The Lady Vanishes

by Nicole Camden

  SITTING IN HIS LIBRARY, the fire in the hearth cold and his coffee untouched on his desk, Milton stared into space. He didn’t know what he’d expected. Maybe not an “I love you” in return, but something more than the simple “I know” that she’d replied. Then she’d gotten up and gone to the bathroom to clean up. What was he supposed to do with that? Granted, telling a woman “I love you” after phenomenal sex was perhaps not the most romantic way to go about it, but he hadn’t been able to stop himself.

  She’d seemed upset when he put her in the limo to go home and change before work, and she’d kissed him, but her face had been pale. She was worried.

  Why wouldn’t she just admit that she cared about him, at least? He knew she wasn’t indifferent. She wasn’t the type to let a man spank her with his belt unless she cared for him. Stubborn. She was so goddamn stubborn. They were supposed to rehearse the entire show today, Regina included. Nick had arranged for the vanishing lady device to be delivered to the hospital from Milton’s attic, and they were going to run through the show with all of the kids. He had a feeling she was going to try and wiggle out of it now.

  With a scowl, Milton opened his email. He had several from Blake with questions about the rehearsal today, one from his mother with a recipe for clam chowder—like he cooked—and two regarding the capture of Carter Burke. All the arrangements had been made; all they needed was his go-ahead. Once Carter Burke was on U.S. soil, the marshals service would be at the airport to collect him. They hadn’t asked too many questions about the how. The email had come in around midnight, just as he was fucking up royally by telling the woman of his dreams that he loved her.

  Damn Carter Burke. That selfish asshole had destroyed her life, and used Milton’s encryption software to do it. In the rational part of his brain, Milton knew that Carter Burke had nothing to do with Regina not telling him she loved him. But the primitive part, the part that had thought magic tricks could save his brother, the part that wanted to go upstairs, tie her to the bed, and fuck her until she admitted she loved him, thought that screwing the man over sounded like a fine idea.

  Maybe when her father finally faced justice, Regina could put all this crap behind her.

  With a feverish intensity that walked the fine line of insanity, Milton began bringing about the destruction of Carter Burke.

  THERE WAS A SORE SPOT on Regina’s lip from nervous chewing, and she was having trouble focusing on her patients, not a problem she’d had in her nearly six years of practicing medicine.

  “I’m sorry, Saint George. What did you say?”

  “I said, when is Shaw the Magician getting here?”

  “I’m not sure, but I think in a half hour or so, around lunchtime,” she murmured. She was supposed to rehearse with them today. She’d heard from the nurses that Nick Cord had arrived with a delivery truck. “How are you feeling?”

  It had been a few days since his latest round of chemo, and he looked a little more alert than he had earlier in the week, his cheeks not quite so pale.

  “Okay, I guess.”

  “You feeling up to rehearsing today? I’m sure Shaw will understand if you need some more time. We have all next week to practice.”

  “I’ll be okay,” he assured her. “Will you tell me when he gets here?”

  Regina nodded. “You got it, Saint George.”

  She left the room and walked over to the nurses’ station to find out if one of her patients had been taken for an MRI. Milton was there, not wearing his usual mask, talking to Jackie Keen. When he saw her, his eyebrows snapped together, and he marched toward her with a deadly grace that had her backing up quickly.

  She stopped when she realized what she was doing, but before she could say anything, he’d seized her and kissed her fiercely. He kept kissing her, his lips holding hers, until she went limp in his arms. Distantly she heard clapping, and someone shouted, “I told you she wasn’t into women. You owe me twenty.”

  He released her just as suddenly, gave her a good glare, and stalked off in the direction of the entertainment room.

  Regina licked her lips, shell-shocked, and looked around at the nurses and doctors gathered about.

  Scowling just as Milton had, she snapped at them, “Don’t you people have work to do?” She headed for her office, needing a few minutes to gather herself before she went to find and talk to Milton. This couldn’t go on.

  Behind her, she heard Jackie say, “Man can kiss. Gotta give him that.”

  There was a chorus of agreement that had Regina grinding her teeth.

  A few minutes later, she found him in the entertainment room with Nick and Blake, helping to set up the vanishing lady device on the stage in the entertainment room. Someone had hung thick velvet curtains on the side, as if it were a real production theater.

  She walked up to where the two men were examining their creation, which appeared to have been unloaded from a large wooden crate. Milton pressed some kind of remote in his hand and the screen on the front came to life, showing the inside of the machine.

  “Hey, Regina,” Blake greeted her as she approached, her arms full of what looked like nets covered in leaves.

  “Hey, Blake,” Regina replied but kept moving toward the stage. Milton had turned around and seen her at the sound of Blake’s voice, but he’d gone back to helping Nick with an irritated mutter.

  “Milton,” Regina called up to him. “I need to talk to you. Please.”

  “Maybe later,” he said curtly, his voice lacking its usual warmth. “Nick and I are busy.”

  Nick shook his head. “The woman’s a doctor. We’re not that busy.” He stepped away from Milton and the machine and hopped down from the stage, taking Blake’s elbow as he did. “Come on, let’s go grab some ice for the coolers.”

  Once they were alone, Regina clambered over the edge of the stage rather than using the ramp, not wanting to give him a chance to get away from her. He helped her up—reluctantly, if his face were any indication, but he helped her.

  “Nick has a point. Shouldn’t you be working?”

  “I took a break,” she muttered. Hell yes, she needed to be working, but she couldn’t do that until she talked to him—not effectively, anyway.

  “Good. Get in,” he said, opening the door to the machine.

  “Not now. I’ll be here later, just as I promised. I just want to talk to you.”

  “Done talking.”

  “Don’t act like a child,” she snapped at him, lifting her chin. “You surprised me last night. I wasn’t ready to hear that from you.”

  His jaw clenched. “You said ‘I know.’ I don’t want your pity.”

  “I don’t pity you.” She stepped closer, putting a hand to his cheek, letting him see the warmth of desire in her eyes. “The last thing I feel for you is pity,” she murmured. She’d hurt him, she knew, and she’d never wanted to hurt him. The thought made her heart ache with loss. He was so precious, so much a presence in her life. Even though she’d only known him two weeks, she was startled to realize that there would be a hole if he left, a space in her life that would taste bitter and cold compared to the joy of being with him.

  “I’ll go with you tomorrow to the banquet,” she said before she thought. It wasn’t “I love you.” She wasn’t ready yet for that—they’d only known each other two weeks—but Rose-Lindsey was right, she couldn’t keep behaving like a coward. She would go out with him in truth, and if there was flak from the public, she would handle it, as she’d handled everything in her life.

  His eyes widened, and he held himself very still.

  “Milton, please.” She hugged him, pressing her head against his chest. “I’m willing to give this a chance, all right?”

  After a long moment, his arms wrapped around her. He dropped a kiss to the top of her head. “There you go using my name again.”

  MILTON WAS PLEASED with how the r
ehearsals were going. The kids were busy practicing their tricks and pretending to hit each other with the swords—well, most of them were pretending. Saint George had been wheeled in on his hospital bed, a compromise between him and his mother, and was practicing his trick as best he could sitting up.

  “That’s it.” Milton watched as the boy made the small toy dragon seem to disappear. “Saint George, you’re doing great. You’re a natural. I should introduce you to my friend, Roland.”

  “God help us,” Nick muttered from nearby. “One Roland in the world is enough.”

  Milton nodded, but couldn’t quite chuckle. Though his mood was vastly improved by Regina’s visit earlier, he still had a tight, anxious feeling in his chest. She hadn’t returned to rehearsal yet, but he knew she’d be there soon. He wanted to forget all of this—the show, her job—and take her away somewhere and keep her all to himself. The irony did not escape him. The moment she agreed to actually see him in public, he wanted to drag her away. Partly to protect her, but partly because he was afraid she was going to change her mind. Not a logical feeling, but one that had him agitated nonetheless.

  He ignored it, helping the kids with their lines and their tricks—they hadn’t practiced in their costumes yet, and some of them were having difficulty adjusting to the extra clothes as they performed their tricks. Still, he was glad that he’d had them learn something rather than just performing for them. Everyone worked hard to make sure they were entertained as they suffered here in the hospital, but he liked making them feel powerful, like they could do something special.

  When she arrived, dressed in scrubs with a crown on her head, his heart thudded as painfully in his chest as it had last night when she walked down the stairs.

  “Dr. Burke,” the kids shouted. “Your machine is here!”

  “I know,” she said, smiling. “You guys ready to make me disappear?”

  There were several shouts of “yes,” the loudest from Chuck. She ruffled his sandy hair as she walked by.

  “What did I ever do to you, kid?” She smiled at him.

  He grinned, showing off crooked teeth. “Nothing. You were just the one that told me I have cancer.”

  Regina blinked, looking a little stunned, but she nodded gamely. “Makes sense.”

  She climbed on stage and walked over to where Milton was standing next to the machine, her eyes a little wary as she approached. He smiled at her and held out a length of rope. “Ready to get tied up and forced to your doom?”

  “Oh, by all means,” she said drily, and held out her hands.

  The kids gathered around, eager to watch as Milton began to tie the intricate knot around her wrists. As he did, he noticed she was wearing one of the flowers he’d given her pinned to her shirt. He fought the urge to tell her he loved her again.

  Nick, standing next to Chuck, pointed at Milton’s handiwork. “See that tail, there?”

  Chuck, concentrating fiercely, nodded his head. “It’ll unravel when she pulls it?”

  Nick nodded. “The idea is to make it look complicated and difficult.”

  Regina avoided Milton’s eyes as he secured her wrists. He knew why. This was a little too close to the games they played when they were alone together; they’d spent too much time tied and naked for the feel of the ropes on her wrists to be anything but an aphrodisiac.

  He stood and took a step back, admiring the way she looked, tied up in a crown with a patient expression of her face.

  “All right, kids,” he called, “force her into the machine.”

  They held up their fake swords and charged at her, making her eyes widen, and she took a step back.

  He caught her elbow, making sure she didn’t fall, and opened the glass door, assisting her as she turned and stepped inside. The glass seemed to show the back of her as she went in and then turned around, looking at the audience. He made a show of closing the door, knowing that inside she’d already flattened herself against one side of the machine. The glass continued to show her standing, though, managing to look worried even though her eyes were smiling. They’d recorded it after they’d finished playing with the sex swing, so she looked a little sweaty, but not too bad.

  “Ready, kids? The magic words.”

  They all shouted at the same time, some of them already laughing: “Hospitals stink!”

  With a wave of his hand—and a press of the remote carefully concealed near his wrist, Regina suddenly vanished inside the machine.

  The kids cheered. Milton even opened the glass door, showing them that it was empty. However, when Chuck stuck his head inside to take a closer look, Regina, who’d flattened herself against the side wall, jumped at him, scaring him backward and making all the kids laugh.

  She stepped out of the machine with the unraveled length of rope in her hands. “Gotcha,” she said simply, and the kids giggled.

  “Great job, guys,” Blake called from below the stage. “Who wants a snack?”

  Everyone did apparently, except Saint George. Regina walked down the ramp to check on him, looking ridiculously competent as she spoke to his nurse, even wearing a crown.

  Nick came up next to him, his voice low enough to keep from carrying across the room. “You okay?”

  Milton didn’t know how to describe how he felt—he’d never been good at handling emotions, anyway. But the closest he could come was a combination of the exhilaration he felt when he mastered a new trick, and the constant nagging worry that somehow it wasn’t enough, that nothing he did would be enough to keep her with him.

  “You love her, don’t you?” Nick asked, his voice softer than Milton had ever heard.

  “Yeah.” Milton nodded. “I’m totally fucked.”

  “Yep,” Nick agreed and rocked back on his heels. “Totally fucked.”

  REGINA DRESSED FOR THE BANQUET at her own apartment, not wanting Milton to see how nervous she was at the idea of going out in public as his date. She was ready for this—she was—but it still wasn’t a comfortable feeling.

  “You look great,” Celeste commented from Regina’s bedroom door. Celeste was dressed as well, in a sleek black dress and four-inch heels. She had an event she was coordinating at the hotel tonight.

  Regina was wearing a dress she’d purchased for herself that morning, wanting to surprise Milton. Made of black velvet, the dress had a molded bodice that showed off the top of her breasts and hugged her waist before draping down in a graceful sweep to her ankles. She wore black lingerie and garters beneath the outfit, a gift from Milton that she’d yet to wear for him.

  “Can you help me with these?” Regina held up the pearls.

  Celeste nodded and motioned for Regina to turn around. “He give you these?” Celeste asked curiously as she hooked the lobster clasp with the efficiency of someone who’d played with jewelry long before she’d played with dolls.

  Touching the pearls with the tips of her fingers, Regina sighed, remembering other pearls. “He did.”

  “Turn around,” Celeste ordered.

  Regina did, turning around and waiting for the verdict.

  “You look amazing,” her little sister said without hesitation. “He’s good for you.”

  “I know,” Regina agreed. She raised an eyebrow at Celeste. “Just like the professor seems to be good for you. You ever going to tell me how that happened?”

  Celeste hadn’t been home that often the past week, spending time with Corbin at his house.

  Shrugging, Celeste sat on Regina’s bed. “He just kept calling me. He didn’t ask me out right away, though it was obvious he liked me. I met him for coffee, just to be nice, but it was actually really fun. He can kiss,” she added, almost as an afterthought.

  Regina grinned. “Yeah, that’s what got me with Milton. The man kisses like he performs his tricks, with this utter concentration that just sucks you in.”

  “Milton looks l
ike he probably studied people kissing until he’d figured out the technique. No offense, but the man has some intense focus.”

  “This is true.”

  Celeste plucked at Regina’s quilt with the tips of her bright red nails. “There will be cameras at this banquet tonight. You know there will be talk about Father.”

  Regina nodded. “Yes, but not much. He’s been gone a long time. After a little while, the fact that I’m Carter Burke’s daughter will be old news.”

  “You’re nervous.”

  Regina nodded. “I worked so hard to give us a normal life.”

  Celeste shrugged delicately. “Fuck it. Normal is for other people.”

  Bending to give her sister a hug, Regina rolled her eyes. “You have such a way with words, Celeste. I’ll see you tomorrow.”

  “See you tomorrow, sister.”

  The limo was crowded when Regina ducked inside. Roland and his date, a stunning blonde, sat just behind Shane, and, to Regina’s surprise, Nick and a delicate Asian woman sat on the left bank of seats. For some reason, she’d assumed Nick would bring Blake.

  No one appeared to be particularly comfortable except the blonde, who was holding a glass of champagne and twining herself against Roland’s side.

  Milton settled in next to Regina and took her hand. He seemed slightly nervous, like there was something bothering him. She’d thought the same thing when she’d gone home with him last night. He’d been jittery, like he wanted to tell her something, and he hadn’t brought out a single sex toy. Instead, he’d kissed her fiercely and carried her to bed, making love to her with his lips and teeth and fingers until the sheets had been a tangled mess, and she’d felt as wrung out as a washrag.

  Whatever was bothering him made her even more agitated than she’d been already, but she told herself she was being ridiculous.

  They made small talk as they rode, though Roland carried most of the conversation until they arrived at the Citi Performing Arts Center, and waited in the line of other limousines to be dropped off at the front entrance. She and Milton stepped out first, followed by the rest, and they were all escorted together inside an enormous banquet hall that had been decorated as lavishly as a wedding.