LOVE WITH THE PROPER STRANGER Read online

  Prologue

  She laced his coffee with opium.

  He wasn't supposed to drink coffee this late at night. The doctor had told him not to. But she knew how much it pleased him to cheat the doctor's rules just a little every now and then.

  He smiled as she brought it to him, smiled again as he took a sip. He liked it sweet.

  The opium wouldn't kill him. It was part of the ritual, part of the game. She'd given him enough to confuse him, enough to slow his wits, to keep him docile and in control as she prepared for her checkmate.

  She kissed the top of his balding head and he smiled again, breathing a deep sigh of contentment – the king, relaxing after a hard day at the office, secure in his castle alongside his beautiful queen.

  Tonight, this king would die.

  *

  Tony was breathing hard. John Miller could hear him clearly over the wire, his voice raspy and loud in the radio headset. Tony was breathing hard and Miller knew he was scared.

  "Yeah, that's right. I'm FBI," Tony said, giving up his cover. Miller knew without a doubt that his partner and best friend was in serious, serious trouble. "And if you're as smart as your reputation says you are, Domino, then you'll order these goons to lay down their weapons and surrender to me."

  Domino laughed. "I've got twenty men surrounding you, and you think I'm going to surrender...?"

  "I've got more than twenty men on backup," Tony lied, as Miller keyed his radio.

  "Where the hell is that backup?" Miller's usually unshakable control was nearing a breaking point. He'd been ordered to sit tight and wait here outside the warehouse until the choppers arrived in a show of force, but he couldn't wait any longer. He wouldn't wait.

  "Jesus, John, didn't you get the word?" came Fred's scratchy voice over the radio. "The choppers have been rerouted – there's been an assassination attempt on the governor. It's code red, priority. You're on your own."

  No choppers. No backup. Just Tony inside the warehouse, about to be executed by Alfonse Domino, and John Miller here, outside.

  It was the one scenario Miller hadn't considered. It was the one scenario he wasn't ready for.

  Miller grabbed the assault rifle from the floor of the van and ran toward the warehouse. He needed a miracle, but he didn't waste time praying. He knew full well that he – and Tony – didn't have a prayer.

  *

  "I quit."

  The board of directors looked at her in stunned silence.

  Marie Carver gazed back at the expressions of shock on the familiar faces and knew that those two little words she'd uttered had granted her freedom. It was that easy. That simple. She quit.

  "I've made arrangements for my replacement," she told them, careful not to let her giddy laughter escape. She quit. Tomorrow she would not walk through the front doors and take the elevator up to her executive office on the penthouse floor. Tomorrow she would be in another place. Another city, another state. Maybe even another country. She passed around the hiring reports her secretary had typed up and bound neatly with cheery yellow covers. "I've done all the preliminary interviews and narrowed the candidates down to three – any one of which I myself would have utmost faith in as the new president of Carver Software."

  All twelve members of the board starting talking at once.

  Marie held up her hand. "Should you decide to hire an outside candidate," she said, "you would, of course, require my approval as the major stockholder of this company. But I think you'll be impressed with the choices I've given you here." She rapped the yellow-covered report with her knuckles. "I ask that you hold all of your questions until after you've read this. If any concerns remain unanswered, you can reach me at home until six o'clock this evening. After that, I'll remain in touch with my secretary, whom I've promoted to Executive Assistant." She smiled. "I appreciate your understanding, and will see you all at the next annual shareholders meeting."

  She gathered up her briefcase and walked quickly out of the room.

  *

  The opium was working.

  His pupils had retracted almost to a pinpoint and he was drooling slightly, blinking sleepily as he watched her dance.

  This was the part she liked. This was where she showed him what he would never again have the chance to experience, to violate.

  True, this one had been gentle. His soft, old hands had never struck her. He'd been careful not to hurt her. He'd given her expensive presents, fancy gifts. But the act itself would always be an act of violence, always despicable, always requiring punishment.

  Capital punishment.

  Her dress fell in a pool of silk at her feet, and she deftly stepped out of it. His eyes were glazed, but not enough to hide his hunger at the sight of her. He stretched one hand out toward her, but he didn't have the strength to reach her.

  And still she danced, to the rhythm of the blood pounding through her veins, to the anticipation of the moment when he would gaze into her eyes and know without a doubt that he was a dead man.

  *

  Freedom.

  It hit Marie like the coolness of the air that swept through the open door at the end of the hall. It felt fresh and clean, like that very spring breeze, bringing hope and life and renewal. Through that open door she could see her car, sitting out in the parking lot, ready for her escape.

  "Mariah."

  There was only one person on that board of directors who could slow her departure. Susan Kane. Aunt Susan. Marie turned, but kept moving, backward, down the hall.

  Susan followed, her long, batik-patterned dress moving in the breeze, disapproval in her slate-blue eyes. "Mariah," she said again, calling Marie by her childhood nickname. "Obviously you've been planning this for some time."

  Marie shook her head. "Only two weeks."

  "I wish you had told me."

  Marie stopped walking then, meeting the older woman's sternly unwavering gaze. "I couldn't," she said. "I didn't tell most of my own staff until this morning."

  "Why?"

  "The company doesn't need me anymore," Marie said. "It's been three years since the last layoffs. We've turned it around, Sue. Profits continue to rise – we're thriving. You know the numbers as well as I do."

  "So take a vacation. Take a leave of absence. Sit back on your laurels and relax for a while."

  Marie smiled ruefully. "That's part of my problem," she said. "I can't relax."

  Susan's face softened, concern in her eyes. "Is your stomach still bothering you?"

  "Among other things." Like, for instance, the fact that Marie was thirty-two years old and since her divorce four years ago, she had no life outside of the office. Like, the fact that she still worked long overtime hours to increase profits, to expand, to hire more people, even though the failing computer software company that her father's sudden fatal heart attack had thrust into her lap had long ago become a Fortune 500 business. Like, the fact that each morning she found herself walking into the new, fancy office building into which the company had recently moved, and she wondered what exactly was the point? What purpose did she serve by being here, by stressing herself out enough to develop stomach ulcers over the mundane, day-to-day operation of this business?

  One day she was going to wake up, and she was going to be sixty years old and still walking into that building, still going home much too late to that sad excuse for a condo, still living out of boxes that she still hadn't managed to unpack.

  And she'd look at her life, and all those meaningless, wasted years would stretch back into her meaningless, wasted past.

  Because the truth was, even though she'd dutifully gotten her degree in business as her father had wanted, Marie had never wanted to run this company.

 
Shoot, it had taken years before she'd admitted that to herself. As far as knowing what she really wanted to do, Marie honestly didn't have a clue. But there was something that she did know.

  She wanted to do more than keep a multimillion-dollar corporation up and running. She wanted to have a sense of real purpose. She wanted to be able to look back on her life and feel proud – feel as if she'd truly made a difference.

  She was considering running for office. She was also thinking about joining the peace corps. She had found a list a mile long of volunteer organizations that desperately needed man power – everything from accountants for the Salvation Army to hands-on, hammer-wielding home builders for Foundations for Families.

  But before she could do anything, she had to handle her stress.

  Step one was cutting herself off from this company – breaking her addiction to this job and the company's addiction to her. She was going to do it cold turkey.

  The company would survive. Marie knew they'd survive. Any one of her three job candidates would bring a freshness and vitality to the job that she'd lacked for nearly two years now. Whether or not Marie would survive was a different story...

  "Where are you going?" Susan asked.

  "I don't know," Marie admitted. "I'm just going to take my camera and go. I read in a book about stress reduction that I should take a few months and leave everything behind – including my name. This book recommended that I temporarily take on a new identity. Supposedly that'll help me distance myself from everything that's been causing my ulcers." She smiled. "I'm going to leave Marie Carver locked in my condo – along with all my doubts about my sanity and my worries that Carver Software will go into a nosedive the moment I leave town."

  Susan pulled her in for a quick hug – an unusual display of affection. "The job will be yours again when you come back," the older woman whispered. "I'll make sure of that."

  Marie pulled away, unable to answer. If she had her way, she'd never be back. If she had her way, Marie Carver and her damned ulcers would be gone forever.

  *

  She used the knife to cut off a lock of his hair.

  He didn't have too much, just a light fringe of gray at the back of his head, but that didn't matter. It was the only thing of his that she would keep.

  Besides the money.

  He was handcuffed now. He'd let her do that willingly, thinking she was playing some new sex game, never suspecting he had only moments left to live.

  But when she unsheathed the stiletto, there was a hint of consternation in his drug-glazed eyes.

  "What are you doing?" he asked.

  She shushed him with a kiss. He couldn't speak. He wasn't allowed to speak.

  But he didn't know the rules. "Clarise?" he said, fear pushing past the opium, creeping into his voice, making it waver as she set the tip of the stiletto against his chest.

  She felt a flash of regret.

  Clarise. She liked that name a lot. It was a shame that she would only be Clarise for a few moments longer. She couldn't use that name again. And she wouldn't. She was too smart to make that mistake.

  "This has gone far enough," he said, trying to hide his fear behind an air of authority. "Release me now, Clarise."

  She smiled and leaned on the whisper-thin blade, sliding it deep into his heart, setting him forever free.

  *

  "Kill him."

  Domino's order came before John Miller had reached the warehouse doors, and the gunshots – four of them in rapid sequence were amplified deafeningly through his headset.

  Tony.

  Tony was dead.

  Miller knew it. He had no chance of saving his friend.

  He had this tape, though, this tape of Domino giving the order to off a federal agent. He had enough evidence to put Domino on death row. Blasting his way through that warehouse door at twenty to one odds would only get himself killed, too.

  He knew that as well as he knew his own heartbeat.

  But the heart that was pounding in his chest wasn't beating with a recognizable rhythm. And the red cloud of rage that covered his eyes didn't obscure his vision, but rather made it sharper, clearer.

  Tony was dead, and the son of a bitch who ordered it done was not going to make his escape in a powerboat, losing himself in South America, outside of the FBI's jurisdiction. No, Alfonse Domino was going to burn in hell.

  Miller hit the warehouse door at full run, bringing his gun up and into position at his hip, shouting in rage at the sight of Tony's crumpled body lying on the cold, blood-soaked concrete, shooting the surprise off the faces of Alfonse Domino and his men.

  *

  She had her airline ticket all ready, under an assumed name, of course. A temporary name.

  Jane Riley. Plain Jane. Plane Jane. The thought amused her and she smiled. But only briefly. She knew she had a noticeable smile, and right now she had no desire to be noticed.

  Her hair was under a kerchief for the occasion, and she wore a dowdy camel-colored jacket she'd picked up at a secondhand store downtown.

  She took nothing of Clarise's with her. Nothing but the money and her collection. Nine locks of hair.

  She traveled light, boarding the plane to Atlanta with only a tote bag that held several novels she'd picked up at the airport shop and two hundred thousand dollars in cash. The rest of the money was already in her Swiss bank account.

  In Atlanta, she'd catch a train to who knows where. Maybe New York. Maybe Philadelphia.

  She'd catch a show or two, take her time deciding exactly who she wanted to be. Then she'd get her hair cut and colored, shop for a new wardrobe to match her new personality, pick a new town in a new state, and start the game all over again.

  And then she'd have ten locks of hair.

  Chapter 1

  John Miller's heart was pounding and his mouth was dry as he awoke with a start. He stood up fast, trying hard to get his bearings, reaching automatically for his gun.

  "John, are you all right?"

  Christ, he was in his office. He'd fallen asleep with his head on his desk, and now he was standing in his office, with his side arm drawn and his hands shaking.

  And Daniel Tonaka was standing in the doorway watching him. Daniel was expressionless, as he often was. But he was gazing rather pointedly at Miller's weapon.

  Miller reholstered his gun, then ran both hands across his face. "Yeah," he said. "Yeah, I'm fine. I just fell asleep – or something – for a second."

  "Maybe you should go home and go to bed."

  Bed. Yeah, right Maybe in some other lifetime.

  "You look like hell, man," Daniel continued.

  Miller felt like hell. He needed a case to work on. As long as he was working, the dreams weren't so bad. It was this damned in-between time that was unbearable. "I just need some more coffee."

  Daniel didn't say anything. He just looked at Miller. He was relatively new to the bureau – just a kid. He was hardly twenty-five years old, with a young handsome face, high cheekbones and deep brown, exotically shaped eyes that announced his part-Asian parentage. Those eyes held a wisdom that extended far beyond his tender years. And true to the wisdom in his eyes, the kid always knew when to hold his tongue.

  Daniel Tonaka could say more with his silence and maybe a lift of one of his dark eyebrows than twenty other men could say if they talked all day.

  Miller had had half a dozen new partners since Tony, but Daniel was the only one who had lasted for any length of time. Next week it would be, what? Seven months? The kid deserved some kind of award.

  Miller knew quite well the reputation he had in the bureau. He was "The Robot." He was a machine, an automaton, letting nothing and no one get in the way of his investigation. He was capable of putting everyone around him into a deep freeze with a single laser-sharp look. Even before Tony had died, Miller had kept his emotions to himself, and he had to admit he'd played his cards even closer to his vest over the past few years.

  He was aware of the speculation about his
lack of close friends within the bureau, the whispered conversations that concluded he was incapable of emotion, devoid of compassion and humanity. After all, a man who so obviously didn't possess a heart and soul couldn't possibly feel.

  Some of the younger agents would go well out of their way to avoid him. Hell, some of the older agents did the same. He was respected. With his record of arrests and successful investigations, he'd have to be. But he wasn't well liked.

  Not that a robot would give a damn about that.

  Daniel stepped farther into Miller's office. "Working on the Black Widow case?"

  Miller nodded, gazing down at the open file on his desk. He'd been studying the photos and information from the latest in a string of connected murders before he'd fallen asleep.

  And dreamed about Tony again.

  He sat back down in his chair, grimacing at his stiff muscles. Christ, everything ached. Every part of him was sore. He desperately needed sleep, but the thought of going home to his apartment and sinking into his bed and closing his eyes was unbearable. The moment he closed his eyes, he'd be back outside that warehouse. He'd dream about the night that Tony died, and he'd watch it happen all over again. And for the four thousandth time, the choppers would never come. For the four thousandth time, Miller would arrive too late. For the four thousandth time, blowing Domino's ass straight to hell still wouldn't make up for the fact that Tony's brains were smeared across the concrete.

  God, the stab of guilt and loss he felt was still so sharp, so piercing. Miller tried to push it away, to bury it deep inside, someplace from which it would never escape. He tried to put more distance between himself and this pain, these emotions. He could do it. He would do it. He was, after all, the robot.

  Miller took a swig from a mug of now-cold coffee, trying to ignore the fact that his hand was still shaking. "The killer did her last victim about three months ago." The coffee tasted like something from a stable floor, but at least it moistened his mouth. "Which means she's probably preparing to make another go of it. She's out there somewhere, hunting down husband number eight. At least we think it's number eight. Maybe there've been more we just don't know about."