Her brother jammed the hand holding her key onto his hip. “Can you? Why don’t you tell me where my mind’s at?” His voice dripped imitation sugar. Sunny bit her lip, gazing from one to the other as if she were watching a tennis match.
She stepped forward. “This isn’t—”
“No, I want to hear it from lover boy.” Her brother held up his hand.
“Quit calling him…”
Her words faded into nothing at the fierce look in his eyes. She’d never seen him so angry. Derek’s jaw clenched so tight Sunny feared it’d snap and break. The flare of his nostrils reminded her of a bull ready to charge. She swallowed the boulder sized lump in her throat then swung her gaze to Judson.
“You’re getting all worked up over nothing.” Judson’s spoke in a clipped voice, his body tense.
“Are you saying practically living with my sister is nothing?” Derek growled.
“Why don’t we sit down and discuss this like adults?” Judson asked.
“Yeah, Judson’s right. It’ll…”
“Quiet, Sunny,” Derek snapped. “This doesn’t involve you.” He didn’t even look at her. His gaze stayed glued to Judson’s face.
“Excuse me?” Sunny cocked her brow. “This absolutely involves me.”
“Go to your room.” Her eldest control freak of a brother pointed to the archway with a stiff hand. “I’ll be in to talk to you when I’m done with him.”
Humor vacated Judson’s face. “Calm down.” His voice boomed through the room. “Sunny’s trying to explain and I’ll gladly sit down and talk with you too. But, not when you’re acting like this.”
“Acting like what?” Derek stepped forward, but Judson didn’t back down, instead he met him half way. “I’ve seen your car parked here night after night. So, I decide to drop in and see for myself what’s happening.” He tossed her spare house key onto the dinette table, it slid across the surface to land with a clunk on the floor. “And, I find both of you cozied up in your jammies making a morning pot of coffee, looking like you just climbed out of bed.”
Derek glared from Judson to her. Sunny never considered her brothers still drove by her house to check up on her. Annoyance took root and grew as she tapped her foot against the tiled floor, but her plush slippers muffled any sound.
Judson shook his head. “I can see why your sister doesn’t have a man in her life.”
Her brother’s face blazed red and the vein in his neck popped out. Derek attempted to shove Judson, but his body didn’t move, or even flinch.
Awake now, she was tempted to help her brother after Judson’s last remark. No man indeed, like she needed one. Sunny placed her hands on her hips, her fingers twitched with the desire to shove him too. Neither man paid her any attention.
Judson’s eyes glinted like polished metal as he glared at Derek. “Don’t start something you won’t be able to finish.” Through gritted teeth he ground out the words.
“Oh, I’ll finish it all right,” Derek drawled.
Sunny stepped between them. “You two need to calm down.” She raised her arms in the air, and pushed their knuckles back with her palms.
“Get out of the way. Didn’t I tell you to go to your room?” Derek looked down at her. She felt fifteen again.
Curls swam around her face as Sunny shook her head. She recovered from the blast to her teenage past and stomped on his foot. It didn’t do any good, her slippers were soft and his shoes were as hard as his head. The corners of his mouth curved and he regarded her as if she were a fly.
“Quit living in the past, your days of ordering me around are long gone.” Sunny poked her brother in the chest with her index finger while she rose to her toes. “Don’t force me into telling dad about this when I call in my weekly case report.” Sunny’s eyebrow arced, smug in the fact he’d cave by her threat.
“Stay out of this.” The dangerous pitch of her brother’s voice should’ve warned her how angry he was, but it didn’t.
“No. Why should I stay out of something that involves—”
Derek lifted her by the waist and moved her to the side.
She clenched her fists then shoved him with all her weight, it didn’t have any affect. He smirked, shook his head and grabbed her by the upper arm to steer her toward the archway. “Leave.”
“Don’t treat her like that.” Judson’s jaw clenched as he stepped in front of her. His hand shot out, connected with Derek’s chest and propelled him into the wall. The Bless This House framed verse fell from the wall, crashing to the floor.
“Great. Just what I need, more broken glass to clean up.” The two men ignored her as they continued their stare down.
Derek’s face turned to stone, and Sunny’s chest constricted when he stepped forward with his fist ready to fly. She glanced at Judson as his arm rose in the air. With no time to lose she put both pinky fingers into her mouth and released an ear piercing whistle. Each man turned her way, but their fists never lowered.
“Listen up boys.” In attempt to keep her cool Sunny tucked a length of hair behind her ear then linked her hands behind her back, shoulders tight and chin high. “I’ve had it. You’re acting like a couple of cave dwellers.” Somehow she managed to speak without spitting the words from between her teeth.
“Derek if you touch him,” she pointed toward Judson, “I’ll never speak to you again. And you,” her gaze connected with Judson, “touch my brother, and I’ll clobber you over the noggin with the cast iron pan on the stove.”
Both men stared at her as if she just grew two heads.
Stay calm. They don’t need to know you’d like to knock their heads together and leave them unconscious on the floor.
“Both of you follow me…let’s get this straightened out.”
She stalked through the archway then turned to face them as they lagged behind in the kitchen. “Move it Mr. Cro and Mr. Magnon.” Her slipper clad foot stomped the floor. Neither man budged. “Now I said. Jeez, has testosterone plugged up your ears?”
Her purposeful strides led them all to the front door, which she yanked open. “After you.” Her eyes shifted from one to the other.
They stared at her. Judson’s eyes twinkled, and Derek’s gaze could’ve lit paper on fire.
“I said after you.” Tight lipped she waved them outside.
Both men looked at each other, then her, and walked outside. She didn’t follow.
“Okay, now if you want to punch each other’s lights out, go for it.” She gave them each a lopsided grin. “I don’t want to see it, I don’t want to hear it, and I certainly don’t want my kitchen bloodied up.”
After she slammed the door and turned the lock, she rested against it for several minutes while sucking in gulps of air. She stalked to the office, stuffed Judson’s clothes into a duffel bag from the spare closet, grabbed his car keys from the table by the door, and blew out a breath.
Sunny opened the front door to glare at the men sitting on the porch talking like two civilized human beings. She shook her head and held up her hand when it looked like Derek was about to say something.
“Don’t speak. Either of you,” she said. “I’m not going to listen.”
“But…”
“But, nothing. I don’t want to see or hear from either of you for the rest of the day.”
Sunny tossed Judson his car keys then flung the duffel bag onto the cement stoop. Again she slammed and locked the door then walked to her bedroom.
Two alpha males in her kitchen were ingredients she could do without. She grabbed her iPod, inserted her ear buds, cranked up the volume, and collapsed face first onto her bed.
****
Sunny coated her lips with a shimmery gloss and looked into the mirror. Today turned out better than expected, at least after Derek and Judson were barred from her apartment. She’d gotten a bit of rest and some alone time to think. The information about the DeVito case remained where Judson left it. She’d taken the day off to devote to herself.
She smiled,
blowing her reflection a kiss.
Job well done.
The afternoon had turned muggy and she piled her hair upon her head in an effort to keep cool. She turned to the side to inspect her handy work. The air conditioner inside the bar didn’t seem to keep the place cool enough, but her new do might help.
With a twist of her neck she inspected the other side. It amazed her that thirty bobby pins and an hour of free time could transform her into a super model of cool sophistication. Sunny giggled, plucked one last pin from the tray, and slid it into her curls.
Ready to go, she headed for the entry to retrieve her handbag, noting the clipboard on the small table with the receipt signed by Maggie Slater, the precise penmanship drew her attention. With a frown she reached out to pick it up, but at that moment her small sequined purse next to it vibrated, and she grabbed it before it jiggled off the table. Sunny dug inside and pulled out her cell. The caller id went unnoticed as she flipped it open.
“Hello,” she sang into the phone.
After a moment of silence she creased her brow.
“Sunny.”
She swallowed.
Judson.
Her lips puckered for an instant, then transformed into a smile.
“You’ve reached Sunny’s voice mail. If this is her egotistical, overpowering brother Derek, or her equally brutish partner full of attitude, Judson, Sunny isn’t accepting calls from either of you today. Please try again tomorrow.”
“But…”
“Sunny will be working this evening and is extremely busy trying to solve a murder. If she see’s either one of you at Benny’s, she’ll make you wish you’d never been born.” She kept her voice matter of fact. “Thank you in advance for following her rules.”
“Sunny.” Judson barked into the phone.
She bit her lip to hold back her laugh.
“Please don’t leave a message after the beep, because there isn’t going to be one. Have a nice day.” She choked on the last word and clicked her phone closed.
****
“Hey guys, what’s up?” Sunny threw her purse underneath the bar and smiled at Benny. Her boss nodded, finished filling a tray with drinks, and pushed it across the bar so Tasha could serve the exuberant customers at table five.
“Someone left a package for you on the front stoop this morning.” Benny opened the cupboard on the back wall and tossed Sunny a flat rectangular box wrapped in brown paper.
Sunny’s skin prickled at the familiar block style letters printed in bold black marker on the front of the package that spelled out her name. Her calm mood switched to a heady hum as she speculated what the package contained. Not about to let on to everyone around the horseshoe bar that the package was out of the ordinary, she grinned at Benny and thanked him before shoving the bundle inside her purse with shaky hands.
“You all set to take over, girlie?” Benny winked at her.
If she could sneak off to the bathroom for a moment she could open it. But she’d have to wait.
“Go do your books or something, I’ve got it covered.” Sunny shooed him away.
As she glanced around the bar, she noticed Slater slumped over his beer at the far end. He must’ve sensed her eyes on him because he picked that moment to look up at her with his hollow, emotionless eyes. His jaw tightened. He raised his bottled beer toward her in a salute then downed the remaining liquid in one swallow. Sunny’s hope to grill him for information didn’t seem like a reality tonight. Slater wasn’t giving off the best friends forever persona it’d take for her to approach him.
Benny stepped from behind the counter. “Don’t forget I got a dancer auditioning tonight.”
Sunny nodded.
“Can you bring me my usual, sweetheart?”
Sunny filled a glass with diet soda and a twist of lime. Tasha leaned across the bar snapping her gum. “I’ll take it to him, Sunny. I want to see how the new girl does.”
Benny had informed Sunny last night about a girl needing a job, and she hoped the girl was prepared to give the best dance of her life. Benny didn’t like the freckle faced girl’s lack of experience and only gave her this chance because she’d broken down and cried confessing her boyfriend had thrown her out and she needed money to get her own place.
Sunny shook her head, poor Benny; he was a sucker for a good sob story. Her boss signaled the music to start and the freckle faced redhead strutted onto stage.
After everyone around the bar had been refilled, and the waitresses had their customers cared for, Sunny tugged her purse from beneath the counter and made her way to the tiny bathroom.
As soon as she locked the door, she grabbed the package from her bag and tore it open.
A tiny black cassette tape, like the type used in old style answering machines, lay in her palm. Sunny turned it over in her hand, there was no writing, and there was no way she could listen to it without a machine or at the very least a player.
Sunny placed the small cassette inside a zippered compartment in her bag, pulled out her cell and dialed Judson’s phone. It rang several times then went to voice mail. “Judson, it’s me.” Sunny whispered into the phone. “I’m at Benny’s. Someone left me a package with a cassette. If you get this, stop by to pick it up. Call me and I’ll go on break to meet you in the parking lot.” She flipped her phone shut and leaned against the door with a heavy sigh.
Not sure if Judson would call her mobile, or the bar phone, Sunny tucked the silver cell inside the back pocket of her shorts. The temptation to leave the bar, head home to play the tape, almost overpowered her better judgment, but she stopped herself with the knowledge it would only draw attention to her and she couldn’t allow that to happen.
Three hours and four attempts to call Judson’s cell phone later, Sunny still hadn’t heard back from him. She checked her cell for the umpteenth time and hadn’t missed any calls. About ready to hit the panic button, Sunny convinced herself he just hadn’t had a chance to check his messages. It wasn’t like he had no life apart from her and the DeVito case. Sunny filled a tall glass with cool water to ease the burn in her throat.
A short time later, Sunny surveyed the crowded bar in hopes Judson had snuck in and was waiting until she wasn’t so busy. She’d give anything to have his lopsided smile and twinkling eyes watching her from a nearby seat. No such luck.
Even though she’d swept her hair up, the back of her neck was damp when she brushed her fingers along her nape. Not from the heat, but from the little voice in her head telling her something was about to happen, something wasn’t right. It wouldn’t be like Judson to not call back as soon as he received a message. He always carried his cell phone.
Her head throbbed and the sound swishing in her ears reminded her of an iced slush machine mixing and spinning against the metal wheel. Her inner voice reprimanded her for not listening to Judson when he had called earlier. If he’d been in trouble, or hurt, and called for help she had ignored his pleas and practically hung up on him.
“Judson.” She whispered once, and then said his name again, only this time she shouted. “Judson!” A sob caught in Sunny’s throat. She ran from behind the bar as Judson strolled through the back door. He paused just inside the entrance to look around with narrowed eyes, his features pinched, but when he spotted her his face relaxed and his lips bent into a sexy grin.
She threw her arms around his neck and inhaled a shaky breath. The heat from his body enveloped her. Sunny breathed in his familiar musky scent, his arms tightened and she rubbed her cheek on his chest. He lifted her and held her so close she found it hard to breath. But, she didn’t care. Judson was here. Safe. Secure. She leaned back to look into his face.
“Are you all right?” The quiet throb in her voice softened his eyes.
“Don’t worry about me, I’m fine. I was worried about you when you didn’t come outside.”
Sunny tilted her head. “What are you—”
“Oh yeah, I almost forgot, Sunny. Judson called and said something about leavi
ng his cell at home and meeting you in the parking lot at ten, something about a package.” Tasha checked the time and giggled. “Sorry, you should’ve met him a half hour ago.”
Judson stared at Tasha with a frown as she stopped at a nearby table to clear off the empty beer bottles.
Tasha snapped her gum as she sauntered past and winked. “Guess he decided to come in and pick it up personally.”
Sunny’s pulsating headache disappeared as all her worries had been due to a miscommunication and her man—yes, her man—was safe. Relief filled her as her hands glided up Judson’s chest. He sucked in a breath, their gazed locked, the beat of his heart pounded opposite her palm. Her fingers splayed across the skin on his neck and caressed his throat. He swallowed hard.
Judson exhaled and his warm breath washed over her forehead and blew the loose hairs framing her face into the air. The lines around his mouth eased, and his eyes grew dark as she rested her palms on either side of his jaw to draw his face down to hers.
Her lips moved against his, and at that moment it became clear. She loved this man. Sunny loved Judson. Her heart spun and pinged against her ribs. She gripped his face tight when his fingers ran down the center of her back. Tingles danced along her spine. He thrust his tongue against her lips. She sighed and allowed him entry. He growled, she moaned and his tongue delved deeper into her mouth.
She loved Judson. With him she could be herself. Good or bad, he wouldn’t judge her. He gave her security and protection, feelings she’d never considered until now. Her whole body quaked when his kiss deepened. He answered with a shudder of his own.
Although she’d sworn to never become involved with a detective, or anyone working law enforcement, this felt right. He finished her sentences, understood her humor, and could take what she dished out without flinching, most of the time giving it right back.
Judson lowered her until her feet hit the floor. His lips broke away and he caressed her cheek with the rough tips of his fingers.
Her watery eyes swept across his face. He looked new—different. Did love do that? Sunny leaned toward him to press little kisses against his jaw, his lips twitched and he pulled back to look into her eyes.
Some Like It in Handcuffs Page 14
