Smooth-Talking Texan

by Candace Camp

  It unnerved her to drive along the empty highway with Garza trailing her. She reminded herself that he was following her only in the hopes that she would lead him to Benny. It was very unlikely that he would attack Benny’s attorney. What purpose would it serve?

  Still, she breathed a sigh of relief when she turned into her apartment building’s parking lot and saw the Mercedes go on down the street past the entrance. She hurried into her apartment and, without turning on any lights, went to the front window and peered out from behind the curtain. She waited for several minutes, but she saw no sign of a car or a man entering the lot.

  Her cell phone rang, and she jumped, her heart pounding. Drawing a deep breath, she pulled the phone out of her purse and answered it. It was the D.A. on the other end of the line. Though he did his best to downplay the importance of Benny’s testimony, she could hear the underlying note of excitement in his voice, and their negotiations over the terms of the agreement was perfunctory.

  When she hung up, she dialed Quinn’s office immediately. “He’s at the Moonstone.”

  “The restaurant?” Quinn asked in disbelief. “He’s hiding out at a restaurant?”

  “Well, you didn’t find him, did you?” Lisa countered. “Apparently it was a pretty good place to hide. Go to the back door, okay? Elizabeth said she would let you in. I’m going to call one of my colleagues and have him meet you at the jail for Benny’s questioning. I’ve already told Benny.”

  “Wait a minute. Why a colleague?”

  “For one thing, this is too important to screw the case up with any allegations of unethical conduct on the part of Benny’s attorney. I explained it all to Benny, and I assured him that Ray Benitez is an excellent attorney. I told Ray about the possibility this afternoon, and he’s looked over my notes—”

  “This afternoon? You’ve known where Benny was since then?”

  “No. I wasn’t sure where he was. I acted on a hunch and I was right.”

  “Why didn’t you tell me? Did you know this this morning?”

  “I told you, I didn’t know. It was just a guess.”

  “You guessed that he was at the café?”

  “I knew that Benny is interested in a girl who works there, so I contacted her. I didn’t know that he had been hiding out there until this evening when he told me.”

  “You didn’t think that this might be a good thing to tell me?”

  “I had to talk to Benny first. He’s my client. I couldn’t just set you on him.”

  “He could have left town in the meantime. He could have been killed. I—ah, hell. I’m going to go pick him up now. I’ll talk to you later.”

  “I can hardly wait,” Lisa replied dryly, but her words fell on empty space, for Quinn had already hung up the phone. Lisa set the receiver down sharply.

  She called Ray Benitez and told him what was going on. Then she got up and moved around the apartment, checking the locks on her windows and the door out of sheer nerves. She hated waiting here while everything was going on in Angel Eye. She wanted to be in on the questioning instead of Ray so badly she could taste it. But she knew that it was better this way; she had figured it all out this afternoon. She had not told Quinn the second reason why she had set it up for Ray to be in on the questioning—so that she could lead Enrique Garza away from Angel Eye, Benny and the sheriff taking Benny in for questioning. The longer it took Garza to find out that Benny was turning on them, the better. But she had realized as she and Quinn were squabbling about Benny that it was probably far better for Quinn not to hear about that aspect of her evening.

  The rest of the evening passed with excruciating slowness. She warmed up her food from the café and tried to eat it, but she found that she was too nervous to eat. She knew it would be hopeless to attempt to work on any of her cases, so she tried to read, and when that was unsuccessful, she turned on the television. She flipped through the channels, unable to find anything she could stand to watch and just as unable to sit still. Finally, she got up and began to clean her apartment. It was something to occupy her time, and at least it did not require much thought. As she worked, her mind was still on the phone, waiting for it to ring.

  Instead, close to midnight, there was a sharp rap on her door, and the unexpected sound made Lisa jump. She hurried to the front door and looked out to see Quinn, arms crossed, waiting outside.

  She flung open the door, saying, “Why didn’t you call? Come in.”

  Quinn stepped inside, and it was then that she noticed the thunderous expression on his face. “Cause I didn’t want you to hang up on me.”

  “Hang up—oh, I see. You’re planning to make me angry?”

  “I don’t have to plan,” he shot back, and his eyes were blazing. “What the hell were you thinking?”

  “What are you talking about?”

  “I’m talking about the fact that Garza accosted you in your office and he’s been following you around all day, and you didn’t even tell me!”

  “Oh. I guess Benny must have said something.”

  “Yeah, he said something. He told me all about your calling this afternoon and setting up the meeting. He told me about your playing your little spy games with a guy that has probably killed at least one other person.”

  “I was trying to protect my client. I needed to talk to Benny. What else was I supposed to do?” Lisa retorted, fists on her hips.

  “You could have called me! You could have told me that Garza was there harassing you. You—”

  “He didn’t harass me. He just came to my office, and we had a quiet conversation.”

  “During which you more or less told a killer to bug off. Right?”

  “Not exactly. Besides, I didn’t know he was a killer at the time.”

  “Why didn’t you call me? Did you think I wouldn’t be interested in knowing that this guy was watching your office building?”

  “Yes, I knew you would be very interested. And I knew you would come charging over there and roust him out, and then he’d be out prowling around talking to Benny’s friends, and he just might find out from somebody about Teresa instead of wasting his afternoon sitting outside my office.”

  “I could have gone to the Moonstone and picked Benny up before I got rid of Garza, and then both of you would have been safe. Instead, the two of you were just out there like targets.”

  “Oh, yeah, that would have been great. I make plans to meet my client and then I send the cops to pick him up there. He’d really trust me a lot after that!”

  “That’s not as important as your life!”

  “My life was not in danger!” Lisa snapped. “Garza was watching me. He wanted me to lead him to Benny. He wasn’t here to kill me. What purpose would that serve?”

  “If he had known what you were going to advise Benny to do, he’d have killed you in a second. And what if he had walked into the restaurant instead of staying outside? What if he had seen you with Benny?”

  “I wouldn’t have gone into the back to talk to Benny in that case. I would have stayed out there having dinner with Meredith.”

  “You pulled Meredith Kramer into this, too?”

  “It’s not like I involved her in some sort of conspiracy. I just had dinner with her. What is the matter with you? You’re acting as if I have no sense. In case you don’t realize it, I don’t need your approval to do what I want to do. I’m an adult. I can make my own decisions. Obviously it would come as a surprise to you, but I don’t just jump off and do something without thinking. I had valid reasons for what I did, and I thought it through before I did it. Stop treating me like a child!”

  “Then stop acting like one!”

  Lisa narrowed her eyes. “I think it would be best if you left now.”

  “I’m not going anywhere.”

  She raised one eyebrow. “Oh, really?”

  “Yeah, really. If you think I’m going to leave you here with that son of a bitch Garza lurking around, you’re crazy.”

  “As well as childish?”
>
  “Look. I’m staying right here tonight.”

  “You’re not. It’s my decision whether you stay here tonight, and I’m saying no. I don’t need your protection. I am not a little girl. I don’t know why you’re ranting and raving about all this. If it had been Ray Benitez who made this deal, you’d have been ecstatic. You wouldn’t have run over to yell and scream at him. You’d have said, ‘Hey, thanks.”

  “Yeah, well, I’m not in love with Ray Benitez.”

  Lisa went perfectly still. She stared at Quinn for a long moment. “What?”

  “I’m in love with you, Lisa.”

  Chapter 12

  “Oh, my God.” Lisa felt suddenly weak in the knees. “I—I—”

  Quinn grinned. “Well, now I’ve found another way to shut you up.” He came closer to her, putting his hands on her arms. “I’m sorry. I know I acted like a macho idiot. You’re right. You handed me my case on a platter, and I just yelled at you. I was scared. I’m not used to feeling like that. So frightened and so completely not in control of the situation. When Benny said Garza was tailing you, it scared me so bad it was all I could do to sit there those last few minutes of the interview. I took out after that so fast the D.A. probably thinks I’m crazy. All I could think about driving over here was that Garza might have gotten tired of waiting and decided to force you to tell him where Benny was. And the more I worried, the more frightened I got, the madder it made me. So I lashed out at you instead of telling you what I should have—that you made my case and you saved Benny and everyone owes you a lot.”

  He bent and pressed his lips against her hair. “I love you, Lisa.”

  Much to her astonishment, Lisa felt tears seeping from her eyes. “Oh, Quinn…I love you, too.”

  “Hey, what are you crying for?” Quinn tipped up her chin with his forefinger. “That’s supposed to be a happy statement.”

  “It is!” Lisa protested. “I am. I just—I don’t know why I’m crying.”

  “Nerves,” Quinn pronounced. “And I have just the answer for it.”

  He kissed her hair again, then pressed his lips against her forehead. When she made no protest, his mouth moved down to brush butterfly kisses on her eyelids, her tear-dampened cheeks, her mouth…Then they were kissing fiercely, their mouths hot and hungry, all the tension and jumbled emotions of the evening rushing out in a flood of passion.

  They kissed again and again, tearing off their clothes and coming together in a fast, furious storm of desire and need. There was no stoking of passion; there were no lingering, teasing caresses. There was only a driving hunger, passion at a white-hot pace, and when they reached their climax, it exploded within them with a force that left them stunned and drained.

  Lisa was awakened the next morning by Quinn’s kisses. He kissed her closed eyes, her brow, her cheeks, her mouth: soft, brief kisses that stirred her delightfully from sleep. She opened her eyes and smiled up into his face. He was already showered and dressed, sitting on the side of her bed.

  “Brought you a cup of coffee,” he told her, indicating the coffee mug which he had set down on her bedside table.

  “You made coffee?” Lisa sat up, pulling the sheet up around her and leaning back against the headboard. “Mmm. I could get used to this.”

  “I plan for you to,” Quinn replied with a smile as he reached over and picked up the mug and handed it to her. “I meant what I said last night, you know. I love you.”

  Lisa could feel an effervescent joy bubbling up inside her, and she could not keep from grinning. “I love you, too.”

  “I want to wake up with you every morning,” Quinn went on. “I want to marry you.”

  Lisa stopped in the motion of raising the mug to her lips and stared at him. “What?”

  “I know. It’s kind of quick. But that’s the way I am. I know what I want. I know how I feel. I want to be with you for the rest of my life.”

  Lisa’s first feeling was one of overwhelming happiness. Being with Quinn forever sounded wonderful. But the feeling was followed an instant later by a rising panic. “But, Quinn…I…I…what about my job?”

  “Your job?” Quinn looked puzzled. “That won’t be a problem. I mean, we got through this case okay, didn’t we? There won’t be anything else as touchy as this. We talked about how we could work it out.”

  “No, I don’t mean that. I mean—my job here is over in less than a year. I’ll be going back to Dallas then.”

  “I’m sure they would be happy for you to stay on. That was the reason they gave out the grants, wasn’t it? Because they can’t get enough lawyers to move to rural areas?”

  “Yeah.”

  “Or you could set up in private practice. You’d get enough clients.”

  “I know. It’s not that. But I—Dallas is where I want to live. It’s where I want to practice. I could probably live in some other city, I suppose, but Angel Eye…I’m a city girl, Quinn. I want the kind of practice I can have in a city. Big, important cases. I want to accomplish something. To help my people.”

  “You think you didn’t help Benny? That wasn’t important enough?” Quinn drew back, and his face became shuttered.

  “Yes, of course it was important. But it’s not what I do most of the time. Usually it’s just landlord disputes and…” She trailed off miserably.

  A moment before she had been unbelievably happy, and she had ruined it all. Now Quinn was stiff and remote. She knew what he was thinking as well as if he had said it: She, like Jennifer, was choosing her career over him. Pain stabbed through her, and she wanted to cry.

  “Quinn, I’m sorry…I love you! I love you so much.”

  “Just not enough to stay with me.”

  “It’s not that.”

  “Then what is it?”

  “I’m talking about my whole life! This is a big decision. I—I can’t just make it, snap, like that.”

  “You don’t have to. Take all the time you want. I’m not going anywhere.” But his words could not mask the flicker of hurt in his eyes, and he was still distant. “We’ll talk about it later. I shouldn’t have sprung it on you like this. Why don’t you get up and get dressed? I’ll follow you into work this morning. I called the office, and Garza is still at large. They rounded up Paco and a bunch of the others last night, but they can’t find Garza. He may have run back to San Antonio, but I don’t want to take any chances. As long as he’s still at large, I’m going to escort you to work and back. And I’ve talked to the Hammond P.D. They’ll drive by your office building periodically, just to make sure his car’s not there.”

  Lisa felt too dispirited to argue. Besides, the fact that Garza was free made her feel uneasy. She was grateful, frankly, for Quinn’s protectiveness today.

  She showered and dressed quickly, not wanting to keep Quinn waiting. She felt uncomfortable, anyway—she knew she had disappointed Quinn, and she herself was in turmoil over Quinn’s proposal. Everything would seem better and clearer, she thought, when she was by herself and could think the situation over.

  She drove to work, Quinn following her. It struck her how quiet and peaceful the drive was, how attractive the old tree-lined streets were. Even her office building, old and squat, was shaded by spreading live oak trees and elms, planted and nurtured by former occupants.

  There was no sign of the dark-blue Mercedes anywhere around her office building. Lisa gave a wave of her hand to Quinn and went inside. She went first into Ray’s office to discuss the police interview with Benny last night. After that she walked down the hall to her own office and sat down behind her desk. She crossed her arms on the desk and laid her head down on them. She felt as if she wanted to cry. What was she going to do?

  It frankly had not occurred to her that Quinn would ask her to marry him. She was not prepared for the warring emotions within her. She was a city girl; she had never thought of living anywhere else. It was boring here. But she had friends…

  A smile touched her lips as she thought of the Monday-night visits with Eliza
beth, Meredith and Eve. She remembered the fun she had had with Eve on their shopping expedition to San Antonio and how Meredith had come to her aid the day before, no questions asked. She hardly knew them, but already they were good friends. There were things to do here, parties, friendly people. Most of all, there was Quinn. She had been with him every spare moment the last two weeks, and she had been happier than she had ever been. She hadn’t once thought about how she missed Dallas.

  But, she reminded herself, she was in the first flush of love right now. Later, it would be different. Later she would miss the sights and sounds of the city, the restaurants and shops, the theaters and clubs. If she married Quinn, she would be condemning herself to an entire life spent in a town smaller than the graduating class of her high school.

  And there was her career. It was all well and good for Quinn to be hurt that she was choosing her career over their love, but, after all, he was not offering to give up his career to be with her.

  Grimacing, she shoved the thoughts aside and tried to settle down to work. It was difficult, but she stuck doggedly to it. At lunch she asked her secretary to bring her back a sandwich when Kiki returned from her own lunch. She felt a little cowardly for doing so, but she had no desire to run into Mr. Garza somewhere. She wondered if he had discovered that Benny was in jail and turning state’s evidence. If so, she thought, he would surely be packing up and leaving rather than hanging around in Hammond trying to contact her.

  She was standing at her filing cabinet, searching for an errant file, when she heard the sound of the door opening behind her. “Thanks, Kiki,” she said without turning around. “Just put it on my desk, please.”

  The door closed. It was the sound of the steps across the old wooden floor that made her turn around, for it sounded nothing like Kiki’s heels.

  Enrique Garza stood a few feet away from her, a large and lethal-looking automatic aimed straight at her.