“Am I supposed to thank you for that? You don’t understand. I don’t care what you do. It won’t mean anything to me.”
He muttered an oath. “Jesus, no wonder you’re a target. I don’t know a man who wouldn’t want to fuck you just to prove you wrong.” He turned on his heel and headed for the lanai doors. “I’ve got to get the hell away from you. I’ll talk to you in the morning.”
She had blundered, she thought in despair when he’d disappeared inside the cottage. She had meant to be cool and businesslike, but at the first hint of opposition she’d panicked. She’d offered him the one commodity she knew was acceptable.
But it hadn’t been acceptable to him. For some reason she’d made him both angry and indignant.
Not that he hadn’t wanted it. She knew all the signs. His body had been tensed, primed, and she had sensed a raw sexuality.
And she hadn’t drawn back from it.
The realization stunned her. There had not been the usual instinctive rejection. Perhaps it was because she was still in an emotional vacuum. Though she had been emotional enough to feel panic when she thought he was refusing to help her.
Forget it. She’d try to persuade him again in the morning. He would have all night to think about Marinth and all it would mean to him. Sex was only a temporary lure for a man anyway. Ambition and the hunger for riches were solid and permanent and swept everything else away in their wake. Who should know that better than she?
The moon was coming up, and the light was clear and beautiful on the water. She would stay here a little while and maybe she’d become more calm before she went to bed. Right now she felt as if she’d never sleep again. Her gaze went to the net across the inlet. So much evil beyond that net. Sharks, barracuda, and the vermin who had killed Carolyn. She had always felt safe here on the island, but not now.
Not now . . .
Christ, he was hard.
And stupid, Kelby thought in disgust. Bonehead stupid. Why walk out on her? He wasn’t usually into self-denial. Sex was there. Take it.
It had to be the unexpectedness of the offer that had thrown him for a loop. She’d never indicated she’d been aware of the underlying sexual tension he felt. Hell, she’d been in an emotional tailspin since the moment he’d met her.
And that was the damn problem.
Okay, forget sex and concentrate on what was important. Could he believe her when she said she could give him Marinth? She was obsessed with finding the men who had killed her friend. She could be lying about knowing where it was located. She could also be lying about fulfilling her part of the bargain. It was a loaded situation.
And one he couldn’t view objectively without a cold shower.
Kelby’s phone rang as he was heading for the bedroom.
“I’ve found out who leased the Siren,” Wilson said as soon as he picked up. “Hugh Archer. He was accompanied by a Joseph Pennig. It wasn’t easy. I spent a hell of a lot of your money. Spiro, the owner of the rental company, was scared shitless to talk.”
“Why?”
“I gather there were some ugly threats involved. Spiro’s a tough old bird and not above renting his boats to the drug runners out of Algiers. So the threats had to be very nasty. He said that Pennig threatened to cut off his dick if he didn’t forget he had ever seen them.”
“Yes, I’d say that would give any man pause. Did you get any background information on Archer from Spiro?”
“Well, he didn’t make him fill out a credit application,” Wilson said dryly. “But he asked a few discreet questions after Archer paid up front in cash for the lease.”
“Drug runner?”
“Not currently. He’s into buying and selling arms. Very big player. He’s rumored to have smuggled nuclear components into Iraq.”
“Then he’d have had no problem getting the plastique that blew up the Last Home.”
“But why? Unless Lontana was involved in transporting some of his merchandise.”
“I don’t know why. Marinth could be enough of a draw. Maybe Lontana was helping Archer, then got in the way. Though dredging up a lost city is never get-rich-quick. You have to invest time and a hell of a lot of money before you see the bonanza. But I’m still leaning toward Marinth. Carolyn Mulan was kidnapped because they wanted to get their hands on Melis. And Melis knows about Marinth.”
“And Lontana tried to contact you to talk about Marinth. You want me to try to get a background on Archer and find out where he’s coming from?”
“You know it. Try to find out if he was in the Bahamas in the last week. How long do you think it will take you?”
“How the hell do I know? I don’t have any contacts with Interpol.”
“Then make them. I don’t know how much time we have.”
“Talk to Lyons,” Wilson said sourly. “I’m sure he’s been on an intimate footing with the police on several continents.”
“Intimate maybe. But not exactly friendly.”
“Melis is giving you a lead on Marinth?”
“Yeah, you could say that. Get back to me.” He hung up.
Archer. The man in the cruiser now had a name and a past. A very dirty past. Well, if he’d been responsible for the deaths of Lontana, Maria Perez, and Carolyn Mulan, he had an even more ugly present. He’d be no loss if Kelby decided to go after him.
If? The decision was already made. Why should he hesitate? Since he’d first met Melis he’d been weak as water and he was sick of it. He had a line on Archer. He could find ways to pressure Melis into keeping her bargain. Marinth was on the horizon waiting for him.
So do what he wanted. Go after Marinth. Take the bargain.
And definitely take the sex.
Chapter Six
Melis’s phone rang at twelve-thirty in the morning.
Carolyn.
She hadn’t been sleeping, but the sound still caused her to jerk upright in bed. It was too reminiscent of that night when Carolyn had called her. Hurt. Dying . . .
The phone rang again.
Cal calling from Tobago?
She pressed the button.
The male voice was smooth, soft. “Melis Nemid?”
It wasn’t Cal. “Yes. Who is this?”
“Special delivery.”
“What?”
“I have a package for you.”
“Is this some kind of joke?”
“Oh, no, I’m very serious. I’ve left your present tied to the net. I got a nasty shock. It left me with a very bad feeling toward you.”
“What the hell is this all about?”
“You know, you really shouldn’t have been so stubborn about Marinth. It’s good for me, but you’re not going to like the consequences.”
“Who is this?”
“We’ll talk later. Go get your present.”
“I’m not going anywhere.”
“I think you will. Curiosity is such a lure. You know, those dolphins squealing at me were very annoying.”
She stiffened. “If you hurt them, I’ll cut your throat.”
“Such violence. You have a lot in common with one of my employees. You must meet him.” He paused. “It was delightful talking directly to you. It’s much better than just listening in on your conversation.” He hung up.
She sat there, frozen.
That last sentence could mean only one thing.
Carolyn. He’d been the one listening, forcing Carolyn to lie to her.
“Christ.” She jumped out of bed, pulled on her shorts and T-shirt, and ran out of the bedroom. She opened the electric box and pulled the lever to up the power. The front door slammed behind her as she darted out of the house.
“Where the hell are you going?” Kelby was standing in the doorway as she ran down the pier.
“Susie and Pete. That son of a bitch is going to hurt my guys.” She untied the motorboat. “I won’t let—”
“What son of a bitch?” Kelby was beside her, jumping into the boat. “And why should he want to hurt the dolphins?”
“Because he’s a bastard.” She started the engine. “Because that’s what he does. He hurts things. He cuts and slashes and makes—”
“Will you tell me what the hell is happening?”
“I got a call from the son of a bitch who killed Carolyn. He told me he had a present for me. And then he started talking about Pete and Susie and how—” She drew a deep, shaky breath. “I’ll kill him if he’s hurt them.”
“That’s what you had in mind for him anyway. Did he tell you his name?”
“No, but he as good as told me he was the one listening when Carolyn called me.” She reached down and grabbed two powerful lanterns and tossed them to him. “Make yourself useful. Shine those beams beyond the net. He could be out there with a rifle waiting for me.”
“It’s not logical.” He lit the lanterns and shone the beam on the black waters beyond the net. “Nothing. I don’t think he wants you dead.”
“Screw logic.” She slowed the boat as she approached the net. “Oh, God, I don’t hear Pete and Susie.”
“Maybe they’re underwater.”
“Not if someone was fooling around with the net. They’re like guard dogs.” She took the whistle she wore around her neck and blew into it. She still didn’t hear them. Panic surged through her. “They could be hurt. Why aren’t they—”
“Easy. I hear them.”
She heard them, too, she realized with relief. A high clicking near the south bank of the inlet. She turned the boat. “Shine the light on them. I have to make sure they’re okay.”
Two sleek gray heads lifted as she approached. They didn’t appear to be injured, only agitated. “It’s okay, guys,” she called soothingly. “I’m here. Nothing is going to happen to you.”
They chattered excitedly and Susie started to swim toward her.
But Pete was staying at the net, swimming back and forth as if on guard.
“Get closer. There’s something on the other side of the net.” Kelby was focusing the lantern on the area beyond Pete. “I see it glittering in the water.”
“Glittering?” Now she could see it too. It looked like a section of a fence, perhaps two by three feet. “What the hell is it?”
“Whatever it is, it’s been fastened to the net,” Kelby said. “And we won’t be able to retrieve it until you lower the net and turn off the power.”
She moistened her lips. “My present.”
“It doesn’t look very lethal. But it’s your call.”
“I want to know what it is. Keep that lantern on.” She started toward the disconnect point. In three minutes she’d lowered the net, disconnected the power, and was on her way back to Pete. The dolphin made no attempt to cross the lowered net. He was silent, swimming back and forth before the object in the water.
“He’s worried,” Melis said. “He senses something . . . not right. He’s always been more sensitive than Susie.” She stood staring at the object floating just beneath the surface. She didn’t want to look at it. Like Pete, she felt a kind of foreboding.
“We don’t have to retrieve it now,” Kelby said quietly. “I’ll come back later and get it.”
“No.” She edged the boat closer. “As you said, it’s not logical that he’d want to blow me up or anything. I’ll pull alongside and you can reach over and untie it from the net.”
“If that’s what you want.” He bent over the side and plunged his hands beneath the water. “It’s fastened with rope. It will take me a minute. . . .”
She didn’t care if it took him a decade. She hoped the damn thing would sink to the bottom of the sea. He’d put the lanterns down in the bottom of the boat, but light speared out over the water and she could see that odd glittering surface. She was starting to shake.
Gold. It looked like gold.
“Got it.” He pulled the wooden panel onto the boat and examined it. “But what the hell is it? Pretty carved fretwork. This looks like gilt paint, but there’s no message painted on it.”
Golden lacy fretwork.
“You’re wrong. There’s a message,” she said numbly.
Golden lacy fretwork.
“I don’t see—” He broke off as he lifted his gaze to her face. “You know what it is.”
“I know.” She swallowed, hard. Don’t be sick. “Throw it back into the sea.”
“You’re sure?”
“Dammit. Get rid of it.”
“Right.” With all his strength he hurled the panel back into the sea.
She turned the boat and headed back to shore.
“Melis, you have to raise the net,” Kelby said quietly.
My God, she’d forgotten. She’d never forgotten to safeguard the island in all the time she’d been here. “Thanks.” She turned the boat and headed back to the net.
He didn’t speak again until they were once more on their way back to the cottage. “Are you going to tell me what message Archer sent you?”
“Archer?”
“Wilson says his name is Hugh Archer. If he’s the same man who leased that cruiser in Greece.”
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
“I didn’t have a chance. I just found out tonight and you were in no mood to listen. You were afraid for your dolphins.”
She was still afraid. So much ugliness. She couldn’t imagine the degree of ugliness in Archer that had led him to send her that panel.
“You didn’t answer me. Are you going to tell me what that panel meant to you?”
“No.”
“Well, that’s succinct. Then will you tell me if it’s a one-time contact or the opening play?”
“There’ll be more.” She cut the engine at the pier. “Soon. He’ll want to hurt me again.”
“Why?”
“Some men are like that.” Was she talking about the past or present? They were blurring together. “He probably liked hurting Carolyn. Power. They like power. . . .” She started toward the house.
“Melis, I can’t help you if you’re going to leave me in the dark.”
“And I can’t talk to you right now. Leave me alone.” She went into the house and straight to her room. She turned on all the lights and huddled in the chair, staring at her phone on the bedside table where she’d thrown it. She had to stop shaking. He’d call her soon and she had to be ready.
God, she wished she could stop shaking.
He didn’t call back.
She gave up and went to take a shower when the first light of dawn broke over the horizon. The hot water felt good on her chilled body, but it didn’t relax her tensed muscles. Nothing would do that until the waiting was over. She should have expected him to draw it out.
Waiting had always been a form of torture for her. He would know that. He would know everything.
Kelby was sitting in a chair and nodded at the carafe on the table when she came out on the lanai. “I made fresh coffee when I heard you stirring.” His gaze raked her face. “You look like hell.”
“Thank you.” She poured the coffee. “You don’t look very spry yourself. Have you been out here all night?”
“Yes. What did you expect? When you ran into that room, you looked like a Holocaust survivor who’d been thrown back into Auschwitz.”
“And you were curious.”
“Yeah, you could say that. If you don’t want to give me credit for concern. Are you going to talk to me?”
“Not yet.” She set her phone on the table before she sat down on the lounge chair. She stared out over the water. “He . . . has my files. I told Carolyn things I’ve never told anyone. He knows exactly what will hurt. He’s trying to find a way to manipulate me.”
“Son of a bitch.”
“Isn’t that why you followed me from Athens? You needed to find a hook to make me tell you about Marinth. He wants the same thing you do.”
“I don’t believe I appreciate you comparing the two of us.”
“No, there’s no one on earth as low as this bastard.”
“How comforting.”
&n
bsp; She should probably apologize. She was so exhausted it was difficult to think. “I didn’t mean— It’s just that I’m caught and I have to fight my way out. I don’t know who or where to— I wouldn’t have told you I wanted to come to terms if I’d thought you were like him.”
“Then the offer is still open?”
“Yes, did you think I’d let him intimidate me?” Her lips tightened. “I’d never give in to him. I’ll never let him get what he wants.”
“We don’t know what he wants yet.”
“Marinth. He told me.”
“Archer is a big-time arms dealer. I don’t know how he could even have become involved. I can see him skimming some cream off the top of a very rich find, but he’s—”
“He’s an arms dealer?”
“Yes.” His gaze narrowed on her face. “That struck a note. Why?”
“Because I may know how he became involved. Phil needed money for the expedition. I’m sure that’s why he wanted to contact you. But Archer might have heard about Phil and got in touch with him.”
“Heard what?”
She didn’t answer for a moment. It was difficult to trust anyone when she was so used to protecting Phil. But Phil was dead. She didn’t need to protect him any longer. “We . . . found tablets. Bronze tablets. Two small metal chests, but they were both filled with tablets.”
“In Marinth.”
“They weren’t with the ruins. We didn’t discover the ruins. Phil thought they’d been separated from the city by the force that destroyed it. Or maybe the tablets had been secreted there even before the cataclysm. It didn’t matter. Phil was over the moon.”
“I can see why.”
“They were written in hieroglyphics, but they were a little different from any seen in Egypt. Phil had to be very careful to choose a translator he could trust, and it took over a year for him to get them deciphered.”
“Jesus.”
“That excites you. It excited him too.” She paused. “Me, too, at first. It was like discovering a brand-new world of knowledge and experiences.”
His gaze narrowed on her face. “But something turned you off. What?”
“Sometimes new worlds aren’t all that they’re cracked up to be. But Phil was happy. He’d been studying thermal vents on the ocean floor, and one of the tablets gave him something he thought would change the world. A formula for creating a sonic apparatus that could tap the vents and possibly the magma at the earth’s core. It would furnish geothermal power that would be both cheap and clean. He was going to save the world.”