Winter Roses Part 16

"Yes?" Her own eyes began to glitter. "And you could have called me, instead of riding around town with your pretty debutante visitor!"

The hard look on his face melted. He began to smile. "Were you jealous?" he taunted softly.

"Were you?" she shot right back.

He laughed. It was a wicked sort of laugh.

It made her cheeks color. She lowered her eyes to his chest. "I thought you'd had second...I mean, I thought..."

He put his forefinger gently across her lips. "So did I," he whispered.

She met his eyes and couldn't look away. He bent and drew his lips tenderly across her soft mouth. She started to reach up, but he caught her arms and held them down.

"No," he whispered. "Not in a cemetery."

She cleared her throat. "You started it."

"And you have no willpower," he teased. "I love it."

She laughed shyly.

"Why did you go out to Minette Raynor's house with Hayes?"

"How did you...?"

"Two thousand pairs of curious eyes live in this town," he said with affection. "The druggist and the clerk at the bank mentioned it, even before Cash Grier told me the whole story. Which you could have done," he added shortly.

She started to argue, but she realized that he was right. She moved restlessly and didn't look at him. "My pride was hurt, when I heard about you riding around with that woman."

"She was visiting her uncle. I'm doing a business deal with him. She needed a ride to town, and I obliged." He tilted her chin up. "Which I could have let Chayce do. But I'd seen you with Hayes and I figured somebody would see me with her. In fact," he added wickedly, "I drove right by Hayes Carson's office with her. He saw us."

"Rachel gave us enough information to hang the local drug lords out to dry," she said. "Maybe, in one way, she redeemed herself. How about the jewelry?" she added.

"I flew up there yesterday and had the millionaire's attorney meet me at the bank," he told her. "He was astonished that you'd want to give him back what amounted to a king's ransom. He wants to give you a reward."

"I wouldn't take one," she said.

He smiled. "I told him that. Know what he said?"

"What?"

"That you were one in a million, and I was a very lucky man."

"You weren't thinking that, I bet."

"Not at the time, no." He frowned. "You haven't said why you went to Minette's with Hayes. He hates her. Everybody knows he thinks she gave his brother the drugs that killed him."

"He said that Marsh would watch out for me, and that the place was situated so that you could see someone coming two miles away. There's no way to sneak up on it."

"He's right, there--Marsh was a federal agent. But so was Chayce, who works for me. You'll be safer at my house."

"Are you sure about that?"

He grimaced and took a long breath. "I asked Merrie if she could take a few days off and come home to chaperone me with a woman. She laughed her head off when I had to admit that it was you."

"She would."

He brought her hand to his mouth and kissed the palm. "I'll follow you to your boardinghouse. You can leave your car there and come with me in mine."

She hesitated. "I've only just come home from Minette's place, and I've been worried about my boardinghouse friends. Rachel's boyfriend is on his way out of the world," she added, pausing to explain what had happened. "But it's still possible that one of the cartel people could come looking for me. If they see my car there, it might put Mrs. Brown and Lita in danger," she cautioned.

"Suppose we leave it at Hayes's office?"

"Would he mind?"

"h.e.l.l, no. Hayes only lives for the adrenaline rushes his job gives him. That's why he's never married. No woman in her right mind would marry him."

"He and Minette are like flint and steel together," she commented.

"Yes, I know," he replied. "One day, there's going to be a fearful explosion between them, and anything could happen. That's why I've discouraged Merrie."

"Merrie isn't stupid, you know," she said gently.

"Well, not in most ways. Come on. Let's go."

Life was sweet again. Ivy forgot the cartel, Rachel's burial, everything as she and Stuart dropped her car off at the sheriff's office.

"I wondered why she wasn't staying with you," Hayes commented to Stuart. "She and Merrie have been friends forever."

"We had a misunderstanding," Stuart replied. He caught Ivy's hand in his, to make the point, just in case Hayes had missed it. "But we've cleared things up. Merrie's coming home for a few days, too. Chayce and I, and the boys, will make sure Ivy's safe."

Hayes grinned wickedly. "What about the pretty debutante?"

Stuart raised an eyebrow. "Her fiance is waiting for her back in Houston."

"Oh," Hayes remarked, with a speculative look at Ivy, who flushed.

"Thanks for letting me keep my car here," Ivy said. "I was worried about leaving it at my boardinghouse."

"No problem," Hayes said. "It might work to our advantage if they think you're staying here in my office." He grinned. "In fact, I hope they do think it. I'll call Cash and tell him, too."

"Let me know if you catch anyone," Ivy asked.

"Of course."

"Will he really call me, do you think, if he catches somebody?" Ivy asked as they drove to Stuart's house.

"I imagine so. You're involved, whether you want to be or not." He took her hand in his and held it tightly. "I found out something else in New York that I didn't share with Hayes."

"What?" she asked, certain that it was something unpleasant.

"The millionaire was concerned enough to hire a private detective. He shadowed Rachel before she took the overdose. She led him to one of the bigger names in drug distribution in the country. The detective said that she was blackmailing the man with information she'd gleaned from her boyfriend. She'd hidden the evidence, and n.o.body could find out where."

"Did they kill her?" she asked worriedly.

"It wouldn't have been wise to do that, considering that they didn't know exactly what she had on them, or where it was kept."

"She'd used drugs for years," she argued. "She wouldn't have taken an overdose deliberately."

"There were no signs of force on her body," he replied. "I checked with the medical examiner."

"Then, how...?"

"They did a toxicology screen, though," he added. "The stuff she injected was a hundred percent pure. She used too much."

"Did she have help using too much?" she asked warily.

"Her boyfriend was right in the middle of her schemes," he said. "It's possible that he deliberately gave her the pure drug, instead of the drug that had been cut, to save himself. He might not have known about the evidence she had. He might have thought she was bluffing. She would have used her regular dose, which was fatal because of the subst.i.tution. It would still look like suicide."

"Tough luck for him, if it's true," she said curtly. "Because when the drug pipeline gets shut down by the DEA, they're going to want to punish someone, and he's the only one left alive that they can get to. If he lives, he may wish he'd died."

"Yes." He glanced at her. "Poetic justice, you might say."

She had to agree that it was. "Poor Rachel," she said, shaking her head. "She was always greedy."

"Always." He squeezed her hand. "She was at that party with Hayes's brother Bobby, you know," he added. "She knew the dealers and where to get the drugs, and she had a case on Bobby at the time because he was rich. She might have thought she was doing him a favor, so when it went bad, she put it around that Minette did the dirty work."

"That would be like her," she agreed. "But Hayes still thinks Minette did it."

"G.o.d knows why," he said. "Minette sings in the choir at church, teaches a Sunday school cla.s.s and she's never had so much as a speeding ticket. She never even knew any kids who were on the wrong side of the law."

"Hayes is blind when it comes to her," she said.

He smiled. "Men tend to be that way when they're afraid of being caught," he told her. "Freedom becomes a religion when you're over thirty."

"I guess most men don't want to settle down."

"Oh, we do, eventually. Especially when we realize that some other man might be poaching on our territory." He glanced at her. "I was ready to punch Hayes."

She felt her cheeks go hot. She smiled. "Were you?"

"Are you sure there's nothing between you?" he persisted.

"I'm very sure," she replied, linking her fingers closer into his.

He smiled.

Merrie was already at the house when they got there, to Ivy's faint disappointment. She'd hoped to have some time alone with Stuart.

He got out and opened her door, helping her out. He led her up the steps, leaving the car in the driveway.

"I didn't believe him when he told me," Merrie teased, hugging her friend.

"I still can't," Ivy confessed, with a shy glance at Stuart.

"Come on in," Merrie said. "Mrs. Rhodes has already made some tea cakes and coffee for us."

"I'd love something hot to drink," Ivy replied. "It was cold at the cemetery."

"I would have been there, too, if I'd known," Merrie said gently. "I just got here about twenty minutes ago. I'm sorry about Rachel."

"Me, too," Ivy replied. "I wish she'd made better choices in her life."

"I hope that information she furnished helps close doors around here for the drug trade," Stuart said as he sat beside Ivy on the sofa. "It's more dangerous than ever when you have two factions fighting for supremacy."

"Rachel actually turned informant?" Merrie exclaimed.

"She did," Ivy replied, and told her the whole story, interrupted briefly by Mrs. Rhodes bearing a silver tray with coffee and tea cakes, milk and sugar and china.

"But why did Hayes take you to Minette's house?" Merrie asked curiously. "He hates her."

"I wouldn't take any bets on that," Stuart replied, munching on a tea cake.

"They're very explosive together," Ivy said warily.

Merrie sighed. "I had a feeling about that," she confessed. She grinned. "I had a real crush on Hayes when I was about sixteen, but I'm not stupid enough to think we'd do well as a couple. We're too different. Besides," she confessed with a shy smile, "there's a very handsome divorced doctor I work with at the hospital."

"Tell me all about him," Ivy coaxed.

Stuart finished his coffee and stood up. "I'll pa.s.s," he said with a grin. "I have things to do. Don't go away," he told Ivy.

"I won't," she promised.

He winked at her, leaving her flushed and delighted.

"I still can't believe it!" Merrie exclaimed when he'd gone out of earshot. "You and my brother! I thought you hated each other!"

"So did I," Ivy confessed. "I've loved him since I was eighteen."

"I think he feels something similar. He was livid about seeing you around town with Hayes. No man gets that mad about a woman he hates." She laughed. "You can't imagine how relieved I was! I was sure you were falling for Hayes, and I knew that he and Minette were pa.s.sionate about hating each other. One day, mark my words, there's going to be an explosion between the two of them. I didn't want you to be hurt," she added gently.

Ivy felt the relief all the way to her toes. She just smiled. "Thanks. But I wasn't kidding when I said Hayes was a friend. I've loved Stuart forever, it seems. I can't believe he feels the same."

Merrie chuckled. "I can."

Ivy leaned forward. "Well, now that we've got Hayes out of the way, tell me about this s.e.xy doctor you work with!"

After supper, Merrie discreetly went upstairs to watch a movie on pay-per-view with Mrs. Rhodes while Stuart went into his study with Ivy and closed the door. As an afterthought, he locked it behind him.