And tonight he was shouldering all responsibility and blame again and would face it as he always had.
Alone.
* * *
“Nothing?” Eve asked Joe as he came into the tent.
He shook his head. “We found the remains of a few campfires on that third mountain. It looked as if Santara and his men had been moving around to keep from being spotted.” He looked down at the sleeping Michael. “But they were never close enough to be a danger to anyone here.”
She nodded. “Jane said we had an armed camp.”
“I wish to hell she’d stayed in it,” he said harshly. “Who would believe that—” He broke off. “But it happened. Now we have to get her back.”
“How? Interpol?”
“Any way that doesn’t get her killed. Lisa said that she was sure Santara was going to kill her before she escaped. We can’t count on anything better for Jane if they think she’s a danger to them.” He paused. “Caleb is asking us to back off until he can get a fix on how to do it. How the hell can I do that?”
“I don’t know.” She pulled him down and into her arms. “How can you? Tell me. Convince me that it’s the wrong thing to do.” She held him close. She could feel his pain. “Or is it the smart thing to do?”
He didn’t speak for a moment. “Yes. That’s the worst thing about it. Caleb thinks all this centers around him.”
“So does Lisa.”
“And it very well might be true. Everything points to it. I don’t see any way out. But I’d have to let Caleb go off and control every— It’s Jane.”
“I know,” she whispered. It was a horrible decision for him and for her. To stand on the sidelines when they wanted only to plunge into the battle. “And we have to do whatever is best for her, Joe.”
“And who the hell knows what that is?” He was silent, stiff, fighting the battle. Then he muttered a curse and got to his feet. “Okay, he wins.”
She got up and followed him to the tent entrance. “I don’t think anybody wins this one, Joe,” she said wearily. “It doesn’t feel like it.” She watched him go down the hill and stop before Caleb, who was sitting there drinking a cup of coffee before the fire.
“Okay, I’ll back off,” Joe told him. “You have a clear shot at trying to locate her and setting up a rescue. But the minute you do, you get in touch and bring me into it. Agreed?”
“No choice,” Caleb said. “I knew that’s as much as I’d be able to get from you.”
“And you’ll keep me informed, dammit.”
He nodded. “I’ll let you know how she is as soon as I can. I know Eve’s worried.”
“See that you do.” Joe didn’t move, staring down into Caleb’s eyes. “And if you do the wrong thing, if you get her killed, I’ll hunt you down and break your neck.” He turned and strode back up the hill to the tent. “Done,” he told Eve as he took her back into his arms. “He said earlier that he thought he’d be contacted soon. I hope to hell he’s right.”
* * *
Caleb turned back to the fire as Joe left him. It had gone as he’d expected. Joe Quinn was smart and always managed to overcome personal feelings if they got in the way of what was best for any situation. But it had been more difficult than usual, since it concerned Jane.
Caleb didn’t know if he could have made that choice.
He was on fire right now.
And he didn’t think he’d hidden it very well. Eve had said he was ready to explode and she had come close. He was burning with rage and panic and the multitude of searing, complex emotions that were always there when he thought about Jane.
So don’t think about her, he decided. He had to be calm and cool when the call came.
And it would come soon. He’d delved into everything that he knew and had experienced, and unless there had been a greater change than he thought, the call would be coming within the next hour or so.
So he would sit here and wait and wouldn’t think about Jane.
Instead, he’d think about the most painful ways to kill Santara.
* * *
The call came forty-five minutes later.
He smiled grimly as he saw the ID. He could feel the rush of adrenaline sending the blood zinging through his body.
And so the hunt begins.…
He pressed the access button. “Hello, Teresa. You’ve kept me waiting. But that was always one of your strategies. However, I imagine it was just as disturbing for you as it was for me this time. You’ve probably been salivating for the chance to display how clever you are.”
Silence. Then she laughed. “As it happens, you’re right, Caleb. I was just sitting here thinking about you, wondering what you were doing. What blind alleys you were running down while trying to find her.”
“I didn’t waste my time. A cursory check at Loch Gaelkar and then I sat down to wait for your call. Do you have Jane yet?”
“She just arrived. However, she won’t be of use to you, Caleb.”
He kept his tone indifferent. “She’s alive?”
“Yes. A wrenched neck and concussion. But I made sure that Santara kept her awake on the flight. I believe the danger of coma is over now. But I had him give her a sedative just before he got here. Naturally, she’s rather tense, and that’s bad for her right now. I wanted her to be at her best when you saw her. She’s quite beautiful, isn’t she?”
“Anyone could see that.” He paused. “Just as anyone could see how beautiful you are, Teresa.”
“Yes, I am. But I’ve had to have a few nips and tucks lately. Very annoying. Particularly when I look at Jane MacGuire. But maturity always triumphs over youth in the end.”
“Does it?”
“Always,” she said softly. “Look at the situation. Your Jane is lying unconscious in my guest room, totally helpless. I can do anything I want with her, Caleb.” She chuckled. “Or look at Lisa. I was in charge of her for years. And when I realized she’d be useful, I had Santara teach her a few of the lessons I’d wanted her to learn ever since I became her guardian. Arrogant little bitch. All that youth did nothing to help her, either, Caleb.” The laughter vanished. “But you helped Lisa escape, didn’t you? I knew you would come if she called you; that’s why I took her. I needed you. But Santara was a fool and let you take her away from me. It wasn’t supposed to work that way. So I had to make a correction.”
“Jane MacGuire is the correction?”
“Yes, I thought you’d appreciate my brilliance in choosing her. You always admired that quality in me. No one else bothered to look for it.”
“You missed the boat this time, Teresa. I’ll grant that you were smart to take Lisa. You knew how I felt about family. But Jane doesn’t mean anything to me.”
“Oh, I think she does,” Teresa said softly. “Years ago, after your parents sent you away to Scotland, I filed you away as a possible asset and forgot about you. When I needed someone to draw you into the web, I chose Lisa.” She sighed. “But that was extremely difficult to manage. I knew I couldn’t do too much to Lisa, because it would make you too angry. She was your little sister and there was all that protective business you’d demonstrated after Maria had been killed. I was walking on eggs. Jane MacGuire will be much easier.”
“Indeed? Why?”
“Because you fuck her,” she said simply.
“Wrong.”
“No, after you took Lisa, I got an in-depth report on your activities over the last several years. Well, as in-depth as possible considering what a secretive bastard you’ve always been. But you’ve never hidden what a sexual animal you are, Caleb. You’ve gone to bed with many, many women, but you never form relationships. One-night stands.” She added softly, “Except with Jane MacGuire. You kept returning to her, Caleb. You were together in half a dozen countries, and wherever she is, you’re eventually there, too. Is she that good?”
“Coincidence. We have mutual objectives at times.”
“I don’t think so. That’s why I felt I’d been given a gift when I sa
w her name on every page of the report I had on you.”
“Would you believe we’re friends?”
She laughed. “You? Have you forgotten I know you, Caleb? And I’ve seen her.”
“I didn’t think that you’d accept that. Nevertheless, you’re wrong, Teresa. And why would you think you could use her for a weapon, even if you were right? Someone I fuck wouldn’t have the same impact as Lisa.”
“Not usually. But you’re very intense, sometimes almost obsessive. Jane MacGuire might fall into that category. If she does, then you wouldn’t want to give up your toy if you could help it.” She added, “Especially when just performing a small service for me would permit you to keep her.”
“I don’t permit myself to be used. Have you forgotten that?”
“I haven’t forgotten anything about you. Have you forgotten that I don’t let anything stand in my way when I want something?” Her voice became honey-smooth. “Friends? I don’t believe she’d feel very friendly toward you if I turned Santara loose on her when she’s feeling so poorly. I didn’t let him rape Lisa, even though that might have been effective, because I knew that would disturb you.”
“Yes, it would have.”
“But the gloves are off now, Caleb. I have to have this service performed in the next forty-eight hours. I’ll do anything I have to do to MacGuire to ensure your cooperation. If you don’t tell me right now that you’re willing to deal with me, I’ll send in Santara and any other of his men with whom he wishes to share. You know I don’t bluff, Caleb.”
“I also know you’re capable of any deceit.”
“Of course.”
He was silent. She would do it. Find the safest way out. “You are clever, Teresa. You’re right: I do find her … very satisfying. As a toy, she’s superb. I don’t like the idea of her being damaged.”
She laughed. “I knew it. Much better choice than Lisa.”
“But you know that we could take care of this in another way. I’m prepared to be very generous if you want to go the ransom route.”
“Tempting. However, regrettably, though my present arrangement is fantastic monetarily, it has a downside. I was forced to ask my new partners to fund my advance preparations. Now they’ve told me that if I don’t fulfill my obligations, they will be displeased enough to take a contract out on me. I don’t intend to have to give up the splendid life I’ve planned in order to go into hiding.”
“And I have no intention of backing myself into a corner for any woman. What are you asking me to do?”
“What you’re so good at doing. What your dear mother was so afraid you’d do. What else?”
“Exactly what I assumed. You want someone killed in a way that would not be able to be detected. Who’s the target?”
“You haven’t found that out yet? I thought you might have stumbled across it. You did find out about the American Hospital in Dubai from Said Ben Kemal.”
“Who?”
“That’s enough information for now. I have to be sure that she’s enough to keep you under control. So you’ll come here and we’ll have a few discussions and renew our acquaintance.”
“Come where?”
“Dubai. You’ll be picked up at the airport and brought to me.” She chuckled. “And to Jane MacGuire. She should be better by that time. If I’m feeling generous, I might let you have a welcome present as a deposit before you actually give me what I want. I’m sure you’ve missed her while you’ve been flying around trying to find Santara.”
“And you.”
“That goes without saying. I knew you’d realize I was behind it almost from the beginning. We do know each other so well. Good night, Caleb. You’ll have my phone number now. Let me know when you arrive.” She hung up.
Keep cool. Keep calm. Now that the need for pretense was over, the rage was beginning to drown out everything else. Rage and fear. Teresa always knew how to push the right buttons and she’d found one in Jane.
And she would push it and push it until it was broken or she had what she wanted. She would have no compunction about breaking Jane. She was totally without any sense of right and wrong. The perfect sociopath, he’d discovered during their time together. Whatever served to advance an agenda was what she did with speed and consummate skill.
But she couldn’t be permitted to trample over Jane.
Control. It had always been the battle that had defined their struggle for power.
Teresa had started it, and he would finish it.
He got to his feet and strode up the hill to his tent. He changed, threw clothes into a bag, and exited the tent.
“I’m going with you.” Lisa was standing a few yards away. She was dressed in black pants and shirt and had her backpack. “You’ve heard, haven’t you? I saw you talking on the phone down there.” Her lips were tight. “You’re not going to leave me again, Seth.”
“The hell I’m not.” He didn’t need this right now. “I’m going to have enough problems. If you want to help Jane, you’ll stay here, out of my way.”
“Jane’s alive?” she asked shakily.
He wasn’t going to lie. “I don’t have proof. I think it’s true.”
“Then we’ll go get her.”
“It’s not going to be that easy.”
“You have to trade something? I knew that was going to happen. What?”
“I’ve no idea yet. Whatever it is, it’s going to be difficult, or she wouldn’t want me.”
“She? Teresa?”
He nodded. “As she put it, ‘the gloves are off.’”
“She said she’d hurt Jane?”
“Yes. But I won’t let that happen.”
She shook her head. “We won’t let that happen. I’m going with you.”
“No.” He had to reason with her. She was as scared about Jane as he was right now. “Look, if you come and we’re captured, Teresa will have two weapons she can use against me. That’s what you said you didn’t want.”
“I wouldn’t be captured.” She met his eyes. “You showed me how to keep that from happening. I won’t let them use me against you. All I’d have to do is kill them.”
“All you’d have to do,” he repeated. “Simplistic. You made a promise.”
“It didn’t include stuff like this.” She took at step closer, her eyes pleading. “I wouldn’t do it unless I had to. You’re going to Dubai? I wouldn’t even have to be with you. For heaven’s sake, some women there run around in robes and veils. No one would even know who I was. I wouldn’t get in your way. I’d just be there to do what you needed me to do.”
“It’s not a good idea, Lisa.”
“Then make it a good idea.” She suddenly wasn’t pleading any longer. “When that bastard Santara was torturing me, I held out. I kept my word. But I swore nothing like that was ever going to happen to me or anyone I cared about again. I want to do whatever you want, but I won’t let them hurt you or Jane.” She stared him in the eye. “So I’m going to Dubai whether you like or not, Seth. You’re going to find me something of value to do that will help Jane and hopefully cause Santara to have a fatal accident. Make it work, dammit.”
He stared at her in frustration and something else, which might have been pride.
He shrugged. “Whatever. Listen, you’ll do what I say. No arguments. Not ever.” He went past her down the hill. “And I’ll make it work.”
JUMAIRA, DUBAI
“You really have to wake up now, Jane. I’ve let you sleep as long as I can because I needed you fit and ready. But we’re running out of time.” It was a woman’s voice, smooth, deep, and musical. “And I really don’t want to use Santara’s methods on you. So do open your eyes.”
Easier said than done, Jane thought groggily. Her head felt stuffed with cotton.
Santara …
It was all rushing back to her. She wanted to push it away and go back to the darkness.
Santara …
There was no going back.
Force it. Face it.
&n
bsp; She slowly opened her lids.
“There we are.” The woman sitting in the peacock blue brocade chair opposite the couch where Jane was lying was smiling at her. “I knew you must be a smart woman. Caleb doesn’t tolerate stupidity for very long.” She handed her a delicate china cup. “Coffee. Very strong. Do you need me to help you hold it?”
“No.” Though her hand was shaking, every instinct was telling her she mustn’t show that weakness. “I’m fine.” She took a sip. Hot. Black. Bracing. She took another sip, her gaze fixed on the woman who must be Teresa Romano. She was dressed in a long black skirt and fringed overshirt that managed to make her look both exotic and flawlessly elegant. She was far more beautiful than in that photo Caleb had shown her. Glowing skin, glittering blue eyes, long lashes, and her blond hair, coiled in a chignon, was a faultless frame for those perfect features.
“You’re not fine, you know.” Teresa Romano was smiling at her. “You’re in a terrible predicament, if you’ll remember. But if you cooperate, you may come out of it alive. It appears you can be valuable to me. I suppose you’ve guessed I’m Teresa Romano?”
Keep her talking. Keep drinking the coffee. Stronger. She had to get stronger. “Yes. And you’re the one who put me in this predicament. You must be desperate. You couldn’t get hold of Lisa, so you grabbed me instead?”
Teresa’s smile lost a little of its wattage. “‘Desperate’? I’m never desperate. Poor choice of words. As it happens, I’m much happier with you than I was with Lisa. All she could offer was to reach out to Caleb’s protectiveness. You’ll appeal to more basic appetites, and we both know how basic Caleb can be.”
“Do we?” She took another sip of coffee. She was getting steadier. “You went to a great deal of trouble to find someone you thought would make Caleb perform for you. Would you care to tell me what you need from him?”
“‘Perform’?” She threw back her head and laughed. “Now that’s a fitting word. No one’s better at performance than Caleb.” She leaned back in the chair. “Oh, I intend to tell you what I need from him, Jane. I want you to be able to know what’s going to save your life so that you’ll be infinitely persuasive with him. No matter how much you please him, Caleb can be very difficult to manage.”