The Fall of Lucas Kendrick (13 page)

“Which is why we have to find it. Or at least have some good solid evidence that the cache is here. No judge is going to issue a search warrant for Martin Rome’s estate without damned good reason, and even if one did, how would they know where to look? We’ve been assuming he got the stuff for himself and out of a
desire to look at it, which would mean he’d have reasonable access to it. If he’s planning for the future, it could be anywhere. A walled-up room or closet—anything. We’d have to have a detailed and accurate floor plan of this house and then measure, inch by inch, inside and out, before we could even come close to finding a hidden vault or room.”

“Daunting,” Kyle observed. “It could be hidden anywhere at all. Still …”

“What?”

“Well, it would have been noticed if he’d had any major renovating done. Can we find out about that? Because if he didn’t, then it’s very likely he had to put the stuff in an existing vault somewhere. A hiding place that was built years ago, maybe even when the house was first constructed. And something about it might be in this book.”

“Good idea.” Lucas looked at his watch. “You’re not dressed for it, but it’s time for our stroll in the maze. We’re supposed to touch base with Kelsey at midnight, as you know. He
can find out if the house has been renovated recently. My guess is that he already knows all about the history of this house.”

“The northwest corner—right?”

“Right.”

Kyle decided against a wrap; it was chilly outside but not really cold. She exchanged her heels for a pair of sandals, and they found it easy to slip out of the house. A full moon showed them the way clearly, and since Rome’s guests were hardly the sort to chase one another through the maze—at least, not at midnight—they had the place to themselves.

The northwest corner of the maze had been selected as a meeting place with Kelsey for several reasons. It was farthest from the house, relatively difficult to stumble into by accident, and provided a dandy weak spot in the greenery where someone could push his way through.

And they found Kelsey waiting for them, his head and powerful shoulders protruding through the hedge wall, an expression of patience on his amiable face.

Lucas sighed. “Tell me something, Kelsey, would you?”

“If I can.”

“How did you get into this business? You don’t seem exactly cut out of the federal cloth.”

“You just think so because you used to be a by-the-book cop,” Kelsey told him. “Actually I’m a paragon. Now, are we just going to chat, or what?”

Aware that he’d been gently warned off the subject of Kelsey’s admission into the ranks of the secretive federal agent game, Lucas became even more curious about that. But he was hardly one to pry into anyone’s past after botching his own so badly, and he let it drop. Instead he explained about their search, the book and will, and the conclusions he and Kyle had reached. He ended by requesting information on possible renovations to the house.

“None,” Kelsey said promptly. “Aside from a little redecoration—paint, carpeting, wallpaper and such—that place hasn’t been touched in
thirty years. Certainly no remodeling has been done.”

“So it has to be a vault or room that’s existed at least thirty years,” Kyle said.

“That book you mentioned sounds like a good bet. Any luck with it so far?”

“I haven’t had enough time yet to read it through,” she told him.

Kelsey nodded, then looked at Lucas. “If you’re planning a bit of exploring after the guests are tucked up for the night, be careful, will you? It might be best to stick to your rooms tonight, anyway. If you can’t find the vault casually, then you can always skulk tomorrow night.”

“It’s a big house,” Lucas reminded Kelsey.

“Yeah. Well, it’s your show.”

Lucas nodded. “We’ll check in again tomorrow morning around eight; it’s a reasonable time for a stroll, but I doubt any of the other guests will be up and about.” He looked reflective. “This corner can’t be seen from the house, can it, Kyle?”

“No. The only part of the maze that’s visible from any part of the house is the roof of the gazebo.”

“That’s about all I can see from my spot, except for this corner and a couple of the paths,” Kelsey said.

“I suppose we could send up a flare if we happened to get into trouble out here,” Kyle said gravely.

Kelsey looked at her. “Not at all. Just climb up on the gazebo and start jumping up and down and waving your arms. I’ll get the message.”

Lucas put an arm around Kyle and said dryly, “Obviously we have a first-rate backup for this job. Let’s go.”

Kyle heard a chuckle from behind them and then the rustling of bushes as they walked away. “He’s a strange man, isn’t he?” she murmured to Lucas. “I feel like I’ve known him for a long time, and yet … well, he certainly didn’t want to answer you about how he got into this business, did he?”

“So you caught that.”

“You really don’t know?”

“No. I’ve only known him a year or so, and even though he talks a lot he doesn’t say much about himself. Raven could probably tell some tales if she wanted.”

“When we were back in the cabin, he said something about you.”

Lucas was wary. “Oh? What?”

Softly Kyle said, “That you were very protective of those you care for and uncommonly gallant about women.”

After a moment, surprised by the other man’s observation and not quite sure how to respond to it, he said honestly, “Well, chivalry’s the easy part of knighthood. And since I was so lousy with the rest—”

“Don’t.” She shivered a little but made a protesting sound when Lucas stopped and removed his jacket.

“Chivalry,” he said, mocking himself lightly and placing the jacket around her bare shoulders.

“It isn’t that cold,” she said. “And that isn’t
why I felt a chill just then.” She gazed up at him, her face starkly delicate in the pale moonlight. “Luc, there aren’t any knights anymore. The men who slay dragons don’t wear armor or ride white chargers or carry a lady’s scarf into battle. They’re unsung heroes,” she went on softly, remembering Raven’s words. “They love and hurt and bleed … and make mistakes. That’s what makes them
real
, Luc.”

They were facing each other, and Lucas was looking down at her, his face in shadow. “You’re talking about that pardon again, aren’t you?”

“Because we can’t go back. We can’t go back and fix the things we left broken. All we have is today and tomorrow.”

“I know.” He put an arm around her shoulders, and they began walking again. Kyle was choosing their direction since he hadn’t entirely learned the maze yet, and he was surprised when they ended up at the center. “We should have gone directly back to the house.”

“No, we shouldn’t have.” Kyle stepped up
into the gazebo, pleased to find, as she remembered, that a soft, golden light was kept on at night in the little structure.

Lucas followed her, watching as she turned to face him. He felt the way he’d felt all day, unsettled, a little raw emotionally. When he saw her face, his first thought was that he didn’t want to talk about this, didn’t want to face this tonight. He wanted to take Kyle into his arms and blot out the world, especially the past, just blot it out. But his second realization hit him with the force of a blow.

He knew what she was thinking.

For the first time, the very first time in their relationship, he was looking at her calm face and quiet eyes and he knew what she was thinking.

“Not tonight,” he said, barely recognizing his own voice. “I don’t want to talk about this anymore tonight.”

“We have to. You’re still tied up in knots, Luc—”

“And you aren’t?”

“No. Not like you. You haven’t let out the anger.”

He moved restlessly, hardly aware of the faint chill in the air. “Kyle—”

“Your anger at me.”

“Nothing that happened was your fault.”

“No? I was the cause of it, Luc. Unknowingly, yes, but I was the cause. If it hadn’t been for me, you wouldn’t have had to walk away from anything. That had to make you angry.”

“I love you now. I loved you then.”

“Because of me you had to make choices you didn’t want to make.” Her voice was steady. “You had to lie, destroy evidence. Your whole life was different after that. And
I
made you leave me, didn’t I, Luc? If I’d been stronger, tougher, more of a woman and less a child, you wouldn’t have had to go.”

“That wasn’t your fault,” he said again, tightly.

Kyle stepped toward him. “No, it wasn’t. We both know that. But you’re still angry. And I won’t go on with that between us.”

“I’m not angry, not at you. Kyle—”

“Then why do you keep pulling away?”

He stared at her. “What are you talking about?”

“Remember back at the cabin? I got angry. The bitterness and the hurt and anger all came out. But
your
anger is still between us. We’re careful and wary, and then we start to be close and you back away. The past rears its ugly head. And that wouldn’t be happening, Luc, unless you were still angry. At me.”

“You said you needed time,” he managed.

“That isn’t it and you know it. You were a stranger to me at first, but that stopped being true a week ago.”

He was silent.

Kyle moved another step until she was standing before him, and her fingers were white-knuckled as she held his jacket around her. “Honesty this time, remember? And not just with each other but with ourselves. I avoided the anger and bitterness ten years ago, but I’ve faced them this time. You lived with it then,
maybe buried it somewhere, but you haven’t faced it, not really. Now you have to.”

After a moment he leaned against one of the white Doric columns supporting the roof and sighed raggedly. This was harder, much harder, than facing his own failure. This felt like a betrayal. “I love you,” he said simply.

She wasn’t going to let him avoid it, not this time. “But you were angry—when you left me and in the years since.”

“I didn’t want to be angry.” His low voice was strained, hurting. “I loved you, and you were so … so fragile. I stood there that night, looking down at you while you slept with that suitcase open on the floor by my feet. Moonlight was shining on the bed, on you, and you looked so damned fragile. I knew I’d have to leave you.”

“And you were angry at me,” she insisted softly, “because the drugs were there. Because you’d seen me get that case. Because you had to leave.”

“Yes,” he breathed finally. “I wanted to stay
with you so badly, and I was so angry that I was shaking. I kept telling myself to wake you up and confront you, find out for sure about the drugs, but I couldn’t. I didn’t want to see the light in your eyes go out when I told you who and what I really was. Anything seemed better than that. Even—”

She quietly finished for him when his voice broke off. “Even leaving me.”

His hands found her shoulders, and he was aware that beneath the thick fabric of his dinner jacket were the delicate bones of her body, the fragility. The deceptive fragility.

“It wasn’t right to blame you,” he said roughly. “I knew it. I
knew
it. But I did blame you. For a while. I don’t blame you now, Kyle, and I haven’t for years. I read all the articles about you in the newspapers and magazines, and I nearly went crazy thinking of you being hurt in one of those dangerous stunts you kept pulling. And I couldn’t be angry anymore. Don’t you understand? Anger never had a chance.”

Kyle reached up to touch his cheek lightly with her fingertips. “Then stop pulling away from me,” she whispered. “Being cautious. Stop being worried that one of us is going to make a mistake this time.”

He knew that was true, knew that caution had indeed held him back. And his voice was raspy when he said, “Tonight you look so
fragile
! The way you did that night …”

“That night was a long time ago,” she said, her arms sliding up around his neck, her fingers twining in his hair. “This is
now
—and I’m not fragile now, Luc. Not like that. I’m strong enough to love you now, strong enough to love the man you really are. Will you deny me that?”

He caught his breath when she moved even closer, pressing her warm and yielding body against him until his own body throbbed in a heated, aching rush of desire. And the same surge of primitive emotions that he had felt in the trophy room enveloped him again, driving out everything but the essential need to feel her
body alive in passion, hear her voice husky with it, and see her eyes nakedly wanting.

“Kyle …”

His lips found her parted ones, fierce and demanding, a demand she responded to with instant fire. For the first time they kissed with nothing hidden, nothing holding them back. And everything that had come before was only a pale preview, a ghostly hint of the sheer, raw emotion to come.

Kyle trembled violently, dazed by the feelings capturing her body. She was hot, cold, weak, strong, ravenous. Ten years of remembering a single night had not prepared her for this explosion, this eruption of all her senses. Her body was no longer her own; it was his, bonded to him, linked to his in some magical, overpowering affinity. And the hunger for his possession was alive in her, hurting her with its need.

Lucas drew back at last, staring down at her with darkened eyes, his breath raspy in the quiet of the night. Without a word he slipped an arm around her shoulders and guided them
both out of the gazebo and into the maze. And it was Luc who found the way out, even though he was hardly conscious of it.

Neither of them noticed that his dinner jacket lay on the floor of the gazebo, the crumpled remains of formal distance.

Guests still laughed and moved around the mansion, but Kyle and Lucas hardly saw them. They went into the house and up the stairs, perfectly paced, and no one who looked at them could doubt that they were in a world of their own.

Kyle’s room was closest, and they found it awaiting them with welcome, the bed turned down and the lamps softly lighting the room. That faint golden light enabled Lucas to see what was in her face when she turned to him beside the bed, and it almost stopped his heart.

“I love you,” she whispered.

He framed her face in his hands, gazing into her turquoise eyes and seeing the naked wanting there. And seeing the love, astonished, awed, an unstoppable force. “I love you,” he
told her with soft intensity. “I’ve always loved you.”