Mary McBride – Baby, Baby, Baby (страница 8)

A week ago he might have thought, What the hell, it was only money, but now that he was a responsible homeowner who needed every spare cent to rehabilitate his ancient dump, Sonny said, “I’m on vacation for a couple weeks, but if you want to check with Heilig or White down at the precinct, I’m sure they can come up with a little something for you. You know them, right? Heilig’s the tall guy and White’s black. Here. I’ll write down the precinct phone number for you and their extension.”

He patted his pockets to no avail. Where was a pen when you needed one? “Do you have a pen and something I can write on?” he asked Lovey, who, after a lengthy search, managed to produce a crumpled tissue and a stick of black eyeliner from her tiny purse.

The tissue tore all to hell when he tried to scribble the numbers and the thin black crayon broke. Just as Sonny was swearing a blue streak, Melanie’s little yellow Miata pulled up at the curb. Out of habit, he checked his watch and was shocked to see that it read two minutes after eleven, which made her late for maybe the second or third time in her entire thirty-one years!

“Wait here,” he told Lovey. “I know just where I can get a pen and paper.”

He opened the passenger door, leaned inside, and couldn’t restrain himself from saying, “You’re late.”

Melanie stabbed him to death with a look. “That’s because I changed my mind about coming forty-eight times.”

“I’m glad you came. Can I borrow a pen, Mel, and something to write on?”

It didn’t surprise him to see her flip open the little center console and immediately produce a tiny spiral notebook with a tiny, color-coordinated pen clipped to its cover.

“Who’s your friend?” she asked as she handed it to him.

“My snitch,” he corrected. “I’ll be right back.”

While he wrote the phone numbers for Lovey, Sonny said, “After you talk to Heilig and White, you stay as far away from Slink Kinnison as you can, Lovey, okay? It probably wouldn’t even hurt to leave town for a little while just to be on the safe side. Tell Heilig you need a little extra for bus fare. Is there any place you can go?”

The hooker shook her head. “Gotta stay close to my main man, Elijah. He takes care of me. He takes good care of all of his girls. You know?”

He knew only too well how her main man took care of her, by keeping her higher than a kite. Over the years Sonny had come to the bitter conclusion that the only thing wrong with prostitution was the pimps. Lovey’s was Elijah Biggs, who weighed four hundred pounds when he wasn’t wearing fifty pounds of gold jewelry and whose license plate proclaimed Bigg Man. One of these days Sonny was going to see that the big man got a one-way ticket to the state penitentiary instead of always using the revolving door of the city jail.

“Here.” He flipped to a clean page in the little notebook. “Here’s my cell phone number and my new address, just in case.” He tore off both pages and gave them to her.

Lovey studied the numbers a moment. “You move into one of those big old ugly places on Channing Square? What’d you want to do that for?”

“I don’t know. I must be crazy.”

She angled her head toward Melanie’s car at the curb. “That’s your lady?”

“Yep.”

“She live in Channing Square, too?”

“Yep. Next door.”

“Next door!” Lovey laughed. “Well, that explains why you’re crazy, then. I’ll see you around, Lieutenant.”

“You be careful, Lovey.”

“All the time, honey. All the time.”

By the time Sonny slung his long legs into her little car, Melanie was wishing she’d changed her mind forty-nine times instead of forty-eight. That way she would’ve stood him up instead of having to sit and watch him do the job he did so damn well.

He wasn’t one of those cops who got off on being the long, hard arm of the law, who wore a badge and a constant smirk, and felt entitled to push people around if they dared get in his way. Sonny honestly believed he was making the city a better and safer place, day by day, person by person. She could tell from the expression on his snitch’s face that the woman not only felt safe with him, but adored him, as well.

And if she knew her ex-husband at all, she knew he had probably just given the woman his phone number and told her to call him anytime, day or night.

“I thought you were on vacation,” Melanie said as she angled her car back into the flow of traffic.

“I am.”

“So, what’s with the snitch?”

“Nothing,” he said. “She just needed a little advice.”

“I guess you’re aware that the city’s not responsible or in any way liable for actions or expenses of officers when they’re on leave.” She knew her words had come out in an annoying, almost schoolmarmish tone, but she couldn’t help it.

Sonny just laughed. “I’ll bet you’ve got a copy of the city code in your handbag.”

“I do not.”

“In the glove compartment, then.”

Still laughing, he reached forward to open it, and Melanie swatted at his hand.

He turned to face her as much as his seat belt and the confines of the car would allow. “I guess you’re aware that I’ve been on the job for over thirteen years now, and despite my charming and lackadaisical air, I do have some idea what the hell I’m doing.”

“I know, but… Oh, damn.” She slapped the palm of her hand against the steering wheel.

“What?”

“I just missed the turn onto Channing. Now I’ll have to circle around and that’ll make me late. Dammit, Sonny. It’s all your fault.”

“Late for what?”

“The hardware store.”

“You have an appointment at the hardware store?”

She took her eyes off the road long enough to pitch him her most irritated look. “No, I don’t have an appointment. I just wanted to be there by eleven-fifteen.”

He looked at his watch and said, “Well, I’ll tell you what. It’s eleven-oh-eight right now. If we forget about dropping me off at the house and just head straight to the hardware store, we can be there by quarter after.”

Braking for a red light, Melanie turned her head to her right. Sonny was sitting there, his knees up against the dashboard and the world’s most innocent expression on his face. “‘We’?” she asked.

“Yeah. I needed to go to the hardware store anyway. This’ll save me a trip later. Then I can take you out to lunch when we’re finished. Maybe to Dominic’s or that new place down on Jefferson. What do you say, Mel?”

What did she say? To herself Melanie said she should have seen this coming. Give Sonny an inch and he immediately wanted a mile. How could she have been such a jerk? Knowing him as well as she did, how could she have allowed him to blindside her like this? Why was she letting him rattle her so?

“No problem,” she said, trying to sound as if she meant it, as if his mere presence didn’t faze her in the least. “I’ll take you to the hardware store. But I’ll pass on the lunch. Thanks, anyway.”

Sonny had forgotten that shopping with Melanie was the equivalent of attending a nitpicker’s convention. Even before they got in the store, she had to wait for just the right spot to open up in Dandy Andy’s parking lot.

“Pull in over there,” he’d said, pointing out an open space up ahead of them.

“Too narrow.”

“How ’bout over there? There’s plenty of room.”

“Are you kidding me? Next to a twenty-year-old beater with dents in its door?”

Well, hell. It didn’t make any difference to him where she parked or how long it took her to do it. He was just happy to be this close.

Once inside the store, Melanie whipped a list out of her purse and studied it gravely for a moment before she said, “This ought to take me about twenty minutes. Half an hour at the most. Shall I meet you up here in front or out by the car?”

“Whatever.” He said it on purpose just to watch her eyes kind of pinwheel and her tongue hit the back of her teeth with an irritated little cluck. “Up here is fine.”

“Do you have a lot to get?” she asked as she pulled a shopping cart from its nest.

“Well. Yeah. Everything.” He nearly laughed watching her try to keep the top of her head on and the steam from pouring out of her dainty nose and delicate ears. “How ’bout if I just tag along behind you and pick up stuff as I go?”

“Suit yourself.” She snapped her list taut and took off with a little snort.

Still trying to not laugh, Sonny wrenched his own cart from the row and followed in her wake. There was nothing quite like Mel’s fine, firm, denim-cheeked wake. Ah, damn. How he wanted to reach out for a perfect handful of her.

The momentary attack of lust made him think about the imminent baby business, and his stomach knotted up again. Since this was Saturday, that didn’t leave much time till Monday and the damned artificial deal. If he couldn’t get her to even go to lunch with him, how the hell was he going to convince her to let him impregnate her?

Because he would. Sonny knew that as well as he knew his own name. Mel would’ve been pregnant the very first time they’d made love two years ago if they hadn’t used precautions. Two bodies didn’t come together the way theirs did and not set life in motion. Two people didn’t send sparks off the way they did and not start a fire someplace. If he was certain of anything, it was that.

He caught up with Melanie in the paint aisle. “What’re you planning to paint?” he asked.