It would’ve been pointless to tell my aunt that you can’t believe everything you read, or that I now thought God was a woman or that organized religion just didn’t cut it for me. That would’ve brought on a storm I wasn’t ready to handle.
“Now,” Aunt Lucy said, again calm and smiling. “You may sit here for the next hour until dinner, drink your wine and talk about what a crazy old woman I am. But,” she said, glaring at us, “there will be no more discussion about Lloyd and your uncle Benny. Got it?”
We all nodded, almost afraid to look her in the eye. She grabbed her glass and Lloyd’s bowl, sailing from the room as we stared after her.
“Handled that one well, didn’t you, Valocchi!” The familiar male voice startled me. I turned in my seat to find Jake Carpenter standing in the back doorway.
“Where have you been?” I demanded.
He stepped into the kitchen, a hint of a limp and a small beige bandage at his temple the only leftover signs that he’d ever been injured.
“Taking care of a little unfinished business,” he said. “You left a guy in a barn, remember?”
“How did you…?”
“I have my ways. And then there was his friend in the hospital. I had to find them appropriate…accommodations so they wouldn’t become a burden to the locals.”
“You killed them?” Nina gasped.
Jake smiled. “No. I assure you, I found them good homes in federal facilities.”
He turned back to me and seemed almost unaware of the others. The look he gave me smoldered all the way through to the very core of my body. I felt my internal temperature rise from oblivious to too damn aware as parts of me woke up and stirred. Damn that man! What gave him the right to do this to me?
“Don’t force too much reality on your aunt,” he said softly. “Believing that mutt is your uncle keeps her sane. When she’s ready, she’ll let it go.”
“So, since when have you become the psychological expert on my aunt’s mental capacity?” I asked.
Jake’s expression softened. “Since she and your uncle took me in and made every bit of their lives and survival my business.”
I saw a sudden painful awareness leap into Jake’s eyes. He hadn’t been able to keep my uncle safe.
“I’m sorry,” he whispered.
I stood up, walked over to him and took his hand. “Come on,” I said, “Sit down and have a glass of wine with us.”
He started to hesitate, but I pulled him toward the table saying, “We need to figure out what to do about Aunt Lucy.”
Jake stuck a hand into the inside pocket of his leather jacket, pulled out a thick manila envelope and tossed it onto the table.
“That should be a start,” he said. “That’s your uncle’s will, and all the papers that have to do with his estate are in there. I figured you’d want to take it over.”
“Take it over?” I echoed.
Jake’s eyes burned into mine. “Well, isn’t that what you want?”
“I am like, so totally confused!” Nina wailed.
She picked up the jug of wine and began pouring it into Aunt Lucy’s thick tumblers. Jake watched her with a speculative eye.
“Don’t you have anything a little…”
“Stronger?” Pete finished. He smiled what I knew he believed to be his lady-killer smile at Spike and Nina. “I mean, certainly wine is fine for the ladies, but…”
“Shut up, Pete,” I said.
I caught Jake’s amused expression and smiled. “There is some of Uncle Benny’s Wild Turkey left downstairs,” I said.
Pete snorted. “Trash! You don’t have Southern Comfort?”
“Can’t handle the good stuff, huh?” Spike asked. Her eyes glittered dangerously.
“Set ’em up, bartender!” Nina cried. “I’ll get the glasses—you get the juice!”
I started down the steps to Uncle Benny’s workshop and was aware that Jake was behind me.
“You might need protection,” he murmured.
“From what?” I asked. “The big bad wolf?”
We’d reached the bottom of the stairs and I turned to face him, waiting for his answer.
Jake was so close I could feel the heat of his body radiating into mine, the spicy scent of him filling my nostrils.
He reached out and stroked my jaw with his finger. “Who’s afraid of the big bad wolf?” he whispered.
“Not me,” I whispered, but my heart was pounding hard against my chest. For a moment I felt my knees go weak and knew as well as he did that we had unfinished business, all right.
I took a deep breath and two big steps backward. The days of leading with my heart were over. Jake wasn’t getting off the hook without answering a few questions.
“Where have you been the past two days?”
Jake reached into the pocket of his leather coat and withdrew a sheet of folded white paper.
“This is coming out tomorrow in the Ledger,” he said. He opened the paper, smoothed the creases and slid it onto the table. “Local Man Killed In One-Car Accident. Body Recovered.”
I looked up at Jake. “Ron? But, Jake, you shot him.”
He nodded, his eyes flattening into dark, hard discs. “Sometimes car wrecks are messy,” he said. “It was better for everyone this way.”
I shivered involuntarily.
“And Valerie?” I asked. “What’s going to happen to her?”
“She’s already been taken from local custody and moved to a federal facility,” he answered. “You won’t be hearing from her again, trust me.”
“But all those people who kept breaking in here,” I said. “Who were they? What’s to keep them from coming back?”
“When Donna found out about your aunt’s formula she decided to steal it. Unfortunately she was an amateur. She talked too much, to all the wrong people, and that was her undoing.”
“I thought her father had contacts?”
Jake looked grim. “He had names. He didn’t have a working relationship with any of them. Tony was a smalltime thug. Once the sharks gathered, it was a feeding frenzy. Nina apparently walked in on a deal going bad at St. Anthony’s.”
“Why did Valerie kill Donna and her father?”
Jake nodded. “I got caught off guard with that one. Valerie didn’t trust anyone, not me, not your uncle, nobody. Apparently, she wired the shop and tapped the phones. She knew exactly what Donna and her father planned to do long before I did.”
“Jake, you couldn’t have known Donna would…”
“Stella, it was my job to see things like that.”
“You were one man working alone on something that should’ve been easy. You weren’t a trained CIA agent, that’s why my aunt and uncle trusted you.”
Jake’s face looked pained at the mention of my uncle’s name, so I changed the subject. “What happened after you shot Ron?”
“I followed procedure. I called my CIA contact. I knew she’d call in people to take care of the cleanup, you know, to arrange a likely scenario for his death and take me out of the equation.”
I nodded.
“Valerie showed up, told me she’d have her people take care of it and asked me to help her get the body in the trunk. She asked if your aunt was safe and I said as long as I was around she was.” He shook his head. “She popped the trunk of her Volvo, I hoisted Ron into the trunk and that’s the last thing I remember.”
Jake rubbed the back of his head gingerly. “When I woke up I was locked in a trunk with a dead man.”
“But you got out?”
Jake nodded. “Yeah, in time to see her whack Tony Manello. He thought he was coming to set up a deal to sell the formula. Poor bastard never saw it coming. Valerie was very, very good.”
I cringed at the thought of one rogue agent doing so much damage.
“I figured she’d be gunning for you or your aunt next, so I crawled back into the trunk of her Volvo and waited.”
I smiled. “So that’s how you got there!”
He nodded.
“Only I couldn’t get the lock undone. It froze on me and I almost didn’t get out in time.”
“Good thing I was already there,” I said. “It’s always easier when you have backup.”
“Good thing indeed,” he whispered. “We make a great team, huh?”
I saw the heat in his eyes and retreated to the safety of our business relationship.
“Jake, I know Aunt Lucy needs protection. I mean, who knows what she’ll decide to work on next? What if someone comes after her, thinking she’s a walking brain trust and wanting her secrets? We have to make sure nothing happens to her.”
Jake didn’t miss much.
“We have to make sure?” he asked. “Sounds like you might be planning to stick around.” He grinned. “Who could blame you? I mean, there’s a lot of opportunity in Glenn Ford. The town’s growing. Your uncle and I even talked about opening a convenience center out where the new highway’s being built. Maybe you—”
“What is taking you two so long?” Nina called, interrupting him.
“Coming!” I didn’t take my eyes off Jake.
“Well,” Nina said, advancing down the first two steps toward us. “So, like hurry!”
I sighed, turned away from Jake and walked to Uncle Benny’s workbench. The bottle of Wild Turkey was half-full with another unopened one behind it.
“Think this’ll do it?” I asked, holding both bottles up for inspection.
“Absolutely,” he murmured. He never took his eyes off me.
I swallowed hard, grabbed the bottles and ran up the basement steps. His deep, throaty chuckle followed me.
I reached the kitchen, breathless, and handed the bottles to Nina. She poured with practiced experience, setting small juice glasses before each one of us. I stayed standing, with Jake just behind me. When each of us had a glass, I raised mine.
“To Uncle Benny,” I said.
We tossed the shots down and Nina quickly refilled our tumblers.
“To Aunt Lucy!” she cried.
Again we drank. The bourbon sped through my already burning body like liquid fire. Nina refilled the glasses, and this time Pete rose from his seat to make the toast.
“To beautiful women,” he said with a flourish, “and the men who know how to satisfy them!”
I heard a stifled snort behind me. Spike exchanged a knowing glance with Nina.
“Here it comes,” I heard Jake whisper.
Spike was standing, the bottle of Wild Turkey in her hand. She smiled dangerously at Pete, refilled all our glasses and raised hers.
“Pete,” she said. “Nina and I are partners.”
With a quick toss, Pete swallowed the contents of his glass, wiped his mouth with the back of his hand and belched.
“Outstanding!” he cried. His grin was positively ear to ear. He bowed solemnly, and straightened to regard them both with another lecherous grin. “I assure you, I am man enough to satisfy the both of you!”
“Pete, like, you so do not get it!” Nina cried. “What Spike’s saying is we don’t need you to satisfy us. We’re fine just being the two of us!”
Pete smiled like an understanding father. “But ladies,” he said, leaning in close to the table, “I have something you don’t, and trust me, it just isn’t the same without it!”
I heard a soft moan of male pity behind me.
Nina burst out laughing and grabbed Spike’s hand. “Does he not get it or what?”
“Pete,” I said, “Mr. Happy isn’t the only game in town.”
Pete, startled, turned to me. “You mean you, too?”
I smiled. “You wish,” I answered, “but no.”
Pete turned scarlet. “Well, to each his own, I guess.” He put his glass down and turned to leave the room. “I think I’d better go lie down. I don’t feel so good.”
I watched him leave, feeling just the slightest bit sorry for him, but only until I remembered that Pete had a lot to do with his own unhappiness.
When I was sure he couldn’t hear me, I turned to the others. I looked around the table, making eye contact with each one of them. “You know Aunt Lucy needs protection. We have to take care of her and we can’t leave this all to Jake.”
Nina’s eyes widened. “But Spike and I live in L.A,” she said. “Spike’s an artist. She can’t come back here!”
Spike smiled and squeezed Nina’s hand. “Well, actually, sweetie, I was going to talk to you about that.”
“You were?”
Spike nodded. “Don’t you ever miss it here?” When Nina didn’t answer, Spike went on. “I didn’t, I mean, before I came back this time. I didn’t miss it at all. But honey, in the past few days we’ve done more to save the world than my band’s done in months. We made a difference!”
Spike was on a roll, sounding as if she were making a summation in court and appealing to the jury.
I watched Nina listen to Spike, saw her realize that it was okay to be homesick, and saw her feel the pull of family and hometown. I felt the pull to protect Aunt Lucy, but how was that going to make a life for me? I couldn’t see going on the government payroll.
Nina smiled at Spike. “Okay,” she said. “Fine by me! I was kind of sick of all the phonies anyway. But what would we do here? I mean, aside from take care of Aunt Lucy?”
“Maybe we could come up with something,” I said tentatively.
“I’m going to need some meditation time,” Nina said solemnly. “I have to listen to my inner feelings.”
“Sometimes you need to talk about your feelings, don’t you think?” Jake asked. His eyes said he’d already given the idea a lot of thought and developed some very horizontal-type solutions involving him and me, and not much else.
I cleared my throat, wishing I could clear the fog from my brain as easily. “Well, sure, sometimes talking is good.” Little quivers of anxiety started dancing in the pit of my stomach as my internal alarm system started blaring “Danger! Abandon ship!”
“Well, I’m a ‘now’ kind of person,” Jake continued. He gestured toward the basement steps and said, “Shall we?”
“Now?” I heard my voice squeak and could’ve kicked myself.
Nina whispered loudly to Spike, “I told you they have chemistry!” as we walked away. I ignored her and continued down the steps, finding it suddenly difficult to breathe and walk at the same time.
I led the way to the sofa, sat down at the far end, and thought about the possibilities. A former Delta Force operative turned auto mechanic, a mud wrestler, an attorney and a former cop. Together we had some rare and powerful abilities; paired up with the right customer at the right price, we might be a hell of a team. A regular bodyguard or detective agency would have nothing on us.
On the other hand, Jake Carpenter and I had tried another sort of partnership before and where had that gotten us?
“You stood me up, and then you just dropped me. That doesn’t sound like a good business partner to me,” I blurted.
Jake frowned, clearly thrown off track. “What? When?”
I glared at him. “In Elkton, at the justice of the peace’s house.”
“You’re still hanging on to that? We were kids.”
“Why didn’t you tell me my uncle found us out?” I demanded.
Jake closed his eyes for a moment, probably wishing I’d turn into a bad dream and be gone when he opened them.
“I couldn’t,” he said. “Your uncle caught me just as I was heading for my car. He talked to me for over two hours. I couldn’t leave. There was no way to reach you.”
I wasn’t going to let him off with that. “What about later, the next day or the next or the next? You never even called me!”
Jake flushed. “Well, I tried! Your aunt said you couldn’t come to the phone. Then you wrote the note saying you hated me and hoped I died. Don’t say you didn’t, I knew your handwriting. What was I supposed to do?”
“I never…” I stopped. But I had written the letter. I’d written the letter and never given it to him. I’d s
hoved it into the back of my underwear drawer. Come to think of it, it hadn’t been there later when I’d packed to move. How in the world had he gotten it?
I frowned. “How…who gave it to you?” But I was beginning to realize I already had the answer. Holly Phelps, a cheerleader “friend” who’d disappeared after the breakup along with all my other new “friends.” She was the one who’d encouraged me to write it. “It’s closure,” she’d soothed. Damn her! She must have stolen it from my drawer! Hadn’t she dated Jake all the next summer?
“Never mind,” I muttered. “I know.”
Jake’s expression was unreadable. “So, maybe we could let high school go, huh? I never meant to hurt you, Stella. I thought I was doing the right thing, leaving you alone.”
I felt a huge lump swell in my throat, making words impossible. What happened between us all those years ago lived in my memory like a snapshot. I held on to it because it was the only way I could keep him alive. I held on to Jake’s memory just as I had my parents’, and for the same reason. I didn’t want to lose them.
Years had passed and we had grown up, but my view of Jake hadn’t changed because I wouldn’t let it.
He reached for my hand and gripped it in his, squeezing gently until I looked at him.
“Hi,” he said softly. “My name’s Jake Carpenter. Welcome to Glenn Ford, Pennsylvania. I think you’ll like it here.”
I smiled, suddenly shy. “Hello, Jake, my name’s Stella Luna Maria Valocchi. You can call me Stella.”
He turned my hand over, palm up, and gently traced the lifeline of my palm with one work-roughened finger.
“I see a long lifeline here, with lots of—”
“Stella!” Nina interrupted. “Lloyd wants to go out!”
I ignored her, waiting for Jake to continue.
“A long lifeline with lots of…family,” he said chuckling.
Upstairs I heard the abrupt scraping of chairs and a disgusted “Lloyd, bad dog!” followed by “Stella!”
“Coming!” I yelled. “We’re coming!”
I stood up and reached for Jake’s hand. “Come on,” I said. “I’ve got a dog you’ll just love!”
“Housetraining a problem?” Jake murmured.
I grinned. “No, he just has a few identity issues. You see, he thinks he’s human.”
Stella, Get Your Gun Page 25
