Chapter Sixteen
At first, Nina hoped Kramer was taking her back to the Kapa’akea Resort. There were enough familiar faces there that she might be able to signal her distress to the security guards, or to Toby, the valet, or to any of the other people she was familiar with. But Kramer drove right past the long driveway, keeping just under the speed limit. He’d even had the gall to give Officer Meli a friendly wave as he drove past.
“Where are we going?” Nina demanded.
“I told you. We’re going home,” Mike said.
Nina kept her eyes on Kramer. It was all too clear to her who had the control here — the two people in the front seats. Kramer had a barely tamed power to him and simmering, animal eyes. He was so similar to Boone, yet so different. Kramer was the night, and Boone the sunny day. Tamara had a spooky vibe to her, too, not to mention her lullaby voice and sensual moves.
Hunter had mentioned something when he’d driven Nina from the Kapa’akea Resort to Koa Point, hadn’t he? If Kramer’s got that woman with him, watch out. She’s a witch.
Nina hadn’t taken the comment at face value, but now, she wasn’t so sure.
Kramer smirked at Mike’s comment and shot Tamara a sidelong glance which she returned with a smile.
A cold shiver went down Nina’s spine. They had no intention of letting her or Mike go home, did they?
“Where are we going?” she repeated, staring at Kramer.
“High time you saw a little more of Maui, honey. Don’t worry, it will be great.”
Sure, great. Nina leaned as far back into the corner as she could, her mind spinning desperately. Was there anything in her backpack she could use as a weapon or a signaling device?
She wanted to cry, because all she had in there were some clothes, a teddy bear, and the gem.
Her heart thumped. The gem. Kramer seemed to know about it, but she wasn’t sure Mike did. It hadn’t been mentioned as part of her inheritance in the magazine articles she’d seen. Maybe she could use it to barter for her life. Alternatively, she could throw it and run away once they stepped out of the car. Worst case, she might be able to use the edge to batter an attacker’s face if it came to that. She sat still. Would it?
Crap. Yes, it could. Mike had tried manhandling her off a boat. What was there to keep him from attacking her a second time? Well, the reporters, for one thing. Mike and Kramer couldn’t exactly bump her off after being seen driving away with her, right? They’d need an alibi…
She bit her lip and decided to assume the worst. The gem was the only ace she might be able to slip up her sleeve. But how would she ever sneak it out of her backpack without being seen?
She started blubbering hysterically, saying any nonsense that came to her head. “Please don’t hurt me. Please let me go. Oh God, please…” She huddled over her backpack and slowly snaked a hand in, feeling for the jewelry box while she kept up the charade.
“Oh my God, please…”
“Shut it, lady,” Kramer barked.
“Yeah, shut it, Nina,” Mike echoed.
She worked the box open, hooked a finger around the silver chain, and slowly wound the necklace around her fingers, reeling in the ruby until it filled her palm.
“I thought you loved me,” she sobbed on, withdrawing her hand inch by agonizing inch. Then she pushed the ruby deep into her pocket.
“You’re the one who divorced me,” Mike grumbled. He leaned toward the front seat. “How far to the chopper?”
Nina wiped her eyes. Chopper? Kramer wanted to fly her out of Maui? Where would he take her? Oahu lay in one direction, and the Big Island in the other, with a hell of a lot of open ocean in between. Mike, Kramer, or that evil Tamara could simply shove her out.
Then it hit her. Kramer and Tamara could push Mike out, too. Mike had no idea who he was tangling with in Kramer. Hunter had called Kramer a mercenary, and Nina didn’t doubt it. Mike might have come up with the plan to kill her, but Kramer could turn that plan around to benefit himself.
“Jesus, Mike. What have you done?” she said, not bothering to whisper.
“I have just bought my way to easy street, princess.” He grinned.
The corner of Kramer’s mouth quirked upward, confirming Nina’s hunch. God, what a fool Mike was. And what a fool she had been for marrying him even if he had been a different man back then.
She sat in silence as the car drove down the winding coastal road, fitting the last puzzle pieces of her newfound memories into place. She remembered reluctantly agreeing to the lawyer’s suggestion to escape the press by holing up at an exclusive Maui resort. The idea seemed extravagant to her at the time, but it did make sense, and things had quieted down when she arrived. But then a note had been slipped under the door of her suite — a note she had assumed was from the concierge, though now she guessed Mike had somehow snuck in. It was an invitation for a sunset boat cruise aboard a boat named Angel’s Angler. The note was signed by the lawyer, though she’d bet anything the signatures wouldn’t match up if she went back and checked.
She hadn’t really been interested in a sunset cruise, but she’d been too polite to turn the offer down. After all, someone had gone to all that trouble for her…
Under her breath, she laughed bitterly. Someone had gone to all that trouble to try to kill her. As in, Mike and the boat captain. She’d had no idea Mike had been on board until they were far offshore.
She’d spent the last days wishing she could remember her past. Now, she wanted to drive the memories away. They drowned her, terrifying her all over again.
Nina, baby, we really ought to get back together, Mike had said when he popped out of the cabin, shocking the heck out of her.
She’d seen right through him. He was only interested in the money. And when she resisted, he’d attacked her and pushed her overboard with the captain’s help.
God, if only she had never stepped aboard that boat.
She cut the thought off there. If she’d never stepped aboard that boat, she never would have met Boone. His eyes gave her strength, and his touch…
Her stomach roiled, remembering how hurt he’d looked when Mike turned up. Boone had given up on her. She was on her own. The thought made her want to lean over and sob. For real, not for show.
She took a deep breath. She’d survived being thrown into the open sea. If she kept her wits about her, she could survive this, too. Right?
She studied Kramer and Tamara, wary of an “accident” they might try to stage. Once they had the fifty million and the ruby, they would want her dead. Mike, too.
“Finally,” Mike grumbled when Kramer pulled down a side road and up to a private drive. The gate opened silently then slid shut once the Hummer rolled in. The metal-on-metal thump of the gate closing behind them made Nina jolt. She was being whisked away to some private property, cut off from any hope of help.
Kramer followed a long driveway then parked in an open space in front of the charred remains of a burned-out mansion. Judging by the overgrown lawn, no one had spent much time at the place recently.
“Get out,” Mike snarled.
Nina held her backpack close and slid out, pushing the ruby deeper into her pocket. Now what?
Thick hedges encircled the place, shutting out the outside world. A square of concrete took up the center of the property, where two buildings remained — a garage and what looked like a guest cottage.
“I have to go to the bathroom,” Nina tried.
Tamara smiled, but her voice was pure poison. “I bet you do.”
“Take her. And keep a good eye on her,” Kramer ordered Mike.
Nina’s hopes rose when it seemed that neither Tamara nor Kramer planned to follow. Maybe she could get away from Mike then sneak off the property.
Kramer snapped his fingers, and Nina whipped around on cue. “Leave your backpack here.”
His eyes glowed, warning her not to protest. Nina stared. It wasn’t a trick of the light — his eyes really were glowing.
“Come on, already,” Mike called, pulling her away.
She put the backpack in the vehicle, hoping that would appease Kramer, then followed Mike to the small house.
“Right there,” he said, waving her to the bathroom. He held the door open and leered. “Go ahead.”
She glared. “You’re going to watch?”
“Yep,” he chuckled. “Just in case.”
A good thing she didn’t really need the toilet.
“Mike, listen,” she tried. “You’re in over your head.”
“Ha. I got this totally under control.”
She stepped closer, shaking her head. “That Kramer is a mercenary. A killer…”
Mike chuckled. “Just what I needed.”
Nina stopped. Whatever crazy emotions had made her fall for Mike years earlier had disappeared, but to hear him speak so crassly about killing her…
“Seriously, Mike. Think this through. What’s to stop Kramer from killing you?”
Mike looked completely blank. “Why would he kill me? I’m paying him.”
She shook her head. “What does he need you for if he has me?”
“You’re not married to him.”
Nina figured Kramer had other ways to make her sign over fifty million dollars — plus a multimillion-dollar gem.
“Let’s get out of here, Mike. Let’s run away. I don’t care about the money. I’ll give you all of it. Let’s just get out of here, and then we’ll work it all out.”
Mike went quiet, mulling it over, but then his head jerked left at a sound. Nina heard it, too — the sound of an engine, whipping through the air.
“The chopper’s coming,” he murmured.
“We don’t need it. You don’t need it,” she implored. “Quick, let’s—”
“Quick, let’s what?” Tamara broke in from behind.
Nina froze.
“Nothing,” Mike said, total numbskull that he was.
Tamara sashayed over, touching Mike’s shoulder. He flinched, then leaned in when she started speaking in a singsong voice.
“Now, honey. Don’t tell me you’re considering a new plan,” Tamara cooed, running her hand down Mike’s chest.
Mike closed his eyes and swallowed hard.
“Don’t tell me you want to leave before we’ve had any fun,” she whispered, practically licking his ear.
Nina watched in shock as Mike fell under the woman’s spell. He leaned into her, sniffing her neck. It was only when he reached out that Tamara stepped away in disdain. Mike stood still, glassy-eyed for another moment before blinking and looking around.
“Time to go,” Tamara ordered in a whole different tone.
Mike turned on cue, and Nina couldn’t help but cry out to Tamara, “What do you do, hypnotize men?”
Tamara’s face split into a crocodile smile as Mike filed out the door. “Something like that.”
Nina looked at her with open contempt. “Something like that?”
Tamara laughed. “Sure worked on Boone.”
The comment cut Nina to the bone. Of course, Boone had slept with other women in the past. But to think he’d slept with this woman…
“And boy, did that man deliver when I pulled the right strings,” Tamara crowed, circling behind Nina like a spider spinning a web. “If he was half as good with you, I bet you enjoyed him, too.”
Nina closed her eyes, blocking out the images that hit her out of nowhere — like Boone going down over Tamara’s body and pleasuring her any way she bid.
Tamara cackled. “And maybe he didn’t find you half bad, either, honey. You’ve got that lost doe look. He’d be a sucker for that, I bet. Good old Boone, ready to save the world. But you know what?” Her voice dropped an octave, striking an ugly tone. “The world isn’t worth saving. Every woman for herself. That’s what I say. Right, honey?”
Nina ground her teeth. Wrong. The world was full of bad and good. Her mother was evidence of the latter, as was sweet old Lewis McGee. Not to mention Boone.
Boone, she cried in her mind. Boone…
“Get moving,” Tamara barked, pushing Nina toward the door.
The sound of the approaching helicopter was deafening, and Nina crouched beside Mike with her hands over her ears. The helicopter hovered a foot off the ground, its blades slicing the air. Then it landed, and the roar went out of the engine as the pilot shut it down.
Four big men climbed out, all clad in military fatigues with no insignia, and Kramer greeted each with a slap on the back. More mercenaries, Nina realized as her hopes for an escape dwindled.
She stepped toward the Hummer, and when Kramer whirled, she threw her hands up. “I need my backpack.”
He flashed that cruel, self-serving grin. “Right. You get that. Then you get that fine ass of yours in the chopper.”
She cringed. What exactly did Kramer have in store for her? The helicopter had been crowded with the four new arrivals, so obviously, not everyone was flying out. Who would he leave behind? And was he planning to leave them dead or alive?
She fingered the ruby in her pocket. It was warm — warmer than her body heat — and somehow, that gave her hope.
“Move it,” Mike grumbled.
Nina was about to protest when an earsplitting crash made her duck. Kramer’s team immediately went on high alert, spreading out, ready for action. A ripping sound followed the crash, and a Jeep hurtled into sight. A black Jeep with a dent on the front right side. Nina’s heart leaped as she choked on a cry of relief.
“Hold it,” Boone yelled, jumping from the driver’s seat.
Her knees wobbled. Boone hadn’t given up on her. He’d come for her, and somehow, everything would be okay.
Cruz leaped out from the back, graceful as a cat, and Hunter unfolded himself from the passenger side and stretched to his full height. Kramer’s men were big, but Boone and his buddies were bigger. Her knights in shining armor. Still, there were only three of them, while Kramer had… Nina did a quick head count. Four helpers, the pilot, and Kramer made six. Tamara made it seven, and who knew what she was capable of. Mike was an eighth, but he was like a guppy in a pool of sharks.
“Ah, Boone. Back for more punishment,” Kramer called as his men fanned out to circle the Jeep.
Nina rushed to Boone’s side, not quite sure what she’d do when she got there. This wasn’t the time to hug him, no matter how much she wanted to. No time to explain about Mike, either. No time to think.
Boone solved her dilemma by grabbing her and guiding her behind his body. “Stay right there,” he whispered, squeezing her hand.
Never had a tiny gesture meant so much. Not since her mother lay helplessly, communicating love, hope, and spiritual strength with the slightest pressure of her hands.
Nina gulped and steeled herself for whatever happened next. She owed it to her mother to face whatever life threw at her, head-on.
She expected half a dozen rifles to cock, but none of the mercenaries showed a weapon of any kind.
“Back to teach you a lesson,” Boone muttered.
Kramer laughed. “I already know the lesson. The best man wins. Me, Boone. That’s me.”
Boone shook his head. “This isn’t about winning.”
Kramer chuckled. “You’re just saying that because you’re about to lose. Again.”
Boone made a subtle signal to his friends, and they stepped forward, giving him a second to turn to Nina.
“This is about love. I love you, Nina. I should have seen through these shitheads right away. I’m so sorry. Will you forgive me?”
“Will you forgive me?” she squeaked, holding his hands. “I love you, Boone.”
His eyes flashed, and there it was again — that yang to Kramer’s dark yin, that animal quality.
He kissed her knuckles and looked her in the eye. “Whatever happens next, you have to believe in me.”
She squeezed his hands. “Of course, I believe in you.”
Sadness flashed in his eyes, hinting that there was something she didn’t know, but a second later, sheer determination replaced it. “You have to trust in me, Hunter, and Cruz. Do you have the ruby? It might help.”
Might? How could a gem help in a fight?
“Keep it close, and stay out of the way. Stay safe, Nina. We’ll get you out of here. I swear we will.”
He spun to face Kramer, leaving Nina to gape at his back. Her sunny, laid-back lover was suddenly more solid rock than flesh. All soldier, bent on success.
“We’re leaving now,” Boone announced.
Kramer cackled. “Sure, you are.”
“You going to stop us?”
“You know I will,” Kramer retorted as his men stepped closer.
Nina’s knees wobbled.
“You know what’s going to happen next,” Kramer boomed. “You really want her to see that? To find out the truth?”
Nina touched Boone’s back. What truth?
“Do you really want her to see you howl in pain — howl, Boone — then die?”
Kramer was hinting at something Nina just couldn’t catch.
Boone squeezed her hand again and whispered over his shoulder. “You trust me?”
“You know I do.”
Boone nodded once then yelled out. “This is a fight to your death, Kramer, not mine.”
“Wanna bet?” Kramer swept a finger at his men. “No one kills him but me. And the woman, we take alive. You got it?”
Nina slipped a hand into her pocket, needing the positive energy the ruby emitted.
“Good,” Kramer announced. “I’ll enjoy this, Boone. I might just enjoy your woman later, too.”
Nina balled her hands into fists.
Kramer made a grand gesture, stuck out his chest, and yelled, “Let the fight begin.”