Fearless

by Diana Palmer

  “As what, an assassin?”

  “Lady and gentleman,” Kilraven muttered, stepping between them. “And I use the terms loosely. If you don’t cease and desist, one of you is leaving in handcuffs.”

  “Oh, shut up!” they both shouted in unison.

  Kilraven gaped at them.

  They moved around him and continued.

  “You lied to me from the minute you walked in my door,” Rodrigo growled at her.

  “It was so easy,” she chided. “You believed anything I told you!”

  “I felt sorry for you!”

  Her face flamed. “Yes, you pitied me, didn’t you? Poor, crippled Glory who…who couldn’t…who…” She stopped. Her face was flaming. She was panting like a runner. She staggered.

  “Oh God!” Rodrigo whispered. He moved forward, catching her up in his arms as she fell. “Get a doctor!” he shouted, and his expression went from anger to terror in a space of seconds.

  “Bring her in here,” Gracie said urgently, leading the way. Flighty she might be, but there was nobody cooler in an emergency. “I’ll get her medicine. She keeps forgetting to take it. She’ll be all right,” she comforted Rodrigo, who was holding on to Glory as if he were terrified she might die in his arms. “She has these spells of angina, but they don’t do damage. The heart specialist said so. They cleared the blockage with a balloon angioplasty and she’s on blood thinners. Stay with her.”

  Gracie rushed out and spoke to the crowd gathering outside the study door. “She’ll be all right. Please, leave her with us. We’ll take care of her.” She was also talking to Kilraven, who permitted himself to be rushed out of the room. The door closed.

  Rodrigo laid Glory down on the long brocade sofa, elevating her feet on one of the pillows. He sat down beside her, feeling helpless and hating himself for bringing on this spell. He’d done nothing but hurt her. She was fragile and bighearted and kind. She’d loved him, and he’d been cruel to her. If she died, he’d be alone forever. Even Sarina and Bernadette would never be able to make up for the loss of Glory.

  Tears stained her flushed cheeks. They were silent. Copious. He dabbed at them with a snow-white handkerchief and felt guilt like a shroud around him.

  She opened her eyes and looked up at him with bridled anger.

  He put his forefinger gently over her lips. “We’ve both said enough,” he said tenderly. “I’m sorry. Sorry for everything. Especially sorry about our baby.” His teeth ground together as he spoke. His jaw was rigid. “I had no right to taunt you with it.”

  “They think…it might have been the blood thinners,” she gritted. “I had to take them. I’d already had one heart attack. They were afraid…” Tears poured down her cheeks. “I wanted my baby,” she sobbed.

  “Amada,” he whispered, and bent to kiss the tears away, so softly. “Amada, forgive me,” he choked. “I would have wanted it, too. My poor baby.” His mouth moved tenderly over her wet eyes, her nose, down to her soft, sweet mouth. He kissed it with forced brevity, groaning as it brought back exquisite memories of Glory in his arms, in his bed, loving him. “Forgive me,” he groaned.

  She would have. Her arms were already stealing hesitantly up and around his neck, but the door opened and Gracie burst in like a little whirlwind, with Jason at her heels. Rodrigo got to his feet, struggling for composure.

  “Here.” Gracie fussed, handing Glory the capsule, the tablet and the glass of water.

  Glory swallowed them. “Sorry,” she whispered. “I had a bad day in court. Bailey and I went head to head for the better part of three hours until we recessed for lunch. I forgot my morning medicines.” She grimaced. “And then I forgot the evening dose, too.”

  “Careless,” Jason chided, but gently. He was very fond of her, and it showed.

  “Very careless,” Glory agreed. “I’m sorry I embarrassed you.”

  “Nothing embarrasses me,” Jason replied.

  “Certainly not illness you can’t help, baby,” Gracie seconded, bending to kiss the younger woman. “You lie here for a few minutes. We’ll entertain the guests. I’ll tell fortunes and Jason can do a softshoe routine.”

  “In your dreams,” Jason muttered icily.

  Gracie made a face at him. She glanced at Rodrigo.

  “Let him stay,” Glory said unexpectedly. “We have to talk.”

  The other two occupants of the room exchanged worried glances. Rodrigo moved closer. “I won’t upset her again,” he said in a subdued tone. “I’m going out of the country tomorrow. I won’t be back for a long time.”

  “All right,” Jason said, reading Glory’s sudden misery accurately. “If you need us, sing out.”

  “I will. Thanks.” She included Gracie in that.

  The Pendletons left, closing the door behind them.

  Rodrigo stood over Glory, quiet and regretful. “We knew nothing about each other,” he said. “We lied and pretended. You can’t build a relationship on fiction.”

  “I know,” Glory replied heavily. “I couldn’t tell you anything. I didn’t know you. I was afraid at first that you were mixed up with drug smuggling, and then because Cash and Marquez couldn’t tell me what was going on, I thought you were the killer Fuentes had sent after me.”

  He seemed surprised by the statement. “You thought I could kill you?”

  She smiled in a world-weary way. “I prosecuted a teenager two months ago for beating his grandmother to death. He was high on acid and didn’t know what he was doing. He’s serving fifteen years. He doesn’t even remember doing it. I have a low opinion of humanity. I get it from my job.”

  He sat down beside her again and leaned over her. “I worked as a mercenary for many years,” he said. “I saw ugly things, too.”

  “You aren’t what you seem,” she replied, searching his dark eyes. “I heard about your sister. I’m sorry. Are your parents still alive?”

  He shook his head. “My father raced yachts. He was lost in a storm. My mother grieved herself to death within six months. It was just the two of us, me and my sister, and an estate comparable to the gross national product of a small third-world country. I don’t have to work, you see,” he said cynically. “I could race yachts or go skiing in Aspen. I don’t like the lifestyle, so I avoid it. I’ve spent too much of my life at the safe end of an automatic weapon. I’ve never wanted a settled life.”

  “Yes, you have,” she replied. “You wanted it with Sarina.”

  He frowned. “Yes. I wanted it with Sarina. But it was never like that for her. She couldn’t love me.”

  “You’ll find someone, someday,” she replied in a dull tone. “Someone who can live an exciting life, and go with you on adventures.”

  He didn’t understand what she was saying.

  She laughed. “I know what it is to love a job,” she lied, because his acceptance of her statement gave it the ring of truth. What use would he have for a woman in her state of health, anyway? “My whole life revolves around my career. It’s all I want.” She didn’t look up at him. That was a pity.

  He got to his feet and moved away. He paused at the end of the sofa. “Will you be all right?” he asked.

  “Yes. It’s just the excitement,” she said. The medicine was already working. She felt much better. She sat up. “They cleared out the blockage. I’m as good as I’ll ever be. Well, I’ll always have to take medicine, and sometimes I limp when I stress my hip too much. But, for a cripple, I do well enough.”

  He turned. His expression was strained. “You’re no cripple,” he bit off.

  She only laughed. “Sure.”

  “Glory,” he began slowly.

  “Kilraven will be missing me,” she said as she got to her feet. “He takes good care of me. He doesn’t mind my…flaws.”

  “Dear God, don’t talk like that! I didn’t mean what I said, Glory,” he told her, desperate to correct her mistaken understanding. “I wasn’t myself.”

  She looked up at him with her courtroom face, the bland one that defense at
torneys had underestimated so often. “You don’t need to beat yourself to death over the past, Rodrigo. I’m perfectly happy with the life I have now. I’m sure you’re equally happy with yours. Conchita is very pretty,” she added, trying to sound as if she didn’t care. “I expect she’s crazy about you.”

  She was slamming doors in his face. He’d come face-to-face with his real fear, that he’d lose his heart completely again and suffer the same agony he’d felt when Sarina turned back to Colby Lane. He hadn’t thought Glory could live with him, as he was, or cope with his lifestyle. Now he knew that she could, and he was certain they had a future. But she wouldn’t even try again. He’d hurt her too badly. She’d decided that he wanted a young, strong, healthy woman, and that she was out of the running. She wasn’t willing to risk her heart with him after he’d rejected it.

  “I blew it, didn’t I?” he asked quietly. He searched over her face, which had been radiant just for him, those eyes that had loved him, those arms that had clung to him in the darkness. He’d had all that, and he’d pushed it away.

  “Don’t be melodramatic,” she chided, but she wouldn’t look at him again. “You know you’re happier without ties. Go live your life, Rodrigo. I hope you’ll be happy.”

  “And you?” he asked bitterly. “Will you be happy?”

  She raised her eyebrows. “I already am. Kilraven spoils me in every way,” she added suggestively.

  His sensual lips compressed. “Damn you!” he said with barely contained violence. “And damn Kilraven!”

  He turned on his heel and stormed out of the room, leaving a shocked and unsettled Glory behind. When she left the study, he’d already gone home. His final words had been full of fury. She couldn’t imagine why.

  BEFORE HE COULD GET out the door, still seething about Glory’s abrupt dismissal of him from her life, Jason Pendleton stepped in front of him. He wasn’t smiling.

  “Come in here for a minute,” he said, indicating the living room, temporarily devoid of people.

  “I’m in a hurry…”

  “This won’t take long.”

  Rodrigo composed himself with visible effort and followed the other man into the room.

  Jason closed the door. He’d never looked more menacing. “What do you know about Glory?”

  “Nothing, apparently,” Rodrigo replied.

  “Perhaps it’s time you heard a few facts,” the other man said curtly. “Sit down.”

  By the time Jason had shared the bare bones of Glory’s past with him, Rodrigo was pale and sicker at heart than he’d been since his sister’s death. He’d known about Glory’s hip, but no more. Considering her childhood, it was amazing to him that she’d been able to respond to him in bed. It was proof, if he needed it, of how much she’d loved him.

  He leaned forward, his forearms propped on his knees, his head in his hands. “She never told me any of that.”

  “She’s very proud,” Jason replied. “We’ve sheltered her as much as we could. I didn’t want her in Jacobsville in the first place, but the D.A. convinced me that if she stayed here, we’d bury her. I don’t understand why you couldn’t leave her alone and let her do her job. I never thought of you as a cruel person.”

  “I never thought of myself that way.” He lifted his head. “I wanted her. She had a quality of compassion that I’d never encountered in any woman, other than my partner, Sarina. She obsessed me.”

  Jason’s expression gave nothing away. “The child she lost was yours, wasn’t it?”

  He nodded. “I knew nothing about the child until I tried to have divorce papers served on her.”

  “Yes. The marriage.” He cocked his head. “That came as a shock.”

  “For me, too. It wasn’t until the divorce was final that I realized what I’d given up.” He shifted. “You and Gracie were at the hospital to see Glory, weren’t you? I’d never seen your mysterious stepsister. I never connected either of you with Glory.”

  “It took us a long time to win her trust. We love her very much. No child should ever have to go through what she did.”

  “What about those two boys who assaulted her?” Rodrigo asked with bridled fury.

  Jason pursed his lips. “Someone informed on them when they participated in a drug deal. I can’t imagine who. There was tape and photos, too. They drew fifteen years each.”

  “Not enough, but a start,” Rodrigo muttered.

  “That’s not all. Somehow it got mentioned to the other inmates that they’d sodomized a little girl in foster care. The last I heard, they had to live in solitary confinement for their own protection.”

  “My heart breaks,” Rodrigo replied, but he was smiling faintly.

  “What’s that old saying, that God’s mill grinds slowly but relentlessly? Justice is eventually served.”

  Rodrigo’s eyes saddened. “I’ve already had mine. I’ll spend the rest of my life grieving for what I threw away. Glory will never forgive me. I can’t even blame her.”

  Jason’s eyes narrowed. “You’re in love with her.”

  Rodrigo’s face closed up. He got to his feet. “I’m going out of the country tomorrow, to meet with my cousin over the border. He phoned me and said he has intelligence on an upcoming operation run by some ex-feds and a couple of gang members from El Salvador. They’re the ones who helped set up Walt Monroe, one of our DEA agents who went undercover, so that another man could kill him.” His dark eyes flashed. “We want them very badly.”

  Jason scowled. “Does your cousin often phone you about drug deals?”

  Rodrigo shrugged. “He hasn’t before, but this is a special case. I asked him to keep his eyes open when I heard that some gang members we’d been investigating were going to be in on the buy.”

  “One of my vice presidents was nabbed when he went over the border to talk to some businessmen about oil investments. The government doesn’t bargain with kidnappers, but we had to. We got him out with a sizable donation, but he’ll never look the same,” he added darkly. “They’re helping to finance their operations with ransom these days. You’d be a tasty catch, especially if they found out you were instrumental in that last cocaine bust.”

  Rodrigo waved the concern away. “I’ve been at this for a long time. I can take care of myself.”

  “Our hostage told us that they’ve got a pipeline right into the DEA’s office.”

  “They did have, a guy named Kennedy, but he’s in prison.”

  “Not Kennedy,” came the terse reply. “Someone else. A great deal of money is involved. They’re buying inside information. Don’t share your plans with anyone in your organization.”

  Rodrigo frowned. This was disturbing news. “I’ll check into it,” he said after a minute. Then he chuckled. “If they do nab me, Cobb will probably offer congratulations. He was furious that I was undercover during one of his cleanup operations and he didn’t know about it. It was his office I ransacked after my sister was killed. We’re wary of each other.”

  “I heard about some of your exploits from Glory,” Jason replied. “You were all she talked about when she came back from Jacobsville.”

  That only made the pain worse. He grimaced. “When she’s better, tell her I’m sorry that I brought on this attack.” His dark eyes flashed. “She seems to be attached to Kilraven lately. I don’t like it.”

  Jason began to see the light. “She’s fond of him,” he told the other man. “Only fond.”

  There were layers of meaning in those few words. Rodrigo felt a little better. “When I get back, I’m going on the attack,” he said. “Roses, chocolates, mariachi serenades, the works. Right outside the courtroom, if that’s what it takes.”

  Jason actually grinned. “Can I tell her?”

  “Better not. The element of surprise might work wonders.” Rodrigo smiled, and shook the other man’s hand. “Thanks. For everything.”

  “You should never have signed those divorce papers.”

  “You’re telling me,” Rodrigo sighed.

&nbs
p; GLORY SETTLED BACK INTO her routine, forced herself to take her medicine more regularly and began to enjoy life again, even if it had less flavor after Rodrigo’s exit. Late at night when she closed her eyes, she could still feel his lips kissing away the tears, hear him whispering “beloved” in Spanish at her ear. The only comfort she had was his fury over Kilraven. If that wasn’t jealousy, she was a porcupine.

  She knew he’d gone overseas. She didn’t know where, or why. She hoped he wasn’t risking his life in another sting. She wondered where he was. She found out unexpectedly, a week later, just a little while past Thanksgiving.

  Marquez came to her office to tell her in person. He was solemn and uneasy, and he hesitated.

  “Well?” she asked, curious.

  “It’s about Ramirez.”

  Her heart jumped but she forced herself to remain calm. “He’s getting married to the woman who cooks him paella?” she asked, bracing herself.

  “No. He’s been kidnapped,” he said curtly. “He went down into Mexico on an informant’s tip, and he was nabbed by Fuentes’s brother.”

  “For ransom,” she said slowly.

  “Only partially for ransom,” he replied. “Mostly for revenge. Glory!”

  Marquez got her into a chair before she passed out. “I shouldn’t have put it like that. I’m sorry,” he said. “What can I do for you?”

  “Get me something cold and fizzy from the machine in the hall,” she said weakly. “But no caffeine.”

  “Right. Back in a jiffy.”

  She felt terrible. Rodrigo had been kidnapped. Her life was over. They might ask for ransom, but she was certain that they’d kill him anyway. It was her fault. If she’d asked him to stay, perhaps he would have. She’d wrapped herself in pride and indignation and tossed him out the door. He would die horribly. She’d never see him again. She’d be his murderer…!

  No! No, she wasn’t going to sit here and cry and give him up without a fight. She sat up straight. She wiped the tears away. This was no time for hysterics and self-condemnation. That wouldn’t help. Rodrigo was in trouble and she had to save him. The government wouldn’t negotiate, she knew that. His own agency wouldn’t be able to do anything for him. If he was to be rescued, she’d have to do it. She wasn’t going to take this lying down. Those murderers weren’t going to kill Rodrigo.