Getting Rid Of Bradley

Chapter Ten

When Zack and Anthony came in the back door, Lucy was startled. She dropped a spoon back into the cake batter she was stirring and wiped her hands on a dish towel. “You’re back early. What happened? What’s wrong?”

Tina appeared in the doorway from the dining room and made a face when she saw Zack.

“Nothing,” Zack said, his hands in his pockets. “We found the money. But we found something else, too.” He stepped to one side.

Behind him was the most pathetic-looking dog Lucy had ever seen.

“You poor baby.” She sank to her knees on the bare wood floor and held out her hand.

The dog limped over to her instantly, and Lucy began to scratch it gently behind the ears, trying not to cry.

Zack had brought her a dog. Nobody in her life had ever brought her a dog. They rolled their eyes when they found out she had three, and they acted as if she were crazy, and they made jokes about her zoo. But Zack had brought her a dog. A wonderful dog that obviously needed her. And him.

She looked up at him. “Where did you find him? He must be starving. Tina, get me the biscuits. The poor baby. Where did he come from?”

Zack snagged the biscuit box off the counter and crouched down beside her. “Actually, he’s full of hamburger. He was in Overlook, but he’s a nice dog.”

“He’s a beautiful dog,” Lucy crooned as Zack fed him a biscuit.

“That’s the ugliest dog I’ve ever seen,” Tina said from the doorway.

Anthony met her eyes. “Thank God. I was starting to feel guilty, because I wouldn’t have touched it with a cattle prod.”

Zack and Lucy ignored them.

“All he needs is a bath and some food,” Zack said. “I’ll give him a bath tonight. We’ll take him to the vet tomorrow if that limp doesn’t go away.”

“He’s precious,” Lucy said, and the dog sighed and lay down beside her with his head on her knee.

“And he’s not that much bigger than Heisenberg and Maxwell,” Zack said. “He won’t be much trouble.”

“He won’t be any trouble,” Lucy said. “But he’s going to be a lot bigger than Heisenburg and Maxwell. Look at his feet.”

The dog had feet as big as saucers.

“He’s only half-grown,” Lucy said. “That’s probably why whoever had him dumped him in Overlook. He wasn’t a puppy anymore, so they didn’t want him.” She scratched the dog behind the ears again. “I think people like that should be shot.”

“Well, he’s ours now,” Zack said, trying not to sound pleased. “Just what we needed, another dog.”

“We have room,” Lucy said.

Tina and Anthony exchanged glances.

“We’ll have to think of a name,” Zack said, and Lucy said, “You get to name this one.”

“Okay,” Zack said, and patted the dog’s hip. “Pete.”

“Pete?” Lucy stopped scratching. “Pete?”

“I had a dog named Pete when I was a kid,” Zack said defensively. “It’s a real dog’s name. Not like…well, some I could mention.”

“I didn’t know you’d had a dog.” Lucy smiled at him suddenly. “Okay, Pete it is.” She scratched the dog behind the ears again. “Hey, Pete.”

Pete drifted off to sleep, his head on Lucy’s knee.

“I COULD HAVE FIXED YOU up with somebody rich who’d bring you diamonds,” Tina said. Zack and Anthony were gone again, the dogs had been introduced to their new brother with a minimum of snarling, and Lucy was stirring her cake batter again. “But you want a guy who’s never going to make six figures and who brings you flea-bitten dogs.”

“Yes,” Lucy said.

“You’re hopeless,” Tina said.

WHEN ZACK CAME HOME at six, he walked Tina out to her car.

“There’s something I’ve been wanting to ask you from the beginning,” Zack said as she got in her sleek red two-seater.

Tina looked at him impatiently.

“Why did you put those locks on Lucy’s house?”

Tina shrugged and started the car. “I didn’t want Bradley taking anything out. It was her house.”

“Bull,” Zack said. “I don’t believe it.”

Tina started to say something nasty and then stopped and cut the engine. “Get in the car.”

Zack went around to the passenger side and got in, sinking down into the butter-soft black leather seat.

“Give,” he said.

Tina took a deep breath and turned to face him. “I’m afraid of Bradley.”

“What?” Whatever Zack had been expecting, it wasn’t this. “I didn’t think you were afraid of anything.”

“I’m not afraid for me.” Tina drew back, annoyed. “I’m afraid for Lucy.”

“What did he do?” Zack said, murder in his voice.

“Nothing,” Tina snapped back. “If he’d ever done anything, I’d have had him arrested and executed. This is why I didn’t want to say anything. He never did anything. Get out of the car.”

“No,” Zack slouched lower in the seat from stubbornness. “You don’t have to prove anything to me. If all you’ve got is a feeling about him, that’s fine. Just tell me. I need to know.”

Tina frowned at him.

“I need everything I can get on this,” Zack said. “I’m afraid for her, too.”

“It’s hard to explain.” Tina stared across the steering wheel at the empty street. “It was the way he looked at her. Like she was the most precious woman in the world and he owned her. It used to scare the hell out of me.” She turned to face Zack. “He hated me. But it wasn’t because of what I said or did. It was because Lucy loved me. He hated that. He wanted her all to himself. And he hated the dogs, too. Anything that Lucy loved, he was jealous of. He scared the hell out of me.”

Zack tried to stay calm. “Did he ever lose his temper? Hit her?”

Tina flushed, and Zack remembered too late that she’d been married to a man who had. Before he could apologize and get himself in deeper, Tina went on.

“No. He treated her like…a queen. He didn’t know her, not the real Lucy.” She stopped and then tried again. “When you first meet Lucy, she’s very quiet and polite because she’s shy.”

“The first time I met her, she beat me up in an alley.”

Tina smiled suddenly and Zack was amazed. It was Lucy’s smile, and Tina was an entirely different person with it. “Well, then you know the real Lucy.” Tina’s smile faded. “Bradley didn’t. He thought he was marrying this…I don’t know, this quiet, proper, wife kind of person. I think she tried to tell him that she wasn’t, but he didn’t want to see anything that wasn’t what he wanted. And he was awful when she wasn’t what he wanted. She told me that he wouldn’t speak to her when she was wearing jeans. He just pretended that she wasn’t there if she wasn’t wearing what he wanted.”

Zack clenched his jaw. “I really hate Bradley.”

Tina nodded. “I know. It’s the only thing you and I have in common.”

“Why did she stay with him?”

“She’s not a quitter. And he wasn’t beating her or cheating on her or even yelling at her. He never yelled. So she just moved upstairs and they lived this very polite fiction. I honestly think Bradley may have preferred it that way. Making love to Lucy was probably too emotional for him.”

“Bradley is an idiot.”

“No,” Tina said. “Bradley is scary as hell, but he’s not an idiot. That’s another reason why I hated him so much. I didn’t think he would ever be dumb enough to do something that would make Lucy divorce him.”

“Ah,” Zack said. “I begin to see the light.”

Tina clenched the steering wheel as she remembered. “When Lucy called me, crying, that day, I wanted to kill Bradley, but I was also really grateful. Because he’d finally done something wrong. I bribed a locksmith to get there in minutes because I knew he’d be back, and I was afraid she’d let him in and listen to him.” She turned to look Zack in the eye. “Lucy is very fair. I’m not.”

“Good for you,” Zack said, looking at Tina with unqualified approval. “You know, I like you.”

“It won’t last,” Tina said. “I’m a bitch. Ask Bradley. You should have heard the things I threatened that man with when he showed up at the door. I think I seriously told him I’d have him killed. Not just as a figure of speech. The real thing. I threw everything I had at him, shrieking.”

Zack’s smile broadened. “I really like you. Thank God you were there.”

“He’s not going to just go away, you know.” Tina looked very sober. “He’s not going to give up. He’s almost…obsessed with her. This government bond thing may be keeping him busy right now, but he’ll be back for her.”

Zack spread his hands. “Hey, I’m here. I’m not leaving her.”

“Well, that’s another thing.” Tina darted a glance at him. “He’s going to be furious about you. I’d watch your back very carefully if I were you. Bradley’s too proper to ever do anything actually illegal in the normal course of things. But if he lost his temper for once, I think he could be homicidal. And the person he’d kill would not be Lucy.”

“I’ll remember that.” Zack grinned at her. “I didn’t know you cared.”

Tina shook her head. “I’m not joking.”

“Listen, people try to kill me all the time. It never happens. I’m Superman.”

Tina rolled her eyes to the heavens. “Oh, terrific. Listen, I don’t give a damn who you are. Right now, you’re the only thing standing between my sister and that…that…”

“Rat,” Zack supplied.

“No,” Tina said. “That homicidal loon who wants her back. You be careful. We need you.”

“Relax. I’ll be careful.” Zack hesitated, and then plunged on. “Listen, as long as we’re being honest here, I should probably warn you. You’re not going to like this, but I’m going to marry your sister. She hasn’t said yes, but she will.”

Tina sighed. “I know. I’m past that. You’re not my choice, but you’re Lucy’s. She won’t admit it yet, but you are.”

Zack relaxed. “Well, that’s a load off my mind. I want you on my side. You’d make one bitch of an enemy.”

“And don’t you forget it,” Tina said, narrowing her eyes. “If you ever hurt my sister, I’ll cut your liver out. Now get out of my car. I’ve got things to do.”

Zack opened his car door and then, on an impulse, leaned over and kissed her on the cheek. “You’re not that tough,” he said and then slid out of the car before she could retaliate.

“WHAT IN THE WORLD were you talking to Tina about?” Lucy asked when he found her in the kitchen, pulling cupcakes out of the oven.

“I was asking for your hand in marriage.” Zack opened the refrigerator. “She said sure. What’s for dinner?”

Lucy froze, the cupcake pan in one gloved hand. “She said sure?”

“She knows quality when she sees it. We’ve got steak? When did we get steak?”

Lucy put the pan down and slid another unbaked one in the oven. “Tina brought it,” she said, easing the oven door shut. “And her cook made stuffed potatoes, too.”

“You know, I like your sister a lot.” Zack took the steaks out and started opening cupboards, looking for a pan.

Lucy’s mouth dropped open. “You do? You really like Tina?”

“Oh, yeah. She’s great.”

Lucy looked at him closely to see if he was being sarcastic.

He wasn’t.

“What kind of pan do you cook steaks in?” he asked, his head in one of the bottom cupboards.

Lucy gave up and went to find the broiler.

ON FRIDAY MORNING, Anthony came by with bad news. He stood in the living room and watched Zack mediate a truce among the dogs, and then he dropped his bomb.

“We’ve made the paper, but we’re not on the front page. Another plant closing, more graft at city hall, and storm warnings for a major snowfall headed this way, but not us. We’re on page two. The guy at the paper said he could have done better it we’d actually caught somebody, but just the bonds alone weren’t very interesting.”

Zack stood and left the dogs to stare suspiciously at each other. “Oh, come on, we’ve had two bombs here.”

Anthony shook his head. “I tried that. Both already reported. Yesterday’s news.”

“Hell, they made the front page.”

“Yes, well, if there’d been a bomb in the box, this would have, too.”

Zack sank down onto a chair arm. “So all we can hope for is that John Bradley will read the paper all the way through. Great.” He looked up at Anthony. “We’re screwed.”

“Possibly,” Anthony said. “Maybe John Bradley reads his papers cover to cover. But just in case he doesn’t, do not take your eyes off Lucy.”

“I never do,” Zack said.

ON SUNDAY EVENING, they put the dogs out in the backyard and sanded the kitchen floor. Zack had sent Anthony out for varnish, and he’d brought back three gallons and a spray can.

“What do we need spray varnish for?” Lucy asked.

“Touch-ups,” Zack said. “Whatever can go wrong, will go wrong. Be prepared.”

Lucy looked over at him and felt her breath catch, the way it always did lately when she looked at him. He was on his knees, scraping at the last stubborn spot of glue before they began to varnish, giving it the considerable force of all his attention. His shirttail was out of his jeans, and his hair was rumpled, and his eyebrows were drawn together as he concentrated. He looked solid and electric and safe and exciting and like everything she’d ever wanted, and she felt her breath go again, just watching him.

She slumped back against the cabinets and tried to breathe normally as she looked at him. Even now, semi relaxed, he looked like a coiled spring. She ached to touch him, to feel all that electricity under her fingertips. There was so much energy in Zack, it flowed into her, too. And some of her calm went into him. Maybe he was right. Maybe they should get married. Because she knew for sure that after only two weeks, she never wanted to be with anyone else. Ever.

How could she ever want anybody else but him?

She thought of all the times in the past few days that they’d laughed and argued and talked to the dogs, and even just sat side by side together in front of the fire, warm and happy from just being together. And then she thought of how they’d made love together in the past week, how hard his body was under her hands, how sweet his skin tasted under her tongue, and her heart began to beat faster. She closed her eyes and thought about loving him there on the floor, pulling his shirt from his shoulders and running her tongue down his body, tasting him everywhere. I can’t believe I want him this much, she thought. I want all of him, all the time, everywhere.

I was never like this before.

It must be Zack.

He looked up then and caught her staring at him. “What?”

Lucy blinked.

“I told you to cut that out.” Zack pointed the scraper at her. “What?”

Lucy hesitated, torn between her usual reserve and surging lust. Zack opened his mouth again and she cut him off. “Wait a minute. I’m trying to think how to say this.”

Zack frowned and rolled off his knees to sit with his back against the stove. “Don’t think. This is me. This is us. Just say it.”

“Okay.” Lucy swallowed. “Okay. Well. Okay. It’s like this.” She opened her mouth to speak and then shut it again. It was such an inappropriate thought. Saying it out loud was out of the question.

She blinked again.

“What?” Zack said, exasperated.

“I want you,” Lucy said. “I want you… in my mouth.” She blushed. “I want you hard in my mouth.”

Zack closed his eyes for a second. When he opened them, he said, “You know, you’ve got to quit taking me from zero to eighty in two seconds without a warning, or I’m going to have a stroke.” He tossed the scraper over his shoulder and rolled back onto his knees to crawl across the floor to her. “Come here.”

Lucy met him halfway, and he pulled her to him. She arched up into him to feel the pressure of his chest on her breasts as he pushed her down onto the stripped wood floor and she ran her hands up his sides under his shirt to feel the hardness of his body. And when he kissed her, his mouth warm and open against hers, she wrapped her legs around him and pulled him tightly to her.

And the phone rang.

“Oh, hell.” Zack pulled back from her, breathing deeply from her kiss.

“Ignore it,” Lucy said breathlessly and pulled him back down to her, licking her tongue in his ear as she unbuttoned his shirt.

Zack said, “Right,” and kissed her again, stroking his tongue into her mouth as he moved his hands over her. He ripped open the snap on her jeans and slid the zipper down, sliding his hand down into her jeans as he kissed her harder. Lucy rocked with the charge that surged through her, arching her hips up to meet his hand and biting him on the lip.

And the phone rang again.

“I want you so much,” she said, her eyes locked on his. “All the time.”

“Lucy,” he said and fell into her to kiss her again, pulling her up hard against him.

She pushed up at him, tilting her hips so that he rolled onto his back and she was balanced above him. He ran his hands up her sides under her big work-shirt and then back down to pull her hips tighter against his.

And the phone rang again.

She leaned forward onto him to shove her jeans off, laughing as her ringers tangled with his on the waistband as he helped her strip them down over her hips, stopping to kiss him again.

And the phone rang again.

“Oh, hell.” Tack stopped as his hands gripped her hips. He glared in the direction of the living room. “If that’s Anthony, he’s not going to quit.” He rolled and tipped her off him gently and kissed her.

And the phone rang again.

Zack sat up. “I’m going to kill him. Then I’m going to leave the phone off the hook.”

“Hurry,” Lucy whispered, and Zack kissed her again, hotly, once quickly and then again, slowly.

“Count on it,” he said when he came up for air.

The phone rang again.

Zack snarled in the direction of the phone and then stood, stopping to look at Lucy for a moment as she lay sprawled half out of her jeans on the floor. “You stay here, just like that,” he said finally. “You stay hot, too. I don’t want to find those jeans on when I get back here.”

And the phone rang again.

“Damn it!” Zack said and went to answer it.

Lucy pushed her jeans all the way off and walked through the dining room to stand in the archway to the living room in her shirt and underpants. Zack turned as he got to the phone, and she held up her jeans and dropped them on the floor. “Ta-da.”

“More,” Zack said. “Take it all off.” He picked up the phone in the middle of the next ring and said, “What?” and then he swore and hung up as she walked toward him. “I don’t know who that is who keeps hanging up-” he began as he turned back toward her.

And then one of the front windows behind them exploded, and Zack yanked Lucy off her feet and onto the floor with him.

“Stay down!” he yelled, and another window shattered, and he rolled with her to a corner near the windows but away from the shattered glass.

“What is this?” Lucy screamed back, clutching him. “What’s going on?”

And then there was silence.

“Are you okay?” Zack was holding her so tightly that she couldn’t breathe. “Are you all right? Tell me you’re all right. Say something.”

“Yes,” Lucy whispered, and his grasp on her loosened. “Those were gunshots, weren’t they? Somebody’s shooting at us.”

Zack let her go. “Just stay down and stay here. Don’t move.” He spoke quietly as he drew away from her, but Lucy could hear the excitement in his voice. She reached out and hooked her fingers in the waistband of his jeans and yanked on it hard. His knees slid out from under him sideways on the hardwood floor and he fell, half on his hip, in front of her.

“Hey, cut it out,” he whispered, annoyed. “There’s glass all over…”

“What do you think you’re doing?” Lucy whispered back. “Where do you think you’re going? Somebody out there has a gun. Somebody out there is shooting at us.”

“I know.” Zack flashed his grin at her as he tried to pull her fingers off his jeans. “Isn’t it great? Let go of my pants.”

“What do you mean, isn’t it great? Are you crazy?”

“Listen,” he whispered, as he peeled her fingers one by one from his jeans. “I’d almost given up hope of ever finding this guy. Now that he’s here, I think I should say, ‘Hi.’ Or something. Now shut up and stay down and stay put. There’s glass all over the place and you’re half naked.”

“No,” Lucy’s voice rose with fear for him. “He’s shooting at you, for heaven’s sake. You stay put. I’m calling 911.”

She leaned forward to crawl across the floor to the phone table, and Zack blocked her. “No!”

“Why not?” Lucy snapped, and the third window exploded, showering the phone table with glass.

“That’s why,” Zack said, pushing her back against the wall. “And also because by now your neighbors will have made the call for you. Mrs. Dover alone has probably called the Army, the Navy and the Marines.” He let her go and started to move away again. “Now stay put. I’ve got things to do.”

“Like getting shot at?” Lucy hung onto his arm. “No. Just wait for the police.”

Zack yanked his arm away from her. “Lucy, I am the police. It’s my job to get shot at. Get used to it.”

“Get used to it?” Lucy sat stunned while Zack began to inch his way toward the dining room again.

“Can we talk about this later?” he said, as he crawled toward the kitchen. “While you’re yapping at me, Bradley is getting away. Stay there.”

“You’re a Property Crimes cop, for heaven’s sake,” Lucy hissed after him. “You’re supposed to be chasing burglars and embezzlers. How many crooked embezzlers shoot people?”

Zack had pulled his jacket from the dining-room table. While she watched, he took his gun from the inside pocket and checked the clip. “More than you’d think.” He snapped the clip back in, and then, before she could reach him again, he was gone into the kitchen, and she heard the back door open and close softly. It was then that she suddenly felt the cold, not only on the outside from the February wind that blew the lace curtains away from her shattered windows, but deep inside, too, and it was the cold inside that made her shudder while she waited for him to come back.

IT WAS VERY QUIET for a while- quiet enough that Lucy could hear sirens in the distance. Gunshots anyplace would bring the police, but gunshots at her place would bring everybody in southern Ohio. It was getting to be like the O.K. Corral. With bombs.

Then she heard the shots.

There were three of them, one right after the other, and then silence.

The silence was worse.

Zack woudn’t shoot first, she knew. Which meant that Bradley had. And once he had fired at Zack, Zack would shoot back. Except he hadn’t.

It was really cold now where she was sitting. The February air was icy, but she hardly felt the wind on her body. The cold that was eating at her would have been the same in August, if she’d been the same place, hearing those shots, and wondering if Zack was bleeding someplace.

Or dead.

She was very calm, she realized. That was good. Amazing, but good. It was amazing how calm you could be when you didn’t know whether or not you’d lost everything that mattered to you.

She heard cars pull up, sirens screaming, and red lights swinging through her living room, and she still sat frozen in the corner of her living room, shivering in the dim light from kitchen, waiting for Zack. She heard voices, but not his, and the dogs barking from the safety of the backyard, and slamming car doors and running feet.

But not Zack.

And I was afraid of commitment, she thought. I was afraid of getting married and getting hurt again.

What could hurt more than this?

Well, there’s one thing for sure. If there was ever a litmus test for love, this has got to be it. If he comes back, I’ll tell him…

If he comes back…

She heard the shouts outside, and then more car doors slamming, and then, after about fifteen frozen, tortured minutes, somebody cautiously kicked the rest of the glass out of the bottom of the middle window and climbed through.

He was too tall to be Zack.

“Lucy?” Anthony peered into the dimness. “Are you all right?”

“He’s dead, isn’t he?” Lucy’s voice came out funny, strained and scratchy.

“Zack? No, he’s fine. He’s mad, but he’s fine. Are you all right?” He came over to her and crouched down beside her.

“Don’t lie to me,” she whispered.

“I’m not,” Anthony said gently. “I wouldn’t. He got shot at but not hit. He’s got nine lives, didn’t he tell you? He’s Superman.” He put his arm around her and urged her up. “Come on. Let’s get you out of this glass. It’s cold in here.”

She stood, shivering from fear and cold, and he looked down at her long pale legs in gloom.

“Barefoot all the way up, huh?” he said, and picked her up.

She buried her head in the hollow of his neck and he carried her into the kitchen, kicking the door shut behind him to get her some kind of warmth. Then he put her down and took his coat off and wrapped her in it while she clung to him.

“I don’t know what I’d do if anything happened to him,” Lucy whispered. “I just didn’t realize it until now.”

Anthony held her until she stopped shaking. “I can’t tell you nothing’s ever going to happen to him,” he said into her hair. “Zack tends to attract trouble. But he’s not stupid, regardless of what he looks like, and he’s not reckless, and he likes life a lot” He tilted her head up with his ringer so she could look in his eyes. “He likes it a lot more, now that you’re around. He’ll be more careful because of you now.”

Lucy swallowed, and the back door opened, and Zack came in and stopped. “Very nice. My best friend and my babe. Unhand that woman, you rat. I’m out there getting my butt shot off…”

“Shut up, Zack,” Anthony said, letting go of her. “Getting-shot jokes are not funny right now.”

Zack took one look at Lucy’s pale face and shut up, moving toward her so fast that Anthony stepped back to get out of his way. “I’m fine,” he said as he wrapped his arms around her. “The guy has no aim at all. Never even got close.” He hugged her so tightly she couldn’t breathe. “I am fine.”

“I know,” Lucy said, muffled against his chest “But it was bad there for minute. Does this happen to you a lot?”

“Hardly ever.” Zack put his cheek against her hair. “And even then, crooked accountants are lousy shots. Most of them are pretty nearsighted, too. And of course, I move with superhuman speed.”

“Of course,” Lucy said, finally looking up at him. Her color was coming back slowly and both Anthony and Zack relaxed. She tried to glare at Zack, but it was weak because she was still so worn-out from the cold and the fear, and he held her close while she buried her face in his coat again. “Listen, you big dummy,” she said finally, pulling back from him a little. “If you ever do that again, I’m going to shoot you.”

Zack tried to look annoyed. “Hey. It’s my job. It’s what puts nachos on the table. Not to mention into your dogs.”

“My dogs don’t need nachos that much,” Lucy began, and Anthony interrupted them.

“Well, since things are back to normal here, I’ll just take my coat and go back out front. You should probably go on upstairs and take the dogs with you, Luce. We’ll be downstairs for quite a while digging bullets out of your wallpaper. We’ve got people coming to board up your windows for the night, too, although if I were you, I’d call your sister and have her put in bulletproof glass for you.”

“My windows!” Lucy pulled away from Zack. “That glass was almost a hundred years old. It was beveled!”

“Sorry about that. My coat?” Anthony held out his hand, and Lucy took it off and gave it to him, still fuming about her glass.

“Nice legs,” Anthony said, grinning at Zack, who moved in front of her.

“You can go now,” Zack said. “Some friend.”

The back door opened again and Matthews came in, followed by the four dogs.

“Don’t let them into the living room, there’s glass all over.” Lucy moved around Zack to stop them, while Matthews watched her with great appreciation.

“Okay, that’s it,” Zack said. “Excuse us.” He pushed Lucy into the dining room and picked up her jeans. “Get dressed. And you, sit,” he said to the dogs who obediently sat down in a row, Pete a beat behind the rest. Then he picked Lucy up and carried her through the living room to the bottom of the stairs, crunching glass as he went. “Go,” he said, putting her on the bottom step. “And don’t come down again until you’re wearing shoes.”

“The dogs,” she said, but there were more people coming through the front windows, so she turned and ran upstairs while Zack watched, scowling.

Then he went back to the dining room and carried the dogs to the stairs, one by one, while Lucy stood at the top and called to them, shutting them in the attic so they wouldn’t go back down. Maxwell, Heisenburg, and Pete enjoyed the trip, but Einstein weighed about eighty pounds and was not happy about being carried. Several people in the forensics unit applauded when Zack finally got him to the stairs.

Lucy called to Einstein and then grinned down at Zack, and he forgot to be mad. “It’s a good thing you’re cute,” he told her, still scowling for effect Then he turned back to the mess in the living room.

“Somebody doesn’t like you much,” one of the technicians said. “Three.38s, right through the front windows.”

“I don’t like him much, either,” Zack said. “The difference is, I’m the good guy and I’m going to win.”

ANTHONY STOOD WITH Zack in the wreckage of the living room when everyone else had left.

“This doesn’t make sense,” Zack said. “We could have been killed. This wasn’t a scare thing. This guy wanted us dead. Or at least me dead. He may not have seen Lucy stripping in the dining room. It was dark in mere and he was looking through lace curtains. He was shooting at me.”

Anthony turned to him, interested. “Lucy was stripping?”

“Yeah. This guy is one hell of a chaperon.” Zack scowled. “This was not John Bradley. This was Bradley Porter. Whether John Bradley read about the bonds or not, this was Bradley Porter.”

Anthony shook his head. “You’ve got Bradley Porter on the brain. This is our same guy, trying to scare Lucy out. I’m going to lean on the paper on this one. The bonds, two bombs, and all Lucy’s windows gone should be newsworthy enough for the front page.”

“It won’t matter. It was Bradley Porter,” Zack said. “I’ll make sure Lucy doesn’t go to work tomorrow, just in case. But it was Bradley Porter.”

IT WAS ALMOST TWO before Zack crawled into bed beside Lucy, shoving Maxwell and Heisenburg aside and waking her from an uneasy sleep.

“Move,” he said. “I’m freezing.”

Lucy, still foggy with sleep, rolled against him, wrapping her warmth around him, and the three smaller dogs settled against his back and across his feet. When he put his arm around her, he could feel Einstein radiating heat against her back.

“You okay?” Lucy asked groggily.

“As long as I don’t try to move. It’s a little crowded in here.” He put his cheek against her hair and held her close. “I’m sorry I scared you, honey.”

“Me, too,” Lucy said sleepily. “Don’t do it again. Although I guess it makes us even.”

“How’s that?”

“I scared you last Saturday, you scared me today. We’re even.”

“No, we’re not. You took ten years off my life to have your hair done. I went after a dangerous criminal. We’ll never be even.”

“Oh, have it your own way.” Lucy shifted a little against him. “Have you got enough room?”

Maxwell put his cold nose against Zack’s neck and made him shudder. “We’ve got to get a bigger bed.” Zack shoved the dog down away from his neck. “Or maybe we could get the kids their own room. What do you think?”

Lucy put her cheek against his chest and held him tightly. “You know, for a while, I thought I’d never have you like this again. And I decided then, if I got you back, I’d make every minute with you count.”

Zack lost his breath, both because of her warmth and because of the ache in her voice. “Every minute, huh? You planning on a lot of these minutes?”

“Every one I can get.” Lucy began to kiss her way down his neck. The dogs spent the rest of the night on the floor.

THEIR FIRST MONDAY argument started at six-thirty in the bathroom when Zack realized Lucy was still planning on going to work.

“Somebody just shot out your windows,” he said, his mouth full of toothpaste while he watched her towel her hair dry. “You could have been killed.”

“Well, in that case, it makes sense that I go to work.” Lucy spread the towel neatly over the shower rod to dry. “Why stick around someplace where somebody shoots at you?”

She tried to move past him, but he caught at the back of her robe, stopping her.

“Luce, it’s too dangerous-”

She shook her head. “I’m going to school. That’s final. Whoever wants in here doesn’t want me, he wants the key, and the paper’s going to print the story on the safe-deposit box today now that the windows have been shot out. It’s over.”

“But the shots last night-”

Lucy got away from him by slipping out of her robe and walking out of the bathroom naked.

“Hey,” he called after her. “I was saying something important” He dropped the robe, rinsed the toothpaste out of his mouth, and hung up his toothbrush next to Lucy’s. Remember to propose again today, he thought. Find a new approach. Then he followed her into her bedroom.

She was wearing pink cotton underwear, and as he walked in, she pulled a fuzzy pink sweater over her head.

“If you think you’re going to win all the arguments from now on just by being naked,” Zack told her, “you’re probably right.”

Lucy pulled her sweater the rest of the way down and laughed, her face lit from inside with love for him.

“At least let me meet you here after school,” he said.

“Thank you. I’d like that.” She turned and bent to pick up her skirt from the bed.

“How long do you have for lunch?” Zack asked, enjoying the view. “We could…”

“Half an hour and no, we couldn’t.” Lucy turned back to him. “I get off at three-thirty. Can you wait that long?” She bent over again to step into her skirt.

“Just exactly that long. I’ll have to speed coming home.” He reached for her as she zipped up her skirt, and she came into his arms, soft and warm and laughing again, and he held her close and thought, We can’t let go of this. Whatever happens, we’ve got to keep this.

“I’M RUNNING LATE,” Zack said half an hour later as he let the dogs out for their morning run. He was wearing a tailored shirt and a tie, and Lucy marveled again at what an adult he looked like when he was well dressed.

“What?” Zack said. “You’re staring at me. What?”

She leaned back against the sink and surveyed him carefully. “I was admiring you. You look very…adult. Sophisticated. Mature. It’s a good look for you.”

Zack scowled. “Don’t say ‘mature.’”

“I like the tie. It turns me on.”

“A tie turns you on?” Zack shook his head. “You are sick.”

“Well, I’ll try to control myself.” Lucy turned back to the sink.

Zack turned her around and bent her back in his arms.

“Never control yourself.” He kissed her long and hard, and Lucy leaned into him, drowning in the heat from his mouth on hers. When he finally let her go, he grabbed his keys and his jacket and then pulled her to him again. “We have a date at three-thirty, babe,” he said. “Don’t dress.” Then he kissed her quickly and went out the door.

Maybe I’ll propose this afternoon, Lucy thought. At about four-thirty.

The doorbell chimed while she was spreading jam on her toast.

Zack wouldn’t ring the front door chime, so it had to be Anthony. She went to let him in.

The man on the porch was tall, dark, and well dressed, and she’d never seen him before in her life. Lucy watched him for a moment through the stained glass in the front door and then turned away. It was rude to leave him standing there, but it was the smart thing to do.

She went back into the kitchen and listened tensely as the doorbell chimed again. Go away, she thought, and tried to figure how she was going to get to her car with that man on the porch. He was probably only selling magazines or religion, but still…she wished that damn chime would stop…

The door chime stopped, and Lucy sighed in relief. She shoved her toast away, her appetite gone, and began to clean up the kitchen counter, picking up Zack’s spray can of varnish last.

And then a black-gloved fist smashed through the glass on her back door and threw the dead bolt.