Chapter Eleven
AUDREY MADE QUICK use of the bathroom and smoothed the sunblock she found in the cupboard over every inch of her pale skin. She pulled on the bikini that was a little loose but felt like it might stay in place if she tied the laces super tight. She removed her bandage and checked the wound. No inflammation or pain. The skin itched beneath the flaky scab, which was a good sign. The stitches should fall out on their own soon. Ugly as hell, and a vivid reminder that she’d almost died.
She left the bandage off to air the wound. Grabbed a big beach towel out of the bathroom and wrapped it around herself. Then she headed into the living room.
Killion was in the kitchen, wearing nothing but the low-slung board shorts. His washboard abs had a thin smattering of golden hair that arrowed down from his navel and looked like it would be fun to follow.
She watched him as he packed stuff out of the fridge—food, water bottles. She hadn’t hung out with a guy who looked this in shape since she’d dated a lacrosse player during her freshman year in college. The guy had turned out to be a jerk, but as far as eye candy went… She pushed the thought out of her head. Killion was a dangerous operative. He kept in shape to steal airplanes and seduce information out of unsuspecting women.
She bet he was good at it, too.
The atmosphere had shifted from captor and captive to something a lot more friendly. A lot more. Either he was playing her, or last night’s ineptitude with the gun had finally persuaded him she wasn’t the hit woman he was looking for.
She hoped it was the latter, but didn’t really know why it mattered. She was stuck on this island regardless.
He handed her a glass of cold milk. “Did you know people froze milk?”
She blinked. What? “Sure.” She took a sip and it was delicious. She tipped it back and drank the whole glass.
“I didn’t.”
“So you’ve learned something new on this adventure. Not a complete bust after all.”
He stared at her intently and said nothing. Then his gaze lowered to the towel, putting her under the microscope again. “Why are you so self-conscious about your body?”
She tugged the knot higher. “I’m not.”
“Well, you shouldn’t be.” He pointed toward some flip-flops near the door. “Put those on.” Then he grinned again. “Do you remember when we stole that plane?”
We?
“You were out of it, but you told me even gorgeous women worry about not being perfect, whereas us fat ugly dudes think we’re sex on a stick?”
He was sex on a stick, and he knew it. “It’s a bit blurry, but it sounds like something I might say.”
“Oh, you said it.” He draped a pink towel around his neck and strapped the bag of supplies over his back. A proper boy scout. “And you kept going on about some guy called Dean Winchester.”
Her face heated. “I did not.” The fact she had a crush on the actor was not something she advertised.
He guided her out the door and closed it. It locked behind them. Talk about security conscious.
“You did. So I looked him up online when we were in Cartagena. You’re a Supernatural fan, and you like blonds.” He said it with such a self-satisfied grin she wanted to smack him.
“No,” she corrected him. “I like specific people, not generalized swathes of the population.”
The path was steep, and she was already feeling tired just looking at it. Still, she wouldn’t get stronger if she didn’t push herself. Then she yelped in surprise as Killion swung her up into his arms—again. Her fingers curled over his heart. No shirt to hold onto this time, just sleek hot muscle.
She swallowed nervously and raised her eyes to meet his. “I can walk you know.”
It felt weird to touch him skin on skin. Intimate. Considering the complicated nature of their relationship, she probably shouldn’t enjoy feeling the beat of his heart against her palm, but she did.
“A day ago, Professor, I didn’t even know if you were going to make it through the night. Swimming was my idea, but let’s take it slow, okay? I don’t want you to suffer a relapse. Anyway, you can carry me back.” His grin told her he knew the effect he was having on her libido.
She sighed.
It didn’t seem fair that he held all the aces. She was hardly some simpering female, but she was completely out of her element.
The blue eyes were serious for a moment, and his face was a lot closer to hers than she’d realized. His gaze dropped to her lips. There was attraction there, but she didn’t know how real it was.
Maybe it didn’t matter.
Maybe it didn’t have to be real. Maybe until she found her way back to civilization she should just take advantage and enjoy herself…
“So what happens next?” she asked rather breathlessly.
“We need to wait for transportation to the mainland and then you need to lay low until I can figure out who set you up and why Mano de Dios tried to kill you.”
“So you finally believe me?”
He nodded.
And because he didn’t try to elaborate, she actually believed him.
“That could take months.” She had a job, a life.
“Hey, look at me,” he demanded. “We’ll figure this out. The most important thing is you’re safe. The frogs will wait.” His arms squeezed her tighter against his chest and, even though she didn’t necessarily agree, she didn’t argue.
They followed the dirt path, passing under the dappled canopy of deciduous trees and coconut palms. A lizard darted into the bush, but it moved too fast for her to be able to identify it.
“It might take a day, a week, or a month. But I will get them and I’ll figure out a way to clear your name,” he murmured, almost to himself.
A lump formed in her throat. This man had saved her life even when he’d thought she was a killer. Despite everything, she realized, subconsciously she’d always trusted him. “I guess I owe you my life. I’m sorry I pointed your gun at you last night.”
“If I’d been in your position I’d have shot me days ago.” His irreverent grin made her pulse skip. “Just don’t do it again. And next time I say skinny-dipping we go skinny-dipping. Got it?”
“You are incorrigible.”
“Clothes are overrated,” he insisted.
“Stubbornness is a flaw, you know that?” He opened his mouth, but she beat him to it. “As is always needing to win an argument.”
He shook his head. “Jensen Ackles. Unbelievable.”
She grinned. “He’s hot. You’re jealous.”
“We’ve been over this.” Finally at the bottom of the steep hill Killion placed her carefully on her feet. Then he took her hand and she couldn’t remember the last time a man had been this considerate. She should get abducted more often. “Beach is just around this corner,” he said. “Come on.”
As suddenly as he started walking, he stopped and raised his free hand in warning. A snatch of sound drifted on the breeze. Voices.
Her eyes shot to his. From the tension in his grip they weren’t expecting visitors. He put his finger to his lips and spoke just above a whisper. “Could be day-trippers taking advantage of an empty private beach. Or it could be bad news. Let’s assume the worst.” He slipped off the backpack and retrieved his weapon, drawing her deeper into the shadows of the trees.
“We need to lose this.” He tugged the white towel off her shoulders and balled it up and stuffed it under a bush, sweeping dust and dirt over the top. He didn’t comment on her bikini, but his eyes went to her stab wound. He draped his dusky pink towel over her shoulders and gave her a tight smile. “Healing nicely. Now keep completely still. Movement attracts the eye.”
The voices seemed to be getting closer—men creeping along the path speaking Spanish. Killion drew her behind a large palm tree. Him facing the path, covering her with his body. They were hidden in dappled shade beneath dense coconut palms. Hard to spot unless someone was actively looking for them. The sound of a weapon being cocked sent a spark of fear straight through Audrey and she startled. Killion pressed his body more firmly against hers in warning. Out of the corner of her eyes she counted six men inching furtively along the trail.
“Okay. Plan B.” His words were a brush of air against her ear. “You okay?” he asked when the men were out of sight.
His fingers gripped her upper arm, and she realized she was shaking. She looked up at him. “Just tell me what you want me to do.”
“That’s my girl.” He took her hand and led her through the woods so they could see the beach from the safety of the trees. A guy sat in the sand guarding a small inflatable boat that had been pulled up out of the surf.
“Wait here.”
She sat motionless, crouched in the bushes, feeling pathetic and needy. All these years she’d preached equality, but she wasn’t holding up her end of the bargain. But she was a biologist, not some government agent or member of a criminal gang. She’d hinder rather than help if she started giving Killion orders.
He was back. “There’s a fishing boat anchored just offshore. How far do you think you can swim?”
“Normally I can swim for at least a mile, but…” She held out her fingers, which were trembling “…I don’t have a lot of strength, so it depends on how strong the current is.”
From the tight expression on his face the currents were pretty strong. “Plan C. Give me ninety-seconds to get around the other side of the beach and then you drop into the surf when the guy isn’t looking. Stroll up onto the beach as if you’ve just come in from a long swim. I need you to deliberately draw his attention to you and away from me. Take off your top.”
“Seriously?”
“Trust me. All I need is a five-second distraction and your breasts will get me that.”
She instinctively held her hands over her boobs. Her cheeks were hot, but she could do this. Hopefully. “How should I act? Sophisticated or shy?”
“Men are idiots, so a little strutting would probably work best. But it doesn’t matter. He won’t notice anything except for your body. Not at first.”
And then he was gone.
Shit. Audrey couldn’t do this. She was not a Bond girl. She looked down at her chest. She was a shy person. Private.
Crap. She was supposed to be counting.
She started at ten because he’d probably been gone that long. She eased Killion’s towel from her shoulders and laid it in a neat pile in the sand. The idea of getting naked in front of a stranger made her feel sick. But these people were not day-trippers, they were here to hurt her and Killion. She wasn’t about to let a little natural reticence get them both killed. She might not be able to fire a gun, but she could show her breasts to some moron too stupid to know she was part of the plan. She got to seventy and pulled on the tie at the back of her bikini top, slipped it over her head, and dropped it to the ground next to the towel. At eighty-five she climbed gingerly down the rocks into the swell of the surf out of sight of the man on the beach. The water wasn’t cold, but it still took her breath. She struck out gingerly toward the beach and knew the moment he spotted her because he stood, resting one hand on his handgun. Even the short swim made her limbs quiver with exhaustion—or maybe that was fear. Her feet hit the sandy bottom and she stood, water streaming over her breasts and down her stomach. She grabbed the bikini bottoms as the weight of the water threatened to drag them down her legs. Crap. Now that would be a distraction.
She smiled at the guy and kept walking toward him, putting a little sway in her hips.
“Can I help you?” she asked in English even though she knew he probably didn’t speak the language.
She kept her eyes off the flash of movement behind him, just let her mouth open in shock as he grabbed his crotch and leered at her.
“Ven acá, nena.” Come here, baby. He reached toward her with grabby hands and she took a step back. He caught her wrist, dragging her toward him, eyes latched onto her jiggling breasts.
Killion grabbed the man from behind and twisted his neck sharply to an unnatural angle. The man fell dead at his feet. Bile seared her throat.
“Get in the boat.” Killion was ripping the dead man’s shirt from his body and putting it on, along with the greasy Panama hat and mirrored sunglasses. He stuffed the revolver in the back of his shorts.
Audrey ran to the boat and started pushing it into the surf, trying to be more than just a distraction. Strong hands gripped her hips.
“In the boat, Aud, now. Do as I say and we might get out of this alive.”
His fingers sent a shockwave of heat through her. Maybe it was being topless in broad daylight. Maybe it was knowing Killion had just killed to protect her—because she knew instinctively he could have swum as far as was needed.
She climbed into the boat and sat quickly as he shoved the craft back into the surf. Once they were floating clear of the breakers he jumped in and started the engine.
“Sit up front and hold your hands behind your back as if you’re tied up.”
Audrey did as she was told, painfully aware of the cold breeze scraping her exposed skin, her nipples beaded and goose flesh pebbling her body.
“I’d cover you up, but I need to use the distraction technique again.”
“What if someone finds the dead man and radios the trawler?” she asked, glancing back at Killion. The guy had seen her naked so often now she didn’t know why she even worried about clothes anymore.
Next time she’d make sure he got naked too, just to even the score. The idea made her tip her chin defiantly. Beat the heck out of vomiting over the side of the boat the way she wanted to.
“We need to take over the fishing boat before they make contact. These guys aren’t going to let us take it from them without a fight. The cartel will probably kill them if they fail.”
The cartel? Mano de Dios had followed her all the way to this tiny island? What the hell was going on?
Killion pulled his gun and handled the boat with one hand hidden behind his back. A man popped his head over the side of the fishing trawler. Audrey forced her chin up and chest out. If she was going to be the token female she was going to play the part to the best of her ability.
A radio squawked.
They got closer and while the man was leering at Audrey, Killion shot him in the head. Audrey flinched at the spray of blood and watched him fall dead into the water. Her mouth went dry and nausea stirred in her belly.
“Hold it together, darlin’, or we’re both going to wind up dead.”
Their inflatable bumped into the side of the trawler, and Killion grabbed one of the floats, quickly tying their rope to it.
“I’ll be right back.” He tucked the gun into the waistband of his shorts—good thing they hadn’t decided to go skinny-dipping—and monkey crawled around the side of the boat toward the prow.
Audrey felt ridiculously vulnerable standing there almost naked. Was there anyone else on board? She stood up on tiptoes. A loud bang had her dropping to the floor as a bullet whizzed overhead. Dammit! Footsteps made her look up and another dark-haired man peered over the side. This one didn’t look entranced by her boobs. His eyes narrowed, and he swung a big black gun toward her.
Oh, hell.
She threw herself overboard just as he pulled the trigger.
* * *
“AUDREY!” KILLION RAN to the side of the boat and looked into the inflatable, frantically searching for the woman he was struggling to keep alive.
He’d taken care of a guy in the wheelhouse who’d been trying to raise the troops attacking the house, but the geniuses had left the radio in the boat. Then he’d turned around and seen another man leaning over the railings with a bead on Audrey. The guy got a shot off before Killion managed to send him to hell. But there was no sign of his brave, nerdy, frog friend.
Shit. Where the hell was she? He needed to search the trawler for any other bad guys, but he couldn’t let Audrey drown—assuming she hadn’t been killed. The thought made something desperate twist inside him. Then a hand reached over the side of the inflatable and a dark head emerged from the water. Her eyes met his, haunted, scared. Still alive.
Sweet Jesus. She was going to be the death of him.
“Can you climb up without my help?” His voice came out meaner than he’d intended, like he wanted to rip off someone’s head. She gritted her teeth and nodded, flinging her arms over the side, hooking her leg over until she rolled virtually naked into the bottom of the boat.
No bullet holes, which was a blessing, and her stab wound hadn’t reopened, bonus. He closed his eyes in relief. Then he reached down and gripped her hand, hauling her aboard the trawler, and pulled her close for a quick, wet hug. She was shivering and had her hands crossed over her breasts. The woman had spent more time naked in his presence than any other woman he’d ever met, and he hadn’t even kissed her properly yet.
Yet?
He tore off the stolen shirt and dragged it over her shoulders, pulling it closed at the front. “I’ve gotta make sure there’s no one else on board. Come on.” He took her by the hand. Her teeth chattered, and she was shaking, probably from shock rather than cold. Inside the wheelhouse he showed her the lock. “Don’t let anyone in except me, okay?”
She nodded, those violet eyes of hers huge now. He stepped over the body of the captain, took the man’s weapon, and pressed it into her palm. “Safety is off this time.” He gripped the back of her neck and drew her close, kissing her on the lips. “Don’t shoot me.”
Killion went out the door and made sure Audrey locked it after him. As soon as he heard the click of the latch he began a systematic search of the vessel, checking every inch including the stinking cargo hold. He found enough weapons to start a war, but no other would-be killers. He went up on deck, got his pack from the inflatable, and eased the body of the man who’d shot at Audrey overboard. With luck he’d never be found. Killion went back to the wheelhouse and knocked loudly. “Aud?”
The door opened immediately, and she held out the gun to him with the barrel pointed to the deck. “Take it. I’m scared I’m going to accidentally pull the trigger.”
Killion didn’t argue. He tucked it in the waistband of his shorts, along with his own weapon, and both dug uncomfortably into his butt. He went through the captain’s pockets until he found a cell phone. He took it, then picked up the dead captain by his feet and dragged him over the lip of the door and down the steps onto the deck. He shoved the man over the side with the others. When he turned around, Audrey was staring at him from the wheelhouse door with a look of abject horror on her features. Shit, she looked like she was about to fall over, and no wonder. She was barely out of the sickbed and forced to run for her life again.
How had they found them?
He went over and took her hand. Led her down to the small bathroom. He turned the temperature of the shower to warm and held her trembling form in his arms. When the temperature felt okay he started to slip the shirt off her shoulders. She went stiff with resistance for a second, then her shoulders relaxed and she rested her forehead against his chest. A lump the size of Arkansas wedged itself in his throat as he eased off the shirt and tossed it on the floor.
“I’ll find you something clean to wear.”
She shuddered and he pushed her under the spray wishing he could join her, knowing he didn’t deserve an invitation. Not that it would have stopped him under normal circumstances, but this wasn’t normal. She had just watched him kill four men and he had a horrible feeling he was responsible for a lot of the things that had happened over the last week.
She turned her back to him, but the view was good from any direction. He felt himself getting aroused and curled his fingers into his palm.
For some reason Audrey thought she came up short in the body stakes. She was mistaken, but then everyone was fucked up one way or another. The fact Audrey was hung up about her body just showed she was correct about her fat bastard inequality theory.
He shook himself out of his daze and went and rifled through lockers, looking for the smallest, cleanest clothes he could find. He bundled them up and put them and a clean towel just inside the door of the bathroom. Audrey was still turned away from him, washing her hair. He dragged his eyes away from those tantalizing turquoise bikini bottoms and headed back to the deck where he started the engine and motored slowly away from the island. He retrieved his cell phone, grateful he’d put it in a Ziploc before heading to the beach. Despite his unkempt appearance, taking care of the essentials was one of the tenets he lived by.
He pulled the captain’s cell out of his pocket and called Jed’s number.
“Agent Brennan.”
“It’s me.”
Jed understood the significance of him calling from another cell. “Ah, shit. What happened?”
“Find out who owns this phone and a fishing trawler called La Santa Anna.”
“You guys safe?”
“Let me call you back on my cell.” Killion scanned the horizon as he headed north. Jed answered again before the phone completed its first ring.
“There are six armed men trying to break into the place where we were staying.” If not for his need to get out of the confines of the house and some lucky timing, they’d have been trapped. “How the hell did they find us?”
“I’m going to patch Parker into this call.”
Killion didn’t know if he trusted Parker or not—they’d never actually met and he knew that at one time the guy had worked for CIA on projects so sensitive they’d never be subject to the freedom of information act. His buddy Lincoln Frazer trusted him though, and Frazer was a hard sell. It would have to be enough.
Parker didn’t waste time on small talk. “Do the attackers have any other way to pursue you?”
“Pretty sure I just confiscated their only means of transportation. But they probably have cell phones so they could call for help.”
“Give me a sec.” Parker came back a few moments later. “I turned off the signal tower just in case one of them has a sat phone. They won’t be talking to anyone. There’s a camera system that shows them camped outside the front door, trying to figure a way in. The door is bulletproof and it looks like one of them already shot himself in the leg.”
“Bet they weren’t expecting that.” Killion’s smile felt as thin as a blade. “Does your friend Haley have some sort of end of days mentality? Is that why she has so much security?”
“Nah. She bought the house off some Russian gangster when I was in a Moroccan prison. I stayed there for a few weeks after I got out and suggested a few upgrades. It’s possible I was a little paranoid at the time. We use the place for sensitive jobs where people want to drop off the grid—usually to avoid the press. But Haley fell in love with the place and decided she should have it.” Parker laughed softly. “You don’t argue with Haley once she’s made up her mind about something.”
“Sounds like my sort of woman.”
“They’re all your sort of woman,” Jed interjected.
Not really, Killion realized.
“Those goons are going to take a few hours to even figure out you’ve escaped,” Parker said. “The place is built like a fortress. Why didn’t you stay put?”
“For the first time since we arrived I thought I’d take the professor for a swim to try and build up her strength. We were already at the beach by the time we realized we had company.”
“How is she?” this from Jed.
“Scared. Traumatized. Look, I want to know how the hell they found us when as far as I know you guys were the only ones privy to that information.”
“Only you and I knew from this end, right, Alex?” Jed was talking to Parker.
“No one else needed to know. Don’t worry, I’ll figure it out,” said Parker. “I don’t like finding holes in my security protocols. Could the Brits have given you away?”
“Possible, but not likely,” Killion had to admit. “Could someone be tracking this cell?”
“CIA and NASA can track it.”
“Can you track it?”
Parker kept quiet for a long moment, and then admitted, “I could if I had to.”
“Can you make it so they can’t?”
Another few moments of silence. Killion didn’t think Parker was thinking about the technicalities, more the legalities of doing this for a federal employee.
“It’s possible your phone could malfunction and start popping up in other parts of the globe, all at the same time.” Thus confusing the trail. “Langley won’t appreciate losing track of one of their top officers though.”
“Better to disappear temporarily than permanently. See if you can figure out any other way we might have been compromised so I’m not making the same mistake twice. And I’m going to need travel documents to get back to the States. Where do I head from here?”
“Your trawler is out of Honduras. Captain Tippitat was probably one of Gómez’s many smuggling conduits.” Parker relayed the information in a thoughtful voice. “Head north to Jamaica. Sink the trawler offshore, find a small hotel somewhere and call Jed again. Someone will deliver the documents you need.”
“Someone trustworthy?”
“You bet your life on it.”
“I am.” There was a beat of silence. “What about the idiots camped out on the island. Do we let them starve to death?”
“They can sit tight for now. I’ll see if I can hire your buddies from across the water to go pick them up,” said Parker. “Let Gómez remain ignorant about what’s happening out there for as long as possible while we figure out who tracked you down and how.”
“We’ll get you out of this,” Jed promised.
“I appreciate it. And I hope your friend’s home is still standing by the end of it.” Killion wasn’t happy about the damage those guys might inflict when they figured out they’d been stranded.
“We can fix property,” Parker said, his voice serious. “We can’t bring people back from the dead. If Audrey Lockhart is innocent—”
“She is.”
“Then we need to figure out who the real bad guy is and finish this thing.”
Killion couldn’t agree more.
They hung up.
He’d find out exactly how far he could trust them when he hit Jamaica. A figure moved silently up to the wheelhouse door and Killion rested his hand on the grip of his P229.