Fortune in the Stars (12 page)

The choked sob escaping her turned to a groan of pure
frustration. Why on earth should she be crying? She hadn't cried over
losing her job, nor her home, nor even Rupert, for heaven's sake! Not
that Rupert was worth shedding a single tear over, she reminded herself
as she sank down on to the softness of the bath mat, her tears
unabated. So why these waterworks over a sadistic madman whom she
loathed?

It was the sudden and heavy pounding on the door that
brought an abrupt end to the increased flood which that last thought
had produced.

'What?' she shrieked hysterically. 'I'm in the bath!' She didn't care if the whole hotel—the whole of
London, for that matter—heard her.

'I'm just going down to the foyer,' Dominic called. 'I
doubt if I'll be long.'

Of course he wouldn't, she told herself savagely, reaching
over and turning off the taps. It shouldn't take him more than a few
seconds to finish off what he had started with the simpering
receptionist!

Completely panicked by the unavoidable conclusion that her
spontaneous reaction had been one of almost violent jealousy, she
clamped her hands to her head as though offering her mind physical aid
in restoring itself to sanity.

Sarah! She leapt to her feet and raced to the bedroom,
almost tearing open her second case. Sarah and her husband Jake had
recently moved to a new house in Surrey. Finding her address book, she
sat down on one of the beds and searched through it, an almost animal
squeal of terror starting in her throat as she heard the firm tread of
footsteps in the corridor outside. Holding her breath and poised to
flee back to the bathroom, she waited, the breath squeezing out of her
in a stifled groan as the footsteps strode on.

With trembling fingers, she dialled Sarah's number.

'Please, Sarah…please be there,' she chanted,
her vocal cords momentarily freezing with shock when her plea was
finally answered.

'Sarah? Oh, Sarah, it's Penny!'

'Penny, you'll have to speak up, love, I have builders all
over the place knocking down walls and… Penny?'

'Sarah, I can't shout,' whispered Penny frantically.

'Hang on, then—I'll see if I can quieten this
lot.'

Her eyes glued in terror to the door she felt sure would
burst open at any moment, Penny waited for what seemed like an eternity.

'That's better! Now, what can I do for you?' came Sarah's breezy tones. 'As long as it's not a bed, though,'
she laughed. 'Jake and I are already having to camp in the
cellar—it's murder here!'

As her friend chortled happily, Penny stifled a groan of
despair—a bed had been one of her hopes.

'Penny, are you ringing from Mallorca? Lexy told
me—'

'I'm in London. Sarah, do you know where Lexy is?'

'I thought she'd be in Mallorca with you by now,' said
Sarah. 'Penny, is something wrong?' she added anxiously.

'Sarah, I haven't the time to explain… When did
you last see Lexy?'

'I haven't seen her since the last time the three of us
got together, but she rang me…I think it was the day you
were leaving for Mallorca—'

'You've heard nothing since?' demanded Penny, her heart
beginning to pound frantically when she realised how loudly she had
raised her voice.

'No—Penny, what's going on? I had a call out of
the blue from Lexy's brother the other day, also asking—'

'Sarah, I haven't much time to explain,' cut in Penny
desperately. 'But I'm with him now, and—'

'With the delectable Libran Dominic?' chuckled Sarah.

'Sarah, he's a raving nutcase,' protested Penny. 'Lexy's
become involved with a man he doesn't like—'

'Lexy's got a new man?' exclaimed Sarah. 'Do we know him?'

'His name's Peter Langton, and—'

'
Who
?' bellowed Sarah, so loudly that
Penny found herself cupping the receiver to deaden the sound.

'Peter—'

'For God's sake, Penny, I heard you,' protested Sarah, her voice harsh with shock. 'Doesn't that name mean
anything
to you?'

'No. Lexy simply told me—'

'Lexy
told
you?' shrieked Sarah in
disbelief.

'Sarah, for God's sake tell me what's going on!' begged
Penny, her scalp suddenly prickling. 'Sarah?'

'Sorry, love, I was just thinking,' muttered Sarah, her
voice a shaky croak. 'It's just come to me why Lexy chose to give you
that bastard's name… You were abroad when Erica died.'

Penny gave a small start, half convinced that she had
misheard. 'Yes, my mother was ill—'

'Lexy and I had had so much of it all by the time you got
back that we couldn't bring ourselves to tell you the whole
story…there just didn't seem any point burdening you with
it, too.'

'Sarah…burdening me with what?' asked Penny,
scarcely able to produce the words, so parched had her mouth become.

'We actually got to know the name of the bastard who'd
started Erica off on drugs. The police knew his name and were pretty
damned sure what his game was; but the trouble is there's a world of
difference between knowing and producing proof—which the
police just couldn't come up with.'

Penny brought her second hand up to support the first in
which the receiver was shaking uncontrollably.

'Peter Langton,' she croaked, an irrational part of her
praying that Sarah would laugh and tell her to stop being so silly.

'Yes…and all I can think is that that crazy
idiot Lexy thinks she can somehow come up with the evidence the police
couldn't! Penny, doesn't she realise she could be risking her life,
tangling with that sort of person?' choked Sarah.

'Lexy was always the brightest of the four of
us— remember?' whispered Penny, desperately trying to offer
comfort where there seemed none. 'Oh, Sarah, I was so completely wrong
about Dominic…but he knows who she's involved with and,
believe me, he'll find her—even if he has to tear London
apart with his bare hands,' she choked, her trembling knees beginning
to buckle beneath her. 'Sarah, I know how frantic you must be feeling,
and I hate leaving you in the air like this, but it might be some time
before I can contact you again.'

'Penny, you're obviously as much in shock as I am,' stated
Sarah, her voice dazed. 'I can't understand why Lexy's brother hasn't
already explained all this to you—'

'It's a long story… Sarah, I have to go now,'
she cut in hastily, again hearing the approaching tread of feet. 'I'll
be in touch the moment I have any news.'

She reached the bathroom, closing the door softly behind
her just as the key turned in the outer lock. Then she stripped and
climbed into the bath, the violent trembling of her body still sending
out small ripples of disturbance long after the surface of the water
should have smoothed back to stillness.

She was right, Lexy had always been the brightest of the
four of them—now the three of them, she reminded herself, her
stomach lurching with a sickening dread. Lexy just wasn't the type to
take risks unless she was completely sure of what she was doing. Yet
she had taken the precaution of mentioning that unmentionable name to
the only friend to whom it would mean nothing, she pointed out to
herself, a shudder of dread rippling through to her soul. How soon had
Lexy expected Dominic to get that name out of her once the need had
arisen?

Confused and tormented by the idea that it was her own
unpredictable reaction to Dominic that had somehow resulted in her
letting her friend down, she bathed and dried herself. Once dressed,
she went to the door, only to find herself stalling against opening it.

How could he possibly have thought she would have kept
silent even for one instant had she known the true significance of that
name?

She took the handle in her hand, again drawing back. Even
now she couldn't tell him the truth, she realised with hopelessness and
frustration…he had expressly forbidden her to let anyone
know she was back in London, and the moment his back was turned she had
done precisely that.

She wrenched open the door, wondering as she did so just
how many more lies she was going to have to tell this man.

He was sitting slumped in a chair, his eyes closed and the
starkness of a terrible inner despair etched deeply into his features.

Penny hesitated, her arms folding protectively across her
chest in an unconscious warding off of the barrage of emotions slamming
into her.

This was no longer the madman of her waking nightmare, but
a man racked and tormented by unspeakable fears. And the need in her to
comfort him, the urge to take his burden from him and restore him to
peace, was a force that stripped from her all considerations of self.

His eyes opened, rising to rest on her with a
blood-chilling blankness.

'Did you…is there any news?' she stammered, her
mind thrown into confusion by the intensity of such alien emotions.

'About Lexy?' he demanded with a bitter travesty of a
laugh. 'Why the sudden interest, Penny?'

'Dominic…she's like a sister to me,' she
pleaded huskily.

'Do I detect a sudden change in your attitude?' he sneered.

'Yes, I—' She broke off as she accepted the
utter impossibility of hiding what she now knew from him.

'You what, Penny?' he asked with steely softness.

He didn't even know Sarah, she reasoned frantically, and
would no more trust her than he did herself. And she might as well
accept the fact that mentioning she had spoken to Sarah was quite
likely to make him snap completely.

'Dominic, I… I've been thinking,' she blurted
out, her voice shaking—as was the rest of her. 'And it
suddenly came to me who Peter Langton is.'

'Well, I never,' he drawled, a terrible brightness
creeping into the dark depths of his eyes. 'The name just happened to
slip your mind—is that it? And now it's come back to you?'

'I know how terrible that must sound, but—'

'God Almighty, what sort of creature are you?' he snarled,
leaping to his feet. 'I suppose you'll claim that Erica was also like a
sister to you! Yet the name of the man who was the indirect cause of
her death just happens to slip your memory now and then. In fact so far
into your memory that you could even hear it and accept it as merely
that of someone special to Lexy, is that it?' he raged, lunging
drunkenly towards her as he caught her by the shoulders and began
shaking her furiously. 'You're damned right it's a name that's special
to her! One she'll not forget till her dying day!'

With a sudden groan he hurled her from him and sat down
heavily on the edge of the bed nearest to him.

'Dear God, what am I saying?' he moaned, burying his face
in his hands.

'Dominic, it's going to be all right,' choked Penny, that
alien feeling now overwhelming her as she stumbled to his side and
placed her arms around his head, hugging it protectively to her. 'Lexy
knows what she's doing,' she whispered huskily, silently praying with
all her might that she was right.

For an instant he was still, then his head butted angrily
against her, a relentless stream of oaths pouring from him as he freed
himself.

'Perhaps I could have comforted myself with
that— had I not met you,' he stated with hoarse venom. 'But
now all I can think is that if she's stupid enough to have a bloody
moron like you as a friend she's stupid enough to do anything.'

Cut to the quick, yet forcing herself not to react, Penny
took a deep breath. 'Dominic, I know how worried you—'

'For God's sake stop being so bloody conciliatory!' he
bellowed. 'It's more than I can stomach!'

Penny froze; then every shred of control in her snapped.

'That's it!' she shrieked, all hint of compassion
deserting her. 'I've had you up to here!' As she spoke she drew a
forefinger across her throat, her eyes blazing.

'Fine,' he muttered, rising. 'Just spare me the
complication of your offering me sympathy… That I can't
handle.' As though in a complete daze, he glanced around the room, an
expression of distaste creeping over his face. 'God, but this place is
depressing!'

'You chose it,' she retorted mechanically, thrown by the
sudden switch in him.

'Yes, I did, didn't I?' he muttered, gazing around him and
giving a half-shrug that was almost embarrassed. 'But at least I'm not
likely to run into anyone I know here.'

He reached out and picked up the telephone as it rang.
'Monique!' he exclaimed, and proceeded to hold a conversation in
rapid-fire French.

Probably to make sure she understood nothing of what was
being said, thought Penny irritably; he really was overdoing this
cloak-and-dagger routine. Even before she had finished thinking that
thought, something in her had begun to freeze. His almost embarrassed
shrug when she had mentioned his choosing this place was probably a
good indication of his feelings about the exaggerated precautions he
was taking…yet he was prepared to go to any extreme, however
ridiculous it might seem, rather than take any conceivable risk where
his sister was concerned. That a man of his intelligence, not to
mention fundamental arrogance, was prepared to go to such lengths
chilled her to the marrow with its implications of how he must be
suffering, yet deep down within her was an inexplicable, almost
unassailable conviction that he was wrong…that Lexy was in
no danger.

'Come on, let's see what sort of food they serve in this
dump,' Dominic suggested as he replaced the receiver.

Penny followed him from the room in silence, the peace
afforded her by the strength of that inexplicable feeling eroded by the
memory of the lies she had told in the rashness of
innocence—a memory now suddenly leaping into her mind to
haunt her.

It was his disparaging remarks about the place that had
triggered off this discomfiting train of thought, she told herself
irritably as she looked around her. By her standards this hotel was
neat and comfortable and clean, and never, by any stretch of the
imagination, a dump. But then, her standards weren't based on the
familiarity with five-star establishments his were, she reminded
herself edgily—and as she had once led him to believe hers
would also be.