A Deadly Slice of Lime: A Key West Culinary Cozy - Book 6 by Summer Prescott Page B

mother wanted the murderer
to hear. If she could convince him that the two of them knew nothing about him,
perhaps he’d go on his way, and they’d live to tell the tale.
    “She
didn’t,” Bob stated flatly, glaring at Marilyn.
    “What?”
Tiara was confused, and looked from her mother to the captain and back again, as
she held the man’s gaze without wavering.
    “Your
mama may be many things – a good cook, a successful business woman, and darn
pretty…but she can’t lie to save her life, apparently,” he said, his tone
turning sinister.
    Tiara’s
eyes grew wide, realizing that something was wrong. “What…what do you mean?”
she asked, sounding younger than her twenty-two years.
    Robert
Jensen ignored her and zeroed in on Marilyn, who was still valiantly trying to
maintain a calm façade. “You opened it, didn’t you, lass? You saw everything
that they were going to use to blackmail me out of my business, didn’t you?” he
leaned closer. So close that Marilyn could smell the sea salt in his clothing
and the sweat patches that darkened his shirt under the arms.
    “Didn’t
you???” he yelled in her face, making her flinch, but still, she remained
silent. “Oh, that’s how you want to play it?” he mocked her. “You need to be
roughed up before you’ll talk? Well, we can take care of that, lass,” he raised
his hand to strike her, and, ever the tough girl, Tiara grabbed his arm.
    “No!”
she screamed. “Don’t you touch my mother!” she had both hands clamped around
his wrist and he tried to shake her off.
    “Tiara,
stop!” her mother screamed. “Get away, please!” she pleaded. “He’ll kill you
too,” she shouted as her daughter struggled to maintain her grip while the
older man wrestled with her.
    Marilyn
saw the moment that her remark hit home and Tiara realized what was going on.
Her face paled for a brief moment, then self-preservation skills kicked in and
she fought like a hellcat, scratching, slapping and kicking. Seeing that her
daughter was not going to relent, she quickly grabbed the first thing that she
could find, a ceramic Elvis lamp, and smashed it into the side of Captain Bob’s
head. When he reached up, howling in pain, Tiara seized the moment, jumping
onto his back and kicking his knees until they buckled, spilling him onto the
floor with her on top of him. Wasting no time, the young woman employed every
tactic she’d learned in her college self-defense courses, and soon had Robert
Jensen’s hands pushed up between his shoulder blades, with both of her knees in
his back. Marilyn sat on his legs so that he couldn’t kick his way out, and
started to dial 911 when a fierce pounding sounded at the door, followed by the
welcome deep voice of Bernard Cortland.
     

Chapter 25
    “Wow,
Mom, I would’ve thought that you were really tough after the way that you
helped me take out Captain Bob if you hadn’t lost your lunch afterwards,” Tiara
teased, over pancakes at Trudy’s diner.
    “You
know how I feel about violence,” Marilyn grimaced, washing down a bite of
pancake with Trudy’s cast-iron coffee.
    “But
still…didn’t you find it at least a little bit satisfying to give that awful
man a bit of pain?” she persisted.
    “Umm…no,
definitely not. I really like Karma to do its magical work without actively
involving me, thanks,” her mother shuddered. “Now, stop talking about it, or
I’ll lose my appetite,” she ordered.
    “Fine,”
Tiara said, attacking her plate with gusto.
    The
two ate in silence for a while, then Marilyn spoke, looking at her beautiful
daughter and seeing what a lovely young woman she was becoming.
    “I
was awfully proud of you, though,” she said. “Who would’ve guessed that I’d
raise such a tough chick?” she teased. “Did you have any idea what was going
on?”
    “Are
you kidding? The second that you referred to Dad as Daniel, I knew something
was up, and after what Captain Bob said, it didn’t take a rocket scientist