Heaven and Hell (32 page)

“Oh, so sorry, babe, I mean, you hooked up
with
Sam
who would be
Sampson Cooper
in freaking
Lake Como, Italy
and there are pictures of you on the
internet
making out with him
so, you know, considering he’s
a major freaking hot guy, he’s been the love of your life for
years
and you’re in
Lake Como, Italy making out with
him,
I was a little out of sorts. I’ll keep a freaking lock on
it.”

“We weren’t making out,” I told her and
tried to hark back to if we were.

“You’re standin’ on a sidewalk goin’ at it,
girl,” she returned and I blinked.

Oh God.

Oh shit!

Tilda had followed us and taken
pictures!

What a stalker bitch!

Shit! Sam was going to be pissed!

“Uh…”

“And then there are others, you two sittin’
at a table, all cozy, him
way
up in your space,” I heard the
mouse button clicking in the background, “you got your elbow on the
table and you are
way
up in his space right back. Holy crap.
Holy shit. I cannot believe my eyes.” More clicks.
“
Ohmigod!
” she shouted. “He’s smiling at you in this one!
Ohmigod! I’m going to have an orgasm just looking at it.”

“Paula –”

“Holy crap.”

“Paula –”

“Holy freaking shit.”

“Paula!” I shouted.

“What?” she shouted back.

“How many pictures are there?” I asked.

“Like, about, two dozen.”

Oh my God.

She went on, “Most of them are you and him
sitting at a table talking or drinking wine but others are of you
at the same table, snuggled close talking and not drinking wine
then there are three of you going at it on the sidewalk.”

Apparently, Tilda had been taking pictures
of us not only after her husband came to chat but before then after
Sam had given her her picture with him.

What a greedy cow. Sam had taken his time to
be cool and she’d followed us.

“That greedy cow,” I griped, totally pissed
and also totally forgetting Paula was just learning this
mind-boggling news. “Sam was so cool with her, taking a photo with
her and her husband for their son and then she followed us, took
our picture while we were necking and posted them for all the world
to see.”

“Uh… babe,” Paula put in, “you wanna tell me
how in
the hell
you’re necking
at all
with Sampson
Cooper?”

“I told you, we met and hooked up. He’s here
now with me, in Crete. And he’s not Sampson Cooper, he’s Sam.”

Silence (finally).

Then, softly, “He’s there with you now?”

“Yeah.”

Then, sounding hurt, “Why didn’t you tell
me?”

Oh man.

“Paula –”

“I find out on a gossip site. What’s
that
about?”

“I… well, honey,” I sucked in breath then I
let it out and explained, “Things, in Lake Como, I… I met him and
he likes me, sweetie, like, a lot and just when we met, things
started to hit me, things I couldn’t push to the back of my mind
anymore and, well, they started to come out and he was there and
he’s…” my voice dipped, “he’s amazing, Paula, everything you can
imagine Sampson Cooper to be, Sam is better. He’s been wonderful to
me.”

Another moment of silence then, “Have you
slept with him?”

Oh man.

“Yes,” I whispered.

“Ohmigod,” she breathed.

“Paula –”

“Is he good?” she asked.

“I… you know, I’d rather not talk about
that. For Sam. He’s… women in his past… well, that’s between Sam
and me, okay?”

“He’s good,” she whispered her correct
guess.

I changed the subject.

“He’s coming home with me, we’re going to
deal with stuff, get Memphis then I’m going to North Carolina with
him.”

“Ohmigod.”

I made no response.

Then Paula said, “He’s into you.”

“Yeah,” I confirmed.

“Like, a lot.”

My belly started to get warm and I
whispered, “Yeah.”

“Ohmigod, this is so…
cool.
”

I grinned. “Oh yeah.”

“Wow. I cannot wait to meet him. This is
so cool
. Rudy is already stinking flipping. I’m still at
home, I showed him the pictures. He
loves
Coop. You know
that. And Teri is gonna
fah-REEK!
”

“Yeah, I know and Paula, I’m going to call
her and Missy just now but, just to say, I’ll be home soon, with
Sam, and you guys all have to be cool about that. He is who he is
to the world but he’s something else in real life and this is real
life, not TV, not the internet and you all have to be cool.”

“I can be cool,” she assured me.

“No freaking out. No asking for autographs.
No asking for photos. This is just Sam.”

“I can do just Sam. So can Rudy.”

We would see.

“Okay,” I said.

A pause then, “You’re happy.”

Outside the hit called on me,
absolutely.

I didn’t say this; I just said a soft,
“Yeah.”

“Oh honey, babe, oh God,” I heard tears in
her voice, “oh my God, I love this for you.
I love it.
I
told you your luck had changed.”

She was right and wrong about that, both in
big ways.

She let out a sobbing hiccough.

“Paula, sweetie,” I whispered.

“I love this for you. I
love this for
you,
” she said through her tears.

“And I just love you,” I replied.

Another sobbing hiccough.

I let her do her thing for awhile then I
called softly, “Paula, honey, I have to go. I need to call Missy
and Teri.”

I heard her pull in a steadying breath then
she murmured, “Right.”

“See you soon.”

“Can’t wait.”

“Me either, sweetie,” I said quietly.

“I love you, Kia and I’m so happy for you it
isn’t funny.”

“I love you too. Oh, and, let the unit go.
Sam says it’s a bad investment in this market. We’ll do some
viewings. I know you’ll find me something else.”

“You bet your bippy,” she told me. “And
Sam’s right. This market is volatile. Now that it’s not five
o’clock in the morning and I’m thinking clearly,
ish
, after
this whole thing with you and
Sam
, I’m seeing that’s crazy.
We’ll get you sorted. Yeah?”

“Yeah.”

“All right, later, babe.”

“Later, sweetie.”

We disconnected, I drew in breath, staring
at my phone then I jumped when I heard Sam say quietly, “Thank you,
baby.”

My eyes flew to the door where he was leaned
against the jamb, arms crossed on his chest, one foot crossed at
the ankle.

Seriously, he was hot and I suspected he was
so hot, I’d never get used to how hot he was.

Which was cool.

“Thank me what?” I asked.

“Your girl asked what I was like in bed, you
didn’t tell her. Thank you.”

I blinked. Then I asked, “You were
listening?”

“Fuck yeah.”

I felt my brows draw together.

Then I asked, “Why?”

“Mainly because I’ve had women play me in
the past, I got burned, they were good, you could be the master and
I gotta say I’m pretty fuckin’ pleased to find out you’re not.
You’re what I thought you were. You’re just Kia.”

Okay, it kind of sucked he’d eavesdropped
but then again I’d been trying to do that to his conversations all
morning.

And, he had a point. Once bitten, twice shy.
A gazillion times bitten, two gazillion times shy.

“Yes, Sam,” I said quietly, “I’m just
Kia.”

He held my eyes, his entire face warm, his
eyes both warm and intense and I really liked when he looked at me
like that.

Then he said, “Lunch is comin’. More good
news, got a buddy who’s got a buddy who’s got a place here. He’s
also got skills and hardware. He’s retired so he’s also got time.
This means he’s okay with bein’ another pair of eyes, you and I do
our thing here, he’ll kit me out and have our back.”

I stared at him.

Then I sought clarification.

“Are you saying he’s going to be our
bodyguard?”

Sam nodded once. “That’s what I’m
saying.”

“And are you saying that he’s giving you a
weapon?”

Sam nodded again, his eyes never leaving me
and he repeated, “That’s what I’m saying.”

I went back to staring at him mutely.

Sam, being Sam, felt like being
communicative.

“He’s good, he knows what he’s doin’ and
between him and me, no one will get at you. We can enjoy the rest
of our time here and get you home. In the meantime, I got boys
doin’ their thing to see about coverage in Indiana. By the time we
touch down in Indianapolis, you’ll be golden.”

Wow. Seriously. He was not wasting any time
looking out for me.

I didn’t know what to do with that. The only
thing I knew was that it felt really, freaking good.

“Okay,” I whispered.

“I’ll be talking to Barney Oswald too, baby,
just so you know.”

“Okay.”

He studied me in a way that it occurred to
me that maybe I didn’t quite understand his simple statement.

Sam confirmed my assumption.

“When I say that, I mean, I’ll be talkin’ to
him to find out what’s up with his search for this guy and I’ll be
talkin’ to him to find out why the fuck he didn’t give you a head’s
up.”

“He’s a really good Sheriff, Sam, has been
for years because he’s a good guy and he’s protective of his
citizens. But he’s known me since I was a little girl, he hunts
with my father and I know he figured out what went down with Cooter
and me.”

“That might be so but it was a jacked
decision.”

“Sam –”

“It was jacked, Kia. I know this because you
went off to fuckin’ Europe unprotected. The least he could have
done is informed your Dad or your brother so one of them could have
talked to you, talked you out of goin’ and assessed where your head
was at about whether you should know it all or not. Not to mention,
you should have had a security system installed in your house even
if you’re sellin’ it.”

“Kyle lives in Tennessee, Sam, I told you
that. He’s too far away to do anything.”

“What you tell me of your brother, Kia, Kyle
lives in Tennessee or fuckin’ St. Petersburg, Kyle will wanna know
his sister is in danger then he’ll wanna see to it that his sister
is protected and safe. The men in your life should have been
briefed. Barney Oswald screwed the pooch. That is not gonna happen
again.”

He held my eyes and I thought it prudent to
nod seeing as he was a commando, I was not so he probably knew what
he was talking about.

Not to mention, he was totally right about
Kyle. Dad and Ozzie were buddies; Dad would probably be talked into
not being pissed. Kyle was going to freak.

So I nodded.

There was a knock on the door at the same
time there was a chime on my phone in my hand.

“Lunch,” Sam muttered.

I looked at the display and muttered back,
“Teri.”

Sam looked at my phone, looked at me and
grinned.

Then he turned and disappeared on his way to
the door.

I flipped my phone open and, learning, I
didn’t put it to my ear when I started, “Hel –”

“
Oh my fucking God!
” Teri
shrieked.

I grinned.

“Room service,” I heard in a Greek accented
voice.

I wondered briefly what Sam ordered for
me.

Then I put the phone to my ear.

You’re Happy

Three days later…

Sam took the key from my hand, inserted it
in the lock in the front door of the soon-to-be-not-my home in
Indiana, turned it then opened the door for me.

I shoved in.

I had my overnight bag and purse over my
shoulder and both my hands were laden with duty-free shopping
bags.

Sam had his bag over his shoulder and was
rolling both my huge, stuffed near to bursting pieces of
luggage.

I was always grateful that Sam was a
gentleman. It was one of the plethora of things I liked most about
him.

But at that moment, I
loved
it.

With a droop of my shoulders that I wanted
to do five seconds after hooking the straps on them, I dumped all
my stuff on the floor five feet in.

Yes, even my purse.

“Leave them there, baby,” I muttered to Sam
as I meandered through the living room to the hall to my
bedroom.

I got to the bedroom, flipped off my
flip-flops and was crawling on all fours up the bed when I heard
Sam call, “Kia, honey.”

“Nap, fifteen minutes then I’ll call Mom and
go get Memphis,” I mumbled.

Then I collapsed.

Then I passed out.

* * * * *

Indeterminate hours or minutes later…

I woke up but didn’t open my eyes.

I hated my house but I had to admit, it was
cute and this was mostly due to Cooter’s Mom having good taste
since, even back then (red flag?) I had no say.

But it was not built of high-quality
materials which meant the walls were very thin.

Therefore I clearly heard Sam’s conversation
in my living room with an unknown man.

“…set up?” I heard the end of whatever Sam
was saying.

“Full coverage, four guys, three shifts.
Couldn’t do the alarm but got trips set on doors and windows. You
bunk down for the night, last shift’ll set ‘em, anyone trips ‘em,
the whole neighborhood’ll wake up.”

“Good,” Sam replied.

Then I heard indistinct noises that sounded
an awful lot like the noises people made on TV and in movies when
they were expertly fiddling with a gun.

“Know you favor a nine millimeter, we’re on
that. Right now, that’s gonna have to do,” the unknown man told
Sam, proving me right, Sam was expertly fiddling with a gun.

“How long before you can get your hands on
the nine?” Sam asked.

“Tomorrow,” the man answered.