Billy was surprised at the conflicting emotions he felt. It appeared that at the advanced age of thirty-three, he was developing a late-blooming case of sensitivity. He didn’t want her to think he was just another greedy opportunist, but the wide-eyed rich girl had to lose her fascination for the adventure she was having if he was ever to deliver her home. At that point, there would be no alternative but to leave Harris Roper’s employment. The man was very clear about not wanting his little sister to know he was having her watched twenty-four hours a day. An unfamiliar face would have to be brought in if Harris wished to continue the invisible surveillance.
So, no matter how he looked at it, this was the beginning and the end of his contact with Julie Roper. The little word end had never pulled at him quite like this before.
“Just gas, princess,” he said tonelessly, avoiding her wounded gaze. “And a little tip when I get you home wouldn’t go unappreciated. Whatever you think I’m worth. Deal?”
“I hope you’ll take a check,” she bit out.
He forced himself to look at her, his smile stopping short of his eyes. “No problem. I think you’re good for it. Dig out the map in the glove box and we’ll find the quickest way to Palm Beach.”
“Why bother? Drag it out and fatten your payoff.” Her expression was uncovered briefly, showing the depth of her disillusionment. Quite softly she added, “You see, I do have an area of expertise. I’m very good at paying top dollar for what I want.”
Billy closed his eyes briefly, fighting an urge to tell her how wrong she was. Of course, that would turn out to be a bad move as well, since he’d been on the Roper payroll long before he’d actually met Julie. Talk about a no-win situation.
He muttered a choice four-letter word beneath his breath and shoved the car into reverse, tires spitting gravel. His throat burned with the force of his frustration. Never in his life had he felt quite so helpless, and the feeling wasn’t exactly warm and fuzzy. His jaw was clenched so tightly, his teeth ached.
“Whatever,” he bit out. “Do up your seat belt. We’re taking you back to Kansas, Dorothy.”
Three
He had a damn good excuse for getting lost.
That damn good excuse was sitting beside him, the breeze from the window scattering her spun-gold hair over the seat back. The air was redolent with her scent, a subtle combination of roses and baby lotion. Everything about her seemed magnified in the close confines of the car, the small sighs he heard now and again, her restless movements in the seat, even the faint shadows of weariness beneath her eyes. She had lost the urge to converse back at the gas station, keeping her thoughts and questions to herself. He couldn’t blame her. He hadn’t exactly treated her with kid gloves. Julie’s face was turned away from him, her breathing slightly uneasy as if her silence was less than peaceful. He found himself stealing glances at her whenever he could, fascinated by this untried, defensive soul in his care. She seemed to be everything he was not: a delicate fantasy filled with curiosity, amazingly innocent and unguarded. Heaven knew there had been nothing like her in Oakland. Nothing like her in his entire life, actually. An hour into their drive, for reasons that evaded him, he’d turned the radio on softly, finding a melancholy blues station that seemed to fit his mood. And what a strange mood it was.
A pink chink in his scratched and dented armor? Maybe. Billy was, if nothing else, a realist, and knew it didn’t matter at this point.
What did matter, he realized abruptly, was that he’d gotten them good and lost. Unless he’d been mistaken, the signpost he’d just seen half-buried in a cypress jungle read Gator Getaway, 5 Miles. Nothing at all about Palm Beach, no directions to freeways or interstates.
Damn. This was not going to reflect well on him.
“Did you see that?” Julie asked, breaking sixty minutes of brittle silence.
Billy feigned surprise. He was no different than any other man, and the words I goofed were not in his everyday vocabulary. “What? See what?”
“The sign we just passed. Gator Getaway…isn’t that what it said?”
“Oh, that sign. I think it said, Gator, Get Away,” some kind of a warning. I wouldn’t worry about it.” Then, hopefully, “Did you know you smelled like roses?”
“Don’t try and change the subject.” Julie grabbed the map and shoved it close to the dashboard lights. “What the…? Oh, it’s upside down. Gator…Gator…There’s nothing in the index called Gator Getaway. Are you sure you know where you’re going?”
Cornered, Billy surrendered. “I am absolutely certain that I haven’t a clue where we are, let alone where we’re going. On the positive side, I know precisely where we’ve been. It’s good to think positively, don’t you think?”
“We’re lost,” Julie said, with an equal mixture of alarm and satisfaction. “Ha! The boy wonder has gotten us lost. Lost, lost, lost. And now we’re headed to some godforsaken place where alligators gather. What do you have to say about that?”
“Pick a four-letter word, any four-letter word. That’s what I have to say about that.” This city boy had no desire to visit a place where alligators congregated. If it weren’t for the unrelenting darkness and swamp-like foliage, he might be able to get his bearings. This was not the way things were done in the concrete jungle. Roads led somewhere in California, and they weren’t obscured by confusing walls of dripping, mossy vines. You might get stuck in a traffic jam, but you always knew where you were stuck, and you had colorful graffiti murals to enjoy while you waited. And if you happened to be an undercover cop, you could pull out the handy-dandy portable gumball machine, stick it on the roof of your car and zip down the emergency lane with cheerful impunity.
Not that a gumball machine would help him at this point. He had a sinking feeling he was already in the emergency lane.
“This is all your fault,” he told Julie irritably.
Her jaw dropped. “What? What did you say?”
“You have no idea what you’re putting me through tonight.” He was not about to tell her how good she smelled or what incredible legs she had, although these things had certainly contributed to his mounting stress. “I’m coming unglued. I never got lost in California, never once. How do you people live in a wilderness like this? Where are all your stoplights? Where are your freeway entrances? I’d rather be dodging bullets in California than alligators in Florida, I’ll tell you that. And that’s if we’re still in Florida. I have my doubts.”
“Are you kidding? You don’t know what state we’re in?” Julie pressed her nose against the window, palms splayed over the glass. “I can’t see anything,” she whispered slowly. “No houses. No street lights, nothing. It’s never dark in Palm Beach. Everything stays open all night. I’m really getting freaked out. Do something.”
“What would you like me to do? Look, I’m only human. I can’t read a map and keep us on the road at the same time. Florida is your state, I’m just a tourist. You’re the one who is supposed to know your way around. You’ve lived here for…what? Twenty-five years?”
“Twenty-three years,” she corrected stiffly. “Almost. And most of that time I was in England, anyway. Except for when I was in Italy. And the summers I usually spent in France or in the Hamptons, except when Harris insisted I go to finishing school in Switzerland, so—”
“How do you finish someone? I know how they do it in California, but how do they do it in Switzerland?”
“Well…you learn the social graces, and…never mind. Just trust me when I tell you my idea of finishing someone is probably quite different from your idea of finishing someone.”
“I’ll just bet it is. So you went to Switzerland to ‘finish’ yourself, but you don’t know Florida any better than I do. This is just great. What the hell were you thinking tonight?