Into the Flames (Perilous Connections: Book Two) (13 page)

To say that I’m
nonplussed
by her swift
acquiescence
would be an understatement. She’
d
avoided me for days and now she agrees to talk with
me the first time I ask her.

Closing the door, I
step into the darkness which envelops the
porch
. M
y eyes adjust. I look around but she is nowhere in sight.

“Daphne?”

“Over here.” Her voice is coming from around the corner
of the porch.
I find her seated, her legs dangling over the side. She is wearing a short, denim shirt and a spaghetti strap blouse, the paleness of the clothing is magnified in the darkness of the night.

I take a seat beside her, closer than I need too and am relieved when she doesn’t try to move away.

“So
what do you want to talk about?
” her warm breath smells like
cinnamon
, sweet and spicy.
She turns a trusting face towards me.
Added to the growing desire
which begins gnawing at me, something new occurs. I feel
protective towards Daphne
. I don’t just want to bed Daphne I want to keep her safe for as long as I’m with her. The urge to reach across and gather her
to
me
causes me to bunch my fist
in rebellion
. I
f I make such
a
move she’ll bolt and probably for good.

I shake myself from my shallow dreams.
I would be letting her go
sooner rather than later, regardless of whatever I
feel. The fast approaching time for her freedom is something
I’ve neglected to share with her for reasons th
at remain unclear even to me
.
“Listen, I know I’ve behaved like a selfish ass, getting you involved in this
mess, but that was never my true intention
.”

She chuckles softly.
“Yeah,
I figured
things didn’t go as smoothly as you’d plan
ned
.”

I’m
nettled
by her
polite set-down though
I
deserve it. “Not by a long shot” I quip acidly. I try to rein in my childish anger, “
p
lacing anyone but
myself
in danger
was never part of the deal
.”

Even in the dim moonlight, no do
ubt the ash from the volcano has something to do with that
,
I see her
face tighten in consternation
. “
Why are you in
danger Nate
,
and w
ho is Emmanuel?”
she asks softly.

There it is.
The two questions that
I have
to answer truthfully, without telling the truth.

I breath
e
deeply,
look down int
o the darkness and from
habit at
the
still, dark trunks of the trees to make sure that nothing is moving.

S
earchin
g and running
had become my sole occupation for this last year
.

“Emmanuel
works for my
former boss.” My words are whispered, subdued, a stark contrast to the tumult of emoti
ons that this topic brings up for me
.

“Your former boss is trying to hurt you
. Why?”
A low,
bitter
laugh escapes me. I have to carefully weigh my next words.
“Because he holds me responsible for the death of his only son
.”
Liam. I have
not said his name out loud for so long because it hu
rt
s
to
o
much to think of it, the gruesome expulsion of his life.

But then another thing, nearly as disturbing as my old memories happens
. A dead silence drops between us after my revelation
.

She sits there and
I study her face to see if she’s hiding some wretched expression from me but I can’t fi
nd anything but her intent eyes. T
here is no
stunned gasp
s
, no
swift condemna
tion.

There is only
si
lence.
Utter, condemning
silenc
e.

“Did you do it?”

She was giving me the benefit of a doubt? The more I talk to her the more amaze
d
I become at the depths that smolders beneath her beautiful surface.
But I’m about to destroy whatever inkling of good she may yet see in me and it is for her own safety.

“I was one of the causes of his death.”

There is the gasp and I tense, waiting for her to get up and leave. Not many people want to chit-chat with a murderer and Daphne has done more than talk with me on several occasions.

“What kind of job did you have that somebody could get killed?”

Throwing back my head I look up
into the dull glow of the moon.
“I sold drugs.”

Against my better judgment
I force myself to watch her reaction. A short cry is
cut
off by her hand which rises to her
face in
horror.

Drugs have been
a persistent and deadly problem throughout the Caribbean.
I’ve sold enough here to know. There are
two feelings the locals harbor
toward
the
unhampered trade of these illicit substances, abhorrence or acceptance. I knew which category Daphne fit into. But that didn’t matter as much as my next question.

“Do you hate me now? I mean … even more than you did just
seconds
ago?”

“Don’t try to be funny, you’re not very good,” she snaps at me, dodging the question, s
trangely my twisted soul manages
to suck some much needed relief from this. There are some questions you don’t want to ask more than once.

“You’re talking about cocaine not marijuana.” It wasn’t a question.

“Yes.” I reply
softly.

“Do you know how many children you’ve killed in the Caribbean?”
she asks in a vicious undertone.

She moves so quickly I am still sitti
ng when she reaches the opening to the porch and walks off into the surrounding darkness.

I
launch
swiftly
into action and
intercep
t her on the grassy driveway
.

“Don’t touch
me,” she snarls.

I let go, hold my hands in
the air but
G
od
knows that I’m
as guilty as she believes.
“Look I didn’t mean f
or any of this to happen
.” My mouth twists bitterly.
I shake my head, trying to recover. “I had no idea that Emmanuel
would realize where I’d gone so soon. He’s never traced me so fast before.”

“So you
j
ust thought you’
d use your blood money and buy
another set of cheap lives
to stave off the inevitable?” she says remorselessly.

I stiffen
under
her venomous
condemnation.
“I didn’t fo
rce you to take that money,
” I fire back.

“No!
But you forc
ed me to go with you!” She is alight with fury, pacing up and down.

I rake a
hand through my hair. “I’
m sorry for the danger I’ve placed your family in
but you did make a choice Daphne and you
’re not free from all guilt either
.”

She tosses around
as i
f she’d bat away my words. S
he
fixes her eyes on me. “
The damage t
hat people like you have caused, no are
causing
,
makes me sick.”

Her disgust sends me into a tailspin and r
ed overtakes
my vision
,
and with it the memories that wouldn’t go away no matter how far I ran.

Liam
, his
shirt torn apart by the spray of bullet
s
.
T
he deep, angry holes in his
chest, i
t reaches back from the grave to haunt me, to accuse me
.

I
glare down into her
eyes and sna
p my teeth together so hard my j
aw
s
reverberate with the force.
There is no way on earth I’ll justify myself to a stra
nger, someone I’ve known for
a few days
!

I
swing around
, and every muscle in my body
coils with t
rapped tension but I don’t move. Instead I’
m glued to the spot as I feel with shock the first crack of the armor of indifference which has been holding my sanity together for so many months
. A
nd it’s all because of Daphne
.

I must get away from her.

Within seconds I’
m past
the
house and descending the steep slope which falls away into a river down below the property.

It’s darker out here, with the shade of the trees overhead blocking out the little bit of light from the moon. My feet pound the ground harder as I increase my speed.
I hear the lighter hurry of her footsteps tracing me.

Why is she following me? I turn and see her oncoming shadow in the moo
nlight, the pale white of
her shirt moving in the darkness
. “Go back!” I grate out and immediately wince. M
y voice sounds like that of a tortured spiri
t,
someone in need of forgiveness.

But she doesn’t sto
p
. S
he just keeps coming forward.
I
ignore her
and lengthen my strides. Swift paces bring
me to the gentle little river which feeds into a
pool at the bottom of the hill.

I had discovered this piece of paradise on our first night here and have visited it every night since.

I stop at the water’s edge,
and
wait for her to draw near. I round on her the
moment she does. “Are you deaf?
I said to go back.”

Her breath is coming in spurts and she ignores me in favor
of sucking in much needed air, she glances up defiantly.
“I don’t have to do
a damn
thing you say,” she flings back, still out of breat
h but
willing to lock horns nonetheless
.

Her very stubbornness irritates the hell out of me. I itch to g
ive her behind a good thrashing.
I abruptly recoil from th
at line of thought.
I’
m sounding more and more like my father, a no-nons
ense hardworking rancher who owns a spread back in
Colorado.

But I desperately need to get away from Daphne
before my mounting guilt force
s me to risk my life for her even knowing that she hates me
.

I
throw
my head
back
and
let loose some of my
pent-up
frustration
in an angr
y shout
. T
he silence burst
s
with a furious flapping
of wings
,
and the piercing squ
awks of equally pissed off birds.
Within a few seconds they settle back down and have either flown off or
gone back to sleep
for the night
.

“B
ehaving
like a caveman is
n’t going to change anything,” Daphne
says sarcastically
, standing with her hands placed saucily on her hips.

I
send her a cutting
look which I hope she sees but
otherwise I
ignore her. P
ick
ing
up a stone
I
send it skipping over the black i
nk of the water.
“
Daphne, I don’t give a damn what you think.”