Blazing Hotter (Love Under Fire Book 2) Page 16

  He squeezed her hand tighter briefly. “I’m not going to let anything happen to you. Would you feel better if I gave you the gun?”

  She shook her head vehemently back and forth, eyes wide. “Even if she’s trying to kill me, I couldn’t shoot her. I trust you, Frank. If my life’s in danger you’ll do whatever it takes.”

  Raising her hand to his lips, he brushed a kiss against the back of it. “For as long as you’ll let me.”

  She blinked hard, then turned her head away. Obviously, she still wasn’t completely ready to admit they were in a relationship and it was going to last long term. Frankie had to keep his cool and let her figure it out in her own time or she’d likely go running.

  Deciding to change the subject, he released her hand to yank on a curl on the wig. “If you hadn’t been so stubborn about coming along, I wouldn’t have been able to see this. Blond Cassie is very beautiful and my dream woman, but I sort of like this spicy version too. There are so many things I’m imagining doing to you tonight.”

  She peeked at him from beneath the long fake lashes, the corners of her mouth twitching up in a slight grin. “It seems we have a tendency to think alike. Ever since I put this disguise on, tonight with you in the hotel is all I’ve thought about too.”

  While Frankie would have liked to explore the conversation more, the door to the room opened, bringing in a blast of louder music with it as Bambi walked through, closing it behind her.

  “Fireman Hernandez,” she said, her voice heavy with disdain. “I can’t say I’m happy to see you.”

  “I know,” he admitted. “I wouldn’t have come if I had a choice.”

  Bambi was just as beautiful as she’d been a year and a half ago. Not that looks were everything. After all, she did have Frankie beat up behind the club in the alleyway between this building and the liquor store behind it. He couldn’t believe he’d once imagined himself with someone like her. She was a fantasy, not a real person. When she wasn’t working, Frankie highly doubted she took the time to get herself sexed up and vixen-like.

  Bambi was nothing next to Cassie, and Frankie let out a sigh of relief as this realization washed over him. Part of him had worried that seeing Bambi again might derail all the growth he had made. Tonight, he felt more pity for the woman than anything. How horrible must it be to put up with jerks like Frankie used to be every single night?

  “What are you doing here?” Bambi asked, crossing her arms beneath her oversized breasts and leaning against the door, watching him warily. “If you think you’re getting free lap dances because you got yourself stuck in that chair, think again.”

  Not nearly as nice as the Bambi who once teamed up with her friend to give him a hero’s reward after a day spent fighting fires. Then again, the only lap dances he wanted would come from Cassie for as long as he could keep her around.

  “I’m not here about that,” Frankie said, watching her closely for any reaction. “I’m here because you sent some flowers to my friend at the rehab center and I want you to explain yourself.”

  Bambi’s eyes widened and for the first time she spared a glance for the other people in the room. No sense of recognition came over her when she looked at Cassie.

  Frankie didn’t know if that was because the disguise and dim lighting threw her off or if something else was going on here.

  Finally, she shrugged. “I don’t know anything about flowers. Your friend should be happy someone thought of him.”

  Cassie straightened up taller in her seat. “It wasn’t a man you sent them too, and it was you who sent them. We have proof.”

  “Proof?” Bambi turned her attention to Cassie. “Look, lady, I don’t know who you are or why you’re harassing me. There’s no way to prove I sent any flowers. You guys wasted your time coming out here.”

  “Don’t worry guys,” Laura said, almost in too mild of a voice. “We’ll just let the cops handle it. Once the detectives hear what she did, they’ll lock her up and throw away the key. We won’t have to worry about anymore.”

  “Lock me up?” Bambi took a step further into the room, almost involuntarily. “Wait. Please don’t do that.”

  “Why?” Laura demanded. “You threatened our friend and then killed someone. I’m not letting you get away with that.”

  “I didn’t kill anyone!” Bambi took another step toward Laura, but Thayne stood from the chair he’d occupied, pushing Laura behind him and filling the room with every inch of his menacing muscles.

  “Back off, bitch,” he all but growled.

  Before Frankie knew what she was up to, Cassie stood, quickly walking toward Bambi. “Everyone calm down,” she ordered.

  “Get back here,” Frankie said, rolling toward her in a desperate attempt to get in front of her before Bambi could hurt her.

  Cassie’s fake red hair shook to indicate that she’d heard him but wasn’t going to obey. “There’s no way Bambi is the one killing people. Look at how scared she is.”

  Bambi nodded, turning to Cassie with tears in her eyes. “I’ll admit I ordered some flowers, but I don’t even know who Cassie is or why I was delivering them to her.”

  Cassie put a comforting arm around Bambi’s shoulder. “I believe you. Did someone pay you to order them?”

  She nodded. “And to put a sealed letter inside. I have no clue what the letter said or why it was so important, but the person who hired me to do it was downright scary once I agreed. I knew it had to be something bad in the note, but at that point, I couldn’t back out.”

  “If you felt like that, why didn’t you go to the cops?” Cassie asked. “Because you’re right. The person who asked you to order those flowers is the same one killing women around this town.”

  Bambi’s eyes widened and she looked between Cassie and Frankie, half shaking her head in denial. “The killer taking out all those blond girls? It was her...”

  “Her?” Frankie looked around the room, seeing if this news surprised anyone else. He and Cassie had discussed the fact that the killer might be a woman, but he’d never really thought that. It was one of the reasons he’d agreed to let Cassie come and confront Bambi with him. Frankie had been convinced the killer was a man. “Her who, Bambi?”

  “I can’t tell you.” She turned to Cassie, holding onto her forearm and staring at her intently. “Please, the woman said if I didn’t do what she asked and keep my mouth shut, she’d make me regret it. Then she told me all about my little boy and where his preschool is. It wasn’t an outright threat, but I knew what she meant.”

  Distracted by Bambi’s revelation, Frankie asked, “You have a kid?”

  “He’s almost five and the only thing that makes my life worth living. Please, you have to leave right now and don’t tell anyone you connected me to the flowers.” She dropped Cassie’s arm to hug herself again, visibly shaking. “She can’t know I talked to you. Please, keep Ryder safe. Don’t give her a reason to come after him.”

  While Frankie could understand her need to protect her son, one thing still bothered him. “Why do you work as a stripper if you have a kid to raise?”

  Bambi let out a snort at the same time as Cassie favored him with a glare.

  “Really?” Cassie asked. “You’re going to judge her for doing what she has to in order to support her kid?”

  He knew Cassie had a big heart and tolerated all kinds of people, but even she should agree that Bambi needed a different job. “There are more respectable ways to make money,” he pointed out. “And her kid needs her home with him at nights, not out at the club.”

  Bambi rolled her eyes. “So hypocritical. This asshole used to come in here to ogle my tits. Now that he finds out I’m a mom, and I’m the one doing something wrong?”

  “No kidding,” Cassie breathed, obviously siding with the dancer. “What about that calendar you and Thayne posed for to raise money for a party at the firehouse a few years ago?”

  “Calendar?” Heat rushed to Frankie’s face. “What do you know about that?”

/>   “Laura has one and she showed me the picture of you,” Cassie said. “No shirt, muscles oiled down, wearing nothing but your fireman pants and wielding an ax. I hardly think you’re in any position to judge what anyone does to make money.”

  Although Bambi was clearly still upset, she grinned at Cassie. “Thanks, sister. We women have to stick together. Besides, nowhere else pays the kind of money I make here, and my kid’s in a charter school so he can get the best education possible. I don’t want him having to strip for a living, but I’ll be damned if I’m going to work some fast food job and be forced to send him to public school and use food stamps to feed him while I kill myself off for minimum wage.”

  Frankie held his hands up in surrender, knowing he’d screwed up big time by being judgmental. Cassie might not do all the things he’d imagined tonight if she stayed upset with him. “Sorry, Bambi. I can understand you providing for your kid. I didn’t mean to be a dick.”

  “I understand why you’re afraid,” Cassie told Bambi, not even acknowledging Frankie’s apology. “I promise I would never do anything to endanger your son, but we women really do have to stick together. Whoever got you to buy those flowers is killing people, and they’re after me. I need to know who it is so the cops can stop them. Your son won’t truly be safe until that person is behind bars.”

  Bambi heaved a loud breath. “You must be Cassie, huh?”

  Cassie nodded.

  “And you promise you’ll be careful with this information? If she’s tipped off to me being the person who told you...”

  Cassie grabbed both Bambi’s shoulders, squeezing gently. “I know it has to be scary. School is out for summer. I promise we’ll be as careful as we can and warn the cops about the threat to your son, but maybe there’s somewhere you could send him for a few weeks while all this is resolved?” She shrugged. “We’re leaving town ourselves while the cops handle it, so it might not be a bad idea to get yourself and your kid away.”

  “No, it’s not a bad idea, but I can’t leave.” Bambi stared at the floor, seeming to think it over. “He can probably stay with my mom for a while. She lives out of state. He should be safe there.”

  “So you’ll tell me who made you do this?” Cassie prodded gently.

  “I don’t know exactly who she is,” Bambi said. “She cornered me in the parking lot last Wednesday, asking if I wanted to make a quick two-hundred bucks. It wasn’t until I’d agreed to the job and took the money that she made the veiled threats toward my son and I realized I’d made a mistake, but by then I knew I couldn’t back out or she would hurt Ryder.”

  Cassie nodded, the only emotion visible on her face being complete sympathy. “I don’t blame you. Can you describe her?”

  “Long brown hair, kind of that light, mousy color,” Bambi said. “She wasn’t too old. I’d guess late twenties. Shorter than I am, but not by much.”

  “Eye color?” Cassie asked.

  Bambi shook her head. “It was dark outside. There was one thing though that I thought kind of weird.”

  “What’s that?”

  “She wore strange clothes, not the kind people wear to come to the club.” Bambi pulled a cell phone from the back pocket of the too tight shorts she wore. “I think they were nursing scrubs. I snapped this picture of her from behind as she walked away, just in case she really did anything to Ryder, but I don’t know if it will help you at all.”

  As Cassie took the phone from Bambi her eyes widened and her hands began to shake. “Can you text this picture to my friend’s phone? I don’t have mine right now.”

  “Sure.” Bambi tapped on the phone as Laura gave her cell number. “So, do you know who this is?” she asked after finishing.

  “I think maybe.” Cassie walked toward Frankie’s chair, looking like she was about to collapse.

  As quickly as he could, Frankie rose to the upright position, opening his arms to circle her in an embrace. Her body trembled with fear and Frankie pressed a kiss against her forehead. “Who is it, Cass?”

  She lifted her head, blinking back tears. “It looks like Sandy from the rehab center. Why would she want me dead?”

  Chapter Eighteen

  Cassie rode in silence next to Laura on their way from the police station back to the hotel room. Not that their trickery seemed necessary. Bambi wasn’t the killer, which hadn’t surprised Cassie too terribly much. However, the thought that it might be Sandy totally blew her mind.

  “Thayne said they’re safely in the room,” Laura said, having just hung up her cell phone. “He thinks we’re fine to return.”

  “Why would Sandy be so happy for me to get flowers if she knew it was a threat?” Cassie chewed on her fingernail, a habit she’d long ago stopped but right now couldn’t help. The way she felt, it was probably a good thing she’d never been a smoker or she’d ask Laura to stop for a whole carton. “Did she want to watch me freak out when I got them?”

  Laura shrugged. “It’s possible.”

  It seemed odd to Cassie. “She’s worked at that rehab center for over a year, and she’s always so nice. I believed she was genuinely happy that I got flowers. If it was all part of a plot to kill me, she’s a dang good actor.”

  “That detective said they’d take care of it. We gave them the picture. The best thing we can do now is leave town as planned and wait to hear that the police have found enough proof to arrest her.”

  Cassie knew Laura was right, but she still couldn’t wrap her mind around everything they’d learned today. It was hard enough for her to fathom why Bambi might have wanted her dead, but Sandy?

  She dropped her head in her hands, feeling the beginnings of a headache. “I can’t believe this. I’ve had lunch with Sandy a few times when our shifts overlapped. She’s one of the nurses who helps watch over the people on Frankie’s floor. Hell, she’s been alone with Frankie and had him helpless in her care. If she was a killer, she could have done away with him at any time.”

  “But he’s not the one she wants dead,” Laura pointed out, turning onto the highway that would lead them back to the hotel more quickly. “Have you ever had an argument with her?”

  Cassie kept her eyes closed against the glaring headlights from other cars. “She’s an absolute sweetheart. I don’t think she’d argue with someone even if she was mad at them.”

  “Maybe she’s been harboring a grudge against you then.”

  Straining her memory, Cassie went over any conversation or interaction with the nurse that she could remember. Most of their conversations had centralized around Cassie’s former days as a nurse in the neonatal unit, since Sandy had started out her career working for a pediatrician before joining the rehab center. They had a lot in common and knew many of the same doctors. Heck, they used to joke around about the more terrible ones, the ones they both agreed should come with a warning label for any nurse thinking of applying for a position with them.

  Sandy was a friend... wasn’t she? Cassie didn’t let herself have many friends, and other than Laura and her brother, the only people she really talked to were in the medical profession. They were her extended family. Well, all besides the sleaze ball Dr. Kenneth Morgan. Cassie couldn’t come up with a single explanation for why Sandy would want her dead.

  “I hope Detective Rogers goes about this carefully,” Cassie said. “I have a hard time believing Sandy’s the right person. Maybe she was forced into it just like Bambi was.”

  “I don’t think that’s likely. Bambi said she was scary, not that she seemed scared.”

  Unfortunately, Cassie had to agree. Bambi would have told them if it seemed like Sandy was forced into it. Sandy, or whoever that was in the picture, had scared the crap out of the dancer, something Cassie couldn’t even imagine the nurse capable of.

  “Do you talk to Sandy about your dating habits?” Laura asked, turning into the hotel parking lot and going slowly around the building to search for a spot close to one of the outer locking doors. “Didn’t that first letter say something about how
you should stop being a whore? Maybe she’s a prude and figures you need to be punished for being too promiscuous.”

  Contemplating that aspect made Cassie once again think of how Frankie had judged Bambi once he found out she had a kid. It wasn’t something she’d expected from him, considering he used to be one of the men enjoying Bambi’s profession. She wouldn’t expect Sandy to think anything wrong of Cassie’s lackluster love life—at least the way it was until last night—but Frankie had proven tonight that she didn’t always understand what went on in the minds of other people.

  “I would talk to her about my dates,” Cassie admitted. “I also warned her away from a few doctors up at the hospital. They often want to go out with the younger nurses but have no intentions of a relationship with them, and I always try to help any new nurses avoid the heartache.”

  Not to mention she also warned them against Kenneth Morgan, even though she could never be specific or tell them why.

  Laura found a parking space and shut off the truck. “No one followed us into the lot, but let me make sure there isn’t anyone lurking around before you get out.”

  Before Cassie could protest about that being overkill, Laura slipped from the truck, walking to the back of it and actively searching the parking lot with a tiny flashlight attached to her keys. After several seconds, she approached Cassie’s side of the truck, unlocking the door and opening it up. “Looks clear out here, but let’s hurry. I’ll feel safer when we’re inside.”

  They raced to the doorway together, Cassie having her room key ready to slide into the locking mechanism on the side of the building. Seconds after it beeped admittance, Cassie and Laura raced into the inner hallway, both of them flattening their backs against the wall and breathing heavily.

  Cassie let out a shaky laugh. “We’re quite the pair, scared of our own shadows.”

  Laura nodded her agreement. “I’ll just be happy when we’re on the beach and away from any psychos.”