Zach at least got some satisfaction in watching her face drain of color.
“No,” she said finally.
“Yes. As soon as possible.”
“Why?”
“Because a wife can’t testify against her husband.”
She stared back at him. “I think I need to sit down.”
He gestured toward a chair. Damn. Why had she done it? When he’d stepped into the room a few minutes ago he’d smelled her perfume. He was stunned at first, not believing it possible, thinking maybe the scent had drifted from elsewhere, through vents or something. But she wasn’t in the house, had been gone for more than an hour. What was in the air was left over, not new. If she hadn’t worn a fragrance so distinctive, she would’ve gotten away with it.
“What do you do?” she said, then hesitated. “Never mind. I don’t want to know what you do. I’ll go away. Today. No one will even know I was here.”
“Many people already know.”
“People who are loyal to you.”
She had a point. “Yes, but they chose their situation. You didn’t. And you would be the one to be hurt most. I’m protecting you, Julianne.”
Some fire returned to her. She stood and faced him. “I’ve been protected my whole life. I have a plan. You are not going to interfere in my plan. I can take care of myself.”
He shook his head.
She threw up her hands. “Men. You think you’re always right. You’re not.”
“I don’t profess to always be right. This time I am, though.” Despite the seriousness of the topic he was fascinated by her reaction. Her face was flushed, her fists plunked sassily on her hips, her curls bouncing with every emphatic word.
She closed her eyes and seemed to count to ten. “Look,” she began, much more calmly. “I see photographs on the wall and computer equipment. I have no idea what it all means. If anyone asked, that’s all I could tell them.”
“You recognized Carolyn Keely.”
His statement hovered in suspended animation for several long seconds.
“What I do is illegal, Julianne. Almost every day I am committing a crime. But I won’t let anything keep me from my job. It’s too important.” He dismissed her objections with his tone of voice alone. “We’ll go to Friday Harbor tomorrow and get the license. Unfortunately there’s a three-day waiting period.” He crossed his arms. “You can go now.”
She moved past him but stopped, her hand on the doorknob. “There has to be another solution.”
She left soundlessly, except for the quiet latch of the door. Her distinctive scent lingered, stronger than when he’d first realized she’d been in the room.
He stared at the wall above the computers until the photos blurred. He didn’t need to look at them. They were branded in his mind—Theresa Rogers, age twenty-two; Daniel Doty, age eleven, and Jacob Munson, fifteen months.
Zach moved forward, wiggled the tack out of Theresa’s picture, then moved it to a different wall. Theresa’s terrified expression had haunted Zach for seventeen days. No more, though.
He walked to another wall, his gaze lingering on each photo, one at a time. He knew their vital statistics, could bring up every detail, including Carolyn Keely’s. Failures. And even one was too many.
He returned to the wall holding only two photos, Jacob and Daniel. “I’ll find you,” he said, low and harsh, his obsession acknowledged then ignored as he sat at the computer to record Theresa’s information.
At six o’clock he called Mrs. Moody on the intercom and asked her to bring his dinner into his command center, deciding he was in no mood to eat in strained silence or hostility or whatever mood Julianne would be in now.
She could eat alone.
Julianne barely touched her food. She pushed peas and carrots around her plate, stabbed at the perfectly roasted slices of turkey breast, then gave in and ate the mashed potatoes. No feeling of comfort followed. She set her fork on the plate, wishing she could throw it instead, and pushed away from the table.
How had this happened? Punishment was supposed to fit the crime, but it wouldn’t in this case. Okay, so she’d violated his trust. She’d already admitted how wrong she’d been, how shocked she was by the fact she’d done such a thing. But, marriage? For how long?
She considered running away, but had no idea how to get herself off the island without public transportation. She considered telling Jamey he needed to come rescue her. She could go underground for however long was necessary.
And exactly what was it that Zach was afraid would happen? She honestly didn’t know what he did, what crime he committed daily, so how could she be a problem?
At least she had three days to change his mind. Or disappear.
Restless, she decided to go for a walk. She wouldn’t go far since it was already dark and she wasn’t overly familiar with the paths yet, but if she stayed in this house one more minute…
She put her dishes on the dinner tray and carried it out the door then spied Zach, his back to her, turning the corner of the hallway at the exact same time. She set down the tray and hurried to catch up, hoping to present her opening argument against their marrying.
She rounded the corner in time to see him unlock the door to the tower room and disappear inside. After a quick surveillance she tiptoed quickly down the hall, could hear his footsteps as he climbed. A door opened and closed, then voices, low and indistinct, reached her—his and a woman’s.
A woman. No ghost. No Elspeth. A woman. Locked in the tower room.
Held prisoner?
Julianne’s imagination ran wild. An old castle on an isolated island. A ghost as a cover story, but a cover for what? A crazy relative in the attic? Why keep the door locked? Obviously someone dangerous. Related to his committing criminal acts?
A knot formed in Julianne’s stomach. Zach Keller was a walking secret. How could she continue to stay on, much less marry him?
Marry.
She couldn’t do that. She just couldn’t, even if it meant putting herself in whatever situation he thought she was in because of what she knew.
The woman’s voice went up in decibels, the words still indistinct but she was obviously upset. Zach’s voice remained level. A soothing tone. Something hit the wall and then scattered on the floor, startling Julianne so that she banged her head against the wall. Zach said something with a note of finality, then he started down the stairs.
Julianne sped down the hall and around the corner. She zoomed into the dining room, scooped up the tray and headed for the kitchen, her heart thumping, breath hitching.
She knew the exact moment he spotted her, but she kept walking.
“Julianne, wait.”
She could obey or defy him. Keep the peace or make him angry. She didn’t want him to see her vulnerable or afraid of him, but she was both. So, she ignored him. He followed her into the kitchen.
Before he could speak she set down the tray with a bang and turned on him. “I will not marry you.”
“You will.” He used a light but matter-of-fact tone.
“Who is locked in the tower?” she blurted out, then clamped her mouth shut as his jaw turned to granite. What had gotten into her? Why was she saying and doing things she’d never believed herself capable of?
“What goes on in this house is none of your business.”
“If I’m going to be your wife, I deserve to know what I’m getting into.”
“You’re going to be my wife in name only.”
The attraction she’d felt for him since they’d met had gotten lost in the heat of the day’s events. The “in name only” reminded her how one-sided the attraction was, even though she’d thought otherwise. How could she have been wrong about that? And how could she be attracted to a man who kept so many secrets, who wouldn’t share his life—who committed crimes?
Been there, done that. Won’t live that secretive life again.
She turned her back on him and headed to her room. She’d barely shut the door when it burst open.
He closed in on her. “You brought this on yourself by disobeying my rules. None of this would’ve happened if you hadn’t been nosy and reckless. None of it.”
She stood her ground. “I take full responsibility.”
“I am not going to spend the next three days arguing with you about the marriage. It’s going to happen. Get used to it.”
“I’m going to spend the next three days trying to find a way out. Get used to it,” she said calmly, as her heart raced. Someone was in the attic. Had to be locked in the attic.
Something flickered in his eyes. Respect? Annoyance? It was hard to tell.
“Fair enough,” he said finally. “Would you like to go for a walk?”
His abrupt turnaround caught her off guard. “Yes,” she answered without thinking. “But I don’t want to talk,” she added.
His mouth twitched. He must think her a total idiot.
“Fine with me.” He grabbed her jacket, holding it for her to put on but not touching her.
Now that she’d set the rules, she had to adhere to them. He seemed amused, which irritated her even more. They climbed the path to the bluff. The dogs came from out of nowhere and she talked to them, played with them. When they took off, she and Zach climbed the rest of the way. He helped her as he had before, but this time his touch took on more significance as she fell against him. And this time when they reached the top, he sat down, as if they had all the time in the world. It would seem petulant if she didn’t do the same, so she sat, but a good five feet away from him—which also seemed to amuse him.
It was hard saying nothing. She wanted to ask about the other islands, sneak in a few questions that might help in her quest to leave. After a while the dogs returned. Belle lay beside Zach and put her head in his lap. Archie curled up next to Julianne, his body warm against her hip and thigh.
“They’re good dogs,” she said, unable to keep quiet a second longer.
Zach gave her a lopsided smile but was gentleman enough not to comment on her breach.
Silence. She squirmed. He obviously wasn’t going to make this easy on her. “I never knew guard dogs could be lap dogs, too.”
Louder silence. She picked up pebbles and tossed them far in the air, then they dropped to the ocean. The waves hitting rocks below kept a steady rhythm.
“I don’t like secrets, Zach.”
“Sometimes they’re necessary, Julianne.”
“Secrets only end up hurting people.”
“Some secrets help people.”
“Not in my experience.”
“Obviously we’ve had different experiences.”
“I’m here because of secrets.”
He scanned the horizon. “So am I.”
She sighed.
“The marriage won’t be forever,” he said after a while.
Archie lifted his head as she reacted. “How do you know that? Are you going to quit what you’re doing?”
“Never. When it’s right we’ll dissolve the marriage.”
“How long do you think that will be?”
“I don’t know.”
“Ballpark. A month? A year? Two years? Five?”
“I don’t know.”
“That doesn’t work for me, Zach.”
He shrugged, infuriating her.
“Maybe you don’t understand what I’ve gone through all my life,” she said. “If you did, I think you’d let me go now and find my own way.”
“Why don’t you tell me what that means.”
If it would help her escape the marriage, she would tell him anything. She relaxed, and Archie settled next to her again. “I’ve been a pawn all my life. All my life. First my father dictated my every move, chose my friends and activities, then when he died, my brother, Nico, did. I lived in a mansion. For most of my life I thought we were respectable, if a little odd. There were comings and goings, but I learned not to ask questions. I was chauffeured everywhere. You might have thought that was a girl’s dream, but I hated it, especially when I was old enough to drive but wasn’t allowed to get my license.”
“You don’t drive?”
“I drove the Jeep, didn’t I? I took lessons while I lived in San Francisco, but I haven’t driven much. I don’t own a car.”
“A rarity in California.”
“Tell me about it. Since I wasn’t physically allowed to attend college, I had to take Internet-only classes.”
“What was your brother afraid of?”
“My brother took my dad’s lucrative bookie business and turned it into something big. Extortion, money laundering, the works.”
“When did you find out?”
She rested her chin on her knees. “I would hear things by accident. Eventually I put two and two together. I was twenty. I wanted to live on my own and go to college like any other girl my age. He refused. I told him he couldn’t stop me. But he could. I was a target. He had enemies…” Just the thought of that conversation when he sat her down and told her why she couldn’t live independently gave her the shakes. She could be kidnapped—
Like Carolyn Keely. Killed. That truth had never hit her quite so hard before.
“How did you finally get out?”
She sat up, not letting on how shaken she was. “He needed me to spy on someone living in San Francisco, someone I learned after the fact he’d extorted money from well above and beyond what she should’ve had to pay. I was supposed to get close enough to her that she would confide in me, and I would know if she learned the truth and contacted the police. In exchange, he was going to give me enough money to go away. New ID. Everything. A new life.”
“You looked forward to that, I guess.”
“I didn’t like giving up my friends, but for the chance to finally live my own life? Yes, I looked forward to it.” Ached for it. It wasn’t supposed to be so hard to get to that point in her life.
“And instead you end up here, isolated.”
“And trapped. Yet another man dictating my life.”
“You took your own choices away.”
Tears burned in her throat. How had her life gotten so complicated? She’d only wanted her freedom, had only expected to have to put in a little time and then she would be on her way.
Now she was at the mercy of a man she didn’t trust, and was ridiculously attracted to. What happened to her simple plan?
“You’re shivering,” he said, then stood and offered her a hand up. Because it suited her, she accepted his help up, then he didn’t let go of her hand.
“I understand how disappointed and angry you are, Julianne. I will try to make this as easy on you as possible. But to do that, you have to meet me halfway.”
His thumb rubbed the back of her hand, distracting her. “What’s halfway?”
“You follow the rules and I won’t get angry.”
“Very funny.” She tugged her hand free, but more because she was shivering in a different way. Why did she have to find him so appealing? He was all wrong for her. He was imprisoning her, just like her father and brother had, preventing her from living a normal life.
But he wasn’t her father or brother. He was Zach, whose touch excited her. Because it was forbidden? What was the truth? She couldn’t even trust her own emotions, her own reactions to him.
She followed him back to the castle. At the bottom of her staircase he stopped her from going farther by laying his hand on her arm.
“It won’t be so bad,” he said.
“Are you trying to convince me or yourself?”
For several long seconds he said nothing. Then slowly, carefully he moved closer. She stood her ground, not allowing him to intimidate her. Then he took her face in his hands and kissed her.
Stunned, she went perfectly still, but her lips parted as he prolonged the contact.
Was this what it would be like, being married to him? A constant temptation, without trust, without a future? Moments of thoughtfulness, like the gift of sheet music, followed by a kiss to distract her? Because that was surely what he was doing now.
And she couldn’t resist him.
He stepped away just as she went up on tiptoe to bring herself closer.
“See? Not so bad,” he said, then he turned and walked away.
“You said it would be in name only,” she managed to say, the words almost sticking in her throat.
“You trusted a criminal?”
He was out of sight before her brain came up with a response. She plunked herself down on the staircase, dragged her fingers along her lips. It was just a form of brainwashing, a way to get her to accept an idea contrary to her own.
She couldn’t let that happen. She had things to do, a life to live.
Julianne hurried upstairs and grabbed her cell phone.
“I need to leave,” she said to Jamey when he answered.
“Hello to you, too, Julianne. Why do you need to leave this time?”
She thought she heard him sigh. She didn’t want to be placated. She also couldn’t tell him the truth. She’d broken Zach’s trust once already. She wouldn’t be responsible for breaking it again by telling Jamey her fears.
“I just want to go somewhere else. My reasons are important, but they’re my own.”
“All right. Give me a few days.”
“No. Now. Tomorrow or the day after. No later.”
“What the big rush?”
“Because it’s…it’s boring.”
“You said that before. Then you changed your mind.”
“This time it’s different.”
“I said okay. Be patient. It could take as much as a week.”
A week? Panic set in. She had less than three days to find a way out of the marriage. “Not in a week. Now.”
“Okay. Okay. Calm down. I’ll give Zach a call. If you want to leave that fast, I’m going to need help on his end.”
“Don’t you dare call Zach.”
A long silence ensued. “Why not?” he asked finally.
“Because I don’t want him trying to change my mind. Just do it, okay?”
“What’s going on, Julianne?”
“I just want off.”
Another silence crackled between them. “I’ll see what I can do.”
After saying goodbye she hung up the phone. When she realized how rigid with stress she was, she forced herself to sit on the window seat and relax her body. When she finally let go of the tension she found herself filled with fear. Not fear of Zach. No, it was fear of losing herself. Of giving in when she’d just learned to take charge of her life in some small way.
She couldn’t lose that.
“I have to fight you,” she said aloud. “I have to.”
She curled up on the window seat, clutching a pillow. Time for a new plan.
Zach glanced at the Caller ID when his phone rang. He stretched out on his bed, figuring he was in for a long conversation.
“What did you do to Julianne?” Jamey asked, not even saying hello.
“Told her she had to marry me.”
A keening silence followed. “You what?”
“You heard me.”
“I think you’d better tell me what happened.”
Zach did, leaving out the fact he’d come to like her. How he’d come to listen for her footsteps and enjoy her playing the piano in the evening. How the living room seemed hollow and empty when he passed through it and she wasn’t there. How he liked the way she took a step back from the dogs before she petted them, as if overcoming a fear first.
But liking her and trusting her were two different things. He’d already checked the history on her computer and found she was trying to find the name of an artist from the Prom. She was far too curious. How could he trust her with the details of what he did? She’d broken the only request he’d asked of her.
“If she only saw the pictures…” Jamey let the sentence drift.
“She recognized one of them. That changes everything. I’m protecting her,” Zach said, frustrated that Jamie wasn’t getting it. “The last thing she needs in her life right now is to be interrogated and dragged into more criminal proceedings. She went through that because of her brother.”
“And then the D.A. let her go. They figured they had enough evidence that her testimony wasn’t necessary.”
“Only because you called in favors. You convinced the D.A. not to put her on the stand.”
“Sort of. It was a fine line. Her testimony might have helped. And she may yet be called. But I suppose it was a favor.”
“I’m doing her a favor, too.” Why couldn’t Jamey see that? Why did Julianne refuse to see it, too? And didn’t she realize he’d been holding back during the kiss? That he’d purposely not put his arms around her because he figured he wouldn’t let go? The few times he’d touched her when he’d helped her climb to the bluff, he’d gotten a pretty good idea of how her body would feel up next to his, all curves and temptation.
Her blond hair may give her an angelic look, but her I’ll-fight-you-all-the-way attitude countered it. The castle’s atmosphere felt…buoyant now, reminding him that there had been happier times in his life. He couldn’t afford those memories. He had to stay focused on the task at hand. The enormous, never-ending task at hand.
“Okay,” Jamey said quietly.
“Okay? You’re okay with it? You think I’m doing the right thing?”
“I think you’re doing what you need to do.”
Zach decided not to examine Jamey’s words. “You won’t help her get off the Prom?”
“I won’t help.”
“She’s going to be furious.”
“I’m not in throwing range.”
Zach smiled finally and let himself relax. “What will you tell her?”
“That I can’t help her.”
“She’s gonna love that.”
“Fortunately, you have to deal with her, not me. Zach? I need a serious answer to something.”
“Shoot.”
“Do you have feelings for her?”
Feelings? Yeah. Graphic ones. Get-her-naked-and-in-bed feelings. But beyond that? He couldn’t go there, had to stop thinking about how his life had already changed because of her—for better or for worse, he wasn’t sure yet.
“I like her. I feel responsible for her because you asked me to, but I would feel responsible regardless. She’s vulnerable and maybe susceptible. That’s a dangerous combination.”
“She would understand what you’re doing.”
“She doesn’t need to know more than she already knows.”
“Okay, okay. Just try not to hurt her.”
“I try not to hurt anyone.”
Zach set down the phone a few seconds later. He tucked his hands behind his head and stared at the ceiling. Truth time, he thought. Maybe marriage was a drastic solution, but he was a risk taker, a rule breaker. He had to be. The possibility of her having to testify against him wasn’t a risk he would take.
No one in his care would ever suffer again. No one. He’d made it his life’s goal.
And he never broke a promise.