In Too Deep (9 page)

“
Yeah, she will.”

As soon as things got tough—and
they would—Piper would run. Just like she always did.

Only this time she wouldn’t take
his heart with her.

***

Piper entered Due South, her neck
muscles knotted from the effort of not glancing over her shoulder
at West and Ben still on the beach.

Touches of Shaye and her mother
were everywhere in the restaurant. Ten years ago the dining room of
Due South could’ve been labeled “shabby chic”—minus the “chic.”
Interior design didn’t figure much in Bill Westlake’s world and he
hadn’t changed anything since his wife left the island.

But now Piper saw Shaye’s hand in
the turquoise fish-themed watercolors on the whitewashed walls, the
splashes of matching color in the woven flax flower arrangements. A
smattering of late lunch diners lingered over their wine glasses
and desserts—seated on elegant cane chairs that screamed her
mother’s taste. Wicker baskets stacked with firewood sat beside an
open fire, ready to be lit when the temperature dropped.

Bill must’ve let her mother and
sister go wild with the restaurant’s décor, but he’d left the bar
the same as it’d always been. A man cave.

A little girl of eight or nine
kneeled on the sofa in front of the fireplace. Sitting beside her,
a woman with a riot of espresso-brown curls read a newspaper. The
girl peeked over the sofa back, watching her approach with
twinkling dark eyes and a bold smile. Some of her foul mood
evaporated and Piper grinned back. What a sweetheart!

Shaye leaned against the service
counter talking to a young Maori woman with a tribal tattoo poking
out from the sleeve of Due South’s signature turquoise polo shirt.
Shaye glanced at Piper’s face as she slipped onto one of the wooden
stools lining the counter and said to the younger woman, “Better
start on a chocolate milkshake after you’ve taken those drinks out.
Extra shot of syrup.”

Piper slipped her sunglasses up
onto her head. “What are we, twelve?”

“
That scowl on your face tells me
it’s a chocolate emergency. Lani, make it two shakes when you’re
ready. We’ll grab Kez and Zoe and sit outside.”

The young woman fired Piper a
quick look before scooping up the tray of drinks and scooting out
from behind the counter. “On it.”

“
Lani? As in Lani Hohepa?” Piper
whispered as the younger woman moved away. “She’s like a little kid
with freckles and posters of cute boy bands on her
walls!”

“
Hon, that was nine years ago. She
can vote now. Drink. Have sex with hot guys like Kip, the
bartender.”

“
Little Lani Hohepa is sleeping
with your
bartender
?” Piper craned her neck
around.

“
No, you nut. But she could if she
wanted to. Or if he did. He’s a hard one to figure out. Anyway, I
can see you’re in a snit, but since we’re eating with people who
don’t know you’re loveable under that scary bad-cop persona, you
can suck up some sugar and tell me later about what gigantic jerks
West and Ben are. Come and meet the girls.”

“
I’m not in a snit. I don’t do
snits
.” Piper followed Shaye across the
restaurant.

She was just indignant at West’s
behavior. Okay, so her one finger salute may have been a little
uncalled for, but she was a dive cop, goddammit. She’d been in
hairier situations. And she most certainly
did not
panic.

Shaye tapped the shoulder of the
brunette with the newspaper. “Kez?”

The woman’s dark gaze slid quickly
past Shaye, her wide mouth splitting into a grin. Kezia folded the
paper neatly and stood, her pretty floral dress floating around her
knees.

“
This is my sister Piper, down
from Wellington,” Shaye said. “Piper, my housemate and friend,
Kezia Murphy. Her daughter Zoe’s got her head in the toy box over
there.”

Without Shaye introducing the
little girl, the relationship between the two was obvious. They
both had the same hint of the Mediterranean in their bold features
and olive skin. And while Zoe was too cute in her tee shirt, so
yellow it stabbed her brain, her mother was a knockout. Something
all the local penis owners in Oban would’ve spotted. She should’ve
hated Kezia on sight for being everything she would never
be—petite, feminine and sweet.

Then Kezia spoke, her voice
slightly accented and with a natural soft rasp that would drive men
wild. “If you need an accomplice to kick someone’s boy-bits, I’m
your girl.”

Not so sweet.
So maybe she
could forgive her for being small, and curvy, and with a voice of a
phone sex worker. “Got anyone in mind?”

“
Whoever made you look like you
wanted to spit nails when you walked in, cara.”

“
That would be Shaye’s boss. So
I’ll have to take a rain check.”

“
Ah, well. It’d be a shame to
damage someone so pretty.” Kezia pursed her lips thoughtfully. “We
could hold him down while you muss up his hair.”

“
That’d teach him,” said
Shaye.

Piper laughed, but before she
could speak a little voice interrupted. “I’m Zoe and I’m
eight-and-a-half. Are you really a policeman?”

Kezia’s daughter stood holding
loosely on to her mother’s arm.

“
Hi, Zoe. I’m Piper, and I’m
twenty-seven-and-a-third and yes I am a policeman—well, woman
really.”

“
Cool.” Zoe cocked her head, and
chocolate brown curls bounced. Piper bit her lip to prevent a gooey
“aww” from slipping out. “Do you have a gun?”

“
Zoe!”

“
Mamma—I’m just
asking
.”
She rolled her eyes in a theatrical fashion and turned back to
Piper.

Piper patted her hip pockets and
frowned. “Darn, I must’ve left my gun in my other
shorts.”

Zoe giggled, covering her cherubic
lips with a small hand. Then her eyes widened and shifted to a
serious confidentiality. “Did you know in America last year over
thirty-one thousand people died from guns?
Thirty-one
thousand!
”

Oh my God.
She loved this
kid already. “Really? That many?”

Piper tuned out the huff of
laughter from Shaye and Kezia’s muttered, “Sweet mother of God,”
followed the soft slap of palm meeting forehead.

Zoe nodded. “I read it on the
internet.”

The weight of the morning’s
tension oozed out of Piper’s muscles. This was shaping up to be a
fun lunch.

***

Conversation flowed under the
blue-tinted shade of the sun umbrella while they enjoyed their
lunch. West arrived at their table with a charming smile for Kezia,
Zoe and Shaye, but his gaze switched to hooded and cool when it
landed on Piper.

Kezia excused herself to go to the
restroom while West and Shaye continued to talk shop. Zoe played on
her mother’s phone, and West turned away from Piper, excluding her
from their conversation. Not that she gave a hoot about orders, or
stock, or whatever else they continued to yatter on about. She had
nothing to offer their discussion other than a barely masked yawn,
because yeah, she was only the lowly kitchen-hand—and no offence to
young Fraser whose job she’d taken over; he was a sweetie. Unlike
his boss.

Piper bent over Zoe’s shoulder and
whispered, “I’m going to the bathroom too—you okay here with Mr.
and Mrs. Boring?”

The girl giggled, but didn’t look
up from the screen. “Uh-huh.”

Piper wound her way through the
restaurant and went through the doorway leading to the public
restrooms in the main hallway.

A concrete slab of a man had Kezia
backed up against the hallway wall. He towered over her, meaty
hands wedged on either side of her arms, preventing her escape.
“How long are you going to use your dead husband and cancer kid as
an excuse?”

Kezia’s fingers curled claws in
the crook of the guy’s elbows, trying to force him away. Neither
noticed her frozen in the doorway.

“
Leave my husband and daughter out
of it. They’re not why I won’t party with you, Gavin.” Kezia’s
voice could’ve crushed ice. “Now, back off.”

Gavin. Gav. Piper’s mind made a
quick foray back to age sixteen when Gav cornered her in Ford and
Harley’s bathroom at the twins’ eighteenth birthday party. He’d
followed her in, locked the door and tried to kiss her, ramming his
slimy tongue into her mouth, grabbing one of her breasts. He missed
having the tip of his tongue bitten off by millimeters. Then she
kneed him in the nuts and went at him with the closest weapon at
hand, which happened to be a toilet brush—but hey, those bristles
could hurt if shoved somewhere with enough force. She only had time
to smack him across his stricken face a few times before West and
Ben, hearing the commotion, busted inside. Her heroes pissed
themselves laughing at her makeshift club, but dragged Gavin
outside and taught him a lesson about respect.

A combination of temper and
training hustled Piper down the hall. She wanted to wrench Gav’s
arm up behind his back and bend his wrist at an angle cops
affectionately dubbed the “chicken hold” until he screamed like a
girl. Then maybe she could beat him senseless with the rolling pin
Bill kept in his kitchen. Unfortunately, as an off-duty officer,
the paperwork for manhandling Gav meant it wasn’t worth the hassle.
Pity. She’d really,
really
enjoy watching him
scream.

“
Cornering women in bathrooms
still, Gavin? You’re pathetic, you know that, right?”

Gavin started at the sound of her
voice, but didn’t move his arms. Joints in his beefy neck crackled
as swung his head to the side. “Piss off, Piper. This doesn’t
concern you.”

“
You’re annoying my friend. That
makes it my concern.”

His lips pulled back in a sneer.
“You don’t have any friends. And I’m in the middle of inviting
Kezia out for a drink.”

Oban’s newest primary school
teacher may’ve look sweeter than a sprinkle-covered cupcake, but
Gav risked his family jewels if the daggers shooting from Kezia’s
gaze were an indication. But Piper wouldn’t risk his temper turning
physical on the smaller woman.

“
Sounds like she’s not interested
in what you’ve got to offer.” Piper affected a bored note to her
voice and dropped her gaze down to the crotch of Gav’s jeans. A big
guy like him wouldn’t like the size of his tackle called into
disrepute.

Gavin’s chest expanded like a
puffer fish and he finally removed his hands from the wall and
turned to face her. “She’s interested all right. She’s just playing
hard to get.”

Kezia ducked around him and stood
at Piper’s side. “
She
isn’t playing hard to get and
she
thinks you’re a complete butthead.”

“
I’ll second that assessment.”
Piper eased herself in front of Kezia, who’d be out of the line of
fire should Gav do anything foolish. “Now, are you leaving, or do I
need to go get a toilet brush?”

His thick neck flushed a
coronary-inducing shade of lobster.

Maybe she’d pushed him too far.
Then she remembered the sour stench of his breath and the stubby
fingers squeezing her breast. Piper braced her feet and bared her
teeth.

Bring it, butthead.

But like the blustery drunks she
came in contact with on a daily basis, Gavin backed down once his
bullying tactics failed to get him his desired result. “Stuck up
bitches, the both of you.” He stormed past and slammed the door
open to the pub.

Kezia sagged against her, shaking.
Piper slipped an arm around the smaller woman’s shoulder and gave
her a one-armed hug. “You okay? Tell me he hasn’t tried something
like this before.”

She shook her head. “He’s asked me
out a few times and I’ve turned him down. He was more persistent
today.”

“
Maybe you need to get Glenn
involved.”

“
Glenn left years ago, so they
tell me. Noah Daniels is the island’s cop now and I don’t think
it’s serious enough to call him.” Kezia smiled, but her lips gave a
telltale tremble.

“
You should give West a
heads-up—”

“
Oh no—no!” Her curls danced
wildly across her shoulders. “West has already told Gav to quit
pestering me. If he finds out he’s done it again he’ll ban him from
the pub—then Gav’ll stir up more bad blood in the community. I’m
pretty sure he’ll leave me alone now.”

Piper didn’t believe it, but
arguing seemed pointless. She studied Kezia’s prettily flushed face
and her chest that still heaved from delayed shock. Ms. Teacher had
quite a pair of boobs on her and she didn’t doubt West had noticed.
No wonder he’d been keen to jump to her defense. “Up to
you.”

They looked at each other until
Piper swallowed back a sigh, Gav’s accusations and thinking of
little Zoe with cancer tightening a compressing band around her
chest. “I’ve heard you’re a widow, but Zoe’s got
cancer?”

“
Not anymore. She’s in remission.
I try to remind her that not everybody needs to know her medical
history, but you’ve probably noticed that my girl loves to
talk.”