Give Him the Slip (33 page)

Luke could see in her expression that a new thought had occurred
to her.

"With Liam, it's always been about money. I'll bet that's it.
Money." Maddie snapped her fingers. "Money. I wouldn't give it to
him, so he figured out another way to use me to get it. I'll bet you anything
he tracked me down in order to sell Baby Dagger out to the tabloids."

Hmm. She might be on to something there. "The paparazzi come
to Brazos Bend."

Maddie groaned. "It makes sense. I bet he came here looking
for me and when I didn't come home, he snooped around a bit. That'd be just
like him. I wouldn't take his calls so he came to blackmail me in person."

"Blackmail?"

"I can see it now. With one phone call, the vultures would
descend, shoving microphones in everyone's faces, taking pictures. The bastards."
Maddie paced the room. "Except first, he'll try to get me to pay him off.
Pay him to keep my secret. Well, I won't do it!"

Then she stopped abruptly, looked at Luke, and asked, "Or
should I?"

That pissed him off all over again. The idea of paying blackmail
went against everything Luke believed in, but, hey, it wasn't his call, was it?

All Luke's anger and frustration and worry went into his reply as
he drawled, "It's your decision, Maddie. Your life. And an exciting life
it is. Terrorists, rock stars, magic mushrooms. Not to mention rap sheets and
run-ins with the mob and loan sharks and—"

Maddie slammed the jar's plastic lid down on the counter-top.
"Stop it. Just stop it. How dare you make fun of my life!"

"You don't have a life, Maddie," he snapped right back.
"You have a fucking soap opera!"

She gasped. Her eyes flashed. Color flushed her cheeks as she
walked up to him and poked a finger at his chest over and over as she said,
"You just be quiet, Luke Callahan. You don't know what it's like. You have
no idea. You can't! You think I want to have a life like this? You think I
wanted my mother to die baking me brownies? That I set out to fall for jerks
and end up in jail and get tangled up with mushrooms and murderers and men that
beat me up and tear apart my house and—and—and—kill my fish! Well, that's not
the way it happened. All I ever wanted was a home. Somewhere to belong. Well, I
belong here, and now, through no fault of my own, it's being taken away from
me. I didn't do anything wrong. I just tried to be normal. Of all people, I
thought you might understand. I thought you might help me. Instead, all I hear
are snide remarks. Blame Baby. Same old song, just one more verse."

Every poke was a bullet to his heart. She was so damned beautiful.
So damned vulnerable.

God, Callahan, you're an ass.

"Maddie, look. I didn't mean..." Hell, he didn't know
what to say. She whirled away from him, returned to her jar of tea. Luke
watched her swipe tears from her cheek and he said, "I guess I'm just
another dickhead."

"I won't argue with that."

"I'm sorry." He approached her, took her hand in his.
"I didn't mean to blame you or poke fun at your life. I know you've had it
rough. But let's get one thing straight. I want this crystal clear between us.
Maddie, I've never lied to you."

The doubt he saw in her teary brown eyes cut like a knife. "I
didn't say..."

"Yeah, you did. Explain why, Red. What did I say? What do you
think I lied about?"

Hurt mingled with the doubt. "I thought that you... that
we... you knew that the danger wasn't necessarily over, Luke. You wanted me to
leave Brazos Bend."

He absorbed that. Didn't understand the problem. "Yes. And
this was bad because...?"

"I thought..." She looked away from him. Pulled away
from him. Hurt and anger and pain rang in her voice as she exclaimed, "I
fell for it! I thought you meant it!"

"I did mean it." He reached for her, but she shrugged
him off. "It wasn't a lie, Maddie. Don't compare me to the others in that
respect. Yes, I want you safe, but that's not the reason I asked you to leave
with me."

"Then, what was?"

The question stumped him. Confused him. He didn't know the answer.

"Why did you ask me to leave with you, Luke?" she asked
again, her eyes big and round and teeming with emotion. With pain. With fear
that he was going to hurt her, to let her down like everyone else.

Suddenly, the words were there on his tongue.
Because I love
you.

Whoa. Luke's world changed in that moment. He hadn't planned on
this. Never guessed it would happen.

He didn't have a clue what to do about it now.

Except instincts told him to keep the news to himself. Not because
he was afraid to say the words, but because he didn't think she was ready to
hear them. So he told her something close. "I'm not ready to let you
go."

"But you won't stay here," she declared flatly, her
words at odds with the hint of hope in her eyes.

"No, not forever. And that'll be a problem we'll have to
tackle at some point. But right now, I think we need to put our energies into
confirming who broke in here and why. If you think I'm going to walk out now
and leave you vulnerable to your old boyfriend's machinations, then you've got
another think coming, Maddie Kincaid. I'm not going anywhere until everything
is settled."

A smile flirted with her lips. "Oh, really?"

"Really." He stroked his knuckles down her cheek.
"You're important to me, Red. You're special. I need you to believe
that."

She looked at him long and hard, her gaze searching his. When the
last vestiges of doubt melted from her eyes, Luke felt like he'd won the lottery.

He bent his head and kissed her, taking that last step to move his
body against hers. His kiss was tender, loving, conveying his emotions in a
wordless poem. It was a kiss like none other he'd given before.

He loved her. He did. And he didn't have the faintest idea what he
was going to do about it.

He didn't fall in love. It was irresponsible, Pointless. Wrong.
Weren't those the lessons life had taught him? Love hurt. Love damaged. Love
didn't last.

But all those reasons didn't mean squat when Maddie curled her
arms around his neck and pulled him closer.

He was toast. Finished. Done for. When finally he stepped away, he
knew that fundamentally, life would never be the same. He loved her.

And some a-hole was stalking her.

At the Home for Now offices on Magnolia Avenue just south of
downtown a week later, Maddie sat down at her desk with a glass of iced tea and
her employees' work schedule. At her assistant's desk in the outer room, Luke
was on the phone again. For the past week he'd spent long hours speaking with
various contacts in government and law enforcement in his efforts to find Liam
Murphy.

He'd blown the one contact they'd managed to make with the man. On
Luke's instructions and with him listening in, Maddie had returned Liam's call
and tried to pump him for information to either confirm him to be her stalker
or eliminate him from suspicion. Maddie had thought she'd been doing a good job,
but when Liam started flirting and made a few rather personal comments about
the sex life they'd enjoyed, Luke lost it. He'd grabbed the phone, and the
threats flowed hot and furious. Liam hung up on him and canceled the cell phone
number.

Luke's subsequent efforts to locate Liam had met with little
success. Each day Luke got a bit grumpier.

Maddie didn't care. She was enjoying every moment of playing house
with Luke. She invariably awoke in the mornings to his lovemaking. They'd cook
breakfast together, then head off to the office. He'd tagged along on a couple
of her client visits, but mostly, he left her to do her everyday business while
he worked the phones and pestered Austin Rawlings and Chief Harper about any
new developments regarding Grevas or Bartolo. In the evenings they'd take
Knucklehead for a run, fix supper, feed Oscar, do a few chores, then head to
bed early. Maddie couldn't recall a time when she'd enjoyed life this much.

Life was normal, just like she'd always wanted. If only it would
last.

Liam hadn't called again. She'd seen no sign of him in or around
Brazos Bend. Had her guess about blackmail been correct? Or would he even
bother to hit her up first? Maybe he'd decided to go straight to the tabloids.

She was getting tired of looking over her shoulder all the time
for a photographer's flash.

"Hey, beautiful," Luke said from the doorway. "I'm
hungry. Do you want something from the Dairy Princess?"

She ordered a chef salad and listened to him make the call,
flirting with Kathy, as he did daily. Twenty minutes later, lunch arrived by
way of the Dairy Princess owner herself. "I decided you need a lecture
about your diet, Sin. You've ordered onion rings for lunch every day this week.
I'm worried about you. Have you had your cholesterol checked? I expect Maddie
has told you that your father has high cholesterol and that's something that
runs in families."

"I take after my mother," Luke declared before changing
the subject. "So, is the Dairy Princess short of delivery kids today? How
is it we rated the owner to bring us our cheeseburgers?"

Kathy's gaze whipped toward Maddie. "I thought you ordered a
salad."

"I did. Just ignore Luke."

She frowned at Luke and clicked her tongue, but something about
the light in her eyes, perhaps the absence of their usual twinkle, caused
Maddie to give her friend a closer look. Kathy appeared a bit ragged.
Definitely tense. "What's wrong?"

Kathy opened her mouth, then hesitated. Maddie's concern deepened.
"What happened?"

"I'm worried," her friend finally said after emptying
the sacks on the worktable Maddie used as a place to eat. "I don't like it
that Luke can't find Liam, and I'm worried that he's up to something more than
siccing the tabloids on you. I think Luke was right, Maddie. I think you should
leave town, if only for a couple of weeks."

Kathy turned to Luke, her eyes pleading. "You could do that,
couldn't you? You could take her away just for a little while until it's
over?"

"Until what is over?" Luke asked, eyeing the onion
rings. "What do you think the jerkface might be planning?"

"I'm afraid he'll try to kidnap her and hold her for ransom.
Like those criminals did to your poor brother. Blade would pay. He's not an
American citizen and he wouldn't let any government policy stop him."

"Unlike my father." Bitterness seeped into Luke's tone
as he widened his stance and folded his arms across his chest.

"That's silly," Maddie said, shaking her head. Luke's
reaction told her this was a dangerous subject, and she didn't want him to have
to think about it at all. "Liam wouldn't do anything like that."

"How do you know what he'd do? It's been years since you've
spent time with him. He could very easily be as crazy as his brother by
now."

Luke nodded. "I don't think your idea is silly at all, Kathy.
I've learned a bit about the brother—mean SOB. Part of a nasty IRA offshoot. Is
there a particular reason why you suspect your scenario might be true?"

"I don't know any more than you do, but it just makes sense
to me."

"To me, too," Luke replied, his mouth grim. "The
same thought had occurred to me, too. That's one reason I don't let Maddie out
of my sight."

"Oh, for crying out loud," Maddie muttered. She hated
seeing her friend so worked up, so upset. Kathy loved Maddie like a daughter,
and considering that she'd already faced one tragedy involving a daughter, no
wonder she looked ragged.

Luke wasn't helping things, either. He refused to listen to
Maddie's arguments that Liam wasn't a terrorist, but rather a pain in the butt.
The Irishman just wanted her money. Maddie was certain of it. Why couldn't Luke
accept it?

Because he's a cop at heart, that's why. The kind of cop who won't
stop digging until the last stone is turned.

"There is one other thing." Kathy's gaze fluttered
between Maddie and Luke. "A stranger came into the Princess today. I've
only seen pictures of Liam Murphy a couple of times and I don't recall what he
looks like, but this man was just about the right age and he did have an Irish
lilt to his voice."

"Did you talk to him?"

"I tried. He wasn't very friendly."

"What kind of car was he driving?"

"A Taurus."

"Popular rental car. I don't like this. I don't like it at
all." Luke pinned Maddie with a severe look. "Maybe you should think
about doing as she says."

Maddie wasn't a stupid woman, and if she honestly thought she was
in danger from anything more than a camera shot, she'd pack her bags in a
heartbeat. "I have responsibilities here in Brazos Bend. I can't walk away
from them, not again. Have you forgotten that Mrs. Charlton comes home from the
hospital today? I promised her family I'd be there every afternoon this week,
and they're counting on me."