Out of the Fire (Perilous Connections) Read online

  His deep sigh pierces the throbbing silence between us. “Please don’t try that again …” then his eyes crinkle wickedly, “unless you want to repeat our performance.”

  Fury and a good dose of guilt roars into my ears, my eyes narrow as I glare at his smug expression but I still have to get away and to do that safely I have to calm down, try and appear reasonable to him. I force my face into regretful lines.

  He tosses back his head and shouts with laughter.

  My intentions fly out the door. “You bastard.” The words are out before I can stop them, my hands ball into impotent fists once more.

  He is still chuckling, he runs the back of his hand across his forehead, his chest shakes with his suppressed mirth. After several seconds the rumbling dies down.

  I say a prayer that somebody has heard him, has realized that only a maid should be in this vacated room. Several maids had been let go for their willingness to stay overlong in a randy guest’s room.

  He tries to look contrite but fails, worse yet the corners of his mouth twitches with malicious glee, then he goes eerily still, all traces of mirth vanish.

  Fear crawls up my spine once more.

  “Listen little-“

  There were some things that not even hostage-hood would make me tolerate. “Don’t call me that,” I snap.

  He tips his head to the side, eyes me silently for several seconds, the emotions in his face cloaked. “I apologize, no offense was meant.”

  I know he is apologizing because he wants my compliance, and he doesn’t strive to hide it, looking into his eyes I can see the truth, they are hard and resolute. I want eyes like that, just a touch of the unshakeable granite like nerve that I sense from this strange man.

  He folds his arms across his wide chest. “I will pay you five thousand American dollars to get me out of this hotel.”

  My stomach hits the floor, the thought of so much money, more than I could earn in a year and a half was outrageous. It was like that publisher something house we’d often seen advertised but had no hope of entering much less winning. A deep pang of want assaults me like a starving wretch who spots a succulent, unprotected feast in the distance.

  I quickly lower my gaze to hide my raging need, it lands unerringly on my clean but shabby white sneakers, mandatory footwear. I could actually purchase new shoes with a tiny fraction of that money. Hell, twelve pairs!

  I swallow down a truckload of materialism, and I accept with a pang of shame that I am no better than Donald.

  But I can try.

  I take in several dollops of moist, clean air, hopefully enough to give me back some courage. I firm my chin, look him in the eyes. “No.”

  I catch a glimmer of a fearful temper just percolating beneath the hard surface, but he does not hide the determination in his face. I swallow and keep his level stare with difficulty, “I won’t break the law for you.”

  He is beside me in an instant, long strides having devoured the few feet between us.

  I squeeze my shoulders into a protective curve, he stops, I deliberately lower my gaze, I can feel his gaze burning through the thickness of my bun. I have moaned incessantly about the thickness of my midnight hair but today I am thankful I haven’t lopped it off as I usually itch to do once a month. Today it is protecting me from the fiery glare of this crazy guest.

  I lift my head with tremendous difficulty. “I’m not afraid of you,” the words are stammered and I wince at the transparency of the lie.

  He pauses right in front of me, I have to crane my neck back and transfer my glare nearly two feet upward to reach my target, he lets the silence stretch out between us. It is a taunt, an intentional bullying tactic if ever I saw one and I’ve seen plenty.

  He clears his throat roughly. “I don’t want to hurt you,” his voice sounds reasonable, almost repentant, “In fact that is the furthest thing from my mind. I just need to get out of this blasted hotel and unto the island.”

  There is frustration, anger and worse yet a whiff of fear that I catch in his voice. What could possibly scare this man?

  Who is he, What was he? Why was he so intent on getting unto an island whose only beauty was actually sitting just outside this room’s window, lapping against the shoreline?

  Was he a … a … the thought wouldn’t form. Somehow I just couldn’t feel it, didn’t sense it inside my bones. He was no murderer running from the law. I would have known it the moment he touched me just like I had sensed the cruelty inside my stepmother the first time we’d met.

  He is waiting, letting me sort out my hesitation.

  Finally I remember something, someone, I stare beyond his massive shoulders, seeing nothing, feeling the shame stain my cheeks. “I will help you.”

  Chapter Four

  Nate

  We are the last ones to go through the checkpoint. She has followed my plan exactly. I am hiding behind the rough bark of a fat dwarf coconut tree, watching her distract the grinning idiot who is trying his utmost to look through the high collar of her demure cotton uniform. An instance of quick fury bludgeons me out of nowhere, I grimace at the mess this has already become, though the tense anger I’m experiencing is not foreign to my recently vacated profession, given its unpredictably perilous nature, I have learned over the years to be in complete control of it, but that is not the case now, I actually have to make myself stay behind the coconut.

  I hate the way the man is watching her, walking so close that the slight swirl of her hem is brushing the front of his trousers. He looks like a scumbag, with the swagger that comes when you think you’re about to score big.

  She walks quickly ahead of him, head bowed, little fists clenched, I smile at that, she is leading him in the direction of the pier several yards away, docked with multicolored jet skies. The man’s gaze is fixed on the subtle sway of those slender hips and I find myself staring too, the sweet taste of her mouth comes back.

  I snap myself to attention, this is my queue, the one I’ve been waiting for, for two utterly boring and unproductive weeks.

  I duck, scan my surroundings, then move as soundlessly as I can across the smooth grass into the protective coverage of a midsection high bush giving off a sweetly bitter scent, its downy petals gives my cheek a wanton caress.

  I eye the barred entrance which sports a single long, thick strip of wood and iron lowered across its width, a petite guardhouse sits to its right.

  I zero in on the guard, partaking of a late afternoon meal, the scent of chicken with rice and beans hit me, my stomach grumbles, I dart a glance back at the pier, she is returning and behind her is the randy bastard.

  The eating guard looks out the window, I duck, taking down a soft branch of the bitter smelling flowers with me, I curse even as I tense for footsteps hurrying towards me, I screw up my nose at the scent of the broken branch, its bitter sap stinks, I switch to breathing through my mouth.

  I wait several heartbeats but there is nothing, but I know if she is unsuccessful and fails to stop the other guard from following her to the gate I will be caught. I switch my body into that perfectly still mode I’d learned over the years and just listen.

  A single pair of footfalls draws closer and I breathed a sigh of relief even as I peek between the slender branches and pick out the dainty calves, worn shoes and the hem of her uniform which falls just below her knees.

  How innocent and utterly seductive.

  Again the taste of her mouth assails me. My heart thunders as I wonder if she will truly keep our bargain despite my offer. She had not wanted to and I knew that there had been something else, something painful but necessary which had forced her acquiescence.

  I can hear her voice, soft and firm conversing in that melodious accent and I risk a glance. Sure enough she is positioned directly in front of the guard’s window just as we’d planned.

  I stop breathing and shift into motion. Soundless, quick steps, my back hunched over, mitigating my height as much as possible.

  In three seconds I am fre
e!

  Out on the road I sprint the last several paces to get away from the gaudy sign proclaiming Sunset Cove Resort.

  I run the five yards down the single lane road towards the bus stop sign. If anyone were to see me now they would think of me merely as a tourist who had visited Sunset Cove for the day and was now waiting to be picked up to return to my temporary address, certainly not an illegal immigrant.

  My mouth stretches into a grim smile at the thought.

  Almost there.

  I had pulled this trick off one too many times. The corners of my mouth abruptly turn down. At some point my luck would truly run out.

  I stuff my hands into my shorts, give the area a thorough scan, and then I wait for her to appear.

  Chapter Five

  Daphne

  I come out and immediately I see him several yards down the road.

  Why is he still here?

  Apprehension grips me but I try to brazen it out and start towards the bus stop which sits halfway between us.

  He starts to come towards me, I stop, back up, urgent alarm bells go off.

  Why had I agreed to this?

  I sternly tell myself that he may have an honorable bone in his body and simply wants to pay me, but then again I can’t say that I’ve actually earned fiver thousand dollars, more like twenty, if even that.

  I would take twenty if I never have to see him again. And if my boss never finds out what I’ve done, for that I’d take nothing.

  As demeaning as the idea of being a maid had seemed initially I had definitely been in for a shock when I realized the competition that awaited me when I’d turned up nine months before for this job. I had entered the Housekeeping department full of myself, sure that they’d be happy to get a twenty-one year old college student with three years of higher education under her belt, but though I’d left with the job, I had been brutally put in my place, I had left with my tail tucked between my legs and two ill fitting, coarse uniforms clutched in my hands.

  I pause as we come face to face. He is really tall and there is enough bulk to go along with it. I am use to tall men, but only lanky ones with thin shanks and narrow chests, not this fearsomely proportioned specimen with grey silver eyes and beautiful golden hair.

  He reaches inside his pocket and I turn away but a quick, firm hand reaches out, grasps my shoulder and brings me back around, panic seizes me, it is the hotel room all over again, except this time I have not a shred of protection. There is no loathsome security guard to save me if he decides to do away with the greedy, incredibly stupid maid who’d naively offered to sneak him out of paradise for five thousand dollars!

  He eyes me calmly and snorts derisively, his arrogant nostrils flare. “Will you please stop trying to get away from me?”

  Without waiting for my reply he takes a firm hold of my hand and basically drags me towards the undersized, decrepit structure which serves as our bus stop.

  I look behind me wildly hoping to spot another maid but it’s in vain, part of the plan was that I would linger long enough to ensure that I’d be the last maid to leave.

  “Listen Mr-”

  He stops, looks down at me. “What’s your name?”

  I swallow a lump, “Daphne … Daphne Challenger,” I whisper.

  He considers my reply for several seconds. The grey eyes soften fractionally. “That’s pretty. Can I shorten it to Daffe?”

  He flashes me a knee shaking boyish smile which I am ill equipped to handle much less return, because there is nothing boyish about this man, not his face, body and definitely not the eyes, every time I encounter them I feel as if they are boring deeper into me.

  To cover my rioting nerves I arch a peremptory brow, “Daffe, like daft?” I hiss up at him.

  A bemused expression stirs the storm in his gaze, he drops my hand, which I’d forgotten he was still holding.

  “Now wait a minute, that’s not what I had in mind.” He shakes his head as if he thought I was being silly to suspect ulterior motives behind his repellant nickname.

  He stares at me for a few seconds, causing unwanted heat to simmer beneath my skin. “Your name’s pretty that’s all, I thought Daffe would be a cute short cut.”

  That did not satisfy me, “Forget it,” I snap.

  I feel somewhat emboldened but the next thought squashes this fantasy, my face resumes its self immolation, there was no elegant way to say it.

  “Give me my money.”

  I squeeze my eyes close, hoping that shame and disgust will consume me on the spot. What kind of person had I become? I had fallen so far I no longer recognized the pitiful creature I was.

  The silence stretches out so long I am forced to sneak a peek at him from under my lashes.

  He is staring at me, the top of my head to be exact. His expression is unreadable, but the corners of his eyes, which I notice for the first time has small laugh lines, crinkle with amusement.

  “That’s what I was trying to do before yet another of your attempted escapes, which I might add is getting a bit old.”

  I flare up. “Your thwarted rationale is to be expected, after all you are the abductor and I the abductee.”

  The smile reaches his eyes. “Yeah. But do you suppose that if I really wanted to hurt you that I wouldn’t have done so by now?”

  His voice drops and a deepened timber creeps in. I feel scattered and have to hustle to regroup my thoughts.

  I pin him with a narrow glare. “Who knows what a crazy tourist like yourself is capable of,” I shoot him a scathing look, “if you were in your right mind, you would still be inside Sunset Cove, not escaping out into uncivilized regions.”

  “You don’t know what the hell you’re talking about.” His voice has gone cold. A shiver races up my spine, and I am seized with the need to know his reasons. Why had he wanted to get out of Sunset Cove?

  “What are you running away from?”

  He moves so fast, I stop mid-breath as he pins me with the most chilling gaze I have ever witnessed on another human being. His eyes have become dark again, the sea at its most scaring and unknowable.

  “Stay out of what’s none of your concern.”

  I flinch at the harshness in his tone but I have no intention of complying. Who did this beast, this arrogant tourist think he was?”

  “Then you shouldn’t have enlisted my help.” I fling at him.

  He shrugs, gives me a broad shoulder, he is staring off into the distance, and every several minutes he checks the road in each direction.

  “Believe me, you were an unwanted choice.”

  The impact of the words jars me, and I am stunned into silence. Is that pain I feel? I tell myself it can’t be. I have known this man for less than six hours, there is no way that anything he says can affect me.

  He shoves a hand into the right pocket of his khaki’s and pulls out the thickest wad of cash I have ever laid eyes on, I notice that they are compartmentalized into tinier wads, he pulls out two, hands them to me.

  “This is twenty thousand dollars.”

  Again my stupid head spins. Hadn’t we agreed on five?

  I stare dumbfounded at him, “Why?” I whisper but the sound of the words die on my lips because I can see in his eyes that there is much more coming, all of which I am sure not to like and they involve me. I begin shaking my head frantically, he ignores me.

  “I will pay you fifteen thousand dollars, along with what you’ve already earned today to help me get citizenship on this island.”

  What the hell was he talking about? Not only did this crazy man want to escape a few weeks of luxury but he wants to become an islander? The thought was utterly preposterous and yet as I search his eyes, I see that he is dead serious.

  I take sharp steps back from him, shaking my head so hard, my escaped tendrils buffets the sides of my cheeks.

  “I won’t assist you anymore,” I stretch out my hand, my fingers tremble, I fight to stiffen them, “give me whatever you see fit for what I’ve already done and I will
be on my way.”

  He studies me with a calculating gaze, I wonder desperately what he sees. The young, poor penniless woman that I am or someone with principles my father had taught me so very long ago? I should not have cared but somehow I did not want this stranger to think I was just another grasping islander determined to milk him out of his precious American dollars.

  He shakes his head, dismissing my bravado without even a shred of courtesy. “Listen, Daf … Daphne, I will give you twenty thousand dollars if you will let me marry you for citizenship and bunk at your house for tonight. That’s all. Then I’ll disappear,” he stops, looks around at the thick shroud of nameless trees and bushes that throng the other side of the road, “and though this piece of rock is tiny, I’ll stay as far away from you as possible.”

  I had to pick my mouth up off the ground. In the little time I had had for daydreaming during my former studies and now during these long double shifts I pulled, I had not ever thought of the possibility of getting married, much less to a stranger, Jermaine’s boyish face rises before me and I quickly dismiss it, he had only been an experiment, one that had been going bad for several weeks. But to marry a guest from my hotel who’d held me hostage? One that towered over me, had storm colored eyes and more infinitely frightful was on the run from something or someone?

  I was sure now that I should never have helped him, no matter if he’d offered me a million dollars. I begin to pray, mumbled words that get lost as my mind furiously tries to sort through any of the viable ways I can escape him and get back inside Sunset Cove, throw myself on Donald’s lecherous mercy or failing that my supervisor’s.

  He stands silently watching me, but I can feel the alertness which radiates from his body, he is ready for my futile attempt at flight. I know that it will end up the same way as before and worse he has known it long before me. He knows that I am weak and poor.

  I run the tip of my tongue across suddenly parched lips. “You can buy a hundred women to do what you’re asking me,” I shake my head stubbornly, meet his quelling appraisal and will him to understand, “I won’t talk. I don’t even want anything anymore. Just please leave me alone.”