by Fiona Brand
Tobias thanked Tulley and hung up. He walked over to his large picture window, which looked out across city buildings to the sea. The wind velocity had gone up, even in the short time he had been in the office, and the rain had come in, turning the city gray, but that wasn’t what concerned him.
Allegra had endured a major injustice in her life yet, with all the online hype Fischer and Halliday had generated, he had never heard so much as a whisper of the actual facts. And Allegra had never chosen to confide in him.
And why would she, he thought bleakly, when she must have known that he’d been only too happy to buy into the wrong story.
Collecting his briefcase, he took the elevator down to the street, then a cab to the Atraeus Mall. Minutes later, he walked into Ambrosi. The jeweler Allegra had mentioned, Clark, confirmed that Allegra had phoned to request that he give Tobias the same information regarding provenance that he had given her.
Tobias studied the two sheets Clark handed him. They each had only one record of sale, to Alexandra Mallory. The name Faberge leaped off the first page. The current estimate for the necklace alone was seven figures.
Faberge. It was not the kind of jewelry that men like Halliday and Fischer handed out as gifts. It was investment jewelry. The kind families bought to hedge their wealth. He should know—his grandfather had bought enough of it.
Thanking Clark, he walked back through the mall.
As he walked, the consequences of his actions settled in. The second he had seen the diamonds and felt their weight, he had been flung back in time to the arguments that had used to rage between his parents, mostly about the jewelry his father had lavished on mistresses. Then he had remembered the online scandal around Allegra accepting jewelry for sex and the ground had seemed to shift beneath his feet.
He didn’t want to accept that Allegra had been untruthful; he had thought he knew her through and through but, in those moments, he had wondered if he had let lust, and emotion, cloud his judgment. He had wondered if he had been fooled.
He now knew that he had jumped to a completely wrong conclusion. He had let his own trust issues, and the knee-jerk jealousy that had gripped him because it seemed that she had slept with Fischer and Halliday, cloud his judgment.
If he could kick himself, he would. As a mistake, it was unforgiveable.
He headed back out to the street, which was now teeming with rain, caught a cab and phoned Allegra while he was en route to his office building. When there was no reply, twice, he tried the spa’s number.
Janice picked up. Allegra wasn’t at the spa because she’d had to go to the hospital.
Tobias went cold inside. His first thought was that Allegra must have had some kind of accident. “What for?”
“Oh, it’s that heart condition she has. It’s got some weird name. She just calls it SVT. I don’t think it’s a major problem, though, since she drove herself to Mercy.”
Tobias hung up. His heart was pounding. His mother had died from a heart condition that had come out of nowhere. He had been eighteen at the time, but he still remembered how that had felt.
The cab pulled into his office building. He paid the cab driver. Mercy Hospital was in Coconut Grove. That was about a fifteen-minute drive. He stepped into the elevator and punched in the parking garage. Before the doors opened, he had rung Mercy and was talking to Admissions, who confirmed Allegra was a patient in the cardiac unit.
By the time he had reached his truck, he had checked online, found a description for SVT and read the symptoms. There were ranges of severity and a variety of treatments, including shock treatment to reset the heart. Apparently, stress was often a factor in episodes.
Stomach tight, he swung behind the wheel, started the truck and accelerated toward the exit.
He had made a mistake in not believing Allegra’s explanation about the jewelry. He had seen the shock on her face, the way she had lifted her hand to her heart. Now, because of him, she was in the hospital.
It spun him back two years, to a call he had gotten from Lindsay’s father to let him know that she had miscarried their baby. A baby he hadn’t even known existed. Brice Howell had made no bones about the fact that Tobias’s actions in leaving Lindsay for another woman was the reason that baby had died.
He reached the hospital, bypassed Admissions and strode into the cardiology ward, only to find that he had missed Allegra by ten minutes.
Relief filled him. If she had walked out of the hospital, then she must be okay.
Minutes later, he finally got the conversation he needed to have with the doctor who had treated Allegra, and was stonewalled because he wasn’t a relative. Although the doctor did inform him that her problem had been “resolved.”
Tobias’s jaw tightened as he stepped out of the shelter of the hospital foyer into the now-pouring rain. The doctor refusing to talk to him about Allegra’s condition, because he was neither her husband nor her partner, had struck him forcibly.
That was going to change.
He had messed up, big time. But that wouldn’t happen again. If she let him back into her life, he would ensure she had the best medical attention. From now on, if Allegra had so much as a paper cut, then he needed to know about it. If she had a medical emergency, he would be there. He would carry her around on a silk cushion, if that was what worked.
By the time he reached his truck and swung behind the wheel, he was soaked.
Dragging off his wet jacket and tie, he tossed them onto the back seat. His shirt was plastered to his skin in places, but that barely registered. As he merged into traffic, he rang Allegra’s phone and, again, got no reply.
He didn’t think she would go to work, since it was so late in the afternoon, but, at that point, he wasn’t about to let any detail slip, so he dialed Janice again.
When Janice confirmed that she hadn’t heard from Allegra since she had phoned to let her know she was going to Mercy, Tobias terminated the call. He tried Allegra’s number one more time, then concentrated on driving.
He switched on the local radio station, which was broadcasting a storm warning. Apparently, the hurricane that was supposed to veer into the Gulf was now going to hit Miami full on. Even though it was only five o’clock, the light was already murky, so he switched on his lights.
Heavy gusts of wind buffeted the truck as he headed for Esmae’s house. If Allegra wasn’t there, he would drive to her apartment.
Whatever it took, he would find her.
Fifteen
Allegra arrived at Esmae’s house. She hadn’t wanted to come back, but, while she was in the hospital, she had remembered the painting she had left in the beach house. After reading the diary, and everything that had gone wrong for Alexandra, there was no way she was going to leave that behind.
As she parked out on the drive, she noticed that Jose, Marta’s husband, had already been there and had closed the storm shutters over the windows of the house. There were no lights on inside, so it didn’t look like Tobias was home.
Stepping out of her car, she jogged down to the beach house. Even though she was wearing a rain jacket, her jeans were instantly soaked. When she reached the cottage, the wind was even stronger, whipping the sea into a frenzy and filling the air with a misty, salty brine that stung her eyes.
She noted that Jose had missed one of the shutters on the beach house, so she attempted to close it, then gave up when she realized the bolt was broken. Muttering beneath her breath, she had to leave it.
Dragging wet strands of hair from her face, she made her way around the deck, holding onto the rails to anchor herself. It was then that she saw the dinghy, which was attached by a rope looped around a bollard at the end of the short pier.
In his rush to get the house and the beach cottage secured, Jose had obviously forgotten about putting the dinghy out of harm’s way in the boathouse. Normally, it was safe enough to be left bobbing l
azily at the end of the pier, but, with the combination of a high tide and the storm surge that was supposed to be coming, it was in danger of being smashed against the pier or swept away altogether.
Leaning into the wind, Allegra walked quickly down the steps to the beach and onto the wet pier. Grasping the side rail, she made her way, step by careful step, to the end. Clinging to the rail with one hand, she went down on her hands and knees to lessen resistance to the wind, and began working at the knot that secured the dinghy.
A wave broke, drenching her with spray. Dashing water from her eyes, she resumed working at the soaked rope, but it kept getting pulled tight by the wind and waves, which were dragging at the dinghy.
To ease the tension, she leaned forward and grabbed the rope in order to haul the dinghy in closer and create some slack. She almost had the knot undone when the sound of her name being called jerked her head around. A small shock went through her when she saw Tobias, his face like thunder, as he roared at her to leave the dinghy.
* * *
In that moment, another wave broke, this one bigger than the last, surging over the jetty itself. Her feet went from under her. With a yelp, she tried to maintain her grasp on the rail. The plan was to drag herself upright and hook one arm around so she could haul herself back up, but the wood was slippery, and the power of the water tore her hands loose.
Something, probably the dinghy, caught her a glancing blow on the side of the head as she was swept over the side of the jetty, then she hit the water.
Even though she was wet through, the coldness of the water was a shock.
Her first thought was that she had to get away from the pier itself, because she didn’t want to be dashed against the enormous oyster-encrusted poles that supported it. The other danger was the dinghy, which was being flung back and forth by the wind and waves.
Surfacing dangerously close to the dinghy, she gulped a lungful of air and began to swim away from both the pier and the dinghy, which meant out to sea. Even though she was a strong swimmer, it was hard to make headway in the lumpy, turbulent water but, once she was a few yards clear, she could turn toward the shore.
Breathless, she treaded water for a moment and twisted around to get her bearings. A wave surged over her, driving her back in the direction of the shore, which would be a wonderful thing if only she wasn’t still too close to the dinghy.
She swam another couple of strokes then braced for the next wave. This time when she came up gasping for air and coughing, because somehow she had managed to swallow some water, movement on the pier caught her eye.
Tobias. Soaked to the skin in a shirt and dark pants, he was gripping the railing, scanning the water. His gaze locked on hers.
Another wave surged but, this time, she was prepared. Duck-diving, she kicked smoothly through. When she bobbed up on the other side, the pier was empty. Fear spasmed in her chest. Tobias must have been caught by the wave. A split second later, he surfaced beside her. Then, there was no time to think as the next wave broke.
When she came up for air, Tobias’s gaze locked with hers. “Are you okay to swim? We need to get to shore before this gets any worse.”
The relief that had flooded her when Tobias had popped up beside her turned to an intoxicating flood of warmth, because he had jumped in to rescue her. “I can swim.”
A few strokes, hampered by the lumpy waves, and she felt the bottom. As she straightened, a wave hit her in the back. Tobias’s arm snaked around her middle, anchoring her against his side, and they waded the last few yards to shore. When they reached the hard-packed sand, already littered with driftwood and seaweed, he pulled her close, bent down and kissed her, his mouth hard against hers and tasting of salt.
When he lifted his head, his gaze blazed into hers. “I thought I’d lost you. What in hell were you doing in the water? Haven’t you heard, there’s a hurricane—”
“I was getting the dinghy—”
“If Jose asked you to get the dinghy, he’s fired.”
The roar of wind and waves seemed to drop away as she stared at the heated silver of his eyes, fringed by inky black lashes, the intriguing scar across his nose. “He didn’t. He’d left before I got here.”
“Which means it was all your idea. Why did I already know that?” He pulled her close again, his arms wrapping around her in a hug, which was somehow so much more intimate than the kiss had been.
Allegra wound her arms around his waist, soaking in the heat that radiated from him.
He lifted his head. “You almost gave me a heart attack.”
“There wouldn’t have been a problem if someone hadn’t tied some kind of a weird knot, a million times too tight.”
His expression turned wry. “You mean a standard boating knot, a round turn with two half hitches—”
“Whatever. It wouldn’t budge.”
“You shouldn’t have been down here, period,” he said flatly. “It’s too damned dangerous. And you definitely shouldn’t be out in a storm when you’ve just been discharged from the hospital.”
Allegra went still inside. “How did you know about that?”
Tobias pulled her up the shore toward the beach house. “I’ve been trying to call you all afternoon. In the end, I rang Janice and she told me where you were—”
“You were looking for me?”
“No,” he said grimly. “I was going crazy looking for you.”
For a split second, she didn’t know what to think or feel, then anger kicked in. She had thought they were finished. She had grieved over the loss. Now, suddenly, he was concerned about her—
“We need to get inside. The storm’s supposed to peak in the next hour, and they’re predicting a storm surge.”
The pressurized whine of the wind seemed to lift a notch, as if the hurricane had just found another gear. Allegra glanced out to sea. It was becoming more turbulent by the minute, and visibility was fading as the mist thickened. “What about the dinghy—”
“Forget the dinghy. The way this storm’s shaping up, we’ll be lucky if the pier isn’t washed away.”
Tobias kept an arm locked around her waist, as if he couldn’t bear to let her go, which was conflicting. Part of her wanted to bask in the happy glow that had started when he had jumped into the water to save her, the other part of her still wanted to fling all of her hurts in his face.
The wind buffeted them as they climbed the steps. Tobias leaned down to pick up a rain jacket he must have thrown down on his way to the pier. Allegra glanced back. The pier was now almost totally submerged. A shudder went through her at the shocking swiftness with which the water had risen, and how easily she had been swept over the side.
She gave Tobias a fierce look. “You shouldn’t have jumped in.”
“Worried about me?”
She caught his gaze and, for once, didn’t bother trying to hide what she felt. Tobias was tough and strong, but the sea was savage. Regardless of how angry she was with him, how crazy he made her, the thought that something might happen to him made her go cold inside. “Yes.”
He pulled her up the steps and into the protected lee of the beach house. Seconds later, he had the door open and held it against the wind as she stumbled inside.
Tobias slammed the door closed. The reduction in noise was a relief, even though the sound of the wind buffeting the cottage and the roar of the waves as they pounded the beach, was still frighteningly loud.
The hall was dim, courtesy of the shutters, which closed out almost all of the light. Tobias flicked on lights as they walked from the short hallway into the kitchen.
“You’re bleeding. What have you done to your head?”
Allegra touched the side of her head and winced. The skin was broken, and she could already feel a small lump forming. “When I was washed off the pier, I think I caught the side of the dinghy.”
Tobias brushed h
er hair aside, his fingers gentle as he examined the injury. “It’s only a graze, but it needs antiseptic. And ice.”
While she sat down at the kitchen table, he opened the fridge and found a tray of ice cubes, which he emptied into a clean kitchen towel. He handed her the makeshift ice pack, which she pressed to her head. He then disappeared in the direction of the bathroom. When he reappeared, he had a pile of fluffy white towels and a first aid kit.
The lights flickered as he dropped a towel around her shoulders, at which point she realized she was beginning to feel chilled. It wasn’t cold, exactly, but the usual hot temperature had plunged, and her wet clothes were clinging to her.
Tobias pulled a chair close and sat down, his thighs bracketing hers as he opened the first aid kit and extracted a tube of antiseptic. “At least you can swim.”
Allegra tried not to notice how mesmerizingly good Tobias looked with his light shirt plastered to the bronze glow of his skin. “Was that in your investigative report?”
His gaze caught hers. “I guess I deserved that. I used to watch you swimming off the beach. But, I admit, I also asked Esmae about you, and she told me you used to swim competitively.”
He parted her hair and smeared on the antiseptic. “Although she failed to tell me that you had a heart condition, which makes what you did even worse—”
She jerked a little beneath his touch. “I didn’t mean to end up in the water, and it’s not really a heart condition. It’s just a weird kind of electrical thing that happens, usually when I get overstressed.”
Tobias stared at her for a long moment, an odd expression on his face, then he pushed to his feet, replaced the antiseptic in the first aid kit and started opening cupboard doors. The anger that had flowed through her, and the desire to be difficult, suddenly burned out, and she was left wishing for the warmth and intimacy they’d shared on the beach.
