Authors: Linda Howard
Midnight Rainbow (29 page)
“She's going to try to steal the plates.”
Grant went white. “And you were going to let her?”
“Damn it, Grant!” Kell exploded. “It's not a matter of letting her and you know it! The problem is stopping her without tipping the guy off and sending him so deep underground we can't find him. I've got agents tiptoeing all
around her, but the guy thinks he's in love with her, and his buyer has watchdogs sniffing around, and we simply can't snatch her without blowing the whole thing sky high!”
“All right, all right. I'll get her out of it.”
“How?” Kell demanded.
“I'll get the plates myself, then jerk her out of there and make damned certain she never calls you again!”
“I would deeply appreciate it,” Kell said. “What are you going to do with her?”
“Marry her.”
Something lightened in Kell's dark face, and he leaned back in his chair, looping his hands behind his head. “Well, I'll be damned. Do you know what you're getting into? That woman doesn't think like most people.”
That was a polite way of saying it, but Kell wasn't telling him anything he didn't already know. Within moments of meeting her, Grant had realized that Jane was just a little unorthodox. But he loved her, and she couldn't get into too much trouble on the farm.
“Yeah, I know. By the way, you're invited to the wedding.”
* * *
J
ANE SMILED AT
F
ELIX
, her eyes twinkling at him. He was such a funny little guy; she really liked him, despite the fact that he was a counterfeiter and was planning to do something that could really damage her country. He was slightly built, with shy eyes and a faint stutter. He loved to gamble, but had atrocious luck; that is, he'd had atrocious luck until Jane had started sitting beside him. Since then he'd been winning regularly, and he was now devoted to her.
Despite everything she was having fun in Monte Carlo. Grant was being slow coming around, but she hadn't been bored. If she had trouble sleeping, if she sometimes woke to find her cheeks wet, that was something she had to
accept. She missed him. It was as if part of herself were gone. Without him there was no one she could trust, no one in whose arms she could rest.
It was a dangerous tightrope she was walking, and the excitement of it helped keep her from settling into depression. The only thing was, how much longer was it going to last? If she saw that Felix was finally going to make up his mind who to sell to, she would be forced to do somethingâfastâbefore the plates got into the wrong hands.
Felix was winning again, as he had every night since he'd met Jane. The elegant casino was buzzing, and the chandeliers rivaled in brilliance the diamonds that were roped about necks and dripping from ears. The men in their formal evening wear, the women in their gowns and jewels, casually wagering fortunes on the roll of the dice or the turn of a card, all created an atmosphere that was unequaled anywhere in the world. Jane fit into it easily, slim and graceful in her black silk gown, her shoulders and back bare. Jet earrings dangled to her shoulders, and her hair was piled on top of her head in a careless, becoming twist. She wore no necklace, no bracelets, only the earrings that touched the glowing gold of her skin.
Across the table Bruno was watching them closely. He was becoming impatient with Felix's dithering, and his impatience was likely to force her hand.
Well, why not? She'd really waited as long as she could. If Grant had been interested, he'd have shown up before now.
She stood and bent down to kiss Felix on the forehead. “I'm going back to the hotel,” she said, smiling at him. “I have a headache.”
He looked up, dismayed. “Are you really ill?”
“It's just a headache. I was on the beach too long today. You don't have to leave; stay and enjoy your game.”
He began to look panicky, and she winked at him. “Why don't you see if you can win now without me? Who knows, it may not be me at all.”
He brightened, the poor little man, and turned back to his game with renewed fervor. Jane left the casino and hurried back to the hotel, going straight to her room. She always allowed for being followed, because she sensed that she always was. Bruno was a very suspicious man. Swiftly she stripped off her gown, and she was reaching into the closet for a dark pair of pants and a shirt when a hand closed over her mouth and a muscular arm clamped around her waist.
“Don't scream,” a low, faintly raspy voice said in her ear, and her heart jumped. The hand left her mouth, and Jane turned in his arms, burying her face against his neck, breathing in the delicious, familiar male scent of him.
“What are you doing here?” she breathed.
“What do you think I'm doing here?” he asked irritably, but his hands were sliding over her nearly-naked body, reacquainting himself with her flesh. “When I get you home, I just may give you that spanking I've threatened you with a couple of times. I get you away from Turego, and as soon as my back is turned you plunge right back into trouble.”
“I'm not in trouble,” she snapped.
“You couldn't prove it by me. Get dressed. We're getting out of here.”
“I can't! There are some counterfeit plates that I've got to get. My room is being watched, so I was going to climb out the window and work my way around to Felix's room. I have a pretty good idea where he's hidden them.”
“And you say you're not in trouble.”
“I'm not! But really, Grant, we've got to get those plates.”
“I've already got them.”
She blinked, her brown eyes owlish. “You do? Butâ¦how?
I mean, how did you knowânever mind. Kell told you, didn't he? Well, where did Felix have them hidden?”
She was enjoying this. He sighed. “Where do you think he had them?”
“In the ceiling. I think he pushed up a square of the ceiling and hid the plates in there. It's really the only good hiding place in the room, and he isn't the type to put them in a safety deposit box in a bank, which is where I'd have put them.”
“No, you wouldn't,” he said, annoyed. “You'd have put them in the ceiling, just like he did.”
She grinned. “I was right!”
“Yes, you were right.” And he probably never should have told her. Turning her around, he gave her a pat on the bottom. “Start packing. Your little friend is probably the nervous sort who checks his hidey-hole every night before he goes to bed, and we want to be long gone before he does.”
She dragged down her suitcases and started throwing clothes into them. He watched her, sweat popping out on his brow. She looked even better than he remembered, her breasts ripe and round, her legs long and shapely. He hadn't even kissed her. He caught her arm, swinging her around and catching her close to him. “I've missed you,” he said, and lowered his mouth to hers.
Her response was instantaneous. She rose on tiptoe, moving against him, her arms coiled around his neck and her fingers deep in his hair. He'd had a haircut, and the dark blond strands slipped through her fingers to fall back in place, shaped perfectly to his head. “I've missed you, too,” she whispered when he released her mouth.
His breathing was ragged as he reluctantly let her go. “We'll finish this when we have more time. Jane, would you please put on some clothes?”
She obeyed without question, pulling on green silk trousers and a matching green tunic. “Where are we going?”
“Right now? We're driving to the beach and turning the plates over to an agent. Then we're going to catch a flight to Paris, London and New York.”
“Unless, of course, Bruno is waiting just outside the door, and instead we end up sailing across the Mediterranean.”
“Bruno isn't waiting outside the door. Would you hurry?”
“I'm finished.”
He picked up the suitcases and they went downstairs, where he checked her out. It all went like clockwork. There was no sign of Bruno, or any of the men she had dubbed “Bruno's goons.” They turned the plates over to the promised agent and drove to the airport. Jane's heart was thudding with a slow, strong, powerful beat as Grant slipped into the seat beside her and buckled himself in. “You know, you never did actually tell me what you're doing here. You're retired, remember? You're not supposed to be doing things like this.”
“Don't play innocent,” he advised, giving her a look from molten gold eyes. “I saw your fine hand in this from the beginning. It worked. I came after you. I love you; I'm taking you to Tennessee; and we're going to be married. But you'd better remember that I'm on to your tricks now, and I know you're too slick for your own good. Did I leave anything out?”
“No,” Jane said, settling back in her seat. “I think you have everything covered.”
* * * * *
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ISBN-13: 9781460394625
MIDNIGHT RAINBOW
Copyright © 1986 by Linda Howington
All rights reserved. Except for use in any review, the reproduction or utilization of this work in whole or in part in any form by any electronic, mechanical or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including xerography, photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, is forbidden without the written permission of the publisher, Harlequin Enterprises Limited, 225 Duncan Mill Road, Don Mills, Ontario M3B 3K9, Canada.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are either the product of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events or locales is entirely coincidental.
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