“Wait.” Doane stopped her as she was getting into the truck. “One other safeguard.” He pulled a scarf from his pocket and blindfolded her. “We’ll be passing a few landmarks and signs.”
“Aren’t you afraid that I’ll look a little strange to anyone who even casually glances at us?”
“Not much danger. I’ll take the back roads. I know all of them.”
Then this was Doane’s home stomping grounds. It wasn’t much, but she’d take it. She had to gather as much information as she could. She might not be able to use it in this conversation with Joe, but there might be another time, another opportunity.
“I know the blindfold probably makes you feel helpless.” He was lifting her into the truck and fastening the cuffs to the seat belt. “I’d hate it. We’ll take it off as soon as I get where we’re going.”
She did feel helpless, but she wasn’t going to admit it to Doane. He was once again pointing out how similar they were, and she wouldn’t admit that either.
Kevin? Bonnie?
Not the same. Never the same.
Or were they?
CHAPTER
9
“IT MAY BE THE RIGHT TRUCK,” Venable said to Joe as he came out of the farmhouse. “It was an old red Ford, parked down by the barn, and Mrs. Hallet, the farmer’s wife, thought she saw a late-model blue Chevy parked in the woods. It looks like he changed vehicles, but he didn’t leave the Chevy. He must have come back for it for some reason. I got the license-plate number of Hallet’s truck from her.” He handed Joe a slip of paper. “Call your headquarters and put an APB out on it.”
“If he hasn’t already changed cars again.” Joe reached for his phone. “And why ditch a late-model car for a truck that’s much older? All he’d have to do would be to change the license plates.”
“Which he probably did.”
“It doesn’t make sense. Unless he wanted to fit into the background of the countryside at the lake house. He appears to be very careful of details. And what about Hallet, the farmer who is missing? Did his wife hear anything about him yet?”
Venable shook his head. “The neighbors and a couple deputies are searching the woods now.”
“No one saw the thief?”
“I would have told you if they had.”
“Would you?” Joe asked bitterly as he started to dial the precinct. “I’m not sure that—” His phone signaled an incoming call. He glanced impatiently down at the ID.
Unknown.
He punched the access. “Quinn.”
“Joe.”
“Eve.” He froze. “My God.”
“Yes, listen, Joe, he’s only giving me a minute.” Eve was talking softly, urgently. “And I’m having to pay for that.”
“Where are you?”
“I can’t talk about that now. Jane. He says Jane is still alive? Is it true?”
“Yes, she’s at a hospital in San Juan. The wound wasn’t serious. How are you? Did he hurt you?”
“No. Drugs. He appears to be good at drugs. Ben? He said he dropped Ben at an urgent-care clinic. How is he?”
“Concussion. He’s as good as can be expected considering that he also suffered from exposure because the clinic didn’t find him for several hours.”
“But he’ll live?”
“He’ll live. What can you tell me about that bastard? Is he going to—Tell him if he hurts you, I’ll kill him … slowly.”
“He can hear you. I’m not in immediate danger, Joe. He wants something from me.”
“What?”
“The usual. What most people want from me. He’s trying to convince me that he has a heart of gold. I’m not buying it. But he made me an offer I couldn’t refuse. I can’t talk about that right now. If you want to keep me safe, make sure that there’s no way anyone can touch Jane. Because my cozy little deal with the bastard is off if they do. I’d kill him myself.”
“No, you won’t. My privilege. I’ll hunt him down and castrate him before I cut him into small pieces. Do you hear me, you son of a bitch?”
“He hears you. And he’s not pleased,” Eve said quickly. “I have to go now.”
“Listen, Eve. Don’t let him use us to make you do anything. I’ll take care of Jane and myself. You do what you have to do to get away from him.”
“And he didn’t like that either. My time is up. I love you.”
“And I love—” But she had already hung up. He pressed the disconnect and turned to Venable. “Call up one of your whiz-kid satellite units and see if you can trace that call.”
“I’m already on it,” Venable said. “I started when you picked up the call. I’ve just gotten through to the department. I don’t know if we can do it. She didn’t give us much time.”
“She didn’t have any choice,” Joe said. “Try, dammit.” He turned and started back toward the car.
She was alive.
Relief was zinging through him with a force that was making him dizzy. Why? He had been certain she was alive. He would have somehow known, felt it, if she had been taken from him. But what if fate had played one of her macabre tricks? Life wasn’t always kind, and all he knew was that he had wanted to fall to his knees when he heard her voice.
Now the certainty was confirmed, and all he had to do was find her.
He felt a sudden explosion of hope and ferocity.
And he would find her. He would pull out all the stops, bring in all the help he needed, tap every source.
Nothing would keep her from him.
He started dialing headquarters again to set up that APB on the truck.
* * *
“QUINN’S ANGRY WITH ME,” Doane said. “That threat was both crude and violent.”
“And heartfelt,” Eve said. “Joe always keeps his word.”
“So do I. You were hoping to disarm any threat to Jane MacGuire by having Quinn set up extra protection around her. That would free you from the obligation of doing Kevin’s reconstruction.”
“It would help to push away that gun you have pressed to my head.”
He smiled. “But I’ve no gun aimed at you, Eve. I’ve handled you in the gentlest way possible. Anything else would be totally unreasonable. I want you to be free to express yourself without coercion.”
She shook her head. “You actually sound as if you believed that lie.”
“No lie.” He stepped forward with the blindfold he’d taken off her when he’d stopped the truck and given the telephone to her. “It’s important that you and Kevin become one with each other. I’ve heard that’s how you turn out such wonderful sculptures.”
“I’m not going to become one with your son. The idea appalls me.”
“But how will you help yourself?” he asked quietly. “It’s part of your particular magic.”
“Not magic. I’m a professional.” Yet she felt a frisson of unease. She couldn’t deny in the last stages of a reconstruction that she felt as if the soul of the skull on which she was working was whispering, helping her bring that vision to life again. “And I’ll behave as a professional.”
“We’ll see. Give me that phone.”
She reluctantly handed it back to him.
“Time to bid good-bye to this one.” He dropped the phone on the ground, stomped on it with his boot, then ground it into the earth. “That should take care of any signal. I hear those things are real spy machines. I’m not real good with all those fancy gadgets. I don’t like all that technology. I don’t think that Kevin would like it either. Things have changed a lot in the world since I lost him.” His expression was suddenly full of pain. “He made life exciting and right. They shouldn’t have taken him.”
“Who?”
He ignored the question. “Time to put the blindfold back on you.”
She took a quick last look at her surroundings. She hadn’t been able to give Joe a hint other than that vague reference to Doane’s heart of gold, which Joe probably had not caught, but there might be another time. Waterfall cascading to the rocks below
. Mountains in the distance. An observation area enclosed in gray rails across the chasm.
Then everything went dark as he replaced the blindfold.
“There we are.” He lifted her back in the truck. “Now we go back and start the reconstruction.” The next moment, she heard the truck engine ignite. “Kevin is waiting for you.”
San Juan, Puerto Rico
“GO AWAY, TREVOR,” JANE SAID. “I don’t need you. We tried a few times to make it work, and it never did. Now you pop up and ignore everything that’s gone before?”
“Now that would make me a fool. I’ve always made a practice of building on the past.” He reached out and touched her cheek. “And we have quite a past to build on. Sometimes I’d lie in bed and think about it. Did you?”
“No.” He was looking at her, and she changed the answer. She had always been honest with him, and she wouldn’t change now. “Yes. So we were fantastic in bed together. In the end, it didn’t matter. Sex isn’t why we couldn’t make it together. It was more complicated than that.”
“You were more complicated. I’m just a simple man with all the usual instincts.”
“The hell you are.”
He smiled. “You’re right, I have my own complexities, but I fought to keep them in check when you came into my life. I wanted you enough to do anything to get you. For the first time, I thought that I’d found a woman I wanted to spend my life with. For a while I thought that I’d managed to pull it off.” He stroked her cheek. “Oh, how good we were together. Remember?”
“Yes.” She couldn’t help but remember. Whenever he touched her, spoke to her, it brought back a thousand memories that were both fiery and seductive. He had always held that power over her emotions. Even when she’d been angry with him, she’d known they were only a shade away from passion. “But we agreed to disagree. I haven’t seen you for a long time. I don’t even know why you’re here. How did you know I was hurt?”
“I’d heard you left London with one Seth Caleb.” His smile faded. “That stirred me to action. I didn’t like it.”
“Who told you? We didn’t exactly publish it.”
He shrugged. “I’ve a few friends who have been keeping an eye on you.”
“What? You, too?” Almost the same answer Caleb had given her, and it struck a nerve.
“Oh, I knew that Caleb had you in his sights. But it was okay as long as he kept his distance. But I had to know where he was taking you, so I checked the flight plan he filed. Then contacted some people I know in this area to make sure you were okay.”
“And to find out what I was doing?”
“Well, that, too.”
“And you found out that I’d been shot.”
He nodded. “And I jumped on the next plane.”
“And now you can jump on the next one and fly back to Paris.”
“I’m not living in Paris any longer. I’m in Barcelona.”
“Wherever.” She had never been sure where Trevor would be at any given time. He’d flown in to see her several times a year and usually from a different home base. His restlessness had caused him to become a jack of all trades. He’d dabbled in gambling, smuggling of precious artifacts, and a dozen other professions, both legal and slightly illegal. Not that he needed the money now. Whatever he touched turned golden.
And he had made her think for a while that their relationship was golden, too.
“I don’t need you. Go back to Barcelona.”
He shook his head. “I’ve been asking questions. They haven’t found the man who shot you.”
“Joe is working on it.” She paused. “It’s a mess, Trevor. I don’t know what’s happening. I don’t think it’s about me at all. Eve has disappeared. She’s been kidnapped, and we don’t know—I have to find her.”
“Eve.” He gave a low whistle. “Not good. But not exactly surprising. She deals with some pretty macabre types.”
“Thanks,” she said sarcastically. “That’s really going to make me feel better.”
“You don’t want me to coddle you,” he said quietly. “We’ve gone way past that in our relationship. You’d sock me if I weren’t dead honest with you.”
He was right. She had been grateful that she could always be open and expect the same from him. “I’m just scared,” she said wearily. “Eve deals with serial killers, child abusers, and scum of the Earth. You just put it into words. I guess I didn’t want to hear it.”
“We’ll find her. We’ll keep away all the bad guys.” He reached down and took her hand. “She’s smart, she’ll survive until we can get her back.”
She felt a sudden rush of warmth as she looked down at their joined hands. Comfort. Tenderness. Not passion. Not sex. So much more important in this moment than any other response. “This isn’t your battle, Trevor. Joe and I will find her.”
“You’re closing me out again.” His lips tightened. “When I get too near to that core that shelters who and what you are, you spin away.” His hand tightened on her own. “But I’m following this time, Jane. I’m following and searching, and you’re never going to get away from me again.”
“I don’t want to hear this, Trevor. I’m searching, too, and it’s only for Eve,” she said shakily. “You picked the wrong time and the wrong woman to—”
“My, my, do we have a visitor?” Caleb was standing in the doorway, his gaze on their joined hands. “You didn’t tell me, Jane. Introduce me.”
There was no expression on Caleb’s face, but she could feel the tension.
No, anger, searing, possessive anger.
She instinctively tried to pull away from Trevor, then stopped. Why should she give in to this subtle intimidation? “He was a surprise guest. Seth Caleb, Mark Trevor.”
“Delighted.” Caleb came toward him with hand outstretched. “I’ve been thinking that I should meet you. I just didn’t think it would be this soon. Let me guess, you heard Jane was wounded and decided to come and see if you could help.”
“That about covers it.” He took Caleb’s hand and shook it. “On the surface level.”
“Oh, yes, I imagine there was much more to explore since you haven’t seen each other for a while.” He smiled. “But I’m sure she told you that you’re not needed here.”
“Yes, but I’m not discouraged. Jane knows that I’m a valuable man to have around in an emergency. This couldn’t be more of an emergency for her. Eve is everything to her. Jane won’t refuse my help once I’m in a position to offer it.”
Jane found herself staring in fascination at the two men with hands clasped in traditional greeting. There was nothing traditional in what was going on beneath that gesture. They were like two sleek, powerful cats, backs arched, ready for the fray. No, much more dangerous than cats, and the only thing similar about them was that air of lethal purpose.
Lightness. Darkness.
Trevor was radiating those brilliant movie-star good looks and charm that had first drawn Jane to him so long ago.
Caleb was all darkness and power and magnetism that held you even while you struggled to get free.
She tore her gaze from them and grabbed the arm of the chair to lever herself to her feet. “I’ve had enough. Stop talking about me as if I weren’t here. Both of you get out of here and let me get dressed.” She looked at Caleb. “You’ll still take me to Atlanta?”
“Of course, nothing has changed.” He glanced at Trevor. “Has it?”
“Everything has changed.” Trevor smiled. “You’re going to the lake cottage?”
“I don’t know. I have to do a sketch rendering of the suspect at Rome hospital.”
“Then I’ll be in touch. Would you like me to smooth the way to get you sprung from this place? You don’t look like you’re a candidate for the discharge list.”
“I could arrange—” Why fight him over such a small thing? She needed her strength for the trip. “If you like, it would be a help.”
“I like.” He didn’t move. “And would you let me help you dress? It wo
uld be quicker.”
“I can manage.”
“Sure?” he said softly. “It’s not as if I haven’t done it before. Though I’m better at taking them off.”
She could have slapped him.
She was sure that he had a double purpose in that remark. He wanted to stir intimate memories, which he’d done, and he wanted to score off Caleb.
Which he’d also done. She wasn’t looking at Caleb, but she could sense the stiffening, the animal tension.
She turned her back on both of them and took a step closer to the bed and reached for her bra. “Really? I always thought you were a little clumsy. I guess I forgot to tell you.”
She heard Caleb chuckle as he left the room.
But Trevor was laughing, too. “Oh, Jane, how I’ve missed you, my love.”
She kept her eyes on the bra. “I’m not your love.”
“Yes, you are. I’ve dodged the word, and so have you, but it’s time to come to terms with it.” She heard him move toward the door. “Don’t sleep with Caleb. I thought I could be civilized about it if you decided to do it, but that was before I met him. He’s different, he wouldn’t let go. I’d end up by having to kill him.”
“For heaven’s sake, I’m only interested in finding Eve. I’ve no desire to sleep with either of you. But if I were, it would be my choice.”
“Theoretically. But I’m not good at theory. See you in Atlanta…”
* * *
“JUST BE PATIENT, EVE. I’ll have that blindfold off you in just a minute. I know it’s uncomfortable.”
Eve heard Doane close and lock the front door behind them.
“It’s like coming home, isn’t it?” He unlocked her handcuffs and took them off. “Just the three of us.”
“You’re crazy, you know,” she said, as he took the blindfold off her. “You can’t get away with this. Joe will find us.”
He chuckled. “For a moment I thought you meant I was crazy because I think Kevin is part of our little family. But then you wouldn’t find that unusual. You think of all your reconstructions as having a certain life of their own.” He added softly, “A life you give them. I regard that as a wonderful gift.”