Heather Graham Bundle: The Island / Ghost Walk / Killing Kelly / The Vision

The teams readjusted. Beth took the serve.

It was wicked.

From the rear corner, he barely returned it. Ben caught the ball, and Roger, bless him, attempted a slam. Amazingly, Beth caught it low, setting it up for her brother, who went in for the kill.

“Point,” Beth said calmly, reclaiming the ball.

The game was neck and neck from then on. Sandy was the weakest link, but she made up for it with her good humor and refusal to give up.

Beth was a superb player, in excellent physical condition. She wasn’t just shapely, she was sleek. Perfectly toned. She played not so much to win as simply to play hard. There was a vibrance about her, a love of life, of activity, a passion that seemed to come through in everything she did and said, in the way her eyes seemed to burn like a crystal fire when they met his across the net. She clearly loved a challenge.

He had the feeling she would always meet one headon.

At last Beth’s team took the final point, and they all collapsed, laughing.

“What’s up next?” Hank asked, lying flat on the sand in exhaustion.

Lee was up and staring at Keith. “Fishing?” he suggested.

“Yeah, fishing,” Keith replied.

They were fishing, all right.

“Not me, boys. I’m for lazing in the sun now,” Amanda said, rolling sinuously to her feet.

Ben nodded toward Lee’s yacht. “You asking us out on that?”

“Would you like to see her?” Lee offered.

Keith looked at Lee and knew just what he was thinking. Keep the current denizens of the island with them, occupied. Keep an eye on them. Know what they’re up to at all times.

Keep them fishing, not diving.

He stayed silent. In the end, there wasn’t anything they could do about people diving these waters. Still, if discoveries here had been easy…well, they wouldn’t be here now.

“You bet,” Ben said enthusiastically. “Looks as if she’s got every new electronic device known to man.”

“I like my toys,” Lee said with a shrug.

“I’m with you,” Ben said.

“Hell, I’d like to see her, too,” Hank said, grinning.

“Me, too,” Gerald agreed.

“Little boys, little toys, big boys, big toys,” Amanda teased.

“Me, I’d like to see the hammock again,” Roger said.

“I think Sandy and I are going to take a walk, explore…” Brad said. “But thanks for the offer.”

“Beth?” Lee inquired. “Girls?”

“I’d love to see the boat,” Amber said.

“Yacht,” Beth murmured beneath her breath.

“But actually,” Amber admitted a little sheepishly, “I hate fishing.”

“That’s cool,” Lee told her.

“Beth?”

“I’ll stay with the girls,” she said. “But I do appreciate the offer.”

“You don’t care if I go?” Ben asked his sister.

“Not at all!”

But she did. She cared like hell.

“Maybe I will join you men,” Amanda said with something like a purr. “The sun is actually much better on the water. And I can always escape below if all the testosterone proves to be a bit too much. I’ll just get my things.” She started to walk away, then turned back. “I am not, however, cleaning any fish.”

Keith watched her sashay toward her tent.

When he turned to study Beth again, she was studying him. The way she was looking at him caused a little pang to creep into his heart.

She was so suspicious of him.

Well, she had every right to be.

But this was a game he played often. And he knew how to play it.

And he knew damn well that he couldn’t let her get in his way.

Her eyes swept over him. Cool. Still assessing him.

Then she turned.

He had been dismissed.

BETH WAS DEFINITELY ANGRY with Ben, although she wasn’t sure he knew it. And she wasn’t about to lash out at him in public—certainly not with the public that was surrounding them.

He was so big about protecting his family, but show the guy a new yacht with all kinds of cool toys, and he was gone in a flash.

To be fair, he thought she was being paranoid and there was nothing to protect his family from. Maybe she couldn’t blame him. There had been nothing in the inland clearing, and last night she had awakened the entire island by screaming because she had run into him.

At this point she wasn’t even sure herself just what she had seen. Maybe it had been a conch shell, and what she had imagined, in a stomach-churning moment, to be human tissue only sea grass and debris.