Slow Heat (21 page)

Micah slid the kebabs onto his plate, took a small amount of salad, then slid a shrimp free from its spear before putting it into his mouth. It was good food.

Perry brought up some issue in local legislation that would require homeowners to put up a certain type of fencing. He knew a lot about the local politics although, more than likely, he didn’t own this home. He could, however. For all Micah knew, Perry could own a home in every city across the nation. Micah didn’t care as long as he got the information he needed, when he needed it.

“I don’t get to the suburbs enough,” Micah said, leaning back and realizing he’d finished off the two kebabs in record time. “But I have been curious about our men in blue with LAPD.”

“They have several fund-raisers that I donate to every year.” Always the perfect host, Perry stood and walked to the refrigerator. Apparently he noticed Micah hadn’t touched his wine. He pulled out a longneck bottle of beer and brought it to the table. “Did you know they’re the third largest police department in the nation? We have ten thousand men and women in blue helping keep our fair city safe. Have you driven by the new police station for this precinct? I guess it’s actually been there a few years now, but I donated substantial contributions to build that station.”

That was probably all of the free information he would get. Micah knew Perry’s questions were rhetorical. He cut to the chase.

“I came over here concerning an arrest made a week ago, money laundering through a local club, Club Paradise,” Micah began.

Perry had sat again but wasn’t eating. He leaned back in his chair, arms crossed, and listened as if he found every word Micah said fascinating.

“The police seem fairly certain that Maggie O’Malley might be involved in the money laundering along with her uncle, Larry Santinos. Santinos has been arrested. He’s behind bars. They couldn’t pin anything to Maggie, though. They let her go.”

Perry nodded. “Just because she was sent home after questioning doesn’t mean they don’t have a crime to nail on her. Quite possibly there are some loose ends they believe she might be able to tie up for them.”

“They’re following her around. She insists she’s innocent. From what I’ve seen so far, she might be guilty of gullibility but that’s about it.”

Again Perry nodded.

“I want to know if Santinos had a known partner who isn’t currently behind bars. He might not be in the United States. They’ve got the man so locked up there isn’t any way for me to question him.” Micah took a long drink from his beer. He hadn’t planned on asking Perry two different questions, but his conversation with Haley had piqued his interest on another matter as well, one he prayed wasn’t connected to the first. “I also want you to find out if Detective James Osborne is a dirty cop. If he is, does KFA have anything to do with it?”

“King Fugitive Apprehension?” Perry raised one eyebrow, then a slow smile slithered across his face. “Will do.”

Chapter Eight

“So are there still people following you?” Annalisa asked and reached for the last slice of pepperoni.

“They aren’t people, they’re cops,” Deidre said, wagging her eyebrows. “Wish I could have men in uniform on the trail for me.”

“The last one I spotted looked as if he could put an entire one of these pizzas away by himself, for a snack,” Maggie complained, stressing the last part. “And do we have to talk about this? I was having so much fun.”

Annalisa’s expression sobered and she scooted to the edge of the bed. “Sorry, Mags,” she whispered and stretched her hand out to Maggie, who sat at the desk facing the TV in the motel room they’d been camping out in all afternoon. “I didn’t mean to bum you out but I’m really curious. No one has told me anything. I’m not sure I can believe that my goody-goody big sister got in trouble unless I hear it straight from your mouth.”

“I’m not goody-goody!”

Annalisa and Deidre gave each other knowing looks. Maggie jumped out of her seat and tried punching both of them at the same time. They successfully dodged her efforts as they laughed loudly.

“And I didn’t get in trouble!” She had to yell to be heard over their hysterics.

Aiden’s phone rang and he glared at the three of them before heading to the bathroom to be heard.

“He’s the goody-goody,” Maggie muttered, although lightheartedly. After an afternoon of pizza and her family there wasn’t a person on the planet she had ill will toward. This had been exactly what she needed.

“Children, I have to head out,” Aiden announced when he came back around the wall that separated the bathroom from the rest of the motel room. “Some of us work for a living.”

“That’s a low blow.” Maggie still felt she should go into her office.

Her father had told her Club Paradise was still closed down with yellow police tape draping the doors. Information he got from his drinking buddies down at the bar was almost always more accurate than that heard anywhere else.

Aiden pulled her into a tight hug without asking. “And she did get in trouble,” he announced with his arms wrapped around her.

“What?” Maggie twisted free.

“For leaving with one of the most unruly characters I’ve ever seen in my life instead of going to the lawyer’s office with her older brother as planned.”

“Unruly character?” Maggie demanded, laughing. She might have picked on her brother for always insisting everything follow a tight schedule. Aiden hated spontaneity.

Maggie thought about how unruly Micah had been the night before when they’d fucked in his bed. She hoped and prayed that hadn’t been a onetime deal. She would absolutely cry if it were. Micah was better in bed than she’d imagined. Then when he’d called her earlier, and easily answered the few personal questions she’d slipped in there, her hopes rose that not only would she fuck him again, but hopefully soon. She hadn’t bothered telling him that she didn’t need to be picked up from the motel. Her car was in the parking lot. Since Julie had to leave Annalisa at the motel room and go back to campus for a night job she had there, Maggie could leave her car with Annalisa. That way she wouldn’t be stuck at the motel room after all of them had to leave.

“You could do a lot better,” Aiden told her, then tapped her nose the way their father always did.

Better than what? She didn’t ask. If she brought up how few dates she’d had this past year, Aiden would put in his argument for her joining youth ministries over at Holy Name again. Maggie cringed at the thought of finding a date at their church. She definitely would never find anyone like Micah at her church.

Annalisa and Deidre sang their good-byes to Aiden as they made shooing signs with their hands for him to leave. When Aiden let go of Maggie, he reached for Annalisa, gave her a hug, too, and reminded her that she was very much part of the family no matter what happened or was said. He tapped Annalisa’s nose, then was out the door. Maggie followed him, then made sure it was shut and locked after he left.

“Time for girl talk!” Deidre knelt in the middle of the bed. “Maggie, tell us everything.”

“Huh?” She looked from her older sister, who was on the middle of one bed, to her younger sister, who was draped on her side at the edge of the other. It had never occurred to her before how much they looked alike, despite their differences.

Deidre’s hair was dyed light blond and Annalisa’s hair was auburn like Maggie’s. Deidre wore plenty of makeup and Annalisa didn’t wear any. Deidre was all about name brands and Annalisa probably didn’t know what brand her clothing was. They were opposites yet so similar, too. Both of her sisters were incredibly pretty. They could stop traffic without realizing they did.

“The unruly character,” Deidre said.

“Yes, do tell.” Annalisa moved to a sitting position and crossed her legs. “Who is he? Bring me up to speed. I know nothing,” she wailed and brought the back of her hand to her forehead.

“Well, being the oldest sister and all,” Deidre began and scooted to the edge of her bed so she faced Annalisa, “obviously I am kept up to date on everything.”

Annalisa snickered, and accepted that statement because it was true. Deidre had always seemed to know everything about anyone in the family.

Deidre didn’t miss a beat. “Aiden informed me that he brought his wayward sister to see the lawyer who had graciously agreed to see her pro bono. But the moment he parked in the parking lot, our once precious Maggie leapt out of his car and raced over to an unruly biker character. Then they made out right there. Our derelict sister didn’t even consider how embarrassing and humiliating that was for her older brother.”

Maggie crossed her arms and tapped her foot, fighting not to laugh at her sister’s flair for dramatics. “Are you having fun?” she accused.

Deidre rubbed her hands together. “I’m just getting warmed up, little sister.” She looked pointedly at Annalisa. “Other little sister,” she continued, “you would have insisted Maggie be hauled off to the nearest confessional. In fact, maybe we should take her there now.”

Both of them looked up at Maggie and simultaneously broke into a fit of giggles. Maggie couldn’t help laughing, too. She grabbed the chair she’d been sitting in, scooted it between both beds, then sat. They were all close now. Deidre silently gave Maggie the floor, and she and Annalisa looked at her expectantly.

Maggie sucked in a breath, not sure where to begin.

“Oh my God!” Deidre said and clasped her hand over her mouth.

“What?” Maggie asked.

“What?” Annalisa parroted.

“Look at her,” Deidre said and pointed her painted fingernail at Maggie’s face. “You’ve slept with him!” she accused.

Annalisa squinted, and the spray of freckles across her nose was more apparent as she wrinkled it. “Yup. I see it now, too. Now we need
all
the details.”

Deidre rubbed her hands together. “Spill it.”

Maggie hated that she blushed. She also hated Deidre for her perception, especially when she hadn’t decided if she was going to tell them about that, or not. The decision had been made for her, though.

She shook her head and looked down at her hands. She had them clasped in her lap but when she loosened them, she didn’t know what to do with them. There was no reason to be nervous, though; these were her sisters.

“Micah is…,” she began.

“Micah?” Annalisa questioned. “Oh crap! Is he Jewish?”

Maggie laughed. “Nope. Catholic, although I bet he hasn’t been near a church in years.”

“Damn,” Annalisa said, snapping her fingers. “I thought my mortal sins would be forgiven if you brought around a Jewish guy.”

Annalisa laughed easily at her own comment, which made it so Maggie and Deidre could laugh with her. Maggie hated having gone so long without seeing Annalisa. And, despite Mom’s narrow-minded way of thinking, she had done a good thing in calling Annalisa about Maggie. It had brought Annalisa home. She probably wouldn’t go back to the house, but it wouldn’t surprise her if Aiden told Mom and Dad that they were all housed up in this motel room catching up. Her family was quirky; they held grudges and fought way too often, but they all loved one another, too. Maggie couldn’t think of any other family she’d rather be part of.

“What’s he look like?” Deidre asked, rubbing her hands together. “He must be sinfully gorgeous for Aiden to immediately hate him.”

“It might also have had something to do with Micah kissing me in the parking lot when I walked over to him.”

Her sisters hooted with laughter. Maggie paraphrased a lot but shared everything that happened to her yesterday. When she got to the part about entering his house and the place being torn apart, neither of her sisters was smiling any longer.

“Shit, Mags,” Annalisa whispered. “I didn’t realize how terrible all of this really is. You’re really in serious danger, huh?”

“That’s why she hired Micah,” Deidre said, but reached out and gave Annalisa’s hand a quick squeeze when their baby sister continued to look horrified.

“Hired?” Annalisa choked out the word. “You’re having sex with a man you hired?”

Maggie was shaking her head before the words came out. If all of this weren’t so scary, it would be hilarious. “No. No,” she repeated and shook her head harder. “Maybe I should have backed up a few more days and begun the story there.”

“You didn’t hire him?” Annalisa asked, looking confused.

“Well, I guess I did.” Maggie held her hand up when Deidre opened her mouth, looking ready to confuse matters more. “It was the day they raided Club Paradise and brought Uncle Larry in for skipping out on two court dates,” Maggie explained, holding up two fingers.

“Now I know Larry was cheating at Monopoly when we were kids. He was getting practice for the major crimes he’d be committing as an adult,” Deidre complained, rolling her eyes.

Maggie tried to continue explaining to Annalisa. “That was the same day I was hauled in for questioning. I was so pissed by the time they let me go, I was determined to hire the best there was to help me figure out why anyone would suspect me in the first place.”

Someone knocked on the motel room door and all three girls jumped.

“I don’t think this motel has room service,” Deidre whispered.

Annalisa scrambled from her bed, which was closer to the door, to the other bed. Deidre immediately played older sister and wrapped her arms around her. Maggie caught their horrified expressions and hated that her life had put the fear of God into them. At the same time, her tummy twisted in nervous anticipation.

“Calm down, you two. The only one who knows we’re here is Micah.”

Deidre’s expression transformed immediately. She stood, thrusting her arm out and blocking Maggie when she started to the door. “I’m the oldest. It’s my job to protect you.”

“I’m not a kid anymore. Try and take this one and I’ll kick your ass,” Maggie mumbled.

“Ohh,” Annalisa said, grinning. “Let’s check this guy out.”

Maggie rolled her eyes and glanced at her phone. She hadn’t missed any calls. Nor had she told Micah which room they were in. She had told him which motel, though. It would be child’s play for him to find her after that. Would he show up unannounced? Maggie almost laughed out loud at her line of thinking. Micah didn’t strike her as the type of man who followed any laws of propriety. He adhered only to the laws that would suit him at that moment. Nonetheless, she grabbed Deidre’s arm.