If You Want Me (14 page)

Hours later, Alice was surprised to open the front door and find Marcus standing on her mother’s
front porch. Worry lines creased his forehead as he stared down at her.

“Marcus,” she said, unable to keep the happy note from her voice. “What are you doing here?”

“You called.”

“And you came over? You live clear across town. Why not just call me back?”

“Your message sounded urgent.”

Alice glanced at her watch. It was just after six in the evening, and he’d probably come right over after work to see if she was okay. Why did that thought make her pulse pound wildly? She could get used to his heroics.

But she wouldn’t. The last thing she wanted to do was fall for Marcus once again. She may have succeeded in the tough arena of Hollywood, but her heart was still fragile. Besides, romantic entanglements had a way of ruining friendships, and right now, she wanted to rebuild their friendship more than anything.

“I…It seems silly now that I even called you.”

“Humor me.”

“You want to come inside?” Marie and Mia had gone out for dinner, and Alice had turned down their offer to join them, feeling that mother and daughter needed some time alone.

Marcus considered her carefully. “Actually, I’d like to cash in on that rain check since I’m here. I haven’t had any dinner yet. Have you?”

“No.”

“Good. Why don’t we get a bite to eat somewhere?”

“Oh.” Dinner with Marcus. That was harmless enough. And a good way to work at rebuilding their friendship. “Okay. Gimme a second.”

She ran up the stairs to her bedroom, where she gave herself a brief once-over in the mirror. At least she was decently dressed today. Letting her hair loose from the scrunchie holding it in a ponytail, she fluffed it with her fingers, then frowned at the disheveled look. She pulled her hair back into a ponytail once again, applied a dab of burgundy lipstick to her lips, then stood back to look at her reflection.

Acceptable.

She grabbed her purse and was on her way out of the bedroom when she remembered perfume. She spent a fortune on the stuff, she may as well use it. Grabbing her favorite fragrance from her dresser, she sprayed some on her neck and wrists.

She peered in her mother’s bedroom, found her watching television, and told her she’d be out for a little while, then went back downstairs to meet Marcus.

“Ready,” she told him, with a smile. Bending, she slipped into casual sandals. When she glanced up at him, she saw him looking at her. At her feet, to be precise.

Her face flushed. She stood. “Let’s go.”

“Are you going to tell me why you called?” Marcus asked as she locked the door.

“Oh. In the car.” She followed him to the Mustang. He opened the passenger door for her and she slipped inside. Then he rounded the car and got behind the wheel. As he started the car, he said, “All right, tell me.”

“I got a crank call,” she explained. “I probably just overreacted.”

“What did the caller say?”

Alice was silent for a moment as her fingers played with the fabric of her dress. “He said, ‘I’m watching you.’”

“He?”

“Actually, I don’t know. The voice was muffled. I couldn’t say for sure if it was a man or a woman.”

“I don’t like this.”

Alice swallowed. She didn’t like the situation either. She’d been trying as much as possible to pretend it didn’t exist, but that wasn’t going to make it go away.

They drove for several minutes in awkward silence, Alice watching the dazzling array of oranges and reds as they met the darkness on the horizon.

When they pulled on to the JFK Expressway, she turned to him. “Where are we going?”

“I figured we’d go to Navy Pier. There’s a lot of variety there, so if we don’t like one place, we can go to another.”

“Sounds like the place has changed since I was last there.”

“Big time.”

Twenty minutes later, they were parked and walking through the gates of Navy Pier. The place was crowded—with tourists, Alice supposed—which was fitting, in a way, since she suddenly felt like one herself. It had been so long since she’d been here, and Marcus was right, the pier had changed considerably from its former industrial nature. It was now a tourist attraction. It had several restaurants with both indoor and outdoor seating, and at the front there was a listing of movies, indicating there was a theater inside.

“Where do you want to go?” Marcus asked.

“Doesn’t matter to me.”

Marcus placed a hand on the small of her back and led her along the sidewalk, through the crowds. Alice stiffened at his touch. He’d touched her like this years ago, yet now it seemed different somehow. And damn if she didn’t like how his fingers felt on her body.

A mere few feet up the enormous strip, Marcus veered to the left, pulling her body to his as he did so. She was too close. She could smell the musky fragrance of his cologne, mixed with the faint hint of soap and Marcus’s own unique, one hundred percent male scent.

Alice pushed the thought from her mind. It was exactly that kind of thinking that could get her into trouble.

As Marcus led her into Joe’s Be-Bop Café, the sounds of Dixieland jazz greeted her. Despite the coolness of the evening, several people enjoyed the seating on the outdoor patio.

“You want to sit outside or inside?” Marcus asked.

“Inside.”

Like the outside, the interior of the restaurant was crowded. On the stage a band of men played to an attentive crowd. Already she liked the place.

A hostess greeted them. “Smoking or non?”

“Non, please,” Alice replied, then glanced at Marcus when she realized she’d made the decision for both of them.

“Fine with me. I don’t smoke.”

All the tables close to the band were filled, so the hostess led them to the very back of the restaurant, the only spot with a few open tables. As they sat,
she placed the menus before them, then informed them that their server would be along shortly.

Marcus lifted his menu. “I don’t know about you, but I could eat a horse.”

“I’m starved.”

They both checked out the menu in silence, then Marcus asked what she was going to have.

“Probably a burger. Smothered with cheddar cheese. And fries. You’ve got to have fries with a burger.”

Marcus lowered his menu and raised an eyebrow at her. She knew exactly what he was thinking. He was surprised that she didn’t eat tofu and salads to keep her slim figure. It annoyed her, because everyone seemed to think she’d starved herself into thinness. She once was fat, but now she was slim and everyone needed to get over themselves.

“Wow, a woman with an appetite. My kind of girl.”

Immediately, Alice felt guilty for jumping to conclusions about him. It was just that between her sister and everyone else’s disbelief that she’d lost so much weight in a natural, healthy manner, she expected him to feel the same way.

“Tanisha didn’t eat more than a few pieces of lettuce whenever we went out,” he added, as though he’d read Alice’s inner thoughts.

“The key to weight loss is eating a balanced diet and working out. And every once in a while, a big, juicy burger. ’Cause the body definitely needs that too.”

She flashed him a smile that Marcus found contagious. Her smile seemed to spill out from her very soul, which made her even more beautiful than she
already was. “If I haven’t told you already, you look great.”

“Thanks.”

She blushed, and he was surprised. Surely she heard every day in Hollywood just how gorgeous she was. But the more time he spent with her, the more he realized she didn’t have a conceited bone in her body.

“Would you like some wine?” he asked.

“Sure. A Chardonnay would be great.”

The waiter appeared and Marcus ordered a half carafe of Chardonnay. Then he settled his elbows on the table and simply looked at her.

He didn’t say a word, and Alice shifted uncomfortably. Why did he have to look at her like that? As if he were trying to strip her naked with his eyes. That very thought made Alice’s heart jump with excitement. She remembered high school, how in love with Marcus she had been. She would have given anything for him to look at her that way, to have his arms wrapped around her in a lover’s embrace, to feel his lips caress her mouth, her neck, her breasts.

Alice’s body thrummed with the direction of her thoughts. God help her, she was aroused.

And Marcus wouldn’t stop looking at her.

He was her
friend,
not her lover, but any stranger here would think he was more than that. She tried to hold his gaze, to pretend she was just as bold, but she ended up blushing and looking away.

“Do I scare you?”

“What?” Those incredible cinnamon-colored eyes widened.

“You tend to look away when I look at you. I was just wondering if I scare you.”

She laughed. “Of course you don’t scare me.”

He kept his eyes on hers, steady, but she met him with an equally steady gaze of her own. The vulnerability he’d noticed before was gone. Days ago, he hadn’t been able to look at her in such a bold way because seeing the new and improved Alice reminded him how little he knew her now. But after spending time with her at the theater, he’d seen that she was still his old friend.

“I’m sorry,” Marcus said. “I just find you fascinating to look at.”

“Fascinating?”

“Yes. I still can’t believe how much you’ve changed.”

“Oh.” She knew it didn’t make sense, but she was disappointed. She didn’t want to think that every time Marcus looked at her, he saw Desirée, not Alice.

“Does it embarrass you when I look at you?”

Alice responded with part shrug, part shake of the head.

Marcus definitely sensed some discomfort on her part. But the fact that she didn’t think she was an all-important diva endeared her to him even more.

He wondered how she saw him, and was about to ask, until he came to his senses. He did
not
want to go there.

Instead, he changed the topic to business. “Did you happen to get a number of this person who called?”

Alice folded her arms across the table. “I tried. But it was unknown.”

“Hmm.”

“Hmm what?”

“Has this happened to you before? Someone stalking you, I mean?”

“Stalking!” she cried, then glanced around when she realized she’d raised her voice enough for others to hear. She spoke in a hushed tone. “Stalking? You think someone’s stalking me?”

“What would you call it?”

“I…I don’t know.”

The waiter appeared with their wine, breaking the seriousness of the moment. Marcus ordered two cheeseburgers with fries for both of them. As soon as the waiter was gone, Marcus said, “Look, Alice, I know this isn’t a comfortable topic. It never is. But for whatever reason, someone’s determined to scare you.”

“But who? Why?”

“I don’t know. Do you have
any
idea?”

“No. None at all. I haven’t been here for thirteen years. I know I wasn’t the most popular person in high school, but who would want to actually hurt me? And after all this time?”

“One thing you learn as a cop is that some people are just plain crazy, Alice. We’ll never understand what motivates them.”

That thought made her shudder.

“There was someone in Los Angeles,” she said after a moment. “A guy who used to send me weird letters. He used to tell me all the sexual things he wanted to do to me. But the letters always went to my agent, not me, thank God. Marcus, I never let anyone know where I lived. I never let the media know my true name. I’d heard the stories of obsessed fans stalking actors and I
wanted to be safe, just in case.” Fear tickled her spine. “You don’t think this guy could have followed me here?”

“Anything’s possible.”

“But how would he find me at the theater? Here in Chicago, so far from Los Angeles?” She shook her head. “No, someone I know is doing this. Someone who knows I’m working with the kids.” She remembered bumping into someone in the darkness of the theater. “And someone who isn’t a stranger to the theater. That’s the only thing that makes sense.” She shrugged. “Maybe it’s all some sort of sick joke.”

He stared at her in disbelief. “It would be one thing if you didn’t get that note, Alice. But you did. And the incident at the theater? You know this is more than a joke.”

“All right, but what am I supposed to do? I’m not going to live in fear, Marcus.”

“Damn it,” Marcus said, his voice rising. “It’s exactly that type of attitude that can get you killed.”

Her eyes widened with fear, and Marcus immediately regretted his words. He hadn’t meant to say that. But he’d suddenly thought of Melissa, how she’d so stubbornly refused to take the precautions that could have saved her life. Sure, she’d gotten a restraining order, but after a while she had acted like the whole “Peter’s gonna kill me” threat was a game, a game where the prize was snagging her favorite cop, not saving her life.

Marcus shook off the memory. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to say that.”

“Do you honestly think someone wants to”—she leaned forward—”
kill
me?”

“I didn’t mean to say that. I was thinking about another case.”

She studied him, noting the tension in his features, the way his fist clenched on the tabletop. This case must have been a bad one to affect him so deeply. “What happened?”

“There was a woman,” Marcus answered matter-of-factly. “She didn’t take her situation seriously enough. Now she’s dead.”

“Marcus, I’m sorry.”

“Yeah, well, life goes on.” He reached for the wine glass the waiter had filled and took a liberal sip.

Though he didn’t offer more details, Alice could tell this case had gotten to him. No wonder he was hell-bent on playing the hero.

Which made her stomach knot. Marcus was looking out for her because he wanted to right some wrong from the past, not because he cared about her. No, that wasn’t right. He did care, just not as deeply—or as exclusively—as she once thought.

Alice blew out a shaky breath. “I don’t want to talk about this anymore.”

“I didn’t mean to scare you.” Marcus’s eyes gently caressed her face. “I just want you to be careful.”