Silent Partner Part 37

He shook his head slowly. "No, you won't."

"I will," she said firmly.

His eyes took on a distant look. "How could you?" he asked, his voice barely audible. "After what I've done to you." He shut his eyes for a moment, and his chin dropped subtly.

Angela leapt forward, grabbing Sam's wrist and pointing the gun toward the ceiling. The revolver exploded twice, then she lost her hold on his arm and the gun came down. The s.h.i.+ny black steel disappeared behind Liv. Angela grabbed Liv's shoulder and pulled her violently to one side, but an arc of red burst from Liv's dress and she tumbled forward onto the ground. Then the barrel of the black revolver was pointing directly at Angela.

Instinctively, she put her hands to her face and turned, waiting for the searing pain.

EPILOGUE.

Sally Chambers. 19711994. That was all the tombstone said. It should have said much more.

No, Angela thought to herself. It shouldn't say anything because it shouldn't be here.Sally shouldn't be here.

She stared at Sally's name for a long time, hollow sadness building inside until her lower lip began to quiver. Finally, she knelt down and placed flowers beside the stone, the memory of how close they'd been still strong. The emptiness unremitting. How could humans be so awful? Why couldn't they just get along?

"You okay?"

"Yes," she whispered, feeling his hand come to her shoulder.

"Let's take a walk."

As she stood, she gazed at Jake. He'd gotten a haircut and shaved, and he looked good in his dark suit. No more John Tucker. He was all Jake Lawrence now.

A gentle breeze blew strands of long dark hair across her face, and Jake moved them away, caressing her cheek. Then he gestured at the field beside the cemetery. "Come on."

They walked across the new clover until they reached the banks of a stream meandering toward Asheville.

When they stopped, Jake took a deep breath and put his head back, looking up into the cloudless April sky. "G.o.d, it's a beautiful day." He glanced over at her. "It's good to be alive, you know?"

"Mmm."

They were silent for a long time, each alone with their thoughts as they watched the water meander past.

"How did you know I was here in Asheville?" Angela finally asked.

She hadn't seen Jake since the night two months ago when they'd broken into Sumter's South Side operation. Since the raid on Rosemary all communication had been with his "people," not him. But, as she'd walked out of her hotel this morning, he'd been standing beside a limousine, looking very gallant. And for some reason, despite not understanding how he could shut her out so easily after what they'd been through, she'd granted his request and allowed him to join her on one of her most personal moments of every year. Her visit to Sally's grave.

"I've had you under constant surveillance for the last two months," he replied.

Angela rolled her eyes. "Of course."

"It's been for your own protection. We p.i.s.sed off a lot of people. I wanted to make certain no one tried to take revenge."

"Thanks."

She wanted to be angry at him. Angry for not getting in touch with her for two months. Angry for having so much money and so much power. But that was impossible because he'd followed through on his promise. Hunter was hers. The custody judge had ruled that the Reese family could never again have contact with Hunter. And that had been that.

"Have you been following the aftermath?" Jake asked.

"In the newspapers. Just like everybody else."

Chuck Reese was in jail, facing a long list of criminal and civil charges. Albemarle Capital had been liquidated. And Rosemary had been sold at auction.

"How's Hunter?"

"Fine, thank you very much."

"And Liv Jefferson?"

"She still has pain, but she's improving every day." Angela hesitated. "But I'm sure that's not news to you. Seems an anonymous benefactor has been paying her medical bills. You wouldn't know anything about that, would you?"

"Maybe," he admitted.

She took a deep breath. "Well, thanks again. Seems like I'll never be able to stop thanking you." And she hadn't even gotten around to thanking him for the money yet. For the fact that she'd never have to work another day in her life.

A week after the raid on Rosemary, Jake's accountants had "gifted" her $5 million, informing her that if she didn't accept the money, Jake Lawrence had instructed them to burn that amount of cash on the street in front of her apartment. She'd accepted it because she knew he was serious, and what good would allowing someone to burn $5 million do anyone? And maybe she did deserve it. He'd put her in terrible jeopardy.

"I heard about your courage in that room at Rosemary," he said. "My man told me you saved Liv's life. He said that if you hadn't come in there and approached Sam, the odds were good that Liv wouldn't have made it."

"How would he know? Maybe if I hadn't done that, both Liv and Sam would still be alive."

Sam had been killed by Jake's man after shooting Liv. A single bullet to the brain.

"Would you rather Sam be alive and Liv be dead?"

"No," she said quietly.

"There couldn't be another Sally Chambers, could there?"

Angela felt him take her hand. "No," she whispered. "There couldn't."

"How did you know Hunter was at the Reese compound?" he asked, changing the subject.

"The Sage connection to Albemarle," she answered, clearing her throat. "Dennis Wolfe and the hatred between Bob Dudley and Chuck Reese. Reese was Carter Hill's partner, and I knew Chuck would never let anything happen to Hunter. No matter what I think of him, I know he'dnever let anything happen to Hunter. Sam's willingness to let me see Hunter more than usual suddenly made sense. I think I always knew that Sam would never go against his father. But I chose to ignore that so I could see Hunter."

"Now you can see Hunter all the time."

She squeezed Jake's hand. "Yes, and there's no way I can ever repay you for that."

"You already have, Angela. You risked your life for a cause I feel very strongly about. You pulled the curtain back on an organization and an executive team that was engaging in blatant racism. We won a great victory thanks to you." Jake hesitated. "Sally would have been proud of you."

She swallowed hard, the emotion so close to the surface. For some reason she didn't want Jake to see it. Didn't want him to see her weak. Then he might know how much she had missed him during the past two months.

"Whatever happened to Bill Colby?" she asked when she had regained control.

"He's still recovering from bullet wounds to one of his legs. Seems this hotshot markswoman hit him twice during the melee at Rosemary. But he's resting comfortably."

"Comfortably?"

Jake laughed harshly. "Sure, in a ten-by-ten-foot cell."

"He was the one who arranged for that guy on the mountain to attack us."

"Yes. Colby had come to suspect that I was Jake Lawrence, and he was going to do away with me for Chuck Reese right there. Chuck was smart enough to figure out that very bad things were on the horizon when I started buying Sumter shares. He might not have known exactly what those things were, but he knew having me involved was bad for him. He figured if he cut off the head, the body would go away. And it would have if he'd been successful."

"When did Colby start to work with Reese?"

"We're still trying to figure that out. Best guess, about six months ago."

"Which is why you had that guy follow me the night I had dinner with Liv. To make Colby believe you were working with him. To make Colby believe that you were in on the plot to kill Jake Lawrence."

"Exactly. Then I couldn't be Jake Lawrence. That's also why Colby had the a.s.sa.s.sin on the mountain pushed off the cliff."

"So he couldn't point the finger at Colby."

"Yes," Jake confirmed.

"There's still one thing I can't figure out about ESP Technologies," Angela said.

Jake let go of her hand, bent down, picked up a small stone, and lobbed it toward a wide pool in the stream. "What's that?"

The stone splashed into the stream, and Angela watched the circles expand slowly outward. "Why would Sage Capital have sold ESP to Proxmire? Why would Chuck Reese and Dennis Wolfe have given up control like that?"

"My forensic accountants tell me Sage Capital had a number of investors, not just Chuck Reese. Reese arranged the partners.h.i.+p that purchased Sage, but he used other people's money in addition to his own to fund the partners.h.i.+p. And apparently the other investors were getting impatient for a return." Jake chuckled. "It's one of the irrefutable laws of finance. Investors demand a return. So, Reese got Wolfe the board seat at Proxmire, thinking he had protected himself because Wolfe could veto any sale of Proxmire." Jake tossed another stone into the stream. "His mistake was that he didn't count on a woman like Angela Day."

"Or a man like Jake Lawrence to help her."

"Right." He turned slowly to face her, then placed a finger beneath her chin and gently lifted so that she had to stare back at him again. "I want you to come live with me, Angela."

She gasped. "You want me to-"

"You're the most incredible woman I've ever known. I've thought of little else but you for the last two months."

"But you haven't even called me."

"You needed that time with Hunter. It was critical that you and he have no distractions for the last two months."

So that was it. Jake had recognized that Hunter had needed all of her attention. And Jake had been right. Hunter had been traumatized by what he'd witnessed at Rosemary. Only now was he becoming himself again. "You are incredible."

He chuckled. "Yeah, well."

"I feel terrible."

"Why?"

"I thought you hadn't called because . . . well, I figured you were done with me."

"Were you disappointed?"

She hesitated. "Yes."

"So will you come with me, Angela?"

The emotions swirled inside her. It would be an incredible life, but of course she'd be the prisoner in the gilded cell. Always wondering if he would make it home every night. She now appreciated how many people were out to get him. But she cared so deeply about him. Which would make the pain of losing him so much greater. The anxiety when he went away so much more terrible. She'd started her risk return calculation. "I can't," she said. This was not going to be a.n.a.lytical. "Hunter still needs me."

"I understand," Jake said quietly.

"I still don't know what to call you," she said.

"Huh?"

"I like Tucker better than Lawrence."

"Oh?"

"But I like Jake better than John."

He laughed, taking a step back. "I have to go."

"Another cause?"

"Yes," he said, turning to walk back across the field.

"Jake," she called after him.

They were a few yards apart now. "Yes?"

"I don't much like the name Angela, either."

"No?"

"No. I like Angie."

Jake shook his head. "Sorry, but I won't call you that."

"Why not?"

"Someone else already has." He gazed at her in the afternoon sunlight. "Just in case we ever see each other again, I've already decided what I'm going to call you. I've thought about it a lot over the last two months."

"What?"