“I gathered that when he showed up like Han Solo ready to cut down Darth Vader.”
“Wasn’t that Luke?”
“I always liked Han Solo better. Anyway, your Jock was electrifying.”
Cara nodded jerkily. “He always is.”
Darcy’s gaze was narrowing on her face. “But you don’t like it?”
“Not for me.” She could see that Darcy’s curiosity was aroused, but she wasn’t about to explain that she couldn’t bear the thought of Jock’s being pulled back into the lethal whirlpool that had almost destroyed him all those years ago. She had been fighting his protective instinct since she’d first met him, and one of her nightmares was to be responsible for having that happen. “I should be fighting my own battles.”
“Well, from what I saw when Jock left here, he may not be seeing it that way.” She finished her tea and stood up. “Finish that tea. Maybe you can grab a quick nap before Jock shows up to check to see if I’ve done my duty.”
“You’ve done it.” Jock was standing in the doorway. “But you can go the extra mile if you’ll search through the rest of the suite and make certain that nothing has been taken.” He strode forward. “And then start packing up a suitcase for Cara.”
“What?” Cara straightened in bed. “Why the hell should she do that?”
“You’re going to visit Eve, remember?”
“I was intending to pack myself tomorrow.”
“You’ll be on a plane tomorrow.” He glanced at Darcy. “The extra mile?”
She nodded as she headed for the door. “I earn points and avoid being involved in the storm I see on the horizon. I can live with that.”
Cara was scarcely aware Darcy had left the room. She was staring at Jock. “I won’t leave tomorrow. I have a class. I’m scheduled to leave the day after tomorrow.”
“Not any longer. You’re out of here.” His lips were tight. “I’d send you out tonight, but you’d probably balk because you’d think Eve would worry if she knew why you were coming early.”
“Yes, I would,” she said. “It was a robbery, Jock.”
“The hell it was. There are five suites on this floor. Why was yours the only one that was targeted?”
“Maybe someone heard about my violin. I had it with me, or he might have meant to take it.”
“And then ran out without taking it?”
“I knocked over the lamp and it broke. The noise might—”
“Stop arguing!” His gray eyes were glittering in his taut face. “It’s all too pat. There’s a doorman downstairs, but he saw nothing because the entry was made through the basement. The door to the street was jimmied open, and the alarm was disconnected. This place has decent security facilities, and that alarm system wasn’t easy to take down. But it was disarmed, and the exit stairwell was used to come to this floor. Not to any of the other four floors in this building. This floor. Then the door to your suite was unlocked, the furniture and drawers made to appear that they’d been ransacked. Then the door was locked from the inside, and he stood there waiting.” He took a step closer. “Are you getting the picture?”
She was getting the picture, and it was chilling. A man there in the dark, waiting for someone to unlock that door and come in, so he could attack.
“I see that you are,” Jock said. “Well, so did I. I don’t know why you weren’t hurt more than you were. Maybe you’re right, and that lamp’s breaking startled him enough to panic him. Or maybe it was only meant as a warning so that he could prove to Kaskov he could kill you at any time.” He repeated through set teeth, his eyes blazing. “Any time, Cara. That time could have been tonight.”
She couldn’t look away from him. His intensity was overpowering. But no more than the scenario he had crafted for her in those incisive words. “I may have been targeted. But it doesn’t have to be because of Kaskov’s enemies. It could still be a robbery that was blown.”
“Kaskov.”
She nodded slowly. “Or because of Kaskov.” She swallowed. “I’ll have to consider that as an option. But now that I’m aware that it might be a possibility, I can take precautions and I—”
“I’ve been taking precautions for years, and this still happened. Stanton was prepared for an attack from the outside, not this. It was too bold, too direct.”
That strong hand reaching out, biting into her throat and jerking her into the darkness.
“Yes, it … was bold.”
“And Stanton didn’t stop it. I didn’t stop it. I swore you’d never be in danger again, and I didn’t stop it.”
“How many times have I told you that you’re not responsible for me?” She tried to smile. “I can see why you might have felt like that when I was younger. Everyone always feels as if they have to take care of kids. But I’m eighteen, and I have to take care of myself these days.”
“Oh, do you? Think again, Cara.” He lifted her chin, his gaze on the deep, mottled bruises on her throat. “He knew exactly what he was doing. He wanted to hurt you. And if he’d dug his thumb just a little to the left, he could have killed you. Do you think I’d allow him to get near you again?”
She stiffened. “Allow? You don’t allow me to do anything.” She glared up at him. “Because that would mean I’d have to give you permission to go back to doing what you did all those years ago. I won’t do that, Jock.”
“I don’t need permission to keep you safe. I can’t do anything else.” He touched the dark bruise on the hollow of her throat. “I realized that a long time ago.” He smiled recklessly as he stepped away from her. “And I never really moved far away from what Reilly made me. It’s just been waiting in the dark like the man who did this to you.” He held out his hands, palms up. “Were you aware that I know twenty-two ways I can kill a man with my bare hands? Give me a weapon, and I’m damn near unstoppable. Why should I waste all that talent?”
“No, I didn’t know that,” she said unevenly. “You didn’t tell me because you knew it would hurt me. But now for some reason you want to do that.” She reached up and touched her swollen throat. “Did you think this wasn’t enough?”
He stared at her for a moment. “Low blow, Cara. You know that’s the opposite of what I want.”
“Then you didn’t go about it the right way. Start over.”
He was silent. “Lord, you’re tough. Ordinarily, you’d have me on my knees because I’d hate the idea of hurting you.”
“And so you should, Jock. I’d never do anything to hurt you. Friends don’t do that.”
“You do hurt me.” His voice was suddenly soft, persuasive. “The idea of your staying for even one extra day here hurts me. I trust Joe Quinn. I know he can take care of you. I want you out of this city.”
“I’ll think about it.”
He shook his head. “Not good enough. I’ll take you to the airport at noon tomorrow. You can tell Eve you managed to get away early.” He paused. “If you don’t, I’ll call and tell her what happened tonight. I was planning on discussing it with Quinn in the next couple days anyway. But then it will be his decision if he wants to tell Eve. Or it may give you the chance to break it to her gently.”
She stared at him in frustration. He’d called her tough? He knew that she wouldn’t want Eve to know there was a threat when she still had a year to go to finish at the academy. “I’d have to miss a class.”
“Miss it. For once, that violin takes the backseat.” But she could see that he knew he’d won. “Enjoy being home. I’ll spend the next few days checking for more fingerprints down in the basement and scanning for video cameras on the block. We think we’ve found one good print at the alarm in the basement. Everything else both down there and in the suite was wiped clean. Very professional. He must have had to take off his gloves to get into the alarm box and made one mistake. I’ll start trying to maximize on that mistake right away. Then I’ll make sure when you do come back that even Quinn would approve of the security measures for this residence building.”
He had made
his plans and wrapped everything up to his satisfaction, she realized with exasperation. “You’re very pleased with yourself. Is there anything else I can do to make you happy, Jock?”
“Yes.” He looked over his shoulder as he reached the door. “You can find a way to erase my memory of you lying crumpled there on the floor when I wasn’t sure whether you were alive or dead.”
He was gone before she could reply.
She didn’t know what she would have said anyway. There would not have been any erasing for her if it had been Jock who had been lying unconscious. And she knew that it was that sight that had pushed Jock over to this explosive edge. Not that he’d had any right to practically blackmail her so that she would leave tomorrow. He still thought of her as a child who sometimes had to be coerced into doing what was good for her. He should know she had never had to be coerced to protect herself. She had known that life was precious and could be taken from her in a heartbeat.
As she could have had it taken from her tonight. She reached up to touch her throat as the memory of that hand crushing her throat came rushing back to her.
Her heart was suddenly beating hard. She was struggling to breathe.
Calm down.
It was over.
Tomorrow, she would be with Eve and Joe, and Michael would be smiling at her, and everything would be right again.
Tomorrow. Suddenly, she was glad that she would be leaving then and not waiting. After feeling perfectly safe here for the years she’d been at school, one night had made her feel uneasy and afraid.
It was only temporary, she told herself quickly. Jock would make certain no attack could ever happen again. And it probably wouldn’t have occurred again anyway. She didn’t really know what was happening. It was all guesswork.
But getting home would be a wonderful break, and she would be fine when she came back here.
“Hi, want another cup of tea?” Darcy had stuck her head in the room. “I overheard you talking, and I’ll bet your throat is sore again. Jock should know better.” She made a face. “I would have told him so before he left, but I was chicken. He didn’t seem in the mood to appreciate any criticism.”
“No, he isn’t.”
She tilted her head. “So, are you going to leave tomorrow? If you decide you don’t want to do it, we could gang up on him.”
“He made me an offer I couldn’t refuse,” she said dryly. “And I wouldn’t want you to have to take any fire for me. You’ve done enough tonight.”
“Hey, what are friends for? But you’ve got to promise not to repeat it. That was scary. I was ready to head for the hills.”
“But you didn’t, and I appreciate what—” She stopped. She’d thanked Darcy, but it was suddenly hitting home to her how frightening that experience must have been for her. Coming home in the dark and finding what might have been a dead body in the living room? And then having to rally and try to do what had to be done in an emergency like the one she had faced.
I was ready to head for the hills.
Of course she had been. And now Cara was going off and leaving her alone in this place where it had all happened. What if he came back? He’d gotten into the residence once. And even if Darcy was safe from attack, she would still be alone and afraid.
Nightmares.
Darcy was gazing at her quizzically. “You’re looking at me as if I’ve broken out with measles, and I’d never do anything so unattractive. What are you thinking?”
Cara said slowly, “I was wondering if you could postpone your classes for this next week. And I was wondering if you could exist without the constant adulation of the masses…”
LAKE COTTAGE ATLANTA, GEORGIA
“Cara arranged to get an extra day off, and she’s coming in today instead of tomorrow.” Eve turned to Joe as she hung up the phone. “And she asked if it was okay to bring her roommate, Darcy, with her.” She smiled. “As if we’d object; I’m grateful that she’s taking time out of her practice to make friends. And she told me before that she liked this girl.”
“Then I suppose we’ll be able to put up with her,” Joe said with a grin. “What time will their flight arrive?”
“At 3:35 P.M. Delta. Do you want to pick them up or shall I?”
“Neither. I have to pick up Michael at soccer, and you have to finish Sylvie today. I’ll ask Officer Haverty to swing by the airport on his way home. He lives out this way.”
“I can do it, Joe.”
“Yes.” His gaze went to Sylvie’s reconstruction on her worktable. “But you wanted to finish the final computer workup on her today, didn’t you?”
“I could do that tomorrow.”
“Forensics is getting a bit pushy about having something to show for the way they bent the rules and gave the skull to you before all the paperwork was out of the way.”
She made a face. “You’re getting nagged?”
“They’ll deny it once they get their hands on the reconstruction. Then the nagging will be represented as being only a gentle reminder.”
She nodded. “I’ll finish it today. You’ll be able to take her in tomorrow.” She stood there, gazing at the reconstruction. “I just wanted to make certain that I’d done everything I could do for her.”
“You always do,” he said gently. “Let her go. She’s ready, Eve.”
“I know.” She lifted her shoulder in a half shrug. “It’s probably the way she came to me, what had been done to her. That gold box was like a terrible mockery, and so was that broken mirror. I wanted desperately to make her right again.” Her lips twisted. “And find a way to punish the bastard who had done that to her.”
“And you’ve done your job. Now let me take it from here.” He kissed her and headed for the door. “Try to finish Sylvie up before Cara gets here. You deserve to relax and spend a little family time with her and Michael.” He looked over his shoulder. “You’re still keeping the door locked when I’m not here?”
She stiffened. “Of course I am. When that son of a bitch delivered the skull, I told you I wouldn’t take any chances Why? Have you seen any reason why I should?”
He shook his head. “No sign. He’s nowhere close, but I’ll be glad to get the reconstruction out of the house in case he’s keeping an eye on it.”
She frowned as her gaze shifted back to the skull. “Should I be worried about Cara’s coming? I thought it was safe as long as you kept an eye on the perimeter.”
“It is. But it wouldn’t hurt to tell Cara not to take her friend hiking in the woods by themselves.” He paused. “And, I think we should tell her about our special delivery.”
“Well, if we don’t, you can bet Michael will. He’s been practically considering Sylvie as one of the family since I started working on her.” She nodded. “Okay, we’ll follow his lead and make Sylvie a family affair.”
ATLANTA AIRPORT
“This is exciting,” Darcy said as she grabbed her suitcase off the luggage claim. “Do you know, I’ve never been to Atlanta? I’ve hop-skipped over most cities in the U.S. on publicity tours, but we missed Atlanta.”
“I’d never been here either before Eve and Joe brought me. I grew up principally in California,” Cara said absentmindedly as she watched for her own suitcase to come around. “I bounced around from town to town there while I was on the run.”
“On the run?” Darcy repeated. “Why does a kid have to go on the run? Hmmm. Very interesting.”
And Cara should not have said that. She knew that Darcy always picked up on any tidbit of information that caught her attention. “It wasn’t all that interesting.” It had been a horror story. “And I prefer to forget it.”
Darcy nodded and held up her hands. “Not a subject for sharing. I’ll back off. See how good I’m being?” She glanced at the colorful scarf Cara had tucked around her throat. “And didn’t I lend you my Hermés scarf to hide your bruises? But it’s not going to fool anyone for long. It’s June, for heaven’s sake.”
“It doesn’t have to hide them for ver
y long,” Cara said quickly. “I’ll tell Eve what happened. I just need a little time to prepare her.”
“Whatever. At least, you don’t still sound like a frog. I’ll do anything you want me to do.” She was suddenly smiling brilliantly. “I’ll be so good while I’m here that you’ll want to convince your Eve and Joe to adopt me.”
“You may not even want to stay for the week. We live very simply at the lake cottage. It’s principally just being with family.”
“I’ll want to stay,” Darcy said quietly. “I’ve seen your face when you talk about Eve and Joe. Why do you think I jumped on the chance of coming down here? Families are an endangered species as far as I’m concerned.” Then she was smiling again. “So I’m here trying to muscle in on yours. Okay?”
“Okay.” Cara smiled back at her. “How can I refuse? I muscled in on Eve’s life. It wouldn’t be right if I was selfish enough to keep her to myself.” She’d found her suitcase and lifted it off the baggage claim. “But I thought you had a mother and father who lived in Nice.”
“Oh, I do. Well, my mother, Felicity, and stepfather, Raoul, husband number six. She’s only stuck with him because there are certain conveniences to having a husband, and he never interferes with her other ‘amusements.’ Maybe I fibbed a little because I was pumping you so much, and it seemed more natural if it was an exchange of information. I haven’t seen Felicity or Raoul for the last five years.” She pulled out the handle on her suitcase. “Endangered species,” she repeated. “Now where are we supposed to meet this Officer Haverty?”
* * *
Five minutes.
Eve only had five minutes. Cara had called and given her a heads-up as they’d exited the freeway.
She hurriedly put the computer and camera equipment away and ran a quick comb through her hair. No time to start boxing Sylvie for Joe to take in to Forensics tomorrow.
But you didn’t confront new guests with a skull staring at them either.
She tossed the black velvet cloth over it and headed for the front door. “Sorry, Sylvie,” she muttered. “No offense.”
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