The Southern Comfort Series Box Set

by Clark O'Neill, Lisa

  Josh nodded absently and studied the victim. “Mac said something about the clerk?”

  “Right. Kid’s a basket case. Barely out of diapers and has to stumble across something like this. Anyway.” Kathleen pushed at a strand of hair that had gravitated into her eyes. “She said the guy was in earlier, acting squirrely and skulking around the display racks. Said he seemed to be uncomfortable around another customer she was waiting on, waited till the guy was gone and then asked about a back door. She assumed he had to use the restroom, but given what we now know I’d say it’s more likely he was avoiding a confrontation.”

  Interested blue eyes flickered her way. “You think he knew the assailant?”

  “It’s my current working theory, yeah.”

  “And there should be surveillance video, right? So we have a visual of the other guy to work with.”

  “That’s the thing,” Kathleen sighed, “and the main reason Mac bellowed in your direction. The store’s video camera’s ancient, and the feed is like looking at a bunch of ghosts moving through a snow storm. It’s absolutely useless for identification. You’ll have to see if you can get her to work through a couple of sketches with you – the guy I mentioned, whom she remembers pretty clearly, and a cohort that she only saw briefly.”

  Josh squeezed his eyes shut. “This will take hours.”

  “I’m sorry.” This time she didn’t feel like teasing.

  He mustered a smile, however weak, and waved away the apology. “It’s my job. And I hate to sound like a complainer. It’s just that Sam’s been out of commission all month. You know how hard the morning sickness hit her. This is the first time she’s felt up to much of anything, so I really wanted tonight to be special.” His gaze slid toward their victim. “But all things considered, I guess I need to count myself lucky. At least I didn’t ring in the New Year by bleeding to death on a men’s room floor.”

  CHAPTER SIX

  SADIE’S head throbbed with every bump of the cab ferrying her to Murphy’s.

  “Keep the change,” she urged the cabbie when they stopped, anxious to escape this particular hell. Squinting pitifully behind her dark glasses, she searched the street for her car. She’d thought she’d left it near the main entrance. But given the fuzzy nature of last night’s memories it was perfectly plausible she was mistaken. So she trudged past the pharmacy operated by Maureen, the oldest Murphy offspring, toward the parking area around the corner.

  There were very few vehicles in the lot, and certainly none of them was a powder blue Volkswagen Beetle.

  Either her car had been towed because she’d failed to feed a meter or it had been stolen on her first night in Charleston. While she was debating between calling Kathleen or taking her chances with another cab, her eyes lit on a familiar black Jeep. She barked out a laugh that was all irony.

  Of all the people she could possibly turn to, she kept getting stuck with the last one she’d choose.

  “Suck it up,” she muttered, stalking toward the pub’s back door. A small dumpster sat off to the side, wafting the odor of stale beer and rotting meat products. Sadie’s stomach turned over with an unpleasant lurch. Vague memories of vomiting and – Oh, God – stripping down to her underwear in front of Declan halted her forward progress.

  And had something… awkward happened in the elevator?

  Sadie briefly considered turning around, but she wasn’t about to turn chicken now. And besides, she and Declan seemed to have reached a truce of sorts. She’d simply ask him if he knew anything about her car, then figure out how to get to her grandmother’s.

  Judging by Kathleen’s reaction, she gathered some home repairs were going to be in order. Not good news for her budget, considering she was currently unemployed. It was awkward timing, as far as the school year went, but she’d sent out her resume anyway. Hopefully something would come available. If not, she had a small nest egg that would hold her for a little while.

  Sadie rapped on the back door at the exact moment it exploded outward. With a fruitless pinwheeling of arms she went sprawling onto her butt down the service ramp.

  “That was graceful.”

  Sadie looked up at a goateed countenance that seemed more amused and annoyed than concerned. One of his eyebrows arched in the way that had always made him look particularly diabolical. Then he directed his gaze in a very obvious shift to the south.

  Making her aware that her loose-fitting skirt was currently hitched up almost to her earlobes.

  “Let me give you a hand.”

  “No, I’ve got it.” She pushed down her skirt and climbed painfully to her feet, cheeks heating in embarrassment. At least her underwear had improved from the Wonder Woman Underoos he’d once stolen and hoisted from the tree house like a flag.

  “Hurt your elbow?” He nodded toward her arm and bent down to retrieve her glasses.

  “It’s just a scrape.” She accepted the glasses and glanced down at the injured part in question. “No big deal.”

  “Okay.” He turned on his heel and strolled back through the door. Which closed behind him with an audible bang.

  Sadie waited, wondering if he’d gone inside to get a Band-Aid or something, but only the clattering of some dry palmetto fronds disturbed the salty air.

  After several awkward moments she realized he’d just left her standing there on the stoop. Without so much as a see ya later.

  Let alone an apology for knocking her down.

  Or inquiring as to the reason for her presence.

  What the… was there some reason he was being so rude? Not that Declan hadn’t always been annoying, but he’d at least had some grasp on basic manners. His mother had seen to that.

  And wasn’t he the one who suggested they act like adults?

  She marched right up to the door that had done her in earlier, and knocked loudly before stepping aside. She might be angry, but she wasn’t stupid.

  The door creaked open to reveal a put-out Declan, arms crossed over his annoyingly masculine chest. “What now?”

  “What is your problem?” she asked, all thoughts of maturity flying out the window. Or the kitchen door, as it were. “I come over here, with no intention of bothering you, just trying to find out what happened to my car, and you act like I’m some sort of… of… leper, or leech or something… a… a burr clinging on your ass, when all I needed from you was –”

  “What’s wrong with your car?” he interrupted, ignoring the rest of the tirade.

  “That’s what I was trying to ask you.” She emphasized the point with a jab of her finger into that chest. “Then you got all, all… the ice man cometh and acted like –”

  “It was fine when I left it in the hotel lot last night. If something’s happened to it, Sadie, don’t go looking to pin it on me.”

  He started to let the door bang shut, but Sadie forcibly stopped it with her body, adding another bruise, no doubt, to her ever-growing collection of injuries. “What do you mean, when you left it in the hotel lot?”

  He sighed, and squeezed his eyes shut as if the sight of her was causing him pain. “Pretty self-explanatory, Sadie Rose. I figured you’d need your car today, so I drove it over after I dropped you off and then caught a cab back here to the restaurant. Did someone dent it, or something?”

  “No. Someone didn’t dent it. It’s…” missing. Except, come to think of it, she wasn’t sure if that was true. She hadn’t even bothered to look in the lot for it, because she’d assumed it was still parked over here. Feeling like a woman who’d just realized her moral high horse was in reality a lowly ass, Sadie blinked hard and slammed her mouth shut. “Never mind. I’ll just…” She made a vague hand gesture and then simply allowed the door to close. Better to shut up now before she humiliated herself any further. However she’d imagined the first day of the New Year progressing, it certainly wasn’t like this – hung over, fiancé-less, making a fool of herself at every turn.

  She started walking, feeling for her cell phone in her purse, when a deep v
oice commanded her to wait. Wheeling around, she noted the reluctant apology on Declan’s face.

  “I’m sorry if I gave the impression you were an ass burr.” Oh, that was a spark of amusement, quickly snuffed. “Was there something you need help with? You want me to take a look at your car?”

  Which brought to mind an interesting question.

  “How did you drive my car to the hotel without an actual set of keys?” She’d been so caught up in sparring with him that she hadn’t even stopped to consider.

  He stared at her blankly for a moment. “I had an actual set of keys, Sadie. They appear to have fallen out of your purse onto the floorboard of my Jeep while you were hurling chow all over the parking lot.” The blank look edged into suspicion. “And you would know this if you had actually picked up those actual keys, which I left at the front desk of your actual hotel last night. Actually.”

  A gurgle of laughter threatened to erupt. Now he was actually acting like Declan.

  His own lips quivered momentarily. “You came over here in a cab, didn’t you? Probably thought your ride had been car-jacked?” The patronizing tone he leveled on her kicked her battle instincts back into gear.

  “It was a reasonable assumption,” she insisted haughtily.

  Declan stroked a hand down the length of his well-trimmed goatee before shaking her by the shoulders.

  “What are you d-doing?” she demanded, molars clacking together.

  “Trying to shake that damn stick loose. It must have gotten stuck up your ass in Denver.”

  Despite herself, a messy snort of laughter shot out before Sadie could stop it.

  Declan dropped his hands, backed up a step, and looked at a point somewhere over her shoulder. “You need a ride to your hotel?” The again was unspoken but implied.

  “Only if you avoid any and all cobblestones.”

  “Get in the car, Sadie Rose.” He pulled a keyless remote from his pocket. “I’ll just grab the paperwork I came over here for and meet you after I lock up.”

  STUPID.

  Riding around together in close proximity, engaging in cleverly insulting banter (read: foreplay) and allowing Sadie Rose to drag out his latent sense of chivalry was one of the stupider things Dec had ever done.

  He did not need this in his life right now.

  He didn’t need this in his life, ever.

  After the freakish, unexpected frenzy of arousal he’d experienced last night upon depositing Sadie in her hotel room, he’d planned a long, long hiatus from her company in order to keep to the straight and narrow. Particularly challenging to a man like him, who was given to steering both crooked and wide.

  Then she’d shown up at his back door. Sprawled all over the pavement. Wearing a thong made of black lace.

  God.

  He’d been tempted to haul her up, shove that lace aside, and plunge into her right there in the alley. To use lips, tongue, teeth and hands until that angel face was thoroughly debauched.

  With the restaurant’s dumpster adding the perfect, spoiled touch of ambience.

  Hell. He really was a bastard.

  So he’d done his damnedest to get rid of her quickly, ignoring the fact that she was banged up and hung over and obviously in some sort of conundrum, because the truth was he didn’t trust himself. He wasn’t used to tempering himself or straining his urges through the cheesecloth of decency, because whatever decency he’d been born with had died a painful death fourteen years ago. He was a lout, a player and an asshole. A self-centered son of a bitch. Every name he’d ever been called had been richly deserved. But for the first time in way too many years, he felt the overwhelming urge to do something right.

  Hence, he found himself playing chauffeur again to that tiny little package of big temptation.

  She was quiet, for once, merely checking out the scenery as they passed and rubbing her temple in an absentminded manner. He was torn between the desires to rag on her for being hung over and – more alarmingly – to offer to rub her temple himself. So he just kept his foot to the gas pedal and shut up. Every time he opened his mouth around her they ended up snapping out insults until he felt like laughing. And laughing with Sadie Rose Mayhew was something he didn’t care to do. Most of the women he hooked up with didn’t engage him mentally, and he liked it that way because it made it much easier to keep his relationships one hundred percent physical. The only other woman he knew who made him laugh and almost want to open up to was his older sister Kathleen. Of course she was his sister, and as such didn’t pose a real threat.

  But Sadie Rose was the closest thing to a female friend he could lay claim to, and the fact that he also wanted to jump her in the worst possible way was making the situation intolerable.

  He didn’t care about the women he had sex with and he didn’t have sex with women for whom he cared. Which up until the thong queen had blown back into town, hadn’t exactly presented a problem.

  Shit. This was ridiculous. He needed her away from him right now.

  Her cell phone rang, interrupting his musings.

  With a start, she pulled it out of her handbag and scanned the number before ignoring the call.

  Dec said nothing, but wondered if it was the infamous jilted fiancé. Maybe the man was trying to haul her back. Hell, who wouldn’t? But from what he’d heard, the guy was an arrogant ass. Kathleen had blabbed some of the details – not that he’d wanted to know them – when she called to thank him for last night.

  She probably just wanted to make sure he hadn’t done something dastardly to Sadie.

  Well, she had nothing to fear from him on that point, because he was going to do precisely nothing to Sadie Rose. In fact, after he dropped her off, he was going to erase her from his memory – Zap! – like those little light sticks from that movie Men In Black.

  Sadie Rose May-who?

  And if that didn’t work, maybe the damn fiancé would show up and pluck this particular monkey from his back.

  Within moments, the phone started to trill again.

  He snatched it up before Sadie could stop him.

  “Sadie Rose’s phone, but she’s a little busy right now. I’ll have her call you back when her mouth’s freed up for talking.”

  Sadie gasped and made a grab for the phone. Her eyes shot daggers that would have pierced his heart if he had one.

  “Hello?” she answered tentatively, turning toward the window to get away from Dec’s scrutiny. “Oh, happy New Year to you too, Dr. Webster. I did receive the letter of recommendation you emailed.”

  Eavesdropping on the conversation, Dec gathered the woman on the phone was her former boss.

  And from the blush creeping up her neck, that Sadie found his secretarial skills lacking.

  Good. Easier for them both if she thought he was an ass.

  The hotel came into view just as Sadie completed the call, and she turned toward him with renewed hostility. “Thank you for the ride.”

  She had the door open before the Jeep rolled to a stop.

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  JOSIE Nash rubbed her cheek against the dirty carpet on the floor of the van. If she could just get the edge of the duct tape loosened, she might be able to peel it away from her mouth.

  And then she’d be able to scream.

  Not that she knew whether or not there was anyone around to hear her. There were no windows in the back of the van. Only the weak light filtering through the crack between the doors let her know that another night had passed.

  How long had it been since she’d taken her trash to the curb, only to find herself grabbed from behind? Two days? Three?

  The endless hours of terror were running together.

  But she still remembered the initial thrill of fear when that hard hand had clamped across her mouth. From the moment she’d recognized Skeeter’s old buddies, she’d known she was as good as dead. Skeet had messed up big time by falling in with those boys, but Josie hadn’t been able to turn her back on him when he’d called her. More fool her.
>
  Because now the Marshalls were going to kill her.

  Only by holding out on the last piece of information she knew had she managed to make it this long. She’d led them as far as Charleston, denying any knowledge beyond that. They suspected she was lying.

  But as soon as the Marshalls found Skeet, she’d be of no use to them anymore.

  Cheek growing hot from where the carpet abraded it, Josie ignored this latest assault to her flesh. There’d been enough other wounds inflicted by the tip of Wilson’s knife that some rug-burn was hardly worth mentioning. Glancing down, she noted the stains darkening her soiled sweater.

  And remembering exactly how those drying stains had come about, rubbed against the carpet even harder.

  A noise outside froze her in place. She lifted her aching head to listen. It sounded like… a car door? Was it possible they’d parked the van in some kind of lot?

  Hope fizzed like shaken soda through her veins, bubbling to the surface of her despair, and she rubbed against the carpet even harder. Just a little more. Just a little…

  One of the back doors swung open to reveal Brady’s smiling face.

  “Good morning, Josie! You’ll never guess who Wilson and I ran into last night.”

  The duct tape finally loosened, just in time for Josie to scream.

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  DESPONDENT, Sadie sat in her car in the empty driveway, staring at her grandmother’s house. It wasn’t quite the crack den Kathleen had caused her to visualize last night, but time, not to mention numerous renters, hadn’t exactly been kind. The wooden structure – a traditional example of Low Country architecture, with its wide porches, tabby foundation and cat slide dormers darkened by plantation shutters tightly closed – looked sad and forlorn amidst the tangle of azaleas that had grown wild in the passing years. The white boards might lack graffiti, but they could certainly use a decent coat of paint. And the enormous live oaks crouched over the house made it look like something from a dark fairy tale, the Spanish moss dripping onto the rusting tin roof the tattered robes from which their bony fingers pointed.