Where was she?
He adjusted the focus of his binoculars for about the tenth time. He’d been watching all day, since he’d left the graveside service after catching her gaze. He’d been tingling all over since meeting her eyes across the gentle rise of the cemetery. Even now, he could still see her face, the one eyebrow raised, as if in question, Do I know you?
He chuckled to himself.
She was still probably trying to figure out where she’d seen him. Well, it just goes to show you that people aren’t always as observant as they should be. He wondered what that FBI fellow would say if he realized that it had been he, Briggs, who had offered to move down a seat at the counter in the drugstore just the day before. That it had been he, Briggs, who had given Leah his seat.
She hadn’t remembered this morning, but oh, soon enough, she’d know him. She’d know him damn well.
“And I’ll know you,” he said aloud to the picture, “better than any man has ever known you …”
With a long finger, he traced the outline of her face on the photo before him, touching the tip of the finger to her mouth, letting himself dream, just for a minute, what it was going to feel like to have that mouth on him. Wherever and whenever he wanted. He groaned softly, just thinking about it.
A car pulled into the motel lot and he licked his lips in anticipation. Was it her? But no. The sedan merely turned around and drove off. It was frustrating, not knowing what to watch for, since Leah had left the motel that morning and walked the three blocks to the church.
With Ethan Sanger.
He’d known about Ethan. Because of the tapes. He closed his eyes and the memory of the voice on the tapes swelled through him.
Ray. His friend. His only friend. Oh, to hear that voice again! Having the tapes fall into his hands was like receiving a gift from the gods. He was grateful enough to Ethan Sanger that he’d almost considered letting him live.
His spirit, however, wasn’t quite that magnanimous.
He tried to imagine what Ethan and Leah had been doing behind the locked door of their motel room. Speculation made him angry, and he cursed aloud, an ugly slur to foul the air of a beautiful late afternoon.
Where was she?
He shifted his weight and tried to think things through.
He’d been close enough to know that she was the one.
And hadn’t she been promised to him? To make up for having cheated him?
Leah McDevitt had a lot to make up for. She had kept what rightfully belonged to him, and she would have to pay it back.
And paybacks, as everyone knew, could be a bitch.