Everything in her wanted to hide in a dark hole and pull the hole in after her. She thought of Jake, safe in the playroom downstairs, and her heart shivered at the thought of losing that little boy. But if she didn’t do this, if she didn’t find the courage to try to stop the threats, then she’d always be hiding. Always be afraid. And she didn’t want to live like that.
“Okay,” she said, before she could change her mind. “Okay, I’ll do it.”
He let go of her hands, reached for her and cupped the back of her head. Pulling her in close, he kissed her, hard and fast, sending jolts of white-hot sensation shooting through the chill in her blood. “Atta girl. It’ll work. You’ll see. Now, he wanted you to contact him by five tomorrow, right?”
“Yes.” There was that tight ball of dread in the pit of her stomach again. Was it wrong that she was starting to get used to it?
“Then we’ll wait until 4:45. You’ll email him telling him you want to meet.” Vance squeezed her hands again when she chewed at her bottom lip. “You’ll say that you’re not going to give him anything until you’ve talked in person.”
“What if he refuses?” She was pretty sure her mystery blackmailer was going to do just that.
“He won’t. He can’t afford to. If you call his bluff, he’ll have to bend,” Vance assured her. “You’re his only access to Waverly’s files as far as we know. So he’s going to have to do it your way or get nothing.”
“Maybe.”
“Charlie,” Vance insisted, his gaze locked with hers, “the only reason his threats have worked at all is because he knows he scared you. Now you’re not scared anymore.”
“I’m not?”
“Why would you be?” he countered. “You’ve got me now.”
Did she? She looked into his eyes and wondered if she did have him, how long would that last? Until this threat was over? Until Waverly’s was secure?
Until he got tired of her in bed?
“I hope you’re right,” she said, still unconvinced.
“I’m always right, remember?” He gave her a wide smile and her heartbeat fluttered in response.
Oh, God, she was an idiot. A first-class idiot. How could she have fallen in love? Hadn’t she sworn off the elusive feeling when Jake’s father disappeared? Hadn’t she told herself never to trust another man? Never to risk the kind of pain she’d felt when she’d first discovered she’d been had?
But this was different, she told herself. Vance was real. He hadn’t lied to her. Hadn’t tried to seduce her purposely for his own reasons. Falling in love was her mistake and she would pay for it, no doubt. Because what she felt for Vance was as real as he was.
And now she knew that what she had thought was love before, hadn’t been. What she had experienced with Jake’s father wasn’t even a shadow of what she felt now. This was real love. This was what she had dreamed of all her life.
And losing it was going to kill her.
* * *
Maybe it was the sex.
Maybe it was having Charlie in his house. Vance couldn’t be sure, but whatever the reason, his legendary impatience had roared to the surface. He didn’t like the idea of a threat hanging over Charlie’s head. He didn’t like her being scared, and he’d be damned if he was going to stand for it. That’s when he’d come up with his brilliant plan to face the blackmailer down.
He knew it was the right thing to do. He also knew that Charlie was worried about it.
She was on edge. One glance at her moving around his kitchen told him that. Vance already knew her well enough to notice the tightness in her shoulders, the deliberate squaring of her jaw. As if she were willing herself to hold it together.
He admired strength, and Charlie had plenty of it. She’d had a bad situation growing up, but she’d fought through that, too, and built a life for herself. She loved her son and her determination to protect him touched something in Vance. In fact, he was spending way too much time thinking warm thoughts about Charlie Potter.
Looking across the great room to the galley-style kitchen, he watched as Charlie made dinner. Chicken parmesan, she had said, and he had to admit, it smelled great. Usually, he ordered something from a nearby restaurant or nuked something frozen.
It was…odd, having her and Jake in the house, but it also wasn’t making him nuts. And that worried him.
He’d never brought a woman here before.
His home was his place. He didn’t share. When he was with a woman, they went to her place or an upscale hotel. This condo overlooking the river had been inviolate.
Until Charlie.
Hell, he mused, there was a lot going on lately that he could say “until Charlie” about. Going to a diner, taking walks with a baby, leaving work early, having wild, crazy-making sex in the middle of the day. All that was under the heading “until Charlie.”
“Babababa!”
Vance’s thoughts stopped when the baby pounded little fists against his leg to get his attention.
“What’s a ‘ba’?” he asked, throwing a glance at the woman across the room from him.
“Ball,” Charlie answered, then added, “I brought his favorite. It’s in his room.”
“Babababa!”
The baby’s eyes were wide and his bottom lip was trembling. A couple of weeks ago, Vance would have hit the front door running. He couldn’t imagine why. Now, he scooped up the baby, then carried him down the hall to his temporary room.
The crib had arrived and was already standing ready for the baby to sleep in. The dresser was filled with baby clothes and a box of diapers stood on a low table.
“Babababa!” Jake laid his head down on Vance’s shoulder and patted one small hand against his chest.
“Almost got it, little man,” Vance told him, giving him a pat on the back in reassurance. He found the bright red ball on the closet floor. Setting the baby down, he rolled him the ball and Vance smiled when the baby chortled with glee. Lifting the rubber ball, he swung his left arm wide and flung it back at Vance.
“What a throw!” Vance said with a grin. “And a southpaw. You’re going to be in demand on a Little League team, kid. A left-handed pitcher can name his own terms.”
“Bababa!”
Still smiling, Vance rolled him the ball and Jake tossed it again, happy with the game. Vance looked into those dark blue eyes and felt something clutch at his heart. This baby had gotten to him as easily as the boy’s mother had. Between the two of them, Vance didn’t know up from down. All he knew for sure was that, for the first time in his life, he wasn’t looking for the nearest exit.
In fact, weirdly enough, he was enjoying this. The baby. Charlie. The sounds of life and laughter in his normally quiet home.
He frowned and told himself he should probably be worried.
Vance didn’t have to hear Charlie’s approach. He actually felt her watching him. He turned his gaze to the open doorway where she stood, one shoulder leaning against the doorjamb. Her hair was in one long, thick braid hanging over her right shoulder. She was barefoot and her scarlet-painted toes peeked out from beneath the hem of faded jeans that hugged her legs like a familiar lover. Over the jeans, she wore a T-shirt that read Skip the Movie, Read a Book.
“Did I tell you I like your shirt?” He especially liked the way the clingy red fabric outlined her breasts.
She looked down and laughed shortly. “Thanks.”
Then he realized her eyes looked shadowed. “Is there a problem?”
“I got an email.”
Everything in him went on red alert. The baby tossed his ball and it rolled right past Vance unheeded. “What’d he say?”
“You were right,” Charlie reluctantly told him. “He’s agreed to meet with me.”
“Excellent. Did you tell him where?”
“Yes. He’ll be at the Coffee Spot tomorrow at four.”
Nodding, Vance said, “It’s almost over, Charlie.”
“Is it?”
Jake crawled up onto Vance’s lap and he automatically wrapped one arm around the tiny boy’s middle. Holding on to the sturdy weight of her son on his lap, Vance looked into Charlie’s eyes and thought about what he’d just said. Almost over. When they had this wrapped up and the blackmailer stopped, Charlie would be leaving. She and Jake would go back to their lives and he would be here, in the quiet.
That’s when it occurred to Vance that things might just be sliding out of his control.
Eleven
“So you decided to take my advice and seduce it out of her?”
That sounded a lot colder when Roark said it aloud than it had in Vance’s mind. But yeah, the upshot was, that’s exactly what he’d set out to do. It had all started so simply. A dinner date. Then walks and talks and before he had known it, he had been as seduced as she was.
Sex had been the next logical step.
Seduction might have been the plan at the beginning, but it had morphed into something else. Something that felt a hell of a lot more permanent than he had ever considered.
Scraping one hand across his face in irritation, Vance frowned at the phone in his hand, and muttered, “Yeah, all right? I did.”
“And you sound really pleased about that,” his brother shot back with a laugh.
“It’s…complicated.”
“Uh-oh. Sounds bad.”
“Could be,” Vance admitted, hating the fact that he didn’t know where this thing with Charlie was going. Ordinarily, he’d say enjoy it then move on. Just like always. But he didn’t want to move on. Plus, the thought of Charlie moving on to some other guy made him want to hit something. Breakable.
“Okay, leaving that aside for now, what’ve you found out?” Roark asked.
His brother’s voice rose and fell like applause at a bad play. The connection was terrible.
“Where the hell are you that your satellite phone is having a bad day?”
Roark snorted a laugh that came through loud and clear. “In the middle of the jungle.”
“Still in the Amazon?” Vance stood up and looked out his office window at the Manhattan view. Summer was making the streets practically steam, but he had a feeling the heat and humidity were much worse where Roark was.
“Yeah, almost done, though, so should be able to jet back soon. But we were talking about your assistant, remember?”
Like he could forget.
He had expected that sex with Charlie, finally satisfying that staggering need he’d felt for her, would take the edge off. Would, in a way, be liberating. Allow him to take a step back and look at the situation through clear eyes. Instead, sex with Charlie had just pulled him in deeper. Made him think dangerous thoughts. Made him want—
“So, she’s not the spy?”
“No.” Grateful to have his mind pushed off its traitorous track, he shook his head and studied the street scene below. Office workers striding up and down the sidewalk with purposeful steps. A kid on a skateboard was holding on to his dog’s leash for a fast ride and Vance smiled as a woman in heels had to jump out of the kid’s way.
“You’re sure?”
“Yeah, I’m sure.” In a few short sentences, Vance brought his brother up-to-date on the whole blackmail situation—and his plans to end it.
“Well, damn, that’s intriguing. Who the hell is this guy?”
“That’s what I’m going to find out this afternoon.”
“How? The street around the coffee shop will be jammed at four in the afternoon. If this guy sees you with Charlie, he won’t make contact.”
“I’ve got that figured out, too,” Vance said, turning his back on the world to sit at his desk again. He filled Roark in on the plan.
“Sounds good. Lemme know how it goes.”
“I will,” Vance said, then finally brought up the real reason he had called his brother. “About the Gold Heart statue…”
“What about it?”
“How’d you find it? Where’s it been all these years? Ann’s letting the world know about it and people are really talking. This auction’s going to be the biggest thing we’ve ever handled.”
“I can’t get into it right now, Vance,” Roark said, his voice fading. “Just trust me, it’s all good.”
“Wait a minute!” Vance called into the phone and heard nothing in reply. Either his brother had just hung up on him, or the connection had abruptly died.
He did trust Roark. But Waverly’s had a lot riding on the upcoming auction of the Rayas collection. They couldn’t afford for anything to go wrong.
* * *
Anything could go wrong. Vance wore black jeans, a black T-shirt and boots. Nothing against any of his suits, but if he had to sprint to Charlie’s side he wanted to be able to move fast and sure.
As it was, he didn’t like any of this. Yeah, it had been his idea, but now that it was happening, he really hated the thought of Charlie being out there on her own.
He stood half-hidden behind the edge of a building on Fifth Avenue. A shoe store, he thought, but didn’t really care. What he cared about was that he had a direct line of sight to Charlie, standing in front of the Coffee Spot. It was a popular enough coffee shop that the crowds were moving in and out constantly. Hard to keep an eye on her, but it would also be hard for the blackmailer to try anything dangerous. She was safe, surrounded by hundreds of strangers.
The summer sun was brutal in late afternoon, blasting down out of a clear blue sky. Traffic was piled up as always, and hordes of pedestrians leaped off the curbs and crossed the street whenever the hell they wanted to. Red lights meant nothing to New Yorkers.
Scowling, he lifted his binoculars and focused on Charlie’s face. She looked worried. And his insides twisted in response. He wasn’t sure how he’d developed this protective streak, but when it came to her and her son, it was ramped up beyond anything he’d ever felt before.
Charlie glanced around, let her gaze slide slowly over where she knew he was hiding and a small smile curved her mouth. Good. He didn’t want her scared. He wanted this to be over. And if he couldn’t be right beside her, then at least she felt better knowing he was close. It also helped to have one of the Waverly security guards in plainclothes, standing nearby.
When the man approached, Vance almost didn’t notice him for a second. He looked so nondescript. Ugly brown suit, bad black wig and ridiculously oversize glasses. Vance focused the binoculars on his new target and wished to hell he could read lips when the man started talking to Charlie.
* * *
Twenty minutes later, she was sitting across a table from Vance recounting what had happened.
“Everything went wrong,” Charlie complained over a latte and a doughnut.
“Not everything,” Vance argued with a frown. “You met him. Up close and personal.”
“And didn’t recognize him,” she pointed out. Taking a sip of her latte, she held the cup between both palms to ease the chill she still felt. He even had a weird voice. Like he was disgui
sing it, too.
It had been scary, meeting the man who had been threatening her for weeks. But she also felt good about at last doing something proactive instead of simply hiding beneath her desk hoping it would all go away. Plus, knowing that Vance was just across the street with a pair of binoculars had helped a little. Now that the disastrous meeting was over, she and Vance were sitting in the Coffee Spot, comparing notes.
“Tell me again what he said.”
She shook her head and broke off a piece of her glazed doughnut. Rather than eating it, though, she crumbled it until it was doughnut dust on her plate. All around them, people talked or laughed, the espresso machine hissed and steamed and the clatter of plates and cups played background noise.
“He was furious that I wanted to meet,” Charlie said, remembering the man’s deep, scratchy voice and the rage that had driven him. “Really angry. I think I’ve stalled him as long as I can. He said he was through fooling around and that if I didn’t hand over the files by this weekend, he would go to Social Services and file a complaint about me.”
Grimly, Vance clenched his jaw tight enough to grind his teeth into powder. “I was sure one of us would recognize the bastard.” He took a drink of his coffee. “I can’t believe he wore that stupid disguise.”
“It was creepy. And not so stupid,” she added, “since it worked and kept both of us from knowing who he was.” Frowning, she admitted, “He did seem familiar, though. Something about him…”
“With that outfit he was wearing, it was no wonder neither of us recognized him,” Vance grumbled. “The glasses alone made his eyes almost impossible to see.”
True. The ultramagnified lenses had blurred and distorted the guy’s green eyes completely, and you could usually tell a lot about someone from his eyes. The only really distinctive thing about him was the bright red scar that ran from his forehead down to the left side of his jaw. The whole time they’d talked, Charlie’s gaze had fixed on that scar to the point of ignoring everything else.
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