He wasn’t about to gamble Jessica’s life on that possibility, he thought as he shifted and tightened his grip on his gun. He intended to stay by the door until the sun was up and people were moving around the resort.
Another movement came from outside, this one no more than a change in the flow of air through the window. Someone had stepped in front of the cottage.
Marcus looked at Devane, who nodded. He’d felt it, too. Both men melted farther into the shadows.
Marcus took deep breaths, visualizing what would happen when the intruder entered the cottage. He would be on the floor, with two guns at his head, before he knew what had happened.
The boards on the porch creaked slightly, and Marcus tensed. When the doorknob began to turn, he gathered himself, preparing his muscles. The intruder would not escape this time.
A thin slice of light appeared at the door, barely brighter than the inside of the cottage. Marcus rolled forward on the balls of his feet, ready to spring. The door opened wider, and a figure all in black slipped into the room.
Marcus sent the door crashing shut as he and Devane leaped for the intruder. Simultaneously, their guns were cocked and pointed at his head.
“Down on the floor,” Marcus growled. “Spread your arms and legs. And do it now.”
The figure froze, and Marcus tensed. Was he going to try to fight? Then the figure collapsed on the floor, stretching out his arms and legs.
“Please don’t hurt me,” he quavered.
Marcus dropped to the floor and pulled out handcuffs, fastening them around the intruder’s wrists and placing another pair around his ankles. Then he rolled him over. It was the young man who had worked on Jessica’s father’s island. He recognized him from the picture the police artist had drawn. Devane kept his gun steadily trained on the intruder’s head. The door to the cottage opened again, and the men who had been hiding in the trees moved silently inside.
“Look what we have here,” Marcus said quietly as he searched the man. He pulled a nasty-looking blackjack out of his pocket, followed by a knife. “Looks like our boy didn’t want to make any noise.”
“That’s too bad,” said Devane.
“Yeah.” Marcus sat on his heels and gave their captive a stony stare. “Because he’s going to be making lots of noise in a few minutes.”
Just as he’d hoped, the kidnapper’s eyes filled with fear. “What are you going to do to me?” he sobbed.
He was hardly more than a boy, and Marcus knew they’d have his story in a matter of minutes.
“That depends on what you make us do.” He leaned closer. “My partner and I are reasonable. If you tell us what we want to know, there’s no reason anyone has to get hurt tonight.”
He left the implication hanging in the air and watched the young man’s face turn a greenish color.
“I’ll tell you anything you want to know,” he gasped.
“Not very loyal to your employers, are you?”
“It doesn’t matter,” he muttered. “I’m not going to get paid now.”
“What are you doing here?” Marcus snapped.
“Trying to get the girl back. She’s worth a lot of money.”
“To whom?”
“To Simon.”
Marcus exchanged a triumphant look with Devane, but schooled his face to be expressionless when he looked at the boy on the floor. “What’s your name?”
“Tommy. Tommy Kalendar.”
“And who’s Simon?”
“He’s the guy who hired us to kidnap the Burke girl.”
Marcus frowned. “You and who else?”
“Steve Trace. He needed me to get onto the Burkes’ island,” Tommy said proudly. “I used to work there and I knew how the security system worked.”
Marcus heard the bedroom door open, but he didn’t look up. Jessica deserved to hear what had happened. “So it was this Steve Trace’s idea to kidnap Jessica Burke?”
Tommy shook his head. “It was Simon’s idea. But Simon hired Steve, and Steve hired me.”
“And how were you supposed to contact this Simon after you kidnapped the girl?”
Tommy shrugged. “I don’t know. That was Steve’s job. He’s the only one who talked to Simon. I just followed orders and did what I was told.”
“And what was the plan for tonight?”
“I was going to knock the girl out and carry her to a car that’s waiting. I lift a lot of weights,” he said, giving his captors a cocky smile. “That would have been easy for me.”
Marcus didn’t ask how he’d intended to incapacitate Jessica’s protector. Clearly this kid hadn’t thought beyond the money he would receive. Instead, he said, “And then what?”
“Then Steve would have called Simon, we’d have gotten our money, and Simon would have taken over.”
“All right,” Marcus said. “Where were you going to take the woman?”
He heard Jessica move, but he kept his gaze focused on the boy’s face. Tommy’s eyes dropped. “I don’t know if I can tell you that. From everything Steve has said, Simon won’t be happy if I tell you.”
“We won’t be happy if you don’t.” Marcus leaned toward him menacingly. “And we’re the ones with the power right now. And the weapons.”
Tommy shrank back as Marcus casually fingered the knife he’d found on the boy. “Steve is in an apartment in town. He’s waiting for me.”
“Where?”
Tommy hesitated, and Marcus laid the knife, blade down, on his chest. Tommy gulped and blurted out an address. Jessica gasped, and Marcus looked at her. “What is it?”
“That’s right across the street from Boss Frog’s Dive Shop,” she whispered.
“I’m not surprised. Simon is damned smart.”
“Who is Simon?” Jessica asked, her voice quiet. But when he looked at her, Marcus saw the hurt in her eyes.
“I’ll tell you later,” he said. “Everything.”
Devane glanced at him sharply, but Marcus ignored him and kept his gaze on Jessica. Finally she nodded. “All right.”
Was it as simple as that? He had been deceiving her for the past three weeks, and with one nod of her head, she had forgiven him. Barely able to believe her generosity, he felt his heart contract painfully in his chest. He wanted to go to her, to fold her in his arms and ask her to forgive him, but he wrenched his attention to Tommy.
“You’re going to go with these men, Tommy. They have lots of questions for you.” He leaned closer and looked deep into Tommy’s eyes. “And if we find that you’ve lied to us, I’m not going to be happy at all. And I think you know what that means.”
“I haven’t lied,” Tommy said shrilly. “Steve is waiting for me there.”
“He’d better be.”
Marcus instructed one of the men to stay with Jessica, and the other took charge of Tommy. He would be interrogated by SPEAR, but Marcus was afraid there was little more the boy could tell them. Simon was notorious for insulating himself from the people he employed.
“Let’s go,” Marcus said to Devane.
The two men headed for the door. At the last minute, Marcus turned to look at Jessica. “I’ll be back soon,” he murmured.
She gave him a tiny smile. “I know.”
Her two words lifted his spirits and lightened his heart. She was amazing. Instead of being angry with him for not telling her the truth, she was telling him that she trusted him. He raised his arm in a silent salute before he slipped out the door.
Marcus and Russell Devane drove fast through the streets of Cascadilla, desperate to find Steve Trace before he could escape or warn Simon that the gig was up. They parked two blocks from the dive shop and ran through the silent, deserted streets until they were several buildings away from the apartment. It was on the third floor of the building, and they quickly split up. Marcus headed up the front stairs, and Devane took the rear.
But when they kicked in the door to the apartment, they found it deserted. Trace had apparently left in a hurry. A bottle of beer
was still on the table, cold and sweating. There was a bag of chips, half-eaten, next to it.
“How did he get out of here so quickly?” Devane asked.
Marcus gestured toward the open window. “My guess is that he had some kind of alarm rigged. When we tripped it, he took off.”
He walked to the window and saw a rope hanging to the ground. “The oldest trick in the book,” he said, disgusted with himself.
Steve Trace stood on the corner of the street and watched one of the men in his apartment look out the window. “Outsmarted you, didn’t I?” he snarled. He didn’t bother to watch any longer, but turned and hurried away. He’d taken the precaution of parking his car far away from the apartment. At least he had transportation.
And he could contact the boss, Trace thought. Warn him what had happened. Simon still owed him and Tommy their money. And since these two had found the apartment, it was a safe bet that Tommy wasn’t going to be asking for his money any time soon. Trace smiled as he walked quickly toward the market area. It looked like payday was going to come twice.
He found a pay phone and dropped in some coins, dialing the number he’d memorized. Simon answered after one ring.
“Do you have her?”
“There was a problem. I think they have Tommy.”
Waves of anger sizzled through the phone line. “That’s unfortunate,” Simon finally said. “But I suppose there’s nothing to be done about it now.”
“What about our money?”
“Your money?” Simon laughed, and the sound chilled Trace’s blood. “There’s no money for you. You didn’t succeed in kidnapping the girl. Without the girl, there is no ransom money. And without the ransom, you don’t get paid.”
“What about everything we did?”
“It was most appreciated. But you didn’t do what I needed you to do. You showed a lot of promise, Trace. Unfortunately, you weren’t wise in your choice of associates. Be more careful in the future. It’s too bad I’m not staying in this part of the world. I could use someone like you.”
The phone clicked, and Trace heard nothing but the dial tone. Slowly he put the phone into its cradle, rage churning his blood and turning his vision red.
It was all that bitch’s fault. He swore viciously as he hurried toward his car. She’s the one who wrecked things for them. If she hadn’t jumped out of the boat, he’d have his money by now. And he’d have a regular job with Simon, and the possibility of a lot more money.
It was all her fault. And he was going to make her pay.
Marcus closed the door behind Devane and the other SPEAR agent, then took a deep breath and turned to face her. He’d asked his partner to give him time alone with Jessica. She’d barely said a word since he and Devane returned to the cottage.
“Is it really over?” she said quietly.
“Not yet. But it shouldn’t be long before we catch Trace. We contacted the Cascadilla Police Department and they’re looking for him, too. He can’t go far on an island.”
“And what about Simon?” Her voice was barely above a whisper.
“I’m sorry, Jessica. I owe you an explanation.”
“You don’t owe me anything, Marcus. You did what you promised to do. You protected me from the kidnappers, and you caught one of them.”
Her steady voice made him shrivel inside. He would have preferred her to yell at him, to accuse him of lying to her. Her quiet words tore his heart out.
“I lied to you.”
She gave him a cool look. “I imagine that’s not unusual in your line of work. You’re not really in law enforcement, are you?”
“Not in the way I’ve implied. Are you angry?”
Slowly she shook her head. “I’m disappointed, but you did it to protect me. How can I be angry with you for that?”
Her generosity of spirit shamed him. He was used to trusting no one. And Jessica trusted him completely. “I’m not used to telling anyone what I do,” he muttered.
Surprisingly, she smiled. “I already figured that out. But don’t worry, your secret is safe with me.”
And he knew it would be. Jessica would never betray him. He would never have to watch his back when he was with her.
But he wasn’t going to be with her for very much longer, he reminded himself harshly. Just long enough to clear up the loose ends in this case and get her safely to her parents.
He didn’t want to think about that right now. He looked at her, sitting on the couch, her feet tucked under her, wearing one of his shirts, and he felt his resolve melting.
Surely they could have one more night together, one more chance to make memories that would have to last a lifetime. He took a step closer to her. “Can I tell you everything in the morning? I don’t really want to talk right now.”
Her eyes darkened, and he saw her body tense beneath his shirt. “What did you have in mind?”
He reached down and pulled her off the couch. She leaned into him, and he smoothed his hand down her back. She fit against him perfectly, as if she were made for him. “I’ve neglected you the past few days.”
He bent and kissed her neck, and felt the shudder that rippled through her. “I’ve missed you, Marcus.”
“Can it really be that easy for you to forgive me?” he asked, nuzzling her throat.
“Why don’t we find out?”
She leaned her head back to look at him, and what he saw in her face made him catch his breath. She glowed at him, the warm honey of her eyes giving him a message he didn’t want to hear. The truth beat against his heart, demanding to be admitted. But fear fluttered inside him, too, and he closed his eyes.
“Don’t look at me like that,” he groaned.
“How is that?”
“Like you think I hang the moon.”
She laughed, and the sound rippled over him like liquid silk. “You’re not perfect, Marcus. Far from it. But you’re what I want.”
She meant right now, he told himself, panic stirring. She wasn’t talking about anything more than this moment, more than this night.
She couldn’t be. Because he was determined to do the right thing. And that meant taking her to her parents and walking away.
“I need you, Marcus.”
Her whispered words surrounded him, drew him into a web of desire he was helpless to avoid. Groaning, he bent to taste her mouth. As she melted against him, he tightened his arms around her. For just this night, he could pretend he never had to let her go.
For just this night, she could be his.
While it was dark outside, he could allow his hidden dreams full rein. While the night embraced them, he could delude himself into thinking they were real. Because they were as shadowy as smoke and would vanish as readily in the light of day.
She wrapped her arms around him and tried to draw him closer. Heat speared through him, and he swung her into his arms to carry her into the bedroom. Before he could move, he heard footsteps running outside the cottage.
Instinctively he set Jessica behind him and reached for his gun. He had set it on the kitchen table. Before he could lunge for it, the door to the cottage crashed open, and a man lunged into the room.
Chapter 16
Jessica flinched and reached out for Marcus. But he set her behind him and stepped forward to face the intruder. The man’s brown hair was tousled, and his eyes were wild with hatred. “Get away from the bitch,” he growled, pulling a gun out of his pocket.
Marcus reached back and lightly pushed her toward the bedroom door. “Who are you?” he asked. His voice was calm and even.
“She was mine,” the man shouted. “I caught her, and I was supposed to get the money. Now he’s gone and it’s all her fault.”
“Who’s gone?” Marcus asked. Jessica saw his body tense as the other man came closer. She shivered as she saw the stranger’s eyes. They glittered with blood lust and rage, and the fury they shot at Marcus told her the intruder was completely beyond reason.
“Simon.” The other man spat the word. “
Simon’s gone. And he didn’t pay me the money he owed me.”
“Why was that?” Again, Marcus’s voice was level and calm, but the other man’s face darkened.
“He didn’t get any ransom money. So he didn’t pay me.” He stared at Jessica, and hatred contorted his face. “It’s her fault. And she’s going to pay.”
“You must be Steve Trace,” Marcus said.
“What difference does it make?” The man sneered.
“I like to know who I’m talking to.”
“It doesn’t matter. We won’t be talking for long.”
Marcus fluttered his hands toward her, and she realized that he wanted her to move into the bedroom. Slowly she took a step backward, watching the man with the gun. As she moved, Trace took a step closer. “There’s no place to hide in there, bitch,” he growled. “You’re only postponing it.”
Marcus motioned for her to move again. Clearly he had a plan, and she slowly took another step. “I thought you were smarter than this, Trace,” Marcus said. “Why aren’t you as far from Cascadilla as you can get?”
“I had some unfinished business.” His head swiveled toward Jessica, and he instinctively took another step closer. “Once I take care of her, then I can leave.”
“Not so fast.” Marcus kicked suddenly, and the gun went flying from Trace’s hand. Trace stared at it dumbly for a moment, and Marcus jumped on him.
The two men wrestled on the floor, the cottage silent except for their grunts and curses. There should be more noise, Jessica thought as a bubble of hysteria filled her chest. One of these men was going to die, and there was no noise.
And it as up to her to make sure it wasn’t Marcus. She tried to get to the gun, but it had slid under the couch, and the two men were in the way. Her gaze darted around the room. She spotted Marcus’s gun on the kitchen table.
She ran to grab the gun. As she was spinning back to the living room, she saw a knife they’d used to cut a pineapple. She grabbed that, too, and ran into the living room.
She saw Marcus looking at her out of the corner of his eye. “Knife,” he gasped, and she set the gun carefully out of reach on the floor. She waited until Marcus stuck out his hand, then she slapped the knife into his palm.
Someone To Watch Over Her Page 18
