A Vow to Love

by Sherryl Woods

  "What way is that?" she inquired.

  Since neither of them had touched a bite in the past twenty minutes, he figured dinner was a total loss. He waved for the check. "Don't worry," he told her, "I'm still working on it."

  She rolled her eyes. "I can hardly wait."

  He stood. "Come on. Obviously we've both lost our appetite. I'll take you home."

  She sat right where she was, a stubborn expression on her face. "Not necessary. I can catch a cab from here."

  Sam felt his stomach clench. Saints protect him from mule-headed, foolhardy women, especially this one. Hadn't she heard one word of what he'd been telling her about Tank's intentions?

  "I will take you home," he insisted. "If you want to get yourself killed, do it on somebody else's watch."

  She grinned at him. It looked forced.

  "What a charming way to put it," she commented.

  There was no mistaking the sarcasm in her voice. Sam figured it was a good thing she'd agreed to keep her grandfather out of this. Enforced proximity for the two of them would be more dangerous than anything Tank could devise. Sam had a hunch he would end up strangling the mouthy woman himself.

  Sam had seemed extraordinarily unwilling to leave her apartment once he'd safely deposited her there, Penny thought as she toweled her hair dry. Under other circumstances, she might have felt flattered, maybe even experienced a little thrill of anticipation at all that attention. As it was, she figured he'd merely been acting on this insane obligation he felt he had to play bodyguard.

  But she had sent him packing. She had even watched out of her window to make sure that he'd actually climbed back into his car, started the engine and driven off. Of course, for all she knew he was parked around the corner, but at least he wasn't in her direct line of sight.

  Of all the humiliating moments in her life, one of the worst had to be discovering that Sam had allowed some streetwise punk to believe that he and she...that they were...

  She couldn't even bear to think about it, especially when the reality couldn't be further from the dirty little innuendos.

  Oh, who was she trying to kid? What really ticked her off was that, despite everything that had happened, some genuinely mentally disturbed part of her wanted those innuendos to be true. Sam made her tingle deep inside. Always had. Apparently always would.

  Of course, he also made her furious deep inside. Maybe there was a correlation she ought to examine more closely before she ascribed those sensations to lust rather than a particularly violent form of outrage.

  While she was trying to give that possibility some rational, objective consideration, the phone rang. Given the hour, she figured it had to be her grandfather or her mother. She debated the wisdom of talking to either one of them considering her present state of mind and allowed her answering machine to pick up.

  She immediately recognized Sam's voice and the edge-of-panic tone as he shouted her name.

  "Penny, where the hell are you? Dammit, you'd better not have gone back out again."

  She sighed heavily and picked up the receiver. "I'm here," she said. "Are you aware that it is nearly midnight?"

  "You weren't asleep."

  He said it in a way that sounded more like a comment than a question.

  "How would you know that?" she demanded.

  "Your lights were still on."

  That tingling started up again. "Where are you?" she inquired suspiciously, creeping closer to the window to peer outside.

  "In my car."

  She groaned. "Where?"

  "On my way home. I just happened to drive past and saw the lights."

  And pigs fly, she thought.

  "I just wanted to check and make sure everything was okay," he said. His voice trailed off as if even he recognized how weak the explanation sounded.

  "Did it ever occur to you that I might sleep with the lights on?" she asked.

  "That's something people do when they're scared. Nothing's happened since I dropped you off, has it?"

  She restrained the urge to laugh hysterically. "It wasn't enough that you warned me that my name is high on a list to become a crime victim?"

  "I'm sorry," he said softly.

  Penny had to admit he sounded genuinely regretful. "I'll survive."

  "I didn't mean to frighten you. I just wanted you to be on your guard."

  "Isn't that the same thing?"

  "Yeah, I suppose it is. I'm sorry. I could hang around outside if that'll help you get to sleep."

  Penny suddenly felt the strongest yearning to have him do just that, just so he'd be close, but she couldn't. Not under false pretenses.

  "I'll be fine," she told him. "Go on home and get some sleep."

  "Are you sure? It's no trouble. I pull a lot of all-nighters in this car when I'm working a case."

  "There's no need to on my account," she assured him.

  "Okay. If you say so."

  "I do."

  "Good night, then."

  "Sam?"

  "Yes?"

  "I wasn't scared."

  "If you say so, short stuff," he said.

  Penny could practically see the smile tugging at his lips. "I wasn't," she repeated adamantly. "I'd just gotten out of the shower. I never go to bed much before one."

  He chuckled aloud at that. "You enjoyed that, didn't you?"

  "What?" she inquired innocently.

  "Taunting me?"

  "Now that you mention it, yes. I enjoyed it quite a bit. 'Night, Sam."

  "I'll get even, short stuff. That's a promise."

  There was that tingling again, Penny thought, smiling as she hung up the phone. This time she knew exactly what it meant. Forget Tank. Sam was the man who was downright dangerous.

  Chapter 5

  "Are you aware that there's a man following you?" Didi Rogers asked Penny a week later as they walked from the lab to a nearby restaurant for lunch.

  Penny whirled around, half expecting to see Tank Landry trailing along behind them. It wouldn't have been the first time. She had spotted him on two different occasions after Sam had warned her to be on the lookout. Both times Randy had been with him, watching worriedly, looking as if he were ready to intercede if Tank made a move on her. So far, though, he had never actually approached her. Just his presence, which confirmed Sam's warning, had unnerved her badly enough. She'd been determined, however, not to let him disrupt her life.

  Now, however, the man she spotted about half a block back was Sam himself. He wasn't doing much to hide his presence, unless he considered those mirrored aviator sunglasses a sufficient disguise. Penny wondered how Didi had happened to notice him. Foolish question. Didi noticed any man over the age of consent. Her radar would detect a male as gorgeous as Sam if he was within a radius of miles. That didn't explain why she had assumed he was following Penny.

  "What makes you think anyone is following me?" she asked the pathologist who'd provided her with invaluable assistance in the lab, as well as a lot of lighthearted moments over the past couple of weeks. Other than her work, there was very little else that Didi took seriously. She had an optimistic, slightly skewed view of life that echoed the outlook Penny had once had in what seemed another lifetime.

  "Because I've seen the man every single day for a solid week now," she informed Penny.

  "So what?" Penny countered. "This area is crawling with people who take the same route every day."

  "But this person waits outside the lab at noon. He turns up just outside wherever we happen to go for lunch. And he's back at the lab when we get off. Since I don't know him, I figure you must. I'm trained to look for patterns and draw conclusions, remember?"

  Penny grinned ruefully. "I could have sworn your specialty was DNA, though."

  Didi shrugged dramatically. "What can I tell you? Sometimes the habit carries over into other parts of my life. When an experiment goes really badly, I consider changing professions and becoming a P.I. Today's one of those days." She studied Penny closely. "You don't seem to
be particularly shocked, or terrified, or indignant. What's the story? Are you on friendly terms with this hunk?"

  "Actually, he's distantly related by marriage."

  Didi looked skeptical. "So distantly related that he's not allowed to actually speak to you?"

  Penny sighed, glad to be at the restaurant where the noise level was so high that any real conversation was virtually impossible. "It's a long story," was all she said, hoping that would end it. Naturally it didn't. Didi had the tenacity of a pit bull once something fascinated her. Obviously a man like Sam would.

  "That's the best kind," she said, forcing Penny into the most private booth available in the crowded restaurant. "Tell me everything," she shouted over the noise.

  When Penny remained stubbornly silent, burying herself behind the menu she already knew by heart, Didi started to slide out of the booth.

  "Where are you going?" Penny asked with a sinking sensation in the pit of her stomach.

  "If you won't talk, maybe he will. I'm going to ask him to join us."

  "Don't you dare." It came out as more plea than order.

  Didi's eyes widened with evident fascination. "It gets more interesting by the minute. I'm waiting. And you might as well put down that menu. You always order the same thing, soup and half a tuna salad sandwich on white toast. You're incredibly boring, Hayden. Or at least you have been up until now. That man outside indicates you might have promise."

  "I was not put on this earth to fill your insatiable appetite for amusement," Penny reminded her.

  "Perhaps not, but for the next thirty minutes, you're all I've got. Start talking."

  Giving in to the inevitable, Penny gave her the short version of her history with Sam and the reason for his presence outside.

  Didi looked more and more intrigued. "I think that's sweet," she finally pronounced.

  "What? That he made me a target for a gang of hoodlums?"

  "No, of course not. I think it's sweet that he's looking out for you." She peered out the window. "He must get awfully tired of just standing around out there. I'm going to invite him to join us for dessert."

  She slipped out of the booth and disappeared before Penny could mutter a vehement protest, much less remind her that neither of them ever ate dessert. Suddenly, however, she was stuck with a powerful yearning for something decadent, chocolate, and at least three thousand calories. Maybe that would get her mind off the man who was about to join them.

  It didn't surprise her that Didi came back with Sam in tow. She'd never met anyone who could stand up to her. Most men, enchanted by her bubbling personality and long, shapely legs, didn't even want to. Though she was nearing forty, Didi admitted to no more than thirty-five and she had a string of suitors that a college homecoming queen would envy. Sam seemed faintly bewildered at having been reeled in. Penny almost felt sorry for him.

  "I understand you're becoming a familiar figure on campus," Penny told him drily. "I hope you're more discreet at the rest of your undercover work."

  "Actually, you're something of a special case."

  "You probably want this Tank person to know you're always watching," Didi guessed.

  Sam regarded her as if she'd just given the correct answer for the twenty-five-thousand-dollar top prize on a game show. Penny felt vaguely disgruntled by their almost instantaneous rapport. Sam never looked at her like that. He generally looked as if he wanted to throttle her.

  "Don't you have some official police business you should be doing?" Penny inquired.

  "Actually my current case and this special surveillance have dovetailed rather nicely," he informed her cheerfully.

  "All roads lead back to Tank, so to speak."

  "Exactly," he said.

  He said it so distractedly that Penny wondered exactly where under the table Didi's hand had wandered. She glowered at the pair of them. She knew one sure way to get Sam's attention. "How'd he slip away from you yesterday?" she asked sweetly.

  Sam's head snapped around at that. "What are you talking about?"

  "I had dinner at Rosie's last night. Tank was outside when I left."

  Sam's jaw clenched. "Did he come anywhere near you?"

  "If he had, do you think I would be sitting here calmly? I'd probably be skewering you with a fork for getting me into this mess."

  "Why didn't you call me?"

  "I didn't need you."

  "You could have. You should never have left that restaurant alone." He smacked his fist on the table in obvious exasperation. "Damm it, Penny, when will you get it through your head that this isn't a game?"

  Their gazes clashed.

  "And when will you get it through your thick skull that I am not some five-year-old who needs somebody to babysit her?" she shot right back.

  "Maybe when you stop acting like one," he countered irritably.

  "My, my, my," Didi murmured. "This is better than The Young and the Restless."

  "Who asked you?" Penny muttered.

  "I guess I'm going to have to call in reinforcements," he told her, his expression resigned.

  "Should I be on the lookout for Jake and Ryan? I'm sure they'd love to hear about this new wrinkle in our family feud." She enjoyed the dull red that crept into his face at the mention of his police colleagues.

  "I was thinking of Jason."

  So much for the upper hand, she thought dismally. She regarded him with genuine dismay. "Oh, no. Leave Jason out of this. It's only one short leap from him to Grandfather."

  "It is, isn't it?" Sam agreed, suddenly looking rather pleased with himself.

  "I thought we agreed that Grandfather shouldn't know anything about this."

  "Keeping him in the dark did seem like a good idea at the time," Sam said thoughtfully. "Now I'm not so sure."

  "Well, I am."

  "If you won't cooperate..." He allowed the threat to trail off.

  "What is it that you want from me?"

  "I could answer that," Didi muttered.

  Penny stomped on her foot under the table. At least she thought it was Didi's until she caught the amusement in Sam's eyes. He actually looked triumphant. She gave him a moment to gloat.

  "I want you to call me directly or at the very least 9-1-1 the minute you see Tank lurking around again," he ordered.

  "And what should I tell 9-1-1?" she inquired sweetly. "Should I mention that Detective Sam Roberts irritated a thug and said thug plans to take it out on me?"

  He scowled at her. "Just tell 'em there's a suspicious person stalking you. We have a very good stalking law on the books. Since you have a credible witness to his threat, namely me, we should be able to get a restraining order."

  "Don't you think that could get complicated?"

  Sam turned to Didi. "Would you please tell this woman to keep her irritation with me from interfering with her common sense?"

  Didi's eyebrows lifted a fraction. "Sounds to me like you just told her yourself."

  "But she doesn't listen to me."

  Penny stood. "Maybe that's because you talk to me or around me as if I don't have a brain in my head. Just for the record, Roberts, I did not leave that restaurant alone last night. The instant I saw Tank outside, I had Rosie's boyfriend escort me home. I'm sure you've met Maynard. He won the Mr. Universe contest a few decades back and he's never let those muscles go to seed."

  "Why the hell didn't you say so?" he asked, clearly exasperated.

  She smiled at him. "You never asked."

  With that final shot fired, she took off. She was almost back at the lab when Didi caught up with her.

  "Why'd you go running off like that?"

  Penny regarded her as if she were running seriously short on logic. "Do you really need to ask?"

  "He's genuinely worried about you, you know."

  "He's only worried that something will happen to me and the whole family will blame him."

  Didi shook her head. "That's not the way I read it. There was enough electricity sparking between the two of you to replace th
e annual Fourth of July fireworks extravaganza over Boston Harbor."

  "Sorry. What you felt were the reverberations of two previously immovable objects slamming together. A force of nature, nothing more."

  Didi grinned. "A force of nature, huh? I suppose that's one name for it. Where I come from we call it love."

  A force of nature. Love? Please! Didi couldn't have been more wrong. Antipathy, maybe. Penny could believe that. She and Sam seemed to have settled into a comfortable routine of hostility. They brought out the very worst in each other, automatically, every single time.

  Penny sighed. It really was too bad that all that sizzle couldn't be turned in another direction, but she wasn't going to hold her breath. Besides, how would she survive a relationship with a man who spent his time hanging out with hoodlums, putting his life on the line for punks who didn't appreciate it?

  She'd just made a firm decision to avoid involvement when someone tapped rather imperiously on her front door. The only person she knew in Boston who acted as if a closed door was tantamount to an insult was Sam. What on earth would he be doing dropping by unannounced, unless he wanted to pick up his lecture where he'd left off at lunch? Well, she was more than willing to go another round or two. In fact, she found the prospect downright exhilarating.

  "I'm coming," she shouted back, snatching papers and books off of every surface she passed and stacking them together in a relatively neat pile on the coffee table. There was no need for the man to discover that housekeeping ranked somewhere below boxing on her list of priorities.

  Apparently her belated attempt to tidy up took too long. The knocking resumed, this time with even more force. She flung open the door to find not Sam but her grandparents in the hallway.

  "What are you doing here?" she asked, regarding them with astonishment. Only after the words were out of her mouth did she realize how inhospitable she sounded. Judging from her grandmother's suddenly uncertain expression, she at least hadn't mistaken the lack of welcome. Brandon was less easily offended.

  "I'm sorry," she apologized in a rush. "It's just that you caught me off guard. Come in." She hugged her grandmother and stood on tiptoe to kiss her grandfather's cheek.