Somewhere I'll Find You (41 page)

He shrugged but Michael could sense that the calm was a lie; he could see that the man’s body was beginning to quiver.  “Of course he wasn’t as good as you; he barely made it out.  Someone wants whatever is in that horrid cottage, and they want it badly.
”

Richard began to laugh, a high keening sound that sent shivers down Michael’s spine.  “Carver is the key . . . the key!  The key to all the secrets and he wan
ts . . . the key, he is the key!
”

He’s a bloody lunatic,
Michael thought as attendants hustled him out of the room.
Mad as a hatter.
 
But … but … even a madman can be right sometimes.

The smell of truth was too powerful to be ignored.

As he moved into the clean, fresh air, a thought hit him straight in the gut. 
Oh my God, Paige.  Whoever Richard was tangled with . . . who is to say that they aren’t still after her.  And she’s alone without even a bodyguard to watch her back.

Gunning the motor
of the Cord
, Michael slammed out into traffic. 
Paige . . . after all this time, I’m not going to lose you now.

* * * *

She wasn’t in the cellar.  She wasn’t in the foyer.  She wasn’t in her office.  Fighting down his fear, Michael hammered up the stairs to her room.

No sign of her there, either.

A wild instinct brought him around with a start.  “Paige, answer me!”

He raced along the hall to the kitchen and pounded down the stairs.  She was standing before a broad rear window, watching
sunlight
spill over a bank of white roses.  There was a box on the table beside her and a glass in her hand.  With a desperate curse, he knocked the glass
away
.

“Have you lost your mind?” she demanded as she looked down at the shattered glass.

“Did you drink any of it?” he snapped.

Paige simply continued to stare at him.

Dragging his hands through his hair,
Michael
tried desperately to remain calm.  “Did you
drink any of that wine, damn it
!
”

She shook her head, her lovely face a mask of confusion.  “No . . .  you did a fine job of preventing that.  That was an exceptionally old and rare wine.  Richard must have sent it as a peace offering.”

“And probably laced with poison, unless I miss my guess.”  Michael’s lips were set in a firm line.

“Poison?”  Her voice filled with disbelief.  “No!  No, Michael this is not one of
your undercover assignments, nor
is it a bad rendition of a
film noir
.  I don’t believe you.”

“You’d better.  Richard Severance was arrested for just that . . . and it wouldn’t take any great leap of imagination for him to try the same thing on you.  I’m not taking any chances.” 

“Michael, that’s impossible.”

“Is it?  Don’t forget someone tried to force us off the road just a few days ago, remember? Nothing is impossibl
e. You’d better remember that.” 
Carefully he wrapped the cork in cellophane.  “This is going to Sacramento in the morning for testing.”

Paige
wavered on her feet but didn’t let herself fall
. 
“When
,
Michael?  When is this going to end?”

Michael wasn’t about to share his worries with Paige, not when her face was as white as a sheet and her fingers were trembling where
she’d locked them at her waist. 
He ached to run his fingers through that vibrant black hair, to pull her against his chest and hold her until he felt the tension melt away. 

But he didn’t trust himself to do that.  Now was the time
for a clear head, not allowing emotion
to tangle the situation.  “There’s no sense brooding, Angel.  Tomorrow we’ll
k
now more.”  Jade eyes burning,
he took in Paige’s pallor and the
faint
, biting
edge of
her
fear.  “Steady, Angel.”  His hand cupped her chin.

She caught a ragged breath, her eyes staring into his.  “I’m frightened.  And I hate being frighte
ned almost as much as I hate ow
ing people – and I owe you for saving my life once again.
Who is it – who’s after us?
”  She caught a tight breath.  “Could it be the same men that were following us?”

Michael thought of lying, but gave up. She’d see through the lie anyway.  “I can’t be sure.  Not until I get some answers.  Now,
why don’t you
have a lie down
?
”

“
What are you going to do?”

“
Nothing
.”  His face was grim.  “I’ve still got a few things to clear up down here.”

“Don’t you mean calls that you don’t want me to hear?”

He didn’t deny it.  “Get some rest, Angel. Something tells me
that you’re going to need it.”

After he had seen Paige safely upstairs, Michael returned to the kitchen.  Taking a seat at the old table, draped in the darkness,
Michael made three calls.  Each was to an old friend, each a man whose life he had saved over the years.  And each man was delighted to repay an old debt by coming to the mansion and helping Michael keep its grounds secure, no questions asked.

Moving from his chair, Michael stared out over lush green lawns and a multitude of wildflowers.  He could have stayed here, he thought, content to let the rest of the world go by. Instead, he prepared himself to check the house’s perimeter.  When he turned, he discover Paige standing in the doorway, a worried look in her dark eyes.

“You’re going out there, aren’t you?”

“I’ll be back before you know it.”  His voice was calmly reassuring, a brow arching when she shook her head. 

“Not alone
,
you’re not.  Didn’t you tell me once that we were a team?  Well, that means I either go out there with you, or I go out there alone.”

His eyes narrowed.  “You would too, wouldn’t you?”  Seeing the determined tilt of her chin, he sighed
.  “Fine, but you
do
exactly
what I tell you.”

* * * *

He was watching as they came out of the house.
  It had been delightfully easy to surprise the four
men,
as they pulled in, hell-bent on getting to the mansion before he had.  A ghost of a smile slid over his features. 
Four quick shots and no one is the wiser.  And here, the poor chaps thought they were in for a walk in the park.  They certainly didn’t get what they were expecting.

He inched down between the high bushes and leveled the sight until Sinclair was caught in the crosshairs.  His pulse took on a delicious
hum,
as he tasted the power of the kill.

So easy.

One movement, clean and swift.

The bitch had been with him.  It sickened him, their laughter, and their constant excuses to touch each other.  He had watched them long enough to know that they were lovers.  He could almost smell the odor of their rutting.

Now, there was no choice.  He would have to kill Sinclair.  Then the woman.  But with her, he would take his time.

Maybe then
,
the voices would stop.

He nudged the sight higher, finding the center of Sinclair’s forehead.  Very
carefully, he began to squeeze.

Paige felt it as soon as they crossed the gravel drive.  He was out there and he was watching.  She felt a stab of
warning
and on its tail came a vivid image of Michael’s face
.

Dear God, no!  Not Michael . . .

Screaming, she rammed into him with her whole weight.

She saw his face
,
white with shock
,
and then the ground rushing up to meet them.

Even before they hit,
the earth exploded behind
them.

After that, everything became a blur.

Somehow
,
Michael grabbed her and hauled her to the far side of the Land Rover.  He swung the door open,
flung himself
inside, and yanked her in behind him.

“Close and lock it,” he growled.  “Thank God I phoned my hotel and had them deliver the car.  I’ve got reinforced seats and bulletproof glass in these windows.  Just let the bastard try and shoot through that.
”

He jammed in the key and gunned the engine before exploding into a 180-degree turn that slammed Paige against his side.

His other arm reached up to hold her as they thundered off toward the rear of the house.

He shoved his foot to the floor and sheared through a line of roses without blinking.
As Paige scrambled to buckle her seatbelt, she caught Michael’s eyes briefly with her own, before looking sharply away. 
She was frightened now,
frightened as she had never been before.  Because in Michael’s eyes
,
she saw the eyes of a killer.

“Do you want to tell me how you knew he was going to fire?”  Michael’s face was tight.  They hadn’t said a
word since leaving Mulholland D
rive.

Michael felt something break inside him.  There was danger all around them and he couldn’t fight it without answers.  “Damn it, Paige, answer my question.”

But the truth was something that Paige O’Neal had driven so deep that she wasn’t certain what she could recognize anymore.  “I . . . I felt something out there, that’s all.”

“You
knew
he was going to fire?”

“I wasn’t certain.  I’m still not sure exactly
what
I felt.”  She took a harsh breath and looked off toward the mansion’s golden walls, glowing above a bank of trees.  “It’s like that sometimes.”

“I must be stupid, Paige. I’m not following you.”

The sight of his fingers clenched bone white on the steering wheel was what finally changed her mind.  She loved this man and wanted a life wit
h him.  A life that had to become,
right now,
something
based on complete honesty.