“I—I think I warned her not to listen to any gossip about your leaving New York because of her.”
Covering the mouthpiece he whispered to Brit, “Is that what she told you?”
After a second, Brit nodded before averting her eyes.
“Anything else, Jeannie?”
“No.” She hesitated. “Oh... I don’t know. I was just so excited to think you two were married, I was babbling.”
“That’s okay. You’ve told me enough.”
“I’m sorry if I’ve caused you any problem.”
“You haven’t. I just needed confirmation. Thanks, Jeannie. I’ll call soon.”
“Roman—Please forgive me if I said or did anything wrong. You know how much I love you and want your happiness.”
“I do, Jeannie. I love you, too. Say hi to Yuri. I’ll call soon.”
“Please do.”
He clicked off and undid the cord, fastening the cover back in place. Then he took the receiver from Brit and hung it up.
“She was right, you know. If we had been married and you had heard gossip about me and Angela, that’s all it would have been. Gossip.”
That comment brought her head back up. “She said other things, Roman.”
“Jeannie admitted that she did. What else? That she married my best friend, Frank?”
If anything, Brit’s face went a little paler. “No. Frank’s name wasn’t mentioned. She said your brother supported you in your decision to move to Utah because he knew what you were up against.”
Roman was thinking hard... “So you assumed from everything Jeannie said that I left New York with a broken heart because the woman I loved married my best friend.”
Brit’s eyes were half-veiled. “Did you love her?”
“Yes.”
She didn’t move, but her eyes darkened. “Did you leave because it was too painful to be around them?”
“No. But that’s what everyone else thought, even my brother.”
“Are you still in love with her?”
“No.”
“Why did you break up?”
“Because I wasn’t in love with her.”
A frown marred her delicate brows. “But you just said you loved her!”
“There are many degrees of love, as you know. Being in love is a completely different proposition.” He could hear her mind turning everything over.
“I-if it wasn’t because of Angela, why did you uproot yourself from family and friends to live in another part of the country where you would have to start all over again?
“I know how much you love your brother. Jeannie said it almost killed him when you left.”
He put his hands on his hips. “My sister-in-law really did babble.”
Brit ignored the comment. “You’re not a cruel person, Roman, so it doesn’t make any sense.”
“It did at the time.”
“But you’re not going to tell me the reason for the move, or where you spent the last ten days.”
“If I told you that neither has anything to do with another woman, what would you say?”
She searched his eyes. “I’d say you’re entitled to your secrets. They have nothing to do with me.”
“But they do, more than you think.”
“Roman—” She let out a sigh. “You’re being cryptic and I don’t understand you. Please. I—I think you’d better go.”
Anger and frustration warred for supremacy. “Why? You don’t want me to.”
“Actually I do. You’re a fascinating man and I admit I’m attracted to you, but I can’t handle secrets. When I came to you as a client, I told you everything important about myself. I had to, so you could protect me.
“But you didn’t have to tell me anything. All I needed to know were your credentials listed in the Yellow Pages. A man who has been where you’ve been, and has done the things you’ve done, naturally has a past. I don’t even know how old you are and—”
“Thirty-eight—” he rapped out.
She was retreating further and further from him, like a drowning victim going down for the third time and he couldn’t reach her.
“Please don’t misunderstand me, Roman. I don’t mean to sound critical or jealous. But you admit you’re holding something back. The fact that it doesn’t have anything to do with a woman makes me even more nervous.”
Roman couldn’t believe what he was hearing. “Go on.”
“Something tells me you’re involved in matters that I don’t even want to know about.”
I was right about you, Brit. You have razor-sharp instincts.
“What has made you come to a conclusion like that?”
“For one thing, the first night you came over to my condo, you told me information about Glen Baird that the investigating officer and Lieutenant Parker said might take weeks to investigate.
“But you had all those details at your fingertips within a matter of two hours or less! No ordinary P.I. would have that kind of information, even if you had worked for the New York City Police Department.”
The hairs were standing on the back of his neck. “What are you getting at, Brit?”
She stared at him through wounded eyes. “Just that you seem to have amazing connections at your fingertips. Too amazing, unless you’re an undercover agent of some kind. And if that’s the case, I don’t want anything more to do with you.”
Her words chilled him.
“You have an extraordinary imagination.”
She shook her head, her features looking chiseled. “You see? Your conversation isn’t even normal. You’re a professional at something. I have no idea what, but you’re simply too good at what you do for your talents to be wasted in Salt Lake.
“In all probability you had to move from New York because of some top secret reason, so you were planted in Utah.”
Roman smiled, astounded that she had devined so much about him with that intelligent brain of hers and didn’t even know it. “I think you missed your calling as a spy novelist.”
“If so, then you’re providing the copy,” she fired back. “It’s been in all the papers about the way you commandeered the stakeout of the Moffat brothers in Nevada.
“But it wouldn’t surprise me if you were involved in training those Afghan freedom fighters out in the Nevada west desert!”
How did she know about that?
“I happened to come across an article about it from a speech made at one of those political luncheons which had been put on the Internet.” She read his mind, obviously too keyed up to stop talking. “Apparently some Green Berets were involved.”
“Green Beret?” he mocked, his heart pounding too fast.
“Yuri told me all about your exploits so don’t attempt to deny it.”
“Have I said anything?”
“No,” she retorted, the color in her face intensifying. “You never do. You let people say whatever they want about you, make assumptions about you, and you never bother to defend yourself one way or the other.
“Only someone highly trained for covert operations learns to dissemble the way you do.”
He almost choked. “Covert is an interesting choice of words.”
“It’s an ugly word, one I hate.”
For the most part, so do I, darling. That’s why I got out.
“Have you finished writing my obituary?” he quipped, attempting to inject a little levity into a conversation that was starting to chew him to pieces.
“You can make light of this all you want, Roman, but it’s obvious that’s what you are. Otherwise you would be married by now. You’re not that different from your brother.”
“That’s a real compliment, Brit. I love him.”
She nodded. “I noticed. They were both so disappointed when I told them we weren’t married, you would have thought they were attending a funeral. It’s what I thought when I witnessed their reaction.”
Roman could just imagine.
“Tell me something, Brit. I’m curious. When did you
start thinking all these incredible things about me?”
“Incredible, but true, Roman,” she persisted. “I don’t know. Maybe when I saw that picture of you on the mantel in karate gear. You were a little old to be training for a black belt unless you had intentions of actually incorporating it into a hidden lifestyle.”
“That fertile mind of yours knows no bounds.” It’s one of the things I love about you, Brit.
“Maybe you tipped me off when you told me about the family business, or possibly when you said you were the black sheep. The more I think about it, you’ve been dropping clues all over the place. But I was too focused on my fear to pick up on everything until now.”
“And your conclusion?”
Her chin lifted. “There’s no man to compare to you, but I’d rather give up men altogether than contemplate a relationship with you.”
When she meant business, she went for the jugular.
“Assuming that what you’ve been thinking was true, which I’m not admitting or denying, am I so hateful?”
“Of course not, or I wouldn’t be standing here having this conversation with you,” she bit out heatedly. “But what you do is hateful because you don’t live a real life. One would never know at any given time whether you were playing a role, or being yourself. I would imagine that you yourself get confused sometimes.”
You imagine correctly, my love.
“Every time you had to leave me to take a phone call, or get in the car, or take a plane, I would never know where you were really going, what you were really doing. Your friends could be your friends, or they could be other operatives. You could be in danger, killed, eliminated, and I wouldn’t have a clue.
“There’d be some trumped-up story about what happened to you. An accident. The whole thing would be covered up as if it had never been.”
The pit in his stomach was enlarging. “So marriage to such a person would be out of the question.”
She shivered visibly, wounding him all over again.
“Marriage implies home and family,” she said woodenly. “I wouldn’t dream of bringing a child into the world under those circumstances. For one thing, if your cover were ever blown, someone could come after your family in retaliation. My child could be snuffed out or kidnapped—” Another visible shudder passed through her beautiful body.
Exactly my reasons for never taking a wife, besides the fact that I never did meet a woman I wanted as much as I want you, Brit Langford. Whether you say so or not, I’m going to have you.
He lounged against the counter, crossing his legs at the ankles and folding his arms. “Well, now that you have that all worked out in your mind, it appears you wouldn’t marry me or even consider having a long-term relationship. So how about spending the night with me.”
“No thanks, James. Try Ms. Moneypenney. Make all her dreams come true, instead.”
He flashed her a smile. “Ms. Moneypenney’s mind doesn’t intrigue me as much as yours.”
She glared at him. “I would be out of my mind to consider a one-night stand with you.”
“Not even if I beg?”
“That doesn’t deserve an answer.”
“Whatever happened to the client who said she’d never be able to repay me for all I did for her,” he baited mercilessly.
Her eyes glittered dangerously. “Am I to presume that you’ll take what you want because you have all the power on your side?”
Roman felt her question like a bullet wound to the heart. “You honestly think I’d do that to you?” he ground out with barely controlled fury.
She stood her ground, not flinching. “I don’t know, do I? You had me tailed tonight. You let yourself in my condo without permission. You possess every gadget to monitor my comings and goings, listen to my phone conversations. You carry a weapon and know moves they taught you in the Marines that would prevent any pitiful defense of mine. No doubt you have keys to the front and back door as well as my car.
“No one would question your right to do as you please around here because everyone thinks we’re still married. I’m well and truly caught in your grasp, if that’s your intention.”
The scenario she was painting made his blood chill because in theory, she was right. An unscrupulous monster might take advantage of her, given her beauty and vulnerability.
“I think you’ve been watching too many spy videos.”
She rubbed her palms against her hips in an unconscious gesture.
“I think you’d better go.”
“After a character assassination like that, I’m surprised you bothered to make the suggestion.”
“So am I,” she whispered brokenly. “Please, Roman. Just leave.”
He straightened to his full height. “Before I go, let me leave you with a couple of thoughts. First and foremost, I’m in love with you, the only contingency your overactive imagination didn’t think of.”
She stared back at him with a stunned expression. Good.
“Second of all, you have nothing more to fear from me. I left all keys on the table next to our picture by your bed. I’ve debugged the condo. There’s nothing left to show that we ever knew each other, except for Clouseau, of course.
“When I walk out this door, you’re on your own. I suggest you hire someone to make your place burglar proof, but that’s up to you. What surprises me is that with a creative mind like yours, you didn’t see to it when you first moved in. Take care, Brit. See you in the movies.”
I’m giving you twelve hours to come to your senses. If I haven’t heard from you by then, I guess I’ll have to talk to someone higher up so I can make my final and permanent move into your life.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
C AND G Surveillance Products turned out to be an enormous building with so much inventory, Brit was staggered. It was like being lost in the British Museum or something.
“May I help you?”
Brit jerked around anxiously. “I hope so. I’m here to see Mr. Lufkilovich.”
“I’m sorry. He took a late lunch and probably won’t be back for a while.”
“If it’s all right, I’ll wait.”
“Of course.”
Brit turned from the counter displaying all the latest locksmithing tools and wandered over to a shelf loaded with transmitter detectors and sound amplifiers.
The need to discuss everything with the person closest to Roman had driven Brit to take a morning flight to New York.
After that desolating moment when Roman walked out her door last night, she’d been on the phone in tears for a good portion of the early hours with Denise. After discussing everything, Denise agreed that Brit needed answers only Yuri could furnish.
Since Brit was out of money until payday, Denise offered to put the airline reservation on her credit card. Like the good friend she was, she also drove her to the Salt Lake airport.
It had been a mad scramble to get ready, to call Mr. Dunlop’s answering machine and inform him that she’d had to go out of town for a few days on an emergency. Denise volunteered to tell Brit’s parents that she’d be away from the office, but would call them at the first opportunity.
Adrenaline had been surging through her veins since her plane had arrived at Kennedy. Coupled with no sleep, she was a mass of nerves and looked worse, all puffy-eyed and drawn.
If she was wrong about Roman, then she didn’t know how he could possibly forgive her for the things she’d said, practically accusing him of being dishonorable when he’d been the epitome of everything she’d ever considered decent and essential in a real man.
He’d told her he was in love with her!
Those were the happiest words she’d ever heard. But if she was right and he led a double life, how could they possibly have a future together?
“Mr. Lufkilovich is back from lunch. Whom shall I tell him is waiting?”
Brit wheeled around to face the female clerk. “Brit Langford.”
She watched the middle-aged woman speak into the phone before motioni
ng to Brit to go through the double doors at the end of the store.
After thanking her, Brit headed for her destination, but she didn’t have far to go because Yuri suddenly appeared with a beaming smile on his handsome face.
He gave her an affectionate, heartfelt hug. “I thought maybe I was hearing things when Cybil told me you were out here waiting. Where’s Roman? I have a thing or two to discuss with my little brother.”
“H-he didn’t come,” she stammered. “In fact, he has no idea I’m here and I’m going to beg you not to tell him.”
Like before in Roman’s living room, she watched his smile vanish. “Come on in my office and let’s talk. Cybil?” he called out. “Bring my visitor a cola, will you?”
“Sure thing, Yuri.”
There was an understated elegance about Yuri’s office that reminded her very much of Roman’s taste in decor and furnishings. Oddly enough, she felt at home with his brother and knew she could discuss anything with him without him being critical or judgmental.
Once she had a Coke in her hand, and Cybil had shut the door behind her, Yuri sat back in his swivel chair eyeing Brit soberly.
“Something serious has happened, or you wouldn’t be here. How can I help?”
The kindness, the compassion was too much for Brit who broke down sobbing. Yuri immediately supplied her with tissue and hugs until she could get hold of her emotions.
“I f-feel such a fool, Yuri. Please forgive me for doing this.”
“I detect Roman’s handiwork. Tell me what’s been going on.”
“No—you don’t understand. Roman’s been wonderful, and he said h-he was in love with me, and all I did last night was accuse him of being a secret agent.”
A strange quiet ensued, alerting her that maybe she hadn’t been wrong after all.
It was a devastating sensation, as if she were on a downward spiral headed for heartbreak. Not even Yuri could save her.
“Whatever caused you to think that?” he asked in a low voice, reminiscent of his brother’s. If she closed her eyes, it was almost like Roman was in the room.
Brit stared at Yuri for at least a minute.
“Things.”
The one word answer reverberated in the room. Not surprisingly, he didn’t question her further.
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