She hesitated and got into the limo. She gave the uniformed driver behind the plastic divider the address of the auditorium in Fairfield, Connecticut. “Quick fix?” She didn’t look at him. “Is it going to be a fix at all? I thought maybe you’d decided I was getting in your way. I know how busy you’ve been lately.”
“And that’s why you’ve been bombarding me with calls and emails? Do you have any idea how hard it was for me to ignore them? You never give up.”
“No, I don’t. I had to be sure. Did you expect me to let pride get in my way after all we’ve been through together? I had to make you tell me.” She still wasn’t looking at him, her eyes fastened on the plastic shield separating them from the driver. “So tell me, Jock. You decided that I wasn’t worth the trouble? That I’m just a kid who wandered into your life and brought you nothing but headaches and now you want out? Because that’s what I’ve been thinking for the last three months.”
“Look at me.”
“You told me not to look at you.”
“Look at me.”
She looked at him.
The hardness and cold was gone. There was only weariness. “You’re the one who should want out. How many times have I told you that I interfere with your life? You have your music, you have Eve and Joe and Michael. You’re only eighteen. You have your whole life in front of you. I just get in your way.”
“How could you get in my way when I hardly ever see you?”
“I seem to manage,” he said dryly. “There’s no one in the world as loyal and steadfast as you, Cara. I saved your life, so you think it belongs to me? It belongs to you. Only to you, Cara.”
“You bet it does. So I should do what I want to do with it.” She made an impatient gesture. “And you know that’s only the tip of the iceberg. You became my friend, and there’s no one who knows me like you do. Everyone I loved had been killed, and I felt so alone inside. And then you were there, and I wasn’t alone anymore. I can’t even talk to Eve the way I talk to you.” She paused. “Even though you don’t feel you can talk to me.”
He went still. “I talk to you all the time, Cara.”
“About me, always about me, never about you.”
His lips twisted. “I’m quite sure Jane and Eve have filled you in on my background. It would be their duty to warn you against me.”
“Of course they told me. But not because they thought there was any chance of your hurting me. They know you, Jock. It wasn’t your fault. You were younger than me when that terrorist, Reilly, brainwashed you and tried to make you into an assassin.”
“He didn’t try, he succeeded,” Jock corrected without expression. “I was the ultimate assassin.”
“And you ended up in a mental hospital where MacDuff found you after you tried to commit suicide.” She repeated, “It wasn’t your fault.”
“There could be endless philosophic discussions about that statement. MacDuff prefers that I don’t explore them. Let’s just say that I am what I am.”
“And that’s good and shining inside,” she said fiercely. “I’ve always known that.”
“You can’t know. And you’ve never asked me anything about that time.”
“I was waiting for you to tell me.”
“You would have waited a long time. I’ll never take you down to that particular hell, Cara.”
“Then that’s okay. As long as you know I’d go with you if you asked me.”
He nodded slowly as he reached out and took her hand. “Oh, I know that, Cara. That’s what this is all about. I thought I’d take another shot at stepping away, so you wouldn’t be tempted to follow me.”
She could feel the painful knot inside her loosen and begin to dissolve. It was going to be all right. This was the Jock she knew. Her hand tightened on his. “I thought you might be angry about my going to New Orleans with my grandfather.”
“That was part of it. I had to go and check something out anyway, so I decided I’d take the opportunity to see whether if I expressed my displeasure in the cruelest possible form, you might change your mind.”
“I made my grandfather a promise.”
“And I’m tired of hearing that,” he said tersely. “But evidently I’ll have to try to give you a reason other than the fact that the entire situation makes me crazy. So I’ll tell you what I’ve been doing for the last three months.”
“Besides avoiding me.”
He smiled faintly. “I’m not going to be forgiven for that, am I?”
“No. It hurt too much.”
“So did the idea that you were going into the mouth of the lion again.” He made a motion as she opened her mouth to speak. “Let me get this over with. You know I’ve never liked the idea of your being in New York alone while you were going to school? I’ve told you often enough.”
“Yes you have. But it’s not as if the school isn’t safe. Juilliard was superstrict, and when I transferred to Carnegie Tech, it was the same. Carnegie Tech is the best music academy in the country, and you said yourself the living quarters are like a nunnery. Eve and Joe believe I’m safe there.”
He shrugged. “Maybe if you were anyone else, you would be safe. But you’re the granddaughter of a Mafia kingpin who wields a hell of a lot of power both in Russia and Europe. He’s a criminal, and there’s nothing stable about criminals. Because of his power, he’s made enemies galore in the other crime families and of the people he’s victimized. Any one of them would be delighted to get their hands on you so they could hurt Kaskov in the most personal way possible.”
“You’ve said that before, but I’ve gone to this school for years, and no one has made any move on me yet.”
“No, they haven’t.” He paused. “Not yet.”
She stiffened. “That sounded menacing.” She tried to smile. “Is there supposed to be some dramatic John Williams music playing in the background?”
“It’s like you to connect everything to music. This is menacing.” He grimaced. “And you’re probably not going to like it. I’ve had someone keeping an eye on you since you’ve been here.”
“What?”
“I told you that you wouldn’t like it. Jim Stanton is very good, unobtrusive, and he never takes chances with his clients. It made me feel better.”
“And a waste of your money.”
He grinned. “I have lots of that commodity these days. I didn’t consider it a waste if it made me happier about your situation.” He looked at her warily. “It’s not as if Stanton interfered with you in any way. You didn’t even know he was around. He was just there in the background.”
“And not necessary.” She shook her head. “You act as if I should be angry with you. Am I supposed to bristle because you’ve attacked my independence? I know how easy it is to kill people. You turn your head, and someone you love is dead. If I thought that someone was trying to hurt you, I’d hire a Stanton to watch you if I could afford him.”
He flinched. “Please don’t do that. I have a tendency to act instead of ask questions.”
“I just hate that you wasted your money.”
His smile faded. “You’ve forgotten that ‘yet’ accompanied by your John Williams music. About the time you were blowing my mind about going to New Orleans to visit Kaskov, Stanton was giving me a report. He said that you were being shadowed. At first, he wasn’t certain. Whoever was doing it was very good. And even after he caught a glimpse of the tail and confirmed, he couldn’t be certain how long the surveillance had been going on. But he must have realized pretty quickly that Stanton had made him, and the surveillance stopped.”
Cara was feeling her heart pounding. Someone watching. Someone waiting. All through her childhood, she’d been on the run, changing cities, changing schools because there might be a threat behind her. Now it was suddenly here again. “And nothing since then?”
“Not that he’s been aware of. He watched and waited, but he didn’t see anyone following you.”
“Then it could have been anyone. Maybe some pervert
who likes schoolgirls.”
“Except that Stanton said he was exceptionally good at what he was doing.” He made a face. “And prepare for another John Williams moment. Stanton got uneasy after a week or so and decided to check something else. He managed to get into your quarters to have a look around.”
She frowned. “Now that’s not cool, Jock.”
“No, it wasn’t. Because he found out that the room had been bugged.”
She stared at him, stunned. “Why? For goodness sake, I play the violin, and I talk to Eve and Michael. Why would anyone want to listen to me do either of those things?”
“You’ve forgotten. You also harass me,” he said dryly. “Though I haven’t given you the opportunity recently. And listening to you play is a treasure in itself, but I’m not sure that’s why he’d bug your room. I’m going with the idea that since he no longer had direct access to you, he wanted to know everything he could find out by other means.” He looked down at her violin. “Like this concert. How were you going to get there?”
“There’s a special bus from the school.”
“Easy to watch. Easy to access.”
She moistened her lips. “Maybe. But there are other performers almost everywhere I go.”
“Almost.” He muttered a curse. “I’m scaring you. I don’t want to do that. Or maybe I do. Because I’ve spent the last few months in Moscow trying to tap every contact I have to see if there are any rumblings about Kaskov. Or if there’s any talk about any of the Mafia families who have been particularly vocal about what kind of mayhem they’d like to practice on him.”
“And what did you find out?”
“Nothing conclusive. Which made me frustrated and mad as hell and sent me back here to see if I could find out anything more from Stanton.”
“And to let me know that I was harassing you.” She looked down at their joined hands. “You did scare me. It brought back too many memories.”
“I know it did. But you’re not alone now. I’ll never let anything happen to you.” He added grimly. “Just stay away from Kaskov. Don’t go to New Orleans.”
“You said you didn’t find out anything in Moscow. Maybe it doesn’t matter if I go to New Orleans or not.”
“And maybe it does.” His lips tightened. “You said you were frightened, but you’re still not saying that you’re not going to go.”
“I have to think about it. I’m a little … shook right now,” she said. “So stop trying to bully me into doing what you want.”
“Cara.”
“I have to think.” She leaned forward. “There’s the auditorium up ahead. Are you going to stay and listen to me?”
He didn’t answer.
“Don’t shut me out again,” she whispered. “It didn’t work, and it hurt both of us.”
He hesitated, then he lifted her hand up to his lips and kissed her palm. “I wouldn’t miss listening to you play. You’re right, it didn’t work.” He released her hand as they drew up to the curb. “That sign says it’s sold-out. Can you smuggle me in the stage door?”
“Yes.” She looked out the window. “There’s Darcy, she’ll help. She just smiles, and everyone bends over backward.”
“That’s your new roommate?” His gaze followed Cara’s. “I can see how that might happen. She’s absolutely lovely. Wonderful features.”
Cara nodded. “The complete package.” Darcy’s long blond hair framed high cheekbones, square jaw, and wide-set blue eyes that were riveting. In her white, tea-length gown, she had definite star quality. “And she has a superb voice. Though the reviews almost always mention her face and figure as much as her voice. It’s not fair. I guess I’m lucky.”
“I guess you are.” His eyes were twinkling as he got out of the car and held out his hand to help her. “It’s wonderful that you’re so ugly that it doesn’t interfere with the music.”
“Well, it’s true. Oh, I’m not bad-looking, but it’s difficult for—” She saw his face and she slapped his hand away. “Stop smiling. And you’d have just as bad a time as Darcy does. You’re just as beautiful and you’d see how—”
He made a face. “Beautiful?”
“You know you are. There’s no other word for you. You’re above and beyond. You just smile and women go into a tailspin. Now come on and I’ll introduce you to Darcy. She thinks you’re hot. You dazzled her when she saw you in reception. I have to make it right for not introducing you then. It wasn’t the time.”
“No, it wasn’t the time,” he said quietly. “That seems to be our mantra, doesn’t it?” He didn’t wait for an answer but stepped forward as he reached Darcy and held out his hand. “Hi, I’m Jock.” His smile was totally charming and lit his face with warmth that was close to radiance. “Cara tells me if anyone can sneak me into this concert, it will be you. What can I do to persuade you to do it?”
CHAPTER
3
LAKE COTTAGE ATLANTA, GEORGIA
“Hey, you’re making good progress.”
Eve turned away from the depth markers she was placing in the reconstruction to see Joe standing a few yards behind her, looking at the skull. “Not as fast as I’d like. It took a while to close up that hole in the skull and make it look perfect.”
“And everything has to look perfect for Sylvie?” He smiled. “Not that you’re not a perfectionist anyway, but you’re being more than usually obsessive with this one.” His smile faded. “Not that I blame you. I wish that I could dig in and get my hands on answers like you’re doing. Three days, and we still haven’t been able to trace your Sylvie through dental records or DNA. We extracted DNA from one of the molars, but there’s no match on any database we can find. So we’d have to rely on finding a family match, which throws us back to finding who the hell she is.”
“No leads on where she was burned? It was very thorough and must have taken a long time. A crematorium?”
“We’re checking. No records from any local funeral homes that might have ordered it done. But records can be falsified, bribes can be made to crematorium employees to do the work.”
Eve looked back at the reconstruction. “I don’t believe he’d pay someone else to do this. He’d want to do it himself.”
Joe’s raised his brows. “A hunch?”
“I guess it has to be one. But he wanted to completely destroy what she looked like, what she was. If he went to all that trouble, I think that he’d want to make sure that he’d done it.” She paused. “Or perhaps that he wouldn’t miss the pleasure it would give him. I can see him sitting there watching the flames, planning the presentation in that damn gold box.”
“I can, too.” He stepped behind her, his hands on her neck, his thumbs massaging. “How long before you get to the final stages?”
“Maybe tomorrow night.” His thumb pressure felt wonderful. She hadn’t realized how tense she was until Joe released it. She’d been working very fast in spite of the care she’d been taking. “I’ll try to stop when Michael gets home from school and be with him until it’s his bedtime. You’ve been carrying the full load with him, Joe.”
“Neither of us has been complaining. Sometimes I feel as if he’s condescending to keep me company.” He chuckled. “Except we both have such a good time. If you like, I’ll take him to a movie tomorrow evening.”
“On a school night? Sylvie is important, but so is Michael. I won’t cheat him.” She turned her head and pressed her lips to his hand on her neck. “And I won’t cheat you, Joe.”
“Have it your way. I know you will anyway. Then I’d better let you get back to work now.” His hands fell away. “But you won’t mind if I take Michael over after supper tonight? I’ve been working on his karate. He’s been doing pretty well.”
“And how’s he been doing with Gary?”
“He doesn’t talk about it. But no more bruises.” He paused. “And when I’ve been at the soccer practices, I’ve noticed a certain watchfulness in our bullyboy. I don’t know if he can figure Michael out.”
�
�No one can,” Eve said. “You just enjoy him.”
“Well, I’ll make sure that Michael will be able to get both enjoyment and satisfaction from anyone who throws a punch at him from now on.” He brushed a kiss on her temple. “Trust me.”
“I always do.” Her gaze went back to Sylvie as she heard Joe leave. There was no question she’d have to work most of tonight if she was to break for the hours she’d designated for Michael tomorrow. But she’d planned on it anyway. The nose and the mouth were always so difficult because the depth was never really possible to calculate. She had the cheekbones and the chin, but that mouth … Sometimes she had to leave it for the final sculpting phase and hope that the subject would let her know which way to go. But if she did additional measuring on the mid-therum region, it might help.
“We’re getting there, Sylvie.” She started measuring that space below the nasal cavity. “I can already see it coming together. It may not be clear to you, but it will once we start the final sculpting. That’s when you get to give me your input…”
CARNEGIE RESIDENCE HALL NEW YORK CITY
“You don’t talk to me about Jock,” Darcy turned in her bed to look at Cara, who had just slipped into her own bed a few feet away. “Why not?”
Cara sighed. She had been waiting for this. She had managed to put Darcy off for the last few days because their individual schedules were both so busy. But tonight, Jock had taken them both out to dinner at Marea’s, and she had been aware of Darcy’s curiosity rising as the evening had progressed.
“Why should I talk about him?” She punched her pillow and settled herself more comfortably in bed. “You should be able to judge Jock for yourself. We’ve seen him a couple times since the concert, and you seemed to get along. And you talked to him more than I did at dinner tonight.”
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