Lethal Lover

Lethal Lover

Laura Gordon

www.millsandboon.co.uk

With love, to my husband Gordon, for believing in me and my dreams.

Contents

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Chapter Six

Chapter Seven

Chapter Eight

Chapter Nine

Chapter Ten

Chapter Eleven

Chapter Twelve

Chapter Thirteen

Chapter Fourteen

Chapter Fifteen

Chapter Sixteen

Chapter Seventeen

Chapter One

“Hey, Mac! It’s me, Charlie. Pick up the phone! Wake up, Mac. All hell’s broke lose out here!”

Reed McKenna swore softly under his breath and reached across the darkness and the pretty blond woman lying next to him to grab the phone.

“I’m here, Charlie,” he said, bracing himself for the news he’d been half expecting and half dreading for the past week, ever since Andy Dianetti turned state’s witness.

“They got him, Mac. Dianetti’s dead.”

Reed shifted the cordless receiver to his other ear as the implications of Charlie’s grim pronouncement washed over him like tainted water. “When did it happen?” The glowing green digits on his clock radio read 3:29.

“About fifteen minutes ago.” The sirens Reed heard wailing in the background were no match for Charlie Franklin’s booming baritone. “The firemen found pieces of the car two blocks away. It isn’t a pretty sight down here, Mac.”

“It never is.” Reed clicked on the reading lamp and fumbled with a pack of gum. He hadn’t had a cigarette in almost three weeks, but his craving for that nicotine rush seemed more intense than ever. His jaws ached from chewing gum and his tongue felt raw from sucking Life Savers. “Anyone else hurt?” he asked.

The blonde stirred beside him, but didn’t open her eyes.

“The officer who was escorting Dianetti is still alive. Poor bastard. They don’t think he’ll make it through the night.” Charlie hesitated before adding, “I just heard they’ve found the kid and will be taking her into custody tonight.”

A feeling of raw discomfort landed in the pit of Reed’s stomach as he stared into the wintry darkness beyond his bedroom window. When he and his companion had come in around midnight it had been snowing; now all he could see when he stared at the glass was his own reflection staring back—dark-haired, dark-eyed, a shadowy silhouette of a man whose heart felt as empty and cold as the night. “And just who was responsible for that brilliant decision?” Reed asked, his tone caustic.

“We have to have the bookkeeper’s testimony, Mac. With Andy Dianetti dead, Morrell will walk out of that courtroom free as air if we don’t bring her in.”

“Then go get her.” Reed’s suggestion was flatly unsympathetic. “Why drag an innocent kid into the middle of it?”

“If it was that easy,” Charlie grumbled, “we wouldn’t be calling you and you know it.”

Reed scooted to a sitting position, leaning his bare back against the brass headboard. “Just why did you call me?” he demanded. “You’ve got your leverage, use it.”

“And take a chance on the media finding out we used the child to blackmail her mother into testifying? That kind of damage would be beyond control. The press would eat us alive!”

Reed could think of worse things. “So what do they want from me? Spell it out, Charlie.” He draped his free arm over the woman sleeping beside him. Her skin felt warm and reassuringly alive beneath his hand.

“They want you to bring her in—quietly. No international incidents. Just one civilian to another. Convince her to cooperate, Mac.”

Reed ran a hand through his hair. “We’ve had this conversation before, remember? You told me your guys had it covered.”

“Yeah, but that was before Dianetti got himself blown to kingdom come. The stakes just got higher.”

“As did my rates.”

While Charlie swore, Reed held the phone a few inches from his ear.

“How much?” Charlie asked finally.

“Twice my regular rate,” Reed replied, completely refocused on the business at hand. “And since I’ll be traveling, my per diem expenses will double, as well.”

“Twice!” Charlie exploded. “Think what the hell you’re doing to me, Mac! You know what kind of hoops I’ll have to jump through to get that kind of money?”

“Like I’ve told you before—”

“I know, I know. It’s not your problem.” Charlie sounded exasperated; his ulcer was probably raging again. Too bad, Reed thought. He had no quarrel with Charlie Franklin. The problem lay with his superiors, those white-collared hypocrites on the Hill who demanded results, but kept their own hands lily-white.

He’d worked for them in the past—on both sides of a badge. And he’d work with them now. With luck, this would be the last time.

“Fifteen thousand up front,” Reed stated plainly. The kind of answers that could cost a man his life didn’t come cheap. “Two hundred thousand on delivery.” It was an outrageous demand, but one he knew they’d meet. They wanted the witness, wanted her badly enough to turn Uncle Sam into a kidnapper.

What he didn’t know was if two hundred thousand would be enough to give him a fresh start away from the rotten business that he’d become so damn good at. He could only hope so.

“You’re crazy, Mac,” Charlie grumbled.

“And you’re desperate,” Reed countered. “Two hundred thousand,” he said again. “Cash on delivery. And I want your leverage turned over to me, as well.”

Charlie gasped. “The kid! You want the kid? You can’t be serious.”

“I’m completely serious.” His sudden and impulsive demand surprised him even more than it had surprised Charlie. It wasn’t often that Reed McKenna acted irrationally, but the passion that had risen up and prompted him to do so now was as strong as any force he’d felt in a long, long time. “You heard me, Charlie.”

“But what the hell for?”

For Sean, his mind whispered. Reed glanced again at the woman beside him to be sure she was sleeping before he said, “Listen, Charlie, Morrell’s bookkeeper has outsmarted your guys for six months, and she’s walked a narrow line for a hell of a lot longer than that. She’s made half a dozen trips out of the country just this year and she’s probably stashed away enough money to support herself into old age. You’ve admitted yourself that if you had enough to indict her, you wouldn’t be calling me. And after what’s happened to Dianetti, I need a bargaining chip every bit as much as you do.”

“But the kid—you’d really use the kid?”

“And just what the hell were you guys planning to do?”

“Well, we...” Charlie sputtered. “That is, they’ve already picked her up for security reasons...to protect her, I guess.”

Reed had heard it before, almost the same words, the night they’d taken Sean away from the old man. He hadn’t known enough to distrust the system back then and it had cost him his brother. But he knew better now. One dead child was enough for any man to carry on his conscience.

“So you’re saying she’s safer where she is than with me?”

“Hell, yes!”

“Can you guarantee that, Charlie?”

The older man’s sigh was weary. “All right, Mac, I admit I don’t know how it will all work out, but I do know these people are set up for kids. They’ve got homes, you know?”

He knew.

“And people, experts who know how to deal with things like this. Come on, Mac. Forget the kid, will ya? She’ll be safe.”

“Tell that to Dianetti, you son of a bitch,” Reed growled, slamming the phone down, half choking on the unexpected surge of anger Charlie’s indifference had provoked.

The phone rang again almost immediately. Reed grabbed it on the second ring, but didn’t bother to say hello.

“It’s gonna take time,” Charlie’s tone seemed resigned. “It’s a lot of money and getting temporary custody of the kid transferred to you won’t be easy.”

Reed wasn’t in the mood for bureaucratic excuses. “One hour,” he said simply.

“One hour!” the older man exploded. “Damn it, man! It would take a presidential order to get things moving that fast.”

“Then I suggest you call him,” Reed replied, reminding himself that time was something he didn’t have to waste.

He’d begun researching the situation a week ago, just in case he was called. Pulling in every marker owed him, he’d been able to learn where the bookkeeper was headed; it was invaluable information that would at least assure him a head start.

But it was a fragile lead at best. With Dianetti out of the picture, Reed knew he’d be only one of many stalking Edward Morrell’s elusive bookkeeper. True, Reed had had an edge in tracking her, a personal connection he hoped to hell Morrell would never discover. Nevertheless, if he’d been able to discover her plans in less than a week, it wouldn’t take the other side much longer.

Even now he felt the clock pushing him. In the last five minutes, getting the bookkeeper’s kid safely out of the country had suddenly become Reed’s top priority. Then he’d worry about finding the bookkeeper, convincing her to come back to the States and keeping her alive to testify.

And as if that wasn’t enough, there in the background was Tess. How did life get so tangled? Thoughts of Tess, of the fire storm into which she was unwittingly walking made his pulse race as if a time bomb were already ticking.

“You have my terms,” he reminded Charlie. “One hour,” he muttered again into the receiver and imagined the sweat beading on the older man’s forehead.

“You’re one cold S.O.B., anybody ever tell you that, Mac?”

Reed allowed himself a grim smile. “Yeah, once or twice.” He stabbed the disconnect button and looked up to see the blonde’s pale blue eyes open and staring up at him. “Time to go home, Cinderella,” he said as he swung his legs over the side of the bed and stood up.

“But—”

“No buts, babe. I have work to do.” He grabbed his jeans and pulled them on, wondering how long it would take him to put together a traveling nursery. The kid. He’d demanded temporary custody of the kid. He almost couldn’t believe it himself.

“Work?” the blonde grumbled as she sat up and reached for her scattered clothes. “What kind of job calls you out in the middle of the night?”

Reed ignored her question; to explain himself to a woman he’d known less than five hours seemed pointless.

After she’d called for a taxi, she sat down on the bed and tugged on her knee-high boots. Reed grabbed his duffel bag out of the closet and proceeded to pack.

“Hey, you’re leaving town, aren’t you?”

“It looks that way.” Funny, Reed thought, she hadn’t seemed the talkative type a few hours ago.

“Will I see you again when you get back? Will you call me?” Her voice was smoky and her breath smelled faintly of the scotch they’d both consumed in ample quantities at the bar where they’d met earlier in the evening.

“Maybe.”

“Well, you’ve got my number. Maybe I’ll see you at Duffy’s again. A bunch of us usually hang out there on Fridays after work.”

Reed merely smiled and nodded as he finished packing. When he reached past her to withdraw the .38 semiautomatic he kept taped behind the headboard, her eyes widened.

She watched as Reed slipped it into an interior pocket of his favorite leather jacket. Newly impressed by the dangerous-looking man before her, she asked, “So tell me, Mac, where are you going in the middle of the night in such a hurry?”

Unbidden, a voice from his past came back to answer. “I’m headed to hell, babe,” he said. “Like my old man always said, ‘straight to hell on a fast train.’”

And if Edward Morrell didn’t get to him first, Reed told himself, Tess Elliot would be only too happy to punch his ticket.

Chapter Two

The waiter who showed Tess and Selena Elliot across the open-air dining room was a tall, handsome young man with a perfect tan and light brown hair naturally streaked by the sun. Taking in his all-American looks, Tess would have thought him more at home in Southern California than Grand Cayman.

But when he spoke, his English was seasoned with that unique, melodic Caribbean accent that Tess found charming, and she realized that he must be a native. His uniform was the loose-fitting, multicolored shirt and white canvas trousers that all the West Palm staff members wore.

“Well, what do you think of paradise so far?” Selena asked. “Aren’t you glad you came?” Her cousin’s blue eyes, so similar in hue and shape to Tess’s own, were bright as she sat down in the chair the waiter pulled out for her.

“You were right, Selena, everything here is sheer heaven.” Tess leaned back in her chair and inhaled the pure ocean air and scanned the magnificent view from their balcony table. “Everything is exactly as you said it would be.”

Selena beamed. “Rum punch for both of us. West Palm has the best rum punch on the island,” she informed Tess when their waiter had left.

Tess rolled her eyes and smiled. “Well, if it packs the same wallop as the two I had on the plane, I think we’d better order dinner soon.”

“Oh, come on, chicken,” Selena teased. “It’s only a little past three. Besides, when you’re on vacation it’s always cocktail hour!” Her smile was mischievous. “Let yourself go, Tess. Or, as they say on the island, don’t worry, be happy!”

Tess laughed and took another deep breath of the naturally perfumed air as she wondered how anyone could help but relax when immersed in such an idyllic environment. The scene beyond the balcony was a living postcard of sugar white sands and sparkling, sapphire water. Overhead was an endless expanse of cloudless blue. In the distance, small fishing boats drifted and bobbed aimlessly on the shimmering sea.

A dozen tourists basked in the afternoon sun on folding chairs and bright beach towels at the water’s edge. Laughter from a group of bikini-clad teenagers playing volleyball mingled with the rhythmic beat of Caribbean music drifting from the bar at the opposite end of the dining room.

“Ah, here we are,” Selena exclaimed, and Tess turned to see their waiter returning with two huge glasses frosted and filled to the rim with the same sparkling, red concoction that the Cayman Airlines flight attendants had served nonstop during the hour-and-a-half flight from Miami.

The waiter offered menus, but Selena waved them away. “We’ll order later. Right now, we’re celebrating.”

Tess felt like giggling; Selena’s expansive mood was contagious. “Selena, I never knew you to be...well, so much fun. If this is a preview of things to come, this trip will be one I won’t soon forget.”

Selena arched one thin, dark brown brow and leaned across the table, fixing her gaze on her younger cousin. “Okay, so maybe the next time I ask you to join me on vacation, you won’t be so hard to convince?”

“I was a bit difficult, wasn’t I?” Tess admitted sheepishly. To say that she’d been stunned when Selena had first mentioned their joint excursion to Grand Cayman, would have been an understatement. Flabbergasted was a more apt description of how she’d reacted when Selena had called a month ago with the idea of a holiday for the two of them.

Initially, Tess had refused her cousin’s offer outright. The small bookstore she owned and managed in Evergreen, Colorado was in its infancy; every penny that came in was still being turned back into the business it had taken Tess two years to launch.

But when Selena had explained that she’d won the trip as a reward from her company and that the prize entitled her to bring a guest, Tess had reconsidered.

“It’s a pathetic state of affairs for a red-blooded woman of thirty-two, but I have to admit it—I have no significant other,” Selena had quipped. “Seriously, I think this trip would do us both good. Mom and Dad would have been so pleased to see us off together on a romp.” At the mention of her recently deceased aunt and uncle, Tess had begun to cave in.

When Selena tapped her hand, Tess started. “Earth to Tess, come in, cousin,” she teased. “All right. Now that I have your attention, I want to propose a toast. To family.”

Tess raised her glass to Selena’s. “To Phil and Marjorie.”

Selena nodded, her bright expression dimming. “Yes, to my parents. They always wanted us to be friends, especially Mom. Remember?”

Tess did remember, and not without a twinge of regret. “I guess we let them down, didn’t we?”

“It wasn’t your fault,” Selena admitted. “I was the brat who couldn’t share. Never could.”

“Selena, don’t—”

“No, no, I admit it.” Her gaze fell away from Tess’s and focused on the glass she held with both hands. “I can still remember the night my parents called me at school to tell me what had happened to your mom and dad and Meredith.... Mom could hardly talk she was so devastated. She and her sister had been best friends. And I was devastated, as well. But mainly because I knew it meant you’d be coming to live with us.” Selena’s expression was distant for a moment. “Frankly, I hated you then,” she admitted and lifted her glass to drink deeply.

Selena’s frank admission caused Tess to wince, but more painful by far was the memory of the accident that had claimed her family.

“Selena, please...let’s don’t go on with this.”

“You were so pretty, so sweet and so, oh, I don’t know—so everything I wasn’t. Good grades, a natural athlete, popular. I was the struggling business major with the student loan. You were the bright-eyed freshman, the one with the full scholarship. At the time, C.U. didn’t seem big enough for the two of us.”

Tess reached across the table and covered Selena’s hand with her own. “Please stop, Selena. What’s past is past.” A past too painful to look back at, Tess finished to herself.

“You know, except for funerals, we’ve hardly seen each other in the last six years. And now, here I go spoiling our vacation by behaving as though we’re attending another one.”

Tess’s mouth went dry and she reached for her drink, thinking that the festive mood that had bubbled between them just a few minutes ago had fallen as flat as the rum punch.

“You know, I never realized just how much my family meant to me until I lost my own parents,” Selena admitted.

Tess nodded, remembering how valiantly Aunt Marjorie had battled the unrelenting illness that had finally claimed her life four years ago. Then a year later Uncle Phil had been snatched from them by an unexpected and fatal heart attack.

“I know how you’re feeling,” Tess said sympathetically. “Even after all this time, I still miss my parents and my sister.”

“Sometimes it’s just so difficult.” Selena gazed past Tess wistfully.

During the silence that stretched between them, Tess thought about her parents and Meredith and the terrible call that had come in the middle of the night. She’d been nineteen, a year out of high school, ready for college after taking a year out to work at a bookstore. She’d been poised to embark on a life that had seemed nearly perfect—too perfect, she reminded herself. Then suddenly the people she’d loved most in the world were gone. Mom. Dad. Meredith. And even Reed.

Reed McKenna, her first real love, her first lover. He’d walked out on her mere days before she’d lost her family in the accident. Then she’d lost him all over again when she stumbled over her sister’s diary. Eight long years, and the loss and betrayal still hurt.

“Oh, come on,” Selena prodded, dragging Tess from the depths of her dark memories. “Enough of this gloom and doom. We’re supposed to be on vacation, remember? Two young women, footloose and fancy-free for two whole weeks on an island paradise.”

Tess summoned her best face. “That’s us.” She lifted her glass again. “To Selena and Tess, look out Grand Cayman!” And to forgiving and forgetting, she added to herself. If it was time for a new beginning with her only living relative, surely it was time to let go of the painful past.

“To family.” Selena’s smile seemed as forced as Tess’s.

They touched glasses, but before they could drink, Tess noticed their waiter approaching again. “Perhaps we should look at the menu now,” she suggested.

“Excuse me,” the waiter said. “But there is a phone call in the lobby for Miss Elliot.”

“For me?” the cousins asked simultaneously, and then looked at each other and laughed.

“I doubt it could be for me,” Tess said. “My manager has strict instructions that unless the store burns down with the insurance policy inside, I’m not to be disturbed.”

Selena groaned and pushed back her chair.

“Wait a minute, I bet it’s the rental-car company,” Tess suggested, recalling the mix-up at the airport that had caused an hour’s delay getting a car. “I can go talk to them if you’d like.” But when she started to get up, Selena stopped her.

“No, you stay put,” she insisted. “It’s probably my office. They don’t know the meaning of the word vacation. Order an appetizer, some shrimp or something. I won’t be a minute.” Before Tess could say more, Selena was hurrying away from the table.

As she watched her cousin leave, she noticed a man at the bar across the room watching her, as well. Tess couldn’t blame him. Selena was an attractive woman.

Like Tess, Selena was tall—almost five nine—and trim. It occurred to Tess as she watched her cousin disappear into the lobby that she’d never seen Selena looking more fit. She’d lost at least ten pounds, Tess figured, remembering how grief could take a toll.

Today, dressed in a bright pink sundress and jaunty straw hat, Selena looked pretty as a picture. She’d turned heads from the moment they’d stepped off the plane in Georgetown. Like Tess, Selena wore her hair past her shoulders. But while Tess’s was straight and blunt cut, Selena wore springy curls and she’d lightened the dark brown that they’d both inherited from their mothers’ side of the family to an attractive, sun-kissed, ash blond.

Selena was not only attractive, but an independent and successful businesswoman. Tess wasn’t exactly sure just what kind of business Selena was engaged in, but whatever it was, her cousin had to be doing well, as evidenced by this trip.

Beautiful, successful, confident—all those adjectives could rightly be used to describe her only cousin, Tess told herself. Surely the old jealousy that had kept Selena from allowing a relationship to bloom between them could at last be put to rest.

“Well, here’s to you, Selena,” Tess murmured as she brought her glass to her lips again and took another sip. “To the future.”

* * *

THE PERSISTENCE of the breakers pounding the rocks below the balcony restaurant had nothing on the unrelenting memories pummeling Reed McKenna as he sat transfixed, watching Tess Elliot where she sat at her table across the room.

She was even more beautiful than the indelible image he carried in his memory. If she had changed at all, it was only for the better. She was still startlingly attractive. Her smile was still a cover girl’s. Her hair still long, thick and glossy brown. Even from this distance, he could tell that her olive skin still glowed with good health, as though she’d just stepped off one of her beloved Colorado mountain trails.

When she’d walked in, wearing the gauzy yellow sundress, he couldn’t help noticing that her long legs were still slim and well toned, and that she still moved like a thoroughbred.