Minutes passed in silence. She could feel the beating of his heart beneath her ear. How often had he held her like this when they were together? She had missed this closeness, missed him. “You’re being very good to me,” she said haltingly. “Why?”
“Caleb gave me orders.” He chuckled. “I have to keep an eye on you.”
“Stop joking. I mean why did you come to help me when you heard about Eve? We weren’t together any longer. There were never any promises between us. You didn’t owe me anything.”
“I made a promise to myself. I told you what it was.” His hand gently brushed the hair at his temple. “Part of the way I feel about you is all mixed up with making sure all goes well with you in the little things as well as the big ones. That’s why you’ll never have to worry that I’ll ever try to dominate or crush your spirit. I want you to be happy. I need that for you. You can’t be happy without Eve, so I have to give you Eve.”
“She has to live, Trevor,” she whispered. “We have to find her.”
“We will.” He got to his feet and carried her toward the bed. “And now you’re going to take a nap, then have something to eat.” He lay down beside her, holding her close. “Damn, you look fragile.” His lips tightened. “Why not? You are fragile, or you’d never have let me cuddle you like this.”
“I wanted you to hold me. It was … good.”
His arms tightened. “Present tense. It is good. Future tense. It will always be good.” He raised his head to look down at her. “You said I didn’t owe you anything, but that wasn’t true. I’m a cynical bastard, but you came into my life and taught me something that I never thought I’d learn.” He kissed her gently. “I never loved anyone until you came along, Jane. You opened the gates.”
Opened the gates …
Yes, she could see the gates swinging open, and beyond them, a treasure was glowing, beckoning.
Or was that Trevor?
“I want to…” She reached up and touched his lips with her finger. “I feel … I want you to be happy. I’ve always wanted that for you. But I don’t know if I’ll ever be ready for a commitment. You’re probably better off without me.”
“Hush.” He took her palm and pressed it on his lips. “I’ll never give up. I’m in this for the long haul.” He smiled down at her. “And I have an idea that we’re closer than you think. Someday soon, you’re going to say that you can’t live without me.” He tucked her head into the hollow of his shoulder. “Hell, I’m halfway there, and that’s—” He broke off and pushed her away. “You’re warm.” His hand touched her forehead. “How do you feel?”
“Okay.” She moistened her lips. “I overdid it today. It’s natural that I should run a little temperature.” She closed her eyes. “Now let me take that nap.” She could feel his gaze on her face. “One hour, then I’ll eat something. Then I’ll be fine.”
Silence. She was afraid that he was going to argue with her. Please, don’t do it. She didn’t know how much of her strength remained.
“One hour,” he finally repeated after a moment as he drew her back into his arms. “Then we’ll assess the situation.”
Driftwood Cottage
“OPEN YOUR EYES, BITCH. There’s nothing wrong with you. Wake up.”
Doane’s hand stung Eve’s cheek, and her head jerked back.
Bonnie was gone, Eve realized hazily. She’d been here only seconds ago, but now she was gone.
Her eyes slowly opened to see Doane’s face in front of her. His cheeks were flushed, and he was glaring at her with anger … and fear.
Fear? What was he afraid—
Doane struck her again. “Stop pretending. Talk to me.”
“Why are you hitting me?” Her voice was a little slurred. She shook her head to clear it. “Unless it’s just for sheer pleasure.” Then she understood as she saw his relief. “You thought you’d killed me. You were scared that all your great plans were going to be destroyed by a little carelessness on your part.” She grimaced. “Actually, a big carelessness. Evidently, you should monitor the quantity of drugs you give me if you want me alive for the grand finale. Kevin would never have been that clumsy.”
“You seem to be recovering very quickly. You were probably just pretending as I said. I knew it.” He was untying the ropes binding her. “And you appear to be cheerful enough.”
“Not cheerful.” But Eve realized she was more steady and serene than she had been for days. The hours with Bonnie had given her the joy and hope that she usually brought to Eve. “But judging from your expression, I probably had a more enjoyable experience tied up and unconscious than you did. No luck finding Kevin’s nuke? What a pity he didn’t trust you. How could he expect you to do his bidding if you were—”
“He did trust me,” he said through set teeth. “I won’t tolerate your sarcasm, Eve. I told you that he died before he could tell me what I needed to know. And I wasn’t out looking for those nuclear devices. I had to see Cartland, one of Kevin’s cell members, to make sure he’d be ready to send someone to activate them when I was ready.”
“When you found out where they were,” she corrected softly. “Aren’t you afraid this Cartland will laugh at you when he finds out that you’re just a puppet trying to be a big, bad terrorist?”
“All I have to do is make one phone call, and I’ll know where they are.”
“Then why didn’t you make the call?”
“There are difficulties.” He cuffed her left wrist to the arm of the chair. “But I’m going to make it right away. Kevin always meant me to have the information. I just have to convince—” He stopped. “But difficulties are meant to be overcome.”
“And is Cartland ready to go when you give the nod?”
He nodded curtly. “I never doubted his eagerness. Just that he had a team still able to function quickly.”
She was tempted to give him another verbal jab, but that would have only given her satisfaction. She had found Doane liked to talk about his plans and machinations to her because he regarded her as no threat. In his eyes, she was already a dead woman, but she was never sure when that information might possibly be a lifesaver. So keep him talking and store up facts and impressions. “Who do you have to call? Who did Kevin trust more than he did you?”
He didn’t answer.
She tilted her head. “Someone he knew in the service? Maybe one of his al-Qaeda buddies?”
“Of course not,” he said shortly. He turned and headed for the door. “I’m tired of listening to you. Damn you to hell. You’re always clawing, biting at me. You’re just like her. I’m going outside to make my call.”
He slammed the door behind him.
Eve frowned speculatively at the door as she thought about both his response and his words. What had he meant?
You’re just like her …
Lakeside Marriott
Chicago, Illinois
PERHAPS SHE’D HAVE TO HAVE plastic surgery after all, Harriet thought as she gazed regretfully into the bathroom mirror of her hotel room. Too bad. She liked her face. It had strength, and she could still see the fine features she had passed on to Kevin. She had considered the possibility before Kevin was killed and even investigated the safest place to have it done. She’d have to refresh that research, but it was still probably South America. She wouldn’t trust anyone in the Middle East to do a good job even though she might count on them to hide her. They had no respect for the strength or rights of women, and they might be careless and expect her to meekly accept that philosophy.
She would not accept not being given her due. She’d always had doubts that Kevin might be making a mistake in dealing with Tehran, but she’d not been able to convince him. But he’d been full of dreams of power, and she’d given in to him and helped him as she’d done since the moment he was born. But she’d made preparations for disaster as well as triumph, and she’d known she might have to run and start a new life.
But Kevin’s dreams had died, murdered by those bastards who had killed him
and thrown him into the fires of that furnace.
No, his final dream had not died, she had not permitted it to be destroyed. It had just been put on hold until the time was right.
And that visit from Jane MacGuire had been the signal that the time was most certainly right.
Her cell phone rang, and she went back into the bedroom to pick it up from the bedside table. She grimaced as she checked the ID. James Doane. It was the second time he’d called in the last hour, and she’d ignored the first one. It was always best to keep the upper hand with him. She’d learned that during their first year of marriage and had kept the reins firm and taut.
But it was time to make sure he wasn’t doing anything that would jeopardize her own plans. She answered the call. “Do you have Zander yet? Thanks to you, everything is falling apart with the life I’ve built over the years. I won’t have it be for nothing, James.”
“Not yet. I’ve been busy.” He added sourly, “It’s your fault. I told you that we have to arrange to have those devices activated. I’ve been scrambling to set it up with Cartland.” He added harshly, “And going at it blind. He keeps asking where Kevin hid those devices, and I have to put him off. When are you going to tell me?”
“Soon. Has Cartland arranged for my passport and line of credit at a bank in Samoa?”
“Yes.” He added with barely contained anger, “You’re treating me with no respect, Harriet. Kevin would not like that. He’d be angry with you.”
“How would you know? You never really knew him. In any disagreement between us, Kevin always took my side. He thought I was right, and you were wrong.” She said coldly, “And the only reason he tolerated you at all was that you helped him with those disgusting episodes with the little girls. It was so dangerous for Kevin, and yet you encouraged him. I’ve never forgiven you for that, James. I knew that someday they’d find out about him and that he’d have to have somewhere to run. You forced me to leave him, so that I could prepare a hiding place and an escape route for him. Do you know how I hated to leave him?”
“You told Kevin often enough,” he said bitterly. “How you were sacrificing yourself for him. How you’d always keep him safe.”
“It was a sacrifice. And he loved me all the more for it. You may have given him what he wanted, but, in the end, he trusted me. He confided in me, let me help him, accepted my suggestions.” She paused. “He even let me choose where those nukes were going to be hidden. You should have heard him laugh when I told him where I thought he should put each one. He said that it was just like me to choose—” She broke off. “But he never told you, did he?”
“He was going to do it.”
“Maybe. If he thought you could help him.”
“I was closer to Kevin than you ever were. I’m still close to him.”
James was getting defiant, and she should not have been this argumentative. It wasn’t to her advantage to make him angry. She was just frustrated that Jane MacGuire had forced her to make a move so quickly. “I won’t argue with you about who Kevin loved more. That’s all in the past. What’s important is making sure that Kevin is properly revenged. I want Zander dead.”
“Zander’s death isn’t enough. I always told you that those cities should be Kevin’s funeral pyre.”
“Then give me what I want and need. And I’ll give you what you want. Have you forgotten that’s how your arrangements with me always have to go forward?”
“How can I be sure that you’ll do it? You can say that safe in your little cave in Muncie.”
“I’m not in Muncie any longer. I had to leave. I’m in Chicago. That’s why I have to make sure that you arranged for me to get out of the country the minute we’re finished with Zander.” She paused. “You didn’t tell me that Kevin had a journal. Why?”
Silence. “How did you find out about the journal?”
“I had a visit from Jane MacGuire. She was asking about it.”
“What? Did she mention me?”
“Don’t panic. She didn’t say anything to indicate that she thought you or Eve Duncan were still alive. She was very emotional about Duncan’s death, and I got the impression it was a personal mission to try to keep any more deaths from happening. She seemed focused on this journal and the damage it could do. At one point, I asked her if she worked for Venable. She said she didn’t, and I believed her. But she was damned determined.”
He muttered a curse. “Why would she come to you?”
“I have no idea. Obviously, Kevin didn’t go into deep detail about the location of the nukes in this journal since you still have no idea where they are.”
“No, but I know that he must have mentioned them somewhere in it. He told me that he had to make sure that his secrets were secure if the journal fell into the wrong hands. He gave me his journal before he went back to Pakistan because he knew I’d keep it safe. After he was killed, I read the journal cover to cover and couldn’t find a hint.” He said in frustration. “But they’ve got to be there.”
“Keep it safe? And instead you let those bastards who killed him take the journal away from you.” She barely managed to keep the contempt from her tone. “Perhaps you shouldn’t worry too much. There was probably nothing of importance in that journal. He might just have wanted to make you feel happier and part of the operation. He knew that you were jealous of how much he let me be involved in his affairs.” She added, “But perhaps you should let me read it to be sure. I assume you have a copy?”
“Of course.”
“But you’re not going to let me read it.”
“No, Kevin gave me the journal. I won’t share it with you.”
“I believe you’re lying to me. You don’t have another copy.” She suddenly laughed. “Or it could be that you won’t let me read it because he said nice things about me.”
“He barely mentioned you.”
“But when he did, it was complimentary.”
“He was always besotted with you.”
“So were you at one time.” Before Kevin had been born, and she had focused all her attention on her son. Why not? James had always been just someone to use. She had created this child, and he had seemed totally her own from the moment she had looked at him in the hospital. She had concentrated on charming and making him love her with his whole heart, closing out everyone else around her. And James had accepted the rejection because he, too, had fallen under Kevin’s spell. “But I won’t insist on seeing the journal if you assure me there’s nothing in it that would appear suspicious.”
“He talks a lot about the little girls.”
James had only said that because he’d known it would annoy her. “That’s nothing. It won’t affect the current operation.”
“Where are those nukes hidden, Harriet? I want the location and the code to set them off. Answer me, dammit.”
“You’ll not get an answer until I’m ready to give it. Tell Cartland I want him to fly here and meet me in front of the Lakeside Marriott at ten tomorrow morning. He’s to have my documents and the bank line of credit. The moment I have them in my hands, I’ll take him on a little trip downtown to show him why he should cooperate with me.”
“Cooperate with us.” He paused. “Is it the detonator? You’ve never told me if Kevin gave you the detonator.”
“You didn’t need to know. You still don’t need to know.”
“He should have given it to me. Do you have it, dammit?”
“I know where to get it.”
“Is that what you’re going to show Cartland tomorrow? Are you going to give him the detonator?”
“No, I’m going to offer him something he may find almost as persuasive. And when I do retrieve the detonator, I have no intention of turning it over to either you or Cartland. I won’t give up control. Besides, I may require an act of good faith from him. I haven’t decided yet.” She paused. “You should be happy that I want everything to move quickly. I want this over within the next two days. I don’t like the idea that Jane MacGuire had the nerve
to confront me.” She added harshly, “I won’t let them destroy me as they did my Kevin. I’ve waited years for you to locate his killer and make all your fine plans. So far, I’ve seen nothing but failure. I’m not waiting any longer. Zander is going to die. And I’m going to be there to see it happen. The minute Zander is dead, I’ll give you the location and code to set off the bombs. Then I’m on the first plane out of the country, and you can set loose Cartland and all his al-Qaeda friends to claim responsibility. But first things first, James.”
“And then you’re taking the money and running. You’re not even going to stay around and make sure that Kevin’s work was completed.”
“I’ll be sure. I don’t have to see it happen to know that those cities will blow. Kevin and I set it up so that he could know and enjoy it when it happened.” She paused. “And I’m not entirely unsympathetic to what you’re feeling. A magnificent funeral pyre for Kevin is going to be something to remember always. But I intend to be alive to remember it. That’s what Kevin would have wanted.”
“Would he? I’d sacrifice my life to give him what he wanted. You’re thinking only of yourself.”
“And so did Kevin. We understood each other perfectly. Good-bye, James. When you’re ready to have me watch Zander’s execution, call me again but not until that time.” She hung up.
James was such a fool. He thought he was so clever, but Kevin had always been able to manipulate him with no effort. So had she when she had thought it was worth the effort.
She turned and went out on the balcony. It was the middle of the night, and she should go to bed and rest. She doubted if she could sleep. She was wired because her life was going to change again. In a few days, she’d be in a foreign country and would disappear until it was safe to emerge from hiding. No problem. She’d made her plans, and this new life would be much more to her liking than the one she’d led in Muncie.
“It’s all going to happen, Kevin,” she murmured. “Zander thought he could take my boy from me? All those Washington bastards thought you could be stopped from doing what we wanted to do? No way.”