Waiting... On You (Force Recon Marines) (15 page)

“Why?”

“Damn, Hanna, these are good!” He took
another cookie as soon as he finished the first.

Hanna laughed, pleased. But she sensed
he was evading her. “Not ready to tell me anything yet, huh?”

“All I have are hunches right now. I
need to put together a few more pieces before I speculate out loud on possible
scenarios.”

Hanna shook her head and laughed
softly. “I had no idea you liked to put together puzzles so much.”

He finished off yet another cookie,
then crushed his empty soda can in his hand. “I don’t like to speculate until most
of the clues point in a specific direction.” Together, they cleaned up,
disposing of their garbage in a plastic sack.

Hanna looked around to make sure
everything was put away. “Now what?” she asked.

Nick rolled back onto his stomach to
resume his observation position. “Come lie down next to me and help me conduct
surveillance, Mata Hari.”

She crawled over to him and settled
next to him on her stomach, the same as before. She’d worn cut-off jeans and a
halter top today. The blanket was soft and fuzzy beneath her bare midriff and
legs. Nick shifted closer until his big hard body was touching hers from
shoulder to elbow and all along their mostly bare legs again. Hanna was pretty
sure he was making the contact deliberately. The fact that he wanted to be touching
her like that was fine with her, but it was no less disturbing than it had been
before lunch. And every time he moved slightly, which seemed to be quite often,
his hair-roughened skin rubbed deliciously along hers.

Hanna had to force herself to concentrate
on the task he’d given her, which was to sweep the area for activity, while he
listened and took photos. She could only hope she was as distracting to him as
he was to her, and yet, except for his restless shifting, he seemed to have no
trouble concentrating on his own tasks.

A quarter of an hour later, two men
rounded the corner of the house. Finally, they had something to watch and
listen to besides the birds. Within moments, two more came from the opposite
direction and joined them. Nick was getting something because he was listening
intently and frowning.

She peered closely through her high-powered
telescope, but she didn’t recognize any of the security guards. She did note,
though, that they had handguns tucked into their belts and rifles slung over
their shoulders. They weren’t in uniform, just street clothes. She wondered why
Yancy Masters needed armed security. What were they guarding besides a house?

When they disappeared behind the
building again, she lowered her scope and rolled onto her back. The clouds
above were finger wisps of white floating through the sunny blue sky. She drew
in several deep calming breaths of the sea air. It settled her nerves. The
prolonged close contact with Nick’s body had really rattled her.

Nick listened a few moments longer,
then cursed and jack-knifed into a sitting position beside her. Startled, Hanna
sat up, too. He gathered up all his equipment and stuffed it hurriedly into her
beach bag. Then, he yanked off his t-shirt and stuffed it in on top of
everything.

“What are you doing?”

Without a word of explanation, he
grabbed her by her bare shoulders and pressed her back down onto her back,
locking her in place with a muscled thigh thrown over her legs. The hard planes
of his naked chest pressed against her breasts as he claimed her mouth in an
explosive kiss that came out of nowhere. Hard and urgent, it consumed her in a
blaze of heat and passion that Hanna sensed went way beyond whatever he’d
intended. His tongue plunged past her lips, into her mouth, sucking any thought
of denial from her. Not that she wanted to deny him anything, especially since
she was ecstatically drowning in in his muscled arms.

Amid the fierce possession of his
kiss, he reached behind her neck to untie the top knot of her halter-top. Hesitation
reared inside her, finally. She grabbed air into her lungs as he shifted his
mouth to the arched column of her neck. Then his weight shifted as he began to
lick his way down to the damp valley between her breasts. Good heavens, what
was this all about?

A startled cry died in her throat when
his hand rose to mold itself to one partially exposed breast. His long kneading
fingers felt so wonderful, she heard herself utter a little groan of delight.
His reply was a deep-throated growl and the movement of his other hand to the
waistband of her jeans. The snap parted effortlessly, then the zipper. Hanna
actually squeaked when his thumb settled over the silk-clad juncture between
her legs. God, she was already wet for him! How revealing! She could feel the deep
flush of heat that rose inside her and warmed every inch of her flesh.

What had prompted all of this? He’d
given her no real warning, except the way he’d crowded her on the blanket. In
spite of her pleasure, she was feeling bewildered and unprepared. Nick never
lost control like this, except once three years ago.

She tried to wiggle out from under
him, but he held her fast and lifted his head to look over the rise of the
hill. It was then that she realized someone was coming up fast over the sand in
a vehicle.

“Easy,” Nick murmured. “They’re just
going to catch a couple making out on a picnic blanket. Stay behind me.”

So it had all had been for show! Her
heart sank, even as her body was still tingling with desire.

“Hey, you two!” a man shouted.

Nick sat up and reached around to
nudge her behind him. “Yeah? What do you want?”

“This is private property.”

“Doesn’t look like it to me,” he
argued. “This island is a wildlife preserve, open to the public.”

Two men got out of the dune buggy,
both as armed as Hanna had seen them earlier, only now their rifles weren’t on
their backs, but in their hands, pointed at the ground as they came toward
them.

Nick rose to his feet. Hanna followed,
careful to stay behind him. She retied her halter-top while she peeked around
Nick’s arm to look at the men approaching them. Her cut offs were still
unzipped. Both men looked around Nick at her.

She was thoroughly embarrassed. But as
she hurriedly zipped up her jeans and snapped them together again, she realized
Nick had meant her half-dressed state to be a distraction to the men he must
have known were approaching. His lovemaking had all been a ploy to cover up
what they had really been doing on top of this hill, so close to Yancy Master’s
house.

Nick reached down and handed the beach
bag to her. She slipped it over her shoulder and protectively under her arm.

“Go find another place to get laid,
buddy!” one of the security men growled as he raised his rifle a notch.

Nick reached down to grab the picnic
basket and the blanket. “Okay! Okay! Don’t have a stroke over it! We’re
leaving.” He took Hanna’s hand. “Come on, honey.”

As they walked past the two men, Hanna
felt their eyes on her, sliding over her lasciviously. She gripped Nick’s hand
more tightly, and he moved her in front of him, so his back was to the men as
they departed.

They were followed down the hill and
up over the next, all the way to the beach where they’d left their dingy. The
two men stood nearby as Nick loaded it, helped Hanna in, and then pushed it
into the surf. At the mast, Hanna raised the sails and watched the men get
smaller and smaller behind her.

As the wind caught and sent them
toward home, Nick looked over at her. “I’m sorry about all that. I heard them
spot us, and needed to make it look like we were only interested in a little
privacy.” He saw her blush a deep pink. With balance and agility, he stood up
and leaned over to give her a quick kiss. “Can I make it up to you by taking
you out to dinner tonight?”

“You don’t have to do that. I’m okay.”
She couldn’t look him in the eye.

“That was embarrassing for you, I
know. But I couldn’t think of anything else to do except kiss you.”

She was hurt and even more mortified.
“I hope it wasn’t too unpleasant of a task.”

From his seat near the rudder, he
leaned forward and caught her hand. “There was nothing unpleasant about it,
Hanna.”

She saw the heat in his eyes and
melted inside. Maybe he hadn’t kissed her as just a diversion. Maybe those men
had simply been an excuse. Intrigued with that line of thought, she smiled
shyly at him, then looked quickly away.

CHAPTER
11

“I CALLED ONE OF THE DEPUTIES I talked
to last Friday night at the hospital. Remember the two who came in with the
teenagers from the car accident?”

Nick had insisted they go out to
dinner. Hanna was seated across the table from him in a little Italian
restaurant downtown. “Yes, I remember them.”

“They talked to the boy, and he told
them his girlfriend got the heroin from a guy at the high school who graduated
a year ago. Apparently, the kids who take drugs, get everything from him. He
calls himself the Candyman.”

Hanna shook her head in disgust. “How
sick! Are they going to arrest him for murder?”

“I wish it was that simple. They’re
going to put a tail on him, maybe run a sting. They don’t want him as badly as
his supplier.”

“The boy didn’t know who that was?”

“No, but he did say that heroin was
not a drug that had been available until lately. Since this town has such an
atrocious coroner, we probably won’t know if the heroin was bad, laced with
something lethal, or the girl just took too much.”

“How is it that it’s being
investigated at all with Sheriff Thomas at the helm?”

“Because the girl died. He can’t sweep
that under the carpet.”

“I’ll bet he doesn’t know his deputies
are sharing information with you.”

Nick laughed. “No, he doesn’t. They
aren’t telling him much of anything.”

While they ate, Nick told her what the
deputies had told him about the drug problem they had in the community, and
what they knew about Sheriff Jeff Thomas.

Hanna stared at him through the
flickering glow of the candle in the middle of the table. The restaurant was
softly lit, quiet, and romantic. It was so nice to just sit and look at him, to
absorb everything about him, his handsome features, his deep baritone voice,
his efficient gestures.

The last time they had been out to
dinner together had been six years ago. He’d come home on leave. She’d had
season tickets to the Seattle Symphony. She and Lance had planned to attend one
of their performances, but since Nick was home, they asked him to go with them.
Lance had found him a date for the evening— a woman he was doing some boat
renovation for.

It had been hard to watch Nick with
another woman, not that she hadn’t all through high school. He’d been dressed
in his olive green Marine dress uniform, and he had looked so impossibly
handsome. She remembered spending the night wishing she was the woman on his
arm.

Nick had thoroughly enjoyed the
classical music performance, though, and as a result, Hanna had bought him
several compact discs and a portable disc player for Christmas that year.

“So do you think it will snow
tomorrow?”

Acknowledging her distraction, she
laughed. “I’m sorry. I guess my mind was drifting.”

“Where to?”

“Actually, to you,” she admitted. “To
the last time we went out to dinner together. We went to the Seattle Symphony,
remember? I can’t recall the name of the woman Lance set you up with.”

“Neither can I.” His eyes were
intently fixed on her face.

She looked down at her wine glass,
unnerved by the sudden intensity in his gaze. “Do you still listen to classical
music?”

“I do. My collection isn’t bad. Mostly
Mozart; my favorite. His music helps me unwind after a mission or focus before
one.”

“Really?”

“Yeah, really,” he chuckled. “But I
get kidded a lot about it. Most of my teams are younger guys. They like rock
and roll. They’re always hassling me about being old because I listen to
classical music. Of course I do it on an IPod now.” He signaled for the waiter
to send over the bill. “Do you still get season tickets to the Symphony?”

“Yes, but just for myself. Lance isn’t
a classical music lover, although he’ll go once in the while with me.”

“San Diego has a good symphony.”

“Do you ever go?”

“When I’m stationed there. Like you, I
go alone.”

That pleased her immensely, but she wondered
if he really did go alone.

Outside the restaurant, Nick asked if
she wanted to walk for a while. She nodded yes, and they headed down the
street. The older downtown section of Port George was a throwback to the
nineteenth century. Victorian buildings and globe lamps lined the street.
Nearly every renovated shop, museum, art gallery, and restaurant had colorful,
twinkling lights strewn over their doorways and around their windows, while all
the lamp posts had large pots of flowers hanging from them. It was tourist
season, so businesses stayed open later and the sidewalks were busy, filled
with people strolling leisurely, looking in the windows, going inside to
browse.

As it got darker, it got cooler. Hanna
had worn a mid-calf length, cotton chiffon skirt and a sleeveless,
lace-embroidered camisole. The skirt and blouse were very flattering, very
feminine, but she’d forgotten her sweater and she was trying to hide her
shivers.

Nick was wearing jeans and a
meticulously ironed, long-sleeved, black shirt. He didn’t seem to notice the
chill, but he did see Hanna try to cope with it.

“Cold?”

“A little.”

“Sorry, I don’t have a jacket to offer
you. How about an arm?” he inquired, slipping it around her shoulders. “Better?”

She was tempted to answer
“infinitely,” but simply nodded instead.

At the end of the street, they walked
onto the pier at Point Hudson Marina. People were settling inside of their
boats for the night or sharing a drink on deck with friends. The low murmur of
voices and laughter, combined with the twinkling lights from the boats made it
a captivating scene. A block over, many of the waterfront taverns were
beginning to fill up with patrons. Louder conversations blended with the sounds
of live bands.

After a while, Nick straightened away
from the railing and turned to the woman beside him. “Want to go have a drink
at Yancy’s?”

“It’s not my favorite place. But I
don’t imagine you’re going there to enjoy the upstanding company.”

They started to walk back the way they
had come. “I’d like to put a listening device in Yancy’s office.”

“Don’t you have to get some kind of
permission to do that?”

“Usually.” Nick tucked her close to
his side. “But I don’t have time to get the evidence I’d need to request a
wiretap or bug. I’ve been home for nearly two weeks and haven’t been able to
find out what I need to, so I’m going to speed things up.”

“You think Yancy Masters has something
to do with your brother’s disappearance?”

His large hand rubbed her arm up and
down gently, from elbow to shoulder. “I don’t know. But the man’s got something
to hide. Who keeps armed guards posted around his house in a community like
this?”

“What would he want with Lance?”

“I don’t know that, either. But Dylan
was investigating something that must have turned out to be more threatening
than poaching. Lance went to have a look, and disappeared in the same area. So
I have to ask myself: Why would that happen, unless they both came across
something they weren’t supposed to see? And who has something illegal going on in
the community they want hidden? My bet is on the guys who have unexplainable,
large amounts of money. Money and crime always go hand in hand. And I’ll bet my
Harley that the sheriff and maybe our police chief are involved, or being paid
to look the other way. Neither one of their bank accounts showed anything
extraordinary, although Phillips has a damn nice house and a couple of fancy
cars that don’t seem to fit what he makes as a Chief of Police. Both lawmen’s
lack of concern for the rising drug problem here is disturbing, not to mention
their lack of interest in investigating Dylan’s death and Lance’s
disappearance.”

Hanna stopped and turned to stare at
him. “Do you think drugs may be involved in all this?”

“Possibly, but it’s just speculation
at this point. I need more information to be sure. And that’s what I intend to
get over the next few days.”

“Is Yancy your prime suspect?”

“No. He just feels like a good place
to start. I’ll be looking at others as I get more information.”

“What can I do?” When they got to
Lance’s parked Jeep, Hanna turned to fully face Nick. “I don’t feel I’ve been
too much help.”

Nick smiled down at her as he dug the
keys out of his front jean pocket. “You’ve been a big help. Just keep working
with me. We’ll find Lance together.”

Eight blocks down, they parked the
Jeep between Port George Boat Haven and the shipyards, where Kellys’ Boat and
Salvage was located. From there, they walked the block and a half to Yancy’s
Bar and Grill. Trucks, cars, and a half dozen Harley Davidson motorcycles were
parked out front.

“No wonder you like this place. You
fit right in with all these Harley enthusiasts,” Hanna commented as they walked
through the array of bikes. “Your hair is a little too short, though, and you
don’t have any tattoos. Do you?”

“No, I never got into that,” he
laughed. “But hey, none of these guys has a Hog like mine, either. I ought to
bring it down here. I’ll bet they’d all talk to me then.”

“Men and their macho toys!” Hanna
rolled her eyes as Nick reached around her and opened the door to the bar for
her. “Don’t you get enough risk on the job?”

“You sound like Mom now.”

“She’s a smart woman.”

The inside of Yancy’s was smoky and
crowded. The dining room was empty, but the bar was definitely full. Hanna
groaned as she looked around for an empty table or booth. She spotted one in a
corner, relieved that they could sit out of the mainstream. Nick followed her
to the booth and slipped in behind her on the bench seat. A young woman in
tight leather pants and a tiny leather halter-top came over to take their
order. Hanna wanted to order wine, but this was not a wine type of place, so
she ordered a beer, along with Nick.

“This is the last place I saw Lance,”
she told Nick. “We came in here for dinner after work one night, almost a month
ago. We talked about how we were going to discover the truth about my brother’s
death. He told me he was going out the next day to dive Discovery Bay and talk
to Nat Simms again.”

The waitress came with two mugs of
draft beer. Nick paid her and waited until she left to respond. “Was Yancy in
here that day?”

“Yes. He served us, talked to us,
asked about you.” She took a sip of her beer. “He told me he was sorry about
Dylan.”

Nick looked around the room as he
drank his beer. “Too many coincidences. And I have never believed in
coincidences.”

After a few minutes of visual
surveillance, he asked her if she recognized any of the men in the bar. “You
did say the guy who stopped to help you with your flat tire was a biker, didn’t
you?”

“Yes.” She adjusted her glasses and
looked around the room. “It was dark, though, and I was scared. All I was
thinking about was knocking him over the head with my tire iron if he tried
anything.” Nick grinned at her. “I don’t recognize anyone here tonight. Sorry.”

“It’s okay. Just keep an eye out and
let me know if you do.” He took another drink of his beer, then set it aside.
“Do you want to dance?”

She gave him a startled look. He
laughed, rose to his feet, and reached for her hand. At the jukebox, he put in
a few quarters and made his selection.

To Hanna’s surprised delight, it was
the Righteous Brothers’
Unchained Melody
; one of her favorites. She and
Nick had shared their first slow dance at the senior prom to the soulful song.

Apparently, Nick recalled that memory,
as well. “We’ve danced to this before, remember?”

He took her in his arms, and she
murmured a barely audible ‘yes.’

For the first few moments, Hanna
listened to the words of the music, struck by the phrases. They seemed to fit
her feelings so well. She certainly had hungered for Nick’s touch a long lonely
time. And oh, how she had waited for him! Twenty years had gone by very slowly
indeed.

It was absolute heaven to be in his
arms, dancing to such a romantic melody. She snuggled as close as she could get
to his big body. The top of her head normally came up under his jaw, but with
heels on, she was closer to his face— her head resting against his shaven
cheek.

He had one hand on her shoulder. The
other held hers, tucked between them, just underneath her breasts. Slowly, the
hand on her shoulder slid to the back of her neck to massage the tendons there
before it moved into her hair, his fingers splaying wide to hold her head
against his.

Lord have mercy on her! There wasn’t
any place she’d rather be than in Nick Kelly’s arms. He was so warm, so solid,
and so big. All her senses were attuned to his wonderful masculine scent, his
shifting muscles, his long legs brushing hers, his hand caressing the nape of
her neck.

Eventually, it slid down her spine,
very slowly, pressing her closer still. At the waistband of her skirt, it
stalled, then by degrees, reversed its course and inched up under her lacy
camisole to climb slowly back up her spine. His fingertips stopped just below
her bra.