“Good question. But even more to the point, why is Kelbrook so interested in you?”
“At least he doesn’t appear to want me dead. Evidently he prefers to have me locked up in Serenity Gardens.” She paused before continuing in a very cool tone. “He would probably pay you a great deal of money if you helped him send me back to the asylum.”
“I don’t want Kelbrook’s money,” he said. “I want answers. I told you, I don’t like being used.”
She thought about that. “Let’s face it—neither of us is in a position to do any significant damage to Dunstan Kelbrook.”
“Agreed. We need leverage. To get that, we require information. Among other things, we’ve got to find out why he’s focused on you, and then we’ll look for something we can use to make him back off.”
“Do you think I haven’t tried to get a handle on this? In the past seven months, I’ve spent a good chunk of my time looking over my shoulder and trying to get answers.”
“Everyone has a weak spot, and no one gets to be as rich and powerful as Kelbrook without leaving a few bodies behind. We’ll figure it out.”
“And if we can’t?”
“There’s plan B.”
She looked at him, wide-eyed. “There’s a plan B?”
“Always.”
“What is it?”
“I’ll work on it after we nail down the details of plan A. First things first.”
“You’ve already got a plan A?”
“It’s still coming together,” he admitted. “But I’m sure of the first step.”
“Which is?”
“We get married. Tonight.”
Chapter Six
Her stunned silence told himthat he was moving too fast. He had jumped to what was, to him, the obvious first move, but he had bypassed the underlying logic. He needed to slow down. She had been through a lot tonight, and the night was not over.
“Here’s my thinking,” he said. “As your husband, I would have the legal right to override your former in-laws if they tried to put you back into Serenity Gardens. Don’t worry, my plan doesn’t require a Covenant Marriage. A Marriage of Convenience would give me the ability to stop Kelbrook from having you committed.”
“Hmm. That’s an interesting idea.”
He breathed a sigh of relief. She sounded thoughtful, not shocked or appalled or suspicious. Maybe there was something to be said for the Ballantine Academy training. Evidently it encouraged logical thinking.
“Actually, when viewed from a certain perspective, it’s rather brilliant,” she added.
“Thank you,” he said, trying to keep his voice neutral.
In fact, the idea of using a Marriage of Convenience as a shield had lit up his brain the moment he’d entered the hotel room and seen her with the flamer in her hand. She was a woman who had been pushed to the brink, but she hadn’t succumbed to panic. She was desperate but determined. She would not go down without a fight. He liked that about her. He liked it a lot. It was more proof that the psi profile he had developed to get a sense of her was accurate.
“It’s an intriguing idea,” she said, “but the more I think about it, the more I realize I can’t allow you to take the risk. Marrying me would put you in the line of fire. Kelbrook and his fixer would want you out of the way so that they could get to me. I wouldn’t put it past them to have you murdered.”
“If I’m not already on the Kelbrook hit list, I will be as soon as they figure out that I helped you escape tonight.”
Alarmed, she turned quickly in the seat. “Are you saying that because you saved me, you’re stuck with me?”
“The way I see it, we’re stuck with each other.”
“If you’re right, you would be better off taking your chances on your own. Kelbrook and his people claim that I murdered my first husband, and after tonight they’ll probably say I murdered that poor man in the shower.” She paused. “Speaking of the dead person in the shower, why haven’t you asked me to explain him?”
