Scarlet Nights (Edilean 3)

The look on her face stopped him. “All right, no lectures,” he said. “I hate the danger you were in, but I’m really, really glad you caught Mitzi!” He put his hands on her shoulders. “And now, Sara, my love, as much as I like what you have on, I do not want other men seeing you wearing it. Let’s get you dressed so you can go talk to some people, all right?”

When Sara caught his arm, he turned back to her in question.

“You called me your love.”

Mike looked puzzled.

“You’ve not said that before.” When he still didn’t understand, she said, “Love! You’ve never said my name and love in the same sentence.”

“You think I married you but I wasn’t mad about you?”

“The case needed—”

Standing in front of her, he positioned her legs to either side of his hips. “There are lots of criminals, but I’ve never married anyone just to save her.” He kissed her neck. “I love you.” He kissed her cheek. “I love you more every day.” He kissed her eyelids. “When I saw you standing in the back of that summerhouse behind Vandlo, with blood all over you, for a moment I didn’t know if you were dead or alive, and I thought I was going to die.”

“Me too,” she said as she kissed him. “When I realized that old woman was Mitzi, I knew you were in danger and—”

“Shhhh,” he said as he held her against him. “It’s over now, and I have to go back to Fort Lauderdale on Monday. Think you can get packed by then? Except I don’t know what I’ll be driving.”

“Your car …?”

“Shot full of holes. What in the world possessed you to put Mitzi Vandlo in a car full of weapons? Couldn’t you have stolen another vehicle?”

“Don’t get mad at me. Ariel did it. Your beloved Ariel, who you go out on dates with even though you’re a married man.”

“I went out with her before I married you. And she—”

“I hate to break this up,” Frank said from the doorway, “but everyone wants to see the woman who brought Mitzi down.”

“I’ll be there as soon as Sara gets dressed.”

“Don’t bother on our part,” Frank said, then laughed at Mike’s glare as he went outside.

“I take it the paintings hidden in Mr. Lang’s secret room are signed by CAY.”

“Yeah,” Mike said. “Charles Albert Yates. Yesterday Luke and I hauled out a lot from that room.” He lifted Sara off the counter. “There are about a hundred paintings, but there’s much more. Everything in that room is old, and I have no idea what it is. There are wooden boxes full of letters and old diaries and clothes. The kilt and shirt Lang wore on that night in 1941, the ones I heard about for most of my childhood, were in there.” Mike took a breath. “I don’t understand why no one’s found the room before now.”

“Mr. Lang nailed the door shut,” Sara said as Mike helped her into the long dress.

“So only he could see the contents. That makes sense.”

“How did Mitzi find out about the paintings? And are they valuable?”

He was silent.

“Mike? What’s wrong?”

“I sent photos of a couple of the paintings to the Feds in D.C. Sara, dear, you’re a millionaire. Multi.”

Her only thought was that now they could afford to renovate Merlin’s Farm. And there’d be no worry about educating their children. And Mike could open the best gym there was. Smiling, she looked at him but saw that he was serious. “You’re the only person on earth who could be unhappy about getting a lot of money.”

“It’s not my money. It’s yours, and you could do a lot with it.”

Sara had to work not to groan. Mike was letting her know that if she wanted to be released from her new marriage vows he’d let her go. “Think Tess can manage millions for us?”

“Sure,” he said, and his dimple appeared.

She slipped her arm through his. “My mother has a list of people who want to join your gym.”