She tilted her head back, looked up at the dark sky, and appeared lost in thought. She might be nuts, but she was also gorgeous, so I stood there watching her and waiting. After several moments of silence, she spoke. “I’m not afraid of the dark, but because Elvis is, it doesn’t make him crazy does it? And I think all of us fear germs a little.” She let out a sigh and looked in my direction, waiting for me to agree with her.
“Fearing germs or even the dark is not very unusual,” I admitted. “Obsessing over those things is an illness.”
“So what if he’s a little strange?” she said. “He’s got a real gift and he has never been wrong in any of the prophecies he’s made for me.”
I stared into her blue eyes. They reminded me of a cat I’d owned when I was a child. She wore the same look the cat possessed while playing with a catnip toy, wild and uncontrolled.
“Okay,” I said. I didn’t want to argue with her anymore, so I changed the subject. “Let’s find a place to stay. Any hotels or motels you can think of where they might have a vacancy?”
“At this time of the year? I kind of doubt it.”
“We’ve passed half a dozen small rooming houses with vacancy signs on them,” I pointed out.
“Those places aren’t like the big hotels. It’s four in the morning. It’s not like they have someone on duty twenty-four hours a day.” She stopped, reached into her purse and pulled out a cell phone. “I’ll call Tanya. Maybe we can crash at her place for the night.”
She hit a single button and waited. “Her phone is ringing now.”
All I could think of at the moment was how tired I was, and how surprised I was when I realized Destiny’s phone was still working. I would have thought after the way she’d been slamming her purse around all night, anything inside would have been reduced to rubble.
I looked up and down the street, then wandered away from Destiny and sat down on an open piece of curb. While I waited, I reached up and caressed my temples. Across the street the fronds of a small palm tree danced in the shadows and the early morning breeze carried the scent of the ocean inland. For the first time since leaving the bar I began to relax, and my headache had almost disappeared by the time Destiny got off the phone.
She walked over and stood next to me. “We’re all set. Tanya said come on over. She said we could use the spare room.”
“What did she say when you told her I was with you?”
She sat down next to me on the curb, stretched her long legs out into the street and took a deep breath. I watched her breasts rise and fall, and rubbed my fingers a little more furiously along the side of my head.
“Dammit. I forgot to tell her. I said we were in a jam and needed a place to crash for a couple of hours. I’m sure she thinks it’s me and Billy. It won’t make a big difference to Tanya. I’ll explain it all to her when we get to her house.”
Standing up I thought, this should be interesting. I stretched my back, and reached out my hand to Destiny. She took it, and while she scrambled to her feet I looked around and saw the headlights of a car turn onto the street a couple of blocks down. The car was creeping toward us and although it could have been a lost tourist, I was afraid Bob had found us.
Without a second thought I grabbed Destiny’s wrist and dragged her along while I dove behind a nearby van. When I thrust her up against the van she began to hit at me with flailing fists.
“What do you think you’re doing?” she asked.
I put my lips close to her ear and said, “Shut up. There’s a car coming. It might be Bob.”
She stopped struggling and, when the car approached, I pressed her against the ground where we tried to hide in the shadow of the van.
The car moved down the street, stopping every few houses as if the driver was looking for an address, or perhaps us. When it stopped in front of our hiding place, I reached behind my back and pulled the gun from my shorts.
The driver sat there for what seemed like an eternity, and Destiny began to shiver, whether in fear or anticipation I wasn’t sure. When the car moved on I held Destiny down until the sound of the engine faded away.
This time when I helped Destiny to her feet she held on to my hand and moved in close to me. “Do you think it was him?”
“I suspect so.”
“He would have seen me if not for you,” she said.
“I suspect so,” I repeated. My knees felt weak and I was beginning to feel uncomfortable with the effect this woman exerted over me. I tried to move away, but she clung to my hand and edged even closer.
“I’m sorry I hurt you earlier.” Her voice was low, and there was a sensual ring to it when she added, “I realize now you only wanted to help. Is there anything I can do to make it up to you?”
This woman was dangerous. She could turn her sex appeal on and off at will, and I was no longer surprised by the fact she’d been able to walk away from an aging gangster with a fortune in diamonds. Right now, I was ready to believe anything she told me. I took my hand back before she could figure out a way to walk off with it.
“You don’t need to do anything for me,” I said.
She held my eyes with hers and the hairs on the back of my neck stood up like an electric charge was passing over them. I was pretty sure she was used to having this effect on men.
She slipped her arm through mine and gave me a squeeze, this time sending a charge throughout my entire body.
“You are kind of cute, you know,” she said, massaging my arm. “I figured if you’re going to help keep Bob and Frankie from hurting me, I should do something for you.”
It took every ounce of internal fortitude I possessed, but I pulled free. “This is not a good idea,” I said. “We need to keep our relationship on a professional level.”
“Fine.” Her attitude chilled and she turned away from me. “But don’t say I didn’t offer.”
I touched her shoulder and she looked back at me. “Yes?”
“It’s also not a good idea to tell Tanya about the diamonds or Bob. No sense getting her involved.”
“Whatever.” She started walking away from me, “Come on, she lives a couple of blocks from here, on Olivia.”
“You sure she won’t mind?”
“Tanya’s a good friend, and this is what good friends do, isn’t it? Besides, she owes me big time.”
“Why’s that?”
“Ask her,” Destiny said, before picking up her pace.
Chapter 7
The temperature dropped fifteen degrees and it began to rain when we turned onto Olivia Street. “You’re a regular good luck charm, aren’t you,” Destiny said.
I hunched my shoulders against the sudden downpour. In the distance, tendrils of lightning lit up the sky over the Gulf of Mexico while a faltering burst of thunder echoed across the island. I didn’t expect the rain to last very long; it rarely did at this time of the year, but knowing that didn’t make it any less uncomfortable.
Tanya’s house was off Duval and was separated from the street by a six-foot-high picket fence. Destiny stopped in front of the wooden gate, reached inside and drew out a key hanging on a string from the post. Her hands were shaking and she fumbled with the key, but somehow she managed to unlock the gate. Pushing it open with her shoulder, she stepped aside to let me in. While she relocked the gate, I looked around.
The porch light was on and it cast a glow over a hodge-podge of plants and flowers in the yard. A narrow stone path meandered through the tropical splendor. Even my untrained eyes recognized this was a well thought out garden. There was an indefinable symmetry to the landscaping, and I liked what I saw. The yard was wild and free and it told me more about Tanya than I had learned working for her over the previous months.
A wooden porch ran along the front of the house. Two wood chairs and a double swing sat in front of a
