Chasing Glory (21 page)

Glory’s awareness sharpened as she floated back from the high Tal had given her. They had only made love two times and she couldn’t believe the feeling. He slid beside her, his weight pressed diagonally, his face turned toward her.

“We’re going to have to pace ourselves if we plan to last sixty more years,” he said, a grin in his voice.

She turned her head. “Deal, but next time I get to take the lead.”

Tal barked a laugh, rolling her into his arms. “You have to have some control to do that. Otherwise, you’re perfect. I’m in love with the perfect woman.”

Glory heard the words and knew coming here had been the right decision. She showered kisses all over his face. “As for being perfect, I’m not. But I’m smart enough to love you back.”

She tilted her head toward one of his nightstands. “Why all the candles?”

He followed her gaze. “Our suite in Antigua. I had them brought in while you were in the shower. I thought you would think it was romantic.”

Oh my God. I almost let this man go
. Every reservation she had about the spending the rest of her life with Tal vanished.

“Thank you,” she said.

• •

They made each other crazy, napping in between making love.

Glory’s eyes fluttered open and she rolled to the edge of the bed. “I am weak with hunger. Which way to the bathroom? I need to clean up, then eat before I faint.”

“Sounds good,” Tal said and led the way to his big shower lined in marble. He folded his arms and stood to one side.

Glory programmed the digital panel and stepped under the water, picking up the soap. She tossed him a smile. “Do my back?”

“Not a chance,” he said. “I’ll have to be satisfied enjoying the view. Otherwise, we’d never make it to the kitchen.”

Her lower lip protruded. “In that case, to be absolutely safe, I should go home right after we eat.”

Tal stepped toward her, holding out his hand for the soap. “I think I can change your mind.”

Glory handed him the soap and slid slippery hands around him. “Done,” she said against his mouth.

Tal’s heart beat fast. If he had his way, this would be her new home.

A half hour later, they devoured a huge plate of nachos with a couple of microbrews, the halibut cheeks forgotten. Tal wanted dessert, so Glory sat on the other side of the breakfast bar and watched. She had finger-combed her wet hair and wore a t-shirt with no bra, jeans and bare feet. Extremely sexy and uncomplicated. Except for the fact that she had on clothes, he was right. She was perfect.

He nuked Kingston’s Dark and Dangerous Chocolate Sauce while he scooped caramel swirl ice cream into two bowls. After stirring the sauce, he licked the spoon and leaned in to kiss Glory. The tip of her tongue followed his in tandem. He tossed the spoon into the sink with a clatter, and kissed her again.

“Oh my,” she said. “Didn’t you promise dinner and a movie?”

Tal handed her one of the bowls. “I’ll load the dishwasher. You can check out my DVDs, but all I have are black and whites.”

She ate her ice cream while picking out
The Thin Man
with William Powell and Myrna Loy.

Tal came in and sat close to her on his big, comfy couch, his only frustration being the lack of commercials.

When the famous couple’s Wired-haired Terrier, Asta, mugged for the camera, he leaned in and whispered, “How about
one
woolly dog?”

She turned to respond, and they lost the next scene of the movie. “Maybe just one,” she said, when she came up for air.

• •

Tal slipped his hand beneath the t-shirt he’d loaned Glory to sleep in. “Wanna burn some calories? I’ll bring you breakfast in bed or take you out later. Whichever you want.”

Glory rolled against him, chuckling. “It’s barely light out. You think I’m the kind of woman who can be bribed?”

He pulled her close. “God, I hope so.”

A while later, they stood in line at a great bakery on upper Queen Anne. Tal held a bag with several sweet, gooey, pastries, hoping the rest of his life would be like this. His mind drifted to Alyssia. The thought of her making him crazy over and over, plus eating nachos, beer, ice cream and pastries, had him biting the inside of his mouth in order to keep from laughing out loud.

Glory gave him a hip bump. “What’s so funny?”

Tal tipped her a grin. “Just happy at being saved from myself and a passionless marriage of convenience.”

She nodded, seemingly satisfied. “I have to go home after breakfast. I put in an order for custom-made paint at Daly’s and I have to pick it up, along with more painting supplies.”

“The big one in Bellevue?”

“No. The one on Stone Way.” She snapped her fingers. “Speaking of Bellevue, I meant to tell you. Catherine saw Jeff Lassiter leaving 38th near Factoria last Saturday.”

Tal felt as if he’d touched a low voltage wire. “Where the private mailbox on the shipping invoice is located. Was she sure it was him?”

Glory nodded. “She couldn’t imagine what he was doing in that area. It’s way too middle class for him.”

This could be the connection he was looking for. “How about after breakfast we run errands? Yours near Greenlake and mine in Bellevue?”

Chapter Thirty-One

Tal followed Glory up the
steps to her door carrying the buckets of paint. His mind, however, was on their relationship. He needed to work out the fact that he wanted to marry one of his employees. If Kingston had much of a future after the counterfeiting mess was cleared up. He did know his original fear of the same kind of passion that had diminished his father, was gone. In its place was joy at having Glory in his life and all that went with it.

The spring sun glinted off her hair as it had in his bed when they’d made love this morning. Tal would never get past wanting her and knowing she wanted him. He smiled. Thank God his plan to win Alyssia had failed.

• •

Tal found himself blinking when Glory came down from her bedroom. She was dressed so un-Glory-like in a skimpy black t-shirt over very tight black jeans that it caught him off guard. She teetered in tall, sparkly black sandals.

He tried for a neutral expression, but she caught him.

“Catherine’s Halloween costume from last year,” she said. “She came as The Woman in Black. A female counterpart to Johnny Cash. She gave it to me as a white-elephant Christmas gift.”

“It’s interesting,” Tal said, carefully.

She gave him a look of supreme patience. “This is part of my idea.”

“That’s a relief,” he said, black now one of his new favorite colors. “What’s the idea?”

She pulled a large grey sweatshirt over her outfit. The hem fell below her hips. “If there’s a guy behind the counter at the mailbox place, this would be a distraction while I grill him for information.”

Tal wasn’t sure he liked the idea of some guy ogling Glory, but she looked determined. “An interesting approach. Don’t you need Ethel for this caper, Lucy?”

Her chin jutted. “I didn’t make fun of your plans in Antigua. Besides, you saw how I handled Rudy.”

He’d almost forgotten what a turn-on that had been. “No doubts here,” he said, fingers spread, palms against his chest. “I’m afraid to ask, but what if the clerk’s a female?”

An angelic smile appeared below a devilish glint in her eyes. “That’s where you come in.”

Tal didn’t like the sound of that. “Can’t we just go and ask, like normal people?”

He saw her protest coming and pushed his point. “Going over there could screw up the police’s case. If our hunch is right and there
is
a connection between Jeff Lassiter and A. J. Lashar, this gabby clerk you’re hoping will blab all could also tell the involved person that someone’s been asking questions.”

Glory started to pace. “Then our whole exercise may be moot. Especially if they’ve started a local investigation.”

“They haven’t,” Tal said. “I talked to the State Attorney General’s office yesterday and they said they were still in the process of trading information and cutting red tape.”

She stopped and tapped her finger against her lips, an action that brought Tal a step closer, but Glory was oblivious.

“When two governments are involved, the tape is cut lengthwise. By the time all the legalities are observed, the person or persons here will either be long gone or have covered his or her tracks.” A glimmer settled in her eyes. “They may have already started.”

She was right.

“What the hell, then,” he said. “Let’s do it. I’ve worked too hard to put this company together to sit and wait for somebody else to save the pieces.”

Glory swung in front of him and gave him a swift, hard kiss, her eyes sparkling. “To our success.”

• •

For all her bragging, by the time they reached the parking lot outside the store, Glory was nervous. They could see the clerk through the window. Definitely male.

They waited until the store was empty before she pulled the sweatshirt off, then started chewing a stick of gum, and went in. As she got closer, Glory realized he was only about nineteen. Thin and angular, he sported a meager soul patch and a shiny ear plug, but only in one ear, making Glory wonder how lopsided his face looked when he removed it.

His jaw actually dropped when she approached. Maybe her idea wasn’t so dumb after all.

“Are you the man in charge?” she asked, twirling a piece of hair by her face.

He made a gurgling sound and his gaze locked on her chest, but he nodded.

Glory turned on the same predatory smile she’d used on Rudy. “You seem like a nice guy, and I’ve got this problem. Maybe you can help.”

Another noise of assent.

“Well, see, my sister’s boyfriend has a mailbox here and she’s supposed to pick up his mail while he’s out of town, but he forgot to leave her the key.” She took a deep breath, stretching the already imperiled t-shirt. “Anyway, she’s got a cold and asked me to come do it for her.”

He blinked rapidly. “Do it?”

“Yes. Ask for his mail.”

To his credit, the boy drew back his shoulders. “Can’t do that. I have to keep our customers’ privacy.”

Glory stuck out her lower lip, then brightened. “I have the box number. It’s 247. Does that help? I mean if I was a crook or something, I wouldn’t know his number.”

A frown creased the clerk’s forehead. “I don’t even know most of the people who come in here. What’s her boyfriend’s name? What’s he look like?”

Glory smiled until her face hurt. “That’s smart to ask. His name’s Jeff and he’s a little over six feet with medium brown hair and brown eyes. His hair cut is really conservative and his clothes are really expensive.”

The boy’s face cleared. “Yeah that sounds like him. I guess the J. could stand for Jeff. If you don’t mind my saying so, it could also stand for Jerk.”

She popped her gum. “No skin off my nose.”

The clerk shrugged. “You probably do know him and all, but I still can’t let you have the contents of the box.” He cocked his head. “You don’t look anything like your sister, though. I guess she’s okay if you’re into the pale, skinny, blonde thing.”

Pale, skinny, blonde
? “Um, we’re stepsisters,” Glory managed. “I didn’t know she’d come in before.”

He looked up and to his right, an expression of distaste on his face. “She was in here a couple of days in a row last month, all torqued that some foreign letter hadn’t come in yet. Like I have any control over that.”

Glory backed toward the door. “Hey, thanks anyway. You’ve been a big help.”

He grinned. “Cool.”

She got into Tal’s car, then fumbled to get the tall shoes off, not sure how to tell him everything she’d learned.

Tal chuckled. “I felt the pulse of his hormones from here.” He kissed the crook of her neck noisily. “Luckily, I got here first.”

Glory sat up and rubbed her arms. “He confirmed that my description of Jeff Lassiter was probably A. J. Lashar.” She took Tal’s hand. “I think I found out something else about A. J. Lashar.”

He rubbed her fingers. “The A. is for Alyssia and the J. is for Jeff. Lashar is the first three letters if their last names. Is that it?”

She nodded, only mildly surprised he’d figured it out. “When did you guess?”

“I figured that might be it on our way over to your place this morning. Neither Alyssia nor Jeff has much of an imagination. And neither counted on us getting a letter of complaint and investigating.”

“So, what’s next?” she asked.

He pulled her in for a kiss. “Shopping at the Metropolitan Market in lower Queen Anne, then back to my place to strategize.”

She raised an eyebrow. “Is strategizing the only goal?”

• •

Tal followed her home mid-day on Sunday. They had been together non-stop since Friday evening. She smiled. So much for getting some painting done this weekend. He made coffee while she changed clothes, then they both got comfortable on the couch. “You sure you have to do laundry and shop for food?” he asked.

She sipped her coffee, happy that he felt so at home in her house. “Yes, and you probably need to at least do laundry. Um, we talked over options for helping get solid information to give to the police, but …”

“But we never discussed what we’re going to do about us and the office,” he finished for her, putting down his cup.

Glory nodded.

“I think we should keep our relationship under wraps until this whole mess with the bootleggers is cleared up.”

Glory swallowed back fear on a stomach that churned with acid. “What does one have to do with the other?”

Tal took her hand. “Whoever’s set this up has invested a lot and right now I’m the logical target for their anger. I don’t want them to know how much you mean to me. How much they could hurt me by hurting you. Understand?”

She did, and until he said it out loud, hadn’t thought of danger so much as how pissed off the instigators would be. Now,
protecting their investment
took on a more sinister meaning.

He squeezed her fingers. “Glory?”

“I never thought of the kinds of thugs we saw there being a possibility here, too,” she said, trying to calm trembling lips. “Do you think they really might try to hurt you?”

His smile relaxed the knot that had grown in her chest. “Probably not. I can’t imagine Jeff or Alyssia resorting to brute force. I’m not so confident about their counterparts in Antigua.”

Tal took her cup, set it on the coffee table, and pulled her into a hug. “The plan is to not let it get that far. When this is all over, though, I’m going to send out an all-employee bulletin announcing how crazy I am about you. Until then, are you okay about us just acting like co-workers?”

It was a hard thing to agree to, but practical under the circumstances. “How about an occasional kiss in the elevator or your office when we have them to ourselves?” she asked.

In answer, he held up his watch and wiggled his eyebrows. “How do you feel about supply closets at ten hundred hours?”

Glory kissed him hard. “I’m shocked and appalled that you would suggest such a thing. Now, go home. I’m worn out.”