Affair Of Risk Page 15

  "She always felt guilty about that." Kendra shivered.

  "When she pointed out that her marriage to Radburn had begun about two years ago and that you'd never seriously dated a man since, I got a terrible premonition. I remembered how certain you had sounded the other night when I asked if you still loved him. I could tell by your voice that you hadn't simply fallen out of love. You hated him. But I figured that was probably because of what he'd later done to Donna."

  "He'd been married to Donna a month when he showed up at my apartment one evening." Kendra's voice was low and steady as she told the tale she'd never told anyone. "He'd had a few drinks. He stood in the doorway and started saying terrible things about Donna and how he'd only married her for the money. He wanted me for his mistress and didn't see why we couldn't be lovers."

  Case held her more tightly as she trembled at the memo-

  ries, but he said nothing, letting her tell the story in her own way.

  "I told him to go to hell. Suddenly he just—he just erupted through the door. I didn't have time to realize what was happening. He hit me, knocked me to the floor, and then he was overpowering me. Nothing I did seemed to slow him down. He seemed not to feel any of the small pain I managed to inflict with my nails and my teeth."

  Kendra broke off, struggling for the words. "The more I struggled, the angrier he got. Eventually he broke a crystal vase, which fell off a nearby table during the fight. He held the jagged edge to my throat and—and raped me."

  "Kendra, Kendra," Case soothed, stroking her back with long, comforting movements. "It's all right, sweetheart. You'll never have to worry about him again, I promise you."

  She swallowed thickly. "When it was over he left me lying there, straightened his clothes, got in the car, and drove off. I think I was in shock. If you had shown up on my doorstep at that moment with your offer to kill him for me, I would have accepted it without a qualm. Hell, I would have bought you the gun!"

  "I wouldn't have used a gun," he rasped. "I would have used my bare hands." There was a pause. "Did you go to the police?"

  "I wanted to, but I realized it would be useless. You don't understand, Case. The Radburns are important people. I was a nobody. And I'd been seeing him regularly for a couple of months. Who would believe a tale of rape after that? They would only say I was making it up to get even for his having married Donna. And Donna was the other factor. She was wildly in love with him by then. She thought the world of Austin Radburn. When I tried to talk to her about him, she didn't want to believe anything I said about the inheritance."

  "So you kept it bottled inside and started taking lessons so that you would never again be at the mercy of a man like that," Case concluded for her.

  "Yes."

  "And then I had to come along and destroy all your new self-confidence," he continued, the sudden anger in his voice directed at himself. "I hate to think what you must have gone through this afternoon when you saw him again and no longer had that assurance. I'm so damn sorry to have made you afraid again. If I hadn't done that to you, you wouldn't have had that look in your eyes when you came out the office door."

  "I was afraid, but I didn't panic, Case," she told him gently, sensing a need to return the comfort he had been extending to her. "I remembered what you said about panicking. And I remembered that nasty little trick you taught me the other night. I told myself that if worse came to worse, I had that to fall back on. When he came at me everything went perfectly. But I wasn't going to stick around and gloat! Like you said, there's no point welcoming trouble with open arms. I was going to phone the police."

  He smiled wryly. "Speaking of the police," he began slowly. "I don't think it will be necessary to—"

  "The police!" Kendra sat up abruptly, remembering the urgency of her earlier decision. "Come on, Case, we've got to get moving!" She leaped to her feet, tugging him up beside her and heading for the bedroom.

  "Moving where?" he asked reasonably, following as she hurried ahead of him. He stopped in surprise at the sight of the suitcase lying open on the fur bed throw. "What's happening here, honey? Where are you going?"

  He swung a curious, cautious look at her as she flew around the room, finishing her packing.

  "It's not where I'm going, it's where we're going!"

  "And where might that be? I don't know about you, but

  personally I'm feeling a little tired. I came back a day early

  so that we could—"

  "There will be plenty of time for rest later,"She told him forcefully, slamming down the lid of the suitcase.

  "Where?" he asked dryly, folding his arms across his chest and leaning laconically against the jamb.

  "On your island!"

  "My island!" He straightened at once, staring at her. "What are you talking about?"

  "We're leaving for your new hotel as soon as possible," she announced resolutely, glancing around the room for anything else that shouldn't be left behind. She dropped the suitcase on the floor and went to pick up her jewelry case. There were a great many other beautiful things in the room, she thought wistfully, and then she promptly put them out of her mind.

  "Are we?" Case asked quietly, his dark gaze seeming to come alive with a new flame.

  "Yes, I want you out of town and out of the country. You don't know the Radburns, Case. They've got money and power. They'll find you, no matter how much of the same you have!"

  "And your solution is to run?"

  "Have you got a better one?" she challenged, moving to stand determinedly in front of him, suitcase and jewelry box in hand. Her brows beetled in a violent little frown. "I don't want you going to jail, Case Garrett!"

  "Thank you," he replied feelingly. "But I think I can handle the matter. ..."

  "I know you think you can. That's what's worrying me! You once accused me of being dangerously overconfident, and now you're suffering from the same problem! You simply don't know how much you've bitten off this time by getting rid of Austin Radburn. Let's go!"

  She pushed past him, heading for the door.

  "Just like this?" he demanded, moving more slowly to

  follow her. A shadowed assessment filtered into his expression.

  "Of course! The faster we move, the better!" She was already at the door.

  "Er, what about the mink coat?" he asked, closing the distance between them with his gliding stride.

  She bit her lip, tossing a regretful glance at the hall closet. "I won't be needing it on an island. Leave it."

  He raised an eyebrow but said nothing. Instead he walked over and yanked the white fur out of the closet. Tossing it over his arm, he followed her mutely down the stairs. She didn't see the small smile playing around his mouth.

  Kendra was already sliding into the black-and-silver Porsche, which waited politely at the curb, when Case reached the sidewalk. She shook her head at sight of the coat but didn't argue.

  "We can leave from San Francisco airport," she began as he opened the opposite door. "They're bound to have a flight at least as far as Hawaii. We can make further arrangements from there. I've got a passport—"

  "Now you're the one sounding professional," he murmured admiringly, putting the sleek car in gear. "But I think we have a little more time than that. We'll go back to Lake Tahoe first. There are one or two things I should see to before leaving the country."

  "Can't Wolf handle them?" she demanded practically.

  "He probably could, but since I think we have some time, I'll do it in person. Besides, there's one other thing we can take care of up there without much of a wait."

  "What's that?" she asked as he pulled away from the curb.

  "Getting married."

  "Married!" Her stunned amazement showed as she twisted in the seat to stare at his profile. "You never said anything about marriage!"

  "What did you think I meant when I asked you to come away with me?" he chided.

  "Just that. You said you wanted me. You never said you wanted to marry me!"

 
Her eyes were glowing when he turned his head briefly to flick her a caressing glance that nearly stopped the breath in her throat.

  "I want you. I want you tied to me with every chain I can create. Marriage is one of those chains. Will you marry me, Kendra Loring?"

  She put all thoughts of what he had done earlier out of her head. Whatever had happened to Austin Radburn, he'd deserved it!

  "Yes, Case," she whispered, "I'll marry you."

  "Thank you, Kendra," he said almost formally, his tightening grip on the steering wheel the only evidence of his emotion. "I will try hard to make you happy."

  She hesitated and then said very carefully, "There is something you can do for me along those lines, Case . . ."

  He said nothing, waiting.

  She took a breath and then made the plunge. "I want your word of honor that regardless of what's happened in the past, from now on we will live a—a law-abiding sort of life-style."

  He paused and then said very firmly, without inflection, "You have my word on it."

  "Thank you, Case." Kendra sank back into the leather seat with a feeling of profound relief.

  "You needn't sound so self-congratulatory! Donna might very well change her mind before the wedding," Kendra snipped, desperate for any sort of objection. Case Garrett was altogether too confident at the moment.

  "Jason would never let her. He idolizes Wolf," Case observed blandly.

  "Just the same, Wolf is rushing Donna off her feet, and she might—"

  "She loves it. She's finally found a man who can give her the security she needs." "Hah!"

  "I, on the other hand, seem to have married a little shrew. What's all the fuss about? Life will be simpler with that bastard alive, you know. This way we don't have to be afraid to go back to the States to visit Donna and Wolf. No one will come around asking pointed questions, and you don't have to wonder exactly what depths I'm capable of sinking to. What else does Donna say in the telegram?"

  Kendra glanced again at the long message. "She says gossip out of L.A. has it that Austin's lawyers have filed for bankruptcy for the shipbuilding business, and that he is staying out of sight while recovering from an 'accident.' "

  "You see?" Case offered placatingly. "I didn't let him go scot-free. But if you want to know the truth, what you did to him was far worse."

  "What /did!" she gasped in amazement. "All I did was throw him once!"

  "Do you have any idea what it does to a man like that to have a victim who should have been cowering on her knees handle him as if he were powerless? His ego will never recover. Which was one of the reasons I let him live. Between what we did to him physically and what's happening to him financially, Radburn's a broken man."

  "But his family . . ." she began worriedly.

  "The shipbuilding business was all the family had left.

  With it gone, their power is gone, too. Why do you think he was so desperate for Donna's money?" "Oh."

  There was a long pause while Kendra digested that. She narrowed her eyes at his waiting expression. He still hadn't opened his eye to watch her.

  "Then, why," she said carefully, "did you let me rush you out of the country? Why didn't you say something when I made you leave San Francisco in such a hurry?"

  "I couldn't resist," he admitted, his lashes fluttering open at last as he smiled ruefully up at her. "The opportunity was simply too good to miss. I figured if you knew the full truth and had time to think, it might be weeks before I could talk you into marriage. And who knew how long before you'd agree to leave everything behind in San Francisco and come away with me to this place? So, when you took the bit between your teeth and started to run, I decided it was simplest to just go along for the ride!"

  Kendra stared at him, torn between laughter and self-disgust for having let herself be manipulated. But the laughter won out, and it lit her eyes as she said softly, "It probably wouldn't have taken you very long at all to talk me into almost anything," she confided.

  It was his turn to stare. "Why not?"

  He got to his feet before she could answer, his hands cupping her face as they stood together beneath the brilliant sun, the surf pounding in the background.

  "Why wouldn't it have taken very long for me to talk you into coming away with me?" he repeated deeply, something in his voice telling her a great deal depended on her answer.

  "Do you have to ask?" she whispered, turning her lips into his palm and kissing him delicately. "I love you, Case. I would have gone anywhere with you," she told him simply.

  "Kendra!" he grated, pulling her almost fiercely against

  him. "Oh, my darling Kendra. I've wanted so badly to believe that you could be feeling even half of what I'm feeling; that you could return just a tiny portion of the love I have for you!"

  She wrapped her arms around his neck, her head sinking down onto his naked shoulder. A great sigh of gratitude shook her.

  "You love me, Case? Really love me?"

  "More than you'll ever know," he vowed heavily. "I think I fell in love with you the moment I saw you standing in my casino. There was something between us from the first. Did you feel it, my love?"

  "I felt it. I had the strangest sensation that I recognized you. I told myself it was impossible; that we'd never met. . . ."

  "We're two halves of a whole," he murmured thickly against her hair. "I didn't try to put a name on what I was feeling, I only knew I had to find some way of keeping you with me for a while. I had to find out more about this cool little creature who invaded my casino, intimidated Wolf, and looked down her nose at me. I wanted to make you like me in spite of what you so obviously thought of me! By the time I followed you back to your hotel and found you with Phelps, I had made up my mind—"

  "To do what?" Kendra leaned her head back to tease, her hazel eyes glowing with laughter and love.

  "To find out everything about you, where you lived, worked, whether there was another man who had a claim on you—"

  "And if there had been?"

  "Then I would have had to find a way to take you away from him," he told her tersely. "I couldn't just let you walk back out of my life. I thought I had it made when you began seducing me after I'd brought you back from the hotel. When you pulled that judo stunt I was furious. But mostly because I didn't want to believe you had only

  been leading me on. I wanted to think you were as attracted to me as I was to you."

  "I was. But I honestly didn't think about going to bed with you at that point. Sex held no appeal for me."

  "I realized that. I also realized I shouldn't have gone ahead and made love to you. I should have given you a lot of time. You'd been through a traumatic experience two years ago, and you were beginning to come out of it on your own. What right did I have to force the process?"

  "You didn't force me. you made love to me. And I knew Icould have stopped you if I'd wanted to badly enough. But you were something new in my world. Unlike any other man I'd ever met. I knew I was attracted to you, even then. And I was a little stunned from the experience of finding myself first physically and then emotionaly vulnerable. I suppose you could say you swept me off my feet. Literally!"

  "The process was mutual." He grinned wryly. "Once I'd had you in my bed I knew I wanted you there permanently. I was mad and hurt the next morning when I awoke and found you gone. Nothing on this earth could have stopped me from following you. And you very conveniently left a trail a mile wide!"

  "Not intentionally," she muttered ruefully. "I guess I'm not very good at that sort of thing!"

  "You were certainly convinced I was." He grinned.

  "You didn't go out of your way to convince me otherwise!"

  "No, I suppose not. But I didn't think you'd believe me if I loudly proclaimed my innocence."

  "And maybe, just maybe, your ego rather relished the idea of making me fall in love with you regardless of my opinion of your—er—profession?" she taunted.

  "Well, you had been rather arrogant that first evening in Lake Tahoe�
��"

  "An arrogance that you very effectively nullified!" she accused.

  His mouth twisted. "I'm sorry about that, in a way. But I really could see you getting into a lot of trouble coming up against some man who could demolish your defenses in spite of all your fine training!"

  "I have come up against just such a man."

  "I decided it might as well be me," he admitted. "Besides, I was madder than hell there for a few minutes!"

  "I know."

  "In one respect I'm glad Radburn showed up again. It gave you a chance to find out you still could take care of yourself. You wouldn't have been a victim that second time. But, then, you never really were. You don't have a victim's mentality. You've got too much courage. You're a fighter, Kendra."

  Kendra smiled to herself. Then she thought of something.

  "If you're not a wanted man back in the States, we'll be able to go back and get some things from the flat."

  "I told Wolf to expect us in a couple of weeks." He chuckled. "He's phoned your partner by now and told him you are on your honeymoon."

  "Norris and Tina will think I've lost my marbles." She sighed. "They'll be convinced of it when I offer to sell Norris my share of the business."

  His grip tightened. "Is that what you're going to do?"

  "Something tells me I'm going to be really terrific at running a hotel for island-hopping tourists," she murmured confidently. "You were right, darling, we can do anything we want together."

  "And is this what you want?" he asked, indicating the empty beach and the hotel at the far end; the hotel he had been negotiating to purchase from the present owners.

  "Yes," she replied happily. "How did you ever find this place?"

  "During the period of my life when you assumed I was apprenticing myself to some underworld lord, I was working a tramp steamer in this part of the world. The man who owned the steamer was the one I told you about that night in the restaurant; the man became like a father to me. He also owned that casino in Tahoe, and we didn't see a lot of him on the steamer, but occasionally he'd showup and come aboard for a while . . . spend a couple ofweeks or months with us in the South Seas—"