The Cutting Edge

by Linda Howard

  Brett got to his feet, towering over the small redhead, who nevertheless continued to glare up at him. “I thought you were her friend,” he snapped.

  “I am. Friend enough that I want everyone to know what a raw deal she got. Tessa never stole a penny in her life. If you don’t like what I’m saying, then fire me.”

  “Who told you about it?” he asked, ignoring her last statement.

  “Tessa.”

  Somehow, he hadn’t expected that. He’d have thought Tessa would try to keep it as quiet as she could. “She called you?”

  “No. I went to her apartment last night.”

  His fist slowly clenched. Her face, when she’d left his hotel room, had been white and blank. Her last words had gone around and around in his mind, but still he couldn’t pin down her meaning. No, I don’t think it would change anything at all, she’d said, her voice remote, and she’d turned and quietly left. Did she mean that she thought he’d go through with the prosecution even if she were pregnant? She’d been so pale that he’d started to go after her, but his pride had stopped him. He wouldn’t chase after her like a dog after a bitch in heat, not after he knew her for a liar and a thief.

  “How was she?” he asked rawly, unable to stop the words.

  Billie gave him a scathing look. “What do you care?”

  “Damn it, how was she?” he roared, a muscle jerking in his cheek as he felt his control breaking.

  It wasn’t in Billie’s pugnacious character to back down. “If you’re so interested, go see for yourself, though I doubt Tessa would let you in the door.” She stormed out, and even slammed the door behind her. Brett itched to grab the little red-headed wildcat and shake her, but at the same time he felt a grudging respect for her. Few people stood up to him at all.

  Restlessly he paced over to the window. What sort of game was Tessa playing now? Did she think that if she stirred up enough support in the ranks at Carter Engineering, the charges against her would be dropped? Who knew what went on in her mind? She was a thief, a woman skilled enough at deceit that he’d been totally taken in by her until the evidence had forced him to accept the truth. She was capable of such a high degree of duplicity that the two images he had of her still warred in his mind. He simply couldn’t blend them together into a single person.

  And he wanted her. Heaven help him, he still wanted her.

  * * *

  TESSA STRIPPED THE bed and put clean sheets on it. “You can have the bed,” she told Silver calmly. “I’ll sleep on the couch.”

  “I’ll do no such thing,” Silver retorted, helping Tessa smooth the sheets. “I’ll take the couch.”

  “It’ll be crowded, with both of us on the couch,” Tessa said. She didn’t look up. “I can’t sleep in here. I’ve been sleeping on the couch since—”

  She broke off, her hands busy, and Silver watched her niece worriedly. Tessa had changed, and it wasn’t simply that she was distraught at being arrested, though that was enough to make anyone a nervous wreck. But Tessa wasn’t nervous; she was calm, unnaturally so. The sparkle that had always lit her from the inside was gone. Silver didn’t want to think that it had been extinguished permanently, but she’d never seen Tessa like this before, not even after Andrew.

  Silver looked at the bed, then back at Tessa. “He seduced you, didn’t he?”

  “At the time, I thought he was making love,” Tessa said, after a silent moment. She smiled at Silver, but the smile didn’t reach her eyes. “I’ll be all right. At least I’m not pregnant.”

  “Are you sure?”

  “Yes. This morning.” Brett didn’t have anything to worry about now. He could prosecute her with a clear conscience. Then she shoved him out of her mind, because she couldn’t think about him any longer without breaking down, something that she refused to do. She had to keep the pain at bay, or she wouldn’t be able to function. To that end, she kept her thoughts concerned only with the present. Rehashing every moment she’d spent with him wouldn’t accomplish anything except to undermine her emotionally.

  She was tired, very tired after not having slept the night before, but she wondered if the coming night would be any better. Her eyes were burning, yet she felt unable to close them.

  The phone rang. Tessa jumped; then her face closed up, her eyes going curiously blank. “You answer it,” she told Silver abruptly. “I’ll finishing making the bed.”

  Frowning, Silver went into the living room and picked up the phone. “Hello.” Tessa could hear Silver’s side of the conversation clearly from the bedroom, and she tensed. What if it was Brett? No, she was being stupid. Brett wasn’t going to call her. He’d gone out of his way to make certain she couldn’t reach him by phone, so he wasn’t likely to try to call her. Quickly she finished smoothing the comforter, then went into the bathroom and closed the door, running the water so she wouldn’t be able to hear anything Silver said.

  After a few moments, Silver tapped on the bathroom door, and Tessa hastily shut off the water. “That was your friend Billie.”

  Tessa opened the door. “Thank you,” she said quietly, knowing that no explanations were needed.

  Silver thought about passing along everything Billie had told her, but she decided against it. Tessa had already made it clear that she didn’t want to discuss Brett Rutland in any way.

  Still, it was disquieting that Tessa went immediately to the telephone and unplugged it.

  Tessa had a meeting with her lawyer the next day, and Silver went with her. If Calvin Stine didn’t approve of having anyone else present, he gave no sign of it. His gray eyes seemed sharper than before as he surveyed Tessa.

  “I’ve talked with John Morrison, the district attorney. He seems to think there’s an open-and-shut case against you.”

  Meeting his eyes, she saw that he didn’t believe in her innocence, and her blood chilled. “I didn’t take the money,” she said, her voice expressionless. “Someone else did.”

  “Then that someone has done a good job of making it look as if you did it,” he pointed out.

  “Isn’t it your job to find out who that someone is?” Silver broke in, glaring at the man.

  He had such cold eyes, Tessa thought. “No, ma’am, that’s an investigator’s job. My job is to give your niece the best legal counsel and representation in court that I can. My job is to present evidence that contradicts theirs, or to cause the jury to doubt the prosecution’s evidence.”

  “And if the only way of proving my innocence is to find out who is really the guilty one?” Tessa asked softly.

  He sighed. “Miss Conway, you’ve been watching too many ‘Perry Mason’ reruns. It doesn’t work that way. We’re dealing with computer theft. There are no marked bills, no fingerprints, no bloody dagger, as it were. Everything is done in an electronic file.”

  “And my name was used.”

  “Your name was used,” he agreed.

  Her back was very straight, her voice as level as his. “Very well, then, where is the money? What have I done with it? Have I spent it? If so, on what? Do you think that an embezzler steals just to stockpile the money somewhere and not use it?”

  “It’s been known to happen.” His eyebrows lifted. “If the money is invested under another name, or simply hidden in a savings account somewhere, an embezzler can expect to serve a fairly short sentence in prison, then collect the money on his or her release and simply disappear.”

  “So there’s no way to prove my innocence unless the real embezzler confesses?”

  “That’s another unlikely scenario. It doesn’t happen.”

  Tessa got to her feet. “Then I suppose it’s up to me,” she told him politely. “Thank you for your time.”

  He got to his feet, frowning slightly. “What do you mean, it’s up to you?”

  “To prove my innocence, of course.”

  “How are you going to do that?”

  “By tracking down the real embezzler. I know someone who can help.”

  When they were in the car,
Silver said sharply, “Tessa, you don’t need him. I think you should hire another lawyer.”

  “I don’t think hiring another lawyer would do any good.” Tessa waited for a break in the traffic, then accelerated sharply. “He was being honest with me, and I prefer that to someone who’ll only pretend to believe me.”

  After a moment, Silver nodded. “What are you going to do? Who do you know who can help?”

  “I don’t know that he will, but I’m going to ask him. His name is Sammy Wallace. He’s a genius with computers. If anyone can track down an electronic thief, Sammy can.” Then she frowned. “I don’t want him to jeopardize his job, though. He works at Carter Engineering, and he’d probably be fired if anyone knew he was trying to help me.”

  “Ask him anyway,” Silver urged. “Let him make his own decision about that. Having to find another job isn’t as bad as going to jail!”

  For the first time since she’d been arrested, Tessa smiled, really smiled, though it was quickly gone. “No, I guess it isn’t.” She was faced with prison, something so ghastly that her mind shied away from the thought of it. Suddenly she wondered if she’d be fighting to prove her innocence if she’d only been fired, instead of having charges pressed against her. Would she have accepted the stigma of thief if she didn’t have to fight for her freedom as well as her name? She had the shamed feeling that she would have. It would have been the easiest way. But not now. She’d learned the value of honor. Her own sense of honor was all she had left now, that and her freedom, and her freedom was in jeopardy.

  Silver bullied her into eating the most substantial meal she’d had since the ordeal had begun; then they cleaned up together and talked about the shop in Gatlinburg, and of the many friends Tessa had in Tennessee. Catching up on the news kept her occupied until the time when she knew Sammy usually got home. He might refuse, of course. Even Sammy had to realize that helping her was a risky business. But all she could do was ask.

  She let the phone ring, knowing that if Sammy were tinkering with Nelda, it might take him a while to realize that the phone was ringing. Her patience was rewarded, and on about the twelfth ring he picked up, sounding vaguely surprised as he said, “Hello?” as if his mind were on something else.

  “Sammy, this is Tessa.”

  “Tessa! Where are you? I heard a…well, uh, a rumor, but—”

  “It isn’t a rumor. I’ve been arrested for embezzling.”

  “That’s crazy,” he said roughly.

  “I didn’t do it.”

  “Of course you didn’t do it. Did you think you had to tell me?”

  “No, of course not,” she said gently. “Sammy, I need your help in finding out who really did it. But…it could cost you your job if anyone finds out that you’re helping me. So if you don’t want to take the risk, I’ll understand.”

  “I’ll come over,” he said with rare decisiveness. “What’s your address?”

  She told him, and he hung up. His instant support, like Billie’s, made her eyes sting. If only—No! She broke the thought off before it could be fully formed.

  It was an hour before Sammy arrived; his blond hair was rumpled, but his normally vague air was missing. He hugged Tessa, cuddling her against his lanky body for a moment. “Don’t worry,” he said confidently. “I’ll find out who did it and get you out of this mess. You want me to use the computers, don’t you?”

  “Yes, but it isn’t going to be easy,” she warned.

  He grinned, and she could tell that the prospect of matching his wits against the computer excited him. “Tell me what you know.”

  She didn’t really know anything, but she’d gone over and over it in her mind, and settled on the most likely course. A bogus account had been set up in accounts payable, and the computer had been instructed to issue checks to that account. Those checks had then been deposited in a bank, and withdrawals made from the account. But she didn’t know the name of the bogus account, and the lack of that extremely important fact made Sammy frown. “I have to have the name, or I don’t have a starting place.”

  Silver said simply, “Ask someone who knows.”

  Sammy looked startled, then he grinned. “You mean, walk right up to Mr. Rut—”

  “No, don’t ask him,” Tessa interrupted harshly. “It could mean your job. You can’t let anyone know you’re doing this.”

  “No one will know. I can do it without tipping anyone off, but I have to have the name. I’ll do some snooping around at work.” His brow furrowed, then he said, “They had to be using the computers at work to hunt for the bogus account to begin with. They’d have left tracks like anyone else using the computer. If I can’t find out something that way, I’ll ask around. Someone will know. Maybe Perry will know. After all, you work in his department.”

  Worked, her mind corrected him. Past tense. Everything was past tense.

  The phone rang, and Silver got up to answer it. Panic flaring in her eyes, Tessa hastily asked Sammy, “How is Hillary doing these days?”

  “I don’t know. I think she’s mad at me, but I can’t figure out why she should be.”

  The habit of looking out for Sammy was hard to break. “Pay more attention to her, and see if that doesn’t help,” she advised.

  “Pay attention to her? You mean like taking her out?”

  “Well, why not? Would it hurt? You like her, don’t you?”

  “Yeah, but Hillary doesn’t—”

  “Hillary does,” Tessa assured him, smiling wanly. “She thinks the sun rises and sets on you. Ask her out.”

  Silver hung up the phone and came back to sit down, her forehead lined with worry. “Trouble on the home front,” she sighed. “I left your number at the shop, in case they needed to get in touch with me.”

  “What’s wrong?” Tessa asked.

  “A little of everything, evidently. An order of supplies is late, the roof started leaking during a storm last night and a customer who bought a doll for her granddaughter’s birthday left the doll on a chair, and her dog got it and chewed it to pieces. It was a custom-made doll.” Silver sighed. “Now she wants another one, by Sunday.”

  After a moment, Tessa said, “I think you need to go home.”

  “No, they’ll just have to get along without me. I can’t leave you now.”

  “You can always come back,” Tessa pointed out. “Nothing will be happening now until the grand jury is called, and that won’t be for another two weeks.”

  Silver hesitated. Her strong practical streak recognized the truth of what Tessa was saying, yet she was still reluctant to leave Tessa. If Tessa had been angry, if she’d cried or called Brett Rutland every name she could think of, Silver wouldn’t have worried, but none of that had happened. It was all locked inside Tessa, concealed behind her quiet face and carefully controlled manner, a seething cauldron of pain, outrage and betrayed love. That man had a lot to answer for.

  “I’ll be all right,” Tessa assured her. “Go. Call now and get a flight for tomorrow. You can come back as soon as you’ve got everything settled, if you’ll feel better doing that. Sammy and Billie are here, you know. I won’t be alone.”

  “No. I’ll call or come by every day,” Sammy promised.

  “Well, all right.” Silver gave in. “But I’ll call you every night, too.”

  Which meant that she’d have to start answering the phone again, Tessa realized. Well, what did it matter? Brett wasn’t going to call her. It was just that she’d developed this silly fear of answering either the phone or the door. She had to get over that, just as she’d have to get over everything else. But deep down, inside her, there was a small cry of pain, because Brett wasn’t going to call.

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  BRETT SAT BOLT upright in bed, sweat streaming from his body, his jaw tight from the effort he’d been making not to yell. Swearing under his breath, he kicked the tangled sheet away from his legs and swung out of bed. His heart was still pounding, and he was breathing as if he’d been running miles. Naked, he paced u
p and down the too-small confines of the hotel room, running his hand through his already tousled hair.

  The dream had been so real, but the real horror of it was that it was likely to come true. Tessa had been convicted, and he’d watched her being led away to prison. She’d been wearing a rough, blue uniform dress of sorts, and she’d been so pale and fragile that he’d been afraid she’d collapse. But she’d walked away from him without looking back, flanked on each side by a burly prison guard, and she’d disappeared into a black tunnel. As she’d gone out of sight, an iron-barred gate had slammed shut and locked, and he’d known that he’d never see her again. That was when he’d woken, his throat aching from the silent roar of protest.

  The very image was obscene. In the dark truth of the night, he knew that no matter how much money she’d stolen, that even if she had made a fool of him, he couldn’t bear for her to go to prison. Not Tessa, with her flashing smile and twinkling eyes, her slow, liquid drawl, the bright laughter that so effortlessly enchanted. And the hot ecstasy of her body, he thought, closing his eyes as the memory slammed into him with the power of a sledgehammer. Her silky legs clasping his hips. The look of trusting passion in her eyes when he took her. The flirtatious, languid movement of her hips when she walked. The incendiary sweep of her long lashes over eyes that laughed and invited. Everything about her drove him mad, and it was the wine-sweet sort of madness that he knew would linger with him for the rest of his life.

  He wanted a drink, but a quick look at the clock told him that it was almost two-thirty in the morning. His mouth twisted wryly. That was definitely a little early…or a little late…to start hitting the bottle. His father would nod his head and smirk and say that he’d always said that a woman could drive a man to drink. The thought of Tom reminded him that he hadn’t been able to take Tessa to meet him, as he’d almost promised her he would do, this weekend. But now it was very early Monday morning, and the weekend was over. It had been a week since he’d had Tessa arrested, a week during which he’d been dying a little more each day from the wound caused by her absence.