Jennifer Crusie Bundle Read online

  “Well, I’m going now.” Anthony put his arm around Lucy and kissed her on the cheek. “We’re all very proud of you, kid. The only bad part is that we’re not going to get anymore 911’s from here. The boys are going to miss those trips.”

  “I’m not.” Lucy leaned into him a little. “I just want my house fixed, and my life back to normal.”

  When Anthony was gone and Lucy had stashed the new bat in a place of honor by the back door, Zack leaned against the kitchen counter and said, “We need to talk.”

  “All right,” Lucy said, her voice wary.

  Zack folded his arms and tried to look calm. “Am I part of the ‘back to normal’?”

  Lucy started to blink and stopped herself. “Of course, you are,” she said. “What are you talking about?”

  “Well, look. I know you don’t want to get married,” Zack said, “but…”

  “Well, actually,” Lucy broke in, “I…”

  They both stopped to let the other finish, and the door chime went.

  “Wait a minute,” she said. “It’s probably one of your guys. Somebody probably forgot something.”

  He followed her to see, almost bumping into her in the vestibule when she stopped suddenly as she looked through the colored glass on the outside door.

  She turned, and Zack, looking past her through the jeweled window, knew what she was going to say before the words were out.

  “It’s Bradley.”

  THE NEXT MOMENTS WERE jumbled for Lucy, trying to reassure Zack while not shutting out Bradley—a Bradley who looked so white and shaken and angry and so grateful to see her, all at the same time, that she felt sorry for him after all.

  “Are you all right?” Bradley grabbed her by the upper arms and looked her over frantically. “I saw the police cars. Are you all right?”

  “She’s fine.” Zack held out his hand to Bradley. “I’m Detective Zachary Warren, Riverbend P.D. We’d like to ask you a few questions about John Bradley. Where have you been?”

  “Detective Warren.” Bradley looked at Zack’s hand for a moment, and then he released Lucy so he could shake it. “I’ve been in Kentucky. I left a forwarding address with the bank.” He put his arm around Lucy. “Thank you very much for helping my wife.”

  “Ex-wife,” Zack said, his teeth clenched.

  Bradley looked down at Lucy. “Thank God, you’re safe.” He gave her shoulders a squeeze. “I think it’s time we talked.”

  “I do, too.” Lucy stood rigid inside his arm, keeping an inch of space between them by sheer force. “I think we should have talked about this a long time ago. Why didn’t you call?”

  “Tina told me not to,” Bradley said. His arm dropped away, and Lucy relaxed a little. “And you were being unreasonable. You threw my clothes out on the lawn. You threw my chair down to the basement.” He stopped as if he realized he was sounding petulant and then smiled down at her, tightly, forgiving. “But I understand. You were upset. I think we should talk now.”

  “I don’t,” Zack said, almost spitting the words out. “I think we should talk now.”

  “Zack,” Lucy said to him, willing him to understand. “I need to know what happened. Then I can pick up and go on.”

  Zack glared at her. “Lucy, I’m a cop. He has information about a crime. I need to take him in for questioning.”

  “I know,” Lucy said. “But I’m his ex-wife. I need a few answers myself. Give us just a little time. Please.”

  Zack clenched his jaw. “Swell. Let’s all go in and talk.”

  Bradley’s grip tightened on Lucy’s shoulder. “There’s no need for you to stay. This is between Lucy and me.”

  “Just half an hour alone.” Lucy pleaded with him with her eyes.

  Zack hesitated and then said, “All right.”

  Lucy stepped back so that he wouldn’t kiss her. She didn’t want Bradley putting up any more walls. She wanted to know what had happened, and how that blonde had come into her life and blown it into pieces just like the other Bradley’s bomb had blown up her house.

  And when she knew that, she’d have a new life, one with Zack this time, full of laughter and promise.

  But first she needed to know what had happened.

  Zack looked back at Bradley one more time. “All right. I’ll wait outside. You have half an hour.”

  And then he was gone, out the front door.

  Lucy took a deep breath. “Come on,” she said to Bradley. “I’ll make you a cup of tea. Two sugars.”

  ZACK SAT IN HIS CAR in front of Lucy’s house and seethed.

  Something was wrong. It wasn’t jealousy. Okay, he was jealous as hell, but that wasn’t it. He knew Lucy wasn’t going back to Bradley. He knew she’d stay with him. At least, he was pretty sure she would. Hell, they’d adopted a dog together.

  Think, he told himself. What was wrong with Bradley? He’d felt uneasy before he’d met Bradley, but afterward, he’d been crazy with suspicion. So it was something Bradley had said. Or done. And all he had to do was go through everything word by word, movement by movement, until he figured it out.

  Fast.

  LUCY WAS UNEASY.

  There was something really wrong with Bradley. He kept looking at her like she was some precious treasure he’d lost and found, and, worse, he kept talking that way, too, in spite of everything she’d said.

  “It’s good to be home.” Bradley surveyed the kitchen. “Where’s the table? What happened to the floor?”

  “It…came up.” Lucy took a mug from the shelf and filled it with water, trying to think of how to get the answers she needed. Two weeks with Zack had taught her the futility of subtlety, so she put the mug of water in the microwave for his tea, punched the button, and then turned to face him. “Bradley, what’s been going on?”

  He frowned at her, annoyed by her directness. “It’s very simple, really. An old friend of mine from high school came into town and asked for help.”

  “John Bradley.”

  “We called him J.B. in high school.”

  “He was an embezzler,” Lucy said.

  Bradley suddenly grew remote. “Unfortunately, I didn’t know he’d broken the law. All I did was help an old friend.”

  “How?”

  He frowned at her. “I arranged a hotel room for him.”

  “In Overlook?”

  Bradley’s frown deepened. “He didn’t have much money. I offered to lend him some, but he refused. J.B. was always very proud.”

  “He had money,” Lucy said, folding her arms. “He had almost a million and a half in government bonds.”

  “He didn’t tell me that.” Bradley was visibly angry with her now, annoyed that his statement had been questioned, and Lucy fought the coldness that his anger always drenched her in.

  He couldn’t do that anymore. Zack was going to keep her warm forever.

  “You knew,” she said calmly. “You put them in a safe deposit box.”

  “Once he told me he had them, of course, I did.” Bradley was rigid with anger now. “It was the only prudent thing to do. I can’t understand how you could even question that.”

  “I’m not questioning it,” Lucy said. “I’m amazed by it. Where did you think he’d gotten that many bonds? K Mart?”

  “Really, Lucy—” Bradley began, and she interrupted him, fueled as much by his anger as by hers.

  “So how does the blonde figure into this?” Lucy said, glaring at him. “You know, his wife. The one you…”

  “So that’s it.” Bradley’s anger disappeared. “You’re still upset about that.”

  “Well, of course, I’m still upset about that. I—”

  “She lied.”

  Lucy stopped, dumbfounded. “What?”

  “She lied,” Bradley said. “She wanted to force me to tell her where J.B. was, so she said if I didn’t, she’d tell you that ridiculous story, that we’d been…together. I told her not to bother. I told her you’d never believe her.” Bradley’s eyes were suddenly hurt and accusing.