Stalemate

  Galen was silent a moment. “If you can prove to me that you have a plan that will work. I’m not into suicide missions.”

  “Neither am I.” He opened the door. “I’m not trying to make a grandiose statement. I want to take Diaz out and not give Eve any reason to stay here one minute longer.”

  “I brought your dinner.” Montalvo came into the library and set the tray down on the desk. “If you choose to take the time.”

  “I’ll take the time.” Eve wiped her hands on a damp alcohol towel. Choice. Joe would have dug in his heels and insisted she break for a meal. Montalvo had put the decision in her court. Perhaps because he really wanted her to continue to work and the meal was a token goodwill gesture. “I don’t know long it will be until I get around to eating again.”

  He sat down across from her. “The reconstruction doesn’t look much closer to completion than the last time I saw it.”

  “She’s closer.” Eve bit into her sandwich. “And what’s even more important, I’m closer. I’m almost ready to begin.”

  He glanced away from her. “I was afraid that disturbing visit from Quinn might slow you down. Did I interrupt anything?”

  “Nothing important. We weren’t covering any new ground.” She made a face. “I was almost glad you came.”

  “You wanted to get rid of him.”

  “No,” she said instantly. “Never. I just had to get back to work and I was beginning to—” She sighed. “I can’t get through to him. He thinks I’ve gone off the deep end and wants to save me from myself.”

  “Perfectly logical.” He smiled. “You have gone off the deep end. I pushed you there. But I’ll also be the one to save you if you need saving.”

  “Joe wouldn’t like that.”

  “How regrettable. Try that lemon pastry. You’ll need the sugar for energy. It may be a long night.”

  She chuckled as she took a bite of the pastry. “Lord, you and Joe are different. He’d tell me to eat a hearty meal and go off to bed. You want me wide awake and alert so that I can finish your reconstruction.”

  “That’s right. I’m a selfish bastard.” His smile faded. “But it’s what you want too. Remember, I told you that when I look at you, it’s like looking in a mirror? That hasn’t changed. The only reason I can read you is that I’ve seen you shining in the darkness of my mind.”

  “Darkness?”

  “We’re both creatures of the dark right now. We come out into the sunlight occasionally but then we’re drawn back.”

  She grimaced. “You talk as if we’re a couple of vampires. Speak for yourself, Montalvo.”

  “Not vampires. But we’re closer to the dead than the living. That’s all we think about, all we care about. If that weren’t true, you wouldn’t be here.” He paused. “And you wouldn’t have wanted to send Quinn away from you.”

  “I didn’t want to send Joe away.”

  “Yes, you did. He represents the sunlit, normal part of your life. But he has no role when you’re involved with the darkness.”

  “You’re wrong. Joe always has a role in my life.”

  “Think about it.”

  She didn’t want to think about it. His words were striking a note that made her uneasy. “Screw your darkness. That’s not what I want from my life.”

  “Yet that’s what you chose. And I made the same choice. In the best of all possible worlds, it’s not a choice I would have made.” He shrugged. “Perhaps someday I’ll be able to walk away from it.”

  “And yet you don’t hold out the same hope for me.”

  “Oh, but I do. You have all my hopes for coming out of the dark.” He was holding her gaze with mesmerizing intensity. “If I get there first, I’ll hold out my hand and help you out.”

  “Thanks.” She couldn’t seem to look away from him. “But I don’t need your help. I do very well on my own.”

  “On your own. I notice you don’t mention Quinn.”

  “I’m an independent woman. Joe is not my keeper.”

  He didn’t answer. He just sat there looking at her.

  “Stop it. This conversation is absurd.”

  “Are you afraid I’m hitting too close?” He leaned forward. “Darkness doesn’t have to be terrifying, Eve. There are all kinds of wonderful things that happen at night. It’s the time when most births occur. Everything appears sharper, more exciting. Yet it blurs reality and makes it bearable.” He paused. “And it’s the time for passion.”

  He was sitting there relaxed in the easy chair with the light from the lamp pooling over him. He was talking about darkness yet the warm glow of life seemed to surround him. The intimacy in the room was almost unbearable in intensity. She had a sudden impulse to reach out and touch him.

  “No.” He was reading her expression. “I feel the same way but it’s better that we wait. I want you, but I want you with no regrets.”

  Shock rippled through her. Jesus, she had been feeling, not thinking. She tore her gaze away from him. “It’s not you. I’m always at an emotional high at this point in a reconstruction.”

  “I see.” He smiled faintly. “Remind me to be sure to be around whenever you reach that point. It appears to be eminently rewarding.”

  “And there would be regrets. I don’t do one-night stands.”

  “Do you think I don’t know that? That’s one of the problems. It would be much simpler if you could compartmentalize.”

  “As you seem to be doing.”

  “I only live in the past part of the time. Sometimes something so good comes along that you have to stop and let it happen.” His smile faded. “And I don’t mean sex. Sex can be had anywhere. The moment I started studying you I realized that you were going to be something special in my life.”

  She nodded. “I was going to be the woman who brought your wife home.”

  “Yes. Was that a slap on the knuckles? I loved my wife. I’ll probably love her for the rest of my life. She was joy. The first love of my life. Before Nalia there were only sexual encounters. She taught me the difference. Nalia would be the first to tell me to find that joy wherever I could. What are you going to be in my life? I don’t know. But I want to find out. I have an idea it could be earthshaking.” He stood up. “I’ll leave you now. You did quite a good job with that meal. Though I imagine you didn’t even realize you were eating it. May I still come back while you’re working on Nalia?”

  “As I told you, I probably won’t even know you’re in the room.”

  “The ultimate insult for a man. Yet I wouldn’t have it any other way.” He headed for the door. “Bring her home and I might someday find that sunlight we were talking about.”

  “Montalvo.” When he looked over his shoulder she said, “I love Joe. Whatever I feel for anyone else, that won’t change.”

  “I know. But there are always degrees of feeling. Sometimes emotion changes from moment to moment, hour to hour, year to year. If I haven’t learned anything else in these last years, I’ve acquired patience. We’ll see how it goes.” He left before she could reply.

  Bizarre. Those last moments had been like something from an opium dream. Hazy, soft-focused, sensual, and yet with flashes of hard reality and truth. Darkness and sunlight.

  Was he right? Could it be the reason she had been drifting away from Joe was because he wasn’t part of the darkness? He lacked that final understanding that no one but someone who had experienced that loss would have.

  She didn’t know, she thought wearily, as she rose to her feet. Maybe she was just as damaged as she’d told Joe. Perhaps she was tired of having him suffer for her sake. Maybe she was looking for a way to free him.

  And maybe she was lusting after that sexy son of a bitch who had all the appeal of the new and the mysterious. He was like the Phantom of the Opera with all his talk of darkness. He was the Beast who lured Beauty back to his castle. He was a challenge to be met. An experience to be tasted.

  And a betrayal to be enacted.

  It wasn’t going to happen.

/>   She moved across the room to stand before the reconstruction. “I can see why you took him as your lover, Nalia. He’s pretty hot stuff. He says you taught him joy. I hope you found it too.” She began to smooth the line of the cheek. “It’s time to start. Are you ready? Let’s bring you home….”

  Smooth.

  Pat.

  A little deeper indentation around the lips.

  Smooth.

  Forehead broader.

  Smooth.

  Carve.

  Help me, Nalia.

  Her fingers were working feverishly now.

  Smooth.

  Carve.

  Sweep the cheekbones higher.

  The mouth.

  Always difficult. Sometimes impossible because there were no visible clues.

  Tell me.

  Skip it. Come back to it.

  The mid-therum area.

  Carve.

  Smooth.

  Get it right. For God’s sake, get it right.

  No, for Nalia’s sake. For all her pain and desolation. Come home, Nalia.

  Smooth.

  Go back to the mouth.

  Easier now.

  Her fingers flew over the visage. Small nose, straight, no upturn at the end.

  I hope it’s right, Nalia.

  Smooth.

  Work faster. Make it come faster.

  Carve.

  Smooth…

  She stepped back from the reconstruction and closed her eyes.

  “Is it enough, Nalia?” she whispered. “It’s the best I can do.”

  The final touch.

  Her eyes opened and she turned to the table and opened her eye case.

  “May I do it?”

  She looked up to see Montalvo standing beside her.

  He was looking down at the glass eyes in the case. “May I?”

  She nodded jerkily. “If you like.”

  He took two brown eyes from the case. “Thank you.” He carefully put the brown eyes in the empty sockets. “And to answer your question.” His voice was unsteady. “It’s more than enough. It’s Nalia.”

  “I felt it was. Sometimes I have no idea. But this time I felt sure.” She gazed at the reconstruction. “She’s very beautiful. I wasn’t sure about the mouth….”

  “I know. You had to go back to it.”

  “How long have you been here?”

  “Hours.” He didn’t take his gaze from the skull. “First I found it fascinating. Then I began to be drawn into the whirlpool.”

  “Whirlpool?”

  “Memories. I imagine I’ve relived every moment Nalia and I spent together during those last hours.” He reached out and touched Nalia’s cheek with infinitely gentle fingertips. “I couldn’t say good-bye to her until I said hello, welcome back into my world.”

  “I can understand that.”

  “I know you can.” His eyes were glittering with moisture as he stepped back from the dais. “And now that I’ve said it, it hurts like hell.”

  “Closure doesn’t come overnight.”

  “It won’t come for me at all until I make sure Diaz is dead and that kingdom he’s set up explodes into a thousand pieces.” He started to turn away. “And I’d better start working on making that happen.”

  “Not until I’m finished with her.”

  “Finished?” He stopped to look at Eve. “She couldn’t be more finished. It’s Nalia.”

  “The actual sculpting is finished but I have to photograph the reconstruction, put it on the computer, and compare it to photographs of Nalia. I need those photographs from you.”

  He frowned. “All that’s not necessary. I have what I want.”

  “But I don’t have what I want. I do every job with the same thoroughness. I’m a professional and I won’t cheat Nalia or myself by skimping. Give me those photos.”

  He hesitated and then went to the desk, unlocked a bottom drawer, and pulled out a large envelope. “Letters. Photos. Anything else?”

  “I’ll see.” She opened the envelope and drew out the photos. They were snapshots of a young woman in her twenties. One photo showed her in a skirt and blouse sitting at a table in a bar. In another she was dressed in pants and khaki shirt and smiling mischievously into the camera. The woman was undoubtedly the Nalia of the reconstruction. She looked so vital and alive that Eve could almost expect to see her walk out of the photo. “No, that’s all I need.”

  He took the photo from her and gazed down at it. “You did a brilliant job but you missed one thing. The laugh lines around her eyes. She used to say those tiny creases made her look old. I liked them. They were part of her.” He handed the picture back to her. “You couldn’t know about that.”

  No, Nalia, or whatever instinct drove Eve during those reconstructions, hadn’t told her about those creases. “I can’t add them now. It wouldn’t be ethical or professional.”

  He nodded jerkily. “And there wasn’t anything for her to laugh about at the end anyway. Please hurry with your final wrap-up. I’ve got to get going on making arrangements to do mine.”

  And his arrangements were for death and mayhem.

  “You’ll have to make arrangements to send Joe and me back to the States too.”

  He stiffened. “When?”

  “This afternoon or tonight. I’ll finish the computer work within a few hours. I want to get Joe back to Atlanta as quickly as possible.”

  He was silent a moment. “I’d rather you stay until I’m sure Diaz can’t get to you. He’s very big on revenge.”

  “He’s not the only one.”

  He inclined his head. “True.”

  “Send me home. Joe and I will take care of ourselves.” She met his gaze. “And I’ll be waiting for you to make good on your promise.”

  “Don’t worry, I’ll keep it. I’ll be coming to Atlanta just as soon as I take care of business here.”

  After he left the library she went over to the window and stared out at the night sky. It was beginning to take on a rainbow-soft glow like the black pearls Joe had given her for Christmas a few years ago. It would be dawn soon.

  It’s almost over, Joe. We can go home and try to forget what happened here. If that’s what you want. I owe it to you.

  But perhaps it would be better if she didn’t forget. She had learned a few things about herself that she hadn’t known before. Jesus, you’d think after all she’d been through that she’d know every facet of her personality. But along came Montalvo and she’d discovered she’d barely scraped the surface.

  When I look at you it’s like looking in a mirror.

  But the image was dark and twisted and not what she wanted from life. She wanted Joe.

  Well, with any luck she still had him. And if she could keep him with her when Montalvo came to Atlanta as he’d promised, to help her find Bonnie and Bonnie’s killer…the situation then would be tense and very, very dangerous. Yet she could not do anything else, she thought wearily. This was what she’d worked for, what she’d risked the happiness she’d had with Joe. She’d made a decision before she’d left Atlanta that what Montalvo had promised was worth any risk. She wasn’t going to back out now. The price had been too high.

  She opened the door of the cabinet beside the French doors and pulled out her duffel with her cameras and equipment. Get the job done and get Joe back to Atlanta where he’d be safe. Worry about the search for Bonnie later. She had waited for all these agonizing years. She had to be patient and take care of the people she loved.

  She began to set up the cameras.

  “May I come in?” Soldono’s hesitant knock was followed by the opening of the library door. “Since Miguel isn’t standing guard in the hall, I take it that you’ve finished?”

  “Yes.” She rubbed the back of her neck. “I’ve just finished making the computer comparisons. I’ve been packing away the cameras.” She glanced at him. “And, no, you don’t have to sneak me out of here. Montalvo’s sending us home.”

  “Is he?”

  She stiff
ened. “Is that supposed to mean something?”

  “He may be sending you home, but I’m not sure about Quinn.” He paused. “That’s why I dared break in on you.”

  “Soldono, what the devil are you talking about?”

  “I’m trying to tell you. I think Quinn took off last night.”

  Her heart jumped in her chest. “He couldn’t. I saw him yesterday afternoon and he could barely function.”

  “Well, he must have garnered the strength from somewhere.” He was looking at her sympathetically. “I’m sorry, Eve. I checked his room an hour ago and no Quinn. I followed up and went to Galen’s room and Galen isn’t here either.”

  “Galen went with him?” She wanted to murder both of them. Why couldn’t Joe have waited one more day? But no, he had to go off on his own. Not quite his own, thank heavens. Galen at least was strong and healthy and might strike the balance. “You’re sure about this, Soldono?”

  “Unless they’re both hiding out in Montalvo’s armory. I can’t quite see that scenario as being realistic.”

  “Neither can I.” No, they’d be going after Diaz to take him out. She had a sudden memory of that castle on the hill. It might be grandiose, but it represented massive power and she was scared to death that power would be leveled at Joe and Galen. “I have to see Montalvo. Do you know where he is?”

  “He was out in the courtyard fifteen minutes ago.” Soldono had gone over to the dais and was looking at the reconstruction. “She was very beautiful. Is it a good likeness?”

  “Very good.” She was moving toward the door. “Except for a few little things. No reconstruction is perfect.”

  “This one must come pretty close. Montalvo should be pleased.”

  “Yes, but that’s not important right now.” She strode out of the room and a moment later she was out in the courtyard.

  “Eve, are you finished shooting those photos?” Montalvo looked up from talking to Miguel. “I can’t wait much longer for—”

  “Did you know about Joe?”

  “Quinn?” He asked warily, “What was I supposed to know?”

  “Soldono says Joe is gone. He and Galen left sometime last night.”