All That Sparkles (Siren Publishing Classic) Read online

  I sigh, relieved. “Well, I hope you’re able to sleep tonight with all that traffic.”

  I kiss and hug them both, and then I head off toward the police station to do my civic duty, or, at least, pretend to. Mainly, I just want to see Detective Dreamy again. I also haven’t decided whether to actually identify anyone, even if I can. My life is just now getting on-track where I can relax and act my age, which, at twenty-four, is still relatively young. Do I really want to invite trouble with the Iron Horse owners?

  It’s actually a long drive to the police station from Aunt Jo’s house. But I finally make it there, as promised, and find the main entrance. But I have no idea where to go now.

  “Detective Dream—” I stop short once again. “Um…Danny, I mean. Detective Logan.” I curse myself and tell me to shut-up.

  A rather plump female officer slowly rolls her eyes upward to peek at me over the counter. I notice the buttons on her shirt are stressed to the point of popping, and a half-eaten glazed donut rests beside her on a small paper plate. She is definitely prime joke fodder, but I resist.

  “Is he expecting you?” She sounds like she just swallowed a helium balloon.

  “I think so,” I say uncertainly and she squints at me skeptically. I give her a wide-eyed nod. “Yes. Definitely, I think.”

  She picks up the phone like it weighs twenty pounds and presses two buttons with her long, manicured fingernail. Her puckered face suddenly breaks into a radiant smile and she begins to draw little circles on the desk with her finger.

  “Hello, Danny? Yeah, this is Sheila.” She pauses, giggles, and then pretends to blush. “You stop that, you rascal. Listen, you have a visitor here at the front desk. Should I send her back?” She looks at me and her smile fades. “Okay then. Okay…stop it!” She giggles again, draws more circles on her desk, says bye-bye, and hangs up. Frowning now, she nods her head toward a door behind me and says, “Go back.”

  “Um…thank you.” I hear the door buzz and I go through, grateful to be done with my first inquisition.

  Uncertain exactly where I’m going, I walk slowly down a long, paneled hallway. There are offices on both sides of the hall, and I feel like an intruder as the inhabitants look up from their phone calls and their computer screens to watch me pace by. Still, I continue on until I reach the very end.

  “Ms. Carter! There you are. Come in.” Detective Logan stands and walks around his desk toward me. I almost forgot how handsome he is. He takes my hand to shake it, grabbing my elbow with his other hand. His fingers graze the side of my breast and I’m afraid I’ve come a little in my panties.

  Overcompensating for my nervousness, I smile like an idiot. I think about the donut lady at the front desk and I’m certain he must have this effect on all women.

  “Thank you.” Best if I keep my responses short, I decide.

  “Can I get you anything? A Coke? Water?”

  “No, I’m fine. Thank you.” Stop thanking him.

  “Okay. Well. Come with me then. We need to go over to the booking room.” Booking room? He holds the door open and gently guides me out of his office.

  I step past him into the hallway, brushing my arm against his chest and it gives me chills. “Thank you,” I say for the third time in as many minutes. Stop it, Dammit.

  “We have to walk to the next building. Sorry, I should have just met you over there.”

  I shrug. “It’s okay. I don’t mind walking.”

  “Good. Because now we get a chance to actually talk.” Huh? His icy blue eyes sparkle menacingly.

  “Talk? About what?”

  “I don’t know…I see from your file that you aren’t married. You have a boyfriend?”

  Zing! I try hard not to swoon. “Um…no, I don’t,” I say bashfully, trying not to melt into a heap of wiggly Jell-O.

  He opens the door to the front reception just as flirty cop at the front desk finishes off her donut, all in one bite by the look of it. Her eyes grow as huge as her cheeks at the sight of Dreamy, and I think briefly that she resembles a chipmunk. She claps her short stubby fingers with her long blue nails across her overstuffed mouth, obviously mortified.

  He, however, seems not to notice. “We’re going next door,” he says, winking at officer chipmunk.

  She nods, smiling as best as she can with her mouth full, and gives him a little wave. “Mm…hm…”

  Outside, we follow the sidewalk toward a large metal building, which I assume must be the booking room. “So. No boyfriend, huh?”

  I decide he must be trying to fix me up with someone, an ugly friend, perhaps, or donut cop’s brother. I must not get excited. “Nope. No boyfriend,” I repeat as nonchalantly as I can.

  He cuts his eyes at me and grins the sexiest grin ever aimed in my direction. Zing! Zing! I remember my dream from last night and my eyes glaze over like the donut on flirty cop’s desk. A thousand dark thoughts race through my mind at once, a montage of sexy, a sex-tage—me, reluctantly capitulating to his flaming deviancies, pink fluffy handcuffs on my wrists, fuzzy six-inch hooker heels on my feet, his hot naked body, my face on Angelina Jolie’s hot naked body, and suddenly, I forget how to walk. Holy fuck shit! I stumble, unrecoverable, just a hair’s breath away from eating pavement for lunch.

  “Whoa!” Surprised, he tries gallantly to catch me. Instead, I pretty much head butt him in the stomach, my face sliding down the length of his torso before finally coming to rest flat against his zipper, his dick practically in my eye. Not the hole I imagined it being in at all. I recoil in horror, springing to attention, and nearly taking out his eye in the process. What the fuck is wrong with me?

  “Oh my God. I’m so sorry. Are you all right?” I try to turn the tables and make it all about him and his safety.

  He laughs. “I’m fine. Are you all right?”

  “Um…yeah,” I whisper, suicidally humiliated.

  He places his hand beneath my chin and lifts my face gently so that I have to look at him. It’s painful and I really just want to slink away.

  “I think you’re blushing.”

  “Yeah. This is my Fifty Shades of Red impression. What do you think?” That’s it, deflect with humor.

  He chuckles, but doesn’t move his eyes from mine. “I like it. In fact, I think you might even be cuter when you blush, if that’s possible.”

  I stop breathing for a few seconds. “Um…thank you.” Here I go with the thank-yous again.

  “I didn’t mean to embarrass you.” He starts walking again and I follow him, laser-focused on my feet now.

  “I think I embarrassed myself.”

  “Why don’t you let me take you to dinner to make up for it?”

  I look at him, surprised. “Seriously? Is it allowed?”

  “Well, I didn’t ask anyone for permission. But I did see that you were over twenty-one. So, I assumed…” He gives me an aren’t-I-cute and don’t-you-just-want-to-rip-my-clothes-off-and-screw-my-brains-out smile that I find I can’t resist.

  “Oh. No. I meant…you know, me being a witness, and you…never mind. Yes, I am over twenty-one and I do eat. So, yes. I suppose it’s fine.” I roll my eyes at myself.

  Finally, we reach the booking room building and once again he holds the door for me. “After you,” he says smiling and I float in.

  The space is huge and it’s full of cops and civilians alike, all bustling around busy doing who knows what. I follow Dreamy around like a cat waiting for a treat, down several corridors, past at least a dozen offices, and through many greetings and nods until we end up in a small room on the other side of the building.

  “Hey, Lenny!”

  “Danny! How’s it going, man?” Lenny crosses the room with a few strides, obviously happy to see us. He grabs Dreamy’s hand and shakes it enthusiastically. He reminds me of a high school kid, with his skinny jeans, Converses, and hipster geek glasses.

  “Is this her?” Lenny looks at me, interested for some reason. Or, is it curiosity?

  “Yes. This is her. Elli
e Carter.” Danny smiles and I wonder immediately what he’s said to Lenny about me.

  “Nice to meet you. I’m Lenny.” He shakes my hand with almost the same vigor as Dreamy’s. “Come over here and let’s get you started.” He waves his hand and I follow him to a table full of computers and ink pads and other contraptions I’ve never seen before. “And, when we’re done, I have some pictures for you to look through.” He points toward the computer at the end of the table.

  “No problem.” I smile, still high from the exchange with Dreamy on the way over. “Where do you want me first?”

  After saying “ahh” and swabbing my cheeks, Lenny moves on to my digits.

  “I hope you’re not having to miss work to do this,” he says, making polite conversation.

  “Oh, no. I work shift-work. This is my three-day weekend before I go back on midnights.”

  “Ew. Midnights. That can be rough. Where do you work?”

  “Stegner’s Chemical Plant out on Highway Six. It’s not really that bad. I usually just sit in the control room alone and read.”

  “Really? By yourself all night? Is that safe?”

  “It’s a chemical plant. There’s nothing really there that anyone would want to break in and steal. We don’t keep any money around.”

  “You never know with all the crazies out there these days. I bet you get bored to tears, though.”

  “It’s not so bad,” I say. “Probably not as exciting as your job. But I do get up and go out every hour and do my rounds, just to make sure everything is running okay and all the hoppers are going. The hardest part is the dust. And, all the stairs, I guess.”

  “Relax your hand,” he says, rolling my index finger on a piece of paper in a way that makes my entire body try to do a cartwheel to follow it.

  I look over at Dreamy who seems to be pulling up more photos on the computer, and I wonder where he’ll take me for dinner, and if he’ll kiss me goodnight, and whether he’ll bring his handcuffs. And, then I realize he didn’t say when, where, or what time, which makes me panic because I’m certainly not going to ask him. Maybe it’s one of those open invitations that never goes anywhere, just hangs out there in outer space because no one ever acts on it. But he doesn’t strike me as the type to not close a deal.

  “Hey, Danny!” a familiar voice interrupts my thoughts.

  “Cal! Hey! How are you?” Dreamy replies.

  Cal?

  Chapter Seven

  Dreamy stands up and walks behind me toward the door. “Long time, no see. What are you doing here?” I can’t turn around because Lenny has my finger in a choke hold.

  No. It can’t be him. I work on devising a quick stratagem as Lenny presses my pinky finger into the ink tray. First, I try peering casually over my shoulder, but my neck just won’t spin around like that girl’s in the Exorcist movies. I try looking at the reflection in Lenny’s glasses, but he catches my head bobbing up and down in front of him and he thinks I’m trying to hit on him.

  “Well, I came by to have lunch with the guys and kill a few minutes.” Is it me? Or, did he emphasize the word ‘kill’? “I thought I’d pop over and say hello, but I heard you were busy with someone.”

  “All done,” Lenny says as if on cue. “Here you go.” He hands me a moist towel to clean my hands and I wipe my fingers slowly, not quite ready to turn around and face the dashing duo.

  “Yeah, I am kinda’ busy. But speaking of…” I can tell Dreamy is looking at me and I grimace. “Let me introduce you to Ellie Carter. She’s actually the witness from the club last night.”

  Slowly, I turn around, trying to appear innocent and carefree. I almost lose my breath at the sight of the two of them together. Dreamy looks like he just stepped out of an Esquire catalog, organized and neatly groomed from his handsome head to his shiny wing tipped shoes. Blond hair, blue eyes, with a hint of maturity and sophistication, I don’t think any woman would kick him out of bed for eating crackers. And, then, there’s Satan, otherwise known as Cal, who by contrast looks like he could have just fallen out of bed, and probably did, with his tousled black hair, dark brown eyes, and boyish features. Built like a brick shit house, I wouldn’t be surprised if his middle name was Temptation. It seems a crime to have this much hotness in one room. Someone arrest them and charge them with excessive hotness!

  I give myself a mental slap. “Hi.”

  “Nice to meet you, Miss Carter.” Cal grins and walks toward me with his hand stretched out. “I’m Cal Stone.”

  So…the Devil wants to play…

  I smile sweetly and accept his hand. “Just Ellie.”

  “Cal here works for the club,” Dreamy explains. “It’s really kind of good that he’s here.”

  “Yes, it is,” Cal agrees, looking at me with an impish grin. “We certainly appreciate all your help with this. I hope you’ll let me know if you need anything.”

  “We were just about to look at some photos if you want to join us.” Dreamy walks over to one of the computer tables and pulls out a chair, I assume for me to sit.

  “No. I’m afraid I need to run,” Cal says, never breaking our gaze. “Do you think you’ll be able to identify someone?”

  “Um…I’m not sure. It was kind of dark,” I say hesitantly, glancing at Dreamy who appears disappointed by the news. Now, I feel like crap, as though I’m letting him down. Damn you, Satan.

  “I see.” Cal nods, looking secretly pleased, the red flecks in his eyes sparkling like lava. “I can understand that.”

  “But then again, when someone tries to kill you, you really don’t forget them too easily,” I add stubbornly.

  Cal’s smile fades and his eyes narrow into spooky slits. I feel my blood pressure spike.

  “Just remember what I said.”

  “What? What you said about what?” Surely he wouldn’t threaten me in front of Danny?

  He pauses. “About helping you, of course. Let me know if I can do anything.” He smiles, knowing full well that I caught his meaning.

  “Danny, I’ll see you later. And, Ellie…it was a pleasure. I hope your family appreciates what a devoted public servant they have in you.” My family?

  Before I can properly assess the threat level of his remark, he leaves. What did he mean by ‘my family’? That was him driving past Aunt Jo’s house earlier. I know it was.

  I spend the next hour in front of a computer looking at mugshot after mugshot, rerunning my conversations with Cal over and over in my head. Did he actually threaten me this morning? Was he actually threatening my family this afternoon? Was he wanting to let me know that he knew where I was today? Maybe, I’m just assigning dark, ulterior motives to every innocent little thing he says? Ha! I doubt it.

  I try to focus on the photos. Some of the men look like hard felons capable of eating small children and shitting out senior citizens, while others look like they could be on Misty’s dating site. And, probably are, I’m sure. But fortunately, none of them look like the man I saw at the club last night. I’m not even sure what I’ll do if I do see him.

  “No luck?” Dreamy comes in carrying a cup of coffee in each hand.

  I shake my head and stretch. “No. I’m sorry.”

  “I didn’t really expect that you would find him,” he admits. “But it was worth a shot. Here.” He hands me a cup of coffee. I stare at it, wondering if he knows that I like two sugars and lots of cream, but I doubt it.

  “It’s black. I wasn’t sure what you liked.”

  “That’s fine.” I take a sip and, as I feared, it’s horrible. I must make a face because he immediately apologizes.

  “Sorry for the coffee. I know it’s strong, but a lot of us have to live on it around here.”

  “Oh, it’s good.” I take another sip to prove how much I love it.

  “You need to work on your poker face, I’m afraid.” He smiles at me in a way that makes me bashful. “You don’t have to drink it.”

  “Well, it’s a good thing I’ve never been much of a gambler, I gue
ss.” I push the sludgy brew aside. “So, how long do I need to keep doing this?” I nod my head at the mugshots.

  “I think you’ve been punished enough for one day. Why don’t you go and I’ll let you know if anything turns up.” He glances over at Lenny who’s engrossed in another project now. Comfortable that no one is listening, he leans over and whispers into my ear conspiratorially. “In the meantime, maybe I can pick you up for dinner tonight around eight?”

  Thank God! I smile and nod, relieved. “Fine.”

  Lenny looks up from his computer screen when I reach the door. “You leaving?”

  “Yes, I am. Good luck with the prints.”

  “Thanks. It was nice meeting you. Maybe I’ll see you soon?”

  “Hey…knock it off.” Dreamy teases. “I saw her first and I called dibs.”

  “That’s the problem with you detectives. You always call dibs.” Lenny shakes his head, smiling.

  “Thanks again, Miss Carter,” Dreamy says as he opens the door. I’m sure the formality is for Lenny’s benefit.

  “You’re welcome, Detective Logan.” I smile and wind my way back to the exit.

  Outside, it’s already starting to get dark and there’s a definite chill in the air. I hurry back toward my car, hoping to rush home in time to shave my legs before Dreamy shows up for our date. I smile, thinking about Aunt Jo’s dating advice. If you don’t trust yourself to be a good girl, just don’t shave your legs. It sounds simple, but it’s really sound advice. Lord knows, it’s kept my pants on me many times. But tonight, I opt for Misty’s dating tip. Shave everything, save nothing.

  Almost to my car, I’m watching my feet as I walk, careful not to trip again as I consider whether I should call Rachael and tell her about my date before or after I actually go on it. As I debate the pros and cons of each, I crash headfirst into someone else. I’m nearly knocked on my ass but for a steadying hand that grabs me.

  “Oh my Gosh! I’m so sor—” I look up to discover that I’m nose to nose with Cal Stone, deep dark eyes, long black lashes, and all. My breath catches and I blink several times to be sure I’m not conjuring apparitions.