Lethal Lover

“Listen, Reed, whatever you want with my cousin, I know you can’t force her to go anywhere without some kind of warrant or subpoena.”

“I’m not here to arrest her,” he admitted.

Well, at least he’d given her that much. But Tess wasn’t satisfied. All her instincts warned that Reed was concealing far more than he’d revealed.

“All right, so you don’t have a warrant, then why are you looking for her and why should she go anywhere with you?”

His eyes flashed his irritation at being questioned. “Because the U.S. government has requested the honor of her presence at a trial.”

“A trial,” she repeated numbly, feeling slightly light-headed. “What kind of trial? Whose trial? I—I don’t understand. What’s going on and what has my cousin got to do with it?”

“It’s a long story,” he said as he walked across the room to the balcony again. She followed him and watched as his eyes scanned the beach below.

Finally he returned his attention to Tess’s question. “You really don’t know anything about all this, do you? She hasn’t told you?”

“Told me what?” Tess demanded, her patience stretched almost to snapping. “What don’t I know?”

He stood for another long moment without answering, without even looking at her. Exasperated, she reached for his arm, but the minute her fingers made contact with the warm, tanned flesh her heart jumped, and she knew she’d made a mistake. Immediately she pulled her hand back, feeling inexplicably singed.

“Reed, please. Tell me what this is all about. If my cousin is in some kind of trouble, I have a right to know.” And if this is just a bad dream, Tess told herself, she wished to hell someone would wake her!

“Selena is in trouble,” he conceded finally, taking her elbow and ushering her inside the room with him. “She works for a man who’s been indicted on federal charges.”

Tess sat down woodenly on the edge of the bed. “What kind of charges?”

“Racketeering, money laundering and murder, just to name a few.”

Tess felt exactly as she had as a child the time she’d fallen from the monkey bars on the playground and had the wind knocked out of her. “I don’t believe it,” she gasped.

“Believe it,” he said and pulled the bow-shaped wicker chair around to face her before he sat down. “Selena worked as a bookkeeper for Edward Morrell. She was a key figure in his organization.”

Tess could only sit and stare at him, her mind whirling as she tried to make sense of something that made no sense at all.

“Look, I can see how hearing all of this has shocked you, and it’s obvious to me that you know nothing about your cousin’s involvement.” He rose and put the chair back in its place before he added, “I’d like to help you put it all together, but I haven’t got time to explain. And I’m not sure it’s wise to tell you any more than I already have. But I need to know where she is, Tess,” he said, coming back to the bed to stand over her. “I need to find her and get her out of Grand Cayman tonight.”

The unthinkable occurred to Tess in a flash of frightening insight and she rose quickly, oblivious to the precious space that she’d closed between them and the fact that she’d planted her hands on his chest. “Reed, are you trying to tell me that Selena might be in some kind of danger?”

He glanced down at her hands resting on his chest, before his eyes met hers again. “Just tell me where she is, Tess, if you know.”

His dark eyes grew even darker and suddenly every protective instinct went off in a series of screaming alarms inside Tess’s mind. She nearly stumbled, sidestepping away from him. “I won’t tell you anything until you tell me what this is all about.”

“Where is she, Tess?” he demanded, his voice hard-edged and impatient.

“I don’t know,” she insisted. “And even if I did, I wouldn’t tell you. Did you seriously imagine I’d blindly turn my cousin over to you without talking to her first?”

“I’d hoped you would be reasonable.”

“Reasonable or gullible?”

She watched a muscle clench at his jaw and for an uneasy moment she wondered if Selena might be running from him. “You always were too damn stubborn for your own good,” he muttered as he turned and headed for the door.

She was on his heels. “And just when did what’s good for me ever interest you, McKenna?”

His eyes blazed and Tess felt the fire of his anger, but she refused to be cowed, despite his seething temper and his obvious strength advantage—an advantage that by the looks of his lean, hard body was considerable.

“All right,” he relented finally, breaking their staring match. Tess felt a long-overdue twinge of satisfaction. “I guess you have a right to know the circumstances. But when I’ve finished telling you, your stay in Grand Cayman will be over. You’ll have to pack your bags and fly back to the States on the next available flight.”

She rankled at his direct order. “But—”

“No argument,” he said sharply. “From now on you do as I say, Tessa, as though your life depended on it.”

And from the grim expression on his face, Tess believed that it just might.

* * *

ONE FLOOR BELOW Tess Elliot’s room, a naked toddler sitting in a tub of warm water squealed with delight at the spray of water she raised every time she slapped a small, pink, plastic elephant and sent it bobbing. “Doggy, doggy, doggy,” she chanted and giggled and splashed.

The middle-aged woman bent over the tub and laughed and pulled her saturated cotton blouse away from her skin. “Whatever you say, Sweetie.”

“Doggy!” the child responded gleefully, her small pink mouth curled into a delighted grin that revealed four small, shining, front teeth—two on top, two on the bottom.

“Are you trying to drown the kid, Gertie?” a male voice teased from the bathroom door.

“You go on and mind your own business, Jake. Me and little Miss Crissy is having us a great time.”

Jake stuck his bald head in the doorway, and enjoyed the sight of his wife of forty-plus years sitting on the floor, seemingly oblivious to the puddle of water around her or the blouse that stuck to her like a second skin.

“Who’s giving who the bath?” he asked mischievously.

Gertie shook her head and rolled her eyes. “Listen to him, will you, Crissy? The man’s a certified comic, ain’t he?”

The little girl with the big blue eyes and honey gold ringlets tossed her head and giggled at a joke she couldn’t possibly understand. Gertie opened a towel and lifted Crissy out of the tub.

The sight of the child in Gertie’s arms caused Jake’s heart to constrict. The poor little thing had no idea she was being used as a pawn in a game where the rules were being made up as they went along.

“Gertie,” Jake said, his voice low as he edged over to the toilet and sat down on the lid, “do you think we did right by agreeing to do this?”

Gertie wrapped the plush white towel snugly around the child’s chubby middle and swept Crissy into her arms. “Of course we did the right thing. What’s the matter with you, old man?” When the child reached for her glasses, Gertie had to arch her neck to save them. “Besides, how could we have turned him down? After all he’s done for us, and never once asked for anything in return.”

Jake hung his head. “You’re right, hon. It’s just that—”

“It’s just nothing,” Gertie cut him off. “Reed McKenna asked us to take care of this little gal for a few days and that’s what we’re going to do.”

“You’re right, Gert,” Jake said as he stood up and followed her into the bedroom. “I just hope he knows what he’s doing. It don’t seem right for a child to be separated from her—”

Gertie interrupted him again. “Don’t say it,” she snapped, turning on him, “or else you’ll get her to crying all over again.”

Jake sighed and paced to the window to look out at the beach. “Reckon we could take her outside to play when she wakes up? The little thing is so pale. She needs some fresh air.” And so did Jake.