Between Darkness and Daylight (56 page)

God, what had They gotten her into?

Take care, child. All will be well.

You're leaving me?

"No,
chica
! I wouldn't leave you for the world. And I'm so sorry I was late."

Sam hadn't realized she'd spoken out loud until she saw the horrified look on her rescuer's face and something else she could just barely make out: guilt.

She tried to sit up and gasped as the stranger pushed her back. He placed his rolled up leather jacket beneath her head and opened her jacket to probe her rib cage with gentle fingers. When one of his hands brushed the outer edge of a breast, she slapped it away before she realized he was searching for wounds, wounds inflicted despite a bulletproof vest.

She felt the weight of the contraption against her chest and abdomen, and the blood, wet and sticky against her skin, and almost became sick with the implications.

Just how badly had this body been injured? And whose body was it?

Who was this Dare?

Gradually, pain faded as if fleeing in response to her questions, or perhaps the stranger's touch. Sam didn't care which, just that alleviation was at hand.

"Dios
, I am so sorry, Dare. I…I was detained. I don't know what else to say."

Sam didn't know what to say either, deciding not to say anything at all for the time being, and just tried to take everything in.

She was in a cold, wet, dark alley and some strange man, obviously concerned, obviously her friend, needlessly ministered to her already healing body.

"I'm ready to get up now."

He frowned. "I really think you should wait for an ambulance."

"No!" Sam sprang to a sitting position, surprised that it didn't hurt, almost not at all. She seemed to be completely healed. She knew she had Them to thank for her miraculous recovery. The least They could do. And for some reason, she didn't think a trip to the hospital was in Their plans for her.

"All right,
chica
. Don't have a cow." He grinned grimly as he helped her to her feet.

Sam glanced at him from the corner of an eye, wishing she knew who he was, what his name was, and what her connection to him was.

"Did the skip do this to you? I didn't peg him for this rough a customer."

"Skip?"

"Dios
, you must have gotten knocked on the head pretty good, huh?"

"Guess so," Sam mumbled. "You're, uh…?"

"Diego." He grimaced at her incomprehension, shook his head. "Your partner?"

As in? Sam wondered but didn't say it out loud. Partner in crime?

Partner in business? Life partner? Exactly how close a relationship did they share?

"C'mon, I'm taking you home."

That was an answer she hadn't expected, and raised more questions than it answered.

Where was home? Their home? His home? Her home?

She let Diego grasp her under an elbow and lead her out of the alley, having no idea where they were going, but strangely trusting him. She didn't see how she had a choice.

ADULT EXCERPT

IN PLAIN SIGHT

By Gracie C. McKeever

Copyright © 2006

[Scene note:
Sam, who is in Dara Kelly's body, realizes that the man she thought is her abusive husband Dawson turns out to be Dawson's identical twin brother Caution.
]

Shaken, Sam turned back to Dawson just in time to see he'd unlocked the cuffs.

He stood in front of her, grinning, restraints dangling from the pointer of his right hand as he whistled a nameless tune, looking entirely too self-satisfied.

How the heck had he gotten out of the cuffs? Sam couldn't remember being married to Harry Houdini!

Her heart hammered not just from the fact that she was in the room with a dangerous escaped felon, the man responsible for her death, but from the wicked butter-melting grin spreading across her husband's face and reaching his eyes. She couldn't tell whether he was enraged or just a little peeved, and didn't want to find out, but he reached out and caught her wrist with both hands, wrestling the Glock from her grip before she could squeak.

Dumbfounded, Sam watched as he ejected the chambered round,

emptied the clip and pocketed it before placing the empty gun atop the marble center island.

He stalked her around the kitchen as she tried to gain the door. She dodged to her left, didn't fool him as he caught her by an arm. Sam threw one leg behind his, but just as she was about to flip him over a hip to the floor, Caution reversed position in time to take her with him, cushioning her fall with his body as they both went crashing to the linoleum.

She struggled as he flipped her beneath him, straddled her hips, pulled her arms up over her head and grasped her wrists.

"You shouldn't do that."

Sam frowned. "Do what?"

"Thrust and plunge that way. I might get the wrong idea."

She struggled harder at his words and it only made him laugh. "Let me go."

"You came into my house, Ms. Big Bad Bounty Hunter, pointing a
gun
at me as if I was some dangerous felon, and now you want me to let you go?"

"I was perfectly within my rights."

"And so am I, Ms. Kelly." He leaned in, lips a hair's breadth from hers, and paused as he stared into her eyes. "Is this what you wanted? Does this turn you on?"

Sam bucked. "Don't flatter yourself!"

"Actually, I'm flattering you." He leaned further, stirring her hair with his breath as he brushed her cheek with his lips, then murmured, "If I'd known you were into the kinky bondage scene, we could have tried this a long time ago."

Sam squirmed, gasped when she met Dawson's hard erection with her slit, and instantly felt moist heat between her legs as her pussy gushed.

"I'm not," she said.

He arched a brow. "Not flattered?"

"Not into the kinky bondage scene."
Tell that to your dripping wet
cunt.

"Pity," he whispered. "Now, about this Dawson jazz…" He slid his mouth up, ran his tongue over her full lower lip. "You've never been fooled by my brother before. Besides my mother and Grampa Brody, you're just about the only one in the world who
can
tell us apart."

Fooled? Brother? Grampa Brody? What did he mean by
brother?

Sam frowned, light slowly dawning before she saw red. She should have known something was off-kilter when the man had addressed Dara so familiarly.

That evil, deceptive witch!

Sam remembered the last thing Dara had said to her before directing her to the townhouse:
"I'm going to give you a lead to the skip."
Not
lead
Sam to the skip, but
give
her a lead. Very subtle wording but it made all the difference.

If the woman weren't already dead, Sam would make sure the deed was done right the next time and kill Dara Kelly herself.

And Dawson! Talk about deceptive. He never once mentioned a

sibling, much more an identical twin. But then again, Sam had never shown any overt interest, thus she only knew that he was estranged from his family, and she stupidly had not pried for the low down. She'd loved him, she'd married him, and the rest hadn't concerned her blind sensibilities, not to mention her overactive, twenty-two-year-old libido.

Fool
.

She'd married a stranger. A stranger with a twin. An identical twin.

Deliciously, erotically, lusciously identical.

Calm down, kiddo, that's what got you into this mess in the first place.

A fool
and
horny.

"Cat got your tongue?"

"Pardon?" She really wanted to tell him that
he'd
have her tongue in a few seconds if he didn't back off. His mouth was so close, breath warm and enticing, if she reached out to lick her lips, she'd touch his.

"This is a first. I've never seen you at a loss for words before."

Sam could well imagine. Dara Kelly didn't seem the type to hold her tongue for anyone or anything, quite the opposite.

"I'm not at a loss. I've said what I need to say. And I want you to let me go and get off."

"Anyone ever tell you you're a bossy cuss?" Dawson—or whatever his name was— grinned, and Sam realized a total stranger held her captive.

She didn't even know his name, despite knowing every angle of his gorgeous face.

How could she not tell the difference! He was so much more intense than Dawson was, serious and somber, a very solid and trustworthy vibe about him.

She wondered if the brothers were as alike as they were different.

They both seemed to have the same spicy sense of humor; both had the same smooth, bronze skin, the lean-like-a-runner's build; both instantly kicked her female hormones into overdrive, but beyond these, Sam was almost in the dark as to demeanor and mood.

Where was help when she needed it and why did ghosts only pop up at the most inopportune times? Not that she had had much experience with the latter, but couldn't Dara see that she was in trouble? Or did she see and just not care?

Sam was tempted to call for Dara, but held back because of the strange man astride her.

His name is Caution.

The words came out as if said through clenched teeth, and Sam had to stop herself from searching the room for their source. Instead, she caught movement on the island behind Caution's hand, and peered as a cup and saucer violently rattled then levitated from the marble surface.

She gawked, and blurted, "Look out!" right before the ceramic-ware flew off the island towards the back of her captor's head as if flung.

Caution didn't hesitate and ducked without blinking or releasing her, and the cup and saucer hurtled past his left ear, missing his head by centimeters before crashing into the refrigerator and breaking into so many pieces.

Sam didn't know whether she was happy or disappointed the man had such quick reflexes, thwarting an opportunity for her escape.

Caution glanced behind him, eyebrows knitting as he turned back to her with a twinkle in his eyes. "Neat trick."

Sam bit her tongue in denial, but decided to turn the tables instead.

"You too."

He frowned.

"The handcuffs. How'd you get out of them?"

"Trade secret."

"You're an escape artist?"

"Not quite."

His enigmatic smile only emphasized the fact that he had her where he wanted her, and that she was at a distinct disadvantage.

She should have been more nervous, more afraid, but once she realized it wasn't Dawson imprisoning her, her fear had evaporated. For the moment. Who knew what other sort of threat this Caution represented, besides the assault he was currently waging on her senses of course?

"So, what are we going to do about this impasse?" he asked

"You could try letting me go and getting off of me," Sam repeated, but noticed he didn't seem in any particular hurry to do either.

"I like it where I am."

"But I don't."

"You've made that abundantly clear the last couple of months."

Sam did
not
want to get into a debate about Caution and Dara's relationship. "I'd rather not talk about that right now."

"Running away from our problems isn't going to solve anything."

What problems?

"You never gave me an answer to my proposal."

Proposal? Now this was getting just a little too sticky for her. Sam decided she wanted not only to kill Dara the next time she saw her, but also to make the woman sorry she'd ever been born! "My hands are turning numb," she mumbled.

He smiled as he sat up straight, taking her with him and holding her hands close to his chest. He slipped one cuff around her left wrist and locked it so fast she didn't have a chance to protest.

"What do you think you're doing?"

"You wanted me?" Caution slipped the other cuff around his right wrist and locked it. "You got me."

"You're coming with me?"

"Hardly." He stood, pulling her with him. "You're coming with me."

Sam got to her feet too, but stopped when he headed for the entryway.

"Where?"

"Upstairs to bed."

She arched a brow, heart drumming, and tried not to betray how much his words affected her, tried not to betray how much
he
affected her and that the thought of being alone with him in a bedroom totally unnerved her; totally turned her on.

Who knew she had this kinky, naughty streak, that the thought of him handcuffing her to his bed and having his way with her would zap her pussy with fire and speed her heart to near bursting? "You're kidding,"

was all she could manage in protest.

"I kid you not, and I don't have the energy to argue with you about it."

Like a two-year-old, she wanted to ask him a thousand questions—

Where was Dawson? Did Caution know his brother's whereabouts, and/or was he harboring him? Why was Caution so bone tired? Early day doing what?—among her top choices. Instead, she quietly followed him into the large master suite and swallowed hard as he closed the door behind them.

REVIEWS for
In Plain Sight

"Gracie C. McKeever possesses an incredible imaginative ability and the gift to make any type of paranormal element, no matter how unusual, appear perfectly realistic and [acceptable]. With any of her stories, there is never a question of the reader's suspension of disbelief, it occurs immediately, naturally, and very smoothly. Her action is fast-paced, and her characters are well-delineated. We come to know them as well as we understand our own friends and family, if not better. Any book by Ms. McKeever is well worth a first read and subsequent rereads, but in the opinion of this reviewer
In Plain Sight
is one of her best!
5 Kisses
"
—Frost,
Two Lips Reviews

"I thoroughly enjoyed this book and couldn't put it down until the last page was done. The triangle between Samantha, Dara and Caution is engrossing. You find yourself pulled into the story and go through the emotional roller coaster with Dara and Samantha. Through it all there is still the fact that Samantha's killer is still on the loose which opens up a whole new aspect because it is all connected. To tell anymore would ruin the story. The love scenes are magnificent and full of erotic pleasure that never ends. Gracie McKeever is an author who has gone to the top of my auto buy list and after reading this tale readers will understand why.
4.5 Blue Ribbons
"
—Angel,
Romance Junkies