"Just--just name your price. If I've got the money or I can borrow it, it's yours. Al you have to do is admit I didn't rape you and hand the baby over to me once it's born."
She sniffed. "Wil I be able to see you through the pregnancy?"
He couldn't stand the thought of her in his life. But if she'd admit he didn't rape her, it'd be worth it. Wouldn't it?
"Maybe."
"And after the baby comes?"
Again, he wanted to say no. But would that be fair to his child? To her? Did he have to worry about what would be fair to a person like that?
God, this was so far from anything he'd ever dreamed he'd have to face. "Er...maybe. Probably. I guess," he said, and stared out at Ava's houseboat as he awaited her response. This was a good offer. There wasn't any more he could do. She had to accept it, didn't she?
"So we could make something positive out of all this negativity?
There'd be a chance for you and me?"
They were back to this? "Come off it, Kalyna. There is no you and me. There never has been."
Her tears grew into full-fledged sobs. "You're going to prison if it's the last thing I do!" she screamed, and the line went dead.
Luke was shaking when he turned off his phone. He'd never felt such rage, especially against a woman. How did she know so much about him? I know you love egg burritos from Del Taco. I know you always buy gas at the Chevron station near the base. I know you're a great catcher because I've watched you behind the plate.
She'd been following him. That pretty much constituted the definition of stalking, didn't it? How was that for a switch? A female stalker. He'd never thought it could happen, never once glanced over his shoulder. He'd "bumped" into Kalyna often enough that he should've wondered, he supposed, but he hadn't thought twice about it. And here he'd been feeling guilty for having sex with her, had even been tempted to believe his father was right about all women taking sex more seriously than men, which meant he sort of deserved what he was getting for crossing that line. But she wasn't some tragic figure he'd mistakenly hurt. She was crazy.
And now she was even more determined to destroy him.
Pushing his door open, he got out. He wasn't sure what Ava could do about what'd just happened, but he wanted to tell her about it while it was fresh in his mind.
A moment later, he was glad he'd acted on that impulse because Kalyna called back.
Chapter 19
Ava was at her computer in the dining room, checking e-mail, when Luke appeared out of nowhere. She'd heard a soft knock above the music she had playing, but it was almost midnight, so she thought she must've imagined it. Then the door swung open before she could get out of her seat.
"What's going--" she started, but he pressed a finger to his lips, indicating silence, and beckoned her toward the phone he had pressed to his ear.
"Kalyna?" she mouthed.
He nodded.
She could understand why he'd come back, but that didn't make her any more comfortable about the fact that she wasn't wearing any clothes except his sweatshirt and a pair of thong panties she'd bought because they made her feel sexy. She almost didn't get up, but the intensity on Luke's face overruled more practical considerations, and she decided it didn't matter. The sweatshirt covered her to midthigh. And even if it hadn't, he'd probably seen a lot of women in their underwear.
When she met him in the middle of the room, he didn't seem to notice her state of undress. He was too engrossed in his conversation. Turning the phone slightly, he leaned close so she could hear.
"I'm just saying that's a big part of your case, and now it's gone. You caused your own injuries," he said.
Obviously, they were engaged in a heated argument.
"Who told you that?" came the response. The voice sounded a bit tinny and edged with panic, but it was Kalyna, all right.
"Someone I know spoke to your mother."
"Ava Bixby? You think I'm not aware of that?"
Luke pulled Ava onto the couch with him; sitting made it easier to share the phone. "Your own mother won't support you in this, Kalyna.
That's the point I'm trying to make."
"My mother won't support me in anything. She never has. And I don't care. What I want to find out is how you know Ava."
"She called me."
"Have you met? Have you been together?
"What difference does that make?"
"It explains a lot. You've been seeing her, haven't you! That's why she dumped me."
Uneasy with that accusation, Ava bit her lip.
"She dumped you because she knows you're lying," he said. "She's working for me now."
"What?" Kalyna cried. "You're not a victim!"
"I'm more of a victim than you are."
"That's bullshit! She just wants to jump your bones, like every other woman you meet."
Ava wished she could deny it, if only to herself, but she felt a little conspicuous having donned Luke's sweatshirt--and nothing else.
"Go to Ogitani and tell her to drop the charges," he said.
"It's too late for that."
"Then why'd you call back?"
"Because I think it's only fair to warn you."
"About what?"
"Now that I'm carrying your baby, I won't take kindly to being cheated on. You'd better not be seeing anyone else."
Ava and Luke exchanged glances. The baby remark stunned Ava, but Luke didn't make any reference to it. "I can see anyone I want, and there's nothing you can do to stop me."
"Wanna bet?" she challenged.
"What are you talking about, Kalyna?"
"I'l tell you what I'm talking about. If you so much as look at another woman, I'l kil her."
Luke didn't respond right away. If Ava had her guess, he was at a loss for words. "I hope you don't mean that literally," he finally said.
"Oh, I mean it. I know how to do it, too."
Ava had heard enough. If she'd had any remaining doubt that Kalyna had lied from the outset, it was gone now. "Kalyna, stop threatening people, or you'l end up in serious trouble yourself," she said into the phone.
This met with shocked silence. Then there was a click and Kalyna was gone.
Waiting for the adrenaline pumping through her system to abate, Ava shifted to the opposite end of the couch.
Luke rocked back and stared at her. "Do you think she was serious?"
A chil ing sense of foreboding told Ava that she was. Kalyna was unconcerned about the pain she inflicted on others, a liar--probably pathological--completely narcissistic. "Maybe."
"But people get upset and say stuff like that al the time." He didn't want to believe it. He hadn't come up against anything like this before.