Intimate Stranger

by Jan Springer

  Horrific sadness welled in her and she forced herself to blink back the hot tears and made herself meet his intense gaze. His warm breath caressed her face as he spoke.

  “I’d rather stay, Emily.”

  “I’m fine, really.”

  The last thing he needed was to see her start crying like a blubbering idiot. And she would too, if he didn’t leave right this instant.

  “Okay but don’t open the door to anyone but Skip or my brothers or Sara and Jo. Okay?”

  She nodded weakly, noting instantly he hadn’t mentioned himself.

  His head lowered. The instant his warm, gentle lips touched hers, her brain shorted out and her fears vanished as every pleasure center in her body sizzled to life. If she hadn’t wrapped her arms around his neck, she was sure she would have fallen. And then too soon he was easing away from her.

  His eyes were dark, full of passion as he studied her for a long moment. Again, she silently prayed he would change his mind. Prayed as she’d never prayed before.

  “I’ll be back,” he whispered, his voice full of promise.

  Then he was gone. Leaving her with the sound of the door locking behind him and an intense fear uncoiling like a cobra inside her. She bit her bottom lip to prevent herself from crying, but it didn’t work. The tears fell like two hot springs down her cheeks.

  She let herself cry. Let herself just give in to her emotions. She didn’t know how long she did, but it couldn’t have been more than a few moments when a knock erupted at the door and her heart soared. Steve had changed his mind! He’d come back!

  Wiping away her tears, she rushed to the door, quickly unlocked it and flung it open. Her heart stopped. It wasn’t Steve at all.

  She managed a quick smile. This was the last person on earth she’d expected to be here in New York.

  “Hi! What are you doing here?”

  Her smile vanished and a finger of ice stroked a frigid warning through her a split second before her unexpected visitor pulled out a gun and aimed it straight at her heart.

  * * * * *

  When he heard the familiar high heels clicking toward Helena’s office, Steve straightened in the plush office chair and forced himself to inhale a steady breath. The door swung inward. If Helena was surprised to see him sitting behind her desk, she didn’t show it. She merely breezed inside as if she knew all along she had company.

  Dropping her purse onto the desk in front of him, she smiled. A creepy shiver of what Steve could only figure out was fear slithered a chill warning up his spine.

  “Why, Mister Donovan. What an unexpected pleasure,” she said cheerfully.

  “Cut the crap, Helena.”

  “Oh dear. Something’s upset you,” she said, seemingly unoffended by his bold reply.

  “I hope you aren’t too upset because I had to leave early the other day after Emily’s fitting. I had an appointment. How about we get together today? For lunch? We can discuss plans for your future.”

  “How about we discuss plans for your future, Helena? Like how are you going to match your hair color with the orange overalls you’ll be wearing in prison?”

  She blinked rapidly for a second at his statement and then recovered quickly.

  “My, you certainly are touchy. What is it that I can do for you, darling?”

  “More like what I can do for you, Helena. I’m going to give you a couple of metal bracelets and crucify you. And that’s just for starters.”

  She let out a chuckle of amusement. Man, he had to commend her for her good acting that’s for sure. She didn’t seem the least bit fazed at his threat.

  “Dear boy, what are you babbling about?”

  “I have evidence against you, Helena,” he said. He wanted to shake her up, but nothing changed in her demeanor. The woman was unshakable. She seemed like a goddamn rock.

  “Information that is being leaked to the press as we speak.”

  “Ah, I see. You want money. I’ll write you a check.”

  She reached for her purse, but he grabbed it out of her hand and placed it back on the desk.

  “Aren’t you afraid your security cameras will catch you bribing me?”

  “Darling,” she said gently. “My people mind their own business. Something you should have done years ago.”

  “Oh sweet heavens, Helena. Don’t tell me you’re the one who planted those drugs on my boat? Oh wait! I already figured that out, didn’t I? I had plenty of time in prison to figure things out.”

  She didn’t say anything, but Steve didn’t miss her quick glance at the purse sitting on the desk in front of her as she realized her mistake of putting it out of her grasp.

  “Dead giveaway, Helena.”

  In a flash he reached out and snapped up the purse. Keeping an eye on her, he used his touch senses to sift through the contents.

  “Lipstick, compact, appointment book…”

  “Please, there is no need for you pawing through my personal belongings, Mr. Donovan. You are being entirely too rude.”

  He ignored her snappy remark when his fingers brushed against cold metal. He threw her an amused grin.

  “Oh look! A gun?”

  He withdrew the deadly weapon from its hiding place in a side pocket and relieved it of all the bullets before placing it back into her purse.

  “Shame on you, Helena.”

  “A woman can’t be too careful these days, dear boy. It isn’t like the old days when you could trust someone with a mere handshake or by their word.”

  “Funny you should mention that, Helena. Didn’t you give me your word over the phone years ago when I used my one telephone call to ask you to send me a lawyer? Didn’t you give me your word you’d get me out of there?”

  Her smile wavered ever so slightly and she reached up to brush away an imaginary stray strand of her neatly coiffured hair.

  “Ouch, a sore spot?” he said coolly.

  “You can’t prove anything, Steve.”

  Steve. She knew exactly who he was.

  “We have some things to discuss, Helena. Top of the list is something rather…personal.”

  Her eyes narrowed slightly and he detected a crack in her otherwise cool demeanor.

  “What are you insinuating, Mr. Donovan?”

  “Revenge,” he said coldly.

  “How enticing,” she replied. It surprised him to see how she seemed to cheer right up.

  “And exactly how do you propose to exact your revenge?”

  “Why don’t you grab yourself a fresh cup of coffee over there? Stay a while. I’ll explain everything in detail.”

  “Well, if I must stay and be entertained. Would you like a cup?”

  Steve nodded. “Please.”

  He watched anxiously as she headed over to the bar where he’d prepared the pot of coffee and left it warming on the hot plate.

  “As I remember correctly you prefer cream and three teaspoons of sugar?”

  “You flatter me with your memory,” Steve said dryly as she poured their coffee.

  A moment later she walked toward him with both steaming cups in hands. She threw him another cheerful smile.

  “Don’t even think about throwing it in my face, Helena.”

  She chuckled and he suspected that thought had crossed her mind.

  “You insult me, Mr. McCullen. I would never do such a hideous thing to a guest.”

  Instead of calling him Steve, she’d turned her tone to the formal of Mr. McCullen. She did that when she was pissed off at someone. He must be getting to her.

  When she placed his mug down in front of him on the desk, he relaxed. She continued to stand as she sipped her coffee. He didn’t touch his.

  “Now what do you have in mind?” she said sweetly. “Torture? A knife to the heart?”

  “Something a little different, but I’ll tell you in a bit. First, we need to have a heart-to-heart.”

  “How pleasant. Would you mind if I have a seat?”

  “Please do. Only keep your hands where I can
see them.”

  God, she acted so cool. It was truly amazing.

  “You don’t trust me? How insulting.”

  “Cut the act, Helena. I have the disc. The original of the copy that you found on your desk. I’ve seen it all.”

  A curiously satisfied smile slipped across Helena’s red painted lips.

  “I knew you had it. No matter how much you denied it. I knew you had it.”

  Steve leaned forward in the chair and placed his hands on the desk, watching her closely. She seemed quite smug now that he’d revealed he had the disc. Too smug for comfort.

  “I expected you to be more loyal, Steven. Unlike my secretary Summer Robbins. She’s the one who sent you that disc. She was upset with me and threatened me when her husband died on the table during his heart transplant operation. Unfortunately she wasn’t as loyal as I’d hoped. She knew the risks of using an illegal donor heart but she still became upset. It happens more than you think. I wasn’t able to remove her as quickly as I’d hoped, so she was able to get a disc to you. I gather you brought the original along with you this morning?”

  Steve remembered Summer. Remembered her husband had been gravely ill and that he’d died. She’d committed suicide shortly after his death. Or it was supposed to have been suicide. Apparently it was just another murder in Helena’s routine. God! How could she keep such a tight handle on so many people without this underground transplant organization coming to the surface earlier?

  But he knew the answer. There were a lot of desperate people out there who wanted to keep their loved ones alive. Many of them would do illegal things in order to get what they wanted. Helena and her people used their desperation and vulnerability. It was so insane that he could barely believe it. But he knew if he was in a similar situation and Emily needed a body part in order to live, he could see himself thinking about going down that avenue too.

  “And if I said I did have the disc on me?”

  “Then I would tell you I might be interested in taking a look at it.”

  “You already know what’s on it. Unless…there’s something on the disc you haven’t been able to cover up? What’s the problem, Helena? Too many people to kill? Too many angles to cover? There must be something you weren’t able to cover. Someone you couldn’t pay off for their silence.”

  Her face paled.

  Bingo.

  If her reaction was an indication, then something on that disc was still good. Still active.

  “How much money do you want for it?”

  “For the last and very incriminating copy? It might take me some time to think up a proper sum.”

  When she frowned, he allowed himself a smug smile.

  “You were my best journalist, Steven. And a very dear friend as Emily is a very dear friend also. I assure you, what happened to you wasn’t personal.”

  What a fucking bitch.

  “Purely business? Is that right? You planted the drugs on my boat using a man in the Canadian Coast Guard who conveniently knew where the drugs would be. Not once but twice. This time around your guy failed to get me and you killed him.”

  “I did no such thing!”

  “Okay so someone you hired did the job.”

  She remained silent.

  “You used the planted drugs to get me into jail,” he continued. “That’s when another one of your hired goons, a prosecutor, no less, could try to work out a deal with me, right?”

  “It was a brilliant plan on such short notice,” she admitted with a self-righteous smile that nibbled away at his concentration.

  “So your plan was for me to spill my guts and reveal what I know and where the original disc was and the drug charges would be dropped. Unfortunately for you, I didn’t cave. I knew what I had and if I so much as gave an inkling of where it was, then Emily and I would be dead. So I kept my mouth shut. It must have pissed you off to no end, right, Helena?”

  She kept quiet, her eyes drilling into him like swords. The intense look unnerved him a little and he found himself remembering the pain the guards inflicted, the smacking sounds of their fists upon his body.

  He took a steadying breath and continued.

  “So your goons beat me up. Too bad they lost control. They certainly weren’t neat and tidy on this job. Very messy. When they were through with me, I couldn’t talk for some time. I ended up almost dead.”

  “You would have died, had I not intervened, Steven.”

  Her hushed response brought an uncomfortable uneasiness shooting through him. Immediately he spied a gleam of excitement in her eyes and he straightened to attention. She was up to something. The touch of nervousness had vanished from her, replaced by pure confidence.

  “Unfortunately, I needed you alive so I could question you about the disc’s whereabouts. In order to save your life and allow you to see again, a youngster had to be sacrificed.”

  A youngster had to be sacrificed? What the hell did she mean by that?

  “Let’s get back on track, Helena,” he warned. His insides began to tremble and he knew she held information he didn’t want to hear.

  She must have noticed his uneasiness as immense delight snapped across her face.

  “You don’t know the identity of your donor, do you, dear?”

  “Let’s get on with what’s going to happen to you.”

  “A young teenager. A dear sweet, innocent, young teenager who had just turned his life around. A lad who wanted to grow up to be a doctor.”

  Her voice was soft, gentle, and he found it extremely difficult to tune her out. He knew he should ignore her, but if she was behind the murder of a kid, he needed to dig up that information. She would need to pay for that crime as well.

  “You’re lying,” he taunted.

  “On the contrary. When you were beaten, your kidneys were severely damaged and your eyes were unsalvageable—”

  “More like they were popped out like grapes by your personal goon squad,” he said, trying to quell the nausea of remembering how easily he’d lost his eyes to a group of overzealous jail guards.

  “Nonetheless, I felt you would be more…cooperative if you had a new set of eyes, along with a new kidney.”

  “So, you did what? Kill a kid for parts?”

  “Must you be so indelicate, Steven? That was a job for an acquaintance of mine.”

  “And that made it okay?”

  “You are living a virtually normal life, aren’t you? And you do have a new pair of eyes and kidneys that will keep you alive so you and Emily can be together again. Thanks to my genius acquaintance and his state-of-the-art techniques. Nonetheless, I don’t hear you complaining.”

  “Helena!” a familiar voice said from the doorway.

  Immediately Steve recognized the voice of the man he’d met at the fair. His head snapped up and he spotted Dr. Baker standing in the doorway. And someone stood beside him.

  His gut twisted in fear.

  Emily stood there with the doctor. When he spotted the gun jabbed into her side, adrenaline squirted like wildfire through Steve’s veins. His mind urged him to scramble from his chair and knock the deadly weapon from Baker’s fingers, yet he remained seated. Any movement from him would encourage Baker to pull the trigger.

  “Brought you a special present, Helena,” the doctor smirked.

  Helena’s confident gaze swung to Doc Baker.

  “Well! Looks like we have company. What a delight! Please, do come in. Join the party.”

  Baker gave Emily a rough shove into the room.

  “Mr. Donovan, we meet again,” Doc Baker said as he came into the room and closed the door.

  Steve held his breath as Baker cocked his gun and aimed it at Emily’s head. Choking back a sob, Emily threw Steve a look that said she was sorry.

  “Did you find it?” Helena ambled over to Baker.

  “Got it.”

  Baker withdrew the gun from Emily’s head and Steve sighed a breath of relief. His relief was short-lived when Baker held up the briefcase contai
ning his laptop.

  “It was in Cole’s hotel room. The original disc is inside the A drive,” Dr. Baker said. “Damn computer sure is heavy. Thankfully they don’t make them like this anymore.”

  “Helena! You are a horrid person. I trusted you,” Emily screamed.

  “Oh Emily, stop your melodramatics.” Helena retrieved the case from Dr. Baker and lifted it onto the desk. She flipped the case open and a moment later lifted out the disc. She stared at it in awe.

  “Just as I suspected. Same brand of disc my once trusted secretary used. She was a foolish woman. Very foolish.”

  He should go for his gun stashed inside his boot, Steve thought as he watched Helena examine the disc and Dr. Baker watching her. All he needed to do was cross his legs to get at it, but first he needed to call in the reinforcements.

  “Helena, dear. Haven’t you forgotten something?”

  Her head snapped up and she threw him a bewildered look.

  “Our little discussion we had earlier?”

  Her perfectly manicured eyebrows crinkled into a puzzled frown.

  “The matter about revenge?” he said smoothly.

  She visibly relaxed. “My dear boy, you simply have no opportunity for revenge. I have the laptop, the disc, Emily and yourself. This is all I need.”

  Steve smiled.

  “Ah, yes I do have an opportunity for revenge.”

  Leaning back in his chair, he casually propped his elbows behind his head and tried hard to portray he didn’t have a care in the world.

  “You see, Helena. I told you my revenge is purely for selfish reasons. I want to watch you die in person.”

  “What’s he talking about?” Doc Baker broke in.

  “Not to worry, Steven is only toying with us.”

  “Am I? There was a nice batch of rat poison in your office kitchen. In the cupboard, way up top. Behind the paper plates.”

  Helena smiled shakily.

  “By chance did you find the coffee tasting a bit…different?”

  That was one of the phrase’s Skip and he had agreed upon when Steve decided it was time to pull out. He braced himself for Skip’s appearance. Nothing happened.