Dark Tribute--An Eve Duncan Novel Read online

  “Right!” He jumped to his feet and tossed a salute to the reconstruction on the dais. “You heard her, Dennis. Ten.” He headed at top speed for the front door.

  Had she just been persuaded or manipulated she wondered suddenly. Worry about it later. “Where are you going?”

  “I’ve got to go down to the driveway and help Dad give the Jeep a tune-up. He said I needed to learn how to do it. It’s going to be fun!” He slammed the porch door behind him, and she heard him running down the porch steps, and calling, “Cara’s coming home, Dad. Maybe we’d better tune the Toyota, too.”

  “Suits me.”

  Of course, it did, Eve thought with amusement as she followed him to the front porch. Working on the cars was a favorite pastime for both of them. Joe because it allowed him to work with his hands instead of his mind, Michael because he had a thirst for knowledge that was positively unquenchable. But perhaps the main attraction was that they could be together and bond. She stood looking down at the driveway, where Joe and Michael were already bending under the hood of the Jeep. So different and yet so much alike. Joe in his jeans and the chambray work shirt he always wore when he worked outside on the property. Tall, muscular, lithe, but with the same brown-red hair and tea-colored eyes as his son. Michael with a child’s gangliness yet brimming with vitality and the sheer joy of living in his khakis, tennis shoes, and Falcons sweatshirt. He was laughing up at Joe and saying something Eve couldn’t hear. She wished she had a photo of this moment to preserve it forever. Michael’s eager expression was glowing with all the love and respect that he felt for his father. Joe was gazing down at him with a half smile that was both understanding and tender. Another guy moment, she thought. For an instant, she felt a little wistful about that bond between them that she would never be able to share. Joe and Michael were constantly together. Whether it was Joe teaching Michael every skill under the sun, playing different sports, barbecuing, or fixing that darn Jeep. The envy was immediately gone. What was she thinking? She and Joe had their own special places in Michael’s life, and she was grateful for every minute that he gave to him. As even her son had learned, she was something of a workaholic, and Joe’s job as a police detective was equally demanding. Hopefully by sharing the responsibilities, they had managed to give Michael everything he needed.

  “Want to come down and help?” Joe called up to her.

  She shook her head. “Just enjoying watching the two of you slave. I have to get back to work. It seems I have a curfew.”

  “Curfew?”

  “Ask your son.” She turned and moved toward the front door. “Be sure you don’t get too involved with that Jeep and skip supper.”

  “How about you?” Joe asked.

  “I’ll grab a sandwich now.” She cast one more glance down at the two of them. The setting sun was casting a golden aura around them. Their chestnut hair looked almost auburn in this light. They were strong and healthy and beautiful … and they belonged to her.

  Lord, she was lucky.

  * * *

  “Curfew?” Joe murmured as he glanced down at Michael. “What have you been up to?”

  “She said I should use persuasion instead of…” He took a wrench and tightened a nut. “So I did. I wanted her to rest, but all she’d give me was ten o’clock.”

  “That’s not bad.” Joe leaned on the fender, gazing thoughtfully down at him. “Persuasion instead of what?” He chuckled and held up his hand. “Never mind. You got busted, didn’t you?”

  He looked up at Joe. “Did I?”

  “Michael.”

  “I only wanted her to rest more. I didn’t like it when she got sick.”

  “Neither did I.”

  “I was scared.”

  “So was I.” He shrugged. “And I also wanted her to rest more after the doctor released her. But I’ve learned that’s a difficult thing to accomplish with your mom. And it’s something you’ll have to learn for yourself. So I let you go for it. You were doing very well, but you must have gotten a little overconfident.”

  He nodded gloomily. “She called me manipulative.”

  He chuckled. “And you are. I’ve noticed it myself in the last year or so. I like to think it’s in the nicest possible way, but Eve would be wary of it. What tipped your hand?”

  “Cara.”

  “What on earth have you been— No, don’t tell me. Eve will go into it later.”

  “You’re laughing. Mom didn’t think it was funny.”

  “Because she’s in charge of your immortal soul and is very conscientious about it. Not my responsibility. I believe your soul is doing just fine. There’s nothing wrong with you trying to take care of your mom. I would have done the same if I hadn’t thought you were doing pretty well on your own.” His smile faded. “Now, if I hear that you behaved in a way that I don’t approve of, it will be a different matter. You realize that, don’t you?”

  “Yes, sir.” Michael’s lips were twitching. “But I thought you wouldn’t mind as long as it was Mom.”

  Michael knew very well that Eve was the exception to every rule, Joe thought ruefully. She was the center of their universe. If she had not been that to Michael since the moment of his birth, he would have learned it from watching him.

  “I do mind because she does. She gave you an alternative for what she considers unacceptable. She says be persuasive? Then do it. No shenanigans.” He loosened the distributor bolt. “Now hand me that timing light and I’ll show you how to hook it up to the number one cylinder…”

  * * *

  “Stop laughing, Joe.” Eve scowled as she looked down at Joe’s grinning face. “Or so help me, I’ll push you out of this bed.”

  “It’s funny. You have to admit it.” He pulled her down into the curve of his shoulder. “I had no idea Michael was graduating to CIA status. That plan to make you rest involved a very complicated set of characters and scenarios that relied on what our son has learned about all of us.”

  “And you’re proud of him? Don’t you dare let him know.”

  “I’ll try to restrain myself. But what can I say? I’m a police detective, and I have to admire Michael’s technique. It was really very intricate. And involving Jock was a stroke of genius.” He murmured. “He must have been studying the Cara and Jock dynamic for a while.”

  “Dynamic? You’re talking as if he’s one of those forensic psychologists down at your precinct.”

  “Am I? Ridiculous, of course. It’s just interesting.”

  “He’s a kid,” she said flatly. “And he probably has no idea about any so-called dynamic. I prefer that he doesn’t. I want him to stay a kid for little longer. He’s already shown signs of being too—”

  “Manipulative?”

  “He told you? Most kids don’t even know how to spell it, but I think he wrote the book. No way. I want him to forget it. As it is, I’ll have to call Cara and warn her that she’ll have to be on guard if he decides he has a good reason to do anything like this again. Though I did give him a lecture, and I want him to believe I have your support.”

  “You always have my support.” His lips brushed her temple. “And you know that Michael would never do anything to really upset you. He’s just getting older, and he’s feeling his way toward independence.”

  “Independence? He’s only ten.”

  “And the idea scares you.”

  “Yes,” she whispered as she put her cheek in the hollow of his shoulder. “I want to hold on to these days and not let go. You know what we’ve been given in Michael. I’m afraid of doing something wrong, Joe.”

  “I’m not,” he said gently. “I think all we have to do is love him, guide him where we can, and trust him. You felt like that from the time he was conceived. Why have you changed?”

  “He wanted to take care of me. I’m supposed to take care of him.”

  “It appears he’s not going to allow that to happen. It’s that pesky independence thing again. Perhaps you can work out a compromise.”

  She mad
e a face. “I didn’t do too well with the last one I made with him. I think I might have given him exactly what he wanted.”

  “But you learned from it. And he has lessons to learn, too.”

  “How magnanimous of you to admit that,” she said dryly. “You’re darned right he does. CIA, indeed.”

  Joe chuckled. “Now you’re getting back to normal. I’m surprised Michael managed to shake you up like this.”

  “It’s your fault, too.”

  “I beg your pardon?”

  “I was standing out on the porch and looking down at you and Michael, and I thought how lucky I was.”

  “Without doubt.”

  “I’m not joking. But nothing lasts forever. Michael is going to grow up and leave me. You’re in danger every day, Joe. So I have to keep Michael young and under my wing as long as I can.” She pulled his head down and kissed him. “And I have to keep you with me, I have to protect you from every danger.” She kissed him again. “I have to heal all your wounds. If you’re lost, I’ll have to seek until I find you.” This time the kiss was lingering. “It’s a great responsibility.”

  “But you’re up to it?”

  “Oh, yes.” She smiled lovingly as she pulled off her nightshirt and crawled on top of him. “The question is, are you up to it?”

  MARQUIS HOTEL

  “Good heavens, Eve, why would Michael go to all that trouble just to get me to come home?” Cara chuckled as she kicked off her shoes and curled up on the couch with her cell and a Coke she’d grabbed from the minifridge the minute she’d walked into the hotel room. “It sounds almost Machiavellian. You’ve got to be kidding. Are you sure you didn’t misunderstand?” Her laughter faded. “Look, I talk on the phone with Michael a few times a week, and I don’t remember him even mentioning Jock more than once or twice in the last year or so. When he told me that Jock was going to be in town to help him with that historical show-and-tell exhibit, I thought that maybe you might have arranged it.”

  “Not likely,” Eve said. “Major imposition. You should have known I’d never have encouraged Michael to ask anyone to just hop across an ocean to help him with a school project.” She paused. “You probably did know, but you were so excited about seeing Jock again that you just accepted it.”

  Eve knew her too well, Cara thought. Only she had not just accepted everything Michael had told her, she had leaped at the opportunity. “Maybe not that much of an imposition. Jock might not have been in Scotland. You know he travels all over the world.”

  “Including New York when he visits his investors,” Eve said quietly. “Where you have an apartment that you use for a base when you’re on tour. You should have been able to get together there and not have to rely on seeing him here.”

  Cara’s hand tightened on the phone. Had she hurt Eve? It was the last thing she would ever want to do. “You’re acting as if Jock was my sole purpose for visiting you. You’re my family, Eve. I’ve been so busy with this darned touring that I haven’t been able to take the time to come home very often but it’s not because I—”

  “Hush,” Eve interrupted. “Joe and I know all that. Do you think that we don’t realize how important these concert dates are when you’re just starting your career? We’re glad to see you whenever you can spare the time. You’ve worked very hard during these last years, and now everyone is going to see how really wonderful you are.” She paused. “But I also know that you’re very responsible, and you wouldn’t have rearranged your schedule for anything but an emergency. So why is Jock an emergency, Cara? What’s wrong?”

  “Nothing.” She tried to keep the unsteadiness from her voice. “He’s fine. He’s always fine. He’s perfect. Not that I’d know. I haven’t seen him in over eighteen months. And then it was only for thirty minutes after a concert in New York. Then he made an excuse, and he was gone.” She cleared her throat. “He’s avoiding me. Not that he’s not done it before. I think you probably realized that’s it’s been going on for years. You know so much about us, Eve.”

  “And I’ve tried to stay out of your business,” Eve said gently. “You and Jock have always had a very special relationship.” She paused. “Do you know, the first time I saw the two of you together I had the feeling that somehow, some way, you were meant to complete each other. Over the years it was like watching Romeo and Juliet or some kind of fairy tale. It was as if you’ve been running toward each other all your lives. Weird, huh?”

  “Yes.” Cara was stunned. “You never said anything.”

  “And I wouldn’t have said anything now except that you’ve been so unhappy lately. I didn’t want to interfere. But it’s not interfering to tell you that you’re not alone, and I’ll be here if you need me.”

  “I’ve always known that, Eve.”

  “Good. But it bears repeating. Okay, that’s all; I’ve said what I wanted to say. I know you’ll have to work it out for yourselves.”

  “And Jock’s way of working it out would be to eliminate it entirely,” Cara said jerkily. “Well, it’s not going to happen. I told him four years ago that he wasn’t going to get rid of me. But because of my music and his damn stubbornness, I’ve barely been able to see him. That has to stop.” She whispered, “I miss him, Eve.”

  “And I’m certain he misses you, too. But he wants to give you your freedom. He thinks that being his friend isn’t healthy for you.”

  “Bullshit,” she said bluntly. “It’s my being his lover that he won’t accept. We’ve been best friends since I was twelve years old and he saved my life. That was fine, that was great, I didn’t think I needed anything else. He was wonderful and he had that shining inside … But then I grew up, and I found out that wasn’t enough. I wanted more. And he wants more, dammit. I know it. He just won’t reach out and take it.” She drew a shaky breath. “Listen to me. I’d better hang up. You didn’t want to hear me ranting like this. I’m sorry. I guess I’ve been holding it back too long. Floodgates have a way of breaking. But, as you said, you guessed most of it.”

  “I had my suspicions.” Eve hesitated. “And one of them was that Jock had a more complex reason than the possibility that he would interfere with your life and career if he didn’t step away from you.” She paused. “Thomas Reilly?”

  “Of course, Reilly had everything to do with it. He nearly destroyed Jock with his damn brainwashing,” Cara said bitterly. “He was only fifteen when that terrorist bastard got hold of him and did his experiments to try to make him into a master assassin.”

  “Not tried,” Eve said. “Be honest, Cara. He did it. Jock eventually ended up in an asylum on suicide watch. He’s lived with that guilt for years. He thinks that person he was back then will never really go away. Is it any wonder he believes that supreme ugliness in his background should never contaminate your life?”

  “It wasn’t his fault,” Cara said fiercely. “None of it. Contaminate? No one could say that my background is spotless. My parents were involved with a Mexican cartel and my mother tried to kill me just because she didn’t find it convenient for me to remain alive. My grandfather is still the head of one of the most powerful crime families in Moscow. You know that. You and Joe took me away from all that horror.” She moistened her lips. “And then Jock came along and saved my life. And then he made me believe that my soul was mine alone and had nothing to do with who my parents were or where I came from. Do you know what that meant to me?”

  “It meant that he gave you a great gift. But he only told the truth, Cara.”

  “No, more than that. When I realized that my mother had killed my sister Jenny and was trying to kill me, I had nightmares about being like her. I was afraid, I was confused, and he understood. No one had ever understood how I felt until Jock. I didn’t have to pretend, I just always knew he would understand. As long as we were together, nothing else mattered.” She drew a long, shaky breath, and added brusquely, “And all that horrible business about Reilly and that brainwashing really has nothing to do with who we are now. I’ll make him r
ealize that.”

  “I hope you do,” Eve said. “Jock can be very tough. I hope he gives you the chance.”

  “If he doesn’t give it, I’ll take it.” Then Cara moved to lighten the conversation. It was her fault the tone had become entirely too heavy and emotional. She hadn’t wanted to burden Eve. But the words had just tumbled out, a sign of how nervous and upset she was today. “But we’ve gotten completely off the subject of Michael. I’ll have to believe you if you tell me he’s remarkable enough to stage something as complicated as this. After all, it’s Michael. We all know how unusual he is.”

  “Believe it. Hopefully, I’ve nipped it in the bud. I just wanted to call you and let you know the capability is there and flourishing.”

  Yet there was something else Cara couldn’t quite understand. “But what I’m having trouble believing is that he’d miss me so much that he’d go to such lengths just to get me to come home for a visit. Not when he has you and Joe. He’s probably the most self-sufficient kid on the planet, and you’re all he needs.” She paused. “Is something wrong?”

  Silence. “What could be wrong? You’ll see that everything is pretty much as you left it when you came home six months ago.” She changed the subject. “Did you just arrive at the hotel?”

  “Yes, I was getting in the elevator when I got your call. I’ll order room service, jump in the shower, then go down to the St. Jude suite to smile and play my fiddle.”

  “And dazzle everyone within hearing distance.”

  “I hope that’s true. I visited the St. Jude Hospital when I was in Memphis, and those kids are incredible. I try to let the local fund-raisers know when I’m in a town so that they can throw a get-together for local benefactors. It’s usually only one night or afternoon, but it makes a difference. That’s why I won’t be able to get out to the lake cottage until tomorrow.”

  “I believe we can wait. Joe and Michael are going to barbecue.” Then she asked softly, “Jock? Can we count on him to be here?”

  “Yes.” Dear God, she hoped he’d be there, Cara thought desperately. It all depended how persuasive she could be when she confronted him tonight. “Even if I have to tie him up and threaten to steal MacDuff’s precious heirlooms he’s guarding.”