Part 4 (1/2)
It was Skye's turn to wince.
Dane nodded firmly. ”Casablanca. I wouldn't have been surprised to find you listening to sad songs, but in fact you were sitting under a tree playing poker with two Bedouins and a very suspicious Turk.”
”Did you bring me home then?” Skye asked hopefully.
Dane refused to laugh. ”You had just bet everything in your pockets-and lost. The Turk was, to put it mildly, upset to find your pockets empty. By the time I got him placated, my pockets were empty, and I had one h.e.l.l of a time arranging transportation back to the States.”
Skye cleared his throat. ”I didn't give you any more trouble, did I?”
”None to speak of.” He reflected, then decided to speak. ”Of course, it would have been a more comfortable trip if you hadn't been h.e.l.l-bent on getting away from me.”
Skye was smiling a little. ”Sorry. I wasn't thinking too clearly at the time.”
Dane nodded. ”I know. I knew then, even though you wouldn't talk about it. Just don't put me through that again, will you?”
”G.o.d, I hope not!” He laughed suddenly. ”It wasn't amusing at the time, and I'll bet you felt like shooting me. I have to admit it sounds funny now, though. Maybe I'll let you tell Katrina about it one day.”
Smiling, Dane got to his feet. ”When do Jenny and I meet her?”
”Give me a little time to get to know her again. We're both different after six years. We have a lot of catching up to do, and quite a few things to put behind us.”
”Does she know you're a twin?”
Skye nodded. ”Since you weren't working with me in Germany, I told her.”
”I'd wish you luck,” Dane said a bit dryly, ”but you already have more of that than any man I know. Now that you have another chance with Katrina, maybe you'll stop wasting your luck by stepping in front of stray bullets and angry bulls.”
When his brother had gone, Skye remained where he was for a while, thinking. Dane's final words stuck in his mind, and he realized ruefully that his brother hadn't been deceived six years earlier-or in the time since. It didn't really surprise him.
Ties of blood, ties of love. The bond with his brother would never be broken, and the bond with Katrina had resisted all his wild, bitter, painful attempts to break it.
Now if he could only reach her. ...
Three.
Katrina was up early the next morning. It was her habit to wake before the sun, and the staff of the hotel's smallest restaurant always had coffee and fruit ready for her when she came down from her suite. Today, as usual, she sat in her accustomed booth near the huge windows on the east side of the building, drinking her coffee and watching the sunrise. She had finished her breakfast, and the remains had been taken away.
Two things she no longer took for granted: fresh fruit and sunrises.
”Good morning,” Skye said. ”May I?”
A bit startled by his sudden appearance, she looked at him and nodded, murmuring a greeting while he slid into the booth across from her. Her restless night and the events of yesterday had left her wary and uncertain, and she didn't quite know how to react to him today.
But Skye, his eyes bright and apparently rested despite the early hour, seemed perfectly friendly. ”You used to sleep late,” he observed in a light tone.
”Things change,” she offered lamely.
He didn't probe. ”True. Do I have a companion for the day, or has Gigi chained you to your desk?”
He was giving her an out, she realized, and she knew that if she claimed she had too much work to do, he wouldn't press her. Katrina hesitated, then smiled. ”One of the a.s.sistant managers will cover for me.”
He nodded, obviously pleased. ”I'm glad.” Then briskly he asked, ”Do you have any ideas as to where Adrian might decide to ambush the governor while he's here?”
A bit relieved at the businesslike topic, she considered the matter, returning his gaze thoughtfully as he sipped his coffee and waited. ”Anywhere, if he isn't particular about killing Innocent people.”
”But he is,” Skye reminded her. ”Or, at least, he has been recently. He's pulled off two hits in the last few months, both against very specific targets. That amba.s.sador in Naples, and the general in Tangier. In both cases only his intended victims were killed.”
She shook her head. ”But in a crowded theme park? How could he hope to single out one target when he means to use explosives?”
Skye looked reflective. ”The governor visits every year, doesn't he?”
”Yes.”
”Does he have any favorite rides or exhibits?”
Remembering suddenly, Katrina nodded. ”Several. The Haunted Mansion, the pirate s.h.i.+p, the Circus, and the big Ferris wheel. He never misses those.”
”Then we concentrate there.”
”But the problem is the same. There are always lots of people around. Does it have to be explosives?”
”That was the threat,” Skye said. ”And Adrian never makes empty threats. It amuses him to watch his intended victims take every possible precaution before he gets them.”
She grimaced. ”A complete villain.”
”He isn't a nice boy,” Skye agreed dryly, then immediately went on. ”The sun's up, and we have a few hours before the park opens. Want to get started?”
Katrina nodded and slid from the booth, stretching absently in the natural and unconscious movement of one early in the morning. Then she saw Skye looking at her with suddenly darkened eyes as he rose, and she hastily began moving toward the door. ”Where to first?” she asked, disturbed at the breathless sound of her own voice.
”The Haunted Mansion is closest,” he said steadily.
”Right.” Very conscious of him at her shoulder, of his size and the curiously fluid grace of his stride, she walked with him out of the restaurant.
Sometime during the dark predawn hours Katrina had faced the inescapable realization that she felt too much for the man now walking silently beside her. Unwilling to define those feelings, she nevertheless knew there was something primal about them, something far stronger than her memories of what had once existed between them. Before, she had been emotionally young and innocent in many ways, still more girl than woman, and with a girl's recklessness. The pa.s.sion between them had been astonis.h.i.+ngly powerful, the pleasure she found in his arms intense beyond anything she'd ever Imagined, yet she knew, looking back, that her very youth and inexperience coupled with the brief time they'd had together had protected her heart.
She had loved, but Skye had been right in believing that how much she had loved could be questioned. Knowing the answer now, she faced it. She had loved him with a girl's unconscious, unaware selfishness, and the loss of him, though agonizing, had not been crippling. She had survived.
But now... These feelings frightened her. They were too powerful, too compelling. It was desire she felt, but much more than that, sharper, more primitive, essential. Her mind was in turmoil, wary and confused, yet her body and instincts responded to him on a level deeper than anything she had ever felt.
She was no longer a girl, and she knew without question that her woman's heart could not be touched only lightly. Lessons in survival had built a wall around her heart and soul, and If she loved again, that wall would fall into ruins. If she loved him again-if, in the end, he left her again-there would be no surviving that loss.
”Katrina?”
She looked up at him and felt the breath catch in her throat, vaguely aware that they had reached the Haunted Mansion. In spite of the s.p.a.ce separating them as they stood there, she could feel the heat oi his big body and the sheer physical power that was like a living force inside him. She slid her hands into the pockets of her jeans, and fought desperately to ignore the fierce pull of compulsive attraction.
”Sorry. My mind was-miles away. How do you want to go about this?” Her voice sounded normal to her.