Love Can Be Murder

friends, Granola Girl."
    Penny nodded. "Clear."
    "And spying on me is really pathetic," Sheena added. "You need to get a life."
    Penny's mouth watered with the words You got my life, but she swallowed them.
    Sheena turned on her high heels and marched toward the pink house, her full hips swaying. Penny watched her go, flooded with relief but fighting an undertow of frustration and sudden, mounting fear.
    Not fear of Sheena Linder but fear of herself, of what she was capable of. Deke's description of her timidity wasn't flattering, but it was more true than not, she admitted. Growing up in a family of hell-raisers, she had learned that the best way to escape notice was to fly below the radar. She was generally the kind of person who lived her life and let other people live their lives, because she'd learned that sticking her neck out usually led to messy situations...like confronting Sheena Linder about the dangers of her tanning beds.
    The woman still had her tanning beds—and now had Penny's husband to boot.
    But pushing Sheena in front of a car...that was more than sticking her neck out. That was submitting to dark impulses that she entertained only in the wee hours of the morning....
    A horn blasted, stealing her breath. Penny jerked her head around to see that Lou's painting van had returned and she was blocking the driveway. She was being honked like a stranger out of the driveway that used to be hers. She stepped aside, then looked down as one of the envelopes that she had been going to take to the museum blew across her sandal. She spotted the other two pieces of mail just off the sidewalk, dirty and damp. She picked them up as she made her way back to her side of Charm Street, her pulse thudding in her ears as realization bled through her about how differently the pushing incident could have ended, and how a person's life could be forever changed by one impulsive decision.
    This time she'd been lucky.
    "Excuse me, Red."
    Penny startled from her musings and turned her head, then nearly swallowed her tongue. Sheena's mystery man sat in his faded green car with the window rolled down, his head and one arm leaning out. Now that she was in a position to get a good look at his face, she immediately identified his relationship with Sheena: lover. He was breathtakingly handsome, with a darkened, chiseled jaw and glittering black eyes that hinted at danger despite the fact that he was smiling. No one had called her "Red" since grade school. Ridiculously, she shoved a strand of unruly hair behind her ear, thinking she must look frightful after rolling around in the street.
    "Y-yes?" she managed, darting a nervous glance toward the pink house. If Sheena was watching, the woman might think she was gathering information to take to Deke.
    He angled his head in a way that made her think he was used to getting what he wanted out of people—women, in particular, she guessed. "I was wondering if you could recommend a decent motel." His smooth Cajun cadence made him sound as if his jaw was double-jointed.
    So, whatever Sheena said hadn't scared him away—apparently he was settling in...with plans to harass Sheena? Penny wet her lips and stared at the long, blunted fingers of his hand draped casually next to the side mirror. A man's hands always fascinated her, and she liked the look of his—powerful...capable...ringless. Sexual awareness sprang to life in her midsection and she wondered crazily if Marie's love potion had something to do with her bizarre reaction to this stranger, or perhaps her body was playing tricks on her because she already had him so firmly entrenched in her mind as a playboy.
    "It doesn't have to be fancy," he added with a wink, "but clean sheets and a firm mattress would be nice."
    Her mind spun off into wild tangents, conjuring up visions of him tangled in clean sheets and performing erotic gymnastics on a firm mattress. She could feel the heat climbing her cheeks and the amused look on his face told her that he'd noticed her blush. Giving herself a mental shake, she tried desperately to be composed and act as if she were immune to the libidinous vibe he emitted.
    "Try the Browning Motel," she said, pointing in the opposite direction of downtown Mojo. "Stay on Charm Street, go past the interstate, and it's on the left."
    He nodded curtly and gave her a savagely sexy grin. "Much obliged." Then he pulled away from the curb, although she caught his reflection as he drove away when he glanced at her in