Manhattan Merger

“During the flight to Crag’s Head we caught up on each other’s news the way you do with an old acquaintance. She’d just come back from San Francisco where she’d been interviewed for an editor’s job with a magazine there. But she’d decided not to take it.

“In a teasing way I made the comment that she’d probably met a man here and didn’t want to leave him. She teased back that I could be right.

“At that point the helicopter landed. Mac had a flu bug and looked like death. I told him to go to bed. He argued with me, but I reminded him we were in the family compound which was secure. Nothing was going to happen.”

The more Payne explained, the more he could see Rainey’s complexion losing color.

“I decided to drive my own car for a change. We left straight for my parents’ home a short distance away. I helped Diane out. We’d just reached the stairs of the house when someone called my name.

“When I spun around, I discovered a strange woman standing near the bushes brandishing a gun. I’d been stalked at least six times since college, but none of the women had ever been in possession of a weapon before.

“It was one of those surreal moments, Rainey. You know it’s happening to you, but your brain is slow to react. I pushed Diane out of the way, then lunged for the woman. A shot rang out a split second before I tackled her to the ground. In the background I could hear Diane screaming that she’d been hit.

“Suddenly the whole world converged on us. Family, friends, security, police, paramedics.

“That shot shattered her world and mine.”

“Oh, Payne—” Rainey moaned as if she’d been the one wounded.

“Diane didn’t want anyone to touch her but me. It was a fight to get her to relent enough to let the paramedics take over. Of course she was in shock.

“She clung to me like a frightened child, begging me to ride in the ambulance with her. I would have thought she’d want her parents, but I did what she asked because I was in shock myself and frantic for her.”

“Of course. What a hideous moment for all of you.”

“That’s the word, Rainey. On the way to the hospital she kept saying that she was afraid she was going to die. Suddenly this whole confession came out that she’d always loved me and hoped to marry me one day.”

Rainey bowed her head.

“D

iane admitted that she’d gone to the city on purpose to see me. She used my mother by calling her up and pretending that she needed a ride home. Could my mother arrange for her to hook up with me?

“Her ruse worked,” he ground out. “She accomplished her objective, but ended up paying a price no one should have to pay.”

“No.”

“That bullet was meant for me, Rainey. If I hadn’t given Mac the night off, he would have dealt with the situation so fast that stalker wouldn’t have known what hit her. That’s what I pay him for.

“Out of all the nights to give him a break, it had to be that one.”

“Stop crucifying yourself!”

“I don’t know how. You’d think I would have learned from the other stalking experiences in my life that I’d always be a target and could never let down my guard.

“If you recall, God didn’t say ‘blessed are the rich and the famous.’ That’s because He knew those tags carried a terrible price.”

“Payne—”

“It’s true. When all is said and done, I’m the reason Diane can’t walk. The first two months were pure hell for her and for me. Every day I did a balancing act between my office and her hospital room. Each time I entered it, I prayed to hear she’d made a little progress.

“One evening while her doctor was doing rounds, he pulled me aside and told me there wasn’t anything else they could do for her. But because she still had some feeling in her legs, he suggested she go to a clinic in Zurich which was renowned for a new kind of operation that was getting results.

“That was the news I’d been waiting for. When I asked the doctor if he’d told Diane about it, he said yes, but she was fighting the idea.

“I couldn’t understand it, not if there was any possibility at all that she could walk again.

“Diane and I argued about it until she cried herself to sleep. When I went home I racked my brain trying to figure out how I could get her to change her mind and go.”