Lucky Streak

CHAPTER EIGHT

MIKE AND HIS PARTNER often ate lunch at the deli near the courthouse, one block from the station, and today was no different. Dan was extolling the virtues of married life while Mike remained silent. He didn’t have a typical marriage, so why bother joining the discussion? Besides, for the last two days Dan had been happy to provide enough conversation for the both of them, allowing Mike to deflect most inquiries about his personal life.

“So enough about me and Nat. How’s Amber?” Dan asked before biting into a French fry.

“Fine,” Mike said in a monotone.

“And how’s married life treating you?”

“Just fine,” he said in the same tone.

Dan rolled his eyes. “The hell it is. Not if you’re still giving me short nonanswers. Just how long did you think I’d let you off the hook?”

“You want me to gossip like a woman?” Mike asked pointedly.

“Low blow, buddy.” Dan paused to pour more ketchup on his plate. “Seriously. What’s the matter? Aren’t you getting laid?”

That was so far from the problem, Mike couldn’t help but laugh. “I’m just not going to kiss and tell, no matter how many different ways you ask.” Mike had yet to come to grips with his wife and her secrets. Sharing how she’d taken off with his cash wasn’t something Mike was willing to confide. Not even with his partner.

Dan narrowed his gaze. “You’re being protective of your wife. I’ll take that as a good sign.” Dan held up a fry to make his point before eating it.

Mike tackled his burger, hoping if he continued to ignore his partner, Dan would change the subject.

“Is Amber cooking for you?”

Apparently Dan wouldn’t be deterred. “She makes me breakfast, but I haven’t been home for dinner. And before you jump to any more brilliant conclusions, remember it’s only been a couple of nights.”

“What’s her specialty? Cold cereal?” Dan asked.

“Eggs. What’s wrong with you, asking stupid questions like that?”

Dan shook his head. “What’s wrong with you? You’ve got a hot woman at home who’s cooking your meals and warming your bed and you’re afraid to go home. When I mention married life, you act as if you’re on death row. So I ask again. What’s wrong with you?”

Mike could understand his partner’s concern. But he wasn’t about to elaborate. “It’s not that simple,” he said, jaw clenched.

“It could be. You married a stranger in Vegas. She followed you home. Now you’re supposed to enjoy the get-to-know-you honeymoon stage. A little backward, but what did you expect?” Dan asked, his voice tinged with a combination of frustration and curiosity.

Mike had expected honesty. He’d wanted Amber to open up to him immediately upon her return. How else could he begin to understand her?

Hell, it wasn’t as if he hadn’t given her the opportunity to confide in him. Instead, she’d deliberately changed the subject, which told him she was hiding something big. Something she obviously didn’t trust him to know.

Because she didn’t think he could handle whatever it was?

For all he knew, she was right. He wouldn’t know what he could handle until she confessed. And for such a big reveal, she needed to trust him. Clearly she didn’t. Yet, just as obviously, she was trying to make the marriage work. He, on the other hand, had been grumpy and obnoxious outside the bedroom.

He groaned and pushed his plate away from him. He’d been handling her all wrong, he decided.

“How ’bout you cut the lady some slack?” Dan suggested. “You never know. You just might enjoy having her around.”

Mike nodded slowly, having just reached the same conclusion. “Anyone ever tell you that you aren’t as dumb as you look? Maybe I should give Amber a break.” It wasn’t as though living with her was torture.

She was beautiful, sweet, and when he let himself forget she’d stolen his money and taken off, he could almost believe she had a heart of gold. Added to that, there were plenty of perks, as Dan had pointed out. If they could find common ground, maybe they could make this thing work.

Unless whatever she was hiding drove an even bigger wedge between them.

AMBER LOVEDLaw and Order. She watched the television show religiously whenever she got the chance and thanks to syndicated reruns, she could always find it on one channel or another. She’d been curled up on the couch, trying to get lost in the crime drama and not think about her own problems, when Mike came home from work.

At the end of the workday, he was adorably disheveled with a day’s worth of razor stubble darkening his handsome face. Every time she looked at him, her desire for him renewed, stronger than before.

Since he’d said he’d grab dinner out, she expected him to shower and head to bed, where she’d have to corner him for a serious talk.

Instead, he sat down beside her on the couch. “What are you watching?” he asked.

Surprised, she decided to test his mood with some simple conversation. “Law and Order. Do you like the show?”

He inclined his head. “When I let myself forget I’m a cop, it’s pretty good. Catch me up?” He pointed to the large screen.

“Okay. The blonde and her boyfriend had a con going and when things went bad, he bailed on her, leaving her to take the fall,” she said, her voice dropping as the explanation reminded her forcibly of her own situation with Marshall.

Mike settled in to watch, but Amber couldn’t concentrate on the show.

She knew she had to tell him everything. It was only a matter of time before King Bobby tracked her down. But that wasn’t her main priority, much as it should be. No, making this marriage work was her biggest concern. She needed to come clean. Mike had tried to push her for answers earlier. She’d wanted more time as a couple before she dropped the bomb on him. She’d been wrong to wait.

“What are the chances of that happening?” Mike asked sarcastically, gesturing toward the television.

Amber had missed whatever he was referring to.

“You see? This is why it’s hard for me to get too involved in cop shows. They condense the time frame and things happen that frustrate the hell out of me.”

She forced herself to meet his gaze. “You prefer real-life drama?” she asked.

“You know I do. Why?” He’d obviously caught her serious tone.

She drew a deep breath and curled one pajama-clad leg beneath her, steeling herself for his reaction. “Because I’ve got some real-life drama for you.”

Mike raised an eyebrow. “Your life?” Shock tinged his voice. He probably didn’t believe she was ready to come clean.

She could barely believe it herself. “Someone’s looking for me,” she said before she could chicken out and disappoint him.

“Marshall and his friend,” Mike said with certainty and a good amount of disgust.

She winced because the truth was much worse than whatever he obviously imagined. “Not exactly. There’s someone else. Remember the poker game I told you about?”

He pinned her with a steady look. “The one you stole my money for so Marshall could buy into?”

She forced herself not to look away and make her actions any worse by refusing to own up to them. If she wanted him to believe in her, she had to make sure she showed him she wasn’t the horrible human being he thought.

As if such a thing was possible at this point. From his guarded tone, she meant no more to him than any other suspect he questioned.

“That’s right.” She swallowed hard. “Marshall was sure he’d win by counting cards. And he did. Only apparently, the man he won the money from was a con himself, a ‘connected’ con. He isn’t happy and he’s looking for me.”

Mike narrowed his gaze and she could see his cop brain at work, attempting to figure out all the angles. “Why is he looking for you and not Marshall?” he asked at last.

“Because the snake’s gone underground, that’s why,” she said, opening and closing her damp palms in frustration. “I’ve been trying to find him for the last few days. I’ve called every place and person I can think of and nobody’s heard from him,” she said, allowing Mike to see her exasperation. “I’m not sitting around doing nothing, but he’s disappeared.”

“Because he’s a pro.” Mike’s disgust was obvious. “If you can’t find him, the guy looking for him won’t be able to, either. But that doesn’t explain why this guy would be looking for you. It’s not like you were the one who cheated.”

Here we go, Amber thought, her stomach twisting into tight knots, making her sick.

At her silence, Mike looked at her warily. “Right?” he asked, pushing for the one answer it hurt her to give.

The man was a cop and she was about to tell him she was a cheat. For all the rationalization she’d done for the last few months, she suddenly couldn’t face what she’d done.

And yet she had no choice.

“Well?” he snapped at her. “It’s a black-and-white question. I said, Marshall was the one cheating, not you.” His voice hardened on that one word.

“Not exactly.” She wrapped her arms around herself. “There’s a lot you don’t know about me.”

“Not for lack of trying,” he reminded her in a biting tone.

“I know.” She rose and smoothed the wrinkles in the silky pajama pants she wore, trying to find the words to explain. “Let me start at the beginning. I was born in Vegas and my mom died in childbirth.”

“I already know that. Go on.” His words held the strength of steel. His patience was obviously wearing thin.

But she had to do this her way. “My dad was a Vegas con. He knew how to count cards and that’s how he made a living. I’m not going to say I condone it, but I grew up around him and his friends. Other than the years I lived with my grandparents, that’s really all I knew.” As she spoke, she felt the prick-ling of the hair on her arms as it stood up on end.

“So you learned from him,” he said, his voice now flat, his expression carefully neutral.

He must have made an extremely good interrogator, Amber thought. She just wished she wasn’t his subject. But she was, and everything she stood to lose suddenly loomed in front of her. All the possibilities she’d dreamed of-a second chance in a new place, with a good, decent man. A life away from Vegas and the sin that came with that city. For Amber not to lose those things, she had to reach Mike. But she couldn’t begin to read his emotions and her stomach continued to churn.

“I did learn from my father. Don’t all children? Of course, it helped that I had a photographic memory,” she said lightly. She laughed.

He didn’t. “I thought you said you were a concierge in Beverly Hills. Was that a lie?”

As he spoke, deliberately cold, thinking the worst of her, Amber saw a flicker of hope in his blue eyes that told her he wanted to find something to hold on to between them, too.

She grabbed on to that emotion and like a lifeline, she clung to his gaze. “I haven’t lied to you,” she said, her voice steady and reassuring. “I admit that I left things out, but only because I didn’t think you were ready to hear them. But I haven’t lied.”

Mike exhaled a slow breath, conflicting thoughts filling his head. She hadn’t lied. But she had done things he couldn’t have begun to imagine.

He reminded himself that he shouldn’t be surprised. He’d known she wasn’t telling him everything. Giving her the benefit of a doubt, he attempted to look at her life from every angle. A young girl who’d never had a mother with only a con-artist father and older grandparents from whom to learn. A child with a natural affinity for her father’s so-called craft.

Unfortunately, any way he viewed the situation, she was a thief, stealing from poker opponents and later, from him.

He and his wife weren’t just polar opposites. They diverged on the fundamental concept of honesty and integrity. Those notions defined his life.

The cop and the con. As he looked at her beautiful, imploring face, he couldn’t find any middle ground.

“If you didn’t lie, then how did card counting fit into your Beverly Hills life?” he asked at last.

“It didn’t. Not until my father got sick.” She ran her hand through her curls.

He couldn’t help noticing her hands shook. This wasn’t easy for her, either. But she’d had time to prepare for this conversation. He was hearing it all for the first time.

He forced himself not to think, just to listen.

“I had health insurance through the hotel, but it didn’t cover my father. And when I went to look at the nursing homes I could afford, it made me sick. I couldn’t put him in one of those places.” Her voice cracked as she spoke and her pain affected him, slicing deep.

How could it not? He had a father he loved, too. One who, he admitted to himself, he’d thought of institutionalizing rather than allowing the man to live alone, never knowing what he’d do next. Whether he’d step over the line that defined sanity. Could he have left Edward in one of those places? Mike wondered.

He wanted to reach out to her, to hold her and tell her he understood her pain. But he couldn’t. Because as much as he empathized with her emotions, he didn’t understand her choices.

In the wake of his silence, Amber drew a shaky breath and continued, “So I contacted Marshall.”

“And you became partners,” Mike said. He heard the disappointment in his voice as the memory of his first meeting with Amber came back to him in vivid detail.

A lovers’ quarrel, Marshall had said.

Ex-partners, Amber had claimed.

The illegalities had never been mentioned.

Mike’s blood chilled. If he’d known, he’d never have spent the day with Amber. Never have married her.

She touched him on the shoulder.

A mixture of warmth and hurt flooded him on contact and he jerked away.

“Hey! Don’t you judge me until you’ve been in my shoes!” she said with indignation. “Imagine what you’d do if you couldn’t pay for decent care for your father.” Her eyes flashed with defiance, defending her choice.

“I have thought about it, dammit. While you explained your reasons, it’s all I could think about. I’m trying like hell not to judge you, but I’m a cop. Right and wrong is just too clear-cut in my world.” He ran a hand through his hair, wondering how she couldn’t see the solid barrier her past…hell, her present, placed between them.

“Then consider yourself lucky things are so simple for you,” she said coldly.

Once again she was angry at him for something he hadn’t caused, he thought, the irony strong. This woman and her damn contradictions, her warped sense of right and wrong.

“Why don’t you continue,” he said, suddenly exhausted, but knowing she hadn’t finished.

Amber let out a sigh. “You know the rest. High-stakes poker games for big money. Every penny went to the home for my father’s care. I supported myself with savings and the money I made working at my friend Paul’s bar. Look, I’m telling you this because, despite how it all looks, I believe in honesty. I’ve wanted to tell you all along. I just didn’t know how you’d react to the truth.”

“Like hell. You’re confessing now because you’re cornered and you need protection.” Did she really think he was an idiot? he thought, frustrated.

“I’m telling you because if King Bobby is coming after me and I’m staying here with you, you need to know what’s going on. Again, it’s about honesty.”

“King Bobby? What the hell kind of a name is that?” He couldn’t help but laugh.

She tried unsuccessfully to block a grin. “King Bobby, owner of the biggest used-car dealership in all of Texas,” she said in a Texas drawl.

“Oh, brother.” Mike rolled his eyes. “How do you know for certain he’s after you?”

She recounted how she’d seen King Bobby and his wife at the Bellagio after she’d gone looking for Mike. She explained the trail King Bobby had left from Vegas to Beverly Hills, asking about her. “He’s a smart guy and chances are, he’ll dig up our marriage certificate and track me down here. It’s only a matter of time. I don’t know what he wants, but I like my body the way it is too much to let him find me.”

Mike liked her body, too. That was part of the problem.

“We have two choices. Hang around like a sitting duck for this King Bobby character to find you, or hide out.”

“We have two choices?”

He shook his head in frustration, not sure if he wanted to strangle her or kiss her senseless and make her problems go away. “Did you really think I’d just abandon you to deal with this guy on your own?”

“Frankly, I didn’t know what to expect from you.” She sniffed and turned away.

That disappointed him. Hadn’t he come through for her before?

“Go pack up your things.”

She frowned at his order. “To go where?”

To the only place he could think of where she’d be safe. Where a man named King Bobby from Texas would have a hard time tracking her down. “To my father’s place. This King would never guess to look for you at the home of a reclusive old man without a phone.” And when Edward had had a telephone, his number had been unlisted.

“Are you sure he won’t mind us staying there?” Amber asked, obviously surprised at Mike’s choice of hideouts.

“Not us. You.” Mike bit the inside of his cheek. “I can’t get off until this weekend. I’ll have Derek head over and prepare my father. You can take my car first thing tomorrow. It’s a fairly easy drive.”

And since she needed a safe place to hide out, Mike trusted her not to run away again.

Her eyes turned soft and liquid as she stepped toward him. “I really appreciate your help, considering how you feel about me.”

She had no idea how he felt about her. Hell, most of the time he had no idea how he felt about her. He just knew how he felt about what she’d done.

Not trusting himself with words, he stepped out of her reach and gave her a curt nod.

Mike headed to the bedroom to shower before bed. He needed a good night’s sleep so he’d be able to think more clearly tomorrow. Although once Amber climbed into bed beside him, sleep would be the last thing on his mind. She’d end up with her hand-or her mouth-on his body, expressing her thanks.

And as he’d proven more than once, he had no self-control when she touched him. In bed, their differences weren’t so obvious. If he was smart, he’d send her to his father’s tonight, but he knew his cousin wouldn’t brave Edward’s house at night, un-announced. And since Mike knew Edward didn’t always answer his cell phone, Derek would have to make the trip in person.

In good conscience, Mike couldn’t spring Amber’s visit on Edward without warning. Tomorrow would have to be soon enough. He’d have to survive one more night sharing a bed.

Then he’d send his soon-to-be-ex wife to stay with his father while Mike looked into this King Bobby character. His father, Amber and Stinky Pete together under one roof. Mike shuddered at the thought.

Hopefully, Mike could straighten out the mess Amber was in and divorce her without too much trouble. He paused in the doorway and glanced at the woman standing in the family room, appearing to be contemplating something. She twirled her finger around one lock of hair and looked as if she was planning her next move.

He had no real idea how her brain worked and wasn’t sure he wanted to find out. She’d be gone before he knew it and his life would get back to normal.

Unfortunately, normal had been solitary and routine, and the notion didn’t bring him the comfort it should have.

HE MUST BE A WEAK MAN, Mike decided, because when Dan picked him up for work he was humming. So was his body, the result of a spectacular bout of first-thing-in-the-morning sex and a long thank-you/apology kiss from Amber as she walked him to the door and said so-long.

“Goodbyes are permanent and I’ll be seeing you on Friday,” she’d said, ever optimistic. She totally ignored the fact that he didn’t approve of her choices any more this morning than he had last night, something he’d made certain she understood. Just because they’d shared another night of mind-blowing sex, he didn’t want her to think anything else had changed.

A divorce was in the cards, Mike thought. A perfect play on words if ever there was one.

He’d given Amber directions to his father’s house along with his cousin Derek’s home and cell phone. Since Derek’s wife Gabrielle had had a stalker issue last year, his cousin understood Mike’s concern and had taken a ride out to Edward’s this morning. He said Edward had complained nonstop about having his privacy invaded, but he’d also begun rinsing glasses in the sink in preparation. Unusual to say the least.

Could Amber’s assessment of Edward be correct? Was he too ingrained in his reclusive life to ask for help, yet looking for a way out? Mike refused to get his hopes up. What could Amber possibly know about the crazy old man Mike called his father?

And yet Mike found himself placing hope in Amber’s ability to reach Edward during her stay there. Once again, he found her contradictions maddening. Was she a card-counting cheat or a warm, caring, insightful woman who wanted to help Mike’s father? Could she really have had no choice?

No! He crumpled up the paperwork he’d filled out incorrectly because he hadn’t been concentrating. They were too different. He couldn’t possibly trust her. And she caused complications in his life he just didn’t need.

He’d help her, then file for divorce. With that settled, he refocused on work.