Deception Cove

Chapter 48

“YOU KNEW THAT IF SHE SAW ONE LAST OPPORTUNITY TO take revenge that she would try, even if it meant her own death,” Alice said. “That’s why you stood so close to the edge of the roof.”

“I thought there was a high probability she would risk everything at the end, yes,” Drake said.

He drank some of the whiskey in his glass. Alice swallowed some more of her wine. They were on the sofa in the living room of Drake’s town house in the Old Quarter, feet propped side-by-side on the low black lacquer table in front of them.

It was late. Midnight was approaching. Drake was not wearing his sunglasses. The glow of the Dead City Wall was at full force, illuminating the narrow streets and rooftops of the Quarter. The eerie green radiance flooded the living room with paranormal shadows. The only other light came from the fire that burned in the hearth.

The remains of the rich, chunky soup and the sandwiches that Drake’s housekeeper had prepared earlier were on the table in front of the sofa. Houdini had done his best to deal with the leftovers but now he was sprawled flat on his back on the sofa between Alice and Drake.

“You could have been killed,” Alice said. She took a meditative sip of her wine. “You were standing very, very close to the edge.”

“I should have done something permanent about Zara on Rainshadow,” Drake said. “But it would have involved too many other people. Harry, Chief Attridge, Charlotte, Rachel, you.”

“We would all have kept your secret.”

“I know,” Drake said. “But I did not want to put that burden on others who have enough secrets of their own to protect.”

“Now I’m the only one who knows for sure that what happened to Dr. Z was not entirely an accident.”

“Are you okay with that?”

“No,” Alice said. “No, I am not okay with that because you could have been killed with that damn fool bit of strategy out there on the rooftop.”

Drake looked briefly startled by the fierceness of her reaction. “It wasn’t that risky.”

“Yes, it was, and I want your promise that you will never, ever do anything that dumbass again.”

“Dumbass?”

“Yes, dumbass. I’m sure there were other ways of taking out Tucker. You did not have to put your own life on the line.”

“It seemed like the simplest and most effective strategy at the time.”

“Don’t you dare talk to me about strategy. We were staging a trick. Magicians don’t like it when the box-jumper decides to improvise.”

“When I saw Tucker there on the roof, I knew that she would keep coming at you until she was stopped,” Drake said. “She realized that if she could hurt you, she would have her revenge against me. Sooner or later she might have been successful. I could not allow that.”

“I realize you felt an obligation to protect me. I appreciate that. However—”

“Don’t say that.”

She frowned. “Don’t say what?”

“Don’t say that you appreciate my need to protect you.”

“But I do appreciate it,” she said earnestly. “It’s very nice of you.”

“Nice?”

“Gentlemanly. Heroic. Whatever. You feel a sense of responsibility toward me, and you are the type of man who takes his responsibilities seriously. I admire that, really.”

Drake took his feet off the table. He leaned forward and put his whiskey glass down with enough force to make a loud clink. He reached out, took Alice’s wineglass from her unresisting fingers, and set it down beside his.

“Something wrong?” Alice asked, bewildered.

“I do not want to hear that you admire me,” he said. His unshielded eyes burned. “I did not do what I did today because I am nice. I did it because it was necessary. That’s how I work, Alice. I examine a situation, define the goal, and then design a strategy to achieve that goal.”

Alice stilled. Something had changed quite drastically in the atmosphere. She was not at all certain where things were going.

“I understand your approach to life and business,” she said. “Why don’t you want me to admire you for it?”

“Because I want you to love me instead,” Drake said, “the way I love you.”

A great sense of warmth and wonder welled up from some place deep inside Alice. She looked into Drake’s silver eyes and saw the silver fire that burned in the depths. She touched his cheek.

“I thought you knew,” she whispered. “You’re the one who sees what others don’t see.”

“What did you think I saw?”

“That I love you,” she said. “That’s what I was going to tell you today when we left Ethel Whitcomb’s mansion. Took me a while to recognize the feeling. I’ve never been in love before.”

“Alice.”

He started to pull her into his arms.

Evidently fearing that he was about to get squashed, Houdini stirred abruptly and bounded down to the floor. He whisked across the room, heading for the open slider. At the door he paused for a cheerful chortle before dashing out onto the balcony and hopping up onto the railing. Alice caught a glimpse of his small, furry frame silhouetted against the green light of the Dead City Wall before he took off into the night.

And then she stopped thinking about Houdini because Drake was kissing her in the luminous psi-and-fire-lit night.

A long time later they lay together, stretched out on the sofa in front of the fireplace. They were both still fully clothed, although Alice’s pants and blouse were rumpled. Her initial sense of wonder had worn off. Reality came crowding back.

“What about your family?” she said quietly. “Will they accept me?”

“Accept you?” Drake laughed. “Get real. When they find out you’ve agreed to marry me, they’ll fall all over themselves in gratitude. They were afraid that I was never going to get past what Tucker did to me, that I would never find the right woman.”

Alice twisted a little in his arms. “When did you decide that I was the right woman?”

“I knew that the first night we met. Why in hell do you think I rushed you into that Marriage of Convenience the following morning?”

“What?” Alice struggled to a sitting position. “Are you telling me the MC wasn’t about protecting me from Ethel Whitcomb?”

“I told myself that it was a good strategy for keeping her away from you. And it was true, up to a point. But there were other ways of handling people like Ethel Whitcomb.” Drake tangled his fingers in Alice’s hair. “From the moment I saw you in the alley behind the theater dodging those thugs, I wanted you. When you kissed me in that parking garage after we got the MC, I figured I had a chance. After we spent our wedding night in the cove watching each other’s backs in that damn fog I knew I would do whatever was necessary to keep you close.”

“I kept telling myself not to mistake sexual attraction for love,” she whispered. “But I knew from the beginning that what I felt for you was not just physical in nature. It’s as if I’ve been waiting all my life for you to show up.”

Drake smiled. “We’ve both waited long enough. What do you say to a quick, quiet Covenant Marriage and another honeymoon on Rainshadow?”

“A third honeymoon on Rainshadow? Sure, why not?” Alice smiled. “A romantic island paradise teeming with escaped sea monsters living in flooded caves, giant mutant insects, and ancient ruins full of dangerous Alien technology—not to mention an underground labyrinth of uncharted catacombs. What could possibly go wrong?”

“We were made for each other. We can handle anything that comes along.”

A sparkling tide of knowing and a sense of profound certainty flowed through Alice.

“Yes,” she said. “Yes to everything, Drake Sebastian.”

He kissed her for a very long time. After a while he got to his feet, picked her up in his arms, and carried her into the lingering shadows of the bedroom.

HOUDINI AND THE OTHERS PLAYED THE NEW GAME OF hide-and-seek among the ruins inside the great Wall that surrounded the Dead City. The centuries-old ethereal quartz towers glowed in the night, offering virtually unlimited hiding places for dust bunnies. They raced around, darting in and out of the ancient structures until shortly before dawn.

When the first light of the new day illuminated the sky, they left the long-abandoned ruins. They dined on leftover pizza that had been discarded in a trash container in the alley behind a nearby Old Quarter restaurant. A good time was had by all.

The ruins left behind by the long-vanished Aliens held many ancient secrets. But the future on Harmony was with the humans and their games and their pizza.