The Kid Who Stole Christmas (23 page)

“And what did he see, Rick?”

He sighed again. It was time to face the music, or at least the overture. “There’s been a load of spiders at the warehouse all along.”

“You lied to me?” Shannon asked through clenched teeth.

“No. Or at least, not really,” Rick added quickly. “You see, they’re not actually Arnies.”

She frowned. “Then what are they?”

“Fakes,” he replied. She was too close to the edge for him to quibble over the fine points of toy spiders just now. “I had originally intended to let the Bayers steal them. That way, when they tried to sell them as the real thing, it would put them right in the cross hairs of a legal suit.”

“But then Leo was kidnapped,” Shannon said.

Rick had his feet up on the coffee table now, and was too wrapped up in his own thoughts to see how mad Shannon was really getting.

“Even then, I thought that if I foisted the fakes off on them as a ransom, the end result would be the same,” he went on. “But I decided it would be best to see if we could find Leo first.” He frowned. “Everything might still work out, I suppose. I just wish I could get to the warehouse and find out if Angela has the spiders.”

Shannon was in no mood to reassure him. She had her own problems, and it now looked as if he was partly responsible for the largest of the lot. She stood beside the couch now, looking down at him.

“Aren’t you forgetting something?” she asked.

“Probably,” Rick replied. He started to chuckle, but then caught sight of her face. It was a mask of fury. “Oh.”

“That’s right. Oh. As in Leo. You remember him, don’t you?” she asked in a soft tone that belied the anger she felt inside. “The little boy we came up here to find? Instead of wondering where your precious fake Arnies are, don’t you think you should worry about who has Leo and what they’re planning on doing with him, especially if you’ve lost those spiders?”

Rick patted the couch, indicating that she should sit down beside him. “Take it easy, Shannon. I’m sure he’s fine.”

Shannon had no intention of sitting down. In fact, she gave the coffee table a push with her foot, causing Rick’s feet to slip off. It jerked him upright on the couch, and Shannon bent down to meet him, her nose almost touching his.

“That’s probably true,” she agreed. “
You’re
the one who’s in trouble! Didn’t you think Pop and I should have been in on the decision on whether to use the fakes as a ransom?”

“I—”

“Didn’t you think it might have been better for all of us if you had simply handed them over right away?” she interrupted. “Instead of letting Leo go through all this?”

Rick wasn’t accustomed to being harangued by anyone, and didn’t intend to take it sitting down. He got to his feet, making Shannon back up quickly.

“All this?” Rick asked, looking around the entertainment room. “It appears to me that all Leo has been going through is two days of juvenile bliss.”

“That’s not the point!” Shannon exclaimed. They weren’t quite shouting at each other yet, but it wouldn’t be long.

“Then what is? Your concept of right and wrong?”

“My concept! What about yours?” she demanded. “You just unilaterally decided that you knew what was best for everyone, didn’t you?”

Rick scowled at her. “Stop playing the injured party. I told you from the very beginning that my major concern was getting something on the Bayers so I could work my way back into my daughter’s life. And it still is!”

Shannon nodded once, curtly. “Fine! From the very beginning, I told you that
Leo
was my main concern. And that hasn’t changed, either.” She put her hands on her hips. “But so help me, Rick Hastings, if it turns out that I need those spiders to get him back, you’d better find some but quick.”

With that, she stalked off and started searching the house. Rick watched her, the sway of her full hips taunting him, making him realize that what might have become a night of fantastic passion had just disintegrated into a foolish tiff.

Foolish because she was right. It was all his fault. He could almost hear Charlie telling him I told you so. In fact, he was saying it to himself. And worse.

“You idiot,” he admonished himself under his breath.

Shannon was the best thing that had ever happened to him, and he had just ridden roughshod over the one thing that concerned her the most. She was right about that, too. No matter who had Leo or how well they were treating him, it still hadn’t been right for him to hold the ransom for ransom, so to speak. If he had turned it over the night Leo had disappeared, they probably wouldn’t be going through this right now.

Of course, that would mean he might not have gotten as close to Shannon as he had, either. Had that been in the back of his mind all along?

Yes, it had. And it was high time he admitted that much at the very least. He followed her to the den, where he found her going through some papers on an antique rolltop desk.

“Shannon?”

She didn’t look up. “What?”

“I’m sorry.”

Shannon hesitantly met his gaze. “That’s a start.”

“I should have told you. I have plenty of excuses why I didn’t. For what it’s worth, the most important ones did have to do with people, not revenge. My daughter means a lot to me.”

“I know.”

“So do you,” he told her softly. “I think I sensed that would be the case right away. And I thought that if I helped you look for Leo, rather than turn over the spiders, maybe we could get to know each other better. Leo was fine, and he apparently wasn’t in any real danger. It seemed like a lark, almost. I guess I just didn’t realize how important the little guy really is to you.”

Shannon turned away, and he could see by the dim light of a banker’s lamp on the desk that there were tears glistening in her eyes. “Then you don’t know me very well at all, do you?”

“Be honest, Shannon. That’s your fault, not mine. You’ve let me close to you in every way but one. I don’t know you very well because you haven’t allowed me to.”

Shannon knew he was right. She also knew it was senseless to keep pushing him away when he neared the sore spot in her life. Rick was offering his help, and she needed it. It was plain to see how much she had helped him, simply by being there to listen. And he had been there for her all along.

“You’re right,” she admitted softly, tears streaming down her cheeks now. “I haven’t let you in. I don’t know why. It’s silly, really. I just...” She trailed off, sobbing.

Rick crossed the room and knelt beside the desk chair so that he could put his arm around her shoulder as she cried. He knew he was to blame for causing this sudden breakdown. But the roots of her sorrow clearly went much deeper.

When her sobs had lessened somewhat, he tried to get her to look at him. “I don’t know what’s troubling you,” Rick said softly. “But whatever it is, it doesn’t seem as if you’ve let it go. Talking will help.” He rubbed her back in gentle, soothing strokes. “Believe me, I know. You taught me that.”

Shannon lifted her head, nodding, and took the tissue he offered her. Her tears dried up quickly, which wasn’t unusual for her. She had cried too many of them in years past to allow them to linger for long.

But the pain was still there. And it was time to share it with someone who knew what such pain was like. “This thing with Leo has me so on edge because I couldn’t bear to lose him,” she began. “My head knows that he’s okay. But my heart isn’t so easily persuaded.”

Rick held her tightly. “Tell me why,” he urged.

“Greg and I...had a child together. A beautiful girl. She died in an automobile accident when she was just a baby.” Shannon started crying again, but softly this time. “Her name was Melissa. She was such a good baby, so quiet and always happy. We were on our way home from the market. I was driving and I...I never saw the other car. It ran a red light and hit us broadside. There was nothing I could do. She was killed instantly.”

“Oh, my Lord,” Rick said, his voice scarcely above a whisper. “Shannon, I’m so sorry.”

“I was knocked unconscious. To this day, I don’t really remember what happened. I do remember being in the hospital, on medication, for a long time. When I came out of the fog, I was just plain numb.”

“And your husband?” Rick prompted.

Shannon sighed. “Coped with things differently, I guess you’d say. I don’t remember seeing much of him while I was in the hospital. But when I came home, I was desperate for his love and support. What I got were accusations,” she said, the bitterness clear in her voice.

Rick was stunned. “Accusations. About what?”

“Greg believed it was all my fault,” she replied. “At first, I didn’t blame him for that. After all, it was such a horrible, senseless thing. But he just got worse. To him, Melissa’s death was a failure on both our parts, somehow. He wanted me to wallow in guilt with him. As he sank deeper into despair, I realized that what I wanted was to heal, go on with life. I couldn’t help him and he wouldn’t get help for himself.”

“So you divorced?”

“It took a while. A couple of years, holding on by a thread and watching him try to kill himself. I should be thankful his weapon of choice was food, I suppose.” She shrugged her shoulders, her tears once again fading away. “But then, if it had been alcohol or drugs, I would have left sooner, or perhaps someone would have been forced to intervene. But, yes. I finally divorced him.”

Rick nodded. “For which he never forgave you.”

She uttered a short, curt laugh. “And then some. He still calls me every year around her birthday, never the same day or time. He likes to catch me off guard. And always at work, pretending to be a customer, so I have to take the call.”

“That’s awful!”

“In a way, I’ve come to accept it as a form of therapy for both of us. It’s hardened me to the memory, and Greg has gone on to lead a more or less normal life otherwise. I’m okay with it most of the time myself, but this thing with Leo just seems to bring it rushing back.”

“I’m sorry if what I did caused you worry and pain,” Rick said. “But you of all people, who lost a daughter irretrievably, should understand why I’m willing to do anything to get mine back into my life.”

She nodded solemnly. “I do understand. But we’re both on a mission, Rick. Let’s try to remember that.”

“I promise.” He got to his feet. “Right now, however, I need a swim,” he announced, thinking it would be just the thing to raise both their spirits. “Join me?”

“Not right now, thanks,” Shannon told him. “I want to go through these papers, see if I can find any clues.”

“You’ll think better when you’re relaxed,” he coaxed.

“Not right now.”

Rick glowered at her with mock severity. “Now who’s spoiling a perfectly good snowbound evening?”

“Shoo!”

He sighed, then did as she asked. He had so much pent-up frustration and energy that he felt as if he could bounce off the walls. But the house had suffered enough indignities, as it was, he supposed, and there was a better means at hand for giving vent to his emotions.

The pool beckoned to him. He had no suit, nor did he care to go looking for one. Nudity suited him just fine. The water was brisk, almost cold, in fact, the temperature set for exercising, not soaking. He adjusted the current for a fairly rapid flow and leaned into it, then started to swim, the movements of the stroke a balm to his tense muscles. Soon he lost himself in the steady, rhythmic repetition.

Shannon heard the splashing. At first, she hesitated, having found something very disturbing among the papers in the den and wanting to examine them further. Finally, however, her curiosity got the better of her and she went to investigate.

The current in the pool was running at a faster speed than before, and for a moment she was mesmerized by the flowing water more than by anything else. But as she watched Rick swim in its frothy currents, Shannon became aware of another sort of flow, that of her own surging desire.

The sleek muscles of his back and arms working in concert, the pumping of his powerful legs and especially the rhythmic clenching of his solid buttocks, all combined to give him the look of something other than what he was. An aquatic mammal, perhaps, at one with the water. It was very erotic, and much too arousing for her to ignore.

So far, he was unaware of her presence. She slipped out of her clothing and into the pool, careful to stay near the back and out of the ebb and flow of his movements. The water was cold, making her nipples harden instantly. But it felt good to her. There wasn’t enough room for her to swim with him, and she wasn’t quite sure how to work it, anyway, so she watched. From this position, it was even more thrilling than before, and she felt a sweet ache in the pit of her stomach.

Finally, Rick tired, and he let the current push his legs down and into a standing position. It pushed him backward, as well, and into the soft, waiting flesh of Shannon’s body.

He turned to face her, and she immediately kissed him, communicating a need so strong that it swept him away. But his breathing was still labored, and he paused, holding her in his arms, reveling in the slick feel of her skin against his.

“I’m sorry,” she told him softly.

“For what?”

“Pushing you away again. But I did find something.”

“Do tell.”

Shannon leaned back against the pool’s rim and let her legs float up and around his hips. “Not right now. I think I have my priorities straight this time.”

Rick groaned, his hands running over her water-slick skin, gliding under her buttocks and then up over the soft swell of her stomach to her full, waiting breasts. Their tips were hard as diamonds, and he bent to soften them with his tongue.

Impatient, Shannon pulled him closer still. She wanted him inside her, and he found her ready, waiting for his every thrust. His tongue thrust into her mouth at the same time, searching deep for the honey-sweet touch of hers. All the while, the current of the pool pushed steadily at his back, a silent partner in their lovemaking.

Shannon’s climax was so fierce that Rick had to use all his strength to hold her and prevent her from sinking beneath the water. His own followed closely, an explosion of feeling that left him even more breathless than had his vigorous exercise of before.