TO HOLD AN EAGLE Page 14

  "Channie—"

  "It was never really me at all, was it? It had nothing to do with me, not even with Daniel needing to own me. It was all because I overheard him, that night…" She shuddered.

  "God, it's awful. Somehow, thinking it was some possession thing was different. This is … it's like I was just a nuisance he had to get rid of."

  "We don't know anything for sure," Linc began.

  "But it all fits, doesn't it? And it makes sense. More sense than thinking he wanted to keep me so badly." A tiny moan escaped her. "God, he murdered Al, didn't he? He did something to his car, his brakes maybe—"

  Linc let out a compressed breath. "The police would probably have discovered that. But if it was an accident, I'm Admiral Halsey."

  "But how could he? After they were so friendly, that night…?"

  "Channie," Linc said softly, "why is it so hard for you to believe? He tried to murder you, and he damn near succeeded."

  "I know." She hated how her voice sounded so tiny, but she just didn't think she could take much more. "I'm sorry, I just… It's all so…"

  "I understand," Shiloh said sympathetically. "I know just how you feel."

  "You couldn't," Chandra choked out. "Not you. You're not a naive fool like I've been. I can't believe you ever were."

  Shiloh looked a little startled, then said gently, "Only because I learned early on how ugly people can be. But I'll bet I felt just about like you do now. Makes you sick to your stomach, doesn't it? Like you wish you could just sail off and never see the world again?"

  "Yes," Chandra whispered. This support from an unexpected quarter helped her steady herself. But it did nothing to alleviate her bewilderment.

  "But what could he gain?" she asked. "If he killed Al to keep him from telling that the drug doesn't work … but that doesn't make sense. What's the point? The side effects are obvious, Al said so. So the FDA will find out it's no good when they test it, won't they?"

  "Was your husband having money problems?"

  Chandra glanced at Con, who was standing beside the sofa, holding another section of the newspaper.

  "I don't know. I don't know much about the company, really. Daniel didn't talk to me about that."

  Because he knew there was no point in trying to explain it to me when I'd never be able to understand, Chandra thought. She tried to shrug off the thought; she'd appeared pitiful enough in front of these people, she didn't want to look even worse.

  "He used to complain a lot about money, viciously sometimes," she said after a moment, "but doesn't everyone these days?"

  "Not," Con said dryly, handing Linc the business section he'd pulled out, "everyone."

  Linc took the paper, knowing what he was going to find. Yet the knowledge did little to ease the churning of his stomach. Chandra had been right; it had been easier to deal with thinking Daniel was just so possessive he wouldn't let her go than to realize that she had been merely a pest, a small hazard to be gotten rid of, with no more concern than swatting a fly.

  It was there, as he'd known it would be. The stock of Lansing Pharmaceutical had jumped four and a half points in the first hours after Daniel Lansing's announcement. Silently, he handed the paper to Chandra and watched the realization dawn on her face as she read it.

  Linc knew when she'd reached the sidebar that referred the reader back to the original story Shy had found. It was there that the usually brusque business reporter had let through a touch of emotion, stating that the sudden success was no consolation to the desolate CEO of the company, who had recently, tragically, lost his beautiful young wife to suicide. Linc knew she'd reached it because her slender fingers tightened convulsively, and a low, bitter oath escaped her.

  Good, he thought when he saw the anger flit across her face. Hang on to that, Channie. It will help you fight the horror of all this.

  "So that's what all this was for?" Shiloh asked from where she'd taken a seat on the teal green overstuffed chair that sat close to the sofa. Con sat down on the arm of the same chair, and automatically reached for Shy's hand as she went on. "One murder and one attempt, all for a quick fix? What will that gain him?"

  "It'll give him some options," Linc explained. "He could ride it out, then say something had gone wrong, some mistake had been made—by someone else, of course."

  "Or hope he could get the drug fixed by the time anyone found out," Con put in. "Or even sell out the whole business before the fraud is discovered."

  "But won't everyone know in the end?" Chandra asked.

  "Eventually. And we see that as obvious," Linc said, "but any man who'd do what he's done clearly isn't thinking very straight to begin with. He may just figure he'll think of something else to do when the time comes."

  Chandra shivered. "Daniel always prided himself on that. 'You've got to be able to think on your feet,' he always says. And that he was the best at it."

  "Modest, too," Shy said sourly. "Maybe he'll just use those feet. Just plain grab the money and run."

  "Maybe," Linc agreed, "but only if he's sure he's got no other choice left. And he's bought himself some time, now. The FDA isn't exactly noted for moving quickly. And they'll be real careful about something with the ramifications of this drug. He could come up with any number of explanations by then."

  "So," Chandra said slowly, "he could go on for months. Years, maybe, making money off just the possibility of a drug that really doesn't work."

  "Yes," Linc said, looking at her steadily. "Especially now that he thinks he's removed the one person left who could blow him out of the water."

  "Me," she whispered.

  Linc nodded, his expression grim. Chandra just looked at him for a long moment.

  "That's why he fought me the first time I asked him for a divorce, isn't it? Not because he wanted me to stay, but because he couldn't afford to be looked at too closely. By anyone, even a divorce attorney."

  "Probably," Linc said, his voice gentle. "And he couldn't afford to have you not married to him, and able to give evidence against him."

  "But I didn't know anything, then!"

  "He couldn't be sure of that. And neither can you. You may know things you don't even realize are significant."

  "You mean because I'm a stupid little fool?"

  Her tone was bitter, scornful, and Linc reached out and took her hands in his. "No. Because you were too busy trying to hang on to a little bit of yourself to see it." His mouth quirked. "I'll bet you scared the hell out of him when you hit him with those divorce papers this time."

  Chandra swallowed tightly. "So much that he decided he had to kill me."

  "I wonder," Con put in, almost idly, "why there hasn't been any speculation about that? A rich man's wife serves him with divorce papers, and then turns up missing, a supposed suicide?"

  "I wondered about that myself," Linc said. "Whoever served him could be a valuable witness—"

  He broke off as Chandra made a tiny sound. Color flooded her face, and Linc knew she was once again feeling like a fool.

  "I … I served him myself." She choked back a sob. "I thought it would make me feel good, like I was taking control of my life at last. I should have known better than to think I could—"

  "Hush. You only did what you thought you had to do." Linc tightened his hands once more around hers in understanding.

  "So, he can deny he knew anything about a divorce," Con said grimly. "It might be messy, but with only the fact that you filed against his word that he didn't know it, that he hadn't been served, he could probably ride it out."

  "Especially when he's so nobly taking the blame for his wife's unhappiness," Shy said, contempt fairly dripping from every syllable as she quoted Daniel's statement to the press. "'If only I hadn't left her alone so much. I should have seen how deeply troubled she was.' Garbage."

  "Yes. Exactly." Linc looked at Chandra. "He must be pretty sure by now that you're dead, or he wouldn't have gone ahead with this. You'll be safe, as long as he keeps on believing it."

&
nbsp; Chandra suppressed a shiver. Dread bubbled up inside her, and she didn't understand why; hadn't Linc just said she was safe, at least for now? Linc seemed to feel it, and once again his hands tightened around hers, as if he were trying to loan her some of his strength.

  "I think we can assume this proves no one else knows anything, too," Con said thoughtfully. "He wouldn't have dared to go ahead with the announcement if there was anyone around to contradict him."

  "Nobody left alive, you mean," Shy said grimly.

  "Yes," Linc ground out. Then he stood up suddenly, unable to sit still any longer. "All right, we've established that he's the worst kind of swine in existence. Now, what do we do about it?"

  "I don't know," Con said, his mouth quirking at one corner. "All we've got is a lot of speculation."

  And a witness who can't—or won't—cooperate. No one said it, but to Chandra, the words echoed in the room as if they all had. She stared down at her hands, as if she didn't recognize them, as if they didn't belong to her anymore, now that Linc's were gone.

  "Okay, so we get some proof," Linc said, starting to pace the room with long strides that made it seem small. "Something concrete."

  "How?" Shy asked. "How do we get something the cops can use without getting thrown out of court?"

  Linc stopped at one end of the room, before the lace-curtained window that gave the tiny view of the Pacific. He looked out at the sea that had always held his answers before. At last, he said thoughtfully, "Maybe we don't worry about the cops. Maybe we don't worry about court. At least, not that kind of cops or court."

  "Meaning?" Con asked. Linc turned, and the two men looked at each other intently.

  "Maybe we just go straight to the top."

  Con lifted a dark brow. "The Feds?"

  "Why not?" Linc shrugged. "The Food and Drug Administration, the Securities and Exchange Commission, either of them would like to know about this, if we could come up with some evidence. And on that level, they don't have to be quite as picky about where their information comes from. All they'd need is enough to warrant starting an investigation of their own."

  "Do you know anyone there?" Shy asked.

  "No," Linc admitted wryly, recrossing the room to join them again. "I don't run in those circles, sister mine." Then he smiled slowly. "But Dad does. He's got more contacts in Washington than just about anyone I know, and not just in the Pentagon, either. I'm sure he'll know somebody. Or somebody who knows somebody. And wouldn't he love to get his hands on something like this?"

  "Oh, wouldn't he!" Shiloh said with a grin.

  "And if he can't help, I'll bet Sam can," Con said, warming to the idea. "WestCorp's handled federal contracts for years. And I'm sure he knows some SEC people."

  "All right, then," Linc said, his usual zeal back in his voice. "Let's go for it."

  Chandra sat in shaken silence, once more listening to these people she hadn't even known a week ago trying to decide how they would take down the husband she'd always thought of as untouchable. Offering the help of Linc's father and Con's boss assuredly, with no doubts that both men would help her without question.

  Chandra felt as if she were teetering on the edge of a new, heretofore unseen world. A world that a week ago she would have sworn didn't exist.

  A week ago. A week ago, she had never laid eyes on Shiloh or Connor McQuade. A week ago, she hadn't known Linc. And if she'd been told a man like him existed, she wouldn't have believed it. Yet now he was not only here, in front of her, he was burrowed deep into her soul, in a space she'd carried around empty for so long she didn't even realize it until this gallant, honorable man had filled it with admiration, respect … and hopeless longing.

  It was a yearning stronger than any emotion she'd ever felt before. Stronger even, than the self-doubt that was so much a part of her. So strong it made her wish, more than ever, that she could be the kind of woman he would want.

  She found herself watching Con and Shiloh, watching the unconscious closeness between them, the casual yet lingering touches that managed to appear both tender and sensual at the same time. She watched the way each deferred to the other, and the glances exchanged between them, glances full of love and promise Chandra had never seen before.

  Linc had told her Con and Shy had gone through hell, that they had nearly lost each other forever before they had reached this blissful point. It was hard to believe, looking at them now … or perhaps it wasn't. Perhaps it was their past experience which gave them that something extra, the sense of intimacy that was almost tangible in the small, comfortable house that was so obviously a home.

  She shifted her gaze to Linc. He was alone, as she was, but she doubted he'd ever felt the kind of isolation she'd lived with. Despite his mother, he'd had his father, his sister, and now Con, and the relationship between them all was something she'd never known, never even known was possible.

  Maybe that was what gave Linc that incredible strength, she mused. Perhaps it was this base, solid and unshakable, that made him so confident, so capable … so much everything she wasn't.

  Perhaps, she thought, it wasn't her fault she was the way she was. Perhaps she'd had no choice, no chance to be otherwise; not after growing up in a family whose currency was money instead of love, and then marrying a man who carried that theory forward to the ultimate degree.

  The idea made her feel a little giddy, as if she'd taken a tiny step into that new, unknown world and wasn't at all sure it would admit her.

  "—he's the only one who knows about the project, then we have to go after him. I'll need your help, Chandra."

  Chandra was startled out of her reverie of discovery by Linc's words. "What?"

  "I'll need your help," he repeated patiently.

  "My help?"

  "You're the only one who can tell me what I need to know."

  "About what? I told you, I don't know anything about the business. Daniel never trusted me with that."

  "His mistake," Linc said shortly, startling her. "I don't mean about the business. I mean you're the only one who can tell me what I need to know about him."

  "About Daniel? Why?"

  "Because," Linc said with a slow grin that held nothing of amusement and everything of cool, controlled confidence and determination, "I'm about to pay a visit to the grieving widower."

  * * *

  Chapter 10

  « ^ »

  "You what?" Chandra gaped at Linc, stunned.

  "I said—"

  "I heard what you said," Chandra choked out, cutting him off in her astonishment, "I just can't believe it."

  "It's the only way," Linc insisted. "He's the only thing we've got."

  "My God, you're the crazy one," Chandra said, shaking her head. "What have we just been talking about? If we're right about all this, he's already killed once and tried again!"

  "And now he thinks he's pulled it off, that he's away clean. He's committed murder and gotten away with it." Linc shrugged. "That happens for real too many times, times when nothing can be done about it. I can't just walk away and let him sail off into the sunset if there's a chance to bring him down."

  Chandra was stunned into silence. This, then, was why she had been swamped by that feeling of dread instead of the relief she should have felt when Linc had told her she was safe as long as Daniel thought she was dead. Some part of her must have sensed this, that Linc would not be able to let this rest.

  She realized then how completely she had come to believe in him, to believe that he was indeed the kind of man he appeared to be. And because of the kind of man he was the threat would shift now, from her to him. It made her shiver; she believed in Linc, but she knew Daniel, and what he was capable of, and she was afraid. Always afraid, she thought in silent despair. Only now it was for Linc, not herself.

  "When do you figure to start?" Con asked, leaning back in his chair, finishing his coffee as casually as if they were talking about planning a carefree vacation.

  "Right away." Linc reached out and snagged
a piece of toast off the plate in front of his sister. "He's got to be almost sure he's free and clear, but until Chandra's body turns up, he can't be positive. We've got to exploit that little bit of uncertainty." He took a bite of the toast unconcernedly.

  Con nodded. "You're going to need backup at the meet. I'll go with you."

  Chandra smothered a gasp. Instinctively her gaze shot to Shiloh; she would put an end to this, surely. No way would she allow the husband she so obviously loved to risk himself for a stranger, especially one she—Chandra knew it despite Shy's kindness—didn't much care for.

  She didn't understand. Shiloh just reached for the coffee-pot, picked up Con's cup and refilled it. Their hands brushed as he took the full mug from her, and once again Chandra saw them savor the brief connection. Then Con leaned back in his chair. As did Shiloh, without a word of protest about her husband's ridiculous offer.

  It was Linc who shook his head as he finished chewing the last of the toast. "Thanks, buddy, but I can sail this solo, at least for now. If I need help, I'll holler. Besides, you need to stay home with your wife."

  Con looked startled, then chagrined as he glanced at Shiloh. Chandra became even more confused as Shiloh sputtered and set down her own cup sharply.

  "Oh, no you don't. You two are not going to start treating me like some kind of china doll!"

  This was crazy, Chandra thought. The woman never turned an eyelash when her husband decided to go after a murderer, but she erupted at the idea of him staying home—and safe—for her sake.

  "He's right, Shy," Con said, looking as sheepish as was possible for a man so fierce. "I didn't think."

  "Well, if that's where thinking takes you, I suggest you stop," Shiloh snapped. "I'm pregnant, not helpless."

  Chandra gasped again. Pregnant? Her eyes widened as she stared at Shiloh; this made her reactions even harder to understand. Despite her confusion, admiration filled Chandra at the way Shy dug in her heels and stood her ground with two of the most commanding men Chandra had ever met. She could no more imagine standing up to Daniel like that than she could fly. Admiration, and more than a touch of envy; how could a man not love a woman like this? A woman with nerve, guts and strength, who would challenge him every day of his life. A man like Con would need a woman like that. And a man like Linc…