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“I got a call from her last night, Reg.”
“Really? Nice of her to surface. If you can give me an address my attorneys can take care of the legalities.” His manner had turned painfully cold.
“Yes, I’m sure that would be a help,” Alex returned. “Don’t worry, she won’t be hard to find and she won’t be going anywhere soon. She’s been arrested. She’s in a Paris jail. The man she’s been with has been accused of theft, extortion, smuggling and drug dealing. Jocelyn’s being held as an accessory.”
For an instant there was no response. Then there was an ashen look about his refined features, a twist in his expression that suggested a wince. Reggie being Reggie didn’t give off much more in body language.
“I wired her some money for an attorney early this morning. Though she told me not to tell you, I thought you should know.”
Chapter Sixteen
Even in nondescript clothes without a trace of make-up Jocelyn Killian was a stunning woman. The firebrand spirit of rebellion and seductiveness bewitched him still. While she stared into the vacant spaces of the bare interrogation room, her back to him, he could for a moment wonder how their marriage had unwittingly disintegrated, even when they were conscious of the fact and trying hard to prevent that. He still loved her. He knew that because of the pain that burned on the surface of his beating heart and then deep within.
Trying to substitute the pain with another woman only caused that other woman hurt. Gwen, a little sparkling jewel of submission, had done her best to win his heart, but Alex’s appearance at his office the day before only reminded him how impossible it would be to replace the woman that owned his heart.
Such tears Gwen had shed. How she tried to hold them inside.
“I had a feeling she’d walk back into your life, Reg,” she’d said. “And when she did I’d be out on a limb with it getting sawed off right behind me.”
“I’m not good at this, Gwen,” he’d told her. “And I’m sorry about that. Usually I don’t bother dealing with things of the heart, but with you…”
“I know. I know if all the stars had been right in the sky, and moon was in the south in its second phase, and the winds were blowing from the west, and hell was about to freeze, there’d be a chance that this would work. But I’ve been living in the shadow of her…and the other one.”
“The other one?”
She tried to smile. “Someone told me at that party a few weeks back that I looked just like Alex Kozak? When I met her a few days ago, I thought I’d suddenly gained a sister I never knew I had.”
“Oh, but there are a lot of stunning differences,” Reggie reminded her.
“But that really doesn’t matter. You’re not in love with Alex, and you’re not in love with me.”
“I guess I don’t have that big a heart,” he conceded.
“But you tried.”
“I did.”
“If Jocelyn had only stayed away longer,” Gwen mused.
“If only.”
He didn’t know he had the power to break a heart having figured he’d always been far too aloof from his own. But he could see Gwen’s falling apart despite her efforts to keep it tacked together. He was genuinely sad.
That conversation was only hours ago. Reggie remembered it in the split seconds before Jocelyn realized that he was in the room. Approaching her quietly, so she didn’t hear him until he was right on her, he wasn’t surprised that she cried tears when she first turned to see his face.
&nbs
p; “Oh Reg…” She was as white as a pale ghost in the ugly florescent lights.
Her body rose from the wooden chair as though it could barely move inside the rough jail clothes. She fell into him sobbing. She was shivering at first, but warmed inside his embrace. They were locked heart to heart and groin to groin as minutes ticked by. When he finally let her go and sat her back on the chair, her body temperature was noticeably heated.
“I have my international attorney working on your release,” he told her. “Whatever bond necessary will be posted. I’m not sure of the international ramifications. But I read your statement and have involved the State Dept. We’ll see if they’ll intervene. I’m not sure how well all that will fly, since you spent so much time with the man. But we’re going to give that a try.” From warm to expedient and judicious, Reggie’s cool returned.
As Jocelyn gazed into his steely eyes, the shivers resumed, a new flood of fear to join the powerhouse of concern she’d nursed since the arrest. She imagined herself languishing for years in a foreign prison for crimes she had no knowledge of.
“I think testifying against him will be your best course, but we’ll consult with the attorneys when they show up this afternoon.”
“I can’t testify,” Jocelyn protested meekly.
