Bad Girls Don't (3 page)

“Yeah, I got that.”

“So what bothers you the most about her?”

“The fact that she was speeding.”

“Right. She’s fast. And that bothers you.”

The nun made it sound like he was attracted to the belly-dancing vixen. “There you go again, trying to make it personal.”

“And there you go again.” Sister Mary wasn’t backing down. “Putting up barriers. As I said before, you haven’t let anything get personal for some time now.”

Nathan shrugged. “Law enforcement works better that way.”

“How about life? Does it work better that way too?”

Before he could answer, Nathan’s windowless office was suddenly plunged into darkness.

Chapter Two

Nathan’s
military and law enforcement training instantly kicked in. A slice of light coming through the partially open office door revealed a solitary figure standing there.

An unidentifiable figure. Not good.

“Doesn’t the town pay its electric bills?” Sister Mary was asking even as Nathan shot forward, only to run into someone in the dark. Someone with curves and dancing bells.

Nathan grabbed Skye to prevent her from falling. He was aiming for her shoulders, but somehow his right hand encountered the fullness of her breast en route.

“Don’t waste electricity,” a child’s voice reprimanded him.

“Don’t cop a feel in the dark,” Skye told Nathan before shoving him away.

“What’s ‘cop a feel’ mean, Mommy?”

“I’ll tell you later.” Skye flicked the lights back on. She hated the fact that the touch of Studly Do-Right’s hand on her breast had shaken her. “My daughter likes to turn the lights off.”

“Don’t waste electricity, right, Mommy?”

“Right.” And sexy zings from Nathan’s touch were a definite waste of electricity as far as Skye was concerned.

She gave him the evil eye, aka the Sicilian death stare, just in case he got any ideas about placing his hands anywhere near her breasts again. But she could tell by the stunned look on his face that he hadn’t planned on groping her in the first place.

Not that his touch even qualified as a grope. It was more like a quick brush, really. Which made her intense reaction all the more disturbing. What was that all about? She was no prude to go all weak at the knees this way.

Sister Mary broke the sudden, awkward silence by making introductions. “You already know Angel, Skye’s mother. And this is Toni, Skye’s daughter. She’s four.”

“You look mean.” Toni gave Nathan a miniversion of the Sicilian death stare. “I don’t like you.”

“She’s into expressing her emotions.” Angel ruffled her granddaughter’s hair.

“Like her mother,” Nathan drawled.

“Absolutely,” Skye stated proudly.

“I’m sorry if Toni’s yelling upset you earlier,” Angel said, “but she wanted her mommy.”

Nathan nodded. “Yeah, I got that.”

“I’ll bet you thought I was going to make a run for it, didn’t you?” Skye directed her challenging comment to Nathan.

Before he could reply, Owen returned to the room with coffee in hand and an apologetic expression on his face. “I don’t mean to be rude, but I’ve got a funeral I’ve got to prepare for this afternoon, so if we could get the paperwork going here, I’d really appreciate it.”

Nathan was instantly all business. “How much do you owe on all those tickets?” he asked Skye.

“Three hundred and ninety-three dollars.” She dug them out of her huge tote bag. “Here, do the math yourself if you don’t trust me.”

He used the calculator on his tidy desk. “Actually, it comes to three hundred and ninety-two dollars. I’ll tell you what.” He steepled his fingers. “Pay these old tickets and I’ll let you go this time.”

Angel’s face was serene. “I’m so glad you’re trusting your inner vision on this matter, Nathan.”

Sister Mary beamed. “Thanks, Nate.”

Owen’s smile was equally big. “Yes, thank you, Nate.”

“Aren’t
you
going to thank me?” Nathan asked Skye.

Skye gave him the evil eye once again. “Don’t push your luck.”

“In that case, I hope you’ll consider this experience a warning.”

Skye smiled sweetly. “I will if you will.”

 

 

“What do you think they’re doing over there at the police station?” Sue Ellen asked between slurps of her Blizzard at the Dairy Queen.

Algee shrugged. “Sister Mary will make sure they don’t torture Skye.”

“Do you know how many people are tortured around the world each year?” Lulu asked. “The statistics are on the Amnesty International website.”

Sue Ellen clucked her tongue. “You’re just a regular Suzie Sunshine, aren’t you?”

Lulu pointed to her Dark Angel tattoo, one of many tattoos covering much of the skin on her arms. “I’m into dark, not light.”

“Speaking of dark, I really wish you’d let me do something with your hair,” Sue Ellen replied. “That flat black just doesn’t do a thing for your pale complexion.”

“Keep your evil Mary Kay hands to yourself,” Lulu growled.

Sue Ellen didn’t take offense. “Isn’t it interesting how different we all are, yet we’re all friends of Skye?”

“Yeah, it’s just fascinating,” Lulu drawled.

Algee stood. “Well, if you ladies don’t need me any longer, I’d better get back to the store.”

Sue Ellen grabbed his massive arm. “You can’t leave yet. What if Skye needs our help?”

“With what?” Algee asked. “A prison break?”

Sue Ellen looked horrified. “You don’t think they’re going to put her in prison, do you?”

“Do you know how many innocent people are thrown into prison every year?” Lulu asked.

“No, and I don’t want to know,” Sue Ellen retorted, her voice agitated. “All I care about is Skye. And maybe world peace. Oh, and being the top-selling Mary Kay representative in Pennsylvania someday.”

“I don’t think you’re supposed to be staging sit-ins if you’re a Mary Kay representative,” Lulu said.

“Well, I’m not actually selling the cosmetics yet,” Sue Ellen admitted. “It’s just one of the many things on my list of life possibilities.”

“Did Angel come up with that?” Lulu asked.

“With selling cosmetics?” Sue Ellen laughed and shook her head. “Heavens, no. You know how she is about that sort of thing. No animal testing, only natural ingredients.” Then, abruptly, “What are we going to do if they arrest Skye?”

“I’ll tell you one thing. I’m not babysitting Toni the Biter,” Lulu said.

“I had no idea when I hired you to help out part-time that you were such a wimp,” Algee retorted.

Lulu shrugged. “That kid is dangerous.”

“She doesn’t bite as much as she used to,” Algee commented. “You should have seen her six months ago.”

“You don’t think she’ll bite a cop, do you?” Sue Ellen’s eyes widened as this new thought raced through her mind. “Can they arrest a three-year-old?”

“She’s four,” Algee said.

“She’s a menace,” Lulu said.

“Yeah . . . she is. Just like her mother,” Sue Ellen said fondly.

 

 

“One more thing before you go,” Nathan told Skye. Angel had already taken Toni outside, leaving Skye alone with the sheriff.

“What? You want your pound of flesh?”

He gave her a visual once-over. “You’re certainly showing enough flesh.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“That your outfit isn’t exactly age appropriate.”

She stood toe-to-toe with him, which meant she had to tilt back her head to give him the Sicilian death stare, but it was worth the extra effort. “Are you saying I’m too old?” Danger vibrated in every word, cautioning him.

“I’m saying that outfit is much too provocative to wear in front of a group of hormone-crazed teenage boys.”

Skye actually had a less revealing outfit she normally wore for the sessions at the high school. It was in her car and she’d planned on changing, but had been running late.

Not that she’d explain any of that to Cop-Man. Instead, she snarled, “Who made you the fashion gestapo?”

“It doesn’t take an expert to know what’s right and what’s wrong.”

“You’re right.”

“I am?” He was clearly surprised by her agreement.

“It doesn’t take an expert to see that I’m
right
and you’re
wrong
.”

“How do you figure that?”

“Explaining that to you would take several hours and, frankly, I don’t have the time. Thanks to you, I’ve totally missed the football session and will have to reschedule.”

“Thanks to me and Owen, you’re not in jail right now.”

“And that’s what’s really got your tighty-whities all bunched up in a knot, right? The fact that I’m not behind bars. I’ll bet in a previous life you ran the dungeon in a dark castle somewhere.”

“Speaking of dark, you really should watch your daughter and stop her from turning off the lights like that.”

“What’s the matter, Mr. Lawman?” she taunted. “You afraid of the dark?”

“I’m used to the dark.”

Something in his tone made her pause. The man had just insulted her kid. Sort of. She should be taking his head off right now, not wondering what had caused the pain she’d discerned in his voice a moment ago.

For the first time, she gave him a closer look, digging beneath the authoritative surface. Skye wasn’t as good at viewing auras as Angel was, but she wasn’t too bad. The reading would be stronger if she and Studly Do-Right were both outside and she were barefoot, in direct contact with the Earth.

She could just imagine his response to her asking him to step outside so she could read his aura, check his chakras, and mediate his meridians.

Yeah, right. Not gonna happen.

She’d have to make do. She was good at that.

Skye knew that her own auric field often strongly interacted with others, sometimes resulting in sparks. Or bonfires, in the case of this lawman.

She opened her internal channels . . . and saw that Sheriff Nathan Thornton had lots of red and black in his aura. Strong mind and will. Strong passion. Anger. Secrets. Barriers.

“Have you been listening to a word I’ve said?” he demanded.

Skye blinked, breaking the cosmic connection. Whew! That was like sticking her finger in an electric socket. She knew, because she’d done that finger-in-the-socket thing a few days ago, trying to do a home repair job herself. The feeling was more zap than zing, while the intensity was fierce.

Skye was surprised by what she’d viewed in Nathan’s aura. And equally surprised by her reaction to it. She just stood there, trying to gather her scattered thoughts.

“Maybe you should take this.” He handed her a flyer.

It took her a second or two to realize it was for a drug rehab center. She crumpled the flyer and shoved it right back at him. “I do
not
take drugs.”

“You’d hardly admit it to me if you were.”

Okay, her earlier empathy for him was now totally gone. Vaporized. Evaporated faster than a grape Popsicle left in the searing sun of the California desert.

She stashed her New Age auric gaze and replaced it with the death stare.

He had the nerve to raise an eyebrow and appear bored. “Are we done here?”

Skye would like to think so, but her intuition warned her that her run-ins with Nathan were just beginning.

Even so, she said, “We’re done.”

“Good. As long as we understand one another.”

What planet was this guy on? He didn’t
understand
one thing about her. He’d jumped to his own conclusions the instant he’d seen her in her belly-dancing costume.

Not age appropriate, huh? She’d make him pay for that comment. Big-time. She just needed to figure out how . . . Skye’s next stop was the Dunback Funeral Home, where she gave Owen a huge hug in the privacy of his somber office. “I know you’re getting prepared for a funeral, so I won’t keep you long. I just had to tell you that you’re the best, do you know that?”

He blushed. “I was helping you for purely selfish reasons. If they lock you up, who would I dance with to my Benny Goodman records?”

“Any one of half a dozen widows in town, including Lenore Trimble, who’ve been eyeing you for ages.”

“Bah!” He waved her words away. “They’re just after my money.”

She perched on the corner of his massive desk. “Why don’t you think
I’m
after your money? Especially since you just loaned me several hundred dollars.”

“Money isn’t your thing.”

She had to smile. “You’re sounding more like me every day, Owen.”

“I’ll take that as a compliment.”

“I’ll pay you back. I’ll write you out an IOU right now.”

“You don’t have to do that . . .”

“Yes, I do.” Skye searched her tote bag for a piece of paper. The first thing she found was an unopened electric bill. The envelope was already covered with her scribbled notes.

“Really, I trust you,” Owen was saying. “I don’t need you to write anything on paper.”

“I want to do it. I just can’t seem to find anything . . .” she muttered in frustration.

“Here.” He handed her a notepad with the elegantly scripted heading DUNBACK FUNERAL HOME in black ink on cream vellum.

“Did you get a receipt from Nasty Nathan?” she asked Owen as she searched for a pen in her bag.

“He’s really not that bad, normally.”

“No? So I bring out the worst in him?”

“Yes. No.” Owen was clearly at a loss as he handed her a slim, silver-toned pen.

“He had the nerve to hand me a flyer about drug rehab.” Skye was still simmering over that one.

“Maybe he was trying to be helpful.”

“You think? In that case, he failed miserably.”

They were abruptly interrupted by the arrival of Sue Ellen in a nearly hysterical state. “Oh, Skye, I’m so glad you’re alive!”

“Wha . . . at?” Skye could only gasp because Sue Ellen held her in a stranglehold hug that would have done a mighty python proud.