Stormy Vows - Iris Johansen [83]
“Les couldn't be the one to do it,” Jane explained patiently. “He was the one who went on board with the food delivery to case the ship. If anyone saw him, they might recognize him. It's much less likely that I'd be noticed.”
“Case the ship?” Penny echoed incredulously. “My Lord, you even sound like an experienced second-story man.” She bit her lip worriedly, her eyes on Jane's determined face. “Oh, damn, why did I have to let you become involved with this group at all? I should have known that you wouldn't be satisfied with marching or collecting signatures on a petition. You don't even know the meaning of halfway measures. You just rush in full speed ahead and think you can set the whole world right.” She frowned. “Well, this is a little more serious than the collection of strays and derelicts you're always bringing home to the dorm. This could be big trouble.”
“Yes, little mother,” Jane said soothingly, “but it won't be, I promise you.” She'd become used to Penny's maternal lectures in the year that they'd been roommates at the University of Miami, but she never made the mistake of becoming impatient or undervaluing the affection that provoked them. After losing her parents as a small child and living the gypsy life of an army brat under her grandfather's stern guardianship, she'd learned the hard way that love was a treasure that must never be taken for granted.
But Penny was steadily ignoring Jane's attempts to reassure her in this case. Her gaze was now traveling unhappily over Jane's petite figure, garbed in a black turtleneck sweater and dark jeans. Her small feet were encased in black canvas sneakers. In the black shapeless sweater, she looked nearer fifteen than twenty. “And you're insane if you think you won't be noticed and remembered if you're spotted on that yacht.”
“Oh, but I've got that covered,” Jane said mischievously, as she began tucking her short mass of curls beneath a black ribbed stocking cap. “Or I will have soon.”
“I wasn't referring to your hair, damn it,” Penny said in a thoroughly exasperated tone. She shrugged helplessly at Jane's disbelieving expression. It was a long-standing argument between them that Jane persisted in believing herself plain and insignificant, despite Penny's insistence to the contrary. Jane passionately hated the blazing red of her mop of silky hair that refused to do anything but curl riotously around her heart-shaped face, and she contemptuously referred to her strange golden eyes, framed in extravagant dark lashes, as “cat eyes.” It was true that Jane's features, except for the huge eyes, were nondescript, but there was a certain tender curve to her lower lip and a mobile vitality to her expression that made them hauntingly memorable. In this case, dangerously so.
She reluctantly relinquished that argument, but immediately attacked from another angle. “You even look like some kind of a cat burglar. Is all this necessary?”
Jane grinned as she admitted sheepishly, “I don't really know, but they always dress like this in the movies. I figured that there must be some reason for it.”
“The whole affair makes no sense at all,” Penny argued desperately. “Why pick on Jake Dominic's yacht for your demonstration? He has nothing to do with the building of the nuclear plant.”
“Publicity,” Jane said tersely. “Jake Dominic's just finished directing a motion picture that has a pronuclear slant. Les chose Dominic because he says that it will attract more attention than if we'd picked an ordinary businessman.”
It was a fact that couldn't be disputed, much as Penny would have liked to discredit Billings in any way she could. Jake Dominic was the original golden boy. He had fallen heir to the fabulous Dominic shipping fortune at twenty-five and had promptly delegated authority in