by Mollie Molay
“Of course,” she answered. She schooled her expression carefully so that Luke wouldn’t see her inner struggle. “Maybe we can have breakfast together in Cancún before you leave?”
Luke breathed a sigh of relief. Arden hadn’t forgotten he’d told her he was going to catch the charter plane’s return flight to New York. So far, things had gone better than he’d hoped for.
He couldn’t tell her he had no intention of showing up at the Majestic Hotel Resort after the plane landed. And that when he disappeared, he would take the contents of the briefcase with him.
Gazing at the studied smile on Arden’s face, he could see hurt in her eyes no matter how she tried to hide it. He felt as though he’d betrayed her.
“Great, I’m looking forward to it.” Even as he told the lie a hollow feeling came over him at the thought of never seeing Arden again.
“McCauley! Hey, wait up a minute!”
Luke groaned as eyes and ears turned in his direction. He turned back to see Larry Alcott barreling toward them. “What are you doing here? I thought you went along to the hospital with your wife and baby?”
“I did,” the new father said, wearing a proud grin. “I came back here to get our things, when the doctors advised me to let Jenny and the baby rest for a day or two before I take them home. I was too excited to think of taking our things with us before.”
He peered around the holding area. “This doesn’t look like the same gate where Noel was born.”
“I know,” Luke agreed with a weary shrug. “We’ve been kept on the move so often I don’t recognize it myself anymore.”
“You don’t happen to have any of our carry-on luggage with you, do you?”
“No, and not our own, either. I’m afraid we’ve learned the hard way never to leave luggage unattended. Hope yours didn’t have anything of value.”
“Just our tour documents and some extra clothing.” Alcott shrugged his shoulders. “I don’t suppose anyone can use the documents, anyway. Not with Ms. Chambers standing guard. As for the clothes, I don’t think Jenny will mind losing them. She’s too happy with the baby to complain about a little thing like that.”
“Too bad about the honeymoon,” Luke offered as he shook Alcott’s offered hand. “Maybe you can celebrate later.”
“Oh, sure.” Alcott looked sheepish but obviously too happy at being a new father to mind missing a honeymoon. “It’s going to have to wait a few months until the baby is old enough to take along.”
“How’s the kid doing?”
“He’s fine,” Alcott beamed his pride in his new son. “In fact, he’s the best Christmas present Jenny and I’ve ever received. Thanks to you.”
“I didn’t have much to do with it,” Luke answered dryly. “I just tried to make your wife comfortable. Nature did the rest.”
“Nah, you’re just being modest. You talked her through the birth when it should have been me helping, just like in the Lamaze classes we took,” Alcott answered. “But I’m afraid it got too much for me. Maybe we can do something for you some day. In fact, I kinda wish you would have let us name the baby after you.”
Luke smiled, thinking of the unwanted notoriety already attached to him and of things to come. And what Alcott’s reaction would be if he knew the truth about what Luke was contemplating.
“Just look at it this way,” he advised. “You did the kid a favor when you named him Noel.”
“If you think so. But we won’t forget you—ever.” Alcott offered his hand for a final handshake. “Well, I have to get back. You did a wonderful job with my wife and son last night.” He beamed at Arden. “You did, too. I don’t know how to thank you both.”
“Just glad we could help,” Luke answered. He was uncomfortable with all the praise being heaped on him. Besides, he thought with a shudder, of the two births he’d witnessed, the Alcott blessed event had been a whole lot easier on him.
“Say, what’s the weather like outside?” Luke asked, anxious to get the subject off himself. “Any chance of the storm letting up anytime soon?”
“Yeah, a little, maybe. It’s not snowing right now, but it’s still cold and icy as hell.” He caught himself. “Sorry for the language, Mrs. McCauley. It’s just that I slipped half a dozen times getting from the taxi to the terminal. Well, so long! And Merry Christmas to you both.”
“Something good came out of the storm, didn’t it?” Arden said as she watched Alcott disappear into the crowd.
Luke turned back to gaze at the wistful smile on her face. A smile that cracked the hard shell around his doubting heart. “I couldn’t agree more,” he answered. But it wasn’t only because of the miracle of tiny Noel’s birth. He’d found Arden, hadn’t he? Even if only for a little while.
Maybe if they’d met at an earlier time in his life things might have ended differently. Before he’d become so hard, so cynical. And before he’d decided to enjoy the rest of his life in a manner that wasn’t exactly socially acceptable.
He was searching for a clear place to settle down for the night when he heard his name called again.
“Hey, McCauley!”
This time, the low-pitched sinister call stirred Luke’s memory of bygone threats. He’d been the target of dozens of disgruntled felons during his career with the government agency and this was one of them. But this was a voice he would have preferred never to have heard again.
Instinctively he started to reach for his gun and stepped in front of Arden to shield her. Damn! The gun was somewhere in the bowels of the Majestic plane! All of his senses went on alert. He turned to meet the eyes of a short, stocky dark-haired man who stood regarding him. The man’s menacing stance and the angry expression on his face was enough to send chills down Luke’s spine.
Joe Hoyt was a desperate man out of his past. A man he’d brought in for trial three years ago and who’d sworn to pay him back someday. A man who, the last Luke had heard, was in prison serving a twenty-to-life sentence for peddling drugs on the barrio streets of Chicago.
“What are you doing here?” Luke’s eyes scrutinized Hoyt’s clothing for any suspicious bulge that might broadcast the presence of a weapon.
“Meeting a friend, if it’s any of your business,” Hoyt sneered. “I’m out on appeal, no thanks to you. Got myself a good lawyer this time.” Meeting someone with a supply of drugs, more likely, Luke thought, but it wasn’t his business anymore. “Your lawyer’s not going to be good enough to keep you out of prison. I predict you’ll be back in no time,” Luke answered. “The law is the law. I don’t know anyone who’s bent it in more places than you.”
“Oh, yeah, wise guy?” Hoyt’s face grew mottled with his anger, his fists clenched and unclenched as he glared at Luke. “You think you’re so damn smart. Hell, guys like you have had everything go your way all your life. You don’t know what guys like me have to do just to stay alive.”
“Maybe. But ruining other people’s lives by selling them drugs isn’t the answer,” Luke answered darkly.
“For all the good it’s going to do you, keep preaching.” The drug dealer’s feral grin was as crooked as his teeth. “The word’s out on you, sucker. Your day’s coming. And sooner than you think.”
Icy fingers ran up and down Luke’s spine. He squared his shoulders and looked Hoyt directly in the eyes. In the man’s angry dark eyes, Luke’s worst nightmare stared back at him. He’d been in danger before, but this time things were different. He couldn’t rely on an official background to keep the guy in check or to bring him in. And with plans of his own, he couldn’t afford to take the chance on calling in terminal authorities.
He’d never been afraid before, and he wasn’t now. Not for himself. But he was afraid for Arden’s safety, now that Hoyt was eyeing what he could see of her with more than a little interest.
He inventoried his chances of protecting her from the street scum who was looking at her in such a predatory way. With the briefcase chained to his wrist and his holster empty, there was little he could do to de
fend her.
“Your woman?” Hoyt asked with a look of avarice on his swarthy face.
“None of your damn business,” Luke answered. He could feel Arden come to life behind him. From past experience, he knew she was gutsy enough to come up front and give Hoyt the dressing down of his life if he didn’t stop her. He shot a quick warning look behind him and prayed she wouldn’t do anything foolish.
“If you have anything more to say, spit it out,” he told Hoyt. “Otherwise, I suggest you get lost”
“What’s the matter, scared?”
Luke had had enough. He was sorely tempted to teach the guy a lesson he’d never forget. Or to strangle the bastard with the chain dangling from his wrist. But it was the wrong time for teaching Hoyt a lesson. There was Arden to consider.
“Not of you, punk,” he replied. “I’m busy right now. But, pick the time and the place and I’ll show you how scared I am.”
Hoyt laughed. “Hell, not with all these people around. I ain’t as stupid as that. If I was you, I’d watch my back. I’m going to take care of you when you least expect it,” he sneered. “And I won’t be sending you my calling card when I’m ready.”
Hoyt craned his neck trying to catch a glimpse of Arden. “So long, lady. Better enjoy your copper while you can.”
A hollow pit in his stomach, Luke watched the man swagger away. If he felt as if his blood had turned to ice, he wondered how a woman sheltered from this side of life would react. The low snort of contempt behind him told him what Arden thought of the deadly scene she witnessed. Instead. of being afraid, she sounded angry enough to join the argument.
What would she do if she were on her own and something like this happened to her?
Any thought of leaving her on her own evaporated in the cold wind that suddenly seemed to blow through the terminal.
“Why don’t you turn that man over to the authorities?” Arden demanded as she came out from behind him. “Or at least let me tell him what I thought of him!”
“Stay out of it, Arden.” Luke advised her. “You don’t know what you’re up against with a man like Hoyt.”
Luke watched Hoyt disappear in the crowd and mulled over the possibilities facing him. He could turn him in to the airport authorities, except it was likely the guy probably was legitimately out on bail or he wouldn’t have been so willing to be conspicuous. Besides, Hoyt hadn’t done anything illegal, not this time, anyway. The guy was at the airport for some reason, and Luke doubted it was to welcome someone home.
It was his word against Hoyt’s, and with suspicion already cast Luke’s way, he knew the answer to that one.
Was the presence of his former associate, Tom Andrews, and Hoyt’s appearance merely coincidence? Luke had the gut feeling Andrews knew what was in the briefcase and wanted it for himself. Coupled with knowing Hoyt had a score to settle, one and one added up to two shady characters. What if they’d somehow gotten together?
It was no use calling in the authorities. With his luck, he’d wind up having to take a trip downtown to the nearest police precinct.
Luke knew Hoyt was right. He’d be smart to watch his back.
But first he had to find some way to get Arden out of sight, to protect her from trouble until the storm passed and flights were called. Until then, there was safety in numbers.
If only Arden wasn’t wearing that too-wide, toolong white sweatshirt that broadcast I Love NY in letters that seemed to be a foot tall and calling attention to her.
“Come on,” he said, putting his free arm around Arden’s shoulders. “Everything’s going to be okay. Those were nothing more than empty threats of a desperate man. Unless he can find a judge who’s lost his marbles, the guy’s going to be back in prison before he knows what hit him.”
But he knew from experience there were judges who could be bought.
“It sounded as though he intends to get even with you for what he says you did to him.” Arden shuddered. “And to get even with me when he doesn’t even know me! You should have let me talk some sense into him.”
“Over my dead body,” Luke replied grimly. “I doubt that even your father could straighten the guy out”
There was some comfort in the thought that Arden would be safely out of the guy’s reach after tomorrow. And, if things went as he’d planned, so would he.
Something else was bothering him. The knowledge he was contemplating doing something to betray Arden’s trust in him. After tonight, it was beginning to bother the hell out of him.
He eyed her uneasily. Unless he missed his guess, this was the first time she’d come face-to-face with real trouble. Nothing in her background would have prepared her for tonight’s unexpected scenario.
“Let’s go back and join the tour group,” he said. “I could use a little company about now.”
Arden regarded Luke out of the corner of her eye. The dark and dangerous edge to him had returned, stronger than in the romantic fantasy she’d woven around him. That he might be involved in lifethreatening circumstances like the one she’d just witnessed hadn’t occurred to her until now. And that she might become involved in it herself was something she’d never thought of, either.
“Maybe you ought to report the man?” she asked uneasily. “What if he comes back?”
“I thought about that, but you can’t arrest a man for making threats,” Luke answered. “Hoyt wouldn’t dare do anything with so many people around, and not before his new hearing, anyway. We’ll be long gone by then.”
“You’re sure?”
“I’m sure. Besides, he thinks you’re my wife. He wouldn’t be looking for an Arden Crandall.”
Except that too many people knew her as Arden McCauley.
“In that case, do you suppose we could find something to eat,” Arden commented, gazing wistfully around her. “I don’t know when I’ve been so hungry.”
Luke hated to leave her long enough to check out the food concessions. On the other hand, it would take her mind off Hoyt.
He studied the waiting area for a familiar face. There were none, but he had the uneasy feeling he hadn’t heard the last from Hoyt, or possibly Andrews.
“Wait over there in the corner and don’t talk to anyone. I’ll make a quick foray and try to find something. If you see anything suspicious, holler for Security and scream your head off. I’ll be back in a few minutes.”
Arden watched him go with a sad smile. Instead of her being turned off by the Hoyt incident, she felt a stronger attraction for Luke than ever. He was still the man of her fantasies, and larger than life.
“Pardon me, Mrs. McCauley! Mrs. McCauley?”
Unused to being called by that name, it took Arden a minute to realize she was being called. She turned around. It was the security guard with the ManWanted poster in his hand. “Yes?”
“I’m sorry to bother you again, but I just can’t put your husband out of my mind. The resemblance between him and this guy keeps bugging me. As far as I can tell, the only difference between them is the mustache.”
“So?”
“So, did you ever see your husband with a mustache?”
Arden hid a shiver. The man’s resemblance to Luke was enough to make anyone question it.
Who was Luke, anyway? The bank robber with a phony passport or the former lawman he claimed to be? There was that briefcase…
“I can assure you, my husband is not the man in the poster!” she said emphatically. Luke had already struck a chord within her that no amount of suspicions could change. Not until he confessed to being a criminal.
“And you’re not his accomplice, either,” he answered with a leer. “So you said.”
“Right,” Arden answered, putting the steel in her voice she remembered her father had used on her when there had been no room for argument “And as a matter of fact, your questions are becoming ‘annoying! Why can’t you just leave us alone?”
“Just doing my job, Mrs. McCauley, just doing my job,” the man answered. “Say, how long did you say
you knew your husband before you married him?”
“I didn’t say. But it was long enough.”
“I’d still like to have a few words with him,” the guard insisted. “Where is he by the way?”
“Trying to find me something to eat”
“Really? Considering that the cupboards are bare around here, I’d say he’s off on a fool’s errand. Or maybe—” he paused with a sly emphasis that made Arden’s skin crawl “—he’s taken this opportunity to get away. If he’s the guy in the poster, maybe he’s run out on you.”
Run out on her? Never! Arden felt she knew Luke better than that. He’d never leave her alone after Hoyt had threatened them.
“You don’t know my husband or you wouldn’t suggest such a thing.” She glared at him sternly, daring him to make the next move. She knew the law well enough to know he couldn’t arrest her without cause. And so far, her only misstep had been to abandon her luggage. Unless, of course, she realized with an inward shudder, linking up with Luke turned out to be a crime.
“Okay, for now,” the man said. “But this isn’t over until it’s over. The heist your husband was involved in resulted in a bank security officer getting killed. We take care of our own.” He put the Wanted poster back in his breast pocket.
Her husband
In her mind, Arden became Luke’s wife. She took care of her own, too, she thought grimly as she watched the guard stride away.
“What did he want?” Luke asked as he came back.
“Just the same old subject. He wanted to know if you’re the man in the Wanted poster,” Arden replied. “I told him he was wrong.”
“He is,” Luke said quietly, gazing into Arden’s eyes. “You have my word on it.”
He wanted to take her in his arms and show her how grateful he was for her loyalty and how much she was beginning to mean to him. But he couldn’t. Not after he’d already said goodbye.
“We’re in luck,” he told her. “One of the bakeries decided to make an early delivery in between snow flurries.” He held up a plastic baggie with a croissant and a Danish inside. “It cost a bundle, but you won’t go hungry, after all.”
