Darkness Before the Dawn (Maggie Bennett 2)

“You’ll only get your heart broken, and maybe lose your life in the process.”

“I’d rather die trusting the wrong person than live trusting no one,” she said firmly. “And I think Caleb is worth trusting. We have to take a chance sooner or later.”

“I don’t have a say in the matter?” Randall said idly.

“You don’t have a say in the matter.”

“I guess you are lovers after all,” Caleb broke in finally. “Strangers don’t fight that way.”

“We are not lovers,” Maggie said icily, “and we never will be. Do you want to speculate about my personal life, Caleb, or do you want to know what’s going on?” Her tone was clipped and businesslike, different from anything Randall had heard from her before, and he knew there wasn’t any way of stopping her short of dragging her from the apartment, kicking and screaming all the way. And though he might be able to overpower her, six feet and four inches of Caleb McAllister along with six feet of Maggie Bennett might prove his undoing.

He leaned back against the sofa, shrugging, and watched as she edged farther away from him. Another few inches, and she’d be on the floor. It would serve her right. His face ached from the blow their hardy assailant had managed to connect, his knuckles were swollen from his own seemingly useless attempts, and there was nothing he wanted to do more than crawl into a nice king-size bed with the woman beside him. The woman who hated him with a very satisfying passion. He only hoped she was that passionate when he finally convinced her of her fate.

He shut his eyes as she spilled everything to Caleb. She held almost nothing back, damn her, from Francis’s body in her sister’s bathtub to her cross-town trek to hide it. The only thing she kept quiet about was his own reluctant semi-involvement with Bud Willis and the organization at Langley—she had that much discretion. He’d still have to be doubly careful from now on. He’d told her nothing but the simple truth: he didn’t trust anyone. Not even her. And now he had two people he had to watch. It was going to be exhausting.

Never, never had he gone to so much trouble to acquire something as he was going through for Maggie Bennett. He’d spent three years tracking down a Renoir he’d fallen in love with; he’d spent a total of five years, off and on, pursuing the Cellini Venus he’d craved. He wanted Maggie Bennett with the same compulsive craving, and this time he wasn’t going to back off. She was the only woman who’d never bored him, and he wasn’t going to let her go until she did. It would happen sooner or later—it always did. But until he got her back, he wouldn’t be able to free his mind and soul from the insidious trap she’d sprung on him.

She didn’t want him, he knew that. She hadn’t meant to infiltrate his every waking moment for the last six years and most of his sleeping ones, too. If it were up to her, there’d be at least one continent between them at all times.

But it wasn’t up to her, not any longer. He’d waited through her stupid, doomed marriage to the young lawyer, waited through her affair with Peter Wallace, and had been just about to move in on her when she met Mack Pulaski. He’d spent a bad two years then, some of the worst of his life, facing the fact that she was totally out of reach. But Pulaski had died, and Maggie had mourned, and now she was free and less than a yard away from him. And he wasn’t going to wait much longer.

He opened his eyes; a weary, cynical expression

was on his face. “Are you finished?” he inquired politely. “Are you sure you wouldn’t like to tell him your shoe size? Or how we made love on the table in that apartment in Gemansk?”

He’d gotten through to her that time. Her face flushed, her hands curled into fists, and she opened her mouth to yell at him. God, he wanted to stop that mouth with his.

But then she snapped it shut again and smiled a wintry smile that was uncannily like his own. “Can we get the tapes from you when we leave Sybil’s tonight?”

“Sure, I’ll be glad to bring them. Anything else?” Caleb asked.

“Could we borrow some extra tapes? Do you have any that look like the Potato People ones?”

Randall sat up then. “What do you have in mind?”

“I’d think it was obvious,” she said sweetly. “It’s time for a little action. If you’re going to sit there and take a nap, it’s up to me to be innovative. If I know Sybil, she’s invited half the people from Stoneham Studios for dinner. I wouldn’t be surprised if our mysterious intruder is among them. So it wouldn’t hurt to set a tiny trap.”

“Personally,” Randall said, rising with grace that cost him a great deal to maintain, “I think I’ve seen more than enough action for today.” He considered wincing, to see if he could elicit that wonderful look of warmth she’d first shown him, then dismissed the idea. “But I know better than to try to talk you out of it. Will we have any trouble counting on your discretion, McAllister?”

“Of course not.”

Randall nodded wearily, unconvinced. “I don’t suppose we have a choice. Come along, Maggie. We’re due at your mother’s before long, and I have to stop off to change my clothes.”

“What’s wrong with your clothes?” Maggie demanded. “If you just fix your tie and wipe some of the dust from your trousers, no one will notice.”

“I will notice,” he said grandly. “Move it, Maggie. My temper is getting very short.”

She did smile at him then, and if it didn’t hold the warmth it had earlier, at least it was full of mischievous good humor. “Tough,” she said sweetly. “See you at dinner, Caleb.”

“You realize,” Randall said as they descended the three flights of stairs, “that you’re trespassing on your sister’s domain?”

“What are you talking about?” She was keeping up with him, her long legs eating up the distance. Sybil was right—the black dress was abominable. And she looked absolutely breathtaking in it.

“Caleb McAllister,” he said gruffly. “Your sister’s in love with him.”

“What made you the expert on love, Randall?” she scoffed. “I didn’t think you even believed in its existence.”

“Oh, it exists all right. For certain people, for a certain short period of time. I’ve been around your sister and McAllister at the Studios, seen them together. They fight all the time. Therefore, they’re in love.”