“Let me guess what happened next,” Elias said. “You turned over whatever cash you had on hand, then took out a loan to finance the rest of the cost of your partner’s share.”
“That’s it in a nutshell,” Leighton admitted. “Got in way over my head. We closed the deal on the morning of the fifteenth. The funds from my account were transferred into what I thought was the developer’s business account that day. Gwen came to see me late that afternoon. To gloat.”
“That’s when she told you that she had just taken you to the cleaners,” Elias concluded.
Leighton’s head drooped. He came to a halt in front of the window and gazed despondently out into the darkened garden. “She took everything I had. I’ll have to file for bankruptcy. Jennifer is furious. It’s hard to believe, but I’m beginning to wonder if she married me for my money.”
Charity raised her eyes to the ceiling but said nothing.
“You do realize,” Elias said very softly, “that what you’ve just told us would constitute a motive for murder to some people’s way of thinking?”
Leighton whirled around, his eyes huge behind his glasses. “I didn’t kill Gwen. God knows I wanted to for a while there, but I didn’t.”
“Calm down,” Elias said. “I’m not making any accusations. It’s Chief Tybern’s job to sort out the alibis. But if I were you, I’d come up with a good one.”
“An alibi?” Leighton was visibly rocked. “But I wasn’t anywhere near the campground the night Gwen was killed. You want to know where I was? I went out and got rip-roaring drunk at the Cove Tavern. I walked home sometime around midnight.”
Elias shrugged. “Like I said, that’s between you and Tybern.”
Leighton took a step forward and halted. “I came here because I’m desperate. I’m begging you to give me a piece of whatever action you’re putting together for your clients.”
Elias got slowly to his feet. “For the last time, there is no deal. I’m sorry, Pitt. I can’t help you.”
Leighton shook his head in disbelief. “There’s got to be something left. Jennifer will leave me, I know she will. I hate to admit it, but I … I think she’s been seeing someone else lately.”
Charity was alarmed by the dejection in Leighton’s face. She glanced at Elias. “The Voyagers are going to get at least some of their money back. Maybe Leighton could put in a claim for the amount he lost, too.”
Elias shook his head. “Leighton’s money didn’t go into the Voyagers’ account or into Swinton’s. I checked the recent records, remember? There were no deposits at all on the fifteenth. In fact, there’s only a couple hundred thousand total in those accounts. Nothing the size of what Leighton just described.”
“On the fifteenth, Gwendolyn had the escrow company transfer the money I paid for that land into her private account, not her business account,” Leighton said. “It will become part of her estate. We didn’t have any kids, but she’s got a couple of brothers and a sister. Everything will go to them. They’ve all hated my guts since the divorce. You can bet they sure as hell won’t give any of the money back to me.”
Charity bit her lip. “It sounds like a mess, Leighton.”
“I’m going to have to start over,” he whispered. “At my age. I can’t believe it.”
He turned and walked heavily toward the door.
“Don’t forget your shoes,” Charity said.
“What? Oh. My shoes.” Leighton got his loafers back on with an effort. Then he opened the door and plodded out into the foggy night.
Silence descended. Charity waited until she heard Leighton’s big car pull slowly out of the drive. She met Elias’s eyes across the low table. “What do you think?”
“I think Tybern was right when he said that he was up to his ass in suspects.”
“Do you really believe that Leighton might have killed Gwendolyn?”
“He’s certainly got a solid motive.” Elias rose to his feet and picked up some of the dishes. “But so do a lot of people, including all those disappointed Voyagers. Ready for dessert?”
“That depends. What are you serving? Habanero chiles stuffed with wasabi ice cream?”
“Relax.” Elias set the dishes in the sink and opened the freezer compartment of the old refrigerator. “Just some homemade lime sorbet.”
Crazy Otis stretched his wings and gave Charity a baleful look. “Heh, heh, heh.”
Charity got to her feet, collected the last of the dishes, and started toward the sink. “Okay, I’ll take some sorbet. But just for the record, are you satisfied yet, Elias?”
“No.”
He took the plastic container of sorbet out of the freezer, dipped a spoon in, and turned toward Charity.
“Have a bite,” he said in a deep, sexy voice. “It will clear the palate.”
Charity folded her arms and leaned warily back against the refrigerator door. “I’ll just bet it will.”
Elias teased her lower lip with the tip of the spoon. “Open wide.”
The fragrance of lime was fresh and invigorating. Against her better judgment, Charity parted her lips.
Elias smiled slowly. His eyes narrowed as he slipped the spoon into her mouth.
The lime exploded on her tongue, icy fireworks that sent wildly conflicting signals to her senses. She breathed deeply and watched as he took a bite of sorbet for himself from the same spoon.
“Mind telling me what this is all about?” she asked.
“This is about not being sweet.” Elias set the spoon down on the counter and turned back to her. He planted both hands on the refrigerator door on either side of her head.
Charity’s pulse went into high gear. A tiny shiver of excitement lanced through her. “What isn’t sweet?”
“Me. Us. What we have together. Whatever the hell else it is, it isn’t sweet.”
He slid one bare foot between her legs, lowered his mouth to hers, and crushed her against the hard refrigerator door.
11
The observer must be prepared for the fact that the ripples in a disturbed pool will always crash against the rocks.
—“On the Way of Water,” from the journal of Hayden Stone
Her mouth was still cool and fragrant from the effects of the lime sorbet. Elias felt Charity’s lips part beneath his. He heard her small, muffled cry of excitement as she responded to him. The thrill of it reached deep into his body.
“We didn’t finish dessert,” she whispered.
“This is dessert. Like I said, it won’t be sweet.” He took his hands off the refrigerator door and fitted them to her waist.
He lifted her, pressed her back against the blank white surface, used the weight of his body to pin her. He moved his hands lower. She clutched at him, burying her fingers in his hair, and kissed him with delicate greed.
Heat from a fire hotter than that of the most exotic chile peppers surged through him. Elias cupped the rounded tops of her thighs and squeezed gently. Then he reached down to find the hem of her skirt.
He heard her draw in her breath as he shoved the folds of the fabric up to her hips. She was not wearing stockings. Her skin was supple and warm and incredibly soft beneath his hands.
“Wrap your legs around me,” he whispered.
“This will never work.”
“Hold on tight.”
He felt her answering shiver of response and gloried in it. One firm, curved thigh slid slowly up along the length of his denim-clad leg. The exquisite caress was nearly his undoing. He fought for his self-control.
“Now the other one,” he said against her throat. “You won’t fall. I’ve got you.”
“Oh, my God.” She clung to him as she circled his waist with her bare legs.
The long turquoise blue skirt was a tropical pool of color around her hips. The scent of her arousal was a drug that threatened to destroy the grip he had on his own response.
“Elias.” Charity clenched her thighs around him as he traced a random pattern between her legs. Her fingers dug into
his shoulders. “Ohmygod.”
He eased two fingers beneath the edge of the panties and stroked deeply. She was slick and wet and tight. He could feel his erection pushing hard against the front of his jeans.
Charity released his head and tore at his shirt. She got it open and immediately began sliding her warm palms across his chest. Her fingers tangled in the crisp hair. She tugged gently. He sucked in his breath.
“You feel good.” Urgency hummed in her voice. “Very hard. Very strong.”
“Not too big?”
She gave a choked laugh. “Just right. Perfect.”
“You’re the one who feels good.” He cupped the plump, hot folds that shielded her secrets. “Soaking wet, in fact.”
“This isn’t fair. You have all the advantage. Let’s go to the bedroom.”
“No, right here. Unzip my jeans.”
Her hand slipped to the fastening. She freed him, took him into her hand, and then hesitated.
“Front pocket of my shirt. You do it.”
The feel of her palm curled around him almost sent him over the edge. He closed his eyes briefly and gathered himself.
“You planned this?” She sounded half amused, half shocked as she removed the packet from his pocket.
He opened his eyes and met hers. “Let’s just say I wanted to be prepared.”
“You must have been a Boy Scout.”
“No.” He teased her swollen clitoris. “One thing you can be sure of. I was never a Boy Scout.”
“Elias.” Her legs scissored around him.
He felt her fingers tremble. She was in no condition to handle the small chore. “Give it to me.”
She quickly surrendered the small packet. He tore it open with his teeth and eased the condom into place with one hand. He watched her eyes widen as he lowered her slowly onto his erection.
Her nails sank into his shoulders. Her head fell back. Her whispered gasp was incredibly erotic. It took every ounce of control Elias possessed to hold himself back from the brink. The pull of her snug body was irresistible.
He went to his knees with Charity wrapped around his waist. He eased her back onto the wooden floor and buried himself completely inside her. She closed around him with such seductive strength that he thought he would explode.
“Yes. Yes, Elias. Just like that. I want you so much.”
A wild desperation seized him without warning. It severed the last remaining bonds of his control. He sank himself into her again and again until he felt her clench even more fiercely around him.
Her climax ripped through her, compelling his own. He covered her mouth in order to savor her soft shriek.
The release that tore through him was both surrender and victory. It was impossible to tell where one left off and the other took hold. The only thing he cared about in that moment was that he was as close to Charity as it was possible to get.
A long while later she stirred beneath him. “Okay, so it’s not sweet.”
Elias lifted his head. He cradled her face between his palms. “No.”
Her smile was infinitely mysterious. “What is it, then?”
The question stunned him. He did not know the answer. He took refuge in the sanctuary that had never failed him, the place where he knew he was strong, where all the questions had answers, Tal Kek Chara.
“The transparency of water is most often described by saying what it is not, rather than what it is.”
She put her fingers over his mouth. “Forget I asked.”
She was still smiling, but there was a wistfulness in her eyes that worried him. Elias got to his feet, helped Charity up, and walked with his arm around her toward the darkened bedroom. He paused beside Otis’s cage to cover the bird for the night. Otis was already inside. He kept his back to Charity and Elias and muttered darkly.
“I think we embarrassed him,” Charity murmured.
“He’s actually a very straitlaced sort of bird,” Elias said as he adjusted the cage cover. “Hayden’s influence, I think.”
The panic swirled out of a dream, a dream in which she could not breathe. The old claustrophobia seized her in a nightmarish grip.
Charity came awake with unnatural suddenness, every sense shrieking. She opened her mouth to scream, but the cry was blocked in her throat.
Elias’s palm clamped over her mouth was her first clue that this was not just another routine panic attack. Something really was terribly wrong.
She opened her eyes and stared up at him. Fear lanced through her. He was pressed against her, holding her very still on the futon. In the darkness, she could just barely make out the shadowed profile of his face. He was looking toward the bedroom door.
Charity heard the sliding squeak. Wood on wood. An aging double-hung window made that kind of noise when it was slowly pried opened. Otis gave a soft, inquiring whistle from inside his covered cage. The sliding squeak halted for a few seconds.
Then it came again.
Elias lowered his head and put his mouth to Charity’s ear. “Stay here.”
She nodded quickly to let him know she understood. For some odd reason, the fact that there was a genuine focus for her fear had a steadying effect on her senses. Her body could deal with the real thing. She was pain fully alert, her fingers shook, but she was not on the verge of hysteria.
Elias removed his palm from her lips and rose from the futon without a sound. As he passed in front of the window she saw something in his hand, something he had picked up as he got to his feet. It looked like the strip of leather that he habitually wore around his waist.
There was a very soft thud in the other room. Someone was sneaking into the house through the front window.
Charity stared at the shadow that was Elias. He was flattened against the wall just to the side of the partially open door. She could barely make out the curve of his naked shoulder and thigh.
She was cold. Tension gripped her from head to foot. Her palms tingled. Her stomach felt weird. But she was not going out of her mind.
The narrow beam of a small pinpoint flashlight swept past the doorway. Otis muttered again, a soft, curious hiss.
Elias waited until the ray of light had moved on, and then he slipped through the doorway.
Charity nearly screamed then. Her mouth opened. Everything inside her wanted to cry out for him to come back to the safety of the bedroom.
She bit back the useless words. There was no safety in the bedroom.
“What the fuck? Lenny, watch it. There’s someone—”
“Sounds like a bird.”
“It’s no goddamned bird.” A man’s voice broke off on a sharp exclamation.
“Christ, what the hell? Get him. Get him, damn it.”
Charity heard a resounding crash. She scrambled up from the futon and grabbed the shirt Elias had left draped over the carved wooden chest. The garment fell to mid-thigh on her.
“Lenny? Lenny? Where the fuck are you?”
Silence from Lenny.
Silence from Elias.
Another thud.
Charity remembered the heavy glass bowl that sat on the low table in the front room. It was the only thing she could think of at that moment that might serve as a weapon.
She took a deep breath and plunged through the bedroom door. She veered awkwardly to the right, tripped over a cushion, and sprawled painfully on the low table.
She heard a shuffling sound on the floor behind her. Just as her fingers brushed against the rim of the bowl, a man’s arm locked around her throat.
“No. Let me go.” Charity clawed at the imprisoning arm.
She was hauled forcibly to her feet and pinned against a sweating male body.
“Freeze, you sonofabitch,” the man named Lenny shouted into the darkness. “I’ve got your girlfriend. Move and I’ll break her neck, I swear it.”
Everything went still. Charity fought for breath. Lenny was a hulking bear of a man. The panic welled up inside her.
“Okay,” Elias said in an oddly calm v
oice. “I’m not moving.”
“Turn on the light,” Lenny ordered. He sounded shaken. “Do it slow.”
There was a sharp click. The lights came on. Charity blinked against the glare. Lenny’s arm tightened spasmodically around her.
“Let her go.” Elias stood next to the door, near the wall switch. The prone figure of a man lay on the floor, unmoving.
Charity felt an insane urge to laugh. Elias was the only one in the room who wasn’t wearing clothes, but he somehow managed to make everyone else look overdressed for the occasion. The harmless-looking strip of leather that he usually wore around his waist still dangled from one wrist.
“I ain’t lettin’ her go.” Lenny edged back a step, dragging Charity with him. “What d’you think I am? Stupid?”
“You won’t get far if you try to take her with you. Let her go and make a run for it.”
“I need her to keep you from following. Get away from the door,” Lenny snapped. “Move.”
Elias took two steps away from the door.
Lenny started to haul Charity toward the entrance. She tried to make herself a dead weight.
“Stop it, bitch.” Lenny jerked his arm around her throat. He looked at Elias. “Go on. Back. Farther. I don’t want you gettin’ any ideas.”
Elias took another step away from the door. He glanced briefly at Charity as Lenny dragged her past. She looked into his eyes and did not know whether to be reassured or completely panicked by the controlled savagery she saw there. He switched his attention back to Lenny before she could decide.
Lenny stretched out his hand and groped for the door handle.
Elias moved. The leather thong that had hung from his wrist flicked out so swiftly that Charity never even saw exactly what happened.
She felt the violent jolt that went through Lenny as the leather whipped around his extended arm. He screamed, reflexively releasing her in order to free himself.
Charity leaped to one side. Elias brushed past her to get at Lenny.
It was all over in a few stunning seconds. Charity turned in time to see Lenny fly through the air. He crashed against the kitchen counter and slid silently to the floor. He did not move again.
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