Lazlo’s Last Stand

Chapter 7

Oh, God, no wonder he’s the way he is. No wonder he can’t let himself love me. Love anyone.

“Oh, God…”

It wasn’t until she realized Corbett was staring at her with eyes hot and red-rimmed and a jaw tight with self-loathing that she knew she had spoken aloud. And that he’d misunderstood.

Stricken, she put out her hand to touch his arm, opened her mouth to explain. But he’d already pushed back from the table, away from her. Rising, he began to pace, one hand folded across his ribs, the other, with fingers spread, raking roughly through already unkempt hair.

“I know what you think of me, and I don’t blame you-believe me, I’ve thought the same thing myself at least a thousand times. It was a reprehensible, truly beastly thing to do. And yet I-” he turned to look at her, his face bleak “-I’ve thought what I might have done differently, if I were in the same spot today. And God help me, I can’t see what I would change. Even if I had loved her, I had a job to do. A duty…”

He paused, swore, then went silent, listening. He strode to the door of his study and opened it, and then, above the hum of tension inside her head, Lucia could hear it, too. A high-pitched electronic beeping. Still muttering under his breath, Corbett vanished into his study, leaving Lucia to sag in her chair and rest her forehead on her cupped hand, drained.

He called me Lu.

It the midst of the emotional blitz, it had slipped by her. How could she not have noticed? In the ten years she’d worked for Corbett Lazlo, often close by his side, he’d never once called her anything but Lucia-and an occasional Miss Cordez when he was particularly impatient with her. Today he’d called her Lu. The implications of that, together with the confession…

Things are different between us. Just like that. From one day to the next, everything’s changed.

She felt hollow and shivery inside, the same way she’d felt in Corbett’s shower, in Paris. It was a feeling as much of fear as of happiness. Too much, too fast. It scares me.

“Lucia, sorry-can you come here for a minute, please? I’m going to need you.”

Corbett called to her from the doorway of his study, but turned away before she could respond. He didn’t want to see her expression when she looked at him. Disgust or disappointment-he didn’t know which would be worse, but he was certain either would cause him pain more searing than his broken ribs, and he didn’t know whether he was strong enough just now to maintain his composure in the face of it.

He eased himself gingerly into a chair in front of the bank of monitors, acutely aware that she’d come into the room, that she was there close by his side-too close.

“What is it? Is it the boy?” Her voice sounded breathless and shaken.

He aimed a brief glance at the tawny curl just in front of her left ear and shook his head. “I don’t know yet. It’s Adam-”

“Adam! Oh, no…please, no!”

Her stricken cry stabbed him like a knife. Not that it surprised him. He’d wondered and then there was that rather intimate little moment between them when they’d said goodbye before she’d boarded the helicopter…

“Nothing like that,” he said quickly, aware that his smile must appear strained, even grim. And how will I be able to tolerate being around them if-when-they both figure out they’re in love with each other? “As far as I know, at this moment Adam is fine. He wants a video conference. Can you route it for us so it can’t be traced?”

There was a small pause, a throat-clearing sound and then a calm, “Yes, of course.”

She pulled a chair over from his desk, sat in it and reached for the keyboard.

He watched, transfixed, as she began to tap at the keys, her fingers flying too fast to follow, a little frown creasing her forehead, color still staining her cheeks. The smell of her hair clouded his mind. When he couldn’t stand it anymore, he rose, stiffly.

“Call me,” he said as he headed for the door. “When you have it set up.”

“This might take a while.” She tossed a glance over her shoulder. “Where will you be?”

He paused, considering how much to tell her about the one place he knew he would find the solitude he needed just now, and finally settled on a rather prim, “I believe I’ll have a wash.”

“Oh.” She chewed her lower lip for a moment, looking uncertain. “Do you want to use the shower? The one in my-in your-bathroom?”

“No,” he said. “Thank you.” And he went out, shutting the door firmly behind him.

Lucia sat for a few minutes, biting her lip and staring at the closed door, before she turned back to the computer screen. For a while she was able to lose herself in the task of routing a video connection through a spider’s web of encryptions and dummy hosts and red herrings. At last, satisfied the system was hack-proof, she contacted Adam and left him a message, then went, with nervous flutters in her stomach, to find Corbett.

The kitchen was empty and silent, the kind of silence that seems almost to have weight and substance. Lucia had lived by herself for ten years and liked it, but she’d never felt so wretchedly alone. And acutely aware, for the first time, that she was, in fact, in a cave.

She debated what to do-whether to go to Josef and Kati’s house and try to find Corbett. He must be finished with his “wash” by this time, she reasoned. Then she thought she might use the solitude to take a much-needed shower herself. She went into her bedroom and was in the process of collecting her toiletries and a selection of clean clothes when the flashlight rolled out of the suitcase and onto her foot. Swearing, she bent to rub her bruised instep, then picked up the flashlight. And as she felt the familiar shape of it in her hand, a new idea came to her.

This is a cave. I’m in a cave, and there’s only one way out.

Except for the chimney.

What if…

Yes, what if?

She stared down at the flashlight, biting her lip. She was alone. Corbett was taking a bath. She might not have a chance like this again to explore the back of the cave. A chance to find the chimney. Just in case, she told herself. In case I need another way out. I should know where it is.

Resolved that what she was doing was the right thing, Lucia made her way confidently back through the kitchen and storeroom. It wasn’t until she had shut the storeroom door behind her and turned on her flashlight that her heart began to beat faster. The light seemed small in the immense darkness…and yet, as her eyes grew more accustomed to it, she realized the darkness wasn’t as complete as she’d thought it would be. In fact, there seemed to be some sort of light source farther into the cave. An emergency light, maybe? Or, like the air currents, could it be coming from the chimney?

A sense of adventure filled her, wiping out any remaining traces of doubt. She began to make her way deeper into the cave, moving carefully, watching her feet on the rocky, uneven floor. Odd, she thought, the way one’s perceptions changed when one was alone in the darkness. The sulfur smell she’d noticed earlier seemed much stronger now, and the tiniest sounds seemed enormous. And the light…yes, it was definitely getting brighter. It almost had to be a lantern of some kind, but that didn’t seem likely. Did it?

She stopped, strained her ears to listen. But all she heard was the faint sound of water flowing over rock. The thermal spring Corbett had told her about, surely. It sounded quite close now, and…yes, she could see wisps of steam rising in the golden glow that outlined the rock formations directly ahead. These formations were quite remarkable, and ordinarily she’d have been fascinated with them, but at the moment she was completely focused on discovering the mysterious source of light. If the household did get its hot water from these springs, she supposed it would make sense to have a source of illumination available, in case someone needed to work on the plumbing. Or in case…For a moment her heart seemed to stop. In case someone wanted to use the springs to take a bath?

The notion, and its immediate implications, arrived too late. Moving quickly and silently, she’d already rounded the last of the stalactites, stalagmites-she could never remember which was which-between her and the thermal spring. She could now see that it flowed into a natural rock basin, its sides stained lovely shades of blue and green and white by the minerals in the crystal clear water. And there, stretched out full-length, relaxing in the shallow pool, his body burnished gold by the light of the lantern he’d placed on a rock ledge nearby, was Corbett.

A hiss of shock burst from her lips as she stepped reflexively backward, and her foot found an uneven place in the cave floor. She grabbed for a stalactite-or was it a stalagmite?-and the flashlight slipped from her hand and rolled away into crazily leaping shadows.

Corbett jerked around and nearly passed out from the pain caused by the jolting movement of his unprotected ribs. Through the dark blotches interfering with his vision, he could make out Lucia’s face, pale and oddly shadowed, and the indecision clearly written there. Had he not been breathless with agony, he might have found it amusing to watch the battle being played out between the natural impulse of a compassionate woman to rush to the aid of someone in pain, and the equally natural human impulse to turn away from the unexpected sight of someone naked-particularly a member of the opposite sex.

“Oh, G-G-God, Corbett,” she stammered, “I’m s-so sorry. Truly, I am. I didn’t know…” There was a pause, and then a fearful, “Are you all right?”

He was afraid to take another breath and hadn’t enough left of the last one for words, so he just shook his head. He was beyond caring about modesty, or the fact that she probably hated the sight of him anyway, right about now. He closed his eyes, gritted his teeth and concentrated all his effort on producing sound.

“I’m sorry to ask it of you, but I’m afraid I’m going to need a bit of help,” he managed to say, with slow and stiff formality. “If you wouldn’t mind handing me that towel, over there.”

He heard only silence. He turned, or tried to, and managed to shift himself around enough so that he could see her without twisting his torso too much. He watched her pick up the towel, moving slowly, like someone underwater. Or was that only his pain-warped vision? Then she turned, and he realized with a shock that she was angry. Furious.

“Look,” he croaked, “I do apologize. It’s just that I don’t think I’m going to be able to get out of here without help.”

Again, there was only silence. Then, holding the towel in both hands like a peculiar weapon of some kind, she began to walk toward him. A little thrill ran through him as he watched her eyes. She looked like a lioness, he thought, moving in for the kill.

She came as far as the edge of the pool. He braced himself, heart thumping painfully against his ribs, having no earthly idea what she was going to do next. She paused for a long suspenseful moment, gazing down at him. Then she pressed her lips together and dropped the towel in a heedless heap beside him, obviously not caring that she’d gotten part of it wet in the process.

“Do you know what you are?” Her voice was low and raspy, rather resembling a lion’s purr, in fact. “You are the world’s biggest idiot-and considering the state of the world that’s saying a lot. The only thing I can’t understand is why I didn’t figure out sooner what a bloody idiot you are. I was a grown-up woman the day you met me, Corbett Lazlo, and I’ve been in love with you for just about that long.” She grabbed at a breath. “You’ve known that, and you’ve insisted on treating me like a schoolgirl with a silly crush. And you know what really gets me? You definitely feel something for me-that’s pretty obvious. You almost kissed me yesterday, don’t deny it. Maybe it’s just chemistry, or whatever. I just figured it out. I think you love me, too. Yes, you do. But you’ve got this crazy idiotic idea that-I don’t know, maybe you aren’t allowed to be happy, or you think…I don’t know what you think. But you know what? You can get your own damn self out of that damn tub.”

Then, while he stared at her, incredulous, she turned and left him there.

Lucia sat at the keyboard, still shaking. Still not able to believe she’d done what she’d done. Said what she’d said.

How could I have been so stupid?

What if I was wrong?

She had been so certain, there in the dim light of the cave, staring down at his long, lean body in the pristine water. Remembering all the moments…the signs…the clues she’d dismissed as wishful thinking. Even before that crazy heart-stopping moment in his closet, there’d been so many times, so many things she should have paid more attention to. The way his heart felt, thumping against her chest when he’d bested her in a martial arts match. The way he’d glared and then grown frosty on those rare occasions she’d told him she had a date. And this-whisking her away to his own private hideaway to protect her when anyone else would have been sent to a safe house somewhere.

Now, in the familiar cold light of a computer monitor, staring at the patiently blinking cursor, she wished with all her heart that she could go back and undo what had just happened.

If only, she thought, life had an escape key.

If I’m wrong about him, then in his mind I’ve just proven he was right all along-I am nothing but a silly schoolgirl with a crush.

How overwrought she must have sounded, especially to someone with his incredible self-control.

How would she be able to face him now? What would she say to him when she saw him next?

It would depend, she supposed, on what he said to her.

That’s it-that’s what I’ll do. I’ll wait and pick up my cue from him.

I wish he’d come, dammit. Let’s get this over with.

What’s taking him so long? What if he really can’t get out of that basin? What if-

She was teetering on the edge of panic when she heard the door next to the study open…then close. Her whole body froze-except for her heart, and that part of her anatomy seemed to have gone a little berserk. Behind her the study door opened. She waited, and it quietly closed.

I won’t look, she thought. And then, No-that’s too childish.

She threw one brief, reckless look over her shoulder and said tartly, “I see you made it.”

Facing the computer screen again, she closed her eyes. Oh, God, he looks so pale. He really is hurting-physically and emotionally. I shouldn’t have hit him with this. Not now.

Without comment, he came and pulled out the chair next to hers and carefully lowered himself into it. When he was settled, he nodded toward the screen. “I take it you have the connection?” His voice was as it always was when addressing her: formal, controlled, calm. As if nothing out of the ordinary had happened between them.

Anger spurted anew into Lucia’s blood and pounded its way through her veins.

“Of course,” she said. Show some emotion, damn you. I know you feel. Show something.

She tapped viciously at the keyboard and a moment later Adam’s face filled the monitor.

“G’day, gorgeous.” The words didn’t quite match the jerky movement of his image, but his grin was irrepressible as usual. “Oops-sorry, mate. Didn’t see you were there, too.”

“Yeah, right…mate.” Corbett’s voice was dry, his breath a soft whisper along her cheek as she watched his image join hers in the small window at the bottom left of the screen. She closed her eyes and held her breath, then realized Adam would be able to see that, too. “You have a report for me.” It wasn’t a question. Corbett’s mouth had settled into a grim line.

“Yeah…right.” Adam’s grin vanished, as well. “News from the hospital is, the boy’s awake and alert. Still paralyzed, though. Mum’s been at his bedside, but that hasn’t kept her from directing all-out war against our guys. It’s amazing what you can discover when you know what you’re looking for. Seems our girl Cassandra has taken over the reins of S.N.A.K.E. And there is some word on the street that taken from dear old Dad is the operative word. For now, everyone’s in hiding, including me.” There was a pause, while Adam fidgeted. “And we had a bit of a security breach this morning.”

Corbett’s body tensed. “Where? How bad?”

“Here-headquarters. Not too bad. We stopped ’em before they got very far.”

Lucia’s gasp was overridden by Corbett’s oath. “A break-in? Impossible.”

“Nope, ’fraid not, mate.”

“How’d they get in? Not through the garage. Our security-”

Adam’s head moved jerkily from side to side. “Nope, the roof. Your apartment, actually. Broke in through the skylight. Didn’t get any farther than the elevator, though.”

Corbett snapped a look at Lucia, who glared back at him. His voice was a furious growl. “Who knew about that skylight? Damnation. This has to be coming from someone-”

“Not necessarily,” Adam interrupted. “Once they’d pinpointed the building, the skylight would be the logical way in, wouldn’t it?”

Corbett swore again. “Tell me you took care of the intruders?”

Adam’s grin reappeared, and this time it wasn’t pleasant. “Goes without sayin’, boss. Unfortunately, none survived our people’s particular brand of TLC, so if we do have a mole, we won’t find out who it is from them.”

“Pity.” There was a pause, during which Lucia watched Adam’s image shift awkwardly. She felt Corbett take a deep breath and heard it catch when the pain hit him. “Any more casualties on our side?” Adam shook his head. Corbett snarled, “Don’t lie to me, man.”

There was another pause, and then Adam said in a cheerful voice that was only partly undermined by his crooked smile. “Under the circumstances I’ll make allowances for that remark, mate. We both know I’m not above a gentle fib on occasion, but I’ve never lied to you, now, have I?” The smile vanished altogether. “Truth is, I don’t know, okay? Tom Schroeder called in en route to a safe house, but he never got there. At this point, that’s all I know.” His grin flashed for a jerky second. “How are you doing? Those ribs feeling any better?”

In the small window on the monitor screen, Lucia saw Corbett’s eyes dart toward her, then as quickly away. She opened her mouth, but before she could say a word, he bit out a savage, “I’m fine. My ribs are fine. If you don’t mind, can we not waste time talking about my bloody ribs?”

“Sure, boss. Right-O, boss. Any instructions, boss?”

“Find me that mole!” Corbett snarled, and pushed his chair back out of the camera’s range.

“What the hell’s eating-”

Lucia cut him off with a hurried, “Signing off, Adam. Watch your back.” She clicked the mouse and his image vanished. Another click closed down the connection. She swiveled her chair to face Corbett, who had gotten to his feet and was pacing restlessly with one hand in his pocket, the other folded protectively across his ribs.

“Would you mind telling me what that was all about?”

In a windowless room deep in the bowels of the Lazlo Group headquarters, Adam sat staring at the entwined pentagrams that made up the organization’s logo outlined on a huge blue monitor, while muttering to himself.

“What the bloody hell was that all about?”

He’d never known Laz to be so edgy before. But then, he’d never known him to be cooped up with a woman day and night, before, either-particularly one he was too stubborn to admit he was crazy in love with.

Adam had felt the tension between them even through the computer screen. Something had happened between those two. Or was about to. He knew, as surely as he would have known if a thunderstorm was about to hit.

Bleakly, he tapped a key and the computer whined into silence.

“Why are you treating Adam like this is all his fault?” Lucia persisted, after Corbett had favored her with one of his superior looks. “He’s not to blame for what’s been happening.”

He looked for a moment as if he would fire off another scathing denial. But then she saw the light in his eyes slowly die, and the lines of his face grow long and strained as he paused to grip the back of a chair and lean his weight on it. “I sincerely hope you’re right,” he said softly.

A wave of cold shuddered through her stomach. “Oh, you can’t seriously think-you can’t possibly think Adam’s the mole.”

His desolate eyes flicked across her face and then moved on, settling on nothing. “It has to be someone close to me. Someone very close. There aren’t that many people who know about that skylight.”

“But what he said is true. Once they’d accessed the roof-”

“Yes,” he said, straightening and rubbing his eyes tiredly, “and he was quick to point that out, wasn’t he? But why would anyone think the rooftop would be the best way in? How would they know to try that first?”

She couldn’t bear the acute misery written in every line and shadow on his face. “It’s not Adam,” she said firmly, her own anger with him draining away like water in sand. “I know it’s not. It must be someone else. It has to be.”

“Who, then?”

“I don’t know, who else knows about the skylight?”

“Besides Adam? Me, my brother Edward, the people who installed it, I suppose, although there’s no reason they’d know who it belonged to, since the work order was channeled through the bank on the ground floor. And,” he added after a moment, “now you.”

She drew a sharp reflexive breath, as if a gust of wind had struck her in the face. “You don’t-”

“No,” he said softly, an odd little smile touching his lips, “I don’t.”

“What about Edward?”

“No.” He said it with flat certainty. “Not that I don’t think Edward’s scruples can be bought. For one thing, he, uh…Well the truth is, his bad habits do tend to keep him chronically short of cash. But he’s my brother. He’d never do anything to hurt me. Never.”

“Girlfriends, then?” She said it stiffly, pushing it past the pain that had come to wrap itself around her heart.

He looked at her for a moment, and his lips curved in a sardonic smile. “Believe it or not, no. You’re the only woman I’ve ever invited into that bedroom.”

She opened her mouth but words refused to come. She stared at him while the moment stretched into unknown minutes, counted in the thumping beats of her heart. His eyes seemed to catch fire and shimmer back into hers.

It was the kind of moment that can’t possibly drift away into nothing. A moment like that must have a resounding conclusion, must end with a bang, an action or words that change everything. Either that, or…an interruption.

Like a tap on the door, and the door opening, and Kati’s face, wreathed with smiles, and her voice singing out in cheerily defiant Hungarian, “Kész az ebéd!”

Which even Lucia knew meant it was time for lunch.

“I just refuse to believe Adam would ever betray you,” Lucia said. “It has to be someone else, and I’d like a chance to try and find out who, that’s all.”

It was the next morning, the first time Corbett had been alone with her since her emotional-and, he was sure, deeply regretted-outburst the day before. As it turned out, the “lunch” Kati had interrupted them to announce would be the main meal of the day, since it was already midafternoon. And she’d outdone herself, as usual, with a spread that included everything from stuffed cabbage rolls and chicken paprika to the rolled crepes called palacsinta she always made when he came because she knew he was fond of them. Anyway, she always had a tendency to go all-out when Corbett was in residence, and having another woman to show off for had no doubt only prodded her to even greater efforts.

Josef had joined them, as well, so conversation was sprightly and filled with all the world news and local gossip. And since it was mostly in Hungarian-Josef’s English being much less fluent than his wife’s-Lucia had contented herself with smiling and nodding, watching and listening. And, Corbett was sure, soaking up a great deal more than anyone suspected, given that remarkable mind of hers, until she’d begun to nod off over coffee and Kati’s homemade pastries. Even geniuses, it seemed, needed their rest now and then.

As Corbett studied “his” genius now, he recognized the stubborn set of her mouth and, realizing she’d do it whether she had his okay or not, nodded. “Fine. Go ahead.”

But as she started to swivel back to the computer, he placed both hands on the arms of her chair to stop her. “However, not right now. I have something to show you. Come-get dressed.”

“I am dressed.”

Pouting, her lips were so tempting he could feel juices begin to pool at the back of his throat. “Hmm,” he said, swallowing a remark he knew he’d regret, “I can see that. I meant put on your coat and mittens. It’s outside.”

She cocked a wary eye toward him. “Oh, God. What is it? Not skis. I said-”

“It’s not skis, I promise. But you’re going to have to come outside to see it.”

“I’d rather not. I can do much more good right here. If I-”

“I have no doubt of that. However, you could also do with some fresh air. Come-up you get.”

Her chin rose another notch, and he realized there were now only scant inches separating his mouth from hers. He grew light-headed at the thought.

“You’re not-”

“-Your teacher,” he said, straightening up before he did something he’d regret even more than words. “I know. You’ve already reminded me of that fact. However, you are in my protective custody, which makes me your custodian. I am also, as you seem to forget, your boss. I will expect you bundled up and on the front steps in-” he drew back his cuff to glance at his watchless-wrist “-five minutes. Do I make myself clear?”

“Perfectly.”

“Good.” He turned away to hide his smile, feeling ridiculously buoyant, considering he could feel her furious glare burning holes between his shoulder blades.