Iris Johansen - A Summer Smile

Hassan didn’t make a sound as he slumped to the ground.

It was all over. It had happened so fast, Zilah felt slightly dazed. Daniel was safe. She felt such a surge of thanksgiving that her knees were shaking. She slowly crossed to where Daniel was stripping off his belt. He flipped the unconscious Hassan over on his stomach. “Are you all right?” he asked curtly. “He didn’t hurt you before I got here?”

“No, I’m fine. I was here for only a few minutes with him. Before that I was in the stableyard with Pandora.” She turned to Pandora, who was picking herself up off the floor and brushing hay and sawdust off her jeans. “Why did you come back? Not that I wasn’t extremely glad to see you.”

Pandora shrugged. “I didn’t say good-bye to Oedipus. I couldn’t leave without doing that. Then I saw that slime”-she gestured to Hassan-“pointing his gun at you. So I jumped him.”

“And quite efficiently too,” Daniel said with a grin. “If you ever need a job, remind me to give you a first-class recommendation to Clancy Donahue.”

“You could have been killed,” Zilah said.

“I wasn’t,” Pandora said simply. “No use looking back at might-have-beens.”

It was almost as if it were Daniel speaking. Their philosophies were so similar. Practical, direct, honest.

Honest? Zilah felt an aftershock go through her as she remembered Daniel’s admission that he had known about her past. Known and not told her that he had known.

“When did you find out about the House of the Yellow Door?” she whispered.

He didn’t glance up from strapping Hassan’s hands behind his back with a belt. “When you had the fever,” he said absently. “You said something and I put Clancy through the third degree.”

“Clancy told you,” she repeated numbly. “Of course, Clancy knew everything. He was there.” She folded her arms across her breasts. She was suddenly shivering. When hope died, it did that to you, she thought dully. It turned the whole world into ice. “Why didn’t you tell me?”

“I thought it best not to.” He glanced up and saw the expression on her face. He suddenly stiffened warily. “It wasn’t important anyway.”

“Wasn’t it?” Her voice was strained. “I think it was. I think it was very important. If I’d known, I never would have pushed as I did last night. You must have been very embarrassed. I’m sorry I put you in that position.”

“What the hell are you talking about?” Daniel said roughly. “You’re not making any sense.”

“I think we both know what I’m talking about.” Her voice broke. She mustn’t let go. She had to be strong. “I understood perfectly, Daniel. You don’t have to pretend any longer.”

“Pretend? Dammit, Zilah. I don’t even know what you’re hinting at.”

The tears were suddenly racing down her cheeks. “Stop it! Do you hear me? Stop it! I won’t be pitied.” She turned and was running out the door. “I don’t need it. I won’t be pit-” She couldn’t speak anymore. The sobs were shaking her body as she tore across the stableyard. She had to be alone. She had to go somewhere to hide, to lick her wounds and gain control again. She couldn’t face Daniel again until she did. Poor Daniel. He had been so kind. Why hadn’t she let well enough alone and not thrown herself at him last night? Now she had probably lost a friend as well as a lover. She climbed the fence and dropped down into the pasture. Then she was running wildly across the meadow toward the tamarisk trees and the poppy field that lay beyond.

Pandora turned away from the door. “She’s running across the pasture,” she said fiercely. “Why aren’t you going after her? She was crying, dammit.”

Daniel gave her a glance that was just as fierce. “Do you think I don’t want to? Am I supposed to leave Hassan for you to handle by yourself?”

“Is that all?” Pandora picked up the rifle from the floor, went back out into the stableyard, and fired four shots into the air in rapid succession. “That should bring someone running.” She turned and strode briskly back into the barn. She sat down cross-legged on the floor with the rifle barrel pressed to Hassan’s head. “Get going.”

Daniel stared at her in astonishment. Then a slow grin lit his face. “Well, I’ll be damned.” He stood up. “A recommendation. Anytime. You’re quite a woman, Pandora.”

She shook her head, her lips curving in a bittersweet smile. “I’m just a kid who doesn’t know what’s good for her. I have it on the best authority. Now, get going. Dancing Lady is already saddled.”

He gave her a half salute before crossing the stable and opening the stall gate. He led the mare to the double doors that led to the stableyard. He hesitated, not entirely sure that he should leave. Then he sighted two grooms running toward them across the stableyard and breathed a sigh of relief. Pandora should be perfectly safe now.

His lips tightened grimly. He only hoped Zilah would be equally safe. She had been crying so hard she must have been almost blinded by tears. Who knew what kind of trouble she could fall into? He swung into the saddle and cantered toward the pasture gate.

Zilah had nearly reached the meadow of wild poppies when she heard the hoofbeats. She didn’t halt or look behind her even when she heard Daniel shouting her name.

Then he was almost on top of her. “Zilah, if you don’t stop, I’m going to have to try to scoop you up like one of those blasted movie heros. You know what a lousy rider I am. We’ll probably both end up in the dirt on our asses.”

“Go away. I can’t talk now.” Her voice was still unsteady though the sobs that had shaken her had finally ceased. “I’ll see you later. I want to be alone.”

“The hell you do,” Daniel said grimly. “You can just cut out the Garbo bit. There’s no way I’m going to let you out of my sight until we get this straightened out. Now, are you going to stop or do I scoop?”

“Daniel, I…” He’d do it. She knew he would. She had seen that bulldog tenacity in action before. Oh, God, she wasn’t going to be able to bear this. She stopped, trying desperately to maintain her delicately balanced control. “Please go away, Daniel.”

He had reined in Dancing Lady and was swinging off the mare. “I can’t do that,” he said simply. “Any more than I can let you go. Ask me anything but that.”

“Your responsibility is over. Hassan has been captured. I’m well again. There’s no reason for you to pretend any longer.”

“Pretend!” His hand grasped her shoulders and he gave her a shake. His eyes were blazing in his white face. “I don’t know how to play games like that. I never learned. I don’t want to learn.”

“You played a fairly intricate one with me,” she said. “You’re obviously not as amateurish at it as you’d have me believe.” She shook her head wearily. “I don’t want to argue. It doesn’t solve anything. I understand why you had to keep me here, Daniel, and I’m not blaming you. You told me Alex Ben Raschid wanted the terrorists. It was very clever of you to use me as a decoy.”

“Decoy? You think I kept you here as a lure for Hassan and his men?”

“Pandora said there was no medical reason for me to be here.” Zilah’s eyes were fixed on the top button of his shirt. She would not start weeping again. “You made the last ten days very pleasurable for me. I’m only sorry I forced you into that situation last night. I didn’t understand.”

Daniel uttered a round of unprintable words that caused her eyes to lift swiftly to his face.

“Come on.” He led her a few paces away from the mare. “Sit down. This may take a while. I’ve never heard such a bunch of bull in my life.” His hands on her shoulders forced her to her knees. He knelt beside her. “Now, I’m going to take this point by point and try to pound some sense into your head. It’s either that or I’m going to go bananas. First, why do you think I wanted you here to use you as bait? Didn’t it ever occur to you there could be another reason?”