Midnight Rainbow (27 page)

           
 
"How could she call you? Your number
isn't exactly listed."

           
 
"I asked her the same thing. It seems she
was standing beside you when you called me from Dallas." Grant swore,
rubbing his eyes. "I should have known. I should have been expecting it
after she hot-wired that truck. She watched me do it, just once,
then
did it herself the next time."

           
 
"If it's any consolation, she didn't get
it exactly right. She remembered the numbers, but not the right order. She told
me I was the fifth call she'd placed."

           
 
"Oh, hell.
What
kind of situation is she in?"

           
 
"A pretty explosive
one.
She's stumbled across a high rolling counterfeiter. He has some
high quality plates of the pound, the franc and several denominations of our
currency. He's setting up the deal now. Some of our comrades are very
interested."

           
 
"I can imagine. Just what does she think
she can do?"

           
 
"She's going to try to steal the
plates."

           
 
Grant went white. "And you were going to
let her?"

           
 
"Damn it, Grant!"
Kell
exploded. "It's not a matter of letting her
and you know it! The problem is stopping her without tipping the guy off and
sending him so deep underground we can't find him. I've got agents tiptoeing
all around her, but the guy thinks he's in love with her, and his buyer has watchdogs
sniffing around, and we simply can't snatch her without blowing the whole thing
sky high!"

           
 
"All right, all right.
I'll get her out of it."

           
 
"How?"
Kell
demanded.

           
 
"I'll get the plates myself, then jerk
her out of there and make damned certain she never calls you again!"

           
 
"I would deeply appreciate it,"
Kell
said. "What are you going to do with her?"

           
 
"Marry her."

           
 
Something lightened in
Kell's
dark face, and he leaned back in his chair, looping his hands behind his head.
"Well, I'll be damned. Do you know what you're getting into? That woman
doesn't think like most people."

           
 
That was a polite way of saying it, but
Kell
wasn't telling him anything he didn't already know.
Within moments of meeting her, Grant had realized that Jane was just a little
unorthodox. But he loved her, and she couldn't get into too much trouble on the
farm.

           
 
"Yeah, I know. By the way, you're invited
to the wedding." Jane smiled at Felix, her eyes twinkling at him. He was
such a funny little guy; she really liked him, despite the fact that he was a
counterfeiter and was planning to do something that could really damage her
country. He was slightly built, with shy eyes and a faint stutter. He loved to
gamble, but had atrocious luck; that is, he'd had atrocious luck until Jane had
started sitting beside him. Since then he'd been winning regularly, and he was
now devoted to her.

           
 
Despite everything she was having fun in Monte
Carlo. Grant was being slow coming around, but she hadn't been bored. If she
had trouble sleeping, if she sometimes woke to find her cheeks wet, that was
something she had to accept. She missed him. It was as if part of
herself
were gone. Without him there was no one she could
trust, no one in whose arms she could rest.

           
 
It was a dangerous tightrope she was walking,
and the excitement of it helped keep her from settling into depression. The
only thing was, how much longer was it going to last? If she saw that Felix was
finally going to make up his mind who to sell to, she would be forced to do
something—fast—before the plates got into the wrong hands.

           
 
Felix was winning again, as he had every night
since he'd met Jane. The elegant casino was buzzing, and the chandeliers
rivaled in brilliance the diamonds that were roped about necks and dripping
from ears. The men in their formal evening wear, the women in their gowns and
jewels, casually wagering fortunes on the roll of the dice or the turn of a
card, all created an atmosphere that was unequaled anywhere in the world. Jane
fit into it easily, slim and graceful in her black silk gown, her shoulders and
back bare. Jet earrings dangled to her shoulders, and her hair was piled on top
of her head in a careless, becoming twist. She wore no necklace, no bracelets,
only the earrings that touched the glowing gold of her skin.

           
 
Across the table Bruno was watching them
closely. He was becoming impatient with Felix's dithering, and his impatience
was likely to force her hand.

           
 
Well, why not? She'd really waited as long as
she could. If Grant had been interested, he'd have shown up before now.

           
 
She stood and bent down to kiss Felix on the
forehead. "I'm going back to the hotel," she said, smiling at him.
"I have a headache."

           
 
He looked up, dismayed. "Are you really
ill?"

           
 
"It's just a headache. I was on the beach
too long today. You don't have to leave; stay and enjoy your game."

           
 
He began to look panicky, and she winked at
him. "Why don't you see if you can win now without me?

           
 
Who knows, it may not be me at all."

           
 
He brightened, the poor little man, and turned
back to his game with renewed fervor. Jane left the casino and hurried back to
the hotel, going straight to her room. She always allowed for being followed,
because she sensed that she always was. Bruno was a very suspicious man.
Swiftly she stripped off her gown, and she was reaching into the closet for a
dark pair of pants and a shirt when a hand closed over her mouth and a muscular
arm clamped around her waist.

           
 
"Don't scream," a low, faintly raspy
voice said in her ear, and her heart jumped. The hand left her mouth, and Jane
turned in his arms, burying her face against his neck, breathing in the
delicious, familiar male scent of him.

           
 
"What are you doing here?" she
breathed.

           
 
"What do you think I'm doing here?"
he asked irritably, but his hands were sliding over her nearly-naked body,
reacquainting
himself
with her flesh. "When I get
you home, I just may give you that spanking I've threatened you with a couple
of times. I get you away from
Turego
, and as soon as
my back is turned you plunge right back into trouble."

           
 
"I'm not in trouble," she snapped.

           
 
"You couldn't prove it by me. Get
dressed. We're getting out of here."

           
 
"I can't! There are some counterfeit
plates that I've got to get. My room is being watched, so I was going to climb
out the window and work my way around to Felix's room. I have a pretty good
idea where he's hidden them."

           
 
"And you say you're not in trouble."

           
 
"I'm not! But really, Grant, we've got to
get those plates."

           
 
"I've already got them."

           
 
She
blinked,
her
brown eyes owlish. "You do?
But… how?
I mean, how
did you know—never mind.
Kell
told you, didn't he?
Well, where did Felix have them hidden?"

           
 
She was enjoying this. He sighed. "Where
do you think he had them?"

           
 
"In the ceiling.
I think he pushed up a square of the ceiling and hid the plates in there. It's
really the only good hiding place in the room, and he isn't the type to put
them in a safety deposit box in a bank, which is where I'd have put them."

           
 
"No, you wouldn't," he said,
annoyed. "You'd have put them in the ceiling, just like he did." She
grinned. "I was right!"

           
 
"Yes, you were right." And he
probably never should have told her. Turning her around, he gave her a pat on
the bottom. "Start packing. Your little friend is probably the nervous
sort who checks his hidey-hole every night before he goes to bed, and we want
to be long gone before he does." She dragged down her suitcases and
started throwing clothes into them. He watched her, sweat popping out on his
brow. She looked even better than he
remembered,
her
breasts ripe and round, her legs long and shapely. He hadn't even kissed her.
He caught her arm, swinging her around and catching her close to him.
"I've missed you," he said, and lowered his mouth to hers. Her
response was instantaneous. She rose on tiptoe, moving against him, her arms
coiled around his neck and her fingers deep in his hair. He'd had a haircut,
and the dark blond strands slipped through her fingers to fall back in place,
shaped perfectly to his head. "I've missed you, too," she whispered
when he released her mouth.

           
 
His breathing was ragged as he reluctantly let
her go. "We'll finish this when we have more time. Jane, would you please
put on some clothes?"

           
 
She obeyed without question, pulling on green
silk trousers and a matching green tunic. "Where are we going?"

           
 
"Right now?
We're
driving to the beach and turning the plates over to an agent. Then we're going
to catch a flight to Paris, London and New York."

           
 
"Unless, of course, Bruno is waiting just
outside the door, and instead we end up sailing across the Mediterranean."

           
 
"Bruno isn't waiting outside the door.
Would you hurry?"

           
 
"I'm finished."

           
 
He picked up the suitcases and they went
downstairs, where he checked her out. It all went like clockwork. There was no
sign of Bruno, or any of the men she had dubbed "Bruno's goons." They
turned the plates over to the promised agent and drove to the airport. Jane's
heart was thudding with a slow, strong, powerful beat as Grant slipped into the
seat beside her and buckled himself in. "You know, you never did actually
tell me what you're doing here. You're retired, remember? You're not supposed
to be doing things like this."

           
 
"Don't play innocent," he advised,
giving her a look from molten gold eyes. "I saw your fine hand in this
from the beginning. It worked. I came after you. I love you; I'm taking you to
Tennessee; and we're going to be married. But you'd better remember that I'm on
to your tricks now, and I know you're too slick for

           
 
your
own good. Did I
leave anything out?"

           
 
"No," Jane said, settling back in
her seat. "I think you have everything covered."

           
 
He lay on his back in the bed, his arms around
Jane. Her dark hair was spread across his shoulder, and he stroked her head, her
back,
the
rounded curve of her buttocks. "I
couldn't sleep without you," he murmured. "I got used to you using me
as a bed."

           
 
She was silent, but he knew that she wasn't
asleep. They were tired, but too wound up to sleep. Once they'd arrived in
Paris, going on to London and New York hadn't seemed that important. Instead
they'd checked into a hotel, and the loving had been even better than before,
the sensations sharpened by the time they'd spent apart.

           
 
"What would I have done if you hadn't
come after me?" she whispered, and the desolation of the lonely days
without him was in her voice.

           
 
"You knew I'd come."

           
 
"I hoped. I wasn't certain."

           
 
"You can be certain from now on," he
said, rolling over and pinning her beneath him. "I love you. I hope you
can be happy in Tennessee, because I really don't think I can live in a city,
not now. That's been worrying me."

           
 
A slow smile touched her lips. "Haven't
you learned by now that I'm not addicted to cities, either? I can be happy
anywhere; if you're there with me. Besides, I think the country will be a good
place for the kids to grow up."

           
 
"We haven't talked about that, have we?
I'd like to have kids, but if you want to wait a while, I'm willing."

           
 
She traced the outline of his mouth with her
fingertip. "It's a little too late now to think about waiting. If you
wanted to wait, you should have stayed away from me in the jungle.
And in Mexico City.
And in D.C."

           
 
He swallowed, staring at her. "Are you
telling me what I think you're telling me?"

           
 
"I think I am. I'm not certain yet, but
all the signs are there. Do you mind?"

           
 
"Mind?
God, no!"

           
 
The thick emotion in his voice warmed her all
over, and she put her arms around him, closing her eyes and hugging him
closely. She no longer minded the dark, because Grant was there.