Читать книгу Familiar Vows - Caroline Burnes - Страница 13

Michelle awoke the next morning with a pounding headache. She’d had only two glasses of champagne, so the throbbing behind her eyes must be tension-related. The events of yesterday had caught up with her in a physical way.

She rolled over and snatched a pillow to cover her head. It was just after six, a time meant for sleep.

The hard knock at her door didn’t register until it came for the second time, a series of poundings that said someone meant business.

Thinking that it might be something to do with Marco and the gallery, she grabbed her old chenille robe and went to the door.

“Hold your horses. I’m coming!” She was grumpy and she didn’t care. She cracked the door on the chain and felt as if she’d stepped into someone else’s life. The tall man from the Confederate wedding was standing outside her apartment. Except he was wearing jeans, cowboy boots and a Stetson—exactly as she’d imagined him.

“Michelle Sieck,” he said in a voice like someone on Law and Order. “I’m Lucas West. Please open the door. Now.”

“Why are you here?”

“I could tell you a pack of lies and get in the door, but I’m going to give it to you straight because a woman’s life may be on the line. The woman in that wedding picture you took is a federally protected witness. You’ve blown her cover and endangered her life. Now your life may also be in danger. Open the door so we can begin to make this right.”

Michelle slowly undid the latch. She stepped back, moving zombielike to the kitchen. “I need some coffee,” she said.

“There’s no time.” Lucas scanned the room and walked to the windows. After he checked the street, he lowered the blinds and pulled the curtains shut.

“I’m dying from a headache. I need caffeine.”

“We’ll get some at the airport.”

She tried to focus on what he was saying, but things were moving too fast. “The airport?”

He wheeled on her then, the anger she’d seen clearly in his gray eyes and terse expression no longer under control. “Lorry Kennedy’s life could be at stake. Likely Charles’s, too. Because of you. Because you did exactly what you wanted to do with a photograph that never should have been taken.”

Michelle stumbled backward from the onslaught of his harsh words. Once she regained her balance, though, she stepped into his face.

“I didn’t intend to show that photograph. The movers picked it up by mistake. As soon as I saw it, I had it removed.”

“And you think that makes it okay?” Lucas glared at her.

She lifted her chin and looked into his flinty eyes. “It doesn’t make it okay, but it doesn’t make me a worthless liar, either. It was an accident.”

“So if Robert Maxim finds Lorry and kills her, we can just mark it down as an accidental death.”

Her head was throbbing so hard, she thought she might throw up. Preferably on his boots. She hated to have her nose rubbed in a mistake. Her parents were masters at this behavior and had shoved every tiny misstep back in her face. Until she’d found the grit to move to New York and follow her dream.

“That’s not what I meant,” she said through clenched teeth. “All I’m saying is that this didn’t happen because I didn’t care.” She held up her hands. Why was she trying to explain this to a cowboy?

“Pack a bag. I’ve got to get you out of here. If I can find you, so can the Maxims.”

“I’m not going anywhere, and you aren’t going to panic me into doing something insane, like get on a plane with a man I don’t know at all and who may himself be a psycho killer.”

Lucas laughed, but it wasn’t from amusement. “That scar on Lorry’s neck?”

He watched her like a hawk, waiting for the moment to pounce. She wanted to squirm, but she wouldn’t allow herself. “I saw the scar.”

“Antonio Maxim ordered his men to cut her throat and throw her in the river so she couldn’t testify against him. He’ll do worse to you, because he’ll want information.”

His words were having an effect, though she would die before she let him see it. “And what did this Antonio Maxim do that was so awful?”

Lucas glanced down, but only for a split second. When he locked eyes with Michelle again, he looked madder than ever. “He killed my brother, an undercover cop, and he’s responsible for hundreds of young girls ending up as prostitutes and drug addicts. Is that bad enough for you?”

She found a chair with her hand and slowly lowered her body into it. Murder, forced prostitution, drugs. She wasn’t an innocent. She knew the city had a million layers, and at the bottom there was a lot of pain and suffering.

Never had she expected to find it on her doorstep, though.

“Is Lorry okay?”

“My friend has been trying to find her since that newscast aired last night. As of this morning, both she and Charles have vanished.”

Michelle felt as if someone had kicked her in the gut. “Vanished as in left by their own choice, or vanished as in someone took them?”

“I won’t be able to tell until I look. That’s why you’re packing a bag and we’re going to Mobile, Alabama. As much as I’d like to put you in a safe house, I can’t. I’m Lorry’s best chance at survival, and you’re going with me.”

Michelle was about to protest when she heard the strangest sound.

“What’s that?” She rose slowly. It sounded as if someone was scratching wood.

She started toward the door, but Lucas pulled her back and stepped in front of her. He moved with grace and authority.

His hand went to his side, and she knew instinctively that he was reaching for a weapon. Whatever he’d done in his past, he was used to carrying a firearm. But his hand came back empty. For once, she would have been glad to see some kind of gun in someone’s hand.

The scratching came again.

When Lucas looked out the peephole of her door, he muttered under his breath.

“Who is it?” she asked.

“There’s no one there.”

Yet the scratching came once more.

Lucas opened the door slowly. They both looked down at the black cat, which stared back up at them.

“Is that the cat from the wedding and from the gallery?” Michelle asked. Along with her pounding head, she was now suffering from hallucinations.

“I’ll be…a five-toed Texas longhorn.” Lucas stepped back, and the cat entered the room with an air of royalty.

“How does he get around town?” Michelle asked.

“Danged if I know,” Lucas answered. “But he does. Eleanor swears he’s a private investigator. He gets calls from all around the world.”

Pressing her hands to her temples, Michelle headed to the small kitchen. She put on the pot for coffee. The man ordering her around her own apartment could just wait until she got a jolt of caffeine in her system. She couldn’t deal with murderers, dead brothers, witness protection and cats who solved mysteries without some coffee. Something much stronger might even be better.

INSTEAD OF ARGUING, LUCAS yielded on the coffee. Time was short, but it would do no good to bully Michelle. He’d seen her distress, and he knew it was real. She’d never intended for any of the events that had taken place to occur. He sure knew what that felt like.

While Michelle brewed the coffee, he called Eleanor and told her Familiar had shown up.

“I told you,” Eleanor said. “Let him help you, Lucas. He has a gift.”

“I’m finding this a bit hard to swallow.”

She laughed. “It’s tough on the U.S. marshal ego to rely on a cat, but he will help, if you let him. He’s fond of Lorry, and he’s got a thing for that photographer. Familiar has excellent taste in women. He picked me out to be his owner.”

Lucas couldn’t help but smile. It was an intrguing concept—that the cat had an interest in Michelle. But he had shown up at the gallery and now at her apartment. No. It was too crazy to concede.

“When we leave, I’ll call you, and you can come and pick him up.”

“Okay.”

He hung up and went to the kitchen, where he laid out the travel plans for Michelle. Her color was better as she sipped the strong black coffee. His cup remained untouched. He was already jittery. Too much adrenaline and too little sleep.

“We’ll take the eleven o’clock flight south. I’ve already booked us seats.”

“I’m not going.” Michelle’s hazel eyes dared him to contradict her.

He was happy to oblige. “You are. I’ve already told you that it’s dangerous to stay here. They know you saw Lorry. They’re going to be looking for you, and when they catch you, it won’t do any good to say you don’t know her. You photographed her wedding. They will hurt you.”

“I’m not going.”

His temper jumped so high, he felt the pulse in his jaw. Why was Michelle being so ornery when he was trying to save her from being hurt?

“You’re going, and you’re going to behave.” He could see that his authoritative manner was only antagonizing her more.

“I’m going to shower and dress.” She downed the last of the coffee and stood.

“Now that’s a sensible way to act.”

She didn’t comment as she left the room and went to what he presumed was her bathroom, to get ready. He drummed his fingers on the table and watched the black cat, who was snooping around the apartment.

A cat detective. Even in Texas, where the tales were tall, he’d never heard of such a thing.

The cat sashayed out of the kitchen, and he was left alone with his thoughts. Lorry would be careful. She knew what was at stake, and she’d take precautions. Once he found her place, he’d search it and figure out where she might have gone. But he had to get there first, before Robert Maxim sent some of his goons.

He paced the kitchen, and as he moved toward the narrow hallway, he heard the shower running. He checked his watch. Ten minutes. How long did it take a woman to shower?

Moving back to the table, he sat and drummed his fingers more. Patience was not one of his virtues, and the years of working as a law officer hadn’t helped any. That was one of the things he loved about the job. Action and more action.

Harry had loved his work, too. He thought about his brother, how he’d been so excited about going to New York undercover. Harry had been caught up in the case of a young Austin girl who’d disappeared. Her trail had led straight to New York and Antonio Maxim.

The NYPD had found her body in a Dumpster outside a fleabag hotel. She’d been loaded with drugs and then stabbed. It had deeply disturbed Harry, and his investigation of Antonio Maxim had become personal. Very personal.

A loud cry came from the living room. It sounded like a cat in distress. He jumped to his feet just as the door slammed.

Dang it all to hell and back! He was across the living room and into the hall just in time to see Michelle disappear down the stairs. The crazy woman was running away from him. The black cat was right on her heels.

He was a flight of stairs behind her, and once she got to the street, she might disappear into the crowds of pedestrians that streamed down the city sidewalks.

“Michelle!” He called her name, but she didn’t slow. “Michelle! Don’t do this!”

He was on the sidewalk when he saw her at the bus stop, moving fast. To his utter amazement, the black cat darted between her feet.

In another moment, she was sprawling on the sidewalk, cursing the cat like a whorehouse hussy. Lucas jogged to her side.

He offered her a hand and pulled her to her feet. “That’s some impressive language.”

She gave him a look that would curdle goat milk. “That cat tripped me on purpose.”

“So it would seem.” Lucas bent down to stroke Familiar’s back. The cat purred and rubbed against his legs. “Glad to see at least he has good sense. I guess I owe Eleanor an apology.”

“He could have broken my neck.”

“Which would be a lot less painful than what the Maxims will do to you if they catch you.” Lucas surveyed the area. Except for a black car with heavily tinted windows parked halfway down the block, motor running, nothing looked suspicious. The car was expensive and could easily be a hired car or ride for a corporate type. Then again, Antonio Maxim didn’t hire thugs who looked like thugs. His men maintained the appearance of white-collar professionals. The car made him nervous. “Let’s go,” he said to Michelle.

She dusted her hands on her jeans and started back toward the apartment. Lucas walked beside her, the cat right in step with them both.

“We’re taking the cat to Mobile,” he said.

When he didn’t get an argument from Michelle, he hid the grin that touched his mouth and made his eyes crinkle. It was a small victory, but a victory nonetheless.

Now all they had to do was get to the airport and board their flight—without being followed.