Forever Gone

by Addison Kasey

  “What I am is sick of this conversation. You can leave the same way you came in.”

  Frustration clenched Sam’s stomach muscles. He’d come too far now to back down. “Your father sent me.”

  Kate gave a brittle laugh, stood, and made her way to the sink. With jerky movements, she began to straighten the canisters on the counter. “Oh, is that the identity he gave you?”

  Sam frowned. What was she talking about? “You’re saying he’s not your father? How could you know? You don’t even know what the man looks like. He might be your father.”

  Kate spun around so fast her hand bumped against a porcelain rooster. The clank of the lid startled her, and she quickly righted it before she confronted Sam again. “He couldn’t be my father because my father is dead.”

  ****

  Kate watched the private investigator swallow the information she gave him. His eyes wrinkled with confusion, he dragged a hand through his sandy-brown hair.

  She eyed him from beneath her lashes, sending only occasional peeks he couldn’t see. He really was quite an extraordinary looking man. Tall, lean, with muscles in all the right places, Sam Bentley could charm the curlers off even the oldest ladies in their neighborhood.

  Still, until she knew more, he was the enemy, and she wouldn’t give him any more information than what was absolutely necessary to get him out of her house.

  Sam leaned one hip against the kitchen table and cleared his throat. “What makes you think your father is dead?”

  Kate’s musings ceased. “It’s a long story.”

  “You know where your mother is, don’t you?”

  That soft drawl began to grate on her nerves. She needed him to leave, but instincts told her the handsome investigator wouldn’t step one foot outside her door without the information he’d come for…information she couldn’t give him.

  “Mr. Bentley, I’d appreciate if you would leave now.”

  His brows lowered into a firm scowl. “I came for answers, Miss Masters.”

  “I didn’t promise to give them to you.” She thrust her chin back at a saucy angle. Two could play the hard-nosed game, and she didn’t owe the man anything.

  “Katie, is everything okay?”

  Kate groaned low in her throat as her mother’s voice filtered out into the kitchen. “Everything’s fine. Just go on back upstairs.”

  Mr. Bentley, however, was quicker than the strike of a rattler. “Mrs. Masters?”

  Her mother’s silence told Kate they were alone again. She placed her hand on Mr. Bentley’s arm and dug her nails in. “I’m asking you to leave my home. No, actually, I’m telling you to leave my home.”

  His eyes sliced into her face. “Was that your mother?”

  Her lower lip wobbled, and she looked away. How could she tell this man that finding her mother meant he had effectively killed her?

  Alek didn’t want prisoners. He wanted his diamonds and the two remaining witnesses to his crime dead. Well, at least he wanted her mother dead. Kate wasn’t so sure Alek didn’t fancy himself still in love with her. She’d much rather he killed her.

  Kate moved to the sink. She ran water into the sink and felt the investigator’s eyes boring into her spine. “No, that wasn’t my mother.”

  “I don’t know much about you, Kate, but I do know that you’re a terrible liar.”

  She turned the water on full-blast to drown out any further conversation. She hoped he’d get the hint and leave.

  Instead, Sam Bentley joined her at the sink and placed his hands on her shoulders, spinning her around. Water dripped from her fingertips to dot the floor. She stared up at him, both surprised and a little scared. Face to face like this, the man looked positively intimidating.

  He relaxed his hold on her. “Don’t look at me like that. I’m not going to hurt you.”

  “And how do you know you haven’t already with your manhandling?” She snapped to cover the flush rising up her neck. She’d been so close to the man she could smell the scent of his skin. No aftershave. Just clean, refreshing soap and a blend that was pure male. Her hormones danced a little jig. It had been a long time since Kate had stood so close to a man, even longer since she’d allowed the thought of a relationship to enter her mind.

  She covered up her nervousness with a cough and tried to look away from his compelling eyes. “Never mind. Please, just go. You can’t be here.”

  Silence fell like the drop of an anvil, and finally Sam took a step back toward the door, hands held up in a gesture of surrender. “Okay. I’ll leave, but know this. If the man who hired me really wants to find you, he’ll find you with or without my help.”

  Kate’s blood ran cold, knowing the investigator had a point. “Which will it be?”

  He paused, his hand on the door knob. “If you’re asking if I’m going to tell him where to find you, the answer is no.”

  “You won’t get paid.”

  He didn’t even blink. “That’s happened before.” He opened the door.

  “Mr. Bentley, wait.” Maybe she was taking a risk, but she had to trust someone, didn’t she? Hadn’t she and her mother spent enough time running? Then again, if she gave this private investigator too much information, he could end up getting hurt, too. But as far as she knew, Alek might already consider him to be a risk.

  He turned back to face her.

  Kate sighed and walked toward him. “That was my mother you heard. Helen Masters.”

  Sam closed the door and leaned against it. “You’re in trouble, aren’t you?”

  That was definitely putting it mildly. “I can’t be sure, but I believe the man who hired you is Alek Vankov. He’s a member of the Russian mob.”

  Sam stared at her before swiping his hands over his eyes and peeking at her from between splayed fingers. “The Russian mob. Here? In Charleston? You’re kidding me, right?” He gave an abrupt laugh and before she could respond, he continued, “That’s ludicrous. What could your family possibly have that the Russians would want?”

  Kate turned away and walked to the cabinet over the refrigerator. She knew, as she tugged a kitchen chair out from under the table and hauled it over to stand on, that she was taking a chance. She didn’t know if she could trust this private investigator, but she did know she was tired of looking over her shoulder, tired of wondering if one day, Vankov would find her.

  She stretched one hand into the cabinet and retrieved the soft, felt sack, bringing it close to her side as she climbed down. “This is what we have.” She held out the bag to Sam, knowing there was no turning back.

  He took it from her outstretched palm and untied the knot securing the bag.

  And poured a fistful of glittering diamonds into his palm.

  ****

  Sam had never considered himself to be a stupid man. So as he stood there, awestruck, he figured someone was in a deep load of trouble, and he’d just borrowed himself a good percentage of it.

  “Where did you get these?” His voice came out strangled. He wasn’t a good judge of jewels, but he knew he held at least a half a million dollars in gems. He hadn’t seen that much money in his entire life. Doubted he ever would again.

  Kate stuck her hands into the pockets of her jeans and lifted her shoulders in a half-hearted shrug. “My father.”

  Sam’s head bobbed up. “Your father stole them?”

  Her eyes frosted, and Sam wondered if the woman was going to pop him. “Did I say he stole them?”

  “No, you didn’t.”

  “Then don’t jump to conclusions.” She held out the bag so he could pour the diamonds back in.

  Sam considered himself suitably chastised. “I’m sorry. So how exactly did your father get his hands on all these diamonds?” He watched her cradle the bag like she was scared to drop it, like the diamonds inside were a lifeline. Maybe they were in a sense.

  “I gave them to him,” said a soft voice from just over Sam’s left shoulder.

  He spun around, catching a glimpse of silver hair and
a pained expression. “Are you Helen Masters?”

  Kate hunched her shoulders and stalked to the chair she’d left next to the refrigerator. After she returned the diamonds to their hiding place, she answered the private eye’s question. “That’s right, Mr. Bentley. This is my mother. Now that you’ve met who you came to see, why don’t you talk to her? I need some air.”

  “It’s so late,” Helen Masters protested.

  “Your mother is right.”

  Kate whipped around, and the fire in her eyes shocked him. “I don’t need you to back my mother up. We’ve managed just fine without help so far, and because of your ‘help’, we’re going to have to leave again. And I just bought this house.” Her voice sounded broken.

  “Kate,” Helen said in such a soft voice Sam had to strain to hear her.

  Kate held up one hand, and the snap returned to her tone. “Mom, don’t. He’s found us.”

  Helen’s eyes widened, and her hand flew to her mouth as she whispered a muffled, “Oh, dear.”

  “Yes, oh, dear,” Kate snapped in return. “Now, Mr. Bentley, if you’ll excuse us, my mother and I would like to be alone.”

  “I didn’t hear your mother asking.” Sam finally found his voice again. The honey-colored blonde was starting to irritate him, no matter how attractive he found her. “Besides, if you think you can just announce to me you’re holding diamonds that belong to the Russian mob and I’m supposed to walk away, you’re sadly mistaken.”

  Helen gasped. “Kate, you told him?”

  Kate sank down into a chair opposite Sam and fixed him with a fulminous glare. “No, I didn’t tell him. I showed him.”

  “Kate, how could you? Don’t you realize what you’ve done?” Helen rushed out of the room.

  Sam rubbed his index finger over his upper lip. “I think she’s irate with you.”

  Kate’s glare didn’t lessen. “I didn’t know private dicks were so astute.” She smoothed one hand over her hair and shook her head. “It wasn’t supposed to be like this, you know. My life. My parents’ lives. And they weren’t…until we met Alek.”

  Sam remained quiet, sensing an opening. The last thing he wanted to do was scare her into silence.

  “Alek wanted to marry me.”

  Picturing the older man who’d come to his office, Sam grimaced. “Isn’t he a little old for you?”

  “That didn’t make any difference to him. He made a decision, and that was that.”

  “Was your family in Russia? Is that how you met?” He mentally took notes, hoping she said something, anything he could use against Vankov. Now that the guy had gotten him involved, well, Sam wasn’t going to stand idly by and let Kate and her mother get hurt.

  “No. Alek was a visiting dignitary to the British consulate where my father worked. Alek saw me, and four years later, here we are.”

  Sam scratched his head. “Four years? This guy has been after you for four years?” He didn’t consider himself one to easily give up, but he thought that even he would have called it quits by now.

  Kate nodded. “Only now, he wants far more than just me. He wants the diamonds back. The diamonds he stole from the consulate. My father saw him take them. Alek hid them in his briefcase before going to meet with an ambassador. My father took the diamonds and ran.”

  “And then your dad gave the diamonds to you.”

  Tears filled her eyes. “I was supposed to take them back to the consulate, tell them everything if anything happened to my father. He said he was going to meet with Alek, that this was our chance to keep Alek away from me once and for all.”

  Sam mulled over this information. “So your father threatened to report Alek if he didn’t stay away from you.” Nothing like a little blackmail to get someone’s blood boiling. He could only imagine the Russian’s reaction.

  “Right. But then dad didn’t come back from his meeting with Alek, and I knew. I knew something bad had happened. That’s why I didn’t give the diamonds back. I thought, maybe, just maybe, my dad was still alive, and I could use them to get him back. But when Alek called, I could hear it in his voice. He’d killed my father.” Her voice broke, and Sam’s heart squeezed.

  “I begged him to tell me where Dad was, but he only wanted his diamonds…and me. Mom didn’t want me to go to Alek. She said, in her heart, she knew my father was gone.”

  Sam folded his hands on the table in front of him, scooting the diamonds to one side. “So now that you plan on running again, do you have any idea where you’re going next? What you’d like to do?”

  Kate’s shoulders slumped. “I’d like to live without this hanging over my head, and I don’t consider escaping from a mad man running.”

  His protective nature surged to the fore, and in spite of her determined spirit, or perhaps because of, he found himself wanting to save her. And he’d never considered himself the knight in shining armor type. “Then let me help you.”

  The blue eyes softened only marginally when she looked at him. “Why do I feel like I don’t have a choice?”

  Sam rocked the chair back on two legs. “Because the way I see it, this Alek guy owes me an explanation. And I’ve never really cared for bullies.”

  Kate pinched the bridge of her nose between her thumb and her forefinger. “You don’t understand. Alek isn’t someone you want to tangle with.”

  Sam tried not to take offense. Did he look like he couldn’t take care of himself? Maybe it was the jacket he wore. Hard to see muscles through the material. “You don’t have to worry about me. I can hold my own.”

  Her eyes pinned him with a disgusted look. “He carries a gun, and he doesn’t travel alone.”

  “That’s because he needs someone to back him up. I don’t. Incidentally, I carry a gun, too.”

  “So what? You could just shoot him?”

  “If I had to.” Admittedly, Sam had only shot one person in his entire life, and that was when he was a beat cop. He still had nightmares about the guy’s face, but that wouldn’t stop him from doing the same to Alek if necessary.

  She scooted the chair away from the table and got to her feet. ”I wish it were that easy, but you’re better off just leaving this alone.”

  Sam stood slowly, glaring down at the top of her blonde head. “And that’s it? You just run and hide again? What kind of life is that?” He heard a gusty sigh before Kate walked around him to the kitchen sink. In his opinion, she spent an inordinate amount of time at that sink.

  “It doesn’t matter. Why can’t you see that? My father is already dead. I don’t want to give him more people to kill. Not my mother. Not you.”

  Her concern made him smile. He came to stand behind her and settled his hands on her shoulders. “I won’t die, but the way I see it, someone has to intervene. Unless you want to spend the rest of your life running from this man?”

  Her head drooped, and her lower lip wobbled. “I just don’t know what to do.”

  Sam turned her in his arms, telling himself he just wanted to protect her. He pressed her head to his chest and gave her a place to cry. And the protective nature darned near strangled him, especially when she curled herself against him, her hands pressed over his heart.

  Oh, yeah. He was going to find this guy, and he’d take out the money Alek owed him in spades. Right after he kicked the guy’s butt.

  He patted her awkwardly. Comforting women wasn’t really his forte, but for this one woman, he figured he’d make an exception. “Kate, you’re going to be okay.”

  She sniffed and lifted her head. With red-rimmed eyes and damp cheeks, she was still the prettiest girl he’d seen in a long time. “How can you be so sure about that?”

  He winked. “Because you’ve got me on your side now.”

  “And I’m supposed to be so sure that’s enough?”

  Sam chucked her under the chin with his fingertip. “You sure know how to hurt a man’s pride, don’t you?”

  Her lips twitched, and the beginnings of a smile took Sam’s breath away. He figured he�
��d need to get out of there pretty quick if he was going to keep his wits about him. He cleared his throat and stepped away from her.

  “Well, now that one half of this mystery is solved, I guess I’d better go find the other half.”

  “Alek is not a mystery,” Kate pointed out, folding her arms under her breasts. Sam recognized it as a defensive gesture. He’d seen that very same stance and expression on his mother’s face before. And it always signaled her preparation to fight.

  He held up one hand in an attempt to diffuse the situation, although, he had to admit, he liked the way her eyes flashed with little blue sparks. “That’s not what I meant, Kate.” He cleared his throat and gave her his most congenial smile. “I only meant I need to find him.”

  “I’m sure that’s what you meant…that and you think I’m a paranoid woman.”

  He considered his words with one eye closed. “Did I say that?”

  “You don’t have to. I can read between the lines.”

  “Then you better brush up on your reading skills because that wasn’t anywhere near the lines, between them or otherwise.”

  She wrinkled her nose at him. “I’m coming with you.”

  He stared at her. “Excuse me?”

  “What? You didn’t hear me? I’m coming with you.”

  He gave a little laugh on his way to the back door. “Not a chance, sweetheart. I work alone.” Okay, so not always, but she didn’t know that. “Besides, you need to stay here and take care of your mother.”

  At Kate’s frown, Sam knew he’d hit a homerun. She wasn’t about to leave her mother alone with this Alek guy on the loose. His hand settled on the door knob of the wooden door with its four-plated windows and chipped paint. “Just lock this door and stay inside. I’ll call you as soon as I know something.”

  “You don’t have my number.”

  He grinned. “Well, then, I guess that means I’ll have to stop back by.” As a lock of silky, blonde hair fell across her cheek, Sam’s smile faded. Every nerve in his body was on high alert. How could he help noticing her? She was beautiful, spirited, and determined. The way he saw it, a man could do a lot worse than to settle down with the likes of her.