by Julie Miller
Did Ray Wozniak’s cruel joke still have influence over her today? Or had something more recent happened to cause her to doubt the true extent of her beauty?
He turned toward her laughter. Couldn’t she see it? Couldn’t she see what a blind man so clearly could?
“What?” Her mood changed abruptly. Self-consciously. He must have a frightening countenance when he frowned—raw skin and ragged angles and blank, staring eyes. “What’s wrong?”
He turned his hand and laced his fingers through hers. He might have a theory, but how did he go about testing it?
Josh’s vinyl stool creaked behind him, alerting Mac to the change in his demeanor. Normally a big, easygoing man, his brother’s sudden stillness set off instant warning bells inside Mac’s head.
“Heads up, boys and girls.” Josh’s hushed warning confirmed the danger. “I think we’ve got trouble.”
Mac tightened his grip on Julia. “What is it?”
“A blue suit walked in. He’s scanning the crowd.”
A uniformed patrol officer looking for someone. Not good.
The temperature dropped in Julia’s skin. She hunched closer to Mac. “Is he looking for us?”
“I can’t tell. It could just be a routine patrol. But even if he’s here for someone else, your descriptions are out on the wire.” Josh stood and moved behind them, using his big frame to partially hide them. “One last thing. Here.”
Josh tapped an object against Mac’s chest. Mac discovered he’d handed him a pair of sunglasses. They were still warm with the heat from Josh’s body. He traced the long, narrow shape with his fingertips, noting how the curves raced around the corner and blended in with the earpiece. He recognized the ultracool dimensions. “These are yours. I can’t take them.”
Josh shoved them back when he would have handed them over. “They’re yours now.”
“He’s moving this way.” Julia’s warning made their goodbyes short and sweet.
Mac snatched his brother’s hand in a heartfelt handshake. “I owe you.”
“I won’t forget. Call me or Mitch or Ginny if you need anything. I’ll lose this guy and meet you at the lab this afternoon.”
“You be careful, little brother.”
“You be careful.” Josh leaned in and Mac heard something that sounded like a kiss. “Keep an eye on him, Jules.”
“I will.”
After Josh slipped away, Mac felt exposed and alone. The crowd was an unintelligible buzz of white noise that closed in on him. Any one of them could be the enemy and he wouldn’t know it. An undercover cop or bounty hunter tracking them. He didn’t even know which direction to run. Where to find the door.
But he had Julia to protect. He had to stay free until he could find out the truth. That meant he had to think clearly. Panic was not an option.
He concentrated on how Julia’s hand fit so perfectly within his, the sense of calm her touch empowered him with. With the calm came rational thought. He tilted his nose toward her unique scent. “Am I looking right at you?”
She hesitated. “Yeah.”
“I mean right into your eyes. Does it look like I can see you?”
“I get it.” Julia’s voice filled with that familiar sense of purpose he admired. “He’s looking for a blind man.”
Her cool fingers touched his chin, lifting his face to a different angle. “That’s it.” She slid her hand along his jaw until she was cupping his face. Smart move. She played the charade of an everyday loving couple to blend in with the crowd, and obscured his face at the same time.
Fighting the urge to rub his cheek against her tender touch, Mac focused on the business at hand. “Am I more convincing with or without the glasses?”
Her fingers danced across his face like a lover’s caress, analyzing the web of scars at his temple and forehead, studying the blank eyes in between. “With.”
He put on the glasses and kept his sightless eyes pointed toward hers. “Where’s Josh?”
“He’s with the officer now, showing him his badge. They’re talking. He has him turned toward the door now.”
The urgency in her voice prompted him to move. “Let’s go.”
She slipped off her stool and pulled Mac along with her. “C’mon. We can get in line and go out through the loading dock.”
In a movement that had quickly become a habit, Julia took his hand and hooked it through her arm.
“No, wait.” She was clearly puzzled, impatient to know why he’d stopped. He purposefully switched their positions, drawing her hand through his arm and holding it tight. “Don’t want to look like a blind man.”
“Right.”
The trick was, now he had to lead the way. While he concentrated on the sounds of the people around them to avoid bumping into them, she nudged him along. “Another two steps. We’re at the turnstile.”
He butted his hip against the windmill-shaped device and pushed his way through as if he knew exactly where he was going.
“Stop.” Julia tugged at his arm and he obeyed. “We’re in line for the bus to Tulsa.”
“I’ve always heard Tulsa’s a nice city.” He added that for effect, then asked about Josh.
Julia moved in front of him and turned so she could look behind them without drawing attention. Without warning, her fingers sank like claws into his forearm. She buried her face in his chest and whispered harshly. “He’s looking right at us!”
Though she still had the gumption to move them along with the line, her fear was a palpable thing. She peeked again.
“He’s walking this way.”
Strangely enough, as Julia’s pulse rate quickened beneath his fingertips, a sense of calm stole over Mac. He knew what he had to do. He framed her face and tipped it up, then dropped his forehead to touch hers. “If he comes after me,” he whispered, brushing his nose against hers, “I want you to lose yourself in the crowd. You’re not part of this.”
Her hands tugged at his wrists. “No. I’m not leaving you.”
“Your debt has been more than paid.”
“This isn’t about—” Her rapid breathing caught, then slowed in a conscious effort to report everything clearly. “Josh is leading him away. They’re questioning someone else. Let’s get out of here. Now. Please.”
A part of him knew he’d pay for her choice somewhere down the line. Pay dearly, no doubt. The laws of science dictated that their actions today would have equal and opposite reactions tomorrow. But at this moment he was selfishly glad she was willing to stay with him.
“Lead the way.”
With a brief excuse to the ticket-taker about changing their minds, Julia grabbed Mac’s hand and led him out a pair of glass doors. They dashed across the asphalt driveway and down a set of cracked concrete steps to an uneven sidewalk. When Mac caught his toe and tripped, she slowed their pace to a walk and slipped his hand through her elbow as she had before.
“There’s a wall here that blocks us from view.”
“Do you see the green truck?”
With a tangible task to keep her busy, Julia’s breathing slowed to a healthy rate. He could still feel the tension in her muscles, though. It was the same tension that tied his own into knots.
“There.”
He was getting so good at reading the movements of her body that he stopped when she did. He even backed up a step with her.
“It’s across the street. There’s a curb. Step down, six inches.”
Her concise directions allowed him to move easily at her side. When they were on the opposite sidewalk, she fished the keys from her pocket and unlocked the passenger door. She moved aside to let Mac climb in, but he grabbed her by the waist and lifted her up into the cab ahead of him. “Let’s just get out of here.”
They’d escaped detection thus far, but time and the city’s police force were not on their side. Josh could waylay one cop for a few minutes. Mitch could block action for a day or so. Ginny could pocket a bit of evidence and deliver it to him before the misappropriati
on was discovered. Their mothers could even nag Internal Affairs and buy them a few minutes of time.
But, ultimately, Mac knew the clock was ticking.
Julia inserted the key into the ignition and turned it over. The hum of the truck’s engine spoke of power, while the new smell of the upholstery told him Cole had spared no expense in furnishing them a vehicle.
A lot of people believed in his innocence.
A lot of people had given him their trust.
The germ of an idea took root and stood poised on the brink of numerous possibilities. He mulled it around for a moment or two, but then set it aside. He had other priorities he had to take care of first.
“Where do I go? Back to the warehouse?” Julia pulled smoothly into traffic.
“No. We’re Fred and LaVerne Anderson now. Let’s find a motel.
“I need a quiet place to think.”
THOUGH A HOT SHOWER with plenty of soap and shampoo had gone a long way toward restoring her opinion of the world, Julia still lingered at the motel’s bathroom mirror, touching up the neutral tint of her lipstick.
Lord knew it wasn’t vanity or a lack of energy or even her worries about Mac’s investigation that kept her hidden behind the wall that divided the bathroom area from the king-size bed in the next room.
How was she going to spend another night in the same room with him? In the same bed? And not make a fool of herself like she had that morning?
Anthony Cardello had taken her to a hotel. A posher one than this. He’d booked them in a suite and ordered room service.
I’ve never done it with a virgin before.
Julia shut her eyes against the memory of Anthony’s gleeful rejoinder, but couldn’t stop the painful flashbacks from rushing in.
She hadn’t realized all the sight-seeing and dining, the fine wines and expensive gifts, the stolen kisses and the clever words had all been about getting her into that hotel room. It had taken a month of phone calls before she accepted that first date. Two weeks more before their first kiss. She hadn’t necessarily been saving herself for marriage, but she’d been saving herself for a man she really wanted to be with. A man who wanted to be with her. After six months, she thought Anthony was the one.
He was the one, all right.
The one who made her understand just how foolish she could be. The one who let her know that thirty-year-old virgins were a rare breed. He’d thanked her for the challenge of seducing her. Said she had made it a worthwhile game.
She’d summoned the courage to confront him about it in his office the following Monday. She had to understand that there wasn’t a relationship between them anymore, he’d told her. The thrill had gone for him. But if it was any consolation, she wasn’t half-bad in bed.
She’d slapped his face and walked out. But the damage had been done. She’d only had to overhear one conversation in the hospital lounge about Dr. Casanova’s latest conquest for her to sit down and write out her resignation. Four weeks later she was home.
And face to face with Mac.
How could she be so competent in every other aspect of her life, but so completely clueless when it came to men?
A cramp in her hand brought Julia back to the present. She eased her grip on the vanity counter and gathered her composure by repacking only the most necessary items in her black leather bag.
Ray Wozniak had taken her self-confidence. Anthony Cardello had robbed her of her pride.
But Mac Taylor could steal her heart.
And what kept Julia at the sink, packing and repacking her bag, was the fear that he already had.
This wasn’t about a schoolgirl’s heart. In the past few days, her teenage crush had turned into the real thing. He wasn’t just the hero who’d stepped out of the night and saved her dignity and protected her from more physical abuse. She’d gotten to know the real man. Honest and temperamental. Tender and passionate. Brilliant and brave.
If she wasn’t careful, Mac could hurt her in a way that Ray and Dr. Casanova never could.
Deciding that she couldn’t stall any longer, Julia slung her bag over her shoulder and stepped around the corner.
A hopeless smile spread across her face.
It didn’t help that Mac Taylor was the sexiest man on the planet. And that he didn’t even know it.
She watched him pace back and forth along a memorized path, counting out something on his fingers and talking to himself.
He stood tall and lean in jeans that hugged his long legs and cupped his firm butt with each stride. Josh had packed him a black Henley shirt that clung to the broad points of his shoulders and hung loosely at his trim waist.
With no desire to repeat their first night together, she hadn’t offered to help him shave. And now a golden scruff of beard shaded the sharp angles of his jaw and faded down his neck to the unbuttoned V of his collar.
As if he sensed her stare, Mac stopped pacing and turned. Just like the man, his smile was succinct and sincere. “Ready to go?”
Julia nodded as if he could see. “Sure.”
He put on Josh’s sunglasses and picked up his leather jacket from the bed. But he hesitated a moment, as if she had made some small sound or comment to draw his attention. “Is everything all right?”
Careful, Jules, she warned herself.
She fixed a smile on her face, hoping her sarcasm would reflect in her voice. “What could be wrong? I’m about to break into a police lab with a wanted blind man so he can fire off a gun.”
A question flitted across his face before he answered in a similar tone. “You’re shooting the gun. I’m the lookout.”
Her laughter burst out before she could stop herself. And without her conscious permission, those shaky walls that guarded her heart crumbled into dust.
“I CAN’T DO THIS.”
Julia pulled off the earphones that were meant to block the sound, and let them hang around her neck. She turned the pistol over in her hand and hefted its weight. It seemed so big, so heavy. So deadly.
“I keep thinking about Wade and Merle Banning.”
Mac closed in behind her, and placed his hands on her shoulders, kneading the tension that had settled there. “You want me to do it?”
“You can’t.”
They had a twenty-minute window of opportunity to retrieve a spent bullet, compare its markings under a microscope to the one from Merle’s wound, and then run a check through the computer to find any unsolved crime-scene matches.
Mac bent his head close to her ear, keeping his voice low. “All the technicians are working a scene, or attending a seminar until four o’clock. Nobody’s getting past Josh on the other side of that door until then. Take all the time you need. But take it quickly.”
Julia nodded. She worked her lower lip between her teeth. This part should be a piece of cake compared to getting into the Thirteenth Precinct building. Newer and bigger than the facility in her old neighborhood, the Thirteenth had a state-of-the-art entry system. But their fake ID’s had passed inspection and they’d been issued visitors passes. Josh’s sweet talk and a back stairwell had gotten them past a receptionist and taken them down to the lab in the basement.
“C’mon, Jules.” Mac’s lips brushed against her neck, sending a tickle of sensation all the way down her spine and disrupting her thoughts. “I know you can do it.”
With his hands still resting on her shoulders, Julia put the earphones back on, took aim through the hole in the Plexiglas shield, squinted her eyes and pulled the trigger.
The recoil from the explosion in her hands pushed her back into Mac. For less than a heartbeat she sagged against him and savored his strength. But he pressed a kiss to that sensitive spot behind her ear and thanked her. A dozen nerve endings that had been paralyzed with fear tingled to life and boosted her into action. “Good girl. Now let’s get to work.”
She stepped away from that wicked mouth and those tempting hands and did as he asked.
Mac talked her through the process of comparing the bul
lets beneath the microscope. A set of markings unique to each gun were carved into the bullets as they spun through the firing chamber. If the carvings matched, it proved they came from the same weapon.
The carvings matched.
Forensics confirmed what Merle had reported. Wade had driven by the house and shot at them. Merle had gotten off a few shots himself, wounding Wade in the arm. After losing control of his cruiser, he’d come back to finish the job.
Unfortunately, the markings didn’t tell them anything about his motive.
“Over here.” Mac tapped on the computer monitor across the room and pulled out the chair in front of it. “This is the real test.” After she sat down, he knelt behind the chair and talked her through the access codes that got her into the necessary program. “How much time do we have?”
Julia checked her watch. “Just under ten minutes.”
“Feed the picture into the scanner.”
When his hand reached around her and hovered over the keyboard, she understood his impatience. The old Mac could have gotten this job done in twenty minutes. He snatched his fingers back into an anxious fist. She was slowing him down.
“Now tell it to run the check for any matches.”
She read the message on the screen. “It’s searching. But you know what you’re going to find, don’t you?” she asked.
“Maybe.” He brushed his fingers through her hair as he pulled them back. The energy in the room suddenly tightened like the twisting strand of a web. “This is the part I always hated.”
“What’s that?”
“Waiting.”
Julia rocked back and forth in the chair and checked her watch again. “Will it be done in time?”
Mac pushed to his feet. “It has to be.”
She spun in her chair and watched him trail his hand along one of the stainless steel counters, stroking it like a favored pet. “You really miss your work, don’t you?”
He picked up an empty specimen tray and studied its contours with his fingertips. “It’s all I ever wanted to do.”
“If the transplant operation doesn’t restore your sight, what will you do then?”
“I don’t know.”
The wistful sadness in his raspy voice tugged at her heartstrings. She heard a tinge of anger there, too. She was angry for him. A senseless accident had robbed him not only of his sight, but of his life’s work, and maybe even that driving sense of confidence and satisfaction so many men took from their jobs.
