Chapter One

Kevin McLeod left the McLeod Inc. building at nine-thirty p.m. He was the last one out of the office. After a ritual nod to the security guard in the building lobby, he was on the street, his head tucked down against the cold wind. A long black overcoat covered everything but his head, and that he gave to the elements as he walked briskly toward an underground establishment—a private club tucked between high-rises. He rapidly took the stairs down into the basement cavern. The first fumes of cigarette smoke almost made him choke before he got used to the aroma; then it moved him into the eroticism of the steamy room. A piece of him came home here. The smell of leather was second to the smoke, next the perfume of expensive liquor. His eyes adjusted to the dimness, but they never bothered to focus completely. The blur of dark color before his eyes was the atmosphere. And the atmosphere belonged to the city at night, when the only illumination is the moon in its waning phases, and the few stars that penetrate through the city smog, and the unnatural lamplight that gives the air its odd hue. The only illumination in the private club was from pale burning gaslights against the walls.

“She’s here,” Marion, the hostess at the door, informed him.

“I know,” he said, giving her just half his smile.

He didn’t remove his overcoat, but let it sway about him as he moved from the entrance into the depths of the crowded room. His eyes darted purposefully, but revealed no emotion. Emotions were rare, not worn on his sleeve, never easily surfaced, but muted and disguised as cold—a dark kind of cold that raised chills. Close-cropped, his hair was an average brown but neatly combed. His face a persuasive one with defined cheeks bones and a mouth with lips that moved so beautifully one had to catch ones-self to keep from staring at them as he spoke. His manner was on the edge, with sharpness to the point of intimidation, and with an attractiveness to make women stare and then melt away without approaching. Not many people were comfortable in his presence. Even if he didn’t fully understand his power over people, he used it to keep them at a distance. No one ever questioned that distance, except Mackenzie Durrant, his lover.

When he saw her, he was inclined to smile, but he kept the smile to himself. He was thinking of the afternoon, just a few hours before when her eyes had flared wit