Dark And Dangerous (22 page)

He watched her eyes open
again. Watched her as he slowly drove them both up, higher and higher, teasing
them until they thought they couldn't take any more.

And finally catapulted
them over the edge, sending them flying on a wave of sensation so intense it
shook them both to their core.

.....

 
When the world finally settled around Kayley
again, she found herself still held tightly in Nathan's arms, with her back
against the shower wall. Feeling warm and pliant, she lifted her head from his
chest and met his eyes.

 
"Why did you go out?" he murmured.

 
"I just needed some air. It wasn't going
well with painting and I thought it would help to clear my mind."

 
"Thinking about your brother?" He
leaned forward and kissed the side of her mouth tenderly, careful not to touch
her swollen lip.

 
"And Miss Kans." She lowered her
gaze to his chest. "And you."

 
"Really?" His grin spread, quick
and cocky. "I thought you said you wouldn't notice when I was gone."

 
"Yes, well
…
" She traced a finger over the drops of
water on his chest.

 
"You know," Sliding a finger under
her chin he tipped her face up to his, "I couldn't stop thinking about you
either."

 
"Really?" She bit her lip as her
heart leapt with joy.

 
"It was very annoying." Gently he
traced a thumb over her cheekbone. "And very distracting. I could barely
concentrate on my meeting."

He leaned forward and
kissed her so sweetly it made her heart sigh.

 
"I had just given up and cut my meeting
short, when David saw you on the security camera. I've never been so scared in
my life."

 
"I thought it was over for me until I
saw you coming to my rescue." Kayley lifted a hand to run it through his
wet hair.

 
"What happened, Kayley?"

 
"I walked out to the cliffs and watched
the ocean, trying to clear my mind. Some people disturbed me and I decided to
walk further away to be alone with my thoughts. And when I stopped to admire
the view I saw two men coming towards me. I tried to change my direction and
walk back to the resort, but they cut me off. Blocked my path back."

 
"They came from the resort?" Nathan
asked alarmed.

 
"Yes. They must have been waiting for
me. Biding their time until they got their chance."

Wanting to comfort, Nathan
ran his hands over her arms and found her skin chilled. "We need to get
you into some warm clothes." He shut off the water and stepped out of the
shower with her.

 
"But all of my clothes are wet."

 
"We'll find you something." He
grabbed a large
bathrobe, that
was clearly intended
for him, and wrapped her in it. It was so large she thought she could probably
drown in it.

Wrapping a towel around
his waist, he took her shoulders with his hands. "I don't want you to go
anywhere alone, do you understand? Nowhere."

 
"But I can't live like that,"
Kayley protested.

 
"You're going to have to for the time
being. I'm not going to let you get hurt."

 
"Don't worry. I don't make the same
mistakes twice. And I'm not planning to get hurt either."

 
"No and you won't. I won't let you."

 
"I'm not a child to be ordered around or
protected." Frustrated she pulled away from him and gestured. "And
I'm not going to take it."

Nathan caught her hand to
still her and made her cringe with pain.

 
"What's wrong?" He lifted her hand
to examine it and saw raw scrapes covering it.

 
"Shit," he swore and let it go only
to grab it again, more carefully, after he had pulled a first-aid kit out of
one of the cabinets. "How did this happen?" he asked, not sure if he
wanted to know but unable to do otherwise. It couldn't be any worse than his
imagination.

 
"I must have scraped my hands on the
cliff when I crawled down," she said, thinking back.

 
"You crawled down the cliff?" His
stomach knotted at the thought of her running for her life.

 
"I had to. They blocked my way back to
the resort, so I jumped over the side of the cliff. I hoped they would follow
me down. Then all I had to do was get back up faster than them, and I could get
back. And if they didn't follow me, I thought I could hide down there until
someone came along."

 
So that was how she had gotten soaking wet.
"And what if one had followed you down and the other had stayed
behind?"

 
"I
…
" She hadn't thought of that, and was
grateful that they hadn't either. "It's a good thing they weren't as smart
as you. But at least if they had separated I would have had a better chance
against them."

 
Nathan pulled out antiseptic, and fought back
his own feelings. He couldn't allow them to surface right now. "This might
hurt."
   

Kayley held her breath
while he dabbed on antiseptic. It only stung for a moment until he blew on it,
and repeated the process on her other hand.

 
"The police is probably waiting to get
our statements." He released her hands and framed her face again. "Do
you think you're up for it?"

She nodded. "We might
as well get it over with."

 
"I'll see if I can find you some dry
clothes." Leaning forward he kissed her brow, and left the bathroom.

 
Alone, Kayley allowed herself a moment of
weakness and covered her face with her hands. She didn't know what had happened
with her life or how it had happened. Ever since she could remember she had
worked on getting away from poverty, crime and violence.

 
She had thought she had succeeded, but now it
seemed that despite her best efforts she was back again. Her life might look
very different now, but somehow she was back to everything she hated most.

 
Kayley straightened when she heard Nathan in
the bedroom. Moments later the door to the bathroom opened, and he walked back
in with clothes draped over his arm.

 
"Okay. I took plenty with me, so you
have something to choose from." He dropped everything on the bathroom
counter.

 
"Hmm," was all she said and looked
through the
clothes.
They were great, she thought to
herself, and felt a sting of jealousy, as she wondered where it came from and
who it had belonged to. "Where did you find it?" she asked, unable to
stop herself, and hoped she at least managed to sound casual.

 
"
Its
Yasmin's."

 
"Oh." Feeling foolish she berated
herself silently for her jealousy. That really wasn't like her.

 
"Why do you ask?" Nathan grinned at
her. "Did you think I had a closet full of women's clothing, just in
case.
"

 
"Certainly not," she lied and
pulled on a blouse and jeans from the pile.

He laughed at her aloof
tone and dressed quickly.

 
"The police is waiting in the living
room. Damian is keeping them busy."

 
"What about the two men?"

 
"They have been taken into custody. And
Klein and Brown is on their way to interrogate them."

 
 
"You called them?" Kayley asked
surprised.

 
"Yes. If we're lucky they might be able
to get something out of them and maybe put an end to this." He tucked her
hair behind her ear. "Ready?"

 
"Yes."

Chapter 24

 
Kayley
told the police everything that had happened, while they took notes and Nathan
and Damian listened intently. By the time she was finished, and they had
finally run out of questions to ask her, she could feel a headache coming on.

 
Damian closed the door behind the police and
turned back to face the sofa where Nathan and Kayley were sitting.
 

 
"So, are you ready to tell me what this
is all about?" His eyes burned with suppressed anger. He was finished with
being left out.

 
"I appreciate your help, Damian. But
this is personal," Nathan answered and covered Kayley's hands with his,
stopping their restless, nervous movements.

 
"It isn't personal when Kayley is chased
by two men, who as far as I could see wanted to kill her, through our resort?
Endangering everyone and shooting after you. If their aim hadn't been so lousy
you might have been dead," he pointed out. "And so would Kayley."

 
"I know. I was there," Nathan
reminded him coolly.

 
"I'm your brother, Nathan. You can't
just expect me to stand back and do nothing when you're clearly in trouble. How
would you feel if I kept something like this from you?"

Not good, Nathan thought.
In fact he would never have taken no for an answer, no matter how much he would
have had to lean on Damian. But he knew Kayley didn't want other people to
know.

 
"
It's
okay,
Nathan," Kayley said before he could answer. "I don't want you to
fight because of me. And Damian deserves to know."

 
"We're not fighting. We're arguing about
our different points of views." Nathan squeezed her hand.

Damian walked over and
took a seat in the chair across from them. "Tell me."

 
"Kayley received a package the first
morning I picked her up at her house, and when we came back from our trip to
San Francisco, someone had broken into her cottage. They were waiting for
Kayley," Nathan started.

 
"How many were there?" Damian cut
in.

 
"Two men. One got away, but I caught the
other and questioned him. He revealed that they were looking for something he
said belonged to them."

 
Kayley tucked her legs up under her and
listened to Nathan talk. It was strange to hear everything that had happened
repeated so short and unemotionally. Yet at the same time she saw it almost as
clearly as if it was happening right now. The only thing that kept her from
being sucked back into the memory and relive it, was Nathan's warm hand holding
hers.

 
"The package," Damian stated.

 
"Yes. It was from Kayley's brother,
Joseph. A memory stick containing images of men moving boxes from a container
to a van at night."

 
"Smugglers?" Damian asked, quickly
putting facts together to form an accurate conclusion.

 
"Yeah. Only we weren't sure at the time.
And Kayley hadn't heard from her brother in a long time and didn't know where
he lived. So we flew to San Francisco to see Kayley's old teacher." He
left out the part about her father deliberately. "She told us that Joe was
living in San Diego, working for a company called Smith Imports."

 
"And that's why you went to San
Diego," Damian concluded.

 
"I don't remember telling you we went to
San Diego," Nathan commented.

 
"I asked Troy."

 
The corner of Nathan's mouth quirked up in
amusement. "We went by Joe's apartment, but he wasn't there. Instead there
was a welcome committee, and with a little persuasion they revealed that they
too were working for Smith Imports. So we went by Smith Imports, where the man
Joe worked for,
Schnyder
, threatened to shoot us if
we didn't give him the package. We managed to escape, but at the airport we
were picked up by a group of men, again at gunpoint."

 
"Well, you certainly haven't been
bored," Damian commented dryly.

 
"They turned out to be feds. And we
discovered that Joe had been working undercover for them. They had caught him
with some stolen goods, and they struck a deal with him. In return for helping
them nail
Schnyder
, they would let him off the
hook." Nathan lifted Kayley's hand to his lips and glanced at her. He knew
he had to tell the rest, but he also knew that by doing so it would hurt her
all over again. In much the same way it had torn at him to hear her tell the
police everything that had happened.

 
Lowering her hand, he linked his fingers
deeply with hers and began, "This morning we were awakened by the phone
with the message that Joe had been killed. Then the next thing we discovered
that Kayley's teacher had been assaulted. She survived, but is in the
hospital."

 
"Did they find Joe through her?"

 
"It appears so. She thought they were
his friends, but when she couldn't tell them where he was hiding, they got
violent."

Kayley tried to ignore the
stab of pain she felt and focused on her fingers intertwined with Nathan's.

 
"So the men that chased you today were
working for this
Schnyder
," Damian stated.

 
"Best guess."

 
"If you had told me before, I could have
helped you," Damian said a bit accusingly. "But I understand why you
didn't. Although I don't agree with it." He considered for a moment.

"Are you under police
protection?"

 
"No. They didn't think we would be under
any threat now that Joe is dead."

Kayley's heart squeezed at
Nathan's words.

 
"Clearly they were wrong." Damian
stood up to walk to the windows and look out over the ocean. "So what happens
next?"

 
"I called the feds from the bedroom
before we were questioned. They should be on their way to question the two men
in custody and hopefully they can get enough out of them to put an end to
this."

 
"And what are you going to do until
then?"

 
 
"First, I'm taking Kayley back to my
house and then we'll take it from there." Nathan stood up and pulled her
after him. "She needs to get some rest. And then I'm not letting you out
of my sight." He rubbed his thumb over her cheek.

 
"Do you think it's a very good idea to
go back to your house?" Damian turned to face them.

 
"We should be safe there. I'm not
exactly listed in the phone book."

 
"If you know the right people and are
willing to pay, then getting that kind of information is child's play." Damian
tucked his hands into his pockets. "I think you should stay at the
resort."

 
Nathan considered it and looked down at
Kayley. "He might have a point. It could be safer for us here. There's
plenty of security and no one can get access to this floor unless they're
authorized."

 
"What if someone breaks into your
house?" Kayley asked concerned.

 
"The security alarm should do its job,
but either way we would be safe." He tucked a lock of hair behind her ear.

 
"I suppose it's a good thing. I can
finish my painting and you can work or whatever you want to do."

 
"Right. But first you're going to take a
nap."

 
"You're awfully commanding," she
said only mildly offended.

 
"Yes, he is," Damian agreed.
"He always has been. It's one of his vices."

 
"It comes with the territory,"
Nathan said unaffected.

 
"What territory is that? Being the
oldest or being a know it all pain?" Damian retorted.

 
"Don't hate me because I'm right,"
Nathan answered and made Damian snicker.

She enjoyed watching them.
Enjoyed seeing the easy affection they so clearly had for each other, expressed
through a friendly brotherly argument.

It reminded her of Joe and
what she had always hoped there could be between them.

What she had always wished
there would be.

 
"I'm going to get back to work,"
Damian announced grinning. "Because some of us still do." Before
Kayley realized what was about to happen, he enveloped her in a big warm hug.

 
"I'm sorry for your brother,
Kayley," he murmured and released her again. "If you need anything
I'll be in my office." He closed the door behind him.
 

 
"Okay, time for bed," Nathan said.

 
"Honestly, I don't think
—
" Her words were cut off as Nathan simply
lifted her over his shoulder and carried her into the bedroom.

 
"Really, Nathan," she said
exasperated. She considered trying to fight him, but decided it would be
futile. Plus she really didn't have the energy for it, and she was just going
to end up in bed with him anyway.

 
Nathan tucked the sheets back before laying
her on the bed.

She sat up and stifling a
yawn, pulled off her shoes and dropped them on the floor beside the bed.

 
Damn it he wasn't right, she thought without
real heat, while Nathan pulled off his shoes and climbed into bed beside her.
She was tired. Okay, actually she felt exhausted, but he didn't have to know.

He pulled her down beside
him, drawing her into his arms and tucked the blankets around them.

 
"I didn't think you were going to take a
nap as well." She snuggled against his warm chest as he pulled her close against
him. She lifted her face up to his and watched him. He looked tired, she
thought. There were brackets of exhaustion on both sides of his mouth and he
was sporting a
days worth
of stubble.

 
"I'm beat." He pulled her closer
still and sighed deeply. "You scared ten years off of me today."
Breathing in her scent, he relaxed and closed his eyes.

 
His warmth began to seep through her and her
eyes began to droop heavily. She was just going to sleep for twenty minutes,
she promised herself, and listened to the strong beat of his heart. Just for
twenty minutes and then she would get up and paint.

She was asleep in a
second.

.....

 
She awoke groggy as the nice warmth she had
felt suddenly disappeared. Stirring restlessly, she pried her eyes open.

 
"Go back to sleep, Kayley," Nathan
murmured and tucked the blanket closer around her.
 
"I'm just going into my office to work
for a while, but I want you to sleep a little longer."

 
He crouched down beside the bed and caressed
her cheek gently with the back of his fingers. Still half asleep, Kayley
snuggled against his hand and drifted off to sleep again.

It wasn't until much later
before she stirred and looked around the room disoriented. Light was filtering
softly through the windows and she was alone. Confused she pushed herself up
and looked around.

 
What was that noise?

She stared accusingly at
the clock on the bedside table but that wasn't where it came from. Nor did it
come from the telephone beside it.

 
Kayley struggled her way out of the sheets she
had tangled around her while she had slept, and followed the sound through the
room to her purse. It took her a couple of seconds before she dug out the
source of the ringing and realized it was her cell phone. She flipped it open
but didn't recognize the number.

 
"Hello." She waited for a reply
while it crackled on the other end of the line.

 
"Kayley?"

Her heart leaped at the
sound of the voice. It sounded raw and strained, but she was almost sure she
wasn't mistaken.

 
"Joe, is that you?" her voice
pitched with hope.

 
"Are you alone?" was his only
answer.

 
"I
…
Yes." She gripped the receiver like her
life depended on it. "They said you were dead."