Murder List by Julie Garwood

Chapter Thirty



Alec was wearing a black raincoat over his tux and looked devastatingly handsome. He opened the door for her, stepped back, and said to Wincott, “Replacement’s here.”
Wincott’s phone was ringing. “I’ll go over a couple of things with him. You two go on.”
The door closed as he was answering the phone.
They didn’t speak until they were in the car and on their way north. Regan gave Alec directions to the country club—she’d written them down on a three-by-five index card—but he already knew where it was located.
“Are you always so organized?” he asked.
“I try to be,” she said. She pulled out a handful of cards, shuffled through them, and put them back in her purse.
“What are all those?”
“Notes for tonight,” she said.
“Do you have to give a speech?” he asked.
“Just a couple of words.”
She didn’t expound, and he figured he’d find out what it was all about when he got there. He was having a difficult time paying attention to the road. Her perfume was playing havoc with his concentration, and all he wanted to think about was how sexy she had looked when she walked into the parlor.
Yeah, right. Who was he kidding? He was trying to picture her naked, and that was what was playing havoc with his concentration.
They’d driven a couple of miles without speaking again, and the silence was awkward. Regan wished he would say something, even if it was a mundane remark about the weather. He had a ferocious frown on his face. What in heaven’s name was he thinking about?
“Is everything all right?” she asked.
“What? Oh, sure. Everything’s fine.”
“You were frowning.”
He glanced over at her. “I was?”
“What were you thinking about?”
You. Naked. Stalling while he tried to come up with a suitable lie, he said. “Just now?”
He eased the car down the ramp onto the interstate and swung in behind a pickup. Traffic was unusually heavy, even for Saturday night, but he still didn’t have any trouble keeping track of the sedan following them.
“We’ve got company.”
“We do?”
“The gray sedan two cars back. They’ve been following us since we left the hotel, and they don’t seem to care if we notice them or not. I’m not worried, just irritated.”
She tried to see the sedan from her side-view mirror, and when that didn’t work, she twisted in her seat to look out the back window. The seat belt cut into her neck.
“I don’t see a sedan.”
He pulled over into the middle lane and accelerated, and as soon as he did that, the sedan followed.
Her eyes grew huge. “I see them. There are two men.” Turning to Alec, she said, “Why aren’t we worried?”
“They’re security guards.”
“So now I’ve got security guards following me around the city? Even when I’m with you? Who do you suppose gave that order?”
“Your brother.”
She settled back in the seat, adjusted her raincoat over her knees, and stared out the window. She didn’t say another word for several minutes. Alec glanced over at her and saw the worry on her face. “What’s on your mind?” he asked.
“I was just wondering why we haven’t heard from him,” she said. “Why hasn’t he tried to contact me? It’s been two weeks, Alec. Do you still think he will?”
He could hear her anxiety. “Yes, I do.”
“But what happens if he waits?”
“Then we wait.”
“How much time will the lieutenant let Detective Wincott and you and the others spend on this? You’re all overworked, and I know there aren’t enough of you to go around. If nothing happens, and you leave Chicago, and he goes into hiding…” She suddenly stopped, took a breath, and told herself to calm down. Alec wasn’t clairvoyant. He couldn’t possibly have all the answers.
“Listen, Regan. Wincott and Bradshaw haven’t been twiddling their thumbs. They’re working on this, okay?”
“Yes, okay,” she said, feeling guilty now because she knew the detectives had been putting in long hours. “I’m sorry. It’s just that, the more I know—”
“The less afraid you’ll be.”
“That too.”
“What were you going to say?’
“The more control I’ll have. Besides, I can’t come up with a plan to help catch him unless I know all the facts, now can I?”
“I don’t like the sound of that, and neither will Wincott. Don’t you get in the middle of this.”
“I am in the middle of it.”
“I’m talking about the investigation. Don’t muck it up with foolish plans…”
“You sound like you think I’m going to do something crazy.”
She had one hand on the dashboard, getting ready to brace herself should he swerve or increase his speed.
“Would you like to drive?”
The question jarred her. “No, I wouldn’t.”
“I’m only going sixty.”
“Did I criticize your driving?”
He reached across the console and pulled her hand away from the dash. “Try to relax,” he said. “And no more talk about the investigation tonight. Okay?”
“Yes,” she agreed. She leaned back and folded her hands in her lap. “About those security guards following us…”
“Yes?”
“I don’t want them to follow us inside the club, and I’d rather no one knew that you were my bodyguard. The focus shouldn’t be on me tonight, and I don’t want a lot of questions.”
The only way the focus wouldn’t be on her was if she kept her coat on all evening and no one got a look at her dress. Actually, it was her body inside the dress, he silently corrected.
“I’ll talk to the guards and make sure they keep a low profile.”
“Thank you.”
The clouds suddenly erupted, and within seconds, fat raindrops splattered the windshield. Alec turned on the wipers and said, “I think we’re going to set a record for the most consecutive rain days.”
“That’s our exit.”
“I know.”
“Does Wincott know where Shields is hiding?”
“You’ll have to ask him that question.”
“Aiden wants me to hide too. I’m not going to, though. I’m not running away. I want to help catch him.”
“Aiden’s trying to look out for you,” he said. “I’ve got two younger sisters, and I’d probably react the same way.”
“He’s bringing in reinforcements.”
“Oh?”
“Spencer’s on his way. He’s probably already at the hotel.”
“Wasn’t he coming to Chicago for that meeting you told me about?”
“Yes.”
“But you think the two of them will try to gang up on you to get you to go into hiding?”
“Yes, but it won’t work. Like I said, I’m not going anywhere. And if anyone is hiding, it’s Aiden.”
“Yeah?” He was trying not to smile. She sounded so disgruntled now. “Who’s he hiding from?”
“Me.”
“He’s that scared of you, huh?”
“I wish.”
He did laugh then. “I gather that’s a no?”
“Aiden isn’t afraid of anyone, least of all me. He isn’t really hiding from me,” she admitted. “He is driving me crazy, though. It seems that every time I turn around, there he is, and yet, he doesn’t have time to even schedule a meeting. He keeps hiring more guards too. I’m bumping into them.”
“He’s worried about you, and that’s why there are so many security guards around. Did you ever talk to him about having your car towed away?”
“Not yet, but I will.”
“What about Walker? Is he going to gang up on you too?”
“No. He’s pretty self-absorbed these days, and I’m glad of it. I can handle two, but three against one is more difficult.”
They’d taken the exit and were slowing to a stop at a red light. The country club was a little over two miles away.
“You’re tougher than you look.”
She smiled. “I hope that’s a compliment.”
“It is,” he said. “Families can be complicated. Trust me. I know.”
“From some of the stories you’ve told me, you were pretty wild.”
“I had my share of wild times.”
With women? she wanted to ask.
“How come you’re not married?”
He shrugged. “I don’t have anything against marriage. My brothers Nick and Theo love being married. I just haven’t had time for any kind of meaningful relationship.”
“Women are like potato chips.”
“I’m sorry?” He couldn’t believe he’d heard her correctly. “Women are what?”
“Like potato chips,” she repeated. “That’s what a guy in college once told me.”
“A boyfriend?”
She shook her head. “No, he was dating a friend of mine, and sleeping around on her.”
“Did he tell you why he thought women were like potato chips?”
“Yes. He said he couldn’t eat just one.”
He thought that was hilarious. He’d heard a lot of lame reasons men gave women when they got caught cheating, but this one had to be the worst yet.
“It’s not that funny,” she said.
“Yeah, it is.”
He turned the corner. The rain was coming down in torrents now. They followed a limo through the iron gates. There were gaslights outlining the half mile drive that curved through the palatial grounds to the clubhouse. Whoever had designed the club had wanted to impress, and he had certainly achieved that goal. The opulence of the three-story structure at the top of the rise was close to being an embarrassment of excess. Soft lights shone down on massive white pillars. The brick building reminded Alec of a southern plantation run amuck.

Chapter Thirty-one




The rain didn’t let up. Alec handed his car keys to the valet and followed Regan up the stairs. He was one step behind her, and it occurred to her that he was making himself a target in order to protect her.
“Do you belong to this club?” he asked.
She shook her head. “It’s not my kind of place.”
The comment surprised him. “Not my kind of place either. It’s too…”
“Pretentious?” she whispered.
“Yes.”
Two men in red tailcoats opened the massive double doors as they approached. As Regan and Alec were walking inside, he took her arm and said, “I don’t want you to go anywhere without me. Not even the ladies’ room.”
She turned to him. “Are you going to go in there with me?”
“No, but I’m making sure it’s empty.”
He took her coat, removed his own, and handed both to the coat check woman. His frown told Regan that he didn’t approve of what she was wearing. She almost said something and then changed her mind. She draped the silk shawl around her shoulders and knotted it, and as soon as she did that, his frown eased.
He looked so dashing all dressed up in his tux. His bow tie was crooked, though, and a lock of his hair had fallen down on his forehead. Without a thought as to what she was doing, she stepped closer, adjusted his tie, and brushed his hair back in place.
She made the mistake of looking into his eyes. They wrinkled at the corners, and she knew he wanted to laugh at her. She could have stared at him all night. Time to get hold of yourself, she thought.
She stepped back. “I didn’t mean to… you know.”
“No, I don’t know. You didn’t mean to what?”
“To touch you,” she whispered.
He grinned. “I like you touching me.”
“I still shouldn’t have…”
She was saved from having to continue the awkward conversation when she heard someone call her name. She whirled around, lost her balance, and fell back against Alec. He grabbed her around the waist and held her until she stopped wobbling. She shouldn’t have worn such impossible high heels, she told herself.
He had to think she was a complete klutz. Fortunately, she didn’t have to dwell on that depressing thought long. Cordie caught her attention. Regan smiled as her friend came rushing forward. As usual, she looked lovely. The sapphire blue dress had a long full skirt and a fitted bodice that showed off her perfect figure.
“Have you been waiting long?” Regan asked. She might as well have added, “Yo, I’m down here.” Her friend was staring at Alec and having trouble keeping her mouth closed. Regan couldn’t fault her.
“Stop staring,” she whispered.
“I’m not staring.”
She was, and she didn’t seem inclined to stop. Regan nudged her. “I asked you if you had been waiting long. For heaven’s sake, Cordie, look at me.”
“What? Oh, no, I just got here.”
Regan remembered her manners. She stepped to Alec’s side and introduced the two. Cordie smiled as she shook his hand. “You don’t look like a detective, at least not in that tuxedo.” She glanced down at his waist and asked, “Are you carrying?”
“Carrying what?” Regan asked.
“A gun,” she explained. “You know… packing.”
Alec smiled. “You watch a lot of television, don’t you?”
“Sorry to say I do,” she said. “At least I do when I’m not grading papers. I lead a very boring life.”
“No, you don’t,” Regan said. “Cordie’s a woman of many talents. Do you know, she totally rebuilt the engine in her car?”
Alec thought she was joking. Cordelia was extremely feminine—very like Regan—and it was easier for him to picture her getting her nails painted at one of those fancy salons somewhere than changing the points and plugs in a car. Then the name clicked inside his head. Cordelia Kane as in Kane Automotive. “Your family owns a couple of auto repair shops around town, don’t they?”
“More than a couple,” Regan said. “They’re nationwide.”
She suddenly remembered she hadn’t told Cordie the latest about her brother. “Aiden had my car towed away.”
“No.”
“Yes.”
“Get it back,” she said.
Regan shook her head. “He had it taken to a junkyard. I’m sure it’s been stripped by now. Oh, and he bought me a BMW. Can you believe his gall?”
Alec would have laughed, but he knew Regan was serious, and angry. So was her friend.
“I can’t believe I wasted an entire weekend putting in a brand-new radiator and shocks…”
“And a new muffler,” Regan said.
“That’s right, a new muffler. Where does he get off towing…?” Cordie suddenly stopped ranting and took a deep breath. “It’s getting crowded in here. We should probably go into the banquet.”
Alec had been blocking Regan from anyone entering through the double doors, but he, too, wanted to get her inside the dining room and hopefully settled at an out-of-the-way table.
The two security guards who had followed them from the hotel walked into the foyer. They stopped just inside the door. Both were wearing their uniforms and were already getting noticed by the other arriving guests. Alec touched Regan’s arm to get her attention, leaned down close to her ear, and said, “Stay here with your back to the wall. I’ll be right back.”
The second he was out of earshot, Cordie said, “Oh, wow.”
Regan smiled. “Excuse me?”
“You heard me. Oh, wow. You didn’t tell me he was so…”
“So what?”
“So… everything. There’s this raw, sexy appeal about him…”
“Really?”
“You haven’t noticed?”
Regan laughed. “Of course I noticed.”
Like Cordie, she was watching Alec as he walked over to the guards and spoke to them. Whatever he was saying was making the men nervous. They both began to fidget. One was comically tugging on his collar.
“Why are those men here?”
“The guards? Aiden hired them as extra security.”
“They’re not subtle, are they?”
“No, they aren’t. I hope Alec sends them home.” She turned to Cordie and said, “I would appreciate it if you didn’t tell anyone that Alec’s a detective. I don’t want to field questions, and the focus should be on the hospital fund-raiser tonight.”
“I won’t say a word.”
“Except Sophie, of course. You can tell her.”
“Of course.”
The three of them never kept secrets from one another. “About the detective…” Cordie began.
“Yes?”
“I’m thinking he’s interested in you.”
“Why would you think that? You’ve only spent two minutes with the man.”
“Body language,” she explained in a very matter-of-fact tone. “I know he’s interested because of the way he looks at you. You’re going to have to take my word on this, Regan. He’s attracted to you, but then, come to think of it, most men are.”
“They are not. Now, can we please change the subject.”
“Not yet. You’re gorgeous. You’ve got a face and body Sophie and I would die to have, and I swear that if you weren’t my best friend, I’d have to hate you. Your brothers, especially Aiden, have done a real number on you to keep you in line.”
“For heaven’s sake,” Regan said, exasperated. “No one’s done a number on me.”
Cordie didn’t want to argue. “Will your brothers be here tonight?”
“Maybe,” she said.
“So tell me. Is he single, married, or divorced?”
“Who?” she asked, just to provoke her friend.
“Oh, please. You know who I’m talking about. The hunky detective.”
“He’s single, but he’s leaving Chicago in another week.”
“For how long?”
“Forever,” she said.
Cordie sighed. “You know what I’m thinking?”
Regan smiled. “I never know what you’re thinking.”
“I’m thinking you should take that blanket off and go after that man.”
Regan took exception. “It isn’t a blanket. It’s a wrap.” She selfconsciously adjusted the knot she’d made to hold the shawl in place. “It wouldn’t be right for me to go after him. He’s on the job. He’s… trapped with me.”
The conversation ended when Cordie said, “Here he comes.”
Regan noticed the guards, looking quite disgruntled, were leaving. “What did you say to them?” she asked.
“Not much.”
“In other words, you aren’t going to tell me?”
He smiled and completely ignored the question. “Shall we go inside the ballroom?”
“The doors aren’t open yet,” Cordie said. “That hallway leads to the ballroom, where we’ll be dining. They’re serving champagne and hors d’oeuvres in the reception. I’m going to go look for Sophie. Want to come with me?”
Regan didn’t answer her. She was watching a couple coming in the doorway. Her frown was immediate, and she was suddenly feeling sick to her stomach.
“What’s wrong?” As Cordie asked the question, she turned around to see who Regan was watching. “Oh, I see.”
The couple disappeared into the cloakroom. Alec caught a glimpse of them. “Who are they?”
“No one important.”
Alec looked at Cordie to get an answer. She sighed and said, “The silver-haired man used to be married to Regan’s mother, and the young woman having trouble keeping her dress on is his wife. They are, as Regan said, not important.”
Alec touched Regan’s shoulder. “I’d like to go into the ballroom. As Cordie said, it’s getting crowded out here,” he added.
Cordie took off down the hall to go to the reception, and by the time she reached the door, there were two men at her side.
Alec took Regan’s hand. “I want to see where you will be sitting. Let’s go.”
She didn’t argue. She didn’t particularly want to stand in a crowded room and sip champagne.
An employee stepped forward to block the doors and explained that they would have to wait until the room was officially opened, but the look Alec gave the man changed his mind, and he hastily stepped out of the way.
The ballroom was surprisingly large. To the left, the musicians were busy setting up their equipment on a wide square platform adjacent to the spacious dance floor. Straight ahead and to the right were round tables with white linen tablecloths. The cushioned chairs were covered with white linen slipcovers, and tied on the back of each chair was a blue satin bow with ribbon spilling to the floor. Long white tapered candles in sparkling silver candleholders were being lit by the waiters.
There were place settings for eight at each of the tables. Name cards, propped on silver cubes, sat directly behind each silver-rimmed dinner plate. Regan found their table near the front by the podium. One of the waiters was fiddling with the microphone, making sure it worked, but he stopped what he was doing and smiled at her.
She walked around the table to find out who else was seated there, oblivious of the appreciative looks she was getting. Alec didn’t like the way the staff was looking at her, but he knew he couldn’t do anything about it. He glared at one overzealous employee who started toward Regan and was pleased when the man did a hasty turnaround.
Regan was shaking her head. “What’s the matter?” he asked.
“We’re not sitting here.”
“Okay,” he said. “So who is?” He was standing beside her, keeping his eye on the doors.
“Aiden and his guest, Spencer and his guest, which means he’s back in town, the administrator of the hospital and his wife, and my former stepfather, Emerson, and his wife, Cindy. No, we aren’t going to sit here.”
She was trying hard not to let Alec know how furious she was. She knew Aiden was responsible for letting the sleazebag join in. She understood his motives. Emerson had already gone to several attorneys trying to find a way to break the prenup, and Aiden was simply trying to keep him pacified. In Regan’s opinion, her brother was only putting off the inevitable and being extremely disloyal to their mother’s memory in the process.
There were bright spots of color on her cheeks. She was angry, all right. “Okay,” Alec said calmly. “Where would you like to sit?”
“Anywhere but here.”
Alec picked up her name card and his. He looked around, found a table near the back he liked because it was close to the wall, and walked toward it.
He traded names with a doctor and his wife. “This okay?”
“It’s perfect.” The frown eased from her brow.
She put her evening bag down on the seat of the chair and straightened just as the doors were officially opened. Sophie and her date were the first to walk inside. She waved to Regan and hurried over. She looked amazing. Regan watched Alec to judge his reaction to her friend. He’d taken the name cards of the doctor and his wife and placed them next to Aiden and his guest, and was on his way back to their table when Sophie caught his attention.
He seemed curious but not overly so. Men had a tendency to lose their train of thought around Sophie, but Alec seemed to be in full command of his senses. Odd, Regan thought. Definitely odd.
Sophie was wearing a new black Chanel gown and had diamond clips in her hair. Regan recognized her friend’s date. He was Jeffrey Oatley. His family owned Oatley Electronics, and Regan knew that Jeff and Sophie were both members of the same country club. He was a sweet, laid-back man who always looked as though he was about to burst out of his clothes. Everything he wore was two sizes too small.
“Alec, I’d like you to meet my dear friend, Sophie Rose,” she said.
While she was introducing Jeff, she noticed Sophie was smiling at Alec. She, too, was obviously mesmerized by the man.
“Are you the bodyguard, or rather the detective, assigned to Regan? It’s okay,” she hastily added for Regan’s benefit. “Cordie explained everything to me, and I assure you that I can keep a secret.”
“Sophie’s going to be a reporter,” Regan said.
“What secret?” Jeff asked.
Alec answered. “Regan’s dating a cop. That’s the secret.”
“What cop?”
“Me,” Alec said. “She’s dating me.” He put his arm around her waist and pulled her in to his side.
Alec didn’t let go of her. Regan wondered if he realized his arm was still around her. She liked it, though. She liked pretending that they were together too, and, Lord, how pathetic was that?
“Would you like for us to join you?” Sophie asked, and before Regan could answer, she turned to her date and said, “Will you go find our name cards, please?”
He immediately turned around to do what she asked. She grabbed his arm. “Wait a minute. Take all of these name cards and put them somewhere else. I’m sure there are empty seats, and if there aren’t, ask the waiter to set up another table. I don’t want to sit with strangers tonight. Oh, and, Jeff? Find Cordie’s name too. She’ll want to sit with us.”
Regan leaned toward Alec and said, “Sophie and I have been friends since kindergarten, so I’m used to the way she bosses everyone around.”
Sophie heard the comment and laughed. “Everyone but you and Cordie. It is true, though. I do tend to be bossy, especially with Jeff. He’s my go-with guy.”
“Go with?” Alec asked.
“We’re just friends,” she explained. “But when I want or need a date for some function, Jeff goes with me, and I do the same for him. It’s a perfect arrangement when one or both of us is between relationships. Jeff was eager to come tonight, though, because of Regan.”
“Why’s that?” Alec asked.
“He’s had a thing for her for years,” she explained. “Shouldn’t we sit down?” She motioned to a waiter, who immediately hurried over. “Would you please remove these three place settings? Thank you,” she said as he began to gather up the silverware and the wineglasses. Sophie leaned around him to see Regan. “Cordie can sit next to Alec on his right, and you can sit on his left.”
“She is bossy,” Alec said.
Regan nodded. She was smiling until Sophie said, “Cordie’s right. You really should take off the blanket. It hides your beautiful dress.”
“It isn’t a blanket. It’s a wrap.”
“No need to sound so defensive.”
“I’m not being defensive,” she argued in a voice even she knew sounded extremely defensive. “I’m simply telling you it’s a wrap.”
“Okay,” Sophie said, and it was obvious that she was now trying to placate Regan. “And I’m simply suggesting to you that it’s time to unwrap the wrap. Speaking of dresses, do you like mine?”
“Very much. Is it new?” Regan’s tone was laced with suspicion.
“Sort of.”
“What does ‘sort of mean?”
“I picked it up at the Chanel boutique a couple of weeks ago, but this is the first time I’ve worn it.”
“How did you pay for it? With your salary—”
Sophie stood. “I had a relapse. Okay?”
“Oh, Sophie…”
“I’m going to help Jeff find Cordie’s name card. He’s wandering around in circles. When I get back, don’t lecture me. I already feel guilty.”
Alec stood when Sophie did, but as soon as she walked away, he sat down again and put his arm on the back of Regan’s chair. The fringe from her wrap was draped over his hand, and when she shifted positions, his fingers brushed against her skin. She didn’t move away, and neither did he.
“What kind of relapse was she talking about?” he asked.
“Sophie asked Cordie and me to help her stop taking money from her father.”
“What’s the big deal? If he wants to give her money and she needs it…”
Regan turned to look at him. “But she doesn’t really need it. And she wants to be completely independent.” She sighed. “Sophie loves her father very much, and she’s extremely loyal to him.”
“In other words, she’s a typical daughter.”
She smiled. Nothing about Sophie or her father was typical. “Yes,” she said. “Recently she decided that it was up to her to try to rehabilitate him, and if that didn’t work, then she’s determined to get him to retire.”
Alec literally jerked back. “Ah, hell. Rose isn’t her middle name, is it? Man, I didn’t put it together. I should have, but I didn’t. She’s Bobby Rose’s daughter, isn’t she?”
“Yes, she is.”
He was stunned. The FBI had been trailing Bobby Rose for years, trying to get enough evidence to indict him. Bobby was considered by many to be the ultimate con artist, but because he only fleeced those men and women he considered to be bigger crooks than he was, the public had taken a real shine to him. High-stakes gamblers who had robbed their own companies and who had cleaned out their employees’ pensions and then hung them and their families out to dry were Bobby’s meat and potatoes. Bobby Rose loved targeting the greedy bastards, and that was all the more reason the public loved him. Unfortunately, the sad truth was that Bobby was never going to run out of marks.
Not only did the public adore him, other crooks looked up to Bobby as an idol. He was everything they hoped to become. Bobby lived somewhere in Florida, and in all the articles about him, there was never any mention of a family.
“Spencer told me that a lot of people think of Bobby Rose as a modern-day Robin Hood. He only steals from the rich—”
He interrupted her. “Yeah, well, he doesn’t give the money to the poor, now does he? He keeps it.”
Her back stiffened. “He does a lot of charitable work.”
He gave her a look that suggested he thought she was nuts. “He’s a criminal, Regan, and he should be behind bars.”
“It’s obvious you’ve made up your mind about him, and nothing I say will change your opinion, will it?” She sounded disgruntled.
“He’s a criminal,” he patiently repeated.
“If you’re going to be judgmental…”
He was incredulous. “Have you forgotten what I do for a living?”
She turned away from him and stared at the crowd of people searching for their tables. “I’m through discussing Sophie’s father with you.”
“Oh, we’ve only just gotten started.” He tugged on her wrap to make her look at him and asked, “Did you tell me Sophie works for a newspaper?”
It would have been petty not to answer. “Yes, she does. At her father’s insistence she uses her mother’s maiden name as her byline, but I think everyone at the paper knows who she is. Detective Wincott found out, and I assumed he told you.”
Wincott was probably having a real good laugh about now. “No, he didn’t tell me,” he said. “It must have slipped his mind. What was it like for Sophie growing up with Bobby Rose for a father?”
“He’s a very good father,” she said. “He never missed a parent-teacher conference, and he always went to the plays and the tennis matches. He did his share of car pooling too.”
“Were there parents who wouldn’t let their kids hang around Sophie?”
“Yes.”
“Did your family?”
“Forbid me to hang out with her? Sophie and Cordie and I had already become friends before Bobby Rose became so…”
“Notorious?”
“Famous,” she corrected. “My mother was busy socializing and traveling. My grandmother was in charge of me, and when she became ill, Aiden took over. I don’t think my grandmother knew who Sophie’s father was, but Aiden knew, and he didn’t tell her. My brother would never forbid me to be her friend. Sophie was always welcome in our home, but I wasn’t allowed to go to hers.” She smiled as she added, “I did, though, all the time.”
He was teasing when he asked, “Did you ever get down in her basement? No one knows where Bobby Rose hides all his money. Maybe it’s there.”
She put her hand down on top of his. “Alec, Sophie is my friend.”
He started to ask another question. She stopped him by squeezing his hand. “She’s my friend.”

Chapter Thirty-two




Alec hated black-tie affairs, and he didn’t particularly like the country club scene either, but he didn’t mind wearing the tuxedo tonight because of Regan. There was something about her that was so compelling, so vibrant, and yet there was a vulnerability too he found utterly charming. Sophie told them a sad story about a young man she knew, and when she was finished, Regan had tears in her eyes.
“It had a happy ending,” Sophie said.
Embarrassed by her tears, Regan dabbed at her eyes with her napkin and laughed. “I’m a crybaby.”
“That used to be her nickname,” Sophie said.
“When I found out what some of the kids were calling me, I cried,” she said. “But that was when I was in school. I got over it.”
“Regan wears her heart on her sleeve.”
Regan didn’t argue. She picked up her glass of Perrier and lime and took a sip.
Alec loved watching her expressions. She was so refreshingly different. What she was feeling was right there for anyone to see. She wasn’t a game player, and she wasn’t the least bit self-serving or self-involved. That, too, was a refreshing change from the other women he’d known.
Regan had a face that could grace the cover of a fashion magazine and an incredible body, but what he liked most about her was her loyalty to her friends. Well, maybe not most of all, he admitted. Her body was pretty damned great.
But she was still just a job. He had to remind himself of that fact every time he looked at that sweet mouth of hers.
Sophie excused herself to go search for her date. Alec sat down again, declined the wine the waiter was offering, and asked Regan, “Is that any good?” with a nod toward her nonalcoholic drink.
She handed the glass to him and watched him gulp it down. Smiling she said, “You were supposed to take a sip.”
“I never sip. If I’m gonna drink something, I don’t fool around,” he said. “And that pretty much defines my philosophy of life.”
“Don’t sip, gulp?” When he nodded, she laughed. “You belonged to a fraternity when you were in college, didn’t you?”
“Sure did,” he said. “I ate a lot of potato chips too.”
He put the empty glass down, ordered two more, one for Regan and one for himself, and then said, “Heads up.”
“Excuse me?”
“Aiden’s here.”
She was still smiling when she turned and watched her brother walk into the ballroom. He didn’t have a date, and he didn’t notice Regan, but then she was all but hidden in the back corner. She watched him walk toward the podium, where Daniel O’Donnell, the administrator of Parkdale Hospital, stood waiting for him.
Sophie also saw Aiden as she was making her way back to their table. She hurried to intercept him, said something that made him smile, then stretched up and kissed him on the cheek.
Spencer walked in a minute later with Cordie at his side. He, too, was smiling. Her brother looked relaxed, she thought. Sleep-deprived, but relaxed. Jet lag would, no doubt, catch up with him tomorrow.
“The man with Cordie…”
“Spencer, right?”
“Yes, that’s right.”
“I see the family resemblance,” he said. “But I also recognized him from a newspaper photo Henry showed me. You and your brothers were at a dedication. Henry told me he was going to have the photo framed because it was rare for all of you to be together.”
She nodded. “That’s true. It seems the only time we get together is when there’s a funeral or a crisis.”
“A what?”
“A crisis.”
He leaned his elbows on the table and thought about what she’d just said.
Regan looked back at Spencer and said, “I should go say hello to my brother.”
“Two brothers are here,” he said.
She smiled. “Yes, but I’m only going to be nice to one of them.”
He smiled. “Spoken like a true sister.”
The knot in her wrap came undone, and when she pushed her chair back to stand, it fell to the floor.
He bolted to his feet. The dress showed off her attributes a little too well for his liking. No, that wasn’t exactly true. He liked looking at her. He just didn’t want anyone else to.
He was about to tell her to put the blanket back on when she turned to him. They stood just inches apart, her face upturned to his. If he moved so much as a couple of inches, his mouth would be on top of hers. He stopped himself in time. It wasn’t his place to tell her what she could or couldn’t wear, no matter how much it bothered him. If he tried that on one of his sisters, she’d laugh right in his face. Then she’d give him hell.
Regan wasn’t his sister, though. She’s a job, nothing more. Those words became a chant inside his head, and yet he was having trouble accepting it.
“Alec? You were saying?”
“Stay in the room,” he said gruffly. “I’ll be watching, but stay in the room.”
“Yes, of course.”
Cordie was bringing Spencer to Regan. She met them halfway across the ballroom, hugged her brother, and welcomed him home.
Alec watched the reunion as he pulled out his cell phone. He dialed Wincott’s cell number. The detective answered on the second ring.
Alec didn’t waste time on pleasantries. “Check out the brothers.”
“The ball that boring, huh?”
“I mean it. Check them out.”
“We already have,” he said. “And you’re not supposed to have any involvement in the investigation.”
It was almost impossible for Alec to back off. He didn’t want to jeopardize Wincott’s future with the department, and he knew that if Lewis found out he was doing anything more than guarding Regan, he would make Wincott’s life miserable.
“So what are you thinking?” Wincott asked.
“Maybe this guy is after the whole family, or maybe he’s using Regan to get all the brothers back in Chicago. I know you’ve checked them out, but go deeper. There might be something there.”
“Okay,” he said. “We’ll dig deeper.”
“Look, I know you’re overworked and understaffed. I’ll call Gil and ask him to check out a couple of things.”
“So you’re not involved, but you are?”
“I really want to follow up on a hunch.”
“That’s fine with me… if Gil doesn’t mind.”
“Did anything come up on Regan?”
“Since you asked this morning? No. The people she turned down for grants were the only ones who had a grudge. Although, there were a couple of nutcases—you know, people who wanted money for weird inventions—but they checked out okay. Weird, but okay,” he said. “I already told you we’re looking at Peter Morris,” he added. “Her friends checked out too. I guess by now you’ve figured out who Sophie Rose’s father is.”
“Thanks for telling me.”
Wincott laughed. “I almost fell off the chair when I found out. It doesn’t appear to make any difference to Regan or her brothers. They don’t blame the daughter for the sins of her father.”
“That’s the way it should be.”
“We’ve ruled Bobby Rose out. I’m getting another call.”
Alec flipped the phone closed and put it back in his pocket. He stood with his back to the wall, his arms folded across his chest, watching the crowd.
Aiden had joined his brother and sister. Cordie seemed to be the only one interested in what he had to say. No, interested wasn’t the right description, Alec thought. She looked enthralled. Regan, on the other hand, looked furious. Aiden was still talking when she shook her head, turned, and walked back to their table. Several men tried to engage her in conversation, but other than smiling at each one, she paid them no attention and continued on.
Alec pulled the chair out for her, but she didn’t sit. She stood next to him and stared at the entrance.
Cordie had followed Regan, and she smiled when Alec pulled her chair out for her. “Who are you looking for?” she asked Regan as she placed the napkin on her lap. She turned around to see who Regan was watching, and then said, “Oh, I see.”
“See what?” Alec asked.
“Mr. and Mrs. Sleazebag just walked in,” Cordie said.
Alec didn’t comment, but he did track the couple as they made their way around the tables to get to their seats. Emerson’s face was red, no doubt from alcohol, Alec thought. His wife was adjusting her bodice and fluffing her long platinum hair. An interesting couple, he decided, and he wondered what Wincott had found out about them.
Sophie and Jeff returned to the table, and Sophie craned her neck so she, too, could watch the couple. When they had taken their seats, she turned to Regan and said, “The whole family’s here. Isn’t that lovely?”
“Just super.”
“Walker isn’t here,” Cordie pointed out.
“I was being sarcastic,” Sophie said. She told Regan and Alec to sit down, for heaven’s sake, and then added, “Aiden had no right to invite Emerson. He knows how Regan feels about him. I think it was terribly disloyal of him, and I told him so.”
Cordie immediately rushed to Aiden’s defense. “You can’t know if he invited him or not.”
“Of course I can know,” Sophie countered. “Aiden told me he invited him,” she rushed to add when Cordie looked as if she was going to argue.
“What did he say when you called him disloyal?” Cordie asked.
“He said it was cheaper than a lawsuit and for me to behave myself tonight,” Sophie said. “He still treats me like I’m a ten-year-old.”
Waiters appeared with the first course. The conversation turned to lighter topics during dinner, and Regan was thankful for that. Jeff told several humorous stories about a tennis competition he’d entered, and Regan tried to look interested. She wasn’t hungry. Seeing Emerson had destroyed her appetite, but no one seemed to notice she was moving the food around her plate.
After dinner, but before the dancing began, Daniel O’Donnell stepped up to the podium and tapped on the microphone to get everyone’s attention.
“Please tell me there aren’t going to be a dozen or so boring speakers,” Cordie said.
“Just one boring speaker,” Regan replied.
“For a thousand dollars a plate, we shouldn’t have to listen to anyone,” Sophie said.
“Hush,” Cordie whispered. “People can hear you.”
A moment later, after the administrator had thanked everyone for attending, he introduced Regan. Cordie and Sophie both laughed.
“Keep it short and sweet,” Sophie said.
“As opposed to long and boring?” Regan teased.
Deciding to wing it, she left the note cards in her purse. Alec stood when she did, but he didn’t follow her. He watched the crowd and the doors. He did notice that every eye was on Regan as she made her way to the podium.
It took her all of thirty seconds to hook her audience and less than that to mesmerize them.
The hospital was located in the heart of the inner city, and Regan stressed the importance of keeping it open. There was a desperate need for money and for additional beds, which meant a drive to expand.
“And that’s why you’re here,” she said.
They were smiling as she reeled them in. Alec was amazed. She talked about money, and she got them to listen. She had her audience in the palm of her hand, and by the time she finished, Alec wanted to empty his savings account to help out. She was that good.
There was such passion in her voice and a determination to get the job done. It was a side of her Alec hadn’t seen until tonight, and he was all the more impressed. The woman just kept getting better and better.
She received a standing ovation and was immediately surrounded by guests. Alec didn’t like the crowd pressing in on her. He went to her, put his arm around her, and pulled her back so that her shoulders were pressed against his chest.
Alec spotted Emerson, drink in hand, tottering toward her with a scowl on his face. “Come on. Let’s dance,” he said.
“The music hasn’t started yet.”
“I’ll hum.”
He was treating her like a football he had tucked under his arm as he zigzagged his way to the dance floor. Fortunately, the music did start just as he pulled her into his arms.
“Alec?” she began.
“Yes?”
“Thank you.”
He’d been looking over the crowd but glanced down and smiled. “You saw him coming?”
The top of her head bumped his chin when she nodded. Her fingers were tickling the back of his neck. He was trying hard not to show any reaction, but he couldn’t help thinking how soft and right she felt in his arms. When she looked directly into his eyes, he began to imagine all sorts of things.
Man, did he need to get laid. Yeah, that was why she was having such a powerful effect on him. Lust. That’s what it was. Plain old lust. And he needed to clear his head and stop thinking about how good she would feel in his arms in his bed with her legs…
“We won’t have to stay much longer.”
One of the waiters caught his attention. He was standing by the door holding an oval tray. He was staring at Regan. While Alec watched, another waiter tapped the man on his shoulder and got him moving again.
“I’m not in a hurry to leave.”
“Who are you watching?” she asked.
The waiter carried the empty tray out of the room. “No one in particular.”
“You’re not bored to death?”
He smiled. “I’m still breathing, aren’t I?”
The song ended. Men were moving in on Regan, but Alec managed to run interference and get her back to the table without stopping.
“You’re being rude dragging me along. I’m supposed to be nice to these people so they’ll give me some of their hard-earned money for the hospital expansion.”
“Most of the people here didn’t earn their money. They inherited it.”
“Yes, but I still have to—”
He cut her off. “You can be nice sitting here,” he said. He pulled out her chair and added, “You don’t want Cordie to sit all by herself, do you?”
The chair hit the back of her knees. She didn’t have a choice. She was sitting whether she wanted to or not.
“You have noticed Cordie isn’t at the table. She’s dancing.”
“Yes, but she’s coming back. You look cold,” he remarked. He sat down next to her. “Why don’t you put your blanket back on.”
One eyelid dropped. “It isn’t a blanket.”
He draped the wrap around her shoulders, and his finger trailed down the side of her neck. She sat beside him for several minutes watching the couples on the dance floor, but every once in a while, she’d glance over at him. Had she imagined the touch, the shiver he’d evoked? Was she that starved for affection that a simple brush of his hand against her skin sent her into a spin?
Don’t think about it, she told herself. Think about something else. Her friends. Yes, she’d think about them. Were they having a good time? Sophie looked as if she was. She and Jeff were having an animated conversation as they waltzed past, and Cordie, she noticed, was dancing with Aiden.
“What do you think of my friends?”
Alec was watching Cordie when he answered. “I like them.”
She smiled as though he’d just complimented her. “When we were little, Cordie and I were certain that Sophie would be married before she turned twenty, but now we’re not so sure she’ll ever settle down. She’s having too much fun. Cordie, on the other hand, is a true romantic. She says she’s waiting for her one true love.”
Alec nodded toward the dance floor. “Maybe she’s already found him.”
She leaned in to Alec’s side while she looked over the crowd.
When she found Cordie, she burst into laughter. “She’s dancing with Aiden, for heaven’s sake.”
“Yes, she is.”
“Are you suggesting that Cordie and Aiden…?” She laughed again. The possibility was ludicrous to her.
Alec wanted to tell her to watch her friend’s face. The way that Cordie was looking at Aiden more than suggested that she at least had the hots for the guy. Alec didn’t think Aiden had a clue, though, how Cordie felt.
“I could be wrong,” he said, deciding to be diplomatic.
“You are wrong. Aiden thinks of Cordie as my friend. Nothing more. He watched her grow up because she was always at our house. And she thinks of him as my brother—”
“Yeah, I’ve got it. And nothing more, right?”
“That’s right.”
They continued to watch the dancing couples.
“Daniel’s looking worried,” Regan said.
“Who’s Daniel?”
“Daniel O’Donnell.”
She could tell he still didn’t know whom she was talking about. “The hospital administrator. He’s waiting for me to circulate and beg for money. Would you like to come with me?”
“No, I can watch you beg from here. Just stay in the room where I can see you.”
He almost added, “And wear the tarp or whatever the thing is called,” but stopped himself. He stood with his back to the wall and watched her walk away. She turned once and smiled at him. There was the dimple he’d been pretending not to notice since that first smile. He loved women with dimples, no matter where those dimples were.
His cell phone vibrated. He didn’t look at the caller ID before answering.
“Buchanan.”
Noah Clayborne was on the line. “I’m stuck in Seattle.”
“What are you doing there?”
“Eating fish.”
“So you’re not coming to Chicago?”
“Probably not. Where are you? I hear music in the background.”
“I’m at a country club, and you’re hearing a band playing. I’m on duty,” he explained.
“Doing what?”
He sighed and braced himself for the razzing to come. “Bodyguard duty.”
“Huh. I guess that’s better than a suspension. What’d you do wrong?”
“What makes you think I did anything wrong?”
Noah laughed. “You’re kidding, right? You’ve been demoted to bodyguard. You did something wrong, all right.”
“Yeah, I did. I made the lieutenant look bad.”
Noah was nosy as usual. “How’d you do that?”
“I resigned,” he said, and then added, “look, it’s a long story. I’ll tell you all about it over a beer sometime.”
“Yeah, okay. So maybe I’ll see you in Boston. I’ll call to let you know.”
“Wait a minute. I want to ask you something.”
“What?”
“It’s kind of an odd thing to ask, but I was just curious ...”
“Curious about what?” he asked when Alec hesitated.
“Women.”
“Huh. I sort of thought your father or one of your older brothers would have given you the sex talk, but if you—”
“Very funny,” he snapped. “What I was wondering…”
“Yeah? Spit it out.”
“You’ve been with a lot of women.”
“I like women.”
“And you’ve been in a few relationships, haven’t you? You know what I’m talking about, don’t you? A relationship that’s lasted more than twenty-four hours, maybe even as long as a week? Short-term, but still a relationship.”
“Yes, I have.”
“Okay, so what I want to know is this. In any of those relationships, did you ever become possessive? Did it ever bother you that other guys were trying to hit on the woman you were with?”
“Ah, jeez. Who is she?”
“Just answer the question.”
“No, I’ve never become possessive.” There was laughter in his voice.
It wasn’t the answer Alec wanted to hear, and he was sorry he’d asked the question because now Noah’s curiosity was pricked.
“You’re in a relationship with a woman, and you don’t want any other man hitting on her. Did I get that right?”
He knew Noah was yanking his chain, but he still reacted. “No, damn it. That’s not right. I’m not in a relationship.”
“Huh.”
“Huh, what?”
“You’re not sleeping with her, but you’re still feeling possessive.”
Alec spotted Emerson heading toward Regan again. She was standing next to her brothers talking to the hospital administrator, who appeared to be hanging on her every word.
“Listen, I’d appreciate it if you didn’t mention this conversation to Nick.”
Noah laughed. “Yeah, like that’s gonna happen. Your brother’s my partner. I’ve got to tell him. We spend a lot of time on stakeouts together, and this is definitely stakeout conversation. Besides, how often do I get to make fun of one of his brothers?”
Alec could feel his temper rising. “There’s nothing to tell.” He pictured putting his hand through the phone and grabbing Noah by the neck and choking him. Odd, but that fantasy actually made him feel better. He was still sorry he’d brought up the topic, though, and he knew it was going to take a long time for Noah to forget about it.
“Listen, Alec. You better be careful, or you won’t leave Chicago a single man. I know what I’m talking about. I saw it happen to Nick and Theo. And it was pretty painful to watch. Both of your brothers went through the juvenile don’t-look, don’t-touch, don’t-even-think-about-it phase when they first met their wives.”
“That’s never going to happen to you, though, is it, Noah?”
“Hell, no.”
Alec laughed, his good mood restored. He could almost hear the shudder in his friend’s voice when he’d given the denial.
“Are you about finished with the girly talk?”
“Yeah.”
Noah then moved on to a matter he considered far more important. He told Alec all about the fishing trip he and Father Tommy, another family friend, were setting up. “We’re thinking Canada. You interested?”
“Sure, if I can get away.”
Regan was now dancing with Sophie’s date. What was his name? Oh, yeah. Jeff something or other. He was harmless, Alec thought. Emerson didn’t look harmless, though. Anger radiated from his eyes as he watched Regan. He leaned against a pillar gulping down a tall drink while he waited for the music to end. He obviously wasn’t through pestering her.
“Gotta go,” he said and ended the call.
Emerson had just trapped Regan as she was leaving the dance floor. Alec started forward, then stopped. He decided not to interfere. She was a big girl. She could handle herself.
Regan’s expression went stone-cold, but she didn’t run from Emerson. She simply stood there as he rambled on and on. When she had had enough, she tried to walk away, but he grabbed hold of her arm just above the wrist and wouldn’t let go. Her demeanor didn’t change, but his sure did. She put her hand down on top of his, and from the look of shock and pain on the drunk’s face, Alec surmised she’d bent a couple of his fingers back into an unnatural position.
Thatta girl. Alec was proud of her. Being raised by three older brothers did have some perks after all—even if those brothers were overbearing and intrusive.
Regan didn’t come back to the table for a long time. She made the rounds, working the room, and she was fun to watch. The administrator followed in her wake to collect checks and pledges for more. People loved Regan. Most people, anyway. When Emerson’s wife wasn’t busy pushing her silicone breasts back into her leopard-print dress, she was glaring at her.
Every once in a while, Regan would turn toward Alec and smile at him. He thought maybe she was checking to make sure he was still there.
A good forty-five minutes passed before she stopped selling the hospital. She scanned the crowd until she found Aiden. It took her a while to get to him because men and women kept stopping her, some taking her hand as they spoke to her. When she finally reached her brother, he started talking before she had a chance to say anything, and whatever he was telling her didn’t sit well. She looked stunned, but she was quick to recover. Her face was flushed, and she shook her head several times.
Then Spencer joined in, and it didn’t take Alec any time at all to figure out that the two brothers were united on some issue, and she was disagreeing. Alec would have bet a hundred dollars that the issue under hot discussion was Emerson.
By the time Regan walked back to the table, she was trembling. He knew her reaction was due to anger, not fatigue. She was too furious to sit, and so she stood next to him and tried to calm down.
“Anything I can help with?” he asked.
“No, but thanks for offering.”
“Then I suggest you take a couple of deep breaths and shake it off.”
He didn’t miss a trick. “You saw?”
“Yes.”
“My brothers are so…”
He waited for the zinger only a sister could come up with.
“So what?” he asked, trying not to smile.
“Practical.”
He blinked. She made practical sound like a sin. “And that’s pretty awful, is it?”
“In this instance it is,” she said. “And stop laughing at me.”
Her hands were balled into fists and her spine was as rigid as one of the marble columns. He put his arm around her shoulders and gave them a gentle squeeze.
She turned to him, her back to the room, thinking to tell him that they didn’t have to stay any longer, but the words got all tangled up. It was his fault. The way he was looking at her, with such warmth and obvious amusement… she’d never met anyone like him.
“Alec?”
“Yes?”
She took a step closer and whispered so she wouldn’t be overheard. “I was wondering…”
He didn’t say a word. He simply waited until she continued. She could feel herself blushing now.
“If we had met in a different place… at a different time… would you…?”
She didn’t go on. She didn’t have to. He nodded and quietly said, “Oh, yeah, I would.”
Neither one of them said another word for several minutes. An old Roberta Flack song was playing in the background. She picked up her wrap, folded it, and draped it over her arm.
She looked into his eyes. “What are you thinking?” she asked before she could stop herself.
His smile could melt steel. “I’ll tell you later.”
“Tell me now.”
He looked over the room again. She thought he’d dismissed the question until he said, “I’m on duty now.”
“And?” she prodded.
He grinned. “I won’t be later.”

Chapter Thirty-three


It was more show than tell.
There was very little conversation on the way back to the hotel. After making certain they weren’t being followed, Alec put the car on cruise control, settled back, and thought about his current situation. He was determined to figure out why he was having so much trouble keeping his professional and his personal life separate.
He knew what he should do. He should leave Regan the hell alone, tell the lieutenant he was through, and then pack up his things and get out of town. Yeah, that’s what he should do.
He had the feeling he wasn’t going to, though. She’d already gotten to him and was now messing with his mind. He wasn’t sure how it had happened or what he could do about it, and not knowing was making him as anxious as a caged animal.
Next to her, however, he looked absolutely tranquil. Ever since they’d left the country club, she had been staring straight ahead and sitting ramrod straight. The woman was so stiff, he thought he could probably bounce a quarter off her.
Regan was trying very hard to look calm and cool. She didn’t want Alec to know how nervous she was, and she was pretty sure she was doing a fair job of concealing it.
She’d never felt this way before, all twisted up in knots inside.
Everything about him disrupted her concentration, the way he smiled, the way he moved, the way he looked at her. He’d probably used just that look on at least a hundred other women and most assuredly had gotten exactly what he wanted from them. As crazy as it was to admit, just sitting this close to him in the car was making her breathless.
Alec noticed she had folded her arms and she was frowning intently. Whatever she was thinking about wasn’t pleasant.
“Is something wrong?”
Of course something’s wrong. I’ve just realized I’m a complete idiot. “No, nothing.”
“Okay,” he said, going along with the lie. “Then what are you thinking about?”
“Just now?” She was stalling for time while she tried to come up with something mundane.
“No, a week ago Tuesday.” He smiled. “Yes, just now.”
“Physical attraction,” she blurted.
“No kidding. I never would have guessed that.”
She pretended indifference. “You asked. I answered.”
“So, what about it?”
“I just realized that you can’t control who you’re attracted to,” she said. “It can be… instantaneous. Yes, instantaneous.” She nodded for emphasis.
It wasn’t until he reached over and put his hand on top of hers that she realized she was digging her nails into her skin. She immediately stopped.
He pulled his hand back as he said, “You’re just now figuring that out?”
She shifted positions and folded her hands on her lap. “I was just now thinking about it.” Her tone was definitely defensive.
He wouldn’t let her get away with that. “No, you said you just realized that sometimes—”
She interrupted. “Okay, maybe I was just now figuring it out. I haven’t taken the time to think about it until now.”
“The ‘it’ is physical attraction?”
From the laughter in his voice, she could tell he was having a good time.
“Oh, be quiet.”
“You’re easy to get riled up.”
“Sometimes,” she replied. “But I’m very good at concealing my feelings when I want to.”
He laughed. “No, you’re not. You’re terrible at it.”
She was floored he’d think such a thing. “I beg to differ. I’ve had years of experience,” she said. “And if I didn’t want you to know what I was thinking, then, trust me, you wouldn’t.”
Exasperated, he said, “I don’t care how many years you’ve practiced, you still aren’t any good at hiding anything. Your every emotion shows on your face.”
She wasn’t going to continue to argue with him. She certainly didn’t need to have the last word. “You’re wrong.”
He changed the subject. “All those guys at that club tonight…?”
“Yes?”
“Did you ever date any of them?”
“No.”
“Are you dating anyone now?” he asked.
“No.”
“Huh.”
She smiled. “Huh, what?”
“I never would have guessed that.”
“Are you dating anyone now?” she asked.
“No.”
“Huh.”
He began to laugh. “Huh, what?”
“I never would have guessed that.” Then she added, “We should probably talk about something else.”
“Why?”
“We just should.”
“Okay,” he said. “Have you ever been in a long-term relationship?”
“That isn’t talking about something else.”
“Have you?”
He changed lanes, checked the rearview mirror, and then glanced at her. “Are you going to answer or what?”
“I was… sort of in a relationship with a man named Dennis, but it ended several months ago.”
“What’s a ‘sort of’ relationship?”
“I wanted it to work. There wasn’t any physical attraction, though, but I thought that in time there would be.”
“You can’t program something like that. It’s either there, or it isn’t.”
She nodded but didn’t comment. “We’re the next exit.”
“I know. Is that why you ended it?”
“How do you know / ended it?”
Because Dennis would be frickin’ crazy to walk away from you. “Just a guess,” he said.
“Yes, I ended it. He was interested in my money, not me. I was more angry than hurt when I realized what a jerk he was. We never—”
“Never what?”
“The relationship hadn’t become physical.” She couldn’t believe she’d told him that.
“Because there was no physical attraction.”
“Exactly.”
“Were there any hard feelings?”
“Maybe at first. He called often,” she said. “But then he finally gave up and moved on. Last I heard, he was engaged.”
“That was quick.”
“She was an heiress.”
He nodded. “Did you tell Wincott about Dennis?”
“Yes, I did.”
Neither one of them said another word for several minutes.
Regan was thinking about Alec and her reaction to him. It was dangerous, this attraction. He was doing his job, and when he was finished, he would leave. Simple as that. If she became too attached to him, she’d be miserable when he left.
Okay, think of all the reasons why she shouldn’t get involved, no matter how outrageous. There was, of course, the obvious reason. Her heart would be broken.
Even to kiss him would be unethical, she decided, and maybe grounds for a sexual harassment lawsuit. She sighed. Heaven help her, she was beginning to think like Aiden. The possibility of litigation would always leap into his mind first. But it could happen, she told herself. After all, the man was stuck with her. She was the one in the position of power, wasn’t she? And in a way, didn’t he work for her? He had been ordered to protect her, and if she made any kind of sexual advances, he’d have every right to take her to court. She could just see it now. Her picture plastered all over the newspapers, and reporters with camera crews chasing her into the courthouse. It would be a nightmare.
By the time they’d reached the hotel, Regan had convinced herself that she was in complete control of her emotions. She had sorted it all out. Yes, she was definitely back in control.
Alec took her hand as they crossed the lobby. He nodded to the security guard stationed in front of the elevators. He’d already checked his credentials and knew who he was.
They were on their way up to her floor when she said, “I’m sorry I didn’t introduce you to Spencer.”
“That’s okay. It didn’t look like you were having a happy reunion.”
“You noticed?”
“You mean you were hiding your emotions, and I wasn’t supposed to notice?”
“Are you making fun of me?”
“A little.”
The elevator stopped. Alec stepped out first. He nodded to the policeman facing the doors.
“Is it quiet tonight?”
“Yes, sir, it is.”
“Good.”
All of the rooms down her corridor were now vacant and were to remain that way until further notice. That was yet another security precaution Aiden had made without consulting her.
“That policeman looks familiar,” she said. “But I haven’t seen him here before, have I?”
“No,” he answered. “This is his first night. You saw him in Lewis’s office.”
“That’s right. You were defending him. He didn’t get fired, did he?”
“No,” he assured her. “He’s taking a couple of shifts here for extra money.”
She nodded and then asked, “Are you going to be here tomorrow?”
“Yes.”
“You’re sure? It’s Sunday.”
“I know.”
“When are you going to pack?”
“Let me worry about that.”
“I’ll introduce you to Spencer tomorrow then. And you’ll get to talk to Aiden again. Won’t that be a treat? They’ll both try to tell you how to do your job.”
He shrugged. “That won’t bother me. So, I’m gonna be seeing both of them?”
“Oh, yes. Tonight, you see, was round one. They’ll try again tomorrow.”
“Try what again?”
“To get me to agree to give Emerson a ‘go away’ settlement. I won’t agree, though, no matter how practical it is.”
“Are you telling me they blindsided you during that party tonight?”
She nodded. “Of course they did. They knew I wouldn’t make a scene.”
He smiled. “And you’ve made a lot of scenes in the past?”
“When I was younger.”
They’d turned the corner and were standing in front of her door. She tried to tell him thank you and good night in the hall. He looked exasperated with her, took the key out of her hand, and unlocked the door.
“As many times as we’ve done this, you still don’t have it down?”
She didn’t answer. Alec went in first, as was the routine. She followed and shut the door, then waited until he had checked the bedroom, the closet, and the bath.
“All clear.”
He was removing his tie as he walked into the parlor. She’d already taken off her coat and draped it over the arm of a chair. She dropped her wrap and her purse on top. She was blocking the door but couldn’t make herself move.
She cleared her throat. “Thank you for going with me tonight.” The suite seemed to be getting smaller and smaller the closer he came. He smiled, and her knees began to wobble. “I really appreciate it.” She sounded as if she had a bad case of laryngitis now. If he would only stop looking at her and give her time to unscramble her thoughts, she might be able to move out of his way and let him leave.
“Regan, I was doing my job.” He tucked the bow tie into his pocket and unbuttoned the top two buttons of his shirt. “There, that’s better. Now I can breathe. So here’s the thing.” He walked over to her, reached around her to slip the dead bolt in place, and then placed both hands on the door on either side of her face, trapping her. Her shoulders were pressed against the door.
Don’t think about it, she told herself. Just don’t think about it. God, he smelled good. She’d never realized how erotic Dial soap could be.
Okay, she was definitely losing it, she thought. If she could just make herself stop staring at him, but those eyes, oh, Lord, those incredible, gorgeous, seductive eyes.
What had he just said? Something about the thing? “What thing?” she whispered.
He knew he was rattling her. He leaned a little closer, but he still wasn’t touching her. “Guess what?”
His voice was husky and low. She had goose bumps all over her arms. “What?”
He leaned closer yet still wasn’t touching her. “I’m not on duty now.”
Alec moved back an inch, then went completely still, and waited. If she showed the least hesitation, he would walk away, and that would be that. He just hoped to God she wanted him to stay.
It took a couple of seconds, but then Regan understood why he had stopped. It was up to her now.
She slowly lifted her hair away from that spot just below her left earlobe that was so very sensitive. Then she angled her head to the side. And waited. If this were a tennis match, the ball was now in his court.
She took a breath and held it. And closed her eyes. She felt his warm sweet breath against her ear a scant second before his mouth touched her skin. Shivers cascaded down her limbs. A simple little kiss and her heart started racing. He kissed his way down the side of her neck. His mouth was hot, yes, definitely hot.
She wondered how she would react if he kissed her on the mouth. She’d probably turn to mush. It was time to stop fooling around. She was definitely going to send him home before she did anything she knew she would regret in the morning.
She put her hands flat on his chest and whispered, “Alec?”
He immediately stepped back. He didn’t say a word. He simply stared into her eyes and waited.
She couldn’t blame anyone but herself for what happened next. She grabbed the labels of his jacket and jerked him toward her. Her mouth was but an inch away from his when she said, “Don’t sue me.”

Chapter Thirty-four



She wasn’t messing around.
She didn’t give him time to ask her to explain. Clutching those lapels in a death grip, she stretched up on tiptoes and kissed him, long and hard, frantically and passionately, just the way she had fantasized. One absolutely perfect kiss, she told herself, one powerful, all-consuming kiss that would surely satisfy her unreasonable craving. Then she would let go of him, unlock the door, and send him home.
It was a good plan, really it was. It would have worked too if he had cooperated and remained passive. He didn’t cooperate, though. He participated. And then he took over. His arms suddenly wrapped around her, and he held her tight as his mouth slanted over hers with amazing control. After about five seconds it became apparent to her that he had far more experience at this sort of thing than she did. The man made kissing an art form. His hands slid down her back. His mouth never left hers as he lifted her up against him. Oh, no, he definitely wasn’t remaining passive. She probably should have spelled out the plan ahead of time, she supposed, and that was one of the last coherent, though admittedly idiotic, thoughts she was able to hold onto while he kissed her senseless. Her hands were now around his neck—had she moved them there or had he?—and her fingers were tugging on his hair.
He didn’t force her to part her lips. She did that all on her own. She didn’t push him away when his tongue slipped inside. She gave as good as she was getting, and then some.
When he finally ended the kiss, she was shivering all over. She clung to him because she knew that if she let go, her legs wouldn’t support her. His hands were around her waist and she thought maybe he was holding her up, but she couldn’t be sure.
Neither one of them seemed inclined to let go. She wanted a little bit more, just one more kiss, she thought, before she lost her nerve, and reason rushed in.
He must have wanted the same thing, because he tilted her head back and kissed her again. Though it didn’t seem possible, this kiss was even better. And hotter. He was a master of seduction and so smooth he scared her. She tightened her hold and tried to get closer to him. It was a scorching kiss that made her burn. She had never felt this way before. Never had a kiss affected her so passionately.
Alec pulled back, let out a ragged breath, and tried without success to move away. He couldn’t make himself let go of her. Hell, he just didn’t want to. His head dropped to the crook of her neck, and he took a couple of deep breaths, trying hard to recover. He loved the way she felt in his arms. He loved her scent, and he loved the taste of her. He was having real trouble getting it together. How could a couple of kisses shake him like this?
He said out loud what he was thinking. “Damn, Regan.” His voice was as rough as gravel.
“Was that a good ‘damn’ or a bad one?” she panted.
He had to think about it before he answered. He lifted his head and looked into her eyes, saw the passion he’d ignited there, and felt tremendous satisfaction. And desire, he acknowledged, for a whole lot more.
“It was a good ‘damn.’ Too good.” He was picturing her naked underneath him when he added, “We should probably stop while we—”
She put her index finger over his mouth to silence him. “Or…” She dragged the word out.
He grabbed her hand and placed it flat against his chest. “Or what?” A hint of a smile softened his expression.
Don’t lose your nerve, don’t lose your nerve, she silently chanted. She took a breath and whispered, “Or we could not stop.”
His hands moved to her shoulders and even as he was shaking his head at her, he was noticing how smooth and warm and soft her skin was.
“You do know what kissing will lead to, don’t you?”
It was a stupid question, and he didn’t expect or wait for an answer. “A heap of misery, that’s what. I’m not a machine, sweetheart. I can’t just turn it on and off. You know I want you. I’m burning up with the need to—” He suddenly stopped, took a deep breath, and said, “But you also need to know that I don’t want what comes with it.”
Did he realize he was shaking her? She didn’t think so. He wasn’t hurting her. In fact, his touch was surprisingly gentle and sweet. He wanted her. He’d said those very words to her, and he couldn’t take them back. She was thrilled, and yet frustrated, because he obviously wasn’t happy about it. The look on his face was so intense and angry, and intimidating, she suddenly felt as though she’d just poked a lion.
She pushed his hands away. “Tell me, Alec, what comes with it?”
He was glaring at her now. “I’m leaving Chicago, remember? I’ve made that clear, haven’t I? I’m packing up and getting out of here. Understand that?”
“Yes, I understand.”
“Okay then.”
“Okay, what?”
Alec gritted his teeth. He guessed he was going to have to spell it out for her. “The last thing I need or want is to leave a mess behind.”
Whoa. She didn’t like hearing that. Her eyes turned a darker blue, and her face became flushed. She was angry, all right, but he wasn’t going to take the words back.
“And I’m the mess?”
He threaded his fingers through his hair to keep himself from grabbing her and kissing her until she wanted him as much as he wanted her. He shook his head. Bad plan, he told himself. He wasn’t going to give in to his desire. No way. He could be as tough as steel when he needed to, and he was always in control.
“What I’m trying to tell you is…”
“I’m a mess.”
“Okay, that’s it. I’m through trying to be diplomatic about this.”
She blinked. “Telling me I’m a mess is being diplomatic?”
“Damn right, and you are. A mess, that is. And that ‘damn’ wasn’t a good one.”
He ripped off the jacket of his tux and tossed it on the chair. “It’s hotter than hell in here.”
He began to roll up his shirtsleeves to keep his hands busy. Better to tear his clothes than hers. That skinny little nothing of a dress she was wearing was so amazingly perfect on her. He didn’t want to ruin it, but he didn’t want her wearing it with any other man either, and how could he justify that backward reasoning?
She couldn’t hold his stare long. She focused on his chin and said, “I know I put you on the spot. It’s just that this is the first time I’ve ever tried to… you know… and I’m apparently causing you extreme anxiety. I’m just not any good at it. I realize my mistake. I just didn’t put enough thought into it.”
“Into what?”
He couldn’t be that dense. No one could. Was he deliberately toying with her?
“Into what?” he repeated when she didn’t answer.
Seducing you, you idiot. That’s what she wanted to say. She didn’t, though. Some inhibitions were just too firmly entrenched to get past. Besides, Alec was right. It would become messy, and she had the feeling she’d be the one all messed up when he left.
“You’re right,” she said. “Becoming involved, even for one night, would make things… awkward.”
He didn’t look relieved. She edged around him, flipped off her heels, and continued on to the French doors. Alec had left one open when he’d checked the bedroom. She pushed the other door back and then turned around to tell him good night.
He stared at the king-sized bed for a long minute. He felt a tightness gathering in his chest, and his mouth was suddenly dry. Every possible fantasy about her bombarded him. Hell, it was already messy.
And he wasn’t going anywhere.

Chapter Thirty-five




From the moment Alec had bumped into her on the street and heard that wonderful laugh, he had become hers for the taking. He never had a chance. He understood that now. No reason to keep fighting the attraction, he decided as he pulled away from the door. He made sure everything was locked up tight, then reached over and turned the lamp off.
He was unbuttoning his shirt as he headed toward her. Light from the lamp on the bedside table spilled across her shoulders. Her skin was golden, and she was, without a doubt, absolutely breathtaking.
And nervous as hell. Her eyes were huge, but she didn’t look away. She took a step toward him and then stopped. His gaze swept down her body. He noticed her hands were clenched at her sides, and her toes were curled into the carpet as she watched him come toward her.
“Just remember,” he whispered gruffly as he reached her. “You started this.”
He pulled her close, kissed her forehead, and then let go. Regan knew he was giving her yet another chance to change her mind, one last chance perhaps to tell him to leave.
Like that was gonna happen.
Alec held his breath while he waited for her to make up her mind. She put her arms around his neck and smiled up at him with that tantalizing dimple just above the corner of her mouth. Nope, he never had a chance.
“Just you remember,” she said, “that I started this.”
She kissed his chin, then moved lower and kissed the pulse beating rapidly at the base of his neck. He must have liked what she was doing because he pulled her tight against him, and so she did it again.
And then he took over. He tilted her head back with a kiss that didn’t leave any doubt how much he wanted her. He lifted her off the ground as he ravaged her mouth.
They were suddenly frantic to get their clothes off. His hands shook as he reached for the zipper at the back of her dress. It was awkward because he couldn’t stop kissing her long enough to pay attention to what he was doing, and she was trying to remove his shirt at the same time.
She’d gotten a couple of his buttons undone, and was tugging his shirt from his waistband when she accidentally touched his gun and holster. She reacted as though she’d just touched fire. Flinching, she jerked back, but Alec was still quicker. He had her hand flat against his chest before she could pull away from him.
“Could you…” she whispered. She was trying to ask him to remove the gun but couldn’t get the words out. He was distracting her by nibbling on her earlobe. “… get rid of…”
“It’s okay,” he answered.
She sighed. Her heart was racing, and she was trying to catch her breath. Kissing had never caused such a reaction before. Granted, she hadn’t kissed all that many men, but enough to know that kissing Alec was completely different. Maybe because she was already emotionally invested. Everything about him aroused her. She needed to slow down so that she could savor every single minute of this night with him, but at the same time, she wanted him to hurry up and take his clothes off.
He made her step back so he could pull his shirt over his head. His chest was all muscle, swirling dark hair, and bronzed skin.
He was beautiful. He pulled her back into his arms, and she felt his hot skin against hers. It wasn’t enough. She wrapped her hands around his neck and tugged on his hair to get him to kiss her again.
The kiss was hot and wet. She felt like she was melting against him.
He removed his gun and holster, and backing her to the side of the bed, he put the weapon on her nightstand and then forced himself to stop kissing her long enough to get her clothes off.
That was the goal anyway, but the dress wasn’t cooperating. The zipper got stuck and wouldn’t budge, no matter how much he tugged on it. He thought maybe he’d jammed it. He clenched his jaw and tried again. He was usually a hell of a lot smoother undressing women, but tonight was different because he was with Regan. He had never felt this kind of desperation before. He wanted to wrap her in his arms and never let go.
He tried to concentrate on the task at hand, but she was making it difficult. She was kissing his neck again and stroking his back. It felt so good he didn’t want her to stop.
“Turn around,” he whispered as he pulled her hands away and forced her to do as he’d asked. Then he tried again to get her dress unzipped.
She tried to help, but her hands just got in his way. “How much do you like this dress? The thing… it’s stuck.”
“The thing?”
“The zipper.” He was smiling now because she sounded as rattled as he did.
“I hate this dress,” she blurted out.
She sure looked hot in it, but if he had to, he was going to tear it to shreds to get to her. The zipper finally gave and slid down… all the way to the base of her spine.
She wasn’t wearing a bra. He noticed that right away. Then he noticed how flawless her back was. He slowly trailed his fingers down the opening until he reached a tiny wisp of black lace.
He didn’t know which turned him on more. Her indrawn breath when he’d touched her or seeing that little bit of lace.
“You’re beautiful,” he whispered.
Regan reached up to pull the straps over her arms but suddenly froze when his hands slid inside her dress and began to caress her skin.
His hands slowly circled her. She started to turn in his arms, but he wouldn’t let her, and when at last he touched her breasts, she made a tiny gasp in the back of her throat and fell back against him. Trembling with desire, she didn’t know how much of this exquisite torture she would withstand without coming apart.
Her response drove Alec crazy. His head dropped down to the side of her neck, and his breathing became harsh. He managed to let go of her long enough to get undressed. Her dress fell to the floor, and she gracefully stepped out of it and reached for the covers. She pulled them back and then began to pull the clips from her hair. Alec’s shoes and socks went flying in one direction and her clips in another.
He knew it was only a matter of minutes before he lost all control. He wanted her ready before he did that.
“We’ve got to slow down.”
He meant what he said, but then she turned around and those perfect breasts rubbed against his chest. Slowing down didn’t seem all that important any longer.
They fell together onto the bed. He cradled her in his arms as he rolled her onto her back and nudged her thighs apart with his knee. He braced his weight so he wouldn’t crush her. Then he growled low in his throat with sheer male satisfaction because one of his fantasies about her was finally coming true. He had her right where he wanted her.
She looked disheveled and thoroughly aroused. Her hair was spread on the pillow, framing her flushed face; her eyes were dark with passion, and her lips were swollen from his kisses. He knew it was a primitive, barbaric response on his part, but he was still arrogantly pleased that he had put his mark on her. He’d never felt this way about any other woman. What was next? he wondered. Would he start dragging a club and carrying her over his shoulder? Would he start shouting like Tarzan?
He shook his head when she tried to pull him down to kiss her. He rolled to his side and took his time looking at her perfect body.
“I’ve been thinking about this a long time.” He slowly trailed his fingertips down her neck, then lower to the valley between her breasts, smiling over the goose bumps he left behind. She tried to grab his hand when he reached her navel. He wouldn’t be stopped, though.
And he wouldn’t be rushed. Ever so slowly he removed her lace panties, taking his time, savoring every inch of golden skin he touched.
She battled her shyness, but she didn’t cover herself. She watched his face as he stroked her. His jaw was clenched tight, and sweat had broken out on his forehead. He seemed to be on the verge of losing his control.
But then so was she. Her legs moved restlessly against him. He was tormenting her, making her crazed because he wouldn’t let her touch him. His hand moved between her thighs. She almost came off the bed then. His touch was magical and demanding.
She couldn’t remain passive any longer. She pulled her hand away from his and reached up to stroke the side of his face. Her fingers slowly traced his mouth, then moved lower to caress his neck and shoulders. His body was absolutely perfect. His skin was hot, and she could feel the power of those hard muscles in his upper arms. The crisp dark hair on his chest tickled her fingertips.
She took her time, for she was determined to drive him out of his mind, but he kept distracting her. He was stroking her breasts as he nibbled her neck.
She closed her eyes, arched her neck back, and then trailed her ringers down his stomach. The muscles in his abdomen flexed in response, and he growled low in his throat.
She knew her touch pleased him, but she wanted more. Ever so slowly her fingertips circled his navel and then moved lower. Her hand slid down between his thighs. His deep indrawn breath told her how much he liked what she was doing to him.
She became more demanding. She wrapped her hand around him… and sent him right over the edge. He grabbed her hand, rolled on top of her, and kissed her passionately. His tongue rubbed against hers as his hands caressed her. He moved lower, and when he began to kiss her breasts, she arched up against him and let out a ragged sigh. He told her he was going to kiss every inch of her body, and then he set about proving it. He tickled her navel with his tongue, then moved lower still until he was touching the very heat of her.
The pleasure was exquisite, consuming. Her nails dug into his shoulder blades and she cried out.
Alec’s control was in tatters now, and he was desperate to be inside her.
“Alec…”
“It’s okay. I just need to protect you.”
He reached down and grabbed his trousers. Regan rolled on top of him and was fervently kissing his shoulders while he fumbled in the back pocket for his wallet. He found what he was searching for and gently rolled back until she scooted off him.
When he was ready, he grabbed her hands, stretched her arms high above her head, and held her there. And then he once again began to make love to her with his mouth, his tongue, and his fingers.
The first tremors of ecstasy caught her unaware. It should have ended there, but it didn’t. The pleasure was gathering, building, so intense she almost couldn’t bear it. Terrified of what was happening, she struggled to stop it.
“It’s okay,” he whispered as he continued to stroke her. “Just hold me and let it happen. It’s okay, Regan.” He moved between her thighs, and with one swift plunge, he was inside her, deep inside. He squeezed his eyes shut and clenched his jaw tight for the pleasure was almost too much to bear. She cried out and arched up against him, then drew her knees up and wrapped her legs around him.
His control snapped. She felt so wonderful he couldn’t make himself slow the pace. Her passion more than equaled his, and her response to his touch was wild, uninhibited.
She lifted her hips to meet each hard thrust, and when at last he climaxed inside her, she was there with him, screaming his name as she came apart.
She thought she just might die from the sheer ecstasy shimmering through her. Alec collapsed on top of her and buried his head in the crook of her neck. It took him several minutes to calm his labored breathing.
It had never been this good, no, not good, perfect before. She had overwhelmed him, and he was staggered by his need for her.
He slowly regained enough strength to move. He lifted up and looked into her eyes. “You okay?” His voice was no more than a raspy whisper.
She was still reeling from what had just happened. She’d read about it. She’d heard about it, but until tonight, she had never experienced it.
Amazing, she thought. Simply amazing. And beautiful. There weren’t enough words to describe what had happened to her. She still felt a warm glow all over. Could he feel her heart pounding against his? Did he have any idea what he had done to her? Had he experienced the same splendor? Or was it different for a man? The wonder of their lovemaking stunned her, and she couldn’t stop trembling.
“Regan?”
“Yes, I’m okay.” That had to be a gross understatement.
He kissed her once hard then rolled away from her and went into the bathroom.
His abrupt departure startled her. She didn’t want him to leave, not just yet anyway. She wanted him to hold her in his arms and whisper all the romantic words she longed to hear.
She could feel the tears gathering in her eyes. Oh, God, not now. Don’t let me cry now. She took a deep breath, groaned, and then pulled the sheet up and rolled onto her stomach. His scent was on the pillow. She had the urge to pick up that pillow and bury her head under it. She couldn’t believe how vulnerable and self-conscious she was feeling. What was the matter with her? She had started this. What had she expected? For him to drop down on his knees and tell her how much he loved her? That was the stuff of fairy tales.
A tear spilled out on her cheek. She impatiently wiped it away. Tonight was driven by lust, not love… for him, anyway. She groaned again. She wasn’t going to regret tonight. Her heart was too fragile to ever let it happen again, but she wouldn’t be sorry.
She didn’t hear Alec walk back into the bedroom. She felt him when he sat down on the bed beside her. “Move over,” he said.
She rolled onto her side to face him just as he tried to yank the sheet down. She held tight. “I thought you were getting dressed.”
“You didn’t notice my clothes are all over the floor?”
“No, I didn’t notice.”
They were involved in a tug-of-war with the sheet. He won. He stretched out beside her and pulled her to him. “I should go.” He began to nuzzle her neck. “Yeah, I should go. How come you smell so good?”
“I bathe.”
He laughed. Then he pinched her backside, and she yelped.
“How come you’re so soft?”
She kissed his neck before answering. “I’m a girl.”
“Yeah, I noticed.”
She couldn’t stop touching him. She loved the feel of his hard muscles beneath her fingertips. They glided over his shoulders and his chest. His body was warm and hairy and sexy. She wrapped her arms around his waist and decided she was never going to let go. He was going to have to peel her off of him. That image made her smile.
“It was better than my fantasy,” he said.
“You’ve thought about it?”
“Oh, yeah. You did too.”
She didn’t deny it. “Yes.”
“Was it as good as your fantasy?”
Her voice dropped to a whisper. “It was… so-so.”
He laughed. Then he pushed her onto her back and leaned over her. “So-so?” he repeated.
He looked a little worried. She realized then that there was a thread of insecurity hidden under all those layers of arrogance. She was stunned. How could he not know how much pleasure he had given her?
She cupped the side of his face. “It was perfect.”
He leaned down and kissed her. He thought it would be a see-you-later kind of kiss, but as soon as his mouth touched hers, everything changed. His tongue rubbed erotically against hers. He kept telling himself he just wanted a little bit more and he’d be satisfied. How come he couldn’t get enough of her?
She moved restlessly against him. “Alec?” she whispered.
“You want to go again?”
Her eyes widened. She pushed his shoulders. “Go again? What kind of pillow talk is that?”
She honestly didn’t know if she wanted to yell at him or laugh.
Then he grinned and laughter won out. “I can do pillow talk,” he boasted.
“Prove it.”
He got sidetracked by the devilish way her lips curled up. The dimple was interfering with his thought process too, and so he looked into her eyes. It seemed to hit him all at once, the reality of what had just happened. This beautiful, sweet, perfect creature had taken him to her bed.
She nudged him. “I’m waiting,” she whispered, and then she batted her eyelashes at him.
He laughed again. “Okay. Here’s what I think we ought to do.” And then he explained in the most graphic detail how he wanted to make love to her and what he expected in return.
By the time he’d finished, her cheeks were bright pink. “What kind of women have you been hanging out with?” she asked. She tried to sound shocked.
“Gymnasts, acrobats. Why do you ask?” His hands moved down to her hips.
“Alec, what are you doing?”
“It’s called multitasking. I’m talking and touching at the same time.” He slowly moved down her body, and his mouth and tongue were driving her wild. “We could try something new,” he said. He kissed the valley between her breasts and then whispered, “But why mess with perfection?”

Chapter Thirty-six



Alec wouldn’t spend the night. She tried to entice him, but she couldn’t get him to change his mind. He was far more concerned about protecting her good name than she was. She put on a blue silk robe that didn’t quite reach her knees and sat on the side of the bed while Alec got dressed.
Her legs distracted him from what he was doing. When he realized where his thoughts were taking him, he turned and walked into the living room.
“What’d I do with my phone?”
She followed him. “It’s in your coat pocket.”
He turned around to tell her good night. She stepped closer and buttoned his shirt for him while he clipped on his holster and flipped the leather snap in place over his gun.
She stretched up on tiptoes and kissed him just below the jaw. “Sleep over,” she whispered.
“No.”
His harsh tone didn’t bother her because he was kissing the side of her neck while he refused her.
“Don’t you want to?”
“Of course I want to,” he said. “And if the circumstances were different, I would.”
His hands slid inside her robe. He couldn’t get enough of her. Not good, he told himself. He pulled his hands back. “The whole world is watching you, and I don’t want anyone talking…”
“The whole world? Surely not.”
“You’ve got the police department, the security team, the hotel staff, and your brothers watching your every move. Did you forget there’s a policeman standing outside your door? I don’t want anyone speculating about you or gossiping or teasing…” She was kissing his neck and tormenting him with her tongue. “Stop that.”
After giving the order, he put his hands on her shoulders with the intent of making her step back. He pulled her up against him instead. His chin dropped down on her head.
“Am I the only one worried about your reputation?”
“Apparently so.”
He laughed. “Damn, you’re sweet.”
He tilted her chin up and kissed her. If she hadn’t been so hot, he might have been able to give her a quick good-bye kiss. Regan wasn’t just sweet and sexy and hot, though. She was enthusiastic and demanding. She could turn him into Jell-O if she kept kissing without a hint of reservation. The little whimper she made in the back of her throat triggered a primitive response.
When he ended the kiss, she collapsed against him.
What had happened to his self-restraint? His discipline? Regan could turn him on faster than he could snap his fingers. Man oh man, she was getting to him, and he had to somehow put a stop to it. He was leaving, and nothing was going to change his mind.
“Listen, Regan. This can’t happen again.”
He waited for an argument. He expected her to be upset. Their lovemaking had been pretty incredible, and he had the scratches on his shoulders where her nails had dug in to prove that it was perfect for her too. Yeah, of course she would argue.
“Yes, I know.”
“What?”
“I agree,” she said. “It can’t happen again.”
A pang of disappointment went through him. “I’ve got to get out of here. Lock the door after me.”
His hand cupped the back of her neck and he jerked her close so he could kiss her again.
And then he was gone. Regan flipped the dead bolt in place and fell back against the door. Alec had clearly worn her out. She was still trembling. She dropped her robe on her way back to bed. The sheets were still warm from the heat of their bodies. She wrapped herself in them and closed her eyes.
She was determined not to think about the future, but that was easier said than done. Tears streamed down her face. What an idiot she was. She was falling in love with him. No, she wasn’t falling, she was already in love with him. She would never have been able to let go the way she did tonight if she hadn’t loved him. She knew exactly when she realized it too. She and Henry had been sitting in the hotel bar watching as Kevin poured his heart out to Alec, and the compassion she’d seen in Alec’s eyes had been her undoing. Oh, yes, she’d known it for a while; she’d just been too stupid to admit it.
Besides his compassion, there were so many things she loved about him. He was a man of honor and integrity. She’d figured that out after spending an hour with him. He was also dedicated to his job. He was fiercely loyal to those he cared about, and he had the most wonderful sense of humor.
He did have flaws, but at the moment she could not remember any. She let out a loud groan. Don’t think about the future, she told herself. Don’t think about the day he leaves.
She couldn’t turn her mind off, and the more she told herself not to think about him, the more she did. Regan buried her face in the pillow and cried herself to sleep.

Chapter Thirty-seven




It was a new day and Regan had a new attitude. While she showered and dressed, she gave herself a lecture. She was a big girl; she could handle a broken heart. Sure she could. She would survive when Alec left, and she vowed he would never know how she felt about him.
Alec wasn’t outside her door. She’d already looked through the peephole. The same young policeman who’d come on duty when she and Alec had left for the country club last night was waiting for her. She hurried because she knew the policeman had to be exhausted. She’d just pulled on her jeans and slipped into her sandals when her phone rang. Spencer was on the line. He told her he was in her office, but she’d already guessed that because she could hear the television blaring in the background.
“Want me to come up there after the game, or do you want to come down here?”
She didn’t ask what game because there was always some game playing. “I’ll be right down,” she promised.
“Aiden’s here.”
“Is that a warning?”
“Maybe.”
“Yeah, well, you need to warn him. Time has not softened my attitude, Spencer. I’m still out for blood.”
Spencer laughed. “I can’t wait to see that.”
The second she hung up the phone, she started sneezing. Maybe she was allergic to her brothers. The ridiculous thought made her laugh. She went back into the bathroom, took her allergy medicine, then grabbed her keys, stuffed them into her pocket, and opened the door.
The policeman escorted her to her office. She tried to coax him into coming inside and relaxing on the sofa, but he refused. He’d been told to stand guard in the hall, and that’s what he was going to do.
She noticed the stack of mail on Henry’s desk as she walked past, but she didn’t take time to go through it. Henry would get to it tomorrow, and he’d let her know if there was anything that required her attention.
Aiden was standing behind her desk using her phone. He smiled and nodded when he saw her and then picked up a paper from a folder he’d spread open and began to read to whoever was on the line. He was wearing what he considered weekend or casual attire: a pair of khaki pants and a polo knit shirt. Aiden worked out, and he had the muscles in his upper arms to prove it. He looked tired, though, but then he always did. Building an empire apparently required putting in a twenty-four-hour day.
Spencer, on the other hand, didn’t look jet-lagged or tired at all. He was sitting on her sofa and was hunched over another file folder he’d spread on her coffee table.
“Hey, you,” she called out.
Spencer quickly stood and then stretched his arms over his shoulders. His clothing really was casual, an old pair of jeans and a well-worn blue rugby shirt.
She crossed the office and hugged him. “I didn’t get to tell you last night how happy I am that you’re home.”
“Me too,” he said. “Unfortunately, I won’t be here long.”
She stepped back. “How long?”
“That depends.”
Aiden distracted her when he came up behind her and put his arm around her shoulder.
“Are you doing okay?” he asked.
“Yes,” she answered. She folded her arms across her chest and asked, “Are you ready to talk?”
“About what?”
“Oh, please.”
“The stress is getting to you, isn’t it?” Spencer said.
Before she could answer, Spencer turned to Aiden and said, “I talked to a man with the police, a guy named Lewis, and he told me the investigation was progressing nicely.”
“Lewis doesn’t know what he’s talking about,” Aiden said. “But the detective Lewis put in charge is good. Talk to him,” he suggested. “His name is John Wincott.”
“Don’t pester him,” Regan said. “Let him do his job.”
Her brothers stood side by side facing her, and as she looked from one to the other, she suddenly realized how handsome they were. She’d never really noticed how much they looked alike. They also shared some of the same mannerisms. Like the frowns they were giving her now. Those were definitely identical.
“They don’t have anything yet, do they?” Spencer asked.
Aiden answered. “Talk to Wincott.”
Spencer rubbed the back of his neck. “Okay, I will. Maybe we ought to hire more security, just until we leave.”
Regan shook her head. “I’m tripping over security guards now. I don’t want you to hire more men. I mean it, Aiden. Promise me.”
“I’m going to do what I think is necessary to keep you safe.”
Spencer agreed. “You’re our little sister, and if we don’t look out for you, who will?”
“We know that under normal circumstances you can take care of yourself, but this isn’t a normal circumstance,” added Aiden.
“I think he should hire more guards. For God’s sake, there’s a killer out there just waiting for the opportunity, and that’s why Aiden and I…” Spencer paused.
“Yes?”
“We both thought you would be safe in Melbourne.”
They were doing it again, she realized. Ganging up on her. She couldn’t blame them. The tactic had always worked on her. They were used to wearing her down until she agreed to whatever it was they wanted. She wasn’t upset. In the past, she had always caved. But those days were over. Her brothers just didn’t know it yet.
She couldn’t wait to enlighten them.
“You think I’ll be safer in Melbourne?”
“Yes,” Spencer said. “We’ll fly back together, and we’ll find a nice, safe, secluded place for you to stay.”
She smiled. “And it will be safe because killers don’t get on planes. Is that what you think?”
“No need to be sarcastic, Regan,” Spencer said.
“Spence, why don’t you tell it like it is? You’ve already found that nice, safe, secluded place, haven’t you?”
“As a matter of fact, I have.”
“I’m not going.”
Before he could argue, she turned to Aiden. “What made you think you had the right to get rid of my car?”
“Didn’t he buy you a BMW?”
“Stay out of this, Spencer.”
“The only reason you kept that piece of junk was to irritate me. Isn’t that right?” Aiden asked. Before she could answer, he plunged ahead. “If you had had a new car when you left that seminar, you could have pushed the panic button on the key, and maybe, just maybe, someone would have come to your aid when that maniac was chasing you.”
“When I think what could have happened to you,” Spencer said with a disapproving shake of his head. “You’ve got to know how important you are to us.”
“Running from him… look what you did to your knee,” Aiden said.
“Are you suggesting I shouldn’t have run?”
“Don’t be a smart…” Spencer started and then stopped.
“You had surgery,” Aiden reminded her. “And when did we find out about it?”
“After the fact,” Spencer answered. He was getting angry now. “You should have told us.”
“It was a minor surgery,” she said.
She walked over to the desk and leaned against it. “I didn’t want it to become a big production. I didn’t even tell Cordie or Sophie.”
“We’re your family,” Spencer said. “You should have told us.”
“Look, Regan, I know you want to be independent, but you take it to the extreme.”
Spencer dropped down on the sofa, but Aiden continued to stand. He looked as if he wanted to tell her something but wasn’t sure how.
She sighed. Now she was trying to read his mind. “About the car…” she began.
“We’re finished talking about the car,” Aiden said.
There was a time she would have backed down. Not today. “No, we aren’t. I’m only just getting started. I’ll admit that I was being childish. I kept the car because I knew it irritated you, so, yes, Aiden, you were right about that. However, I don’t agree with or like what you did. You should have asked me before you had my car towed away.”
“You would have said no.”
“Aiden, you had no right—” she began.
“I agree with Aiden,” Spencer said.
She glared at him. “When don’t you agree with him?”
He looked shocked. He wasn’t used to her arguing with him. “When I don’t agree with Aiden, I tell him I don’t agree.”
“It’s done,” Aiden said. “Let it go.”
“We’ve got some important things to discuss,” Spencer added. “And I want to get to them.”
“Maybe we should go into the boardroom,” Alec suggested as he gathered the papers and slipped them back into the file folder.
“Do you want to have the annual meeting now? Are you prepared?”
Spencer stood and walked forward. “Actually Aiden and I already did that.”
She was furious. “When?”
“Early this morning. You’ve got so much on your mind that we didn’t think you would want to be bothered,” Spencer said. “Everything we went over is in that black binder on your desk. Take your time looking it over.”
She didn’t say a word, but she was so angry with the two of them she thought steam might be coming out of her ears.
“Okay,” she said quietly.
Spencer looked relieved. Then she asked, “Did you allocate funds?”
“Yes.”
“What’s my budget?”
“Same as last year.”
“No.”
“What do you mean, no?” Spencer asked. “It’s done.”
“No, it isn’t done. We’re going to talk about this. I want to triple my budget.”
She was looking at Aiden when she very calmly stated what she wanted. He shook his head. “That’s out of the question. We’ve already slotted money for most of the charities in the city because you wanted us to—”
“And because it was the right thing to do,” she interjected.
“Yes,” he agreed. “But we can’t do any more than that, at least not this fiscal year.”
“We have to think about the bottom line,” Spencer said. “We’re trying to make a profit.”
“You are making a profit, Spencer.”
“The budget’s set,” he said. “And we’ve got a new hotel going up.”
“Yes, I know,” she said. “In Melbourne.”
“Yes, in Melbourne,” he agreed. “But we’re just now finalizing plans for another one.”
“Oh? Where?”
“Sydney.”
“I didn’t know that.”
“Now you do,” Spencer said. “We’re hoping to break ground within six months. We’re on a tight schedule, and we’re really moving ahead on this one.”
“And did Walker vote for this?”
“Of course he did. You know Walker. As long as we don’t interfere with his racing, we can pretty much do what we want.”
She picked up a pencil and began to twirl it between her fingers like a baton.
“I’m not a real important part of this organization, am I? Did either of you ever think to talk to me about this expansion?”
“No,” Spencer said. “You’ve been under tremendous stress.”
“Yes, right. Stress.”
“What’s gotten into you?” Spencer said. “I’ve never seen you so antagonistic.”
“I’ve been doing a lot of thinking.”
She waited for one of them to ask her what she had been thinking about, but neither one of them did. She wasn’t really sure Aiden was even paying attention to the conversation. He seemed far more interested in the paper he was reading. The pencil twirling got away from her, and the pencil went flying. It landed at Aiden’s feet. Regan immediately reached for another one.
As she turned, she spotted Henry. He was standing at his desk. What was he doing here on Sunday? He should be out, having some fun, she thought. And who was he talking to? She couldn’t quite see.
“Why are you so nervous today?” Spencer asked.
“Why do you think I’m nervous?”
In answer, he looked at her hard. Her pencil was going at Mach four speed. She made herself stop.
Aiden picked up the pencil from the floor, handed it to her, and then pulled out the chair behind her desk and sat down. He opened the folder and said, “Regan, you need to look over these contracts Sam sent over.”
“For the new hotel?” she asked.
“Yes.”
“If our attorney sent over contracts, you two must have known about the expansion a long time ago. Odd that you never mentioned it to me.”
“Would you have been interested?” Spencer asked.
“Yes, I would.”
He didn’t believe her. “There’s a basic difference between our philosophies,” he said. “Aiden and I try to make money, and you try to give it all away.”
She smiled. “Not all, Spencer. Just some.”
Her brother walked over to the credenza and poured himself a glass of water.
“I don’t know how it happened,” he said. “We grew up in the same house.”
“I knew I was different and I tried to be more like you, but I didn’t become a capitalist.”
“Right.”
“That’s what I’ve been thinking about,” she said. “And I’ve come to some startling realizations.”
“Like what?”
“I’ve always thought I had to earn your love. Silly, huh? I worried that if I didn’t please you and Aiden, that you would stop loving me.”
“Where did you get that crazy idea?” Spencer asked.
Aiden answered the question. “Mother. When she was there, withholding affection was her way of manipulating us into doing what she wanted.”
Regan turned to Aiden. “She did that to you?”
He nodded. “She did it to all of us.”
“You don’t think we’re doing that to you, do you, Regan?” Spencer asked.
She sighed. “All I’m trying to say is that I’ve spent my life trying to please you, and it’s wearing me out. I grew up worrying that you’d stop loving me… but I don’t feel that way any longer. I’m your sister, and as far as I’m concerned, you have to love me no matter how angry I make you.”
Aiden nodded. “Good. I’m glad you worked that out. Now will you look at these papers? I’ve got to get going.”
She turned to him. “I’m not finished yet. Aiden, I’m sorry you got stuck with the job of being my parent, and I’m sorry you and Spencer had to carry such a burden. I can’t change the fact that our mother didn’t like being a mother, but I want you to know how thankful I am that I had you.”
Tears gathered in her eyes. Spencer noticed. “Ah, no. You’re getting all emotional on us, aren’t you?”
“Yes, I am.”
“You know we love you,” Spencer said.
“Yes.”
“Okay then. Let’s move on.”
Like Aiden, Spencer was uncomfortable showing any kind of emotion. “Okay,” she agreed. “About the meeting…”
“Yes?”
“Besides setting the budget for next year and agreeing to start another hotel, what else did you boys decide?”
“That’s about it.”
She started to reach for the papers Aiden wanted her to read, but Spencer stopped her when he said, “Actually, there was one other matter we discussed.”
She turned back. “Yes?”
“We talked to Sam about it, and he agreed,” he said. “I know you aren’t going to like this, but we decided to pay Emerson nuisance money to get rid of him.”
She jerked away from the desk. “No,” she said in a near shout.
“It was either that or give him the house,” Spencer said. “And you know what that property is worth. Emerson’s agreed to get out by the end of next week. Then he’ll get a check.”
She shook her head. “No.”
“Regan, it’s a done deal,” Aiden said.
“How can you do this?” she cried out. “My God, he was cheating on our mother when he married her.”
Aiden was suddenly angry. He stood, planted his hands on the desktop, and said, “And what do you think she was doing?”
She didn’t understand. “She was getting her heart broken.”
“Yeah, right.” The derision in Spencer’s tone infuriated her.
“What does that mean?”
“Jeez, Regan, grow up. Our mother was doing the same thing Emerson was. She was never faithful.”
She shook her head. “You can’t know that.”
“Oh yes, I can,” Spencer said.
“All those trips she took,” Aiden said. “Did you think she went alone?”
“Come on, Regan. You had to have known what was going on.”
She and Spencer were suddenly shouting at each other while Aiden patiently waited for the argument to end. Spencer accused her of living in pretend land, and she finally conceded that she had wondered how her mother could fall in and out of love so easily.
“Love?” Spencer scoffed at the notion. “Love didn’t have anything to do with it.”
“Mother always wanted what she couldn’t have.”
It suddenly dawned on her that she was screaming, giving both of them hell, and they were still there. No one was walking out on her. Aiden looked as if he wanted to put a gag in her mouth, but she wasn’t intimidated… or worried.
“You need to grow up,” Spencer said, his tone calmer now. “And face facts.”
“Acknowledging that our mother was a slut is growing up?”
He shrugged. “It’s facing reality.”
“All right,” she said. “You both believe that since Mother slept around, it’s okay that Emerson did? Isn’t anyone faithful anymore? Don’t wedding vows mean anything, like now and forever?”
“Apparently not,” Spencer shouted.
“Don’t be so dramatic,” Aiden snapped. “We’re getting rid of a problem.”
“The cheapest way we know how,” Spencer said. He shoved his hands in his pockets and frowned at her.
“And nothing I say will change your minds?”
Both of her brothers shook their heads. Then Spencer said, “Sorry, Regan, but we’ve got to play hardball on this one.”
She smiled. “Okay.”
Then they smiled… until she walked to the door.
“Wait,” Spencer called out. “You forgot to sign the papers.”
She pushed the doors open as she turned back. “You need my signature to go forward, and you know what? I need you to triple my budget for next year. When that happens, I’ll sign. And that, boys, is playing hardball.”

Chapter Thirty-eight



“I’ve never heard you lose it like that before.” Henry made the comment, and from the look on his face, it was apparent he was impressed.
“I didn’t lose it. I simply stated my position.”
Henry spotted Spencer walking toward them, and so he lowered his voice to a whisper. “Yes, but you were shouting when you were stating your position. Honest, I’ve never ever heard you raise your voice. Come to think of it, I’ve never heard Aiden or Spencer raise their voices either,” he said. “Except during football games. Spencer yells at the television then.”
Henry hadn’t included her brother Walker, but then why would he? He barely knew him. Walker was never around. Henry had met him a couple of years ago, while he was still training, but he’d only seen him once since, at the dedication in Conrad Park that they had all attended.
Spencer turned her attention when he walked past her. He tugged on a strand of her hair and nodded to Henry.
Aiden came out of her office a minute later. He stopped to talk to Henry. He noticed the article and the photo Henry had framed and hung on the wall.
“That’s nice,” he said. He started to walk away, then changed his mind. “You’re doing an excellent job here. Paul Greenfield, my senior manager, keeps me informed,” he explained. “If you ever want a job making money instead of giving it away, come work for me.”
Henry smiled. “Thank you, sir, but I’m good here. Besides, someday this is all going to be mine.”
Aiden laughed. “The hotel, or this office?”
“Stop recruiting him,” Regan said.
Aiden ignored her. “If this is really what you want…”
“It is, sir. Besides, I could never work with…”
“The dragon? Isn’t that what you call Emily?”
Henry didn’t seem embarrassed or look the least contrite. “Most of the time that’s what I call her, but I’ve also got a couple of other names for her.”
“Yes. I’ve heard about those too.”
“I appreciate your offer,” he said. “But I love what I’m doing, and like I said, I could never work with Emily.”
“Apparently no one can.” He was looking at Regan when he made that remark.
She didn’t ask him what, if anything, he planned to do about his assistant because he might use that as a bargaining chip to get her to sign the papers. She was happy, though, to know that he was aware he had a problem.
Her brother nudged her shoulder as he walked by. “I left the papers on your desk. Sign them.”
“Triple my budget and I will.”
“That’s not going to happen.”
As soon as Aiden was out of earshot, Henry whispered, “He’s never going to go for triple. That was reaching.”
“I know he won’t. So we’ll negotiate, and we’ll get double, which is what we want.”
Henry shook his head. “Aiden’s got to know what you’re up to.”
“Of course he knows,” she said. “But he’ll still give in to us. At least I hope he will.”
“He acts like he doesn’t care about the job we do, but he does care, doesn’t he? It’s not just about a tax write-off.”
“No, he cares, and so does Spencer. They’re just so busy building their empire, they don’t have time for anything else.” She glanced around the office. “Henry, who were you talking to when I was inside with Spencer and Aiden?”
“Alec.”
“Alec was here?”
Her reaction to the news was bizarre. She could feel herself blushing, and she hoped Henry wouldn’t notice. She tried to sound nonchalant when she asked, “Did Alec happen to overhear any of the conversation?”
Henry smiled. “Are you asking me if he heard you and Spencer shouting?”
So much for trying to act nonchalant. “Yes, that’s exactly what I’m asking.”
“I know he heard some of it because he started laughing,” he said. “But I don’t remember how much. Why? Is that important?”
She shook her head and then decided to change the subject. “You know what? I should have talked to Aiden about Emily. He needs to know how much trouble she’s causing, and I want him to know I don’t like the way she blames you for her mistakes.”
“You heard Aiden. He’s going to do something about her. I hope he follows Cordie’s suggestion.”
“And that was?”
“Fire her ass.”
Regan tried not to laugh. “Those were her exact words, weren’t they?”
“Yes.”
“Shame on her, corrupting a young, impressionable boy.”
Henry laughed. “I’ve heard worse.”
Regan went back into her office and closed the doors. She was feeling horribly nervous and thought she would hide until she had rehearsed what she was going to say to Alec about last night. Maybe he wouldn’t bring it up. Then again, maybe he would, and she wanted to be prepared.
She knew she was being foolish. What happened last night wouldn’t happen again; they had agreed on that, and Alec surely wouldn’t mention it today. Besides, he was on duty. He probably wouldn’t even be thinking about it.
“I can do this,” she whispered.
She took a deep breath, straightened her shoulders, and opened the door again. She was going to find Alec and say hello. The sooner she got through the awkwardness of seeing him for the first time after… oh, God, she was doing it again. Getting all flustered and panicky. If this is what love felt like, she didn’t want any part of it. She certainly didn’t want the broken heart she knew was coming either, but she couldn’t do anything about that now, could she? She had no one to blame for that misery but herself.
She walked past Henry and said, “Go have some fun. It’s Sunday. The mail will be here tomorrow.”
“I’m leaving,” he promised. “I just want to do a little catch-up. I won’t stay long.”
Time to get the moment over with, she thought as she walked out into the hall. She stopped short. Aiden and Alec were standing in front of Aiden’s office at the end of the hallway. Aiden was doing most of the talking, and Alec was nodding every now and then. She stood there a long minute, waiting until they finished their conversation. She assumed Aiden wanted the latest update on the investigation.
They both noticed her at the same time. Aiden nodded, then walked around the corner to the elevators. Alec started toward her.
He looked wonderful. And sloppy, of course, but comfortable sloppy. He had a five o’clock shadow, so he hadn’t bothered to shave this morning. And did he ever comb his hair? No man should be this sexy. She swallowed and tried to block out the memories of last night. What was it she was going to say to him when she saw him? What had she come up with? She couldn’t remember. She had to look over his shoulder in order to concentrate.
“I thought you weren’t coming in today.”
Good. That worked. She’d sounded quite normal, and she was sure nothing of what she was feeling was showing in her face.
“I told you I was.”
She nodded. Okay. The awkward moment was over. They were now having a normal conversation. She began to relax. Definitely okay. He wasn’t going to say anything about last night, and neither was she. She could stop worrying.
“Regan?”
“Yes?”
“Did it feel good?”
She was mortified. She knew her mouth dropped open. The question so shocked her. She couldn’t believe what he’d just asked, and so she made him repeat it.
“I asked you if it felt good.”
In seconds her face was burning with embarrassment. “Alec, I think it would be best if we didn’t discuss last night.”
He laughed. “I was asking if it felt good to stand up for yourself with your brothers.”
“Oh.” Instantly flustered, she said, “Yes, of course it felt… wait a minute. You did that on purpose, didn’t you?”
He pretended not to know what she was talking about. “Did what?”
“Phrasing the question the way you did, asking if it felt good but not explaining… oh, never mind.”
He loved how easily he could embarrass her. “So did it?”
She sighed. “Yes. I think maybe fighting with my brothers occasionally is a nice outlet for all my pent-up nervous energy.”
He shook his head. “I think maybe we found a better outlet last night.” He grinned as he added, “and I’m not going to ask you if that felt good. I know it did.”
His arrogance was totally out of control, and he certainly didn’t seem to need any confirmation from her. But then, why would he? Last night had been incredible. He didn’t need her to tell him so. He was there, after all. Oh, boy, was he.
She really needed to think about something else… anything else. She wanted to kiss him. She stepped back instead. “I think we should change the subject.”
“Yes, okay.”
“And please, stop looking at me that way,” she whispered.
“What way?”
“Like you’d like to find the nearest closet.”
“I wasn’t thinking closet. I was thinking—”
She interrupted. “We are finished talking about this.” She folded her arms across her waist. “Okay?”
Before he could argue, she asked, “What were you and Aiden talking about?”
“I asked him if there were any grudges against your family, any disgruntled employees, any threats, lawsuits, et cetera. He said he’d already talked to Wincott about that, but he’d set it up for us to talk to your family attorney. I’m just trying to cover all the angles, and I want to know what the legal problems have been.”
“With my brothers?”
“And you.”
“Oh.” She was taken aback by that admission. “I doubt you’ll find anything.”
“I’m still going to talk to Sam.”
“Yes, of course.”
“Are you hungry? You want to get something to eat?”
The abrupt change in subjects jarred her. “Yes… okay.”
She walked around him and headed for the elevators. He caught up with her in two strides. “By the way, the answer is yes.”
She glanced up at him. “What was the question?”
“You asked your brothers if anyone was ever faithful, and I’m telling you yes, some are.”
She reached to push the button for the elevator. He grabbed her hand and forced her to look at him. “I’ve got a lot of examples,” he said softly. “But there’s only one you need to know about.”
“Oh? Who?”
“Me.”
She didn’t know how to respond. “Why are you telling me this?”
He shrugged. “I don’t know. I just thought you ought to know that I’d be faithful.”
“If you ever married.”
“That’s right,” he replied. “If.”
The conversation was cut short when his cell phone rang. Henry was calling, and he sounded frantic.
“Where are you?”
“Right down the hall. What’s going on?”
“You’ve got to get back here right away. You’ve got to see this.”
Alec had already turned around and was pulling Regan along as he strode back to the offices.
“What’s wrong?”
He didn’t need to answer her because Henry was standing in the doorway, and as soon as he spotted Alec and Regan coming around the corner, he blurted, “I opened this letter. It’s on our hotel stationery, and it came in one of our envelopes. You know what that means? He was here. He was in the hotel.”
Alec let go of her hand and went to the desk. She touched Henry’s arm and said, “Take a deep breath.”
“Regan, he was here.”
She nodded. “Yes, I heard you. And he sent a letter?” she asked, but she was already walking over to his desk.
She leaned against Alec and looked at the sheet of stationery Henry had put on the blotter. He’d placed a long silver letter opener on the edge of the paper to keep it from folding up again.
It wasn’t a letter, though. It was another murder list. This one had a different heading. “Our Murder List” was written on top of the paper, and the Our was underlined several times. The killer had hand-printed this one. All of the names on the list were there, but lines had been drawn through Ms. Patsy’s name and Detective Sweeney’s. There were question marks next to Shields’s name and the references to the two bodyguards.
Another name had been added to the list. Haley Cross. On the bottom, just below her name, he’d written, “You owe me for this one too.”
Alec was on his cell phone dialing Wincott. While he was waiting for the detective to answer, he asked Regan, “Did you know this woman?”
She didn’t pick up on the fact that he’d asked about the woman in the past tense.
“No,” she said. “Alec, we have to warn her. Oh, dear God, the police need to find her before…”
Henry pointed to the paper. His voice was shaking when he said, “There’s a line through her name, Regan, like he’s already… you know… killed her.”
“Henry, we cannot assume just because he’s put a line through her name that she’s dead. He might not have… Oh, God.” She could feel the panic building inside. “There has to be time to save her.”
Wincott answered the phone, and Alec let go of Regan and walked toward the hallway as he explained what Henry had found.
Regan was feeling sick to her stomach. She leaned against Henry’s desk and stared at the wall. “I don’t understand,” she whispered. “Why would he send me this? And what in God’s name does he mean by ‘Our Murder List’?”
“Haley Cross. I swear I’ve heard that name before, but I can’t remember where.”
Alec ended the call and walked back into the office. “Wincott and Bradshaw are on their way over.”
“On Sunday?” Henry realized how foolish the question was as soon as the words were out of his mouth.
“John was at work, but Bradshaw was home.”
“Are they going to look for the woman? Are they…”
Alec put his arm around her. “It’s too late.”
She jerked away. His quick acceptance that the girl was dead infuriated her. “You can’t know that. If they could just warn her… if they could find her and…”
Alec rubbed the knot in the back of his neck while he watched her pace. “They know where she is.”
“Where?”
“In the morgue.”
“Oh, God.”
She sagged against Alec, bowed her head, and closed her eyes. He wrapped his arms around her and held her close. Henry had all but fallen into his chair.
“How did he kill her?” he asked.
Alec was staring at the article on the wall behind Henry’s head. It all suddenly clicked. He didn’t answer Henry’s question, but said, “She was running on the path in—”
“Conrad Park,” Henry blurted. “That’s where I read the name. Regan, don’t you remember? I told you about it. At least I think I told you.”
Alec walked over to read the article again. “You’re quoted here as saying you run there at least three nights a week.”
“Yes, I did.”
“But then the track was finished upstairs,” Henry said.
Alec got Wincott on the phone again. “Where are you?”
“Getting out of the car in front of the hotel.”
“What was the physical description of Haley Cross?”
“I’ve got some copies of the file with me, and I’ve got her photo. Hang on, Alec, I’ll be right there.”
Alec was too impatient to sit and wait. He paced the hall instead. When Wincott jogged around the corner waving the file folder, Alec said, “Would you mistake Haley Cross for Regan?”
“Oh, come on. I wouldn’t mistake any woman for her.” He stopped, opened the folder, and held up Haley Cross’s photo. “Maybe from behind… the long hair, approximate height and weight. I guess it’s possible.”
“What’s possible?” Regan asked. She was standing in the doorway, but she stepped back when Wincott and Alec walked in.
Wincott answered her. “Mistaken identity,” he said. “Where’s the letter?”
A couple of seconds later, he and Alec were staring at the list again.
Wincott read the list and the note out loud. “ ‘You owe me for this one too’? So he’s making Regan take some of the responsibility, isn’t he?” Wincott said. “That’s what I think the note implies.”
“So, make the leap, John.”
“Okay,” Wincott answered. “He thinks Regan should have been there instead of Haley.”
Alec nodded. Then Wincott asked, “You think he was waiting in the park for Regan?”
“If he read the article in the paper, wouldn’t he assume she still runs there?”
“Are you saying he killed that woman by mistake?” Regan asked.
Alec turned to her. “Yes. I think he went there to kill you.”

Chapter Thirty-nine




The police had withheld important details about Haley Cross’s murder, and neither Alec nor Wincott wanted Regan to know what those details were. She was already scared, and the autopsy report alone was enough to make a hardened cop shudder.
Still, there was the possibility that one of those details might trigger a memory that could help them.
Wincott leaned against the office window, one ankle crossed over the other, with a bottle of water in one hand and the autopsy report in the other. Alec sat next to her on the sofa. Regan couldn’t understand how the two of them could look so relaxed while they took turns relating some of the horrific facts of the poor girl’s murder. When Alec told her what the killer had done to her legs, Regan became nauseous and could feel the blood rushing from her head.
Alec noticed the way she was gripping her hands together in her lap, a telltale sign that she was having trouble, and there were tears in her eyes, but she kept it together. He was proud of her, and had they been alone, he would have put his arms around her and told her so.
“You okay, Regan? You want to take a minute?” Wincott asked.
“No, I’m fine,” she said.
Alec opened the folder Wincott had dropped on the table and handed Regan the photo of Haley Cross. Regan was surprised at how peaceful the woman looked in death.
“Do you know her?”
She shook her head. “Was she a student at the university?”
“No,” Alec answered. “She’d already graduated.”
“She lived close to the campus,” Wincott explained. “And according to her friends, she regularly ran the park path.”
“Did she live alone?”
“No,” Wincott said. “She lived with a boyfriend. He was out of town on business the night she was murdered. Evidently she had told him she might go home to visit her parents while he was gone, so he returned to Chicago, and several days passed before anyone knew she was missing.”
Regan took a couple of deep breaths before looking at the photo again. “I don’t understand. Why would he do that to her legs? Why…?”
When she suddenly stopped, Wincott said, “The coroner said her death was due to a blow to the head. Evidently this sicko went for the legs after she was already dead.”
“She fought him,” Alec said. “There was skin under her fingernails, so they have DNA.” He took the photo from Regan and put it back in the folder.
Regan thought he looked worried about her, and so she gave him a quick smile to let him know she was okay as she stood and went to the credenza to get some water.
“Alec?” She held up the icy bottle.
“Yeah, sure.”
She handed him the water, got another one for herself, and then circled the sofa to go to her desk. Lord, she was feeling old and worn-out all of a sudden. She pulled her chair out and sat down. Maybe going to Melbourne with Spencer wasn’t such a bad idea after all. The change of scenery might do her some good. She sighed then. Even as the thought came into her mind, she rejected it. She wasn’t going to run away, and if she went to Melbourne, that’s exactly what she would be doing.
She thought about calling Sophie and Cordie. Talking to her friends always made her feel better, but if she let them see how upset she was, they’d become even more worried about her than they already were. And if the subject turned to Alec—which of course it would—she would definitely lose it. Turning into a crybaby for a little while was all right when she was with her friends, but not here, and not now.
Alec watched Regan from the sofa. Her eyes were sad and distant. She was pale and her brow was furrowed.
Lyle Bradshaw walked into the office. He looked as though he was on his way to a wedding, all dressed up in a dark pinstriped suit and a white shirt with French cuffs. His bold red tie provided the only spot of color. As usual, not a hair was out of place. In comparison, Alec looked as though he was getting ready to clean a garage.
Wincott observed from the other side of the room. Lyle was looking at Regan, and Alec was looking at Lyle looking at Regan, and from the expression on Alec’s face, he wasn’t happy.
“The letter and the envelope are on Henry’s desk,” Wincott said to break the staring contest.
“We aren’t going to find any of his fingerprints.” He made the comment on his way to the desk.
“You still have to bag it and get it to the lab,” Alec snapped.
Lyle didn’t seem to notice Alec’s hostile tone. Wincott did. He diffused the situation by taking the two men into the outer office to discuss the new developments in the case.
As soon as she was alone, Regan switched on her computer and tried to answer a few of her e-mails. Anything to keep her mind occupied.
Henry poked his head in the door to say good-bye. She suggested he take Monday off, but he wouldn’t hear of it. “What if another letter comes, or something else happens? I want to be here… you know, in case you need me.”
He was such a sweetheart. “Okay,” she said. “But sleep in and come in late.”
“I’ll try,” he promised. He turned to leave and then said, “We can’t tell anyone about the new list or about the woman.”
“I know that.”
“I was kind of surprised with everything happening and so many people involved that someone hasn’t leaked the story to the papers.”
“I don’t think any of the security force knows the particulars,” she said.
“Sophie would kill both of us if another newspaper broke this story. Okay, I’m leaving. See you tomorrow.”
“Henry, be careful.”
The door had barely closed behind him before it was flung open again, and Aiden came rushing into the room.
“Spencer and I just heard about the letter. Alec told me about the woman who was murdered. My God, Regan, that could have been you.”
“Yes, I know,” she said softly.
“Listen, Spencer and I aren’t going anywhere until this lunatic is caught. Maybe I should call Walker and tell him to come home.”
“Oh, please, don’t do that. You know how he attracts attention. The press will be following him around, and if any of those reporters get wind of this…”
“All right,” he said.
“Make him stay away,” she insisted. “I wish you and Spencer would get as far away from me as possible, and I wish you’d take Cordie and Sophie and Henry with you. None of you is safe as long as you’re around me. If anything ever happened to you or…” Her voice broke.
“I’m not going anywhere,” he repeated. “And you need to stop worrying about us. You’ve got enough to think about, and you’ve got to stay strong.”
“I’m doing okay, and you don’t have to worry. I’m not going to crumble.”
They continued to talk for several more minutes. Aiden paced around the room until he calmed down. He seemed to need her reassurance that she was well protected, that Alec and John would catch the lunatic, and that she would be okay.
He was walking toward the door when she said, “A long time ago, you taught me that Madisons face problems, and it’s time I face some of mine.”
“The police should handle…”
“I’m talking about our family and our business, Aiden.”
He turned around and walked back to her desk. “Okay. It’s time you face what problems?”
“Letting you and Spencer make decisions for me. That has to stop. What I do with the family funds is every bit as important as what you do. Investing those funds to make the world better is actually more important.”
He leaned against the desk and folded his arms across his chest. He knew she was right.
“And one more thing…” she said. “Giving back to the community, taking on projects that make a difference… when you see where the money goes, it’s a reminder of why we’re here. The way I see it, it’s my job to help you boys stay on track.” She smiled as she added, “You might say I humanize you.”
He conceded. “Okay, we’ll increase your budget for next year. I can convince Spencer and Walker to double it.”
“That’s good to hear,” she said. “And I’ll do something for you. I’ll stop fighting you on a settlement for Emerson.”
He headed for the door. “Emily’s taking a week off,” he said. “When she gets back, she’ll be looking for another position.”
Regan tried not to cheer. Aiden paused at the door and asked, “Is there anything else you want to talk about?”
“That’s it for now,” she said.
She wanted to tell him about Alec, to pour her heart out to her brother, but she didn’t. Why would she? It was just one night. Alec was making that perfectly clear. Just five more days and she’d never see him again… unless they caught the lunatic before then.
Regan tried to fill those days with work to keep her mind occupied. Since their projects for the season had been completed, she and Henry continued to clean out old files and reorganize the office.
Each day, Alec came on duty as usual, but things weren’t the same as they had been. He was cordial and friendly, but he was keeping his distance. There was no more teasing, and he avoided any situation where they would get close to each other. When a discussion became too personal, he changed the subject. He was acting as though nothing out of the ordinary had happened between them. Did he already regret their night together? If she’d had the nerve, she would have asked him that very question.
Regan wasn’t sure if she had caught a virus or if the stress had made her sick, but she started throwing up one evening after Alec walked her to her suite. She had a horrible night. By noon the following day, she was feeling better.
She met Aiden late that afternoon to give him the signed contracts. He was waiting at a corner table in the atrium. Regan ordered iced tea and sipped it while she half listened to him talk about the new hotel.
“Are you paying attention?”
“Not really.”
“Are you still sick?” He sounded suspicious, as though she were trying to pull a fast one by getting out of bed too soon.
“No, I’m fine.”
“According to Alec, you sure didn’t look fine last night.”
“Excuse me? How would he know what I looked like?”
Aiden shrugged. “He heard you were sick. I’m not sure who told him,” he said, “but he came back to the hotel, and he spent the night.”
“In the hotel? Alec stayed in the hotel?”
“Didn’t I just say he did? He stayed in your suite. He slept on the sofa.”
She was astonished. And all she could think about was how horrible she’d looked with her hair hanging in her eyes and her pasty complexion. Had he been there when she was throwing up? Lovely, she thought.
“Aiden, why did you let him see me looking half dead?”
He smiled. “I didn’t have much to say about it.”
She decided to change the subject. “I ran into Paul. He told me he’s cutting back on his hours.”
Aiden nodded. “He’s tired of so much traveling, and he needs to be home more with his family.”
“So you’re okay with his decision?”
“Yes. I told him he can have any job he wants. We don’t want to lose him.”
She was handing the contracts to Aiden when she looked up and saw Alec walking toward her. He stopped to talk to the officer assigned to her for the day to get a report. She didn’t want him to catch her staring at him, and so she hastily turned around.
Now Aiden was watching her. His cell phone rang, but he ignored it.
“You should answer that.”
He picked up the phone, turned the power off, and then tucked it into his pocket.
“Did you want to tell me something?” he prodded.
She bowed her head. “I did something stupid.” She made the confession in a whisper.
“What did you do?”
I fell in love. And how stupid was that? She didn’t say what she was thinking, though. “I’m tired, that’s all. I need a vacation.”
Her brother was far more astute than she realized. He looked at Alec who couldn’t seem to take his eyes off Regan, and then he looked at Regan again.
The two of them looked miserable.
“He told me he’s going into the FBI.”
Startled, she looked up. Aiden was smiling. She didn’t pretend not to know whom he was talking about. “Yes, he is. And what is so amusing?” she asked, frowning.
“I was wondering how Alec will feel when Walker hires someone to do a background check on him.”
Her eyes widened. “He wouldn’t…”
Aiden shrugged. “He hired someone to check out Dennis, and you weren’t serious about him.”
“Aiden, he’s leaving.”
“Yes, I know.” He stood then and said, “Here he comes.”
She practically overturned her chair when she bolted to her feet, and if Aiden hadn’t grabbed her glass, it would have crashed to the floor.
She took a breath, slapped a smile on her face, and turned around. He was at it again, she thought, looking even more handsome than the last time she’d seen him. The man could clean up when he wanted to. He’d already proven that last Saturday night when he’d worn a tuxedo. He had on a navy blue blazer and khaki pants, and he was wearing loafers, not beat-up tennis shoes.
She couldn’t believe how rattled she was, and he hadn’t said a word to her.
Alec nodded to Aiden and smiled at her. “You’re looking better today.” She guessed the pleasantries were over when he turned to Aiden, abruptly dismissing her. “Your attorney hasn’t called Gil Hutton back yet. He told me he’s left two messages for him. I think maybe you need to talk to him again.”
“I’ll get right on it,” he promised. “Sam was on vacation, but I was sure he’d be back by now.”
Regan decided to go up to her office. Aiden and Alec followed behind. “I want Gil to hear from him by tomorrow afternoon. If he doesn’t, I’m going over to his office and look through those files myself.”
“He’ll call.”
Regan was holding the elevator for them. Alec stood in front of her on the way up to the third floor.
“I talked to Lieutenant Lewis this morning,” Aiden said.
“That had to be fun,” Alec commented. “You’d better not mention my name, or it could be bad for Detective Wincott.”
“What does that mean?”
Alec explained. “It means that Lewis would ruin his chances for promotion if he found out I’m helping him.”
Aiden nodded. “He’s not going to find out from any of us, and certainly not from Sam.”
“So I guess the lieutenant doesn’t like you,” Regan said.
When he didn’t answer her, she poked him in the back.
He flashed a grin, then reached behind him and grabbed her hand. When he realized what he’d done, he immediately let go.
Aiden pretended he didn’t notice. “From what I understand, they really don’t have any leads. He told me they’re looking at Peter Morris.”
“That could be another dead end,” Regan said.
“They’re not just looking at him,” Alec said. “They’re looking for him.”
“He’s hiding?” Regan asked.
“Yes, but he can’t hide forever,” Alec said. “He’ll surface, and then they’ll get him.”
“But that could take forever.”
As it turned out, Morris was apprehended one hour later.

Chapter Forty



Peter Morris made two mistakes and both of them were doozies.
His first mistake was to give in to temptation. He walked into a bar in downtown Chicago and started drinking hard liquor, and lots of it, which not only impaired his judgment but also gave him a false sense of security. The more he guzzled down, the more convinced he became that he was safe, and for the moment, untouchable.
The second mistake he made was to call Regan Madison. It took him several tries, and by the time he finally got through to her, he had worked himself into a froth.
Regan had told the operator to hold her calls and that she would be back in her office by three. Time got away from her, though, and when she and Alec reached her door, Detective Wincott was waiting. She assumed he was there to talk to her.
“Is there news?”
He shook his head. “I’m just here to pick up Alec. We’ve got a thing to go to. Sort of a going-away party for Alec,” he explained.
She noticed a policeman standing down the hall. Her phone rang. Wincott was turning to leave, but Alec lingered. She picked up the extension on Henry’s desk and answered. “Regan Madison.”
“This is your last chance to do the right thing.”
The anger shocked her. The words were slurred, but she still understood what he had said.
Alec saw the change in her expression, motioned to Wincott, and then went running to the phone in her office so he could listen in.
“Who is this?” she demanded.
“Peter Morris,” he answered. “Remember me?”
“Yes, I remember you.”
Wincott was moving away as he flipped his cell phone open.
“You’re a liar.” Morris drew the words in a long whisper.
If Morris wasn’t drunk, he was certainly well on his way, she thought. She could hear glasses clinking, music pulsating, and voices mumbling in the background. She was sure he was calling her from a bar.
“I’m not lying. I remember you.”
“I meant what I said. This is your last chance.”
His voice was chilling now. She heard him swallow, then the sound of ice striking the glass again.
“My last chance?” she repeated.
“To save yourself.”
“I don’t understand.”
“I’m not going to keep chasing you. It took me precious weeks to get past your assistant and finally talk to you, and what good did it do me? You wouldn’t listen. You already had your mind made up. I told you that if we could only get together, sit down and talk, I could convince you. If you had just stopped and listened to me, none of this would have happened. You could have stopped it.”
“Stopped what?”
“You know what.”
She decided to pretend she knew what he was talking about. “All right. Tell me how I could have stopped it.”
She looked at Alec. He nodded to her.
“I tried to get to you, but you left.”
“When? Where?”
“At Liam House.”
She nearly dropped the phone. Her breath caught in her throat. “You were there?”
“I just said I was.”
“Did you follow me?”
“No.”
“Then how did you know…?”
Impatient, he answered. “She told me.”
“Who? Who told you?”
“Emily. She said her name was Emily when she answered the phone. She told me where you were.”
She was so stunned she fell back against the desk.
“Do you know how long I stood out there in the rain waiting for you to come outside?”
“No, I don’t know how long you waited.”
“I want the money,” he snarled. “And you owe me, now don’t you?”
“Why do I owe you?”
He didn’t answer her but said, “It’s gone too far. If you don’t give me the money, you’ll be sorry. You get it ready. You hear me? I want cash, not a check. We’ll meet tomorrow. I’ll let you know when and where.”
“And if I don’t have the money ready when you call?”
“Someone’s going to get hurt.” His words trailed off into a slurred mumble.
Regan heard a crash, and then the line went dead. Alec was suddenly there by her side. She started to speak, but he put his hand up for silence and then nodded toward Wincott.
The detective had his back to them as he was talking on his cell phone, but when he turned around he had a big grin on his face.
“We got him.”

Chapter Forty-one




At was almost too easy. While Peter Morris was shouting threats over the phone and sloshing his drink down his shirt, two policemen walked up behind him and grabbed him.
Morris wasn’t too drunk to lawyer up. As soon as he was handcuffed and read his rights, he started screaming for an attorney.
He did a lot of talking about not talking to anyone about anything. A confession would have been nice, but they really didn’t need it. The evidence nailed him. Morris, as it turned out, was a collector. Hidden behind a block of insulation in the attic of the run-down house he rented was a mildewed shoe box tied with a bright pink ribbon, and inside that box were his trophies, a bloody hammer with a workman’s initials burned into the handle, Haley Cross’s driver’s license, and Detective Benjamin Sweeney’s wallet.
Lieutenant Lewis was ecstatic. As far as he was concerned, it was an open-and-shut case. After hearing about the evidence, he insisted that he be the one to call Aiden and give him the good news.
Wincott drove back to the hotel to tell Regan what they’d found in Morris’s house. He called Alec and asked him to meet him in the lobby.
Alec was in a mood. He had wanted to sit in on the interrogation with Morris and his attorney, but Lewis wouldn’t let him get near him. Wincott didn’t think it was such a good idea either, considering Alec’s frame of mind.
Wincott was waiting for Alec in front of the elevators. “Are you finished packing, or have you even started yet?” he asked when he spotted Alec striding toward him.
“He didn’t confess, did he?”
“So I guess that’s a no on the packing?”
“Answer me, John,” he snapped.
“No, he didn’t confess. Swears he’s innocent. It was shocking. I’ve never heard any suspect say that.”
Alec ignored the smart-ass remark. The elevator doors opened, and he stepped back to let Wincott go in first.
“Where are all the security guards? I haven’t seen a single one since I walked into this building.”
“The extra men who were sent over from the security company are probably on other jobs now, and the regulars are just being more discreet. You know, blending in. Now that we’ve got our man—and we do have the right man—the hotel’s security staff doesn’t need to have such a loud presence.”
The doors opened on Regan’s floor. “I don’t like this,” Alec muttered.
“I know. You wanted a confession, didn’t you? But you know what? If he had confessed, you still wouldn’t believe he was the right man for this.”
Alec shrugged. “You could have gotten me in there. All I wanted was to ask a couple of questions.”
Wincott shook his head. “We’re doing everything by the book, and that means no one is going to touch him.”
“And you think I would?”
Wincott smiled. “Of course you would. You’d have his face smashed into a wall the second he said her name. Face it, Alec. You’re too involved in this… personally involved.”
Alec didn’t like hearing that. “If I’m so damned personally involved, why did you ask me to meet you here?”
“Because I figured what you need is closure.”
Alec looked incredulous. “Closure? You’ve got to be kidding me.”
“I thought to myself that maybe, if you heard me telling Regan about all the evidence we had and the motive and opportunity, well then, you’d be able to close the door on this investigation and move on.”
“It was too easy.”
“Sometimes that’s just how it ends up. Easy.”
“The evidence…”
“I know. Someone else could have planted the evidence in Morris’s attic. That’s what you were going to say, right?”
“That’s right.”
“Morris is good for this. Physically he’s big enough and strong enough to lift Sweeney and hang him the way he did, and he fits the description Regan gave us.”
Alec knocked on her door. “Hundreds of men fit that description.”
She opened the door, and in a flash, Alec took it all in. She was barefoot and wearing running shorts and a top that didn’t quite cover her navel. She looked really good.
Wincott nodded to her and walked past.
“I just heard the news,” she said.
“Who told you?” Alec asked. For the first time in the last three weeks, he didn’t head for the comfortable sofa.
She closed the door. “Lieutenant Lewis called and told me, and then Aiden called. Why aren’t you smiling, Alec? Aren’t you happy about this?”
“He thinks it’s too easy,” Wincott said. He sat down in the easy chair and leaned forward.
Alec stood in the middle of the room with his hands in his pockets and frowned at him. “Listen, the results of the DNA aren’t in, I say we keep up the protection.”
“You aren’t convinced that Peter Morris is the man who killed…?”
She stopped when he shook his head. “No, I’m not convinced.”
“He doesn’t want to be convinced.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?” Alec asked.
“It means it’s crunch time.” He gave a barely perceptible nod toward Regan.
Alec’s jaw was clenched tight as he glared at Wincott.
Regan wasn’t certain what was going on. “John, do you think we have the right man?”
“Yes, I do. Evidence doesn’t lie.”
“Unless it’s planted.”
“A strand of Morris’s hair was found embedded in the hammer.”
“Do you know how easy it would have been to plant that evidence? All someone had to do was take a hair from his brush,” he said as he slowly paced.
“He had a motive,” Wincott told Regan. “He owed the wrong people a lot of money, and he was counting on the grant to bail him out. When you turned him down, he went after you. He admitted he went to Liam House and waited for you. The evidence is going to bury him. Morris was desperate… and losing it. He picked up Regan’s cell phone and that folder with her murder list and thought that maybe if he did something nice for her…”
“I’d give him the money? My God…”
Wincott nodded. “I had a nice long talk with Emily Milan. She admitted she told Morris where you were.”
“Did she know she was talking to Peter Morris?” Regan asked.
“Yes, but she claims she had no idea what he wanted,” Wincott answered. “She also admitted she’d gotten into your computer so she could read all your e-mails. She said she only did it so she could keep current.”
“I’m amazed she’d own up to that. She’s the one who printed the picture of Sweeney and put it on Aiden’s desk. She also forwarded it to your other brothers.”
Wincott smiled. “The pair of handcuffs I pulled out made her real chatty. She suddenly wanted to cooperate.”
“Where is she now?” Alec asked.
“She was fired, of course,” Wincott said. “And security escorted her out of the hotel. I doubt she’ll be asking for a recommendation.”
“Are you still convinced he killed Haley Cross because he thought it was me?”
“Yes,” Wincott said. “Like I said before, it was rainy and dark, and Cross was about your height, maybe a little taller, and had dark hair like yours. If he came up behind her, it would be an easy mistake to think she was you. And you let Morris know where you would be,” he said. “You know, that article and photo from the paper Henry cut out and framed?”
She nodded. She knew where John was headed.
“At the dedication, you said that you ran the jogging path every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. We believe Morris read the article and went to Conrad Park to wait for you. I don’t think he went there to kill you. I think it just got out of hand. He probably wanted to convince you to give him the grant. He must have been shocked when he realized he’d grabbed the wrong woman. Maybe that’s what triggered his rage.”
“You told me she fought him.”
“Yes,” Wincott said. “One of the workmen left his hammer. Morris saw it, picked it up, and killed her.” He looked at Alec when he added, “But it’s finished now. When the DNA results come back, we’ll have enough to put Morris away for three lifetimes.”
He stood and offered Regan his hand.
“John, I can’t thank you enough,” she said.
“Things should wrap up fairly quickly. The prosecutor’s office will be in touch with you and let you know where things will go from here.” He glanced at Alec. “I should be going.”
Alec didn’t follow him. He pushed the door shut so he could have a moment of privacy with her. He needed to say good-bye.
“Listen, Regan…” he began, and then stopped. He was suddenly tongue-tied.
“Yes?” She looked into his eyes and waited.
“You knew I was going to leave.”
“Yes, I did.”
“Okay then. I’m going home to pack up, and then I’m driving to Boston.”
“To see your family?”
He nodded. He sounded resolute when he muttered, “That’s right.”
“And then the FBI.”
“Right again. I’m moving forward.”
Did he know he was breaking her heart? “I understand.”
“Look… I shouldn’t have…”
She wouldn’t let him finish. If he told her that he shouldn’t have made love to her, she didn’t know what she would do. “I don’t have any regrets. You should go home now and pack.”
He leaned down and kissed her forehead. “Yeah, I should.”
She opened the door. “Remember, Alec, you’re moving forward.”
“That’s right. I am.”
“Then go.”
“If you’re ever in Boston…”

Chapter Forty-two




Sometimes extraordinary things can happen on the most ordinary of days.
When Eric Gage opened his eyes early Saturday morning, he knew that today was going to be extraordinary. He couldn’t explain why, not yet anyway, but he believed that as the day progressed, he would come to understand.
Eric had learned not to question.
The answer came much quicker than he had anticipated. He got out of bed, put on his robe, and shuffled into the kitchen. He was standing at the sink pouring himself a glass of orange juice when he heard it. A whisper from behind. A hiss really, and though he tried, he couldn’t quite make out what the hiss was trying to tell him.
He didn’t look behind him. He didn’t need to, for he knew who was there in the kitchen with him. He closed his eyes and waited for the whisper to come again. Five minutes passed, then five more, and still the only sound he heard was the thunder of his heartbeat.
He began to doubt. Maybe he had imagined it. He decided to get on with his day and his chores. By six A.M. he had dressed in his old work clothes and had driven to his neighborhood QuikTrip to buy an extra-large cup of coffee.
By seven-thirty he had cleaned out the garage—a ritual he completed every Saturday—and had eaten his breakfast and prepared a tray for Nina. Then he showered and dressed in a brand-new black running suit with a narrow, white stripe down the outside of each leg. The lightweight jacket had a white cloverleaf logo on the breast pocket. The zippered pockets were the reason he’d purchased it.
There were two loaded guns in the bureau drawer. He put one in his right pocket. When he zipped the pocket closed, it was impossible to tell what was inside. He looked at himself in the mirror just to make sure. He worried he might need extra rounds, and so he opened the drawer and pulled out two more magazines and slipped those into his other pocket. He carried the second gun into the kitchen and laid it in the center of the table.
He was ready now, but ready for what?
The familiar and terrifying anxiety was building inside him. His hands became stiff and icy cold, and he had trouble drawing a deep breath. He knew what was happening. The demon was taking control.
He tried to stop it. He sat down at the kitchen table and began to rock back and forth, back and forth, but he couldn’t sit long. He jumped up. Maybe it wasn’t too late to change the future… maybe, he thought, there could be a new beginning. The burst of optimism was gone in an instant. He was walking toward the back hall when he heard it again. The whisper was right behind him. He couldn’t escape. He knew that now.
“It’s time.”
“No,” he cried out.
“You know what you must do.”
He bowed his head and began to weep. “No, no, I can’t…”
The whisper turned into a scream. “You will do this.”
He stubbornly clung to the last threads of sanity. He squeezed his eyes shut and covered his ears in a weak attempt to block the terror from consuming him. “No, please, no, no,” he sobbed.
The rebellion was short-lived, and the demon won.
“Turn around and look at me. Open your eyes and look.”
He did as he was told, his movements wooden now. His acquiescence complete.
He stood there rigid as he waited for the demon’s next command. It wasn’t long in coming.
Nina’s eyes bored into his. “Kill her for me.”

Chapter Forty-three




Alec was trying to squeeze another suitcase into the trunk of his car when a bright red 1968 Mustang convertible in mint condition came roaring around the corner. Gil was behind the wheel. The top was down; the radio was blaring, and the five or six thin strands of hair on his head were blowing in the breeze.
He pulled up alongside Alec’s car, double-parked, and turned the radio and the motor off.
“Have you handed in your badge yet?” he shouted as he smoothed his hair down with the palm of his hand.
“Not yet,” Alec called back. He shut the trunk and walked around to the passenger side of Gil’s car. “I’m surprised you didn’t know that.”
“I did know that,” he said. “But things have a way of changing, and I was hoping you might change your mind.”
“It’s the FBI, Gil.”
“You gave your word, huh?”
Alec shrugged. “Something like that.”
“You’re putting suitcases in your car. You’ve got to be leaving soon.”
Alec had the day off and was trying to cram as many things as he could into it so he wouldn’t have time to think about Regan. He wasn’t going to admit that to Gil, though. It would be all over Chicago by noon if he did, and so he said, “I’m just getting a head start.”
“What about your furniture and the other stuff in your apartment?”
“I’m taking my clothes and a couple of other things I want to keep, but the rest of the stuff is going to a friend.”
“What friend?”
Gil was as intrusive as ever, but Alec didn’t mind as long as the questions didn’t become too personal. “His name’s Henry. He’s moving into my apartment next week. You don’t know him.”
“He works for Regan Madison, right?”
Alec laughed. “Is there anything you don’t know?”
“Yeah. Next week’s lottery numbers.” He looked up at the sky as he added, “And I don’t know if I’m going to make it home before the rain starts up again.”
“Was there a particular reason you stopped by?”
“I don’t have a cell phone.”
Alec nodded. “I know.”
“I don’t like them,” he said. “Needless expense now that I’m retired. If I did a lot of traveling, then it would make sense, but these days I rarely leave the neighborhood. I can walk to my favorite bars and restaurants. Finnegan’s is just a block away from my house.”
“I’m not going to argue with you. If you don’t want to carry a cell phone, then don’t.”
“I tried calling your apartment, but you didn’t answer. Guess you were out here.”
“Guess I was.”
“I could have called your cell phone, but the rain had stopped, and so I decided to drive over to say hello. I heard Wincott and Bradshaw arrested Sweeney’s murderer.”
“That’s right.”
“I also heard you were giving them trouble. You thought maybe they had the wrong man. Is that true?”
“Yes, I did give them some trouble, but it didn’t make any difference. They’re convinced Morris is their man.”
“The evidence backs them up.”
Alec nodded. Then Gil said, “I heard Wincott thought you were too close to it, if you know what I mean.”
“No, Gil. Explain it.” Now he was getting irritated.
Gil didn’t seem to notice. “You know, personally involved. So, were you?”
Alec didn’t answer. “Why all the questions?”
“I’m getting to it,” he said. “When I heard about the arrest and all the evidence they had, I thought that maybe you didn’t want me to keep looking into the Madisons’ backgrounds, but then I thought, if Alec wanted me to stop looking, he would have called and told me so. You didn’t forget, did you?”
“No, I didn’t forget.”
“There’s nothing in her background to raise a flag, but I figured you already knew that.”
Alec nodded. “Yes, I did. What about the brothers?”
“None of them have a criminal record, and none of them have ever been arrested.”
“I already know that, Gil.”
“Walker’s had some trouble. He’s the most well-known in the family because he’s a big-time race car driver. I hear he’s good too. Anyway, people know he’s got money. He doesn’t keep a low profile like the others, and you know how some people are. They see it; they want it. The money, I mean.”
“You said he had some trouble?”
“He’s had his share of fender benders, but there were only two bad accidents, one with fatalities. Walker wasn’t responsible for either one, though. He was luckier than some of the others because he walked away from both without a scratch. Now, the first accident happened up in Wisconsin. I couldn’t find anything there.”
“What about the other one?”
“That was the real bad one. It happened down in Florida, but the man who the witnesses say caused the accident died at the scene. His insurance company settled with the families. Like the accident in Wisconsin, lots of people with injuries, some real, some bogus.”
“But Walker wasn’t responsible for that one either?”
“No,” Gil said. “I’m waiting to hear back from the officer who was first on the scene. Maybe he can tell me something I don’t already know. After I talk to him, I’ll hunt you down… unless you want me to stop now. Do you?”
Alec’s answer was immediate. “No, don’t stop. Keep looking.” Gil took off a minute later, and Alec went back inside to finish up, but his mind wasn’t on what he was doing. He kept thinking about Regan. Was he having trouble letting go? Was that why he wanted Gil to keep searching? Maybe if he had had an active role in the investigation, he wouldn’t feel so frustrated now.
He picked up a box and carried it down to the car. Why couldn’t he accept that they had arrested the right man? He sighed and shook his head. He knew why. Because it was just too frickin’ easy.

Chapter Forty-four



Sunday turned out to be a miserable day for a race. The weather had gone from chilly and damp to beastly hot and damp. The air was as thick and humid as a rain forest.
Sophie, Cordie, and Regan had been in the park for well over an hour, but had spent most of that time huddled together in a shelter, squeezed in like sardines with at least fifty other people while the rain poured down. There wasn’t any privacy, and it was too crowded to talk anyway.
As soon as the rain let up, they got into line to sign in and pick up their numbers.
Sophie had already told them her good news, but Cordie and Regan wanted to hear all the details again. Besides, they knew Sophie was dying to rehash her victory.
“Come on, Sophie. Start at the beginning,” Regan said.
She didn’t have to be coaxed. “Okay. So after my article—my exceptionally well-written article—was in the paper, women started coming out of the woodwork. All of them are begging for a chance to testify against Shields. Unfortunately, we’ll never know if he had anything to do with Mary Coolidge’s death. There’s no hard evidence, but the prosecutor told me she has enough to put him in prison for a long time. She’s going after the bodyguards too and thinks she can convince a jury that they were coconspirators in extortion and fraud.”
“What about the money?” Cordie asked.
“After Shields is found guilty, and he will be,” she said, “Mary’s daughter will be getting what’s left of her mother’s money.”
“I’ll bet she’d rather have her mother back,” Cordie said.
Regan patted Sophie on the shoulder. “Sophie, we’re so proud of you.”
“And we’re proud of you too, Regan,” Cordie said. “Sophie and I haven’t slept for weeks worrying about you. You kept it together, though.”
“Not always,” Regan said.
“Now that the police have arrested the man who killed the detective and Haley Cross, are you able to get back to normal and breathe again?”
“How can things ever be normal? Because of me, two people are dead.”
“You can’t blame yourself for Morris’s actions. He’s obviously very disturbed. There was no way for anyone to predict that he would become violent.”
“Cordie’s right,” Sophie said.
“We’ve heard all about the man they arrested, and we’ve heard all about the evidence and how they found it, but you haven’t said a word about Alec. Do you miss having him around?”
Regan didn’t answer. She didn’t really need to. Tears were already gathering in her eyes.
Cordie handed her a tissue. “What happened?”
She finally told them about the last time she’d seen Alec and how he’d said good-bye to her. When she finished, her friends were speechless for a good ten seconds or more. Then both of them exploded.
“He said what!” Sophie all but shouted the question.
“ ‘If you’re ever in Boston,’ ” Regan repeated.
Cordie was furious. “And that’s it? He didn’t say anything else?”
“Like what? Thanks for a good time?” She was crying now and strangers were noticing. One woman actually moved closer, no doubt so she could listen in on the conversation. She was staring too. Regan turned her back on the nosy woman. She was embarrassed she couldn’t control her emotions. “My allergies are acting up today.”
Neither Cordie nor Sophie believed that nonsense—she was crying because her heart was broken.
Cordie handed her another tissue. “It’s going to be okay.”
The lie only made things worse. “I did the most horrible thing.”
Cordie and Sophie stepped closer. “What’d you do?” Cordie whispered.
“I fell in love with him.”
“We sort of thought you had,” Cordie said sympathetically.
“Did you tell him?” Sophie asked.
“No.”
“It’s just as well.”
The woman standing behind Regan was nodding in obvious agreement. Sophie decided to ignore her. “Since he’s leaving…”
“Come on, it’s our turn,” Cordie said.
The line had been moving at a quick pace, and they had finally reached the sign-in table. A couple of minutes later they were helping one another pin their numbers on the back of their T-shirts.
Dark clouds were hanging over them as they made their way to the starting area. The streets surrounding the route were blocked off, and policemen were directing traffic.
The park was green and lush, the shrubs and bushes all overgrown, much like a wilderness, but paths had been cut out of the woods for biking and jogging. Several men and women were sitting on top of a stone wall alongside the trail while they waited for the race to start.
Cordie was still fuming. “I can’t believe he said that. Are you sure, Regan? ‘If you’re ever in Boston’? That’s how he said goodbye? Those were his exact words?” Too late, she realized she’d inadvertently opened the floodgates again.
“Yes,” Regan said through her tears.
“I can’t believe you didn’t tell him to stick it—”
“Cordie, for heaven’s sake,” Sophie said.
“I really don’t want to talk about Alec anymore.” Regan sniffed.
“Okay,” Sophie said.
“Not another word about him,” Cordie promised.
“He isn’t my type anyway. He’s all wrong for me.”
“All wrong,” Sophie agreed.
“Why is he all wrong?” Cordie asked.
“He’s a slob. That’s why. The man’s never quite put together.”
“He sure looked put together in that tuxedo at the country club,” Sophie commented.
“Not helping,” Cordie whispered.
“Yes, he can pull it together when he wants to, but he prefers being a slob. He’s always forgetting to shave, and he never combs his hair.”
Tears were streaming down her face as she complained about him. She impatiently wiped them away and said, “How sad am I that I can only come up with superficial, unimportant criticisms that are really kind of sexy and endearing anyway? The truth is, I like that he doesn’t have everything tucked in all the time.”
Cordie handed her yet another tissue. Regan thanked her and then said, “Alec has all the qualities that matter, like honor and integrity. He’s strong and brave…” She paused to dab at her eyes and then added, “He’s just about perfect.”
“No, he’s not,” Cordie said. “If he were so perfect, why would he walk away from the best thing that will ever happen to him?”
“I don’t want to talk about him. I mean it. Not another word.”
“Okay,” Sophie said. “We’ll talk about something else.”
“If he can move forward, I certainly can,” Regan said. “In fact, that’s exactly what I’m going to do. Move forward.”
“That’s great,” Cordie said.
“Could we please change the subject?”
“We better,” Cordie said. “I’m out of tissues.”
“And I’m finished crying over him.”
“That’s good to hear,” Sophie said.
“I think we should celebrate your promotion,” Regan told Sophie.
“Let’s do dinner next week,” Cordie suggested. “But before Thursday. I’m starting a new diet then.”
“Why Thursday?”
“It’s the day I chose, and I’ve circled it on my calendar. I’m psyching myself up. I start Thursday, no matter what.”
“Maybe we could do it Wednesday night,” Regan said.
“The flag’s going up,” Sophie said. “That’s the five-minute signal. I’m going to push my way up front. Are you going to run?” she asked Regan.
“No, I’m walking. One mile up and one mile back, and then I’m done.”
“What about you, Cordie?”
“I’m doing a one-mile combo. Walk and crawl.”
“I’ve decided I’m going to run, not walk,” Sophie said. “And I’m going the distance too. All six miles.”
Regan smiled and Cordie began to laugh. Their reaction didn’t sit well with Sophie.
“You don’t think I can do it, do you?”
“No, I don’t think you can,” Cordie said.
“I know you can’t,” Regan said. “Sophie, you’re not a runner.”
“I am now. Let’s meet at the finish line. See you there.”
They watched her squeeze her way through the throng oblivious of the glares as she pushed ahead.
“I’ll bet you ten dollars she doesn’t make it farther than a mile.”
“Half a mile and she’s finished,” Regan said.
“Hey, look. That new frozen custard shop is open. See? Across the street. Maybe after, we could stop in.” And then she, too, blended into the crowd.
Regan had looked across the street when Cordie pointed out the custard shop, but her attention turned to a couple walking out the door. Both of them had ice-cream cones. They were holding hands as they strolled along. The woman was around nineteen or twenty, and the man she was with was at least fifty.
“Another sleazebag,” Regan muttered.
Her reaction was instantaneous. She felt disgust. Then she shook her head. Aiden was right. She really did need to get over this ridiculous obsession. Until she walked in their shoes, she couldn’t possibly know what their situation was or what was in their hearts.
Yes, it was definitely time for a change of attitude. She would start working on that right away. And yet, despite the best intentions, she couldn’t make herself stop watching the couple as they made their way across the street.
And that’s why she noticed him. He was a big, muscular man, and he was coming up fast behind the couple. He knocked the older man off his feet as he ran past. The young woman shouted something, but the runner never looked back. He was dressed for the race in a black running suit, but with the heat and the humidity, she thought it was odd that he was wearing a jacket. She also noticed he was carrying a pair of binoculars. The man quickly disappeared into the crowd.
She jumped when the starting gun fired, then turned and joined the people moving onto the trail. She stayed at the back of the crowd and tried to avoid elbows as she walked along.
The rude man with the binoculars was nowhere in sight. She didn’t give him another thought. She wouldn’t let herself think about Alec either, but that was easier said than done.

Chapter Forty-five




Alec had kept her keys. Now, why had he done that? It wasn’t like him to be so forgetful and not realize he had them in his pocket. Maybe he’d kept them so he would have an excuse to go back to the hotel. That’s what the shrinks would tell him. His subconscious wanted to see her again.
And so did the rest of him.
Alec stayed up half the night thinking about his future. About three in the morning he finally figured it all out. His future was with Regan… if she would have him. “Moving forward” took on a whole new meaning to him now. He didn’t want to go anywhere without her.
He made a couple of decisions about the job too, and he felt pretty good about them, but he fell asleep thinking about Regan and wondering how he would ever be able to convince her to love him.
The next morning, after he showered, he decided he ought to get cleaned up before he went to the hotel. He shaved and then put on a clean pair of jeans that only had a couple of holes below his knees. He opened one of the packed boxes and found a clean, though wrinkled, short-sleeve T-shirt and even took the time to tuck it in.
He happened to glance in the mirror while he was putting his gun in his holster and realized he should have gotten a haircut. His hair was sticking up all over the place. He shrugged. It was too late to do anything about it now anyway.
It was raining when he drove to the hotel. He was walking into the lobby when Gil caught up with him.
“What are you doing here?”
“Didn’t you hear me honking at you when you were crossing Michigan? I got caught at the light,” Gil panted.
“Sorry, I didn’t hear you.”
“Alec, I might have something for you.” He glanced around and then said, “Maybe we ought to find someplace private.”
“I was just going up to Regan’s office. We can talk there.”
He used Regan’s key to get up to the third floor. Gil started explaining as soon as the elevator doors closed. “I finally heard back from that patrolman down in Florida, and he had some interesting news.”
The doors opened on the third floor, and both of them stepped into the corridor. It was empty and as quiet as a confessional on Friday night.
“So what did he tell you?”
“The accident happened over a year ago, closer to two,” he said. “And it was bad, just like I told you. A five-car pileup. I was worried the patrolman wouldn’t remember much about it, but he told me it was so gruesome he’ll take the memory to his grave.
“There was this ten-mile stretch of two-lane highway outside of Tampa. Walker Madison was driving a sports car, and the engine had a lot of power. Evidently he was passing this truck, and this late-model sedan pulls out behind him and follows him. A guy named Gage, Eric Gage, was driving, and his wife was in the passenger seat. Walker gets around the truck and back into his lane without any trouble at all, but Gage’s sedan didn’t quite make it. There are some conflicting reports. The patrolman said one witness swore the truck driver wouldn’t let the sedan in, that he deliberately sped up. There was another possibility that the sedan clipped the truck trying to get back in. Anyway, there was a terrible crash,” he explained.
Alec noticed Gil was talking faster and faster now, and his face was getting red. A knot was forming in Alec’s gut. He had a really bad feeling about what he was going to hear. “Go on,” he urged.
“The truck lost control, spun, and flipped. The sedan was totaled, but the driver, this Eric Gage, didn’t get so much as a bruise. His wife wasn’t so lucky. The patrolman said they had to pry her out of the passenger seat. He said it looked like the car had folded in on her. Sometimes he says he can still hear the screams. The wife was unconscious and barely hanging on by a thread. It was the husband who was screaming. The patrolman said he went crazy, pulling at his hair and sobbing that he should have let her drive like she wanted, and it should have been him in that seat. He got more and more out of control the longer it took to get his wife out of the car. The paramedics had to sedate him, and because of his size, it took three men to strap him down to the gurney. He was out of his head, all right,” Gil said. “And do you know what the patrolman told me he was trying to do?”
“What?”
“Get across that highway to Walker. He wanted to kill him. He was ranting about how Walker had been driving too fast, and that was why the truck veered.”
“But that wasn’t true?”
“Not according to the witnesses. The truck driver’s insurance company settled with the families.”
“How bad was Gage’s wife?”
Gil was pulling slips of paper out of his pockets. He unfolded one and nodded. “Her name was Nina, and she was all broken up, but her legs got the worst of it. The bones were crushed.”
“Ah, hell,” he whispered. “I knew it was too easy.”
He thought of Haley Cross and how her legs had been crushed with a hammer, and he knew it wasn’t a coincidence. He sprinted to Regan’s office. He just wanted to see her, to know she was okay. Then he could calm down and call Wincott.
Gil was chasing him. “Wait. Don’t you want to know where Eric Gage is now?”
“He’s here, isn’t he, Gil? He’s in Chicago.”
Gil nodded. Then he thrust the slip of paper at Alec. “Here’s his address.”
Alec grabbed the paper, opened the door, and rushed into her office. It was empty. Panic like he’d never felt before bore down on him. He was reaching for the phone when he heard the fax machine humming.
He knew what it was before he looked. He dropped the phone and ran to the fax machine. He grabbed the paper before it slid into the tray. It was another murder list, but the heading was different. *My Murder List*, he’d written, and underneath there was just one name. “Regan Madison.”

Chapter Forty-six




Regan walked at a fast clip at the beginning and then slowed down. The crowd thinned out. She was so lost in thought she didn’t realize everyone had passed her until she reached the second-mile marker. She’d already gone farther than she’d intended. It started to drizzle, and she was hot and sticky. The diehard runners were probably crossing the finish line by now, she thought.
She wasn’t sure where she was. She didn’t want to turn around and walk another two miles back to the starting line, and she didn’t want to keep going to the finish line because that was another three-and-a-half-mile trek. She knew she’d run into a volunteer if she turned around and started back, and so she did just that. She really should have paid attention to all the signs and arrows the staff had placed along the route, but she’d been too busy feeling sorry for herself. And thinking about Alec, of course. Why didn’t he know she was the best thing that would ever happen to him? No other woman would ever love him as passionately as she did.
He didn’t love her, though. He wouldn’t have stayed around as long as he did if it hadn’t been for his job. It was all over and done with now, and she needed to stop crying over him. She was probably dehydrated from all the tears she’d already shed. The only good thing to come out of all of this was that her pride was still intact.
Alec would never know that he had broken her heart. He would feel bad about it if he ever found out, and the last thing she needed or wanted was for him to feel sorry for her.
Tears blurred her vision. She was thoroughly disgusted with herself. “For the love of God, get it together,” she whispered. And stop thinking about him.
She was thirsty and decided to focus on that. She wanted water, but anything cold and icy would do. She increased her pace as she walked along, but slowed when she saw a volunteer riding his bicycle toward her.
She waved to him and asked if he knew of a shortcut to get back to the starting line.
“Didn’t you see the signs? There’s a path that cuts through the park. Just around the curve behind me,” he said. He smiled then. “Lots of the walkers have quit already.”
She didn’t much like his smug, condescending attitude. He’d certainly put her on the defensive. He rode on before she could explain that she wasn’t a quitter. She had planned to walk only two miles, and that’s exactly what she had done. In fact, she’d gone farther.
She shook her head then, for it finally dawned on her that she didn’t need to defend her actions to anyone, and what did she care what the volunteer thought about her? She saw that the biker had stopped again, and she guessed someone else was asking him if there was a shortcut through this maze.
She walked around the corner and spotted a trail angling to the south, but there was another one that branched off it twenty yards ahead. If it didn’t meander, it would take her directly to the parking lot beyond the starting line. She took it, but it didn’t really go anywhere, and she ended up circling halfway back to where she’d started. She tripped over something, looked down, and saw that her shoelace was untied. The stone wall was on her right. A huge oak tree, at least seventy-five years old, butted up against it. Its gigantic branches, covered with leaves, draped down over the wall, and she noticed someone had carved initials in the trunk. She leaned against it, swung her foot up on the edge of the wall, and tied her shoelace, and then straightened and leaned forward to see what was on the other side.
A steep, narrow ravine sloped down a good forty feet to a wooded area with a stream running through it. Jagged rocks jutted out on one side of the drop, but across the stream, there were trees with thick gnarled branches that looked as though they were growing into the side of the hill.
It was drizzling again, and a fine mist was hanging like a puff of smoke between the trees. There wasn’t any breeze, and the air was stifling. It was suddenly so quiet, so still, she felt almost disconnected from the world around her.
Her gaze moved upward. That’s when she saw him. There, standing between the trees was the man in the black running suit. He was directly across the ravine, and he stood as still as a statue. He was waiting for her to find him. She was so shocked to see him there, she flinched. He nearly gave her heart failure. What was he doing?
Surely no more than three or four seconds passed as they stared at each other. His face was completely devoid of any expression. She kept her eyes locked on him as she slowly backed away from the wall. He suddenly tilted his head ever so slightly and shouted something to her. Just one word, she thought, but she couldn’t make it out.
His face changed then, and, oh, God, she suddenly knew who he was and where she had seen him before. Terror crushed down on her. He mouthed the word again, much slower this time, clearly enunciating, and then he motioned with his hand, and she finally understood.
Run. He was telling her to run.

Chapter Forty-seven




Eric cage only needed a minute alone with her. That was more than enough time to do what he intended. He almost wished she would get away, and yet he knew he couldn’t let her escape. He had to kill her.
Walker Madison had put his sweet, innocent Nina through hell, but Eric wouldn’t make Regan Madison suffer the way his wife had. No, the kill would be quick. And justice would at last be served.
The demon would burn with rage, but it would end today. Eric was determined. It would end with Regan’s death.
Still, he wanted to give her a fighting chance. That was the fair thing to do. Wasn’t that why he hadn’t killed her when she’d been standing at the wall looking at the trees? He’d let a perfect opportunity slip by. She was sweet and innocent like his Nina, and he hoped, before she took her last breath, that he could help her know, help her understand why she had to die. He would tell her, just as he had told Nina, that none of this was her fault.
Run, Regan. Try to save yourself.
Regan didn’t move. Like a deer caught in the headlights of a car, she froze with terror as she stared in shocked disbelief across the ravine at the crazed man. She didn’t see the gun in his hand until he was lifting it up. He fired twice in rapid succession before she even had time to turn. The first bullet scraped the top of the stone wall and sent bits of rock flying up in her face. One fragment nicked her right cheek. The second bullet ripped a piece of bark off the oak just inches away from her. The noise from the gun blast was horrific and felt like a fist slamming against her eardrums.
She flew into the trees. She dared a quick look back and saw him circling the ravine. He was running so fast he looked like a blur.
She didn’t dare take time to look back again. Faster, faster, she had to run faster.
Her mind couldn’t make sense out of what was happening. She desperately tried to concentrate. She remembered the broken path wound back around to the ravine. She didn’t want to go back that way; she wanted to get to the street, but her sense of direction was all screwed up, and she wasn’t sure which way to turn.
She was running flat out through the trees, staying off the path, her head down as she raced ahead.
He fired again. The bullet grazed her thigh. It burned, but the pain didn’t slow her down. It shocked her, though, that he was that close. She’d thought she’d put some distance between them, yet she could feel him closing in.
She had to run faster. He fired again. The bullet tunneled into the ground in front of her, and a clump of mud splattered her legs. She could feel the scream building in her throat, but she didn’t make a sound as she began to cut back and forth through the trees and the brush so she wouldn’t be such an easy target.
Where in God’s name were all the runners? Was the race over? Had they all gone home? She had the insane urge to look at her watch to find out what time it was. Had she veered that far off the beaten path? Hadn’t anyone heard the gunshots? My God, it sounded like cannon fire to her.
She thought she heard someone shouting her name, but she couldn’t tell where the sound was coming from. Had she just imagined it, or had someone really called out to her? Maybe Sophie and Cordie were looking for her. Dear God, she hoped not.
She kept running through the woods, the wild brush scraping her legs. If she could just make it to a street, she could get help. Faster, faster, she chanted. She didn’t have to look behind her to know he was gaining on her. She could hear him crashing through the brush.
No. Wait. The sound wasn’t coming from behind now. She strained to listen. It was difficult to pinpoint exactly where it was because her own heartbeat was roaring in her ears.
Run, run. She had to keep running. There it was again… branches snapping back, but the noise was coming from her right now. Oh, God, he was parallel to her. She understood what he was doing then. He was working his way around to get in front of her.
And then he would stop and wait, and she would turn right into his arms. It was a game to him. All this time she’d thought she was staying ahead of him, outrunning him, and he’d been leisurely toying with her.
She barely slowed as she changed directions. Even in her panic and near hysteria, she was careful not to twist her knee or pivot. She’d drop then, and he’d have her. She leapt over a thorny, dried-up bush and kept going. Then she changed directions again… and again.
Where was everyone? Should she scream in hopes that someone would hear her? No, she shouldn’t do that. Even though she was pretty sure the maniac knew exactly where she was, she couldn’t be positive, and she wasn’t about to give him any help.
She couldn’t keep up this pace much longer. The muscles in her legs were on fire. In another minute or two, they would give out on her and she would collapse.
Oh, God, it was hopeless. No, no, don’t think that way. Don’t give up. Run, just keep running. Her legs were shaking now and burning with pain. The muscle spasm in her calf made her want to cry out, but she kept going. She would not give in. There was too much to live for, and she wasn’t going to let a maniac snatch her future away.
What she needed was a plan to buy her some time. Okay, okay, what could she do? Think… He had a gun. She didn’t. He was obviously in much better shape, and he was stronger. He was also faster.
But she could have one advantage. She could be smarter.
And then it came to her, and she knew exactly what she was going to do. Her plan hinged on her finding her way back to the ravine. She had to keep running. She broke through the bushes onto the path and saw the wall directly ahead of her. Which way should she turn?
The maniac made that decision for her. He was on her left now, and so she ran in the opposite direction. She didn’t dare stay on the open path, though, and so she raced in and out of the trees, keeping the wall in sight.
There. There it was. She could see it up ahead, that huge oak with the branches hanging out over the wall. That had to be the spot she was looking for.
She broke through the brush again. Do it. She had to do it. He was coming up fast, but she didn’t think he could see her yet. She wiped her hands down her sides, and with one final burst of speed, she raced down the path and vaulted over the wall.

Chapter Forty-eight



Eric reached the path and stopped. Where was she? Which way had she gone? He tilted his head and listened, but he didn’t hear a sound. She had vanished.
His disappointment was severe. She had turned the chase into a game of hide-and-seek. He couldn’t hear her, but in the distance someone was shouting her name, and whoever he was, Gage thought he was getting closer.
Gage knew he had to hurry. He didn’t have time for this silly game. She was being foolish. She had to know he was going to find her and kill her. Why was she fighting the inevitable?
He could feel his anger gathering inside him, and with it came a tremendous sadness, for he knew that when he did find her, he would be in a rage, and she would suffer his wrath before she drew her last breath. If she didn’t show herself soon, there wouldn’t even be time for him to explain, to help her understand why she had to die.
He realized then he’d made a mistake. He should have killed her right away. He shouldn’t have let her run. But he’d wanted her to feel that she had some say in her fate. His Nina hadn’t known what was coming. She’d been asleep, curled up in a little ball in the passenger seat, using her jacket for a pillow against the window, oblivious of what was happening. The truck flipping and rolling, the cab sliding down the center of the highway with fiery sparks shooting out on both sides like electrified cables, coming closer and closer. It had all happened in an instant, but in his mind’s eye, it had taken an eternity to strike… and destroy their lives forever.
Another shout came from behind, jarring him. He realized then that the sound was fainter than before.
Gage thought he heard the crunch of gravel underfoot. The sound was coming from up the path, and he bolted in that direction. He rounded the curve and stopped. He recognized where he was now. Full circle, he thought. She’d taken him back to the very spot where she had stood when he’d first fired at her. Yes, she’d stood right there next to that old tree.
He had watched her stare down into the ravine, the palms of her hands flat on top of the stone as she leaned over. She’d looked across the ravine… and then she’d found him, waiting so patiently for her to look up and see him standing between the trees. Oh, yes, this was the very same spot.
But where was Regan hiding? He stood perfectly still and listened. He couldn’t hear her. He turned around and looked behind him? Nothing there. Ah… there it was. A hint. He could hear what sounded like rocks cascading down the ravine.
She’d jumped over the wall and was hiding down below. Clever girl, he thought, but not too clever. He rushed to the wall and looked over. Small stones were skipping over the larger ones. She was down there all right, but where?
He thought he saw something move to the right behind some dead, rotting branches. His reaction was instantaneous. He fired twice, hoping to hit her or spook her into showing herself.
The blast from the gunshots reverberated through the trees, and more rocks showered down the incline. He knew the police had heard the noise and would be closing in on him. It was too late to do anything about that now.
He heard someone shout her name again, knew someone was coming. Gage leaned against the wall, turned, and aimed. Then he waited.

Chapter Forty-nine




Alec heard the shots as his car skidded to a stop. He threw the gear into park and didn’t bother to turn the motor off. He was out on the pavement and running, ignoring the crowd and barriers he knocked down as he raced forward.
Behind him, John Wincott’s car, with sirens blaring, careened to a halt in the parking lot.
Alec spotted Sophie and Cordie across the lot at the same instant they saw him. Cordie ran to intercept him while Sophie shouted, “We can’t find Regan. The police won’t let us look for her, and then there were gunshots…”
Alec grabbed Cordie. “Where did you last see her?”
“At the starting line. She was going to walk two miles so that would be a mile on the path and then a mile back.”
A shot sounded, and before Cordie could say another word, Alec’s expression changed and he was gone.
She had never seen that look on anyone’s face before, and it terrified her. She knew that when Alec caught up with whoever was firing those shots, he would kill him.
Alec was crazed. If anything happened to Regan, if he got there too late… if one of those bullets had already struck her down… No, there was still time to get to her. There had to be. The son of a bitch was going to die and die hard. If he touched one hair on her head, Alec would flay him alive.
Where in God’s name was she? Did Gage already have her? Alec shouted Regan’s name.
Wincott was behind him. Alec could hear him panting as he tried to catch up. He was shouting too.
“Wait, Alec. Don’t go nuts. Let me get ahead of you. Don’t give the bastard a shot. You’re no good to her dead.”
Alec ignored him. He couldn’t think about anything but get-ting to her.
Two more shots were fired. Alec raced toward the sound.

Chapter Fifty




Cage was becoming frustrated. He leaned over the wall and looked down again. She wasn’t as easy to kill as he had anticipated. The ingrate. After all the trouble he had gone to for her. She’d made that list, and he’d played along, hadn’t he? She’d even told him what to do about Peter Morris—she’d given him the idea anyway—with those notes she’d written on her folder. Yes, he’d played along. He’d given her what she wanted. He had taken a risk for her by not letting the demon know what he was doing. He had thought to do a kindness for her, to make her happy, because none of this was her fault and he felt she deserved a little happiness and joy before she died.
She wasn’t appreciative. And that infuriated him. He could feel rage taking control. What a mess he had made of this. No, no, he mustn’t blame himself. This wasn’t his fault. He hadn’t done anything wrong. She had. She was the slippery one. She was responsible for this mess, not him. Oh, he knew what she was doing. She wanted him to blame himself just like he had after the accident, but the demon had helped him understand that it was all Walker Madison’s fault.
Gage could still see Walker clearly in his mind’s eye, the celebrity standing across the highway, his hands in his pockets, his expression solemn. He was surrounded by men and women, adoring fans who were all wanting a tiny piece of his attention while the paramedics peeled his Nina’s broken body from the wreckage.
The truck driver had died at the scene, and the police had placed the blame on him, but what good was it to rage against a dead man? No, Walker was responsible.
A voice jarred him. Someone was shouting Regan’s name again, an anguished cry he didn’t understand. Then it came again, much closer this time. He didn’t have time to swing over the wall and slide down into the pit to find her. Regan would have to wait a little longer. He straightened, leveled his gun on the path where he heard the pounding footsteps, ready now to kill again.
Alec broke through the trees with his gun drawn.
Gage had a clear shot at him. Suddenly a scream of warning came from the branch above him, and he looked up a scant second before Regan slammed both feet into the side of his head. She landed hard on top of him, rolled, and tried to crawl away, but he was as quick as a snake and latched onto her ankle. He was dragging her back as he swung the gun around.
Alec dove to the ground, waiting for a clear shot, and the second she scrambled to get away from Gage, Alec pulled the trigger. It was a clean kill, one bullet into his skull, but Alec wasn’t taking any chances. He kept his gun trained on him as he ran forward and kicked the gun out of Gage’s hand.
Alec dropped to his knees. It took him two tries to holster his gun. He grasped her shoulders in both hands. “Are you okay, Regan? Are you okay?”
She became hysterical. “Make him let go of me. Get his hand away from me. Make him let go.”
Alec ripped Gage’s hand away from her ankle. Then he stood and pulled her to her feet. He was checking her over as he asked once again, “You’re okay, aren’t you?”
He sounded frantic, but he couldn’t help it. He’d come so close to losing her. Now that he had her in his arms, he couldn’t make himself let go. He held her tight.
“I’m fine,” she told him. Her voice was surprisingly calm. Running that long and that hard had taken its toll, though. She was amazed her legs could support her. Her muscles felt like rubber.
She was thankful for his strength. She was trembling almost uncontrollably, and just when she thought she was getting over the trauma, she started crying. Alec didn’t seem to mind that she was sobbing all over his T-shirt while she was trying to tell him how scared she had been for him.
“You could have died,” she cried. “He was waiting for you. I knew it was you because you were shouting my name. Alec, he was going to shoot you. You could have been killed. Do you know how close you came?”
He was stunned. Gage had chased her, shot at her God only knows how many times, and she had worried about him. He wanted to kiss her and tell her he loved her, but she was going to have to finish crying first.
Wincott was standing by Gage’s feet staring at Alec.
“Did you see her?” Alec asked.
Wincott nodded. “I did. She came down out of that tree like a shooting star. Shocked the hell out of me. Sure surprised Gage too. She saved your life, Alec. He had you in his sights.”
“I know she did.” Alec tightened his hold on her. “I’m going to get her out of here.”
“There should be at least one ambulance waiting in the parking lot. I’ll catch up with you after I get the crime scene crew in here.”
Regan pulled away from Alec. “What are the ambulances waiting for?”
Wincott answered. “They’re prepared for just about anything. One of the paramedics will clean up those cuts for you.”
Alec put his arm around her and started walking. She leaned against him. “Alec,” she whispered. “Yes?”
She sounded bewildered when she asked, “Who was that man, and why was he trying to kill me?”

Chapter Fifty-one



Nina cage watched the news bulletin on the television. She saw her husband being placed in the ambulance by the paramedics and the police. They weren’t in a hurry. A sheet covered the body, but Nina knew the unidentified male was Eric. They knew who he was too but were withholding that information until the next of kin was notified. They would be knocking on her door any minute now.
She felt no sorrow or pity for Eric. Had he failed or had he succeeded? That was all that mattered.
She waited to see another body. The TV camera scanned the parking lot, and she saw her. Regan Madison was alive. For a split second, Regan turned and looked into the camera’s lens, her eyes, like daggers, piercing Nina’s heart. A low, keening sound in Nina’s throat erupted into a scream.
She heard someone knocking on her front door.
She picked up the gun Eric had so thoughtfully left for her and pressed the barrel to her temple.

Chapter Fifty-two



She wasn’t kidding about being a crybaby. Every time Alec thought she was finished, she started in again. He wasn’t concerned. He knew that crying was her way of getting rid of all the tension inside her. She had been through hell today and had shown remarkable courage and strength and grace, but now that it was over and she was safe, she could let it all out.
Alec sat next to her on the sofa in her suite, and had they been alone, he would have lifted her onto his lap and cradled her in his arms. They weren’t alone, though. The room was crowded with family and friends.
Aiden and Spencer were sitting in easy chairs, leaning forward as they listened to John Wincott explain once again how their brother Walker had unknowingly triggered Gage’s obsession for revenge.
Sophie and Cordie, looking as if they were about to burst into tears themselves, sat in straight-back chairs by the French doors leading to the bedroom.
Regan was dabbing at the corners of her eyes and trying to pay attention to the conversation, but Alec kept distracting her. He had taken hold of her hand. She pulled it away. He grabbed it again. When she looked up at him, he winked at her. She was confused.
He shouldn’t be teasing her. Had he forgotten he was leaving? Maybe she should remind him.
She didn’t know how she was going to get through another good-bye. Just thinking about it made the tears flow again. John Wincott leaned forward to hand her another tissue from the box he’d placed on the coffee table and said, “Are you going to be okay?”
“Yes,” she assured him. “It’s just what I need to do sometimes.”
Wincott glanced around the room. Her brothers and her friends were obviously used to the tears because they all nodded. Alec didn’t seem fazed either. Wincott smiled then. In the crisis, she’d been incredible, and if she wanted to cry now, it was fine with him.
“I do this a lot,” she admitted.
Everyone nodded again. Even Alec. She decided to ignore him and turned to ask Cordie a question, but he distracted her again. Before she realized what he was going to do, he’d put his arm around her and pulled her in to his side.
Regan noticed that neither one of her brothers looked the least bit surprised. Sophie and Cordie, on the other hand, looked astonished.
“So that’s some good news, isn’t it, Regan?” John had asked the question.
“I’m sorry,” she said. “I wasn’t paying attention.”
“It’s been a long day. I was talking about Peter Morris and saying that the murder charges were dropped, of course, but he had already confessed to stealing that grant money and gambling it away. If the judge throws that confession out, they’ll still get him for embezzlement. Seems Morris was dipping into the center’s bank accounts. He’s going to be doing some hard time.”
“That’s good to hear,” Spencer said.
Regan agreed. Both of her brothers were calmer now. When they had arrived at the park, they were half out of their minds with worry. Regan was sitting in the back of an ambulance with Cordie and Sophie while the paramedic cleaned her cuts. Regan had never seen Aiden or Spencer carry on so. It was another revelation. Aiden was actually shouting at a detective. Spencer had tried to punch out one of the TV cameramen when he tried to climb into the ambulance to get a close-up of her. Spencer needn’t have bothered. Alec wouldn’t let the man get near her. He reined in Aiden too and got him to calm down.
“We still haven’t been able to get hold of Walker,” Spencer said.
“Do you think he’ll remember the accident?” Sophie asked.
Regan frowned. “Of course he’ll remember.”
“He didn’t cause it.” Wincott repeated what he had already told them. “According to the patrolman’s notes, he cited the truck driver and Gage for reckless driving.”
“Then Gage did have a hand in the accident,” Cordie said.
“That’s right,” Wincott said.
“Why did the truck driver’s insurance company settle then?” she asked.
Alec answered. “There was an eyewitness who swore the truck driver deliberately increased his speed so Gage couldn’t get back in when he was passing him. I’m sure the insurance company didn’t want a long legal battle. It was cheaper to settle.”
Regan looked at Aiden. “And more practical.” She was thinking about Emerson and how they had decided to give him a small settlement to get rid of him.
“Gage shouldn’t have tried to pass that truck,” Sophie said.
No one disagreed with her. Then Alec said, “I don’t think Gage could accept responsibility for any of it.”
“Walker got around the truck without any trouble, but Gage couldn’t, and maybe that’s what set him off.”
“You should have seen that bedroom upstairs in their house. It was Eric’s private domain because Nina couldn’t climb the stairs. He had all sorts of interesting things sitting around.”
“Like what?” Sophie asked.
“Nina’s medical records from the hospital and the rehab facility. Among some of the papers were bills for Eric Gage from a psychiatric hospital.”
“How did he get medical files?” Sophie asked.
“He must have stolen them,” Cordie said. “But why?”
“Maybe she wanted him to steal them,” Wincott answered. “He was the unstable one in that marriage. She wasn’t, though.”
“How do you know that?” Regan asked.
“Bradshaw went through her records and read me some of the comments the doctors and the therapists had written about Nina and her progress. She was an extremely difficult patient,” he said. “And that’s putting it mildly. She didn’t want to get better; she wanted to get even. I think she pushed and pushed until Eric did what she wanted. Nina Gage was a bitter, broken woman.”
“I think Eric was real conflicted about killing you,” Wincott told Regan.
“He sure didn’t act conflicted when he was chasing her through that park and shooting at her.” Alec got angry thinking about it.
“He found your murder list, and maybe he was trying to fulfill your last wishes before he… you know,” Cordie said.
“What a sick bastard,” Aiden remarked.
“I’m with you on that,” Alec said.
“Do you suppose he wanted someone to stop him?” Regan asked. “And that’s why he sent the e-mail and the faxes? He knew the police would get involved.”
Wincott flipped his notepad closed, put it in his pocket, and said, “At first he did, but then Gage set Morris up to get us away from you, so he must have changed his mind. It appears to have been a game to him. Nina was the controller in their marriage, and Eric was eaten up with guilt. He did whatever she wanted him to do.”
“And they blamed my brother for their misery,” Regan said.
“She knew exactly what she was doing. As soon as she was strong enough, they packed up everything they owned and moved here, to Walker’s hometown. It’s my belief that Walker was their first target, and Eric was waiting for an opportunity to kill him.”
Alec nodded. “But plans have a way of changing.”
“There were photos on Gage’s kitchen table, and a clipping file on Walker. They were keeping track of where he was,” Wincott said. “And you know what else was on that table? About twenty copies of a photo of all of you that was in the newspaper. I think that’s when their plans changed. Imagine how she must have felt every time she looked at your smiling faces. In that picture, Walker is standing behind Regan, sort of looking down at her, and he’s got his hand on her shoulder. He’s looking so proud of her and happy, and that must have sent the Gages into orbit.”
“They wanted to make Walker suffer before Eric killed him,” Alec said. “They had a real hate going on.”
Regan shivered. “The accident turned them into monsters.”
“Sweetheart, I don’t think they were real nice people before the accident.”
“You almost have to pity them,” Regan said.
“The hell with that. He tried to kill you. If I could, I’d shoot him again.”
Wincott stood and stretched. “That’s about it.”
Sophie also stood. “I’m going home. You scared me to death today, Regan. I swear it’s going to take me a week of shopping to get over it.”
“Am I supposed to apologize?”
Sophie grinned. “If you want to.”
“Sophie, you have to drive me home,” Cordie said. “And if Regan apologizes to anyone, it should be me. I didn’t want to walk in that race anyway. If you’ll remember, I suggested we go to the frozen custard shop.”
“No, we were supposed to meet there after the race,” Sophie said.
They were arguing as they walked out of the suite. Wincott said good-bye, shook hands with her brothers, and also left. Alec followed him.
“Hey, John, hold up. I want to run something by you.”
Aiden and Spencer also headed for the door. “Are you going to be okay tonight?” Spencer asked Regan.
“I’ll be fine.”
She walked over to Aiden and nudged him in his back as he was walking out the door. “You want to hear something funny?”
“I could use a laugh about now.”
“You know that little problem I had?”
“Which little problem?” He made it sound as though she had too many problems for him to keep track of.
“The problem with sleazebags.”
“You mean old men marrying young women?”
“Yes.”
“I remember telling you to get over it.”
“I did get over it, but that’s how I noticed Eric Gage. There was this older man with this very young woman walking across the street. I, of course, homed right in on them. Old habits die hard,” she explained. “And I was thinking that I shouldn’t react with such disgust, just because… well, let’s face it, he was a sleazebag.”
“Oh, yes, I can tell you’ve gotten over your problem.”
“If I didn’t have that problem, I wouldn’t have noticed him. That’s all I’m trying to say.”
“And did noticing him in any way affect what happened later?”
She knew where he was headed and was sorry she’d started the conversation.
“Never mind.”
He laughed. “You know what, Regan?”
“What?”
He tweaked her nose just to aggravate her and said, “We love you. You know that, don’t you?”
She nodded and became teary-eyed again. “Does that mean you’ll triple my budget next year?”
“No, it means we love you. But nice try.”
Alec had walked with Wincott to the elevator and was on his way back to the suite when Aiden stopped him. Spencer was in the doorway talking to Regan.
Neither Aiden nor Alec minced words.
“What’s going on with my sister?”
“I’m going to marry her.”
“You are?”
Alec nodded. “It’s going to take some time for me to convince her, but I’ll eventually wear her down.”
Aiden obviously approved. He shook Alec’s hand, looked at Regan, and said, “I don’t think it will take too long.”
Spencer joined them, and Alec told him his intentions. Spencer was more protective and reserved. “If you ever make my sister cry…” He suddenly stopped. He glanced at Regan just as she wiped a tear away from her cheek and said, “Never mind.”
Regan waited for Alec. She stood in the doorway and watched him walk toward her.
He thought she looked as if she wanted to give him hell.
“I want to thank you for your help today,” she said.
He smiled. “Okay.”
“You saved my life.”
“You saved mine.”
“Then we’re even.”
She stepped back and had every intention of shutting the door in his face just to let him know how upset she was, but his next question stopped her.
“How come you’re so cranky?”
She swung the door wide and stepped forward again. “I am not cranky. I assume you’ll be going on your way now… you know, going forward” she stressed. “And I want to wish you good luck with your career.”
“Really.”
“Yes.”
He started to reach for her, but she put her hand up and shook her head.
“I am not going to let you break my heart again. You listen to me, Alec. You can’t tell me you’re leaving and then come back and put your arms around me and… you just can’t.” She was just warming up. She folded her arms across her chest. “You’re moving forward, remember. That’s what you told me. So go ahead, Alec. Go forward, right out the door.”
She was ready for a fight, but he didn’t play fair.
“I love you, Regan.”
She blinked. “No.”
His grin was adorable. “Yeah, I do. I love you.”
She wouldn’t believe him. “But ‘If I’m ever in Boston’… you said, ‘If I’m ever in Boston’…”
“I’m not going anywhere without you.”
She was determined to make him squirm a little before she forgave him. But her heart belonged to him.
She stepped back and said, “If you’re ever in Chicago…”
She tried to shut the door. His foot got in the way. He was laughing when he backed her up and then shut the door behind him.
“Maybe you didn’t notice…”
Oh, but she loved him. “Yes?”
“I’m already here.”

Epilogue




Alec was taking Regan home to meet his family. She was nervous and worried they might not like her. He thought that was the craziest thing he’d ever heard. He couldn’t imagine why she was feeling so insecure, but he did his best to reassure her as they walked side by side through the airport.
They were an odd-looking couple. Alec had let his hair and his beard grow for an undercover assignment he’d just completed for the Bureau, and he hadn’t had time to shave and get a haircut. He’d showered and put on his comfortable off-duty uniform, a T-shirt and worn-out jeans.
Regan was picture-perfect. She wore a pink blouse, a short khaki skirt, and sandals. Her only jewelry was a pair of tiny diamond studs and her engagement ring.
She looked like a cover girl. He looked like a serial killer.
Men tried to make eye contact with her, and women tried not to scream when they looked at him.
They were seated in the last row of first class, which afforded them a little privacy, and as soon as the seat belt light went off, he leaned across the armrest and kissed her. He took his time, deliberately trying to fluster her. Then he told her how much he loved her.
“You know what people are thinking when they see us together?”
“Yes,” she whispered. “They’re thinking how lucky I am.”
“That’s right. That’s exactly what they’re thinking.”
She rolled her eyes. “You’d better remove that earring before your brothers see it. From what you’ve told me about them, they’ll be merciless ribbing you.”
“I’ll let them have some fun. Then I’ll take if off.”
“Did you have a chance to read Sophie’s follow-up article about Shields yet?”
“Yes, I did. She did a great job.”
“She’s very talented. Does that surprise you?”
He stretched his legs out, adjusted his seat, and took hold of her hand. “Sweetheart, after finding out that she’s Bobby Rose’s daughter, nothing she does will surprise me. Tell me how you met Cordie and Sophie. I know you became friends in school…”
“Spencer told you about the bully, didn’t he?”
“No, he said to make you tell me.”
“It all started with a pair of barrettes,” she began, and then she told him the story of Morgan the Bully. Alec thought it was hilarious that Regan had thrown up on the girl.
“Did she leave you and your friends alone after that?”
She nodded. “I haven’t seen her in years.”
“I wonder what happened to her.”
“Oh, I know what happened. She went into politics. She’s a senator now.”
He laughed again, sure she was joking.
She loved the way he laughed. She loved just about everything about him. He had walked into her office and forever changed her life.
The man of her dreams was falling asleep. “Alec?”
“Hmm?”
“When are you going to show me Nick’s town house?”
“It’s our town house now,” he corrected. “We could go over tomorrow if you want, and if you don’t like it, we’ll put it on the market and look for something else.”
“I’ll like it.”
“It’s got enough bedrooms for your friends. I know you’re going to miss them.”
She would miss seeing them, but she knew she’d continue to talk to them every day.
“I’ll be going back and forth for a couple of months, until Paul and Henry don’t need me anymore.”
“How did Henry take the news that you’ll be working out of the Boston hotel?”
“Same way your friend took the news when you told him you were going into the FBI.”
“So he cried like a baby too, huh?”
“I forgot to tell you the news. Your computer tech is now working for the Hamilton.”
“Melissa took the job?”
Regan smiled. “Aiden didn’t know what to make of her. She told him she wanted to replace all of our ‘piece of junk’ computers.”
“ ‘Junk’? She said ‘junk’?”
“She’s working on her language skills.”
Regan was telling him about the improvements she was going to make in the office she was setting up at the hotel in Boston. She stopped when she realized Alec had fallen asleep.
She kissed his cheek. “I love you, Alec.”
Now and forever.






The end!