Let It Burn

by Ruth Cardello

  Stiles nodded and opened the front door. He closed it once he and Andrew were through it. He walked over to look down the street from the balcony. “It’s obvious that you’ve taken an interest in my niece.”

  Oh, shit. He’s not as oblivious as I thought. “She’s a beautiful woman.”

  Leaning forward on the railing of the balcony, Stiles said, “She is. Not just on the surface, but right through to her core. You don’t meet many people like that. People usually have something they’re hiding, a demon they’d do anything to escape but can’t. Do you know what I’m saying?”

  “I think so,” Andrew said although he wasn’t sure he did.

  “Either you know or you don’t. We’re all defined by our worst day, aren’t we? It doesn’t matter how much good we do before or after, we never rise above our lowest moment.”

  “Say whatever it is you’re dancing around,” Andrew ordered between clenched teeth. If this is a threat to expose me because he somehow knows about what happened in Iraq, bring the threat on. I’m not the one desperate to keep the truth hidden.

  Stiles turned and met his eyes. “I need you to take Helene back to her parents. I should have never let her come here.”

  Andrew stepped closer and growled. “Take her back? Why? Is she in danger?”

  Stiles paled. “I love my niece. She shouldn’t be involved in any of this. I would send her away myself, but I don’t know who I can trust. It may already be too late for all of us.”

  Grabbing Stiles’s arm, Andrew gave him a shake. “What are you talking about?”

  “Whose journal were you referring to earlier?”

  Eyes narrowed, Andrew said, “Patrice Stanfield’s.”

  “How did you get it?”

  Andrew shrugged impatiently. “It came to our family when she died.”

  Stiles’s arm shook beneath his hold. “How did she die?”

  “Heart failure?” Andrew wasn’t sure. He’d heard about her passing, but since he’d never had a relationship with her he hadn’t paid much attention to the details. “What does any of this have to do with Helene being in danger?”

  Stiles tried to pull away, but Andrew held him easily. “Get a private plane. Leave Aruba and take Helene with you. Right now. Don’t take your eyes off her for a moment until she’s back in Florida. If you care for her at all, do this. And don’t tell her anything. The more she knows the more danger she’ll be in.”

  Tightening his hand on the older man’s arm, Andrew said, “I’m not doing anything until you explain what this is all about.”

  The man’s eyes filled with tears. “Nothing I could say would change the past. It wouldn’t bring your brother back.”

  My brother? How is this about him? How could what happened back then be dangerous now? “What the hell are you talking about? What are you not telling me?”

  “Your brother’s death wasn’t an accident.”

  And whoosh, just like that, Andrew was in fighter mode. He gripped both of the man’s arms and lifted him off his feet, shaking him violently. “What do you mean it wasn’t an accident?”

  Stiles slumped in Andrew’s hold. “I’m so sorry. God, it feels good to finally say it. It’s my fault you lost your brother. I hate the choices I made, and that I kept the truth to myself. If this were just about me, I would tell you everything, but I don’t matter anymore. She does. You need to get her out of here.” The agony in Stiles’s eyes mirrored Andrew’s own torment, and he began to lower Stiles to his feet.

  “Put him down,” Helene screamed from the doorway as soon as the initial shock of the scene before her passed. Even though she’d only frozen for a second, it had felt longer as she watched the man she’d brought into her uncle’s home maul him like some kind of wild animal. Without hesitation she attacked, pulling at the closest arm to her that was holding her uncle while kicking at his legs. “Let go of him.” Andrew released her uncle, but Helene kept kicking and hitting him. “I trusted you and this is what you do?”

  Andrew fended her off easily simply by placing a hand on her shoulder and keeping her slightly off balance. She tried to push his hand away but all those muscles she’d found attractive earlier were now her enemies. She yanked herself free from his hold and went to stand protectively in front of her uncle while frantically digging through her bra for the phone she’d stashed there. Her hands were shaking as she swiped the phone. “I’m done. I’m calling the police. Don’t come back here, Andrew. Ever. If you do, I’ll make sure they arrest you. I’m sorry, but you’re not stable. You need help.”

  Her uncle took the phone out of her hands. “You can’t make that call, Helene.”

  “Yes, I can. We have to, Uncle Clarence. He’s more dangerous than you know.” Please hold it together long enough for me to get you help.

  Her uncle put a hand on her arm and said, “Calm down, Helene. You need to calm down.”

  Shaking her head, Helene looked back and forth between her uncle and Andrew. I have to say it, even if it incites Andrew. “He has a gun.”

  “Good,” her uncle said.

  Helene’s mouth dropped open as she tried to wrap her head around her uncle’s reaction. “Good? Good? He could kill us both. We need to call the police.”

  Her uncle stepped forward and took her hand in his. “I love you, Helene. Do you believe that?”

  “Yes,” Helene said, feeling bile rise in her throat. Was he about to do something heroic like attack Andrew himself? Andrew would kill him.

  “Then go with Andrew. Don’t ask me why. Don’t take time to pack. Get in his car and go. Now.”

  “No,” Helene said, frantically trying to figure out how any of this made sense. She met Andrew’s eyes and said firmly, “I’m not going anywhere with him.”

  “Yes, you are,” her uncle said, looking fragile and scared.

  She shook her head vehemently. “Absolutely not.”

  Her uncle opened the door and called for Paul to retrieve her purse and passport. A few minutes later, he dismissed Paul then handed Helene’s phone, passport, and purse to Andrew. “Get her out of here.”

  Tears filled Helene’s eyes as she continued to scramble to understand what was going on. “Why do you want me to go with him? Why aren’t you trying to protect me from him?”

  Shaking and with tears in his own eyes, her uncle said, “I’m so sorry, Helene. I wish I could explain it to you. You have to trust me, or you’ll get us both killed. This is the only way.”

  Helene gripped her uncle’s forearm. “No, it’s not. This is insane. I don’t understand what’s going on, but I can guarantee you I’m not getting in a car with him.”

  Her uncle shook her hand off, and when he spoke his tone sent a chill down Helene’s spine. “If you love me at all, go with him, Helene. I know you don’t understand, but it’s better if you don’t. If there were any other way, I wouldn’t do this, but I have no choice. You have no choice. Andrew, she’s all yours now.”

  With that, her uncle spun on his heel and retreated through the door, closing it behind him. Shocked into momentary silence, Helene simply stared at Andrew.

  He reached for her arm. “We need to go, Helene.”

  She recoiled from him. “Don’t touch me. You’re a sick bastard. What did you have to threaten my uncle with to get him to do this?”

  He stepped closer, with her purse still in one hand. “I didn’t threaten him.”

  She retreated another step, looking around for an escape route. “Is this some kind of white slavery thing because I’m a virgin? If so, you need to know that technically I’m not. I touched Gerald Finley’s penis my junior year, and I’m pretty sure he had an orgasm in his pants from it.”

  One of Andrew’s eyebrows arched and he lunged for her, grabbing one of her arms with the speed and precision of a striking snake. “You’re still a virgin, but you’re safe. No one is going to hurt you. You haven’t been sold. In fact, I’m going to help you.”

  She struggled to free herself but couldn’t. “
No, you’re not.”

  He started to walk. She dug in her heels, but he pulled her behind him as if she were a reluctant child being dragged off by a parent. “Trust me, this wasn’t my plan.”

  She tried to grab the banister on the way down, but wasn’t strong enough to hold on. “I’ll scream and I’ll keep screaming until someone else calls the police.”

  Andrew paused at that. “You heard your uncle. Are you willing to risk your life as well as his?”

  “Is that what you threatened him with? That you’d kill him and me? Maybe that worked on him, but I’m not an old man. You’re not scaring me. I’ll kill you right back.”

  He looked down at her. “That doesn’t even make sense.”

  She growled in frustration as he unlocked the passenger side of his car. “You really think you can get me in that car?”

  “Do you value your uncle’s life?”

  Helene glanced back at her uncle’s door, which was still closed. Why would he do this to me? Is he only playing along to give the police time to arrive? He could be on the phone with them now. That’s it. He must have known Andrew has a gun, and he said what he had to, to buy himself time so he could save me. No other possibility made sense. “Yes, I do.”

  “Then get in the car,” Andrew ordered.

  If I fight him here, maybe he’ll go back in and kill my uncle before the police have a chance to arrive. No. He can’t be a killer.

  Why, because gorgeous people can’t be evil? Really, what else does he need to do to prove to me that he’s not sane?

  He opened the car door, and she allowed herself to be pushed inside. It wasn’t as if they were in the woods. They would still have to stop at several red lights, and when they did she would jump out.

  He walked around to the driver’s side, tossed her purse in the backseat, and slid in. He started the engine and said, “There’s no reason to be afraid, Helene. I would never hurt you.” She gasped at the brush of his arm across her breast as he reached to buckle her in. “I only want you to be safe.”

  “Then let me go back to my uncle.”

  Before answering, he reversed down the driveway, through the gate that automatically opened for them, and pulled out onto the street. “I wish I could, but I can’t.”

  She studied his profile, looking for any hint as to what he was thinking. “Maybe you’re confused or maybe you’re angry at my uncle, but you don’t have to do this. You haven’t hurt anyone yet. Not really. Stop and let me out. I won’t call the police. I promise.”

  He removed a hand from the steering wheel to rub his forehead as if he had a headache. “I am confused and angry, but that’s not why I’m doing this.”

  She would have asked him why, but he looked distracted enough that she jumped at the opportunity to escape. She grabbed the wheel and pulled it in her direction, causing the car to nearly hit a pole. He swore, righted the car, then pulled over. “What are you trying to do, get us both fucking killed?” he yelled.

  “Yes,” she yelled back and released the seat belt. She turned her back to the car door and kicked him in the jaw. The move stunned him, and she was able to open her door and scramble to her feet on the sidewalk before he had a chance to stop her. There were people out, but they were far away, too far to hear her unless she screamed. She opened her mouth to do just that, but he grabbed her, spun her, and placed his hand over her mouth.

  “I’m trying to help you,” he said angrily.

  She kicked at him. Punched him. Tried to bite at his hand.

  He backed her up against the car until the weight of him restrained her movements. The evidence of how the fight excited him pressed against her and confused her even more. She questioned her survival instincts along with her sanity. There was nothing sexy about being held against her will, and yet her body was hot with hunger for him. Her sex was wet with need. Her nipples hardened against his strong chest.

  “Don’t look at me that way,” he growled. “I’m trying to do the right thing.”

  She would have asked him what the hell that was but his hand still covered her mouth, so she kicked him as hard as she could.

  He grunted and adjusted himself more fully against her so she didn’t have the leverage for another strike. “I don’t know why your uncle expected you to go along with this. Does he know you at all?”

  She struggled against him, inadvertently moving her stomach back and forth across his bulging cock. When she realized how her movements were actually exciting both of them more, she stopped.

  He closed his eyes briefly, then said, “I’m going to take my hand off your mouth. If you start screaming I’m going to kiss you, and we both know where that will lead. Stop fighting me, because I’m not a knight in shining armor, and you’ve already got me revved half out of my mind. Calm down so I can.”

  She took a deep, calming breath and nodded once. He removed his hand slowly. “How could I possibly go along with this, when I don’t know what this is?”

  He also took a deep breath and straightened so she was no longer pinned beneath him. “I’m trying to rescue you, but you’re making that fucking impossible.”

  Andrew hadn’t gotten to nearly thirty without ever being betrayed by his dick, but he’d assumed he was well past that stage. He wasn’t a schoolboy accidentally dancing too close to a girl and involuntarily sporting an obvious boner. Men learned to control that shit. Okay, yes, when he’d sunken to the point where he’d needed a drink in the morning just to make it to the drinks he’d indulged in the rest of the day—he’d given his dick free rein. This was different, though. This was him sober, trying to remove a woman he was growing to like from harm’s way, looking like an oversexed kidnapper. Something I could talk myself out of if those big eyes of hers didn’t reduce me to a bumbling idiot.

  Given a little space, she folded her arms across her chest and looked up at him warily. “You must think I’m pretty gullible.”

  “No, I think you’ve got a lot of fight in you, considering you’ve lived a sheltered life. I understand how confusing this must be for you, but it doesn’t change the reality of your situation. Your uncle asked me to get you back to your parents, and that’s what I intend to do.”

  She narrowed her eyes at him. “I don’t believe you, but pretend for a moment that I do. If my uncle didn’t think I was safe here, why wouldn’t he just tell me to leave? Why would he have someone like you take me anywhere?”

  Someone like me. I can’t even dispute her assessment that I’m the wrong man for this job. “He said he didn’t know who he could trust.”

  Her eyes rounded in disbelief. “But he trusts you?”

  Andrew sighed harshly and turned so he rested against the car. “Listen, I didn’t go to dinner hoping to be flying you home tonight. I thought your uncle seemed like a nice guy. I was going to stick around long enough to make sure you were safe and then go back to my own crazy family.”

  She rolled her eyes skyward. “Keep me safe from what? I wasn’t in any danger before you arrived.”

  “You may be right about that.”

  She shivered visibly. “Would you just tell me whatever or whoever it is that you think is out to get me? Because, frankly, I’m not sure anything or anyone could be scarier than you.”

  “I would tell you if I knew.”

  She raised one hand in a motion to stop. “Wait, you’re saving me, but you don’t know who from?”

  “I would know if you hadn’t interrupted when your uncle was about to tell me.”

  Her mouth rounded in shock. “Interrupted? You were mauling him.”

  “We were talking.” He hadn’t planned to tell Helene anything her uncle had said, but she wouldn’t leave with him unless she knew why she needed to. “He did something that he’s afraid has put you, as well as him, in danger.”

  She put her hand up and waved for him to stop. “First, I don’t believe that my uncle would turn to you for help. He doesn’t know you. Second, I can’t imagine my uncle doing anything besides helpin
g people. So, let me tell you what I think really happened. You threatened my uncle. Maybe with your gun. I don’t know. He said whatever he needed to, to get you to leave so he could call the police. They are probably out looking for us already. Any minute now we’ll see them tracking my cell phone, and they’ll haul you off to jail. If you don’t touch me again, I’ll suggest they go easy on you.”

  “If your uncle wanted the police called, he wouldn’t have taken your phone. And he wouldn’t have given it to me.”

  “Maybe he was afraid they’d be too late to arrive if I called then.”

  “So he sent you away with me? To buy time for them to arrive? Does that make sense? He wanted you to leave with me. Remember what he said? ‘She’s all yours.’ Does that sound like someone who is rushing inside to call the authorities?”

  She brought her hands to her ears. “No. Shut up. I don’t know why he said that. I don’t understand any of this.”

  Andrew turned on his hip so he was facing her. “He said it because he knows I care about you, and that I’ll do whatever I need to do to get you back to your parents.”

  She shook her head and blinked back tears. “I don’t know what to believe.”

  He turned her face gently toward his. “Look at me. Believe me.”

  “Who is my uncle afraid of?”

  “I told you—I don’t know, but he said involving you will put you in danger.”

  “Is it drugs? Gambling? Does he owe someone money?”

  Andrew didn’t answer.

  She turned fully to face him. “I have a right to know. If you really think my uncle is in trouble, then I need to know how to protect him. He’s my family. I’m not leaving without him.”

  Andrew’s hands clenched at his side. He didn’t want to say it, but maybe she did need the truth. “He killed my brother.”

  She gasped. “No. No, he didn’t.”

  “He told me he did.”

  She searched his face. “He used those words? He said, ‘I killed your brother’?”

  “Not exactly. He said it was his fault.”

  She let out a shaky breath. “That’s not the same.”