Hired Husband

by Rebecca Brandewyne

  “Voilà!” he whispered to himself, grinning. Opening the safe door, he removed the single diskette inside and tucked it into the pocket of his uniform. Then he packed his tools away into his gear bag and hoisted it over his shoulder. Outside in the laboratory, he looked around to determine what flammable chemicals were available to him. Yanking containers from shelves at random, he dumped their contents around the laboratory.

  He was just preparing to strike a match to set fire to it all when, across the hall, a pair of elevator doors rolled back to reveal a man and woman inside the car.

  And the man saw him.

  Nick was totally unprepared for what happened when he tore open the laboratory door. Fire exploded before his eyes, blinding him and sending him staggering back, leaving him feeling as though he had been scorched. But he did not think of his own personal safety, only of that of his wife and the secret youth formula. Dimly, he heard Caroline screaming, and he realized she had disobeyed his instructions and not gone back upstairs.

  Then the intruder rushed past him. A ski mask covered the intruder’s face, protection against the flames and smoke sweeping through the lab. Nick chased after him, thinking only that the man mustn’t get hold of Caroline, to abduct her and use her as a hostage. She would be worth a fortune in ransom—and the intruder might kill her. In the corridor beyond the laboratory, Nick tackled the man, and they both went down, grappling and rolling. The intruder tired to scrabble away, but Nick caught his ankle and dragged him back, then socked him in the jaw.

  Caroline looked on, stricken, the fire alarm blasting deafeningly in her ears. Then, all of a sudden, she realized the sprinkler heads weren’t functioning, that no water was coming from the ceiling to douse the flames in the laboratory. Panicked, she raced down the hall, jerking open the panel that concealed one of the fire extinguishers located on each floor. The canister was so big and heavy that she could hardly lift it, and she finally wound up dragging it down the hall to the laboratory.

  Reading the instructions on the tank, trying to ignore the fact that Nick and the intruder were still locked in a vicious struggle only a few feet away, Caroline jerked the pin free and depressed the handle. Foam sprayed from the fire extinguisher, beginning to smother the flames that swept through the laboratory. Acrid smoke billowed through the air, burning her eyes and nose, leaving her coughing and gasping for air as she battled the blaze. With a sinking heart, she realized that despite the fact that she was keeping the fire at bay, her efforts weren’t going to be enough to save the laboratory, that it was possible the whole of the building would wind up being set aflame.

  “Nick!” she cried urgently. “Nick!”

  He heard his wife screaming. A quick look at the laboratory apprised him of the danger. But the glance cost Nick his hold on the intruder. Lashing out violently with his legs, the intruder kicked Nick to one side, then scrambled to his feet and fled down the corridor before Nick could catch him. But as the intruder made his escape, the diskette he had stolen tumbled from the pocket of his uniform. He swore foully. There was no time to retrieve it. Nick was charging down the hall after him. Still cursing, the intruder barged into the fire-escape stairwell and pounded down the steps.

  Letting him go, Nick picked up the diskette and stuffed it into the pocket of his lab coat. Then he ripped open another panel at the far end of the corridor and removed the fire extinguisher inside, running back to help Caroline. By now, the security personnel she had summoned earlier had arrived on the scene, along with some of the cleaning crews.

  “One of you get down to the basement!” Nick shouted as he sprayed foam into the laboratory. “The intruder must have shut the water off at the main. That’s why the sprinkler heads aren’t working. The rest of you seal off the building. Call the police. Call Mrs. Fortune. The intruder went down the stairs.”

  One of the security men raced away to the basement. Two others dashed into the stairwell, while yet another yanked his cellular phone from his belt to dial 911—to be told that the fire department was already en route in response to the alarm. Some minutes later, the sprinkler system came on, dousing the blaze, much to Caroline’s relief. She shut off her fire extinguisher, panting hard from her exertions.

  “Caroline—sweetheart, are you all right?” Nick asked as he turned off his own cannister and set it aside before striding toward her, his brow knitted with concern. He took her in his arms. “You’re not hurt?”

  “No, I’m fine. Just tired.”

  “Thank God that’s all! Why in the hell didn’t you do what I told you? Damn it! That man might have kidnapped you, held you as a hostage, injured you—or worse! And if that had happened, I’d never have been able to live with myself!” Not caring who was watching, Nick kissed her fervently, letting her go only when police officers and firefighters appeared on the scene, followed by Kate and Sterling Foster.

  “Nick, what happened here?” Kate queried sharply as her gaze took in the destruction in the laboratory, the police officers and firefighters taking statements from those who were present.

  “An intruder. He broke into the lab and my office and tried to steal the diskette containing the equation for the secret youth formula. No, don’t worry, Kate. He didn’t get it. But he would have if Caro and I hadn’t been here so late. He splashed around a bunch of chemicals, set the lab on fire and attempted to escape. I fought with him. But I had to let him go to help Caroline contain the blaze. Otherwise, it might have spread throughout the entire building. I’m sorry I didn’t do better.”

  “Don’t be,” Kate said tersely. “You did fine. You did the right thing, Nick. If the building had burned, people might have been injured or killed. I’m just so glad that didn’t happen. You saved Fabulous Face, and the lab can be rebuilt. I’ve got a cleanup crew on the way now. They can work through the night. Then, tomorrow, we’ll have a better idea of the damage. Meanwhile, why don’t you and Caroline go on home now? Caroline’s barely on her feet,” Kate observed, hugging her granddaughter tightly.

  “I’m sorry, Grandmother.” Caroline stifled a yawn.

  “No, it’s all right. It’s late. You’re exhausted, and you’ve had a harrowing experience. Nick, take her on home.”

  “Yes, I will. Come on, baby,” he murmured to his wife. “Let’s get you home and into bed. Good night…Grandmother.”

  Kate smiled, her eyes warm and kind. “Good night, Nick, Caroline. I’ll see you both tomorrow.”

  “Grandmother?” Sterling gazed at Kate inquiringly. “What’s that about?”

  “That, my dear friend, is about having found the right man for my granddaughter.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “Do you know what Nick did some days ago with the bonus money Jake paid him to marry Caroline?”

  “No.” Sterling shook his head. “What?”

  “He put it into a trust fund for his and Caroline’s children.”

  “You’re kidding!” The attorney’s mouth was agape at this news.

  “Ha! Never doubt a woman’s intuition, Sterling.” Kate chuckled. “I told you I’d get at least two grand-kids out of this deal. And I will. Now, find the detective in charge of this mess. I want whoever’s responsible for this fire found and punished. Some rival cosmetics firm has somehow learned about my secret youth formula, I just know it! They’re trying to steal it, and I won’t have that, Sterling. Nobody gets the best of Kate Fortune. Nobody!”

  Seventeen

  Nick drove Caroline home to their apartment in the city. Inside, despite the lateness of the hour, they took a shower together, since they were both covered with smoke and with dried foam from the fire extinguishers. Afterward, they climbed into bed together, Nick drawing Caroline quietly into his arms, seeming to sense that she wanted just to be held close.

  “I’m so worried, Nick,” she said softly as she idly traced tiny circles amid the fine, dark hair on his broad chest. “After tonight, I think your suggestion that somebody made false accusations to the INS about you in order
to get rid of you so you couldn’t finish Grandmother’s secret youth formula was right. Why else would anyone have broken into the building, into the laboratory, and tried to steal the diskette?”

  “I can’t think of any other reason, baby. So now I believe we do have to consider the possibility that some rival cosmetics firm has learned about Fabulous Face. That being the case, I’m afraid we’re going to have to conduct some kind of internal investigation to find out who the spy in our midst is.”

  “It’s so awful, Nick, to think there’s a…a traitor working at Fortune Cosmetics! To wonder who or what the next target may be. What if whoever is behind this should go after Grandmother or something?”

  “There’s no reason to believe that’ll prove true, sweetheart,” he replied, stroking her hair comfortingly. “Besides, I’m sure that after tonight, we’ll all be taking appropriate security measures from now on. You are certainly going to take them, Caroline, no matter what. We were just damned lucky that intruder didn’t grab you on his way out the door. It was very brave of you to want to stay behind to try to help me, to battle the fire. But you might have been hurt or even killed. I won’t have that. If necessary, I’ll hire private security for you myself.”

  “You—you mean a—a bodyguard?”

  “Yes, I do.”

  “Oh, Nick. Do you really believe whoever’s behind all this would—would go so far as to kidnap me or a—a member of the family?” Caroline was frightened by the very thought.

  “I don’t know, baby. But where you’re concerned, I’m just not prepared to take that chance. You’re my wife. My responsibility. What kind of a husband—or a man—would I be if I let anything happen to you?” Nick didn’t add how the idea of losing her tore at his heart, how stricken he had been to hear her screaming tonight, to see her so courageously fighting the fire, to think how near the intruder had been to her. Nick knew that if it had been necessary, he would have handed over the secret youth formula to save Caroline’s life. But how could he tell her that, tell her that he loved her? Despite the fact that when she was in a vulnerable mood, he could now sometimes coax her into sharing his bed, she had no feelings for him beyond that. Or so he thought.

  But he was wrong. Only, lying there in his embrace, Caroline didn’t know what was in her husband’s mind. She had heard nothing except for the word responsibility. It was such a little thing—but to her, it was everything, proof that no matter what she had done, how she had, much against her better judgment, more than once given in to Nick’s desire for her, she still hadn’t managed to win his heart. The realization dispirited her. She didn’t know what else to do, what else to say.

  Although she had changed her outward appearance to please him, inwardly, she was still the same. A trifle shy and insecure, uncertain where a man was concerned, thanks to how she had been used and emotionally wounded by Paul Andersen in the past. She was no femme fatale. She knew that. Maybe regardless of what her husband had said, she hadn’t pleased him. Maybe he wanted her only because so long as he was married to her, there wasn’t any other woman available to him.

  Caroline felt she should be shamed for having so little pride in herself that she was willing to take Nick however she could get him, on whatever terms he dictated. But her love for him was such that she no longer cared.

  Even worse was the fact that she had let him make love to her without either of them taking any precautions against pregnancy. Despite the fact that she had told him she wasn’t on any form of birth control, it hadn’t seemed to matter to him. So she thought that after their conversation about it, Nick must believe she had gone on the pill or something. Caroline felt guilty at deceiving him, but she wanted her husband’s baby. Even after she and Nick got divorced, she knew now that he wasn’t the kind of man who wouldn’t love and be a father to his child. And she deserved something from this marriage, she thought, a part of Nick that would be hers for always, deeply loved and treasured.

  “Nick, do you think Paul had anything to do with what happened tonight?” she asked softly. “He was angry about our marriage—and even madder about being fired. He must know you insisted upon it to Grandmother. He must surely blame you. Perhaps that’s why the lab and the secret youth formula were targeted.”

  “That thought has crossed my mind, as well. That’s why, in the morning, I’m going to hire a private investigator to check Andersen out. Why aren’t you asleep, baby?” Idly, Nick rubbed his hand over the short, puffed sleeve of her nightgown, caressed her shoulder. “I thought you were exhausted.”

  “I am. But my mind is so unsettled that I can’t seem to get to sleep.”

  “Understandable under the circumstances. Do you want a drink or something? Some hot chocolate?”

  “Hmmm. That sounds nice, actually.”

  “Coming right up, then.” Flicking on the lamp on the night table and slipping from bed, Nick padded off to make the hot chocolate, unaware of how Caroline watched him as he strode toward the kitchen. He wore a pair of burgundy silk boxer shorts—and nothing else—and she could not help but admire his tall, muscular figure, the contrast of the rich color against his bronzed skin. He returned shortly later to hand her a steaming mug.

  “Oh, you even put marshmallows in it!” she exclaimed, somehow oddly touched by the gesture as she gazed down at the foamy hot chocolate. “I haven’t had those in it since I was a child.”

  “Well, now, what’s a cup of hot chocolate without marshmallows?”

  “My thoughts exactly. You’re a man after my own heart, Nick,” she said lightly as she sipped the rich, sweet drink.

  “Yes, I am, Caro,” he responded just as casually—but his dark eyes smoldered intensely as he looked at her, sending a shiver of excitement and a tiny, sudden flame of hope shooting through her.

  Was it possible he was actually serious? Caroline wondered. She didn’t know, was too afraid of being rejected to ask, to tell him that her heart was already his.

  Eighteen

  The break-in, the attempted theft of the secret youth formula and the fire in the laboratory had all convinced Kate that she could not afford to wait any longer, that sending a team from Fortune Cosmetics down to the Amazon jungle would only attract further attention to Fabulous Face, alerting not only whoever had been behind the machinations against Nick and the company, but also other rivals in the marketplace. She must go herself—and go today. Jake would have to take care of things at Fortune Cosmetics in her absence, see that the laboratory was restored to its former condition and that additional security measures were enacted immediately. She had dictated a lengthy memo, detailing the steps she wanted Jake to undertake, and had copied it to Sterling. Between them, her son and her attorney could handle matters.

  And when her housekeeper expressed concern, Kate ignored her, saying, “The break-in, attempted theft and fire, as unfortunate as they were, will provide a perfect cover. You may call the office this morning and inform them that I won’t be in today. You may discreetly suggest that as I am ‘elderly—”’ Kate’s voice was dry, and she scowled “—the shock to my sensibilities was considerable, that I passed the night poorly, and that as a result, I am resting today.”

  “Yes, I might can get away with that for a few days, Miss Kate. But what then? You surely cannot think you are going to fly down to South America, hike through the jungle and find this undoubtedly mythical plant in less than a week!”

  “No, of course not. I only need a head start. Once I’m actually in South America and have the arrangements for my trek in place, I will cable Jake and Sterling at the office. By then, it will be too late for them to do anything about my plans. I’ll be off into the rain forest before they can do anything to stop me.”

  “I still don’t like it, Miss Kate,” Mrs. Brant declared sternly, shaking her head. “How do we know this is a rival cosmetics company behind all this? How do we know it isn’t that foolish Paul Andersen, bent on revenge, for instance? How do we know who or what is the next target? It could be you. Better fo
r you to stay home, hire a bodyguard. You are a rich and famous woman. You could be a kidnapping victim. Someone might snatch you for the secret youth formula—and you will have no protection in the jungle!”

  “Yes, but nobody will be looking for me there, either. So don’t worry. I’ll be perfectly safe. Now, let’s get on our way to the airport. Did you call ahead, so the corporate jet will be fueled up and waiting?”

  “Much against my better judgment, yes, I did.”

  “Good. Let’s go, then.”

  Realizing from the determined expression on Kate’s face that nothing she said or did was going to persuade her to change her mind, Mrs. Brant sighed heavily. Reluctantly she arranged for the baggage to be taken to the car. A few minutes later, Kate was en route to the airport.

  “I tell you, there is something wrong.” To emphasize this conclusion, Jake slammed his hand down on the Honduras-mahogany conference table in the meeting room where he had assembled Caroline, Nick and Sterling. “Mother is never ill—and while she might have been upset by the other night’s events, she would not have taken to her bed like a helpless old woman! If anything, I’d expect her to be out prowling the city, hunting down the intruder herself.”

  “Dad, even though it’s often hard to remember, she is seventy.” Caroline pointed out this fact quietly—because she was worried, too. She simply couldn’t recall a time when her grandmother hadn’t been in her penthouse office at Fortune Cosmetics by eight in the morning.

  “No, I agree with Jake,” Sterling declared, his brow knitted with concern. “Even if Kate were sick, she wouldn’t refuse to come to the telephone or to see any of us. Why, she and I have had dinner together at least three times a week ever since Ben died. I’m not just Kate’s attorney—I’m her best friend!” The lawyer was indignant at the idea that Mrs. Brant had last night determinedly refused to open the front door of Kate’s house to him.