by Jeanne Rose
Lonely? She couldn’t believe she felt a slight twinge for him. Was his admission that sincere? She glanced at his expression . . . grave . . . a little haunted . . . even with the penetrating gaze.
She made one last objection. “But you said I should be careful of the likes of you.”
“You’re a beautiful woman. You should be wary of any man.” Fast talking? Or had he really meant to warn her about men in general from the very first? But then, the danger she’d sensed from him all evening had hinged on her fear that she might once again become involved with the wrong man, not that she feared he was an attacker.
So she finally caved in, figuring there was no way she would allow herself to get close to anyone she had doubts about. “I suppose you could escort me part way.”
After all, she really did have to get home and there were other people walking the streets, in case she needed help. Besides, Valentin Kadar continued to intrigue her with his mix of mystery and heady charm.
They crossed Michigan Avenue and turned north, walking past a hotel with a doorman standing guard under a canopy. There would also be a doorman at the entrance to her building, a grand old place that faced Oak Street Beach. Even if Val saw where she lived, he’d never be able to return on his own and breech the entrance without Jennifer or herself confirming the validity of his visit. She was safe.
She thought about the questions he’d asked her, about her own questions that had never been answered. “What part of Europe are you from?”
“A very old land . . . Hungary.”
She sneaked a peek at him as he paced along beside her, his stride effortless. “And you’re only visiting the U.S. to take photographs?”
“I have other business here, a matter that concerns my family.”
“So you’re not totally alone in the world.”
“Technically, no.”
What did that mean? “You don’t get along with your relatives?”
“We have had our misunderstandings. I have taken a path that is different from theirs.”
“I guess I can understand that. I make a good salary at After Dark. Hopefully, I even have a future there . . . or in some form of broadcasting. But my family disapproves of my job, my hours, my friends.” And the unusual men she was attracted to, though she wasn’t about to get into that. “They’re more conservative than I am.”
“We have many things in common. My family also follows the old ways.”
They had stopped at the corner where Michigan Avenue ended and Lake Shore Drive began, a multi-laned border that curved along the great lake and kept it from invading the city. Home was only a half a block away, but Adriana’s eyes rested on the great dark expanse of water on the other side of the Drive. The wind picked up strength out here in the open and drove waves onto the beach, gray that paled to silver by streetlight. High rises stood about like silent sentinels, facing east, while older businesses and apartment buildings like her own faced north.
“We share a love of the night,” Val went on, a low throb in his voice. “The dark speaks a different language.”
His eyes were speaking some language she longed to understand. They were enticing . . . mesmerizing . . . drawing her closer to gaze into their very depths.
Swaying, Adriana fought the intense feeling that was taking over her. She knew she should back off, race to her building and safety, but she’d never felt so powerless . . . nor so drawn to explore the darkness in another human being. She didn’t want to go anywhere but into Valentin Kadar’s arms.
The thought made her light-headed, threw everything into soft focus, including the sounds of the restless lake.
Val must have sensed her sudden weakness, for, before she knew what was happening, she found herself locked tightly in his embrace. He splayed his fingers and ran them sensually through her hair.
“You are so beautiful, so extraordinary,” he told her, and she felt his lips brush against hers. “Your mouth would be more intoxicating than the finest wine.”
Aroused, nestled firmly against his hard chest – yet part of her removed from the embrace as if she were watching the action rather than participating – she said, “You have quite a way with words.”
“I would rather have my way with you.”
Her knees went weak as he kissed her, starting slow, probing with his tongue. Then he picked up the tempo, demanding more as he took hold of her hair and anchored her head with one hand. He was very strong. And his mouth was hungry . . . fierce. Wrapping her arms about him, she instinctively arched her back and let him take what he wanted.
Her mind floated and once more she had this feeling of detachment . . . and yet not.
Weird!
Val’s kiss was a sensual demand as he moved his mouth from her lips to her throat, to the soft rise of her breasts and back again. Her breath left her. No man had ever excited her in quite this way before. Her heart pounded, her thighs quaked. Deep inside, she opened like a flower . . . and released her hold on reality.
There were only the two of them, the night, the water, the world spinning on its axis toward dawn.
Dawn.
A thin sliver line of light appeared on the watery horizon.
With a sound that resembled a growl, he said, “I want you but I won’t take you.”
Adriana started.
Her arms were wrapped around her middle. Val wasn’t touching her. He hadn’t touched her. She’d imagined the entire embrace. Even the kiss. Was she going psychotic?
Disturbed, as well as furious with herself for indulging in such a fantasy, she struggled to find her voice. “Who invited you!”
“You did.” Valentin Kadar glared at her with those strange golden eyes, turned his back and took off.
What had happened? Angry, dazed, feeling as if she’d been seduced against her will, then thrown aside – and all without him so much as making a move toward her – she watched him disappear into the deep shadows of the buildings.
Then her pride took over and she turned to walk toward home. She told herself she’d felt desire, a craving more fiery and fierce than she’d ever experienced in her life, but she could have resisted Val if she’d wanted to.
Would she ever see him again? She wished she didn’t care. He was mysterious, strange, sexy, arrogant . . .
. . . and definitely more dangerous than any man she’d ever met in her life.
FINANCIALLY COMFORTABLE, if only for a few days, Eddie took the time to have a full meal at a diner before he made his way toward one of the few single-room occupancy hotels left along north LaSalle Street. He couldn’t wait to crash, to clean himself up with a shower. Then he’d sleep all day.
The sky was growing gray in the east as he trudged down the sidewalk, his hand curled around the hundred dollar bill in his pocket. Intent on his goal, he didn’t hear footsteps until the man was upon him. Eddie eyed him warily.
“Tired, eh?” The question was tinged with a slight accent. “I expect you cannot wait to go to sleep.”
“That’s my plan.”
“Mine, too . . . I want to see you resting long and peacefully.”
Something about those words disturbed Eddie, though he didn’t have time to so much as cry out before the man grabbed him and, with incredible strength, shoved him into a dark alley.
Pinned by the throat against a brick wall, Eddie still managed to croak, “Please!” His hands flashed out, one holding the precious money.
His attacker shook him. “Time is short and I have no mercy for useless peasants like you.”
As the grip around Eddie’s neck tightened, the hundred dollar bill floated to the pavement . . .
CHAPTER TWO
THE SUN HAD SET before Adriana awakened, her disoriented mind still tangled with memories of Valentin Kadar, her chest heavy with some unnamed emotion. She thought she might have dreamed about him – the reason she’d slept so long? – but she didn’t want to explore the possibility too closely. Her imagination had run wild enough at dawn . . .
>
“Mr-r-row!”
Cat whiskers tickled Adriana’s face and she realized the weight on her chest came from a tangible source. “Phantom, I love you.” She gave the cat a squeeze. “But not on top of me.”
With a grunt, she moved her beloved pet to the mattress next to her. On the way home from work one morning a few months before, she’d found the young black cat wandering the streets – another lost soul. Adriana hadn’t been able to resist saving the animal and the cat had repaid her with affectionate devotion. Smiling at the quizzical black face split with a lightning bolt of white, she kissed the cat’s furry forehead.
Which reminded her of Val. Heat flushed her cheeks as she thought about the kiss that hadn’t been. Never before had her fantasies taken such a flight. Something about Valentin Kadar got to her in a big way. Even now, she could almost feel his presence. She could see his exotically handsome face – the golden brown eyes, high cheekbones, the wide, sensual mouth . . .
Her flesh pebbling at the mere thought of that mouth on hers in reality made her squirm. Determined to put Val out of mind, Adriana jumped out of bed and threw on a robe. But when she started to leave the bedroom, Phantom twirled around her legs.
“Sorry, sweetie girl, but you know Jen’s rules.”
Jennifer had agreed to let Adriana keep Phantom as long as the cat was confined to Adriana’s bedroom and office.
Stumbling into the hall, she made her entrance into the living room. There on the couch, her sister Jennifer sat snuggled against her fiancé Todd Grant, sections of the Sunday newspaper scattered around their discarded running shoes.
With a flip of her straight-cut brown hair, Jennifer gave her the evil eye and announced, “Ah, the Queen arises at last.”
Fighting annoyance at the nickname she resented and felt she didn’t deserve, Adriana flopped into the chair opposite them. “Sorry. I meant to be up for brunch like I promised, but I didn’t fall asleep until after eight.”
“No wonder you refused to get up at nine.” Jennifer didn’t bother to hide her disapproval. “I did about everything to waken you but scream in your ear.”
A fact that Adriana vaguely remembered. “Sorry.” She meant it sincerely, knowing her sister’s feelings were hurt.
“If you went to bed when you came home,” Todd said superciliously, punching at his glasses with a finger, “you would have gotten up when you were supposed to.”
A continuing argument between Adriana and three-quarters of the world – people who thought she was lazy because she couldn’t work all night and do things she was supposed to all day.
“I don’t think you really wanted to keep our date,” her sister went on, “or you would have come home straight from work.”
“I didn’t go out with Irina, Jen. I merely walked home, and it took a bit longer than I thought it would.”
“Walked?” Her sister’s voice rose a notch. “At that time of the morning? Alone?”
Not wanting to share any information about Valentin Kadar – Jennifer would no doubt have yet another reason to show her disapproval – Adriana said, “I was perfectly safe.” She knew that was her sister’s main concern. “Plenty of other people were walking the street on their way home.”
“Yeah, including a murderer,” Todd informed her.
“Someone was murdered in this neighborhood?”
“God, I can’t believe it!” Jennifer reached over to dig through the scattered newspapers. “Right on your route home from the club.” She snatched up a section of the Chicago Tribune and waved it in Adriana’s face. “Here it is. The guy was found in some alley only a few blocks west of Water Tower Place. His body was drained of blood.”
One look and Adriana’s throat constricted. Staring out from the front page of the newspaper was a sad face she knew well.
Eddie Szewicki.
FLIPPING ON THE SAFELIGHT in his darkroom, Valentin Kadar stared at the photo in the rinse. The street musician’s expression was riveting – despair combined with deep-seated fear – a perfect addition to his collection.
About to hang the print to dry, he noticed he had a visitor. A small gray bat hung upside down on the line.
“You, again?”
In answer, the bat blinked and fluttered its wings.
Shaking his head, Val stepped over to the darkened window and raised the sash. He made a sharp sound through his teeth and pointed to the opening. With a squeak of protest, the bat roused itself, flew out of the darkroom and fluttered up toward the cupola where its family and friends gathered, gaining entrance through a broken window.
Though he was, indeed, lonely, Val knew he could have plenty of company if he wanted – the bats and owls and stray cats he felt compelled to feed.
Unwelcome night creatures such as himself.
But the only company he really desired was that of Adriana Thorn. No, he amended, the one he so desperately longed for was the Daughter of the Night. He preferred to think of Adriana as being one with her stage persona.
She’d definitely shaken his cynical expectations, although she’d been every bit as beautiful as he’d imagined. More important, she’d been even more lovely on the inside. A genuine person who seemed to want good things for others, he thought, remembering not only her monetary charity for the man she’d called Eddie, but her concern.
How unusual. Jaded, having lived in darker circles for far too long, he wasn’t used to people being sincerely generous. Although he knew he should leave one such as her be, Val also knew he wouldn’t. Inexplicably, she crowded his thoughts as no woman had done in years.
Hers was a siren call he could not refuse.
He pinned the wet print of the musician to the line, wondering exactly how friendly Adriana had gotten with the man in the past. They’d called each other by their first names. He’d recognized a real familiarity – perhaps a longstanding affection – in their manner.
Not that he would brood about the insignificant musician for one moment longer.
He had plenty to worry about, starting with the whereabouts of his family’s enemy. He’d been tracking the bastard for years, and he was growing weary of this game. Undoubtedly thinking to fool him, his nemesis had left the old world for the new. But Val had followed. New York. Washington, D.C. Philadelphia. Now Chicago.
Each time he’d gotten too close, his foe had sniffed out his presence and had flown. And Val had had to start all over again. But no more. Chicago would be Armageddon.
Val was determined that here his adversary’s flight would end forever.
“I CAN’T BELIEVE Eddie came to such a horrible end,” Irina gasped after hearing the bad news.
Adriana had introduced Irina to Eddie one morning when they’d gone out for something to eat after work, and they’d run into him several times. So she’d called her friend with the hope that talking to Irina would make her feel better.
“Irina, there’s more . . .” She was gripping the receiver so hard that her knuckles hurt. “I was one of the last people on earth to see Eddie Szewicki alive.”
Something she hadn’t been able to tell her own sister. Then Jennifer would have freaked. Neither Jennifer nor Todd had any inkling that she’d actually been acquainted with the victim.
“You mean you saw him this morning?” Irina questioned her.
“On the way home from work.”
“Omigod! How horrible. Thank goodness you’re all right. The killer could have gotten you.”
Knowing that was only too true, Adriana assured her friend, “I wasn’t alone.”
“You weren’t with anyone when you left the club.”
“Not right away. Remember my telling you about this guy I met last night? He followed me.”
”Followed you,” Irina interrupted. “How spooky.”
“Yeah, I thought so at first . . .”
And maybe she should still think so, Adriana told herself. Where Valentin Kadar was concerned, she was a mass of confusion. As she was about Eddie for different reasons.
“You did what he would let you do,” Irina said.
But Adriana was having a difficult time accepting that as an excuse. A person had a responsibility to her fellow human beings, especially the ones she knew and cared about. When she’d realized Eddie was so down and depressed, she should have gotten him the help he needed . . . she should have found a way to get him off the street.
But she hadn’t.
“And now it’s too late for me to do anything more for him,” she mourned, her voice breaking. “Unless . . .”
“Uh-oh, unless what?”
“Eddie didn’t have anyone, really.” Realizing the bedroom had been thrown into deep shadow, only her small nightstand light on, Adriana glanced at the window. It was already after dark. She had always found something soothing about the night. She took a big breath, tried to calm herself. “I thought maybe I should go over to the SRO where he used to crash sometimes.”
Adriana referred to The LaSalle, one of Chicago’s remaining single room occupancy hotels where some working poor lived on a week-to-week basis. Or, like Eddie, rented one of the furnished rooms for the night when he had the bucks.
“What will going there prove?” Irina asked.
“Maybe someone there knows of some distant relatives or friends to contact or something.”
Eddie had always been far kinder to others than himself. Non-judgmental, he’d listened to Adriana’s problems a time or two when she’d been younger and feeling pretty mixed up herself. He’d told her to accept herself, insisted it was all right to be a little different. He’d assured her someday she’d be a success.
While he’d ended up sabotaging his own career and plunging to the bottom.
“Adriana, you’re not thinking about going to that place by yourself at night,” Irina was saying.