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[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ] Lassiter said Cord was going to take her out of the country, but she wasn't convinced. Cord wasn't the sort to run from a threat. What if she couldn't convince him to leave town? The idea of her past being revealed in color video on the evening news made her sick at her stomach. "You're brooding," he remarked when Davis parked Cord's car in the garage and left them to go back to work. "I've had a hard day," she told him with a forced smile. "Nothing to worry about." She gave him a long look and felt near panic. "I don't suppose you'd like to go off to Tahiti with me and become a beach bum?" she added wistfully. He chuckled warmly. "Why not?" She shrugged. "I guess we'd be in even more danger there." He studied her closely. "Tahiti is in the wrong direction. Too hot. But how would you like to go to Spain instead?" he asked out of the blue. Her heart jumped as she looked up at him. "Spain? You mean it?" He linked his long arm across her headrest and looked down at her. "I mean it. I understand that Gruber has made some veiled threats against both of us," he said, without revealing how he knew it, and unaware that she'd spoken to Lassiter. He saw her pale, but he didn't understand what she was thinking that led to such a sharp reaction. "I want to throw him off the track, make him back off, while Lassiter appears to do the same. If we can make the men careless, we've got a chance to stop them. If we leave the country, Adams and Gruber and Stillwell will think the pressure's off. I have an elderly cousin in Spain. We can go visit him, or at least, appear to." "What if Gruber follows us to Spain?" she asked. "I'm a blind man," he said blithely. "What danger could I pose to him?" "That's a thought," she had to admit. "It might get dangerous, there's always that possibility. But I can protect you. I've got a few friends who won't mind tagging along at a discreet distance. In any case, you'll be safer out of the United States than in it right now." She didn't think about the wording. She peered up at him with twinkling eyes, forcing her worst fears to the back of her mind. It would be an adventure. She would be with Cord. It was one last chance to share something with him that no woman in his past ever had. And if worst came to worst, if she was ... shot ... she'd have had the time with him to carry into the dark with her. She looked into his eyes with faint hunger. He would never have to know the truth if anything happened to her. But she would have such memories... ! The prospect became exciting. "I can see me now, with an official number and a trench coat and a gun," she told him with a gleeful grin. "I've almost talked Mr. Lassiter into hiring me, but this sounds much more adventurous. Call Interpol and tell them I'm available! Does the job come with one of those cyanide pills, just in case?" she added. He laughed, delighted at her response. She had courage and spirit and style. He admired her more than any woman he'd ever known. He touched her cheek with a teasing finger. "It comes with a damaged mercenary and a .45," he chided. "Not so damaged," she said gently, and reached up to touch, lightly, the skin beside the fresh scars around his eyes. She winced. "And very lucky!" He was watching her face, drinking in the helpless affection her actions betrayed, her visible longing for him. "Very lucky, indeed," he said under his breath. She hesitated, frowning thoughtfully. "Cord, you aren't just planning a visit to an elderly relative. Are you?" He traced her nose. "Leave it alone for now. We're going on a blind man's holiday. You'll be my eyes. We'll leave the country and let them think they've frightened us off. Then we'll give Gruber some rope and see if he'll oblige us and hang himself!" CHAPTER NINE Maggie packed just enough to fill a carry-on bag, excited at the prospect of an escapade with Cord, even under the circumstances. She didn't question why Cord, a man who never ran from trouble, should be so anxious to get away from an investigation of the man who'd almost killed him. But it saved her, momentarily, from fear of disclosure by Adams and his associates. They'd think that she'd convinced Cord to leave the country and back off, and they'd be placated, if only temporarily. For the moment, JobFair and its threatening file could be left far behind. For a while, at least, she would be safe from reprisals. In that brief time, she could indulge her long-standing fantasies of Cord, being with him, traveling with him, being part of his life. She could share the danger, the chase, the excitement. However long it lasted, whatever the cost, she thought, it would be worth it! He looked up when she came into the living room in slacks and a T-shirt under a jacket, her long dark hair in a braid down her back, her one piece of luggage carefully packed and tagging along behind her on its rollers. "You do pack light," he remarked approvingly. "I don't really have that much stuff," she reminded him. "Except for my photos of my parents and a couple of pieces of costume jewelry that belonged to my mother, which I'm leaving here, my clothes are all I own." He'd never considered the scarcity of her memorabilia. Of course, his was similarly restricted. Everything his parents had with them was burned up in the fire. There were no relatives except his elderly cousin. His parents' home had been a rented one, and whatever they had was sold at auction after they died. The authorities assumed that Cord had died with them, not being informed to the contrary until Cord was of age and able to contact them. He was looking at Maggie oddly. "No heirlooms?" he asked abruptly. "Not even from the great- grandmother who rode with Villa?" he teased. She shook her head, not wanting to tell him that everything in her home had been confiscated by the authorities long ago. God knew what had happened to it. She'd never asked, afraid to prompt new curiosity about the case. That was curious, Cord thought. She had a strange attitude toward possessions. She didn't accumulate things. In fact, she was like him in her Spartan attitude toward home. "We'll probably have kids who are pack rats," he remarked absently. She forced herself not to react to the painful remark. She even smiled. "Speak for yourself. My kids are going to be neat freaks." He cocked an eyebrow. "When do you plan to have these mythical spotless children?" "About the same time you start your own family with someone," she returned. "And God help her, the poor woman. She'll be stuck at home while you're off trying to get yourself blown up." He didn't react with amusement, as she expected him to. He looked very somber. "If I married again, I'd come home and raise purebred Santa Gertrudis herd sires. Maybe I'd do a little consultant work for Eb Scott in my spare time at his antiterrorism school in Jacobsville." "That'll be the day" she said absently. "You never know.': he replied. "I do dangerous work. I told Lassiter that maybe I did it to punish myself for Patricia's suicide. Perhaps that was closer to the truth than I realized. I felt guilty." She didn't know how to answer him. He'd loved Patricia. She'd loved him. Maggie knew nothing of mutual love affairs. She'd never had one. "Marriage is a risk, even when you love each other," she said, remembering her brief marriage with [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ] |