by Jenny Penn
“I don’t know,” Kathy hedged, forcing herself not to look in Collin’s direction as she flushed out her rejection. “I think I might be busy tonight.”
“Fine.” Sarah Anne heaved a dramatic sigh as she shot Kathy a dirty look. “But we’ve been stalled out at the beginning of season four for five weeks now. There’s only so long I’m willing to wait.”
“I swear, next week.” Kathy finished loading up returns onto the cart. “I’ll even bring the chips.”
“You feel a whole lot guiltier than chips…try donuts,” Sarah Anne corrected her. “And I’m talking filled, not glazed.”
“You got it.”
Kathy tossed Sarah Anne a nod only because it gave her a chance to glance over at Collin. The man stared back, not even pretending to be interested in reading anything. If he wanted to make a point, he’d done it. Shoving the cart off toward the stacks, she half expected him to follow.
Thankfully he didn’t, and she finally got a chance to consider Jack’s slipup over Marion Myers last night. Jack had to know she was the mayor’s wife. The possibility of a locally elected official involved in his federal case would probably distress Jack. The only problem with that conclusion was that Mayor Myers had never appeared any slimier than the average politician. That didn’t mean he wasn’t. Kathy would have to do some snooping to figure that out.
She didn’t need to go any further than her own memory to find another interesting fact about Marion Myers. Marion Myers had actually been born Marion Dyne, youngest child of Agnus and Agatha Dyne and sister of Eddie Dyne. It was a connection that Marion herself worked hard to make sure people forgot. Kathy didn’t doubt why either.
Agnus and Agatha were legends around town, him for his temper and her for her drinking. They’d both passed when Kathy was a teenager, but even she could remember some of the shows they’d put on for the town. Of course, that would pale in comparison to the one Marion would put on if people found out about her association with Will.
As much fun as it might be to duck out of her recent notoriety by throwing Marion to the wolves, Kathy suspected Marion’s role in Amanda’s problems was minor. It seemed far more likely that her brother, Eddie, had set everything up, including Will for murder. Of course, Kathy had to prove that.
She also had to find a way to manage Collin and his newfound “boss of her” attitude. There was a slim chance she could duck out for lunch while he was distracted with one of the many women vying for his attention. Skipping out the other day only appeared to have made curiosity swell, and women kept pouring through the library’s main entrance.
They might have come to “accidently” bump into Kathy and deliver some kind of jealous put-down, but one by one, they all became distracted by Collin. He didn’t help the situation by making it clear to each and every one that he only had eyes for one woman. While a part of her thrilled to be so openly claimed, Kathy couldn’t help but think it would make for trouble in the long run.
The long run turned out to be two hours later when Kathy tried to escape for lunch while leaving Collin behind. She’d thought she’d been quite clever about discreetly pulling her wallet from her purse along with her keys and leaving the bag in her desk drawer. Hoping Collin hadn’t noticed anything amiss, she headed through the office into the supply room and out the back door into the alley.
Exiting that way required her to go all the way down and loop back around the stores running along Main Street to get to the library parking lot. It took her a couple of minutes to make it to her car, and by the time she came huffing up the drive she could see Collin leaning against her driver’s side door.
“Going somewhere, sweet meat?”
“Stop calling me that!” Kathy snapped.
“I’ll call you whatever I want,” Collin retorted.
“Call me whatever you want and I’ll go wherever I want.”
Kathy met that arrogant response with her own haughtily raised chin.
“Sure thing, sweet meat, as long as I’m at your side,” Collin agreed easily.
“Fine.” Kathy didn’t have the time in her lunch break to waste on this argument. “Follow along, but get the hell out of my way.”
Collin’s only response to that was to hold out his hand for her keys.
“Oh, no.” Kathy shook her head, taking a step back. “You’re not driving.”
“I am.”
“Damnit, Collin!”
Kathy spat that curse at him louder than she’d intended, as if they hadn’t already started to draw notice from the passersby. Out here, Kathy had not only those going into the library to contend with, but anybody driving down Main Street could clearly see them. Then again, that probably suited his ends just fine.
“You know you’re being an ass.” Kathy kept her voice low as she tried one last desperate attempt to shame him into getting out of her way.
“I know that I’ll take you wherever you want to go, but I’m the one who is in charge here.” He held firm against the dirty look she shot him, his hand never wavering as he held it still for her keys.
Perhaps it would be best to let him think that because she certainly couldn’t force him to move. Certainly this was only the beginning. If she fought him, Collin would probably get even more irritating. On the other hand, if he thought she was being good and obedient, he might relax his guard. Kathy didn’t doubt at some point she’d need to take advantage of that kind of mistake.
Not today, though. Today she could huff indignantly and slap the keys into his hands with ill grace as she snapped angrily at him. “Fine, but we’re going to Eddie Dyne’s place, and I don’t want to hear a peep about it!”
“Peep. Peep.”
It took all of Kathy’s self-control to ignore Collin’s smartass retort or the grin that grew along with it, but she didn’t want to give him the satisfaction of jumping to such easy bait. Instead she tried to vent her temper by storming around the car and wrenching open her door, but those actions only seemed to fuel her annoyance. She found herself unable to keep her anger contained.
“But you just remember, wherever we go, whatever happens, whatever is learned, you’ll be paying for this later.” Kathy only wished that were true, but it felt good to threaten him.
Content for the moment, she dropped into her seat and waited for him to join her. She expected him to slide in behind the wheel and return her threat with a much more powerful one, or even to ignite her fuse again with some kind of lippy retort. Collin didn’t do any of that. Instead he flustered her even more by poking his head in and offering the keys back to her.
“You know, if you’re going to get that upset, you might as well drive.”
“But…” Kathy stared at the keys dangling from his fingers, feeling absolutely confused about what to do.
She should snatch the keys up and try to take off without him, but that would only play into silent accusation. There could be no mistaking Collin’s tone. He was treating her like an unreasonable, temper-tantrum-throwing female. If she took the keys, Kathy would be agreeing with him. If she didn’t, then she’d have to defend his action and insist he should drive. The bastard knew, too, that he’d put her in this quandary.
“Oh, the hell with it!”
Kathy grabbed the keys, not about to give him both the win and the control. She might be a brat, but at least she was in charge. Storming back around the car, Kathy held her chin high as she passed Collin, refusing to recognize the knowing smirk pulling at his lips. It wasn’t until she’d settled in the driver’s seat with her seat belt locked in and the key in the ignition that Kathy bothered to respond to Collin’s silent gloating.
“You’re an ass. You know that?”
“Yeah, but at least I’m an ass who happens to know how to make you beg.”
That fired Kathy’s temper, making her act without thinking. Slamming the car into drive, she pulled right over the curb and onto the street. Before her back tires could slam onto the street, a set of blue and red strobe lights flashed in
her mirror. Two sharp blares from a siren followed, assuring Kathy her day had just gone from bad to worse. Groaning at her luck, Kathy didn’t miss Collin’s smirky snort or the you’re-gonna-get-it look he shot at her.
It took a lot to ignore him and focus on the ticket she was about to get, but Kathy managed to pull over and assume a serious expression for the uniform walking toward her. She already had her window down and her license ready. Her well-rehearsed preparedness drew another smothered chuckle from Collin. She paid him no mind as she plastered her biggest smile on her face and gave the deputy bending down to peer into the car the line she’d have used on any cop right then.
“Well, Deputy Hand, aren’t you looking good today.”
“And you look as guilty as always,” Gavin Hand retorted, tipping his head so he could look around her to catch a glimpse at Collin. “And he looks like the man I’m supposed to be making sure doesn’t bother you. Say, your name isn’t Collin Hitchens?”
“Why, yes, it is.” Collin fairly laughed as he puffed up. “And I don’t think I’m any kind of bother to the lady, officer. Isn’t that right, sweetness?”
Half tempted to fake an abduction just to screw with Collin, Kathy had to force her jaw to relax before she could answer that loaded question. “You’re a pleasure as always, stud.”
“Well…” Gavin looked at a clear loss as to what to say about that fact. Thankfully, Collin knew just how to make the situation even worse for the deputy.
“At least she didn’t call me ‘sweet meat,’” Collin consoled him, totally ignoring Kathy’s glare. “I mean, we all love a woman who likes the meat, but…come on.”
“So,” Deputy Hand fairly shouted as he clearly tried not to stare at Kathy. “I guess everything is all right here then and you’ll be letting Tony know that you’re…that you aren’t…”
“That there is no need to be concerned,” Kathy supplied for him, all but growling the words out as she silently plotted Collin’s murder. “At least not about me.”
“Yeah,” Gavin agreed with that implied threat without even seeming to realize she had made one. The poor man probably hadn’t even heard her he was so busy backing up. “Well, then, I’ll let Tony know.”
Kathy watched Gavin race back toward his patrol car, waiting until he’d climbed back in it before turning her narrowed sights on Collin’s beaming grin. “You know I have a lot of techniques for handling cops, but I don’t think I’ve ever sent one retreating in horror. Congratulations.”
Collin stiffened up as he went all serious. “I just hope you learned something from this experience, young lady.”
“And what would that be?” Kathy asked, unimpressed by his theatrics but willing to play along.
“You mess with the best, you go down like the rest.”
“Oh my God! You do have a file on me!” Kathy’s jaw dropped as her eyes bugged out in total shock.
“Huh.” Collin pursed his lips, nonplused to have been caught spying on her. “Maybe.”
“No maybe about it,” Kathy spat back. “That was my saying as a child. When you mess with the best, you go down like the rest. What the hell do you people need to know about my childhood for? Oh my God. It doesn’t have things like how old I was when I stopped wetting the bed…does it?”
“No.” Collin shot her a strange look as he slowly shook his head. “And I hate to break this to you, honey, but that’s pretty much a common expression.”
“Oh, bullshit.”
“Oh, bull-true. From movies to military flags, it’s pretty much every badass or wanna-be’s expression. The only thing unique about you is that you screwed it up. It isn’t ‘go down like the rest.’ It’s die.”
“You know, I don’t think I like you,” Kathy grumbled, recognizing the lie in her words even as she said them.
Despite the passion and the constant need that had started to grow in her stomach, Kathy would have most liked to call Collin a friend. He was just the right mixture of funny and aggravating, smart and snarky, but most of all he had the solid, loyal kind of attitude that assured Kathy he could be trusted and relied on, which was just why she pointed the car toward her original destination.
“Oh, that’s not true at all. I happen to know for a fact that you love some parts of me, more than enough to beg for them.” Collin chuckled as he leaned back in his seat to stretch his legs out and draw attention to the very large boner pressing against his slacks. “And there are parts of me that just love you, sweet meat.”
“Gee, I’m flattered,” Kathy retorted dryly. Forget murder, she intended to make him beg, already sick of hearing that word come out of his mouth.
“You should be,” Collin agreed before turning to watch the town fade into pastures. “So, you going to tell me why we’re headed to Eddie’s place? I do know I have a file that says he moved up to Florida to stay with his daughter.”
“Yeah right,” Kathy snorted. “And if you and the Fed believe that, I have a bridge to sell ya. Trust me on this, Eddie didn’t go to Florida.”
“And what makes you say that?”
“Because you couldn’t find a bigger bigot if you tried.” Barely pausing to yield at a stop sign, Kathy gave a quick glance down the highway before slamming on the gas and pulling out in front of a truck that dared to honk at her even though she took off fast enough to start opening up a gap within seconds.
“Jews, blacks, gays, mothers who work—all that is too easy for Eddie.” Kathy waved away the classic bigotries as she barely braked before spinning the car into a hard left. “His prejudices go much deeper, like men who wear sandals are weenies who water down the population, helping to produce generations of fat, spoiled, stupid offspring who eventually will be slaughtered when the strong rise up to rule again.”
“He does not say ‘to rule again.’”
“How do you know?” Kathy shot Collin a curious look as she finally slowed her little car down and pulled it off onto the shoulder. “You don’t know Eddie.”
“Because nobody actually says that,” Collin assured her before glancing around. “And I don’t need to know Eddie to know we’re parked in the middle of nowhere.”
“No, we’re parked behind Eddie’s house,” Kathy corrected him. Shoving open her door, she paused to assure him, “Eddie’s house is just right over that hill.”
“Hill?” Collin snickered as he glanced at the barely-there hump she pointed at. “That isn’t even big enough to obscure my view, and I don’t see any houses in the distance.”
“Trust me. It’s there.”
Kathy didn’t elaborate after that or bother to respond to Collin’s grumbles as they hiked over the knoll and out into the field. When she finally came to a stop at the right spot, Kathy waited, giving Collin the opportunity to go on and make a bigger fool out of himself.
“We’re here.”
“You mean nowhere,” Collin muttered, glancing around. “I thought you were a little eccentric, but really, sweet meat, this is downright crazy. You realize there is nothing here, right?”
“Look down.”
After taking a second to roll his eyes, Collin did just that but didn’t follow up by noticing what Kathy hoped. “Wow. Look…and blood. I don’t think we should—”
“Yes. We should.” Kathy cut Collin off before he could suggest something horrible like calling Jack, or worse the cops. She didn’t intend to stop now and get screwed out of knowing what had happened.
Something had happened. The grass should have been tall and fluffy, but it was trampled and matted. Given what she could see, Kathy figured a CSI unit could lift some boot prints from some of the softer pockets of dirt. The evidence would still be there when the cops showed up.
Kathy made certain to carefully avoid stepping on the existing tracks as she searched through the grass. She also tried to avoid disturbing the blood splattered across the green strands, but there was a lot of it. The sight of the dark, maroon spots worried Kathy, too, but that only made her more anxious to see what lurked
inside Eddie’s bunker. “Here it is.” Kathy’s fingers curled around the metal handle. Gripping the cold bit of steel in her hands, she pulled. The lid gave easily even if it whined as it lifted upward. “Holy shit.” Collin stumbled back out of the way, looking at the manhole-like cover as if it might bite him. “What the hell is that?”
“A door.”
“Yeah, but to what?”
“A bomb shelter. I would think that’s obvious,” Kathy muttered, squatting down to look at the second, inner door. “Now let’s see…do I remember the code?”
“The code?” Apparently recovering from his bout of bewilderment, Collin didn’t sound uncertain anymore but kind of angry. “And why exactly would you know the code? Or even where Eddie buried his bomb shelter?”
“Because my dad buried his about fifty feet behind you.”
Annoyed at the accusation she could hear in Collin’s tone, she bristled that he might still believe her to be involved in any of this. Jack was one thing. That man was probably suspicious of his own shadow, but Collin’s doubts hurt. Her irritation echoed in her voice, prompting Collin to try and apologize. Unfortunately, he faltered halfway through it.
“Hey, look, I didn’t mean that to sound like… It’s just…Your dad and Eddie both own bomb shelters?”
“Yeah,” Kathy muttered, concentrating on the electronic lock that secured the inner door. She didn’t want to bust in and get shot, and knew that could happen if Eddie had buried himself under the ground.
“And how is that?”
“Lots of people own bomb shelters, Collin. It’s not that strange.”
“Oh, come on,” Collin cajoled her, his cheer sounding force. “They’re buried next to each other. You have to admit that’s not a coincidence.”
“It’s a small town.” Kathy shrugged.
“And you know the code.”
“They all have the same code.” Kathy had no sooner said that than the lock beeped, flashing an error message and refusing to open.
“Apparently not.”
Collin had that right, which was more worrisome than the blood. Shoving back to her feet, Kathy searched for her dad’s shelter, finding it just where she remembered. The code, though, was a different story.
