by Dale Mayer
“Nothing,” he said, “except that you need to be out of the picture, and I plan on moving into Helena’s place.”
“Why would you be moving into Helena’s place?”
Rob turned to look at him and said, “Because we’re meant to be together.”
“When did you see her last?” Lennox asked curiously, trying to understand what was going on in Rob’s psyche.
“Well, I stop in whenever I can,” he said, “but it hasn’t been enough. It’s been years since we’ve spent much time together,” he said. “But she’s left the Red Cross, so we can spend a lot more time together.”
Wow. He thinks she would leave the Red Cross because of the kidnapping? Or was this just his mind stuck in a fantasy world? “But you had to get rid of me first, is that it?” Lennox asked cautiously.
“Well, I was planning on getting rid of you anyway,” he said, “but this is a good way to do it.”
“If we were talking about Carolina, then that would make sense. But why Helena?”
“What do you mean, why Helena?” Rob asked. “She’s my girlfriend.”
“Since when?” Lennox asked, quietly feeling as if his whole world had dropped out of focus. He didn’t understand what the hell was going on, but too many different stories overlapped and yet conflicted, and nothing about this was normal. Rob was calm, acting natural, but the words coming out of his mouth were anything but.
“Since you walked away and didn’t want her,” Rob said. “Thank you for that.”
He stared and frowned at Rob. “When did you last see her and me together?”
“Must have been about five years by now,” Rob said. “You know we were pretty good friends, and I was pretty sure that I could show her the light, but then you turned out to be an asshole and got me into all kinds of trouble.”
“You raped a young girl,” Lennox said, his fists clenched as he remembered that nightmare time. “Did you actually see Helena and me together?”
“Sure,” he said. “That was one hell of a kiss, dude.”
He realized that kiss had been somewhat public. It’s one of the reasons why they had distanced themselves afterward because that had been just too hot, too fiery, and had also gotten out of control too fast. “So you were at that party?”
“Of course. We went everywhere together back then, until you turned around and betrayed me.” Rob gave a harsh laugh. “You got amnesia? Sounds like you don’t remember anything. Too bad your memory wasn’t as shitty back then. I’d have been fine.”
“So you were behind the kidnapping?”
“More or less,” he said, “but I didn’t want the women hurt. I’d never do anything to hurt Helena.”
“But somebody must be feeding you information.”
“Sure,” he said, “and, if you haven’t figured that out yet, that’s pretty damn sad too. You used to be smarter.”
“I haven’t figured anything out,” Lennox said quietly, as he studied the obviously unbalanced man in front of him. “What happened to you?”
“Well, I was in jail in Thailand,” he said. “After the military court-martialed me, they turned me over to the Thai police, as they considered it their crime, and I was there until I bought my way out.”
“How the hell did you buy your way out?” Lennox stared at him in disbelief. That’s not what he’d hoped to hear.
“We can buy anything over there. The guy who’s after you is the one who paid for my release.”
“What the hell?” Lennox said in shock. “Why would he do that?”
Rob shot him a cocky grin and said, “Jesus, you’re even stupider than I thought,” he said. “You’re just not getting it.” Then he laughed and said, “Don’t worry about it.”
Just then a crowd of people moved into the apartments. And Rob took that opportunity to duck into his apartment.
The crowd quickly swept past Lennox when he tried to get through them to get into Rob’s place. When he finally turned the knob, the door was locked. He pulled his pick out and entered as soon as he could and ran inside, but he found no sign of Rob.
The glass doors to the ground floor patio were open, and he was gone.
Chapter 13
The women were back in their bunks, alone in their assigned room, when a hard knock came at the door.
“Hello?” Helena asked, as she hopped from the bottom bunk.
“It’s me,” Lennox said.
She opened the door in surprise, and he looked to see his sister sound asleep. “I’ve got a room across the hall here. Come over and let’s talk, so we don’t wake her.”
Helena shrugged and said, “Fine.” Dressed in a camisole and shorts, still she was decently covered, only it felt more intimate than it should. As she headed to his room, she realized he had a place all to himself. “This is dangerous,” she murmured, closing the door behind her.
“No,” he said, “not really.” Lennox sagged on the floor and said, “A lot of really crazy shit is going on.”
She wrapped up in the blanket on top of his bunk and said, “Tell me.”
“I’ve already shared it with Gavin, and he’s gone to rest. To let his brain shut down,” he said, “because we can’t figure out what’s going on.”
“Well, talk to me as well,” she said, “although it might be better if Carolina was here too.”
“Well, it seems like this wasn’t about Carolina as much as it was about you.”
Her jaw dropped. “Who the hell cares about me?”
“Rob,” Lennox said quietly. And he slowly explained what had gone down at her apartment.
She shook her head. “So not only my kidnapper was there but Rob is still living in the same building? And he came up while you were there?”
“Yes,” he said.
“But I thought his apartment was empty. … You know that makes no sense, right?”
“I hear you,” he said, “but honestly, at this point, nothing makes sense.” He continued with the rest of the story.
“What are you talking about, that I have a relationship with him? And was he there at the party? Back then?”
“Apparently,” he said. “Although I don’t remember too much about the circumstances.”
“Well, a lot of military personnel and doctors were there,” she said. “You brought the military, and I brought a lot of the medical staff.”
“I remember that much,” he said. “I guess it’s possible Rob was there and that Rob did see the kiss.”
“So he arranges to get you out of my life so he can have me?” She shook her head. “That doesn’t compute. I get a vote as to whether I date someone or not. What does this asshole have to do with the kidnapping?”
“The kidnapping was to get me out of your life, courtesy of Stefano, so Rob could have you, as well as payback for Rob being court-martialed and then in jail.”
“But Rob’s the one who raped that girl.”
“He says it was consensual. But, yes, she was younger, and she was beaten up pretty bad.”
“And he says that you’re to blame?”
“Well, if I had turned a blind eye to it,” he said, “Rob would still have his military career.”
“Instead he was court-martialed and turned over to the Thai police to stand trial, is that correct?”
“According to what he said, yes, and there he somehow managed to get a connection to the kidnapper, who bought his release.”
“Well, for whatever reason, the kidnapper needed a target, and Rob gave it to him.”
“That’s what I’m thinking, but, whether they were in jail together or whether somebody who knew Stefano was in jail with Rob, I don’t know.”
And, indeed, Lennox looked completely pissed and angry.
“The minute you suggested that somebody else was putting me forth as the bad guy, Rob is the one who came up in my mind.”
“That guy is just an asshole and crazy to boot,” she said. “He’d be a natural suspect for anybody’s enemy.”
Lenno
x laughed. “He was back then, and he still is.”
“So I guess we’re staying here then,” she said, looking around the ship.
“Unless you don’t want to. I can’t force you to stay here. Plus the longest we can hide you here is another day and a half before the ship leaves the port.”
“I can’t even believe that Rob’s saying all this. What a liar.” That Rob would make up such lies, especially to Lennox, irritated her. Thankfully she and Carolina had already explained their feelings about Rob to Lennox. “You didn’t believe him, did you?”
“No, of course not, but he did look …” Lennox hesitated.
“What?”
“He did look unsettled, as in potentially not quite all there right now. I don’t know what to say. He didn’t look like I expected him to look.”
“You were friends for a long time, correct?”
“Not good friends but friends, yes. After all, we were both in the navy,” Lennox said. “He seems to think we hung out all the time together.” Lennox shook his head. “It’s unfortunate to see what’s happening to him right now.”
“I think it comes back to the simplest of things,” she said. “Whether it involves me or not, he’s all about getting back at you. If he takes you out, then he thinks that’ll leave me free and clear, and, if I matter to you, having me to himself makes him that much happier too.”
“I don’t understand that,” he said, “because it was just a kiss.”
“For you and me it was just a kiss. We allowed ourselves to block it out and to believe it was just a kiss. But apparently, to everybody else around us, it wasn’t just a kiss.”
“Right,” he said. He stopped, looked at her quietly. “And so, for you, was it just a kiss?”
She laughed. “That’s what we agreed it would be.”
“And I think we also discussed the fact that neither of us was necessarily prepared to leave that decision in the past where it belongs.”
“No,” she said, “but this is hardly the time to reopen that discussion.”
“Well, I’ve got an idea,” he said suddenly, as he stood up.
“Oh?” she said, looking up at him from the bunk. “What’s that?”
“Why don’t we try it again?”
“No,” she said, “that’s not cool.”
“Afraid?”
“Of course I’m afraid,” she said. “You know what I’ve been through these last few days. Hell, these last few years.”
He stopped, appeared to think about it, then nodded. “So maybe a kiss for comfort?”
“Hell, no,” she said, but she could feel the fear inside her. Not of him but of what could happen if they came together again.
“Would it be that bad?”
“This is ridiculous,” she groaned, blowing the hair back out of her face, trying to keep him on track. “So Rob what? He sees our kiss and thinks that maybe it would be like that with him and me?”
“Maybe,” he said. “Unfortunately it was right before he raped that girl. It might have pushed him into that direction.”
“When you were in Thailand? It was then?” She didn’t understand the undercurrents.
Lennox nodded. “Maybe you don’t remember the exact timing of the party,” he said, “but I was leaving the next day.”
“Oh, shit!” she said. “Now I do remember.” She thought about it and remembered how desperately she’d wanted him. To spend that night together. But it wasn’t to be. “What would have happened?” she asked. “When you suggested we leave and go find a quiet place?”
“For a long time,” he said quietly, “I thought of nothing else. But, like you, this isn’t how I thought of our second chance.”
Heat flushed through her at his words. Deliberately trying to keep the conversation focused, she said, “I still don’t understand what that one man who kidnapped us is all about.”
“And that’s why a part of me says you need to stay here to be safe, but another part of me says I need you to come back with me, where we can set this up properly and hopefully bring this all to a head.”
“Use me as bait?”
He winced, gave a one-arm shrug.
She nodded. “It makes sense. I can’t say I like it much. But it makes sense.”
“None of this makes sense,” he said. “It’s so damn stupid.”
“Until it does make sense,” she said with a smile. “That’s the best answer.”
“I’ll have to set it up,” he said, staring at her, watching her expression.
She rose with a nod.
Now that he had her permission, he could get moving on this. “I’ll get some extra men and more intel. I’ve requested more information regarding Rob’s time in Thailand, as well as his military record, to see just what’s going on. I’m on it,” he said, waggling his phone. “Are you sure? No kiss?”
She smiled, leaned up, kissed him gently on the cheek, and said, “Not until it’s over.”
“Why is that?” he whispered as she drifted past.
“Because, when we start,” she said, staring him directly in the face, “this time we won’t quit.” And she turned and headed for the door.
“Or you could stay the night,” Lennox said, his voice husky and deep. He watched as she froze at the doorway. He wasn’t sure if she was considering it or was just shocked.
Slowly, ever-so-slowly, she turned to face him. “Seriously?”
Uncomfortable, awkward, and certainly not the way he expected this to go down, he refused to lie. “Yes,” he whispered. “Why not?”
“Why not?” she asked, her tone cutting.
He winced. “That’s not what I meant. But I don’t want to wait,” he said. And that was a shit response too. Women liked to be wooed, and that’s the last thing he was doing here.
She looked at him carefully. “It might distract you from all this.” And she waved her hand, as if he was supposed to understand what this was.
“Or it’ll laser-focus me on keeping you safe,” he said. Then he smiled and whispered, “You know we’re heading there.” He shut the door behind her, locking it too.
“Yes, I know we’re heading here,” she murmured, “but I was thinking we’d take more time. Have more romance. A bed where we could relax and spend some time and have coffee in the next morning type of a thing.”
“So next time,” he said.
He saw her thinking it over and almost immediately discarding it. He reached out, lifted her chin, and said, “I want you,” he whispered, and he kissed her gently. “But more than that, I’ve wanted you these five years that we’ve been apart.” And he kissed her again.
When she could, she whispered, “Me too, but that doesn’t mean this is the best time or place.”
“I think it does,” he said in all seriousness, slowly pulling her toward him until she was flush against him, from hip to chest. “Just think about it,” he said. “You won’t have to worry about this, our first time together, in the future. You won’t have to anticipate or wonder or be scared or wake up with nightmares or anything along that line.”
She started to frown, but he lowered his head and kissed the curve of her lips. “No objections?”
Her eyes popped open at that. And she glared at him. He smiled, lowered his head again, and kissed her deeply. She murmured when he lifted his lips. “You can’t drug me into this.”
“Drug you?”
The corner of her lips tilted up. “Seduce me.”
“Actually,” he said, “I think you were the one doing the seducing.” He slid his hands over her shoulders up the back of her neck to sweep across her scalp, his fingers sliding through her hair.
She tried to shake her head gently. But she couldn’t move for his hands.
He smiled and whispered, “Yes, you were inciting the flames. You know that,” he said, dropping a kiss at the corner of her mouth and then again on the other side. “And you’re right. Once we start, we’ll never stop.”
“So how will that work in our
favor tonight?” she asked thickly.
“Maybe it won’t,” he whispered. “But maybe, just maybe, getting you a little bit out of my head will help me to focus.” And he smiled down into that passion-clouded gaze of hers and whispered, “You’re all I think about,” he said. “That kiss. It was …”
And she whispered her answer at the same time. “… some kiss.”
“I know,” he whispered, his breath mingling with hers as he slid his tongue inside, stroking, mimicking the act to follow. His hand slid down her back to her buttocks to cup and to pull her tight against his hips so that she could feel his erection. He shuttered his eyes closed, as it seemed she softened and wrapped even more around him. “You know we want this,” he said.
“That doesn’t mean we should do this.”
“Is it just this, you mean?” he asked, but he didn’t get an answer. He could feel her waiting. He smiled, his lips kicking up in the corners again. “Do you think I’ve forgotten you because that kiss we shared was just a moment of lust? You’re the first person I think of when I wake up in the morning. You’re the last person I think of before I go to sleep at night.” He stared down at her, cuddling her close. “You know perfectly well how I feel.”
Her eyes widened, and he reached up to place a finger against her lips as she started her protest.
“No. Stop. Remember who walked away on your wedding?” he asked. “Remember who was there when you got to the divorce court? When you were screaming for joy that it was over? Remember who was there to help you out when you got into trouble?”
“That was Carolina,” she argued.
“Well, Carolina was there too,” he whispered, his heated breath draping over her cheeks and her eyes and her ears. “Because I was. I was there for you.”
Chapter 14
Helena couldn’t believe what he was saying, but it’s what she had so badly wanted to hear. Had dreamed and fantasized about it, and to think that they were here now? Still that niggling sensation said it wasn’t the right time. That they should push it off, and then she thought about the five years they’d already pushed off, and she slid her arms up his chest and around his neck and whispered, “Maybe you should”—then she kissed him on the chin, dropping a little tiny trail down his neck—“show me.”
