Gift of Gold

the contract, in which case, I myself will do the job this time. We like satisfied customers.”
    Kincaid had given that consideration. “I believe I’ll have you finish the contract, but this time we’ll do it my way. I want to give the instructions. I will be actively involved and I will be in charge in the field. Don’t worry, I don’t need to see your face. You’ll be working at night and out-of-doors. You can wear a ski mask or something.”
    There had been a long pause on the other end of the line. “It’ll cost you a lot more to do it that way.”
    “Never mind the cost. Can you guarantee the job this time?”
    “You got it.” The phone was replaced on the other end of the line.
    Kincaid reran the conversation several times in his head and then reran his own blossoming plans. After a moment he got up and went to the wall to take down a handsome rapier. Dropping into fencer’s crouch, he made a few quick feints before sliding skillfully into a long, deadly thrust that buried the blade in the stuffed dummy.
    He was looking forward to the night he would be spending at the house. It was a long time since he’d had an excuse to do his own dirty work. But an old lust that he’d kept under control for a long time was stirring deep within him.
    There had been little problem satisfying his superficial sexual needs in the past few years. Women were drawn to power and money the way moths were drawn to flames. But he’d been forced to suppress this other need, obliged to dampen and conceal it in the darkest part of himself.
    The prospect of personal involvement in violence was enough to draw aside the veil that had covered this other lust for far too long. He discovered that the dark, thrilling passion was still there within him, as strong as it had ever been. Now that he had awakened it once more, it would not be hidden again until it had been satisfied.
    Kincaid thrust the rapier into the helpless dummy again and felt the sensual tension that pulsed in his groin.

 
    Chapter Sixteen
     
    The sea appeared deceptively calm from the windows of Caitlin Evanger’s house. Verity stood in the bedroom she had been assigned, the same one she’d had last time, and gazed down at the cliffs. She noticed that from this angle she could see the broken safety fence where it sagged precariously at the edge. Caitlin really ought to get that fixed.
    Verity wondered what the view was like from Jonas’s window and smiled to herself as she recalled the annoyance in his eyes when he discovered he’d been given a separate bedroom.
    Moving into Verity’s Sequence Springs cottage had wrought an interesting change in the man. Jonas had become fiercely territorial in the past few days.
    Verity was still trying to decide how to adjust to this new, possessive side of her dishwasher-waitperson-handyman. She was also trying to decide how to deal with her reaction to having a lover under her roof. Her emotions were still jumbled in some ways, but diamond bright in others. She spent a lot of time warning herself that the situation was temporary at best and that she shouldn’t allow herself to invest too much emotion in the man or the situation.
    Jonas had a talent for reading the past but he obviously preferred to ignore his own future.
    But Jonas showed no signs of wanting to leave Sequence Springs yet, and the more settled in he got, the more Verity began to think in terms of permanence. She was wondering what would happen if Jonas ever found another woman with whom he could “anchor” himself, when the door opened almost silently behind her. Verity spun around at the faint creak and saw who stood there.
    “Oh, hello, Tavi. You took me by surprise.” Verity summoned up a bright smile. She got no response. “I was just admiring the view.”
    Tavi looked at her with unhappy, anxious eyes. “I want to talk to you.”
    “Of course. Have a seat.” Verity indicated a black leather chair.
    Tavi ignored it. Her hands twisted together as she spoke. “What’s going to happen here is wrong, but I don’t know how to stop it. I have done a great deal of thinking about it and I have come to the conclusion that only you can do something about it. You’re the key, just as Caitlin says. That’s why I want to talk to you.”
    Verity stared at her. “I don’t understand what you’re talking about, Tavi. Does this have something to do with Caitlin’s decision to sell
Bloodlust?
”
    “It has everything to do with it,” Tavi