He had her in his arms, rocking her as her fingers caressed his face and her lips pasted their sweetness on his neck.
“I missed you. You don’t know how I missed you.”
Knowing what would happen next, he held her away from him. “I imagine it’s the way I’ve felt not seeing you, but hold on, honey. Try to be patient. If we’re lucky, our day will come.”
Chapter 8
Luke surveyed the surroundings as he stepped out of the building that housed Kate’s apartment. Trees were great for shade and for giving a street an upscale appearance, but they could be one big problem if you had a criminal on your tail, or if you were looking for one. The bright moonlight made him an easy target for a marksman, but he searched the area, nonetheless. He couldn’t take it for granted that whoever was after Kate didn’t know where she lived. Satisfied that there were no prowlers near the building, he got into his car, locked the door, and paged Cowan.
“What have you got for me on those two?”
“Nothing, except I discovered why they’re always walking. When they realized I was trailing them, they practically flew in different directions. I suspect they’re both track stars, and I’d bet my last dime the fat guy isn’t fat, that he’s made up to look as if he is. A heavy man can’t run as fast as he did.”
“Where’d you last see them?”
“About a block from Jessup’s Gallery.”
“So they had a tip.”
“I’m not so sure, Luke. They might have some kind of listening device.”
“Yeah. Or a wiretap. These days, electronic eavesdropping is as easy as falling down. Thanks, and keep an eye out.”
“You bet.”
He drove into his garage and parked. He loved his house, but right then he didn’t care to face its emptiness. He moseyed around to the front of the house. How beautiful it all seemed in the quiet night! He leaned against a dogwood tree at the corner of his driveway and gazed at his shadow, a sinister thing a quarter of a block long, and thought about the times he’d pursued men to their criminal ends. The women hadn’t been serious law-breakers, mostly prostitutes and petty thieves, but in his rookie years, he had spared none of them. And he didn’t regret any of it. Still, one case came back to him time after time: the poor Joe wasn’t a hard criminal, only a foolish man who saw an opportunity to make a fast buck, didn’t question the source, and now had ten years to stew about it.
He went inside and raced upstairs without turning on the light, and the flashing red button on his private telephone caught his eye immediately. He switched on the light and checked his messages. Martha Armstrong. He blew out a long breath and dialed her number.
“Mrs. Armstrong, this is Captain Hickson.”
“Oh, thank you so much for returning my call, Captain. I wanted to reach you before anyone else on the committee did. You know we’re having the annual Urban League party at the end of May. Mrs. Commonwealth of Virginia has agreed to come as a…a sort of, you know attraction, and…well, I just couldn’t entrust her to any man in this town but you. Besides, if you escort her, I’m sure she’ll agree to attend our gala in December.”
He closed his eyes and told himself to sound pleasant. He’d spent more than enough hours in the company of Mrs. Joshua Armstrong’s female celebrities.
“It’s for a good cause,” she added hurriedly, sensing his reluctance. “We only have two fund-raisers a year, you know.”
“All right. I suppose you’ll give me the particulars in due course.”
“Oh, Captain, you’re simply won-der-ful! I knew I could count on you.”
He wasn’t going to lie and say it was his pleasure, because it wasn’t. “The Urban League is a worthwhile organization, and its fund-raisers are money and time well spent.”
He got her off the phone as quickly as possible and remembered that he hadn’t eaten dinner. Pizza would have to suffice, so he defrosted a slice, got a bottle of Pilsner and an apple, and ate in front of the television. And still, a restlessness suffused him. After showering, he put on his favorite music and found himself pacing his living room, occasionally examining a statuette, painting or simple art object that marked a special time in his life. What had happened to the contentment he knew whenever he heard Max Bruch’s violin concerto? He kicked off his house shoes and slipped into bed, but the feel of the cool sheets against his flesh irritated him. He looked at his watch. Ten o’clock. He didn’t have an excuse to call her. Hell, he didn’t need an excuse. He dialed her number.
“Hello.” Her sleepy, sexy drawl sent heat plowing through him, and he would have hung up, if he hadn’t realized that an anonymous call would frighten her.
“Kate, this is Luke.”
“Luke? Oh, hi—”
“Sorry I woke you up. I…Kate, I called you because I—”
“You saw somebody?” She was fully awake now, no longer soft and sleepy. “Are you all right? I mean, nothing happened, did it?”
“I’m okay, and nothing happened.”
“Luke, why are you calling?” With that strong voice, she had to be standing or, at the least, sitting upright. He wished he hadn’t yielded, hadn’t tried to fill that awful emptiness by calling her, when he knew better than to follow through on what that call signified.
Though he tried, he couldn’t make himself lie to her. “This big empty house gets next to me sometimes. I needed to hear a human voice. I hadn’t thought you’d turn in so early.” Now, what would she say to that?
A long, cold and silent minute ate at his nerves. Then she said, “A weak moment, huh? I’ll probably have some of those, too, and I hope you’ll be understanding.”
“Let’s pray they don’t coincide,” he said, imagining the speed with which he’d get to her when that happened.
Her laughter struck him as cynical. “Sorry, but I don’t think you’ll catch me praying for that.”
No. He didn’t suppose she would. “From the time we met, I’ve had the impression that you don’t want to be involved with me or any other man, but you don’t act like it when…when we get into clinches.”
“What that means, Luke Hickson, is that I am human and healthy and you’re…you’re like the trigger on a Saturday-night special. I don’t start these fires.” He was sure he heard laughter in her voice, a wicked kind of mirth. When she said, “But, honey, when you start them, I sure do enjoy all that warmth,” he was certain of it.
“I’d better let you get back to sleep.”
“Why? I’m wide-awake now. You accused me of being inconsistent, but what about you? You keep saying you want us to cool off, yet you make that almost impossible. What am I supposed to think?”
“Beats me, Kate. I’ve never been so wound up about anything in my life. How about a kiss, so we can get some sleep?”
She made the sound of a kiss. “Now close your eyes and dream. I’ll be there.” She hung up.
Damn! She had a way of getting next to him, down to the marrow, in the loneliest part of him, where he lived and hurt. He turned out the light beside his bed, slid down between the sheets and started counting sheep.
He got to work the next morning feeling as if he had a hangover. Before he could drink his coffee, his secretary buzzed him. “Ms. Patterson on two.”
He didn’t know a woman named Patterson, did he? “This is Captain Hickson.”
“Good mawnin’, Captain. This is Jessye Patterson over at Kate’s Friendly Bookstore.”
His antennae shot up in anticipation of news of Kate or Randy. “How may I help you, Ms. Patterson?”
“Oh, Captain, why don’t you call me Jessye? All my friends do. I’m in the biggest fix imaginable.” He steeled himself for some Southern conning. “I want to go to that Urban League party that everybody who’s anybody goes to, and I’d just love for you to go with me. I haven’t been here long enough to have a regular date, and I’m just dying to go to that affair.”
Thank God for Martha Armstrong. “Sorry I can’t be the lucky man this time, Jessye. I’ve a
lready promised Martha Armstrong that I’d escort Mrs. Commonwealth of Virginia. She’ll be a special guest at the fund-raiser.”
“What a pity! Some other time.”
“These things happen. Be seeing you.”
He couldn’t tell her he’d go with her some other time, because he planned to avoid that. Now, if he could just swallow the rest of his coffee in peace. He checked the police log for the night before, saw nothing interesting or unusual, and decided to concentrate on the unsolved case of a missing husband. He suspected the man was probably in Mexico, avoiding alimony and child payments.
Kate checked off the newly arrived cartons of books with the UPS delivery man and gave Jessye her assignment for the day. She found her cousin’s unusual crestfallen behavior worrisome. Jessye loved coffee, so she made a fresh pot, filled two cups and gave her one.
“If you’re not feeling well, Jessye, why don’t you take the day off? I can manage.”
“I worked myself half to death in my place last night. A woman needs a man to do all those heavy things like hanging curtains and cleaning refrigerators and…all that stuff.” She waved her right hand airily.
Ever the Southern belle, Kate mused, over Jessye’s flimsy explanation, disbelieving every word of it, because no one could make her believe Jessye had done any heavy work. “Did you get the tickets to the Urban League party?” Maybe that was the problem.
Jessye released a long sigh. Now we’re getting to the real issue, Kate told herself. “Were you planning to go to the party with Luke Hickson?” Jessye asked.
She didn’t like the tone of that. “He hasn’t asked me. Why?”
“Oh, so you didn’t turn him down. I hear he’s squiring Mrs. Commonwealth of Virginia to the party.”
She’d forgotten how catty Jessye could be. She’d been on the receiving end of Jessye’s meanness when they were kids, but those days were over.
“So you asked him, and he said he was taken? Jessye, I told you once that I’m not tangling with you over Luke or any other man. And don’t expect your little nastiness to upset me. Luke Hickson is forty-two years old, and nobody’s going to choose a woman for him, so leave it to him, will you?”
“You’ve changed a lot,” Jessye said, her voice conveying an inflection of awe. “You didn’t used to be aggressive.”
Kate had wondered when they’d have that conversation. Jessye had a sharp mind and a blunt tongue; she had to have noticed that the meek Kate, who’d withstood her childish taunts and unfair comparisons about their respective feminine attributes, no longer existed. Jessye knew that she and Luke had more than a passing interest in each other. But she had always thought herself the more attractive of the two, had acted as if she were, and wanted to believe it, still. Kate knew that one reason she’d married Nathan had been to prove to Jessye that she could get a man, and a rich one at that. Well, Kate was grown now, had learned her lesson, and was not interested in such shenanigans.
She gave Jessye a level stare. “You mean, I was meek, and you pushed me around. Let me tell you, cousin, you weren’t nearly as gifted at that as my late husband. Since I don’t care what you think of me, I am not, and cannot be, your victim. I will never again be anybody’s victim. So chisel yourself down to size, and behave like a grown woman.”
“My, my. Aren’t we testy today? Sorry, Cousin Kate, but I refuse to fight with you. We’re blood kin. Don’t forget that.”
A good feeling washed over her, like a cool, refreshing breeze on a hot, humid day. Jessye couldn’t upset her and knew it, but she’d compensate by going to any lengths to get Luke to chase her. Inwardly, she laughed. Jessye had better pull out her big guns and do it fast, because Luke showed signs of weakening and cementing their relationship, and she intended to give him plenty of help.
It hadn’t occurred to her that Axel might shove Luke in her direction. He burst into the store that evening minutes after Jessye left. “I’ve got two tickets to the Urban League party. Everybody who’s anybody attends that. Would you go with me?”
A refusal settled on the tip of her tongue, but she quickly swallowed it. She didn’t have to take a backseat to Mrs. Commonwealth. “Sure you hadn’t planned to ask Jessye?”
Eagerness sparkled in his eyes, giving him a boyish appearance. “I wasn’t going to ask her unless you said no.”
Whatever his game, that had a ring of truth. “Well, if I can get a sitter.”
“Then you’ll go, because my housekeeper will stay with Randy.”
She knew Madge would gladly stay with Randy. “I’ll let you know tomorrow.”
She didn’t want to give him the impression that, by asking her to attend that party with him, he’d presented her with a new world. His rush from the store was no doubt meant to prevent her reconsidering, and maybe she should. As she watched him go, she wondered whether Luke would tell her that he’d be escorting a celebrity.
And why had Axel asked her, when he’d really rather take Jessye? She shrugged. Axel and Jessye deserved each other. She wanted to go to the party, and she would.
On the way home she stopped at a dressmaker known for high-fashion creations and ordered a red chiffon strapless dress with a full circle skirt, the flare of which was reinforced with inset panels. The locals just called it a party, but the invitation clearly stated black tie. Axel might be a prune, but he’d look fantastic in a tuxedo. “Let it all hang out, girl,” she sang as she darted into Ferragamo’s. She left with three-inch-heeled silver sandals and a tiny matching purse. Luke would walk in there looking like a prince among men, and even if Mrs. Commonwealth was a goon, she’d look great hanging on Luke’s arm.
Kate laughed as she walked into her apartment. She couldn’t be jealous of somebody she’d never seen. Could she?
“Randy’s already had his supper,” Madge announced. “I gave him baked ham, turnip greens and candied sweet potatoes, and he ate every bit of it. He just loved the sweet potatoes, Kate, so you’ll have to learn how to make them.”
Kate stared at the woman. “Which Randy are we talking about?”
Madge flipped off the TV. “Your Randy. I got to get going, cause Bugs will be on in half an hour and I got to get my clothes in the washer before then.”
Kate thanked her. “Uh, Madge, are you sure Randy ate all that?”
“Of course I am. That child just loved those sweet potatoes.”
Kate nodded. “I see.”
Madge rushed out, and Kate headed for Randy’s room. “So now you like candied sweet potatoes? What’s different about hers?”
“Hi, Mom. Oh, you’ve been talking to Miss Madge. She gives me points, depending on how much I eat. When I get enough points, she’ll take me to the planetarium.”
“Randy, I am not going to let her bribe you to get you to eat. You know you’re supposed to eat your meals.”
“It’s okay, Mom. She’s a real good cook, so I’d eat it anyway. I just don’t let her know that, and I get my points.”
She forced herself to glare at him, though she could hardly suppress the laughter that tried to spill out of her. “You little con artist.”
His questioning look bespoke the purest innocence. “You got it wrong, Mom. I’m learning how to survive.”
“You what?”
“Yeah. Lieutenant Strange was our lecturer at PAL today. He said you have to start early if you don’t want to be lost in the…er, scuffle, I think he said. And he said if we plan to be millionaires by the time we’re twenty-one, we ought to have our first hundred in our piggy banks right now. Officer Jenkins said that was crap. Is it?”
When Kate could stop laughing, she said, “I have enormous respect for Officer Jenkins.”
She loved her time alone with Randy, even when he misbehaved, because she always learned something else about him and about herself. She was loathe to leave him when the phone rang.
“That might be Captain Luke,” Randy said. “He called maybe half an hour ago, I guess.”
She controlled her urge to race to th
e phone, and got to it by the fifth ring. “Hello.”
“Hello, Kate. This is Luke. How are you?”
She’d been better, but didn’t say as much. “Fine. You?”
“Do I detect a bit of frost?”
Frost? She’d like to smack him, but she didn’t say that. Instead, she poured on the sugar. “Honey, how could you ask such a question? Don’t you know the sound of your voice is sweet music to me?”
“You’re laying it on a little too thick, Kate. I assume Jessye told you I agreed to escort Mrs. Commonwealth of Virginia to the Urban League party. At any rate, that’s what I called to tell you.”
“Mrs. who? Well, since you’d asked for a cooling-off period it didn’t occur to me that you’d invite me to go with you, so I made other arrangements.”
He let a period of silence pass, to indicate that she’d annoyed him. “How’s Randy doing?”
Now, that was a topic she could embrace. “When I last spoke with him, he was learning how to survive.”
“He was what?”
“You heard me, and apparently conning is the appropriate technique. Lieutenant Strange’s lecture at PAL today made a remarkable impression. Fortunately for all concerned, Officer Jenkins assured Randy that what he’d heard in that lecture was—in his word—crap.”
“Strange needs another set of brains. I got a report on those two guys, and we’re not sure you’re their target. Still, I want you to be careful and continue to wait for Cowan. You went home tonight without waiting for him.”
“I guess I forgot. I was anxious to stop by the dressmaker and do some more shopping. I’ll try to remember.”
“All right. I need to know I’m doing everything possible to keep you safe. I have a couple of leads, but I can’t share that yet. Just be careful.”
“I…I will, Luke.”
“Kate, you’re important to me. I…I can’t let anything happen to you.”
“I know.”
“Good night.”
She stared at the receiver. He’d hung up. A flare of anger shot through her, then quickly subsided. The man’s emotions were waging a war with his head. If he’d taken the pains to ask her, she’d gladly have told him which would win, because every chance she got she intended to stir up his emotions like a poker teasing hot coals.
Secret Desire Page 14
