A Summer Smile (10 page)

"She was delirious," Philip said. "Surely that was reason enough."

Daniel shook his head. "There's more to it than that." His gaze narrowed on Clancy. "And I think you know what was going on in her head all that time."

"I'm afraid I do," Clancy said wearily. "I wish to God I didn't. It makes me a little sick."

Daniel turned away abruptly. "We need to talk, he said tersely. "I think a drink would be an excellent idea." He was striding toward the door. He glanced back over his shoulder. "Philip?"

Philip El Kabbar shook his head. "I'll join you later." His sudden smile lent a rare warmth to his

dark, cynical face. "I'll watch over your little charge, Daniel. I won't permit anything to happen to her."

"I know you won't," Daniel said gruffly. "We'll be in the study."

Clancy's lips pursed in a low whistle as he strolled beside Daniel down the hall. "I never thought I'd see a ferocious panther like El Kabbar meekly playing nursemaid."

"I've heard the big cats make magnificent guardians for their young," Daniel said. "And Philip isn't all panther. He's been a good friend to me."

"Like to like," Clancy suggested dryly. "Neither one of you can be termed exactly tame."

"And neither can you." Daniel threw open the intricately carved double doors of the study. "Or you wouldn't be in the business you're in. You ought to understand Philip very well."

Clancy shrugged as he watched Daniel cross the room to the small cellarette, his dusty boots sinking into the exquisite Persian carpet. "I understand that side of him well enough. I'm just a little wary of all that power he wields. He Could be a very dangerous enemy for Alex to have to deal with if he chose to exert it."

"He won't choose," Daniel said. "As long as Alex doesn't interfere with Philip's territorial rights, he has nothing to worry about." He reached for the cut glass decanter in the cellarette. "Bourbon?"

Clancy nodded. "He wasn't pleased to see me last night. He was even less pleased when I told him about our mission. You're right. He's very protective of those he cares about. I'll have to remember that."

"That's right, file it away in the computer bank call a memory." Daniel had poured his own brandy and was coming back to stand before Clancy. He handed him the bourbon. "And while you're at it,

e a note that there's no way I'll let you use me to hurt him, Clancy." His gaze met Clancy's steadily.
"I
let you use me this time, but not again." He took a long swallow of his brandy. "Have you heard anything of Hassan and his boys?"

"No sign of them yet." Clancy frowned. "Did you have to blow up the plane?"

"It was the simplest way to get them to follow me into Sedikhan."

"And did they?"

Daniel nodded grimly. "I made sure they'd be mad enough to follow us to hell and back. They'll surface soon. You can bet on it. You just be on the spot to grab them when they do. I don't want them to get near Zilah again. That's why I chose Philip's compound rather than my own—his security is far better than mine."

"How did you manage to—"

"I'll give you a full report later," Daniel interrupted. "Right now, I want some answers myself." He gestured to the high-backed leather chair in front of the Sheraton desk. "You might as well make yourself comfortable. You're not leaving here until I find out what you know."

"Why don't you sit down yourself," Clancy suggested as he dropped down into the chair and stretched his legs out in front of him. "You look like you need a bed not a chair. Was it a rough caper?"

"We've both been through worse." Daniel made a face as he looked down at his dust-grimed khakis and the sweat-darkened undershirt clinging to his chest. "And I don't think Philip would appreciate my lolling in his antique chairs in my present condition." He half sat, half leaned against the edge of the desk. "I can rest later. Talk to me."

"Zilah?"

"Who else?" Daniel's hand tightened on his glass. "You know why she looked at me as if I were her executioner."

Clancy lowered his gaze to the amber 1iquid in his glass. "I told you I wasn't at liberty to discuss Zilah with strangers. David would have my head in a handbasket if I did."

"Dammit, I'm not a stranger," Daniel burst with savage violence. "Can't you see that I
need
to know?"

"Yes, I think I can see that," Clancy said thoughtfully. "Experiences like what the two of you have shared together have a way of melding two people together, but it's something more than that, isn't it?" Daniel inhaled raggedly. "It's something more," he said tightly. "I'm not asking to know anything about her relationship with Bradford. I just need to know what made her look at me the way she did." The pain of that moment was still like a raw wound within him. It had been doubled because he had felt the pain and despair in Zilah as if it were his own.

"But her relationship with David is part of what you saw in that bedroom this morning. You can't separate the two." Clancy shook his head. "You're not going to like it. It's not going to be comfortable to live with. Not if you care for her." "Tell me."

"When she was thirteen years old Zilah was living with her grandmother in Marasef while her mother acted as housekeeper for Karim Ben Raschid. She was a bright, pretty little girl, always bubbling with enthusiasm and laughter. One day she disappeared. She just never came home from school. Her mother was frantic. She went to the police, searched the streets herself, and did everything she could think of doing. Then she asked David Bradford to help. Six months had passed by that time and the trail was cold, but he and Alex finally located her." He paused.

"She was in a bordello called the House of the Yellow Door. She had been taken by a vice ring that specialized in kidnapping young girls, drugging them with heroin until they were hopelessly addicted, and using them as prostitutes." He ignored the exclamation Daniel made. "I don't have to tell you what kind of shape she was in when David brought her back to Zalandan. It took her almost eight months to lick the heroin addiction." His lips curved in a bitter smile. "After that there was only the psychological damage of the experience itself to contend with. A real piece of cake."

"Thirteen,"
Daniel said jerkily. "She was just a child." He covered his eyes with his hand. "My God, I feel sick."

"David sent her to live with his parents in Texas and she hasn't been back to Sedikhan until now. She's been under psychiatric care all these years and has made a remarkable recovery." He frowned. "But judging from what I saw today, it obviously wasn't a total recovery."

"How the hell could it be?" Daniel's voice was muffled. "I don't know how she even survived it."

"She survived it because she's an exceptionally strong personality," Clancy said. "It was her choice to come back to Sedikhan for this visit. She thought she could handle it."

"She thinks she can handle everything in the whole damn world."

"Does she?" A slight smile touched Clancy's lips. "That's good to know." He took a sip of his bourbon. "So there's the story. Is there anything else you want to know?"

"Just one thing." Daniel's hand dropped from his face, revealing eyes that were cold as death. "Did you get rid of them?"

Clancy nodded. "The vice ring was smashed and the head of it was taken care of in a very permanent manner."

"I almost wish he hadn't been," Daniel said tautly. "I need to kill him. I need to do something to help her." He closed his eyes. "I feel so damned helpless, I think I'm going to explode."

There was a flicker of sympathy in Clancy's hard face. "We all felt the same way when it happened. You were lucky not to have been around to see her right after we found her. It was enough to tear your heart out."

"I don't think I was lucky. Bradford was there to help her and I wasn't," Daniel said harshly. "If I had been there, she would never have looked at me as if I were some kind of monster. She would have known she could trust me."

"She was burning up with fever. She didn't know what was happening. She obviously thought she was back in that bordello."

"Oh, yes, I realize all that." Daniel's mirthless laugh had a touch of desperation in it. "I also realize that after an experience like that she's going to have a hell of a time trusting or responding to any man." Dear Lord, that was putting it mildly. He had been so confident last night that he could ease friendship into a commitment. He had been almost brutal when he had taken Zilah. It was a wonder that she hadn't run away from him screaming instead of yielding so sweetly. She couldn't have enjoyed it. Gratitude or pity? It didn't matter. He just hoped he hadn't done any permanent damage by lovemaking that must have appeared closer to rape to Zilah. He had to make sure that she knew it wouldn't always be like that. That he was capable of treating her with the gentleness and care her fragility demanded.

"Surely you aren't
 
thinking about getting involved with her?" Clancy asked. "May I point out that you've known the woman only one day?"

"I'm already involved." Daniel tossed the rest of his brandy down his throat and set his glass on the desk with barely restrained violence. "I didn't ask for it, but there it is. She's mine now, problems or no problems."

Clancy stiffened. "I hope you're not speaking in the carnal sense. According to the last psychiatrist's report Zilah still isn't able to respond sexually to any man. I sure as hell didn't send you out there to seduce the girl. I'm not sure David would tolerate that kind of action on your part."

"God!" Daniel's stomach muscles clenched as if someone had knocked the breath out of him. It was even worse than he had imagined. She was still scarred, still hurting, and he hadn't even been particularly gentle with her in the first experience she'd had since that nightmare. Yet she had responded. At least he had thought she had responded at the time. How could he be sure with the swirling darkness and the earthquake of passion that had shaken him? Perhaps she had only submitted. Dear heaven, he hoped that hadn't been the case. If it was, then it was no wonder she had mistaken him for one of those monsters from her childhood.

He was trembling, he realized with disgust. This wasn't the time to give in to weakness. He still had Clancy to deal with, and that was never easy. "Too damn bad," Daniel said coolly. "You can tell Bradford she's no longer his concern."

"And what about Zilah? Doesn't she have any say in this?"

"Do you think I'm going to lock her in a room and rape her?" Daniel's expression was a mask of pain. "She's never going to know fear or pain again as long as she lives. I'll see to that. But I'm not letting her go, Clancy. I can't run the risk of her shying away from me as she did this afternoon. Evidently it wouldn't take much to trigger that panic again. That rules out any type of normal courtship."

"What are you suggesting then?"

"I'm not suggesting anything, Clancy," Daniel said quietly. "I'm telling you I need time and that you're going to get it for me."

"Time?"

Daniel nodded. "Zilah stays here for two weeks alone with me. I don't want any interference from Bradford or her mother or anyone else. Not even you, Clancy. I'm going to have enough problems without trying to fight my way through a battery of protective guardians."

"You're out of line, Daniel," Clancy said crisply. "You know I can't arrange that."

"I know you're going to have to do your damnedest," Daniel said with a cool little smile. "Or else you're going to have to face just the awkward diplomatic confrontation you've been trying to avoid between Alex and Philip."

Clancy's eyes narrowed to ice blue slits. "You'd bring El Kabbar into it?"

"If I have to," Daniel said. "That's up to you. You know Philip wouldn't bat an eye to closing his borders and refusing to let Zilah leave or anyone to come in after her. He'd probably enjoy testing his power against the Ben Raschid regime."

"I wouldn't doubt that for a minute," Clancy growled. "Dammit, Daniel, I won't be manipulated this way. You're bluffing."

"Then call my bluff." Daniel's eyes were gleaming recklessly. "And take the consequences. Or give me my two weeks and then I'll bring her to Zalandan myself." He paused. "If she still wants to go."

"And just how do you propose I accomplish this hiatus?" Clancy's tone was heavy with sarcasm.

"That's up to you. We both know you have guile to spare when you choose to exert it. If it will help, I'll get Philip to have the doctor issue orders that she's not to be moved for that length of time."

"And I only have to keep the homefront from finding out she's being held by a man who'd like nothing better than to tumble Zilah into his bed. Considering her circumstances, that particular knowledge would alarm the hell out of everyone." Clancy scowled. "I don't suppose you'd like to give me your assurance that that won't happen?"

Daniel shook his head. "I want her more than I've ever wanted any woman before, so I can't promise anything." His expression was grim. "But I want her trust as well. That means I can't have both. Not right now."

"Well, that's something at least." Clancy stood up. "You have your two weeks. You leave me very little choice." He placed his glass on the desk with careful precision. "I don't like to be put in that position," he said softly. "Remember that, Daniel. You're walking on thin ice."