Native Affairs (63 page)

“Call me when you change your mind,” he said.

She ignored his proffered hand and stared at him, waiting for him to let her pass.

“You’ll need the number,” he said warningly.

“I won’t need it. Now if you don’t move this instant I’ll pick up the phone and call the police.”

He grinned. “I own the police. The Talbots don’t run Port Lisbon anymore. I do.”

She picked up a silver letter opener from Caldwell’s desk and held it out in front of her, blade first.

Heath laughed. “Are you going to stab me with that thing, Annie?”

“If necessary,” she replied grimly.

He took an elaborate sidestep and bowed, letting her pass to the door of the office.

“I’ll wait to hear from you,” he called after her as she went through it.

“You’ll have to wait a long time,” Ann replied. She kept on moving.

“Miss Talbot, are you leaving? Mr. Caldwell wanted to see you again,” the secretary said as Ann rushed past her.

“Tell him I’ll call him later,” Ann muttered, and bolted for the hall. Once there she leaned against the wall and closed her eyes, waiting for her heartbeat to return to normal.

Ann felt that she could barely make it to her car and she knew that she was incapable of driving. When she was steady enough to walk, she went down to the lobby of the building and called a cab to take her to her lunch meeting with Amy Horton at the Lime Island Inn. She really wanted to skip it, but she knew Amy would be waiting and she wasn’t rude enough to disappoint an old friend. When the cab arrived, she sank into the back seat with relief, grateful that she didn’t have to do anything but sit until she reached her destination.

Heath watched from a window of Caldwell’s building as Ann climbed into a taxi and sped away. He knew that she had driven herself to the meeting with the lawyer and he took a grim satisfaction in the fact that she was now too upset to drive.

Good. She would be a lot more upset by the time he got through with her.

His handsome face was set in stone as he turned away.

* * * *

Amy’s welcoming smile faded as she rose from her seat in the inn’s restaurant and caught sight of Ann’s face. She came around the table hastily and took both of Ann’s hands in hers.

“Annie, my God, what happened? You look like death. Did you have an accident?”

“In a way. I just saw Heath.”

Amy’s expression changed again as she pulled out a chair for her friend and then sat herself. Amy was impeccably turned out, as usual, her crisp linen suit and ruffled blouse complemented by the gold jewelry and Italian leather pumps she wore. But Amy’s mind was not on her appearance at the moment. Ann was white as boiled rice and seemed to be in shock.

“You knew about him, didn’t you?” Ann said to her.

“Knew what?”

“Amy, come on. Don’t play dumb.”

“You mean, that he became Mr. Megabucks and now owns half of Port Lisbon? Yes, I knew.”

“Why didn’t you ever tell me?”

Amy stared at her. “Ann, for years you burst into tears at the mere mention of his name. Everyone who knew your past history with him learned to avoid the subject completely. And then with all this recent trouble about your brother and ScriptSoft, I was hardly going to regale you with tales of Heath’s good fortune while your family’s company was going down the tubes.”

Ann looked across the table at her boarding school roommate, whom she had known since they were both fourteen. Amy came from nearby Key Largo and had been living for the past few years in Miami, where she was a fashion buyer for a chain of retail stores. She had been Ann’s closest confidante during that summer Ann had fallen in love with Heath, spending many nights covering for her friend while Ann sneaked out to tryst with her forbidden lover. Amy knew the whole story, and it had created an enduring bond between the two women that held them still. Although Ann met Amy infrequently, they spoke often by phone and each time they saw one another it was as if their last meeting had been only hours earlier.

Amy knew what a devastating blow seeing Heath must have been to her friend. Ann had never gotten over his loss. To see him now after so many years, when he was prospering and she was staggering from the blow of her brother’s disgrace, had to be humiliating.

Amy put her hand over Ann’s on the table.

“I’m so sorry,” Amy said quietly. “Was it awful?”

“You can’t imagine.”

“How does he look? Gorgeous, I suppose.”

“Yes.”

“I’ve seen his pictures in the Miami papers. If you hadn’t been off in Europe researching your books for God knows how long you’d know that he’s become quite the big man locally.”

“I live in New York, Amy. Even when I’m home I don’t get much news from Florida.”

“Well, he’s been living it up, donating money everywhere, attending charity balls, shaking hands and writing checks. I guess you can’t blame him, to come from Hispaniola and wind up one of the wealthiest men in the state is quite an achievement. And all by the age of thirty. Where did you see him, anyway?”

“In Caldwell’s office.”

“What was he doing there?”

“He came to make me an offer.”

Amy paused with her water glass halfway to her lips. “An offer?” she echoed.

“He said he would bail Timmy out of jail and pay off ScriptSoft’s debts if I would marry him.”

Amy put the glass down, staring at Ann. A waiter appeared at her elbow and said, “Can I get you ladies anything to drink?”

“I’ll take a double Scotch on the rocks,” Amy said rapidly, sitting back in her chair.

“Mineral water,” Ann said.

“At least have a drink,” Amy said when the waiter left. “I need one and I wasn’t even there.”

Ann shook her head.

“What did you say to him?” Amy asked.

“I told him no, of course. Did you think I said yes?”

“Well, Annie, you do need the help, and you were desperately in love with him once upon a time. Not to mention that the man is beautiful and sexy and rich as Midas.”

“And plotting my destruction even as we speak.”

“What does that mean?”

“Why do you think he wants to marry me, Amy?”

Amy was silent.

“Can’t you guess? You remember him, right? Did he ever strike you as the forgiving type?”

“No,” Amy admitted.

“He wants revenge. He wants to have me in his house, legally bound to him, so he can torture me every day and make my life a purgatory. Got the picture now?”

“He said that to you?”

“Of course he didn’t say that. One look at his face and I knew it. In Timmy’s downfall he imagines he has the perfect vehicle to pay me back for what I did to him eleven years ago.”

“What he thinks you did to him.”

Ann shrugged.

“Well, didn’t you tell him what actually happened?”

“I tried, but he wouldn’t listen. He made up his mind when he was nineteen and nothing has changed it since. He was so prepared for the rich bitch to turn on him that when it happened there was only one possible explanation—the princess was unable to abandon the royal Talbot existence for a real life as his wife. I could present him with affidavits from archangels that tell a different story and they wouldn’t mean a thing. He hates me, and he’s been feeding that hatred for over a decade. In fact, I think it fueled his ambition, spurred on the desire to show me and the rest of the world that the half-breed kid from Hispaniola could make good.”

Amy accepted her drink from the waiter and took a large sip from it as the waiter asked, “Will you ladies be having lunch?”

Amy nodded. “I’ll have a Caesar salad with braised chicken and an iced tea. Ann?”

“Nothing for me,” Ann said, and the waiter walked away.

“Please don’t go on a hunger strike, that certainly won’t help matters,” Amy said sternly.

Ann looked across at her friend, who was always watching her weight and maintained her figure at great cost with starvation diets and gym fees, wishing she could summon up Amy’s lusty appetite. If the slightest thing went wrong in Ann’s life she couldn’t eat.

She had lost eight pounds in the last several weeks.

“What are you going to do?” Amy asked, fingering her perfectly coiffed and frosted hair.

“I’m going to find some way to get Tim out of jail that does not involve taking charity from Heath Bodine.”

“I can give you about fifteen thousand right now,” Amy offered, unbuttoning the jacket of her three- piece outfit, the style up-to-the-minute and very flattering. Amy was always the perfect advertisement for her profession.

“Thanks, Amy, that’s very sweet, but—”

“I can get more if I break my father’s trust,” Amy added.

Amy’s wealthy father had financed her education at the same private school Ann had attended, but since her parents’ divorce, his money had been tied up for Amy until she was thirty. She couldn’t touch it for two more years.

“Money isn’t the only problem, Amy. The judge thinks Tim is a flight risk and wants to keep him locked up.”

“How can Heath help you with that?”

“He intimated that some high-priced legal talent might convince the court otherwise.”

“I see. One hand washes the other.”

“Right. If somebody the judge knows suddenly shows up as Tim’s counsel, things might work out very differently.”

Amy stirred the ice in her drink. “I wish I could stay down here and help you, but I have to be in my office tomorrow morning. I’m catching a flight out tonight.”

“It’s all right, Amy. It’s my problem and I’ll deal with it.”

“Forgive me for saying so, but you don’t seem capable of dealing with anything right at the moment.”

“Thanks a lot.”

“It’s the truth,” Amy said as the waiter served her salad and left the check. “How much do you weigh these days?”

“Who knows? I avoid scales,” Ann lied.

“So do I, but for a different reason. And have you been sleeping? You look exhausted.”

“I’ve been taking transatlantic calls from lawyers at three o’clock in the morning and then staying up for the rest of the night wondering what to do about this awful mess. I’m sure Heath was thrilled to see me like this. He, of course, looks like he just came back from a month at a spa.”

“Damn his eyes,” Amy said, forking romaine lettuce into her mouth. “But he always was the juiciest thing on Lime Island. Remember him at nineteen? Luscious. But he could see only you.”

“I’d rather not relive it, okay, Amy,” Ann said softly.

“Yeah, right. Sorry. Listen, I was just thinking. I’m coming back to Largo at Christmas to see my mother, do you think you will still be here?”

“I hope not. I’d like to wrap this up quickly and return to New York as soon as I can.”

“And you think Heath is just going to go away?” Amy asked, raising one brow inquiringly.

“I don’t care what he does. He can’t force me into anything, it’s still a free country.”

“Are you staying here at the inn?”

“Yes. The bank repossessed Tim’s condo on the island and my parents’ house was sold years ago. This seemed convenient to downtown and Caldwell’s law office.”

“You mean that nobody local has even called you and offered you a sandwich? Not any of your mother’s friends?” Amy asked quietly, appalled.

Ann shrugged. “Maybe they don’t know I’m here. I didn’t exactly announce my return in ten-inch banner headlines. Even if they do know, I imagine they’re all too embarrassed to talk to me. I mean, what would we discuss? My brother the felon and his illegal activities? Quite a comedown from the country club.”

“I still think it’s terrible.”

“Nothing creates distance like an impending indictment, ” Ann said dryly.

Amy glanced at her watch and then drained her Scotch. “Listen, sweetie, I hate to leave this wonderful food, but I have to go. I have to do some shopping at Burdine’s, and then stop off at the Island Bank and see the trust officer, and—”

Ann held up her hand. “Don’t explain, I understand. I didn’t exactly expect to be dropping this bomb about Heath, I thought handling Tim’s crisis would be enough for one day.”

Amy rose and grabbed the check. “Your mineral water is on me.” She extracted a pen from her purse and scribbled on the back of a receipt. “Here’s a bunch of numbers where you can reach me. You already have my apartment where you can leave a message on the machine if I’m not there,” Amy said.

Ann nodded.

“Call anytime. I mean it. I feel like a beast for rushing off like this, but if I’m not in my office tomorrow morning heads will roll and mine will be first.” She leaned over to kiss Ann on the cheek and then gave the thumbs-up sign as she began to weave her way between the tables on the restaurant terrace, her mind already on her errands.

Ann sat by herself for so long that the waiter finally returned and asked her if she wanted anything else.

“No, thanks, I’m fine,” Ann said, emerging from her reverie. She rose to go to the reception desk and get her room key. As she was riding up in the elevator, she realized that she had lived on Lime Island for seventeen years but had never stayed in this hotel. The closest she had come to it was attending several parties in its ballroom. But in those days her life had consisted mainly of parties, here and at the Lime Country Club—a charmed existence that had not prepared her for the emotional desolation that followed.