The Lady Has a Past (Burning Cove #5) - Amanda Quick Page 0,89

give us the answers are dead.”

“Everything points to the fact that Guppy was in business for the money,” Simon said. “Billingsley didn’t need money, but he was playing out some sick sexual fantasies. On the surface it looks like neither of them had a strong motive to grab you.

“We need to know why they changed their business model,” Simon said. “Someone must have convinced them it was worth the risk.”

Lyra had been about to take another sip of her cocktail. She paused. “Or threatened them with something that forced them to do it.”

Raina looked at her. “That is a very interesting theory.”

Simon nodded. “It would explain things. But what kind of threat would make them risk drawing the attention of Luther Pell?”

Raina felt the onset of another attack of the terrible shivering. She could not control the panicky response. Hastily she set down her glass before she spilled the drink.

“Malcolm Whitlock,” she whispered. “It must have been him. He’s alive and he’s out for revenge. He won’t stop coming after me. If any of you get in the way—”

“Oh, we’ll get in his way, all right,” Luther said.

Chapter 42

After dinner Luther took her back to the suite they were sharing. There had been no question of separate rooms. Luther had made it clear he was not going to leave her alone. She was not certain of his mood. He had slipped into his private shadow zone. It was impossible to tell if he was still angry or hurt. The one thing she was certain of was that he would not welcome any more apologies.

It was going to be a long night.

He took off his evening jacket and tossed it over the back of a chair, loosened his tie, unbuttoned the collar of his shirt, and crossed to the drinks cart. He poured two brandies and carried one back to her.

“I know you did what you felt you had to do to protect your friends and me,” he said. “But you should know by now that I can take care of myself, and you, as well.”

She tossed back a healthy swallow of the brandy and glared. “Okay, so I panicked.”

“Yes,” Luther said. His hard features softened. “But I understand.”

“You do?” She took a moment to absorb that. “Thanks. I think.”

“I understand because if the situation was reversed—if one of the ghosts from my past came back to haunt me and threatened you—I would panic, too.”

“It’s hard—no, it’s impossible to imagine you in a panic.”

“I would do exactly what you did—disappear and try to take care of the problem on my own.”

“To protect me.”

Luther’s eyes burned. “It would be the only thing I cared about.”

“For the first day I was lost in a dream world.”

“Because they were drugging you.”

“But at some point you showed up.”

“In your dream world?”

“Yes.” Raina did not take her eyes off him. “I could barely see you at first but I knew you were there, searching for me. You saw me falling into a whirlpool and you reached down to grab my hand, but I kept falling. After a while I realized you were the one thing that was real in that place. Somehow I knew you were looking for me. I managed to surface long enough to realize I was being drugged. I poured the tea down the sink the first morning. But I made the mistake of eating the breakfast rolls. The next day I flushed them down the toilet.”

Luther smiled appreciatively. “And then you figured out how to escape. Setting the fire as a distraction was a brilliant idea.”

“I wouldn’t have made it out of that house if you hadn’t shown up when you did.”

“Don’t bet on that.” Luther used his fingers to sweep the few strands of hair that had escaped her chignon back behind her ears. “I sure as hell would never bet against you, and I used to be in the gambling business. You could say I’m a professional when it comes to estimating the odds.”

She set the unfinished brandy aside. “Just before I got that phone call from the woman I thought was the Ghost Lady, I was drinking coffee at the breakfast table and thinking that it would be very pleasant if you were there with me.”

“I would like that very much.”

She smiled and touched the side of his jaw. “Tomorrow morning you and I will be having breakfast together for the first time. Pity we had to go through so much trouble to get to that stage of our