Asa’s rescuer was wearing faded jeans, a T-shirt that said “Locksmith’s Have the Key,” and a baseball cap on her head. She smelled fresh and natural, like newly mown grass, or a watermelon right after it was cut. She was even humming as if she were completely at ease. She didn’t seem to have any trouble concentrating. She certainly was paying no attention to his nearly nude state.
For that he was grateful. The rough texture of her jeans grazing against his thigh was suddenly forcing his body into paying enough attention for both of them. He took a deep breath. “Aren’t you done yet?”
“The first key doesn’t fit.” Sarah tried another. “Are these bracelets yours?”
“Yes.”
“How’d your friend get them?”
“They were attached to my belt, on my pants. There was a gun there, too. I’m glad he didn’t decide to take stronger measures. He could have done some real damage to my person.”
Sarah silently agreed that was a good thing. His person was perfect just as it was. Shocked at her thought, she ducked her head so that Asa couldn’t see the blush that heated her cheeks.
The second key didn’t fit either. She slid it around the ring and pulled up a third one. This time, by working it back and forth, she was able to release the lock. The handcuff attached to the bed slid open so suddenly that she was caught off balance. As she tried to keep from falling across the deputy, another instrument attached to her key ring, a wickedly sharp pointed pick, jabbed him in the wrist.
Asa’s head snapped up. “Damn!” he exclaimed, jerking his hand forward. His sudden movement wrenched the key and broke it off in the lock, at the same time sending the key ring sailing through the broken window.
“Ouch! If I’d wanted to lose a hand I’d have gnawed my way free.”
“Sorry. Now you’ve done it! My keys are outside somewhere in the dark. I’ll have to see if I can find them to open the other cuff.”
“Never mind, Sarah Wilson,” he said, massaging his wrist. “I’m free of the bed. That’s all I have time for.”
“But what about the other bracelet?”
“I have a spare key at the station. I’ll get it later. Let me get dressed and I’ll pay you for your trouble.”
“What do you plan to wear?”
“Damn!” He glanced over at Sarah, his gaze traveling from her T-shirt, down her long legs to her scruffy sneakers.
“No way. You’d never fit.”
“Well, I’ll just have to make a run for it like this.”
Sarah shook her head. Even with today’s loose dress codes, she guessed that this man would be noticed.
When she turned to free her flashlight, she saw a couple standing beside a police car on the street. They were talking to the officer and pointing at the window where Sarah was standing.
“Deputy Canyon, I don’t think that it’s a good idea for you to go outside just now. Not unless you want to do some tall explaining. There’s a Smyrna cop out there. Somebody must have heard you break the glass.”
Asa glanced out at the officer and back at Sarah. “I don’t suppose you have a pair of pants in that toolbox, do you?”
“Nope, sorry. But wait a minute. I may have a solution.” She picked up her toolbox, turned around, and disappeared into the darkness.
Asa imagined the worst. She was breaking into another apartment. She was stealing an overcoat and he’d be arrested as a flasher. She was calling for a pizza and they’d overpower the delivery boy. She was leaving, deserting him in his hour of need.
He began to pace back and forth. A broken window, a woman with a tool chest filled with what could be considered burglary tools, and a half-nude man. Explainable maybe, but he didn’t have time for any more delays. Nosy neighbors! That’s why he would never live in a place like this.
Jeanie had picked out this apartment for herself, before she’d had the wild idea that they would get married. Then, before she’d even turned on the utilities, the assignment in Spain had come along. The only furniture that got moved in was the brass bed.
Asa understood Jeanie’s need to be surrounded by people, to belong. He thought it had something to do with her losing her parents so early. But he was alone, too; he didn’t even know who his parents were. And he’d never fallen in and out of love like a neon sign blinking on and off.
For Asa a job that involved constant travel was a calculated choice. If he didn’t stay in one place very long, he couldn’t get close to anyone. If he didn’t allow himself to get close, he wouldn’t be hurt. But for Jeanie, and Mike too, the world was their playground. They ran toward tomorrow and what it might bring.
Asa looked at his watch, the green numbers blinking at him in the darkness. Where was Sarah Wilson? She seemed dependable, firmly rooted in old-fashioned optimism and responsibility. Surely she hadn’t abandoned him.
About the time he decided to take a chance on flashing the neighborhood she came back, holding out red coveralls with the name “Jim” embroidered on the pocket.
“Try these. They were Pop’s, but I think they’ll fit.”
They did. Asa pulled them on and jammed his feet into his boots. He moved over to the window and glanced outside. The police officer was heading toward them. Asa didn’t have time for an interrogation. There was only one quick way out. Kinky was acceptable; burglary wasn’t.
“Don’t scream, Sarah. Just consider this as being in the line of duty.” He reached out and pulled her into his arms, capturing her lips with sureness.
For a moment she struggled.
“Cooperate, woman, please!”
Whether it was the desperate plea in his voice or her own breathless reaction to his lips, she relaxed and gave in to the kiss being delivered by a master of the art.
Her heart felt the jolt first. Then her pulse kicked in and her breathing raced. Jeanie was definitely an idiot for running away with a practical joker when she could have had this man. Sarah didn’t know what to say about herself. Maybe she was a idiot, too, for there was no question that she was kissing Asa back.
By the time Asa pulled away, Sarah was glad that he was still holding her; otherwise she would have melted into a puddle at his feet. He gave a jaunty wave to the officer, then snapped off Sarah’s flashlight.
For a moment he gazed at Sarah in silence. He could hear the sound of her breathing.
“Thanks for not screaming. Let’s get out of here before the people watching decide to join our party. How much do I owe you?”
“Oh, the kiss is free. Since it was in the line of duty.”
“I meant for the locksmith’s call.”
Still half stunned by the kiss, Sarah freed her flashlight and followed the deputy as he moved out the door and across the lawn to the parking area.
“A call after midnight is forty dollars,” she said. “But unless you’re into bartering, I don’t know how you expect to pay me. I’ll send you a bill.”
He swore again. “I’ll pay you tomorrow. But forty dollars isn’t enough. You came out after midnight, to a strange apartment, to free a man in handcuffs and you’re only going to charge forty dollars?”
“That’s the price my dad set and that’s what you owe me.”
“Then why didn’t your dad make the call? I might have been a criminal. You know you could have been in big trouble.” He frowned as he allowed himself to notice how attractive she was.
He’d vaguely realized she was tall enough that he hadn’t had to lean down to kiss her and that her breasts had felt generous pressing against his chest. He’d seen honesty reflected in her eyes and felt the warmth of skin that, in the shadows, was the color of honey. She’d been more of an imagined impression based on touch and smell, until that impression crystallized into a woman whose lips softened and responded to his kiss.
Now in the lighted parking area he could see that her short hair, peeking out from beneath her cap, was light brown rather than blond. She wasn’t wearing any makeup and her face had the warm, healthy color of a woman who spe
nt time outdoors. She was looking at him with an expression that he couldn’t identify.
“My father couldn’t come,” she said quietly. “My father is dead. And you aren’t a criminal. You’re just worried about someone you care for.”
He felt a twinge of guilt for his choice of words and started to say he was sorry, but she cut him off.
“Jeanie must be a terribly insensitive person,” Sarah couldn’t help commenting. “I don’t understand why she didn’t tell you herself if she wanted to marry your friend.”
“Because I wouldn’t have approved of the marriage, and they both knew it. It’s too soon for Jeanie to make that kind of decision. When she left for Spain she was still hurting from an affair gone bad.… Damn! Where’s my Silver Girl? Ah, no, not her, too.”
Sarah thought he was going to yell. Somehow she knew that Asa Canyon was a man who didn’t cry. “Please don’t be so distressed,” Sarah consoled him. “You may not understand it now, but you’ll have to look on your girl running away as happening for the best.”
“My girl?” He laughed. “She couldn’t leave on her own. She had to have help.” He slapped his thigh, then groaned. “My pants and my keys—they’re both gone.”
“The note said that she and your friend Mike are in love. You can’t fight an emotion strong enough to force him into this kind of action.”
“Mike wouldn’t be caught dead in my truck. He drives a BMW. But you’re right. He took her all right, so I couldn’t follow. You’d think he’d have at least told me where he left her, since he’s so good at letter writing. It’s bad enough that he’s taken Jeanie, but my Silver Girl? That’s a low blow.”
Sarah realized that Silver Girl was not the woman, but his truck. She giggled, half in relief and half in disbelief.
“You have a very strange sense of humor,” Asa growled. “Do you have a car to match?”
Her sense of humor might be strange, he concluded, as he stared at her, but her lips, still curved in a smile, were nice. Wide, full and honest, they matched her open face. Everything about Sarah Wilson said that what you see is what you get. And honesty was a characteristic that was in short supply in his life at the moment.
If he weren’t so concerned about Jeanie, he just might—no. Women were rarely what they seemed and he’d sworn long ago not to try to figure them out. He glanced at Sarah. She didn’t seem worried. In fact, he had a sneaking suspicion that she was the kind of “girl next door” who could be a coconspirator, the kind who didn’t scream when you put a frog in her lunch box. But that girl-next-door look didn’t fit the kiss they’d just shared, or the open way she’d participated.
“Do I have a car? Not a car,” Sarah was saying. “A van, and you might say it matches my sense of humor. Why?”
“I’m commandeering it. Let’s go!”
“Oh, good. A police chase. I thought that only happened in the movies! If you have in mind tearing through the city streets, I feel it only fair to warn you that the fastest he’ll go is 54 miles per hour. Anything more and he rebels.”
“He? You have a car you refer to as he?”
“I do. His name is Henry. Helpful Henry. You call your truck Girl, why can’t I call my van Henry?”
“Where is it?” Then he saw it. The van had once been a bright fire-truck red. Now it was battered and bruised, the color faded. The sign on its side, a yellow smiley face and letters that proclaimed HELP IS ON THE WAY, was new and shiny. He groaned. “Never mind. Get in. I’ll drive.”
“I think you’d better let me,” Sarah protested.
“I know where I’m going and I’ll get us there faster.” He figured Mike and Jeanie had returned to Smyrna together, and were staying in Jeanie’s old apartment. He’d get over there and play it by ear.
“Suit yourself, but don’t say I didn’t warn you.”
Sarah unlocked the van, slung her tool chest in the back and climbed in the passenger side, handing the keys to the deputy.
He managed to start the engine, but there wasn’t enough room for Asa’s long legs. To add to the problem, the play in the pedals was so bad that he couldn’t keep an even amount of pressure applied to either one. The result was a van that jumped and sputtered past the police car still sitting in the street. By the time Asa finally figured out the secret to keeping Harry running, the police car had fallen in behind the van and was following what had to be, even to Asa, a suspicious vehicle.
Another minute passed and the blue lights began to flash. The police car moved up beside the van and the officer motioned for them to pull over.
“Ah, hell!” Asa said, but complied. “I don’t even have my identification. It’s in my wallet, in my pants, wherever they are.”
The officer got out of the car and walked slowly toward the window. “Will you get out of the vehicle, sir?”
Sarah had already ducked her head to smother a giggle. She watched as Asa caught the dangling cuff in his hand and palmed it as best he could, opened the door, and slid out. She could have identified herself and brought the suspicion to an end, but since Asa Canyon wanted to be in charge, she’d let him.
“There’s been a misunderstanding,” Asa began, remembering how many times he’d heard just such a lame excuse. If he ever got his hands on his ex-friend again he’d rip him limb from limb. “I know this will be hard for you to believe, Officer …?”
“Officer Martin, sir.”
“Officer Martin, my wallet has been stolen, along with my—” he started to say “clothes” and changed it to “truck.”
“Are you telling me that you don’t have a license?”
“Of course I have a license. I just don’t have it with me. It’s in my wallet. Ah, for crying out loud!”
“Sorry, sir. Please turn around, put your hands against the side, and spread your legs.”
“Now listen here!” Asa folded his arms across his chest and rocked back and forth on the balls of his feet, feeling like a defensive linebacker psyching himself into a mood to kill. “My name is Asa Canyon and I’m a deputy sheriff.”
“Yes, sir. Are you saying that this is your vehicle?”
“No, it belongs to Sarah Wilson.”
“Oh? And you borrowed it?”
“No. Yes. Ask her,” he roared.
Officer Martin stepped aside and peered into the van. “Are you in there, Sarah?”
“Yep.” Sarah straightened and took a deep breath, hoping she was doing the right thing. “And this man is trying to kidnap Henry. I’d like him arrested, please.”
Two
Asa Canyon growled and made a move toward Sarah.
Officer Martin responded by drawing his gun and stepping between Asa and the van. “I wouldn’t do that, sir.”
Sarah took one look at the set of Asa’s lips and decided that her plan to give the deputy some cooling off time while Jeanie and Mike got away was not a viable idea.
Mike’s life might have been in danger before. Now he was definitely a dead man. And she was about to join him.
“Tell this officer the truth, Sarah. Please?”
Sarah never had much patience with a man who thought he had all the answers, and the deputy did need to learn he wasn’t always right. If Mike and Jeanie were in love, they ought to be allowed to get married without the long arm of the law interfering.
On the other hand, what did she really know? Asa had said that Jeanie wasn’t over an affair. And the note had said that she didn’t want to hurt him. Maybe all of this anger was more than just worry. Maybe the affair had been between Jeanie and the deputy. Sarah slid out of the van and touched Paul Martin on the arm.
“It’s all right, Paul,” she said. Turning to Asa, she added belligerently, “But next time before you start hijacking somebody’s vehicle you might just ask for their help. People around here are usually willing to give a hand to a person in need.”
She faced the officer again. “Paul, meet Deputy Asa Canyon, with the Cobb Sheriff’s department. We’re on an emergency call.”
/> “Are you sure, Sarah?” Paul was not entirely convinced.
“I’m sure. I was just—never mind. He really is Deputy Canyon.”
Paul Martin took another look at Asa and grimaced. “I’m very sorry, sir. I’ve only seen your picture in the paper. I didn’t recognize you. We’ve been having a lot of burglaries around here and there was something really weird going on in an apartment back there. I thought—”
“Never mind what you thought,” Asa began.
Sarah wasn’t certain who would be the ranking officer, a patrolman or a deputy sheriff, but she felt bad about placing her friend Paul in an awkward situation. “Thank you Paul, for checking on me. We really do need to go now.”
“Sure, Sarah. See you later at the softball game.” He turned back to Asa and held the van door open. “Sorry again, sir. I didn’t know who you were.”
“That’s okay, Officer. You can never be too careful.”
Sarah decided that she’d better not comment on what had just happened. Paul may have accepted her story, but sooner or later he was going to wonder about a deputy sheriff with no identification, who was wearing her father’s coveralls, cowboy boots, and, one handcuff.
Asa climbed inside and coaxed Henry back to life. He took Atlanta Road past the downtown Smyrna revitalization project that would result in a new business section laid out like an old-fashioned village. By the time he got through the Platinum Triangle intersection, which lay between Smyrna and the city of Atlanta, he had figured out the van’s peculiarities.
“I take it you know Officer Martin?”
“Yep. I’m acquainted with most everybody in Smyrna. When you’ve lived here all your life, you get to know folks pretty well. We tend to look after one another.”
“Well I hope that you don’t have any other friends interested in your well-being because I really don’t have time to stop.” Asa pulled onto the expressway that circled the outer perimeter of Atlanta and headed east.
“No, Paul will pass the word. But I think you should know that Harry’s fuel gauge doesn’t work and we probably ought to get gas if you’re planning to go very far.”
Silver Bracelets: A Loveswept Contemporary Classic Romance Page 2
