Flirting with Danger by Bev Hardy (digital e reader TXT) 📖

to ask for the discs.
She was staring at him; her expression firm and stern.
"Are you going to tell me what you've done?" she asked.
He didn't like that tone. It made him feel like he was back at school and had been caught smoking in the restrooms. But on second thoughts, he dreaded Charlie's reactions to his misdemeanours far more than he had ever dreaded the school Principal's.
"C'mon Charlie, we gotta look at those discs," he appealed.
She stood her ground. "No, not until you have told me what has happened."
He sighed, thought for a moment and then moved towards the sofa, taking a seat. "Maybe we should sit for this one."
She watched him suspiciously for a few seconds before joining him.
"I kindda got somethin' wrong," he said, turning towards her, his hands attempting to explain with gestures of appeal. The room fell silent again as he tried to think of how to explain.
"What, Luke? What did you get wrong?" she asked.
"Well, err, it's like this… I kindda thought that… that… that Richie was… err… Mafia," he quickly finished, his eyes lowering to the black and white floral carpet. "But before ya go nuts on me," he went on, raising his head again, "I had good reason."
He risked a glance across at her. She was deadly still, staring disconcertingly at him. He waited for her to say something but she remained silent, unnerving him even more.
He went on. "There was this woman, Bella Jackson. The Borelli's sent her to me with threats before I decided on comin' back here. Anyway, she turned up at the Club tonight, and Eddie said she was there earlier today too."
More silence.
"And?" she prompted.
He sighed again. "Look, Eddie said she'd been telling people that she was… err," he ran a hand through his hair again awkwardly, "that she was Richie's girl from New York."
His eyes flicked to hers, waiting for a reaction. Her expression never changed, she simply tilted her head slightly and continued staring at him.
"Look, what was I supposed to think? Anyway, turns out she's not. She was just tryin' to get into the Club to find out some info. Dunno what. She heard Richie speakin' and spoke to the staff under the guise of bein' his girl."
Charlie nodded. "So, what did you do to Richie?" she asked, deliberately slowly, her eyes never leaving him.
"I didn't do nothin'," he answered.
She rose a disbelieving eyebrow.
"I'm tellin' you Charlie, I never touched the guy."
"Oh, so I suppose you just had a friendly chat about this then, did you?" she said sarcastically.
He groaned. "I hadda find out where Tony Borelli was," he appealed. "Now they know about the club and me bein' here an' all, it aint safe for you now neither."
"What did you do to him?" she repeated.
He growled. "I just threatened him, that's all. Then when I realized, I untied him…"
"Untied?" she questioned.
"Yeah, and then he threw a punch at me, stole my car keys and took off."
"You can hardly blame him Luke; I've seen your methods of interrogation before remember," she came back.
"Yeah. Yeah. You wanna get this over with an' take a swing for the other eye now?" he asked, pointing to his face and trying not to smile at the same time.
She didn't look amused. "No Luke; I wouldn't lower myself to your levels. As it happens, I have spoken to Bella Jackson already, which you would have known if you hadn't gone off on your own rampage without me." Her tone told him that she was slowly working herself up to a simmering rage. "What did I say to you about us sharing everything?"
He grinned and couldn't resist slipping in, "I wanna share everything with you Charlie, but you won't let me."
"That's not even funny," she snapped back, pointing a finger at him. "You know what I mean. We agreed that you would let me in on everything you know. You promised that you wouldn't go off on one of your vendettas on your own. I'm involved in this now you know; the things that you do have consequences for me too. Did you ever think of that, eh Luke?"
"Yeah I thought of that!" he replied defensively, a little louder than he had intended. He glanced towards the door, and then continued in a whisper, "What was I gonna do, eh? Come tell ya that the guy you're supposedly in love with is Mafia? Oh, and that, by the way, he's also cheatin' on ya."
"If that were the case, don't you think I would have wanted to know?" she replied.
"Look," he glanced to the door and back again, leaning closer to her to whisper, "I needed to find Tony. You don't know what the Borellis are capable of. It aint safe for you. I saw the opportunity to end this an' I took it. You bein' Richie's girl confused things. If it hadn't been that way, I wudda come to you," he assured her.
"Hmm." She wasn't entirely convinced, and she wasn't going to let him off that easily either. From now on, she was going to take things into her own hands if she couldn't rely on him to act rationally.
"Anyway, what d'ya get outta Jackson?" he asked.
"Not much," she replied.
"What d'ya mean, 'not much'? She's key to this ya know," he came back.
"Luke, she wouldn't talk, and I am not going to get myself arrested for this; I have a life to live too you know. I don't resort to your tactics. I got her car registration; that was as much as I could do," she told him.
The beginnings of a smile could be seen on Luke's face. At least she didn't seem too furious at him for what he'd done to Richie. But now he was intrigued as to Charlie's persuasive techniques when it came to Bella. Charlie was fantastic at solving crimes and pretty damn good with a firearm, but when it came to interrogation, she was far too soft.
"What d'ya do to try get information outta her?" he asked.
She tutted. "What does it matter?"
The smile then emerged. "What d'ya do?" he repeated.
She sighed. "She hadn't eaten all day. She was hungry. She wanted some gateaux," she said, stopping when she felt a giggle rising in her at the ridiculousness of the situation.
He grinned. "Gateaux," he taunted, "And?"
"Oh for goodness sake, she nearly cracked. I ate it in front of her," she admitted.
Luke burst out laughing. "Undercover detective threatens London with gateaux!" he exclaimed, barely getting out the words in between laughter. "They'll have to close all the bakeries now Charlotte, all the patisseries… no more tea rooms. You'll bring London to its knees!"
"Shut up you idiot! Are we going to watch these discs or not?" she came back.
XxXxXxXxXxXxXxXx
They spent the next tense half an hour or so searching through the discs to find the period after Luke had first arrived at the Club.
"Wait, that's it! That's Tony!" Luke exclaimed, "Rewind that last part. Keep going, okay, stop there."
They played the disc and watched as a huge, tattooed, bald headed man emerged from around a hedge, dragging Roberto's dead body with him. After struggling to move the body across the driveway and manoeuvre it into Luke's car, the man took one last look around before sprinting across the gravel and disappearing once more.
"So, it was the Borelli's then," Charlie commented, stopping the disc and standing to remove it from Mrs Bennett's DVD player.
"That don't prove nothin'," Luke replied. "Only that Tony moved the body. I'm tellin' ya Charlie, if it weren't done at point-blank range, it weren't a Borelli who did it. Besides, he wouldn't kill his own brother."
"Really?" She rose a disbelieving eyebrow. "But they tried to kill Danny, and he was their brother," she pointed out.
"That was different," he replied. "Roberto was one of their mob; he was key to everythin'."
She sighed. "Well, wherever Roberto was murdered, it wasn't far from there. There has to be some clues near here somewhere."
"Yeah, an' we gotta find them…fast," Luke added.
"Well, not tonight. I'm going home; I haven't had a proper night's sleep since you reinvaded my life," she yawned, reaching for her bag to leave.
Luke stood with her. "I'll walk you back."
She stopped and turned at the lounge door. "Why? There's no need," she shrugged.
"Are you kiddin'?" he replied, "What d'I tell ya? It ain't safe."
She moved into the entrance hall and headed for the front door, opening it, but pausing on the threshold.
"Luke, I'm a trained secret agent; I can handle anyone between here and home," she assured him.
Luke followed her out of the house however, closing the door behind him. "Aint noone can handle these guys we're dealin' with darlin', not on their own. I aint leavin' you alone out here, an' that's final."
She tutted, and began walking. "Quite honestly Luke, I'm too tired to argue right now."
XxXxXxXxXxXxXx
"Oh wonderful," Charlie exclaimed, as only a few minutes into the walk back to her house she began to feel spots of rain on her bare arms. She quickened her pace, although it wasn't easy considering the high heeled shoes she was wearing and the fact the they only had the verge of the road to walk on. Beside them were the dark stretches of farmland behind the hedge which ran the length of the country road. The rain became quickly heavier, and the wind began to chill her to the bone as her evening dress became slowly damp.
"Great British weather we're havin'," Luke commented.
"It was fine until you came back," she replied. "We were in the middle of a lovely sunny spell."
The sound of the rain hitting the road then suddenly became considerably louder, increasing gradually until it reached a roar of raindrops pelting down around them. Charlie stopped walking then, her breath suddenly taken away by the fierce icy downpour that was drenching them.
Despite her earlier annoyance, at that point, with the rain taking away all of her composure, she couldn't help but laugh at the intensity of the downpour. "This isn't how I imagined ending tonight Luke," she shouted over the noise.
"No?" he shouted back, watching as she attempted to brush the sodden hair from her face. "How d'ya imagine it?" He rose a suggestive eyebrow.
She yelped then as a stream of water trickled down her back. "A lot dryer than this, that's for certain. Think there's a shelter over there," she said, pointing across the road to an opening in the hedge which revealed some sort of basic corrugated metal construction. "Come on."
They both ran, laughing at the ferocity of the rain, until they reached the opposite side of the road, where Charlie was forced to tread more carefully across the muddy entrance to the field for fear of slipping over. Finally they made it to the shelter, still laughing and shivering and shaking the rain from themselves.
"I have to hand it to you Luke," Charlie chuckled, "Things certainly aren't boring with you around."
"Too right," he grinned back.
At the rear of the shelter Charlie noticed a concrete slab and moved towards it, only to find that her shoe had sunk into the mud, causing her to stumble. Luke grabbed hold of her arm to steady her.
"I'm sinking here," she laughed, using his support to leave her shoe in the mud in order to jump across to the more stable ground that the concrete afforded.
"You okay?" he asked, joining her.
"Yes, but," she crouched down then, reaching across the gap for her deserted shoe.
He crouched with her, but ventured one foot back onto the mud to reach the shoe before she could.
"Here," he said, holding it out to her, "Think you're gonna need this."
"Thanks," she smiled, taking his offering.
They paused for a moment then, both still crouching beside each other. He ran his eyes over her face, shining from the sheen of rainwater; they moved then, hovering briefly on the v in the bodice of her dress as she leant forward, before moving to the length of thigh that was exposed from the slit of her evening gown.