In Too Deep: A Romantic Suspense Novel (52 page)

"Yes," Tabby said, lifting her head. "I just... I can't fall asleep without thinking he's going to be there. I know Mark took care of him, but still, it's hard."

"Then tonight you come home with me," I said. "We're watching
The Crow
, and if you haven't gotten sleepy after that, I'm soaking you in my bathtub until you feel like nothing but silly putty. Oh, that and we're both stuffing our faces and having a girl's night. If Mark comes home in the middle of it, well, he can be our man servant and paint our toenails or something."

For the first time, I saw Tabby smile, even if faintly. "You boss him around like that, huh?"

I smirked and rolled my eyes. "Not quite, but I can get away with it sometimes. When it's important. He's a pretty good sport like that."

"Deal," Tabby said, letting go of me to pack her bag. "So what's got you two out so late anyway?"

"Big plans," I said. "I'll tell you about them at home."

I led Tabby down to the parking lot where she saw as I put my hand inside my purse as I walked. It was one of the little tricks Mark had taught me. "What's in there, anyway?" Tabby asked after she had gotten into the passenger seat of my Jaguar. "Don't tell me you're carrying."

I sat down in the driver's seat and started the engine, which growled with muted power. "Not unless I plan on using it," I said, "but it sometimes pays to look like I am, even if I’m not. Here, take a look."

I handed over my bag and backed out while Tabby rooted through my little purse, which contained nothing more than my Sophie Warbird driver's license, a box of Tic-Tacs, my phone, and seventy three dollars in bills. "No credit card even?" Tabby asked.

"The phone's got a chip built into it, I can use it as a credit card or even access a Paypal account if I want to," I said. "But as you can clearly see, no 007 Walter PPK or even a knife in there."

Tabby relaxed and chuckled, closing my purse and setting it on the floor between her legs. "You know, I should get you to give me a ride in this thing more often. You know I took the light rail to work today?"

"No, but I'm not surprised," I said. "Your place is less than two blocks from a station, and there's a station a block from here. It's gotta be cheaper than a car."

"It is, but that doesn't mean I can't enjoy the luxury of Italian leather seats," Tabby replied, leaning back and closing her eyes.

She was silent for the rest of the drive, so much so that I thought she had fallen asleep by the time I pulled in. When I shut down the engine, I saw that Tabby was looking at me with a look I had seen before in her eyes. "Why do you keep doing this, Sophie?"

"What's that, Tabs?" I said, hitting the button for the automatic garage door. I waited for the door to close and the extra locks to engage. Yes, the door was solid, and was technically rated against an F-5 tornado, although our city hadn't had a tornado recorded in the past century. Just another Marcus Smiley quirk that conveniently doubled as a good security feature.

"Why do you keep looking out for me? You win the lottery of all lotteries in life, finding a wonderful guy who loves you for who you are, is totally loaded in addition to being a hottie and good in bed, and you could have run away with him anywhere on the planet. But you came back, have saved me twice now, and have set me up for career success. Why?"

"Because I love you," I said simply. "What other reason do I need?"

I got out of the car and waited for Tabby to get out. I could see the questions in her eyes, and I took her hand. "Tabs, you're a wonderful woman, I've said that so often I feel like it's running on repeat in my head sometimes. I pray every day that there is someone out there for you like Mark is for me. I'm sure there is, I have no doubt. Until you find him, I'm here for you."

Tabby swallowed and nodded, smiling at me with a bittersweetness that broke my heart. "I know. Trust me, I know. Thank you.”

I decided to deflect the situation with some levity. I could tell that she needed to relax and have some fun. "Good. Then let's get some sweats on, get a bit of cheesecake, and Brandon Lee on the big screen. Did you know Mark outfitted one of the rooms in here with super sized two person bean bag chairs, a HD projector and surround sound?"

"Oooooh. You know just how to speak my language," Tabby said, her smile more relaxed and natural.

"Excellent. One more thing," I said as we went inside the main portion of Mount Zion. "We're giving you back your natural red, or at least something approximating it."

"Why? If you get to go purple, why can't I go black?"

"Because our friendship demands at least one redhead, and if I do it, it's going to be fire engine red."

"Good point."

A
round midnight
, the closing credits of the movie were rolling. Tabby was asleep next to me, her left leg thrown over my thigh and her head pillowed on my breast when Mark came in. "Shhh," I said quietly after he had done his double take and realized who it was. The movie was a big hint, I think. "We have a visitor."

"I see," he whispered, carefully taking the quarter of a cheesecake from me and taking a bite. "Thanks for leaving me some dessert."

"She needed it," I said, stroking her hair. "She was pretty messed up, but she'll get better."

"Okay," Mark replied, not needing any other commentary. He trusted me, which is spoke deeply to me. "Should I just bring you two a blanket?"

"That'd be nice," I said, smiling. "Thanks. How was your work?"

"I'm prepped as much as I can," he said. "Need a few little tools, but we can discuss that in the morning. I'll help you with yours tomorrow."

"Okay. I love you," I whispered. Mark smiled, blew me a kiss and stood up, taking the rest of the cheesecake with him. I turned and pulled Tabby a little bit tighter, wrapping both arms around her before dropping off to sleep myself, barely feeling it when Mark draped the blanket over us.

B
oth Sophie
and Tabby were pleasantly surprised when I brought them breakfast the next morning, about the only breakfast I knew how to make well, Southern style biscuits and sausage gravy. I found them spooned together on the large bean bag, both of them looking tiny in the middle of the immense sack, which I had ordered to be more than large enough for me and Sophie. Setting the two plates on the low coffee table in front of them, I went and got my own plate and set it down before waking them up. "Good morning ladies," I said, sitting cross legged on the far side of the table.

Tabby groaned, while Sophie rolled and stretched before blinking and looking at me. Tabby sat up, giving Sophie a chance to finish rolling and start rubbing circulation back into her left arm. I could understand, she and I had fallen asleep on the bean bag before, and it was tricky. The surface was shifting and soft enough that you could stay that way all night, but you still woke up with a pretty wicked case of pins and needles in your forearm. "Wow, breakfast in bed," Tabby said sleepily. "He is perfect."

"Not quite, but I'll keep him," Sophie said, running her fingers through her hair. "Hold that thought though, I need to use the potty."

Tabby apparently had to as well, as both girls disappeared for a few minutes, coming back looking like they'd both washed their faces and maybe swirled some mouthwash before coming back. In any case, both girls looked much more refreshed, Tabby pulling her hair back into a quick ponytail.

"Wow, country boys can survive," she said after taking a bite of her biscuits and gravy. "Now, if you tell me you made these biscuits from scratch, I'm going to have to kidnap you and keep you for my own. Or just invite myself to live here permanently."

"Actually, I wanted to talk to the two of you about that," I said, setting my spoon aside. While you can eat biscuits and gravy with a fork, spoons work much better for scooping the gravy up into your mouth. "How would you like to live here?"

"What do you mean?" Tabby said, grinning foolishly. "Mark, just because I slept together with Sophie doesn't mean I need to move in with you guys."

"You wouldn't be," I said, causing both women to look at me like I was crazy. I looked from Sophie to Tabby. "You didn't fill her in on our plan?"

Sophie shook her head. "I was going to leave that decision to you."

"What plan?" Tabby asked.

"We're going to go into our end game," I said, leaving out a lot of details. Sophie could understand that people had to die, I wasn't sure if Tabby could. "If our plan goes well, then both sides of this criminal chokehold on the city will get broken."

Tabby took another bite of her breakfast, chewing while she digested the information I'd just given her. "Okay, so what part of that means I live here and you don't?"

I shrugged. "If things go well, Marcus Smiley and Sophie Warbird will have to disappear. But that puts us in a bit of a pickle. You see, one of the things we've used in our long term game plan is the financial investments that you set up for us. We're tied in with how many companies now in the city?"

"You're approaching forty," Tabby said after a moment. "I was just working on your quarterly report last night when Sophie rescued me from the office."

I nodded. "That sounds about right, and there's a lot of money that is in our investment fund that we haven't even touched yet. Tabby, I can't just disappear without those companies going through hell, especially if it comes to light that the money is tainted. So I need another way out."

"What's that?" Sophie asked, curious. I hadn't filled her in on this, but I figured we had time to discuss it later.

"Another layer to our corporation," I said simply. "Before the final steps of our plan, Marcus Smiley and Sophie Warbird make a very public departure from the city, supposedly to look at more investments overseas. We come back into the city discreetly, and take down Lynch and the Confederation. In the meantime, our local investments are put into a corporate trust, with the manager and president of Smiley Investments here in town being Tabitha Williams."

Tabby thought about it for a moment, eating the rest of her breakfast. "If you two do that, are you going to disappear again afterwards? Permanently?"

I shook my head. "Marcus Smiley and Sophie Warbird might, but there's a set of backup identities I prepared for us. It might be a bit quieter, less purple hair and flamboyant fashions, but we wouldn't disappear forever."

"More plastic surgery?" Sophie asked.

I shook my head. "No, I don't think it'll be needed. But even if we are recognized, we can still go back to the Smiley and Warbird identities. It'll just be a more low-key version." I turned my attention to Tabby. "So what do you think?"

"Hmmm," she said, pretending to consider the option even though I could read the truth in her eyes. "Good salary package?"

"I was thinking a percentage of all profits, and a low end guaranteed package," I said, "I'll trust you to draw up the contracts and stuff like that. But you'll also get a nice benefits package as well. I was thinking housing, a car, and of course other things if you can think of them."

"Can I play with your guys' guns too?" Tabby asked, grinning. "I know you have an arsenal or two around this city."

"We have four," I replied, "and no. You'll know where they are, but you don't want the heat that some of that stuff would bring down on you if the ATF ever really searched them."

"What sort of heat?" Tabby asked, smirking. The smile faded as she saw the look on my face. "No, seriously, what kind of heat?"

"Minimum of fifteen years, Federal prison," I replied. "Maximum, if they ever tie in some of those weapons to the stuff they've been used for? Life."

Tabby gulped and nodded. "Well, I've already been involved in one shootout with you guys, I guess I might as well accept it. So by keeping me out, they can see I never used them, and I'd just be able to play dumb."

"Pretty much. So, what do you think?"

Tabby looked at Sophie, then over at me. "When you're ready, I'm ready. Just give me a few weeks warning to put in my resignation at the office."

I nodded, and finished off breakfast. "Deal. Draw up the paperwork, this plan of ours isn't going to take long."

After breakfast, Tabby took a shower while Sophie and I washed up. "Sorry I didn't tell you about my plan for Tabby," I said as I used a soapy sponge on the frying pan I'd used for making my gravy. "I was going to talk to you about it today, but after finding you two last night, I didn't want to wait."

Sophie, who was drying off the plates, shook her head and kissed me on the cheek. "No, I totally understand. The only thing I would have done differently is give Tabby the option to come with us, but if you want to come back, well, that's okay too."

"She means a lot to you, doesn't she?" I said, finishing the pan and setting it to dry on the hook on the rack.

"She's like a sister to me,” Sophie said softly, in a tone that told me she cared for Tabby deeply, although it wasn’t something I didn’t already know. She's the second most important person in my life."

"Then she's the second most important person in mine too," I said simply. "If you want, we can talk to her about all three of us leaving, but if she can get by for three or four months without us again, we'll be back. Besides, if things go right, there's another reason I'll want to be back in town by then."

"Oh, what's that?" Sophie asked, putting her towel away.

I put my hand on her belly, smiling. "If things go right, Tabby can become an aunt."

W
illiam Henry Harrison High School
was one of the oldest, most prestigious private high schools our entire part of the country. Graduates routinely were admitted into Ivy League universities, and sported a performing arts program that was so strong it routinely was compared to New York's LaGuardia High School. In fact, the school counted five Grammy winners among its alumni.

Getting on the grounds wasn't too hard, actually. The school used janitors that were outside contractors, one that despite claims to the contrary, used a lot of day laborers. It was pretty easy to use a bit of special effects makeup to add a scar to my cheek, some temporary hair color to turn my hair a two tone brown and blonde, and fake a contract with the day labor company that dispatched the janitors.

That morning, I used my freshly minted ID badge to scan my way through security just like the other three guys on the cleaning team. It was getting late, just after five thirty in the evening, but I knew that Han Faoxin would still be at work. Despite her second life as one of the biggest crime lords (or Lady) of the city, she was a pretty good teacher, and that day she had debate team that lasted until six o'clock. Afterwards she would probably stick around another hour before any of her night time work began.

My plan was simple, to take her out in her room when she wasn't prepared. Unfortunately, the school's scanners were much more advanced than a simple metal detector, so I couldn't even bring a ceramic knife onto the grounds. Instead, I had to made do with what I could get within the school.

I was pushing a mop bucket slowly down the hallway when "Anita Han" came around the corner, chatting with one of her students.

"So next week I want you to focus on tightening up your rebuttals. You have the facts down, and your rhetoric is good, but you tend to ramble a bit too much in between points. Remember, debate isn't quite the same as public speaking where you can keep the audience in the palm of your hand for twenty minutes. In debate, you're being held to a very strict timeline, and the moderator will cut you off if you go over that time."

"Okay Ms. Han," the student, a pretty little girl who was probably a junior or senior, replied. She looked like the sort of girl who was probably involved in student government, and in a more innocent time would have been dating the quarterback of the football team. She had that sort of innocent sweetness to her. "Is there anything else?"

"Not at all Stacey," Faoxin replied. "Just remember that next practice you're doing the moderator's role, so I want you listening and giving good feedback to your teammates. They kind of let you down today, so that's why I asked you to stay late. See you tomorrow."

Stacey disappeared around the corner, and I waited another minute before making my move. Pushing my mop past the now open door to Faoxin's room, I saw her sitting at her desk, checking a pile of papers that looked like they might have been a set of tests or something similar. In any case, her head was down, which is what I wanted. Pushing my mop and bucket inside, I went inside the room.

"One of you guys already got the garbage," Faoxin said, not raising her head. I was glad, since it meant there was a greater chance of her not being totally focused on who I was.

"Mopping," I said, intentionally pitching my voice soft and slightly lispy. I didn't want her knowing who I was just yet. "Sorry."

Faoxin kept her head down, and I took the opportunity to pull the door closed behind me. I didn't know if the other door to the room was locked or not, but it at least cut off the room visually. Faoxin looked up when she heard the door close, her eyes wary. She looked at me for the first time, her eyes widening as she realized who I was. "Snowman."

"Fao," I replied, using the shortened name we had used years before when I had been her bed partner. "Long time no see."

Faoxin set her papers aside, keeping her hands where I could see them. That didn't mean I didn't think she wasn't hitting some sort of panic button with her foot, and we had less than five minutes to finish this. "I didn't think I'd see you so soon," she said, smiling. "I was kind of hoping that our history would have given me a bit more time to enjoy my life, or maybe you'd let me walk away without having to be killed."

"After what you've done since your father died, did you really think that was an option, Fao?" I asked, setting my foot against the shaft of my mop. I stepped hard and twisted, snapping the wood a bit shorter than I would have liked, but still giving me a stick that was just over two and a half feet long. "Han Faoxin, you have failed this city."

Faoxin rolled her eyes and got to her feet, picking the pen up off her desk. She reached down and pulled a long metal ruler from under her desk blotter, and even from across the room I could see the glitter of the sharpened edge. I suspected that while perhaps not as sturdy as a real sword, the wrapped end and relatively hefty weight would give her more than enough cutting ability to inflict major damage if she had the chance.

"You know, that was one of the reasons I stopped seeing you," she said as I closed the distance between us. She swung her blade, and I pulled back, just out of range before trying to dart in with my own thrust with the partially sharp point of the break. "You were never short for cheesy one liners."