She’d had a lot of friends then, people who knew how to really party, not the snooty my-great-great-granddaddyfought-in-the-War crowd, the ones who wore pearls and the men didn’t cuss in the ladies’ presence. What bullshit. Her friends knew how to have fun.
She’d been smart, she’d stayed away from the hard drugs. No mainlining for her, no sirree. That shit would kill you. She liked booze, but she loooved that sweet white powder. One snort, and no worries; she felt on top of the world, the best, the prettiest, the sexiest. Once she’d been so damn sexy that she’d taken on three guys, one after the other, then all three together, and worn them all out. It’d been great, she’d been fantastic, she’d never had sex like that since. She’d like to do it again, but it took more to fly now, and really she’d rather enjoy that than concentrate on screwing. Besides, a couple of times she’d had a little problem a month or so later, and she’d had to go to Memphis where no one knew her to have it taken care of. Wouldn’t do to have a bun in the oven ruining her fun.
But all of her little hiding places were empty. She didn’t have any coke, and she didn’t have any money. Desperately she roamed the suite, trying to think. Aunt Lucinda always kept a good bit of money in her purse, but the purse was in her bedroom and the old lady was still in her suite, so she couldn’t get at it. Grandmother and Mama had gone shopping, so they would have taken all their cash with them. But Roanna was asleep in the study … Corliss laughed to herself as she slipped from her rooms and hurried down the hallway to Roanna’s room. Guess it was a good thing Webb had kept her from slamming that door after all. Let dear little Roanna sleep, the stupid bitch.
Silently she entered Roanna’s bedroom. Roanna always put her purses away in the closet like a good little girl. It took Corliss only a moment to filch Roanna’s wallet and count the money. Only eighty-three bucks, damn it. Even someone as dense as Roanna would notice if a couple of twenties went missing. She seldom bothered searching Roanna’s purse for that reason, because Roanna didn’t normally carry much cash.
She eyed the credit cards but resisted the temptation. She would have to sign for a cash advance on them, and anyway the bank teller might know she wasn’t Roanna. That was the trouble with hick towns, too many people knew your business.
The automatic teller bank card was something else, though. If she could just find Roanna’s PIN … Swiftly she began pulling scraps of paper out of the little pockets of the wallet. No one was supposed to write down their PIN, but everyone did. She found a slip of paper, neatly folded, with four numbers on it. She snickered to herself as she took an ink pen from the bottom of Roanna’s purse and scribbled the numbers on her palm. Maybe it wasn’t the PIN, but so what? All the machine would do was not give her the money, it wasn’t as if it would call Roanna and tell on her.
Smiling, she slipped the bank card into her pocket. This was better than sneaking a twenty here and a twenty there. She’d get a couple of hundred, put the card back before Roanna missed it, and have some fun tonight. Hell, she’d even put the transaction slip in the folder where Roanna kept things like that; that way, there wouldn’t be a discrepancy when the bank statement came out. This was a good plan; she’d have to use it again, though it would be smart to use Aunt Lucinda’s card occasionally, if she could get it, and alternate rather than using the same one all the time. Variety was the spice of life. It also cut down on her chances of getting caught, which was the most important thing; that, and getting money.
By eight o’clock that night, Corliss felt much better. After hitting the automatic bank machine, it had taken her some time to find her regular supplier, but at last she had located him. The white powder beckoned, and she wanted to sniff it all up at once, but she knew it would be smarter if she rationed it, because there was no telling how often she would be able to sneak a bank card. She allowed herself just a single line, enough to take the edge off.
Then she was in the mood for fun. She hit her favorite bar, but none of her friends were there, and she sat by herself, humming a little. She ordered her favorite drink, a strawberry daiquiri, which she liked because it packed quite a punch the way the bartender made them for her but still looked like one of those cute drinks it was okay for a nice girl to drink.
The longer she sat there, though, the more her mood darkened. She tried to hang on to the drug-induced euphoria, but it faded as it always did, and she wanted to cry. The daiquiri was good, but the alcohol didn’t work the same way coke did. Maybe if she got a real buzz on, it would help.
The hour dragged past, and still none of her friends came in. Had they gone somewhere else tonight and not told her? She felt a sense of panic at being abandoned. Surely no one had heard that Webb had threatened to throw her out of Davencourt, not yet.
Desperately she sipped the daiquiri, trying not to stick herself in the eye with the stupid little turquoise paper parasol. Either the straw was shorter than usual, or that damn parasol had grown. She hadn’t had this kind of trouble with the first two drinks. She glared at the bartender, wondering if he was playing a practical joke on her, but he wasn’t even looking at her, so she decided he wasn’t.
The carcasses of the other two little paper parasols lay in front of her. One was yellow, the other was pink. Put them all together and she’d have a pretty little parasol bouquet. Whoopee. Maybe she’d save them to put on Aunt Lucinda’s grave. That was a thought; by the time the old bat kicked off, she should have enough little parasols collected to make a real pretty wreath.
Or maybe she could stuff them down Webb Tallant’s throat. Death by parasol; that had a nice ring to it.
The bastard had scared her half to death this afternoon when he’d grabbed her like that. And the look in his eyes—God! That was the coldest, meanest look she’d ever seen, and for nothing! Little Miss Mealy-Mouth’s beauty sleep hadn’t been disturbed, and God knows she needed all she could get. Corliss snickered, but her mirth died when she remembered the threats Webb had made.
She hated him. Why did he have everything? He didn’t deserve it. It had always galled her that he was the chosen favorite when he wasn’t any closer kin to Aunt Lucinda than she was. He was mean and selfish, the old bitch was going to give Davencourt to him, and he wasn’t going to let her live there after Aunt Lucinda died. It just wasn’t fair!
As much as she disliked Roanna, at least Roanna was a real Davenport, and she wouldn’t feel as bad if Davencourt went to her. Like hell, she wouldn’t. Roanna was a stupid wimp, and she didn’t deserve Davencourt either. The only good thing about Roanna having the house was that Corliss knew she could handle Roanna with one hand tied behind her back. She’d have that little mouse so buffaloed Roanna would be handing over money instead of forcing Corliss to sneak it.
But if Aunt Lucinda wasn’t going to leave Davencourt to Roanna, then it just wasn’t fair that Webb should get it! Aunt Lucinda might not think that Webb had killed Jessie, but Corliss had her own opinion, and it was even stronger after the look she’d seen on his face that afternoon. She had no doubts that he could kill. Why, for a minute she’d thought he was going to kill her, and over a little joke she’d been about to play. She’d only been thinking about slamming the door, she hadn’t actually done it. But he’d grabbed her and hurt her neck, the bastard.
Someone slid onto the stool beside her. “You look like you need another drink,” a smooth masculine voice purred in her ear.
Corliss cast a dismissive glance at the man beside her. He was good-looking enough, she supposed, but way too old. “Get lost, Pops.”
He chuckled. “Don’t let the gray hair fool you. Just because there’s snow on the roof doesn’t mean there’s no fire in the furnace.”
“Yeah, yeah, I’ve heard it all before,” she said, bored. She took another draw on the daiquiri. “You may be too old to cut the mustard, but you can still spread the mayonnaise. Big deal. Beat it—and you can take that any way you like.”
“I’m not interested in fucking you,” he said, sounding as bored as she ha
d.
She was so shocked by the bluntness that she looked at him then, really looked at him. She saw the thick hair that had gone mostly gray, and a body that was still powerful and in shape even though he had to be in his fifties. It was his eyes that riveted her, though; they were the bluest eyes she’d ever seen, and looking into them was like looking into a snake’s eyes: flat, totally devoid of feeling. Corliss shivered, but couldn’t help feeling fascinated.
He nodded at the parasols littering the bar. “You’ve been pouring the booze down pretty fast. Have a bad day?”
“You don’t know the half of it,” she said, but then laughed. Things are looking up, though.”
“So why don’t you tell me about it,” he invited. “You’re Corliss Spence, aren’t you? Don’t you live out at Davencourt?”
That was often one of the first questions people asked when meeting her for the first time. Corliss loved the distinction it gave her, the sense of being someone special. Webb was going to take that away from her, and she hated him for it. “Yeah, I live there,” she said. “For a while longer, anyway.”
The man lifted his glass to his mouth. From the color of the liquid, it looked like straight bourbon. He sipped it as he stared at her with those cold blue eyes. “Looks to me like you’d already be hauling ass out of there. It must be pretty uncomfortable living with a killer.”
Corliss thought of Webb’s hand biting into the back of her neck, and she shivered. “He’s a bastard,” she said. “I’ll be moving out soon. He attacked me today for no reason!”
“Tell me about it,” he urged again, and held out his hand. “By the way, my name’s Harper Neeley.”
Corliss shook hands with him and felt a little thrill of fascination. He might be an old guy, but there was something about him that gave her the shivers. For now, though, she was more than willing to tell her new friend anything he wanted to know about how hateful Webb Tallant was.
Roanna wished she hadn’t succumbed to the nap that afternoon. It had helped immeasurably at the time, but now she faced another long night. She had come upstairs at ten and gone through the ritual of showering, putting on her nightgown, brushing her teeth, getting in bed, all for nothing. She had known immediately that sleep would be a long time coming, if at all, so she had gotten out of bed and curled up in her chair. She picked up the book she’d been trying to read for the past two nights and finally managed to get interested in it.
Webb came up at eleven, and she snapped off her reading light while she listened to him showering. She watched the splash of light from his room, wondering if he would back between it and the windows so she could see his shadow on the veranda. He didn’t; his light went out, and there was silence from the other room.
The light from her lamp attracted mosquitoes, so Roanna always kept her veranda doors closed while she was reading, and she wasn’t able to hear if he opened his own doors that night. She sat quietly in the dark, waiting until he’d had time to fall asleep, hoping she might become sleepy herself. She watched the fluorescent hands of her clock move past midnight; only then did she turn her lamp back on and resume reading.
An hour later she yawned and let the book drop into her lap. Even if she couldn’t actually sleep, she was so tired that she wanted to lie down. She glanced outside and saw that an evening storm was building; she could see the red arc of lightning, but it was so far away she couldn’t hear any thunder. Perhaps if she opened her doors and got into bed, the storm would sweep nearer, bringing the sweet rain with it. Rain was the best sedative, soothing her into what was usually her most restful sleep.
She was so tired that it was a long moment before she realized that lightning wasn’t red. There was no storm.
Someone was on the balcony, his darker form barely discernible in the shadows.
He was watching her.
Webb.
She recognized him immediately, so swiftly that she didn’t have time to panic at the thought of a stranger on the veranda. He was smoking, and the cigarette glowed in a red arc as he lifted it to his lips. The fiery end burned even brighter when he inhaled, and in the brief flare she could make out the hard outline of his face, the slash of his high cheekbones.
He was leaning against the veranda railing, just outside the frame of light from her windows. A faint, silver light gleamed on his naked shoulders, cast from the stars dotting the night sky. He was wearing dark pants, perhaps jeans, but nothing else.
She had no idea how long he’d been out there, smoking and silently watching her through the glass French doors. She inhaled deeply, her physical awareness of him suddenly so intense that she ached with the force of it. Slowly she nestled her head against the back of the chair and stared back at him. She was acutely aware of her bare flesh beneath the fabric of the modest nightgown: the breasts he had kissed, the thighs he had parted. Was he remembering that night, too?
Why wasn’t he asleep? It was almost one-thirty.
He turned and flicked the cigarette over the railing, into the dew-wet grass below. Roanna’s gaze automatically followed the movement, the arc of fire, and when she looked back, he was gone.
She didn’t hear his doors close. Had he gone back inside, or was he strolling around on the veranda? With her own doors closed, she wouldn’t have heard his open or close. She reached up and turned off the lamp, plunging her room into darkness again. Without the light on she could clearly see the balcony, bathed in that faint, silvery starlight. He wasn’t there.
She was shaking a little as she crawled into bed. Why had he been watching her? Had there been any intent to it, or had he simply been outside smoking and looked through her windows because her light was on?
Her body ached, and she hugged her arms over her throbbing breasts. It had been two weeks since that night in Nogales, and she yearned to feel his hot, naked flesh against her again, his weight pressing her down into the mattress, moving over her, into her. The soreness left by the loss of her virginity had long since faded, and she wanted to feel him there again. She wanted to go to him in the silence of the night, slip into bed beside him, give him the gift of her own flesh.
Sleep had never been further away.
He gave her a sharp glance when she entered the study the next morning. She had used makeup to mask the dark circles beneath her eyes, but he immediately noted the effort. “It was a bad night for you, wasn’t it?” he asked brusquely. “Did you get any sleep at all?”
She shook her head but kept her expression blank so he wouldn’t guess at her physical torment. “No, but eventually I’ll get tired enough to sleep. I’m used to it.”
He closed the file that had been open on the desk, punched the exit key on the keyboard, and turned off the computer. He got to his feet with an air of decision.
“Go change clothes,” he ordered. “Jeans and boots. We’re going for a ride.”
At the word ride her whole body was consumed with eagerness and renewed energy. Even as tired as she was, a ride sounded like heaven. A horse moving smoothly beneath her, the breeze flowing over her face, the fresh, heated air soothing her lungs. No meetings, no schedule, no pressure. But then she remembered that there was a schedule, and a meeting, and she sighed. “I can’t. There’s a—”
“I don’t care what kind of meeting you have,” he interrupted. “Call and tell them you won’t be there. Today, you’re going to do nothing but relax, and that’s an order.”
Still she hesitated. For ten years her entire existence had been focused on duty, on taking care of business, on helping fill the gap left by his departure. It was difficult to abruptly turn her back on the foundation of those ten years.
He put his hands on her shoulders and turned her toward the door. “That’s an order,” he repeated firmly, and gave her a light swat on the rump to send her on her way. It was supposed to be a swat, but instead his touch gentled the motion to a pat. He drew his hand back before it could linger, before his fingers could cup the firm buttock he had just touched.
She
stopped at the door and looked back at him. He noted that she was blushing a little. Because he’d patted her ass? “I didn’t know you smoked,” she said.
“I usually don’t. A pack lasts me a month or longer. I end up throwing most of them away because they’ve gone stale.”
She started to ask him why he’d been smoking last night if he didn’t normally smoke any more than that but held the words back. She didn’t want to pester him with personal questions the way she had when she was a kid. He’d had a lot of patience with her, but now she knew that she’d been a bother to him.
Instead she quietly went upstairs to change clothes, and her heart lifted as she did. An entire day to herself with nothing to do but ride! Pure heaven.
Webb must have called down to the stable, because Loyal was waiting with two horses already saddled. Roanna gave him a shocked look. She’d always taken care of her own horse from the time she’d been big enough to lift a saddle. “I would have saddled him myself,” she protested.
Loyal grinned at her. “I know you would, but I thought I’d save you some time. You don’t get to ride nearly enough, so I wanted you to have a few extra minutes.”
Buckley, her old favorite, was fifteen years old now, and she rode him only on more leisurely trails, over easy terrain. The horse Loyal had chosen for her today was a sturdy bay, not a streak of lightning, but with legs like iron and a lot of stamina. Webb’s horse, she noticed, had much the same characteristics. Loyal evidently figured they were going out for more than a Sunday trot.