Lying Eyes (12 page)

The sexy officer drew men to her like flies to spilled jam.

Everything is under control and I shouldn't feel ill at ease, but I can't sit still today.

Something about Allison shook him to the core, a feeling he didn't like one bit.

She'd warned him she'd be speaking about heroes in books,
men just like him,
whatever that meant. As far as he knew, he'd never been in a book.

The room hostess strode to the podium. Only three or four empty seats remained as an expectant silence settled on Allison's audience.

"Welcome to 'The Care and Feeding of Alpha Heroes' workshop presented by Allison Marble, noted writer and investigative reporter on loan to us by a San Diego television station where she reports the morning news. Allison trained for her career in journalism at U. C. Berkley, where she captained the University rowing team and fencing team, so try
not
to cross our speaker. Allison."

Like a seasoned performer she strolled to the microphone and smiled with assurance as the first of her PowerPoint slides filled the large screen.

"Good morning, and welcome to this discussion about writing alpha heroes."

Glancing pointedly at Carlo, she said, "Those of you who attended Detective Demetri's workshop on concealed weapons already know the detective is the quintessential alpha male."

She pressed a button and a photograph of Carlo in his LAPD uniform filled the large screen.

The audience applauded.

Carlo knew his ears had turned red.

"We may never know why this admirable man set his standards so high, or who was responsible for instilling in him at an early age a strict table of values. In the short time I've known him I've discovered he is dependable, trustworthy, stubborn—" Allison paused for the ensuing round of laughter. "—and will never back down if he thinks he's right. Of course, he is
seldom
wrong."

She smiled at Carlo.

He ground his teeth.

"I'm sure his mother, his childhood, and his teachers during his formative years had a lot to do with who the detective has become as well."

She paused again for a round of laughter.

"You know what? It's difficult for a female author to write a book about an alpha male and get the character right. She's likely to allow the character to talk too much, feel things, and openly reveal his feelings, three things a strong alpha man would
never
do.

"For his heroine, give him a woman as attractive as he is handsome, one with equal smarts. One who can hold her own in their inevitable arguments, and plot ample opportunities for them to disagree."

An image of Carlo tearing his hair in the elevator the previous evening flashed on the screen.

Our toe-to-toe argument last night. When had she had time to snap that image?

"She'll make him so mad he wants to lash out at her, something else a true alpha hero would never do. He would never strike any woman, but your alpha heroine has to be strong. She has to stand firm in her beliefs and not allow him to thwart her every move or exploit her emotions."

An image of an angry couple exchanging words flashed on the screen, followed by an image of the same couple embracing. As one, the audience sighed.

"In the end, make him attracted to the heroine, even though each of them fights the attraction tooth and nail."

The photo of a grim-looking tattooed man appeared on the screen.

"Alpha villains are not all that different from alpha heroes. The people in his past and the things that made this villain who he is may vary, but deep inside, a villain has his own set of values and is still vulnerable. Give him an ego and let him stalk around with attitude, but don't make him all bad. He should
not
be rotten to the core. Have him melt around little kids or be a sucker for stray dogs."

Allison pressed a button and the image of a tall man plowing his fingers through his hair filled the large screen. "When you write about your confident alpha hero, show him furiously disagreeing with the heroine because he is convinced he knows what is best for her. True to character, she strongly objects. She refuses to be ordered around. Authors, if you give the alpha hero an alpha heroine, their interaction will be even more heated."

Carlo squirmed.

"Sound familiar? If you get your story right, your heroine will eventually show the hero how wrong he is and he'll relish every painful moment of those lessons, but never ever admit it. He'll fall in love with the heroine because she overlooks his shortcomings and still desires
him
, warts and all. Your readers will also gain satisfaction from the lessons learned."

Allison stepped closer to the microphone and gazed into Carlo's eyes. "In closing, there are many kinds of alpha heroes."

Carlo held his breath.

"You're already familiar with the buttoned-up one sitting in the front row, Detective Uptight. There's also the Wounded Alpha, the Comfortable-in-his-skin Alpha, the Bad Boy Alpha, and the Playboy Alpha, to name a few. They all share these two traits: a strong sense of right and wrong, and blatant attitude.

"Have fun writing your alpha hero, but be sure you make him heroic, someone your heroine can admire and fall in love with. And above all else, make him sexy."

She glanced apologetically at Carlo and quickly away. "Thank you. Any questions?"

When the Room Hostess called a halt to the questioning, Allison acknowledged another enthusiastic round of applause before taking the seat beside Carlo to wait for the crowd to clear.

A bevy of authors with unanswered questions soon surrounded them, but Carlo had a few questions of his own and spirited her away.

Chapter Thirteen

––––––––

T
he noise from the hall outside drowned out the questions Allison tried to answer as Carlo hurried her to the door.

The crush of her admirers evidently made him uncomfortable. With a scowl he took her elbow and propelled her out, apologizing for their hasty departure by saying, "Sorry, Allison has to go."

How had he guessed?

Once her guards stepped out into the hall Carlo blocked Allison's way while he carefully perused the crowd in both directions and signaled Susan and Marsha to move into position behind them.

"Where to?" he asked.

"The ladies’ room," she whispered. "Now."

Her guardians escorted her with their usual haste.

While washing her hands, Susan locked eyes with Allison in the mirror and said, "I'd never heard the term alpha male."

Allison grinned. "Movie writers use the term too, to describe unbelievably confident, handsome actors like Tom Selleck and Tom Cruise."

"I just loved the way you pulled Carlo into your presentation," Marsha said, turning on the water and soaping her hands at another sink. "Did you see his face?"

"No, I was afraid I'd lose my train of thought and didn't dare glance in his direction. What did he do?"

"For a minute, I thought he was going to explode. I'm surprised he didn't walk out," Marsha said.

Susan nodded. "I could picture the wheels turning in his self-righteous head as he weighed the possibility, but like a true alpha hero, he stayed and held his ground."

Marsha grinned widely. "Good thing, too. He'd have been booed if he'd tried to escape in the middle of Allison's presentation."

"I intend to apologize. I shouldn't have put him on the spot that way, but he is the epitome of alpha males."

"Your audience loved having a prime example in their midst. Didn't you see the cameras come out?"

Allison chuckled. "No, I was on the lookout for steam rising from Carlo's ears. We better go or he'll be beating on the door to make sure nothing has happened to us."

"Alpha to the core," Marsha said, fluffing her hair. "The sad thing is, with you around Carlo hardly knows I'm alive."

Allison grinned. "You, too?"

"Doesn't every woman still in possession of a beating heart want him? It's disgusting the way some women throw themselves at him."

Me, too, but it hasn't done any good. I'll have to try another tack.

"Where to now?" Carlo asked as soon as she stepped out of the ladies’ room.

"I'm ready to kick back," Allison said. "Let's skip the luncheon and have a bite in my room."

Marsha and Susan erupted with laughter. Allison frowned at them.

"If you two kindergartners think you can control yourselves, once you escort us upstairs you can come back and attend the luncheon, courtesy of the LAPD."

Susan and Marsha grinned.

Carlo nodded. "We'll be leaving the room about half-past one to get ready for the book signing, so meet us in Allison's room about one-fifteen."

He stood with his back to the door waiting for the elevator to come while he surveyed the crowd.

"You feel them, too?" Allison whispered.

"Feel what?" Carlo asked, but from the way his hard gaze was flitting from one area to the next instead of glancing at her as he spoke, she knew he, too, had the uneasy feeling someone's eyes were on them.

When the elevator doors slid open Carlo led her to the rear of the empty enclosure. He exhaled a tenuous breath as the car quickly filled.

"Are we still good to go?" Marsha, always the more observant of her guardians asked as they strolled to Allison's room.

"Yes," Carlo said through clenched jaw. "I'll handle guard duty for a while and I've let the team know about our change of plans in a text."

The women slipped into Susan's room as Carlo let Allison into his.

She limped next door and kicked off her shoes.

"What would you like to eat?" he asked, grabbing the room service menu and following her.

"A cheeseburger, fries, and a large Coke."

"I'll make that two."

He placed their order, and turned to her as she removed the silver clips keeping her tight bun in place.

She breathed a relieved sigh as the long locks tumbled around her shoulders.

"Pleased with yourself after lambasting me for the last hour?"

She didn't try to conceal her amusement as she smiled up at him. "I did, didn't I?"

His good-natured grin warmed her heart. "I'm sure you were tempered by time restraints and left out some details, so I want to hear everything there is to know about alpha males."

"I would have thought you'd heard enough this morning to last a lifetime."

"You barely touched on what makes a man alpha, just his main characteristics."

She answered thoughtfully. "Being alpha usually starts in childhood, especially if the father is an alpha, too. A strict father will insist his son follows the right path through his teachings and adopts a personal code of ethics similar to his. Is that how it was with you?"

"Yes, I tried to emulate my father's innate goodness. I wanted to be exactly like him. Then my father died and this scrawny kid small for his age started to school."

"You were bullied?"

He scowled. "At recess the bigger boys like Link targeted me. After school he and his friends would lie in wait. I had to take a different route home every day. Some of them even followed me on my paper route."

"Did you tell your mother?"

"No, she'd had to go to work and had enough of her plate. I told my older brother. He took care of them."

"Good for him."

"Then he was killed," he said, his voice growing gruff. "I had to fend for myself. It took a while. Then I hit a growing spurt and developed muscles in my arms, thanks to the paper route. On the way home from school one day I beat the snot out of one of Link's followers. Word soon spread. All my tormentors stopped taunting me."

"And you became a loner."

"What good are friends in a fight? I'd just get them in trouble, too."

"Carlo, you should have reported those boys."

"And give them even more reason to come after me? I handled them just fine."

By handling them alone you learned to close yourself off from the world. Don't you ever get lonely?

Her heart ached for the frightened boy he'd been, and even more for the hard, lonely man he'd become. "You loved your brother."

"Enough to emulate him. He's the one who warned me to stay away from gangs. Insisted I should keep my nose clean and convinced me the neighborhood cops were our friends."

"You followed his advice despite the difficulties?"

"Difficult? Try damn hard. Until I entered the police academy I didn't think of cops as my friends. None of them had found my brother's killer. I doubt any of them searched for long, even though my brother was the son of a fallen policeman."

"Is that why you joined the force? To find your brother's shooter?"

He cocked his head in thought. "Among other things."

"But so far, you haven't had any luck."

"Right. Beats me. How many Hispanic men with a chipped front tooth and a knife tattooed on his right hand can there be in LA?"

"He may no longer be around."

"I have no doubt he's still here. His kind never leaves the hood. He had probably just joined a gang when he opened fire on my brother. By now, he's nearing the top of the pecking order or has formed his own gang. He may even be the one who gives the orders, unless he doesn't have the guts."

Shrugging, he added, "In that case, he's dead."

"Room service," a man's voice called, knocking on Allison's door.

Carlo peered through the peephole and let him in.

The yummy smell of ground beef grilled to perfection preceded the waiter into the room.

"This is so much better than listening to some overly-pompous keynote speaker talk about his or her success," Allison said, taking a seat at the table.

"You can say that again. Better food, too."

"Are you still complaining about yesterday's lunch menu?"

"I don't know about you, but I don't consider half a head of Boston lettuce with peanut butter dressing a proper meal," Carlo said.

Laughing, she touched her soda glass to his. "Here's to a better meal than yesterday's lunch."

"Anything would be better than that rabbit food. This has my mouth watering."

Allison laughed. "Wonder what's on the menu for tonight's banquet?"