Obsession

CHAPTER FIVE

RAUL OPENED the door of his black SUV, helped Emma climb in, then closed the door behind her. She’d greeted him at her front door, purse and jacket in hand, ready to go. He’d hoped for an invitation to step inside, but she hadn’t offered one.

Quiet and somber, she obviously had something on her mind, and like always, he assumed the worst. William Kelman. Had the man already approached her? Raul wanted to ask, but she wasn’t likely to tell him the truth at this point. She didn’t know him well enough. Yet. Whatever was bothering her, she seemed determined to put it behind her as soon as they reached the road leading out of town.

“Do you know this highway?” she asked.

He shook his head. “I haven’t been here long enough to know any of them.”

“Then you’re in for a treat. This isn’t like anything you’ve seen in the States.”

Before long, he understood what she meant. It was Saturday evening, and the route was packed-mainly buses filled to the top with people and animals, but a few cars and motorbikes puttered along, too. The shoulders of the roadway told the real story, though. Every hundred yards or so, there were animals hobbled and staked out, mainly cattle, but some goats, as well. Fences were too expensive, Emma explained, so the farmers kept their livestock where everyone could see. This marked their property lines and kept the well-tended animals in hand.

The huts on the side of the road didn’t share the cattle’s apparent prosperity. Made of mud bricks and thatched roofs, most of the houses had no electricity or running water, and there were very few vehicles in sight. One or two had carts tied up in front, but for those at the very bottom, even a cart was unaffordable. Raul had to stop the SUV at one point to allow a man, pulling a pig on a rope, to trudge across the road.

The farther out of town they drove, the less populated the area became. Bamboo plants began to replace the simple dwellings, and everywhere he looked, Raul saw green, in particular orange and lemon trees, their fruit-laden limbs bent to the ground. Even the air had a junglelike smell. They were going up, he realized, gaining elevation as they left the valley behind.

“It’s a beautiful country, isn’t it?”

Emma’s voice sounded almost wistful. He glanced at her. “It is nice,” he agreed, “but not the kind of place I would expect to meet someone like you.”

“Why not?” Her voice held surprise.

“For one thing, you’re too smart,” he said bluntly, “and for another thing, you’re too ambitious.”

“How do you know I’m either of those things?”

“Easy. You wouldn’t be at the level you are in the bank if you weren’t ambitious, and if you weren’t smart…you wouldn’t be that ambitious.”

He continued speaking when she didn’t seem to know how to reply. “So explain how you got here,” he said, softening his voice. “There must be a story there, right?”

She stiffened visibly, her fingers tightening on the armrest. “You really don’t want to hear it,” she answered.

“It doesn’t take much to entertain me. Go ahead.”

She sat quietly for a few minutes and he wondered how much she would tell him. “I came here from New Orleans,” she said finally, “after a nasty divorce.”

“It must have been pretty bad to make you come this far.”

“It was.”

He waited for more, but none came. He decided to push her. “Do you have any kids?”

“No,” she lied, looking out the window away from him. “No children.”

Her deception surprised him, even though he should have expected it. “Just as well,” he said lightly. “Less to worry about, right?”

She turned to face him. Her skin glowed in the filtered light of the jungle around them. “So you have no children?”

He shook his head, putting aside the dreams he’d had before as if they’d meant nothing. “No. No kids, no ex-wife, no ex-anything. I’m free as they come.”

“You sound as if you like it that way.”

He slowed to avoid a goat crossing the road.

“It’s all I’ve ever known. I guess I must.”

They said nothing more until he saw the club’s sign ahead. Slowing the truck, he pulled into the drive and eased over a grassy area that served as a parking lot. Expensive vehicles filled the space, all of them new and shiny. In a country where few could afford their own transportation, the excess stood out.

Automatically Raul began to search the grounds with his eyes, even before he and Emma reached the club’s door. He saw no sign of Kelman, but there was plenty else to see. Under the trees, to the right of the doorway, was a huge cage, at least twenty feet high and fifty feet long. All Raul could see in it were blurs of frantic movement. Emma explained as she saw his puzzlement.

“That’s where the monkeys live. The owner of the club loves animals. Everywhere you go, you’ll see something, so watch out.” She raised her eyebrows in a mock warning and smiled. “Especially for the parrots. They like to swoop in and take a bite off your plate when you aren’t looking.”

Again he had the thought that she looked different when she smiled. Younger, more carefree. The contrast of this to her eyes, where a deep sadness stayed, made her even more intriguing.

Raul shut down the part of his brain that responded to her pull. “Thanks for the tip. I’ll be careful.”

They entered the club under a walkway of thatched material, the heavy vegetation close and humid. From the fronds of the nearby palms to the brilliant plumage of the raucous parrots, the jungle seemed to close around them. Raul almost expected to see a wildcat or an anaconda as they walked into the main area of the club. A huge open room, the place was packed with expensively dressed men and women. They were all holding drinks and talking. Looking over the crowd, Raul decided his expectations had indeed been met. They wore the same predatory look as the jungle animals. Emma waded into the crowd with determination, and Raul followed.

They’d been there an hour when Raul saw him.

With a sense of déjà vu, he watched as Kelman worked the room on the opposite side. Just as he had that first night at the Taminaca Bar, he was talking to everyone and acting friendly, but the man’s eyes searched the crowd continually. Raul followed his gaze until it stopped. Once again, it landed on Emma. They’d made the circuit of the room together, Emma introducing him to everyone. When she’d stopped to talk business with someone, he’d stepped away to give them some privacy, wandering to the other side of the crush. Now, as he looked on, she walked through a set of French doors to a terrace. Raul felt a flare of satisfaction, but it was followed by hesitation. Everything was falling into place exactly as he’d imagined, except for one troublesome exception.

He hadn’t counted on liking Emma Toussaint.

AROUND THE CORNER from the French doors, Emma walked to the nearest planter and dumped her glass of wine into it. She set the flute on the railing that edged the area, then turned around quickly, her dress brushing the yellow hibiscus blossoms.

She needed to go back inside and work the crowd, but the fresh air felt wonderful and she paused to breath it in. The crush of the crowd had been getting to her, or maybe, she thought belatedly, it wasn’t the crowd, but someone in particular. Raul.

His questions in the car had not been unexpected, but the interest with which he’d asked them had been. Despite all she’d heard and suspected, Raul Santos appeared to be a thoughtful person. There was a patina of something hard and impenetrable on the surface, but underneath, she sensed a man who truly cared, a man who was actually interested in her as an individual. At least, his questions had reflected that.

They’d also delivered a fresh level of pain, coming on the heels of Todd’s announcement. Most of the time she simply avoided the answer, but with Raul, she’d flat-out lied, told him she didn’t even have children. She didn’t want him getting any closer to her, and in her mind, anyone who knew her past knew her. At least she’d learned something about him in return. He didn’t like children, and he didn’t like entanglements.

Somewhat handy, she guessed, if you tended to disappear for five years at a time. The thought reminded her of Leon’s wild guess that Raul had been in prison. He might be right, but somehow she couldn’t reconcile that idea with the man she was getting to know. Did felons give money to beggars and donate large sums to hospitals? Reina had told her about Raul’s check to the Sisters. Emma looked out over the valley and shook her head. The contrast intrigued her, despite herself.

She started back inside, but as she neared the corner, a loud voice off to one side halted her progress. She told herself it was none of her business and continued on, then she recognized the cool timbre of Raul’s voice as he responded to the other person. She tried to distinguish the words, but the mountain breeze snatched them away.

Her curiosity getting the better of her, Emma edged forward. All at once, she realized she didn’t need to get any closer. She knew exactly who Raul was speaking to; the unmistakable pungency of cigar smoke drifted to her in a haze of blue.

Following the smoke came William Kelman’s voice. It broke the night’s quietness with undisguised anger. “Are you trying to tell me you don’t-”

“I’m telling you you’re wrong, my friend.” In complete contrast to Kelman’s agitation, Raul chuckled. To Emma, the deep sound came across as something other than amusement.

“I’m here for the same reasons you are,” Raul went on. “To make my fortune. Nothing more. I had no idea you were here. Why would you think otherwise?”

Her surprise was quickly overtaken by confusion. They obviously knew each other, yet Kelman had asked her about Raul when they’d been having dinner. Still hidden, she moved a step closer.

“You’re saying your being here is purely coincidental?” Kelman’s voice remained uptight, angry.

“What else could it be?”

“You know exactly what else it could be, Santos. You followed me. You’re on some damned revenge kick, aren’t you?”

“Revenge kick?” Raul stopped, the puzzlement in his voice clearing as he spoke again. “Do you mean Denise? That’s over and done with, Kelman. Besides, why would I want revenge? As I remember it, the woman left you for me. Isn’t that what happened?”

Silence, tenser than the words they’d just exchanged, filled the sudden void, and Emma half expected to hear the sound of a fist against a jaw. Her mouth went dry, her throat closing. It seemed preposterous that the two men would travel so far to fight over a woman, but stranger things had happened.

Kelman spoke first. “You don’t know what you’re talking about,” he growled.

“Then why don’t you inform me? Tell me what really happened.” The sudden coldness-and the quick change-in Raul’s words sent a shiver through Emma. It would have been less frightening if he had hit Kelman. “Tell me what I’ve been missing all these years, Kelman. You do know I missed a few, don’t you?”

Another pause, then Kelman said heatedly, “I don’t know what kind of sick game you’re playing, Santos, but I don’t want any part of it. I had nothing to do with your troubles. You brought them all on yourself. Now get the hell out of my way.” The pitch of his voice suddenly changed, and too late Emma realized why. He was heading straight for the corner where she stood.

She had a split second to think about it, no more. With a bravery she didn’t feel, Emma straightened her shoulders and took a single step forward.

And crashed into William Kelman’s chest.

“OH, MY!”

“What the hell?”

As they collided, Emma and Kelman spoke at the same time, her voice apologetic, his still angry from the encounter with Raul.

“Mr. Kelman, I’m so sorry. I…I didn’t see you. Please forgive my clumsiness.”

Emma’s pretty words were exactly what Raul would have expected to hear, but her expression, as she glanced over at him, was something else entirely. She’d overheard their conversation, he realized, and was wondering just what was going on. He stepped out of the shadows where he’d been and moved to her side.

He touched her briefly, solicitously, on the elbow. “Are you all right?”

“Yes, yes…I’m fine.” Glancing back to Kelman, she tilted her head. “I see you two have met.”

Kelman shot an angry look in Raul’s direction. “Yes, we have.”

Raul spoke easily. “Mr. Kelman and I go back quite a way, Emma. We’re old friends.”

Emma looked at Kelman with a puzzled expression. Before she could say more, he smoothed a hand over the front of his jacket and inclined his head. “If you’ll excuse me, I need to get back to the party.”

Emma nodded and stepped aside as Kelman brushed past her and disappeared into the room behind them. When she turned back and looked at Raul, her eyes were filled with questions. “He asked me the other night if I knew you. I just assumed you were strangers. What on earth was that about?”

“Nothing,” Raul said. “Absolutely nothing.” Taking her elbow in his, he began to walk along the edge of the terrace. Sooner or later, Raul had expected a confrontation, and it didn’t really bother him. Whatever Kelman’s plans were, he wouldn’t risk them to stop and send Raul on his way.

Raul hadn’t been as prepared as he would have liked, though, and Emma’s overhearing the exchange complicated things even more. He had to distract her and quickly.

Within minutes, he had her away from the noise and confusion of the party. They stopped on the lowest level of the stone terrace and looked out over the valley. It was almost dark, and the low-lying hills were slipping into the shadows. Without the benefit of light to mark the boundary, the jungle vista seemed endless.

Before he could even begin to distract her from her questions, she turned to him in the darkness. “How do you know Kelman?” she asked. “What’s going on between you two?”

He thought about not answering, but that would only make her more suspicious. He had to tell her something. “We knew each other a long time ago,” he answered carefully. “He’s a former DEA agent. I was a attorney in Washington. It’s basically a small town-our paths crossed on occasion.”

She looked slightly startled at his revelation of Kelman’s former job. “And you don’t like him,” she said.

“Am I that easy to read?”

“No, not at all.” She shook her head and confessed what her expression had already betrayed.

“I overheard your conversation-part of it-and your feelings were obvious.”

He shrugged casually. “We crossed swords over what men usually cross swords over.”

“A woman?”

“That’s right.”

“Was it Wendy, the woman you were with the other night?”

He looked into her eyes with a steady expression. “No” was all he said.

Before she could probe any further, Raul turned the tables. “I answered your question, now you answer my mine. What happened to you right before I came to get you tonight? You seemed upset.”

She reacted with a flinch of pain, then cleared the emotion from her face so quickly he could tell she’d done it a thousand times.

“C’mon,” he said. “Turnabout’s fair play. I shared with you…”

She took a long time to answer, then the words came out reluctantly; she had no other choice. “I had a call from the States,” she said finally. “It was my ex-husband. He’s getting remarried.”

Raul didn’t expect to have a reaction, but it came, anyway. A moment’s disappointment, maybe, a curl of displeasure? He wasn’t sure what to call it, but it didn’t matter. Surely he didn’t care if she was still in love with her ex. “I’m sorry,” he said in a neutral voice.

“There’s nothing to be sorry about. Those things happen. People move on.”

“I’m sorry the news hurt you,” he found himself saying. “That’s what I meant.”

She looked up at him, her eyes full of shadows, the hazel edging into a deeper green color. He got the feeling his words surprised her, but maybe that was because they’d surprised him.

“We’ve been divorced for more than two years,” she said. “I expected him to have found someone before now.”

“Why would you think that?” Raul met her gaze, turning so that he faced her fully. “I’d think he’d have a hard time.”

She frowned. “What do you mean?”

“You’re a very beautiful woman,” he answered before she could finish. “You’d be a hard act to follow.”

“Thank you,” she said simply. “That’s a nice thing to say, but Todd didn’t see it that way.”

“Then he was a fool.”

Her gaze skittered away from his, then back before she spoke again. “I have my flaws.”

“We all do.”

Suddenly the urge came over him to kiss her. Not a simple touch of the lips, either, but a deep kiss that would make them both forget why they were here and what they were doing. The feeling was totally unexpected and caught him by surprise. Would her lips feel as soft as they looked? Would they taste as sweet as he imagined?

With no further thought, he reached toward her, his fingers drawing a line down her cheek. Her skin was soft and smooth, but before he could pull her nearer, she stepped backward and out of reach, her expression remote, her voice cool.

“I think it’s time to go back inside.”

He wanted to disagree, but he couldn’t.

She was right.

THEY RETURNED to the party, and Emma found herself glad to be back in the light and confusion. Being outside with Raul had made her even more nervous than being in the middle of the crowd, especially after she’d read the intention in his black eyes. He’d wanted to kiss her, and for just one second, she’d wanted him to. The realization shocked her, but when she thought about it some more, she understood. He’d listened to her and wanted to know more about her. He cared. The unexpected knowledge made her heart thump with something that felt way too much like longing.

When they stopped at the bar inside, Emma excused herself and made her way to the lounge. She had to have a bit of time alone or she’d never make it through the rest of the evening.

The quiet moment wasn’t to be. Reina caught up with her just as she entered the powder room. They’d already exchanged a quick hello, and Reina had managed to let Emma know she didn’t approve of her date for the evening. Emma had tried to explain that it wasn’t a date, but Reina hadn’t bought the story.

“Are you leaving soon?” Reina asked.

“I hope so,” Emma replied. “I’ve enjoyed this about as much as I can stand.”

“Let me take you.” Reina’s dark eyes met Emma’s. “I’ve got to go to your side of town, anyway, and we could talk on the way home-”

Emma interrupted her. “Reina, I can’t abandon Raul. I know you don’t like the man, but he is my guest. I have to ride back with him.”

“No, you don’t.”

Emma stared at her curiously. “Are you that worried about this guy? Just because you heard some gossip?”

“I don’t like the way he looks.” She threw a glance around the room. “And…”

“And what?”

A group of women, chattering like the parrots overhead, interrupted them as they swooped past and entered the lounge behind them. Reina pulled Emma to the side, out of their hearing and away from the traffic. “I’ve heard more,” she said mysteriously. “And I like it even less than what I heard before.”

His compliments still ringing in her ears, his touch under the moonlight still fresh in her mind, Emma asked slowly, “What did you hear?”

“I can’t tell you right now. I don’t want to risk being overheard, but it came from a reliable source. Very reliable.”

Emma stared at her friend, then it clicked. “Did William Kelman tell you something?”

Reina’s eyes widened. “How did you know it was him?”

Emma explained the confrontation she’d heard between the two men. “There’s bad blood there,” she said. “Tell me what he said. Tell me now.”

“He said Santos is a crook, that’s what he said!” Reina glanced over her shoulder. “But I don’t want to say more right now. Not here. Just call me when you get home, okay?”

Feeling uneasy but having no other choice, Emma nodded unhappily. A moment later, as she reentered the open-air room, she spotted Raul. He was standing exactly where she’d left him, near the bar. With the crowd swirling around him in a tangle of noise and exuberance, he was all alone, and she studied his unguarded expression. Wearing expensively tailored clothes and holding a drink, he regarded the room with a certain amount of boredom. Behind the gaze, though, was a sharpness, a kind of on-guard attitude totally at odds with everyone else. He wasn’t there to party, he was there to work. Just like her.

The knowledge startled her, but there was no mistaking it. She’d worn that same expression herself too many times. So what did he want? Why was he there? His conversation with Kelman was also puzzling. Something was going on there-he’d worked too hard to distract her, she realized now.

Without any warning, she suddenly remembered her unlocked gate. She had no idea why she’d linked the two thoughts, but it frightened her, frightened her almost as much as her growing attraction to Raul.

He must have felt her stare. Lifting his eyes to sweep the room, his gaze locked on hers a second later. Like a river current, the connection was swift and strong. It carried her away before she could begin to fight it.

AS SHE CROSSED the floor to where he waited, Emma looked more worried and upset than she had when he’d picked her up earlier that evening. Despite her expression, in the press of overdressed and over-made-up women, her natural beauty drew his gaze and he felt a corresponding pull of attraction.

He simply couldn’t figure her out; she was a mass of contradictions and filled him with the same. What he knew about her past didn’t jibe with the obviously smart and together woman approaching him now. And the feelings she produced in him were the exact opposite of the ones he needed if he was going to fulfill his goal. How could he let her get tangled up with Kelman when all he could think about was kissing her? Suddenly the crowd and the noise and the loud music were too much to bear.

“Are you ready to go?” As she neared him, he put his drink on the bar and tilted his head toward the crowded room. “This is too crazy, even for me.”

She hesitated for a second, then spoke over the din. “You read my mind.”

A few minutes later, they were outside. The sidewalk was barely visible in the moonlight, the bamboo leaning over it, the cries of the caged monkeys and wild parrots taking over from the raucous rock and roll still pounding-but now more faintly-from inside the club. A cluster of white and purple orchids quivered in a nearby planter, their fragrance heavy and sensual in the velvet night. Raul found himself wondering how he would feel if he was here for a different reason. If he and Emma were actually on a date and he had no ulterior motives. Once, in a different time and place, he had been the kind of man who appreciated a setting like this.

They reached his truck and Raul helped Emma into it. Moments later they were speeding down the highway. The colorful scenes they’d witnessed on the drive out were gone, swallowed by darkness. Light from a few homes glowed here and there, but for the most part, the road was black, the lack of electricity almost eerie. Raul glanced across the seat at Emma. She was facing the window, her eyes studying the night as if she could find the answers she needed.

Neither of them spoke, and as the empty miles slipped by, Raul couldn’t help but wonder what she must have thought of the conversation she’d overheard between him and Kelman.

His hands tightened on the steering wheel. What exactly had Kelman expected Raul to say when he’d confronted him? Hi, I’m here to shake the hand of the man who framed me and put me in prison for five years?

His knuckles turning white in the darkness, Raul thought back to the woman who’d started it all. He’d had no idea who Denise was when they’d first met. The stunning brunette had come on to him in a bar, and he’d accepted what she’d offered, as would have any man. All he’d seen was a gorgeous woman. He’d had no idea she was living with anyone, much less with William Kelman. Sick of Kelman’s underhanded ways and tired of his overblown ego, she’d used Raul as an excuse. Within days of their meeting in the bar, she’d moved out of Kelman’s place and into a tiny apartment of her own.

Kelman was well-known in Washington. He was flashy and obvious, and everyone knew he was with the DEA. Raul’s biggest mistake had been to start an affair with Denise, and it’d almost cost him his life. That’s what happens when you think with something other than your brain, Raul told himself now.

Once William Kelman had found out what his lover had done, Raul’s life had quickly gone down the drain. He’d come home from a trip to the Bahamas, climbed into his car at the airport and started home. Before he’d gone a block, the red and blue lights of a police cruiser were flashing behind him. He’d pulled over and within seconds, a dozen other cops and five guys in windbreakers with “DEA” emblazoned on the pockets were surrounding him. One man in particular he’d never forget. He’d stood in the center of the road and smirked at Raul, a plastic bag of something powdery and white in his beefy hand.

“And what might this be, Counselor?” He’d pulled the bag from Raul’s trunk, along with a.45. Neither had belonged to Raul and he’d had no idea where they’d come from. The man’s expression was unlike anything Raul had ever seen before, either. It’d taken him five years to figure it out, but finally he’d understood. It’d been gleeful, because he was paying off the devil. The agent was dirty, and Kelman had known. To get Kelman off his back, the agent had agreed to stage the stop, including the planting of the drugs and weapon.

They’d handcuffed Raul and led him away. Two months later he was in a federal prison in Cumberland, Maryland. There was no parole at this level for drug violations. The half a kilo of cocaine and the gun had netted him a six-year sentence. The cocaine they’d “discovered” in his car later disappeared from the evidence room, but the sentence hadn’t. For five years and two months he’d wondered what had happened, then Denise Murphy had visited him and told him the truth.

William Kelman had set them both up. She’d gotten out earlier only because they’d planted less in her apartment.

William Kelman had stolen five years of Raul’s life, and now it was payback time. He would take what meant most to Kelman, and that was his money.

The SUV had actually been stopped for a second before Raul realized he’d parked the car in front of Emma’s home without even being aware of it. She reached into her purse, removed her keys and looked over at him. Her face was in shadow. “Would you like to come in?” she asked.

With thoughts of Denise floating around in his head, Raul hesitated. He’d wanted an invitation earlier, but now he realized it was out of character for Emma to ask him in. Then she moved and he saw her expression in the light of a nearby street lamp. She looked lonely, lonely and sad. Seeing that emotion on any other woman, he would have headed the other way. Reading it on Emma’s face, he had only one answer.

“I’d like that very much.”

♥ Uploaded by Coral ♥