Smashwords version Sweet Surrender (7 page)

Despite his obvious misgivings, Jeffrey was a gentleman, and at
lunch he bought them sandwiches  from a restaurant down the street, which they
ate inside the office at a small foldout table with foldout chairs.
After lunch, Viola tossed her container in the trash, got up, and
headed for the front door.

Jeffrey leaped up from his chair, looking alarmed. “Where are you
going? I’m supposed to be watching out for you guys. If anything happens to
either one of you, Rafe will kick my ass from one end of the store to the
other. ”
“That would be fun to watch. Now I’m almost hoping I get mugged.”
Viola flashed a feral smile.  “I’m going out to my car, which is parked
right outside the front door so you don’t need to worry. I forgot my ipod dock;
this store needs some mood music.”
“Ahhh, yes, some death metal will definitely get the customers in
a buying mood.”
Viola shot him a look of chilling disdain and didn’t bother to
answer, letting the door slam behind her as she walked outside.  A minute
later, she ran back inside the store at top speed, her ipod dock tucked under
her arm.  Poppy and Jeffrey leaped up in alarm.
“What is it?” Poppy demanded.
“Outside! You need to look! Is that the guy who attacked you?”
Standing outside on the sidewalk, about twenty feet away from the
storefront, a stocky man swathed in layers of dirty clothing was wildly waving
a sign which read “Repent, fallin women!” His bright blues eyes glowed eerily
in his filthy face, which was  nearly obscured by weedy strands of stringy
brown hair.
When Poppy, Jeffrey and Viola burst out of the store onto the
sidewalk, he bared a mouthful of yellow buck teeth at them, dropped his
placard, and made the sign of the cross with his index fingers at them, as if
they were vampires.

Up and
down the street, people strolled by without giving him a second glance. He must
be a familiar sight in the neighborhood, Poppy thought.

“Is it
him?” Viola asked, skewering him with a venomous look.
Poppy stood back cautiously, looked him up and down.  Sighing, she
shook her head. “Too short, wrong build. I’m afraid it’s not him,” she said
unhappily.  She truly wished it was him; she wanted to put a face to
anonymous wraith who’d burst into her apartment and shattered her peace of
mind.
“Fallin?” Viola mused. “They don’t teach spelling in crazy
school?”
The man hissed at her with bared teeth.
“Leave now, before I shove that sign up your ass,” Jeffrey
snarled, stepping in front of Viola.

The man bent down and grabbed the sign off the sidewalk, hissed
again, and stalked off without a backward glance, shoulders hunched.
“Oooooh, yuppie boy, I didn’t know you had it in you,” Viola grinned,
revealing perfect white teeth.
“Viola!” Poppy snapped, indignant. “Say thank you!”
“Thank you,” Viola repeated dutifully, like a chastised child.
“Dang. How many religious psychos are there in this neighborhood,
anyway?” Poppy shook her head in astonishment as the sign-waver disappeared
around a corner.
“A lot!”  

Poppy
started.  Amelia had walked up behind them. “There’s a couple of them that
seem to take turns picketing your store.  They add character to the
neighborhood.  The yuppies love to take pictures of them,” she said
cheerfully.

“Rafe seems to think that one of them may have something to do
with the vandalism on the store, and maybe even my sister’s car accident. He
doesn’t think it was an accident.”

Amelia’s eyes widened in shock. “Really? What about the fires?”

“Fires?” Poppy choked out. “There were fires at the bakery? More
than one?”

“Penelope didn’t tell you? The last one was pretty bad. They
weren’t sure if it was faulty wiring or not, but that’s okay, the insurance
paid for the place to be rewired and completely redecorated, Penelope said.”

“Uh, no.
Penelope forgot to mention that one little detail to me.”

Amelia
shrugged. “I’m sure it’s fine now. I saw the building inspectors going in after
the renovation, so it’s got to be up to code now.”

Stomach churning, Poppy managed a weak smile and followed Viola
and Jeffrey back into the store.

Once they were in there, Viola plugged in her white egg-shaped
ipod dock and slid her ipod in. Jeffrey grimaced, bracing himself for an explosion
of screeching noise. Instead, the sounds of Vivaldi’s Four Seasons streamed
out, flowing through the warm, cinnamon scented air.
Jeffrey looked at Viola in surprise.
“Go on, say something,” she challenged him.
“I wouldn’t dare.”
“You’re learning.”
He shook his head in bemusement and walked over to talk to a
cluster of women who were clustered around the edible lingerie rack. They lit
up when Jeffrey walked over to them and he was immediately swallowed up by the
crowd of women, who giggled and flipped their hair.

Just like Rafe, Jeffrey’s good looks and easy charm was like
catnip to the women.

And
speaking of Rafe…he’d left Poppy his cell phone number earlier, with stern
instructions to call him immediately in case of emergency.  Grabbing her cell phone
from her purse, Poppy called Rafe to tell him about the fires.

“I can not believe how much your sister has lied to you,” Rafe
gritted in frustration. “You  need to find out what else she’s not telling
you.  In fact, I’m coming with you tonight when you go visit her.”

“You
don’t have to-“ but Poppy was speaking to a dead connection.

He came back to the office mid-afternoon. Jeffrey grabbed his coat
and headed for the door.
“Thank you for buying us lunch, even if you are an uptight
capitalist tool of the establishment with a bitchy fiancée,” Viola said, with a
jaunty wave of sparkly blue fingernails.
He made a gallant half bow. “Thank you for not harming any
portions of my body, or biting me and giving me rabies.”
Viola bared white teeth in a savage grin. “I charge extra for
that. And I’ve had all my shots.”

And she headed back into the bakery to get more cock cannolis,
which had been selling briskly all morning.
Jeffrey scowled, and hurried out of the store.
“Thank God you got back before they killed each other!” Poppy
groaned.
Rafe threw back his head and laughed.  “They’re going to go
at it like bunnies.”

Poppy was so shocked, her mouth dropped open, and she found
herself literally at a loss for words for several seconds.
“I’m sorry, what?” she finally spluttered. “You so do not know my
friend! He is the opposite of her type!”
He just grinned maddeningly. “I know human nature.”
When closing time came, he helped them lock up, then steered Poppy
to his car, which was parked down the block from the bakery. “Time to have a
little chat with your sister.”

At the
hospital, when they reached Penelope’s floor, they heard angry shouts coming
from down the hall.
Poppy instinctively headed towards the shouting, with Rafe
following on her heels.
Where there was trouble, there was inevitably Penelope, she’d
found over the years.
Sure enough, there were two men standing outside in the hallway,
shoving each other and shouting.
One of them wore a black leather jacket, jeans, and black motorcycle
boots. The other man was a handsome, preppy blond with wavy hair, khakis, and a
striped green designer polo shirt.
“Get the hell out, loser!” the polo shirt guy was screaming.
“Terry! Alistair! Stop it, please, stop it!” Penelope wailed from
inside her room.
Motorcycle-man took a wild swing at Preppy-boy, before a male
nurse tackled him and dragged him off.
Penelope was cringing in her hospital bed, clutching a giant
stuffed teddy bear and crying, chest heaving, streams of mascara running down
her face. She made giant gulping sounds as if she were struggling for breath,
and Poppy rushed past the two shouting men in to the room, alarmed.
“Penelope, my God, are you all right? Can you breathe? Calm down,
honey, take a breath.”
“Poppy!” Penelope wailed when she rushed in. “You can’t see me
like this…you just can’t! Who is that man with you? I don’t want anybody to see
me like this!  Get out, everyone get out, get OUT!”
In the hallway, security guards had arrived and were hustling the
two angry men onto separate elevators.

Penelope made gagging sounds. “I’m going to throw up!”

Poppy frantically looked around the room for a container, and
grabbed the small plastic trash can by her sister’s bed, handing it to her.

Penelope hunched over it, heaving. “Get…out!” she gasped.
Rafe turned to Poppy. “Clearly, your sister is too upset to talk,”
he said, placing his hand on her shoulder.  The look on his face was far
too sincere; he was up to something.
He turned to Penelope. “I look forward to meeting you some other
time,” he said, and then quickly rushed Poppy out of the room and down the hall
towards the elevator.
“You gave up awfully easy,” she said suspiciously.
He smiled cryptically and shook his head. “You’ll see.”

Rafe led Poppy down to the cafeteria where he bought them both
dinner, which was served on plastic trays. They carried their trays over to
formica tables, bathed with the glare of fluorescent lights.

A surly
janitor pushed a mop across the floor near them, sending clouds of
disinfectant-scented air wafting their way. 

Poppy
pushed at the mysterious brown meat on her tray, looking at it apprehensively.
“Do you happen to know what they do with people who die here and never get
claimed? Because I’m just saying, this doesn’t look like beef, doesn’t look
like chicken…”

“Best not
to think about these things. Next time, order the pasta,” Rafe grinned,
scooping up a forkful of mushy noodles and chewing them.

Poppy
pushed her tray away from her, then looked up at Rafe. “You know, I just
realized you know all about me, and I don’t know much about you at all.  Why
did you leave the police force?”

He set
his fork down, his face suddenly serious. “My father was a sheriff’s captain.
He was shot to death pursuing a suspect. My mother begged me to quit the force
afterwards, right before she died of a heart attack. That was a year ago.”

Poppy
gasped, a wave of sorrow washing over her. “I’m sorry, Rafe! I shouldn’t have
asked.”

His
answering smile was tinged with regret. “It’s all right. I’m proud of both my
parents; I just don’t bring it up in casual conversation.”

“What do
you do now, for work?”

She saw
the faintest flicker in his gaze, then he looked down and loaded more pasta on
his fork.  “My uncle owns an international security company. I work for him.”

It seemed
like a subject he didn’t really want to get into, which was odd, because he
struck her as a person who was passionate and opinionated about life in
general. Like the kind of person who’d love to talk about his job.  But maybe
he didn’t enjoy his new job that much; he probably just did it out of a sense
of obligation to his late mother.

He
glanced down at his pasta. “Okay, it’s been long enough. Unless you want more
mystery meat.”

Poppy
shuddered.

“No, I’m
fine, thanks.”

“Let’s go
then. I think your sister’s had enough time to recover.”

“Are you
sure? She seemed really upset…” Poppy hesitated,  but Rafe was already up and
moving, heading towards the stairwell which led up to Penelope’s floor.

They
climbed four flights, with Rafe leading the way and Poppy trailing behind,
admiring how his jeans hugged his muscled thighs and firm, round butt cheeks.

When they
reached the top flight, they stopped, and Rafe turned to face Poppy. He wasn’t
even breathing hard; Poppy was, but it was only partly from the climb.

She
wanted him to grab her again and press his body against hers, to claim her
mouth again with a hot kiss. Did he feel the same way about her? Or was she
being a fool thinking that he really wanted her?

He slid a
finger under her chin, gently, oh so gently, and tipped her head up to look at
him. His touch sent a wave of warmth rushing through her body, and his gaze
pierced her soul, as if he could see her innermost thoughts and fears.

His voice
was low and strong and urgent, rumbling from his chest.  “I want you to be
strong when you go in there. Your sister put your life at risk, and your best
friend’s life at risk, by not telling you about the vandalism and the attacks
at the store. You need to find out everything she knows, because she might hold
the key to catching this person.”

Poppy
nodded, taking a deep breath, and followed him down the hallway. Since they
were on the back side of the hallway, they weren’t passing the nurse’s station,
and they were able to make it to Penelope’s room unannounced.

The
motorcycle-jacket guy was back, sitting next to Penelope on her bed.  Penelope
had experienced a miraculous recovery in the short time that Poppy and Rafe had
been downstairs. She had washed her face, fixed her makeup, and her boyfriend
had his arm slung around her shoulder, and they were looking at pictures on her
cell phone and giggling.