Midnight rainbow

"What the hell’s going on?" he roared, jerking her out into the bright Texas sunlight. The humid heat settled over them.

"I don’t know! That man just came up to me and asked if my name was Jane Greer; then he caught my arm and told me to come with him, so I hit him in the head with the backpack and started screaming."

"Makes perfect sense to me," he muttered, flagging a cab and putting her in it, then crawling in beside her.

"Where to, folks?" the cab driver asked.

"Downtown."

"Any particular place downtown?"

"I’ll tell you where to stop."

The driver shrugged. As they pulled away from the curb there seemed to be a lot of people spilling out of the terminal, but Jane didn’t look back. She was still shaking. "It can’t be Turego again, can it?"

Grant shrugged. "It’s possible, if he has enough money. I’m going to make a phone call."

She’d thought she was safe, that they were both safe. After the two peaceful days spent in Mexico, the sudden fear seemed that much sharper and more acrid. She couldn’t stop trembling.

They didn’t go all the way into Dallas. Grant instructed the driver to drop them at a shopping mall. "Why a shopping mall?" Jane asked, looking around.

"There are telephones here, and it’s safer than standing in a phone booth on the side of a street." He put his arm around her and hugged her briefly to him. "Don’t look so worried, honey."

They went inside and found a bank of pay telephones, but it was a busy day and all the lines were in use. They waited while a teenager argued extensively with her mother about how late she could stay out that night, but at last she hung up and stormed away, evidently having lost the argument. Grant stepped in and commandeered the telephone before anyone else could reach it. Standing close by him, Jane watched as he dropped in the coins, punched in a number, then dropped in more coins. He leaned casually against the fieldstone nook that housed the telephone, listening to the rings on the other end.

"Sullivan," he finally drawled when the phone was answered. "She was nearly grabbed in DFW." He listened a moment; then his eyes flicked to Jane. "Okay, I got it. We’ll be there. By the way, that was a dumb move. She could’ve killed the guy." He hung up, and his lips twitched.

"Well?" Jane demanded.

"You just belted an agent."

"An agent? You mean, one of your friend’s men?"

"Yeah. We’re taking a little detour. You’re going to be debriefed. It was left up to some other people to pick you up, and they decided to pick you up after we’d parted company, since I’m no longer in the business and this doesn’t officially concern me. Sabin will pin their ears back."

"Sabin? Is he your friend?"

He was smiling down at her. "He’s the one." He stroked her cheekbone very gently with the backs of his fingers. "And that’s a name you’re going to forget, honey. Why don’t you call your parents and let them know that you won’t be in tonight? It’ll be tomorrow; you can call them again when we know something definite."

"Are you going, too?"

"I wouldn’t miss it." He grinned a little wolfishly, already anticipating Kell’s reaction to Jane.

"But where are we going?"

"Virginia, but don’t tell your parents that. Just tell them that you missed your flight."

She reached for the phone, then stopped. "Your friend must be pretty important."

"He’s got some power," Grant understated.

So, they must know about the microfilm. Jane punched in her credit card number. She’d be glad to get the whole thing over with, and at least Grant was going to be with her one more day. Just one more day! It was a reprieve, but she didn’t know if she’d have the strength for another goodbye.

Chapter Thirteen

The "Virginia countryside around the place was quiet and serene, the trees green, the flowering shrubs well-tended. It looked rather like her father’s Connecticut estate. Everyone was polite, and several people greeted Grant, but Jane noticed that even the ones who spoke to him did so hesitantly, as if they were a little wary of him.

Kell’s office was right where it had always been, and the door still had no name on it. The agent who had escorted them knocked quietly. "Sullivan is here, sir."

"Send them in."

The first thing Jane noticed was the old-fashioned charm of the room. The ceilings were high; the mantel was surely the original one that had been built with the house over a hundred years before. Tall glass doors behind the big desk let in the late afternoon sun. They also placed the man behind the desk in silhouette, while anyone who came in the door was spotlighted by the blazing sun, something George had told her about. He rose to his feet as they entered, a tall man, maybe not quite as tall as Grant, but lean and hard with a whipcord toughness that wasn’t maintained by sitting behind a desk.

He stepped forward to greet them. "You look like hell, Sullivan," he said, and the two men shook hands; then he turned his eyes on her, and for the first time Jane felt his power. His eyes were so black that there was no light in them at all; they absorbed light, drawing it into the depths of the irises. His hair was thick and black, his complexion dark, and there was an intense energy about him that seared her.

"Ms. Greer," he said, holding out his hand.

"Mr. Sabin," she returned, calmly shaking his hand.

"I have a very embarrassed agent in Dallas."

"He shouldn’t be," Grant drawled behind her. "She let him off easy."

"Grant’s boots were in the pack," Jane explained. "That’s what stunned him so badly when I hit him in the head."