“Don’t pout, the attitude doesn’t suit you,” he said with a conciliatory grin. Then, stepping back, he gave her ample room to move around him. He’d supply the interview she wanted and return her home untouched. And first thing tomorrow, he’d have his head examined.
****
Stormee awarded herself a badge-of-courage, if only in her mind, and finished writing the last note of her interview. Dinner and the ensuing conversation, though awkward, filled her notebook with information, experiences, and resources. Now, if she could manage to thank him in a gracious way and make her exit, she’d file this experience under SITUATIONS TO AVOID.
“I appreciate you answering my questions. Additional interview sessions won’t be necessary as I have all the information I need. Not to trouble you further, I’ll call a taxi to take me home.” Stormee nodded in a queenly gesture of dismissal and tucked her arms into her sweater.
“Do you think I’m that easily sent on my way?” He placed his wine glass beside his plate and shoved his chair a few inches away from the table.
Stormee wasn’t sure how, but she’d struck a nerve. He was more than a little annoyed.
“I’m not in the habit of inviting a woman to dinner and then leaving her to find her own way home. So, don’t even think of calling a taxi.” He leaned forward, his eyes cold. “Now, do something with your purse.”
Startled, Stormee looked at the small clutch inching a path to the table’s edge. “I set my phone on vibrate. I don’t know why I didn’t hear it.” After snapping the purse open, she removed her phone. The caller ID was not one she recognized. “I’ll step into the lobby to take this.” She managed to reach the entrance before the person on the other end terminated the call. “Hello?”
“Stormee Waters, please.”
“Yes, what can I do for you?”
“Miss Waters, this is Nurse Abbot at The Serenity Assisted Living Complex.”
Stormee’s stomach clenched as she asked the first question to jump onto her tongue. “Is my grandmother okay?”
“Mrs. Langley was transported to the hospital twenty minutes ago. We’re not sure what happened, but she’s sustained a head injury. I’ve texted you the name and address of the hospital. Can you make arrangements to come as soon as possible?”
“Of course. Are there any further details you can relate?” She pressed her fist against her chest.
“Well.” The woman’s voice lowered. “There were some odd circumstances prior to your grandmother’s accident. We can discuss those after you’ve seen Mrs. Langley. Let me know your arrival time, and I’ll meet you at the hospital.”
“What kind of situation?” Stormee squeezed the phone between her fingers.
“I’d rather not discuss this over the phone. However, we think your grandmother may be in further danger. You need to come as soon as possible.”
Danger? The cell phone slipped from Stormee’s hand and bounced once on the carpeted floor.
Dirk appeared at her side, retrieved the phone, and then pushed her toward a nearby chair, shoving her into it none too gently. Without hesitation, he intercepted her personal call. “This is Dirk Savage, a friend of Miss Waters. She’s visibly shaken. Tell me what I should know so I can assist her.”
Stormee reached toward him in an imperious gesture, which he ignored. Her attempt to stand met with a heavy hand on her shoulder, one tolerating no rebellion against his insistence she stay seated.
“Yes. I understand. I’ll take care of everything. Miss Waters will arrive tomorrow. My assistant, James Bowden, will be at the hospital within six hours and will act on behalf of Mrs. Langley’s personal security. He has the ability to reach me at any time.”
Her palm itched to slap his arrogant jaw. But hitting the most unpredictable man she’d ever met, even in a public restaurant, couldn’t be a smart move. She snatched her phone from his hand. “You’re past being impossible! Who do you think you are—my father?” She shook with indignation.
The bit about their age difference came out of nowhere. The tightening of his concrete jaw confirmed she’d hit the retaliation jackpot. She didn’t bother to hide the smugness in her expression or the satisfaction she received when his complexion darkened with indignation.
“If I were your father, Miss Waters, Id march you out to the car and tan your pretty little backside for not knowing what’s good for you.”
“Take me home,” she hissed through tight lips. Executing a dismissive turn, she stalked toward the exit.
Dirk stepped in stride beside her and placed his hand in the middle of her back. “Exactly what I’d suggest since you have preparations to finish. A car will pick you up at 5:00 a.m. and get you to the airport in time to make a 6:00 a.m. flight.”
She stopped walking and turned to face him. “I can’t make a reservation that fast. I’m sure the earliest will be tomorrow afternoon, or evening.”
“I have a private plane. I can get you to Chicago quicker than a commercial flight.” He gripped her upper arm and urged her toward the exit.
Stormee balked and rolled her eyes. “I don’t care if you have a space shuttle. You’re not taking me to Chicago.”
Dirk tilted his head and raised one eyebrow.
For a half-second, he reminded her of her high school chemistry teacher, Mr. Clark, whose censorious expressions were as lethal as the volatile chemicals she often mixed by mistake.
“I assumed your first concern would be for your grandmother. On the other hand, if you wish to linger and perhaps arrive too late…”
“What?” Her eyes misted as anger fled in the face of a new emotion. Does he mean Nana could die?
“Look, Stormee. My only objective is to help you get to your grandmother. If doing so makes you more comfortable, I’ll promise not to touch you in any way you might deem unsuitable. I think that takes care of the only viable objection you may have?” He released his grip on her arm and crossed his in front of his chest, taking a waiting stance.
Her mind reeled with protest while her heart waged a counter attack. She couldn’t label him as completely unfamiliar, strange maybe—but not a stranger. Didn’t she hold a notebook with at least five pages of facts concerning Houston’s elusive bachelor? If he kept his distance, how dangerous could he be? A second look at his one-sided smile suggested an answer that gave her the jitters.
She shoved her phone back into the clutch and gave Dirk an eye-to-eye power glare of the type she used on Josh. “I expect you to keep your word, Mr. Savage. I am not as helpless as you may think. One wrong move and you’ll not be fond of the consequences. Do you get what I’m saying?”
Before answering, he took a long moment to study her.
The head-to-toe glance that accompanied his silence made her mind a crazy mixture of excitement and foreboding.
Nodding, he leaned in her direction. “Stormee, where you’re concerned, my boundaries are clearly charted.”
Baffled, she scrunched her forehead. Did he mean to make her loony with his ambiguous replies?
Chapter Four
Stormee sipped her frosted cola laced with a hint of rum and let the tropical breeze dancing across the ship’s deck cool her sun-kissed skin. The gorgeous hunk applying suntan lotion stopped running his strong fingers over her thigh when the most horrendous noise banished him from her side.
She shoved the pillow off her head and slapped at the clock on the bedside table twice before connecting with the alarm button. The man not only invaded her personal space, he infested her dreams, as well. She took her frustration out on the helpless pillow, giving it three strong punches before jumping out of bed.
Thankfully, she’d packed everything the previous night. The mushy stuff passing for brain cells at such an early hour weren’t capable of coherent thought. She grabbed the clothes laid over the chair and headed for the shower.
Though the hot shower proved reviving, the steamy water didn’t take the edge off her surly temper. A fact proven by the reality of her present stance. With
her body weight stealthily balanced, she positioned herself at the foot of Josh’s bed. Lifting her right arm, she aimed a fully loaded pistol at his head. Without a single ounce of remorse, she let her index finger squeeze the trigger three times in quick succession. The shots hit him once in the ear, and twice in the temple.
All six feet of him hit the floor as he rolled one time too many to escape the deadly aim of her water pistol.
“Stormee! I swear, when I find where you hide that damn thing, I’m going to puree it in your blender.” He shook his fist at her but it held little threat as he still lay sprawled across the bedside rug.
“Don’t you dare use bad language,” she snapped back with equal irritation.
Josh scrambled to his feet and towered over her, not hard to do since he topped her by eight inches. He bent forward until his nose fit right between her eyes. “You’re the most evil sister a guy ever had.”
“Don’t blame me. Get up when I call, and I won’t need to keep repeating this target practice. You’ve got forty-five minutes before Mr. Savage’s driver arrives.”
“What’s this guy doing messing in our business? I’m telling you, he has the look of a Wise Guy.” Josh mimicked a gun with his hand and pulled back on his thumb as though cocking a revolver.
Stormee shrugged. “I’m sure he wouldn’t be the powerful man he is without a high degree of intelligence.”
Josh threw up his hands. “I don’t mean brain smart. Haven’t you noticed he has a razor-sharp edge just like those characters in that movie we watched about the crime syndicate?”
“Don’t exaggerate.”
Josh grabbed her by both arms, lifted her out of his way, and strode off in the direction of the bathroom. “You never listen to me anyway. But I’m telling you, he’s trouble.”
****
Dirk perched on the arm of one of the jet’s oversized chairs and sipped his third cup of coffee. After taking Stormee home, he’d spent what was left of the night running a complete background check on her. His lips curled upward in a discerning smile. He could better understand her fiery nature having traced her lineage back to the wind-swept shores of Ireland.
Other things in her past were not as explainable. Mystery and tragedy appeared to stalk her family. He wondered if Stormee knew her grandmother’s brother had died in a questionable drowning that nearly claimed her Nana’s life, as well. She’d been Stormee’s age at the time.
The fact that her grandmother had moved repeatedly and changed her name three times in the next five years didn’t make sense either. At twenty-nine years of age, using the alias Doris Gates, she’d settled in Boston with a four-year-old son, Stormee’s father. There were no marriage documents on file and no birth certificate registered for the child until he was six years old, and that was more of a pseudo-document required by the school registrar’s office.
The next bit of unsettling information raised the hair on his arms. Twelve years ago, after the death of her son and daughter-in-law in a house fire, Mrs. Gates changed her name to Langley and moved to Chicago, taking her two grandchildren with her, eleven-year-old Stormee and four-year-old Josh. It didn’t take twenty years of investigative experience to know the danger marking Mrs. Langley’s past still stalked the present, putting Stormee and Josh at risk.
The image of Stormee’s innocent eyes struck a fierce chord, one that insisted this woman was his to protect. Sweat formed beads of moisture on his forehead and the adrenaline filling his veins solidified the thought like cooling magma.
Cricket, one of his staff and the pilot for this trip, hollered through the open door of the cockpit. “Your guests just arrived, Boss. You want me to escort them?”
Dirk placed his cup on the side bar and walked toward the passenger door. “No, I’ll meet them.”
His two passengers walked toward the plane. Josh’s demeanor screamed defiance. The know-it-all swagger and the tough-guy tilt to the teenager’s chin were easily recognizable since they were forms of body language he’d practiced in his own youth.
The moment Stormee spotted him at the top of the loading ramp, she halted her forward momentum. Josh, a step behind, whispered something in her ear. The deer-in-the-headlights expression on Stormee’s face gave Dirk reasons to believe Josh needed a man-to-man talk, and soon.
****
Her brother’s ongoing innuendos sabotaged Stormee’s confidence in her decision to accept Dirk Savage’s help. The two men he’d sent to accompany her were not ordinary company employees. Their bodyguard demeanor could land them a part in a class B gangster movie.
She hated to agree with Josh, but the man standing at the top of the loading ramp did resemble a crime boss more than a charitable acquaintance. He was certainly full of himself and made no effort to conceal a fundamental premise that men controlled and women submitted. Dare she put both herself and Josh completely under his control?
“Miss Waters,” the man by her side gestured upward with his open hand. “Mr. Savage is awaiting your arrival. Please proceed so we can meet our flight schedule.”
His request, spoken in an unthreatening tone, sounded reasonable. She needed to stop reacting to her brother’s melodramatic warnings and assume the take-charge persona of the woman she aspired to be.
“Come on, Josh.” She tugged on her brother’s sleeve. “We need to get to Chicago as soon as possible. Nana needs us.” Stormee ascended the stairs with what she hoped passed for fearless determination.
“Good morning, Stormee, Josh, welcome aboard Falcon One.” Dirk stepped away from the door and gestured toward the seating area. “Make yourself comfortable. We’ll be taking off at once so please fasten your safety belts.”
Stormee did as he asked, and without further resistance, Josh circled a small table and chose a seat facing hers. The arrangements struck her as spacious until Dirk took the seat on her right side. She shifted and leaned away from the man who had just managed to affect time and space, stopping one and shrinking the other.
“As soon as we gain our cruising altitude, refreshments will be available,” he said, stretching his legs forward and crossing his ankles.
Josh pointed his finger at their host and squinted his eyes. “My sister and I don’t need anything else. After we reach Chicago, you go your way, and we’ll go ours.”
His rude reply startled Stormee. She shook her opened hands at him and barely uttered his name through her gritted teeth. “Josh!”
“What?” he said, grabbing both armrests. “It’s the truth so why not say it?”
“Please show some manners.”
“Why? This is about hooking up, and if you weren’t so dense, you’d know what’s on his mind. Most guys get girls with the price of a movie ticket. Rich ones do the same thing with a jet ride.”
Josh bent toward Dirk, puffing out his chest. “How about it, Savage? I bet this kind of thing works every time with clueless girls like my sister. You got the guts to be honest?”
The confrontational fire in Josh’s eyes scared Stormee. She couldn’t breathe as Dirk copied Josh’s movements and leaned toward her brother. He glared at his youthful antagonist in merciless silence.
Josh returned the piercing glare for longer than Stormee believed possible before lowering his gaze and slouching back in his seat.
“In the future”—Dirk paused and leaned back in his chair—“if you have something to say to me, don’t insult the woman I’m with to get it said. In addition, you’d do well to remember I never allow any man a second chance to disrespect me.”
Stormee’s heart sank. Her brother was speechless, as if Dirk had pushed his mute button. A familiar, protective instinct seized her. “I’m sure he didn’t mean to be impertinent. This is somewhat disconcerting for him and…”
Dirk glared in her direction and without apology, raised his palm to command her silence. “Stay out of this, Stormee. No man wants his sister making excuses for him. What’s more, Josh is more intuitive than you think.”
“What are you say
ing?” Staggered, she shook her head in confusion.
Dirk stared at his teenage adversary and answered her question in an emphatic tone. “Josh requires an honest assessment of my intentions toward you. He wants to know if I’m man enough to give you fair warning. Isn’t that correct, Josh?”
“Right.” Josh sneered.
The two stared at each other like dueling pistols, cocked and ready. Bewildered, Stormee crossed her arms and turned her face to the side. Outside her window, billowy clouds lay in an infinite blanket, the very epitome of tranquility as they hid the world beneath. She wished she could do the same and hide the embarrassment heating her cheeks.
“What intention? I’m not anyone’s objective. I want you both to stop. This is ridiculous. Josh, take back what you said, and let’s end this here and now.”
Dirk grasped her chin in a gentle but decisive grip, turning her face to him. “Your brother is right, it’s time for you to be quiet and listen.” A peacemaker’s smile softened the grit in his voice. He released his hold and turned back toward his antagonist. “Where women are concerned, they’ve been a pleasant diversion, and as you’ve pointed out, money makes them easy to acquire. And although she’ll resist the inevitable, your sister and I will enjoy a close relationship in the future.”
Stormee couldn’t believe her ears. The deeper significance in his words hadn’t escaped her radar. “This is absurd. What kind of jerk are you?” Venomous words spewed from her throat in an attempt to stop him saying something more outrageous.
Dirk’s dark eyes burned as he again focused on her. “I’m the jerk that’s telling you to keep quiet. This conversation is between Josh and me. You’ll get your chance later.”
The stern clench of his jaw hinted at a temper she had no way of measuring.
“I’m not going to just stand around and let you use my sister!” Josh’s voice sizzled with teenage boldness.
Dirk leaned back in his seat, crossed his legs, and conferred a tight-lipped smile on her reckless brother. “I don’t intend to exploit Stormee. I have the utmost respect for her. Why don’t you wait until you have something to condemn before passing judgment,” he drawled with cool disregard.
Stormee Waters Page 3
