Ring of Lies (21 page)

He
waved the approaching sales assistant away, with a ‘another time, maybe
,
’ and exited the store.
By the t
ime he reached the intersection
he’d caught up with their
stalker
.
The lights changed
to red
and pedestrians queued impatiently at the curb, waiting to cross
.
J
ack
grasped the man by the arm and spun him
a
round.

‘
Carlos
, h
ow you doing?
’

‘
Hey, let go of me!
’

The
little
guy tried to
wriggle free
, but Jack’s grip tightened.
He bowed his head and said,
‘
How about you and I have a chat
about who sent you
,
and why you’re following me and the lady
?
’
Jack
pulled
him out of the crowd
and led him
toward
an alley
way.

‘
You’re crazy
, man
.
I’m not following
you
.
’

‘
You’ve been clinging to
me and the lady
like shit to a shovel ever since we left the bank
.
’

‘
You’re mistaken
.
I’ve never seen you before in my life.
’

‘
Don’t lie to me. Who sent you?
’

Suddenly,
the man
twisted and kneed Jack in the groin
, following it
up with a punch to
his
jaw.

Jack
tasted blood and
fell to his knees, the air whooshing out of h
is lungs.
Before he could move
his attacker was
hoofing it
back down the alleyway and on
to the crowded street.
He
cursed his stupidity
. H
e should have backed the guy up against the wall before questioning him.
He staggered to his
feet;
his breath
came
in great heaving gasps.
At least
he’d remained
conscious, but
his jaw was going to ache for the next couple of days
and he was going to have one hell of a bruise
.
He
wiped the blood from his lips,
brushed the dust off his jeans
,
and
stumbled
out of the
alleyway.

When he reached the
Explorer
, he found
Grace sat in the driver’s seat
, her
knuckles white where
the
y clutched the
steering wheel
.

‘
Oh my
God!
Your face!
’
she cried.
She stretched out her hand to touch him, but
thought the better of it
and hastily withdrew
.

‘
It’s n
othing
that
a stiff drink
,
and a long soak in the tub
,
won’t cure.
Move over
.
I’ll drive.
’

She shifted across the seat.
‘
Why would anyone want to follow
us
?
’

‘
Not us,
you
.
The bastard made off before I got chance to ask.
But
I think
he
and your mystery man from the graveyard are
maybe
connected.
’

‘
That’s impossible.
I only decided to come
here
after the funeral.
’

‘
Yeah?
Then either
you were
followed here
or Zachary Parous has
some
real nasty
associates who are keen
to get
their hands
on
either
the money in that bank account
,
or you
.
’

Jack watched Grace for the space of a long
breath;
saw the fear in her eyes
,
and
without stopping to think about the consequence of his actions
, pulled
her
into his arms.

‘
Don’t panic.
As long as you’re with me you’ll
come to no harm
,
’
he whispered against her hair.
He tried no
t
to notice the warm
th of her body against his
and exotic scent of her perfume
filling his senses
.
While he rocked her in his arms, he told himself he was just offering comfort as he would to any other woman
who’d just lost her husband
.
He even tried to believe it.
But while he could fool his brain, he couldn’t fool his body.
H
e tilted her face to his.

‘
Say something, Grace.
’

She blinked and focused her gaze.
‘
None of this makes any sense.
’

‘
The way I figure it,
Elliott
or Lattide or whatever else
your late husband
call
ed
himself, got involved in
a
scam.
A bad one.
Now
his boss or
clients
want
their
money back.
And the only way to get it is through you.
’

The stricken look on her face made him wish he could beat
the crap out of
Elliott
for
putting
his
beautiful
wife
in such
danger
.
As it was, he was glad the
son-of-a-bitch
was dead.

Grace shuddered.
He reached out and
caught her slender hand in his.

‘
I d
on’t believe—
’
Her voice broke.

‘
Honey, I hate to say this, but
y
our late husband was a bastard.
Not only
did he keep
secrets from
you, he was having an affair.
I
f he hadn’t died in that car accident, then sooner or later his criminal friends would have caught up with him
, and chances are t
he outcome would have been the same.
I know that’s cruel, but it’s true.
And you have to accept it.
’

Grace
shot him a cold look
and pushed free of his grasp
.

‘
You don’t know that!
You’ve no idea what Daniel was like.
He would never do anything to
place his family in danger.
’

Jack bit back a searing curse.
When he spoke his voice was deceptively calm.
‘
No?
Then why did th
at
guy back there
follow us and
try
to
kick my head in?
’

‘
I don’t know.
I wish I did.
But
I wish you wouldn’t
talk about Daniel
as if he’s on the ‘most wanted list
.
’
He was my husband.
I would have known if he was involved in anything…
in anything
illegal
.
’

‘
For Christ’s sake,
open your eyes
! You’ve already told me he never discussed his work with you.
It’s pretty clear that the jackass
who followed us was going to
tail
you
as far as your
hotel
and then call his buddies.
They wouldn’t be quite so pol
ite
when asking
questions
.
’