Chapter Ten

Jenna was still trembling after her phone call to Charlene. She had tried to convince herself she’d done the right thing. But now she feared she had only managed to put Charlene’s life in danger.

And all to get the money back to Lorenzo.

Maybe she shouldn’t have even tried. Would it really make that much difference? Something told her it did. No way would Lorenzo have that kind of money just lying around in a duffel bag in the back of the SUV. Especially since he was planning to fly out the next day. He would never have gotten that bag of money through customs.

So what had he planned to do with it?

Since she’d returned to the room, she hadn’t heard any voices in her head. Maybe she’d never heard voices. Or felt someone in the pool with her.

Stress did strange things to a person. And with Lorenzo out there somewhere looking for her…well, no wonder odd things were happening to her.

She shivered at the memory and realized she was still wearing her swimsuit and wrap. Going into the bathroom, she turned on the water and stripped out of her wet clothing. To keep her mind busy she went over the phone conversation with Charlene again in her head.

Charlene had been so understanding. “Honey, the best thing you can do is get out of the country as soon as possible, right? You wouldn’t have run unless you thought you had to, and I got to tell you, some bad-looking guys have been coming around hunting for you. Whatever it is that you accidentally took, give it back. Hell, you don’t want any more trouble from that man.”

Jenna knew Charlene was right. “You’ll make sure you aren’t followed,” she’d said.

“Don’t worry. Your ex doesn’t know me from Adam. I’ll be on my way within the hour,” Charlene had assured her. “It will be great to see you, too. And don’t worry, I’m sure the road will be open by then.”

Had she made the right choice, calling Charlene for help? Jenna prayed so as she soaped her body. She found herself listening for him. Just the thought brought on an ache that was both physical and emotional.

She shook it off as she climbed out of the tub and pulled on the warm guest robe. Then she froze.

He was here. She could feel him in the room. Her heart lodged in her throat. “Who are you?” she whispered hoarsely as she stepped back, grabbing the wall for support.

She stared in horror at the steamed-up mirror over the sink as letters began to slowly appear.

HARRY

BALLANTINE

RAYMOND VALENCIA HAD BEEN waiting by the phone. Jolly had called to say that the cops were still searching Lorenzo Dante’s house. Jolly thought they may have found something.

“Let me know when Lorenzo returns,” Raymond said, ruing the day he’d ever met Lorenzo. What had the fool done? Something bad enough that Lorenzo might try to make a deal to save his sorry self?

Raymond had hoped it wouldn’t come to this, but clearly Lorenzo would have to be dealt with. Unfortunately, now that the police were involved, it would have to be done with some finesse. That left out Jolly and Rico.

“There is something I thought you’d want to know,” Jolly said. “Her car is here.”

“Whose car?” Raymond asked impatiently.

“Mrs. Dante’s.”

“Jenna’s? Is she there?”

“I dunno. Doesn’t seem to be. Cops are crawling all over the place and the only other person I’ve seen is Lorenzo. But her car is parked out back. The police just got through searching it. A towing company came to take it away, but the cops stopped them.”

Raymond swore under his breath. “Let me know the minute Lorenzo returns.” He hung up.

The phone rang. More bad news?

“You said to call if anything unusual was going on,” Rico said without preamble. “Well, it’s probably nothing, but the local car dealer just dropped off a nice red Mustang for one of the tenants.”

“That’s nice, Rico, but not exactly—”

“I wouldn’t mention it, but guess who took ownership?”

Raymond wasn’t in the mood for guessing games.

“Stan Palmer’s sister. Stan, the guy who got sent up for jacking that semi a couple of years ago? The guy who used to work for Dante?”

“Stan Palmer’s sister lives in the same apartment house as Jenna Dante?” Raymond asked in astonishment. What were the chances of that in a city the size of Seattle?

“I recognize Charlene from one time when I picked Stan up for a job back when we were both freelancing,” Rico said. “You think she knows Dante’s ex-broad?”

What were the chances Charlene Palmer didn’t know Jenna Dante, he wanted to demand of Rico.

“The dealer just handed her the keys,” Rico said. “She’s all excited about the car, like it’s a present, you know?”

Raymond knew.

“Last I heard, Charlene couldn’t afford bus fare and was living at the women’s shelter. Her lack of looks aside, she’s too nasty toward men to have found herself a sugar daddy.”

Hadn’t Rico been around long enough to realize that not all men wanted sex from a woman?

“She went back inside after signing the papers for the car,” Rico said.

“Go in and ask the super who’s been paying her rent. Persuade him to tell you,” Raymond said. “Then call me right back. Make sure she doesn’t leave before you come out again.”

“You got it.” Rico hung up.

Raymond waited by the phone. He knew he wouldn’t have to wait long. Rico had excellent persuasion skills.

“You sitting down?” Rico said without preamble.

“Just tell me,” Raymond said through gritted teeth.

“Paid through a corporation called L.D. Inc.,” Rico said. “The super gets a kickback for keeping his mouth shut.”

Raymond let out a curse. L.D. Inc. “Lorenzo Dante.”

“You got it. Hey, Charlene just came back down. She’s carrying a bag, like an overnight bag. Should I stop her?”

“No. Follow her,” Raymond said. “Don’t lose her. Call me as soon as she gets where she’s going.” He hung up, wondering what the hell was going on.

JENNA FLED THE BATHROOM and would have fled the hotel if she could have.

Lexi was sleeping soundly, with Fred curled next to her, purring, and Clarice snugged under one arm.

Jenna closed her daughter’s bedroom door. There was no place to run. Charlene was on her way to pick up the money for Lorenzo. Jenna couldn’t leave here even if the roads were open.

She glanced toward her own bedroom, afraid to go back in there. Afraid the letters would still be on the bathroom mirror.

Outside, the day had darkened with the promise of more rain. No. She couldn’t stay trapped here much longer or she feared she would completely lose her mind. If she hadn’t already.

She turned on all the lights in the living room to chase away the shadows and the threat of a storm outside. Then she curled up on the couch, wrapping the robe tightly around her, determined to fight the voice in her head.

But it was silent.

Her eyelids grew heavy from lack of sleep last night, from the hot water of the pool and the shower. She felt herself drifting, and tried to fight it, afraid he would be waiting for her, her defenses down.

And yet a part of her knew he would come the moment she fell asleep. She drifted off, waiting for him, yearning for him the way she’d never yearned for anyone before.

HARRY WASN’T EVEN AWARE that he’d touched her. Not until Jenna let out the smallest of sighs. He wished he could show himself to her. But even now he didn’t understand how he’d been able to connect even this much with her. It was as if after seventy years something had come alive in him.

He focused his energies on his hands, not wanting his touch to be cold. He didn’t want to repel her. He brushed a caress over her temple again, then across her cheek to her jaw. She stretched, arching her neck a little as he skimmed his now warm fingers down the slim column of her throat. She let out a low moan as his fingers stopped at the opening of her robe.

She rolled over on her back on the couch, stirred a little, then dropped back to sleep. He waited before he touched her again, waited until she was in a deep slumber. When he knew she would welcome him. She needed him as much as he did her.

His fingers went to the hollow just below her throat. He could feel her quickened pulse as he traced a path down between her full breasts. Her skin felt like fine silk, rich and lush and creamy smooth.

She smelled of the expensive soap from the shower. He breathed her in, moving closer as he concentrated on making his body warm. He slipped his hand under the opening at the top of the robe.

She shivered as he cupped one breast, being careful to do it slowly, tenderly. She moaned and turned her head away from him as she pressed her breast into his warm hand. The nipple hardened against his palm. How he ached to suck it into his mouth, to lave it with his tongue, to taste her skin, to kiss her warm flesh.

Carefully he untied her robe and let each side fall away from her body. Her nipples were rock hard, dark pink against her fair skin. He thumbed one, then the other as she arched against his touch and groaned in her sleep. Her skin was hot to the touch and her breathing short and fast.

What surprised him was his own reaction. He was aroused and he wanted this woman. He’d never wanted anything as much as he did her.

But as he looked down into her face, he knew there was something else going on here. Something Harry Ballantine could no more figure out than he could free himself from the hold she had on him, a hold she’d had from the moment he saw her come up the mountain to Fernhaven.

His fingers trailed down the flat of her stomach. She froze, and for a moment he thought she would awaken and be afraid again. He waited before he slipped his fingers over the slightly rounded mound to gently caress her. She didn’t wake up. But she did respond, arching against his fingers, groaning once more as he skillfully took her higher and higher, her breath coming hard and fast, her body convulsing with pleasure until he took her to a climactic peak. She shuddered and sighed. All tension washed from her face. A slight smile curved her lips.

He drew the robe back over her as she turned onto her side again. Then he lay down beside her as if he, too, had been sated, he, too, had been released.

As Harry listened to her breathe, his heart ached. Only one of them would be leaving this place.

“ANY IDEA WHERE WE ARE?” Mike Flannigan asked as he shifted the Jeep into four-wheel drive. Ahead Rose could see nothing but trees, with a narrow slash cut through them that looked nothing like a road.

Mike had already had to stop numerous times to get out and move a small downed tree. Or find another way around larger fallen trees.

She looked down at the map in her lap and the compass Mike had given her. “We’re going in the right direction, kinda.”

He laughed and looked over at her.

She felt her heart jump in her chest and wished she hadn’t gotten him involved in this. “This might have been a mistake.”

“You think?” He shook his head as he reached over to lay his warm palm on her shoulder. “We’ll find the road that takes us to this place. Don’t worry.”

The last time she’d been able to get through to the highway patrol, the road wasn’t open yet. That meant Lorenzo couldn’t have gotten to Jenna—even if he had somehow found out where she was.

But still Rose couldn’t relax. She knew how dangerous Lorenzo Dante was. With his connections, who knew what he was capable of?

She feared Franco had found out—just before he’d died. All attempts to contact him through the safe numbers she’d been given had proved fruitless. Her instincts told her he was dead, but she still held out hope that she was wrong.

The Jeep roared up the mountain through the trees, Mike deftly steering it around boulders and tree stumps from when the area had been logged.

She looked at the map. If she was right, they weren’t that far from Fernhaven.

LORENZO COULDN’T SIT still. He paced the interrogation room, cussing cops. “How long can they hold me?” he demanded of his lawyer.

Anthony Cruise sat in the corner, a small man in a dark suit, with a pockmarked face and sharp features. “Depends on if they book you.”

“They aren’t going to book me,” Lorenzo said confidently. “They’re just trying to scare me. They haven’t got anything on me.”

His lawyer glanced at the mirrored wall as if to remind him that cops were probably behind it, watching the two of them.

Thank goodness he’d had the presence of mind to put Alfredo on Charlene before he’d opened the door to the cops, Lorenzo thought. All Alfredo had to do was follow her to Jenna and take care of things. Jenna had said she wanted to return his money, but he didn’t trust her.

He thought of the duffel full of money as his now. If he could get to it before Valencia, he could take at least half and hide it. Let Valencia think Franco and Jenna had split the money. Made a lot more sense than the two of them being romantically involved.

Lorenzo thought he could sell a story that Franco and Jenna had hatched a plan to rip off the money and split it. Then Franco would meet up with his girlfriend, Rose Garcia.

Valencia might actually buy that. And Lorenzo would come out the winner on every count. Franco’s body would never be found—or his half of the money, which was two hundred and fifty large.

But first Lorenzo had to get out of the police station.

When the door finally opened and the big cop, Detective Luke Henry, came in, Lorenzo snapped, “Charge me or let me go. I know my rights, dammit.”

JENNA COULDN’T BELIEVE she’d had the dream again. She woke flushed, the robe sticking to her damp skin. She sat up, shocked to see that it was late. How long had she slept?

She swung her legs over the side of the couch and stumbled to her feet, disoriented and confused, the dream trying to drag her back.

Hurrying through the suite, she jerked open Lexi’s bedroom door, afraid her daughter would be gone. The four-year-old was still snug in the bed, asleep in the dim light.

Jenna rubbed her arms against the instant chill. Once they got away from this hotel she would forget the man from the old photograph. Forget Harry Ballantine. He didn’t exist except in her mind. In her dreams. She conjured him up in her need to be loved. And yet no man had ever felt so real.

Disoriented, she stood for a moment, just letting her heart rate come back down. What scared her was what the dream had left her with. It hadn’t just been sex. Someone had made love to her.

And the dream had left her feeling safe…a dangerous thought. But nothing like the ones that came after it. The dream had left her feeling…loved. Cherished. Protected. Alive. Whole. Blessed.

She laughed at her own foolishness. What she was was crazy. Lorenzo had tried to push her over the edge, to drive her nuts, and now he’d succeeded.

She shook her head, clearing away those thoughts.

Charlene would be here soon.

Jenna had to get the money ready.

Then she would wake Lexi and they would leave with Charlene.

For now, Jenna closed the door to her daughter’s room and padded barefoot to the living room. She picked up the phone and dialed the front desk.

“Elmer, I need a box and some tape for a package,” she said.

“What size? I can scare up one and bring it to you,” he said cheerfully.

She gave him the dimensions.

“I saw one in the kitchen that should work. By the way, the highway patrol called. Good news—they think they will have the road open soon.”

“That is good news.” Jenna hung up, telling herself that Lorenzo would be so happy to have his money back that he would leave her alone.

That once she and Lexi left here, they could put all this behind them.

She hurried into her bedroom to pack, but was drawn to the bathroom. The mirror had cleared, but the words were still there.

HARRY

BALLANTINE

She closed her eyes, willing away not only the letters, but the way he’d made her feel. Her body still tingled from his touch. She thought she could smell him in the small room, almost feel his breath on her neck.

Her eyes shot open. The scream caught in her throat.