Mistress of Magic (23 page)

“We got him. We got him!”

“Yes, we got him,” Wes agreed, retrieving Ozzie’s gun from the floor. “But what are you doing here, young man!”

His voice was trembling. With fear, Reggie realized. For her, and for this boy.

“Who is this?” she asked.

“Joseph—” Wes began, but he broke off. They could all hear the sounds of sirens.

“It’s Wiler,” Max said to Wes.

“You managed to punch the alarm?” Wes said.

Max nodded. He started slowly toward Daphne, then knelt down beside her. Heedless of the blood at her shoulder, he lifted her into his arms.

Reggie bit her lip as she saw Daphne’s beautiful eyes widen. “I’m sorry, Max,” she whispered. “I don’t know if you can believe me, but I’m sorry.” Tears were filling her eyes.

Max nodded. “You’re going to be all right, Daphne.”

“It hurts like hell, Max.”

“You’ve got a broken shoulder. But you’re going to be okay.”

“Promise?”

“Promise. I’m the magic man, remember? I can see that it’s all right.”

Reggie turned away from her brother’s promise and stared at Wes. “She called me because she trusted me, and that was the only reason,” he told her.

“But—”

“I told Max, but I didn’t tell you, because I didn’t want you here. Daphne wouldn’t tell me anything over the phone. I didn’t know who to be afraid of until I had seen her. I suspected Ozzie, because he had stock in the place. That’s what I found out by working at the police station all those hours. It didn’t make sense for a man who had stock in a place to make a scandal out of it. Unless he wanted stock prices to plunge. And that’s just what he was trying for.”

Yes, he had even told her so. He had just wanted her to think that Wes had been the one trying to do it.

“At first he was only trying to scare you, breaking into your house and firing shots at you. He forced Daphne to play the robotronic, and to try to scare you again in the park into doing something foolish. Then she wanted out. And he wanted her dead for real.”

“How did he know that she was meeting you here tonight?” Reggie demanded. The sound of sirens was coming closer and closer.

He shook his head.

“I know!” Joseph announced.

Surprised, Reggie and Wes looked at him.

“You were supposed to be back at the home!” Wes told him sternly.

The boy grinned. “Well, you see, I just thought that you might need me. I told that nice Diana person that the home was sending a car for me. I pretended to run out to a white car, and then I slipped back.”

“Precocious, isn’t he?” Reggie said. She could almost smile.

“Brat!” Wes said warningly.

Joseph grinned. He pointed at Rick Player. “That man was hanging around when Diana called Mr. Delaney, and when Mr. Delaney said that he’d be tied up at the park with you, Wes, until very late.”

Reggie spun around on Rick, who was not looking so rich or attractive, just very, very sick. “I had to know what was going on!” he said defensively.

“And you had to notify—Ozzie Daniels?” Reggie said incredulously.

“We’ve just got to buy his stock!” Wes said.

Then the doors burst open and Wiler, totally irritated, came through.

“All right, where do the explanations begin?”

“I need an ambulance for Daphne immediately!” Max said, standing angrily. “Then you can have all the explanations you want.”

A stretcher was brought in for Daphne. Then a second arrived, and two paramedics with it stood patiently waiting in front of Reggie.

She looked at Wes. “Oh, no—”

“Oh, yes. You’ve got blood dripping down your forehead.”

“But the bullet just grazed me!”

There was no protesting. He swept her off her feet and laid her out on the stretcher.

“But I’m not going to the hospital again!” she wailed.

A little hand suddenly slid into hers. “I think you’d better go, Reggie,” Joseph told her solemnly. “You don’t want to see Mr. Blake tonight. He really wants to tan your hide!”

“Oh, he does, does he?” Reggie exclaimed.

“I told him he should kiss you instead.”

Neither suggestion mattered. The paramedics were taking her away.

“Wes—” she called.

But he wasn’t with her. She closed her eyes and felt the wheels rumble over the concrete path.

It was over. Daphne was alive and, please God, she would remain so.

Max was in the clear.

And she had skirted terrible danger herself, and come out of it alive and fine.

So why did she feel so empty?

He had given her an explanation. At least, a bit of one. But he wasn’t with her now.

She closed her eyes. He would come. He would come.

He didn’t come. She was attended to by the same young physician who suggested she really should take better care of her head.

Wiler came, and she talked to him for at least thirty minutes.

Max came, and he told her that Daphne was going to be all right.

“I think she really did love you, Max,” Reggie said.

“In her twisted way.” He sighed. “I think we may be friends again. Never good friends, but the hatred is over.”

“Isn’t she going to have to face charges?”

“Not unless I press them. Or—unless you do.”

Reggie shook her head.

“The doctor said you needed to sleep.”

“Sleep! I’m going to get out of here. He’s given me two stitches and—”

“He said he’ll release you in time to do the show tomorrow afternoon.”

“I can’t! I have a breakfast appointment with Fran Rainier—”

“I’ll keep it for you,” Max promised. He caught hold of her shoulders and made her lie down. “Oh, Wes said that he’d talk to you tomorrow. Now good night. And Reggie—”

“Yes?”

“I love you. I thought I was going to die when Ozzie threatened you.”

She smiled. “I love you, too, Max. We’re twins.”

He left her. She heard a clock ticking somewhere. Despite herself, giant tears welled in her eyes.

Last time she had been here, Wes had stayed, too. He had slept in the chair beside her.

Well, she had slapped him in the face.

He wanted to tan her hide, that was what Joseph had told her. But then, Joseph had told Wes that he should kiss her instead.

So which would it be?

She bolted up suddenly. Who was Joseph, anyway?

Max picked her up at the hospital and took her to the park just in time for the show. He was in an exceptionally good mood. He’d had another long talk with Daphne, he’d had a talk with Wiler in which he’d had the upper hand at last, and he’d had a great breakfast with Fran Rainier at the hotel.

“Fran will be at the show,” he assured Reggie. “She’s delighted with everything. She says you’ve given her a great vacation—and the exclusive of a lifetime!”

“That’s nice,” Reggie murmured. The whole world was happy.

Why did she feel so empty?

Bob, Stevie and Alise were all waiting for her with cheers and hugs when she came backstage to dress for the show. They demanded details, and she tried to explain everything.

Alise sighed. “And I thought it might be Rick Player.”

“Naw, he’s just a wimp,” Bob decided. Reggie grinned.

Hindsight was always twenty-twenty.

They were being announced, there was no more time to talk. Within seconds she and Alise were running out on stage, fluffing their boas into the faces of their audience and bursting into song and dance. Soon Bob came along on his bucking stuffed bronco-saur, the bad guy, ready to shoot up the saloon. Then Stevie, the blond, blue-eyed hero showed up, ready to save the day.

Reggie went down the aisle, trying to decide whether to ride bucking dino-broncs with Bob and rob banks or to turn him into a man in the pursuit of good or evil. She played with various husbands and wives and children in the audience.

She started to stretch out a black-net-clad leg to climb up on the lap of the lean, jean-clad man sitting just behind the support beam.

She paused, her heart in her throat, then slamming there.

Wes was seated in that particular chair. And he was watching her, and his gold eyes were glittering.

She missed a beat.

“Howdy, stranger,” she murmured.

She hadn’t intended to sit on his lap.

Suddenly, she didn’t have any choice. Strong arms were around her, pulling her down. “Howdy, stranger,” he said in return.

She couldn’t think of anything to say. Her throat was dry.

“Oh, Patricia, honey!” Bob called.

He was hot. So hot. She needed to escape.

She was in the middle of a show!

“What’d you find out there, Patricia?” Alise called out to her.

Damn. She’d been silent. Dead silent. In the middle of a show. With an entire audience watching her. Waiting.

She could feel the strength of his arms, the warmth of them. And she could see in his eyes everything that had been between them. Everything tempestuous and sensual and wild and fun …

And loving.

He smiled. A wicked, wicked smile.

She moistened her lips and flung her boa around his neck and pulled tight.

“Oh, I did find a live one out here, I did, I did!” she drawled to Alise.

There was a slight shifting in Wesley’s legs. “Very much alive,” he murmured huskily. “Very much.”

The audience chuckled.

Bob hurried down the stairway.

“Patricia, honey. Remember me?”

She leaned forward, slipping her arms around Wes’s neck, letting her eyes focus hugely on his. “What was that?”

The audience howled. Still …

They had played this scene before. Almost word for word.

“I said, I’m over here, honey!” Bob repeated. More laughter. “Excuse me, sir, would you?” He set a finger under Reggie’s chin, turning her face to his. “Patricia, remember me?” He fell down on a knee before her. “Why, I’m going to cast aside my evil ways and make an honest woman out of you, honey! You’re in love with me, honey—’scuse me, sir, your lap is in the way there! You’ve made an honest man of me, Patricia.”

“Oh, yes!” she exclaimed, blinking. “And your name was what …?”

Again, the audience filled with laughter. It was probably one of the best shows they had ever done. It was killing her.

“Martin. Martin Van der Crime. Ah, excuse me, sir, she does have to marry me, sir.”

“I do?”

“She does?”

“Yep. You can’t have her, sir!”

“I can’t?” Wes said. Another smile flickered across his features. “Why not?”

“’Cause I’m in this show, sir, and you’re not!” Bob told him.

She liked the way Wesley laughed then. Good-naturedly. Willing to be part of the fun. Willing to believe in the magic.

But he shook his head firmly to Bob now. “Sorry, Bob. I can’t let her marry you. Not this time around.” Reggie’s eyes widened with surprise. It was a show.

But Wes was rising, lifting her, then sitting her in his chair. And to her absolute amazement, he was on his knees before her.

“Reggie, you have to marry me. For real. Because I love you, and I need you. And because life is real itself, but so is that wonderful magic that you create. Will you marry me, Reggie?”

“But—”

“Joseph has said that he’ll be delighted to be our son.”

Her mouth fell open.

So that’s who Joseph was!

And Joseph was there, next to Wes. She hadn’t seen him at first because she had only been able to see Wes.

He was standing beside her then, too, that blond hair of his a wild mess in his eyes.

That was the first thing she was going to have to do. Get that boy—

No, her son. Her son!

She didn’t know anything about him! But Wes wanted to marry her, and Wes had found him. And one look in his blue eyes and she knew—

Yes, first thing. She had to get her son a haircut.

“If you’ll have me,” Joseph said, clearing his throat. “I’ll get good grades, I’ll take out the trash, I’ll do anything, honest, I promise.”

Reggie started laughing. She hugged the little boy, pulling him close. “The trash doesn’t matter!” she said. And she looked at Wes. “Love matters.”

“Is that a yes?” he asked.

“Yes!”

There was a roar all around her. She had forgotten she was in the middle of a show until she heard that roar of approval.

Wes stood, sweeping her off her feet. He kissed her. Just like a prince kissing his Sleeping Beauty.

Again, the applause was thunderous.

Max was there, and Diana was with him. Bob and Stevie and Alise were rushing down the steps, then hugging her. Sweet little Alise. There were tears in her eyes.

Then someone spoke from the rear of the theater. “Now, this is an exclusive, Reggie Delaney! I just can’t wait for it to hit the paper!”

She smiled beneath Wes’s lips. Fran Rainier. Yes, the woman was getting her fill of stories!

Wes’s lips rose from hers. “It’s going to be front page news!” she warned him.

He nodded.

“Thank you!” she whispered.

“For the love?”

She grinned. “And the magic.”

Holding her still, captured in the emerald of her eyes, he carried her out through the crowd and into the sunshine.

The day was clear and beautiful. Free from all evil.

Goodness had prevailed.

And they had their lives to plan.

Epilogue

W
es came tearing around the corner of the entranceway to Dierdre’s DinoLand.

Reggie wasn’t in her office—Max had already told him she wasn’t. But she was in the park somewhere. And, Max assured him, she was tremendously anxious to see him. She could barely wait to see him.

Had she sensed that things would come to their conclusion today?

Knowing Reggie and the time, she was probably in costume as Dierdre, out playing with the children.

She might have gone to the lawyers with him, but he had dissuaded her from doing so. He hadn’t been sure the paperwork would have all been completed.

And besides, Reggie had suddenly come up with a mysterious appointment of her own this morning. They had agreed to meet at the park.

He couldn’t wait to see her.

His news was good. He couldn’t wait to see her. He didn’t care what she was doing—he just had to see her and let her know right away.