Something she’d said earlier also bothered him.
“Wait,” he said, “Go back. This isn’t the first time something happened, here in New Orleans?”
Ariel shook her head slowly. It was obvious Matt hadn’t known. If he’d been watching her, following her, he hadn’t been following her that closely.
“No.”
Matt felt a chill.
“What happened?” he asked.
Her eyebrows drew down a little, a half a frown. “At first, they just watched. The first time I noticed them that’s all they did. I was in the parking garage in Tampa. Nothing happened, they simply watched but they didn’t try to hide that they were doing it. It was as if they wanted me to know they were there.”
“Jesus,” he said, closing his eyes.
He hadn’t known or noticed. She must have been terrified.
“What did you do? Did you tell anyone?”
She shook her head and made a face, her mouth twisting wryly.
“No. I was working in a strange office, in a strange city. Who was I going to tell? I couldn’t call the police. What was I going to say? Some men are staring at me? It wasn’t as if they did anything. All they did was watch. It was unnerving but there wasn’t anything I could do about it. I thought it might stop when I went to the next city but it didn’t. It wasn’t as bad in Birmingham, since there were no parking garages or parking lots where they could lurk. There was a man in the bar, though and maybe across the street.”
That close. He was glad he’d watched her until she went inside the hotel but he now realized they could’ve taken her any time, as they’d tried to here. A chill went through him at the thought. He slid an arm around her waist to draw her close.
“You said, at first?” he prompted.
Ariel hesitated a moment, rubbing her cheek against his shoulder, remembering that night at the hotel on the highway. How scared she’d been and how close they’d come.
“They came after me on the way here.”
He cupped her face, tilted it to look at him. “What do you mean, came after you?”
Ariel stilled, looking into his eyes. “Some men tried to grab me in the parking lot of the hotel I stayed at on the way.”
Closing his eyes, Matt thought of watching her get in the car in Birmingham and thinking that at least she was leaving, she was safe. So close.
“You didn’t know, Matthew. It’s not your fault,” she said, quietly. “And I got away.”
It would have felt like his fault if they’d found her dead somewhere. If they ever found her, if he would have even known. There was a lot of empty space between Birmingham and New Orleans, a lot of places to dump or hide a body where only hunters, hikers, or kids would have found her. Eventually. He would have lost her and never even known it. He could have lost this, the sweet pleasure of making love to her, holding her.
“Yes, you did.”
For a minute, he pulled her closer, cradling her head. His heart ached. Brushing his cheek against her soft hair, he thought it had been too close a call. It hadn’t happened, no thanks to him. That was the second time he’d misjudged them and how far they were willing to go.
Sitting back, Ariel looked at him.
“My point is, though, they’ve had nearly two weeks, certainly all of last week, when they could have taken me if they wanted. I work alone in the computer room for long stretches of time, certainly the first night I’m in any office. If Marathon really suspected me of anything they could have held us both that day you were at the Birmingham office.”
Now that he thought about it even his own encounters with the stooges had been away from Marathon property, unless he was actually caught in one.
“Someone has been after me as well. What is it they don’t want you to be nosy about? Is there another player in this game?” Matt asked.
Ariel shook her head. “I don’t know the answers either. Is it something here they’re afraid I’ll see? Or are they discouraging me in general? And from what?”
“They’ve been watching me but it’s as if they’re unsure of me,” she continued, “I always go in the day of the install to be sure everything that needs to be done beforehand is so when I do the installation that night I have fewer problems. Matthew, if it looks bad I can always leave. They won’t dare do anything during the day, there would be too many witnesses. The employees will notice if they try to make a move there. They have to know that.”
Could he put her at that much risk? Did he dare not to? She was his only and best chance at finding answers. If it wasn’t for Bill… If they did this, there was the risk Ariel might end up like Bill. If they didn’t, someone else might. He knew something was going on there, something big, something someone didn’t want anyone to see.
Ariel felt him tense. She could almost see the wheels turn in his mind. She reached up to comb her fingers through his hair.
“I’m volunteering.”
Matt looked at her, looked deep into those beautiful blue eyes in that lovely elfin face and shook his head.
“I can’t let you do it,” he said, “I can’t let you take that chance.”
He couldn’t. He was starting to care about her. More than he’d cared about anyone except for his mother, Darrin…and Bill. It all came back to that.
She looked at him steadily. “I don’t believe you asked. Knowing what I know now, I could go looking myself.”
Alone? The thought sent chills up his spine.
“And have you end up the way Bill did? Are you insane? No, Ariel,” Matt said, taking her by the shoulders. “That’s what got Bill in trouble. Don’t even try it. Besides, would you even know what you were seeing? Bill was pretty certain I would but I don’t know what he was looking at. It’s too bad you can’t get me in.”
The last was said in frustration as he ran his own hand through his hair.
“Why not?” she asked. “I could bring you in as my associate. The people here wouldn’t know. I don’t carry any other identification than my business cards and they’ve never even asked for that.”
Frowning, Matt shook his head. “No. Someone has given them a description of me or a picture. Something. They recognized me in Birmingham, that’s what put them onto me.”
With a sigh, Ariel thought about it, thought about her routine….
“I have to kick everyone out of the system before I can start, so I’m usually the only one there after five or five thirty,” Ariel suggested. “The building will be empty, then.”
Shaking his head, he said, “It won’t work,” and explained about the watch on the elevators.
Now she grinned, mischievously. “Then we can get you in. Computer rooms are always kept dry and cold, it’s better for the equipment. It’s thirsty work, though. So security is warned that I’ll be going down to the vending machines – which are almost always in the basement for some reason. They’ve never checked. They know I’ll go down, so if you can get into the building, you can come up with me. Or I can let you in, if there’s a door down there.”
Simple.
Matt stared at her. It was a hell of a risk to take but at least she wouldn’t be alone when she was the most vulnerable. He would be with her. That would relieve one worry.
Finally, at long last, he might be able to find out why Bill had been killed. With the why, he could discover the who. What was it Bill had found that was important enough someone had to kill him? To do that, though, he’d have to put Ariel in more danger. This wasn’t the same thing as the stooges coming after her. If she went into that building again, it would be for him and for Bill.
A small hand slid into his, as Ariel tilted her head to look at him.
“Are you going to tell me about it?” she asked. “He was your friend.”
Slowly, Matt shook his head. “No, he was more than that. The brother I never had. A stand-up guy. He stuck by me when a lot of other people didn’t.”
It was a different kind of chance to take, to tell her what he was about to tell her
but it was the only way she would understand just what Bill had meant to him. She had a right to know. Not only about that but she needed to know what kind of man, he was. It was hard, though. He didn’t talk about it much, he’d learned his lesson on that. Jeannine had been horrified at first and then thrown it up at him in their arguments.
It took a major act of courage to come right out and say it. When he did, he was blunt and to the point.
“When I was a teenager I was accused of killing someone. Manslaughter.”
Ariel looked at him, frowned a little and then shook her head. That wasn’t the man she was coming to know.
“What happened?”
Matt waited. Those amazing eyes were still, watching him. Just listening. She hadn’t pulled away. Her hand was still in his. It was enough, it had to be enough.
“We were kids. Bill and I went to a party at a friend’s house. The parents weren’t home. Word got around about the party pretty fast. It was only supposed to be beer but some others brought the hard stuff – tequila, some scotch, vodka. Most of us were under age. There were drugs. A fight broke out between a couple of the guys. The kid who started it was hopped up on something. He was known for it and there was bad blood between us. Whatever he’d taken had made him a lot stronger, he was really wired. He was going to kill Toby if someone didn’t stop him. I tried to restrain him and he died. It was stupid, I was a little drunk and I shouldn’t have been.”
Memories of that night were a nightmare vision of blue and red lights skewed by the tequila and beer he’d drunk. Girls had screamed as the fight had gotten ugly, someone shouted, there were questions from the police and the dead kid, Art, lay on the lawn. When the results of the drug tests had come in, it had shown Art had taken PCP. His own blood alcohol level had been a little too high, enough to impair his judgment. The guilt and the doubt still ate at him sometimes.
He wouldn’t make any excuses for himself.
Even worse had been looking Darrin in the eye afterward. It had happened not long after his mother had died and they’d both been still grieving. Darrin, though, had never flinched, his support unwavering. He’d stood by him, his arm around Matt’s shoulders when he needed it.
Miserable, Matt had asked him about it.
Darrin had looked at him. “Marrying your mom didn’t make me your dad. Blood didn’t either. You did. The day you took my name made you mine. You learned a hard lesson but you were trying to do the right thing.”
It had been a tough time but they’d gotten through it.
Ariel shook her head. “I don’t believe it. A terrible accident, maybe. You might have been drunk but I can’t believe you meant to kill.”
Matt looked up at her, met her eyes. “You barely know me.”
Meeting his gaze in return, Ariel shook her head. “I know that about you. It takes a certain amount of meanness to kill someone deliberately, even drunk, even in the heat of the moment. A cruelty I can’t see in you. Maybe you misjudged how much you needed to restrain him but you were only a teenager. I can’t believe you did it consciously. The man who came to help me a little while ago isn’t a killer. You could have killed those men, I suspect, but you didn’t.”
Such faith. Once given, it seemed she gave it all the way. No, he hadn’t misjudged her. His mother had never doubted him either. Other than her, though, only two other people had ever had that much faith in him. Darrin. And Bill.
Matt kissed her cheek. Her skin was so soft.
“Yes, I have the skills and I could have. I didn’t and wouldn’t have unless forced to it. I don’t believe I did then, either. I know I didn’t intend it to happen. I did get brought up on charges. After all, I was drunk and someone was dead. My stepfather, Darrin, managed to convince the judge that going in the service would straighten me out. Darrin didn’t believe I needed it since he knew I didn’t have a problem with alcohol. Neither did Bill. He was there, so he knew what happened. Anyway, if I did my four years, then my sentence would be expunged. Bill said if I was going in the service, he was. He stuck by me through it all. I did my four years and then some. Spent some time in Special Forces. After Afghanistan I decided to get out of the service. I took night classes and got my degree. So did Bill. Afterwards we went our separate ways. I went to work for Darrin. Bill got married, then got the job at Marathon and moved to the coast but we always stayed in touch.”
It didn’t take much for Ariel to understand why Matt was so determined to find out why Bill died or what he would do when he did. In the worst of times, Bill had stuck by him but Matt hadn’t been able to reach him in time to do the same for him.
Matt looked down at her small, fragile hand, the slender fingers that entwined with his own.
“Are you sure you want to do this?”
Tilting her head a little, Ariel waited until Matt looked at her squarely with those clear green eyes.
“A man, your friend Bill, is dead. If the folks at Marathon had something to do with it, then they should pay for it. Then there are those men.”
That memory burned. She remembered how helpless she’d been, how frightened. The threats they’d made. It infuriated her now to have been made to feel so helpless.
She looked at Matthew and smiled a little tightly.
“When I was in sixth grade I had a problem with this bully. I had had problems with bullies before. It’s something to do with my height, I think.”
Her smile turned a little wry.
“I’ve always been one of the smallest in a room. This bully, though,” she paused, shaking her head, “was pretty bad. He’d already been held back two or three grades so he was a lot taller and a lot bigger than most of the kids. I couldn’t avoid him. It got pretty rough. It got bad enough I hated going to school.”
Matt simply listened, seeing a pretty little girl being pushed around by a much bigger kid. He’d dealt with his share of bullies as a kid. Who hadn’t? It had been he and Bill, though, an unbeatable team in those days. Ariel had been alone.
Those blue eyes flashed up to meet his. “I challenged him to a fight.”
“You’re kidding,” he said, starting to smile.
Now he saw the woman with the two-by going after three much bigger men to bail him out.
Shaking her head, Ariel grinned ruefully. “No. I knew he was going to beat the heck out of me. It didn’t matter. I was tired of it and I was going to defend myself. I didn’t know anything about fighting. That didn’t matter either. He hit me. I fell down and then I got back up. He knocked me down again and I got back up. No matter how many times he hit me I was determined to keep getting back up. Eventually even he was telling me to stay down. I wouldn’t. We got suspended from school because I wouldn’t tell who started the fight. He never hit me again.”
She looked at him. “If someone at Marathon was responsible for Bill’s death, I’ll help you.”
Matt looked back. She was amazing. If she had the courage to try it, the least he could do was let her. And keep her safe while she tried.
He shook his head and smiled. “You know, my life would have been much easier, I would have been a lot less frustrated and wasted a lot less time if I’d talked to you earlier.”
Gently, he combed his fingers through her hair, brushed it back from her face. His eyes took in the rest of her, with the time now to appreciate it.
That dark wavy mass curled around her elfin face, the dark-fringed blue eyes, and the flush of rose coloring her cheeks, the swollen softness of her mouth.
That mouth looked so inviting with that grin. Matt couldn’t pass that up and didn’t. He did like kissing her because she so enjoyed kissing him back. God, it was sweet, the way her mouth moved under his.
Ariel let the sheet fall as she reached out to run her hands up over the muscles of his chest and down his arms.
Sitting beside him as she was now, it reminded him of the first time they had made love. Like some art-deco fairy cast in ivory and ebony, with a touch of rose in cheeks, lips and breast, with her hair
spilling over her breasts and down her back in thick waves, she was enchantingly lovely.
Her body was beautiful. High and firm, her breasts were creamy white, full and tipped with rose-colored nipples. Her stomach was smooth, pale white and toned. In sharp contrast to her skin, the dark triangle of hair at the mound between her thighs was striking. He laid a hand on the soft skin of one firm and lovely leg, the one curled beneath her.
Like an art-deco fairy, she seemed at once ethereal and earthy, innocently erotic.
It seemed he was staying after all.
Ariel tilted her head back to look at him and was struck by the intensity of those amazing green eyes. This close, she could see them much more clearly. Light green, surrounded by an edge of darker green, the lighter shade seeming to glow with its own interior light, flecked with gold.
“Do you know you have beautiful eyes?” she asked.
He smiled and kissed the tip of her nose. “So do you, beautiful blue ones fringed with black lashes. And a lovely mouth.”
Struggling against it, she tried to smother a yawn and then grinned sheepishly at the look in his eye when he noticed.
“It’s not you,” she said.
With a grin, Matt ran his finger down her nose, fighting off a yawn himself. If he was beat, he couldn’t imagine how she felt after what she’d been through.
It had been a long and very eventful day. There was another, tomorrow. A day for him to figure things out, do some planning. A day to spend with Ariel.
“So what were you planning to do here this weekend?” he said, drowsily.
“Swim in the pool, sight-see,” she said, “but I guess all of that’s out, with the stooges out there waiting.”
Matt laughed sleepily.
Tilting her head at him, the lids of her eyes heavy, she said, “What?”
“The three stooges,” he said, “that’s what I call them, too.”
Ariel said, smiling, “Great minds think alike.”
“There’s that,” he said, lowering his head to brush his mouth against her lips. “There’s much to be said for staying in here for the rest of the weekend… If that’s all right with you?”
Lucky Charm Page 20
