Star Bright (26 page)

“Oh, honey.” Parker couldn’t think of anything else to say. She truly had served time in hell.

She wiped her cheeks with quivering fingertips. “Later that same evening, it came on the news that this guy had vanished from a cruise ship during his honeymoon. Peter suddenly started talking about us taking a cruise.” She fixed him with bruised, aching eyes. “He was like that. It . . . it amused him to play cat and mouse with me. I knew if I went aboard a ship with him, I’d never live to see dry land again. I was so terrified, Parker. I had no money to get away from him, and I knew if I stayed, he was going to kill me.

“Until then, I’d never told my friends, Maggie and Janet, the truth about my marriage. I was—” She broke off and lifted her hands in a gesture of helpless bewilderment. “Ashamed, I guess. My fairy-tale romance had turned into a nightmare. Whenever they e-mailed me and asked how things were going, I gave them vague responses. I felt like an idiot for getting myself into such a mess. But after the balcony incident, I no longer had a choice but to turn to them. I called Maggie the next morning. She and Janet came up with the idea of my faking my own death. Did you ever watch the movie
Sleeping with the Enemy
?”

“The Julia Roberts film?” It hit Parker then. There’d always been something oddly familiar about Rainie, and now he saw it. Except for little differences in her features and eyes, she was almost an exact duplicate of the leading female character in that movie, right down to the flowing skirts, dainty tops, and quaint summer dresses. The wildly curly, sun-streaked hair. The funky white shoes she’d worn to that first interview. She’d mimicked that look. “I’ll be damned,” he whispered.

“That’s where we got the idea, from that movie,” she went on, her voice wobbling like an out-of-balance tire. She gulped down more whiskey. “Janet thought of it. She’s my friend. Did I tell you that? I can’t keep my thoughts straight. She and Maggie, they’re both my friends. We met at university.”

“Pepperdine?”

“Yes. I didn’t lie about that. I actually went there, only under my real name, Lorraina Hall.”

Parker rocked farther back on the chair to rest a boot on his knee. “I know I’ve been a little slow on the uptake here, but let me be sure I’ve got this straight. The three of you watched
Sleepin’ with the Enemy
and decided to fake your death so you could get away from Peter?”

“Yes. It had been a long time since we’d watched the movie. But Janet remembered the plot, and we all watched it several more times.” Her chin started quivering again. “If I faked my own death, we hoped Peter wouldn’t look for me. Stan, this computer nerd we knew from school, got me a fake passport and other identification. I sent it to Janet, and she used it to board the ship, wearing a disguise. She went to the cabin that she’d reserved for me, and left the luggage, the ID, and some money. Then she went shopping in the boutiques, posing as the new me, Anna Pritchard, so my existence would be established on the cameras.”

“Cameras. On the ship?”

“Yes. They’re all over the place. Janet’s a ship operations manager for the cruise line, so she knows the camera layout.” She swallowed more liquor. “In college, people often mistook us for sisters, so she looked enough like the passport picture of me to pull it off. She wore the same wig and a lot of makeup, just like I did when the photo was taken. She got through security, no problem.”

It was all starting to come together for Parker now. “And you boarded with Peter as yourself?”

“Yes.” She pushed at her hair, her hand still quivering with nerves. “He never suspected a thing. During dinner that night, I excused myself from the table to go to the ladies’ room, which wasn’t far from the dining room. Janet met me there, and we switched clothing. Once I looked like Anna Pritchard and she looked like Lorraina Danning, we left the ladies’ lounge with the outside camera documenting our departure. From there, I went to the cabin that Janet had booked for me, and she went to a camera-free area to change back into her own clothes. That’s how Lorraina Danning vanished.

“Once in my cabin, I showered, layered on sunless tanning lotion and makeup, put on the wig again, and then waited for all hell to break loose, which it did as soon as Peter realized I was missing. For the remainder of the trip, I stayed in the cabin, pretending to be seasick. Everyone thought Lorraina Danning, the real me, had fallen overboard.”

“So you hid out while everyone on the ship searched for you?” It wasn’t really a question. The picture was growing clearer in Parker’s mind with every word she said.

“Yes.”

Parker remembered hearing about Lorraina Danning’s disappearance on the radio now. “Peter Danning. He’s under suspicion for murderin’ you.”

“Yes.”

Parker pushed up from the chair and stepped to the cupboard for another glass. She wasn’t the only one who needed a drink. When he returned to the table, he saw that Rainie had clasped her hands in her lap, her fingers so tightly clenched that her knuckles were white. He poured her more whiskey and then slopped some in a tumbler for himself. To hell with ice. He would have taken the stuff intravenously if he’d had a hypodermic needle handy.

“Damn it, Rainie. Why didn’t you tell me sooner? I took you into town. We had lunch in the Romanos’ kitchen. What if Pete or Rosa had recognized you? Or someone in one of the stores? You should have trusted me.”

“I don’t blame you for being mad at me.”

Parker felt a lot of things, but anger at her wasn’t one of them. “I’m not mad at you, sweetheart. I just wish you’d come to me sooner.”

“You truly aren’t mad?”

“About what? You doin’ what you had to do in order to survive? Besides, I could never hate you.” He studied her pale, tear-streaked face. “You look like her, you know.”

“Like who?”

“Julia Roberts in that movie. The clothes, the hair. You did a great job of copyin’ the look.”

A strange expression flitted across her face, and then she burst into laughter that had an edge of hysteria. Splaying a slender hand at the base of her throat, she grimaced, squeezed her eyes closed, and said, “You’re right. I guess I did copy her style. I needed to look totally different. And the character in that movie was my heroine—a woman who had the guts to plan an escape and then carry it out. I kept looking at myself in the mirror, wondering where I’d come up with this style. I guess I did it subconsciously.” Her laughter vanished as quickly as it had come, and she fixed a frightened gaze on his. “And now the end of the movie is about to happen, Parker. He’s coming for me.” Another blip of hysterical laughter erupted. “Only I won’t have a gun.”

Parker’s chest felt as if someone had stabbed him with an ice pick. How must she feel? She wasn’t a large woman, and she had the musculature of a desk jockey who mainly exercised only her brain. Not that he was finding fault. She was the most beautiful woman he’d ever clapped eyes on. But that didn’t mean she was equipped to do battle with a man.

“What if you’d gotten caught aboard ship?” The thought scared Parker half to death. “Did you think about the risk you were taking, that you might get arrested and thrown in jail? I think it’s a federal offense to travel with falsified documents nowadays.”

“Staying with Peter was riskier.” She reached for the glass of whiskey again. “It’s ironic, really. He intended to murder me, I got away from him before he got the chance, and now he’s on the hot seat.”

“When he started beatin’ you, why didn’t you call the cops?” Parker couldn’t resist asking. “There are laws against spousal abuse.”

She took another big gulp of whiskey. Parker could tell that the liquor was doing its job. She seemed calmer now. “You don’t know Peter.” She waved her hand. “He’s smart, handsome, rich, and one of the most influential men in Seattle. Some men like that beat their wives, but no one wants to believe that they do. I did call the police once. But what police officer in his right mind wants to buck someone like Peter? He told them I was emotionally distraught and making it all up. He was so calm and collected and
believable
, and I was everything but. The moment the police left the penthouse, he made me pay. I learned my lesson and never made that mistake again.”

It bothered Parker to think about how she might have been punished for the infraction. Rainie was such a sweet-natured, harmless soul. What kind of man would brutalize her? But looking into her haunted eyes, Parker had no doubt that it had happened. Even worse, he felt fairly certain that his imaginings were only the tip of the iceberg. He reached for his glass and emptied it with one gulp.

She gave him a searching look. “Do you think I’m horrible for letting Peter take the heat for something he didn’t do?”

Parker wanted to plop the bastard’s ass on a griddle and turn the flame up on high. “Horrible? He deserves that and more. I think you’re smart and gutsy, but not horrible. You must have been scared to death when you left that dining room, and then on pins and needles for the rest of the cruise. That whole ship must have been crawlin’ with cops who were flown in. Didn’t they come to your cabin at some point?”

“Yes, but I was wearing the disguise and had proper identification. They asked if I’d seen Lorraina Danning, and I told them no.” Her eyes filled with tears again. “I was so afraid you’d hate me. Everything I’ve told you about myself has been a lie. You detest liars, and I’m the biggest liar you’ve ever met.”

Parker studied her for a long, searching moment. “That’s not true. You were honest about all the things that matter, Rainie.” He offered her a slight smile. “I know you love animals—all kinds, large and small. After seein’ you with Mojo, I know that you have incredible patience. I know you’re kind, because you started bringin’ Montana little treats when his limp returned. You couldn’t go past his stall without stoppin’ to comfort him with a scratch behind the ears, even though he sort of scares you. I know that you’re terrified of your feelin’s for me, that you find it difficult to trust your instincts. I know that you miss your dad horribly and wonder sometimes if that isn’t why you married an older man in the first place, and if that isn’t why you’re startin’ to love me, because I remind you of him. I know you like sausage pizza, Italian food, and sweet wine. I know you’ll ignore the ants and watch the clouds drift by with me, and also that you’ve got a great eye for images. I know a lot of things—the true things, the things that make you the person you are. Do you really think I give a damn about the rest?”

Her eyes swam with tears again. “You really don’t?”

Parker poured himself more whiskey and took a belt. “From the first instant I clapped eyes on you, I thought you were the most beautiful thing I’d ever seen, and except for that one little glitch when I got pissed at you for lyin’ to me, you’ve never done one damned thing to change my mind. Remember that conversation we had in your car? You said, ‘In my other life, my name was Rainie.’ I knew then that everything about you—everything you’d told me—was a lie. So in a way, none of what you told me was a lie because you let me know, right up front, not to believe any of it.”

She laughed wetly. “I guess I did, didn’t I?”

“You did. And here’s another thing. I’ve dated a lot of good-lookin’ women, and once I started to get to know ’em, I didn’t think they were pretty anymore. As I got to know you, you just seemed more and more beautiful to me.”

“Oh, Parker.”

“It’s true. I know you’re not ready to grab my hand and jump off a cliff with me yet.”

“A cliff?”

“Fallin’ in love is like that. You have to hang on to each other and just go for it. No guarantees, no safety net. You have to believe in the other person enough to take the leap.”

She nodded. “I did it once, remember. I’m terrified to do it again.”

“I understand, and I’m okay with that. After all you’ve been through, I don’t blame you, and I’m willin’ to wait. We’ll get there.”

“Will we?” she asked tremulously. “I’m not sure I even want to try.”

“I know,” he said softly. “That’s why I promised you I’ll never push you to do anything you’re not ready for. Just understand my side. You’re the only woman I’ve ever cared about. I can’t believe that God would bring you into my life and then not let it happen for us. We’ll get there. You just need to take each moment as it comes, Rainie, and stop tryin’ to analyze every damned thing. Way deep inside where nobody can see, you’ve been badly wounded, and you need time to heal.”

Her mouth started to quiver again, and he wanted to move around the table to take her into his arms. But he knew she wasn’t ready for that yet.

“I don’t know if I’ll ever heal,” she whispered. “He did terrible things to me, Parker, things you can’t even imagine. Even worse, I did things I don’t want to remember, just so he wouldn’t hit me.”

Parker felt as if a large hand had clamped around his throat. He swallowed hard. A part of him shied away from hearing about the things Peter had done to her, but another part of him understood that Rainie probably needed to talk about them. “Well, darlin’, when you’re ready to get it off your chest, I’ll be here.”

She shook her head, her eyes still bruised and aching with memories. “I’ll never be able to talk about it.”

She already was talking about it. Talking around it, anyway. But he didn’t think it was a smart idea to point that out to her just now. “If you never want to talk about it, that’ll be okay, too,” he told her, even though he knew she might never heal until she mustered the courage to share her memories. “Like I said, I’ll never push for you to do or say anything that makes you feel uncomfortable.”