Her hands shaking, Lesley brought down the instant coffee.She poured the boiling water into ceramic mugs and added sugar.Normally she didn’t use the sweetener, but she felt she needed it now.
Cole accepted the cup from her and sat at the opposite side of the room watching her.A muscle worked in his jaw while his eyes were more narrowed and determined than she could ever remember seeing them.
“I want you to know I’ll pay for everything.”
Lesley looked up at him blankly.“Why?”she asked in a breathless voice that sounded strange even to her own ears.“You didn’t do this.”
“No.”His fingers tightened around the handle of the mug.“But it’s my fault.None of this would have happened if it hadn’t been for me.”
“I don’t blame you.”Lesley didn’t know how she could be so calm, but she was amazingly so.She took a sip of the steaming liquid, and when she looked at Cole she was again jarred by the hate that seemed to exude from him.
“It might be a good idea if you moved in with your sister until after the holiday,” Cole said, the words brittle.
“No,” she answered forcefully.“I’m staying here.This is myhome, and I’m not about to let a bunch of hoodlums dictate my life.”
“These men play for keeps, Lesley.This isn’t the time to stand on principle.”
“I don’t care,” she shot back hotly.
“Honey, I know how you feel.”
“You know how I feel?”She echoed his words in a low, taunting voice and laughed sarcastically.“If you knew how I felt you’d be screaming.You ask me to trust you.This isn’t any of my business.But you made it mine the minute you moved next door.You could be anyone, or anything, but I don’t have the right to question you.Now”—she inhaled a deep breath—“Now you want to send me away?Is it for my own safety or because you’re afraid of what I’ll do once I discover why you’re hiding?”
Cole set his mug aside and stood.Lesley watched him as he strode back and forth across the floor.Pacing was something he’d done a lot in recent months.Lesley knew: she’d heard him.
“You know I’m an engineer,” he said without looking at her.
“Yes.”
“For years the idea of finding an effective and affordable method of manufacturing air bags has nagged at the back of my mind.I spent two difficult years of my life trying to come up with an idea that would work.Six months ago, I did it.”
“That’s wonderful, Cole.”He didn’t look as if he was pleased with his discovery.
He offered her a strange smile.“It’s simple, really.The air bag fits into the car’s steering wheel and is programmed so that at the moment of impact—” He stopped.“That’s neither here nor there.You get the picture.”
Lesley did and thought the idea was amazingly simple.“How soon will it be available in cars?”
“That depends.The patent is pending now.Two patents.”The words were heavy and dark.He turned to glance at her then, and the tormented look was in his eyes again.“Two patents from two different men, both claiming to have come up with the identical idea.”
Lesley didn’t need to hear the other man’s name.“It’s Jennings, isn’t it?”
Thoughtfully Cole nodded, his brow marred by thick, creasing lines.“Yes, Jennings.”
“But how?”
“Jennings was a friend.He knew about my idea, and once I got the prototype working and the bugs out of the system, I showed him.I was enthusiastic.”He paused and wiped a hand over his face.“No, stupid,” he corrected.“Jennings was smart, I’ll say that for him.He waited until I’d figured a way to produce the air bags before taking everything.But I trusted him.We’d worked together for years, and I considered him a friend.He’d been having financial problems, but I never would have guessed he’d stoop this low.He stole my work and two years of my life.”
“But surely you can prove it was you.”
“It’s not that easy,” Cole ground out and clenched his hands together.“Jennings took all my papers and my notes.I’ve reconstructed everything as best I can, but as it stands now, it’s my word against his.”
“What about the man who came here?What’s he got to do with this?”
“That’s Peter Lansky.”
“Friend?”
“I have no friends,” Cole returned forcefully.Lesley wondered how he thought of her, but didn’t voice her question.
