been reading Eugenia's diary. Oh, it's so sad, the way she would wait for Pierre, wait and wait and watch the beach! It's been wonderful, Gene. I feel like I know her--and Pierre through her. She loved him so much!'
Rex waited until they had disappeared into the yacht club restaurant; then he hurried down to the pay phone by the ice and soda machines and put a quick call through to Mark Eliot. Mark came on the line and started a long dissertation about the latest mystery he had read. Rex tried to listen politely, but he had to cut Mark off.
'Mark, great, we'll get together soon and talk. Right now I need some help.'
Mark told him he'd be happy to do anything he could. Rex explained that he wanted to know anything that Mark could find out about John Vinto. Was he in town? Had he been in town? Anything Mark could get.
Mark whistled. 'That's a tall order, but I'll see what I can do. Where are you now?'
Mark told him he was at the public phone at the dock and that he'd be around there for at least a half an hour. 'Then I'll be in the club, then back out at my house.' Rex thought grimly that it made good sense to keep Alexi away from the Brandy wine house until he'd had a chance to see Vinto. He thanked Mark for his help then and hung up.
He hurried back down the deck and got a hose to start rinsing down the Tatiana. He'd barely started, though, when he heard the public phone he'd used ringing down at the other end of the deck. He dropped the hose, ran toward it and answered it.
'Rex?' Mark said.
'That was quick.'
'I didn't have to go that far. I checked the airlines. Your friend Vinto is around here somewhere. He flew into Jacksonville yesterday morning.'
'I see,' Rex murmured. 'Thanks, Mark.'
'I'm still checking on the rest of his activities.'
'Thanks. I really appreciate it.'
'I'll call you tonight, at your house.'
'Great.'
Rex hung up. Vinto was very near--he could feel it. And he didn't want the guy anywhere near Alexi. He was growing more certain that Vinto had been in the Brandywine house. Rex didn't know what the man's motives were, but he was sure Vinto had stalked her--had even struck her down.
And none of it was going to happen again.
He hurried down the dock and hastily finished rinsing down the boat. Then he went down into the cabin, changed into street clothes and joined Gene and Alexi in the restaurant.
He gave Alexi a kiss on the cheek and slid into the chair beside her, smiled broadly and asked them what they'd eaten.
Rex studied the menu quickly, noting that Alexi was watching him, then smiled at her and ordered.
He was acting very strange even for Rex, Alexi decided, and she couldn't quite put her finger on the problem. He was being very sweet and charming--he just seemed tense.
'So,' Gene said to her, 'it's all starting to look really good, huh, young lady?'
Alexi nodded eagerly. 'I do love that house, Gene. And the window seat came out perfectly. Why don't you come out with us now and see it?' Alexi suggested.
'What?' Gene murmured uneasily.
'He can't!' Rex told Alexi quickly.
'Oh?' Alexi leaned back in her chair, crossing her arms over her chest. 'Why can't he?'
'Chess championships,' Rex supplied. Alexi gazed at him skeptically. He'd already drunk half of his Bloody Mary, and he was merely picking at his food. She looked over at Gene. 'Do you really have chess championships today?'
'Oh, yes, yes.'
'You're a liar. You're lying because Rex wants you to lie. What I want to know is why.'
Rex made a sound of impatience. 'He doesn't want to come out now, Alexi, all right?''
'No, it isn't all right--'
'Dammit!' He threw his napkin down on the table. 'Do we have to make a major production out of everything?''
Alexi went dead still, staring at him in sudden fury. Gene cleared his throat, then looked at his watch. 'Wow. I'm going to miss those chess championships if I don't go back. Now.'
Alexi stood up. 'We'll drive you--'
'No, no. I have a driver waiting,' Gene assured her. He kissed her cheek, waved to them both and left. Alexi stared at Rex. He wasn't looking at her; he was glaring down at his plate. Ignoring her, he raised his hand to ask for the bill. They maintained a tense silence while he signed it. Walking out of the restaurant, Alexi jumped when he slipped a hand around her waist. She drew back from his touch and hurried ahead.
In the car, he bounced angrily into the seat beside her. As they drove along, neither of them spoke for at least ten minutes. Then Alexi burst out with a demand to know what was wrong with him.
'Nothing,' he insisted, but he didn't look her way, and he didn't have another thing to say as they headed along the peninsula. She didn't know what to think or what to feel; she was simply baffled and hurt. Hadn't he said that he was falling in love, too? Hadn't they admitted the same fears and then agreed to let things blossom and grow as they naturally would?
Maybe she had closed the doors against him; maybe he had never really opened them as far as she had thought. For all that the days had been between them, they were as distant now as the sun and moon, and she couldn't begin to understand what had caused his fit of temper.
'Drop me at my house,' she told him, and added softly, 'then go home yourself. I think we need some time apart.' 'You must be crazy!' he thundered out to her. 'No! I'm not crazy!' she retorted after several seconds of incredulous silence. 'You're yelling at me, and I don't feel like being yelled at! Let me off--and go home!'
He cast her a murderous stare. The type that reminded her that she had once thought he might have a dark and wicked soul. 'You were conked on the head not too long ago--being in that house by yourself. Have you forgotten that?'
She looked down at her hands, which were folded in her lap. 'I--no. And I do have the good sense to be afraid of--to be afraid. Maybe it is John--and maybe it isn't. Maybe something else is going on--' 'Like what?'
'I don't know! It doesn't matter. I'll be all right; I'm not stupid. Samson is there, and you know as well as I do that no stranger could ever get past Samson.' 'You'll come home with me.' 'There you go again!'
'There I go again what?'
'Cracking the whip, laying down the law, whatever! Will you please quit telling me what to do? Now, Samson is in that house. And I appreciate that, Rex, I really do--''
'You can't borrow my dog, Alexi.'
'Rex! What--'
They drove right past the Brandywine house and kept going. Alexi gritted her teeth. She really wanted to land a hard punch right to his jaw. 'Rex, I swear, this time you really can't do this! I want to go to my house, and so help me, I will!'
He ignored her. The car jerked to a halt before his house. Alexi turned to her door, ready to storm out. Rex's hand fell upon her arm. She started to wrench it away from him.
'Alexi!'
He turned her to him. He caught her lips in a long, burning kiss. She tried to push away from him; she couldn't. And despite her anger, or perhaps because of her anger, the heat of him took flight and seared into her. When he drew away from her, she was breathless. Furious, but breathless...
'Marry me,' he said.
'What?'
Rex wasn't at all sure what had made him say that. He wanted her; he wanted her forever. And he wanted to keep her here, far from the Brandywine house. But marriage...
He really didn't know where the words had come from, but once they were out, he knew it was what he wanted. It was exactly what he wanted. She was beautiful, she was sweet, she was fire, she was a tranquil pool where he found peace.
'Marry me.'
