"He said he would meet Mark in the West Bottoms by the old toy company building to pay him off. He will keep his word, won't he?"
Shelby raised her hand, intent on slugging Kate but changed her mind. "Yeah, he'll keep his word. That's what I'm afraid of."
She pushed Kate aside and ran to the elevator, punishing the buttons in her furious will to get to Nick.
"Let me drive you, Shelby. I know where it is."
"You go to hell, Kate. I'll find Nick."
* * * *
In the fog shrouded West Bottoms of town, Nick and Savage waited for the action to start.
"You couldn't ask for a better night for this caper." Savage rubbed his hand over his hair. "Fog, deserted buildings, winos." He looked at Nick's stern profile. "All we need are trench coats."
"Funny, Savage. Really funny." Nick lit a cigar, taking a deep draw. "You just keep your eyes peeled for those scumbags."
"Might be a mistake. Lighting that cigar." Savage seemed serious.
"Why's that?" Nick asked.
"You know. They could see that glow a mile away." Savage's caution had been wasted on Nick.
"They know we're here. I could have used a blowtorch and it wouldn't make any difference." Nick pointed his cigar toward the far end of the alley. "Looks like the rats are coming out of their holes."
Mark emerged from the shadows, looking around like an animal testing the wind. Nick suffocated in his intense hatred for Mark, wanting to crush the animal that had all but ruined two lives. He touched the door handle. Savage's hand stayed his movement.
"Wait." Savage ceased the joking. His customary smile faded. "Let's see who else shows up."
"I'm going." Nick got out of the car and walked away to face Mark. He touched the bulge of newspaper next to his chest, bile tearing his gut apart.
It seemed to him a lifetime passed before Kate came running from the shadows, gasping for breath. She had a hard time speaking to him.
"Nick, I just want to say I’m sorry.”
"I don't want to talk to you, Kate. It's the gutter rat hiding behind you I want a few words with."
Mark put on a show of bravado. "Stuff it, Gualdoni. Give me the money."
Nick reached inside his jacket, drawing out the thick packet. He looked past Mark, counting four men at the edge of the heavy fog. Whatever happened, he had to do what he had to do.
Mark rasped out a command. "What are you waiting for? Give me the frigging cash or I'll make it twice as rough on your little whore."
Before Mark drew another breath, Nick hit him with a punishing left hook to the mouth and finished him off with a right cross to break his nose. Mark fell back in a spray of blood and broken cartilage, unconscious on the cold brickyard.
"Looks good, doesn't he?" Savage laughed while looking down at the sprawled body of Mark. "You still got it, buddy."
Slinging his hand to ease the pain, Nick laughed. "Damn. I wanted him to stay on his feet until I finished pounding his ass."
The four men in the dark suits looked over the loser of the battle and shrugged in unison, one of them speaking. "Thanks, pal. Saved us the trouble."
Nick nodded, tossing the packet of fake money onto Mark's chest. The men backed away quickly when the outraged scream of a female echoed through the mist.
“Nick! Damn you!"
He couldn't believe it when Shelby ran toward him, her hair catching the breeze as she crossed the dank brick parking lot. He tried to wave her off.
"Get out of here, Shel! Go back!"
She didn't alter her course but ran straight into his arms. "Damn you, Nick. What do you think you're doing? Playing cops and robbers? Are you trying to get yourself killed? I'm not going to let you do it."
He caught her flailing hands and held her fast for a second before shifting her behind himself, trying to shield her from harm.
"Stay back there, Shel. It could get ugly."
She peered around his arm and checked the toughs out. They stared back at her, not blinking or speaking. She leaned against Nick for reassurance. When he moved, she clung to him.
"Are we leaving?"
"Damn straight, if we can."
He held her tight in his arms and whispered gruffly. "What the hell are you doing here?"
“Trying to keep you from going to jail.”
"Hell, I didn't hurt him." He caught her hand and pulled it to his mouth to kiss her cold fingers. That's all he could do before the light of a spot-light blinded him. "Savage. Christ's sake. Cut that spot."
"Freeze!"
The voice coming from the darkness wasn't Savage being funny.
"This is the Kansas City Police Department. You’re all under arrest."
The order sounded authentic enough, especially when he saw Savage cuffed by a burly police officer along with everyone else at the scene. "Christ." Nick mumbled under his breath and tried to shield Shelby in his shadow, placing his hands on top of his head. All to no avail. She soon found herself in the custody of the law, wearing steel bracelets and wearing a stunned expression.
* * * *
She screamed for Nick to help her, but a burley detective only allowed him to shout a few hasty words of encouragement. She high stepped to keep up with the officer in charge of transporting her downtown.
“Don’t be afraid, Shel.” He stumbled as a detective shoved toward a paddy wagon. He shouted again, as he was being frisked. “Once we get downtown, I’ll straighten this out.”
Not having another choice, Shelby sat in the back and suffered the indignity of being buckled into her seat. Twisting around, she saw Nick and Savage being loaded into the back of the paddy wagon along with the big men in dark overcoats. In the solitude of the patrol car, she understood complete humiliation. Out and out frustration came right after she tugged on the cuffs and realized she had been rendered helpless. Hot tears slipped down her cheeks and she sobbed in misery.
If only she hadn’t gotten lost trying to find the place. All that wasted time could have made the difference in getting him to go home with her instead of going to jail. She wished now she had taken Kate up on her offer to do the driving. Kate had arrived on the scene before her, and now in a freaked out panic, screamed for Nick to leave her man alone. She had sounded like a wildcat after Mark fell back on his unconscious butt. Damn, she wanted to slug that woman.
As the squad car next to her pulled away, she caught a glimpse of Kate bawling her eyes out in the back seat. Shelby grit her teeth, thinking of how that spineless woman had demolished her life, and still had smiled at her every day while she suffered alone.
Her tumbling thoughts swung to Nick and what she might do to him when she did get him alone. She planned to punish him for a long time. He deserved it. How could he be so completely reckless and macho? She burst into a new round of tears.
She pressed back against the seat when the patrol car took off and sped toward the downtown precinct. As much as she disliked being a prisoner in a patrol car, it seemed the ride ended way too soon. It took only a few minutes to deliver her to the jail. Getting out of the car held no glamour either. No photographers and no good-looking attorneys wanting to save her butt.
Everything took on an ethereal look after being escorted inside the station. Every sound echoed in the marble hallways and the smell of onions nauseatingly strong. The source of the noxious odor oozed from a wastebasket by the elevator door. A sign on the wall said it was the service elevator and posters everywhere reminding officers to check their prisoners for weapons. She underwent a thorough but non-invasive search by a five-foot-three inch female officer and finally, the cuffs came off. Damn. She couldn’t believe they were getting on the felon’s elevator.
She didn’t argue with the officer that took her to the booking desk. She gave a nice mature officer her name, address and drivers license information. As if they had no more use for her, she was shown to a small interrogation room. Shelby didn’t quibble over the starkness of the place or the hard chair. She faced the windows to
keep an eye on the activity in the hallway and rubbed her wrists. Strange how the cuffs hadn’t hurt. She had expected torture.
The end must be near, she thought, her hopes rising when a detective brought her a cup of hot black coffee.
He set it on the table without one word and left. She’d had enough. She couldn't bear not knowing what had happened to Nick.
The officer came back and flipped open a notepad and shattered the silence with an abrupt question.
"Ms. Rand. Do you know Mark Allworth?"
"Yes. He's my secretary's fiancé."
"Has she mentioned him being in financial trouble?"
"Not really."
"Did you know he planned to extort extorting money from your boyfriend ... er, Gualdoni?'
"No, or I mean yes. After Kate told me what might happen tonight, I knew and that's why I followed him. I became afraid he would be killed." She swiped at the tears sliding down her cheeks.
The officer grinned over the top of his notepad. "Okay. Allworth never threatened you? Could he be the one trashing your car?"
She shook her head. "I can't be sure. I didn't see the person doing it. How did you know about that?"
"Gualdoni complained loud and clear on the subject." He put the pen and pad in his coat pocket. "Okay. We have everything we need."
"But, how did you know about the extortion?" Shelby clung to the edge of her chair.
"We didn't. We had a net out for Allworth’s money lenders and he just got caught in the bust." He went out of the room, leaving her alone.
The door had a narrow window and she peeked out, hearing the muffled laughter of a couple uniformed officers that passed by her room. She jumped back in fright when a stern-faced detective opened the door, crooking a finger at her.
“We’re cutting you loose.” He held the door for her. “You got a ride home?”
She didn’t know how to answer for sure, but she had to get to Nick. “I want to know where Nick Gualdoni is.”
The detective laughed. “Gualdoni?”
“Yes. What have they done to him?”
“Not a thing. They’re through with him. I think he’s already left along with that wiseass attorney of his."
Chapter 16
Memories of Nick's wisecracking insults and downright mean as dirt comments pounded against her heart. What made her so anxious to be with a guy that had no trust in her but didn't mind having casual sex with her, even going so far as to say he wanted a couple of kids with her?
And here she stood being kicked loose from a police station all because of him. And he had left her there? Fury, hot and deep coursed through her blood. Shelby stomped toward the booking desk and asked to use the phone.
Her temperature hit explosive levels while she punched in numbers on the phone. Why did it take so long for the dispatcher at the cab company to answer? Shrugging her coat off and letting it fall to the floor, Shelby jerked her head around to look at the person yelling her name from the far end of the hall.
"Shel."
Nick hurried toward her, his dazzling smile a mile wide and waving at her like an eager kid. He hadn't deserted her after all, but it made no difference. She turned her back on him.
"Shel."
She scrunched her shoulders to avoid looking at him and pressed the earpiece closer. Damn him. She didn't want to see or hear him. He could go to hell.
"Shelby."
She could hear his footsteps on the marble floor as he ran in her direction. She could barely grip the phone when he hugged her waist and kissed her cheek.
"Honey, let's go home." He brushed at her windblown hair. "We have the rest of our lives to talk."
"Go to hell, Nick." She put the phone down and glared at him.
He hesitated, then laughed. "Okay, I know you're pissed about being brought in here, but it doesn't matter. Everything is okay now. We can go home and talk it all out."
They moved out to the center aisle and became part of the crowd, surrounded by cursing drunks and sloppy hookers. The insanity of it slapped Shelby in the face.
"Who do you think you are?"
"A fool, Shel. A damned fool."
She slapped at his hands when he touched her. "Stop it. I’m not going anywhere with a crazy person.” She turned her face away to avoid his kiss.
"I have a lot of things to make up for, honey. I just know I love you more than life and can't make it without you."
"I'm not sure about that."
"I don't blame you for needing to think about it, but let’s do it at home."
"I don't think you deserve me."
"What do you want? I'll kiss your bare ass in the middle of Main Street at high noon if that's what you want."
"Damn it, Nick! Think back a few months. I haven't forgotten you seemed ready to have me put away for stealing from you. You didn't give me a second chance. I'm the same woman and the same distrust hangs over us. I don't think you're ready for the kind of love I want from a man."
"You don't mean that."
"I’ve never been more serious."
"Aw, damn, Shel. Give me another chance?" He grimaced hard, his worried gaze searching her face. "Will you think about it before you completely freeze me out?"
"I'm going home." She gave his hand a scorching glance when he touched her arm. Grabbing her coat, she headed for the exit, flinging back over her shoulder. "Alone."
"Shel. I'm begging. Please don't do this to us."
"Please don't do this to me, Nick. I need a lot of space and time away from you to get myself straight."
Outside the building, she waited for a cab. When Savage approached her, she wanted to run away from all reminders of Nick. Savage smiled at her and inclined his head toward a limo parked at the curb.
He patted the roof of the long automobile and shrugged. "My spare wheels when I get into trouble. I know your car’s still at the warehouse, so would you let me take you home?”
“You can take me to my car.” She still worried about the man that had brought her to this humiliation. "Is Nick riding with you?" She sounded like an idiot. She didn't care. He was her life.
Savage opened the limo door for her "One of the dicks ... I mean detectives is giving him a lift to pick up his car."
Shelby sighed and let him help her into his limo. It was better this way. When he got in with her, she thought he and Nick were exactly alike. Both headstrong and hell-bent on getting their own way. The world couldn't handle two Nicks. She bit her knuckle and looked out the window while the big limo moved through the deserted city streets, her heart near bursting with loneliness and regret.
After they got back to the West Bottoms, she and Savage exchanged a few words before leaving. Shelby smiled at Nick's best friend and offered a kind of closure to the sordid mess. "I'm not holding a grudge over any of this. I love him.”
He inhaled roughly and shook his head. "It's none of my business, but Nick hates himself a lot more than you ever could. He's a man in pain."
"I know the feeling well."
"The only thing I know for sure is he didn’t want to think you were double dealing, Shel.”
"The point is I would never have believed that of him. I love Nick so much I would take his place before a firing squad."
"I believe that." He touched her shoulder and grinned at her. "I have a feeling this isn't over." He scowled lightly when he opened the driver's side door to her car. The keys dangled from the ignition. "Ladies like you are hard to find."
She hugged his waist before getting into her car, locking the door like he signaled her to do. He followed her back to her apartment, then drove away.
* * * *
What had she done? Shelby stood on the terrace and breathed in the crisp night air. It wasn't an act of survival, rather one to stem the sobs that played tag in her heart. She knew she must be the craziest woman in the world, feeling such heartbreak over the guy that had used her for a doormat. She’d never forget being trussed up like a turkey and hauled off to jail.
The cola had gone flat. From now on, her life would be like that cola. Without her love, it would never sparkle again. Tossing the bottle into the wastebasket, she walked into her bedroom and sat on the edge of the mattress. Catching a glimpse of herself in the mirror on the closet door, she grimaced and removed her shoe and threw it at her reflection.
Christ, what a mess. Her hair once caught up in a dizzying swirl of corkscrew curls and frizzy strands that had pasted themselves to her cheeks. The little bit of mascara left made nice big smudges under her eyes. "Lovely," she groaned. "Just lovely."
A glint coming from something on her dresser drew her attention and she got up to look at the gleaming item. Tears welled in her eyes in spite of her hard swipe at them. Nick's gold chain. He'd forgotten it after taking it off the last night when he’d stayed with her. He could be so careless with his things. She brought the cool gold to her lips. Her fingers shook as she put the chain over her head and settled it against her breasts.
She almost fainted with the power of the emotion that swept through her. Why did stand here, whining like a schoolgirl?
“Nothing risked, nothing gained.” Whatever Nick may be, he would forever be the man in her life.
A surge of nervous excitement warmed her skin while she prepared to go visiting. She must be out of her mind slipping into silk tap pants and matching white bustier. Completing her ensemble of insanity, she strapped on three-inch heeled platforms. "Perfect."
A quick refreshing of makeup and she was ready to go. Getting a long black wool coat from the closet, she glanced out the window. "Great." A heavy snow had begun to fall. "Perfect." She had no time to curse the weather. She had a man to seduce into lifetime submission.
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