“She can’t use that against us. Given everything she’s done.”
“Maybe not,” Anthony said, “but I was careless. If she couldn’t prove infidelity before, she sure as hell can now.”
“You two are separated.”
“Do you think anyone’s gonna care about that fact? They already think I’m some kind of jerk capable of offing my wife.” Anthony shook his head. “What the hell’s wrong with me? I should have waited before having sex with a friend.”
It took Lecia a good couple seconds to realize that Anthony was talking about her.
She
was the friend. The
friend
he should have waited to have sex with.
Disappointment shot through her body like an injection of poison. She had given this man her body, and he was referring to her as a friend?
I’m a lover, you jerk!
she wanted to scream, but knew it would be pointless. Once again it was clear that
she
had read more into their situation than was there. To Anthony, she had been a convenient warm body, a distraction from the reality of
his life. Forget that she stood by him while his own wife had abandoned him. She had simply been a way for him to relieve tension. While to her…
A lump formed in Lecia’s throat. Lord help her, but she suddenly felt absurdly emotional. Then again, maybe it wasn’t absurd to feel this way. After all, how many men helped you get your mojo back?
He had done that and more. So much more.
Call her crazy, but she was falling for him. He’d thrown her life into a tailspin, yet she was loving every moment of it. The reality of having to go back home, back to life as she’d known it, made her want to scream. She wanted a different life—one that included Anthony.
But what did he want?
She should ask him, she thought. Or at the very least, tell him how she felt. As a therapist, she believed in honesty and forthrightness. Yet the thought of telling Anthony what was in her heart scared her to death.
What if he rejected her?
Drawing in a deep breath, she stared at his profile. Would this man with whom she had spent an incredible few days head back to L.A. and forget all about her?
Tell him,
a voice urged.
She opened her mouth. Tried to say the words. But she couldn’t. God help her, she couldn’t.
With a soft sigh, she laid her head back and closed her eyes. And when Anthony quietly called out her name, she didn’t answer, pretending to be asleep.
When Pavel saw the headlights piercing the darkness, he knew it was Ginger. He quickly ate the last of his Mars bar and downed the glob of chocolate with water. The anticipation of this meeting was what had him breaking his diet, but once he did what he had to do, he knew his stress level would return to normal.
Ginger had called him in the middle of the night, urgently begging him to meet with her. It was why he was here now, on this deserted parking lot near the pier. Perhaps because she was in hiding she wanted to give him his money in darkness and then disappear. He didn’t care. As long as the bitch gave him his money.
And if she didn’t…
The Mercedes pulled up alongside his rented Corvette, and Pavel lowered his hand from the glove compartment. He had been about to take out his gun, but would leave it for now. If she did have his money, he didn’t want to scare her.
Pavel got out of his car a moment before Ginger and Bo got out of theirs. He smiled widely at both of them, playing nice.
“Ginger, Ginger.” He reached for her and kissed each of her cheeks. “Like usual, you are beautiful.”
“Why thank you, Pavel.” She sounded happy. “C’mon, Bo. Say hi to Pavel.”
Like a dog obeying his master, Bo made his way around the car from the driver’s side. “Yo,” Bo said.
What a pathetic man, Pavel thought. He would not deal with him, only with Ginger.
“So,” Pavel began pleasantly. “You have suitcase with my cash?”
Ginger’s smile was clearly forced. “Um…”
“Um…?” Pavel echoed.
“Well, um, yes,” Ginger went on. “Of course I do. I brought a check.”
“A check?”
“But don’t worry,” she quickly said. “I spoke to my husband not more than an hour ago, and he said he’s having the money wired into my account in the morning. You see, he needs me to prove to everyone that I’m not dead, and I won’t cooperate unless he wires—”
Pavel held up a hand, silencing her. “A check? Do you take me for fool? And tomorrow is Sunday. No bank open Sunday.”
“Then he’ll wire the money on Monday. Look, Pavel, don’t make this difficult. Please, just take the check. I promise—”
“No more games,” Pavel told her. He whirled around then, reaching for his car door. But he collapsed against it when he felt something slam into his back. Once, then twice.
“C’mon, Bo. He’s down,” Ginger said urgently. “Do it. Shoot him!”
They
were going to kill
him
. It was supposed to be the other way around.
“I…I can’t,” Bo said. “You already stabbed him. Let him bleed to death.”
Pavel managed to turn around. The moonlight illuminated a small knife in Ginger’s hand. Bo held a gun.
“
Shoot him!
” Ginger cried.
Bo pointed the gun toward him, but his hands shook. Pavel knew the man didn’t have the guts to pull the trigger.
This was his only chance to escape. He pushed the pain from his mind and opened his car door. He was reaching for his glove compartment when he felt another stab, this time in his butt. The knife tore into him, slicing down his leg.
“Please, no!” he cried. He could not die like this. “Forget money!”
“Oh for God’s sake,” Ginger said, ignoring him. “Give me the damn gun.”
And Pavel knew it was too late.
The next second, everything went black.
Lecia mulled over her cowardice the rest of the night as she and Anthony drove, and realized that no one ever got anywhere being afraid. So when Anthony pulled up in front of her house early that morning, she told herself to be bold.
“Why don’t you come in?” she suggested.
Anthony looked at her. His eyes were red from lack of sleep. “Come in?”
“Yeah. Why bother driving to Beverly Hills? I know it’s not far, but you’ve been driving all night. And you know what they say. Most people fall asleep at the wheel when they’re just minutes from home. Besides, there’s still that restraining order, right? The last thing you want to do is get arrested for going into your own house. You may as well get some sleep here, then figure out what to do next when you wake up.”
Lecia took a much-needed breath after her spiel, then held it, waiting for Anthony to answer. Finally, he nodded. “Yeah, sure. That makes sense.”
Her lips twitched with the urge to smile. Biting her inner cheek to suppress it, she opened her car door and got out. Anthony followed suit. She was about to search his Navigator for her belongings, but decided she was far too tired and would no doubt miss something. It was a much better idea to do it when her brain wasn’t in a fog.
“I’ll get my stuff later,” she told Anthony. “If that’s not a problem.”
“No problem at all.”
Was it her imagination, or did he seem…distant? No, maybe not distant, but at least preoccupied. But he had good reason. Besides being exhausted, he had a ton of crap on his plate. She certainly didn’t need to take his silence personally.
He followed her as she made her way up the walkway. “My bungalow’s pretty spacious,” she said as she walked. “But nothing compared to your place.”
“Doc, please. As if I care about that.”
“Well…”
Well what?
She was rambling, and would be far better off if she stuffed a sock in her mouth.
The bowl of cat food outside her door was nearly empty. Clearly, Moaner had been by during the night. She would have to refill the bowl before she went to bed.
She opened her door, stepped into the foyer, then turned to Anthony. “Now, I do have two bedrooms, but I was sort of thinking—well, hoping—that you’d sleep with me.”
“Sleep, or something else?”
Arching up on her toes, she slipped her arms around his neck. “Perhaps something else.”
“I thought you were tired.”
“I am.” She yawned, as if on cue. “But we’re back home now, and you’ve got stuff to deal with. And…and who knows when we’ll see each other again.”
Lecia hoped he would say, “You know we’ll see each other again real soon.”
Instead he said, “That’s a good point.”
Her heart sank.
Don’t think about it
, Lecia promptly told herself.
Concentrate on now. Give him a reason to come back.
With that thought, she kissed him lightly on the mouth, but in that kiss there was hope and promise.
A slow moan rumbled in Anthony’s chest. It told Lecia that he wanted her. But she sensed his resistance.
She forged ahead. “I’m wet.” She took his hand and placed it beneath her skirt.
As he fondled her, the rumbling in his chest grew louder. “Aw, Doc.”
Lecia stepped backward. She took his hand and led him to her bedroom.
A couple hours later Anthony was too wired to sleep. His head pounded and his shoulders were tense. He felt like he was carrying a huge burden, one he needed to unload.
He sure as hell couldn’t do that here.
Here, things were complicated. Complicated because of Lecia.
Rolling from his side onto his back, Anthony moved away from Lecia’s sleeping body. He told himself he should have dropped her off and headed straight home. Things were different between them now. They had to be. Their road trip had been like an escape from reality, one where they’d easily got
ten caught up in the intimacy of being alone together. But now they were back home. The fantasy was over, and he was wondering what the future held for them.
If they even had a future.
It wasn’t that he didn’t like her. Just the opposite. He liked her a lot. But he had liked Ginger when he’d met her, which only proved that he was a lousy judge of character.
Not that the good doctor was some kind of deranged idiot. But he had a helluva lot to deal with before he even contemplated the idea of seeing someone else. He had figured that fact was obvious, but maybe it wasn’t. If the way Lecia had clung to him when they’d made love was any indication, she was expecting much more. More than he could give her.
Anthony glanced at her. Her mouth slightly parted, she was in a deep, comfortable sleep. He felt an ache in his gut at the thought of moving on without her, but knew he didn’t have much choice.
Carefully, he eased himself off the bed so as not to wake her. He dug his phone out of the back pocket of his jeans, then made his way out of the bedroom. He wandered to the spacious living room and took a seat on the leather sectional. The place was cozy and warm, which was more than he could say for his home.
His call display showed that he had missed three calls. He dialed his number and checked his messages.
There was one from his lawyer. Keith said he had important information about Ginger and asked Anthony to get back to him regardless of the time, which Anthony was determined to do as soon as he heard the other messages. At least, that’s what he planned until he heard Ginger’s voice, contrite and sincere, saying, “Tony, it’s me. I’m sorry about how I behaved earlier, about what I said. I know you spoke to Sha-Shana. I
know you’ve been to Kansas. What you don’t know is why everything that’s happened has happened. Look, I really need to talk to you. There’s so much I need to explain, so much I need to make you understand. Call me. I’m at the house.”
At last, she sounded ready to talk. Anthony immediately dialed his home number. Ginger answered right away.
“Tony?” she said expectantly.
“Yeah, it’s me.”
“Oh, thank God.”
He paused briefly. “You’re finally ready to talk.”
“I am.” Ginger sighed wearily. “Sha-Shana told me she talked to you.”
“That she did.”
“Everything’s gotten way out of control,” she said softly. “Will you please come home so we can talk face-to-face?”
“Why—so you can set me up for God only knows what?”
“No! Tony, I swear, I had nothing to do with all the crap that’s been going on. I’ve been afraid of…of someone. If you come here, I’ll tell you everything. Then you’ll understand.”
She sounded believable. But then, she had sounded believable when she told him about a paraplegic mother. Still, she was the only one who could give him the answers he needed, and clear his name in the process.
“I’ll be there in half an hour.”
Anthony ended the call and flew to his feet, only to stop mid-pivot when he saw Lecia standing outside her bedroom door.
“Who was that?” she asked while knotting the tie on her terry-cloth robe.
“Huh?”
“On the phone. Who were you talking to?”
“Right. That was, um…” Anthony paused. Swallowed. “Ginger.”
“She called?”
He nodded. “She left me a message and I called her back.”
“And…?”
Lecia eyed Anthony anxiously as he made his way toward her. “She’s at the house,” he told her. “She wants to see me.”
He stepped past her into the bedroom and snatched up his jeans from the hardwood floor.
“And you’re going?”
“Uh-huh.”
“Right now?”
“I have to see her sooner or later.”
Anthony didn’t face her, and disappointment the size of a football filled Lecia’s chest. “Just hours ago you said she was still trying to extort money from you.”
“She says she has an explanation for all of that.”
“And you believe her?” Lecia asked incredulously.
“There’s only one way I can find out.”
Lecia watched Anthony slip into his pants. “I should go with you.”
“Absolutely not.”
“This could be a trick.”
“I said no.”
His words were like a slap in the face. He had dragged her halfway across the country so she could speak to his estranged wife, guide their communication in a positive direction. Yet now that he knew exactly where Ginger was, he suddenly didn’t want her around.
Lecia didn’t trust the woman, but she knew it would be pointless to banter back and forth about why she should accompany him.
Instead she asked, “When will you come back?”
Anthony’s chest rose and fell with a deep breath. “Ginger and I have a lot to discuss.”
Lecia stared at him in disbelief, but he wouldn’t look at her. He was walking toward the window as he slipped into his T-shirt.
“You say that like…like you’d consider reconciling with her.”
“She’s my wife.”
“As if that ever mattered to her.”
“Look, I at least owe it to her to hear her out.”
“My God, why?” Lecia all but shrieked. “Because your father wouldn’t have done that? Are you going to base everything you do on his actions?”
Anthony’s silence was all the answer she needed. She turned away from him in disgust.
“I just…I need to talk to her.” He stood with his hands at his sides, looking at her with a blank expression.
“You need to talk to someone, all right. A bloody shrink.”
“Fine. You’re pissed off—”
“You’re damn right I’m pissed off. You say one thing, do another. You know better, but you’re about to head down the wrong path again all because you think you have to live up to some ridiculous moral ideal.”
Anthony’s jaw flinched. Her words had wounded him. “You have no clue what you’re talking about,” he said.
“Then tell me I’m wrong.”
He threw his hands in the air. “What do you want me to do? Just forget about everything else and play house with you?”
“It was good enough when we were on the road.”
“Yeah, well, we’re back now. Back to reality.”
“And what reality is that?”
Anthony started for the bedroom door. “God, I hate this. I’m not gonna stay here and argue with you. I have to do what I have to do. I’ll call you later.”
“Go on. Run to your precious Ginger.”
Anthony halted. Turned. “That’s not what this is about.”
Lecia dropped herself onto her bed, fighting back angry tears. A couple hours ago they’d been making love. Now, one call from the woman who’d abandoned him and he was rushing to be by her side.
“I woke up,” she said softly. “You weren’t in bed beside me. It was just like those days with Allen. And now you’re leaving me to go see your estranged wife.”
“You know I need to resolve this.”
“I know you do,” Lecia said, trying a different tactic. She wasn’t sure why, but it mattered that Anthony stay here with her, at least for a little while longer. “I have a ton of things to do as well. I have to go on my website, explain to patients why I was a no-show for their online counseling sessions. Then I have to deal with rescheduling my Friday patients at the clinic, not to mention talk to Dr. Merkowitz and smooth things over. But we’ve barely returned home. Surely we can both put off all the crap we need to take care of until after I’ve made us breakfast? We haven’t had a decent meal in three days.”