“Something must have happened,” she said, to no avail.
He wasn’t going to talk about it. And that only worked to convince her all the more that he needed to face it or it would eventually come back to haunt him.
They turned the corner and Deet’s house came into view, forcing her to table the topic for now. His yard was in shambles but his house fared pretty well, like all the other houses here. All along the street, neighbors worked in their yards. Where had he gone during the storm?
She followed Travis to the front door. He knocked and continued his scrutiny of their surroundings.
When no one came to the door, he tried the handle. The door opened. Slipping inside and to the left of the door, she saw him pull out his gun, out of sight from the neighbors.
He gestured for her to follow, and she stepped inside. While Travis closed the door, she took in the destruction. It hadn’t been caused by the hurricane. Pictures were on the floor, pillows and cushions off the sofa and chair, rugs covering the tiled floors were overturned. Books had been wiped off a white shelf that ran the length of one wall behind the sofa.
“Someone’s already been here,” she said.
He pressed a finger to his lips. “Shh.” And then, putting his face close to hers, he added in a low voice, “You wait here.”
“But—”
His brow lifted and his head dipped as though challenging her to argue.
“Okay,” she whispered, resisting the spark of affection that came over her. He might be overprotective, but he was also very capable.
He angled his head in doubt.
“I will,” she assured him.
With one last look, he walked with his gun raised through the living room, disappearing up a stairway.
Raeleen surveyed the living room and peered into the kitchen, which was in similar disarray. Other than a bathroom, there were no other rooms down here.
Listening for Travis, she heard no sound and began to wonder what was taking so long. Was he all right?
She took a step toward the stairs and then stopped. He’d asked her to stay here. No, he’d ordered her.
That suddenly nettled her.
What if he needed her right now and his overprotectiveness was getting in the way? She climbed the stairs. At the top, she looked up to see glimpses of blue sky through a tangle of tree branches. A tree had caused the roof to partially collapse. The bathroom was destroyed and part of one bedroom. She went down the hall to that room. At the doorway, she faced Travis’s gun. So much for needing her...
His face changed from a soldier’s readiness to a scowl of frustration. “I told you to wait.”
“I’m not a dog. And you’re way too overprotective.” She looked around the room. “Did you find anything?”
“No.”
“Deet didn’t kill his wife, did he?” Someone had gone through his house looking for the painting Landon had told them about.
“It’s hard to say. His wife kidnapped you.”
“But someone ransacked his house.” And that someone had beaten Landon. Had they also killed Vivian and her brother? “What kind of painting does Deet have?”
“A dangerous one. Come on, let’s get out of here.”
* * *
Sitting at a hotel bar beside Raeleen, Travis tried to focus on the soccer game on TV. She had on a pair of white shorts that showcased her long legs, torturing him. Last night they’d gotten word that the airport would open in the morning. They had a flight out at 8:00 a.m. Deet was nowhere to be found, and neither were the men after the painting. He was beginning to doubt Deet had killed his wife and brother-in-law. He also didn’t think he intended for anyone else to. That left two possibilities. Either Vivian and her brother
had worked a deal with the killers, or Deet had and the deal had somehow gone bad. If Deet had made the deal, his wife had tried to stop him by kidnapping Raeleen. If Vivian and her brother had done it, they’d kidnapped Raeleen to force Deet to hand over the painting. If he’d refused...
“Thanks for arranging to transport Landon home.”
Travis turned to Raeleen. “You can thank Odie. She did it all.” She’d called him just before he’d come to the hotel bar.
“I don’t see why we have to go back now, though.”
They’d already argued about this. She wanted to stay and track Deet down. He planned to get her home where she belonged.
“You’re safer there.” He turned back to the soccer game on the overhead bar television, waiting for another argument. Instead of dreading it, he actually welcomed it.
He met a lot of women through online sites and in public places, but few captivated him as much as Raeleen. This was just like Haley, except he wasn’t afraid to hurt Raeleen. She wasn’t afraid of him, either, and that was the best part. She felt like his equal. Another reason to get her home. She might break his heart if he wasn’t careful.
“I’m safe with you, aren’t I?”
He turned to her soft, sweet eyes and the alluring curve shaping her glossy lips. Her effect on him dulled the sense that she was baiting him. “Yes.”
“Then why can’t we stay and find Deet together?”
Together. “This is getting too dangerous.” It wasn’t only Deet involved.
Recalling how she’d probed for what had happened to make him so overprotective—just as Haley had—he realized where this was going.
“I’m beginning to understand you pretty well, Travis Todd.” She almost sounded smug.
“Starting to see me for the man I am instead of stereotyping?” he teased, hoping she’d stop. He didn’t want to talk about why he was so protective of women.
“I see you for the man you are.”
“I doubt that.” He wasn’t the kind of man who’d neglect his kids or try to control the woman he was with, both things she’d attributed to her father.
“I don’t think you do.”
He wasn’t talking about what made him a TES operative anymore. “You can’t even see who you are. How could you see me any deeper?”
“We were talking about you, not me.”
Not anymore. “You’ve closed yourself off to the truth.”
She plopped her elbow on the bar and twisted to face him more, totally confrontational, and totally appealing to him. “What truth?”
“You’re just like your father.” He waited for the fallout from that to come down on him, watching her beautiful blue eyes fire daggers.
“I am nothing like my father.” She paused between each word for emphasis, which only made him remember her attitude when she thought he was giving her orders during the hurricane.
“No?” At least he’d stopped her from digging into his personal affairs again.
“No!”
Her defiance confirmed he was right. “You’re obsessed with your job and don’t like to be bossed around.”
“I don’t run a secret military organization. I’m the host of a TV program.”
“Yes, and now I know why.”
Defensiveness bubbled and boiled under her hold on its eruption. He found it entirely too adorable. She held back what he was sure would have been a spectacular comeback.
“Do you really think choosing a profession that’s nothing like your father’s makes you different than him?” he asked. “You’re as busy as he is.”
With jerky movements, she swirled on the barstool and faced forward, looking up at the television without watching the game. He took her in, sitting there fuming. He’d gotten her thinking, though.
“I don’t mean that as an insult. It’s refreshing.” She was refreshing. Too much so. He could get in trouble with her.
After taking a moment to assimilate that, she gazed slowly down his body, all the way to his big black boots resting on the platfo
rm at the base of the bar, before it traveled back up. Her anger faded in lieu of her new interest. “It’s refreshing that I’m as busy as my dad?”
“It’s refreshing that you’re as strong as your dad.”
As his meaning took shape, the fiery light in her eyes simmered to a warm glow. “You aren’t used to that in women?”
“I haven’t met many women like that.”
“Do you meet a lot on assignments?”
“I meet them.” And had relations with them, but none of them lasted.
“You probably meet a lot of them. Do you like that?”
“When it works, yes. I don’t seek it out.” He had relations but didn’t have to. He was a patient man. He could wait for the right one. And it was disturbing that he felt the possibility building with Raeleen.
The soccer game became a diversion again. He wasn’t sure this opening of hearts was such a great idea for them. Her antimilitary stance made it that way. That and her probing.
“What was that woman you stood up before coming to Anguilla like?”
“I didn’t stand her up.” Was this her strategy to get him to talk about what she was really after?
“Oh, okay, you called her. But you still stood her up in the name of your job. What was she like?”
“Nice. Sophisticated. Smart. Reserved.”
“Reserved?”
Figures, she’d catch on to that word. He continued to watch the soccer game, although nothing registered. Raeleen consumed every synapse in his brain.
“The, ‘I’m not going to sleep with you too soon,’ reserved, or the, ‘You terrify me,’ reserved?” Raeleen asked.
He deliberately ignored her.
“Did she do what you told her to do?” she persisted.
“I didn’t tell her what to do.”
“She was just...what...intimidated by you?”
It was time to aim the cannon on her now. “Was Deet intimidated by you?”
She looked up at the television.
Priceless. “He was. Not intimidated. Accommodating.”
“Which is why you conveniently didn’t know he was married.”
He saw her catch his meaning, and her mask of indifference melted with affront. “He lied to me.”
“I don’t think you cared that he was married.”
Her mouth dropped open and then she closed it, unable to dispute what he said. She hadn’t cared; moreover, she wasn’t hurt by the betrayal. And the reason was that Deet hadn’t interfered with her busy schedule.
They were both looking for people who didn’t interfere with their work. Would Raeleen try to change him if they fell in love? Would she require that he be there for her whenever her schedule allowed? He could never live that way. Besides, she refused to give any military man a chance. He was a military man, albeit in secret. And that wouldn’t change. He wouldn’t change for anything.
“If you ever get over your neglect issue with your dad, let me know,” he said.
“If you ever quit working for my father, let me know.”
He drank the rest of his water and put the glass down, letting the conversation end there. She was too stubborn, and certain things about his past were off-limits.
“Why do you work for him, anyway?”
He should have expected her not to let that go. “I come from a long line of military men.”
Raeleen’s head angled as she studied him. “So it was just a natural progression?”
“Put the drink on the room,” he told the bartender. Then to Raeleen, “Let’s go.” Sitting at this bar only invited conversation. He needed to get her mind on other things. If only those other things didn’t center on getting her naked.
“Why can’t you tell me?”
“We’ve talked enough. Let’s go up to the room.”
“And do what? Talk more?”
Would she continue to fish for answers he refused to give? There would be nowhere he could go to escape her. Whether here or in the room, she’d keep digging into his past.
She must have registered his emotion, because her tactic softened. Putting her drink down, she regarded him with new understanding.
“It wasn’t just a natural progression,” she said. “Was it?”
He could tell by the way she spoke that she didn’t expect him to reply. She hadn’t really asked a question. She’d voiced her thoughts aloud. He’d expected her to keep pressuring him, and instead, she’d eased off.
Just then, he caught sight of a dark-haired man in a
wrinkle-free cream-colored dress shirt watching them from a table just beyond the bar. How long had he been sitting there? Awhile, it appeared, with two bottles of beer on the table, one of them probably empty. The cash on the table told Travis he’d be ready to get up and leave without having to close out a tab.
Travis inwardly swore. He couldn’t believe he hadn’t noticed him until now.
He moved to the bar. “On second thought, I’ll wait for you to finish your drink.”
Raeleen looked up at him in surprise.
Covertly checking the man at the end of the bar, he saw him doing the same, only now he was more alert. While Travis had been preoccupied with Raeleen, he’d felt at ease watching. Now that Travis had seen him, that comfort zone had changed.
Damn. This man was a professional. Whoever was after that painting knew who Travis worked for. It would be foolish to send anyone less capable to tail him. The man was about six feet tall and muscular. Short, cropped dark hair. Dark eyes. Mustache. He looked Cuban.
As Travis let him know he was onto him, the man drank some beer and put the bottle down. A waiter came to the table and Travis shook his head. How had he found them at the hotel?
“What are you looking at?” Raeleen followed his gaze and saw the man. “Who is that?”
The man got up and walked toward the exit.
“Wait here.”
“What? No...” She stood from the stool and bumped against him. Soft breasts mashed to his chest and feminine hands spread over his shoulders. Her face tipped up as their gazes collided.
Meanwhile, the man he’d seen was getting away.
Pushing her a step back, Travis watched him leave the bar.
“Wait for me here.” It was imperative that she listen to him.
“No. I’m going with you.” Her head bobbed to the side so she could see around him. “We should hurry.”
He took her by her shoulders and gave her a gentle jerk. “Raeleen, I need you to wait here for me. It’s public and you’ll be safe. Don’t go to the room. Don’t leave the hotel. Just stay right here.”
“Stop overprotecting me.”
She kept saying that, and he refused to budge. She thought she understood but she didn’t. Regardless of who her father was, she wasn’t trained for this. If he was being overprotective, then she’d just have to deal with it. “You aren’t listening to me.”
She planted a defiant hand on her hip. “I think it’s safer if I stay with you. You think I’m not and that’s your mistake, Travis.”
Swearing, he strode through the bar and entered the lobby. There, he stopped to search for the man. Had he left the hotel or was he staying here?
Raeleen stood beside him. “Where did he go?”
Ignoring her, Travis left the hotel and searched for signs of the man out on the street. He was nowhere.
And why would he be? Travis had wasted too much time arguing with Raeleen.
Just as he was about to start swearing some more, he heard tires squealing and looked in time to see the man driving down the street.
Chapter 6
Having no choice other than to take Raeleen with him, Travis quickly searched around and spotted a taxi cab driver removing luggage from the trunk of his
vehicle.
“Get into that cab.” Now he was ordering her. And she better do what he said.
She did. She headed for the cab with him. As the driver closed the trunk and took cash from two disheveled passengers who’d likely been displaced from the hurricane, Raeleen hurried to the passenger’s side. Travis slipped behind the wheel as Raeleen took a seat beside him. They both closed their doors and Travis drove off. Under the lights of the hotel entrance, the taxi driver raised a fistful of cash, shouting something.
Seconds later, Travis spotted the taillights of the car ahead. It drove without a hurry along the highway. The driver hadn’t seen them. He probably thought Travis wouldn’t follow. After his delay because of Raeleen, he could see why. If he had chased him out of the hotel, he’d have more reason to hurry. But arguing with Raeleen had actually worked in their favor.
Disguised in the cab, they followed for a couple of miles before the car turned off the road toward an inn. Travis drove in after him. Seeing the other man park, he pulled to a stop just past the front entrance.
“Don’t get out yet,” he told Raeleen.
“Actually, I was thinking about introducing myself.”
Her smart remark made him chuckle despite the fact that she’d done it because she thought he was being overprotective again.
She watched in the side mirror and he watched in the rearview mirror as the man walked from his car to the entrance, glancing from one side to the other. He didn’t notice them in the cab. A cab in front of an inn wasn’t unusual.
“Let’s go.”
She stepped out of the car with him.
Ever aware of her as he headed for the front of the inn, Travis steeled himself to the task at hand. If anything went wrong, he’d get Raeleen out of there and deal with the man who’d been spying on them later.
The inn was quiet. A house converted into a bed-and-breakfast, its entry featured a couch and two tables. Archways to the left and right led to a dining room and a parlor. Straight back was the kitchen through two swinging half doors. He heard someone working back there.
Pointing to the stairs and seeing Raeleen nod, he climbed them. At the top he stopped to check the hall. With Raeleen behind him, he paused at each door to listen. At the second door, he heard a television.
Seducing the Colonel's Daughter: Seducing the Colonel's DaughterThe Secret Soldier Page 8
