Bella had thought they had a "deal." She'd traded a kiss for it. Maybe even given him her body to keep him quiet.
And memories of that lush, willing body stirred his groin.
She'd been as turned on as he was. Hot, slick and ready.
He pulled his tie off and shoved it in his pocket. The night air felt sticky and oppressive.
Every time they touched, a surge of rough, unregulated voltage shot through him. He could picture her right now, lips wet and parted, eyes glazed with passion, her body writhing against his.
He shrugged off his jacket and threw it over his arm. Apparently he'd drunk more than he thought. If he didn't know better he'd imagine that was her walking along the sidewalk right toward him, curvy hips swaying to an internal rhythm that stirred his blood.
Wait a second.
He squinted. That damned dress. It was her.
She looked entranced, her lovely face angled skywards to the streetlamps and the stars. Instead of holding her briefcase in her hand, she clutched it to her chest like a newborn babe. Her springy pace suggested that she was almost ready to break into a dance of joy.
He inhaled to call her name-then froze.
Her joyful expression. Her bouncy stride.
She'd found what she was searching for.
He turned so his back was to her, bent his head and examined his watch until she went past him, heels beating rhythmically on the sidewalk.
Then he started after her, his stride silent in the shadows.
Six
B ella pushed through the doors leading down into Grand Central Station. If anyone was watching, Dominic would have looked pretty suspicious pacing after her like a hungry panther, sweat dampening his white shirt.
She scanned the train schedules up on the big board, then hurried off to a track. He stayed far enough behind that she didn't spot him. Climbed on the train two coaches back from her.
He bought a ticket from the conductor on the Metro North train and since he didn't know where she was getting off, he paid all the way to the end of the line. At the 125th Street Station he leaned out the door and scanned the platform to make sure she didn't get out, then he settled in for a long ride because the first stop wasn't for over half an hour.
When the train chugged over a bridge into the Bronx, his mind cleared enough to wonder what he was doing.
I'm watching her.
Just like he'd promised his father.
Funny how he was thinking of the old man as his father all of a sudden, instead of the infamous Tarrant Hardcastle. He was still an arrogant jerk who'd been a deadbeat dad, but now for some reason Tarrant was his deadbeat dad.
Dominic shoved a hand through his hair. He wanted to call his mom and ask her about Tarrant's visit. But how would he explain the rattle of the train? Yeah, Mom, I'm trailing this girl.
She'd love it. Always after him to find someone nice. Dropping hints about grandchildren, and lamenting over his lack of interest in a meaningful relationship.
The man in the seat in front turned around and he realized he'd laughed out loud.
Bella wasn't so nice by most people's standards. Holding a job with a hidden agenda to undermine the company. Kissing the boss's son to win his silence.
Both strategies doomed to failure.
When she got off the train, he stepped out after her. He skulked in the shadows as she walked up to a light-colored car and unlocked it. The taxi driver he approached didn't even blink when he asked him to follow her.
This was crazy. He should just confront her and ask her if she'd found the papers she needed. Make her hand them over because they were Hardcastle property.
But he didn't want to.
He rolled up his shirtsleeves and leaned forward, watching the taillights of her car through the windshield of the cab.
This was fun.
Instead of the picturesque house he'd expected, her car swung into the long driveway of something called Compass Points. She parked in the lot, then ran to the main entrance of a hulking building that he couldn't see well in the dimly lit darkness.
"Want me to wait?"
"No thanks." Dominic paid the cabbie and watched him drive away.
The cool night breeze tickled his skin. He inhaled a lungful of fresh country air and looked up at the spill of stars in the black sky. What the heck was this place?
He strained to read a sign in the dark. OUTPATIENT ADMIT-TING. Some kind of hospital?
After about five minutes the door opened again, and Bella came out. She still clutched her leather briefcase to her chest, but even in the darkness he could see her cheer had evaporated. Her steps were short and stilted, unlike the swinging strides of earlier.
She looked like she could use a hug.
Dominic's strode out of the darkness. "Hey, Bella."
She froze under a parking lot floodlight, straining to see in the darkness. Panic tightened her features.
"It's me. Dominic."
She clutched her briefcase tighter. Sharp angles and shadows of light distorted her scared expression. "What are you doing here?"
"I followed you. What is this place?"
She stood like a statue.
He walked toward her, an uncomfortable feeling in his chest. "Hey, you okay? I'm not going to arrest you for anything, you know." His attempt at levity fell as flat as the asphalt.
She swallowed. "I don't know why you're here." Her voice was high and thin.
Dominic scrubbed a hand over his face. Because I'm surveilling you. The knife in his gut twisted.
Still rigid, she stared at him. "Why did you follow me? You're scaring the heck out of me."
Truth be told, he was scaring the heck out of himself too. He wanted to do "the right thing," but the map kept shifting and his internal compass kept spinning.
Right now he mostly wanted to kiss her, which was not "the right thing" by any stretch of the imagination.
He repeated his question. "Where are we?"
"It's a hospital." Her throat sounded tight. "My mom is here."
"She's sick?" He could see her worried expression in the harsh fluorescent glare. His guilt ratcheted up another notch.
"They're not sure what's wrong. Can't figure it out. She won't respond to drugs." Her fingers gripped the leather of her bag as she held it clutched against her chest like a shield. "Things have been so stressful for her since my dad died last year."
Something clicked into place in Dominic's mind. "It's a psychiatric hospital?"
"Yes."
Dominic frowned as a strange and uncomfortable feeling crept over him. "And you're hoping that by reclaiming your dad's work, you can get her out of here."
"Don't laugh at me right now, okay? Because I don't think I can take it. Not right now." Her voice was shaking.
"I'm not laughing. What happened?" He moved closer in the semidarkness, the urge to take her in his arms almost uncontrollable.
"I figured they wouldn't let me see her, but I wanted to leave word that I … " Her lips slammed shut.
He knew what she meant. That she'd found what she was looking for. "The nurse told me that my mom has been refusing food."
He stood right in front of her and fought to keep his arms by his side. He didn't want to scare her.
"She hasn't eaten in three days." Her voice sounded dangerously high. "They've tried to put a drip in her arm, but she kept pulling it out … " Her voice cracked she pressed a hand to her face.
Unable to stop himself, Dominic reached out his hand.
She flinched back.
Their eyes locked, hers gray and wary in the floodlit darkness.
Maybe she thought he'd followed her because after that afternoon's sensual encounter he couldn't keep away from her.
Maybe she was right.
He placed his hand on her arm and this time she didn't jerk away. Her skin was cold, rough with goose bumps.
Bella whispered. "They've had to put her in restraints."
"Jesus." He took her briefcase from her arms and placed it on the ground, then wrapped his arms around her. She was shaking too hard to protest and her breath came in hard gasps. His chest hurt with the strange mix of emotions she stirred in him.
Would he have told Tarrant about her deception if he'd known her mother was hospitalized?
No. He wouldn't.
The situation gave her crazy plan an undercurrent of sheer desperation that churned his gut.
He rubbed her back, trying to warm and soothe her. Gradually she calmed a little, but he could tell her hands were still shaking.
"Let me drive you home. You tell me which way to go, okay?"
She nodded. He picked up her briefcase and handed it to her. The throbbing screech of tree frogs hurt his ears as they walked to her car.
He groped in the dark to move her seat far enough back so he could get in, then he started it up and she directed him down winding, wooded roads, then into a driveway flanked by stone pillars.