“And if you’d gotten yourself killed? What good would that have done, Amy? There wouldn’t have been any answers at all in that event, would there?”
Amy bristled. “I didn’t know it was going to be this dangerous, Jase. For heaven’s sake! I’m not an idiot!”
“I’ll form my own opinion on that subject!” he countered rudely.
Thoroughly annoyed in her own right now, Amy shot him a scorching glance. “If you think so little of my intelligence then we can only conclude your own intelligence level must be rather low. Only one idiot would be dumb enough to take another idiot...” She trailed off quickly, furious with herself for having let her temper get the better of her. It was the strain, she decided bleakly. She’d been under too much strain.
“Only one idiot would be dumb enough to take another idiot to bed?” Jase concluded for her coolly. “You may be right.”
Amy swallowed, knowing she was in the wrong. “Jase, I really am sorry,” she said. It was difficult to get the right apologetic tone into her voice when she was trying to make herself heard above the engine.
“Save it,” he ordered brusquely. “You can tell me how sorry you are after we get back to town.”
Amy lapsed into a silence that was almost as sullen as their captive’s. It didn’t seem to bother Jase at all. He appeared to have his mind on other matters. Amy studied his hard profile. I’ve fallen in love with him, she thought wretchedly. He can yell at me all he wants and I will try to yell back, but ultimately I’ll wind up trying to placate and pacify. He had saved her life that morning. In a way that action seemed to reinforce the claim his physical possession had staked. She shifted uneasily, bracing herself with both hands on the frame of the launch’s windshield.
It was the first time she had admitted to herself that she felt such a claim, and Amy found it unnerving, even frightening. For her own sake she had to think of her relationship with Jase Lassiter as an affair, doomed to end when she left Saint Clair. It would be hard enough to recover from the pain of loving a man she could not have. But love, at least, was a civilized emotion. Given time and a great deal of distance, Amy was realistic enough to know she would eventually be able to put the memories of Jase into a far corner of her mind where they could fade quietly. Time and distance could cure an emotion as gentle and civilized as love.
This other feeling, however, this sensation of being claimed, of being bound, was anything but civilized. How long would this more primitive emotion last once she was off Saint Clair? A lifetime? Amy shivered under the heat of the tropical sun.
The quay was a welcoming sight a few minutes later. Already bustling with the business of the day, it looked pleasantly normal to Amy. There were questions and a lot of interested glances as Jase tied the launch up and urged his prisoner ashore.
“Been fishing already this morning, Lassiter?” asked a man on a neighboring boat. He eyed Haley.
“Just taking the tourists on a tour of the island,” Jase retorted dryly.
“Anything to help build the tourist trade,” the other man chuckled, sheathing a fishing knife he’d been wielding. “Want some help?”
“I think I can handle it. Thanks. Seen Cowper this morning?”
“Believe it or not, he’s actually in his office today. Saw him half an hour ago when I went for breakfast.”
“That’s a switch!” Jase muttered, prodding Haley ahead of him, “Let’s go, Amy. Fred’s going to have a lot of questions for both of us.”
Obediently she walked beside him, her clothing dried but stiff and uncomfortable from the seawater dunking. Haley stared straight ahead, impassive. He didn’t try any further resistance as Jase marched him up the street toward a small, weathered building not far from the Marina Inn. There had once been a sign stenciled on the front door, Amy saw, but all that was left of the identifying marks were the top half of a capital U and the bottom half of an S.
Jase shoved open the door of the office, revealing an old government gray-metal desk piled high with aging papers, a broken swivel chair and a wall full of filing cabinets. There was also an ancient teletype machine in the corner, clicking away merrily. A man of about fifty, portly and with hair the color of his desk, hunched over the machine, reading the message that was coming across. He glanced up as Jase entered with Haley and Amy.
“Jase! What the hell are you doing here? Who have you got there?”
“Morning, Fred. I’ve brought you a little work, I’m afraid.”
“It never rains but it pours,” Fred Cowper quoted ruefully, tearing off the paper that had emerged from the teletype machine. “Haven’t had a thing to do in three months, you know. Nothing at all since I had to go down to the dock and pick up that fool trying to ship unsprayed fruit off the island. Then this morning I find all kinds of excitement waiting for me. You know how I hate excitement,” he added with a gloomy sigh.
“Sorry about that.” Jase smiled wryly. “I’ve had a little too much of it myself this morning. Meet Dirk Haley.” He pushed Haley farther into the room. “Kidnapper extraordinaire. Attempted murder, assault with a deadly weapon and a few other things I’m sure we can think of between us. A general all-around nuisance.”
“Well, I’ll be damned.” Fred Cowper sank squeakily into the old swivel chair and stared up at Haley as if fascinated. “I’ll be damned,” he repeated and glanced down at the torn sheet of teletype paper in his hand. “Dirk Haley, a.k.a. Roger Henrick, Joe Mellon and Harry Dickson. Six foot one inch, blond, gray eyes, one hundred seventy-five pounds.” He glanced up, smiling benignly at Jase. “That Dirk Haley, do you suppose?”
“Have I just spent the past couple of hours doing your job for nothing?” Jase demanded, one brow arched.
“Why not? Nothing is a good description of what the government pays me. You might as well work for the same minimum wage. Tell me how you spent your morning, pal.” He listened attentively as Jase gave a quick summary of the events, and then Fred nodded contentedly. “You have just done me one hell of a favor. You have made it possible for me to go fishing again this afternoon. And here I was thinking I’d have to spend the whole day watching folks come and go down at the dock.”
“You going to tell us about this little bit of coincidence?” Jase asked curiously as Cowper surged out of his chair to take charge of the prisoner.
The older man was about to answer as he shoved Haley into a rusty-looking cell at the far end of the room when the door to the old office swung open once more and another man stood on the threshold.
“I think I’ll just let him explain,” Fred Cowper said cheerfully as he slammed the door of the small cell shut. “Allow me to make introductions. This here is...”
“Introductions aren’t really necessary, are they, Amy?” the newcomer said easily as he lounged against the doorjamb with easy male insouciance.
The color drained from Amy’s cheeks as she stared at the man in front of her. The sardonic, masculine twist of the mouth, the faintly amused dark-brown eyes, the handsome, tanned features and the lean, tall frame all formed an entirely too-familiar picture. There was an infant back in San Francisco who would one day look a lot like this.
“Hello, Ty,” she said quietly. “I was under the impression you were dead.” Instinctively, not even bothering to question her motive, Amy took a small step that brought her a little closer to Jase. She was vaguely aware of the sudden, intense stillness of the man beside her.
Then Jase’s arm came out to rest possessively across her shoulders. He waited, saying nothing, but never taking his eyes off Ty Murdock.
“I’m afraid the report was a little exaggerated.” Ty smiled, glancing derisively at the prisoner. Haley was staring, almost as stunned as Amy, at the newcomer. “Surprised to see me, Dirk? Didn’t I tell you once that the only way to survive out here is to stay unpredictable? You, I’m afraid, are very, very predictable. Couldn’t resist the mask, could you?�
�
“You always were a bastard, Murdock,” Haley muttered, and then sank down on the small cot, apparently bored with the whole proceeding.
“I think,” Jase finally said very softly, “that I’d like some explanations.”
“You’re not the only one,” Fred Cowper murmured coolly. “Okay, Murdock, I’ve verified your credentials, I’ve received the description of the wanted man and I have delivered said man into your care. With a little help from my friends, of course. Let’s hear it. What’s this all about?” There was a thread of cold steel beneath the pleasant drawl, and it occurred to Amy that Fred Cowper had probably done a few other things in his time than pick up people who were trying to ship unsprayed fruit off the island. Another man with an interesting past who had washed up on Saint Clair.
Ty shrugged, folding his arms across his chest. His eyes were on Amy as he talked. “Haley and I used to work together. We both had the same employer: Uncle Sam. But a few months ago Dirk decided to go into business for himself. He wanted me to go renegade with him and I played along for a while. Then he started getting suspicious of me.” Ty flicked an amused glance at the man in the cell. “Or did you just decide that you didn’t want to split the take two ways, Dirk? You always were a greedy SOB.” The dark eyes went back to Amy’s taut face. “At any rate he pulled a disappearing act in Hong Kong after kindly arranging to have me taken permanently off his trail. But I managed to miss the appointment he had set up for me with a few street thugs. Unfortunately, by the time I had realized who had set me up and why, Haley had skipped. We didn’t have any idea where to start looking for him. A man can get almost as lost as he wants out here in the Pacific.”
“Unless he gets too greedy,” Fred Cowper drawled.
Ty grinned briefly. “Exactly. I had told him about the mask I’d sent to San Francisco. At the time I had some vague idea of using the lure of the mask as a trap, something my superiors could watch in case anything unexpected happened to me. It was to be bait to draw Haley out into the open in case we lost him at some point. Well, needless to say, I survived the unexpected.” He broke off to allow the full impact of the understatement to be felt.
Typical Ty Murdock, Amy thought fleetingly: ultra-macho, ultracool. Ty wanted everyone to understand that he’d almost been killed but had survived by his own ingenuity and physical ability. Her hand clenched into an impatient ball at her side.
“Haley had disappeared,” Murdock went on, drawing out the story for his attentive listeners. “All we could do was watch and wait. One of the people the department kept an eye on was my ex-wife in San Francisco. We knew Haley wouldn’t be able to get into the States without us knowing it, so if he decided to go after the mask, he’d have to get Melissa to send it to him. Or he’d have to convince her to bring it to him wherever he was.”
“But it wasn’t Melissa who came out to the South Pacific with the mask,” Amy interjected stiffly. “It was me.”
Ty inclined his head, mouth turning upward at one corner in a gesture that Amy remembered well. “It was you. But the guy assigned to watch Melissa didn’t know to keep an eye on you, too, so we lost track of the situation for a couple of days. By the time someone in San Francisco had figured out that you’d left for Saint Clair and probably had the mask with you, things were getting out of hand.”
“When did you realize it was Amy who had decided to bring the mask to Haley?” Jase asked very quietly.
“Yesterday,” Ty admitted. “I got here this morning.”
“As you said,” Jase said dryly, “things were already getting out of hand by the time you folks figured out what was happening.” His turquoise eyes went cold and hard. “Amy damned near got killed this morning, Murdock.”
Murdock’s dark gaze slid away from Jase’s implacable face. He gave Amy one of his easy, charming grins. “Sounds like you’ve had a little excitement in your life lately, Amy. How did you like it? An interesting change for you, hmm?”
Before Amy could even think of a reply, Jase exploded beside her. He was across the room, slamming Ty against the wall in one swift movement that left Amy and Fred Cowper blinking in amazement.
“Around here, Murdock,” Jase ground out as he pinned the other man to the wall, “we don’t call it a ‘little excitement’ when a woman gets kidnapped and shot at. We call it attempted murder. We may be a bit rustic here in the islands, but we do draw the line in a few matters. As far as I’m concerned, you’re partly to blame for what almost happened to Amy this morning. Keep that in mind when you start making little jokes, okay? I’m not feeling in a humorous mood.” He released his victim and stalked over to Amy, who looked up at him anxiously.
“Jase?” She didn’t even glance at Murdock, who was smiling laconically as he straightened his shirt.
“Let’s go,” Jase ordered brusquely. “I’m taking you home.” He took her arm and started for the door, ignoring the other two men.
“Just a second, Jase,” Fred Cowper interrupted gently but with an air of command. “We’ll need to pick up Haley’s cruiser this afternoon and take a look at the scene. You’ll have to show us where that particular cove is located.”
Jase nodded once. “I’ll be back after I take Amy home,” he muttered.
“Hey, one more thing,” Murdock called after the pair as they went through the door. “What about the mask? Where did it end up?”
“Under about thirty feet of water,” Jase told him bluntly. “You’ll have a lot of fun looking for it, I’m sure. It’ll put some excitement in your day.” He slammed the old door behind him.
A heavy silence reigned between Amy and Jase as they walked back toward the old sea captain’s home. Amy didn’t know what her companion was thinking about, but she knew what her own overriding impression of the morning was. In a soft, sad voice she said it aloud. “He didn’t even ask about Craig. His own son. He didn’t even ask about him.”
Jase roused himself from his own private thoughts. “You knew what kind of father he was, Amy. You found out a long time ago, remember?”
“Yes,” she whispered, thinking of little Craig and Melissa. What would she tell them? “Maybe I’ll tell them he’s dead anyway.”
Jase drew a deep breath. “We’ll worry about it later,” he instructed forcefully. “Right now I want to fix those hands of yours. They’re a mess from crawling on that lava. Then you should get some rest.”
“I’m not tired,” she replied automatically.
“You have to be exhausted.”
“Why do I have to be exhausted? We ran quite a ways, but I’ve had a chance to recover from that. I’ll just wash off these cuts on my hands and maybe take a shower. Then I’ll change clothes and I’ll be as good as new.”
Jase yanked her to a stop in the middle of the street, a fierce expression marking his brows and tightening the lines at the corners of his mouth. “You’re exhausted,” he ground out. “You will take a nap this afternoon while I show Cowper where that cove is. Do I make myself clear?”
She stared up at him, not fully comprehending the vehemence in his voice. Instinct, however, told her this wasn’t the time to argue. “Yes, Jase,” she said meekly.
He eyed her for a minute as if not certain he could trust the meekness, then he tugged her along toward the house. “We’ll see to your hands and then I’ll go back to Cowper’s office. Might as well get the rest of the formalities over with. The sooner everything is cleaned up, the sooner Murdock will be leaving Saint Clair.”
Amy thought about that last sentence all during the somewhat painful first aid on her palms. Jase wanted Murdock off the island. Jase had made quite a scene in Cowper’s office, threatening Ty and half accusing him of being responsible for the mess in which Amy had found herself. Jase didn’t like Ty Murdock at all.
Which was rather surprising in a way, Amy decided objectively. Actually the two men shared a number of traits and a similar backgro
und. They were both graduates of a harsh school. Living in the rough corners of the world had left its mark on both of them. Neither sought the solace and comfort of civilization as she knew it, and neither would have been at home in it.
Then Maggie’s words came back to her, reminding her that men weren’t naturally at home anywhere. They needed to be domesticated by women. But domestication hadn’t taken with Ty Murdock. He had returned to the wild, seeking freedom and adventure.
Was it too late for a woman to try her hand at domesticating Jase?
Probably. He himself was convinced that his present life was the only one in which he could now fit. Amy looked at his red-brown head bent attentively over her palm as he swabbed the jagged scratches. A rush of warm, gentle love and affection went through her. It had nothing at all to do with physical desire, but it was somehow part of the same spectrum of emotion.
“Jase, you saved my life today. I don’t know how to thank you.”
He glanced up sharply. “You can thank me by never getting yourself into such a stupid situation again.”
Amy’s brow arched as some of the warm affection she was feeling gave way to a natural defensiveness. “So gallant,” she murmured.
“I’m not interested in being gallant, I’m interested in not having to rescue you from another mess like the one you were in this morning.” he muttered, swiping a little roughly at the last of her scratches.
“Ouch!”
Instantly he cradled her palm within his own. When his eyes met hers the turquoise gaze was filled with an intensity that astonished her. “Amy, I got the living hell scared out of me today. Please don’t ever do that to me again!”
Amy relented, lifting her wounded palm to the side of his face. “No, Jase. Never again. I’m sorry I caused you so much trouble.”
“Amy...” His teeth snapped together almost audibly in silent frustration. He caught her face between his hands and pulled her to him for a quick, hard kiss. Then he lifted his head slightly. “Stop apologizing, for God’s sake, and go take your shower. Let’s just be glad it’s all over.”
Serpent in Paradise Page 14
