“Anytime.” Zack started. How had he said that and actually meant it? She would be gone in the morning. He’d figure out where he could take her that she deemed safe, and he’d never see her again. There wasn’t going to be an “anytime.” He backed out of her room, muttered “good night,” and fled down the wide hallway.
3
Maddie finally crashed early in the morning. She wasn’t sure if the insomnia was from worrying about her father and if Bello was coming after her or if it was from the memory of being in Zack’s arms. He’d taken care of her without any thought for himself and then comforted her without asking any questions. Just being there. The fact that he was rocking handsome paled in comparison to how kind and understanding he’d been. She’d never felt drawn to a man like this before. There had been plenty of fun boys to date throughout high school and college, and she’d enjoyed flirting, dating, and kissing, but Zack wasn’t a boy. He was a man, and she’d already developed a craving to be in his arms again. It was stronger than her craving for her thrice-daily dose of Dr. Pepper. She should check if Zack had any in his fridge.
The sun was already up when she pushed a button on the remote next to her bed, and the privacy blinds retracted. The view was unreal: landscaped gardens and a gorgeous infinity pool and the beach, small harbor, and turquoise ocean beyond. Maybe she should beg Zack to let her stay here rather than try to figure out what was on that flash drive and risk Bello finding her again.
She sighed. She couldn’t ask that of Zack, and she would never forgive herself if Bello came and hurt him. Plus, it could become awkward if she tried to overstay her welcome. Bummer. Zack had been very welcoming. He hadn’t pushed her to explain or made her feel like she was a burden dropping into his life like this.
Maddie took a quick shower, dressed in a cute thigh-length blue jumper that cinched at her waist, braided her hair out of her face, and walked through the hallway to the great room. The entire house glistened with the sun streaming through the many windows. There were some water spots on the glass from the rain, but besides that, the place was sparkling clean. Did he keep a maid hidden somewhere?
Seeing no sign of Zack in the great room, and really wanting to be outside, she grabbed an apple from a basket of fruit on the counter and walked through the pool area toward the stairs they’d ascended last night. She needed to find Zack and ask if she could borrow some snorkeling gear to look for the package and her shoes.
She finally spotted Zack sprinting on the beach. Stopping mid-bite, she could only stare. Watching him run was poetry in action. Wow. He was in a tank top and shorts, and every muscle in his arms, chest, and legs seemed to be engaged. She had never seen a run that beautiful. He looked like an Olympian or something.
Maddie dropped her apple. An Olympian. That’s where she’d seen Zack’s face before. Zack Tyndale. He was the American athlete who was supposed to win gold in the 110-meter hurdles and 100-meter run in 2012. He’d tripped and fallen in the hurdles finals, and the entire country had moaned in pain with him. Oh my. Is that why he was hiding away on this island? Was it too embarrassing to face the American public?
Zack slowed to a walk at the end of the beach by the dock. He glanced up at her, lifted a hand, and smiled a greeting. Maddie made her way down the stairs, clinging to the railing so she didn’t trip and fall. Her mom had always called her “my tipsy girl.” Falling back into the water last night hadn’t been a result of her head injury; it was just another manifestation of her klutziness. She’d gotten used to it and normally didn’t embarrass herself.
Zack walked her way with a smile, sweat glistening on his brown skin. My, oh my, he had a lot of muscles. She tried not to stare with her mouth open, but craparoni, he was not only fine-looking, but he was famous. How was she supposed to react to that?
“Did you sleep well?” he asked when he reached her.
“You’re Zack Tyndale.” Her voice was too breathless, like an overexcited fan.
The smile left his face. He nodded slightly. “How did you figure that out?”
“Seeing you run. You’re beautiful.” She felt heat rushing to her face. “I mean, your run is beautiful.”
He inclined his head. His lips turned up, but the smile didn’t reach his eyes. “Thank you.”
“I watched the Olympics.”
“I think the whole world did.” He sighed and pushed a hand over his bald scalp.
“Is that why you live in solitude?”
He shrugged. “One of the reasons.” He folded his arms over his chest and studied her. “So, you’re finding out all of my secrets, how about sharing some of yours? I couldn’t sleep making up all kinds of stories. You’re a celebrity running from crazed fans. You were on a cruise ship and lost a bet, so you had to deploy a lifeboat. You’re a pirate on the wrong side of the battle.”
Maddie suddenly found it very hard to breathe or meet his dark gaze. What should she say? He’d been the perfect gentleman. Even when he could’ve taken advantage of her in her room last night, he’d simply held her and let her cry. Would he want to help her if she spilled her crazy story?
“I came to the Caribbean to spend time with my father.” She shook her head. “It was horrible. I realized he’s been lying to me all of my life, and the men on his boat were scuzz buckets.” She shuddered.
“Scuzz buckets?”
“Yucky dudes who don’t brush their teeth and prey on innocents.”
Zack’s fingers tightened into a fist. “Did they …” He cleared his throat. “Hurt you?”
“No. My father protected me, but—” She looked over his shoulder and saw something glinting in the ocean. Something large and white. No. Please, no. Placing a hand to her mouth, she whimpered and glanced back at Zack.
“Hey.” Zack touched her arm and shook his head. “I’m sorry. It’s okay. We can take this slow. You don’t have to tell me until you’re ready.”
Maddie pointed. “That’s my father’s yacht.” The sleek lines and the Italian flag snapping in the breeze fit the boat from her nightmares last night. She wished she was mistaken, but doubted it very much.
Zack whirled to where she was pointing. He studied the approaching yacht for a second, then said, “And your father’s dead?”
She nodded.
“So the people on that yacht?”
“Want me.”
“Dead?” His lips flattened and his eyebrows dipped together.
“After they beat and violate me.”
“You need to escape.”
“Please.”
Zack didn’t ask any more questions. He grabbed her hand and tugged her toward the stairs. Maddie did her best to keep up. They sprinted through the pool area and into the house. Zack kept her hand in his. Entering a huge master suite, he let go of her hand and ran to the closet. Maddie followed, watching as he opened a safe and pulled out a bundle of money, a passport, and a pistol.
He grabbed her hand again, and they ran down a hallway she hadn’t seen before and entered a dark theater room. Zack pushed a lever and a wall moved. Maddie gasped. “What is this?”
Zack actually grinned, grabbing a flashlight from the wall and flicking it on. “I’ve been waiting for a chance to use this. The previous owner built it in case there was ever trouble. You need to get away before these people find you, right?”
“Yes. But what if they ruin your beautiful home?”
He shrugged. “I can replace it.”
Maddie was grateful he didn’t seem to be placing blame on her for bringing not only danger but possibly destruction to his peaceful island. She was shocked he would run like this to protect her. If only her father had been half the man Zack was proving himself to be.
“That boat is too big to get into my harbor.” He chatted as if they weren’t in mortal danger. He directed her through the wall and down a set of stairs. The wall closed behind them. “Stay close,” he told her. His hands were full of the things he’d grabbed, so unfortunately, he didn’t take her hand. They walked deeper
into the earth; the cold made her wish for the sunshine. “They’ll have to lower boats to get on the island, and by the time they get here, we’ll be long gone. Do you think they tracked you somehow?”
Maddie picked her way down the stairs. She stubbed her pinky toe on the side wall. Darn having no shoes. Thankfully, the stairs ended and they entered a level tunnel—less chance of her tripping. “Maybe there was a tracking device on that boat I came on?”
“Maybe,” he agreed. “They’ll probably see the wreck and know you’re here. Do you really think they killed your father?”
“Yes,” she whispered. She thought of Bello and shivered. He was coming for her. Just because he wanted the conquest? Or was it because of the flash drive and papers her father had sent with her? The papers! What if they found them by the wreck? Would they think to search it? “Zack!”
He paused and turned to stare at her. The flashlight cast odd shadows off his face.
“They might be after the papers I lost in the water last night.”
“Are the papers worth dying for?”
Maddie paused and then shook her head. “I don’t care if they get my father’s money. At least then they’ll leave me alone.” She had the information for Homeland Security on the flash drive.
He nodded. “Then let’s stick to the plan.” He started walking again.
“Which is?”
“This tunnel takes us to my boat. When we speed out of here, I’m betting they follow us, so they might not look for those papers anyway. You don’t know what’s on them?”
“No, but I have a flash drive in my bra that has the same information.”
“O-kay. Seems like a safe place. We definitely don’t need the papers if you’ve got a flash drive.”
Maddie grunted her assent, too focused on not tripping in the dark.
The tunnel ended at a door. Zack cautiously opened it and glanced around. “No sign of them. I bet they’ll aim their smaller boats for the other dock. While they search the house, we’ll escape.”
They ran across a large dock and onto his yacht. It was much smaller than her father’s, but just as opulent. Zack escorted her into the main cabin. He threw off the mooring lines, then returned and powered up the boat. Within seconds they were cruising out of the harbor. Maddie saw two rubber boats already tied up to the dock and men that had worked for her father jogging up the stairs.
They passed a small boat cruising toward the island. Maddie looked down and met Bello’s dark gaze. His eyes narrowed, and anger radiated from him. He pulled a semi-automatic gun out and started shooting. Maddie ducked and screamed. The bullets zinged into the back of the yacht. Zack cursed and upped his speed. More gunshots came, and she could hear Bello screaming for his men to come back. She hoped they would leave Zack’s lovely home alone. It made her sick to think of Bello and his men desecrating it, but she didn’t want them following her and Zack either.
Within a few minutes, the yacht and Zack’s beautiful island were fading behind them. Maddie sank into a captain’s chair. “Do you think they’ll follow us?”
“If they can catch us.” He shook his head. “I should’ve grabbed my satellite phone.”
“What about the radio?”
“It’s not secure. We’d have to be really close to America to risk using it.” Zack steered the boat with one hand and pinned her with a determined gaze. “It’s time you told me the whole story.”
4
Zack studied Maddie sitting in the chair next to his. The early morning sun streamed through the window and highlighted her dark hair with red and gold. He steered the boat to the north, wondering what he was doing. He’d just left his home and island in the clutches of some serious bad guys and raced off in his yacht like a hero to save the beautiful lady. He focused in on her again. Holding her while she cried last night had yanked him into her life whether he wanted to be or not. He had to admit, his life could use a little excitement. A gorgeous woman crash-landing on his island was a good start. Being chased by murderous thugs might be pushing the need for excitement a bit.
Maddie took a deep breath. “I told you I came to the Caribbean to see my father?”
He held up a hand and stopped her before she spilled what must be a very interesting story. “Wait, first we need to set some coordinates. You think the only safe place is the U.S.?”
“That’s what my dad said.”
“It’s less than eight hundred miles to Key West. We can push it at almost forty knots and be there tomorrow.” His boat was a Butterfly, one of the fastest yachts in the world. He doubted her father’s crew could catch them. The yacht moored next to his island had looked like a Sussurro, which was a lot larger than the Butterfly but not quite as fast. The other boat did have the advantage of more pilots, whereas he’d probably have to stay awake and steer the entire time. He glanced over at Maddie. Would he dare let her be in control, or would she go off course?
“Do you really want to go to America?” she asked. “You seemed … not happy about it earlier.”
Zack shrugged. No, he didn’t want to go to America, but it wouldn’t kill him to drop her off there. Then he could cruise back to his island and make sure those yahoos didn’t destroy anything. Maybe he could take a quick trip to New York and see his niece, but there was no reason to stay stateside long.
He snuck a glance at Maddie again. Some internal instinct told him he’d have a hard time leaving her. She’d still be in danger. Trying to ignore the feeling, he reminded himself that he wasn’t some hero; he was an athlete. A washed-up athlete at that.
Typing the coordinates for Key West into the system, he leaned back into the comfortable seat. He was still wearing workout clothes from this morning and could use a shower and some food, but that could wait until after Maddie’s story and after he was certain the other boat wasn’t pursuing them. Glancing back, he was reassured they were alone. It was a big old ocean; maybe they would get lucky and get out of radar range and never see those guys again.
“Why don’t you want to go to America?” Maddie met his gaze, then looked away as if she didn’t know if she dared ferret out his secrets.
Zack shook his head. “Uh-uh. Oh no. You’re telling me why they’re following us first.” Even though there was no sign of them, he had an uncomfortable feeling they wouldn’t give up easily, especially if they had a 4KW radar system; those could track another boat for fifty miles or more.
Maddie inhaled slowly. “Long version or short?”
Zack laughed. “Long. Did you not hear me just say we’re going to be on board for the next twenty-four hours?”
Maddie blinked and her dark eyes brightened. “Thank you. You don’t even know me, and you dropped everything to help me. To take me to America.”
He had dropped everything, quite literally—his house and his island. But it could all be replaced. Maddie couldn’t. “You’re welcome. Now talk so I can go shower. I stink.”
She wrinkled her nose and smiled. “Your sweat actually smells kind of good to me.”
Zack arched an eyebrow, having no clue how to respond to that.
“So, my story.” She laced her hands together. “I graduated a couple weeks ago with my master’s from Montana State.”
“Congratulations.”
“Thanks.” She gave him a sweet smile, but it disappeared when she continued. “My father invited me to come visit him for a couple of weeks as sort of a graduation present and chance to get to know him.”
“You haven’t known him?” She didn’t say father in a very loving voice; obviously there were hurt feelings. He could understand that better than most.
“Not really.” She glanced at her hands. “He visited me when it was convenient for him. My mom usually went to meet him somewhere and left me home.”
Zack related to the pain in her voice, that feeling of being an accessory that your parent only used when it furthered his ambitions. “Where’s your mom?”
“Montana. She raised me alone. I think my dad gave
her money, but I don’t really know how much support he was, financially or otherwise.”
He nodded and stared out at the expanse of ocean—nothing around them for miles. He liked piloting his yacht. Well, except when someone who wanted his passenger dead was following them.
“She always told me my dad was an international businessman, an investor, and had to travel a lot for business.” She barked out a laugh. “I can’t believe they both lied to me for so long, and I bought it.”
“What is your dad, then?” She’d described pretty close to what his father did to amass his own fortune and what Zack had done before he escaped.
“Well, currently, he’s probably one of Satan’s minions.”
Zack smiled, then tried to hide it. She probably wasn’t trying to be funny.
Maddie grimaced. “Sorry, that was an inappropriate attempt at humor, but he didn’t do much in this life to recommend him to heaven.” She wrung her hands together. “You see, he used to be …” Her voice lowered. “A pirate.”
Cold chills ran down Zack’s spine. Modern-day pirates were few and far between, but they were vicious and deadly. He’d heard that pirate activity had increased in the Caribbean over the past few months. If the stories were to be believed, the pirates were raping, pillaging, and murdering as viciously as any seventeenth-century crews. Books and movies today tried to make pirates look attractive and funny, but there was nothing cute or praiseworthy about men that caused suffering like this for their own gain. Nothing.
Zack had always felt safe on his island. He obviously needed to be more leery. “How do you know?”
“I heard them talking about yachts they’d attacked. They pretend to be friendly, share their liquor and food, then pull the guns out when it’s too late. I guess they’re able to take cash, jewelry, make people transfer funds; then they either kill them or leave them to die, depending on if they want their boat or not.” She bit at her lip and twisted her hands together.
“But if your father did that for years, surely the authorities would have found him, or we would’ve heard about it on the news.”
Caribbean Rescue (Destination Billionaire Romance) Page 4
