Down and Out in Beverly Heels by Kathryn Leigh Scott

Author:Kathryn Leigh Scott [Scott, Kathryn Leigh]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781611098860
Publisher: Montlake Romance
Published: 2013-03-25T16:00:00+00:00

I flip on the lights and look around. Cowering near the staircase is the brawny young driver of the green sedan, his hand cupped over his bleeding nose.

“What’d you hit me for? You could’ve knocked my eye out!”

“Who are you? What are you doing here?”

He looks at me with injured eyes, blood oozing through his fingers and running down his face. He glances at his hand, then glances down at the red splotches staining his fawn-colored jacket.

“Man, look what you did! Fourteen hundred bucks, lady. This is an Ermenegildo Zegna, okay? You don’t go swinging at people, you know?”

“Then you shouldn’t be wearing a fancy jacket for breaking and entering, you idiot. You think insurance is going to cover it? Who the hell are you?”

“None of your damn business. What’d you hit me with?”

“Who said I hit you with anything?” Out of the corner of my eye I spot Jinx’s top hat, which popped open on impact, tottering on the Victrola where it landed. “Maybe you just walked into a door.”

“You kidding me?”

“Does it look like it?” My anger mounting, I grab Donna’s letter opener—a dagger said to have been a Gunga Din prop—off the coffee table, and wave it. “Where’s Donna? Is she hurt?”

“Ma,” the man bellows. “Ma? Help!”

A door slams. A voice calls out, “Denny, are you all right?” The red-haired woman rushes onto the landing at the top of the stairs, her eyes fixing on the dagger I’m brandishing.

“Stop!” she shrieks. “What do you think you’re doing?”

“Who the hell are you? Or do you want to wait and tell the police?”

“My God, Denny! You’re bleeding!” she screams. “Leave him alone!” she demands, pointing a finger at me. “Denny, get back—she’s crazy!”

“She wrecked my jacket, Ma. I didn’t even touch her!”

“Where’s Donna?” I raise the dagger higher. The woman shrieks again.

“You gotta do something, Ma!” Denny cowers against the banister, moisture glistening on his pale forehead.

“I said, where’s Donna?”

“I’ll get her, I’ll get her. Just leave him alone!” The woman flutters her hands, then hurries off toward Donna’s room, slingback mules slap-slapping against her heels.

“Ma!” Denny bellows. “Get me a towel!”

“Denny, you want to tell me what’s going on here? Just what are you and your mother after, anyway? Why’d you break in here?”

“We just wanted to talk, okay? We didn’t know your friend was here. We weren’t trying to rob the place.” He glances at the top hat on the Victrola with disdain. “Who’d want this junk, anyways?”

“You’ve been following me. What’s this all about?”

“My mother just wants to get her money back, that’s all. Your husband swindled her out of almost everything she won in an insurance settlement. Losing her investment’s bad enough, but what your husband did to her—”

“Look, I don’t know any Coop, okay? You’ve got the wrong person.”

“Who’s Coop?” He flaps his arms, looking exasperated. “Gimme a break, lady. Who’s Coop?”

I stop cold. “You broke into my car, right? Left notes for me?”

“Like hell I did! What’re you trying to accuse me of?” I raise the dagger again, and Denny backs up, his palms raised.

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