Trading Secrets (16 page)

Unsteadily Sabrina edged off the bed, scrabbling on the floor for her underwear. It wasn’t just the natural embarrassment she was feeling that made her movements awkward. She knew she was also reacting to the vestiges of explosive tension that still ricocheted around the motel room. Hastily she pulled on her clothing.

“Sabrina?”

“I think you’d better take me home, Matt.” She saw his right hand, the one that had been holding the knife, move in a flexing action. Each finger was stretched out before being pulled back into a tight fist. Then he walked across the room and began pulling on his own clothes.

“I’m not used to managing my life with a kid around,” Matt said gruffly as he stuffed his shirt into the waistband of his slacks. “I’ll slaughter him later.” He eyed Sabrina’s set face warily. “Honey, I never meant for you to be embarrassed like that.”

“I’m sure you didn’t.” Sabrina shook her head. “I’m not used to being embarrassed like that, either. I’ll say one thing. An evening with you always holds the element of surprise.”

“Jesus.” Matt closed his eyes in brief disgust. “I’ll kill him.”

“No, you won’t.” Sabrina smiled sardonically. “You’ll just chew him out. And I think that’s enough. The boy’s scared to death of me, you know.”

“Scared of you?” Matt appeared shocked.

“Sure. He sees me as a threat. Look at it from his point of view. He’s already lost one parent to another adult. Now he probably thinks he’s in danger of losing you.”

Matt was startled. “He’s not going to lose me.”

“Better tell him that,” Sabrina advised as she fastened her white leather belt and tried unsuccessfully to straighten her hair. “I saw the fear in his eyes, Matt.”

“You’re an authority on child psychology?”

“I grew up with two brothers. I remember the way they acted after my mother died, when my father began to see women friends. They were scared to death.” She, on the other hand, would have welcomed another female into the household. As it was, her father had not remarried, and Sabrina had been left to battle on alone against the all-male hierarchy.

Matt was watching her with an odd expression. “I see.”

“Explain your plans to him, Matt. Tell him he’s the most important part of them.” Sabrina turned toward the door. “Let him know I’m not a threat.”

Matt was beside her, reaching out to grasp her arm before she could open the door. When she glanced up at him, his eyes were full of a strange anger. Strange because it was directed at her and not at Brad.

“Why are you so sure you’re not a threat, Sabrina? Because you don’t intend to get seriously involved with a washed-up ex-military type who, on top of everything else, has a belligerent, resentful son? You never wanted anything more than a few nights in some hotel room, did you? You’re the lady who was out to live her own life on her own terms. I have a hunch I don’t fit too well into your long-term plans.”

“You said that you were only recently getting into long-term planning yourself,” she tossed back. The thought of Brad waiting out by the car was making her increasingly uneasy. She wanted to go home.

Matt started to say something else and changed his mind. He reached around her to yank open the door. Brad, who had been leaning against the Ford’s fender, straightened. His gaze went to Sabrina and then to his father.

“Wait in the room while I take Sabrina home,” Matt said coldly. “I’ll be back in a few minutes.”

“Take your time,” Brad muttered.

“Before we leave, you will apologize to Sabrina.”

“How was I to know she was in bed with you?” Brad protested tightly.

“We all know you left the theater early in hopes of embarrassing her.” Matt’s tone chilled to the bone. “Well, you succeeded. So you will apologize.”

Sabrina shivered under the blanket of ice Matt was laying down. If his voice was affecting her this way when she wasn’t even the intended victim, she could imagine what it was doing to a thirteen-year-old kid whose main goal in life was to hold on to his father.

“Sorry, Miss Chase.” There was no real apology in the words, only frustrated anger.

Sabrina nodded bleakly. “Please, Matt. Let’s go.”

“I’ll be back shortly,” Matt warned his son, and then he opened the car door for Sabrina. Ten minutes later, without a word having been spoken for the entire distance of the short trip, the Ford was pulling into Sabrina’s parking lot.

Sabrina had almost convinced herself that she was going to escape unscathed into the relative calm and safety of her own home when Matt finally broke the silence. He waited until they were at her front door before pulling her firmly to a halt. When she looked up she found him frowning at her with savage determination.

“I know it’s not perfect for you. Nothing in life is, Sabrina. But it’s going to get better.”

“What is, Matt?”

“You and me. Us. It’s too late for you to back out now. I want you to realize that.”

“Don’t push me, Matt.”

“I won’t.” His mouth firmed. “At least, I won’t any more than I have to in order to keep from losing you.” He bent swiftly and kissed her. “Good night, Sabrina. I’ll call you in the morning to find out.”

“Find out what?”

“The answer to that question we’ve both been asking for the past month.” He opened the door and pushed her gently inside, and then he was gone.

Sabrina stared after him through the curtain. When the taillights of the Ford had disappeared, she slowly turned away from the window and headed for her bedroom. She was as curious as Matt about whether or not she would hate herself in the morning.

Across the street from Sabrina’s apartment Griffin turned to Shadwell, who was at the wheel of the nondescript Buick.

“If you ask me, that might be the end of it. A woman like that isn’t going to be too thrilled about finding herself first getting laid in a cheap motel and then having the kid arrive back at the room at what must have been a somewhat awkward point.”

“August isn’t turning out to be the world’s smoothest lover, is he?” Shadwell grinned. “Course, it’s probably tough trying to make it under his present circumstances. Like you said, she doesn’t look like the type to put up with the situation very long.”

“A couple of nights will probably be all she’ll want. Coyne’s right. The affair’s bound to fizzle soon. August will be on his way back to Mexico by the end of the week.”

“With the kid,” Shadwell pointed out, lighting a cigarette.

“Maybe. Maybe not. Would you want to be saddled with that kid?”

“Nope. You think he’ll take the boy back to the mother?”

“That’s sure as hell what I’d do. Especially when the kid started getting in the way of my love life.”

“We should know in a few days if the situation is going to sort itself out nice and neat. If it doesn’t, Coyne will have other plans.”

“He needs August,” Griffin said quietly. “We all need him. He’s the only one Valdez will accept.”

“We’ll get him.” Shadwell inhaled on the cigarette and put the Buick in gear.

Sabrina was sound asleep the next morning when the phone rang beside her bed. She made a couple of halfhearted attempts to ignore it and then surrendered to the inevitable.

“This had better be important,” she muttered into the phone without any preamble. “It’s not even six o’clock. I’ve killed for less.”

“It’s important,” Matt’s voice said quietly. “I have to know.”

Sabrina opened her eyes and settled back on the pillow to gaze thoughtfully at the ceiling. The seconds ticked past while she considered the matter in all its varied aspects.

“No,” she announced finally. “I don’t hate myself.”

“Christ, that’s a relief. Maybe now I can get some sleep.”

“Wondering about it kept you awake all night?”

“Yeah.”

“I don’t believe you. I think you’re just an early riser. You’re up early, so you decided to pester me.”

“I’d like to do a whole lot more than pester you with obscene phone calls at five forty-five A.M.”

“Good lord. That is an obscene time to call anyone. Where’s Brad?”

“Still asleep.”

Sabrina hesitated uncertainly. “Were you very hard on him, Matt?”

“I tore several large strips off him. And then I took your advice and told him that what was going on between you and me doesn’t have anything to do with him. I tried to explain that his relationship with me is independent of mine with you.”

“Do you think he bought it?”

“I don’t know. He didn’t say another word for the rest of the evening. Just sat and read his dumb magazines until it was time to go to bed.”

“How much longer are you going to keep him in that motel room?”

“We’ll start looking for an apartment this afternoon.”

“You’re serious about staying in Dallas?” she asked carefully.

“You’re not going to get rid of me this time as easily as you did down in Mexico.” Matt spoke with absolute conviction. “Things are different this time.”

Sabrina took a deep breath. “Then why don’t you move in with me until you find your own place? I’ve got an extra room you and Brad can share.”

Dead silence greeted the offer. Sabrina realized she was gripping the phone with unnatural force. In another moment it would probably crumble in her hand. “That’s a serious offer?” Matt finally asked in a suspiciously neutral voice.

“I think so.”

“Arrange for a key at your manager’s office. Brad and I will have dinner waiting for you when you get home from work.” Matt hung up the phone without saying goodbye.

Sabrina sat up in bed, staring at the receiver and wondering if she’d gone momentarily crazy. Trouble, she thought. I’m asking for nothing but trouble.

Trouble, thought Rafferty Coyne that afternoon, was exactly what Miss Sabrina Chase was proving to be. He received the report from Griffin and Shadwell that August had packed up himself and his son and moved lock, stock, and barrel into Sabrina’s apartment.

“It looks serious,” Griffin offered by way of opinion.

“If he’s moving in with her, odds are he’s going to stay here in Dallas for a while.” Shadwell watched Coyne carefully. “What now?” Absently he fingered the hilt of the knife he kept strapped under his arm.

“Now we proceed to the next stage,” Coyne told them with unflappable calm. “I’ll handle it myself.”

When Sabrina pulled into her parking lot that afternoon, the first thing she looked for and saw was the now-familiar rented Ford. It was parked directly in front of her apartment. Matt had taken her up on the offer.

All day long she’d had second thoughts about inviting him and his son into her home. But she hadn’t hated herself this morning, so she’d stuck by her decision this evening. Opening the car door, she stepped out and walked slowly toward the apartment. There was no one inside, although she saw a large sack of potato chips sitting on the counter. That would probably be the carbohydrate contribution to tonight’s dinner, she decided wryly. She couldn’t wait to see what the rest of the no doubt well-balanced meal would look like.

By the time she reached the kitchen she realized her new houseguests were out on the back patio. A little uncertainly Sabrina opened the screen door and stepped outside.

A knife flew past her head, missing her by no more than a foot. It landed with a
thunk
in a target that had been erected at the far end of the patio.

“Shit!” Matt roared, advancing on Sabrina. “Don’t ever, ever, walk out here unannounced again when I’m throwing. What the hell’s the matter with you, lady? Don’t you have an ounce of common sense?” She drew back, glaring at him. Brad stood in the background, holding a wide-bladed knife he had been about to hurl at the target in which his father had just scored a bull’s-eye. She swung her gaze to the boy. “Is this the way he yelled at you last night?” she inquired interestedly.

Brad looked startled by the question. Then he said slowly, “Yeah, something like that. There was a little more of it, though.”

“What in the world is going on out here?” Sabrina demanded.

“Dad’s teaching me how to throw knives,” Brad said with the first genuine enthusiasm she had ever heard in his voice. “He’s good. Really good. You ought to see him in action.”

Sabrina stared at first one and then the other. “I’ve seen your father in action, and I’m not at all sure he should be teaching you the kind of tricks I’m afraid he knows,” she murmured coldly. Memories of the way he had come up off the bed and headed for the door, knife in hand, last night flickered through her brain. “I’m not sure what sorts of things fathers are supposed to teach their sons, but I have a feeling this kind of skill is not going to be very useful either in school or in getting a future job, Brad.”

“Don’t let the indignant act fool you, Brad,” Matt pulled the knife from the target. “The first night I met Sabrina down in Mexico she wound up throwing a knife at me.”

“I most certainly did not! I was simply returning it to you,” Sabrina sputtered, aware of the red stain on her cheeks as she told the bold-faced lie. She had been so furious that night that she hadn’t even stopped to think what she was doing.

Matt turned, knife in hand, to laugh at her. “Returning it to me! Sabrina Chase. That knife missed me by no more than a few inches. I won’t forget that little scene for as long as I live. Don’t you dare stand there and claim you were merely handing it back to me!”

Brad was studying Sabrina with grave interest. “Did you really throw a knife at him?”

Sabrina lifted her chin, vividly aware of two important elements in the atmosphere here on the patio.

Number one was that for the first time Brad and his father seemed to be communicating in a fairly relaxed fashion. The second was that knowing she’d had the nerve to hurl a knife at Matt August was buying her some respect from Brad. Sabrina didn’t have the willpower to puncture either of those fragile new developments. All three of them needed the step forward in communication.

“I refuse to discuss the issue further,” she declared regally, her hands on her hips while the two males grinned at her. “What I want to know now is, Where’s the dinner I was promised?”

“We’re going to have a drink first,” Matt informed her, replacing the throwing knives in a small tray Brad was holding. “Tonight we’re celebrating.”