Return of the Warrior, page 11
LUKE TYPED IN THE QUESTION Sidney had asked, and the answer came back almost at once.
He turned to her and said, “The items were smuggled into the country in a shipment of stolen antiques.”
Sidney sucked in a sharp breath. “I was afraid of something like that.”
“Those men stole the box?”
“No. They have been tracking it down. They almost found it in France. Then it shipped out with the Peterbalm consignment. Apparently everything in the cargo boxes was hot.”
“Oh great.”
Another message came through. “The Grand Master wants us to bring the box to them.”
“When?”
“He’ll give us instructions.”
“Okay.”
Luke leaned back in the chair, looking worn-out. He’d been transacting the warrior’s business for hours.
“Now what?” Sidney asked.
“We have to wait until they give us the location of the temple.”
“Why?”
“Because…” He stopped and thought. “Because it is not always in the same place.”
“How could that be?”
He shrugged. “They hide the temple.”
“How can it move around?”
“By utilizing an alternate space-time continuum.”
“Glad I asked.”
“Few people would understand it.”
“Do you?”
He huffed out a breath. “No.” After a few seconds, he turned and looked at Sidney. “I’m sorry you got caught in all of this.”
“It wasn’t your fault. Carl Peterbalm should have been more careful.”
“Probably he thought it was a fantastic deal.”
“If the deal was that good, he should have been suspicious.” She sighed. “He’s a jerk.”
When they exhausted the subject of Carl Peterbalm, Luke shifted in his seat, looking like he was feeling awkward.
So was Sidney. They’d known each other for six months and hadn’t managed to get close, although she knew they’d been attracted to each other. But a couple of hours ago, they’d made wild, frantic love. She longed to ask if he was having second thoughts about that, but she couldn’t get the words out.
She turned and looked out the window into the night. She wanted to tell Luke that the password had been a sign that they should contact the Light Street Detective Agency, but she suspected he’d just veto the plan again.
When she said, “Let’s try to relax while we’re waiting,” she could see some of the tension melt out of Luke’s shoulders. “I think I saw some hot chocolate down in the pantry. How does that sound?”
“Good. But I need to stay at the computer, in case I get e-mail.”
“I’ll go fix the chocolate.”
He gave her a long look, all business again. “Are you going to make any phone calls?”
“No.”
“Or leave?
She shook her head.
“How do I know?”
“Because I want you to trust me,” she whispered.
He answered with a tight nod.
She hurried down the stairs to the kitchen. She could have been lying to him, of course. But she wasn’t. She wanted to call Sabrina, but she wasn’t going to do it unless she could persuade Luke it was the right thing to do.
Instead, she made the hot chocolate, and was back in the office in less than four minutes.
“Nothing yet?” she asked.
He shook his head.
She handed him the mug, and he smelled the aroma. When he took a cautious sip, his face registered surprise. She knew the reaction came from Zabastian, not Luke.
“You have wonderful foods here,” he said.
“How is it that you keep acting surprised at stuff like that? I mean, about things that Luke knows perfectly well.”
“It is ordinary to Luke. But not to Zabastian.”
She held up the cup. “This kind is made from a mix. Maybe I’ll get a chance to fix you the real thing.”
Luke grinned at her. “It’s not just Zabastian. Actually, I’ve never had the real thing either.”
“My mom used to make it for a treat. Dad would build a fire in the fireplace, and we’d sit around watching the flames and drinking the chocolate.”
“That makes a nice picture,” he said wistfully.
“My apartment doesn’t have a fireplace. But I have cocoa powder. Next time, I’ll make that for you.” She stopped short, wondering if there was going to be a next time.
Luke’s expression told her he was thinking the same thing.
Clearing her throat, she said, “I’d like to talk to Luke for a while.”
The man across from her nodded. Then his face took on a subtle change that she’d grown to recognize, and she knew that Zabastian was sinking into the background, giving her and Luke space, if not exactly privacy.
She rotated her cup, watching the marshmallow spin around and feeling awkward. If anyone had told her she’d be in this situation, she wouldn’t have believed them.
“What’s swirling around in your head?” Luke asked.
“I’m that obvious?”
“Yes.”
“A lot of things.” Before she could stop herself, she said, “Like for example, I’m hoping you don’t assume I’m the kind of woman who has one-night stands.”
“That’s not what it was!”
“Care to elaborate?”
He ran his hand over his face. “Maybe that’s all you want out of it.”
“Are you trying to push me away?” she challenged.
“Are you trying to back away?” he countered.
She made a frustrated sound. “No. But we got into this relationship backward. I’ve never slept with somebody first, then tried to get to know him better.” She stopped abruptly, wondering how that sounded to him. “I’m sorry. I’m embarrassed, so that might have come out wrong.”
“You have nothing to be embarrassed about,” he said quickly.
“I could have been so embarrassed that I walked away from you.”
“Don’t!”
The way he said it gave her confidence that perhaps they could get through the awkward part and work their way into something meaningful. “So, maybe we can get to know each other better. I mean me and Luke,” she qualified. “I’d like to know more about you.”
“Like what?”
“You’re from Baltimore, right?”
“I’m from the wrong side of the tracks. My grandmother raised me after my parents split up,” he said immediately. “She was a secretary at a marine shipping company.”
She heard herself laugh. “That’s a real icebreaker. Is that how you start conversations in bars?”
“I’m not much for picking up women in bars.”
“Good. That’s not where I want to meet men.”
He shifted in his seat. “I just didn’t want to give you any false impressions about me or my background.”
CARL PETERBALM TURNED ON the car light and consulted the list that he’d taken from McMillan’s office. He’d already tried two customers who might have taken in Sidney and the computer guy. Now he was going to try the third most likely. The house had risen to the top of the list, because the last people had told him the Hanovers were out of town.
As far as Carl was concerned, that made their house a grade-A hiding place.
He set out for the house feeling a lot more optimistic about getting his property back. If he could clear this whole thing up in the next couple of days, his dad wouldn’t have to know a thing about how he’d messed up.
“OKAY. I’LL BE HONEST, TOO.” Sidney gave Luke a challenging look. “A little while ago, I was thinking that distancing myself from you would solve my problem. Now I’m thinking that would be the coward’s way out. How do you feel about us?”
“That’s certainly a direct question.”
“Do you want to put distance between us?” she persisted.
He shifted in his seat. “No.”
She’d been holding her breath. Now she let the air trickle out of her lungs. “Good.”
He took a sip of chocolate, then looked at her. “I liked you the first time I met you. I wanted to get to know you better. But I thought you wouldn’t be interested in me.”
“Why not?”
“You’re still being pretty direct.”
“I figure we’ve been in a pressure cooker and living through the equivalent of six months together in the past few hours. That gives us the ability to cut through a lot of ordinary stuff.”
“Yeah.”
“But we still don’t understand each other. I’m guessing you don’t know how much I admired you.”
His features registered shock. “You admired me?”
“I asked around about you. I knew you came from a…disadvantaged background.”
“And I didn’t go to college,” he added, putting that piece of information squarely between them.
“Right. And I did. And to give you the short version of my life, I had loving parents who made a good home for me in Catonsville. Dad was a pharmacist for a drugstore chain. And Mom was a teacher’s aide in an elementary school. I got a partial scholarship to the University of Maryland—Baltimore County. I majored in fine arts, and I had big dreams of what I was going to do with my life. I wanted to start my own business, but my dad died while I was in college.”
“I’m sorry.”
“Mom is living on the widow’s portion of his pension, which is just enough for her to get by.” She heaved in a breath and let it out. “I had to go to work for a jerk like Carl Peterbalm because I had debts to pay. So here I am—two years out of college, and I haven’t done any of the things I want to. But you have. You worked for a computer repair company and learned the ropes before you started on your own. You started building computers for people—selling prompt and efficient service along with the machines. That’s how you compete against the big office supply stores that offer mass-produced machines at discounts.”
His expression turned bemused. “You sure know a hell of a lot about me!”
“Because I was interested. Betty Custer and I got to talking about you.”
“Betty went to school with me.”
“I know. And she said you were kind of wild.” She laughed. “She thinks it was because you had low self-esteem.”
The color in his cheeks had heightened. “Nice of her.”
“It was true, wasn’t it? That’s why you went out of your way to be a tough guy in school and why you wouldn’t have asked me out.”
His face contorted. “Okay, yeah.”
“So you didn’t know I envied you.”
“For what?”
“Doing what I couldn’t do. Working for yourself instead of a guy you hate.”
“I work for Peterbalm.”
“You know what I mean. You don’t work for him all the time. You accepted him as a client. That was your choice. Probably you don’t like him, but you see him as a stepping-stone.”
He nodded.
“I’ll bet your grandmother is really proud of you.”
“She was. She smoked all her life, and she died of lung cancer last year.”
“I’m sorry.”
“She had a hard life. I tried to make things better for her. She wanted to die in her own home, and I was able to get a hospital bed for her and arrange nursing care.”
“That must have been expensive.”
He shrugged. “I wanted her to know how much I loved and respected her.”
“I’m sure she did.”
“I gave her a hard time when I was a teenager,” he said quickly. “Some other tough guys in the neighborhood and I used to boost cars and go joyriding.”
“I got in trouble, too.”
“Oh yeah?”
“Hooking class with my girlfriends.”
“Why did you do it?”
“It was cool. And so was smoking. I’m lucky I hated those little pieces of nicotine in my nose.”
“Yeah. Very lucky.”
He tipped his head to the side, studying her, and she struggled to hold her gaze steady.
“I don’t see you as being a conformist.”
“I’m smarter now.”
He nodded, then finished the last of the chocolate in the cup. “I should practice some of my exercises,” he said.
“Exercises?”
“Zabastian says my body isn’t as limber as it should be. He says I’m not prepared for trouble.”
“Are we expecting trouble?” she asked, hearing her voice go a little high.
“I hope not. But I should be ready.”
“You want me to go somewhere else?”
“You can stay.”
She pushed the desk chair into a corner and sat down, watching as Luke slipped off his shoes and socks before dimming the light in the room. Only the desk lamp provided a small amount of illumination as he stood in the center of the rug with his arms hanging at his sides.
His lips moved and he spoke words she couldn’t hear as he raised his hands above his head before folding in the middle, then dropping to his hands and feet in a posture that she recognized as a yoga pose. Downward facing dog.
He went through more yoga moves like the salutation to the sun. She’d taken some classes and seen it done before but never as fast as Luke was doing it.
She watched as he slipped easily into a zone where he was far away from her and from the world.
Then he went into some of what she knew were the warrior poses.
He seemed to be operating on another plane of existence—until the doorbell rang. As the sound reverberated through the house, he snapped instantly back into the real world.
She and Luke stared at each other.
“Are we expecting company?” she whispered.
“I don’t know.”
He moved to the window and looked down toward the front door, but the view was obscured by the porch roof.
Luke pushed down the arm of the desk lamp so that the light in the room was barely visible.
“I’ll keep watch on the street. You slip downstairs and into the dining room. Look out the window and see if you can tell who’s on the porch.”
The doorbell rang again.
Sidney hurried downstairs and into the darkened dining room. When she looked out the window, she saw a bulky man standing on the porch. Because the light was off, it took her several seconds to recognize him. It was Carl Peterbalm.
He was holding something in his hand, and she saw it was a flashlight. She jumped back, but maybe he had seen the movement in the darkness.
The beam zeroed in on the window. She saw Peterbalm’s face register shock, then triumph.
“Sidney!” he shouted. “I see you in there. Let me in.”
Chapter Ten
Sidney heard Luke pound down the steps. He grabbed her arm and was pulling her away from the door when three other men ran up the walk.
She gasped when she saw who they were—the men who had tried to kill them earlier.
They’d found her and Luke again. Or rather, Carl Peterbalm had found them, and the men had followed him.
As she watched, one of the men grabbed the importer and spun him around. Carl gasped as the man threw him to the ground.
One ran around to the back of the house, and the third one smashed the butt of his gun against the window glass. Luckily it was an old-fashioned storm window, so the gun butt only went through the outside pane. The man reached through the jagged glass and cried out as he sliced his arm.
It all happened with lightning speed. Luke was almost as fast. He grabbed Sidney’s hand and hustled her back up the stairs.
As she ran, she managed to ask, “Why didn’t they shoot?”
“Maybe they don’t want to risk it in a residential neighborhood.”
“People will hear the glass breaking.”
“Not necessarily. These lots are big. That gives the Poisoned Ones privacy. I guess they think they’ve got us trapped and they can grab the box and get out of here before the cops come.”
She was breathing hard as Luke dragged her down the hall to the computer room.
“We have to get the box to safety,” he told her as they ran.
“But how? Where?”
When they reached the upstairs office, Luke hit a key that deleted the Web site where he’d been communicating with the Moon Cult. Then, without going through the shutdown procedure, he pressed the power button and the screen went blank. From downstairs, Sidney could hear sounds of breaking and entering. She looked wildly around. “What are we going to do? There’s no way out of here. Are you thinking we can climb into the attic?”
“No. They are trained to think of every hiding place inside the house. We have to disappear.”
He turned her toward him, then he set the box on the floor right beside them.
“We can hide. In the cave where I made love to you.”
She stared up at him, trying to take that in. “But…”
The protest was cut off when his mouth came down on hers, swallowing whatever she had been going to say.
He spoke against her lips, his voice low and urgent. “Focus on me, Sidney. It won’t work unless you and I are on the same wavelength.”
Oh sure. He wanted to make her hot—when murderers were closing in on them?
Still, she tried to do as he asked because she knew it was their best chance. But she didn’t have the same level of concentration as Luke when glass was breaking and doors were slamming.
“Stay with me, Sidney. Only me.”
Luke gathered her to him, his lips moving over hers, and as he did, she felt some kind of bubble form around them. Her eyes were open, and she could still see the room, but now she was looking at it through a gauze-covered lens.
As her vision changed, the sounds from the rest of the house receded into the background.
“Focus on me, Sidney. Remember how good we are together.”
Who had spoken to her—Luke or Zabastian?
She knew it was both of them. The man she had known for months and the warrior who had come roaring into her life.
As she gave him her total concentration, the room where they stood faded away. She could see the cave now—glimmering in the darkness, not quite solid but more real than the office where they had been standing.
