Sara's Surprise (22 page)

He stared miserably at Noelle. Her tear-swollen eyes went wide with recognition. Both little arms shot toward him. "Cal!" She wiggled in Antonetti's arms and made a tragic, pleading sound.

"Sorry about this," Audubon said, looking uncomfortable. "I had no idea." He motioned to Mike Antonetti. "Take her upstairs."

When Mike turned to leave, Noelle began to cry with tiny, gulping sobs, while she reached toward Kyle frantically. Kyle swayed in place. He felt as if invisible hands were pulling him apart inside. Daisy poked her nose into his hand and whined again.

Noelle's crying was the most heartbreakingand brokensound he'd ever heard in his life. "Cal. Cal," she finally managed, and slumped against Antonetti's shoulder, so exhausted that she was gasping for breath.

"Take her upstairs," Audubon said again, to Mike.

"Cal," Noelle whimpered, gazing at Kyle with bewildered, tragic eyes.

Mike started walking away. Kyle's control broke apart. "Wait." Kyle strode to him, fiercely ignored Audubon's scrutiny, and took Noelle. She wrapped both arms around his neck and kissed him several times, then burrowed her head into the crook of his shoulder like a mouse curling up for the night.

Kyle turned his back to the other men. swallowing hard to get control of the knot in his throat. "I'll hold her for a few minutes and then take her upstairs."

"This is going to be more of a problem for you than I ever expected, "Audubon said quietly. "It might be best if you let me talk to Dr. Scarborough alone."

Kyle went to the chair and sat down. He realized that he was embracing Noelle so tightly that she was squirming a little. He stroked her back in apology, and she murmured happily. He swiveled to stare at Audubon. "At the moment I don't know what the hell I'm doing, but it won't have any effect on me later. Just leave me alone with the kid. It's way past her bedtime and she doesn't have her pacifier or her rubber frog. That's why she's so upset."

"Oh, I see," Audubon said dryly. "I could swear that she's perfectly content without her pacifier or rubber frog, now that she has you."

He and Antonetti left the room. Daisy collapsed by Kyle's feet, sighing heavily. Kyle shut his eyes and tried not to remember who had fathered the little angel who was snuggled deep in his arms, but he remembered her mother in excruciating detail, and bitterness left very little room for mercy.

Kyle was waiting for her, Sara thought, sad and angry. He was waiting to help Audubon interrogate her. No matter what his motives, no matter how much he might cajole, tease, or gently prod for a truth she wouldn't give, she would never forget that he had conned her into this situation. He had helped steal her baby.

Lucy Wayne's real name was Victoria Coursey. Victoria was an ex-actress turned cop turned Audubon agent. In her purse she carried a small automatic pistol and a picture of her pet hamster. She was disgustingly calm at all times.

Which was the opposite of Sara as Victoria guided the station wagon along the driveway through Audubon's estate. In the darkness beyond acres of manicured lawns sat a Tudor-style mansion. The exterior was dramatically lit by flood lamps; the mansion was both forbidding and stately.

Sara's heart thudded, and the muscles of her back felt as if they would snap. She was frightened now and furious and ready for battle. And when she let herself think about a future without Kyle she could scarcely keep herself from crying.

Victoria parked the wagon in a brick courtyard. Together she and Sara walked to an impressive entrance inset with ornately carved doors. Sara jumped when they swung open without warning. A tall, rugged man with dark eyes, dark eyebrows, and a mane of snow-white hair stood there, one hand on each door.

It was a dramatic confrontation; Sara suspected that it had been planned that way. "Dr. Scarborough, how nice of you to let us force you into coming here," he said in a deep, cultured drawl. Then he smiled pleasantly and extended a hand. "T.L.B. Audubon. Please, call me Audubon."

She ignored his hand. "I want my daughter back."

"Of course. Come inside." He angled the hand toward Victoria, who shook it quickly. "Good work."

"Dr. Scarborough made it pleasant."

"I threatened her with a fireplace poker." Sara corrected her grimly. "And I'm not too far from being violent now. I want to see my daughter immediately ."

"Please. Come inside. Your daughter arrived just thirty minutes ago. She's happy and comfortable, I assure you. Now, let's see what we can do about making you feel the same way."

He led them through the mansion to a large study, where a fire crackled under a marble mantelpiece crowded with gleaming trophies. "Sit down. Dr. Scarborough."

Victoria waited by the door to the study. "Do you want me to stay, Audubon?"

He waved a hand at her. "Thank you, no. Good night. I'll speak with you and Mike early in the morning."

Victoria nodded. "Good night, then. Good night. Dr. Scarborough." When Sara didn't answer, she left the room.

Sara stood firmly in the middle of the study, her hands clenched. Audubon flashed a beautiful smile. "Please, let me take your coat."

Sara shrugged her arms out of a wine-colored cloth overcoat but clutched it to her stomach defiantly. Audubon's eyes flickered with intrigue at the sight of her white sneakers, pink overalls, and the pink and white sweater underneath the overalls. The sweater had a line of unicorns across the chest. Sara glared at him coldly.

"I don't look much like someone who's sinister, do I?" she asked sarcastically. "Well, I'm not."

"Your coat, please."

"I'm not staying."

"We have a lot to discuss. Doctor."

"Not until I see my baby."

"No. We talk first." He went to a massive desk, where he sat down, and swung both loafered feet onto one corner. He pressed a button on a phone console and said simply, "Dr. Scarborough is here."

He released the button without waiting for an answer. Audubon gestured toward a plush leather armchair. "Please. It's against my nature to sit while a lady stands."

"But it's not against your nature to spy on innocent people and coerce them. Hilarious sense of priorities you've got." Sara's ears caught the distant sound of measured, forceful footsteps crossing marbled floors and growing louder with each second. Kyle? She twisted toward the study door, every nerve on alert. Just let the traitor give her one reassuring smile! Just let him try to soothe her hurt feelings!

He stepped through the doorway and halted, gazing at her with blue eyes so cold that she shivered. Sara stared at the contempt she found there, and her throat constricted with horror. He knows about Valdiuia and me .

"Your daughter is asleep," he told her, his voice threaded with distaste, as if it took great effort for him to speak to her at all. "You can see her after you answer my questions. If you want something to drink or eat before we get started, say so right now. There's a bathroom down the hall if you want it."

"No," Sara muttered, stepping back numbly. She went to the armchair and sat down, still hugging her coat against her stomach. She was empty, beaten, ruined. No one could prove or disprove that she had been Valdlvla's willing accomplice, but the accusations would destroy the secrets she had so desperately hoped to keep for Noelle's sake. And for Kyle's.

Sara gazed at him wretchedly as he went to a bookcase beside the hearth and leaned against it, his arms crossed over his chest. He had changed into dress shoes, dark trousers, and a pale blue dress shirt, open at the neck. The cuffs of the sleeves were fastened with monogrammed silver links. The silver matched that on the latches of the dark leather suspenders he wore. His hair was neatly styled in a way she'd never seen before. The man who gazed down at her with his face set in a rigid mask was not the same man who had been her friend and lover, and he wanted her to know it.

"Well start at the beginning," he told her. "And it will be simpler if you tell the truth. When did you first meet Diego de Valdivia?"

Sara leaned back in the chair and shut her eyes. She could only hope to escape from this ordeal with a little of her dignity intact. If she thought about the loathing in Kyle's eyes, she would fall apart. If she thought about her own innocence, she would become too bitter to talk. "I met him one year before the kidnapping."

"Well get to the so-called 'kidnapping' later. Where did you meet him?"

"In Quetano. I'd gone into the city for a short vacation, after working in the rain forest for several months. He was there on business. We met in a hotel restaurant. I was eating alone. He asked if he could join me. We had a mutual acquaintance, a professor at the local university. He was interested in my research into agricultural herbicides. We talked about his coffee bean plantations."

"When did the relationship become personal?" Sara gazed at him. His tone of voice whipped her. In self-defense she let sorrow and frustration build a wall that allowed only the most essential details to escape. "Are you asking me"

"How long after the first meeting in the hotel restaurant did you start sleeping with him?"

She sucked in a tight little breath. "Eventually."

Kyle's mouth formed a merciless smile. "A few months later? A few days? A few minutes after dessert? What?"

"A few months."

"You saw a lot of him before then?"

"Yes. Whenever we were both in the city."

"Let me tell you what we know, and then you think about repeating this part of your storyand give me the true version. Diego de Valdlvia had a reputation with women. The kind of reputation that a bull in a barn full of eager cows might envy. He wasn't known for patience. He wasn't the type who would chase a woman for several months before he got her into bed."

"Think what you want. I told you the truth."

"So you successfully played innocent with a sadistic, amoral man who as far as we know never had a long-term relationship with a woman before. You want me to believe that?"

Sara dug her fingernails into the chair arms. "I met him, he was interested in my work; he was intelligent, charming, and very attentive. I thought he was a legitimate Suradoran businessman. He was good at hiding what he really wanted, which was to know about my work with viral herbicides. I explained that what I hoped to do was create a cheap, environmentally safe compound for agricultural use. A weed killer that wouldn't hurt anything but the weeds."

"So, what attracted you to him sexually? His fascination for farming?"

"I had a a relationship with him for several months," she continued doggedly. "I thought for a very brief time that I loved him; But before long I realized that he was using me to get information. I told him so. I broke off the relationship. He made some very ugly threats, but I thought he was bluffing. He left me alone. I assumed that I wouldn't have to worry about him. I never expected that he was so determined that he'd follow when I went back to the States to visit my mother."

Audubon interjected. "Where you're saying that he kidnapped youand Dinah McClure, a friend who happened to be with you at the time."

"Yes."

"A pretty damned weak story," Kyle told her. "So you let Valdivia haul you back to one of his plantations in Surador where he forced you to create the kind of herbicide he wanted, something so deadly it could be of military value. And you did what he asked without quibbling."