3 Sin City Hunter (21 page)

We took turns changing in the bathroom. Once again, I had to force myself to stay awake while waiting for Darby to get into his bed. He turned off the light.

“Can you talk
for a few minutes?” I asked
.

“Sure,” he said. “What’s on your mind?”

“What did you make of the stuff we saw today?” I asked him. “Do you think that was drug money? Did you see th
e
three pictures I brought back with me? They’re all Slimmers employees, and the pictures all had dollar amounts on the back. Two had $5,000 written on them, and one had $10,000. And then seeing Dudley headed to the
motel when we were leaving; it
was too close for comfort.” I stopped talking to give him a chance to respond.

“I’ve never seen anything like it
,
even on television,” he said in amazement. “I tried to put some of it together, but we weren’t there long enough to really read anything over. Seeing all
the
money was a real shocker
, and I co
uldn’t think past the fact
that
we needed to get out of there fast.”

“I know,” I said softly while thinking about the entire experience again. “I know you were upset with me today, Darby. Thank you for taking me to the funeral and to Anna’s house. My heart aches for people who don’t have love in their life, and she had such a hard row to hoe with Gilbert. I hope something good happens for her now.

“It’s ok, Susan
,” he said
.
“
You seem to be calmer about this than I am. Where I think you’re in grave danger, and I feel helpless to p
rotect you, you seem to think
everything’s going to be fine. For once, you and I aren’t on the same wavelength, and it’s kind of hard to deal with.”

I yawned loudly and said, “I’m done talking. What time will Nate be in tomorrow?”

I could hear a lift in Darby’s voice as he said, “11:00 in the morning. We’re all going out to dinner tomorrow night, and your mom and dad can meet him then.”

“Good. That’s sounds really good,” I said as I drifted off into a deep sleep.

I was awakened in the night by some type of kerfuffle coming from Darby’s side of the room.

“WHAT THE HELL!”

Why was Darby cussing?! I sat bolt upright and turned the light on. My heart was racing, and I was sure someone was in the room to kill us.

Oh my gosh! It was Mick!

He was standing on one side of the bed in his boxer shorts, and
Darby
had jumped out on the side closest to me in a much tighter boxer brief. For a split second, I visualized these two gorgeous men modeling men’s underwear on a runway in Paris, but I quickly realized Mick had slipped into bed with Darby, and it hadn’t gone well.

“Mick!” I
shouted
.
“What are you doing here?”

“Me? I’m registered to this room,” he said loudly. “What’s Darby doing here?”

Darby turned, stared
at me in disbelief
,
and said, “You didn’t tell him I was here?”

Oops.

“It didn’t come up in our conversation,” I said sheepishly. “We only talked once since you got here, and I wasn’t thinking about you at the time.”

“Susan,” Mick
said with his voice still raised
. “What’s been going on here?”

I shook my head. “Nothing
,” I said
.
“
You know Darby and I are just friends.
” It sounded horrible the second
it left my mouth. Darby hung his head. There was nothing either of us could say.

“It’s a lot more than Darby,” he said with anger creeping into his voice
now
. He reached into the outside pocket of his overnight bag, grabbed a newspaper, and threw it on the bed. It was the USA Today paper with the wedding announcement and the pictures of me and Dell. “How do you think I felt when I saw this in the paper? I tried to call you earlier to let you know I was coming in tonight, but you don’t answer your phone, and then imagine my surprise when I get into the airport here and see the local sports section from today on a chair.”

He reached down and grabbed the newspaper with the hockey arena pictures and of me and Darby kissing. He threw it on the bed, too.

“Mick, re
ally, I can explain all of this,
”
I said.
I was nearing panic mode. There was no way he was going to understand any of this. I was up on my knees on the bed,
staring intently at him,
and pleading.

He was loud
er still,
“I can’t imagine
you could possibly have any explanation for -”

He was interrupted by a loud knock at the door
. We were all still for a moment
. The knock came again. Da
rby walked over and opened it
.

Oh my gosh! Could this get any worse? In walked my parents!

“What’s going on in here?” Dad bellowed. “We were on our way back to our room, and we could hear the noise as soon as we got off the elevator.”

Mom was
ogling
back and forth between Mick and Darby. Her eyes were wide
as
she was clucking and saying, “Oh my. Oh my.”

I looked
to
my dad with misery oozing from my eyes and said, “Mom, Dad, this is Mick. Mick, these are my parents, Earl and Lilah.”

“Oh for crying out loud!” Mick
muttered
in exasperation.

Dad’s crow’s feet started to form, and I could see a big smile coming up on his face. He looked at the newspapers on the bed, looked at me, looked back at Darby and Mick, and then said to Mick, “Son, it’s nice to meet you. This is a really good story, and if you give it some time, you might find the humor in it.”

Mom was finally able to stop staring at the guys, and t
he realization of what
happened hit her. She burst out laughing. “Oh, Mick, you poor thing. You got into bed thinking you were getting in with Susan, but you got Darby instead.” She couldn’t stop laughing. “I’m sorry, but I wish I could have been here to see it.” She
noticed
the newspapers on the bed and broke out into even more peals of laughter.

“Come on, Lilah,” said Dad. “Let’s let these kids straighten this out. We’ll see everybody tomorrow.”

Dad was savvy
,
and
he
knew how devastated I was over what had just happened. He reached over and extended his hand to Mick
to shake his. I could see
he gripped Mick’s hand fairly hard and didn’t let go right aw
ay. His face had an intense, serious look as he
said, “See you in the morning.
This
will look better in the light of
day, and you’ll understand
things aren’t always as they seem.” He let go of Mick’s hand, said good-night, and ushered a now giggling Mom out of the room.

Before either of them could say anything, I clenched my fists, closed my eyes, and barked at
both of them
, “I have to go to work in the morning. I have to get some sleep. Darby, get back into bed and go to sleep. Mick,
come over here. Everybody
go to sleep! We can talk about this tomorrow.”

Darby started to make a fuss about getting another room, and I practically screamed, “Get in bed! Nate will be here tomorrow, and you can move your things out then.”

Darby climbed into his bed, and Mick came over to mine. I slid over to make room for him, but we positioned ourselves with our backs to one another. Mick reached up and turned off the light.

The room had it all - tension so thick you could cut it with a knife, a giant awkward pause, a sticky wicket. No one said a word. I found myself holding my breath. It didn’t take long t
o soak my pillow with the tears
which were
streaming down my cheeks, but I never made a sound, not even a sniffle. Mom and Dad had knocked on the door around 1:00
,
and it was now after 2:00. I was goin
g to be miserable tomorrow. It seemed to take
forever, but I finally drifted off to sleep.

When I awoke in the morning, both Darby and Mick were gone. They had probably gone off to have a fight. Mick was in a foul mood last night
, and it was probably best
he wasn’t in the room now.

I
overslept a bit, and had to rush getting ready for work. I dressed in deep chocolate brown slacks with a matching casual jacket. My blouse had a white background with a pattern of small blocks in caramel, dark brown, and b
lack. Snakeskin pumps,
similar in color to the blouse
,
finished the outfit, and I was ready to go.

I didn’t see Mom, Dad, or Mick, but Darby was waiting outside the front doors when I stepped out. He was still watching out for me.

He smiled a weak smile and said, “Hi
,
Sunshine. Are you ok this morning?”

I had to fight to
hold
the tea
rs back. I could only nod at him
.

“Susan, listen to me,” he said as he pulled me
close
and put his arm around me. “Your dad and I have already talked this morning. He has a plan, and he’ll help me talk to Mick. By the time you get back this evening, everything will be ok. You’ll see.”

I nodded my head and whispered, “Thank you.”

“We’re all still going out to dinner tonight, and hopefully, we’ll a
ll be laughing about it by then,
”
he said.

I tried to give him a smile. I wanted to believe him. He kissed me on
my
nose and said, “Stay indoors today.”

I waved a little wave and stepped into the car. Twenty minutes later
,
I was sitting at my desk trying to shake off my personal life and put it in an imaginary box outside the door. I had a meeting soon with the staff in charge of center renovations, followed by the people who were in charge of making the changes to the diet, menus, and integrating
the
men’s program. I wanted to be sure to give them my full attention so I wouldn’t miss anything.

Gregory stuck his head around the corner of my door
way
, and gushed, “Susan, that was so great last night. The whole office is buzzing about the way you kicked Carlton’s -”

“Gregory!” I s
napped
, effectively cutting him off. “Be careful what you say.” I frowned a l
ittle
and asked, “And
ho
w is everyone finding out
what happened last night
anyway
?”

His eyebrows shot up, he
slapped
his hands to his chest, and gave me a look
which
insinuated
it wasn’t me
. But he laughed and said, “
There were a lot of people there
, and they’re all talking about it. Are you really a professional player?”

“No,” I told him with a smile. “I’ve only been playing for about two years. I won a state tournament in the fall, and I was playing Class B then. I’ve moved
into
Class A, but I lose about as many games as I win. There are a lot of good racquetball players out there. You keep playing
,
because you’re really good, too.” I
glanced
at my watch and picked up my briefcase. “I have to run; I have
a meeting. Tell Betsy Ann
I need to see her this afternoon.”

“Ok, will do,” he said as he turned to head back down the hallway.

I rushed to the small conference room in the distribution center. I was right on time.

It was nearly 4:00 before I had a chance to meet with Betsy Ann in her office. She was smiling, but I could see there was some tension about her countenance.

“How did your meetings go, Susan?” she asked.

“Really well,” I told her excitedly.
“
I love the changes that
are going to be made to the center
s
. It’ll be a little different counseling men, but the way
it was
explained to me,
I can see
it will be a smooth transition, and I think the counselors will be happy. I can’t believe the company waited so long to open this market.”

“I know,” she agreed with me. “I’m glad things went well.” She was suddenly quiet.

“Betsy Ann, what’s wrong?” I asked her with concern. “Did the racquetball game las
t night have repercussions
I’m not aware of?”