by B. J Daniels
His fingers went to the hollow just below her throat. He could feel her quickened pulse as he traced a path down between her full breasts. Her skin felt like fine silk, rich and lush and creamy smooth.
She smelled of the expensive soap from the shower. He breathed her in, moving closer as he concentrated on making his body warm. He slipped his hand under the opening at the top of the robe.
She shivered as he cupped one breast, being careful to do it slowly, tenderly. She moaned and turned her head away from him as she pressed her breast into his warm hand. The nipple hardened against his palm. How he ached to suck it into his mouth, to lave it with his tongue, to taste her skin, to kiss her warm flesh.
Carefully he untied her robe and let each side fall away from her body. Her nipples were rock hard, dark pink against her fair skin. He thumbed one, then the other as she arched against his touch and groaned in her sleep. Her skin was hot to the touch and her breathing short and fast.
What surprised him was his own reaction. He was aroused and he wanted this woman. He’d never wanted anything as much as he did her.
But as he looked down into her face, he knew there was something else going on here. Something Harry Ballantine could no more figure out than he could free himself from the hold she had on him, a hold she’d had from the moment he saw her come up the mountain to Fernhaven.
His fingers trailed down the flat of her stomach. She froze, and for a moment he thought she would awaken and be afraid again. He waited before he slipped his fingers over the slightly rounded mound to gently caress her. She didn’t wake up. But she did respond, arching against his fingers, groaning once more as he skillfully took her higher and higher, her breath coming hard and fast, her body convulsing with pleasure until he took her to a climactic peak. She shuddered and sighed. All tension washed from her face. A slight smile curved her lips.
He drew the robe back over her as she turned onto her side again. Then he lay down beside her as if he, too, had been sated, he, too, had been released.
As Harry listened to her breathe, his heart ached. Only one of them would be leaving this place.
“ANY IDEA WHERE WE ARE?” Mike Flannigan asked as he shifted the Jeep into four-wheel drive. Ahead Rose could see nothing but trees, with a narrow slash cut through them that looked nothing like a road.
Mike had already had to stop numerous times to get out and move a small downed tree. Or find another way around larger fallen trees.
She looked down at the map in her lap and the compass Mike had given her. “We’re going in the right direction, kinda.”
He laughed and looked over at her.
She felt her heart jump in her chest and wished she hadn’t gotten him involved in this. “This might have been a mistake.”
“You think?” He shook his head as he reached over to lay his warm palm on her shoulder. “We’ll find the road that takes us to this place. Don’t worry.”
The last time she’d been able to get through to the highway patrol, the road wasn’t open yet. That meant Lorenzo couldn’t have gotten to Jenna—even if he had somehow found out where she was.
But still Rose couldn’t relax. She knew how dangerous Lorenzo Dante was. With his connections, who knew what he was capable of?
She feared Franco had found out—just before he’d died. All attempts to contact him through the safe numbers she’d been given had proved fruitless. Her instincts told her he was dead, but she still held out hope that she was wrong.
The Jeep roared up the mountain through the trees, Mike deftly steering it around boulders and tree stumps from when the area had been logged.
She looked at the map. If she was right, they weren’t that far from Fernhaven.
LORENZO COULDN’T SIT still. He paced the interrogation room, cussing cops. “How long can they hold me?” he demanded of his lawyer.
Anthony Cruise sat in the corner, a small man in a dark suit, with a pockmarked face and sharp features. “Depends on if they book you.”
“They aren’t going to book me,” Lorenzo said confidently. “They’re just trying to scare me. They haven’t got anything on me.”
His lawyer glanced at the mirrored wall as if to remind him that cops were probably behind it, watching the two of them.
Thank goodness he’d had the presence of mind to put Alfredo on Charlene before he’d opened the door to the cops, Lorenzo thought. All Alfredo had to do was follow her to Jenna and take care of things. Jenna had said she wanted to return his money, but he didn’t trust her.
He thought of the duffel full of money as his now. If he could get to it before Valencia, he could take at least half and hide it. Let Valencia think Franco and Jenna had split the money. Made a lot more sense than the two of them being romantically involved.
Lorenzo thought he could sell a story that Franco and Jenna had hatched a plan to rip off the money and split it. Then Franco would meet up with his girlfriend, Rose Garcia.
Valencia might actually buy that. And Lorenzo would come out the winner on every count. Franco’s body would never be found—or his half of the money, which was two hundred and fifty large.
But first Lorenzo had to get out of the police station.
When the door finally opened and the big cop, Detective Luke Henry, came in, Lorenzo snapped, “Charge me or let me go. I know my rights, dammit.”
JENNA COULDN’T BELIEVE she’d had the dream again. She woke flushed, the robe sticking to her damp skin. She sat up, shocked to see that it was late. How long had she slept?
She swung her legs over the side of the couch and stumbled to her feet, disoriented and confused, the dream trying to drag her back.
Hurrying through the suite, she jerked open Lexi’s bedroom door, afraid her daughter would be gone. The four-year-old was still snug in the bed, asleep in the dim light.
Jenna rubbed her arms against the instant chill. Once they got away from this hotel she would forget the man from the old photograph. Forget Harry Ballantine. He didn’t exist except in her mind. In her dreams. She conjured him up in her need to be loved. And yet no man had ever felt so real.
Disoriented, she stood for a moment, just letting her heart rate come back down. What scared her was what the dream had left her with. It hadn’t just been sex. Someone had made love to her.
And the dream had left her feeling safe…a dangerous thought. But nothing like the ones that came after it. The dream had left her feeling…loved. Cherished. Protected. Alive. Whole. Blessed.
She laughed at her own foolishness. What she was was crazy. Lorenzo had tried to push her over the edge, to drive her nuts, and now he’d succeeded.
She shook her head, clearing away those thoughts.
Charlene would be here soon.
Jenna had to get the money ready.
Then she would wake Lexi and they would leave with Charlene.
For now, Jenna closed the door to her daughter’s room and padded barefoot to the living room. She picked up the phone and dialed the front desk.
“Elmer, I need a box and some tape for a package,” she said.
“What size? I can scare up one and bring it to you,” he said cheerfully.
She gave him the dimensions.
“I saw one in the kitchen that should work. By the way, the highway patrol called. Good news—they think they will have the road open soon.”
“That is good news.” Jenna hung up, telling herself that Lorenzo would be so happy to have his money back that he would leave her alone.
That once she and Lexi left here, they could put all this behind them.
She hurried into her bedroom to pack, but was drawn to the bathroom. The mirror had cleared, but the words were still there.
HARRY
BALLANTINE
She closed her eyes, willing away not only the letters, but the way he’d made her feel. Her body still tingled from his touch. She thought she could smell him in the small room, almost feel his breath on her neck.
Her eyes shot open. The screa
m caught in her throat.
Chapter Eleven
“Where are you?” Raymond Valencia demanded when Rico finally called in. “Do you still have Charlene Palmer in sight?”
“Stuck in traffic. And yeah, she’s just a couple of cars ahead of me, stuck in the same roadblock. But the road is supposed to open soon. There’s, like, a jungle on both sides of the road. Creepy, if you ask me.”
“Where are you on the map?” Raymond snapped impatiently. He could hear Rico rustling the paper as he tried to get the map open.
Raymond tried to control his impatience. He feared he’d sent Rico on a wild-goose chase. And after hearing about the police taking Lorenzo down to the station, he feared Jenna might already be dead. Franco, too.
Rico finally gave him the road number and the last town he’d been through. “I’m headed east, but according to the map there isn’t anything up here but some place called—” more map rustling “—Fernhaven.”
Fernhaven? It took Raymond a moment to remember where he’d heard that name before. A few months ago he’d received an invitation to the grand opening of the Fernhaven Hotel. It was a recently rebuilt hotel in the middle of nowhere, with some tragic history that dated back to the 1930s.
Could that be where Charlene Palmer was headed?
“No towns close?” he asked Rico.
“Nope.”
First Charlene got a car she couldn’t afford and now not only was she headed for a hotel she couldn’t afford, but the place wasn’t even open for business yet. Or was it? He felt better about sending Rico after her. Raymond would soon be finding out what Charlene was up to. Obviously she was doing something for Lorenzo. Maybe the car, the hotel, were her payoff, along with the apartment rent. Raymond could well imagine what her duties might have been, given that Jenna lived in the same apartment house.
He would take the chance that Charlene knew where Jenna was. Or at least what had happened to her.
Either way, Charlene Palmer wouldn’t be returning to Seattle.
“You’re sure of your location?”
Rico made a disgruntled sound, accompanied by what seemed to be an attempt to refold the map. “It looks like we’re finally going to get under way. They’re removing the barricades.”
“Listen to me. I think I know where Charlene’s headed. When you get to where she’s going, park somewhere so you won’t be noticed and call for me. I’ll take the chopper. I don’t want Charlene to see you, no matter what. Have you got that?”
“Got it,” Rico said, in a tone that said he wasn’t stupid.
Raymond wished he could believe that. “I’ll be there within the hour.” He hung up and called the pilot to get the helicopter ready.
ONCE FREE OF THE COPS, Lorenzo pulled out his new cell phone and called Alfredo. He answered on the first ring.
“What’s going on?” Lorenzo demanded. “Don’t you dare tell me you lost her.”
“Nope, I can see her car up ahead. We’re stopped because of some road problem. I tried to call you—”
“I had no cell phone for a while.”
“She’s got another tail, though. Picked it up right after we left the apartment. I’ve been following both her and the tail.”
Lorenzo tried to calm himself. “Who else is following her?”
“Dunno. I’ll take a look.”
Lorenzo heard Alfredo’s car door open, then close. He waited.
After a few minutes he heard the sound of the car door opening, the springs on the seat groaning, then, “Hey, can you believe it? It’s Rico Santos.”
Rico. Lorenzo swore. So Valencia was one step ahead of him. How? Charlene. Had she sold the information to Valencia? Lorenzo wouldn’t put it past her. He swore again. “Tell me where you are.” He took down the directions. “Did Rico see you?”
“Naw, I didn’t think you’d want me letting him know I was following her, too.”
“Good work, Alfredo. Now make sure Rico doesn’t follow her any farther. When she reaches wherever she’s headed, call me and wait for further instructions. I’m on my way.”
He remembered that Jenna’s car was still parked at the service entrance. The damn cops had turned the tow truck driver away so they could search her car. Lorenzo had told the cops that it had some kind of mechanical problem and that’s why Jenna had left it there and called someone to give her a ride home. He didn’t know who. He didn’t care.
Now he would have to call the towing company again. They would charge him double. But he never wanted to see Jenna’s car again. He should have dumped it in the lake the way he had Franco’s.
He quickly packed his belongings. Charlene had promised to call as soon as she had the package. As if he would trust her to do that. A woman like Charlene would open the duffel—if Jenna was stupid enough to still have all that money in nothing more than a duffel bag.
From where Alfredo said he was stopped in traffic, it was a good two-hour drive. But Lorenzo had no choice but to head up there. Alfredo would buy him time by taking out Rico. And if need be, he’d have Alfredo take care of Charlene and get the money.
Jenna, though, was another story. As dangerous as it was, Lorenzo wanted to take care of her himself.
MY GOD, SHE COULD SEE HIM.
Jenna stumbled back, a look of horror on her face.
It’s all right. Don’t be afraid.
Harry didn’t dare move toward her. He still couldn’t believe that she could see him. He wanted to rejoice, to sing and dance and shout. She could see him.
“Please go away,” she moaned as she backed up against the wall of the bathroom, then slid down to the floor, as if her legs would no longer hold her up. Tears welled in her eyes. She bit her lower lip and squeezed her eyes shut.
Is that really what you want? He stepped toward her, desperately wanting to touch her, to reassure her, to look into her eyes and have her gaze into his. He’d never dreamed this would ever happen. Not after seventy years of being nothing. Of not being heard. Or seen.
But now…
She tried to draw back as he cupped her cheek with his hand. “Please, don’t.” But even as she said the words, she turned her head to press her lips into his palm. Her tears splashed down over his fingers. He could feel them, just as he could feel her.
Somehow she had breached the barrier that had enclosed him all these years and kept him prisoner.
I don’t know. I think you were sent here. For me, he thought. This woman he felt such intense emotions for had opened a door and released him. And now the ache to live again was so strong in him that he knew he would do anything to reclaim a place in her world.
Open your eyes. Look at me.
MIKE FLANNIGAN SLAMMED on his brakes and swore.
Rose caught her breath as she stared at the cliff just feet in front of the Jeep. The logging road had ended without warning in a fifty-foot drop into a creek bed.
“I guess I should have taken the other road back there,” Mike said as he carefully put the Jeep in Reverse and backed up.
Rose didn’t let out the breath until they were far enough from the dropoff that she dared inhale again. Her hand went to her side.
“Are you feeling all right?” Mike asked.
She dropped her hand. She could feel the scar through the fabric of her shirt and realized that it had become a habit, touching it, almost as if it had become a reminder.
“The knife wound is healed. I’m fine.”
“Right.” Mike turned the Jeep around in a wide spot and started back up the road. “You really think you’re up to taking on some really bad bad guys?”
“I’m just going to warn Jenna, that’s all.”
Mike chuckled. “Right. Lorenzo isn’t already out on bail and tracking her, too. Probably hasn’t sent any of his thugs after her, either.” He shook his head and shot Rose a glance. “It isn’t your fault she married him.”
“People make mistakes,” Rose said, remembering the young, gentle woman she’d met in the park. “Jenna made a big
one. But she shouldn’t have to pay with her life. Not to mention the price that little girl might have to pay.”
Rose swallowed, willing back the tears that burned her eyes. She remembered Lexi from the park.
Mike seemed to let the silence lie between them for a moment. “You have a plan if Lorenzo and his gunmen show up?”
She had no plan. That wasn’t like her. She preferred having a plan of action, if it was working on her house or working on a case. She was winging it and that alone should have scared her. “I’m going to get Jenna out of there before they can find her.”
“There’s something you should know,” Mike said. “The word on the street is that a big payoff is missing. Raymond Valencia is looking for Franco. Lorenzo is somehow involved. But there is a fear that there will be retribution. If there hasn’t already been.”
Was this about a missing payoff? Or about Jenna?
Rose closed her eyes. “I just can’t shake this feeling that Jenna is in worse trouble than even having her ex after her.”
Chapter Twelve
Charlene Palmer had taken every precaution to make sure she wasn’t followed. In the busy traffic around Seattle she hadn’t spotted any car twice.
But once on the two-lane road heading east she kept seeing a large black car behind her. She figured Lorenzo would have her followed. She’d hoped she’d lost the tail before now. Maybe she hadn’t.
She wasn’t that worried. Even if it was one of Lorenzo’s men, he wouldn’t stop her until she had the package, and since she had a backup plan…
She’d locked the doors on her car while waiting for the road to open, and patrolmen to remove the barricades. There hadn’t been but a handful of vehicles in line behind her, the black sedan one of them.
Now that they were moving again, she didn’t see the vehicle. Maybe it had turned off. Maybe it hadn’t been following her at all.
She tried to relax. She had a nice car. Soon she would have twenty thousand dollars to go with it. Actually, more than that if her plan worked. And unless she missed her guess, she would no longer be needed to spy on Jenna Dante. She’d never liked doing it, anyway.
