Adam’s Outlaw Page 12

“That’s what you said. That and a few other things that we’ll talk about later when I’m sure you’re awake.”

  “I’m awake, Adam, I really am.” Her breath exploded from her as she felt the tip of him pressing against her. His eyes were hooded. His breath came quick and hot as he leaned forward, supporting his body on his elbows, letting himself rest against her. Confused, dazzled, she felt her body confirm her desire by lifting itself to him.

  “Wait. Last night,” she whispered. “You said we’d have to wait until another time.” She caught her breath and realized she was urgently stroking his upper arm.

  “This is the other time, darling. I …” He hesitated. “I slipped out early this morning and made a quick trip to the all-night pharmacy. I didn’t want to take a chance on there not being an ‘in the morning.’ ”

  “Oh, Adam, you take care of everything, don’t you. I love it that you’re so controlled, but there are times when you’re much too slow.” Her hips arched up, and he wasn’t slow anymore.

  It wasn’t a dream. It was real and Toni gave herself over to this wild, passionate man with total abandon. She cried out as sensation after hot sensation swept over her, until she felt his violent shudder and knew they’d flown to the sun and back. Afterward she clung to him, sharing the wonder of their coming together.

  Adam gathered her to him, closed his eyes, and slept. When he woke up, she was gone. He tied the sheet around his lower body and went in search of her, walking straight into Annie and Fred, who were sitting at the table drinking coffee with Toni.

  “Good morning,” he said with a half-smile, then put his private reservations aside and kissed Toni soundly.

  “Personally,” Annie said, “I’d give the tension in here a three, Fred. Pressure’s dropped a little. The milk’s still safe for now.” She smiled broadly at Adam and handed him a cup.

  “Yeah,” Fred agreed. “Adam man, your presence here may mean happiness for Toni dear, but about your dress, I’ll have to confess—you’re a leftover sixties mess.”

  Adam tucked his sheet tighter and sat down.

  “Oh, your clothes are dry,” Toni said. “Adam got soaked last night,” she went on in a rush, her face flaming red. “In the rain.”

  “Oh, yeah, it rained downtown too,” Annie said. “Sometime late last night. Very late.”

  It was time to take charge. Adam sat his coffee cup down and said, “Okay, you three. What are you plotting?”

  “Nothing, Adam, darling,” Toni answered with a stern look at Annie and Fred. “I’ve just given them the bad news about our having to scrub the prison farm and find another place for the Swan Gardens people.”

  Adam frowned. “I thought you’d given up on that idea, Toni.”

  “Not the idea, just the location. We’ve already started scouting around. Any suggestions?”

  “The only suggestion I have is that you three stay put while I check in downtown. I promised the chief I’d make a full report today.”

  “Fine, I’m having lunch with my parents,” Toni said. She took a deep breath. “And I don’t look forward to that.”

  “Why is that, Toni?” Annie asked curiously.

  “Because it’s always such a strain. They don’t know what to say to me and I just sit there waiting for something bad to happen. Forget that. I just don’t have the time to waste right now.”

  “Lunch with your parents,” Adam repeated. “That will work out just right. Fred, will you and Annie stick around until she’s ready to go, and maybe drive her over? I’ll pick her up and bring her back.”

  “Nonsense,” Toni said. “I don’t need a bodyguard, Adam. What’s the matter, are you afraid I’ll commandeer another site?”

  “No, I’m afraid you’ll get on your broom and fly away.” He rose lazily, glanced at Fred and Annie as though making up his mind, then gave her a wickedly suggestive kiss before sauntering toward the bedroom. “The only flying you’re going to do is with me. I’d better get dressed.”

  “Good idea,” Annie said. “I don’t know how much the milk can take.”

  “And you think the chicken was a warning?”

  Fred was leaning against Adam’s van, a worried expression on his face. He’d followed Adam outside.

  “That’s exactly what I think. She’s the only one who got a good look at the man paying off Councilman Burns. I don’t buy his story that he was working undercover for one minute, and I don’t think anyone else will either. But he’ll get away with it because we won’t be able to prove otherwise.”

  “Think the bad guy will want his money back?”

  “Do you mean, will he go after Burns? I doubt it. The last thing he wants right now is any public kind of connection to what happened. No, it’s Toni he’s worried about.”

  “So, what will you do, man?”

  “I’m going to move into her house for a while.”

  Fred’s eyes narrowed as he studied Adam intently. “You aren’t making a move on her just to protect her, are you? Since I’ve known her, you’re the first man she’s ever let stay over. I don’t think I’d want to see her hurt.”

  “I won’t hurt her, Fred. I know what happens when a man uses a woman and leaves her.”

  Fred nodded and smiled. “Okay, I believe you. Go make your report and we’ll be Snow White’s dwarfs till you get back. By the way, what kind of house do you live in?”

  “Toni said it was made of gingerbread.”

  “Gingerbread? I should have known. I just hope you two haven’t opened Pandora’s box.”

  “Pandora’s box? Fred, I didn’t know you were a learned man.” Adam climbed into his van and gave Fred a warm smile.

  “Oh, I’ve read a thing or two.” Fred put his hand across the frame of the open van window. “Seriously, Adam, I’ve also read about Humpty Dumpty. And you know how that ended.”

  “You’re wrong,” Adam said quietly. “Toni didn’t sit on a wall, she climbed. She didn’t fall, Fred, she jumped. And she’s still in one piece. Keep her that way.”

  “Maybe,” Fred mumbled under his breath as Adam drove away. “But being a police officer is about as close as you could come to being one of the king’s men.”

  “I’ve always suspected that Burns skated close to the edge, Adam,” the mayor said. “And I’m worried about Miss Gresham. Burns swears the man was just a voice on the phone. He’s still looking at the mug books now.” The mayor was distressed, as Adam had known he would be.

  “What happens if he spots the guy?”

  “We make a deal. The middleman’s off the hook if he tells us who’s behind the bribes. Then we go after the man at the top. This has to be tied in with bringing the Olympic Summer Games to Atlanta in 1996. The old prison isn’t part of the plan, but it is adjacent to the proposed Olympic housing facilities. The site committee won’t release its choice for the games until the fall, but I don’t intend to let Atlanta be compromised.”

  “Still, it doesn’t make sense, sir. Buying zoning is a white-collar crime. But a chicken in her sink? That sounds like voodoo or black magic.” Adam couldn’t deny that he was worried, too, more than he was ready to admit to Toni or Fred.

  “True, that’s why I want you to stay with Miss Gresham. Consider yourself on special assignment to help her locate this building she’s intent on refurbishing. That way you can keep an eye on her and make certain there are no attempts to use her as insurance.”

  “I think I can manage that, Mayor. Any news on vacant buildings that might be available for her project?”

  “No, but I’ve arranged an extension for the Swan Gardens changeover. They’ve agreed to give the residents six months instead of sixty days.”

  Adam grinned. “How’d you manage that?”

  “I have a little influence down at city hall,” the mayor said, and stood, indicating the interview was ended.

  Adam had already opened the door when the mayor’s voice stopped him. “By the way, Adam, why aren’t you in uniform?”

  Adam looked down a
t his wrinkled jeans and shook his head. “Don’t ask, sir. You really wouldn’t believe it if I told you.”

  The mayor was right about one thing anyway, Adam decided as he drove out of the parking garage. He’d have to stop by his house and change clothes. He didn’t know whether the Greshams had ever had a police officer as a luncheon guest before, but he wanted to make a good impression.

  At a quarter after twelve he stopped at the well-known wrought-iron gate that guarded the entrance to the Gresham estate and dismissed the waiting Fred and Annie. It hadn’t been until he’d seen the gate again that he realized he’d been there before, with his mother on one of her day jobs. Ironic, he thought, how he’d come full circle.

  The gate attendant refused to admit him until he showed his badge. Even then, it took a phone call to the house before the gates were unlocked and Adam’s van was allowed inside. Maybe Toni ought to move back home for a while, he mused. She’d be much safer here than in her own house.

  “Adam, what are you doing here?” Toni asked as she opened the door. “Fred could have taken me …” Her voice trailed off as she stared at the man in the doorway. This wasn’t the Rambo Adam, nor the Mel Gibson Adam. This was the kind of casual young-executive type that her parents would approve of. Now why had that popped into her mind? What her parents approved of had never mattered before.

  He was wearing a pair of navy cotton pants, a red polo shirt, and docksiders. But the preppy look would never erase the camouflage fatigues and olive-drab T-shirt he’d worn the first night. In fact, she conceded without argument that anything he wore was pure sacrilege. Standing naked in a flash of lightning was where he belonged. However, she decided with a grin that made Adam lift an eyebrow, the toga would be a close second.

  “The mayor sent me,” he said. “May I come in?”

  “Why?”

  “He’s arranged a six-month-extension for your Swan Gardens people”.

  “I warn you, coming in here amounts to being invited to lunch with the Spanish Inquisition.”

  “I’m ready, outlaw. What happened to your hair?”

  She was dressed in a bright red sundress with a lavender sash and matching lavender sandals. Red plastic earrings dangled to her shoulders, and her blond munchkin curls were spiked into a semipunk look that he knew drove her parents wild.

  “I just used a little bit of mousse,” she said. “Mother hates it.”

  “Hmm. If I’d thought about it, I would have stopped by your hairdresser’s and bought myself a few spikes for courage.”

  “I don’t think you need it,” Toni said, and stepped back to allow him inside. This time her smile was one of inner pleasure. He hadn’t objected to her punk hairdo. Instead, he’d understood.

  “Toni,” a woman called, “bring your policeman in and introduce us.”

  “Your policeman?” Adam whispered. “I like that.” He took her hand and gave her a moon-eyed look. “I do like that, outlaw.”

  She jerked her hand away. “Don’t get any ideas, Kojak. I had to tell them something. They don’t know about the prison farm yet. They know the Burnses socially. I haven’t had a chance to tell them about the bribery attempt.”

  “Don’t tell them. I don’t like letting the lizard off, but with any luck, they might not have to know. By the way, are we engaged or just living together?”

  “Neither. We’re just … friends.”

  “That too,” he said, and gave her a quick but totally wicked kiss.

  Toni managed to battle back the urge to drag Adam off to an upstairs bedroom and led him into the dining room instead. “Mother, Father, this is Captain Adam Ware. The mayor has assigned him to me. We’re working on a project together.”

  Mr. Gresham gazed at Adam with shrewd interest. “Adam Ware, the ex—running back for the Saints?”

  Adam bit back a groan and gave the expected reply. He’d played this game before. “Yes, sir, Mr. Gresham, Mrs. Gresham. I’m happy to meet Toni’s parents.”

  “You’re assisting the mayor, Toni?” Mrs. Gresham asked. “The kind of public-spirited attitude the Greshams have always been involved in? That’s good, dear. What kind of project are you assisting the mayor with?”

  “I’m not working with the mayor, Mother. I’m working with the people who live in the Swan Gardens apartments. They’re being forced out of their homes. I was just telling you about it when Adam arrived. You remember, that dreary housing project?”

  Mrs. Gresham started, then recovered as she said, “But you didn’t tell me the mayor thought it was a good idea. We’re so pleased to have you join us, Captain. Won’t you sit down?”

  “The mayor doesn’t think it’s a good idea, Mother. Neither does Adam.”

  Adam recognized that Mrs. Gresham’s comment had been an awkward but sincere attempt to appear interested. Mr. Gresham, who had been listening to the exchange, unfolded his napkin and picked up his fork. Adam quickly realized that the Greshams didn’t talk with each other. They talked to each other, but they didn’t listen. By the time the meal was finished he had a pretty good idea why Toni lived in a teacup and spouted nursery rhymes.

  Her attempts to discuss with her parents her project, her teaching, or even her relationship with him fell on deaf ears or were met with sincere bewilderment. Eventually Toni cut short her explanations and after a time, gave up talking altogether. Both she and Adam picked at their fresh salmon and jellied consommé in silence. They refused dessert, sipping their iced tea until Mr. and Mrs. Gresham finished.

  “This is a lovely house,” Adam said at last, trying to find some final topic that would ensure a positive response.

  “Yes,” Mrs. Gresham said in her cool yet surprisingly shy way. “We bought it several years ago from the Bransons. You are familiar with Branson Candies, aren’t you?”

  “Yes,” Adam said. “As a matter of fact, I knew both the Bransons. I particularly like their Japanese garden,” he added casually. “The goldfish pond is my favorite spot.”

  “You’re familiar with our gardens?” Mrs. Gresham couldn’t contain her astonishment. “Oh, my, that sounds dreadful, doesn’t it? I’m sorry. I always seem to say the wrong thing, don’t I, Toni?”

  Mrs. Gresham gave a nervous little laugh and looked at her daughter with veiled hope in her eyes. When Toni didn’t answer, Adam realized this scene wasn’t new. He didn’t miss Mr. Gresham’s quietly touching his wife’s hand under the guise of placing his napkin on the table.

  “Yes,” Adam said, “I played there once as a child.”

  “Do I know your parents, Mr. Ware?” She looked at him curiously.

  “I doubt it, Mrs. Gresham.” He gave Toni a private wink. “My mother was Mrs. Branson’s maid.”

  “Oh, I’m doing it again. I’m sorry.”

  She wasn’t. “Mrs. Branson was a kind and generous employer to a woman with a small boy.”

  Toni felt a curious weight roll away. Adam not only understood her mother, he wasn’t intimidated by her. She bit back a warm smile and stood up. “Sorry to eat and run, Mother, but Adam and I have plans to make.” She took his hand and pulled him up beside her, adding in an oversweet voice, “Don’t we, darling?”

  “Indeed we do, darling,” he agreed. “Very nice meeting you.” This time it was Mrs. Gresham who received a conspiratorial wink as he slid his arm around Toni’s waist and asked in a loud whisper, “Your place or mine?”

  There was no mistaking Toni’s gasp or Mrs. Grensham’s smothered smile. For once, Toni realized, she’d gotten some kind of expression of approval from her mother. She enjoyed every second of the silence that fell over the dining area as she and Adam walked down the hall and out of the house. Once outside, Toni let out a peel of laughter loud enough to catch the attention of the guard, who poked his head out of the doorway to his little house.

  “Adam, you were wonderful. Was your mother really a maid here?”

  “Yes, she was. Are your parents really so hard to talk to all the time?”

  “Yes, they a
re.”

  “No wonder you live in the sky. I might take up make-believe myself if I’d had to live here. Maybe, outlaw, you intimidate them. I don’t think they understand you.”

  “Well, the feeling is mutual, I assure you. What did the mayor say?”

  “That I should move into your house and spend every waking moment making mad, passionate love to you.”

  “I don’t believe you. Did he really say that?”

  “No, that’s my idea. What he actually said was that I should spend every minute with you until you find housing for those old people.”

  He opened the door to his van and helped her inside. “What do you think, outlaw?”

  She dropped her eyes shyly. “I think I like both ideas.”

  This time it was Adam’s whoop of joy that brought the guard completely out of the house, his gun drawn.

  Nine

  “Adam, why wouldn’t you let me tell them about Richard Burns?”

  “The mayor thinks it would be better not to let that become public information just yet.”

  “How do you expect to keep it quiet?”

  “It was arranged for the head of the Mad Dog Squad to confirm that Burns was working undercover. Even if it does get out, he can say he was only doing his job.”

  “Well, I don’t think he ought to get away with it,” Toni said. “Once you catch whoever is responsible, I intend to blow the whistle on the old crook, even if he is my father’s friend. It’s time for him to retire anyway, and the city needs somebody on the council who has its best interests at heart.”

  Adam held back his honest reaction. He’d seen this go on before. Burns would probably get off without punishment. He was a member of the good-old-boy network. There’d always been political corruption, and Toni’s idealism wasn’t likely to change that. Still, in order to protect her, he’d agreed to go along, at least until they found out who the kingpin was.

  “Once we find the man behind the deal,” he said, “you can call out your vigilantes and tar and feather him. I’ll even help you do it.” He opened the passenger door of the van for her. “Where to now, outlaw?”