Next to Die (14 page)

“Come on, I’ll help you up.” He put his arms around her and lifted her to her feet. “Let’s go inside,” he said, gesturing to the mall doors. “Maybe something’s still open.”

They hobbled through the entrance to find that the only establishment in operation was a dimly lit Irish pub.

Jerking free of Vinny’s touch, Lia limped into what was clearly a locals’ hangout. The handful of patrons glanced their way as they headed to a booth.

“I’ll be right back,” said Vinny.

He was gone for ten seconds, enough time for her to verify that her pantyhose were shredded and one knee was worse off than the other. When Vinny returned, he pushed into the space beside her and reached for her legs.

“Don’t touch me.” But then she saw the damp paper towels in his hands and grudgingly submitted to his aid.

“Sit sideways,” he said, swinging her legs over his thighs.

It wasn’t like she had much choice. “How’s that feel?” he asked, pressing the makeshift compresses to her knees.

“Better,” she admitted, unsettled by his touch. He had strong, tanned fingers and thighs made of granite.

A waitress stepped up to their table. “What can I get you?”

“Think you could come up with a bag of ice?” he asked.

“I’ll check,” she said, moving away.

Vinny stroked the bare skin behind Lia’s right knee. “You have beautiful legs,” he said with reverence.

“Look,” she said, steeling herself against his flattery, not to mention his caress, “I don’t know how to get this through your thick skull. I’m not interested in getting to know you. I don’t go out with guys my own age, let alone guys that are younger than me.”

His chocolaty eyes skewered her, and her words seemed to roll like water off a duck’s back. “You still owe me a debt,” he reminded her. “Who paid for my dinner? I did.”

“That’s because you got me fired, you idiot!”

“Come on,” he chided softly. “You deserve a better job than that, and you know it.”

The compliment confused her. She closed her mouth with a snap and considered her options. “Fine. I’ll buy you a beer, how’s that? Or are you even old enough to drink?”

“I’m old enough to die for my country,” he pointed out.

Alrighty, then.

The waitress reappeared with a glass full of ice. “I couldn’t find a baggie,” she explained, putting it in front of him.

He drew the glass closer. “The lady’s going to buy me a Heineken,” he said, lifting out an ice cube.

“And what’ll you have?” the waitress asked Lia.

“I’ll take a rum and Diet Coke. Captain Morgan, please,” she specified.

The waitress left, and Lia gasped as Vinny put an ice cube on her knee. He circled the abrasion, careful not to touch it directly. A shiver of pleasure moved up her thigh. The ice melted fast, dampening the frayed edges of her pantyhose.

“I’m training to be a medic,” he volunteered, sending her a quick glance.

His eyelashes were ridiculously thick and curly. “Are you really?”

“Yeah. I like it. I think I’ll go to med school eventually.”

She reassessed him. Obviously a brain went with all that brawn. It was a shame that he was so young. Maybe if he were ten years older . . .

“How long have you been a SEAL?” she asked. Not that she wanted to know him any better.

“Three years.”

No way. “What? Were you like twelve when you joined?”

“Hah, hah. No, I was seventeen. And you don’t join the SEALs. You’re selected through one of the world’s most rigorous training programs. Only fourteen out of sixty-six candidates graduated.”

Wow. Okay, that said something for him. Questions crowded her brain, but she stifled them, not wanting to give him false encouragement.

“I’m half Irish, half Italian. Know what that means?” he added, clearly needing none.

“No.”

“It means I’m stubborn and passionate. When I see something I want, I go after it.”

“Really,” she drawled, stifling an involuntary shiver.

“When I was seven, I saw a documentary on the Discovery Channel about the Navy SEALs. It looked like something I wanted to do.”

“And now you want to go to med school,” she added.

“Well, sure. I also like challenges. Which is probably why I like you.”

She tingled at the confession. “You’re wasting your time.”

“We’ll see. Of course, if I want to go to med school, I’ll have to finish college first,” he continued, despite the interruption. “Every semester I take two classes.”

“You sound busy,” she said.

“I bet you went to college,” he wagered.

“Yes, I did.” And she’d partied like a frenzied animal.

He fixed his penetrating gaze on her. “What’d you study?”

“Journalism.”
When I went to class.

“And you graduated?”

“Yeah.” Thanks to Penny, who’d typed up many a paper for her and drove her to rehab till she got her act together.

“So what’re you doin’ waitressing? You should be on TV or radio or somethin’.”

“I could if I wanted to,” she said with false confidence. “I like the idea of snooping around, finding stories.”

“You should do it,” he said. “What’s stopping you?”

“I don’t know,” she admitted, chugging down her drink. The Captain Morgan went straight through her empty stomach into her bloodstream.

“I think you’d look hot on TV,” he persisted, his deep voice like a caress.

It had to be the liquor making her face warm. “No one’s going to hire me,” she admitted. “My grades were bad. I wouldn’t have graduated if my sister hadn’t helped me. ’Course, she lost a fiancé in the process, and that was my fault . . .” She shut her mouth abruptly, unwilling to say too much.

“You know what I think?” he said after a reflective sip of his beer. “You lack self-confidence, that’s what it is.”

She bristled at the accusation. “Excuse me? I do not.”

“Prove it,” he challenged.

“I don’t have to prove a damn thing to you.”

“Not to me.” He gestured with his chin. “Prove it to yourself.”

Lia felt a scowl coming. Wasn’t this totally annoying? A barely twenty-year-old boy was telling her what to do with her life. “Do you want another beer?” she asked him, her temper flaring anew. “How many is it going to take for you to leave me alone?”

His eyes narrowed briefly, but then he gave his patented crooked smile. “The repairs on my car came to two hundred and twenty dollars,” he let her know.

Lia swallowed hard.

“At three dollars a beer, that’s . . . just over seventy-three beers,” he added, proving himself adept at mental math.

Her gaze flickered over him. There was more to this boy than met the eye. “You’re pretty smart, huh?” she commented, testing him.

He gave a shrug that said, Yeah, so what?

“So why didn’t you go to college instead of SEAL training?”

His expression turned suddenly remote.

“Forget it,” she added. “I don’t even want to know.”

“My mother got sick. She couldn’t work anymore.”

“Oh.” In two short sentences, he managed to cast himself in a totally different light.

“I had a scholarship to wrestle at Penn State, but . . .” His sentence trailed off. “It worked out better this way.”

She couldn’t keep from asking. “Did your mother get better?”

“Yes, she did.”

“Well that’s good.” Lia thought of her father and her heart gave a familiar, painful squeeze.

The conversation lagged.

“Did I say something?” Vinny asked a moment later.

“What do you mean?”

“You just dropped off a cliff there,” he pointed out.

She was feeling the effects of the drink she’d sucked down. She suddenly felt weepy and tired and defeated, especially when she thought of her beautiful apartment, the one she couldn’t afford to return to. “I’m just tired,” she said. “I want to go home.”

“No problem,” he said. “Stay right here. I’ll go get my car.”

She didn’t understand. “Why?”

“So you don’t have to walk.” He was already on his feet, jingling the keys in his pocket. “Be right back.”

In a blink of an eye he was gone. Lia sat for a stunned moment feeling lonely. The loneliness grew when she reflected that he’d gone off with her car keys. What if he decided just to dump her here? She hadn’t been very nice to him.

A couple of minutes crept by. She paid the waitress and reapplied her lipstick, covering up the fact that she was nervous. But then Vinny was back, reaching for her hand.

“I’m parked illegally,” he volunteered, helping her to her feet.

“I’m not a cripple,” she said, but his hand was so warm and steady that she didn’t tug free. Besides, she felt wobbly on her feet; she’d managed to get tipsy off just one drink. She didn’t want to walk into a wall.

His car was parked with two tires on the curb. He held the door for her as she eased into the passenger seat. Cozy and warm, the interior smelled like Windex. It was immaculate, a far cry from the inside of her own car.

He got in, eyes glimmering in the dark. “Seat belt,” he reminded her.

She snapped the harness into place, and he maneuvered the stick shift. The engine gave a roar as they pulled away.

They drove right past Hooters. “Hey, my car!” Lia cried, jolted out of her haze.

“I can’t let you drive,” he pointed out calmly.

“I’m not drunk!”

He said nothing to that.

The memory of his muscle-hewn thighs made her realize how vulnerable she was right now. “Where are you taking me?” she asked in a small voice.

“Home,” he replied, casting her a puzzled glance.

She was glad to hear it, though at the same time a little disappointed. What, no abduction in the middle of the night, being taken to his apartment, tied to his bed with silk handkerchiefs, ravished repeatedly? “How’m I gonna get my car?”

“Friend of mine will help me bring it back.”

She stole a peek at him. Wow, for such a young guy, he sure was gallant. She’d never gone out with a guy who treated her like a piece of glass.

But then again, he’d gotten her fired. He was the reason she wouldn’t be paying her rent anytime soon.

Scant minutes later, he pulled up in front of Penny’s house. “Cool pumpkins,” he said, admiring the neighbor’s jack-o’-lanterns.

“Yeah,” Lia agreed. What now? Letting him kiss her would be a big mistake. On the other hand, she was curious. Just what was this young SEAL’s kiss like, anyway?

Vinny rounded the car to escort her to the door. “If you want to see me again, you need to find me first,” he said as they crossed the front lawn.

“What are you talking about?” she demanded as she concentrated on walking.

“Let’s see how good of an investigative reporter you could be,” he challenged lightly. “Which one of these keys gets you in?”

“Give me that.” She snatched the key ring from his hand and unlocked the door. “My sister’s probably sleeping,” she added, hinting heavily that he couldn’t come in.

“So be quiet, then,” he told her.

“I am being quiet. God, you’re annoying.”

“Yeah, but you like me. I need those keys back,” he reminded her. “I’ll leave them under the floor mat on the driver’s side.”

“Okay.” She handed them over. “You didn’t have to bring me home, you know. I could have driven.”

“Maybe, but then I wouldn’t have gotten to do this.”

In the next instant, he had her in a lip-lock.

She started to push him away, but his lips were so warm and skillful, her hand stopped pushing and went around his neck instead. She felt herself melting like a snow cone in the sun. God, the boy could kiss!

He kissed her like she’d never been kissed before.

Then it was over. Too soon.

With a cocky grin, he detached himself. “Find me,” he said again, striding jauntily toward his Civic. Then the car roared and pulled away.

Ophelia watched until his taillights disappeared from view. She’d gotten fired tonight and let a twenty-year-old kiss her.

Could her life get any more screwed up?

Chapter Nine

Halloween night was different this year than last. Perhaps it was the fog rising off the pavement in the wake of a sultry afternoon. It crept over the curb and onto the grass, creating an otherworldly mist that was perfect for this spooky annual ritual, but it made Penny feel uneasy.

As was her custom, she’d donned her witch’s costume, complete with a fake nose and a pointed hat, and mixed the batter for pumpkin bread. Still, she could not simulate the lighthearted anticipation she normally felt.

Ophelia had confessed this morning that she’d lost her waitressing job. Maybe that was getting Penny down. Her little sister was never going to move out. Tonight Lia’d taken herself, dressed as a belly dancer, to a party hosted by a former college roommate. To her credit, she did seem troubled by her financial woes.