The Soldier's Seduction

by Jane Godman

  Bryce pulled into a parking space and turned to look at her. The smile in his eyes warmed every part of her. She wanted to sit here in this car and, for the first time in her life, talk for hours about who she was and why she made the life choices she had. She wanted to dismantle the walls, brick by brick, and let the real Steffi emerge. Instead, she had to make her way upstairs and walk into the apartment where she had seen her brother’s dead body.

  “Can you do this?” Bryce must have somehow picked up on her thoughts.

  “I have to do this.” She clasped her hands tightly together. “It’s for Greg.”

  * * *

  “All Greg’s things are gone.” Steffi clutched Bryce’s hand as they moved through the open-plan living space. “Someone must have already been through everything that was in here.”

  Her eyes were fixed on a spot in the middle of the floor. There was nothing there except a brightly colored rug, but Bryce was willing to bet good money that was where Steffi had seen Greg’s body. And that of the girl. The girl bothered him. Why hadn’t she been identified yet? Three months was a hell of a long time, even in LA with its transient population.

  “The newspaper reports I read in your house said Greg and the girl he was with were in a compromising position. What did that mean?”

  Steffi dragged her gaze from the center of the room and up to his face. She had pushed her dark glasses up on top of her head, so he could see the painful memories swirling in the amber depths of her eyes. “They were both naked. He was sitting in a chair—” she gestured to the place where the rug now lay “—there. His legs were apart and she was kneeling between them. They had both been shot through the head at close range. The press speculated that Anya Moretti, the jealous lover, had found them that way and killed them in a rage.”

  He was fascinated all over again by the way she spoke of Anya Moretti as a different person. She really had created another life for herself, one that allowed her to escape into a different world. Wasn’t it similar to what he’d done since he’d left the army? Perhaps not in such a high profile way, but he’d done his best to keep the world at arm’s length. Made a pretty good job of it, too.

  “Did Greg have a girlfriend?” Bryce asked.

  “No.” She shook her head. “I know there had been someone special in his life for a long time. It was before he and I met up again. I don’t know what happened between them, but she went away. Although he didn’t talk about it much, I got the feeling he was having a hard time getting over her.”

  Bryce gave that statement some thought. “Well, he wasn’t alone when he died.” Steffi probably wasn’t going to like his next question. “Do you know if he went with hookers?”

  Although she frowned, he suspected Steffi had already considered the question. “If he did, it’s not an aspect of his life he shared with me.”

  “Sorry.” He held up a hand in apologetic gesture. “I shouldn’t have asked that. He was unlikely to have told his sister if he did take comfort with a working girl every now and then.”

  “Even if she was a prostitute, why haven’t the police found out her name by now?” Steffi unconsciously echoed his thoughts of minutes earlier. “She was a person. She had a life, a family, people who loved her. Someone must be missing her and wondering where she is.”

  “I guess that lifestyle makes it so much harder to trace someone.” Bryce caught the glint of tears in Steffi’s eyes for the unknown woman who had died here. He slid an arm around her shoulders. Her body slumped against him, and he took a moment to be amazed all over again by her. In spite of the danger surrounding her, she was able to feel for the suffering of someone she had never met. One of the richest women in Hollywood was moved by the plight of a nameless woman.

  “They should try harder,” she muttered before straightening determinedly. “I suppose we should look for his cell phone. Just in case?”

  Bryce nodded. “Got to be worth a try.” It probably wasn’t.

  Although he suspected it was a waste of time, it felt like this was a ritual they had to perform. If they didn’t, they would always wonder if this might have been the place where Greg had left the cell phone with its incriminating recording. The phone was like the proverbial needle in a haystack, but Bryce was determined not to leave a single piece of hay unturned in their search. He would keep looking until the phone turned up...or the police or Walter caught up with them. He didn’t like to dwell on which was most likely to happen first.

  They had completed their search of the apartment, and found no sign of the phone when there was a knock on the apartment door. The fact that whoever it was took the trouble to knock made him cautiously optimistic. He didn’t think Walter’s men, or the police, would have bothered with the formalities.

  The man who entered the apartment wore a security guard’s uniform. Bryce sized him up quickly. Late thirties, early forties. No tattoo on his right hand. Something about him said “ex-military.” He looked like he had been able to handle himself once, but maybe the beer and take-out pizza had come first for a while now. Bryce decided with a feeling of relief that he wasn’t going to need the gun.

  “No one told me anyone was due to look around this apartment today.” The guard consulted a clipboard in an officious manner.

  Before Bryce could respond, Steffi moved forward. He wasn’t sure how she did it, but she instantly dominated the situation. Flicking back strands of the long, red wig she wore, she took on a whole new personality. He could only stand back and watch as one of Hollywood’s greatest stars took center stage. So this was why she’d insisted on the change of clothing.

  “I’m not surprised they didn’t tell you.” She jerked her head in Bryce’s direction. “They never do.”

  The security guard cast a bemused look at Bryce before turning his attention back to Steffi. It was hard to look away from her. With those flowing red locks and the floating, embroidered dress adorned with scarves, she resembled a fortune teller from a 1950s movie. She had spent the morning dragging him around vintage clothing stores until they got the look just right. He was only thankful that his own costume of suit, shirt and tie was more conservative. The fact that he had no idea of his role was more of a problem.

  “They?” The guard frowned at his clipboard, clearly hoping it might tell him how to handle this unfamiliar situation.

  “You didn’t tell him, did you?” Steffi turned on Bryce, her voice a combination of sadness and annoyance. “You couldn’t bring yourself to tell this poor man the reason why we are here.”

  Sensing something other than silence was required of him, Bryce went for noncommittal. “I thought it was for the best.”

  Steffi gave a sigh that was worthy of an Oscar in its own right. Ignoring Bryce, she drew the guard to one side. “That’s what they always say. The truth is, they’re ashamed to admit that they’ve brought me in to help cleanse the place.”

  The guard frowned. “The manager already had the apartment thoroughly cleaned after the police handed it back.”

  Steffi gave a tinkling laugh. “Not cleaned—” she leaned closer to read the man’s badge “—Bill. Cleansed. There is a good reason why this apartment still stands empty. I expect you can feel it.” She placed a hand on his arm. “Ah, yes. You have an empathetic soul.”

  Bryce leaned against the counter, crossing his arms over his chest and hiding the smile that wanted to emerge. You had to hand it to Steffi. She was magnificent.

  “I don’t know what you mean.” Bill was starting to look nervous.

  “Oh, Bill.” Steffi shook her head. “Those poor souls who died here are still in torment. They haven’t been able to leave. They aren’t at peace. You and I know that because we have empathy. The people who come to view the apartment, they don’t know it. They just don’t like the feel of the place. Mr. Studworth, here—” she gestured to Bryce “—in his real estate agent�
�s office, all he wants is to rent this apartment. But sometimes he has to call me in to help put the souls of the dead to rest.”

  Bill cast a pleading glance in Bryce’s direction. “You do?”

  “I do. But you can understand how I don’t like to advertise it. It’s not great for business.” Bryce attempted to look hard-nosed and unempathetic.

  “Business.” Steffi’s expression was sad. “You and I know there are more important things, don’t we, Bill?”

  “How do you...uh, get rid of them? Is it like exorcism?” Bill asked.

  Steffi laughed again and Bryce noticed she had introduced a new, slightly manic note into her laughter. “Exorcism? That’s for amateurs. I invite the poor souls that have no resting place to enter my body, to live within me. They need to find a place to rest, Bill. An empathetic home. Of course, with you here, they have two empathetic people to choose from...” She closed her eyes and began to sway, humming lightly under her breath.

  “You know what?” Bill spoke directly to Bryce. “I may just leave you to it. I need to finish my rounds.”

  With a quick look at the air around Steffi, he hurried out, closing the door carefully behind him.

  “Steffi, you are a witch,” Bryce said appreciatively.

  She pushed her glasses up, opening her eyes wide. “Not a witch, Bryce, a cleanser. Weren’t you listening?”

  His lips twitched. “And Mr. Studworth? What was that all about?”

  She studied him with her head on one side. “Oh, I don’t know. I thought the name suited you.”

  “Unfortunately, I think Bill is likely to be watching on his monitors, waiting for us to leave this apartment, so you’ll have to flutter around continuing your performance for a few minutes.” He smiled. “But when I get you alone, I intend to show you exactly how much it suits me.”

  Steffi closed her eyes and resumed her swaying and humming. “I’ll look forward to it.”

  Chapter 12

  “We have nothing.” Steffi slumped back against the pillows. “A big, fat zero.”

  “I wouldn’t say that,” Bryce said. “We have pizza, beer—” he tilted his half-empty bottle in her direction “—and I’m enjoying the company.”

  Wow. He probably had no idea of the knee-weakening effect of a comment like that. She assured herself that she was doing a good job of maintaining the facade that Bryce had not touched her feelings in any way. The effect he had on her body couldn’t have escaped his attention. Not when he could reduce her to a mass of screaming, pleading ecstasy within seconds. But she was trying to play it cool on the emotions front. It wasn’t what she wanted. Every time she looked at Bryce, she wanted to crawl all over him like an out of control kitten and demand to know what he was thinking. More important, she wanted to know what he was thinking and feeling about her. Her head and heart were at war over him. Every time her head told her not to get too close, her heart started to do wild somersaults.

  As soon as I get near him, I turn into a needy teenager. I hate and love it at the same time. Hate because I don’t want to hand control of my body over to another person when I don’t know where this is leading. Love because I never knew it was possible to be swept along on such a magical tide of pure sensation.

  “But you’re right. We have nothing when it comes to the cell phone.”

  Bryce leaned back with his hands behind his head, allowing Steffi to feast her eyes on his muscular torso. The bruises inflicted by Erik back at Steffi’s cabin were starting to fade both on his face and his body. Whatever mayhem might be going on around them, there were definite compensations to this situation. Being in bed with a gorgeous man was one of them. The other was a surprising sense of liberation. Steffi hadn’t realized how restrictive her life had been until she broke free of it. Other people might imagine she had the money and power to do pretty much anything she wanted. The reality was that the opposite was true. Her work schedule had been so punishing that she never had time to draw breath. Never really had a second to enjoy the wealth she had earned. Sitting naked in bed in the middle of the afternoon, drinking beer and eating pizza? She’d have had to pencil that in for a date about eighteen months in advance.

  “There is one thing that bothers me more than anything else. With that recording, Greg had the evidence he needed to prove Walter killed your parents. Walter himself admitted it.” Frustration echoed in Bryce’s voice. “So why the hell didn’t Greg go straight to the police?”

  “Maybe he wanted Walter to suffer?”

  “I thought about that, but I just don’t buy it as an explanation,” Bryce said. “Greg knew how dangerous Walter was. Holding on to that recording? Taunting Walter with its existence? Giving him a chance to mobilize his tattooed assassination squad against him? Why would anyone do that?”

  Steffi thought about what he was saying. Bryce was right. It didn’t make sense. “Unless...” She was thinking aloud now, voicing her ideas as they came to her. “We don’t know what was in the recording, do we? What if there was something Greg didn’t want to make public?”

  “You mean the information about who your father was?”

  Steffi shook her head. “I don’t think that would have stopped him going to the police. We’d talked about it. While we wouldn’t have gone public with that information for no reason, if we could have pinned the murders on Walter, we agreed we’d have revealed our father’s identity to do it.”

  “So what sort of information would have stopped Greg from going to the police with the recording?”

  Steffi shrugged. “I don’t know, and, until we find the cell phone and listen to the recording, it’s speculation.”

  “Is there anyone else Greg might have trusted enough to give them that recording?” Bryce asked.

  “I didn’t know all his friends, obviously. We’d only recently become close again. But there wasn’t anyone he talked about. I think, like me, he was scarred by the events of his early life. That’s why it was so amazing for us to reconnect. Neither of us had anyone else. Except our adoptive parents.” She turned troubled eyes to Bryce. “You don’t suppose...?”

  “That he might have given the cell phone to his parents? You were away, he had no one else to turn to. We can’t rule it out.” He scanned her face as though trying to gauge how much his next words would affect her. “Which means we have to add them to our list.”

  Steffi tried out a smile. Her lips trembled in the middle of it, but she persevered and got there in the end. “Our nonexistent list?”

  “Tell me why the thought of contacting them bothers you so much.” Bryce’s voice was soft and persuasive. Damn him for noticing her distress. He was getting way too good at reading her. Now he was using the sort of tone that made her want to lay her head on his shoulder and place her cares in his hands. But Steffi didn’t surrender to those sort of impulses. She couldn’t. She had learned early how to be strong and fight her own battles. She had never let other people do those things for her. Now was not the time to start. If she let Bryce take over, what would happen when he walked away? She would crumble, that was what. Not going to happen.

  “Because they—Nancy and Tanner, Greg’s parents—will have spent the last three months thinking Anya Moretti killed him.” She turned anguished eyes to Bryce’s face. “So how can I turn up out of the blue? How do I start that conversation? ‘Oh, hey, guys, remember me...yes, I’m Steffi, the kid you knew, but I’m also that woman, the one the newspapers say shot your son through the head...’” She felt tears threatening to spill over and blinked them furiously away.

  “But when you explain that Steffi, his sister, and Anya Moretti are the same person, they’ll know you didn’t kill him. The whole police case against Anya is that she was the jealous lover. Once you take that away, because you—Steffi—are his sister, not his lover, that case falls apart.”

  “If they had the ce
ll phone, wouldn’t they have handed it over to the police?” Steffi asked.

  “Not if they didn’t know what they had.” Bryce ran a fingertip gently down the frown line between her brows as though attempting to smooth it away. “Where do they live?”

  “They live here in California. In Leucadia, in Encinitas.” She smiled at the memory of visiting Greg’s parents as a child. “Tanner has a boat and he takes tourists out on tours. Not fishing, because that would be against his principles. Nancy has a health food store. They were hippies in the true sense of the word. They never bought anything new if they could avoid it. Greg grew up wearing the weirdest hand-me-downs you’ve ever seen. He hated it, and I envied him every minute.”

  Bryce gave her one of those strange looks he did every now and then, as though she had surprised him. “For someone who has a lot of it, you don’t seem to like money.”

  “I’ve seen close-up how much damage it can do,” she said quietly.

  “Ah, hell, Steffi. I’m sorry. I wasn’t thinking.” He tossed the empty pizza box onto the floor and moved closer to draw her into the circle of his arms. “Walter killed your parents over money.”

  She nodded, enjoying the rasp of his chest hair against her cheek. Enjoying him against her. “But I’ve seen money at its worst in other ways. The celebrity lifestyle can be horribly destructive. I don’t want to come across like the poor little rich girl. I’ve led a hugely privileged lifestyle over the last few years and I’ve enjoyed the benefits it’s brought my way. I’ve also learned that fame can be used as a force for good.”

  “I get the feeling you’ve used yours that way.”