Lover Beware

by Christine Feehan

  The smile faded from the sheriff’s face. “I don’t think because a woman is drop-dead gorgeous she should be treated any differently. She has everything too easy, Sarah. You all treat her like a little baby doll.”

  “You don’t know Hannah at all, Jonas, and you don’t deserve to know her. She wouldn’t expect you to let her slide because of her looks, you idiot.” Sarah threw her hands into the air. “Forget it, I’m finished trying to explain anything to you. If you don’t understand friendship by now you never will. Let’s get on with this. Damon and I have a busy schedule today.” She gestured toward a chair.

  Harrington was looking toward the stairs.

  “Sit!” Sarah demanded. “This is business. Murder. Right up your alley, Jonas.”

  Chapter 6

  JONAS HARRINGTON LISTENED calmly while Sarah told him the events that had taken place the night before. His dark features hardened perceptibly while she talked. He flicked a smoldering glare toward Kate and Abbey. “Why wasn’t I called last night? I might have been able to do something last night. Damn it, Sarah, where’s your head? You could have been killed!”

  “Well, I wasn’t. I saved the rifle for you, hoping you might get prints off of it, but I doubt it.” Sarah smiled at him.

  Jonas shook his head. “Don’t do that; you’ve been giving me that same smile since kindergarten and it always gets you out of trouble.” He gestured toward her face. “Take a long look at her, Damon, because that’s going to be her answer every time she does something you don’t like.” He leaned forward in his chair, his eyes slashing at her. “What about your sisters? Did it even occur to you that you might bring these people down on your own house?”

  Furious, he rose, a big man, moving like a jungle cat, pacing restlessly through the long living room. “These men are professionals. You both know that. Whatever you did to bring this on…”

  “He worked in a high-security job, Jonas, nothing illegal. It isn’t drug related so get that right out of your head.”

  Damon leaned back in his chair, torn between worry that he’d placed the Drake family in danger and feeling pleased that Sarah had turned protective. She immediately had become a fierce tigress ready to spring if the sheriff continued to cast aspersions on his character.

  “I want to know what we’re up against. And don’t start throwing words around like security clearance to me. If we have a couple of men willing to break into a house with a high-powered rifle—”

  “They had a tranq dart in it,” Sarah interrupted hastily.

  “I was kidnapped, along with my assistant, nearly a year ago. My assistant was killed and I barely escaped with my life.” As Damon spoke, a dark shadow fell across the room. Outside, the ocean waves thundered and sprayed into the air. “They wanted information that could have affected the security of our nation and I refused to give it to them.” Damon passed a hand over his face as if wiping away a nightmare. “I know that sounds melodramatic, but…” He slowly unbuttoned his shirt to expose his chest and the whorls and scars left behind. “I want you to know what these people are like.”

  The shadow lengthened and grew along the wall behind Damon. The shadow began to take shape, gray, translucent, but there all the same, growing in form until a faceless ghoul emerged with outstretched arms and a long thin body. The mouth yawned open wide, a gesture of greed and craving for the addiction Death had developed. The arms could have been reaching for either Jonas or Damon.

  Damon hunched away from Jonas, pain flickering across his face, his shoulders stiffening as if under a great load.

  Alarmed, Hannah reached out and jerked Jonas halfway across the room out of harm’s way. Jonas swore under his breath and planted his feet firmly, thinking she was attempting to throw him out of the house.

  Sarah adjusted the blinds at the window, filtering out the light, and returned to Damon’s side, touching him gently. That was all. The lightest of touches. She simply laid her hand over his, yet peace stole into him as he buttoned his shirt. The terrible weight that always seemed to be pressing him into the ground lightened.

  Kate’s eyes filled with tears and she pressed her fingers to her mouth.

  Abbey left the room to return with a cup of tea. “Drink this, Damon,” she said. “You’ll enjoy the taste.”

  The aroma alone added to the soothing touch Sarah had provided. He didn’t think to ask how she had managed to make hot tea in a matter of seconds.

  “I could use a cup of tea,” Jonas said, “if anyone’s asking. And a touch of sanity in the house would be nice, too. Baby Doll was going to huck me right out the door and you all just stood there watching.”

  “I’ll make it for you.” Hannah leaned against the door frame and looked up at the sheriff. Her fingers twisted together, the only sign of her agitation. “Do you like it sweet? I’m certain I can come up with an appropriate concoction.”

  “I think I’ll pass altogether. One of these days I’m going to retaliate, Hannah.”

  She made a face at him as he crossed to the sliding-glass door to stare outside at the pounding waves. “I have a bad feeling about this, Sarah. I know you’re used to doing things differently and people have no idea how you do it. Maybe you don’t know either, I certainly don’t, but I believe in you. I sometimes just feel things. It’s one of the things that makes me good at my job.” He turned to look at her. “I have a very bad feeling about this. Frankly, I’m afraid for all of you.”

  There was a small silence. “I believe you, Jonas,” Sarah said. “I’ve always known you had a gift.”

  His gaze moved around the room, restlessly touching on each woman. “I’ve known this family since I was a boy. Feuds”—his smoldering gaze went to Hannah—“are petty when it comes to your safety. I’m not losing any of you over this. I want to be called if one of you stubs your toe. If you see a stranger or you hear a funny noise. I’m not kidding around with you over this issue. I want your word that you’ll call me. You have my private number as well as the number to the office and 911.”

  “Jonas, don’t worry, we’ll be fine. I’m very good at what I do,” Sarah said with complete confidence.

  Jonas took a step toward her, very reminiscent of a stalking panther. Damon was grateful he was too old to be intimidated. “I want your word. Every one of you.”

  Damon nodded. “I have to agree with Harrington. These men tortured us. They don’t play around. I’ll admit when I’m around you, I feel magic in the air, but these men are evil and capable of torture and murder. I have to know you’re all safe or I’ll have to leave this town.”

  “Damon!” Sarah looked stricken. “They’ll just follow you.” Worse, he would carry Death with him wherever he chose to go.

  “Then cooperate with the sheriff. Give him whatever he needs to stop these men.” As ridiculous as it seemed when he’d just met her, Damon couldn’t bear the thought of leaving Sarah, but he wasn’t about to risk her life.

  “I don’t mind calling you, Jonas,” Kate said readily.

  Abbey held up her hand. “I’m in.”

  Sarah nodded. “I’m always grateful for help from the local law.”

  All eyes turned to Hannah. She shrugged indifferently. “Whatever helps Damon, I’m willing to do.”

  Jonas ignored the grudge in her voice and nodded. “I want all of you to watch your step. Be aware of your surroundings and any strangers. Keep those dogs close and lock up the house!”

  “We’re all over it,” Sarah agreed. “Really, Jonas, we don’t want any part of men with guns. We’ll call you even if the cat meows.”

  He looked a little mollified. “I’ll want extra patrols around here as well as around Damon’s house, Sarah.”

  “Well, of course, Jonas,” Sarah agreed.

  “It will give me every opportunity to make friends with them,” Hannah said. “I don’t know many of the new people in town.”

  Jonas glared at her. “You and your slinky body can just stay away from my deputies.”

  Hannah
made a face at him, raised her hand to push at the hair spilling across her face. An icy wind rushed through the room, giving life to the curtains, so that they danced in a macabre fashion, fluttering, reaching toward Jonas as if to bind him in the thick folds.

  Sarah glimpsed a dark shadow moving within the drapes. Her hands went up in a casual, graceful wave. Kate and Abbey followed the gentle movements with their own. The wind died abruptly and the curtains dropped into place.

  Damon cleared his throat. “Does someone want to tell me what happened?”

  Jonas shook his head. “Never be dumb enough to ask for an explanation from any of them, Damon. You might get it and your hair will turn gray.” His gaze swung to Hannah. “Don’t even think about it. Ladies, I can find my own way out.”

  Damon didn’t take his eyes from Sarah. She was looking at Hannah and there was accusation in her gaze. Out of the corner of his eye, he could see Abbey and Kate doing the same thing.

  Hannah threw her hands into the air. “I wasn’t thinking, okay? I’m sorry.”

  The silence lengthened, disapproval thick in the room.

  Hannah sighed. “I really am sorry. I forgot for just a moment about Dea—” She broke off abruptly, her gaze shifting to Damon. “About the other thing we’re dealing with. It won’t happen again.”

  “It better not,” Sarah said. “You can’t afford to forget for one moment. This is too dangerous, Hannah.”

  “Wait a minute,” Damon interrupted. “If you’re talking about me and those men the other night, I don’t want your family involved in any way.”

  “The men?” Kate raised her eyebrow. “Not in the least, Damon, didn’t give them a thought. There are things far more dangerous than human beings.”

  He watched the four women exchange long knowing looks and was exasperated. They knew something he didn’t. Something regarding him. “I can understand why poor Harrington gets so frustrated with you.”

  Sarah rose and blew him a kiss. “He loves all seven of us. He just likes to puff out his chest.”

  “He was genuinely worried,” Damon said. “And I am, too. The things he said make sense. It’s bad enough to think of you in danger, let alone all your sisters.” He raked a hand through his hair in agitation. “I can’t be responsible for that.”

  To his shock they all laughed. “Damon.” Sarah’s voice was a mixture of amusement and tenderness. “We accepted responsibility for our own decisions a very long time ago. We’re grown women. When we choose to involve ourselves in problems, we accept the consequences.” She leaned toward him.

  Abbey groaned dramatically. “She’s going to do it. She’s going to kiss him right in front of us.”

  “That is so not fair, Sarah,” Hannah protested.

  “Go ahead,” Kate encouraged. “I need to write a good love scene.”

  When Sarah hesitated, her gaze lost in his, Damon took advantage and did the job thoroughly, not wanting to let Kate down.

  Chapter 7

  “SO, SARAH,” DAMON said, putting down his glass of iced tea as they sat on his porch. Damon and Sarah spent every minute they could find together. Taking walks on the beach. Working on a security system for his house. Lazy days of laughter and whispered confidences. Damon enjoyed every moment spent in her home, getting to know her sisters. He never ran out of things to say to Sarah and he loved her stories and open personality. There was sunshine in his life and its name was Sarah.

  She took a handful of his chips and smiled at him. Overhead the seagulls circled, looking down with hopeful eyes. Damon had had no more unwelcome nighttime visitors and appreciated the regularity of the sheriff driving by to check the neighborhood.

  Damon shook his head, dazzled by her smile. She could take every thought out of his head with that smile. “Sarah, are you afraid for me or for everyone else? It’s occurred to me that there’s always this buffer between everyone we run across and me. I didn’t really notice at first, but last night I was thinking about it. I’m getting to know you and I think you prefer that your friends don’t see you with me.”

  Sarah’s breath caught in her throat at the hint of pain in his voice. The more time she spent with him, the more she wanted to be with him. And the dark shadow surrounding him gripped him all the harder. “I don’t mind anyone seeing us together. You’re the one worried about gossip. I’m used to it and it doesn’t bother me.”

  “Then we’ll go into town together.” It was a challenge.

  Sarah let out her breath. The early morning fog had burned off, leaving the sky an amazing shade of blue. She could see clouds gathering far out over the sea. She looked carefully at Damon, inspecting every inch of him. There was no dark shadow around him and his shoulders weren’t hunched as if carrying a great weight. “Sounds great, if you’re really certain you want to brave it.”

  He stood up and held out his hand to her. “Come on.”

  “Right now?” She hadn’t expected he would really want to go, but she obediently took his hand and allowed him to help her up.

  “Yes, while I have my courage up. Walking with you through town should set a match to the gossips. The story will spread like wildfire.”

  Sarah laughed softly, knowing it was true. Once they had walked the short distance to the town, she started in the direction of the grocery store, determined to get it over with.

  “I feel a little sorry for Harrington,” Damon said as he walked with Sarah along the main street of town. “He drops by the house sometimes and he’s very nice.” He reached out and tangled his fingers with Sarah’s.

  “Are you certain you want to do this?” Sarah’s voice was skeptical. “Holding my hand in public is going to bring the spotlight shining very brightly on you. Rumors are going to race through town faster than a seagull flies. I know how much your privacy means to you.”

  “That was before I retired. When I worked from morning until night and had no life.” Damon laughed softly. He was happy. Looking at her made him happy. Walking with her, talking with her. It was ridiculous how happy he was when he was in her company. It made no sense but he wasn’t going to question a gift from the heavens. “We may as well give them something real to gossip about.”

  Sarah’s laugh floated on the breeze, a melodious sound that turned heads. “Not ‘gossip,’ Damon, it’s ‘news.’ No one gossips here. You have to get it straight.”

  Damon listened to the sound of their shoes on the wooden walkway. Everything was so different with Sarah. He felt as if he’d finally come home. He looked around him to the picturesque homes, so quaint and unique. It no longer felt alien or hostile to him; the people were eccentric, but endearing. How had Sarah done that? Mysterious Sarah. Even the wind welcomed her back home. His fingers tightened around hers, holding her to him. He wasn’t altogether certain Sarah was human and he feared she might fly away from him without warning, joining the birds out over the sea.

  She waved to a young woman on a porch. “They’re good people, Damon. You won’t find more accepting people in your life than the ones living here.”

  “Even Harrington?” he teased.

  “I feel a little sorry for him, too,” Sarah answered seriously. “Most of the time, Jonas is a caring, compassionate man and very good with everyone, but he just refuses to see the truth about Hannah. He looks at her and only sees what’s on the outside. She’s always been beautiful. He was very popular with the girls in school, an incredible athlete, tons of scholarships, the resident dreamboat. He thought Hannah was stuck up because she never spoke to him. He made her life a living hell, teasing her unmercifully all through school. She’s never forgiven him and he’ll never understand why. He’s a good man and he wasn’t being malicious in school. From his perspective, he was just teasing. He has no idea Hannah is painfully shy and he never will.”

  Damon made a dissenting noise in his throat. “She’s a supermodel, Sarah—on the cover of every magazine there is. She travels all over the world. And, I have to say, she appears very confident on every telev
ision and news interview and talk show I’ve seen her on. I would never associate her with the word ‘shy.’ ”

  “She hyperventilates before speaking in public; in fact, she carries a paper bag with her. Most of the talk show hosts and interviewers are careful with her. Because she’s painfully shy doesn’t mean she allows it to affect her life.”

  “Why wouldn’t you just clue Harrington in?”

  “Why should he judge Hannah so harshly, just because she looks the way she does? My sister Joley is striking as well, although not in exactly the same way. Jonas would never dare torment her. All of my sisters are good-looking and he doesn’t use that sarcastic tone on them. He only does it to Hannah and in front of everyone.”

  Damon heard the fierce protective note in her voice and smiled. He drew her closer beneath his broad shoulder. His Sarah. Without warning, fear struck, deep, haunting, sharp like a knife. His breath left his lungs. “Sarah? Are we thinking the same thing? I’ve never wanted someone in my life before. Not once. I’ve only just met you and can’t imagine the rest of my life without you.” He raked his fingers through his hair, his cane nearly hitting his head. “Do you know what I sound like? An obsessed stalker. I’m not like this with women, Sarah.”

  Her eyes danced. “That leaves wide-open territory, Damon. You’re talking about a family with six sisters and a billion cousins. I have a million aunts and uncles. You can’t leave yourself open like that or they’re going to tease you unmercifully.”

  They halted in front of the grocery store. Damon faced her, catching her chin in his hand to tilt her face up to his. “I’m serious, Sarah. I know I want a future with you in it. I have to know we’re on the same page.”

  Sarah went up on her toes to press a kiss to his mouth. “Here’s a little news flash for you, Damon. I don’t compromise my jobs by getting involved with my clients. I don’t, as a rule, kiss strange men and spend the night wishing they’d make the big move.”