A Rare Chance (29 page)

Her voice was quiet as she attempted to be matter-of-fact, but Darrow could hear the undertone of humiliation. He was silent.

“Did you read it?” Lizzie asked quietly.

“Yep.”

She shut her eyes, just for a few seconds. “I suppose your years as a police detective have inured you to such things.”

“No,” he said. He didn't know why he was bothering to explain. His years as a detective were over. “You're a professional and you react like one, but you never get inured to the kinds of things people who think they're in love do to each other. The psychological abuse can be as ugly as—even uglier than—the physical abuse.”

Her expression softened. “You've seen worse than Joshua and me, haven't you?”

“You can't compare your situation with anyone else's.”

She nodded. “I don't know if Gabriella and I can ever be the same again. She read my journal. Scag had made a copy.” Her shoulders rose up, then slumped down. “Well, I can't undo what's done.”

“She did right by you, Lizzie. She hid your journal, just like you asked. She came out to the island to find you. She did okay.”

Tears welled in her eyes. “I know.”

“Gutsy broad,” Darrow said. “You, too.”

“Not me.”

“In your own way, yeah, sure. Knowing what you know about Joshua, what went on between you, and you still had the guts to get those pictures of his little arsenal, give him the slip.”

“I should have gone to the police.”

“Yeah, probably. But maybe you would have once you could sort things out.”

“If I'd put my journal and the pictures in a safe-deposit box…” She shook her head, as if putting herself back in that day she'd decided to bolt, the logic of it. “But it would have been too complicated. I didn't know if you were following me. I couldn't risk having you or Joshua catch me. It seemed easier to sneak to the airport. But then I realized I couldn't leave them in the locker, in case something happened to me.”

“So you called Gabriella.”

“I didn't know what else to do.”

Darrow thought he understood. How many times over the years had he counted on Cam when he didn't know what the hell else to do? Not anymore. He'd seen to that.

“Anyway,” she said, “it's all for naught now. I failed. You're bringing me back to Joshua.”

Darrow studied her as the boat bounced over the waves, every minute bringing them closer to Reading Point. Even exhausted and scared and unwashed, Lizzie Fairfax carried herself well. As if she had a damned good place in the world and deserved to be in it. Her affair with Joshua, at least, hadn't destroyed that natural grace, that easy, inoffensive sense of superiority.

He shook off the thought. He hated when he got analytical.
Just do what you got to do and get on with it.

He said to Lizzie, “Did I say I was taking you back to Joshua?”

“But that's where we're headed.”

“So?”

But before he could explain, he heard, felt, a movement in the cabin below.

Hell.

He turned, but he knew he was too late.

Joshua Reading was there, one of his guns pointed at his ex-fiancée and Pete Darrow. A Browning nine millimeter. It was even legal. Darrow cursed himself for not being more thorough. The bastard must have followed him to the yacht club and snuck below while Darrow was getting the boat out of dock, then bided his time before making his move. Darrow had underestimated him.

Lizzie gasped, grabbing hold of Darrow's arm and steadying herself. She didn't say a word.

Although calm, Joshua looked ragged around the edges. “Well, well, my errant fiancée and her rescuer.”

Darrow hoped he wouldn't fire the damned gun by mistake. “You can put that thing down,” he said. “We're not going anywhere.”

Joshua gave him a nasty smirk. “You're not calling the shots, Mr. Darrow. I am. I
will
shoot you.”

Probably, Darrow thought, he would, even if he wouldn't like seeing the blood.

Lizzie's fingers dug into his arm. “Joshua, don't do this. We can work this out.”

“There is no ‘we,' Lizzie. You saw to that.” She recoiled at his harsh tone, the hatred in it, and did not let go of Darrow's arm. Joshua turned his attention back to Darrow. “Reading Point, I believe, is your destination, Mr. Darrow.”

“I've got the pictures of your arsenal, Joshua. I've got Lizzie's journal. You do anything to us, the cops'll find out. Guaranteed.”

“You're wrong. You see, I searched your quarters this morning after you left. I have the journal, and I have the photographs.”

Lizzie cried out as if he'd hit her.

Joshua smiled nastily at his fiancée, enjoying her pain. But Darrow knew there was nothing he could do, at least not yet. Getting himself killed wasn't going to help Lizzie—or himself.

He continued north toward Reading Point, just as Joshua suggested.

 

Titus Reading rose from his desk when Gabriella burst into his office. He gave her a wary look. “Gabriella?”

His demeanor suggested he was long past humoring her. She no longer cared. She knew she smelled like a sea marsh at low tide, knew she must look half crazy. She could feel Cam's steady presence in the doorway behind her.

“Titus, do you have any idea where Joshua is? I need to find him. It's important.”

Titus's brow furrowed, and a spark of worry flashed in his eyes. “Gabriella, what's going on? Where have you been? Is my brother in any danger?”

She took a breath. “He's in danger of doing something really stupid. I think he's after Lizzie.”

“After Lizzie? What is that supposed to mean? You talk as if he's some sort of lunatic, a criminal.”

“I found Lizzie, Titus. She was hiding on Pettit Island. She broke her engagement with Joshua and ran away out of fear. She hoped he would let her go and trust that she would keep what she knew about him to herself. But he—”

Titus shot from behind his desk. “Gabriella, I think the strain of the past few days must be taking its toll.”

“Titus,
please.
If I have to, I'll call the police. I'll—”

“Or perhaps,” he said coldly, “it's just having your father back and listening to his crazy, paranoid ideas. I want you to leave, Gabriella. Now.”

She ignored him. “It's not my place to go into the details—Lizzie will have to do that—but while I was on Pettit with her, Pete Darrow found us. Lizzie diverted his attention and I managed to get away. If he takes her to Joshua, she could be in serious danger. We
need
to find him.”

“Gabriella, I'll have you thrown out if I must. Lizzie Fairfax is hysterical and Pete Darrow is obviously looking after his own interests. I expect Joshua is attempting to understand the dynamics of the situation and resolve it without further embarrassment to himself or to me and this company.”

“Embarrassment? Good God, Titus, who gives a damn about
embarrassment?
Lizzie was
hiding
from Joshua.”

Titus strode past her and snatched his door, which was already open, and almost tore it off its hinges. He glared at Cam. “You must be Cam Yeager.”

Cam gave a mock bow. “Nice office.”

“You have to believe me,” Gabriella said quietly, tense, rigid, trying to control her mounting sense of urgency. “Joshua has hurt Lizzie before. I don't know what he'll do now.”

Titus looked back at her, his gaze pure ice. “I won't listen. Good day, Gabriella.”

“Do you have any idea where he is?”

“No. He's my brother. I trust him. I don't keep tabs on his every move.”

She inhaled. She darted Cam a quick look, but his face was impassive. This was her show. “Titus, someone needs to stop Joshua now, before he does something he can't hide or keep under wraps with payoffs. Before he gets so desperate he sees no other way out but through hurting someone.”

“No, Gabriella, I believe you're the one getting desperate. I don't know what's going on, but I do know my brother. I suggest you find someone else to blame for your friend's odd behavior.”

Gabriella gave it up, not saying another word as she stormed past Titus Reading. Cam eased behind her, silent and composed.

Once they were out in the hall, Titus, still with a tight grip on the door, said, “As of this moment, Gabriella, you are no longer an employee of this company.”

She didn't respond. She was shaking with anger and fear, and the
last
thing she cared about was her damned job. Pete Darrow had snatched Lizzie, Joshua might not be above harming her or both of them, and Titus Reading could think of nothing else to do but fire her?

“I ought to punch him out,” she ground out through her teeth.

“No time,” Cam said.

She glanced at him, feeling the color drain from her face as she took in his grim expression. “What is it, Cam?”

They were descending the stairs of the beautiful nineteenth-century offices of TJR Associates, moving fast. “Joshua's self-absorbed and amoral, Gabriella. If he's trapped, he'll do what he has to do to protect himself. If it means killing Lizzie and Pete and setting it up to blame everything on Darrow—”

“Then that's what he'll do.”

“And Titus knows it.”

The muscles twisted and tightened in Gabriella's stomach, and she stifled a wave of nausea as she and Cam came to the first-floor entrance. “You're sure?”

“I'm sure. He wasn't telling you he trusted his brother. He was telling himself. The guy's scared shitless Joshua's everything you know he is. He figures if he denies it, it won't be real.”

“But it is,” Gabriella said.

Cam gave her a faint smile, pushing open the door. “That's one of your charms, Gabby. You look reality square in the eye.”

“Sometimes I wish I didn't.”

“Understood.”

They returned to his car, double-parked out front. Gabriella sank back in the passenger seat, feeling wrung out, wanting to run and hide and pretend she'd never opened Lizzie's package, had never been out to Pettit Island. Yet she'd never been one to run and hide.

“When I was out on the water,” Cam said, pulling out onto the street, “I got to thinking about boats. Joshua owns a yacht, doesn't he?”

“Yes, he and Lizzie were planning to take a cruise south for their honeymoon.”

“Where's he dock it?”

“At a yacht club on the North Shore, but only for the winter. He'll keep it up at Reading Point for the summer. He plans to build a boathouse. Why?”

“I'm playing out a hunch.”

She narrowed her eyes. “You're not going to tell me, are you?”

“Gabriella—”

“Either start trusting me now, Cam, or stop this car and let me out.”

He sighed. “Joshua has to have stashed his weapons collection somewhere. I doubt it would be in his house, and I looked all over Reading Point. It would have to be somewhere he'd take Lizzie. So I think it might be his yacht.”

“His
yacht?
”

“I said it was a hunch.”

But before she could argue with him, she noticed that instead of turning north on the expressway, Cam had cut onto Memorial Drive. “Where are you going?”

“Scag's. It'll only take a couple minutes.”

“For what? He doesn't know anything about Joshua's guns or where Darrow's taking Lizzie.”

Cam's mouth was a thin line. “I'm dropping you off, Gabriella.”

She stiffened. “Don't I have any say?”

“I don't need a partner.” He kept his eyes pinned to the road. “This is something I know how to do. If I need backup, I'll get it. Right now I want to go in quiet, not escalate things unnecessarily.”

“Are you implying I'd go in blazing like some kind of crazy woman?”

He glanced at her, his eyes hooded, his expression impossible to read. “Let me do this, Gabriella. Know your limits.”

She slumped back in her seat, her arms crossed on her chest. As if she had any damned choice. She was a jumble of conflicting emotions and overstressed nerves. She wanted to do the right thing. Whatever it took to protect Lizzie Fairfax and nail Joshua Reading's hide to the wall, she wanted to do. She didn't want to get in the way. She didn't want to muck things up.

But Lizzie was counting on her. Lizzie had given her the chance to escape. If not for Lizzie, Gabriella would be with her and Pete Darrow. She'd known Lizzie since the third grade. Lizzie had helped her out of countless scrapes, had helped her father. They'd always counted on each other to be there.