Love and Fury: The Coltrane Saga, Book 4 (35 page)

His gaze moved slowly downward, taking in the translucent white nightgown. Every curve of her body was visible in the candlelight from just behind her. Colt could see her breasts, the way they rose and fell with every breath. He could see her narrow waist, the gentle swell of her hips, the dark shadow of her pubic hair.

“Come in,” she said, standing aside so he could enter. “I do apologize for my rudeness this morning, Colt. I want to make up for it now.”

Colt stepped inside, and the door closed behind him. “Apology isn’t necessary, Countess deBonnett. Just tell me where I can find my sister. I imagine you know why I’ve come so far.”

“Of course.” She smiled and crossed the tiny room to sit down on the side of the bed. “Money. Isn’t money the reason for everything in life?” she asked casually.

Colt glanced around the room at the narrow bed, small dressing table, small mirror. The single window looked down on the alley below.

“So tell me where Dani is,” he repeated bluntly.

She patted the space next to her on the bed. He stayed where he was. She smiled, sighed. “Tell me what your father told you about me that makes you afraid of me.”

“What my father told me about you isn’t anything you’d want to hear. Just tell me where I can find Dani.”

Alaina ought to’ve known he would be stubborn, for he was sure to be just like his father. She decided to spur him with a little anger. “Finding Dani is not going to be easy, Travis—”

“Hold it.” He held up his hand. “I’m Colt. Don’t confuse me with my father.”

Alaina’s eyes were at once hard. “I will call you what I wish to call you. I deal the cards here…Travis.”

Colt shook his head in disgust. She was crazy. “Talk.”

“Dani is being held prisoner.”

Colt stared at her without saying anything.

Alaina fidgeted. She wanted the conversation to end and passion to begin. “Why?” Colt asked finally.
 

“Who knows?” She shrugged. “Gavin brought a mistress back here with him. Maybe he keeps Dani tied up because he’s afraid she’ll kill Delia…or maybe Delia wants Dani out of the way. I have no way of knowing.”

Suddenly Colt decided that maybe she was telling the truth. He sat down beside Alaina, ignoring the look that came into her eyes as she moved closer to him. “Tell me everything,” he urged.

She reached out to trail her fingertips along the line of his jaw and whisper, “You’re so like your father. The same smoky eyes…the same wavy black hair. And your gorgeous body…” She boldly touched his thigh. “Yes. Just like him. In
looks…
” Her voice trailed away meaningfully. “What about in bed?”

Colt was just beginning to realize that she was everything his father had said she was when, without further preamble, she looked him straight in the eye and said, “You make love to me, now, and I will tell you where to find Dani. Otherwise,” she said flatly, “you’ll probably never find her—and you might die trying, because Gavin has hired many men to stay at the house. I have not told him you’re here, but once I do, you won’t have a chance to get near the château.

“So”—she smiled and leaned against him—“tell me, my beautiful darling, you
do
find me attractive, don’t you? Surely you won’t mind spending, a few moments in my arms? I can take you places you’ve never been before…love you like no woman has ever loved you.”

She nibbled his ear, teasing and tantalizing, all the while wriggling her body closer to him, rubbing her breasts against him.

“Make love to me, my darling Travis,” she commanded huskily. “Possess me.”

Colt knew he would probably wish later that he’d just gotten up and walked away, but he slipped his arms around her and lowered her to the bed. He began kissing her, and once he did, Alaina held nothing back. She clung to him tightly, all restraint abandoned. She had entered a memory, and it was not Colt who held her, but Travis Coltrane himself.

She tore off the translucent gown and, with nimble, anxious fingers, released him from his trousers. “Now. Take me now. Later, when we make love again, there will be time for slow teasing and playing, but now I want you. I’ve waited so long, Travis, so very long.”

She positioned his hard, throbbing member and lifted her hips to, receive his mighty thrust. He clutched her buttocks and moved into her as deeply as he could. She clutched his back with one hand, his neck with the other, felt his warm lips against her flesh as she moaned loudly.

“Yes, yes, big and warm and wonderful. I can feel you all inside me, so big, so beautiful. You’re part of me now, Travis. I have always loved you. Oh, press harder, darling. Fill me, fill me with your love.”

Then her words began coming together in an incoherent babble as her whole body shuddered with ecstasy.

Suddenly Alaina stiffened, and her nails dug into the rock-hard flesh of Colt’s back. Moaning sounds emanated from deep within her. Then she slumped in his arms, limp.

Colt reached his own climax, then withdrew and rolled over. They lay there, breathing hard, and then he asked, “Where’s Dani?”

Alaina gazed at him coquettishly. “You’re every bit the man your father was, Colt. I cannot remember feeling this way since the last time he held me, so many years ago.”

She reached for him, fearing that he would leap from the bed at any moment and leave. “I hated him, you know, when he preferred Marilee to me. I loved him so. I had to have my revenge, you see. So I hurt him through Dani, taking her away from him. But now you’re here, to take his place, to take away the hurt.”

Colt gently pushed her back. The desperate way she was clinging to him was making him very nervous. The woman was crazy, but for the moment she was the only way to Dani. “And you”—the words came glibly—“are quite a woman, Alaina. I’m sure my father knew a great deal of pleasure in your arms.”

“And so shall you, my darling.” She began running her hands possessively over, his body. “You have no reason to return home. I’m a wealthy woman. We can travel all over Europe, and I can show you sights you’ve never seen. Forget everything else. Think only of me, of the pleasure I can give you.”

Like a pelican diving for food, Alaina darted down, attempting to take him in her eager mouth, but Colt was quicker. His hands fastened around her throat, and he lifted her up.

“No more, my sweet. Half that money your conniving niece brought home with her is mine. I will stop at nothing to get it, and that includes breaking your pretty neck if you don’t tell me where to find her. I want to know
now.”

He squeezed her neck ever so gently to emphasize his intent, and Alaina nodded.

He released her. “Tell me.”

“I will have to lead you to her,” she told him nervously. Lord, even the anger in his eyes was the same she had seen in his father’s.

She hurriedly explained about Gavin’s men. “They’re heavily armed, and they guard the hatchway to where she is kept. I’ll have to make plans before we can—”

“Before you leave this room,” Colt told her, “we will make those plans and set a time.”

Alaina already knew what she would do. “Tonight I’m giving a party, a large one. I can get the guards distracted by serving them some of the food and lots of wine. The bastards are always hungry, and they all drink. They’ll be no problem.

“As for you,” she continued, propping herself on an elbow, “come to the house around nine. Go to the little grape arbor on the east side and wait for me there. I will come when the path to the hatchway is clear, and then you can free Dani and take her with you. She suppressed a smile. She kept remembering to say “Dani” rather than “Briana”, and she was congratulating herself.

Colt regarded her coldly. “Why are you doing this? No matter why Dani is being held captive, Gavin is going to be angry with you.”

She saw no reason not to reveal some of the truth. “I am in love with Gavin,” she said plainly, wondering if Colt was shocked. “He brought that whore, Delia, back with him, and that’s caused me a lot of heartache. I don’t want him lusting after Dani.”

He believed her. This was not a woman who tolerated competition.

Colt stood, began putting his clothes in order.

Alaina watched silently for a moment, then gingerly asked, “Was it really good for you? Under…other circumstances, could you love me, Colt? Like your father did?”

Colt kept his eyes averted. His father had never loved her, he knew that. Sure, he had probably made love to Alaina. She was appealing, and had probably been a beauty then. But Travis had not loved her.

He smiled down at her. “Tell me, Alaina. Was it good for you? Did I please you?”

Her eyes shone. “Oh, yes, Colt. You make me feel like a real woman. But tell me, could you love me, as your father did?”

Colt nodded slowly. “Yes, I think so,” he said kindly. “You said I was just like him.”

He turned and left the room. A moment later he was heading out of the sleazy little hotel.

Just like his father? He wondered if he was that much a man. Time would show…

Colt returned to the bar and found Branch sitting at a table in the smoky-blue shadows. Branch had a strange look on his face, and when Colt sat down, he was struck at once by the tension in Branch. He looked baffled, and Colt prodded, “What’s wrong? I’ve never seen you like this.”

Branch shook himself, then murmured, “Damnedest thing. Can’t understand it.” He gave a short, nervous laugh and shrugged.

Colt was impatient, for he had news of his own, was anxious to tell Branch about Dani being held prisoner. “Tell me what the hell happened,” he snapped.

Branch shook his head in disbelief. “After you left, the messenger hung around. He wanted a drink, and then he started asking questions about who you were—I guess because he was wondering why Countess deBonnett would be sending a message to you.

“I didn’t tell him anything important,” Branch was quick to assure, “but I saw no harm in saying we were looking for Daniella Coltrane.”

Colt frowned. “And?”

“He said he had known her when she was younger, before the deBonnetts sent her to a school in Switzerland.”

Colt waited, then prodded again. “Well?”

“Colt, according to him, Dani is a nun now.”

Colt was shocked. But then mystification gave way to understanding. Maybe Dani felt so terrible about what she’d done that she’d given herself to God out of remorse, or penance, or whatever it was nuns did.

But if what the messenger had said was true, that meant Alaina was lying…which meant that he was being set up for an ambush in the grape arbor at nine o’clock.

Hurriedly he explained to Branch everything Alaina had told him, finishing by saying, “Now we know it’s a trap.”

Branch clamped a heavy hand on Colt’s arm and said ominously, “No, no. I don’t know what Alaina is talking about, but the messenger said Dani’d been in a convent since last spring.”

Colt recoiled.

Branch leaned closer, eyes narrowed. “Something real damn funny is going on if what he says is true, then there’s no way Dani could have been to America. So…”

Colt felt as though someone had hit him in the stomach.
Yes,
he told himself, his mind racing,
something real damn funny is going on.

Chapter Twenty-Five

All was quiet. A slight breeze came in from the Mediterranean Sea, and the night was cold as Colt stood on a narrow crag looking down at the deBonnett château.

Below, Branch was hidden in the darkness, armed and ready for surprises.

Colt had watched as carriages arrived at the château. There were a dozen.

It was too dark to see the two men Colt had spotted earlier, the men walking outside, carrying rifles. They’d stepped back into the shadows as the carriages arrived, and as Colt watched them, he began to believe that Alaina was indeed setting up an ambush.

Nine o’clock was approaching. Colt made his way down the rocky incline, and when he reached the grape arbor, he gave a low whistle. He waited.

A few seconds later, Branch whistled softly, then stepped out of the darkness. “Is it time?” he whispered.

“Just a few more minutes,” Colt whispered back. “Keep those guards in your sight. If they make any move toward me, shoot them.”

Branch nodded grimly. “Then we’ll have a war on our hands. The rest of Mason’s hired goons are going to hear the gunfire and come running.”

“We’ve got no way of knowing how many there are, but there’s two of us, old friend. That’s enough for our side.” He grinned.

Branch watched as Colt moved to the edge of the arbor, only a few feet from where the guards were hidden in the shadows of the house. Branch could just barely make out a wooden hatchway near where the guards stood watching. Was the hatchway where the gold was hidden? And Dani?

“What’s
she
doing out here?” one of the guards, Lem, suddenly whispered to the other.

There was no time for Al to respond, for Alaina appeared, struggling with a large tray. “Good evening, gentlemen,” she greeted them cheerily. “You must be hungry, and since we have so much food inside, I brought you something nice.

“There’s a bottle of wine, too. I left it on the back porch,” she added, thrusting the tray at Lem. You can sit on the steps and eat back there.”