Severed Threads (5 page)

"God, Ian. You’re such an ass.” She dragged the blue towel off her shoulder and over the bar’s splattered surface. "Can’t you get your mind out of the gutter for one minute?"

Chase jumped in to save his friend from further humiliation. "So," he said to Naomi, "you still heading back to Alaska?"

She shrugged a shoulder. "Doesn’t look like it. My sister made a ton of money last spring, but according to her, fishing’s gone all to hell. With trawlers pulling in half empty, her regulars completely dried up."

For half a second, Chase saw dollar signs in her eyes and considered asking if her sister might be willing to invest in his ailing business. But somehow soliciting money from the town’s “ceiling expert” seemed a little too desperate – even for him.

"Still chartering your boat?" Naomi asked, wiping her hands on her white half-apron.

He shrugged and ran his thumb over the shot glass rim. "For the time being."

"My cousin, Blaine McKenzie…over there in the corner…he just flew in this afternoon and plans to stick around all week. He’s looking for someone to take him out."

Chase glanced over his shoulder. It was the scrawny guy in his early twenties, hunched over a laptop computer. With his rolled-up shirtsleeves and round black-rimmed specs, he resembled a contestant on some nerd reality show.

"That pip’s yer
cousin
?" Ian blurted.

Chase actually had the same thought. The idea that the two shared DNA was staggering.

"We share a last name, but he’s a distant cousin through marriage," she replied.

The shaggy-haired kid glanced up and smiled. He seemed undaunted by the three sets of eyes that were now fixated on him.

"Believe it or not, Blaine’s intellect is highly sought after,” she went on. “He’s some kind of software genius up in Seattle. Every now and then, he manages to fly in for a visit."

"Ya don’t say," Ian muttered, returning his focus to Naomi’s shapely figure.

She set Ian’s empty glass behind the bar. "He’s planning to stay on for a full week this time. If you’re interested, he’s got his gear stowed in his plane outside."

Chase had just tossed back his high-octane drink. "His
plane
?" he squeezed out, certain he’d misheard.

She jerked her thumb to the left at the bar’s picture window. "That’s it right there."

Both Ian and Chase craned their necks to take a look. There, tethered to the dock, sat a beautiful red and white Grumman Mallard seaplane, and still smiling, back in the corner of the room, sat the solution to all their problems.

Four

Bam-bam-bam! Bam-bam-bam!

Devon Lyons sprang up in bed. He squinted at the green glowing clock on his nightstand. 12:45 A.M.
What the hell?
It suddenly occurred to him that Logan Tulles must have gotten his messages. He had probably come over to rage about their disastrous dilemma. But why show up at this hour? Why didn’t he just call?

“
Dev, it’s me. Open the door!”

Selena Pollero’s muffled voice jacked his scowl into a smile. A verbal assault wasn’t waiting on his doorstep after all. Still, if he didn’t hear back from Logan by the time he finished breakfast, he’d have to send out a search party. He tied on his bathrobe as he swept through the condo and unbolted the front door.

Selena rushed inside, her long auburn hair flowing behind her. "What took you so long? It’s freezing out there." A tight, off-the-shoulder black dress hugged her curves, raising more than goose bumps on her olive skin.

"Aren’t you breaking rule number, what, fourteen on your brother’s list?" Devon smirked. He closed the door, already imagining his hands exploring every inch of her figure. The memory of her long legs wrapped around him caused his body to ache. He nabbed one of Selena’s arms to draw her in for a kiss.

"I’m not here for that." She broke free and marched past him.

He brushed the scruff on his chin with the back of his hand, thoroughly amused. Selena had taught him the power of impassioned stares and soft-spoken directives. The moment she ended her playful taunts, her sexual appetite had been known to surpass his – which wasn’t an easy feat.

"So why
are 
you here?" he challenged, lips curled.

At the window, Selena lifted the edge of the beige vertical blinds. She seemed to be distracted by something in the lit street below. When she looked back at Devon, her knitted brows had relaxed a bit, but her doe eyes appeared unsettled.

"What’s going on?"

"I think someone’s following me again." She walked a short distance across the hardwood floor in the living room and back again. "My brother’s got his guys on me all the time."

After her second trip, Devon grabbed her arm. Her pacing was rattling his nerves.

“
He can’t know I’m here,” she insisted.

Just like his sister Rachel, Selena had a tendency to overreact. Yet this time, fear flickered in her eyes, convincing him to heed her warning about Gabe.

"When I got home tonight, I heard him on the phone. He said you’d been messing with him. That if you didn’t show up, there was gonna be one less investment broker in town." An accusation edged her voice.

Releasing her, Devon stepped closer to the dining room window. He lifted the shade a fraction higher and scanned the marina. No one in sight. He blew out a breath.

"Whatever you’re involved in, Dev, you gotta get out of it. And fast."

Despite the angst balling in his gut, he faced her and offered the false reassurance she sought. "There’s nothing to worry about. Just a misunderstanding. I’ll clear it up tomorrow, okay?" He stroked her cheek with his thumb, shielding his anxiety.

Based on Logan’s recent discovery of their boss’s offshore accounts in Antigua, their "venture" was suddenly showing all the earmarks of a Ponzi scheme.

Selena pulled his hand from her face. "Don’t lie to me. If you’re into something illegal..."

"I’m not," he told her. "I promise."

Devon hated being dishonest, and of all people, Selena deserved the truth. There was no purpose, though, in coming clean at this point – letting her know he was climbing walls over the laundered money he and Logan had entrusted with their missing boss. Should the Securities and Exchange Commission find out, they could be seeing prison time. And if they didn’t deliver an overdue inflated return on her brother’s stag investment, they could both end up face down in a back alley with two bullets lodged in their brains. He squelched the thought. No need to toil over something that wasn’t going to happen.

In his mind, he firmed his plan. Come morning, he’d contact everyone on his call list. Track down their firm’s chief advisor. Find out where his boss Walter Moten had been hold up for the past two weeks.

Get this whole crazy mess straightened out.

He gazed into Selena’s narrowed eyes, carefully weighing his words. "Baby, don’t worry. I care too much about you to be that stupid."

Slowly, the tension in her features fell away. She shook her head and sighed. "God, you scared me. I thought the creeps Gabe hangs around with were gonna be after you next."

Devon scratched the back of his cropped hair, trying to scrape away the recent memory of her brother’s cantankerous bodyguard throwing him against a wall – a punctuation warning him to keep his hands off Selena.

But then, some things in life were worth a few bruises. Like using his tongue to trace the delicate line on the slender neck before him.

He smiled at her knowingly. "You were worried about me, huh?"

She arched a brow. "Don’t flatter yourself. I was just in the neighborhood."

"Uh-huh." As she started to walk off, Devon encircled her waist and pulled her backside against him – hard. She gasped. He nuzzled the side of her hair and whispered into her ear, "I’m glad you were in the neighborhood." He felt her body melt in his arms before she turned around. She leaned in and seductively kissed his bottom lip, then his top one, taking control. And he gladly let her.

Every muscle in his body tensed at the feel of her breath, moist and hot on his skin. She closed her eyes and caressed his tongue with hers, delivering a taste of mint and desire, stripping away his restraint. He crushed her thick hair with one hand and grasped her hip with the other. A familiar, intoxicating scent filled his lungs. He buried his face in her neck, desire driving him on.

Anticipation tightened his stomach as she moved between his legs, grinding up and down on his thigh. "You
have
missed me," he teased in a low voice.

"You’ve got no idea." She pressed her breasts against his chest and caressed his neck. The whisper of a breath tickled his ear. "You taste so good," she hummed.

With one hand, she loosened the tie around his waist. She ran her warm palm along the inside of his leg, higher and higher, freeing a groan from deep inside. Her fingers traced the length of his erection then locked firmly in place.

Devon stared at her parted mouth and swallowed hard.

Lifting her chin, she peered into his eyes. "Sleeping in the nude, I see. You haven’t had company, have you?" She awaited his response, maintaining her grip, a playful threat.

He shook his head and smiled at the ridiculous implication. How could he be with anyone else when all he thought of was her?

He ran his fingers up her back until they found a home in her soft auburn hair. In long movements, he resumed his exploration of her mouth. The pressure of their wet kisses intensified, matching the invigorating tempo of her hand. He was left gasping for air as she drove him closer to the edge, closer to collapsing on his weakening knees.

"Slow down," he rasped, grabbing her wrist.

"Something wrong?" Coyness bordered her tone.

He shut his eyes, trying to temper his libido. For weeks he’d waited to make love to her. He needed all the strength he could muster to give her the sexual gratification she had come to expect.

"Just been waiting too long for you."

He pulled her closer and blazed a path of kisses along the contour of her collarbone. As she arched in his arms, he sucked in a strangled breath. God, how he wanted to leave a visible mark on her neck – a mark that would brand her as his own. But then she’d have to hide it from her brother’s menacing eyes. Devon would just have to find another way to claim her.

He tugged down her tight black dress, pinning her arms at her sides. Free of a bra, Selena’s tantalizing breasts mesmerized him.

"You’re
so
beautiful," he said as he lowered himself to his knees. His tongue circled one hardened nipple, then the other. He pulled the smooth fabric farther down, past her arms and over her hips until it pooled around her ankles. He held her hips possessively, planting wet kisses on her stomach and across the top of her black lace panties. With the fabric pushed aside, he flicked the tip of his tongue over her clitoris, drawing moans and trembling sighs from her lips.

Her hands molded his shoulders as he stood and regained his balance. Leaning into him, she nestled her cheek into the curve of his neck. Her warm, ragged breaths traveled like waves across his skin, flaring his desire.

"Baby…make love to me," she whispered.

Oh, hell yes.
Sweeping her into his arms, he headed down the hallway toward his king-size bed. No matter what tomorrow held in store for him, he’d make sure Selena knew how much he wanted her, how much he needed her, how much pleasure he was capable of giving her.

Even if it took him all night.

Five

Breathe! C’mon, breathe!
Rachel’s panicked mind cried out as her lungs crumpled under the weight of the ocean. She was sinking fast. Inside, she screamed for help. A scream no one could hear. She scanned the milky water for something to cling to – a way to claw her way to the surface. Then she saw him. Her father dangling in the water. Head down, arms stretched out, a lifeless marionette puppet. He drifted closer and closer. The pounding in her head increased, the pain in her chest grew. She didn’t want to see the horror, the death in his eyes. If she didn’t breathe soon, she was going to drown and join him forever.