“Pretty ugly stick to hit me with,” Torie said, fighting tears.
“That’s God’s truth, but I’m here for you. You’ll get through this.” There was a long pause. “You want some good news?”
“There’s good news in the world right now?” Torie tried to joke.
“You bet. Tax cut to boost the economy. Three houses sold on my block for full-asking price. That’s not bad.”
“Yeah? That’s the good news?”
“Um, no. Good news is your cousin is okay and on the mend. He’s, uh, really nice.”
Torie heard the underlying excitement in Pam’s voice. Oh, no. She could not let her friend fall for Dev. He was the quintessential ever-philandering flirt. Her sexy cousin was also a marked man, if the cops were to be believed. He was part of her curse.
“Pammie, girl, don’t go and fall for Dev. He’s not the marrying kind.”
“I know, but damn if he’s not one of the hottest men I’ve ever met. Seriously. I mean
Torie said flatly. “I go to dinner with him, he’s a target Pammie. He’s my cousin—that already makes him a target. Which would make you one, too. Please, please, don’t go there. And be careful.”
“You know I will, either way. But I can’t
“Black Widow. Yeah, Paul told me that charming tidbit.”
“Oh, the other piece of good news is that package we picked up—the night everything went down?”
Torie had forgotten about their little criminal detour. “Yeah?” she said cautiously.
“Doin’ fine. I baked that cake and all is well.”
Cake. Life was simple when all it took was baking a cake. Why couldn’t she be more like Pam? Torie cut off that line of thinking. If she’d thought it once, she’d thought it a hundred times.
“That’s good. Any idea where we can send the package from here?”
“May have already found a place to stash it. I’ll keep you posted.”
Paul had come back, and was waiting impatiently to talk to her.
“Uh, I have to go, Pam. Paul’s back. I’ll let you know what’s up as soon as I know, okay?”
“’kay, see ya, and love ya, girl.”
“You, too.”
Torie flipped shut the phone, and turned to face Paul. For the first time, she actually looked at him, really looked. His face was drawn and pale. The lines around his eyes and mouth were more pronounced. As she watched, he downed two tablets, chasing them with water from a bottle he held.
“Are you okay?” she asked, honestly concerned. “You look…”
“That bad, huh?” Paul said, frowning. He rubbed his eyes, which just made them redder, and made him look even more haggard.
“Yeah. That bad.”
“Tell me what you really think. Seriously,” he quipped. “Don’t mince words.”
Torie smiled. “Sorry. It’s just I’ve never seen you so out of sorts, I guess. You always seem to be in that ‘I’m in charge’ mode.”
He grimaced. “Thanks, I guess. Although that really doesn’t sound like a compliment.”
“True. I’m just not used to you being, um, human.”
That made him laugh. “Oh, I’m human all right. Damnably so.”
Torie had no idea what he meant. She was about to ask when his cell phone rang. He held up a finger, motioning her to be quiet.
“Okay, great. We’re in…yeah, okay. Officer Rhodes. Yes. Thanks.”
“What was that all about?”
“Airport security is happy to escort us out of a private entrance in order to get all the reporters out of the airport. They don’t like it, they don’t like doing it, but the press has access to the public areas of the airport just like anyone else, and the TV vans and so forth can circle all day long. They’d rather have us out of here and get it over with.”
“Ooookay. Our luggage?”
“Will be picked up from the carousel and brought to us at the door. Another officer will round up a driver for us.”
“You didn’t drive?”
“No, took a shuttle.”
They both heard footsteps, and Paul stood up to greet a uniformed man. “Officer.”
