Lethal Lover

by Laura Gordon

  “She was so young, and she loved you so much.” She swallowed the emotion he could hear choking her. “Okay, so you decided you couldn’t marry me—all right. I understand. And I learned to live with it. But my God, Reed, how could you just walk out on her like that? Just pretend she never existed, that the child she was carrying never happened?”

  If she’d slapped him he couldn’t have felt more stunned. “Child?” he blurted. “What child?” His mind scrambled in a dozen different directions at the same time, but for the life of him he had no idea who or what she was talking about.

  With a final look of bitterness and disgust, she turned and started walking toward the road.

  “Wait. Tess! Wait, damn it!”

  “Forget it, McKenna,” she shouted over her shoulder.

  Standing there, watching her go, his mind raced back in time, working frantically to make some sense out of the things she’d said. The child she was carrying... Was it possible that someone had lied to Tess, told her he’d been unfaithful? But who? The child she was carrying...she was so young... The puzzle pieces fell together, but the picture they formed was distorted.

  When he caught up to her, he didn’t try to stop her or touch her, but merely matched her stride, watching her chest rise and fall with every angry breath and feeling his own frustration straining to the breaking point.

  “Are you telling me you thought Meredith was carrying my child?”

  She kept walking and didn’t answer.

  “But you can’t seriously believe that!”

  “I can’t?” she blurted, stopping so suddenly he almost stumbled into her.

  “No, you can’t believe it. Because it isn’t true. Where the hell did you get such an idea?”

  “From Meredith,” she replied, stunning him again.

  “Meredith?”

  “Yes!”

  “Meredith told you I’d slept with her?” His voice resonated with his startled disbelief.

  Her glare said she’d never hated anyone more than she hated him now. “No,” she spat. “She couldn’t tell me. She never had the chance. But after she died, I read her diary. ‘I’ve decided to take Reed’s advice and keep my baby. Reed says I’ll make a wonderful mother.’” The words brought silent tears and watching them slip down her cheeks, Reed felt as though they were being wrung out of his own heart. “The last entry in her diary explained how much she loved you. I couldn’t believe how you’d betrayed us both. And I still can’t.” With that final declaration, her shoulders slumped and all of the rage seemed to drain out of her.

  Reed, too, felt weakened by her confession, his arms and legs ached, as though he’d just run a marathon in a lead suit.

  “I loved her, too,” he admitted as he brought his hand to her face and with his thumb and forefinger tilted her chin so that her eyes were forced to meet his. “I loved Meredith like a sister, Tess. She was the little sister I never had. You knew that. And now you have to believe there was never anything more than that.”

  When he dropped his hand from her face, Tess still felt strangely bound where she stood, bound by the things he was saying that she longed to believe.

  “Yes. I knew she was pregnant,” he admitted. “She came to me when she found out. She hadn’t even told Buddy yet—”

  “Buddy?” Tess murmured. “Buddy Cooper?” Tess couldn’t remember her sister ever having dated Buddy.

  Reed nodded. “When Meredith finally got up the courage to tell him, he offered money for an abortion. She was devastated, of course. She’d been dreaming up all sorts of ideas about weddings and baby showers.” He seemed for a moment to be lost in his thoughts. “Anyway, after some pretty long and tense discussions, Meredith decided to keep her baby. She was planning to tell your parents while the three of them were on that trip to Chicago.”

  Tess felt thunderstruck. “I always wondered why she wanted to go with them that day.” Their father’s business had never been of the least interest to Meredith before. Then she had begged her parents to let her miss school so that she could go with them for a week to Chicago.

  When Reed started talking again, his voice was low and sad. “It was only a one-night stand. At a party after the basketball team took state. Everyone was drinking, including Buddy and Meredith.”

  A spark of memory flared inside Tess. The whole town had celebrated the year Evergreen High had won the state basketball championship. It had been Meredith’s junior year—her last year, as it turned out.

  Reed stood silently watching her, waiting for a judgment she wasn’t yet prepared to make. Digesting the things he’d said would take time. But the dark, hard look in his eyes told her his pride wouldn’t allow him to wait long. He’d finished explaining all he was prepared to explain. He’d never beg her to believe him. She knew him well enough to know that he’d bent as far as he could without breaking.

  “It’s almost noon,” he said without looking at his watch. “I’ll be leaving for Bodden Town in fifteen minutes.” His voice was resolute. “If you want to come with me, we’ll leave the bike here and take the Jeep. If you decide to go your own way, I’ll take the bike and you can drive the Jeep back to Georgetown. Go to the police, go back to the hotel, go wherever you think you need to go and do whatever you need to do. But if I leave here alone, Tess, I won’t be coming back. I hurt you and I’m sorry. But I wasn’t the father of Meredith’s child. Granted, I’m a bastard. I was a gutless wonder to run out on you that way. But not even I would stoop so low as to sleep with your little sister.”

  He’d started to walk away when he turned and added a somber, “Whatever else you think about me, believe me when I tell you that I still plan to do everything I can to find Selena and bring her back to the States safely. Even if it weren’t my job, I figure I owe you that much.” His promise was sealed with a final searing gaze that burned straight through to her heart.

  Watching him walk away, a war waged inside Tess, a battle between the things he’d said and the things she’d believed to be reality for so long.

  Oblivious to the gentle tide swirling around her feet and the warm breeze stirring her hair, Tess began to walk along the shore in the opposite direction. Absorbed in her thoughts of the past, she forced herself to remember anything and everything about the time just before her family was so abruptly and cruelly taken from her.

  “Buddy Cooper,” she whispered. Captain of the basketball team. Debate team leader. Tall, blond, confident. Yes, she remembered him now as clearly as if he stood before her.

  Meredith had a crush on him—as she had at one time or another on most of the members of the basketball team that year. It was the year after Tess’s high school graduation, and she remembered feeling a bit removed from all the excitement; her plans for the future with Reed occupied most of her time.

  But even Tess had had to admit that the basketball team that year was special. The whole team was loaded with talent and a limitless belief in what they could achieve together. By the end of the season, they’d won the league championship and advanced to the state finals.

  Half the town of Evergreen followed the team bus down the mountain to the tournament in Denver that spring. Meredith had ridden with a carload of her friends and Tess remembered her calling home that first night, wildly excited, after the team had won its semifinal game.

  Against their father’s wishes, their mother had agreed to let Meredith stay the night in Denver so that she wouldn’t miss the state-championship game scheduled for the next day. The team had won and the celebrating had gone on all night.

  And now, suddenly, all these years later, the impossible seemed possible. The words in the diary took on a different meaning. Reed had been a good friend. A friend to Meredith when she’d needed him most, someone to whom she’d confided and cried. A good friend. Nothing more.

  Tess stopped, turned around and looked back, realizing with a shock that she could no longer see the bungalow in the distance. The beach had narrowed to a rocky strip and the hills that had seemed
so far in the distance this morning now loomed right next to her.

  How far had she walked? How long had she been thinking and sifting the past for the truth? She had no doubt that Reed would do exactly as he’d said he’d do—he would leave without her and never come back.

  Suddenly the wasted years behind them seemed insignificant when compared to the future she’d almost squandered. And before another second of that future could be wasted, Tess started running.

  Chapter Thirteen

  The blow came from behind, knocking her to her knees and stunning her with the intense pain. Rough hands jerked her to her feet, and she fought to maintain consciousness, to make her legs move, to fight, scream, escape.

  When she opened her mouth, an oily-smelling rag was tied over it. And when she tried to run, her feet were kicked out from under her. This time she fell forward and her arms were jerked behind her and bound with something tight and unrelenting that bit into her wrists when she struggled to free herself.

  A man’s voice behind her ordered, “Get up.”

  She struggled to her feet, a swarm of dizziness like a horde of angry insects stealing her equilibrium and making her stumble. Rough hands dragged her by the bonds that bound her wrists. Her knees were scraped and burning and her elbows were skinned and stinging. To keep her arms from breaking, she knew she had to try again to stand.

  At last, she was on her feet, though wobbling. “This way,” the voice commanded, with another vicious jerk. Tess had never had a concussion before, but she guessed she had one now. Her vision was blurred and the pain behind her eyes was like none she’d ever experienced before.

  The sounds of the ocean were muted. She felt as though she’d just emerged from a swimming pool and her ears were still filled with water. The world swam before her eyes and no matter how hard she blinked, she couldn’t seem to focus. Despite her blurry vision, she didn’t need to see to know the man behind her was all too real. She could feel his sharp prodding whenever she stumbled.

  She tried to scream, but the dirty rag tied across her mouth only gagged her. As she walked, her head throbbed and her heart ached. Selena’s abductors now had another hostage, another victim. Reed! her mind cried. Oh, Reed, please help me. If only she hadn’t left him. If only she’d trusted him, tried to believe in him.

  Desperation gave way to full-scale panic and she swung around to lunge at her tormentor, only to find herself shoved backward again, and the whole painful process of trying to get to her feet started all over.

  In this confused state, she had no idea in what direction she was headed, where she was being taken or how far she had to go.

  Fifteen minutes, Reed had said and the sound of an engine in the distance triggered an inner voice that cried, “Time’s up.”

  * * *

  REED KILLED TIME by tinkering with the generator. He’d coaxed the motor to life twice but, despite its mighty roar, he couldn’t keep it running for more than a few minutes before it choked and died. He told himself that whether he could get the machine running or not was pointless, since neither he nor Tess would be staying another night in the bungalow.

  But he’d needed something to keep him busy, something onto which he could pour his frustrations. “Fifteen minutes, hell,” he grumbled to himself as he worked. What kind of damn fool was he to have given her such a stupid ultimatum?

  Tess Elliot was the kind of woman any man would wait for, no matter how long it took her to come back to him. She was as bright as she was beautiful, as sexy and savvy as any woman he’d ever known. A potent combination of spirit and tenderness he knew he’d regret losing for the rest of his life.

  But his pride would force him to leave eventually; he knew himself well enough to realize that. When he did, he’d focus all his energies on finding Selena and getting her back to the States. He promised Tess he’d help her cousin and this was one promise he meant to keep. But his heart would always be with Tess, no matter where he went, what he did, or how much time passed.

  Soon his silly fifteen minutes had stretched into an hour, and still he waited.

  * * *

  THE SMALL CAVE into which she was being forced was halfway up a steep trail, littered with sharp rocks and prickly vegetation. Tess’s feet were sore and scraped by the time she was shoved into the dark cavern, through an opening so small she had to duck to keep from hitting her head. The day had turned hot and muggy and the cave was like an airless oven.

  Her captor, who had taken pains to remain behind her all the way up the trail, seemed suddenly unconcerned that she should see him.

  He was tall—taller than Reed, she guessed. Six-two, at least. His skin was the color of pale chocolate and his eyes were a pale gray. To Davey, they must have seemed silver, Tess reminded herself grimly.

  The khaki shirt her abductor wore stuck to his back and his face was streaked with sweat. He wore tattered shorts and filthy tennis shoes and by the looks of his red-rimmed eyes, frazzled hair and beard stubble, he hadn’t slept for at least a day.

  Tess sat cross-legged against the wall of the cavern into which he’d forced her. She trembled, more frightened than she’d ever been, and more desperate. She had to find a way out, her mind screamed. She couldn’t die alone in this wretched place with this horrid man. But how? How could she escape? The rope that held her hands was tied impossibly tight and her captor’s cruelty had been well demonstrated on the gruelling trek to the cave.

  She had only two choices, she told herself. Behind her, the back of the cave narrowed and disappeared into an ominous abyss that could have extended ten feet or ten miles as far as Tess could tell. In front of her, blocking the narrow opening was the man who’d attacked her, terrorized her and for all she knew tried to murder her last night.

  The hopelessness of her situation caused her stomach to roil in protest. The pervasive smell of rotting vegetation and the taste of oil from the rag in her mouth didn’t help matters.

  Her captor, perched on his haunches just inside the narrow opening, stared out at the water. He startled her when he spoke. “You will notice that we are above a small bay, Miss Elliot. We call it Jack’s Bay, but you will not find it named on any map. The water in Jack’s Bay is very deep, very unsuitable for snorkeling but very good for deep dives.” In the casual, yet impeccable English of the islands, he imparted the information in a soft, polite manner that startled her almost as much as his calling her by name.

  “Fishermen favor this inlet in the spring, but this time of year the waters are left mostly undisturbed. Jack’s Bay is very isolated. No one comes into this bay for months at a time.”

  He shocked her again when he unsheathed a sleek, narrow-bladed boning knife from the leather holster he wore strapped to the outside of his long, rangy leg and started toward her.

  Tess shrank back against the cave wall, her eyes bulging. Her heart drummed so hard her chest hurt, but nothing else moved. Even the breath in her lungs froze when he brought the tip of the knife slowly to her throat and skimmed the deadly steel along her skin with a touch just light enough not to penetrate.

  With the tip poised at the hollow of her throat, he leaned close. His breath was hot and sour against her face. “I have no wish to harm you, Miss Elliot,” he said in a low ominous tone. “I am merely a courier. I am going to remove the gag, but if you scream when I do, I will slit your throat.” He paused, letting the impact of his simple, deadly warning settle over her. “Do you understand?”

  She could only blink her acceptance of his terrifying terms. With the cold steel still at her throat, she dared not make another move.

  “I am glad you understand. This is very good. It is in your best interests to allow me to do my job.” Then, with a lightning-fast flick of his wrist, he sliced the rag and it fell to her lap.

  “Better?”

  The knife was at her throat once more, but she nodded. “Y-yes,” she stammered. “Thank you.”

  His smile was a sneer that stretched his pale lips over crooked and discolore
d teeth. “Tonight you will go down to Jack’s Bay. At midnight a boat will come for you. If you are not there at midnight, the boat will not wait. If you are not alone, the boat will not dock.”

  “Selena,” she gasped. “Will she—” Her question died on her lips when he pricked her with the knife just beneath her chin. She felt the pressure before she felt the pain and the warm trickle of blood sliding down her throat.

  “Do not ask questions, Miss Elliot. Be assured I have no answers for you. I am merely a messenger. Do you understand?”

  Again, she could only stare, more terrified than she’d have believed it possible to be without dying of fright. To move, even to breathe, would cause the knife to slice into her skin again, and his last painful warning had made her a believer in his indifference to her terror.

  “You will bring with you what has been requested. Remember to come alone.”

  The journal! her mind shrieked. “B-but I—” He threatened her again with the knife.

  “Please, Miss Elliot. I have not been paid to kill you and I have no wish to do so,” he said quietly, but she couldn’t have been more terrified if he’d shouted. His cold-blooded, dispassionate tone told her that her life meant nothing to him, that killing her would be easy, if inconvenient.

  He edged away from her, the knife still steady in his long, thin fingers. “I am merely a messenger,” he reiterated.

  You’re a murderer! she thought, remembering the devastation of the explosion at Davey’s bar last night.

  “You are free to go now,” he said from the cave’s entrance. “But know this, Miss Elliot, I have many friends on the island, many relatives. If you go to the police, I will kill you. If you tell anyone about me or the message I have delivered to you, I will kill you. I will find you wherever you are and I will use this knife to kill you. Do you understand, Miss Elliot?”

  His tone hadn’t wavered, hadn’t varied a single note in its maddening formality. He could have been the desk clerk at West Palm, except for his eyes, which were as cold as ice.