She cursed herself for not remembering shoes, then stumbled across the beach and started up the slippery ascent. Years of strenuous workouts paid off as every muscle in her body strained to the max. Clawing and dragging herself up the rocky bank, she reached the top in a burst of adrenaline, and then lunged between two giant boulders.
For the next few minutes, she lay sprawled, facedown where she’d fallen. The semiautomatic poked her in the stomach, still secure, yet unreliable now that it had been immersed in water. Her breathing was harsh, but she smothered the sound in the tall, thick grass while struggling to regain some strength.
Kyle.
She was going to kill him. Maybe with her bare hands. Her fists clenched at the thought. Various methods of punishment and torture drifted through her mind, gradually replacing the terror she’d just experienced.
How could he have betrayed her?
There was no other explanation for the timely arrival of Gregory’s men; no possible way they could have tracked her down. Grinding her teeth in frustration, she wondered if she’d been a fool to trust him.
Her heart felt cold and heavy, clutched in a viselike pain, he’d been the rare exception to her longtime rule of not letting anyone get too close. She’d started to care for him.
Had it all been an elaborate scheme? His disgust for Gregory, his concern for her safety, and all the cautions he’d suggested? She didn’t want to think she could be so wrong about someone, but she intended to find out for sure.
Lifting her head, she searched the immediate area for the jogging path he’d described. At least that part of his story was true. She saw a path and let her gaze travel to where it disappeared into a line of trees. Her pulse had begun to quiet, but it went berserk again when she caught sight of him about a hundred yards distant.
He ran at a slow, steady pace, his arms and legs moving with an economy of motion. His body glistened with sweat, and his chest heaved gently. Rianna’s pulse skipped another few beats. He looked so normal, so sexy and so damn unconcerned.
She frowned. Could he be that good an actor? If he’d brought them here, why hadn’t he just disappeared? He looked so natural, as though he’d been enjoying a carefree run. Why hadn’t he just kept running toward the marina? Did he plan to help them trap her, or continue his vacation after she’d been hauled away?
Or could he be as much a victim as she?
Rising slowly to her feet, she reached under her T-shirt and locked her hand around the gun. It might not work, but neither of them could be sure of that. At least for now, she had the upper hand.
Kyle had covered most of the distance between them before she stepped clear of the boulder and into his line of view. He stopped immediately, his features tightening in concern. His gaze dropped to the gun and then back to her strained expression.
“What the hell?”
“You tell me,” said Rianna as she leveled the Glock at his midsection and flipped the safety off. She braced her right hand with her left, and her attention never wavered from his face. She desperately wanted to believe his confusion was genuine, but her life depended on caution. She couldn’t let her heart rule reason.
“Why’d you leave the boat?” he asked, panting as he tried to catch his breath. “What’s going on?”
“We’ve got company.”
Kyle’s gaze swiftly flew toward the embankment, searching for the intruders. After aiming a blank glance at her, he headed to the bank above the cove where they’d left the boat. He turned his back to her without hesitation, as though she didn’t present any real threat. Or, like her, he realized she couldn’t afford to fire and alert anyone to her whereabouts.
Rianna gritted her teeth, clutched the gun and called herself a fool, but went with her instincts. If Kyle had any knowledge of the ambush, he deserved an Oscar. He looked genuinely surprised and worried.
Moving from boulder to boulder along the bank, he stayed hidden and waved her to stay back. She ignored the unspoken order and followed until they were directly above the cove where they’d anchored. From their vantage point, they could see the houseboat without being visible from the water.
The speedboat had pulled alongside their boat. Two men stayed on the smaller craft while two others searched the houseboat. Rianna recognized Rudy and another of Gregory’s employees, by the name of Tabone.
“Nowhere in sight, but they were here.” Rudy’s voice carried to them. “Search everything, Tabone.”
They watched as he moved onto the front deck and did a visual search of the cove. Then he pulled something out of his pocket and waved it in front of him. At first, Rianna thought it might be a gun, but then she thought it looked more like a cell phone. She just couldn’t figure why he’d be waving it around.
Kyle touched her arm, urging her to back away from the rock barriers. It wasn’t likely that anyone could see them, but they cautiously retraced their steps until they’d returned to the jogging path.
“What did he have?” she finally whispered. Still not sure he could be trusted, she kept the gun leveled at his midsection.
He studied the gun and then her features, his jaw tight and expression grim. “Use it or put it away,” he demanded tersely.
Tension quivered between them until she slowly flipped the safety on the gun and tucked it back into her swimsuit.
He grabbed her arm and started pulling her along the path to a clump of trees. “He’s got some kind of electronic tracking device.”
It made sense, but it didn’t make sense. “That would work if he had a signal to follow, but there’s no way. How the hell did they find us? Even if they traced our call to Donald, that wouldn’t have given our exact location. This place is huge!”
“They have to be honing in on a direct signal.”
“That’s not possible. I checked everything I brought out of the estate. Nobody knew where the car was garaged, so they couldn’t have bugged it,” she insisted, thinking aloud. “I mailed all the jewelry to Maine. Everything else I brought with me is on the boat, so they’d have found the bug when they boarded. It doesn’t fit.”
Kyle’s expression grew grimmer, his eyes going cold and hard while his jaws clenched. “Unless it’s on you,” he said.
She didn’t like the way he was looking at her, and liked his suggestion even less. “Where?” she demanded in a frustrated whisper. “I’m barely dressed, and I know there’s no bug in my gun. I’m not wearing any jewelry, and I haven’t even had a cavity filled since I met Gregory.”
“What if it’s implanted under your skin?” he suggested, studying her intently.
Rianna froze, eyes widening in horror. A terrible chill raced over her, freezing, and then numbing her with shock. Her lungs constricted painfully, her throat growing so tight that she could barely whisper the next questions.
“How? Where?”
He pulled her close and spun her around. Then he lifted the hair off the back of her neck and looked at her nape. His voice held a feral snarl when he finally spoke.
“What if your weird accident wasn’t an accident at all? What if Haroldson had a device implanted in your neck? It wouldn’t have to be very big,” he added, running a finger lightly over the stitches.
Rianna’s stomach roiled. It made sense, and it explained the strange accident. She slapped a hand over her mouth to keep from screaming in outrage and denial. Her body became one giant tremor, shaking her to the very core.
“It’s possible,” she whispered gruffly. “It sounds like something he’d do. He’s fanatic about his possessions and that’s what he considered me. He has no morals and no conscience.”
Kyle muttered a string of vicious obscenities, and then jerked her around to face him. He gave her a fierce hug that helped soften some of her shock, but it was way too brief. A tracking devise was beyond her worst nightmare, and she was badly shaken.
“We’ve got to get away from here.” His warm breath touched her ear. “Right now, we’re shielded by those boulders. The signal probably
can’t penetrate them, but as soon as they come over that embankment, they’ll be able to pinpoint our location.”
“What can we do?” she asked, knowing what a wild animal must feel like to be pinned in the headlights of a car.
Kyle was already reaching for the gun at his ankle. He unfastened the strap and then whipped it around her neck, positioning the gun over the scar on her nape.
“We run for it. Hopefully, the metal of the gun will interfere with the signal until we come up with a better solution.”
As soon as he’d secured the holster around her neck, he turned to lead the way. Rianna relegated the sick terror of a body invasion to the back of her mind. She couldn’t allow herself to dwell on this latest atrocity. Survival came first.
They’d only gone a short distance before she realized an additional handicap. “I’m barefoot,” she called softly to Kyle.
He stopped abruptly, turned and stared down at her bare feet. “You can’t run this path like that. There’re too many sticks and rocks. You’ll have to ride piggyback.”
She stared at him as though he’d lost his mind. He’d already been jogging for an hour. She was way too heavy to carry, and reluctant to be totally dependent on him. Remembering the last time she’d wrapped her legs around him, she panicked briefly, then latched on to the first lame excuse that leapt to mind.
“You smell like dirty socks.”
He looked stunned by the inanity of her comment. Then his eyes softened in understanding. “You smell like dead fish,” he countered gently. “Now, get on.”
She grimaced and conceded, knowing they were wasting precious time. He turned and leaned down so she could hop onto his back. Then he hefted her up until he had a firm grip on her thighs. She wrapped her arms around his upper chest, trying not to strangle him.
He ran deeper into the woods and splashed through a shallow stream of water, then followed it long enough to throw off anyone who tried to track them on foot. After they’d traveled a mile or so, he moved back toward the regular path, then stayed parallel with it without actually using it.
Rianna ducked her head to avoid low-hanging branches for a while, and then buried her face against his neck. He smelled of sweat and man. The heat of him scorched her inner thighs, belly and chest, making her extremely aware of every hard, muscled inch of his body. His pulse became hers as it pounded rapidly through his veins. It was an experience unlike anything she’d ever known.
“How far do you plan to run?” she whispered in his ear.
“Another few miles.”
“You can’t carry me that far!”
Kyle slowed, and then stopped just before a clearing with several cabins. He let Rianna slide to the ground. She sat still, watching him closely while he struggled to catch his breath.
“We have two choices,” he finally said. “We can try to make it to the marina and hot-wire the car, or we can hide out for a while in one of the deserted cabins around here.”
“There’s a key to the car hidden under the right front bumper, but we can’t risk going after it,” she said.
“Why?”
“If Rudy searched the houseboat, he found the marina rental receipt. It has the car’s license number. He’ll go there next and either have it watched or plant something worse than a bug.”
Kyle swore, raking a hand through his hair in frustration. “We can’t hitch a ride while that gun’s strapped to your neck, so we’ll have to hide. I’ve seen a couple of cabins that don’t look inhabited right now.”
“You can leave me and hitch a ride to town to find some transportation.”
“No!” His response was harsh. He glared at her. “We stay together. Rudy and his men will have to split up if they search the whole area. As long as we’re together, one man at a time isn’t a threat. We’ll go to a cabin and formulate a new plan.”
Rianna didn’t argue. She didn’t want to part ways with him, yet she wondered at his motives. Did he have his own agenda for keeping her safe? Some unknown reason for not wanting her out of his sight? The answers weren’t forthcoming, so she nudged the questions to the back of her mind. She’d worked solo for too long and didn’t want to go it alone anymore.
“The path goes behind that group of cabins. I didn’t see anyone around earlier, but we should try to walk past like we’re taking a stroll. Since you’re barefoot, we’ll go slow.”
She nodded and fell into step beside him until they’d covered the short distance across the clearing. Once they were out of sight of the rental cabins, Kyle leaned down and hefted her onto his back once more.
“You’re going to owe me a serious rubdown,” he insisted, picking up his pace again.
Rianna smiled against his neck, and unconsciously tightened her grip on him. She’d reserve judgment about what she owed him. She still hadn’t decided whether it would be a debt of gratitude or slow torture. Come to think of it, a full-body massage might fit the bill in either case.
Kyle left the path and veered deeper into the woods, plunging them from dappled sunlight into near darkness. He slowed down to a walk as they encountered heavier vegetation.
“Are you sure there’s a cabin up here? How’d you find this place?”
“I’ve seen several isolated cabins, and figure they’re privately owned. I followed a doe and fawn through the woods here,” he explained. “They led me to the cabin with a salt-lick in the yard. Looks deserted.”
He breathed deeply from exertion, and she felt every intake of breath like her own. His muscles flexed and her nerves jangled. Never having experienced such an intense physical connection, the feel of it defied description.
The small log cabin stood buried in a cluster of tall evergreens. Covered in ivy, the whole structure was nearly hidden from view. He jogged around the right side to a small back porch, and then stopped to let her slide off his back.
“You’re sure nobody’s living here?”
“It doesn’t look like anyone’s been here for a while. Maybe someone only uses it a couple of weeks a year.”
“Let’s just hope this isn’t their week.”
“Yeah,” Kyle agreed. He searched the door and a small window frame for a spare key, but couldn’t find one. “I hate to break in if we don’t have to.”
She helped to search, overturning rocks and looking under a loose wooden plank in the porch. Kyle reached above them and felt along the rafters of the roof, while she looked in and under a collection of flowerpots.
“Look!” she exclaimed.
Chapter 7
Rianna held up a key she had found under a dried fern in a clay pot. Kyle took it and ordered her to stay put while he checked the house. She reached for her gun and followed him through the narrow door. It didn’t take long to establish that the cabin didn’t hold any surprises. There were only two sections, a living room with a small kitchenette and a small bedroom with an even smaller bathroom.
Except for some dust and a cobweb or two, the inside of the cabin appeared neat and well cared for. The furnishings were serviceable rather than fashionable, but with homey touches like dried flower arrangements. A stone fireplace took up one entire end of the living room area.
“Not bad,” said Kyle, after checking the kitchen cupboards. “It’s stocked with nonperishables.”
Rianna headed to the bedroom. “I hope the owners left some clothes here.” She opened the closet and found a collection of outerwear that wasn’t of much use, but the canvas tennis shoes thrilled her. Her feet hurt.
The dresser drawers offered a change of clothing. “Looks like this place belongs to a married couple. There’s a mix of clothing,” she told him as he followed her into the room.
“What sizes?”
“Large men’s and medium women’s. We should be okay. I think our absent host and hostess might be a little heavier than we are, but not so much that we can’t borrow a few things.”
“It might not hurt to add a little padding around our waists. Any disguise will help.”
&
nbsp; She agreed. The elastic on the sweatpants would stretch for extra cushioning.
“I think we should shower, eat and head out again,” she said. “If we can get a ride to town, we can pick up money at the post office, pay for some transportation, and be miles from here before Rudy spreads out his search.”
“You don’t think it would be safer to hole up here overnight and head to town tomorrow?”
Rianna thought about spending another night like the last, trying to sleep, yet too achingly aware of her roommate. It wouldn’t be wise to invite more intimacy. Besides, neither of them would rest knowing Rudy might find them at any minute.
Then there was the electronic bug buried under her skin. Her teeth clenched in anger at the thought. She wanted it out as soon as possible.
“It’ll be a risk to leave, but more of a risk to stay. If you found this cabin, there’s a chance Gregory’s men will, too. I’d rather take our chances in town. We can appeal to the local sheriff, if necessary.”
“Okay. I’ll get the generator running and then get that gun off your neck.”
Rianna touched her nape. The gun felt cold and heavy against her tender skin. “What can we do?”
“If I cut off the bulk of the holster, the gun can be replaced with a butter knife. It won’t be pretty, but it shouldn’t attract attention.”
“Chokers are all the rage,” she muttered grimly, “but I don’t know about knife blades.” Then another idea had her heading back to the kitchen area.
“We’ll have to leave a big tip for our hosts.” She snatched a little notepad from the refrigerator. “This is magnetic. A magnet would really scramble the signal, wouldn’t it?”
“Good idea,” agreed Kyle as he followed her. “We should try to pay for what we take, but all my cash is on the boat. How about you?”
His gaze slid down her body to the juncture of her thighs, making her pulse leap and her flesh tingle. She shifted her legs and responded gruffly.
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