The Heart Has Reasons (54 page)

“Agent
Jarvis called last week to tell me you’d been released.”

Her
boss’s expression suddenly changed to one of horror.  “This is
him
?” 
He looked downright panicky as he fumbled a cell phone out of his pocket. 
“I’m calling the police.”

Chase
snatched the phone from his grasp.  “I can’t allow you to do that.”

“How
dare you!”

Larissa
laid a restraining hand on the man’s arm.  “Brendon, please let me handle
this.”

The
front door of the neighbor’s house opened and the diminutive Asian woman
stepped to the edge of her small porch.  “Everything okay, Larissa?”

“Everything’s
fine, Yumiko.  Thank you.”  She turned back to Chase and extended her
hand, palm up.  “Please give me Brendon’s phone.”

“Is
he going to call the police?”

“No.”

“Yes,
I am!”

“No,
you’re not, Brendon.”  Chase reluctantly handed her the phone.

“Larissa,
after all this man has done to you, how can you continue to protect him?”

“You
don’t understand.”

“You’re
right, I don’t.  He should be in prison.”

“No
one’s going to prison.  And lower your voice before someone hears
you.  If he meant to do me harm, he would have done so long before now.”

When
Brendon turned to regard Chase dubiously, Chase assured him, “Larissa’s
right.  I would
never
do anything to harm her.”

“You
already have!”

“I
know, but it wasn’t intentional.  I’m here to try to make amends.”

“You
see, Brendon?  I’ll be fine.  Thank you for bringing me home.”

His
eyes opened wide at her dismissal.  “I can’t just leave!”

“Yes,
you can.  Please trust me on this.”

“I
do
trust you.  It’s
him
I have a problem with.”

“If
our friendship means anything at all to you, please do as I ask.”

He
opened his mouth, closed it, and stood for another moment, worry etched in the
lines of his face.  Then he pulled her into a fierce hug.  “I don’t
like this.”

“Everything
will be fine,” she assured him.  “Do you promise not to call the police?”

With
obvious reluctance, he said, “I promise.”

She
handed him the cell phone.  “I’ll call you later.”

With
serious misgivings, Chase watched Brendon climb back into his vehicle. 
Although Larissa might trust him not to call the police, he himself did
not.  As the Civic slowly drove off, she turned to him.  “I’m
not
in any danger, am I?”

“Of
course not.  I only want to talk to you.”

Her
eyes flicked to her house and then back to him.  “We could go for a walk.”

“I’d
like that very much.”

“Wait
for me here while I change.  I won’t be long.”  Although she clearly
didn’t trust him enough to allow him inside, at least she was willing to listen
to him.  As he watched her stride to her door and let herself inside,
guilt once again assailed him at how thin she was. 

He
felt that strange prickle again, as if unseen eyes were watching him.  A
curtain fluttered at the neighbor’s window.  At the end of the block,
Brendon’s royal-blue Honda Civic pulled around the corner and stopped at the
curb, motor idling.  But it was neither of those two who provoked his
unease.  Turning to face the street, he first scanned the vehicles parked
along either side of the street and, spotting nothing out of the ordinary,
studied the houses.  It must simply be a case of nerves.

* * * * *

Larissa closed the door behind her and
slumped back against it, heart pounding from the adrenaline that surged through
her veins like a drug, filling her with giddy energy.

He
was here!  He was actually here!

If
she didn’t first keel over into a dead faint, she was going to drop dead of a
heart attack.

From
its cage in the kitchen, the puppy whined, and the sound galvanized her into
action.  She pushed off the door and raced to the bedroom where she peeled
out of her clothes and threw on jeans and a tee shirt.  In the bathroom,
she brushed her teeth, ran a comb through her hair, and applied lip-gloss with
trembling hands.

Without
warning, Agent Jarvis’ warning suddenly echoed in her head, causing her
already-accelerated heart rate kicked up another notch.  What if Chase
were here to assure that she’d never identify him?

She
shook her head.  The very idea was ridiculous.  Jarvis had
deliberately made her paranoid, hoping that, on the off chance that Chase
did
show up, she’d immediately call the police.  And, in any case, Brendon
knew he was here, and Yumiko had seen him as well.  If Chase wanted to
eliminate her, he would have simply broken into her house and waited for her to
come home.

Returning
to the bedroom, she removed the 9mm from her purse.  She dropped the
magazine, saw with relief that it was still full, slapped it back in, then
eased the slide back to see another round gleaming in the breach.

With
every nerve in her body twanging from the overload of adrenaline, she shoved
the 9mm into the waistband of her jeans at the small of her back, and tugged
her tee shirt down over it.  Chase would
not
hurt her.

Still,
it never hurt to be careful.

* * * * *

As Chase waited, it occurred to him that
Larissa might’ve called the police herself.  But his fear of the police
showing up was actually less than his fear that she’d reject him.

Finally,
her front door opened and she emerged, wearing a tee shirt and jeans and
carrying a puppy.  She locked the door behind her, paused to let the puppy
relieve itself in the grass in her front yard, then joined him on the sidewalk.

The
puppy capered about his feet and he knelt down to pet it.  “Pit
bull?”  When she nodded, he said, “Despite what you see on the news,
they’re excellent dogs.”

“A
lot of people in this neighborhood have them.”

He
stood.  “Exactly how much does your boss know?”

“Everything.”

“
Every
thing?”

She
nodded.  “Don’t worry.  Brendon would never betray me.”

Tugging
impatiently at the leash, the puppy was nearly vibrating with eagerness, and so
they started down the street.  “Jesus, Larissa, you’re even more beautiful
than I remembered.”

She
turned to regard him expressionlessly.  “At the time, you weren’t exactly
seeing me at my best.”

“Or
you, mine.

“Chase,
why are you here?”  Her lips seemed to caress his name, and he realized it
was the first time he’d ever heard her say it.

“Several
reasons, actually.  First of all, I want to thank you for not sending me
to prison.  I’m not sure why you didn’t, but I wouldn’t have blamed you if
you had.

“Secondly
— despite the fact that mere words are inadequate to express my remorse — I want
to apologize for dragging you into this mess.  I’m truly and deeply sorry
for everything.  The only plausible excuse I can offer is that I’m a
fucking idiot.”

She
tilted her head to gaze up at him.  “You’re not an idiot.”  For a
moment, a little mischievous light danced in the green eyes.  “A moron,
maybe, or even an imbecile, but not an idiot.”

“Thank
you.  I feel much better now that we’ve clarified that.”

She
raised a trembling hand to brush a wayward strand of hair from her face. 
“You could have apologized over the phone.”

“I
was afraid you’d hang up on me and, in any case, I wanted to do it
face-to-face.”  He glanced back to see that the Civic had crept halfway up
the block.  He hadn’t really expected Brendon simply to drive off and
leave but, while it irritated him that the man felt it necessary to follow
them, he was relieved to know someone was looking out for Larissa.

She
was clearly unaware they were being shadowed.  “Does Cheyenne know you’re
here?”

“I
guess you saw her on the news.”

“After
Agent Jarvis showed me a picture of the two of you together.”

“I
should’ve known he’d do something like that.  He and Sengupta questioned
her, which was a waste of their time, since she knew absolutely nothing. 
But, in answer to your question, Cheyenne and I are no longer seeing each
other.”

She
took a deep breath that lifted her breasts and delineated them against her tee
shirt.  With an effort, he forced his eyes back to her face.  “The
day after you were released from jail, I called you.  When you answered, I
hung up.”

“I
knew
that was you.  Why didn’t you say something?”

“I
chickened out.  After all, you had a supermodel girlfriend.  And I
worried you’d think I was crazy.  That was basically what Agents Jarvis
and Harris were implying.”

“They
were just trying to get you to talk.  It was right after you called that I
broke up with Cheyenne.  I told her that I was in—” he caught himself just
in time “—in
volved
with someone else.  Larissa, I can’t even
imagine how rough this past month has been for you.  How’ve you been,
really?”

She
looked away from him and shrugged.  “Depressed.  Unable to sleep.”

“You’ve
lost weight.”

She
shrugged again.

“Ah,
Jesus.  I feel like such a shit.  How’s your asthma?”

“Better. 
Despite everything, I’ve hardly had to use the inhaler.”

They
walked on, each lost in their own thoughts.  Oblivious, the puppy capered
happily around their feet.  Finally, she broke the uneasy silence. 
“Chase, I’d like to ask you something.”

“Anything.”

“Will
you answer honestly?”

“I
swear on my life.”

“Would
you really have killed that state trooper?”

He
came to an abrupt stop and gazed straight into her eyes.  “I’ve killed
more than a few men in the line of duty.  It’s not something I’m proud of,
but neither am I ashamed of it.  But under
no
circumstances would I
have killed that officer, although I
would’ve
had to subdue and restrain
him.”

She
searched his eyes for the truth and, apparently satisfied, nodded and started
walking again.  They covered nearly half a block in silence, before he
screwed up sufficient courage to say, “I’d like to ask you a question as well,
and I hope that you’ll give me an honest answer.  Something you said has
been eating at me—”

“It’s
been eating at me, too.  I absolutely did
not
mean it when I said I
should have shot you.”

“Well,
I’m happy to hear that, but that’s not what’s bothering me.  Hell, I
almost wish you
had
shot me.  What I want to ask concerns that last
night at the motel, when we … uh ...”

“Got
naked and sweaty?”

He
nodded.  “Afterwards, you said you’d faked everything.”

“I
guess I owe you an apology for that, too.  I admit to having had an
ulterior motive for seducing you, but I didn’t fake anything.  I lied
because I wanted to hurt you.”

A
wash of relief flooded him and brought a lump to his throat.  “If you said
it to hurt me, then you can rest assured you were successful.  Telling me
you faked everything hurt a hundred times worse than the rock you tried to cave
in my head with.”

“I’m
not apologizing for the rock.  You deserved that.”

“You’ll
get no argument from me.”  After a moment’s hesitation, he added, “Maybe I
shouldn’t tell you this, but … you didn’t have to run that night.  Before
I fell asleep, I’d decided to drive you to the closest airport or bus station
in the morning and give you money for a ticket home.”

She
came to an abrupt halt.  “You’re lying.”

He
held his hands up, palms out.  “I swear on the lives of everyone I love.”

She
pinched the bridge of her nose as if experiencing the onset of a
headache.  “Un-freaking-believable.”  After a moment, she looked up
at him.  “If you
had
driven me to the airport the next day, Sparrow
would still be alive and plotting his revenge against me, so fortunately
everything happened the way it did.  I assume you know about the bodies
they found?”

“I’ve
been keeping up with the news.”

“The
FBI suspects that Sparrow may have killed at least nine additional women. 
Who knows how many lives you saved by
not
driving me to the airport.”

“I
hadn’t thought of it that way.”  They paused for a moment while the puppy
squatted on the edge of someone’s lawn, and he glanced back to see that
Brendon’s Civic had turned the corner and was idling less than half a block
back.  “Larissa, about that night...”  He raked his fingers through
his hair.  “Was it just me, or was that the most mind-blowing sex anyone’s
ever had?”