Hot and Irresistible (26 page)

He reached into his other breast pocket and then his pants pockets. “Strange, I must have left it in my chambers, provided my secretary has typed it up. But now that I think about it, I’m not all that sure she has typed it up. Slow as molasses in January, that one. Then again, I don’t rightly remember my clerk giving it to her this morning to get typed. That boy’s spending too much time at Starbucks again, I need to be warning him about that.”

Ray took his feet from the desk. “Say what?”

The judge felt his pockets again. “No warrant…least not yet.”

“Impossible.” Ray jumped up. “This just isn’t right at all. It’s just a simple search warrant. It’s the law. You have to obey the law.”

The judge sighed. “Nothing’s simple with the courts these days, Cleveland. Reams and reams of paperwork, you wouldn’t believe how much. Being a judge has its share of problems and rewards.”

He said to Bebe, “Just to be perfectly clear, I’ve got work to keep me busy for a while, a few hours is probably the best I can do without there being talk of the search warrant not being properly handled. And you do understand that when the police go out there to search the boathouse they will have to find evidence there, the tables, the wheels, the cards, and chips. No proof, no conviction, you keep that in mind now, you hear.”

Bebe stood on her tiptoes and kissed the judge on the cheek. “BrieAnn will be proud of you.”

“You just tell her little Monty will be, too, and I’m starting a trust fund.” Before Bebe could ask who this Monty person was and how’d he get a trust fund, the judge took a doughnut from the box on Joe Earl’s desk and said, “Aldeen would pitch a fit if she saw me eating this.” He held up the doughnut in a salute and gazed at Ray. “To daughters the apple of their daddy’s eye.” Then the judge turned and walked back down the hall, leaving a trail of powdered sugar in his wake.

Ray sat back down. “Well, if that don’t beat all.”

Bebe continued to watch the judge. “Just when you think you have all the answers, Daddy, somebody comes into your life and eats a doughnut.” She started for the hall, then stopped and came back into the room. “I forgot something.”

Donovan held out his hand. “My jacket? Me?”

She took her badge and gun and handed them over. “I’ll keep the jacket, but you’re not coming with me.”

Confusion then understanding registered in his eyes. “But—”

“No buts, Yank. Not this time. You’re a cop, a good one. I already said that and I meant it just as I meant where I stand with Ray and my job. I think I always knew it would come to this.”

She gave him a quick kiss on the lips, then ran down the hall with Ray yelling after her, “Bebe, what’s going on? What do you think you’re doing? You get yourself back in this room right this minute, now you hear. I’m your daddy, you do as I tell you, and you are not to interfere with my being guilty and going to jail.”

She got in the PT, headed for Magnolia House, then double-parked there, getting evil looks from the valet that changed to a toothy grin. “Hey,” he said following her into the hotel. “Weren’t you the lady who double-parked here last night and made that—”

“Yes.”

“And you’re back again for—”

“No!”

Taking this in from behind the registration desk, Charlotte laughed. “I do believe you have a fan club”

“Hold that thought, sister dear.” Bebe waved her pinky with the fresh little cut. “It’s my turn.”

“No way, you just had a turn. I nearly got myself killed on your turn. You don’t get any more pinky turns, and what the heck are you wearing?”

“Donovan’s jacket and I do, too, get turns, lots of them. You and Prissy and BrieAnn have played the pinky card so many times I can’t keep count. ‘Oh, Bebe, I’ve run out of gas, I need twenty bucks, I need to borrow your car, I need to paint my room, I need you to take my chemistry test, pass my driving test, fix a ticket.’”

“You never fixed a ticket.”

“But Lord knows you tried, and we really have to hurry.”

“All right, all right, I get the picture, but you have to admit your last pinky card was a real doozy.” Charlotte came around the desk and pulled off Bebe’s jacket. “Holy cow, you have a body. Who would have thought?”

Donovan did. He was the one responsible for getting her to believe in herself, getting her to believe that she wasn’t ugly, that she could wear what she was wearing now. He’d changed her in so many ways, made her see things differently. How was this all going to play out? Would Donovan go back to Boston and she’d have to go through the goodbye thing all over again? Or maybe…she would go to Boston. Could she really do that? Good grief, she’s have to buy scarves and mittens! “We have to go right now. Get Griff and call Prissy and Sam and tell them to meet me at the Cove.”

“Is Ray back home now? What’s going on with him being at the station? Donovan never called and I can’t believe you have such a really great bod and kept it under wraps—literally—all these years. Why?”

“Until a certain Yank came along, I never had the urge. Now I got the urge and the Yank’s not going to be around.” Then again, maybe she wouldn’t, either. “Ray will show up sooner or later.”

“So, what’s out at the Cove? Lunch?”

“Well…I can promise lots of chips.”

B
eau turned the key and Bebe pushed open the door to the boathouse, except there weren’t any boats, not even close unless you considered the interior of some luxury liner. “Mercy me,” BrieAnn said. “Vegas, eat your heart out. This place is excellent.” She turned to Beau. “Which tables do you work? Blackjack? Craps? Poker?”

“None. I was never part of this, except for convincing Ray to put everything in Excel. He started the boathouse when he needed money to defend himself against those murder charges and then it just became part of the Savannah landscape and spread by word of mouth.”

Griff picked a chip from a table. “Secret knock to get in like in the speakeasy days?”

Beau rapped out a sequence on the poker table and all their mouths gaped. Griff said, “I was kidding. You’re not kidding. This is for real?”

“No knock, no entrance. Simple and safe. No security tapes to get stolen, no phones to tap, a thriving restaurant to launder the money and Ray could pump it back into the city, no questions asked and more than made up for any lost taxes. It has the classy atmosphere and strictly fair gaming. Everybody was happy, until Donovan showed up.” Beau ruffled Bebe’s hair. “Of course I also got a sister out of that deal, so the guy’s not all that bad.”

A cloud of dust trailed in from the highway and Bebe looked close. “Only one car, it’s not the cops yet.”

“Cops?” Charlotte repeated. “What’s going on with the police?”

Prissy and Sam climbed out of their SUV and Prissy said, “Okay, why are we here? Gamble?” Her eyes twinkled. “I wonder if my psychic abilities will work at blackjack?”

Bebe flipped on the light switch by the door. “Here’s the plan; we have to move out everything gambling and do it quick. The dining tables and bar stuff can stay. The judge can only hold off with the search warrant for a couple of hours. And,” she said to BrieAnn, “before you blow a gasket, the judge—your daddy—is a first-rate hero. Something about Monty and making a trust fund. I don’t get it, but he said you would. He’s the only reason Ray isn’t in the slammer already.”

“Time out,” Griff said. “Ray in the slammer? You lost me back at dismantle.”

“Donovan’s leaving Savannah, so he won’t have to be a part of arresting Ray. Ray turned himself in so Donovan doesn’t have to leave. He’s trying to make up for not being a dad all these years and he knows I like the Yank.”

“Like
is a little understated. So where is Donovan?” Charlotte asked, looking around. “I know he’s still in town.”

“He’s also still a cop and wants to keep it that way. Getting rid of evidence isn’t on the police to-do list. I have a different to-do list.” She took in the room. “And I don’t think we can get all this in cars. If we had a chain saw we could cut the tables in pieces.” Bebe ran her hand over her face in frustration. “It’s not going to work. I should have thought this through.”

“It is the boathouse,” Beau said then pointed across the cove to the other docks. “We have boats. We bring them here, load them up, and run everything out to this great little inlet BrieAnn happened to come across where no one’s around. A real quiet place.”

Brie said, “And I can drive. I’m good driver. I took lessons.”

Beau moaned, BrieAnn poked him in the ribs, and Bebe said, “Joe Earl’s going to call when the police leave the station. That doesn’t give us much time.”

Beau took Brie’s hand. “Let’s go get us some boats.”

Prissy helped Bebe lug boxes and Griff and Sam dismantled. Charlotte tied the boats when Beau and BrieAnn pulled up. “I feel like I’m in a scene from
Ocean’s Eleven
.”

Beau said, “We’ll make a bucket brigade and load the boats that way.” He picked up a case of chips and passed it to Brie and they all kept passing till there were no more boxes or bags or cartons or containers or any sort of gambling stuff left, down to the very last deck of cards.

Bebe studied the tables. “Now for the hard part. Do they have to be so big?”

Prissy pulled the handle of an antique slot machine, watching the fruit and numbers and bells spin around. “We can’t ditch this one; it’s a beauty. Can I have it? Please? Can I, can I?”

Bebe’s cell rang, she checked the caller ID. “Oh my, they’re coming and we have the tables to load! Do any of you know a Grafton? Joe Earl texted Grafton’s coming. Another pain-in-the-butt task force guy no doubt. Gee, the last one was so easy to get along with.”

“But he is cute,” Prissy added. All together they heaved the crap table, then the roulette, into the Donzi. The smaller tables like blackjack and poker went into Beau’s boat.

“I see cars coming,” Brie said, pointing to a line of dust coming off the highway.

“Go! Go!” Bebe yelled, the others piling into the boats. She untied the lines, then watched Beau, Charlotte, and Griff in Ray’s Donzi, and Brie, Prissy, and Sam in the other boat motor out into the channel.

Afternoon sunlight spilled a million diamonds across the cove as the boats piled with boxes and upended tables and garbage bags made their way.
They’re not going to make it. They’re going too slow!
she thought till a roaring sound filled the air and the boats rocketed across the water. Thank God for boys and their big powerful toys…including the ones below their belts.

Car doors slammed, police hustled toward the boathouse. She opened the front door to Joe Earl holding a paper. “We have a warrant to search the premises, and I have Congressman Grafton with me from Atlanta. He has a special interest in busting illegal gambling establishments and has Detective McCabe with him to make sure things are done right.” Joe Earl gave her a sorry-about-this look, then walked in.

Donovan was all business, like that night when they were in the attic and he yanked her behind him with his I-am-Moses attitude. Well, it looked like Moses was back.

“Hi, boys,” she said stepping aside. “Welcome to the…Inlet. We’re going to open this up as an extension to the Cove. It’s going to be great. More casual, family oriented, serve fish sticks and tomato soup.” She was nervous; fish sticks and soup was the best she could come up with.

Being a cop, she knew the search warrant drill…ransack the place. Donovan came to her, looking like the Waving Girl Statue down on River Street…stone cold. “I need my jacket.”

“Sure. Hope you don’t mind my cooties.” She handed it over, then sat at one of the little dining tables, everyone bustling around her looking under and over and in between. What if she missed something, something important…something like the laptop under the flower arrangement at the next table?

No! Her blood turned to ice. Good thing she was already sitting. This couldn’t be. They busted their butts to get all the heavy stuff moved and now a three-pound chunk of metal and plastic would bring down her dad. It was more visible from where she was sitting than standing, but sooner or later someone would come along and—

“Is that a chip?” Donovan pointed to the far corner of the boathouse, drawing everyone’s attention.

“It’s a green chip with a white gull,” Grafton said bending over it. “Not much to base a case on. There’s got to be more here if there’s this.”

It was Donovan the master chip-finder all over again, just like at Dara’s when…just like at Dara’s when…Bebe looked back at the laptop, except it was gone. She watched Donovan walk out onto the deck where the boats had been tied. Jacket partially zipped up the front, he bent down as if to tie his shoe.

“You know,” Bebe said in a loud voice, drawing everyone’s attention to her. She stood on a chair. “We have Cokes and pop and chips—the eating kind—if you all are hungry. Would you all like some food? We don’t have any of those fish sticks yet, but we could order in pizza.”

Grafton gave her another nasty look…he was full of those. Who voted for this jerk? The cops knew better than to take her up on her pizza offer with the congressman around. If he wasn’t around and she was springing for food they’d be all over it.

She looked back to the deck. Donovan was gone, gentle ripples floating out across the cove as if the water had been recently disturbed. He’d saved Ray and her but lost what meant the world to him…being a good police officer, a darn good detective. How could she ever make that up to him, the man that meant the world to her? She couldn’t.

It was nearly dark when Bebe watched the Donzi followed by Beau’s boat glide back into the cove. She waved from the boathouse deck. Prissy was the first one to jump off, nearly falling into the water. “What happened? What happened? You’re still here and not locked up so they didn’t find anything and all’s well, right?”

“They found Ray’s computer, but—”

“No,” Beau said looking weak. They all sat on the deck. “Where was it? I didn’t realize it was down here. Ray keeps it with him up at the restaurant.”

“Unless he’s sneaking coffee. And actually he’s up at the restaurant right now covering the dinner crowd and probably answering a million questions. Donovan was the one who found the computer and he tossed it in the water.”

“He did what? No! I never would have guessed he’d do such a thing,” Prissy said.

Charlotte smiled. “I did. Doesn’t surprise me for one minute.”

Bebe pointed off the end of the deck. “The only other thing the police found was one of the gull chips, hardly enough to corroborate Ray’s confession.” She raked back her hair in frustration. “I was so intent on getting rid of the big stuff…”

“What does this mean for Donovan?” Beau said.

Bebe felt sick to her soul. “Nothing good, that’s for sure. The police have been gone for over two hours and I haven’t heard from him. Ray…Dad…has some good food waiting for you all up at the restaurant. Made it special himself. Said you all can eat free at the Cove anytime you got a mind to. He’s grateful and overwhelmed.” Bebe pinched Beau’s cheeks together, his lips like a fish under water. “And don’t you go giving him a lot of grief, okay.” She grinned. “Leave that to me.”

“Aren’t you coming with us?” Brie asked.

“I’m going to try and find Donovan, but I’m thinking he’s on his way back to Boston by now. There’s no good memories for him here.”

“Depends what you mean by good memories,” Donovan said from inside the boathouse, which was now shrouded in darkness.

He hadn’t left! Oh my Lord, he hadn’t left! That one fact made her happy beyond her wildest dreams. She had no idea what to say to him, but at least she had the chance to say something if it was just a plain old “thanks.”

“You know,” Beau said. “I think I’m famished, I think we’re all good and famished. So we’re going to leave you two alone and maybe we’ll see you later or not. But I hope so, Donovan. I mean that. You’re a hell of man.”

Beau started for the road that led to the restaurant, the others ambling behind him. Lights from the Cove burned bright and inviting as they made their way along the water, laughter and chatter carrying back to the boathouse. “You have good friends.”

“We have good friends.” All she could make out was his silhouette in the dark room. Tall, proud, strong.

She went inside, the darkness surrounding them both now as if they were the only people on earth. She couldn’t see his face, but that was okay. She knew it like she knew her own. “I was afraid you’d left before I had a chance to thank you. And now that you are here I don’t know what to say. Thanks doesn’t begin to cover it. You’re going to resign from the police force, aren’t you?” It was a statement not a question, because she knew the answer. “I hate this, Donovan. I’d do anything to make it not so.”

She needed to get this out before she cried. She didn’t want him to feel sorry for her, she just wanted him to know how much what he did meant to her. “I put you in an impossible position and there was no way you could win. You like Ray, I know you do. and you and I—”

“What about you and I?”

“I love you. I have since we landed in that sandpile and I love you now more than ever. No one’s ever gone to the mat for me the way you have. No one. And the bitch of it is, you have to hate me for letting it happen. You’re a cop, the best one I’ve ever known, and because of me you wound up in the middle of something that had nothing to do with you but cost you everything. You’ve got to hate me for that. If I were you, I’d hate me. You saved me, Donovan. So many times, you’ve saved me. Because of you I got Dad back twice. I have a family. But I don’t have you and I can’t fix that either.”

“Did it ever occur to you that you might have saved me, too?”

“I got you shot, I’ve called you names, and I’ve tampered with evidence right in front of you driving you nuts. None of those things fit the role of a savior.”

“You made me care. After Sly was killed, I swear I didn’t think I’d ever care about anything ever again. For good or bad. Oh, there was the law and doing what the law says, but there’s no choice there, you just do it. And then I met Bebe Fitzgerald Cleveland, who cares about everything and everyone. From a cat with a broken paw to an emotionally screwed-up cop from Boston who didn’t know what the hell he was doing with his life.”

“You always have it together, Donovan. You know who you are and what you’re about. You’re perfect.”

“I met you, then everything was perfect. I loved again. I love you. Coming here made me slow down, look around, change. I like Savannah. I like the people. They stand by each other. Ray turned himself in because he loves you. Beau wanted to knock my head off because he loves Ray. The judge stalled on the warrant because he loves BrieAnn. Not necessarily good decisions but the most caring ones. No one was out for himself…or herself.”