Maggie’s hand was a little too comfortable on Royal’s forearm, but Sullivan reckoned not throwing the guy out of the house ought to be his contribution to the trust issue for today.
“I wanted to tell you a couple of things, Mags, before you read them in the paper—” he shot a hostile glance toward Sullivan “—because what I’m going to tell you is going to turn this town upside down. Anyway, I thought you’d want to know.”
Always curious, Sullivan made himself inconspicuous and listened.
“Of course. What’s happened?” Maggie’s hair seemed to turn electric, glowing with energy.
“Callahan was behind everything. Greedy as hell, and he started the ball rolling. He wanted the brass ring and couldn’t get it legally. From what I’ve seen of Charlie, I think he got a bang out of the whole idea of getting away with something. And he did, for a long time.” Royal glanced at Sullivan. “He’s the one who set the explosive in your car. He wanted to see if he could do it.”
“He almost did, Royal. And right in front of the Sunshine Center. I never liked Charlie.” Maggie shuddered.
“He thought Barnett was getting too close to what was going on at the bank, with money shuffling back and forth to fund the real-estate deals, and he was afraid that Barnett’s story would bring the Feds down on his neck, so he panicked. He’s the one who sent you—” Royal nodded to Sullivan “—the threatening letters. He said he was glad he hadn’t killed you, but he thought you looked real funny lying ass up on the sidewalk.”
“Nice guy,” Sullivan growled, remembering the laughter he’d heard. “I’d like to get my hands on him.”
“Stand in line, Tin Man.” Maggie was furious, Sullivan could tell. The children. He was getting the hang of how Maggie’s loyalties ran.
“Jackson met Paul Reid at Seth’s Landing. Jackson was supposed to bribe the man, but apparently Reid wasn’t bribable, so Jackson killed him. None of the conspirators had bargained for murder, so the conspiracy started fraying at the edges after that. Anyway, Mags, Barnett, that’s about it. I’ll be sticking around for a while, and then I’m heading to greener pastures.”
Royal stuck out his hand, and Sullivan shook it. Even if he hadn’t wanted to, the glint in Maggie’s eyes would have made him. She expected him to respect her turf.
Maggie stopped Royal at the door. “One last question, Royal. I know you didn’t pass on the meeting location and time to the chief after I called you—”
“Hell, no, Mags, you asked me not to,” Royal interrupted. “You know me better than that.”
“I do. But I wanted to ask you how Jackson found out.”
Suppressing a grin, Sullivan glared at Maggie. Give her an inch and she’d take the whole nine yards. Thought she was being sneaky, confessing like this. But he knew she would never have told him if he hadn’t walked over the bridge separating them first. It had been her test of him.
And he’d almost failed it.
“Through the baby monitor. Can you believe it? Jackson had the police scanner on and picked up Reid’s curbside cellular-phone call. Reid thought he was safe, but the monitor acted just like a bug.”
Later, when Royal was gone, Maggie turned to Sullivan and said, “I wanted to tell you I’d called Royal, Sullivan, but you would have seen it as a betrayal.”
“Yeah. You’re right. I would have. Before I was enlightened.” He grinned. “But you sure have one thing wrong about Gaines.”
“What?” She tilted her head, and the silver clip caught the light as her hair slid to one side.
“You insisted you and Gaines were friends.”
“We were. Are. Whatever.”
“No whatever with Gaines, sweetheart. All the whatevers are mine.” The jealousy slipped out, but he thought he’d controlled it.
Until Maggie grinned at him. “Go on. What were you saying about my friend Royal?”
“Well, sugar-buns, that’s not a friendly glint in his eyes at all. Not unless you call the look the fox gets in the hen house friendly.”
Maggie laughed and the topknot went flying. “Sullivan! You made another joke. That must be three by now, but I’m losing count.” Her teasing smile seduced him completely.
“Come here, sweetheart, and I’ll show you friendly,” he said, reaching out for her.
And he did.
He was very friendly, Maggie told him much later.
“I’m learning, sweetheart,” he murmured into her ear as the sound of the evening tide filled the room.
*
One morning Sullivan woke and found her gone. For a moment his heart pounded, all the old memories hovering. Pulling on a pair of old navy gym shorts, he walked out onto the deck. A line of footprints led from the deck into the bright gold-blue of the early morning gulf. In the brilliant blue, a shining brown dot swam out to the darker blue with strong, sure strokes.
Maggie.
Hurrying over the sand, Sullivan stripped his shorts off and dropped them near where hers lay in a sandy heap. Swimming after her, he circled around so that she saw him before he dived and grabbed her ankles, pulling her under.
Curving into him, her sleek body moved with his as he tilted to his back, sculling shoreward with one hand as he held Maggie with the other, sliding her wet, cool body over his, holding her close to his heart in that glittering morning as light filled the emptiness in his soul.
Maggie picked up her sandy shorts and turned to look as Sullivan followed her out of the sea. Water glinted in his hair, on the smooth, muscled length of his body. Casting him a mischievous glance, she dropped her shorts back to the ground, sinking with them as she reached out her hand toward his. Clasping his fingers, she pulled him to the cool sand, letting him turn her so that he took the gritty pressure of the grains against his back. The lopsided smile she loved to distraction finally reached his eyes and filled them.
With the radiance of the brilliant sun flooding her and Sullivan’s bright blue eyes laughing back at her, Maggie made love to him, with him, the diamond earrings he’d given her for a wedding present gleaming like rainbows in the sun. “I love you, Sullivan Barnett,” she whispered over and over. His echoing murmur filled her ears, until she no longer knew whether she whispered of love or he did, knew only that they loved, moving together in an old rhythm, their bodies blending bonelessly. Beyond flesh, endlessly, spirit to spirit, soul to soul as the shining light on the gulf moved to the farthest horizon, stretching forever.
*
SULLIVAN'S MIRACLE Page 27