Just Past Midnight. Amanda Stevens

that sounds like a pattern to me.”

      Somewhere inside Richard, an old rage stirred to life. A terrible fury he’d had to keep under control during his long search for Danielle Williams. And now that he’d finally found her, he wasn’t about to let anyone get in his way. Not even a paranoid cop who might be more than a little insane.

      As if reading his mind, Kane traced a fingertip down the barrel of his gun. Richard had a feeling the action was very deliberate. “There’s a name for women who kill their lovers for personal gain.”

      “Black widows,” Richard said.

      “That’s right. We both have an interest in spiders, don’t we? You didn’t come here to find out about Danielle Williams. I haven’t told you a damn thing you didn’t already know. What the hell are you really after here?”

      Richard got up and walked to the window again. After a moment, he said, “Do you know a woman named Darian West? Dr. West?”

      Behind him, Kane drew a sharp breath, but by the time Richard turned, the cop’s expression was coolly indifferent.

      “No, why?”

      “She’s a criminal psychologist here in Houston. In fact, she worked extensively with HPD on the Casanova murder case last summer. You were assigned to that task force for a while, weren’t you, Sergeant? That is, until you asked for a transfer. I find it hard to believe that you and Dr. West didn’t cross paths at some point.”

      Kane’s gaze had grown very dark and very cold, and Richard was aware of the .45 that was still only a fingertip away.

      Richard walked slowly toward Kane. “I think you do know her, Sergeant. I think she’s the reason you left Connecticut and came back to Texas. I’m willing to bet that somewhere around here there’s a big, fat file on Dr. West.”

      Kane’s hand rested on the TV tray, but he didn’t pick up the gun. Not yet. “Who the hell are you? What do you want from me?”

      Richard paused mere inches from the man’s chair and stared down at him. “It’s simple. I don’t know what kind of sick little obsession you’ve got going on here, but I want you to back off. I want you to drop your investigation. I want you to forget you ever heard of Danielle Williams or Dr. Darian West.”

      “Yeah?” Kane’s gaze turned defiant as his hand closed over the weapon. “And why should I do that?”

      Richard smiled. “Because she’s mine.”

      CHAPTER SIX

      DARIAN DREAMED about Michael that night. It was the same scene she’d replayed in her sleep for the past seven years, ever since Michael died so suddenly and so tragically…exactly the way Paul Ryann died before him.

      In her vision, she was still Dani. She and Michael were walking across a snowy landscape, arms linked, frosty breaths mingling on the cold air. All around them, icicles dripped like diamonds from the treetops, while in the distance, sunlight danced across a frozen pond.

      The campus was still and almost preternaturally quiet. The two of them might have been alone in the world, captured, for all eternity, inside a snow globe.

      It was as if she had no past and no future here, Dani thought. The only thing that mattered was the present. She didn’t have to think about anything else. She didn’t have to remember the fire at Belmont House or that beseeching figure in the window. And later, those awful, awful screams.

      She didn’t have to remember the suspicions, the loneliness, and the utter sense of helplessness she’d felt after her father’s accident.

      Most of all, she didn’t have to remember that voice on the phone….

      “I did it for you, Dani.”

      But even in her dream world, she couldn’t escape those memories. They came flooding back, and Dani turned away, no longer able to meet Michael’s gaze. He wouldn’t have it. He put his hand beneath her chin and tenderly turned her face back to his.

      It was his gentleness that always got to Dani. She knew she shouldn’t allow herself to feel anything for him—for anyone. But she couldn’t help it. He was so sweet and so handsome and so very persistent. In some ways, he reminded her of Paul. They had the same haunted eyes. The same melancholy smile.

      A premonition crawled up her spine, and she shivered.

      “What is it?” Michael asked her. “What’s wrong?”

      “Nothing.”

      “That look in your eyes…where do you go when you drift off like that?” he asked softly.

      “I don’t know what you mean.”

      “Yes, you do. Sometimes you seem like you’re a million miles away. In a place where I can’t reach you. What happened to you, Dani? Why is it the moment we start getting close, I can feel you pushing me away?”

      “You know I don’t like to talk about my past,” she murmured, and tried to turn away again.

      But Michael held on to her. Held her as if he would never let her go. “I know you don’t. I’m not a big fan of strolling down memory lane, either. My relationship with my brother…you know it’s a mess.” He sighed and glanced away, battling his own demons.

      Dani sometimes wondered about his estrangement from his brother, but she never asked. To query him about his past would be to invite questions about her own. And she’d promised herself the day she left Allentown that she wouldn’t look back.

      But that was easier said than done. Four years and nearly two thousand miles wasn’t enough time or distance to ease her pain. Paul’s death haunted her still, and she knew that it always would.

      She also knew there were those back home who still believed her guilty of setting that fire. Officer Canton was one of them. She even sometimes had the crazy notion that he might have followed her to Connecticut. She’d caught glimpses of someone who looked very much like him, but she knew those sightings were probably nothing more than her paranoia at work.

      And her father…that was the heaviest cross of all to bear. He’d fallen out of the barn loft that day, impaling himself on a pitchfork. It was a miracle he’d survived. After Dani and her mother had rushed him to the emergency room, a team of doctors and nurses had worked on him for what seemed like hours. When they finally managed to stop the bleeding and get him stabilized, Dani had tried to tell her mother about the letters and the phone call.

      Rena Williams had turned deathly pale and, clutching Dani’s hand, had made her promise that she wouldn’t tell anyone else about her secret admirer, especially the police. Going to the authorities might put them in more danger. Look what had happened to her father.

      Dani had been so fearful for her mother’s fragile health that she’d finally agreed to keep silent. She didn’t go to the police, but the promise her mother extracted from her took a toll on their relationship. They were no longer able to meet one another’s eyes, and it seemed to Dani that her mother blamed her for their terrible secret.

      “At least you’ve made up with your brother,” Michael said with another sigh.

      “Sort of,” Dani agreed. She supposed that was the one good thing to come of all that had happened to her in the past four years. Until a few weeks ago, she hadn’t heard from Nathan since he’d left home right after the fire. He hadn’t even called after their father’s accident. Then recently, he’d turned up at Drury. She’d come out of class one day, and there he’d stood, looking so different from the last time she’d seen him that she almost hadn’t recognized him.

      He’d cut his hair, and the jeans and jacket he’d had on were clean and respectable. With something of a shock, Dani realized that somewhere along the way, her brother had grown up. He was no longer a boy, but a man. He’d just turned twenty-three, but the tentative smile he gave her reminded her of the day her parents had brought him into their home, an uneasy nine-year-old