by Vella Munn
Mara was crying. Because she couldn’t keep her tears from him, because in her honest vulnerability she didn’t want to, she gave him the only explanation that made sense. Still, the darkened room helped.
“I love you, Reed,” she said softly into the night. “I don’t know how it happened. I don’t know what I’m going to do about it, but I love you.”
“You do?”
Mara hesitated. “You have to ask?”
“I don’t know what to say,” Reed whispered. He rose on his elbow. Reverently he ran his free hand through her hair and then to the slender gold cord around her throat. She heard him take a deep, unsteady breath. “No one’s ever said that to me. Not like this.”
“I can’t think when I’m around you,” Mara admitted, her words of love still echoing through her. “I feel. But I can’t think.”
“Maybe, if either of us knew what we were doing, we wouldn’t be here.”
Although Mara hated the idea of their being apart, she understood what he was saying. If either of them could, they would step back, set a slower pace. But she’d opened her heart to him, and it was too late. “Is that what you think?”
“Maybe.”
Mara rolled away. She lay with her arm under her cheek and focused her eyes on the blank wall. “Don’t say that. Just…don’t.”
Reed ran his fingers down her spine, then touched his mouth to the back of her neck, the gesture incredibly gentle. She shuddered; she couldn’t stop herself. “I want tonight,” she whispered with her back still to him. “That’s all I’m asking for. Tonight.” Her lie echoed against the wall and slammed back into her.
“And I want more than that. If only I could give it to you.”
Hours later Reed woke up hungry. They’d made love again and fallen asleep with their heads on the same pillow. Now, however, his stomach was growling. “There’s nothing open at this hour,” Mara pointed out when his movements woke her.
“The restaurant downstairs never closes. They cater to insomniacs and lovers.”
Although she wanted to talk about what she’d told him earlier, needed to know if he felt the same, Mara nodded. Her time with Reed was so short; whatever he wanted, she wanted as well.
To her surprise she found a half-dozen people in the quiet room. Mara was a little taken aback by the size of the breakfast Reed ordered, but the waitress, who obviously knew him, only smiled.
While she sipped coffee, watching his every movement, Reed told her of five-course meals served by women with more than waitressing on their minds. “It’s a monied world,” he said of his whirlwind trip to Reno. “I’ve been there before. At least I knew my way around the place.”
Mara tensed. “The women with other things on their minds. Did they offer them to you?”
“I think you know the answer to that. But I didn’t accept the offer.” Before Mara could speak, Reed went on. The display at the private club had been orchestrated to impress several automobile collectors, Reed among them. The women were part of the package. Zack wined and dined; he expected his guests to partake of what was offered. Reed concentrated his “interest” on a woman who’d had too much to drink. He’d spent the night in a chair while she snored on the bed.
“Will you have to do that again?”
“I don’t think so. The net is tighter than those characters know.”
“You’re sure?” Mara kept her voice so low that even the waitress moving near their table couldn’t hear. “I mean, are you sure they don’t suspect you?”
“There’s no way I can be sure of that, Mara.”
She felt cold. “But you must think about it.”
“I can’t. Not if I’m going to do my job.”
There it was. The difference between them. Mara had wanted to believe they could get through their night together without having to touch the vast canyon that stretched between them. It was impossible. “Maybe it’s your ego, Reed. You will not back down, will you?”
“What are you getting at?”
Fear in the guise of anger guided her. “I’m getting at this unholy alliance you have with Jack. Sometimes I wonder if your thinking is so distorted that you can’t see what you’ve gotten yourself into.”
“You really think that?”
“Maybe.”
Reed spread his hand over his napkin and crumpled it. “I need more than that from you, Mara. If you can’t handle what I’m doing, I need to hear that.”
“Do you? If I asked you to walk away from this, would you?” Mara waved away what Reed might have said. “But I can’t ask that, can I? Jack got in line before me.”
Reed pushed aside his half-finished meal and reached for Mara’s hand. She let him take it, and he pressed his lips to her fingers. “He isn’t more important than you. Believe that.”
With his words making their impact, Mara knew she wouldn’t tell him about the terrifying phone calls. She would if she could keep her fear out of her voice, but around him she was all emotion. “I do,” she whispered. Just tell me you love me.
Reed had told Mara he didn’t think he’d be able to get in touch with her for at least a couple of days, but she’d no more than finished with her class the next day when her secretary announced she had a call and did she want Mr. Steward to call back. Mara hurried into her office and closed the door behind her.
“Where are you?” she asked.
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
Mara went cold. “Why didn’t I tell you what?”
“About the phone calls. Damn it. Didn’t you think I’d want to know?”
Despite what Reed’s anger was doing to her, Mara managed to keep her voice strong. She matched him, hard words to hard words. “Maybe I thought it was something I could handle on my own. Just like you handle drunken call girls and men who use bodyguards.”
“What are you saying?”
I don’t know. “Tell me something, Reed. How would you react if I jumped all over you because I didn’t like what you’re doing?”
“You already did.”
He was right. “I told you how I feel,” she countered. “There’s a difference. How… Who told you?”
“I’m at the police station.”
Mara leaned heavily against the desk. Relief flowed through her. He was with the police. Maybe it was all over; maybe he wouldn’t be disappearing into any more shadows. “What are you doing there?”
“Passing on some information. How are you doing?”
“Fine. What kind of information?”
“Where I’ve been. Where I still have to go. You could have told me.”
“I could,” Mara said with her eyes closed and her body hot and cold by turns. He wasn’t through after all. Soon he would be back in the shadows, and he might never tell her what she’d told him. She might never know if he loved her. “But you couldn’t do anything about it. Reed, I didn’t come to the hotel so we could talk about some damn phone calls.”
“Mara.” Her name, carried along by his deep tones, faded. She waited, not breathing, for him to continue. When he finally did, he was whispering. “If you’re upset because they had to let him go, because you couldn’t identify—”
“That’s not it.”
“I’m listening. Whatever it is, I want to hear it.”
Could she tell him about feeling as if she’d grown too large for her body? “I wasn’t the only one there, remember? The other victim, she couldn’t make an identification either.”
“I know that.”
“I want that animal behind bars, Reed. Things keep dragging on and I know so little about what’s happening.”
“There isn’t much happening.”
“Unfortunately. Reed, how far do you still have to go?”
“Not far. I’m into the final layer.”
“You’re sure? Of course you are. What…what happens now?”
Reed tried to keep the telling brief, but Mara pushed for details. By the time he finished, she understood that the time for springing the tra
p was drawing close. As soon as it could be arranged, a couple of undercover cops would pose as would-be customers. Their requests would call for the involvement of everyone involved in the ring. Reed would act as go-between.
“It’s your basic sting operation,” he finished. “If things come down the way we want them to, no one’s going to escape.”
“When is it going to happen?”
“I’m not sure. A few more days.”
A few more days. At the end of that time Reed could put down the burden he’d assumed for Jack. If he was still alive.
“Mara?” Reed asked. “Are you there?”
“Yes,” she told him around the fear. “You’re sure? This sting, it’s going to work?”
“There aren’t any guarantees.”
No guarantees. “You’ll be careful?”
“I will. Mara? Afterward, we have to talk.”
“About what?”
“I think you know.”
The phone rang twice that night. Each time, Mara prayed it would be Reed. Both times whoever was on the other end said nothing.
The other night, fear had overcome her. Tonight, though, Reed’s example guided her. “Listen,” she said the second time the phone rang. She kept her voice calm, speaking as Reed made her believe she could. “You are a sick man. Sad. Disgusting. You live in the dark and take your sickness out on people who can’t defend themselves. If you were half a man, you’d stop playing these stupid games.”
Mara had almost hung up when she heard the voice. It growled and rumbled. “Nice tits. Smooth, long legs. I haven’t forgotten that, Mara.”
She knew the voice. “What do you want?”
“You. I want you.”
Mara slammed the receiver. Trembling, she stumbled to her feet and jammed her fingers through her hair. Lobo looked at her in sympathy. Dialing the police should have been a simple matter, but it took three tries before Mara managed to make the connection. She explained what had happened and the officer promised he would have a patrol car out.
“Thank you,” she managed and hung up. For some reason she suddenly felt like laughing. Lobo was staring up at her. She touched the Doberman but didn’t try to pull him close. The touch helped. She’d been calm before her attacker spoke. She could regain that emotion. She would!
Reed was out in the night somewhere, tightening a net. He might be with men with guns, with the capacity for violence. Certainly she could handle a simple phone call.
Certainly.
Detective Kline called a little after eight the next morning. He’d found a note about last night’s incident on his desk. “Mara, let’s get a tap on your line. If he’s calling from his place, we’ll be able to trace him. In the meantime, you’ve got to get someone to stay with you.”
An image of Reed came to mind. He was setting traps so the police could capture criminals. When it was over, he would come back to her. She would be worthy of him.
“If I do that,” Mara started slowly, “he’s going to back off. He might go after another victim.”
“What are you saying?”
“I’m saying I don’t want him going after any more teenage girls—putting any more women in the hospital. If he’s concentrating on me, other women will be safe.”
“I won’t have you taking chances.”
“I have a gun. I know how to use it. There’s my dog. You can tap the phone so you’ll know when the man calls. You— This won’t get lost on some desk, will it?”
“No. Believe me, it won’t.”
“Good.” Mara avoided looking out at her empty acreage. She would think of nothing except saving another woman from having to go through this and, somehow, becoming someone Reed would want in his life. Someone he could love. All she asked was that the police be ready when she needed them.
“This might not lead to anything, you know,” she was told. “I’ve dealt with my share of rapists. Most are cowards. They love being in a position of power. Knowing they can intimidate and control. If he thinks he can’t do that with you anymore, chances are he will find someone else.”
“I understand.”
“You’re a brave woman, Mara.”
Mara wasn’t sure she would say that about herself, but knowing she was finally doing more than simply being a victim helped. It gave her the courage to weather the relentless question of what Reed was doing, and wonder when or if she’d hear from him again.
She told Clint everything.
“That bastard. You’re sure you won’t come stay with me?”
“I can’t. Not if we’re going to put him behind bars.”
“I still say that it isn’t your job.”
“Isn’t it?” Mara countered and repeated the arguments she’d used with Kline.
Finally Clint gave up. “I still don’t like this. The things he’s put you through. Does Reed know?”
“Some of it, but not everything. I can’t get in touch with him. Maybe no one can.”
“Look, I’ve seen that man around you. As soon as he can, he’ll contact you.”
But Reed didn’t call. What Mara did get was a visit from the detective and someone from the telephone company so the tap could be placed on her line. A little after five the last of the students left. A couple of minutes later her secretary drove off. Only Clint was left. “My folks and I are going to be home tonight,” he explained. “If you hear anything, see anything, I want you to call.”
“I will.”
Mara stood on the path between her house and the graveled parking lot, watching Clint leave. He waved; she waved back, forcing a smile.
The loneliness was coming. The safe, secure daytime sounds no longer enveloped her. There was only another night of darkness before her, waiting for the telephone to ring.
And not knowing whether Reed was safe.
Chapter Fourteen
The man was breathing, a hard ragged sound that vibrated through Mara and threatened to take over everything. “You’ve been waiting for me,” he was saying. “Waiting and wanting.”
“Yes.” Mara sank to the floor, wanting to keep him on the line so the police would have a record of the call. A kitchen wall propped her up. Whether she closed her eyes or not made no difference. Either way she carried the image of a man sitting beside her in her Corvette. An insane, dominating man with a knife. Rage stirred and formed her words. “Waiting to tell you what a disgusting creature you are. You aren’t a man. Do you hear me? You aren’t a man.”
“The hell. You want names. I’ll give you the names of all the women who know I’m a man.”
“Because you forced yourself on them?” Lobo was crouched nearby, growling. Mara reached out to quiet him. Electricity leapt from owner to animal and Lobo kept on growling. “That’s not what a man does.”
“How the hell would you know? I haven’t gotten to you yet.”
Was she saying the right things? Was there a line between making this monster believe she could no longer be intimidated and degraded, and pushing him over the edge? “Let me tell you something. A real man doesn’t sneak around in the dark. He doesn’t use the phone to make threats he can’t follow up. A telephone call can’t hurt me. Do you hear that?” Mara inched along the floor until she could wrap her arm around Lobo. “I’m tired of your sick game.”
A string of oaths followed Mara’s words. She wasn’t shocked; she hadn’t expected anything different. The truth was, she was numb.
“Are you through?” she interrupted as he was pointing out, in sickening detail, what he would do if he got her alone again. The words were pulling at her, drawing her back to that night. She fought them. “This is boring me.”
“Boring! You won’t be bored. You’ll be dead. Nothing you say, nothing you do, will change that.”
Mara closed her eyes and counted to ten. Then to twenty. Finally, her mouth dry and her fingers nerveless, she dropped her head onto Lobo’s back. “He hung up,” she whispered. “Thank God. He hung up.” Soon Detective Kline would let her know whether t
hey’d been able to trace the call. In the meantime she’d let Lobo out so he could keep an eye on the property.
So he might keep her safe, because she knew this wasn’t the end of it.
Sweat ran down Reed’s back. He was still breathing heavily from the last-minute chase but unaware of that. At the moment he was sitting in a patrol car on its way to the Harbor Island Police Department because the Jag had a flat. Beside him Captain Bistron laughed. “I thought you weren’t going to get involved in the physical stuff. You’re supposed to be the brains, not the brawn of this investigation.”
Reed tried to turn his head and received a shot of pain through his neck for his troubles. Whiplash. “Reflex action,” he explained. At the moment he felt on top of the world. “When I saw that slime try to take off, the only thing that mattered was making sure he didn’t get away.”
“That was some fancy driving. Too bad you couldn’t get him off the road without putting the Jag in a ditch.”
The Jag was the least of Reed’s concerns. Laughter fed by adrenaline bubbled inside him. He’d taken Mara’s course in order to learn defensive driving, but he’d been the one who’d wound up on the attack. That didn’t matter. What did was knowing he wouldn’t have been able to stop Zack if he hadn’t been so confident behind the wheel. “We had to have the head man. His lawyer’s going to have his work cut out for him, trying to get him out of this mess.”
“You’d make a good cop.”
“I don’t wear uniforms.”
“Not a uniform.” Captain Bistron turned to make sure the three police cars containing the captured members of the gang were still following them. “I’m talking about getting into investigations on a local level. We could use you.”
Reed couldn’t concentrate on that. His heart was still beating double time, but it was more from excitement than exertion. The operation couldn’t have gone better if he’d written the outcome himself. When it came time to write up his report, he would put things in simple terms. Mix equal parts of greed with the temptation of easy money and eventually someone made a slip. It had taken longer than he’d hoped, and there’d been times when he wasn’t sure his cover would hold, but it had worked out. A gang that had thought it had Southern California in its pockets no longer existed. Not only that, the fingers reaching out to Reno and points east had been tracked, too. By this time tomorrow there should be seventeen men in custody.