Part 30 (2/2)
”Well, Mac,” he said softly. ”I see you're dressed to welcome me.”
And if her gaze, brilliant and dark, was anything but welcoming, he knew that was about to change.
Chapter Nineteen.
And the best of all ways To lengthen our days Is to steal a few hours from the night, my dear.
a”Thomas Moore MAC KNEW SHE was in trouble. Her mind knew it, anyway; her body had an entirely different opinion.
She'd been expecting this sooner or later, but somehow Liam had still managed to take her by surprise. Here she was, wearing practically nothing and confronting around two hundred pounds of angry male.
Mac backed up toward the bed and felt behind her for the muslin wrapper she'd left there. She tugged it on without haste. He watched every move she made with a dark hungera”hunger made more potent by barely suppressed anger. Heat coiled and pooled low in her body.
”I guess you came here toa to talk about yesterday,” she said.
”Talk, Mac? Is that what you think I want?” He grabbed his tie and loosened it with a yank that spoke volumes.
Okay, Mac. You can handle this. She moved to the other side of the bed. ”I don't suppose it'll do much good to tell you that I didn't expect Caroline to walk in on us last night.”
”No.” He hurled his tie to the floor and began to work on the b.u.t.tons of his s.h.i.+rt. ”But we do have some unfinished business.”
Mac watched his undressing with unwilling fascination. ”All I wanted wasa uma to distract youa””
”You succeeded.” He unfastened his left s.h.i.+rt cuff.
Only too well, it seemed. Perry had set things up very carefully. Without telling Mac the full extent of his plans.
”I'm sorry it happened that way,” she said. ”Whether or not you can accept it.”
He continued undressing with slow, jerky motions. ”Did you know about the wine?”
”The wine?”
”That it was drugged,” Liam said.
”Drugged?” She felt a little dizzy and reached for the mahogany bedpost. The wine had been meant as a signal that she wasn't succeedinga”a signal she'd never given, botched when the waiter had walked in without being summoned.
”The wine was drugged?” she repeated.
He looked up at her, his s.h.i.+rttail loose at his waist. ”You didn't know,” he said. ”You tried to drink it after I did.”
Good grief. Mac had a vague memory of pouring herself some wine, so confused by her own emotions that she'd only wanted to drown them. Liam had smacked the gla.s.s from her hand.
And she'd thought it was out of anger.
”Perry,” Liam said, striding to the window. ”He masterminded it all. It wasn't enough for him that Caroline saw us together. He wanted me out of the way, and he didn't care if you were hurt in the doing of it.” He stared out at the city. ”I know you met me at the Poodle Dog on his advice.
”But you didn't know about the wine. Or the carriage. The axle could have broken anytime once we started to race.” His fingers worked into fists on the windowsill. ”You could have been killed.”
”Ia heard of the accident,” Mac said, still struggling with shock. ”You weren't hurta”” She moved toward Liam and stopped herself. ”You think that Perry set up the accident and this drugged wine, and I was working with him?”
”d.a.m.n it, Mac!” He swung to face her. ”He's used you, deceived you just as he did me. You were a handy tool, no more.” He made a low, bitter sound. ”I had him investigated before our last expedition, when he began to show interest in Caroline. He wasn't merely a younger son cut off from his family's fortune, as I first suspected. He worked for the British government before I met him. As a spya”probably an a.s.sa.s.sin. He had no scruples. I went to Guatemala to warn him away from Caroline.”
Mac s.h.i.+vered and sat down on the bed. A spy? It certainly explained Perry's ability to get information and disappear so effectively. But an a.s.sa.s.sina ”I don't believe it,” she said, preparing herself for a hopeless argument. ”I don't believe that he tried to kill you, whatever his past. Yes, I met hima”at the ball. And he was the one who told me about the carriage accident. I don't know how he found out about it, but he didn't have to volunteer the information. Especially if he considered me disposable.” She concentrated on keeping her words calm and level and logical. ”He knew you'd consider the accident proof that he was behind the attempt in the jungle, and he predicted how you'd react. But I chose to trust him. I wish I could give you a better reason than gut feeling and instinct.” She waited for the lash of Liam's scorn and disbelief. ”If I thought for a moment that he really meant to hurt youa””
”You'd what?” He examined her face intently.
She swallowed and looked down at her lap. ”Isn't there something else you should be worrying abouta”like who's really trying to kill you?”
His footsteps whispered on the carpet. ”Do you mean the tongs, Mac? You overheard my meeting with Chen in the Gresham library.”
”Yes. Enough to know you were on your way to do something dangerous.” She sat up straighter, hoping for information. ”I know the tongs are criminal organizations that practically run most of Chinatown, buta””
”They deal in human cargo, Mac. Girls brought illegally from China, bribed and coerced into leaving their homes, too young to fight or to know what they're getting into.” He strode across the room and back again with brittle anger. ”Children ruined by men who see them as commodities, wh.o.r.es to be used until they die of disease or violence or despair. A very profitable enterprise.”
The pa.s.sion in his voice was more eloquent than any mere explanation could have been. Mac was almost humbled by it. This was a part of himself he kept hidden, a part that had revealed itself only in his obsessive desire to protect Carolinea”and sometimes Mac. A part she still didn't understand.
”Thena that's what you were doing the night of the ball, wasn't it?” she asked. ”Something to do with these girls. Raids. Saving thema””
”From their masters and from the corrupt outsiders who'd take their own cut of this obscenity. The law is all but useless in stopping it. For a year the band's been successful. Until the night of the ball, when the raid went sour. When someone betrayed us to the tongs.”
The informant. ”Then you do have other enemies. These tong peoplea””
”And their ally,” he said. ”Peregrine Sinclair.”
Oh, G.o.d. ”Was he part of your group?”
”He wasn't involved. He didn't have to be.” Liam's mouth set in a harsh smile. ”I've had him watched since I returned to San Francisco. He was clever, but not clever enough. My men saw him with one of the foremost tong bosses. He was the one who undermined the last raid. He's doing the tong's dirty work for them and for himself at the same time.”
Mac closed her eyes. Impossible. That Perry was so utterly villainous, so heartless, so capable of deceiving hera But even if he wasn't, Liam's danger had been real, and deadly. He could have died in that carriage accident, or on one of these raids. Cold lightning raced along her nerves.
”Are you finally convinced that your ally is a blackguard?” Liam demanded.
She couldn't lose faith now. ”No.”
He slammed his fist against the wall, shaking the light fixture overhead. ”He could have killed you without a second thought. You played Perry's game and helped rob a girl of her innocencea””
”I what?” Mac jumped to her feet. This conversation was moving almost too fast for her to follow, but she refused to be left behind. ”You mean Caroline? You never let me get close enough. What happened? Did she finally shatter your image of the delicate, naive Miss Gresham? Did it finally get into your head that no one can protect anyone from life the way you wanted to protect her?”
She regretted her words as soon as she saw his stricken expression.
”I'm sorry, Liam,” she said. ”Truly sorry. I never wanted to cause you paina””
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