Oceans of Fire (12 page)

“Could be kids.”

“Maybe. Maybe not.” Abbey looked carefully around the cove. The beach appeared deserted. Out in the water, several dolphins spy-hopped. One called to her, using her signature whistle. “Stay here, Joley, and cover me.”

Joley put down the case she was carrying and fished her gun out of her purse, all business. “Be careful, Abbey. And if I yell, you hit the ground.”

“Will do.” Abbey picked up both cases and strode out over the coarse sand. She examined every nook and cranny, every hiding hole she could see as she walked to the water’s edge. Once there, she allowed her gaze to travel upward to examine the cliff above the cove.

When Abigail was positive she was alone in the cove, she signaled the all-clear to Joley and waited for her sister to join her.

Joley stared in awe at the sleek heads bobbing in the ocean. “I’ve never seen so many dolphins.”

“They’re beautiful, aren’t they?” Abbey waded out into the shallow water, whistling softly. “Keep a watch on the cave and the cliffs, Joley. I’m going to call Kiwi in.” She took a last look around the cliffs and out to sea, searching for a boat that might be concealed in the rocks and ensuring there were no spectators. She lifted her arm and made a small circling motion and then brought her hand back toward her as she repeated a strange high-pitched whistle. “Kiwi is coming in.”

The large male dolphin swam into the shallows, until he was in about a foot of water. Abigail waded the rest of the way out to him. Joley held her breath. The dolphin was enormous up close and very powerful looking. Abigail talked soothingly and ran her hands over the dolphin while she examined the wound.

“How bad, Abbey?” Joley called. She had a clear view of the dolphin’s eye. It was definitely intelligent and seemed to be nervous as it watched Joley. “It doesn’t like me here, does it?”

Abbey rolled the animal gently in the surf to get a better angle on the wound. “It’s not that. He feels very vulnerable. They seem to be able to know when we all join together so I doubt he’s upset that you’re here. I’ve been trying to figure out how the dolphins know when we reach out to one another.”

“Energy? We can feel the energy, maybe they can.”

“Maybe,” Abigail mused. “Kiwi’s wounds aren’t too bad, but he’ll need the antibiotics I brought. The bullet shaved the skin off my back and shoulders, and Kiwi’s wound seems much like mine. We were both lucky.”

“Libby will want to take a look at you this morning, Abbey. She isn’t going to leave your treatment to a paramedic.”

“I don’t want her to waste her strength on me. It hurts a bit, but nothing I can’t handle. My leg is worse.”

“Did a shark really bite you?”

“No! Of course not, and it wasn’t an attack.” Abbey quickly opened her bag and dragged out a thick salve and a bottle of pills. “A shark has rough skin and I think he just raked me as he made a pass.”

Joley made a face. “Don’t talk about it. I’m always afraid when you go swimming with the dolphins. I used to have nightmares about some sea creature dragging you down into a watery grave.”

“Really?” Abbey laughed. “I’ve always loved the sea and found it a wonderful fantasy land. It’s interesting and different every single day. I like that there’s an aspect of danger and I have to be alert all the time.”

“Abbey, what are you doing?” Joley watched as her sister smeared a thick paste over the wound and then crouched down in the water near the dolphin’s head.

“I’ll have to treat him several times to make certain this doesn’t get infected. Joley, it’s important you don’t repeat the hand signals I used to call him to me, or the whistles and chirps. He trusts me, but if that trust were broken, I wouldn’t be able to have any kind of a working relationship with him or a friendship.”

“I’m not about to break the code of silence,” Joley said, “but I have to object to you putting your hand in that dolphin’s mouth. It has more teeth than a shark.” Alarm spread fast as she watched Abigail’s hand disappear into the open mouth. “What are you doing?”

“Giving him antibiotics orally. He needs a combination. Don’t worry.”

“Please take your hand out of there before I flip out and scream or something equally sissy lala. You’re really scaring me, Abbey. I’d rather have the Russian hit man try something.”

“He’s being so trusting and good,” Abigail said. “Aren’t you, Kiwi?” She signaled to him that she was finished. “He’s such a steady dolphin. They’re all different. Some of them are much more nervous and high-strung. I’m sending him back out to sea, but most likely they’ll stay in the shallows. I just don’t want anyone noticing and bothering them. Kids can be silly and sometimes cruel. I’d be really upset if someone threw sticks in their blowholes. It’s happened in some of the places I’ve been and I can’t seem to control my temper.”

Joley laughed softly. “You wouldn’t have to worry. If you told Hannah, they’d only do it the one time and she’d do something spectacular to teach them a lesson. Word is, Sylvia has this recurring rash on the left side of her face. It shows up in the form of a handprint every time she flirts.”

Abigail rolled her eyes. “Didn’t Hannah remove that?”

“She says only Sylvia can by doing the ‘right’ thing.”

“What is that? She can’t help flirting. Flirting defines who she is.”

“I think Hannah expects her to apologize to you.”

“The world will come to an end first. Sylvia has never apologized to anyone for as long as I can remember, and we went to kindergarten together.” Abigail watched the other dolphins as they moved around Kiwi. “I want to get a couple of shots of them with him. They know I’ve put something on his wounds.” She pulled her camera out of her bag. “Do you mind staying a little longer, Joley?”

Joley shook her head, a small grin on her face. Abigail was already shooting away with the camera, snapping pictures like a madwoman, doing their aunt Carol proud, wading out into the water to her waist to get better shots, oblivious of the cold water soaking her jeans.

The wind came in off the sea and the gulls took flight, circling above them as the dolphins began to form small groups and go off in different directions to hunt for food. “Look what they’re doing,” Abigail said, obviously excited. “See how they leap and spy-hop? They’re communicating where the hunt is on. See how they’re herding the fish into a smaller and tighter ball? They’re calling in the others.”

“What the hell are you doing, Abigail?” The voice broke the early morning silence, thick with ire and Russian accent.

Abigail nearly dropped her camera in the water, juggling it to keep it from falling. She spun around to face Aleksandr Volstov. He looked handsome. Clean. Immaculate in a suit. Not in the least rumpled or wet. Even his hair was combed. “Great. How did you get down here? You’re on private property.”

“I ought to shake you. You have about as much sense as a crab.”

Joley coughed delicately, earning her a glare from her sister.

“Don’t you ever sleep, Aleksandr?” Abigail demanded. “Sheesh, Joley. What good are you with that gun? Why didn’t you just shoot him? I brought you along for a reason and it wasn’t to be staring at the scenery. You were supposed to be on guard. I thought you were going to shoot anyone who came near us.”

“You have a gun?” Aleksandr demanded, his accent so thick they could barely understand him. “I would be asleep if I didn’t have to worry about you ignoring every warning I give you. Damn it, Abbey, what the hell is wrong with you? Do you have a death wish?”

“No, I have a gun,” she replied calmly. “We were very careful. What did you expect me to do? Crawl into a hole because you claim some hit man might be gunning for me? I have important work to be done. I have a life here. I have two sisters who are about to get married and we’re planning a double wedding. I’m not slinking around my own backyard because someone may want me dead. You’re an Interpol agent. Go arrest him and stop bugging me.”

“Go, Abbey!” Joley cheered. She stepped forward and stuck out her hand. “I’m Joley Drake, by the way, one of Abbey’s many sisters. I saw you last night but we weren’t properly introduced.”

“The singer,” Aleksandr said. “I have heard you on the radio. Your voice is beautiful.”

“Thank you.“

Abbey made a growling noise. “Why are you being nice to him? You’re
my
sister. Don’t let his charm fool you.”

“I was admiring his shoulders and chest more than his charm,” Joley admitted, winking at the Russian. “Besides, didn’t I hear that you’re engaged to him?”

“I am
not
engaged to him.”

“Yes, you are,” Aleksandr said. “You said yes when I asked you and you took my ring. I believe you still have it.“

Joley stared at her sister with wide eyes. “Is that so?”

Aleksandr nodded. “It was a family heirloom. And in Russia we honor our word. She agreed to marry me and so we are engaged. We have only to get married.”

“It was most definitely
not
a family heirloom, you liar. We bought it at that little shop. And we aren’t getting married,” Abigail corrected.

“Why not?” Joley asked.

“Because I absolutely
detest
him, that’s why,” Abigail said. “And if you keep coming on Drake property, Sasha, I’ll have you arrested.”

“By your boyfriend?” There was a distinct drop in the temperature of Aleksandr’s voice. It went from warm to ice cold.

Joley shivered. “I thought you were her boyfriend.”

“I’m her fiancé. Harrington is her boyfriend.“

Joley stared at him with a mixture of shock and horror. She burst out laughing. “Boy, are you misguided. Seeing as how you’re going to be family and all, I’ll be happy to set you straight.”

“I’m not in the least bit amused, Joley,” Abigail said. “Do not say another word to him unless you’re escorting him off the property. In fact, you’re useless as a bodyguard. Give me the gun.”

“Abbey, honey,” Joley said, “as I recall you didn’t hit the target one single time in all the practice sessions we had. You were too busy looking at the clouds or some strange little bug crawling across the ground.”

“Well, I’m paying attention now.”

“Harrington isn’t her boyfriend?” Aleksandr asked, ignoring Abbey.

“Jonas? He’s practically our brother,” Joley said. “Abigail and Jonas aren’t dating. He’d probably faint if you told him you thought they were. He loves us all dearly, and we love him, but we’re not exactly the type of woman he dates.”

“Does he date?” Abigail asked, distracted by the idea. “Who does he date?”

“Not you,” Joley said. She eyed Aleksandr. “What did you do to my sister that made her detest you so much?” She glanced at Abbey. “Is he the one the house let in?”

Aleksandr sighed in exasperation. “Houses don’t let people in them. Her balcony door was wide open in invitation to anyone at all.”

Joley shook her head. “Our house is protected, Aleksandr. May I call you that? And it is a
big
thing if the house allowed you in the other night.”

“Joley.” Abigail’s voice was very much a warning.

Every time she was near Aleksandr, she remembered how gentle he could be in spite of his size, how his smile could warm up his eyes. She didn’t want to remember a single good thing about him. He had made her believe she could fit in, that her talent was as useful as all of her sisters’ talents. He had made her believe she was lovable, that in spite of all her flaws, he would always be there. She knew what love was and refused to settle for less.

She turned away from them and withdrew into her own private world. She wanted to be in her beloved ocean swimming in a world of color and sound far away from where she was now. She heard the lapping of the waves as they rolled gently through the cove in invitation. She heard the cry of the gulls and chatter of the dolphins. The wind kissed her face as she stared up at the drifting clouds.

Cold water hit her in the face. Startled, she looked down at the dolphin only feet from where she stood. It spit water a second time. She became aware of the frantic clicks, of the bodies thrashing in the water instead of hunting food as they should have been. She slammed her shoulder hard into Aleksandr, calling out to Joley as she did so. Aleksandr was the biggest target and she needed to take him down.

He must have recognized the warning as well because at the exact same moment his arm curved out to sweep Joley into the water too. As the sea closed over them, Aleksandr rolled to cover the women with his larger body.

Chapter 5