But she noticed that he was unusually quiet and pensive as they drove through town on their way to his mystery destination.

They wound up sitting at the curb near the rear parking lots of County Medical Center for a good twenty minutes or more. With Rafe so quiet she found herself thinking about Will again. Why had he disappeared from her party like that? Right when that awful phone call had come through. She could have used a little comfort from him then.

She wished she could find him and talk to him but she hadn't seen him since the party. Christmas break had a lot to do with that. The students were gone and campus routine was on hold until the second week in January. The few times she'd been back to her office she'd checked the old elm tree but he'd been nowhere in sight.

And she couldn't call him because he had no phone…

Phone… she wondered if there was any connection between his aversion to phones and the call at the party. But how could there be?

The only way to find out would be to ask him, and that would have to wait until she saw him again. Right now she was chilly and bored.

"What are we waiting for?" she asked Rafe for the fourth time.

"A face. The face we will be targeting. Just watch that nine-twelve over there."

"What's a nine-twelve?"

"A car. A Porsche. That little black one, third from the right in the lot over there."

Lisl spotted the car he meant. A sleek, sporty-looking two-seater. It looked built for speed.

"That's the doctor's parking lot."

"Yes. I know."

Lisl was just beginning to get an inkling of why they might be here when she saw him. A tall, dark-haired man in brushed wool slacks and a camel hair overcoat.

"Oh, God! It's Brian!"

"Yes. Dr. Brian Callahan. Your ex-husband. Very good-looking. I compliment you on your taste. Reminds me a little of Mel Gibson. I suspect he tries to emphasize the resemblance."

Lisl felt something akin to panic gripping her throat.

"Get me out of here."

"Why? Does he frighten you?"

"No. I just don't want to have anything to do with him."

"Why not?"

Lisl didn't answer. How could she? She wasn't sure herself. She hadn't seen Brian for years, and hadn't thought of him much at all since she'd met Rafe. But seeing him now brought back that awful, searing moment outside the attorney's office. The look on his face, the contempt in his voice, the words… I never loved you…

And with the memory came the pain.

She couldn't face him again, couldn't bear to have those hard, cold eyes pierce her again. She had come so far since that day. She couldn't risk letting him drag her down again. And he could do it. She knew he could look at her with that face and make her feel like nothing. Lisl never wanted to feel like nothing again.

Yes. She was afraid of Brian. He had never struck her, never harmed her physically. She almost wished he had. That would have been easier to deal with than the punishment he had meted out to her at the end of their marriage.

"Why not?" Rafe repeated.

"He's simply not worth the time," Lisl said.

"Oh, but he is. You helped put him where he is. You worked to pay the rent, you cooked his meals, you made it possible for him to get through medical school while he was sticking it to anything in a skirt."

"Drop it, Rafe. It's yesterday's news."

"And then when he was ready for his residency and could start making some money on his own, he dumped you."

"Enough."

"Look at him, Lisl. Tall, handsome, prosperous—only a couple of years into private practice and already he's driving an expensive sports car, wearing Armani clothes. And he owes much of it to you."

"I don't want anything from him!"

"Yes, you do." Rafe's eyes were fierce. "You want to be free of him."

"I am free of him."

"Legally, yes. But are you?"

Lisl heard/Brian's car start, saw him back out of his space, then race to the -lot exit. When the gate rose to let him out, he roared away with squealing, smoking tires.

"Let's follow Dr. Callahan, shall we?"

Lisl said nothing. She felt cold and sick as she sat with her arms folded across her chest while Rafe followed Brian through town.

"Dr. Callahan has a heavy foot," Rafe said.

Lisl remembered Brian's love of fast driving. A trip across town with him was an invitation to whiplash.

"You're not exactly a turtle yourself."

"Just trying to keep up with the good doctor."

They followed him through the black section at the southern end of town—"Downtown Browntown" as the students called it—and then into a development of luxury custom homes. The sign at the entrance read Rolling Oaks.

"What on earth is a Rolling Oak?" Rafe said.

Brian's car zipped into a short asphalt driveway and screeched to a halt before a two-car garage attached to a new two-story colonial. The garage door opened automatically and he eased his car inside.

"Nice house," Rafe said. "A 'starter home,' if you plan to be wealthy. Could have been yours."

"I don't want anything of his. I told you that."

"He's got a custom home, you've got a garden apartment."

Lisl realized she was angry—very angry. But somehow admitting that would allow Brian another victory. So she said nothing.

Rafe looked at her a long time, then said, "Doesn't seem fair, does it?"

"Life isn't fair, Rafe. If you expect fairness from life you'll go crazy long before you die."

"Excellent!" he said. "Couldn't have said it better myself. Fairness is a human construct. Life doesn't supply it—we do. That's why I brought you here. Now that we know where Dr. Brian Callahan lives, we are going to create a little fairness in his neck of the woods."

Rafe's smile frightened Lisl as he chirped the tires and roared past Brian's closing garage door.

They had a light dinner, and Rafe asked her to stay over. They had just removed the last of their clothing when Rafe pulled a black leather belt out of the drawer and handed it to her.

"What's this for?" Lisl asked.

She uncoiled it in her hands. It was long, close to four feet in length, and two inches wide.

"I want you to use it on me." -,.:

Lisl felt a sudden tightening inside.

"What do you mean, 'use it'?"

"I want you to hit me with it."

Her stomach turned. "This is sick."

"What's sick?"

"Look, I love you, Rafe, but I can't get with this masochism thing of yours."

His eyes suddenly blazed.

"My masochism thing? Lisl, you are the masochist! You've let people put you down, grind you down, chain you down until you've come to accept it as your state of being, your lot in life. Day-to-day life is a masochistic event for you, Lisl. You should be on top of the world yet you're content to live under its heel!"

"I don't want to hurt anyone, Rafe."

He stepped up and gently slipped his arms around her.

"I know you don't, Lisl. That's because you're a good person. But there's so much anger in you it's frightening. You seethe with it."

She knew he was right. She'd never been aware of her anger before. But she could not deny its existence now. She had discovered it since meeting Rafe—a boiling rage deep down inside her. And with each passing week she could feel it bubbling closer to the surface.

"I can't help that."

"Oh, but you can. And you will. You've got to let that anger go before you can be the new Lisl."

"I don't know if I want to be the new Lisl."

"Do you like the old Lisl?"

"No." God, no!

"Then don't be afraid to change."

His words were so soft, so soothing, the touch of his bare skin against hers was so warm. She floated on the sound of his voice.

"That's why I've led you through these little faceless crimes. They're symbolic. They let you bleed off the anger in tiny, harmless doses, and that brings you closer to the new Lisl. The same is true with the belt."