The Heart Heist (29 page)

"Of course not." Matt scoffed. "One can't start with a pre-conceived notion. One has to keep an open mind. See what emerges."

Her lips twitched. "I see."

He touched the tips of his fingers to his forehead. "I'm letting it seep in."

Her normally sober expression came dangerously close to a smile. She quickly turned her attention back to the notes on the floor. 'Projects that are politically controversial,' 'photographs,' 'southward.' Matt had certainly collected a truckload of details. But she sincerely doubted it would simply 'seep in' to a pattern.

"What?" Matt asked.

She tried to look innocent. "Pardon?"

"You don't think it's going to work," he accused.

Still on her haunches, she studied him. Usually she avoided an argument, but he was just crying out for one. "That depends on what it is you want to accomplish: messing up your room, or finding out who the guy is."

He gave her a sharp look and then shrugged. "No way I'm going to catch the guy -- not if the FBI crime labs can't. This is...just a hobby."

Right, and her name was Queen Elizabeth.

He sniffed. "But all right, big shot. How would you go about it, then?" His hobby was serious but not the annoyance he was pretending. Elaine began to feel more confident, perhaps recklessly so.

"First off, I'd pick all of these little notes off the floor." Demonstrating, she began to pluck up the scraps of paper. "Then I'd put them down again -- in some kind of order."

"Order," Matt repeated, as though it were a dirty word.

"Right. Like all the notes relating to Mr. Holiday's personal characteristics would go in one column. Notes on the kind of bombs he uses would go in another. You get the picture." While talking, Elaine continued to gather up papers.

"Hey!" Matt protested. "You're interfering with the pattern."

She looked at him from under an arm. "What pattern?"

"You're messing everything up," Matt persisted, even though she'd actually cleared a small section of the floor.

Amusement tugged at her lips. If she didn't watch out she was going to start grinning.

"This is no good," he growled, and lunged across the floor at her.

"Matt!" A grin broke out on her face after all.

What little order there had been to the papers was ruined as his body scattered them. "Gimme those," he demanded, closing his hands over hers.

She tightened her fists, biting back a laugh and feeling a novel impulse to fight back. "Matt Horton, you are making a complete mess here. And what's more -- "

She never got the chance to finish her sentence. Tugging at her closed fists, Matt pulled her, too, onto the floor. More papers scattered.

"Matt!"

"Hey, this is great, Elaine. I think you've hit on just the way to figure it out. Complete chance." His fingers worked on her fists.

"You mean magic." She struggled to get up, while at the same time keep Matt from opening her fists. It was useless. He was so much stronger, and she was laughing too hard. He easily managed to roll her onto her back, pinning her down with his chest. His hands trapped her wrists against the rug above her head. By that time neither one of them could speak through their laughter. Matt slowly pried her fingers loose.

"No fair," Elaine complained. It was strange how good this felt. She knew he wasn't going to hurt her. No, like a good cat kept its claws sheathed when it played, he kept control of his strength.

"On the contrary," Matt disagreed, "for the first time I know of we have an even playing field."

"You mean, you have a chance to display your superior male muscle." Her breath caught as she said that, clarifying the difference in their genders.

But Matt only smiled. "Yeah, I guess that's what I mean." He scooped the papers from Elaine's fist and, with a brilliant, mischievous grin, threw them in the air.

With Matt's eyes sparkling, his body warm and strong, and the little paper notes fluttering down like slow-moving snow, Elaine thought she'd never been so happy in her whole life. Never.

Matt rose up on his forearms. "Now, that's more like it." With one hand, he brushed a fallen scrap of paper from her forehead.

The gesture was so tender, so unlike anything Elaine could remember feeling, that her smile abruptly faded.

"Uh oh. What did I do wrong?"

"Nothing." She struggled for something to say, anything that would disguise the truth. "You ought to let me up now."

She saw his hesitation, but then he lifted himself off her. "Sorry," he mumbled. With a pained grunt, he managed to get himself into a sitting position, leaning back on his hands.

"Did I hurt you?" Elaine paused, balanced on her heels.

"Just my pride, and that's nothing new. Are you mad at me?"

Elaine looked at him. That was nothing new? Something told her Matt had just let her into a place of far more privacy than his bedroom. Slowly, she shook her head.

"I'm glad I could make you laugh." Matt sounded relieved. "You don't do that very often. And you work so damn hard."

There was true concern in his face. Elaine found that baffling.
He'd wanted to make her laugh
? "I work hard because I'm saving money," she heard herself say. "I want to move out of the trailer -- and take the kids with me."

A moment of silence followed this statement, and Elaine wondered what had got into her, confiding her deepest, most cherished dream.

Matt's brows lifted slowly. "That'll take some doing, financially, won't it?"

"I've figured it out." To her amazement, Matt sounded genuinely interested. "I'll be able to handle it. Just."

Matt's voice dipped lower. "Are you going to move far?"

Elaine shook her head. She'd planned it all out. "No, the rents are low here. By November I'll be able to take over the Wilson house, when Gary's lease is up."

Matt went perfectly still then. "When Gary's lease is up," he repeated.

"He says I should move in in the middle of October, because he'll be gone by then," Elaine hastily explained. No, everything was not all right, after all. Her finely trained instinct detected a busload of anger suddenly emanating from Matt's direction. "But I don't think I'll have enough of a base until November. Matt?"

His faraway gaze zoomed back in on her. "What?"

"Did I say something wrong?" She was horrified she'd somehow ruined their brief intimacy.

His expression abruptly altered. "Oh no, Elaine, sweet -- No,
you
haven't done a thing wrong." He reached way over to squeeze her hand. She relaxed under his strong, reassuring grip. "It's just..." His gaze wandered off, travelling up to the giant poster of Shaquille O'Neal. "Gary didn't tell me he was leaving."

"Oh." Elaine paused thoughtfully. "Do you think Kerrin knows?"

Matt's jaw tightened. His sister had practically moved in with the man. "She'd better know," he pronounced ominously, "or I'll kill him."

~~~

The sun was shining brightly, but the interlocking branches of the Douglas fir trees overhead cast a pleasant shade over the trail. It was perfect weather for hiking and since it was a weekday they had the place to themselves. Nevertheless Gary, in a position behind Kerrin, was grumbling.

Kerrin smiled to herself as she led the way up the hill.

"I give her one afternoon," Gary muttered under his breath, but loud enough for his companion to hear. "And how does she want to spend it? In bed, like two civilized people? But no." He growled something further, this time too low for her to make out.

It was all Kerrin could do not to burst into laughter. The truth was that she and Gary already spent a great deal of time in bed -- and out of it, too, come to think of it. Gary was remarkably inventive when it came to sex. He excused himself by saying it had been awhile, then pointed out with peculiar pride that Kerrin was getting rather inventive herself. It was true.

"Oh, be quiet," Kerrin shushed him. "This is going to be worth it. You'll see."

"Lutheran Falls?" Gary queried. "You've got to admit, that doesn't sound too promising."

"You're supposed to enjoy the journey." Kerrin didn't correct his image of the falls.

"Hmm." She heard him come to a halt. "In that case I'm going to have some of that fancy water you made me tote along."

Kerrin turned to see Gary unscrew the Crystal Geyser cap and tip the bottle to his lips. A sheen of moisture shone on the portion of chest exposed above his open-necked khaki shirt. His throat moved as he swallowed and she watched the essentially masculine sight.

"Want some?" Leaning forward with a hand on his thigh, Gary extended the bottle, a gleam that was way too predatory in his eyes.

Kerrin had a feeling they wouldn't make it to the falls if she got any closer to him. "Not yet. Thanks."

"Afraid of me, Kerrie?" Gary's grin was pure male ego. "Or maybe you're afraid of yourself?"

Kerrin had made no secret of the pleasure Gary was able to give her in bed. Perhaps if she'd been more experienced she would have known that to supply a man with quite so much unadulterated praise was a dangerous thing. On the other hand, Gary was both frank and explicit about how much he enjoyed making love to her. In fact he was an almost embarrassingly voluble lover, shooting a stream of encouragement, orders and incredulous gratitude. Then there were the other times when he never said a word, letting his body do all the talking for him. That was when he was at his most eloquent.

"Put the water away, Gary. We're making it to those falls. I'll tell you what, though."

"Yeah?" He looked so endearingly hopeful she almost gave in to him. Almost.

"Once we get there," Kerrin promised, "we'll do whatever you want."

"Now that," Gary pronounced with satisfaction, "sounds like a plan."

The falls' voice arrived first. A steady rushing roar filtered through the thick stands of trees and every once in a while the trail would afford a tantalizing glimpse of white running water beneath a fairy mist.

"How much further?" Gary's gaze lingered on one of these views.

"About five minutes." Kerrin was gratified to see he was starting to show some interest. Still, she wasn't prepared for his reaction once they'd rounded the last bend in the trail and came out on the bank of the stream below the falls.

The falls started about twenty yards away from them, tumbling over the open mouth of a cave and splashing from there over a series of stepped boulders. The water streamed and rushed in a choreographed dance of symmetry and power, replete with the beauty only found in pure nature.

Gary stood with his feet planted slightly apart, one hand on the strap of his backpack and his expression utterly dazed.

After a long, silent moment, Kerrin couldn't resist asking. "So, was it worth it?"

"I've never seen anything like it." Stripping off the pack, Gary dropped it to the ground. He stepped along the river bank toward the falls. Spray misted onto Kerrin's face as she followed.

"That's gorgeous." Coming to a halt, Gary eyed the climbing trail that led to the mouth of the cave behind the longer drop of water. A look of almost religious wonder was in his eyes. "I'd love to get under all that water."

"It's pretty cold," Kerrin admitted. "But people do it."

"Naked," Gary added, without losing a scrap of his religious awe. Then he slanted her a devilish glance. "With you."

"Oh, no." Kerrin took a step back.

Gary was grinning. "You said we could do whatever I wanted once we got here."

So she had. And of course, so they did. Kerrin wouldn't have dreamed it possible, but somehow Gary managed to make love to her, right there under the falls with the pure mountain water splashing over them. The world turned into a universe of brightly flashing diamonds and falling stars, the way it always did when she was in his arms.

~~~

A half hour later, lying on the sandy bank, dried and fully clothed after that madness, Gary folded his hands behind his head and gazed up into the dancing leaves of the trees above them. In her slim leg capris and sleeveless shirt, Kerrin lay like a doe beside him, her eyes closed and her breathing suspiciously slow and regular.

He'd been surprised she'd agreed to make love to him like that, out in the open and under a freezing cold fall of water -- but not by much. The lady had been surprising him so often now that he was almost starting to expect it. As far as sex was concerned, she was like a trapped soul that he'd set free. That pleased him. It more than pleased him.

Gary had liked a lot of the women he'd slept with over the years. Most of them had been pretty good in bed, better than Kerrin, technically speaking -- although she was getting up there. But none of them had roused in him the kind of emotions that swirled around him now. There was a lot of tenderness in there, but most prominent of all was the way he was starting to depend on her. That scared the hell out of him.

He felt fingers walking up the center of his torso. A peculiar warmth spread through him from the palm that then pressed down in the middle of his chest.

"Gary?"

"Hmm."

"Would it make any sense to you if I said that I love you? Would you understand what that means?"

All of those mysterious emotions inside him suddenly rose up, like a flock of white doves flapping into the air. Excited, chaotic. He knew she was watching him, with her eyes shining. He had to come up with some form of response.

"I don't know." With the birds still flapping, this was as close as he dared get to the truth. He'd been fond of a few people, Willie Deere for one. And some, like Willie, or even Marty Simmons, his parole officer, had cared for him on one level or another. But none of them, he had to admit, had ever looked at him the way Kerrin did, as though he were somebody essential.

He turned his head to look at her. Her uniqueness didn't matter. This had to be stopped. Neither one of them was going to survive otherwise. "You may want me to learn, but we don't have time for you to teach me." Gary made his tone definite.

Kerrin's intent expression didn't change. "I've been thinking." Her eyes moved past him, into the forest. "I've been thinking some kind of miracle is going to happen. That somehow, some way, you and I are going to be able to stay together."