“Shit!” Nick spat, his eyes scouring the throng milling on the waterfront.
“He’s gone?”
“Ducked into one of the shops or restaurants, I’d guess.”
“Or into his car.”
“Jeep. I’ll bet he drives a Jeep.”
Marla’s heart stopped for a second. “Like the man you were looking for earlier.”
“Exactly,” Nick slowed to a brisk walk and Marla gasped to catch her breath, her mind racing frantically.
Sweeping his head side to side, his eyes trained on the faces of the people he passed, Nick’s gaze raked over the crowd, all the while keeping Marla’s smaller hand clasped tightly in his. Nervously, taking in deep breaths, Marla, too, scanned the faces of the people collected on the waterfront, but discovered nothing out of the ordinary in the tourists and locals who strolled around the docks and shops on the piers. Nothing sinister or evil was evident in the faces that she met.
“Who is it?” she asked.
“I don’t know, but there was a man, a tall thin man, who was lingering at the coffee shop. I didn’t think much about it, but I’m sure he came in a few minutes after us. Later, while we were walking, I caught a glimpse of him again about a block behind us when I’d looked over my shoulder to check a street sign. He disappeared around a corner and I thought I was imagining things. Then, right after I kissed you, I looked up and thought I saw his reflection in the windows of a shop. When I turned, he was taking off.”
“That doesn’t mean anything,” she said, relieved. “Come on, Nick, now you’re the one acting paranoid. You’re trying to muscle in on my psychosis.”
Nick didn’t so much as crack a smile. “You don’t get it. I think I saw him once before,” he said, obviously bothered. “At the hospital when you were still in a coma and there was something about him that was familiar. I felt like I should have known him.” Nick squinted into the false illumination of the city lights. His gaze scoured the piers and street. “That same night, I caught a glimpse of him in the hospital parking lot. He drove off in a dark Jeep. Black or maybe navy blue. I’d bet it was the same as the one that was parked at the church today.”
“You think that whoever was driving it followed us to the police station and then here?” she asked, the hairs on the back of her neck rising.
Nick’s fingers tightened over hers and they began walking along the waterfront, through the gauzy layers of fog rolling inland. “I’d be willing to bet my life on it.”
“But why?”
“That’s what we need to figure out. I don’t know the answer yet,” he admitted, pulling her closer, “but I’m sure it has something to do with you.” He looked down at her and his face was set in grim, uncompromising determination. “Paterno thought someone might be trying to kill you. I’ve thought the same thing. So have you. Whether you want to believe it or not, your life might be in danger. I think you should move out of the house. Tonight. If an intruder got in the other night, nothing’s going to stop him again.”
“But I can’t leave
,” she said, fear squeezing her heart. “My children are there.”
“Take them with you.”
“They’re Alex’s, too,” she pointed out. “I can’t kidnap my own kids and I can’t tell him because . . . oh, damn, it’s so crazy.”
“Because you don’t trust him,” he finished for her, and she fought a sudden urge to break down.
“I don’t know whom to trust.”
“Me, darlin’,” he insisted, gathering her into his arms again and dropping a kiss on her upturned lips. “You’d damned well better trust me. I could be the only friend you have.”
His lips were warm and insistent, the hands that pulled her tight strong and yet, though she wanted to trust him with all her heart, wanted to lie naked with him, wanted to feel his hands on her body, she couldn’t shake the sensation that she was being a traitor, that throwing in with Nick Cahill was as good as making a deal with the devil.
And that some day she would have to pay.
Chapter Sixteen
“So what did Mrs. Cahill have to say?” Janet Quinn asked as she stopped by Paterno’s office. She was sliding her arms through the sleeves of her jacket and was on her way out the door.
“Nothing much more than she told me on the phone,” he said, tapping a pencil on the edge of his desk. “Except that she thinks someone broke into her bedroom and threatened her. Maybe he poisoned her and she ended up nearly choking on her own puke because her teeth were wired together. That’s why 911 was called.”
Janet rolled her eyes. “You believe her?”
“To tell you the truth I don’t know what to believe,” he admitted. “But she showed up here with her brother-in-law, not her husband. She and he were an item before she married the older brother.”