"I wonder if anyone followed us here yesterday," Julia mused.
"I was just thinking the same thing."
"I hope we didn't put your father in any danger."
Alex pulled up in front of his father's house. He threw the car into park so fast, Julia almost hit the windshield. She put out a hand to brace herself. "What's wrong?"
"Look," he said.
She wasn't sure she wanted to look. Slowly, she turned her head, licking her lips, praying she wasn't going to see the men they'd just tried to outrun, or something even more horrible.
It was a sign that had caught Alex's attention. The for rent sign planted on the front lawn hadn't been there yesterday. Her gaze darted to the driveway. The beat-up Chevy was gone. The garage door was closed; the only sign that a car had ever been there was a puddle of black oil on the driveway. She glanced back at the house. The curtains and windows were closed up as if someone had left and was never coming back.
She swallowed hard. What had happened here after they'd left yesterday? Had someone gone after Charles?
"God, Alex," she murmured. "What if they…?" She couldn't say it. She didn't even want to think it. She reminded herself that their apartments had been broken into when they weren't home. No one had been hurt—yet.
"Let's go," Alex said decisively.
She shot him a quick look, but he was already moving out of the car. She caught up to him on the front porch. The screen door was slightly ajar and crooked. Had it been like that yesterday? Or was it evidence of violence? She wasn't sure she wanted to go with him, but Alex was already ringing the bell, pounding on the door, shouting his father's name.
No one answered. She could feel Alex's tension, his fear. She grabbed his arm when he reached for the door knob.
"Wait," she said. "Maybe we don't want to go in there."
"Believe me, I don't want to go in there," he replied, "but we have to try."
It was too easy. The knob turned in his hand.
Alex entered the room first. Julia clung to his back, peering around him as he stopped in the living room. She'd expected to see chaos, destruction. Instead, she saw nothing. Everything was gone. There wasn't one stick of furniture left in the room, no evidence of the vase Alex had broken, no sign of the television or the couch. A fine layer of dust covered the hardwood floor, dust that appeared to be untouched, as if no one had ever been in the house. But Charles Manning had stood in this room only yesterday. His belongings, his life, his dog, for God's sake, had all been real. Hadn't they? She blinked, wondering if she was somehow dreaming.
Alex stepped away from her.
"Where are you going?" she asked quickly, reluctant to be alone.
"To check the bedroom. Wait here." He returned a moment later, his expression grim. "He's gone, not a trace of him left. He disappeared into thin air just like he did before."
"How? How does someone leave that fast? It was yesterday afternoon, barely twenty-four hours ago." She felt incredibly disappointed and also unnerved. There was something about the empty house, the fact that someone had gone to a lot of trouble to wipe Charles Manning off the face of the earth again, that was more than a little frightening. She hoped nothing had happened to him.
"My father must have had help. Damn him."
"Do you think he did this?"
"He disappeared once before."
She heard the bitterness in his voice and knew he was hurting again. He'd taken a huge personal risk to come here and face his father, and he'd been deserted again. The sound of a car drew her toward the window. She pulled the curtain aside to see a silver Honda Civic park in front of Alex's car.
"Who do we have here?" Alex muttered, as he peered over her shoulder.
Daniel Brady got out of the car. It wasn't the same car he'd driven to the beach. She idly wondered how many he had. Brady looked around him before making his way up to the front of the house. He wore a navy blue suit today with a white shirt and a conservative tie. He looked like a corporate businessman more than a government agent—or whatever he was. Alex's friend in the State Department had never called back with that information. Julia still wasn't sure exactly what Brady's job entailed. Maybe it was time to find out.
Brady opened the front door without bothering to knock. He didn't appear surprised to see them standing in the living room.
"Where is he?" Alex asked.
"I'm sorry. That's classified," Daniel said smoothly.
"Then why are you here?"
"He thought you'd come back. He wanted you to know he's all right, but that your visit yesterday compromised his safety and yours. He had to leave."
"How did our visit compromise anyone's safety?" Julia asked. "Were we followed?"
"It's possible."
"So nothing specific happened," Alex said. "This was just a preemptive strike."
"Exactly. I told you to drop it, Alex. You don't know who you're dealing with."
"Because you won't tell us," Julia snapped. "If you don't, Alex and I may keep stumbling into trouble. Maybe you should explain what's going on."
Brady withdrew an envelope from his inside jacket pocket. "We're providing you with a background, Miss DeMarco."
"Excuse me?"
"Everything you need is in here. Addresses where you lived with your mother before she married your stepfather. We've also listed a job where your mother worked and character references who can testify to her presence in Berkeley during the time in question. We have photographs of you as a toddler playing in the park in Berkeley, long before that picture in Russia was ever taken."
Julia stared at him in amazement. "How can you do that? How can you have pictures of me when I don't have pictures of me?"
"Technology is amazing."
"So it's all fake, and you expect me to use it? Why would I do that?"
"Because you're in danger. And not just you, but your family, your sister, your stepfather, and everyone attached to you. The break-in at your apartment was only the first step."
"How do you know about the break-in?" she asked.
"We have contacts in the police department."
"Do you know what they were looking for?"
"I assume something that you acquired in Russia."
"What do you mean, the first step?" Alex interrupted. "What do you foresee happening next?"
"A direct confrontation. Julia has something they want."
Brady's voice was so deadly serious, it sent chills down her spine. "But I don't know what that something is. You have to give me more information," she pleaded.
"Believe me, I'd like to help you, but I can't. My hands are tied. I'm sorry."
"You're not sorry," Alex cut in. "If you were, you'd help us."
"This is above my level. And I am sorry, because your father was a good friend of mine."
"Don't you mean is a good friend?" Alex asked.
"The last time we spoke, you neglected to mention that my father was alive. How could you make me think I was responsible for his death?"
Daniel tipped his head in apology. "I wanted you to realize this was serious business. It was a miscalculation."
Julia couldn't believe the coolness of his tone or his words. "A miscalculation? Don't you have any feelings at all?"
"In my business, feelings get you killed."
"Apparently it's not all that difficult to be reborn again," Alex said sarcastically. "My father did it. Sarah did it. Did you set up her death, too? Were you the one who called her parents and told them she'd died in a fire?"
"I had nothing to do with Sarah."
Brady sounded sincere, but Julia wasn't sure she could believe him. He obviously made a living with his lies and his secrets.
"Take the envelope," Brady said, holding it out to Julia. "Take yourself out of the line of fire."
Julia thought about doing exactly what he asked. Wouldn't it be easier to end it now before someone else got hurt, maybe someone she loved? Then again, she'd lived her whole life looking the other w
ay and not asking questions. She didn't want to spend the rest of her days doing the same thing. "I can't," she said.
"You're making a mistake."
"At least it will be mine to make. Everyone else has had their turn."
Brady turned to Alex. "Can't you talk some sense. into her?"
"I think she's making perfect sense."
Brady held up his hands in surrender. "All right. But if you change your mind, you'll have this. Take it."
He pushed the envelope into her hand, and she thought about what it contained. She glanced at Alex, having second thoughts. "Do you think I'm putting my family in danger?"
He met her gaze with clear, honest eyes. "You might be, but it's your call."
"I guess I should think about it."
"We've got a long a drive home."
"Where did he go?" Julia asked, suddenly aware that Brady had disappeared from the house.
"I have no idea. He truly is a spook." Alex took one last look around the house. "I wonder how long my dad lived here."
"I hope someday you can ask him."
"I'm not counting on it."
As they left the house, there was no sign of the Explorer or Brady as they got into Alex's car. Alex started the engine, then moved to release the emergency brake between them.
"What's this?" he muttered. He pulled out a folded slip of paper that had been tucked under the brake and opened it. "Meet me at Pirate's Cove Cafe, Marine World, four o'clock," he read aloud.
"Meet who?" Julia asked.
"It doesn't say." Alex's gaze met hers. "It couldn't be Brady. He was just here. I think he said everything he had to say."
"Who else could it be?"
"I'd say it's a fifty-fifty chance it's either the men in the Explorer or my father. I'm not sure who I'd rather see."
"Why would someone want to meet at Marine World?" Julia asked as they pulled into the parking lot of the amusement park near Napa.
Alex considered her question as he surveyed the parking lot, which was crowded even for a Thursday. "Lots of people, neutral location, good place to blend into a crowd, and even if someone is following us right now, they wouldn't expect we'd be meeting someone here."
Julia appeared impressed by his deductive reasoning. "You sound like you've been involved in clandestine meetings before."
"Believe me, I've never done anything like this," he said dryly. And that included getting personally and emotionally involved with a woman he'd spent the night with. He'd managed to keep sex casual and easy the past decade, but there was nothing casual or easy about his relationship with Julia, and it was getting more complicated by the second. Maybe when they stopped living out of each other's pockets, he'd be able to get his feelings for her back into perspective.
"Do you like roller coasters?" Julia asked as they approached the main entrance. A monster roller coaster with three wild, curving loops was just off to the right, and they could hear the screams coming from the cars hurtling down the first drop.
"I haven't been on one in years. What about you?"
"I love them," she said with a smile, "and I haven't been on one in years, either. We should take a ride while we're here. I could use a good scream right about now. Get out all my frustration." She cast him a quick look. "I really thought your dad would be at the house and he'd tell us everything we wanted to know."
"It's my fault. We shouldn't have left yesterday. I was just so pissed off, I couldn't think straight."
"I know, and I completely understood why you had to get out of there."
Alex bought their admission tickets, and they strolled into the park, stopping at an information sign to check the location of the Pirate's Cove Cafe. When he saw the skull and crossbones next to the name, a funny feeling swept over him, a vague, distant memory teasing the back of his brain. He'd been only five or six, and his dad had taken him to Disneyland for his birthday. They'd ridden on Pirates of the Caribbean, and he'd loved the waterfall drops. He'd made his dad take him on the ride three times in a row. He hadn't wanted that day to end, but it had. And the next day his father had left for another business trip. It was a month before they saw each other again.
It had been hard, he realized, all the times apart, and even more difficult for his mother. She used to cry when his dad left. He'd forgotten that—until now.
"I think it's this way," Julia said, tugging his arm. "Is something wrong?"
He shrugged off the memories. "No, everything is—"
"Fine," she finished with a smile. "Your favorite word and always a lie."
"Hey, a little while ago you said I was the most honest man you knew."
"Not when it comes to yourself. You never let on how you're feeling."
He flashed her a smile. "I think you figured me out pretty well last night and this morning."
A warm blush spread across her cheeks, and it made his smile widen. She was so beautiful and sexy, and yet there was also an appealing innocence about her. It was a potent combination and one he probably should have resisted.
"Let's keep our minds on the present," Julia said.
"That's fine with me."
"Yeah, I know," she said with a laugh. "Pirate's Cove is over there."
Alex let her lead the way, enjoying the view from behind. Julia wore tight blue jeans and a clingy camisole top that left her shoulders bare. Her blond hair danced around her shoulders with each step. He had to stick his hands into his pockets to stop himself from reaching for her. He had the insane desire to hold her hand or put his arm around her, and that kind of casual affection had never been part of his life.
"There it is," she said, pointing to a wooden shack with a skull and crossbones painted across the front and a dozen tables with umbrellas set amidst thick green plants and a dark pool of water that was probably supposed to be the cove part of Pirate's Cove.
Only a few of the tables were taken, and those were occupied by families and small children. Alex glanced down at his watch. It was only three thirty. They had a good half hour to wait. "We're early," he said. "Or else they're watching us from somewhere else."
"That's a creepy thought." She took a step closer to him as she looked around the area. "I don't see anyone suspicious."
"Neither do I." He paused. "I have an idea. While we're waiting, why don't we take one of those scream-inducing rides you love?"
Her eyes sparkled. "Really? Do you think we should?"
"Why not? Why should we sit here and wait? Let'em wait for us."
"Okay. Which coaster do you want to ride?"
"How about that one?" he said, tipping his head toward a square box that rose about six stories, then dropped at breath-stopping speed to the ground.
"That looks fairly terrifying," she said, adding with a teasing smile, "You won't be scared, will you?"
"Not if you hold my hand," he joked.
She pulled his hand out of his pocket and gave it a squeeze. "I'd be happy to."
Her warm touch gave him chills, and suddenly he wasn't afraid of falling six stories, but of falling in love. There was no way he could let that happen. He didn't know what love was really all about, and he didn't believe he would be good at it. Just like his father, he'd always be leaving, always be saying good bye. It wouldn't be fair to put any woman or kid through that. But right now they were just taking a ride. He could handle a ride. It had a beginning, a middle, and an end. When it was over, it was over.
They waited in line for fifteen minutes before they were strapped into the elevator car that would rise to the top, then shoot to the ground. Alex felt a tingle of nerves as they rose, the ground getting smaller, the view getting bigger. He glanced over at Julia, who stood next to him, her fingers white as she gripped the poles holding her in. She looked scared but brave, which was pretty much the way he'd seen her every day this week; only this time the fear was simple and specific, not vague and complicated.
The car hit the top with a jarring thud, probably designed to give their hearts a jump start on the
thrill ride. A second later they were diving toward the ground. Julia's scream rang through his ears, and he found himself joining in. They landed with a soft, gentle thud that seemed completely out of sync with the breath-stealing pace of the ride.
"Oh, my God," Julia said. "I think my stomach is still up there."
"Mine, too," he admitted with a laugh as they exited the car. "But that was great."
"Did you love it?"
"I did." And before he could analyze his thoughts or his actions, he leaned over and claimed her mouth with his, tasting her excitement.
"What was that for?" she asked, looking a bit dazed when they broke apart.
"No reason. Except you look like a bottle of sparkling champagne right now, and I wanted to take a sip." She licked her lips, and he shook his head. "Don't be doing that or I won't be held responsible for my actions."
"Maybe I don't want you to be responsible."
He raised an eyebrow. "That sounds like an invitation. Too bad we're in the middle of an amusement park."
She tossed her hair with a laugh. "I know. Now you have something to look forward to."
Her words made him think about the coming night, and the next day, and the one after, but he didn't want to plan that far into the future. "Yeah, that's great," he said. "We better go back to the Pirate's Cove."
"What did I say?" She grabbed his arm, stopping him in his tracks.
"Nothing."
"No, I said something that made you freak out a little."
"I have a lot on my mind," he said. "Don't be so sensitive."
"Yeah, I was going to say the same thing to you." She paused, tilting her head as she looked at him. "I get it, you know, Alex. Last night was not the beginning of something for you. It was just a night. Maybe that's all we'll have together, maybe not. I'm not going to tie you down, make you promise to stand by me forever, just because we slept together. But I'm also not going to watch everything I say."
"I am not freaking out. I am calm. I am fine." He heard her sigh at the word. "Well, I am. So let's get on with it."
"Fine," she said, the smile returning to her face. She waved her hand toward the cove. "After you."
Alex's nerves began to tighten as they neared Pirate's Cove. He wondered who would be waiting for them. Would it be his father or someone else?
Don't Say a Word Page 25