Panic soared through her. “ No, he’ll be waiting for you. He’ll kill you.”
Travis was ignoring her. “Can you make it back up the hill? I’ll go into the church alone, but I don’t want to leave you here by yourself.”
“Dammit, he’s waiting.”
His expression was grim. “ It’s my shot at him. I’m going to take it.” He repeated, “Can you make it up the hill?”
“ I’ll make it.” She fell into step with him. Damn right she’d make it. She wasn’t about to stay here. “ But he may have— What’s that smell?”
“Shit.”
At the top of the hill the old church was blazing. Fire was licking out of every window and the door.
“He torched it?”
Travis nodded, his gaze on the church, which was now an inferno.
That smell . . .
Jesus, she felt sick.
Because she realized what that familiar smell was.
Horrible smell, nightmare smell.
It was the smell of burning flesh.
“Come on.” Travis’s hand cupped her elbow. “ Let’s get out of here.”
She couldn’t stop staring at the flames. “Deschamps.”
“He’d be stupid to still be here. There are already villagers running toward the church.”
Yes, she saw them now. One old man wearing only pants and shoes and a woman carrying a bucket. What could one bucket of water do to this inferno?
“ There’s someone inside. I smell—”
“ I know. But it’s too late to save her. She was probably dead before he started the fire.”
He was talking about the woman who had pretended to be Danielle Claron. “He killed her?”
“ No big surprise. He doesn’t like witnesses.” He was turning her, pushing her down the hill. “He torched the Claron house too, to destroy evidence.”
“ But he could have waited. It doesn’t make sense. I know he wanted to trap you, Travis.”
“Maybe.” He stopped at the van. “Can you drive? We have to get both vehicles away. There will be an investigation and we don’t want to be connected.”
“ I can drive.” She opened the door.
“ Wait.” He got in and checked the back. “Okay. You can get in now.”
A chill went through her as she realized he had thought Deschamps might be in the van, waiting for her. “He already had his chance at me, and he didn’t take it.”
He was peering underneath the van. “Circumstances change.”
“ Where’s your car?”
“Around the curve in the road.”
She settled in the driver’s seat. “Get in. I’ll take you there and wait until we’re sure he’s nowhere around.”
“Are you protecting me, Melissa?”
“Shut up and get in the van.”
“Right.”
No one appeared to be in the Peugeot or anywhere near. Maybe. She’d learned a hard lesson about appearances tonight.
She pulled up next to the car. “Hurry up, get in.”
His gaze circled the woods on the side of the hill. “ In a minute. I don’t think he had time, but there’s a possibility . . .” He opened the hood of the car, examined it, and then went around to the back, knelt down, and peered beneath it. “He knows about explosives, and it doesn’t take much time to rig a simple bomb.” He straightened up and seconds later he was in the driver’s seat. “Get going. I’ll follow you. If you get dizzy, pull over and we’ll leave the van by the road. Galen can arrange a pickup later.”
She was dizzy now. Dizzy and sick and confused. Bombs and deception and murder . . .
And that awful smell of burning flesh.
Galen met them as they drove up to the cottage.
“ You’re lucky I’m a forgiving man. It wasn’t a nice thing to — You’re bleeding.” He lifted her down from the van and called to Travis, who was getting out of the Peugeot. “Deschamps?”
“ Yes.” He stopped beside Melissa. “Okay?”
“ Yes.”
“ You don’t deserve to be.” He walked away, leaving her behind.
Galen gave a low whistle. “ I’d better take care of that wound,” he told Melissa. “ In his present humor Travis would probably let you bleed to death.”
She hadn’t been aware of the anger seething beneath the surface. She hadn’t been aware of anything but disappointment and horror . . . and that smell of burning flesh.
Mama. Daddy.
The forest, safe from horror and the smell of death and burning.
Jessica.
But there was no Jessica to coax her out of the forest now.
“Melissa?”
“ I’m all right. But he’s right, I don’t deserve to be. She fooled me.”
“ That’s no crime, only a mistake. And it didn’t hurt anyone but you.” They were in the living room by then. “Sit down. I’ll put some antibacterial cream on that cut.”
“ I can do it.”
“ But I can do it quicker. You don’t look so steady.” He pushed her down into one of the chairs. “ Travis called me from his car and filled me in. Do you want to talk about it?”
Flesh burning . . .
She moistened her lips. “ It was a trap. It wasn’t Danielle Claron. She was so . . . believable. I don’t know how she knew where to call you or the other details.”
“ It could have been a bug at the Dumairs’ home. Deschamps knew we’d be looking for Danielle Claron.” He dabbed at the cut. “ Travis said he bugged Jan’s place and that Jan said he was a bloody expert.” He spread a little ointment. “ This cut isn’t bad at all.”
Because Deschamps hadn’t really wanted to hurt her. A trap. A trap that had not been sprung. “ I was a little dizzy, but I’m fine now. How’s Cassie?”
“ Fine.” Travis came out of Cassie’s bedroom. “ No credit to you.”
“Don’t you give me a guilt trip. I knew Galen would take care of her. I didn’t think I’d be gone more than a few hours.”
“And you almost didn’t come back at all,” he said fiercely. “ I told you that you shouldn’t go after him.”
“ Then you should have let me go with you. The only reason I went alone is that I knew you were closing me out.”
“So it’s my fault you almost got yourself killed? You were lucky you didn’t end up roasting in that church with that woman.”
Scorched flesh.
Mama, wake up. Please, wake up.
She was smothering. She had to get out. “ I guess I was lucky.” She jumped to her feet and headed for the door. “ I’m going out on the porch. I’ll be back in a few minutes.”
“ You were pretty rough on her, weren’t you?” Galen asked. “She’s rough enough on herself.”
“She could have gotten herself killed.” Travis headed for the door. “She’s like a torpedo heading straight for a target and not realizing she’ll be blown up too.”
“ Why don’t you leave her alone for a while? She may need some space.”
“ I can’t leave her alone, dammit.”
“ No?” Galen studied him a moment and then nodded slowly. “ You’re that sure he’s out there?”
“ Like I told you when I called you from the car, Melissa was sure it was a trap, and her instincts are good. She just didn’t think far enough. Deschamps wants me, but he also wants the Wind Dancer. He set up the meeting at the church so that he could follow us back here. Did you alert your men guarding the place?”
Galen nodded. “ When do you think he’ll go for it?”
“ When he’s sure the Wind Dancer is here. So we have to make him think the Wind Dancer is someplace else and we’re planning on picking it up soon. We’ll make a couple of dummy calls to one of your guys and lead Deschamps down a false trail. Who’s sharpest?”
“Joseph.”
“ Then fill him in. Deschamps can’t use bugs, so he’ll probably use long-range amplifiers. I figure he’ll have them in place in eight or twelve hours. Have your guy
s try to locate him. He could set up either onshore or in a boat.”
“How do we communicate, then?”
He grimaced. “Very carefully. We’ll use the laptop when we don’t want him to hear. Does Joseph have one?”
“Get real. This is the twenty-first century.”
“ Then tell your guys to monitor their E-mail for instructions.”
“And what if you’re wrong about Deschamps?”
Travis didn’t want to speculate about that. “ I don’t think I’m wrong. He’s smart and he’s waited this long. You just see that Cassie and Melissa are protected.”
Galen’s gaze went to Melissa. “And she’s not to know?”
“ No.”
“ You’re risking her neck.”
“ I’m risking all our necks. I can’t help it.” His lips thinned. “ I’m going to find a way to trap him, Galen. I’m going to get him.”
“How?”
“ I’ll work on it.” He suddenly realized that was Melissa’s phrase, the one that defined the bedrock of her character. “ You take the first watch, okay?”
Galen nodded. “ You’d better make sure she doesn’t decide to start wandering around. Just in case. And you might try being nice to her. She’s feeling pretty bad.”
“ I don’t want to be nice to her. I want her to stop—” He drew a deep breath. “Call your guys and get them busy trying to spot Deschamps.”
“Come on inside, Melissa.”
Travis was standing behind her.
“ Pretty soon.” She wrapped her arms around herself. Lord, she wished she could stop shaking. Get control. Don’t let him see . . .
“ Now.”
She shook her head.
“ I know I was sharp with you, but you can’t stay out here.”
“ You think I’m pouting?”
“ That’s not a word I’d use in connection with you. I know you’re upset.” He paused. “Okay, I didn’t make it any easier.”
“ You made it easier.”
“How?”
“ You stayed alive.” She closed her eyes. “ I made a terrible mistake. I could have killed you.”
“And would you have shed a few tears for me?”
“Oh, yes.”
He took a step forward. “Melissa . . .”
“Don’t you touch me.” Her eyes flicked open and she backed away from him. “ I can’t let anyone—”
“Christ, you’re shaking so hard, your teeth are rattling.”
“ It will go away.”
“Shit.” He stepped closer and took her in his arms. “Am I responsible for this?”
“Don’t flatter yourself.” But her arms closed around him. Warm. Safe. Here. Now. Alive.
“Deschamps?”
“ Not Deschamps.”
“ Then why the hell won’t you quit shaking?”
She buried her face in his shoulder. “ The smell.” Her voice was muffled. “ That woman in the church . . . That smell . . .”
He went still. “Christ, I didn’t make the connection. Your parents . . .”
“ It’s the first time since I came out that I felt any pull to go back into my nice little forest. I was so scared. . . . I wanted to go there. I felt so safe there.”
“ The hell you did.” His arms tightened around her. “ You were half dead. Now stop it. You’re not going anywhere.”
“Of course I’m not. It’s just . . . I had to work my way through it. I’m glad Jessica didn’t see me. It would have scared her silly.”
“ It scared me.”
“Did it?” The shaking was easing. “ You can let me go now.”
“Can I?” He didn’t move.
“ No, maybe not. This feels . . . good.”
“ Yes, it does.”
“You feel good.” Good and right. Completely right. All the tension was leaving her. “ Thank you.”
“ You’re welcome . . . I think.”
A few minutes passed and then Travis pushed her away. “ You’d better go in.”
Yes, she’d better leave him. This was too good. “ You can’t close me out again. We have to talk about Deschamps.”
She could feel the tension in his body. “ Not now, Melissa.”
No, not now, she thought wearily. Too much to think about. Too many emotions to sort out. She backed away. “ In the morning.”
He glanced at the sky. “ That won’t be too long.”
She looked at the streaks of pearl gray lighting the night sky. “Jessica loved this time of day. She said when she was an intern she’d walk through the park when she finished her duty. Everything was so clear and bright and new, it made her able to face the next night.”
“Jessica would want you to be safe.”
She shook her head. “Don’t try to manipulate me by using Jessica. Good night, Travis. I’m sorry I put you at risk.”
“ You could have saved my neck. You’re not all that gullible, so that woman must have been good. I might have fallen for her story too.”
She thought about it and then smiled. “ You’re absolutely right. You should be damn grateful to me.”
She went to her bedroom, where Galen was sitting beside Cassie. She put her finger to her lips and motioned for him to go. He nodded and silently left. She lay down next to Cassie and closed her eyes.
“You left me,” Cassie said.
“Not for long.”
“I was lonely.”
“Then come out and you’ll never be lonely again.”
Silence. “You were scared. You wanted to run back to your forest.”
How had Cassie picked up on that? “But I didn’t do it. I’ll never go back there again.”
“You could come into my tunnel.”
“But you won’t be there for long.”
“You keep saying that.”
“Because it’s true. Isn’t it?”
Silence. “You truly don’t want to go back?”
“Why should I? Look at me. What do you see?”
Silence. “I’m going to go to sleep now.”
“Stubborn.”
“But you were scared. I saw it.”
“And what else did you see?”
“Michael. I saw Michael. . . .”
Melissa lay awake a long time after Cassie drifted off to sleep.
Would you have shed a few tears for me?
I saw Michael. . . .
22
Travis’s door opened a few hours later.
He tensed.
“ It’s only me,” Melissa said.
“Only?” He rose up on one elbow. “ What are you doing here?”
“ I wanted to be with you.”
“Do you want to talk about your parents?”
“ Not now.”
“Deschamps?”
“ I don’t need a therapist, Travis.” She came toward him. “ That’s not what this is all about.”
He went still. “ Then what the hell is it about?”
“ What do you think?”
“ I think you’d better be very clear.”
“ You want clear?” She paused to steady her voice. “ I’ll give you clear.” She stopped beside the bed. “ I’m going to get undressed. I see you’re already naked, and that’s very convenient.” She pulled her nightshirt over her head and dropped it to the floor. “ Now I’m going to get into bed with you. Then I want you to indulge in every carnal act you’ve ever learned or heard of.” She drew back the cover. “ Is that clear enough?”
He was silent a moment, and when he spoke his voice was uneven. “ I believe that’s crystal-clear. But you went through a hell of a lot tonight. Are you sure that you’re able to judge—”
“Oh, for God’s sake. Of course I’m sure. Stop quibbling. Do you think this is easy for me? Not that I’m some shrinking violet, but it’s—”
“Shh.” He reached out and probed gently between her legs. “ Now I believe you. Christ, you’re quick.”
“Don’t you be.” Her voice was tremb
ling as she pressed against him. “ I want this to last a long, long time. . . .”
“ You’re very good.” Melissa shifted and then cuddled closer. “ For someone who likes to stay on the outside, your inside technique is remarkable.”
“ If you’d warned me you were going to seduce me, I’d have put some thought into innovation.”
“ Instinct is better. Besides, I didn’t know. I wasn’t sure. Not until you actually stopped arguing and touched me.” She brushed her lips across his chest. “ Then I knew it was the right thing to do.”
“ It was definitely the right thing.” His hand tangled in her hair. “And I’m glad you didn’t decide it wasn’t the right time and the right man at that late stage.”
“ I’m no tease. I wouldn’t have cheated you.” She chuckled. “And I certainly wouldn’t have cheated myself. What a wicked man you’re turning out to be, Michael Travis.”
“ I aim to please. You said every carnal act.”
“ I think we’ve reached that boundary.”
“ Nah, we haven’t even started.” He took her hand and sucked on her index finger. “Have we?”
She felt a surge of heat move through her. Jesus, he was good. Sex with him had been like nothing she had ever experienced. A closeness that was fever hot and more than sensual. “Maybe we haven’t.” She drew closer. “Show me. . . .”
The sun was high in the sky when they walked out on the porch.
“ There’s Galen, sitting on that dune.” Melissa returned his lazy wave and watched him as he stretched, yawned, and then lay back on the sand. “He looks so relaxed, just zoning out, looking at the boats. It’s the first time I’ve seen him lazing around since we got here. He’s always bustling, cooking, or on the phone, managing the world.”
Travis followed her gaze to Galen and then to the two boats anchored up the coast. “ The universe. But maybe he’s more tactful than you think. He wouldn’t want to disturb us. He understands things.”
“ What things?” She glanced at him. His hair was tousled, his shirt mussed, and his expression . . . She looked away. She’d thought she’d had enough, but maybe . . . “ What do you think Galen understands about us?” She smiled. “Do you believe he thinks I seduced you to get my way?”
“He’s no fool.” He looked straight ahead. “ But would you care to confide in me why I got lucky?”
“ I wanted to do it,” she said simply.