Читать книгу By Request Collection April-June 2016 - Оливия Гейтс - Страница 95

DUNCAN KNEW THAT HE WASN’T going to sleep. He didn’t have to waste time lying in his bed and staring at the ceiling to figure that out. So at midnight, instead of following Daryl up the wide staircase to the second floor, he’d slipped out of the castle to walk on the castle grounds. The storm that had thundered through earlier had left a clear sky peppered with stars. With the moonlight, there was plenty of light to see by as he made his way through the gardens.

He rarely experienced restlessness or felt at loose ends, but those were exactly the feelings that had been plaguing him since he’d seen those rose petals strewn outside the library. He could deal with the cold hard fear that had settled like one of Angus One’s stones in his stomach. But the other two were more problematic. Because they’d been triggered by Piper.

He could have holed himself up in the library and distracted himself with the Lightman files, but that wouldn’t have brought him any closer to solving his problem. When he reached the stone arch, he stepped into it and then turned. What he saw first was the gardens, then the castle and the gleam of the lake below, all surrounded by the darkness of the mountains and the trees.

Angus One could have built the stone arch anywhere on the estate, so he must have taken care with the selection of this spot. He also must have stood here many times, with Eleanor’s hand in his, looking at what they’d created together. And they’d risked everything to do it.

Over the years, he’d never given much thought to the legend of the stone arch. Why would he? At ten, he’d been much more fascinated by the missing sapphires. Even when he’d stood here and heard his mother make her vows to A.D., it hadn’t been the legend he’d thought of. Once he’d looked into Piper’s eyes, he hadn’t been able to think much at all.

That’s what had scared him off. He was a rational man and she had the power to make him lose his control over that. In fact, he’d never been able to rationalize what he felt for her. Not then. Certainly, not now. He wanted her, needed her to a point way beyond reason.

Was that love? And what did she feel for him?

Those were the questions that had sent him into default mode. When she’d demanded that they break everything off, he’d agreed because he understood her decision. He hadn’t lied to her or to the others when he’d said that the person who’d strewn those petals on the terrace was unpredictable, and therefore dangerous. Perhaps even more dangerous than Patrick Lightman. The RPK was a creature of habit, pattern, bound by ritual. The person who had followed them into the cave that morning wasn’t. Duncan needed to put Piper’s safety first.

And by going along with her, he’d slipped comfortably back into his own pattern—being cautious and staying on the sidelines. Nothing of what he was seeing right now would have been here if Angus One and Eleanor had been either cautious or predictable.

To hell with rationality, he decided as he stepped out of the arch and strode toward the castle.

When he reached her room, Duncan slipped in quietly and closed the door behind him. Moonlight poured through the closed balcony doors. The tangled sheets spoke of restlessness, of a battle hard fought and won. So like his Piper. Now she lay curled into a ball with one arm tucked beneath a pillow, her breathing even.

He recalled watching her sleep before and wanting her mindlessly. That hadn’t changed. What had changed was the very different rush of emotion he experienced now. For a moment he saw what it might be like to see her like this every night and every morning, and something inside of him opened.

Moving soundlessly, he slipped out of his shoes and clothes before he joined her on the bed. When he drew her close, she pressed herself against him and settled. He kissed her first on the cheek and then very softly on her mouth. Her lips were warm and softened by sleep. Her taste was almost familiar now. He let himself absorb the sensations, drift with them.

He heard the moment she awakened, a sound of pleasure, a quick gasp of surprise. Her nails dug into his shoulder as she drew back and opened her eyes.

“Duncan. We said … We agreed.” But she didn’t push him away, and her body remained soft against his.

“I can’t sleep for wanting you, Piper.” He whispered the words against her lips. “Let me touch you. Show you how much. Just for tonight.”

She didn’t have the strength to say no. How could she form the word when his mouth was nibbling at hers? And she’d been dreaming of this, wanting him to come to her, yearning for the pleasure of his mouth, his hands on her.

But this wasn’t a dream. His heart beat fast and steady beneath her palm, and the pulse of it echoed her own. She wanted to touch him, to offer him as much pleasure as he was giving her. So she did, testing the strength of his shoulders, feeling those smooth muscles flex beneath her hands.

There was no need to hurry or rush. Time was a gift they offered each other as they lay loving each other in the moonlight. Steeped in him, she whispered requests and murmured in pleasure when he granted them. Should she have known how tenderness both given and received could make her aware of every pore and pulse of her body?

Even when he moved over her and made a place for himself between her legs, there was none of the speed and the fury that they’d brought each other before. She absorbed every detail of him, the gleam of those dark eyes, the strong lines of that warrior face. Framing it with her hands, she drew it closer until their lips melded, parted and then touched again. She would remember seeing him this way forever. Her throat ached when he linked his fingers with hers and pressed their joined hands into the tangle of sheets.

She spoke only his name as he slipped into her and filled her completely. The sound aroused him unbearably, but he kept the pace slow and easy. With their minds and needs fused, she moved with him and gave everything.

As desire built, her taste darkened, her body shuddered for more. So he gave her more. As he felt her crest, he clung to control and guided her up and over the next climax. And the next.

And when he knew she thought only of him, he finally gave his own needs their freedom and poured himself into her.

DUNCAN STOOD JUST OUTSIDE THE main foyer of the castle, in the hallway that ran back to the library and the kitchen. From his position, he could make sure that no one wandered back to the library area and still keep everyone in view. Deanna Lewis was halfway up the stairs taking shots of the stained-glass windows on the landing. She’d impressed him yesterday as competent and efficient. She carried a notebook with her and consulted it frequently, especially when she gave instructions to the two young assistants she’d brought along.

The trio had started with the main parlor and moved on to the formal dining room and the ballroom that was used for many of the wedding receptions. Currently, the two young men were outside the main entrance taking a break. Through the glass panels, he could see that Sheriff Skinner had engaged them in conversation.

Across the hall, he could see Daryl and Vi in the main parlor where Richard Arbogast was having tea. The senior editor had been disappointed when he’d learned that Piper wouldn’t be available for an interview. When he’d once again tried to convince Vi to let his photographer take a few shots of the library, Duncan had almost intervened. But Vi had diverted Arbogast’s attention by including him in a tour she was giving to a prospective bride and groom. They’d been fascinated with his knowledge of Scottish castles, and now Vi was rewarding him with homemade scones and stories about her girls growing up in a castle. He could see why she and Adair were building such a successful business.

So far everything was quiet. In D.C., Glen Loch and here at the castle. Daryl’s tech man hadn’t gotten back to him with any news about the composite photo yet. Patrick Lightman had appeared at the diner for a late breakfast, and then sat on a bench to take in the view of the lake, just as he had the day before. Currently, he was back in his room at the Eagle’s Nest taking a nap. His snores were being recorded by Skinner’s deputy.

Duncan couldn’t have asked for a less eventful morning. But waiting on the sidelines for something to happen had never frustrated him so much. He could only hope that Piper was having more luck with the RPK files. Daryl had fitted her with a wire that was voice activated. Both he and Daryl wore a small earpiece, but so far Piper hadn’t made a sound. Vi and Daryl had each checked in with her, but the news had been the same. Nothing.

He glanced back over his shoulder at the closed library door. She’d be safe enough there until everyone left.

“Mr. Sutherland?”

Duncan turned his attention to Deanna Lewis as she came down the main staircase. She was an attractive woman in her late twenties and she was dressed in the same comfortable jeans and T-shirt she’d worn the day before. “You could do me a big favor.”

“And that would be?”

“There’s a library here.” She raised a hand. “I know Russell was told that it’s closed to the public and not really ready to be photographed. But this is my first freelance assignment with a magazine of Architectural Digest’s prestige. If there’s any way you could make an exception and let me take a few shots, it would really earn me points with my boss.”

“I’m sorry, but the library is off-limits. After the death of the current owner’s wife, it was locked up and unused for years,” Duncan said. “I can’t see why you’d want a shot of it.”

“Because it’s off-limits,” she said. “Forbidden. I don’t always want to be taking pictures for a magazine—I’m more interested in photojournalism.”

Russell Arbogast entered the foyer. “Deanna, I’m going to pay a last visit to the stone arch with Daryl and Vi. Do you need any more shots of it?”

“I’ve got what I need, but why don’t you take Sam and Carl? It will be good practice for them.”

As soon as everyone left, Deanna turned back to Duncan. “How about letting me take a few shots of the library from the outside? I took some pictures of the grounds yesterday, but I’m not even sure where the library is located.”

Duncan studied her. Her curiosity seemed genuine. But it also occurred to him that if she’d been taking outside shots yesterday, she might quite easily have found the library on her own. It wouldn’t be hard to spot a library through the glass doors. If you used the telescopic lens on the camera, you could easily identify it from quite a distance away in the woods.

His own curiosity aroused, Duncan said, “I’ll show you where it’s located, but no shots through the windows.”

She beamed a smile at him. “Deal.”

PIPER CLOSED THE LID ON BOX number five of the RPK files and stretched her arms over her head. A glance at her watch told her that she’d been working on it for more than two hours. Nothing had popped.

Standing, she walked to the sliding glass doors that led to the terrace and swept her gaze around the clearing. She’d decided to work at the desk so that she could keep an eye out in case someone decided to throw rose petals all over the terrace again.

So far, no one had.

There was something, some detail that she was missing. Something important. Her first inkling had been at the diner yesterday when she’d been sitting across from Lightman. And twice later in the day she’d experienced that little mental nudge, but she couldn’t latch onto it.

She needed to talk to Duncan. If he could just take her through the conversation they’d had with Lightman in that methodical way he had, she might remember.

Or she might just be making up an excuse to see Duncan again. He’d left her room before she’d awakened.

And that had hurt. She rubbed the heel of her hand against her chest where it still did.

Just for tonight.

That’s what he’d said to her. He’d never promised her any more. In the beginning, even in the stone arch yesterday, she hadn’t wanted any more.

She certainly hadn’t wanted to fall in love with him. But that’s just what she’d done. She rubbed her hand again over the ache in her chest. Now she would pay the price—the same price her father had paid for loving her mother. Loss.

She wasn’t even aware that her vision had blurred with tears until she saw Duncan walk into the clearing outside the glass. Blinking, she recognized his companion as the photographer who’d been with Russell Arbogast the day before. Deanna Lewis. For one second, she was tempted to punch in the security code and step out to say hello. But they weren’t walking toward her. Then she remembered, Russell had asked to take photos of the library, and Vi had told them it wouldn’t be available. So what were they doing here?

Her mind had barely considered the question when Deanna set her camera down and pulled out her notebook. Duncan took it and put on his reading glasses to study it.

That’s when the memory struck her like a bare-fisted punch.

Reading glasses.

Images flashed into her mind at fast-forward speed. The first pair she’d seen on him had been right here in the library. She recalled him setting them aside on the desk and also handing them to him in the stone arch. If she hadn’t found them on the ledge, he might have left them behind.

Patrick Lightman had said he didn’t need the glasses he’d worn during the trial all the time. But he’d pulled them out yesterday when he’d been looking at the video clip on his cell phone and replaced them later in his pocket.

The memory tugged hard this time. There was something she’d seen in one of the files.

Which one? Whirling away from the glass doors, she strode back to the boxes neatly lined up along the wall and squatted down in front of them. She’d been working on the fourth box yesterday when she’d fallen asleep. Crime scene photos of one of the RPK killer’s earlier victims.

Piper sat down on the floor, located the file, and removed the photos. Then she spread them out, examining each shot before she placed it on the floor. The RPK had staged his scenes so exactly and the details were so similar that it was hard to distinguish one from another.

But something in this particular one had stuck with her. The body lying in the center of the sheet had been shot from different angles, and a zoom lens had effectively captured close-ups of different sections of the scene.

She spotted it in the third photo—a pair of glasses lying just beneath the couch. They rested on the top of the lens frame with the temple wings spread out—just as if someone had set them down for a minute. Yesterday, Duncan had set his on the desk in the same way when she’d ordered him to take them off. And she could see it—just the shadow of a logo on the side. It was the same one she’d seen on the glasses Lightman had used in the diner and on the ones he’d worn during the trial.

In her mind, she tried to picture it the way Duncan would. Lightman working, totally focused on setting up his victim and getting the scene perfect. He slips off his glasses and sets them down and in adjusting the sheet they somehow slip beneath the edge of the couch. Or perhaps he slides them away to allow for a perfect fall of rose petals.

And then, in his focus on the crime, he forgets and leaves them behind.

Those glasses had to be in an evidence bag somewhere. Someone had probably assumed they belonged to the victim. They’d probably never been tested for prints. Or if they had, Lightman hadn’t been a suspect then. Daryl could probably enlarge the photo and get a clearer image of that telling logo. There was a very good chance that Patrick Lightman could now be connected to at least one of the RPK’s other victims.

She glanced at the other boxes. Maybe Lightman had left things behind more than once. Excitement had her surging to her feet. She had to tell Duncan. Thank heavens he was still in the clearing. Punching in the code, she disarmed the alarm and then raced onto the terrace.

“Piper, no. Go back.”

The shouted words had her freezing in her tracks. But only for a second. When she saw him crumple to the ground, she raced forward. There was a buzzing in her head as she dropped to her knees. “Duncan.”

He didn’t answer, and he was lying so still.

“What happened?” But when she glanced up at Deanna Lewis and saw the gun, she knew. “You shot him.”

“Not yet,” she said in a pleasant tone. “Too much noise. I used a very high-powered Taser. And I have to thank you for coming out. You distracted him just enough. I was having a problem convincing him to let me come into the library.”

Duncan wasn’t dead. That thought helped clear her mind, and she remembered she was wired. Daryl would have heard everything once she started speaking. He’d be on his way right now. She just had to stall.

Piper forced her gaze away from Duncan and away from the gun to meet the young woman’s eyes. The hate she saw there nearly had her taking a quick step back. “Why are you doing this?”

“Why? Because Eleanor Campbell MacPherson’s sapphires don’t belong to you. And you can’t find them before I do. So you have to be eliminated.”

Eliminated? For the first time the realization hit her that the woman she was looking at wasn’t entirely sane. Obsessed—that was the word Duncan had used. “You’re the person who was visiting the library, aren’t—?”

Piper broke off when she saw Deanna shift the barrel of the gun toward Duncan’s head.

“Stop talking. I’ll use the gun on him first and then on you unless you agree to come with me now. Your choice.”

No time to wait for Daryl. “Don’t shoot Duncan.” Piper rose to her feet. “Spare his life and I’ll take you to the sapphires. They’re what you want, aren’t they? They’re why you visited the library, trying to find some clue to their location?”

“They belong to us. They always did. And now it’s our mission to find them. Not yours.”

“I’ll do more than go with you. I’ll show you where they are. Duncan and I found a second sapphire earring in the caves. I can take you there.”

Deanna hesitated for just a moment. “I followed you and I looked. If it was there, you took it away.”

“We heard you following us, so we hid it well. To protect it.” It was such a huge lie that she wondered how her nose didn’t grow like Pinocchio’s. And Piper was pretty sure it wouldn’t stand up to logical scrutiny. Why on earth, if they’d found the sapphire earring, would they have left it behind? But Duncan’s theory was that the woman she was looking at right now was obsessed with getting hold of Eleanor’s dowry. And she was just as obsessed with getting her away from Duncan. “I can show you exactly where. The necklace may be there, too. We didn’t have time to search for it.”

“All right.”

Piper didn’t even allow herself a breath of relief before she turned and headed toward the cliff face.

TOO MUCH PAIN, DUNCAN THOUGHT. It swam in his head and streaked through his muscles with an intensity that nearly blocked out the fear. He couldn’t move. He could barely think. Piper. Each second that ticked by, Deanna Lewis was getting her farther and farther away from the castle. Eyes closed, Duncan put all his effort into getting control over his body.

He opened his eyes first, blinking against the blinding sun. But he knew that he was recovering when the fear began to push out the pain. The second time he opened his eyes, he was able to raise his hand to shade them. And he knew a brief flash of relief when he saw Daryl, Vi and Sheriff Skinner rush out through the sliding terrace doors from the library.

He’d managed to sit up by the time they reached him.

“Deanna Lewis,” he managed.

Daryl squatted down beside him. “Don’t try to talk. Piper let us know they’re headed to the caves.”

“Caves,” Duncan repeated.

“Piper told Deanna that you and she had left the earring hidden there. She even suggested that the necklace might be there also.”

Brilliant, Duncan thought. But when Deanna found out it was a lie, the strategy could prove lethal for Piper.

“You think she’s the person you saw running away wearing the hoodie,” Sheriff Skinner said.

Duncan managed to nod and didn’t like the way his head swam.

“When Piper asked her, she didn’t deny being the person who paid all those patient visits to the library,” Daryl said.

“She’s not patient anymore,” Duncan said. “Arbogast?”

“I got a man babysitting him and the two young photographers at the stones. They’re not going anywhere, and my deputy is on his way out here. He called me a few minutes ago to tell me that Lightman isn’t in his room. Seems the snoring that’s been going on for the last couple of hours has come from a mini tape recorder Lightman set up.”

“I’ll follow along the cliff path,” Daryl said, rising.

Duncan grabbed Cam’s boss by the ankle. “She won’t hesitate to kill Piper. If the profile I’ve been building is right, there’s a good chance she blames Piper because she didn’t find the jewels first. The kinds of risks she’s running—like revealing herself today—mean she’s very dangerous. She may not even be worried about being caught.”

He could talk again, breathe. He made his way unsteadily to his feet.

“What’s the plan?” Daryl asked.

“We’re going to the cave through an alternate route.

You got a flashlight?”

Daryl patted his pocket. “Always. Along with my gun.”

Duncan fished in his pocket for his own. “This way.” He could only pray that he and Daryl would make it in time.