Fevered Nights

by Jillian Burns

  The private investigators would only say that he’d escaped from a Chinese labor camp. Even after three days in the hospital in Delhi, Nandan was still suffering from malnutrition. The frostbite on his fingertips and toes was finally healing, but she hadn’t had the courage to ask about the years he’d been separated from her. She wasn’t sure he would ever talk about it.

  She kept picturing her little brother in that horrible camp. Imprisoned. Isolated. Had he been beaten? How had he gotten there? What had happened? She wanted that family she’d entrusted him with to pay for not taking care of him as they should’ve.

  Every time she’d suggested to Nandan to go out the past few days, he’d pulled his irritated face. On one hand, she loved that exasperated expression, such a typically teenage thing to do. On the other hand, she couldn’t allow him to bury himself away in the flat forever.

  “Please, Nandan. Come with me today. The sun is shining. The shoes I bought you don’t really fit. You need to try them on. And I thought we’d get you your own phone and maybe a computer to play games on.”

  He lifted his head. “Games?”

  Hope filled her. Maybe that was the key. He loved playing games on her phone. Day and night he plagued her to bring up games for him and played until her battery was drained.

  “Yes, but you have to use it for school, too,” she said in Hindi. Then she switched to English. “Okay?” She held her breath and waited while he seemed to be considering it.

  “Okay.” He grinned and climbed out of bed.

  Piper breathed a sigh of relief and gave him a brilliant smile. “Jaldī sē pōśāka.” She shooed him toward his closet. “Dress quickly.”

  As soon as he ate, they set off for the shops. Jim flagged them a taxi and as they climbed in, a couple of determined reporters asked who Nandan was. Piper wrapped her arm around him and refused to comment.

  Once they were in the cab, he craned his neck to see everything, especially Big Ben and the London Eye.

  “Would you like to ride the Ferris wheel, Nandan?”

  He turned wary eyes on her. “Is it safe?”

  “It’s very safe. Though maybe we can wait for another day, okay?”

  He nodded and then smiled. “Okay.”

  Once they entered the computer shop, he really lit up as he tried everything, asking questions. He was so happy, Piper spent way too much buying him several gaming systems with all the accessories.

  At lunch, Jim hovered at a table close by and a few people snapped photos on their mobiles, but mostly she and Nandan had their privacy. Her brother ordered enough for two and managed to eat every bite. As a kid, she remembered him as a little chatterbox. Always telling her about the things he’d learned in school. But now, as if interacting at the shop had exhausted all his social skills, he asked her to bring up a game on her phone and became completely absorbed in it. Next stop was a mobile phone shop.

  Nandan jumped when her phone rang. He touched the screen, and it rang again.

  Piper checked the ID. “Nandan, Ragi is calling me. I need to talk to her.” She held her hand out, expecting the phone.

  He scowled. “I can do it.” He started clicking on every button until the mobile stopped ringing. Piper frowned. Now she’d have to call Ragi back, and Ragi’s phone would be busy while she left Piper a message and—

  “That’s Neil.”

  Piper was sure her heart had stopped. To hear that name coming from her brother’s mouth. “What?”

  Nandan pointed at her phone.

  Piper leaned across the café table to look at the screen.

  It was the picture of Neil lying on the hammock in Key Largo.

  She couldn’t breathe.

  The café, the street, the world wavered and split apart. Piper opened her mouth but no sound came out.

  “Anju?” She felt Nandan’s hand gripping hers where it rested on the table.

  His worried face came into focus. She dragged in a deep breath. “How do you know him?” Piper pointed to the picture of Neil.

  “Vaha āpa kō mujhē ghara lē āyā.” Nandan’s face brightened. “He brought me home to you. I want to see him, Anju.” Animated for the first time, Nandan talked about his escape from the camp. In Hindi, he told her how Neil had cut the fence, sneaked in, subdued the guard. How they’d traveled for days and days, that Neil had given him boots and socks and kept watch out in the cold while Nandan slept in the warm tent. How Neil had carried Nandan when he couldn’t walk another step. “He was injured. Because of me. I wish to thank him, Anju.”

  Piper could hardly comprehend what Nandan was saying. Neil? Neil had snuck into China and... He had been the one to rescue her brother?

  Nandan growled low in his throat. “I forgot.”

  “Forgot what, Māśūqa?”

  “I wasn’t supposed to tell.”

  She felt dizzy. “Wasn’t supposed to tell what, Nandan?”

  Anguish wreathing his face, he gripped her arm. “Neil said he would get into trouble. Surely it was permissible to tell you, was it not, Anju?”

  Piper rubbed his arm, soothing him. “It’s okay, Nandan. Yes, it’s permissible. He won’t get into trouble.” She came up out of her chair, crouched down next to her brother and put her arm around his shoulders. “You said he was hurt, Nandan? How was he hurt? Is he okay?”

  “He fell a long way and after that he limped.”

  Tears streamed down her face. Neil. The things she’d said to him. How she’d treated him. And he’d done all this? Risked his life? If he’d been caught, the Chinese would’ve locked him up and thrown away the key. Or worse. She went numb with fear.

  Her brother’s eyes were filled with tears. “So he is a friend, Anju? You can call him?” Nandan offered her mobile back to her. “Tell him I want to thank him. Learn if he is not hurt anymore.”

  She looked at her phone in Nandan’s hand. Call Neil? A polite thank-you over the phone? She wanted to dash out into the street and flag down a taxi and run to him. Beg his forgiveness for her petty insecurities.

  A sick feeling hit her. She fell back into her chair. Even if she could get on a plane this very second, she didn’t know where he lived. He’d once mentioned an apartment on the military base where he was stationed. But he wasn’t part of the navy anymore.

  Her heart stuttered. Those missing dog tags. She’d noticed them gone before the scandal hit the papers. Certainly, he hadn’t... He’d rescued her brother. And he’d used the private investigators to hide that from her. She hadn’t known. What else didn’t she know?

  Oh, Neil. What did you do?

  He’d sacrificed his career. And it was her fault. But she had her brother back. Would she have told him not to go if she’d known what he’d planned?

  Now she didn’t even know if Neil was okay. What kind of injuries had he sustained? She had to find him. She had to go to him. She reached for her mobile.

  But would Neil want to see her? Would her appearance only disrupt his life again? What if someone put two and two together and did get Neil into trouble for rescuing her brother?

  Maybe the best thing she could do for Neil was to stay out of his life. Hadn’t he risked enough for her?

  And why would he have done that if he didn’t care for her? She sat silently, her thoughts jumbled, everything she felt, all the events of the past few months twisted into a giant bundle of indecision.

  “You all right, ma’am?”

  Jim stood over her.

  For Nandan, she had to pretend everything was okay. Had to wipe her face, make herself smile up at the man. “Yes. I’m fine.” In a daze, Piper stood, pointing to her mobile still in Nandan’s hand. “You can call him.” She spoke in Hindi. “When we get home. You can tell him thank you.”

  That would be best for everyone.

  Right?<
br />
  Neil didn’t want to hear from her. Piper closed her eyes, remembering the last thing he’d said to her. I won’t try to contact you again. He would honor his word.

  Of course, he’d also told her not to do anything crazy...

  18

  WHAT WAS HE doing here?

  Neil questioned his actions—and his sanity—for the umpteenth time in as many days.

  But it was too late now.

  Actually, it’d been too late the minute he’d opened the invitation to this billionaire’s shindig.

  When the cab rolled to a stop at the gated entrance to a cliff-side villa in the south of France, Neil showed his invitation and ID to the armed security officer inside the guardhouse and was waved on through.

  Limos lined the drive that wound along the grounds, so Neil paid the cabbie, climbed out and walked the rest of the way. He winced at the twinge in his knee, but he refused to let anybody see him limp up to the front doors.

  Another guard checked his ID before letting him inside and, as he wandered through the gathering of the presumably rich and fabulous, he noted the security cameras in the corners of each gilded room and the dozens of trained personnel stationed along the walls. Good. This French financier guy better have the best security money could buy given that Piper was here. Lyndsey wouldn’t have harmed Piper, but that didn’t mean other disturbed folks with a lingerie obsession weren’t out there.

  He entered a huge ballroom lit with chandeliers and featuring artwork that probably cost more than his entire net worth. At one end, an orchestra played a Sinatra tune. Tugging at his bow tie, Neil spied a bar set up along one wall and headed that way.

  As he sipped the excellent scotch, he tried to remind himself that his personal check to Nandan’s House—and the one he’d convinced his mother to write—would help kids in need, and that that was the most important thing tonight.

  That and glimpsing Piper.

  Neil took another sip of his drink and scanned the crowd. Jewels sparkled, champagne bubbled, men in tuxes mingled. But he didn’t see Piper.

  Just as well. He probably shouldn’t have come. It would only break his heart all over again to see her after all these months.

  He’d finally gotten his life to where he had mostly good days. He had his cottage in the Keys. He had his boat. He had his job checking security systems for the rich mansions in South Beach. He was...content.

  He stilled with his drink halfway to his mouth.

  She wore a long strapless gown that was a shade of purple he would now always think of as Pleasurable Plum. Her long black hair was swept up in one of those fancy but messy hairdos that looked as if she’d just twisted it up with a couple of pins. Her bangs and a few wispy strands framed her lovely face. Neil wanted to bury his fingers in her silky hair and tumble it down. She wore dark red lipstick, but no jewels. She didn’t need them. Her smile was enough to light her face.

  She was talking excitedly with a group of people he didn’t recognize. Not that he would know anybody here. He let out a relieved breath. She looked happy. Then he frowned. He didn’t see Jim anywhere near her. Why wasn’t her bodyguard close by?

  He double-checked, but no Jim.

  She wouldn’t have gotten rid of him, would she? Surely she knew, even if she hadn’t received any more letters from his ex, that she should keep a bodyguard full-time.

  As Neil kept watch, a tall, dark-haired man stepped close to her side and whispered into her ear. Piper angled her head as the guy slipped his hands possessively around her waist.

  Neil clenched his fists. The man’s touch was just a little too proprietary.

  Piper smiled at whatever Mr. Hands was saying and nodded.

  And then she spied Neil. Her smile faded quickly.

  Neil almost turned and left. But he rejected the idea flat-out. He wouldn’t slink off. He was so hungry for her he’d take her anger if that was all she had to give him.

  As he headed toward her, the crowd dissolved and the only person he saw was her.

  Her expression was unreadable. But how she was staring at him... So intense.

  He stopped a couple of feet away.

  “You came.” She sounded breathless. Was that from the other guy’s touch? He noticed her bare throat work to swallow and his pulse sped up.

  He licked his dry lips, remembering the trip to Delhi and the week they’d spent working at the orphanage in the exhausting heat and how he’d promised to come if she held a charity event. “I told you I wouldn’t miss it.”

  Mr. Hands nodded at Neil. “Is this him?”

  “Oui, Francois. This is Lieutenant Neil Barrow. Neil, this is your host, Francois Giroux.”

  The Frenchman extended his right hand. “Thank you for coming.”

  Obviously, the guy would have a French accent. Why was a French accent such a turn-on for women? Neil shook the man’s hand.

  Mr. Hands gave him an assessing look. “Piper has spoken of you, of course.”

  “Really? She never mentioned you.”

  The Frenchman chuckled. “I see what you mean, cherie.” He spoke to Piper, his hand still resting on her hip, but he kept his gaze on Neil. He leaned down to speak in her ear. “Very American.”

  Piper smiled, reached up to caress his cheek and gave him a quick kiss.

  Neil wanted to punch the guy.

  Mr. Hands bowed curtly, turned on his heel and sauntered off.

  “What’s that supposed to mean? Very American.” Neil tried to copy the French accent and failed miserably. He recognized his bitterness for what it was. Envy. Not for the Frenchman’s possessions, but because this world, Francois’s world, was where Piper belonged.

  Though he sure didn’t want to live in this world. He’d joined the navy to get away from it. Like a neon sign flashing in front of his eyes, it hit him hard that she didn’t belong in a tiny cottage in the Keys.

  Piper’s smile disappeared again. Seemed she had smiles for everyone but him. What had he been thinking? Flying all the way to France!

  She hadn’t answered his question. He decided to wish her well and get out of there as fast as he could. Then a tall, lanky teenager ambushed his escape. “Neil!” The kid enveloped him in a quick hard hug.

  It was Nandan. What the— They weren’t supposed to know each other. Why hadn’t he even once thought about her brother blowing his cover? He pretended confusion. “Do I know—”

  “It’s okay.” Nandan stepped back but kept a hand on Neil’s shoulder. His grin was huge in his thin face. “My sister knows.” His English was heavily accented but clear.

  Neil glanced at Piper. She knew? The look in her eyes was unmistakable. Gratitude.

  But he didn’t want her gratitude.

  Nandan was oblivious to Neil’s disgruntled state. He leaned in. “Though we cannot announce it, you are our guest of honor. I wanted to thank you in person, so...” He dropped the hand clasping Neil’s shoulder and extended his right hand. “Thank you. My heart has no words.”

  Neil took Nandan’s hand and the kid pumped it vigorously. The boy was still recovering from his ordeal, but he’d definitely filled out. His grip was strong and his eyes sparkled with happiness.

  He wished he could say the same for Piper right now. She had tears glistening in her eyes. His gut twisted. He didn’t want her to be upset. He changed his mind. He’d take gratitude.

  She hugged Nandan. “I need to speak with Neil privately, Nan. Will you excuse us for a few minutes?”

  “How you Americans say? No problem.” The boy gave Neil the thumbs-up sign and then kissed his sister’s cheek and wove into the crowd.

  Neil snagged a drink off a passing tray. He didn’t care what it was; he gulped it down.

  She faced him, hands clasped tightly in front of her. “I wanted to thank y
ou, also.”

  “No need.” He tugged at the collar of his starched shirt.

  “But I wish you had told me what you planned. What if you’d been caught? Or killed? I’d have never known.”

  “Exactly.”

  “Oh, Neil.”

  Oh, Neil—what? Oh, Neil, I hate you? Oh, Neil, I forgive you?

  Glancing around her, she took his hand and led him out of the ballroom to the bottom of the wide winding staircase.

  Dress swishing, she spoke as they walked. “Nandan told me everything. How you carried him.” She lowered her head but not before he saw the tear tracks on her cheeks.

  “Aw, sweetheart, don’t cry.” He reached up to wipe the corner of her eye and caressed her cheek. “Everything turned out fine.”

  “Nandan said you were hurt. Are you okay now?”

  “It was nothing. I told you. It’s all good.”

  “Good? Neil, you gave up being a SEAL! The one thing you loved. I can’t believe you did that.”

  “I was getting out anyway. Believe me—”

  “Because you never lie?”

  “I didn’t lie to you. I was going on a mission.”

  She pursed her lips and folded her arms across her chest.

  Neil blinked. “All right, so I sort of lied.”

  One dark brow arched. “And you conveniently never mentioned having a wife.”

  Okay, this was not how he’d seen this night going. “I never mentioned her because as far as I was concerned, I was divorced. I didn’t want to think about her when I was with you. Why am I explaining myself to you?” He turned to head back into the ballroom. He’d call a cab and... He stopped. Leave Piper out here alone? Unprotected? He spun back around. “Where is Jim anyway?”

  “I stopped getting the threatening letters, so I let him go.”

  “You what?”

  She shrugged. “I figured since I wasn’t seeing you anymore, the creep got what he wanted.”

  No choice now. He was going to have to tell her. “My ex is the one who sent you the letters.”