Dark Room (Pete 'Monty' Montgomery 2)

A hint of laughter. “Now that I doubt. Not with the rush of those majestic snow-covered mountains just waiting to be conquered.”

“I’m psyched about the heli-skiing. I’m just as psyched about tomorrow’s dinner. I want to see you.”

She was quiet for a moment. “I know. I want to see you, too.”

Her admission elicited a surge of pleasure. “It looks like we’ll be finishing up on the slopes around four. After that, it’s homeward bound. My guess is I’ll be landing in Teterboro between nine and ten eastern time. I know it’s late, but—”

“I like late dinners.”

“Good. I’ll call you when we’re airborne. But that’s not the reason I’m calling now. You’ve been on my mind. You—and your meeting with Monty today. It must have been tough. I wanted to check on you, make sure you were okay.” He paused, abruptly changing gears. “I also wanted to hear your voice. It’s sexy.”

This time her laughter came naturally. “You know every right thing to say.”

“Maybe. But I mean every word.”

“I…” She cleared her throat. “Thank you. And thank you for checking up on me. It was a very sensitive thing to do. As for the meeting, you’re right. Looking at those photos, reliving it all—it was even more brutal than I expected. I remembered all kinds of things I’d buried away. But your father was amazing. He walked me through it. And he made it bearable.”

“I’m glad.” Lane leaned back, took a sip of scotch. “You’ll fill me in tomorrow. But tonight, I don’t want you to think about it. I want you to put it away—the meeting with Monty, the memories—all of it. Relax. Pour yourself a glass of wine. Curl up in bed with a good book or a movie. Think of me. Not in that order, of course.”

“Of course.” He could hear her smile. “Actually, Jill and I are having a girls’ night. We just ordered a million calories of comfort food. As for the wine, we opened a bottle of Chianti twenty minutes ago. I’m halfway done with my first glass. And we rented two different chick flicks, so the movies are covered.” She paused, lowering her voice a tad. “For the record, I’ve already been thinking of you. But I promise to keep doing so.”

Lane’s entire body reacted. “Do that. And don’t stop until I get off the plane. I’ll take it from there.”

“I’m counting on it.”

ACROSS THE WAY, Arthur’s solitude was shattered by the buzzing of his phone against his side. He’d put it on vibrate, and shoved it in his pocket, but that still didn’t make it go away.

Grimacing, he pulled it out and glanced at it, hoping against hope it was someone he could ignore.

He saw the caller’s name. Definitely not someone to ignore.

He punched on the phone. “Hi, hon.”

“Hi.” Elyse’s tone was dry. “Are you sure you know which ‘hon’ you’re talking to?”

Clearly, he had his work cut out for him. “Come on, Lyssie. I only have one hon, and that’s you. So, yes, I know exactly who I’m talking to.”

“Good start. Let’s move on. Who did you spend last night with?”

“You know the answer to that. I had dinner with Larry Cullen to secure his support for my bill. I met him in Jersey because his office is near Teterboro. I spent the night at the Marriott, and was on the plane heading out here by ten a.m. What’s the problem?”

“The problem is the missing hours; you know, the ones between dinner and flight time. Who was she this time, one of your regulars or a new one?”

“I was alone, Elyse. Please let’s not do this. I love you. And I miss you. Only you.”

She blew out a resigned breath and Arthur realized, with some degree of relief, that this round was over. Still, it wasn’t like Elyse to be so openly confrontational. Something was wrong.

“Elyse?”

“I didn’t mean to jump at you like that,” she replied. “It just hasn’t been a stellar day. Or a stellar week, for that matter.”

The glass of scotch paused halfway to Arthur lips. “Why? What happened?”

“Detective Montgomery showed up at the gym today. He thinks that hit-and-run accident near the St. Regis yesterday was a blatant warning to Morgan to back off this investigation. Especially after I told him about the things that’ve been happening to me this week.”

Arthur tensed. “You’d better explain.”

She did.