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‘I’m waiting,’ James said coldly. ‘Why don’t you just try telling me the truth?’ A muscle bunched in his jaw. ‘Or is that beyond you?’
Gabrielle’s chin lifted. What right had he to talk to her like this? She’d done nothing to warrant it except trust him, even in the face of the warning she’d thought Townsend had been trying to give her.
‘If you want to talk about “truth”,’ she said softly, her eyes on his, ‘we ought to talk about you, don’t you think?’
James rose to his feet. ‘My turn, hmm?’ The muscle in his jaw jumped again. ‘All right. But you’re not going to like it.’
Her heart softened. ‘You just saved my life,’ she said. ‘Nothing you could say can diminish that.’
He stared at her for a moment, then stuffed his hands into his pockets and walked across the room. At the door, he turned and faced her.
‘My name is James Forrester and I live in Washington. That much you already know.’
She waited for him to speak again, but he remained silent, and finally she ran her tongue lightly oyer her dry lips.
‘We didn’t meet by accident, did we?’
James bent his head, his eyes, refusing to meet hers. ‘No,’ he said after a moment. ‘I’d been in New Orleans for weeks, watching you. You’d walked away from protective custody, but I—we knew you wouldn’t be safe. I—we decided someone had to make sure nothing happened to you.’
She nodded. She’d figured as much by now. Was he an agent? A police officer, perhaps, from up north? Whatever he was, she could accept it. She loved him.
‘Are you with the police department?’
James shook his head. ‘No.’
‘Then you’re an investigator.’
He shook his head again. ‘I’m an attorney.’ His jaw shot forward belligerently. ‘A federal attorney.’ There was a silence, and then he cleared his throat. ‘I work in Townsend’s office.’
The admission stunned her. ‘You work in…’ She put her hand to her mouth. ‘Were you—were you involved in—in… ?’
He nodded. ‘Yes.’ He took a deep breath. ‘You might as well know the worst. I’m the guy who put together the dossier on your old man.’
‘No.’ Her whisper echoed in the room.
‘Yes,’ His voice was flat. ‘And then I came up with the idea of putting the screws on you after he got sick.’
‘No,’ she said again, her eyes widening in horror. Not James. It couldn’t have been James. Her eyes lifted to his. ‘Then why—if you’re an attorney, why did you come to New Orleans? Why did they send you?’
‘They didn’t. I told you, I volunteered.’ His mouth twisted. ‘There was no other way. The cops had no legal right to hold you. Neither did my office. So I took a leave of absence…’
The horror of it was beginning to seep through. James was responsible for the web that had ensnared her, not Townsend. It had been James all along.
She held up her hands. ‘I don’t want to hear any more,’ she whispered. ‘Please.’
‘Damn you, Gabrielle!’ He reached out and caught her by the wrists, his fingers clamping hard on the fragile bones. ‘I was only doing my job. You were a name in a file, a snapshot clipped to a fact sheet.’ He moved towards her, his face drawn with anguish. ‘I didn’t plan on falling in love with you, but I did. It was why I came after you. I told myself it was because I was responsible, but it was more than that…’
James was saying things, she knew that, but she wasn’t really listening. All she could think of was how she’d hated Townsend and now…
‘You did this,’ she said, ‘not Townsend. It was you all the time.’
His arms closed around her. ‘Gabrielle.’ His voice was urgent. ‘We’ll put all of this behind us.’ She shook her head and he cursed softly. ‘Look at me, dammit!’
Her head rose slowly and she looked into his eyes. This was the man who had made her see the truth about her father, this was the man who’d destroyed her life— the man she’d fallen in love with.
‘Gabrielle. We can forget everything. You and Vitale. Me and Townsend…’
Forget. Could she? Face the past squarely, James had said, so you can put it behind you.
They’d done that tonight, but somehow it wasn’t behind them. It had only deepened the uncertainty that lay ahead.
‘I—I don’t know if I can,’ she whispered, her voice breaking.
Brakes squealed outside; flashing lights lit the house with an eerie glow, and suddenly there was a banging at the door.
‘Police!’
James cupped her face in his hands. ‘Gabrielle,’ he said in a fierce whisper, and then he kissed her. When he drew back, he looked deep into her eyes. ‘I love you,’ he said. ‘Do you understand?’
There was a heavy blow on the front door, the sound of splintering wood, and then the house was filled with policemen.
‘Gabrielle?’
James was still watching her, waiting for her to answer, and suddenly she knew he was right.
Her father had believed in some fierce, time-worn code she didn’t understand. Her love for him would never change, but that part of her life was over.
The future lay ahead, and it was the future that mattered. James loved her, and nothing else was important.
Tears of happiness rose in her eyes. ‘James,’ she whispered.
‘Are you people OK?’
James and Gabrielle fell apart. A man in plain clothes, a gold and enamel badge pinned to his jacket, stood beside them, and a sea of blue uniforms stretched away behind him.
James nodded. ‘We’re fine, Officer. I’m James Forrester. This is Gabrielle Chiari. And that man in the hall…’
The detective nodded. ‘Yeah, yeah, I’ve been on the horn with Washington.’ He looked from Gabrielle to James. ‘You’re gonna have to come to the station, Forrester. We’ll need a statement.’
James nodded. ‘Fine. But Miss Chiari ’
‘She stays here. Don’t worry, I already got the word from Washington. Two of my people will stay with her.’
James looked at Gabrielle. She gave him a smile meant for him, alone. What he wanted to hear, what she wanted to tell him, couldn’t be said in a room filled with strangers.
‘I’ll be fine,’ she said softly.
He touched her cheek, and then he was gone.
She awoke groggily, every muscle stiff and aching. The phone was ringing; she groaned as she uncurled from the living-room couch and made her way through the still-dark house to the kitchen.
What time was it, anyway? she thought, pushing her hand through her hair. She must have dozed off while she was reading. James wasn’t back yet—she wouldn’t sleep soundly until she was safe in his arms. Not that she was in any danger: there was a policeman outside the front door, another at the back.
But she had never, in all her life, felt as secure and as loved as she had with James beside her. And he would be beside her forever, she thought with a little smile; he loved her and she loved him. She would tell him that the moment she saw him. She would tell him that now.
‘James?’ she whispered, smiling into the phone as she put it to her ear.
‘Hello, Gabriella.’
She froze. Gabriella. No one had ever called her that except—except…
‘Gabriella.’ Tony Vitale’s voice wheezed softly. She closed her eyes, picturing him chewing on one of the black cigars he favoured. ‘Aren’t you going to say hello to Uncle Tony?’
‘What—what do you ?’ She stopped, drew a shaky
breath, then b
egan again. ‘Why are you calling me?’
He laughed. ‘Why shouldn’t an uncle say hello to his favourite niece, Gabriella?’
Bile rose in her throat. ‘You—you’re not my uncle,’ she said. ‘And you—you tried to—you sent someone to…’
‘You see, cara mia’l You see what’s happened? Now you believe the terrible things you are told about me, hmm? That liar, Forrester…’
Gabrielle sank into a chair. ‘James isn’t a liar. You are. You—you’re everything they said you were.’
‘Gabriella.’ The husky voice was harsh. ‘I have a proposition to make you. Are you listening?’
‘A proposition?’
‘Yes. What your lawyer friend would call a quid pro quo.’
James. He kept referring to James. What did he know about him?
‘I regret what almost happened tonight, Gabriella.’ Vitale’s voice dropped to a wheezing whisper. ‘It was an unfortunate mistake.’
She sprang to her feet. ‘A mistake?’ She gave a bitter laugh. ‘It was a mistake, all right. I’m going to come back to New York.And I’m going to testify.’
Vitale laughed. ‘Yes, cara mia, you will come back. But not to testify.’ He paused, and she could almost see the smile moving across his sallow face. ‘You will come back and marry me, Gabriella.’
Hysterical laughter burst from her throat. ‘I’ll what?
Marry you? I’d sooner be dead. I- ’
‘What of your precious Mr Forrester, Gabriella? Would you sooner he be dead?’
Her heart stopped beating. ‘What?’
Vitale’s voice was cold. ‘You will return to New York. You will wear my furs, my jewels, you will face the world as my wife. And you will convince everyone that you do it proudly.’
‘You’re insane!’
‘The fool I sent bungled his job, Gabriella. Another incident would be far too obvious. The risk would be too great.’ His voice became a purr. ‘If your performance pleases me, I will let Forrester live. Otherwise…’
Gabrielle’s legs turned to jelly. ‘What have you done to him?.’
Vitale laughed. The laughter became a wheeze, and he coughed heavily before he spoke again. ‘Nothing yet but the future holds such promise. . A mechanism
under the hood of his car. An accident on his way to the office. A sudden encounter on a crowded street…’
