Lethal Lover Part 4

"You go on and mind your own business, Jake. Me and little Miss. Crissy is having us a great time."

Jake stuck his bald head in the doorway, and enjoyed the sight of his wife of forty-plus years sitting on the floor, seemingly oblivious to the puddle of water around her or the blouse that stuck to her like a second skin.

"Who's giving who the bath?" he asked mischievously.

Gettie shook her head and rolled her eyes.

"Listen to him, will you, Crissy? The man's a certified comic, ain't he?"

The LITTLE girl with the big blue eyes and honey gold ringlets tossed her head and giggled at a joke she couldn't possibly understand.

G-ertie opened a towel and lifted Crissy out of the tub.

The sight of the child in Gertie's arms caused Jake's heart to constrict.

The poor little thing had no idea she was being used as a p.a.w.n in a game where the rules were being made up as they went along.

"Gertie," Jake said, his voice low as he edged over to the toilet and sat down on the lid, "do you think we did right by agreeing to do this?"

Gettie wrapped the plush white towel snugly around the child's chubby middle and swept Crissy into her arms.

"Of course we did the right thing. What's the matter with you, old man?"

When the child reached for her gla.s.ses, Gertie had to arch her neck to save them.

"Besides, how could we have turned him down? After all he's done for us', and never once asked for anything in return."

Jake hung his head.

"You're right, hon. It's just that" -- "It's just nothing," Gertie cut him off.

"Reed McKenna asked us to take care of this little gal for a few days and that's what we're going to do,"

"You're right, Gert," Jake said as he stood up and followed her into the bedroom.

"I just hope he knows what he's doing. It don't seem right for a child to be separated from her" -- Gerfie interrupted him again.

"Don't say it," she snapped, turning on him, "or else you'll get her to crying all over again."

Jake sighed and paced to the window to look out at the beach.

"Reckon we could take her outside to play when she wakes up? The little thing is so pale. She needs some fresh air." And so did Jake.

"Probably. Now, go take a walk, will you? You making me and the baby nervous with all your pacjake Patterson started for the door.

"Bring us back some sandwiches and chips," his wife called after him.

"And remember to get a carton of milk and some fruit for Crissy and a couple of them punch drinks for us. We'll save them for later, and after this little dolly goes to bed, we'll sit out on the balcony and have us a picnic."

Jake forced a smile and walked out of his third-floor hotel room, making sure the door closed and locked behind him.

"I on'r BETmy YOU!" Tess gasped.

"Selena could never be involved in something like this. She just couldn't!

For heaven's sake, Reed, you're talking about organized crime!"

Reed merely shrugged, but the burning in his gut belied his show of nonchalance.

"Whether you believe me or not, your cousin was Edward Morrell's bookkeeper for almost four years. And that position has put her in deep trouble. You must know this wasn't her first- trip to Grand Cayman."

She hesitated before she admitted, "Selena did mention that she'd been here before, but that's hardly an admission of guilt."

"Oh, she's been here, all right. Seven different trips in two years.

Although no one will ever find any doc.u.mentation to prove it, she was probably hauling Morrell's dirty money to the island's various banks and opening accounts in every one of them."

He hated the stricken look on her face. He remembered how Tess had always placed a high premium on loyalty, especially when she was championing the cause of an underdog. Unfortunately for her, this time she was attempting to defend someone unworthy of her loyalty, and something in her eyes--the sadness and disillusionment--told Reed she knew it.

"Do you know where she is?" he asked her again. "No," she said softly.

"I haven't seen her since she left our table." She glanced at her watch.

"That was almost two hours ago."

Her face was too pretty to be so drawn with worry, and Reed couldn't help feeling responsible.

"I hope I can count on you to help me convince her to do the right thing.

She has to go back, Tess. The only way I can help her is if she agrees to cooperate."

She walked over to the window and with her back to him she said, "Why didn't she tell me? How could she be in this much trouble and not tell me?"

Reed felt his heart go out to the woman he'd once loved. There were a dozen good reasons why Selena Elliot hadn't confided in her cousin, and all of them were life threatening.

"She couldn't tell you," he explained. "She would have been putting you at risk."

She spun around to face him.

"But if what you're telling me is true, I'm already at risk, aren't I?"

Reed didn't try to dispute her logic, because he couldn't.

When she strode past him to the door, he caught up with her in two strides and covered her hand with his on the doork.n.o.b. They were standing so close he could almost taste her.

"Get out of my way," she said.

"Not until you tell me where you're going?

"I'm going to find my cousin," she informed him as she jerked her hand from beneath his.

"Just as you should be trying to do if you were really interested in helping her."

He stood in front of the door, blocking her path, his feet braced and his arms folded over his chest.

"No way, Tess. I can't have you poking around in something you know nothing about." There's too much at stake."

She scowled at him and flipped her hair over one shoulder with an indignant toss. It was a familiar gesture that sent him into a time warp of remembering. "I'm not asking your permission, Reed."

G.o.d, but she was s.e.xy.

"Sit down, Tessa" -- "And will you please stop calling me that!"

"Sit down," he repeated firmly, his tone unyielding.

It came as no surprise that she ignored him and remained standing.

"Will you please just listen," he said, working to sound more conciliatory.

"Selena probably saw something or someone who spooked her. She's obviously hiding, and more than likely you'll be the one she'll contact when she feels' it's safe." ' He watched her silent and grudging acceptance of his logic.

"Think about it, Tess. If I found Selena, anyone He hadn't meant to scare her, but the alarm he saw spark in her pretty eyes told him he'd made his point.

"Stay here in case she tries to call you. I'll go take another look around the hotel grounds."

She sank down on the edge of the bed again, her shoulders slumped with the weight of the load he'd placed there.

"If you find her, please call me. I have to talk to her."

He nodded.

"Of course."

"And after you find her, then what?"

"It's my job to take her back to testify." He hoped she wouldn't ask him again if he was a cop. The thread of trust he'd just established was pathetically thin. If she pushed him to reveal the fact that he was a paid tracker--a bounty hunter--that fragile beginning would disinlgrate like smoke in the wind.

"And what if she refuses to go back? What if she won't go with you?"

she pressed him.

The eyes that met his were intelligent and a.s.sessing and he knew better than to try and lie.

"Well, then I'll just have to convince her it's the best thing for her to do, won't I?"

"Stay here, Tess," he ordered at the door.

"Don't make me have to go looking for you, as well."

"Go to h.e.l.l, McKenna," she snapped.

"And he forewarned that if Selena calls before you get back, I'm not making any promises or waiting around for your approval to talk to her about any of this."

He nodded, conceding her right to-make both declarations.

Chapter Four.

At sunset, the island sky became a canvas for an indescribable work of multicolored art, the likes of which Tess had never seen duplicated by man. But troubling thoughts robbed her of the joy nature's spectacle should have inspired this evening. As she stood on the balcony, gazing out over the water, Tess wondered how a dream vacation could have turned into a nightmare so quickly.

Below, dozens of people roamed the beach, couples walked hand in hand, kids frolicked in and out of the gentle surf and built fortresses in the wet sand.

Among the other tourists enjoying the evening splendor was an older couple with a toddler in the shallow beach area cordoned off for small children.

She would never have noticed them from this distance had Tess not been so be sure that the tall, dark, imposing figure standing over them was Reed. He seemed especially engrossed in conversation with the gray-haired couple, which seemed odd to Tess.

Was he questioning them about Selena? Had they seen her? Talked to her?

Her glance swept the beach again and stopped when it found the tourist, whose stares she'd scorned this afternoon in the lobby, standing on the ground-floor patio outside the bar, staring up at her.

When he saw her looking down at him, he turned and walked purposefully back into the bar. Tess rubbed her arms, feeling suddenly vulnerable and inexplicably chilled, despite the seventy-plus temperature and the gentle southern breeze that warmed the evening air. When she looked back to the cordoned area where the older couple and the toddler were still sitting, Reed was gone.

As she continued to scan the area below for Selena, and now for Reed, the faint strains of reggae music rode the breeze around her. The jaunty rhythms that had welcomed and invigorated Tess hours earlier, now seemed teasing and cruel, a mocking reminder that while the rest of the island--at least that part of it vacationing here at West Palm--was spending a carefree evening, laughing, dancing and building memories beneath the Grand Cayman sunset, she was trapped in a frightening situation that she could neither control nor completely understand.

"Where are you, Selena?" she whispered.

"And what in G.o.d's name have you done?"

Accepting that for now there would be no answers, Tess told herself to be patient, to maintain her faith in Selena until all the facts were known.

But despite her best resolve to maintain a positive att.i.tude, the smattering of details Reed had given her swirled around in her mind and tested that faith severely.

The grim fact that the government had sent him to bring Selena back to testify was deeply disturbing, as was Reed's determination to find her.

If the prosecution wanted Selena's testimony that badly, it seemed reasonable to Tess to a.s.sume that the defense would be just as desperate to keep her from giving it.

The dangerous scenarios that crept into her imagination made Tess curse every legal thriller she'd ever read. She cursed the quiet life she'd carved out for herself in Evergreen, the life that had kept her so preoccupied running her own business that she, d left little time for anything or anyone else.

Despite the blood ties that bound them, Tess had to admit that she and Selena were little more than strangers. As Selena had so grimly pointed out earlier, it was true that they only saw each other at funerals.

Since college, they'd done little more than exchange Christmas cards, Tess realized guiltily.

But even if she had made more of an effort to remain close, would Selena have confided in her? Tess wondered. And even if she had, how could Tess have helped?