. I'll be fine. The baker will be here in a couple of hours. I'm sure I can handle the one or two cabbies that come though until then."
Angie strode over to Lily and pulled her into a quick embrace. "Oh, thank you Lily, I owe you one." She sniffed as she released the surprised Lily and rushed to the front door. "Less than an hour I promise," Angie yelled over her shoulder as she pushed open the door of the coffee shop and rushed out into the parking lot.
Lily watched through the plate glass window that spanned the front of the restaurant as Angie scurried across the parking lot heading towards her older model Ford Focus. As she watched Angie leave, she removed her visor and hairnet. If she was going to work alone then she'd be damned if she was going to keep that horrid visor on her head.
Once the visor and hairnet were off she shook out her long golden blonde silken hair, before resettling the headset atop her head. She then undid the restrictive top two buttons of her matching brown uniform shirt and breathed a sigh of relief; she might be alone but at least now she now felt comfortable.
Taking one more look into the parking lot to satisfy herself that there were no potential customers heading her way, she rushed to the kitchen, into the large walk-in cooler and grabbed several stacks of c
ream cheese so she could top up the supplies in the front breakfast counter, for the morning bagels.
With her stacks of cream cheese in her arms she scampered across the kitchen and back out to the front of the store. She made it to the breakfast counter just as a customer strolled in the front entrance.
Normally she'd have been annoyed at the disturbance considering she now had the work of two people to accomplish before morning by herself, but she took one look at the sexy man strolling across the dining room towards the front counter and decided to make an exception.
He was tall - perhaps six foot or so - with short close-cut brown hair, broad shoulders, and a lean torso. His eyes were a dark seductive shade of green and his features, hard and chiselled. If she had to wager a guess she'd say he was twenty-eight, close to ten years her senior. He was - without a doubt - the hottest man she'd ever seen and she found her pulse begin to race as she looked him over.
"Now what did you do to be stuck working the graveyard shift?" he asked as he approached the front counter and flashed a sinfully sexy smile at her.
Lily could feel her face flush slightly as she shrugged. "Just lucky I guess." Depositing the cream cheese on the breakfast counter she made her way over to the register, to take his order. "What can I get for you?"
He clucked his tongue against the roof of his mouth as his eyes surveyed the short menu.
Lily groaned inwardly, hot or not, she hated customers like him. She had work to do, and standing there waiting for him to decide all he wanted was a coffee was a waste of her time. She needed this job, so everything had to be perfect when the day shift arrived in the morning otherwise it was her ass they’d be after. They wouldn't give a rat’s ass that Angie had abandoned her partway through the shift.
