"Bobbie?" Cruz called up the stairs, closing the door loudly behind him. "Bobbie, are you here?" What a stupid question, he berated himself. Her car was in the driveway. Majandra's toys were scattered across the living room carpet, but his pretty daughter was nowhere to be found. To say his meeting with Brenda had left him feeling unsteady would have been the biggest understatement since mobsters could go legit without a body count.
"I'm in our room." Bobbie called out softly. She couldn't go on like this. Laura was right, as she always was. She had to ask him straight out what was going on. If he had found someone else, then she would figure out a way to live with it. But she could not continue in this limbo.
"Bobbie." Cruz breathed, spotting her on the bed. His relief was short-lived when he saw the open suitcase sitting beside her. For now it was empty. She wouldn't look at him. "What...?"
"I need answers Cruz. I can't live this way anymore."
"What way?" Cruz demanded, barely able to keep his temper in check. He walked over to where she was and slammed the suitcase shut.
"What way? You're never here. You shut me out of your life. You've been keeping secrets. Strange women call here looking for you and you never explain them."
"Secrets? Women?" Cruz repeated, not sure which to explain first.
"Have you found someone else?"
"What? No!"
"Then what is going on? Who keeps calling here and not leaving messages? Why are you never at the office anymore? What is going on?"
He should have assumed she would jump to conclusions. One minute he was down in the dumps and the next he was practically dancing throughout the house. Never did he stop to explain the reasoning behind either reaction. No wonder she was wary. He couldn't let her leave him. He knew he wouldn't survive it.
Taking her hand in both of his, he took a deep breath and said, "The reason I'm never in the office is because I don't work there anymore. The truth is I haven't worked there in a while. I've taken on a business partner. Her name is Kate Howard. We've been working, for the past several weeks, on ways to bring down Jasper Jacks. I didn't want to tell you that he has control of The Insider because I was ashamed to."
"Ashamed? Why would you be ashamed of that? I knew he was aiming for The Insider and it was a possibility."
"How did you know?" Cruz had done everything he could think of to make sure she never found out just how vulnerable the newspaper was, how incapable he was.
"The day he came here to the house. I heard him." Bobbie admitted. "What I don't know is why you didn't feel you could come to me about this."
"How could I come to you in pieces?"
"Baby, for better or for worse, remember?"
"I remember promising that I would take care of you and our little girl."
"That means we need to know what is going on. Taking care of us means being here with us."
"Were you really going to leave?"
"If you were going to continue to lie to me, yes."
"I'm sorry I lied to you. I should have been able to see past my own stupid pride and talk to you about this." He brought her hand to his mouth and kissed the inside of her palm.
"I should have told you what I was feeling before we got to this point." Bobbie admitted smiling at him, running her free hand through his hair.
"Are we okay?"
"Is there anything between you and this Kate Howard?"
"What do you think?"
"I don't know what to think anymore."
"From the moment I saw you, I've known you were the most beautiful woman I had ever seen, would ever see. I can't say I ever expected you to feel something for me since your brother's dog, Foster, was cuter than I am. But you did and from then on I told myself I would fight for you. I love you and there has never been anyone else for me. But if you don't believe me, if you need me to prove it to you, I will. I will always fight for you, Bobbie."
She could feel tears prick at the corners of her eyes. Why had she doubted him? Cruz loved her; he had proven that time and time again. He'd gone against his friends, his family just to be with her. And she thought he would walk away from everything they had built based on what? A phone message? Smiling at him, she took a step closer toward him. "You were always cuter than Foster."
"Yeah?" Cruz nuzzled his nose into her neck. He wound his arms around her waist, holding her as tight as he could without crushing her.
"Yes. Foster had a terrible drool problem."
"He was always staring at you." Cruz reasoned, pushing her sleeve down her arm.
"Because Luke made me feed him."
"Bobbie, stop talking." Cruz insisted, turning her face toward him.
"Talking is overrated." Bobbie agreed as she saw the look in her husband's eyes.
*****
He had tried to concentrate on other things, anything, but he couldn't. His every waking thought was consumed by one idea. He may have a daughter out there, living in this very town. David had tried to hide from the implications, tried to throw himself even further into his cases, but it wasn't working. Whenever he stopped for longer than three seconds, Deliah's smiling face taunted his memory and his obsessive thoughts would begin again.
Even now, sitting at home, he couldn't stop thinking about the possibility. Why had Carole not told him? Was he being presumptuous in assuming she was his daughter? How exactly did he bring this up when he saw Carole again? Was he going to see her again?
Obviously the girl had a father, or at least he assumed so. The Carole he remembered wouldn't stick around with someone who didn't treat her right. He would assume the same attitude extended to Deliah. If he was right, and he was that little girl's father, what did he want that to mean? Was he ready for to be a father? Could he be one? His own father had left long before he could even remember. The men who hung around his mother could only be called "father figures" in the vilest use of the words. Did he want to disrupt a child's life?
Seeing Sam walk across the small living room toward him, he told himself to snap out of it. If he wasn't sure of what he was feeling right now, Sam would certainly be all over the map. They had never discussed children outside of a few quick conversations about her son. Was he really thinking of dropping this on her lap on top of everything else she was already adjusting to?
She would never say so aloud, but seeing David sitting on their couch was one of the few things she looked forward to everyday. He was more home to her than anyone else had ever been. She smiled and dropped down beside him. "You look a little spooked."
David shook his head. "It's nothing. Just work."
"Must be pretty gruesome." Sam assessed from the look on his face.
"Just difficult."
"Can I help?"
No, first he needed to figure out what exactly he was thinking and what it was he wanted. Correction, he told himself, first he needed to find out if his suspicions were right. Then he needed to figure out what he wanted to do. He put his hand into the pocket of his jeans, rolling the small piece of paper there. It had taken less than five minutes on the computer and he had Carole's address. Now the question was did he want to use it? "No. Thanks for the offer though."
"Well, I might be willing to take your mind off of work."
He took her hand in his own and playfully intertwined their fingers. As tempting as her offer was, this was one time he knew she wouldn't be able to distract him. The back of his mind would be focused on this situation. He needed to deal with it. "Tempting."
"Oh come on." She whispered against his ear. "We still have some birthday cake left."
Turning his face toward hers, he kissed the tip of her nose. "I have to go into work."
"No you don't." Sam argued, kissing the side of his mouth. "You have to stay here."
"I do." He had to. If nothing else Samantha deserved his complete attention. He had to find out. Clearly he wasn't going to have any peace until he did. "If I don't go now, I won't be able to fully concentrate on you."
Sam threw up her hands in an exaggerated fashion. "Fine. Go. Abandon me."
"I'll be back." He promised. "This won't take all night." At least he hoped it wouldn't.
"Okay. If you see smoke when you get—when you come back, it's just because I tried to cook something." Sam told him.
"Duly noted." He smiled at her as he reached the door.
"Be careful."
"Always. I have to come back to you don't I?"
"Yep." Sam's smile faltered once the door closed behind him. What was wrong? A case that had him looking like he had just stepped into a minefield? "What are you hiding Harper?" she asked aloud.
*****
Evan spotted Lulu easily enough. She was sitting in the middle of the carpeted floor surrounded by books on every subject. She was currently engrossed in one, but he couldn't see the title from behind the bookshelf where he was currently standing. He had given the library staff a picture of Vermin just in case, by some miracle, he decided to show up here of all places. He personally couldn't picture the guy in a library, doubted he possessed the mental capacity to read. It wasn't even the university library because that would have been too obvious and there was a possibility that someone would recognize Lulu. The presence of a familiar acquaintance could be just as damaging as Laura Spencer showing up and carting her daughter off.
He had to admit, the idea hadn't been something he immediately thought of. When he came home after an all-nighter, something his live-in houseguest didn't mind pointing out she didn't appreciate, he found her pacing the apartment from one wall to the next. She was absolutely stir-crazy and who could blame her? She had been cooped up in the apartment for the better part of two weeks and there was no definite time table. Instead of the total refusal and blind fear he had been expecting from her, her reaction was merely one of hesitation and a little apprehension. Somehow he got her to the car and to the library, but he could tell she wasn't very keen on the idea, at least not at first. Looking at her now, he might have thought this had been her plan all along.
She sensed his presence before she saw him. Chewing on her bottom lip, she glanced up smiling. "I may have read this book before, but I still don't have a clue what it's about."
"Doesn't it say on the back cover?" Evan supplied.
Lulu shook her head and shot him a skeptical look. "You haven't read Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance before have you?"
Evan chuckled. "I can't say that I have."
"Take my word for it and just don't." Lulu sighed and patted a clear section of the floor. "Sit down. You're making me nervous."
Evan stretched out next to her, skimming through the books with his eyes. "Simon and Garfunkel: The Truth Behind Their Breakup." He read aloud.
"A true American tragedy."
"A collection of Peanuts comics? And here I thought you had no sense of humor." He scooted the book behind his back.
"You had me confused with yourself."
"Um, no." Lifting an eyebrow in her direction, he said, "And don't think I didn't notice that discs two and three of Scooby were in the DVD player."
"Boredom makes a person watch anything." Lulu smiled at him. "Lock you up for a week and I bet you even start watching Emergency Room with me."
"Doesn't sound like something I would do. That is, watch a soap opera. I can think of worse things than being locked up with you."
"Really?" Lulu leaned closer to him. "Just what do you think we'd be doing to keep from getting bored?"
He picked a loose bobby pin from her hair and drew the blonde curls behind her ear. "I think between the two of us we could come up with something."
"So you would watch that soap with me."
"Not a chance." He replaced the bobby pin and held her face in his hand.
She smiled at him, leaning her face against his palm. "So what where you just doing?"
"Checking a few leads. It's like string. You keep pulling at one until something tugs back."
"Really? You weren't trying to memorize all the exits in case you have to play hero?" she teased him.
"I did that on the way in. I was checking something else."
"Really? What were you checking on?"
Instead of answering her question directly, he used a question to clarify. "Did you know that there are seven cameras in this one library?"
"Seven? Where are they?"
"They're hidden." Evan pushed some of the books away so that there was a clear path to her. "For instance, there's one over there in that light fixture." He pointed several shelves over.
"That's one."
"There are two more, one to your left and the other to your right. They're hidden in the curtain rods." He waited for her head to turn before kissing the side of her neck. It was a brief touch, something she pretended not to notice.
"So we're being watched then?" She bit her lower lip to keep from sighing at the contact.
"See, but I've found a way around that. All of the cameras have a fifteen-second delay." He nodded toward the horrendous plant that was within reaching distance and pulled her to her feet.
"Fifteen seconds? What exactly can someone do in fifteen seconds?"
"Not a lot, but that's fifteen seconds for each one. It's easy to outsmart a machine, and then we're talking a hundred and five seconds of complete privacy." He explained, walking her around a dusty shelf.
Following him willingly, she pretended to take his idea seriously. "Oh well when you put it that way..."
"I thought you might see reason." He laughed, leaning in to kiss her before pulling her in the opposite direction. There was a camera hidden between a tower of books sitting on a table mere feet away, one that he knew she didn't notice.
"However there's one thing I think you should know."
"What's that?"
"I don't mind the camera."
Surprised and pleased by her reply, he followed the column of her throat with his mouth. Her head fell back on a sigh and it was all he could do to keep his hands from shaking when they settled around her waist. His eyes closed at the feel of her nails raking through his hair and his hold on her tightened. Aware of the few but ever present company floating around them, he led her toward an abandoned section where he knew no one would bother them. Something about old periodicals and scripts from cancelled television shows.
"How many cameras here?" she whispered.
"I have no idea." His lips found the particular spot between her neck and shoulder that made her go limp against him. He could feel her tugging at the overshirt he wore and smiled unconsciously. At least it was mutual.
"Evan." She whimpered.
"Shh." He kissed her then and his hands skimmed up her back.
Her fingers finally succeeded in loosening his shirt enough to slip underneath the material and feel his skin. She molded her body closer to his. "Don't stop."
"I won't." Without looking, he swept his hand over the front of her shirt, loosening the buttons in one swift motion and opening her up to him. Sliding his warm hands around her, he pulled her closer and stabbed his tongue between her lips.
She met the thrusts of his tongue with a few of her own, working his overshirt up with her hands. Pulling back from him only long enough to pull it over his head and deposit it on the library floor, she looped her leg around his and ran her fingers through his hair.
He folded his hands under her and used them to hoist her up even higher so that they were standing in an even more dangerous position. He could feel her panting against his mouth and knew he was in no better condition. They needed to breathe but he couldn't stop kissing her. She felt so good, tasted so good. Deciding a compromise was inevitable, he unfastened their lips and stroked her face with his free hand. He shook his head when the familiar blaring of his phone cut through the fog.
"Ignore it. You have voicemail."
"Only a few people have this number. I have to answer it."
"I'll make it worth your while if you don't."
Groaning, he set her back on her feet and answered the phone. He recognized the frantic voice on the other end of the line immediately. "We'll be right there."
"We'll be right where?"
"The hospital. Your cousin Lance is having complications."
"Lance?" Lulu shook her head in confusion as she buttoned her blouse. "What kind of complications? And who in my family has your number?"
He grabbed his shirt and threw it on. "She wasn't specific. And your mother. Who else?"
"My mother? When did my mother get your number?"
"Honey, there isn't time to explain."
"You will explain though." She pointed out as she watched him re-dress.
"Let's go."