“Thank God you came.” Marlene beamed as she literally dragged them aboard. “My first party on my own and I’m a wreck. I would have died if you didn’t show up.”
Felicity took a good look at their hostess, as if for the first time. Marlene was somewhat older than Felicity, a little shorter and stockier. Still, she looked several years younger than the night they met. She had lost weight over the last two months. She may never be beauty pageant material again, but even in a tight fitting black evening gown, her figure was now nothing to be embarrassed about, and flattering highlights danced in her honey blonde hair.
“Well, did you enjoy your vacations?” Marlene asked as she hustled Morgan and Felicity into the center of the party. A buzz of polite, happy conversation enveloped them. A tray went by, and Marlene made sure they all collected drinks.
“You’re certainly popular,” Felicity said. “I have to apologize for Morgan. Tried to get him into a tux, I did, but he flat out refused.”
Marlene turned to her, then paused, and the festive glow momentarily left her face. She forced the smile back into place and nodded toward Felicity’s throat.
“I see you do wear it, at least.” Felicity expected this moment. Marlene was looking into the antique brooch pinned at the top of her gown. It was the item that had driven the bizarre sequence of events that brought them together. And she saw that her friend was wearing a bittersweet smile.
“Wear it every chance I get,” Felicity said. “Hope I didn’t offend you by wearing it tonight. Guess I wanted you to know it wasn’t just, I don’t know. I didn’t think of it bringing back bad memories.”
Morgan leaned forward, interposing his body between the two women. “Why don’t we go up top?”
Three minutes later they were standing alone on the upper deck at the stern of Marlene’s motor cruiser. A warm wind whipped the women’s hair and carried both the ocean’s salty scent and the sounds of passing sea birds. Felicity’s martini had started a glow in her stomach, matching the moon overhead. With her back to the shore, she was able to get lost in the endless black of the night sky.
Felicity stared into the faces of her two friends, and there was an undeclared moment of silence. They had not all been together since the excitement sixty days before. Two months had passed since that awful day of danger and the following day of police reports and news reporters. That had been a day of torture as well, a day of minute public scrutiny for three exhausted individuals who all had secrets to keep. Three, because the camera shy man known only as Paul had somehow slipped out of the hospital unobserved and disappeared, saving them the trouble of explaining a bullet wound.
“So?” Marlene said at last. “How did you enjoy your vacations?”
“Morgan just got back a couple of days ago.” Felicity turned to watch the lights of an unknown nearby town. “He says he has a secret place he goes to after a bad time. An island he actually owns in the Pacific somewhere. Just a cabin he says. No electricity or plumbing or anything. Doesn’t that sound romantic? Wouldn’t take me, the git. Says no one else has ever been there. But he sure came back looking good.”
“And yourself?”
“Oh, I had fun,” Felicity answered. She chose not to mention exactly how she went off to relax as well. She spent three weeks at her Riviera place, wearing her newly acquired brooch at every opportunity. She gambled. She sailed. She took a lover. And she returned mentally and emotionally refreshed.
“Okay, what about the future?” Marlene asked. “When you left New York, you were talking about starting a business. Have the two of you discussed those plans further?”
“Extensively,” Felicity said, her voice filled with energy and enthusiasm. “I’ve made contact with a number of security equipment manufacturers. And I’ve got to admit, the publicity after the fire helped a lot, especially when you publicly declared us your personal security advisors. I’ll be marketing my services as a designer of security systems for businesses, museums, and the homes of the very wealthy. I’ll be in the business of protecting the art and jewelry that I used to nick myself.”
“And this will content you?” Marlene asked.
“Well, I suppose. And if one of my clients does take a loss, who better to recover what’s been taken? That part sounds like fun. And with Morgan’s help, I’ll be able to provide security for major events too. He’ll be training our security force, you see.”
“Really?” Marlene turned to Morgan. “Do you have any experience in that sort of thing, or will you just fake it?”
“Actually, I’ve trained personal protectors and executive drivers in anti-terrorist tactics in the past,” Morgan said. “I just haven’t done it in the U.S. before. Overseas, a lot of that work is done my people with military experience. To tell you the truth, private companies do a lot of security work in other countries, often in conjunction with the U.S. military. Civilian paramilitary companies supplying contractors to Uncle Sam is a billion dollar business and I plan to take my share.”
“Sorry, but you just don’t strike me as the business type,” Marlene said with a smile.
“Well, maybe I figure its time for me to settle down. A little.” Morgan glanced at Felicity with a lopsided grin. “Besides, who says I won’t be out there with my guys in Bosnia or Colombia or wherever?”
“I see,” Marlene said, leaning back against the railing. “Well, I certainly wish you both success. I’ve learned a great deal about business in the past month, and I can tell you it’s not easy.”
“Well, don’t get mad, but I did a bit of checking when I got back in the country,” Felicity said. “It seems to me you’ve done all right by the Seagrave Corporation.”
Marlene gave a short, sharp laugh. “I read a bunch of books on business. I was determined not to lose what I suddenly had. I’ve streamlined my husband’s holdings and somehow managed to maintain control of it all. It’s very exhilarating, really. I seem to have found some excellent managers. And, I find myself to be, after all the dust settled, quite wealthy. Oh, and my first official act as president of the company was to fire Stone.” She paused, clearly steeling herself to launch into an unpleasant subject. Her voice lowered and lost much of its energy. “I’ve also learned a great deal about my husband’s business dealings.”
Felicity saw her partner looking more closely into Marlene’s eyes. She could not, and ended up looking down at the deck.
“Yes, I know it all now,” Marlene continued. “Or, at least, I think all. Anyway, I know how he cheated each of you. I know that he paid men to, um, to put you in danger. I guess I suspected for some time that he did this type of thing. But you’ve got to understand that to a twenty-six year old, over the hill beauty queen who hadn’t done too well in school, who hadn’t managed to get a modeling career going, who hated her parents, who was looking for a fast track to the upper class, well, Adrian Seagrave was a hard offer to refuse. And that was a lot of years ago. That’s not by way of an excuse. It’s just the way it was.” Her lower lip was quivering, and she took a deep breath to regain control of herself. Felicity felt the chill that was shaking Marlene. She looked up, started to speak.
“Please don’t say anything,” Marlene continued. “I didn’t ask you to come here to say that. Aside from just wanting to see you again, I really just wanted to thank you for saving my life now that I know all the reasons you had for not doing so. And to let you know there’s no bad feelings here.”
Morgan, leaning against the lifeboat, squirmed under her gaze but maintained eye contact.
“I know my husband’s death was an accident. I blame you for nothing. And I wanted to help you get started in your future business. I wanted to give you this.” Her voice sped up on the last sentence, and she rummaged in her purse, producing a small white envelope.
“And whatever might this be?” Felicity asked, without raising a hand to accept the offered envelope.
“It’s a check,” Marlene said. “Actually two, one for each of you. I feel I should pay you what
my late husband owed you. You did work for him and you deserve to be compensated for it.”
Morgan stared hard at Felicity. She eventually got the message that it was up to her to speak for both of them. After a deep breath, she accepted the gift from Marlene’s hand. Standing beside her she turned into the breeze, her belly pressed against the railing. She watched the water eddying around the stern of the boat, looking solidly still, yet a part of the ever-moving sea.
“I think I can speak for the both of us,” she finally said, tearing the envelope neatly in half. “You went way out of your way to help us from getting tangled up with the law that night, when we were total strangers.” Felicity turned the envelope to rip it in quarters. “And that night, when you didn’t know the whole story, you managed to get your own tale to fit in with ours so as to simplify the investigation.” One more tear, and now the envelope and its contents were a stack of tiny paper squares. “I think we can consider all debts paid in full. We simply couldn’t take the money, Marlene.”
Felicity opened her hands, and a small stream of confetti danced on the night air before dropping to dot the sea with white spots. During the next few seconds of discomforting silence, Marlene seemed to weigh this new argument’s validity.
“All right. Can I get you to contact my business manager, then?” Marlene asked. “He can make some introductions for you in the business world, and with such a strong recommendation that I believe it’ll guarantee you a good start in your new business. In fact, I insist on really being your first customer. I’ve got a small shipping line and a new banking concern and real estate holdings. You two have taught me in that my late husband didn’t do a very good job with security. And when all is said and done, I have to say I appreciate the lesson.”
Felicity’s smile broke open, flashing her small, very white teeth. Marlene turned to her, and they fell into an embrace of genuine friendship. Morgan’s deep baritone chuckling rumbled out across the water. Despite the hardships they had shared, or perhaps because of them, they were able to laugh together.
A few hours and a few drinks later, Morgan and Felicity strolled along the waterfront lost in their own thoughts, alone and together. A handful of stars had joined the moon in the blackness above. Felicity spoke to Morgan, but her eyes on those twinkling lights.
“So, what do you think of Southern California?”
“Not as sane as New York,” Morgan said, staring out to the ocean. “But, hey, you’ve got roots everywhere. I got none. You pick the headquarters location.”
She stopped and turned to him for a moment. “Back there on the boat. Did you say, ‘settle down?’”
“Did I say that? I meant, pick my battle instead of somebody else picking them for me. There are still plenty of bad guys out there, and I can still get paid for going after them.”
Felicity turned and continued her stroll. “Yes, and I suppose I’ll be meeting some people who just need to have their security tested by a pro. That could mean busting in and taking things out.”
“You’ll never change, Red.”
“What’s wrong with my natural name,” she asked. “You don’t like Felicity?”
“Too many syllables.”
“How about Scarlet?”
“I like Red. It’s simple. Can you live with it?”
Felicity stopped and stared into his eyes. “I’m thinking I can live with it.” Then she turned away and they walked off, side by side, into the darkness. “Teach me to shoot?”
Morgan chuckled. “Show me how to pick a lock?”
“If you’re good, I might show you all sorts of things.”
Morgan shoved his hands deep into his pockets. “Red, I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship.”
Felicity laughed her high, melodious laugh. “Mr. Stark, I do believe that to be the worst Bogart imitation I have ever heard.”
The Payback Assignment Page 25
