Spellbound in His Arms (8 page)

It was a long night and Jackie didn’t get
much sleep. Mixed emotions of fear and desire tormented her.
She jumped at every little noise and held her breath, watching the
windows and the door.

And as if this wasn’t enough, Michael’s face haunted her
with eyes filled with passion and desire. She felt his lips hot and demanding
conquering her mouth, sending heat waves throughout her body. Oh, how she
longed to hide in his strong arms.

With the first light of dawn, Jackie jumped out of bed
and pulled the curtains back, carefully examining outside. It was worse than
she’d expected. The storm had destroyed the magnificently maintained yard and
she felt sad seeing the ruined bushes and toppled trees.

Then she thought about Michael again and decided to
hurry up and call the attorney. After that Michael would have no reason for
staying around.

And then what
?

She would be left out here all by herself, prey to whoever
was hiding in the woods watching this place.

A shiver raced up her spine. She hurried to the ensuite
bathroom, trying to push these thoughts out of her mind.
One thing at a time
,
she decided. She would take care of Michael first and then examine the folders.
Maybe she would be able to find what she was looking for and be out of the
house by nightfall.

This thought made her feel a little better, and by the
time she walked downstairs, she looked relaxed and more confident than she
actually felt.

***

Michael was in the kitchen.

Watching her come in, he couldn’t help but admire her uncompromising
posture. She had been through so much the last few days but still looked
confident and ready to confront the whole world. He was mesmerized by this
fearless woman and wished they didn’t have to be on opposite sides.

No matter what though, he had to admit she was the most
magnificent, most breathtaking opponent, he ever had to face.

“Good morning,” she said simply, avoiding looking at
him.

“Good morning. How are you feeling today?”

“I’m fine.”

“How is your head?

“I told you, I’m fine!” Jackie walked over to the
refrigerator and poured herself some milk, ignoring the steaming coffee he had
prepared. Obviously, she didn’t want anything from him.

“It’s okay,” he said smiling and took a sip from his
cup. “I haven’t poisoned the coffee.”

Jackie looked at him sharply. “I’ll call the attorney
and straighten everything out,” she said coldly. She seemed determined to keep
her distance.

“And how, exactly, do you intend to do that?” he asked,
and she looked at him surprised.

“What do you mean?” she asked, watching him carefully.

“I mean the phone is
dead
.”

Jackie sighed. “Well, it wasn’t working last night
either,” she admitted. “But I thought it would be all right after the storm was
over.”

“Well, it’s still dead” he confirmed and ran his fingers
through his hair.

“Don’t you have a cell phone?” she asked suddenly and
looked at him suspiciously.

“I’ve tried it,” he replied. “There’s no signal out
here.”

“Well, we have no other choice then than to drive to
town.”

She saw the ironic look on his face and got alarmed. “
What
now
?”

“I’m afraid that’s not possible either,” he said.

“And why is that?” she asked cautiously.

“Because the road is closed.”

“What do you mean closed?”

“Closed means
closed
,” he answered, losing his
patience. “I went to check it earlier. A big tree has fallen on the bridge down
the road and destroyed it. There is no way to get across the creek.”

Jackie took a deep breath. “But there must be another
way,” she insisted.

“If there is, I don’t know it,” he lied.

“I’ll check it out myself,” she said stubbornly and
walked out the door.

Be my guest!
Michael
thought. With the bridge gone, there was no way a car could make it across. She
could walk all the way to town, if she wanted to, but it was a several hours
walk. And besides, she would still have to cross the creek, which was full of
water due to the storms these last few days. Which meant, that being soaked
wet, she would be sick by the time she got to town, if she ever made it there.

Michael smiled, thinking of her determined and defiant
attitude. He was sure she was capable of trying to cross the creek and walk to
town, but of course, he was going to stop her.

For now, he didn’t have to worry about that. With the
dress and sandals she wore this morning, there was no way she would try to
cross the creek and walk to town. All she was doing was blowing off steam.

He got up and decided to go ahead with his plan. He had
been up for hours and had already checked the documents in the folders, trying
to determine which one was missing. As far as he could tell, the company’s
shares, the will and the title deeds of the property were all in the folders.
Then what was the document the intruder stole last night? He was trying hard to
remember, if there was anything else in these folders.

Damn!
His birth certificate
stating Philip Manos as his father! Now things were even more complicated and
he had to hurry up. There was no time to waste.

He pulled out his gun and left the house, determined to
hunt the intruder down. He had to be somewhere around there, since by the time
he stole the documents and escaped to the woods, the storm was almost over.
Which meant, that the bridge was already damaged and there was no way, he could
make it across.
Unless…

No
, Michael thought and
shook his head in denial.
He couldn’t possibly know that there was another
way.

***

Jackie waited, hidden behind a huge tree trunk. She had
no intention of walking down to the bridge. There was no reason to. She was
sure he wouldn’t lie about something so obvious, and besides she already knew
there was another way out. Her instructions had covered all the areas and she
was prepared for just about anything.

That’s a lie
! She scorned
herself. She wasn’t prepared for Michael and especially, for the way she
responded to him.

She shifted impatiently. Tormented by wild thoughts, she
felt a headache starting. She had been in some pretty difficult and sometimes
even dangerous situations before, but this time it was different.
This was
personal
.

She thought back to when she was told that her parents
were killed in the plane crash. She was only eight years old. Where would she
be now if Stephanos and Martha hadn’t taken her in? She had no other relatives
except Martha—her mother’s distant cousin—whom she had never met before. She
could still remember how scared she was when Martha and her husband, Stephanos
Demiris, had come to Los Angeles to take her back to Atlanta with them.

Jackie smiled as she remembered the happy home the Demirises
had offered her. Stephanos and his wife were wonderful and treated little
Jackie no different than their own daughters, Maria and Aphrodite. Maria was
three years older than Jackie and turned out to be a real sister and her best
friend. Little sweet Aphrodite was only a few months old when Jackie came to
live with them. And now, Maria was dead and Aphrodite in grave danger.

Jackie felt her body stiffened. She couldn’t allow
anything bad to happen to Aphrodite. She had to find out the truth.

At first, Stephanos had begged her not to come. He was a
very sweet and unselfish person, but also a very superstitious man. Jackie, on
the other hand, was a very realistic person. She only believed in facts and things
that could be proven and this made her a very good and successful,
investigative reporter. She didn’t share Stephanos’ opinion that something
unnatural—some curse—was responsible for all the deaths in the family. She knew
when a lot of money was at stake people were apt to get greedy and very
dangerous. And eight hundred acres right on the beach of one of the most
beautiful and popular Greek islands could be a very good reason to kill. The
treasure she had discovered in the underground secret room was just additional
icing on the cake.

“No”, she said out loud. “Someone very human is
responsible for all these deaths.” She was sure about that, wasn’t she? She
remembered the weird feeling she had the other night in the old mansion right
before Michael appeared. She couldn’t deny there had been moments where she had
her doubts.

Stop that
! She
reprimanded herself anxiously and turned her attention to the mansion.

***

Eric Manos watched his father answer the phone and
frowned, seeing the irritated look on his face.

“Take care of it!” Philip Manos finally yelled angrily
and slammed the phone down.

“What now?” Eric asked anxiously.

“We have a problem!” his father replied and stood up.

Eric sighed. “You mean another one. I thought you said
that this was going to be a breeze.”

“Shut up!” His father interrupted him violently.
“Everything was taken care of until
you
got involved.”

“Now don’t try to blame everything on me!” Eric retorted
angrily. “It’s not my fault that the old fool sold the place.”

“You know damn well he had no other choice!” his father
retorted and slammed his fist on the desk.

The loud noise made Elizabeth jump in her chair. She
gave a worried look towards the closed door that led to the office of her boss.
His son was there and that was bad news. Eric was nothing but trouble. The only
thing that kept him out of jail was his father’s money and high profile social connections.

She checked her watch anxiously. It was two o’clock and
her appointment wasn’t until four-thirty. Suddenly, she felt a shiver racing up
her spine. What if something went wrong? What if someone saw her?

She shook her head violently, trying to push this thought
out of her mind.
Nothing would go wrong,
she tried to persuade herself.
Besides, she had no other choice. Sooner or later, Manos would found out about
the money that was missing and
then
….

***

Jackie started getting impatient, thinking of all the
things she had to do before nightfall. She was determined not to spend another
night in this place, not after what happened last night.

She saw Michael coming out the front door of the mansion
and felt a rush of relief. He was going to look for the intruder, just as she
had anticipated. She waited, until after he entered the woods and then hurried
back to the mansion.

Walking inside the study, she noticed the secret door
was closed this time and smiled.
So it was Michael
she thought. It had
to be him.

She opened the entrance to the underground secret room,
walked downstairs, and opened the steel door. Then she sat on the sofa and
carefully started going through the documents that were in the folders left on
the mahogany table.

She set the Demiris Company shares aside and then turned
her attention to the other documents. She read through every piece of paper—a
will and the property titles—and finally, exhausted and shocked as well, she
leaned back in her chair and raised her arms above her head. Stephanos was in
for a big surprise.

What now?
she wondered.
This could change everything. She thought of Stephanos and sweet little
Aphrodite. What should she do? Maybe, she could…
no,
she pushed the thought
right out of her mind. She couldn’t do that—she couldn’t destroy the will—and
she was sure Stephanos wouldn’t want her to either.

After a moment’s hesitation, she put all the documents
back in their folders and placed them back in the cabinet. For now, this was
the only place safe enough to hide them. She needed to talk to Stephanos and
leave the decision up to him.

She left the secret room, closing the steel door behind
her and climbed up the stairs. Then she turned the hound’s head to close the
opening, carefully taking care to leave everything as she found it, and went
back to the kitchen. She was in a desperate need of a hot cup of coffee.

***

A few minutes later, Michael walked in the kitchen, to
find Jackie sitting at the table, holding a steaming cup of coffee in her
hands.

“Where have you been?” she asked innocently and immediately
got alarmed, seeing the frown on his face.
What now
? she wondered.

“Nancy Felini is dead!” he said and gave her an accusing
look.

“What?” Jackie asked, confused. She was about to ask him
who Nancy Felini was, when it suddenly, dawned on her…
the attorney
!

“She’s dead!” Michael repeated, without taking his eyes
off her face.