Donovans - Pearl Cove Part 50

Archer looked over his shoulder and gave her a smile. "Right. Now, let's pray that Len really wasn't feeling tricky when it came to this point. There's an infinite number of ways he could have mixed and matched open doors to make another combination."

"He wasn't really left- or right-handed. Not after the accident. He trained himself to do everything with both hands."

Archer knew that Len had trained himself to be lethally capable with hands, feet, and head long before he had met Hannah. But there was no need to remind her of that unhappy past. It would soon be gone. All the way gone. And Archer would be gone with it.

"Step back out of the shed," he said.

"But-"

"He could have b.o.o.by-trapped this," Archer cut in, overriding her objections.

"Then you walk off and I'll open it."

He gave her a disbelieving look.

She gave it right back.

"All or nothing," he muttered.

He bent over and pulled two waist-level handles that would have been convenient to Len.

The lockers opened, revealing rows of trays. Empty trays. But Archer already knew about them. Breath held, he stood and listened, listened, listened for the sound of a hidden mechanism releasing. He wasn't worried about a b.o.o.by trap anymore. If there had been one, he wouldn't have had to wait and listen. It would already have happened.

Silence.

He let out a soft, rushing curse and reached for two more waist-high locker doors. Before his fingers closed around them, he heard a faint sound. Then another.

Click. Click.

"Archer," Hannah said urgently.

"Yes."

Click.

Scroaaaope.

Intently he watched the vault. But it was Hannah who spotted the faint line where a panel was trying to open. She jumped forward, stuck her fingers in the gap, and pried. Nothing budged.

"Here," Archer said, handing her a slender metal bar.

She jammed the bar into the opening and pulled back sharply. More metal sc.r.a.ped on metal. Shifting her grip, she yanked again.

A waist-high panel swung open, revealing several long, narrow drawers. There were no locks, no combinations, no handles, nothing but a perforated disk to indicate how the drawers might be opened.

Hannah looked at Archer. "Now what?"

"This, I hope."

After a few tries he fitted Len's odd ring to the disk on the middle drawer. The fit was tight enough to make a kind of handle. Gently he pulled back. A shallow drawer opened. Inside, resting on edge, was a long, flat jeweler's case.

Hannah made an odd sound. "Is it...?"

"Go ahead. Find out."

With fingers that trembled, Hannah lifted out the box. Very carefully she pried up the lid. Archer watched her face rather than the box itself. Her look of relief, excitement, and wonder told him everything he needed to know. Wordlessly she turned and handed him the Black Trinity.

Silently he examined the gleaming, unearthly beauty of the unstrung necklace lying within the box's deep channels. He had expected the color match to be as good as humanly possible. He hadn't expected to be overwhelmed by the sheer beauty of the triple strands. It took his breath away.

Storm and rainbows. Excitement and serenity. Radiant midnight and suspended dawns. Secret dreams and impossible miracles. The Black Trinity had them all.

"No wonder Len expected this to heal him," Archer said in a low voice.

"If beauty could heal, he would have been whole," Hannah agreed.

"No." He closed the box and held it out to her. "He had beauty. It didn't heal him."

"What do you mean?"

"You, Hannah. He had you." Again Archer put the box in her hands. Again she wouldn't take it. "This is the best of Pearl Cove. Of Len," he said. "Take it and leave the rest behind."

Hannah looked at Archer's eyes and saw all that he hadn't said. She put her hands behind her back, refusing the Black Trinity.

"Take it," he said. "It's yours."

"Half of it is yours."

"No. You earned this necklace in ways I can't even bear to think about. Take it."

"Not if it means giving up you. That's what you're saying between the lines, isn't it? I get the Black Trinity and you get out of my life."

"You can't look at me without seeing Len. I won't do that to you, Hannah. I won't do it to myself. I can't bear seeing you flinch every time I do something that brings back the past. Take the necklace and build a new life. It's the least I can give you after leaving you to the mercy of a man who had none."

The weariness and acceptance in Archer's voice made Hannah's throat ache around a protest she didn't know how to speak. She hadn't meant to hurt him. She hadn't even believed that it was possible. Yet she had hurt him. She still was hurting him.

"I'll take the necklace on one condition," she said finally, her voice strained to breaking.

"What?"

"That it goes to our firstborn."

He went utterly still. "You're pregnant?"

"I don't know. I could be. I want to be. With your child. Only with yours. I want it all, Archer. The Black Trinity. The baby. You. You most of all."

He wanted to hold her so much it was like dying not to. But he had to be sure. He barely had the strength to walk away from her now. In a few days, it would be impossible. "Why?" he asked starkly. "I remind you of Len."

"Not anymore. That was fear and and cowardice. I was so afraid to trust again, to to " Her voice fragmented.

Gently he cupped her chin with one hand and asked, "Is it so hard to say? Or is it that you can't love me after all?"

Tears spilled down her cheeks. "Hold me. I want you and I'm so ruddy scared."

Archer's eyes closed. He couldn't look at her and not take what she was offering. But what she was offering wasn't love. "You're afraid of me."

"I'm afraid of losing you. Every time I think about it, I'm back in Rio and night is coming down and and I'm holding you to your promise. Protection and s.e.x. And babies."

He looked into her eyes. Then he gathered her close, feeling her fit herself to him without hesitation. Her arms came around his waist and held on hard.

"Protection and s.e.x, huh?" he said against her forehead. He wanted more.

He would take whatever she gave.

"And babies," she added.

"And babies. Does that cover it?"

"Urn. Not quite."

He waited.

"Love," she whispered. "I want that most of all."

"What do I get in return?"

"Protection, s.e.x, and babies."

He waited, hoping.

She fought against admitting her vulnerability. The hope in his beautiful eyes defeated her.

"Love," she said. "I love you."

His eyes closed for an instant. "Then it's a good deal all around. I've loved you for ten years. You're going to marry me, Hannah. Like you, I want it all."

She snuggled closer to him.

"Hannah? Will you marry me?"

She kissed the skin just above his tank top. Hair tickled her lips. She smiled and kissed him again. "Yes."

"Where do you want to honeymoon?"

"Here. Now."

He laughed softly against her hair. "Here it is."

It was now, too.

About the Author.

Elizabeth Lowell's many remarkable historical and contemporary novels include New York Times bestsellers, Forget Me Not, Only Love, A Woman Without Lies, Autumn Lover and Winter Fire. Her latest major accomplishments, Amber Beach, Jade Island, and Pearl Cove were instant New York Times bestsellers. Ms. Lowell has more than fifteen million books in print. She lives in Palm Springs, California, with her husband with whom she writes mystery novels under a pseudonym.

Books By Elizabeth Lowell

Amber Beach*

Autumn Lover

Beautiful Dreamer*

The Color of Death

Desert Rain*

Die in Plain Sight