Ravens prey, p.5
Raven's Prey, page 5
“Uh-huh. So how did you get the impression they were on my side?” she demanded bitterly.
“Nearly everyone I talked to urged me not to beat you too severely when I eventually located you. They all seemed to feel you were just a high-strung, temperamental female who needed a gentle hand, not a heavy one.”
Honor made a small, disgusted sound and downed another bite of egg and tortilla. “It looks like Mexico wasn’t such a good choice as a hiding place, was it? Maybe I should have tried Canada.” Except that there she wouldn’t have had the language barrier to slow down the two men who were hunting her. For all the good that had done her in the end, she thought sadly. They had simply hired someone who spoke Spanish to come after her.
Judd made no immediate response to her rhetorical comment. He wasn’t about to tell her how strange it had seemed to pretend to everyone he met that she was his errant woman. He didn’t want her to know about the times he’d been alone in the Cessna between villages when reality and fantasy had begun to merge; about the times he’d begun to wonder what the hunt would have been like if she actually were his runaway bride. The last time someone had advised him not to beat Honor too severely he had found himself nodding gravely and agreeing to accept the advice. The old man who was giving it had been pleased, smiling toothlessly and clapping him on the shoulder.
“You will see, my son,” the old man had said cheerfully. “It will be worth your while to go easy on her. She has spirit and a good heart. A wise man does not break the spirit or harden a softhearted woman. Not if he knows what’s good for him.”
By the end of the week Judd was asking himself over and over again just what sort of woman he was hunting. Could she really fool so many people? Possibly. Look what she’d managed to accomplish last night. She’d wrangled a promise of two days’ grace out of him—and that was after she’d pointed a gun at him and gone for his eyes with her nails. Automatically his fingers went to the angry red line on his cheek.
“I think,” he said softly, “that it’s time you started feeding me the great fairy tale. I’m ready to listen now.”
Honor stiffened resentfully and then reminded herself to take it one step at a time. After all, by rights she should have been stuffed into the Cessna this morning and halfway back to Arizona by now. One step at a time.
“It’s not a long story, really, but the basic fact, the one I can’t prove here in this village, is that the two men who hired you aren’t related to me in any way. Their names are Leo Garrison and Nick Prager and they want me back so that they can silence me.”
“You’re going to stick by the paranoia theme?” Judd asked caustically, finishing his tortilla and egg combination.
“You said you’d listen with an open mind!”
“Have you got the makings for coffee?”
Honor subsided with a groan. “Yes. Instant. Be sure to boil the water well first. I’ve been lucky so far. I’d just as soon not get any intestinal problems now.”
“Don’t worry.” He ran water from the bathroom sink, the only source, into a pot and set it on the burner. “Go on with the story. I promise not to interrupt again.” But please don’t make it totally impossible for me to believe, he found himself pleading silently as he put the water on to boil. Hell. Why was he thinking along those lines? He had no real intention of believing her in the first place. She was merely a job and he badly needed the two grand she would bring. Think of her as a couple of thousand on the hoof, he instructed himself bleakly. A pretty little mare he’d roped and was going to sell.
No, not a mare. That analogy reminded him too vividly of the advice of one of the Mexicans he had talked to during the search. “Treat her as you would a gentle, spirited mare, son, and you won’t go wrong.”
Did gentle, spirited mares ever point guns at people?
Honor sat for a moment, moodily gathering her thoughts into the most logical sequence. Two days wasn’t much time to convince a man like this of anything, let alone to talk him into leaving her behind in Mexico when he’d contracted to take her back to the States.
“All right,” she began grimly, “here it is in a nutshell. Leo Garrison is undoubtedly the one who told you he was my father. I can see how he’d be very convincing. Used to be in the foreign service, you know. An embassy type. And he looks the part, too. Tall, distinguished, with all that snowy white hair and those wise blue eyes. And all that charm he honed to a fine point on the embassy cocktail circuit. He’s the kind of man people like and trust on sight. I can’t blame you for believing everything he told you. I once believed in him implicitly, myself. He assumed a fatherly role toward me right from the start...”
“From the start of what?” Judd asked dryly, watching the pot.
Honor frowned uneasily. “From the time I first went to work for him, of course. That was a year ago. He runs a very sophisticated, very expensive service for U.S. companies who want to do business in Asia and who don’t know their way around that part of the world. Garrison served in Asia and southeast Asia when he was working for the government. He spent twenty years as a respected embassy official, and during that time he made countless contacts with local businessmen and politicians. It was part of his job,” Honor explained with a shrug.
“And after he left the foreign service he capitalized on those contacts?”
At least he didn’t look too skeptical yet, Honor assured herself as she surveyed Judd from beneath her lashes. Of course, she hadn’t yet told him anything unbelievable.
“That’s right. U.S. companies operating abroad often don’t know the first thing about doing business in a foreign country, especially an Asian or Southeast Asian country. Customs, politics, ways of doing business are all radically different and if you accidentally offend someone you can screw up a multimillion-dollar deal in thirty seconds. It pays to hire someone like Garrison to smooth the way and to advise on how to tiptoe through the masses of foreign red tape. It’s a legitimate line of work, you understand,” Honor added quickly. “There are several small, exclusive firms that offer that kind of service in various areas of the world.”
“You’re telling me you worked for Garrison?”
Honor nodded. “At the time I thought it had to be the most fabulous job I’d ever get. I was an assistant in the home office in Phoenix handling clients, acting as a liaison between Garrison and Prager. Nick was Garrison’s partner.” She paused, remembering in dismay how excited she had been at the prospect of working in such an exotic, romantic sort of business. The possibility of world travel and the opportunity to meet fascinating people had seemed so wonderful.
“Go on,” Judd prompted softly, pouring the water into two cracked cups. He didn’t look at her. Honor wondered desperately how much of her tale he was buying.
“Well, as I said, I worked in the home office, coordinating things between Garrison and Prager and the clients. Nick and Leo were constantly traveling. About three months ago Nick said he’d talked Garrison into letting me accompany them on some of the trips. I was thrilled! Couldn’t believe my good luck. The first trip was to Taiwan and the second—” She broke off, remembering the second trip all too clearly.
“The second?” Judd prompted in a depressingly neutral tone as he handed her a cup.
“The second was to Hong Kong,” she explained dully. She had left on that trip with such a romanticized view of both Nick and the business. The shattering of the illusion had been acutely painful, physically and emotionally.
“Why did Prager convince Garrison to take you along?”
She glanced at him sharply and then looked away. “Nick and I were seeing each other whenever he was in Phoenix. He wanted me with him.” How much of this was Judd going to believe?
“A long-distance romance?” Judd asked derisively.
“Damn it! You said you wouldn’t interrupt!”
“Just trying to get the story straight.” But that hard, unreadable expression in his eyes didn’t give Honor any clue as to whether or not he really was buying a single sentence of her tale. “Were you sleeping with him, then?”
“No, as a matter of fact, I was not sleeping with Nick,” she told him tightly. “But we were becoming very close... Never mind. At any rate, I was elated at the idea of traveling. Taiwan was a fantastic experience and I got a chance to see how Garrison and Prager worked abroad. They’re both consummate businessmen. They know the ins and outs of doing business in that part of the world like the back of their hands. And they have an incredible number of friends and contacts. I was very impressed. Then came Hong Kong.”
“I sense the punch line coming up,” Judd growled.
“Hong Kong,” Honor explained very carefully, “was where I learned that in addition to their legitimate work Nick and Leo went into an interesting sideline.”
“Which was?”
“Gunrunning. They buy and sell illegal arms all over that part of the world. Their regular business makes an excellent cover and provides them with countless contacts. It was my bad luck to stumble into the middle of a transaction involving several crates of automatic rifles and small arms.”
“You just stumbled into the middle of such a deal?” Judd asked wryly as he sipped the strong coffee he had made.
Honor bit her lip as she realized how wild the whole thing must sound to him. “Leo and Nick had left me alone at the hotel while they supposedly went out one evening to a business dinner. While they were gone an important call came in from one of our best clients. He needed some information that I knew was in one of the files in the Hong Kong office. Eager to show my initiative and dedication I grabbed a taxi and rushed down to the office myself to get the information. Leo and Nick weren’t due back until very late and I thought I’d impress everyone by taking care of the matter myself. Shows what initiative will do for a woman,” Honor added caustically, remembering.
By now she had the horrible feeling she’d probably lost her audience entirely. Judd wasn’t giving any outward indication of his reaction but she sensed his remote cynicism as if it were a tangible thing. There was nothing left to do but plow on with the story. In a flat, bleak tone she did so.
“I let myself into the building and went straight up to the third floor where Garrison and Prager had their offices. I was in the hallway just outside, about to insert my key in the lock, when I realized there was a light on inside and heard the sound of voices. It was the voices which scared me first. There was a terrible argument going on and I could hear Nick and then Leo. They were threatening a couple of other people. Something about a shipment that hadn’t been paid for. The other voices claimed the rifles and small arms hadn’t come with proper ammunition. Nick and Leo claimed that the others were lying and said they wouldn’t okay delivery on the next batch of arms until the first had been paid for. I was terrified and shocked and in panic. I knew I was overhearing far too much for my own good and that if Nick and Leo realized I was outside in the hall my life probably wouldn’t be worth much. So I ran. As I started down the stairs I tripped. They must have heard the noise because by the time I reached the first floor I could hear them yelling on the staircase. As I dashed out into the street I heard Nick call my name. He was leaning out of the second-story window.”
“What did you do?”
She could hear the disbelief in his voice. There was no point going into all the details, reliving the terror of that horrible night. I started running and I haven’t stopped since,” she said in a flat tone.
“But first you went home to Phoenix?”
She nodded. “I had to go home, but I knew I would be a sitting duck in Arizona. Nick and Leo would be able to take their time hunting me down on my own home ground. And who would listen to a wild tale like mine?” She broke off, remembering sadly that she had not even dared go to her own family with the story. The ironic part of this mess was that her parents’ image of her was only a little better than the one Nick and Leo had fabricated. Had she approached them for help, her parents probably would have remembered the dreamy little girl who had woven exotic, romantic daydreams to amuse herself and wondered if Honor had slipped over the edge into some kind of permanent dream world. Pragmatic and down to earth, they had never understood her.
“How did you wind up here?” Judd asked matter-of-factly.
“As soon as I got home I grabbed the money from my bank account and packed a few things. Then I crossed the border into Mexico. Garrison and Prager don’t have contacts in Central America. I figured I’d be safer here than anywhere else while I tried to decide what to do.”
“And then I showed up last night,” Judd concluded too easily. It was as if he were writing “The End” to the fairy tale she had just told him.
Honor nodded unhappily. “I knew as soon as I saw you that there weren’t too many likely explanations for another tourist in this backwater village.” Her fingers tensed painfully around the handle of her coffee cup. “I really thought I might have a chance here in Mexico. And least until my money ran out.”
“Uh-huh. What were you going to do then?” he asked blandly.
“I don’t know,” she admitted despairingly. The truth was she hadn’t been able to think that clearly as yet. “I suppose I’d hoped I’d eventually find someone who might pay attention to my story. I don’t know! It’s all been such a jumble and I’ve been frightened for so long. I decided I could stretch out my cash for quite a while. As you can see I’m not exactly living high on the hog!” She looked around the ramshackle room she’d been calling home.
“No, you’re not, are you? How long would you have been content to live here, Honor? I should think you’d be grateful to me for coming along and taking you away from all this!”
Suddenly she was on her feet, the resentment and fear spilling over as she confronted him. “Don’t make fun of me, damn it! It’s obvious you don’t believe me, but don’t you dare mock me like that! It’s my life that’s at stake, you bastard! I can’t help it if you’re so damn pigheaded you bought that stupid story Garrison and Prager gave you. But mine is no wilder than theirs and I’m willing to pay you just as much to believe it. Since money is about all that seems to count with you, I should think you’d do me the courtesy of at least not laughing at me!”
“Are you going to assault me again?” he asked calmly, eyeing her clenched fists and angry eyes. Her slender body was drawn into a taut, furious line and she did, indeed, appear to be on the verge of throwing herself at his throat.
Honor decided against that, knowing in advance that she didn’t have a chance of defeating him physically. But his obvious unwillingness to give even an ounce of credence to her story made some reaction on her part inevitable. Her life was on the line, she told herself in rage and panic, and this man was laughing at her!
Without a second thought she hurled the contents of her coffee up into this face, the still-warm liquid splashing out to douse his cheek and drip down onto his shirt.
There was an electric silence as Judd’s bird-of-prey eyes burned into her stricken, defiant features. Honor saw the attack coming before he had even moved, instinct warning her that he would retaliate. She swung on her heel and launched herself at the door.
She didn’t even make it halfway across the tiny room. Before she had gone two running strides Judd was on her, reaching out to circle her waist with his arm and yanking her back against the hard, taut length of his body.
“Oh!” The small exclamation came as the force of the impact made itself felt. She took a shuddering breath. His arm was like a steel band around her and there was no way on earth she could escape.
“If you can’t get a reaction one way, you’ll try another. Is that it, Honor?” he demanded far too gently. “Is that what you crave out of life? The attention and reaction of every man who comes near you?”
“Damn you!” she hissed helplessly, violently aware of the way her softly rounded rear was being forced against his thighs. The solid expanse of his chest was like a brick wall behind her. Everything about this man was like a brick wall, she told herself hysterically. And somehow she had to find a way to climb it. Throwing her coffee in his face had probably not been an especially good technique for gaining his confidence, she decided in dismay and disgust. “I’m sorry, Judd,” she tried awkwardly. “I lost my temper.”
“And when you lose your temper you strike out at the nearest available victim?”
“I said I was sorry!”
“I think you’re only sorry for your actions when they don’t gain you what you want,” he mused. Slowly he turned her around until she stood trapped in the circle of his arm, staring up at him in mute defiance. “What do you want from me, Honor?” he asked almost idly.
“I want you to go away and leave me alone. Go back to the States and tell Leo and Nick that you couldn’t find me. I’ll give you the two thousand you care so much about. Just go away and leave me here!”
“I can’t do that. And throwing your morning coffee into my face isn’t going to make me turn tail and run. Aiming guns at me in the middle of the night isn’t going to do the trick, either. Trying to scratch my eyes out won’t work and neither will telling me incredible adventure stories about illegal gunrunning. Last, but not least, bribery isn’t going to work.”
“Then what the hell will work?” she blazed. “What will it take to make you leave me alone, Judd Raven?”
“Probably nothing you’ve got to offer,” he advised simply.
She whitened beneath the terrible finality of his words. Gamely she fought for her breath. “Then there can be nothing but war between us, Judd,” she told him evenly. “As I told you last night, you’d better be prepared to cripple me or tie me hand and foot because I’m never going to stop fighting you.”
