Until Dark - Mariah Stewart [50]
“He used the stun gun on her.” Kendra set her fork down on the side of her plate.
Adam nodded. “She never knew what hit her. At least not for a while.”
“This whole thing is making me sick.” Kendra pushed her salad plate to one side. “All of these women who wanted nothing more than to live their lives, raise their kids . . .”
“It is pretty sickening,” he agreed. “No one will be happier than I when we finally catch up with him.”
“You really think you will? Catch him?” Kendra asked after the waitress served their entrées.
“Yes, I do.” He looked at her levelly. “He’ll make a mistake. He’ll screw up. Sooner or later, he’ll do something stupid, because he’s been very successful so far and that kind of success will make him cocky. He’s a man who wants to be noticed. Men like that always go one step too far. He can’t help but call attention to himself.”
“Let’s hope you’re right,” she said. “And that it’s sooner rather than later.”
“Can I interest you in some dessert?” The waitress asked a few minutes later when she passed by the table and noted that both Adam and Kendra had finished eating.
“We’ll take a look at the menu,” Kendra said, and brightened.
“Of course you will,” Adam muttered, recalling that, once upon a time, he’d taken great delight in teasing Kendra about her sweet tooth.
She made a face at him and studied the menu the waitress brought her.
“In addition to the items on the menu, we also have fruit salad,” she noted.
“I’ll have that,” Adam told her.
“And I’ll have the Chocolate Overdose,” Kendra said, smiling up at the waitress.
“Oh, God.” Adam shook his head, and Kendra laughed.
“What is a day without a little chocolate?”
“Overdose implies more than a little.”
“And with any luck, it will deliver.”
He groaned as the chocolate concoction, served in a brandy snifter, was placed before her. Cups of coffee were offered, along with his fruit. He stared blatantly at her dessert: two brownies separated by a layer of chocolate ice cream and covered with hot fudge, topped with whipped cream.
She loaded the spoon with ice cream and hot fudge, waved it in front of him, saying, “You know you want a bite.”
“I’ll stick with the strawberries.”
“Bleh.” She wrinkled her nose. “Don’t you ever want something you know isn’t good for you?”
“Yes,” he said quietly, the mirth fading. “Yes, I do.”
“Don’t you ever just say, the hell with it, and go for it anyway?” she said, oblivious at first to the solemn note that had crept into his voice. Too late, she caught it.
“I’m thinking about it. I’ve been thinking about it a lot.”
She hadn’t intended on having the conversation turn serious, and was unprepared for it when it did.
“Sorry, Kendra. But since it’s come up, I’m going to have to admit that I never did get you out of my system.”
“I wasn’t aware that I was in your system.”
“Neither was I, until you left.”
“I didn’t mean to leave.” She put her spoon down, dessert unimportant now. “I got caught up in something—”
“You got married,” he reminded her. “I’d say that was caught up in something.”
“I never meant for that to happen either. All of a sudden, I was so alone. Everyone was gone.” For a brief moment, a shadow passed across her face, laying bare the raw bewilderment, the terror, that must have followed her mother’s unexpected death, and suddenly Adam was sorry he’d opened the door onto what was obviously a painful episode in her life.
She swallowed hard. “And Greg was there. We’d gone together in college, he’d moved away, then moved back right before my mother’s death. He helped me out so much . . . dealt with things I couldn’t deal with. Took care of things for me. When he was offered a position in Washington and asked me to go with him, my first thought was, great.