Hesitantly she aimed the flashlight through the opening. Spatial relationships werent exactly her strength, but it sure looked like a hundred feet down to the concrete basement floor. Nothing to break her fall. Stephen King could have set a book down in those gloomy, eerie shadows. The light didnt illuminate anything but ghostly corners and dank concrete walls.
She was probably going to kill herself if she tried this.
On the other hand, this appeared to be her only way inand backing down certainly wasnt an option. Her bones would just have to squish small enough to fit, and that was that.
She zipped the flashlight into the backpack, and dropped the pack inside.
It fell with a clattering thud. A long way down.
She swallowed a lump of fear thicker than tar, then moved. Shimmying on her back, trying to ignore the mud seeping into her sweatshirt, she poked her feet in first, then her legs, then wriggled her fanny in. Then came trouble. Her hips wedged in the opening, and suddenly she couldnt move. At all. In or out.
Cripes, there were times shed groaned about not having enough hips to fill out a pair of jeans. Now she wished shed had three less cherry doughnuts this week. Her fanny seemed stuck. No kidding, no joke, seriously stuck.
She briefly considered crying. Actually, she didnt really want to cry. She just wanted to be home. In a hot, soaking, sybaritic rose-scented bath, maybe with a glass of chablis, maybe reading some of the thick files of research information shed picked up lately on sperm banks and fantasizing about babies.
Fantasizing about babies was tempting. Just not real helpful right then. Moving in either direction hurt, but lying still was just as untenableher spine was screaming objections at being trapped in this contortionist position. Itd be nice if a hero would wander by to help, but that didnt seem real likely. Being crawled on by earthworms seemed far more likelyand that did it. The mental picture of the worms in that flower bed being close enough to crawl on her was mighty powerful incentive to move.
She sucked in a breath, swung her legs up, and pushed in hard.
The push worked. Sort of. She was still alive when she crash-landed on the concrete floor, but that measure of success was hardly worth applause. On the route down, shed cracked her forehead on the window frame, and both her breasts had been squished and scraped. She landed on a hip and a wrist. The basement was darker than tar, with a dank, damp, mildewy smell. Wouldnt matter if she were in the Taj Mahal; she hurt too much to care. Stars danced in front of her eyes in a real dizzy tango. She wasnt positive it was possible to break a fannyshed certainly never seen one in a cast or in tractionbut she was damned scared shed done it.
To add insult to injury, a light suddenly flashed in her eyes.
The obnoxious glaring light came from a bald light bulb in the middle of the basement room.
And to top off the worst debacle shed ever gotten herself into, the man standing by the light switch, shaking his head, was familiar. Painfully familiar. So was his unmistakably gravelly tenor.
I thought at least ten kids were breaking into the place. You made enough noise to wake the dead. I should have known it was you. Dammit, Rebecca, what the hell are you doing here?
Rebecca squeezed her eyes closed. At the moment, Im sitting here with forty-seven broken bones, feeling sorry for myself. Please, God, make this a nightmare, and when I wake up, try and fix it so hes someone else. Make him a Russian spy. Make him a serial killer. Make him anyone but Gabe Devereax.
Not that she was willing to open her eyes to check, but that dry, gravelley tenor seemed to be coming closer. Youre damn lucky its meand at least I have a logical reason for being here. Did you leave your brain at home? You could have killed yourselfor gotten yourself killedand you look worse than an alley cat whos been in a street fight.
Thank you for sharing that with me. Im dying of pain and injuries, and all you can do is yell?
Id yell a lot louder if I thought itd do any good. For Gods sakes, youre soaked and covered with mud and it looks like youre growing branches in your hair. If that isnt witless, I dont know what is. Quit fighting me, dammit. Im just trying to see if youre hurt.
I already know Im hurt. But her pride was now smarting a dozen times more than any of her other scrapes and bruises. Gabe had stalked over and hunched down. Keeping her eyes closed and practicing denial had worked pretty welluntil she felt his big strong hands feeling her up. Her eyes shot wide open then.
There were times and places when Rebecca wouldnt mind a guy feeling her upat a fantasy level, she might even have entertained Gabe in that rolebut not when she was being handled like a sexless sack of sugar. Merciless fingers probed and poked her ankles, trailed up her calf, bent her knee, lifted her arms, rotated her wrists. She said ouch several times. Either he wasnt paying attention or he didnt believe her.
Possibly shed have felt less resentful if he didnt look so good. Heaven knew how Gabe had gotten in the house, but she already knew he was resourceful. Spit. He was the best. That was why shed convinced her family to have him look into her mothers disappearance. And although he hadnt come up with much in that case, hed been more successful with some other family cases over the past few years. But now she had to look like something a dog would bury, and there wasnt a rip or a tear or a smudge of dirt on him. His clipped dark hair looked fresh-brushed, his square jaw fresh-shaved. His galloping shoulders stretched the seams of a long-sleeved navy T, but the shirt was tucked nearly into jeans. His boots didnt even look muddy.
Rebecca didnt know him well. She wasnt sure it was possible for a woman to know a mans man like Gabriel Devereax wellbut theyd crossed paths before. Several family members had already noted that they got along about as well as a snake and mongoose. Not only didnt Rebecca object to Gabe, she was the one whod originally researched PI firms and urged her family to hire him. She knew, better than anyone, that Gabe had an unbeatable reputation and credentials. She respected him completely. But when her family had trouble, Rebecca was hardly going to take the back seat and let someone else drive.
Gabe appreciated advice about as much as poison ivy. What she called help, he called interference. Anyone with the most basic concept of family would understand that love and loyalty required her involvement. Trying to explain that to Gabe was like drilling a hole in granite. He had a handsome head, but there was a lot of stone between those ears.
Even if there was no love lost between them, Rebecca could hardly fail to notice certain details about that handsome head. He was thirty-eight, and he looked it. The square-boned jaw, the scar on his right temple, the brush strokes of character lines bracketing his eyes and mouth, all spoke of a man whod lived hard. He was no boy. There was energy in that rugged face, vital, virile energy, and a never-back-down determination stamped in all those lonely lines on his brow.
Personally, Rebecca thought a woman would have to be an eensy bit bonkers to risk taking on any man as tough and closed up as Gabe Devereaxbut the man did have the deepest, darkest, sexiest eyes shed ever seen. At the moment, it was impossible to ignore those eyes, because they were aggravatingly, relentlessly focused on her face. He cupped her chin with a knuckle, and examined her face for injuries, with as much personal interest as hed have shown a bug under a microscope.
I think youre going to live, he announced. Although its pretty hard to tell for sure under all that dirt. Because he was looking straight in her eyes, she didnt instantly realize where his right hand was. Smoother than a card cheats, his palm had sneaked under her sweatshirt. His hand was warm, volatilely, evocatively warm, and skimming an electric path over her ribs.
Hey. She moved faster than a 747 to push him away, but the ox wouldnt be pushed.
Oh, dont get your liver in an uproar. If I were going to make a pass, youd know it. Trust me, sex is only on my mind ninety percent of the time. You got a hell of a scrape hereand no, Im not looking to see how far it goes upbut I want you to cough.
Cough? I dont need to cough
Well, we can just drive you to the emergency room and get those ribs x-rayed, but somehow, I didnt think youd cotton to that idea. If it didnt hurt when you coughed, I mightmightbe more reassured that rib isnt cracked, but hey, if you want to go get an X ray
She coughed. Exuberantly.
You sure that didnt hurt?
Positive. And you can quit trying to threaten me, Gabe. Itd take you and the marines to get me anywhere near any stupid emergency room. Im perfectly fine. I just had the wind knocked out of me.
Yeah? Gabe removed his hand, but he stayed hunched over her. Youve got a goose egg on your forehead, bloody scrapes all over the place, and youre so damned wet youre probably gonna catch pneumonia. The waters turned on upstairs, so we can at least clean up the cuts, but theres no telling if well find anything for you to dry off and warm up in. How bads that forehead hurting? You dizzy? Seeing anything double?
If the blasted man had any manners, hed give her the chance to answer, but no. Obviously, Gabe wasnt going to take her word on anything, because he reached over and cupped her jaw so he could examine that goose-egg bump again. Fingertips feathered her hair back so that he could get a better look. Once he was finished playing doctor, his eyes met hers.
Rebecca wasnt sure what happened then. He couldnt have held her gaze for more than a few seconds, but the scowl disappeared from his brow. There was something in his expression. Something shed never have expected. Something more than exasperation, something beyond Gabe Devereaxs hopeless compulsion to take charge of anything in his path. She was so wet and bedraggled that road kill would have to look more appealing. Yet there was something in those deep, dark eyes that punched the accelerator in her pulse.
If Gabe had even noticed she was a woman, he hadnt let on before. Suddenly she was having trouble breathing. Gabe was a vital, virile, potent masculine packageeasy enough to enjoy sparring with, when thered been absolutely no threat or thought of his noticing her in any personal way. She wasnteasy around Gabe. Not as a woman. On the other hand, likely the fall had addled her brain. There couldnt have been a sillier time to feel a power surge of hormones, and common sense told her she was imagining that look in his eyes.
Still, her pulse engine was revving harder than a jalopy with no muffler when Gabes expression abruptly changed. The scowl that popped back between his brows was even darker and more critical than the one before. He rocked back on his heels and then sprang to his feet. Maybe you dont need a doctor. But lets see how you do when you try to stand up.
Oh, for heavens sake. Im perfectly fine. She ignored his hand and promptly scrambled to a standing position. A bad mistake. The lump on her forehead instantly throbbed; her breasts and wrist smarted like fire, and now she knew for sure her fanny was broken. If threatened at knifepoint, though, she wouldnt have admitted feeling wobbly to Gabe. How did you get in the house, anyway?
The way most people do. Legally. His tone was dry. Eventually the estates going on the market, but its been closed up until all the probate tangles are over with. I called Monica Malones lawyer. Gave him my credentials, told him I believed there had to be more evidence in the house connected to the ladys murder, and asked if hed mind if I looked around personally. He gave me the key.
Thats it? Thats all you had to do to get a key? It seemed so unfair.
Now, Rebecca, everyone cant be gifted with a writers imagination and fondness for high drama. Some of us even tend to do things the simple, normal, boring wayyou know, by using basic common sense and logic?
Amazing. I could swear we had this exact same conversation before.
Yeah, we did. It didnt get through to you then, either. He shifted past her to close the gaping basement window. Well get you cleaned up, and then youre going home.
Only in your dreams, cutie. I didnt just risk life and limb to disappear on your orders. She was pretty sure no one had ever dared to call Gabe Devereax cutie before. The epithet seemed to startle, then amuse, him. For all that he was a hopelessly overbearing macho typeand probably untrainable, from a womans standpointhed always had a redeeming sense of humor.
Speaking of ordersas Im sure you knowIm here on your familys. As outlandish and outrageous as it sounds, they actually trust me to follow through with this investigation all by myself. Can you imagine? Just because its my job and Ive got over ten years of experience and professional qualifications behind me?
Rebecca reached down for her backpack of tools. God, he was sassy. She might have been tempted to laughif the subject wasnt so serious. I trust you, too, Sherlock, she said honestly. Youre wonderful at what you do. But it isnt your brother whos been charged with murder. Its mine. And I love him. And until his name is cleared, I cant just sit home and knit booties. Did you find anything in the house so far?
I havent had the chance to look around. Id just turned the key when I heard all hell breaking loose down here. Now, of course, I dont know why I didnt immediately guess it was you. His face was in shadow when he scrubbed a tired hand over it. Rebecca, listen to me.
Im listening. But she admitted it warily.
This isnt the first time Ive been here. I assume you know Ive been on the job from the day your brother was charged. I was here during the cops investigation, and after, when the yellow tape went down, I combed this place from stem to stern. This is my third run-through. So far, every shred of evidence points to Jake being guilty.
I know. The knowledge was like a needle in her chest.
Love and objectivity dont mix. I know you want to help your brother. But Im not putting you down when I say youd be better off at home, knitting those booties. You could get hurt, messing around with this.
Her gaze scanning the shadows, Rebecca vaguely noted a behemoth of a furnace, pipes, dampness seeping into the foundation wallsand the bottom edge of some wooden stairs, leading up. She heard Gabe, but what she heard in his voice only magnified her resolve. He would do his job. Shed never doubted that. But he didnt believe in Jakes innocence, any more than the police did.
She paused a second before aiming for the stairs, and pushed a fistful of tangled curls off her face. Youre right about my not being objective. I have no interest whatsoever in being objective. If youll remember, Gabe, Im the one who first tracked down your PI agency for the family, when my mother was in that plane crash.