Mistress of Magic (5 page)

Though it was true and a good point, Reggie didn’t care. She jolted forward. “We don’t even know that there
has
been a murder, and
if
there has, Max didn’t commit it,” she stated flatly.

“Reggie, Reggie!” Rick murmured, sorrowfully shaking his head at her. In that one glance he seemed to tell her that things might have gone differently—might have!—if she had agreed to dinner. And whatever else might have come with that singular meal. But she had scorned him one time too many, and she—and Max—were going to pay. “Reggie, it doesn’t matter whether Max is guilty or not. Heck, if he had throttled Daphne, not many men would really blame him!”

“And you would know, right?” Reggie suggested sweetly.

Rick slammed a hand on the table. “Regina, there was no call for that!”

“And Max is innocent!”

“Regina!” Max said sharply, entering into the fray. She clenched her teeth. Max didn’t like being defended by his sister. He was a big boy, one who liked to go to battle for himself. Or maybe it was just that he didn’t want his sister waging war. Perhaps he would accept a little battle assistance from elsewhere.

But Wesley Blake was sitting at the end of the table in silence. His hands were folded, resting idly in his lap. His keen hazel eyes seemed almost shielded by the fall of sandy lashes. Was he intensely paying attention? Or was he bored silly? It was impossible to tell.

It seemed that he intended to let Max sink or swim on his own.

“Let’s all simmer down here a little bit,” Niles suggested in a gentle, weary manner as he turned to Max. “This is a grave concern. Once all this hits the papers as more than speculation—well, then, we will be in trouble.”

“Unless we get Max out of it quickly,” Jesse suggested unhappily. “Max could sell his shares and step aside for the time being. If we broadcast that as clearly and loudly as we can, let the papers and the media get hold of it, we might come out with our heads above water.”

“Have Max sell out!” Reggie exclaimed, astounded.

“It wouldn’t hurt to have Reggie do the same thing,” Rick said. “After all, their name is the same. It’s well known that they’re twins. The taint of one …”

“It wouldn’t necessarily have to be forever. Just until this blows over,” Jesse suggested mildly.

“Until Daphne—is found. One way or the other,” Niles said.

“Is that what you want?” Max asked his older advisers flatly.

Niles shook his head slowly. “No, it’s not what I want, Max—”

“It’s Max’s park!” Reggie exclaimed. She just couldn’t believe what she was hearing.

“It’s
our
park,” Max said softly to her. “Yours and mine, because we created it in our hearts. But it belongs to everyone here, too, and to the others out there who have invested in us, Reggie.”

“It’s just that Max’s leaving may be a solution,” Jesse said.

“We do want to save the park, right?” Rick said. He looked like the cat who had swallowed the canary. Whole.

Niles suddenly turned to the man at the end of the table. “Mr. Blake, you’re going to be the deciding factor here. What do you think?”

Blake finally looked up, his hazel eyes burning. “Well,” he drawled softly. “The last I heard, a man was innocent until he was proven guilty.”

“Yes, Blake,” Rick Player said impatiently. “We’re all in sympathy with Max—”

“I didn’t say that I was in sympathy,” Wes said. His voice was still soft. Somehow, it managed to crack like a whip, and everyone was silent. And waiting. “I think you’re all misjudging our fellow Americans. Many of them will also believe that a man is innocent until proven guilty. Hell, Max hasn’t even been officially accused of anything yet. We’re jumping the gun here, incredibly.”

“Yes,” Rick said, impatient once again. “Because these things take time. We need to get rid of all association with Max before—”

Wes shook his head. “Max and Regina are the foundations of this park. They are the creative element, and more than that. Maybe much more than you can understand, sir. If they’re gone, the way I see, you’ll have nothing but a shell of a park to begin with. The magic will be gone. And if that happens, then yes, we’ll be in serious trouble.”

Jesse’s face crinkled into a broad smile. “That’s right! That’s what so many fail to see. You have to have the magic!”

Rick groaned. He’d had both Jesse and Niles on his side. And now he had lost them. And, Reggie thought, he’d lost them to something he didn’t understand. Wesley Blake had put his finger right on it.

You had to have the magic.

“You all fail to understand what will happen here!” Rick said. “Now, I’m all for Max, just like the next man. It was never my suggestion that Max step down entirely—just that he step aside for awhile!”

“No,” Blake said flatly. “I say that we support our own.” He leaned forward suddenly. “All right, now. We all know the situation. There are lesser stockholders who will be affected, of course, but we’re the board, and the ball is in our hands. Let’s lay it down on the table for a vote.”

“I intend to abstain,” Max said softly. “That way there can be no tie vote.”

“Commendable, Max,” Rick muttered. “All right. Let’s get on with the vote. All in favor of Max stepping down—just for a few months—say aye and raise your hand!”

One hand went up—his own.

Niles wet his lips, started to raise his hand, then lowered it with a sharp slam on the table. “Hell, no! A man is innocent until he’s proven guilty in this country!”

“Good for you, Niles!” Reggie approved enthusiastically.

“Maybe this should have been an anonymous vote,” Max suggested.

“I don’t think it needs to be anonymous,” Wes said. “Everyone here is aware that you would not be offended by a vote against you, Max. Now, all in favor of leaving things as they are, say aye and raise your hand.”

Four hands shot up and ayes filled the room thunderously.

Rick had lost, and he didn’t look a bit pleased. He stood up almost immediately. “You know that I’m really all for you, Max. It’s just the park that I’m worried about. You understand, don’t you?”

“Oh, yes, of course, I understand,” Max returned quietly.

Rick turned and started to stalk away from the table. As if on second thought, he bowed slightly to Reggie. “Now that I know you’re over the past, Regina, I’ll just keep trying until I do hit a free night with you,” he said quietly.

Thank God, he didn’t wait for an answer.

The moment he was out the door, Reggie wanted to leap up and shout.

She managed not to do so. Both Jesse and Niles were still looking somewhat worried. “Max,” Jesse said, “we do have to watch the publicity on this like a bunch of hawks,” he said solemnly.

“And we will!” Reggie assured him.

“I intend to. I thank you all for your votes of confidence in me,” Max said. Then he stood abruptly. “If you’ll excuse me, I’ll let my secretary know that she needn’t type up my resignation.”

Max left, followed by Jesse and then Niles, both pausing to say goodbye to Wes, and then to kiss Reggie on the cheek.

The moment they were gone, Reggie leaped up, having realized suddenly that she had been left all alone with her sandy-haired nemesis.

But even as she stood, a hand of iron came falling over her own.

“Where do you think you’re going?” he asked lightly.

She couldn’t have freed her hand if she had really tried, she knew. She felt a flush coming to her cheeks. “I—I have work to do, of course. It was nice to meet you, Mr. Blake. I appreciate your support of my brother. Even if you are somewhat of a shameless, arrogant snoop!” she added in a sudden rush.

He laughed softly. A dangerous laugh. She felt it inside and out.

“You’re not going anywhere, Miss Delaney.”

“I’m not?” she inquired, her ire rising.

He shook his head slowly. Those gold eyes seemed to slice right through her.

“You promised me dinner.”

“Oh, but I didn’t! That was just—”

“Oh, but you did.”

“I can’t possibly—”

“Oh, but you must!”

She did try to pull her hand away. He stood, never losing his grip, his eyes never faltering from hers.

She gritted her teeth. “I need to see Max—”

“Running to your brother?” he asked. “Do you need him to defend yourself from me?”

She inhaled sharply, then a dark winged brow rose high against her forehead. “Why? Do I need defending? Are you threatening me?”

“Not in any way,” he replied politely. She didn’t know how, but she was suddenly closer to him. Close enough to feel the pounding of the heart and the heat radiating from his taut, hard-muscled form. “But you did promise me dinner. And people do keep their promises to me.”

“I—”

“I especially think that you should.”

She lifted her chin. “And why is that?”

“Well, if your brother isn’t guilty of some kind of foul play, then someone else is.”

Reggie shrugged uncomfortably. She’d thought of that, but hadn’t given it much consideration. She gasped suddenly. “And you think that I might be guilty!”

“I didn’t say that.”

“Well, you might as well have!” she exclaimed. She backed away from him, tugging at her wrist. “And what about you? I understand that you were at the wedding, that you knew Daphne—”

“Yes, that’s right, I was there. I knew her.” He smiled. “But I didn’t know her like you knew her.”

“We’re talking in the past tense! We don’t even know that anything has really happened. Daphne was rude and cruel and flighty. She might be on an island in the sun somewhere, just imagining what this is doing to poor Max.”

“Ah! You didn’t like her much, did you?”

Reggie gasped again—more at what she had given away so quickly than at the scope of his perception.

“Do you know that you are brash, arrogant and rude?” she accused him.

“Only when I need to be.”

She stared at him, still tugging at her hand. She was amazed when he pulled her close once again. The warmth of his breath touched her face and seemed to start all kinds of fires in her again.

“But when it’s necessary, Miss Delaney, I am anything I need to be. Right now, it’s necessary. I’m going to find out the truth, Regina. I’m going to find out the whole truth, about everyone. Now, you can be in this with me, or you can be against me. But I swear to you, when I’m done, I will know everything. Everything. Now, are you coming with me, or not?”

Chapter 4

T
he truth
…

Reggie could hear Wes Blake’s words ring in her ears—and feel the force of his fingers around her wrist—throughout the remainder of the day.

She had been convinced at first that he had meant to drag her away to dinner then and there—before they’d even had lunch!—but after making sure that she wasn’t going anywhere, he had suddenly turned to leave the room.

“I’ll meet you in front at seven,” he had said. She’d been tempted to cry after him that she wouldn’t be there, but he had spun around before she could do so. “Seven!” he’d repeated, as if daring her to make the statement she was longing to give.

She didn’t have to say anything at all. She could just not show up!

“Was that seven you said?” she’d inquired sweetly.

She’d seen the quick tightening of his facial muscles, and she’d been glad that he didn’t walk toward her then. For if he had, she might have taken a few cowardly steps back.

“Seven,” he’d said once again. To her irritation, she’d remained still. As he turned to leave, she’d been startled to realize that he moved with a little limp. One that was almost imperceptible. But there.

“Damn him!” she’d said the moment he was out of the room.

Now she reminded herself that he had helped to save Max and her—and Dierdre’s DinoLand. He wasn’t helping because of her, she knew. He was helping because of Max. So he should have dinner with Max!

Stand the man up … could she do it? Should she do it?

Something in her said that he had come through when they needed someone to come through. Something else inside her said he was far too arrogant, and that he expected to have his every command obeyed. Yet something else told her that he was having an effect on her whether she liked it or not. He was making her feel things, think things. Things she hadn’t thought about since …

There was work to be done. She didn’t dare think about those things now. And maybe she wouldn’t see Wes again. Maybe she would stand him up and she wouldn’t have to wonder about the man and the effect he had on her.

Actually, she was never sure if she intended to show up for dinner or not. As it happened, she was called into a meeting with Niles, another of their character performers called in sick and a replacement couldn’t be found, and in the end she had to help make sandwiches at Dierdre’s Deli.

It was now eight-thirty, and the park—still on late spring hours even though temperatures made it seem like summer—had been closed for an hour and a half. The last of the gift shops was closing when she took off her shoes and walked barefoot over the cooling asphalt to her office. The night crew was sweeping up wrappers and cigarette butts and whatever hadn’t been cleaned up during the day.

Even the cleanup crew was short of workers. She knew just how short when she came across her brother sweeping the broad expanse of entryway to the main cave. He looked up, frowning, as she appeared from the shadows of the cave.

“You’re supposed to be at dinner,” he said, pointing a finger at her. He was so accusing! As if she had failed to appear for royalty.

Or a financial backer, she thought wryly.

But Wes Blake was a friend Max cared about—that much had always been obvious. “Max! He’s your friend—you should have gone to dinner.”

“You agreed to dinner!”

“He was just helping me get out of dinner with Rick Player!”

“I don’t think so, Reggie.”

“All right—he means to give me the third degree. He means to dig into our lives.”

Max was silent.

“Well?”

“Maybe.”

Reggie sighed. “Well, at least he’s on your side,” she murmured.

“He believes in me,” Max said. “But …”

“But what?”

“If he did find skeletons in the closet, he’d drag them out.”