Scarlet Nights

by Jude Deveraux

  Sara stood there, dripping, and put her hands over her face. She did not want to be one of Mike’s women who he took to bed in order to win a case. She didn’t want—

  “The hell I don’t!” she muttered as she wrapped a towel around her bare body.

  She looked in the mirror at her red cheeks, and her lips were nearly blue from the cold shower. She’d been to bed with only two men in her life. All through school she’d saved herself for love, and ten minutes after she met Brian, she knew they were going to get married. She’d had no idea of his aristocratic origins or the money and property he was to inherit, she just knew that he was perfect for her.

  But he had left her, and Greg had taken his place. Greg was as different as it was possible to be from Brian. Brian was gentle and sweet and loved to sit back and let Sara run their lives. His interest was in archaeology, so Sara made it possible for him to study and write. She took care of his food and clothes and their social life. The first time Sara met his parents, she saw that they were just like her and Brian. His mother ran everything, while Brian’s father piddled on a book he hadn’t completed in twenty-three years.

  To Sara, she and Brian had been perfectly suited, but when she’d received the letter from him saying sorry, I’m marrying someone else, it was as though her entire foundation was destroyed. In one typed letter, the future she’d been so sure of had disappeared. For weeks, she couldn’t see clearly. If it hadn’t been for her mother forcing her to work at the grocery, Sara would have stayed in bed and cried.

  She’d started getting her life back together and was doing a great job of pretending that she’d never been in love and that her heart hadn’t been broken, when Joce arrived in town. Soon afterward Sara’d been introduced to Greg. That he was wildly different from Brian pleased her. Maybe if she followed a man rather than led, she’d do better. Sometimes, she was glad that the townspeople of Edilean disliked Greg. It repaid them for all the looks of pity they’d given her after Brian had so coldly left her. “She gave up everything,” she’d heard two women in the drugstore say. “She even gave up her career for that young man and he dropped her flat.”

  Sara pulled a garment from her closet and realized how good it felt to be in her own home. She took out a freshly ironed dress of dotted Swiss—her mother’d said, “Sara, you’re the only female on earth who still wears that fabric”—and put it on.

  After a couple of deep breaths to regain her courage, she went outside. Mike, wearing a suit and tie—and marvel of all, shaved clean—was sitting at the iron table, reading the Sunday newspaper and drinking coffee.

  “Where have you been?” he asked without looking up. “Church is probably over by now.”

  “They don’t start until I get there. It’s in the bylaws.”

  Chuckling, Mike folded the paper, put it on the table, and looked at her. “So why did you change clothes?”

  “You had a pillow over your head. How did you see what I was wearing?”

  “I saw everything.” The dimple in his cheek showed.

  Sara refused to let him know how the sight of him naked had affected her; she stared right back at him. “My car or yours?”

  Mike snorted at the question, and they walked together to his car where he opened the door for her. “I like that thing you have on.”

  She slid onto a cream-colored leather seat. “I like your clothes too.”

  “Just so I have on something, right?”

  “Either way, it makes no difference to me.” She looked out the window to conceal her red face. Were lies told on a Sunday worse than other fibs?

  When they got to Edilean Baptist Church, they were overwhelmed by people. The few in town who hadn’t met Mike were clamoring to talk to him. When Sara was nearly pulled away, Mike reached out and took her hand, and she heard about five women draw in their breaths. In a short time Sara was to be married in this very church, but not to the man whose fingers were entwined with hers.

  Sara knew she should let go, but she didn’t. Mike’s skin was warm and it made her feel safe. And, besides, his hand was attached to that body. Again, the images of him nude on the bed, the sunlight on his skin, flooded her mind.

  As though he could read her thoughts, Mike looked away from her uncle James for a moment and their eyes held. Sara felt such a rush of lust run through her that she made a silent prayer for forgiveness. She should not be thinking such thoughts while in church.

  She and Mike sat next to each other, and she was pleased to see that he knew all the words to the songs. As the sermon started, she looked at him in question.

  “Never missed a service when I was a kid,” he whispered. “Gramps saw to that.”

  Smiling, she turned her attention to the pastor.

  18

  AFTER A LAZY afternoon with Sara, it seemed like a perfect ending to the day when Mike’s cell rang at four and he saw that it was Tess. He went outside to the big tree to take the call, hoping she’d found out something about Brian Tolworthy.

  “Hey, little sis,” Mike said. “Told the old man about the baby yet?”

  “No, she hasn’t.” It was Ramsey, and his voice sounded as though something horrible had happened.

  Instantly, Mike was so full of fear that his knees gave way under him and he collapsed onto the little iron chair. “How bad is it? Is she still alive?”

  “Tess is fine. She’s under sedation, but she’s all right.”

  “The baby?”

  “It’s doing well. She hasn’t told me about it yet, but I’ve spent too much time near my ever-pregnant sister not to know why Tess has been so tired. That isn’t the problem. It’s Sara.”

  “But she’s here with me. And how would you know if—?”

  “I wouldn’t,” Rams said in dismissal. “Tess remembered that she had Brian’s number in her phone, so she called him at home in England.”

  “Yeah? So how’s the bastard doing?”

  “He’s dead—but his parents are alive and well.”

  Mike felt his fear for the safety of the two women in his life leave him and he became professional again. “Tell me all of it.”

  “It looks like the call Brian received saying his parents had been killed was a lie. When he got back to England, the rental car he was driving from the airport was hit by a train. It was stalled on the track with no lights on. Tolworthy died instantly. His parents say they called Sara several times to tell her what happened, but there was no answer. They assumed Brian was coming home unexpectedly because he and Sara’d broken up and she didn’t want to hear anything about him. They’ve always blamed her for his agitated state that probably caused the wreck.”

  When Ramsey stopped, there wasn’t a sound from Mike. “Are you still there?”

  “Yes. Tess took the news hard?”

  “Very hard. She’s scared for Sara and for you. Whoever’s doing this means business, and it’s obviously been a long time in planning.”

  “I’ll take care of it.”

  “Can you get Sara away from this?”

  “No,” Mike said. “Wherever I take her, they’ll follow.”

  “Couldn’t you hide her?”

  “For the rest of her life?” Mike said angrily. “If you want to help, figure out what she has that people are willing to kill to get.”

  “Greg—”

  “If he marries her and she dies, he’ll inherit whatever it is that she has. Sara’s coming; I have to go. Fax what you have to Luke and think hard. And take care of Tess.”

  “I will. She—” Rams didn’t say any more because Mike had hung up.

  “Wow!” Sara said as she looked at Mike sitting on the iron chair. “You don’t look well at all. Is Tess all right? Is the baby—?” She broke off at his look, then sat down across from him. “What’s happened?”

  “Nothing,” he managed to say, his eyes searching her face. He had no doubt that the Vandlos had killed the man Sara was to marry. Then Stefan had shown up in town, and as Captain Erickson had said, Vandlo had use
d his “big-city razzle-dazzle” to woo a girl whose heart had been broken. It couldn’t have been difficult, Mike thought. Sara still had no idea why the man she loved had dropped her, and Mike had seen enough of Edilean to know that the pity from everyone would have been enough to drive her mad. The Vandlos specialized in people, especially women, who were in pain.

  “Mike,” Sara said softly, “you’re beginning to scare me.”

  His mind was racing. There was only one way to protect Sara and that was to take the focus off of her and put it on him. “Does Edilean have a mayor?”

  “Yes, but what does that—?”

  “Who is it?”

  “Actually, it’s my mother. She—”

  Mike stood up. “Sara, I—” He didn’t know what to say. “You have to trust me. Understand?”

  “Sure. You’re Tess’s brother and—”

  “No! Trust me! You have to know that I have your best interests in mind.”

  “Now I am frightened. Please tell me what’s upset you so much.”

  “I don’t have time now, but I’ll tell you everything as soon as I can.” As he hurried toward his car, he stopped and turned back. Sara was standing by the little table and looking after him in puzzlement—with fear in her eyes.

  Turning, he went back to her, took her in his arms, and kissed her. It was a quick, hard kiss, and for a moment he held her so tightly she couldn’t breathe. He put both hands on the side of her head, his nose to hers. “Trust me,” he whispered. “You must trust me with your life.”

  He pulled away from her and smiled. “Put on something pretty,” he said, then he ran to his car and quickly drove away.

  Sara wasn’t surprised when her cell rang less than a minute later. It was Joce.

  “What in the world was that all about? I saw you guys out the window. I thought you two weren’t … you know.”

  “We aren’t, haven’t,” Sara said. “And I have no idea what’s going on.”

  “Want to come in and talk about it?”

  “Yeah, sure, but … No,” Sara said. “I think I’m going to take a long bath and use some of that super expensive shampoo and conditioner you gave me for my birthday.”

  “Now I’m intrigued. What did Mike say to cause this reaction?”

  “It wasn’t what he said but how he said it. I have to go.”

  “Keep me informed,” Joce said and hung up.

  Four hours later when Mike returned, Sara was clean and fresh, wearing a dress of white eyelet, and nervously looking through a magazine she’d already read.

  “Sara?” Mike called, and she felt her heart give a little jump of pleasure.

  When did that start happening? she wondered. “In here,” she answered.

  Mike came in and nearly fell onto the chair across from the couch where she was sitting. Sara thought he looked as though he’d aged ten years. When she started to get up, he said, “I need to tell you some things.”

  “I know. But first I’m getting you something to drink.” She’d learned that Mike’s workouts made him drink twice as much liquid as other people. “Replacing the sweat,” he’d said.

  He looked at her in gratitude, and minutes later, she returned with a tray she’d already prepared for him. There was a big glass of red currant iced tea and a large piece of raspberry crumble she’d made the day before. Mike emptied the glass in one long drink but set the pie aside.

  “How bad is it?” she asked as she sat down across from him on the couch.

  “I guess that’s all in how you look at it. I have some … some truly awful things to tell you.”

  Sara’s hand went to her throat. “Someone’s been hurt.”

  “No,” Mike said. “At least not recently.”

  With a sigh of relief, Sara fell back against the couch. “You have something to tell me about Greg, don’t you?”

  “Yes.”

  “It’s okay. I’ve already decided to call the wedding off.”

  “And when did you decide that?”

  She wanted to say “this minute,” but didn’t. Instead, she shrugged. “When I realized I was hoping he’d never return, I knew I couldn’t go through with it. My life is much more pleasant when he’s not here.” Sara was hoping Mike would be glad of that, but his face didn’t lose its look of worry. “You can tell me,” she said. “Whatever it is, I can take it.”

  He wished he had the time to tell her everything slowly, but it had all become urgent. He took a deep breath. “Brian Tolworthy didn’t marry someone else. He died right after he got to England.”

  In the hours she’d been waiting for Mike’s return, she’d imagined a lot of things, but this was not one of them. “Brian is dead?” she whispered. “But his parents …”

  “Are still alive. And they’ve wondered why you never responded to their attempts to contact you to tell you about Brian.” That was as kind as he could put it.

  “But I didn’t receive anything, not a call, nothing! And I called Brian a hundred times, but he never picked up.” When Mike was silent, Sara let out her breath.

  “There’s more, isn’t there?”

  “We don’t think his death was an accident.”

  “Not an accident? It wasn’t suicide, was it?” The look on Mike’s face answered that question. “Are you talking about murder?”

  “Yes,” Mike said softly, his eyes boring into hers.

  For a moment, Sara could do nothing but look at him, and when what he was trying to tell her hit her, she almost couldn’t breathe. “You think he was murdered because of me, don’t you?” she whispered.

  Mike said nothing, just kept looking at her, and his eyes confirmed what she’d said.

  “I don’t understand.” Tears began to roll down her cheeks. She wasn’t sobbing, her face wasn’t wrinkled, but tears were gliding down her cheeks. “His poor parents. They loved Brian so much, and he was to inherit and—”

  Mike left the chair to sit on the couch and pull her into his arms. As they had before, her tears wet the front of his shirt. He handed her tissues.

  After a while, she pulled away and blew her nose. “I’m always crying on you. How did you find out about Brian?”

  “I asked Tess to do some research on him and she called his home in England. Brian’s mother answered the phone.”

  “Oh, Brian,” she said. “He was such a sweet man. I thought—”

  “That you two were going to get married and live in England.”

  “Yes, I did.” She wiped her eyes.

  “Sara, I have more to tell you.”

  She saw the seriousness on his face. “This is the part about Greg?”

  “Yes. He’s Mitzi Vandlo’s son.”

  For a moment Sara’s head seemed to reel. “The son of the criminal? The one so many people are searching for?” Her voice was rising. “Did he … Do you think Greg … that Greg murdered Brian to get to me?”

  Mike took Sara’s hand and held it firmly in his own. “Sara, you must stay calm. You can’t panic.”

  “My second boyfriend probably killed my first boyfriend and you want me to be calm?”

  “Yes,” Mike said firmly.

  Sara jerked her hand from his and stood up. “That bastard! Do you have any idea how much I put up with from him? He flirted with every woman who had a dollar in her hand. Platinum American Express cards nearly gave him an orgasm.”

  Mike had to bite his lips to keep from smiling, and the dimple in his cheek was an inch deep.

  “One time a woman had one of those black AmEx cards, and I thought I was going to have to call an ambulance.” She glared at Mike. “And you know why I put up with his crap?”

  “I truly have no idea.”

  “That’s because you have never been thrown onto the rubbish heap by anyone.”

  “Well, actually—”

  “Women going to jail don’t count. But I was dropped flat by a man I genuinely loved. I had saved myself all through high school. Boys were groping me, sweaty hands were all over me, but I
held out for ‘true love.’”

  Mike watched her as she paced the room, her anger making her face bright—and he was glad of it. Anger was easier to cope with than grief.

  Suddenly, her anger left her and she sat down hard on Tess’s armchair. “Brian, Brian, Brian,” she whispered. “Why didn’t I believe in you more?”

  For a moment she put her hands over her face, and even though Mike saw her shoulders heaving as she cried, he didn’t go to her. He had more to tell her, and he was dreading doing so.

  She looked back at him. “It was that movie, the one with Meg Ryan making a fool of herself.”

  He looked at her blankly.

  “When Meg Ryan’s fiancé dropped her, she ran after him to France and made a laughingstock of herself. After I received that hideous letter from Brian telling me he was going to marry someone else, I decided I had more pride than that. I wasn’t going after him. And I wouldn’t let him and his family see how much I’d been hurt. It was bad enough being the pathetic loser here in Edilean, but to go to another country …”

  She looked back at Mike. “If only I had gone. If only—”

  “You can’t do that,” Mike said sternly. “You can’t even think of blaming yourself. You’re innocent in all this.”

  Sara fell back in the chair, her hands gripping the arms. “You have something else to tell me, don’t you?”

  “Yes, but …”

  “It couldn’t be worse than what you’ve already said.”

  “Depends on how you look at it.”

  She waited, but he said nothing. “Mike?”

  “Yeah, okay, I’m getting around to it. Just give me time.” He took a breath. “Look, Sara, what I’d like to do is send you into hiding, but I can’t do that. You’re at the center of whatever the Vandlos want. We think Stefan—”

  “That’s Greg?”

  “Yes. We think he divorced his wife so his marriage to you would be legal.”

  “Wife?” Sara said. “Does he have children?” She held up her hand before Mike could speak. “No, don’t tell me. I don’t want to hear the extent of my blind stupidity.”

  “You aren’t stupid. The Vandlos have been cheating people for centuries.”