Obsidian (20 page)

She reached out, placing her hand over his, her fingers twining with his and curling around the stone. This time when they touched the piece of obsidian emanated warmth instead of cold, taking on the heat from his touch.

Jamie turned his hand, entwining his fingers with hers; the stone still locked between them. His eyes had taken on a black hue in the light of the fire. They held a depth and translucent aura of mysticism. Her breath caught within her. He looked so vulnerable, so much like a lost little boy.

She was becoming too attached to him. Every little bit of him that he let her glimpse made her feel closer to him. She knew she should turn away from him, but she was held by the look in his eyes.

“Perhaps, it does have magical powers.”

Every nerve ending in her body sprang to life with his gentle words. The room was warmer now and the flickering light of the candles shut out the last of the harsh experiences of the day. For now she could believe it was just any other ordinary day and Jamie was an ordinary man who just happened to be interested in her.

He raised their intertwined fingers to his mouth. His soft lips grazed the ridge of her knuckles, sending a shiver up her back that settled at the base of her neck. She had no power to move and no power to speak, only to feel. He slipped his fingers from hers and turned her hand upward, her palm open to his ministrations. She watched in silent fascination as his lips parted and his tongue danced out to taste the skin upon her wrist.

She was entranced. Soon she’d be a puddle of water at his feet. Her knees already quivered and her was stomach contracting as she fought the surge of energy rushing through her.

Outside the walls, the storm swirled around them and inside desire danced within her at his gentle touch.

“You have a power over me I don’t quite understand. In the short time I’ve known you, you’ve made me feel and remember things I thought about in years. Things I haven’t wanted to remember. How is it you can do that to me? I don’t even know you.”

Her sigh was his answer. A gentle whoosh of air escaped her parted lips. Her gaze entranced him. Her eyes were pools of sea-green water swirling in a tossing ocean. Jamie suppressed the urge to reach up and touch her hair where it brushed the curve of her shoulder.

Shelby was like no other woman he’d ever met. For once he let himself look beyond the outside exterior of a woman and enjoy the strength beneath. She had all the qualities he’d never let himself think of wanting, a heart full of caring, strength that came from deep inside, and a loyalty to the people who mattered most to her.

She reached her free hand up to touch his forehead, letting her fingers trail downward across the raised edge of the scar above his eye to the rough darkened stubble on his jaw. The tracing of her finger left a trail of heat against his skin. He wanted more. The realization startled him. He had desired women before, but it had never been with the consuming power he felt at Shelby’s touch. He grasped her fingers, stilling her gentle exploration.

“It’s my turn to be self-conscious. I must look pretty horrible, with all of this running from danger.”

His words broke the quiet tenuous bond between them and reality seeped in to intrude. He needed distance from her. When he was this close, it was hard to think.

Jamie pulled away from her. He couldn’t look at her face. He didn’t want to see the confusion he knew would be there. Instead, he focused on the stone she still had in her hands. He took it from her and turned back to the bookcase, placing it on the shelf.

Inside, he was cursing himself, calling himself every name he knew, and he knew quite a few. He was a fool. With one kiss, he’d managed to forget every reason he had for being there. When he held her, he forgot that he was in Chandler to solve a case and when he looked at her he forgot their lives were in danger. Being with Shelby, being this close, he’d pushed aside his training and forgotten to remain distanced and unaffected.

It wasn’t going to be easy to separate himself from the attraction he was feeling for her. Right now, the only thing he was sure of was that he had to find a way to keep some space between them.

Someone out there wanted them dead. Their lives were on the line and he was more determined than ever to get them out of it. He needed to keep her safe. He couldn’t think about what would happen if he failed. He just didn’t know yet how he was going to do it.

“You know, I think you owe me some answers, Jamie. I've chosen to trust you because of how you have helped my family and me. But I deserve to know the truth about who you really are, and why you’re in Chandler. I know you didn’t just happen to come here out of the blue.” She moved to the window, watching the play of the rain against the panes of glass. It was impossible to see anything beyond their small world inside the house.

He knew he owed her explanations. He could no longer put her in the middle of something so dangerous without letting her know the score.

“I don’t know where to begin. It isn’t that easy to tell.” He ran a tired hand through his hair.

“You can start with who you really are and then tell me why those men killed Marianne.” She said.

He had to tell her the truth, even if it was going to blow his cover. Right now, Shelby was the only person he could trust. As for the questions, he wasn’t sure if he had any answers for himself.

He motioned for her to sit and she lowered herself onto the covered couch. She looked small and pale against the dust cover.

If he told her everything then he ran the risk of scaring her, of having her leave, and right now he wasn't willing to accept that. Whoever it was that had seen them at Marianne’s this evening wasn’t about to stop until they had found a way to keep them quiet.

He settled back against the chair and stared into the orange flames of the fire. “This isn’t easy. It’s not all cut and dried. There are things I can’t tell you. There are things I don’t have answers to myself, yet.”

She let out a heavy sigh. “You’re talking in circles, Jamie. Either you can’t tell me, or you won’t. Which is it?”

He could understand her frustration. He was fighting himself for the same answers. Whether he liked it or not, Shelby had become important to him. More than anyone had in a very long time.

CHAPTER ELEVEN

It was tearing him up inside. Giving himself up to the temptation of kissing her had somehow broken something loose within him. She had him thinking about things that were long in the past. The very essence of the power pulling them together had him confused and heated. In the short turbulent time he’d known her, she’d become a part of him.

“You’re going to have to trust me on this.”

“Oh?” Her words were just the barest of a whisper hanging between them. He was asking her to put her faith in him, when he wasn’t quite sure of himself. Right now, he needed her behind him. He needed to know that she’d believe that he could get them out of this mess. And all of the sudden, her faith in him mattered as much as solving this case for David.

“Who are you?”

“My name is really Jamie Rivard.” That part was easy. He doubted that the rest would be the same.

“What is it that you’re running from, Jamie?”

“My family would tell you that I’ve spent a good deal of my life running away from everything.” Things like life, the past, and relationships.

“Is that why you joined the Coast Guard? So you could escape?”

He looked up in surprise.

She tried a casual shrug, but he could see that it wasn’t such an easy question to put off. “I saw your picture on the dresser upstairs. The uniform was a dead give away.”

“A few months ago a good friend of mine was killed in a boat explosion. I was told that he was investigating a case of trafficking in this area and I came to Chandler to find some answers. I need your help to get to the bottom of this.”

“Well, you have it.” She let out a resigned sigh. “I’ll help you however I can. What is it you need to know?”

It had been a long night and getting longer still. He wasn’t sure if he had the energy to take this slow, without scaring her.

“When we were at Marianne’s the other day I saw a pair of binoculars on the windowsill. She had them with her when I found her body. My guess is that she was watching someone. Did she mentioned anything to you about what she’d seen?”

“When we were there the other day she mentioned that there’d been a lot of activity around the point. At the time, I didn’t think too much about it. There are always plenty of boats in the area, either working or pleasure boats. One or two more wouldn’t make that much of a difference to the casual observer.” She said, hesitating as she looked out the window for a moment.

“I don’t know. Maybe Marianne saw something else. She kept strange hours and she was always one of the most observant people I’d ever met.”

“Have you noticed anything strange lately?”

Shelby turned back from the window and nodded. “But I’m not the only one. Everyone in the harbor is talking about strange things happening.”

He’d already gotten that from the conversations he’d overheard at the bar.

“But what did you see?” he prompted.

She hugged her arms tighter around herself, whether for warmth or comfort. They both knew that this was part of something much bigger. But how much bigger, was still to be determined.

“It started for me when I was out at the point the other night. I was just starting back from my walk when I saw a plane coming in low over the cove.”

“And you found this unusual?”

She nodded, “It was late and I couldn’t make out much in the dark, but it circled low over the point a couple of times. At first, I thought it was just coincidence, but then they dropped something out of the plane. After the plane left I searched the rocks, but I didn’t find anything.”

“And that was your only sighting?”

“No, I decided to go back the next night to see if it would happen again. The plane did come back, and it circled the cove, but then it just headed back out to sea. This time it didn’t appear to drop anything.”

“So, twice you’ve seen it and each time it flew over the cove it went back out over the ocean instead of land? Do you have any idea what kind of plane it was?”

She shrugged, “I don’t know anything about planes and it was dark. It was small, not much bigger than one of those seaplanes I see once in awhile. But in the dark it was impossible to make out any kind of markings.”

They were making their drops by plane. That had to be where the guns had come from.

They had chosen that cove to make their drops for a reason. It was relatively remote, with access by either boat or vehicle. But even if this was a way station for the trafficking, they had to have some place to make a transaction.

“Has anyone reported strangers in the area? Someone who did seem like they belonged?”

“You mean, besides you? You’ve been the talk of the town for the last week. In fact, there’s been more than a few who thought you were behind the strange activity.”

“But was there anyone else who seemed out of place?” She considered this.

“There were a couple of men who came into the store to buy supplies last week. Both were tall, one was a big hulk of a guy. Both of them were dark skinned and, I don’t know, kind of standoffish. They needed food and got gas for their boat.”

That had to be Taimon and Caruso. “Did you happen to see the name on the boat?”

She shook her head again. “I let Josh take care of the refueling. He was talking to them about their boat, so I let him go ahead and help them. They did mention that they were staying on one of the islands. I remember thinking it was weird for this time of year to have anyone out there. Most of those cottages don’t have insulation.”

“Was there anything else?”

“Only that they asked where they could get some lobsters.”

“Did you get a name or a credit card?”

“No, they paid cash. But when I asked them how long they’d be around, they told me that they only had a week or so left here.”

Which meant that they were coming to end of their operations. If it was Taimon and Caruso, they’d be busy tying up loose ends and covering their tracks. They weren’t stupid. If someone like Marianne had taken notice of their activity they’d have no problem doing away with her.

“Do you know if anyone else had any contact with these men?” Maybe someone had seen something and didn’t realize it.

“Only Josh. He took them a crate of lobsters the next day.” Which might have put him in place to witness some of their activities.

Maybe Josh wasn't involved in the trafficking; maybe he’d only stumbled onto what they were doing? He hoped for Josh's sake that he’d been wrong to suspect him.

Shelby leaned back, resting her head against the wall in weary acceptance. “Tell me about your friend. The one that was killed.”

Jamie hesitated. It was one thing to talk about his work, but another to relive the grief over losing his friend.

“David was a Special Investigative Officer, the same as me. We didn’t get a lot of down time, but when we did we liked to go fishing off the Keys. I’ve got this sweet little cottage down there, right on the water.”