Black Opal (13 page)

She craned her neck but couldn’t see from her spot at the table. “What is it?”

“There’s a boat hovering in the bay.”

The hair on the back of her neck began to rise. “Is that unusual?”

“To have boats out there, no. But to stay in this inlet for any length of time…” He shrugged his shoulders. “Maybe going back isn’t such a bad idea after all. Not that I don’t want a go at her. But it will keep.” He said it like a promise.

“Adam.”

“Hmm?”

She waited until he finally tore his gaze from the window and looked at her. “Thanks for taking care of me.”

He smiled. “You’re welcome.” She felt her heart give a hard ka-thump and her insides melt into a quivering mass of jelly. It just wasn’t fair. No one should have a smile that lethal. How did a girl defend herself against that kind of sheer animal magnetism?

He turned back to the window. A sigh escaped her lips, part disappointment, part relief.

She sipped her coffee. Her hand tightened on the mug. She didn’t like the sound of the boat. If it was Victoria, how the hell could she have found them?

Her glance strayed to Adam.
Could he possibly be that good an actor?
She straightened
in her chair and her lips formed a thin line
. It doesn’t matter. As long as I have the amulet nothing can touch me.
She looked down at her injured leg. Well almost nothing.

Without appearing to hurry, Adam left the window and walked to the door and checked the lock. “While you’re finishing breakfast, I’m going to pack our things. We might as well head on out. It’ll take us a good three hours to get to Charlotte.”

He came back and filled her coffee cup then headed upstairs. She felt tears gather in her eyes. It was such a little thing really. So he’d thought to fill her cup without being asked before he went upstairs. So he was packing for her. So what? She was such a sap, probably just residual overload from not feeling up to par.

She brushed at her face. Now wasn’t the time for this. If someone was really out there… Her whole body tightened at the thought. She forced herself to her feet, leaning heavily on the kitchen table. Limping she took three steps and grabbed the counter and crab-stepped to the window.

She saw it immediately, a good-sized boat, idling in the cove, blue waves lapping against it while an autumn sun glistened on the water. “I’m not afraid of you. I can take anything you can dish out and give you grief. What I am is fighting mad,” she said out loud, throwing down a gauntlet to Victoria if she was on the boat.

She could deal with what had been done to her but no one messed with her friends. She glanced down. Her knuckles gripping the edge of the cream-colored marble counter were white. She forced herself to relax. That might not even be Victoria. Picking up her cup, she sipped her coffee and kept an eye on the yacht.

In less time than she would have thought possible, Adam came hurrying down the stairs carrying two black leather traveling bags. He walked through the kitchen and out into the garage.

“Shit.” The word echoed through the open door.

Gripping the counter, she made her way to the doorway leading into the garage. Adam stood staring at the flat tire on his ’Vette.

“You can change it can’t you?”

“Of course.” Every inch of his body radiated insulted male.

Men and their machines.
She rolled her eyes.

“I just think its damn odd I have a flat right now.”

“You probably just picked up a nail.” But he was right. The timing was odd. She rotated her shoulders. Her skin felt too tight and a prickling sensation crawled up her spine and settled in her neck.

“Probably. It will just take me a minute to change this.”

She watched him for a moment as he popped the trunk then made her way back to the window. Her leg ached like crazy but she ignored it. The boat was still there. In fact, unless it was her imagination, it seemed like it had moved closer.

She looked around the shoreline uneasily. The dock was the only place it could pull into. There were no other houses along the waterfront. Johnny Morelly must own the whole damn lake. Again her gaze flicked across the shore. Large slate rocks bumped against lush emerald grass. Farther down, pine and oak lined the shore and behind that the mountains.

“Let’s go.” Adam’s voice broke into her thoughts. He walked into the kitchen and stood beside her. “Excuse me.”

She moved, making space for him, so he could wash his hands. He looked out the window. “That damn boat is getting closer. Come on, Sabina.”

If she could be certain it was Victoria on that boat, she would be strongly tempted to sink it. She clenched her fists then heaved a sigh from deep in her belly and forced herself to relax. That would be abusing the power. They didn’t know for certain if it was Victoria. She looked one last time at the yacht then turned away.

As she grasped the counter to support her aching leg, he took one look at her, put his arm around her waist and helped her walk to the car. The heat of his body penetrated her thin blouse.

“Will you be warm enough? I’ve got a throw in the back of the car.”

“I’m fine. I’m not cold at all.”
Quite the contrary
.

He guided her into the car. As she sank into the soft leather, he shut her door then went around and got in on the driver’s side. He inserted the key and turned. Nothing happened. He tried again. Sabina could feel tension radiating off him in waves.

“Dammit,” he muttered. He got out of the car and popped the hood.

“What’s wrong?”

He shook his head, his hair falling over his eyes. He combed it back. “Nothing that I can see. I don’t know what the hell is wrong with it. But something is not right. This car is in cherry condition. I just had it checked out two weeks ago. That damn woman is going to rue the day she messed with my car.” He slammed down the hood. “Let’s get in the house.”

“Adam.” She kept her voice calm.

“What?” His gaze had returned to the engine as if willing whatever was wrong to show itself.

“Adam,” she repeated. This time he looked up. “Get in the car.”

He raised an eyebrow, staring at her, then a slow grin spread across his face and he got in.

She stared at the ignition, concentrating. Straight-armed, she pointed at the key. Power surged through her like electricity, down her arm and into the ignition.

The car purred like a kitten.

“I think I’m in love. If singing doesn’t work out, you can always get a job as an ace mechanic.” He reached over, cupped the back of her head and kissed her briefly and hard then let her go. ”Let’s get out of here.”

He reached up and hit the garage remote clipped on the visor but the door didn’t budge. He hit it again. “Goddamn it.” He swore viciously. “That bitch is toying with us. Put your head down and keep that amulet over your head.” He jumped out of the car and ran for the garage door. Bending down, he gave a heave and pushed it up manually, the door groaning a little as it glided on its casters.

He ran back to the car, jumped in, threw it in reverse and punched the pedal. The car went screaming out of the garage. He stomped on the brake, throwing them both forward against their seat belts then hit the gas. The ’Vette went fishtailing down the drive.

Sabina cast one last look in the direction of the yacht. “Adam it’s gone.” Fear warred with the need to do battle inside her, causing her adrenaline to race and her muscles to tense.

“What?” He risked a quick glance at her then turned his attention to the winding lane he was pelting down.

“The boat is gone.”

“Shit. What’s that bitch up to?”

They raced down the mountain at a perilous pace. The trees whizzed by as they traveled a narrow two-lane road. A noise like a distant train grew, gaining in volume, grating against Sabina’s nerves like chalk on a board. What was it?

She looked to her left and saw it. “Oh my gods. Hit the brakes, Adam!”

But he’d already seen the rocks and boulders tumbling down on the road ahead. His brakes screamed and the hot smell of burning rubber filled the car.

After that everything happened in slow motion. She raised her arm to stop the large boulder heading at a runaway pace directly toward the car. She could hardly see for the small pebbles and dirt. With a wild wave of her arm, she halted stones in mid-fall. Sabina stumbled out of the car so she could see to aim the amulet. Boulders and rocks were everywhere.

“Sabina,” Adam called jumping out of the car and racing toward her.

She saw a rock the size of an aerobic workout ball hurling toward him and shot her arm out. It splintered in a thousand pieces.

“
Merda
!” Another hurtled straight toward her. She made no move to save herself. Her arm trembling, she held it straight out in Adam’s direction to cover him from the falling rocks as he raced toward her, his feet slipping in the gravel. In that moment, she knew she loved him.

Pain engulfed her as the large rocks pummeled her. Above the roar of the rockslide she heard the agony in his voice as he called her name.
He does love me,
was her last conscious thought.

* * * * *

“Clear away the rubble,” Victoria directed the two burly men with her.

A thin young man dressed in black stood beside her, panting with excitement. “You did it, Victoria.”

“Did you doubt it?”

“Not for a minute,” he said loyally.

“It always pays to have a backup plan.” She walked over and looked at Adam who lay motionless on the ground. Bending down she ran her hands the length of his body. He groaned and shifted away but didn’t regain consciousness. She turned to the young man beside her. “Go to the car and get the rope, Binnie.”

“Why,” the man asked suspiciously.

“That’s really none of your business,” she responded coldly.

“How can you say that? Everything about you is my business,” he cried.

“Only as long as I choose to make it so. Now go to the car.”

His eyebrows came together like thunderbolts but he did as he was told. He scrambled up the mountain like a goat. They’d left the car parked on a back road several hundred feet up the mountain.

She ran her fingers lightly through Adam’s dusty hair. “If the gods hadn’t wanted me to have you they would have killed you.”

She waited impatiently then stood as Binnie came scrambling back over the rocks, breathing hard. The armpits of his shirt wet with sweat despite the chill in the air.

“Tie him up.”

“Why?”

“You dare question me? Tie him up then have Hans,” she pointed at one of the burly men removing rocks from Sabina, “carry him to the car.”

For one moment, it looked like the young man would argue. Frowning, he did as he’d been told.

Victoria walked over and looked at Sabina’s crushed body. “Get the rocks off her arm,” she directed feeling the light of eagerness shining out of her eyes. “Take them all off. We’ll see how the little songbird withstood the force of nature.”

The singer’s face was miraculously unscathed but her body was mangled. Victoria bent down, picked up her wrist and felt for a pulse. “Oh goodie, you’re alive. That means you’ll suffer, alone, without Adam or your amulet.” She jerked the amulet off Sabina’s arm and let the singer’s arm fall against the rubble.

She put it on her forearm then closed her eyes as ecstasy coursed through her. Smiling, she opened them and looked toward the sky, throwing her arms wide. “I’ve got it, Daddy. I’ve got it.”

She laughed at the men watching her uneasily. “Now let’s see if this works.” Victoria stretched out her arm, as she remembered Bella Tremaine doing at a previous encounter she’d had with the three women. The boulders rolled off the road and bounced down the mountainside.

She looked again at the men. All three were white as sheets. “I’m sorry to have to do this. You have been very loyal but I can’t have any witnesses to my power.”

“Please no,” one of the big men said. “We won’t say anything.”

“Of course you won’t.” She shot out her arm and the man went hurtling backward over the cliff, screaming all the way down.

“Please,” the other huge man begged, trembling. Victoria touched her lips with her long blood red nail considering. “You could be of use to me, yet.” She shot out her arm in his direction.

His eyes widened.

“Say something.”

He opened his mouth and grabbed his throat. No sound came out.

“What’s the matter? Cat got your tongue?” She laughed hysterically, the sound bouncing off the mountains and echoing like a cougar’s scream. Then with a dismissive wave she pointed at Adam. “Take him to the car. And don’t try to run away. Because when I find you, you’ll lose more than your voice.”

He bobbed his head up and down, still clutching his throat the whites of his eyes showing.

She waved her arm dismissively. “Binnie, go with him.”

The two men dragged Adam to the car hidden in the trees.

She looked down at the unconscious form of Sabina. “Just one last thing to do.” She tapped her finger against her cheekbone. “Hmm. Now who shall it be the Southern bitch—if she’s still alive—or the Northern witch.” She giggled at her humor. “The bitch I think.”