In a Fix (26 page)

“Boner Benjamin might be a good choice…”

Chapter 24

“… don’t you think? He could help you raise the blanket in front, hands-free, so you won’t trip while you’re running away.”

I sagged. “How’d you find me?”

Billy let me go and I turned to face him.

“I’m just that clever.” He grinned, a one-dimpler.

“No, really,” I deadpanned.

“Smart-ass. I saw you leaving the boat as I was coming back. You looked so furtive I knew you were up to something.”

“Yeah, well, never mind that. We have to get back now—I just heard some Vikings talking. They’re heading south for their ‘big plan,’ whatever the hell that is.”

“That’s all? Nothing else?” he said. I shook my head. He tilted his skeptically. “Since when do you understand Swedish?”

“They were speaking English. One of them is Per’s brother-in-law—he’s from America. He helped with my launch.”

Billy stiffened, his face setting itself into hard planes. “Which way did they go?”

I pointed. “That way, but don’t even think about it—there are way too many of them. Now, let’s go.” I took off, stubbing my toe on a jagged cobblestone. I muffled a curse, and promptly stubbed a toe on the other foot. I looked heavenward.
Seriously? It wasn’t even that bad a word. Besides, extenuating circumstances here!

Billy debated going after them, I could tell, but stayed with me instead. “Your feet hurt?” he asked.

Duh
. “Yeah, and they’re cold, too. Got any spare shoes on you?”

“No, but I’ll give you a piggyback ride back to the boat if you like.”

I hesitated.

He turned his back to me. “Come on, it’ll take us forever otherwise. Up you go. I won’t drop you.”

“Pinky swear?”

He reached over his shoulder, and hooked his little finger with mine. “Pinky swear.”

I rucked up my toga and climbed aboard. It was embarrassing, but he had a point about the speed. Once his arms were safely tucked beneath my knees, he said, “Now, why don’t you tell me why you were running away from Mark.”

“He told Laura to sail me to the mainland if he wasn’t back by morning. I am not leaving the island without Trey.” I skipped the part about my jealousy of Laura’s place in Mark’s life. Why cloud the main issue?

“You twit. He just wants you to be safe if he and I get killed, is all.”

“Oh, well, that makes it okay,” I said, heavy on the sarcasm; nothing Billy wasn’t used to.

He moved through the streets at a good pace, backtracking without hesitation, not even breathing heavily. Physically fit people are so annoying. When we got close to the dock I told him to put me down. He refused.

“Your toe is bleeding. You can wait till we’re back on the boat.”

“Oh, geez. It’s not that bad. It doesn’t even hurt.” I wiggled my legs and shook his shoulders.

“You have absolutely no patience, do you?” he said. “Give it up, cuz. I can out-stubborn you any day of the week.”

“I could change into Nils and make you collapse under my weight,” I threatened.

“You won’t. Too many people around,” he retorted equably.

He was right, damn it.

“Wait a minute—before we get there, tell me if Laura knows about adaptors.”

“If she does, she’s never let on to me. Mark may have told her about himself, but I doubt the walking personification of zipped lips would tell her about the rest of us.”

“Great. So I’m stuck as me as long as I’m around her.”

He gave my legs an annoyed squeeze. “There’s nothing wrong with being you.”

“Except that all those Vikings think I’m dead, and I’d really hate to disabuse them of the notion.”

“So you’ll have to keep your head low. Big deal.”

We boarded, and found Mark had returned. He was deep in a quiet but heated conversation with Laura, who looked apologetic and peeved at the same time. I probably wasn’t high on her list of favorite people at the moment.

They turned when they heard us. Mark’s anger shifted palpably from Laura to me. Billy dropped my legs and pulled me around to stand in front of him, resting his hands on my shoulders. “Look who I found. Slippery little thing, isn’t she?” he said cheerfully, trying, I think, to lighten the moment for my sake. It didn’t work.

Mark’s eyes were definitely at the steel-cold end of the gray spectrum. “Barefoot?” he finally said, his tone a perfect blend of incredulity, anger, and disgust. “And naked under a blanket, after you nearly froze to death? Are you a complete idiot?”

I shrugged off Billy’s hands. “I didn’t have access to a wardrobe,” I said.

“Do you know how stupid it was to leave this boat by yourself? Are you
trying
to get yourself killed? Or one of us, when we have to come after you again?”

I flinched. No way to hide that. I’d heard him speak harshly before, but had never had the full force of it directed at me. Sure, I
may
have deserved that last bit—I hadn’t given a second thought to how I might be dragging them into more danger. But, really, did he have to take that tone? “It won’t happen again,” I said tightly.

“It better not.”

“I said it wouldn’t. So, do you want to hear what the fucking Vikings are up to, or would you rather keep yelling at me?” I said. It wouldn’t hurt to have him think I’d gone off to gather intelligence on purpose.

That got his attention. “What are you talking about?”

“I overheard a bunch of them, the same ones from the trebuchet. They’re heading south. Apparently there’s a ‘big plan,’ and it’s on for tomorrow.”

I could see the thoughts flying, rapid-fire, behind his eyes. “Did they say where, exactly?”

“Not that I could catch.”

He nodded. “Okay. Doesn’t matter. It still confirms something we’ve suspected.” He skewered me with his eyes again. “So that’s why you left the boat—you were playing spy?”

I shrugged. Flushed. Kept silent. What was I going to say? No, I was running away from your girlfriend? I don’t think so.

Laura actually looked sorry for me. That was worse than Mark’s anger. “I think the soup is still warm, Ciel. I’ll bet you could use something in your stomach,” she said kindly. Mark cut her an annoyed glance, but visibly relaxed when she tilted her head, slightly, and raised one brow.

“Take Ciel below and see that she eats,” he said to Billy, his voice starting to lose some of the harshness. “Have something yourself. Keep her down there until we’re under way—sit on her if you have to.” The last part might even have been an attempt at humor. I ignored it and asked him where we were going.

“Relax, Howdy. Just a short hop down the coast,” he said. Yeah, pleasant enough now, and all because of that cute little signal from Laura. I was about to say something rude, until Billy took my hand and squeezed it.

“Come on, cuz. I don’t know about you, but I’m starved. Let’s eat.”

Mark’s attention was already on preparing the boat to leave the marina, with Laura’s help. They worked in sync, at ease with each other without talking, which spoke volumes about how often they’d done it before. As I watched, a barrage of flaming arrows dotted the sky just up the coast behind them, part of the fire show I’d heard Kevin and his princess talking about earlier. Mark and Laura paused in unison and looked out at the sight, shoulder to shoulder. They were beautiful together.

Anger doused by a wave of dejection, I followed Billy below.

*   *   *

The soup, a luscious chicken and corn chowder, was beyond compare, and obviously hadn’t come out of any can. After administering first aid to my toe, Billy served us both healthy portions. I ate two helpings, torturing myself with visions of Laura as a gourmet cook on top of being a CIA operative and an excellent sailor. She was perfect for Mark. I hated her.

Billy took care of our dishes while I moped at the table. After he finished cleaning the galley, leaving it spotless, he came and stood next to me.

“Bedtime.” He tilted his head toward the V-berth at the front of the boat.

I don’t like V-berths. Granted, my claustrophobia seemed a petty annoyance compared to some of the things I’d been through in the past few days, but still. “You go ahead. I’m not sleepy yet.”

“Well, I’m beat, and I’m not leaving you to your own devices. We’ve all seen where that leads.”

“But—”

“Look, I’m on Mark’s dime right now. He’s the boss, he said sit on you, so I’m sitting.”

I stayed right where I was.

He sighed. Rubbed the back of his neck. “Come on, Ciel. I’m operating on fumes as it is, and if I have to stay up to watch you—and you know I would—it might just push me over the edge. Please?”

He did sound tired. He probably hadn’t had any decent sleep since he got to Sweden, poor guy. I guessed I could suck it up and not whine about my discomfort in windowless enclosures. “All right. But I won’t sleep.”

“Fine. You can lie awake and listen to my rhythmic breathing.”

Even with a backpack sharing the space, the mattress-covered compartment at the front of the boat wasn’t cramped. I shoved the pack over to one side, and scooted to the other. When Billy followed me in, he left the privacy curtain halfway open so I could glimpse a bit of a window in the main cabin, which helped me a lot. I smiled gratefully at him. He didn’t say anything about my phobia, just shrugged and plopped down right in the middle of the mattress. Since there was room, I left a good foot between us when I lay down.

“Oh, no you don’t,” he said, and pulled me close, settling my head on his shoulder and his arm around me. “I want to be able to feel if you try to sneak out. I warn you, I’m a light sleeper, and I will know if you move away from me.”

“Billy, this really isn’t necessary. I’m not going anywhere.”

“Indulge me.”

I sighed and stayed where I was. “Go to sleep.”

I tried to lie as still as I could, but I was restless. My mind wouldn’t let go of Mark and Laura, up on deck together, sailing along in perfect harmony. I wondered how many assignments they’d shared in the past, and how much time they spent together off the job. I imagined him kissing her right then, in the moonlight, his arms wrapped around her, his fingers tangled in her glorious red hair …

“Stop thinking so loud,” Billy said, giving me a squeeze.

“I can’t help it. God, I’m such a mess. Mark’s right. I’m a total idiot.” An idiot for mooning over him, was what I meant.

“No, you’re not. A little impulsive, maybe, which may lead to the occasional idiotic behavior, but that doesn’t make you a total idiot.”

“No, I’m an idiot all right. I wish I could be like you and Mark, good at everything, but I can’t. And it’s not just because I’m a girl. Look at Laura—”

“Not a difficult assignment,” he said, his appreciation plain in his voice.

I gave him a little shove in the mid-section. “See? You think she’s gorgeous, too. And she’s probably a perfect spy, just like Mark.”

“Ah, so that’s what this is about. Mark and Laura.”

I raised my head and looked at his face. “So there
is
a ‘Mark and Laura.’ I knew it.”

He pushed my head back down. “That’s not what I meant. I have no idea if there’s a ‘Mark and Laura’—he doesn’t keep me informed about his love life.”

“Come on, there has to be something going on there. Did you see how they work together? How smoothly they started to unmoor the boat, without even talking about it? They communicate without words. I’ll bet everything they do together is like that.”

He sighed impatiently. “I work smoothly with Mark, too. Doesn’t mean I’m sleeping with him.”

“You’re a guy, and you’ve known him forever. Of course you work well together.” I shifted, adjusting the blanket that was still twisted around me. Billy helped, and then pulled another blanket over the both of us.

“Look, you are great at what you do. How many clients have you helped in just the past year? Ten? Twelve? And every one of them is better off, now that you’ve fixed their lives. You have a knack for knowing what’s needed, and doing it. You should be proud of your track record.”

“Maybe,” I admitted reluctantly. “Or maybe I’ve just been lucky so far.” Except, of course, with that whole collecting payment thing.

“And maybe you need to get your head out of your ass and stop feeling sorry for yourself.”

I huffed an almost-laugh. “Agreed,” I said, and followed it with a big sigh. “Don’t pay me any mind—I just need to get it through my head Mark is never going to be attracted to me.”

“I don’t know. You guys looked pretty cozy in the sleeping bag together,” he said.

“Ha. There’s the proof right there. We were zipped up naked in a single sleeping bag, pressed together like sardines, and he didn’t even … react.”

“Oh, for crying out loud, Ciel. You were an ice cube. His nether parts were probably jumping up into his abdominal cavity in self-defense. Give the guy a break. Besides, do you really think Mark is the kind of man who would take advantage of a situation like that? He can be a ruthless bastard sometimes, but he’s not a complete asshole.”

“So you don’t think it’s because I’m totally unattractive?” I said. I
know
—fishing. Not cool. But he’d been so nice about my job. Why not go for broke?

“Christ,” he said, and twisted his body toward me. “There, feel that? No, I fucking well don’t think it’s because you’re unattractive. Ego all better now?”

Oh, my. The bulge pressing against me was certainly impressive. Not precisely what I’d been going for—I’d been thinking more along the lines of “Of course you’re pretty, Ciel”—but, strangely, it did make me feel better. At least somebody was responding to me.

It made me feel something else, too. Tingly. All over, like when he’d kissed me while we were chasing down Per and company. I had tried to repress that, but it came back to me now in a brain-fogging whoosh.

Good Lord. Maybe I’d been concentrating my libidinous energies on the wrong guy. Billy had been teasing me for as long as I could remember, in more ways than I could count—my size, my freckles, my abilities, my career choice, my pathetic love life. I never took his sexual banter any more seriously than the rest of it. He’d been telling me for years that honorary step-cousins weren’t perv material—what if he was serious?