She's Got the Look (32 page)

“Oh,” he said, apparently remembering he hadn't answered that question earlier. “She's an African-American woman named Williams.” He turned toward the stairs. “Tina…something like that, I think. Tina Williams.” Blowing her a quick kiss, he hurried to the stairs, going down them two at a time.

Melody remained still, unable to turn around and go back into her apartment.

Tina
Williams? Oh, God. Please, not
Tanya
Williams. Not her friend, the flight attendant who'd been so unhappy Wednesday night on the phone. Who'd been crying over a creep who'd used her and dumped her. Not her friend who was getting back into town late Thursday night…the friend who had sounded ready to fight back instead of crying anymore over some guy.

Not the one who'd sounded so disgusted whenever Drake Manning's name was mentioned. “Oh, Tanya, no,” she whispered.

Feeling panicky, Melody hurried back inside her apartment and dialed Tanya's number. There was no answer at home, and none on her cell. Nearly desperate, she found the phone book and came up with the name of one of Tanya's friends, who worked with her at the airline. The other woman told her she hadn't seen or heard from Tanya since Thursday…when they'd landed at around nine in the evening.

Every call hammered another spike of worry into Melody's skull. Until, finally, she realized there was no other choice but to find out the truth for herself. Sticking her feet into her sandals, she grabbed her purse and headed for the door.

She didn't want to worry her friends, but she decided to call them, anyway. Rosemary did have some great connections in this town. And if Tanya needed a lawyer…

“Don't think like that,” she reminded herself.

She dialed Rosemary's number as she locked her apartment door. By the time she was sitting behind the wheel of her car a few minutes later, she'd also spoken to Paige, who would have been livid if they'd left her out of this. The two women had been equally horrified, and equally determined to do something.

Of course, they'd all come to the same conclusion.

If Tanya was indeed at the police station, then that's exactly where her three best friends needed to go.

 

N
ICK RECOGNIZED
Melody's friend Tanya as soon as he arrived at the station and spied her through the two-way mirror, sitting in the interrogation room. Dex, too, obviously knew the woman's identity. He was waiting for Nick outside the room, pacing up and down the hall, looking like utter hell.

Dex's usually precisely neat clothes were rumpled. His hair was sticking up and his face looked as if he'd been sleeping on a bed of nails…or not at all. His partner didn't get this torn up over the job. Which left Nick with the distinct impression that things hadn't gone well with Rosemary.

“Is that who I think it is?” Nick asked, ignoring Dex's personal problems. They had a job to do…and if that was Melody and Rosemary's friend sitting in the other room looking both angry and terrified, he and Dex were going to be in a world of hurt.

“Yeah.” Dex ran a frustrated hand through his hair, which explained the sticking-out-all-over look. “I didn't know it was her until I showed up at her place to talk to her.”

“How'd you get her name?”

“One of Manning's friends. Manning apparently had a fling with her a couple of months ago and dropped her, the same way he seemed to drop every woman he was ever involved with.”

“Shit.” This had just gotten
very
sticky. “Does Rosemary know?”

The fatigue disappeared from Dex's face as his entire body stiffened. “I haven't spoken to Rosemary since yesterday.”

Unable to let his friend think he didn't give a damn about what was going on, Nick said, “You talked to her about…things?”

Dex nodded.

“And she didn't like what you had to say?”

Dex's harsh laugh sounded unfamiliar to Nick. “She told me in no uncertain terms that she wouldn't marry me, and to get out of her fancy house and out of her life.”

Whoa. Nick had suspected Rosemary could be a flaming bitch, but that sounded way over the top, even for her. From what he'd seen, the woman loved Dex. Even if she didn't want to marry him, he still couldn't see her being so cruel about it. “She actually
said
those things?”

“She turned down my proposal,” Dex said flatly. “I told her I wanted to marry her, and tried to give her my grandmother's ring, which I'd flown up to Pennsylvania to get.” Dex shook his head, sounding more dejected than angry all of a sudden. “She told me she wasn't giving up her house, her town, her life.”

That made Nick curious. “Why would she have to?”

Finally Dex stopped eating up the cracked linoleum floor with his long strides. Looking at Nick as if he were thick in the head, he said, “I can't support her like that.”

Nick didn't understand his friend's attitude. “Seems to me Rosemary makes a good living…so why would you have to support her at all? The two of you could live just fine on what you both make.” Then, not quite believing it himself, he speculated, “Unless, of course, you're some kind of male chauvinist who doesn't want to let your wife work outside the home.” He immediately shot down his own theory. “Of course, Rosemary works out of her house, so that's kind of a moot point anyway, isn't it?”

“I'm not a chauvinist,” Dex said, sounding shocked at the accusation. “If Rosemary was an accountant or a salesclerk, or a pilot or a doctor, I wouldn't care.”

Crossing his arms and leaning laconically against the wall, Nick said, “Yeah, sure, I can see why that's
so
different. Realtors being so much more rich and successful than doctors and pilots and all.”

Dex must have realized how stupid his words had sounded, because he shook his head. “It's not what she does for a living.”

“You just said it was,” Nick said softly, playing devil's advocate for some reason. Maybe because he hated to see his partner so ripped up. And maybe because he knew Melody would hate to have her best friend's heart broken. Which, he was beginning to suspect, was exactly what was going on.

Dex's pride had spoken. And Rosemary's pride had answered.

“It's not her job. It's her lifestyle. Her big house, her rich family, her parties. I'm not cut out for any of that.”

Pursing his lips, and nodding, Nick said, “Okay, I can see that. Of course, I don't suppose Rosemary's going to be having many parties with a baby running around. And I sure don't see that woman letting her rich family have any say in how you two raise your kid. She's a strong-minded one.” Straightening and stepping closer to his friend, he continued, “Strong-minded enough not to want to be dictated to by anyone. Not her family.” Lowering his voice, he added, “Not even you.”

Dex froze, only the tightening of his mouth showing the direct hit Nick's words had been.

“Did you ask her what she wanted?” Nick asked, suspecting the answer already. “Or did you tell her how it was going to be?”

Dex didn't answer, which was answer enough.

“Hell, man, did you at least romance her before you told her she had to give up her life to keep such a great prize as yourself?”

“Fuck.”

That was answer enough, too.

Dex looked completely stunned. “I blew it. I didn't even
ask
her to marry me, I told her I wanted her to. No getting down on one knee, no flowers.” His friend's green eyes grew suspiciously misty. “I wanted to say all that, to tell her how happy I am about the baby. But I walked in and saw that house and those antiques and just found myself throwing down the gauntlet.”

“Sounds to me like she picked it up and socked you in the jaw with it.” Dex was lucky the woman hadn't done it literally, as well. If Rosemary weren't pregnant, she might have.

“I should go talk to her.”

“I think you're forgetting something,” Nick said, nodding toward the interrogation room, where the best friend of
both
the women in their lives was still cooling her heels.

“Damn. Why this? Why her?”

“I don't know,” he replied. “But I think it's time to find out.”

Leaving Dex to figure out how to fix the relationship he'd screwed up, Nick entered the interrogation room.

“It's you,” Tanya Williams said, sounding stunned and angry. “You were at Rosemary's party.”

“Yeah. I'm Nick Walker. Dex's partner.”

The woman met his stare without flinching. “I didn't have anything to do with what happened to Drake. I swear to you.”

He pulled out a chair and sat across from her, remaining silent, assessing her posture, the sound of her voice, the steadiness of her hand and the gleam in her eyes. He didn't know this woman at all beyond knowing she was Melody's friend. One of the infamous “list” ladies. Yet somehow, when he looked at Tanya's brave-yet-terrified face, he realized he believed her.

“Okay,” he said. “I need you to tell me everything you know about Drake Manning. Starting with anyone else who might hate his guts as much as you obviously do.”

 

W
HEN
R
OSEMARY SAW
Dex at the police station, her first instinct was to kick him. Her second was to throw her arms around him and hold on like they were the last two people on earth.

Her third was to kick him again.

“Where is she?” she asked, storming right up to him as he stood in the hallway outside the precinct's coffee room. Rosemary had visited him here before, so she had a good idea of the layout. She turned toward the interrogation area. “In there?”

Dex took her arm. “She's fine. Nick's with her.”

“She needs a lawyer.”

“No, she doesn't.”

Rosemary smacked his hand away. “I watch
Law And Order.
You can't hold her without a lawyer.”

“We're not holding her at all,” he said quietly, trying not to touch her again. “We're talking to her. She gave Nick some information that could help. I got word from the crime lab five minutes ago that they matched a fingerprint they found on Drake Manning's cup to the same person Tanya mentioned. I think your friend's in the clear, Rosie.”

Rosie. Oh, drat the man, why did he have to call her Rosie now when she was so angry and had all her defenses in place? God, it had been hard driving over here today after she'd gotten Melody's frantic call. The last person she wanted to see was the man standing in front of her, looking so tired and so unhappy yet still so utterly desirable. Even now, when he ran a weary hand over his eyes, Rosemary's heart flipflopped in her chest.

“Nick went back in to tell her he'll take her home.” Dex laughed, though it sounded forced. “It looks like all this fuss over your friend's list was a big series of coincidences.”

That distracted her. “What do you mean?”

“The person we're focusing on didn't have anything to do with Melody's list. A fax came in yesterday from the detective in Atlanta who investigated the death of that golfer. He says the surveillance cameras outside the ladies' room show the man was alone when he had his…accident. No foul play.”

She breathed a sigh of relief. “So there's no way the cases are connected. Not even to the chef with the meatball?”

“An accidental choking, just like we always thought.”

Oh, this
was
good news. Melody was going to be real relieved to find out she wasn't some Typhoid Mary. Remembering one more thing, though, Rosemary frowned. “What about Jonathan Rhodes?”

Dex shook his head. “We're not sure yet. That investigation is still open. But the more we look into the man, the more I'm convinced he was offed by one of his own clients. Or some ruthless business type he was trying to crawl into bed with.”

“Wearing women's panties?” she replied, unable to resist.

Dex laughed, his tense face finally easing into those familiar laugh lines. Those much-loved laugh lines.

Rosemary stiffened her spine and forced herself to think of the unlovable cretin who'd showed up at her door yesterday morning. “I'd better call Melody. She was going by to pick up Paige and bring her down here.”

He groaned. “Oh, please call off the cavalry. I don't know if the precinct can handle all four of you.”

Glaring, she said, “You can't handle
one
of us.” Then her hand dropped to her stomach. “Make that two.”

She'd expected Dex to react angrily, to turn back into that stiff-lipped man who'd handed her his ultimatum yesterday.

Instead, he did something much more shocking. Without sparing a single look around the station—which, though not as full as it would be on a weekday, was still populated by people—her big, strong cop dropped to his knees.

“Dex, what are you…”

“I love you,” he said, his voice unwavering. Putting his hands on her hips, he pulled her close, until his face was near her stomach. “I love your mommy. And I can't wait to meet
you.
”

The world spun a little off-kilter, a crazy sense of dizziness sweeping through Rosemary's body. Down the hallway, she spotted a few familiar faces but didn't even think of taking her attention off the man kneeling in front of her, saying such amazing, tender, wonderful things.

“I want us to be a family, to be together,” he said. “But I realized I never even asked what you want. So I'm asking now, Rosie. Do you want me?” He reached into his pocket and dug out the ring he'd offered her yesterday. “Will you have me?”

She sucked her bottom lip in her mouth. “Do you really want
me,
Dex? The real me, warts, temper, bossiness, money and all?”

He slowly rose to his feet, stepping close to her so his face was only an inch from hers. His dear, tired face, now looking so hopeful, so full of love. “I want you any way I can get you, Rosemary Chilton. Please say you'll be my wife.”