Sinful Suspense Box Set (88 page)

Chapter
22

My mom outpaced my sister and Rita by a hundred yards in her designer running shoes. She was an arm’s length away before my second foot had come off the boat. She was crying hysterically. Rita and Tricia were gasping for breath by the time they reached me. We glommed onto each other and disintegrated into a blob of blubbering hugs and cries.

Once we’d collected ourselves, Mom stepped back and looked me over. “You’re so skinny. We need to get you some good, calorie-rich food right away.”

“I’m not opposed to French fries and a chocolate shake,” I said. I glanced around at the puffy, red eyes and swollen pink noses. “How did you all get here so fast?”

Mom waved her manicured nails over her shoulder. “Cindy brought us in her plane,” she said casually as if she was constantly flitting about the country on private jets.

I took hold of Rita’s hands. “I’m surprised the agency let you take time off.”

“They didn’t,” she said. “I quit a week ago. If I had to take one more order from Darren, I was going to throw him instead of his phone down the elevator shaft. I guess I’ll be looking for a job. I think I’ll check out the classifieds for a girl Friday position.”

“I don’t know, Rita. It’s a pretty demanding job.” We hugged again. “Man, do I have stuff to tell you.”

Mom’s husband, Michael, was standing talking with a small, attractive woman with a diamond watch and earrings to match. “I take it that is Cindy Hampton talking to Michael at the end of the dock?”

“Yes,” Mom said, “delightful woman.” We watched her climb into the back of the ambulance. Nick walked toward us. We’d both been in captivity for several days, and aside from our rather unpleasant dip in the ocean, neither of us had groomed or showered. I looked like a shrunken, saltwater-soaked troll and Nick looked ruggedly handsome as if he’d just come off a National Geographic shoot.

Rita and Tricia gasped audibly.

Rita unobtrusively grabbed hold of my arm. “Holy crap, is that him?”

“Yep, that’s him.”

“I second that holy crap,” Tricia muttered. “I thought men like that only existed in our dreams.”

I smiled over at my mom. She was caught in a Nick trance as well. He stopped in front of us and the three normally loquacious women were speechless.

Mom finally found her tongue. She stepped forward and put out her hand. “You must be Nick. Thank you so much for getting my daughter back to me safely. I’ll be forever grateful. How’s your brother?”

“They are taking him to the hospital right now.” He looked down at me. “They want us to go as well so the doctors can check us out. Then I imagine the police will want a full report.”

I kissed them all. “I’ll see you at the hospital.” Tears threatened again. “I missed you all so much.”

***

I sat on the edge of the paper-lined table in my lovely paper gown waiting for my release papers from the doctor, but the next person to walk into the small room was Pierre. I could feel my face light up when I saw him with his sweetly worried expression.

“J.J. thank God, you’re all right.” He gave me an awkward hug around the paper hospital gown.

“It is so good to see you, Pierre. I’m fine. Just a little dehydration and chafing around my wrists and ankles.” I held up my hands. He grabbed them and kissed them. “When did you get here? Did Taylor come too?”

“Of course. He’s in with Nick. We’ve just arrived.”

He held my hand and I placed my free hand over the back of his. “Rumor has it that you got the ball rolling on finding us. Nick said you called the embassy right away.”

“It was your message that got it rolling. Trouble, Pierre,” he repeated my short cry for help. “I will never forget the terrified sound of your voice, my sweet J.J.”

Taylor walked in and we hugged. “It’s good to see you, Jayden. We were so scared for the both of you.” He placed a hand on Pierre’s shoulder. “And now I know the next time this old man tells me not to trust someone, I will take every word of his advice. He knew all along that Boone was a turncoat. But it all happened so fast I still can’t believe it. Did they arrest Boone already?”

Pierre must have already known because he shot me a knowing look. He turned to Taylor. “Boone didn’t make it. I was partially wrong about the man. He changed his mind and turned against the other kidnappers. Nick said they shot him before he could escape.”

Taylor’s gaze dropped to the ground. “That’s hard to hear. I guess he really fell in with the wrong people this time.”

“Especially Francesca,” I said.

“I never needed Pierre to convince me that
she
was evil. It was written all over that plastically enhanced face of hers. I hope they throw the friggin’ book at her.”

I was so happy to be safe and back with the people I loved, I couldn’t hold in my joy. I lifted up my arms. “I know I’m just wearing a paper towel, but group hug guys.”

***

Several days later, David was on the road to recovery, and Nick and I had given our full accounts of the kidnapping to the police and federal agents. Apparently, the pirates turned black marketers turned kidnappers were on an FBI list of wanted international criminals. Francesca was behind bars without bail.

Rita and I stood staring into David’s room through a small window in the hospital door. He was still hooked up to all kinds of equipment, but I could see that his eyes were open and he was having a conversation with his mom, which was why we’d waited outside the door. Mrs. Hampton had put Mom, Rita, and me up in an elegant suite at a posh hotel. Tricia had, rather reluctantly, returned to her new husband.

“We’ll just wait until their conversation is over,” I said. “Then I’ll take you in to introduce you. I think you’ll really like David.”

Rita hopped up on her toes and peered in like a little girl staring into the candy shop. She dropped back to her heels. “He’s nothing like his brother,” she said, having trouble keeping the disappointment out of her voice.

“Well, once he loses the tubes in the nose and the pasty white hospital pallor, you’ll see he is extremely handsome.”

“If you say so.”

I looked over at her. “Did I mention David is a doctor?”

Rita’s blue eyes rounded like saucers. She hopped back up on her toes and left a ring of breath condensation on the glass. She turned back to me. “He is absolutely adorable.”

The investigators needed Nick and me to stay in Oahu for several more days. Mom and Rita were kind enough to stay with me. Of course, it wasn’t a lot to ask since we were staying in an incredibly luxurious suite and it was, after all, Hawaii.

Nick and his mom had been spending a lot of time at the hospital. David was expected to make a full recovery. Taylor and Pierre had returned to Tahiti to keep the office running. Nick would follow once David had been released to go home to Los Angeles.

After a long mind debate and persuasive discussion with my mom, I had decided to return with Nick to Tahiti and finish the month. The police psychiatrist had told me I’d come through the ordeal remarkably unscathed. Truthfully, I’d surprised myself, but I also knew it had a lot to do with Nick. I’d always felt safe with him as if there was no way anything could have happened to me as long as he was near.

I had no job or anything else waiting for me at home, and I hated to end up on the couch again in pajamas and drowning my sorrow with orange soda. Being alone at home would have definitely driven me to think about the kidnapping and then I probably
would
freak out about it.  And while I knew I was being an idiot, and I’d promised myself that I wouldn’t be one anymore, I truly wasn’t ready to leave Nick.

Mom wasn’t thrilled about my decision, but being the gold-plated credit card Mom that she was, she shelled out the money for some clothing and a new phone with a plan that would allow me to make and receive calls from French Polynesia. The phone came with the admonishment that if I didn’t call her twice a day, she’d fly to Tahiti and make an embarrassing scene.

It was midday and the sun hung directly over the pool area throwing a blanket of warm moisture over the row of plush chaise lounges.

Mom put down her phone next to the pineapple drink she’d been sipping. “Your sister is jealous. I think she would have really liked to stay with us, but the new man is a bit controlling.” She sighed. “I don’t know where I went wrong with that girl. She has the poorest taste in men.” She spoke confidently, apparently forgetting her first two failed marriage endeavors. Without lifting her head from the chaise pillow she rolled her face toward me. “You too.”

I lifted my head and pushed my glasses up. “Me? I’ve never been married. And I hate controlling guys.”

“Yes, but if you hadn’t slept with that lecherous Darren, you would never have gone to Tahiti, and you would never had ended up kidnapped.” Her voice cracked on the last few words. It would be a long time before she recuperated from my ordeal.

I rested my head back. “I’ll give you that.”

“But you would never have met Mr. Divine,” Rita said as she glanced back up to the balcony behind the pool area. “And speaking of the glorious Mr. Divine. He’s staring down at you from his balcony.”

I lifted my chin and looked up at the balcony. Nick was looking down. I waved but he didn’t return the wave. My phone vibrated. It was a text from Nick.

“get up here now.”

I typed back, “in twenty, I still need to get the back of my legs.” I placed down the phone and relaxed back. It buzzed again. It was Nick.

“Hello.”

“Maybe I didn’t phrase that right,” he said, “come up here now, or I’ll come down there and drag you up here caveman style.” He hung up.

I sat up and shoved my feet into my sandals. “I lied, Mom. Sometimes I don’t mind them a little demanding. With limits of course.”

I knocked and the door opened. Nick swung it shut behind me. The look in his eyes made me take a few steps back. He stepped forward without a word and reached behind my neck to untie my bikini top. The bikini top rolled down exposing my naked breasts to the cool air inside the room.  He did not take his eyes off them as he reached around and undid the final strap on the top. It fell to the floor and the bottoms followed.

“Even though you jumped in the water and saved me from a watery death, I still have not forgiven you completely, Nick Regent.”

“Understood.” His mouth covered my breast and his tongue trailed a tingling circle around my nipple.

“I mean, I know you saved David and me from three armed men, and you did it with a tiny knife and all, but I’m still not completely ready to accept that you accused me of betraying you.”

“Uh huh,” the sound vibrated against the skin of my breast. His mouth moved tenderly across the skin of my neck and shoulders and I pressed my body against his.

“I mean I’m definitely closer to forgiving you than I was before—”

He pulled his mouth from my neck and gazed down at me. “Flash.”

I peered up at him. “Yes.”

“Shut up.” He lifted me up.

I threw my arms around his neck and my legs wrapped around his waist. He pressed his mouth hard against mine as he carried me to the bed and plopped me into the center of it. He climbed on top of me and smiled down. “You’d better get a box of tissue, my love, because I’m going to make you sneeze over and over again.”

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