IF YOU WANTED THE MOON (13 page)

“When Rogers met up with Morton,” Grier continued, “money exchanged hands.”

This did get Ethan’s attention. “Money?”

“Money.”

“Rogers to Morton?”

“You got it. Tori would tel Rogers the info and Morton would accept the payment. And guess what information that was?”

“What?”

“The St. Louis project.”

“The Saint . . .” Ethan could only shake his head. Then he thought about it, and frowned. “But why Tori? What would she know that Fred wouldn’t know? And why didn’t Rogers just pay Tori, rather than risk exposure in a public place with Morton?”

“That’s what we had overlooked,” Grier said, sitting down in the flanking chair. “Morton knew our bidding price. But Tori, as head of logistics, knew our cost projections.”

“How we could get to that price,” Ethan said, and Grier nodded.

“Right,” Grier said. “The Logistics department was responsible for the projections. And as you know, bidding companies had to present itemized projections, too. By knowing ours, those companies

“Right,” Grier said. “The Logistics department was responsible for the projections. And as you know, bidding companies had to present itemized projections, too. By knowing ours, those companies

could target theirs in such a way that it would raise no suspicions.”

“And Morton needed Tori for that,” Brennan said, “because projections were carefuly guarded and he was not on the need to know list. But Miss Douglas was.”

Ethan could hardly believe his ears. Tori, working together with her boyfriend and Fred Morton, was taking his company, a company he built from the ground up, to the cleaners? It hurt more than it angered him. He looked at Grier. “What do we do now?” he asked him.

“Everything stays the same. You let her and Morton meet up and you let them hang out together, just as we had planned. Only difference is, Tori wil be wired.”

“Wired?” Ethan asked, surprised. “How in the world are we going to get her to wear a wire when she’s one of the suspects now?”

“She won’t know she’s wired. When you and she went up into the copter today, we took the liberty of going into your home and wiring every garment she owns.”

Ethan didn’t like this information. “How did you get into my house?” he asked almost as an aside. He knew very wel how.

“You didn’t make me your security chief for nothing,” Grier replied.

“We’l also wire what she’s wearing today, whenever she’s out again.”

“But wouldn’t she feel something, or—”

Both Grier and Brennan smiled at that one. “Not our wires,” Brennan said. “She won’t feel or know a thing.”

“When she and Morton are alone,” Grier said, “they’l start talking and spil the beans.”

“What if it’s pilow talk and she’s not wearing any clothes?” Ethan asked more sadly than his words indicated. But Grier immediately began shaking his head.

“They don’t have that kind of relationship,” he said.

“How would you know?” Ethan shot back. “You thought she didn’t have a relationship with the boyfriend anymore.”

Grier knew he deserved that one and didn’t say another word.

“Then what?” Ethan asked instead. “What happens after we get this proof of disloyalty?”

“Wel, for starters, you’l fire them both. Then we turn al that we have on Morton, on Douglas, on the companies involved, over to the FBI.”

The FBI, Ethan thought, as he was becoming now even more distraught. He felt as if a lion was in his throat and it was roaring to be free, but it was trapped. And strapped. And silenced.

“I’l be in touch,” he said to his security team and then hurried off of the balcony, and out of the hotel altogether.

After hours of driving around town, Ethan returned home. He had decided to remember that this was al about his company, not his crazy feelings for Tori, and he had to keep those feelings in check. He walked out onto his backyard deck with his suit coat flapped over his shoulders and his mind stil reeling from the news of Tori’s involvement.

But he also knew that they had to be stopped or his company may never recover from al of these successive defeats. Now his St. Louis project was lost. He had wanted to build a nice resort for

average folks, those blue colar workers who never dreamed they’d be able to live in abject luxury for a week or two. Now that plan had been stolen right from under Ethan’s nose and he didn’t like it. He stood there and looked out across the peaceful waters before him, hoping just the sight would help to calm him down. And then he saw Tori.

She was sitting quietly on the beach, this time in a pair of shorts, a halter top, and a big, straw hat. Ethan just stared at her, at the peacefulness al over her, and his heart ached.
What could have been
, he thought sadly. And then he began to doubt. Tori betraying him? It seemed impossible. Even after he heard what his security team had to say, it stil seemed impossible to Ethan.

He continued staring at her. At that aura of honesty and integrity that he had thought cloaked her like a garment. She seemed so comfortable with the world. So at peace. Until she jumped up and began running, not toward Ethan, but toward the northern end of the beach.

Ethan quickly looked beyond her to see what had her suddenly in such a rush, and that was when he saw a young couple who appeared to be engaged in a heated argument. The young man, in fact, was

slapping around the young woman so violently that the woman fel to the ground. Tori approached the couple yeling something to the man, Ethan couldn’t make out what, and before he could try to figure it out Tori was dead-square in the man’s face. Ethan was almost stunned stil, as he watched her, but he flew into action when the man, as stunned as Ethan by Tori’s brashness, lifted his hand and slapped Tori down, too. Ethan dropped his suit coat and ran down the steps of his deck, jumping to the sandy beach with four steps to go, his expensive dress shoes sinking into the sand as he fought against gravity to get to Tori.

But Tori didn’t need anybody’s help. She jumped back up and kicked the man as hard as she could in the groin. While he bent over in pain she jumped on him, knocking both of them down, and started

beating him down with her fists. The young woman was screaming for Tori to leave her man alone and Ethan was running so hard he could barely keep his balance. When he arrived at the scene he had to literaly grab Tori by the waist and sling her off of the man, her fists stil flailing with anger as Ethan held her with her feet off the ground. The man started kicking his feet away, trying his best to get away from that crazy woman, when he saw Ethan. The man’s girlfriend, bleeding from the nose, tried to aid him. When Ethan made a movement toward him, however, the man jumped to his feet and, with his girlfriend by his side, started running away with a decided limp.

Ethan then looked at Tori, who was yeling for him to let her go. As soon as he eased his grip she snatched away from him and began hurrying for the house. Ethan looked at Tori, then he looked at the man, and then he shook his head in bewilderment and left the once tranquil beach, too.

Tori was in the kitchen placing an ice-filed cloth over the side of her face when Ethan came in through the back door. He stood there and exhaled, wondering what was he going to do with this woman, then he went over and removed the cloth from her face. She winced.

“Be stil, Tori,” he said rather snappishly. “I just want to take a look.”

“There’s no bruise. It just stings a little.”

He looked at her. “What did you think you were doing?” he asked her.

“He hit that woman.”

“I know that. But what did that have to do with you?”

“So you expect me to just stand back and let him beat on her like that?”

“I expect you to stay safe, Tori, that’s what I expect you to do. If some man is beating on some woman you cal the police or you come and get me, but you do not go into that man’s face daring him to beat your ass.”

“His behind is the one that got beat, thank-you,” Tori said as she moved to walk away from Ethan. Ethan, however, grabbed her by the arm and puled her back in front of him. The concern in his eyes startled her.

“I mean it, Tori,” he said. “You’d better never do anything like that again, do you understand me?”

Tori sighed wearily. “Yes,” she said, “I understand.”

He nodded and then he slowly puled her into his arms, hugging her tightly. She closed her eyes and alowed him to pul her closer against him, the contact relaxing her frail nerves. They both were emotionaly spent, and it showed, and that was why neither let the other one go. Until finaly, after nearly faling asleep in his arms, Tori lifted her head.

“I’ve got to go,” she said.

“Go?” Ethan said, surprised. “Go where?”

“This man invited me to his church tonight.”

Ethan frowned. “What man?”

“Just this guy. He pastors this church in walking distance from here and I told him I’d come by tonight. They’re having praise service.”

Was this some ruse to meet up with Morton, Ethan wondered, although he didn’t think Morton was in town yet. “But I planned to make phone cals tonight, Tori,” he said.

Tori was confused. “What does my going to church tonight have to do with your phone cals?”

Ethan exhaled. He couldn’t believe it. This woman had him scared to let her out of his sight. This woman who very wel might be working to tear his company and, by association, him down. “Nothing,”

he said as he released her. “Nothing at al.”

The smal, storefront church was half-filed but the energy in the room was contagious. Tori was clapping and singing throughout the service as song after song brought the entire congregation to their feet. From newer songs such as
Mercy Said No,
to old standards like
Something Got A Hold of Me
and
Get Right Church and Let’s Go Home
, Tori was having the time of her life. It wasn’t until after service, when the benediction was rendered and Tori was near the pulpit talking with the pastor, did she realize that Ethan was also in the church.

He was seated in the far back, standing occasionaly to shake a sister or brother’s hand. Tori was inwardly elated to see him, especialy after the way he didn’t say anything when she told him she was leaving. Since that fiasco with Neal Hurst, where Ethan undressed her and put her in his tub, their relationship was beginning to become more intense and personal, and for Tori it was as shocking as it was thriling.

She talked a few moments longer with the pastor, thanked him again for the invite, and then moved swiftly toward Ethan. He stood as she approached his pew and exhaled just watching her. She was

beautiful, he thought. Stunningly so. But when she came near, instead of teling her so, he simply made a motion for her to go in front as they made their way back home.

They walked back to the house slowly. It was a beautiful Friday night and neither seemed wiling to interrupt the peacefulness with chatter. When they arrived home, Tori, uplifted by the spirited church service and the cordialness with which the evening seemed to be progressing, went into the kitchen and began preparing dinner for them. There wasn’t much to work with in the sparse refrigerator, but she was able to find eggs and enough vegetables to prepare omelets.

Ethan wasn’t as comfortable with the evening. He knew what he was feeling and he couldn’t suppress those feelings no-matter what he knew. So he eventualy found himself in the kitchen too, watching Tori, until he went over to the stove himself and stood behind her.

“What are you cooking?” he asked her.

Her entire body tensed at just the nearness of his. “Omelets,” she said. “You do eat omelets, don’t you?”

“I eat anything,” Ethan said and Tori, relieved, smiled.

They stood like this for nearly a minute, as Ethan soaked up the smels of Tori’s hair and skin and the curve of her smal shoulders. Until just looking became too much and he touched her. She shivered at the feel of his touch, as his large hands eased their way onto her hips and then moved up to her waist. He then moved his front closer against her back and before her heart could ease its’ pounding, he wrapped his arms around her. She leaned back against him as he held her, as he began kissing her neck, and shoulder, and the side of her face. His breathing was harsh and irregular and she knew this was getting out of hand.

Ethan knew it too, but he kept kissing her and pushing closer against her. “Turn around, baby,” he said to her and she did, eagerly. And they kissed, long and passionately, in the kitchen of Ethan’s quiet home. It wasn’t until the reality of why they were in that home to begin with started biting did he even think about easing up. He needed her to get close to Morton, not to him, but he couldn’t seem to stop himself. He kissed her hard and he kissed her constantly. Until she grabbed him around his neck and began moaning. She wanted it too. He knew then he had to pul away.

himself. He kissed her hard and he kissed her constantly. Until she grabbed him around his neck and began moaning. She wanted it too. He knew then he had to pul away.

They both stood there nearly breathless and Ethan exhaled. “I’l be in the study,” he said.

“Dinner’s just about ready,” she replied.

“No,” he said, moving away. “No dinner for me, thanks.”

And then he was gone.

***

That night Tori was alone in bed. Al she could think about was Ethan and how passionately he had kissed her in the kitchen. She thought her heart would stop beating when he kissed her. It was just like that kiss they shared their first night in town, and nothing like it. This was different because she was different. She was faling hard for Ethan Chandler, she was finaly admitting to herself, but it was a painful realization because he obviously didn’t share her feelings. He cast her aside so easily after he kissed her, as if he’d just made the biggest mistake of his life, and the ache that suddenly consumed her was stil there now.

She laid there, thinking about it, experiencing that kitchen encounter over and over again, until she heard the sound of footsteps on the landing and then Ethan appeared in the room. She laid stil, her back to the entranceway, as he waited and then moved slowly further into the room. She could hear him undressing, as he slipped out of his shoes, his shirt, and then she could hear the zipper being puled down on his pants. Her heart shuttered as the mattress bared his weight with a press down, and he laid beside her.