Programmed for Peril

the cameras in her home. That positive step improved her frame of mind, but still left her feeling… inadequate in the face of Carson’s attentions. Dismay hung around her like persistent wisps of fog.
    When Dino arrived at her desk with more tarts she decided it was written that he should show up at that moment. As usual he grinned and talked about her bambina, though he had never laid eyes on Melody. She invited him into her unbugged area for coffee. His brown eyes studied her over the Styrofoam cup edge. “You been crying,” he said.
    “An old lover has turned out to be the one trying to upset the apple cart of my life, Dino.”
    He waved an arm. “The trouble you been having all along? That you thought Rocco caused?”
    She nodded. “Rocco came and talked to me the other day. He made a sincere, fair offer to buy me out. I might well sell to him after I’m married. He asked me to tell you that he had made me a fair offer.” She leaned forward. “I think you scared him a lot.” She thought it diplomatic not to mention that he thought Dino was another half-mad Nam vet.
    “Guy like that deserves scaring.” Dino took a big sip of coffee.
    She groped for words, unsure just how to continue. “You’re the only guy I know who could really scare another man.”
    He grinned, his teeth wide and white as those of a star with a Hollywood dentist. “You don’t hang with the right kind of guys.”
    “Maybe I don’t. Not for the trouble I seem to be in.” She drank coffee, battling her nervousness. “I need help. I have some, but I need more.” She burst into a partial description of her situation and the man who lay behind it. She backed and filled, added, tried to bring it all together. “The whole reason for everything is that Carson doesn’t want me to marry Foster. He’s been concentrating on hurting my business.” She waved her hand to take in all of PC-Pros. “It’s the easiest way to reach me. I’ll be honest. It’s working. I’m getting into an expensive lawsuit over a PC loaded with dynamite that blew up in a law library. Who knows what’s next?”
    “You want me to meet him instead of you? Want me to scare the hell out of him, too?”
    Trish smiled grimly. “I don’t know if he’ll meet me. But I do know you couldn’t scare him. It might be... vice versa, you know.”
    “Oooooh! You’re talking a baaad dude.”
    “I do want your help, Dino. You’re right. But I feel very strange mixing you up in my problems.”
    “You’re a good woman, Patricia. You get married, all your problems are over, right?”
    She nodded. “Then we’re like any married couple. With a different set of problems. The present problem is getting past Carson.”
    He raised his palms in the Italian shrug. “So what can Dino do for you?”
    “For now, if you could, keep an eye on this building. You’re only a couple doors down, and you live in those rooms behind the bakery, right?”
    “Nah. Just Mario. I live a couple blocks away. I got an apartment. But I’m usually at the bakery. Right now Mario and me are working nights putting in a coffee bar.”
    “So one of you could maybe walk around this building at night and on weekends? Look in the windows? Make sure nothing’s going on?”
    Dino put down his cup. He got up and walked toward Trish, arms out. The green-eyed alligator tattoo on his forearm writhed as he gestured. “That don’t sound like enough.”
    “Will you do it?”
    “Yeah, Mario and I, we’ll do it, but—”
    “Right now that’s all I feel right asking you to do. Maybe later I’ll need your help in other ways. Then I’ll let you know.”
    “How come you’re playing your cards so close, Patricia?” His brown gaze was penetrating, demanding even. She felt his inner power. There were men, and there were men. “What do you mean?”
    “How much of the truth did you tell me? About you and this guy? This Carson?”
    She met his gaze. “As much as you need to know. As much as I can tell a person I just met. Maybe as much as I’m emotionally equipped to tell right now.”
    He held her forearms lightly in his hands. It was the first time he had touched her. She felt the electricity and saw desire dart across the brown field of his eyes. She pulled slowly away, not breaking eye contact. “So someday you’ll tell me everything?” he said.
    “I hope it doesn’t come to that.”
    “What happens, happens.” He was lighthearted again. “Hey, when do I get to meet your little