Affair Of Risk Page 14

  man? She shuddered at Donna's teasing words: A gangster's woman.

  No, she told herself wildly, flinging around to pound her pillow. He wasn't! He couldn't be! Or at least he must be reformed by now. After all, he did run a legal business. . . .

  She gritted her teeth and tried not to think about it. Like an ostrich, she wanted to hide from the possibility of what Case might be or what he might once have been.

  It was a long time before she fell asleep.

  She was no nearer a decent rationalization the next morning when she returned to the office. For the sake of her co-workers she forced herself to bury her conflicting moods, which would have wrecked havoc in the small office. It took an amazing amount of will to perform the feat, but she congratulated herself at having been successful as she finished signing the last of the letters she'd dictated to Tina.

  Norris wandered in around four o'clock from an appointment with a client.

  "Think I'll take off early today," he announced. "I'm feeling lousy."

  "Coming down with something?" Kendra asked sympathetically, lifting her gaze from a new stack of resumes that had arrived in the mail.

  "Maybe," he admitted. He did look a little dragged out, she thought. "I'll go home and pop a few aspirin and get some rest. That should knock it out of my system, with any luck. Everything okay here? I think we're on top of most of it, don't you?"

  "Yes," she agreed, glancing at the folders on her desk. "I'll finish going through these and get them ready for Tina to catalog and file. I think the Richardson people will be pleased at the selection we've got for them."

  "Good. I'll see you in the morning. Hopefully!"

  She watched her partner leave, and then turned back to

  the resumes. An hour later Tina stuck her head around the door to say good-bye.

  "I'll get busy doing the workups on those tomorrow morning. Mind if I leave early on Friday?"

  Kendra smiled. "Got plans for the weekend?"

  "Skiing up at Tahoe," Tina told her happily.

  Kendra's smile faded. "That sounds like fun. Sure, you can leave early tomorrow." Was the whole world revolving around Tahoe these days?

  "Great. Thanks, Kendra. See you in the morning."

  Kendra sighed to herself as the office fell silent. It was time she got ready to leave. With her thoughts running back and forth between work and Case Garrett, it was a cinch she wasn't going to accomplish anything particularly useful by staying late.

  She was stacking folders and making some effort to leave a neat work space when the outer door opened.

  "Forget something, Tina?" she called, stepping around her desk to glance out into the main entrance area where Tina's desk was located.

  At the sight of the man in the doorway her breath caught in her throat. No! Not him! It couldn't be!

  "Hello, Kendra," Austin Radburn murmured, taking a step inside and closing the door firmly behind him. "It's been a long time."

  Bracing herself with one hand on the jamb, Kendra fought to get her heartbeat and quickened breath back under control. She stared at him, hatred surging through her. But that was a good thing, she decided coldly. The hatred was driving out the rush of fear that had caused her palms to go moist. She had spent two years training herself just so she wouldn't react with fear. But perhaps the rational part of her mind had never really expected another encounter with Austin Radburn.

  "What do you want, Austin?" she clipped, grateful for the unbelievable steadiness of her voice.

  He smiled slowly, and her fear and anger rose another notch. She remembered that smile only too well. A.ustin's smiles had once been important to her, until she had realized what lay beneath the handsome facade of a face that -made women turn their heads to look as Austin passed.

  Austin Radburn had been blessed with a thriving business empire and the sun-tanned physique of a man who sailed and played tennis at only the most exclusive clubs. His light-brown hair was styled by one of the most expensive salons in Beverly Hills. He knew how to narrow his vivid blue eyes with a sensual expertise that could make a woman's heart turn over in excitement. And he was capable of a ruthlessness that both Kendra and Donna had discovered the hard way.

  Donna had learned that this man was not capable of love; that he could marry a woman for her money, and then nearly drive her to suicide with callousness and unending small cruelties.

  But Kendra had learned that Austin Radburn was capable of outright violence.

  "What do I want?" he mused, walking toward her with a thin, vicious smile. "Take a guess."

  "Donna's not here. You know that by now. She's safe in Lake Tahoe." Kendra's head lifted automatically in silent defiance. She was scared, but she wasn't going to panic.

  "Thanks to you, I think," he pointed out, coming to a halt between her and the door. "My sources tell me you were in Lake Tahoe not so long ago yourself. Shortly afterward my dear wife phoned me from there. Quite a coincidence, isn't it?"

  Kendra shrugged with exaggerated unconcern. "Think what you like, Austin. She's beyond your reach. And I think you know it or you wouldn't be here, would you?" she added perceptively.

  "I could have gotten her and that brat back if it hadn't been for you, my sweet little Kendra," he drawled. "Given a little time I could have made her see sense—"

  "Terrorized her into returning, you mean!"

  "She always was a weak, helpless little thing. I could make her do anything I wanted—"

  "Until you pushed her too far, and she realized just what you were doing to her!" Kendra snapped. She had to get out of there. The neighboring offices were deserted by then, and there would be no time to use the phone. Austin Radburn was in a fury. The way he had been that night he'd come to her apartment two years ago.

  "She never would have had the courage to run if you hadn't helped her. I finally realized that when it became clear her mother was on my side. I got to thinking about where she could go, who she would get to help her. And then I remembered her charming cousin."

  "So you sent Gilbert Phelps to follow me."

  "He found you just as you were getting on the plane to Tahoe. He followed you to a casino there and phoned in a report while you were inside. After that I never heard from him again. Strange, isn't it, Kendra? A man dropping out of sight just like that?"

  "A pity it hasn't happened to you!" she shot back, forgetting her earlier thoughts about overkill solutions. Donna had been right. It would be pleasant in many respects if Austin Radburn simply faded from the scene.

  His eyes narrowed, not with the sensual look he could turn on at will but with a fury she hadn't seen in two years.

  "It would seem," he said coldly, "that Donna has effectively removed herself for a while. Sooner or later, though, she'll have to leave her paid protection behind—"

  """ " Paid!" Kendra's astonishment was plain.

  "Oh, I understand what she's done," he nodded. "She's bought a bodyguard for herself. I heard all about him in

  glowing terms. She even told me his name. Wolf. Very impressive, don't you think?"

  Donna had claimed Wolf Higgins as her protector? Well, he would make a good one, Kendra felt certain. But she wondered why her cousin hadn't named Case.

  "So it would seem I'm going to be out some badly needed money," Austin murmured sadly, gliding forward another step. "But it seems to me I ought to get something out of the deal. You and I have some unfinished business, Kendra. Or have you forgotten?"

  Kendra froze, her nails digging into the woodwork of the doorjamb.

  "Get out of here, Austin. I have nothing to say to you."

  "Good. Because I'm really not interested in a long conversation. I had enough words from you last time, as I recall!"

  She read his intentions in his eyes. Austin Radburn had worked himself into a state of violence, and she was once again the intended victim.

  But not this time! her mind screamed in cold rage, not this time! She was frightened, but she was in control. She would not surrend
er to the incipient panic. She had two years of training behind her, and even if that somehow failed, she could fall back on the brutal, deadly little trick Case had shown her.

  "Don't touch me, Austin, I'm warning you!"

  "Warning me?" he mocked cruelly. "I think you said something like that last time, didn't you? Didn't do you much good, did it? You would be smarter, much smarter, to try being nice to me this time. I was thinking we might go back to your place and get comfortable—"

  "You bastard," she hissed. "Do you really think I'm going to let you terrify me into making it convenient for you?"

  The mockery left his face as he started toward her, his anger in full control of him. "It's all your fault!" he nearly

  shouted. "All your fault! I needed that money, and you made sure I didn't get it! Well, you're going to pay for helping Donna. And you're going to pay for being too proud to be my mistress two years ago! Just like I made you pay once before! Starting here, tonight! I'm going to watch you plead with me, and when I've listened to all I want to hear, I'm going to take you again and again until you'll do anything I say! Anything! I'm going to break you, Kendra Loring, if it's the last thing I do!"

  Kendra didn't waste any more breath in arguing. He was becoming totally irrational, and she had to be prepared for the attack.

  It came in the next instant. He swung at her, a huge, backhand swing meant to send her crashing to the carpet with a bleeding mouth.

  "You bitch!" he shouted.

  CHAPTER TEN

  In the end it was almost astonishingly easy. The fear was present, but it didn't hamper her reflexive reaction to the blow. Without even thinking about it Kendra moved, using all the momentum behind Radburn's attack against him.

  Her foot slid along the floor as she grasped his sleeve and pulled him even farther into his own swing. She saw the startled look in his furious eyes as she pivoted in a steady, continuous motion that brought her thigh briefly against his. Her left knee slightly bent, she pulled him easily off-balance and against her. Her sweeping right leg caught him with an outward and upward motion just as she released him with her right hand.

  Austin Radburn fell heavily to the floor of the office, his breath escaping in a whooshing sound.

  Kendra didn't hesitate. Even as Radburn groaned heavily and began a violent string of oaths, she was running for the door. She glanced briefly back over her shoulder as she opened it and saw that her assailant was only then trying to get himself off the floor.

  She would call the police, she thought wildly. This time there was nothing to stop her. . . .

  Her head still half turned to keep an eye on her victim, Kendra didn't see the dark figure in the hall until she collided with him. But she knew who it was even as his arms came out to steady her.

  "Case! Oh, Case!" she gasped, lifting her face from his dark jacket to meet his coldly flaring gaze. "It's Radburn! He came to—to—"

  She stopped, not because she couldn't say the words, but because the expression on his face told her she didn't need to explain.

  "It was him two years ago, wasn't it?" he growled in a soft, deadly voice that sent a chill down her spine. He was holding her tightly, his face drawn and tense, expressing a very dangerous emotion.

  "Yes," she whispered, unable to say anything else.

  "I finally figured it out on the way down from Tahoe this afternoon." He raised his head to stare at the man behind her, who was scrambling to his feet.

  "Get a cab and go home, Kendra," Case continued far too quietly. "I'll take care of everything here—"

  "I don't know who the hell you are," Austin bit out behind them, "but this is between me and that bitch. Get out and leave us alone!"

  Kendra ignored him, her anxious eyes still on Case's cold, hard face as he stared at Austin Radburn.

  "Case, I don't—"

  "Go home, Kendra."

  He released her, stepping around her and through the doorway, heading toward Austin, who was now on his feet. Kendra whirled and saw the rapid succession of expressions on Austin's features. Something about the deadly purposefulness in Case seemed to be getting through to him.

  "Now, see here. This doesn't concern you—" "No more than disposing of garbage normally concerns me," Case agreed softly. "Still, it's a necessary chore. . . ."

  "Who are you?" Austin breathed, and Kendra felt a fierce gladness at the dawning fear in his words. It was

  time Austin Radburn learned about fear, and she couldn't think of a better instructor for him than Case Garrett.

  "I told you," Case murmured. "Just the man who takes out the garbage. Kendra and I have an arrangement. She flattens it, and I get rid of it."

  "Are you threatening me?" Austin blustered, backing away from the slowly advancing Case.

  "No."

  The simplicity of the reply, leaving everything to Austin's imagination, was far more menacing than anything Case could have said. Radburn whitened, and then he turned to glare at Kendra, standing in the doorway.

  "Tell him to leave me alone, Kendra. If you let him lay a hand on me, I'll see he goes to jail!"

  Kendra looked from his half threatening, half appealing face to Case.

  "Case, please don't..." she began, her voice still a little shaky from the ordeal.

  "Please don't what, Kendra?" Case prompted grimly, not looking at her.

  She saw the flicker of relief in Austin's eyes as he decided she was going to call off the dangerous stranger, and she remembered what she had gone through two years ago. And then she thought of what Donna had been through since.

  "Please don't leave any evidence, Case," she concluded with chilling satisfaction. Radburn looked stricken.

  "Don't worry, honey," Case drawled, still watching Radburn as if the other man were a snake he intended to destroy. "You know me. I'm a professional. No fuss, no mess. I'll see you back at the flat."

  "Yes."

  Kendra swung around, grabbed her purse out of the closet near the door, and walked out.

  She fled into the street, her mind frozen somewhere between the pleasure of revenge and the fear of having

  tacitly sentenced a man to a horrible fate. She didn't particularly care what happened to Austin Radburn, she realized as she hailed a taxi. But she was terrified that Case might somehow get into trouble.

  They had no right to take the law into their own hands, her conscience went on furiously as she sat silently in the back of the taxi. What if the police found out? What if Case were to be arrested for whatever he did to Radburn?

  What would he do to Radburn? Her mind suddenly shied away from the possibilities as she began to come back to reality. In the heat of the moment back there at the office, she literally hadn't cared if Austin Radburn somehow ceased to exist! God help her!

  She should have made Case promise not to do anything ... anything permanent, she was telling herself by the time the taxi drew up in front of her apartment. She fumbled for cash, chewing on her lower lip in growing agitation. Surely he wouldn't—

  So many people knew about Radburn's marriage to Donna. If he was to end up missing, it wouldn't take long before the authorities started asking questions. And the questions would lead them straight to Case, regardless of who he knew or who he could buy. And if he wound up in prison, it would be all her fault!

  By the time she inserted the key in her door, she was shaking with an altogether different fear than the one she had known with Austin Radburn. She slammed down her purse and began pacing the Oriental carpet, her mind seething as her imagination supplied endless scenarios that always culminated in Case's arrest. The Radburn family could buy people, too!

  She stopped the pacing long enough to brew a cup of tea. Sitting in front of the bay window in the dining room, she tried to think. Case was no fool, he would protect himself. As he'd said, he was a professional. Whatever the hell that meant.

  But even professionals made mistakes in the heat of strong emotions, and there was no doubt that where she was concerned he was very em
otionally involved. He wanted her. He wanted to take her away with him. What would a man like that do to another man who tried to rape her?

  Then she remembered something else. Something Case had said about knowing it was Austin who had attacked her two years ago. Oh, God! If he knew about that . . . !

  They had to get out of town. She came to the decision with a thudding realization. Perhaps out of the country. Case was even now doing something she didn't even want to think about. He would cover his tracks well, but in the end the law would figure out what had happened to Austin Radburn.

  Kendra made her decision and downed the cup with a clatter. She headed for the bedroom and pulled her suitcase out of the closet.

  She was piling expensive French underwear into the bag with reckless disregard for the satin and lace when the security buzzer sounded from the outer door. That would be Case.

  She raced to the lock-release button and held it down until she heard the hall door open and close. And then she flung open her door and watched, wide-eyed, as he climbed the stairs toward her.

  He looked calm, confident, a little grim, but not the least agitated.

  "Are you all right?" she breathed.

  He raised one brow sardonically as he came to the top of the stairs and stood looking down at her.

  "I'm fine. You're the one who should be asked that question." He reached out and pulled her into his arms with a sudden rough gentleness.

  Kendra went into his grasp with a shuddering sigh, and

  for a long moment they simply clung together on the landing, neither saying a word. Eventually Case found his voice again. It sounded strangely gritty to Kendra's ears.

  "God, Kendra! Why didn't you tell me?" he muttered, his lips in her hair as he held her close. "Why didn't you tell me it was Radburn two years ago?"

  "I've never told anyone. In fact, you're the only one who even knows I was raped, let alone that it was Austin Radburn," she confided in a small voice. "How did you figure it out?"

  "I finally put two and two together this afternoon," he told her, guiding her into the living room and pulling her down on the white banquette beside him. He cradled her in his arms. "I was talking to Donna about you this morning. Or rather she was talking to me about you," he amended wryly. "She said something about how pleased she was about you and me. She said you hadn't been interested in any man at all for two years. Not since Radburn had abandoned you for her."