Destiny Bay Boxed Set Vol. 1 (Books 1 - 3)

by Helen Conrad

  Janet looked from one to another of the people in the room, puzzled. An undercurrent sizzled just beneath the surface of this conversation and she wasn’t at all sure just what it meant. But she didn’t have time to analyze it further.

  Mavis was calling her attention to the sounds she’d captured on her recorder. “Listen to this. These are things I recorded yesterday.”

  Janet listened politely. Bird noises—the whirring of wings, the chirping of sparrows—and then, in the background, very distinctively, the meow of an angry Siamese.

  Janet’s eyes widened. “Alexander!” she breathed too softly to be heard. She was sure of it. That was Alexander, being held prisoner in Mavis’s room. “You . . . you have a cat?” she asked aloud, watching closely for the older woman’s reaction.

  “Oh, yes.” Mavis chuckled. “My sweet King Tut. He’s a wonderful cat.” She popped a spoonful of the gray cereal into her mouth.

  Janet saw a warning look in Matt’s face, but she looked away quickly, ignoring it. “But doesn’t he keep the birds away?” she asked, pressing the point.

  “Oh, no,” Mavis said airily, “I keep him locked up whenever the birds are near.”

  Janet licked her lips, pretending she hadn’t just felt Matt kick her under the table. “I . . . you know, I really like cats. I’d love to see him.” He kicked her again. This time it was unmistakable. She glared at him quickly, then turned a false smile on Mavis. “Do you think, after breakfast ...”

  “Oh, I’m sorry, dear.” Mavis shook her head, smiling kindly. “He’s so timid and shy. He’s terrified of strangers. I just can’t allow it.” She reached out and patted Janet’s arm.

  “You see, Matt just recently rescued the poor baby from a horrible place and brought him home to me. It’s obvious he’s been poorly treated. That no one has ever given him the proper love and attention. And it will take time to bring him out of his shell.”

  Alexander timid and shy and hiding in a shell? That was a laugh—unless he had been through something terrible at the shelter that had changed him from the arrogant creature she knew and loved so well. But it would have had to be pretty damn bad to make a dent in that enormous cat ego. Janet found herself controlling her expression with difficulty.

  “Now, my dear,” Mavis said, leaning forward, her little eyes snapping brightly, “tell me all about Brazil.”

  “Brazil?” Janet’s mind was a blank for just a moment, then she remembered that she was supposed to be an expert on the subject. She looked to Matt for help, but he was leaning back in his chair, staring out into the forest, and seemingly lost in thought.

  “Well, ah, it’s . . . big,” she said, smiling for all she was worth.

  “Yes, I know that.” Mavis was patient, but persistent. “Tell me more. Matt’s been so hard to pin down on the subject, and now you.” She shook her head. “You’d think the two of you had been living next door all this time, instead of out of the country.”

  Janet’s heart began to beat a bit more quickly. Was the woman getting suspicious?

  “Well, it is big,” she began defensively. “And very colorful. Full of all kinds of people.” She searched her mind wildly for everything she’d ever known about Brazil.

  “Carnival,” she said at last. “Carnival in Rio. Yes, that’s very exciting.” She nodded, but Mavis was still looking at her expectantly. “There’s that beautiful big statue on the hill overlooking the bay,” she added, glad to have thought of something else.

  Mavis shook her head, getting frustrated. “Yes, but what was it like to live there?”

  Janet looked into that face and had a loss of nerve. Lying was hateful and loathsome and she didn’t like doing it.

  “Very different from here,” she said shortly, throwing a dagger-filled glance at Matt, who still seemed to be paying no attention. “I’m sorry, but I’m going to have to ask you to excuse me for a moment. I need to visit the bathroom.”

  “Of course, dear.” Mavis’s genuine smile only made her feel more guilty. “It’s down the hall and then to your left.”

  Janet escaped, walking quickly, but when she reached the end of the hall, she didn’t turn left. Instead, she softly ran up the stairway until she reached the landing that she knew led to Mavis’s room. Waiting for a moment, she listened carefully. There wasn’t a sign of anyone nearby. She had to give this a try. If she could just get her cat, she wouldn’t have to do any more lying. Heart beating wildly, she stepped toward the door.

  Her fingers curled around the doorknob, then tightened. It was locked.

  “Damn!” she muttered under her breath, her shoulders sagging. “Alexander,” she called softly. “Come here pretty kitty.”

  There wasn’t a sound.

  She pressed her ear to the door. “Alexander,” she called a little louder. “Alexander, where are you?”

  Nothing.

  Janet backed away from the door, staring at it. She felt like some character in a Kafkaesque nightmare. For just a moment, she entertained the wild idea of somehow breaking down the door and jumping from the balcony with Alexander in her arms, but common sense reasserted itself and she calmed down. There didn’t seem to be much hope. It looked as though she was going to have to play it Matt’s way for a while longer.

  She turned and went back to the room where they’d slept, trying to think of an alternate plan, but nothing came to mind. She sighed and started to head back down to the breakfast room, but a buzzing stopped her. She turned back. Matt’s cell phone was practically bouncing off the shelf where he must have left it. She could just let him know someone had called him, or she could answer it. Almost absentmindedly, she picked it up and pressed the button.

  “Hello?”

  “Hello.” The voice was feminine, breathless, like an actress trying for little-Miss-Innocent sexiness, but only succeeding in pointing out how far from that she really was. “Is Matt there?”

  Janet hesitated, realizing she probably shouldn’t have picked up the call. But it was too late now.

  “Uh…he’s busy right now but….”

  “Oh, I’m so glad I got someone at last. This is . . . uh, let me think. Oh yeah. This is Vanessa Jessup.”

  Janet felt as though she’d just been hit over the head with something large and solid. “Wh-what?”

  “Vanessa Jessup. You know, Matt Jessup’s wife. Didn’t anyone wonder what happened to me?”

  Vanessa. Janet had to reach out to steady herself. This was it. Somehow she hadn’t ever really believed Vanessa existed, not deep down. But here she was, confronted with the real thing. Matt’s wife. Now what?

  “Yes,” she said shakily. “Yes, as a matter of fact, we were all wondering.”

  “Who is this? Are you Aunt Mavis?”

  “Uh…no. I’m just a visitor here.” She had no idea what she could claim that would work out now. “Where are you?”

  Vanessa let out her breath in a giant sigh. “In jail.” She laughed. “Can you believe that? You tell Matt to get his sweet little ol’ self in gear and do something! I gotta be bailed out of here.”

  Janet’s head was whirling. She clutched the phone, torn between thinking she should run for Matt right away and curiosity. Curiosity won for the moment.

  “What jail? Where? Why?”

  “The name of this place is Polar City, but, believe me, it’s a hundred degrees in the shade around here. Not to mention it’s a two-bit speed trap. I had to go to Vegas to see an old friend, so I was already late, so I tried to take a short cut through the desert. They pulled me in yesterday and when they ran a check on my license, they found a bunch of old speeding tickets I’d never paid and some parking tickets, too.”

  Her voice was getting higher and higher as she told her story.

  “I mean, I’ve been working in downtown LA, you know what I mean? What do they expect! Listen, honey, they could lock me up for a good long time if Matt doesn’t do something!”

  The shrill voice didn’t fit the picture Janet had formed of Vanessa in
her imagination. This woman with Matt—something didn’t compute. And why would she have been working in LA?

  “I’m sure he’ll come right away.”

  “Yeah? Well, he’d better. Listen, when I agreed to come up there with him, I never expected anything like this!”

  It was time to get Matt, but Janet hesitated just another moment. She lowered her voice and spoke softly.

  “There’s something I think you should know,” she said, “I’ve been pretending to be you, just to keep Mavis happy.”

  “You what?” The screech nearly rendered Janet deaf in one ear. “Listen, you little hussy!” Vanessa cried. “I had this job first. Don’t you think you can weasel in and take away that nice fat fee. He hired me first, and I’m going to get there, come hell or high water.”

  Janet went cold. The floor seemed to sway beneath her feet. “What do you mean, he hired you?”

  “Me, baby, me! From the Pico Casting Agency. I’ve played the Marilyn Monroe role in Bus Stop a hundred times and I had a speaking part on CSI once, two whole lines and a full-face shot for three whole seconds. What have you got to compare to that?”

  “I . . .” What could she say? Stunned, she couldn’t think of a thing.

  There was the sound of another voice in the background. “Just a minute, you big ape!” Vanessa screamed, but evidently not at Janet.

  “Listen, they’re going to make me hang up and they won’t allow another phone call until tomorrow.” Suddenly her voice was soft and obsequious again. “Here’s the number here.” She gave it quickly. “Have him come get me right away. I’ve gotta get out of this place! The sheriff here is a real maniac. A beast! I’m scared silly of him.”

  “I’ll tell Matt.”

  “Thanks, honey. ‘Bye now.”

  Janet stared at the phone for another long moment, hardly understanding what she’d just heard. The shifting sands she’d been walking on had become even more treacherous. Before she went back to the breakfast table, she had to get this straight. Matt was Mavis’s nephew. He was supposedly married to someone named Vanessa, who was supposedly coming with him to visit his aunt. But instead of bringing his real wife, Vanessa, he’d hired someone to play the part. And when she hadn’t arrived on time, he’d turned to Janet and coerced her into taking the part instead.

  Where was the real Vanessa? Was there even a real Vanessa? And what the hell was Matt up to?

  She began to calm down. A slight feeling of satisfaction surfaced. Matt had kept her at a disadvantage before, holding the break-in over her head, but now . . . Her mouth tilted in a tiny grin . . . now it was her turn.

  She folded the paper she’d written the number on into her pocket and then paused in the doorway of the breakfast room, examining Matt. Not a hint of emotion showed on Matt’s face. He was saying something to Mavis and his mouth smiled, but his eyes didn’t change.

  For just a moment, she had the sense of a man living two lives, one as a pleasant companion, the other as a cynical bystander waiting for something.

  He looked up suddenly and caught her stare. One eyebrow rose and his head went back as though he were preparing for an attack of some kind. Could he already tell that things had changed between them? The thought gave her a little thrill of power.

  “Your house is lovely, Mavis,” she said as she walked into the room and took up a position behind the chair where she’d been sitting. “I’m sure your grounds are just as interesting. Can you spare Matt for a few minutes to give me a tour outside?”

  “Of course, my dear.” Mavis smiled indulgently. “I always have a little nap after breakfast. Take your time. I’ll see the two of you again later this afternoon.”

  Janet led the way to the deck and down the wide redwood stairs onto the cinder path that twisted a serpentine trail down to the overlook. When she looked back, she found Matt watching her silently, his gaze narrow with speculation.

  He knew something had changed. He just didn’t know what it was. Let him wait, she thought smugly. Let him stew.

  He’d picked up a pair of binoculars before they left the house and now, as they got a good distance away, he stopped in a clearing, raised the glasses to his eyes and stared back at the redwood mansion sitting in stately splendor up the hill from where they stood.

  “Are you a bird-watcher too?” she asked dryly, hardly paying attention at first, her mind still full of so many other things.

  “Not exactly,” he muttered, still training the binoculars on the house and studying whatever he saw intently.

  She turned, frowning, her attention caught now. “What are you looking for?”

  “Nothing.” He let the glasses fall to his chest, held by a strap around his neck. “Nothing at all.”

  But she knew he was evading the issue. “No, what is it?” she demanded, looking back at the house too, but finding nothing that could attract this kind of attention from Matt.

  He eyed her for a long moment and his eyes weren’t smiling. “Nothing you’d be interested in,” he said curtly. “Come on, let’s take that walk.”

  She didn’t like it. She didn’t like anything about it. There were too many confusing signals all pointing in different directions. Reluctantly, she began to walk down the path again, determined to have the entire matter out with him once and for all. But how should she approach it?

  “I guess we didn’t have woods like this in Brazil, did we?” she asked him archly as they strolled along between the redwood trees.

  “No,” he agreed, coming up beside her, glancing sideways with a half smile. “Not exactly.”

  “Did we live in the jungle?” she asked, careful not to look him in the face. She snatched at a spray of ferny redwood needles as they passed. “Did we have a boa constrictor for a pet? Did we swim in the Amazon on picnic weekends?”

  He stopped her with a hand on her arm. “You can cut the sarcasm, sweetheart,” he said, his voice smooth as silk. “What is it? What’s the matter?”

  She froze at the endearment. “Don’t call me that,” she returned with cold calm, pulling away from his hand.

  He had the gall to look almost hurt. “What is it? What’s upset you now?”

  She glared at him, hating that his voice sounded so rich and deep. The feeling of finally having the upper hand was slipping away from her.

  “I don’t like lying and I don’t like being lied to,” she said shortly. “And that’s all that seems to happen around here.” She stared into his dark eyes, searching for answers. “How about a little dose of truth?” she said firmly. “Just what are you up to?”

  His wide shoulders gave a shrug of resignation meant strictly for himself. He should tell her. Get it over with. What could she do?

  His gaze narrowed. Actually, quite a lot. She could go rampaging back and tell Mavis why he was here. And then it would be all over.

  No, he couldn’t tell her. Not yet. He needed her to keep up the act for just a little longer.

  Besides, the woman intrigued him. Right now, he wanted to touch her. Why should he fight it any longer? Hell, he was no saint, never had been. She’d come right up to the edge of being receptive a couple of times, then she’d quickly drawn back. He was pretty sure she only needed a little of the right kind encouragement to fall into his hands like a big, beautiful ripe fruit.

  “Why do you think I’m up to something?” he asked her, holding her gaze with his own, giving her the casual, lazy look that usually seemed to work. “I don’t have a thing up my sleeve.” His gaze dropped, following the curve of her cheek to her mass of reddish-black hair, and then he touched a stray curl and lowered his voice. “Unless you mean seduction, of course.”

  “Where seduction is concerned, you can count me out,” she snapped, wishing that she could feel as sure as she sounded.

  He was tall and big and when he stood like this, so close, and his eyes seemed to take her in and caress her, it was hard to keep her mind on her anger, hard to remember that he wasn’t to be trusted. Something in her wanted to cove
r that all up, smother it, forget it, and let her body melt against his. His eyes invited it. His smile said he understood her confusion and was ready to still it if she would only bend a little.

  Better to bend than to break. Where had she heard that before? But it didn’t apply here.

  “I told you to leave if you couldn’t take it,” he said softly. “But you’ve stayed.”

  His gaze rose and met hers. There was no defiance there. For one crazy second she almost thought he was hoping she would take him up on his suggestion.

  “Walk away,” he added. “And I won’t stop you.”

  She stared up into his face, slightly stunned. Okay, here it was, a chance to get out of this man’s clutches, to extricate herself from his schemes. Why wasn’t she running for the door? Was it really only because of Alexander?

  “You’d better leave.” His voice was low, gravelly. “Because if you stay . . .” He moved closer, his eyes alight with a smoldering look she’d never really seen before. Her body seeming to yearn toward his. “It could be dangerous,” he whispered, slipping both his hands into the hair at the back of her head, holding her captive, tilting her face up toward his. “You never know.”

  “No,” she managed to scrape out, and once she’d created one word, the others came more easily. “No, Matt. I really don’t want this. I mean it.”

  She glanced toward the house. It seemed very far away. His dark eyes were smoky, mysterious. She searched them, lost in their misty depths, but at the same time she was very much aware of his strong body, his broad chest.

  “No.” She sounded adamant, but she was shivering with fear—or something very like it.

  Excitement? Surely not!

  “Matt, let me go.”

  “Ah, Vanessa,” he murmured. “What happened to that wild, free spirit? Where is the woman who acts on whim and instinct?”

  Her voice quavered a bit, but she managed to sound defiant, and her glare was fully operational. “My instinct tells me to stay as far away from you as I can get.”

  “No, it doesn’t,” he whispered, his face so close to hers, his breath hot and seductive on her lips. “I can tell what it’s telling you. It’s throbbing, right here.”