“Of course not. I didn’t have my phone. And, for your information, I do not blab.”
“This doesn’t look good for Todd. Why would he willingly give them his car? His credit cards?”
Riley nodded. “That’s what I thought. As much as I dislike him, I’d hate to think about anything bad happening to him. He’s really not that bad of a kid when he’s sober.”
Robin sneered, “I could kill him for what he did to you that night at the gala.”
“Men have done shit like that to me all my life. Do you think he could be dead?”
“I don’t know, Rye. I don’t know what this is, or what kind of weird shit he’s into.”
“Do you have something to do with these men?”
He took too long to answer. “No, I don’t. I’m interested in them. That’s all.” He reached into his pants and took his cell phone out of the pocket.
She stilled his hand. “Who are you, Robin? Can you just tell me that?” she begged. She was at the point of desperation. “What is this all about?”
He didn’t answer her for a long time. “I’m looking for someone. I don’t know who. I don’t even know what he looks like for certain.”
“You’re losing me, Robin.”
“I can’t tell you anything else. It’s not safe for you. I want you to be safe. Those guys will be back out here any second.”
“You’re looking for someone you can’t even describe? I’m to believe that?”
His smile barely reached his eyes. “Yep. He could look like Barney the purple dinosaur for all I know.”
“So why do you need to find him?” This was getting curiouser and curiouser.
“He has something I have to retrieve.”
“Something that belongs to you?”
Deceptively sunny blue eyes impaled her. “No, not mine. But not his either.”
“This is something illegal, isn’t it? A shipment of arms or drugs?”
“You have a one track mind, lady, and you are getting way too snoopy for my comfort.”
“You can’t force me to stay here against my will,” she hissed.
He cocked his handsome head towards the cabin. “You’d rather be with those guys, Rye?”
“I’m still going to call the cops, you know.” The words came out in a low huff.
Robin reached out to lay a hand on her shoulder. She stiffened at the contact, but deep inside some elemental part of her craved his touch. “Do you want Mary to be safe? Mary and her family?” he whispered.
“Of course I want that. What are you saying, Robin? Why do you keep saying the word safe? Are you threatening them? Or protecting them from harm?”
“I’m not threatening them. And I don’t know how the hell I can protect anyone, but I’m going to try. Listen to me carefully. Clear your mind of all the crap that’s whirling around in it like a Cuisinart gone berserk. It’s not the time to get the cops involved. The Feds always screw things up. I hate working in this country. Too much red tape. Too much law enforcement and none of it in sync. Will you please just shut up and chill so I can make a call?”
He was right about the cops. Her head was spinning. “You would say that about the cops. I’ll bet you’ve met up with a lot of them in your time.”
“I’ve met up with a few. I’m not in with the guys who took Todd’s car, Riley. I am not dealing drugs or planning to kill people. Just because I was a bit of a hood as a kid doesn’t mean I grew up to be the bad guy.” He removed the gun tucked in the front of his sexy leather pants and she shuddered.
“Besides cops, the bad guys are all I can think of who carry guns.” She chewed her lip. “Are you a bounty hunter? Tell me that you’re a bounty hunter, Robin.”
“Would that kill the questions and make you trust me? Look... dammit.” He jerked her around and made her look up, his body half covering hers so she had to peer over his shoulder. “They’re up on the front deck. Probably coming back this way. Get on the ground now. Flat as possible.” He pushed her down.
“I don’t know what to think of you, Robin.”
“Think anything you like. I can’t tell you anything else without compromising you, and I hate like hell to tell you more lies. And anything I have told you or that you have seen regarding these two men and Todd stays with you and me for now. At least until you can talk to Otis. Is that clear?”
Otis? Who was Otis? She didn’t answer him.
“You have to trust me.” He gave her another small push downward. “You trusted me a few hours ago. I’m the same man I was then. Ah, craptastic... I doubt I can get a good look at those two without my contacts in. Dammit, I should have had that surgery. I’ve been blind as a bat since I was a kid.”
“You were myopic? Those ultra-cool mirrored sunglasses were prescription?”
He smiled. “Yep.”
“How many inches did you grow anyway?”
He gave her an evil grin. “You mean...height?”
“Yes, I mean height,” Riley snarled.
“Six or so inches in one year. I was eighteen when it finally happened. Every bone in my body felt like I was being stretched on a rack.”
This was incredible. She’d felt ashamed of herself for so long because of what she’d once done, coming on to Robin Butler like that, half-drunk on cheap wine and puppy-love, practically begging him to take her virginity there and then. After making her feel like a princess, the most cherished creature in the world, he’d rejected her with total detachment, to the point of not even saying goodbye or telling her she’d been tolerable to sleep with, just disappearing into thin air. It had taken Riley years to work through it, to get her head straight and her heart hardened to the deceitful way some men worked.
What a bloody joke. Robin Butler, in the guise of an open-hearted, fun-loving stranger, had single-handedly shattered her illusions yet again. The thing was, this time, she knew she had nothing to be ashamed of as far as her sexual performance went. She knew damned well by now that she was good enough for any man.
“I couldn’t tell you who I was, Riley,” Rob murmured close to her ear, as if reading her mind. “I should never have come when I knew you were here. I should have stuck to the plan, but I had to know...”
There was some prickly weed digging into her bare stomach. “Know what?”
“Just to know. Know what I’d missed. What I’d left behind. What I was too damned scared to face about my rotten self.” Riley stared at him coldly. He went on. “I can’t tell you now. There’s no time. I’ve got to do some damage control.” He started to punch in what seemed an endless amount of numbers on the cell phone. He talked briefly to someone, then lost the signal. He rolled his eyes and muttered a nasty swear word.
“I should have known you were Robin Butler. As a matter of fact, I think I did know it was you all along.”
“Of course you did. And that’s why you slept with me again.” His blue eyes sparkled with something she hoped was just humor. “We were meant for each other, Riley, whether you like it or not. I was your first lover. I mean to be the last. Maybe we’ve come full circle. Back to where we started, where we’re supposed to be.”
They heard the voices and the footsteps at the same moment. The two creeps were back at Riley’s car. Big boots crunched loudly on gravel. As Rob had predicted, they broke into the vehicle in three seconds flat. “Think that broad will bother to look for Todd?” said one of the men.
“Nah. He told me she hates his guts. If the babe comes out to look for Toddy-baby she’s gonna find nothin’ more than a rotten corpse in the woods.” The other man gave an ugly laugh as he slammed the hatch. “She’s harmless, man. Just doin’ her thing from what Todd’s told me. Lookin’ after the old bat.”
“I haven’t seen this chick, but according to Todd she’s hot, man. Used to be a stripper. I’d come back and do a hot looking stripper in a minute.”
Before Riley could gasp, Rob covered her mouth with the palm of his hand.
Some crows began to make a din up i
n the cedars. It was hard to hear what the men were talking about for a minute or so. “Did you call her like you were supposed to?” asked one of the two.
“Nah. We’ve done what she paid us to do. I’m not supposed to do nuthin’ I don’t want to do.”
“She wants us to talk to Vasco’s guy tonight. We’re supposed to meet him at the Ball Breaker. See if there’s anything he wants us to finish up. Then we get the rest of our pay.”
“Whatever. I could use a beer. Man, the broad who’s staying here can’t be far, can she? She’s left her car and all her stuff. I’d really like to stick around and get to know this chick.”
“We’ll come back later.”
They roared off on their bikes. Rob looked over at Riley. She was pale and shivering. Scared to death. “You okay?” he asked.
“Do I look okay?”
“They’re not coming back to do you. Just see what happens if they try.”
“Oh, I forgot. You have that puny little gun, don’t you, Robin?”
His cell phone vibrated. He started with a pleasantry, but Otis was already yelling. “Yeah, man. Stop yapping. I’ll fill you in.” Riley started to move away from him. He reached out to stop her, yanking her back by the scruff of her neck, holding his hand over her mouth until he could speak to Otis.
She dug her nails into his fingers until he released her. “Let me go, please, Robbie. I’m going to be sick,” she moaned.
Riley turned her head and retched all over some weeds. His heart twisted to hear her. God, how was he going to get her through the rest? It wasn’t over by any means.
“Otis, you have to take it from here. I have some problems to deal with,” Rob said. “This cloak and dagger shit isn’t in my job description. I steal the pretty baubles back, man. That’s it. This sucks, man.” He told Otis about what Riley had seen, what they’d heard about Todd. When Otis suggested that he take Riley to the Ball Breaker that night to help them get a positive I.D. on the two men, see whoever it was they were meeting, Rob almost went ballistic.
“There’s no way she’ll cooperate, Otis. There’s no way I want her there.”
Otis was the essence of calm. “Do this for me and your part in this thing is all over, son,” he told Rob. “You’re home free, boy. I promise you that. We’ll be there. She’ll be perfectly safe. I guarantee it.”
“How much backup do we get?” Rob asked. “I want a freakin’ militia, you old fart...”
“Why?” Otis chuckled.
“Why? Why?” Because I love her. “I love her. Is that clear enough for you? If anything happens to this girl, I’ll kill you.”
Rob clicked off the phone before Otis could reply. Riley was staring at him in disgust, wiping her mouth on her sleeve. Tears coursed down her smooth, pale cheeks.
“I know my timing stinks,” he told her. “I meant every word of it, Rye. Every damn word. Even if it’s too late for us, I love you.”
Riley just shook her head. She didn’t meet his gaze.
Thirteen
It was entirely possible that Todd’s little foray into the dark side was not connected in any way to Vasco’s international operation. Maybe the kid was just the simpleminded stupid ass that Rob believed he was. Maybe he’d just stumbled into something that he couldn’t handle.
Otis’s sources might be all wet.
But Rob had heard that creep mention Vasco’s name with his own ears and it had chilled his soul. He’d also heard a woman mentioned. Who was the woman and what did she have to do with all this? It seemed peculiar to Rob that Vasco, with his high-living ways, would lower himself to associating with bikers and women. He apparently hated women except for the basest masculine needs.
It just didn’t fit. He was by all accounts far above this sort of scheme, especially now. His scams were more European in sensibility, far more grand. He’d be more likely to associate with high-profile terrorists than bikers.
If he was involved--if his far-reaching hand was dipping into this little pie--this new venture of Vasco’s must be broader than Otis had ever imagined. Vasco had stashed away more valuables than even he could want in the last years and may have turned to something more profitable.
Even more sinister?
It made everything a little more dangerous, made Vasco seem even more untouchable.
But maybe there was a simple, local twist that Rob was missing. Could someone other than Todd be involved? Could someone Otis and Rob had discounted be calling the shots here? Was there some unknown player--to whose identity Rob was completely blind--in on this thing? Could they have missed something?
The only person whose innocence he was certain of was Riley. Dammit, why the hell had Riley been dragged into this? It was partly his fault.
He set down his coffee, running his hands anxiously through his too-short hair. She was asleep on the couch, passed out in a boneless sprawl since they’d come back, after he’d allowed her to clean up. He’d been amazed that she could sleep like that. She wasn’t faking it. He’d gone off to the washroom himself, half-hoping that, when he came back, she’d have made a run for it.
If he could let her go now, he would. If he knew she’d be absolutely safe, he would let her go. But she was better off with him, where he could see her, protect her. He had to know she was okay. Rob checked his watch. They had half an hour before they had to leave.
He walked over to her and pressed the back of his hand to her dream-furrowed forehead. She wasn’t feverish, which meant she probably wasn’t ill and he was glad of that.
She stirred and lifted her head from the pillow. Her cheek was printed with the lines of the corduroy sofa. She looked up at him, gave a bleary little smile, then quickly seemed to remember where she was and who she was smiling at. The smile slid from her pretty face, replaced by a glare that was all ice. “Did you drug me?”
He almost laughed. “No. You’re tired. We were busy all night. Remember?”
She flushed. “I’d rather not.”
He explained what his plans were, or rather what Otis had planned for them to do at the Ball Breaker. She stared at him in mute disbelief. “I won’t help you.”
“You have to, Riley. You’ll be safe. We need to come up with some kind of disguise for you. I’ve been calling around. There’s a hair styling place in town. We need to get you a wig. They’re only open until six.”
“A wig?”
“I’m not taking any chances that someone will recognize you. Either we do that, or I can give you a haircut myself.”
She stared at him in utter horror.
“I took up the trade in prison for a while,” he teased.
“I’ll bet you took up a lot of things in prison, Robin.”
He shrugged. “I did okay there, actually. I wasn’t there for that long, mind you, but I never intend to go back, if that’s what you’re worried about. Don’t even have a record now, so Otis tells me.”
“I’ll take the wig, thanks,” she muttered, sitting up.
“You’ll do this, then? No fighting me?”
“I don’t have a choice, do I?” she said. She was looking at his hands. “Those bramble scratches look angry. They’re going to get infected if you don’t put something on them.”
The ones on his face and neck hurt more. “I’m okay. I’ve had worse. I fell head first into a rose bush once.”
“Sit down at the table. I’ll look for something to clean them. Take that shirt off. You have some deep ones on your neck, too.”
He took his time about complying. He didn’t want her to touch him. He might react, touch her back, do something he’d regret. He finally took off his shirt and hung it over the back of the chair. He told himself he had plenty of willpower.
Riley couldn’t watch him take the shirt off that beautiful torso. Her whole body felt over-used, achy, like she’d been dragged through a knothole backwards. She took a few long, deep breaths but they didn’t calm her.
Rob stretched his long arms over his head like a cat. The sound of his
slight groan and the sight of his naked back, sleekly muscled, coated with a light sheen of sweat, brought back a stark, sweet memory of their lovemaking last night ...
Oh, God...
“Do you always conk out like that?” he asked her. “If you do, it’s cool.”
“No. But sometimes I’m like a windup toy that just stops. I’ve suffered insomnia sometimes. I had a car accident once and I didn’t sleep for a month or so.”
“Was it bad? The accident?”
“Bad enough. It was a rainy night on a bridge. I wasn’t driving at the time. A guy I almost married was driving.” She found the first-aid kit in the pantry.
“You almost got married?”
Riley frowned. “Yes. It turned out we weren’t suited very well. He liked to drink and party too much.” She didn’t know why she’d told him that. She washed a steel bowl carefully and ran hot water into it. She shouldn’t do this. Talk about her past. Clean his wounds. She ought to try to get away. She ought to fight him tooth and nail.
“I’m glad you weren’t hurt,” he said. “I’m glad you never got married, either.”
Riley almost found herself smiling as she set the bowl of soapy water and a few clean terry tea towels on the table. “Have you ever been married?” The horrible thought occurred to her right then. “Are you married now, Robin?”
He gave her a scornful look. At least she assumed it was scornful. “Never.”
Her stupid heart skipped a beat in relief. “Because the right girl never came along?”
“She came along. I wasn’t the right guy for her,” he said softly.
Her hands trembled as she wrung the small white washcloth in the pan of soapy water. “Tell me if I hurt you. It’s going to sting. It can’t be helped.”
“You won’t hurt me, Riley.”
She worked as quickly and carefully as she could. He didn’t move, didn’t flinch as she cleaned the worst of the deep scratches on his smooth, sinewy shoulders. Blackberry thorns could do a lot of damage. His body beneath her fingers was tense as steel. The hair at his nape, by contrast, felt like the softest silk. She had a sudden flash of the dream she’d had while she napped on the couch. In her dream he held her, telling her he loved her. Promised to stay. He’d woken her before she knew the outcome.
B. G. McCarthy - A Thief At Heart Page 19