“And if you can’t, we’ll lose everything we’ve invested in this crazy plan of yours. We’ll be paupers.” He added maliciously, “You’re not going to like living on the crumbs of all the people here in Dubai you so carefully cultivated. You think that those people who snubbed you when you were growing up were bad? It’s nothing like it is here in Dubai. Here the rich are rich and the rest are nothing.”
He was enjoying this too much. When things had gone sour for them, he had begun to fling her background at her. She had never liked him, but that’s when she had begun to hate him. She held on to her temper. Don’t strike out, she thought. It isn’t going to be that long. “That’s not going to happen. Caleb is still the key. I refuse to give him up when he’s so perfect. The plan is still the same. I just had to readjust it a little. I admit I was overconfident because I felt I knew Caleb so well. I started out with too little information.” She held up the envelope she’d just received. “No longer. Even a man as private as Caleb leaves footprints. What do you think I’ve been waiting for? I contacted Alex Nalari, one of the investigators you hired when you needed to use leverage on someone.” She opened the envelope and was scanning the report. “All I need is a weapon.…”
His smirk vanished. “And you think that Nalari’s going to give you one?”
Teresa was going quickly over the contents on the first page, then the second, then the third. Could it be? She went back to the first page and checked. Yes, she’d found what she needed. She felt excitement start to climb as she realized what she had in her hands.
I’ve got you, Caleb.
“Oh, yes.” She went to the desk and underlined a name on the second sheet. “I just have to tell Santara to look for an opportunity. Nalari has definitely given me the weapon I need.”
LOCH GAELKAR
12:40 A.M.
Beautiful, Lisa thought drowsily as she roused from sleep.
The wind …
The mist …
No, both of them …
Surrounding her, becoming her …
She shook her head to clear it. No, it was just music.…
Just music?
She sat up in bed and threw her blanket aside. It was a violin, so it must be Cara Delaney playing somewhere out there in the darkness. She hadn’t met her yet because Jane and Eve had ganged up on her after she’d arrived back at camp and made her go immediately to her tent after eating a light meal. She hated to admit it, but they’d probably been right, because she’d collapsed and been lost to the world five minutes after she’d reached her tent.
Until the music.
And it was still playing, luring her as the mist had lured her.
Why not? She had to know what she had to deal with in terms of Cara Delaney. Just as she always took the measure of everyone else who came into her life.
She put on her shoes but didn’t bother changing out of her nightshirt. Then she was out of her tent, listening, her gaze searching.
The far bank, just before the woods that led into the mist …
She could see the bright moonlight outlining the girl, gleaming on the violin she was holding as she sat there on the bank.
Lisa was down the hill and moving swiftly around the campfire to the bank.
The girl doesn’t even know I’m coming toward her, she thought impatiently. She’s so absorbed in the music that there’s no one else on her radar. Not smart. She’d been told that Cara Delaney had been on the run for most of her life. It was a wonder that she hadn’t been caught and killed before this. Someone should tell her that she shouldn’t be out here by herself and—
The music stopped and Cara was looking at her. She lowered her bow and then the violin to her lap. “Hello, you must be Lisa Ridondo. I’m sorry, did I wake you?”
“Yes,” Lisa said curtly. “No big deal. It was fine once I figured out where the music was coming from. It was kind of pretty.”
Cara smiled. “I promised I’d practice every day. It was the only way I was able to leave school before finals. There was a big furor, and the principal was threatening to kick me out.”
“That’s happened to me a few times.” Lisa dropped to the grass a few yards away. “But you held your ground and called their bluff?”
“No, I think they meant it. Juilliard’s rules are very strict. I told them that they had to do what they had to do.” She added simply, “And that I had to go to Eve.”
“Then it was a bluff,” Lisa said adamantly.
She shrugged. “It didn’t matter, did it? I like the teachers at Juilliard, but it’s the music that’s important. And they only asked me to promise to practice every day, so it was cool. I would have played every day anyway, so it’s easy to keep that promise.”
Lisa’s gaze was narrowed on her face. “But you would have kept it anyway.”
“Promises are important, even when they’re difficult to keep.” She changed the subject. “Are you all right now? Eve said that you’d been hurt.”
“I’m fine. I was just a little tired today.” She added testily, “Eve can be very determined. I didn’t need to go right to bed.”
“Yes, you did. Or Eve wouldn’t have told you to do it.” Cara smiled. “And you’re stubborn, so you wouldn’t have done it if you hadn’t known she was right. It just gave you a reason.”
“What do you know? I don’t need reasons.”
Cara was silent.
Lisa suddenly chuckled. “Okay, sometimes you have to build on what people expect you to be. You wouldn’t want to disappoint them.”
Cara smiled back at her. “That seems to take a lot of effort.” She tilted her head. “And it sounds like something Caleb would say. I can tell that he’s your brother.”
“You should,” she said fiercely. “I’m proud that he’s my brother. He’s wonderful.”
“You don’t have to be defensive about him around me. He did me a big favor a couple years ago. I don’t know quite why he did it, but I’m grateful that he did.”
“What did he do?”
“He took me to see my grandfather when everyone else was telling me I couldn’t go.” She grinned. “It got him in trouble with everyone.”
“The grandfather who’s some kind of mob boss?” Lisa shrugged. “Well, if Seth wanted to do it, why not?”
“I think you’d say that no matter what he did. I’m just saying that he’s different. I’ve learned that people have the right to make their own choices. He made one that helped me and caused him a headache.”
“Jock,” Lisa murmured. “He mentioned something about your grandfather’s being a danger to you.”
“Jock wasn’t pleased. But he and Caleb are okay now.”
“I’m certain that Seth wouldn’t have been worried about that.”
“Then you’d be wrong,” Cara said quietly. “Caleb would be worried about anything that affects Jane, and she considers Jock family. It’s best that you know that.”
Lisa looked at Cara in disbelief. “Is that a threat?”
“No, I just want you to understand. I think you must love Caleb very much. I don’t want you to make a mistake.”
Lisa was silent. “And you don’t want there to be any chance of Seth or me or anyone else hurting Jock. You’re trying to protect him.”
Cara repeated gently, “I don’t want you to make a mistake.”
Strength. Beneath Cara’s almost fragile gentleness was iron-hard strength. “I seldom make mistakes. Ever since I was a little girl, I’ve studied and learned so that won’t happen.”
“Good.” Cara picked up the violin off her lap, her hand caressing the exquisite wood. “I did, too. But I had my friend, Elena, to help and keep me safe, until I lost her.” She tucked the violin beneath her chin. “I’m going to play now. I’ll try to make it soothing if you want to go back to bed.”
She was being dismissed in favor of that violin, Lisa realized in amusement. She had an idea that Cara would have done the same to anyone unless it was Jock. None of them was important at this moment in comparison to the music.
The music. The wind. The mist.
Just the thought of that wisp of melody was beckoning, luring Lisa again. “But you shouldn’t be out here alone at this time of night, you know.”
“Then neither should you.”
“You’re just a kid. I can take care of myself.”
“That’s how you got shot?”
“Things are different with me now.”
“Eve said there are all kinds of guards around the property, and Jock and MacDuff. All I’d have to do is call out. And Joe is beginning to teach me karate. I’m getting fairly good.”