Into the Flames (Perilous Connections: Book Two) (10 page)

I chuckle, sharing her m
irth.
“How come?
You’re not
…” Oh no, my incredibly stupid tongue has done it again. An outraged gasp whooshes from between her lips and she shoots me a quelling look before she tugs her hand away from me
.

I cinch
my lip
s together givi
ng my mouth a deserved rest. I w
ould kick my own ass if I were that flexible. How stupid ca
n I be? Her weight is
no enigma to me because less than an hour ago
she’d been slung around my hips,
my han
ds cupping her bottom as
we
’d
rocked together against a wall.

I open my mouth to apologize when
something collid
es with me so hard I barely stop myself from tumbling backwards into the water below
the pier
. Daphne shrieks and reaches for me, with her assistance I qu
ickly find my footing and
we both swing around.

And there is
Stacy!

I barely regain my balance before she flings herself into my arms, laughing, crying,
rambling
like a crazy lunatic.

“W
hoa … wait … wait just a minute
,” I hold her out from me, “Stacy? What the hell are you doing here?”

“Oh Nate.
You can’t know. It’s so good to see you.
So good.”
She breaks down and starts sobbing. I clasp her to me and hush her, even as she buries her face in my chest, a not u
nknown region
of my body as she is a past
lover
. E
ven w
ith my mind working a mile-a-minute
I see Daphne re
treat a few steps away from
us. Distancing
herself
from me.

“No
. D
on’t
go,” I hold out my hand to her but she simply ignores me and walks away. I grit my teeth in frustration. I cannot chase her again, not now.

Instead I tilt Stacy’s head
back
and stare down into her
trusting
green
eyes.
T
his close I
see the fading yellow bruises on her cheek,
and
the cut
in the middle of her bottom lip that i
s nearly healed and I know who has
done this.

S
till I have to be certain.
“What happ
ened and what
are
you doing in Montserrat?
”
My voice is cold with anger and I try to smile to soften its effect on an obviously traumatized Stacy.

She sn
iffs like a lo
st child, and her gaze darts around the wooden pier, towards
the restaurant now filled with
tourists,
then
over towards the
taxi men patrolling the side
s like vultures waiting for the
feast.

She shudders in my arms.
“Emmanuel.
He found me. H
e thought I knew where you were.
”

His name
suc
ks the air from my lungs
.
I grasp her tighter to keep us
both upright. This is also my fault.
Another layer of guilt further weighs me down
. “I’m s
o sorry Stacy.”

She
sighs
, a pitiful sound. “It doesn’t matter now
cause
you’re here.”

I close my eyes and rest my chin on her forehead.
What on earth did she mean? Does
she really think th
at I can save her from Emmanuel?
T
hat I even stand a chance at saving
myself?

The only real protection I had apart from my fists which are at best
a weak comparison
to Emmanuel’s is the cold, sm
all weight of the single key
that
is
secured underneath the sole of my left foot. The only proof that could sto
p Emmanuel from killing me if I can
con
vince him to listen long enough and more importantly
to report my w
ords to his boss,
my former employer
, Pablo
Guarez
.
The very man on
whose orders I am being hunted to be killed.

I
gently detangle
Stacy’s
hands from
around my waist. H
er hold doesn’t feel right anymore. We are no longer lovers. I search around her shoulder but
Dap
hne is nowhere in sight
.

My heart thunders
with fast building apprehension and
I frantically scan
the crowd.

H
as she chosen this moment to sneak off an
d find someone to listen to her story
? T
hen I see her
,
seated with Elaine
and Aubrey at the table
and my stress level plummets.

I tug a reluctant
Stacy over towards the table. There is no question in my mind that
I
have to protect Stacy, since I’
m responsible for her mess
and that
means she must stay with us
.

It
’
s
only minutes
later as I begin the silted
introductions
and I sit to scarf down a plate of eggs
,
bacon and toast that my reaction to Daphne’s momentary disappearance hits me.

A
fter Stacy’s arrival and I’d lost sight of Daphne for
those
several seconds, my fear had had nothing to with her
dashing off an
d informi
ng immigration
like
she’d threa
tened to do
on the ferry
. R
ather I see with sickening clarity that all of it, every ounce of fear that
had
rushed into my bod
y
as I’d searched for her had been
because
I
was afraid
I would never see
her again
.

I take
long, slow
swallow
s
of
my warm
coffee and
contemplate this totally unexpected t
urn that this whole mess has taken
and how best to rid myself of these dangerous feelings.

At least I can try and solve one right away.
“Elaine?”

I’m no
t surprised to find Elaine
watching me
with reignited interest. I glance
at her and
she quickly r
earranges her features into one
of disinterest
. “Yes, Nate?”

“Is it possible that we can meet up with one of your relatives
in town
thi
s
morning right after we’re done here?
”

She nods.
“I think so. But I
need to make a call.”
She looks
at me
, and it strikes me for the firs
t time in several weeks that I’
m not carrying a cell phone. Elaine obviously expects me to have one.

“Don’t have one.”
Holding her startled look,
I dare
her to question me about this shocking abnormality. She doesn’t but
i
f I had thought her merely interested
in all the crazy things which have happened since Daphne brought me home
, that is nothing compared to
the
raging questions I see in her eyes now.
She litera
lly cannot credit the reality of my lack of a phone and
my stubbornne
ss in refusing to satisfy her unasked questions.

I r
emain obstinately
silent.
Let her
think whatever the hell she
wants.

She mumbles something about asking the
restaurant owner to
use their
phone and disappears.

I watch her go because the alternative is watching the two women at the table stare at me or each other. Thank God for Aubrey who is digging in
to this second helping of bacon oblivious to the storm building around the
table.

Chapter Five

Daphne

“Daphne?
Right?
Why are you guys travelling with Nate?”
Stacy asks from beside me in the bus
on the way to our newly rented house
.

My eyes narrow
though I try to fix a friendly to my
mouth. “Same reason you are.
To get away from Emmanuel.”

Her brows scru
nch
up. “B
ut I don’t understand
why
Emmanuel would be after you?
”
S
he looks around at Elaine and Aubrey
, “
and
your family.”

I should not have savored the feel o
f the answer on my tongue but I did, “because Nate was sleeping over at my house.”

Her w
itchy green eyes look
honestly
puzzled
, instead of the spark of jealousy I had hoped to ignite.
I need to
cut
this conver
sation short for both our sakes.
I start to do just that
when Nate gets up from the front of the bus where he’d been sitting with the driver and makes his way toward u
s.

He’
d been listening. There’
s no doubt
about that.

Her
face lights up at his approach.
I turn away hurriedly to avoid seei
ng a similar response from him. H
e takes the only
seat
which is
beside Stacy who is sittin
g at the end of the seat. T
heir bodies are molded
together,
his long muscled thigh
dusted with short blond hair is
smack
against her slender
, creamy looking
one.

A muscle jerks in my jaw.

“
Daphne is hedging because I conned her into marrying me.”

“You what?”
Stacy’
s eyes look
ready to pop from her head.
“B
ut how … why?”
There is a world of hurt in that little sing-song voice she uses which has
already
started to get on my nerves
.

He
roll
s
his shoulders in the too tight space, no doubt
touching Stacy who I notice
despite her shock at finding her lover wed does not have the willpower to move away from the intimate
contact. “I needed a wife and …
Daphne,” he stops and I feel his eyes burning lasers in the side of my cheek, “just wanted to be rid of me.” He finishes with a
satisfied
smirk.

I reward his flippant tone
with a sour look.
“Thanks for nothing
,” I huff and
then
give
my complete attention to Stacy.
“Nate abducted me fro
m Su
nset-”

“Sunset Cove?”
She supplies
with a squeak.

I blink, and now it
’
s my turn to be taken back. How did she know that
? T
hen the answer beco
mes all too plain.

Stacy turns like a condemned martyr to Nate. “You married her
after you told me to leave the hotel
?”

The wicked part of me wants to laugh at
the dramatic break in her voice
but I can’t
.
Nate has also made me taste this pain all too recently.

He
is
manipulative and
d
angerous
.