Two Lives in Waltz Time

by Vivien Dean

  He shut her up with a kiss. None of the rest of it mattered to him now.

  She struggled for a moment before finally yielding to the hard press of his mouth. Scooping his arm around her waist, Cash pulled her against his chest, making her tumble from the couch so she sprawled atop him on the floor, but when Maddy tried to push up and away, he groaned in protest.

  “Think you owe me a bloody kiss for making me worry to death about you,” he rasped good-naturedly.

  Her blue eyes looked unusually large as she gazed down at him. “You did not.”

  “Did.” He kissed her again, his tongue sweeping along the seam of her mouth, but then darting back when her lips parted to take him in. “I had all these nightmares about what could have happened to you. The woman who loves me flattened beneath a bus. The woman who loves me lying in a gutter somewhere, bleeding from a stab wound. The woman who loves me—”

  “I think you’re obsessed with saying that,” she taunted. “And that imagination of yours? Way overactive.”

  “If I’d known you were off playing Nancy Drew, Girl Detective, it might not have been so bad.”

  “Liar.” This time, she spoke with a hint of a smile, but too quickly, she sobered again, the shadows reappearing in her eyes. “But seriously, we can’t kill Mack. You know that, right?”

  Cash lifted a hand, running a single finger along the curve of her cheek. “I know that I’m not killing anybody until we know for sure who it needs to be,” he conceded. “Will that do?”

  When she nodded, his hand cupped the back of her head to guide it to his chest, feeling the heat of her cheek through his shirt. “Say it again.”

  “Say what?” Her voice was muffled, but there was an unmistakable tease evident in her tone. “You have an overactive imagination?”

  With his free hand, Cash reached down to slap playfully at her ass. “Say it,” he growled.

  Maddy exhaled, long and deep, her breath seeping into his skin as she settled more comfortably against him. “I love you,” she said, matching his earlier tone.

  He smiled and closed his eyes. Nothing else mattered.

  The mood was considerably lighter by the time Aaron knocked on the door after lunch. While Cash glanced up when Kate let him in, his attention quickly reverted to Maddy, his hand rubbing tiny circles in the small of her back while she examined the painting from Mack’s apartment. He still couldn’t believe she had said it. She loved him. She. Loved. Him. It didn’t exonerate her from her pushing her recovery so foolishly, but it did a hell of a lot to assuage his anger at her confusion and ill-planned endeavors.

  He hadn’t let her out of touching distance ever since she had said it.

  “What are we doing?” Aaron asked as he approached them in the living room.

  The coffee table had been dragged closer to the couch, and the painting rested on top so Maddy could more closely examine its construct. While Kate had already confirmed that it looked like a H’roven, everybody agreed it was better to be sure. Nobody wanted to be tilting at windmills at this point, especially when Maddy told them how she hadn’t been able to discover a mark or tattoo on Mack’s body. She wasn’t the only one reluctant to kill the wrong man.

  “Just making sure it’s the real deal,” Maddy said. Her eyes met Cash’s. “It is.”

  “Well, that narrows the net a little bit,” Ava said brightly from where she was curled up in the chair. “Even if it’s not Mack—”

  “Whoa.” Aaron held up his hands to cut her off. “Who decided the safety wasn’t Mack? I thought that was the one detail we were sure of.”

  Beneath his hand, Cash felt Maddy tense, but before she could speak, he answered for her.

  “Maddy stopped by the hospital to see if she could find the mark,” he said. “But she didn’t. His burns are too extensive for us to be sure.”

  Aaron’s gaze slid sideways, lines furrowing his brow as he seemed to be contemplating something. “Well, that explains a hell of a lot.”

  “What does?” Ava asked.

  When Aaron failed to meet Cash’s eyes as he sat down, he knew something else was wrong. Aaron’s next words confirmed that.

  “I ran into Lombardi at the hospital. He had this…idea, and it sounded like a good one at the time, so I let him talk me into it. But it backfired on us, and now I know why.”

  Kate spoke up for the first time since his arrival. “What was the idea?”

  Aaron sighed. “Lombardi found out Maddy wasn’t in the hospital when he went to go check up on her, but the way he rationalized it was that Cash must have decided to make a clean getaway with Maddy, regardless of whether or not she was hurt. There was no way I could argue with that without telling him stories he was never going to believe, so I went with the flow. Which is when he suggested we tell Mack that instead of Marty just wounding Maddy…” He ducked his head in embarrassment, the rest of his words coming out in a rushed jumble. “…he killed her.”

  There was a flurry of variations on “What?” echoing around the room at the announcement, ending in Maddy’s, “You killed me?” The barrage had Aaron lifting his chin in a stubborn need to defend himself.

  “It was a good idea,” he argued. “It would have put Maddy and Cash in the clear from having to worry about Mack anymore, and it would have stopped Lombardi from doing any more digging. And it would have worked if—”

  “I hadn’t shown up,” Maddy finished.

  Aaron nodded. “By the time we got to him, Maddy had already come and gone, and nothing we were going to say was going to convince Mack she was dead. He’s demanding proof now, otherwise…” He shrugged. “Well, let’s just say, I don’t think being laid up in the hospital could ever stop Mack from working out his frustrations with a gun.”

  “How are you going to prove it?” Ava asked, wide-eyed.

  “We could conjure a fake death certificate,” Kate suggested, looking to Cash.

  “It’s not that hard,” Aaron intervened. “Mack just wants verbal confirmation of the shooting. Lombardi’s taking Marty over there this afternoon, and I’m supposed to take Cash in around suppertime.”

  “Cash?” Maddy’s gaze snapped between the two men. “Why Cash?”

  “Because nothing would make that bastard happier than seeing me mourning you,” Cash said dryly.

  “And if I don’t do as Mack says,” Aaron added, “we lose our inside track with him. He’ll bench me without blinking. I’m sure of it.”

  The group lapsed into silence, considering the new change of events. There was nothing for any of them to argue. In a world of ever-narrowing choices, deliberately turning their back on something as simple as a meeting would only make getting home all that much harder.

  Sighing, Cash leaned back into the couch, pulling Maddy against his side. “One meeting never killed anybody.” His casual acceptance made the others relax, but in his gut, Cash had a sour feeling about the wisdom in what they had to do.

  Maddy might love Cash, but that hadn’t stopped Mack from pushing too hard before.

  And when Cash got pushed, he pushed back. He could only hope that Mack’s condition was as serious as Maddy made it out to be. Because this time, with full knowledge of his powers, in spite of all his protestations to Maddy to the contrary, Cash wasn’t so sure that pushing Mack might not have a slightly more lethal ending than their shoving contest.

  Chapter Thirty-One

  When he considered how close he’d come to having to see Maddy in such a setting, a chill settled in Cash’s bones. The scent of antiseptic burned his nose, and the clicking echoes of his and Aaron’s shoes through the tiled hospital corridors sent shivers down his spine. He hated these places. They always reminded him of failure.

  Aaron came to a halt outside a closed door, but as his hand settled on the handle, he paused, turning back to Cash. “You ready for this?”

  Cash grimaced. “It’s not like I have much of a choice.”

  Aaron’s discerning gaze swept over him. “You don’t look like you
’re mourning. Mack’s never going to buy this if you walk in there ready for a fight.”

  “He’ll never believe me if I walk in there kissing his feet, either.” He jerked his head toward the door. “Let’s just do this, okay?”

  The one thing about stepping inside Mack’s room was that the smell definitely improved. Somebody had sent the wanker dozens of flowers, which lined the wall below the window, but the floral arrangements weren’t what caught Cash’s eye.

  It was a half-dressed Mack, struggling to slip on an expensive leather loafer without bending over and disturbing the stiff bandages covering his upper body.

  Their entry lifted the mobster’s head, his eyes narrowing as his gaze automatically slipped past Aaron to bore into Cash. Silence consumed the space between them as the two men stared each other down, and just when it looked like Aaron was going to intervene, Cash smirked.

  “Going somewhere?” he asked, his voice cold.

  “Home,” came the terse reply. “I’ve checked myself out.”

  Cash couldn’t contain his snort of derision. “It’s not a bleedin’ hotel, you know. You’re in here for a reason.”

  “One you’ll be even more intimately aware of once I’ve filed the proper police reports.”

  Aaron stepped up to place himself between them, as if his solid body would lessen the verbal blows. “You wanted to see Cash, remember?” he prompted Mack. “If you’ve got questions, it might be best to ask them now before he gets even more belligerent.”

  The stiff set of his shoulders betrayed Mack’s true feelings, but the mask settling back over his thin features acknowledged Aaron’s so-called wisdom in the matter. “I’ve already heard one version of last night’s events from Marty.” His shoe slipped on the rest of the way as he pressed his weight down into the floor. “I’d like to hear yours, Mr. Vinci.”

  Cash’s teeth hurt from how tightly he clenched his jaw. Why this man rubbed him so violently in the wrong direction, he had no idea. But every time he found himself within ten feet of Mack, Cash wanted to beat him to a pulp.

  “Your trigger boy decided to get into my face when I showed up at the door as a patron.” Adopting some of Gino’s lingo made it easier to turn this into an act, to remember that Maddy was actually at home waiting for him, probably still annoyed he’d insisted she stay behind. “For some reason, he had this daft notion I was the reason you were laid up. As if the fact you’re an insufferable asshole didn’t have anything to do with that.”

  There was a sharp intake of breath from Aaron at his side, but Mack’s eyes glinted from something that could have been amusement. “And Maddy chose you?” he said disdainfully. “You must be hung like a horse, because I’m fairly sure you didn’t win her with your sparkling charm.”

  “Well, I guess you’ll never know now, will you?”

  Such a cold prompt of Maddy’s so-called demise served to dissolve any humor Mack had about the situation. “What happened?” he demanded. “Where’s Maddy?”

  Realizing his hands were balled into fists, the power of unleashed magic making the hair on his arms stand up on end, Cash stuffed his hands into his pockets and glared at Mack. “Marty pulled his piece. Maddy saw what he was doing and tried to protect me. That’s what people who love each other do.”

  Though the last was a sneer, it did nothing to ruffle the mobster any more than he already was. “And after? You and Gino left with her. Where did you go?”

  “The hospital, you bastard. Where else would I take a dying woman?”

  “But you never made it.”

  Cash shook his head. “No, we made it, all right. Maddy’s the one who didn’t.” All he had to do to summon the necessary pain in his voice was remember the blood on his hands as he’d held her in the back seat of the car. Maddy didn’t know it, but Cash had every intention of keeping the bullet Kate had pulled out of her with the healing spell. He didn’t want to ever forget to treasure Maddy for the gift she was.

  His tone made Mack pause, though the calculating gleam in those gray eyes challenged Cash before he ever said a word. “So tell me this. If Maddy is dead, why is it her body isn’t in any morgue I’ve been able to locate today? How can I have distinct memories of what she felt like when she visited?” His mouth curled into a humorless smile. “I do love that shampoo of hers. It always reminds me of a picnic we had in Central Park last year. She can be quite the exhibitionist, can’t she?”

  Only Aaron’s tight grip around Cash’s arm kept him from lashing out. “Not any more,” he said through gritted teeth. “I can’t explain the delusions of a sick mind like yours, but I can tell you I’d have to be a fool to put Maddy anyplace I thought you could get to her. Dead or alive. So if you can’t find her now, all I can say is, good.”

  Cash suspected he might have bruises by the time Aaron let him go, but in the end, it was probably worth it. It was the reminder he needed not to lose his temper beyond retrieval.

  Mack stretched his leg to put on his remaining shoe, every action crisp, every move deliberate. “If you believe for a second that I would allow you to bury Maddy in some second-rate ceremony, you’re a very foolish man. If—and I cannot stress that if enough—Maddy is indeed dead, she’ll have the best that money can buy. Because I will find her.”

  The loafer slipped into place with greater ease than its mate. When Mack looked up again, there was no mistaking the added threat in his eyes. Cash could only wonder how he was suppressing the pain of his injuries in order to appear so composed.

  “If I find out that you’ve done something to her, anything, whether it’s defiled her body to prevent me from mourning her properly or hidden her to try to keep her away from me, I will not hesitate to kill you, Cash.” It was the first time he’d dropped the more formal Mr. Vinci. The gloves were officially off. “I’ll even take the pleasure of doing it myself.”

  This time, Cash yanked away from Aaron’s hold and took a step toward the door. He was done here. “At least let’s be men about this,” he said. “You’re going to try to kill me anyway.”

  Mack only smiled.

  It was a full twenty minutes before Aaron emerged from the hospital. While the time had been valuable in calming Cash down, he didn’t like having to wait to get back to Maddy. She’d been worried about what would happen between the two men, for good reason. The sooner they put this Mack stuff behind them, the happier they would both be.

  “You okay?” Aaron asked as he approached.

  Cash nodded. “I have no idea how he winds me up so badly, though. I’m glad I don’t have to go through that again.”

  “Lucky you.” At Cash’s frown, Aaron elaborated. “I’m stuck ferrying Mack home and then getting the private nurse he managed to hire this afternoon straightened out with all her duties. You’re going to have to catch a cab back to the apartment.”

  A flaw in their new arrangement deepened the lines in Cash’s brow. “If Mack goes home, he’s going to notice the painting is gone. How are we going to explain that?”

  They spent the next few minutes tossing out ideas. Having Maddy take it over was out of the question. One more sighting anywhere near Mack and their cover was blown. Magic wasn’t going to work, either. Neither Cash nor Kate had the juice to do anything more than the most rudimentary of spells at the moment. Even trying to get someone like Gino to take it in would likely get them caught. They just didn’t have enough time to pull off a return without someone getting fingered.

  “I’ll have to tell him it got stolen or something,” Aaron said.

  “Since you were there this morning fetching his things?” Cash shook his head. “He’s never going to buy that. No, we have to get the painting back inside. Can you stall him for an hour?”

  Aaron’s eyes grew distant while he contemplated the possibility. “That’s probably the most I can get you,” he finally said. “What are you going to do?”

  “Pick up Kate from the club and have her get into his flat.” Cash was already heading for the curb to hail a c
ab. “She’s the only one he’s not going to know. If she gets caught, it might be easier to explain.”

  Aaron followed for a few steps, a grin splitting his even features. “And knowing your sister, I have no doubt she’ll come up with something that makes the rest of us look like idiots.”

  In spite of everything, Cash joined in his laughter. “Probably.” He caught a taxi driver’s eye and flagged him over. “Did he say anything to you about Marty?”

  “Just that Marty’s a loose cannon and he’s looking at somebody to take his place. His story corroborated everything we told Mack, though. Mack doesn’t know what to believe anymore.”

  “As long as it keeps him off our backs.” When the taxi pulled up to the curb, Cash stepped off and grabbed the door. “Get the nurse to tell you about any marks she’s going to find on Mack. Maybe we’ll get lucky and I’ll get to kill him after all.”

  Female voices filtered from the dressing rooms, Kate in one, Ava in the other, each doing what they could to eliminate the women at the Rising Sun as the possible safety. Gino stood in the darkened hallway, taking comfort in the occasional ring of Ava’s laughter, but more than that, he was grateful for a few minutes of peace. His brain kept stumbling, trying to wrap around everything Maddy had said to him after they’d left the hospital. Mack. This painting. All of them going back as soon as they confirmed who this safety was.

  Ava leaving.

  He hadn’t seen her since they’d parted after coffee that morning. The time they’d spent at the diner had bordered on perfect, just like every other conversation they’d had over the past few days. Though he knew in the back of his head that much of what he felt wasn’t real, he’d been able to forget when it was just him and her, when just the sight of her flashing warm eyes made his bones melt, when hearing her excited chatter made him smile and think anything was possible.