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  Julie smiled at the realization that he’d expected the call to end like this when he made it, because he’d obviously researched all the logistics already. “One question. Why can’t I meet you sooner?”

  “Because I have some details to finalize first.” Julie accepted that, and he continued, “When you leave your house Tuesday morning, don’t take anything with you. Don’t pack a suitcase, don’t do anything to give anyone the idea that you’re leaving. Keep your eye in the rearview mirror and make sure you aren’t followed. If you’re being followed, do some errand or other, then go back home and wait to hear from me again. Between now and then, watch your mailbox closely. Open everything, even advertisements. If there are any changes in the arrangements, someone will contact you either that way or in person. We can’t use your phone at home, because I’d bet my life there’s a tap on it.”

  “Who will contact me?”

  “I don’t have the vaguest idea, and when he does, don’t ask for identification.”

  “Okay,” Julie said as she finished writing down his instructions. “I don’t think I’m being watched. Paul Richardson and David Ingram—the two FBI agents who were here—gave up and went back to Dallas last week.”

  “How are you feeling?”

  “Wonderful.”

  “No morning sickness or anything?”

  Her conscience jabbed at her, but she tried to soothe it by not actually lying to him. “I’m a very healthy female. I think my body was made for motherhood. And it was definitely made for you.”

  He swallowed audibly at the sexual reference. “Tease me now, and you’ll pay later.”

  “Promise?”

  He laughed then, a throaty laugh that warmed her, but not as much as his husky words. “I miss you. God, I miss you.” As if he were afraid to let either of them relax too much, he said, “You realize that you won’t be able to say good-bye to your family? You can leave them a letter somewhere where they won’t find it until several days after you’ve gone. After that, you’ll never be able to contact them again.”

  She squeezed her eyes closed. “I know.”

  “And you’re prepared to do that?”

  “Yes.”

  “That’s a hell of a way to start a life together,” he said tautly, “tearing your family apart and severing all their connections to you. It’s like inviting a curse.”

  “Don’t say things like that!” Julie said, suppressing a shiver. “I’ll make them understand in my letter when I tell them good-bye. Besides, leaving them to go with you is practically—biblical!” To distract both of them from the grim mood stealing over the conversation, she said, “What are you doing now? Are you standing or sitting?”

  “I’m in a hotel room, sitting on a bed, talking to you.”

  “Are you staying in the hotel?”

  “No. I got the room so I could use the phone in privacy and get a decent connection to the States.”

  “I want to go to sleep tonight, seeing what you’ll be seeing when you lie in bed. Describe your bedroom to me and I’ll tell you what mine looks like, so you’ll know.”

  “Julie,” he said gruffly, “are you trying to drive me to new heights of frustrated sexual desire?”

  She hadn’t any such intention, but the notion was gratifying. “Can I do that?”

  “You know you can.”

  “Just by talking to you about bedrooms?”

  “Just by talking to me about anything.”

  She laughed then, as easily and as naturally as she’d been able to laugh with him from the beginning.

  “What size is it?” he asked with a smile in his voice.

  “My bedroom?”

  “Your ring finger.”

  She drew in a shaky breath. “Five and a half, I think. What size is yours?”

  “I don’t know. Large, I guess.”

  “And what color is it?”

  “My finger?”

  “No,” she said with a chuckle, “your bedroom.”

  “Smart ass!” he chided, but he answered and his voice got deep. “It’s on a boat right now—teak walls, a brass lamp, a small dresser, and a picture of you I cut out from a newspaper hanging on the wall.”

  “Is that what you see when you fall asleep?”

  “I don’t sleep, Julie. I just think of you. Do you like boats?”

  Julie drew in another shattered breath, trying to memorize each tender thing he said. “I love boats.”

  “What’s your bedroom like?”

  “Frilly. White ruffles on the bedspread and canopy and dressing table across the room. A picture of you on my night stand.”

  “Where did you get it?”

  “From an old magazine at the library.”

  “You swiped a magazine from the library and cut a picture of me out of it?” he said, trying to sound shocked

  “Certainly not. I have scruples, you know. I explained I’d damaged it beyond repair and I paid the fine. Zack—” she said, trying to keep the panic out of her voice, “the janitor is hanging around outside the glass wall. I don’t think he can hear me, but he doesn’t normally just loiter around like this.”

  “I’m going to hang up. Keep talking into the phone after I do. Try to mislead him with an innocuous conversation if you can.”

  “All right. Wait, he’s walking away. He must have needed something from the cart.”

  “We’d better hang up anyway. If there’s anything you need to take care of before you leave, do it in the next week.”

  She nodded, speechless with regret at the thought of letting him go.

  “There’s one more thing I need to say to you,” he added quietly.

  “What is it?”

  “I meant every word I wrote in that letter.”

  “I know you did.” She sensed he wanted to hang up, and she added quickly, “Before you go, what do you think of what Matt found out about Tony Austin? Even though Matt doesn’t think there’s anything we can do legally, there has to be some—”

  “Stay out of that,” Zack warned her, his voice turning icy. “And leave Austin to me. There are other ways to handle him without involving Matt.”

  “What sort of ways?”

  “Don’t ask. If you have problems with any of the arrangements I’m making for you, don’t look to Matt for help. What we’re doing is illegal and I can’t let him get involved beyond what he’s already done.”

  Julie suppressed a shiver at his ominous tone. “Say something sweet before you hang up.”

  “Something sweet,” he repeated, his voice softening. “What did you have in mind?”

  She was a little hurt when he seemed unable to think of something, and then he said with a smile in his husky voice, “I am going to bed in exactly three hours. Be there with me. And when you close your eyes, my arms will be around you.”

  Her voice dropped to a shaky whisper. “I love that.”

  “They’ve been around you every night since we parted. Good night, sweetheart.”

  “Good night.”

  He hung up and at the last minute, Julie remembered his instructions about carrying on an animated conversation. Rather than fake one, which she didn’t think would be as convincing, she called Katherine and managed to talk to her for thirty minutes about anything and everything. She hung up and tore off the sheet of paper with Zack’s instructions written on it, then she remembered seeing a mystery on television where the case was solved by the imprint of the handwriting on a tablet, so she took the tablet, too.

  “Good night, Henry,” she called cheerfully.

  “Good night, Miss Julie,” he said, shuffling off down the hall.

  Julie left by the side door. Henry left by the same door three hours later, after he made a collect call to a phone number in Dallas.

  53

  JULIE TOSSED AN OVERNIGHT CASE in the back of her car, glanced at her watch to make certain she still had more than enough time to make her noon flight, and went back into the house. As she was loading her breakfast dishes