He’d liked her naked last night. He’d known then that she was still uncannily perfect and sensual, and he loved the silky feel of her flesh. The suit shouldn’t have had any surprises for him, except that…
She shouldn’t be wearing it. That was it. She shouldn’t be that close to naked in front of strangers.
She climbed out of the water, pulling herself up the ladder, a near replica of her teenage daughter. Or Shanna was the replica of her. Something like that.
“Kathy!” Reba seemed even more delighted.
“Mom!”
“Isn’t this just wonderful!” Reba said.
Justin was walking over to help Kathy up the ladder. Brent almost brushed past him to do so himself, then managed to control the urge at the last minute. He didn’t want anyone else touching her.
It was that damned suit.
She was on the deck, dripping wet, smoothing back her hair, flashing her warm smile at Justin and Reba.
“I can’t believe the two of you are here together!” Shanna said.
“We’re not,” Brent and Kathy said simultaneously. They cast each other a quick glance.
“Did your father get a chance to explain yet?” Kathy asked Shanna anxiously.
There was a pile of towels on a deck chair next to the Brennans’ scuba equipment. Brent grabbed a towel and practically threw it over Kathy’s shoulders, his fingers taut as he stood behind her, trying very hard to smile and not snarl.
“I haven’t had a chance, Kathy. Justin, Reba, I think we’d better sit and I’ll try to explain.”
A few minutes later they were all in the cabin at the round booth to the starboard side of the very impressive galley. Justin listened in silence, nodding when Brent started with the Harry Robertson case, frowning intently when he heard about Larry’s death, then knitting his brows still more tightly when he heard about the explosion. Shanna gasped in horror, realizing that her father should have been there.
“It’s all right,” Brent assured her gently. It was good to focus on his daughter. Kathy was sitting beside him, and she wouldn’t hold on to the towel. It had slipped down her back. And her thigh was touching his. They were all sipping coffee, and her fingers kept brushing his.
He should have hog-tied her and left her on the Sweet Eden. He’d be making more sense now.
“I’m all right, and everything is going to be all right,” he added, smiling at the anxiety in his daughter’s eyes. God, she was precious to him. “But I want you and your mother gone.”
“Why?”
He inhaled and exhaled. Damn, but she sounded like her mother!
“Because I don’t want you hurt or killed by someone trying very hard to get to me. Shanna, weren’t you listening, don’t you understand? I tried to disappear the second I saw what had happened to Johnny because I knew I had to get the two of you away before they came looking for me. I called a friend in Washington and I managed to get everything arranged for the two of you.”
“Washington! I don’t want to go away. I want to stay near you!”
“Shanna, you can’t—”
“You’re going to go back! You’re going to try to be some kind of bait—”
“Shanna—”
“Wait a minute, wait a minute,” Justin interrupted. Brent looked at him. Justin knew he had to go back, that he didn’t have a choice in the world.
He also seemed to understand how concerned Brent was for his wife and daughter. Ex-wife and daughter.
“What you want is absolute safety for Shanna and Kathy,” he said.
“Right,” Brent agreed.
“Okay, then listen to this. And you listen real good, young lady,” he advised Shanna. “We’ve got a little place on a private island. Walled in, electric gates, a fine pack of trained shepherds, security guards, the works.”
Kathy and Brent were staring at him. Justin flushed, his cheeks going very red. “I have a publisher friend who was in real trouble. Lost his job and everything, and we’re always in the islands, so I bought the place from him. The people I’ve kept on I trust implicitly. I can take care of Shanna and Kathy. We’ll still be real near just in case you need us, and Shanna will be a lot happier with David around, and I think Kathy will be happier with us than she would be with strangers, right?”
Brent hesitated. He didn’t know what to say. “Justin, I can’t put you in this position.”
“Hell, Brent, I was a cop for years!”
“But your own family—”
“I’m telling you, this place is like Fort Knox!”
“We’d be delighted to have Kathy and Shanna. Honestly!” Reba said.
David looked at Brent. “Sir, please, we wouldn’t have it any other way.” He hesitated. “I can’t let you take her otherwise, Mr. McQueen.”
“Oh, you can’t?” Brent said, his temper rising.
“Daddy!” Shanna pleaded. “I won’t go unless I go with David.”
Brent smiled. She’d been going to fight him the whole way. Then she’d jumped to David’s defense, and now she was stuck.
“So you will go with the Brennans.”
“You tricked me!” she wailed. “I still don’t like this, I don’t like it one bit. I want to be with you.”
“Shanna,” he said, sighing impatiently, “you can’t be with me!”
“You could take the boat back and they could be waiting for you.”
“I won’t take the boat to your mother’s place. I’ll dock her somewhere else. Shanna, I’ll be all right. As long as I’m not worried about you and your mother, I’ll be fine.”
“Then it’s settled!” Justin announced, pleased.
Brent felt Kathy shift beside him. He looked into her eyes, ready for the biggest argument of them all.
“Is it settled?” he asked her tensely.
She smiled. “If this is what you want,” she said sweetly.
Her smile was absolutely beautiful, totally innocent. Her eyes were wide and very blue, and her hair was just beginning to dry. It was framing her face with soft, near platinum tendrils.
She was being too agreeable. Maybe she just wanted to get rid of him as soon as possible.
“It’s not so much a matter of what I want,” he told her. “It’s what’s necessary.”
“All right.”
She’d never said “all right” to him in all the years he had known her. Still, he couldn’t argue with her because she wasn’t arguing with him.
“Maybe we should all start moving,” Justin said. He rose. “I want to get these two there as soon as possible.”
Brent nodded, rising. He offered Justin his hand. “Thanks.”
Justin nodded. “You be careful. Real careful.”
“I will be.”
He started up the stairs to the deck with the others behind him. “Do you need to get your things?” Reba asked Kathy.
“No, I don’t think I need anything at all,” Kathy said. Brent narrowed his eyes at her. She smiled at him again. “Really. Shanna and I wear the same size, and I’m sure she has plenty of clothing with her. Do you, Shanna?”
“Of course, Mom,” Shanna answered, barely glancing her way. Her eyes were all for her father. “Oh, Dad!” she cried softly, and she threw herself into his arms.
Brent held her long and close, then set her down. “I’ll be all right.”
She nodded. There were tears in her eyes.
He looked beyond his daughter to his wife. Ex-wife. She was standing silently several feet behind Shanna. At long last she’d wrapped the towel around herself. Her eyes met his.
He wanted to sweep her into his arms, to hold her just as he had held his daughter. He couldn’t. Not anymore. He lifted a hand to her.
“Take care.”
She nodded, her blue gaze haunting him. She didn’t say a word.
Justin moved to Brent and handed him a card. “This is the name of the guy who used to own the place. The phone and address are still right, in case you want to reach us.”
Brent thanked him and stuck the card in his pocket. As soon as he returned to the Sweet Eden, he would memorize the numbers and destroy the card. “I’ll call from a phone booth and make sure you all got there okay,” he said. Shanna was going to start to cry, he thought, if he didn’t leave quickly. He kissed her one last time, waved to the others, then felt Kathy’s eyes.
She was still staring at him steadily, betraying no emotion whatsoever.
He turned, smiled and dived from the boat into the water.
The second he was gone Kathy dropped her towel and spun her daughter around to face her. “I’m not letting him go back alone, Shanna. I’m going to get on the Sweet Eden.”
“Kathy, you can’t!” Justin protested.
“You can’t stop me. And if you waste any more time, you might be risking Shanna.” She smiled at him and Reba. “Thank you both so much. For Shanna and for me. Now, I’m awfully sorry, but I have to move fast. He’s a stronger swimmer than I am.”
She pulled her daughter into her arms and hugged her, then hugged David impulsively while she listened to her daughter’s protests.
“Hang around for just a minute, will you?” Kathy asked wryly. “Just in case he has a chance to pull out before I can sneak aboard!”
“I’ll stay around,” Justin assured her. “I should warn him—”
“Please, don’t!” Kathy whispered.
“But, Mother!” Shanna wailed. “Now I’m going to have to worry about both of you.”
“Serves you right,” Kathy retorted. “Now you’ll know how I feel when you ignore the time I tell you to be in at night!”
She couldn’t waste any more time. She crawled over the side, not wanting to alert Brent with a splash. She smiled at her daughter. “I love you. We both love you.”
“I love you, too!” Shanna cried.
The last sight Kathy had of her daughter then was bittersweet. David stepped up behind her and put a supporting hand around her. They were both very young and very beautiful, and maybe it was just as it should be. There was so much caring between them already.
I’m losing her! Kathy thought, but she wasn’t really. Shanna was loving and would always care for her, just as she would always worry about her daughter. But she was going to have to hand her over to David Brennan, it seemed. Maybe much sooner than she had expected.
The water closed around her. Kathy didn’t look back. She swam as hard as she could for the Sweet Eden.
Brent climbed aboard the Sweet Eden, anxious to move as quickly as possible should anyone have tried to follow him and recognized the boat as one belonging to his ex-wife. He wanted to make sure the boat was far, far away from his ex-wife and his daughter.
He was worried. He trusted Justin Brennan, he had a lot of faith in the man, but he would be happier once he placed the call and found they had all reached the island and were behind the gates and walls and protected by the pack of shepherds.
Still, he didn’t pull the anchor right away. He took the wet card from his pocket and read the address and phone number, closed his eyes and committed both to memory. Then he ripped the card into tiny shreds and let them fall into the ocean. He walked into the cabin for a towel, then came up and pulled in the anchor.
The Cary-Anne had not started out yet. He saw Shanna on deck, watching him, and he waved. She waved in return. David was with her.
He didn’t see Kathy anywhere.
He sat, turned the key and listened to the motor rev. Then he slightly angled the tiller and waved again as he headed the Sweet Eden toward Miami.
Well, it was over now. Their time together. He didn’t have to burn inside and hope he could refrain from grabbing her and demanding to know what the hell she was doing in that bathing suit. He didn’t have to worry about the overwhelming desire to touch her, to hold her, to make love to her.
She had very silently, very agreeably stayed behind. She wanted him, she’d had him, and she’d walked away damned easily, ready to resume her life. With Mr. Fashion Plate, Mr. Hair Mousse, Mr. Wall Street Type. Maybe it was just what she wanted, just what she needed. A guy with no passion whatsoever inside, a guy as straight as an arrow.…
No passion, no life! He wasn’t right for Kathy at all. There was no music in his soul, and Kathy was music, a sweet beat of laughter and impulse and challenge and never-ending curiosity, always willing to take a chance, to travel to new places, to meet new people. She was the pulse, the beat of his life. He hadn’t lost his touch when he had lost his son, although the anguish had been terrible. He had lost it all when he had lost her, and he had barely managed to regain it.
Maybe it was better that she dated this guy, this Axel. Maybe they would never walk down island shores together while listening to the drumroll of a different lifestyle. Maybe they’d never find a private cove and throw caution to the wind. Maybe he’d never make love with sand between his toes.
But then again, maybe he’d never hurt her, either.
She’d walk all over him eventually, Brent thought sourly. Kathy had her own temper. And her own will. And both were powerful. She’d tire of this guy soon enough.
Hell, they were divorced. He should be wishing her happiness. He loved her still, didn’t he? He wanted her to be happy. That was what loving was.
Hell, no. He hated Axel, hated the way the guy looked. Hated him touching Kathy.
But then, there wasn’t anything he could do about it, was there?
The sun beat down on him as the morning waned to afternoon. He held a course for Bear Cut, determined to drop anchor for a while, then move in at night. He wasn’t going to bring the boat in to any dock. He’d drop anchor right off some private property in the grove, then swim in. He’d have the boat picked up by a towing company.
Nightfall was coming. He stood, stretched and stared at the shallow waters before the island. There were still bathers on the darkening beach—lovers, picnickers, kids playing with snorkel gear.
He swung around suddenly, startled, as he heard something. He wasn’t sure what it was. Something. Maybe he hadn’t heard it. Maybe he’d just sensed it.
Then he did hear something. Below.
Someone had gotten onto the Sweet Eden. When he had been with the Brennans?
Or worse, he thought, feeling an unease sweep up his spine. Maybe he’d been so involved with his thoughts that someone had crawled aboard as he’d set out, with him already at the helm.
He was slipping! He’d never stay alive at this rate.
There was a gun in the overhead compartment in the starboard cabin. He’d checked it before, the first chance he’d had last night. Kathy had never moved it. She didn’t like guns, but she was a decent shot, and when it had seemed the crime wave across the country was here to stay, he had insisted she do some target practicing with him.
And now someone was in the cabin with his gun.
Well, he still had his hands and his wits and there had been a few too many times in the army when he’d had to use them. It was just that that had been a long time ago.
He moved toward the stairs, then silently moved down them in his bare feet.
There was no one in the galley or in the salon. The intruder had to be in one of the cabins.
He moved to the starboard side. The cabin door was slightly ajar. The shadows had become so deep he could barely see. But then he caught the movement. Someone was in there, moving furtively in the darkness.
He didn’t dare make a sound. He catapulted forward, his arms outstretched. The shadow moved then, turning, seeing him.
A scream ripped through the air and the shadow tried to move. An elbow caught him in the chin. His arms wrapped around a warm body and held. Limbs thrashed and flailed as he dragged the body into the hallway, grunting. Then he tackled the body to the ground, straddling it and locking its wrists high above its head.
He blinked against the shadows and darkness. “Kathy!” he exploded.
“Brent!” She was furious, shaking. “You scared me half to death.”
&n
bsp; “I scared you! I’m supposed to be aboard this boat. You are not!”
“You could have just said that it was you!”
“I thought you were someone trying to kill me,” he told her.
“Well, that just might be true at this moment! Why didn’t you say—”
“I try not to announce my presence when I think someone might have a gun,” he drawled wryly.
“You didn’t have to manhandle me! Now get off me!” she snapped, her blue eyes flashing with fury.
He was about to do so, but then he shook his head with a grim smile and sat, still holding her wrists, still straddling her hips, his weight settled comfortably on his haunches.
“I don’t think so.”
“What?”
He leaned toward her. “Not until you tell me what the hell you think you’re doing on this boat!”
Chapter 6
“I’m going with you,” Kathy said.
“What?”
She inhaled and exhaled, feeling the pressure of his hands and thighs upon her. She could see an angry tic at the base of his throat. “I’m going with you,” she repeated.
He exploded with a swift, precise oath.
“Will you please quit that and listen to me for a moment? And while you’re at it, would you please let go of me? This is not the most comfortable position in the world.”
“It seems to be the only position to have you in, Ms. O’Hara, to know where you are and what you’re doing!”
“Brent!”
He got up and none-too-gently and very ungraciously dragged her to her feet. He stared at her in the growing darkness, turned and climbed the stairs. Kathy quickly followed.
“Brent, will you listen to me?”
He was standing there, his hands on his hips, staring out at the beach. In the coming darkness, the place was almost deserted. All the children had returned to their various boats with their parents and were heading to the marinas. The picnickers were all gone. A lone couple walked the sands hand in hand.
“Kathy, I’m putting you on a plane out of here,” he told her flatly.
“No, you’re not!” she retorted furiously. “Do you want to know what the problem is, Brent? I know what you’re trying to do. You don’t want to go home and play it safe. You want to go back and make sure you’re incredibly visible. You want to draw this person or these persons out.”
Forever My Love Page 8