Books by Maggie Shayne (7 page)

"I suppose I ought to apologize for, uh, for that.

I. knew Scorpion was watching. I could feel him, and I didn't want him to see me take the key fxom you. It. was the first thing that popped into my head. "~ Yeah, righLiActually, kissing Alexandra like that had been teasing his brain since he'd first laid eyes on her. But he'd never imagined her response would be pure, mind-blowing desire. Hell, he hadn't imagined what her response would be. But not that. When she'd turned to liquid fire in his arms, he'd almost forgotten all about Scorpion.

When she'd moaned in a deep, throaty voice, and opened her mouth for him, and raked his hair with 'her fingers. Damn He'd known she'd be a distraction. "Don't ever do that to me again," she said voice shaking.

"Yeah, I could tell you really hated it."

Her eyes widened and she stared at him, wounded right to the quick, he thought.

"All right, I won't lay a hand on you. Feel better?"

She looked away, eyes straight ahead.

"Why did throw the key away?"

"As a precaution. Not that it matters now.

knows where that box is. I don't imagine not having will stop him from getting his hands on the contents. even if it did, we couldn'. t just show up at the bank. He'd t there, waiting. He'd take us the second we stepped out of the building. "

"Then... then it's over? We've lost?"

He glanced sideways at her, sent her a wink.

"Not by a long shot. I'm good at what I do. One of the best, and even though it's risky, I still think Ican reach that box without ~ getting my head blown off."

She flinched when he said that.

"It's just gonna require some creativity. Now, I think it's about time you gave me the specifics on that bank. I don't like that bastard Scorpion knowing more about this than I do."

He looked at her, and he knew the second he saw her face that there was more. Someth/ng she hadn't told him. Cmilt clouded her brown eyes, and she gnawed her lower lip. "Well?"

She cleared her throat.

"I can't let you risk getting shot when."

 
" oo " There is no safe-deposit box in New York. "

He blinked,. swinging his head around, gaping.

"What the hell do you mean?" "I lied."

Torch swore until he ran out of breath. Then he inhaled and started over, jerking the wheel without signaling and pulling the car off onto the first exit ramp they came to.

"How can there not be a safe-deposit box, Alex? Scorpion saw the papers saying there is one. That's what led him to us."

She chewed her lip, keeping her eyes. lowered "There was one once.

Just like Isaid, in New York. And I ally did find out about it after Father died, and Scorpion probably saw the same papers I did. But. "

She let her words trail off.

"If you stop now I'll wring your pretty neck, Alex. But what?"

She lifted her chin, her wide brown eyes meeting his head-on. "I could see no sense in keeping a safe-deposit New York when I wasn't even sure I'd ever be there again."

The question that sprang to the tip of his tongue was But he bit it back. It didn't matter to him what her were. He didn't give a damn why a talented young doctor would want to hide herself away in the mountains alone and never emerge into the daylight again. It didn't matter. All that mattered was finding this damned formula before Scorpion did. And then killing the bastard.

So why was it so hard to keep from asking the question? "Lovely," he said instead, braking for a light at the end of the ramp, then turning right, having no idea where the hell he was going, just driving.

"Go on. And tell me the truth this time."

She looked at him with wary eyes. Half afraid of him. Half something else, something he hadn't quite put his finger on yet. He would, though. She was too easy to read for it to take very long.

"We're on the same side, Alex."

"No, we're not. Our goals are completely different. This is important to me, Palamaro. My father is dead. In my whole life I never did anything but let him' down and I'm not going to do it again this time. I have to clear his name. I owe him."

The questions were burning in Torch's mind again. Questions that had nothing to do with this case. Questions about her. Just what had convinced her she'd been such a big disappointment to her old man ?

What horrible letdowns had he suffered at her tender hands? The woman's perceptions were definitely skewed.

Again he clenched his fists, forcibly resisting the urge to ask, to delve into her psyche, to search for the source of all that pain and wariness in her eyes. He took the next left. "So what did you do with the box?"

"I sent the key and the number to Father's lawyer in Pine Lake. I asked him to have the contents of the box sent to him there. I just wasn't up to going through any more of Father's things at the time.

Jim stored them for me, said they'd be there whenever I was ready. As far as I know, they still are. "

Torch pulled the car to a stop on the shulder.

"You're telling me that this safe-deposit box in New York City isn't even. your father's anymore? That none of his stuff is in it?

That it was up there in Pine Lake all along? "

She nodded.

Torch rolled his eyes and blew a sigh through clenched teeth, resisting the urge to throttle her.

"And the key you gave me?"

"Just an old PO box key."

He swore some more.

"So I was supposed to trot all the way to New York on this wild-goose chase you set up, and then what? While I sat around trying to figure it out, you were going to try to give me the slip, right? You were going to head back up to your precious mountain retreat and grab your father's not on your way."

She swallowed hard, audibly, and nodded again.

"And then what, Alex?"

"Then I'd know... I'd have proof that my father didn't develop this weapon you keep talking about."

"Oh, yeah?"

"And I'd have sent everything to you, to clear my fathTorch drummed his fingers on the steering wheel.

"And what if you'd found just. the opposite? Hmm? Would you have let me know about that, too? Or would you have tried to cover it up, the way he did?"

"My father is innocent!"

"Yeah, and I'm Santa Claus."

"I don't understand why you're so angry!"

He turned toward her, gripped her shoulders in his hands, and stared right into her eyes. 'Dammit, Alex, you just aren't getting it, are you? This plan of yours could have worked! You could have pulled this off, and if you had, I'd have been completely stumped. Pine Lake would be the last place I'd look for you. And dam reit you'd have probably ended up dead! "

She shook her head slowly, her eyes probing his, confusion clouding their liquid brown depths.

 
"Dead, Alex. Cold and stiff in the ground. No more talking or laughing or flashing those big brown eyes. Nothing.

One minute you're going about your business and the next. it's just all over. It's all freaking over " His hands had tightened on her shoulders. A little too much maybe.

"Over," he said, his voice lowering, growing harsher and rougher than it should.

"All over... for you anyway. Not for me. There would be one more innocent life on my shoulders, and let me tell you something, Alex, one more is more than I can take."

Her eyes slowly came into focus through the haze of gd~f that had been clouding his vision. Her eyes, so damned intense they could see things no normal eyes could See. He knew it. He had the feeling she was reading his scarred soul just then as easily as reading a book.

He gave his head a shake and he released her. But he knew it wasn't soon enough. She'd managed to shak him right out of his coldness, right out of ~ mannequin state, and she'd copped yet another peek at the hell that lived inside him. She'd seen way too much.

He looked away, relaxing his hands, knowing his fingers had been digging into her flesh. He steadied his breathing, f but he could feel her eyes on him. And when he glanced back at her he saw the way they darted rapidly over his face, the way she lifted her hand, as if to press it to his cheek, only to stop in midair, maybe because of the look in his eyes'.

"You're in agony, aren't you." It wasn't a question, the way she said it. More like an observation. One that made hi heart bleed. Torch didn't want her sympathy. He could handle just about anything but that.

He shook his head from side to side.

"You're changing the subject We were talking about you" -- "No. I don't think we were."

When traffic cleared, he pulled a U-turn and headed back the way they'd come.

"She was beautiful, your wife."

 
He only nodded, trying to focus on driving, trying to work out his next step in his mind. Revenge. Justice. The blood and pain and death that he'd inflict on Scorpion. Those ought to be foremost in his mind right now. Ugliness, blackness, violence.

"Tell me about her," Alex said softly, and her voice was hypnotic. a whisper of music, a soothing melody that pierced the darkness and somehow penetrated the stone of his heart.

"What was her name?"

"Marcy." He said it automatically, without stopping to think about it first. Then he bit his lip, knowing he shouldn't have answered. He didn't talk about Marcy and the boys. Not to anyone.

She was silent for a moment, and Torch thought maybe she'd decided to grant him a reprieve.

"And what about the boys?"

You don't talk about the boys to anyone. You don't 'talk about the boys to anyone. You don't talk-His thoughts were interrupted by his own raspy words. "Josh and" -- his voice broke, and he cleared his throat "--and Jason." Why was he talking to her? What was compelling him to answer her gentle questions? Why didn't he just tell her to shut up and mind her own damned business?

"They look like twins in the picture."

"They.. were."

"No .... " Her hand rose to her-lips, and moisture filled her eyes.

Then she touched him. There was no stopping her this time. Her hands covered his whilx~-knuckled ones on the steering wheel, warming them through.

Torch's foot hit the brake without his permission. The car jerked to a stop in the middle of a narrow road, and the pickup behind him blasted its horn before going around. Torch barely noticed. G-fief blinded him, and the lump in his throat had swelled to encompass his entire chest. It was suffocating him, choking him. His hands on the wheel '
 
clenched tighter and he closed his eyes, shook his head.

"I can't do this."

"Yes, you can," she whispered, just as if she knew exactly what he was talking about.

"It's all right. Come here."

And he did. Damn him, but he did. He turned toward her and let the fragile and frightened little thing pull him into her arms. She cradled his head on her shoulder, massaging his scalp with one hand, rubbing his back with the other. And it felt good, dammit. It felt good. So good that he put his arms around her waist and he squeezed her closer. So' good that he didn't pull away when she turned her head and pressed her soft lips to his cheek. He felt the moisture, the warmth between his face and hers, and he wasn't sure whose tears dampened his skin, it didn't matter. He was sinking in a stagnant sea of guilt and remorse and pain. And she was suddenly here, just when he'd been about to drown. Buoyant and light. The sensation washed over him like a cleansing, fragrant wave of revelation.

Somewhereinside, avoice whispered, "Cling to her and save yourself, Palamaro. She's your only hope."

And for one, insane moment, he' did. He turned his face' to her and slid his mouth over the satiny skin of her cheek and her jaw, and finally covered her lips. He felt them tremble and then part in timid invitation. And it was an invitation he couldn't turn down. He took and tasted and drank from her mouth, alunging his tongue inside again and again, stroking and petting her, holding her. She was sweetness and light, innocence and fire, and he'd been without those things for so damned long they were drugging to him. Addictive.

All:he wanted was more of her, more of her, more of her, more of her.

Because to let her go would be to return to the blackness of reality.

It was her whispery sigh that snapped him back to sanity. And as he returned to himself, he knew what he'd done. He'd encouraged her fantasy that there might be a hint of feeling between them. He'd set a deadly fire in an innocent, one he had every intention of putting out.

He couldn't go on with this. It wouldn't be fair to use her that way, to let her think things that were utterly impossible. He shouldn't do anything that might make her believe she cared for him. Because he had nothing inside to give her in return.

Grating his teeth, he straightened away from her. He was ashamed of using her this way, and embarrassed by the emotions that had swamped him like a tidal wave just now. His cheeks were still wet.

So were hers. And her eyes, round and glistening as if coated in liquid diamonds. Her swollen lips remained parted, and he wanted them again when he looked at them. He wanted them in ways she wouldn't even dream of So he looked away.

He was supposed to be tough here, strong. He was supposed to be in charge, protecting her from Scorpion and his thugs. Not turning to her for comfort like one of her bleeding young patients. Not punishing her by letting his pain become passion and by spending all of it on her. She didn't deserve that. What the hell was wrong with him? How did she manage to dig so deeply into his soul with those eyes of hers, extracting his most painful secrets with no more than a word, a look?

"Sorry," he muttered, blinking his eyes clear and driving again.

"There's nothing to" -- "It won't happen again."

"Maybe it should," she whispered.

"Maybe you need someone right now, to" -- "I don't discuss my family with strangers, Alex, and I certainly don't have sex with a stranger for comfort." With anyone, for that matter. But she needn't know that.

"I am human, though, so I'd appreciate it if you'd keep your distance."

He didn't have to look at her to know his barb had stuck. He knew she winced, could see the pain in her eyes without even turning his head.

Too bad. She was one of those females who thought she could heal the world with her soft touch and her smile and a little TLC with her incredible body. And her eyes, don't forget those. Well, she was wrong. And he damned well didn't want her poking around an old wound just to prove it.

He was stuck with her for a few days, at most. Long enough to find the missing formula and send Scorpion to hell. That was it. The sooner she got that through her head, the better.

"I didn't offer you sex for comfort," she told him in a wounded voice.

"You could have fooled me."

She was silent for a long time while he drove. He was, too, though his mind was working overtime. It took some effort to put his grief and the faces of his dead children back into the deep well of pain that used to be his heart. Sortiething about being with Alex seemed to drive those ghosts to the surface more often than ever before. But he had to keep them locked away. He couldn't think of them now.

And' he couldn't think about how remembering them didn't hurt so much when Alex held him in her soft arms.

It took still more effort to bring his thoughts back 'on track. A plan was what he needed.

"Where are we going?" she asked him at last.

"Where do you think?"

She gave him a look that made him feel like a demon for trying to hurt her. Deliberately trying to hurt her. Shooting thorns right into her skin, his automatic defense mechanism, apparently designed specifically for her, would keep her from getting too close to his private hell ever again. He couldn't help it. It was necessary.

"We're going back to Pine Lake," he told her.

"But we have a few stops to make first."

His sons. Those two adorable little boys in the photo, who looked so much like him. Taken from him without warning or reason. God, it was no wonder he was so nasty. The man was in more pain than any human being ought to bear in a lifetime.

And his came all at once.

But -he'd let her hold him, even if it had been only for an instant.

He'd turned to her with that grief, turned to her as if for salvation.