by Aliyah Burke
“Be careful. I don’t want to know what you are in to but if it is enough for you to start investigating again, it’s bound to include danger.”
Yeah, he had that thought too. “Never knew you cared, Leoni.”
“I don’t.” She was gone the next second leaving him with nothing more than a dial tone in his ear.
He went to a workbench, swiping a map along the way and opened it up. Locating Black Sand Beach, he looked around it and swore, a round of words his mother would have beat him for saying.
This wasn’t going to be easy.
Scrubbing a hand down his face, he left her sleeping there and went outside to clean off the sand from the returned equipment. The area was emptying slowly. A few lingering couples, one food truck that was in the process of wrapping up, and a man at one of the picnic tables who ate.
OT didn’t like him. As he ran the hose, he took the man’s stats best he could without being obvious.
“Hey man.”
Glancing over his shoulder he smiled as his friend, Tully strode up. “’Sup Tully?”
“Hadn’t seen you in a while, thought I’d swing by?”
“After midnight? Shouldn’t you be home with the wife and kids?”
The man’s face shuttered.
OT cleared his throat. “Business is keeping me busy as you can see.” He turned off the water and rolled up the hose, turning the handle on the hose holder easily as he ensured the lay was even.
“I see that. You’re working way late. Time to grab a bite?”
OT nodded. “Don’t know how long that food truck will be there but sure.”
“I’ll go order.”
“I’ll meet you there, let me just put this away.”
Tully strode off and OT made sure he had all the keys out of the jet skis then stepped back into his shop. Natasha still slept and he swiped his wallet before digging for a blanket and covered her. It didn’t matter he wasn’t going that far, he loathed to leave her. After penning a quick note for her and placing it on her purse, he headed to meet Tully.
He’d met Tully the very first time he’d come to this island. He knew the whole family, the wife and their twin girls. Loved them all. Grabbing his shrimp tempura, he lowered himself to the table across from Tully. “How’s everyone?”
A mixed emotion flickered before it was replaced by joy. “Marlene’s expecting and the girls are fine. I’ve been working extra. Some days there’s a bit too many female hormones at my place.”
OT ate and laughed. “You wouldn’t have it any other way.”
“Very true. Now, what about you? Marlene says you need a wife and children.”
OT thought about Natasha ever so briefly. “No, I’m good. Quite happy being single.”
Tully laughed. “I’m sure you are. A different woman each night.”
OT watched the man he’d been suspicious sitting at a picnic table still as he wiped his mouth and dropped his napkin in the trash. He didn’t leave, merely picked up his drink and stretched out his legs.
OT and Tully chatted for a while and set up a time for him to come and see the girls. After their farewell, he strode across the plush grass to reenter his shop. In one hand, he carried a plate of food for Natasha. With one final look to the man in the shadows who played at not watching, he locked the door behind him.
She slept and he set the food on the table. Standing over her, he reached out to touch her shoulder but ended up lifting a fat curl and allowing it to slip through is fingers. Softer than he’d expected. He shut his eyes briefly and opened them to find her brown gaze on him.
“Are you here to kill me?” Natasha asked.
Chapter Four
“What did you say?”
Natasha blinked as his features came into focus along with the memories of everything. She scrambled to a sitting position, realizing he never backed up, merely remained close, within touching distance.
It all slammed her at once and she figured out her internal thought had escaped. “I was dreaming.” She rubbed her eyes and cracked her neck. “How long was I out?”
“Two hours or so. Care to tell me more about the break in at your room?” He stared at her, unblinking.
No, she didn’t want to discuss that.
He must have read the refusal in her eyes. “Did you call the cops?”
“Why would I do that?” She folded up the blanket that had been over her legs and draped it over the arm of the sofa. The long shirt, she kept around her shoulders.
He crouched and forced eye connection with her, his expression serious. “Your room was broken into.”
“And the only ones who knew I was here were the cops. I don’t believe in coincidences but for them to go to the seventh floor of the hotel and my specific room…no, I’m not telling. Of course, you knew too. Maybe I just missed them.”
He cocked his eyebrow. “You think I set you up?”
“I don’t know what to think anymore. I’m exhausted, hungry and truth be told, scared out of my ever-loving mind.”
He stood and drew her up flush to his chest. “We need to get two things straight right now.”
OT towered over her and she angled her head back to maintain eye contact. “What’s that?”
Those piercing blue eyes on her were unwavering. “I did not set you up.”
She blinked and waited. The air charged with electricity between them. “And the second?”
“I’ll help you solve this. But you’re obviously not safe in a hotel, so you’ll stay with me.”
“Convenient.”
“I have a spare room.” His expression flickered with amusement before it was contained.
“Okay.” It slipped out before she thought it through. He made her feel safe and quite honestly, she had no wish to be alone. This entire thing had her freaked out.
He didn’t release her until she made the first move. When he allowed his hands to fall away, she wasn’t sure if she felt relieved or not.
Relieved, I’m relieved.
Maybe she could convince herself.
He directed her to the food and was silent as she ate, grateful to have food in her belly again.
Once she wiped her mouth and thanked him for the food, he beckoned her. “Let’s go then.”
“Where?”
“Hotel. Get you checked out then my place.”
The thought of a warm shower nearly had her purring. “Okay.” She went to the door before recognizing his shirt remained wedged within her fist. “What do you drive?”
He stretched his arm by her and pointed to the black motorcycle.
“Magnum had a Ferrari.”
“He also wore floral shirts, tiny shorts, and paddle boarded.” He stepped up behind her. “Put the shirt on, it’ll keep you warmer.”
She listened and followed to the waiting bike.
He swung his leg over and started the engine.
Her nerves ratcheted up. This wasn’t her thing. At all. Her days were spent in the back of a chauffeured town car or a nice office, not hanging onto some stranger to stay at his place while he took her there on some two-wheeled death trap.
OT took her hand and encouraged her to straddle the vibrating bike. “Wrap your arms around me and hold on tight.”
“Like gum on the bottom of your shoe.” She did as he’d ordered pressing her cheek to his strong back and squeezing her eyes shut, not wanting to see her death coming. Flexing her fingers, she prayed as he got them moving.
“What hotel?”
OT had to ask her twice before it registered in her head. She gave him the name, howling winds making her have to yell in order to be heard. Still, she refused to open her eyes.
After the brief stop at the hotel where there were staff apologies and more cops, she had her arms around OT once more, not a bad deal, as he raced them down some road at what was to her… breakneck speed.
He stopped and she cracked open her eyes. A large manicured lawn led to the house and down to the beach. Her legs trembled as
she climbed off the now quiet ride.
OT climbed off as well and stood beside her. “Wasn’t so bad, was it?”
“Zeus! Apollo!” Silence met her cry and she shrugged. I had to.
“You do know that was Oahu, right?”
“Always wanted to do that and yes, I know that. I love him and the show. Until now, it was the closest I had gotten to Hawaii.”
“What about Hawaii Five-O?”
“No thanks. Keep it. I want Magnum.”
He guided her inside and got her settled in his guest room.
She stared at her reflection, noting the dark circles and drawn expression. “What am I doing here? I have no business here at all. I should be ensconced behind my desk working with the millions I do on a daily business. Safe in my city. Not half an ocean away and a full country.”
She pulled off her shirt and dropped it on the small counter.
“But I also owe Ashlee. If she truly was murdered, she deserves to have that asshole brought to justice.”
It had been years since she’d gone into the ocean and she sure as hell didn’t have the skills—not even close—to what Ashlee had.
“I can do this. I can use his skills. Hire him to be my own personal guide.”
She needed clothing and to speak to her boss about the decision to lengthen her stay. After cleaning up a bit and with a full stomach, she wanted to lay down for a while, to try and catch up on the jet lag.
Later, dressed, she headed out to where he was on the phone.
A call he ended right away as she neared. “Need something?”
“How much?”
He sketched an eyebrow. “I’m not charging you to stay here.”
“No, to hire you.”
He sucked on his teeth before he tossed his phone to the leather couch. “You want to rent me?” He dragged his cobalt gaze along her from ever so slowly. “Is this a daily rental or…” His voice dropped to a graveled baritone. “…are you thinking more by the hour?”
Oh hell yes, she was thinking that now.
αβ
“Did you find anything else out?” The man rocked back in his leather chair as he kept his focus on the other two in his office with him.
Neither wanted to meet his gaze.
That itself annoyed him further.
“No.”
“Why not?” His muscles flexed in his left arm as he squeezed his smiley face stress ball.
“Boss,” from his mouth then flew a whole bunch of the island’s mash-up language the native’s used.
“Stop,” he roared. “Speak English. Actual flipping English. Not your Pidgeon crap, I have told you numerous times, I don’t understand that. Nor do I care to.”
The men fell silent, sharing a dark glance between them.
He didn’t give a damn. As the man who paid them, they could abide by his wishes and speak that crap amongst their bastard friends. He didn’t care what they sounded or acted like away from him.
“Sorry.” The one speaking was smaller than his companion. “Like I was saying, we weren’t able to find out any more. She’s not staying at the hotel any longer.
“A different one?”
“No, she left to stay with that guy who rents the gear. OT.”
“I thought she didn’t know him.” The beginnings of a headache thumped behind his eyes.
“Not as far as we know but one of the staff mentioned her room had been broken into.”
He frowned and stroked his goatee. Other players must have found out about this. “Keep her alive.”
Both men’s gazes widened.
“For now. Until I find out what Ashlee knew and passed on to her. I need her alive. Until I say otherwise, you keep her breathing. I’ll introduce myself later and see what I can learn.” Lifting his glass of ice water, he sipped and waved with his other hand at the two locals.
The one who spoke popped the back of his hand on the big one’s thigh and together, they rose without a word and left his opulent office.
With the click of a key, the screen on his desk flickered to life. The men could be seen on the screen as they navigated their way through the club and outside. Only once they had left his property did he press a different button and bring up everything he’d found out about Natasha Zion.
He hated being unprepared and had he not been, Natasha and her knowledge could be in his clutches. The urge rode him, called to him for a small taste.
The drug habit he’d kicked never fully went away. No matter what people said, he always craved. Always. Sliding open a dark brown drawer on silent hinges, he looked in. At the very bottom, he snagged the picture in there. One of him during the height of his drug use. He stared at his image then.
This right here. This image is what helped him fight the craving. All he had amassed now would be gone. He liked his life. The money, the comfort. The perks.
Sure, he’d traded one obsession with another but this one added to his status and place in society, as opposed pushing him down further into the dregs of society. He liked it on top and had no intention of giving up his hard-earned spot. Getting his hands on that treasure would definitely be another feather in his cap, so to speak.
Now, he had to find out who else had heard about Ashlee’s coming here and who was after her friend.
His blood in his veins hummed giving him that high he used to get from drugs. Not exact, but powerful in its own right. Treasure hunting was dangerous. He reaped the rewards from it without getting his hands dirty. Or in this case, his feet wet.
αβ
OT paced the floor as his guest slept. He’d spent the past few hours comparing ocean current charts, where the body had been found and the few beaches with the closest composition to the sample from the grain Leoni had been given.
Natasha slept and he would let her sleep. She had to be exhausted.
He altered his course and made a cup of coffee. As he drank, he stared over the papers before him.
“What did I miss? You look like you’ve been busy,” she asked.
“Been figuring some things out.” He shrugged. “I hop.”
She walked up beside him and plucked his coffee from his hand before taking a big drink. Fingers curved around the mug, she grunted and progressed further into the room, pausing at the wall lined with charts.
OT glanced own at his now empty hand. Ballsy. An admired trait. He swung his gaze to the woman across the room. Her pencil skirt hugged her God-given curves and the sleeveless whit top not helping his focus. “Help yourself,” he muttered before getting himself another cup.
“What’s all this?” She gestured with her chin as he stopped beside her.
“Let me tell you what I’ve got so far. And yes. You’ve hired me. I’ll help you figure this out.”
He had his own reasons for agreeing.
Chapter Five
“Fill me in.”
OT had he strangest urge to snap out a salute. “The ones you’re standing in front of are the ocean’s currents the day she rented from me up until the day you said her body was found.
Natasha tensed slightly but nodded.
“The one on the table has the beaches closest in similarity to the grain of black sand you found.”
“And the one you gave it to, knows their stuff?”
“Leoni is the smartest person I know. She couldn’t be more specific because it didn’t match any of the samples in her database system she’s created over the years. Close to, but nothing exact.”
She faced him and he noticed the scar that bisected her chest before vanishing below the neckline of her white silk shirt. More questions filled him, he wanted to know how she came by that jagged looking scar. And so many other things.
“So what’s the play?”
He moved closer to her allowing their arms to brush against one another. “We go out in the boat and a few of these spots to see what we come up with. I’ll bring diving equipment along as well.”
She rubbed her chest, the pale pink of her nai
ls snagging his attention for a moment. “I can’t dive. Not anything deep. Not anymore.” As if she realized her action, she removed her hand and added to the one around the mug.
A secret part of him enjoyed having her here with him. An emotion he didn’t understand but wasn’t fighting. “No problem, you wait in the boat. I’m thinking we may get a better bead on everything if we check it out as opposed to pure speculation.”
“Clothes first,” she said before drinking the rest of the coffee. “I’m not wearing this to go out in a boat.”
“Let’s go then.” He remembered she hadn’t wanted her clothing after strangers had been rifling through them, so she left them.
She spun and faced him. “We also need to discuss payment. I’ll be right back.”
He raked her with his gaze as she went to the sink and rinsed the mug before heading off down the hall. Right then, he noticed she hadn’t been wearing shoes.
She was a paradox and intriguing, all wrapped up into one sexy package.
Three hours later, they were skimming along the road on his motorcycle. Her arms were around him as she pressed close, using his back to protect her from the wind.
He was headed to one of the beaches mentioned. This area wasn’t the easiest to get to and should be trekked as part of a tour group but he didn’t have the time to wait for one. He slowed the Harley and pulled off the road to park. She unfurled from behind him and climbed off. The fact his missed her touch gave him pause. Then he shoved that away. There were other things to do right now.
He joined her at the trail head once he’d turned off the bike and swung his leg over.
She wasn’t wearing short, tight, shorts like most did around—more’s the pity—instead she had on dark blue jeans and a three-quarter sleeve medium heathered gray top she’d tucked into the waistband. The dark grey hiking boots completed her outfit.
“Want to wait up here?” He didn’t want to leave her but wasn’t going to push her to go the steep and hard trail to the beach.”
“Of course I do,” she said. “I hate being outside but I won’t stay up here. Let’s go.”
