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Her heart raced. He was toying with her, she was almost certain of it. “I think he’s in some sort of trouble.”
“You think.”
She held his gaze. “Just give me what he gave you.”
“Let’s both go to see him.”
“No!”
“No?”
His misleadingly docile tone sent every nerve in her body clanging in alarm. She’d made a hash of everything.
Gabriel leaned back in his chair with an inscrutable expression, but she knew she’d lost. If Beacher had found the toxin and given it to him he wasn’t going to tell her.
He bared his teeth. It was not a humorous smile.
“Want to try again?”
“You don’t believe me!”
His mocking expression was confirmation.
Defeat lay like bitter ashes in her mouth. Everyone seemed to agree that her father had taken the toxin and all the research from the lab itself, even though he had no motive. The working theory was that he’d conspired with Gabriel, and possibly Beacher, to steal the toxin and sell it to the highest bidder.
The authorities further decided that Gabriel had double-crossed her father and set charges to kill him and destroy any evidence. They believed her father had come home unexpectedly and set off the explosions before Gabriel could get away. There was no other explanation as to why Gabriel had been at the house that day. As far as she knew, he’d never even offered one.
She wasn’t sure where Beacher fit into this scenario, but there were a lot of things no one was telling her. She only knew the consensus was that the three men had conspired to steal the missing toxin and all the research that accompanied it. She assumed the authorities believed Gabriel and Beacher were simply waiting for the furor to die down to sell what they’d stolen. But it never had. The investigation had stayed as active as if the theft had happened yesterday. She couldn’t count the number of times she’d been questioned.
“Beacher didn’t send you, did he?” Gabriel asked.
“Of course he did.” She tried to sound forceful. He might feel sure she was lying, but until he spoke to Beacher he couldn’t be positive.
He took another bite of cheesecake and leaned back. She would not squirm under that intense stare no matter how much she wanted to. Instead, she focused on a small scar on his neck that his turtleneck didn’t completely cover.
Was he scarred all over? Was that why his fiancée had broken their engagement while he was still in the hospital? Cassy had never spoken with Andrea Fielding, but she’d seen the beautiful lab assistant with Dr. Pheng. Dr. Pheng had sent the toxin to her father in the first place, which wasn’t surprising. They were the top men in their field, friends as well as rivals since they had been graduate students together.
Cassy knew Dr. Pheng and Andrea Fielding had come under tight scrutiny as well. Everyone remotely connected to the toxin had, but only her father and Gabriel had had the opportunity to steal it.
With a sigh, she set down her fork. “Are you going to have me arrested?”
“Arrested?” He seemed to savor the word. “I don’t think there’s any need to have you arrested over some minor damage.”
She ignored the heat in her cheeks once more. “I’ll send you a check for the drapes.”
“And the screen?” he asked blandly.
“Yes, blast it. The screen, too.”
“I think we can come up with a more suitable punishment to fit this crime, don’t you?”
Cassy moistened suddenly dry lips. She was completely alone in a house with a man everyone believed was a criminal and worse. And she’d let down her guard!
“I’d rather be arrested.”
“Do I make you nervous, Cassiopia?”
Did lambs sleep with lions? Of course he made her nervous. If her palms grew any damper she’d drip all over the table, but she’d never give him the satisfaction of admitting as much.
“I’m not afraid of you.”
His dark expression lightened. If he smiled at her now she’d toss her cheesecake at him.
“Good,” he said neutrally and took another sip of tea.
She released the breath she’d been holding. “I’m going to leave.”
“Without what you came for?”
“Are you going to give it to me?”
“No.”
So Beacher had given him something! Or was he toying with her again?
“This is a waste of time.”
“Not precisely. I rarely have visitors. Try the tea. It’s a special blend.”
He was definitely toying with her. “To think I was going to apologize. I can see it would have been a waste of breath.”
The eyebrows arched once more. “For breaking into my house?”
“No! For that day at the hospital.”
Humor vanished in an instant. His jaw hardened.
“Does that mean you no longer believe I murdered your father?”
Cassy wasn’t sure what she believed anymore. The authorities claimed Gabriel had had no opportunity to remove the toxin from the lab alone. Only her father could have done so, and that she would never accept.
Her father had been understandably devastated by the sudden death of his wife only two weeks earlier. So was she, but no amount of grief would have caused her father to compromise his job.
“Did you kill him?” He wouldn’t tell her the truth if he had, but she had to ask.
“No.”
She waited until it became obvious he wasn’t going to elaborate. “That’s all you’re going to say? Just ‘no’?”
“I said all I had to say four years ago,” he told her with deceptive mildness. “Finish your cheesecake.”
Cassy shoved her plate aside. “I am finished.”
His eyes narrowed. He set down his fork with careful deliberation. “Then it’s time for you to leave.”
“You’re going to throw me out?”
“If you won’t go under your own power.”
He’d do it, too. She’d successfully roused the beast. Every instinct told her to get up and go, but she couldn’t. She hadn’t accomplished anything.
“I want what Beacher gave you.”
“We don’t always get what we want, Cassiopia.”
For a millisecond, it was as if she had a clear window into his troubled soul. A lonely beast prowled there. Cassy couldn’t help but feel sorry for him.
He stood in a fluid motion that caught her unprepared.
“When you see him, tell your fiancé I want to talk with him.”
She could have refused to move. She wanted to refuse, but her legs were already drawing her to her feet. The menace in the room was too thick to ignore.
“You’re a real bastard.”
“Is it my turn to call you a name now?”
He didn’t smile.
“Goodbye, Cassiopia. Don’t come here again.”
Seeing no choice, she walked down the hall toward the front door, aware of him at her back close enough to touch. Desperately, she tried to think of something else she could do or say to change the situation, but nothing came to mind.
He opened the door without a word and waited.
“If even one of those vials is opened a lot of innocent people will die. I wonder if even you could live with that.”
Rage flashed across his expression. Cassy stepped onto the stoop, words of apology forming on her lips, but he closed the door in her face.
A chill breeze brushed her skin. Cassy shivered. She couldn’t help thinking Gabriel Lowe was innocent after all.
Chapter Three
Anger would get him nowhere. Gabe snagged his coat, pulling it on as he left by the kitchen door. Swiftly, he moved around the side of the house only to find he needn’t have hurried. Cassiopia trudged down the sidewalk slowly, her posture showing her dejection.
Unless that, too, was part of her act.
He didn’t have time for this. His first commission was waiting on the worktable downstairs. If he wanted it completed on time, he had to finish shaping the clay tonight.
He knew little about Cassiopia Richards beyond the fact that she had a quick temper, made a laughable burglar and was a poor liar. If she and Beacher were engaged he’d eat all his works in progress.
How had she known Beacher had given him anything?
The minute his friend had showed up last night Gabe had known there was trouble, but Beacher had put him off. He’d handed Gabe a small package and asked him to hold it without questions until he returned.
“Don’t open it, okay? I’ll explain tomorrow when I come back.” His expression had been grim. “I don’thave time to explain right now. There’s someone I have to meet and I’m running late.”
He wouldn’t say who or what was in the package and, as of yet, he hadn’t returned with explanations. How had Cassiopia known?
Beacher knew Gabe’s house was searched on a regular basis. He wouldn’t have asked Gabe to hold something that would get them both tossed in prison. Not when, at the cost of his own reputation, Beacher had stood by Gabe when no one else would. There was no one Gabe trusted the way he trusted Beacher so he hadn’t pressed for answers. He regretted that now.
Something was wrong. Beacher should have shown by now. He’d give his friend until morning, then he was going to see what Beacher felt needed to be hidden from the irritating woman.
She stopped beside a small coupe and looked back at the house. Gabe stilled, willing her to see him as just another shadow once more.
Slapping the roof of her car in frustration, she climbed inside and started the engine. As she pulled away from the curb he made a mental note of the license plate and hurried to his backyard, bypassing his truck. The motorcycle started with its usual roar. He picked her up a few minutes later, traveling at a sedate rate of speed on the city streets.
Gabe hung well back. If she knew about his habit of going to the gym in the evening, she knew he rode a motorcycle. Following her was probably a waste of precious time. He’d take bets she was on her way home and not on her way to meet Beacher, but he had to be sure.
It was a bet he would have won.
When she turned into the parking lot of a row of modest town houses, he pulled over on the main road and waited. She took her time exiting the car. He used that time to survey the area.
Something moved furtively between two parked cars. Cassiopia had climbed out and was heading in that same direction, a large cloth handbag she hadn’t had earlier slung over one shoulder.
Instincts screaming, Gabe kicked the bike to life. He roared into the lot as the crouching figure leaped from between the cars and rushed her. Cassiopia went down. The pair struggled briefly before the hooded figure took off, disappearing around the corner of the building with her bag.
Gabe sent the bike onto the sidewalk in pursuit. Grass and dirt spun under his wheels as he tore after the fleeing figure, only to come to an abrupt halt at a privacy fence blocking his path.
Spotting a gate, he leaped off the bike. The gate was locked or jammed, but the attacker hadn’t had time to go anywhere else. Gabe scaled the wood fence. Abruptly, light flooded the small enclosure on the other side. A shape appeared in the sliding glass door holding a gun.
“Police officer! Hold it right there.”
Gabe swore under his breath. From his perch on top of the swaying section of fence he saw something moving in the enclosure next door.
“A woman out front was just accosted,” he told the cop. “I chased the suspect back here. He’s in the yard next door.”
“Get down. Slowly.”
This cop already had his suspect. Gabe was dressed in black and wearing a helmet. Until the cop knew for sure what was going on, he wasn’t going to listen to anything Gabe said. Jaw clenched, he dropped to the ground, careful to keep his hands in plain sight.
“Flat on the ground,” the man ordered. “Hands above your head.”
With a sigh, Gabe obeyed. His helmet made the position more uncomfortable than it would have been otherwise.
“Could you at least have someone make sure Cassiopia’s okay? I think she was only knocked to the ground, but I saw a knife when he took her purse.”
“You know Cassy?” he asked suspiciously.
