Jake just nodded. “I wish there was a way to draw the team together again. Maybe I could convince Clay to talk to Ellie. Explain why things didn’t work out. Maybe even apologize.”
“How do you apologize for breaking someone’s heart?”
Jake’s gaze ran over her beautiful face. “I love you, Maggie,” he said softly.
Maggie touched his cheek and Jake leaned into her hand. “I love you, too.”
Jake straightened away from her. “You’d better go now.” He gave her a last warm smile. “I’ll see you back at the hotel.”
Maggie rose from her chair, feeling a trickle of alarm. Why Jake’s sudden change of mood? More and more uneasy, she headed for the door. All the way up to her room, she wondered what had changed. The warm smiles, no glancing over his shoulder, no entreaties for her to leave. The worry lines on his forehead seemed a little less evident tonight. His voice betrayed a note of resignation that hadn’t been there before.
Her alarm blossomed into full-fledged fear. There was only one reason Jake would behave as he had. He had made up his mind to do what the Soviets asked.
They must have found out about her, threatened to hurt her, maybe threatened both her and Sarah. Jake was doing whatever he had to in order to protect them.
And Maggie Delaine had to stop him.
After the team supper, Ellie left the restaurant, went up to her room and straight to bed. The hotel was old and quaint, the bathroom not completely modern, but the bed was comfortable, the cracks in the ceiling now familiar.
She’d spent hours just lying there, tracing those lines, counting them, imagining the patterns they formed, trying to sort through her thoughts about Clay. Mostly trying to bury them.
So far, her efforts had been futile.
Ellie sighed and closed her eyes, but sleep wouldn’t come. Not for hours, not even after all the champagne she’d drunk at dinner. Clay hadn’t shown up, as she could have predicted.
She had tried not to watch for him, but the effort was exhausting. She would have been miserable if he’d come to the dinner and ignored her or arrived with another woman. But she’d been just as miserable without him.
Ellie listened to the rhythmic tick of the old-fashioned alarm clock on the bedside table and forced her thoughts in another direction equally disturbing.
She kept seeing Shep Singleton’s battered face, his swollen lips and black eyes. Was the assault just coincidence? Just another tourist mugging? Or was there a connection to the other mishaps that had occurred?
When she’d mentioned her concern to Jake, he’d brushed her worry aside.
“These things happen, Ellie. We’re traveling through foreign counties. Shep should have been more careful.”
“You don’t think it could be connected to what happened to me?”
“It seems highly unlikely.” But he wouldn’t meet her eyes.
It wasn’t like Jake to be so evasive. Though he’d always been a private person, he was usually forthright to a fault.
Thank heavens, they’d be leaving for the States right after the Dublin show. She’d be going home, putting all this behind her, returning to her familiar apartment above the garage of her parent’s house.
They’d had a few brief conversations, but she was busy and so were they, and it was hard to keep secrets from them. She wasn’t ready to talk about Clay, and she’d promised Jake she wouldn’t discuss the mishaps that had befallen the team.
Ellie heard a light rap at her door and came to her feet. Dressed in a yellow nylon nightgown, she grabbed a robe and slipped her arms into the sleeves, lifting her heavy mass of hair away at the same time.
“Who is it?” she asked, suddenly nervous as she thought of the man who had attacked her.
“It’s Prissy. I saw your light beneath the door. Can I come in for a minute?”
Ellie slid the chain off with the grating sound of metal against metal and unlocked the bolt. “Hi.”
Prissy came in, also wearing a robe, hers a thick blue terry. “I guess you couldn’t sleep, either.”
Ellie smiled wanly. “I’ve had a tough time all week.”
“I kind of figured that.” They both sat down on the bed.
