Kissing Fortune (Man Season) (4 page)

He ushered her onto a fairly new but
small yacht. Once inside the dry, warm interior, he handed her a fresh towel
and offered her a cup of coffee, which she took, gladly.

“I forgot to have dinner!” she
exclaimed as she sipped the dusky brew. “God, this is good! Thanks!”

“You’re welcome. My name’s Travers,
by the way. I’ve got some potato and bacon soup on the stove. There’s plenty,
if you don’t mind simple fare?”

“I don’t mind. I’m famished!”

She finished drying her hair, combed
it out with her fingers and sat down at Travers’ square black lacquered table.
Along with the soup they ate fresh-baked bread and a wonderful salad filled
with spinach and radishes.

“How do you like it?’

“It’s great! Are you a chef?”

“Actually, I was, for a time. Been
just about everything … a teacher, a laborer, a salesman … I hated that!”

“What are you now?”

“I’m retired; though I do take
clients out for deep-sea fishing now and again, when the coffer is running
low.”

Tierney glanced at him, her mind
working on an angle.

“I’d like to go deep-sea fishing.
Never have before. How much do you charge?”

“A fair rate.
But I don’t think that’s what you’d
be hiring me for, Miss Evans.”

“Oh, you know who I am?”

“Yeah, my daughter watches your show.
I’ve seen it a couple of times when I was at her place in
Pasadena
.
Got three
grandkids … two boys and a girl … all a bunch of wild towheads!”

“What’s a towhead?”

“A white-haired blonde, probably like
you were at that age. My daughter’s hair is about the same color as yours is
now.

“Oh. Well, I need to get away. I don’t
think I can trust anyone I know. Could you help me?”

“What makes you think you can trust
me?”

“I don’t know you.”

“Ha! That
ain’t
a good way to tell, little lady. But you can trust me. Tell me all your
troubles and I’ll see what I can do.”

She related the facts as she knew
them and her instincts as she felt them, while they finished up dinner and
washed the dishes.

“So, you’d like to find
Kiel
. Why?”

“I … well, I … kind of fell for him,
at first sight.”

“Did he seem to feel the same?”

“I’m not really sure he likes me at
all.”

“
Kiel
is a complicated man. He’s had a
rough life. He lost his parents to an earthquake, lost his first love to a
murderer. And she was pregnant at the time.”

“Oh, no, that’s horrible!” Tierney
had to stifle her tears. “I felt like he wanted to be near me but something was
holding him back. Or maybe it was only my imagination. I usually get any guy I
want.”

“I’ll bet you do. And now you want
Kiel
?”

“I at least want a chance with him.
And I want to get away from LA. I’m not safe here.”

“What about your folks? They’re not
safe, either.”

“I don’t know about that. I think my
dad was lying about those threats. When I was leaving, I could see all of them,
staring at me. They didn’t seem upset for me, or worried. It was frightening,
Mr. Travers, but I’d swear they all were in on trying to get rid of me!”

The tears broke loose. He stood,
comforted her with a pat on her back.

“Cry it out, girl. Then you can get
your mind clear and think about the future. I can take you to Baja. I’ll get a
fishing permit online tonight! But now, if you don’t have any documents with
you …”

“I brought my passport. My driver’s
license was in the car when it exploded.”

“Hum, could be trouble if the Mexican
Armada stops us. But I
ain’t
never
had any trouble with them before, so I probably won’t
now. They know my boat. You can bunk in the guest room. It’s on the right, just
through that door. We’ll be leaving bright and early, so get you some good
beauty sleep!
Wouldn’t want
Kiel
seeing you all
puffed up and red-eyed!”

“Do you think he’ll be there?”

“It’s one of his hang outs. If he
ain’t
there, we’ll go look for him somewhere else, all
right?”

“Okay. Thanks, Mr. Travers.”

“You’re welcome! Now, off to bed with
you!”

“Yes, sir!” she smiled and hurried
off to find her bunk.

The rain hit the deck all night,
beating a rhythm that lulled her into a calm, dreamless sleep.

Morning found Tierney fresh-faced and
determined to see her mission through to the end – whatever that might be.
Finding
Kiel
was uppermost in her mind. But she
also wanted to figure out who was after her, and why.

She used Travers’ computer to
Skype
with her best male friend, lanky, bearded Ernie
Saunders, a geek extraordinaire she’d bonded with in high school over, of all
things,
The Lord of the Rings
. If anybody could dig out some info it was
him.

“So, can you help me, bro?”

“You know I’ll try, sis. I’m glad you
called. I couldn’t get a straight answer when I talked to your family. They had
the FBI come here this morning, thinking I might be hiding you. Funny thing
about those FBI guys …”

“What’s that, Ernie?”

“They seemed more like an actor’s
version than the real deal.
A bad actor’s version, at that.”

“You don’t think they were really
from the FBI?”

“No, I don’t. And I wrote down their
badge numbers. I’m going to try to trace them. You saw both of them, right?”

“Yeah, they interviewed me.”

“Well, f they show up, you watch
yourself, okay?”

“I will, and thanks, Ernie love.”

“You know I’m always here for you,
sis. Take care.”

She nodded, sat staring at the blank
screen after he signed off. Ernie was more like a brother to her than Dennis
had ever been. He came from a poor family but he never once accepted her offers
of help or treated her differently for being born rich. He was the kind who
believed in making his own destiny. He worked two jobs and studied at UCLA part
time whenever he could save enough for tuition. His dream was to be able to
create CGI landscapes and otherworldly beings for movies and video games. He’d
made a good living for himself, bought a cool Craftsman house in Westwood with
his Asian girlfriend, Lu
Jiang
, who was a wardrobe
supervisor for a cop series at CBS Studios. Tierney envied them, more than once
she wished she could live the hip LA lifestyle, without a camera in her face or
her parents making all her decisions.

“When this mess is over I’m going to
find my dream and live it!” she sighed.

Travers cooked a light breakfast of
eggs and toast, with juice and more of his excellent coffee. She helped him
cast off, was used to boating though she never enjoyed it much with her
parents. They always had to turn it into a competition between her and Dennis,
to see who could do this better or that. It was never for fun or relaxation. As
she stood near the stern of the yacht, watching the seagulls and listening to
them shriek, she saw the rear view mirror images of her parents’ faces again.
Their expressions were not loving or nurturing. Did aliens put some giant seed
pods in their closets while they were sleeping? But, seriously, they’d never
been the nurturing type. Still, she couldn’t imagine them having a reason to
want her dead.

They made the trip south over a calm,
crystal blue ocean. It was almost too beautiful. Tierney found the time to
breathe, to simply live, without worrying about the style of her hair, or how
much make-up she was wearing, or what designer clothes her fans might rave
about. She cut the legs off her jeans to give her more freedom to move, and
rolled up the sleeves of her T shirt so her arms would get tan. She wished
she’d brought a bikini but she’d been in such a rush she hadn’t even put on any
underwear; which made dressing easier though a bit drafty once the winds
changed.

“My daughter left some outfits in the
guest room bureau,” Travers told her their second day out. “She’s about your
size. I don’t think she’d mind if one of her favorite reality stars wore her
clothes.”

He grinned. Tierney thanked him and
entered the guest room to look for something fresh. She found a pink polka dot
bikini and some nice but preppy shorts. A few shirts and sundresses, too;
nothing fancy, but then she wasn’t out to impress anybody. She slipped on the
bikini and a pair of pink shorts, ran up to the deck.

A boat came sloshing up beside
Travers’ yacht. Two men ventured towards them.

“Careful, girl.
Go below. I’ll do the talking.”
Travers whispered then he turned to the men. “What can I do for you,
gentlemen?”

Tierney watched from a porthole as
the men stepped aboard. Both seemed to be shadowing their faces on purpose with
caps and lowered heads.

“Do you have a Miss Evans on your
boat?”

“No, I don’t. My daughter and I are
out here to have a bit of fun … fishing, you know.
Great
weather for it!”

“Tell her to come up,” the other man
ordered.

Tierney peered hard at the men – she
gasped as she realized it was the same two who had interviewed her the day
before. But they weren’t wearing suits, and they hadn’t flashed any FBI badges!
Travers was in danger. She knew it. But what could she do about it?

She searched the hull for weapons,
found a small automatic in a drawer. It wasn’t loaded. She removed some
cartridges from a case, began to clumsily load the gun.

“I’m no Annie Oakley,” she thought,
her hands shaking, “but
Istvan
did show me how to use
one of these things.”

She hurried back to the porthole, in
time to see the two men assaulting Travers in tandem, and him fighting back
like a pudgy wildcat. Tierney ran up top and pointed the gun at the men.

“Back off, jerks! And leave him
alone!”

They stopped fighting, reared back to
look at her. One laughed.

“Put that down, Miss Evans. We’re not
playing games here.”

“I’m not playing either. Let him be!”

They studied the set of her jaw, nodded
to each other and stepped back. Travers came to her, took the gun.

“Nice work.” He pointed the gun at
the men. “I suggest you two get on your own boat and head off. And no more
trouble.”

“Right,” one huffed. They eased over
onto their boat. Both began to smile as they cleared out.

“Why are they … oh, God, do you hear
that ticking?”

Tierney ran to the side of the boat.
The creeps had placed a bomb on the side and it was ticking down to zero.

“Not again! Travers, hit the water,
quick!”

They both jumped for the blue,
splashed in just as the bomb went boom, splitting the yacht into kindling.

“Are you all right?” Travers yelled
as he and Tierney were bombarded by debris.

“No, my leg, it hurts, bad. What’ll we
do? We’re stuck out here in the middle of nowhere! And if my leg is bleeding,
the damned sharks will be on us in minutes!”

“Don’t panic, girl. We can make that
island.” He pointed his gaze towards a dark gray, barren mound sticking out of
the sea. “If you can’t use your leg, hold on to my neck! I’ll get you there!”

She nodded, clung to his thick
freckled neck as he bounced towards the island. It was uninhabited, by humans,
anyway. But there were sea lions lounging in the afternoon sun, and elephant
seals honking at each other as they cooled themselves on the wet shore. A moray
eel passed by the swimmers; Tierney squealed.

“It won’t hurt you, unless you get
too close! Scoot up a bit, I’m losing you.”

She readjusted her grip, tried to
relax as he kept going. Her leg stung like fire, the salt water invading her
wound. She wanted to be strong for Travers’ sake. He wasn’t young, and the
effort of dragging her to shore was undoing him. He breathed hard, and fast –
Tierney feared he might have a stroke.