A Cold Day in Hell (20 page)

“I did notice.” Matt squared his shoulders. “He’s on the radar. One piece of solid evidence pointing to him and I’ll take him in.”

Angel nodded. “I’m glad we’re on the same map.”

“If you ever get tired of it, let me know. I could really use you, Angel.”

“Thanks,” Angel said, admiring the other man for not allowing personal issues, like both of them wanting the same woman, to get in the way. “If anything changes, I’ll let you know.”

“You coming to the fair?” Matt said.

“Wouldn’t miss it. I’d better get on now.”

“There’s something else you’ll find interesting. They may have traced our gun.”

That got Angel’s undivided attention.

“I got the news this morning. They traced it to Toussaint of all places. It was used in a murder there—several years back.”

“They got the killer?” Angel said.

“Yeah. But that’s not what we care about. I talked with the sheriff over there, Spike Devol. Good guy. I’ve dealt with him before.”

Angel knew he had to keep his mouth shut and be patient until Matt got wherever he was going.

“You know all about rifling, the marks on the ammo and so on, so I don’t have to explain.”

“The F in ATF
is
for firearms,” Angel said. “Gives a guy an edge in that department. So, are you going to tell me they know who’s got the gun now so we can all start sleeping at night?”

Matt looked really miserable. “Turns out the gun got stolen from evidence and they’re not sure when.”

“Yeah,” Angel said. “I wonder how I figured out you were going to tell me that.”

They both screwed up their eyes.

“Matt Boudreaux.” Lobelia Forestier hurried up. “I don’t know why I didn’t think of this before. Your officers should stay put during the fair to make sure no one misbehaves.”

“Miz Forestier—”

“More important than that. They can search every bag on the way out, too. Things always get stolen. If they check receipts against what folks have, they can catch anyone breaking the law.”

“Y
ou know I don’t like you in pants,” Chuck said. He leaned against the wall in the farthest corner from the door. “I like to see your legs.”

Gracie shook a finger at him and closed the door to her apartment behind her. “You wouldn’t have wanted me in pants this morning,” she said, grinning. “I was running up and down ladders on Main Street. Nice to see you’re making yourself at home.”

One thing about a woman like Gracie was that she didn’t know how to cover up her weaknesses. He, Chuck thought, was her major weakness. He’d earned the right to use that.

She had known he’d be at her place when she got back from town and had given him the key to let himself in. He intended to keep the key for when he came back. Next time she wouldn’t know he was coming.

Gracie locked the door.

“You expecting Rusty back?” he asked.

“No. I’m used to taking care of security. A woman alone has to do that.”

“When are they expecting you back at work?”

“I’ve got my shift at Buzzard’s before I work the fair for Sarah.”

She never got straight to the point. “So how long do we have, darlin’?” he asked.

“A couple of hours.” She kicked off her sneakers, took off her pants and went toward her bedroom. “I’m going to put on a skirt—just for you.”

“Just for me you’ll stay the way you are,” he told her. Gracie had girlie legs, the kind he liked—one of the kinds he liked, all curves even if he did know how strong they were. He smiled to himself.

She folded the pants and put them with her purse on a straight-backed chair.

He patted his lap and held his arms out to her.

Gracie dipped and said, “Will I be safe?”

“No, I promise you won’t.”

She all but leaped onto his thighs and hugged his neck before kissing him. Gracie knew a lot about kissing and he felt her smile against his mouth when she felt an uprising in the south.

“Mmm.” He set her firmly where she couldn’t distract him any more than she already had and tilted her head back onto his shoulder. “What do you want from me, Gracie?” Every word he said had to be thought out first.

“You know what I want. I want you. I’ve always wanted you.”

“But it’s never been easy for us, has it?”

“No,” she said. “I thought I’d lost you but you’ve come back. We’re going to get back together, aren’t we, Chuck?”

“We surely are. But you’re going to have to help me. We’ve got to talk about things I don’t want to remember and I wish to hell I could wipe out of your mind.”

She shifted her head till she could look up at him. A faint flush warmed her features. Sex did that to her, even thinking about sex.

“We want to be together,” he said, looking back at her. She nodded, her lips parted, her breath coming in little pants. “If that’s going to happen, we’ll have to help each other.”

“Whatever it takes, we can do it,” Gracie said. She put her hands on his neck. “Together, Chuck. We’ll do whatever it takes.”

Chuck slid a hand under her blue T-shirt and pulled a bra strap from her shoulder. Her eyes glossed over when he fondled her breast. He spent time bringing her pleasure.

He felt her body tighten and could guess she was confused that he wasn’t getting right to it, the way she was used to. Chuck had his reasons.

“I love you, Gracie,” he said against her forehead. “I want to do something about it. I’ve waited too long.”

“Oh, Chuck.” She had tears in her voice. “I love you, too.”

“I’m scared is all,” he told her, keeping his eyes on hers. “It’s going to take time to do everything we want to do. I know it’ll work out in the end, but it’ll be damned hard on both of us.”

She sat up, rested her arms on his shoulders and kissed him again and again.

Chuck unhooked the back of her bra and covered both of her breasts. “I’m going to be with you,” he told her. “And I’m going to get what’s coming to me—for the two of us. I want it from Eileen. She kept me poor the way she spent before she decided she wanted a career. Only she didn’t go after the career until after I’d left and we were divorced. She still wants me, Gracie.”

Her eyes fixed on his. “What does that have to do with us?”

“You’re going to help me get what we’ve got coming. If it hadn’t been for her, I wouldn’t have left town in the first place. I only did it to save her feelings.”

Her mouth trembled. “To save her feelings?”

“The Duhon family’s looked up to around here. Her father was police chief in this town for years and they still talk about him like he was a saint. If it had come out about you and me and the way we made a fool of Eileen, she’d never have lived it down. I didn’t want to do that to her.”

“So you made a fool of me, instead.”

This was exactly what he’d expected. “Baby, folks didn’t know about us. When I left Pointe Judah, no fingers were pointed at you.”

She flattened her hands on his chest and rubbed up and down. “You still thought about her first.”

“I shouldn’t have,” Chuck said. He’d say whatever it took. “I got so confused I ran. That was wrong, baby. But it’s going to work out better for us in the end. When I left, she had nothing. Now she’s got plenty. She’s got too much for one woman to handle. She’s rolling in it and you and I both know it.”

At least Gracie nodded. She also pouted.

“I’ve got to tell you the whole thing. I haven’t told anyone else because I’ve been trying to put it behind me.” He hung his head and shook it slowly from side to side.

“You can trust me, honey,” Gracie said, ruffling his hair.

Chuck sighed. “Yeah. I intended to come back for you earlier but I got in trouble on the rigs. Some bastard set me up and I was kicked off. It took me a while to decide what to do. No woman wants a man who can’t take care of her. When I found out Eileen was in fat city I knew there was a chance I could make it good for the two of us, you and me.”

She lay against him, her face in his neck.

Let him get through this, he thought. Let him persuade her to do what he wanted. If it worked, he’d stick around long enough to get a fat little stake then move on—or not. That depended on how good he could have it right here in Pointe Judah.

Playing Mr. Nice took it out of a man. “Maybe you won’t be able to pull it off, Gracie.”

“I can do whatever you need.” She looked into his face again.

“If I can get Eileen to marry me again, we’ll—that’s us, baby—we’ll have it both ways. We’ll have each other and we’ll have money.”

Gracie’s stare shook him. It wasn’t going to work.

Tears slid down Gracie’s face and he wanted to yell at her to grow up. “Why are you crying, babe?”

“I work hard. I can work harder. I’ve never had any trouble getting jobs. With you at Duhon’s and what I make, you don’t need Eileen. I’ll make sure we have what we need.”

He got up, let her overbalance backward and fall on the carpet. Standing over her, he breathed hard. “You think I want you to keep me? I want to be the one to make a good life for us. What do you think I am? Some mama’s boy who needs her to do for him?” He shifted like he was going to step over her. “Forget it. I understand what I’ve asked is over the top. Sometimes we just have to move on. You deserve a different kind of man from me.”

“What do we
need?
” she cried. “This place is plenty big enough for both of us. We’ll do okay. Don’t leave me again, Chuck.”

He looked away, then thudded back into the chair and put his head in his hands.

“She never worked a day when she was married to me,” he muttered. “All I want is a share of what came to her when she could have been making things good for us.”

“I don’t want you to marry her. She’s seeing that Angel anyway and I bet they’re real tight.”

Thinking about Eileen with friggin’ Angel sweating over her didn’t thrill Chuck, but he couldn’t let it get in the way. “She wants the best for Aaron. Having his folks together, Mr. and Mrs. Small-town America, is what she always said he needed. Now she can get it for him.”

“Aaron’s not a little kid anymore,” Gracie said.

“He’s at an impressionable age,” Chuck told her, barely managing to keep the lid on his temper. “His parents still matter.”

She had swung her legs to one side but remained sitting on the floor. “So I’m supposed to stay out of the way and watch while you get together with Eileen?” She wouldn’t look at him now.

“Just help us get what we want. Make sure she never guesses we were ever together.”

“And if she does find out?”

At least she was thorough. “She won’t as long as you don’t tell her. No one knows about the baby, do they?”

“Chuck, don’t talk about the baby.”

“I’m sorry, but we’ve got to get through this. Did you tell anyone about the abortion?”

He might have guessed it was time for more waterworks and this time he didn’t say anything or try to make her stop.

“Our baby’s gone,” she managed between sobs. “There wasn’t anyone who knew but you, and you didn’t want a baby. It was hard, Chuck. It still is.”

“Sure it is and I’m sorry you had to go through that.”

“I didn’t
have
to—if you’d done the right thing by me.”

He knew better than to get mad. Women were weird about these things and they had to work them through. But she was taking too long over it. “If I could turn the clock back, I would. I can’t, baby.”

She looked down and nodded. “What if Eileen does find out and she tells people? I live here. I have to work here.”

From her voice, he couldn’t tell if she might be threatening him.

“You don’t work for Eileen and she’s not going to embarrass herself by blabbing about how I made a fool of her.” His restraint was cracking. “But she’ll never find out.”

He took her by the wrists and pulled her in front of him, onto her knees between his thighs. He undid his belt slowly and pulled it from the loops. Then he unbuttoned and unzipped his pants

“But
if
she did hear something, she’d only hate you more,” Gracie said, watching what he was doing.

This time the threat was obvious. If he didn’t give Gracie what she wanted, or enough to keep her happy, she would make sure Eileen heard the whole story. He grunted and pushed his pants halfway down his thighs. “That feels better,” he said. “We need to make sure we understand each other. You’re a woman. You know better than I do what it takes to make a woman mad enough to go after a man, just to hurt some other bitch—and the man.”

“Yes, I do.”

“I could use a little help here,” he said, moving his hips just enough to set things in motion. “Just trust me. I’ll make sure you’re glad you’re on my side. You will never want anything to hurt me.”

Gradually, her gaze fixed, Gracie bent over and took him in her mouth.

His balls contracted and he sucked in his belly. Sex would keep her in line.