by Laura Gordon
When Reed saw Tess walking toward the darkened building, he started walking toward her, moving quickly, keeping low, allowing his shadow to blend in with those of the bushes and palm trees that grew in wild profusion along both sides of the deserted road.
As he walked, Reed assessed the situation and every instinct he possessed confirmed that if ever there was a perfect place for a setup, this was it.
He crossed the street in order to swing around behind the warehouse unobserved. If Tess was walking into a trap, as he feared she might be, he intended to be in a position to intervene. As he jogged across the sand, he heard Tess calling in a ragged whisper, “Selena? Are you in there? Selena, it’s me. It’s Tess.”
Just then the low groan of an engine refocused Reed’s attention on a car as it turned onto the narrow road and headed toward the warehouse. Headlights sliced an eerie swath across the dunes behind him, nearly catching him in their glare had he not dived for the shadowy protection of the north side of the warehouse. Pressing his body flat against the building, he edged toward the entrance where Tess stood, alone and vulnerable.
Out of the corner of his eye, Reed saw the glint of steel as a gun barrel was shoved out of the window of the oncoming car. By the time he heard the first crack of gunfire, he was already running hell-bent and head down toward the woman standing in the line of fire. And by the time their eyes met, Reed feared he might be too late.
Chapter Six
“Tess! Look out!” At the sound of Reed’s shouted warning, Tess spun around to see him charging toward her. Before she knew what had happened, he’d grabbed her around the waist and pulled her to the ground. It took a second before reality hit her. The crackling sound that peppered the air above their heads was gunfire! The bullets were aimed at her—and Reed McKenna had just saved her life!
“Come on,” he shouted, dragging her with him as he scrambled to his feet.
Tess heard the car doors open and the sound of angry shouts and swearing. When she felt the bullets whizzing past them, her fear paralyzed all thought, but it triggered blessed adrenaline and pure instinct to which Tess reacted, running hand in hand with Reed, past the warehouse and across the soft, sandy stretch behind it.
She ran like a terrified animal, blindly, stumbling and gasping, too shocked and too frightened to know or care where they were going, and more than willing to let Reed dictate their course.
Her heart drummed so loudly, it was a moment before she realized the shooting had stopped.
“This way,” Reed ordered. “Come on, Tess!” Still clutching her hand, he pulled her with him as he doubled back toward the road.
“They’re leaving!” she gasped, running to keep up with him as she watched the speeding car’s taillights disappear down the dusty dirt road. “Oh, Reed,” she gasped, nearly frantic. “We’ve got to go after them! They’ve got Selena!”
By the time they reached the Mustang, Tess didn’t have the time or the breath to ask how he’d come to be driving it. And once inside, she could only hang on when Reed floored the accelerator and the Mustang lunged forward, fishtailing across the soft dirt as the tires fought for traction.
By the glow of the dash lights, Tess stared at Reed. His mouth was set in a grim, hard line. He looked tough, angry and dangerous, and apprehension coiled in the pit of her stomach as her fingers dug into the armrest and she hung on for dear life. Trouble had always seemed to find Reed McKenna as a young man. Obviously, nothing had changed.
“Do you see them?” she asked.
“No, but I’m betting they’re headed back to Georgetown. Did you get a look at the car?”
She shook her head. “With the headlights blinding me, I couldn’t see much of anything.”
“I didn’t see much more, but from what I could make out, it looked like a limo, like the ones the hotels and dive tours send to the airport.”
“Once they’re back in town, we’ll never spot them, will we?”
“It could be tough. Those hotel and resort limos are all over the island.”
Tess strained her eyes to see as far in the distance as possible. The streets were virtually empty, but Reed continued to drive as though he’d drawn a bead on the limo with the gunmen inside. The speedometer read nearly ninety.
“It’s obvious we’ve lost them.” The despair rang in her voice. “You may as well back off the accelerator, McKenna. We won’t be much good to Selena dead.”
For the first time since they’d begun their futile chase, his expression changed and by the dim light, his smile appeared genuine. “You used to love to go fast, Tessa. What’s the matter, lost your nerve?”
Unfortunately, her nerves were working all too well at the moment, as evidenced by the way he’d frazzled nearly every last one of them. “Slow down, damn it. You’re driving like a lunatic. I don’t appreciate you risking my life for your own cheap thrills.”
He glanced at her, one dark brow arched sardonically. “And I don’t appreciate being lied to.” His smile had disappeared. That reckless and boyish grin that had once, and could so easily again, disarm her, was gone. In its place was a bitter sneer. The grown man Reed McKenna had become was a stranger. A hard, tough man, dangerous and capable of anything.
“And I don’t appreciate being bullied,” she shot back, despite the inner voice that warned her not to press him.
“Why didn’t you tell me they’d contacted you?”
“You were in the shower, remember?”
“Damn it, woman! This isn’t a game.”
The tension stretched between them, vibrating and electric.
“They said they’d kill her,” she said quietly. Merely saying the words had extinguished the fire inside her and robbed all the power from her voice.
His expression softened almost imperceptibly. “I need to know everything they said to you, Tessa,” he said evenly. “Everything.”
Their gazes locked for a significant moment before she looked away just in time to see an ancient pickup truck straddling the center stripe and heading right for them.
“Look out!” she screamed.
As he cranked the wheel hard to the right, Reed stomped the accelerator again. The Mustang responded and they flew around the limping pickup, sending two wheels into the deep sand on the narrow shoulder.
By the time Reed pulled out of the skid, they were already speeding toward a sharp curve. Instinctively, Tess knew they’d never make it. The engine screamed when Reed down shifted, but it was too late. They were moving too fast.
* * *
AS THE MUSTANG BUCKED off the pavement, Reed fought to control their skid. Crashing through the undergrowth, with the wheels grabbed and twisted by the sand, he somehow managed to keep the car upright until it came to a jarring stop beneath an ancient palm near the water’s edge.
“Jesus,” Reed muttered. “Are you all right, Tessa?”
Miraculously, she realized she was, but her mouth had gone too dry to speak. When the car had stopped, she’d been thrown forward in the seat, her head stopping inches from the windshield. “I—I think I’m fine,” she finally managed to stammer. Physically, anyway. Inside her emotions were crumbling and she was shaking so hard her teeth chattered.
When Reed twisted around in the seat and brushed her hair away from her cheek, she felt her emotions reeling again. His fingers traced her jawline, coming to rest on her chin where the pad of his thumb stroked her lower lip. The concern she saw reflecting from his dark gaze subdued her trembling even as it set off another series of inner tremors of a very different kind.
“How about you?” she asked. “Are you okay?”
He brought his hand back to touch his own forehead where Tess could see a quarter-size lump forming.
She glanced at the rearview mirror that was twisted sideways. “You must have hit your head on the mirror,” she said. “Are you bleeding? Let me see.”
When she brushed back his hair to examine his forehead he caught her wrist and held it. As their eyes met, something fa
miliar and warm and compelling passed between them. He released her abruptly as his gaze fell away from hers.
“I’m fine,” he said sharply and opened the door. He climbed out of the car, closing the door behind him.
Tess joined him in front of the car where they both stared down at the twisted left wheel.
“I’m sure the frame’s bent,” he ventured. “I’ll send a tow truck out in the morning.” Tess’s eyes followed his as he turned to gaze at the bank of lights that lined Seven Mile Beach in the distance. “We’ll have to walk back to the hotel. Are you up to it?”
Tess nodded. “I’ll get my purse.”
“It isn’t far,” he told her. “Less than a mile if we follow the water.”
They started out in silence. The moon was higher now, a sliver of silver in a velvet sky that cast a pale shimmering glow across the water. They’d walked five minutes in silence before Tess said, “It was a man who called...he said her life depended on me.”
* * *
HALF AN HOUR LATER, sitting side by side on the beach looking out at the ocean, Tess finished filling Reed in on all the details of the call from Selena’s abductors.
“Do you still have the notebook?” Reed asked.
She nodded. “I was supposed to bring it with me to the warehouse. He said I would be contacted there, given the rest of my instructions.” She’d been contacted, all right, Tess thought angrily. But luckily the bullets had missed their mark. “Reed, what do you think will happen now?” She was surprised that her voice sounded as weak as she suddenly felt.
“More than likely, they’ll contact you again. They achieved what they wanted to tonight, I think.”
“Which was?”
“To make you a believer, to scare the hell out of you and make sure you followed their instructions to the letter.”
It should have made her feel better, but instead Tess found Reed’s ready answer strangely disturbing. To be so familiar with the kind of mind that could have orchestrated such a deliberate act of terror, said something about the way his own mind worked, as well, didn’t it? At the same time, she had to admit at least a measure of relief knowing that Reed McKenna was not a man who would be easily surprised or taken in.
“They’ll call again,” he assured her. “My guess is they’ll contact you tomorrow. We’ll decide how to respond once we’ve heard their demands.”
“We won’t ‘decide’ anything!” Tess corrected. “I intend to do whatever they tell me to do, give them whatever they want. I couldn’t live with myself if something happened to Selena.” Her voice cracked.
“I need that notebook, Tess,” he said flatly.
“I know.”
The sound of the frothy surf combing the sand in front of them filled the dark silence with a series of soft, rhythmic sighs.
“For now, I’ll settle for a copy. But eventually I’ll need the original.”
“To use as evidence against Selena,” she said, feeling resentment gnawing at her insides.
“Maybe. Maybe not.”
She couldn’t look at him. “Meaning?”
“Meaning that if she agrees to come back and testify, the prosecutor will probably give her some kind of immunity against the incriminating evidence in that book.”
“And so the notebook would only be used to substantiate her testimony against Morrell?”
When he didn’t answer, the full implication of his silence hit her like a lead fist. “Or replace her testimony...if she doesn’t...live to testify,” she supplied for him, her voice betraying the horror that prospect brought with it. “Isn’t that really why you want the notebook, Reed? In case Morrell’s men kill Selena?”
Before she realized it she was on her feet and stalking away from him toward the hotel.
“Tess, wait.”
He was beside her, but she wouldn’t face him. “Forget it!” she snapped. “No notebook. No copies.” When he grabbed her arm, she swung around with fire in her eyes. “Let me go!”
But instead of complying, he tightened his hold. “Listen to me, Tess. We have to work together.”
“No! You listen! I don’t have to do anything but try to save my cousin’s life.”
“Which you won’t be able to do without my help,” he informed her flatly.
“Oh really?” she snapped back, jerking free of his grasp. “Well, what if I said I think it was your interference that spooked Selena’s abductors tonight and almost got me killed?”
“I’d say you know as well as I do that the whole rendezvous was a setup from the beginning. Believe me, you were a perfect target. If they’d wanted you dead, you would be.”
She wouldn’t give him the satisfaction of agreeing with him, nor could she say with absolute certainty that she did. Exasperated, she threw up her hands. “Look, all I know is that my cousin’s life is in jeopardy and I’ve got to do everything I can to help her. I don’t care two cents for that journal or what’s in it. All I care about is finding Selena and getting off this island alive.”
“And I can help you do just that, Tess.”
“But how? I told you what the kidnapper said—that I was to tell no one and contact no authorities.”
“And so far, they have no reason to believe you have. When those bullets started to fly, the limo was already leaving. I doubt they even saw me dragging you into the shadows. I said it before, Tess—if they’d wanted to do anything other than scare you, you wouldn’t be here now.”
God, how badly she wanted to believe he understood the situation as well as he appeared to.
“Whoever is holding Selena has a clear plan for how this thing is to be played out.”
“You make it sound hopeless, as if we haven’t a chance of rescuing my cousin.”
“The situation isn’t hopeless, but it is dangerous. Far too dangerous for you to try to handle on your own.”
“And if I cooperate with you, my cousin could be murdered.”
“And if you don’t, she could be killed anyway. Are you willing to take that risk?”
Tess shuddered. “Of course not,” she replied in a ragged whisper.
“Then you need to work with me, Tess.”
“You make it sound easy.”
He shook his head. “It won’t be. But I want your cousin back safely almost as badly as you do.”
“But for an entirely different reason,” she reminded him.
“You’re right,” he admitted, unreasonably disappointing her when he did. “But what does it matter, so long as we both get what we want?”
Tess stared at him a long moment before she shook her head. “I guess it doesn’t matter so long as we find Selena.”
“Good. Now, here are the ground rules. You go nowhere, see no one, agree to nothing without consulting me—” when she started to protest he held up a hand to stop her “—and when the kidnappers call again, you’ll tell me everything they say, no holding back, no more spider-woman tricks.”
Despite their grim situation she had to smile.
Reed’s expression remained deadly serious. “You can’t play both sides of this thing and win, Tess. Either I call all the shots or we go our separate ways. And I think you saw tonight just how unprepared you are to deal with these people,” he added for emphasis. “If we’re lucky you get your cousin back, alive. And I get a crack at convincing her to go back to the States with me to testify.” He held his hand out to her.
She thought a moment, remembering every bitter lesson he’d ever taught her about betrayal and abandonment. Shaking hands with Reed McKenna felt as though she were literally striking a deal with the devil.
What choice did she have? She was all alone in a foreign country, involved in a bizarre series of events over which she had no control. A criminal with a voice as cool as a banker’s had threatened to kill Selena if Tess didn’t do what he told her to do. But even when she’d complied, he’d terrorized her.
In his own way, Reed McKenna seemed to Tess to be as dangerous and unpredictable as the me
n who held Selena. But at least he was on the side wearing the white hats, she consoled herself. In the end, Tess realized she had no other choice. She took his hand.
“All right,” she said. “It’s a deal. But I keep the journal. I’ll hand it over to you once Selena’s safe—and not a moment sooner.”
He didn’t answer, and when she tried to withdraw her hand from his much larger, much warmer grip, he wouldn’t let go, but held on even tighter and tugged her to him, close enough so that his dark gaze was inescapable. “I could force you to give it to me, you know.”
Though shaken, Tess matched his stare without flinching. “I know. I don’t think you would,” she dared.
His eyes narrowed and she held her breath. “Don’t be a fool, Tessa,” he warned, his voice hard and low like cold steel wrapped in warm velvet. “You tried to make me into a hero once. It didn’t work then, and it won’t work now.”
For a long dark moment his eyes held hers against her will.
“Then why should I trust you to help me?”
“Because you have something I want. I’m the same bastard you’ve hated for almost ten years, Tessa,” he reminded her. “Self-serving and mercenary. You’d do well to remember that.”
“I haven’t forgotten for a second,” she whispered over the lump swelling in her throat.
He released her hand abruptly. “Smart lady,” he said, his unexpected smile surprisingly sad. “Just so we understand each other.”
They walked in empty silence the rest of the way to the hotel and just before they climbed the wooden stairs that led up from the beach to the hotel grounds, he said, “We’ll find her, Tessa,” and slid his arm around her shoulders and hugged her against him.
The simple and completely unexpected act of compassion unnerved her and when she turned to look at him, she saw that he meant to kiss her.
At the first touch of his lips, the door behind which every memory of their time together was stored burst open. As though he’d sensed the change, he lifted his lips from hers for the space of a heartbeat, giving her the chance to pull back.
But even though his mouth had released her, his eyes still held her mesmerized, and when he settled his mouth over hers again and kissed her deeply, she responded with a hunger that rocked them both and left them breathless.