INVITING FIRE (A Sydney Rye Novel, #6) (18 page)

Lenox lowered the helicopter as we came along a cliff with a house at its edge. He took us down on a big green lawn, the grass bending away as we approached. Once the helicopter had settled and Lenox cut the engine, we unstrapped ourselves and jumped out, followed by Blue, who looked very happy to be back on solid ground.

Lenox grabbed my hand and ran toward the house. It was white with big glass windows gleaming in the sun. A dark blue infinity pool surrounded by a teak deck overlooked the ocean. The smoke from the explosion was still visible to the north, thick and dark and looking very different from the gray clouds that churned further above us. Lenox pulled at me, urging me forward. I followed him off the deck and around the house to the garage. It was white like the house, with a metal roll top door. Lenox punched in a code at the side entrance of the building, and I followed him into a dark room. There was a heavy smell in the air. Different from the bowels of the yacht, but hitting the same notes of power, grease and engines.

Lenox pushed a button on the wall and the roll top door began to rumble up. Light flooded in through the widening gap, racing across the floor and hitting tires. As the door continued to rise it revealed three dirt bikes and a Jeep Wrangler with no top. I smiled.

Lenox jogged to the Jeep, Blue close on his heels. He opened the driver's door, motioning for me to get in. Blue jumped up and landed lightly in the driver's seat before continuing over to the passenger seat. I climbed in and was happy to see the keys waiting in the ignition. "Go to this address," he said leaning over me and setting the GPS. "It's where Daniela dropped you off. I'll make sure she meets you there and gets you back to the base."

"What about you?" I asked as he stood upright again, the GPS calculating the route.

"I've got to get back to my ship. I'll take one of the bikes," he said with a smile.

"You'll be safe?" I asked.

He smiled and I saw a glint in his eye that made me wonder about his misspent youth. "No one would be foolish enough to try to take
Satisfaction."

"Thanks," I said, turning the key in the ignition, "for saving my life." The Jeep rumbled on its oversized wheels waiting for my next command.

"Thanks for risking it," he said.

The road to the pick-up point was rutted, dust clouding behind me as we rattled away from the mansion, the sun's glare and fresh air clearing my mind. The difficulty of the driving consumed my attention, but images of Robert Maxim through that mist of blood tried to crowd my mind. I pushed them away, determined to stay sane.

M
erl met me at the helicopter pad in the compound. He was frowning, his dogs sitting silently by him. I was exhausted. We walked down the path, our dogs trailing behind us. The jungle was close around us, its noises familiar and comforting. It felt like home, a wild place where at night, and even during the day, dark pockets existed. The true black of the jungle night was coming, but the sky above us now was violet. We reached a fork in the path and Merl paused turning to me.

"Why don't you go back to your room and get showered and changed and then we can talk."

"No," I said, shaking my head. "Let's just do this."

I looked down at myself. At the dirty, frayed kimono. Skin smeared with grime. Knees puckered with droplets of dried blood. The envelope still stuck into my bikini bottoms, wrinkled now, curved to the shape of my body. Merl just nodded and continued toward his place, Blue and I following behind. I heard Daniela's helicopter chopping into the air, rising up again. "She's going to get Mulberry," Merl answered my question without my having to ask it.

"Really?" I said.

"Yes," Merl answered, tipping his head forward into a nod. "He's coming tonight. He wants to see you."

"Oh," I said.

We arrived at Merl's house, he opened the door and waved his dogs in. They fanned out as we entered the living room, checking the perimeters of all the rooms, making sure that everything was still safe and secure just like it ought to be. We followed Michael into the dojo, his nose grazing the ground. Merl turned on the overhead light, which filled in the shadows of the room. The place was neat, the desk bare except for the flat screen and keyboard. Weapons displayed on the wall looked as much like art pieces as forms of protection.

There was only the one chair, pushed into the desk. Merl offered it to me, and I pulled it out and sat down. My body felt heavy and worn. Exhausted. Blue sat next to me and then lowered himself to the ground, laying his head between his paws and sighing softly. Merl leaned against the window frame, propping himself on the ledge. The light winked out behind him and darkness consumed the landscape.

He crossed his arms and looked down at me. "What happened?" he asked.

I wet my lips and thought about where to begin. "You talked to Lenox?"

"Yes, but I want to hear what you have to say."

"Did he send you the photos?"

Merl nodded.

"Okay," I said. "It started off pretty good. I scaled that ship, Merl, like I was born to do it." I nodded slightly, chewing on my bottom lip, thinking about how little that mattered now. "I got caught in the office, I had to hide under the desk. And I heard them talking."

"Who?" Merl said.

"Juan Carlos and his guests."

"What did they say?"

"Well, it was in Spanish." I smiled slightly. Merl nodded, he knew how bad I was with languages. "But I recognized some words, they were talking about Joyful Justice. And they were talking about Robert Maxim."

Merl's eyes seemed to burn in the half light but he didn't twitch. Not one of his refined muscles moved.

"So," I said. "I waited for them to leave."

"Under the desk?" Merl asked

"Yes."

"How long?"

"Under two hours," I said. I could see Merl calculating what that would do to my muscles, especially after that climb. "When I got out I obviously had some pins and needles," I said smiling. "And Juan Carlos was asleep in his chair. Instead of leaving the package on the desk like you told me I decided to leave it on his chest." Merl's eyebrows raised. "He didn't stir," I said, looking away from him. "Not much anyway. The man was pretty drunk." I forced myself to return my gaze to Merl. "I watched it for a moment, rising and falling with his breath. And I wondered if it would do any good. But mostly, I felt like a badass, Merl. And so, I got off the ship and back to Lenox’s. No problems." I stopped.

"You left it on his chest?"

"Yes."

"The same place it was stabbed to?"

"Yes."

"And then?" Merl said. "After you left it on his chest and made it safe and sound back the
Satisfaction
?"

"And then," I raised my hand, letting it fall back onto my leg. It made a slapping noise. "And then shit went crazy," I laughed. "It was Bobby Maxim," I said.

Merl's eyebrows rose. "What do you mean it was Bobby Maxim?"

"Well, I mean that he was on
Goldilocks
. That's the most obvious thing," I said, looking at the ground, at the floor. It was beautiful hardwood. Tiger stripes of caramel and chocolate.

"What are you talking about, Sydney?" Merl said, bringing my attention back to him.

"I don't know what he knows," I said. "But he knows what we are doing. And he knows how we are doing it.”

"Slow down," Merl said.

I laughed. "Here is what happened, Merl. We were taken from the beach." I ticked off a finger. "They came for us. They knew me, they knew I'd have Blue." I held down another finger. "They muzzled him, they got us onto the ship." Another finger.

"You let them?" Merl asked

"Yes," I said.

"Why?" he asked.

"Because I wanted answers. I wanted to know how they knew how to find me, knew who I was. I wanted to know how they knew about Blue."

At the sound of his name Blue sat up and looked at me. I rested my hand on his head realizing I'd been raising my voice. He lowered his chin to my thigh, his breath gently caressing my skin. Blue leaned into me, his weight a comfort. A rock. Something I knew was real.

"I can understand that," Merl said. "What happened when you got to the ship?"

"Lenox insisted on coming with me. They took us into the bowels of the ship, it was dirty," I motioned at my legs, at the dirt that still clung there, the smeared grease. "They taped my hands with duct tape."

Merl smiled. "Always with the duct tape."

I laughed. "That's what I thought."

Merl nodded. "So you were taped, Blue was muzzled."

"There were three of them. Two of them left, taking Blue with them. The man they left with me had a gun." Merl nodded for me to continue. "I had the blade in hand, I'd cut the tape. I was ready."

"Were you worried about Blue?" Merl asked.

"I was," I admitted. "But, I didn't think they would have time to do anything. I figured they would want to torture him in front of me. And I was ready for that. I had the blade in my fingers. They closed the door. As the man approached me I heard a gunshot in the hall and I couldn't hear Blue. But, I didn't let that distract me. I was totally focused, ready." I paused, my mind going back to that place. My knees aching now even more than they did then. My heart beat ticked up a notch at the memory. My hand tightened on Blue, scrunching his loose neck fur between my fingers, I concentrated on the weight of him against me.

"I heard gun shots in the hall and then the door burst open. But the man in front of me was blocking it so I didn't see who it was until he fell from the bullets that had blasted through his brain. Standing there in the doorway was Bobby Maxim. And here is the weird part, Merl, Blue came bounding in with him. He didn't growl at him when Bobby approached me. He didn't bark at him when Bobby grabbed me around the waist and pulled me tight against him. Blue didn't make a sound or threaten Robert in any way when he kissed me."

Merl seemed to almost be vibrating with tension. "He kissed you?"

"Yes, after he gave me this," I held up the envelope. "I thought I was hallucinating." I held up my wrist with the gold watch on it. "But as you can see, I wasn't."

"Why did he give you the watch?"

"Because he wanted to make sure I knew how much time I had before the boat exploded." Merl nodded. "What kind of investigation will there be?"

"Obviously, a big one," Merl said. "The Costa Ricans won't handle it alone. The U.S. will help. There are a lot of drugs running up that coast so the Americans will be interested."

I closed my eyes. "Why do you think he did it?"

"When do you think he did it?" Merl asked.

I opened my eyes, shook my head, shrugged my shoulder. "You mean because the knife was stabbed into his chest, just how I left him?"

"Yes."

I shrugged. "The blood looked fresher than that. If it weren't for that and this watch, I'd wonder if I did it," I admitted.

Merl reached out for the envelope and I handed it to him. Tension I'd been holding in my shoulders relaxed as I released the letter. "It's still sealed," Merl said.

"Open it," I said.

He pulled a knife off his waist and cut through the envelope's top, slid out a single piece of paper and unfolded it. He looked down at it and then handed it to me.

Call me
and a phone number. I shook my head. "Seriously?" I said with a laugh.

"Go get some rest," Merl said. "We'll talk about this more tomorrow. I've called an emergency meeting of the council."

I nodded, standing up. Blue moved with me, tapping his nose against my hip as I made my way home.

I
heard thunder and saw lightning as I sat on my deck waiting for Mulberry to land. Blue lay at my feet, his head up, watching the jungle with me. The chop of the helicopter broke through the night's sounds and Blue sat up. He stepped to the edge of the deck, looking up for the noise.

The wind came moments later, the rain pelting against the large leaves, sounding like raw slaps. I went inside, closing out the storm. When the doorbell rang I ran to it, my heart beating fast. Mulberry stood there, his hair wet and flat, wearing a rain jacket that dripped onto the front porch. He was holding a small duffle bag.

"Remember that night that you told me I was a loser?" Mulberry asked.

"When you were refusing to help me?" I asked. He nodded and smiled. "It was raining then, too," I agreed. He just stood there, the rain pelting the path behind him. "Do you want to come in?" I asked.

Mulberry put his bag down in the foyer. He unzipped his jacket, drops of water shaking off of him as he did so. He slipped his coat off his shoulders and held it in one hand. Underneath he was wearing a T-shirt, Army green with a little pocket over his right breast. It looked soft and worn, the color faded. Mulberry's jeans looked as used as the shirt. They seemed to mold around his body as though he'd been wearing them for a very long time. I took the raincoat from him and our fingers touched. His cold and wet, mine almost feverish. He let go of the coat and I turned and hung it by the door where it could drip onto the tile as long as it wanted.

Blue couldn't take it anymore and yowled at me. I nodded and he ran over to Mulberry, turning around and sitting on his foot, then leaned up against him, staring up with his mismatched eyes. Mulberry laughed and bent over to pet him. Mulberry hadn't shaved in a day, it looked like to me. His hair was long around his ears and I thought there was more gray in it than the last time I'd seen him. The crow's feet around his eyes seemed deeper and there were dark circles underneath them. "You look tired," I said.

Mulberry smiled and shrugged. "I am."

"Me too," I said.

"Want to go to bed?" Mulberry asked me.

"I don't know if I can sleep," I said.

"Would it help to talk about it?" Mulberry asked.

"I don't think so," I said, shaking my head.

Mulberry held his hand out to me, palm up, and I put mine in his. He closed his fingers around mine and turned, leading me into the living room. He bypassed the couch and went into my bedroom. I followed him, my legs feeling leaden and exhausted, my eyelids heavy. But my brain was buzzing, vibrating, turning, whirling.