Private Melody

by Altonya Washington

  “Now hold up a damn minute! You don’t think I—”

  “The way it was said. Rick thought a staff member may’ve attacked him.”

  “This is craziness!” Vaughn stood. “I can’t believe you’re losin’ it with me—me of all people!”

  “Don’t play me for a fool any more than you already have. I’m way too pissed off to deal with it.”

  “Drop it, T. You’re only pissed off over Kianti leaving. Hell, get over it—there’ll be others.”

  “Every bit of it points to you.”

  “What?” Vaughn slammed his palms down on the table. “Some coincidences involving the staff, a CD and you making some cryptic comment about the condo?”

  Therin smoothed both hands over his head. “I didn’t mention a CD. How do you know about that, V?”

  The silence then was heavy, yet meaningful. Therin waited to see whether his oldest friend would take responsibility or play the innocent. Apparently, Vaughn Burgess decided on a combination of both.

  “Is it so difficult for you to give an inch, here? To share the wealth?”

  “And who shares the wealth with us?” Therin’s brittle temper snapped.

  “To hell with you, Therin! Idealistic and proud—closed off to what all of your good intentions do to those on the sidelines of your life.”

  “The staff knew what they were in for when they came to work for me.” Therin left his chair.

  Again, Vaughn slammed his hands down to the table. “Dammit, Ther, not your staff! Your friends. Hell, your own damn family!”

  Therin’s shoulders stiffened and he turned.

  Gary and Peter exchanged looks across the table.

  “What, Vaughn? What about my family?” Therin’s voice had softened to a deadly whisper. “What do you know about my parents?”

  Vaughn’s anger wilted into a bit of disbelief. “Are you asking— Are you accusing me of having something to do with—”

  “Did you?”

  “Son of a bitch!” Vaughn kicked away his chair. “I don’t have to put up with this shit!” He moved for the door only to have Gary and Peter block his way. He looked toward Therin again.

  “You placin’ me under arrest, Mr. Ambassador?”

  “They’re taking you to your office.” Therin nodded toward Peter and Gary. “Clean it out. You’re fired.”

  “Hmph.” Vaughn’s lip curled into a snarl and he regarded Therin with nasty intent. “All we tried to do to get you to break, to play ball, and the only thing it took was us threatening your latest piece of ass.”

  “Come on, Vaughn.” Gary tugged the sleeve of his suit jacket.

  Vaughn jerked away. “And she’s a prime piece, don’t get me wrong, Ther.”

  “Get him out of here,” Therin growled.

  “Does she play a tune for you once you’ve screwed her brains out?”

  Therin leapt across the table. He snagged the front of Vaughn’s shirt in one hand and used the other to slam his fist into his jaw. Gary and Peter’s combined efforts broke Therin’s vise grip minutes later.

  Despite a busted lip, Vaughn struggled to break away from Gary and Peter as they pulled him out of the conference room.

  “You’re just a small fish, Therin! These folks play to win! They won’t stop until EYES is done, finished, over! I’m the least of your problems!”

  “Get him out!” Therin’s fist hit the table, threatening to splinter it.

  Outside her home, Kianti shook the snow from her black ski boots. She’d been standing in the same spot for almost seven minutes and had only just realized that her feet were numb despite the fur insulation.

  Of course, thoughts of Therin were to blame. It had become increasingly difficult to keep her mind off him since the guys had returned to California. She knew it was unhealthy and that she had to get over it—over him. A few more days of moping and then it was back to the land of the living, she swore to herself.

  A crunch in the otherwise-silent early evening caught her ear. She whirled around to find Therin making his way toward her.

  “They threatened me with you,” he said when there were only a few feet separating them. “They threatened me with you, Key.” His voice was hushed that time as he lifted his hands in a show of defenselessness.

  “Hmph.” She rolled her eyes and studied him with disdain. “You should’ve asked the guys not to be so honest when they told me what you said. I already know the truth.”

  Therin smiled. “The truth, right…” He took a small step closer. “About how I thought I could handle it, but I couldn’t. How the sex was incredible but I couldn’t take knowing you could die on me.”

  She gasped.

  “I knew I couldn’t get you to leave me any other way. If I’d told you someone had gotten into the condo while we slept that morning and left a threat on your life, I’d have never gotten you to go, would I?”

  “So instead you…arranged for my friends—my…my family to hurt me that way?”

  “It was stupid, but I was afraid. It’s true,” he confirmed when she watched him in disbelief. Again, he stepped closer. “Knowing you’re alive and hating me is way more acceptable than having you dead. You may not approve of my methods, Kia. Hell…I don’t approve of them, but they were all I had.”

  Kianti pressed a hand to her throat to hold back a sob. “Couldn’t you have trusted me to—to let you handle—”

  “No. No, baby, I couldn’t.”

  But for the limbs snapping and the brush creaking beneath the weight of the snow, there was silence.

  “My parents died in a car accident. I never thought it was an accident.” He walked past her to look out over the property. “It happened about two years after I got the ambassador’s post. Just after I connected with EYES.”

  Kianti hugged herself and observed the rigid set of his broad shoulders as he talked.

  “I brought a lot of big names on board with me when I came to the organization. It was the first real exposure the group got on a…cultural stage.” He shrugged. “They’d been around for years, but in the shadows.” He kicked at a stone with the tip of a black hiking boot.

  “When I brought in my friends, it was suddenly cool to support education. The notice brought in tons of money. A lot of people didn’t like that. I had no idea how much, not even when the threats started. Then my parents…” He began to rub his hand rapidly back and forth across his forehead as though that would drive out the memories. He turned back to Kianti.

  “I didn’t take threats seriously back then. I’ll never make that mistake again. Never again with someone I love.”

  She blinked. “Someone you…what?”

  “I love you.” He laughed but the gesture carried no amusement. “I love you, Kianti, and I should have told you that a very long time ago. Instead, I played this stupid game and wound up having you hate me.”

  He stood there looking so rattled and Kianti could only stand there hugging herself as she absorbed all that he’d said. Her heart pounded and not from anything having to do with illness—far from it. She was opening her mouth to confess the emotions she’d held back long enough.

  Therin grunted suddenly. Before Kianti could say a word, he crumpled to the ground right before her eyes.

  Chapter 17

  The snow was thick and freezing, but his chest felt on fire. The fiery feeling however soon vanished, right along with the biting cold as the feeling left his arms and legs. Barely, he managed to turn his head and saw the red ooze staining the white. He’d been shot.

  Kianti’s face eased into his line of vision and he smiled. She looked terrified. Therin thought she was the loveliest thing he’d ever seen. He closed his eyes.

  “Therin? Therin!” She was calling him, frantically shoving at his chest until she snatched her hands away not wanting to injure him further. “Therin, baby, please…” she whispered lightly, slapping his cheeks. She pulled off the fuzzy brown mittens and pressed her fingertips to either side of his neck to feel for a pulse. />
  “Please, God…please.” Her tone was soft, panicky. Quickly she glanced around for any sign of the shooter. Her first thought was that someone was out hunting and Therin got caught in the line of fire. She knew that wasn’t it.

  “Therin? Therin, honey, come on. Wake up now. Wake up.” She added a bit more force behind the slaps to his cheeks. They had to get going. Who knew how close the shooter was. Shooters? She wouldn’t think of that.

  “Kia…”

  Therin was moaning and frowning intermittently. Gradually, he came round, responding to her calls and slaps to his face.

  “Baby, I have to get you out of here.” I have to get us out of here.

  Kianti sat back on her legs and studied him writhing in the snow. She fought to keep her confidence high while trying to calculate his weight. He was at least six feet tall and built like a wall of lean muscle.

  Good luck lifting this specimen, girl.

  “Therin?” she called again, applying the slaps to his cheek. “Therin, honey?” She smiled when his brilliant hazel gaze was focused on her face.

  Awareness flooded his eyes as it seemed to register within him that their situation was dire.

  “Honey, we’ve got to move.” Kianti pushed her hair beneath the black and brown toboggan she wore. Rising to her feet, she gripped his hands and tugged. “Therin, we’ve got to go.” She wouldn’t look at the blood and commanded the firmness to remain in her voice.

  She attempted to pull him up, but only managed to land on her rump in the snow. Crawling around behind him, she hooked her hands beneath his arms and linked them together in front of his chest.

  “Honey, please.” She encouraged a small measure of assistance, pressing a kiss to his temple. “That’s it, that’s it, baby.” She celebrated his weak attempt to brace against her and rise.

  She kept looking around for the shooter, but there was no movement or sound of snow crunching underfoot save theirs.

  Therin was on his feet eventually. The bulk of his weight, however, rested on Kianti, and she had to plant her feet firmly before taking each step.

  “You could…move more quick—quickly without me.” He winced, recognizing the futility of their current rate of speed. “You could bring help.”

  “To do what?” She tightened her hold on his jacket. “To see to a dead man? That’s a stupid idea, so unless you’ve got better words of encouragement, shut up and lean on me.”

  Wren set aside the basket of freshly folded towels she’d just brought up from the laundry room. She smoothed her hands across the sleeves of her blue-and-green flannel shirt while moving closer to the windows over the kitchen sink.

  She frowned. It was impossible to miss the red streams staining the snow in a lengthy trail. Seconds after the discovery, she heard heavy banging on the back door.

  “Vern!” Cautiously, Wren peeked out the curtain covering the window cut into the back door. “Vern!” she cried again while opening the door to Therin and Kianti.

  “Jesus,” Vern called when he ran into the kitchen. He arrived just in the nick of time.

  Whatever strength had been driving Kianti gave out just then. Therin fell right into Vernon’s arms and Kianti fell right against Wren.

  “What happened?”

  “I don’t know! I just looked outside, saw the blood… Lord…”

  “Calm yourself, love.” Vern maintained the cooler head while hefting Therin against him. “Get her to that chair,” he instructed his wife while he settled Therin to the sofa on the other side of the kitchen.

  “I’m fine, Wren.” Kianti felt her well-being improve the instant she sat down. Still, Wren worked feverishly, assuring herself that Kianti hadn’t been wounded. “Therin’s been shot, help Vern.” Kianti squeezed the woman’s hand. “Please, Wren.”

  Wren gave a quick nod and then ran over to see to the men. Kianti made her way slowly toward the sofa. She stopped halfway, too terrified to go forward and too terrified to turn back.

  “I need my bag,” Vern said, grimacing at the clothing that was matted to Therin’s skin by the now-congealing blood. “Wren…”

  While Vernon spoke to his wife about the things he’d need to assist Therin, Kianti drew on her courage and went to the sofa. Gently, she brushed her hand along Therin’s face, sobbing then as she leaned close to kiss his cheek and jaw.

  “Hang on, please hang on for me…”

  “Count on it,” Therin grunted even as a faint smile curved his mouth. “No way am I dying and missing out on all this…pampering.”

  Kianti gushed, unashamed, crying and laughing at once.

  “Shh…it’s all right, it’s all right,” Therin soothed, though he seemed contented by her emotional display. “Mmm…you’re gonna have to cool it, you know? Vern can only see to one of us at a time and I’ve got first dibs.”

  “Therin? I’ve got something here that’ll make you woozy—very woozy,” Wren said as she and Vern returned to work on the wound. Silence settled as she administered the shot.

  “Good news,” Vern called once he’d cut away Therin’s jacket and shirts. “Looks like the bullet went straight through.” He examined more closely while nodding. “Yep, straight through, and I can’t see where anything vital’s been hit.”

  Tensions eased at the news. Vernon and Wren worked diligently over the patient. They found the bullet that went through Therin’s side, lodged in the heavy padding of the jacket he’d been wearing.

  Kianti tried to remain standing close by to offer whatever assistance Vernon and Wren might need. It was clear that she was worn down and completely out. She didn’t argue when Wren bullied her into one of the cushiony recliners in the den off from the kitchen.

  “You’re quite a woman, you know?” Wren raved, tucking a heavy patchwork quilt around Kianti once she’d removed her boots so her feet could warm near the fire. “You’ve just saved the life of the man you love.” She kissed Kianti’s temple and left her.

  The words filled Kianti with pride and, more important, strength. She smiled serenely and eased into a deep sleep in seconds.

  Hours later, Therin woke and found himself looking up into Kianti’s face. Smiling, he snuggled his head deeper into her lap. “Am I dead?” he asked.

  “You’re not,” she confirmed.

  “Hmph, and here I thought you were an angel.”

  “I am.” She shrugged and caressed his mouth with her thumb. “But earthbound just now.”

  “I love—”

  “I love you,” she said first.

  He chuckled weakly. “’Cause I took a bullet?”

  Kianti rolled her eyes. “Well…it was a sexy gesture but I felt it was a tad much.”

  “I’m sorry.” He’d scarcely completed the apology before her mouth was covering his.

  A knock to the bedroom door interrupted them. It was Vernon and Wren come to check on their patient.

  Therin reached out to take Vern’s hand. “Thanks, man.” He tugged on Wren’s hand to bring her close and kiss her cheek.

  “We’ve got company,” Wren announced after tucking the covers in around Therin and Kianti.

  Therin frowned when he saw the familiar face peek inside the opening of the door. “Morgan?” he called, attempting to push himself up before Kianti settled him back against her chest.

  “Boss,” Morgan Felts greeted. “Are you two all right?” he asked Kianti, leaning over to squeeze her hand. “Sorry for not getting here earlier.” He smirked at the confusion on their faces. “Guess I’ve been late all the way around. You even managed to take Vaughn down before I could get to him.”

  “Vaughn?”

  “He was behind it,” Therin answered Kianti, but his eyes never left Morgan’s face. “The threat on you—everything. How did you know?” he asked Morgan.

  “I started digging around after what happened with Ruby.” Morgan took a seat in the armchair facing the bed. “I couldn’t get that stage name of hers out of my head. Finally, I remembered where I heard it or, in this case
, saw it. I got together with Vaughn one night for drinks at his place. I remember swiping a few of his… DVDs.” He gave a meaningful nod toward Therin, not wanting to come right out and say “porn flicks” in front of Kianti.

  Therin smirked. “Only a few?”

  Morgan grinned in spite of himself. “All right already, so it was five. I only got around to watching two of them, though…one of the ones I grabbed was Spanish Heat.” He bit his lip on a curse. “Maybe if I’d gotten around to watching that one, we could have avoided all this crap. Vaughn had to know who she was when you hired her. He had those movies months before she even started.”

  Therin cursed, his eyes narrowing sharply when he moved and dull pain stabbed his side. “What brought you out here, Morg?”

  “The two dudes who arrested Marley Terrio at the party? I was there, by the way. Excellent playing,” he told Kianti, who beamed at the compliment. “Once Terrio was in police custody, they dipped and I followed them while they followed you.” He looked around at the cozy paneled bedroom. “’Course I didn’t know where here was until…”

  “Thanks, man.” Therin extended his hand to Morgan who held on to it for a time. “But we both know Vaughn and those fellas who arrested Terrio are small potatoes. There are way bigger fish behind this.”

  “Well, your boy Vaughn apparently knows that. I talked to Gary and Peter while we were waiting on you to wake up.”

  “What happened?” Therin watched as Morgan settled back in the chair.

  “He tried playing the big dog ’til he saw U.S. Feds along with Vancouver’s Finest. I never knew the man had such a lovely singing voice. Seems our high-powered elusive enemies were really a rather small faction of troublemakers with allegiance to politics as usual and obscene amounts of money being funneled into what benefits them most.” He shrugged. “Sad to say education wasn’t on their list.” Morgan laced his fingers and studied them for a time. “Seems everybody on the other side isn’t as loyal to education taking a backseat, as it would seem. More folks are realizing the importance of contributing to instead of castrating education budgets.” He smirked on the words. “Rest of Vaughn’s friends are either running for cover or trying to make deals. Some already spilled the beans about Marley Terrio being set up.”