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

down for vacation. Little did they
know that, while they were out enjoying their evening, two men descended upon
Marilyn’s little cottage under cover of darkness.
     

Chapter 17
    Daniel
Hayes sat motionless in a lawn chair on his ex-wife’s back porch, wishing he
had a cold beer and a warm bed. His life was in danger, and it was time to come
clean with Marilyn about what exactly had happened after his fishing trip with
Tiara. Sometimes honesty was straight-up dangerous, but that was a chance he’d
have to take, and he could only hope that the woman he once loved would do the
right thing for him, after all these years apart. She didn’t owe him anything,
but he was banking on her sympathy and understanding because of the child that
they had created together. Surely, their daughter was reason enough for her to
protect him.
    His
boredom profound, Daniel found his chin slipping to his chest and was on the
verge of drifting off to sleep when a noise to his right, across the patio from
where he sat, caught his attention. His eyes had adjusted to the darkness, and
he could tell, even in the near absence of light, that the person approaching
Marilyn’s back door was male, not female. He knew nothing about his ex-wife’s
love life, but could tell by the halting steps that the man took in an effort
to be quiet, that this was not someone whom she would welcome into her home. He
watched with great interest as the somewhat clumsy-seeming intruder pulled what
looked like a pry bar out of a bag that he had brought, and decided it was time
to make his move.
    “Hey!”
he barked, startling the man, who made a frightened mewling sound and dropped
the pry bar with a sharp clang on the flagstone patio. The man stood motionless
for a moment, squinting into the darkness to try to pinpoint who had made the
sound that scared him, than apparently decided he didn’t care and turned to
run. He never knew what hit him as Daniel expertly tackled him to the ground,
clapped a hand over his mouth and secured his hands behind his back.
    Daniel
had one knee in the middle of the man’s somewhat squishy back and the other on
the ground beside him. Bending at the waist, he brought his lips close to the
intruder’s ear, close enough that the man could hear him without having to
raise his voice beyond a growl.
    “I’m
going to take my hand off of your mouth, and you’re going to tell me who you
are, and what exactly you’re doing here. If you make any noise beyond that, I
will have no problem smashing your head into this flagstone and leaving you to
bleed out, are we clear on that?” he asked in a low voice. The terrified
intruder, made a noise low in his throat and nodded his head in panicked jerks
to show that he understood and would obey. Grabbing his hair in one hand, and
removing the other slowly from his mouth, Daniel bent over him again.
    “Who
are you, dirtbag?” he growled in the man’s ear. “And what did you think you
were going to get away with tonight?
    “I’m…I’m
no one important,” the intruder stuttered in a rather high-pitched voice. “I
was just…checking the security system,” he lied badly.
    Daniel
slammed the liar’s head into the stone below them, just once, for good measure,
causing the man to cry.
    “Ow…that
hurts,” he blubbered. “Please don’t do that again.”
    “Fortunately
for you, I don’t have the time or the inclination to mess with a common thief
tonight, so I’m going to let you go. But, if you ever darken this doorstep, or
come anywhere near this place again, I will bash your head into this flagstone
so many times that there won’t be any chunks big enough to stitch back
together, you got that, dirtbag?” Daniel threatened.
    “I…I
understand, sir. Please…please, just let me go,” he mewled.
    “Give
me a name, and if you lie to me, I’m going to hunt you down,” he promised.
    “Melvin,”
the man sobbed. “My name is Melvin…please don’t hurt me.”
    “Melvin…”
Daniel