The Heartbreaker (14 page)

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Authors: Vicki Lewis Thompson

BOOK: The Heartbreaker
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“Don't say it” He crossed quickly to her and took her by the shoulders. “I was wrong. I shouldn't have pressured you. Can you forgive me for being a total idiot?”
She stepped away from him. “Listen—”
“Please don't push me away. I need you, Beth.”
“Is that Mike Tremayne's voice I hear?” Alana skipped through the double doors of the workroom holding a bag of chips and a jar of cheese dip.
Mike spun away from Beth. “Well, hello there, Alana.”
Alana plopped the chips and cheese dip on the counter next to the cutter boxes. “Hello there, Mike.” She gave him a wide smile. “My goodness, you sure have turned into a gorgeous hunk of man.”
“And you're even prettier than I remembered,” Mike said, returning her smile.
“I like the way this conversation is starting out,” Alana said. “Tell you what, I'm ready to forget the past if you are, and after all these years, I think I deserve at least a big hug.” She came forward, arms outstretched.
Mike enfolded her in his arms. “You deserve a long overdue apology from me, for one thing. I was a rotten son of a bitch, Alana.”
“I don't even want to discuss that business again. It's over and done. Welcome back, big guy.”
Beth clenched her hands into fists and willed herself to stay calm when she wanted to forcibly pull her sister away from the man she loved. But of course Alana loved him, too. That much was obvious from the lingering way she hugged him. The trouble was, Mike didn't seem in a big hurry to let go of Alana, either.
At last Alana stepped back and turned to include Beth. “So. Here we all are again. Older, and let's hope, wiser. Come on back, Mike. We're having a beer and figuring out how to take care of this sleaze Huxford.”
Mike glanced quickly at Beth. “What about Huxford?”
“Oh, he's talked one of Beth's cutter customers into filing a lawsuit,” Alana said without waiting for Beth to answer. “But I think we can outfox him. Come and have a beer with us, and we'll tell you all about it.”
Mike sent another questioning look in Beth's direction.
She shrugged.
“Come on, Mikey. I have a cold one back here with your name on it.” Alana linked her arm through his and started back toward the workroom. “You're looking so damned fit. I'll bet you drove those Brazilian girls crazy.”
“The women of Brazil don't hold a candle to the women of Bisbee,” Mike said.
Alana laughed. “That's my Mike.”
Beth wanted to scream. She'd had no idea that Alana's behavior with Mike would rub her nerves raw, or that Mike would fall right back into the old pattern of flirting with Alana. She'd been so worried about Alana's reaction to her relationship with Mike that she'd ignored the price she'd pay for keeping silent. But if she was in pain, she had no one to blame but herself. She'd been the one who'd insisted that Alana shouldn't be told right away. Shy, careful Beth. She probably didn't deserve a guy like Mike.
Because there were only two chairs in the room, Mike leaned against Beth's workbench. He drank the beer that Alana opened for him while she told him the story of Colby's attempt to blackmail Beth into signing away the rights to the patent. Like the quiet, unobtrusive member of the trio she'd always been, Beth listened while Alana and Mike got into a spirited debate about how to handle the problem.
Then Mike broke the pattern by turning to Beth. “What do you want to do?” he asked.
Alana answered. “Of course she wants to—”
“I asked Beth,” Mike interrupted. “This is her baby, after all.”
Alana's glance flicked from Mike to Beth. “Well,
excuse
me.”
“I'd rather scrap the whole damned project than turn it over to Colby Huxford,” Beth said with a little more vehemence than she'd intended.
“Whoa, stand back!” Alana said. “I think little Bethy's mad!”
“Good for you,” Mike said with an approving look.
“And if Alana's willing to use her influence with the Eckstroms, that's fine with me,” Beth added.
“That's all I needed to hear.” Alana popped up from her chair. “I'll just get in my little Jeep and take me a drive to Sierra Vista.”
“I'll close the shop and come with you,” Beth said.
“Then why don't we all go?” Alana asked, glancing at Mike. “We can leave from there and go on to Tucson to see Ernie.”
“I think the two of you will do just fine without me along,” Mike said. “Besides, I have a few loose ends to tie up here before I drive up to Tucson. I'll meet you at the hospital.”
Alana shrugged. “Suit yourself. I can't imagine a man turning down a chance to take a drive with two such bodacious babes, but you do what you have to do, I guess.”
Mike grinned. “Sacrifice builds character.”
Beth glanced at him and at first saw only the bantering tease he'd always been when the three of them got together. But her senses were more finely tuned to his moods now, and a closer look revealed the faint line of tension between his eyebrows and the uncompromising set of his jaw. Something was on his mind, and it probably had to do with the “loose ends” he'd talked about taking care of. She would bet Colby was one of those ends.
“Don't do anything crazy,” she said to him.
His grin flashed again. “I'm sitting with two women who started drinking beer at eleven in the morning, and one of them is warning
me
not to do anything crazy?”
“You know what I mean.”
“I don't,” Alana said, “and I hate it when I don't know what's going on.”
Mike shot one look at Beth, but one look was more than enough. Alana had just said she hated not knowing what was going on. It was an opening anyone could drive a truck through—but Beth chose not to take it. When she told Alana about her involvement with Mike she wanted to be alone with her sister. Alana deserved at least that much consideration, that much respect for her pride.
“Okay, enough of the significant looks,” Alana said to Beth, her tone impatient. “Tell me what you think Mike might do while we're in Sierra Vista.”
“I think he might go beat the hell out of Colby Huxford,” Beth said. “Then Colby will have him arrested for assault, and I...won't have anyone to run the machine shop and make the cutters,” she concluded, putting everything on a business footing.
“I promise not to beat the hell out of Huxford,” Mike said. “Although the idea is tempting.”
“Will you promise to stay away from him?”
Mike gazed at her. “Nope.”
“Mike, Alana's plan might very well work. Once we eliminate the blackmail element, Colby will just have to pack his bags and go home.”
“I don't read him as the type to do that, unless he has some extra prodding.”
“Like what? You promised not to lay a hand on him just now.”
“And I'll keep that promise. We'll just talk.”
“I don't like the sound of it.”
“I do,” Alana interjected. “Let Mike talk to him.” She gazed up at him with an expression of frank admiration. “I'm sure he can be very convincing when he wants to be, right, Mike?”
Mike winked at her. “Absolutely. I'll see you two at the hospital around six-thirty.”
 
ALANA ZIPPED UP her Jeep's windows and turned on the air-conditioning, although Beth suspected she'd have ridden to Sierra Vista with the Jeep open despite the summer heat if Beth weren't along.
“We'll stop before we go to the Eckstrom's, get a Big Mac or something and call to make sure somebody's there,” Alana said, taking charge as she always had. “I think the mother, Sarah, will be around. She types medical transcripts at home to bring in extra money.”
“I know she really wants her son to go to college, too,” Beth said. “That's probably why she fell for this line of Colby's. You know, the idea that someone would hurt themselves on the glass and sue the manufacturer of the cutter never even occurred to me, Alana. I suppose it should have.”
Alana reached over and patted her knee. “Not really. You just ran into a skunk. The cutter's perfectly safe, and you know it. In my case, I've been concerned about lawsuits ever since I started Vacation Adventures, Inc. You should see the premium on the insurance I have to pay to protect me in my business. Even so, I'm not sure I'd be covered if somebody died while I had them out on a trip.”
“What a thought! Have you ever been afraid that might happen?”
“Oh, yeah! You can't predict exactly how things will go when you're hiking up and down mountains, or rafting down rapids. Accidents happen, although I try to take every precaution. And then there's the off chance that somebody will decide to have a heart attack out in the middle of nowhere.”
“Ugh. It's bad enough when you can call the paramedics right away, like we did for Ernie.”
“Is he really okay, Bethy? I know what the doctor said, but I never know if they're feeding me a line of bull or not. I've been so worried. I'm worried for Mike, too.”
“Yeah, I know.” Beth sighed. “It was pretty scary, but I think he's okay, now. We'll be sure in a couple more days.”
“When did Mike show up?”
The question popped up as if it were a hand grenade in a bushel of apples. “A few days ago.”
“Was he here when I called the other day?”
Beth refused to tell an outright lie. “Yeah. He'd just arrived.”
“How come you didn't tell me about it?”
“I was afraid you'd come rushing back to see him. I thought your trip with the family was more important. But I realize now I should have told you and let you make that decision.”
Alana glanced at her, but her eyes were hidden by the sunglasses she wore. “You're right. I probably would have come back. I'm tired of being alone, Beth. I'm thirty-two years old, and I'm ready to settle down with a guy. Not just any guy, either. I've been thinking about Mike a lot, lately, and he's still the one for me. I've loved him ever since we were six, and I still do. The timing was off eight years ago, but did you see the way he looked at me? I think we can start over.”
Pain surged through Beth. “Alana, I—”
“I know what you're going to say. He still wants to spend his time traveling, and he'll never want a house with a white picket fence around it. That's okay, because neither do I. That's why I'm going to make him a proposition. I want him to go into business with me. That way he can satisfy his wanderlust and be part of a growing enterprise at the same time. Think he'll consider it?”
“I guess you'll have to ask him.” Truth be told, Beth was no longer positive that he'd reject the offer. It seemed tailor-made for him, as opposed to running a Brazilian glass studio. When she saw how easily he interacted with Alana, and she with him, they still seemed to be the perfect couple. Maybe they
were
the perfect couple, and Mike had clung to her because he was in the midst of an emotional time in his life. She pictured the humiliation of announcing to Alana that Mike was interested in her, now, and then discovering that he'd changed his mind.
She tried to tell herself such a thing would never happen. Mike loved her. He'd said so not very many hours ago. He'd made love to her all through the night. He wouldn't turn to Alana, now, would he?
Except that she hadn't returned his vows of love. She'd insisted on waiting, as if she were some little kid, until Alana came home. No wonder he'd accused her of not being grown up. And it would serve her right if he decided Alana was the woman she didn't have the guts to be. As Beth glanced at Alana driving the Jeep so confidently with one hand, her body lithe and fit in a way Beth had never aspired to, she wondered if the past few days had been a fantasy, after all.
13
A
FTER TELLING his machinists to go grab some lunch, Mike made a quick trip home and then set out in search of Colby Huxford. He'd forgotten to ask Beth where the vermin was staying, but his first guess, the elegant White House Bed and Breakfast in Warren, turned out to be on target. Mike talked to the folks there and said he was interested in locating Huxford on some urgent business having to do with the glass cutter patent Huxford wanted to purchase from Beth Nightingale. With that kind of detailed lead-in, he easily got the information that Huxford was probably eating lunch at his favorite midday spot, a little Italian deli in the heart of Bisbee. Mike knew the place.
Before he walked in, he made sure Huxford was there by sauntering past the glass-fronted deli and glancing at the tables. Sure enough, the weasel sat chowing down on what looked like a salami sandwich. How Mike would have loved to go in and ram it down his throat. When he thought of Huxford threatening Beth this morning, he wanted to kill the son of a bitch. But he'd promised Beth he wouldn't be violent.
The minute he walked into the sandwich shop Huxford glanced up as if he were a wild animal scenting danger in the air. Mike walked over to Huxford's table, pulled out a chair and sat down.
“I'm afraid you're not invited to stay,” Huxford said. His Adam's apple bobbed.
Mike took pleasure in his obvious fear. “I'm not staying. I'm here to deliver a message. By the way, that's an interesting scratch on your cheek there. Cut yourself shaving, did you?”
“Don't get cute with me, Tremayne. Did Beth send you?”
“No. In fact, Beth and her sister, Alana, are on their way to Sierra Vista to see the Eckstroms.”
“I'd advise them to send a lawyer instead.”
“I don't think they'll need one.” Mike leaned his forearms on the marble-topped table and deliberately shoved himself into Huxford's personal space. “Alana took that family on an outdoor vacation last year and single-handedly turned the son from a potential drug addict into a high school sports star. The kid, and the parents, would do about anything for Alana. She's going to ask them to forget about this asinine suit you talked them into.”
“We'll! see.” Huxford leaned back in his chair and flexed his shoulders in a comical show of bravado. “Mrs. Eckstrom seemed quite concerned about her son's future when I talked with her.”
“Oh, I think this will work. Beth's going, too, and folks around Bisbee learned a long time ago that you don't mess with those Nightingale girls. The fact is they don't need me to drive the last nail in your coffin. They can take care of themselves. I'm here strictly for my own pleasure.”
Huxford sneered. “I suppose you'll threaten to beat me up or something if I don't leave town by sundown.”
“That would be fun, but I promised Beth I wouldn't lay a hand on you. However, I do expect you to be gone by tonight.”
“And if I'm not?”
Mike sat back in his chair and crossed his ankle over one knee. “Well, let me tell you a little about myself, Huxford.”
“Not interested.”
“You should be. Last year I got real chummy with a tribal shaman down in South America. The rain forest natives have herbal concoctions you've never heard of. Poisonous frogs are a big thing, too. The hunters tip their arrows with some stuff that's so lethal that one scratch will bring down a jaguar in seconds.”
“So?” Huxford licked his lips in a nervous gesture.
Mike reached into his pocket and pulled out a small metal box. He opened the catch and put the open box on the table. “There wasn't a lot to do in the evenings in the rain forest. I got pretty good with a blow gun. I learned how to mount the arrows on the shaft, too. Attach them one way and they fly perpendicular to the ground, which is how they need to go if you want them to penetrate the ribs of an animal. Attach them so they fly horizontally, and they'll slide between the ribs of a man.”
Huxford glanced around the shop. It was empty, and even the owners were busy back in the kitchen catching up on some delivery orders.
By the time he glanced back at the table, Mike had repocketed the box containing the arrowhead. “No witnesses, Huxford. There wouldn't be any when I hit you with the arrowhead, either.”
“You're either bluffing or you're insane.”
Mike smiled at him. “If I were you, I wouldn't hang around a town with a potential madman in it. Could be dangerous to your health.”
Huxford pushed out of his chair, leaving most of his sandwich on the plate in front of him. “I've heard enough of your crap.” He threw some money on the table. “I begged the company not to send me out to this godforsaken place. You can have it.” With that he stomped out of the deli.
“Thanks. Believe I will,” Mike said to the empty room. He picked up the untouched half of Huxford's sandwich and began to eat.
 
BECAUSE HE WASN'T squiring Beth and Alana around, Mike decided to take his dad's old truck to Tucson. Storm clouds had been threatening for the last couple of days, but tonight they looked really serious. He wondered if Alana's Jeep leaked during a downpour. If it did, the two women would probably get wet on the return drive to Bisbee.
Then again, maybe he'd be taking Beth home in the truck and Alana would be driving back to Phoenix. He couldn't believe she'd want to hang around once Beth broke the news. He hoped to hell she'd done it by now, even if that meant the visit to Ernie's room wouldn't be all sweetness and light. It was time to get things out in the open.
He couldn't exceed the speed limit in the aging truck as he had in the rental car, and he was running late. By the time he arrived at the hospital, big drops of rain pelted the asphalt parking lot. The air smelled of damp creosote bushes, a tangy fragrance peculiar to the desert that Mike happened to love. Thunder growled over the mountains. It would be a wet night.
When he started down the hall toward Ernie's room, he found Alana and Beth waiting together in the hall. One look at their untroubled expressions told him that Alana still knew nothing. Disappointment ate away at the glow of triumph he felt from his encounter with Huxford.
Nevertheless he approached the two women and put a smile on his face. He'd have to continue to play this Beth's way. “What's up?”
“The doctor's with him and asked us to step outside for a minute,” Alana said. “Your shirt's damp. Must be raining out there.”
“Yep. How'd the discussion go with Mrs. Eckstrom?”
Alana grinned. “She doesn't think she wants to pursue that lawsuit, after all. Turns out her son did cut himself on the glass, not on the tool, but he wanted to blame something besides his own carelessness, so he said the cutter did it.”
“We even got the cutter out and ran it back and forth across everybody's hand to prove the point,” Beth added. “Mrs. Eckstrom apologized for putting us through all the trouble.”
“That's terrific.” Mike looked into Beth's eyes and wasn't encouraged. The strong glow of love and passion that had been there the night before had dimmed considerably. He could see the whole thing pretty clearly—Alana had charged in to save the day and Beth couldn't bring herself to lower the boom on Alana's fantasies. But where that left him wasn't at all clear.
“Okay, your turn,” Alana said. “What happened when you saw Huxford?”
“Well, I told him you two were punching a large hole in his lawsuit scheme.”
“Our counterattack might not have worked, you know,” Beth reminded him.
“I knew it would work. As I told Huxford, anybody who's lived around Bisbee very long knows that when the Nightingale girls join forces, watch out.”
Alana laughed. “So once you told him we were on the case, he turned tail and ran back to Chicago?”
“Not quite. But he is gone.”
Beth looked worried. “Mike, you promised not to get physical.”
Mike put up both hands. “I didn't hit him. Not even once. It took a lot of restraint, but the only mark on that slimeball is the one you put there.”
Alana stared at her sister.
“Beth
hit this guy? This I have to hear.”
Mike listened to Beth's abbreviated version of why she slapped Huxford. As he expected, she left out Huxford's remark that Mike had gotten there ahead of him sexually. She left out the fact that she'd met Huxford as she returned home after spending several hours in a hotel bed with Mike.
“Awesome, sis,” Alana said. “I can't believe you got violent so quickly, just because he tried to make a move on you. You must be getting feistier in your old age. It's too bad, in a way, that he wasn't a nice guy.” She turned to Mike. “Which reminds me. We need to have a talk with this girl, Mike. She's tucked herself away in her studio down in Bisbee, where she hardly ever meets single guys. I've tried to get her to spend time with me in Phoenix so I could introduce her around, but she won't come. I worry that she's going to become a shriveled-up old maid type who putters in her glass studio and has no life.”
Mike fixed Beth with a relentless gaze, taking no pity on her just because her cheeks were growing pink. “Is that what's going to happen to you, Beth?” he asked softly.
She sent him a challenging glance. “I think we're getting off the subject of what you said to Colby.”
“Yeah, I'm curious about that, too,” Alana said.
So Mike filled them in on the conversation at the deli and watched Beth's eyes grow wide with disbelief.
Finally the tension must have overwhelmed her, because she grabbed his arm. “I hope to God you don't really carry around a poison-tipped arrowhead that would kill somebody!” Then she withdrew her hand quickly, as if she'd touched a hot stove.
The brief grip of her fingers was enough to make him long to pull her into his arms. One kiss in front of Alana would be worth a thousand words. But he didn't dare give in to that impulse and risk losing everything. “No, I don't have a poison-tipped arrowhead,” he said. “I have no interest in carrying around something like that.” He winked at her. “Especially with my reputation for being a little clumsy sometimes.”
“So what was it you showed Huxford?” Alana asked.
“Just an arrowhead I brought home from Brazil. It
could
be tipped with poison, but it isn't. And I never told him it was. I just showed it to him after describing my expertise with a blow gun. He checked out of the White House B and B pretty quick after that, according to the person I talked to.”
Alana chuckled. “That's great, Mike.”
“Can you really use a blow gun?” Beth asked, still visibly shaken from the story.
“Yeah, I can. It didn't take much practice, considering all the years I shot spit wads in school. It's the same principle.” He gazed deliberately at Beth. “The secret's in how you use your tongue.”
Beth's color heightened and she looked away, but Alana didn't seem to notice a thing. “I remember the time you shot a spit wad at me when we were taking the English final from old man Geddes,” she said. “He almost flunked you.”
“And you talked him out of it,” Mike added, returning his attention to Alana.
“I should have let you hang,” Alana said with a grin, “considering that was the same day you—”
“You can go in, now,” the nurse said from the doorway of Ernie's room.
“Oh. Thanks, we will,” Alana said, starting immediately for the room.
Mike took the opportunity to grab Beth by the shoulders. He held onto her until Alana was inside the door of Ernie's room. Then he leaned down and put his lips close to the side of her neck. “I love you, even if you are a coward,” he murmured before biting her ever so gently.
She drew in a sharp breath but didn't turn in his direction. After he released her, she straightened as if she were a well-trained soldier and walked into the room. Feeling more discouraged than ever, Mike followed.
 
BETH REMEMBERED hating seesaws when she was a kid because the bouncing up and down made her stomach hurt. That's how she felt now. One minute she couldn't imagine devastating Alana by telling her about Mike, and the next she was dying of frustration and ready to shout out the news. In between these bouts she watched Mike and Alana interact and couldn't help noticing how alike in temperament they were. For most of her life she'd believed they should be together. They were the strong ones, the brave ones. She was the little mouse who yearned for excitement but didn't have the nerve to claim the life she wanted.
With the imprint of Mike's gentle nip burning as if it were a brand on her skin she walked into Ernie's room. Alana had already claimed the chair by his bed and was talking animatedly to him.
Ernie glanced up as Beth came in followed by Mike. There was an unmistakable question in his eyes. “So you're all in the same room together again,” he said. “About time.”

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