She didn’t want to have this conversation, not while he was distracted by Jack and all the Lila Markham business. “So what about Lila, Mac? Did she have strong feelings for you? You must have had some hint.”
“I brushed it off. It was a PR thing as far as I was concerned. I was surprised when she wanted to take it further. And then when she tried to insinuate her way into my life through Rory and Lindsay, I ended it.”
Jack slipped back into the room. “I’m on my way to Lila’s hotel now. Did you know she wrangled an invitation to the wedding?”
“I didn’t see her there. I would have noticed.”
“If she dyed and cut her hair? She’s a redhead, with long hair as I recall, but the woman Morgan saw following her was a blonde with short hair.”
“Damn, she must have changed her face or something.” His eyes went stormy. “If I’d paid more attention to the wedding guests, we might have avoided a lot of trouble.” He frowned. “But I saw the list—how did I miss Lila’s name?”
“She was a last-minute addition,” Jack told him. “I doubt even Lindsay recognized her.”
“Lindsay was too excited, anyway, and you never told her about a stalker,” Morgan added.
Abruptly, Mac straightened, looked fierce. “I’m going with you.”
“What about the brother?” Morgan asked Jack.
“The campus police are talking to Jonathan Lake. As far as we can tell he didn’t have time to warn his sister we’re on to her.”
“I want the whole thing kept quiet,” Mac said. He wasn’t out to destroy anyone’s life; he just wanted his own peace of mind back. “I didn’t care enough to ask about her family. I never knew she had a brother.”
“Until Morgan, the women you saw were conveniences,” Jack reminded him. “They all knew that and used the exposure to advance their own careers. Don’t beat yourself up.”
Obviously, Lila had been hurt. Either that, or she’d misunderstood. He should have seen her interest, deflected it gently instead of leaving without a backward glance.
Morgan looked curious. “How can you get away without the crowd following you?”
“My father installed a secret door in the garden shed in the back wall. It’s hidden and rarely used.” He drew her into his arms for a kiss. He needed the feel of her, the warmth and reassurance that she’d wait for him. She kissed him back with tremulous lips and looked up at him, one perfect eyebrow raised in question.
“My father used the secret exit to sneak out to see his various mistresses. My mother used it to have liquor delivered without the embarrassment of having it come through the front gate on a daily basis.”
“Oh, Mac, I’m sorry.”
He shrugged off the ancient hurt. “I’ll talk to Lila at the hotel.”
“You want to help her?”
“If I can.” He motioned to Jack to lead the way and bussed Morgan quickly on the cheek. “Wait here till I get back. If we can’t sort through this mess, we’ll go away together. It’ll be fun, you’ll see.”
“Fun, wow.” Quiet determination flashed in her eyes, frightening him.
“Morgan, promise you’ll stay put.”
She kissed him quickly on the lips. “Go.” She shoved him away playfully.
He followed Jack out the office door, unhappy she’d avoided that promise, but the chance to finish this once and for all was powerful.
As soon as they were safely in the car Jack had had delivered to the hidden entrance, Mac shot his friend a glance. “What do you think of her?”
“Lila’s over the edge and you’d best let the law handle her. She deserves jail time for all she’s done to you and to Morgan.”
“I’m not talking about Lila. I’ll see what she needs when I get to her hotel.”
Jack stared out the passenger-side window, his jaw flexed. “Why the hell do you pay me? You never listen!”
“What do you think of Morgan?”
Jack rubbed his face. “Why?”
“I like her, Jack. She’s funny and smart and she hasn’t asked for a damn thing from me. She’s different. And I need different right now. I’m so sick of stick women who want to advance their own agendas.
“Morgan’s grown on me. I like that she’s kept her head through most of this. I like that she confessed about the car theft ring. She’s proud, tough. She had to be tough from her history. Juvenile Hall at fifteen was a bad break, but at least the judge got her out before any real harm was done. Watching her mother depend on men that way would have left a mark, though.”
“Don’t let Morgan hear that sympathy in your voice. She’ll take it as pity and—”
“Break my nose,” Jack agreed.
“If anything had happened to Morgan when that guy shot at her, I don’t know what I’d do. But it wouldn’t be pretty.”
“I’d be there, too. Just the two of us. He wouldn’t know what hit him.” Jack’s tone spoke volumes.
“When we get to Lila’s, let me speak with her alone,” Mac said. Half his mind had stayed behind with Morgan. “Maybe Morgan should have come with us. Just so I could keep an eye on her myself.”
“She’s better off behind the gates. You can take her wherever you want to go when we get back. For now, let’s focus on Lila. When we’ve dealt with her, I’ll look into Morgan’s past. A complete file, no stone unturned kind of thing.”
“What’s the point now?”
“If I can have her record expunged, I’ll do it.”
“Thanks, but make sure to ask her first.”
The cross street held a phalanx of reporters’ cars parked along the curb. His mood lightened when he and Jack drove past undetected. “At least we don’t have to outrun them,” he said.
The moment they arrived in the hotel lobby, the concierge called the general manager to meet them. He escorted them to Lila’s door and tapped lightly.
When there was no response, he used his master key to unlock the suite, then stepped aside to let them enter alone. Lila was gone, but her belongings were strewn about the rooms. “There’s the dress she wore to the wedding. And a makeup case with a prosthetic nose.”
Jack slipped on gloves, passed a pair to Mac. “She planned this well in advance.”
“There’s a file folder on the desk by her laptop.” Jack flipped open the file and read the top sheet, then looked further through the sheaf of papers. “Copies of your receipts, spreadsheets from your accounting program, passwords, codes. Everything baby brother needed to attack you where it hurt.”
On an end table beside the sofa Mac spied a family photo album. He opened to the first page and his stomach turned. “Look at this,” he said, waving Jack over to see.
Photographs of Mac and Lila, smiling and happy in places they’d never visited. The next few pages were of them dressed in wedding clothes. “She’s sicker than we thought,” Mac said quietly, stunned by her level of obsession.
Jack whistled. “These are composites she created from other photos according to her fantasies.” He turned another page. “Here she’s on the cover of a women’s magazine, pregnant. Look at the date.”
Mac felt a chill down his spine. “She’s lived out the next five years.”
He continued to flip pages. There were more pregnancy pictures than anything else. Clearly, she had plans.
“Wonder if she wants a boy or a girl?”
“As if I’d want her to mother my children.” An image of Morgan pregnant and happy slipped like silk through his mind. He shuddered at the photo album and closed it with a snap. “Makes you wonder what she had planned for the sixth year.”
Jack stared at him, frowning.
“Divorce?” Mac suggested hopefully.
“Or widowhood,” Jack replied darkly.
Mac checked the bedroom closet. “The rest of her clothes are here.”
“I wonder where she went?”
In the short silence, Mac’s stomach turned. “The house!” He ran out, headed for the elevator at a dead run. Jack kept up w
hile he opened his phone.
“She won’t get in, Mac. Rory’s got the gates on manual. Lila will never—”
Mac cut him off. “I remember Lindsay telling her about the garden shed when they were swapping stories. Lindsay had a boyfriend Rory didn’t like and she told Lila about sneaking out to see him.” That had been the first time he’d had an inkling that her befriending Rory and Lindsay was a deliberate move to feel included in his life.
Mac felt a trickle of sweat run down his neck. “Morgan and Rory are sitting ducks. If she had full run of the house, she could have a copy of the key for the hidden door. It won’t matter that the gates are on manual.”
“Morgan’s not answering,” Jack said. “I’ll try the land line in Rory’s room.”
“If he doesn’t answer, try the one for the house. He could be watching television.”
Mac bit back a growl of frustration when the elevator stopped for passengers.
An obsessed madwoman was on the loose—and aimed at two people he loved.
14
MORGAN PEEKED INTO the den to check that Rory was still in his lounger, beer in hand. His feet were crossed at the ankles on the footrest. Nothing had changed at the front gates, so he’d decided to settle in for his regular afternoon talk shows.
He seemed engrossed and relaxed for the first time since delivering the photos from Lila Markham.
She tightened her grip on her backpack and turned to leave, grateful Mac had told her about the secret door.
Her phone rang, and she fumbled it out of her denim bag.
“Aren’t you going to answer that?”
“No.” She shut it off and straightened as he turned in his chair and caught sight of her backpack.
“Where are you going?”
“Where no one can find me. I need to be gone before Mac returns, so stay out of it.”
He reached for the phone on his side table.
She walked to it, slipped her hand over his and pushed the handset back down into the cradle. “Don’t call him. It’s best this way.”
If Mac learned she’d gone to the airport he’d be in the seat next to hers on the flight to Miami. She wasn’t stupid.
What Mac wanted, Mac got.
The wealthy could count on people to bend rules for them, on favors being repaid, on money making things happen.
In a battle of wills, though, Morgan was a powerhouse and she knew it. She kept her face stern, her eyes pleading. She wasn’t Elizabeth Swann’s daughter for nothing! After a long moment, Rory nodded and released the phone.
“Mac will want to know I can bounce back from this, so I need you to convince him I’m fine. Will you do that, Rory?”
He harrumphed, but nodded. It was all she’d get, but it was better than nothing.
She wasn’t sure of her ability to land on her feet this time, so convincing Rory helped her convince herself. “Life has a way of knocking you back when you move into social spheres where you don’t belong. I’ll deal with it, I promise.”
“That’s ridiculous! Mac will be furious with me if I allow you to sneak off.” He moved his chair to upright and stood. “He cares deeply for you.”
The jab about Mac’s feelings nearly did her in, but she saw through the old sailor anyway. “You can’t con me. He won’t blame you for my decision. Mac’s not like that.” He would more likely blame himself and think she didn’t trust him to keep her safe.
Rory got a cagey look in his eye, so she cut him off before he said anything more. “What part of stay out of it don’t you get?” she snapped. “I care for him, too, but I can’t be here when he gets back.”
He frowned and opened his mouth to argue, but she forged ahead, needing him to understand. “It’s better for me to move on while the memories are good. I couldn’t take it if he tired of me.” Like all the others.
Rory narrowed his gaze and ire showed in his eyes. “You’ve got him all wrong. I know him like my own son, and he—”
“I won’t be another Lila. Left behind, desperate. I won’t do that.” She picked up her backpack and hooked it over her shoulder.
A feminine cry of outrage startled them. “Everyone wants to be me! Everyone wants what Mac and I share!” The voice was high, strained and nasty, full of rage and pain.
Morgan stiffened and turned, afraid of what she’d see. Lila Markham’s eyes were wild.
The blonde in the beige car. A shiver of recognition ran down her back. She darted a glance at Rory. He looked surprisingly calm.
“Out to the pool.” Lila trained a small handgun at Morgan’s midsection. Her makeup had smeared, her designer dress looked as if she’d worn it for days, and it seemed she hadn’t used soap and water for just as long.
Dumbfounded, Morgan froze, her mind on a frenzied search for anything remotely familiar about the situation.
“You’re the blonde who followed me in the beige car!” Bad time to blurt the obvious but her brain was working double time to process the scene. Lila’s gun never wavered and Morgan finally focused on getting away from the little barrel.
“And you sent the photos,” Rory stated calmly as if the images had been of a family vacation. He radiated an energy Lila was too wild to see. “Lila, sorry I didn’t hear you come in. The ears, you know.” He tapped the side of his head. “I’m glad you got past the horde at the gates.”
He was up to something. She tried to catch his eye, but he stared at Lila, willing her to look at him.
If she did turn her attention to the old man, Morgan could jump her, grab the gun and—what? People in a state like this were superstrong, jacked up on adrenaline and rage. Morgan wouldn’t stand a chance against her.
A cold shiver of fear trailed down her spine as she realized the futility of rushing the woman.
The phone rang in a loud trill by Rory’s hand. He started, but then muted the ringer without answering. The call went to voice mail. “Lila, how did you get in?”
“I copied the key for the shed.” She jerked her head to the French door, where a set of keys hung. “And for the pool house.” Lila stood in the kitchen beside the island, one hand braced on the granite countertop. A tinier woman than she looked on movie screens, she kept her weapon on Morgan. If Morgan rushed her, she’d be framed in the doorway, a hard target to miss.
Lila’s eyes snapped. “You were ridiculously easy to follow. I watched you leave the estate in that god-awful truck and I had my brother learn everything he could about you.”
She waved the gun again. “I told you to go out to the pool.”
“Why should we go to the pool?” Rory asked. “We’re perfectly comfortable in here.” His monotone sounded reasonable, as if a woman in his kitchen with a gun was an everyday situation.
Lila blinked as if to clear her head. She addressed Morgan in a stringent voice. “If you don’t jump into the pool, I’ll shoot Rory. I’ll start with his right foot, then his left. How long can you bear his screams?”
Morgan’s stomach twisted. She’d seen some off-the-wall behavior, but Lila’s dead-calm face chilled her to the bone. She wasn’t sure she could move if she needed to.
But Rory could. He sidled half his body in front of Morgan. “It’s too cold for a swim, Lila,” he said in a calm voice.
“She’s not going to swim, she’s going to drown.”
Morgan eased back to give Rory room to maneuver toward the distraught actress. “Put that down,” she said firmly. “I’m damn tired of guns.” Ignoring the thing would not make it go away.
Lila moved closer, hatred glowing on her face. She held the delicate-looking gun with a steady hand. “I can’t see why Kingston would choose to fuck a piece of trash when he had me.” She slid her gaze from the top of Morgan’s head to her toes. “Filthy whore.”
“It’s odd that you mention Kingston’s habit with women,” Rory broke in. “Morgan and I were discussing that very thing before you came in.”
“What?” Confused and distracted, Lila turned from Morgan to Rory.
/> “Morgan was saying that she didn’t want to stay long enough to be discarded. She understands that will happen. It’s how Mr. McRae does things.” Rory nodded sagely, as if they all agreed. “He teases a woman with promises, then moves on without a care. It’s a failing of his. He should have understood you weren’t like the others, Lila. You never were.”
Rory not only knew a thing or two about picking locks, he was one smooth talker. Lila hung on every word, nodding in agreement. “Yes, that’s right. But he didn’t mean to do that to me.”
“He was disappointed to hear of your engagement, Lila.” Rory nodded in time with Lila. She followed his lead, moving like a marionette. “He was about to call you when he got the news. That was a difficult morning, as you can imagine.”
Lila gave Rory a vacant smile as if she were playing out a fantasy behind her eyes.
Morgan gasped at the lie. Rory was scary smooth. “Navy, my ass,” she muttered. She cocked an eyebrow at him, then hefted her backpack to her shoulder. Following Rory’s lead, she aimed for nonchalant. “I’m leaving, Ms. Markham. I’m aware of who I am, where I come from, and I don’t have any fantasies of happily ever after with Kingston McRae.”
Lila motioned with the gun for Morgan to move around her. Rory stilled, clearly hoping to split Lila’s attention.
The door to the patio stood open, an escape offered. Ten steps to freedom.
Rory cleared his throat. “Best of luck, Ms. Swann. Lila, I was about to make tea. You always enjoyed my chamomile. Could I interest you in a cup?” He moved smoothly toward a cupboard while Morgan eased her way toward the open door. “I don’t believe you’ve seen the completed renovation, have you?”
Seven steps.
“No.” Lila followed him with her eyes, but kept the gun on Morgan. She waved Morgan toward the open door. “Get out. But leave your cell phone here.”
Shocked, Morgan looked at her hand and saw that she still held her phone. Mac had called and she’d ignored it. Had he been trying to warn her that Lila had left? She dropped the phone to the floor with a clatter, her hand nerveless.
Possessing Morgan Page 17
