Somewhere I'll Find You (17 page)

There was
more.  A shadow that hid deep in her mind whisper
ed
that there was still more
beyond the preliminary torrent of emotions on which Paige had been so recently swept away
.
 
But do I dare reach for it?  What happens if I don’t come back?

Michael was lost – out of his realm and he knew it.  He knew that there had to be something important on those papers, but what could it be?  Reachin
g out, he gently took the fragile
documents
from her hands. 
If they
’
re important enough for someone to hide, what exactly could be on them?

It only took a moment for him to spot a chancellery seal.  This wasn’t a script in his hand, but a list of names.  Most he recognized; some he didn’t.  But two stood out clearly.  One
name was
that of a dead man
, Michael knew,
and the other . . .

Michael shook his head in disbelief.  If these papers were true, then a man he knew –
with whom he had worked
-
was a traitor.
That is if this information was true.
Glancing up, he looked at Paige wondering how much he should tell her. 

“Michael . . . I’m too tired to play games.  I can tell those papers mean something
. W
hat is it?”

“It’s a list,” he said shortly
, his eyes scanning the names
, “a list of foreign agents
– doubles by the looks of it.  And guess whose name tops the list.”

“Erik.” She said the name with a tone that made him look up.  If he hadn’t known better, he would have sworn she knew the actor.  “I did a lot of research on him,” she explained, “when I purchased his old place.
  I’ve still got some of the books around here . . .” She waved a vague hand at the mounds of books stacked in assorted places.

“What do you remember from your research?”  Stalking over to the mantle, Michael found himself oddly jealous of Erik.

“There were rumors even then,” she began, oblivious
t
o Michael’s feelings, “that he was a spy for America as well as for Australia and England.”

“And?” he prodded gently.

“Erik saw himself
as
quite the intellectual – a man for all seasons, in all circles.  That included his friends . . . some of which were the sort to be
held
under suspicion,
with all the talk of war.  And then, of course, his military status was always in question.”  Seeing the look on Michael’s face, she moved towards the sofa.  “It was hard for the viewing public to understand why one of their heroes wasn’t involved with the war effort.  After all, so many were.  Gable, Jimmy Stewart . .
. but
there was a lot about Erik that they didn’t know.
  They didn’t know about the diseases he picked up from traveling.  Malaria and tuberculosis were just a few of the diseas
es he had.  But the public could
never know – it would
have
ruin
ed
his image.”

Striding away from the fireplace,
Michael headed outside
.  He needed
fresh air, needed
time to put this all together.  He had seen a lot in his world, had done even more, but a world filled with psychics and ghosts was somethin
g even he was ill prepared for.

He stood for what seemed like hours
, simply
watching as the ocean crashed along the shore.  Deep waves spewed and foamed along the beach, as turbulent as his thoughts.  The longer he was with Paige
,
the more confused he had become.
 
What she had done in there, reaching for his half-buried pain and experiencing it as her own, had been bad enough, but … Adding her abilities on to the
scramble
of emotions her physical presence
was creating
in his life, was too much for him to handle.  Paige was difficult – prickly, Serena had said – and much more adept at avoiding his advances than he’d bargained for.
But what in the hell did
I expect - that she would fall into my
ar
ms like some pubescent teenager?  Even without all of this psychic mumbo-jumbo mixed up in it, I’m not living some third-rate romance novel. 

He sighed. 
And
yet
here I am, standing by the sea and throwing a fit because she rejected me?  I come out of the shadows at the same time
that
bullets start
ed
flying, and I expect wedding bells and starry-eyed embraces less than twenty-four hours
later.
  It’s true that I didn’t know what to
assume
, but storming out here for a sulk isn’t going to help me find out.
 
It was time
, he decided, that
he went and set things s
traight.  If she listened, fine -
if not, well
,
he would at least know where he stood.

“Paige?” He hesitated for a moment, uncertain of his reception.

“In here, Michael.”

Taking a deep breath, he followed the sound of her voice and stopped sharply in the doorway of the living room. 
How long was I outside, trying to calm down?
How did she do all this in such little time?

In the time that he’d been outside, Paige’s
cozy living room had been thoroughly transformed into something closely resembling a wartime command center.  Maps stretched across every availab
le surface, anchored down with v
ases and Venetian glass paperweights.  Nearby, books on the history of Hollywood rose from the floor in stacks.

“Where’s the war?”  A sardonic smile lifted the corners of his mouth.

She didn’t return the smile; instead, she tapped at a map.  “Here and here, I suspect.
”  She turned her head slightly, her eyes narrowing to suspicious golden points.
 
“
I thought that you were leaving.”

“Sorry
,
Angel, you’re stuck with me for the long haul.”

She shrugged
,
although there was a stubborn look in her eyes.  “Whatever . . .  there’s too much here that I don’t know about.”

“That
we
don’t know about,” he corrected, moving to her side.  On the nearest map, he could make out the rolling hills around Mulholland marked with red crosses.  “Very interesting, he observed.  “Counting casualties, are you?”

Paige was anything but amused.  He wasn’t taking her seriously – but then, that was his problem.  “These are probably places surrounding Jenny and Erik’s life.”  Tapping the map lightly, she continued.  “I’ve cross referenced all
the likely spots.”

Leaning closer, Michael
attempted to ignore
her light, pleasing scent.  “There must be fifty crosses here.”  His tone was one of reluctant admiration. 
She’s organized
,
to have done all of
t
his so fast. 
She’s damned good at it, too
.

“Cl
oser
to sixty,” she answered softly.  “Those are the ones I plan on checking on as soon as I get back.”

“That will take days – weeks
, even,
”
he protested.

Paige’s brow arched.  “I assume that you’re familiar with maps like these?”

“I’ve used a few in my time,
”
he replied carefully.  Such
charts had been a mainstay in his travels across the world, but he had never thought to see them utilized in sunny California.
  Leaning closer, he studied the red crosses that dotted the map, fascinated in spite of himself.  Aware of Paige’s stare, he stepped back.  “What?”

Her head cocked as she looked at him.
“You’re pretty good at reading maps yourself, Commander.  It
is
Commander
,
isn’t it?”

Stepping back, he hitched a hip against the sofa. “Back to that
,
are we?  Trying to
read
me
,
are you?  You’ll have to do better than a lucky guess, Angel.  Anyone who has seen a Bond flick could have worked that one out.”  Still
,
he couldn’t shake the feeling that he was suddenly under a microscope
– a feeling that he didn’t like one bit.  The idea that she could know anything about him by psychic ability left him unsettled
,
to say the least.
  He ground his teeth. 
This is probably why she reacted the way she did, but good God, I loathe feeling
as if
I’m an insect in a
bloody
laboratory.
“If we’re going back to the mansion, I’ll go load up the car. I’ll wait for you out there while you tidy up,” he muttered.

He’s all hardness and cold eyes
, Paige thought, watching him hauling out their luggage.  She thought of all the words that could be used to describe h
im and it came down to only two:
  Anger
and pride
.  She sense
d
the bitterness that
had grown in him
from too many years of pain.

But what was that to her?  Her life was complicated enough
, wasn’t it?
  Looking down at the maps one last time, she searched for the energy trails that had been there just a few minutes ago.  Now, there was nothing under her fingers but cold paper.
  Whatever had been there earlier
was gone.
  She buried her face in her hands and sighed. 
If only I understood how this gift of mine
worked
! 
If only I could call on it when I
needed
it, instead of floundering around in the dark!