Envy (42 page)

"Shut up!"

Todd rounded on her and struck a blow that caught her at waist level. Favoring her bleeding foot, she was already off balance. His blow sent her reeling backward. The chrome side railing caught her in the back of her knees.

#Arms windmilling, she went overboard ####723

with a scream that died as soon as she hit the water.

Roark stared at the empty space she'd left at the boat's railing and sobered instantly.

"She's too drunk to swim!"

He executed a shallow dive into the water.

The salt water seared the open wounds on his face and he came up gasping. He was fighting nausea from too much liquor and what he knew must be a concussion where he'd been hit with the bottle.

But all this hardly registered. Treading water, he blinked his eyes as clear as he could get them and frantically searched the surface of the dark water for a sign of Mary Catherine.

"Do you see her?" he yelled up at Todd, who was standing on the deck looking down at him, blood dripping from his chin onto his smooth chest.

"Todd? Christ, did you hear me? Do you see her?"

"No."

"Turn on the lights."

Todd just stood there staring into the water, apparently shocked into immobility.

"Shit."

Heart pounding, head bursting, Roark

jackknifed beneath the surface. Although it stung like crazy, he kept his eyes open. But it didn't matter. He might just as well have been swimming through a bottle of ink. He couldn't even see his own hands as he waved them about, searching blindly, hoping to make contact with a limb, skin, hair.

He stayed under until he couldn't stand the burning in his lungs an instant longer. Breaking the surface, he took a huge gulp of air.

He was surprised to see how far he had swum away from the boat. At least Todd had shaken off his stupor and turned on the underwater lights.

They cast an eerie green glow around the craft, but they didn't penetrate nearly far enough.

Although his arms and legs felt like lead and his brain seemed to have relinquished control of them, Roark began swimming toward the boat. Todd was doing something on the port side. Hope surged inside Roark's chest. He shouted, "Did you find her? Is she over there?"

Todd returned to the starboard side. "No luck?"

_Luck? This wasn't a fishing trip. What was the matter with him? "Call the Coast Guard.

I can't find her. Oh, Jesus." He sobbed

#when the full impact of the situation hit ###725

him. She might be dead already. Mary Catherine--

Sheila--might have drowned because of his inability to save her.

"Call the Coast Guard," he repeated before diving beneath the surface again.

Knowing it was futile, he pushed himself through the seawater, eyes open but seeing nothing, hands groping but feeling nothing. Still, he was unwilling to give up. If there was the slimmest chance that she was hanging on, clinging to life, desperate for help ...

Again and again he went down, coming up only long enough to take a breath before going down again, diving so deep it made his ears hurt.

He struggled to the surface one last time, fearing that he wouldn't make it, afraid that he had made one foray too many. At last he tasted air. Greedily he sucked it into his lungs.

He couldn't survive another submersion. He was too tired even to swim the distance between him and the boat. Weakly he treaded water, barely able to keep himself afloat.

"Todd," he called hoarsely. "Todd."

Todd appeared at the rail. Roark's eyes had been scoured by the salt water. His vision was cloudy. "I can't find her. I can't look anymore. Throw me the preserver."

Todd left to get the preserver, and Roark wondered vaguely why he hadn't had it ready.

Exhausted, he longed to close his burning eyes but was afraid that if he did he would slip beneath the surface and drown before he could garner the energy to save himself. But his eyes must have closed on their own. He must have been only a heartbeat away from losing consciousness, because he was startled awake when the boat's motor roared to life.

Todd shouldn't be starting the motor. He should be throwing him a life preserver. If the Coast Guard had been given the coordinates of their location, they should stay in that spot until help arrived. It was damn stupid to start up an outboard with Mary Catherine and him in the water this close to the boat.

These thoughts flashed through his mind in a nanosecond, not in individual words, but as fully formed and intact conclusions. "Todd, what are you doing?"

He kicked his legs and feebly moved his arms in a parody of swim strokes, but it was like trying

#to push Jell-O through quicksand. But there was ###727

no need to try and swim after all. Look.

Todd was bringing the boat to him.

Only thing, he was running it too hot and too fast for safety.

"Hey!"

It was a nightmare's yell, when you open your mouth and try to scream but you can't utter a sound and that intensifies the horror of the nightmare. He tried to wave his arms, but they weighed a thousand pounds apiece. He couldn't even lift them out of the water.

"Todd," he croaked. "Turn to port!

I'm here! Can't you see me?"

He could see him. He was looking straight at him through the plastic windshield that protected the cockpit. Control panel lights were making a Halloween mask of his bruised and swelling face. His eyes glowed red. Torches of hell.

Roark screamed one last time before fear sent him plunging beneath the surface. In seconds he was engulfed in churning, strangling waters. Then the terror gripped him. Undiluted terror. The kind that few men ever have the misfortune of experiencing. Terror so absolute that death seems a blessing.

Terror championed only by pain.

Excruciating and immeasurable.

Pain that splinters the body but slays the soul.

CHAPTER 32

Nadia arrived at the martini bar wearing a snug black dress with a deceptively demure neckline and a cocktail hat, one of those saucy numbers with a veil that covered half her face.

A black feathered handbag hung from her shoulder on a slender gold chain. Very fetching. Very femme fatale.

Heads turned as she made her way through the bar. It was packed with Manhattan's in crowd and wannabes. People spoke to her as she passed by.

She waved to a party of three seated at a corner table.

When she reached Noah's table, he was inflated with pride that the most exquisite woman in the room was joining him. He embraced her warmly but circumspectly. Pecking a friendly kiss on her cheek, he whispered, "I could fuck you right here."

###"Ever the romantic." She slid #####729

into the banquette beside him.

"Martini?"

"By all means."

He placed their order with the waiter who had rushed to the table within seconds of Nadia's arrival, then turned to her with a smile. "You're known here."

"I'm known everywhere."

He laughed at her conceit. "I've missed your sharp comebacks. It's been far too long since I've seen you."

"That silly quarrel."

"Ancient history now." He inhaled deeply. "Ahh. Your provocative scent."

"Chanel."

He shook his head and grinned slyly. "Sex.

Too bad you can't bottle it. You'd make a fortune." His adoring gaze moved over her face. "You look sensational. I like the veil."

"Thank you."

"It lends you a mysterious air that's incredibly sexy." Beneath the table, he pressed her thigh with his.

"You're coming on awfully strong tonight. You haven't been getting any, have you?"

"I've been otherwise occupied."

"Yes, you have." She seemed to become fascinated with the layered arrangement of the feathers on her handbag. She ran her finger over the smooth, iridescent plumes. "You've been busy laying your father-in-law to rest."

"What a lot of folderol."

"I thought the eulogies were rather moving."

"It was the kind of send-off Daniel Matherly merited, I suppose. I'm just glad it's over. Now the rest of us can stop applauding his life and resume living our own."

"Ordinarily you enjoy being in the limelight.

I thought the role of loyal and bereaved son-in-law would have appealed to you."

He laid his hand over his heart. "I did my best." Their martinis arrived. They clinked glasses, sipped. "Actually, it wasn't all that bad, except for having to keep Maris's hysteria at bay."

"Wasn't it natural for her to be upset?"

"Her behavior went beyond normal grief."

She gave up her study of the feathers and looked at him. "My wife got the hare-brained notion

#that I was responsible for her father's #######731

fall." He peered past the veil into Nadia's eyes. "Can you imagine that?"

She raised the martini glass to her lips.

"Yes. I can."

The steadiness of her gaze was a bit unnerving.

He deliberately mistook her meaning.

"Maris has always been excitable and reactionary, but this time she carried it to the extreme."

"At the funeral, she seemed the picture of composure."

"True. But once it was over, she lost all reason. She coerced the local police in Massachusetts to reinvestigate the fatal accident."

"And?"

"Naturally they found nothing to substantiate her suspicions."

"How lucky for you."

"Luck had nothing to do with it, Nadia."

"I'm sure that's true." She stared out over the crowd, speaking almost to herself. "If you had pushed the old gentleman down the staircase, you would be shrewd enough not to get caught."

"I didn't. But you're right. I would be shrewd enough not to get caught. And that's why you like me so well."

She turned back to him. "True. I would never become involved with a loser. I wouldn't hitch my wagon to a falling star. Only to one that's ascending."

"We're so much alike it's frightening." Leaning closer to her, he added confidentially, "At least it should be frightening to everyone else." Complacently he took another sip of his martini. "Anyhow, Daniel's dead and buried. That's the good news."

"For God's sake, Noah." She glanced around as though fearing that he'd been overheard.

"What's the bad?"

"Not bad, darling. Better. His death was the final nail in the coffin of my marriage. It is now beyond repair."

She raised her glass to toast him.

"Congratulations or condolences?"

"Definitely the former. Because I have even better news than that."

"I can hardly wait."

"Are you sure you want me to tell you here and now? It may bring on an orgasm."

###"Have you ever known me to turn down an ###733

opportunity like that?"

His smile widened. "Before his accidental fall, I persuaded Daniel to sign an

important power-of-attorney document. It enables me to sell Matherly Press

to WorldView, and Maris can't do a damn thing about it."

Nadia's eyes went wide with bewilderment.

"But Matherly Press isn't yours to sell."

"Nadia! There you are!" Morris Blume suddenly materialized on the other side of the table.

Noah hadn't noticed his approach, and he didn't welcome the intrusion. His plan for this evening had been to wine, dine, and romance Nadia back into his good graces. Before proceeding with WorldView, he wanted her well entrenched in his cheering section. He needed good press, and no one could provide that better than Nadia.

Of all the damn luck, running into Morris Blume. WorldView's CEO looked as

colorless as ever in a gray suit, gray shirt, silver tie. To Noah, even his teeth and gums looked unhealthily gray as he smiled down at them.

"I didn't see you at first and thought there'd been a mix-up on the time," he was saying to Nadia.

"Your timing couldn't be more perfect."

She scooted from behind the table and, to Noah's dismay, walked into Blume's embrace. They locked lips. When the kiss ended, she affectionately patted his necktie back into place.

Blume appraised her from hat to heels. "You look positively gorgeous."

"I'm glad you think so. I bought the ensemble with you in mind."

"Sensational."

His compliment caused her to simper in a coquettish way that was totally unlike Nadia.

Blume was stroking her waist with suggestive familiarity. Her pelvis was tilted against his, a specialty of Nadia's that made a man think of nothing except his dick and planting it inside her.

For all the attention they were paying him, Noah might just as well have been one of the pop art paintings on the wall. His whole body throbbed with

#anger. And something else, something rare #####735

to him--humiliation. People had noticed that Nadia was now snuggling with Blume. He'd lost the most popular girl at the party to a bloodless, bald geek.

"Ready for a drink, darling?" she asked him.

"You read my mind. You always do."

Nadia signaled the waiter, who scurried over and took Blume's order. She didn't return to sit beside Noah on the banquette, but took the chair Blume was holding for her. They now faced him across the table.

She sat as close to Blume as possible without actually sharing the same chair. Her breast was making itself cozy beneath his arm. Blume's hand was on her thigh--high on her thigh. Proprietary.

Noah was certain that these public displays of affection were for his benefit. Nadia was being deliberately seductive. She was gloating.

It made him want to reach across the table and slap the shit out of her.

She had set him up. She had planned this little scenario. He had called her on his drive back from Massachusetts--following that pathetic attempt of Maris's to incriminate him--and had invited her to join him this evening. "We're free to be seen together now," he had told her.

Nadia had been her sexy self, every word suggestive, every breath an erotic promise. She had named the time and place as though she couldn't wait to see him. Instead, he'd walked into a goddamn female trap.

Okay. If she wanted to flaunt her new boyfriend in front of him, fine. It didn't change anything--except that her sex life would take a severe downward plunge. Judging by Blume's pallid coloring, getting blood to his penis would be a chore.

After thanking the waiter for his drink, Blume turned to Noah. "My secretary told me that you called today requesting a meeting."

"That's right. In light of my recent family tragedy--was

"My condolences, by the way."

"Thank you." He brushed an invisible speck off the cuff of his shirt. "Daniel's death imposed a temporary postponement of our schedule. Now we're able to pick up where we left off. You're going to be very pleased by the developments that have taken place since we last

#spoke. What's your schedule like tomorrow?" ###737

"I really don't see the need for a meeting now."

"Now" was a troubling adverb. "Now"

indicated that circumstances had undergone a change.

Noah avoided looking at Nadia and kept his features carefully schooled. "Why is that?"

"Noah and I were getting to this when you joined us, Morris," Nadia said. "Apparently there's been some confusion." She gave Noah a pained look. "I'm terribly embarrassed."

"Well, since I seem to be the only one in the dark here, perhaps you'll enlighten me."

She glanced toward Blume as though asking his advice, but he merely shrugged. Pulling her lower lip through her teeth, she turned back to Noah. "I thought someone would have told you by now.

Out of respect for Daniel, I've been

sitting on this story for a week."

Noah was growing uncomfortably warm inside his clothes. One martini couldn't account for the sweat trickling down his ribs. He felt like a man about to hear the result of a biopsy on testicular tissue. "What story?"

Taking center stage, Nadia readjusted herself even closer to Blume. "Out of the blue, Daniel Matherly invited me to his house for breakfast. It was the same morning you left for the country. Who could have guessed that your retreat would end so tragically? I wish I'd had the foresight then to urge him not to go." She looked squarely at Noah and let that sink in.

"Anyhow," she said, shaking her head slightly as though to get back on track, "he gave me a scoop, but asked me to sit on it for a few days, at least until Maris returned from Georgia."

Blume was gazing at Nadia as though he might begin sucking on her neck at any moment.

She was absently stroking the back of his hand still resting on her thigh. Noah forced himself to smile.

"You still haven't told me the nature of this exclusive story."

"Daniel appointed Maris as chairman and CEO of Matherly Press. I thought perhaps Daniel would tell you while you were away together in the country. No? Well ... he probably thought it only fair that Maris be informed first."

Eyeing him closely, she ran her fingers up and down the stem of her martini glass. "You had

#led me to believe that Daniel Matherly ##739

was borderline senile. Having talked with him at length, I found the opposite to be the case.

He was in total command of his faculties. He knew exactly what he was doing."

Every capillary in Noah's body had expanded.

Behind his eyeballs, his eardrums, behind every square inch of skin, he could feel the increased pressure of his pulse. Somehow he managed to smile.

"Daniel didn't think too highly of you, Nadia. I think he played a cruel

practical joke on you."

"The possibility crossed my mind. He was known to be cagey. So I had the story corroborated by a Mr. Stern, the Matherlys'

attorney. He verified it. Maris's

appointment is irrevocable and incontestable. Her authority can be revoked only if she chooses to resign."

Noah pried loose his tongue from the roof of his mouth where it had become stuck. "I'm curious as to why you didn't mention this to me earlier, Nadia.

For instance when we spoke earlier today." __Or the night I talked to you by phone from the _country, he thought. The bitch had known then. She had been amusing herself with him.

"It wasn't my place."

"But now it is?"

"I'm sparing you having to read it in my column. The story runs tomorrow." She gave him a sympathetic smile. "Honestly, Noah, I thought that by now you would have been officially informed. I suppose that since your marriage is over, you're no longer in the inner circle. You're only hired help."

"Would you like another drink, Noah?"

"No, thank you, Morris. I'm late for another appointment." If he didn't get out of here, away from Nadia, he was either going to kill her or explode. He'd rather not do either in front of witnesses.

"Oh, please stay," Nadia said in a cajoling voice. "We've got so much to celebrate. One of Morris's fondest desires has been fulfilled. WorldView has acquired Becker-Howe. You know Oliver Howe, I'm sure, because he and Daniel were old friends. In fact, it was Daniel who put Morris in contact with him. Daniel knew that WorldView was shopping for a publishing house and that,

#unlike him, Ollie Howe would ########741

welcome their interest."

"I had my heart set on Matherly

Press," Blume said. "But since Maris will be at the helm--was

"I felt it only fair to tell him,"

Nadia interjected.

"And Maris has made absolutely clear her intention never to sell it, so I decided to acquire another company."

Noah was clenching his jaw so tightly it ached.

"How nice for you."

"I paid too much for it, but what the hell?" he chuckled. "It's a profitable outfit. We'll easily earn back our investment. Becker-Howe is only slightly smaller than Matherly Press. But not for long." He winked at Noah. "I'll be your competitor now. Watch out."

__And the horse you rode in on, you bloodless son of a _bitch, Noah thought. He made a show of checking his wristwatch. "I really hate to break up the party, but I must get on my way."