In the Arms of the Wind (13 page)

Like a man possessed he drove into her with abandon. Her fingernails were digging little half-moon furrows into his back and that spurred him on to even greater heights of desire. He sank his teeth lightly into the fleshy part of her shoulder.

Pleasure unlike anything she’d ever experienced suddenly struck Kaycee like a blindside hit and washed over her so quickly she hardly knew how to react. Wave after wave of the most delicious delight undulated through her lower body and spread upward in a hot, wet spiral that had her screaming her release. The moment her body stopped pulsing around his shaft, he came, and with the spurting of his seed, another round of pleasure rocketed through her as his cock pressed against her womb.

“God!” she heard him gasp as his body jerked upon hers. He shivered and then collapsed onto her like a broken toy.

She wrapped her arms protectively around him and kissed the back of his head where his hair was damp with sweat. She drew a deep lungful of his scent down into the very depths of her to hold him there forever.

“I love you,” she said then bit her lip, mentally cursing herself for putting the statement out there so soon. But he surprised her with a low, whispery declaration of his own feelings.

“I love you too,” he said. “Before God, I do.”

And she knew he meant it.

* * * * *

The
Sea Cruise
was motoring gently just beyond the three-mile limit. The water was like black silk spread out around the luxury dinner cruiser. In international waters, the evening’s passengers had the option of gourmet dining on either the sky or horizon decks or casino gambling on the admiral deck. Adventurous passengers who had brought along their swimsuits could enjoy cocktails as they relaxed in the luxurious sunken hot tub in the open aft section of the sky deck with its spectacular view of the Atlantic rippling in the ship’s wake.

“My dad met my mom when her father arrested him,” Danny replied to Kaycee’s question in between forkfuls of lobster.

“Now that sounds like an interesting tale,” Kaycee said. “What was he arrested for?”

Danny chuckled. “I think that time it was for breaking and entering.”

“That time?”

He dipped another piece of lobster in melted butter. “My father was a career criminal,” he said. “Started hotwiring cars when he was in junior high and advanced right up the ladder to grand theft auto by the time he graduated. When I was little, he was in and out of jail.” He sighed. “Mostly in.”

“Your mom knew that?”

“Oh yeah,” he replied. “I think it was that bad-boy thing, you know? The men in her family—and a few women too—had mostly all been cops. I think she wanted a little bad in her life. She was waiting at the station for her father to take her home after school when he dragged this handsome Mick with the requisite DA haircut wearing a black leather jacket over a white T-shirt and tight jeans. He looked a lot like James Dean back in the day—a rebel without a clue and she’ll be the first to tell you she melted all over him.”

“What did her family think of him?”

Danny rolled his eyes. “Oh, they loved him,” he said sarcastically. “My mother’s mother came from money, lace curtain Irish. She’d been an only child and her father was a helluva entrepreneur, left her very well off when he passed away. He’d taught her everything he would have taught a son had he and his wife had one, gave her all kinds of opportunities. She in turn passed all that on to my mother. Even after Grammie married my grandfather—a homicide detective like yours truly—she continued to invest her inheritance into property, starting franchises like the diners. She took one look at my father and just about had a heart attack. He was slime as far as she was concerned.” He picked up his wineglass. “She despised him and his side of the family to the day she died.”

“She didn’t try to stop your mother from marrying your father?”

“Oh yes, but it was too late,” he said.

“Too late?”

“My brother Johnny was on the way.”

“Oh,” Kaycee said.

“My father’s father was even more pissed about the situation than my mother’s family was. Like I said, he’s old school. He insisted on the marriage even though my mother’s family was suggesting her having the baby and putting it up for adoption. Luckily my mother and father really loved one another. They had their problems—God knows they did—but my brothers and I never doubted they were in love.”

“What did your grandfather think of your father’s criminal bent?” she asked. “From what you’ve said of him, he’s a stickler for the right thing. Surely he…”

“How is the meal, Mr. Gallagher?” the captain of the
Sea Cruise
asked as he came up to their table.

“Excellent as always, Captain,” Danny said.

“You picked a wonderful night for the cruise,” the captain said then turned his charming smile to Kaycee. “And who is this lovely lady accompanying you this evening?”

“Kaycee Connor, this is Captain Reynolds,” Danny introduced.

The captain gave Kaycee a broad smile. “I hope you are enjoying your cruise with us, Miss Connor.”

“Oh I am. My compliments to your chef. The food is absolutely delicious.”

“I will be sure to tell him,” the captain said, inclined his head then continued on to the next table as the waiter arrived with two ramekins of crème brulée.

“Ooh,” Kaycee moaned. “My personal favorite!”

“Mine too,” Danny agreed. “I once ate six of them at one sitting.”

“I bet you paid for it too,” Kaycee said with a laugh.

“I did.”

“You didn’t answer my question,” she said, diving into the rich custard dessert. “How did your grandfather deal with your father’s criminal tendencies?”

“My grandfather always thought my father was a fool, but he did everything he could to keep him out of prison. Jail was another matter. He thought that would teach him a lesson but it never did. There was no love lost between them. He favored my uncles, his favorite being the one who died in Korea. My brother Johnny took over the reins of
Daideo’s
businesses when the old man retired about three years ago. He respects my brother Sean immensely as most fathers do whose sons go into the priesthood. As for me?” He poked his spoon into the crème brulée. “He tolerates me.” He took a bite of the dessert. “Barely.”

“What kind of business…?”

“Enough about me. Let’s talk about you,” Danny said.

“Let’s don’t,” she said, taking the hint that he didn’t want to talk about his family.

“Then let’s talk about the weather.”

“Boring,” she stated as she finished her dessert.

“You want another?”

“Yes, but my hips don’t need it,” she answered.

“Your hips are just fine,” he said, pushing aside the ramekin he’d scraped clean. “I like a woman with some flesh to hold on to when I’m making love to her.”

Kaycee ducked her head. “You’re terrible.”

He leaned back in his chair. “You didn’t seem to think so this afternoon.” When she shot him an embarrassed look, he wagged his brows.

A three-piece band had set up on the other side of the dining area and had begun playing a fifties ballad. Danny scooted his chair back, stood then held out his hand.

“May I have this dance, Miss Connor?” he asked.

Kaycee smiled. “I would be honored, Mr. Gallagher.”

He came around the table to hold her chair then laced his fingers through hers to lead her onto the parquet dance floor, bringing her firmly into his arms as he swept her up in the haunting music.

“I love this song,” she said. “Pat Boone, wasn’t it?”

“I think so,” he answered. “They don’t play anything but fifties music at any of the clubs and that’s all I allow on the jukeboxes at the diners. That was the one stipulation my grandmother made when she left the properties to me and Johnny. Nothing beyond 1959. That was when time stopped for her.” He smiled. “October 14, 1959, to be precise.”

“Why that date?”

“Errol Flynn died that day,” he said. “She had a savage crush on him. Family legend says she once spent a wild weekend with him in Jamaica.” He twirled her under his arm then brought her close against him again. “Did you know he was born in Tasmania and when he was buried, his friends put six bottles of Irish whiskey in the coffin with him?”

“I remember some of his films. He was a sexy man for his day,” she replied.

“The George Clooney of his day,” Danny acknowledged. He arched a thick dark brow. “Do you harbor any secret crushes on movie studs?”

“I’ll never tell,” she replied.

“Doesn’t matter,” he said, twirling her again. “I’m all the man you’re going to need or can handle.”

“You think so?”

He locked gazes with her. “I know so, babe.”

The rest of the evening was spent dancing and laughing together as the
Sea Cruise
lazily plied the dark waters of the mid-Atlantic. The weather was calm with a balmy breeze and when the ship docked, Danny and Kaycee were the last to leave, walking hand in hand to the parking lot.

“I really enjoyed that,” she told him as they neared his car.

“We can go whenever you like,” he said. He glanced at a car coming toward them with its bright lights on, squinting at the glare.

Kaycee would later remember seeing the rear passenger window going down on the dark blue sedan and wondering what it was that was being thrown from the window. Past that point, she remembered very little other than Danny shouting for her to get down and the brutal shove he gave her that sent her crashing to the pavement. The sounds of angry bees flying past her face was the last thing that registered as she went down, her head connecting with a concrete parking stop, her knees scraping brutally on the rough pavement.

* * * * *

“The sons of bitches could have killed her!” Danny shouted at Barnes. He was pacing the ER waiting room—having been physically restrained by a fellow officer from accompanying Kaycee’s gurney into the triage area. Blood was oozing from a cut over his left eye and trickling down the side of his face but he wasn’t even aware he’d been wounded until a nurse came over to hand him a four by four gauze pad.

“We’ll get you in to see the doctor as quickly as we can, Detective,” she told him as she put the gauze to his wound and told him to hold it.

“Never mind about me. Just take care of my lady,” he said through clenched teeth.

“Did you get a license plate?” Barnes asked, frowning at the room full of cops who had shown up and were milling about.

“Fuck no, I didn’t get a license plate number, Barnes!” Danny bellowed. “I was too busy throwing myself over Kaycee to look at the goddamned car!”

Barnes held both hands up—palms out—in a calming gesture. “Easy, man. I had to ask.”

Danny plowed his free hand through hair that was already tousled. “It never occurred to me they’d come after her there.” He gave Barnes a bewildered look. “It never occurred to me.”

“We’ve got men on her now,” Barnes said.

“They could have killed her, Jack,” Danny repeated. He lowered his left hand, stared at the blood-stained gauze then said it a third time.

“Yeah, well, they didn’t so let’s move on from here, okay?” Barnes suggested. “You gotta keep it together.”

“Detective Gallagher?”

Danny spun around at the sound of the name. When he saw it was a nurse standing at the triage room door, he hurried to her, crushing the bloody pad in his fist. “How is she? I want to see her!”

“She’s fine,” the nurse replied. “If you’ll come with me, I’ll take you to her.”

The smell of the hospital was much stronger beyond the double swinging doors and Danny had always hated that smell. First with his father then his beloved grandmother, he had come to associate the antiseptic stench of the hospital with death. The odor made him cringe and brought out repressed feelings of dread and helplessness. He could feel his muscles tensing, sweat forming in the palms of his hands as he followed the nurse. When she stopped in front of one of the curtains and swept it aside, he experienced a wicked emptiness in the pit of his belly.

Kaycee was awake, and the moment she saw him, she held her hand out to him. She looked so vulnerable, so exposed lying there it broke his heart. He went to her side and took her hand, bringing it to his lips, thankful to feel the warmth of it against his cheek as he held it there.

“You’re hurt,” she said, staring wide-eyed at the crusted blood down the side of his face.

“It’s just a nick,” he said.

“A nick I need to look at,” a male voice said, and Danny swung his head around.

“Hey, Uncle Mike,” he said. “I didn’t know you still pulled duty.”

“I don’t, but when I heard my nephew was here, I came to check on you,” the tall, silver-haired physician stated as he and a nurse holding a small covered tray came in. “Now let me see that cut.”

“It can wait,” Danny said.

“No, it can’t,” his uncle and Kaycee said at the same time.

“A girl after my own heart,” Dr. Gallagher said, smiling.

“Kaycee Connor, this is my Uncle Mike. He’s chief of surgery here.”

“Nice to meet you, Kaycee. Here, sit down, Danny.”