Twisted Shadows (29 page)

She didn't want to be alone.

But she
was
alone, and had to be alone, or risk her mother's life.

He didn't leave. Instead his green eyes darkened, drawing her into his spell, offering a respite from the evil that had invaded into her life.

Tell him,
an inner voice prompted.

His hand rose and touched a lock of hair, his fingers brushing her cheek. It was exactly what she wanted. And feared. Everything in her reacted to him in a way she'd never before experienced. Her legs felt rubbery, her nerves tingled. The touch was all tenderness. A longing that matched hers.

How much was real? She trusted him, yet she wondered if she could trust his feelings. She didn't even know what they were.

She stepped back. “Part of FBI procedure?” she asked, desperate now to keep a distance between them.

The intensity in his eyes faded. The side of his mouth crooked in a small smile. “No, I think the Bureau would disapprove.”

The wry look on his face disarmed her. As much as she could be disarmed at the moment. She didn't want to get rid of Nate McLean, but she knew she must.

“I have to get to the gallery,” she said.

“I'll come with you.”

That was the last thing she needed. “No thanks.”

“It's not negotiable.”

She stared at him. The gentleness was gone.

“You're still in danger,” he said. “As is your mother.”

She shivered. He hadn't believed her. He suspected—or knew—her mother was in trouble. She swallowed hard, steered the conversation away from what she dared not discuss. “This morning was a mistake.”

“Was it?”

“I don't want you here!”

“I want to help.”

“You want to send Merrittas to prison.”

“Some, yes, and I want to protect another Merritta,” he admitted, disarming her again. She hadn't expected that.

“Please.” Her voice started to break.

“You can't stay here alone. Not after the attempts on your life.”

“I won't be alone. I'll be at the gallery, then stay with a friend. She has a bunch of big brothers.”

He didn't move. “I won't leave you alone,” he said. “You're too important to me and not because you are a Merritta, dammit.”

The admission disconcerted her. It sounded protective and loving. She needed that, needed it now more than she needed air to breathe.

But she had to go, and she had to go alone. “Can you make coffee?” she said. “I have a few calls to make.”

He nodded stiffly.

She watched as he turned toward the kitchen. She went to the desk drawer where she kept the keys to her mother's house, then grabbed her rental car keys. She glanced around for his, but couldn't find them.

She wanted to look in the kitchen, but she knew he would sense her presence. Just as she had sensed his so many times. He'd evidently believed she would do as he said. He was probably used to being obeyed.

She took a sharp letter opener from her desk. “
Get rid of him.
” The words kept echoing in her mind.

The moment he heard the engine, he would be out the door. She had to slow him down, so he couldn't follow.

She stepped outside and around to the other side of his car and kneeled. After several jabs, she knew the tire had been punctured.

She went to her rental car, unlocked it and got in. She started it and backed out of the driveway, looking back to see him running out the door. She put her foot on the gas pedal and speeded up.

Three blocks later, she lost him.

Her mother's home was exactly the way she'd left it earlier. She studied every car on the street, every person, even every bush as she drove up. She wondered whether she would always do that now.

Suddenly she hated Paul Merritta for what he had done to her life, to her mother's life. He'd plunged them both into terror.

For what? To prove that he could?

She didn't see anyone, but she hadn't seen anyone at her house the night of the burglary, either.

Invisible eyes again.

Or had her house been bugged? Had her mother's? The idea of her privacy being so invaded enraged her more than the actual attempts on her life. Her stomach churning, she paused at the doorstep before inserting the key.

She wished she had a gun. Dammit, she just hadn't had time to purchase one. She would remedy that today. She wasn't going to feel vulnerable any longer.

She turned the key in the lock and stepped cautiously inside. She had been there very early this morning, but she hadn't felt the air of abandonment she did now. No Sarsy rubbing her legs to take off the edge of aloneness.

She listened for a moment, heard complete stillness, then climbed the stairs to her mother's bedroom. She went to the dresser.

The silver comb and brush were gone.

She heard the sound of running water. She entered the bathroom.

A steady stream of water was coming from the sink faucet.

It hadn't been this morning.

twenty-two

Someone had been in the house since she'd left it early this morning.

Sam wanted to run out the door and never stop.

She wished she hadn't punctured McLean's tire.

She forced herself to look through each room before leaving. No other trace of a presence.

She thought about looking through her mother's desk, but she wouldn't know if anything was missing. Like an address book. Like her own address book that had gone missing a week ago.

Was someone looking for family friends?

Sam left the house and drove away, watching carefully through her rearview mirror.

Her next stop was the local gun store. She braced herself. The owner, Ed Greene, was an old friend of her father's. He'd been a Green Beret, and retired warriors always seemed to recognize each other.

He gave her a bear hug. “Going to start target shooting again?” he asked. “You were good. Your dad was always proud of you.”

“You know the way my mother felt about guns,” she said. “I never got a new one when my pistol was stolen.”

“I figured that. Got interested again, huh? Good thing. Woman alone needs protection these days. Both my girls carry guns.”

“I do a lot of driving at night,” she agreed.

He gave her a searching look. She was wearing a long sleeve shirt and slacks, so he couldn't see all her wounds, but she had scratches on the back of one hand and a cut from windshield glass along her neck. “You okay?”

“An accident,” she said.

He apparently accepted that. “Haven't seen much of Patsy,” he said.

Ed was a widower and had indicated an interest in Patsy a year after her husband's death, but her mother hadn't been interested.

“She's been busy,” Sam said, then changed the subject. “What weapon would you suggest?”

“Protection or target practice?”

She hesitated a moment, then said, “Both.”

He took out a .38 Police Special and handed it to her. The revolver fit well in her hands.

She bought the gun and several packages of ammunition after he made the mandatory background check via phone.

“Thanks, Ed.”

“Any time. I miss your father.”

“Me, too,” she said. She wondered whether he would approve of what she was doing. She was trying to protect her mother, as he apparently had done, but she had no idea whether she was doing the right thing. He obviously hadn't gone to the authorities. Instead he'd changed names, changed histories. He hadn't trusted the legal system.

“You need anything, you just call me,” Ed said.

“There is something. Can I use your phone? I lost my cell phone in the accident. That's next on my list.”

“Say, I have one you can borrow,” he said. “Never use the damn thing anyway. Why don't you use it until you get a new one charged? Woman alone shouldn't be without one. Number is taped on the top. Never can remember the damn thing myself.”

“Woman alone” seemed to be a mantra with him.

“Thank you,” she said. “You send any bill to me.”

“I look forward to you being a steady customer now,” he said. He fumbled with the cell phone on his belt and gave it to her. “My girls are the only ones who have the number,” he said. “But they also have the number at the shop and home. If they want me, they can get me. But a woman alone …”

She took the phone and put it in her purse, then paid him for the revolver.

“You might want to try the gun range,” he reminded her.

“I'll do that,” she said, anxious now to get to her next errand.

Warn Terri.

She got to her car, looking around for McLean's vehicle. The gun shop was three blocks away from Western Wonders, which was, she thought, where McLean would go first.

She closed her eyes as she remembered the way he had looked when she woke. Impossibly attractive. Impossibly safe.

Should she have told him about the call?

“
Get rid of him
.” The words from a disembodied voice echoed in her ears.

She dialed Western Wonders.

Terri answered. “When did you get back?” she asked as soon as she heard Sam's voice.

“Early this morning. I tried to call you earlier, but you didn't answer.”

“Probably running,” Terri said. “I've been here most of the day.” There was a question in her voice. “Someone is looking for you.”

“Is he still there?”

“I didn't say it was a he,” Terri said. “But it
was
a he, a very attractive he, and I think he went to your mother's house.”

“How did he seem?”

“I don't think he was happy. He's one intense man.”

McLean. It was a good description of him.

“He said he was FBI,” Terri added. “He showed credentials.”

“He is,” Sam replied, “except he's here unofficially.”

“He didn't say that.”

Sam wasn't surprised. She wasn't surprised about anything any longer. McLean wanted information. She knew him well enough by now to know he wouldn't pay attention to technicalities. “Did you tell him anything?”

“Nothing to tell.”

“What about my mother? Did he ask about her?”

“Yep. I said I heard from her yesterday afternoon.”

“When?”

“About three in the afternoon.”

“Did she say anything about leaving town?”

“Leaving?” The surprise was evident in her friend's voice. “She'd just arrived. She couldn't wait to see you.”

“She left before I arrived. She left a note saying all was fine, that she just needed to get away for a few days.”

“That's odd,” Terri said. “She seemed so eager to see …” Her voice trailed off.

“Did she seem distracted at all? Nervous?”

“No. I think I would have noticed.”

So whatever had frightened her away happened between three and probably midnight.

“Where are you?” Terri asked.

“Not far.”

“I want to see you.”

Sam wanted to see her, too. She wanted to hear everything that her mother had said, but not in Western Wonders.

“Is Helen there?”

“Yes.”

“Take Jupiter to our favorite place. I'll meet you there in an hour. Make sure you're not followed.”

A pause. Then, “If someone does, I have some big brothers who will take a gun to them.”

The comment reminded Sam about her own brother. Her newly discovered brother. It should be a time of rejoicing. Not of terror. Not filled with this terrible uncertainty.

Was she putting Terri in jeopardy, too?

She started to say she'd changed her mind, but Terri had hung up.

She didn't call back, though. Now all she had to do was leave town without anyone seeing her. Not McLean. Not whoever was watching.

She always thought better outdoors. And she trusted Terri. Terri was the only person who hadn't lied to her—either by commission or omission—or tried to use her. Sam knew she could no longer see the forest for the trees. Maybe Terri could.

She looked at her car. McLean had seen it. Someone else might have seen it, too, and planted some electronic gizmo while she and McLean …

She went to the garage where she had much of her mechanical work done. They always gave her a loaner. She left the car around the side and went inside. “There's a noise in the car. It's a rental, and I have to drive it back to Denver. Can you take a look at it?”

“For you, anything,” said Harry, the owner, with a grin. “Want the eyesore?”

“Yep,” she said. “I have a few errands.”

He pulled some keys off a nail and handed them to her.

The loaner didn't look like much, but it was in superb running condition. She'd discovered that long ago.

Praying she wasn't outsmarting herself, she drove the car through the busy summer traffic of Steamboat. It was getting more and more popular, and the traffic seemed thicker than usual. Suddenly aware she hadn't eaten in the past twelve hours, she stopped at a fast food restaurant and ate a hamburger and fries.

It was time to head out toward Terri's ranch.

Before reaching it, she took a side road, then a dirt road into a heavily forested area. No one was behind her. She was sure of it.

Not the bad guys. Or the good guys.

She was alone.

Berating himself for trusting Samantha, Nate returned to Western Wonders after an unfruitful trip to her mother's home, only to find the gallery empty except for an elderly woman who apparently was in charge. She was talking to a customer.

He was convinced Sam would show up at the gallery sooner or later. He also suspected the pretty woman he'd questioned knew more than she'd said.

He glanced around, searching for Samantha even as he noted the paintings and sculptures situated around the spacious showroom. His gaze roamed over the walls and then the sculptures artfully displayed. He readily recognized a Remington, but not the others. Nate didn't know much about art but he knew these were good. There was an illumination—a play of light and shadows—that lifted most of them out of the ordinary.