by Patti Berg
“We’ve done nothing illegal. No judge is going to give you a restraining order.”
Trevor shrugged. “If that doesn’t work, I’ll use my backup plan.”
“Which is?” Paxton asked.
“I took some very interesting photographs of my own this afternoon.”
Adriana watched Paul Dorn’s brow furrow as he listened to Trevor’s words.
“Pictures?” Paxton questioned. “Of what?”
“Nothing of much concern, I’m sure. A kiss or two while you and Mr. Dorn were working in the yard. An affectionate hug.”
Perspiration beaded on Paxton’s brow, and Paul Dorn gripped the edge of the door.
Trevor tucked a hand into his pants pocket, and continued casually. “I was thinking about selling them to the tabloids. I know you’re trying to get a start in the movies, Mr. Dorn, and I thought a little exposure might be good for you. Your friend Mr. Paxton seems to think that the public is intrigued by pictures of this sort.”
“Don’t listen to him, Paul. He’s bluffing.”
“I don’t like the sound of this,” Dorn stated.
‘There’s nothing to worry about,” Trevor said with a grin. ‘Just give me the pictures you’ve taken recently, and the problem’s solved.”
“That’s enough, Montgomery,” Paxton bellowed. “You can’t intimidate me.”
Paul Dorn put a hand on Paxton’s shoulder. “Look, Jim. I’m not coming out over this. My folks don’t even know.”
“No one has to know a thing,” Trevor interrupted, directing his words to Paxton. “I want the negatives, and I want you to stay away from Adriana.”
“I want your negatives, too,” Paxton said. ‘Turnabout’s fair play.”
“I don’t think so. They’re my insurance policy against any future encounters Adriana might accidentally have with you.”
Paxton laughed. “No photos from you. None from us.”
“Give them to him,” Dorn stated through clenched teeth, “or I’m history.”
“Don’t be an idiot, he’s just bluffing.”
“Well, I’m not willing to take that chance.”
Paxton looked at Dorn, and, shaking his head, he stormed into the house.
“Sorry this little problem came up,” Dorn said to Trevor and Adriana. “Money’s not always easy to come by.”
Paxton pushed around Dorn and shoved a large envelope in Trevor’s hands. “That’s everything. Now get out of here.”
Trevor smiled. “Thanks for being so accommodating.”
“Get out,” Paxton bellowed.
“Right,” Trevor stated, tossing Paxton a two-fingered salute before grabbing Adriana’s hand and sauntering down the stairs.
Adriana looked back when she heard the slamming door and raised but garbled voices coming from inside the house.
“Do you really have pictures?” she asked Trevor as they neared the Duesenberg.
“I might stoop to threats, but never to blackmail.”
“Then how did you know about the two of them?”
“I saw them together, just as I said. I honestly didn’t pay much attention to their relationship, but Stewart made a wisecrack, and it made me start thinking.”
“Stewart was with you?” Adriana asked, surprised at this newest revelation.
“Last night, too. He and Maggie, both. We had dinner together, so I could tell him how I want my finances handled.”
“I don’t understand,” Adriana said, when Trevor opened the car door and she slid inside.
Trevor leaned over the passenger door, smiling easily as he stroked a finger over the pencil-thin mustache he’d just started to regrow. “Movie stars make a lot of money—if the negotiations are handled correctly. Fortunately, I found a damn fine agent. I figured I’d need a business manager who’s just as good.”
“But Stewart despises you.”
“We’ll work through that.” Trevor circled the car and climbed behind the wheel. “It took him a while to warm to the idea that I was really Trevor Montgomery—Junior, that is. It didn’t take long for him to warm up to my money. I’m sure he’ll come around in time.”
Always so positive, she thought. Always so sure of himself.
“I missed you,” she said. “I’ve never felt so lonely. So lost.”
He leaned across the seat, wove his fingers through her hair, and pulled her close. “I’m not going anywhere ever again.”
His lips touched hers tentatively, then she felt the pressure of his fingers on her neck as he held her close, as if deep inside he was just as afraid of what the future might hold for them as she was. He’d never show it though. Never. The Trevor Montgomery she’d fallen in love with was determined to laugh and make her happy—for whatever time they had together.
Adriana smoothed her fingers over his cheek, smiling softly as she kissed him, and silently prayed that he’d never again disappear.
Chapter 22
“I can’t remember another thing,” Trevor moaned, massaging his temples in the hopes of driving away the pain of too many bad memories. He leaned back in the ornate wrought-iron patio chair and gazed out at the ocean and the cloudless blue sky. He was tired of sitting at the table, tired of looking at stories about his life, tired of rehashing events best left forgotten.
“We’ve been over this three times, Adriana. Why don’t we give it up?”
“You told me you don’t give up,” Adriana threw at him, “and I’m not going to let you run away from this. The only way we can prove your innocence is to document every single thing and make sure we have some evidence when we confront Janet Julian.”
Trevor got up from the chair and walked behind Adriana. He put his hands on her shoulders and gently kneaded the tightening muscles. “I don’t want to confront her. What good’s it going to do?”
“Maybe she’ll confess.”
“You want too much. She’s old. She’s not in the best of health. Even if she confesses to the crime I still doubt she’s guilty of, no one’s going to prosecute her. Besides, she’s been living in her own kind of prison for sixty years. Isn’t that enough punishment?”
Adriana twisted around in her chair and looked up at him. “What about the punishment you’ve suffered?”
He laughed, thinking of all that he’d gained by leaving the thirties. “I’m not suffering.”
“You are,” she interrupted. “You thought the nightmares had ended, but they haven’t. Last night and the night before you tossed and turned. They’re not going to go away until you know the truth.”
She turned away from him and flipped over another page in the book she’d been perusing. “You’re innocent, Trevor,” she said softly. “But if we don’t bring out the truth, history will always point to you as the guilty one. You can’t live that way. I don’t want you to have to.”
She was right, of course. If they could prove his innocence, the movie script he’d been reading could be changed. Trevor Montgomery wouldn’t be branded a murderer. His image wouldn’t be tarnished, his dreams shattered. The film could reveal to the world what had really happened that horrid night sixty years ago.
“All right,” he said on a sigh. “Where were we?”
Adriana tapped her pen on the paper filled with scribbled notes. “The shiny thing that slipped off the bed.”
Trevor tried to remember what he’d seen when he’d rolled out of Carole’s bed, but all he could remember was a flash of light off something shiny. “It must have been one of Carole’s bracelets. I didn’t stop to look.”
“But nothing was ever found,” Adriana stressed. “It wasn’t mentioned in the police report or in any of the newspaper accounts.”
“Maybe I imagined it, then.”
“Did you imagine anything else?” Adriana asked, obviously annoyed that he’d suggested such a thing. “Did you imagine the blood or the slash across her throat.”
“No. I didn’t imagine any of that. Everything I saw, everything I did after I woke up is perfectly clear, a
nd I’ve relived it every day since it happened.”
“Then,” she said adamantly, “you didn’t imagine something shiny falling off the bed, either.”
Adriana pushed back in her chair. “We need more information. I’m going to the library to check out the microfiche of the newspaper accounts. There’s got to be something we’re missing.”
He couldn’t bear the thought of her leaving and reached for her hand.
“Don’t go, Adriana. Stay here with me.”
“I won’t be gone for long.”
One minute away from her seemed an eternity. He couldn’t let her go. “What if I disappear while you’re gone?”
The laughter and joy he’d seen in her eyes for the past two days dimmed, and worry filled her face. “Has something happened? Do you know something you’re not telling me?”
Trevor pulled her down into his lap. “I’m afraid if we’re torn apart, for any reason at all, that I’m going to go back.”
“I don’t want to talk about that. Besides,” Adriana reminded him, “you can’t go unless I wish you back.”
“That’s only a guess. We don’t know for sure.”
Adriana rested her cheek against his, and he could feel the heaviness of her sigh. “I won’t let you go,” she whispered.
They’d been on edge since they’d returned from Hollywood, both worried that life was too good, that something awful was going to rip them apart. For two days he hadn’t let her out of his sight. He showered with her, sat by her side when she worked. They ran errands together, and made love each time as if for the very last.
If he was going to be pulled back to his own decade, he planned to grab on to her hand and pull her there with him—if he could. If he couldn’t, he wanted to make sure she’d remember him.
“Promise you won’t forget me if I do go back,” he said.
Adriana laughed lightly, cupping his cheek in the palm of her hand. “How could I ever forget you?”
“You may not have a choice, any more than I have a choice about leaving you.”
She pushed up from his lap, turning her back on him. “I don’t want to talk about the possibility of your leaving.”
“I do.”
He shoved himself out of the chair and grabbed her hand. “Come here. I want to show you something.”
He drew her through the house and into her bedroom. Opening the closet door, he got down on his knees, pulling Adriana down beside him, and rummaged behind shoe boxes and other odds and ends crammed in the corner.
“Remember the secret stash of money I told you about?” he asked, looking at her in the closet lit only by the sunlight beaming through the bedroom windows.
“Of course I do.”
“Well, this is where I kept it.”
Adriana peeked her head around his shoulder as he tugged at the baseboard.
“Once you pull the strip of wood off, you’ll find a sliding door.”
“I have no intention of hiding my money in there. Banks are perfectly fine with me.”
“I’m not saying I want you to hide money here, it’s just that...”
“It’s just what?”
“If I go back in time...” He hesitated again, plowing his fingers through his hair. “If anything happens, I’ll try to leave you a message, something to let you know what’s happened to me.”
“You’re not going to go. I told you that already.”
She didn’t want to think about it any more than he did, but it had to be discussed.
“If I go back,” he continued, “I think it will happen after we learn the truth about that night.”
“Then I don’t want to find out,” she said adamantly. “We won’t even think about it any longer. Let’s just put the books away and do something else. We can go back to Sparta. We can go to Hollywood and visit cemeteries. I don’t care what we do, but I’d rather have you here than—”
Trevor gripped her arms and held her close. “You told me we had to learn the truth, and you were right. No matter what happens, you have to help me find out what occurred that night.”
She rested her forehead on his chest. “If you leave me, I promise never to forget you,” she said. When she looked up, he could see a faint sparkle in her eyes. “I won’t forgive you, either.”
“Empty threats don’t scare me,” he teased, trying to lighten the moment.
“Of course they don’t. You’re the hero. You always find a way to get out of trouble.”
They huddled together in the small confines of the closet. It was warm. The light scent of her perfume wafted around him, and he kissed her slow and deep and long.
God, he never wanted to leave her.
“Marry me, Adriana,” he whispered, right there in the middle of her gowns, her trousers, her blouses, and shoes. “Marry me so I know you’ll never leave me again.”
“I won’t leave you, Trevor,” she said. “You don’t have to marry me to make me stick around.”
“Then marry me because you love me.”
He pulled the ring off the end of the string attached to the overhead bulb.
“I’ve got something here to bind us together—forever.”
He felt Adriana tremble when he took hold of her left hand and slid the plastic ring on her finger.
“Someday I’ll give you diamonds the size of walnuts.”
“I’ve had diamonds, Trevor. I’d rather have you—and this little plastic ring—any day.”
A tear slid down her cheek.
“Marry me,” he pleaded as he kissed the hand that wore the ring. “Marry me now, Adriana.”
oOo
The private plane Stewart had chartered landed in Las Vegas at 8:22 in the evening. A long white limousine was waiting at the airport, as was the florist.
“Oh, you’re just going to be the most beautiful bride,” Maggie quipped, as the florist placed a bouquet of two dozen red and white roses and baby’s breath in Adriana’s arms.
“They’re lovely, Maggie,” Adriana said, kissing her friend’s cheek. “How did you ever manage to do all this in just a few hours?”
“Money talks, darlin’. Fortunately, Stewart has lots of it. Isn’t it wonderful!”
Maggie buzzed around, confirming all the last-minute details, looking the perfect—but extravagant—matron of honor in shocking pink feathers. She stuck a white rose in the lapel of Stewart’s somber navy blue coat, picked up her own bouquet of white roses, and shuffled off to give the chauffeur directions.
Adriana smiled at her husband-to-be and nervously pinned a red rosebud on the lapel of his white dinner jacket.
“This is the happiest day of my life,” she whispered. “I never knew I could love someone so much.”
Trevor kissed her forehead, and curled a lock of hair behind her ear. “Thank you for marrying me.” He took a deep breath, and for just one instant Adriana thought he was going to cry. Then, he smiled that wonderful movie-idol smile. “I love you, Adriana. God, how I love you.”
Adriana turned at the sound of Stewart clearing his throat. “Are you sure you want to go through with this, Adriana?” he asked.
“Mind your own business, sweetie,” Maggie drawled, breezing up behind him. “They’re in love, and they’re going to get married. We were asked here as guests, not as advisors.”
Adriana caught the wink in Trevor’s eye as he grinned at Maggie, then he turned to Stewart and patted his shoulder.
“We really have to work on this relationship of ours, Stew,” Trevor declared. “We’re going to have a lot of years together, as business associates and, hopefully, as friends.”
Adriana kissed her attorney on the cheek, hoping to remove the scowl he’d worn throughout the plane ride. “I want you to be happy about giving me away. Please.”
A slow grin tilted Stewart’s lips. “I skipped a round of golf to get this show organized. Guess I might as well be happy about something.”
“See why I love him so much?” Maggie said, pecking her husband’s lips. “
And, oh, I just love a pretty wedding.”
They rode rather quietly to the courthouse to get a license, then even more quietly down a street of a million glittering lights on their way to the Little Church of the West.
Trevor took hold of her hand after he stepped out of the car. She put one white-satin shoe on the pavement, then the next. He slipped an arm around her waist as they walked toward the quaint wooden wedding chapel, and just before they reached the door, a man rushed to Adriana’s side.
“Smile!”
The bright light flashed in front of Adriana’s eyes, and she jumped, her hands flying in front of her face.
“Stop it! Please,” she begged.
“There’s nothing to fear, Adriana.” Trevor’s low, soothing words comforted her. He gathered her hands in his and tucked them close to his chest. “No one’s going to hurt you and no one’s going to gossip.”
“But—”
He stilled her words with a kiss. “It’s our wedding day, and this is the photographer Maggie hired. I want to look at these pictures when we’re old and gray and we have fourteen grandchildren running around our house.”
Grandchildren? They hadn’t even talked of a family. “I didn’t know you wanted any children.”
“I want everything life has to offer. But first I want you. Just you.”
He kissed her again as the camera flashed. She couldn’t help but smile. It was her wedding day, and she was marrying the man of her dreams.
No woman could ever wish for more.
She felt she might smile forever.
They stood before the altar, Trevor radiant in his tux, she in a shimmering white-silk sheath studded with seed pearls across the shoulders and bodice. It was long and flowing, as was the lacy veil that trailed lightly down her back. A masterpiece from the thirties, it was something she’d bought at an auction the year before but had never had the heart to sell. Instead, she’d hid it away in her closet, thinking she might be able to wear it someday.
And tonight was perfect, in every respect.
From a corner of the room, Adriana could hear the violinist playing a beautiful rendition of “The Way You Look Tonight,” the song they’d waltzed to the first time Trevor held her in his arms. Bouquets of red and white roses were clustered about the altar, and Trevor stood at her side, smiling softly as he held her hand tightly in his.
