Читать книгу Hart's Last Stand - Cheryl Biggs - Страница 8

The plane’s engine coughed again and the nose propeller stopped.

“N299V, wrong runway. Repeat. Wrong runway!”

Suzanne Cassidy glanced at the radio, bit her lower lip and tightened her grip on the control handle. She was out of fuel and out of time. She couldn’t correct.

Suddenly six black Cobra helicopters began to descend in front of her.

She shrieked, and instinctively pulled back on the handle and closed her eyes.

The plane jerked, the nose lifted briefly and the wheels hit the ground, hard.

Suzanne was slammed back against her seat. Her eyes flew open and she fought the control handle as the Cobras abruptly veered off. The new Cirrus SR20 she and her partner had just purchased for the company skidded down the runway.

Suzanne cursed and applied the brake harder.

The plane slid sideways and off the pavement, its wheels grinding through grass and dirt.

Rocks pinged off the undercarriage.

The right ring wheel plunged into a shallow gully, and the Cirrus came to a jarring stop.

Somewhere in the distance a siren began to wail.

Suzanne ignored it and struggled to catch her breath. Her heart was slamming against her rib cage, her hands were shaking and she felt weak all over. Nevertheless she threw the door open and scrambled out onto the wing.

“Lady, what the hell did you think you were doing back there? This is a military base, not a flight school. You could have gotten us all killed.”

She spun around at the deep voice as she slid to the ground, then half leaned into the wing, half clutched it for fear her legs would not hold her up.

The six Cobras sat on the runway a short distance away, their rotor blades still slicing the air, but Suzanne paid them little heed. It was the man approaching that riveted her gaze. Panic seized her.

She wasn’t ready to face him yet. Not like this.

Get back in the plane and fly away, a voice in the far reaches of her head screamed. Now!

Instead, she stood frozen, unable to move or even breathe as she watched him close the distance between them. Suzanne realized the moment he recognized her, and she felt her insides roil as her nerves threatened to get the better of her. It had been almost a year since she’d left Three Hills, but not one day had passed that she hadn’t thought about him and wondered what might have happened between them if Rick hadn’t been killed.

Memories tried to crowd in on her, bringing darkness and pain with them, but she pushed them away. There was no time for that now, not if she wanted to survive.

“Suzanne.”

Her name sounded ripped from his lips, like an ugly curse he hadn’t wanted to utter but was unable to restrain.

The hot afternoon sun turned the dark-blond strands of his hair to burnished gold and glinted off the aviator-style sunglasses, which reflected an image of the chopper hangar behind them, the desert surrounding it, even herself, but obscured his eyes. Suzanne didn’t need to see his eyes, however. She remembered them vividly. They were the darkest, deepest blue she’d ever seen, like the desert sky during a summer storm. Dark, turbulent and dangerous, and always, it had seemed, beckoning to her.

She felt a tremor shimmer through her body and tried to look away. Instead, her gaze skipped over his long, lean body, its well-honed length complemented by his military flight suit. Her eyes darted back to his face, moving slowly over rough-hewn features that could never be termed classically handsome.

Nevertheless, he was striking, devastatingly so.

Friend…or enemy? The question that had been playing over and over in her mind for hours sent a chill racing up her spine as she looked at him. Someone was trying to destroy her, maybe even kill her, and Hart Branson was either the only one who could save her…or the one responsible.

She had come to find out which.

Without another word, without even waiting for her to respond, Hart spun on his heel and stalked across the tarmac toward an open hangar.

Startled, Suzanne watched him walk away, then shook herself, grabbed her bag and followed. She may have been a fool for coming to him, may have put herself in more danger, but she couldn’t give up. Or let him refuse her. There was no one else to turn to, nowhere else to go. “Hart, please, just listen….”

He jerked around. “What do you want, Suzanne?”

She stopped and stared at him, momentarily taken back by the hostility she sensed, not only in his tone, but in his entire being. It seemed to radiate from him like the heat from the runway.

Why? The question pounded at her. What had she ever done to make him so angry with her?

The need to escape his hard, probing stare nearly overwhelmed her.

Get back in the plane and leave, the voice of her own fear said again.

She resisted giving in to it. “The…the FBI came to my house.”

Hart didn’t move, and his features seemed set in stone.

She swallowed, hard, and forced herself to go on even though she could almost feel his disdain pushing her away. “They said military secrets were stolen during Rick’s last mission.”

When he didn’t respond, Suzanne went on, “For some reason they kept the theft quiet, but now the secrets are being sold and they…they…”

The air above the tarmac shimmered beneath the merciless Arizona sun, but his silence was chilling, and stoked her already frayed nerves.

“They insist Rick’s alive, Hart.”

She heard the thread of hysteria in her voice, felt the sting of panic-driven tears behind her eyes, fought both and hurried on. “They think he faked his death, that he stole the secrets and sold them and that I’m his accomplice.”

Fury ignited within Hart instantly, threatening to explode and tear him apart, and only by force of will was he able to control it.

He’d been betrayed before and he would most likely be betrayed again, but he would never believe that of Rick, and she knew it. So why had Suzanne really come back? What did she really want? He had never expected to see her again, and that had been just fine—more than fine—because as far as he was concerned, it was her fault Rick Cassidy was dead.

Turning abruptly, he tore off the dark glasses, walked into the hangar and threw his helmet and flight board onto a workbench, then spun back to face her again. “Do you really expect me to believe this, Suzanne?”

She’d followed him inside, but now she stopped. His disdain and rejection were too much, a lethal jab at the fear she’d been trying for days to deny she even felt. Tears sprang to her eyes, hot and burning, threatening to spill over. Every cell in her body trembled with desperation.

With concentrated effort she threw back her shoulders, stiffened her spine and searched for strength as she blinked rapidly in an effort to hold back the tears. “It’s the truth.” She’d meant it as a hard, convincing statement. Instead, the words came out as little more than a shaky whisper.

Hart stared at her, his eyes narrowed, distrust scorching hotly through his veins. Every woman he’d let become a part of his life, every single one, had cheated and lied: first his mother, then his only aunt, foster mothers and even his ex-wife. But Suzanne’s transgression had been the worst of all, because hers had gotten a man killed.

He’d learned early in life that a man who trusted anyone but himself was a fool. To trust a woman was even worse.

And every time he’d ignored that lesson, he’d ended up sorry.

He turned back to the workbench and reached for the coffeepot that sat on it, his fingers forming a fist around the pot’s handle and squeezing mercilessly as his anger deepened.

A year ago Suzanne Cassidy had been the wife of his best friend, the only real friend Hart had ever had, ever allowed himself to have. In spite of that, he had found himself attracted to her the moment they met. He’d loathed himself for it and tried to banish the feelings by sheer will.

He remembered one night when Suzanne had shown up to say goodbye to Rick just minutes before they were to ship out on an unexpected mission. It was when Hart watched her kiss Rick and tell him to be careful that he’d known he cared about her too much. One hell of a wake-up call for a man who didn’t believe in love or giving his trust or anything else of himself to anyone.

He’d requested a transfer the same day they’d returned to the base. Out of sight, out of mind, he’d figured. But the transfer had been denied.

Then Rick had been killed and Hart blamed Suzanne, because he knew she’d done the unforgivable.

So why did he suddenly feel an almost irresistible urge to drag her into his arms and claim her lips with his?

Self-loathing filled him.

Why did desire simmer within him, threaten to burst free and consume him, overwhelm him, when he looked at her now—even when he considered her little better than a murderer?

He set the coffeepot down with a crash, too angry to be aware of the hot liquid that splashed on his hand. He turned back toward her. “Rick was no traitor, Suzanne.”

Sunlight streamed through the window behind him and touched her tears, turning them to tiny shimmering reflections of the sun’s rays.

Hart drew on his anger to steel himself against the compassion the sight stirred in him, but he couldn’t stop his eyes from drinking in her beauty, or his senses from appreciating it. Delicacy and strength were both evident in the face he’d always found far more alluring than any other woman’s. As he studied her now, he realized she had grown even more beautiful than his memories of her.

Suzanne’s lips were a blend of perfect curves and tempting fullness that beckoned his own. Her nose was slightly turned up at the end, giving her an air of sassiness, while the deep brown of her eyes, splintered by tiny chips of gold, held the richness of the desert floor on a moonless night.

His gaze moved over the pale-yellow silk blouse she wore, lingered on the curve of her breasts, the narrow breadth of her waist, subtle curve of her hips and the way her jeans held snugly to her long legs.

Suddenly all the old feelings crowded in on him. His fingers ached to slip within the silky darkness of her hair, to slide through the waves that cascaded over her shoulders, to wrap around the nape of her neck and pull her toward him, to caress her curvaceous body, to stoke her passion until…

He clenched his hands into fists as the traitorous emotions soared through his body. What was the matter with him? He didn’t want to feel these things.

“I know Rick wasn’t a traitor,” she said finally, breaking the cold silence that had settled between them. “But what I’m telling you is the truth. As unbelievable as it sounds, Hart, I swear it’s true, and I need help. I thought…” Her voice broke, but she forced herself to go on. “I thought…maybe you could…maybe if you would…” She couldn’t finish.

The hostility that emanated from him, the anger she felt fill the space that separated them as he glared at her were too much. He hated her.

The realization shocked Suzanne.

He hated her.

It was so obvious now. But why? She didn’t know…and yet it really didn’t matter. Hope fled from her heart as completely and swiftly as a deer flees a hunter.

She turned toward the door, nearly knocking over a stool in her haste to escape him as panic started to overwhelm her. She’d been a fool to come here. To think he’d help. Her tears burst free, blinding her and turning the world into little more than a blurry collage of color. She stumbled, then paused, wiping at her eyes in an effort to bring her surroundings into focus, to turn the sunlight streaming through the open hangar door into more than just an undefinable bright blur.

Guilt and regret instantly rushed through Hart, but he fought them off as staunchly as he did the urge to reach out and stop her. Tears were just one of a woman’s many tools, and most women knew how to use them all too effectively. Another lesson he’d learned a long time ago—repeatedly.

He moved to stand beside a disabled UH-60 Blackhawk, leaning his back against the gunner’s door. Yet in spite of the lazy appearance of his stance, every muscle in his body was taut, every nerve on end. He couldn’t give her the benefit of the doubt, or even consider believing her. It was out of the question.

Nevertheless he was curious and wanted to know more.

“So if I assume your story is true, why come to me, Suzanne? What do you expect me to do?” He tried to keep his features as hard and unrelenting as he tried to keep his voice. Part of him wanted her to walk out of the hangar without answering. But another part of him, the part he had to fight off with everything in him, urged him to close the distance between them, pull her into his embrace and take what he’d wanted, what he’d dreamed about for so long, and damn the guilt, the world and everything else.

Suzanne turned and, as their eyes met, felt her breath nearly desert her.

For the briefest of seconds she saw desire flame to life in his eyes, felt it reach out to her, beckon to her and stoke the fires of the attraction she’d felt for him before Rick’s death.

Then, as abruptly as the glimmer of desire had appeared in his eyes, it was gone, and there was nothing left there but cold anger again.

Flushed, her mind refused to collate an answer to his question. She looked away again, suddenly engulfed by a flash of memories: the first time she’d met Hart…the attraction that had stirred within her…the guilt that had followed. It hadn’t mattered to Suzanne that her marriage was virtually over, that her husband had indulged in numerous affairs, that she had been the only one still trying to make the marriage work. The guilt had eaten at her night and day, relentlessly.

Her mother, who fell in love as effortlessly as most people fall asleep, was on her sixth husband, and Suzanne had always been determined not to follow in her footsteps. For richer or poorer, in sickness or health, until death do us part—that had been a promise she’d intended to keep, no matter what.

Then Rick had demanded a divorce.

She pushed the memories aside and looked back at Hart. How well had she really known him? He’d been Rick’s senior officer and friend, not hers. Had she been a fool for coming to him?

Friend or enemy? The words echoed through her mind again, taunting her as she stared at him. Yet in spite of them and the fear that gripped her, that undefinable something that had been between them since the day they’d first met, still drew her to him.

Suzanne stiffened against the sensations assaulting her. For the past year she’d been building a barricade around her heart, protecting herself, and now she could feel the structure weakening and threatening to crumble.

Her emotions were in turmoil only because she was so scared, that was all. A month ago the FBI had shown up at her door and questioned her relentlessly. Last week after their third visit, she’d known she had to do something to stop their badgering questions and prove their suspicions wrong. She’d called her cousin Molly, a State Department employee and the only person she could trust. But Molly hadn’t been at work or home. She was on a survival trip somewhere in the wilds of Montana, and according to both her boss and her mother, she was totally unreachable.

That was when Suzanne had known the only person who could help her was the only person who’d seen Rick die—Hart.

She felt his gaze on her and pulled herself together enough to answer his questions. “I came to you because I don’t have anyone else to turn to. I don’t want to end up dead or spend the rest of my life in prison, and to avoid that I need your help, Hart.”

She watched his eyes narrow again, his jaw clench tightly and the small vein on the side of his neck twitch ever so slightly. Apprehension seized her. A shiver of fear skipped up her spine and swept goose bumps across her skin.

Oh, God, she prayed, don’t let him be the one I should be running from.

Reason and rationale warred with the resentment and anger that had been pent-up inside Hart since Rick’s death. Her claims were ludicrous. Too ridiculous to be anything but impossible. Even so, they could explain why someone was investigating him.

He mulled the possibility over in his mind, trying to look at it rationally and calmly.

A week ago his company commander had informed him that someone from Washington had called and asked some very pointed questions. That wasn’t unusual. Someone was always asking questions about the Cobra Corps, even though just about every assignment the army’s elite, special-ops helicopter unit was given was top secret.

It was still a fairly new unit, as far as the army was concerned, having been borne out of a special mission during the Persian Gulf war. Six men brought together to fly a mission most others considered suicidal. But they’d succeeded. Now the Cobra Corps, attached to the 12th Aviation Brigade, 99th Cavalry Division Air Mobile, consisted of thirty-two men, all pilots and officers, with a special attachment of mechanics, aides, communications officer, crew chiefs and a medic. Their permanent base was Three Hills, Arizona, but they could be called out at any time for anything. Their missions were usually classified and highly dangerous; rescuing political hostages, “relieving” certain political pressures, circumventing political uprisings, dealing with the before, or aftermath, of terrorists, and conducting top secret surveillance, being the usual types of assignments.

But this time the questions had been about Hart. Still, neither he nor the company commander had been overly concerned. Hart was the corps’s flight leader, and he was up for promotion. The questioning wasn’t routine, but someone was probably just being overly efficient, ordering a check on him “for the record.” A formality.

But he should have been concerned, because yesterday someone from Washington, and he didn’t know who, had requested his 201 file. To request an officer’s personnel file from his commanding officer was an unusual request. It could mean nothing; someone had a question about him before approving his promotion, or he was being considered for a special assignment and his background was being rechecked. There were numerous possibilities, including that his career was in serious jeopardy.

Now he wondered if these incidents and Suzanne’s sudden return and unbelievable claims could be connected?

He shook his head. He was letting his imagination run wild. Anyway, his commanding officer had denied the request. No one had gotten his file.

Hart caught Suzanne’s gaze and held it mercilessly. “The feds can’t resurrect a dead man, Suzanne.”

Bitterness tinged his tone.

“Hart, I don’t—”

“Rick is dead, Suzanne. I saw his chopper take a direct hit. I saw it explode and go down in a shower of flames and debris. No one could have survived that.”

She took a step toward him, panic rising in her again. Whether he was out to destroy her or he was her only chance to survive, she couldn’t allow him to send her away. She wouldn’t. At least not until she knew the truth and could prove it.

Make friends with your enemies, Rick had once said. It throws them off guard.

She stared into Hart’s eyes, searching for answers to questions she never in a million years would have imagined herself asking. But that was before the FBI had come knocking on her door.

Had Hart murdered Rick to protect himself? Was he the man the FBI should be considering a traitor? Maybe even a murderer? She took a deep breath. Was it really possible the body they’d identified as her husband hadn’t been Rick at all? She had to get Hart to help her and in the process convince herself he was innocent, or find some way to prove he was the one setting her up.

“The FBI doesn’t believe Rick’s dead.” She pulled a file folder from her bag and, hands shaking so badly she nearly dropped it, tossed the folder, open, onto a mechanics table near where Hart stood.

He looked down at the papers suddenly scattered atop the table’s tools, but didn’t understand what he was supposed to see.

“That’s a copy of a bank statement for an account I never knew I had,” she said, pointing to one.

He looked down at the statement. It was a new account, opened only six weeks ago. His gaze moved to the bottom of the page, and he noted the balance: $155,000.

She pointed at a photograph that lay beside the bank statement. “And that’s a picture of me talking to a man the FBI claims is a European spy.”

His gaze moved to the photo, recognizing Suzanne but not the man she was talking to. He looked back at her, still unwilling to believe, even for a moment, that anything she was saying could be true.

She could have deposited the money herself and be lying to him now, and the man in the photograph could be anyone. Her accomplice—a friend, a lover, even a stranger she stopped on the street. But why would she make up such an elaborate lie? What did she really want?

“He came into the auction house where I work…” She paused, realizing Hart didn’t know she’d revamped her career. “I don’t teach school anymore,” she said. “I’m a partner in an antiques auction house and gallery in Beverly Hills now.” She paused again, momentarily distracted by thoughts of just how much her life had changed since the last time she’d seen Hart.

She’d gone to Los Angeles with every intention of continuing her career as a high-school teacher. But two days into her new job several students in one of her classes started arguing and she couldn’t get them to stop. A moment later the sound of gunfire exploded in the room, and one of the teenagers fell to the floor.

She’d taken a leave of absence from her job, too shaken to even think of returning to her classroom. A week later she’d been browsing through a little shop that sold all sorts of bric-a-brac when she had run into Clyde, who’d been talking with the owner. Clyde Weller was Suzanne’s second cousin on her father’s side and had been her best friend through high school. They’d lost touch over the years, but seeing him again proved to be just what she’d needed.

They’d gone to dinner and talked, and talked and talked and talked. Finally, well into the wee hours, Clyde made a suggestion that seemed so natural Suzanne said yes instantly. She was widowed, had received a large settlement after Rick’s death she needed to invest, and her degree was in history, with art as her minor. Clyde had been doing freelance bidding on antiques for others for years, so he was already well connected in the business and had always planned on opening his own gallery/auction house.

It was as if fate had brought them together again. They’d pooled their resources, as well as their last names, and started Casswell’s.

Hart stared, but didn’t question her, so she decided not to explain. He obviously wasn’t interested in her personal life, which was fine. She only needed his help in clearing herself of the FBI’s ridiculous allegations.

“Anyway, about two months ago this man in the picture came into the gallery and introduced himself as Mason Brunswick,” Suzanne continued, “and said he was thinking of consigning Casswell’s—that’s the name of our business—some very old paintings for auction. The next day, on my way home, I ran into him on the street. We chatted a minute, and he asked me a question about one of the paintings. That’s obviously when the photo was taken.”

“So again, assuming this story of yours is true,” Hart said, “and somehow Rick survived that crash—and the body identified as his wasn’t, what do you think I can do?” He didn’t even know why he was asking. Her story obviously wasn’t true. It had taken six months after the Jaguar Loop mission and Rick’s memorial service before the army had been able to recover his body. But they had finally recovered it, and he was dead. So what did Suzanne really want? What could she possibly hope to gain by these ridiculous claims?

He didn’t know.

Nevertheless he knew that, instead of asking questions that had kept her from leaving, he should have just gathered up her so-called evidence, handed it back to her and sent her on her way.

“You’re the only one who saw Rick die,” Suzanne said, seeing the cynicism that still shadowed his eyes. “Hart, you saw it happen. You’re the only one who can swear that it was Rick who got in the Cobra that day, that it was Rick flying it, that Rick is dead—if he really is.”

He didn’t answer.

She continued to meet his hard stare as doubt and suspicion assailed her. What if she’d just walked into a trap? What if he’d cunningly drawn her into it and she was doing exactly as he wanted? What if he was the only person on earth who could help her, but wouldn’t believe her? A torrent of what ifs slammed her. She felt all her senses and feelings intensify: fear, attraction, suspicion, longing.

Her heart raced as he looked at her for several very long, very tense moments. His scrutiny made her breathing become ragged and forced, the blood rushing through her veins in a tumultuous, speeding, hot flow that made her light-headed. She’d known confronting him would be difficult, maybe one of the most difficult things she’d ever done, but it was proving far harder, far more complicated than she’d ever imagined.

Say something, she silently demanded, and gripped one hand with the other upon realizing they were trembling. Control, she told herself. She had to keep herself under control and not break down. She tried to pull her gaze from his, needing to escape those penetrating eyes, and found it impossible.

A chill swept up her back, then rippled through her entire body. Say something, she silently pleaded again. But it wasn’t only his silence that unnerved her, or even the cold fear that had invaded her senses. It was the urge she felt to reach across the space that separated them, to touch him and feel his warmth, his strength. The feeling was almost more than she could resist.

How many times since she’d left Three Hills had she thought of him? Dreamed of him? And told herself to forget him? To put all thoughts, all memories, all fantasies about Hart away?

She curled her fingers into fists and held them rigid at her sides, trying to force away the feelings she knew could only prove her downfall.

“The FBI is building a case against me, Hart.” Her voice sounded weak and pleading, but she couldn’t help it. “They obviously believe Rick survived that crash—or that it wasn’t him flying the plane that day.”

She inhaled deeply.

“My only chance to prove this so-called evidence they have against me and Rick wrong is you.”

“They retrieved the body,” Hart snapped. “They identified it as Rick. You want to believe they were wrong?”

She looked at him and shrugged. “The FBI does.” He saw the fear and desperation she was fighting to hide and the tears she was struggling to hold back.

Hart fought to control the emotions warring within him since the moment she’d turned from her plane and he’d recognized her. Desire and anger, resentment and need. He’d lived with them all for a long time, enduring them, but now they were hotter, stronger than ever.

Part of him wanted nothing more than to ignore everything that had happened in the past and just drag her into his arms to take what he’d always wanted, to taste, finally, the sweetness of her lips, to feel the slender length of her body pressed against him and to experience, revel in, the passion he knew slept deep within her.

How many nights since she’d left Three Hills had he lain in bed unable to sleep, his thoughts all on her, almost feeling her body next to his, wondering where she was, what she was doing, who she was with?

Some nights he’d felt as if his memories were slowly killing him. Other nights he’d wished they would.

But he hadn’t dreamed about her now for at least a month. He’d thought that was all behind him, that his feelings for her were dead. Now he knew he’d been wrong.

But what he was feeling wasn’t all memories and nostalgia, or even desire, because he also wanted to slam a fist through something and frighten her into telling him the truth. He wanted to grab her, jerk her to her feet and demand she stop lying.

“Hart, please,” Suzanne said. “You have to listen. I…”

He shook his head and strode past her to the door. “Rick’s dead, Suzanne. You know it, I know it, the army knows it, and I have no doubt the damned FBI, if they have any reason to want to—knows it, too.”