"Aunt Bryn?"

She started shaking when Brian's voice startled her from her state of numbness.

"Aunt Bryn, what's the matter?"

"Nothing, nothing," she lied. She started dragging bowls and cereal boxes from the cabinets, but her

movements were rough and jerky. "Brian, go get your brothers. Your clothes are laid out on the dresser.

Help Adam for me, will you? Then hurry on down. We're running late this morning." As the terror of actually hearing the voice began to fade, Bryn tried to convince herself that it had been a joke after all.

The fan who had appeared at her door was trying a scaretactic, that was all. She wasn't really in any danger. And she didn't have the pictures anymore. Lee had them. The caller would find that out, and that would be the end of it.

It had to be... it had to be... it had to be...

Somehow she managed to act normal. She hesitated when it was time to open the front door, but Keith bounded on past her and threw it open. A scream rose to her throat as she saw a man on the step again,

but it disappeared unvoiced as she realized that today the male on her porch was only Andrew. "Andrew! What are you doing here?" He grimaced, lowering his head, then meeting her eyes sheepishly. "I...uh...had a late date. I'm in a state of... uh...mild intoxication.But I recognized your neighborhood and, well, would you give a hitchhiker a

lift?''

Under normal circumstances she would have laughed. Andrew, the handsome, sexy, popular rock idol standing on her steps after a clandestine appointment like a delinquent child.

She didn't laugh. She was too glad to see him. He was flesh and blood and real, and his presence made the nightmare of the whispered voice fade away.

"Of course, Andrew.Hop in!" She pointed to the van.

"Want me to drive?" he queried.

Had he seen her hands shaking? "No, I'm used to the route," she told him. He laughed with the kids as she ushered them all into the vehicle. He began to talk about music, and Bryn slowly felt herself relax.

But something was troubling her. Andrew was in the back, next to Keith. She glanced at him in the

mirror. He didn't look like he had been out on a late date last night. He looked extremely well rested.Andfastidiously neat. There wasn't a wrinkle anywhere on his clothing....

Bryn issued a soft sigh. Andrew was always impeccably neat. He probably folded his clothes carefully no matter how intoxicated he was--and she was certain he would shower and shave, even if he had to remove his whiskers with a sharp rock. She sure as hell wasn't going to worry about his appearance, not when...

No! She didn't want to think about the phone call. It was a joke; it was all over. She discreetly started to tease Andrew about his wild night out, telling him that she was glad he had happened to be near her house, that next time he might not be so lucky. "Oh, I'm a survivor by nature!" he teased back, but something in his eyes was more serious than his tone implied. Bryn hadn't been at the Fulton House for more than an hour before she became fully convinced that Lee Condor was a direct descendant of the Marquis deSade .Over and over, over and over... Every muscle in her body ached. Muscles that she hadn't known she had--even as a dancer--ached. And Lee seemed exceptionally tense. His eyes, when he looked at her, seemed to burn through her; his hands on her were almost rough.

Once again he wanted to try the fall from another step up. She agreed, simply because he seemed so brooding that she hadn't the strength to argue with him. But she was frightened. She had never liked heights. She hated to fly; she hated tall buildings. It wasn't a neurosis; at least, she didn't think it was. Being high up just scared her. It made her feel uncomfortable. "If you can't do it, Miss Keller..." he began in exasperation, his hands on his hips.

"I can do it," she replied curtly.

And she did. But her heart thundered a thousand times in the brief seconds as she spun and fell, seconds

that seemed like an eternity. But his arms were there.Powerful and secure. Catching her smoothly, except for the sense of...

Tension.

He was always tense. Always radiating energy, always ready to spin and turn and come up behind you

with silent agility.

"Ready for a second try?"

"Ready."

She managed the feat a second time.And a third. And she was so frightened each time she took the fall

that she forgot to be frightened of the whisper that had threatened her that morning....

They did break for lunch. Bryn was too nervous to do more than pick at her yogurt. Like a stalked

animal, she kept an alert eye out for Lee. And each time she looked for him, she found him watching her.

He approached her as she threw away the half-eaten yogurt.

"Is that all you ever eat? No wonder you look like a scared rabbit today."

"I'm sorry if I resemble a rabbit," she said briefly. "What's wrong with you?" "Nothing is wrong with me!"

"Do you know, Bryn, the truth sometimes suffices where a lie is ridiculous."

"There is nothing wrong with me. I'm just a little tired." "You should get more sleep."

"Yes, I should. But don'tworry, I won't let my work slip." "I wasn't worried."

She glanced at him sharply, only to discover that he really wasn't worried. He wasn't even looking at her.

He was scanning the room, eyes keenly alert. She had the sudden impression that if she had felt like

something hunted, he definitely seemed like a stalking cat. It was all part of that new tension. He was watching, waiting...searching....

For what?

She was being ridiculous.

He was tense because he was always tense. He was always a hard taskmaster. And he seemed like a powerful cat on a stealthy prowl because he was...

Lee Condor.

She was a nervous wreck, and so she was reading ominous signals into everything she saw. She had done it that morning to Andrew, and she was trying to do it now to Lee.

She began to pray for the day to end.

They were all gone, the dancers, the cameramen, the workers--everyone. Only Lee and the group remained behind.

"I think the police should be called in," Mick stated flatly.

Lee lifted his hands in an absent gesture,then crossed them over his chest again. "And what am I going to say, Mick? I think my house has been broken into several nights in a row? There won't be any prints. This guy is good. I never heard anything. I'm going strictly on intuition. Of course it might have been while I was out."

"But if you report it--" Andrew suggested.

"No," Lee interrupted, shaking his head. "If I do that, I'll never know how Bryn is involved.If she is. The car might have just been some guy hoping for a date with a beautiful woman."

"But you don't believe that."

"No, I don'tPerry, it's your turn to watch her house tonight."

"No problem," Perry agreed.

"Yeah, but don't ask her for a ride in tomorrow morning. I think she was suspicious," Andrew warned.

"That's because you didn't have the sense to mess your clothes up!" Perry teased.

"Hold it!" Lee laughed. "Perry, just disappear into the trees when she gets ready to leave. I'll pick you up. That will solve that problem."

"What about your house, Lee?" Andrew asked. "I really think one of us should be with you."

"Thanks, Andrew, but no. If I'm going to catch a sneak thief, I'm going to have to be a better sneak than he is. That means being alone." "Take care," Andrew advised gruffly. "I mean, I like being a musician. Without you, we might have to start back at the bottom, and I've gotten quite fond of an adequate income, you know."

Lee chuckled. "Don't worry, Andrew. I'm pretty sure I know what I'm doing--so far, at least."

"I'm aware you're no fool, Lee. And that you know how to take care of yourself. Like I said--just take care."

"I will."

"Well," Andrew murmured lightly, "since it seems I'm off for the night, I'm going to go ahead and try to enjoy myself." He started for the door with the others behind him,then turned back. "I'll be by my phone, Lee, Perry, if you need me."

"So willI ," Mick added bluntly.

"Thanks," Lee told them. He shrugged. "Maybe I am crazy."

They all shrugged. Not one of them thought so.

The phone was ringing as she turned the key in the front door.

Bryn felt chills, and her ringers shook. She didn't want to answer it.

"Hurry, AuntBwyn !" Adam said, slurring the r in her name as he sometimes did. "The phone is ringing!"

"I know," she murmured. The door opened and swung inward. The boys rushed in ahead of her, the older ones tearing toward the phone together.

"Don't answer it!" she snapped sharply, but too late. Brian was already saying "Hello?"

A wave of cold swept over her as she watched her nephew, a feeling that she would fall...that she would faint....

"It's Barbara, Aunt Bryn.Something about a picture for the travel agency."

Relief was almost worse than the fear. Her voice crackled when she took the phone from Brian.

"Hi, Barb, what's up?"

"Nothing big, honey.I just need another print of the iguana by the cactus. Can you do me an eight by ten tonight?"

"Sure."

"Great. You can bring it to me tomorrow."

"Sure."

"You okay, Bryn?"

"Yeah, I'm fine.Just tired."

"Umm...even I have to admit that Condor was a devil today. Oh, well, I'll let you get going."