The Phantom of Black's Cove (14 page)

“Would it aid in your decision if I told you I love you, Olivia Morgan?”

Her emotions took off for the moon. She leaned into Jack, kissing him so hard her lips hurt. “Yes. Yes, I’ll stay. I love you, too, Jack.” She kissed him again, drawing out the sweet sensation until she thought she’d pop.

“I could even get into the Phantom of Black’s Cove thing. Maybe I can help or drive the getaway car.”

She leaned into him, letting his declaration of love penetrate the layers she’d erected around her heart. Her days as a resentful vagabond were over, but a thin veil of worry covered her happiness as she squeezed the air canister in one hand and touched the man she loved with the other.

O
LIVIA PARTED THE
filmy curtains and stared out into the night, unsure what had woken her up. A full moon hung in the clear sky overhead and bathed everything outside the window in white light.

Their attacker was out there somewhere in the shadows, she was sure of it. Was he watching? Biding his time?
Waiting to steal the true happiness she felt for the first time in her life? A chill blanketed her skin. She shook it off, but frustration immediately replaced it.

He was strong…. Stronger than Jack?

She heard a whisper of movement in the room behind her and anticipated Jack’s fingers on her skin. Soothing her doubts with his touch. Grounding her fears with his love.

A hand slammed over her mouth, driving her lip into her teeth. Blood leeched into her mouth.

Vise-like arms locked around her, knifing terror into her heart.

She struggled in the darkness, fighting against the unknown man pulling her silently toward the door.

“Jack,”
she screamed in silence, praying she could somehow will her voice into his head.

He dragged her out into the hallway.

“Don’t fight me,” he whispered, his breath hot against her ear. “He can’t save you. Loving you makes him weak.”

He lifted her feet off the floor and carried her down the stairs into the foyer. “I’m going to enjoy killing him and taking what is mine.”

Terror flooded her heart, making her lightheaded as the madman readjusted his stance and put his arm over her throat in a choke hold.

He squeezed, cutting off her oxygen.

Olivia fought to drag another breath into her lung, but she lost the battle.

He was too strong.

“O
LIVIA, WAKE UP
,” Jack coaxed, patting her cheek. He could hear the steady beat of her heart, hear the strong intake of her breathing. But every muscle in his body was tense as he held her in his arms where she lay in the foyer next to the open front door.

Only the single set of tracks in the frost on the cobblestones forewarned him they’d had an unwelcome visitor in the house.

She responded to his touch and opened her eyes.

“How did you get here?” he asked, helping her to sit up.

She reached for her throat and his gaze settled on the red splotch over her windpipe.

“He was here. He choked me.” Her eyes narrowed and she came to her feet. He followed her up and closed the door.

Caution intertwined with the anger knotting inside of him. He’d slept through the whole damn thing. The bastard had come right into the bedroom and taken her. A show of his strength and superiority, a test of his cunning. It would be his last.

“I have to leave, Jack. I have to leave now before…”

Her words cut through the anguish cranking his emotions to the breaking point.

He reached for her thoughts, hearing the thug’s words reverberating in her mind.
“I’m going to kill him and enjoy taking what is mine.”

Pulling her against him, he felt her body quake. “No. No, he won’t.” He held her back. A tear escaped and rolled down her cheek, then another.

“Do you love me, Olivia?”

She swallowed. “Yes.”

“Then trust me. We’re going to beat him.” He pulled her back into his arms, fighting the flare of rage that threatened to consume him. He’d always feared its power; now he welcomed it. It was time to stand and fight.

Olivia eyed the influx of costume-clad guests flowing into the ballroom, trying to alleviate her anxiety. She prayed she’d made the right decision to stay. If anything happened to Jack tonight, she didn’t think she could live with herself.

“You look lovely this evening.” She turned at the sound of Jack’s voice, staring at him in his Phantom of the Opera costume.

“So one night a year you reveal your true persona?”

“Something like that.” A wicked-sexy smile parted his lips and she almost planted a kiss on them, sure the small-town rumor mill was already churning out stories of the cagey millionaire and the nosy journalist keeping him up at night.

“We can squelch those rumors, you know.”

“Hey, get out of my head. I’m entitled to my thoughts, but tell me exactly how we do that? Is it a juicy story?”

“A ring. A walk down the aisle. A name change.”

Warmth started in her toes and spread through her
entire body. She sobered as she looked into his eyes, and realized he was serious. It was a lethal combination to any girl’s heart, but there was a buzz-kill hanging in the air and she couldn’t beat it back.

“I’ll think about it.” She turned toward the center of the ballroom and waved him over with her finger.

The man who had so brazenly taken her from Jack’s room and threatened his life could be in this room right now, hiding behind a mask, watching their every move unchallenged.

Jack took her in his arms, moving her to the smoky beat coming from the band playing in the corner. Once, twice, he brushed against her, feeling the hard form of the air supply secured beneath her gown. It was the only item not included in his precognitive vision.

Staring at the partygoers, he grasped trails of thought as he assessed each one of them. The members of a security detail he’d put in place blended easily into the swarm of guests, but he couldn’t shake the suffocating cloak of foreboding that covered his nerves and played hell on his emotions.

If only he could pick the bastard out and take care of it before all hell broke loose…

The song came to an end and the event spokesman, Kyle Douglas, stepped up onto the bandstand, dressed like one of the three musketeers.

Jack heightened his senses.

“On behalf of the Trayborne Foundation, I’d like to thank our benefactor, Jack Trayborne, for once again opening his home to everyone.”

A boisterous round of applause went up in the room, echoing against the high ceiling in a deafening roar that raked across his eardrums.

“If we can get you up here, Jack, I’ll give you the total we raked in tonight and have you say a few words.” Another rumble of applause broke out.

“Go, Jack,” Olivia said from next to him, nudging him forward. “They love you and so do I.”

Glancing at her, he turned his attention to the stage. Every muscle in his body refused to move, but he stepped forward, aiming for the bandstand. He could see into the future, but he couldn’t prevent it from occurring; he could only intervene slightly before or after the fact.

He took the steps up onto the platform, like a man marching to the gallows.

Timing was everything.

Kyle handed him the microphone, along with a card showing the amount of money the fund-raiser had brought in. He raised the mic to his mouth, scanning the crowd, catching sight of Olivia as she slipped out of the room. Mentally, he reached out, grasping the trail of her thoughts.

Go to the water.

“We broke a record this year in fund-raising. As of this evening, ten million dollars has come into the Foundation’s coffers. That’s money for research that will one day save thousands of lives.”

Applause rumbled through the crowd.

“Thank you and enjoy the rest of your evening. We’ll see you next year.” Jack handed Kyle the microphone with an ease he didn’t feel.

Working his way down the steps, he was surrounded by happy guests, congratulating him and reaching out to shake his hand, but he pressed his way through the mass and lunged into the foyer outside the ballroom.

On his left, he heard the French doors leading out onto the terrace click shut.

Bolting for the exit, he pulled it open and stepped outside, spotting Olivia in her hypnotic march toward the lake a hundred yards away.

He clamped his teeth together. Restraint. He had to hang on.

She reached the dock and stepped onto it, beginning her walk to the end, past the fireworks display waiting to be launched. She paused at the edge, her form highlighted in moonlight.

Rage coursed in his veins as he took the steps down off the terrace and strode across the lawn toward her.

To his left, a man stepped out of the shadows and raised his hand, sending Olivia off the dock and into the water.

The splash sent him over the edge, but he hung on for two seconds before he rushed the madman and ran smack into a barrier he couldn’t penetrate.

Olivia jolted out of her trance the instant she hit the icy water, grabbing a breath as she was yanked beneath the surface.

Down…down…down.

Struggling against an unseen force, she flailed wildly, attempting to pull herself to the top, but her feet tangled in the wet gown.

She stared at the moon above her; its watery image
appeared only inches away. Her lungs screamed for air, a trail of oxygen bubbles escaping from between her lips as she fought a losing battle.

He was too strong…

“Give it up, Jack.” Benton Redmond pulled off his mask. “There’s only one thing I want. The NPQ formula from your vault.”

Jack lunged against the barrier again, drawing a snort from Benton.

Ten seconds.

“She’s begging for air right now. Her lungs are burning. In sixty seconds she’ll lose consciousness. Her sympathetic nervous system will take over and force her to breathe in the water. Six minutes, Jack, that’s all the time you’ll have before she’s brain dead. I tried to kill her more than a couple of times, but I realized you loved her. I used her, Jack.”

“You bastard.” He lunged again, hitting the invisible shield protecting Benton.

Twenty seconds.

“Give it up. You can’t touch me. I’m more powerful than you are.”

“How, Benton, how in the hell did you get that power?”

“You should be calling me Uncle Benton. Martin Trayborne was my father.”

Surprise laced through Jack, but he couldn’t let it alter his plan. “You’re a liar!”

Thirty seconds.

“That’s what love gets you. Love makes you weak.
My father, Martin, fell in love with his lab assistant, Mildred. I’m the product of that affair, but when she saw the benefits of NPQ, she took some poor kid’s dose and gave it to me instead. I eliminated all the others. I want what is rightfully mine and you’re going to give it to me or she dies.”

Forty seconds.

“And what about Stuart? You siphoned off all of his money.”

“Stupid old man. He never figured it out and when I told him, he had a damn heart attack.”

“You bastard.” Jack circled him, feeling rage fire in his body. Energy surged through him in hot jolts he fought to control.

Fifty seconds.

Benton reached out and dragged Olivia to the surface of the water. “I want it, Jack! I want the formula now! Open that damn impenetrable vault or I’ll drown her.”

Jack heard Olivia gasp for air, saw the silhouette of her head just above the water.

Now, Olivia.

Benton shoved her under again.

Letting out a guttural yell, he lunged for Benton, raising his energy shield.

The two opposing fields smashed into one another and short-circuited in a zap of heat and sparks that lit up the night.

Jack went airborne, hitting the ground with a thud that forced the air out of his lungs.

Benton recovered first, tearing the overhead power
line from its service box on the side of the cottage and thrusting it at him.

Jumping to his feet, Jack lunged right. The wire hissed past, just missing his face, and shot up into the air like a whip.

Reaching out, Jack cast an energy field around Benton, trapping him before he could regroup for another strike.

“No!” Benton staggered forward.

The live wire lashed out, snapping like a wet towel, as it flicked the shield around Benton, before rearing back and becoming entangled in a tree high overhead.

An arc shot toward Jack. He aborted the field and fell back, avoiding the aura of electricity spider-webbing around Benton.

Benton’s eyes went wide.

The electricity penetrated the barrier by degrees until it breached the shell and zapped into Benton’s body.

He took the two-hundred-amp charge, convulsing like a fish on land until he collapsed on the ground in a smoldering heap.

Horrified, Jack came to his feet and rushed forward. Heightening his senses, he searched for a pulse.

Nothing, There was nothing he could do for Benton Redmond. His heart had stopped.

Jack turned and sprinted for the lake, looking for Olivia to surface as he ran the length of the dock and stared down into the water.

Spotting movement just under the surface, he reached for her, encircled her and dragged her toward him from the depths.

Raising her from the water, he deposited her on the end of the dock, where she went to her knees and pulled the air regulator out of her mouth.

“Damn, I’m sorry I had to do that.” He knelt next to her and took her in his arms.

“Is he dead?” She nodded toward the spot where Benton lay sprawled on the lawn.

“Yes.”

“How…how did you kill him?”

“I didn’t. He tried to electrocute me, but it got him instead. His vulnerability was holding you underwater, leaving him a single ability to fight me.”

“How did you know I’d need this?” She dropped the air canister on the dock with a thud and he pushed it off into the lake.

“I’ve got secrets you’ve yet to uncover. The only thing you need to know is love makes you strong. Love invokes trust. You trusted what I asked you to do. You saved yourself.”

Olivia let her head lull against Jack’s chest, feeling the first violent shiver rip through her body. She was the coldest she’d ever been on the outside, but on the inside, a steady stream of heat spread through her.

“Someday you’ll stop talking to me in riddles, Jack Trayborne.”

“Never.” Jack lifted her up into his arms and strode up the dock. “Come on. Let’s get you inside and dry. The authorities will be here soon with a barrage of questions.”

“I’m going to write a feature story about this, you know.”

“About my soon-to-be wife falling into the lake, being sucked down by her wet gown? About the tragic accident that took the life of a guest as he raced to save her. By the way, there’s a job opening at the
Gazette
. They’ll be calling you Monday morning.”

She reached for his chin, pulled his face in line with hers and kissed him.