by Jule McBride
“It was your imagination,” she whispered.
Chapter Three
The next morning, Ari shivered as she sped toward the police station. It was 9:20 a.m. and she’d left in such a hurry that she hadn’t brought a jacket or umbrella. It was drizzling, the temperature near forty. Over the hypnotic sweep of windshield wipers, a newscaster announced a tornado watch for later in the day, typical mercurial weather for this time of year in the South.
“What kind of maniac would do such a thing?” Ari said into her cell.
“I don’t know. I’m glad you’re on your way,” said Lizzie.
Not as glad as Ari. She wanted to focus on anything but the stranger. When the phone rang, she’d been trying to fix the weird echo in the soundproofed walk-in closet before running errands to stock up on supplies, in case there really was a tornado. She wanted to take the guy’s coat to the cleaners, too, but first, she’d had to knock out the MP3 for the acid reflux people. They were patient—she loved acid reflux—and then she’d decided to finish a voice-over for sleeping pills. That turned out so well that she, herself, had almost fallen asleep. Would have, if she hadn’t been thinking about Mr. Electricity.
Steering with her knee, she shifted gears and repositioned the phone. “This settles it, Lizzie, I’m getting you a Taser and pepper spray. And we’re taking concealed carry classes.” She’d shot guns a few times, if only during the few weeks she’d dated Jason Orley who owned a gun shop. “Lizzie, start at the beginning and tell me everything again.”
“I was following my usual routine,” Lizzie began, delivering the story in stops and starts, since she was shaken. “I went to work. Got my muffin and tea, just like every morning. Maybe I wasn’t paying enough attention. I was thinking about the rice bags we still have to get for the wedding, and I wanted to check with the florist, to make sure the yellow roses will be really fresh.”
“Lizzie, this is not your fault!”
“I know it’s not. I got in the elevator to go up to my floor...”
“And he followed you?” Apparently, some jerk had slammed the stop button of the elevator while he and Lizzie were riding together, then he’d tried to force himself on Lizzie, but she had fought back.
“He said I wasn’t fooling him one bit,” Lizzie continued. She had pressed the emergency button, but not before the psycho tried to wrap her legs around his waist. It sounded sort of hot, actually. Well...it would be hot if the encounter had been consensual. Ari was hardly going to mention she’d read fantasies like this in novels and Nancy Friday books, or that sex in an elevator was tame compared to the events in Fifty Shades of Grey.
“I’m almost there, Lizzie. Just sit tight.” Ari wasn’t proud of it, but she was grateful for a crisis, although not of this magnitude. For a few minutes, she had forgotten the stranger completely. Now her overactive brain was back at it, doing all sorts of dirty things with him in an imaginary elevator. This wasn’t about her, though, it was about Lizzie! How could she be so self-centered? “What about Mom and Dad Mad?”
“I called them first. By the time we hung up, they were almost here. Eli’s being really nice. I’m so glad I voted for him for sheriff. Gavin got me a tea. I spilled my other one in the elevator.”
“Of course you did. You were probably scared to death!”
“Eddie wants to help take my statement.”
Thank God for men. Well...most men. “This guy did not hurt you, right?”
“Nothing like that, Ari. And the whole thing was over really fast.” Lizzie plunged into the story once more, recounting how Eddie Hawkins, who worked security for the mall, had come running as soon as Lizzie pressed the emergency buzzer. As first responder, he overrode the elevator controls, brought the car to the first floor, then pried open the doors with his hands.
“But the man fought like a pit bull,” Lizzie reported.
Eddie could not have taken him down alone, but Jack Jenkins rushed to help. He was the dentist Lizzie was working for, and to whom she’d become engaged. Gavin Guthrie had appeared, seemingly out of nowhere, and he joined the melee. Mom Mad called Gavin The Accountant Who Will Never Propose, since he’d dated Lizzie since tenth grade. Three months ago, Jack The Dentist, who’d known Lizzie all her life, yet had never made a move, had broken up with his girlfriend, Cheryl, hired Lizzie as his hygienist and started a whirlwind courtship. Now their Final Event was in nineteen days.
Realizing she was imagining herself half undressed in a stopped elevator, Ari silently damned the stranger who had invaded the most private recesses of her mind. As she focused her thoughts on Lizzie, her heart tugged in a million directions. She and Lizzie might have their differences—Mom and Dad Mad, too—but they came together in a crisis. If this jerk had touched one hair on Lizzie’s head, Ari would kill him, personally. Like Mom and Dad Mad, Ari kept Lizzie on a pedestal, but now some deranged sicko had breached the protective wall they had all erected around Lizzie. “Are you positive you’re okay?”
“I am,” Lizzie assured shakily. “Eddie got me out of the elevator fast.”
Eddie Hawkins had always loved a good fight. In second grade, he’d fallen for Ari, and for months, if other boys so much as looked at her, he’d decimated them. Sickness knotted in Ari’s stomach as she thought about Lizzie’s comparatively well-ordered life—the pin-neat home she’d made in the carriage house on Mom and Dad Mad’s property, her nightly, after-dinner treks next door to watch the Hallmark Channel with Mom Mad, the steady male companions who still didn’t have names in the Madden household, but were known as The Accountant and The Dentist.
Lizzie was reiterating the attack once more, as if retelling the story would eventually make it more real. “Gavin was like an animal,” she offered.
Maybe he’d never proposed, but he was the only man who’d landed a solid punch in Lizzie’s defense. Together the three—Eddie, Gavin and Jack—had brought down the attacker, but he only quit fighting after Eddie Tasered then handcuffed him.
“Jack’s at Urgent Care?” The Dentist could be injured enough to merit a full body cast, but it was no excuse. What kind of guy would leave Lizzie while he got himself checked out by Doc Dickerson? Maybe Gavin couldn’t commit, but he’d decked the attacker and escorted Lizzie to the police station.
“Mom and Dad are here. They were on their way to school when it happened. They turned right around.”
“Be there soon.” Ari clicked off her cell.
Minutes later, as she parked the Mustang between her parents’ SUV and Gavin’s familiar black Jeep, she felt guilty for liking him more than The Dentist. Gavin was an accountant, and both men were professionals, but The Dentist looked sort of uptight. He kept his red hair closely cropped, and always wore pressed slacks and button-down shirts. Because Gavin was the one who’d dated Lizzie since tenth grade and Lizzie had spent so many years planning her wedding to him, Ari had always thought of him as family. “All those years of dating Gavin and now Lizzie’s going to marry The Dentist,” she muttered. It just didn’t seem right. Gavin hadn’t put the ring on Lizzie’s finger, however, and Lizzie’s biological clock was ticking.
Grabbing her shoulder bag, Ari clamped her teeth to stop their chattering as she ran through the rain. Relief flooded her when she entered the building and embraced her sister. She was only vaguely aware of the other people. Of Mom Mad, looking composed in a khaki skirt and blazer, her salt-and-pepper hair cut razor-sharp to her jaw. Of skinny, graying Dad Mad, wearing his wire-rimmed glasses and an off-the-rack blue suit. Of the peripheral blob of tan uniforms that were Eli Jones and Eddie Hawkins. Gavin was hovering beside Lizzie like a knight in armor, dark eyes flashing, longish brown hair tousled. Ari ran her hands over Lizzie, making sure she was okay. Mom Mad always reminded Ari that, as the older sister, she had to take responsibility, even if she was older by only two minutes.
She had failed to keep
Lizzie safe, though. Some horrible person had attacked her sister, but that wouldn’t matter. Somehow, this would be Ari’s fault. It always was. She leaned back a fraction. Although she’d seen her sister almost every day of her life, Ari never got over the shock of their identical looks. They had the same squarish face framed by strawberry hair shot through with strands of pale yellow and copper gold. The same ski-jump nose and amber eyes.
It was truly weird when someone else on earth looked exactly like you, which was why Ari had worked so hard to differentiate herself. Their folks had always lump-summed them, saying, “the twins this,” and “the twins that.” It was as if they’d never gotten past the fact that they were supposed to have only one baby. Ari was not “the twins,” though. She was a unique being. So was Lizzie. The quest to set herself apart had begun with Ari wearing shorter skirts and darker lipsticks, then with her being more aggressive with boys, until finally, one day, she’d been designated The Black Sheep. Now she was heavier than Lizzie, and her hair was longer. Giving her sister another fierce, maternal hug, Ari whispered, “What kind of loser would do this?” Her eyes searched the station, darting through the open Plexiglas barrier window to the holding cells. And then she saw him.
“Pants on Fire?” she whispered hoarsely.
For a second, the whole station house seemed to tilt and conflicting sensations and emotions raged inside her, not the least of which was unwanted sexual awareness. There it was, though, a spark of fire, a flash of heat, a sizzle of current. No suit this morning, he was wearing new-looking, pre-washed jeans that hugged him in all the right places. She couldn’t begin to guess what he did for a living. She’d thought of him as The Soldier. The Navy SEAL. Possibly The Lawyer. Or Doctor. Only to find out he was Mr. Convict or something. Raising her voice so it could be heard through the window, she said, “You attacked my sister?”
After a long silence, he said the worst possible thing. “I thought it was you.”
“As if that would have made it all right,” she managed.
But of course it would have. Because all the way here, she’d been imagining he was the man in the elevator. Her back had been pressed against the wall and his warm hands had been lifting her so she had no choice but to wrap her legs around his waist.
Back in reality, he was staring at her through bars, and the big hands that had roved over her body were settled on his waist. He didn’t have to raise his voice for the accusatory tone to be heard. “You never said you had a sister.”
They hadn’t exactly been discussing family histories.
“And definitely not a...”
“Twin,” she supplied. “Well, I do. And anybody could tell us apart. Nobody’s ever mixed us up. Ever. I’m heavier than Lizzie and have longer hair. So, I wouldn’t have thought to mention it. We don’t even look alike.”
“You look exactly alike.”
“We don’t dress alike.”
“That’s for sure,” he muttered.
What did he mean by that? Maybe she wasn’t wearing a tweed skirt like Lizzie, but she got dressed and put on makeup every day. She’d even gotten Eli’s missus to touch up her roots last night. She prided herself on not becoming like the self-employed people who lived in sweatpants. The way his gaze was scorching down her front, though, she wished she hadn’t chosen this short, green jumper. It had long straps that fastened just beneath her boobs, and underneath she wore white tights and a puff-sleeved, white peasant top with a gathered neckline that tied in a bow in front. It was embroidered with red and yellow flowers. Earlier she’d thought the outfit was adorable, but one dubious glance from Mr. Electricity ruined it. Since her rain-damp hair was in braids and she was wearing red leather clogs, she suddenly felt like a drowned-rat version of Heidi in the Alps. Everybody else looked super composed. Especially Lizzie. That made things worse. Even after surviving the ordeal meant for Ari and traveling to the police station in a storm, Lizzie’s white lab coat looked freshly starched.
“Anybody could tell us apart,” Ari repeated.
The censure in his gaze was hard to bear. It defined the phrase, withering glance.
Worse, he looked way smarter than before, if that was possible. Definitely, more manageable after a few daiquiris. Now he’d been Tased on her account, and the flesh around his left eye was a purplish, presumably where Gavin had punched him. Despite the circumstances, a warm shudder swept through her. No wonder it had taken three guys to bring him down. She couldn’t help but imagine how the taut biceps would feel flexing against her sides as he lifted her...
“Aribella Madden, do you know this man?” Mom Mad’s question interrupted the hot little fantasy, and the way she emphasized “know,” she seemed to mean in the biblical sense.
“Oh, I see,” whispered Lizzie, sounding shocked, as if she’d just received a revelation on the level of an oracle.
Yes, sweet Lizzie, not to mention everybody else, including the whole freaking Blackwater police force, was now registering the full implications of what the man had said. It was sinking in that this sort of male advance was well within the perimeters of Ari’s everyday experience. But it wasn’t! Even the most promising kisses usually went flat! They fizzled like day-old soda! Guttered like snuffed-out candles! Until her night with him, the bells and whistles were just a figment of her imagination. Lizzie was such a straight arrow that Ari wound up looking bad by comparison, no matter what she did! Her life was probably even more boring than Lizzie’s. She’d never had sex in an elevator!
“Aribella,” her mother said firmly.
She wasn’t proud of it, but she wavered. Criminal charges didn’t get much more serious than for attacking women, but Ari wasn’t going to discuss the night before last with anyone, especially not Mom Mad.
The man wrenched his gaze away. But what had she done wrong? He was as bad as Mom and Dad Mad, blaming her for everything! He was the one who’d trapped her sister in an elevator. All Ari had done was rush to the rescue! Now he was apologizing to Lizzie in a way so sincere and heartfelt, that Ari’s lips parted in mute protest. He was practically getting down on his knees and groveling for forgiveness. It was a far cry from, “you’re going to be begging for it all night long, sweetheart,” and other such things dirty things he’d whispered in her ears.
Eddie Hawkins gasped. “I remember now. Night before last at Boondocks, you left with this guy. Right, Ari?”
“I’m so sorry,” Lizzie was gushing. “I should have known it was a come-on meant for Ari. Gosh, I feel terrible and incredibly stupid....”
Only Lizzie could use words like gosh in the twenty-first century. “It’s been a terrible misunderstanding for us all,” Ari managed to interject.
“Who is he, Aribella?” Mom Mad’s lips compressed in censure, making Ari feel closer to five years old than twenty-six. “You don’t know his name, do you? No, she doesn’t, Scott,” Mom Mad continued, answering herself. Scott was Dad Mad’s first name.
Ari’s heart was beating so rapidly she could hear blood rush in her ears. “Of course I do. It’s...uh...”
“Bruno. Bruno Brandt.”
The last emotion Ari wanted to feel was gratitude, but he’d just rescued her from Mom Mad. What a gent. Could she get out of here before Eli uncuffed him, though? Liar-Liar would be out of the cell any second, and given the flinty look in his eyes, what followed was not going to be pretty. It could be even more explosive than what he’d planned to do in the elevator. She edged toward the door saying, “Bruno? I’m sure I’ve mentioned him? I’ve been talking about him all the time, right? The man I’ve been seeing?”
“Then he can join us next Sunday for supper, Aribella.”
She started to lie and say she’d extended an invitation already, and that Bruno had other plans, but the rumble of his voice stopped her. “I’ll look forward to it, Mrs. Madden.”
“You may call me Emily.”
>
“Thank you, Mrs. Madden.”
Just when Ari thought the situation couldn’t worsen, he added, “Is there anything I can bring?”
“Just the pleasure of your company.”
Ari could only gape. A second later, lies were spewing from her mouth faster than she could keep up with them. “I have an important appointment...Skype call about a potential account...it was ten minutes ago. Gotta run!” Even the National Federation of Teachers contract could not save Ari now. So much for the hours she’d practiced saying, “The Learning Investment.” She continued. “Mom, Dad Mad, Bruno, Lizzie, we’ll do it again soon!” Since no graceful exit was possible, and Eli’s keys were jangling in the cell lock, Ari waved, then trotted toward the doors. Knowing she didn’t look very dignified and feeling the man’s eyes boring holes into her back, she was determined not to run, but as soon as she was outside, she did.
Chapter Four
When Bruno’s GPS led him to a bungalow with a For Rent sign staked on the front easement, he realized she hadn’t been lying about leasing her place. She really was leaving town. After traversing a long, tree-lined gravel driveway, he pulled the Road Rover around back beside a dented pickup truck, then surveyed the gardening supplies in the bed. No blue Mustang, such as he’d glimpsed when she’d left the station. Of course she didn’t drive the gray Honda. Or have a closet full of lab coats. Or spend her mornings flirting with the dentist. He should have known, but from the second he’d seen her in Boondocks, his brain had short-circuited, all the usual connections misfiring.
The heat he’d shared with her in bed had totally turned his head. No woman had ever affected him this way before. He wasn’t sure exactly what he wanted from her yet, but he felt like a dog with a bone that couldn’t let go. She’d burrowed under his skin, making it itch there in a way he was destined to scratch.
