Laying a Foundation: Bonus volume: Includes series prequel, The Groundbreaking (The Love Under Construction Series) (62 page)

“Not likely.”
Especially if I’m not even willing to give it a chance to start.
She stared out the window and watched the miles, and her life, go by.

It had been a long day and they’d been apart the whole time. Tony practically pushed her into the bedroom when she walked through the front door.

“Oh, Mr. Walters, that was amazing! Can we do it again?”

“We can do it as many times as you like, princess.”

“You know, you’ve never spoken Italian to me in bed. I think that would be really sexy.”

“Oh really?
Well, ‘Voglio fare l’amore con te tutta la notte, preziosa.’
”

“Oooooo, that’s lovely. What does it mean?”

“I said, ‘I want to make love to you all night long, precious.’”

“Oh, yeah, baby, that’s what I’m talkin’ ’bout.”

“Yeah? Well,
‘Voglio scopare il tuo cervello fuori, puttana.’
”

“Mmmm, that sounds exciting.”

“I just said, ‘I want to fuck your brains out, slut.’”

“Ooooo, baby, say something else.”

“Uh, um,
‘Perché non fare un carico di bucato?’
”

“And?”

“That was, ‘Why don’t you do a load of laundry?’”

“Oh, my god, Mr. Walters, you can even make laundry sound sexy!”

“Well, it is if you’re doing it. Especially if you’re doing it naked!”

“I don’t know about doing the laundry naked, but there’s something else I’d like to do naked.”

“Don’t you mean, do again naked?”

“No, I mean do over and over naked.”

“Well, then I guess we’d better get started, huh, future Mrs. Walters?”

“I’m just waiting on you, Mr. Walters.”

“Well, I dunno – think we need to wait?”

“Nope. Feels to me like we don’t need to wait; feels like you’re locked and loaded.”

“Ready to fire, baby.”

“H
oney, I’m sorry.” Tony cringed as Nikki slammed a cabinet drawer, then stomped out of the office toward the front door.

“I’m sick of this shit,” she growled, not caring that Cheryl was staring and hearing every word. “This is bullshit.”

Tony caught her by the arm before she got out the door and wheeled her around. “Nikki, I know. I’m sick of it too. But Steve’s only trying to keep us safe.”

“Well, if I went to some big ol’ damn church here in town instead of dancing around an open fire, would he tell me I couldn’t go there?” she yelled. She’d told him that she wanted to attend the local Samhain festival on Halloween, but Steve and his crew had nixed that idea immediately.

“Yes, I think he might.” Tony looked her in the eye. “But this is even riskier, because it’s outdoors and it would be almost impossible to secure. I don’t want another vehicle going up in flames just to find out
you
were in it, you hear me? So calm down. They’re working on it, but we’ve got to focus on being safe.”

She slumped into a chair in the main office area, and Cheryl made herself scarce. “I know. I mean, intellectually I know, but I still don’t like it.”

“We don’t have to like it; we just have to do it. You with me here?” Tony knelt down in front of her and looked up into her big blue-green eyes. “I’ll do anything to keep you safe, including inconveniencing you and pissing you off.” He tried to keep from laughing and failed miserably.

She couldn’t help it – she started laughing too. “We haven’t been laughing enough lately, you know?”

“I agree. We should work on that. In the meantime, can you do your own little celebration at home?”

“Of course. It won’t be as much fun, but I can do it.”

“Good. Get whatever you need to do that. And I’ll give you some privacy. I want to go with Clayton and Brit to take Stringer trick-or-treating.”

“Oh, I wanna go too!”

“Whatever you want, beautiful girl.”

“Oh my god.” Tony stood staring at Nikki with his mouth hanging open.

“What?”

“You are absolutely the most enchanting witch I’ve ever seen.” His eyes watered, and so did his mouth. “God, is that what you wear when you’re doing witch stuff?”

Nikki gave a loud huff. “No! This is just a costume! God! Don’t be a smart ass.”

He shrugged and looked a little hurt. “I’m not! I don’t know what kind of things you wear when you do whatever it is that you do,” he mumbled.

“Oh, yeah. Sorry. Does it look okay?”

“Look okay? Geez, babe, if you wore that to bed, I’d keep you up all night. Hey, maybe . . .”

“Not a chance, bub – they’re expecting us. Where’s your costume?”

“Stringer told me he didn’t want me to wear one. He said he wanted his to be the best, and I’d mess him up. I’m afraid he’s going to be
really
mad at you,” Tony laughed.

“Wow! That was fun – look at all the candy I got!” Nikki was laughing when they walked into the house. She skipped down the hall to the bedroom with her pillowcase of goodies.

“Yeah,” Tony grumbled, disgusted. “I thought I was going to have to beat up that old guy who put the candy bar in your cleavage.”

“Oh, god, honey, he was old enough to be my grandpa! I thought it was cute!” She smiled. “I thought
he
was cute. I was actually thinking about going back later and asking him if he would run away with me . . .”

Tony grabbed her and threw her across the bed, pretending to be mad. “You’d better not leave this grandpa for another old grandpa. I’ll hunt you down and snatch you back!”

“Not a chance! Speaking of grandpas, you seem pretty crazy about Stringer. I’m glad you guys have really hit it off. Has Clayton said what’s going on with all of that?” Nikki asked, drawing him down on top of her.

“No. I guess I should ask. I hope it’s going okay. I’d hate to see them lose that little boy. They’re crazy about him.” Tony rolled to his back and stared at the ceiling. “Maybe you could do a little spell or whatever it is that you do . . .”

“Already done, sweetie. Now, are you going to enjoy this costume?” she asked, winking at him.

“I absolutely am, starting right now!” he laughed and rolled back on top of her.

“Mr. Walters? Antonio Walters?” Two state police troopers stood in the doorway to Tony’s office the next afternoon.

“Yes, officers? What can I do for you?”

“Do you own a red Volvo SUV?” one of them asked.

“Yes. Well, it’s my fiancée’s vehicle.” He suddenly felt sick to his stomach. “What’s wrong?”

“Mr. Walters, do you know where your girlfriend is?”

A buzzing started in Tony’s head, and his stomach lurched. “She’s somewhere between here and Lexington. She went to the Lexington office this morning. Hang on a minute.” He pulled out his phone and called Nikki.

After two rings, she answered, “Hey, baby! What’s up?”

“Oh, god, Nikki, where are you?” he whispered into the phone, his throat so tight that he almost couldn’t speak.

“I’m in a thrift store in Lawrenceburg, Second Best. Why? Is everything okay?”

“Who’s with you today?”

“Laura. She’s right here.” At that, he heard Laura say something in the background.

“Hang on a second, hon.” He turned to the officers. “She’s at a store in Lawrenceburg. What’s up with the SUV?”

“It was involved in a hit-and-run accident on the Bluegrass Parkway just outside Lawrenceburg, and it was found burning a few miles from the accident scene. Responders are on scene, but it doesn’t appear there’s anyone in the vehicle.”

“Nik, did you hear that?” Tony asked.

“Uh, yeah. Hey, Laura,” she called out, “go look out the door and check on my Volvo, would you please? Tony, it’s here, I’m sure.”

“How long have you been in the store?” he asked.

“Maybe an hour? Wait.” He heard her say loudly, “What? What do you mean, it’s not there?” There was a voice in the background, and she relayed, “Tony, it’s gone. What the hell is going on?”

“Somebody took it, drove it like they stole it, and wrecked it. Stay there, tell Laura what’s happened, and I’ll call Vic, get him to come get the two of you and bring you here. Wait there for him, you hear me? Stay in the store.”

“Okay, okay. We’ll stay here and wait for him. I love you.”

“I love you too, baby. Do whatever Laura and Vic tell you and stay safe. I’ve got to go and talk to the officers.” Tony hit END and turned to them. “Well, she’s safe with her bodyguard in a store in Lawrenceburg. Looks like they stole her SUV from the parking lot.” Damn – that meant they’d followed her. “Please call Detective Ford. He’s been handling all of this crap. He’ll need to add this to the file, I’m sure.”

“Care to fill us in?” one of the officers asked. Tony launched into the story and, three minutes in, the officer stopped him.

“Thanks, Mr. Walters. We get the picture. This might not be related, but it most probably is. We’ll coordinate with Detective Ford and get back to you. Might want to call your insurance company. Where do you want us to have the vehicle sent?” Tony gave them the name of his insurance agent and told them to send what was left of the brand-new Volvo to the shop at the construction company.

“We’re going to run out of cars. I’d just gotten used to that one. What do you want me to drive now?” Nikki asked, looking at the key organizer near the back door.

“Take the Yukon or the Mercedes. Your choice.” Tony shook his head. “I’d been thinking about selling some of the cars, the ones we don’t drive much, but at this rate we’re going to wind up needing every one of them.”