Eye of the Storm

THREE

Megan studied Gerard’s profile as he gazed out into the forest. She was caught once again in the gale-force wind that was Gerard Vance, and she felt a desperate need to tell him everything that had happened since they’d last talked. Really talked. As in, sharing their thoughts, debating their gut feelings, even touching souls on occasion.

She’d missed that so much since the world flew apart. Now there was this huge black hole in the universe keeping her from Gerard and Tess and all her friends at the mission, because she couldn’t get past what happened and reconnect with them. She didn’t even have time, right now, to find her way back to sanity here in Jolly Mill because of Kirstie.

“Poison,” she said, drawing Gerard’s gaze back to her. “Drugging of some kind. Do you really think it’s possible? Here in Jolly Mill?” Megan felt the strength of Gerard’s presence encompass the wooden front porch, the yard, possibly even threaten to charm the fluttering and chirping birds from the trees.

“There’s evil everywhere,” he said. “Even here in paradise.”

“When did you first talk to Kirstie?”

“A week and a half ago. I thought I’d give you a little more time, warn you I’d be coming here so you wouldn’t be caught off guard. I left messages for you with Kirstie, and she, of course, recognized my name.”

The teasing lilt in his voice brought a surprising sting of tears to Megan’s eyes. She swallowed. So much had been lost. Not only had that heinous killer destroyed the life of a very pregnant young woman, but he’d destroyed a powerful relationship between two people falling in love…hadn’t he?

“So of course,” Megan said, swallowing again, “charming as Kirstie is, she drew you out, got more information from you about yourself.”

“About us, I think. That’s why she warned you of danger.” Still that hint of a tease in his voice. “Once I told her about how much we valued you at the clinic, she opened up and started to talk about your friendship with Lynley and how much you meant to her.”

Megan narrowed her eyes at him. “Don’t start me on any guilt trips.”

“How’s that?”

“She wants me to take her case. She doesn’t believe she has Alzheimer’s.”

“Neither do you,” Gerard said.

Megan held his gaze. How did he read her mind so well? “I referred her to two of the best specialists in the region, and she didn’t want to go to them. She wants me or no one, but she never said a word to me about her suspicions of poison.”

“She knows you’ve been through some kind of trauma, and she’s willing to sacrifice her own health in order to walk on eggshells around you, keep you from being stressed.”

Megan was amazed by how easily she was suddenly coming to tears this morning. “I’m not a specialist.”

“But you are.” Gerard’s footsteps echoed across the porch as he drew closer to Megan. “You specialize in people. As you’ve told me more than once when treating patients at the mission, Alzheimer’s can be a trash-can diagnosis, and people with mental problems aren’t trash.”

Megan winced. He was using her words against her. “Speaking of Kirstie, I got a call about her before you so rudely arrived at my door before daybreak.” She glanced at her watch, then reached into her bag to check her cell phone. Either Lynley hadn’t tried to call or she was in an area without coverage and couldn’t call. “She’s missing.”

“Again?”

Megan nodded. She took a deep breath, and it wasn’t until that breath came back out as steam in the air that she suddenly realized it was chilly. She brushed by Gerard and went down the steps. “I told Lynley I’d check Kirstie out at the clinic.”

“I’ll come with you.”

Megan couldn’t resist a glance back up at Gerard, the firm jawline with an overnight shadow, the sudden cloud of worry in his blue eyes.

What was it about the man that made her feel stronger? Why did she suddenly feel capable of doing whatever she needed to for Kirstie? He gave her strength, and she had longed for that strength these past two weeks—had longed for it so much that she’d even tried to resort to prayer a couple of times. Gerard Vance reflected the strength of the God he served when he wasn’t coming across as the ultimate bossy alpha male.

“If you come with me, the whole town will be talking,” she said.

“Let ‘em talk.”

“Easy for you to say. You don’t have to live here.”

“Then I’ll drive myself and help search.”

Megan scowled at him. “You don’t know what she looks like.”

“Actually, I do. Hazel eyes, heart-shaped face, dimples, wavy blond hair. It is the computer age, you know.”

Megan pushed past a hibiscus as tall as she was. Droplets of dew sprinkled across her face. “We have plenty of people in town who know her and know where to look.”

“No one knows exactly where to look right now or she’d have been found.” Gerard fell into step beside her.

She brushed past moisture-drenched evergreen shrubs to keep from feeling the warmth of him beside her. She’d be dripping by the time she reached the clinic at this rate. But hadn’t she known she would react this way to his presence? It was why she hadn’t returned his calls. Yet how was she supposed to tell him that? Say, “Sorry, Gerard, but I can’t have you around because when you’re near me I can’t think straight”?

“You didn’t take enough time for closure so you’re avoiding me,” he said.

“I don’t need closure. I need time to reverse about three weeks.”

“So do I, but that’s not going to happen. I have to deal with today just as it is. So do you.”

“I can only deal with one thing at a time.”

“Understood. We’ll focus on Kirstie, but first, would you tell me why I didn’t receive a request for a reference from your new employer?”

Megan gritted her teeth and her footsteps slowed. She saw the glint of steel in Gerard’s gaze and braced herself for yet more arguing. Sometimes she felt there was nothing he liked better.

Gerard bit back a grin as he watched Megan’s eyes flash. By now Tess would’ve blown sky-high at his goading. Megan took a lot more from him.

“Alec didn’t need a reference.” Megan’s words were measured, her voice a little lower than usual. “We’ve known each other since kindergarten. This cottage belongs to his family.”

Now they were getting somewhere. Gerard didn’t like it, but at least it was out in the open. “Of course. Small town, no one’s a stranger. Alec Thompson’s his name, right?”

She pushed aside a branch of a juniper tree and allowed it to slap back into his face. “Don’t you dare tell me you called him about me too.”

“Nope, I just studied him.”

She turned a scowl on Gerard, then stepped ahead of him and continued toward her car. “How?”

“Internet. You really should try it sometime.”

“You’re not really a cop anymore, you know.”

“Megan, I didn’t gather the information to hurt the man.”

“So why were you checking him out?”

“The more a person knows, the better his chances of getting a job done.”