Silent Fall

anywhere near the lodge.
    "Where is she now?"
    "I have a good idea," he said. "Don’t worry; I’ll find her."
    "And you’ll kill her as planned. She can’t live past tomorrow. You understand that, don’t you?"
    He understood, all right. If he didn’t succeed, not only would he not get his money, he would probably end up dead himself. Kill or be killed. It was the way he’d lived his entire life. And murder... well, it was the one thing he was really good at.
    Erica Layton would die, but he wouldn’t be the one to pay for it. Sometimes life was sweet.
    * * *
    Dylan was tempted to linger in the shower. The hot spray eased the tension in his neck and shoulders, but he forced himself to turn off the water. He didn’t have time to waste. The trap was tightening around him, and he needed to find a way out fast. He wondered if this was how Joseph Ravino had felt when he’d realized Dylan was onto him, when he’d seen the house of lies he’d built begin to crumble. Which also begged the question, was that the purpose for this game -- payback?
    It would be Ravino’s style to use Erica, the very woman who’d betrayed him, to set up someone else. It would be poetic justice. And Erica could be bought --   there was no doubt about that. Or she could have been threatened or blackmailed. Erica certainly wouldn’t want to end up dead, the way Ravino’s wife had. With the senator’s connections, even from prison he could be calling the shots. Dylan just needed to figure out the next move before Ravino or Erica made it.
    After getting out of the shower, Dylan dried off with a thick terry-cloth towel and threw on a pair of jeans and a long-sleeved T-shirt. It felt good to get out of his suit and back into his normal clothes. His head felt lighter, too. The fuzziness from the drugs was finally wearing off. He was ready to attack the problem head-on.
    When he reentered the bedroom Catherine was standing in front of the easel, staring at a blank canvas, a paintbrush in her hand, yet she seemed in no hurry to actually use it. The midday sun streamed through the window, adding a shine to the red highlights in her blond hair, accentuating the curves of her body, her full breasts and the soft sway of her hips.
    He felt an unmistakable tingle of desire shoot down his spine that he immediately tried to quell, but his thoughts were already running amok. He wanted to touch her. He wanted to strip off her clothes and trace those curves with his hands and with his mouth. He wanted to see her blue eyes darken with need. He wanted to taste her lips. He wanted to unleash the passion that was brimming inside of her. He’d seen it in her eyes and heard it in her voice.
    Catherine was a bundle of intense emotions, and usually he avoided emotional women as if they had the plague, but there was something so intriguing about her that he was tempted to throw caution to the wind. It was a reckless, dangerous attraction that he had for her. He knew that, and he had to push it away. Catherine was far too complicated a woman to get involved with. He couldn’t afford to make this any more personal than it already was.
    So he counted to ten, took a couple of deep breaths, and tried to get a grip on himself.
    Catherine turned her head and caught him staring. Her eyes widened as she read his expression, and he couldn’t help wondering how much he was giving away -- probably too much. Not that it would take a rocket scientist to figure out what he was thinking, and he already knew Catherine was very perceptive.
    "What are you doing?" he asked quickly, hoping to distract her.
    "What? Oh." She looked down at the brush in her hand. "I thought I would try to paint, to force something out of my subconscious, but big surprise -- nothing happened." She set her brush down. "Your attorney didn’t call."
    "Well, I’m going to operate on the idea that no news is good news for the moment. I’m sure Mark will be in touch as soon as he knows something." Pulling his laptop out of its case, Dylan set it on the desk. Opening the lid, he hit the power button and waited for it to boot up. "I was thinking in the shower that if Joseph Ravino is behind this frame, he could have easily had one of his people get to Erica and in turn to me."
    "So you believe this is about revenge?"
    "It sure as hell feels like it. Ravino’s friends and family believe I helped send an innocent man to jail by