Read Online One of Those Malibu Nights by Elizabeth Adler - Free Book Online Page B

floors, they’re some kind of concrete polished until it shines, but they’re hard as hell and nothing you can do can soundproof them. You could hear a petal fall from a rose in that house.
    “It was a definite footstep. Someone was moving around downstairs, opening things.
And I was alone
. I was so scared, I grabbed Ronnie’s gun from the drawer in the bedside table. I crept to the top of the stairs and peered down.”
    She stopped with a shudder that this time shook her entire body. She was obviously terrified by the memory. “Jeez, Mr. Reilly—Mac—I wanna tell you, my heart was thudding like a friggin’ steam engine. But I’d always told myself that in a pinch, in a situation like this, if it was a ‘him-or-me’ survival, it would be
me
.
    “I still couldn’t see anybody so I crept further down the stairs. I was standing at the bottom looking round in the darkness when somebody grabbed me. I screamed and he pushed me to the floor. I dropped the gun and I thought, Oh shit this is it… . I was facedown, frantically groping around for the gun. By the time I found it and got to my feet—he was gone.”
    She looked at Mac. “And then you appeared at the window. I thought you were him, come back again… . I didn’t recognize you until after I’d shot at you. And now I just want to say I’m sorry.”
    Mac grinned. “That’s okay, it’s happened before, and those other times I never got an apology.”
    “I was terrified I’d hurt you. I thought you’d send for the cops—and that would have meant the end for me and Ronnie. So I just got out of there as fast as I could. I didn’t stop to think—except about the gun. I knew I couldn’t leave it there in case the cops came, so I wiped it off on myrobe—so there’d be no fingerprints y’see. And then I dumped it in your car. I knew the red hybrid was yours, I’d seen you driving by and it was always parked on the street outside your house. Anyway, that’s what I did, and then I went back to wait for Ronnie.”
    “So tell me,” Mac said, “why
didn’t
you call the cops?”
    “No cops. Ronnie wouldn’t have liked that.”
    Mac recalled Perrin saying vehemently, “No police” as he’d left him that morning.
    “So what happened later?” he asked. “When Perrin came home?”
    “I’d already called him, told him what happened. He agreed it was best not to say anything. But I could tell he was scared. He said it must be the guy who was following him, that he must be some nut who wanted to kill him.”
    “What happened to the FBI theory?”
    “That as well. To tell you the truth, Mac, it was a very paranoid situation. And your showing up didn’t help things any.”
    “Thanks a lot,” Mac said. “I’ll remember that the next time I hear a woman scream.”
    “Oh, I didn’t mean it like that. Really I didn’t.” She looked away, embarrassed. “It’s just that Ronnie was in trouble and I didn’t know how to help him. After the shooting incident he said he had to get me out of the country immediately. Ronnie couldn’t afford another scandal, after that divorce and … well you know, the court case about mishandling the funds.And with me out of the way no one could ask me any questions. He called Demarco and told him to ‘take care of me.’ He meant ‘get rid of me.’ I knew that.
    “Anyhow, Demarco called Renato Manzini in Rome, told him he was sending me over right away, and to make things look legit he should give me a small role in his film. Demarco chartered a private jet and got me to Rome that night. He told Renato to put me in the Hotel Eden and to look after me. And Ronnie said he would join me in a couple of days.”
    “And?” Sunny was hanging on to every word.
    Marisa’s face fell. “He’s never even called,” she said. “I’m still waiting for him at the hotel. But now Renato has found me an apartment. I move in tomorrow. Here’s the address and the phone number. You already have my cell.” She handed Mac