Taken (28 page)

She felt her cheeks flush at his words and the look in his eyes. “I think that moment has passed, Nick.”

“I was afraid you were going to say that. My mind is
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still a little blurry. What exactly happened? I know we came back to the room, and I closed my eyes for a few minutes.”

“And we fell asleep. The next thing I knew you were kissing me,” she said.

“Really? I thought maybe you were kissing me,” he replied, mischief in his expression, as he shifted closer to her.

She cleared her throat as his hand rested on her stomach, the heat from his fingers burning through her T-shirt.

“I remember thinking how much I like waking up with you. You’re so soft, so warm,” he murmured, tracing circles on her abdomen.

She caught his wrist. “I think you’re ad-libbing now.”

He smiled but there was an element of seriousness in his eyes. “I want to make love with you, Kayla. That moment hasn’t passed for me.”

“You’re hurt, Nick. It’s not a good idea.”

“Haven’t you ever heard of kissing the boo-boo?” he asked with a grin.

“I don’t think it’s your boo-boo you’re wanting me to kiss.”

“You are a smart woman.”

“Am I?” she asked with a sigh. She pushed a strand of hair away from his bruised forehead, reminded that Nick could have been killed earlier, and so could she. “I feel out of my league, in uncharted territory.”

“So am I,” he said, “and I’m not talking about Evan or watches or missing coins.”

Her heart skipped a beat at the intent in his gaze.

“Me?” she asked in surprise.

“Yes, you. You make me want . . .”

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He left his sentence hanging, and it drove her crazy. “I make you want what?”

He shook his head. “I don’t think we should be talking right now. I might have a concussion. Who knows if I’m thinking straight? Who knows what I’m saying?”

She frowned. “That’s a stall if I ever heard one. You can’t just start a sentence like that and leave it hanging.”

“Let’s leave it at this.” His thumb stroked her jaw as he leaned in and kissed her again. “Good night.”

“You’re just going to sleep?” she asked in surprise as he rolled onto his back. She’d thought one kiss would lead to another.

“You told me to rest,” he said, closing his eyes. “If you’ve changed your mind, just tap me on the shoulder.”

She saw the smile play across his lips and realized he was enjoying this a little too much. She had no choice but to turn the tables. She ran her hand down his chest, his abdomen, between his thighs, and along his rapidly aris-ing erection.

“Uh, Kayla, that’s not my shoulder,” he muttered.

She laughed. “I know. And, Nick — I have changed my mind.”

If his head wasn’t throbbing, he would have felt great, Nick thought as he woke up wrapped around Kayla’s soft, luscious, naked body, his face buried in her hair.

He’d never felt so much chemistry with a woman, so much satisfaction. When he was with her, everything was right with the world. God, that sounded corny, like some stupid Hallmark card. It was sex. They were just enjoying each other. It was physical.

Maybe it was a little mental. Just a little.

Maybe a few emotions were involved, too. Just a few.

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Oh, hell, who did he think he was kidding? Certainly not himself. He liked Kayla. He liked the contradictions she presented, the vulnerability mixed with bravery, the innocence combined with passion, her determination to fight back tempered by her worry that someone else might get hurt. He also liked the way she kissed, the way she moved, the way she generously welcomed him into her body, and he especially liked the way she smiled at him. It quite literally made his heart stop and his body harden, and just like that he was ready to go again.

She stirred in his arms, waking up like a cat with a sensuous stretch against his body that made every nerve tingle.

“Hmm,” she said sleepily.

His hand drifted down her stomach, teasing at the juncture of her thighs. He thought he could produce a better response than
hmm
without too much effort.

“Nick,” she said, more awake now. She blinked. “Is that the time?”

He gazed over her shoulder at the clock. “I think so.”

“We have to get up. We have to meet J.T.”

“We have time,” he said hopefully.

“I don’t think so, Nick. And if we don’t meet J.T., I’m sure he’ll find his way up here.”

“I’ll put the Do Not Disturb sign on the door.”

“I don’t think that will keep out the FBI. I’m getting dressed.”

“Really? Now?”

She laughed as she twisted from his arms and jumped out of bed, showing off her gorgeous ass as she walked into the bathroom. She popped her head back out the door. “Of course, if you want to take a shower with me, we could save some time that way.”

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And now he knew what else he liked about her . . . she was very efficient.

They entered the hotel coffee shop an hour later. J.T.

sat with his back to the wall, his eyes on the door. He was dressed in jeans and a brown leather jacket. As they drew closer, J.T. gave them a grim nod. He looked tired, as if he’d been up all night. His eyes were bloodshot, and he needed a shave.

“Hey,” J.T said. “At least you two are still in one piece.”

“So to speak,” Nick replied, realizing he needed to fill J.T. in on some of their other adventures in Reno. “I forgot to mention that someone jumped me last night, and grabbed Kayla, too. It wasn’t Evan.”

“Why didn’t you tell me this before?”

“My head was a little thick when you called in the middle of the night.”

“Great, that’s great.”

Nick pulled out a chair and sat down next to Kayla.

“What have you learned?”

“Lisa Palmer recovered enough to say that someone pushed her down the stairs. Unfortunately, she didn’t see who it was. I also spoke with her sister, Beth, who confirmed that Evan did, in fact, approach her yesterday about buying the watch.”

“Is Lisa going to be all right?” Kayla asked.

“She’s lucky. She has a broken wrist and a fractured collarbone. Otherwise, she’ll be fine.”

“Thank God for that,” Kayla said, exchanging a quick look with Nick.

He saw the compassion in her eyes and also the fear.

Lisa Palmer could have been killed. They both knew that.

“What else?” Nick asked.

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“The watch is gone.”

“Of course it’s gone. Evan got there before us, as usual.”

“Because you didn’t call me and tell me you were coming here to track down Lisa Palmer. If you had, I might have gotten to her house first,” J.T. said pointedly.

“I called you when we got here,” Nick retorted, his gut burning at the criticism. Still, he knew J.T. had a point.

He could have called him the minute they found out about Lisa’s existence, but he hadn’t. He wasn’t used to asking for help.

“Do you know who else is involved?” Kayla asked, interrupting what had become a tense silence. “The man who grabbed me earlier was shorter than Evan. He seemed bigger, more muscular, and his arm around my neck felt thick, powerful. I wish I could have seen his face.”

Nick’s stomach rolled at the thought of Kayla being strangled by some stranger while he was knocked out cold.
Dammit.
He’d screwed up there, too. He wouldn’t make that mistake again. He’d keep her safe. He’d keep them both safe.

“That’s not much to go on,” J.T. replied, “but I can run back through some of Evan’s earlier cons, figure out if there’s anyone out of jail who might be helping him. In general Evan works alone. We did, however, find some prints at Ms. Palmer’s house. We’ll run them through the system, see if we can ID our third party. In the meantime, has it occurred to either one of you that you’re not chasing Evan — he’s using you to get these other watches?”

“Of course that’s occurred to us,” Nick snapped. “But if you have a better plan, I haven’t heard it. You’ve had years to catch Evan, and you haven’t come close.”

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“That was a cheap shot.”

“Just calling it like I see it,” Nick said.

“Nick,” Kayla warned. “We’re on the same side.”

J.T.’s gaze didn’t waver. He leaned forward. “You’re right, Nick. I’ve made mistakes, and I made them by acting the same way you’re acting now — as if it’s personal, as if this is between you and Evan or between Evan and me. It’s not. There are other people involved, innocent people who could get hurt, who are getting hurt,” he amended. “You and Kayla need to go home and let me do my job.”

Nick heard what J.T. was saying, but he couldn’t promise to stay out of it. He could only agree to be more careful.

15

Nick refused to let Kayla drive back from Reno. Even though his head was still aching, he preferred to be in the driver’s seat. At least he could pretend he had some semblance of control over his life. He cast a quick glance at her as he saw her pull out her cell phone. “Who are you calling?”

“My grandmother. I want to make sure she’s all right.”

She waited a moment and then blew out an impatient breath. “She’s not answering. I wonder where she is? It’s Tuesday morning. I don’t think there’s anything specific she does on Tuesdays.” She shot Nick a worried look.

“Do you think she’s all right?”

“I’m sure she is. If your grandmother were a target, someone would have gone after her long ago.”

“I don’t know if that’s true, but I appreciate your effort to reassure me. J.T. was pretty annoyed with us.”

Nick shrugged. “I don’t care.”

“Just how close were you two in college? You don’t seem all that friendly now.”

Nick considered her question, wondering why it seemed so difficult to answer. “We were good friends. We
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met in the dorms freshman year, then moved into an apartment together our junior year with Evan and another guy named Garrett Thompson.”

“Really? Someone else was also there? Is he on Evan’s hit list as well?”

“I don’t know. Garrett did turn on Evan, but not like J.T. and I did. He was more on the sidelines. After the Evan fiasco, J.T. moved into a frat house, and I got a studio apartment. We didn’t see each other much.” He paused. “I probably acted like a jerk back then. I was pissed off at everyone, including J.T. I didn’t think anyone did enough to help me nail Evan and get him away from my sister. Evan came between J.T. and myself, and even after he was gone, I guess we just didn’t ever get back together as close as we’d been. Neither one of us made the effort.”

“What about Jenny? What happened to her after she got hurt?”

“She left school right away. She moved back home.

My family lived down in Monterey at the time. She was so angry with me, she told me not to come home. So I stayed away. Eventually, as the years passed, we were able to reconnect. But I suspect she hated me for a long time. She could never look me in the eye. There was a part of herself that she hid from me.”

“She must know that whatever you did, you did out of love. You wanted to protect her.”

“I think she believed I wanted to ruin her life. She didn’t like me playing big brother, or substitute dad, as she used to call it. But I didn’t have a choice. When my father left, my mother fell apart. Jenny and my other sister, Dee, needed someone to hold things together, to look after them, so I did. They didn’t appreciate it. But I didn’t
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do it for their appreciation. I did it because it was the right thing to do.”

“I know,” she said.

He gave her a quick glance and saw understanding in her eyes, maybe even a little respect. “Thanks.”

He slowed down as they began to weave through the mountains. The two-lane highway twisted and turned as they crossed the summit at Donner’s Lake, an area infamous for the Donner party’s tragic and cannibalistic journey across the high Sierras. Fortunately, there wasn’t much traffic, so they were making good time.

As a curve came up, Nick pressed down on the brake.

It was softer than he expected, sluggish. The pedal seemed to be touching the floor, but the car was not slow-ing down. The road grew steeper. Signs warned of a downgrade ahead, slow trucks, hot brakes.

“Nick, what’s wrong?” Kayla asked, her hand gripping the armrest. “You’re going awfully fast.”

“The brakes aren’t working well,” he said as calmly as he could.

He could hear her gasp. “What? What do you mean?”

How could he tell her the truth? The brakes were gone.

Someone had tampered with them. Someone wanted them dead — now. It was no longer about what might occur but what was actually happening. He looked at Kayla. She knew it, too.

“God, Nick. We’re going to die, aren’t we?”

“Not if I can help it.”

He hung on to the wheel, steering as best he could as their speed increased. He had to move back and forth between lanes to avoid the slower traffic. He pushed down on the brakes again and again, downshifted as far as he could go. The motor grunted, whirred, but the Honda was
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still picking up speed. The road was too steep. He prayed for a turnout, but there was nothing, nowhere to go.

If he turned to the left, they would crash into a mountain of rock. If he turned to the right, they’d go over the mountainside, down into the ravines and canyons and rivers hundreds of yards below. He battled as long as he could, but the car was out of control.

The road curved too suddenly. They crashed through a flimsy guardrail, the splintered metal flying past them as they hurtled into space. He couldn’t see anything but blue, blue sky. It seemed to take forever to land. Maybe dying wasn’t going to hurt that much, he thought, just before they hit the ground with a body-pounding thud.

Instinctively he threw his arm in front of Kayla, but it was futile. He couldn’t protect her from what was about to come.