Speechless (17 page)

You won’t lose me.

This lovemaking felt different from anything they’d done
before. Peaceful and tender and slow and sweet, as if Stone was committing the
feeling of her to memory. As if the face-to-face closeness of the classic missionary
position mattered more than the intensity they had shared earlier. As if he
still feared that she would chose her old life over him and he had to absorb as
much of her as he could.

I’m staying with you, no matter what. I love you, Stone.

He came with a guttural moan and collapsed on top of her,
his softened penis twitching inside her with butterfly aftershocks.

“You didn’t come,” he said into her ear. “I wanted to make
you come.”

Eva turned her head and kissed him.
You can make it up to
me in the morning. I’m too sleepy to come right now.

Stone had packed clean clothes in the gym bag he’d brought
out with them and Eva, shivering in the chill autumn morning, dressed
hurriedly. She could feel Stone’s eyes on her and if she hadn’t been so cold
she would have slowed down, teased and enticed him. He’d more than made up to
her that morning for his perceived failing in the dark of night, his tongue and
fingers and cock making her come over and over again. She wouldn’t walk
straight for days and she’d creamed so much she thought she must be dehydrated.

You’re covered in goose bumps,
Stone said into her
mind.

You will be too, when you finally come out from under
those blankets.

An hour later Eva flipped through the newspaper while she
and Stone waited for the rest of the family to come down for breakfast. It had
been earlier than she thought when she’d come in for her shower and the others
were still getting dressed. She only skimmed headlines and glanced at pictures,
so she almost missed it. The photo had been taken from below, while she’d been
watching from above, which was why she didn’t recognize the scene immediately.
But a fleeting thought that the man clinging to the scaffolding reminded her of
Stone made her stop and look more closely. It was Stone, mid-descent to rescue
the boy stuck on the bleachers the night before. The headline read “Prodigal
Son Turns Hero,” and the article made much of Stone’s recent return to the
family fold after a long absence, only to arrive just in time to rescue the son
of his high school sweetheart. The story had been picked up by one of the
newswires.

Eva’s chest constricted and she fought to breathe as she
handed the paper to Stone.
We have a problem.

Stone glanced at her then looked where she pointed. “Shit.”
The curse was hard and sharp in Eva’s ears and she longed to echo it. She had a
feeling that if she could vocalize the same word, it would carry more
desperation and exhaustion than the anger and frustration in Stone’s voice.

David jogged down the steps at that moment, but froze at his
first sight of their faces. Stone and his brother locked gazes. “Load your
rifle,” the younger brother instructed the elder and threw the newspaper down
on the coffee table to display the betraying article. “They could be here any
minute.”

Without a word, David grabbed a key from a collection on a
hook in the kitchen then disappeared into a back room. A moment later, he
emerged with a rifle in one hand and a box of ammunition in the other.

“Get Mom and Dad down here,” Stone said and David took the
stairs three at a time. Stone turned to Eva. “I’m going to send them into town.
I want you to go with them.”

I’m staying.

“Eva, it’s going to end here, one way or another. You can go
back to your life, your family. If you stay, you might not survive.”

If I go, will I ever see you again?

Stone’s silence was his answer. Either he would die, or he
would live and stay away from her in an attempt to keep her safe.

I’m staying. I won’t spend my life wondering what happened
to you, looking over my shoulder every second, staring at every passing face
and praying it’s yours. You promised me I could think about you.

“I don’t want to worry about you.”

You’ll worry about me no matter what. At least if I’m
here, I can help.
Eva bit her lip.
You would have died at the cabin
without me. And silent communication might be useful.

Another silence, then Stone scrubbed a hand down his face
and gave a single nod. “You’re right. But I’m going to position you someplace
safe. You’ll be an extra set of eyes and ears. That’s it. Understand?”

Eva nodded.

No matter what happens, don’t ever forget that I love you
.

Eva couldn’t say the words. Emotion clogged her mind, choked
her mental voice. She could only step toward him, slide her arms around him and
lean her head against his shoulder. He could read her well enough—he would
know.

The sound of footsteps on the stairs parted them and Stone
turned to face his parents.

“Jacob, what’s going on? Why is David carrying a loaded
rifle in the house?” Marie asked. She looked shaken, fearful, but Eva caught a
hint of reprimand in her voice, too, as if she thought her sons should know
better than to walk around the house with loaded weapons.

“There’s an article about me in the newspaper, about that
boy on the bleachers last night. The men whose crime I witnessed will have seen
it. They’ll be coming for me. You need to leave.”

“Son, what have these men done?” Stone’s father asked.

Eva’s bile rose merely at the question, at the reminder of
the crimes committed. She started to gag, put a hand to her mouth and had to
turn away. Eva could feel eyes on her back, as if her reaction were explanation
enough.

“That bad?” John asked.

“Murder and treason are just the beginning.” Stone’s voice
had gone cold and at his answer, at the recollection of what he wasn’t telling,
Eva’s stomach dry heaved, bringing up only acid. She felt hands on her
shoulders and saw David’s face in front of her.

“Eva, you all right?”

She nodded, swallowed and managed a deep breath. After a
moment, she could turn back to Stone’s conversation with his parents. She
recognized the tone of voice he used, it was the same one as when he’d told her
the story of his discoveries in Thailand, the same one as when he’d tried to
push her away in the cabin. She was learning to hate that tone, that lack of
emotion, that hardness. But she understood it now. She knew now why Stone had
worked so hard to stay disconnected for so long—so he could get through moments
like this.

“Take the truck across the pasture and down the back road,
if it still exists. You’ll have a better chance of getting away.”

“Jacob, if these men are as bad as you say…“

Stone interrupted his father. “Dad, I need to know you’re
taking care of Mom. Please. Get her away from here and safe.”

The older man gave a sharp nod and turned to Eva. “You
comin’?”

Eva shook her head.
I have to help finish this. Tell
them, Stone.

“Eva’s staying. If she goes with you, they’re more likely to
follow,” Stone said to his father. Eva wasn’t sure John would buy Stone’s explanation
and apparently neither was Stone. He went on. “They know her, Dad. They’re
after Eva, too. If she stays, I can protect her.”

John turned to his wife. “Let’s do like the boy says and get
ourselves away from here.”

But Marie lingered. “Why aren’t we all going? Why are you
going to let them find you? There’s got to be someplace we can go. Can’t we
call the police?”

Stone shook his head. “The police won’t be able to do shit.”
His mother gasped at the profanity, but Stone went on. “I’m going to call some
friends—people who can arrest these men—and make sure they come. It has to end,
Mom. They’ll keep chasing until they catch me. I’m sorry I put you in danger.”

Marie embraced her sons. To Stone, she said, “I just got you
back. I don’t want to lose you again, Jacob.”

“You won’t lose me. Not if I have anything to do with it.”

Then, to Eva’s surprise, she found herself wrapped in
Marie’s arms. “You’re already a part of this family, Eva. No matter what
happens. I’m glad Jacob brought you home.”

Eva smiled her agreement and at last the older woman allowed
her husband to lead her out of the house. Only after they heard the truck roar
to life and start toward the pasture did the three of them—David, Stone and
Eva—act.

Stone spoke. “Eva, I want you in the barn. You can watch the
road from the window at the far end of the loft. The moment you see anything,
tell me.”

Eva nodded, but David looked back and forth between them,
confusion written across his face.

“I hate to point out the obvious or risk offending anyone,”
he said, “but, Eva, you can’t speak. How are you going to tell Jacob anything?”

Stone put a hand on his brother’s shoulder. “There’s not
time to explain, but trust us. It will work better than if a speaking person
were there. Get out there now, Eva. We need to know the moment they arrive.”

I want a gun.

“You don’t know how to shoot.”

I remember what you told me at the cabin. I want to be
able to protect myself. Even if I can’t hit anything. Give me a gun.

“I have an extra in the car.” Stone turned to David. “Go up
to the attic and use the east window to shoot from. I’ll bang on the radiator
when I hear from Eva that they’re coming, but wait for my signal to start
shooting.”

“What about you, little brother?”

“I’m going to walk out and greet them. I want to hear them
confess their crimes before I kill them.”

“What’s to stop them from killing you the moment they see
you?”

“Arrogance.”

* * * * *

Eva sat on a hay bale, watching the driveway, waiting for
the attack. The gun Stone had given her, after a quick review of how to use it
and a couple practice shots, sat at her feet. It had been an hour since she’d
taken up her position and she shifted restlessly, trying to keep her fear from
overwhelming her. Every few minutes, she would shake violently, feel a powerful
urge to run. But so far, she’d managed to fight it down.

Stone’s voice sounded in her head.

You okay?

Yes.
Then she saw her hand shaking.
No.

We’ll get through this, Eva.

No we won’t. But maybe we can take some of them with us.

I’ve corrupted you. I knew from the beginning that if I
got you involved, you’d be contaminated with this poison.

You haven’t corrupted or contaminated me. You’ve taught
me that there are things, people, worth fighting for.
Eva stilled as a
glint of reflected sunlight hit her eye.
They’re coming.

No fears, Eva. I won’t let anything happen to you. Tell
me how many as soon as you can.

Eva watched the road, waiting for the car to come back into
view. She could hear the engine now—engines, by the sound. Sure enough, when
they rounded the last hill, two SUVs came into view and she passed the
information on to Stone.

The windows are tinted. I can’t see how many people in
each car.

Keep watching and stay out of sight.

As the trucks passed the barn, Eva moved to the other end of
the loft so she could count people as they got out. One of them she recognized,
Adrian Smith, from the hospital.

Six. Five toward the house. Smith is coming toward the
barn.

I see them. Hide yourself.

Eva tucked herself into a hollow in the mountain of hay
bales—the same hollow she and Stone had woken up in that morning and the scent
of their lovemaking seemed to perfume the air—and pulled bales over and around
herself to make sure she was hidden from the ladder and all angles along the
length of the barn. Then she cursed. She’d left the gun on the floor by the
window where she’d been sitting. But she couldn’t get it now—Smith would hear
her footsteps. She prayed that somehow she wouldn’t be found.

They’ve stopped in front of the house. I’m going out to
them.

Stone.

No fears, Eva.

Long minutes passed with no sound, no words from Stone in
her mind, no gunshots, no footsteps in the barn.

Then the bang of a gun. Eva didn’t know for sure, but she
guessed it was David’s rifle. Hoped it was David’s rifle. A flurry of gunfire
followed. Eva squeezed her eyes shut and prayed harder. It paused—if the action
had been anything like the movies, either everyone was dead, or they’d all
found cover.

I’m okay.

Eva felt relief wash over her, only to have it chilled in
the next second.

“Hello. I believe you lost this.”

Her eyes snapped open to see Smith grinning at her over a
bale, her gun in his hand. In novels, the bad guys were always scarred and
ugly, but Smith might have been mistaken for average, except for that grin on
his face and the hard glint of death in his eyes.

“I knew you were lying to me in the hospital. No one who
meets Leo forgets him. Especially not his women. Let’s go.” Eva rose slowly,
stalling, concentrated on not calling Stone, for fear her voice in his head
would distract him and give their enemies an advantage. “Come on already. I
miss having those Thai girls at my disposal. You’ll do just fine.”

* * * * *

Stone had gotten his confession. Cronen himself had shown up
and had been all too happy to brag about how well the setup had worked, how
rich he and his partners had become. They’d stood there, Stone and he, each
with his gun pointed at the other, for the whole conversation.

“It’s your last chance, Jacob,” Cronen said. “You can forget
all this truth, justice and the American way idealism and get rich following
the
true
American way, screwing your inferiors.” He grinned. “In every
sense of the word. Your mute scientist got screwed, didn’t she?”

Stone gave a hard smile. “That’s the business. She means
nothing, just an innocent bystander. When have you ever known me to become
attached to a woman?” He prayed she could not hear him. He took a step to his
left, taking him that much closer to the old Firebird parked in the front yard.

“Why drag her along, then?”

A couple more steps and he was as close to the car as he
could hope to get without Cronen realizing what he was doing. “She knows
things. I couldn’t run the risk that you’d sic your dogs on her and she’d give
me away.”

“You really are a stone-hearted bastard, aren’t you?”

Stone shrugged and with the motion signaled to David and
took a flying leap behind the shelter of the car. The sharp retort of the rifle
and Cronen was spinning and falling, blood welling from his shoulder.

The remaining four men scattered, taking cover wherever they
could find it, Stone and David tracking their progress, and bullets flew every
direction. The silence that followed, each man hunkered down behind his own
piece of house or car, seemed deadly quiet. Eva’s fear washed through him and
he sent her a quick reassurance, but could spare no more attention than that.

One of the men stood up from behind the pile of cement
blocks where he’d found safety. His gun pointed downward, clearly aimed at
someone or something. Stone watched through the windows of the car as he
gestured and spoke and a second man stood, his hands empty and held high.

“Rafe!” the first man called across the yard and Stone
pulled back as if struck. Only his most trusted allies and not even all of
them, knew that name. Only those who were dedicated to hunting these men down
and bringing them to justice. How had one of them learned it?

“Simon says we’re working toward the same purpose, Rafael,”
the man called.

Still Stone didn’t respond. The man known as Simon was
running the operation to capture these scumbags and if this man knew the name
Rafael, then he would just as easily know Simon.

“Jacob!” David’s voice reached him from the attic window. “I
have him in my sights. Should I shoot?”

Stone shook his head and called back, “No! Cover the guys
behind the well pump, if you can. Shoot if either one twitches.”

“Got them.”

Only then did Stone stand, knowing that the third and fourth
men would stay down as long as they thought David was a threat.

So far, the man who’d named him Rafe had said everything
right, but Stone had one more test. Perhaps Stone had trusted someone in error,
perhaps someone had been tortured until he gave up the signals. But the chance
that two of his allies had been caught and tortured were slim and this second
person, he trusted more than anyone.