by Diane Leyne
“Are you sure, sugar?” asked Aaron, patting the empty spot between him and Tait. “We’ve got a candy-apple-sized place all soft and comfy just for you.”
“We have a couple of things that aren’t soft.” Tait winked at her as he flipped aside the bedclothes and stroked his hard length. “Sure you won’t come back to bed, honey.” He smiled as he moved his hand up and down, up and down. For a second, Candy was mesmerized by the sight and could feel an answering throbbing between her legs. She could feel herself wavering as Aaron flipped back his covers and started working his own cock.
Now her nipples were tightening and her pussy felt empty as it pulsed, her creaming dampening her panties. Damn them she thought fondly, close to changing her mind, when a knock came on the door.
“It’s Leo. You ready, Candy? I know I’m a bit early, but I can’t wait to see Don again.”
“Almost. Give me two minutes.” Candy looked over at her reclining men. One part of her wanted to hop back into bed, but she’d promised Leo. She hurried into the bathroom.
“Dawn?” Tait asked when she came out.
“Yup. Don Franklin. I’m sure I told you.” She walked over and gave them each a kiss on the cheek. “I guess I forgot. I’ll give you the scoop when we get back.”
* * * *
Ninety minutes later, Tait and Aaron were back in Candy’s room after a punishing workout. “Nothing like a little ten-mile jog to work off the sexual tension.”
“I hear you.” Aaron yawned and lay down on the bed. “And now I think I’m going to take a short nap. Wake me up in time for lunch.”
“I was thinking…”
“Could be dangerous.” Tait threw a pillow at his friend. Aaron calmly caught it and propped it under his back as he sat up.
“I was thinking that maybe we could plan something. It’s already Sunday. Carter and his family will be back on Friday. Maybe we could have a collaring ceremony and then enjoy a few days here as guests and not the help.”
“That isn’t actually a bad idea. But we should call and see how Noah’s doing. He had quite the experience with Rodgers shooting him in the cock. He ended up with only a little bruising, but that’s got to play with a guy’s mind.
“Yup…” Tait grabbed his phone. “Sorenson.” He paused, listening intently for a few moments. “Look, Redekker, I’m going to put you on speaker so Aaron can hear.”
“I just wanted to give you an update,” Quin Redekker continued calmly.
“Us first, Redekker,” Tait interjected. “We’ve learned something. She saw him the morning everything went down. She was going back and forth about whether she should offer Noah the chance to visit Libertine Island and a temporary chef or take the job herself. Rodgers was at the diner, waiting. He, damn him, he could have hurt her, but when she got nervous and babbled about the job down here, he convinced her to take it herself and get out of Satisfaction PDQ.”
“Hmm. That confirms part of his story. He was pretty damned arrogant, expecting to be praised for letting her go. Too bad we can’t believe much else he’s been telling us.”
“I thought he was singing like a canary?”
“He was, or so we thought. Most of it was crap. And then he had a visit from his lawyer Tuesday and he shut up tighter than a clam.
“So, he seems to think he has some sort of bargaining chip. Or one of his people has it. Seems he stole a whole lot of information on the witness protection program. He could put a lot of lives at risk. We need to get it back.”
“So why are you calling us?”
“Seems there was a break-in at Candy’s place Tuesday. We just thought that it was a random crime since she’s out of town. But then there was a break-in at the diner. Nothing was touched but her office. No money stolen. Nothing vandalized. Just her office searched thoroughly. By a pro. We went back to look at her place again. It was made to look like a random break-in, but when we looked at it again, we realized that they concentrated on her office and her purses of all things. Looked in drawers, even in the kitchen. They were looking for something small. When they didn’t find it, they made it look like a normal robbery. And before you ask, we didn’t contact you because it seemed unrelated. Dace, as her brother, took care of things at this end.”
“There’s more to it than that. What’s changed?”
“The lawyer returned on Wednesday morning. Rodgers seemed a bit less confident, but still wasn’t talking. We decided to have a talk with the lawyer and found that he’d gone out of town. To St. Maarten, to be precise.”
“Holy fuck. What’s he doing on St. Maarten?”
“That’s what we’d like to know, Tait. Has anyone been asking around about her?”
“No. I don’t know!” Aaron admitted. “We’re on a private island. No one who isn’t a registered guest of staff can get on the island. But, Quin, Candy’s on St. Maarten. She went this morning to visit the market.”
“Is she alone?”
“No, she’s with one of the staff. But he’s meeting a date. She’ll be by herself and vulnerable.”
“Aaron and I are going to grab a boat and head on over and find her. Can you send us a photo of Rodger’s brother? And what’s his name, anyway?”
“He actually looks a lot like his brother. I’ll e-mail you a photo. And his name is, let me check, Donald Frank Rodgers. Age forty-two.”
“Aaron, Aaron. Donald Frank! Don. She said she was meeting Don. We assumed it was a woman.”
“Holy shit. We were surprised that Leo was going on a date with a woman. You find JJ or Duncan and see if you can get us any weapons. I’m heading down to the boathouse and get us a ride if I have to steal one.”
“I’m right behind you, buddy.” He rushed out the door at a dead run back toward the staff quarters, phone in his hand. “Quin, did you get any of that?”
“I got enough. Go save your woman. I’m going to make a few calls and see what help I can get from the St. Maarten authorities. Good luck.”
Chapter Ten
Candy gathered up her bags. She and Leo had arrived later than planned and she’d had to leave after a cup of coffee to make sure she didn’t miss Mrs. Gervaise at the guavaberry stand. Her granddaughter had said she’d only be there from nine to ten and wouldn’t be back until the following week, which was too late for Candy. She’d seen flash of annoyance on Don’s face when she announced her early departure, but then it was gone and his expression turned smug. Then he’d smiled and asked what time he needed to deliver Leo back to the boat. Then he wished her a good day.
She gave Leo a hug and offered to stay, but he assured her that he was fine. She wanted to protest, but he was a big boy. She’d known him only for a few days and in another few days she’d be gone from his life.
An hour later, she was making her way back to the boat, hurrying because she was late. It wasn’t easy, weighed down with several large bags containing a guavaberry pie, more jam, a bottle of liqueur, and enough guavaberries for her to try her hand at jam-making. It had been a good morning. She got to Dock Maarten and hurried down the gangway toward the boat they’d taken. It was bigger than two people really needed, but JJ had insisted. He’d just serviced it and filled up the tanks, so it was ready to go.
She could see Leo lying down on one of the benches, his hat pulled down low on his face, his jacket covering his torso. Don sat beside him chatting. Damn! She pasted a smile on her face as she approached the boat. Don stepped off the boat as she approached and she grinned with relief. Maybe he was just keeping Leo company until she arrived.
“Let me take those for you. Wait there. I’ll be right back.” Reluctantly she handed her packages over to him. He stowed them at the back as she scrambled onto the boat.
“Why’d you do that? I’d have helped you!” He sounded hurt, but his eyes were mocking. She shivered and shrugged, hoping he hadn’t noticed the shiver. She’d liked him when they first met, but she now realized that was because he’d retrieved her purse from the thief. Now that she knew him b
etter, it wasn’t anything he said or did, but there was something about him.
But if Leo liked him…She frowned. Why hadn’t Leo come up to greet her? Wasn’t he feeling well? She walked down to where Leo was lying as Don started casting off. She stopped.
“What are you doing?”
“Heading back to the island.”
“We told you. No unapproved visitors.”
“Leo’s not feeling well. I told him I’d drive. Someone can run me back later. Or maybe I’ll stay and look after him.”
“If Leo isn’t up to driving, then I will. You aren’t approved to come onto the island, Mr. Franklin. I have to ask you to leave this boat immediately.”
“I don’t think so.”
Abruptly he shifted the boat into gear and they were moving. She looked over to Leo. As the boat turned sharply to move toward the open water, she saw Leo roll and realized he was about to fall off the ledge. She moved toward him just as Don put the boat into a higher gear and it jumped forward, picking up speed.
He was driving recklessly, but she had more immediate concerns. Leo was lying with his head pointed toward her, his baseball cap covering most of his face. He looked unnaturally still. She looked back at Don, who changed speeds, slowing down and then abruptly speeding up as he turned the boat.
Candy fell to her knees just as Leo rolled again, falling onto the deck of the boat, his hat coming off. Crawling forward, she realized that he hadn’t spoken because his mouth was sealed shut with duct tape, and he had an ugly bruise forming over his right eyebrow. She pulled his jacket away. It had been covering the fact that his hands were tied together as were his feet.
She knelt beside him and looked up at Don.
“What’s going on? What do you want?”
“You have something I want. Now I’ve got something you want. If you’d had it in your purse on Thursday, I would have gone away and you wouldn’t even have seen me. What did you do with it?”
“With what? I have no idea what you are talking about.”
“The USB key my brother slipped in your purse back in Satisfaction. What the hell kind of name is that? My brother says it’s a kinky fucking place where all the men share a woman. That true?”
She ignored him as she gently tried to work the duct tape off Leo’s mouth. She saw his eyelids flutter as the pain seemed to be helping him regain consciousness.
“Leo? Leo. Can you hear me?”
“Leave the little queer alone. He’ll be dead soon enough if you don’t get me what I want.”
“What are you talking about? Your brother?”
“Yeah, my brother, who is now languishing in jail because he tried and failed to kill another queer. What the hell is it with you and gays? First Noah and now this one. You don’t like real men?”
“I like real men, as you call them, just fine. I just don’t judge my friends by their sexuality.”
“Whatever. If you value Leo here’s life, you’ll get the USB key and I’ll be glad to go on my way.”
“What USB key? And what brother? Wait. You said your brother’s in jail…He tried to kill…Your brother’s Rodgers? The FBI agent who tried to kill Noah and Tanner? He deserves to rot in jail!”
“Maybe so. He was also a traitor to his country and his agency. He had a USB key filled with the names and locations of all the people in witness protection. He sent me to fetch it so he could use it as a bargaining chip.”
“He would! But I don’t have any key. Your brother is lying. He never gave me anything.”
“He said he slipped it in your purse last Sunday, when you saw him at the diner.”
“But when? Wait. When he talked me into leaving, he went into my office and grabbed my purse. He was out of sight for a second, so I guess he could have slipped something into it.”
“He knew there was a chance he’d get caught and this was his backup plan. He assumed you’d drop it off at home when you were packing and then I’d just break in and retrieve it. I did and it wasn’t there.”
“I didn’t go home. I was already packed. I drove straight to the airport.”
“That explains that. It doesn’t explain why the key wasn’t in your purse Thursday.” He squinted against the sun. “In fact, there wasn’t much of anything in your purse.”
“Yeah, I cleaned it out and dumped everything back in the room.”
“Great. You can go back there and get it.”
“The government doesn’t bargain. You know that even if they let your brother go, they’ll just re-arrest him.”
“Oh, I know. I don’t plan on turning it over to him. I’m going to sell it to the highest bidder. There are more than a few people out there who would pay good money to find the location of some of the people on this list.”
“You are betraying your brother?”
“Damned straight. I’m going to get rich. He can rot for all I care.” He slowed the engine and pulled into a secluded cove. “Let’s get something straight. Either you get the key for me or I kill Leo. Simple as that.”
* * * *
Tait had almost barreled almost immediately. JJ didn’t wait to hear the whole story. Instead, he just said one word, “boathouse,” and took off at a run. Aaron was trying to hotwire a power boat.
“Your security is too damned good.”
“Not that one, the fishing boat at the end. Doesn’t look like much, but it’s got the best engine on the island. I’ll grab the keys.”
The men watched as JJ just used the card reader to enter the boat house. He handed Aaron a set of keys and grabbed a small black device off a shelf. “GPS. The boat they took is code LI69A.”
“Weapons?”
“No guns or anything anywhere on the island. Just knives and hooks and stuff, the usual that comes with a fishing boat. Nothing for distance, but it few get close…” Then he and Tait joined Aaron on the fishing boat.
Tait handed JJ the GPS and looked around the deck. “You find Candy and Leo. I’ll gather the potential weapons.”
Tait tried not to think about what Don Rodgers was up to. Was it revenge? Hell. He couldn’t figure out why he would want to get close to Candy and Leo, and frankly he didn’t care. He’d kill the bastard if he harmed a hair on her head.
“Got them. They’re going slowly, hugging the shoreline on the west side of the island.”
“Is there any way to surprise them, JJ? What’s the terrain like?”
“Not really. We can get close, but in the end, we’ll have to come out in the open. They’ll hear us first.”
“Can we use that?” Aaron asked. “Pretend we’ve come out fishing or something? He doesn’t know we’re on to him, right?”
“Right. JJ?”
“We’ve got fishing rods, beer, hats, and all the accessories, Aaron. They are around that next bend. Pull over into that cove and let’s get organized.”
“Thanks, JJ. If we pull in close, can you make it to shore?”
“Yes, but you aren’t getting rid of me. Don’t even think about it.”
“We’re professionals.”
“Unless you are planning on pushing me overboard, Tait, you’re stuck with me.” Tait looked at JJ.
“You’ve got one baby and another on the way. I can’t let you risk yourself. Protocol says no civilians on a mission.”
“It’s my choice! Don’t worry. I won’t play hero. I’ve got one kid and another on the way. I’m not an idiot. I’m not going to get into the thick of the action, but you need someone to drive the boat while you two jump into action.”
“I don’t know…”
“Stop it, Tait!” Aaron sounded furious. “This is Candy we’re talking about, not some abstract case. I don’t give a flying fuck about anything but getting her back in one piece. Tait, he’s a big boy and can make his own decisions. And we’ve got three guns. Now what’s the plan?”
* * * *
Candy could hear the boat before she could see it. It was a fishing boat. It was moving slowly. There seemed to be three
men on it. One was driving and the other two were lounging at the back fiddling with their fishing rods and tackle.
“Shit! You two shut up.” He lifted his jacket and showed Candy a gun tucked into his waistband. “Unlike my useless brother, I have no problem with murder.”
Candy subsided in her seat. Leo was coming around, moaning slightly. Without asking, she carefully removed the tape. She saw Don’s angry gaze but didn’t care.
“Can I give him some water? There’s some in that chest.” She pointed to a cooler near the pilot’s seat.
Don nodded and backed off, pulling the gun out of his waistband and gesturing that she should retrieve the water. She took out two bottles and the moved slowly back toward Leo. She put one down beside her while she uncapped the other. Then she helped Leo sit up slightly before giving him a sip.
“Just take a sip.” He moved to sit up. “Not too quickly. You might have a concussion.”
“Nah. Blondie’s got a thick skull. Maybe it’s all that hair.”
“Can I untie him?”
“Do you really have to ask?”
Candy shrugged. It was worth asking.
The other boat was coming closer, the motor sputtering. Don tucked the gun in the back of his pants. “Remember, not a word or I’ll kill the three of them.”
With his attention on the other boat, she quickly began to untie Leo’s hands, but it was hard. Don had tied the knots well and she didn’t have a knife.
“Hey, man. How are you doing?”
She had to stop herself from calling out Aaron. She’d know that voice anywhere. One of the others had to be Tait. And the third, that was JJ, she was sure of it.
“Looking for privacy, if you know what I mean.”