Bound by Danger (18 page)

Marilyn grinned.

Deidre could have slapped the grin off her face. “I’m serious. I don’t like to think you’re toying with his emotions.”

“Your brother’s a grown man. He likes me. I like him. It’s none of your concern.”

Marilyn’s long red fingernails stroked the top edge of her low-cut, v-neck blouse. Deidre fought the urge to yank the woman’s fake fingernails from her fingers. She knew Marilyn trifled with her brother’s heart. She stormed out of the ladies’ room and headed back to the VIP lounge.

Dave quickly slipped his arm through hers and motioned to the others in the lounge. “Come on, gang. Time to load onto the plane.”

After taking their seats a few minutes later, Dave whispered into Deidre’s ear, “What’s up between you and Marilyn?”

“Nothing. It’s what’s up between Charlie and Marilyn that bothers me. Is the woman real in anything she does? I mean, I can see she has no intention of making their relationship permanent. I just worry about her leading Charlie on.”

Dave said, “He’s a grown boy.”

His words infuriated her. She certainly didn’t have to be told that. What she wanted was for Dave to say he’d take care of the matter—talk to Marilyn and tell her to cool it with her brother. Deidre stiffened her back. Men were all the same.

Dave ran his fingers over hers.

She knew he attempted to placate her. But she didn’t want the issue brushed aside. “Can’t you say something to her? Tell her to back off?”

“She might say the same for me with you.”

Deidre’s mouth gaped for a moment, then she clamped her lips shut. That was entirely different. Deidre could handle herself quite capably. She knew her relationship with Dave would never go anywhere. They both knew it—that’s what made their relationship a totally different situation—and totally acceptable to her mind’s eye. She wasn’t taking it all the way, either. Not like Charlie had with Marilyn.

Dave was eyeing her, waiting for a response.

She wrinkled her brow at him. “It’s different with us.”

“Well, yes, but she might say it wasn’t. That you were just leading me on.”

Deidre’s whole body chilled with annoyance. Nobody had ever accused her of such a thing. Was she leading him on? She pulled her hand away from him and clasped her hands tightly in her lap.

“No response?”

She didn’t like this game. Facing a killer was easier than dealing with her heart. Her stomach twisted in torture. How could she have ever made the mistake to let him get so close? She looked out the window at the thunderheads building up against the blue sky.

Dave exhaled his breath heavily. “Deidre, we’ve got to resolve this case first, but I have no intention of giving up on us after this is over.”

“I’m sorry if you feel I’ve been leading you on.” She still faced the window. She couldn’t look at him. Those incredibly dark chocolate eyes of his always drew her in and made her melt. He was right of course. She had led him on. That’s why his words hurt so much. She craved his touch, encouraged it, but it was wrong for her to have done so. Especially knowing it could never last.

Then again, she had thought he was her next-door neighbor! That maybe something more could come of it. How was she to know he wasn’t staying around for any length of time? Not when the mission was over with and done.

He reached for her hands still clasped together in a death grip. Tugging them apart gently, he kissed her hand, then held it in his lap. “Our relationship isn’t like Marilyn’s and Charlie’s at all.”

Wasn’t it?

***

Dave wasn’t ever going to let her go. She was annoyed about her brother, but what she really needed was Dave, to make her forget she had to watch out for Charlie all of the time. Dave just had to get her through this ordeal her brother had gotten her tangled up in. Then, well, then he was going to show he had every intention of making a permanent commitment to her. He just hoped she’d take a chance with him, like he was willing to take with her.

To think he was talking marriage. His mother had said he’d never find the right woman. He was just too picky. But Deidre…she was better than right. She was perfect, as far as he was concerned. And Charlie…well, he’d make a fine brother-in-law, too. He really liked the guy.

He couldn’t let the word out too soon as to what he intended, however. If he did, his boss would pull him from the case. No way did Dave want Bill moving in on her…to protect her. Right.

Her fingers warmed his leg, but she wouldn’t show her usual affection. Despite being lukewarm, he knew she fought giving in. There wasn’t any way she could be mad at him for long. That was one thing he loved about her. She never seemed to hold a grudge, and like her brother said, she always seemed to see the rainbow on a dark day.

All relationships had their ups and downs after all. One of the things he liked so much about her was her ability to take any situation in stride and always rise above it all.

***

Deidre leaned her head against the window. The pane grew cold against her scalp, but she didn’t care. She wanted to get as far away from Dave as she could.

Long ago, she’d assumed she’d never marry. Her visions precluded that. And her job, too. Dave’s fingers interlocked with hers. His touch sent a thrill of expectation through her as much as she didn’t wish it as he rested her hand against his thigh. But she wouldn’t encourage him any further. Not in the slightest.
As soon as she got off the plane.

Much later that night, they arrived at the Orlando airport. Deidre and Charlie waited with their chaperones in a private lounge while the other agents secured their luggage and transportation. When the men were done, Dave received a call.

“Okay, folks, time to move ‘em out.”

Deidre considered the evergreen boxwood shaped as cartoon figures. A glimpse of Disney World at the airport. Dave took hold of her arm and led her to their car while the rest of the entourage headed for theirs. The air was hot…even hotter than Texas this time of year. The humidity dripped in sheets, sending a curl of perspiration trickling between her breasts.

They climbed into their waiting bulletproof SUV, and Dave said to Deidre, “It’ll be some time before we get to the safe house. A couple of hours in fact. Did you want to lie down?”

“In the back seat?”

His mouth curved down slightly, making her tilt her head up in response. She wasn’t going to rest her head in his lap…not one more second. Her moments of leading him on were over.

“Bill needs to stretch out. He’s got first watch tonight,” he said.

Dave was quick on his feet. She really thought she was going to get away with it. A hint of a smile crossed his face. She scooted across the seat to the door opposite of him. “I’m not tired.”

He waved to Ricky Santos, who opened her door. “Ricky will need to sit next to the door, in case we run into trouble. You’ll need to sit in the middle, like before.”

Ricky grinned at Dave when she moved over but left little room for him to slide in.

“You’ll have to scoot over a bit this way, Deidre, so Ricky can get to his gun if he needs to.”

She moved over slightly.

“More.”

Her face had to have been as red as the hibiscus growing in the vegetation at the airport. She hated to think he could boss her like that. At work, she had enough supervisors to push her around. She moved over another inch, then folded her arms.

“All right.”

She knew he didn’t mean it. He wanted her to sit right next to him as she usually did bumped up against him, his leg warming hers, his hand touching her hands. Not this time. This time she wasn’t going to encourage anything between them.

Ricky stretched twice, bumping her in the process. He was in on the plot. She just knew it. She turned her head sharply in his direction, and she groaned. Just a little twist too hard made her see the glass shattered in her windshield all over again, crinkling and trickling into her lap.

Dave touched her arm. “Maybe you should take some of your medication.”

“It makes me nervous and shaky. I’m not taking it any longer.”

Ricky poked her with his elbow, and she ignored him.

The next time, she said, “Okay, maybe I should sit in the trunk. Then, Mr. Santos, you would have more room to stretch out.”

“There’s plenty of seat over here, and I promise I’m not as antsy as Ricky is. He doesn’t do well in confined spaces.” Dave smiled at her as if he’d bitten into a large slice of double rich chocolate cake.

She moved another inch toward Dave, knowing full well he was telling a tall tale. Ample room still existed between Dave and her though. To her relief, she was glad Ricky finally gave up his gymnastics.

When they arrived at the two-story, colonial-style safe house, the agents hurried to ensure the place was secure. Charlie and Deidre continued to sit in their respective cars with an armed agent.

After they got settled in the house, Marilyn prepared a late supper, but Deidre declined. She retired to one of the four bedrooms on the second floor instead.

Shortly afterward, a knock at her door made her grab her robe and hurriedly slip it over her nightie. “Yes?”

“It’s me, Charlie. Can I have a word with you?”

“Of course.” She hurried to unlock the door.

Charlie sauntered in, then sat on the bed. “Deidre, Marilyn said you were worried about her and me. You needn’t be. I can look after myself. She thought it was sweet of you to be so concerned though.”

Sure she was. “Listen, Charlie, I worry you think she may be interested in, well, in settling down with you.”

“It’s a little too early in our relationship to think of such things.”

“Oh.” She’d never considered her brother hadn’t been interested in Marilyn in that way. Maybe she didn’t know him as well as she thought.

“Dave worries about you. He said you’re still suffering, but aren’t taking any of the pain medicine.”

“I’ve taken some tonight. I wrenched my neck once too many times today already. I figured if I didn’t take some, I’d never get any sleep.”

“Okay, I’ll tell him you took some then.”

“It’s really none of his affair.”

Charlie rose from the bed. “He said you were a trifle mad at him. He’s only trying to keep you safe. So you need to do as he says for your own safety.” He kissed her cheek.

When he closed the door behind him, she threw her slipper at it.

“Keep me safe. Hmpf.” She yanked her robe off and threw it at the chair. It floated to the carpeted floor, and she climbed gingerly into bed in a huff.

***

Two hours later, Dave ran out of the sunroom toward the stairs, his heart pumping the blood to his head in a panic. “What do you mean, Deidre’s not in bed?”

Marilyn tailed him as her voice rose in answer to his question as they raced up the stairs. “She’s not there! She’s not in the bathroom or any of the other three bedrooms. She’s not in the closets or under the bed. She’s not
anywhere
!”

Dave stared at the open window in Deidre’s room. “The window’s open.”

“She wouldn’t have climbed out the window.”

Dave climbed out through the window frame onto the narrow ledge beneath the windowsill. He stared into the dark. “It’s too dark out there. I can’t see a thing.” He crawled back into the bedroom and ran to the stairs. “Ricky! Turn on all of the outside lights.”

He returned to the window as the light flooded the backyard. A canal ended halfway along the back end of the lawn. Beyond the canal rested a ridge of pyramidal mounds of sand.

Dave bolted downstairs. “Ricky, Marilyn, you come with me. The rest of you keep a lookout for her around the place.”

The three raced around the property to where it ended. They soon canvassed the undeveloped land across the canal. “Spread out around these mounds,” Dave hollered. He had to keep calm. The dread that filled him would be her undoing if he couldn’t harness his fear. He had to find her and soon before someone who wished her harm did.

“Dave, she can’t be out here.”

“Look, Marilyn. If she falls into the canal, she could drown.”

“Ricky said she was mad at you.”

Dave couldn’t believe she would’ve run away because of him. She just couldn’t have. And yet, he couldn’t see how she could’ve managed climbing off the house in her sleep. It wasn’t possible, was it?

He ran along the bottom of one of the twelve-foot ridges of sand, then the beam of his flashlight picked up the image of a pink slipper. “Hey!”

“Yeah, Boss?” Ricky yelled from the other side of the manmade sand dunes.

“Does anyone know if she had pink fuzzy slippers?”

“Nah.”

Dave swung his flashlight upward and nearly at the top, a figure was curled up against the sand. “Deidre!”

He climbed the sifting, sinking granules until he reached her. Her eyelids fluttered slightly. Otherwise she didn’t stir. “I found her!”

He lifted her and slipped down the slope falling backward twice into the sand before he landed at the base.

Marilyn and Ricky raced to Dave’s side of the sand ridge. Marilyn shook her head. “What the—”

“Charlie said she took the pain medicine. She might have taken a little too much.”

“So what do we do now? Take away her pain medication?” Marilyn asked.

“Someone needs to go to bed with her,” Dave said.

Marilyn shook her head. “Don’t look at me.”

Ricky grinned. “You can look at me, Boss.”

“Marilyn, you’ll take the first and last shift with her.”

“Aw, Dave.”

***

Late the next morning, Deidre woke in a room full of sunshine, and felt as though the bed sheets were covered in grit, making her skin scratch and crawl. What the…

She rolled over and saw Marilyn sleeping next to her.
Crap!

Shoving the comforter aside, Deidre stared at the sand covering the sheets. What in the world? Did the woman go running around in a pile of sand, then join her in bed? What was wrong with her?

Seriously annoyed, Deidre climbed out of the bed of grit and brushed the few granules of sand off that clung to her her legs and arms. She walked over to the window and peered out. Three of the agents were pulling crabs out of a canal. One of the men poked at a crab’s claws with a stick. In an instant, the claw snapped tight over the perceived menace. She smiled. Her gaze drifted over the sand dunes beyond the canal. That must have been where Marilyn was wandering last night. Couldn’t she have bathed afterward? And what in the world was she doing in Deidre’s bed? Shortage of beds last night?