Lethal Lover

by Laura Gordon

  The front door, if it could be called that, had no knob and no lock and was attached to a makeshift frame by two leather hinges. Reed drew his gun and edged inside to find a sweltering, cockroach-infested mess.

  Once inside, Reed observed the evidence of Paolo’s drug use scattered everywhere. And as if he needed more evidence to know that Paolo lived on the edge, Reed saw through the open back door that a half acre of marijuana plants swayed in the breeze.

  The smell of rotting garbage and the heat drove Reed back to the door, but not before his eyes landed on something shiny lying on the table at one end of the room.

  Holstering his gun, he walked over and picked up a lady’s watch. Instantly he recognized it as Tess’s. She’d been wearing it last night when they arrived at the bungalow and, seeing it here in now, in the middle of this snake’s den, caused his stomach to clench. His pulse pounded in his ears and something close to panic seized his heart.

  Picking up the watch, he slipped it into his pocket as his eyes scanned the room and he saw her bag with her clothes spilling out on the floor in front of a ragged couch. Again, he felt a searing reaction in his gut.

  When he bent down to pick the bag up, he heard a strange whizzing noise pass his ear and glanced up in time to see Paolo’s knife stab into the wall behind him.

  Raw, animal anger propelled him toward the tall, thin, silver-eyed man standing in the doorway. When Reed hit him, Paolo flew backward out the door. Reed was over the strange-looking man in a heartbeat. Grabbing Paolo’s shirt, he dragged the thief to his feet and back into the house.

  “Where did you get this?” he growled, shoving him toward the bag of Tess’s clothing.

  “I found it.” As he lied, the expression in his strange eyes never changed and Reed knew the man would not be easily intimidated.

  “And this?” Reed pulled Tess’s watch from his pocket. “I suppose you found it, as well?”

  The young man was still doubled over, but suddenly and without warning he spun around and lunged at Reed headfirst, with a strength that was surprising. Reed reached for his gun, but a sudden, sharp pain in his left side took his breath away and rendered him momentarily defenseless.

  Reflexively, his fist shot up, catching Paolo squarely beneath the chin, to send him sprawling backward across the room, where his dark head made contact with the wall with a sickening thud.

  With the thug off his back, Reed glanced down to see the handle of a small stiletto sticking out of his side. With the roar of a wounded grizzly he jerked the two-inch blade from his flesh and clamped his hand over the oozing wound.

  Stumbling across the rancid-smelling room, his hand pressed to the stab wound, he felt the blood seeping between his fingers and staining his shirt. Reed pulled his gun and sank down beside the half-conscious young man on the floor.

  “Where is...she?” he gasped, pressing the gun to Paolo’s dark temple with convincing force.

  The young man shook his head and muttered something unintelligible.

  Reed pulled back the hammer, even as the world tilted beneath him. “I’ll count to three...before I...pull the...trigger. F-feel free...to stop me at any...time.” Every word cost him, but then again he only needed to say three more, Reed told himself. “One, two...”

  * * *

  ONE LOOK at the badge and the rush of relief that flooded Tess made her feel weak. “You’ll never know how glad I am to see you,” she blurted.

  “I’m glad to see you, as well, Miss Elliot,” the agent admitted. “You gave me quite a scare last night when I lost track of you at the bar outside Georgetown.”

  “You were following me?” This was incredible, right out of one of the novels on the shelves of her bookstore back home.

  Agent Talbot nodded, his expression grim. “We’ve known where you were from the day your cousin disappeared.”

  She shouldn’t have been surprised; of course Reed would have been in contact with his agency. But why, she wondered, had he not told her that there were other agents in Grand Cayman? Why the “us against the world” act?

  “Do you know where my cousin is, Agent Talbot?”

  He stared at her intently before he shook his head, his face an unreadable mask that Tess found herself instantly and deeply resenting.

  “No, I’m sorry. I’m afraid I don’t know where Selena is, but as you might imagine the agency is very anxious to find her.”

  He pulled the car into a parking lot south of Bodden Town overlooking a public beach. As they drove in, carloads of sun-worshippers were pulling out. The heavy layer of clouds and a brisk wind had risen, bringing in cooler air and the promise of rain.

  Tess and Agent Talbot sat in his rental car with the windows rolled down.

  “Miss Elliot, has your cousin contacted you?”

  “My cousin?” Tess blurted. “Don’t you mean my cousin’s abductors?”

  “Why, yes. Yes, of course, that’s what I meant. The kidnappers...have they contacted you?”

  A vague alarm began to sound at the back of Tess’s mind. “Wait a minute,” she said her hand on the door. “Where’s McKenna? Why don’t you know more about what’s been happening?”

  He smile was almost a sneer. “I’m sure you would know more about Reed McKenna’s whereabouts than I, Miss Elliot.”

  Something was definitely wrong here, Tess told herself. “I haven’t spoken with Reed since this morning,” she explained. “I guess I just assumed he would have tried to contact you.”

  The smile again, but this time insultingly patronizing. “Why would you think McKenna would contact me? After all, he hasn’t been a part of the agency for almost four years.”

  Whatever he said after that went unheard as Tess tried to understand why Reed McKenna had been lying to her from the moment he’d appeared at her door the night of Selena’s disappearance.

  * * *

  REED DIDN’T KNOW what kind of damage the small, sharp stiletto had done to his body, but he knew he couldn’t risk trying to keep a bike upright on the rutted dirt road back to Bodden Town.

  “Get up,” he ordered the young man sitting on the floor opposite him.

  With the gun at his back, Reed ordered Paolo into the front yard. After fumbling for a moment, he managed to remove the rope from around the greyhound’s neck. Finally freed, the dog stumbled into the shade beneath the wrecked car and collapsed with an exhausted sigh.

  With the gun cocked and aimed at Paolo’s heart, Reed moved toward him with the rope. When the young man realized what Reed meant to do he began backing away, his hands raised. “No. No. You can’t do this to me.”

  Paolo fell to his knees. “Please, I’ll do anything.”

  “Tell me where she is,” Reed growled.

  “I don’t know.”

  Reed drew the hammer back on his gun and aimed the barrel at Paolo’s head.

  “Okay, okay, I was with her—yes. B-but I didn’t hurt her. She’s all right.”

  Reed shoved the young man face-first into the dirt and tied his hands and feet behind him. “She’d better be, you son of a bitch, or you’ll wish you’d never seen my face. Now keep talking until I tell you to stop.”

  Paolo told Reed about the rendezvous, about Jack’s Bay and about the message he was supposed to have delivered to Tess at The Dive last night.

  “But you decided to blow the place up instead, right?”

  “I know nothing of the explosion,” Paolo insisted. “I was only paid to deliver the message for Miss Elliot to be at Jack’s Bay tonight at midnight.”

  “Who paid you?” Reed demanded to know.

  “I don’t know.”

  Reed looped the remaining length of rope around his neck and jerked it tight. “Who?” he shouted. “Who paid you?”

  “I—I don’t know,” Paolo gasped. “I was given my orders by phone and the money was left in the cave above Jack’s Bay. I never saw the man who left it.”

  Reed had dealt with liars long enough to know when he was hearing the truth, even fr
om a practiced liar like the one who lay facedown in the dirt in front of him. With another knot, Reed effectively harnessed Paolo to the sturdy stake on which the dog had been tied.

  “When I get back to Bodden Town, I’ll send the local police out to water and feed you,” Reed said, his voice caustic with the contempt he felt for Paolo. “Which is a hell of a lot more than you did for that poor animal. And more than you deserve.”

  After filling the cleanest bowl he could find with water from a hand pump inside the hut and leaving it for the dog, Reed found the keys to Paolo’s limousine and climbed behind the wheel. His wound had stopped bleeding, but it had begun to throb, keeping time with the pounding in his head.

  Before he drove away, he took careful aim and, with two shots, flattened the tires on the motorcycle. If old silver-eyes somehow managed to work his way free before the police arrived, Reed had no desire to give him an easy means of escape. The man was hate filled and dangerous. He had been beaten and humiliated and if he managed to get lose he would be bent on revenge. Because of the confession Reed had extracted from him at gunpoint, Paolo would know exactly where to find him tonight at midnight.

  * * *

  AFTER QUESTIONING her for over three hours, Agent Talbot offered to drive Tess back to West Palm. Since she hadn’t told him about the rendezvous at Jack’s Bay, she couldn’t give him a good reason for wanting to remain in Bodden Town. Afraid if she pressed the issue she’d arouse his suspicions, Tess accepted his offer.

  Sitting in his car outside the hotel, Tess thanked him for the lift and reached for the door, only to have him stop her.

  “It was extremely foolish for you to think you could track down the man the bartender described,” he admonished her. “I hope you realize now what a mistake that was.”

  Tess nodded, but the only thing she realized was that Nick Talbot was a condescending ass.

  “Remember, if you think of anything you’ve forgotten, anything your cousin may have shared with you, anything at all that could help us find her, you must call me. I’m staying at the Georgetown Holiday Inn in room 612. Don’t forget. I’m the federal authority in this case. I can’t help you out of this mess if you won’t confide in me, Miss Elliot. Do you understand?”

  Tess muttered that she did and moments later stood on the sidewalk outside West Palm and watched the rental car pull away. She’d been relieved three hours ago to discover that Nick Talbot was a federal agent, but now, ironically, she was even more relieved to see him go.

  On the way back to the hotel, he’d attempted to bring levity to what had ultimately been a grueling afternoon by handing her Orman’s boat rental logbook and making her promise to send it back to the old man.

  “Seriously, Tess,” he’d said, staring at her like an overbearing father, “if the kidnappers contact you again, you must call me. You’ve interfered in a serious criminal matter. I only hope you haven’t compromised the state’s case entirely.” He’d stared at her almost angrily. “Promise you’ll go straight to the nearest phone and call me. No more cops and robbers with McKenna.”

  Tess had agreed, knowing it was a promise she’d never keep. Her experience on the beach this morning had convinced her that the men who held Selena were deadly serious about killing her cousin if Tess did not comply exactly with their wishes. And her experience with Talbot had convinced her that he cared far more about the prosecution of Edward Morrell than saving Selena’s life.

  Despite his persistent questioning, Tess hadn’t told Talbot everything. In order to justify her presence in Bodden Town she’d had to admit to what Davey had told them about the silver-eyed man. But every time she’d considered telling him about her ordeal in the cave or the rendezvous tonight, she remembered the deadly warning she’d received at knifepoint.

  The more Nick Talbot had badgered her, the easier it had become to lie to him. His demeanor had been condescending and ultimately chauvinistic. In the end, those disagreeable traits had worked to Tess’s advantage.

  She’d convinced him, or at least she hoped she had, that if Selena’s abductors contacted her again she’d be all too happy to turn the rescue of her cousin over to him.

  What Nick Talbot had convinced her of was that he was a coldhearted, by-the-book cop who thought in terms of cases first and people later. Although she couldn’t argue with a cop dedicated to duty, she’d be damned if she’d compromise her cousin’s life just to help some ambitious federal agent earn a promotion.

  But if she didn’t feel she could trust Nick Talbot, a bona fide federal agent, what made her think Reed McKenna, bounty hunter, could be any more trustworthy? And why, despite everything Talbot had told her, did she long to feel Reed’s arms around her again?

  * * *

  AFTER FEIGNING amazement and distress at the news of the damage done to her room while she’d been away for the night in Bodden Town, Tess had not only received an apology from the hotel management, but been given a complimentary room. Time seemed to stand still while she waited in the lobby while housekeeping prepared her new room, but at least she had time to phone the company that had issued her traveler’s checks and report them stolen. She would have to stay long enough to check into the new room, she told herself, in case Talbot tried to reach her. At least from the privacy of a hotel room, she could make arrangements for a way back to Bodden Town, she told herself as she waited.

  It was late, after nine when she finally opened the door to the room on the third floor. As she reached for the light switch, her every thought was focused on how to get back to Jack’s Bay by midnight.

  Nothing prepared her for the hand that came out of the darkness and clamped over her mouth, or the arm, as unrelenting as steel, that caught her around her waist and hauled her into the room and up against a rock-hard body in the darkness.

  Chapter Fifteen

  The door was kicked shut and adrenaline, like lightning, shot through Tess’s veins, supplying her with a sudden burst of strength. She struggled, kicking and jabbing and flailing against the iron grip that held her.

  “Tess! Tessa, be still.”

  At the sound of his smoky whisper, she stopped struggling immediately and all her fight dissolved into a maddening mix of anger and joy.

  Reed! He’d come back. But damn it, he’d also nearly given her heart failure, not to mention the little matter of the charade he’d perpetrated for the past seventy-two hours, and the lies, that if he hadn’t told outright, he hadn’t gone out of his way to dispel, either.

  Twisting around in his arms she stared into the familiar face, handsome even when shrouded in shadows. Not knowing whether to slap him or kiss him, she settled for scolding. “You scared the living hell out of me, McKenna,” she informed him hotly before jerking out of his arms. When she twisted away from him to slap on the lights, she heard the breath go out of him in a ragged gasp.

  His ghastly pallor shocked her. “What’s the matter, Reed? Are you hurt?”

  “I—I had a little accident,” he muttered as he staggered to the bed. “A run-in with your friend from the beach.” Blood was beginning to seep from his wound and Tess watched in horror as it formed a crimson circle on his shirt.

  “We’ve got to call a doctor.” She reached for the phone, but he grabbed her hand, stopping her.

  “No, it’s all right—really. I just...need to...lie down for a minute.”

  Against her better judgment she moved away from the phone and helped him lie back on the bed before she rushed into the bathroom, filled the plastic ice bucket with water and returned with a towel and washrag to inspect and clean his wound. He winced when she helped him out of his shirt and she suppressed a gasp when she saw the puncture wound in his side. “Reed, I don’t know...it could be serious. I really think you need to see a doctor.”

  “Believe me, I couldn’t have driven here if it had done any real damage,” he assured her.

  She cleaned the wound and realized he was right, that the blood seeping through his shirt had made the puncture seem deep
er and more severe than it really was. But the depth and the severity didn’t diminish the pain and she flinched every time he did.

  Binding the wound would keep it from bleeding and might even ease the discomfort, Tess decided, and she proceeded to strip the pillowcases from pillows on the other bed, from which she fashioned bandages.

  After the makeshift bandage was wrapped around his waist, Tess secured it with safety pins she found in a courtesy kit on the dresser.

  “How did you know I’d come back to West Palm?” she asked as she worked over his wound.

  “Well, as much as I’d like to tell you it was a work of brilliant detection, the real truth is I followed you.”

  “But how did you find me?”

  “By accident,” he admitted. “After a dismal attempt at first aid in the men’s room at the Bodden Town gas station, I headed back to the beach house.” Reed didn’t tell her how the sight of the Jeep with its tires slashed reminded him that Paolo had been there and for a moment, imagining the wretched drug user with Tess, Reed had felt capable of cold-blooded murder.

  “I didn’t know if you’d found a ride back to Bodden Town or if you were still at the beach house,” he explained. “But I knew that no matter what had transpired between us earlier, you were as focused on finding the silver-eyed man as I was.” Tess was smart, independent, savvy. Too smart and too damned independent to merely sit and wait for someone to rescue her. “I decided you’d have found a way back to Bodden Town, even if you had to walk.”

  He was pleased by the smile he brought to her face.

  “Anyway, I was pulling the limo onto the highway to double back to find you when I saw you and Talbot drive by.”

  Her eyes held his for a meaningful moment and he knew she was fully aware that he was not a federal agent. “Must have been a shock to see us together,” she noted dryly.

  He nodded and closed his eyes.