The Midnight Hour - Brenda Jackson [75]
She heard Hawk's long, hard sigh. "I know this can't be easy for you, Tori."
'No, it's not, and what scares me the most is not knowing how Drake will react when I tell him."
"Once you explain everything to him, he'll understand. He loves you and-"
Tori shook her head. "No, Hawk. Drake loved Sandy. He still does. Drake is a different person than he was five years ago and so am I. Five years ago we were young, in love, full of fire and ready to take on the world."
"And now?"
She didn't say anything for a long moment, and then she said, "And now I'm a woman who beat death only to become a totally different person than I was before. I've lived each day looking over my shoulder, knowing there was a possibility that Cross would find out my secret."
"And I'm still not certain that Cross has found out your secret," Hawk said. "I think if he had, he would have taken more drastic measures by now. He would have come to this country himself to deal with you and Drake, and not send someone to do it. I agree with Drake that the only reason you're involved is because of your association with him."
Tori nodded. "That might be true, but either way, Cross wants me. Just give us time to reach the cabin and then I'll tell Drake everything, including how the Agency is willing to throw us to the wolves." She ended the call and placed the mobile phone back in her purse.
Her hands, the ones Drake had recently warmed, had turned cold again.
"You're shivering."
Tori blinked, surprised at Drake's comment. He must have been watching her pretty hard to have noticed the trembling of her body just now. He needed to keep his eyes on the road and not on her-but the thought that he had been watching her sent an unwanted spark through her; especially when his voice was filled with concern. But would he still be filled with concern once she told him the truth?
"No, I'm fine although I have noticed the change in the weather since leaving California."
Drake nodded his head. "Yes, the days are cooler, aren't they?" he said gazing over at her.
They had been driving for quite some time and had stopped for lunch. Drake suggested that instead of them stopping someplace for dinner that they should continue driving until they reached the cabin. Trevor had indicated that he would make sure it was well-stocked, which meant there would be food for them to eat.
For the past couple of hours she had racked her brain trying to decide how she would tell him the truth and decided that once they reached the cabin and after unloading their stuff she would just do it and get it over with. Then the two of them would have to deal with it. But how they dealt with it was what had her worried. She was more worried about the knowledge that Cross wanted them brought to him alive.
Needing something to take her mind off of what lay ahead, she decided to get Drake talking about something else; something she knew meant a lot to him, his home in the Tennessee Mountains.
"I bet your home in Tennessee is beautiful," she said, knowing that it was. He had taken her there one year for Christmas. That had been the last holiday they had spent together and memories of that time had sustained her through all the cosmetic surgeries, skin grafting, and implants that she'd endured.
"It is beautiful."
She heard the love and pride in his voice. It had been there the first time he had told her about Warren's Mountain. He was proud of his family's history and his great-greatgrandfather's ability to hold on to the huge parcel of land he had been given as compensation for dedicated service as a Buffalo Soldier. Warren's Mountain had been passed through the Warren family for generations and now with Drake being the only Warren left, all land rights had been passed down to him. Because of the beauty of the land, he had been besieged with offers from various land developers ready to make him the deal of a lifetime. But he had turned all of them down, deciding to keep the land his family had worked so hard to hold. It was his haven, a place he could go after returning