Part 13 (2/2)
Dressed in a black silk jacket and pants, his gold jewelry twinkling in the sunlight, Salva now faced the fisherman whose dock he'd found his missing sailboat tied to. ”Your name, old man?”
”CarlosSancho ,” answered the stocky fisherman.
”How did you get my boat?” Salva demanded. ”And how long have you had it?”
”Your boat?” The man's eyes widened and, after nervously sizing up Salva, his gaze traveled to the six bald-headed men who flanked him. ”Dis boat was given to me,senor.I git it as a geeft two days ago.”
”From who?”
Carlos started to sweat and Salva smiled for the first time in days. It was arousing as h.e.l.l to witness
someone else's fear. ”I said, who gave you my boat, old man?” ”I don't know his name,senor.” Two of Salva's men broke away from the line and advanced on the fisherman. The old man's fear took flight and he backed up into the clear water of the Caribbean. ”I-I speak the truth,amigos. An American jus' come and say, 'Do you want a geeft?' The boates very nice geeft. I say,'Si, thank you,' and he give me the boat.”
”What did he look like, the American?”
”Yellow hair, nice s.h.i.+rt. Gold watch.”
”Was he alone?”
”Si.”
”You're sure there was no one with him?”
”No one.”
”Then what happened?”
”He hired Raphael to fly him north.”
Salva sent two of his men to locate Raphael, then motioned to the two standing beside Carlos to take the fisherman aboard his yacht. If the man had anything else he was purposely leaving out, they would know it within the hour. If he didn't... Well, either way, Salva always tied up loose ends.
Back on his yacht, standing at the railing, Salva gave instructions that the stolen sailboat was to be sailed back to his island. A moment later, his cell phone rang. ”Yes, Mother?”
”Darling, we've completed the search as you requested. Every room in the house has been taken apart and put back together.”
”And did you find anything out of place or missing?”
There was a long pause, then Miandera said, ”A gun from your collection in your private office is missing. A small .22, and...”
”Get on with it, Mother! I don't need the dramatics!” Salva was having trouble breathing.
”Amanda's baby alb.u.m, darling. It's gone, as well.”
Salva nearly choked. He leaned into the railing and gripped the iron to keep his balance. Finally, when he was able to speak, he said, ”Then you were right, Mother. Kristen plotted her escape and willfully left me.”
”Yes, darling.” Miandera sighed, and Salva knew his mother was smiling. ”I'm sorry, darling. I can't think of anything worse she could do to you than this.”
Salva couldn't, either. But then he had no idea that at that very moment his addiction-the woman who had become his entire reason for living-was only seconds away from giving her body to his enemy.
Chapter 10.
They'd been kissing for a long five minutes. Blu was trying to go slow and keep it easy. Slow and easy was what Angel needed. But he was on fire and he wasn't so sure that he could continue to hold back.
He leaned in and kissed her once more. He hadn't been with a woman in a while, never with someone like Angel. He steered clear of the young ones, and always the innocent-the dirt on his hands had always made him feel undeserving of something nice. Something clean and good.
And Angel was all that. She may not be a virgin, but she was an innocent just the same. An innocent victim who had gotten caught in someone else's madness.
Blu inched closer, allowed his bare chest to brush her b.r.e.a.s.t.s. She arched up slightly, her nipples already hard beneath the sarong. He kissed her again, sucked on her lower lip. He could tell by the way she kissed him back that she had never been where he wanted to take her. Where they were headed.
She was trapped against the wall, but there was no fear in her eyes. Still, he pulled her into the middle of the room and reversed their positions. Sure that Maland's violence still haunted her, he was determined to wipe that horror from her mind.
”What are you doing?” she whispered against his mouth.
”It's not too late to shut me down, Angel. It's never too late. Just say the word and-”
She slid her hands up his bare chest, then reversed the motion and sent them downward. When her tiny fingers curled into the waistband of his jeans, Blu felt his groin swell and pulse. ”You can stop now?” She dragged her eyes from his aroused condition to look up at him.
”If I have to,” Blu promised.
She smiled up at him. ”And that's why I'm not afraid.” She leaned in and kissed his chest, brushed her lips over his nipples. Her fingers found his zipper and slid it downward.
Blu had foregone shorts after he'd showered. Naked inside his jeans, his body reacted to being freed, and he groaned as open air touched him. A second later it was her hand that was touching him. He jerked hard, then groaned out loud as his intentions to go slow were suddenly on s.h.i.+fting sand. He closed his eyes and rested his head against the wall, trying to formulate some kind of new plan to keep from losing control and knocking her to his bed and driving into her hard and fast.
”I should take thisoff, yes?”
Blu opened his eyes, saw that she was fingering the b.u.t.ton that held the sarong in place. He watched her slide the b.u.t.ton free, saw the sarong drift to the wooden floor.
Blu nearly swallowed his tongue.
She was completely naked beneath the sarong. He guessed he knew that already, recalling her nude-colored panties hanging in the bathroom on the towel bar. She must have washed them in the sink earlier in the evening and hung them up to dry.
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