Into the Deep

He slid the folded paper between his fingers. That had been the plan for the past few months, anyway. The note changed everything. Upped the ante to a price he couldn’t afford to pay.

A movement caught his eye, a dark place in the shadows at the side of Building C. He stiffened, his attention pricked to high alert. Was that shadowy form a person? He stared at the spot, straining his eyes to differentiate between shades of black and blacker in the foliage. Nothing moved.

His tense muscles started to relax, but in the next instant, he jerked upright. The bushes rustled, and this time he glimpsed the figure of a man. Just for a second, and then the person was gone, moving quickly away from Building C. He looked as though he’d just come from around the back of that first condo, the one with the light in the window. Thoughts whirled in Ben’s brain. Why would someone sneak through the bushes instead of walking out in the open? Kids on vacation, maybe, playing hide-and-seek? No, the figure had been too tall to be a child. A maintenance man, maybe?

At nine o’clock at night? No way.

Ben’s mouth went dry. Nikki was in that building, probably in that very condo on the end. Ben couldn’t believe her presence in Key West was a coincidence any more than he believed the man slinking away from her building was just taking a nighttime stroll through the bushes. So either the man had been visiting Nikki openly, or he’d been there for a more sinister reason.

His feet sprang into motion before he fully decided to act. He ducked under the tree branches and sprinted toward Building C. In the breezeway, his brain barely had time to register the number 1 on the door before his fist assaulted the wood. He beat the door in tempo with his pounding heart.

If anything had happened to Nikki, he’d never forgive himself.

THREE

Nikki had just pressed the button to end her call when—

Boom! Boom! Boom!

Startled, her fist tightened around the silent phone as she shrank against the couch cushion. Her gaze flew toward the front door. The uneasy feeling from the patio returned, magnified a hundredfold and swelling even further with every insistent beat on the sturdy wood. Who in the world could it be? She didn’t know a soul in Key West. No one except…

“Nikki, are you all right?”

That voice, so achingly familiar, echoed inside her like the pounding echoed through the entry hall. Ben. She hugged the phone to her chest.

Oh, Joshua, your daddy is here. I so badly want to tell him about you. But I can’t. I won’t.

She’d struggled with that decision two-and-a-half years ago, and she’d made the right choice. Ben made no secret of the fact that he never wanted to settle down, never wanted to have a family. If he’d discovered that she was pregnant, he would have “done the right thing.” He would have insisted on marrying her and settling down to help her raise their child. She couldn’t bear to force him to give up the lifestyle he loved and watch the resentment grow deeper in his eyes as each year passed.

“Nikki, it’s Ben. Open the door.”

Indecision kept her pinned to the sofa. She should have known he would follow her here. If only she hadn’t run into him on the pier. No good could come of a reunion between them.

And yet, he was part of her past, an important part. Far more important than he would ever know. She couldn’t deny that seeing him again had awakened memories—and feelings—she’d tried to bury years ago.

She stood and crossed the room to stand in front of the door.

“What do you want, Ben?” She pitched her voice loud to carry through the thick wood.

The incessant pounding ceased.

“Thank goodness.” The relief in his voice was obvious. Though why he would sound so relieved to find her at home, she couldn’t imagine. “Let me in, Nikki.”

“I—” She placed a hand on the door and closed her eyes while conflicting impulses did battle inside her. Finally, she swallowed. “I don’t think that’s a good idea, Ben. It’s late. Go home.”

“It’s not what you think.” The door handle rattled. “You’ve got to let me in. Please.”

Something in his voice weakened her resolve, something she didn’t remember ever hearing in the months they spent together in Cozumel. Was it…fear?

After one more moment’s hesitation, she twisted the dead bolt. The lock slid open with a loud click. The door swung inward silently.

Her heart launched into a traitorous thundering as she took in the details she’d been afraid to notice this afternoon. The same Ben, yet different. Or was it just that she was accustomed to seeing those lips in miniature, on Joshua’s face? The eyes that swept over her now were the identical green-brown color of her son’s, only with a depth and intensity unknown to a two-year-old. The sturdy jaw. The tiny crease just below the place where his lower lip blended into his chin. Nikki clutched the door handle and hoped he didn’t notice that her grip was the only thing that kept her from wavering on unsteady knees.

Ben’s gaze swept the room behind her. “Are you okay?”

What an odd question. She glanced over her shoulder to follow his gaze but saw nothing out of place. “Of course I’m okay. Why wouldn’t I be?”

He ignored her question. “May I come in?” He must have seen the hesitation on her face, because he added an insistent, “Please, Nikki. It’s important.”

Though alarm Klaxons sounded in her brain, Nikki took a backward step and allowed him to enter. When she closed the door behind him, he leaned past her to twist the dead bolt. She shot him a startled look. “Humor me.”

He offered no explanation. She followed him into the living room and watched as he stood in the center of the room to examine it from all angles. He crossed to the patio door and slid a metal locking rod into place at the top of the frame. Nikki hadn’t noticed the locking device when she came inside before.

Ben pulled the drawstring to close the curtains, then turned and nodded toward the hallway. “Mind if I take a look in the bedrooms?”

Indignant, she opened her mouth to protest, but at the look on his face, closed it again. His lips formed a rigid line, with deep creases at the corners of his mouth. It was fear she’d heard in his voice at the door. She glanced toward the closed patio curtains, and the uneasy feeling she’d experienced earlier returned.

She gave permission with a jerk of her head, but remained in the living room. After he’d investigated both bedrooms, he returned. His expression was calmer, a touch more relaxed. The muscles in Nikki’s stomach loosened a fraction.

“You want to tell me what this is all about?”

He crossed into the kitchen and checked the lock on the window before answering. “I wanted to make sure you were okay, that’s all. You know, a single woman, traveling alone. You can’t be too careful.”

The explanation fell lamely into the empty space between them. Nikki folded her arms across her chest and gave him a stern look. The same look she gave Joshua when he was being naughty.

Ben’s head fell forward. “Okay, that’s a lie. I—” He swallowed and nodded toward the living area. “Maybe we’d better sit down.”

The impulse to refuse died before she could put it into words. In all the months they spent living together in Cozumel, she couldn’t remember ever seeing him wear such a serious expression. Without a word, she retreated across the room and seated herself in the over-stuffed chair on the far side of the sofa. Ben followed and dropped onto the cushion near her.

“I looked up where you were staying.” He stared at his hands while he spoke. “When I was outside, trying to decide whether or not to knock on the door, I saw a shadow. Looked like someone sneaking around the corner of this building. I wanted to make sure you were okay.” So, someone had been there, watching her from the darkness beyond the orange tree. Nikki shuddered and rubbed her arms with her hands. “But why were you here at all?”

He hesitated, then straightened his long legs to pull a folded piece of paper out of the back pocket of his shorts. A struggle appeared on his face as he unfolded the paper. His eyes moved as he studied it. Then, with a slow movement, he extended it toward her.

She took the note. Wrinkles spidered across the paper, as though it had been crushed in a fist. The words, scrawled in blue ink, were in Spanish.

Regresa el art?culo y lo seguirа siendo seguro.

Though she’d lived in Mexico with Ben for six months, she’d never become fluent in Spanish. And she hadn’t spoken the language at all in the two-and-a-half years since she moved back home. She translated the words slowly.

“Return…the article…and…” She glanced up at him. “What does lo seguirа siendo seguro mean?”

Ben didn’t meet her gaze. “It says, Return the article and she will stay safe.”

“She?” A wave of fear raised goose bumps along her arms. “Who is she?”

“There is only one she they could mean.” His hands clenched in a tight knot. “You.”

Prickles of alarm inched up her spine. “That’s ridiculous.” He glanced up at the sharp tone in her voice. “We haven’t seen each other in over two years, Ben.” Nikki forced herself to speak calmly. “Until this afternoon, we’ve had no contact at all. And that was a coincidence. I don’t know what this is about, but they must mean someone else. Your girlfriend, maybe.”