Always

'Are you all right?' Clancy Donahue's tone was harsh. 'For heaven's sake, the phone nearly rang off the hook.'

She felt limp with relief and sank down on the bed. 'Of course I'm all right.' She drew a deep breath and tried to steady her heartbeat. 'It's after midnight. Didn't it occur to you that I might be sleeping?'

'Were you?'

She didn't answer the question. 'Why are you calling, Mr. Donahue? I thought we had said all there was to say.'

There was a short silence. 'I decided to give you achance to change your mind,' he said finally. 'Will you help us?'

'No, I will not,' she said. 'You don't seem to be able to understand a refusal, Mr. Donahue. My bags are packed and I have reservations on the eight o'clock flight to Miami. You can look elsewhere for bait for your trap.'

'You're the only bait Baldwin finds appetizing,' he said tersely. 'You're quite sure?'

She sighed. 'I'm quite sure. Give up, Mr. Donahue.'

'Why? The battle has just begun.' His voice lowered. 'I'm sorry. Believe me, I didn't want it this way.'

He rang off before she could reply, and a faint frown knotted her brow as she slowly replaced the receiver. Donahue's last remark had filled her with uneasiness. The man himself made her uneasy. He was one of those bigger-than-life figures one ran into-thankfully-with great rarity. He was too much of everything for her to feel comfortable. Too intelligent, too confident, too virile. He emitted an aura of power that disturbed her. It was just as well she was leaving tomorrow. Nothing must be allowed to break through the wall that surrounded her emotions, and she had an idea that Clancy Donahue didn't believe there was a wall in existence that he couldn't burst through. Yes, it was just as well she wouldn't see him again.

Lisa stood up and strode into the bathroom. She opened a small plastic container, took out two sleeping pills, and swallowed them quickly. Although she had been cutting down on the medication for the last two months, she knew she wastoo upset to sleep dreamlessly tonight. And the dreams must not come. Not again. She set her travel alarm, took off her robe, and slipped between the sheets. Then she reached over to flick off the light and settled back against the pillows. Closing her eyes, she breathed deeply and tried to relax every muscle and empty her mind of everything. She felt a tiny flutter of panic in the pit of her stomach and crushed it down swiftly. There was no reason to be frightened. The sleeping pills would take hold soon and there would be no dreams. No dreams at all…

There were dreams, but they weren't the heavy, somber nightmares that she had dreaded. These were strangely disjointed fragments, a sharp prick on her arm, masculine voices, lights, and then the dreams were lost in shifting darkness that billowed and flowed with moments of misty clarity.

'Dammit, she's unconscious. That drug was only a mild sedative. It shouldn't have knocked her out. How the hell much did you give her?' Clancy Donahue's rough voice. She supposed it wasn't all that unusual. One t›f the last things on her mind before she had gone to sleep had been Donahue, but she wished he wouldn't sound so angry.

'I gave her the dosage you told me.' A younger voice… definitely defensive. 'How did I know she was on sleeping pills? We found these in the bathroom, when we couldn't wake her up.'

'Damn, this prescription is potent. I don't even know if the drugs are dangerous to mix. I'll have to call the lab in Sedikhan. Watch her closely. Ifthere's any sign of respiratory failure or deepening unconsciousness, call me on the double.'

The darkness deepened again. She was being carried. Mint. Donahue. The same after-shave she had noticed earlier in her dressing room. It was fresh and pleasant, just as the arms that were holding her were pleasant. Warm and strong and as gentle as his voice was harsh. She made a contented sound deep in her throat that was almost a purr and nestled her cheek closer against that hard, muscular chest. How wonderful to relax and be held so protectively. Surely arms this strong could keep away the dreams. 'Safe.' The word was only a whisper.

The arms tightened around her. 'That's right.' Donahue's voice was no longer harsh, but velvet soft. 'You're safe, Lisa. I'll keep you safe from now on.'

It wasn't true. No one could keep her safe from the dreams. Yet it was nice to pretend for a little while. 'Thank you,' she murmured drowsily.

His chuckle was a bit husky as it reverberated beneath her ear. 'I doubt if you'll be quite as grateful to me when you regain consciousness.' She was being placed on something soft and cushioned, and.the arms were suddenly gone. She muttered a protest. 'It's all right, I'm still here.' The mattress sank beneath his weight, and he gathered her hands in his warm clasp. 'I'll be here when you wake up. I won't let you go.' One hand loosened its clasp to brush an errant tress back from her forehead and then began to stroke the hair at her temple. 'Go to sleep.'

'You'll keep the dreams away?'

His hand halted its motion for the briefest instant before resuming the stroking. 'If that's what you want.'

'Oh, yes, please,' she whispered. 'That's what I want.'

'Then I'll keep the dreams away. Go to sleep, Lisa. I won't let the dreams come back.'

She could almost believe him. She let the resistance flow out of her and the darkness take her.

She was asleep. Carefully Clancy released Lisa's hands and stood up. According to what the lab had told him, she would be unconscious for at least ten to twelve hours; yet he was reluctant to leave her. She looked so damned alone. Her honey-beige hair, fanned out on the white pillow, was as tumbled and silky as a small child's. Her lips were pink and crumpled, slightly parted with the deepness of her breathing. She was probably no longer aware that he was with her, but somehow it made no difference. He had promised that he would protect her, that he would keep away the dreams she feared so much. What nightmares could be so terrible that fear of them would pierce a drug-induced sleep as deep as Lisa's? He had a sudden irresistible compulsion to know.

He strode to the door and grabbed his suitcase, which he hadn't yet bothered to unpack. Setting it down on the low padded bench at the foot of the king-sized bed, he unsnapped it and threw open the lid. The dossier on Lisa Landon was on top. He'd scanned it briefly before boarding the plane in L.A., planning to go through it thoroughly later. At the time he'd been more interested in Baldwin's relationship with his ex-wife than in any more personal details. Now he wanted to know everything about the woman curled up on his bed like a bereft child. He dragged the cane chair across the room and settled himself as comfortably as possible. The chair wasn't built for a man of his size, he thought wearily. It was going to be as uncomfortable as the devil by the time Lisa woke up. Well, he'd been a hell of a lot more uncomfortable any number of times in his life for less reason. He slipped off his shoes and propped his feet on the bed. Then he opened the manila folder and began to read about Lisa Landon.

One moment Lisa was sleeping deeply and the next she was wide awake. Ice-blue eyes were narrowed on her face. Clancy Donahue's eyes. But what was he doing in her room? 'What are you…' She sat up straight in the bed and then wished she hadn't moved so quickly as the room whirled in dark, sweeping circles around her.

She heard a muttered curse from Donahue. Then he was sitting beside her on the bed, his hands cupping her shoulders, steadying her. 'Easy. Do you always wake up this abruptly?'

'No. Yes.' Her head was muzzy and she shook it, but she still couldn't seem to think straight. 'I don't know.' She did know, however, that something was very wrong about Clancy Donahue being here in her room. Her tongue felt coated and her words were slightly slurred. 'You shouldn't…'

'Lie down.' He pushed her back on the pillow. 'Give yourself time to wake up and come to terms with the situation before you decide to take meon.' He smiled grimly. 'I'm sure that time will come soon enough.'

'What are you doing in my room?' But it wasn't her room! she suddenly realized. The bed she was lying on was king-, not queen-sized, the spread dark blue, not charcoal-and-yellow stripes, the walls beige, not pale gray. She was still wearing the same tailored white satin pajamas, but everything else was wildly, terribly wrong. Her eyes widened with shock and she tried to sit up again.

The movement was immediately frustrated by Donahue's hands on her shoulders pressing her back down. 'No, it's not your room,' he said quietly. 'You're no longer at the hotel. This is my bedroom at a villa located about a half mile from the casino. There's no reason to be afraid. You're perfectly safe and will remain so. I promise you.'

'Your bedroom?' Lisa stared at him in stunned disbelief. 'What am I doing…' She stopped as she remembered the disjointed half dreams that had plagued her sleep. 'You kidnapped me,' she whispered. She couldn't believe it. 'You actually kidnapped me?'