“He said he was in the area for some acquisitions work,” said Van.
“Is that all he said? I guess I’m not surprised. Hector Young specializes in buying land. Ryan thinks, you being familiar with the area and all, you might make it easier for us to work out deals in Nevis. Play your cards right, and the people in this area can walk away with a chunk of change. He didn’t tell you that? Ryan is good about seeking out helpful people to make business deals. Great instinct—at least, until the accident.” Hector offered Van a sincere smile and put his hand on her shoulder. Van gave him a blank stare. “Ah, sorry, it looks like maybe I’ve gotten into the middle of something that I shouldn’t have. Listen, I’ve known Ryan quite a while. The ladies all think he’s very charming. Maybe you should take him with a little grain of salt. You wouldn’t be the first woman who has misunderstood his intentions. I should know. I’ve had to come behind and clean up after him enough.”
Van continued to look at him in silence, her shock gradually morphing into intense dislike. She shrugged her shoulder out from under his hand.
“Thanks for the info,” she said. “If you’ll excuse my saying so, I have a little trouble buying into all that. It doesn’t sound like you and Ryan are very close.”
“Listen, Ryan and I are tight; we often work as a team. Even when we aren’t working together, we’re watching out for each other. He and I have a lot riding on this venture of ours—a lot. He succeeds, I succeed. He doesn’t succeed, we both lose. To be perfectly candid, everything was working fine until he met you. I sense a change in him I don’t understand. I can’t keep the guy focused, and everything is headed right down the tube. If you care about Ryan at all, then do what’s best for him. Let him do what he needs to do here. We keep our jobs, and everyone’s happy. What do you say?”
“I’d say I don’t like you. You have the wrong impression about the people in this town—and Ryan, too. We don’t take to big-time operators. It might be better if you left.”
“Yeah, sure, no problem. I’ll find my own way out. Nice meeting you, but think about what I said. It is a win-win.”
Hector made his way across the yard, stopping for a brief moment to talk to Marla before he left. They both were passionate people who spoke effectively with their hands. Though Van couldn’t hear a word, it was a short but sweet conversation, and both were smiling when they parted.
As much as Van disliked Hector, her gut feeling was there must be at least a kernel of truth in what he had said. It was Hector’s motives that weren’t entirely apparent. Clearly, he had an agenda, and he hadn’t wasted any time getting to it. Van wasn’t sure whether the win-win was for Ryan and her or Ryan and Hector.
She looked across the yard to where Ryan was talking to Jean and several of the neighborhood children. He looked calm and handsome as he laughed at something one of the kids said.
Van had always been a sucker for tall men. They had a way of making her feel both vulnerable and protected at the same time, so that she could concede control without feeling weak. Right now she needed him to take control and make her feel safe and reassured after the onslaught of Hector’s words.
Van didn’t want to make a scene. She worked her way methodically across the yard, interjecting a comment or a laugh with each group, until she reached Jean. She took her by the elbow and directed her up the steps and into the house.
She said to Jean, “Remember that pen Ryan gave me?”
“Hector Young and Associates?”
“Yeah, did you ever look them up?”
Jean looked up, startled. “No, but I can get right on it.”
“Would you, please? I’m going back out to talk to Ryan.”
She worked her way back across the yard, saying good night and small-talking until she got around to Ryan. He greeted her with a smile.
“I just got done visiting with your friend.”
Ryan looked puzzled. “What friend?”
“Hector.”
Ryan scoffed. “Friend? He’s strictly a business associate. We work together, period. What did he have to say?”
“I’m relieved to hear that. I’d hate to think a friend would talk so much trash about you.”
Ryan’s demeanor immediately became serious. “What did he say?”
“He says you’re a lady’s man and I should watch my heart.”
“What the … Where is he?” he asked, turning toward the crowd, trying to find him.
“He’s gone. I asked him to leave. I didn’t like him talking about you that way behind your back.”
“Thanks, but you don’t have to protect me from Hector. We have a long history. I’m sure he didn’t say anything behind my back that he hasn’t said to my face. Ours is a complicated relationship. I apologize for bringing him.” After a pause, he said, “You didn’t believe his nonsense, did you?”
“No, should I?”
“No, of course not. Uh … what else did he say?”
“He told me about your bus accident. Said it’s affected how you do your job. Is that true? He’s obviously jealous of you, so I had a hard time reading between the lines.”
“Yeah, he’d love to screw me over and work his way back into Hector Senior’s good graces. Forget him. He loves to get under people’s skin. In his case, it’s not too hard.”
Ryan paused a moment to think. “There is something I’ve wanted to talk to you about all day. Want to go sit on the porch? It’s a little awkward with all these people.”
So they headed around to the front porch and sat down in the two slat-backed rocking chairs. They rocked in silence for a while.
“I don’t know why Hector would bring up my accident,” Ryan said in a soft voice. “Maybe he’s jealous of the time I’m spending with you. I don’t know. I was lucky. The bus ran a stop sign and hit me in the crosswalk as it turned the corner, so I bounced off the side—just a glancing blow. The woman two feet in front of me wasn’t so lucky. She got hit head-on and died at the scene. They rushed me to Our Lady of Mercy Hospital, where I got whisked right into surgery. At one point, they almost lost me. A few weeks later, I was back home.
“It’s amazing what modern medicine can do now,” he said. “What it can cure, and all that it still knows nothing about. A while back, you asked me if I had ever experienced a deep loss. I said no, but I wasn’t completely honest. Van, my whole life is a deep loss. The fact is, I don’t remember a whole lot about my life before the surgery. Without a memory, I came back to friends I didn’t know, and a career I hated. They told me I had changed. I no longer had the drive and ambition to compete in a job I used to own. Doctors said it was anesthesia-induced amnesia and the effects would be temporary. They weren’t. Then they decided it was a ‘dissociative fugue,’ but just a few of my memories have come back. I’m constantly struggling with what I am and what I feel that I should be.” He paused and took a deep breath. “Hector and the rest of them have no idea of the extent of my memory loss. I should get an Oscar for the pretending I’ve had to do.”
“Oh, Ryan. There are a lot of things I’d like to forget, but I can’t imagine losing everything. At least I have a context for my life. That’s terrible!”
“You’re going to think I’m crazy when I say this. I should probably stop while you still have a good opinion of me.” He laughed nervously, running his fingers around the inside of his collar. He paused a few more seconds, and then the thoughts began to tumble out of him as if it were a relief to give voice to them. “I remember the day of my surgery. In fact, I remember the surgery. I still see myself lying on the operating table with the doctors and attendants working over my body. I’m looking down at myself on the table. Incredible,” he said shaking his head in disbelief.
“Oh, my word, you had an out-of-body experience?”
“Apparently.” Ryan closed his eyes and continued to watch the memories unfold in his mind. “The memories in my head are so vivid: the hum of the lights as I hover near the ceiling … down below me, docs and nurses work fran
tically to save me; the shreds of my white dress shirt lie where they cut it off me. I can see my mother being comforted in the arms of my dad. Strange … I can’t see their faces, but I know it’s them. All these things are going on at the same time. I don’t understand how I’m taking it all in at once. I can actually feel my parents’ pain.” He shook his head again.
“A real out-of-body experience! Incredible! Did you tell anyone? Your doctors?”
“No, no one. I was so shaken by what I couldn’t remember, I was totally paranoid. I couldn’t trust anyone, because I didn’t know any of them. You’ve seen Hector. Can you imagine what would have happened if I had confided in him? He would have had a field day with that information.
“Fate must have been smiling a little on me. The one thing that never left me was my basic knowledge of the law—why, I’m not entirely sure. Sure, I’d slip with things here or there, but for the most part, my memory of the law is solid. It’s bizarre,” he said softly. “Lately, a lot of it has been coming back to me in dreams, as if my mind is working overtime to fill in the blanks. These dreams are trying to tell me something, and either I’m just not getting it or I don’t want to know.” He sighed and walked over to the porch railing and looked out toward the bay. His body trembled with anxiety, and Van could hear the anguish in his voice.
“In the last few weeks, I’ve begun to remember so much. I don’t know what it is about being here. Nevis has been a real eye-opener for me. For the first time since the accident, I feel some real peace and belonging.” Ryan became quiet and thoughtful but didn’t turn around. “I think it’s because of you.”
Van was moved by the emotion radiating from him, but she made no attempt to close the space between the two of them.
“Van, are you a person who has faith in their instinct, their intuition?”
“Yes.”
Ryan shook his head. “Well, I’m not. I trust my gut feelings to a certain extent, but in the end I need proof—the cold, hard facts. In this situation, they aren’t there, but the nagging gut feeling remains. I don’t know what to do with that,” he said, turning to Van.
She gave a wistful shake of her head. “I can’t help you, not knowing exactly what you’re talking about.”
“No, of course not. But, I’m sure you would agree that there are a lot of things that spin around in a person’s mind that they would never give voice to. They just burrow deeper as they spin, slowly driving a person crazy.”
At that moment, Jean came around and found Van on the front porch. From the look on her face and quickness of her pace, Van could see that something was wrong. She felt the pit of her stomach tighten.
“You look like a woman on a mission,” Van said. “What’s wrong?”
“I went right inside and looked up Ryan’s employer from the pen he gave you—Hector Young and Associates.” Jean glanced at Ryan out of the corner of her eye, then went on as if he weren’t there. “His employer is a major land speculator. Buy cheap, sell high. If they can’t get landholders to sell willingly, they pressure them into selling some other way. Right now they have their sights on Nevis.” Jean handed Van a sheet of printer paper and then turned to scowl at Ryan. “Mr. Thomas, I think you have some explaining to do.”
CHAPTER TWELVE
A BIGGER DOG
Before Ryan could utter a sound, Van stood up, stepped over to him, and slapped his face. “You Yankee son of a bitch! You thought you could buy me an ice cream, smile a little and tell me your sob story, and I would just give you enough information to sell out the town.” She jabbed her finger into Ryan’s chest. “Don’t take us for a bunch of country bumpkins.”
Ryan stood still throughout her tirade. His hand went instinctively to his face, but there the instinct stopped. He did not attempt to stop her. “What are you talking about?” he said. “Slow down. You’re not making sense. You think I did what?” He turned on Jean. “Why are you checking up on my employer behind my back? All of a sudden, we’re into trust issues here? I would have told you anything you wanted to know. All you had to do was ask.”
“Don’t try to deflect the issue,” Van said. “I asked Jean to look up Hector Young. And from what I’m reading here, it’s a good thing I did! Not exactly a stellar track record they have! You came here to cash in on the land. Buy cheap, sell high? Do you always use people to get what you want? I suppose you throw them away when you’re done, too.”
“Van, listen, it’s not like that,” he said, grabbing her arm. She took a step back, and he sighed and let go. He couldn’t afford to drive her further away.
“Don’t lie to me, and sure as hell don’t touch me! Your wandering eye wasn’t the only thing Hector clued me into. He said HYA was involved in a huge land deal in this area. He said you were using me to get insider information, to make the sales go smoother. Of course I didn’t believe him. I thought too much of you and too little of him to think that could be true.”
Ryan knew she had him. If she hadn’t blindsided him, he could easily have talked his way out. He was good at that. Instead, he stood mute, horrified at the turn of events and at his lack of control over the situation. He had to give the two of them credit: they weren’t quite as gullible as he had thought.
“I should have known! To think I trusted you …”
“You can trust me,” he said, moving toward her again, but again she took a step back.
“It was no coincidence that you rang my phone on the boardwalk that day, was it?”
“No.”
“How did you know my number?”
“I saw you earlier in the week. If you watch someone long enough, you can find out all kinds of things about them.”
“That is so creepy and repulsive,” Van said, turning her back to him. I’ve been such a sap.”
“Look, Van, this doesn’t have to be a negative thing. Look at the positive. Hector Young is a solid company. They can pay good money for Nevis land. I can influence how much they pay. People here can sell their properties for more money than they could ever dream of otherwise.”
“I am looking at the positive,” Van shot back, her eyes dark with fury. “I’m positive you’re going to try to yank the land right out from under our feet. People’s families have owned this land for generations, centuries. Roots go deep here. Did you ever stop to think what would happen to those who didn’t want to sell? This will swallow them up! Come back in a year’s time and see that all that we hold dear and special is gone. I can still look inside there and see where my great-grandfather struck matches on the stones of the fireplace to light his pipe. Do you really think I would let you take that away from me—let you bulldoze the pickle boat house? You sure as hell can try, but it will be over my dead body!”
She shot a look at Jean that froze her where she stood. “And don’t lecture me. I’m not in the mood!” She stomped into the house without giving Ryan another look.
As the door slammed behind her Van could hear Jean’s voice. “I couldn’t have said it better. Why did you do that to her? You know, you’re the first person she’s opened up to in a long time. She trusted you. You brought something besides pain into her life … till now, anyway. Since she met you her eyes have begun to light up and just sparkle. Why did you have to turn out to be such a dick? Typical man. Get your sorry ass out of here before I turn the dog loose on you.” And turning her back on Ryan, Jean went inside and slammed the door behind her.
Van was standing just inside the door, leaning her head against the wall. She turned, and Jean walked toward her.
“My BS detector is obviously broken,” Van said weakly. “I think you can slap that smile off my face about now.”
“I’m sorry.”
“Yeah, me, too,” Van said, sobbing, and she buried her face in Jean’s shoulder.
“I’ve decided to give you a pass this time,” said Jean, wrapping her arms around Van and just letting her cry. “I just wish we had a bigger dog.”
*
Ryan felt as if he had been
run over by a freight train—a train with Hector as the engineer. For the life of him, he couldn’t figure why Hector would sabotage everything they were doing in Nevis. Ryan knew he always had to watch his back with Hector, but the guy had never before put his own fortunes at risk to make Ryan look bad. Hector was no dummy, and he needed this to go right as much as Ryan did.
It didn’t take Ryan long to find his faithless partner. He was down sitting on the boardwalk, as if expecting the coming wrath. He didn’t bother to get up as he saw Ryan approaching.
Ryan walked up toe to toe with Hector, towering over him with both fists clenched.
“You asshole!” he growled. “What’s your fucking problem? Jesus, Mary, and Joseph, can’t you be discrete? Keep your damn mouth shut and your personal issues to yourself! She doesn’t trust me anymore, which means you just pretty much destroyed everything we’ve been working for here.”
“The only personal issues giving us any problems are yours,” Hector replied. “From getting so personally involved with that woman. Find another piece of ass—one with less potential for problems.”
Ryan grabbed Hector by the shirtfront and yanked him up inches away from his face. “I swear, if I didn’t need you right now I’d kill you.” He shoved him back against the bench and let go. Hector landed sitting up, but the bench toppled backward, dumping him on his back on the ground. Wisely, he didn’t get up.
Ryan started to walk away, but suddenly he whirled around and pointed a finger at Hector. “Talk about her like that again, and I will kill you,” he said. And then he turned and walked away past the gawking people on the boardwalk without another word or a backward glance.
*
Ryan took off down the boardwalk at a brisk walk. No amount of deep breathing or positive self-talk was going to calm him down right now. He knew he had just made a mistake, and not his first by any means. Losing his temper wasn’t going to help the situation. He knew deep down—had known all along—that he had an intense attraction to Van and that it was getting in the way of what he needed to do. He just couldn’t help himself. Now Hector was a big problem, much bigger than he would have been if Ryan had kept his head. He probably couldn’t straighten it out with him. Hector had found the weakness he had always been searching for in Ryan, and Ryan had no doubt he would exploit it. One call to New York—that was all it would take.
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