by Joanna Wayne
She darted into Party Central, not slowing to close the door behind her as she rushed to the window. She unlocked it and tried to shove it upward. It didn’t budge.
She banged on the facing, rattling the pane. She tried it again, but it stuck tight. She could break out one of the panes of glass, but the squares were so small she’d never be able to squeeze through.
She looked back to the door. Mitchell was standing just inside it, blood pouring from his leg, but the knife still clutched in his hand.
She fell to the floor and started crawling between the clusters of decorations, but it was futile. There was nowhere to go where he couldn’t reach her. And even her sliver of splintered wood was back by the window.
She hovered behind a metal Cupid who smiled at her sardonically. She heard the phone ringing. And then she felt the blade of the knife, only this time it was at her throat.
“Why? Why kill me? Just tell me why?”
“Your husband was an idiot. He was going to throw away everything I’d worked for with his drinking and carousing all night, every night. The studio was going to drop him.”
“That was him, not me.”
“But the insurance policy is on you. And now you’ve messed up my plans again. Suicide would have been nicer on all of us. A quick slice of your wrists in the kitchen. But now you’ve wrecked the house, so it will have to look as if the hitman Nick hired to kill you honored his contract in spite of everything.”
“No one will believe that.”
“But I’ll see that they do. I still have a note with the hitman’s fingerprints on it to leave on the steps where you tried bravely, but futilely, to fight him off.”
“It was you, not Hal. You killed Nick, and you paid someone to kill me—and Alex if it came to that.”
Mitchell laughed, and she could feel the first prick of the knife cutting into her flesh.
She was going to die here among the ghoulish creatures. She wouldn’t be there to see Alex off for her first day of school, or wear her first prom dress, or walk the aisle in a snow-white wedding gown.
And she’d never told Jack she loved him or thanked him for the magic.
Chapter Fifteen
Thursday, 12:06 p.m.
Beverly Hills
Jack had figured it wrong, and it might have stayed wrong if he hadn’t been so troubled by the pictures in Nick’s office. He’d thought about it all night, went over a thousand different scenarios in his mind.
And then it all started coming together at the airport, just before his flight, when he’d surfed and found a flyer Hal Hayden had circulated on the Internet last year. Anything for a price, accompanied by a picture of him in a loincloth.
Lenny had added vital new information when he’d discovered that Mitchell, not Nick, had flown to Puerto Escondido the day of the sale and then on to the Cayman Islands where he’d deposited two million dollars in an account that he’d opened just after Nick’s first big film.
The way Jack saw it, Mitchell had hired Hal to seduce Nick and set up his whole murderous scheme. He didn’t have it all figured out yet, but it didn’t look good for Mitchell Caruthers.
“The gate’s just ahead,” Jack told the taxi driver. “On the left, and hit the accelerator.”
“Settle down, bud. It’s L.A. We’ve got speed limits and traffic. You wanna get here sooner, you start out sooner.”
Jack tried Kelly’s cell phone number again. Still no answer. No answer on her house phone, either.
So where the hell was she?
No reason for panic. Mitchell couldn’t know that his sordid plot had been uncovered. And he wouldn’t risk hiring another hit man so soon, not after he’d played the game so brilliantly to this point.
No reason to panic, but dread was knocking around inside him all the same. Jack didn’t wait for the taxi to come to a stop before he tossed a couple of twenties into the front seat and jumped from the vehicle.
The spare keys to the locks he’d installed yesterday were in his hand by the time he reached the door. He unlocked it quickly and pushed into the foyer.
“Kelly! Kelly!”
He yelled her name, and then he saw the head of the Roman soldier rolling around on the floor near the mangled staircase. Terror exploded in his chest and he leaped over the chipped and headless soldier and raced up the staircase.
He couldn’t lose Kelly. Not this way. Not now!
The door to Party Central was open.
Gun drawn and his finger on the trigger, Jack peered inside. There was no sign of Kelly or Mitchell, only rows of grotesque faces taunting him.
He worked his way through the maze of ghouls, pausing when he stepped into a trickle of blood.
His heart stopped beating for one excruciating second.
“I’m over here, Jack.”
He looked toward the sound of her voice, and saw her crumpled against the wall. Blood dripped down the front of her white shirt and soaked the waist of her skirt. Alert for any sign of Mitchell, he fell to her side and cradled her in his arms as he checked her pulse. It was much too fast, as if her heart were racing.
“I’ll call an ambulance,” Jack said. “We’ll get you to the hospital.”
“No. I’m okay.”
“You’re covered in blood.”
“It’s Mitchell’s blood. I think I killed him, Jack.” Her voice was scratchy and barely a whisper. “Over there, behind the red heart.”
He got up and walked over to kick the blow-up heart aside. Mitchell was still half hidden by a metal Cupid who’d lost his weapon. The missing arrow had gone in through Mitchell’s back and out through his side.
He was bleeding profusely—but not dead. Jack saw the clinch in his jaw and caught the glint of the blade of a knife. He lunged at Mitchell just as he raised himself enough to hurl the knife at Kelly.
Jack grabbed his arm in time to foil his aim. The knife missed its mark and plunged into the wall just inches from Kelly’s head. Mitchell coughed, spitting up blood before bellowing a string of vile curses.
“He killed Nick,” Kelly said, her voice stronger and steadier. “He was gong to kill me.”
“I know. I should have been here. I should have been with you.”
“You were,” she said, standing, but still leaning against the wall. “You called my name and when Mitchell turned, I grabbed the arrow and struck him with all my might. I couldn’t let him kill you, too.”
Jack made a quick call to 911, then, his gun pointed at the groaning and cursing Mitchell Caruthers, he gathered Kelly in his arms and held her tight.
He wasn’t exactly sure what had happened, but the details could wait. Right now all he knew was that he’d come much too close to losing Kelly and that life without her wouldn’t be life at all.
Epilogue
Two Weeks Later
PPS Headquarters
Jack hung up the phone from a conference call with a chain of local convenience stores that was upgrading its surveillance systems after a string of recent robberies. He glanced at his watch for at least the tenth time in the last half hour.
He was picking Kelly up at the airport at four-thirty, and he didn’t want to be late. They’d talked on the phone every day since he’d flown back to Denver, but this would be the first time they’d been together.
He looked up as Cameron popped into his cubicle and straddled a chair.
“Whew! This place is hopping,” Cameron said. “I think all the agents are knee-deep in work.”
“Good for job security.” Jack glanced at his watch. “Though I don’t want any new assignments this afternoon.”
“That’s right, Kelly’s flying in today, isn’t she? Are you nervous?”
“Me, nervous?”
“Like you get visited by a hot California babe every day. And there was some definite chemistry clicking between you two. How’d that case finally come down? Was Nick Warner’s manager-publicist really the mastermind behind the shebang?”
“It looks that way. He wa
s robbing Nick blind, not living nearly as extravagantly as Nick, but doing well for himself. Plus he was investing a lot of money and stashing some in a bank in the Cayman Islands. The situation’s got all the earmarks of a man who thought he might have to make a quick exodus out of the country soon. We may never know that whole story.”
“The paper says he’s admitting everything.”
“At the insistence of his attorney, I’m sure. But that doesn’t mean he won’t keep a few secrets,” Jack said with a grimace.
“But he was the one who hired a hit man to kill Alex?”
“He put up the money. Hal delivered it to Degrazia, who’s also been arrested, thanks to our sharing lots of info with Detective Gilly Carter.”
“Who probably never even said thanks. Those detectives do hate to give us credit. So did Billy Sheffield lie about seeing Nick Warner in the limo?” Cameron asked.
“No, Nick was there. They’d flown over together for some prefestival publicity with the Chamber of Commerce. Hal was to pretend they were lost and that he was asking for directions when he made the payoff, then make sure Nick put down the window and waved to one of his big fans as they drove off. Nick was a man of the people—among other things.”
“But Nick jumped the gun and put down the window on his own with Billy, if I remember that right.”
“That’s how it went down.”
“And they couldn’t hire a hit man to kill Nick because they’d set him up to be the one doing the hiring. So, was Nick’s death supposed to look like an attack by the stalker who broke into the house?” Cameron queried.
“Right. The police found all kinds of notes in Nick’s house from a man claiming he was going to kill him for cheating on Kelly. Mitchell admitted sending those, too.”
“Gotta hand it to him. He didn’t miss a trick.”
“Very disciplined, and not a bad actor, either.”
“So who did break into the rented house and shoot that guard?”
“Hal, again. Killed the guard with the same gun he used to kill Nick, all proven by the ballistics report.”
“What a web. Do you think Hal actually fell off that balcony?”
“Not a chance. Mitchell pushed him, but he’s never going to admit that. As it stands now, he hasn’t actually killed anybody. I’m sure his high-priced defense attorney is going to push that fact along with Mitchell’s willingness to cooperate and his remorse—which he’s playing up big-time.
“Guess all’s well that ends well.”
“I have a hunch that the tale of Mitchell Caruthers and Nick Warner may not be totally over.”
“What makes you think that?”
“A few nagging, unanswered questions.”
“Such as?”
“The reason Karen Butte was so desperate to see Kelly the night before she was murdered and then there was that name she text messaged me that doesn’t seem connected to anything.” Jack glanced at his watch again. “Gotta run.”
“Right, Mr. Not Nervous. Have a great weekend.”
“Giving it my best shot.” Jack grabbed his briefcase and headed toward the door. He had one stop to make on the way to the airport, a little gift for Kelly, if he got up the nerve to give it to her.
He was nervous as hell, planning to put his emotions right out there on his sleeve for the very first time. It was risky, but a chance he had to take.
He gave Angel a nod as he rushed past her desk.
“Is this for you?” she asked, holding up a disk and waving it at him.
“Was it addressed to me?”
“No, just to PPS, so I don’t know what to do with it.”
“Who’s it from?”
She picked up a brown envelope and looked. “No return address.”
“Then give it to anybody but me. I’m out of here.”
IT WAS NO CANYON ROAD, but the fire was blazing and he’d bought real crystal stems for the wine. He poured them each a glass and joined Kelly in the den where she was sitting on the floor and renewing her friendship with Stormy.
“Wow! Crystal. I’m impressed.” She jumped up to take a glass.
“If that excites you, wait till you taste my steak.”
“Aww. I had my taste buds all set for your chili.”
“Tomorrow night.”
She held up her glass. “What shall we drink to?”
“To a great weekend.”
“To a magical weekend,” she corrected. She clinked her glass with his, then curled up on the couch. He sat down on the other end, feeling tense and awkward, afraid the night would not go well.
She turned so that they were facing each other. “It’s good to be here. It seems I’ve been away forever.”
“You’ve had a lot of changes in you life since you were here last.”
“I feel as if I’m in a constant state of flux. Mom and Dad have helped a lot. Dad raves about you all the time, by the way. You’re the hero who saved his daughter.”
“I’ve come a long way.”
“Yes you have, Jack Sanders. Alex talks about you, too. And Stormy, and Pete and Repeat, and Ishwar. I didn’t tell her I was coming here this weekend. She’d have wanted to come.”
“How is she?”
Kelly stared into the fire, showing her first sign of melancholy. “Most of the time she’s fine, but sometimes it’s hard for her. She can’t quite grasp that Nick’s never coming back, but then she was used to his being away a lot on location or vacations, and I think that might be part of the confusion. I’m just thankful that I could honestly tell her that he loved her very much.”
“It’s probably good for her that your Mom and Dad are staying with you for a while.”
“And good for me, especially now that we have a buyer for the house. With the money from that, and from selling the furniture and the two million that Mitchell had to return from the land sale in Puerto Escondido, I’m actually in the black again.”
“Your life is definitely changing.”
“It was past time, even if Nick hadn’t been killed.” She set her glass on the table when Stormy came in from the bedroom dragging the present. “Is that for me?”
“You don’t want to open it now.”
“Yes I do, but I can’t imagine what’s in a box that size.” She tugged the gift from Stormy and began to rip the paper away. Perspiration pooled on Jack’s brow.
She pulled the sign from the box and stared at it. “Interesting. What is it?”
“You’re holding it upside down.”
She turned it over. “J & K.”
“It’s a new sign for the gate.”
“You’re replacing the Single S?”
“I was thinking it might be a good idea.”
She stared at him questioningly. “Is this a proposal?”
He was doing this all wrong. He pulled her into his arms. “I love you, Kelly. I’ve always loved you. I always will.”
“Oh, Jack. I love you, too. I love everything about you, but—”
“No, don’t answer yet. I don’t expect you to rush into anything. I know it’s too soon. I should have waited. I should—”
“I need some time—for Alex. Fall weddings are nice.” She kissed him, a sweet, passionate kiss that stole his breath. And then she pulled away.
“Go get the nails,” she ordered.
“What?”
“Go get the nails and a hammer. We’ve got a sign to hang.”
Special thanks and acknowledgment are given to
Joanna Wayne for her contribution to the
BODYGUARDS UNLIMITED, DENVER, CO miniseries.
ISBN: 978-1-4592-2265-6
24/7
Copyright © 2007 by Harlequin Books S.A.
All rights reserved. Except for use in any review, the reproduction or utilization of this work in whole or in part in any form by any electronic, mechanical or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including xerography, photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, is forbidde
n without the written permission of the publisher, Harlequin Enterprises Limited, 225 Duncan Mill Road, Don Mills, Ontario, Canada M3B 3K9.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events or locales is entirely coincidental.
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* Hidden Passions
** Hidden Passions: Full Moon Madness
Table of Contents
Acknowledgment
About the Author
Books by Joanna Wayne
Cast of Characters
Contents
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Epilogue
Copyright
