scary guy." The knife flashed out and slashed into my sleeve. "Now your ear," Kenny said, hanging tight to my jacket.
My pocketbook, with my bounty hunter paraphernalia, was on the seat beside Mary Lou, so I did what any intelligent, unarmed woman would do. I opened my mouth and screamed at the top of my lungs, startling Kenny enough to screw up his aim, so that I lost some hair but kept my ear.
"Jesus," Kenny said. "You're freaking embarrassing me." He shoved me into a shoe display, gave a backward skip, and took off.
I scrambled to my feet and charged after him, blasting through handbags and junior wear, operating on a surplus of adrenaline and a shortage of common sense. I could hear Mary Lou and the shoe clerk running hard behind me. I was swearing at Kenny and bitching about being in pursuit in goddamn platform heels when I slammed into an old lady at the cosmetics counter and almost knocked her on her ass.
"Jeez," I yelled at her. "I'm sorry!"
"Go!" Mary Lou shouted at me from junior wear. "Catch that sonnovabitch!"
I reeled off the old lady and barreled into two other women. One of the women was Joyce Barnhardt in her makeover smock. We all went down in a heap on the floor, grunting and thrashing.
Mary Lou and the shoe clerk waded in to separate us, and somehow in the confusion of the moment, Mary Lou gave Joyce a good hard kick in the back of her knee. Joyce rolled away, howling in pain, and the shoe clerk quickly hoisted me to my feet.
I looked for Kenny, but he was long gone.
"Holy crap," Mary Lou said. "Was that Kenny Mancuso?"
I nodded my head yes while I struggled for air.
"What'd he say to you?"
"Asked me for a date. Said he liked the shoes."
Mary Lou snorted.
The shoe clerk was smiling. "You'd have caught him if you'd been trying on sneakers."
In all honesty I wasn't sure what I would have done if I'd caught him. He had a knife, and all I had were sexy shoes.
"I'm calling my lawyer," Joyce said, pulling herself up. "You attacked me! I'm going to sue the shit out of you."
"It was an accident," I told her. "I was chasing after Kenny, and you got in my way."
"This is the cosmetics department," Joyce shouted. "You can't just go around being a lunatic, chasing people through the cosmetics department."
"I was not being a lunatic. I was doing my job."
"Of course you were being a lunatic," Joyce said. "You're a dented can. You and your grandmother are screwy tunes."
"Well, at least I'm not a slut."
Joyce's eyes got as big as golf balls. "Who are you calling a slut?"
"You." I leaned forward in my purple pumps. "I'm calling you a slut."
"If I'm a slut, then you're a tramp."
"You're a liar and a sneak."
"Bitch."
"Whore."
"So what do you think?" Mary Lou said to me. "Are you going to get these shoes, or what?"
By the time I got home I wasn't so sure I'd done the right thing with the shoes. I shifted the box under my arm while I unlocked my door. True, they were gorgeous shoes, but they were purple. What was I going to do with purple shoes? I'd have to buy a purple dress. And what about makeup? A person couldn't wear just any old makeup with a purple dress. I'd have to buy new lipstick and eye liner.
I flipped the light switch and closed the door behind me. I dumped my pocketbook and new shoes on the kitchen counter and jumped back with a yelp when the phone rang. Too much excitement for one day, I told myself. I was on overload.
"How about now?" the caller said. "Are you scared now? Have I got you thinking?"
My heart missed a beat. "Kenny?"
"Did you get my message?"
"What message are you talking about?"
"I left a message for you in your jacket pocket. It's for you and your new buddy, Spiro."
"Where are you?"
The disconnect clicked in my ear.
Shit.
I plunged my hand into my jacket pocket and started pulling stuff out . . . used Kleenex, lipstick, a quarter, a Snickers wrapper, a dead finger. "YOW!"
I dropped everything on the floor and ran out of the room. "Shit, damn, shit!" I stumbled into the bathroom and stuck my head into the toilet to throw up. After a few minutes I decided I wasn't going to throw up (which was kind of too bad since it'd be good to get rid of the