Hold Me (6 page)

Luc rubbed the back of his neck, then sighed. But now it wasn’t an angry sigh, just a tired one. “Look, why don’t you tell me your address?” he asked in a kinder voice.

Taking a deep breath, Katie did.

Strange as it was to believe, that little bit of information seemed to be enough. Within moments they were speeding down the highway, and Luc seemed confident that he knew where they were going. A part of her brain marveled at that. Amazing.

“I really think this is a mistake,” he grumbled.

“Yeah, you’ve made that pretty clear.”

Silence. Katie held herself rigid, trying not to touch him in the tight space of the car.

“Don’t blame me if we run into trouble.”

“I won’t.”

Silence. Longer this time. He could have been a rock sitting next to her, except that she could feel his heat and smell the scent of soap, sweat and man. “We’re just going to get in and out. No fooling around,” Luc said.

“Okay.”

The car hummed on the road. His hands clenched and relaxed on the wheel. “I’m sorry,” he said.

Katie looked at him in surprise. She could see more of his face now in the reflected lights of the highway.

“I shouldn’t have yelled at you.” Luc sounded uncomfortable, but he kept talking. “I don’t know why I did. I guess I’m…geared up too. I know you’re scared.”

Katie didn’t answer. The words were nice, but they didn’t change anything, did they? She stared out the window at the cars flashing by. She knew where they were now—they were getting closer to her apartment complex. Funny how he had found it with so little effort.

“Katie?”

She glanced over at him again and saw him watching her out of the corner of his eye. His shadowed face looked concerned and tired, and he appeared to be a man who’d had a very bad day.

She stifled a sigh. Well, what choice did she have anyway? Being angry and upset about this situation might be normal, but slapping at him wasn’t going to help her. He was, when everything was said and done, going out of his way to do what he considered the right thing. He might have gotten her into this mess, but at least he hadn’t left her there alone to deal with it. He seemed to believe that he was her protector. And he probably was.

“I’m just tired,” she said finally, extending an olive branch of her own. It was true enough. She was mortally tired. “Thanks for bringing me to my apartment.”

Now it was his turn to be quiet.

“We’re almost there,” he said after a minute.

“I know.” She smiled a little. “I actually recognized some of the houses.”

“Oh. Sure.”

“You don’t know me well enough to realize what a miracle that is.”

She was rewarded with a grin. They were back in town so she could see his face pretty clearly now. She also saw the road that led to her apartment complex.

“Make a right here.”

Luc’s smile faded. “I’m going to drive past it to make sure everything’s okay first.”

The apartment complex was relatively small, just a few buildings with some parking lots and a little pond in a stand of trees management had put in so they could justify raising the rent. Luc drove slowly down the road, his whole body stiff, broadcasting his alertness.

“I’m in C,” Katie told him, her voice tight. His tension was rubbing off on her.

He nodded. They drove by her building. Everything appeared to be in order. The appropriate cars were in the appropriate places. Everyone always seemed to take the same spots. The floodlight was blinking off and on like it usually did. A few old crabapple trees grew around the dumpster on the far side of the biggest parking lot.

Katie glanced at them and froze. “Luc.” She grabbed his arm and pointed. “Look there.” The front end of a dark car was just barely visible next to the dumpster.

“That’s not normal?”

“No.” She was whispering, but she didn’t know why. “Nobody ever parks there. The birds like to sit in the trees and stuff gets all over your car. Besides, there are plenty of other spaces open. Why park so far away?”

Luc cursed. “I’m sorry, Katie. We can’t stop. We can’t take the chance.”

“You think it’s—”

“Lay down on the seat again. Quick, before they see us. We’ll just keep driving and hope they don’t follow.”

Katie curled up on the seat in a fetal position. “David said that he’d changed the license plate.”

“Yeah, well, they might be curious anyway.”

“David said he thought nobody knew,” she whispered.

Luc was silent for a moment. “I guess he was wrong.”

He kept the Nova traveling at a sedate pace. To Katie, they seemed to creep down the road. She could tell Luc was restraining himself when he really wanted to speed off. But that would have been a dead giveaway.

Dead.

Somebody wanted her dead.

It was a long time before Luc finally relaxed. “I don’t think they followed us. You can sit up now.”

Katie sat and stared at him. He kept his eyes on the road.

“How many times do I have to say that I’m sorry?” he asked softly. Bitterly.

She couldn’t answer because the full reality of her situation had finally hit her. Someone had found her apartment. Someone hated her. Someone wanted to hurt her—to kill her.

This was real.

“Do…” Katie cleared her throat and started again, desperate for some normalcy. Desperate to turn the clock back to this morning. “Do you want me to drive for a while?”

“No.” He paused. “I don’t want to get lost.” It was a feeble attempt at humor.

“Where are we going?”

“New Jersey. It’s going to take a little while to get there. Why don’t you try to get some sleep?”

Katie nodded and looked out the window again. Her mind was blank. Numb.

“Katie, go to sleep.”

She smiled a little bit in spite of everything. Definite dictator tendencies.

“It’s not something you can force, you know.” She rested her head on the back of the seat and watched the lights and the darkness slide past the window. She was tired, but there was no way she could sleep. How could anyone sleep when life was so uncertain?

“Luc?” she asked.

“Hmm.”

“What’s going to happen to me now?”

He didn’t answer right away. “You’re coming to my house. You know that.”

“I mean after that.”

“We’ll have to play it by ear.”

He was trying to be evasive, but she couldn’t let him. He probably didn’t want to frighten her, but it was too late for that. She turned away from the window and tried to see his face.

“He’s not going to go away, is he?” she asked.

“Katie—”

“Don’t lie to me.” Her voice rose and she forced herself to calm down. “Please don’t lie to me. I saw his face. I saw his eyes. He already found me. He already had people at my apartment.”

“We’re not sure—”

“Luc!” She straightened and put a hand on his forearm. The muscles tensed under her fingers until they were like steel. “It had to be him. He must have gotten word out somehow.”

“Maybe he had a cell phone he ditched at the quarry,” Luc said reluctantly. “Or it was the lawyer. Maybe even the judge.”

She shuddered. Powerful, well-connected people could be dangerous. If nothing else, her experience with Tom had taught her that much. “Tell me the truth,” she said. “Frankie Silvano is not going away, is he?”

He was quiet a long time. “No,” he finally admitted. “No, most likely he won’t go away.”

“Then this isn’t going to blow over.” She was talking as much to herself as she was to him. “This is long term.”

“Yes. Until we get Frankie, you will be at risk.”

Katie nodded and dropped her hand. It was what she had expected him to say, but hearing the words was still a shock. She thought of all of the loose ends, all of the things she wanted to do, needed to do, all of her responsibilities. She was supposed to help her boss prepare for a presentation to the board of directors on Wednesday. Kato was due for his inspection. Her parents’ thirty-sixth wedding anniversary was coming up. Her baby sister Fiona might actually get a college degree at the end of the fall semester. Melanie had asked her if she’d wanted to go shopping in Philadelphia. So many little things…

“My family?” she asked. “What about my family?”

“David will work on what to tell them,” Luc replied. “They should be safe enough for the time being. I think Joey will be able to control Frankie at least that much. He really won’t want to put his organization at risk for the sake of a personal vendetta.”

Katie drew in a breath. “You think?” It hadn’t occurred to her that her family might be in danger. Her sense of helplessness intensified. She couldn’t do anything about it. She couldn’t do anything to make it better.

“They’ll be fine.” Luc seemed to realize that he’d probably said too much. “We’ll watch out for them.”

She nodded, but she wasn’t sure she believed him. Her family. She cleared her throat.

“My job?”

Luc’s voice was soft, as if he was reluctant to give her any more bad news. “We’ll get you another one wherever you end up.”

Wherever she ended up? “My life?” she whispered.

Luc didn’t answer. Which was answer enough, she supposed.

She leaned back against the seat again.

“I can’t…” She swallowed. “I can’t do this.”

Luc glanced at her, then reached over and touched her cheek gently, rubbing the backs of his fingers against her skin before he drew away. “You have to.”

Katie looked out the window. Just her purse, the clothes on her back and Kato, unless someone could eventually clean out her apartment. Because of Frankie Silvano. Because of one man. Because of an evil little man.

Now she really was alone.

“Luc?”

“Yeah?”

“Do you think everything will work out?”

He didn’t answer right away. The car hummed, the wind whistled by the window. “I’ll make sure it does,” he said finally. “Go to sleep.”

She’d thought it was impossible, but eventually the hypnotic movement of the car, Luc’s hands strong and sure on the wheel, the silence between them and her own utter exhaustion did indeed lull Katie to sleep. She didn’t wake up again until Luc touched her on the shoulder and startled her so much she practically jumped through the roof.

“Sorry.” He sounded like he might have been smiling. “I just wanted to let you know we’re here.”

She blinked, disoriented. They weren’t on a paved road anymore; she could hear gravel snapping against the undercarriage of the car.

“Here?” She was groggy with sleep. Aw, man, please don’t let her have snored. Or drooled…

“My place.”

Katie glanced out the window and drew in a sharp, shocked breath as she came abruptly back to full awareness.

Bathed in the strong silver light of the moon and nestled into tall, dark trees was a castle. A real medieval castle complete with a maze of turrets and towers jutting haphazardly from thick stone walls. In the soft light it had a fairy tale quality, as if it would vanish at any time.

“Your place,” she murmured. Oh, sure. Here she’d been picturing a grungy apartment or, at best, a split-level in the suburbs, but he lived in a castle.

Luc chuckled and pulled the Nova to a stop in a gravel parking area. “Yeah, well, it’s a roof over my head, you know? Welcome to the Museum. It’s something else, isn’t it?”

“You can say that again.” Katie grabbed her purse and jumped out. She stood staring up at the walls looming over her, massive and impenetrable. For a moment she forgot about evil little men and just enjoyed the magic of it all. Let the moonlight and the castle draw her away from the madness.

There was a muffled grunt behind her. She turned to see Luc struggling to get out of the car. She rushed to help him, ignoring his grumbles, and took his arm until he found his balance.

He leaned on her, his body warm and solid against hers. When she tried to step back, he didn’t let her. Instead he kept his arm around her shoulders, and looked up at the castle, smiling, his black hair shining in the moonlight.

“It’s just a folly,” he said. It took her a second to realize he was talking about the house. “Stupid. Should never have been built in the first place. One of my crazy relatives had it constructed in the nineteen twenties, and apparently it’s been a curse on the family ever since. I probably couldn’t unload it if I tried. More than half of the thing is closed up, there aren’t any closets and it’s as drafty as hell. I don’t know why I just don’t have it torn down.”

“No!”

Luc glanced at her. “Well, even if the lawyers would let me, I’m really don’t think I could,” he admitted.

“Lawyers?” she asked before she thought better of it.

He shrugged. “The whole place is in a trust. When my great aunt Isobel died, she didn’t want it to leave the family, but she didn’t appreciate my gene pool. Bad blood and all that.”

She didn’t know him well enough to ask more questions. But before she could think of how to change the subject, something black and as big as a Volkswagen came baying out of the night, lurching across the lawn.

“What’s that?” To her complete disgust, Katie actually found herself moving closer to Luc for protection.

He gave her a cheeky grin. “That’s the dragon at the gate.” He managed to push her aside just as a he was assaulted by some kind of a huge animal. Katie backed up, watching the beast snuffle and slobber all over Luc with evident delight while he ruffled large ears and muttered affectionate nonsense. Finally the thing stilled, raised its head and sniffed the air. Katie took another step back. She wasn’t exactly scared, she was just…cautious.

“So…um…is that a…bear?” she asked.

Luc laughed. “No, a dog. A Newfoundland.”

“Ah. Uh, big.”

“Relax. Spot won’t hurt you.” Luc pulled the animal’s head up so he could give it a loud, smacking kiss between the ears. The gesture was surprisingly sweet.

Katie shook her own head. “Not that I don’t believe you, but this hasn’t exactly been my day,” she said.

“Trust me.”

“Yeah. Sure.” The monster seemed to be as big as a horse, but now that it had settled down a bit it looked like it could be friendly enough. Katie edged her way around Luc until she and the “dog” were staring at each other.

“Hello…boy?”

“Spot is a girl,” Luc corrected. “Lady Guinevere of the Round Table if you want to be formal, but Spot for short and no particularly good reason. Just don’t call her boy again, or she might get mad.”

“Oh, no. Spot mustn’t get mad,” Katie murmured.

Luc laughed.

Spot walked over to her, tail waving like a great flag, and Katie finally got up the nerve to hold a hand out to the very large, incredibly wet nose. She half expected to pull back a bloody stump for her trouble, but the dog merely sniffed her fingers and sat, tongue lolling as she panted.

“Good girl,” Luc said. Katie wasn’t sure which one of them he was talking to. “Let’s go in.”

His ankle had stiffened up during the drive, so Katie was drafted into service as a human crutch. Even so, by the time they reached two gigantic carved oak doors that seemed to be the front entrance of the castle, he was holding his breath every time he took a step.

“Are you okay?” Katie asked.

“Fine.”

Yeah, right, she thought.

After maneuvering around a security panel, the heavy oak doors and Spot, who was intent on entering the house before anybody else could, they finally got inside. Luc flipped a switch on the wall. Light flooded a long hallway.

Katie’s mouth dropped open.

Stone walls decorated with tapestries rose at least three stories before ending in vaulted ceilings high above their heads. Chandeliers on long chains hung suspended from the vaults every six feet or so. On one side of the hall, successions of curved arches opened on each floor. On the other, the outer walls were cut with tall, narrow windows, most of them made of stained glass. A series of round windows, also stained glass, ran along the roofline.

In the daylight, the space would be absolutely magnificent.

“Ho-ly crap.” She couldn’t help staring before turning to her companion. “Even if this place is in a trust, you must be freaking rich.”

Luc’s laugh was a bark that didn’t have a whole lot to do with humor. “That would be a big fat no. I’m nothing more than a glorified caretaker.”

Katie was a little startled by the bitterness in his voice, but he was already hobbling away so she decided to let it drop, running after him.

She knew he’d never admit it, but it took both of them to get him down the hall and into a lovely modern kitchen containing yards of countertop, a large, rectangular table, and a bunch of ladder-back chairs. Katie grabbed one of the chairs and shoved it under Luc’s butt. He didn’t so much sit in it as crash.

“Ugh,” Luc said.

“I hate to say I told you so, but—”

“I’m fine.”

“—you really should have let me drive. Then you could have been in the back seat with your foot elevated and maybe it wouldn’t hurt so much.”

“Yeah, well, thanks for mentioning it.”

He looked at her then and a sudden, unexpected tremor of awareness shot through her. He was tired and grumpy and in pain. His rather shaggy hair had fallen over his forehead and his chin was dark with the start of an impressive beard. He looked dangerous and…something else. Something that made her stomach clutch and roll just the slightest, delightful bit, even now. Even in the middle of everything.

Boy, oh boy, she thought. Talk about trouble.

Clearing her throat, Katie tried to pull herself together as she dragged another chair over to him. “Put your foot up on this.”

His hooded eyes grew wary. “Why?”

“Because I’m going to try to help you, you idiot.”

“I’m okay.”

“No, you’re not, so shut up.”

“That’s nice.”

“Your ankle needs some attention.”

“My ankle needs brandy.”

“No it doesn’t.” She gave up waiting and tugged at his leg.

“Fine, fine, fine.” With obvious reluctance, he propped his foot on the chair.

Katie knelt beside him. She carefully removed his worn running shoe and sock, feeling a little bit like Androcles with the lion. But one look at his ankle pushed everything else out of her mind. It was bluish-purple and swollen two or three times its normal size. She touched it, and he flinched involuntarily.

“This is really bad.” She looked up at him, resting on her heels. “You should go to the hospital.”

“No hospitals.” His harsh face was a little pale under the five o’clock shadow.

“But—”

“I mean it, Katie. No hospitals. Especially not for some piddly-ass thing like this.”

“It’s not piddly-ass, and it must hurt like heck.”

He shrugged.

She sighed. Deeply. Men. Still, she couldn’t drag him out of there by force, so she contemplated his foot again, anxiously chewing on her bottom lip while she tried to figure out what to do.

She wished her mother was there. Her mom could handle any situation. Even sitting in a strange man’s kitchen looking at his large, well-shaped foot and swollen ankle wouldn’t have fazed her.

Katie, on the other hand, was beginning to be just a little faint. Absently she touched his foot again down near his toes, where it didn’t seem to be quite as puffy. His skin was warm and elastic under her fingers. She smoothed it, unconsciously trying to ease the pain.

“Does it hurt when I touch you here?” she asked. There was a pause.

“Um, no.” His voice sounded strange.

She glanced up to find him watching her with inscrutable eyes. Abruptly she was aware of the intimacy of their situation. His foot seemed vulnerable, unguarded. It was strangely wicked of her to be touching it.

She snatched back her hand and caught her breath.

“Does it smell?” he murmured.

“What?”

“My foot. Does it smell? You look weird.”

Katie found herself laughing, grateful that he’d broken the oddly tense mood. “No. I was just thinking about what to do.” She hauled herself to her feet and frowned down at him. “Ice, I think. We need to bring down the swelling.” She should probably get some for herself while she was at it; she was kind of overheated.

He sighed and tilted his head against the high back of the chair. “Freezer.”

When they’d first come into the kitchen, Spot had spent some time slurping from a huge water dish on the other side of the room. But now she was a large black mountain sprawled right in front of the refrigerator, which meant that Katie had to stand on her tiptoes and stretch over her to see inside the freezer.

Not that there was too much to see. Just two frozen pizzas and about thirty ice packs. Sheesh. The man sure must get hurt a lot.

When she’d snagged a couple of the ice packs and turned around, Luc was watching her, his expression strangely shuttered.

“What? What’s wrong?”

“Nothing.” His voice was clipped and as frigid as the air in the freezer. But then again, Katie couldn’t blame him for being in a bad mood. He must be in a lot of pain, even if he was too macho to admit it.

Grabbing a dishtowel she’d spotted hanging next to the sink, she wrapped the ice packs up in it, and knelt down again next to his chair, applying the bundle to his ankle.

Luc stifled a groan and closed his eyes.

“Do you have any aspirin?” she asked while she held the pack in place.

“I’m out down here, but there’s some in the medicine cabinet in my bathroom upstairs.”

“And an elastic bandage?”

“Yeah, there’s a couple of them up there too.”

“Well, that’s something anyway. Why don’t you hold this, and I’ll go get them for you.”

Luc leaned forward to do as she asked. For a moment their hands touched. She looked up and he was much closer than she’d expected. His hair fell over his forehead, just begging her to push it back. His scent teased her, subtle and male.

Katie swallowed. She must be more tired than she’d thought. “Where?” Her voice was a choked whisper.

“Where what?” His beautiful eyes were dark and intense.

She stood abruptly and backed up. “Where is the medicine cabinet?”

“Oh. It’s in the master bath attached to my bedroom. Go down the hall to the end, take the first stairwell to the second floor and it’s the third door on the right. The bathroom is through the bedroom.”

Katie frowned. “That’s pretty complicated.”

“It’s practically a straight line.”

“The second stairwell and the first door to the right?”

“No, the first stairwell to the second floor to the third door on the right.” He sounded exasperated.

Katie shrugged. “Hey, you know I have a bad sense of direction.”

“Wonderful. Maybe I should—”

She pushed him back into the chair when it looked like he was going to try to get up. “You, my friend, are going nowhere and doing nothing. I’ll be back before you know it.”

“Are you sure?”

“Positive. But maybe I should take my cell phone just in case…” Katie shook her head when she saw him stare at her. “Nah. Um, just kidding. I’ll be right back.”

Luc watched her leave, then settled back in the chair with a heavy sigh. He took the dishtowel full of ice packs off his ankle and put it on his forehead.

“Shit,” he muttered.

Shit, shit, shit, he was in trouble. He thought about how she’d looked leaning into the freezer, her light summer pants stretched over her truly lovely ass, and pressed the ice harder against his head. Maybe he should put it on his crotch instead.

“Get yourself under control, Vasco, and I mean now.”

Wild auburn curls, blue eyes that could look so sad they broke his heart. A mouth he couldn’t stop thinking about. He was supposed to be guarding her. And she couldn’t leave.

Oh, yeah. He had a big problem.

He sat for a few more minutes until his ankle started to throb. His leg was falling asleep, and he knew he should probably move to the sofa in the family room where he could stretch out. Maybe get a little perspective.

He rubbed the scar on his face and drew in a deep breath. Then he hoisted himself out of the chair and hobbled over to the freezer to get some more ice packs.