Roman's Heart

by Sharon Sala

  “I don’t need sleep.”

  He leaned forward. “Then what is it you need?”

  Her breath caught. Say it. Tell him now. It’s only three little words. I need you. That’s what I need. I need you.

  But the words wouldn’t come, and although he could see her struggling, she remained silent.

  He leaned back, only then aware he’d been holding his breath.

  Daisy shuddered and then drew her knees up toward her chest, as if she’d come too close to a flame. She had to say something, do something, anything to break the tension between them.

  “Then talk to me,” she said softly. “Tell me all there is to know about Roman Justice.”

  He almost smiled. “Not much to tell.”

  “Then tell me the little bit.”

  He sighed. She was persistent. He’d give her that. T..en he remembered. She’d fallen out of a plane, been up a tree and up to her eyeballs in snow, and he had yet to see her come unglued. Hell, yes, she was persistent, even tenacious, and talking should be safe.

  “I’m the youngest of three brothers, and my parents are dead.”

  Daisy sighed, wishing she knew enough to reciprocate.

  “Why did you become a private investigator?”

  “I wanted to be my own boss and I needed a job that would utilize the skills Uncle Sam taught me.”

  Daisy frowned, a bit lost to the connection. “And that would be?”

  “How to hide in plain sight.”

  “Can you teach me how?”

  His eyes narrowed sharply. “Why would you want to hide?” She thought of the money and then looked back at his face. If ever there was a time to trust him, it was now.

  Chapter 5

  “Roman?”

  “What?”

  “There’s something I haven’t told you.”

  His emotions went into shutdown. I knew this would happen. I let myself get too close to a stranger.

  “So talk,” he said shortly.

  Daisy’s heart dropped. The wariness was back in his voice, but it was too late to stop now. She got up from the sofa.

  “Where are you going?” he asked.

  She sighed. “Just wait here. You’ll know soon enough.”

  When she started up the stairs, he stood.

  She looked back just as she reached the landing, and he would have sworn there was true regret on her face. When she dropped to her knees beside his bed and then lay down on her belly and crawled under it, a knot began forming in the pit of his stomach.

  Daisy came down the steps with the bag in her hand and dropped it at Roman’s feet. Then she stepped back, waiting for him to make the next move.

  “What’s in that?” he growled.

  “See for yourself. But don’t ask me where it came from. All I know is, when I finally got down from the tree, it was lying nearby. I have a vague memory of falling out of the plane with it hanging around my neck.”

  “What’s the big secret? If it’s so all-fired important to you, why didn’t you tell me about it sooner?”

  She took a deep breath, gauging his reaction to what she was about to say.

  “Men have killed for less. I didn’t know you. I was afraid for my life.”

  “You aren’t making sense,” he said shortly, then knelt and unzipped the bag. The sides parted like an overripe tomato, revealing the contents all too clearly.

  Roman’s heart sank. Oh, hell. There was never a good or honest reason for someone to be in possession of so much cash. And she was right about one thing. Men had certainly killed for less reason.

  Daisy held her breath. He was too calm. Then he looked up, and the blaze in his eyes seared her soul. All the doubt and mistrust that he’d had before was back—and a thousand times over.

  “Is this yours, or did you steal it?”

  The tone of his voice cut straight to her heart. Tears blurred her vision, but she wouldn’t look away.

  “I don’t know.” Her chin quivered. “I wish to God I knew, but I don’t.”

  “There must be close to a million dollars in here.”

  She shrugged. “I didn’t bother to count it.”

  He pulled the zipper and then kicked the bag toward her as he stood.

  “Maybe I should have named you Bonnie, ’cause you can bet your little daisy behind that there’s a Clyde out there somewhere who’s wondering where you’ve gone.”

  She started to cry. Not sobs, but slow, silent tears that slid right down her face. She looked down at the bag and then back up at him and felt as if her heart were breaking.

  “I don’t want it. Put it somewhere, anywhere. Toss it out in the storm for all I care. I’ve had nothing but a bad feeling ever since I saw it.”

  Roman glared as she walked back to the sofa and lay down, pulling the covers up over her head.

  “Hiding won’t make it go away,” he said shortly.

  She didn’t answer.

  He looked back at the bag and cursed. He didn’t want to be mad. He didn’t want to distrust. But what the hell did she think he would do?

  “I’ll put it here in the downstairs closet.”

  She yanked the covers down long enough to get her message across. “You can throw it in the fireplace. Use it to start your next fire. Take it to the bathroom and use it for toilet paper. Just get it out of my sight.”

  He tossed it in the closet and then stuffed his hands in his pockets.

  “Daisy.”

  There was a muffled answer from beneath the covers.

  “Damn it, woman. Come out from under the covers and talk to me.”

  She emerged, her eyes red rimmed and swimming in tears, her lips quivering.

  “You don’t want to talk, you want to accuse. I may deserve everything you’re thinking about me, but right now it doesn’t feel like it, okay? Right now, I feel indignant as hell. Besides, how can I talk about this when I can’t remember anything?”

  “Look, I’m sorry,” Roman said.

  “Yes, and I’m...” The answer was right on the tip of her tongue. If she hadn’t been listening to herself talk, it would have come out; she just knew it. “Oh, Roman, I almost had it,” she said, and laid her arm across her eyes in defeat. “My name—it was right on the tip of my tongue.”

  He shook his head. If she was lying to him, then she was as good as it gets.

  “It will come when it’s time,” he said.

  A log fell off the stack and down into the ashes as sparks flew up the chimney. Daisy shook her head, no longer able to believe in anything or anyone.

  “Roman.”

  “What?”

  “Why do I feel like I’m running out of time?”

  “I don’t know. Maybe your subconscious is trying to tell you something.”

  “Then I wish it would talk a little louder. I think I’m going crazy.”

  She turned over on the sofa with her back to the fire and closed her eyes.

  He felt her rejection, both of him and the entire situation, and knew she was justified in feeling this way. The investigator in him kept trying to think of legal reasons as to why she could be in possession of so much money, but there were far too many illegal scenarios that kept coming to mind.

  Frustrated, he shoved his hand through his hair, combing the short, dark strands in an absent fashion as he headed for the kitchen. He needed a drink. He would settle for caffeine instead.

  A short while later, the rich aroma of freshly brewed coffee filled the room as he poured himself a cup. In the past few minutes, one thing had become patently clear. If Daisy hadn’t trusted him enough to take him into her confidence, he would never have known the money was there. And what’s more, she’d been right to hesitate in revealing the bag’s presence. If the situation had been reversed, he would have reacted the same way.

  Something blew against the outside of the kitchen door. He glanced toward it and then out the window. There was a faint glow to the east. Morning wasn’t far away. There was another, less distinct soun
d behind him. He turned. Daisy was standing in the doorway.

  “Roman.”

  “Yes.”

  “How much do you charge for your services?”

  Although the corner of his mouth twitched, he responded with a straight face.

  “Are you referring to personal or professional?”

  “Do shut up,” she muttered. “I’m serious.”

  “Enough,” he said. “Although, from the contents of that bag, I don’t think you’ll have a problem with your bills. Why?”

  “Because I want to hire you. I want you to help me find out who I am and why I have all this money.”

  He shrugged. “We’ll see,” he said shortly. “There’s a real good chance that you’ll remember everything on your own, you know.”

  But she wouldn’t give up. “And there’s a good chance that I won’t. I have to know. Will you or won’t you?”

  He sighed. She reminded him of Royal, tenacious to a fault.

  “I will.”

  “Then that’s that,” she said, and walked out of the room.

  No, Daisy, that wasn’t that, Roman thought. It was only the beginning.

  Davis Benton prowled the hospital halls like a man possessed. While Gordon Mallory had yet to wake up, another stormfront had moved in right behind the first one, making further search of the crash site impossible. He kept thinking of his daughter. Holly hated the cold. And he kept mentally replaying the message she had left on his machine.

  Daddy, Gordon and I are flying to Nassau for a few days. You know, a fun-in-the-sun sort of thing. I’ll call you as soon as we get there so you’ll have my number. Take care and I love you.

  He stuffed a handful of coins into a vending machine and then wearily rested his forehead against it while waiting for the coffee he so badly needed. Although he hadn’t completely given up hope, there was a part of him that had already begun making concessions with God. If he couldn’t find her alive, he still needed to find her. He didn’t think he could go through the rest of his life without at least laying her body to rest.

  “Davis Benton?”

  He turned, the hot coffee sloshing over the rim of the foam cup and onto his fingers.

  “Yes, I’m Davis Benton.”

  “You’re to come with me,” the orderly said. “The patient you’ve been waiting to see just woke up.”

  “Thank you, God,” Davis muttered, tossing the coffee in the trash as he went past.

  A doctor emerged from Gordon’s room just as they reached the door.

  “Mr. Benton?”

  Again, Davis nodded.

  “You can’t stay long,” he said. “He’s only just awakened, and he’ll be groggy, so don’t expect miracles.”

  Davis nodded again and started to push past him when the doctor took him by the arm, momentarily stopping him.

  “If it weren’t for the circumstances surrounding your missing daughter, I wouldn’t be allowing this,” he said.

  Davis swallowed nervously. “I know, Doctor, and I appreciate your cooperation, more than you will ever know.”

  The doctor shrugged. “Ultimately, it’s not my cooperation you need. It’s Mr. Mallory’s. Now, remember, don’t stay long.”

  “I won’t,” Davis said, and then went inside.

  Gordon Mallory’s first thought upon awakening was that it felt good to hurt. After Billy had popped the door to the plane, all hell had broken loose. His fight with Billy had been put aside when the plane had suddenly gone into a nosedive.

  Seeing the pilot slumped over the controls was the secondworst moment of his life. Seeing Holly sucked out of the door with his money was the worst. At that moment, he was certain they were going to die. And then Billy astonished him by climbing into the copilot’s seat and taking control. The anger between them vanished, and it was anyone’s guess as to whether they would make it or not.

  The pilot continued to groan and clutch at his chest as the plane kept losing altitude. Even Gordon said a few prayers. Twice they just missed going into the side of a mountain, and each time, Billy managed to keep them in the air. But when they began skimming the treetops, they prepared for the worst.

  They went down in a tree-covered valley between two peaks, taking out a swath of trees and bushes with the underbelly of the plane before going nose first into the earth.

  And when it was over, the silence was almost as frightening as the moments before had been. Where there had been screams and shouts, there was quiet. Great trees had snapped like toothpicks, and the fuselage of the jet was crumpled like used tin foil. Now there was nothing but the hissing sound of escaping steam and the frightening stench of spilled fuel.

  He remembered trying to run and being unable to feel his legs. It was the next morning before he realized he wasn’t paralyzed, only pinned down by the wreckage.

  Billy was pinned in the cockpit, still alive, but from the sound of his voice, badly hurt. He answered Gordon’s intermittent queries for several hours, but by morning, he became as silent as the woods in which they’d crashed. Gordon held out hope for a rescue up until the time it started to snow. After that, he lost all track of time.

  When the rescue team broke into the cabin, Gordon thought he was dreaming. It was only when they freed him from the wreckage and he began to feel pain that he knew he was going to live. Then all his energies were focused on getting well and finding Holly, because where she was, his money would be also. He had a pretty good fix on where she’d gone down. With a little luck, he should be able to find her body.

  And he was certain it would be her body they’d find. Billy had all but sealed her fate when he’d strapped a parachute to her back and then hung that duffel bag around her neck. Gordon was convinced that the duffel bag would have interfered with the opening of the chute. And even if the chute had managed to open, the straps on the bag would have certainly strangled her. Either way, it was just a small setback. The snow couldn’t last forever. All he had to do was get well and then recover what was rightfully his.

  Then Davis Benton walked in the door. Gordon’s first instinct was to panic, but he reminded himself there was no way Benton could know anything. There was no one left alive who could tell.

  “Gordon, thank God you survived.”

  Gordon took a deep breath and then groaned with the pain of the motion.

  “Don’t move,” Davis said. “Let me do most of the talking, okay?”

  Gordon blinked that he understood. It wouldn’t hurt to let Davis think he was worse off than he really was.

  “They didn’t find Holly. Do you know what happened to her?”

  Gordon groaned. Hell, yes, he knew. She jumped out of the plane with his money.

  “Don’t know,” he muttered.

  Davis’s hopes fell. The two small words were like a knife in the heart.

  “Can you tell me what happened? Why did you crash?”

  Gordon’s mind was racing. Here’s where he covered his tracks—just in case.

  “We lost cabin pressure and I blacked out. I don’t know what happened to Holly, or to the plane.”

  Davis wanted to cry. “Ah, God,” he groaned, and covered his face with his hands.

  If nothing else, Gordon Mallory was a realist. There was the possibility he’d never see his money again. And Davis Benton had just bought the entire story. It wouldn’t hurt to add a bit to the scenario for good luck. He took a deep breath, aware that it would cause enough pain to bring tears to his eyes, and right now, he needed some tears in his eyes to say what he had to say.

  The groan that came out of Gordon’s mouth was not faked. The pain was real, as were the tears that followed.

  Davis looked up. “Don’t move,” he said quickly. “I’ll get a nurse.”

  “Don’t want a nurse,” Gordon mumbled. “Want Holly...my Holly.”

  Davis wanted to scream. “I know, son. I want her, too.”

  “You don’t understand,” Gordon continued, playing his role to the hilt. “We were eloping. She was g
oing to be my wife and now she’s gone.” He closed his eyes and turned his face to the wall. “Without Holly, I don’t want to live.”

  Davis rocked back on his heels, stunned by what Mallory had to say. Elope? He knew they’d dated. But he’d had no idea their relationship had gotten to this.

  “Look, son, we need to think positive,” Davis said. “I don’t believe in giving up until someone else tells me it’s over. And right now, I will have to see Holly’s body before I quit hoping.”

  Gordon shook his head slowly from side to side. “It’s hard to hold out for hope when you’re the only survivor,” he whispered.

  Davis’s eyes brightened as he suddenly clutched at Gordon’s arm.

  “They didn’t tell you!”

  “Tell me what?” Gordon mumbled.

  “You aren’t the only survivor. Your brother, Billy. He’s still alive!”

  The morning dawned bright and clear. Snow was anywhere from knee to chest high, but it had stopped accumulating. Roman stepped out of the cabin and took a slow, cleansing breath. Last night had, quite possibly, been the longest night of his life.

  The money was still in the downstairs closet where he’d tossed it, and his accusations still hung in the air between them, although a semi-truce had been reached. When he thought about it, it was almost laughable. If he wasn’t mistaken, Daisy had just hired him to solve the mystery surrounding her, and she was going to pay him with someone else’s money. What was worse, he’d all but agreed to do it. If the legal system had a mind to pick nits, that probably made him an accessory after the fact to a possible crime.

  He looked out into the clearing. The only thing visible of his vehicle was the roof of the cab and the upper portion of the windows. He shoved his hands in his pockets and frowned. Even if it started thawing right now, it would be two or three days before the roads would be passable.

  He thought of Royal and went back inside for the phone. The air was clear, the wind almost nonexistent. Maybe now a call would go through. Knowing Royal, he’d be waiting.

  Daisy was coming out of the bathroom when he came down from upstairs.

  “What are you doing?” she asked, eyeing the cellular phone he was carrying.