Danger in Paradise (6 page)

* * * * *

Hope let the shower jets massage her aching shoulders and back. She was used to harder work with her underwater dives, but she’d been in the sun all day and was feeling unusually burned out. She supposed it was because of the nightmare. Whatever it was, a feeling of dread hung over her head that she couldn’t quite shake.

She could have finished a few hours ago, but in an effort to avoid Luke and the uncomfortable emotions he evoked, she’d taken about four hundred extra pictures. At least Mrs. Santiago would have a lot of prints to choose from. That was the reason she was here in the first place. Not to ogle over Luke’s ripped stomach and very kissable chest. While his body was certainly hot, that’s not what drew her to him.

The fact that he’d stayed in her room all night to make sure she was okay had totally taken her off guard. It had been sweet and at odds with what she’d expected from him.

When the water turned tepid she forced herself to get out. The small circular window in the bathroom told her it was near dusk and her stomach was growling embarrassingly loud. She pulled her damp hair into a low twist and changed into a lavender dress with Grecian flutter sleeves. She found Luke in the kitchen standing next to the stove, dicing green peppers.

“A man who cooks. I’m impressed.” She tried to keep her tone casual, hoping her attitude would prevent him from mentioning anything about the night before.

He shot her a quick glance before pushing the peppers to the side. “I don’t have anyone to cook for me so it was either learn or starve…or more likely live on takeout. What about you?” he asked as he pulled mushrooms and zucchini from the fridge.

“I’ve been cooking since I was ten.” The truth was she’d had to learn. At age ten, she’d been placed in a home run by an elderly woman. Looking back, she realized the woman had been in the beginning stages of dementia, but the state hadn’t cared. No one had. Like Luke said, she had to learn or she and the two younger girls living with her would have starved.

“Do you want to help?” he asked as he chopped the zucchini.

“Sure, where’s Zara?” She didn’t mind cooking, but she wondered where the eccentric older woman was. It would be nice to have a little barrier between her and Luke.

“I thought I told you. She’s on her way back to Jamaica. She was only here to help get the house ready.” He didn’t look up as he spoke.

“Oh…right.” Her stomach did an annoying little flip. They were alone. Not that it mattered. She was a consummate professional. Or at least that’s what she kept telling herself. So why did her stomach tighten with need when she looked at him? And why did she keep envisioning what it would be like to be tangled between the sheets with him. Hell, who needed sheets or a bed when there was a kitchen table right here? Gritting her teeth, she mentally shook herself. She’d never had a runaway libido before, but Luke made her want so bad she ached.

Rolling her shoulders, she pushed down those thoughts. “Is it all right if we eat in here, then? That dining room is so formal.”
And intimate.

“Definitely. I don’t know why she insisted we eat in there last night.” He chuckled and tossed vegetables in the frying pan.

 
She grabbed lettuce and other foodstuff and began to prepare a large salad. Out of the corner of her eye, she watched Luke move around the kitchen. He was dressed casually in dark jeans and an olive green polo shirt.

With deft hands, he diced vegetables, then grabbed a new knife and started slicing up fresh fish. She wondered if he often cooked for other women, then dismissed the thought as a surprising jolt of jealousy surged through her. It didn’t matter.

She doubted he realized it, but he hummed an off-key ballad that had a hauntingly familiar sound. As if he knew she was staring at him, he glanced over from where he stood at the counter. She froze as his dark gaze swept over her. His look wasn’t blatantly sexual, but there was no doubt in her mind that he was aware of her. Very aware. She wondered if he was even aware of the way he was watching her. Clearing her throat, she turned and began setting the table. She just wanted to eat and get the hell away from him.  

He probably wouldn’t do anything about it and that was just as well because she certainly wasn’t going to make a move on him. It wasn’t in her nature. Hell, she couldn’t remember the last time she’d been on a date. And getting involved with someone she worked with was a definite no.

“What’s that you’re humming?”

“It’s an old Russian folk song. I don’t know why it’s stuck in my head.” He shook his head and returned to what he was doing.

“You don’t have an accent, but you are Russian right?”

He nodded. “Yes. My parents immigrated before I was born.”

“Any brothers or sisters?”

“No.”

He was an only child just like her. She started to comment when the lights went out. Her heart stuttered. It wasn’t raining or storming, but she also didn’t know how well electricity in this region held up. “Is this normal?” she asked.

The two oversized kitchen windows let in a few muted streams of light. Dark reddish hues covered the patch of visible sky, and she could barely make out the shadows in the kitchen. Luke moved across the room with a liquid grace that surprised her. He put a finger over her mouth.

Instantly she tensed. If he was worried, she should be, too. She grabbed a knife off the kitchen table. In the dark Luke nodded so she knew she’d done the right thing. He motioned that she should follow him.

He squeezed her free hand and they quietly exited the kitchen. Feeling along the wall, they crept toward the stairs at the front of the house. Earlier, she’d seen the outline of a gun under the back of his shirt so she wasn’t sure what he was doing since he already had a weapon. Her first instinct was to run out the back door instead of being trapped in this house, but she trusted him enough to follow. 

She’d taken many self-defense classes over the years, but having that knife added another sense of security.

A thud sounded from behind them. Luke quickened his movements and she had no choice but to follow. When they made it to the stairs, he pulled out his gun, but kept her near his side. The carpeting muted their movements as they hurried toward his room.

Once inside he slipped the lock into place and pulled a flashlight from the bureau. Enough light filtered through his window that she could make out his movements, but it was growing darker by the second. She hated feeling like a spectator. After years of therapy and self-defense training, she couldn’t sit on the sidelines.

Keeping her movements slow, she walked up to Luke and pulled his head down to her so that his ear was inches from her mouth. “What’s going on?”

“I don’t know. Break-ins aren’t common, but I’m not taking a chance with you here. There’s a jeep in the covered shed behind the rose garden. I needed to get the keys,” he whispered back into her ear.

Okay, so they were leaving. That was fine with her. She hated that she might lose all her camera equipment but she wasn’t stupid enough to argue.

He handed her his gun and slipped a cell phone into his back pocket, then grabbed another gun and a set of keys. She left the knife on the bed. Briefly she wondered if it was even legal for him to have a gun with him, then quickly discarded the thought. To hell with legalities.

A loud crash sounded downstairs from the kitchen, like someone had run into a chair or table. Luke motioned that he was going out first. He swept the hallway with his gun before motioning that she should follow. She noted he didn’t turn the flashlight on.

Trying to keep her breathing as normal and quiet as possible, she felt along the wall. They passed her room and were almost to the edge of the stairs when the hair on the back of her neck raised. Warning tingles snaked down her spine. Before she could motion to Luke that something was off, a pair of steely arms wrapped around her upper body.

Body odor and tobacco assaulted her senses. The smell was disgustingly familiar, and a rage buried deep inside unleashed her animalistic side.

She didn’t think. She reacted. Being small had advantages. In a few swift movements, she shoved her arms outward at the same time she bent her knees to escape the embrace. Her gun dropped, but it didn’t matter. In calculated, fluid movements, she pivoted and prayed her elbow connected with something. The crunch of bone reverberated through the air. A man screamed obscenities. She wasn’t finished, though.

She could feel Luke behind her, but she ignored him.

The intruder’s shadow was visible enough now that she was facing him, so she advanced. It wasn’t the smartest thing she’d ever done, but something primal took over and she just acted. She kicked at one of his knees and was perversely pleased when he crumpled to the floor, howling in pain.

“Run!” Luke shouted.

He jerked her back and out of the way, then yelled at her again to get the jeep. As he lunged for the other man, he threw something over his shoulder toward her. Keys clattered to the floor. Heart racing, she felt around in the semi-darkness for a few seconds before her fingers clasped around the jagged metal.

She wanted to stay and help but had no doubts about Luke’s ability to defend them. Not to mention his order to retrieve their getaway vehicle. If there was more than one person in the house she and Luke needed a way to escape. Grunts and the sound of fighting trailed behind her and she sent up a silent prayer for Luke.

She raced down the stairs but paused when the lights flooded back on. Beads of sweat ran down her back and face. She had no idea why the lights were back on, but she assumed it wasn’t good. She flung open the front door, and all the air whooshed from her lungs.

A blond-haired man dressed in all black stood on the porch. He had a gun pointed directly at her face. “Back inside now.”

She did as he said, but refused to turn her back to him. When they were back in the foyer and the front door was closed, he spoke again. “Where’s your friend?”

“Long gone.”

The noises and grunts from upstairs proved her a liar.
Damn!

He lifted a sandy eyebrow mockingly. Without turning his head he shouted, “Luke, you might want to get down here.”

Her heart sped up. Did Luke know this man? Her confusion must have shown because he continued. “I know who you are too, Hope.”

Alternating rushes of hot and cold snaked down her spine. She wiped clammy palms on her dress. Seconds later Luke came down the stairs with a groaning man in front of him. With a steady hand, Luke held a gun to his head. When Luke saw the other man and Hope, his eyes narrowed at her. Did he actually think she knew who this guy was? The man was pointing a gun at her for God’s sake.

She glanced back at the guy and realized he hadn’t taken his eyes off her. Smart man.

“Let him go.” The stranger with the gun had a surprisingly even voice. As if this was something he did every day.

For all she knew, he did.

The bearded man in front of Luke stumbled down the stairs, muttering under his breath, but he didn’t look pissed. Just annoyed. She glanced back and forth between Luke and the blond man holding the gun. Inside, her adrenaline pumped at lightning speed.

When Luke and his prisoner got to the bottom of the stairs, Luke jerked the man by the collar up against his body, using him as a shield. Looked like he wasn’t going to follow the other guy’s directives and let his captive go.
Good.

That’s when she realized the other man’s hands were secured behind his back with some kind of plastic flex-cuffs. Keeping his weapon trained on the man with the gun, Luke cautiously walked backward toward Hope.

“Who are you and what the hell do you want?” Luke demanded as he came to stand near Hope. Actually, he stood more in front of her than beside her, shielding her. His neck muscles corded tightly, his shoulders were tense, and she could practically feel the adrenaline rolling off him. Despite the crazy situation, some small part of her melted because he was using his body to block hers.

“I want you two to disappear for three days.” The blond man spoke calmly.

“What?” they asked in unison.

Before he could answer, the man Luke held in a death grip grunted in pain. From her position she could see trickles of blood streaming down his face. “Damn it, you should have warned me she knew kung fu or whatever the hell that was.”

She almost felt bad for him. But not quite.

The blond man ignored his partner as he sheathed his gun. “For three days you need to be invisible. Understand?”

Hope allowed a small measure of relief to course through her as the man’s weapon disappeared.

“Who are you?” she asked, and couldn’t stop the rising pitch of her voice. Normally she handled stressful situations well, but today she felt her sanity pull thin. Probably had something to do with the gun that had just been pointed at her
face
.

“That’s not important. What is important, is that a very powerful man wants you dead.” He spoke directly to her, with a pointed stare, as if she should have a clue as to what he was talking about.

“Her?” Luke demanded.

“Me? Who wants me dead?” After her late night phone calls, she had a small guess, but she didn’t have a name to go with the face. Her throat tightened at the thought that
he
had somehow found her. The man from her nightmares. And what, he’d sent people to kill her? Now this guy was letting her go instead? Nothing made sense. Her temple throbbed as a hundred questions assaulted her.