Tough Customer

Dodge thanked him and, with the evidence bag tucked under his arm, got the hell out of there.

The desired nap didn't pan out as Berry had hoped.

She had deserted the scene of the kiss with a cowardice equaling Ski's, fleeing the kitchen and leaving Dodge and her mother without an explanation. Upstairs, she showered, slid naked between the cool sheets, closed her burning eyes, and willed her mind to shut down and allow her body to fall asleep.

But neither her mind nor her body cooperated. Thoughts of Ski Nyland persisted. Images of them in sexual scenarios flitted through her mind, making her body restless, actually feverish in places impossible to ignore, places where she wanted to feel his eyes and hands and mouth on her.

Considering the tragedy that had taken place the night before, her lust seemed particularly ill-timed. Disgusted with herself, she threw off the covers, got up, and dressed.

When she went downstairs, she found her mother seated at the dining table, sorting through her MLS directory, making notes, cell phone within reach. 'You're working?' Berry asked.

Caroline removed her reading glasses. 'It's Sunday. People house-shop on Sundays. I've delegated scheduled showings to other agents, but I'm checking just to make sure all my bases are covered.'

'You should try and sleep for a while.'

'Waste of time.'

'Well I know,' Berry admitted with chagrin. 'Where's Dodge?'

'I have no idea. He said he didn't have time for breakfast after all, that he needed to follow a hunch. He left almost as abruptly as Ski did.'

'Hmm.' Berry hoped the topic of Ski would end there. But her mother was too intuitive.

'What happened between you?' she asked. 'When Dodge and I came in, we could practically smell the ozone. Were you in the middle of an argument, or ... something else?' Just then her cell phone jingled, saving Berry from having to answer. Caroline checked the caller ID. 'It's my office.'

'Take your call. I'm off.'

'Where are you going?'

'It's Sunday. Day of atonement.'

Twenty minutes after leaving the lake house, she was standing outside Ben Lofland's hospital room. She bolstered herself for whatever might come of this visit and tapped lightly on the door. Amanda Lofland opened it. When she saw Berry, her expression turned petulant and hostile.

Berry didn't give her an opportunity to speak first. 'I'd like to see Ben.'

'What for?'

'To apologize for his getting shot.'

Startled by the blunt admission, Amanda regarded Berry with mistrust but then stepped aside and allowed her to enter the room. Ben was awake, half sitting up with pillows behind his back.

Berry smiled as she approached the bed. 'You're looking a lot better than you were the last time I saw you.'

'I feel worse,' he grumbled. 'I was unconscious when you last saw me, and wasn't feeling a thing.'

Amanda went to stand opposite Berry on the other side of the bed, her expression sour.

Berry asked Ben, 'Is the pain bad?'

'Only when I breathe.'

'Don't the drugs help?'

'Put it this way, I'd hate to be without them.'

She said softly, 'I tremble when I think how much worse it could have been.'

'Yeah. That's occurred to me--to us--too.' He reached for Amanda's hand and squeezed it. Husband and wife smiled at each other, although Amanda's smile was somewhat strained.

'I blame myself for underestimating Oren's mental state,' Berry said.

'Who'd have thought he could do something so crazy?'

'I was forewarned,' Berry admitted. 'I'd seen him lose it completely.'

'Before Friday night?'

'Yes. But only once. I thought it was an isolated incident, a reactive outburst. Obviously I misjudged.' She took a deep breath. 'That's why I saw no harm in phoning him.'

Ben's pale face registered his surprise. 'You phoned him? When?'

'Thursday afternoon.'

Still gaping at her, he said, 'Had you lost your mind?'

'It was a mistake. I see that now, but I had said things to him that I regretted and wanted to apologize for. I also felt he should know the project he'd worked on was being completed and that it had turned out well. I felt that we--that I--owed him that.'

Ben wet his lips. His gaze shifted several times between Berry and his wife, finally landing on Berry. 'I wish you'd consulted me first.'

'So do I. If I had, you might have talked me out of calling him, and none of this would have happened.'

'I cannot believe you,' Amanda muttered. 'This is so all your fault.'

Berry had acknowledged as much, but she reacted defensively to Amanda's indictment. 'I thought Oren would thank me for the call, and that would be the end of it. But apparently the only aspect of our conversation he heard was that Ben and I would be spending the day together. I'm terribly, terribly sorry.'

'You've got a lot of reasons to be sorry.'

'That's true, Amanda. But adultery isn't one of them. There's been nothing except friendship between Ben and me for a very long time, since before he even met you.'

'I've told her that,' he said. 'She believes me.'

Berry digested that, then, holding the other woman's judgmental glare, she said, 'But you don't believe me?'

'I believe that Ben was faithful to me and his marriage vows. But I don't trust that you sent for him with only the campaign in mind. You left Houston, your daily office routine, your work, which by all accounts you thrive on. You left your friends, your social life, and came here to the boondocks.

'Last week you got bored and restless, so you invented a reason for Ben to come here and spend the day, and then the night, with you. You knew he would come because that campaign is so important to both your careers. But I think that was just the bait you used to lure him here. You needed some amusement, a diversion, a break from the humdrum of rural life. You needed sex, and you chose my husband to provide it.'

'You're wrong,' Berry said with emphasis. 'I didn't lure Ben to the lake house for any prurient purpose.' She paused for several beats, then added, 'But I might have a few months ago.'

The admission shocked them. Berry was shocked by it herself, but she continued. 'Before I came to Merritt, if I had deemed it professionally beneficial or expedient to sleep with Ben, more than likely I would have devised a way to do so.'

Ben was still staring at her, slack-jawed. Amanda looked smug and wrathful at the same time. 'So you admit it.'

'I admit that my priorities were out of whack,' Berry said. 'In order to move up the ladder at Delray, I was doing things I didn't like. To the point where I could no longer stand myself. I got out of Houston to avoid Oren, yes. But I also came here to get a new perspective. I'm as ambitious as ever. I still want to reach the top of my trade. I'm just no longer willing to sell my soul for it.'