The Scotland Yard Exchange Series

by Stephanie Queen

  She popped up with an admirable quickness. “Oh! That’s right.” Then she smiled that angelic smile. “I’d forgotten all about it. Naturally. Who could blame me? I was too enthralled—making love with the love of my life.” She reached to put her arms around him, and a pain stabbed at his heart. So this was what it was like. What all those poets railed and ranted about in all their sonnets. This was the heart ravaged by love lost. All those years he thought he’d known all about it. He’d thought he was tough. But he never really had an inkling until this moment.

  He pulled back, disengaging her arms and cleared his throat to say the mean, cowardly words he had to say. That’s what he knew he was now—a coward, and not noble in the least. Though it would be worse to wait for the inevitable demise of their relationship later, he was too much of a coward to give them a chance at having something worthwhile between now and then.

  He thought these thoughts while looking at her adoring dewy young face, and knew what he had to do. She was too young to know what she’d be giving up. The urgency to get it done suddenly overwhelmed him. He forced his words out in a crusty voice.

  “Grace, we had a night that I’ll treasure always.” Then he turned away from her unsure face before it turned pain-stricken. He swept back his covers and rose from the bed. He strode to the bathroom, naked, with his back to her.

  But he heard her fall back into her pillows and the muffled sob that she couldn’t stop from rising. He closed the door with an unhurried but solid click and stood. He refused to look in the mirror. It may be a long time before he looked in a mirror. He made a note to have all the mirrors removed from his townhouse.

  It would be hell shaving every morning, but it would be a well-deserved hell.

  David closing the door on her felt like being tossed into hell for eternity. The only thing that wrenched her from the hellish depths of her physical pain was the horror of facing him like this. Her bravery of last night, to consign herself to only one night with David before parting, was now gone. She couldn’t have predicted how much more deeply in love she would become overnight, no matter how glorious she’d imagined that night to be.

  She pushed herself from the bed and gritted her teeth. She eyed the door where he’d disappeared, then the door where she would leave, as if measuring her escape. Now that was all she sought to do, as if escaping his physical presence might help erase the pain he’d caused. But that wasn’t exactly fair. She knew she couldn’t blame it all on him. He’d given her the chance to walk away last night and several times before that, after all.

  But she’d never been capable of walking away from him from the minute she first saw him across the room. She’d been destined to throw herself at him and beg for his love and only hope. He’d given his love, after all. She knew he loved her with gut-twisting certainty and no solace whatsoever.

  Now she half stumbled, half ran out of his bedroom, naked. She ran through the suite to her room, where Noodles waited for her. Her heart gave a leap at the thought that her beloved pup was all she really had, but she admonished herself for it. She had a family—people who loved her—and they would help her.

  She patted her Noodles, promising to take her from this place as she threw clothes into her bags, sorting out her most business-like gray empire dress that wasn’t too snug and throwing it over her head. She brushed her teeth, washed her face and only made a quick attempt to comb her hair. She put Noodles in her large shoulder sack and wheeled her suitcase to the door. When she got there, she heard David’s bathroom door open and a charge of adrenaline went through her. She flew into the hall and pulled the suite door closed behind her hard. She ran down the hall to the elevator as if a monster were chasing her. She hadn’t felt this terror since she was a child. Once she was in the elevator, she leaned against the wall and breathed in and out, dizzy and nauseous.

  David was no monster. She was running from her own folly. The self-knowledge calmed her and slowed her racing heart, but it did nothing to ease the sickening emptiness in her soul.

  It wasn’t until Grace sat behind the wheel of her car and pulled into traffic, ready to turn her wheel in the direction of her studio apartment, that she remembered she no longer lived there. Mabel had invited her to stay with her. She needed to go there now to shower and collect herself, and feed Noodles and leave her for the day.

  They expected her at police headquarters now to give a statement, and after that she needed to go to her office. But at the end of the day, she had no home of her own to go to. She felt the terrifyingly familiar pang that she felt the day she’d left the orphanage when it closed. Pixie and her family had taken her in then. She sighed.

  She would go to Mabel’s. The thought was not as comforting as it should have been. She was no kid any more. Then she felt a fresh panic. Mabel was David’s real aunt and only her adopted one. What if David forced his aunt to choose sides? Who would she choose?

  The stoplight turned green and she had to decide which way to go: to her office or to Mabel’s. She swung the car right and headed to Mabel’s townhouse, purposely raising her chin and daring life to throw her another punch. As she approached Mabel’s street, her cell phone rang and she answered it.

  “David called me—I hope you’re on your way over here right now,” Mabel said with worry in her voice.

  “I’ll be pulling up out front in a minute. I’m desperate for hot coffee and a hot shower.” And the comfort of a dear friend, she thought. She hoped she’d kept the real desperation from her voice. Her chin was still up when she walked through the door, hugging Noodles tightly and lugging her suitcase, which was now her portable home.

  Marsha let her in and took Noodles from her arms, giving her a sweet, knowing smile. Grace decided she was better off not talking about anything right now. She would need to keep her composure at least until after she gave her statement. She hurried through her shower and threw on some clothes rather carelessly—a pair of straight charcoal slacks and a raspberry cashmere sweater with a portrait collar and a bow. While she’d been showering, Dan called her and left a message that he’d appreciate it if she could arrive before the news conference.

  Looking at her watch, she realized she had zero time and dashed out the door with a jacket, deciding to run on foot in spite of her low-heeled boots. Disheveled, she arrived at the station as the news conference was scheduled to start.

  When Grace found that the chief wasn’t in his office, she followed the crowd to the conference room, where countless cameras, photographers and newsmen and women were crowded and buzzing with phones.

  Grace sneaked into the back of the room and stood among some uniformed men. There were a number of people on the small stage standing behind the podium laden with a dozen microphones. Dan, David, Rick, Theresa and Nick were among them. She recognized the governor, Peter John Douglas, and his wife, standing behind Rick and Theresa. There were several others, including the FBI ASAC and a few assorted law enforcement types, who walked in from a door at the back of the stage.

  Grace took a seat in one of the several empty chairs in a back row. The mayor was the last one to take the stage. Then there was a hush.

  She guessed it was the mayor’s show—his public relations guy introduced him and he took his place at the podium. The crowd clapped, and Grace saw Theresa’s face beaming with excitement as her father introduced her and Rick.

  As the room continued to fill, a man with blurry thick glasses, a bad gray toupee and moustache sat next to her. “Who wears a gray toupee?” she asked herself incredulously, trying not to stare.

  And then she answered her own question: a man in disguise.

  “Oscar!” she whispered, now staring openly.

  He squeezed her arm and shushed her. “Mabel’s Marsha told me where to find you—and about your homeless state—so I thought I’d drop in and see you for myself. What happened?”

  “A lot’s happened in the last…eleven days.” She looked down at her hands as one of the FBI guys spoke in a monotone about
the details of the case, most of which she was familiar with.

  “That’s all it’s been?” He shook his head. “We were together six months,” he said.

  “Together, yes…but not completely together,” she said, because for some reason she needed to make that distinction to herself. There’d been no one else like David.

  “I know we were never physically—” he started to say. Grace looked up at his face and saw that it had turned thunderous. “You don’t mean that you and he…?” He said it in a dead whisper.

  In spite of the fact that she knew it would make Oscar livid, she nodded to confirm his suspicion. Yes, they had made love. And their one glorious night was worth more than a lifetime of good times with Oscar—or anyone else, for that matter.

  “He’s a dead man,” Oscar said with alarming finality. He started to rise.

  She grabbed his arm with a protective panic and a surge of strength.

  “No!” She hadn’t meant to say it so loud. She looked up at the stage, where the FBI guy had stopped speaking.

  “I see we have one more distinguished participant in the resolution of the case here in the audience.” The man, she now realized, had been introduced as the SAC. The ASAC and the younger FBI agent stood with him and Dan and David. David’s face was implacable. The crowd murmured as she sat frozen, with Oscar sitting still as if he’d turned to a lump of petrified wood next to her.

  “Please stand—Grace, is it?” The ASAC leaned in and whispered something to him. “Ladies and gentlemen, may I present Ms. Grace Rogers, who was instrumental in assisting the police and others in developing leads in the case and who participated in the actual rescue of our kidnap victim, Theresa Torini.”

  “She’s my new best friend!” Theresa shouted out over the applause as Grace stood with her knees bent, self-consciously trying to angle herself to shield Oscar from view of most of the room.

  She nodded and smiled as she looked around the room, waved at Theresa, and then sank back down before she dared to turn to Oscar. He now looked like a block of frozen nitrogen with the cloud of steamy and incredulous anger emanating from him in waves. She didn’t know if it was aimed at her for drawing attention to him in a room full of law enforcement agents, or if it was aimed at David because he had theoretically betrayed Oscar’s trust by theoretically taking advantage of her.

  She figured it would be easier to face Oscar than David right now, so she lifted her head to look at him. “Don’t worry,” she leaned in and whispered, “they’ll never know it’s you.”

  “I’m not worried about getting ID’d. But David is damn lucky he’s surrounded by a bunch of feds and cops right now,” he whispered back harshly.

  She hoped it was bluster and knew they couldn’t possibly have this discussion here. But she had to say something.

  “It was all my idea, Oscar. He was a saint and I wanted him—even though I knew it was for only one night,” she said. That was all she could say. All there was to it really. She watched his face for a sign of softening while the crowd applauded Dan’s introduction. Oscar paid no attention to the stage and looked at her for a moment, studying her before he replied.

  “Even if I believe you, which I’m not sure I do since I know the lengths you would go to protect the reprobate, it doesn’t let him off the hook for taking advantage of your young soul. He’s an old soul like me and he should know better.”

  But she could tell much of the anger had gone out of him. She gave him a small smile and reached over to squeeze his hand. She stared at her lap and listened to Dan speak.

  Dan introduced Nick Racer as alive and well and gave him credit for his part in solving the crime. “Nick will be returning to New York City—where he will no longer be working undercover—but that’s just as well.”

  They both looked up at the stage because Dan was about to introduce David. The crowd took on a hush. It was time she faced him.

  Their eyes met, and instead of the implacable look she expected, she saw pain. And then he looked away from her and smiled at his audience as Dan sang his praises.

  “…with an ingenious strategy and eye for detail—not to mention a fearlessness only a chief of Scotland Yard’s Flying Squad would possess, ninety-nine percent of the credit for resolving this kidnapping, homicide and smuggling operation goes to David Young. Proudly, he now belongs to the Boston Police Department as the Chief of the Scotland Yard Exchange Program.” Dan gave the podium to David.

  “Of course, my best friend since boyhood was bound to give me the credit, but as with any successful endeavor, it was the team. You’ve already heard of one unsung hero, but there’s another whose help has been invaluable, and he knows who he is. I won’t bore you with the details of the rescue,” he said tongue in cheek, with the expected shouts from the crowd, and so he told the story in fascinating detail. The room was pin-drop silent as they listened to him, and Grace, unfortunately, couldn’t tear her eyes away.

  Oscar pinched her arm and she snapped her head around. He was watching her watch David, and his frown told her what he thought. He took her arm to stand her up, and they sidestepped their way to the end of the row, both hunched over to try to remain inconspicuous. When they made it to the back door and out into the hall, she practically ran for the elevator, dragging Oscar behind her.

  “Thank you for rescuing me from my maudlin self.”

  “Where to now?”

  “My office,” she said without a second thought. She was determined to stay calm and think ahead. To re-think her future without David, and without the picket-fenced yard surrounding her playing children if need be.

  “Not a good place. Not right now. I don’t want to leave you like this, and I know you won’t come away with me. I’m scheduled to fly out shortly. And needless to say, I can’t be late.”

  They got on the elevator just as the people emerged from the conference room in a burst of noise. Their doors closed and she heaved a breath.

  “I do have a job. I’ll find a new apartment within the week. I was going to stay with Mabel. She’ll be heartbroken that I’m changing my mind, but she’ll understand. I’ll stay with Pixie instead until I get a place.”

  “Pixie?”

  “You remember—that was David’s name for Sophia.” Her voice cracked. Luckily, the elevator landed before Oscar could do or say another thing. She was half afraid he would kidnap her. Half afraid and half hoping, she admitted to herself.

  They went out front and walked to the corner, where he hailed a cab and was instantly successful. Oscar opened the door for her, and she let him settle her in before he climbed in next to her.

  He reminded her of David the way he took charge and gave the cab driver Mabel’s address. She’d always been a sucker for the commanding type. Pixie had called it a father-figure fixation.

  She leaned into Oscar and patted his arm. “Don’t worry about me, Oscar. You know I’m a survivor. How else did I make it this far? I have such wonderful friends—like you—and a fabulous career. Speaking of which, I do need to get to the office to talk to Pixie.”

  “You want to go to the office now?”

  “I need to talk to Pixie,” she said. She didn’t mention that today was the day she would check the punch list to finish David’s decorating project.

  Oscar looked at her with a shake of his head but didn’t say anything and didn’t direct the cab to change directions, either. It wasn’t more than two minutes when they pulled up to the curb and stopped. She looked up at the Beacon Hill neighborhood and Mabel’s front door.

  “Oscar, I don’t know. It doesn’t feel right coming to David’s Aunt’s now…”

  “Nonsense. I have my marching orders. Mabel is your family—she’d be crushed if you didn’t turn to her in a time of need. She’s high on my list of people I can trust to leave you with—especially now that the list suddenly got shorter.”

  “But what if…”

  “He’s not here now. Take some time for yourself.”

  She shook her
head at her friend, leaned over and gave him a hug, then quickly jumped out of the car before she started crying again.

  “Goodbye, sweetheart. You know how to find me if you need me,” Oscar called through the open window.

  “Until we meet again, Antonio,” she said back. She used his real name because she really meant it. He nodded with that sad-brave smile never wavering, then his car glided away from the curb and he was gone. Instead of walking to Mabel’s door, she walked over to her red Mustang parked nearby and got in.

  David gradually made it from the press conference and past the elevator lobby, detaching himself from the last of the eager media types who wanted more comments for their stories. He snuck down the hall toward Dan’s office to wait for him. Official duty would keep him by the mayor’s side a while longer.

  He walked in without knocking. The quiet office was filled with the familiarity of his best friend. He breathed in the latent scent of cigar smoke, gun smoke and leather before he noticed Esther sitting in her husband’s chair.

  “Esther, I didn’t know you were here today.” He smiled genuinely at her and walked around the desk to lean over and give her a well-deserved embrace for all she’d put up with lately.

  “Yes, it’s little old me waiting in the background until the hoopla is all over.” She embraced him back. “Don’t get me wrong—I prefer it that way,” she admitted with a wry smile, and added, “Then I get to give my very special congratulations in private later.” She blushed as she grinned charmingly.

  He chuckled and sat on the corner of the desk, wondering how she put up with everything all these years, while managing to keep Dan well grounded in the process. “You’re nothing short of amazing,” he said aloud.

  “Hardly. Dan is the amazing one—and you too.”

  “Thanks for that. But while we’re out on our adventures, you keep sane and keep Dan and Jason sane amidst the insanity of it all. And you never seem worried or resentful or angry about Dan’s career and the extent to which it makes life messy. How do you tolerate the worrying?” Suddenly he wanted to know in the worst way. It was as if he realized she had the key to his dilemma all this time.