Just Evil (34 page)

Jake woke to an empty bed. He turned on the bedside light.
Looking around the stateroom, his eyes locked on Kit, sitting on the floor
hugging her knees, rocking gently back and forth next to the cabin wall.

In the sudden bright of the room, her eyes met Jake’s. The
look of pure panic in her huge green eyes told him this wasn’t like the dream
from the other night. And the time wasn’t three minutes past three, but rather
one-thirty in the morning.

And this was different, her face looked—terror-stricken.

Jake crawled out of bed, slipped on his boxers, and went
around to the end, approaching her with care. In an even voice, he asked, “Kit,
are you all right?”

She shook her head.

“Did you have a bad dream?”

She nodded and wrapped her arms around her naked body.

“Do you know where you are?”

Some of the fear left her eyes momentarily because she
looked at him as if he’d asked a really stupid question. “Your boat. I woke up
and wanted to go up on deck, to get outside, but it was dark…and I couldn’t
find my way…I got…I couldn’t find my way out, couldn’t find my clothes. I’m
not…I’m not used to your boat. I got…confused… I just needed to get outside,
but I couldn’t. I just wanted to go up on deck…get out...”

“If you’ll come over to me, I’ll get you outside.” He said
this as he pulled a T-shirt over his head and put one leg then the other into a
pair of shorts.

“You’ll take me outside?”

“Come over to me, baby, and we’ll go outside together.”

She uncurled herself and threw her whole body in his
direction, wrapping her arms and legs tightly around him. And in turn, he
wrapped his arms around her, holding her close. Kissing the top of her head, he
brought his hands up and held her head so that he could look directly into her
eyes. “Do you want to stay like this for a while or do you want to go up on
deck now?”

“I want to go outside, but I don’t want you to let go of
me.”

He set her down to walk but kept his arm around her waist as
he stopped at the built-in dresser long enough to dig into the bag she’d packed
for the night. He found a robe and threw it around her shoulders.

On their way through the door of the stateroom, with one
hand he grabbed a blanket from the bed to wrap them both up in and made his way
through the salon; all the while he held Kit firmly against him.

The steps that led topside were narrow even for one person,
so he set her behind him, had her wrap her arms around his waist, and guided
her up and out on to the starboard side of the deck.

As soon as she hit the open space, she breathed in several
deep breaths of ocean air and looked skyward at the mass of brilliant stars in
the early morning sky, never letting go of Jake.

As he held her close, he asked, “Is that better, Kit?”

“Much better. Thanks for letting me out of there.”

“Where?” 

“The closet—I mean the bedroom. Thanks for getting me out of
there.”

“Did you have a dream about being locked in the closet?”

She nodded. “I couldn’t get out. I haven’t felt that way in
a really long time. I’d gotten past all those fears, but for some reason, it’s
all happening in my head again. I woke up and couldn’t get out.”

He held her tighter. “It’s okay now. You’re outside.”

“That’s one of the reasons I like your boat. It’s like
camping, but on the water.”

“We’ll stay out here for as long as you want. You don’t have
to go back inside tonight. I wouldn’t much like it locked in a closet, too
confining for me.”

Even with the darkness Jake saw Kit smile, take another deep
breath. “Not only that, but you get scared even when you know you’re the only
one in there and the floor’s cold and hard and you have no idea how long you’ll
be in there.”

Jake took a deep breath of his own. At that moment, for the
first time in his life, he contemplated murder. If Alana Stevens wasn’t already
dead, he might have killed her himself. How could she have treated her own
child so horribly?

Underneath the stars, they got comfortable in a chaise
lounge, curling up together beneath the blanket. While Jake played with a few
strands of her hair, she wanted him to know, “I’m not crazy, Jake. I’m just
going through a rough time right now. Since Alana died…”

He laughed. “I don’t think you’re crazy, Kit. If you need to
talk about it, though, we’ll talk. But if you don’t want to, that’s okay, too.
I think I understand how tough it is to go back in your mind to that time. So
we won’t, unless you want to. But I’d never think you’re crazy. Do you want to
talk?”

She thought for a moment. “No.” Snuggling up against his
body, she kissed him. They stayed like that until Kit eventually fell back to
sleep.

Jake, however, had a tougher time. He thought about his own
childhood and how lucky he’d been to have parents whose worst form of discipline
was banishing one or all three kids to their rooms for an evening as the dog
stood guard outside in the hallway. His thoughts went back to his dad, the
soft-spoken, supposedly tough-talking disciplinarian who, when it came to his
kids, gave in more often than his mother. He made a mental note to call both of
them just to say hello. He thought back to that afternoon, to the few minutes
he’d spent in the cramped closet with the door closed, and the grown man
shuddered.

He looked down at the sleeping woman in his arms, remembered
exactly what she’d looked like when she was fourteen. It hit him then like a
punch to the gut. And it had nothing to do with lust, pity, or sympathy. At the
realization, a peace descended, and he finally drifted off to sleep.

The sun peeking through the eastern sky made the water
sparkle and glisten. With the first rays of morning light the marina’s bird
population chirped to life, welcoming daybreak. Before Jake opened his eyes, he
felt weight on his legs and lower stomach. When he blinked awake, he saw that
Kit had slid somewhat down his body, curled up in a ball and ended up with her
head resting on the lower half of his stomach. His right leg tingled. He tried
to move to stretch it out without waking her. But she was already awake and in
a playful mood. “I feel something hard in my ear.”

“It isn’t your ear that it’s interested in.”

She turned her head to look up at him, rested her chin on
his stomach and grinned. “What’s it interested in?”

“Come here and I’ll show you.” He reached to pull her up for
a kiss.

She responded by slinking up his body. “Morning. Sorry you
had to sleep in a deck chair most of the night.” She stretched like a cat. “I
like sleeping on the boat. Where else can you get up in the middle of the
night, take a stroll over the Pacific Ocean?” She yawned. “And we started the
day off with a built-in sunrise. How great is that? I can tell you right now, I
think we should chunk our boring lives and sail away some place exotic.”

“I knew it. You’ve been bitten by the bug. From now on
whenever you’re back on land, you’ll daydream about being on the water. You
won’t be able to think of anything but sailing.”

She yawned again, lazily stretching out her long legs, but
turned serious. “I may be going through a difficult time right now, feeling
vulnerable since Alana died. But it’s important to me that you know that before
this, I was very self-sufficient. I’ve been on my own since I was sixteen. I
run my own business. I may be going through this rough patch, the dreams are
upsetting me, there’s no denying that, but I don’t need someone to take care of
me. I’m not high maintenance.”

Like Claire, he thought. “I know that, Kit. You’re anything
but.” He started nibbling her ear before his emphasis shifted to the shape of
her body through the short, silky robe she wore.

He pulled her up out of the chaise with him and took her
hand in his.

“Let’s go below deck, there’s a softer surface with our name
on it.”

Recognizing the familiar ring of his cell phone, Jake fumbled
toward the built-in nightstand for his phone. When he didn’t locate the thing,
he reluctantly crawled out of bed to follow the distant ringing; eventually
finding it where he’d left it plugged in to charge in the salon.

Rubbing his eyes, he looked at his watch, 8:15. They’d
fallen back to sleep. Before that they’d had incredible sex at the crack of
dawn. His lips turned up.

After ten rings or so, he finally got to the phone. Caller
ID told him it was Dylan. “Jake, the office is a fucking mess. Someone broke in
here last night and completely wrecked the place. I just walked in, found stuff
everywhere, called you. I’m pissed, and more than a little rattled. It doesn’t
look as if they took anything, at least I don’t think they did. Looks like the
computers are still here and so is the other office equipment. I haven’t
completely checked everything. It looks more like they were looking for
something. What do you want me to do?”

The words “looking for something” triggered a reminder of
the mess he’d seen at Alana’s house. “Did they hack the network again?”

“I can’t answer that yet, but I’m on it.”

“Call the police. I’ll be there as soon as I can.”

Back in the stateroom, he stared at a still-sleeping Kit,
facing the other way, curled up in a ball, which seemed to be her favorite way
to sleep.

He sat down on her side of the bed and began stroking her
hair, moving a few strands off her face. Leaning down to her, he rubbed her
back, hoping the motion would wake her up. But when she didn’t move a muscle,
he nudged her, rocking her slightly with a shaking motion. When she still
didn’t stir, he reached under the covers, found bare skin, and tickled her
ribs. She started to wriggle under his touch, and he whispered in her ear,
“Kit, you have to get up. Someone broke into my office. I have to go and you
have to go with me. I don’t want to leave you alone on the boat.”

He didn’t think it was the right time to mention that he
wasn’t planning on letting her out of his sight until he found out what the
hell was going on. And he suspected something was definitely going on.

Half asleep, not having processed much of what he’d said,
Kit turned her head to look at him and noticed he was already dressed. Confused,
she stated, “Oh. Good. You’re going to get food.”

“Come on, sleepyhead. You have to get up and come with me.”

“To get food? What time is it? Can’t I just stay here?” She
yawned and stretched, rolling over in bed. In one fluid motion, she threw her
arms around his neck, drawing him down to her level, and gave him a wet kiss.
“It’s Baylee’s turn to work the Saturday morning shift. We can sleep late. I
say we make the most of it.” She wiggled her eyebrows up and down in a purely
sexual invitation.

He knew she considered herself to be somewhat inexperienced,
but she was proving to be anything but. Thinking about that right now just made
it tougher. When she started moving her hands up under his T-shirt, for a few
moments, he didn’t put up much of a protest. But then he gently set her back
from him. When she looked surprised at his disinterest, he told her, “I’ve got
to get to the office, Kit. Someone tossed the place.”

That got her attention. As she rubbed the sleep out of her
eyes, she replied, “Just like Alana’s.”

 “Yeah, so until I find out what’s going on, the rule is simple:
where I go, you go and vice versa; no putting up a fuss.”

Minutes later as Kit got dressed, she asked, more awake now,
“Did they take anything?”

“Dylan didn’t think so. I don’t think they were there to
steal the equipment, more like they were looking for something.” He cocked one
brow her way and didn’t even have to say it.

She finished for him, “You think whoever went through
Alana’s place paid you a visit. But why?”

“Good question, honey.” He lightly tapped her fanny. “Now
hurry up, we gotta go.”

Forty minutes later they walked into Billing-Pro Software.
The minute they stepped off the elevator from the reception area inward, it
became apparent someone had been searching for something just like at Alana’s.

For the second time in two days, Jake walked into a mess
where someone had gone through everything. He looked around at the desks, where
the contents of the drawers had been dumped on the floor. Chairs were
overturned, office equipment ruined. And here, just like at Alana’s, it didn’t
look as if they’d taken a single item, but rather tossed stuff around or
destroyed it altogether. But unlike Alana’s house, this time it was personal.

Dylan met Jake in the hallway. “I’ve got good news. You just
aren’t going to believe this. I’ve got them on tape. They didn’t realize we
have surveillance cameras set up all over the place.”

As he talked, Jake followed him into what they
affectionately called, “Command Central,” a computer geek’s version of
paradise. The room contained eight computers dedicated as servers, along with
every top-of-the-line, state-of-the-art gadget and device you would expect from
the computer world guaranteed to keep Billing-Pro Software on the cutting edge
of technology.

Jake watched as Dylan sat down at a computer terminal, and tapped
in a few keystrokes. They watched as a grainy, digital image flickered in
extremely slow motion on the flat screen monitor. “But you just aren’t going to
believe who did this.” Dylan tapped the keys to enlarge the image, and then
said, “Look at who we have here, caught on tape. Recognize anybody, Jake?”

Jake stared more intently at the monitor. “Gerald Auslo and
Mark Taft.” Maybe this wasn’t connected to the mess at Alana’s house after all.
But it was still a helluva coincidence. And he didn’t believe in coincidences.

Kit came up behind Jake and Dylan. They were watching the
security tape and alternately cursing as the intruders on tape ransacked desk
drawers, scattered papers on the floor, overturned chairs, and generally
wreaked havoc on their offices.