Saints and Assassins (The Sentinels) (6 page)

He watched her eyes narrow and then s
often as he anticipated her rejection
. If he only knew what she could possibly be thinking. . .

“That would be nice.”
 

A wave of relief washed over Adam
and
s
he agreed to meet
hi
m
at the hotel restaurant in just a few minutes
.
Eve went to change
into something a little more appropriate for the breakfast table. 

Adam
requested
the
table
closest to the beach keeping their breakfast priv
a
te from the other patrons.  He
personally preferred seclusion
and
this would
help him keep a better grasp on his surroundings
. 
Not only was he anxious for her to return so that he knew she was safe but having
someone
to s
it with would
be a nice change. H
e couldn’t remember the last time t
hat
he had eaten a meal with someone, especially a woman
.  He
stood up as she arrived
and offered
her
a chair. 

“Well Mr. St. James
,
what type of business are you in that would bring you to Maui?” she asked. 

“You can call me Adam, and I’m in real estate,” he answered looking over the menu.
He knew immediately that he was still being a jerk.
He didn’t always look at her when she spoke to him and he gave very short answers that seemed, well smug.
In his
real
line of work, he had to be direct as he didn’t have time for small talk.

“Selling, I suppose?”

“Occasionally, but mostly acquiring
.
”
H
e laid the menu down and looked at her.
The sparkle of her green eyes distracted him from finishing his story. Adam desperately wanted to tell her the truth but he couldn’t. At least not yet.

“Hmmm,” she grum
bled. 

He sensed her frustration by her narrowed eyes and when she let out a
sigh,
he knew he had to change his approach or keeping an eye on her would become an even bigger challenge. He was going to have to turn on the charm and befriend her.
He had spent the last year watch
ing over her without her knowledge
and now that he had placed himself in her
life,
he
treated
her
as if
she was subservient.

Even when he talked to Greta or Charlie, he struggled to find things to tal
k about. He had honed his senses
to listen and observe so much that he didn’t know how to have a normal conversation with someone.
He had to get out of this mode no matter how hard it might be. Adam took a deep breath and
focused solel
y on unburying his charisma. That could be more dangerous than fighting off an assassin.

“What are your plans
for the day?”

“I don’t know, I hadn’t really made any I suppose.”
Shrugging her shoulders, she hesitate
d
for a moment.
“What are you going to do? Do
n’t
you have business to attend to?”

“My meeting plans
changed to Saturday so I have all day today and tomorrow to myself. If you would care to join
me,
I’m going to go snorkeling.  It just doesn’t work so well with ju
st one person though.”

She
stopped chewing her food and stared at him as if she were in shock. He was in as much shock as she. He couldn’t believe that he had just asked he
r out. She hadn’t said yes,
so the point might be moot.

“Yes, I would like that.”
             

“I
s it too late to get a snorkel cruise for today?
”
She sipped her coffee and he had to bite his tongue as he watched her lips wrap around the brim of the cup.
He would much rather see those lips on his skin.

“Actually, I have a boat at the marina that we can u
se.” He had a yacht, but didn’t want to freak her out so he quickly improvised a story.

“You have a boat?”

“Yes, it’s a company boat.  I use it when I come here which is every six weeks or so,” he answered. 
He usually stayed on the boat when he came to Maui
instead of a hotel
. It gave him the seclusion he needed to recuperate.

The surprised look on her fac
e
told him
she must
have been
wondering what kind of job he really had and why he would live in the
middle-class apartm
ent complex, but he felt confident that he could keep up the charade.

“We could leave this afternoon and make
the cruise out and come back before sunset.
” Eve agreed to their departure time and finished breakfast quietly before she excused herself to her room.

Adam hoped that he hadn’t made her nervous by his behavior and he wouldn’t be surprised if she backed out of their
arrangements
.
Either way he could
monitor
her.

Adam lingered at the breakfast table just a few mi
nutes before leaving so that Eve
had enough time to get to her room and not feel that he was hovering
or spying on her
. Back
in his
room,
he was
ready to explode with anxiety while he waited for the morning to turn to afternoon.

“Agh!” he growled. Pacing back and forth in his room he argued silently to himself.

It would be simpler to protect Eve if she knew who he was and why he was th
ere, but he knew she would flip
out.
Or would she?
Then h
e
tried to rationalize it.
Surely,
she would understand. He was only trying to protect her.

Adam pulled his phone from his pocket and started to call his friend, Charlie. Just bef
ore he hit dial he changed his mind
. If he called Charlie, he would only try to talk him out of watching Eve anymore. After all,
the job had officially ended a year ago
.
O
n top of
that,
there hadn’t been any real threat to her since Michael’s death.
Adam
had a gut feeling that danger would come
for her. He didn’t know when or h
ow, but he knew
he had to protect
her
.

Nope
.
Tossing the phone on the bed, Adam decided to go take a shower instead of taking a repeated tongue lashing from his best friend and business partner.

The shower helped and before
long,
it was time for them to meet.
Adam approached Eve’s h
otel room door and heard a cry
that had him debating whether he would break the door down or knock first. Even though his heart pounded, he knocked frantically
instead
.
Within those few
moments,
his heart felt as if it was stuck in his throat. Then the door opened.

“Hello Adam,” she said quietly.

“Are you
all right
? I heard you yell just a
s I started to knock.” Adam looked over her to make sure that no one else was in the room.

“Yea, I’m fine.  It was just a nightmare.
”
He hid his sigh of relief because h
er tone troubled him. She seemed so nonchalant about the nightmare and he knew it had to have bothered her.

All he wanted to do was to
hold her, but
he couldn’t.
If she
knew
he had been watching her for the past year she would run away.
Worse
yet, she might find a way to kill him. At least then he would be out of his misery.

“Do you still want to go snorkeling?” he asked. He held up th
e mesh bag that he carried
to show
it contained the
necessary masks and fins that they
needed.

“Absolutely!
Let me grab my sunglasses and bag.”
She smi
led energetically, even if it was
faked.

Adam
’s
relief returned with her peppiness
.
Her abil
ity to bounce back amazed him and
he couldn’t
help but smile. They walked to the front of the hotel where he had the valet br
ing his car around.
Adam kept a
Nissan GT-R
on the island
and
he loved driv
ing i
t. In fact, he liked it so much that he had an identical one in Chicago.

The sleek silver machine fit him like a glove and he couldn’t help but notice that Eve’s jaw dropped when he threw the car into
sixth
gear and hit sixty in three
seconds on the highway. It wasn’t his baby or anything, but damn did he like the roar of the engine.
They zoomed down to the
marina that
was just a few minutes away.  Adam pulled the car up to a do
ck and got out where a man just as tall as he
waited for them.

Koa worked for Adam on the islands to compliment Adam’s stateside employees. He made all arrangements for Adam as well as being a source of information through the locals. Adam and Koa had met five years earlier when he came to Maui just to get away from his job for a few weeks. They became great friends and Adam knew that he not only had a
much-needed
confidant in Koa, but Adam could also pay Koa more than enough to care for his large family.

Without as much as a single syllable pa
ssing between them, Adam handed Koa the key to the Nissan and glided around the front of the car to open the door for Eve. Eve took Adam’s hand and stepped out of the car. Before she had a chance to even ask who he was or be
introduced,
Koa had slipped into the drivers
’ seat and sped away.

“You’re kidding right?” She said to him, her eyes looked as if they were about to pop out of their sockets.

“No, why?”

“These aren’t boats!
”

“Does that make a differ
ence?” Adam knew he was being coy.

****

“No, I guess not
.” The yacht surprised her and made her even more curious about him. She knew in her gut he wasn’t telling her something.

Adam boarded the
boat
and then helped her on.  It was the second time today that he ha
d taken her hand. Her brain registered
that it was nice to be touched by someone, especially a man.

Distracted by Adam and her
surroundings
,
she didn’t pay enough attention to her footing and slipped. Adam caught her by the waist.  His grasp was tight but she didn’t mind his arm being wrapped around her as he held her up. 

“Oops,” he said.  She wasn’t usually clumsy but she just wasn’t paying attention.  Thei
r eyes locked for just a moment. H
is eyes were deep brown, dark and mysterious, just like his personality.  He stood her upright and stepped back so th
at she had room to reposition her
self.

She suddenly felt rude as she had
n’
t thanked him, but it had been too long now for an appropriate thank you, so she let it go.
Besides, he had been rude to her multiple times
and hadn’t apologized.

Adam move
d
around the vessel fluently show
ing that he was a pro at this and b
efore she knew it they were cruising toward the Molokini crater. 
Adam held the wheel and
told her to make herself
comfortable wherever she wanted.  She
took her
bag below into the living quarters and dropped it on the floor by the bathroom.  She decided to
be nosy and look around the ship.
First,
s
he came to a stateroom with a queen
size bed and white coverlet and curtains.
The soothing covers
reminded her of the clouds mingling with the sand. Moving on she found
another stateroom as well as the galley
.
Everything was very clean and in its place.