Chapter 6
J immy’s Beach House
The sun, a bright orange ball on the line of the horizon, cast a beautiful eerie hue on the waves of the Pacific Ocean. Despite the wonder of dusk, Clar couldn’t shake the image of the old lady, wig, and cane from her mind. Why would someone come disguised into a hospital and lurk outside Levi’s room? She should have paid closer attention. She should have really looked at the woman before hurrying down the hall.
“So just what are you suggesting?” Jimmy’s voice bounced around the room. Clar focused on the reflections in the window of Jacki and Clint sitting behind her on the sandy-white couch while Jimmy paced in front of them. “There is no way I’m going along with that plan. No way! Clar’s not going back into the business! Damn it, Clar could be next on the maniac’s hit list.”
“Are you even listening, O’Brien? You’re as pigheaded today as you were years ago.” Jacki shook her head and leaned back into the sofa. “You haven’t heard a word we said, have you?”
“All I hear is that you want Clar to go back into that world. A world she’s fought so hard to leave behind. Do you honestly realize how hard that was for her?” Jimmy stopped his pacing and plopped onto a red bar stool at the breakfast bar. “Do you?”
“Probably more than you do as I was around to pick up the pieces after you hounded her,” Jacki accused, her words laced with arsenic.
Clar winced because it was true and then saw Jimmy’s guilty look. Damn, she didn’t want it to be like this, she didn’t want to get back into skin flicks either, but if it would mean catching Levi’s attacker and stopping him before he hurt anyone else, she’d do it.
“Ah, excuse me but I’m standing right here and I can speak for myself.” Clar leaned against the back of a stool near Jimmy, and glared at them all. “Jacki and Clint, it would have been better if you’d let me in on your plans but I understand your need for expediency.” At Jimmy’s snort she turned to spear him with a repressive look. “And as for you, O’Brien, I’m not some lovelorn little waif you have to worry about, and I make my own decisions. I think they’re right; we need someone on the inside at CAS, and that someone is me.”
“Like hell. If someone has to go in, it’s going to be me.” Jimmy stood with his hands planted on his waist, his blazing gaze scorching everyone in its path. “They want you to go undercover, Clar. To go back to the studio and start filming again.”
“I admit you’re sexy enough but you don’t have the qualifications.” Clar chuckled, hoping to release some of the tension the conversation had brought to what should have been a beautiful and peaceful setting.
“I don’t fucking care. If CAS is hard up, they will take me. They want you to be in the direct line of this deranged person.” His whiskey eyes flickered with concern and something Clar had never seen in them before. Fear.
“Give us a little credit, O’Brien, we have a plan,” Jacki said.
Ignoring Jimmy and his tantrum, Clar gazed out to the ocean. She understood Jimmy’s fear, hell the thought scared the daylights out of her too, not that she was about to admit it. It really wasn’t that bad of an idea, but.... If she continued to hide and live in fear of being exposed, what kind of life could she really have? “Is that all there is, me going back in front of the lens again? We don’t know what is on that film yet. We don’t know what my candy has to do with this, if anything.”
“How do we know Cameron hasn’t gone back on his word? We’ve got to have a plan, Clar.” Jacki came up behind her, placing a hand on her shoulder. “I’d never put you in danger. Clint came up with the plan and I agree with him as long as we are there with you. Besides, Max would never forgive me if he didn’t get to try to steal your chocolates anymore.”
“Thank God for Max. I always did like that horse of yours.” Clar turned, catching the sharp glint of worry in Jacki’s eye. Sighing, Clar turned back to the peace of the ocean, sensing the dangers lurking in its depths. “What’s this plan of yours?”
Jacki and Clint explained how they’d go in undercover to make sure she had protection. Clint would take on the role of cameraman, putting him directly in the studio. Jacki would be out front with Evie, checking out customers as they came in and keeping an eye on her.
Jimmy glared at the three of them. “I can’t believe you’re still gonna do this. What do you do about Evelyn then? She may not look it, but that woman knows everything that goes on in the studio. Plus, she knows me, has no love lost for Clar and, besides, I’m not about to let you that far out of my sight.”
If Clar could bore a hole through Jimmy’s stubborn brain, she would gladly do so. She understood his fear for her, and somewhere deep inside it melted that little bit of anger toward him, but she would not be controlled. “You’re either part of the solution, Jimmy, or you’re part of the problem, which is it going to be? I can make my own decisions and decide what is or what isn’t good for me.”
“You’ve worked too damn hard to leave that life, and now you want to enter the lion’s den not looking at all like Kandi Kyses, by the way. Not to mention doing so will blow your entire new life to shreds.”
She’d grown soft, put on a few pounds, and his comment stung. “No, you did that when you announced it on SXY this morning.” She wanted to call the words back the minute he blanched. Instead, the look he gave her spoke volumes increasing the distance between them. He turned on his heel and walked out the door.
“Oh shit,” Jacki said.
“Yeah, he’s got it pretty bad,” Clint chirped in, a smile lurking at the corner of his mouth.
“He’s an overbearing SOB I can’t seem to pull from my side.” Clar watched Jimmy stomped down the steps and onto the sandy beach. Her heart flipped thinking she’d finally succeeded in pushing him away—for good this time. Her soul cried instead of cheering for joy.
“While that may be true, he’s always loved you. What’s so bad about letting him in?” Jacki put an arm around Clar’s shoulder, hugging her ever so slightly. “Giving him a morsel of consideration would go a long way.”
Clar’s heart softened with a tiny sigh. It wouldn’t do any harm to be nice to him, but nothing more. Not yet. At least not until this business of finding who assaulted Levi was done.
What the hell had she done? Clar was moving before she could talk herself out of it. Yeah, they had their differences but she couldn’t let things end this way.
***
J IMMY STRODE DOWN THE beach wishing he had a wall he could kick, something he could flatten, because he felt just as damned guilty as he ought to. Clar didn’t trust him, she sure as hell didn’t want his help. Leaving seemed like the best option but he knew he couldn’t, not really.
What a fucking mess. Clar Turner was the love of his life. He knew it the first time he’d done a news report on one of her films. Under all the bleached blonde hair, fake tan, and makeup lay the woman he was destined to be with.
She had been as broken as he was back then. Maybe that’s what bonded them at first before it all turned to shit.
Both of Clar’s parents were killed in a tragic accident, no family and nowhere to go, Levi Andres became her savior and Dylan her friend. If only Jimmy had been there first, maybe she wouldn’t be in this current situation. Fuck, maybe she flat out wouldn’t be in this position because Jimmy wouldn’t have encouraged her to get into the skin business like they had.
Even if she hated him, even if she walked away from him in the end, he’d do what he had to in order to protect her. No way would he lose her to a maniac killer. The hair brained idea of Wolfe’s and Mason’s didn’t sit well with him. The whole thing should be handled by Cameron and his cronies, not a former film star and her PI friend with a washed-up Texas Ranger and disgraced reporter as sidekicks.
“Jimmy!” Clar’s voice filtered through the soft crashes of the waves along the shoreline. “Jimmy, wait.”
A seismic shift went through him at her voice, stopping him in his tracks, and he started to hope again. And then realized he only heard one set of racing footsteps. Her safety detail wasn’t even protecting her. Shit. The last remnants of the sun’s rays barely lit the horizon. This could be the most dangerous time of the evening on the beach for anyone alone. Jimmy swore under his breath and turned toward Clar as she ran through the sand.
His heart hammered in his chest. A vision of Pamela Anderson in that lifeguard movie, jogging on the beach in a red one-piece swimsuit flashed through his mind. Only it was Clar and every bit as sexy, if not more because it was real, because she was his. He pulled at his shorts, adjusting the discomfort there.
Clar pulled up, huffing, and puffing to catch her breath. “Geez, I’ve forgotten what it’s like to run through the sand. I guess you’re right about me being out of shape.”
“Nah, I was being an asshole. It suits you, more real somehow, like I could hold you.” Yeah, real smooth, idiot .
She gave him a funny look.
Jimmy waited a moment longer before turning to walk further along the beach. He was careful to keep her between him and the water in hopes that any SOB who might be watching from the cliffs wouldn’t get a clear shot at them with the setting sun in their eyes. As soon as he got her to his secret cove, he’d feel better. He’d been heading there to think but now it was a perfect place to get her alone. A group of boulders several yards from the beach house offered the perfect sanctuary from the day’s troubles.
“Right.” She came up beside him, nudging him with an elbow. Jimmy smiled; thankful she didn’t appear to be angry with him any longer. “What I can’t live with is you trying to run my life...still. I’m not that scared little girl any more, Jimmy, with my father’s conspiracy theory and list. I’ve grown up and moved on from that life, my parents’ deaths, and away from the California lifestyle. I don’t want it back, but if going back in front of the camera will entice the murderer then I’ll do it. All this senseless killing has to stop.”
“I agree but you need to let the professionals handle it. Hell, it’s what cops sign on for.” Jimmy sat on the sand, leaning against one of the boulders. The tide was low and the ocean lightly crashed the shore. Perfect for a romantic rendezvous, He patted the sand by his side and relaxed when she sat next to him, and placed a hand over his.
“You know we can’t trust Cameron with this.”
“I know. Don’t think I’m not scared because I am. I know the risk and the chances of me coming out the same person are little to none. But can’t you see I have to do this?” She paused a moment as the waves sloshed the shore then sighed deeply. “I feel there’s no choice, if putting my life at risk could stop the killings and save others, then I have to do it.”
Jimmy pulled Clar to him and scrutinized her hazel eyes, searching for anything that would give him what he needed to convince her to abandon the plan. His gaze travelled down to her lips, a natural rose color begging to be kissed. The tip of her tongue snaked out and his control washed out with the waves.
***
T HE LAST THING SHE planned on was being in Jimmy’s arms. But here she was, nestled on the sand beside some boulders with him gazing down at her. The damn organ that pumped blood into a living body jack-hammered against her chest. Heat surged through her body. Clar wrapped her arms around his neck and offered her lips without hesitation. She needed this bliss, this healing, and whether he wanted to admit it or not so did he.
“Clar, I can’t...” Jimmy’s finger traced her lower lip, singeing the sensitive area. Hot liquid gold glided from the spot to the mounting pressure at the valley between her thighs.
“Just shut up and kiss me.” Clar pulled him down, tasting him for the first time. Her body exploded in a fiery blaze of desire.
She moaned into him, pleading for more than humanly possible. It had been a long time since Clar felt the warmth of a man. The fact that she’d chosen Jimmy was a surprise. Life threw a curve ball straight into a well thought out life and landed between the attack on Levi and her assault on Jimmy’s mouth.
Clar wanted to hit it out of the ballpark for a home run.
“Jimmy...” His name slipped off her tongue like silk, and she shivered in heated need.
Light as a feather, his hand glazed over a breast, sending another shot of craving into her fluttering belly. Jimmy’s eyes smoldered with intensity, and Clar licked suddenly parched lips. Clar needed his touch encompassing her entire body...inside and out.
She wanted to feel what making love with him was like, before her life disappeared.
Warm lips found their way to the sweet spot on her neck, then travelled the path to a sensitive earlobe. Hot breath mingled with the fresh scent of sand and surf, sending all circuits into overdrive. Every muscle in her body tensed with heat and trembled with cold.
“Clar,” Jimmy whispered into her ear, fanning a strand of hair lightly across the lobe. “I’ve waited a long time to become one with you, and believe me, my body is letting me know just what that would mean. I just can’t, not this way. Not in a heated rush.”
“But...” Tears welled threatening to burst, and Clar took a deep breath calming the quaking realization of his words. “...we may not have another opportunity, Jimmy.”
“That, my dear, is not an option. I plan on ravaging your body a hundred times over once this ordeal is over and the son-of-a-bitch is in prison.”
“I’ve been such a fool, Jimmy, in not trusting you.” Clar snuggled deep into his arms, letting the tears fall freely. Her tilted axes felt to have shifted back a bit more in their world. Together they just might have a chance in this life.
The two bodies groping each other in the sand turns my stomach into convulsions. Damn, I wish I could see better. Trust the bastard reporter to choose a rocky fortress for his sex on the beach. It’s a wonder they don’t get sand crabs or something. Humph! The porn queen has returned and taken up where she left off, in the arms of some unsuspecting man. Kandi Kyses may have changed her appearance, but a leopard can’t change their spots. She’s still the whore and the reason I had to kill Dylan. Her and the entourage at the studio all had to die.
Too bad there hadn’t been enough time to make sure the homo had died as well. Although if he had, the message wouldn’t have been relayed, so I guess I did good there. Besides, I knew she’d come running for her friend. The pink candy wrapper wasn’t enough to bring her back here. Didn’t count on the former PI bringing in a hired gun though. Just another body to contend with.
And that’s exactly what will happen...everyone will be contended with. One way or another. Just how and when to do it?