by Ginna Gray
Both women had flawless skin and delicate features, and their red hair was set off by slanting brown eyes the exact shade of David's. They also shared the same stubborn jaw-line as their brother. In looks the twins were identical, but even if her sister hadn't called her by name, from what David had told Abigail about them, she would have known that the one with the bold stare and impudent twinkle in her eye was Erin. The other one, with her soft smile and quiet manner could only be Elise.
They were gorgeous creatures. Somehow Abigail hadn't expected that—perhaps because of David's ruggedly appealing but less than perfect looks.
Dazzled by their beauty, Abigail squirmed at David's side, uncomfortably aware that the makeup she had applied the day before was gone; that much of her hair, which was sticky and stiff from the swim across the cove, had been pulled loose from the braid by brambles and branches during their all-night trek and hung in an unkempt mess around her face; that her baggy shorts, though clean, were faded from numerous dunkings in salt water and in desperate need of ironing; that her legs and arms were covered with scratches. She didn't need a mirror to know that she looked like the wrath of God. And beside this gorgeous pair she probably looked even worse.
Chelsea poked her head over the top of the purse pocket and looked at the two women, her button eyes bright. Elise was immediately captivated. "Oh, what an adorable dog! It's a Yorkshire terrier, isn't it?"
"Yes," Abigail replied. "Her name is Chelsea."
Chelsea liked women, and in response to such enthusiasm, she jumped down and trotted over to make Elise's acquaintance, her stubby plumed tail waving like a silk pompom.
"She's precious." As Elise ooohed and ahhhed, David shot her and the dog a black look.
"I thought you weren't going to be here until next week," he growled.
"Elise and I decided to come down a few days early and open the place up. But you beat us to it. You and Miss... uh..." Erin cast a none-too-subtle glance at Abigail, then looked at her brother and waited for him to take the hint.
He did, though not graciously, making the introductions in a terse voice.
"I hope you don't mind that David brought me here uninvited?" Abigail asked worriedly. "It was... well, sort of an emergency, you see."
At once, Erin's eyes lit up, and David groaned.
"Really? What kind of emergency?"
"Uh..."
"None of your business," David snapped. "And where the devil are Max and Sam?"
"They're still in Santa Fe, tied up in some important business deal. They'll be here in a few days."
"Oh, great! That's just great! Here I thought you'd found husbands who were up to watching out for you. What were they thinking of, letting the two of you come down here alone?"
"David, for goodness' sake," Elise scolded as she stroked Chelsea's head. "We're grown women now, not children. We don't need guardians."
"C'mon. This is me you're talking to. I know the kind of mischief you two can get into without half trying." His eyes cut to Erin. "And some people go looking for it."
Elise hid a smile behind her hand. Erin stuck her tongue out at him and went back to grilling Abigail. "So, Abbey, how long have you known our brother?"
"Not... not long." She felt David begin to sag, and she tightened her hold on his waist and leaned in more to prop him up. How long she could manage, she didn't know. She was ready to drop herself.
"Oh?" Erin looked pointedly at David's arm, draped around Abigail's shoulders, and the close alignment of their bodies. "And how did you meet?"
"I... well..."
"Knock it off, Erin. Didn't Mom teach you it's rude to give a guest the third degree."
"Oh! I'm sorry." At once she switched her attention to her brother. "So how long have you and Abbey been here?"
David gave a long-suffering sigh. "We got here night before last."
"Is that right? We arrived last night. Where were you?"
"Out."
"No kidding." Erin looked them over, her lips pursed. "I'd say you were out partying except the two of you look like you've been jerked through a knothole backward. Care to explain?"
"No, I wouldn't. Now if you don't mind, we're both bushed. We're going to get some shut-eye." He took a wobbly step, but Erin hopped off the rail and blocked their path.
"Would you like for me to get another room ready?" she asked guilelessly. "I noticed the mattress in one of the guest rooms you were using has been burned."
"We'll manage with one," he ground out, much to Erin's delight. That she had ferreted out the information pleased her immensely, and she shot her sister an "I told you so" look.
Under normal circumstances Abigail would have been mortified by David's bluntness, but she felt him sag a bit more, and concern for him blocked every other consideration out of her mind. When Erin opened her mouth to ask more questions, Abigail cut her off. She knew that David was trying to keep his sisters from learning of their situation, but the time for shilly-shallying around had passed.
"I'm sorry, Erin, but I must put David to bed. He's been shot and he's lost a lot of blood. We've also been up for the past twenty-four hours."
"Shot!"
"Oh, my lord!"
Elise leaped out of the lounger and rushed over to them, and Erin quickly added her support to David's other side. Both sisters started firing questions at once.
"How was he shot? Where? What happened? Who did it? Has he seen a doctor? David Blaine, you blockhead! Why in the world didn't you say so right away?"
"Don't fuss. Look, it's not serious," David insisted. "It's just a flesh wound. All I need is a few hours sleep and a thick steak and I'll be as good as new."
"At least let us take you to Alhaja Verde to a doctor," Elise pleaded.
"No! None of us is going anywhere near Alhaja Verde. And don't either of you try to go for a doctor while I'm asleep. For that matter, if anyone—anyone at all—comes near this place, either by land or water, you're to wake me at once. Now both of you get inside and lock the doors and stay there. I mean it. And I want you both to promise you'll do as I say." Even as weak as he was, his hard look was intimidating.
The twins exchanged a worried glance. Erin grimaced but she nodded and agreed grudgingly. "Oh, all right. We'll do it. But when you wake up, you've got some serious explaining to do, brother dear."
***
"Abbey, wake up."
The whisper penetrated layers of sleep, but Abigail resisted it. Sighing, she wriggled her face deeper into the pillow.
"C'mon, Abbey. Time to face the music."
Abigail smiled. The male voice in her ear was familiar... pleasantly so, and it sent a tingle down her nerve endings. She blinked her eyes open and encountered laughing brown ones just inches away. David. Her heart did a flip. Dear, wonderful David.
She smiled with sleepy invitation and touched his face. He appealed to her as no man ever had, with his pugnacious jaw and his tough, rough-around-the-edges look. Even the bruises and the cut above his eye merely enhanced his vibrant maleness. His was such a strong face—and so beloved.
"Here now. None of that." He caught her hand as it stroked his jaw and carried it to his mouth. His lips were warm on her palm, and Abigail shivered when she felt the sweep of his tongue. Anticipation trembled through her, and she leaned toward him, her lips yearning. He obliged her with a hot, hard, plunging kiss that melted her bones. Then his mouth was withdrawn, and at the same instant he delivered a stinging slap to her rear end.
She jerked to a sitting position and glared at him. He grinned back. "We don't have time for you to seduce me right now," he said audaciously.
"Sedu— Why you..." Abigail whacked him in the face with a pillow, but he just laughed.
"C'mon, sweetheart. Shake a leg. It's the middle of the afternoon already. We've been asleep for six hours. That's about the limit to Erin's patience. She'll be barging in here soon if we don't come out."
"Six hours! Is that all?" Abigail groaned and held her head between her p
alms. She could sleep twice that long with no problem.
"Hit the shower, woman. You've got to help me convince my sisters to go back to Santa Fe. Now move it."
Abigail squinted her eyes at David. For the first time she noticed that he was clean shaven. They had both been so exhausted, they had fallen into bed as they were, barely taking the time to strip off their outer clothing. Now he smelled of soap and after-shave, his hair was combed, and he was wearing fresh jeans and a clean cotton shirt. After a mere six hours sleep he looked disgustingly chipper, all bright-eyed and energetic, and his skin bloomed with healthy color. The man's recuperative powers were amazing.
Abigail, on the other hand, felt positively grubby, which was the reason she did not take exception to his bossiness, other than to shoot him a glare as she padded to the bathroom. Thirty minutes later she felt better able to, face his beautiful sisters. David refused to give her time to do her hair, and it hung down her back like a wet cape, but at least she was clean and wearing one of her new sundresses, and she had on makeup.
When they entered the living room, Elise was nervously sipping tea with Chelsea curled up in her lap, while Erin paced the floor. Both pounced the moment Abigail and David appeared.
"All right. Out with it. Who shot you and why?" Erin demanded before they could say a word.
"How do you feel, David?" Elise asked. "We've been worried sick."
"Jeez. Will you two give us a break? Couldn't we at least have a bite to eat first? We're starving, for crying out loud."
"Elise already has sandwiches made, but you'll have to eat while you talk because we're not waiting any longer," Erin commanded, herding them over to the stools at the bar as her twin hurried into the kitchen. "Now start at the beginning. And don't leave anything out."
Abigail remained silent while David related the harrowing events of the past few days. She devoured tuna sandwiches and chips, and watched his sisters' expressions run the gamut of emotions—from amusement when they heard how she and David had met, to surprise and horror over how an innocent bystander had been caught in the middle of an apparent espionage operation, to shock, then outrage over the Russian agents' violent attempts to abduct her.
"So you can see, it would be best if the two of you returned to Santa Fe on the next plane. I don't know how much time we have before they discover this place."
Elise looked uncertain, but Erin bristled. "Don't be silly. We're not going anywhere. We're your sisters. We want to help. Don't we, Elise?"
"Well..."
"You are not staying, and that's that."
"Oh, yeah! Well this is our house and you can't make us leave. So there!"
In a blink the argument escalated into a full-scale shouting match with brother and sister standing almost nose to nose.
Unused to such sibling wrangles, Abigail squirmed. To get out of the line of fire, she eased off the bar stool and wandered over to the French doors at the front of the room, pretending an interest in the ocean view. After a moment, a movement down the beach caught her attention. As she studied the bobbing dot, her eyes widened and prickles of alarm crawled over her scalp.
"Oh, my stars! David come quick! There's a man on the beach, and he'd heading this way!"
Chapter Thirteen
The heated argument ceased abruptly.
"Get away from the doors. And you two get down." David rushed across the room and pushed Abigail aside even as he issued the terse orders. Keeping her behind him, he flattened out against the adjacent wall and peered around the edge of the glass door.
The sun glared off the white sand beach, and David squinted his eyes to study the strolling figure. The man was just ambling along as though he hadn't a care in the world. He was coming from the direction of the Chapulta, the fishing village at the other end of the island where the ferryboat from Alhaja Verde called twice a day. He could be a tourist, though that was unlikely; there was only the village and a few private vacation homes on Rincon.
Slung over the man's back was a small canvas duffel. He did not appear to be carrying a weapon of any kind, but David knew that appearances could be deceiving.
"Can you tell who it is?" Erin asked from where she and Elise crouched behind one of the sofas.
"Not quite yet. Although... there is something familiar about..." David's head jutted forward, and his eyes widened as he studied the man's lanky stride. "Ah, hell, I don't believe it!"
"What? Who is it?"
"Oh, dear."
"Is it one of Sergio's men?"
"Hell, no," David muttered with utter disgust. "It's Travis."
"Travis!" Elise and Erin jumped up and rushed to the French doors.
"It is! It's him. I'd know that loose-limbed saunter anywhere," Erin whooped.
They all went out on the deck, and David's sisters waved. Spotting them, Travis waved back and jogged for the steps. He'd barely reached the deck when Elise and Erin rushed forward and threw their arms around his neck, nearly knocking him down.
"Travis! It's so good to see you."
"It's been so long! You look wonderful!"
Laughing, their cousin returned the exuberant greetings, and when the hugs and kisses were done, he turned his lazy grin on David. "Hello, Cuz. I thought I'd find you here."
"What the hell is this?" David snarled. "A family reunion? I brought Abbey here because I thought it would be a safe house, not to introduce her to my nutty relatives."
Travis chuckled, not the least put off by his cousin's ill humor. "I take it this lovely lady is Miss Stewart," he said, turning his twinkling gray eyes on Abbey. He dropped his duffel on the deck and took her hand between both of his. "I'm Travis McCall, cousin to this bad-tempered oaf. And whatever he's told you about me, it's all a lie. I swear it."
Abigail stammered some sort of greeting, though what, she couldn't have said. She was too busy staring. She had not given much thought to what David's cousin looked like. Even if she had, never in a million years would she have dreamed he'd be this wild-looking, devil-may-care charmer.
Travis McCall looked like a cross between a movie star, a pirate, and a bum. He appeared to be seven or eight years younger than David, somewhere around thirty. His thick blond hair, clipped short on the top and sides, hung below his shoulders in the back, and he wore a folded bandanna tied across his forehead like a sweatband. Reddish, brown beard stubble covered the lower half of his face. A pair of disreputable sneakers, tied together by their laces, hung over one of his shoulders, the tight T-shirt that molded his chest was faded to an unrecognizable color, and beneath the holey jeans, which were rolled halfway up his calves, his legs and bare feet were coated with sand. His features were chiseled handsome, his body lean and muscled, and he moved with a hip-rolling saunter that no woman alive could watch without her thoughts straying to the bedroom. Come-hither gray eyes, a heart-stopping grin and eyelashes any female over the age of twelve would kill for, completed the rakish look. That....and the two-inch-long gold earring in the shape of a dagger dangling from his left ear.
If Abigail's notion of what an FBI man looked like had been shaken by David and turned upside down by Leo Bates, Travis McCall shattered the Eliot Ness fantasy into a million pieces.
Abigail's cheeks pinkened as the daring young man continued to hold her hand and look her up and down. "I must say, Cuz, if I had known Miss Stewart was so attractive I'd have hopped a plane and come down to help you out that first day."
"Knock it off, Travis," David growled, drilling his cousin with a hard look. "And I don't recall asking for your help. How did you find us, anyway?"
"Are we going to stand around out here all afternoon?" Erin demanded. "Why don't we go inside and get comfortable."
Elise added her own urgings, and Travis brushed the sand off his feet and legs and followed the twins through the door, grinning back over his shoulder at David. "It was a simple matter. I called Telecom headquarters and asked to speak to you. When they told me you were on vacation, I figured you'd either be on your boat
or here. And you don't have to ask for my help," he said with a taunting smile.
"You're kin. I feel obligated to bail you out of whatever trouble you're in."
Chelsea stood stiff legged in the middle of the living room and growled at the newcomer, her lip lifted over sharp little teeth. Without pause, Travis squatted down and patted the dog's silky head. "Hello there, girl. My, aren't you a cutie."
David's mouth dropped when the tiny terrier instantly abandoned her ferocious stance and rolled over on her back to have her tummy rubbed. As Travis obliged, he looked up at David, his expression turning grave.
"You know, Cuz, if I could find you, others can, too. I had the advantage of being a relative and knowing about this place, so I beat them here by a day or so, but it's just a matter of time."
"I know, dammit."
Travis gave Chelsea a final pat and sprawled out on one of the sofas beside Elise. The Yorkie, not ready to be dismissed, jumped up in his lap and looked adoringly at him while he stroked her back. "So why don't you tell me what's going on and we'll put our heads together and see if we can work it out?"
David gave the dog a disgusted glare. "Damned animal tries to bite my hand off whenever I get near her," he muttered under his breath, settling on the opposite sofa.
As David filled Travis in on all that had happened, Abigail noticed the sharp intelligence in the younger man's eyes and the intent way he listened. She realized that the wild young rebel look and devil-may-care charm he exuded were excellent cover.
Not that both weren't genuine. She had a feeling that Travis McCall was hell on wheels when it came to women, and that thumbing his nose at convention probably came as naturally to him as breathing.
"So, you think Leo Bates has turned?" Travis asked when he'd heard the whole story.
"It looks that way," David replied, "Either that, or he had orders to set us up. If so, that raises the question of why?"
"Do you have any idea what Abbey has that this Sergio character wants? That's the key."
"The American working for them mentioned a list, but Abbey doesn't have anything like that on her, which means we're probably looking for a microdot. I went through her things and came up empty."