by Debra Webb
None of this really had anything to do with Noah, it seemed. He was not foolish enough to believe that Bonner had learned his lesson and was a changed man. He would exact his revenge at some point in time, maybe tomorrow, maybe next year. But, as Noah had known all along, Bonner would not bother with warnings such as useless notes. He would merely strike. Just another reason Noah could never risk allowing anyone to get close to him. Any woman who cared for him would be a valuable mark for vengeance.
He glanced at the parlor’s wall clock as the one in the entry hall counted the hour. One in the morning. Neither he nor Blue had gotten any more sleep. He doubted either of them would until Lucas was found. Ramon’s condition was critical. The trajectory of the bullet had caused it to glance off his skull, which was extremely fortunate; however, the resulting fracture and accumulating blood clot had required emergency surgery. Having lost a significant amount of blood had increased the risk. According to Blue he was a strong man. She was certain he would pull through.
Noah didn’t want to consider how much blood Lucas had lost by now or what condition he was in. At fifty, maybe fifty-five, he was no longer a young man. Again, Blue insisted that there was not a tougher man alive than Lucas Camp. If anyone could pull through this, he could. Noah desperately hoped so. He could see in her eyes how much Lucas meant to her. Beyond basic human compassion for the man who was a stranger to him, Noah hoped he survived so that Blue didn’t suffer that loss.
She ended the telephone conversation and collapsed on the couch. “They’re still canvassing the island, but haven’t found anything.” She shook her head. “The island’s not that big. Why can’t they find him?”
Noah leaned forward and braced his elbows on his widespread knees. “There are many places to hide. Besides, Leberman could have taken Lucas off the island.”
She forked her fingers through her hair and massaged the back of her head. “And where the hell did he go? He left the sedan. He had to have help. Disappearing on foot with a wounded man incapable of walking would be impossible.”
“A good strategist always plans for every contingency. He may have had other thugs at his beck and call,” Noah reminded her of what she surely knew. She was weary with fatigue and worry, not thinking clearly. “Why don’t you get some more sleep? I’ll be right here.” He leaned back in his chair. “Maverick’s around here someplace. We’ll keep watch.”
She shook her head, then stood. “I couldn’t sleep if I tried. I should make rounds. Check the locks.” She straightened the shoulder holster she wore and suggested, “You could scan the monitor.” When he made no move to follow her directions, that blue gaze that reminded him so much of his ocean collided with his and she added, “Drake, it’s—”
“Noah,” he corrected. “It’s past time you stopped calling me Drake.” He stood and moved purposely toward her.
“Noah,” she conceded, “We have to—”
The telephone rang. Since the cordless receiver lay on the table next to the sofa, Blue answered it, no doubt grateful for the reprieve. There were things they needed to talk about, but, he supposed, now wasn’t the time. Yet, the words burned inside him. Another time, he promised her silently as he watched the changing expressions on her face.
She listened to the caller for several seconds before saying, “We’d have to find transportation.” She frowned. “I understand. Yes, sir.” She depressed the Disconnect button.
“What now?” Noah almost hated to ask.
“Apparently Victoria Colby received a telephone call a couple of hours ago indicating that Lucas had been found and that she should come to St. Gabriel right away.”
“It was Leberman,” Noah guessed.
She nodded. “Her second in command, Ian Michaels, has been trying to contact her for the past half hour to let her know that it’s a setup, but she’s already left the agency’s private plane and apparently the call isn’t getting through to her cell phone.”
“Wasn’t someone keeping her office informed?” Noah knew that the agency had already been advised of the possible threat to her.
“She received the call at home and no one knew she’d gone until about an hour ago. She gave the agent stationed at her house the slip.”
Noah quirked an eyebrow. “She sounds a lot like you.”
Blue placed the telephone handset back in its base. “She sounds a lot like she’s headed for trouble. Casey wants me to head her off at the marina in Savannah. He doesn’t want her on this island. Ian Michaels contacted Simon Ruhl in Atlanta. He’s en route to Savannah to act as her personal security guard. I’ll contact Maverick and have him take over here.”
Noah shook his head. “No way. You’re not going without me,” he told her flatly. “Either let Maverick go or I go with you.”
“There’s no time to discuss the issue, Noah,” she insisted. Despite his irritation and the situation, the sound of his name on her lips made him yearn to hear it again. “Casey ordered me to go. I can’t risk having her arrive here and…”
“Then let’s not argue. I’m going with you.” He took her by the arm and headed toward the front door. “Besides, you wouldn’t know where to go for transportation to the mainland anyway. You’ll need me for that.”
Well, he had her there, Blue admitted silently. “What if we can’t get back in time? Have you even left the island in the past five years?”
That dark gaze settled onto hers, the finality there unmistakable. “We’ll be back in time.”
BY 3:00 a.m. Blue was edging toward panic.
“You’re certain the message I received was a hoax?” Victoria Colby asked for the third time.
“Yes, ma’am,” Blue explained yet again. “We believe Leberman is trying to lure you to the island using Mr. Camp as bait.”
The look of distress that marred the woman’s face revealed clearly the depth of her feelings for Lucas.
She shook her head. “I should have killed Leberman when I had the chance.”
Blue’s gaze met Noah’s. To say that the statement surprised her would be putting it mildly. One never expected that kind of thing from a lady dressed in designer clothes and with the presence and carriage of a highbrow sophisticate.
“Ma’am, I’m sure Mr. Ruhl will be here soon and he’ll explain everything more completely.”
Blue glanced at the sky once more, then back at Noah. He didn’t look at all concerned, but she damn sure was. Every minute they waited put them that much closer to dawn. The boat ride back to St. Gabriel was a good thirty minutes. This was just too close for comfort.
Mr. Venable, grumping about the ungodly hour with every breath since they’d rousted him from bed, waited in the boat. Blue had insisted that Mrs. Colby remain in the limo with her pilot and the driver. She and Noah did the same.
To her extreme relief a car at last pulled into the parking area. The pilot, who sat in the passenger seat next to the driver, checked his side mirror. “It’s Simon.”
Blue breathed easy for the first time since leaving the house. She had to get Noah back there. She and Noah emerged from the car and greeted the arriving agent. He was tall. Definitely the dark, silent type.
Before Blue could stop her, Victoria got out as well.
“Victoria,” Simon said with an acknowledging nod. “You had us scared there for a little while.”
She shook her head. “I’m certain it was Lucas’s voice.”
Blue remained silent, as did Noah, and allowed her agent to allay her concerns.
“It may very well have been his voice, but that doesn’t mean it was on the up-and-up. You’ll be safer here in Savannah. Miss Callahan and her people will keep us informed.” He looked to Blue.
“Of course,” Blue agreed. “You’ll know the minute we hear anything.”
Victoria reluctantly gave in. “All right. We’ll wait.” She glanced at Blue, then Noah. “Thank you for coming.” She blinked furiously at the tears welling in her eyes. “I apologize for the inconvenience.”
; Noah gifted her with one of his rare, charming smiles. “It was no inconvenience whatsoever, Mrs. Colby.”
She managed a semblance of a smile. “Have a safe trip back to the island. And find Lucas, would you?”
Getting back to the island and then the house could be a little tricky, however, the promise they made to Victoria Colby about finding Lucas might just prove impossible.
Leberman could be waiting near the island dock. Victoria’s instructions had been wait at the dock once she arrived, for transportation on the island. He could have more underlings like the two they’d taken down after Lucas’s shooting watching from just about anywhere on the island.
But she and Noah had no choice. It was a risk they had to take.
Noah’s life depended upon getting back to the house before daybreak.
THE PINK HUES of a distant dawn were streaking across the sky by the time they reached the house. Noah’s hands shook when he attempted to unlock the door, his only visible concession to the anxiety hurtling through them both. Blue sensed his urgency, and very nearly had a nervous breakdown herself. She was certain Mr. Venable would refuse any future offer, no matter how generous, to take her or Noah anywhere. The tension had been as thick as peanut butter during the race across the expanse of water that separated St. Gabriel from the mainland.
Her stomach still churned from the rocky journey.
As soon as the door was locked behind them and the code entered into the security keypad, they performed a quick search of the house. Noah had started arming the security system since Lowell—Leberman—had never been privy to the code. Blue put in a call to Director Casey that the mission had been accomplished. He was greatly relieved. Whatever fate lay in store for Lucas, he would not want any harm to come to Victoria. Blue was positive of that as well.
As she and Noah collapsed on the sofa in the parlor, she wondered what it would feel like to know that kind of love.
Unbidden her gaze moved to Noah. He looked tired. She was certain he’d had even less sleep than she had. She thought again of what he’d told her about Rothman’s suggestion that he try the antidote serum. She wished that Noah could have his life back…could walk out into the sunlight without fear. But he was right, trying the serum wasn’t worth the risk.
She’d rather have him forever in the darkness than lose him entirely.
The thought gave her a start. What was she thinking? He didn’t belong to her in any sense of the word. When this mission was over she would leave, even if she did linger for that unfinished business. Their lives were destined for different courses. But each time she looked at him, as she did now, she realized how accurately she had imagined the artist behind the painting. He was everything she’d fantasized he would be.
“If only I could read your mind,” he said softly, his voice silky, dangerous. Dangerous to her heart.
She inclined her head and studied him. “I’m exhausted. If you could read my mind, you’d…” She sighed then. “You’d know that I feel helpless. I can’t do anything for Lucas…I…” She shook her head.
“You need sleep.”
She shook her head again, then her newly determined gaze settled on his. “There are things we need to talk about. Like your artwork. I want the truth about Noah Drake.”
Tension reverberated inside him, but he tamped down the automatic response. He could share his love of painting with her. Not only could he, he wanted to. How smart was that? He almost laughed at his continued need to protect himself. What did it matter anyway? She would be gone soon…it was too late to change the fact that he had grown attached to her. Why pretend? Why ignore the need that would not be slaked by any other means but touching her…having her.
“The truth?” he asked.
She nodded and relaxed more fully into the leather cushions.
“I received my first canvas and set of oil paints as a gift from my mother on my twelfth birthday. She was an artist and I was pretty good as a kid. At least she thought so.” He hadn’t thought of his parents in so long the concept of having family hardly felt real. The memories were almost like someone else’s! He’d trained himself not to think of them. It was easier that way. No, it was more than simply easy, it was necessary.
“Where are your parents now?” she asked, obviously sensing his melancholy.
“They died in a house fire about ten years ago while I was away on a mission. They were buried long before I even knew they were dead.” He would always regret that. He’d been an only child; there had been no one else. A longtime family friend had taken care of the arrangements and pushed the Department of Defense until they located Noah.
“So you started to paint seriously when you were twelve?” she prodded him back to the subject at hand.
He nodded. “But as time went on one thing or the other always got in the way. Girls, cars.” More recollections he hadn’t considered in years. “After signing on with the military I never looked back.” He glanced around the parlor, considered that this place had been his prison for five years now and yet he’d never really lived here. He’d merely existed, gleaning minute fragments of happiness from his ocean and his painting.
“When this happened, I had nothing and no one. Finally I turned to the one thing I’d always wanted to do…painting.” He shrugged self-consciously. “It’s kept me sane…” He thought about the waves crashing against the sand outside and even the house that he more often referred to as a prison than not. All of it, even the island had kept him grounded to a certain extent. Yes, the bitterness was still there, but it had lessened somehow these past few days.
She was the reason.
For the first time in five long years he felt something more than the bitterness…more than the need to paint and to run in the darkness. He felt desire and physical need. And those emotions were reciprocated, he knew. Whether she permitted herself to admit the truth or ever allowed herself to succumb to the temptation, she was drawn to him. That simple, basal response awakened his long-slumbering libido.
“Well—” she curled her legs under her “—if we’re going to play truth or dare here, I suppose I can confess my secret as well.”
Anticipation burned through him. This he wanted to hear. He’d thought he knew everything there was to know about Maggie “Blue” Callahan. Maybe he didn’t have such a big head start in the knowing game after all.
“I’m intrigued,” he said, stretching his legs out in front of him for comfort. “Don’t keep me in suspense.” Getting her mind off Lucas would help her relax, if only for a few minutes.
Her gaze traveled the length of him, then moved on to other things around the room as if looking directly at him as she spoke was too difficult. “About six months ago I was in a little Georgetown gallery and I discovered this wonderful painting.” She closed her eyes as if imagining the work. The smile told him that it was a pleasant memory…one that she relished recalling. When she at last opened her eyes, she continued, “I’d always assumed that I was above becoming obsessed with anything other than my work.” She laughed softly. “Boy, was I wrong. The scene drew me in, kept me entranced for hours on end. I just couldn’t get enough of looking at it.”
A new kind of tension moved through him, sending his heart into a faster rhythm…making his pulse react.
“I found myself imagining all kinds of things about the man who’d painted that haunting forest scene. It had to be a man—or maybe I just wanted to believe that. He had to be dark, of course, to convey that enigmatic mood…the forbidden sense of sensuality.” Her gaze shifted to his and those blue eyes glittered with unconcealed lust. “I was right. It was you. N.D.D.”
He needed to touch her, but he didn’t dare break the spell. The air was charged with their mutual desire, edged with the raw tension of recent events. His loins tightened with the need pooling there.
She turned away for a long moment. He was afraid she might not say any more, and he so wanted to hear the rest. Finally, she allowed him to see her eyes again.
“I felt it the moment I arrived on the island. A sense of familiarity…of knowing. And then, when we met, I knew there was a connection there, something that drew me to you other than that handsome face and made-for-sin body.”
A smile crept across his lips. “Made-for-sin body?”
She shrugged. “I did see you in that towel, you know.”
He nodded. “Ah, yes, you did.”
“Sin would definitely be the right word.”
He splayed his hands and shook his head. “I wish I could claim some special connection that made me notice you, but I can’t.” The uncertainty in her eyes told him she didn’t know how to take his admission. “I simply wanted you the moment I saw you. No pomp and circumstance, just plain old lust.”
She blushed becomingly, the dusky red making the rest of her skin look even creamier. “I see. So you didn’t want a bodyguard, you just wanted a body.”
“Not just any body,” he pointed out. “Your body.”
Her pulse skipped at the confession. Warmth spread through her immediately just sitting there looking at him. He wanted her…she wanted him. Time to find a distraction.
“I think I’ll hit the shower.” She stood, stretched and sighed. “You okay for a few minutes?”
He had her .38, not to mention a gun cabinet filled with weapons. She didn’t have to ask if he knew how to use them. He was ex-military, not Special Forces but something on that order.
He nodded, saying nothing as she hurried up the stairs without looking back. If she’d looked back she was certain he would have seen the invitation to join her in her eyes.
That would not be conducive to keeping her distance emotionally. Definitely not a good thing.
Well, she was certain it would be good, physically anyway, but it wasn’t the right choice.
In her room, Blue shucked her clothes. She turned on the shower and checked the soap, a new habit she’d acquired since coming here. She glanced at her reflection in the mirror, noting the bruises and healing scratches from the glass slivers. She wondered what Noah saw when he looked at her. Did he feel the depth of emotion she felt when she looked at him? Or was it still just plain old lust? She wanted to believe he felt more now. She shouldn’t allow herself to go there. She couldn’t fall in love with this man. But, if she was honest with herself, she was halfway there already.