The Enemy's Daughter

“In here,” she said quickly and showed him to the study to the left of the entrance hall. Paneled in dark, rich wood and furnished with man-size furniture that always reminded her of her father, it was one of her favorite rooms in the house. “Take as long as you need.”

She slid the pocket doors shut and never saw the smile that broke across Steve’s face as he turned toward the desk. All right! He was in!

Quickly settling into the big leather chair behind the desk, he reached for the phone. “Hi, Mom. Lise said you needed to talk to me about Dad,” he said, continuing the charade in case someone picked up an extension in another part of the house. “How is he?”

Belinda, as quick on her feet as he, said regretfully, “Not well, dear. Your father’s caught some kind of Turkish virus that the doctors here don’t seem to know anything about. I was hoping maybe you might be able to find out something about it there in Australia, since it’s a different country and everything. Your uncle Wally thought maybe you might try the Internet. Do you know how to do that?”

Searching through the desk drawers as he talked to her, Steve didn’t pretend to misunderstand her. The father Belinda spoke of wasn’t his, but Lise’s. Apparently, Simon was in Turkey, and no one knew why or what kind of trouble he was going to stir up. Uncle Wally—Jonah—was hoping that Steve might find some damning information in the Pear Tree’s computer files.

“I don’t know a lot about the Internet, Mom, or Lise’s computer. I’ve never used it before, but she probably won’t mind. Give me a moment to figure out how it works, and we’ll see what we can come up with.” Knowing that Belinda would understand that he was telling her this was his first opportunity to get in the study, he switched on the computer and quickly began searching the files.

“Damn!”

At his soft curse, Belinda said, “What is it? Bad news?”

“No,” he sighed in disgust. From what he could see, there wasn’t a single file that belonged to Simon. They all appeared to be for the station, though appearances could be deceptive. He’d have to go through every one of them to make sure their contents corresponded with their file names. “I just don’t see anything that would help Dad. Sometimes these things are hard to find, though. I’ll have to do some more checking.”

“I knew you would find a way to help, son,” she said, sighing in relief. “I’ve just been so worried about your father. He’s had quite a fever, and sometimes he feels like the walls are closing in on him. It’s a difficult thing to watch.”

So the SPEAR operatives were closing in on Simon, and he was feeling the heat, Steve thought with a grin. Good. It was no more than the bastard deserved. That wasn’t, however, something he could chance saying aloud. “You know I’ll do whatever I can, Mom, but I don’t know how long it’ll take. We’ve got a roundup starting at the beginning of next week, and everyone’ll be gone for two or three weeks. I’ll try to find something before then, but I can’t make any promises.”

It went without saying that he would try to slip back to the house to search it if he got the chance, and Belinda knew that. “I know you’re busy, honey,” she said. “Don’t jeopardize your job.”

Or your life.

Steve heard the message loud and clear and grinned. “You know me, Mom. I always play it safe.”

When she only snorted, he almost laughed aloud. They both knew nothing could have been further from the truth.

Hesitating outside the closed study doors, Lise told herself she wasn’t eavesdropping when she heard the deep, quiet murmur of Steve’s voice. After all, how could she be? She couldn’t understand a word he was saying. Not that she was trying to, she quickly assured herself. She was just staying close by in case his mother gave him bad news.

And what if she does? Then what are you going to do? a voice in her head demanded. Rush in and comfort the poor man?

No! Mortified at the thought, she hurried out the front door to the porch and sent up a silent prayer of thanks that he hadn’t caught her lingering in the front hall like a starry-eyed teenager waiting to catch a glimpse of the new boy in town. God knows what he would have thought.

Heat climbing in her cheeks, she sternly ordered herself to find something, anything, to do so she’d stop thinking about the man. She didn’t have to look far—only to the flower boxes that lined the front porch. The wilting plants—not even on a good day could she call them flowers—desperately needed a drink of water. Relieved, she grabbed the hose and went to work giving each plant a thorough soaking.

Later, she couldn’t have said what made her glance into the study window. She certainly hadn’t intended to. It was just…there. One second she was frowning at the most pathetic pansies she’d ever seen in her life, and the next, she was looking, straight into the window next to her father’s desk. And there was Steve, at the computer, frowning at the screen as his fingers flew over the keyboard.

Surprised, she stood there for what seemed like an eternity, a frown wrinkling her brow as she watched him talk to his mother on the phone. His back was half turned to her—he had no idea that she’d seen him—and before he could turn and find her at the window, she hurriedly made her way to the other end of the porch. And all the while, she couldn’t help but wonder what the devil he was doing.

It wasn’t that she minded him using the computer, she told herself with a frown. She’d just thought he was the type to ask first. Not only was it common courtesy, but computers were expensive and easily screwed up. She had all the station books on hers, and if he pushed the wrong keys, God knew how long it would take her to straighten things out.

Just thinking about that twisted her stomach in knots. She would, she promised herself, definitely talk to him about overstepping his bounds—but only after she was sure his father was okay. After all, she wasn’t so hard-hearted that she would hit him with such a minor annoyance when his father might be seriously ill.

Her thoughts on what was going on inside her study, she didn’t notice that she’d saturated her plants until water began overflowing the flower boxes. Muttering a curse, she hurried to the hydrant and had just turned it off when she heard the front door open and Steve stepped out on the porch. She took one look at the grim set of his face and felt her heart sink.