Serving Up Trouble

They were halfway back to the station when Luke looked at him casually and said, “You have lipstick on the corner of your mouth. Looks like a very pretty shade of berry.”

Sam licked his lip and tasted Angie. “You might have told me that two hours ago.”

Luke just grinned. “And ruin your illusion that I have no idea what’s going on between you two?”

“You don’t have any idea what’s going on.”

“No, you don’t. Me, now I have a pretty good idea.”

Before Sam could respond to that, his cell phone rang.

“Uh…Mr. O’Brien?” said a hesitant voice. “This is John Manning.” The sounds of Burrito Palace came over the line. “Like, I remembered Tommy’s last name. It’s Wilson. Tommy Wilson.”

At the same moment, dispatch radioed them with the information on the house they’d just been in.

The renters? Ellie and George Wilson.

Tommy’s parents. But that was the least of their problems. Sam’s head snapped up as it all clicked into place. “Ellie and George Wilson… God. They’re the couple that runs the book store next to the cafe where Angie works.”

Luke shook his head. “Does Angie know them?”

“She says they’re friends-” He swore again, more viciously now. “Drive, Luke. Drive.”

Luke had already hit the gas pedal. “Driving.”

“Faster.” He shoved his fingers through his hair. “I can’t believe it. Ellie and George are running the identity- theft ring.”

“With Tommy.”

“John’s friend.”

“Ex-friend,” Luke added.

“Whom Angie kept seeing going in and out of the alley behind the book store.”

“Yeah. I bet there’s also an interesting room filled with interesting evidence at the book store.”

“I’m also betting that Angie identifying John probably pissed his mommy and daddy off but good,” Luke noted grimly. “Enough to make them start terrorizing her.” He dialed Angie’s cell phone.

“Think they’re all talk?”

“With how much money they have at stake?” Sam shook his head. “No way.” He swore again and leaned forward, as if that could get them there faster. Pick up, pick up, he silently urged Angie as her phone rang in his ear.

When she finally answered, he sagged in relief, flooded with so many emotions he could barely get his tongue wrapped around the words he needed. “Angie. Thank God.”

“Sam?” Her voice changed, became a bit un certain, and Sam cursed himself for that. She didn’t know where they stood, and that was his fault.

They had plenty to talk about. Mostly he had plenty to talk about, but that would have to wait now. “The case,” he managed, more unnerved than he could ever remember being. “We ID’d the kid.”

“The suspect?”

“Yeah.” They caught both a red light and traffic. Damn it. “Angie, I don’t have time to tell you every thing right now-”

“It’s okay.” Her voice was even enough, but he heard the hurt. “Goodbye, Sam.”

“No, wait! You need to stay at work. Okay? Wait right there for me.”

“I never wanted to be your responsibility.”

“I know, but that’s not what I meant. I’m almost there-”

“Look, Sam…” She lowered her voice to the soft whisper that always made his heart leap. “I didn’t tell you I love you to hurt you, or make you feel obligated in any way.”

“I know that, I-”

“I just wanted to share it, to tell you how I feel. That’s all.”

“Angie.” He spoke through his teeth. “I’m on my way to get to you. Just stay right where you are. Don’t leave the cafe.”

“But I already did.”

He went very still. “What?”

“I went to the bank. I had to, really, but guess what? I made it without panicking. I even ran into Tony, which was nice because it was sort of a closure thing, and-”

“Angie.” He closed his eyes, gripped the dash. “I want to hear all this. I swear, I do. Just later. Where are you now?”

“I’m on my break.”

He tried to remain calm. “Where exactly are you on your break?”

“Just right next door…at the book store.”

Chapter 12

Angie shifted her cell phone to her shoulder, cranked her neck to hold it in place, and at tempted to balance the books she had spread in her lap so that she could hear Sam better.

She sat in the self-help section, trying to decide which part of her life needed the most help. She had The Guide To A Complete Make-Over, How To Deal With Alpha Men and Using The Star Alignment To Your Favor pulled out so far, and figured at best one of them applied to her.

Maybe all of them.

Then she’d heard Sam’s voice and her stomach had dropped. He sounded so serious, so tense, and suddenly, in that one horrifying moment, she understood.

He was trying to tell her he couldn’t see her again.

“Angie?”

“It’s okay,” she said, gripping the phone and trying to make it true. “I know what this is about.”

“You do?”

“Yes, and listen…I understand.” Well, not really, but she could try. “I’m fine.”

“She’s in the book store,” she heard him say to Luke, who swore as colorfully as Sam had. “Baby, listen,” he said to her now. “Get out of the store.”

Baby. He’d called her baby. A man who was about to dump her, a man who sounded very intent, very focused…would he call her baby? “I’m studying.”

“Drop everything and get out.”

“But-”

“Where are you exactly?”

Angie looked at the aisle header that read Self-Improvement and decided that was just too pathetic. “Uh…in the nonfiction section.”

“Alone?”

She looked around, puzzled. “Completely.”

“Get the hell out. Don’t hang up, I want to talk to you while you do it. Are you moving yet?”

Trusting him implicitly, even if he was going to break her heart, she set the books out of her lap. “Working on it.”

“Okay, good. Keep moving, faster now. I’ll be there in person in about seven minutes. Are you at the exit?”

Oh yes, he was intense. And very, very serious. But now she could hear the rest, could hear what else was in his voice, stopping her heart.

Pure fear.

She gripped the phone as she started out of the aisle. “Sam, what’s the matter?”

“Just tell me you’re out of the store, in the street in broad daylight with a throng of people around you.”