Danger Zone (31 page)

Jim struggled to throw off Colter’s viselike grip while Karen prayed to disappear or at least transubstantiate into one of the chairs. After a stunned second or two she recovered and grabbed Colter’s arm, hissing into his ear, “Let go of him this instant, or I promise you I will never speak to you again.”

Colter relaxed his grip reluctantly, and Jim shrugged, straightening his collar.

“Ready to leave?” he asked Karen, as if the previous exchange had not happened.

Karen closed her eyes briefly. This was like a nightmare. Her only concern was to end it as efficiently as possible.

“Jim,” she said, with more calm that she felt, “I really do have to talk to him. I think it would be best if you just went home and let me get this straightened out.”

“I’m not leaving you with him!” Jim said, as astonished as if she had suggested sacking a church.

“Real brave, aren’t you?” Colter said with a derisive smile, and Jim took a belligerent step toward him.

“Be quiet!” Karen said to Colter, and he fell back, scowling. Jim watched him, ready to go at it again if he moved.

“Please, Jim, for me?” Karen said, touching his arm.

Jim looked down at her. “Are you sure that’s what you want?”

“I’m sure.”

“You know how to get in touch if you need me,” he said.

“She won’t need you,” Colter interjected.

Karen looked at him. He turned his head, flexing his shoulders.

“I don’t like this,” Jim said.

“I’ll be fine.”

“All right,” he said, sighing, and just as Karen was congratulating herself on getting him to leave, the police arrived. A cruiser pulled up to the door and two cops got out, one swinging a nightstick. Karen switched from a mental prayer to a full blown litany.

“What’s the trouble here?” the older of the patrolmen said to the group at large.

“No trouble, Officer,” Karen babbled, “just a misunderstanding.”

“Is that right?” the cop asked Colter, who was clearly an unhappy man.

Colter shrugged. “Whatever she says.”

The cop looked at Jim.

“I was just leaving,” Jim said. He’d had enough. Defending his date’s honor was one thing but getting arrested was another.

“Why did you call us?” the cop said to the maitre d’, annoyed.

The little man shrugged. “It looked like a fight was brewing. I didn’t want to take the chance.”

Karen glanced around at the other diners. They were all watching the scene, riveted. Clearly she and her men friends were more entertaining than the food, or even the nine o’clock movie at home.

“Yeah, well, wait until you see blood the next time, will ya?” the cop said wearily and walked off, his partner following him.

Jim and Colter and Karen looked at one another.

“Good night,” Jim said shortly and left.

Colter and Karen looked at each other.

“‘Please, Jim, for me,’” Colter said in a sugary voice, batting his lashes, imitating Karen.

“Don’t you start,” Karen told him furiously. “You’re lucky I’m even talking to you. How dare you barge in here and make me the feature attraction in this place? We’ve already had the police; I feel like Mayor Koch will be next, and maybe Eyewitness News.”

“At least you got rid of what’s his name,” Colter muttered darkly.

“I did that so you wouldn’t beat him up,” Karen responded sharply.

“Good thing, too. He was one step away from an intensive care ward.”

“I’m afraid I’ll have to ask you to leave,” the maitre d’ said bravely, interrupting their heated exchange.

Colter looked at him, and the smaller man shrank back.

“We’re going,” Karen said with as much dignity as she could muster, which wasn’t a lot. She shouldered into her coat and grabbed Colter’s hand, dragging him after her. They were the focus of stares and mutterings until they reached the sidewalk, where Karen closed her eyes and took a deep breath of the frigid air. She exhaled sharply and turned to Colter.

“You have two minutes to explain yourself,” she said.

“Do I have to do it in the street?” he asked. “It’s ten degrees out here.”

Karen glanced across the road. “There’s a coffee shop over there.”

They ran through the intersection, dodging a taxi that bore down on them with typical indifference, and ducked into the door of a Chock Full O’Nuts. The place was open round-the-clock and packed at that hour with people seeking to escape the winter chill.

Colter took Karen’s coat and hung it from a hook outside their booth. He left his on and sat across from her, following her every move. A light snow began to fall, and Karen watched the thin flakes drift past the neon sign outside the window behind his head.

A waitress approached and Colter ordered two coffees. After she left he said to Karen, “So who was that guy?”

“Jim?”

He continued to eye her narrowly, as if waiting for an explanation.

“A lawyer I work with,” Karen said.

“A lawyer?”

“That’s right.”

He nodded, as if he’d expected as much. “Didn’t take you long, did it?” he asked cynically.

“To what?”

“Hook up with Mr. Wonderful.”

Karen stared at him.

“He looks like he just can’t wait to take on the mortgage and the kiddies and the whole nine yards.”

Karen sighed.

“Are you sleeping with him yet?” Colter asked.

Karen stood immediately, reaching for her purse.

Colter bolted into her path and grabbed her arm. “Wait,” he said, holding her still. “Please wait. Stay with me.”

Karen tried to wrest free of his grasp. “Why? To take more of this abuse?”

“No more,” he said contritely. “I promise. Just sit down, okay?”

Karen sat stiffly, torn between anger at his offensive tactics and joy at the strong emotion that motivated them.

“I was just... jealous,” he said, not looking at her.

“Why would you be jealous?” Karen demanded. “You told me in no uncertain terms that it was over between us. Did you think I would spend all my time in a state of mourning and not even try to get my life together?”

“It seems you’ve done that,” he said shortly.

“Well, I have a job I like.”

“And a new boyfriend.”

Karen closed her eyes. “Steven, he’s not my boyfriend. If you must know tonight was my first date with him.”

“He took you to a pretty fancy place,” Colter said, unconvinced.

“Can we drop the subject of Jim and discuss why you’re here?” Karen said, exasperated.

“I missed you,” he said quietly.

“Did you think you wouldn’t?”

“I didn’t think it would be so bad.”

The waitress brought their coffee. Karen took a sip of hers as the woman walked away and Colter added, “The time in Lebanon was like hell.”

Karen said nothing, waiting tensely for him to go on.

“The whole place is a desert; the sun is relentless. It was just a featureless inferno, and the job was tedious, and I missed you more than I could believe.”

“You mean you missed me this time, until you have a chance to think about it and decide all over again that it wouldn’t work.”

He looked down at his hands. “I guess I deserved that.”

“Yes, you did.”

“So you can’t forgive me?”

“I already forgave you, Steven. But you just can’t pop up every time you have second thoughts and disrupt my life again. You made a decision and I’m trying to adjust to it. What you’re doing tonight isn’t helping.”

“What if I don’t want you to adjust to it?”

Karen studied his face, her breath catching in her throat. “I don’t understand.”

He put his head back against the wall and closed his eyes.

“I’ve been so lonely,” he said softly.

“Me, too,” Karen murmured.

“I had the best,” he said, looking at her. “I threw it away, and now I’m just trying to get it back.”

“What makes you think you have a chance of doing that?” Karen asked him.

“You love me,” he answered. “That didn’t change in a month.”

“How do you know?”

“Because I know you.”

“But aren’t you worried about me anymore?” Karen asked, unable to resist it. “Aren’t you worried that you won’t be able to take care of me, that someone else would be better for me?”

“Yes,” he conceded.

“Then why are you here?”

“Because I’m more worried about myself,” he answered, with an unmistakable note of despair in his voice.

Karen knew this was a difficult admission for him. She waited in silence for him to continue.

“I can’t make it without you,” he said quietly. “I’ll change, I’ll do anything you want, but please don’t sentence me to the life I had before we met. I can’t go back to it; it’s as simple as that.”

Karen was curiously calm. She had pictured him saying these words so many times. But now that she was hearing them, there was an air of unreality about the experience, as if she were still imagining it.

“I know I’m not the husband of your dreams,” he went on.

“I never said that, Steven. You did,” she reminded him.

“But,” he continued, as if she hadn’t spoken, “I contacted a guy who offered me a job once before, to see if he had anything interesting.”

“And?”

“He does. He wants me to head a government counter terrorist unit based in Washington. It’s a desk job in the Southwest.” He hesitated, clearing his throat. “If I take it, will you come with me?”

“As your wife?” Karen asked, her blood pounding in her ears.

He nodded, his jaw working nervously.

“You’re asking me to marry you?” she whispered.

He nodded again, his gaze fixed on hers.

Karen bent her head, overcome with emotion, unable to speak. He watched her for a long moment and then said dully, “No, huh?”

She looked up at him, her eyes swimming with tears.

“Too little and too late, right?” he said, his face a sullen mask.

Karen opened her mouth. He held up his hand. “It’s okay; you don’t have to explain,” he said. “I know what I put you through, and I understand. But it hurts too much to stay, knowing how you feel, so I’m going to take off now, all right?” He paused, swallowing. “Let me just leave you with one thought, Karen. No matter what happens, even if I never see you again, I’ll love you as long as I live.”

Karen found her voice. “I love you, too, Steven. Of course I’ll marry you.” She slipped her hand inside his on the table as his face went blank with surprise, then suffused with relief.

He raised her hand to his mouth. “Do you mean it?” he asked, as if afraid to believe his good fortune.

“Yes.”

He pulled her out of the booth into the aisle and swept her into his arms. It was the second time that evening they’d made a spectacle of themselves but Karen no longer cared.

“I was so afraid you wouldn’t come back to me,” he said brokenly in her ear.

They clung together for a long moment, then he dropped some money onto the table and led Karen out of the shop. The second they hit the street he embraced her again, kissing her wildly, the falling snow wetting their hair and skin and clinging to their eyelashes.

“Let’s go someplace,” he murmured urgently.

“Someplace?”

“A hotel.”

“Where are you staying?”

He shrugged. “I rented a car as soon as I got off the plane and came to find you.”

They both looked around. “This is New York City; there must be a million places here,” Karen said.

“The Waldorf is just down the block.”

“The Waldorf?” Karen said, laughing.

“We’ll start the honeymoon early.”

They ran hand in hand through the storm and arrived in the hotel lobby, cold, wet, and happy. Colter booked a room at the desk while Karen pushed back her damp hair and tried to defrost her feet, feeling dazzled and supremely grateful. A few hours earlier she’d thought that Colter would remain nothing more than a memory, and now she was going to marry him.

He returned brandishing a room key like a trophy. “Let’s go,” he said.

He meant it. When the elevator didn’t arrive fast enough he dragged Karen up three flights of stairs and unlocked the door before she could catch her breath.

“This is lovely,” Karen said, glancing around the room when he turned on the light.

“You’re lovelier.” He pulled off her coat and unzipped her dress in almost the same motion, planting a row of kisses along her spine as he uncovered her back. He set her on the edge of the king size bed and undressed her like a doll, scattering items of her clothing about until she lay naked on the spread. She watched him through slitted eyes as he took off his clothes. She reached for him when he was still wearing his pants and dragged him on top of her.

Colter offered no resistance, covering her body with his own. He kissed her deeply, caressing her as she fumbled with the fastening of his jeans.

“Help me,” she finally said in frustration. “This thing is worse than a chastity belt.”

He laughed, a low intimate sound that sank into her bones and told her that she had won him forever.

“Can’t wait?” he murmured.

“No,” she moaned.

And she didn’t have to. He freed himself from his pants and drove into her so deeply that she gasped with gratification.

“Better?” he said.

“Oh, yes.” She closed her eyes and wound her legs around him, home at last.

When it was over, they lay curled up together, Karen’s head on his shoulder, her arm thrown across his middle.

“Where in the Southwest?” she asked dreamily, breaking a long silence.

“What?”

“Where’s the job? I’d like to know where I’m moving.”

“Oh. New Mexico, I think.”

“You think?”

“All I needed to know was if I had the job. I can iron out the details later. There are several spots available but I’m sure New Mexico is one of them.”

“Lots of work there for a Spanish translator,” Karen observed.

“What about your job here?” he asked.

“Since I can’t be in two places at once I guess I’ll have to quit it,” she said dryly.

“Goodbye, Jim Cochran,” Colter said with satisfaction.

“Poor Jim. I’m sure he thinks we’re both insane, and who could blame him?”

“He’ll get over it.”

“And Grace. I’d have to say you got off on the wrong foot with Grace.”