Scarlet Nights Read online

  “I’m sure you know better than I do,” she said in a way that let him know he was wrong. She put her hands back on the keyboard.

  Mike turned away. The truth was, he agreed with her. Even though he couldn’t see how the two events were related, he planned to work on it. But he wasn’t going to worry Sara with that now. He went on with his story, and she didn’t interrupt again until he got to his conversation with Ariel.

  “Ariel knew Greg was fornicating with other women but she didn’t tell me?”

  “I thought you were going to disassociate yourself from this.”

  “I’m not angry at Greg. He’s the snake that doesn’t change character no matter how nice you are to him, but Ariel … What in the world can she imagine that I’ve done to her that she’d let me marry a man she knew was that bad?”

  “If she’d told you about him, would you have believed her?”

  “Not a word of it.”

  Mike looked at her in astonishment. “Maybe she knew that and that’s why she didn’t tell you. Would you have told her if she was marrying a philanderer?”

  “Oh, yes!” Sara said with a smile. “I would have run so fast my feet wouldn’t have touched the ground.”

  Mike shook his head at her.

  “And Colin!” Sara said. “I can’t believe he didn’t tell me about Greg. Colin and I have always been friends! When we get home I’m going to have a talk with the Fraziers.”

  “That should scare them,” Mike said, deadpan. “You ready to get this done? The faster we send this off, the sooner we’ll be free. You want to return to Edilean and say you didn’t even see the ocean?”

  Sara put her hands back on the keyboard. “Lead on, oh fearless leader, and tell me who else has betrayed me.”

  Smiling, Mike continued. He told what he’d learned, but he also outlined the plan for the next week. For the first time, Sara heard what the police and Federal agents were hoping would happen.

  After they finished the document at noon, Mike started to draw a map of the fairgrounds, but Sara took over.

  “The booths and rides and the game field are in the same place every year, so I know what goes where.”

  “Except for Joce’s fortune-telling tent.”

  “Luke’s putting it right next to where he sells his weeds, which is beside my kissing booth.”

  “Your what?!” Mike said.

  Sara smiled smugly. “Just seeing if you were listening.”

  By one, the maps and reports were done. They printed them out on the new printer—which Sara had set up while Mike dealt with the TV delivery—and put it all in a big envelope.

  Mike turned to look at Sara. In the next second they had their clothes off and were making love on the big white couch.

  Later, Sara lay in his arms and said, “It’s odd but I won’t even be thinking about sex, then I’ll look at you and it’s all I can think of.”

  He kissed her forehead. “My virgin princess. Want to go for a swim?”

  “Love to. I brought a blue bikini.”

  “I bet Henry the counterfeiter will enjoy that! You just might see yourself on a thousand-dollar bill.”

  “When do I get to meet the neighbors?”

  Mike was heading to the bathroom and he didn’t look at her. “We have to leave tomorrow afternoon.”

  “Which is no answer to my question,” Sara said under her breath as she reached for her clothes. Mike hadn’t given even the slightest hint that she’d ever return to Fort Lauderdale, that she’d ever again see this beautiful apartment.

  He looked around the bathroom door. “Showering alone wastes water.”

  “I’m all for green.” Sara ran to the bathroom to join him.

  “It’s been a wonderful day,” Sara said as she snuggled against Mike in bed. It was nearly ten P.M. and they had to get up early, but she wasn’t sleepy.

  “It’s been great,” he said.

  She could tell he was in a mellow mood. “I’ve enjoyed my honeymoon.”

  “Me too. I’m not sure but I think the captain had me return here to keep me from marrying you.”

  She turned to look at him. “That’s good. He was looking out for you, but when he saw that I wasn’t your usual, uh … victim, he let us have time off. He’s a nice man.”

  “You bring out the niceness in people.”

  “What a sweet thing to say.”

  They lay quietly together as Mike slowly ran his fingers up and down her back. She took a deep breath to give herself courage. What she wanted to ask him could cause offense. “What were your parents like?”

  He didn’t hesitate. “Kind, loving, fun.”

  She snuggled closer against him, her head on his shoulder. “Do you remember them?”

  “Very well. But Tess doesn’t, so whenever we’re together I tell her stories about them.”

  “I’d like to hear anything you want to tell me about them.”

  Mike took a moment before answering. “My mother was very pretty.”

  “Like Tess.”

  “Yes, but different. Tess is dark like our father, while Mom was blonde, with deep blue eyes. Like you.” He kissed the top of her head.

  “What kind of things did she like to do?”

  “She used to say she was the most unmodern woman in the world because she had no ambition at all. She finished two years of college, then met Dad, and …” He shrugged.

  “Marriage and children. Sounds good to me.”

  “You two would have liked each other. You’re a lot alike. She used to make us lunches with happy faces on the bread. When I got home from school, she always had something homemade for me to eat.”

  “What did your dad do?”

  “He made himself spend forty hours a week managing a big printing company, but in his real life he cared about two things: his family and sports.”

  “You must have loved that,” Sara said.

  “With all my might. My first memory is of being in a seat on the back of my dad’s bike—and we were going up a mountain.”

  “That sounds dangerous. You wouldn’t—” She stopped herself. “Did your mom like sports?”

  Mike chuckled. “Hated them. She wanted to stay home and watch old movies.”

  “Oh, yes! We would have definitely been friends. I wish I could have known her.” When Mike was quiet, she knew he was thinking about what happened later, with his parents dying so young, and he and Tess being put into their angry grandmother’s custody.

  “I never understood it,” he said softly as he stopped caressing her back. “My mother adored her mother, and Grans practically worshiped Mom. Grans was so good to her. They talked on the phone nearly every day.”

  “How did she treat you and Tess while your parents were alive?”

  “No one existed for Grans except my mother. Grans didn’t pay any attention to Tess or me or her husband. It was all about her daughter.”

  “The accident …”

  “Nearly made her insane,” Mike said. “That horrible day when everything changed, Mom had asked Grans to babysit, something she rarely did, while she and Dad went Christmas shopping for us kids.”

  “Oh, dear,” Sara said.

  “Yeah, exactly. The streets were icy, and their car slid, hit an embankment, and crashed into a concrete wall. They were killed instantly. Grans nearly lost her mind, and she blamed Tess and me for the accident. She said that if we hadn’t been born, her daughter would still be alive.”

  While Mike was telling this—and Sara felt sure he’d never told anyone before—he kept rubbing his throat. Gently, she brushed his hand away and kissed his neck. “Tell me what happened.”

  Mike took a breath. “A couple of weeks after the funeral I asked Grans for three dollars for some school thing. She was sweeping the kitchen floor. She didn’t say anything, but I’ll always remember the look of hatred she gave me. She glanced down at the broom, then in the next second she hit me across the throat with the handle.”

  Sara drew in her breat