Dark and Deadly

Once more, he’d found her, had her right there with him, and he’d pushed her away with callous careless words.

What the hell was wrong with him?

On the phone with Pam, Torie sobbed. She had cried more in the last month, in the last few days, than she had in years.

“It was so cruel, Pammie,” she whispered, keeping her voice down. As if Paul cared that what he’d said had been so devastating. Didn’t he know how responsible she felt? How could he not understand that she felt every bit the Black Widow they dubbed her, and completely accountable for everything that had happened to everyone around her.

“He’s afraid,” Pam counseled, her voice sounding small and wispy through the cell phone.

“Of what? Don’t answer that,” Torie said, sighing. “How could he not be afraid? Good Lord, Pam, someone shot at him tonight. The detective said it wasn’t meant for me this time. That if the guy had wanted me, he could’ve shot me already. He was aiming for Paul.”

“Well that is scary, yeah, but he’s afraid of you, as in he’s afraid of you, the woman. The person.”

“Why would he be afraid of me, other than the fact that I’m probably going to get him killed, too?”

“You are not,” her friend snapped. “Cut it out. The cops’re watching, right? They’re on the lookout for Dev, too, though they refuse to consider him a missing person yet. They know something’s up, so they are gonna catch this guy.”

“You’re a heck of an optimist, Pam. They fail more often than they succeed at this kind of thing.”

“What, catching bad guys? I think they do okay. Philadelphia’s finest, right?”

“I guess.”

“Well, better than L.A. or New Orleans, you know?”

“Fine comparison. But yeah, I suppose.”

“So, tomorrow I’ll take the day off, we’ll take care of you. We’ll go shopping, we’ll find you some property to look at. It’ll be great. I called Kuhman, and he’s going to meet us at two o’clock to get an idea of what kind of place you want to rent. Then mani, pedi, and dinner.”

“Oh, Pam, I’d love to, but I don’t want you around me. I don’t want anyone else I love getting hurt.”

“I won’t get hurt. Neither will you. So far, has this guy struck in daylight?”

A startling realization. “No.”

“So, we’ll go shopping, get our nails done, and voila, meet with the real estate agent. Got me?”

“Yeah.” She lay back on the bed, uncurling from her nearly fetal position. With Pam’s help, she could go on. Somehow. “I hear.”

“And obey?”

Torie managed to smile. “Yeah. I guess. I have to ride in with Paul, meet with the cops. Get another rental car.” She sat up, wearily jotted notes on the pad she’d taken from Paul’s office. “Find a hotel.”

“I’ll be there with you, honey.” Pam said with stalwart firmness. “I think I’ve kinda let you down over the last few weeks since the fire.”

“Never,” Torie excused, knowing that Pam had never been hit by feelings for a guy like she had with Dev.

“Nah, don’t say that.” She heard Pam rustling around, walking through her house. “I haven’t done this before. Leaving you high and dry to manage all this.”

“No one can manage it for me,” Torie said. Perhaps it was all the more painful that she’d begun to feel like Paul was there for her. Standing with her in her hour of need. Again.

She’d mistaken his lawyer duties for caring. She’d reached out in her own need for comfort, and had messed them both up by stepping over the line and making it personal, sexual.

She said as much to Pam who listened to the philosophy and the reasoning and said, simply, “Bullshit.”

“What?”

“Look, it takes two to tango. If he felt nothing but a hard-on, as a lawyer, he’d back off. He’s too smart to think with his dick. He wanted you as bad as you wanted him, right? No holds barred?”

Thinking of the wild, reckless nature of their lovemaking, Torie agreed. Not that she really wanted to. It was easier to put him back in his old box, the “I dislike Paul” box. If she could pretend he had only been in it for sex, it would be easier to go back to loathing him.

And she desperately needed that distance, that distaste as armor for her heart.

“So, tell me,” Pam said. “How long have you had a thing for him?”

“What?” Torie jerked the phone away from her ear, stared at it as if the words were printed on its tiny screen. “Are you kidding?”

Chapter Fifteen

“Credit score, seven-eighty; reason for relocation, fire; size property, two to three bedroom; pet, yes.” The realtor talked to himself as he entered all the information into the computer. Pam had picked Torie up in the morning because Tibbet had rescheduled.

The drive into the office with Paul had been tense, loaded with unspoken pain. Paul went to a meeting and Torie immediately called Pam. Within minutes they had been off to meet with Pam’s realtor friend.

“So.” Kuhman Parshaw swiveled around to smile at them both. “I have many things I can show you. Out toward where you are living now, I have several things. Near your unfortunate current house, I have several things, but they are moving toward the uh, streets that are having more difficulty keeping tenants. Society Hill has many