Lethal Lover Part 9

Why, Reed wondered now, had Talbot been sent to Grand Cayman? What possible expertise could he bring to this case? Was it because of the way Andy Dianetti had been taken out in a blaze of glory? Perhaps the agency expected that same kind of attack on Selena. If so, why hadn't Charlie warned him?

Reed didn't have the information he needed to make any kind of definite a.s.sessment, but he did know that he had no intention of letting Nick Talbot into the middle of this case.

If a line opened up to negotiate with Selena's abductors, Reed would take the call. If Selena's incriminating journal had to be compromis6d, he'd sacrifice it. He'd watched the jury process work enough times to know that Selena Elliot's flesh-and, blood testimony would impress them far more than a book full of numbers, anyway.

The real question was, why had Morrell's forces taken this sudden detour?

Why the focus on the journal?

Reed decided to let those questions simmer and to aim his immediate attention on confronting and removing Nick Talbot from the scene. He was out of seat and halfway across the dining room when waiter caught up to him with the breakfast Reed had ordered, all boxed and bagged and ready to take up to the room.

Reed hastily scratched a fict.i.tious name and Tess's room number on the back of the tab, but by the time he glanced up, Nick Talbot was gone.

After a quick search of the lobby, Reed headed to a pay phone on the wall outside the men's room in the 'bar.

When Charlie answered, Reed said, "Call your boy in, Charlie." ' "What? Who is this--hey, McKenna, is that you?" The fuzz in Charlie's voice told Reed he was the older agent's first call of the day.

"What the h.e.l.l are you guys trying to do," Reed demanded, "get me and all your witnesses killed?"

"Wait a minute, hang on," Charlie sputtered.

"What are you talking about, Mac?"

"Talbot."

"Talbot? Nick' Talbot What about him? What's'he got to do with this?"

"That's what I was about to ask him, right' after he finished his rum punch."

"Nick Talbot's in Grand Cayman?"

"In the flesh, and looking about as convincing as a native as i'd look in a convent."

"I thought he was working the Dianetti case."

"You should have told me' " Hey, believe me, Mac," if I'd known he had been called in to find the bookkeeper, I would have told you. I don't know why' he there.

Honest."

Reed had learned from experience that most people only added "honest"

when they were in the midst of telling a lie, but for some reason he couldn't name, he believed Charlie Franklin was telling the truth.

"Well, somebody had to have given him his orders, and whoever it was needs to get him the h.e.l.l out of here," Reed demanded.

"And by the way" -- he dropped his voice a notch and cradled the phone cloer "--Morrell's men grabbed the bookkeeper yesterday."

"d.a.m.n it!" Charlie shouted.

"Do you have a link yet? Have they contacted the cousin?"

"Yes, in both cases."

"Is she willing to work with you?"

"She wasn't at first, but I think I may have changed her mind."

"Do you think the bookkeeper's still alive?"

"I think so."

"Strange. I mean, why? They certainly didn't give Dianetti a econd chance."

"My thoughts exactly, Charlie." Reed didn't mention the incriminating journal. He sensed it was his trump card and until he was prepared to show his hand, the fewer people who knew of the existence of Selena Elliot's journal, the better.

"What are you going to do, Mac?"

"Whatever I have to."

"Anything I can do at this end to help you out?"

I'll let you know. For now, just get Talbot out of my way before I have to.

Charlie groaned.

"I'm going to pretend I didn't hear that."

"Pretend whatever you like, buddy. But I'm warning you, I've got too much at stake to let some G-man muck it up."

"What about the kid?"

"She's not your problem."

'"The h.e.l.l she isn't!" Charlie shouted.

"I stuck my neck way out to get approval for you to take temporary custody.

I just hope you had sense enough to stash her some place safe before you left the country? ' Charlie's ulcer would explode like an overinflated bal16on if he knew Reed had ken the child out of the country.

"Are you trying to tell me how to do my job, old man? Maybe when I retire, you'd like to take over my clients?" Reed jabbed, diverting Charlie's questioning from a potentially dangerous route.

"Ready to do a bit of free-lancing, Charlie?"

The older man's laugh was nothing but a cynical snort.

"Mac, I wouldn't have your job for all the gold in Fort Knox."

BEFORE HEADN'G BACK to the room, Reed took another look around the lobby and the beach area for Nick Talbot. He knew it would be useless to ask for Talbot by name at the front desk. The agent, if he was registered at West Palm, would be using an alias.

Although he figured Talbot was long gone, Reed made another trip to the bar.

Aside from a couple of waiters chatting with the bartender, the bar was empty.

' Reed headed back to the room hoping that Char. lie Franklin would act quickly and see to it that Talbot received his marching orders.

Reed had just turned the corner on the fourth-floor landing when a frantic Tess charging down the stairs nearly bowled him over.

When he regained his balance, he placed the takeout box on the floor and planted a hand on each of her shoulders to steady her. Tess's eyes were bright and her face was flushed. "What's happened, Tess?"

"He called," she said, gulping to catch her breath. "You were right.

He said last night was only a warning, a preview. of things to come if I didn't follow his instructions to the letter. He saw you, Reed. He said I'd double-crossed him." Her voice was tremulous and.

her b.r.e.a.s.t.s rose and fell beneath her as she tried to catch her breath.

"He said if he'd wanted to, he could have killed me. Killed you. he reminded me that he could still kill Selena at time" -- Her voice cracked.

"Calm down, Tessa," he soothed as he around gently and pulled her' into the deserted hall way.

"So far, he's only threatened. i know it's hard to believe, but you do still have bargaining power. have what he wants--what they want, whoever are. The kidnapper was telling the truth when minded you that if murder was his on! the perfect opportunity last night."

Once they were back inside the room with the door closed, he said, "All right, now, tell me exactly what happened."

Tess sat on the edge of the bed and took a deep breath. Reed could feel her physically trying to center herself, to recapture her poise, and his admiration for her grew. He'd worked' with seasoned cops who couldn't recover from a shock as quickly.

"At first he was angry," she began.

"But I told him I didn't know I'd been followed last night and he seemed to believe me. He seemed to want to believe me. Does that make sen?"

Her eyes were wide and beseeching.

"Right now I don't think we have enough pieces of the puzzle to make a guess." He ran a hand idly through his hair.

"Go on, Tessa. What else did he say?"

"Well, after warning me again to follow his instructions precisely, he gave me the name of a place where I'm to be given more instructions."

She handed him apiece of hotel stationery on which she'd scrawled the name of a local bar.

"The Dive?"

She nodded and managed a weak smile.

"He said there would he a message waiting for me. there after ten tonight.

He said to come alone and to identify myself to the bartender." She clasped her hands in her lap. "You can't go with me this time, Reed.

They might be watching. I'll have to go alone."

Like h.e.l.l you will, he thought, but resisted arguing with her for the moment. He would be there tonight, all right. And this time he had no intention of allowing her to walk into an ambush. From now on until this entire ordeal was over, he intended to stay one jump ahead of the game.

"Did he say anything else?"

"He reminded me that he held Selena's life in his hands," she said quietly.

All color had drained from her face and beneath her eyes pale purple shadows attested to the strain under which she'd been operating for the last twenty-four hours.

Seeings her this way, shaken and afraid, Reed longed to get his hands on Setena's kidnappers and make them pay for the h.e.l.l they were putting both women through. As far as he was concerned, the kind of men who bullied women were beneath contempt--men like his old man, gutless wonders who took their failures out on those they perceived to be weaker than themselves. ' He felt his heart suddenly constrict as an image came to him of his mother--or at least the image of what he remembered her to be before his father chased her out of their lives forever.

"Did you talk to Selena?" Reed asked, forcing himself back to the situation at hand.

She nodded and swallowed hard before she spoke. "Only for a minute.

She was crying, but she said she was all right. She begged me to do whatever he asked.

She said he would do anything to get his hands her journal and that I had to give it to him, no matter what." Her blue eyes swam with the tears he knew she was choking back. Without words she was asking him for rea.s.surance, for comfort.

But all he could give her was the s.p.a.ce to compose herself when she turned her back to him and walked onto the balcony. He watched as she stood in Silence, staring out at the water.

Although his heart ached for her, he resisted the impulse to go to her.

Kissing her last night had been a stupid mistake, one he couldn't afford to repeat. If she started believing in him, thinking they had some sort of connection or future, it would be just that much harder when she found out what he really was: a hardened man who would go to any extreme to get what he wanted, to satisfy his own purposes.

The best he could offer Tess Elliot was survival. He'd do everything to protect her and, when it was all over, get her off the island in one piece.

But he'd proved long ago he couldn't live up to her expectations as some kind of hero. Even if he wanted her loyalty or her trust, he'd known for almost a lifetime that he deserved neither.

Reed McKenna was a man out for himself, he reminded himself. He got what he wanted at any cost. And right now, all he wanted was to find Selena Elliot convince her to. testify and collect his two hundred grand.

To allow his beautiful former lover to believe otherwise would be cruel.

And even to consider believing it himself would be disastrous.

Chapter Eight.

The hours until the rendezvous with Selena's kidnappers loomed before Tess like an uphill marathon, the waiting made all the more unbearable by the memo-ties it evoked of that other horrible time of waiting with a loved one's life hanging in the balance.

Her mother and father had been killed outright in the crash, but her sister had lingered for three terrible days.

When Tess thought of Meredith, she couldn't help remembering the words she'd written in her diary before the fateful plane crash. The words came back to haunt Tess now, as though her sister had written them yesterday. Dear Diary I know I have neglected you, but things have been really wild around here. I just couldn't go another day without telling you. You see," I made a big decision today, a decision that will change my life forever. I've decided to take Reed's advice and keep my baby. It will be hardest on Mom, but I just know she won't hate me. And Tess will be angry at first, but I know she will stick by me, too.