Asking For Trouble (13 page)

Carlos sat on the seat at the back on the
other side of the boat from him, and was surveying the lake. Beau
did the same and noticed there weren't many boats out today, which
was a good thing from a security standpoint. Tomorrow, because it
was Saturday, he imagined the boaters would be out in droves. Since
it was Friday and midday at that, they pretty much had the lake to
themselves. His shoulders relaxed a little, and he inhaled deeply
of the earthy lake air, trying to calm his nerves.

Beau couldn't hear what they were saying,
but he saw Jazzie lean over and say something near Chase's ear,
then they both laughed. A minute or so later, Chase said something
to her, then eased his arm over her shoulders and gave her a
squeeze. She smiled up at him softly, and reached up to pat his
hand on her shoulder. Beau glanced over at Carlos hoping he'd
intervene, but her brother seemed oblivious to it all.

Beau had the sudden urge to jump overboard
and swim back to the lake house. Watching them made him feel like
someone was shredding his insides with razor blades. The engine
revved down and then Chase turned the boat into a secluded cove and
dropped anchor, before killing the engine. The boat bounced a few
times then settled, and he got up and stretched, then Jazzie did
the same.

"You want something to drink, sugar?" he
smiled down at Jazzie and asked.

"What've you got?" she asked coyly smiling
up at him, then slowly licked her lips. Beau stifled the growl that
sprang to his throat, by clenching his fists.

"White wine, soda, water, beer..." he
replied then put his hands on her shoulders and stepped around
her.

"Wine would be great," she told him, then
kicked off her flip flops, and picked up a towel.

"Carlos, you want a beer, man?" Chase asked
him as he walked past him to the stairs down into the cuddy.

"Yeah, that'd be great...thanks," he replied
distractedly.

"Beau, you want anything?" Chase asked him,
apparently as an afterthought, because he had already started down
the stairs, and just popped his head back over the top to ask.

"No, thank you," Beau told him shortly.

What he really could use was a double
whiskey, or a dozen. He had to keep his head on straight though in
case something happened, so he'd just have to bear the show Jazzie
was putting on, without the aid of alcohol. Jazzie turned her back
and stood up on the seat to get onto the back of the boat, and Beau
swallowed his tongue.

The back of this bikini
was
actually
a thong! Both of her firm round cheeks were on full display, and
the tantalizing scrap of material that ran between them, made him
want bite each side, or spank the shit out of the tempting minx for
showing her ass in public!

She sashayed to the back of the boat deck
and then stopped at the edge by the ladder, pointed her hands over
her head and dove into the water. Beau was glad she was covered by
something now, if it was only the water. He was also glad that
Chase Rhodes had been below deck when she'd put on her display. The
man's head popped back up at the top of the stairs, then he walked
out with bottles in his hand, and handed Carlos one of the beers
then looked around for Jazzie. She swam beside the boat about
twenty yards out, and waved at him.

"Come in, the water is perfect!" she invited
breathlessly, then floated on her back so the water lapped around
her curves. That wasn't the only thing that was perfect, Beau
thought as his eyes moved up her long legs, across her hips, over
her breasts and up to her flushed face. A glance over at Chase, who
was standing stock still with her wine and his beer in his hands,
told him the man had made a similar appraisal and it had a like
effect on him.

Without a word, he slowly put the bottles in
cup holders built into the seats, then kicked off his thong sandals
and climbed up onto the seat, and then dove off the back of the
boat. Carlos pulled off his shirt, then sprayed on some sunscreen,
and grabbed a paperback book out of the duffle he'd brought with
him, then laid down on the seat to read. Beau was left to sit there
and watch Chase walk to the back of the big boat by the ladder and
dive into the water, so he could play with Jazzie in the water.
Beau's heart clenched, as did his fists, and he fought the urge to
grab Carlos' beer after all and down it in one gulp.

The loud splash of Rhodes entering the water
was followed a minute later by a giggle, then a gasp, and Beau
closed his eyes, not even wanting to know what that gasp was about.
The absolute quiet was even worse than the gasp and the giggle,
because his imagination was in overdrive wondering what they were
doing. He couldn't see anything now, because they were on the
opposite side of the boat from him. A moan from Jazzie broke the
silence in the cove, and it went through him like a knife.

He saw an I-pod laying up on the control
deck by the wheel, and ran for it. If he couldn't hear them, maybe
he could maintain at least a shred of his sanity by the time he got
back to the lake house. Beau stuffed the earbuds into his ears
quickly and turned it on. The strains of the classical song Jazzie
had been playing on the violin yesterday floated over his senses
and his muscles relaxed a fraction.

Beau sat in the co-pilot seat and propped
his feet on the captain's chair, then leaned against the hull and
closed his eyes. Images of him and Jazzie on that beach bed in
Tahiti drifted through his mind and intense desire flooded through
him. He remembered how responsive she'd been, how much she had
wanted him then, and reveled in it. It soothed the green monster
clawing at his soul, but did nothing to tame the painful, hard as a
spike erection he'd been sporting since he saw her in that damned
bikini. Maybe he needed to go for a swim too and cool off.

After the music helped him corral his
rampaging hormones and emotions into some sense of control, he
opened his eyes and sat up, then yanked the earbuds out and put the
ipod back on the control stand. Walking to the back of the boat, he
unhooked his holster and laid it and his weapon near the ladder,
where he could get to it quickly, if he needed it.

Yanking the hem of his t-shirt from his
shorts, he pulled it over his head and tossed it over his gun, then
dove off the back of the boat into the clear green hued water. As
he dove, he'd seen Jazzie and Chase close to the side of the boat.
She had her arms around his neck, and Chase was kissing her. Beau
felt like a handheld grenade launcher had just put a round through
his heart. He lost his breath, but after the water closed over his
head, he kept swimming for the bottom, because he really didn't
give a damned at this point whether he ever surfaced again.

His lungs were burning, but not more than
the acid in his stomach, and the pain in his heart. When he finally
reached the bottom of the deep cove, he pushed off with his feet
and headed for the surface. His head was buzzing from lack of
oxygen by the time he broke the top and inhaled deeply. He thought
he heard Jazzie yell his name, but he wasn't sure, because the
oxygen overflow saturated his brain and made him dizzy for a
minute, and electricity skittered along his nerve endings.

Treading water, he faced the trees at the
shore and took slow steady breaths to calm himself, then he heard
her call him again, and looked back over his shoulder to see her
stroking through the water toward him. Beau did not want to talk to
her right now, because he would probably lose it. He gave a
powerful kick and took long steady strokes toward the entrance to
the cove. If she fucking got tired and drowned, let Chase save her,
since she thought he was so fucking wonderful.

All Beau wanted to do was swim until he
could erase the pain in his chest, the confusion in his mind, and
the sorrow in his soul. He needed some physical exertion to work
Jazzie Ramos out of his system for good. When they got back to the
lake house, he was going to call the FBI and get them to send some
guys out to protect her. He couldn't do it anymore...he was done.
Beau was going back to his nice high risk job in Lubbock, and work
so damned hard he forgot all about Jazzie Ramos and her beautiful
smile, because that smile wasn't for him anymore, it was for Chase
Rhodes.

Beau didn't care where he was swimming to,
he just stroked and stroked and kicked and kicked, moving through
the water swiftly to wherever he wound up. His muscles warmed up
and he felt the flow of endorphins in his brain spread through his
veins to energize him, pushing him onward.

When he finally looked up, he saw that he
was almost out in the boat lane outside of the cove, and he turned
to swim parallel to the shore, behind the buoys. He'd swim the
whole damned lake if that's what it took to get the image of her
kissing Chase out of his mind, to work her out of his heart. He had
to, or he was going to wind up without either of those things, a
heart or a mind, very soon.

Beau's heart rate and breathing were in the
red zone and he knew it. It was time for him to slow down and take
a breather. He slowed down his pace and took deep breaths, then
exhaled slowly as he stroked. Beau only swam laps about every other
week to vary his daily workout routine, because it was such intense
cardio. Doing several miles on the elliptical or treadmill was
faster and less trouble.

After swimming so far now, without even a
warm up, his muscles were starting to cramp up, and now that the
adrenaline and endorphins were wearing thin, the pain was getting
more intense. About thirty yards to his right, he saw a dock with a
ladder at the shoreline and limped toward it, hoping his overtaxed
muscles didn't seize up on him before he got there. His hand closed
around the metal of the ladder and he huffed out a tired, but
relieved breath, then groaned when his calf muscle balled up when
he put his foot on the stair tread.

With a grunt, Beau managed to put his other
on the next tread up, then somehow hoisted himself up, before
collapsing on his stomach, breathing hard. There was not an ounce
of energy left in him. What he'd done just now was stupid, but at
least he was feeling a little better inside, the gnawing ache in
his gut had subsided a bit.

He didn't know how long he laid there with
the hot Texas sun beating down on his back, but the water had
dried, as had his shorts. Finally, he felt a little of his strength
return and he rolled over and sat up, then put his head on his
knees. The high whine of jet ski engines caused him to look up, and
he saw two of them traveling along the outside of the buoys at full
throttle toward him. When they swung into the cove, he got a very
bad feeling in his gut, then stood and took off running as fast as
his wobbly legs could take him.

Beau reached for his gun, then remembered
he'd left it on the back of the boat with his shirt, because he
couldn't very well swim with it. Panic surged through him, and he
ran faster along the shoreline. When his legs got numb, he ignored
it, and stumbled along as best he could, dodging bushes and trees,
canoes, and pedal boats, the occasional life jacket. And the
fucking pine cones that dotted the back yards of the camps. He
cursed as they pierced the bottom of his bare feet.

Every step he got closer to the cove, Beau
cursed himself for letting them take the boat out. He'd know it was
dangerous allowing them to be out in the open like this in broad
daylight. He'd just reached the edge of the cove when he heard a
gunshot, and swallowed down the bile that surged up into his
throat. He hid in the trees and walked along the bank into the
cove. What he saw made his blood run cold.

Chase Rhodes was laying on the back of the
boat by Beau's shirt and gun and he wasn't moving, and Jazzie was
fighting with a man who had her by the arm. He was trying to push
her down the ladder at the back of the boat. She stopped fighting
when he aimed his gun at her head, and pushed away from the boat to
swim toward the unoccupied jet ski. The man on the other watercraft
had his gun aimed directly for the center of Carlos' chest, and
Carlos had his hands up, but Beau could see his face was mottled
with rage.

The second man guided his jet ski over by
the one Jazzie was sitting on and picked up a tow rope, then towed
it to the back of the boat. The man on the ladder told her, "Scoot
to the front," and then stepped down the ladder and slid on behind
her, then he twisted the throttle sending the watercraft shooting
across the water toward the cove entrance.

His partner didn't take off right away, he
pointed his gun at Carlos and fired. Carlos dove to the side and
didn't come back up, so Beau wasn't sure if he'd been shot or not.
Chase Rhodes hadn't moved an inch from where Beau had first spotted
him. When the guy on the second jet ski slowly accelerated, then
gunned it and headed out into open water, Beau took off running and
dove into the water, swimming with all he had toward the boat.

Adrenaline and fear saturated his brain, as
he reached the ladder, then scrambled up into the boat, and saw
that Chase was bleeding steadily and was unconscious. It looked
like he took a bullet to his shoulder. Carlos shot to his feet and
turned toward him with his fists ready, and his eyes filled with
purpose.

Beau grabbed his shirt and gun and hopped
down to the floor of the boat, then stepped around Carlos and ran
for the captain's stand. He didn't have time to check on them,
because he had to catch up with the men who had Jazzie, before they
got her off the water.