Secret Lover

by Shawna Delacorte

  Jim finally found his voice but was not happy with the way it sounded. “This was the only room they had, otherwise I would have gotten two rooms...or at least a room with two beds.” He glanced around the room. “I’ll sleep in the chair.”

  “You can’t do that. That chair is too small. You won’t be able to get any sleep.” It was a strange scene unfolding in her mind. Her body tingled with the sexually charged atmosphere that filled the space between them.

  His words were thick, and an edge of huskiness crept into his voice. “I’ll get more sleep in that chair than I will in that bed trying to keep my hands off you.”

  She knew cooler heads should prevail, which was the exact tone he was trying to project. She knew the importance of what they needed to accomplish should be enough incentive to keep things under control. She also knew that her desires were quickly overtaking her logic.

  She glanced at the chair. “I’d be more comfortable in the chair than you would. I’ll sleep there...or maybe on the floor.” She went to the closet and retrieved the extra blanket, then took one of the pillows from the bed.

  He took the blanket and pillow from her hand and went to the large chair in the corner. He settled his large frame into the chair, pulled the blanket up over his shoulders and closed his eyes. “Good night, Andi. I’ll see you in the morning.”

  She climbed into bed and turned out the lamp. “Good night, Jim.” She lay awake for a long time, listening to the intensity of the storm and trying to sort out things in her head. She had always prided herself on her levelheadedness and clear thinking, but for the past few days she had been very confused about her feelings. She knew this man so well, yet did not know him at all.

  She had wanted, with all her heart, for him to make love to her. But it could not happen. She also knew Steve was correct about personal involvement complicating things far more than they already were. As Steve had told her when they spoke earlier, he had put the plan into motion and it was too late to change things now. She could not allow personal feelings to jeopardize what needed to be done. She finally slipped into a light sleep.

  She did not know how long she had been sleeping when the sound of the storm roused her to wakefulness. She lay on her side, staring blankly at the window, watching as the lightning lit up the outside for an instant, only to disappear and then be followed by the sound of thunder. Then another flash illuminated the surrounding area.

  Andi’s heart jumped into her throat. There, just outside the window, the silhouette of a person. She sat up, all her senses alert as the adrenaline surge pumped through her body. Was Jim awake? She listened but did not hear anything other than the storm. Another flash and again she saw the silhouette against the window.

  She slipped out of bed and made her way across the room toward the chair, the rush of fear lingering like the rumbling of the thunder. Her voice may have been a whisper, but the urgency was implicit. “Jim—are you awake?” She reached out and grabbed his arm, shaking him as she spoke. “Jim... there’s someone standing outside the window.”

  He jerked to attention, turning toward the direction of her voice. His words may have been thick with sleep, but his senses were fully alert. “What? Where?”

  “Outside the window...there’s someone there. You can see the silhouette each time the lightning flashes. Look—” It took only a moment before another flash revealed the silhouette to Jim.

  A cold tremor of fear sliced through his body. Someone had found them, somehow they had been followed. Whoever it was had waited until they were asleep and the noise of the storm would cover any extraneous sounds. He moved swiftly, his words a hushed whisper as he searched for his shoes. “You get some clothes on. I’ll open the door and rush him. You get yourself around the corner of the building as fast as you can and find someplace safe to hide.”

  She knew there was no time to argue with him or challenge his orders. This was his area of expertise, not hers. He was the one who had successfully evaded several government agencies and Buchanan’s people for five years. She pulled on her jeans and jammed her bare feet into her boots. He listened for a minute at the door, then flung it open. The cold, wet wind bit into his face just as another flash of lightning lit up the scene.

  “Hey, you!” Jim’s voice carried above the sound of the storm. “Get out of there!” He grabbed Andi’s arm, preventing her from leaving. He had been momentarily stunned at the sight that greeted him—someone wearing a rain poncho attempting to break into the car. A car thief—a common, run-of-the-mill car thief.

  The thief s head jerked up and turned toward the sound of the shout. Jim saw that it was a teenage boy. The boy quickly took off running around the corner of the building and out of sight. Jim closed the door, snapping on the light as he turned toward Andi. His voice contained the relief he felt. “Well, my heartbeat has almost returned to normal. How. about yours?”

  “Not quite yet.” She took a calming breath. “I’m not sure it’ll ever be normal again.”

  He put his arm reassuringly around her shoulder, his voice soft without negating the seriousness of his words. “Now do you see what I mean? How getting yourself involved in this nightmare is no life for you? How the slightest little thing can send the adrenaline pumping through your body?” He turned her until she faced him. “Are you sure you want to continue with this insanity?”

  She rested her head against his shoulder. “Yes, I’m sure. I have something at my house that will help you put a stop to this so you’ll be able to put Milo Buchanan away and begin to lead a normal life again.” She looked up into his face, into the concern in his eyes. “How can I not continue with this?”

  Her question remained unanswered as Jim glanced at his watch. “It’s five-thirty. It’ll be daylight by the time we get ready and hit the road.”

  “We need to go to the Eureka airport and turn in my rental car and get another one before we head out of town. If the weather doesn’t slow us down and if we luck out on the traffic through San Francisco and Los Angeles, it’ll still be nine-thirty or ten o’clock tonight before we get to La Jolla—and that’s an awful lot of ifs.” She reached up and touched his cheek, feeling the stubble of his overnight whisker growth. “It’ll be a very long day.”

  Both of them moved quickly, and they were soon on their way to the airport and the rental car agency. She approached the only clerk on duty, her voice filled with confidence.

  “I’d like to turn in this Seattle rental and get another one.” She handed him the paperwork and smiled.

  The clerk looked at her suspiciously, then studied the rental contract. “Let’s see, you rented this at SeaTac airport almost two weeks ago, indicating that you would be returning the car to the same location, then you drove here and now you want to exchange the car for another one?”

  She looked at him, her eyes widening in perfect innocence. “Is there a problem with that?”

  “Well, no. It’s just that it’s a rather unusual request. Where will you be returning the exchange vehicle?”

  “We’ll turn it in at the rental office at the San Diego airport.” She noticed the look in the clerk’s eye as he studied her for a moment, then turned his attention toward Jim.

  Jim leaned toward her and snuggled his face into her hair, partly to conceal it from the clerk and partly to play out the charade they had planned should things not go quickly and smoothly. His words were whispered but said loud enough for the clerk to hear. “Come on, honey. We need to be on our way if we’re going to get to that secluded little seaside inn by lunchtime. And then we’ll have the entire afternoon—just the two of us, a bottle of champagne, the sound of the rain, the hot tub and the king-size bed....” He allowed his voice to trail off, having said enough for the clerk to get the idea.

  Andi glanced shyly at the clerk and offered an embarrassed explanation. “We were married in Washington but decided that rather than flying back to San Diego we’d drive along the coast and take our time. We’d like to exchange the car for a van, beca
use we want to stop in wine country at some of the antique shops. A van will give us the room to take our purchases home with us.” She breathed an inward sigh of relief as she saw the acceptance in the clerk’s eyes and the slightly lascivious grin on his lips.

  “You’re in luck. I happen to have a very nice van that’s ready to go. We’ll just take care of this paperwork and then you can be on your way.”

  Chapter Six

  Frank Norton paced nervously up and down his living room floor. He should have been on his way to his office half an hour ago. Finally the phone rang, the call he had been waiting for. “Where the hell have you been? You were supposed to have called an hour ago. I have office hours to maintain, I can’t spend my mornings at home waiting around for phone calls.”

  “So stop wasting time by complaining. What’s so urgent that we couldn’t take care of it in your office?”

  Frank’s voice had an obvious nervous timbre to it. “I don’t want this to reach the wrong ears, and there’s no way I can be one hundred percent sure that my office is completely secure regardless of what they tell me.”

  “So, what’s the problem?”

  “It’s Ross Durant. He’s been acting very suspiciously the last couple of days. I’ve had no less than four phone calls from him. He doesn’t really say anything, but with each call he sounds more stressed-out than in the one before. There’s definitely something going on with him and I don’t like it. I think you should have someone look into it. He’s due for retirement in a couple of years. If Ross has decided that his government pension plus his other investments aren’t enough and has changed allegiance, then we need to know about it. We also need to know how long it’s been going on. In fact, there are a couple of other people whose names have popped into my mind the past day or so in connection with Hollander.”

  “Oh? Who did you have in mind?”

  Frank tried to swallow his nervousness. “Lou Quincy, for one. He was head of the U.S. Marshals office here in Chicago. As I recall, he was unhappy about his lack of career advancement. He and Phil Herman were about the same age. They used to commiserate about having to live on a government pension in the very near future. We need to find out what the hell is Ross Durant’s problem and confirm what Lou Quincy has been doing lately. I’ve already started making some discreet inquiries along those lines. The possible repercussions from this won’t be pretty, especially if it gets into the press.”

  “That’s all you’re worried about? I’ll have my people check on Ross Durant and you look into Lou Quincy’s activities. Try to do it without making it seem like an official inquiry.”

  “I can take care of my end, you just make sure you don’t do something that will cause any adverse publicity. I don’t want anything standing between me and the governor’s office.” Frank replaced the receiver in the cradle and left for his office.

  THE RAIN WAS AS HEAVY as it had been the night before as Jim and Andi drove south out of Eureka, the only saving grace being that it was now daylight. They made small talk, but it was obvious that they each had things on their minds, things they were not talking about.

  Andi cautiously approached a situation that she knew was going to cause an argument, but it had to be brought up before they got to her house. She nervously cleared her throat as she thought over the exact words she would use. “There was something else when I was talking to Steve last night....” She did not like the uneasiness that had settled in the pit of her stomach or the less-than-firm tone of her voice. She knew Jim well enough to know he was not going to like what she was about to say. “He has an informant who might be willing to meet with me—”

  “You!” The shock of her words caught him totally off guard. He snapped his head toward her, momentarily taking his attention from the road. An edge of anger crept into his voice. “What the hell do you mean by meet with you? This is my problem, not yours. If anyone meets with an informant it’s going to be me, not your.”

  Even though it was the reaction she had expected, her irritation at his overbearing response pushed her anger to match his. “It’s my lead, I’m the one who’s meeting with him. If you show your face before it’s safe then we could blow this whole thing—”

  “Your lead? You think this is a competition of some sort to see who wins the plum assignment?” He jerked the van to the side of the road, the tires squealing as he braked to a halt. He twisted around in the seat until he faced her. He saw the defiance in her eyes and the stubborn set of her jaw. He would show her that he was equally determined. “I’m telling you—”

  “You’re telling me?” Her voice became louder as her anger rose. “You mean you’re giving me orders? Who do you think you are?”

  His words were emphatic without being loud. His subdued voice held a strange calm that bordered on ominous. “You want to know who I think I am? I think I’m the man whose entire life has been turned inside out, who has lived a hellish nightmare from the moment I discovered what Milo Buchanan was up to, who was betrayed by the very people who were supposed to be protecting me. I’m the man who has been on the run for the past five years. And I’m the one who will be putting an end to this. If there is a lead to follow or an informant to meet with, then I’m the one who will do it—not you.”

  “You can’t meet with an informant if I don’t tell you who he is and where the meeting is set to take place.”

  They glared at each other, the only sound intruding into their heated argument was the rain beating on the roof of the van and the swishing of the windshield wipers.

  Her manner softened a little. They still had many hours of driving ahead of them. It was going to be a very long day and they did not have the luxury of wasting time parked on the side of the highway arguing. “We can talk about it when we get to my house.”

  He put the transmission in gear and eased the van back onto the highway. “There’s nothing to discuss. It’s going to be done my way.” He stared straight ahead, his jaw set in a tight line.

  Andi held her temper and her words. Jim’s attitude told her there was no use in continuing the argument, at least not at that time. She tried to put herself in his position, to understand what was going on inside him, but she knew she would never really be able to fully understand what he had been through. They continued on down the highway in silence.

  What seemed like hundreds of thoughts darted around in Jim’s head as he frantically tried to pull everything together. It had all happened so suddenly. Beyond the need for him to hear the interview tape she had at her house, there had been no real plan. Before they even arrived in La Jolla, things had escalated and the stakes had become higher. The information about Steve Westerfall having an informant and Andi insisting on meeting with him said that some sort of cohesive plan had to be determined. It also said that Steve Westerfall and Andi were involved in this much deeper than he had been led to believe. Exactly what had been going on behind his back? It was a concern that lodged in his consciousness and refused to go away. It gave him very mixed feelings about Andi and her true objectives.

  He thought about the night before, about the moment he had made the decision to sleep in the chair. There was no way, regardless of how honorable his intentions might have been, that he could have spent another night in the same bed with her without their making love. It was not just that he had been alone for so long—it was Andi. She excited him in a way he had almost forgotten was possible. But could he really trust her? He wanted to, but there were still too many unanswered questions where she was concerned, and the number of those questions seemed to be growing.

  Neither of them said much as the miles gave way and the time passed. They finally stopped for a quick lunch in Santa Rosa, about an hour or so north of San Francisco. Andi took her turn behind the wheel when they got under way again. The rain continued, but it had slacked off from the downpour of that morning to a steady rainfall. Jim had remained withdrawn and uncommunicative.

  She wanted to turn inland to Interstate 5, where it would be a s
traight shot right down the middle of the state all the way to San Diego. It was the route she had originally wanted to take. At the town of Novato she turned off Highway 101 and picked up Highway 37 headed east.

  Jim sat up straight and looked around, trying to get his bearings. “What are you doing?”

  “I’m bypassing the traffic on the city streets through San Francisco. This road skirts the north end of the bay and puts us on the east side.” She glanced at him for a moment, then continued. “From there we can cut over to Interstate 5. It will save us two or three hours.”

  His voice held a sharp edge to it. “I thought we discussed—”

  “We didn’t discuss anything!” Her level of anger matched his exactly. “You were driving so you did what you wanted without regard to the most expedient route. Well, now I’m driving. My way will be quicker, more direct.”

  He glanced over at her again. They should not be snapping at each other. It could very well be that their time together would be limited to only another day or two. When they arrived at her house and he listened to the tape—

  “Look out!” He saw the dark form of a large truck cut right in front of them, spewing mud and water across the windshield.

  Andi slammed on the brakes. She gripped the steering wheel so tightly that her knuckles turned white as she tried to steer clear of the reckless driver. She fought to maintain control of the skidding van, but the wet road presented too much of an obstacle. They finally came to rest after sliding through the mud onto the shoulder. She took a deep breath in an attempt to force some calm to her reality.

  Jim’s words came out in a rush as he unbuckled his seat belt and reached for her. Whatever anger had existed only a couple of minutes earlier had disappeared in a heartbeat. “Andi—are you all right? You’re not hurt, are you?” He slid over next to her, putting his arm around her shoulder and drawing her close to him.