Amber Beach (27 page)

“All right”, Archer said harshly. “I didn’t want to scare you, but you don’t leave me any choice. I’m hearing rumors that some really ugly folks are after Kyle or the stolen amber or both.”

“Do you think they found Kyle?” she asked, afraid all over again for her missing brother.

Jake paused in his sensual play. The fear in Honor’s voice was echoed in the sudden tension of her body, a tightness that had nothing to do with rising desire.

“I don’t know”, Archer said, his voice rough with frustration. “I only know they’re looking.”

“But why go to all this trouble for some amber that could be replaced with a few trips to the mines?”

“It’s not that simple.”

“I’m listening.”

“I don’t have time to educate you in the bleak, bloody stupidity of clan warfare carried on in the ruins of empire. Take my word for it. You’re in danger as long as you stay there. Get out.”

“I believe you, but…”

“No buts”, he interrupted. “I’m coming down the instant the weather lifts enough for a plane to get out.”

“What’s the rush? Do you think Kyle is here?”

“I think someone should be there.”

“No problem, I’m here.”

“Damn it, haven’t you been listening? You could be right in the line of fire! The men looking for Kyle aren’t the churchgoing, baby-kissing, kind-to-mother type.”

“I figured that out for myself after the one-way phone calls and the boats following me, and the…”

“Boats?” Archer interrupted swiftly. “Have you been out in the
Tomorrow?”

“Yes. I think Kyle…”

“Are you crazy?” he interrupted “I’m your sister, does that count?”

Archer exploded. “You don’t have the faintest idea how to handle a boat! You have no business playing around with…”

“I hired someone”, she interrupted loudly.

“To do what?”

“To teach me to run the boat.”

Jake tried not to tense. He wasn’t successful. Not that Honor would have noticed. She was already strung as tightly as a recurved bow.

“Did you ask for references?” Archer asked.

“Yes.” It was the truth as far as it went. She
had
asked.

She just hadn’t gotten any. “Jake is a very good boat driver.

He knows SeaSports and he’s learning how to deal with Kyle’s
chart plotter. We went through a lot of stored courses
yesterday.”

“Are you doing what I think you’re doing?”

“Looking for Kyle? Of course. I may be your sister, but I’m not completely crazy.”

“Honor. Listen. Please. It’s too dangerous.”

“Jake can handle himself.” He also could handle her exceptionally well, but she didn’t think Archer would appreciate that discovery nearly as much as she did.

“Does Jake have a last name?”

“So you can have Donovan International detectives vet him?” she asked sweetly.

“Jake who?” was Archer’s only response.

“Mallory.”

There was a charged silence.

Honor didn’t like it. She knew all about the quiet that preceded a major Donovan storm.

“Is he about six feet two, moves like a fighter, light eyes and dark hair, scar on one eyebrow and a small one on his lip?” Archer asked softly.

Honor felt the room falling away. She didn’t know what a fighter moved like, but the rest fit. “Yes”, she whispered.

“You little fool. He’s the one who framed Kyle. He could even be Kyle’s killer. Get out of that house and stay out.”

Honor’s horrified expression told Jake everything he didn’t want to know. She was looking at him the way a kid would look at the man who shot and mounted Santa’s reindeer on the den wall.

He took the phone from her hand before she could stop him. “Hello, Archer. Telling lies again, I see.”

Silence came, then a swiftly drawn breath. “Mallory!”

“Yeah.”

“You son of a hitch.
If you so much as touch Honor I’ll…”

“Shove it”, Jake said through his teeth. “You’re the one who sent her to the firing line, not me.”

“I didn’t know…”

“Shove that, too”, Jake interrupted. “There’s a lot you don’t know but it hasn’t stopped you from shooting off your goddamn mouth, has it?”

“Listen, you assh…”

“You listen”, Jake said, talking right over Archer. “I’ve had it with you Donovans riding roughshod over all the rest of us. Kyle took that amber and ran, and all your Donovan lies won’t pin that stinking rose on me. Got that?”

“Put Honor back on.”

“When I’m finished.”

“Oh, you’re finished all right”, Archer said softly. “You hurt Honor and I’ll bury you alive.”

“Better make sure she isn’t buried with me.”

“Are you threatening to…”

“I’m telling you”, Jake snarled. “I’m not the only one here. Dimitri Pavlov showed up on Honor’s doorstep a week ago.”

“What?”

“He answered her ad for a fishing guide.”

“Jesus.”

“Then there’s the guy who tossed Kyle’s cottage last night. He was a pro, too. He left a mess as a warning, but he was so quiet about it Honor almost didn’t wake up and get out the window to me before he got around to questioning her.”

Honor stiffened as though she had been slapped. It was one thing to fear a burglar who maybe had more on his mind than theft. It was another to hear violence talked about as though it were so many ounces of amber, jade, or pearls.

Jake flicked a glance at Honor, then concentrated on Archer again. The silence on the other end of the line would have bothered most people. It didn’t bother Jake. He knew Archer well enough to know that he had put his emotions on hold; right now Archer was sorting through the mess in search of solutions with a speed and clarity that had overwhelmed more than one competitor.

Besides, Jake had plenty to keep him occupied without Archer snarling in his ear. Honor was edging away from him, easing closer to the point where she could lunge out of bed and beyond his reach. He didn’t know what was going on behind her wide, green-gold eyes, but he had no doubt that if he let her go he wouldn’t see her
again.

“Anything else?” Archer asked after a moment.

“Does the Forest Brotherhood have a line on the Amber Room?” Jake asked.

Archer started swearing.

“I’ll take that as a hearty yes”, Jake interrupted, watching Honor without seeming to. “Which means that Kyle knew about it through Marju, right?”

“You’ll have to ask Marju”, Archer said.

“Ask her for me.”

“We’d have to find her first.”

“Shouldn’t be tough. Try your home office.”

“What makes you think she’s there?”

“Before I was kicked out, I got a frantic phone call from her saying that Donovan International had sent their hounds after her and had I heard from Kyle.”

“Good question. Have you?”

“Not since I handed over the amber shipment to Donovan International’s representative – Kyle Donovan.”

“So you say.” Jake went still.

“Yes. That’s what I say. My word is good,
Donovan.
Ask anyone, anywhere.”

“Everyone has a price. The Amber Room was yours.”

“Not mine. Kyle’s.”

“This isn’t getting us anywhere. Put Honor on.”

“Give me your number.”

“Put her on”, Archer said. “Now.”

“Give me your number.”

Honor gathered herself for a lunge off the bed.

Jake’s hand flashed out and grabbed her thigh, pinning her in place. He met the silent rage in her eyes head-on. Despite his facade of cool control, he was as furious as both Donovans put together.

“She’ll call you after we’ve sorted out some things”, Jake
said softly.

The quality of the silence that came over the line was somehow different this time. He guessed why. Archer was probably trying to squeeze the receiver into a thin paste. That
was the problem with telephones – you couldn’t get your hands on the guy who was pissing you off.

“I’ll call in five minutes”, Archer said. “If Honor doesn’t answer, my next call will be to the cops.”

“Fifteen minutes.”

“Five.”

Jake was holding a dead phone. He hung up without looking away from Honor.

“Go ahead”, he said. “Say it.”

“Let go of me.”

“No. You’ll run, I’ll catch you, and we’ll be a lot less comfortable on the floor than we are right here.”

There had been many times in Honor’s life when she wished for the size and power of her brothers, but never had she wanted that stature so savagely as she did now. It would have given her a great deal of satisfaction to hammer Jake Mallory between the cracks of the hardwood floor.

He knew it. He was watching her with a wariness that would have pleased her if she weren’t so furious.

“Well, at least you aren’t physically afraid of me”, he said after a moment. “You trust me that much.”

“A moron’s trust. How gratifying for you.”

The cool acid in Honor’s voice told Jake that five minutes wouldn’t be nearly enough to make her understand.

“If I had come to you”, he said roughly, “and told you that the Donovan clan was trying to frame me for what your beloved brother Kyle did and I needed you to prove that I was innocent, you would have slammed the door in my face.”

“Delightful thought.”

“Not for me. My company has been booted out of the Baltics and shit-listed in Russia. Unlike the Donovan brothers, I don’t have a vast family fortune to cushion my fall. I fight or I go under and stay there. I’m not going under.”

Honor looked at the grim lines of Jake’s face and didn’t doubt a word he said.

“I’d like to meet the man who gave you those scars”, she said. “I’d hire him on the spot.”

“They don’t post want ads in hell.”

There was nothing warm and reassuring about Jake’s eyes , at the moment. They were winter cold and as unforgiving as the hell he had just mentioned. She swallowed and wondered for the first time if she shouldn’t be afraid of him.

She wanted to be. It would make everything so much easier. But she wasn’t.

Rather distantly she wondered what the IQ of a moron really was. Probably close to absolute zero, if her own so-called brain was any guide – she was the one who had been babbling about love to a man who hated her brother. Her only, bitter, comfort was that Jake had been too busy screwing her
to listen.

“What would you have done in my place?” he demanded.

“My options would have been limited. I’m not as strong as you are. And I’m not a world-class liar.”

His hand tightened on Honor’s thigh. “I haven’t lied to you. Not in the way you mean.”

“Really? What way
do I
mean?”

“I didn’t make love to you in order to get to your brother”, Jake said bluntly.

“I believe you.”

He let out a long breath. “Thank God.”

“You didn’t make love to me, period”, she continued with
a thin smile.

“What would you call it?”

“Sex.”

“Whatever. As long as you know it didn’t have anything
to do with the Kyle mess.”

Honor stared at Jake and wondered which one of them was crazy. One of them had to be.

“Let me get this straight”, she said. “You came to me
under false pretenses…”

“You hired me under false…”

“… and then you…”

“… pretenses”, he said, talking over her. “You didn’t want to learn how to…”

“… take
advantage
of my fear to crawl in bed
and…”
she continued relentlessly.

“… fish and you’re afraid of…”

“… then you have the balls to suggest that the sex and the Kyle mess have nothing…”

“… small boats and…”

“Stop yelling!”

“I’m not yelling.”
Jake’s breath came out in a rush that was also a disgusted curse. “This isn’t getting us anywhere.”

“On that we agree. Let go of me.”

“You’d rather finish this conversation on the floor?”

“There’s nothing to finish. It was finished when Archer told me who you were.”

“Just what did your brother tell you?”

“That I was a little fool and you could be Kyle’s killer.”

A stillness came over Jake.

For the first time, fear breathed a chill over Honor’s skin.

“Is that what you believe?” he asked softly.

She made a trapped, frustrated gesture. “I don’t believe Kyle is dead, so I could hardly believe you killed him, could I?”