"But she"s probably in the house somewhere now, right?"
"Probably." He wasn"t about to lie to her. "Everything is going to be okay, Eva," he soothed as he reached down and pulled her effortlessly to her feet. "But it might be a good idea if you were to get dressed," he added gruffly as he collected up the clothes she had discarded earlier before handing them to her. "I won"t be gone long."
"Where are you going?" She held her clothes tightly in front of her naked body, her face pale.
"To turn off that b.l.o.o.d.y racket, and then put a stop to this once and for all," he answered grimly. "I should have done it weeks ago."
"You can"t go out there alone, Finn," Eva chewed on her bottom lip. "She could be dangerous-"
"The only person Moira is a danger to is herself," Finn a.s.sured harshly before giving an impatient shake of his head. "Look, just get dressed. For now I just need to be able to go out there and deal with Moira."
"But-"
"I really don"t have the time to argue with you, Eva." He gave a firm shake of his head.
Eva knew that. Just as she knew that Finn was fooling himself if he thought this Moira wasn"t a danger to him, as well as to herself. Anyone who went to the lengths this woman had gone to, in order to track Finn down-the subterfuge over the parcel, traveling down here in the blizzard once she knew exactly where Finn was, and to have now broken into the house where he was staying-had to be "off her head", as he had so succinctly put it. And people like that did not behave in the least bit logically.
As far as Eva was concerned, Moira was dangerous, full stop.
As well as in l.u.s.t with Finn...
Eva could totally empathize with that emotion; she was pretty much in l.u.s.t with Finn herself after their amazing lovemaking just now.
But she wouldn"t go crazy over it. Maybe suffer a broken-heart when all this was over and she never saw Finn again, but she wouldn"t ever run after him, after any man, in the way that this woman Moira had.
"There"s every reason to believe she knows I"m here with you, Finn," Eva reminded softly as she quickly pulled on her clothes.
Finn was well aware of that fact, more so than Eva; she still had no idea that Moira had been watching the two of them earlier through the studio window.
Which was the reason he was now going to look for Moira on his own; he really didn"t want someone as obviously unbalanced as Moira anywhere near Eva. It was only a few months ago that Moira had smashed a gla.s.s in a woman"s face, and that was just for having dinner with him. G.o.d knows what she would do to Eva after seeing the two of them together so intimately.
He gave Eva a rea.s.suring grin as she straightened, fully dressed again now. "Sure, an" take that worried look off your face, darlin"," Finn deliberately lapsed into the brogue.
Tears blurred Eva"s vision even as she shakily returned his smile. "I"m just a little annoyed my plans for the rest of our night together have been delayed."
Finn"s grin was genuinely appreciative this time; Eva had to be scared witless, but she was determined not to show it.
"Maybe it might be a good idea to tone down the amazing lovemaking with your next girlfriend?" Eva added ruefully.
Finn looked down at her intently. "I think "my next girlfriend" likes me just the way I am." He bent to kiss Eva hard on the lips. "Now stay put," he instructed harshly, turning and quickly crossing the room before closing the door firmly behind him as he left.
Eva didn"t move, couldn"t move, as she now stared at that closed door. And not just with fear...
It may be the very worst time for her to think about such a thing, but had Finn just meant what she thought he had? That she was his "next girlfriend"?
She had a.s.sumed that what had happened between the two of them this evening was that old cliche-hot s.e.x between two strangers stranded alone together in a blizzard.
Finn"s last comment seemed to imply he believed it to be more than that.
But if he thought she was going to "stay put" just because he had told her to do so, while he went off and risked his life, then he was seriously mistaken!
Finn found the broken window easily enough once he had turned on the flashlight in the kitchen, gla.s.s crunching underfoot as he crossed the room to turn off the alarm.
One of the panes of gla.s.s was broken next to the now wide-open back door into the kitchen, obviously broken by the heavy log of wood, one of the ones Finn had brought up from the stables earlier, lying amongst the gla.s.s now shattered on the kitchen floor.
He and Eva had left the generator on to power the alarm earlier, but turned off all the lights when they went to bed, in an effort to preserve the petrol supply needed for the generator. Finn didn"t have a lot of faith in the electricity company"s rea.s.surance that "power will be resumed as soon as possible", knowing the company"s first responsibility would be to the more populated towns and cities.
Finn decided to leave the lights off as he instead used the small beam of the flashlight to see by. Switching the lights might have enabled him to see more easily, but that also worked in reverse; Moira would also be able to see him too.
His movements were stealthily soft as he searched all the rooms downstairs, with no success, before going lightly up the stairs to search the bedrooms.
As far as Finn was concerned, this latest stunt of Moira"s meant she had crossed over the line from obsessed to just plain crazy.
Crazy enough for her to be a serious threat. It was- What the...
Finn came to an abrupt halt as he reached the bottom of the stairs after the search upstairs had also proved futile, the beam of light from the torch now picking out patches of melting snow on the darkness of the hall carpet.
Patches of melting snow the size of a woman"s small foot.
Patches of melting snow that led right to the closed door of the sitting room, where he had told Eva to stay put.
Sweet Jesus, he had thought he was protecting Eva by going off alone, and instead he had left her alone and at the mercy of a crazy woman!
A crazy woman with a gun, Finn discovered, after he had quietly turned the door handle and stepped into the room.
A cold shiver ran the length of his spine, the color draining from his face, as he took in the scene in front of him.
Eva was kneeling on the duvet in front of the fire, a trickle of blood leaking from a wound at her temple and dripping down her otherwise deathly pale cheeks.
Standing across the room, arms raised, the gun in her hand pointed directly at the kneeling woman, was Moira Summers.
Moira"s pale blue eyes fever-bright as she turned and saw him standing there. "Merry Christmas, Finn!"
Just as if she had come here on a visit, and wasn"t currently pointing a gun at another human being.
Finn"s jaw clenched. "You-"
"Finn, I was just explaining to Miss... Moira," Eva cut in quickly as she saw the anger blazing in the darkness of his eyes, "that she"s mistaken about-"
"Did I give you permission to speak, b.i.t.c.h?" The other woman turned on her viciously, her beautiful features twisted into an ugly snarl.
And Eva couldn"t dispute that Moira was a beautiful woman; possibly in her late twenties, tall, blond and stunningly beautiful. As Eva would have expected any woman to be that Finn had once been involved with.
The other woman was also dressed in a pink all-in-one ski suit, as if she had just stepped off a ski-slope and dropped in for a visit on her way back to the ski lodge for a warming gla.s.s of schnapps or mulled wine.
When in reality Moira had actually just broken into the house her ex-lover was staying in, and was now pointing a gun at Eva"s head.
The same gun she had used to strike Eva on the temple with a few minutes ago, when Eva had hesitated too long after the other woman had instructed her to kneel on the duvet.
Eva had just been preparing to leave the room, after hearing Finn go up the stairs, when the door to the sitting room had opened and the other woman had stepped inside and softly closed the door behind her.
Eva had been so surprised that for a moment she hadn"t been able to believe that she was actually seeing a woman pointing a gun at her. It was just too surreal. Too unbelievable. Too insane.
Waiting, praying for Finn to return, while she tried not to do anything to alarm or anger the other woman again, had brought Eva out in a cold sweat. But she had seen enough movies and television shows to know not to antagonize the person who was aiming a gun at her.
"What the f.u.c.k do you think you"re doing, Moira?" Finn demanded coldly.
Obviously Finn hadn"t seen or watched the same movies and television shows Eva had.
"I just want us to be together again, Finn." The gun wavered slightly in Moira"s now shaking hand.
"And do you seriously think pointing a gun at a friend of mine is going to achieve that?" Finn came back scornfully.
Nope, Finn definitely hadn"t been watching the same movies or television shows Eva had.
The look of uncertainty deepened on Moira"s face for several seconds, and then that bright hardness returned to her eyes and her shoulders straightened as she kept the gun leveled on Eva. "I don"t like her, Finn."
"I don"t remember asking for your opinion."
"Finn-" Eva started.
"I told you to stay out of this, b.i.t.c.h!" Moira snarled at Eva again.
Finn drew his breath in sharply, his emotions a mixture of fear and fury. Fear for Eva"s safety, and fury at Moira"s insanity.
Even more fury for the blood trickling down Eva"s cheek, and knowing that Moira must have hit her. Possibly with the barrel of the gun; he doubted much else would have subdued his fiery Eva.
His Eva?
Yes, for the moment that"s exactly what she was; his to protect from a madwoman with a gun.
A gun, for Christ"s sake!
This whole situation was unreal. Like one of those nightmares it was impossible to wake up from.
Except Finn knew it was all too real...
Chapter 12.
He had to try and distract Moira somehow. Get her to lower the gun long enough for him to disarm her and ensure Eva was out of danger.
"I saw the two of you together." Moira"s eyes had taken on that manic-fevered look again.
Finn allowed some of the tension to ease from his shoulders as he spoke softly. "I thought you liked to watch?" Could that possibly be a flicker of movement he had just seen in the window behind Moira?
Had Lucien"s men arrived, after all?
Or was that just wishful thinking on Finn"s part?
"I didn"t like watching you with another woman," Moira answered him harshly.
Finn dragged his gaze back to Moira"s face. But not before he was sure he had seen another flicker of movement in the window behind her. "Maybe you would enjoy a threesome more?" he suggested lightly. "You, me and Eva?"
Eva"s eyes widened as she stared at Finn like he had now gone insane. If he seriously thought she was going to- "I thought you weren"t interested in a threesome?" Moira"s attention was now fixed totally on Finn, the gun lowering slightly as the tension eased in her arms.
Now Eva realized exactly what Finn was doing. Distracting Moira, drawing her attention onto him rather than Eva. And he was obviously succeeding. But then what? What was he going to do next? Surely he didn"t intend- "Not if it"s two men and one woman," Finn answered with a shrug. "But two women and one man might be fun."
Eva knew Finn had to be deliberately distracting Moira with the intention of then somehow disarming her, but even so- Eva"s head jerked up as one of the windows behind Moira suddenly shattered inwards, followed by a man dressed completely in white who rolled on the carpet before coming up on his knees, the gun in his hands leveled at Moira.
At the same time as Finn made a dive for the armed woman.
And the door behind them burst open to admit another man dressed completely in white, the gun in his hand also trained on the armed woman across the room.
Immediately followed by the sound of a single gunshot.
Eva"s world went suddenly black as she saw the bloom of blood on Finn"s t-shirt...
"Calm the f.u.c.k down, Devlin-"
"And just how am I supposed to do that, when I have an unconscious woman in my arms and a dead woman on the floor?" Finn glared at the other man.
The same man who had tersely introduced himself as Dair Grayson, Lucien Wynter"s head of security, before just as briskly calling the police to report the death.
Finn frowned slightly as he looked at the other man"s intensely muscled body and hard, uncompromising face, his steely grey eyes flecked with green. "Are you and Lucien related?"
"Maternal cousins." Dair Grayson grinned. "I"m guessing it was the charm that gave it away, hm?"
"Oh definitely the charm," Finn drawled. "Why the h.e.l.l didn"t Lucien let me know you were on your way? I nearly had a heart attack when I saw your face at the window just now!"
"I have that effect on people," Grayson drawled. "And maybe you should think about occasionally checking your cell phone? I think you"ll find the battery needs charging."
Finn looked at the other man blankly for several seconds until he remembered that "battery low" had come up on the screen this morning when he was talking to Jack. And he had called Lucien twice since then.
He had forgotten all about recharging the battery as his attraction to Eva had intensified. Definitely a case of the blood in his head all going south!
"Lucien thought it best we get here as soon as possible after you lost power," Dair Grayson added softly. "Looks like we arrived just in time, too."
Finn looked down at Eva as he remembered that gut-clenching fear of seeing Moira pointing a gun at her. "Just in time" about described it.
"There"s something else you need to know."
Finn instantly tensed at the grimness of the other man"s tone.