You Again (8 page)

Luke hustled her into one of the closets amongst the men’s suits and they switched off their flashlights in unison.  Expensive aftershave swamped her and she gagged.  He put his fingers to her lips and the scent of rubber from the flashlight grip mixed with something more masculine and pleasant replaced the aftershave.

“They’re in the bedroom,” he whispered in her ear.

They?  She listened and heard what he had heard.  Two sets of footsteps, one light the other heavier.  At any moment one or both of the Haywood-Smiths would enter the closet in which she and Luke hid.

CHAPTER 8

Sweat popped out on Lily’s brow and her body shook.  Luke’s arms snaked around her waist, strong and steady and comforting.  She leaned back into his chest, her head bumping his shoulder, not quite relaxing but no longer hyperventilating.

“It’s okay.  I’m here and I’m not going to let anyone hurt you,” he said.

She could kiss him for saying it.  The effect of his words made her knees weak and heart full.  He was right.  She was with a cop.  Nothing bad would happen.  She was safe and he was right alongside her.

She closed her eyes and turned her face into his throat, wanting to draw in his scent and block out Max Haywood-Smith’s cloying aftershave.  The pulse in Luke’s neck beat steadily against her lips, its strong rhythm flowing through her and calming her own pulse rate to a more regular beat. 

His skin smelled so good and his throat tasted like, well, like Luke.  Strong.  Masculine.  Delicious.  She felt alert and more alive than ever, and very aware of him beside her. 

He turned his head a little and their mouths connected in a fierce, thrilling kiss that knocked her senseless.  She drove her fingers through his hair, locking him against her.  Maybe it was the close proximity to both a sexy man and danger, or maybe it was the primal beat of her blood pounding between her ears urging her on, but she wanted the kiss.  Needed it.

Raised voices coming from the bedroom broke them apart.  Lily sucked in deep breaths but breathing normally and thinking clearly were impossible with Luke's presence trying to pull her back into a sensual haze. 

She held firm against every instinct screaming at her to kiss him again until eventually common sense filtered through her dazed mind.  The Haywood-Smiths were in the next room and she’d have to be nuts to let her hormones overrule her head when exposure was only a cough away.

God, they could be caught at any moment!  What the hell was she
doing
!

Despite the extra inch of distance between them, Luke’s arm remained around her waist.  He stood very still, his body as rigid as steel although he was breathing hard like her.  She looked up at his face but it was too dark to make out his expressions although she imagined him straining to listen to the voices coming from the next room and straining not to kiss her again.  He was a cop all the way and she didn’t think he’d want to jeopardize his case by giving into his base urges.

Luke was an idiot.  What kind of cop makes out with his ex-girlfriend in the middle of a stakeout?  Of course, this wasn’t a real stakeout and he wasn’t there as a cop, but it was still a damn stupid thing to do.

But there was something innately sexy about being with her in the dark, the suspects only a room away and the threat of capture imminent.  But he should have tried much harder.  Her kiss had pretty much knocked him senseless at a time when he needed all his senses on high alert.

Thank God she had pulled away because he wasn’t sure he could have done it. 

The door to the dressing room opened and the light was switched on although the closet in which they hid remained dark.  Lily tensed beneath his arm and pushed back into him again.  Great, that’s all he needed—her ass in his groin.  His libido kicking up a notch in response.

“Maybe it’s in here,” said a woman.  Mrs Haywood-Smith he assumed.  The sounds of shoes being thrown onto the floor, followed by swearing, came from the room outside their hiding place. 

“Come
on
, Prue, we’re already very late.”  Max Haywood-Smith probably. 

Keys jangled and Prue Haywood-Smith said, “All
right
, I’m going as fast as I can.”

“Don’t you remember where you hid them?” her husband said. 

“If I did,” she answered tightly, “do you think I’d be tossing my shoes around looking for them?”

Luke heard the sound of a tongue clicking and pictured Max rolling his eyes. 

“I can’t believe you forgot to get them in the first place,” Max said.  “You’ve had all day and now you can’t even find them.”

“It’s been ages since I hid them,” she said, snippy, “how am I supposed to remember where I put all that crap?  It’s not like they’re valuable or anything.”

“They are valuable,
Darling
, because if someone finds even a single piece then we’re going to jail.  And since the break-in, I’m not risking anything anymore.  It’s all going to Gerry’s until things cool down, including the piece that girl brought back.  I assume you’ve got that one at least.”

“It’s in my purse,
Darling
.  But are you sure you can trust Gerry?”

“He’s my brother.  Of course I can trust him.  He says he can put them into one of his safes until the latest claim has gone through and the investigation is over.”

“I don’t know what all the fuss is about.”  A shoe hit the carpet with a thump, quickly followed by another one.  “That girl has apparently got form, or whatever it is they call it.  She’s known to police so we’ve got nothing to worry about.  No one will believe her.”

“You know you really are an airhead sometimes—.” 
Thump
.  “Ow!” 

“How about you stop berating me and start helping me,
Darling
.  Go look in your closet.”

Luke felt rather than heard Lily’s gasp.  He wanted to whisper to her that everything would be all right, he would protect her and she wasn’t going to jail if he could help it.  But even a whisper might be overheard now. 

“Are you sure they’re even in here?” Max said, his heavy footsteps approaching the suit closet.  “Maybe you put all of it in one of the guest bedrooms.” 

The sliding door where they were hiding opened and light flooded the closet.  Lily turned her face into Luke, her body stiff.  The breath caught in Luke's chest.

“Of course I’m sure,” Prue said. 

“So where exactly could it be in here, do you think?” Max said.  The suit jackets to their right moved as he rifled through them.  He’d missed the two sets of legs and feet beneath the jackets further along but soon he would notice them.  Only a few more seconds...

“Try looking inside your shoes on the floor there,” said Prue.  “One of the pairs you haven’t worn for at least a year.”

“Obviously,” Max muttered.

“What did you say?”

“Nothing,
Darling
.  Hello.  What’s this?”

“What?”

Max parted the suit jackets in front of Lily.  “Oh my God!”

CHAPTER 9

Lily froze.  Even her heart stopped beating.  Then Luke’s hand whizzed past her and punched Max in the face, sending him stumbling backwards to fall on his well-cushioned ass, blood streaming from his nose.  Prue screamed.  The scream grew higher and louder when Luke stepped out from the suits. 

“Hey,” he said in a commanding voice that somehow managed to cut through her ear-splitting sound even though it was pitched an octave lower. 

She stopped screaming and started throwing shoes at them instead.  Lily caught a red stiletto as it flew past her head.  “Stop!”  She ducked under a boot.  “It’s a crime to throw around Manolo Blahniks.”

“It’s a crime to break into people’s houses and assault them.”  Prue threw shoe after shoe like a tiny whirlwind with her blonde hair swirling around her.  Until she ran out of shoes.

“We’re not going to assault anyone,” Luke said.

Prue put her hands on her hips and looked pointedly at her husband bleeding all over the chaise. 

“Anyone else,” Lily said.  “Look, we’re just going to, uh, leave quietly.”  What else could they do?  The gig, as they say, was up.  The stakeout had been a failure.  She was screwed.

“We’re not leaving,” Luke said. 

“We’re not?” Lily said just as Prue said, “I’ll call the cops.”

“The phone’s out there and you’re in here.”  Luke moved to stand in front of the entrance to the bedroom.  Prue glared at him for a moment then her predicament must have sunk in because fear flared in her eyes, bright and fierce.

Lily looked at Luke and mouthed “Badge”.  He shook his head and she frowned at him. 

“Go sit with your husband,” he told Prue. 

Prue, a small, middle-aged woman with a face as smooth as a porcelain doll’s, obliged.  “Max, why don’t you
do
something,” she hissed.

Max held a handkerchief to his nose.  “Because there’s nothing I can do.  Look at the size of him.”

“Offer him money.”

He snorted.  “Got any on you?”

Prue made a huffing sound and crossed her arms.

“Lil,” Luke said, “why don’t you have a look for the fake jewelry in that closet we were hiding in.  That is what you were looking for?” he asked the Haywood-Smiths.

Lily knelt on the floor at the closet door and counted ten pairs of men’s shoes stashed beneath the suit jackets.  Not many but that was just as well since the pigeonhole shelving on the wall were all filled up with Prue’s.  She checked the shoes at the back first since they were likely to be the least used.  Bingo!  She pulled out a small black velvet pouch from a pair of black runners.

She tipped the contents on the floor.  Rings, bracelets, brooches and necklaces sparkled beneath the bright lights of the dressing room.  According to the Haywood-Smiths earlier conversation, they were all fakes.

“I don’t understand,” Lily said, staring at the jewelry.  “Why were you hiding fakes for an entire year?  And why are you going to hide them somewhere else now?”

“Fakes?” Prue said.  “Why would
I
have fake jewelry when I can have the real thing?”

“You’re lying,” Luke said, casual as can be from the doorway where he stood like a sentinel, his arms crossed and his expression thunderous.  “They’re fake.  And you hid them just the same as anyone would hide their most valuable jewelry.”  He met Lily’s gaze.  “Almost anyone.”

Yeah, yeah, point taken Mr Bigshot Cop.

“I do
not
own
fake
jewelry,” Prue said again. 

“Yes, you do,” Luke said.  “Ever since the real stuff was all stolen last year."

By Lily’s father, he could have said but didn’t. 

“Since the insurance company would only pay a jeweler direct for replacements and not give you cash,” he went on, “you did a deal with your jeweler and had him make up fakes, costing him and you almost nothing.  How much did he keep out of the payout for his co-operation?  Half?”

Max and Prue sat on the chaise in sullen silence.  Lily listened to Luke as he outlined the scheme and she realized how naïve she had been not to have figured it out already.

“Then you took your half of the money, kept the fakes and hid them as if they were the good stuff.  Although not very well I might add.  But then you were probably hoping another theft would one day occur and lo and behold these fakes get stolen too.  Is that right?”

Prue made a snorting sound but said nothing.

“Except you
were
broken into the other night but nothing was taken.  No problem since no one knew that.  You thought you could make another claim, this time on the fakes.  That’s why you were getting rid of them tonight.  When were you going to report this jewelry as missing?”  He nodded at the stuff on the floor.  “Tomorrow after you conveniently remembered to look for it and found it also gone?”

“And tonight you were going to give it to your brother for safe-keeping while the insurance company and the cops investigated,” Lily said, shaking her head.  Wow, these people were unbelievable.  At least her dad was an honest thief and everyone knew what he was.  The Haywood-Smiths were complete frauds, hiding behind a façade of respectability.  “You were also going to give him the necklace I returned two nights ago since you couldn’t have it lying around after having it already reported stolen last year.  That ruby necklace was the only fake piece in the entire lot from the original theft, wasn't it?"  It must have been or her father would have sold it along with the rest.