Circle of Shadows (17 page)
Authors: Edna Curry
Sarah had indeed already gotten
the story from Anna, and was greatly relieved to hear from him.
“Your phone’s unlisted,” Sarah
told him accusingly, as though he might not be aware of that crucial fact.
“I’m sorry, Sarah, I know we
should have called you, but we were just so tired, we didn’t think. Lili’s
fine, she’s still asleep.”
“But she should be here with me.”
“We need to talk about some
things. Yes, I’ll have her call you later. Please don’t worry, I’m taking good
care of her.”
He hung up and then called the
police. Arthur had indeed been on the New York flight and had been arrested.
With a pleased sigh, he went to
fix coffee, omelets and toast.
Lili awoke to the delicious aroma
of coffee. It took her a minute to remember where she was and why. Then she
padded to the bathroom, washed her face, and combed her hair, staring at
herself in his mirror. She was still wearing the blue pajamas with the rolled
up sleeves and cuffs, and looked like a pale ghost, but that couldn’t be
helped.
Shrugging, she followed her nose downstairs
where she found Ken setting the table in the corner of the kitchen. He turned
and smiled at her. “I was just coming to wake you.”
“I smelled the coffee. It woke
me.”
He came to her and took her in
his arms, kissing and holding her as though he was afraid she’d disappear
again. “Oh, Lili, I’m so glad you’re all right,” he said, his lips moving
greedily over hers. “I love you and want to keep you safe, always.”
“I’m fine, really, Ken,” she said
shakily. “Just starved.”
“Of course,” he said, releasing
her. “I’m not much of a cook, but I made ham and cheese omelets and toast.”
“Here, let me do that,” she said,
taking the coffee pot and filling their cups.
“Mm, this smells delicious,” she
said as he set a plateful of omelet in front of her.
“Eat first, then tell me all
about what happened.”
She ate greedily, then, staring
at the sun low in the sky across the lake, asked, “What time is it?”
“Around seven-thirty.”
“I slept all day?”
“Mm hm. You needed the rest.”
“But what about the store? I must
call Anna and see if everything is okay. Without Arthur, she didn’t have a
meat-cutter all day and....”
“Whoa. Eat your food,” he said,
putting another forkful in his own mouth. He watched her follow suit, then
explained, “I called Anna this morning and again a little while ago. She did
fine. She had your whole crew to help her, you know. The meat case may be empty
by now, but I called Rudy and told him to send his assistant over in the
morning. He’ll take care of it until you replace Arthur. Maybe you’ll even want
to keep Rudy’s assistant on permanently.”
Lili bit into her toast and eyed
him thoughtfully. “I suppose you called my mother and told her not to be upset,
too?”
Ken looked sheepish. “Yes. And
you’re right, she was upset. But I told her I was taking good care of you.”
Lili blushed. “Now I’m in for it.
She’ll have a fit knowing I’m here alone with you. Why didn’t you say I was
still at the hospital or something?”
“Because she’d have driven right over
to see you there. Then the hospital staff would have told her that you’d left
with me. Besides, I wanted some time alone with you, and I don’t care who knows
it.”
She smiled at that and finished
eating in silence. Could he really mean it? It seemed too good to be true.
“More coffee?”
She shook her head.
“Then come on into the living
room. The sun is about to set.” He stood and reached for her hand.
They moved down into the carpeted
sunken alcove in front of the windows and settled back against the pillows.
He sat behind her, and she lay
back against him to watch as the sun sent its multicolored hues across the lake
toward them.
“It’s so beautiful and peaceful
here.” Lili sighed.
“That’s why I wanted to live
here, to get away from everything for at least a few hours now and then.”
At the words, ‘get away,’ Lili
remembered what they were getting away from. “Ken,” she said, “I have to tell
you about Arthur.”
He turned her towards him so he
could see her face in the twilight. “Are you sure you feel up to it?”
She pulled herself up and wrapped
her arms around her pajama covered knees, adjusting the pillows behind her, so
that they were facing each other. “Yes, of course.”
“Then start at the beginning and
tell me all about it.”
She watched conflicting emotions cross
his face as she did so. “Arthur could get away with it because only he knew how
much meat he’d actually taken to these accounts, and how much we should have
been paid for it,” Lili explained.
“I see. And because he spread the
losses throughout all the departments by ringing them up on the till himself,
we couldn’t tell that he was the problem,” Ken said.
“Yes. Then he told everyone that
he’d inherited lots of money, so he could spend and enjoy it right under our
noses,” she continued, shuddering. “What a fool I was to trust him!”
“Don’t blame yourself. You
couldn’t have known. He fooled all of us.” He let her talk, only occasionally
putting in a question, until she got to the horrors of the meat cooler.
“It was so cold and dark. I had
only my thin uniform on. At first, I tried running in place to stay warm. Then
I remembered learning in a first aid class, that one of the causes of
hypothermia is too much exercise in the cold. The only thing I could find to
keep in my body heat was the cardboard boxes the meat was in. They were too
stiff to wrap around me very well.”
“It was enough, apparently.”
“I guess so.” She shivered at the
memory and said, “I’ll never tease my friend Tami about being afraid of the
dark again. I think I’ll always hate it myself, now.” She began to cry.
“Oh, Lili,” Ken said. He took her
in his arms again. “
Shh
, it’s okay, now, love, it’s
all over. I’ll never let him hurt you again.”
She felt his hot kisses move
lower to her throat, and moaned in pleasure as he eased her back against the
pillows and lay beside her. His hand slipped his loose pajama off her shoulder
and his lips teased her breast.
A hot wave of desire washed down
her insides as he fondled her. Her hands moved up to curl themselves into the
crisp hairs along the back of his neck, urging him closer as she arched towards
him.
“Darling, it was awful these past
weeks, trying to keep from doing this,” he said, sliding the pajama off and out
of his way. “I want you so much. I love you.” She felt his fingers slide lower,
exploring the sensitive insides of her thighs, then the softly curled hair on
her mound.
Was he just saying that in the
heat of lovemaking?
she
wondered. Or was it really
true? At the moment she was too happy to care.
Her fingers busied themselves
undressing him, then caressing what they had uncovered.
His lips sought hers as he
covered her body with his own. Then he moved his kisses lower to send thrills
of delight along the side of her throat.
In moments they had joined and
were eagerly moving in search of ecstasy. The sweet tension built higher and
higher.
“Oh, Lili, that feels so good.”
“Mm
hm
,”
she agreed.
Pleasure soared through her to
match the brilliant last rays of the sunset.
Satisfied and happy, they went to
shower and made love again under the warm spray of water. He took a large soft
towel from his heated towel bars and dried her. She grinned and followed suit.
Then they cuddled facing each
other in his bed.
“I’ll never get enough of making
love with you,” he groaned, sliding her hand down to show her how ready he was
again.
“Nor will
I
.”
It was quite a while later when
they talked again.
His hand stroked her hair back
from her face and his lips covered hers. “Can you ever forgive me for doubting
you as I did?”
“But I’m the one who needs
forgiving,” she said. “I blamed you for what Arthur caused my father to do.”
“It doesn’t matter now. But we
really should settle this for good. If you’ll just marry me, it’ll solve all
our other problems, don’t you see? We can just share Adams’ Foods instead of
fighting over it.” He watched her wide blue eyes anxiously for an answer.
“Marry you?”
“Yes.” He frowned. “I told you
that I love you, didn’t I?”
“Yes, but....”
“But, what?”
She blushed. “Well, we were
making love when you said it, and well, you know, sometimes men say things
then, that they don’t really mean.”
“I don’t. When I said that I love
you, Lili, I meant it.”
“Oh.” A wide smile crossed her
face and she leaned forward to kiss him in the darkening room.
“Lili.” His voice was full of
frustration. “Answer me. Do you love me?”
“Of course,” she said. “How could
I not?” Her long strawberry lashes flicked upward questioningly, then lowered
again as she went on kissing his chin and running her fingers through the
crisp, dark hairs on his bare chest.
“Then you will marry me?”
“Mm hm. But first, answer the
phone.”
He became aware of that noise and
cuddled her closer. “Let it ring.”
“It might be my mother.”
“We’ll call her later and tell
her to start planning your wedding.”
“But she goes to bed early.”
“So do
we
.”
The End.
###
Edna Curry lives in Minnesota and
often sets her novels there among the lakes, evergreens and river valleys. She
especially enjoys the
Dalles
area of the St. Croix
Valley, gateway to the Wild River, which draws many tourists who give her story
ideas. Besides short stories and non-fiction articles, she writes mystery,
romance and romantic suspense novels.
Edna is married and is a member
of the Romance Writers of America and four of its chapters: Midwest Fiction
Writers, KOD, WISRWA and Northern Lights Writers.
Circle of Shadows (half of Deadly
Duos #1) was a finalist in RWA's prestigious Golden Heart Contest.
Visit her webpage at
http://www.ednacurry.com
***
Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/7Edna
Twitter: @
ednafern
My Sister’s Keeper
Best Friends
Bear Trap
Mirror Image
Hard Hat Man
Double Trouble
Flight to Love
Circle of Shadows
Traveling Bug
Secret
Daddy
Whiskey Creek Press
Never Love a
Logger Whiskey Creek Press
I’ll Always Find
You Whiskey Creek Press-Torrid
Meet Me,
Darling Melange
Books
***
Short
stories:
5 Children’s Stories
7 Short Stories
Non-fiction:
The Jam of all
Jams
The story of the world’s largest
logjam ever.
Lady
Locksmith Series:
The Lilliput
Bar
Mystery
Coming soon: Body in the Antique
Trunk
Lacey
Summers
’ PI Mystery Series:
Yesterday’s Shadow #1
Dead Man’s
Image #2
Dead in Bed
#3 Whiskey Creek Press
Eccentric Lady #4
***
Ecerpt
from Eccentric Lady:
A Lacey Summers P.I. Novel
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00AN9ZPOE
From the back cover:
Lacey’s
new client, Patti, comes to her
in a panic because her Aunt Agnes is missing. Patti calls Sheriff Ben stupid
for refusing to investigate. Is Patti lying? The case gets
more
weird
when Agnes’s body is found, her nasty nephew and brother and his
girlfriend arrive, and Patti begins dating Agnes’ lawyer.
Though Ben and even her trucker
fiance
, Paul, want her to drop the case, Lacey continues
searching for the truth. Someone else doesn’t want her snooping, either. When
threats and intimidation don’t work, she’s kidnapped. Will she survive to solve
this case?
Excerpt:
Beside Paul’s Buick sat an
obviously new blue Honda Accord, and on my doorstep stood a tall, lovely blonde
woman. I didn’t like the way her gaze followed Paul striding to his car, so my
tone may have been a bit sharp. “Hello. May I help you?”
Her head swung back around and
she eyed me from clear, blue eyes. “You’re Landers’ Lady PI?”
I nodded. “Yes, I’m Lacey
Summers, a private investigator. People do call me that.” Most people didn’t
think of ‘Lady PI’ as a derogative term. Just a local nickname they’d adopted
for me. So I try not to be offended by it.
She held out a hand for me to
shake. “I’m Patti Jones, Agnes
Simms’
niece.”
Her tone said that should explain
everything to me. Well, it didn’t, though that name was familiar. Where had I
heard it before? I wondered as I shook her hand. I couldn’t remember. But I
assumed she was a potential client, since she’d asked if I was the PI, so I
invited her in. “My office is down here,” I said, leading the way down the
wooden stairs. “Watch your step.”
I saw her eye my Golden Labrador
dog, so added, “Down, Scamp. Don’t worry, he’s friendly, unless he thinks I
need protecting.”
Scamp sniffed her and followed us
down to my office, then lay on the floor beside me, keeping the stranger in his
sight. From the tension in his body, I knew he’d be ready to pounce if she gave
him any excuse.
“Would you like some coffee?” I’d
already had my morning caffeine, but I wanted to put her at ease and offering
coffee usually does that. Instead of taking the chair I’d indicated, she
wandered over to the large window overlooking Long Lake and stared out, her
arms folded over her chest. At my question, she turned, eyed me and nodded.
“Coffee would be nice.”
I moved to the side table and
plugged in the coffeemaker.
“You do know Agnes Simms?” Her
voice was a bit skeptical. Oh, oh. Was she going to change her mind about
coming here?
As I added water and grounds to
the coffeemaker, I wracked my memory for that name. Landers only has a thousand
people, so I know most of them. But some work in the cities and only use our
little burg as a bedroom town, doing all their shopping and business elsewhere.
So those I’ve had little opportunity to meet. “I think I’ve heard the name, but
can’t recall meeting her right now. Could you tell me a bit about her? And what
your problem is?”
Patti stood at my office window
staring out over Long Lake while I stood at the side table making coffee. She
was a perfectly groomed, slim woman with long blonde hair. She wore a navy blue
business suit with matching high heels and carried a matching leather purse.
Her lips and fingertips were bright red. But she wore a worried look on her face
instead of a smile.
“My problem is that you have a
stupid sheriff!” she burst out, bitterness dripping from her voice.
My head jerked up and I stared at
her. She ambled over to the chair by my desk and sat. I thought of Ben, the
tall, gangly, middle-aged man who was our county sheriff. He’d also been my
late Uncle Henry’s card playing buddy and thus was almost a part of my family.
On weekends when I’d visited my uncle during college, I’d fixed that bunch of
men more sandwiches and cookies than I could count.
Upset now, I counted to ten to
control my temper and said carefully, “I’ve heard Ben called a lot of things,
but stupid is a first.”
***
In The Lilliput Bar Mystery, a
lady locksmith finds herself in many scary situations.
The bar owner has been murdered
late at night and Cassie happened to be on the scene at the time, opening a
drunk's car. Several other people were also there. And the bar owner had
secrets that only now after her death, come to light.
The very attractive detective
sent to investigate doesn't want to believe Cassie is involved. But the sheriff
is convinced she is. Somebody else is convinced she knows too much. Will she
survive when the killer comes after her?
***
Excerpt from Best Friends:
***
She stood beside him, her perfume
drifting into his breathing space. He couldn't avoid noticing her nearness.
Awareness prickled along his skin, raising goose-bumps on his arms. He felt her
watching him and lifted his eyes to meet hers. He read regret and raw need
there, matching his own. Slowly he rose to his feet and stepped closer to her,
holding her gaze with his own. When she didn't move away, he put his arms
around her and molded her body to his. For a moment she stiffened, then
softened and allowed her body to fit into the planes of his. They fit together
exactly right, as they always had. It felt like coming home. Tipping his head,
he kissed her, first in soft, testing nibbles, then hungrily. His pulse sped up
and his heart thudded. He felt as though he'd been starving and now tasted his
first food in weeks. She answered his kisses with as much need as his. For a
long minute, he enjoyed the taste and feel of her, indulged the fantasies that
had been driving him crazy since he first knew she was back. At last he lifted
his head and looked down into her hazel eyes. She stared back at him, looking
dazed and wondering. "God, Tami, I missed you!" he said, his voice
coming out in a croak. "Why did we ever separate?" "I don't
know," she answered, sounding desperate and frustrated. "I don't
know." He stroked a finger lightly along one blonde brow, smoothing back
the silky hairs. "The old magic is still there, isn't it?"
"Yes," she said through
kiss swollen lips, her voice trembling. "But then, I never did have the
sense God gave a goose."
Panic surged in his gut as
he felt her stiffen in his arms. "What is that supposed to mean?" She
pulled away. "It means, this is going nowhere, Cal."
***