by Nora Roberts
On his hands and knees, Philip swung the light back and forth. It was like being inside a metal coffin. “From the looks of it, it’s fortunate I missed my Christmas pie.”
“It’s narrow on the turns,” she told him with some pleasure. “Perhaps we should have brought some lard for you.”
There wasn’t room to turn and scowl at her. “With a little time, I could come up with a much more sophisticated plan.”
“I’ve all the time in the world.”
Philip merely sucked in his breath. “Stay close, we’ve a long way to go.”
It was a long trip, and an uncomfortable one. More than once the sheet-metal tunnel narrowed so that Philip had to wiggle and squirm his way through like a snake burrowing under a rock. Foot by foot they slid, belly down, distributing weight. The journey had to be made in near silence. When they passed over openings, they heard voices, laughter, or occasionally water running out of a tap or shower.
Once Adrianne had no choice but to lay prone as the guest on the fourth floor came into the bathroom to gargle. If Number 422 had opened his eyes when he’d tilted his head back and swished peppermint mouthwash, he’d have gotten quite a surprise.
She stifled giggles as they bellied their way to the next floor. Whenever the ducts forked or spread out, she tugged on Philip’s foot to give him direction. In her mind she’d made the trip a dozen times. Thirty exhausting minutes later they were over the vent, looking down at the St. Johns’ pastel pink john.
“You’re sure?” Philip hissed.
“Of course I’m sure.”
“It would be very unprofessional to put the jewelry into someone else’s safe.”
“I said I’m sure,” she whispered back. “Do you see that hideous peacock print robe on the back of the door?”
He had to bend his knees into his chest to get a look. “So?”
“I gave it to Lauren for her birthday.”
Philip studied the robe. “You don’t like her at all, do you?”
“She browbeats her servants, fires them whenever the whim strikes, and in the three years I’ve known her, she’s never left a tip in a restaurant.” She passed him a small screwdriver. “Do you want to do this?”
For a moment he simply sat. Then, as if in afterthought, he brushed some of the dust they’d accumulated on the trip off her cheek. “Why don’t you go ahead?”
With a shrug she dealt quickly and quietly with the screws. Once they and the tool were safely in her pocket, he lifted off the grate. He was still mulling over her words. What difference could it make to Adrianne how Lauren St. John treated her servants? Now wasn’t the time to think of it, he decided as he set the grate aside.
“Wait here,” he said.
“Oh, no, I’m coming with you.”
“There’s no need.”
Adrianne put a hand on his arm. “How do I know you’re really going to put the stuff back?”
“Oh, for Christ’s sake.” Disgusted, he slid through the opening. Seconds later Adrianne followed, just as silently. He’d reached up automatically to nip her at the waist for the final drop. As his hands closed over her, he had a moment to think that there were other ways he’d have preferred spending the evening.
They’d both taken a step forward when a sound had them jerking back. It took a minute for it to register. All Adrianne could do was cover her face with her hands and pray she wouldn’t laugh.
Apparently, the St. Johns were spending the first hours of Christmas morning in passion. The bedsprings creaked. Lauren groaned. Charlie panted.
“Let’s not disturb them,” Philip mumbled as he melted like a shadow into the hallway.
The sounds in the adjoining room rose and fell as they crouched beside the safe. From the intensity of it, Philip thought they could have stormed into the suite like marines, blown the safe with plastique, and stormed out again without breaking the St. Johns’ rhythm. It was difficult not to admire Charlie’s stamina as he heard some of Lauren’s keening demands.
Inside thin surgical gloves, Philip’s palms began to sweat, not from nerves, but from envy as Lauren cried out and the moaning and thrashing continued. He snatched the flashlight away as the beam bobbed and jerked from Adrianne’s shaking laughter.
“Get a grip on yourself,” he grated out.
“Sorry. I was just imagining Charlie naked.”
“Please, not on an empty stomach.” He found the jewel case Adrianne had left behind and laid the glitter of rubies and diamonds inside. It hurt, he realized, more than just a little to give them back. Then it was all he could do not to groan himself as Lauren’s moan lifted to a wail and Adrianne’s thigh pressed snugly to his.
Rising, he pulled her through the hall and into the bath. “Up.” His voice was curt enough to make her chin rise.
“You certainly know how to take the fun out of it.” She stood on the seat of the commode and hauled herself through. Philip was half in and half out of the hole when footsteps padded outside the door. Jackknifing, he dove through just as the door opened.
“Good God.” It was Charlie’s voice, exhausted, as he leaned against the sink and dragged his thinning hair from his eyes. From their perch above, Adrianne and Philip could do no more than sit like stones. He poured water, then gulped it down like a dying man. Philip watched as he braced one hand on the wall and emptied his bladder. The scents of sex and urine rose up through the vents. From the bedroom, Lauren’s voice came plaintively.
“Charlie, come back to bed. I’ve got another present for you.”
Naked, paunchy, past his prime, he shook his head. “Name of God, woman. I’m not a rabbit.” But he said it quietly, before he turned off the light and went back to do his best.
With her arms wrapped tight around her waist, Adrianne rocked back and forth. It was worth the loss of the jewels … almost.
“Try for some dignity, Your Highness,” Philip told her as he replaced the grate. “Lets get out of here.”
It wasn’t the same exhilaration that came from taking something out of a safe, but it was close. For the first time, she’d used the moves, the thoughts, and the skills with a partner. The laughter she’d been forced to bottle up during their long trip back through the ducts bubbled out during the drive to the El Presidente. It hadn’t stopped even when Philip followed her into her suite.
“Incredible, simply incredible.” She dropped into a chair, sprawled out, relaxed, her face glowing. This was a side of her Philip hadn’t seen. After toeing off her shoes, she smiled at him. “It was so incredible that I’m almost not mad at you anymore.”
“Well then, I can sleep tonight.”
“Are you always cranky after a job?”
What he was, was wired. It had been a mistake to let her lead the way out of the ducts. He’d had to crawl along, tantalized and teased by the view of her pretty, tightly clad bottom. Unable to sit, he paced to the window and back.
“I missed dinner waiting for you to move.”
“Aw.” There was little sympathy in the sound. “No room service at this hour, I’m afraid. I do have a chocolate bar.”
“Hand it over.”
Because she was feeling too good to be ungracious, Adrianne routed it out from the depths of one of her bags, then tossed it to him. “There’s some wine left.”
Philip ripped at the wrapper of the plain, inadequately thin Hershey bar. “No almonds.”
“I don’t care for nuts.”
“You proved that when you slammed your foot between the legs of your friend this evening.”
“Crude.” She poured wine into two glasses and took one to him. “I suppose I shouldn’t really be angry. I do still have the money.”
He took her wrist before she could go back to her seat. “Is the money so important?”
She thought of the abuse center she’d earmarked. “Yes, it is.”
He let her go to resume his pacing. “What do you get out of this, Addy? Does he toss you a few thousand now and again? Are you indebted to h
im, in love with him? Either the debt or the love must go a long way, because as far as I’ve been able to see, he takes none of the risks and you put yourself on the line over and over again.”
She sipped the warm wine as she watched Philip move around the room. Like a panther, she thought. Restlessly pacing off the length and breadth of his cage. “Who,” she asked slowly, “is he?”
“You tell me.” He whirled back to her. Neither of them had realized how close both his patience and control had been to snapping. Jealousy, bare and ugly, was too easy to recognize in himself. And he’d be damned if he waited another hour to learn whom he was jealous of. “I want to know who he is, why you fell in with him, why you help him steal.”
She watched him intently as he found his cigarettes and pulled one out before he tossed the pack on a table, then said softly, “I don’t help anyone steal.”
“I’ve had enough games for one evening.”
“I told you before, I do what I do of my own choice.”
“You also told me you do it because of a man.”
“Yes, but not in the way you seem to think. There is no man blackmailing me, paying me, or sleeping with me.” She sat again, lounging back. “I work alone, for myself. I have no partner and no debt to pay.”
Slowly, he blew out smoke. He seemed to shrug impatience off like an annoying hand on his shoulder. In its place came interest and intensity. “Are you trying to make me believe that you and you alone are responsible for the theft of millions of pounds in gems over the last nine to ten years?”
“I’m not trying to make you believe anything. You asked for the truth, and I decided to give it to you.” She frowned consideringly into her wine. “It doesn’t really matter, you see, because you’ve no evidence you can take in. Your superiors would think you were crazy, and in any case, I had already decided that this particular job was the last in this phase of my career.”
“That’s ridiculous. You’d have been a child when this began.”
“Sixteen when I started. Very green,” she continued when he stared at her. “But a fast learner.”
“Why did you start?”
The faint smile disappeared, and she set her wine aside so that the glass clicked against the table. “That’s none of your business.”
“We’re past that, Adrianne.”
“That’s my private life.”
“You don’t have one any longer that doesn’t include me.”
“A very large assumption, Philip.” She rose, looking across at him. She could, when necessary, be as royal as her title. “Not that it hasn’t been an entertaining evening, but I really must say good night. I’m exhausted.”
“Sleep late tomorrow; we haven’t finished.” He glanced at his watch. “I need to make a call before we go on. I have a friend in Paris who can make enough of a show to keep Interpol amused for a day or so.” Without asking permission he walked through the doorway to use the phone in the bedroom.
When he came back she was asleep.
He looked at her as she lay curled on the sofa, one hand pillowing her head, the other loose at her side. Her hair curtained her face, and when he brushed it back, her breathing remained slow and even. She didn’t look cool or regal now, but young and vulnerable. He knew he should wake her, knew he should question her now, while her defenses were down. Instead, he switched off the light and let her sleep.
It was almost dawn when he heard her. The light was a soft, quiet gray that would, with the strength of the sun, soon turn white and brilliant. Philip was stretched out on her bed with his shoes and shirt tossed carelessly on the floor. He woke quickly, immediately oriented, but had sat up in bed before he realized it hadn’t been the light that had woken him, but the sobbing.
He went into the adjoining room to see her balled tight, as if in defense against an attack or in great pain. It was only when he crouched beside her, lifting a hand to her wet cheek, that he realized she was still asleep.
“Addy.” He shook her, gently at first, then harder when she fought him. “Addy, wake up.”
She flinched violently, as if he’d slapped her, bundling herself back against the cushions with her eyes wide and terrified. He continued to murmur to her though some instinct kept him from gathering her close. Gradually, the glazed look faded and he saw the grief.
“A bad dream,” he said quietly as he took her hand. Hers trembled, but for a moment, just a moment, she gripped his fingers hard and held on. “I’ll get you some water.”
There was a bottle still unopened on the counter. He watched her as he pried off the top and poured. Soundlessly, she drew her knees in close to her chest and dropped her forehead on them. Nausea ground in her stomach while she took long, deep breaths and struggled for equilibrium.
“Thank you.” She took the glass, steadying it with both hands. Humiliation grew sharper as grief dulled. She said nothing, only prayed he would leave and let her gather up the tatters of her pride.
But when he sat beside her she had to fight back the urge to turn into him, to rest her head on his shoulder and be comforted.
“Talk to me.”
“It was just a dream, as you said.”
“You’re hurting.” He touched her cheek. This time she didn’t jerk away, only closed her eyes. “You talk, I’ll listen.”
“I don’t need anyone.”
“I’m not going away until you talk to me.”
She stared down at the water in her glass. It was warm and tasteless and no comfort against the raw feeling in her stomach. “My mother died on Christmas. Now, please leave me alone.”
Saying nothing, he took her glass and set it aside. Just as quietly he drew her into his arms. She stiffened, pulled back, but he ignored her reaction. Rather than giving the words of sympathy she would have hated, he stroked her hair. Her breath came out in a half sob, half sigh as she went limp against him.
“Why are you doing this?”
“My good deed for the day. Tell me about it.”
She never spoke of it. It was too hard. But now, with her eyes closed and his shoulder cushioning her head, the words came. “I found her just before sunrise. She hadn’t fallen. It was as though she’d been too weak to stand and had simply laid down. It looked as though she might have been trying to crawl out for help. She may have called to me, but I never heard.” Unconsciously, she worked her hand on his shoulder. The fingers opened and closed, opened and closed. “You would have heard the stories. Suicide.” There was a raw edge to the word, as though it hurt her mouth to say it. “But I know it wasn’t. She’d been ill for so long, so much pain. She was only looking for a little peace, an easy night. She would never have killed herself that way, knowing that I … knowing that I would find her.”
He continued to stroke her hair. He knew the stories, the scandal. It still surfaced from time to time, weaving itself into a mystique. “You’d have known her best.”
She drew back to look at him then, to search his face before she let her head drop back to his shoulder. Nothing that had ever been said to her had eased more. “Yes, I did know her. She was kind and loving. And simple. No one really understood that the glamour belonged to the actress but not to the woman. She trusted people, the wrong people. That’s what killed her in the end.”
“Your father?”
He cut cleanly to the bone, so cleanly, Adrianne didn’t feel the pain until after the cut bled. “He broke her.” She rose then, to wrap her arms tight around her body and pace. “Bit by bit, day by day. And he enjoyed it.” There was no weakness now. Her voice rang as clear as the bells in the square that had heralded Christmas, but without the joy. “He married the woman who was considered the most beautiful of her time, A Western woman. An actress men thought of as a goddess. She fell in love with him and gave up her career, her country, her culture, then he proceeded to destroy her because she was everything he wanted, and everything he despised.”
She walked to the window. The sun was strengthening, shooting diamonds onto the
clear water. The sweep of beach was empty.
“She didn’t understand cruelty. She had none. There was so much I didn’t know until years later, when it all began to pour out of her in her despair and confusion. In Jaquir she would talk to me because there was no one else she could talk to.”
“Why didn’t she leave him sooner?”
“You’d have to understand Jaquir, and my mother. She loved him. Even after he took another wife because she’d displeased him by giving him a female child, she loved him. He insulted and humiliated her, but she hung on. She spent her days trapped in the harem while his second wife swelled with his son, and she loved him still. He beat her, and she accepted it. She couldn’t have more children, and she blamed herself. For nearly ten years she stayed, veiled and abused while he destroyed her confidence, her ego, her self-respect. The damage was great, but she held on. For me. She might have been able to get out, to escape, but she thought first of me.”
She took a long breath, looking out blindly at the sun-washed sand. “Everything she did, everything she didn’t do, was for my welfare.”
“She loved you.”
“Perhaps more than she should have, more than was good for her. She stayed with him year after year because she wouldn’t leave me. He beat her. He humiliated her. He raped her. God knows how many times he raped her. But once I was there, curled under the bed, with my hands over my ears trying to block it out. And hating him.”
His eyes sharpened at that. The sympathy he’d been feeling changed to a dull, throbbing anger. She’d have been only a child. He started to speak, then held his tongue. There was nothing he could say to gloss over that kind of pain.
“I don’t know if she ever would have found the courage to leave. Then one day when I was eight, Abdu told her he was sending me away to school. I was to be betrothed to the son of an ally.”
“At eight?”
“The marriage would have waited until I turned fifteen, but the betrothal was a good political move. There must have been some of the actress in her yet. She accepted his decision, even seemed pleased by it. And she talked him into taking me along to Paris with them to teach me a little of the world. If I was to be a good wife, I should know how to behave outside of Jaquir. She convinced him that she was delighted with his interest in my welfare, that she approved of the coming marriage. It’s not uncommon for a woman of my country to marry at fifteen.”
