Deep Waters

humor. "Hayden certainly said it a few times."
    "Your father may have been guilty of poor judgment, but if you ask me, that still doesn't absolve this Garrick Keyworth. Not by a long shot."
    "No, it doesn't. To make a long story short, I arrived on Nihili a couple of days after Dad had gone down. It was Hayden who met me at the airstrip. For reasons of his own, reasons I never fully understood, he accepted me as his personal responsibility. He finished the task of raising me. Helped me start my busi ness. Taught me how to be a man. I owe him more than I can ever repay."
    Charity swallowed to keep herself from bursting into tears. "I see. What about the man who sabotaged your father's plane?"
    "It took me a long time to learn his identity. After I found out who he was, I spent years devising a way to bring down his empire. And then Hayden died."
    "And that changed things?"
    "Everything. I looked at Keyworth's reflection in a different light after I said good-bye to Hayden. One of the things I hadn't seen before was that Keyworth has paid a price for his crime. He knows that every thing he has today is founded on that one act of destruction. It's eating at his soul. It's what drives him, and it will ultimately destroy him. It's already cost him more than he even knows. I decided to leave him to the prison he's built for himself."
    Charity exhaled deeply. "That's a very philosophical way of looking at it. Downright metaphysical, in fact. No offense, but I find it a little hard to believe that you just walked away from that situation and left Keyworth to the great wheel of cosmic justice."
    Elias's dark brows rose. "Very perceptive of you. You're right. I wasn't exactly a saint about the whole thing. I went to see Keyworth before I came here. Showed him some documents that proved beyond a doubt that I had the contacts and connections to crip ple, possibly even destroy, his operations in the Pacific. Then I walked away."
    Charity was speechless for a few seconds. "And left him to live with the knowledge that you had had him in your power and let him go?"
    "I decided I owed myself that much, at least."
    She drew a deep breath. "Very subtle. Perhaps too subtle. Keyworth may think you backed off simply because you were too weak to go through with your plans. Or because you lost your nerve."
    "I doubt it," Elias said quietly. "I studied him for a long time before I made my move. I know him well."
    "You think that the knowledge that he was vulnerable to you will add to the pressure that's building in side him?"
    "Perhaps." Elias made a small, dismissing movement with his hand. "Perhaps not. It doesn't matter. Keyworth no longer concerns me."
    "Yet you spent years plotting against him?"
    "It takes time to set up the kind of vengeance I planned."
    Charity held her breeze-tossed hair out of her eyes. "Did you have the confrontation with Keyworth shortly before you moved here?"
    "Yes."
    "Whew. You've been through a lot during the past couple of months, haven't you? The death of your friend Hayden, the showdown with Keyworth, a major career shift, and a move to a new location."
    He glanced at her with a curious expression. "What's that supposed to mean?"
    "Just that you'd score pretty high right now if you were to take one of those psych tests that measures recent stressful events in your life."
    "I don't plan to take any psych tests."
    "No, I don't suppose you do." For some reason the thought of Elias sitting down to a battery of psycho logical tests almost made her smile. "You'll probably just gaze into a nice, clear pool of water instead."
    "It works for me."
    She gave him a sidelong look. "Mind if I ask you a question?"
    He appeared to brace himself. "No."
    "Why did you tell me ail this? On the first day we met I got the distinct impression that you were the strong, silent type."
    He smiled. "Still suspicious of me?"
    "I prefer to think of it as cautious. Suspicious has paranoid connotations, and I don't think I'm that far over the edge."
    "All right. Cautious. The answer to your question is that I gave you a piece of my privacy as a gift because I want something from you in exchange."
    "Damn it, I knew it." And he had known just how to get past her defenses, she thought furiously.
    She was not hurt or even disappointed, she told herself. She had known there would be a catch to this little evening stroll. Elias wasn't the kind of man who would share intimate secrets with anyone unless he had an ulterior motive.
    "Let's hear