Devil's Deception

by Doreen Owens Malek

  “Yes, ma’am. Corn, soybeans, spring wheat. Some alfalfa.”

  “Alfalfa?” Virginia repeated faintly. Then she smiled again. Devlin’s obvious physical charms clearly outweighed the prospect of continuing a conversation with an alfalfa grower, and so she blundered onward with false cheer.

  “Tell me, Brett, what do you do in Kansas for fun?”

  Brett hooked his thumbs in his belt like the hillbilly Virginia thought he was. “Oh, let’s see. Church socials, community sings, barn dances. Quilting bees.”

  Angela choked on her last sip of tepid coffee. The other two looked at her as she tried to convert her strangled laughter into a coughing fit.

  “Sorry,” she said. “Frog in my throat.”

  “Hmm,” Virginia said, turning her attention to Devlin once more. “Quilting bees. How interesting. Well, you two, I really must run along. No time to chat. I have to Shepardize ten cases for my first class, too busy to do it before this, so I’ll wind up spending the night in this place. Take care of yourselves.” Virginia exited, stage left, trailing clouds of sporty scent.

  Devlin looked at Angela and they both dissolved in helpless laughter.

  “I can’t believe she didn’t know you were pulling her leg,” Angela gasped, wiping her eyes.

  “What’s a quilting bee?” Devlin asked, and they cracked up again.

  “Why did you say that?” Angela asked.

  “What? About the quilting bee?”

  “Yes.”

  His eyes twinkled. “She obviously thinks that Kansas is on the dark side of the moon, and quilting bees sounded sort of, I don’t know . . . frontiersy. Didn’t they used to have them in colonial times or something?”

  “You’ve got me. Are you sure you aren’t thinking of Betsy Ross stitching up the American flag?”

  He grinned. “In Kansas?” he said, and they laughed once more.

  “Why did you tease her like that?” Angela asked, still giggling.

  Devlin sobered, lifting one shoulder. “I could see that she wasn’t a friend of yours. She was just . . .” His voice trailed off, leaving the thought unfinished.

  “She was just using me to get to you,” Angela stated, supplying what he didn’t want to say.

  He made no reply, watching her face.

  “That happens to you a lot, doesn’t it? Women pursuing you, I mean.”

  “The women I want to pursue me never do,” Devlin answered, looking at her directly.

  Angela flushed, standing and crumpling her cup in her hand. “We’d better get back. I want to finish what I’m working on in time to get home for a couple of hours sleep.”

  Devlin went with her back to the library.

  * * * *

  Angela finished her work at four in the morning. Devlin’s eyelids were at half mast, making him look sexy and somehow boyish at the same time. His elbow was propped on the table and his chin was propped in his hand as he watched her pack up her things, getting ready to go.

  “Do you want me to carry that?” he asked, gesturing to her book bag.

  Angela examined his sleepy face. “It looks to me like you’ll have enough trouble carrying yourself. You know, I’ve been noticing that you look tired lately. Have you been getting enough rest?”

  Devlin sat up straighter, alert. Were the effects of his nightly prowling about the house becoming apparent? “I didn’t get any rest tonight, but that’s all you see. Shall we go?”

  “Okay.”

  As they made their way outside Angela said, “I’m hungry. There’s a Greek diner across the street where Holly and I sometimes go. The food is good and they’re open around the clock. Can we stop?”

  Devlin stretched his hands out as if he were sleepwalking. “Just point me in the right direction,” he said.

  Angela shivered in the early morning chill. “It’s getting cold. October is half gone, winter will be here soon.”

  “Do you want my jacket?” he asked, putting his arm around her shoulders to steer her toward the curb.

  “No, thanks, we’ll be inside soon.” He was always offering her items of his clothing; what she wanted was a piece of himself, which was much harder to obtain.

  The diner was shaped like a railroad car, and the interior was pungent with the aroma of fried food. A hostess with hair a color that never existed in nature showed them to a rear booth.

  “Nice place,” Devlin commented. “I think this was printed in 1927,” he added, indicating the stained, ragged menu.

  Angela kicked him under the table. “You have no taste. This room is loaded with atmosphere.”

  He sniffed. “Is that what you call it? I thought it was garlic.”

  “You’re a snob.”

  “Nope. I just have a distinct aversion to ptomaine poisoning.”

  “I’ve eaten here many times and survive to this day.”

  Devlin played with the tassel dangling from the top of the menu. “I wouldn’t have expected to find somebody like you here.”

  “Somebody like me?”

  “Rich. Privileged. Lutece is more your type of place.”

  “Lutece is Philip’s type of place.”

  Devlin’s eyes narrowed. “Have you ever brought him here?”

  “No. Philip would turn to stone on the threshold.”

  Devlin relaxed. “Good.”

  Angela looked at him sitting across from her and tried to keep what she was feeling from showing in her face. His hair tumbled over his forehead, shiny and black as a raven’s wing, a glossy counterpart to brows and lashes just as thick and dark. His cheeks were deeply shadowed with stubble, and blue smudges of fatigue stained the skin below his eyes. He looked exhausted and beautiful, stretched to the limit and incredibly dear.

  “You examine me, Miss Patria,” he said softly.

  “Yes.”

  “What do you see?”

  Angela turned her head, afraid to speak.

  He held up a hand. “You’re right. Don’t answer that. I know what I look like at five in the morning. Strong men run screaming out of my path. I could be the ‘before’ picture in a commercial for shaving cream.” He started to shrug out of his jacket and then realized that his gun holster would be visible. He pulled the coat back on quickly.

  “Do you like being a private detective?” Angela asked suddenly.

  His eyes roamed away from hers. “It has its moments.”

  “Didn’t you ever think about doing anything else?”

  He was saved from a reply by the arrival of the waitress, whose hair was as startling a shade as the hostess’. She snapped gum and tapped her rubber soled shoe while taking their order. Devlin gazed after her as she walked to the service stand behind them.

  “There’s no shortage of hair dye among the staff here.”

  Angela covered her mouth with her hand. “Not everyone is as lucky as you are.”

  “What?”

  “Not everyone is lucky enough to have naturally beautiful hair.”

  Devlin reached out and lifted a tendril of auburn hair from Angela’s neck with a blunt forefinger.

  “How would you know?” he asked quietly.

  The waitress reached over his arm to plunk two water glasses on the table between them. Devlin withdrew his hand, throwing the woman a black look.

  “Could you bring us some coffee when you get a chance?” he inquired of her.

  She didn’t reply, but set off at a brisk pace on her squeaky shoes.

  “I think she’s a mute,” he muttered.

  “You’re just mad because she isn’t responding to your considerable charm,” Angela said, smiling impishly.

  He was startled.

  Angela chuckled. “Don’t look at me with those innocent eyes. I’ve seen you use that strong silent routine on more than one female. You can accomplish more with one intent glance than others can with extravagant compliments.”

  He looked down, turning red.

  “Isn’t that cute? Now he’s embarrassed.”

  He ra
ised his eyes to hers. “Maybe I don’t talk much because I can’t think of the right things to say. Would you like it better if I were like your buddy Cronin? He’s never at a loss for words.”

  Angela sobered, amazed. She saw that she’d hurt his feelings, and she hadn’t meant to do that at all. He thought she was making fun of him, comparing him to Philip and finding him wanting.

  “Brett, wait a minute . . .”

  “Excuse me,” he said, standing abruptly. “I need more cigarettes.” He vanished down the aisle, heading for the machine they’d passed on the way in.

  Great. Now he was going to have a nicotine fit. If he cared so much what she thought, why had he pulled away from her both times they’d gotten close? It didn’t make sense.

  The coffee arrived while he was gone, and Angela gloomily contemplated the effects of caffeine on the liver while downing her first cup. Between law school, the anonymous threats, and Devlin’s unpredictable behavior, she was going to need a transplant soon.

  Devlin returned and sat across from her in silence, smoking furiously.

  “Those things aren’t good for you,” Angela said gently,

  “I’ll die in my way and you die in yours,” he responded curtly.

  His comment reminded Angela of her current situation. “My way may happen soon,” she said, before she thought about it.

  Devlin’s attitude changed instantly. “Hey,” he replied, his voice full of concern, “nothing’s going to happen to you. I’m going to make sure of that.” His tanned hand covered her white one on the table.

  Angela smiled weakly. “Why do I always believe you when you say something like that?”

  “Because it’s the truth.”

  The waitress brought their food and Angela pushed her french fries around on her plate.

  “I thought you were hungry,” Devlin said, watching her.

  “I seem to have lost my appetite.”

  He picked up her hamburger and put it in her other hand. “Come on. Eat. I don’t want to be responsible for your starvation.”

  Angela took a bite. “Why would you be responsible?”

  He tilted his head. “I know it upsets you when I get ticked off like that.”

  “Then why do you do it?”

  “Because I can’t help it. Hearing that I lack Cronin’s finesse doesn’t exactly make my day.”

  Angela’s hamburger landed on her plate. She leveled a forefinger at him angrily. “That is not what I said. I was trying to pay you a compliment and you turned it into an insult.”

  His mouth fell open. “A compliment!”

  “Yes. I was saying that you don’t need to talk, that just the way you look at a woman is . . .”

  He eyed her, waiting.

  “Eloquent,” she concluded, chickening out. She had meant to say “sexy” but lost her nerve.

  “Hmm,” he responded, not quite sure what to make of her statement.

  “And you’re a jerk if you think otherwise!” she added, flinging her napkin at him and standing up.

  Devlin jumped up too, putting his hand on her arm. They were frozen like that, wedged in the narrow aisle, when a gray haired lady who’d been sitting in the booth across from them rose and confronted them, blocking the light with her bulk.

  “I’ve been watching you two since you came in, and I have a piece of advice to give you based on sixty years of experience.”

  Devlin and Angela stared at her, stunned into silence.

  She patted Devlin’s shoulder. “You’d better decide, right quick, whether you’re going to kill each other or get married.” Then she winked and waddled off toward the cashier, chuckling madly.

  Devlin cleared his throat. Angela couldn’t look at him.

  “Your breakfast, or whatever it is, is getting cold,” he finally said in a subdued voice.

  Angela took her seat again, mortified. This was wonderful. Now she was making a spectacle of herself in restaurants. She ate her hamburger in silence. Devlin made short work of his sandwich and they rose to go. He left a tip and paid the bill without a word.

  The sun was rising as they left the diner. The sky blazed with color, and a mounted policeman trotted by at a leisurely pace, cantering his horse. It was a scene that in a former time might have graced the cover of The Saturday Evening Post.

  “That horse is beautiful,” Angela said, turning her head to follow its progress.

  “Looks like a sorrel mare,” Devlin commented. “I’ll bet she’s wondering what she’s doing on the streets of New York.”

  “My uncle paid forty thousand dollars for a horse,” Angela stated. “He has it stabled up in Connecticut.”

  Devlin stopped short, whistling. “No kidding?”

  “No kidding. It’s an Arabian stallion with impeccable bloodlines.”

  “For forty grand I’d want winged Pegasus. With Perseus on his back.”

  “I wish I could ride,” Angela said wistfully.

  Devlin looked at her. “You can’t?”

  “There was never anyone to teach me. Can you ride?”

  “Sure. You grow up on a farm, you learn to ride a horse. Nothing fancy, no English saddle or anything like that, but I can get the animal to take me where I want to go.”

  “My uncle always wanted me to get one of the grooms to teach me, but I don’t really know them that well, and it seemed an imposition . . .”

  “I’ll teach you,” Devlin said.

  Angela stopped walking. “You will?”

  “Why not? You have only two classes today. We can go up to the stable this afternoon for your first lesson.”

  “Oh, Brett, do you mean it?”

  Devlin had to turn away to hide his reaction to her childlike eagerness. At moments like this he realized how truly lonely she was.

  “Of course I mean it. Just grab some sleep before school and we’ll leave from there. How long a drive is it to this place in Connecticut?”

  “About an hour.”

  “That’s no problem. But look, can we dispense with the limousine? It makes me feel like Rudolph Valentino.”

  Angela giggled. “All right, but you’ll have to hire a car.”

  “That’s fine with me. I’ll get something more suited to my station in life.” He paused. “How would you feel about a little red wagon?”

  “Don’t talk about yourself that way. You have an important job.”

  Devlin looked at her.

  “Making people feel safe and secure is important. Providing protection for those who need it is important,” she stated.

  He closed his eyes for several seconds, and when he opened them he blinked rapidly, shaking his head. He raised his hand to hail a passing cab.

  “Angela,” he said, “you are too much.”

  Angela didn’t understand him, but saw from his expression that it was better not to ask what he meant. She slipped into the backseat of the cab beside him, holding her books on her lap.

  “We’d better not run this morning, we just ate,” she said.

  He nodded silently.

  “Maybe we could go out running tonight?” she asked hopefully.

  “Horseback riding is exercise,” Devlin commented dryly. “You won’t die if you miss one run.”

  “I guess not,” Angela said, disappointed.

  Devlin relented. “We’ll see how you feel tonight, after the lesson.”

  “Okay.”

  The cab dropped them at the brownstone and they walked reluctantly up the steps. Neither one of them really wanted to go back inside, each for quite different reasons.

  Angela left Devlin in the front hall. “My class is at ten. I’ll set my alarm and call you. Try to get some sleep.”

  “I will.”

  “And thanks again for your help. I don’t think I would have finished in time without you.”

  “You’re welcome again.”

  Angela bit her lip, and Devlin sensed that she wanted to say something else. He waited.

  “I appreciate the offer of the
lessons,” she finally said, “and I want you to know that I won’t misinterpret your intentions. You’ve made it clear that you don’t want to get. . . involved . . . with me, and I accept that, but we can still be friends, can’t we?”

  Devlin put his fist against her chin and prodded gently. “I am your friend, Angela. Believe it.”

  She smiled and he felt the warmth of the sun. “I do,” she said.

  He turned and walked down the hall to his room.

  Angela went to the kitchen for a drink of water. Josie whirled from the refrigerator, where she was washing the shelves.

  Angela glanced at the clock. “You’re here very early.”

  Josie nodded sourly. “That I am, young lady. Just in time to catch you coming home at daybreak from a night out running around town with that boy.”

  “He’s hardly a boy.”

  “He is to me. I’m old enough to be mother to both of you, and don’t change the subject. Where were you?”

  “I had work due this morning and I forgot to research one part of the argument. It had to be done last night, and of course Devlin went with me.”

  “Of course.”

  “Well, what did you expect? He’s supposed to be my bodyguard. He could hardly let me go alone.”

  “And what about that little scene in the hall just now?”

  “You were spying!”

  “I was not. But I could hear the tone of his voice and that told me enough. He uses that tone only with you.”

  “What tone?”

  “Low, intimate. He’s brisk and distant with everyone else.”

  Angela thought about that. Was Josie right? If so, maybe there was hope...

  Josie interrupted her thoughts by putting both hands on Angela’s shoulders and turning Angela to face her.

  “Angela, listen to me. What happens to you when this assignment is over for him and he leaves?”

  “I go on, I guess.”

  “Without him?”

  “If I have to.”

  “What does that mean? Has he given you any indication that there might be something beyond his employment here, something for the future?”

  Angela shook her head. “No, but. . .”

  “But what? No is no!”

  “It’s the way he acts, Josie, nothing I can put my finger on. But I always get the sense that he would like to say more, do more, but something is holding him back.”