Lucky Charm (19 page)

She didn’t know what was going on and she didn’t know what the rules were. Instinct screamed that something was wrong here and maybe with the whole company given the discrepancies she’d found, but she didn’t dare act on them. She had nothing tangible, just questions.

Whatever was going on with Matt, whatever was going on with Marathon, she couldn’t just leave. Not and keep her job. He was gone. She still had to make a living.

Jeremy shook his head. “No, I’m heading home. Don’t stay too late,” he said.

“I won’t if I can help it,” she answered, keeping her tone of voice light with an effort.

It was a relief to hear the elevator doors close behind him as she turned toward the computer room.

Even so, she knew security was still in the building and it was likely they were watching her.

She took her hands from her pockets and held them out in front of her.

They shook.

Which was of no use with a computer keyboard or mouse. She wasn’t sure if it was fear or the excitement that made them tremble.

Maybe it was both.

Matt’s green eyes haunted her.

Don’t break my heart. He was involved in something dangerous, something that could get him hurt. That much she knew. Somehow it involved Marathon. It all seemed bizarre, unbelievable. However, she couldn’t deny what she’d seen, what she’d sensed, or the menace she’d felt emanating from the security guards.

She shook herself mentally.
Don’t think about it. That was how she’d survived in the past. Don’t think about any of it. Just let it go. Act normal, do your job and no one will suspect a thing. You’ll be done soon enough and away from this place, onto another office
.

She buried herself in her work as she had for the last two years, concentrating on the installation procedures, the steps to ensure a successful install.

Matt was gone, away and safe. She hoped. She hoped all the guards had gone up to the third floor, leaving Matthew free to escape from the second.

Whatever it was he was doing.

His worry and concern for her in the elevator were troubling but somehow reassuring. For some reason he thought she was in danger simply by being here.

In danger of what? She didn’t know. The thought sent a shiver through her.

As she worked, she turned over in her mind some of the conversations she’d heard and overheard over the past months.

People tended to forget she was there, as Jeremy and Tony had. She’d listened to whispered conversations in the hallways. Things that bothered her, a sense of things not being quite right, or being done in a way that wasn’t quite kosher. She remembered thinking something was odd in Fort Lauderdale. It had niggled at her then and it niggled at her now.

She shook herself.

Whatever was going on was none of her business. She didn’t really know anything or understand half of what she’d heard. What she needed to do was get her mind off Matt, whatever he was doing and concentrate on her job. Work always helped to keep her distracted. When an issue cropped up she was almost relieved. It kept her well occupied and her mind off other things. By the time she solved it, though, it was late. Not that she minded much, not tonight. The streets would be quiet at this hour.

There had been no need to rent a car. She was staying in a lovely old hotel only a few blocks up the street. An easy walk. She simply had to find her way out of the building. Fortunately, this one wasn’t that difficult.

Matt made his way quickly to the doors to the stairs, testing each door he passed in case he needed a bolt hole. Locked. Had they had time enough to see the elevator stop, to know what floor he was on? Ducking into an alcove, he flattened himself against the wall and listened. He heard the distant thunder of heavy feet on the stairs. They were moving fast.

Bracing himself, he prepared for a fight.

The sound of pounding feet went past the door. He heard the door on the next floor being flung open to bang against the wall.

He wouldn’t look that gift horse in the mouth, he’d take it and run, going down the stairs as cautiously, quietly and quickly as he could.

A quick glance through the window in the door showed no one in the lobby. He eased the door open a crack and took a look. Sure enough, the lobby was clear, except for a guard by the doors to make sure he didn’t escape that way. That man looked out into the night. Someone had slipped up, leaving the lobby so unguarded. He took advantage of the mistake and slipped out into the shadows by the banks of elevators. Moving quickly, he took the man out, slipping up behind him to put him in a sleeper hold.

He was free.

What had happened? He had a sneaking suspicion he knew.

Ariel
.

Somehow she’d bailed him out once again, drawn them away. They hadn’t known on which floor he’d gotten off, giving chase. She’d given them one. She’d gotten them to think he’d gotten off somewhere else.

How had she done it?

The thought made him uneasy. Was she all right? Had she put herself at risk or had they asked? If so, how gently?

Looking back and up at the towering black face of the building, he could see the lights on that floor were still lit.

He fought the urge to go back in, make certain she was all right. He couldn’t. It was too much of a risk. They were on the alert for him, he wouldn’t be able to avoid them so easily a second time. All he could do was wait.

It was late, very late, before the lights on that floor went out, one by one.

Matt could almost follow Ariel’s progress through the rooms.

From the shadows of an alley with a clear view of the main and service entrances, Matt watched with relief as Ariel stepped out of the building. Alone and apparently unharmed.

What was it she was doing here so late? They had said in Florida she was some kind of trainer but the office tonight had been empty except for the three men. The two who’d tried to stall him appeared to have forgotten she was there but they hadn’t been surprised to see her.

How could anyone let her walk these streets at this time of night by herself? A woman, alone at night. There was an air about her of familiarity with it, though, as if she were used to walking alone. Matt wanted to snatch her up, protect her against the dangers of the streets and break through that self-imposed isolation.

The breeze tossed her hair and her dress. She went down the steps with unconscious grace and walked up the street with her head up, looking around alertly. Smart woman, broadcasting that she was paying attention and no victim. He found himself watching the sway of her hips and those lovely long and shapely white legs beneath her skirt.

She walks in beauty like the night
.

The odd quote came out of nowhere but it suited her with her midnight black hair, her skin like moonlight and her beautiful deep blue eyes. He remembered her dancing in Fort Lauderdale, how sexy she’d looked with her hips swaying and her back straight as she kept time to the Latin beat.

She looked sexy now.

Unbidden, the image of her sitting on the bed that morning came back to him as it tended to do in unconscious moments when he wasn’t prepared for it.

If he was going to do it, it had to be now.

He’d debated it in the back of his mind as he’d waited – should he say anything?

What was it that had gotten Bill killed? He still didn’t know. If he said nothing she was in there blind, she could stumble onto it the same way that Bill had and find herself dead.

As much as he wanted to deny it, he also knew she was his one way in, she had access no one else did.

He stepped out of the alley in plenty of time to allow her to see him.

He watched her all the way to the door of the hotel, knowing he could reach her quickly if he needed to.

The wind caught her hair and lifted it as the doors opened and he remembered the silky feel of it in his hands as he kissed her. He remembered how soft her lips had been and the way they had parted beneath his. She was driving him crazy and he didn’t know why.

‘Don’t break my heart, Matthew.’

The worry and concern in her eyes hadn’t been for herself, he’d known what she meant. Don’t get hurt. She was worried about him, afraid for him. It was nice to know there was somebody besides Darrin who cared and he knew that was what she was truly afraid of, caring too much. Enough to get hurt.

With an effort, he dragged his mind back to the task at hand.

It was a quiet walk up empty streets, without even a breeze to rustle the leaves on the trees. The night was warm and close. The streetlights were designed to look like old-fashioned lantern-light, filtering romantically between the leaves, casting flickering shadows on the sidewalk. There didn’t seem to be another soul about.

Ariel was thankful for the solitude, the peace and the silence.

A woman walking alone could be a target but she’d done it in a lot of cities, some with much more dangerous reputations than this. It was a good hour for all kinds of crime. She kept her head up, looking alert. Perhaps she was a target but less of one if she looked as if she were paying attention. She wasn’t sure whether Birmingham had those kinds of problems but it was better not to take the chance.

Like many downtowns in many cities, this one had died slowly, old stores that had been there since the city was founded had lost to the chains in the suburbs. A storefront reminded her of the old days of her small-town childhood.

Now the windows were painted over.

Some had been reborn as eateries and sandwich shops, art galleries, the inevitable souvenir shop and that sort of thing. Signs of revitalization were in the trees planted along the sidewalks and the flowers hung from lampposts but it was an ongoing struggle.

Only the towering office buildings were really alive.

As hard as she tried though while she walked back to her hotel the situation at Marathon wouldn’t fade away. The things she’d heard, Matthew’s arrival, all churned around in her mind.

There was the sense of eyes on her. Again. Watching. Somewhere.

She didn’t see anyone, it was something more felt than seen. No matter how hard she tried, she couldn’t write it off as imagination. She shivered a little, despite the warm night air.

Someone else also watched but those eyes were benign and somehow reassuring. It was better not to think about who they might belong to.

The facade of the old hotel harkened back to a much older era, an era when the hotel had been built and the ambience inside reflected it. Old Victorian, with flickering imitation lamplight outside and a parlor inside off the front desk and raucous noise from the English pub-style bar opposite.

The hotel somehow managed to be warm and cozy, if a little claustrophobic with its narrow halls.

Ariel found her room but decided not to get room service, it was simply too late. She did some yoga to unwind and watched a little TV. Anything to hold off her thoughts. She stayed up later than usual, trying to tire herself out. Trying not to think about Matthew Morrison. She wouldn’t wonder or worry about him. She wouldn’t think about her fear for him.

Sleep didn’t come easily and her dreams were sweet torture.

If anyone at Marathon was suspicious about what had happened the previous night, no one said anything when Ariel arrived the next morning. At least, not to her. She couldn’t ignore the fact that Jeremy and Tony watched her more closely than the other office managers had, nor was it something she could chalk up to an overactive imagination. They did. Every time she turned around it seemed as if one or the other of them studied her with speculation in their eyes.

Nor had the other watching eyes gone away. It was constant. So much so that now she was fairly certain she could identify two of them. Their faces were always there. A man across the street from the hotel and another who sat alone in the bar nursing a beer. Unfamiliar faces that had become familiar as she kept seeing them.

She also sensed another set of eyes watching and suspected she knew who that was, too. It was unsettling to realize she found it reassuring. Somehow, though, it made her feel a little less alone.