Mine Until Dawn (31 page)

“Oh, God,” Jade whispered from behind him.

“Don’t look.” Vince jumped to his feet and steadied her as she swayed. Her lower lip trembled, her eyes wide and haunted. Vince pushed the door with his foot and locked it. “I’ll call Eddie. Get your stuff together.” He nudged her toward the bedrooms while unsnapping the knife belt.

Jade’s eyes followed his movements, widening when she saw the knives. “Why?”

“You’re going to Dana Point.”

She frowned. “Me? What about you?”

“I’m going to make arrangements to get your mother out of Saint-Noel. If Montague was right about their search, it won’t be long before they learn she was on that cruise ship and that she got off in Saint-Noel. If she has the statue—”
 

“I think she does,” Jade cut in. “I don’t know why, but she sounded really strange when we spoke. You know, like she had it.”

Vince nodded. “Then I need to find her before they do.”

***

Jade looked into the bathroom mirror and sighed. She’d tried every lame excuse she could dream up to convince Vince to let her go with him. He’d had an answer to each and every one of her arguments. Still, she couldn’t bring herself to tell him the truth, the real reason she wanted to go with him—her mother didn’t believe he was Judge Abe’s son and wouldn’t trust anything he said.

Sighing, Jade left the bathroom and paused by the doorway to study Eddie and Vince. The two men were talking in whispers, but the look on Eddie’s face indicated Vince had told him everything. The watered down version they’d given the other cop claimed the two of them had gotten home after dinner and were getting ready for bed when they heard a thud outside the door, opened it, and found the man. No, they had never met the man before, Vince had added when asked.

The lies kept piling up. If they cost Eddie his career, it would be her fault for getting him mixed up in it. Maybe it wasn’t too late for him to bail.

“Eddie.” Her cousin threw her a concerned look. “You need to stop doing this.” He raised an eyebrow. “Shielding us.” Both men scowled at her as if she’d lost her mind. “How many laws have you broken covering for us? It could cost you everything you’ve worked for.”

He gave a brief laugh. “Nah, it won’t.”

She studied her cousin, noting the sparkle in his intelligent eyes. “You’re enjoying this, aren’t you? The cloak and dagger aspect. Are you doing this to tweak uncle’s nose?”

“No, cuz. I write a report on every incident I’ve investigated; I’m just not telling anyone they’re connected.” He smiled. “Everything is cool.”
       

Jade sighed. The two continued to talk and she heard snatches of their conversation, but she didn’t bother to join in.

“Are you sure Montague didn’t touch anything in here?” her cousin asked Vince. “I don’t want some overzealous colleague finding his print inside your apartment.”

“He wore his gloves the entire time he spoke with us,” Vince answered.

“Good. I sent two of our guys to check his hotel room. It’s a good thing you dropped that note when you attempted to save his life, otherwise it would have been difficult to explain how it got inside the house. Also, they found his car parked down the street. A GPS locator was attached under it. I’ll check both your cars just in case they tagged you, too. Meanwhile, I’ll see what I can do before we leave for Saint-Noel.”

Jade perked up. “What?”

Vince walked to her side. “He’s coming with me.”

“What about me?” Jade’s glance bounced between the two men. When no one spoke, she asked, again, “I’m coming, too. Right?”

Instead of answering her, Vince took her arm. “Let’s get out of here, baby.”

Jade glared at them, feeling betrayed. She was the one who’d introduced them and now they were as thick as thieves.

“Yeah, you two need to get going.” Eddie avoided her glance and bolted for the door. “Meanwhile, I’ll see if I can find which boat Yannick used to get into the country. His type never uses the right channels.” He paused with his hand on the knob and glanced back. “We found the waitress he replaced. The woman said a man fitting Montague’s physical description in a mask broke into her apartment, tied her up, and stole her uniform. Her land lady untied her this morning after she went to her apartment and heard weird sounds coming from inside. The land lady got a call from the temp agency that had hired the waitress. I guess Chase called the agency and told them she missed the gig at the club.”

On their way to the beach house, silence filled the car. Jade felt like screaming, that was how frustrated and helpless she felt. “I don’t understand why my cousin gets to go with you but not me. Neither of you speak French.”

Vince just grunted.
   

“How will you get a visa without alerting Bouchard’s people?”

“I have ways.”

His succinct answers bugged her. To add to it was her guilt. She shouldn’t have let her mother’s get to her. An unnerving, empty silence descended inside the car, again. She glanced at Vince’s profile, so hard and stone-like. After their teasing and laughter this morning, she hated to see him so distant.

Jade sighed and turned to stare at the red lights of the car in front of them as they sped along Pacific Coast Highway. What did she want out of this relationship? A few days of fun then bye, have a nice life? In a few days, Vince would get his statue, then head back to his island. Could she let him go without a fight? She’d be a fool to do that. On the other hand, he must want to stay. One thing she’d learned from her disastrous marriage was that love couldn’t be forced.
   

“I have a confession to make, Vince.”

He threw her a perplexed glance. “You do?”

“About my conversation with my mother. She said things…stuff that bothered me, that’s why I didn’t want to discuss them with you earlier. I’m ready to now.”

He contemplated her words, then nodded. “Okay.”

“I wanted her to talk to you when she called. I explained who you were, but she said that, uh, that you’re not who you claimed to be because your father didn’t have a son. She insisted that I should have asked you for proof.”

The brief laugh escaped him. “What sort of proof?”

Jade swallowed, feeling like a traitor for listening to her mother. “Oh, silly stuff like, uh, you know, your birth certificate. I mean, who asks for that when they meet someone for the first time?” Vince didn’t respond, just stepped on the gas. The truck picked up speed. “And, uh, she wanted to know if I’d spoken with your aunt or seen you visit your father. I know it was stupid of me to let her words bother me but—”

“What was your response,” he asked.

Jade tried to remember her exact words. “I told her you didn’t need to show me any proof because you wouldn’t lie to me.”

Vince didn’t speak for a long time. Then he surprised her when he reached for her hand and pressed a kiss in her palm. “Thank you.”

“You’re thanking me? If I hadn’t let her words affect me, we wouldn’t have fought, and—”

“It’s not your fault. You want answers. You’ve wanted answers from me for awhile.”

Jade winced. “Sorry, I know I can be a little impatient.”

“A little?” He snickered. “It’s just that the subject of my father is not something I share often with people.” He turned onto the private road leading to the gated seaside community of Beach Road. “At one time, I’d thought he and I would reconcile our differences. Even when I agreed to help my aunt find the statue, I had hopes that we might talk once he regained consciousness. Now I know it was just a pipe dream.”

Jade exhaled sharply. “There’s still time—”

“No.” He shook his head. “It’s not going to happen. But my mother…I don’t understand how she could have loved him all those years. It just doesn’t make sense. Even after the crap he heaped on her, she still loved him. We had a few pictures of the two of them together, which she kept in my bedroom. I’d find her looking at them with tears in her eyes. She said he’d died in a road accident before I was born, and always had funny stories about him—the brilliant lawyer with a big heart. I believed everything she ever told me. He was my hero.” He became silent as Jade spoke to the guard at the gate and they were let through. He followed her directions and brought the car to a stop outside a two-story beachfront home and killed the engine.

“When did you learn the truth?”

“A few days before she died.”

Jade blew out a shaky breath. “Oh, baby. I’m sorry.”

His voice became low and savage. “When she confessed to lying about his death and that he was still alive, but oh, we were better off without him, I didn’t understand. I became angry, resentful. I felt that everything she’d ever told me was a lie. That my whole life had been a lie. I spent the last few days of her life…,” his hand tightened on the steering wheel, his expression bleak as he stared through the windscreen into the night, “hating her and wishing she were dead. When she died, I felt like I’d killed her.”

“You didn’t hate her or kill her,” Jade cried out, tears blurring her vision. “You felt betrayed, that’s all. By the person you trusted the most. You were only seventeen for God’s sakes, hurting and lashing out. What you felt wasn’t real, okay?” She didn’t realize just how hard her nails were digging into his arm until he covered her hand and pried it loose. He pressed it against his warm cheek. “I’m sorry,” she whispered.

“Don’t be.”

“The person who betrayed your mother was the judge. He should have thought of the consequences before he made her pregnant.” She could just punch that man’s nose. She might still do it when he regained consciousness.

Vince just shrugged. “Maybe he couldn’t deal with her illness.”

“I don’t care. He disregarded his responsibility toward her and you, the big, fat coward.”

“Nah, he was worthless to her if he couldn’t be there for her when she needed him most.”

“The more reason…never mind.” How could he defend that bastard? Jade shook her head. She was done. Deflated. No more fight left in her. She needed to erase the negative vibes, from her mind, from his. They had enough to deal with—Bouchard, Yannick, the trip to Saint-Noel—without letting the past weight them down, too.

“Let’s go inside.” She jumped out of the car and hurried to the door. While Vince removed their bags from the back of the car, she unlocked the door and disarmed the security alarm. A flicker of her finger on the switch and the recessed lighting in the kitchen flickered on. That was enough to illuminate the stairs.

As soon as Vince put the cases down, she grabbed his hand. She wanted him so badly she shook with it. “I’ll show you around later, uh, tomorrow. Right now? Come with me upstairs.”

He laughed and glanced around the large room as they started up the stairs. “Do we have the house to ourselves?”

“Yes. Why?”

“Then why go upstairs? There’re plenty of rooms down here.”

Jade laughed. “You’d like that, wouldn’t you, you fiend. No, I’m through making out on walls with you. We’re starting this bout on a…hey!”

He plucked her right off the stairs. His arm locked around her waist as he pinned her against the wall. Her sandals slipped from her feet and thumped their way to the bottom of the stairs.

“I mean it, Vince. No more walls. There’re beds upstairs. Lots of bedrooms.”

“Where’s your sense of adventure?” Then his mouth covered hers.

Jade forgot about their silly exchange and wrapped her arms around his neck as his drugging kisses made her lose sense of time and place. Sensations slithered under her skin.

He slipped a thigh between hers and lifted his head. “I love this position. You have no choice but to hang on to me for balance, and that gives me access to all this.” He ran a hand down and up her side then cupped her breasts. He kissed her, drew her lower lip between his teeth, and sucked on it.

Lifting her higher so she could wrap her legs around his waist, they made it up the rest of the stairs. “Where’s our bedroom?” Vince asked against her lips, his breath hot.

“Pick one.”

They staggered into one, mindless with need, tearing clothes off each other’s body. Their coupling was explosive and wild. It took several hours before they burnt most of their energy and curled in each other’s arm.

Somewhere between wakefulness and sleep, a thought occurred to Jade. She hadn’t asked Vince what illness his mother had suffered from. She turned her head and kissed his neck. “Baby, are you asleep?”

He laughed and tightened his arm around her. “Half-way there.”

“Can I ask you something?”

“Hmm-mm.”

“What was wrong with your mother?”

“Hmm?”

“You said she was frail…ill. What did she suffer from?”

“Epilepsy. The really bad kind.”

His answer knocked the breath out of her. “Did she have attacks often?”

“Yeah. Grand-mal seizures. She used medication, but still had them.”

Her heart was pounding so hard she thought she was about to have her own attack. She took a deep breath. Part of her wanted to leave the subject alone while the other needed to know if he could deal with her heartbeat disorder. Jade lifted her head to peer at his face. His eyes were closed. She swallowed and licked her lips.