Man of the Hour (16 page)

“Oh. Yes, I see.”

“That goes for work as well as home,” he added.

The elevator door opened and he walked her down to the end of the deserted corridor, where her apartment was. He noticed that she had her key in her hand when they got there. No fumbling for it in a purse or pocket. He smiled.

“Kirry?” he asked as she unlocked the door.

She hesitated, with her back to him.

“Do you want the conventional end to the evening?” he asked quietly.

Her hand clenched on the doorknob as she remembered how it felt to kiss him. “It wouldn’t be wise.”

“Probably not.” He shoved his hands into his pockets and leaned his shoulder against the wall next to the door. His dark eyes slid over her profile. “What ever happened to Chad?” he asked.

Her eyes shot to his. “Don’t you know? He was your best friend.”

“Not after he broke us up,” he replied tightly. “Or didn’t anyone ever tell you that I knocked two of his teeth out?”

“No,” she said. She huddled closer into her jacket, chilled by the look on Lang’s face. “It was a little late, though, wasn’t it?”

“Made me feel better,” he said laconically.

His broad chest rose and fell under the soft knit shirt he was wearing. There was a dark shadow under it. He was hairy under his shirt. Kirry had delighted in burying her hands and her mouth in that soft thicket.

The sadness she felt was reflected in the eyes she lifted to his broad face. “You never really knew anything about me,” she said suddenly, “except that you liked to kiss me.” She smiled gently. “Maybe that’s why you wouldn’t listen when I told you that Chad had framed me.”

He didn’t answer her. His eyes fell to her mouth and lingered there until she moved restlessly and her hand turned on the doorknob.

“The first time I kissed you, you gasped under my mouth,” he recalled quietly. “It surprised me that you didn’t know what a deep kiss felt like.”

She felt uncomfortable. Her green eyes glittered at him angrily. “There’s no need to rub it in.”

“If you hadn’t been a virgin, our lives would have been a lot different,” he continued. “I wanted you so badly that I couldn’t think straight, but you were the original old-fashioned girl. No sex before marriage.”

“I’m still the original old-fashioned woman,” she told him
proudly. “My body is my business. I can do whatever I want to with it, and that includes being celibate if I feel like it.”

“Nights must get real cold in winter,” he chided.

Her eyebrows lifted. “I have an electric blanket, dear man, and no health worries. I sleep like a top. How about you?”

He didn’t sleep well. He hadn’t for years. His memories were of the violent variety and in the past few months, they’d become constant and nightmarish.

“I don’t,” he replied frankly.

“No wonder,” she returned. “All those women!”

“Kirry…”

He couldn’t deny it, of course he couldn’t. She fought down the jealousy and smiled. “Thanks for the lesson.”

He clamped down hard on his temper. “No problem,” he replied after a minute. “We’ll do it again in three days. Remember those stretches. Practice them.”

Her mind darted back to Erikson in the parking lot, and she felt threatened. Her eyes showed it.

“Don’t let him see that he’s scared you,” Lang said curtly. “Don’t you dare let him know. Keep your chin up. Look at him, show him you aren’t intimidated. Make sure you’re with people when you leave the building, here or at work.”

“Okay.”

He smiled softly. “You’re tough. Remember it.”

“I’ll try. Thanks, Lang.”

“I’ll be around. Let me know if you need me.”

She nodded.

He pushed away from the wall and looked down at her almost hungrily before he turned and walked slowly back toward the elevator.

Kirry wanted to call him back. She knew the sight of that retreating back, because she’d lived with it all these years. It still hurt to watch him go. Nothing had changed at all.

When he got to the elevator and pressed the button he turned and caught her staring at him. He looked back, aching to hold her. He had a feeling that he was going to get postgraduate courses in self-denial before this Erikson business was through.

Kirry lifted her hand in a halfhearted wave and went into her apartment, closing the door and locking it behind her. She had to stop wanting Lang to kiss her. It would be the same old mess again if she encouraged him. This time, she was going to be strong.

That attitude lasted all night long. It got her to work and into the building, despite the sight of that damned blue sedan sitting on the street in front of her apartment building and following her all the way to Lancaster, Inc. She looked straight at Erikson without a smile or a flinch as she went into the building, and it seemed to disconcert him. Lang had been right, she thought as she went into her office. It really was working! She felt better than she had since the ordeal had begun.

Kirry was promoting a public seminar for a local business firm that specialized in interior design. She’d arranged for a special appearance by a famed European designer at one of San
Antonio’s biggest malls, and coordinated it with an amateur competition for local citizens who’d done their own decorating. The European designer was to judge the entries and Kirry had bought advertising on local television stations and newspapers, all of which had promised to send reporters to cover the event.

It was time-consuming and maddening to get all the details to fit together, though, and by the time Kirry had them finalized, she was a nervous wreck.

It didn’t help that when she went out to her car that infernal blue sedan was sitting there like a land shark, with Erikson in the front seat glaring at her.

Furious, she went back into the building and called the police. She explained the problem to a sympathetic officer on the desk.

“Is his car in the parking lot of your business, Miss Campbell?” he asked politely.

“Well, no. It’s on the street across from the parking lot.”

“A public street?”

She grimaced. “Yes.”

There was a pause. “I don’t like saying this, but I have to. There’s no law against a man sitting in his car, no matter what threats he might have made. If he hasn’t actually assaulted you, or said anything to you, there isn’t a single thing we can do.”

“But he’s stalking me,” she groaned.

“The law needs to be changed,” he told her. “And it will be. But right now, the law says that we can’t touch him. On the other hand, if he makes a single obscene remark to you, or touches you in anyway…”

“He’s been a military policeman and a security guard,” she said dully. “I expect he knows the law backward and forward.”

“Yes, ma’am, I’m sorry, because I imagine you’re right. I wish we could do something.”

“So do I. Thanks for listening.”

She hung up and sat with her head down. She could call Lang, but she knew what he’d do. If Erikson could get Lang arrested, he’d have a clear field. She didn’t want that. And he hadn’t harmed her, yet. She had to keep her emotions under control. If she panicked and did something stupid, she’d be playing right into his hands.

But what could she do? She grabbed her purse and went back out to the parking lot. He was still there. She didn’t look at him this time. She got into her car, locked the doors, started it and pulled out onto the street.

A glance in her rearview mirror told her that he was following her.

Well, she had a surprise in store for him this time. She’d spotted a police car cruising downtown. She deliberately pulled up beside it and watched as Erikson fell back. So he wasn’t quite as confident as he made out. That was useful information.

When the police car turned, Kirry turned behind him. She followed him through the downtown area, with Erikson trailing behind. Then, without warning, she swung the wheel and turned down an alley, cut through and came in behind Erikson.

He was looking around for her, but he didn’t seem to see her. Good. She had him where she wanted him.

He turned onto a secondary street and Kirry turned the other way. She’d lost him, just temporarily. It was a relief to know that she could do even that.

She went back to her building, parked the car in her spot, and rushed up to her apartment, quickly securing the door.
That’s one for me, Erikson
, she thought.

A few minutes later, the telephone rang. She let the answering machine catch it, certain that it was an irate Erikson. But the voice on the other end was Lang’s.

“Are you there, Kirry?” he asked.

She picked up the receiver and turned off the machine. “Yes, I am. Hi, Lang,” she said.

“What the hell were you trying to do out there, incite him to violence?” he asked angrily. “You can’t play games with a madman, Kirry!”

“You saw me!” she exclaimed.

“Of course I saw you,” he muttered.

“But I didn’t see you!”

“That’s the first rule of shadowing someone—don’t be seen.”

She smiled. “I didn’t know you were looking out for me. Thanks, Lang!”

“I won’t always be there. I can’t always,” he said, “so please exercise some common sense and stop trying to outfox Erikson. He’s no fool. He’ll realize what you did, and it will make him angrier. Don’t you understand that his sort can’t bear being beaten by a woman? He takes it as a challenge to his manhood!”

“Well, poor him. What about me?” she stormed. “Do I have no rights at all? I hate having him follow me around and stare at me,” she added furiously. “I called the police, and they said there wasn’t a thing they could do. Not a thing! What if he kills me? Can they do something then?”

“You’re getting too uptight, Kirry,” he said. “Calm down. Use your mind. If he was going to hurt you, he’d have done it when I fired him. He’s only trying to wear you down and freak you out, to make you hurt yourself or make a fool of yourself.”

“That isn’t what you said…”

“I didn’t know,” he replied. “Not at first. I’m still not certain enough to risk your life by guessing which way he’ll jump. We’ll handle it. I won’t let him hurt you.”

The calm confidence in his voice soothed her badly stretched nerves. “I know that.”

“And when I’m through with you, you’ll be able to take care of yourself. We’ll have another lesson tomorrow night. Okay?”

She sighed. “Okay.”

“Get some sleep. I’ll be in touch.”

He hung up and she smiled, thinking that maybe it would work out all right. She was just jumpy, that was all.

The phone rang, and she laughed as she picked it up.

“Forgot something, did you?” she teased.

“Yeah,” a cold, too familiar voice replied. “I forgot to tell you that tricks like you played on me tonight won’t work again.”

“Leave me alone, Erikson!” she snapped. “You have no right…!”

“You got me fired, you snooty little tramp,” he said. “No woman does that to me. I’m through playing games.”

“Listen to me, you lunatic…!” she yelled back, but the line was already dead.

She put the receiver down with a slam, her face hot with temper. Damn him! What was she going to do?

K
irry had never felt so threatened in her life. She left her apartment the next morning and found Erikson right in the front of the building, sitting in that blue sedan.

With a fury she couldn’t contain, she picked up a rock from the landscaped cacti and flung it at the car with all her might. He ducked, shocked, but her pitching arm wasn’t what it should have been. The rock fell short. By golly, she promised herself, the next one wouldn’t. She picked up three big rocks and ran toward his car.

Before she could get started, he roared off, leaving her standing there, shaking. She fought for control of herself and slowly dropped the rocks, brushing off her hands. The man was crazy, she thought bitterly. Crazy! And she couldn’t do a thing to stop him!

She got into her car and locked it and went to work. She knew
the blue sedan would be sitting there, on the street, and sure enough, it was. She was shaking as she got out and locked her own car and started toward the building. There were no rocks in the landscaping here, nothing that she could throw at him. He smiled at her from cold eyes as she walked up the sidewalk toward her office building.

“You can’t stop me from sitting here, and there aren’t any rocks, baby,” he called to her.

She stopped, her knees vibrating from fear and temper. She looked straight into his eyes. “If you don’t stop now, you’ll wish you had,” she said quietly.

“Oh, yeah? What you gonna do, big bad girl?” he challenged.

“Wait and see, Mr. Erikson,” she said, and smiled as if she had every confidence that he was going to wind up wearing prison blues.

She turned and walked into the building without looking back.

Mack’s eyes narrowed as she passed him. “I saw him sitting there when I came in,” he said. “I’ve phoned the new security chief and Mr. Lancaster. They’re working on something.”

“A bomb?” she asked pleasantly. “Because that’s what it may take. He won’t stop. The law can’t touch him, and he knows it.”

“Isn’t your mother married to some rich person overseas?” Mack asked.

She didn’t like talking about her mother. “She’s married to a wealthy English nobleman.”

“Well, couldn’t he hire you a hit man?” he asked.

She burst out laughing. “Oh, for God’s sake, will you stop watching those mob movies?” she mumbled, walking off into her own office.

“It’s worth a thought!” he called after her.

She closed the door.

It was a busy day. She didn’t go out for lunch, choosing instead to have one of the other women bring it to her. If Erikson wanted to sit out there and bake in his car all day, let him. She was going to try pretending that he was invisible. Perhaps Lang had been right—if Erikson meant to hurt her, he’d have done it by now. She just had to keep her nerve until he got tired of watching her and gave it up.

Lang was waiting for her when she got to her apartment. For once, Erikson hadn’t followed her home. But she knew that he was out there somewhere, watching, always watching.

“Get your gi and let’s go,” Lang said as they reached her apartment. “I’m taking you out to dinner before we go to the gym.”

“You don’t have to…”

“Just a hamburger, Kirry, not a five-course meal,” he said curtly. “There are some things we need to talk about.”

“Okay.” She got her things from the closet and turned on her answering machine.

He held her bag while she locked up the apartment. He seemed very preoccupied and not a little concerned. He hardly said a word all the way to a nearby hamburger joint, where they nibbled burgers and fries and drank coffee.

“You’re worried, aren’t you?” she asked.

He nodded. He sipped coffee, and his dark eyes narrowed over the cup as he studied her. “I had a friend of mine do some hard digging into Erikson’s past. He was arrested for killing a man while he was an MP. He was acquitted, but people were generally sure that he did it. It was a racially motivated incident.”

“Oh, boy,” she said heavily.

“It gets worse,” he added. “He’s covered his tracks pretty good, or he’d never have gotten a job as a security officer. He’s been in jail three different times on assault charges that were dropped because the witnesses refused to testify. The victims were women,” he added quietly. “Young women. Two of them claimed that he raped them, but they were too afraid of him to go to court.”

Kirry felt her face turning white. She wasn’t a fearful person as a rule, but this was an extraordinary circumstance. She put down the rest of her half-eaten hamburger and fought to keep what she’d already eaten down.

“Your mother lives in Europe,” he said. “I know you two don’t get along, but it would benefit you to go over there and visit her for a few weeks until I can get something done about Erikson.”

“Run away, you mean?” she asked. “You’re the second person today who’s mentioned my mother, but Mack asked if her husband couldn’t hire a hit man to deal with my problem.”

He pursed his lips and his eyes twinkled. “What a magnificent suggestion.”

“Stop that. You were a government agent.”

“So I was, dash the luck.” He leaned back in his chair and searched her face. “You won’t go to Europe?”

She shook her head. “I’m not running. He’s not going to make a coward out of me, no matter what he’s done in the past.”

He smiled. “You always did have guts, Kirry,” he said, chuckling.

“Too many to suit you right now, huh?” she teased.

He caressed the paper cup that held a mouthful of warm coffee. “If you won’t run, how about a compromise?”

“What did you have in mind?”

“Safety in numbers.”

“I won’t live at the YWCA,” she said, outguessing him.

“That wasn’t exactly what I had in mind.”

She hesitated. She was doing it again; reading his mind. “You want me to move in with you. You’re very sweet, Lang, but I couldn’t….”

“I don’t want to move in with you,” he said bluntly. “I’ve explained the situation to your apartment manager, and he’s giving me the apartment next door to you,” he said calmly.

“Oh.” She felt chastened. He made it very clear that living with her was not something he wanted to do. Maybe it wouldn’t have been a good idea, but it hurt a little to think that he wouldn’t even consider it.

“If you moved in with me, nobody would care,” she said, surprising herself. “People don’t sit in judgment over the moral values of their fellow man anymore.”

“Want to bet?”

She felt and looked irritated. “All right, then, move in next door. I don’t want you in my apartment, anyway. You’d seduce me,” she accused, and was amazed that she could joke about it.

“You wish,” he countered dryly. “I’m very particular about my body. You might have noticed that I keep it in rare good condition, and I’ll tell you flat that it’s in great demand by women. I don’t share it with everyone who asks.”

Her eyebrows lifted and her eyes twinkled. “You don’t?”

His broad shoulders lifted and fell. “It’s a dangerous practice these days, sleeping around,” he reminded her with a quiet smile.

She smiled back. “Yes, I know. That’s why I don’t do it.”

The smile was still there, but there was something somber in his dark eyes. “Ever come close?” he asked very softly.

She hesitated, and then shook her head. “Only with you, that one time,” she said involuntarily, and her eyes flickered with painful memories before they fell.

He slid his hands deep into his pockets. He remembered, as she did, the wonder of that night. Nothing in his life before or since had ever equaled it, as relatively innocent an experience as it had been. Because he knew in his heart that he wasn’t ready for marriage, he’d been too honorable to seduce a woman as innocent as Kirry, although their intimacy had been devastating just the same.

Then the very next day, Chad had dropped his bombshell and the relationship had shattered forever.

“You sit pretty heavy on my conscience sometimes,” he said unexpectedly.

Her eyes lifted to his. “That’s a shocker,” she murmured. “I thought I was just one in a line.”

“Fat chance.” His gaze slid over her slowly, boldly. “I suggested that we get engaged, but I didn’t really want to get married and you did. That was the real problem. I guess that’s why I believed Chad, and not you.”

“That’s what my mother said.”

“Well, she is astute every now and then,” he observed.

“It was the only time in our lives that she really tried to act like my mother,” she reminisced. “I needed her, and she was there. Even if it was a fairly innocent thing, it hurt once it was over.”

“Did you think I got away scot-free?” he asked curiously.

She shrugged. “You wanted out and you got out.”

“I didn’t want to get married,” he repeated. “That didn’t mean I wasn’t involved emotionally. It hurt me, too.”

“That’s hard to imagine,” she said. “You never took anything seriously, least of all me.”

“You’d be surprised.” He looked at her intently before continuing. “The apartment I’m getting isn’t very large, but I like the view. And it’s convenient to yours, if Erikson tries anything.”

She didn’t like to think about that. Knowing what she’d learned about the man made her very nervous. “Couldn’t we manage better if you moved in with me?” she said, thinking out loud. “I have two bedrooms and I can cook.”

“I can cook, too,” he volunteered, ignoring her offer. “And I
don’t have a phobia of vacuum cleaners. This last one I bought has lasted a whole month.”

“A month!”

“Well, the damned things are like elephants. When you drag them around by the trunk and get them hung on furniture, and jerk real hard…it pulls their little trunks off!”

She laughed. He was as incorrigible as ever. He made her forget Erikson, even if just for a little while.

“Feel like helping me move tonight?”

“If we’ll have enough time, I guess so.” She had visions of lugging furniture up on the elevator as she toyed with her napkin. “Is there someone who’d mind if you stayed in my apartment?” she prompted, curious about his reasons for refusing.

“A woman, you mean?”

She nodded.

“No,” he said gently. “There isn’t anyone.”

“I see.”

“Probably not.” He chuckled. “Finished? Let’s go fall on a mat for a couple of hours.”

“I’m still sore from the last time,” she groaned.

“And we haven’t even gotten to the bag, yet.” He sighed. “You’ll have to take more vitamins.”

“It sure does look like it,” she agreed grimly.

The side and back break falls went on forever, but this night he began to teach her the hand positions as well. The more she learned about economic movement, the more fascinating it
became. She could understand how people loved the sport. There were several women in the gym this particular night, being taught a self-defense class by Tony, the man who managed the gym.

“They’re doing a lot more than we are,” she said pointedly to Lang while she was catching her breath.

“Sure they are. It’s a two-week class. He has to get through a lot of material. And it’s just basic stuff, like how to bring a high heel down on an instep or put a knee in a man’s groin. You’re learning a lot more, and it will take longer.”

“Oh, I see.”

“You’re a promising pupil, too,” he had to admit. “You’re taking to it like a duck to water.”

“Why didn’t you ever show me any of this years ago, when we were together?” she asked.

He searched her curious eyes. “Because it was hard enough to keep my hands off you. A class like this, with constant touching, would have put me right over the edge.”

Her eyebrows arched. “But you never wanted me.” She blurted out the words. “Only that once….”

He moved closer, so that his voice wouldn’t carry, so close that she could feel the strength and heat of his body. “I wanted you night and day,” he said huskily. “You were too innocent to notice.”

“I must have been,” she agreed. “But it doesn’t seem to bother you now.”

“I’m older,” he replied. “And a good deal more experienced.”

Her eyes went cold. “Of course.”

He turned away. The jealousy he saw in those green eyes made his body ache. She still felt possessive about him, but that didn’t mean she still cared. He had to remember that, and not read too much into her reactions.

“Let’s try this again.”

He positioned her on the mat and invited her to use one of the hold-breaking positions on him. She went through the motions smoothly, but she couldn’t get him onto the mat. He countered every move she made, laughing.

“That’s not fair, Lang,” she panted, pushing. “You won’t cooperate.”

“Okay, go ahead. Throw me.” He relaxed, standing still.

She put her whole heart into it, stepping in with one leg, tripping with the other, pushing and pulling until she broke his balance and put him down. But she underestimated her own stability, and in the process, she went down heavily on top of him.

“You aren’t supposed to fall
with
the victim,” he instructed.

She was too winded to move momentarily. One of her legs was between both of his, her breasts flattened on his chest, her hands on either side of his head. It was a surprisingly comfortable position, if she’d been a little less aware of the intimacy of it.

“Could you help me up?” she asked breathlessly.

“Why not? You’ve certainly helped me up,” he said with a blatant sensuality that brought a blush to her face when he shifted and made the point very clear.

“Lang!” she gasped.

He chuckled with pure delight as she scrambled off his body and got to her feet, red faced.

“Well, fortunately for us both, these jackets are loose and hip length,” he said as he rose to tower over her.

“You’re horrible!” she exclaimed, pushing back strands of damp blond hair from her eyes.

“You might consider it a form of flattery,” he remarked. “Actually this condition isn’t as easy to create as you might think. Not with other women, at least….”

“I want to go home,” she said stiffly.

“Suit yourself, but you’re going to miss the best part. I was going to teach you how to deal with a kick.”

“You can do that another time,” she said, fighting for composure.