Dark And Dangerous (6 page)

Nathan ran his fingers
through her hair and down her body, caressing hotly as he went along. Her body
burned and a trail of fire followed his hands as they stroked and teased.

She couldn't stop her
hands from sliding into his hair, trying to pull him closer. Her pulse pounded
and her head spun, as he assaulted her senses and made her strain to get closer.
Somewhere far in the distance she heard herself moan, and then he tore his
mouth away from hers.

 
They were both breathing hard, but still she
saw the anger evident in his eyes.

Releasing her, Nathan
stepped back. "I think you better sit down."

Afraid that her legs were
too unsteady to hold her after the onslaught of the kiss, Kayley carefully
pushed away from the wall and sat down again.

 
"What do you want to talk about?"
she asked defiantly.

Sitting down across from
her, Nathan wondered how best to tell her what he had discovered the night
before. "I didn't suspect you, Kayley, but I had to be sure before we
talked." He looked at her intensely, willing her to understand. "I
asked your intruder some questions when you were inside the house, and the information
he gave me was very interesting. It turned out that it was not just your normal
breaking and entering."

 
"What do you mean?"

 
"Somebody sent them."

 
"But why?" She didn't understand.

 
"He said you have something they
want."

 
"But what could that be? They didn't
take any of my paintings, and that is all I have."

She didn't have a clue,
Nathan thought studying her. "They weren't quite sure what they were
looking for either. From what he told me they only knew it was some sort of
electrical device, such as a microchip."

 
"I don't have any electrical devices,
except a telephone," Kayley said frustrated.

 
"I know." He reached over and took
her hand, then tightened his grip as she tried to pull away. "But they
seem to think you do."

 
"I don't know why they..." It
suddenly dawned on her.

 
"What is it?" Nathan asked sensing
something.

 
"I just remembered that package I
received yesterday. There was some kind of microchip, or something like that,
in it."

 
"Where is it?"

Fumbling a bit, Kayley reached
into her pocket and pulled it out. He released her hand and took it from her,
studying it closely.

 
"This is a memory stick."

 
"Do you think that was what they were
looking for?"

 
"Yeah, there's a good chance it is. Who
sent it to you?" He watched as pain came into her eyes, before she managed
to control it. When she spoke her voice was carefully blank.

 
"It was from my brother, Joe."

His eyes narrowed as he
studied her. "Does he send you things often?"

 
A shake of her head was her only response.

He could see it hurt her,
and cursed himself and the situation, for having to ask. "Do you know why
he sent it to you?"

 
"No."

It was like pulling out
teeth, he thought. "He didn't call to let you know?"

 
"No."

Frustrated Nathan drew his
hands through his hair. "Kayley, I can't help you if you don't let
me."

 
"I don't know why you want to help. This
has nothing to do with you," Kayley said, feeling panic churn her stomach.

 
Narrowing his eyes, Nathan looked at her.
"Well, like it or not, I have decided that it has everything to do with
me. So you might as well accept it."

 
She stared at him in shock. This was not the
way things happened for her. People didn't usually try to help, and she had
absolutely no clue how to handle it. Unsure of what to do, she just remained
quiet.

 
"When was the last time you saw or spoke
with your brother?" He watched the pain reappear in her eyes, before she
cast them down and away.

 
"Two years ago."

 
"You haven't spoken with you brother in
two years?"

 
"No. He doesn't keep in touch."

 
"And you don't contact him?"

 
"I can't. He doesn't have a permanent
address or phone number. At least he didn't last time I saw him."

 
"What line of work is he in?"

 
"Last time I heard he was a truck
driver, but that could have changed several times. He never keeps the same job
for long."

Nathan didn't like what he
was hearing. From what he gathered, Kayley's brother could either be a very
restless soul, or he could be a bad piece of work.

 
"How do you know it was from your brother?"

 
"There was a small note in the
package."

 
"What did it say?"

 
"I'm sorry sis. I hoped it wouldn't come
to this."

Not good. Definitely not
good, he thought. "And that's all?"

 
"Yes." Annoyed because she felt
interrogated, Kayley shifted and squared her shoulders.

 
"Did that satisfy your curiosity?"
she asked icily.

His eyes narrowed
dangerously at her tone. "No it didn't. However since that is all you've
got, I'll have to take it."

 
"Well if you're done then..."
Nathan caught her wrist as she got up again. Annoyed she did her best to send
him her most haughty expression.

 
"Why are you angry at me, Kayley?"

Her pulse skipped as he
stood up, then started hammering when he moved in much to close. She felt his
breath feather warmly over her face, and suddenly lost all coherent thought, as
he skimmed his thumb caressing over the pulse in her wrist.

Feeling the hard beat of
her blood, he smiled.

 
Oh, God, was her last thought, as the smile
transformed his features from devilishly handsome to gorgeous.

Then he leaned in closer
and her mind went completely blank.

 
He kissed her gently this time, persuasively,
caressing until she opened willingly to him.

He took her deep under, so
slowly, as if he had all the time in the world.

She lost all sense of time
and space. Unable to prevent herself, she leaned into him. Releasing her wrist,
Nathan slipped his arms around her, drawing her closer, and then closer still.
Her hands freed, she slid them up his chest and tangled them in his hair.
Pulling back a bit, he looked down into her dazed eyes.

 
"We better see what's on that memory
stick, before I lose my good intentions."

Releasing her completely,
he stepped back and reached for the stick he had laid on the table.

 
Kayley just stayed where she was, trying to
regain her composure. This was the third time he had kissed her and the third
time she had ever lost her
self control
. It had to
stop, she thought. Right now.

 
"Ready?"

Gathering herself, she
straightened her shoulders. "Sure," she said, deciding that
indifference would probably be the best way to handle him.

 
It didn't seem to bother him though, as he
just led the way through the house, untouched.

Wasn't that just typical
males, she thought. Getting her all churned up and then pretending nothing had
happened.

 
Maybe nothing had happened for him, she
mused. But it certainly had for her. And wasn't that just even more
infuriating.

Getting more and more
annoyed she followed him up the stairs and into an office. Too angry to admire
the big beautifully furnished room, she simply sat down in the soft chair he
pulled up for her.

 
Seemingly unaffected, Nathan grabbed another
chair and sat down beside her. He turned on a streamlined laptop on his big
desk, before turning on another thing she didn't know what was, and had no
intention of asking him about.

 
He did something more on the computer, until
suddenly it displayed a number of images lined on the screen.

 
"Okay, let's see." He enlarged the
images, one at a time.

Forgetting for a moment
that she was still angry with him, she leaned closer.

 
The first picture revealed three people
standing in front of a big container. Their backs were turned towards the
photographer and they were surrounded by black night.

 
The next picture showed the three men opening
the container. Then the images continued on, showing the men in various stages
of opening and entering the container, disappearing inside it, and reappearing
carrying large wooden boxes.

 
The next long sequence of pictures revealed
the men carrying boxes from the container to a big white van, then going back
to repeat the process several times, before closing the container again, and
driving away in the van.

They continued to watch
the images emerging on the screen in silence.

The images changed scene
to what looked like a very dimly lit storage room. What appeared to be the same
wooden boxes were placed on the floor, their lids now
open.
Closeups
revealed different artistic sculptures of
fine porcelain.

 
"I don't understand why he would send me
these pictures," Kayley said unsure.

Nathan wasn't sure either,
but he didn't like it. "From what I can see your brother was into a bit of
espionage."

 
"You don't know anything about my
brother," she said defensively. She had thought the same when she saw the
pictures, but that didn't mean she liked it or wanted to accept it.

 
"I know what you have told me about him
and I know what I've just seen. Now, you might not want to think this of your
brother, but you're not stupid. You saw what I saw. The question is why
did he send
it to you and what are we going to do about
it."
  

 
"You mean what
am I
going to do about it."

 
"We've already had this discussion and
there is no you in this. Only
a
we
,"
he said with calm finality.

 
"But I don't want your help," Kayley
said panicky.

 
"Why not?" he asked, mildly amused.

 
"Well I..." She didn't know. In
fact she had no idea why the fact that he wanted to help her, should make her
so distressed. "I'm not going to sleep with you, if that is what you
think," she blurted out.

 
"We'll see about that, but that's not
why I want to help you."

 
"Why then?" she asked unsure.

He didn't quite know,
except that he felt a deep need to help her. Reaching over, he tucked her hair
behind her ear. "I want to help you," he said simply. He left out
that he really didn't want to see her hurt, as he didn't think she was quite
ready to hear that just yet.

 
Instead he turned back to the computer
screen.

 
Annoyed at herself because her pulse skipped
every time he touched her, Kayley crossed her arms and willed her pulse to slow
again. It simply couldn't be right, she told herself, that a fleeting touch
from him would have such an impact on her.

Turning her own attention
back to the computer, she noticed he was fiddling with it again.

 
"What are you doing?"

 
"I'm just printing the pictures, so we
can take them with us."

 
"Are we going somewhere?"

 
"Yes, we're going to find your
brother."

 
"But I already told you I don't know
where he is."

 
"Yes, but someone has to know, and we're
going to find them."

 
"How?" Kayley asked skeptically.

 
"First," he turned back to her,
"you're going to think about who might know something about your brothers
whereabouts. Your parents, friends or maybe a girlfriend."

 
She thought that over. "He didn't have
any real friends, as far as I know. He used to hang out with a bad crowd, but I
wouldn't know who they were, or if he still sees them. As for girlfriends I
don't know of any. He never discussed that kind of thing with me."