Judith McNaught (81 page)

"Never mind your agent. Why didn't you answer my letters, you jerk? I don't send care packages to prisons for just anyone, you know."

"Because I was ashamed and I didn't want charity.

Now shut up and hum something pretty to me while we circulate."

Laughing, she looped her arm around his waist and began softly singing, "'People—people who need people are the luckiest people'…"

"
T
hat does it!" Meredith jumped up from the sofa in the living room where she and Matt and Joe O'Hara had watched the videotapes that the FBI agent had handed over. Brushing the tears from the corners of her eyes, she shoved all the 'evidence' into its envelope. "I'll make Zachary Benedict look at these if I

have to tie him up first!"

"Meredith," Matt said gently, grabbing her wrist.

"You were right about Julie, I can see that, but I know

Zack. You can't make him watch those until and unless he's ready to do it."

She hesitated, thinking, then a resolute smile dawned across her face. "Yes I can—and I know how!"

He stood up. "If you're determined to try, I'll go with you and hold him down while you tie him up."

"That won't work," she said. "You'll lose your temper, but if you aren't there, I can use you very effectively to shame him into doing it."

"I doubt it."

"Let me try," she said, leaning over and kissing his forehead. "If I need your help, I'll come and get you."

Before he could object, which he looked to be on the verge of doing, Meredith slid open the patio doors and headed across the back lawn. Spotting Zack standing by the pool surrounded by a group of movie stars and studio heads, she lifted her chin and struck off in that direction, her Italian sandals slapping softly against her bare heels as she wended her way purposefully around white-coated waiters passing trays and throngs of guests gossiping about each other.

Zack was laughing at a joke when he caught sight of Meredith walking across the yard with a large brown envelope in her hand and his smile abruptly faded. "Excuse me a minute," he said to Barbra, his eyes narrowing on that envelope.

"I wondered where you and Matt were," he said with his most deliberately disarming smile as he carefully avoided the sight of the envelope in her hand. "You haven't changed clothes yet."

"We were in the living room, watching something on the television set," she said, and Zack realized her eyes looked as if she'd been crying. "May I speak to you alone?"

"There's a party going on," he pointed out evasively.

"Come with me and I'll introduce you to Kevin Costner. He asked to meet you last night."

"Later," she persisted stubbornly. "This really can't wait."

With no choice left, Zack nodded and followed her into the house and down the hall to the library.

"What's on your mind?" he said curtly, perching on the edge of his desk and turning on a lamp as she drew the curtains over the windows, throwing the room into almost total darkness.

Turning from the windows, she walked over and stood in front of him. "The contents of that envelope are on my mind."

"I asked you to destroy what was in it."

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"Yes, you did," she retorted, facing him like a cool blond spitfire. "And now I have something to ask
you."

"What is it?"

"Do you feel any obligation to my husband for the things he did for you while you were in prison?"

Zack nodded warily.

"Good. Matt will not impose on your friendship to ask a favor of you in return."

"But you will," he concluded shortly.

"You're right. In return for his years of loyalty and assistance, I am asking a favor in his behalf. We want

you to sit in here and watch those videotapes and read the letter that's in the envelope."

Zack's jaw tightened, but he nodded and started to stand. "I'll do it later."

"No, now."

He glared down at her from his vastly superior height, but without any success. "It's little enough to ask

of you," she pointed out irrefutably. "A half hour of your time."

"Fine," he snapped. "Will you allow me to do it alone, or do you want to watch me to make sure I keep

my word?"

Having won, she conceded with disarming

sweetness, "I'll accept your word. Thank you." She walked

over, slid the first videotape into the player, turned on the set, and handed him the remote controller.

"The

first tape is of a news conference that Julie gave a day or two after she left you in Colorado. Have you seen it already?"

"No," he clipped.

"Good, then you're in for a triple shock. The second tape was filmed by an obvious amateur while you were being taken into custody in Mexico City. Keep your eyes on Julie when you're watching that."

When she left, Zack punched the start button on the remote controller, but he got up and walked over to the bar. The mere mention of Julie Mathison, the reminder of his stupid gullibility, made him want to drown himself in liquor. The realization that he was going to have to watch her in this room, in his house, made him swear long and eloquently as he threw ice cubes into a glass and filled it with whatever liquor was in the nearest decanter. Behind his back on the television, the mayor of the jerkwater town she lived in was announcing that she was going to give a press conference and everyone should treat her with respect.

With a contemptuous smirk, Zack walked back to his desk, perched his hip on the edge of it, and crossed his arms over his chest. Despite the fact that he was braced for the sight and sound of her, he flinched when her unforgettable face looked back at him, her dark hair caught at the nape in a bow.

When she began to speak, his first reaction was mild surprise that she was so poised in front of what looked to be at least two hundred reporters.

A few minutes later, Zack slowly put his glass down, frowning with disbelief at what he was hearing.

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Despite the fact that he had sent her away from Colorado with every intention of crushing any feeling she

had for him, she was looking at the camera, trying very successfully to make her captivity sound like a lark and Zack himself like a quick-witted hero who had amusingly thwarted her attempt to escape at a rest stop and then risked his life in an effort to rescue her from the creek during her second attempt.

At the end of her statement, when questions were being shouted at her from everywhere, she maintained

her smiling poise while scrupulously avoiding incriminating Zack by giving explanations that Zack knew

were honest although incomplete. When a reporter asked if he'd threatened her at gunpoint, which Zack knew he had, she'd evaded with a joke:
"I knew he
had a gun because I saw it, and that was enough
to convince me—at least in the beginning—that I
shouldn't pick a fight with him or criticize his old
movies."

Biting back a reluctant smile at her wit, Zack sternly reminded himself that she'd probably said all this because she thought he might see her interview and be lured more quickly out of hiding. A minute later, however, when she was asked if she intended to press kidnapping charges against him, he watched her

give a sunny smile and deflect the subject of what had been a federal crime with another clever joke:
"I
don't think I could get a conviction. I mean, if there
were women on the jury, they'd acquit him in
a minute, as soon as they heard he did half the
cooking and cleaning up."

Zack reached for his drink, but a moment later her answer to a question made him set it down again, his brows drawing together in a frown of disbelief:

"Miss Mathison, do you want to see Zachary
Benedict

captured?"

"How could anyone possibly want to see a man who was unjustly imprisoned sent back to prison? I don't know how a jury ever convicted him of murder, but I do know that he's no more capable of that

than I am. If he were capable of it, I would not be standing here now, because as I explained to all of you

a few minutes ago, I repeatedly tried to jeopardize his escape. I'd also like you to remember that when he thought we'd been found by a helicopter, his first concern was for my safety, not his own. What I'd like to see happen is for this manhunt to be stopped while someone reviews his case."

Zack picked up the remote controller, intending to rewind the film and listen to her last answer over again, watching her face for a sign of slyness or deceit, but the next question froze his finger on the button.
"Miss Mathison, are you in love with
Zachary Benedict?"

He watched her hesitate, then she lifted her eyes to the camera and said with a soft smile,
"At one time
or another, most of the female population of this
country has probably imagined themselves in
love with Zachary Benedict. Now that I've known
him, I think they showed excellent judgment.

He—"
She faltered, then said with a catch in her voice,
"He is a very easy man for any woman to
love."

Zack hit the rewind button and played her last two answers again, watching the screen, studying her face

and vocal intonations, searching for a hint of the underlying deceit he knew was there somewhere. He couldn't find it. What he saw and heard was courage and poise and all the things he had loved about her in Colorado.

Telling himself he was overlooking something, some scheme, some hidden reason for her to behave like that in front of millions of people, he took the other videocassette out of its cardboard case, got up, and shoved it into the VCR. This time, he walked behind his desk and sat down, bracing himself to watch a scene he could never forget; a scene that had put him on his knees, humbled before the world, and all because he'd lost his mind over a scheming little liar…

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Who'd admitted to the world that she loved him.

Even though he'd kidnapped her.

And sent her away from Colorado after telling her she didn't know the difference between sex and love.

Zack was so lost in his thoughts that it took a moment before he recognized what was happening on the

television set, and his jaw tightened as he saw himself being shoved into the wall and handcuffed by the

Federales. Everybody was screaming and shouting, and whoever was taking the film kept swinging the camera around, trying to follow the voice of a woman who was screaming about someone being hurt.

Then he leaned forward, watching in disbelief as Julie tried to get past the police, screaming,
"Don't
hurt him!"
He saw Richardson catch her arms, yanking her back, and he saw that she was crying, watching whatever they were doing to Zack.

The camera's view switched back to Zack and Hadley, and after several seconds, Zack realized Hadley

had just taken possession of the wedding ring he'd had in his pocket. The camera tracked Hadley, following him to Julie, who held her hand out in response to whatever Hadley said to her, and when she

looked down at her hand, she started crying hysterically, clutching the ring to her chest.

Zack half-rose out of his chair at the sight of her tormented features, then he forced himself to sit back

down and watch what he knew was coming next. It happened just as he remembered it … the Federales shoving him forward, then Hadley making them stop when he was almost beside Julie. Whoever took the film had grown bolder and moved in for a closer shot because even the sound was clearer. Not that Zack

needed to hear it. What Hadley said next was permanently branded into Zack's brain.
"Miss
Mathison, I

have been very rude. I haven't thanked you yet for
your cooperation. If you hadn't helped us set
this whole scheme up. Benedict might never have
been caught."

Zack remembered the cold shock that had roared through him, and he saw himself on film, looking at her in an agony of fury, before he jerked his arms, trying to force them to take him out of there…

And then all hell broke loose on the film, just as it had in that airport. Suddenly he was on his knees, being clubbed… Except there was another uproar going on—Zack saw it just to the right edge of the film, and he got up, walking closer to the television set to see it clearly: Julie had evidently gone wild when

they started beating him, and she was attacking Hadley, sobbing and clawing at his face, beating on his

chest, and when Richardson pulled her off, she landed two ferocious kicks in Hadley's groin. She fainted

then, and Richardson started shouting for a doctor while they dragged Zack out of the airport.

His heart beginning to hammer in deep, aching beats, Zack rewound the film, only this time he didn't take

his eyes off her face, and what he saw made his stomach clench. His hand shook as he took the letter from the envelope and unfolded it.

Dear Mom and Dad, and dear Carl and Ted,

By the time you read this letter, you'll know that I've left to join Zack. I don't expect you to condone what I'm doing or to forgive me, but I want to explain it to you so that maybe you'll at least be able to

understand someday.

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I love him.

I want so much to give you more and better reasons than just that one, and I've tried to think of them, but there don't seem to be any. Maybe it's because that's all that really matters…

After I leave, all of you are going to hear more things about Zack, awful rumors and vicious conjecture

from reporters and police and people who never even knew him. I wish so much you could have known

him. Since that isn't possible, I'm leaving something for you, something from him that will show you a glimpse of the man he really is. It's a copy of a letter, a very personal letter, from him to me. A small part of the letter will be blocked out, not because there was something there that would have changed your opinion, but because it refers to someone else and a very special favor that person did for us both. When you read Zack's letter, I think you'll know that the man who wrote it will love and protect me in every way he can. We'll be married as soon as we're together…