“I sell antiques. Dan helped with transporting the items.”
Maybe it was the air of sleaziness that followed the couple around like a bad smell, but Cassie would bet her life savings that they worked the wrong side of the law. These two wouldn’t know a priceless antique if one fell out of a plane and smacked them on their stupid heads.
“It’s surprising Dan had time for those extra runs, what with his tourism business.” Cassie hoped spreading doubt would crack their façade.
Louisa certainly didn’t notice any part of the Dan conversation. Drool all but dripped from her surgically enhanced lips as she stared at Cal.
Hate was not a strong enough word to describe Cassie’s feelings right then. Cal must have sensed something in the air because he bent down and placed a sweet kiss on her forehead. If he had started reciting Shakespeare backward she would have been less surprised. The simple deed was so genuine, so pure, that Cassie’s heart actually fluttered. Who knew a heart could even do that?
For a brief instant, the real world fell away in a haze and only Cal existed. She thought about kissing him, about tracing that sweet dimple with her tongue.
Then Bobby chuckled and the spell was broken. “You two newlyweds or something?”
“Something like that.” Cal answered before the question even left the other man’s foul mouth.
Cal looked so serious, Cassie decided to play along and see what happened. She would seek a fake divorce later. “Exactly like that.”
“How interesting.” Louisa sounded anything but interested in that information.
Cassie’s spirits soared. Suddenly she liked this game. If they were supposed to be engaged, she would enjoy it. She patted Cal’s flat stomach with her palm. “Yes. Cal’s indulging me. He thought coming down here was dangerous but agreed to let me have my way.”
“Anything for you, honey.” Cal squeezed her even closer. “And what are you two doing here again?”
“Nothing nearly as noble as you are,” Bobby said.
Cassie didn’t doubt that. This guy certainly didn’t strike her as the honorable type.
“Dan had some expensive items that belonged to me on his last flight. They went down with him in the plane. Uninsured and, so far, unrecoverable. I was trying to see if anything managed to survive the flight.”
“You weren’t able to get out here before now?” Cal asked.
“Understandably, after I heard about Dan’s accident I wasn’t thinking about finances.”
“Understandably,” Cassie mumbled back.
Cal rubbed his thumb across the back of Cassie’s neck. She couldn’t figure out if it was another warning or meant to soothe her. Either way, it kept her from lunging at Bobby and wrapping her hands around his neck.
“The police couldn’t help find your things?” Cal asked.
“Probably, but we didn’t try. You see, Dan and I kept our partnership quiet. I figured the hassle in trying to explain the arrangement and tracking down all the receipts wasn’t worth it.”
“Dan liked the idea of a silent partner,” Louisa added.
Cassie’s insides turned icy. “Did you have something to do with the business?”
Louisa’s back snapped straight as she shot a look of triumph. “The contacts are with me. My father and I have been in the antique business for years.”
Bobby glared at Louisa. It was a wonder the woman didn’t disintegrate into a pile of dust right there. “We should get going.”
“Careful. The rocks and ground are unstable thanks to the rain.” Cal’s eyes locked on Bobby as if daring him to make a mistake.
Cassie wasn’t sure what was happening, but the air carried a new charge it hadn’t possessed a few minutes earlier. Bobby’s gaze wandered to the backpack in Cal’s hand. Dan’s backpack.
“We better go before the storm heats up again,” Cal said as he looped the pack over his arm, almost cradling it. “Enjoy the camping.”
Cassie waited until they were out of the couple’s earshot to drop Cal’s hand. “What do you think?”
“I think we got to the pack before they could, and Bobby’s pissed.”
“You really think there’s any chance Dan was in partnership with them?” She tensed, dreading the answer.
“Dan had his faults. Hanging with garbage like that would’ve been somewhat out of character.”
A sentence so carefully constructed that there was only one conclusion. Her heart slammed to a halt. So did her feet. “You think Dan was doing something illegal. You believe the rumors.”
“This isn’t the time for this conversation.”
She refused to be put off. The issue was too important to drop. “We’ve got time.”
“We need to get to the helicopter. The last thing I want to do is keep my back to those two.”
Her stomach dropped. “You think they’re dangerous?”
“I think we can count on it.”
Chapter Eighteen
The march back up to the helicopter proved more taxing than the slide down. Having Cassie walk ahead of him was pure torture. With each step, her shorts rode up her firm legs, giving him a peek at their impressive length and reminding Cal how good it felt to be inside her.
How the hell was he supposed to hike when a growing erection kept pressing against the inside of his pants?
“When did we get engaged? I just thought you should let me know since I’m to be the fiancée and all.” The amusement in her voice was hard to miss.
“When I couldn’t think of anything else to say.”
“Aren’t you a hopeless romantic?”
Yeah, if romantic meant horny bastard.
But at least she was talking to him again. The silent treatment ranked dead last on his list of favorite female tricks. Made him absolutely fucking crazy. Probably why she did it, why all women did it. As a group, females came up with the ultimate in male annoyance and pounced.
While he stewed in male indignation, rocks tumbled out from under Cassie. She lost her footing and fell forward, reaching for the nearest anything-but-him for balance.
He dropped the bag and caught her around the waist in time to prevent her from slicing her head open on a rock. “I got you.”
“I told you I needed boots.”
“What we need is to stop climbing.” In fact, he’d be happy to be anywhere other than right there. The canyon might appeal to some people. Since Dan died there, Cal did not see the supposed beauty of the place.
“And when is that going to happen? It feels as if we’ve been walking in circles for hours.”
“We’re going in a straight line.” He glanced up and saw nothing but rocks slanted toward a cloudy gray sky. “Soon.”
“That’s not exactly comforting.”
Comforting. Not a word he’d use to describe whatever it was they had together. Since catching her, he could not find the strength to remove his hand again. Her stomach rose and fell in rapid succession under his palm. Being this close, he could feel her breath brush across his cheek.
He wanted her to lean into him, but she kept her back straight and well away. Everything about her shouted for him to stay away.
For some reason that pissed him off. He knew distance was the right call. Still, his body refused to listen. His mind ran even a lap or two behind that. He knew what he should do and what he wanted to do were two very different things. For whatever reason, he went with the latter.
He buried his face in her hair and inhaled the scent of fresh rain. Before he could work through the pros and cons of this plan, his hands roamed from her stomach and up higher to rest just under her breasts. It took him a few seconds to realize that the husky moan he heard echoing through the barren emptiness around them came from him.
“What are you doing?” she asked.
“Something dumb.”
“I thought we had to keep moving before it got too late?” She ended the sentence with a sharp intake of breath when his right hand inched even higher.
�
�We do.” That was reality. For a few seconds, he wanted to live in the fantasy.
“Is this your way of apologizing for how you acted in the cave?”
“No. This is.” Cal did not wait another second. He turned her and pressed his mouth against hers.
She did not fight. She did not exactly jump into his waiting arms, either. The scene at the cave left her skeptical. He could feel the internal war waging inside her, almost see her body give in as her mind rebelled. He wanted sexual awareness to take over and blow out everything else.
When he gentled his touch, let his mouth brush over hers, deepening with each pass, she relaxed against him. Her touch at first lazy and calm turned electric. Need pulsed off her. A hot little tongue slipped between his lips. She suckled and licked at his mouth until his knees buckled.
The power of her kiss shook him. She morphed from cool to hot without a stop in between. They matched in their desires. Matched in their need to be in control and in charge. Certainly matched just fine when their clothes were off. Their goals and histories were the problems.
He lifted his head and stared down at her. He kept hoping the right words would fall into place. That somehow he could explain everything that happened earlier and warn her about the man he had become.
“Cassie—”
“If you apologize for that kiss, I’ll kick you back to Florida.” She dug her fingernails into his arms as she delivered the threat.
He laughed.
She didn’t. “A swift shot right in the—”
No way was he letting that happen. “I’m not sorry about kissing you.”
“There’s a nice change,” Cassie said.
She kept zinging him with words, but her tone stayed even. She sounded neither angry nor frustrated. If anything, that husky voice carried a note of amusement.
“Admittedly, those last few minutes in the cave were not my most impressive. After the…well, you know.”
His comment hung out there in the quiet of the moment. The rain had stopped. The wind no longer threatened to blow them off the cliff. Other than the sharp breaths bouncing around his head, all of the noise of the last few hours had stopped.
She did not respond; just dropped her arms to her sides and stared.
“You’re not waiting for me to disagree, are you?” she asked.
He appreciated her speaking up since he was a second away from saying something stupid to fill the void. “Of course not.”
A not-so-friendly smile crossed her lips. “Good, because I’d hate to drop you to the bottom of this deep canyon on your head.”
He followed her gaze about three thousand feet down to the base of the gorge. “I’ll pass.”
“Maybe you’re getting smarter.” She treated him to one firm nod. “Good. Let’s get to the helicopter.”
She turned around and started climbing again, but he saw it. A fine tremor moved through her from head to toe. Yeah, the kiss shook her. She was trying to pretend it hadn’t, but it had.
“By the way, you don’t get to cop a feel whenever the mood strikes you.”
But then how would he strangle her. “I’ve been around long enough to know when a woman wants me.”
“Really? Can you tell when one is about to push you down a cliff?”
Since he could, he changed the conversation. “Let’s go.”
They climbed the last few feet to the flatter area where the helicopter rested. Cal knew immediately that something was wrong. Footprints. Someone had circled the aircraft.
“Looks like we had company.”
Cassie looked over his shoulder. “We still do.”
He followed her gaze to see Josh standing right behind them, coming around the back of the helicopter. “This canyon is getting damn crowded.”
“No kidding,” she whispered in response.
“May as well go over and see what he has to say this time.” Cal took a lunging step to bring his body up and over the rise and put him right in front of the DEA agent.
“There you are.” Josh’s greeting was not a happy one.
“Good to see you, too,” Cassie said.
“I’ve been waiting.”
“If I didn’t know better, I’d say you’ve been following us.” Cal knew that was exactly the situation.
From their new viewpoint, high above the canyon, Cal could watch the last of the water drain down the sides and wash into the valley below. Josh would have seen them coming. Probably watched the kiss as he waited.
“This your helicopter?” Josh hitched a thumb over his shoulder.
A few bags littered the ground and the doors were wide open. Cal knew the other man had rifled through the aircraft. The realization tested his already ragged control. “Well, I know it’s not yours, so I’m not sure why you felt free to search it.”
“Cal.” Cassie said his name as a warning.
“You’re on my turf, Wilson.”
“This is a national park.”
“I see an abandoned helicopter perched on an illegal landing site, you bet I take a look.”
Cal noticed that this guy thought the entire island was his playground. “Not to beat the same drum, but you’re a DEA agent. Unless you’re also a ranger on the side, I’m thinking this is out of your jurisdiction.”
“I know what I do.” Josh assumed the stereotypical agent stance: legs apart and hand on his hip right near the gun Cal assumed was hidden there.
“Do I look as if I’m smuggling drugs?” Cal asked.
Josh’s eyes widened for a second before his face wiped blank again. “I think I need an explanation.”
“We had some trouble with the wind, so we set it down here,” Cal said.
“You’re trying to tell me this doesn’t have anything to do with hiking down to the crash site? The same restricted crash site no one should be visiting?”
Cassie placed a hand on Josh’s forearm. “Cal did this for me. I needed to come back here to pay my respects.”
Cal’s blood pressure kicked up in response to the gentle touch. He practically had to beg for a kiss, yet Cassie did not hesitate to get all touchy with this other guy.
“I can’t imagine how difficult this is for you, Ms. Montgomery.” Josh shot a frown in Cal’s direction. “But as your friend here knows, this type of stunt is dangerous. He should not have brought you here.”
“I can speak for myself,” Cal said.
“I appreciate your concern.” Her smile beamed at Josh. If he noticed how grungy and in need of a shower she was, he didn’t show it.
“You should know better.” The edge moved back into Josh’s voice when he turned his attention to Cal.
Cal’s fists itched with the need to punch the smirk off the agent’s smug face. If the lecture went on much longer, he just might give into the urge. “Guess not.”
“What possessed you to fly in these conditions? To put Ms. Montgomery’s life at risk?”
Josh’s words suggested he wanted a beating. Cal was more than willing to give him one. “You think you’d do a better job?”
Josh stepped in closer. “Hell, yes.”
“Let’s reholster those big guns, boys.” Cassie stepped between them. “That’s more than enough testosterone talk. I’m an adult.”
“But you said someone shot at you,” Josh said.
For once Cal thought the guy had a good point.
Cassie clearly disagreed because she waved him off. “That’s irrelevant to this discussion.”
“It is?” Josh looked at Cal for help.
“My point is this. If you two beat the snot out of each other, I won’t have a way home. So, how about you get me out of here and compare gun calibers later.”
A smile broke out on Josh’s face. “The woman talks sense.”
Cal smothered his grin under a fake cough. “Sometimes.”
“We could try working together,” Josh said.
Cal hadn’t seen that one coming. “How so?”
“I want to know what’s going on. If D
an’s accident was something else, I want to know that, too.”
Cassie wasn’t smiling now. “I tried to follow the rules and work with you guys. Didn’t work.”
To prevent another fight about how the police bungled the investigation into Dan’s crash, Cal stepped in. “Now’s not a good time.”
“Why?” Josh asked.
Cassie picked up on his silent message. “I need a shower. The thunderstorm rolled in before we could get back here.”
Josh smiled wider than the canyon. “A shame getting caught out there like that.”
Cal noticed the binoculars near Josh’s feet. Looks like voyeur could be added to the list of Josh’s abilities. Cal decided not to tell Cassie they likely had a witness to their cave sex.
“We managed to find shelter,” Cassie said, oblivious to the fact Josh already knew that news. “And we weren’t alone.”
Cal liked the approach. No need for them to worry about Bobby and his sidekick if they could sic Josh on them.
Josh’s smile vanished. “Who? Where?”
“At your restricted crash site.” Cassie leaned against the aircraft. “Bobby something and a woman, can’t remember her name.”
“What were they doing?”
Josh asked the right questions, but Cal noticed the other man did not seem all that concerned with the answers. It was as if Josh knew what was happening and was there to watch it all. Cal wondered if he and Cassie were being followed. More important, if they were—why?
Cassie shrugged. “Looking around for something.”
Josh turned to leave but then stopped. “Did you two find anything out there?”
Cal looked him right in the eye and lied his butt off. “Nothing there but rocks and dirt.”
Chapter Nineteen
The second landing went better than the first. Bumpy but not vomit producing. A definite step up. Still, Cassie shot out of the aircraft as soon as it set back down at the small private airport. She saw no reason to stay in the flying soup can one minute longer than she had to. Lucky for her no other planes were landing or she would have been crushed.
She was so happy to have her feet hit firm land that she didn’t even mind the choking smell of fuel and buzzing sound of helicopters over head.
It’s Hotter in Hawaii Page 12