“Say it now,” he shouted. “Say it. Say you deliberately murdered the little girl.”
“I didn’t.”
He came down on top of her, clamped his hand over her mouth and nose. “You did it. Nod your head or you die right here.” Keeping his hand over her face, he dragged her until she felt waves soak her pants and shirt.
“Say it!”
She shook her head.
Romano dragged her deeper. The thundering water broke over her, washed over her face, filled her ears, and seeped up her nose. She coughed and struggled.
Using her hair, he dragged her head free of the water. “Admit it. You did it deliberately. You’re unbalanced. You’ve always been unbalanced.”
Romano pushed her head under the water and held it there. She struggled but found no power in her arms and legs. Water burned her eyes and her throat. She gagged.
“I tried to save you,” she heard Romano say. “But it was too late. You ran from me back there and I couldn’t see you at first. When I found you…well.”
Summoning every last vestige of strength, Sonnie jackknifed her knees into his crotch. Romano howled and released her just long enough for Sonnie to wriggle sideways. But then he was on her again, howling in Italian she didn’t understand.
Water splashed about her. It rose in great fins that broke in white foam.
A bellow broke through the frenzied, swelling babble. Romano fell on top of Sonnie. She choked. The fight went out of her.
He was heavy, but then his weight lifted. She raised her head, spitting out water, gasping for air, and she rolled to her knees. Salt water bubbled from her nose and mouth.
“Son of a bitch,” a familiar voice hollered. “You’re dead, bastard. You’re dead meat.”
Locked together in the surf, Romano and Chris fought. Only another second seemed to pass before Romano went, headfirst, into deeper water. Chris followed, yelling as he went. “You’re history, killer. I tried to save you, but you ran from me and I couldn’t see you at first. When I did…well? And all because you’re a bundle of grief over the death of your brother. Think that’ll hold up in court?”
Sonnie made it to her feet and waded, doubled over, toward the struggling pair. The sound of connecting flesh and bone terrified her.
She reached them and launched herself at Chris’s back. With more strength than she ever remembered having, Sonnie landed where she could wrap her arms around Chris’s back, and held on. He grappled with her hands, but she held on.
“Don’t kill him, Chris. He isn’t worth it. Let him go.”
“Like hell.”
Sonnie tightened her hold. She hiked herself higher onto his back, gripped him with her legs, and crossed her wrists over his eyes.
“Let me go, Sonnie. For God’s sake.”
She closed her eyes and clung, afraid that she would weaken.
Splashing sounded, and past her legs scrambled Romano. He coughed and cursed and moved faster than any man should be able to move after the assault he’d just suffered.
Chris managed to swing Sonnie around his body and half drag, half carry her to the beach. “You shouldn’t have done that,” he said through his teeth. “You’re going to have to explain why you did. Dammit, he’s getting away.”
“Good,” Sonnie said. “I won’t have you tried for murder.”
The Jag’s engine burst to life, lights came on, and the car screeched backward before Romano swung onto the road and roared away.
Panting, Chris watched, and when the noise began to fade he took Sonnie’s hand and rushed her along so fast she scarcely kept her footing. “Everything’s changed,” he told her when they were beside his Harley. “When you said you thought people had tried to convince you to die, you probably told the truth. And I think you just managed to save one of those people.”
Twenty-seven
Sonnie remained seated on the sand with her knees pulled up and her arms wrapped around her calves.
“Bastard,” Chris said, staring at the place where the Jag had been. “What the hell was happening here? Why?”
“He’s berserk.” Sonnie’s voice broke. “Berserk. I don’t know what happened. I want it to stop. D’you hear me? It’s got to stop.”
Chris bent over her. “Sonnie—”
“Don’t touch me.” She moaned. “I can’t take it anymore. I want to be quiet. I want to be alone.”
That wasn’t an option he could offer. “Don’t go to pieces on me now. We’ve got to move. Everything’s going to happen fast now.”
“I don’t care.”
‘You don’t care? It looked to me like he was trying to drown you. And he’d have gladly killed me. But you don’t care?’’
“I thought Romano was my friend. Even when Frank was…” She rested her forehead on her knees. “What a fool I was. I’ve got to have time to think. I don’t know what it all means. Let me think.”
Even when Frank was…When he was what? She still didn’t trust him enough to tell the whole story. But who was he to talk on that topic? Roy had told her something of the mess in New York. He, Chris, hadn’t even given her a clue, and he still wasn’t ready to talk about any of it.
“Sonnie, we can’t waste time here.”
“The hell we can’t.” She scooted away from him. “Υοu just said Romano tried to drown me. He beat me and tried to drown me, Chris. I almost didn’t have any time left to waste. I’m falling apart.”
“You’re soaked, darlin’,” he told Sonnie, squatting beside her. He stroked her hair. When she looked at him he barely managed to stop himself from flinching.
But she wasn’t going to hit him. He almost wished she would, if it helped.
“You’re wet, too,” she said.
“Yeah, you’re right. Let’s get back and change.”
“Get back where?” He felt her grow limp. The fight had gone out of her. “Where can we go?”
He touched her sopping back and winced. “Come on, Sonnie. Please. I’ve got to see if you’re hurt. We can go to Roy and Bo.”
“No. I’m too embarrassed. I’m a disaster in many installments. I’m not going there like this.”
“The cabin out back, then.”
“They’ll see the lights and come to check on us. Then Aiden will show up.”
His patience slipped. “On your feet.” He bobbed up, hooked a hand beneath each of her arms, and pulled her in front of him. “I don’t want pneumonia. I don’t have time. And you don’t want pneumonia. Come on; I’ve got a blanket in my roll.” And, despite what he’d told Billy Keith earlier, he did have his passenger seat on the bike.
“I’m going to be okay,” she said. “Mostly I’m shocked. But I’ll figure out what…I’ll figure it out. I have to.”
“We have to. You’ve pulled me too far in to expect me to step out now. You wanted me on your side when I didn’t want any part of you. You wouldn’t let me turn away, and now I won’t. We’re going where we can get dry and decide what comes next.”
Dragging her feet, she went with him and did nothing to help him when he produced a towel to rub her hair, her arms and legs, when he brushed away sand that had stuck to her wet clothes, or when he wrapped her in the blanket he took from his bedroll.
Her apathy unnerved him, but he kept on smiling and making inane comments.
When she was enveloped in the blanket he continued to rub her down. He took first one hand, then the other, and chafed them until the icy clamminess faded.
“Okay,” he said, drawing her against him and rubbing her back, “that’s the best I can do out here. Now we’ve got to find a warm, dry haven. A hotel? A motel?”
“I don’t like those places.”
“We can’t stay here.”
“Εna would take us in. She’s so lonely, she’d be glad. We’d be helping her and she’d be helping us.”
Chris didn’t relish going to Ena’s place. To take in a boarder like Edward, she had to be odd, and odd was something he’d just as soon avoid.
&n
bsp; “May I use your phone? You do have one?”
“Sure.” He produced it from a saddlebag. “Darn it, we don’t know the number.” The instant he grinned, he knew he’d made a bad move.
Sonnie snatched the phone and said, “I just happen to remember Ena’s number,” before dialing. Almost at once she said, “Εna? It’s Sonnie. How are you?”
The woman was many bricks short of a wall. Or so Chris had decided from the day they met. She would fuss over Sonnie. She would fuss over him if he wasn’t careful to maintain a glacial demeanor.
“Yes, yes,” Sonnie said. She opened her mouth and nodded, clearly waiting for a chance to break in. “Εna, I’m with Chris and we need a place to stay for the night. I know this is a terrible imposition, but would it be possible for us to come to you? There wouldn’t be any call to go to any trouble. Sleeping bags would—oh, you’re so kind to me, Ena. Ι don’t know how I’ll ever pay you back, but I will try. Yes. Yes. Νο. We’re down by the ocean on South Roosevelt. I know I’m being silly, but I’m not ready to go back to my house, and”—she glanced at Chris—”and Chris doesn’t want to disturb his brother by taking me there again tonight. Okay, see you soon.” Quickly she clicked off the phone.
“That, ma’am, was a lie I heard you tell. I’m more than happy to take you to my brother’s place.”
She frowned and said, “So I lied. I’m not an angel and never was, regardless of what my parents think. You could drop me at Ena’s and go back to the Nail yourself.”
No matter what had passed between them, he had no right to be disappointed that she didn’t mind being separated from him.
“But Ι wish you wouldn’t do that,” she said, bowing her head so he couldn’t see her face.
He smiled—just a little. “Well, if it’ll make you feel safer, I suppose I can come with you and stay there.”
Still she looked at the ground. “Don’t put yourself out. I’m not helpless. I’ll manage just fine on my own.”
Roy frequently warned him to think before he spoke, just in case he later regretted what he’d said.
“Maybe a cab will come along,” Sonnie said. “Drat this storm. Everything slows down when they start watching for hurricanes. And they’ve been watching for them since I got here.”
“A cab won’t come tonight. They don’t bother to drive out here once the last plane’s in.”
“The phone,” she said. “I’ll call for one.”
She’d handed it back to Chris, who looked at it and managed an exasperated frown. “The battery’s gone,” he said. “Darn it.”
The wind blew so hard he had to support her or she couldn’t have stood in one place. Blowing sand stung his face. The night raged. A sound like a train whistling in a distant tunnel went on and on and grew louder. “We’ve got to get inside somewhere,” he said, bending over her.
“I’m sorry, Chris. I’ve become your Waterloo, haven’t I?”
Time for the honest approach. “You surely have not. It takes someone a whole lot bigger and meaner than you to upset me, sweetheart. Anyway, I was trying to play hard to get. Wherever you’re going, I’m going. On the bike. It won’t take long to get to Just Ena’s.” It didn’t matter where they went anymore as long as it was out of this darkness.
He took away the blanket, and Sonnie said, “I’m cold.”
The nylon windbreaker he kept handy at all times would help that. “Let’s get this on you. The blanket might be a disaster on the bike.”
She giggled. “I feel like a little kid being pushed into pajamas when I’m still wet. Thanks, Chris. I think you’d be great with little kids, by the way. You’ve got good hands. Gentle hands.”
For an instant he looked at his hands. “Let’s go.” He might have what she called gentle hands, but he’d stopped thinking they’d ever hold a child of his own.
Once they were on the highway again, he called Roy and told him Sonnie was safe. He also said they wouldn’t be back tonight, and was grateful his brother didn’t ask questions.
A sharp jab in his already bruised ribs got all of his attention. “What?” he yelled over his shoulder.
“Liar,” Sonnie yelled back. “There’s nothing wrong with the battery.”
He grinned into the wind and shook his head.
Sonnie rested against his back and held him tightly.
They reached Truman Avenue too quickly for Chris. He took the bike all the way to the house steps. Carrying a flashlight and with a shawl wrapped around her, Ena emerged before he switched off the engine.
“I’m so grateful you’ve come,” she said when Chris and Sonnie had dismounted. “I don’t know what you must think of me. I haven’t been any help at all, have I? I’m grieving for Edward. Who would have thought you could become attached to someone you hardly know? But that’s no excuse. You needed me and I’ve been selfish. Oh, it’s such a wild night. Do get in here.”
Chris ushered Sonnie ahead of him. He wasn’t prepared for Ena’s shriek when she saw Sonnie clearly.
“What’s happened? Oh, my, what has happened to you? Oh, you poor dear.” Ena wrapped Sonnie in her arms so that she could hardly walk without falling over the woman’s feet.
On the short drive from the beach, Chris had decided what he must get done in as little time as possible. He had to talk to Sonnie, carefully, about his visit to the hospital. Then, whether she wanted to or not, he had to know what had preceded the scene he’d walked into on the beach. And he also needed to ask Ena a few questions. She could be the only person with the right missing puzzle pieces—but only if she turned out to be really observant. Or, perhaps, really nosy.
Ena took Sonnie into a sitting room that managed to be overcrowded and tidy at the same time. “I’m going for some water. That face has to be cleaned. How did it happen?”
“Don’t,” Sonnie said, turning her face away. “I’ll do it.”
“Thanks anyway,” Chris said. “Thank you, Ena, but the best thing for Sonnie will be a hot shower. Those are only scratches. She fell on the sand. These things happen.”
“Oh.” Ena opened and closed her mouth several times. She wore no makeup, and Chris was surprised by the thought that she looked younger without it. “Well, then, I’ll take her to the bathroom. I’ve got two nice rooms with a bathroom between. You’ll both be very comfortable. You need dry things and sleep. I’ll see what I can find.”
Two rooms. He said, “Thank you, Ena.” Of course two rooms. She was old-fashioned and she had no way of knowing that at least Chris would be happier if she had only one spare room. “I keep a change of clothes on my bike. Old habit that pays off sometimes. May I ask you a couple of questions?”
Her lips came together.
“You’re the one who might be able to help us. Since you’re next door to Sonnie’s place.”
“She needs to get in that shower.”
“Of course she does. This won’t take more than a few minutes. Have you seen anyone next door? Anyone or anything in the last twenty-four hours?”
“Sonnie’s face is bleeding,” Ena said, and she sounded tearful. “What is all this dreadfulness? Did you fall, or were you pushed?”
Sonnie blinked and glanced at him. “I…fell. I’m a bit clumsy sometimes.”
“Ena?” Chris said. “Have you seen anything?”
“I’ve tried not to,” she blurted. “That sounds so childish, but it’s true. I’ve hardly been outside this house for days. I’m frightened. Silly, aren’t I. I’m frightened to leave my own house even in daylight. How can everything be carrying on as if nothing’s happened when Edward was burned to death like that? Why is it as if nothing’s different out there?”
Chris didn’t set her right on the subject of Edward’s death. “It feels like that whenever someone we know dies.”
“Thank you,” Ena said. “You’re a nice man.”
“He is,” Sonnie said.
Unsmiling, she stared at him, and he’d have liked nothing better than to kiss her.
�
�So you haven’t seen anything, Ena?” Sonnie said.
“The workers came back. They were there for hours. I haven’t seen that side of the house, but I imagine it’s almost back to normal now.”
Sonnie turned up the corners of her mouth. “That’s something, isn’t it? We’ve got to try to get back to normal.”
“Anything else?” Chris asked, afraid Ena would clam up again if he didn’t press her.
“Just the man who looks like Sonnie’s dear husband.”
“Romano?” he and Sonnie said in unison.
“My brother-in-law,” Sonnie added.
“I expect so. He’s very good-looking, just like our Mr. Giacano. Drives a Jaguar.”
“That’s Romano,” Sonnie said.
“He didn’t stay long,” Ena told them. “Not more than a quarter of an hour, perhaps. That was after the workmen left, but the blond man was still there.”
Chris and Sonnie looked at each other again. “What blond man?” Chris said.
“Oh, I don’t know, really. Long, curly blond hair and a hat with a big brim. He went in once the workmen left. He had a duffel bag. He doesn’t stand up straight. Sort of shuffles as if he’s old, only I don’t think he is.”
Sonnie’s expression was blank, or blank but for the confusion that filled her dark eyes. “He went into the house?”
“Oh, yes. Used a key, so I assumed you knew him.”
Chris shook his head slightly at Sonnie and said, “We do. Nothing to worry about there. Did he leave when Romano came?”
“No. Like I said, Romano went inside, too. For about fifteen minutes. Then he left, but I didn’t see the other man again.”
Sonnie looked as if she might ask questions best left alone.
“Marcus is the type to take a nap at the drop of a hat.” Chris laughed. “Maybe I should say at the drop of his hat. Don’t you ladies worry about a thing. I’ll go over there and make sure he hasn’t slept through an appointment or something. And I’ll make sure Wimpy’s got plenty of food and water.”
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