Her words touched him deeply and scared him a little, too, because he felt much the same way. With Ria, he didn't seem to have his usual defenses in place. And he wasn't quite sure how to handle something serious. But he was going to have to learn quickly, because what he felt for Ria was serious and intense. He might bring out her fun side, but she brought out the side of him that wanted more than just a fling.
"Nothing to say?" she teased. "I can hardly believe I've rendered you speechless."
"Just thinking," he said. "When I first met you on the island, I felt like I'd just walked into the sun after a long time in the dark."
"That's because I was blond then."
"It wasn't just your hair color. It was you. Your sparkling eyes, teasing smile, your smart mouth—"
"What?" she interrupted.
"You gave me a hard time, Ria."
"You asked me to go to bed with you, and I didn't even know you."
"But I wanted to know you. I had to know you," he corrected. "That night, a feeling of desperation ran through me. I was afraid I would have to leave the island before I had a chance to talk to you, to touch you. Thank God you came to my cottage."
"I'm not sure you should be grateful about that." She sighed and put her head back down on his chest.
He tightened his arm around her shoulders, loving her soft curves alongside his body. "It was the best night of my life."
"Mine, too," she murmured.
She'd no sooner finished speaking when a spray of water hit him in the face. "What was that?" he sputtered.
Ria sat up, wiping water off of her face. She glanced at the tall ship passing not too far away from them and smiled. "We caught some of the wake. Maybe it's a sign that we should go back to the harbor."
"It's gone now."
"But the wind is picking up."
"That's a good thing," he said.
"Why?"
"Because I'm in the mood for a wild ride. What about you?"
"Absolutely," she said, throwing one leg over his hips. "And this time I'm going to be on top."
"Honey, you can be wherever you want to be."
* * *
Ria woke up to the early morning sun on her face. A glance at her watch said it was just after six. She wrapped the blanket around her as she stood up, knowing there would be fishing boats going out for the day. Then she grabbed her clothes and went downstairs to use the restroom and get dressed.
There were no supplies in the galley, so coffee would have to wait until they got back to the harbor.
Drew came down the stairs with a blanket wrapped loosely around his hips. "There you are," he said, swooping in for a kiss. "I was getting lonely."
"You were asleep when I left."
"Yeah, and you really have to stop leaving before I wake up."
Despite his smile, there was an edge to his words, and she realized that he was thinking about the first time she'd left him.
"I never wanted to hurt you, Drew. If you can't believe anything else I say, I hope you'll believe that."
"I know you didn't leave because of me. I just can't forget the ground moving beneath my feet when your boat blew up and the terror that followed me all the way out there. You weren't supposed to mean anything to me, Ria. I was shocked at how shattered I felt."
"You weren't supposed to mean anything to me, either." She put her hand on his face, caressing the rough stubble along his jawline. "But you do—mean something. I just don't know what I have to offer you."
He put his finger against her lips. "Hush. It's too early for this conversation."
She wondered if it wasn't too late.
"I need coffee," he added.
"We should get back," she agreed. "Megan will be home in a few hours. I'll get the boat going while you get dressed."
Twenty minutes later, the Eleanor was back in dock. Ria felt sorry that the night was over, but as the sun moved higher in the sky, she could no longer live in the world of beautiful illusion that she'd felt the night before. Her real life was about to get started again.
When they got back to her apartment, Ria made coffee and pancakes while Drew flipped through the Sunday morning news programs. She knew she should tell him to leave, but she kept putting it off. They wouldn't have too many more minutes together, and she wanted to make the most of each one.
As she flipped pancakes on to a plate, she got a text from Megan.
"Eric's dad's car got a flat tire. We're waiting for roadside service. Home soon. Had a great time!"
Ria blew out a breath of relief. Megan was fine. The prom was over, and so was the all-night party—one less problem to worry about.
"Everything all right?" Drew asked, as he turned off the television and joined her at the table.
"Megan is running late. Eric's father's car got a flat tire."
"But she's safe."
"Yeah. I'll be happy when I see her face though. She said the prom was great."
"You both had a good night," he said with a grin.
"Well, I hope she wasn't doing what I was doing," she said dryly. "I don't even want to think about that."
"She's sixteen and quite the romantic."
"She's smart, too," Ria said. "And we've been open with each other. I guess I have to trust her."
"Trust is hard for you."
"Yes," she admitted.
"And not just because of this situation," he added. "I think your trust issues go back to your father and maybe your mother, too."
"Are you my shrink now?"
"Sorry. Those pancakes smell good."
"Sit down. They're ready."
"Wonderful," he said between mouthfuls. "There's no end to your talents."
She smiled. "Don’t I know it."
"There's that smart mouth I like so much." He leaned across the table and kissed her. "Maple syrup," he said, licking his lips. "I like it. I could think of a few other places I might like to drizzle that syrup."
Her face warmed at his sexy words. "Stop that, Drew. Megan is going to be home any second, and I don't need either one of us to be hot and bothered."
He grinned. "When you're around I'm always hot and bothered."
She popped the last bite of pancake into her mouth and then said, "I'm going to take a shower. You can do the dishes."
"Or I could take a shower with you," he suggested.
"Not going to happen," she said, tossing her napkin at him, and then she went into the bedroom and shut the door.
When she got into the bathroom, she caught sight of her face in the mirror, and she was actually surprised at her reflection. She couldn't remember the last time she'd looked so alive, so happy. Actually, she could remember the last time. It was a year and a half ago, right after she'd climbed out of Drew's bed.
Moving away from the mirror, she turned on the shower and didn't wait for the water to heat up. She could use a little cold water on her face. She needed to get her head together. Today was a new day.
* * *
Drew cleaned up the breakfast dishes and tried not to think about Ria naked in the shower. The ringing of his cell phone provided a welcome distraction.
"Tim," he said in surprise. "You're up early on a Sunday."
"I picked up a shift last night for John. His wife went into labor."
"That's great news. What did she have?"
"Don’t know yet. Apparently, the labor is still going on. Anyway, I wanted to let you know that I spoke to my friend on Isla de los Sueños."
His stomach turned over. He'd forgotten all about Tim's offer to look into Ria's boat accident. And Tim didn't know that he'd met up with Ria again. He'd thought about mentioning it, but Ria was so afraid he'd reveal her whereabouts that he'd kept quiet.
"Drew? Did you hear me?"
"Yeah. What did you find out?"
"Your bartender wasn't the only one to die in that explosion. Apparently, the niece of Enrique Valdez was also on that boat as well. Her bodyguard was supposed to be with her, but he overslept and
didn't make the trip. He ended up dead two weeks later. Valdez blamed him for his niece's death." Tim paused. "Valdez is rumored to be the head of a large criminal organization. Most people on the island speak his name in hushed tones."
Drew sat down at the kitchen table, the pieces falling into place. Valdez's niece had to be Megan. "What was the girl's name?" he asked.
"Marguerite Valdez. My friend said that no bodies have ever been found, but that he's sure he would have heard something if your friend or Valdez's niece had turned out to be alive. Many, many people spent days looking for them because of Valdez's money and power. Everyone wanted to be the hero, the one to bring his niece home."
"Okay," Drew said, wanting to end the call before he said too much.
"I can keep asking questions," Tim said. "In fact, I might be headed down there in a week or two. They're having a poker tournament on the island. Maybe you'd like to go with me."
"I don't think so."
"Yeah, I figured you'd say that. Sorry I don't have better information."
"It's fine. And you don't need to ask any more questions. I'm going to move on."
"Well, that's good news. Do you think you can finally let her go, stop trying to save her?"
That was a million dollar question, Drew thought, and he still didn't have an answer. "I'll see you next week, Tim."
"Yeah, see you then."
Drew hung up the phone, his pulse pounding way too fast. He'd been afraid to push Ria to the end of her story, worried that whatever line she'd crossed would be one too many for him to overlook. Now he knew exactly what she'd done. It was so clear he couldn't believe he hadn't realized it before.
Ria walked back into the living room, her hair wet from her shower. When she saw his face and the phone in his hand, she stopped abruptly, giving him a wary look. "What's wrong?"
He got to his feet and walked over to her. "I'm going to ask you a question, and I want the truth." His gaze locked with hers. "Did you kidnap Megan?"
Chapter Sixteen
Ria stared at Drew, her blood pounding through her veins. Apparently, he'd made his decision, and now she had to make hers. She would tell him her story, but she wouldn't necessarily wait around to see what he would do with the information. The prom was over. If she had to leave, she would.
"Megan came with me willingly," she said. "Does that sound like a kidnapping?"
"But you don't have custody of her, do you?"
"No, I don't. Her uncle has custody, but he is a dangerous criminal. Megan was not safe with him. So I stepped in."
"Start at the beginning," he said.
"That's going to take some time. Megan will be home soon."
"And I assume she already knows the story." He walked back over to the kitchen table and sat down. "Talk."
A moment later, she took the seat across from him. "I've told you a lot of it already, but here's the rest. Kate was eighteen when she went to study abroad in Spain. Like me, she also had wanderlust in her soul; she just didn’t care to see the world by boat." Ria took a breath, trying not to get sidetracked by sad thoughts of her sister.
"Anyway," Ria continued, "Kate was only in Spain for six weeks when she met Reynoldo Valdez. He was twenty-five years old and a young lawyer, very handsome, sophisticated. He'd been educated in the U.S., so he spoke perfect English. They fell in love. When her semester of study was over, Kate couldn't bring herself to leave. She signed up for another year. A few months later, she became pregnant. She dropped out of school and married Reynoldo."
"And your family had nothing to say about that?" he asked.
"My family was scattered to the winds. My mother was having her own love affair. I was fourteen and trying to make my way through my first year of high school. My dad was doing his thing, whatever that was. Everyone was thinking about themselves."
"At least two of those people should have been thinking about you," he said quietly.
"Well, this story isn't about me, at least not yet. Both of my parents tried to talk to Kate, but she was headstrong and in love. She was still angry with my mother, so she didn't give a damn what my mother had to say. Kate convinced my father that she was having the time of her life with her rich, handsome husband. After Megan was born, Kate sent me a picture of the two of them. She looked happy, and the baby had all this beautiful dark hair. I really wanted to see them both, but I was a kid. I couldn't get myself to Spain. Kate had no interest in returning to the States."
Ria cleared her throat. "For the next several years, I had little contact with Kate," she continued. "I wrote to her a few times, but she rarely wrote back. Then one day she sent me an email and asked me to stop writing her. She said she would be in touch with me when she could. I thought that was weird, but our relationship was so distant by then, I didn't care anymore."
"I doubt that you didn't care, Ria."
"Well, I tried not to care. After I left home and started traveling, I didn't really think about Kate. When I was twenty-two, my father got really sick. He was dying, and he wanted to see me. I could hardly believe it," she said, thinking about how shocked she had been at the time. "I was angry that ten years had passed since our last visit, but I was also touched that he remembered me at all. So against my mother's wishes, I flew to his house. He was living in Texas at the time with some woman I didn’t know. That's when I saw Kate again. She had Megan with her. Megan was ten years old. She was the cutest thing. We were together a week before my dad passed away."
"Ria, are we getting to the kidnapping part soon?" he asked impatiently.
"You wanted the story from the beginning, so sit back and be quiet."
"Fine."
"During that week Kate and I bonded again as sisters. She confided in me that her husband's family was not what she had thought. She loved Reynoldo, and he was an honorable man, but she believed that many of the family businesses were fronts for organized crime and that his brother Enrique was the ringleader. She was fearful for Reynoldo and also for herself, because people who challenged Enrique tended to disappear." Ria thought back to that long ago conversation that had changed so many lives. "I didn't completely believe her. Kate loved drama. I should have taken her more seriously."
"It's always easier to see things when you're looking back," Drew said. "What happened next?"
"Nothing happened for a while. Kate told me that the reason she'd asked me not to contact her was because she didn't want anyone to know about me. After my father passed away, the Valdez family thought she was an orphan. She'd apparently told Reynoldo at their first meeting that her mother was dead, because to all intents and purposes she was dead to Kate. The next time I saw my sister was three years later—in France. I was in a sailboat race, and she and Megan came to see me. I guess she had a friend who lived in the area, so she was able to get away from the family without anyone knowing she was coming to see me. Megan was thirteen, and I could see the changes in both of them."
"Like what?"
"They were tense, quiet, nervous. Kate told me she thought Enrique was having her followed. He'd taken charge of the family a few months earlier when Reynoldo's father died. Kate was afraid that Reynoldo was standing in Enrique's way. She was planning an escape. She'd already gotten fake papers set up for her and Megan and Reynoldo, but she had yet to convince Reynoldo to leave his family and his home. He thought he could handle his brother, but Kate didn't believe that. She said her husband was too kind; he saw the good in people instead of the evil. She made me promise that if anything happened to her, I would find Megan, and I would get her away from the Valdez family."
"What did you think at that point?" Drew asked curiously.
"I believed her. She showed me evidence that Enrique wasn't just a criminal; he was also cruel. He'd hurt people. He'd hurt women especially. And she said that for some reason he seemed to think she was his property, even though she was married to his brother."
"If she and Megan were away from the family at that point, why didn't they stay away?"
"Because Kate loved Reynoldo, and she didn't want to take Megan away from her father. Reynoldo wasn't ready to admit defeat yet."
"Over the next few months Kate would use random phones to call me to let me know about the plans she was making. She was a few weeks away from her escape when she and Reynoldo were in a car accident. They were driving down the steep hills by their house when the brakes failed. They were killed instantly. Megan was put under the guardianship of Enrique."
Drew let out a breath. "And that's where you came in."
"It took me a while to find Megan. Enrique moved her to the island. I guess he was afraid that she would talk to the wrong people and he wanted to keep her under his thumb."
"So you went to the island to get her."
"Yes, but I couldn't do anything right away. I had to build an identity that wasn't suspicious, and then I had to find a way to contact Megan. She was rarely out of the house, and when she was, she had bodyguards with her. After a few months, Enrique rarely came to the island, and the guard grew more complacent. Megan began to be seen in town more often. One day I followed her in to a ladies' room in the back of a restaurant. That's when we saw each other again."
"How did she react?"
"She started crying. She said she'd been waiting for me to come for her. That her mother had told her I would save her. She cried harder when I told her we were going to have to take our time, come up with a plan. She was scared of Enrique and tired of being a prisoner. We set up a way to meet once a week for a few minutes. Eventually, we put the plan in motion. Megan would convince her handlers to let her take a sailing lesson." She let out a weary breath and waved her hand in the air. "You know the rest."
"Not exactly. How did you get explosives to blow up the boat?"
"I saved fireworks from the Fourth of July. I went on the Internet and learned how to make a timer. It was rough, and I wasn’t sure it would work, but it did. I had a life raft on board, and I used that to get us to another boat that I'd stashed on a nearby island. For days I thought someone would catch us. I knew Valdez would have an army out looking for Megan, but we managed to get away."
Falling For A Stranger Page 17