In Serena's Web by Kay Hooper Read Free Book Online

past.
    “I never knew,” Brian murmured.
    Serena’s gaze was far away. “He doesn’t talk about it. His love for Mother was very special. She’d been married before, very young, and her husband had died after only a few years. She and Daddy met a couple of years later. He loved her from the first. She was small and delicate, with the sweetest temper of anyone in the world. She was also wealthy—in her own right as well as by marriage. Daddy was working, making a name for himself, but not much money. It was another year before he got up the nerve to propose.”
    She laughed suddenly. “Can you imagine? Daddy nervous?”
    “It does seem out of character.” Brian smiled, but then, as the implications of what she’d toldhim sank in, he frowned. “Rena, even though he’s no longer so much of a target—at least I assume he isn’t—didn’t Stuart worry about your touring Europe alone?”
    Serena seemed lost in the past again. “Of course he worried. Still does. But neither one of us could stand being fenced in for long. I wanted to see Europe; he understood that. He’d made a point to keep me out of the public eye. Since I’m not a newsworthy person, I’m as safe as anyone is in these troubled times.”
    “Then why,” Brian said evenly, “did Stuart insist on having someone accompany you home from England?”
    Her smile died, and Serena’s gaze dropped to the fingers still toying with her glass. After a long moment she said softly, “That project he’s doing for you, Brian—if it’s successful, it could change the way computers are designed and built. Yes?”
    “Yes.” He was beginning to understand, and that icy finger traced his spine again.
    “Well, I’m sure your security is excellent; otherwise Daddy would have told you. But there are a lot of companies, a lot of big names, scramblingto get on top in the computer industry. The next big thing. And a man of Daddy’s reputation working for an innovative company like yours—well, it could start people thinking.”
    “Rena.” He stared at her, waited until she met his gaze. “What
aren’t
you telling me?”
    Obviously choosing her words carefully, Serena said, “Daddy isn’t worried about my physical safety, Brian. I mean, hiring bodyguards would have been ridiculous, aside from defeating the purpose by calling attention to me. What was needed was just a leisurely, unplanned trip with a very loose itinerary. And he wanted me to have company, to be on the safe side—”
    “Serena.”
    She sighed. “He got a few calls, Brian, that’s all. A man’s voice. The caller didn’t say anything except the name of my hotel in Paris. Daddy alerted me; I changed hotels. The next day he got another call; my new hotel was named.”
    “My God, Serena—”
    Her hand turned beneath his to clasp it firmly. “Brian, Daddy’s lived with this kind of thing before. So have I. That caller just wanted him toknow that I could be found if necessary. Daddy’s gotten a few very lucrative offers in the last months; he thinks one of those who has made an offer is behind it. Someone wants him, and badly. And that someone is warning him to think carefully before he refuses the next offer.”
    Brian was no stranger to the concept of industrial spies, since he’d dealt with one or two in the ten years of his company’s existence, but this kind of quiet, dangerous maneuvering was beyond his experience. “You should be somewhere safe,” he muttered, his fingers tightening around hers.
    “I am somewhere safe.” She smiled at him. “I’m moving from place to place on the map, quietly and with no fanfare. In a rented car on anonymous highways and scenic roads off the beaten path. Never in any one place long enough to leave a trail. And, what’s more important, I’m giving Daddy and his contacts time to follow
their
trail. When we reach California, Daddy will know who wants him so badly, and why. Once he knows, he’ll be able to deal with it.”
    He didn’t,