by Cait London
“No, I don’t. My clientele usually prefers credit cards or monthly billing.”
“Fancy pansy,” he taunted in a surly tone as he came to stand over her. Vernon smelled of alcohol. He hadn’t shaved, his ball cap was pulled down over hair that was greasy and untended.
Leona pushed herself back from fear; she became very quiet, almost an observer to her own reality. The energy pulsing from Vernon was the same as she had cleaned from the runes; his usually kind eyes had changed from dark whiskey brown into a hollow black. Was this Borg’s descendant, beneath layers of disguise? Or had she been blocked from seeing the real image of him somehow?
Was it possible that she believed what she wanted to see?
There was one way to find out: “Vernon, do you know a man with a sword? Someone with long black hair and black eyes?”
“That’s a dumb question. Civil war swords—sabers—are big around here, and lots of hippies wear their hair like that. You cost me a good job with Cheslav, and Dean won’t see me anymore. We were good friends. I’m losing everything because of you. It’s that boyfriend of yours, isn’t it? He’s been trying to find me. He’s put strange ideas in your head, hasn’t he?”
When she refused to answer, Vernon leered at her. “Shaw is in your bed and in your blood, isn’t he? That would be a fine time to give you crazy ideas, wouldn’t it? I heard he’s giving other women ideas, too.”
Leona dismissed that charge as a drunk man’s revenge; he was striking out at her with anything that might hurt. Vernon might attack Alex, a gentle man next. Her heart pounded as she asked, “Did you talk to Alex in person, or on the telephone?”
“I don’t see how it matters, but I saw him just a while ago. Your boyfriend had just been there, and Alex looked scared. He was shaking and packing to ‘take a little trip.’ My foot—Alex was running because he’s scared. He’s not the kind to stand up for himself and make trouble by calling the police. Shaw left word with Alex that he has my tools. I ought to press charges on Shaw. But I won’t, unless I have to. I’m not like Alex—I like to settle things myself, so they get settled right, if you know what I mean. I called Shaw’s place to tell him off. He’s keeping my stuff there. He said I’d have to come get my tools in person. I may just do that, then one of us is going to pay big-time. Shaw needs a few lessons, the hard way. No, I don’t want police to deal with him. I want to do it myself—no one treats Vernon O’Malley like dirt.”
“So you haven’t seen Owen yet?”
“If I had, I would have dealt with him.”
Relieved that Owen hadn’t been hurt, Leona relaxed slightly. Once Vernon left, she’d warn Owen. While Leona feared for him, Owen had already demonstrated he was a skilled fighter against an enraged man. Alex however, was another matter.
Leona knew Owen had decided that Alex needed to be warned off. Alex had called just after she’d opened the shop. He’d sounded shaken. “Shaw is a primitive, Leona. I’m really sorry about yesterday, and I tried to tell him that it was an accident. Would you please tell him? He seems like such a bully.”
She had reasurred Alex, though she wondered how Owen knew about Alex’s attack. You should have trusted me enough to tell me—He’d found out anyway. Maybe he’d sensed it.
Since Alex’s morning call to her, he hadn’t answered hers. Leona had to know if he was all right. “Vernon, did you hurt Alex?”
“No, he’s been good to me. But I could see he was scared out of his skin by Shaw. Alex wouldn’t let him in the house. Shaw stopped short of forcing his way in. He broke a window on Alex’s door, that special-glass window. I’ll make Shaw pay for that, too. And breaking into my house and going through my things.”
Leona couldn’t imagine Owen destroying the lily-of-the-valley art piece. But right now, she had to know: “Did you kill Robyn White, Vernon?”
Ignoring her question, he frowned suddenly and began to survey her shop. “It seems different in here. There’s more room somehow.”
“My mannequin was destroyed. Someone broke her to bits. I think that shows that someone can’t control their temper, don’t you?”
Vernon pivoted and glowered down at her. “You accusing me?”
“I know you gave Robyn pills that she gave to Janice Shaw. Did…you…kill Robyn?” Leona repeated.
“You don’t know anything. Even if you did, there’s no proof.” Vernon’s smirk sent cold chills through her. “Why don’t you ask your boyfriend about how he gets his kicks? And the next time I see that dog, I’ll kill him.”
After he stormed out of the shop, Leona took a deep breath. She didn’t doubt that Vernon was in a killing mood.
Owen was on his list, and he wasn’t answering her call….
“I understand you have something important to tell me. I want to talk with you, too,” Greer stated over Leona’s cell phone. “I’m between planes in Denver now, and I’ll be there late tonight. It’s just for overnight, unless you need me for longer. Kenneth will stay with Janice.”
After leaving a message on Owen’s cell, Leona quickly closed the shop. Now she drove through Lexington on her way to Owen’s. She still hadn’t heard from him.
“You need me, don’t you, Leona Fiona? You need me to come to you?” Greer asked unevenly over the wireless connection. Her uncertainty marked the barrier that Leona had placed between them long ago.
“I think this…situation calls for someone stronger than I,” Leona admitted cautiously.
“You’re stronger than you think, Leona,” Greer stated. “I feel it.”
“I…I owe you an apology. I’d like to do that in person. I’ve been wrong about so many things.”
“We’re not an easy lot to understand. I love you, Leona. Truly I do.”
For the first time in years, Leona was able to answer with certainty, “Love you, too. Truly I do.”
Stopping home to pick up Max, Leona tried Owen’s phone again. He still wasn’t answering. A traffic accident at a Man O’ War intersection seemed to take forever to clear. By the time she got to the Shaws’ farm, it was nine o’clock and the old farmhouse was partially lit. Owen’s pickup was parked in front, and so was a nifty little red sports car.
As Leona walked by that sports car, Max started barking at the mixed-breed dog inside. He leaped at the car, scratching the gleaming finish before Leona could stop him. Inside the car, the other dog leaped from front seat to backseat, paws pounding at the window.
When Leona finally was able to grip Max’s collar and tug him away, the muscled, seventy-pound dog strained against her. She hauled a reluctant Max up the steps. On the porch, Leona glanced around, hoping that Owen would appear to help her.
He didn’t.
When she managed to maneuver Max inside the house, Leona heard the shower running.
A woman wearing only a man’s white T-shirt leaned against the doorway leading into the hallway. Her face was flushed and her long hair—a shade of unnaturally bright red—was tousled. “If you’re looking for Owen, he’ll be out in a minute.”
Sixteen
“AND YOU ARE?”
Leona held Max’s collar, restraining him as he continued to bark at the woman as she pulled on a pair of jeans that had been tossed—seemingly in a hurry—on the floor. Leona recognized that bark: Max was reacting to the scent of evil. Something about the intimate scene didn’t feel true to her. And the woman seemed familiar somehow. Had this woman hurt him? Leona braced herself against a fierce need to physically protect Owen.
That thought stunned her. Obviously, Owen could protect himself. Leona’s emotions had more to do with claiming him back from another woman.
Once dressed, the woman cowered against the wall, her brilliant green eyes lit with fear. “Don’t let that dog go.”
Suddenly, Owen appeared behind the woman, wearing only his jeans. He looked just as he had that morning in Leona’s kitchen after they’d made love. His expression puzzled, he glanced at the woman, then at Leona. “I thought I heard voices out here.”
/> Moving quickly toward the front door, the woman, grabbed a big croco-leather handbag from a table on her way. “Well, so long. Had a great time, Owen. Call me.”
Owen frowned, confused. “Wait a minute—”
“Now, honey,” the other woman said. “I told you I didn’t have all day.”
Owen’s wary glance at Leona questioned her belief in him. Acting quickly, she moved Max to block the woman’s exit. As the dog bared his teeth, the woman stopped. “Owen told you to wait. Do it,” Leona ordered. Then she narrowed her eyes at the woman. “You seem familiar. Who are you?”
The woman glanced at Owen, then stared down at Max. Fear glittered in her eyes. “Please don’t let him go.”
Leona smiled coolly. She knew this women’s face but she couldn’t place it. Her coloring wasn’t the same. She obviously was wearing tinted contacts and had dyed her hair. “Well, then. Maybe you’d better tell us who you are. You look very familiar.”
“Ah…ah…Missy Franklin. We met at the Tea Mart?”
Something clicked in Leona’s mind and she realized Missy’s voice was familiar, too. “Isn’t it Charlotte Franklin? You called me to interview for work?”
“I—yes. Missy doesn’t sound professional enough for your place, so I used my middle name. Can I go now?”
“No. Exactly what are you doing here?”
Missy seemed stunned. “Isn’t it obvious?”
“Did someone tell you to come here, to make it appear as if you’d had sex with Owen?”
“I—I thought he might be attracted to me. I knew he was. But nothing happened here.” Her confused expressed supported her next statement, “I was supposed to bring a dog. I don’t know why.”
“I have some idea why you don’t know.” Leona moved Max aside and opened the door. The woman ran out of the house, and, a moment later, her car raced down the driveway.
As Leona turned slightly, an image flashed in the window glass. A man’s hands locked around Missy’s throat, her eyes pleading with him. Stunned, she turned to Owen, caught his stricken expression, and the image clicked shut.
Leona told herself the vision had come because of her anger. Finding another woman in an obviously intimate situation wasn’t easy to ignore—even if Leona understood the setup. Those were probably her hands on Missy’s throat. It was nothing more than jealousy that prompted the vision. “You look cute like that—guilty,” she managed as she tried to bank her temper. “Helpless and guilty.”
“Your eyes just got that dark gold color. I swear I didn’t ask her to come here. I locked the door before—” Max started barking furiously, leaping at the front door. “She’s gone now, Max. Stop that barking.”
When the dog wouldn’t stop, Owen sighed and let Max out. The dog took off at a run. Owen watched from the doorway, then quickly slid on his moccasins and followed.
Max chased the other dog—the yellow one, that had been in the sports car—straight across the field. Both dogs headed toward the river, with Owen running after them. Leona hurried to follow.
Owen’s harsh order cut through the air. “Max…. Hold…. Max. No.”
In the field, Max had caught the other dog by the throat. The German shepherd’s hackles were raised, the powerful dog poised to kill. As he reached the dogs, Owen quickly gripped Max’s collar. “Leona, hurry. Take her collar and hold tight. Max…. No….”
As Leona moved into position and gripped the yellow dog’s collar, Owen crouched to soothe Max. He glanced at Leona. “She’s in heat.”
“Shouldn’t he be—”
“That’s the point. He isn’t. He’s acting the same way as he did at Sue Ann’s. This isn’t about mating. Max wants to kill. I think he’s picked up the scent of the man we’re hunting. That means that creep is close, and he’s afraid of Max. They may have already tangled. The female was meant to get Max out in the open. She’s wearing a generic collar and doesn’t have a name tag. If she’s wearing a ‘pound’ locator chip, I doubt that it matters. She could have been picked up from anyone.”
Owen scanned the wooded area nearby. “If he’s out there somewhere, he’s close enough to shoot Max. That would be his style—the mark of a coward. We’re getting to know quite a bit about this creep. No, Max. Stay…. Ease her away, Leona, but do not let her go. Watch out. She’ll try to bite you.”
As Leona held the dog’s collar and forced her back from Max, her senses prickled with the psychic residue on the dog; Owen was right about the plan to distract Max. “Missy Charlotte Franklin…. Owen, she sounded strange on the telephone interview. I wanted to make arrangements to meet her away from other customers in my shop—I guess I just did meet her.”
“Leona, she’s telling the truth. I didn’t—we didn’t…I didn’t know she was here until I got out of the shower. I heard you both talking,” Owen stated urgently.
Leona trusted Owen completely, but someone wanted the depth of that trust shattered. Jealousy wasn’t an emotion she’d liked experiencing, even if there was no reason. Struggling to hold the terrified female dog, she asked tightly, “Would you mind if we hashed this over later?”
“You’re probably too tired to talk after your flight, Mom. We could call it an early night,” Leona said, as her mother and she settled into the living room to talk.
“It may be eleven o’clock here, but it’s only eight on the West Coast. But if you’re tired, we could wait until the morning. No matter what it is, Leona Fiona, it is never too much for us to handle.” Greer’s green eyes were too perceptive, and Leona felt as though every nerve in her body was transparent.
She also sensed that Greer had something very important to tell her.
How could Leona tell her mother that Daniel Bartel’s death had been intended? Or that Grams’s suicide had been the result of a planned affair?
Leona’s senses tingled slightly. She suddenly realized she was sensing Owen’s call. She must be as strongly connected to Owen now as she was to her sisters and her mother. “I need to take a call. It’s Owen. After he dropped off the stray dog at the animal shelter, he’s been hunting Vernon and Missy. Missy hasn’t returned calls, and that isn’t good. Her life could be in danger. And Owen is worried about what I might think. But I knew it was a setup the moment I saw her.”
“He wouldn’t betray you. Ever. You’ve bonded.” Smoothing the Celtic design on the sleeves and neckline of her dark green caftan, Greer nodded as though deep in thought. “I have some things to do in my room. Let me know when you’re finished talking. It’s important to Owen to know that you’re safe, Leona. Tell him that nothing will happen while we’re together, but he must be on his guard. This beast likes to hunt at night.”
Leona frowned; Greer’s statement was odd, almost as if she knew the killer. “I think Owen may like to hunt at night, too. He has Max with him.”
“This man never liked animals…they instinctively know that he hurts.”
“Owen loves animals. They take to him right away.”
“I wasn’t talking about Owen.”
Another strange comment, almost as if Greer knew the predator. As her mother left the room, Leona answered the telephone. “Owen?”
His voice dragged as if he were too tired. “Vernon has dropped out of sight. I can’t find Missy, either. Her friends say she goes out to bars at night. So far, she hasn’t turned up at her favorites. She just got fired and divorced, after having an affair with her boss. She’s having a hard time paying off her credit cards. She can’t make her rent for much longer. Missy is the same type of vulnerable personality that a predator would find easy to destroy…. I know you don’t want to talk about earlier—at my house, do you? Nothing happened with Missy, Leona, believe me.”
“Oh, I do. But I want to know why you went to bully Alex Cheslav.”
The silence at the end of the line said that Owen was considering his answer. “That mark on your wrist…. You said a friend, a ‘he.’ I asked Sue Ann about who that might be. By the way, she and the kids are settled into her
parents’ and it looks promising where Dean is concerned. Anyway, she told me that the friend was probably Alex.”
Leona rubbed the slight mark on her wrist. “Alex never intended to hurt me. That was an accident, Owen.”
“Sure.” His dark tone said he didn’t believe her.
“You had no reason to try to destroy that beautiful stained-glass window. I helped pick that out. Lily-of-the-valley was his wife’s favorite flower.”
“I wanted to reach inside and pull him out, because he wouldn’t come out to talk with me. But I did not break a window at his house.” Owen’s tone said he regretted not being able to get close to Alex.
“And if he had come out? You might have hurt him. He was wise to stay in the house. He’s gone now, by the way. You’ve terrified him. He’s a gentle man.” She took a breath. “Owen, my mother is here. We’re coming out to the farm first thing in the morning, if that’s okay? She wants to stand in that triangle. She’s not the strongest away from the ocean—”
“Is she strong enough to protect you?” Owen demanded. “Maybe I should come over there tonight.”
“I was just going to see if you would drop by. I want to check those bandages.”
“On my way. How about some late night Chinese takeout?”
She wanted Owen safe—with her. “Just come. I’ll fix something.”
Owen finished the hearty potato soup and tuna sandwich, then sat back from the kitchen table to drink his tea.
As much as he appreciated the hot black chai and the ice cream melting over a still-warm piece of chocolate cake, Owen couldn’t relax. After a hard, emotionally draining day, the circumstances of the last few hours didn’t make for relaxing. Missy Franklin had disappeared, so had Vernon. “If this creep follows his pattern, Missy is likely to wind up dead.”
He studied the two women before him; the midnight hour seemed to suit both Greer and Leona. Leona had inherited her mother’s classic bone structure and those mysterious green eyes, as well as that frame of dark red hair around her pale face.
