Books by Maggie Shayne (18 page)

"You are leaving tonighl~, But not for New York." While she tried to make sense of his words, Torch went to the telephone stand, scribbled something on a sheet of paper and ripped it from the pad that sat there.

"Take this."

She did. A telephone number.

Alex frowned. '~I don't"-- " Keep it with you, Alex. If anything goes wrong"-- His words were cut off by a knock on the door.

Torch stared at her a moment onger,~ and she saw the anguish in his eyes. Then he turned away. She was surprised to see him pull the gun from his waistband before he went to the door. Standing to one side, he asked, "Who is it?" "D.C.," a voice answered. .

Torch nodded and opened the door. The man who entered was a head shorter than Torch, and about fifty pounds heavier. His hair stuck up straight in a snowy brush cut, and his eyes were pale, piercing blue.

Like small, pale ice chips, peering at her from behind rectangular bifocals. The color of his eyes matched the suit he wore.

His first act, after closing the door behind him, was to clasp Torch's hand in both of his.

"You look good, Torch. I knew coming back to work would agree with you."

Torch shook his hand, then glanced toward Alexandra. She'd been trying to surreptitiously knuckle her eyes dry, trying to bounce back from Torch's cruel rejection.

 
"Alexandra Holt, this is D.C. Wayne," Torch said, lowering his hand to his side.

"We work together."

She nodded, muttering some inane greeting, absently stuffing the slip of paper into her jeans pocket, and searching Torch's face. Something was going on here. He wasn't surprised at D.C. "s arrival.

"The formula?"

Torch nodded, and turned to take the spiral notebook from where he'd tucked it under the mattre when they'd first arrived. Alex couldn't help sucking a breath through her teeth when he handed it over.

And Torch must have heard it, or sensed her concerns, because he turned to her, faced her squarely and put both hands on her shoulders.

"I trust thi.q man implicitly, Alex."

"Like I trusted my father?" She didn't know what made her blurt the words. They jumped from her tongue before she could think about them.

She looked up at D.C. standing beh/nd Torch.

"I'm sorry. No offense."

He nodded, sm~ing gently at her, looking for all the world like someone's. kindly grandfather. Comforting. Understanding. "

"It's all right, Ms. Holt. I know this is difficult. Believe me, you'll he as safe as if you were in your own. mother's arms."

She blinked at the reference to a mother she'd never known, then frowned as the rest of his words sank in. "What do you mean?" Her gaze flicked back to Torch. "What's going on?"

"I want you to go with him, Alex; He'll take you to a secure place for the night. By tomorrow it should be perfectly safe for you to go on to "New York or wherever you want, but" -- She pulled from his grasp, shaking her head.

"This doesn't make any sense. It's over, Torch. You gave the notebook to D.C. I don't under" -- "Scorpion has no way of knowing that."

She blinked.

"You don't want him to know it. You think he's going to come after you tonight, don't you, Torch? And you want me out of the way."

Torch said nothing, but he broke eye contact, looking down at the floor.

She blinked back tears and went to stand face-to-face with D.C.

"If you're truly his friend, you won't let him do this. He's not going to arrest Scorpion, he's going to kill him. Or die trying. You can't let him" -- "Now, calm down, Ms. Holt," D.C. intoned, and his big voice was confident and deep and soothing.

"Torch isn't gonna do anything foolish. I'm not gonna let him lay in wait all by himself. He'll have backup and plenty of it."

She turned to face Torch, a feeling of dread settling in the pit of her stomach.

"Don't do thi.q."

D.C. kept right on talking, as if unaware of the emotional undercurrents snapping on the air between Torch and her.

"If he has to worry about keeping you safe, though, he might screw up.

Let his guard down. Believe me, Ms. Holt, he'll be far better off tonight if he knows you're somewhere safe, out of harm's way."

' "Torch..."

Torch lifted his head.

"Go with him. Please, Alex, for God's sake, don't make this any harder than it is."

She shook her head.

"No. I'm not" -- D.C. Wayhe's hand closed on her arm gently but firmly. "I'm sorry, Ms. Holt. Try to understand, Scorpion is an international terrorist.

He's responsible for countless murders, bombings, kidnappings . the list goes on and on. We can't risk his escaping again, no matter what we have to do to prevent it. "

She tugged her arm away, annoyed at his interference in what was a private matter between her and Torch.

"I said I'm not going."

"I have the authority to arrest you, Ms. Holt."

Her gaze flew to Torch's.

"I'm sorry, Alex. It's for your own protection."

 
She looked at Torch in stark disbelief, and the pain in his eyes almost brought her to her knees.

"It's a choice, Torch. You know that, don't you? It's a choice between a chan at living again, with me... and your vendetta against Scorpion."

He lowered his head.

"This is something I have to do, Alex ." ' So he knew. He understood.

And he was choosing hatred over love.

"Do you know how good it would have been between us?" she whispered.

"Do you have any. idea what ~ you're throwing away?"

"Yeah." His voice was so choked it was barely audible. ~ "Yeah, I do."

"I was falling in love with you."

He licked his lips. Goodbye, Alex. " His words stung like the lash of a whip. Tears surged into her eyes, and she bit her lip to stop it from trembling." She didn't have any idea how to fight this, or what she could do to change Torch's mind. So she finally nodded, but she held his gaze, and without uttering another word, she begged him not to go through with this madness.

D.C. patted her shoulder in an almost fatherly gesture and gently led her out the door. She held Torch's gaze all the way down the hall, as he stood in the doorway, apparently unable to look away. D:C. stepped into the elevator, and Alex went with him. And when the doors slid closed, she felt as if they'd sliced her heart in half. The most vital part stayed. behind. With Torch.

The elevator doors closed, and that was good, because it stopped him from seeing the pain in her eyes.

He stepped back into the hotel room, and he closed the door. He felt a quake moving up through his body, until he vibrated with the effort of trying to hold it inside. And then he gave up.

His fist hit the table so hard the plates jumped from the surface, and pain flashed through the wound in his shoulder. He tipped his head backward, a grimace pulling at his facial muscles until they hurt, and he battled the inexplicable acidic burn behind his eyes. He swore at the top of his lungs, berating the ceiling and the walls.

And the reason he was punching inanimate objects and sweating a blue streak was because the only alternative would have been to sink to the floor and cry like a baby.

It had nearly killed him to lie to her that way! Torn him apart to have to hurt her, to break her heart in order to keep her alive.

He. "d known it would be hard. He hadn't realized just how hard, though. He hadn't realized that seeing the pain he'd inflicted, shimmering in those doe eyes, would make him hate himself. He hadn't expected her to tell him she had been falling in love with him.

"Had been" being the operative phrase. He'd ruined it. Because she was right. But . it should be different, shouldn't it? Once she realized he was only sending her away for her own safety. Maybe. maybe if he survived this, he could find her again, explain to her that he hadn't meant the things he'd said. That he'd hurt her because it was the only way he could be sure she'd go with D.C. Maybe she'd forgive him and understand . Do you have any idea what you're throwing away ? Torch closed his eyes and sank slowly into a chair as her words came back to him in that smoky voice, made huskier by pain. Who the hell was he kidding?

He knew it wouldn't matter if he explained himself. Alex knew it, too.

She'd been so right. He'd made a choice tonight. He;d chosen to hold on to his need for vengeance rather than let it go and embrace the salvation she offered him. He could have handed that formula over to D. C. " taken Alex and left. They could have gone someplace together...

started over.

But no. He'd chosen to stay here and await his longtime enemy. He'd chosen a man. he hated over a woman he. What?

He didn't know, Maybe now he'd never find out.

He must be a complete fool.

He showered, dressed, rebandaged his throbbing shoulder, and cleaned and loaded his weapons while he waited. He knew the drill. By now Alexandra was installed someplace safe, and D.C. had twenty men stationed in and around the hotel. Torch knew they'd get Scorpion the second the man showed his face. But he'd get a shot at the bastard before this night was over. ' He tried to picture Scorpion's cold eyes ins his mind, but instead, he saw Alexandra's. Wide and brown and hurt.

 
Those eyes that healed a man just by looking at him. Those beautiful, sexy, mesmerizing eyes.

He had put tears in them. Torch laid the gun down on the dresser, closed his eyes, tried to erase the longing for her that grew stronger with every breath, every second.

Was this what the rest of his life would be like? Was killing Scorpion worth this?

No.

The answer came to him as clearly and precisely as if it had been spoken aloud. No. It was that simple. Scorpion would be apprehended if he showed up here tonight. It wouldn't matter if Torch was here or not.

What mattered. what really mattered right now, was Alex.

He'd made a choice tonight. The wrong choice.

God, he'd thrown away his last chance at redemption. He'd thrown away a woman unlike any other he'd ever known. Or ever would. Alexandra Holt had been falling in love with him. And he'd chased her away.

The sheer magnitude of his own foolishness hit him with the force of a tidal wave. What was he,-an idiot? Was he insane?

But it wasn't over yet. It couldn't be over. Maybe there was still time to make things right.

Torch tucked his favorite gun into his waistband before pulling on his leather jacket. Then he paused to inhale, and he smelled Alexandra's scent clinging to the leather. The longing stabbed deeper. He quickened his pace as he left the room, almost ran through the hall to the elevator and then rode it down to the lobby. It occurred to him, as he crossed the marbled floor to the front entrance, that the I-CAT team, who must be here, were doing an excellent job of concealing their presence. And then he hailed a cab and left them to do their job without him. They'd see him leaving.

They'd get the idea. They were skilled enough to he able to handle a simple ambush on their own.

 
As the hotel faded in the distance behind him, Torch felt a peculiar lightness. A stupid grin kept tugging at his lips. He'd made the right decision.

Then tension knotted his Stomach as he wondered whether Alex would forgive him for not making it sooner.

Ah, well, he'd soon find out. The cab dropped him off outside the downtown office building that housed the ~ cret I-CAT headquarters.

He paid the driver and headed inside, only to run smack into Doug Stero, who was hurrying out.

"Danre, why don't you watch where you're" -- Stero met Torch's eyes and stopped in mid-sentence.

"Palamaro. What the hell are you doing here?"

Torch sighed.

"I know, I'm supposed to be at the hotel waiting for Scorpion, but I've got to see Alex."

Stern blinked.

"I don't have a clue what you're talking about."

"D.C. didn't tell you?" At Stern's blank stare, Torch went on.

"I knew he didn't let you know I was going after the formula, Stern, but I assumed he'd have brought you in on things now that he has it. "

Every drop of color left Doug Stero's face.

"Tell me you're not talking about the Holt case."

"That's exactly what I'm talking about. Look, Stero, I know you still hold me responsible for Marcy's death. I don't blame you. Hell, I wouldn't have done this for D.C. at all, if the chance to get Scorpion hadn't been a part of it. But it's over. I got the damned formula. I did my part. Now I've changed my mind about the protective custody for Alexandra. I want her back."

"Protective custody? For Alexandra ... Alexandra Holt?" Torch nodded.

"I think I finally understand why you hate my guts so much, Stem. If you felt at enth for Marcy the way I feel for Alex... it's a wonder you didn't put a bullet between my eyes a long time ago."

 
Stem gaped, then drew a breath.

"I did worse than that to you."

"What?"

He shook his head.

"Look, Palamaro, you're telling me you went after Holt's formula at D.C." s request. You turned it over to him, and then you let him take the Holt woman into custody? "

"Yeah. For her own protection. I was planning..~" Torch swallowed hard.

"I was planning to murder Scorpion tonight."

Stem took a few staggering steps forward, sinking into one of the half circle of chairs, backed by a like-shaped bank of windows in the building's main lobby. Then he lowered his head into his hands.

A lead ball began forming in the pit of Torch's stomach. "Stern, what the hell is going on?"

Stero lifted his head.

"D.C. Wayne doesn't work for us anymore.

Torch, for a year now, I've suspected him of selling information.

I've been watching him but haven't been able to get anything solid on him. Not yet anyway. "

Torch's throat was rapidly going dry.

"Selling information... to whom?"

"Scorpion."

The word hit Torch like a blow to the solar plexus. So much so that he felt himself flinch, felt the air rush out of him.

"I thought..." Stero~went on.

"I thought you were working with him.

Dammit, you two were best friends even before you joined the I-CAT.

He's the one who recruited you. So when it looked like he was involved in the bombing that killed Marcy, I assumed you were in on it, too.

Especially since the device was so well made. and so much like Scorpion's work. Only you and D.C. knew his methods that well.

And only you had the skill to duplicate them. " Torch swore, but Stern kept talking.

"I figured Marcy knew something, stumbled onto some information she shouldn't have..."

Stern trailed off, shaking his head.

But Torch wasn't hearing him anymore. He was replaying that last conversation he'd ever had with his wife. It caught like a scratched LP, skipping back to the same phrase over and over again. We ran into D.C. today. We ran into D.C. today. We ran into D.C. today.

"No!"

Torch closed his eyes at the sound of it, gave it a mental kick to make it play out and die away. And then he heard the rest. ,t the mall. He was talking to some guy with. oh, hey, I have to go.

Someone's at the door. I'll tell you all about it tonight.

Only she hadn't. Instead, she'd been killed fight before his eyes.

Killed because Scorpion had planted one of his trademark devices in the house. When he shouldn't even have known where the house was.

When he shouldn't have known anything about Torch's family.

So how had he known?

He was talking to some guy with. With what, Marcy? Torch wondered.

With pink eyes and shocking white hair?

Torch grated his teeth.

"It was D.C. Good God, it was D.C. all along.

Marcy saw him that day, she and the boys ran into him at the mall.

They said he was with someone. With Scorpion, probably. Scorpion and D.C. " and they both knew Marcy and the boys had seen them. They both knew all it would take was one mention of the odd-looking man, for me to put it together." . " His head fell until his chin touched his chest.

"They killed my kids. Those bastards killed..."

Torch's head came up fast, and before he knew what he was doing, he had Stern by the front of his shirt, lifting him right up out of the chair.

"Those bastards have Alexandra!"

 
Stern pulled himself free, smoothing his shirt.

"They also have a virus capable of wiping out entire nations, Palamaro.

We'll get them."

Torch was reeling, his mind spinning out of control. A sheen of moisture coated his face and his neck, and he felt himself beginning to shake "I made her go with him, Ste~n. Damreit, she didn't want to.

I..."

Torch couldn't go on. All he could see was the hurt in Alexandra's brown eyes. He'd handed her over to a killer.

"We'll have every resource at our disposal on this within ten minutes,"

Stern said.

"We'll get them this time. We'll get that form uh and we'll get the Holt woman." Stern turned toward the revolving doors that led to the street, and the shocked and slightly guilty expression faded from his countenance. He squared his shoulders, once again looking every inch the man in charge.

"Park yourself somewhere. I'll get in Wuch as soon as we know anything."

"The hell I will."

Stern paused in his rush for the door, facing Torch once more.

"I want in on this, Stern. And after what you believed of me, you owe me that much."

Stem lowered his gaze from Torch's, conceding more easily than Torch had ever seen him do. His back bowed a little, and he shifted his feet. He looked like a man carrying one hell of a burden. A man filled with regret and again, guilt. More guilt than he ought to, if all he'd done was misjudge Torch. More, even, than seemed appropriate for having suspected a man of murdering his own children. What the hell was going on with him?

Stern cleared his throat, nodding hard.

"I owe you a hell of a lot more than that, Palamaro."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

Stern shook his head.

"I'd like to be alive to close this case," he said, and there was no lightness in his tone to indicate he was kidding or being sarcastic.

"So I'll explain it Forever," Dad to you later. " He closed his eyes briefly.

"Dammit, Torch, I'm sorry."

The remorse was incredible. Practically oozing from Stern's pores.

"I don't have a clue what the hell you're" -- "Come on," Stern said, not letting Torch finish.

"I've had a man tailing D.C. for days. I knew he was up to something the second he resigned. We'll call him from my ear, see if we can catch up to the bastard."

Raining. Great. A perfect match for a perfect mood. Snowing up north, no doubt. Raining here. She thought about commuter flights and ice-coated wings, and wondered if it would stop raining by the time. she was free. to catch a plane to New York. And then she shook her head, knowing it didn't matter. She wasn't going anywhere. Not until she saw Torch again.

She supposed she was a fool for wan ling to. Especially after he'd made his feelings--or lack of them--so perfectly clear to her. But she couldn't just walk away without knowing what happened to him tonight.

She had to know that he was okay. And beyond that, she needed to know that the formula her father had developed wouldn't be responsible for countless deaths.

And she had to, maybe, look/ into Torchis eyes just once and see that it was really over. Because she hadn't seen that in those blue eyes tonight. Not at all.

D.C. hadn't said a word since they'd gotten into the car. They'd driven away from the bustling streets and into rural areas, Virginia perhaps. And she was beginning to wonder just how far away this safe house of his was.

The car continued steadily onward, wipers slapping water from the glass, headlights piercing the gloom. And then he pulled to a stop in front of what looked like a warehouse. Only. it seemed abandoned.

 
"What is this place?" she asked, squinting through the windshield, trying to make sense of what she saw. Broken windows, bowing walls.

"Why are you stopping here?"

D.C. didn't turn to face her. Very softly he said, "I'm sorry." ' Then the door at her back was yanked open from outside, and she whirled at the unexpected blast of cold, wind-driven raindrops.

The interior lights came on when the door opened, and they were enough to illuminate the pink eyes and colorless hair of the albino she'd thought she'd only see again in a nightmare.