by Kay Hooper
Raven coughed and looked even more intently at her boots.
Her voice growing even sweeter, Zamara said, “He is a very determined man, my dear, and determined men are dangerous once they’ve set their minds on something—or someone. And, for your information, Martin won’t leave my bed until I say. Wife or mistress, I will control him.”
“Then why worry?” Kyle asked practically.
“I would prefer wife. With you gone, that’s what I’ll be.”
After a moment Kyle said, not without sympathy, “I could give him an heir. You couldn’t. Is that it?”
Zamara stiffened. There was a flash of something in her eyes and then, abruptly, she looked more natural than either of the two women had seen her before. “You’re right. I can’t have children.”
Kyle nodded. “I see. Well, you really don’t have to worry about me. I’m in love, Zamara. Martin could offer me the earth and it wouldn’t make any difference. Luc and I will be leaving first thing Monday morning. As planned.”
Zamara nodded suddenly. “Yes, I see. You really do love your man. It happens. I’ll trust you.”
“Thank you,” Kyle said gravely.
A glint of wicked humor shone in Zamara’s eyes. “There are ways of holding a man to your side, my dear. And since I’ll never have a daughter …” She leaned forward and whispered softly in a startled Kyle’s ear.
Raven, glancing sideways, saw her friend’s eyes widen.
Then, with a laugh and an almost automatic look of spite at Raven, Zamara swept into the house.
“Good heavens,” Kyle said faintly.
Raven was laughing, curious. “What?”
Kyle cleared her throat. “Umm … ask me again sometime, huh? I think I just found out why Martin goes into a daze when she touches him.”
“That’s one secret,” Raven said definitely, “I’m not about to let you keep to yourself.”
Kyle giggled. “Later, all right? I have to make sure it works first.” Then she burst out laughing in earnest.
“He could be here in a few hours,” Josh said neutrally.
Leaning back against the railing of the gazebo, Lucas frowned. “I know. I wonder if it’s necessary, though. We’re getting jumpy, maybe that’s all it is. We have to find that mask, the cache—or both. Nothing says there has to be trouble.”
“But if there is trouble? Kelsey’s damned good, we both know that. Zach would be insurance. We couldn’t risk coming in here with guns and walkie-talkies, so we really don’t have insurance. And if we’re going to search the house tonight, we may well need all the help we can get.”
“Guards patrol after the house is locked up,” Lucas noted.
“Yes. He’ll slip in before.”
Lucas sighed explosively. “I want it to be over. I want that bastard behind bars. The way he looks at Kyle isn’t normal. I could understand if he loved her, but I don’t think he feels any emotion for her at all. He just—thinks. Cold-bloodedly.”
“Raven said something along those lines. It’s worrying her.”
“It’s worrying me too. Kyle made light of it, but I think he scared her out here a little while ago. He told her she’d marry him, then threatened her with disinheritance.”
Josh whistled softly. “Ruthless.”
“I’ll say.”
Calmly Josh said, “Her father won’t do that, you know.”
Lucas looked at him curiously. “Kyle thinks he will.”
Smiling a little, Josh said, “No. He’s of the old guard: Family first and damn everybody else. Disinherit his only child? Terrible scandal. He’d put a good face on it if she married the butler.”
Lucas grinned a little. “Well, she’s marrying me. One step below the butler.”
“Don’t be ridiculous,” Josh said. “You’re going to save his daughter from the consequences of Rome’s folly. You might even get a smile out of him. Congratulations, by the way.”
“Thanks.”
“Shall we go and find our ladies before they give in to their instincts and scratch Zamara’s eyes out?”
“I suppose it would be bad form to let them.”
“Not cricket at all.”
Kelsey sat back and put his binoculars aside. “Lot of meetings going on down there,” he reported into his microphone.
“Meetings between whom?” Hagen asked ominously.
“Kyle and Rome. Kyle and Luc. Josh and Luc. Raven and Kyle. Raven, Kyle, and Zamara.” He paused to reflect for a moment. “You know, they just don’t act like agents.” He put the earpiece back in place when the sputtering had subsided.
“Is anybody working?” Hagen asked.
“Beats the hell out of me. Luc reported in a little while ago, nothing new. Except those fences. Mended, I’d say.”
There was a moment of silence, then Hagen grasped his meaning. “Kendrick and Miss Griffon?”
“Uh-huh. They have that look.”
Hagen sighed. “When does Kendrick check in again?”
“After lunch. We’re all right unless Rome wonders why there’s so much activity in the maze. I suppose he’ll put it down to young love, though.”
“Are they planning to work?”
“The plan is to search the house tonight. I don’t know, though, boss. It’s a pretty slim chance. Big house.”
“It’s all we’ve got. Build a fire under them.”
“They’ll do what they can. You know that.”
“Yes. Report in when you’ve talked to Kendrick again.”
“Aye, aye.”
Kelsey put the headset aside, then picked up the binoculars again and looked at the house. He focused on an upper window, frowning.
Martin Rome was looking down on the terrace where Raven and Kyle sat talking.
Being a good host, Martin Rome had available numerous activities to save his guests from possible boredom. There were horses on the estate. Tennis. A heated pool. Even a small golf course.
Lucas, Kyle, Josh, and Raven went riding, deciding that they might as well go on being a foursome. Several other guests went along, which prevented private discussions.
Lunch was a drawn-out affair with all guests attending, and it was well into the afternoon before Lucas and Kyle could slip away to the maze again for their check-in with Kelsey.
What he had to tell them sent them back to the house in a sober frame of mind. They found a private moment to report to Josh and Raven, sobering them as well.
“He couldn’t have heard anything,” Kyle mused as the four of them stood alone in the trophy room.
Raven bit a knuckle thoughtfully. “Maybe he didn’t have to. Just seeing us with Her Highness may have unsettled him. We have to assume so, anyway, and be on guard.”
Josh looked at Lucas and raised a quizzical brow. “Zach?”
“I think so. Just in case.”
Raven laughed softly. “Good. I’m curious to see if Teddy comes along.”
Lucas sighed as the other two went to use the phone in their bedroom. “Just as well, I suppose. When this gang gets together, things usually happen.”
Taking advantage of the moments alone, Kyle slid her arms around his waist. “What’s this about Teddy coming along?”
“Zach will try to keep her out of this,” Lucas explained. “He doesn’t want her in his kind of jungle.”
Kyle thought about that. “You mean because of the danger?”
“Yes. Zach was born to it. Danger, I mean. And it’s against his very nature to allow someone he loves to follow the same trails. He’s probably pacing like a caged cat right now because he isn’t here watching over Josh. And me.”
“Will Teddy come along?”
“Oh, yes.”
Curiously she said, “You sound certain.”
“I am. Teddy is the only person I’ve ever known who can make Zach act against his own nature anytime she wants. Josh can do it sometimes—but not all the time.”
She smiled up at him. “You’re all very close, aren’t you?”
/> “Well, we’ve been together for years, and in some pretty sticky situations from time to time.” He thought about their relationships, realizing that Kyle wanted to understand, and trying to frame a good explanation. “I guess Josh is our—pivot. And not because he’s the boss. He knows things about all of us that he keeps to himself. For instance, I know he hasn’t told anyone but Raven about that favor he did for me ten years ago.”
“He helped you through that time, didn’t he?”
Lucas brushed a strand of hair back from her face, his fingers lingering to touch her cheek. “Yes, he did. He didn’t ask questions, but he listened when I got drunk one night.” He grinned a little. “He even got drunk along with me. Now that’s friendship.”
Kyle smiled up at him. “I’m glad he was there for you.”
“So am I. If he hadn’t steadied me then, God knows what I would have done.” Lucas drew a deep breath. “And now I’ve got you, love.”
“You certainly have,” she murmured.
EIGHT
KYLE MANAGED TO study the Rome family book several times during the day, disappointed not to find some clue as to where Rome might have hidden the artwork. She found plenty of information, most of it slanted to show the family in a good light no matter what; she found the Rome crest, which was an elaborately ornate R set within a series of double-lined boxes; she even found a motto, or rather a little jingle that one of Martin’s ancestors must have penned and had included in the book.
But nothing about a hidden room or vault.
It was important to Kyle that Lucas’s work here be completed successfully. She believed it was the last remnant of the past that needed to be settled.
But by the time for dinner came that night, they still had come no closer to having any idea where to look. Lucas slipped out to the maze to report a final time to Kelsey that they had no choice but to search tonight, returning to tell the others that Zach and his new wife had indeed arrived. Between them they had decided where best to slip the new arrivals into the house and when.
All they needed was a sleeping household.
The party dragged on. Kyle was at first relieved that Zamara had redoubled her efforts to keep Rome ensnared, staying with him constantly and keeping her hands off other women’s men. But as the night wore on, she began to be uneasy. And she wasn’t the only one.
“Look at him,” Raven murmured at one point. “His eyes are glassy. She’s got him right on the edge.”
“But on the edge of what?” Lucas responded softly. He drew Kyle a bit nearer to his side, worried because that glassy stare occasionally wandered in her direction.
Josh was studying the older man across the room, and his expression was a bit grim. “I don’t know, but I don’t like it. I think it’d be best for all concerned if we get this job wrapped up tonight.”
“You won’t get an argument from me.” Luc checked his watch. “Midnight. The party’s breaking up quickly. Zach and Teddy should be waiting.”
“Meet you in your room,” Josh murmured, and guided his wife off into the dwindling crowd.
Lucas and Kyle also drifted off, leaving the room with the absorbed expressions of lovers with private things to do on their minds. They worked their way toward the far end of the house, moving more quickly when they’d left the guests behind, and slipped down several deserted hallways before entering a small room. It was a parlor-type room, formal, and with the air of being little used. French doors opened out onto the second of the three terraces, this one constructed with a view of the rose garden.
“We can get upstairs to our room from here without being seen?” Lucas asked.
“Servants stairs behind that door over there. They go all the way to the top floor, and there’s a landing almost across from our room.”
“Childhood exploration?” he asked.
Kyle smiled. “Hide-and-seek, when I really didn’t want to be found. It was one of my favorite games. Luc, I know this house pretty well, and I can’t remember a sign of a hidden room or vault. I was a child, of course, but if it was here, I should have found it years ago.”
He nodded. “I know. But we’re running out of options. It’s the only game we’ve got.”
Lucas locked the door leading out into the hallway, and Kyle went to ease open the French doors. She had to open them wider a moment later, amused because no one had thought to tell her that Zach was so big.
Well over six feet of big. He had broad, powerful shoulders that the black of his sweatshirt did nothing to diminish, and it was obvious he had muscles to spare. And no one had to tell Kyle he was a dangerous man. It wasn’t that he tended to fill doorways; it wasn’t even that a wicked scar twisted whitely down his lean cheek. What it was about the man that would frighten even the stouthearted was a palpable aura of leashed power and an atmosphere of cold menace.
He moved like a big cat as he came into the room, as if he walked on dried leaves and wished to be silent. And he would have been silent even with dried leaves underfoot. The dark clothing he wore did absolutely nothing to conceal the danger of him, nor did the calm, almost bland expression on his rugged face or the serene gray eyes.
Born for danger, indeed, Kyle thought.
On the big man’s heels came his new wife, a petite woman somewhere in her twenties with an unruly and beautiful mass of red hair, and the big, soft brown eyes of a doe. She looked delicate and fragile, but her small face was vividly alive, and Kyle thought there was a great deal of strength and spirit beneath that dainty exterior.
Quick introductions were made, and then Kyle was leading them into the stairwell while Lucas unlocked the hallway door and joined them. They found the stairs clear and were soon safely inside Kyle’s room.
“Where’s Josh?” Zach asked immediately, his voice soft and effortless.
“Downstairs,” Lucas reported, loosening his tie. “He and Raven will be up soon.”
Zach made himself comfortable in a large chair, pulling his wife down into his lap and giving her a look that was a somewhat comical mixture of adoration and annoyance.
“Don’t fuss,” she told him severely in a musical voice. “I’m here, and that’s that.”
He grunted. “I know, dammit.”
Lucas went to change into clothing more suitable for skulking, while Kyle softly and rapidly filled the new arrivals in on their progress to date.
Zach nodded when she was finished, then gestured to the walkie-talkie he had set on a table by the chair. “Kelsey has the other. He’s on watch and in touch with Hagen.” He studied Kyle, his gray eyes intent. “You say Rome’s acting strangely?”
Kyle sat down on the foot of the bed and sighed. “You could cut his tension with a knife. It may only be Zamara’s weird control over him, but we’ve all decided that the sooner we’re out of here, the better.”
After a moment Zach said, “I checked out his family. His nephew—you said he was the current heir?”
“According to his will, yes.”
“An interesting young man,” Zach murmured.
“In what way?” Luc asked as he returned to the room wearing dark slacks and a black turtleneck.
Zach’s mild, heavy-lidded eyes continued to study Kyle thoughtfully. “I suppose a polite way to put it is that he’s careless with money. And he’s recently incurred some whopping gambling debts. Big-time bookies. I’d say the young man has the beginning of a serious gambling problem.”
Kyle looked at Luc as he sat down beside her. “Maybe that’s why Martin’s so determined to marry me; he wants another heir. Zamara knows it. And if he’s becoming consciously aware of the sexual hold she has on him—”
“He could be obsessed by now,” Luc finished grimly. “Dammit, Kyle, I wish you were out of here. If she keeps pulling him toward her while he’s obsessed with marrying you, he may snap.”
“He’s never been known to lose his cool,” Zach noted. “Never emotional or violent. But if that kind of pressure’s building up in him now, he may lose it comple
tely.”
“You armed?” Lucas asked him.
“Ankle holster.” Zach nodded toward the small duffel bag he had brought along. “And a few extra.”
Lucas went over to kneel and check the guns Zach had brought, and it was Kyle who went to answer the soft knock at the door. Slipping quickly into the room, Josh and Raven were also dressed in comfortable dark slacks and sweaters. And Josh spoke instantly to Teddy.
“You’re always in his lap,” he said dryly.
“That’s where he puts me,” she replied, unembarrassed and somewhat amused.
“Zach, did you bring my gun?” Raven was asking, going to peer over Lucas’s shoulder.
A little bemused, Kyle gathered up her clothes and went to change in Luc’s room. Intrigued by all of Luc’s friends just hearing about them, she was completely fascinated now after seeing them together. Between them all there was an easy familiarity, a kind of camaraderie that struck her as being very rare. They’ve been through more than one fire together, she thought.
And Kyle herself felt accepted into that closeness, something that both delighted and moved her. She had known few friendships in her life, and to be so readily accepted into Lucas’s circle of friends was something she treasured.
The future looked bright indeed.
If they could only get through this night.
She returned to her bedroom to join the others, who were lounging comfortably and talking in low voices. The guns had been distributed, with Lucas, Josh, and Raven all carrying theirs at the small of their backs beneath concealing sweaters. Teddy, like Zach, wore an ankle holster. Kyle readily accepted the automatic Lucas handed her, pleased to discover that these men—even with Lucas’s gallantry and Zach’s clearly protective nature—treated the women in their life as capable equals.
“I read you’d become a sharpshooter,” Lucas told her with a smile.
Kyle checked her gun and put it inside the waistband of her pants at the small of her back, returning his smile. “Did you? Well, it’s nice to know those supermarket rags are good for something.”
He chuckled. “Actually it was People magazine. That competition you won in California.”