Notorious (17 page)

Sabin’s face was shadowed with pain, Mallory noticed with a rush of sympathy. She cared for Carey, too, but Carey was Sabin’s best friend, the only person he allowed close to him. “I’m sure he’ll be all right,” she said gently.

“Because I want him to be all right?” Sabin asked harshly. “There aren’t any guarantees in this world and very few happy endings.” He slammed the car door and strode around to the driver’s seat.

Mallory flinched, her hands clenching into fists on her lap. There was no reason for Sabin’s words to hurt her. He hadn’t been talking about them. She had known all along Sabin had little faith in the longevity of any relationship. She mustn’t think about anything right now but Carey’s well-being and trying to comfort Sabin’s pain.

When the doctor permitted them into the tiny sterile cubicle adjoining the emergency room, Carey was sitting upright on the examining table, a half-cast on his left arm and a white bandage encircling his head.

He grinned at Sabin and waved the cast at Mallory. “How do you like my turban? Do you think you can persuade Handel to cast me as a swami in his next picture?”

Mallory breathed a sigh of relief. Carey couldn’t be too badly hurt if he could still joke. “I doubt it, you don’t look mysterious enough. Whoever heard of a swami with freckles?”

“Are you all right?” Sabin asked jerkily.

Carey grimaced. “I could be better. My arm’s broken in two places, and I’ll never play the violin again.”

“If you expect me to fall for that old chestnut, you’ve got—” Sabin broke off and asked, “How’s the head?”

“They think maybe I have a mild concussion.” Carey frowned. “They want to keep me here overnight. Can’t you pull some strings and get me out of here?”

“No, I can’t.” Sabin’s tone was adamant. “If they want you here, you stay.”

“You’ll be sorry. Your financial empire could fall apart overnight without my brilliant insight. You don’t know how valuable I am to you.”

“I know.” Sabin’s voice was gruff. “Believe me, I know.”

Carey’s smile faded as he met Sabin’s gaze. “I’m okay, Sabin, right as rain.”

“Of course you are.” Sabin looked away from him. “I knew nothing could crunch that hard head of yours. But I should dock your wages for being stupid enough to step in front of that car.”

“I didn’t step in front of him,” Carey protested. “I didn’t even see him. I swear, Sabin, I looked both ways and there was no one coming. The bastard came roaring out of nowhere. I heard a noise behind me and caught a blur of something blue…” He shrugged. “Then, cuckooland.”

“You can’t identify the car?”

Carey shook his head. “I didn’t see anything.”

“Well, someone must have seen what happened,” Sabin said. “I’ll talk to the police and see
what I can find out.” He paused before adding grimly, “I’m going to nail him.”

“And I’ll hand you the hammer.” Carey turned to Mallory. “Wanna write on my cast? It’s virgin territory.”

Mallory smiled. “I’ll pass.”

“Sure? By tomorrow you’ll have to take a number. I’m planning on searching out every gorgeous nurse in the place and have them inscribe their—”

“You’ll stay in bed and rest,” Sabin said. “Let them come to you.”

“That’s a good idea.” Carey thought about it and then shook his head. “Nah, too risky. They’ve never lined up for my favors before.”

“But now you’re an object of pity,” Mallory reminded him. “Nothing touches a woman’s heart like the sight of a few bandages.”

“Really?” Carey lay back down on the emergency table. “I do believe I’m beginning to feel weaker. Yes, much weaker. You both can run along, but you’d better send in a nurse to take my vital signs on your way out. The brunette with the long eyelashes, I think.”

“Do you need anything,” Sabin asked. “Besides the brunette?”

“Not if you manage to pry me out of here by tomorrow.” Carey closed his eyes. “Lord, I hate hospitals.”

“You’ll stay as long as the doctor says you need to.”

“I knew you’d say that.” Carey didn’t open his eyes. “Well, I might as well take the opportunity to do some thinking.”

“For instance?”

“Just thinking,” he said vaguely. “Something’s been bothering me. It doesn’t fit …”

“Rest, don’t think.”

“See you tomorrow, Sabin.”

“Tomorrow.” Sabin hesitated and then turned on his heel and left the cubicle.

Mallory followed and fell into step with him as he strode down the corridor toward the nurse’s station. “He seems to be doing well.”

“No thanks to the scum that hit him,” Sabin said. “He could have lay there in the street and bled to death or been run over by another car for all that lowlife cared.”

“What do we do now?”

“I’m going to talk to the doctor and make sure they’re not keeping anything from Carey.” Sabin glanced down at Mallory. “And then I’m going to put you in a taxi and send you back to the location. I want to go to the police station and see if they have any more information about the car that hit him.”

“I’ll go with you.”

“No,” Sabin said. “That’s not necessary. I’ll see you back at the location.” He caught sight of the doctor who had shown them in to see Carey and strode quickly toward the desk.

Mallory experienced a swift jab of pain. He was closing her out. Well, why should she have expected anything else? His attitude drove home the realization that this was the real world and Sabin had never invited her to be part of it. The time he spent with her was cloaked in sensual dreams and, like a dream, would eventually fade away.

If she became his mistress, the dream would continue, and he would come to her at Kandrahan or one of his other residences around the
world. They would make love, and he would leave her until the next time.

Until he decided there would be no next time.

She stood still watching him talk to the doctor, his expression intent, his gray-blue eyes narrowed with the intensity that was so much a part of him. She had seen that expression on his face countless times since she had come to Sedikhan. She had grown to know every frown, every smile, every gesture so well. What would it be like not to see Sabin ever again?

She closed her eyes tightly for an instant as the raw pain twisted inside her. Every day she spent with him he was becoming more endearingly her own. This wasn’t what she felt for Ben; that had vanished almost before it began. This love was strengthening, growing, until eventually it would dominate her entire world. Dear Lord, if she felt this devastated at the prospect of leaving him now, how would she be able to bear it after they had been together another two months?

Her eyes flicked open, and she drew a deep breath. The answer was simple. She wouldn’t
be able to bear it. The memories wouldn’t be a solace, they would be a torment. Those painful months she had known with Ben would pale in comparison.

“Ready?” Sabin was back beside her.

No, she wasn’t ready. She would never be ready for what she knew now she must do. She forced a smile. “Yes, of course, I’m ready.”

She let him escort her out of the hospital and put her into a taxi to take her back to the location.

Sabin didn’t arrive back at her trailer until nearly eight that evening.

“Did you find out anything?” Mallory asked, her gaze searching his face.

“Too much,” Sabin said wearily as he closed the door. “And not enough.”

“What do you mean?”

“There were two witnesses, and neither of them could agree on the make of the car. Only that it was a dark color and small. The police are bringing them in tomorrow morning to show
them pictures of different models to try and jog their memories.” He paused. “But both witnesses said they believed Carey was run down deliberately. The car was parked at the curb down the street from the building and pulled away and accelerated only after Carey stepped into the street.”

Mallory gazed at him in horrified bewilderment. “But who would want to hurt Carey?”

“How the hell do I know? The police lieutenant suggested it was probably someone who’s trying to get to me and hasn’t the nerve to attack me personally.” His jaw clenched. “But I’m damn well going to find out who it was. There’s no way I’m going to let anyone get away with this kind of bull.”

Mallory crossed her arms over her breasts to suppress a shiver. Carey and she had both been touched by the ugliness of violence through no fault of their own. “What if they try to hurt Carey again?”

“I’ve told security to keep an eye on him until the police catch the nut who ran him down.”
Sabin met her gaze across the room. “And I’ve told them to put a watch over you too.”

“Me?” She frowned in puzzlement. “I don’t understand. It’s you who should be guarded.”

Sabin shook his head. “If Carey became a target because he’s my friend, I don’t want to risk anyone finding out I could be hurt if they attacked you.”

She looked at him sadly. “And could you be hurt, Sabin?”

“What the devil do you mean? You know I—”

“Nothing,” she said quickly. “I didn’t mean anything.” She moved toward the door of the trailer. “Let’s go for a walk. I’m feeling claustrophobic in here.”

“Have you eaten? Do you want to go out to dinner?”

“I had a sandwich earlier.” She opened the door and stood looking out. The last glowing rays of the setting sun had painted lavender and pink shadows on the clouds on the horizon, but even as she watched, the brilliance faded into the deep purple of night. She took a deep breath of
the cool evening air. “That’s better. Let’s walk over to the runway.”

He frowned as he followed her from the trailer and closed the door. “Are you all right?”

She nodded and carefully avoided his gaze. “I’m only worried about Carey.”

“But nothing else?”

“No, of course not.” She threaded her fingers through his and led him away from the trailer in the direction of the tarmac a few hundred yards distant. The blue lights marched down either side of the short runway and the control tower was lit with a red warning signal, but there was no sound or sign of the activity that took place during the day. “Just walk with me. This is nice, isn’t it?”

“Yes.” She could feel his gaze on her in the darkness.

“I’ve enjoyed working on this picture.” She pointed to the seven army green bombers lined up on the runway. “Just look at them. You’d never guess those planes are over forty years old. They could have landed here only an hour ago. I think I would have liked to have lived in the forties. Even though they were at war, it was a simpler
life. Values were clearer then. Don’t you ever want to run away from it all?”

“There’s nowhere to run that you can’t be found.”

“That’s what I mean. Back then there were … havens. Places and times where you could set real life aside and live for a while in blackberry winter.”

He looked down at her, his face half-shadowed in the darkness. “Blackberry winter?”

“I grew up in the city, but my mother’s people were farmers. I spent several summers on their farm in North Carolina when I was a child. I always remember the blackberry winters.”

“What the devil is a blackberry winter?”

“In May there’s usually a last cold snap before the heat of the summer comes. That’s when the blackberries ripen.” Her voice softened. “Dear Lord, how I loved that time.”

“Better than spring?”

She nodded. “It was a time apart. The hues of the flowers seemed more brilliant, the air was fresher, sharper, and when the early mist wreathed the fields, it was as if the earth had just
been born.” The wind was rising and caught a silky strand of her hair, splaying it over her cheek and mouth. She paused to pushed the strand back before she went on. “My grandfather used to say the blackberry winter was to remind us how beautiful the spring had been and how wonderful the summer to come was going to be. But I thought it was something more, a special gift that was all the more precious because it lasted such a short time and then was gone.”

Sabin stopped in the middle of the runway. “I wish I could see your face.”

“Why?”

“Because my instinct tells me something is damn wrong with you.” His hands cupped her cheeks. “Why are you talking about havens and blackberry winters?”

“No reason.” She hesitated. “I’m lying. There
is
a reason.” She went into his arms and burrowed her head in his shoulder. He felt so strong and alive and
here
. “I think you need a haven, Sabin. I just hope you find it someday. I hope all your days are filled with springtime and your nights with the songs of summer.”

He was silent a moment, his arms slowly tightening around her. “You’re scaring the hell out of me. I don’t give a damn about your havens or your seasons,” he said huskily. “All I want is what we have together now.” His lips covered her own with a passion that held an element of desperation.

Now. The present. No future. Just the poignant, vivid beauty of this time apart from the rest of their lives. She could feel the tears sting her eyes and was glad of the darkness as her arms slid around his neck.

“Let’s go back to the trailer,” he muttered between hot, hard kisses. “I want you …”

But only for the length of the blackberry winter.

Mallory blocked out the thought as the bittersweet pain swept through her. “Yes, let’s go back now.” She stepped back and turned to retrace her steps, reaching out blindly to grasp his hand. Every touch, every word, was precious now. She clung to his hand as they swiftly moved across the tarmac of the runway past the silent, ancient planes of yesterday.

A
KNOCK SOUNDED
on the door of the trailer.

Mallory tensed, her hands clenching on the pair of slacks she had been about to toss in the suitcase. Sabin?

No, it couldn’t be Sabin. He had only left forty minutes before to go to the hospital to see Carey. And besides, Sabin wouldn’t knock. She dropped the slacks on top of the other clothes she had hurriedly thrown in the suitcase and strode across the trailer to open the door.

James Delage grinned up at her. “How about taking pity on a stranger in a strange land and going to lunch with—” He broke off as he saw her brilliant eyes and tear-streaked cheeks. “What’s wrong?”