Strangers in Paradise (22 page)

They didn't challenge each other anymore. They had made an agreement. They were going to take a chance.

But Rex couldn't stop worrying. Eventually, they were going to have to go back. And nothing could ever be right between them—

Until he found out what was really going on at the Brandywine house.

Chapter 12

B
y the time they came back in, three days later, Alexi had grown fairly adept with the
Tatiana
. The sails were furled when they approached the dock, though; the motor was softly humming to bring them in at a slow, safe speed.

Alexi—ready to jump onto the dock and tie the
Tatiana
up in its berth—started, openmouthed, when she saw that Gene was waiting for them farther down the dock.

“Alexi!” Rex yelled.

“What?”

“Now! Hop off and secure her.”

She obeyed him mechanically. She slipped the little nooses over the brackets just as he had shown her. When he leaped off himself to check her work and tighten the ropes, Alexi pointed down the dock. “Gene's here. Did you plan this?”

His quick look assured her that he had not. “Run and see if there's a problem while I rinse her down,” Rex said. Then he abruptly changed his mind. “No. Wait. Start making sure that the boat's all in order, and I'll go tell Gene we'll be with him as soon as we rinse her off.”

Hurrying off, he didn't give Alexi much of a chance to protest. She muttered something under her breath, then paused, smiling. He was darker than ever now. Striding down the dock, barefoot and in cutoffs, he was agile and smooth and dark and sleek and muscled, and, being in love with him, Alexi had to take a moment to admire him and determine that he was a perfectly beautiful male. Then she muttered beneath her breath again and hopped back onto the
Tatiana
to crawl below. She thought she'd start in the galley, making sure that the pots and pans and dishes were secured.

Approaching Gene, Rex looked back to assure himself that Alexi wasn't trailing right behind him. She was gone from the deck; below, he hoped.

“Gene!” Rex caught the old man's hand, instantly worried about the way he was standing there in the heat. “How long have you been out here? What's wrong?”

“Not that long out here in the heat,” Gene said. “I've been here all morning, though. Long enough for breakfast, Bloody Marys and lunch. I knew you planned on coming back in today, and I didn't want to miss you.”

“What's up?”

“John Vinto is what,” Gene said worriedly. He gazed at Rex keenly. “I'm glad you came up to me alone, Rex. Vinto has called her mother, her cousin, and me—three times. He insists he has to see Alexi. He's determined to make an appointment to talk to her.” He looked down the dock and lowered his voice, even though Alexi was still nowhere in sight. “I think he's going to show up at the Brandywine house. He knows she's there.”

“I think he's already shown up at the Brandywine house a few times,” Rex muttered.

“Maybe. Maybe not. Amy—that's Alexi's mother—is certain she saw him nosing around Alexi's apartment in New York just last week.”

“One can come and go easily these days,” Rex insisted. “Jet transportation. And between here and New York there are flights just about every hour.”

“I don't know,” Gene said. “I just don't know. And since I don't know quite what happened between them, I didn't know how worried I should be.”

“I'll be there with her,” Rex said grimly. “And Samson will be there, too.” He didn't want to say any more to Gene. He wasn't sure whether John Vinto was a dangerous man or had just been dangerous to Alexi because she hadn't been as physically strong as he.

He thought of how she had screamed that night in the car in front of the house and what a trauma it had been for her to tell him what had happened. John Vinto had hurt her in many ways. She had stood up to him after that—but then she had run away. Rex wasn't sure Alexi should see him again.

“I'm going to take her to my house,” Rex said. “I'll leave her there with Samson, and I'll meet John Vinto, see just what it is he wants from her.”

“Good,” Gene said, indicating with a nod something slightly past Rex's shoulder. “She's on her way over to us.”

“Alexi!” Gene stepped past Rex and threw his arms out for a big hug. Alexi returned the hug and kissed his cheek. She was in white shorts and a red-white-and-blue halter top, with her hair pulled up into a high ponytail. She had on very little makeup, and her cheeks were tinged from the sun. Rex thought that she seemed exceptionally appealing, fresh and young and innocent and stunning all at once.

And delicate, slim—and vulnerable.

He tensed, thinking again that he did love her, thinking of the things he'd said to her and the things that she'd whispered to him. He was falling in love—hard. Like a rock. And he could even begin to believe in a future for them.

He couldn't let her face Vinto again. Not without him there. Because if Vinto so much as touched her...

“Gene, what are you doing here?” Alexi asked him, smiling, and quickly added, “Not that I'm not glad to see you, but it's so awfully hot out here!”

“I, uh—lunch! I knew you were coming in, and I thought I'd meet the two of you for lunch again.”

Alexi cocked her head, watching him suspiciously. “What's up?”

“Nothing.” Rex, safe behind Alexi's back, arched a brow as Gene flatly lied to her. “Well,” Gene hedged, “I was just hoping that you weren't mad at me, after the way you left and all. I mean, Rex there was acting just like a caveman and I didn't do anything to help you.”

“You both have atrocious manners, and neither of you seems to be aware that women did earn the vote,” Alexi told him sternly. She was smiling, though, and Rex breathed a little sigh of relief. She had fallen for it. Rex knew Gene. He wasn't a bit sorry for letting Rex stride out with her over his shoulder. Gene had decided that the two of them were good for each other. When he made a decision, that was it. Good or bad, he never regretted it. “Can't go back,” he always told Rex. “That leaves you with forward, boy. No other way to go.”

“Why don't you two go ahead and have lunch?” Rex suggested. Alexi swung around, ready to insist that they all have lunch together. Rex caught her shoulders, dazzled by her smile, and shook his head regretfully. “Seriously. You're both dressed, and I'm a mess and I want to hose down the
Tatiana
.”

“But, Rex—”

“Please, Alexi.” He lowered his lips to whisper in her ear. “It's too hot for Gene to stand around out here. Go on in with him! I'll join you a little later.”

“Oh!” she murmured quickly. She turned around and slipped her arm through Gene's. “Let's have lunch, then. How are their Bloody Marys?”

“Wonderful. Tall and cool and wonderful.”

“Oh, Gene!” Alexi told him, full of bright-eyed enthusiasm. “I've been reading Eugenia's diary. Oh, it's so sad, the way she would wait for Pierre, wait and wait and watch the beach! It's been wonderful, Gene. I feel like I know her—and Pierre through her. She loved him so much!”

Rex waited until they had disappeared into the yacht club restaurant; then he hurried back down to the boat and put a quick call through to Mark Eliot. Mark came on the line and started a long dissertation about the latest mystery he had read. Rex tried to listen politely, but he had to cut Mark off.

“Mark, great, we'll get together soon and talk. Right now I need some help.”

Mark told him he'd be happy to do anything he could. Rex explained that he wanted to know anything that Mark could find out about John Vinto. Was he in town? Had he been in town? Anything Mark could get.

Mark whistled. “That's a tall order, but I'll see what I can do. Where are you now?”

Mark told him he was at the docks and that he'd be around there for at least a half an hour. “Then I'll be in the club, then back out at my house.” Rex thought grimly that it made good sense to keep Alexi away from the Brandywine house until he'd had a chance to see Vinto. He thanked Mark for his help then and hung up.

He hurried for the hose to start rinsing down the
Tatiana
. He'd barely started, though, when he heard the phone ringing. He dropped the hose, ran toward it and answered it.

“Rex?” Mark said.

“That was quick.”

“I didn't have to go that far. I checked the airlines. Your friend Vinto is around here somewhere. He flew into Jacksonville yesterday morning.”

“I see,” Rex murmured. “Thanks, Mark.”

“I'm still checking on the rest of his activities.”

“Thanks. I really appreciate it.”

“I'll call you tonight, at your house.”

“Great.”

Rex hung up. Vinto was very near—he could feel it. And he didn't want the guy anywhere near Alexi. He was growing more certain that Vinto had been in the Brandywine house. Rex didn't know what the man's motives were, but he was sure Vinto had stalked her—had even struck her down.

And none of it was going to happen again.

He hastily finished rinsing down the boat. Then he went down into the cabin, changed into street clothes and joined Gene and Alexi in the restaurant.

He gave Alexi a kiss on the cheek and slid into the chair beside her, smiled broadly and asked them what they'd eaten.

Rex studied the menu quickly, noting that Alexi was watching him, then smiled at her and ordered.

He was acting very strange even for Rex, Alexi decided, and she couldn't quite put her finger on the problem. He was being very sweet and charming—he just seemed tense.

“So,” Gene said to her, “it's all starting to look really good, huh, young lady?”

Alexi nodded eagerly. “I do love that house, Gene. And the window seat came out perfectly. Why don't you come out with us now and see it?” Alexi suggested.

“What?” Gene murmured uneasily.

“He can't!” Rex told Alexi quickly.

“Oh?” Alexi leaned back in her chair, crossing her arms over her chest. “Why can't he?”

“Chess championships,” Rex supplied. Alexi gazed at him skeptically. He'd already drunk half of his Bloody Mary, and he was merely picking at his food. She looked over at Gene. “Do you really have chess championships today?”

“Oh, yes, yes.”

“You're a liar. You're lying because Rex wants you to lie. What I want to know is why.”

Rex made a sound of impatience. “He doesn't want to come out now, Alexi, all right?”

“No, it isn't all right—”

“Dammit!” He threw his napkin down on the table. “Do we have to make a major production out of everything?”

Alexi went dead still, staring at him in sudden fury. Gene cleared his throat, then looked at his watch. “Wow. I'm going to miss those chess championships if I don't go back. Now.”

Alexi stood up. “We'll drive you—”

“No, no. I have a driver waiting,” Gene assured her. He kissed her cheek, waved to them both and left. Alexi stared at Rex. He wasn't looking at her; he was glaring down at his plate. Ignoring her, he raised his hand to ask for the bill. They maintained a tense silence while he signed it. Walking out of the restaurant, Alexi jumped when he slipped a hand around her waist. She drew back from his touch and hurried ahead.

In the car, he bounced angrily into the seat beside her. As they drove along, neither of them spoke for at least ten minutes. Then Alexi burst out with a demand to know what was wrong with him.

“Nothing,” he insisted, but he didn't look her way, and he didn't have another thing to say as they headed along the peninsula. She didn't know what to think or what to feel; she was simply baffled and hurt. Hadn't he said that he was falling in love, too? Hadn't they admitted the same fears and then agreed to let things blossom and grow as they naturally would?

Maybe she had closed the doors against him; maybe he had never really opened them as far as she had thought. For all that the days had been between them, they were as distant now as the sun and moon, and she couldn't begin to understand what had caused his fit of temper.

“Drop me at my house,” she told him, and added softly, “then go home yourself. I think we need some time apart.”

“You must be crazy!” he thundered out to her.

“No! I'm not crazy!” she retorted after several seconds of incredulous silence. “You're yelling at me, and I don't feel like being yelled at! Let me off—and go home!”

He cast her a murderous stare. The type that reminded her that she had once thought he might have a dark and wicked soul. “You were conked on the head not too long ago—being in that house by yourself. Have you forgotten that?”

She looked down at her hands, which were folded in her lap. “I—no. And I do have the good sense to be afraid of—to be afraid. Maybe it is John—and maybe it isn't. Maybe something else is going on—”

“Like what?”

“I don't know! It doesn't matter. I'll be all right; I'm not stupid. Samson is there, and you know as well as I do that no stranger could ever get past Samson.”

“You'll come home with me.”

“There you go again!”

“There I go again what?”

“Cracking the whip, laying down the law, whatever! Will you please quit telling me what to do? Now, Samson is in that house. And I appreciate that, Rex, I really do—”

“You can't borrow my dog, Alexi.”

“Rex! What—”

They drove right past the Brandywine house and kept going. Alexi gritted her teeth. She really wanted to land a hard punch right to his jaw. “Rex, I swear, this time you really can't do this! I want to go to my house, and so help me, I will!”

He ignored her. The car jerked to a halt before his house. Alexi turned to her door, ready to storm out. Rex's hand fell upon her arm. She started to wrench it away from him.

“Alexi!”

He turned her to him. He caught her lips in a long, burning kiss. She tried to push away from him; she couldn't. And despite her anger, or perhaps because of her anger, the heat of him took flight and seared into her. When he drew away from her, she was breathless. Furious, but breathless...