Give Him the Slip (12 page)

"Who is it?" Luke and Maddie demanded simultaneously.

"I printed two jars and found two sets of prints on both.
Maddie's, and Gus's son, Jerry's."

"Jerry Grevas!" Maddie exclaimed. "But he's an
accountant."

"With a record, apparently?" Luke asked his brother.

"One arrest for pot when he was young. Apparently he liked to
grow things even then."

"I can't believe it's Jerry." Maddie massaged her brow.
"He's really a nice guy. He loved his father. He treated him so well. Why
would he murder his own father?"

"What about the cops?" Sara-Beth demanded. "How are
they involved?"

"Maybe they're not," Maddie said, a great weight lifting
from her heart. "Gus was babbling, panicked. When he said don't trust the
cops, rather than meaning they're involved, maybe he was telling me not to get
them involved. Maybe he was trying to protect Jerry." She met Luke's
stare. "I wasn't in danger, after all."

That observation hung in the air for a long minute.

"Maybe not. Unless things have changed a whole lot in the
years that I've been gone, that makes more sense than the existence of a drug
ring in the BBPD. But you were running on adrenaline, and you had good reason
to worry. Didn't help that you were egged on by my old man."

"So I can go home."

Luke addressed his brother. "They're picking him up?"

"I understand Chief Harper has a car on the way even as we
speak."

"How did you do that so fast?" Sara-Beth exclaimed.
"I'm not sure I like that, to be honest. This has a real Big Brother
feel."

"You can go home," Luke told Maddie. "After we take
care of the little detail of disposing of millions of dollars of psilocybin
mushrooms in such a way that keeps you square with the law. And, to be on the
safe side, I'd like to see you give Bee a chance to publish her article before
you return— without mentioning me or Mark, by the way—just in case Jerry had a
helper we don't know about."

"I've been needing to make a shopping run to Dallas anyway. I
could take a couple days."

"That'd be a good idea."

"Have you been to the import district on Harry Hines
Boulevard recently?" Sara-Beth asked her. "You won't believe the
upgrading they've done in that end of town."

The brothers discussed arrangements for a few minutes, then both
men stepped away and spent some time making private calls on their cell phones.
When they finished, they conferred another few minutes, then Luke turned to
Maddie. "It's all set. You're to take the contraband to a field office in
Tyler. Agent Flores will meet you. He's a good guy, photogenic for your shots,
Bee. Flores will make sure all the
i
's are dotted and
t
's are
crossed so that none of this will come back to haunt you."

"Aren't you coming with us, Sin?" Sara-Beth asked.

He hesitated and Maddie's heart took a dip.
No, he's not. Of
course he's not.
What had gotten into her, thinking that he might go along?
He'd made it perfectly clear that he was going fishing come hell or high water
or magic mushrooms.

At least she hadn't slept with him. She still had that bit of dignity.

She lifted her chin and pasted on a smile. "I'm a big girl. I
can handle it from here. Luke's been a tremendous help to me, though, and I do
appreciate it." She paused a moment and added sincerely, bravely, "I
do."

The look in her eyes damn near broke Luke's heart. He glanced at
his brother and Sara-Beth. "Give us a minute?"

"Sure," Mark said. "I wanted to get a look at the
Miss
Behavin' II
before I headed out, anyway. Bee, you want to come with
me?"

The reporter shook her head, her eyes alight with that feminine
gleam of nosiness that reared its head whenever romance floated in the air.
"No, thanks. I need to duck into the ship store. When I was in there
earlier I noticed some rubber alligator toys my kiddos will love. Since I left
in the middle of the night without saying good-bye, I know better than to go
home without peace offerings in hand."

Luke waited until the pair had disappeared from sight before
moving to take a seat beside the woman who'd blown into his life like a
springtime tornado. Unable to resist the urge to touch her, he played his
fingers through her hair. The fiery strands flowed across his fingers like
silk. "Maddie, when you came looking for Terry, what sort of help did you
expect?"

"I don't know. I wanted her—well, him—to fix it. I don't know
how. Everything was such a mess, a panic. I hadn't thought it all through. It's
just... I really like it there. It's finally home. A real home. You can't
understand what it's like for me. How much it means."

"I know what home is, Maddie. I've not forgotten. But Brazos
Bend isn't my home anymore, and this isn't my job anymore. I can't do it
anymore. I'm toast. Terry..."

"I'm sorry about your partner." She smiled sadly and
added, "For both our sakes."

"You really thought he'd return to Brazos Bend with
you?"

She nodded. "I did. Branch said..." She stopped and
shook her head. "I'm still learning to be independent. It's not something
I was taught since birth. I guess I wanted a white knight riding to the rescue.
Wearing a skirt, of course."

"If Terry had a grave, he'd be turning in it after hearing
that one," Luke observed with a smile. "Not over the white knight
bit. That fit him to a tee. The skirt is something else entirely."

After a moment's pause, he added, "I'm different from Terry,
Red. I'm not your knight. I don't ride a white horse and armor makes me itch. I
won't go back to Brazos Bend."

"But—"

"Branch spotted an opportunity and tried to use it to his
advantage. He tried to manipulate us both. I can't let him do that to me.
There's too much water under our bridge."

"Too much male pride, you mean. Too little forgiveness."

"Maybe so."

Silence hung between them like a black cloud in the wake of that
concession. Luke didn't know what else to say to her, and yet, he wanted to say
something. He wanted to say that he wished he'd met her at another time, under
other circumstances. He wanted to tell her... hell... he didn't want to tell
her good-bye.

Hearing a crashing sound approaching from the direction of the
marina, Luke looked up to see Knucklehead bounding toward them, a mangled
athletic shoe in his mouth. He dropped the shoe at Luke's feet. Good dog. Good
distraction. "You looking to play fetch, boy?"

He threw the shoe and Knucklehead galloped after it, then brought
it back. They played the game twice more before Maddie pasted on another one of
those damned fake smiles and took a step toward the path. "Well. We
probably should go looking for the others. Your brother likely has a country to
go save, and Sara-Beth might need help carrying all her loot from the ship
store."

"Yeah. Yeah. In a minute." He took her by the arm to
stop her. "I want to say... I need to tell you... Ah, hell."

He raked his free hand through his hair, scowling in frustration.
"Goddammit. I wish you wouldn't stand there looking like Bambi's mother. I
have no reason to feel guilty here."

"No, you don't."

"I didn't tell the others about the rock-and-roll
stuff," he pointed out.

"I noticed and I do appreciate it, Luke." Maddie again
gave that plastic smile. "I finally have a home in Brazos Bend. A real
home. Thank you for helping me to keep it."

He waited to feel a sense of satisfaction, but instead came the
certainty that he was fucking up. Ruthlessly, he quashed that. Fucking up would
have been sleeping with her. He had the sneaking suspicion that had he done
that, she'd haunt him for a very long time, if not forever.

Then Maddie, damn her, extended her hand for a handshake. A
handshake! "Good-bye, Luke. It was nice to meet you, and I do appreciate
your assistance. I hope you and your brother have a wonderful fishing
trip."

He stared at her hand, his heart pounding. He felt as if he stood
at the edge of a cliff and he wanted—God, he wanted— to take a flying leap off
into the madness.

Self-preservation won, to a point. He didn't leap, but he did
lean. He took the hand she proffered and tugged her into his arms, then
captured her mouth with his, telling her goodbye without words, words he felt
but couldn't form.

He sank his fingers into her hair and let the emotion flow. He
wanted her desperately, but he couldn't cross that line. If only he'd met her
somewhere else—a different time, a different place.

If only...

She moaned into his mouth and he growled low in his throat in
return. Finally, when he reached the point where he considered laying her back
upon the picnic table, he broke off the kiss with a curse.

He took a step back, clenched his fists at his sides, and stood
staring at her, breathing heavily. "Maddie, I don't... I wish... oh,
hell."

Her breaths weren't all that steady, either, and the glimmer in
her eyes told him she had wishes, too. But the woman proved stronger than he.
She managed to gain control, and this time, Maddie Kincaid was the instigator
of the kiss. A quick, up-on-her-tiptoes buss on the cheek. "I'll think of
you. Good thoughts. You didn't lie to me. You didn't use me. That's a first for
me, Luke Callahan. It's a gift. Something I can take into the future. Who
knows, maybe there's a knight out there for me, after all."

Son of a bitch.

In a parking lot outside a nondescript office building in Tyler,
Texas, Maddie gazed with satisfaction at her minivan's empty cargo space, then
slammed the back door shut. "Well, that's it, I guess."

Sara-Beth Branson tucked her camera and notepad back into a canvas
tote bag while frowning at Maddie's van. "I hope that rotten vegetable
smell doesn't linger."

"I plan to stop at the first store I see to buy air
freshener. Think I'll drop my clothes back at the dry cleaners before I take
them home, too."

"You might as well throw away that mop head while you're at
it, I'm afraid. But I'll bet if you drive with the windows down, it'll be all
right by the time you hit Dallas."

Maddie nibbled her bottom lip, then said, "Man, I hope so.
That drive from Caddo Bayou almost killed me."

Sara-Beth studied her fingernails. "Or was it leaving Sin
that put those tears in your eyes?"

Ugh.

"I wasn't crying," Maddie defended. "Really. I
wasn't."

"Wistful" was a good word for her state of mind when she
pulled away from Caddo Bayou Marina, Mark Callahan saluting from the flybridge
of the
Miss Behavin' II,
his twin brother staring moodily from the edge
of the trees. Sin and Devil. Pure temptation.

"I wouldn't blame you if you did weep a bit. I certainly did
when Luke and I parted ways. I thought my life was going to end."

"How long were you together?" she asked, trying to rise
above the stab of envy she felt. Not that she truly wanted to hear about Luke
and Sara-Beth's romance. She simply couldn't resist...

"Nine wondrous months," Sara-Beth replied on a sigh.
"My freshman year in high school. I'm telling you, I was the envy of every
freshman girl. My father was fit to be tied. He used to get really bad gas
every time Luke came to pick me up for a date. Fathers." She rolled her
eyes. "I swear that Jeff will be just the same when our Kristen grows up.
You know how fathers are."

Actually, she didn't. Blade had made a stab at acting like a
traditional father during those sweet months their little family lived in
Kansas, but even giving it his best effort, he never quite pulled it off. Not
even Maddie's mother could convince him that offering Maddie's elementary
school principal a toke on parent's night wasn't the thing to do.

Curiosity pricking like a thorn, Maddie fished in her purse for
her keys as she asked, "So, what broke you and Luke up?"

"He refused to sleep with me."

Maddie's keys slipped from her grip and clunked to the hot asphalt
of the parking lot. "Sin Callahan?"

Sara-Beth's eyes sparkled. "Not what you'd think, is it? He
had such a reputation. Do you know that he and his brothers kept a rented party
house out by the lake? No adults knew about it. Then there were the road trips.
The Callahan boys would load up their friends and drive to Mexico and the
whorehouses almost once a month. My best friend's sister's boyfriend told her
they all were having sex by the time they were fourteen. And Luke was sixteen
when he dated me. Everyone thought we were doing it, of course, and they asked
me about it all the time. I had to lie. It's hard for a virgin to lie about
sex, I'll have you know. Well, a fifteen-year-old virgin. That's why he
wouldn't do it. Said I was jailbait and he'd wait. Except, he wasn't
waiting—those trips to Mexico, you know."

"He cheated on you." Disapproval mixed with a measure of
disappointment rolled through Maddie on a wave. She hated cheaters. Despised
them. For all the harm the Terrible Trio had done to her, that's one sin they'd
never committed. Of course, they hadn't been named Sin, either.