and healing. And she still has months of recovery ahead of her. Maybe she could still remember something, but who knows when?”
Ben paused. “Well, have you had a chance to talk to Winona?”
“Yes. Last night. She didn’t even hesitate. She offered to do anything she could.”
“She understands why the Club wants this kept quiet? To protect the work we do?”
“Yeah. And she understands how ticklish it is, communicating between local authorities and feds and safety agencies and diplomats. It’s not that she has power, but it’s not power we’re looking for, and for damn sure, we’re not looking to impede anyone’s investigation. Only to make sure the innocent are protected in this complicated mess. She’ll help advise us.”
“I have always had the impression that she is a good woman. An unusually special woman.” Ben studied his face with sudden intentness.
Swiftly Justin lifted a wrist to check his watch. “It’s after five. I have to go.”
“You’re meeting her.”
“Yeah. And either you quit smiling at me or I’ll have to slug you,” Justin said wryly, as they both exited Klimt’s room with a last glance at the Asterland cabinet member.
“I wasn’t smiling at the serious situation.”
“God knows, neither was I.”
“But I admit I was smiling at you. One mention of her name, and you are-how do they say it?-bouncing off the walls. A sudden smile on your face that is close to blinding. Oh, how the mighty do fall.”
“Watch it, Sheikh. We have an expression in Texas. You’re cruisin’ for a bruisin’.”
“We have an expression like that in the Middle East, too. In fact, I think all countries have an expression like that. We’re meeting again on Tuesday night? To determine what to do with the two jewels, whatever new security measures we want and so on?”
“Yes.”
“Okay. In the meantime, try to remember to eat. To sleep. To not sing in the rain. And to climb down from the clouds before you drive.”
“I’m going to remember this conversation when you fall in love. And I’m never going to let you hear the end of it,” Justin vowed darkly.
“Yeah, yeah.” Ben smiled, but then he sobered. “Justin…you have not been happy since you came back from Bosnia. Always, there is this dark look at the back of your eyes, the silence. You work, the long hours, but it’s like something is running after you, and you cannot catch it, see it, stop it. This woman…it is good to see you coming alive again. I am glad for you. I mean it.”
Justin was smiling when he walked out to the parking lot. But when he climbed in his car and started the Porsche engine, a chill chased up his spine that had no relationship to the howling winter wind.
He couldn’t wait to see Winona.
He couldn’t have been happier with how last night had gone between them.
He hadn’t thought about Bosnia in a long time now, nor had the chronic nightmares troubled him since Winona had become personally involved in his life. But now, suddenly, he felt itchy, edgy. Win was coming to care for him. Just maybe, the sky was the limit between the two of them. It was just that sometimes, he felt like Bosnia was a smudge of dirt on his face that refused to wash off. Nothing seemed to make those memories go away, not completely.
Forget it, he told himself swiftly. Think about her. Nothing else.
So he tried.
Nine
When Winona heard the knock, she swallowed hard, and then hustled to answer the door. It was just before six, so she knew it was Justin. All day she’d been higher than a kite, looking forward to seeing him again…and she still wanted to see him, but the circumstances had sure changed.
She yanked open the door, carrying Angel. The baby was dolled up to go out to dinner, wearing an ultracool pink jumper with an ultracool pink heart sweater and pink booties. She could have won over the heart of a stone; she was that adorable-if she hadn’t been screaming at the top of her lungs.
“Darn it, Justin, I’m afraid-” Winona started to say.
“Eh?” He cupped a hand over his ear, as if he needed a megaphone to hear over the symphonic volume.
“I don’t think we’re going to be able to go out to dinner,” she shrieked.
“Yeah, it does look like we’d better come up with plan B.” He stepped in, quickly shut the door on the draft and, as soon as he’d peeled off his jacket, waggled his fingers.
“Trust me, you don’t want her,” Winona assured him.
“Hey, she can cry just as good in my arms as yours, can’t she? I take it we’re not in a real good mood.”
“She’s not hungry, not tired, not sick, not anything, so PMS is my best guess. I just didn’t expect it to hit before she was six months old.”
“Now, don’t be criticizing my second-best girl.” He kissed Win first-on the tip of the nose-and then swooped the baby in his arms. Startled, Angel stopped the faucet for a second and looked him over. “I’m the handsomest guy you’ve seen all day, right, darlin’?”
Winona wanted another kiss. One significantly stronger and deeper and more romantic than that peck on the nose. But Angel seemed to be considering what she thought of the heartthrob with the Sam Elliot eyes in the doorway. Then she decided. First there was a heartrending sniff, and then another melodious bloodcurdling cry designed to alert all neighbors in a ten-mile radius that she was Not Happy.
“Okay,” Justin said. “Get your coat and the baby’s coat. We’re bumping this pop stand.”
“Justin, we can’t take her anywhere like this.”
“Well…I do think she’s a little young to be blackmailing us into taking her to Disney World, but I’m almost sure we can come up with something that’ll win a smile out of Her Highness.”
There were circles under his eyes. There were circles under hers. Winona theorized that possibly the baby guessed what they’d been doing the night before, and wanted to make sure they never, ever, had an opportunity to do it again. But she simmered down for the ride in the car, and only let out an occasional squeal-as if to keep in practice-as Justin carried her into his house.
“I just figured it might work better at my house because I knew we didn’t have to worry about dinner. Myrt made something, left it in the fridge. Corned beef, I think? I’m not sure, but I know it’s something we could put together quickly. And in the meantime, there’s a bunch of things I want to talk with you about.”
She wasn’t sure how he managed it. Within five minutes, he’d taken her jacket, ordered her shoes off, poured her a glass of merlot, and was leading her through the house. His bossiness wasn’t the surprise. It was all he was managing to do while holding Angel at the same time. And the baby had quit crying-as long as she was bouncing along in Justin’s arms.
“Really, Win, it doesn’t matter to me which house we choose to live in. If you want to stay at your place, that’s fine. But I do have a ton of space here. And Myrt’s already installed. Not that those details make this house so great-for one thing, as many bedrooms as there are upstairs, maybe they’re too far from the master bedroom? We couldn’t hear the baby if we set her in a bedroom upstairs? So then I was thinking, maybe this room would make a good nursery…”
He pushed open the door to his downstairs office, which was wainscoted in teak with a burgundy-striped wallpaper above. Background lighting illuminated his expensive computer setup. A couch overlooked glass doors and the view of the water-garden landscaping in his backyard.
“This is all too dark. I figured we’d throw all this junk-”
“Junk?”
“Stuff. All this stuff could go upstairs in one of the spare rooms. We could just rip out the wainscoting and dark wallpaper. Do baby colors-whatever baby colors are. There’s a lot of room for a crib and rocker and all. And next door’s a bathroom-although right now, that room’s too dark, too. I mean, for right now, we could just make these two rooms work easily enough. It’s not like Angel’s crawling or walking yet. I can hire a couple of strong backs as
