the first nun I’ve seen wearing a silk blouse and cashmere sweater.”
She stiffened. “The outfit worked well enough to get me inside the school without being noticed.”
“You look good, Eden.”
“So do you,” she said grudgingly. She hated the way he looked. His body was hard and strong. His face had grown even more attractive with age. Damn him! In a righteous world, he would’ve been physically punished for deserting her while she was pregnant, even though he hadn’t known about her condition. He should’ve guessed. He should’ve gotten word to her. Instead, he abandoned her! Even worse, he lied about his name…and what else? What other lies? Peter, or Payne, should be forced to wear his deceptions and cruelty on his face. He should be hideous.
After all she’d been through, she would never forgive him. She’d given birth alone, a frightened nineteen-year-old in a strange city. And she’d raised their son. Alone.
Rage sluiced hotly through her veins as she paced back and forth in the small vestment room, slapping at the plastic garment bags, seething. “You let me think you were dead! You deserted me!”
“I couldn’t find you.” He stood and casually brushed the dust from his Levi’s. He looked classy, even in jeans and a beat-up bomber jacket. “I searched every damn computer file, every record. I followed slim leads all around the country. I even went to Sicily.”
“I don’t believe you.”
“Give me a break, Eden. Nobody could find you. Not even your grandfather. You pulled off the disappearing act of the century.”
She’d done too good a job. When Candace fled, she withdrew all the money from her accounts. With insurance pay-outs for both her mother and father and college funds, it had been a considerable amount. Not knowing where to go, she turned to her grandmother who referred her to friends in Denver. However, after the initial contact, Candace buried herself more deeply. She changed her name, her vital records, her identity. No one could find her. She was completely alone. “I had to do it. I had to break away from them.”
“I understand,” he said.
She stalked away from him and stood, staring at the corner of the room where the walls met the ceiling in mathematical ninety degree angles. She yearned for logic. Seeing Payne had turned her world upside-down. Nothing made sense.
She didn’t dare to turn and confront him directly, not while she could still feel his intense magnetism. If she gazed full into his eyes, she’d be helplessly drawn to him, unable to resist.
Eden tossed her head. “If you really wanted to find me, you could have. All you had to do was talk to Grandmother Sophia. I had a post office box where she could contact me.”
“You’re right. I should have paid more attention to Sophia.” Twelve years ago, he’d concentrated his search on associates of Gus Verone, but he hadn’t ignored Grandmother Sophia. Undercover, in disguise, he kept her under surveillance as she puttered in the marketplace or sat in the front pew at Mass. He wire-tapped her private telephone. He’d intercepted much of her correspondence to no avail. “Unfortunately, I couldn’t approach Sophia with a direct inquiry from Peter Maggio who was, as you pointed out, supposed to be dead.”
“You’re a coward,” Eden muttered, “too afraid to return from the dead and face the Verone family.”
He shrugged. Undercover work was no place for heroes. The job required stealth, not macho bravery. It was time for another confession. “I was undercover, Eden. I’m a senior agent for the FBI.”
As she whirled to face him, her hazel eyes narrowed. “Another lie. You were never honest with me.”
He might have defended himself, might have told her that every syllable he’d uttered in praise of her beauty, intelligence and wit had been truth. The language of his emotions had been pure.
But she had a right to her anger.
And she unleashed her rage, full-force. Eden rattled through a barrage of Italian invective before facing him directly, fists on hips. “So you’re a fed. It was your work to bring down my family.”
He wouldn’t blame her if she hated him. She’d been raised to put family above all else, and Payne had betrayed the Verones.
Instead, she gave a curt nod. “Good. At least you had the right idea, saving the family from crime.”
“But it didn’t work,” he said.
“Not for Eddy.” Her jaw tightened as she struggled to maintain her tough attitude. “Eddy used bad judgment. And he paid for it.”
The sorrow in her eyes belied her harsh judgment. No matter what she said, he knew that Eden considered her brother’s death to be a tragedy. Palpable grief surrounded her. Payne had known that she couldn’t stay away from her family at this terrible time. He’d counted on her need to be with them. Hoping to console her, he reached out and touched her arm.
She yanked away from him. “Don’t.”
Somehow, in the back of his mind, he’d always imagined that when he saw her again, she would melt into his arms and allow herself to be carried away on clouds of bliss. Apparently, he’d been wrong. In the vernacular, he could forgeddabouddit.
“Okay, Eden, here’s the story.” Payne opted for facts. This time, there would be no lies between them. “I’m undercover, again. This time, it’s more complicated than before. I was framed by another agent. Inside the Bureau, I’m considered a renegade. They’re looking for me, want to take me into custody. Plus, your family knows I’m alive.”
“So, you’re wanted by the Verones and the feds?”
“Essentially.”
“Nice work,” she said sarcastically.
“I didn’t see the double-cross until it was too late.”
“What double-cross? I want more explanation,” she demanded. “And don’t even think about lying to me.”
“The setup happened at a restaurant in Brooklyn. I saw your brother shot.”
She gasped. Her hands flew to cover her mouth. She whispered, “Who killed him?”
“An agent. His name is Danny Oliphant. That snub-nosed, redheaded bastard shot Eddy in cold blood.” He wanted her to hear this information from his lips. “No matter what anyone tells you, I didn’t kill your brother.”
“Why would people say such a thing, if it wasn’t true?”
“Part of the setup. Danny-O delivered me to the meet in Brooklyn. I suspected something was wrong, but I didn’t understand until I saw Eddy walk through the door. Danny-O drew and fired.” Payne had since learned that Danny-O had used an exact duplicate of his own weapon, right down to the serial numbers. “His gun was identical to mine.”
“So it would be assumed you were the shooter,” Eden said. “And what were you doing while this Danny-O person killed my brother?”
“There was another agent in the restaurant. Luke Borman. He
