The Phantom of Black's Cove (8 page)

“I’d like to help because it’s my fault you were shot. I do realize now that if it’s too good to be true, it probably isn’t.”

Maybe there was hope for her hard-nosed, got-to-have-the-truth-at-any-cost attitude after all.

Stuart stepped into the garage and opened the car door. “Sir, I received your call. How are you holding up?”

“Thanks to Miss Morgan’s bandaging job I think I’m going to make it.”

She climbed out and came around the nose of the car, catching his good arm with her hand.

Heat shot through him.

“You called him? When?”

“My car is equipped with an alarm. Stuart knew there’d been trouble a moment after it happened.”

“Oh. How super-heroish.”

Stuart stared at her hard and long and Jack felt tension ignite the air around them. “It’s all right. Miss Morgan had some problems and I was forced to rectify them.”

“Very well.” He moved forward, opened the door into the house and followed them inside. “Will you need Mr. Smith?”

“No. It’s a flesh wound. I’ll take care of it in the lab.”

Stuart preceded them through the kitchen and out into a narrow hallway. “If you need me, sir, I’ll be outside.”

Jack nodded to Stuart, reached for the knob and pulled the closet door open.

“You’re kidding me, right?” Olivia whispered next to him, a tremor in her voice. “A secret lab?”

Amusement glided through him, but he held it in check. Every detail he gave her put him in danger of exposure and increased the fact that he couldn’t allow her to leave.

“My grandfather had to protect his research.” He took her hand and they stepped into the cubical. He shut the door and a tiny light came on overhead.

“On NPQ?”

“Yes.”

“That’s spooky.”

Jack reached through the mass of hanging coats and pressed the elevator’s Down button.

“I don’t think you understand, Olivia.”

“Then why don’t you help me to?” She stared at him, her blue eyes sparkling in the dim light. The proximity of her body to his stirred primal need in his bloodstream. A knot fisted in his gut and he was forced to look away, taking his trail of desire with him. She was dangerous and in danger. It was a twisted equation that could get them both killed.

“His research was cutting-edge in the late seventies. There were other scientists working along the same lines, but my grandfather was the first and only one to perfect the formula—”

“And use it on human test subjects?”

He was digging his own grave. “Yes.”

“My brother Ross…and you?”

“Yes.” Maybe there was hope she’d believe they were the only two test subjects. Maybe he could contain the situation after all.

The elevator car landed with a soft jolt and Jack opened the door. Taking her hand, he led her out into his grandfather’s lab and hit the light switch panel on the wall. Rows of fluorescent lights came to life, illuminating the pristine room, its walls lined with work areas, exam tables and shelves of chemicals and compounds.

“Do you use this place?”

He let go of her hand and retrieved the medical kit
from inside a cupboard. “I used to, after I graduated from medical school. But I realized I didn’t want to follow in my grandfather’s footsteps. The Foundation was doing good work and needed someone at its helm, so I changed my focus.”

He laid the kit on one of the exam tables and opened it. Taking out a pressure dressing, swabs, sterile water, several gauze pads and some antiseptic, he laid everything out for her.

“Come on, I’ll tell you what to do.” He unbuttoned his shirt one-handed. “Take off the bandage.”

Olivia felt the pull toward him well before she picked at the knot she’d tied in the makeshift dressing. Her heart hammered in her eardrums as she fiddled with the material and released the square knot. She unwound it, noting the bleeding had stopped almost completely. The lab gave her the creeps and she wondered what was behind the massive vault door in the far corner of the room. Did mad scientists have vaults where they kept their demented formulas?

“It looks good. No more bleeding.”

“First aid training?” He pulled his good arm out of his shirt first and eased off the bloody sleeve on the other side.

Olivia swallowed and tried to keep her stare on the bullet wound rather than the broad expanse of his bare chest, but it wasn’t easy. The whole room closed in on her.

“Yeah. I clean it up with antiseptic first.” She tried to pull herself together.

“Yes. Use lots of it. I don’t want this to get infected.”

He sat down on the exam table in front of her. Now
she was forced to stare at his skin, hugging well-shaped pecs and pulled taut over ripped abs. Even the branching lines of scarring left her wanting to trace them with her fingertips.

Damn.
She was in some kind of trouble.

She fumbled for the bottle of sterile water, grasping it as he reached for her chin and pulled her face up, making eye contact.

Her head spun.

“If this is a problem for you, Olivia, I can get someone else.”

“It would help if you didn’t…touch me, while I’m trying to work.”

A sultry smile bowed his sexy lips and drained the reservoir of denial she was paddling around in. Her lifeboat sank and she leaned into him, caught in a current of raging desire she couldn’t swim out of.

He took her mouth in complete possession, exploring her with his tongue in slow sensuous strokes that stoked the fire burning in her veins. Her body engorged with heat so hot that she thought she’d melt into her shoes. Then he let her go, grasping her upper arms to keep her from rocking over and falling backward.

His eyes narrowed as he studied her. “You said you hadn’t been kissed enough after your near-death experience. I thought I’d take the opportunity to rectify that.”

Suspicion took a hold of her jumbled physical and emotional faculties. She reached for a piece of gauze to clean around the wound. “You just want me to keep my
mouth shut about your being the Phantom. That’ll take care of it, Jack.” She knew she was lying, as she twisted the cap off the bottle. Being kissed by him had only shown her how needy she really was, how behind her hard-charging style she was still a woman.

A woman without love in her life.

His teeth clamped together, setting a hard line along his jawbone.

What was his game? Did he really think seduction equaled no exposé? Did he think her heart was up for grabs? Well, he’d be wrong. She swallowed hard and doused the gauze with water.

Working carefully, she wiped the drying blood from around the wound at the entrance and exit sites. Thank God, it was a clean shot that had penetrated the skin on the underside of his upper arm. The bullet had missed the bone.

“Thank you.” She looked him in the eyes. “Thank you for doing what you do and for making sure I survived.”

“You’re welcome.”

She put the bloodied gauze down and picked up the iodine. “This might sting,” she said as she saturated the swab and began probing the wound.

He didn’t flinch, didn’t look at her again until she’d slathered antibiotic cream on his arm and bandaged it.

Jack teetered on a precipice of his own making. He could let her go and his identity as the Phantom would be front-page news within the week, but that wasn’t the worst of it. They would try to kill her again and they might succeed next time.

Or he could play his last card and force her to stay where he could protect her and convince her to let the story die.

“All done.” She stepped back and he was hyper-aware of her body, of the curve of her full breasts pressing against the fabric of her torn blouse, of the pensive, what’s-next way she held her mouth in a manner that belied her quick wit and active mind.

He slid off the exam table and stepped toward her. “I’ll drive you back to the hotel, so you can get your things.”

Her eyes widened. He prepared for an ardent protest.

“You’re not safe and I won’t have your blood on my hands.”

Still, she just stared at him like he’d grown an eye in the middle of his forehead and sprouted horns.

“You can’t keep me here!” Indignation spoiled her features and made his heart squeeze.

Jack reached for her, but she bolted out of his grasp.

Dammit, he’d do anything to keep her safe. Even endure her hatred. But he’d rather reason with her.

“You saw the power they possess. They tried to kill you this morning.”

“Who are they?” She moved around him in a circle.

“I can’t tell you. But I can promise you’ll be safe here. They won’t try to harm you while you’re in my care.”

“There are more like you…that’s it.” Her mouth opened in wonder. “They have the same power as you do.”

“Not the same.” His veil of secrecy was thinning a degree at a time.

“Enough.” He moved toward the desk in the corner and pulled open the bottom drawer. Reaching inside he took out her red baseball cap, the one she’d dropped in the basement of the clinic. He hated to threaten her, but he was out of options. This was concrete. This was something she could understand, respect.

He turned around.

The force of something hard made contact with his head. Pain and anger, burned through him.

“You can’t keep me here!” she yelled, raising the chair for a second blow.

Jack held out her red ball cap.

Olivia froze in mid-act. The meaning of the lost hat sinking deep into her brain. Jack had been there the first night she broke into the clinic and he’d been there the night the fire almost took her life. Jack Trayborne was the Phantom of Black’s Cove. He held her fate in his hands. But he’d also saved her life time and again.

“You would use that against me? You would turn me in for breaking and entering?” She lowered the chair.

A bead of fear pearled inside of her, culturing hesitation. She could go to jail.

“Stay, Olivia.”

“Do I have a choice?”

Jack stared at the lakefront cottage less than a hundred yards from the main house. He’d chosen to give her a space of her own. She’d accepted his ultimatum on the surface, but underneath he’d tapped into her resentment. She hated being trapped, feeling helpless…and scared. That wasn’t his goal, to frighten her, but if it worked to keep her safe, it was a tactic he felt compelled to employ.

He glanced at the thick file in his hand and took the steps off the terrace. Maybe having access to Ross’s medical information would alleviate her distress. Convince her the clinic had done everything short of curing him. Maybe then she’d consent to leaving Black’s Cove for good.

Regret ticked along his nerves and matched the beat of his footsteps through the rose garden and onto the porch of the cottage. His approach alerted Gunner, his German shepherd, and he immediately rushed toward him, tail wagging.

Jack patted the dog’s head and raised his hand to knock.

The door opened before he could rap on it.

“I saw you coming.” She turned away leaving the door open for him to enter.

The sway of her hips in her blue jeans made his jaw clench and he pulled in a deep breath before crossing the threshold into the land of temptation.

“I have something for you.”

She stopped, turned and plopped down on the couch, a devil-may-care grin on her face. “You’re going to free me from this exquisitely decorated prison?”

A knot swelled in his chest. He lowered himself onto the chair facing the sofa.

“It’s Ross’s medical file.”

She dropped the contrivance she’d wrapped herself in and sat forward. “You would give that to me?”

“Yes.” He watched disbelief pull her eyebrows together as she studied him, her intense blue-eyed gaze never leaving his face.

“It’s that simple. You give me the medical file, I read through it, determine if the clinic is responsible for his present medical condition and I’m good to go?”

“Something like that.”

The briefest flash of acceptance flitted across her pleasing features and he moved in for the kill.

“There’s one condition. You leave Black’s Cove immediately and you leave its secrets behind when you go. You’ll have the answers you seek about Ross and I’ll have my anonymity. There will be no exposé. Do we have an agreement?”

Reluctance kept him out of her mind. Any trail of thought she went down could only lead him back to his belief that she thought he was a freak and she’d love nothing better than to expose him as one.

Olivia stood up, her nerves a jumbled mass of short-circuiting bio-matter. What Jack was asking was career suicide for her, a lethal dose of unemployment. A journalist who couldn’t dish was dead. Was she willing to trade the story of the century for a manila file with her brother’s name on it?

Remnants of guilt surfaced in her mind, dragging her toward a decision. She stared at the folder Jack held so casually. He had her recompense in his hands. The absolution of her guilt for causing the accident that injured Ross.

“You know I have to take Ross’s file.”

“Yes, but why, Olivia? Why are you willing to risk your life for what’s inside this folder?” He held it out to her.

A lump formed in her throat. She reached for the information, but he pulled it back. “Why is this so important to you?”

The sting of tears blazed behind her eyelids. She wanted to run, wanted to escape his scrutiny as badly as she wanted to avoid her own.

“Because Ross’s accident was my fault. He was on my trike and I wanted it back, so I pushed him. He was two.” Her voice cracked and she turned loose of the pent-up pain festering inside of her.

“I was only four, for God’s sake! I had no idea he
would roll so fast into the street. My mother tried to catch him, but she couldn’t and then the car…”

Jack advanced on her and pulled her into his arms. She didn’t resist; she didn’t have the will to. She needed to feel his touch, his sympathy, his consolation and she wasn’t disappointed.

She listened to the drum of his heartbeat under her ear and closed her eyes, letting the tears come.

He brushed his hand over her head, pressing her tightly against him.

“You had no way of knowing what would happen, Olivia. Children lack reasoning skills and understanding of the consequences of their actions. Their cognitive function hasn’t fully developed at that age.”

His justification made perfect neurological sense, but there wasn’t much emotional solace in it.

She pulled back and dabbed at her eyes with the sleeve of her shirt. “I sabotaged my own childhood. From that day on, we traipsed around the country looking for help. Some miracle cure for his brain damage. My parents barely looked at me after that and never forgave me. They’re both dead now, my dad twelve years ago, and my mom a year ago.”

Her throat squeezed shut, and it took every ounce of strength she had not to bust up again. “Ross is my responsibility.”

Jack moved her to the couch and sat down next to her. He had his answer. Knew what drove her; why she did what she did, why she wrapped herself in a shell of invincibility. She needed forgiveness. Not from Ross, not from
her deceased parents, but from herself and he doubted she was going to find it in her brother’s medical file.

“Take it.” He held out the folder. “There’s enough in here to convince you Black’s Cove Clinic did everything possible to help your brother, but he didn’t respond to the treatment.” He laid the file on the coffee table and reached for her chin with his fingers, tipping up her face.

“It was a tragic accident, Olivia. You’re no more to blame than I was for my parents’ car accident. Forgive yourself. Move past it.”

If his words touched her at all it didn’t show in her eyes or the pull of her mouth. He let go of her and felt the void open between them.

“If only it was that simple.” She turned out of his grasp, picked up the file and stood up. “I’ll return this to you ASAP.”

She disappeared into the bedroom and closed the door.

Jack stood up, feeling discontent pulse in his blood. He couldn’t expect years of guilt and resentment to dry up in a matter of minutes.

He turned for the door, knowing it was going to take longer for her to forgive herself and drop the facade she hid her heart behind. In that respect, they were very much alike.

O
LIVIA STEPPED OUT
of the cottage onto the porch and turned her attention toward the main house. Her gut-wrenching admission to Jack an hour ago had left her feeling torn. Unpacking her emotional baggage on his
doorstep was risky, but she’d seen the sympathy in his eyes. Genuine? Yes. But could she take his advice and forgive herself?

Gunner took off like a shot for the driveway, warning her that someone or something had roused him from the doggie bed next to the cottage’s front door. So much for staying around to guard her.

She closed the door and headed across the expansive lawn to investigate the commotion. If nothing else, she intended to bring Gunner back with her. She kind of liked the ninety-pound puppy with razor-sharp teeth, a tail that wagged at the sound of her voice and a master who had trained him to protect on command.

Go to the lake.

Olivia stopped, unsure where the wayward thought had come from. Granted, she wanted to take a walk out onto the dock for a look around, but now wasn’t the time.

A chill brushed across her skin and penetrated her body. She shuddered and turned around, her gaze drawn to the lake’s edge, to the dock rocking gently in the ripples driven by the breeze.

Come to the water.

She took a step forward, then another.

Gunner’s piercing bark broke the odd trance she found herself in and she stepped back.

What the hell was happening?

She had to find Gunner.

Olivia turned and jogged forward, pausing when she heard the sound of voices near the right side of the house, the spot where she’d last seen the dog.

“You can’t keep her here! She needs to leave, before she destroys us all.” The female’s voice hit a note of recognition inside of Olivia’s head and caution sang through her.

It was the same woman who’d called her this morning and lured her into the path of an oncoming freight train.

Ducking in next to the corner of the house behind a juniper bush, she went still, watching Jack and the woman carry a large box past her hiding place and stop next to a koi pond in the middle of the yard.

“I have it under control, but I need to know if you tried to hurt her again this morning by forcing her car into the 11:55?”

“No!”

The woman’s high-pitched denial ground over Olivia’s nerves. Anger flared inside of her, ignited by a shot of betrayal. No one controlled her, but she wondered if they were in on it together? Had Jack somehow been involved in trying to kill her to shut her up? Normally she was great at untwisting the spin. Maybe venting to Jack had weakened her position, made her vulnerable…easy to manipulate.

“I haven’t gone near her since you stopped us from mowing her down on Main Street.”

Olivia put the flame of anger out in favor of eavesdropping, even though she really wanted to smack the shapely brunette in the teeth for lying.

“What about Rick?”

“I don’t keep tabs on him. You’ll have to ask him yourself.”

“I will.” He bent over and opened the top of the box. “I can get this, Diana. I’ll see you next week with the rest.”

“Are you sure?” She stepped close to him, reached out and put her hand on his arm.

Olivia recoiled, suddenly consumed with an emotion that made her mad all over. Jealousy?

“Why don’t you come to me anymore, Jack?”

He straightened and took a step back.

Olivia’s cheeks heated, every nerve ending in her body frayed, spilling information she didn’t want to accept, much less witness. There was familiarity between the two of them. It made her bristle.

“I can’t anymore.”

“But we need each other. We’re alike.”

Alike? Horror surged in Olivia’s veins, her stare going to the woman’s flip-flop-clad feet, to a spot on her left ankle where three distinctive black dots could be seen.

She was one of the test subjects from the clinic? She had the mark and abilities like Jack’s?

His jaw clenched, he pulled his shoulders back and crossed his arms over his chest. “I won’t be back.”

“Are you sure about that, Jack?” She stepped toward him, a seductive sway to the movement of her hips. “You liked it once.”

Olivia nearly gave up her hiding place to charge in, but she pulled back. Did kissing him give her the right to object?

Jack reached out and caught Diana by the upper arms. He squeezed until he saw her eyes widen. His decision was final, although he didn’t know why the
woman he’d once lusted after no longer held any appeal in his mind or for his body.

“Leave, Diana, and don’t come back. And if you ever try to hurt her again…I’ll make sure it’s the last thing you ever do.”

He released her. She rocked back, dusting at her arms where he’d touched her.

“You don’t frighten me, Jack. She’s made you fuzzy in the head. We’ll all go down if you don’t do something. I’ve got milking to do at the shop. Call me when you come to your senses.”

He turned back to his task, ignoring her as she strode across the lawn toward the driveway.

Releasing Diana was something he should have done long ago, and just the thought of touching her ever again left him stone-cold.

Dipping into the lined box, he netted the first koi, and released it into the pond. Catching its mate, he put it into the water and watched it swim away, disappearing into the murky depths.

He had Olivia to thank for his newfound need. Kissing her the first time had been spontaneous. Doing it a second time had negated his resistance. Now he wanted more. So much more.

“Who was that, Jack?”

Surprised for the first time in a long time, he swung around to find Olivia standing a couple of feet away. She stood with her fists at her sides, ready to fight. Tension tightened her features and sent warning currents rippling out around her.

“What’s wrong?”

“That woman, you know her?”

“Yes.”

“She’s the one who called my cell this morning and lured me into the path of the train. I recognize her voice.”

Caution slipped down his spine and fanned out across his nerves. What was Diana’s game?

“You’re sure?”

“What is she to you, Jack?”

“Nothing that can’t be remedied.”

“Where does she live? I’m going to interrogate her. Find out what’s going on. Find out why she tried to kill me.”

“Hold on, Olivia.” Jack dropped the net and stepped in front of her, blocking her path.

“I’ll take you. Just promise you’ll calm down and you won’t charge in.”

“Why?”

“She’s dangerous.”

She stared up at him, her features softening as understanding undid her resolve.

“She’s like you.”

“Yes.”

“Y
OU’RE KIDDING ME
.” Olivia tried to relax on the seat next to Jack, but it was impossible as she stared at the Exotic Pet Shop sign hanging over the door. “And I thought she was going to milk cows or something.”

Her attempt at humor didn’t faze Jack and he
wouldn’t even crack a smile, a fact that bothered her. Somewhere inside the obscure shop at the end of Main Street was a milking room filled with deadly king cobras.

“Next you’re going to tell me her special abilities allow her to handle venomous snakes without being bitten.”

“Something like that.” He climbed out of the car and she did the same, following him across the street.

It was 6:00 p.m. and most of the shops were already closed, their blinds drawn.

They made the sidewalk at the precise moment a young girl opened the pet shop door, stepped outside and turned to lock it.

“Molly?”

She started and whirled around, her hand going to her heart. “Oh, Mr. Trayborne, you scared me.”

“Is Diana inside?”

“Yeah, she’s in the milking room.”

“I need to speak with her.”

“Sure.” She pivoted and reinserted the key, unlocking the shop door. “Just turn the dead bolt once you’re inside.”