CHAPTER TWO
Kerk was fairly sure she was going to come after him.
He thought himself quite clever for manipulating her into coming over to his house, fleeing the scene as he did. He was a witness so it wasn’t as if they could detain him, but he’d left before she’d finished questioning him. He knew that. And he was pretty certain that lovely Corporal Bayne would come after him because she wasn’t finished in the least.
It had been his plan all along.
He honestly couldn’t remember the last time he’d felt such an attraction to a woman. It was true that he’d only spoken to Corporal Bayne for a few minutes, but in those few minutes, he’d felt something spark inside him that hadn’t sparked in a very long time. With her shiny dark hair pulled back into a bun at the nape of her neck and eyes the color of brick dust, Corporal Karia Bayne was an incredibly lovely woman.
She hadn’t been wearing a wedding ring although that really didn’t mean anything these days, but something told him she wasn’t married. She had a hardness around her edges that suggested a woman who wasn’t loved by a man. Most single women had that hardness around them, like a veil of self-protection. They didn’t want to be viewed as vulnerable. Karia definitely had that.
And he found it intriguing.
What he also found intriguing was the fact that she’d seen him leap from the fence over by the Coronado Playhouse only to show up in the exact spot a half a mile away where he surfaced. He thought that was a rather odd twist of fate. Having served Mankind for as long as he had, Kerk knew when there was trouble, when something was occurring that could potentially diminish Mankind.
The death of a young boy who had a bright future ahead of him was definitely a detriment to Mankind, and Kerk had been forced into action to prevent the occurrence. He’d made it to the boy in time, delivering him over to the men and women who could restore his functions. And Karia had been on the that call.
A woman of ageless beauty, more beautiful than almost any woman he’d ever seen.
Ever.
After the first round of questions, he’d made it home upon the wind, a dusting of ashes borne upon the breeze. He traveled that way sometimes, with the ability he had to command the earth and water and sky. He could travel in the water like a forceful current or upon the wind as he just had. He could both command the elements and become them. He’d also been known to travel through the ground like an earthquake. He’d done that a few times but it always left him rattled so he didn’t do that too often, and especially not in California. He done that, once, in the year 1933, and had set off a massive earthquake in Long Beach. It would have gone on much longer had he not stopped it, so he was careful about ground travel in California. He owned a car but he rarely used it, at least when he traveled alone, because as a son of Poseidon, he could take many of the forms his father had.
An inherited benefit of his immortality.
But it took great effort to take form and it usually left him weary. And tonight, he didn’t want to feel his exhaustion. If Corporal Bayne was on her way, then he wanted to have the energy to meet her face to face. Having blown into his side yard, which was shielded from the street by a stucco wall, he’d assumed his rightful human form and slipped in through his French patio doors. From this point on, it would be the mortal in him taking over and he took a quick shower before dressing in a pair of jeans and a body-skimming tee-shirt. He’d spent centuries attracting women and in this century, women liked a hot body. He wasn’t shy about showing his off.
He hoped Corporal Bayne would appreciate it.
There was a sense of anticipation in the air as he headed out into his kitchen and opened up the wine refrigerator he’d had built under the counter to check his selection of good wines. He had the cheap ones at the top to be used when his friends came over with the more expensive varietals down towards the bottom. He had a Chateau Devereaux 2000 Malbec that he’d been wanting to break open for a while, so he brought that one out to bring it to room temperature.
He was just looking in his food refrigerator to see if he had any cheese or anything to go along with it when the doorbell rang. Grinning, he smoothed back his wet hair, now hanging free past his shoulders and drying in the air, as he made his way to the door. Good evening, Corporal Bayne. This is a surprise. He wondered if she could tell he was lying about that. Throwing the bolt, he barely opened the panel when it was shoved open and men were entering his home. It took him all of a half-second to realize that his hopes for a lovely evening were dashed.
“Shit,” he said, shaking his head. “What are you guys doing here?”
Three big men in street clothes were now spread out over his living room. One guy, heavy set with a bushy beard, snatched the television remote from the coffee table and turned on the television.
“You were supposed to meet us at Nicky Rottens a half-hour ago, Chief,” he said. “Where in the hell have you been?”
Kerk sighed impatiently. “I got detained.”
“Detained where?”
“None of your damn business, Corey.”
SO2 Corey Paz snorted with laughter and sat back against Kerk’s expensive leather couch. A close friend, he was a mission specialist in Kerk’s squad, a man who had a knack for observing a situation and formulating a successful conclusion. But he was also a big ape with a big mouth. He tossed the television remote to the guy who sat down next to him, a pale, dark-haired man who looked oddly frail to do what he did for a living. Having been a SEAL for six years as opposed to Corey’s eight, SO2 Shane MacCoy, the squad sniper, began changing channels on the television.
“If you don’t come to us, we’re coming to you,” Corey told Kerk. “You have a better T.V., anyway. Got anything to eat?”
Kerk was becoming increasingly frustrated with his comrades-in-arms invading his home. Normally, he didn’t care because he was very tight with his guys, but tonight was different. The third man of the group was already in the kitchen with the refrigerator open. Hearing Shane’s question, he answered.
“He doesn’t have shit,” SO1 Michael Russell was a big man with auburn hair, so close cropped that the freckles on his scalp could be seen. He was the squad’s point man, a fearless beast who was as tough as they come. He slammed the refrigerator door closed. “He never has shit. Let’s go back over to Nicky’s and eat. I’m hungry.”
Kerk yanked the front door open again. “Good,” he said enthusiastically. “Get the hell out of here. I may or may not be over later. But if you don’t see me in an hour, don’t wait for me.”
Shane turned off the television and looked up at him. “What’s the big secret?” he asked. “Why aren’t you coming?”
Kerk was about to open his mouth when he caught sight of something in front of his house. A police unit was pulling up in the darkness and he slammed the door, grabbing Shane by the arm and shoving Michael back towards the dining room. “Corey!” he hissed. “Get your fat ass up and get out of here. Move!”
Corey leapt up from the couch as an automatic response; orders from the man they knew as Chief weren’t meant to be disobeyed. He had no idea why they were all rushing out the back of Kerk’s house, but the man was frantic to get them out. He pushed them all out of the patio doors off the dining room and slammed the doors shut, locking them so the men couldn’t come charging back in.
There was a gate in his backyard that would dump them out onto a side street. If they were smart, they were already out of the yard. If they weren’t smart, they were still lingering in confusion and thinking on a way to get back into his house. If that was the case, Kerk might just have to kill them and bury the bodies.
But he assumed they were smart enough to leave so he pushed aside thoughts of his inconvenient visitors and focused on the doorbell that would soon be ringing. He wasn’t going to rush to the front door and yank it open in his excitement, so he casually went to the counter and opened that beautiful bottle of expensive wine, pouring it into the decanter to let it breathe. He swirled it, helping it get some air, before reaching over to his wine glass rack and pulling forth two wine glasses that he’d purchased in Solvang, California. Hand-blown, they were gorgeous. He set them on the counter near the decanter about the time there was a knock on his front door.
Kerk’s heart began to race a little bit as he struggled to contain his excitement. Without rushing, he came out of the kitchen, through the dining room, and into the living room as he headed for the front door. He was about ten steps away from it when movement in the windows over by his fireplace caught his attention. The blinds were up and he could see Corey, Shane, and Michael as they pressed their faces up against the glass, sticking their tongues out and generally making lewd gestures. Michael had his lips pressed against the glass, his mouth wide open as his tongue squished up against the glass as if he were performing oral sex on it.
As Kerk watched with mounting annoyance, Shane made a circle with his thumb and forefinger and, using the index finger of his other hand, began simulating sexual intercourse by pushing his finger in and out of the circle. All if this while they were making gleeful faces at Kerk, thrilled to be jeopardizing his quiet evening.
Fuckers!
Making a break for the windows, Kerk yanked the blinds down, blocking out his men and their attempts to ruin his night. But his initial anger at them quickly faded and he found himself breaking down into soft laughter as he turned for the door again. Men he’d experienced life and death with, men that were closer than brothers, were also major pains-in-the-ass at times.
But that’s why he loved them.
There was another knock on the door before he could get to it and he quickly opened the panel to find Karia standing on his porch, alone. In the soft light of his porchlight, she was more beautiful than he had remembered. The mercury vapor lights at the golf course hadn’t really done her justice, but here she was, an astonishing creature on all levels.
He pretended to be surprised to see her.
“Corporal Bayne,” he greeted, trying to sound casual. “What brings you to my humble abode?”
Karia didn’t look particularly pleased to be there. “You ran off before I was finished questioning you.” She stated the obvious. “Do you have a few minutes so I can finish this up and do my report?”
Kerk stepped back, indicating for her to enter. “Of course,” he said. “I have all the time you need. Come on in and have a seat.”
Karia did, warily at first, looking over what was a fairly nice home for a Navy man. It was older, she would guess, maybe built in the 1920s or 1930s, because it had a Spanish feel to it with the ironwork banister on the stairwell and tile work on the steps. The floor at the entry was tiled, like adobe, but there was beautiful hard wood in the living room, which was decorated with brown leather sofas and an enormous flat screen television.
In fact, the house, from what she could see, was exquisite. Karia had a thing for old houses and having only recently purchased her own home, she knew a multi-million dollar home when she saw it. Moving into the living room, she could see a formal dining area and a glimpse of a newly remodeled kitchen. But as she moved towards one of the two expensive leather couches, she looked at Kerk in puzzlement.
“You live here?” she asked, sounding stunned.
He nodded. “Yes,” he said, looking around the room because she was. “This house has been in my family for decades.”
A look of understanding flooded Karia’s features. “Oh,” she said. “You inherited it. That explains a lot, actually. This isn’t usually something Navy guys can afford.”
Kerk grinned, silently indicating for her to sit. He wasn’t going to comment on her assumption that he inherited the house because that wasn’t exactly true. He’d purchased it himself in 1931 when it was built for $6,700 so, technically, it had been in his family since that time. Centuries of building a fortune had left him independently wealthy and very smart with the money he’d accumulated. He wasn’t in the Navy because he needed the money; he was in it for the love of the job.
As he pondered his reply, Karia perched on the edge of the couch because of the awkwardness of her inflexible Sam Browne belt. He sat opposite her.
“No, this isn’t something I could afford on a Navy salary alone,” he finally said. “Would you like to see the whole thing?”
It was very tempting but Karia was here with a purpose and it wasn’t to gawk at this gorgeous house. “Maybe when I’m done,” she said. “I have a few more questions to ask you so I’d like to get that out of the way, if you don’t mind. I’d like to get home before morning if I can.”
Kerk played it cool. “You can’t live too far away, do you?”
She shook her head as she pulled out her notepad again. “No, not too far,” she said. “But writing a report can take a while. I was hoping for a quiet end to shift when you showed up and that kid fell into the bay.”
He lifted his eyebrows sympathetically. “Sometimes the best laid plans….”
“Exactly.”
Kerk watched her as she pulled out her pen and began to flip to a certain page in her notebook. “So… what else did you want to know?” he asked. “I told you pretty much everything I saw.”
Karia nodded, re-reading her notes. “I know,” she said. Then, she looked up from her notes. “But what you didn’t fully explain is how you got from the Playhouse to the golf course as fast as I did when I was in a car driving above the speed limit. How did you make it there so fast?”
Kerk sat back on his couch. “Ah,” he said knowingly. “This again.”
“Yes, this again.”
“You’re assuming that was me at the Playhouse.”
“Are you telling me that it wasn’t you?”
“I’m just saying that you’re assuming a lot.”
“Then where were you right before you showed up in the bay lifting that kid out of the water? And don’t tell me you were passing by because you and I both know the location of the water, and where the kid fell in, was far from the street. There was no way you could have seen him fall in if you were driving down the street.”
Kerk’s eyes were glimmering warmly at her, much as they had been earlier when they’d first met. It was as if he didn’t quite take her questions seriously when, in truth, he took them very seriously. But he had to stop this line of questioning before it got out of hand. There wasn’t any possibility that he would tell her the truth, so he needed to cut it short.
“Officer Bayne, I work for the Navy,” he said quietly. “I have been a SEAL for fifteen years. I have a squad of men under my command. It is not illegal for me to go swimming in the bay, at any time of night, and that’s exactly what I was doing. I’ve been swimming all of my life and I am very good at it. I was swimming by when I saw the kid fall in. I went to rescue him. And that’s really all there is to it.”
He sounded reproachful and Karia was feeling the least bit embarrassed. She wasn’t really sure what truthful answer she had expected from him, so his frank reply gave her a dose of reality.
Maybe there was no magic to all of this; maybe she’d just misjudged the time it took for her to get from the Playhouse to the golf course. Maybe he was just a super-fast swimmer and that’s really all that happened. No magic, no sorcery. Maybe she’d just obsessed over something that was explainable if she’d only taken the time to really think about it.
Feeling the least bit chagrinned, she cleared her throat softly and looked back to her notepad.
“If you say so, then that’s what I’ll put in my report,” she said. Then, she stood up swiftly and began to tuck her things away. “I guess that’s really all I needed. Sorry to have bothered you.”
Kerk stood up quickly, sensing that he’d offended her with his straight-forward reply. “You didn’t bother me,” he said. “And I’m sorry if I sounded like I was lecturing you. I guess… I guess I just take for granted what I do is normal. I didn’t mean to be an ass.”
Karia shook her head. “You weren’t,” she said. “I guess I shouldn’t have even come here but it seemed as if we hadn’t finished our conversation when you left. I assumed I’d chased you away by calling bullshit on your story. Sorry I did that.”
He gave her a half-grin. “Some of the stories I tell are bullshit, but that one wasn’t,” he said. “I really was swimming in the bay and I really did see that kid fall in. How is he, anyway?”
Karia was moving for the door and she couldn’t help but notice he was following her closely. Those big, muscular thighs kept drawing her attention….
“He was breathing on his own when they loaded him up into the ambulance,” she said, taking a deep breath and trying to get her mind off of those legs. “He’s over at Sharp Memorial Hospital. I can let you know how he’s doing if you’d like.”
Kerk nodded, seeing a perfect opportunity to continue communicating with her. “That would be great,” he said. “So… do you have enough for your report?”
Karia had reached the door but she hadn’t lifted her hand to open it. “I think so,” she said. “If I have any follow-up questions, I’ll let you know.”
“Nothing else?”
“No, nothing else.”
“So if you’re finished, do you want to see the rest of the house now? I rarely have visitors so I don’t get to show it off much.”
Karia hesitated. “I really can’t,” she said. “Sorry. My sergeant is expecting me back at the station to get this report finished.”
“Maybe another time, then?”
There was something decidedly inviting about that offer. Karia’s policy against flirting or anything inappropriate on duty was in danger of wavering. If the guy just didn’t look like a stud super-hero, then maybe I wouldn’t feel like this!
“If I have to come back for follow-up questions, then maybe.”
She put her hand on the door to open it but she heard Kerk sigh. “Damn,” he said. “I’m totally losing my touch.”
Karia paused, looking at him. “Touch of what?”
He laughed softly. “Sorry,” he said. Then, he held up his hands as if to beg her forgiveness for what he was about to say. “I have been trying really hard to pick up on you since I met you and you have been completely professional. You must think I’m some kind of hound. I’m not, you know. It’s just that I don’t meet attractive women very often, so when I do… please don’t think I’m sleazy.”
Karia fought off a smile. “I don’t think that,” she said. “But… well, I’m on duty and there are policies against this kind of thing. So it’s strictly business.”
Kerk nodded in understanding. “Can I ask you something personal?”
“That depends.”
He wriggled his eyebrows, perhaps reluctantly. “Here goes,” he said. “You can answer me or not. I get it if you don’t. But do you have a boyfriend? A husband? Am I barking up the wrong tree?”
Karia looked at him; really looked at him. She was on dangerous ground and she knew it. But on the other hand, it wasn’t as if the guy was a suspect or a victim. He was simply a witness to a near-drowning and not involved in the case other than that. Still, she didn’t want to do anything inappropriate. She was on duty and it was no place for any kind of personal business. She didn’t want a moment of weakness – or loneliness – to ruin her career.
But she realized that she was as interested in Kerk Lesander as he evidently was in her.
Without a word, she pulled out her pen and pad again and flipped through the pad until she came to a blank paper. She jotted down a few things on it, ripped it out, handed it to Kerk, and then opened up the door. She didn’t say a thing to him, or even look at him, as she headed out to her unit, parked on the curb.
Kerk watched her as she climbed into the patrol car and drove away. Only then did he look at the piece of paper she’d handed him.
No.
No.
No.
Spreckles Park. Tomorrow, 9:00 am.
Kerk read it four times. Then, he just stood there and grinned.