He figured the police would question Lola- him, too-but they would have no proof to tie either of them to anything. With no evidence, the case would get shoved in a file and just be one of a thousand other unsolved crimes in an area of the country that had its share of crime.
“Are you sure that’s the wisest thing to do?” Lola asked after he’d relayed the latest.
“Yep. We’re going to hide in plain sight. Let everyone know you’re in town.” He thought of that red dress she’d been wearing the other night when he’d driven to her house. He’d liked that dress. It had been classy and sexy at the same time. Then she’d changed into shorts and that T-shirt and he’d about lost his mind. “Maybe act like we can’t keep our hands off each other. That we’re so hot for each other that when we leave a little bar I know, people will naturally assume we’re headed straight for bed instead of breaking and entering into your ex-fiancé’s.”
“Hmm, are you sure that will work?”
“Yeah, I’m sure. So wear something memorable,” he added before he pushed the disconnect. He tossed his cell on the passenger seat and prepared to wait for the first shadows of dusk. He leaned his head back, closed his eyes, and tried to catch a few, but his thoughts of Lola made sleep impossible.
He’d ended up spending the weekend with her, and it seemed as if he’d spent a lot of it right there on her purple sofa, surrounded by all those doily pillows while Baby laid on the top of the couch by Max’s head and licked Max’s ear.
Lola hadn’t made him sit through six hours of Pride and Prejudice as threatened, but she had popped in some boring-as-hell Kevin Costner flick about some guy building a boat. Max had fallen asleep, but Lola had woken him in time to catch a part of another movie. One about Mel Gibson reading women’s minds and knowing what they really wanted. He’d kind of liked that one, although his favorite Mel movie would always be the first Lethal Weapon.
The Carlyle family reunion hadn’t been the torture he’d envisioned. In fact, they’d all seemed to be real down-to-earth people, and for some reason they’d liked him. He supposed that had a lot to do with Lola herself, and her stretching the truth so far that he’d come off as a hero who’d saved her from all but certain death.
After they’d eaten at the reunion, he and Lola had returned to her condo and sketched out an op plan. Then he’d gone to bed. Alone. And for the second night, he’d gotten very little sleep. He’d left early the next morning for Charlotte and checked into a hotel just so he could catch some z’s before meeting with the Duke people the following day.
He was obsessed with her. When he wasn’t with Lola, she wasn’t far from his thoughts. He’d been in Charlotte for two days, but it had seemed longer. As he’d met with the heads of the Duke Power Company, she’d played hell with his concentration. That had never happened to him before. He’d always been able to focus on the job before him.
But as he’d toured the Duke facilities, pointing out the weak links in their security, images of her popped into his head. The way she’d appeared in her backyard, the moonlight tangled up in her short hair. Simple things, too: the way she smiled when she walked toward him and held out her hands.
After he’d concluded his business in Charlotte, he’d planned a short stop off in Durham. It was on his way home, and he always had the excuse of going over the final details of their plan with Lola. But in the end he’d driven past every exit. He hadn’t given in to his weakness to see her.
Oh, yes, he was definitely obsessed. And there was only one thing to do about it. As soon as he took care of her problem for her, as soon as he handed her those photographs, he had to stay away from her. No more excuses. No more playing hero just to insinuate himself in her life. He had to get out before his thoughts got any crazier, before he was in so deep, there was no way out for him. Before he did something desperate and gave up his life to be with her. Before he changed who he was to fit into her world. Before he changed so completely he didn’t know who he was anymore. Before he was nothing.
Yeah, once he put her on a plane back to Durham, he’d get back to his own life.
Chapter 14
The hard beat of rock and roll poured through the Foggy Bottom, thumped against the walls, and pounded like a heartbeat through the soles of Lola’s lavender python sandals. The air inside the Alexandria bar was thick with cigarette smoke and the smell of beer. In the back room, the lamp above the pool table shone down on the green felt like a tent of light as Lola slowly leaned over and hooked a finger over her cue stick. She glanced at the man at the opposite end, awash in smoke and shadow, light bathing the bottom half of him. His arms were folded across the front of his navy polo, muscles bulging. He held his own stick in one hand. The lamp provided just enough light to see that his brows were lowered in a scowl over his blue eyes.
Lola bit the corner of her mouth as butterflies fluttered about in her stomach. She lined up her shot and tried not to think of what she and Max had planned for later that night. Even though she would love to zap Sam with a stun gun, the last thing she needed or wanted was to get caught breaking into his house. Her nerves were frazzled, and Max’s black mood made everything worse.
“Six ball in the corner pocket,” she said, even though she doubted anyone could hear her. The balls smacked together, and the six rolled neatly into the pocket by Max’s right thigh. Lola rose, pursed her lips as if she were striking a pose for a lipstick ad, and blew across the end of her stick. Just as she’d suspected it would, Max’s scowl turned a bit more grim. She picked up her chalk and moved toward him, peanut shells crunching beneath her four-inch heels. “I told you I’m a shark,” she said as she came to stand beside him. “Might as well pay up right now.”
“You need to stop bending over the table like that,” he said just loud enough for her to hear. “Everyone is staring at you.”
“I thought that was our op plan,” she reminded him. “To attract attention. Hide in plain sight. Remember?”
“We never discussed you flashing your breasts and butt.”
Lola glanced down at herself. At her dark purple bandeau top that showed a bit of cleavage and flirted with her navel and the waistband of her python miniskirt. Under her skirt she wore a purple thong so she wouldn’t have a panty line, and beneath the bandeau, her purple bustier kept her breasts in proper order, but the boning dug into her ribs. She’d yet to create a bustier that was completely comfortable. “You said I was supposed to make sure people noticed me. I think they’ve noticed.”
“You were supposed to come in and flip your hair like other fashion models.” He turned to her and let out an exasperated breath. “And that’s another thing. What’s with the hair? It looks like you just got laid.”
She smiled and ran her fingers through the big loose curls she’d separated with pomade. “I thought that was the point, too. To make people believe we’re together. Am I the only one here who remembers the plan?”
“No, I remember. I just had no idea you’d get off the plane wearing nothing but a little snakeskin.”
“It’s Dolce & Gabbana.”
“It looks like a purple python wrapped himself around your ass.” He shook his head. “I never should have let you out of the car dressed like that.”
“Max,” she sighed, now as exasperated as he, “you can’t tell me what to wear. So don’t ever try.”
He glanced behind her toward the bar. “I’m going to have to bust some heads before we get out of here tonight, and I’m really not looking forward to that.”