Borrowed Identity (19 page)

“Hey,” he interrupted, holding up a finger. “I’ve been the only thing standing between you and a killer. Let’s not forget that.”

“Says you.” Kelly paced to the other side of the room. “You could be running another scam on me right now. I think you should leave.” She headed for the front door, determined to get rid of him.

“I’m not going anywhere until I find my brother’s murderer.”

“That’s what you think,” she said. “I’ll call the sheriff and have him throw your butt out if I have to. You have no right to be in my home. You weren’t invited.”

Kelly walked over to the phone on the table near the parlor door and picked up the receiver, but she didn’t get the chance to use the phone. Michael quickly snatched it from her fingers.

“I hardly knew my brother,” he said. “But deep down I know there was good in him. I have to find his killer.” His dark eyes purposely drifted to the winding staircases. “And you can’t stay here alone right now. It’s too dangerous.”

“I think I need protection from you more than I do from some phantom killer. For all I know you were the one who tried to strangle me.”

“You don’t believe that.” His voice softened as he approached her. “Come on. Let me stay a little longer. I believe the so-called phantom killer is lingering nearby, watching you and me and this house. I can catch him if you give me the chance. Then I’ll leave you to your life. Sound fair?”

She shrugged her shoulders, grudgingly giving him permission to stay. “Do what you want. I don’t care. But don’t think you’re going to weasel your way back into my bed. I hate you more than I’ve ever hated anyone in my entire life.”

“That’s probably for the best,” Michael said.

“You betrayed me in the worst possible way. I won’t forget it. There isn’t anything you could say or do to make this all right.”

He nodded in agreement.

“So,” he asked, “where did you find my badge?”

“Wade found it, and don’t you dare go after him. He meant well. He was trying to protect me.”

“I hope so,” Michael said. “I hope you’re right about him.”

“I am,” she said with confidence. “You’ll see. Anyway,” she added, “I trust him a lot more than I trust you at the moment.”

Michael folded his arms over his chest. He wanted to
reach out to her, ease her pain, but she wasn’t ready to open her heart to him. Perhaps she never would be.

“I hope someday you’ll be able to understand why all this subterfuge was necessary. I wanted to protect you from the truth about Jimmy and I figured the less you knew about the murder, the safer you would be.”

“Who do you think you are? Who gave you the right to make decisions for me?” A horrible thought occurred to her. “Am I married to Jimmy? Was that part a dream?”

“No, it wasn’t a dream, but the marriage isn’t legal. If it was, you’d be married to me, not to Jimmy. He used my name, remember?”

Her cheeks burned hot-pink.

Unable to resist, Michael reached for her. She dodged his embrace, walking in a wide circle around him.

“What happened to the body?” she asked.

“A friend of mine took it to a morgue in Kansas City, and a forensic team from the home office was sent to do an autopsy. Jimmy was bludgeoned to death.”

“What about the crime scene?” She hesitated before asking, “Did you clean it up? The blood and everything?”

“Yes.” Her bathroom, the way it had appeared that night, came to life in his mind. He hated thinking about it. But she deserved answers. “I gathered the evidence before I destroyed it. The agency has given me free rein just in case Landis is behind it. They want him put away before he can kill any other agents.”

“How many has he killed so far?”

“More than one.” It was a lame answer, but he couldn’t tell her. “It’s classified.”

“Oh. Right…” Kelly stepped out of the parlor and glanced up at the staircase. “The wallpaper will have to be replaced,” she murmured distractedly. “It reeks in here.”

If she felt more comfortable changing the subject, Mi
chael wasn’t going to stop her. “The fire chief told me the kitchen is a total mess,” he answered.

“The kitchen!”

Her mouth fell open in horror. Kelly’s feet pounded against the marble as she raced across the foyer. She shoved the kitchen door open and froze like one of the statues in the foyer.

The kitchen was indeed a mess. The cabinets were gone, nothing but charred ashes on the floor. The stove and refrigerator were done for, too. In fact, Michael didn’t see a solitary item they could salvage.

Kelly stood immobile, her eyes blazing with fury.

“I can’t believe it,” she said quietly. “Wade and I put hours of work into remodeling this room. We put in new cabinets and appliances. It’s destroyed.”

“It can be fixed again,” Michael said, trying to get her to focus on the bright side. “At least it’s the only room with this much damage.”

“And at least no one was killed,” she said.

“That’s right.” He wrapped an arm around her waist from behind and whispered in her ear. Making love to her and then almost losing her in a fire weighed down on his already overloaded emotional state. He couldn’t restrain himself from touching her every chance he got. His body ached to possess her again. “We both got out safely. I don’t mind telling you, you had me scared.”

“Why is that?” She stood stiff in his arms.

“I thought you were going to die.”

“And that would have mattered to you?”

“You matter to me,” he admitted.

“If that were so—” she shoved his arm away and turned hostile eyes on him “—you would have trusted me with the truth.”

“I wanted to.”

“What stopped you? You could have told me if you’d
really wanted to. You made the decision. Now you can live with the consequences.”

He wanted to say more. He wanted to tell her how his heart beat harder every time he thought of her. In truth, he hadn’t felt like this about a woman in a very long time. But it wouldn’t be fair to Kelly to share his growing feelings with her. In the end he was going to return to his job, a profession that didn’t have a good track record when it came to relationships.

The agency trained their people to lie convincingly. In certain situations a lie could save a life. However, a lasting relationship needed trust, honesty and open communication. The agency was against all three when it came to their people. The less others knew about the CIA and its workings, the easier it was to continue with business as usual.

“I’m sorry I hurt you,” Michael said. “Whether you believe it or not, you’ve become a very important part of my life.”

Kelly glared at him, “My house almost burned to the ground. Then I find out I’m sharing my bed with a liar. Excuse me if I don’t believe your pretty words now.”

He hated the look of betrayal in her eyes, but it was probably for the best if she loathed the sight of him. Kelly wasn’t going to move away from Moore House, from her safe haven. She wouldn’t put up with being practically abandoned as he went off to other countries to work a mission. He couldn’t see her standing beside him at a dinner party or skiing in Aspen.

She would always believe other people were staring at her scars, feeling sorry for her.

She didn’t know how beautiful she was.

“I want to introduce you to my friend Paddy. He’s been working on the case with me. I realize you don’t have any reason to trust me, but maybe you’ll believe him if he tells you my hands were tied. I wanted to tell you, but I couldn’t.
He’s probably down the road in a gray sedan as we speak. I’ll just wave him in.”

“I saw him on the way to Margo’s, didn’t I?”

The lady had a mind like a steel trap. Hard to get one by her.

“Yes. Again, I apologize. If there was any way I could have told you the truth from the beginning, I would have.”

Kelly nodded, but her eyes were clouded with bitterness. He wasn’t reaching her yet. She had a lot to digest. Hopefully he would be forgiven tomorrow. Or the next day. Hell, he would be happy if she forgave him at some point this side of eternity.

“I want to search Margo’s house,” he added. “Your mother mentioned something about plans to this place and other things being hidden there.”

“I think Margo would have noticed them by now,” Kelly said. “Her home isn’t that big.”

“Still, I’m going to search there.”

“Fine. I want to go with you.” She gasped. “Oh no. I forgot about Boomer. Where is he? Did he get out?”

“I don’t know where he is at the moment, but Paddy saw him last night. He was fine. Don’t worry.”

“Thank God. I wouldn’t want to have to explain his death to Margo.” She gestured to the doorway. “Well, what are we waiting for?”

She lifted a chin in that stubborn tilt. There was nothing he could say to convince her to stay behind. It would be a waste of energy and time.

“You want to help me search your neighbor’s house?”

“Yes,” she said. “Now that I know you’re a secret agent and that a murder took place in my home, I want to help you catch the guy. Two heads are better than one, and the sooner we find out the killer’s identity, the sooner you can leave.”

Her aim was clear and true. The barbed arrow hit Mi
chael’s heart, dead center. She wanted to see the back of him.

He hid the hurt from her watchful gaze, assuring himself it was for the best. He would be leaving soon, anyway. At least he wouldn’t hurt her when he left, if she already wanted him gone.

Michael motioned for her to exit the kitchen ahead of him.

Kelly walked out, spine rigidly straight. If he lived to be a hundred, he wouldn’t meet another woman like Kelly Hall. He had the feeling she was going to be one of his deepest, darkest regrets.

T
HE SNOW WAS FALLING
more heavily now. Kelly snuggled into her jacket and climbed into her truck before Michael could offer to drive. She gunned the engine as he jumped inside. He barely had time to shut his door before they were flying down the road in the direction of Margo’s house. Kelly glanced into her rearview mirror, spotting the gray sedan with his friend inside.

“How long has he been watching my house?”

“A couple weeks,” Michael said with seeming reluctance. “He’s the one who tracked Jimmy down for me. Then he notified me and waited for my arrival. When we found Jimmy dead, he went into surveillance mode. He’s been watching the house to make sure no one sneaks up on us in the dead of night.”

“Did it occur to him that maybe he should warn me about Jimmy rather than watch from the bushes?”

“I hired him to watch. I didn’t want him to approach you or Jimmy. Especially with Landis on the loose.” Michael explained, “The agency doesn’t usually allow civilians to help them out, but I couldn’t have an agent contacting me here. Paddy is less suspicious than a dark suit. If you’d seen him, if someone else had stopped to question his presence,
he would have said he was working on a missing person’s case or maybe a cheating lover.” He shrugged. “Paddy has been my go-between with the agency, but he’s taking his orders directly from me. It was my call for him not to alert you.”

Kelly mulled the situation over. No matter how many times Michael insisted he’d lied for her own good, she couldn’t get past the hurt and betrayal. He could have told her if he’d really wanted to.

Now it all made sense—the changes in him, the way he’d looked at her.

She should have stayed behind and let him search Margo’s house alone. She wanted to cry her eyes out for a few hours. Jimmy had been faking his love for her. Michael had made love to her, but he didn’t have any real feelings for her. He’d been playing a dangerous game to catch a killer, and using her to do it.

Her feelings for him churned in sickening circles. Part of her wanted to wring his neck. The other part wanted to demand to know if anything he’d told her was true. Had everything been a lie?

Who would want to chain himself to something that looks like you?

Her memory returned with a thunderous flash. She remembered Jimmy standing over her after drugging her glass of champagne. He’d confessed to using her, then had laughed about it. He’d laughed at her right to her face when she’d been in no position to defend herself. She’d lain there helplessly as he tore her world asunder.

She looks like an angel.

She remembered bits and pieces of Michael’s arrival, as well. Michael had told somebody, probably his partner, that she resembled an angel.

“Watch out!”

Michael’s shout brought her crashing back to the present,
to find him wrestling the steering wheel from her grasp. The truck was heading into the ditch. Michael forced it onto the road again as her foot slammed down on the brakes.

The wheels squealed, sending a cloud of dust into the air.

“Are you trying to kill us?” Michael cried.

“No,” she said. “I just remembered the night Jimmy drugged me. I was seeing it as if it was happening again.”

Michael stared at her, his dark eyes huge. “Great. Tell me. Did you see anything that could help me find Jimmy’s killer?”

“No,” she repeated. “At least I don’t think so. Jimmy was saying horrible things to me.”

“Like what?”

“How nobody would ever want a girl like me. He told me my scars were hideous and he had to pretend I was somebody else every time he kissed me.”

Michael swore viciously beneath his breath, but she heard every word.

She ignored his outburst and closed her eyes, trying to remember as much as she possibly could. “He was running around the room like a chicken with its head cut off. I don’t know why. It was as if he was looking for something. He disappeared into the bathroom for a long time.” She sighed. “That’s it. That’s all I can remember.”

“And you didn’t see anyone else?”

She shook her head. Jimmy had been the only person in the room with her when she’d lost consciousness. She was sure of it.

“I heard someone call me angel. Was that you?”

“Yeah.” Michael turned to stare out the window while he answered her. She wasn’t able to read his expression. “I told Paddy you looked like an angel in that stunning white dress you were wearing. I wouldn’t have been surprised to see wings attached to your spine.”