Crime Of The Heart Page 14

  “Yes, well, we had initially planned on a big church wedding, but our families have done nothing but fight over the details, so we just decided to up and visit the justice of the peace all by ourselves.” Erin smiled and ignored Lee’s glare. “I just hope we haven’t given Liam’s poor mama a coronary. She was so hoping to have the Landfair Family Singers at the wedding reception. But I suppose we’ll have to end up planning a party of some sort. That should keep just about everybody happy.”

  “Oh, that would be nice, since you should really have your family and friends present to wish you well,” Mrs. Renolds agreed warmly. “But then, you young people are so different than we were when Frank and I married. I’ll give you the table near the fireplace. It’s the coziest. Unless, of course, you’d like a private room,” Mrs. Renolds added.

  “The table near the fireplace sounds great,” Lee choked out.

  They followed Mrs. Renolds into the main dining room. It was as quaint as the rest of the place, with homey touches here and there. Three other tables were taken, but the patrons didn’t spare Lee and Erin more than a passing glance. Lee gave himself credit for keeping his frustration under control enough to hold Erin’s chair and pretend to be the happy groom. He gritted his teeth and smiled, not saying a word until after Mrs. Renolds had placed menus before them and left.

  “What the hell are you doing, Erin?” he asked, still seething.

  “What do you mean?” she asked innocently, smiling at him sweetly. “Did you want the private room after all? I’m sure we can change. We’d just have to signal Mrs. Renolds.”

  “No, I don’t want the private room,” he snapped. “I’m afraid if I got you alone, I’d strangle you. Don’t you think this is drawing a bit too much attention to us?” Actually, Lee realized it didn’t draw any more attention to them than if they’d just sat down, saying nothing. But the idea of being married to her hit him somewhere just below the belt, making the act of breathing nearly impossible.

  “Exactly. If anyone comes looking for us and asks Mrs. Renolds, what’s she going to say? Yes, there was a man and a woman in here today, but they were just celebrating their marriage.”

  Lee had to agree with the logic of it, even if he didn’t like the idea. It definitely didn’t make the game any easier for him to handle. Pretending to be married to Erin was too close to what he really wanted, so the idea was doubly upsetting.

  Mrs. Renolds returned to take their order, carrying a bottle of what she called their best house wine. “On the house,” she said, beaming her congratulations.

  They ordered. Erin paid particularly close attention to the menu. Lee suddenly couldn’t have cared less. He was still trying to come to terms with the idea of Erin as his wife. He wasn’t even hungry anymore. At least not for food.

  He poured the wine and tasted it. Its heady warmth spread down his throat. “It’s delicious,” he said, looking up at Mrs. Renolds. Not that he really noticed. He had the feeling it could have been iced tea just then and he wouldn’t have cared, not with the idea of Erin as his wife warming his insides.

  At the same time, Erin said, “We thought we’d stay here for the night, too, to make the honeymoon official before the rest of the family finds out. Is there a place where we could stay? We heard something about an estate close by. Brook or something like that. Do you know anything about the place?”

  Lee tried not to choke on his wine and at the same time ignore the warmth that continued to spread through the rest of him. The very idea of a wedding night, an official honeymoon, with Erin, started a fire deep within him.

  “The Burke estate, just a few miles out of town on Highway 24,” Mrs. Renolds said knowingly. “But it’s not open to the public for anything. There’s a bed and breakfast at the south side of town called O‘Malley’s Place. The O’Malleys are nice people and very accommodating.”

  “Thank you so much,” Erin responded, giving that perfect smile of hers.

  For the first time, Lee could genuinely smile, too. “Yes, thank you, Mrs. Renolds.” It was the information they needed, but it didn’t extinguish any of the fire in him.

  Mrs. Renolds went off with their order.

  “Gosh, I got the info even before we got our meal. Do I get anything extra for winning the bet so quickly?” Erin asked pertly, giving him the prettiest smile Lee had ever seen.

  His heart was suddenly pounding, and heat pulsed through him to the point where he thought he might have to step outside into the cool air of the afternoon. To really be married to her, to really be able to go on a honeymoon with her. He tried to push the idea out of his mind, but soon found it impossible. He must be crazy to even think such things.

  Erin, however, seemed quite pleased with her ability to find the answers. After finishing their late lunch, they set off in search of Highway 24. It took even less effort for the two of them to see that Burke was still at his estate. Using the binoculars they’d purchased along with their new clothes, Lee watched the house from out on the street, looking through the iron fence that surrounded the grounds.

  “He’s there, isn’t he?” Erin asked beside him.

  “Sure is. I just saw him on the veranda outside one of the upstairs rooms.” With all the pictures Lee had seen of Burke, he felt he would have known him anywhere. “From the looks of things, he’s getting ready for something, like a reception or a very major auction,” Lee muttered, the binoculars still pressed to his eyes.

  “Oh? Let me see.”

  She sounded like a child eager to look through a telescope at the moon for the first time. Lee handed her the binoculars. Their fingers brushed at the exchange, and he did his best to ignore the heat of her touch. He still hadn’t been able to put out the fire she’d set in him at the inn.

  “Look over on the left side of the house, through that giant front window,” he instructed, hoping his voice didn’t sound as rough as he thought it did.

  She followed his gaze. “They’re setting up tables.”

  “Lots of them,” Lee added.

  “From everything I read, big parties are his specialty,” Erin said.

  “Maybe we could use the big party to get in there and take a look around,” Lee suggested.

  “What if he already had the party and what we’re looking at is the cleanup?” Erin asked.

  Lee shook his head slowly, even though she was still looking at Burke’s estate with the binoculars and wouldn’t have seen him. “I don’t think so. From the public relations stuff you had, Burke seems to like to start his parties after lunch and have them go until late at night, serving an unforgettable supper at six o’clock. Then he has everything cleaned up immediately after. If he had this party yesterday, it would have all been cleaned up and we wouldn’t see any trace of it, not even those tables. And if it was happening today, it would be in progress already. No, I’m betting that this is for tomorrow.”

  “So what are we going to do?” Erin finally met his gaze in a hot flash of green. “Rent tuxedos and try to get past the doorman with the excuse that we lost our invitations?”

  Lee took the binoculars from her and looked through them again. “I guess using your press credentials is out, right?” he asked, not really expecting an answer.

  “Since I was forced to leave them in my purse at your house, yes, that’s out. Maybe we could make our way around the back, climb a tree with limbs that hang over the iron fence and jump into the party,” she ventured.

  “I think before I tried that,” Lee countered, “I’d hijack a car before it could arrive and then steal an invitation.”

  “Oh, that should work,” Erin said in mock agreement. “We should probably buy a couple of ski masks first. Or maybe we could just put bandannas over our noses like the old Western bank robbers. Are you going to use that little automatic piece that you took from Burke’s man? If you think it’s too intimidating, we could buy a toy gun when we stop at the discount store to buy the ski masks. Go for broke and buy one that squirts water.”

  “I fi
nd ski masks too hot for this time of year, despite the cold rain. What would you think of a couple of rubber masks of politicians?” he suggested. Through the binoculars, he swept his gaze past the house, but he couldn’t see any other activity going on through the heavily draped large windows. There was a woman in a black uniform sweeping off the covered front entrance. But that was all.

  “I’d rather have cartoon characters,” Erin said, amusement filling her voice. “Hermie the Hippo is my favorite.”

  She was enjoying this, he realized. “You’re having a good time, aren’t you?” he asked, still scrutinizing Burke’s house.

  “Well, yes, sort of. I mean, when I can forget that Burke wants to kill me, I am. I’m finding this to be a lot like the old days when I was just a simple reporter looking for a simple story.”

  “Do you miss that?” Lee asked before he could stop himself.

  “Yes. I do miss those days when life wasn’t so extreme. I miss the days when stories about children writing winning essays were as important as political campaigns.” There was no longer any amusement in her voice.

  And Lee knew better than to look at her. He could almost feel the fire in her gaze, fire hot enough to melt him.

  “Maybe we won’t need invitations,” he said, growing serious again.

  “Why would you think that?” Erin asked.

  “Not all of Burke’s auctions are by invitation only. A few of those PR photos you had of him showed him smiling at public showings. Do you think you could put on your reporter’s hat and find out about tomorrow?”

  “Sure.”

  Lee still didn’t look at her. Feeling her beside him was enough to send heat surging through him. Feeling her watching him was almost too much to handle. Still using the binoculars, he looked elsewhere, moving past the house, the grounds, then down the street in front of them.

  “Damn!” he swore, nearly dropping the binoculars.

  “What is it?” She was suddenly alert next to him.

  “I’d say it’s the FBI continuing their investigation. They’ve parked down the street. We should probably get out of here.” He handed her the binoculars without looking at her and started the car.

  “Are you sure?” she asked.

  “No. But I don’t want to find out firsthand. No doubt your license plate number has been sent across every computer between Chicago and New Orleans. Even if the FBI didn’t stop us to ask questions, they’d still report seeing us to either their friends or Tom. I doubt Alex Kaffel is going to be very happy with us being in the midst of his investigation. And until I get closer to Burke, close enough where a leak isn’t going to hurt us either way, I can’t trust any of them. Not to mention that being stopped by Tom or the FBI would keep us from getting to Burke.”

  Erin’s car was small enough for Lee to make a U-turn and drive off without having to pass the dark car parked farther ahead.

  “So where are we going now? To a discount store to buy rubber masks?” Erin asked.

  “How about O’Malley’s Place?”

  “Are you serious? Do you mean to tell me you don’t plan to put me up in another motel as glamorous as the one last night?” Erin teased.

  “I have enough cash to pay for our stay at the bed and breakfast, so don’t worry,” he reassured her.

  “Maybe by tomorrow, we’ll figure out some way to get Burke to make a move and all this will be over and we can go home,” Erin said, her voice full of optimism.

  For a long moment, Lee couldn’t even reply. Because for a split second, when he’d suggested their spending a night at O’Malley’s, he’d been thinking about the idea that it could be like a wedding night for the two of them.

  But Erin had shattered the notion by mentioning home. Going home. And her home was not his. Could Lee even go home to the cold, lonely rooms of his house after this was over?

  He was still pondering the question when he pulled into the parking lot of O’Malley’s Place. It was a beautiful Victorian house and held added appeal by having the parking situated in the back where the cars couldn’t be seen by anyone passing by on the highway. Lee thought the place couldn’t have looked more inviting if it had a sign in the window that read Come And Spend Your Wedding Night Here.

  Killing the engine, he closed his eyes for a brief moment, trying to push the idea out of his mind. Maybe he’d be better off giving her the cash and then spending the night in the car. He wasn’t sure he could spend another night with Erin, especially a night in a place as warm and cozy as this one.

  But you’ve got to protect her, he reminded himself.

  Taking a deep breath, he questioned his own sanity. Hell, he might as well forget about protecting her, not with all the things he wanted to do to her himself.

  “What’s the matter, Liam?” she asked beside him.

  She placed a gentle hand on his arm. The warmth of her touch seemed to burn its way right into his soul. He really should stay in the car.

  “Is your leg hurting?” she asked.

  “No,” he choked out. No, this was so much worse than any pain in his leg.

  “Then why don’t we go in?” she suggested. “I don’t know about you, but I’d love a shower.”

  She climbed out of the car, and he had no choice but to follow. The cloudy sky echoed with a distant sound of thunder, and Lee stopped a moment to listen to it. Maybe he should just stand outside a while for his shower. Heaven knew he needed a cold one, and it looked as though that same heaven soon was about to provide it.

  Chapter 7

  Lee signed the register that James O’Malley placed before him. “You’re not going to tell anyone we’re here, are you?” he asked, forcing his voice to sound light. “Because I’m sure by now Ellen’s mama has probably gotten some idea that we’ve run away and gotten married and messed up all her plans. She’s probably sent her dogs out to find us, and we’d really like to spend our wedding night undisturbed.”

  This idea of pretending to be married seemed to be working for everyone except him. In fact, he had the feeling that Mr. O’Malley’s major question would be, “Why don’t you act like an eager groom?” Not that it wasn’t easy to pretend. That was his whole problem; it was too easy to pretend. It was too easy to want it all to be real. The smile Lee kept on his face was beginning to make his jaw ache.

  Thank goodness Mr. O’Malley was polite enough not to ask the question.

  Erin hit him on the arm even though she was amused. “My brothers are not dogs, honey,” she chided.

  “Of course, Mr. Robertson,” Mr. O‘Malley said, taking the register, still eyeing them both with a bit of wonder and a small smile. “We remodeled the Sunshine Room specifically with honeymooners in mind. We even put in a bath big enough for two with those jets that make lots of bubbles,” Mr. O’Malley went on, his smile growing. “Will you need any help with your luggage?”

  “No,” Lee replied with a grin. “We never planned this. Would you believe this morning at work, Ellen called me to tell me her mama’s plans for a cake, and I just said, ‘I’m picking you up in five minutes and we’re going to the ol’ J.P. If your mama wants cake, she can eat it herself.’ I figure if we let her plan it all now, she’ll most likely think she can plan out the rest of our lives, too.” Lee had to look away, despite the way the lies seemed to come more and more easily. In fact, the very idea of being married to Erin, of spending a wedding night in a place like this, was getting easier and easier to imagine.

  “That’s been known to happen,” Mr. O’Malley said, his heavy Irish accent coming out more than ever. “Let me show you to your room.”

  He led them up the stairs to a lovely yellow room. Lee barely took in the old-fashioned wallpaper in a yellow flower print or the antique furniture or the matching yellow curtains draped on the windows. What held his attention was the huge, canopied bed. Of course it was a big bed, with enough room for himself and Erin.

  Was it his imagination, or was Erin staring at that beautiful, inviting bed, too?

 
Hell, he’d spent last night pressed up against her on a bed. Why did this one hit him so much harder?

  Because this one was a wedding-night bed, that’s why, came the answer. It was warm and comfortable, meant for a long night of loving, not a quick roll in the hay as the other was. That answer hit him like a swift jab to his solar plexus, making it suddenly hard for him to draw in a breath.

  “Well, here you are. You should have everything you need, but if you don’t, just pick up the phone. Mrs. O’Malley’s usually on the switchboard. The door locks from the inside, but if you, ah, have any need to leave, you can get a key from me.”

  “Thank you,” Erin muttered.

  Lee couldn’t say a word, his throat so tight he felt as though he must be choking on something.

  “And,” Mr. O’Malley went on, “we serve supper in the dining room if you’d be wanting anything, but it’s extra.”

  Suddenly, he was gone, leaving the two of them alone in the beautiful room. Lee could just imagine this room with its large windows and cheerful decor on a brilliant summer morning with the sun pouring in. Dropping the bags, that held everything they had, he sank into a nearby overstuffed, high-back chair, propped his feet up on the ottoman and closed his eyes.

  He didn’t have to open them to know that Erin sank onto the bed. He heard her movement as the mattress shifted. More than that, he imagined her there.

  “What do we do, Lee?” she asked quietly.

  Make love, he thought. Start the wedding night. Forget about Burke and Doreli, and most of all, forget about my best friend, Tom. “Rest,” he choked out, still not opening his eyes. “Just rest.”

  “Does your arm or your leg hurt?” she asked.

  “No.” Surprisingly, it was the truth.

  “Good. I’m going to call Burke’s secretary, pretend to be some rich socialite and see what I can find out about Burke’s party tomorrow.”

  Lee heard the mattress shift again with her movements. “What if Mrs. O’Malley is listening in when you go through the switchboard?”