Part 26 (1/2)
With relief she recognized Russ McElroy and Jim Haynes, two area fisherman whom she had known casually for several years. ”Hi, Russ. Jim. The motor in my truck just blew.”
Russ opened the door and hopped out. ”Come on, we'll give you a ride to the marina. You don't need to be out by yourself like this. There's too much meanness goin' on these days.”
Gratefully she climbed into the cab of the truck and slid to the middle of the seat. Russ got back in and closed the door, and Jim eased the rig onto the highway. ”You got a good mechanic?” Jim asked.
”I thought I'd have Burt, the mechanic at the marina, take a look at it. He's good with motors.”
Jim nodded. ”Yeah, I know Burt Mardis. He's real good. But if he can't get to it, there's another guy, owns a shop just off Blount, who's just as good. His name's Roy Simms. Just look it up in the phone book, Simms' Automotive Repair.”
”Thanks, I'll remember that.”
Jim and Russ launched into a discussion of other good mechanics in the area, and soon they reached the marina. She thanked them, and Russ got out again to let her out. They probably hadn't intended to put in at her marina, but since they were there they decided they might as well. As she unlocked the gate that blocked the launch ramp, Jim began to maneuver the truck so he could back the boat into the water. Next she unlocked the office and turned on the lights. Just as Jim and Russ were idling away from the dock, Burt drove up, and she went to tell him about the demise of her truck.
IT WASN'T LONG after dawn when the phone rang. Robert opened one eye and examined the golden rose of the sky as he reached for the receiver. ”Yes.”
”The truck didn't make it into town. It blew just as she reached the highway. She caught a ride to the marina.”
Robert sat up in bed. He could feel the fine hairs on the back of his neck p.r.i.c.kling with mingled anger and alarm. ”d.a.m.n it, she hitchhiked?”
”Yeah, I was a little worried about that, so I followed to make certain she didn't have any trouble. No problem. It was a couple of fishermen who picked her up. I guess she knew them.”
That wasn't much better. Guntersville wasn't exactly a hotbed of crime, but anything could happen to a woman alone. Neither did it soothe him that she had been followed, that help was right behind if she'd needed it. The situation shouldn't have arisen in the first place. ”Why was the timing off?”
”The hole in the oil line must have been bigger than West thought. Probably there's a big oil puddle in her driveway. She would have seen it if it hadn't still been dark when she left the house.”
In a very calm, remote voice Robert said, ”If anything had happened to her because of his mistake, I wouldn't have liked it.”
There was a pause on the other end of the line. Then, ”I understand. It won't happen again.”
Having made his point, Robert didn't belabor it. He moved on. ”Be careful when you're in the house tonight. I don't want her to notice anything out of place.”
”She won't. I'll see to it myself.”
After hanging up the phone, Robert lay back down and hooked his hands behind his head as he watched the sun peek over the mountains. The day before had made him more uncertain than ever of Evie's connection with Mercer. He was fairly certain she had rendezvoused with Mercer out on the water, but either she hadn't told Mercer of his presence, or she had been unaware of his own connection with PowerNet. This appeared to be an efficient espionage ring, to have escaped notice and capture for as long as they had; given that, Evie should have known of him. At the very least, Mercer should have notified her of his presence. What reason could they have had for keeping her in the dark about his ident.i.ty, unless her partic.i.p.ation was very peripheral and no one had thought she needed to know?
The other possibility was that Evie had indeed recognized his name, or been notified, but for reasons of her own had chosen not to pa.s.s on the information that he had leased a slip at her marina and appeared to have formed an intense personal interest in her.
Either way, it followed that Evie wasn't on good terms with the others in the espionage ring. On the one hand, it gave him a weakness he could exploit. On the other, her life could be in danger.
EVIE MADE ARRANGEMENTS to have a wrecker tow the truck to the marina. That accomplished, Burt stuck his head under the hood to begin the examination. Next he lay down on a dolly and rolled underneath for another view. When he emerged, he wasn't optimistic about rebuilding the motor. ”Too much damage,” he said. ”You'd be better off just buying another motor.”
She had been expecting that, and she had already been mentally juggling her finances. The payment on the bank loan for the marina would be late this month, and then she would have to put off other payments to make the one on the loan. She could get by without transportation for a few days by using the boat to go back and forth from home to the marina. If she absolutely needed to go somewhere, she could borrow Becky's car, though she didn't like to.
”I'll call around and try to find one,” she said. ”Will you have time to put it in for me?”
”Sure,” Burt said easily. ”It's a little slow right now, anyway.”
By the time Craig arrived to relieve her, it was all arranged. She had located an engine, and Burt would begin work putting it in as soon as it arrived. Depending on how much marina work came in, she might be driving home the next afternoon.
In Evie's experience, things didn't generally work that well. She wouldn't be surprised if Burt was suddenly flooded with a lot of boats needing attention.
The trip across the lake was enjoyable, despite her worries. The water was green, the surrounding mountains a misty blue, and fat, fluffy clouds drifted lazily across the sky, offering an occasional brief respite from the blazing sun. Gulls wheeled lazily over the water, and an eagle soared high in the distance. It was the kind of day when being inside was almost intolerable.
With that thought in mind, once she arrived home she put her financial worries on hold and got out the lawn mower to give her yard a tr.i.m.m.i.n.g. She glared at the big black oil stain on the driveway where the truck had been parked. If it had been daylight when she'd left this morning, if she hadn't swapped s.h.i.+fts with Craig, she would have seen the oil and not have driven the truck; the motor would still be intact, and the repair bill would be much smaller.
Just simple bad timing.
The yard work finished, she went inside to cool off and tackle the housework, which was minimal. By three o'clock she was back outside, sitting on the dock with her feet in the water and a sweat-dewed gla.s.s of ice tea beside her. Fretting about the truck wouldn't accomplish anything. She would handle this just as she had handled every other money crisis that had arisen over the years, by strict economizing until all bills were paid. She couldn't do anything more than that, since it wasn't likely a good fairy would drop the money into her lap. Though there might be the possibility of taking a part-time job in the mornings at one of the fast-food restaurants serving breakfast. Forty dollars a week was a hundred and sixty dollars a month, enough to pay the power bill, with a little left over for the gas bill. But for now all she wanted was to sit on the dock with her feet in the water and gaze at the mountains, feeling contentment spread through her.
That was how Robert found her. He came around the side of the house and paused when he saw her sitting on the weathered dock, her eyes closed, face lifted to the sun. The long, thick, golden braid had been pulled forward over one shoulder, revealing the enticing, delicate furrow of her nape. She was wearing faded denim shorts and a white chemise top, hardly a sophisticated outfit, but his pulse began to throb as he studied the graceful curve of her shoulders, the delectable roundness of her slender arms, the shapeliness of her legs. Her skin glowed with a warm, pale gold luminescence, like a succulent peach. His eyes, his entire body, burned as he stared at her. His mouth was literally watering, and he had to swallow. He had never felt such urgent l.u.s.t for any other woman. What he wanted was to simply throw himself on her and have her right here, right now, without thought or finesse.
She was unaware of his presence until the dock vibrated when he stepped onto it. There was no alarm in her eyes as she turned her head to see who had come visiting, only lazy curiosity followed by a warm look of welcome. Even the average five-year-old in a large city was more wary than the people around here, he thought as he sat down beside her and began taking off his shoes.
”Hi,” she said, a sort of smiling serenity in that one word, which was drawled so that it took twice as long for her to say than it did for him.
He found himself smiling back, actually smiling, his mouth curved into a tender line as his heart pounded inside his chest. He had wanted her from the moment he'd first seen her; he'd been, several times, unexpectedly charmed by her. Both reactions were acute at this moment, but even more, he was enchanted.
He had whirled across countless dance floors with countless beautiful women in his arms, women who could afford to pamper themselves and wear the most expensive gowns and jewelry, women whom he had genuinely liked. He had made love to those women gently, slowly, in luxurious surroundings. He had taken women when the added fillip of danger made each encounter more intense. But never had he felt more enthralled than he was right now, sitting beside Evie on a weathered old dock, with a blazing afternoon sun, almost brutal in its clarity, bathing everything in pure light. Sweat trickled down his back and chest from the steamy heat, and his entire body pulsed with life. Even his fingertips throbbed. It took all of his formidable self-control to prevent himself from pus.h.i.+ng her down on the dock and spreading her legs for his entry.
And yet, for all the intensity of his desire, he was oddly content to wait. He would have her. For now he was caught in the enchantment of her slow smile, in the luminous sheen of her skin, in her warm, female scent that no perfume could match. Simply to sit beside her was to be seduced, and he was more than willing.
Having removed his shoes, he rolled up the legs of his khaki pants and stuck his feet into the water. The water was tepid, but refres.h.i.+ng in contrast to the heat of his skin. It made him feel almost comfortable.
”It isn't seven o'clock yet,” she pointed out, but she was smiling.
”I wanted to make sure you hadn't chickened out.”
”Not yet. Give me a couple of hours.”
Despite the teasing, he was certain she wouldn't have stood him up. She might be nervous, even a little reluctant, but she had agreed, and she would keep her word. Her lack of enthusiasm in going out with him might have been insulting if he hadn't known how potent her physical reaction to him was. Whatever reasons she had for being wary of him, her body was oblivious to them.
She lazily moved her feet back and forth, watching the water swirl around her ankles. After a minute of wondering about the advisability of bringing up the subject that had been bothering her so much, she decided to do so, anyway. ”Robert, have you ever let anyone really get close to you? Has anyone ever truly known you?”
She felt his stillness, just for a split second. Then he said in a light tone, ”I've been trying to get close to you from the moment I first saw you.”
She turned her head and found him watching her, his ice-green eyes cool and unreadable. ”That was a nice evasion, but you just demonstrated what I meant.”
”I did? What was that?” he murmured indulgently, leaning forward to press his lips to her bare shoulder.
She didn't let that burning little caress distract her. ”How you deflect personal questions without answering them. How you keep everyone at arm's length. How you watch and manipulate and never give away anything of your real thoughts or feelings.”
He looked amused. ”You're accusing me of being difficult to get to know, when you're as open as the Sphinx?”
”We both have our defenses,” she admitted readily.