JAKrentz - Uneasy Alliance (12 page)

T
hat weekend was a mistake," Abby uttered, sitting back in her chair and sipping morosely at her coffee. Her eyes went to the barge, which was making steady progress on the river. Headed for wheat country, she decided, knowing that the river curved up into the rich wheat lands of eastern Washington.

"I assumed that from the start"

Abby's head snapped around as she threw him a simmering glare. He looked at her steadily for a long moment and it was she who glanced away first. Eyes once more on the barge, she went on carefully. "My cousin and her husband had been having…difficulties. Cynthia's pregnancy was a hard one. There were complications and the doctor insisted she take no chances. She spent most of the last couple of months off her feet. Unfortunately Ward was under a great deal of pressure at the time. He had just been named president, and the board was expecting miracles. The company had been having problems, as I told you the other night. Ward felt under the gun to provide the miracles expected of him. He was working sixteen hours a day and coming home to a wife who was under a tremendous amount of strain herself."

"A situation ready-made for quarrels, accusations and fears," Torr put in astutely.

"Well, yes. I was spending a lot of time up in Seattle trying to help out. Cynthia had a housekeeper, but that didn't compensate for the loneliness and the worry that something was going to go wrong with the pregnancy. She was spending a lot of time alone wondering what her husband was doing. She started imagining things."

"Things like other women?"

Abby shrugged. "Yes." She hesitated, trying to find words to describe the next part of the tale. "As I said, I was spending a couple of days a week in Seattle. I would sleep in Cynthia and Ward's spare bedroom when I spent the night and sometimes I'd still be up watching television or something when Ward would get home. With Cynthia asleep in bed and no one else to talk to, he would get a drink and unwind talking to me. It got to be a little too much of a habit, I guess."

"And then one evening he wanted to unwind with more than a drink and a little conversation, is that it?" There was a curious hardness in Torr's voice but he continued to drink his coffee quietly.

Abby stirred uneasily, remembering. "Ward is really a very nice man," she tried to explain.

"But he's a man."

"He was under a lot of strain."

"You're defending him for seducing you?" Torr asked far too mildly.

"He didn't seduce me!"

"He made a pass?"

"It…it was an awkward situation," she said sadly. "He'd been out to a business dinner that evening. Had a couple of drinks. When he got home he had a few more, saying he wanted to relax. He asked me to stay up and talk to him. He explained how depressed he was feeling, told me about his problems with the company and how hard things were with Cynthia. One thing led to another and…" Abby moved a hand vaguely in the air to explain the rest. Torr, however, refused to accept such an explanation.

"And what?"

"He tried to kiss me. Said he needed a woman and that he admired me very much. Felt I understood him and the strain he was under."

"Poor misunderstood corporate executive."

"If you're going to be snide about this I'll stop right now!"

"Don't stop now. We're just getting to the interesting part."

"Has anyone ever told you," Abby ground out, "that you're inclined to be rude, arrogant and overbearing?"

"You have. On several occasions. Let's get on with the story."

Abby thought of the variety of different responses ranging from pouring the remainder of her coffee over his dark head to stealing the BMW and making a quick escape. None of them seemed practical in view of the intent way he was watching her. And Abby realized she had come too far with the story to stop now.

"There was an embarrassing struggle. I managed to get to my bedroom and lock the door. He didn't try to follow and I assumed that was the end of it. But it made things very awkward the next day. I left for Portland. That coming weekend I had a long-standing arrangement to spend a couple of days on the coast."

"By yourself?"

"By myself," she affirmed coldly. "I take a lot of vacations on my own. I find it's much more pleasant than traveling with some man who expects me to warm his bed for him even though I'm paying my own way."

"All right, let's not get into that subject," Torr said soothingly. "I take it Tyson was aware you were going to the coast?"

"Yes, he and Cynthia both knew. I'd talked about it on a couple of occasions." Abby got up to pour herself some more coffee. She thought about not offering Torr any but didn't quite have the nerve to ignore him. Silently she refilled his cup and then sat down again. "I checked into my room that weekend and a couple of hours later there was a knock on the door."

"Tyson," Torr growled.

Abby nodded. "Ward had followed me to the resort. Claimed he needed the time away from the demands of a sick company and a sick wife. Said he knew I understood because of the way I had understood during all those long conversations we'd shared. I told him I wasn't interested in a weekend affair with him. Told him to go home to Cynthia and stop acting like an immature boy. I really read him the riot act."

"Because you were feeling a little guilty?"

"I suppose so. I began to wonder if I'd been leading him on by playing the role of confidante so many evenings. I felt terrible that it might be partly my fault he was acting as he was. It was all very difficult because I genuinely like Ward. I always have. And I did understand that he was under a lot of pressure trying to salvage the firm."

"But you sent him on his way back to Seattle?" Abby nodded firmly. "What's more, by the time he left the following morning, he'd realized what a bad mistake he'd nearly made. He was regretting the whole thing."

"He stayed the night and left the next morning?" Torr persisted. "Yes."

"He spent that night in his own room?"

"Yes!" she flared, annoyed at being pushed and prodded. "I had breakfast with him before he left the next morning and we talked it all over. He was as relieved as I was that nothing had actually happened. He felt terrible about having made the attempt."

"How did he explain the weekend to Cynthia?"

"How should I know? Probably told her he had an out-of-town business meeting. The baby was born soon after that and then everything was all right again between Ward and Cynthia. But if Cynthia ever saw those pictures, she'd know he lied about where he was that weekend, and thinking I was involved too would really crush her." Abby looked at him pleadingly. "I can't have her hurt like that, Torr. Even if I could convince her that nothing happened during that weekend, she'd always wonder about my true relationship with Ward. It would never be the same between myself and Cynthia."

"And someone knows that."

Abby took a deep breath. "Apparently so."

"We're going to have to start figuring out who would know you that well."

"That thought makes me very, very nervous, Torr," Abby said slowly. "Who do I know that would do such a thing?"

"I suppose it could be someone you don't really know but who is aware of your close relationship with Cynthia. I wonder if Tyson's getting the same treatment."

Abby shuddered. "Maybe I should talk to him. Tell him what's going on and find out if we're both getting the threats."

Torr got to his feet, amber eyes chilling. "If and when we approach Tyson, I'll handle him for you. The last thing I want is for the two of you to be drawn together by mutual adversity."

"Are you jealous, Torr?" she couldn't resist taunting. Abby was totally unprepared for the immediate response her crack drew. Torr, who had been in the process of opening the refrigerator door, abruptly released it to stride back across the kitchen. He reached down and pulled her to her feet, his hands hard on her arms.

"Is that what you want, Abby? To make me jealous?"

Abby instantly regretted her momentary urge to goad him. "You know it's not." She swallowed uncomfortably. "A display of jealousy is the last thing I want from any man." Memories of Flynn Randolph's rages flashed through her mind and were reflected in her blue eyes.

"Then I suggest you don't try to provoke me. Any man can be made jealous under the right circumstances and I'm no different than other men."

That got through to something deep inside Abby. She shook her head and a faint smile touched her mouth. "You're wrong, Torr. I think you are different from other men. If I didn't, I wouldn't have made love with you last night." She lifted her fingers to touch the rough side of his cheek. That much was the truth, she realized suddenly. And it made this morning much easier.

"Abby…" Torr caught her questing fingers, crushing them in his palm, and pulled her close. "Abby, honey,

" please don't fight me. Don't be afraid of me. And don't panic about what happened last night. I'll give you time, I swear."

She stood on tiptoe and brushed her mouth lightly across his. "Will you, Torr?"

"I think," he whispered huskily, "I'd give you just about anything you wanted except…"

"Except what?"

Your freedom, Torr finished savagely in his head. Fortunately he had the sense not to utter the incriminating words aloud. "When I decide where I'm going to draw the line, I'll let you know," he replied gently. "In the meantime, feel free to keep asking for whatever you want."

She looked up at him earnestly. "And what about you, Torr? What do you want?"

"Right now I want breakfast." With a smile he patted her tightly encased rear. "Want to flip a coin to see who gets to make it?"

"I'll make breakfast this morning if you'll do it tomorrow. How's that?" Abby asked cheerfully, tacitly admitting there would be a tomorrow.

"Fair enough, as long as you don't try to slip any of your vitamins into the scrambled eggs." Torr reached for the coffeepot.

"Judging from your performance last night," Abby heard herself say very daringly, "I don't think you need vitamins. Not even my specially fortified formula designed for the, uh, socially active male."

A slow smile lit Torr's eyes. It evolved quickly into a laughing, wicked, blatantly male expression that brought an answering flush to Abby's cheeks.

"How do you want your eggs?" she demanded, turning away to avoid the brilliant gleam in the amber gaze.

"The same way I want you. Any way I can get them."

T
he exquisitely
tentative, fragile, budding relationship that had been initiated between Abby and Torr grew into an almost comfortable, surprisingly companionable truce during the next few days. Abby decided that the only way she could describe Torr's attitude toward her was cautious. He was careful not to make any references to the night they had spent together. He was careful not to give orders. He was careful not to push her back into bed. All in all, she realized, he was doing his best to make her relax around him. And it was working.

Torr was also doing his best to come up with some answers concerning the blackmailer. He had sat down with Abby and gone over a list of everyone she knew in Portland or Seattle who might be likely to blackmail her.

"Maybe it's someone Ward knows, not me," she suggested at one point, glowering at the useless list they had drawn up together.

Torr nodded reluctantly. "But then why hit on you? Why not blackmail Tyson?"

"Perhaps because whoever it is knew I'd be more vulnerable," Abby replied, sighing.

"Which brings us back to someone who knows you pretty well."

"Torr, I simply don't know anyone who would stoop to this sort of thing."

"Okay, okay, honey, calm down. We'll go back to work on the list later. What do you say we run down to the village and pick up some food and maybe a bottle of champagne?"

"What are we celebrating?"

"How about the last night of flower-arranging class?"

"Good heavens, that's tonight, isn't it? Oh well, I was flunking out anyway. A trip to the store sounds better than working on this list." She looked at him and smiled. "I get the feeling you're trying to distract me."

"I am." He stood up and reached for her hand.

"Consider yourself successful," she told him, grinning.

But the distraction proved exceedingly temporary. Torr had barely walked into the small grocery store that served the community when he was cheerfully greeted by the owner, Carla Ramsey. Carla, Abby had learned on her first visit, made it a point to keep track of the comings and goings of everyone who had a home or a cabin in the area. It was a hobby, the older woman had explained blithely.

" 'Morning, Torr. Did your friend from Seattle find you?"

Abby felt Torr's sudden tension but his voice was casual. "Apparently not. Haven't had anyone come calling. Someone came looking for me recently?"

"Day before yesterday. I gave him surefire directions to your place, but maybe he couldn't find it after all." Carla winked at Abby. "Or maybe he just decided he didn't want to bother the two of you. I told him Torr wasn't alone."