The Count From Wisconsin (16 page)

Kate heard the blow connect with sickening force and knew Alex was stunned by the pain. Alvarez used the moment to grab him by the hair and slam his head into the bumper of Sauset's car. The first blow made Kate dizzy and she pressed her hands to her mouth as his head met the bumper again and again.

She stopped a scream of agony from erupting when she suddenly remembered the gun. Rushing forward, she fell to her knees beside the sports car. She began to run her hand frantically over the ground in the area she felt it must be, but her fingers met nothing other than rough stone. She muttered a violent curse, then, lying flat on the ground, she reached beneath the car, praying feverishly that she would find it. Then as she moved her hand to the left again, her fingers grazed something metallic and cold.

She could feel the crushed rock pressing into her breasts and her thighs as she wedged herself even farther under the car, but she simply couldn't grasp it. Even when she felt it was hopeless, the painful sounds of the struggle taking place just a few feet away spurred her on.

With two fingers she pulled steadily at the barrel of the gun. She had managed to move it a quarter of an inch when it slipped from between her perspiring fingers and the barrel moved out of reach.

Kate could have cried. For a second her head dropped forward in defeat, but only for a second. Stretching her arms to the limit, she moved her hand over the rough surface of the ground beneath the car, then she drew in a startled breath. When the barrel had slid away, the butt of the gun had moved closer, and she was able to pull it toward her, getting a firm grip on it at last.

She was on her knees with the gun extended before she realized that the fight was over and Alex was pulling the defeated Alvarez to his feet. Slumping against the car in relief, she carefully laid down the gun and allowed her hands to shake as much as they wanted to.

"Katy," Alex called, his voice quiet but intense. "Are you all right?"

"I'm fine," she said weakly. "I found the gun." She gingerly picked it up again and stood up. She could feel her knees trying to fold beneath her, but wouldn't allow herself to collapse when she had come this far. Reaching Alex, she handed him the gun and, even though she had fought so hard to get it, she was very relieved to be rid of it again.

He grinned down at her and said, "Thanks, Duchess," as he put his arm around her to pull her against him. She caught a glimpse of his battered face before he turned back to where Alvarez leaned against Sauset's car. "Now, Alvarez, I think there was something you wanted to tell us."

The dark man glared at Alex, his breath coming in harsh gasps, but he didn't speak.

Now that she was standing close to Alex, and she knew he was all right, Kate felt herself relaxing. Rene Alvarez didn't scare her anymore. Nothing scared her as long as she was with Alex.

"I think you should tell him, Rene," she said in a confiding tone as she leaned toward him. "Sometimes Alex gets mean." She shook her head. "I tell him over and over that it's not nice to hurt people, but he will insist on doing strange things to their kneecaps."

"Shut up, bitch," Alvarez snarled. Alex's head snapped up at the man's words. "Bitch?" he said, his voice low and deadly, then he raised an eyebrow in inquiry as he repeated "Bitch?" and he grabbed Alvarez by the throat to shove him back against the car.

"Alex." She sighed. "You don't have to defend my honor. It's just not necessary."

He stared down at her. "It's necessary for me, Katy," he said softly.

Kate couldn't even pull up a short reply as she met the loving look in his midnight eyes. She simply gazed at him as her insides melted.

"Your halo is slipping," he murmured, reaching out to touch her hair. "There's nothing more intriguing than an angel with a crooked halo."

She swayed toward him, then choking sounds began to penetrate the magic he had woven. "Alex," she said. "Do you hear funny noises?"

They reluctantly turned back to Alvarez to find his eyes wide and his face turning purple. As Alex released him, he inhaled in a harsh gust.

"Now," Alex said in annoyance. "Tell me what Sauset is using to blackmail Tony."

"I don't—" He broke off abruptly as Alex took a step forward. "Letters!" he said hastily. "There are some letters. Charles doesn't tell me anything, but he occasionally takes the letters out. Afterward he always gets very drunk."

Alex was silent for a moment, then he turned to Kate. "I don't want him to leave until I talk to Charles, Duchess . . . that is, if Charles didn't leave by the back door when he heard all the racket."

"I don't think he heard, Alex." She glanced back to the cottage. "He has Wagner turned up to a deafening level." She hesitated, then drew in a breath and said, "What do you want me to do?"

He squeezed her waist. "That's my girl. Do you think you can hold the gun on him for a while?"

Kate felt her heart leap in her breast, but she said, "Are you kidding? Of course I can."

She swallowed noisily, wiped her hands on her dress, then reached out for the gun. He gave it to her, watching her closely, and for a moment she felt her hand shaking. Then inhaling deeply, she blew the hair out of her eyes before turning to face Alvarez.

"Okay," she said firmly, motioning with the gun. "Back up against the car."

When he merely stared at her insolently, she narrowed her eyes and twisted her lips in what she hoped was a nasty smile. "Go ahead. Make my day."

Alex smothered a whoop of startled laughter. "God, Katy. I do love you," he said, then without another word he turned to walk back to the cottage.

Lord, what a time to tell me something like that, she thought as she fought to keep her eyes on Alvarez instead of Alex's retreating back. Now that her breathing had returned to Its normal rate, she could hear the music coming from behind her, and in the seconds after he entered the cottage it seemed to take on ominous tones.

She strained her ears as the minutes ticked away and once she thought she heard shouting over the music, but she couldn't be sure. Then suddenly the stereo was switched off and silence filled the night.

She could hear Alvarez breathing and the sound grated on her nerves. As perspiration formed on her forehead, she was grateful for the darkness that hid her anxious face. There was nothing she could do except stay where she was and keep the gun on Alvarez.

But the gun was growing unreasonably heavy and her hand began to shake with the effort she was making to keep it pointed in the right direction.

Suddenly she caught her breath sharply as a new sound penetrated the stillness, the sound of footsteps on the crushed-rock drive. She waited silently, keeping her gaze steadily on the man In front of her. Then when she felt her arm sag slightly, she caught movement from the corner of her eye and a second later Alex was there beside her.

Ten

"Alex," she said, and he could hear the relief in her voice as he drew closer. "You were gone so long, you had me worried."

"I'm fine," he said as she gratefully returned the gun. Pocketing the weapon, he turned to Alvarez. "You can go now, but listen to me—if you so much as look in Tony Blakewell's direction again. I'll find you. And then you'll pay very strict attention to me, I assure you."

They watched him drive away, then Alex pulled her into his arms and buried his face in her throat. He had never spent a longer ten minutes in his life than when he knew she was alone with Alvarez. It hadn't made his temper any sweeter when he had dealt with Charles. He only hoped that she understood why he had had to do it.

It was a while before he could speak, but when her warmth began to still the quakes that shook his insides, he drew back.

"Kate—" His voice was raspy and he inhaled to begin again. "Kate, if I ever get you into anything like this again you have my permission to kick my butt."

"I'll remember that," she said, laughing shakily. She reached up to touch his face. "What about Sauset? What happened in there? What did he tell you?"

With his arm around her, he began walking reluctantly toward the cottage. "He hasn't told me anything yet," he told her. "He merely agreed— reluctantly—that he would."

When they walked into the living room of the small cottage, Sauset was sitting stiffly upright in a wooden chair, a silk handkerchief held to his lip.

"All right, Charles," Alex said wearily. "Let's hear it. How did you find out about Helene and her abortion? And why are you hounding Tony?"

"I loved her!" he spat out. "And she loved me. She would have been mine if he hadn't killed her."

"Tony didn't kill Helene," Alex said quietly, then after a moment he continued. "Charles, I didn't know that you were involved with Helene. Were you seeing her at the same time Tony was?"

Sauset stared at him for a moment as though he were unwilling to talk, then he smiled. "Yes, I was. And that pleased me. At least ... at least it did at first. I enjoyed knowing that he thought he had her exclusively all the time she was sleeping with me. That made me feel good. It made ..." His voice trailed away, then in a moment he inhaled and said stiffly, "Then later I wanted her all to myself, but she wasn't built that way. At least I had the consolation of knowing she wouldn't stay with Blakewell either. She could never be satisfied with only one man."

"She doesn't sound like a very nice person," Alex suggested cautiously.

"Nice?" He laughed. "That sounds like the kind of coddled-egg word you would use, Alex." He stared at him. "I never minded you so much. You were always a little simpleminded, but still you had to struggle just like everyone else. You didn't have the golden touch like—" He stopped abruptly and glanced away as he pressed the handkerchief to his mouth again.

"Like Tony?" he asked, but Sauset merely stared at the floor. After a moment Alex tried again. "I can understand why you dislike Tony. You both loved the same woman; wars have been started over less than that, but why wait all these years to start harassing him?"

"Wait?" Sauset jerked his head up and began to laugh. "What makes you think I've waited?"

"What are you talking about?" Alex stared at him in bewilderment, then shook his head. Sauset looked as though he had finally gone over the edge. His eyes showed it and so did his slurred speech, but Alex couldn't let that stop him. He had to put an end to this now. "Are you saying this is not the first time you've tried to blackmail Tony?"

"Blackmail? Yes, I guess you could call it that," he said. "I'll admit it doesn't have the panache that my other schemes have had, but I was pressed."

He shrugged, then after a moment he looked Alex in the eye. "Do you remember what Tony was worth in college? A fortune," he said without waiting for Alex to answer. "He had everything he wanted. Not only money, but everything. It was all handed to him. I watched it happening and I hated him. Why should it all fall into his lap? The man was stupid, for God's sake. Everyone knew that without his friends' help, he wouldn't have made it through school at all."

His lips twitched into an ugly facsimile of a smile. "But his good luck didn't last, did it?" He glanced up at Alex. "What do you think happened to all his money?"

Alex's eyes narrowed, then he said slowly, "Tony said his father made a series of bad investments just shortly before he died."

"He said, he said," Sauset mimicked. "He didn't know. He didn't know the stock I had to buy, the businesses I let go bankrupt. It was pure genius." He laughed again and the sound wasn't pleasant. "Do you know how many acting parts your precious Tony has lost because of me? Dozens. And do you remember the time he was injured in a hit-and-run accident?" He pounded his chest with his fist. "It was me. All me."

Sauset stood up unsteadily. "All these years I've watched things fall apart for him . . . and I was content." He held his head cocked to the side as though he couldn't figure out what went wrong.

Suddenly Sauset shook his head sharply and looked around. After a moment, he extended his hand to Alex in the weirdest switch Kate had ever seen.

"I'll have to be going now, Alex," he said quietly, shaking his hand. "It was interesting seeing you again." With that he walked out the door of the cottage.

For a moment Kate was stunned, then when she heard a motor start up she moved to follow him, but Alex caught her arm. "Alex?" she asked in bewilderment as the strange man began to drive away.

"Let him go, Kate," he said, his voice sounding strangely weary. He stooped down to pick up the letters Sauset had dropped.

Kate paced restlessly as he sat down and scanned each one, then let them fall back to the floor. "Come on, Duchess," he said, reaching for her. "Let's go home."

But they didn't go home or even back to Monte Carlo. They were both too exhausted and too sore to make it any farther than Pete's apartment outside Paris.

It was quite a while later when Kate raised her head from where it rested on a floating cushion in the bathtub and watched Alex come into the room and stoop beside her.

"I wondered if you were going to sleep in here," he said, smiling down at her. He had already bathed, and was dressed in the clothes he had bought earlier in the day—a cream knit shirt and black slacks.

"I haven't been in here that long," she protested.

Reaching down, he grabbed one of her feet and pulled it above the thick layer of bubbles. "You see," he said. "Pruny toes."

"I don't care," she said. "I'm not coming out yet. I'm just now beginning to feel human again."

He stared down at her for a moment, then shrugged. "Well, if you won't come out"—he slipped off his shoes and swung his legs around into the water—"I guess I'll just have to come in."

"Alex!" she gasped, laughing as the bubbles covered his fully clothed body.

He reached out and pulled her forward until she lay full-length against him, then ran his hands down her body, his spread fingers resting on her slippery buttocks.

"I knew there was something I liked about this bathtub," she murmured.

With his chin resting on his chest he grinned down at her. "Somehow I feel a little overdressed."

"My very thought," she murmured as she helped him peel off his shirt. She watched thoughtfully, with her elbows propped on the wooden deck, as he stripped off the soggy slacks.

When he was back in the water and they were sitting together at the end of the tub, she reached up to touch his bruised face. "Alex," she said softly. "Why did you let him go? After all the damage he's done Tony?"

He let out a harsh gust of air. "He didn't do all those things, Kate. In fact, I doubt if he was responsible for any of the things he talked about."

"You mean he made it all up?" she asked incredulously.

"No, I think he realty believes he's responsible," he said, his voice sad. "I think he's a very sick man."

"But can you be sure?"

"As soon as he mentioned Tony's accident, I was positive. The man who ran Tony down was a drunk. They caught him six months after the accident." He stroked her wet body unconsciously as he talked. "Then I started thinking about Tony's father and his investments. I checked those out, Kate, as soon as I found out that Tony had inherited virtually nothing. There's just no way Charles could have done the things he claims he did. Tony's father was foolish and in some instances criminally negligent, but there was no intrigue involved ... no bankrupt businesses."

He laughed shortly. "There wasn't even any of that 'evidence' that he talked about in his blackmail letters. Those letters from Helene contained nothing about that."

She was silent for a moment as she took in what he was saying. "What will he do now?" she asked finally. "Won't he continue harassing Tony?"

He shrugged. "After I explain to Tony, it won't make any difference." He paused. "You know, I remembered something about Charles that I had forgotten when I was telling you about the whole thing, and I think it may be where this all began. Once, just before he met Helene, Tony told me he had caught Charles cheating on an exam. Tony didn't think much about it—you remember we already knew Charles was a little peculiar—but he said he felt sorry for him. The odd thing was that apparently Tony let Charles see that he pitied him. He said Charles had a look in his eyes like he'd never seen before."

He paused, shifting to pull her closer in an unconscious gesture. "I remember he laughed when he told me about it, but I could tell it bothered him. He said he thought that at that moment, Charles wanted to kill him."

"You think Charles hated Tony because he pitied him?"

"I think it had to be something like that. I know I wouldn't react very well to pity and I'm relatively sane." She nodded slowly, seeing his point. "It was after that that Charles stopped hanging around us. The malignancy must have been growing already. Over the years he kept an eye on Tony, and as long as he was struggling to get along like the rest of us, Charles was fine. Because he wished disasters on Tony and because his mind was weak, he began to think he had made them happen. He must have read about the movie contract and decided to do something more substantial."

She shivered. "Shouldn't he be in a hospital, getting some kind of help?"

"He could get help if he wanted it," he said solemnly. "But he's done no one any physical harm except in his mind. There's not much we could do other than inform the police . . . and I don't think even Tony would want to do that."

She sat silently rubbing Alex's soapy chest for a moment, then said slowly, "Alex, were all those letters from Helene?"

He nodded without speaking.

"Do you ... do you think she really loved him like he said?" She didn't know why she wanted to know. Perhaps because it would end the sad story.

"I don't know, Kate," he said softly. "But he believes she did and I. guess that's important to him."

He pulled her tightly to him as though he, too, were affected by the ending of the sad, old love story. Kate held his head to her breasts, touching his hair with gentle strokes. The past was over. That story was finished. It was time for them to get on with their own story.

"You know what I love about you?" she murmured.

He raised his head quickly, and as he did, his midnight eyes began to sparkle with amusement. "Do you love something about me?" he asked.

"I love a lot of things about you . . . but we'll talk about that later," she added hastily when the sparkle in his eyes grew to a full-fledged flame. "I love the way you treat me like an equal. As though I count. There's never any of that 'little lady' stuff with you."

"You're trying to tell me I haven't been opening the doors for you or pulling out your chairs?"

"You know I don't mean that," she said, laughing. "I'm delighted because you don't leave me out of your life and your decisions . . . even the big ones. You treat me as though I have a brain and know how to use it. You let me come along with you on a mission that was very important to you."

"You mean, I almost got you killed," he said gruffly.

"No one almost got killed. And we had no way of knowing Alvarez was carrying a gun." She stared at him stubbornly. "And even if we had known, I would still have gone with you. You handle yourself real well for a Yankee," she added.

"I'm afraid I didn't do a very good job of protecting you tonight," he said dryly. He touched the bruise on her shoulder, then bent down to kiss it.

"You were dynamite," she insisted. "You got the better of Alvarez even after we had walked all that way through the jungle."

"The 'jungle' was only half a mile wide, Duchess," he said. "And I beat Alvarez only because I used strategy."

"What kind of strategy?" she asked curiously.

"Oh, it's a trick I learned years ago," he said casually. "You simply let them beat you senseless to tire them out, then you take them."

She chuckled. "You can stop putting yourself down," she told him. "Besides, your massive forearms aren't your only attraction. You have other redeeming traits." She paused, regarding him solemnly. "Alex, I know that you didn't have to leave me with Alvarez. There were a dozen other things you could have done with him, but you didn't. You let me watch him because you knew it was important to me."