Cheated of that satisfaction, Charles broadened his smile with great deliberation. "I'll say good-bye for now, Harvey. Try to keep in mind that my brother is a very impatient man. Of course, if you value your bank account more than Devina's life…"
Turning on that note, Charles walked toward the door, leaving a totally enraged Harvey Dale behind him. He was pulling the door open when the thought occurred to him for the first time that he was not so unlike his brother as he had thought. He, too, was capable of hatred and a desire for vengeance against the man who had hurt someone he loved. And he was not above using the vehicle Ross had provided for wreaking that vengeance.
Charles walked through the outer office, a broader understanding of his brother filling his mind. He stepped out on the street, realizing that this new understanding of Ross had come just a little too late.
«» «» «» «» «» «» «» «» «» «» «» «»
"I'm not here to listen to your denials or your protestations of innocence, Mary."
China Mary's broad face creased into a smile. "Then, Mr. Dale, I would ask why you have come here. On your last visit you expressed only too clearly your distaste for my daughter and myself and your need to separate yourself from us. Have you changed your mind and come to visit Lily again?"
"No!" The vehemence of Harvey's response was as much a denial of his feelings for Lily as it was an answer to Mary's question. "I want no part of your conniving daughter, not while my own daughter's fate lies undetermined. Devina's future appears to rest in your hands."
China Mary's broad smile suddenly stiffened. She tilted her head, fixing her gaze on his countenance with intensifying scrutiny. "I do not quite understand, Mr. Dale."
"Then let me clarify my statement." At the sound of a step, Harvey turned to watch the door slowly swing open. His sharp intake of breath revealed his unconscious reaction to the beauty of the woman who stood there for the space of a moment before entering the room. He steeled himself against the rapid pounding of his heart.
Lily was walking directly toward him, smiling into his eyes. She knew the power she had over his body. She knew the way that damned traitorous part of him came alive at the sight of her, threatening to destroy his credibility in this most important negotiation.
Harvey muttered harshly, "Stay where you are, Lily. Don't come a step closer."
Lily's narrow brows rose in innocent surprise. "Dear Mr. Dale, I was but making ready to welcome you. Did you not come here to see me?"
"You know damned well I didn't." A new wave of color flooding his face, Harvey felt his groin tightening, and his self-loathing increased. "I came here to speak with you and your mother, to make you an offer."
Mary's soft, singsong voice interrupted with unaccustomed boldness. "You have twice mentioned an offer you are to propose. I would hear that offer now, Mr. Dale."
Choosing to ignore the subtle change in Mary's voice, the air of command in her tone, Harvey raised his chin. "I never believed either of you when you denied knowing anything about Devina's abduction.''
China Mary's round face stiffened further. "I will not continue to profess my innocence, Mr. Dale, since you choose not to believe me. Instead, I ask that you approach the point of your visit with more haste. I am impatient with your dallying."
Harvey's fine lips twitched. "You're taking a chance with that attitude toward me, Mary. You are not yet free of my influence."
Mary's inscrutable smile returned. "But I soon will be, is that not so, Mr. Dale?"
"That is entirely up to you."
Waiting only until Lily came to stand at her side, Mary nodded. "We are waiting, Mr. Dale."
"I want to find my daughter, quickly." Harvey swallowed with visible discomfort. His request finally voiced, a tight hand of fear seemed to close around his throat. If they could not help him, if they
would
not help him…
"And what will you offer me if I am able to uncover information leading to the whereabouts of your daughter, Mr. Dale?"
His patience expiring at this game of cat and mouse, Harvey released his breath in a low snarl. "You know what I'm offering! The documents I hold,
dammit
! Lead me to my daughter and I'll put those papers in your hands so you'll be free of my influence forever. That's what you've always wanted, isn't it?"
China Mary paused, her smile widening. She cocked her head to the side once more in the manner that caused him so much distaste and Harvey fought to overcome his revulsion.
"Don't pretend you don't understand me, Mary. I'm not fool enough to believe"
Harvey's heated harangue was interrupted by Lily, who took a step forward. Her eyes caught and held his, and she smiled. She spoke in the soft musical voice he remembered so well. "I would have your statement clarified so I might better understand your intent, Mr. Dale." Lily's gaze moved to caress his cheek, his lips, as she continued softly, "You are saying that if my mother and I supply you the information you seek, you will no longer visit me at your convenience and demand that I tend to your needs?"
Lily paused, awaiting his response, and Harvey swallowed tightly. His desire for the exotic beauty standing before him raised his agitation to produce a reaction so strong that he was trembling. Lily's hand rose to his cheek.
"What is wrong, Mr. Dale? You are trembling. Your cheek is unshaven, your hair uncombed, your clothing unkempt. Your bodily scent is not fresh. You are unclean, Mr. Dale." Lily's eyes rose to his in exaggerated innocence as her hand slipped to the growing bulge beneath his belt. "And now you have another problem as well. That is unfortunate, Mr. Dale."
Harvey's voice was a harsh rasp. "Lily…"
"But you have not answered my question, Mr. Dale. Are you telling me that you will free me of my subservience to you if my mother and I provide the information you seek? You will allow me to pursue my own life, to take a man of my own choosing?"
Lily's smile broadened at Harvey's suddenly heightened color. She continued with her low-voiced questions. "Are you telling me that you will forsake the touch of my body, the warmth that it conveys to you, the consolation it offers? Is that what you are telling me, Mr. Dale?"
A soft, strangled sound escaped Harvey's throat. A violent shudder shook him as Lily raised her hand to his lips, touching her tongue erotically against his palm before placing his hand on the soft swell of her breast.
"Remember, Mr. Dale, remember the sweet comfort of my flesh, the joy you experience in taking me. Remember the wonder of the meeting of our bodies, the pleasure you feel in the intimate taste of mine. Remember the hours in which you indulged yourself in me, sating yourself in any manner that would give you pleasure, and my concurrence with your every wish. Remember that when you asked for more, it was granted to you. You do remember, do you not, Mr. Dale?"
Harvey managed a short, stiff nod.
"I do not hear you, Mr. Dale."
Harvey swallowed. "Yes, I remember."
Lily's narrow brows rose in a delicate expression of incredulity. "And you would give up all this willingly?"
"Yes."
Lily slowly removed Harvey's hand from her breast.
"You would not suffer, knowing that another man would touch this sweet flesh for which you hunger, that I would welcome this other man into my body and I would gasp and whisper soft loving words in his ear, words I have never whispered in yours?" Lily paused, finally urging into the silence that followed, "You have not answered me, Mr. Dale."
A low, choked "No" passed Harvey's lips.
Lily's black velvet eyes appeared to laugh at him. With slow deliberation she pressed his hand against her narrow waist, then moved it steadily downward until it covered the warm delta between her thighs. Of its own accord, Harvey's hand curled to accommodate the curve of her body.
"Tell me, Mr. Dale. You would not suffer that I would offer all this to another man?"
"Yes, yes, I would suffer, Lily." His agitation suddenly more than he could bear, Harvey attempted to draw her closer. "I would free you of your obligation to me, but only your obligation. I still want you, and if you would let"
Lily's eyes were abruptly cold. A harsh laugh escaped her throat. "Unhand me, Mr. Dale."
Incredulous, Harvey shook his head. "Lily…"
"I told you to unhand me, Mr. Dale. You have answered my question. I want nothing more from you."
Stunned, Harvey dropped his hands to his sides. A slow flush transfused his face as a quick downward glance revealed the hard, full rise of his passion. He lifted his gaze to Lily's triumphant expression.
"Bitch. Incredible, conniving bitch."
Lily was again standing at her mother's side. "So you have said before, Mr. Dale."
"You'll pay for this. You'll"
"I will not suffer your threats against my daughter, Mr. Dale, not while you seek my help."
China Mary's sharp interruption made Harvey turn toward her unsmiling, suddenly ominous expression. He took a deep breath and a tenuous hold on his emotions.
"Then give me your answer."
"I would make one stipulation, Mr. Dale. I would have you put the papers for which we bargain into the hands of a neutral party when the information you seek is delivered to you, with instructions that the neutral party surrender those papers to me immediately upon your daughter's return. Are you agreed?"
Harvey stiffened. "Yes."
China Mary paused, the acid in her sudden smile cutting deep. "Then I will see, Mr. Dale."
"You'll see?"
Mary's face hardened. "I will see what I am able to discover. I will contact you if I am able to help you."
"But"
"That is all, Mr. Dale. I believe our interview is ended."
Not able to accept the sharp reversal in their roles with grace, Harvey raised his chin in subdued anger. "I expect to hear from you soon."
Without response, China Mary walked toward the door in her characteristically short step. She opened it wide as she turned to him once more. "At
our
convenience, Mr. Dale."
Unable to resist a last glance toward Lily, Harvey saw her fine lips move in an emotionless echo of her mother's words: "At our convenience, Mr. Dale."
Shaken, totally subdued, Harvey Dale turned and walked out onto the street.
The door closed behind Harvey Dale, and China Mary walked to the window. Her gaze followed his halting, uneven step until he was out of sight. Turning, she studied her daughter's sober face. Without a word, she brought the palms of her hands together in a sharp summons that cracked in the silence of the room. In immediate response a slender, graying man appeared in the doorway. After a rapid exchange in their native tongue, the man disappeared back in the direction from which he had come.
Lily closed her hand around China Mary's arm. "The time has been long in coming, Mother, but it is almost here."
A flicker of a long suppressed fury moved across Mary's features. "The taste of victory is sweet, is it not, my daughter?"
Lily's smooth brow creased in a frown. "Is it wise to declare a victory that is not yet truly won?"
Mary turned toward the door, forestalling her reply, as a quiet Oriental entered the room. A mere shadow of a man, he moved without sound and paused in silence. His questioning gaze touched Mary's face.
"
Yoong
Tse
," Mary said, "the time has come for your careful surveillance of Lai Hua and her lover to bear fruit. In a few days you will lead Mr. Harvey Dale to the cabin where his daughter is being held. You will cooperate with Mr. Dale and follow his orders. But until that time you will keep careful watch on the man who delivered the ransom note and still lingers in town. I would have nothing interfere with the progress of events toward which I have planned these many months. Toward this end, you will make yourself available to my immediate summons at all times. Is that understood?"
Yoong
Tse
nodded but maintained his silence. He turned toward the doorway in a gliding, soundless step and within moments disappeared through it as quietly as he had come.
China Mary turned to her daughter's concerned frown.
"A few days, Mother?
Yoong
Tse
but awaits your command to lead Mr. Dale to his daughter. My anticipation of the day we are finally free of Mr. Dale is keen, and I chafe at such delay."
"I prolong our anticipation of triumph for good cause, daughter. I planned for this hour. It did not escape my knowledge that Ross Morrison had obtained an early release from prison, and I knew from the first who was stealing Till-Dale payrolls. When it was reported to me that Lai Hua had taken Ross Morrison's close friend as her lover, I could not believe my luck. I knew the hatred that burned inside Ross Morrison would avail me of an opportunity for revenge against Harvey Dale as well. I also knew Lai Hua would not betray this man she loved, but I was certain surveillance of her would eventually bring me the opportunity I sought. As you know, daughter, my instincts proved true.