Outsider (2 page)

He let that slide. She didn't know that he and Maureen were divorced. His pride wouldn't let him admit it. He'd gone straight from Sarina after the annulment to marry Maureen in a civil ceremony. Maureen, the love of his life, who'd made his life hell.

He was trying to reconcile seven years of distance with the woman he saw before him. She had a child. She'd married, then. He'd wondered how she'd coped with the nightmare of their wedding night. He hadn't meant to hurt her so badly, even though he blamed her for everything that had happened.

“Does your husband work here, too?” he asked, hating himself for the question.

“I don't have a husband,” she replied after a minute, putting the child back on her feet. “Bernadette, why don't you look for Nikki and go down to the canteen together?” she said to the child, her eyes and voice tender. She smiled, a little uneasily. “Are you okay, now, baby?”

“Yes, Mama. Don't worry.” Bernadette hugged her. The affection was returned generously. The child gave Colby a second cold glare and walked out of the office past him without another word. Her breathing sounded odd. Probably she was hoarse from the tears, he thought, and felt guiltier.

His mind was in turmoil as his eyes went back to the slender woman from his past. “I didn't mean to upset the child so badly,” he bit off.

Sarina went back around her desk and sat down, looking very mature and businesslike. She studied Colby like a museum exhibit. “Why are you here?” she asked. “The annulment was completed seven years ago, as I recall, even though I never got the paperwork.”

Until that moment, he'd never realized that he hadn't gotten a final copy of it. He'd not kept track of it and he'd never had to prove that his former marriage had been annulled. Odd, he thought irrelevantly, that he didn't have a copy of his second divorce papers, either. But Maureen had them somewhere, he was sure.

He blinked, brought back to the question. “Hunter wants to go back to Tucson. I'm his replacement.”

That was news to her. Hunter's wife, Jennifer, was her best friend, and the other woman said they loved it in Houston. She lifted one thin eyebrow. Her eyes, dark as night, were her best feature, next to those soft, sensual lips. She wasn't pretty. She had a beautiful complexion, and thick, silky blond hair. Her breasts were small, like her waist, but she had flaring, nice hips and pretty, long legs. He'd seen her without clothing only once, but he'd never managed to banish the memory. Sarina, laughing with him as they walked in the park. Sarina, in his arms, dying for him. Sarina, crying out in pain when he couldn't stop, Sarina, shuddering in the aftermath of a passion that he couldn't control…

He pulled himself back to the present. She didn't know how tortured he'd been afterward, or to what depths he'd sunk trying to forget what he'd done to her. She didn't know. He couldn't tell her, even now.

“How long have you been working for Ritter?” he asked abruptly.

“Seven years,” she replied without raising her eyes. “But I'm only in Houston temporarily, working on a special project. Bernadette and I live in Tucson.”

Bernadette. That name rang a bell. He recalled the happy months he'd spent with Sarina in the old days, while he was guarding her millionaire father from a kidnapping attempt by people who wanted the location of his secret mines which produced a priceless strategic metal. Colby, who worked for military intelligence, was assigned to keep tabs on him. In the process he'd met Sarina, who was living at home. They'd become close at once. She was in college, so he assumed she was in her early twenties.

He still didn't know that she'd graduated a year ahead of her class in high school and done two years of college in one. He didn't know, either, that she'd been only seventeen at the time of their forced marriage. They'd been caught by her father and two of his business associates and their wives in a compromising situation. Her father had literally forced Colby to marry her, using his career as a threat, to save face with his social set. At the time, Colby had been working for the CIA, and he loved his job. The old man could have cost him his profession, and Colby knew it, so he'd given in with bad grace. Carrington had assumed that Colby and Sarina had been intimate. They hadn't.

Their wedding night was payback for Colby. He still regretted it. Of course, a day later annulment papers were filed, the minute the millionaire found out from the private detective he'd hired that Colby had considerable Apache blood and that his total worth was somewhat shy of the impression his luxurious style of dress had led the older man to believe it was. Colby didn't know how Sarina had responded to her father's demand that she lie about her wedding night and sign the annulment papers. He'd left her in tears in the early hours of the morning, so angry and full of self-contempt that he didn't even look at her as he left the room.

Before that final meeting, in the early days of their friendship, they'd talked about children in a casual sort of way. She'd always wanted children. A girl, she told him dreamily, and she'd name her Bernadette. There was an old movie she'd seen, and that was the heroine's name. She thought it was beautiful.

“We'd heard that Hunter wanted an assistant,” she said, glancing at him. “There was some sort of drug raid and an arrest last night,” she added without meeting his eyes. “They said Hunter was in on it.”

“So was I,” he replied.

That was a surprise, but she was good at hiding her emotions. “Were some of our people here involved?” she fished.

He closed up. “I don't discuss ongoing cases with civilians,” he said.

She gave him a long look. “You haven't changed,” she said. “You're just as enigmatic and cold as you were then.”

“Well, you've changed,” he said flatly. “I wouldn't have recognized you.”

“I've grown up,” she replied. “Children do.”

“You were no child when you followed me around like a lost puppy,” he said, wanting to hurt.

She hesitated, but she didn't want to admit how young she'd been. Or how stupid. “It was just a bad case of hero worship. I don't do it anymore,” she replied sarcastically. “I took the cure. Remember?” she added with pure venom.

He didn't reply, but he avoided meeting her eyes. “Life goes on.”

“So they say.” She took a disk out of the drawer and fed it into her CD-ROM drive. “I have some paperwork to finish. I'm sure you have duties of your own.”

He hesitated. “About the kid…”

She looked up. “Bernadette isn't used to strangers being harsh with her, even if she does have mixed blood.”

“Hispanic,” he agreed, assuming that she meant the child had Hispanic ancestry. He didn't notice the faint flicker of Sarina's eyelids. The little girl certainly spoke Spanish with some fluency. His eyes blazed with anger. “My own blood is mixed, if you remember,” he retorted.

“As I recall, you did your best to hide your Apache ancestry. But, then, I remember as little about you as I possibly can, Mr. Lane,” she said with a cool little smile. “Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm quite busy.” She turned her attention back to her computer, ignoring him completely.

He turned on his heel and stalked out. He could have chewed tenpenny nails.

 

S
ARINA LET OUT THE BREATH
she'd been holding since he walked into her office. She felt drained of life, exhausted, burned out. She'd loved Colby Lane. But her relationship with him had destroyed her life. One look into those black eyes had resurrected memories that were much better left dead.

She wondered what Bernadette had said to him to provoke such a reaction. The child had odd little flashes of insight, almost like precognition. Sometimes she frightened other children with her predictions. She frightened her mother, too. Bernadette's grandfather had possessed the same sort of mental insight. There was a Comanche uncle in Oklahoma who also had it. She hoped it wasn't going to cause Bernadette trouble as she grew older.

Right now, though, her concern was how she was going to manage her job with Colby Lane in such proximity. He didn't know anything about her, least of all why she was here, and she couldn't let him find out. She hoped Bernadette didn't slip and say anything to him in Apache. Apparently he spoke Spanish, because he'd answered Bernadette in the same tongue. She'd have to talk to Hunter. He and Jenny missed Tucson but it was news to Sarina that they were planning to go back, because Jenny was pregnant with their second child and in the care of a local obstetrician.

Bernadette and Nikki, the Hunters' daughter, were best friends. The two families were close. That was going to make the situation more difficult. There were things that Sarina didn't want Colby to find out. She'd have to caution the Hunters to keep quiet about her background—and Bernadette's special gift. The last thing in the world she wanted Colby Lane to know was who Bernadette's father was. What a tragedy that he should turn up now.

Another problem presented itself as she thought about Bernadette's violent upset in Colby's presence. The child had been diverted to go find Nikki, and she seemed all right. But often it took a few hours for the symptoms to appear, and she had sounded very hoarse as she left Sarina's office…

She turned her attention back to the computer. She didn't even want to think about it until she had to. Maybe, maybe, it would be all right! Damn Colby and his hot temper!

 

C
OLBY STALKED INTO
H
UNTER
'
S
office with black eyes blazing. He closed the door sharply, bringing the other man's surprised gaze to his face.

“What's biting you?” he asked Colby.

“That little girl, the one who knew about my arm…her mother is Sarina Carrington,” he said harshly.

Hunter eyed him cautiously. “So?”

Colby glared at him. He hesitated. “Sarina's my ex-wife.”

Hunter actually dropped the pen he was holding. He and his wife had known Sarina for seven years, and they were aware that she knew Colby Lane. But she'd never mentioned a prior marriage.

Colby barely noticed. He went to the window and looked out, his hands jammed into his pockets. “It was a long time ago,” he said. “We were only together one day before she filed for divorce.”

“What a smart woman,” Hunter murmured dryly.

The memory of the brief marriage was like a knife through Colby's gut. He didn't say anything for a minute. “She was in college when I left,” he said aloud. “I thought she'd go into teaching or some profession. She's a clerk here, I gather.”

Hunter averted his eyes from his friend's piercing gaze. “A records clerk,” he said, hoping he still had a poker face. “I understand she dropped out of college. She wanted a job with less pressure so that she had time for her daughter.”

That was a laudable goal, and Colby couldn't fault it. But he was upset. He'd never expected to see Sarina again, much less find her working in a corporation that had just hired him. The job would necessarily foster contact between them. He didn't want a daily reminder of his cruelty.

“Why isn't she working in Tucson? I know you've got a branch office there now. You were working in it at one time.”

“Yes. She was briefly reassigned here to fill in for another employee,” Hunter said, grasping for any reasonable explanation. “They'll probably go back to Tucson in the near future.”

Colby relaxed, just a little. “That's probably a good thing.”

“Listen, I've got a meeting with Eugene. Want to come?”

“Do I need to?”

It would be tricky if he did. Hunter was keeping secrets. He couldn't let Colby in on them.

“Not really. I'll brief you. Just routine stuff. You can skip this one,” Hunter said with a smile. “If you want something to do, you can go around and introduce yourself to the department heads. You know. Practice diplomacy.”

Colby glared at him. “My gun's in my desk drawer.”

Hunter gave him a wry look.

Colby shrugged. “All right, I'll work on my people skills.”

“Good idea.” He picked up his notes. “Did you make up with Bernadette?”

Colby shifted his arm uncomfortably. “Her idea of making up would involve a skinning knife, from what I saw.”

Hunter almost bit his tongue trying not to make a joke about similarities between the child and the man. “She likes most people.”

“She hates me,” Colby said shortly. “And I'm not keen on kids who make personal remarks to total strangers.” He scowled. “But how in the hell did she know about my arm?” he asked angrily. “I haven't had any contact with Sarina for seven years, so the kid couldn't have found out from her mother. And if you've never told Nikki,” he finished, letting the remark speak for itself.

“Bernadette knows things,” Hunter said. “I don't know how. Maybe there was a shaman in her ancestry somewhere.”

Colby frowned. “I thought she was Hispanic.”