Love on the Boardwalk (15 page)

She stopped in front of the iconic giant Ferris wheel. Craned her neck back to look at it. The sunburst spokes connected to buckets striped in red, yellow, blue and green. It brought back great memories of the summer she spent operating a smaller Ferris wheel in Ocean City to earn enough for a down payment on a car. This one was far superior, being much taller and sitting right on top of the Atlantic. Maybe she’d bring Brad back here later for a ride. And some sexy smooches when the inevitable romantic pause at the top came.

“Don’t move. Don’t scream. Don’t even breathe.”

Something round dug into her side. It could be a corn dog on a stick. Or the end of a hairbrush. But Trina had watched enough cop shows to suspect it was the barrel of a gun. After all, who would threaten her with a corn dog—an angry vegan? Without moving, she slanted her gaze to the side...and down...just enough to catch sight of Ralph’s profile. And a whiff of his really bad cologne.

“There are easier ways to get a girl to ride a Ferris wheel, you know.” It was a lame attempt at a joke. But something about the pressure of the gun on her ribs seemed to short-circuit at least ninety-nine percent of her brain cells.

“Don’t get cute.”

“Sorry. Born that way.”

“You and me are gonna have a little talk. Don’t bother trying to scream or nothin’. I’ll have this trigger pulled before you open your mouth. While you’re lying here bleeding, I’ll just blend in with the crowd and escape.”

“Good to know you’re a man with a plan.” Her plan so far was to stall. To keep him talking until somebody noticed them. Unfortunately, Ralph slid his other arm around her waist, pulling her closer. Worse yet, he angled his body to hide the gun with his gut. And this being Atlantic City, nobody gave a second glance to a woman in formalwear with a feather boa floofing at the bottom of her dress.

He pulled her toward the entrance to the Ferris wheel. “Why did you follow Misty to my warehouse?”

“I want in. I was scared to say anything at the Club, but I need money.” Wow. That was sort of inspired. Especially if he bought it.

Amazingly, his grip loosened a bit. “Thought that might be it. But you’ve got no one to vouch for you. And now you’ve seen the west warehouse.”

“The west warehouse?” Her mind scrambled to focus. Once the gun appeared, Trina had assumed the information in the note was all a lie. “You mean there is more than one?”

Another jab to her ribs. “None of your business. Not yet, anyway. Why should I trust you?”

Trina forced out a dry cackle. “I waitress in a strip club. My boobs aren’t big enough to earn real money there. Clearly, if I had any other option, I’d be using it.”

“I don’t buy it. You’re a smart ass. The truly desperate ones never sass me.”

Rats. If she got out of this, that would go down as another mistake never to make again. Do not back talk to criminals. At least not while they had a gun on her.

“I’m only asking once more. You’ve got to the top of the ride to spill the truth, or I just might spill you over the side.”

The Steel Pier wasn’t an up-to-date mega theme park. It was old and small, and didn’t even have a turnstile for them to squeeze through. Nope, Ralph just marched her right up to the empty, swaying bucket. The operator had stepped away to flirt with the temporary tattoo airbrusher on the opposite side. By the time he came back, they’d be sitting down and wouldn’t look suspicious at all.

Trina stumbled on the front of her dress. To think she’d been worried about dancing with Brad. Instead, she’d danced right into a dangerous mess. Tangoed into trouble. Polkaed into a problem. She bit back a giggle that fizzed with far more fear than humor. If Joe was here, he’d probably sigh and tell her that real P.I.s didn’t giggle their way through scary situations.

That’s when it hit her. Joe’s number two rule—never count on anyone to rescue you but yourself. No more stalling. No panic, no feeling sorry for herself. It was part of the whole package as a junior investigator trainee to get out of whatever mess she happened to stumble into. She had a far better chance down here on the ground than fifty feet in the air. And wasn’t this exactly the kind of moment why she’d gotten all those bruises and endured all that training?

So Trina stepped into the bucket. When Ralph followed, one foot in and one foot out, she slammed down her heel on his instep. Smashed the heel of her hand up into his nose. Followed that up with a hard knee to his crotch. Just to be safe, she did that one twice. As he dropped to the floor of the bucket, howling, Trina slammed the door.

It wasn’t enough. The guy still had his gun. Probably. She sure wasn’t going to take that chance. Trina lunged for the control panel. Skidded into place in front of the clutch mechanism. She squeezed the trigger on the long, hip-high lever and hit the power button. With a squeaky wheeze, the giant wheel started turning.

“Hey! Get away from there!” The gangly operator tried to shove her out of the way.

Trina glared at him. The killer glare that she leveled at people who used their cell phones during a movie. “I’m not moving until the police get here. You want to be useful? Go call them.” When Ralph’s bucket reached the top, she put on the brake, locking him in place. Noticed that her hand was shaking. And that her knees were about as solid as the awful orange gelatin salad her Great-Aunt Matilda used to bring to Easter dinner.

She took one step away from the panel. Raised her head to try to suck in some air and saw Brad running hell-for-leather toward her with Coop just a few steps behind and Darcy bringing up the rear. “Oh, don’t bother—they’re here already,” Trina muttered right before sliding in a boneless lump to her knees. Oh, yeah. Sitting down was much better. Just for a couple of seconds while she processed the whole
almost shot by a bad guy
scenario. Joe hadn’t gotten around yet to schooling her on the official investigator reaction to being held up at gunpoint.

“Trina! Are you okay?” Brad crouched to gather her into a rough hug, spilling kisses all over the top of her head. Coop knelt by her side, carefully running his hands over her limbs.

“Don’t try to cop a feel, Detective Hudson. I’m fine. Well, I didn’t so much stick the landing, but the whole rest of my self-defense routine was picture perfect. I’ve got witnesses.” She pointed at the ride operator. “But I sure could use your handcuffs. Not the fun ones. The real deal. I’ve got an armed perp locked up.”

“Where?”

“Up, I said.” And she pointed to the top of the Ferris wheel before giving in to the delayed fear and throwing her arms around Brad’s neck. A good junior investigative trainee knew exactly when to hand everything over to the pros.

* * *

Trina dug her toes into the cool sand beneath the Steel Pier. It felt great after standing on the cement above them talking to the police for three hours. “Do you think they’ll give me an award? I wouldn’t mind a shiny medal on a ribbon to pin onto the bulletin board above my desk.”

Brad tossed his shoes down next to hers. “That’s why you’re in the P.I. biz? For the glory?”

“Well, it isn’t for the money. I cracked a credit card fraud ring involving three strip clubs, and still don’t have a client to bill for all my toasted coconut chocolate lattes.”

“True.” He took her hand and walked them closer to the dark water. “But I have heard of cases where the credit card companies pay out a reward. That ought to be enough to keep you in coffee drinks for a while.”

For a split second, Trina wondered if the Mob and Big Nicky would be grateful enough to pony up a reward, too. Not that she’d accept it. That’d be a mistake not even worth learning from once. But it’d be fun to graciously turn down their offer.

“I did get to keep all my tips from waitressing. That’ll cover gas money to get me back home, at least.”

Brad’s hand tightened on hers. A real knuckle-cruncher. “Is that where you’re headed? Back to Baltimore? Or do you head north from here?”

Well, that was all kinds of adorable. Her big, hot hunk of a cop was trying to grill her on their future. “I hope you’re more subtle when you’re questioning suspects.”

He looked straight ahead at the frothing waves crashing onto shore. In a low, thick voice Brad said, “Depends on how badly I need an answer.”

Trina’s heart triple thumped. When her laid-back cop turned serious and intense, it was intensely sexy. “Here’s the thing—I’ve been a big old chicken.”

“With almost no training you just took down an armed felon. There’s not a chicken bone in your body.”

“I was plenty scared,” she corrected him with a shudder of remembrance. “But I didn’t let the fear stop me. And I can’t let fear make up my mind for me about what comes next. Being scared of a couple of months of college courses? Worried that I’ll get bored of stability? That’s no way to determine what my career will be. This case, the thrill of solving it all by myself, made up my mind. I’m going to take the classes and get my P.I. license.”

“Really?”

Insecurity tugged at her. Probably because she was still a little shaky and emotional. Or because the flat tone of that one word didn’t give away how he felt about her decision. “Do you think I’m not ready? Or not smart enough for it?”

“Stop that.” Brad moved behind her and wrapped his arms around her waist. “You just found and solved your first solo case. You’re plenty smart. As long as you go home every night with a smile on your face, I’m good. Be whatever you want. An astronaut. An alfalfa farmer. Or even a private eye.”

Trina tipped her head back to rest against the broad wall of his chest. It felt...right. As though she belonged, nestled there. Suddenly she could picture them back home, standing just like this at a Halloween party, or a big family dinner. Even standing in line at the movies. And she wanted that vision to turn into reality.

“I know there will be plenty of long, boring stakeouts and even more boring paperwork. But I also know there’s enough variety in investigation to more than keep me interested. Although I could do with fewer brushes with death in the future.”

His arms tightened as he leaned down to nuzzle her neck. “Me, too.”

“I like figuring out people. It’s always been one of my passions. I can still fit my passion for fashion in, too.” She couldn’t wait to sketch out a handful of standard disguises to keep in her trunk.

Brad’s hot breath warmed her ear. “Any chance you can find the time to squeeze one more passion into your life?”

Maybe a shiny medal wasn’t the best souvenir she’d take home from this trip to the Boardwalk. Trying to sound oh-so-casual, when in reality her heart was tap-dancing, Trina asked, “Got something specific in mind?”

He circled around to stand in front of her. Dropped his arms to his sides. “Me.”

Yes! Trina wanted to jump on him. Or do the happy booty-shake and make Brad join in. But curiosity poked at her. What would he say? How would he convince her if he didn’t know she was already a slam dunk straight into his heart? “Go on.”

He tried to jam his hands into pockets that simply didn’t exist in those tight dance pants that hugged his ass so well. When that didn’t work, Brad grabbed her hands to pull her toe-to-toe. “Dana did me a favor by dumping me. It made me realize that a solid relationship isn’t about sharing one part of myself—it’s about two people sharing everything with each other. Sharing the fun and the mundane. Sharing the worry and excitement of similar careers. I want to do that with you, Trina.”

The only thing that could make this moment more perfect was if it wasn’t so dark. She wanted to see his eyes. When they made love, they turned an almost navy blue with intensity. Trina was guessing they’d just turned that color again. She raised her voice a little to be sure he didn’t miss a word over the pounding surf. “I like everything we’ve shared so far. And I’m pretty darn passionate about wanting to see what else we can share, too.”

His white smile flashing
was
visible. “So you’re really not moving to Annapolis?”

“Nope.” She stood on tiptoe to rub up against him, hands planted firmly on his ass. “Want to give me a reward for staying?”

“Depends. Is committing to a serious boyfriend on top of a lifelong career too much boring stability all at once for you?”

“I bet that being with you will be way too exhilarating to ever be considered boring. You know what? I promise to do my fair share of whatever it takes to keep things spontaneous. Starting right now.”

Trina peeled the straps down her arm and shimmied out of her dress. Brad hooted in delight. Whipped his shirt off over his head without bothering to waste any time unbuttoning it. As soon as his pants were unzipped, and in only her underwear, she ran across the hard-packed sand. Brad caught up before she hit the surf. Now that they were out from under the pier, the moon haloed his hair and she could see the joy sparking out of his eyes as he grinned back at her. It was the twin of the grin she felt threatening to crack her face right in half with happiness. Might as well start this thing with as much fun as they planned to keep having in the future. So hand in hand, they plunged into the cool, frothing waves.

Three Months Later

“I know we rented this cabin just so we could sit in the hot tub and toast at midnight, but how about we do it in front of the fireplace, instead?” Trina put her face against the window. Pulled back just enough to breathe a foggy circle onto it, then drew a heart with
B
+
T
inside. “It looks cold out there.”

“That’s the sort of crack investigator Joe’s turning you into? Foot and a half of snow on the ground, and you think it just
looks
cold?” Coop ruffled her hair as he walked by.

He’d only beaten Brad to the joke by a second. Probably for the best, though. That kind of teasing went over better coming from a friend than a boyfriend. At least, if that boyfriend wanted to have hot vacation sex in a couple of hours.

“Hey, keep your hands on your own woman,” Brad said as he moved to stand behind Trina. Circled her waist—what he could feel of it through the layers of turtleneck and black sweatshirt with
Happy New Year!
picked out in silver sequins—with his hands as they stared out, past the steaming hot tub at the snowpack covering Deep Creek Lake. There were lights in a few other cabins across the wide expanse, but mostly it was burnished with a pearly glow of moonlight reflecting off the frozen-over lake.