Dinah's heart twisted with sorrow for him. "I work for Valdivia. I don't sleep with him."
He made a disbelieving sound and kept his gaze on the pot of soup. But she saw his chest contract as if he were holding his breath. "I know you used to have all sorts of notions about changin' the world. I thought you planned to start in your own country, not some jungle dictatorship."
"I'm never going back into politics."
He chuckled harshly. "Not in this country, at least. But you don't want to waste your nice little
summa cum laude
master's degree in political science." His voice dropped to a fierce rumble. "Hey, this'll be funny to you. The folks here in town just finished settin' up a memorial to their long-lost mayor. A big granite stone. It's in the square right next to the Civil War cannon. The garden club is gonna plant flowers around it. They think you're dead."
Dinah went to a kitchen chair and sank down. She propped her chin on one fist and stared out a bay window into the stark, forbidding night, tears slipping down her cheeks. She had loved being mayor of Mount Pleasant.
She'd planned to run for state representative. Rucker had always declared that she'd be governor one day. That had been her dream until Valdivia stepped into her life.
"You don't believe what I said about Valdivia," she murmured. "That I don't sleep with him."
"Nope. Don't believe anything you tell me."
She stood, wiped her face with the back of one hand, and said calmly, "I love you. I never stopped loving you. I want you to know that, whether you believe it or not."
He froze in place, his jaw working angrily. "You killed our baby."
Dinah shut her eyes and wished she'd had time to make up a less devastating reason for leaving him. He was strangling on the lies she'd told to protect him from Valdivia, and there was nothing she could do about it. She pivoted stiffly and left the room.
***
"What are you doin' in there?"
"Taking a bubble bath."
Rucker kicked the bathroom door open and she instinctively cringed, covering her chest with crossed arms. The memory of something Valdivia had done was still too clear and she started trembling.
Rucker walked in carrying a bowl of soup and a glass of milk, his face so tense that he could barely talk. "Don't shake like a scared rabbit," he ordered. "I won't touch you."
He set the bowl and glass on the edge of the tub. His eyes scanned her huddled form, nonetheless. Suddenly he reached into the tub and grabbed the ankle nearest to him. Frothy water sloshed over the tub's rim as he jerked her leg up and examined the red scratches that started above her knee.
"That's a helluva tundra you've been runnin' through, Eskimo. I'll see If I've got some antiseptic."
Tenderness welled up inside her. She made a yearning sound in her throat and began to lower her arms. His mouth thinned with control. He released her ankle immediately and stood up.
"We're not gonna trade sex for the money you need."
Dinah cried out sadly. "That wasn't what I—"
But he was already out the door, slamming it behind him.
***
When she finished drying off she put the fur coat back on and twisted her slinky black robe into a small bundle of silk which she hid in the back of the bathroom linen closet.
Dinah opened the bathroom door and gazed down in astonishment at the neatly folded white jogging suit laying on the floor outside. The sight of the familiar old outfit brought a poignant ache to her chest. Rucker had always loved this outfit on her.
She dropped to her knees and clasped the soft material to her face, inhaling its fresh soap scent, the scent of Sunday afternoon washing.
"Change into that and put the damned coat where I can't see it," Rucker told her.
She looked down the hallway toward the living room. He stood there, legs braced apart, defensive as always. He pointed at the sable. "I don't want to see that ugly pelt again until you leave."
"Okay."
She smiled at him and he frowned. Dinah retreated back into the bathroom, holding the jogging suit to her chest as if it were a good luck charm.
When she walked into the living room a few minutes later, he was sitting on the hearth reading the directions on a tube of ointment. A fire crackled on the grate behind him. He glanced up briefly then commented, "At least your hair looks better."
"Thank you." She curled up on the couch and wondered how she'd ever be able to maintain her casual expression. She couldn't stop watching the sensual play of firelight on him. Red and gold streaks shone in his rumpled hair; flickering shadows highlighted his rough-cut features and thick mustache.
Her lips parted in a sigh while a sweet feeling of desire melted inside her. She felt her body flush as warmth spread up her abdomen and across her breasts. How many nights had she lain alone in the dark. imagining every detail of him, almost feeling his touch?
"Your hair got long," he said brusquely, without looking up.
Dinah hid a smile. He couldn't pretend to read the antiseptic's instructions much longer. "Do you approve?"
"Do you care whether I do or not?"
"Yes." She had vowed not to cut her hair until she returned to him for good. It was a talisman of hope.
"Hmmph. Now that it's all braided, you look more like yourself. Seein' you with messy hair is like seein' the
Mona Lisa
with a frown."
Dinah patted the fat French braid that extended down the middle of her back. "I turned thirty-one last fall. I have a few gray hairs now."
"I have plenty. They're all in my beard, though."
She looked at him sadly. "I've never seen you with a beard."
"I grew one for a while last fall."
Dinah's chest tightened. He had grown the beard soon after she left. "Why? You always disliked beards."
"Shavin'was just too much trouble."
She nodded, understanding the hidden meaning. He hadn't cared how he looked. She had gone through the same phase. "I bet you did a fair imitation of a grizzly bear."
"That's what Millie said. She made me shave it off for her wedding."
Dinah blinked back tears. Millie Surprise had been Rucker's secretary and a good friend to both of them. They had played matchmaker between her and a rowdy country and western singer named Brig McKay. "When did Millie and Brig get married?"
"About six months ago. They're livin' in Nashville."
He didn't mention that just before the wedding Millie and Brig made an unannounced visit to Mount Pleasant, where they found him asleep in the middle of his living room floor, surrounded by beer cans, with Jethro perched on his stomach gnawing a slice of cold pizza. For a few minutes Millie had cried with heartfelt sympathy. Then she went on a rehabilitation rampage.
Dinah hesitated, gauging her words carefully. "I suppose they think I'm dead."
Rucker tossed the tube of ointment to her and stood up tensely. "That's what everybody decided. When there wasn't any ransom note we knew you hadn't been kidnapped. Since your pocketbook was still in the car when the police found it, we knew you hadn't been robbed."
He paused, and she saw tendons flex in his neck. His next words were very low and controlled. "So, the chief theory was that somebody had seen you in town, liked what he saw, so he followed you and ran your car off the road. And then ..." Rucker stopped and studied her grimly. "You get the drift."
"But you never stopped looking for me." Dinah hugged herself and looked at him in mute agony. "You went through hell," she whispered.
His body stiffened and his chin rose. Dinah realized wretchedly that she'd just reminded him of all his reasons for despising her.
"I called for a cab again, while you were takin' a bath," he said in a lethal voice. "You can't get one until mornin'." He jerked a hand toward the hall that led to the master bedroom. "Go back there and stay. If I see you before mornin' I'll turn you out of my house."
***
The bed sheets smelled like Rucker. She slept fitfully, and everytime she woke up she took a moment to burrow her face into the pillow that carried the much-loved scent. Depression weighed on her like a dark mantle and thoughts whirled in her mind. If he'd really wanted her out of the house tonight, he'd have driven her to the bus station.
If only she could break through his anger. She could tell him that she hoped to come back to him soon and never leave him again, but he wouldn't believe it. She'd tell him anyway, in the morning.
Dinah woke around two a.m. and dimly heard his voice. She bolted upright in bed, her skin prickling with fear. Rucker was talking to someone.
Praying that she was mistaken, Dinah tiptoed to the bedroom door. She eased it open. The hallway was dark except for light coming from the living room.
The low rumble was definitely Rucker's voice. Her stomach twisted in dread. She slipped into the hallway and padded closer, her ears straining. She stopped just before the living room entrance. Cold perspiration rose on her forehead.
"I don't want to do this," Rucker was saying, his deep voice so leaden that she barely recognized it. "I know. Keep remindin' me that it's for her own good." There was a long pause as he listened. "All right. Eight a.m. And Jeopard? I don't want you to use any damned handcuffs or anything else that'll humiliate her." He cleared his throat roughly. "Right before you get here, I'll tell her that you know about her and Valdivia working for the Russians."
Dinah sagged against the wall as she heard Rucker place the phone back on its cradle. So Rucker knew about Valdivia's work and her participation in it. And he had turned her in.
Anguish made her groan like an animal caught in a trap. Rucker vaulted to his feet as she entered the living room.
"How could you?" she cried hoarsely. "Rucker, you don't know what you've just done!" He looked down at her with a weary, shattered expression as she wound her hands into his shirt front and tried to shake him. He grabbed her wrists but didn't offer much resistance. "You can't let me be put in jail! If I don't accomplish what Valdivia sent me to do . . ."
Her voice trailed off as she struggled to make a decision. Dinah cried against his chest for a second. Then she tilted her head back and looked at him desperately. "You and I have a daughter In Surador.
Her safety depends on us.
"
Three
It was a ploy to win his cooperation. It had to be. But a part of his soul came back to life as he scrutinized her tear-streaked face.
"Isn't that amazin'?" he asked tensely. "First you say you got rid of our baby, then you tell me you didn't. Make up your mind, or come up with a better story."
She wound her fingers tighter into his shirt and spoke as calmly as she could. "I had the baby seven months after I left you. She's three months old now."
He shook his head, angry disbelief shimmering in his eyes. "It won't work. You can't lie your way—"
"Her name is Kathertne Ann. After our mothers. Katie. You always wanted our first girl to be named that." Her voice shook. "I didn't forget, honey. We've got our Katie." Dinah touched his auburn hair. "She has your coloring. She's so perfect, Rucker. Katie McClure. You can't turn your back on her. You can't."
Breathing hard, he pushed her away. "What stories should I trust. Dinah? The ones you told me in Surador or the ones you're tellin' me now?"
Dinah moaned softly. "I would have told you
anything
in Surador to make you leave me alone before Valdivia's men hurt you."
He laughed without humor, the sound very sad. "I wish I could buy that."
She stepped close to him again and grasped his shoulders fiercely. "You
have
to."
"So my daughter's in Surador. Where?"
"I can't tell you." He cursed wearily and she interrupted. "The less you know, the safer you are! I wouldn't have involved you in this business at all, except that I was desperate. There was no one else. I want to protect you
and
Katie."
"You're sayin' that you left me for a man who'll kill people to get what he wants? You keep workin' for that bastard even though he threatens your own baby? What kind of woman have you turned into?"
"Why I work for Valdivia isn't important right now." She ground out the next words. "How much do you know about him?"
"He's a damned spy for the Russians. He has contacts in the United States. He's a courier for stolen military secrets.
And you work for him
."
Her face white, she nodded.
He grabbed her head between his hands.
"Why?"
Dinah swayed with emotion and shut her eyes. "Don't ask me anything else! I'll explain some day. I swear it. For now, all you need to know is that our baby is a pawn in Valdivia's game. He uses anything he can find to hold power over people. If I don't complete this mission and get back to Surador ..." She choked and couldn't go on.
Rucker's fingers dug into her hair. "What? Tell me!"
"Katie will disappear. Maybe he'll give her to some South American couple to raise. Maybe he won't go to that much trouble." A shudder ran through her. "Rucker, imagine that you can see her, that you're holding her. She smells sweet, milky. It's that baby smell that even puppies and kittens have. She makes solemn faces at you, and she curls her hands around your fingers, and when she looks at you with wonder in her eyes, you know you'll do
anything
to protect her."
"And what has that
anything
included so far?"
He let go of her and watched her face shrewdly. "I do what I'm told to do," Dinah explained in a formal tone. "And I keep waiting for the chance to bring her home to you."
"What's the matter?" he asked dryly. "Don't spies get vacations? Couldn't you wrangle a long weekend and come to visit?"
"It's not that simple."
"And let me guess—you can't tell me why it isn't."
Her eyes were anguished. "That's right."
"Then to hell with your tale about us havin' a daughter. You can't prove it, and I've heard better sob stories from winos beggin' for quarters."
"I can prove it," she countered. Dinah looked down at herself. She wore only the top to her white jogging suit. Because she'd lost weight, it hung to midthigh. With one swift movement she grasped the loose garment, pulled it over her head, and let it fall to the floor.