Dark And Dangerous (23 page)

 
"I know. I'll explain everything when I
see you."

 
"You have to contact Klein. He can protect
you." Tears threatened to strangle her voice.

 
"No, I can't. And you have to promise me
you won't tell anyone either. You can't trust anyone."

 
"But, Joe
—
"

 
"No, Kayley," he cut her off.
"I'm only safe if they think I'm dead. You have to promise me you'll keep
quiet."

 
"But
—
"

 
"Promise me. You don't want them to kill
me, do you?"

 
"No, of course not."

 
"Then don't tell anyone."

 
"Okay. But I think it's a mistake."

 
"I went by your cottage today but you
weren't there."

 
"You're in Monterey?" Kayley asked
surprised.

 
"Yes. I need to see you."

 
"If it's about the package you sent me,
I don't have it anymore. I handed it over to Klein."

 
"It's not about the package. But I need
to see you."

 
"Okay." She thought quickly.
"You can come to
—
"

 
"No, you have to come to me. And make
sure no one is following you."

 
"But
—
"

 
"Meet me at your cottage tonight."

 
"I'm not sure
—
"

 
"At Midnight. Come alone."

He hung up before she had
any chance to refuse.

 
For several minutes she simply stood frozen
in place. She didn't know how she was possibly going to do what Joe had asked.
The joy and relief she had felt at hearing his voice, had quickly been
smothered and replaced by fear and worry. Joe had asked her to lie to Nathan
and betray his trust.
 

 
 
Overwhelmed, Kayley dropped the phone back
into her purse and wrapped her arms around herself. She couldn't turn her back
on her own brother, but when Nathan discovered it he might never forgive her.

 
She saw the door handle move and quickly
dropped her arms to her sides.

Nathan pushed open the
door and smiled when he spotted her. "Hey, you're up. I thought you might
still be asleep." He walked to her and slid his arms around her waist. His
brows furrowed as he looked at her.

 
"Something wrong?"
  

 
"I, ah
…
" He saw straight through her, she
thought, and right to her core. "I'm a little groggy. I just woke
up." That wasn't lying, exactly, she thought.

 
"Hmm." He tipped her face up to his
with a finger and studied her eyes. "Are you sure that's all?"

 
"I was just thinking about this whole
mess." That was true.

 
"We'll work it out." He bent and
gave her a tender kiss. "Why don't I order up some
food.
"

 
"Is it already time for dinner?"

 
"Yes." He released her and picked
up the phone. "You slept for most of the afternoon."

She supposed that was a
good thing because she probably wasn't going to get any sleep tonight. And she
wasn't going to think about that yet, she told herself sternly.

 
"I ordered something up for Damian as
well." Nathan hung up the phone. "He's been picking up a lot of my
slack these past days."

 
"That's my fault." Kayley felt
guilt swamp her.

 
"It's not the first time he's picked up
my slack, or I have picked up his. And if you're going to ride that guilt trip,
you're just going to annoy me."

 
"But
—
"

He cut her off before she
got another word in. "We can argue about this all evening if you'd like,
but I would still be right. And I would probably just end up wrestling you into
bed."

 
She gaped at him.

 
"You're so cute when you're angry."
He flicked a finger down her cheek. "Of course if you want it, I can
always wrestle you into bed right now."

 
"I
…
" She cleared her throat and managed to
stammer, "The food."

 
"Right. I better call Damian."
   

.....

 
Later when Damian had left and she was lying
in bed wrapped in Nathan's arms, her heart still racing from his touch, she lay
worrying. Closing her eyes, she burrowed against his chest and listened to the
strong beat of his heart beneath her ear.

 
It hurt her, more than she had realized, to
think that this might be the last time she would lie in his arms, held closely.
But she couldn't turn her back on her brother.

 
She waited until Nathan's breathing deepened,
before she slowly stirred. She had to stop and hold her breath several times,
afraid that he might wake up. It took careful finesse before she managed to
wriggle free. Cautious not to wake him, she scooped up her clothes and held her
breath while she slowly opened the door and closed it just as carefully behind
her. Letting out a sigh of relief, she quickly dressed in the dark and grabbed
her purse. Tip-toeing to the door, she opened it with as much care as possible
and pulled it carefully shut behind her with a small
click,
that
sounded more like an explosion in her ears. She let out another
sigh of relief and closed her eyes for just a moment. The hardest part was
over. Now, she just had to get past the lobby and pray that Nathan slept
heavily until she came back.

 
Kayley slung her purse over her shoulder, and
gripped the strap in a hard vise, as she began walking down the hallway.

 
"What the hell do you think you're
doing?"

Chapter 25

 
Kayley flinched
and barely managed to swallow back a scream of surprise as she spun back
around, to find a furious Nathan glaring at her. He stalked towards her dressed
only in jeans.

 
"I said what the hell
are
you
doing?" he repeated in a low dangerous tone.

 
"I
…
ah
…
" Her mind went completely blank. "I
…
"

 
"What?" He grabbed her by the
shoulders and forced back his raging anger. "It looks to me like you were
about to run off."

 
"What's going on?" Damian appeared
in the doorway to his office, looking rumbled in jeans and a t-shirt.

 
"What are you doing up?" Nathan
half growled at him.

 
"Couldn't sleep, so I thought I would
get some work done instead." He pulled a hand through his muzzled hair.
"What's up?"

 
"I just caught Kayley about to sneak
off." Nathan fixed her with a cold stare.

 
"No, that's not it. You've got it all
wrong," Kayley said desperately.

 
"Then set us straight," Nathan
demanded.

 
"I don't have time. I have to
—
"

 
"No, you don't. You're not going
anywhere."

 
"I have to. Joe
…
" She gestured helplessly.

 
"What about him?" Nathan could feel
her vibrate beneath his hands, but didn't relent.

 
"I can't tell you."

 
"You don't have a choice." His eyes
narrowed on her face. "What about Joe?"

She swallowed hard and
realized he was right. "Joe called me this afternoon."

 
"Joe is dead." He looked over her
head at Damian. Maybe she was having a nervous breakdown, he thought.

 
"No, he isn't. He called me on my cell
phone, and told me he's in Monterey and needs to see me. He made me swear I
wouldn't tell it to anyone." Her eyes pleaded for his understanding.

 
"Are you sure it was Joe?" Nathan
asked more gently.

 
"Yes. I could never mistake his
voice."

 
"And you weren't planning on telling
me," he stated, anger darkening his voice again.

 
"He made me promise I wouldn't. Said I
had to come alone."

 
"You might have been about to walk right
into a trap," he told her coldly.

 
"It was Joe," she said sternly,
trying to convince them.

 
"Where were you supposed to meet
him?" Damian asked.

 
"At my cottage at midnight."

 
"I want you to go back inside the
suite." Nathan released her shoulders.

 
"But Joe
—
"

 
"Damian and I will take care of
it," Nathan cut across her.

 
"No. I'm not staying here while the men
go out. This isn't the stone age."

 
"I'm not going to risk you getting
hurt." He grabbed her shoulders again and glared at her through narrowed
eyes.

 
"You're not risking anything."
Kayley squared her shoulders and looked him dead in the eyes. "I'm risking
getting myself hurt and I'm big enough to take responsibility for myself and my
own actions. I don't need you or anyone else to do it for me."

 
"You don't have the sense to look out
for yourself," Nathan told her.

 
"Your opinion has nothing to do with
reality," she said acidly. "And you're forgetting to factor in that
without me Joe won't show himself. He knows how to go undercover and stay that
way. If he doesn't want you to find him, then you won't."

 
"Damn it." Frustrated he released
her and drew his hands through his hair. He knew she was right, but he didn't
like it.

 
"And if he sees you it will be the
same," she commented.

 
"I'm not letting you go alone. Either we
go with you or you don't go at all." Nathan's jaw clenched with controlled
anger.

 
"We'll stay out of sight," Damian
interrupted their argument, trying to calm them down. Nathan gave him a
withering look, but didn't argue.

Instead he simply turned
his back on them and stalked back to his suite.

 
"I'm putting on a shirt," he
barked, without looking back.

Alone with Damian, she
turned to him. "I couldn't tell you, Damian. I'm really sorry. I wanted
to, but he's my brother." Her eyes pleaded for him to understand.

 
He understood family loyalty perfectly.
"I know, Kayley." He laid a comforting hand on her shoulder.
"And believe me Nathan would have done the same if I had asked him
to."

 
"I know he feels I betrayed him, but I
didn't have a choice. I hate this." She blinked back tears that threatened
to fall.

 
"It will be okay. Just give him time to
get over his first mad and he will understand."

Nathan appeared again,
dressed in black jeans and a black shirt. And just as furious as before. He
gave them both a scalding look, and stalked past them to the elevator.

Damian gave her shoulder a
comforting squeeze and whispered, "Better follow."

Kayley squared her
shoulders and told herself she had survived worse before and she was going to
get through this as well. Although at the moment she couldn't imagine how.

Stepping into the elevator
behind Nathan and Damian, she tried to ignore the tense silence.

 
It continued as Nathan drove them expertly
through the dark.

Kayley had volunteered to
sit in the back. She really didn't want to be too close to Nathan right now.

 
Glancing up quickly, she saw his face set
grimly in the rear view mirror. His eyes were trained on the road and glinted
hard and cold in the dark.

 
She moved her gaze back out the side window
and watched the landscape pass by.

She had known he would
react this way, but she hadn't expected it to hurt quite so much.

And despite what Damian
had said, she wasn't sure Nathan was going to forgive her. He hadn't said one
word to her since
since
he had left to take on his
shirt. In fact he hadn't so much as spared her a glance since the elevator. And
then only to give her a look that made her insides freeze.

 
Nathan turned onto the dirt road leading to
her cottage and pulled onto the side of the road. Without a word, he shut off
the engine and jumped out of the car. The door shut behind him with a soft
click that didn't carry more than a few feet.

Taking a deep breath she
reached for the door handle

 
"You okay?" Damian asked before she
could open the door.

 
"I
…
" Grateful that at least he didn't blame
her, she looked up and tried to smile. "Yes," she lied.

 
He nodded and jumped out to join Nathan who
was busy scowling into the dark. Taking a second deep breath, she followed.

 
She had barely set her feet on the ground,
before they started off towards the trees and shrubs surrounding her cottage.

 
"Wait," she whispered, and had to
run to catch up with them. "You can't
—
" she began whispering and was cut off, as
Nathan whirled towards her. She nearly took a step back before she caught
herself.

 
"I can do anything I want," he said
in a low furious voice. "We're going to get close enough to watch you and
the cottage. But don't worry. We won't get between you and your precious
brother." With that he turned away and kept on walking until he
disappeared in the shadows of trees.

 
Kayley swallowed hard and shoved back her
feelings. This wasn't the time or place to have or deal with them. She tip-toed
through the trees, her eyes poking into every shadow around her cottage to find
Joe. There was no sign of him anywhere. But then she hadn't expected anything
else. She hadn't lied when she had told them that he knew how to make himself
invisible. God knew they had both learned that the hard way.

 
The windows to her cottage were dark and the
grounds appeared desolate. But she felt a hum of tension that reminded her of
the stalking nightmares she had had as a child.

She took a step, intending
to walk to the cottage, when Nathan clamped a hand on her arm.

 
He didn't say anything, simply spared her a
hard glance, and went back to watching their surroundings silently.

Nothing moved.

 
"Walk to the house and stand in one of
the shadows and wait. It may take a while if he's really careful, so don't look
towards us or you'll just risk tipping him off," Nathan said in a low tone
that didn't carry farther than her, and released her arm. He didn't like it one
bit, but he knew it was their only option.

 
Kayley stepped out of the shadows and into
the unprotected. She hurried across the open and into a shadow beside her
cottage. Instinctively protecting herself, she turned her back against the
house and scanned the surroundings.

 
 
Nothing
moved.

Not in the open, nor in
the pockets of dark.

She waited for what seemed
to her like an eternity, but was in reality five minutes, and began to doubt if
he was ever going to show up. After ten minutes she began doubting if she had
heard correctly. After all he had been half whispering.

Or maybe it was some kind
of code, although if it was she didn't understand it.

Still, she had the
distinct feeling of being watched. She tried to shake it off, and told herself
she was ridiculous.

 
Of course she felt watched. Nathan and Damian
were both watching her.

Out of the corner of her
eye she saw something move. Straining her eyes, she watched the spot where she
had been sure she had seen movement.

 
But there was nothing.

Cold fear ran down her
spine and was forced back ruthlessly. It was just an animal, she told herself,
and rubbed her arms against the sudden chill.

 
Then she saw something move from the other
direction and stiffened. A figure moved silently as a predator within a group
of trees. She watched it walk towards her, taking a detour, so it never left
the shadows.

 
Her breath caught and her heart pounded as it
came closer. The figure was dressed completely in black and the face was hidden
in shadows, but she was sure it was Joe. She bit back her need to call out his
name and waited, biting her lip.

 
When he finally made his way up the side of
the cottage, she couldn't stop herself any longer and threw her arms around him
in a big hug.

 
"Joe." Tears threatened to strangle
her voice and she had to swallow hard.

He looked strained, she
thought, leaning back a bit to get a good look at him. His cheeks were hollow
and covered with a
weeks worth
of stubble and he
looked worn out.

 
"Hey, sis." He pulled her back at
arms length
. "I'm sorry I got you into this
mess."

 
"I
—
" She didn't get any further as the
shadows around them suddenly sprang to life.

 
Back in the shadows, Nathan and Damian waited
impatiently. For the fifth time in as many minutes, Nathan checked his watch.

 
He didn't like it one bit. And the more time
that went by, the less he liked it.

That was when he spotted
the figure making its way towards Kayley.

 
"Two O'clock," he murmured to
Damian and watched the shadow approach her. Warning bells rang in his head.
"There's something wrong."

 
"I know. I can't put my finger on what
it is," Damian whispered back.

They watched Kayley throw
herself at the figure and hug it.