SeductiveIntent (17 page)

“Sophia! Christ! What happened? What are you doing back
here?”

She looked at the still fallen goons and then at the woman
tied in the chair.

“Brendan, thank God they’re still out. Come on. We have to
get you out of here. I can’t explain now. Come on.” With a furtive glance down
the hallway worthy of any Bourne novel, she led him out.

Part of him couldn’t believe she’d really come back for him.
As they crept down the stairs, a muted sound of German wafted toward them. It
was getting closer. He raised the gun, trying to push Sophia behind him when a
thump stopped the flow of German. Then Kendon was there in the hall.

Kendon? How the hell had he gotten here? Okay, he was beyond
trying to figure anything out.

“Go on. Get out of here,” Kendon whispered. “I have to round
up Michaels.”

Holding Sophia’s hand, they left the house, starting to run
toward the brush that led to the beach. When they got to the boat, Sophia flew
into his arms, crying.

She was the only thing he saw for a minute as he hugged her,
smoothing her hair. But then he noticed the men in black with automatic weapons
on the boat next to the yacht’s skiff, which in turn was next to the motor boat
of the pirates.

“Navy SEALs,” Mindy volunteered.

Mindy? Christ, what the hell?

“Don’t blame Captain Michaels. I insisted on coming along.
It turns out your little puzzle box has to do with terrorism or something.
There’s a whole cadre of SEALs on the island rounding everybody up to take them
in. Sam and Captain Michaels just tagged along. As well as your Sophia here.
Nobody could stop her from charging back with them.”

“I speak German,” Sophia offered softly, as if that somehow
negated her effort.

“Apparently this is related to some kind of Nazi thing,”
Mindy said casually.

“What?”

Kendon and Michaels appeared out of the brush a moment
later, walking pretty leisurely for an escape.

“The SEALs have secured the house,” Kendon reported to them,
the SEALs on board nearby presumably cognizant of that fact via radio report
from their colleagues.

“Let’s get back to the yacht,” Michaels suggested. “We can
sort everything out there.”

* * * * *

They were all sitting on the cream-colored sofas in the
sunken living room having a drink. Brendan and his sister. Her and Arthur. Even
the Captain and Kendon, who she supposed she could forgive for ratting her out
since he had helped to rescue them.

It was surreal to her, this intersection of parts of her
life. Her real life. Not some silly con she and Arthur were constructing.

Arthur was telling the story. A little like when she had
confessed to Brendan, he seemed to be holding nothing back, pouring it all out
after years of pretending.

“We all grew up together. Vinita and Solange and I in a
little village in Argentina you’ve probably never heard of. It had a very
active population of Nazi descendants. Some prominent Nazi families had escaped
there after the war and made a place for themselves, still clinging to their
warped racism and twisted ideology.”

“Solange?”

“Vinita’s sister. Her identical twin sister. But they were
like night and day. And take a wild guess which one was night. We were very
poor and all lived pretty much on the streets. I started to play the game,
petty thievery, that kind of thing, very early and Vinita and Solange, they,
well they did what most young girls who have no other way to support themselves
do.”

“They were prostitutes.” Sophia said it, but not in the form
of a question.

“In a way. They were very lovely and one of the prominent
Nazi families took them in, for their own purposes, only some of them sexual.
They were obsessed with identical twins and experimented on them, lightening
their skin and other things. Of course they tried to twist their minds too,
which wasn’t too difficult with Vinita. But Solange resisted and finally she
got away. Vinita didn’t. Probably didn’t even want to. For a few years, I think
Solange was happy and she had a baby.”

Sophia gasped.

“Yes, Solange was your mother, Sophia, not Vinita.”

“Are you, I mean it’s ridiculous I have to ask this, in
front of everybody, and all, but—”

“No. I’m not your father. I was in love with Solange but she
just considered me a friend. Then one day, a few years after she had
disappeared, Solange just showed up in this middle-of-nowhere French town I was
working. And she had with her this little girl with long dark curls and huge
eyes. She begged me to take you in. Told me that Vinita had never let her go,
that she hounded her and followed her and threatened to turn her baby over to
the Nazi family.”

“I don’t understand.”

“I’m not sure I ever did either, Sophia. I think, well, I
think Solange was pregnant when she ran away, some kind of experiment since
most of the men in that family were sterile.”

“So no Daddy hiding somewhere, I take it, unless he’s a
Nazi.”

Brendan hugged her close when she said it.

“I don’t really know. I just know she said that Vinita was
obsessed with giving you back to the family. That she could always find you if
you were with Solange because, and this was Solange talking, there was some
twin bond that existed. Or maybe something the Nazis had done to them, I don’t
know. But she claimed Vinita could always find her, no matter where she ran. I
told her I didn’t know anything about children. This wasn’t the life for you,
but she begged me and, and I loved her, so I did. Maybe it wasn’t right, Sophia.
I don’t know.”

“Is Sophia the name she gave me?”

“Yes.”

“So where is she now? My mother.”

“Vinita caught up to her eventually and I don’t know what
happened. According to Vinita, she killed her. But as you know, Vinita tells a
lot of lies.”

“How the hell did she wind up as Michelle Sheldon, married
to a US senator?” Kendon asked.

Michaels answered that one. “One of my old buddies was on
the SEALs detail back on the island. Off the record, he told me a little about
the operation. This Vinita’s marriage was arranged with the obvious goal of
trying to influence US policy. Apparently, Senator Sheldon is a traitor, not
that it will ever come out outright like that of course. He’ll probably just
retire and then have a heart attack care of either his friends in South America
or some more ruthless members of our government.”

“But the point is,” Arthur continued, not breaking eye
contact with Sophia, “when Vinita did start masquerading as a senator’s wife,
she somehow tracked us down. The first time was a few months ago. She
threatened to deliver you, Sophia, back to South America if I didn’t do what
she said. We ran, but she caught up to us again. I’ve seen Vinita slit men’s
throats without blinking an eye. And that was before the Nazis got a hold of
her. I’d hate to think of what she’s capable of now. When she caught up with us
for a second time, I decided to just do what she asked. It was then when she
gave me the assignment about the puzzle box.”

“The puzzle box,” Brendan muttered. “Was there really some
jewel in it? Is that what this could possibly be about?”

Arthur shook his head. “It was documentation of the Nazi
families that had escaped to South America and a listing of their Swiss bank
accounts. A fortune.”

“A little information about some of their recent uncredited
exploits as well, as I understand it,” Michaels added.

“And since the SEALs reclaimed the little box as evidence,
that’s probably all we will know,” Kendon said.

“How the hell did Mandrake’s Italian boyfriend get his hands
on it?” Brendon asked.

Kendon shrugged. “Probably just like he told you. His
grandmother. He said she was German, right? Maybe she was part of the ring.
When she told him it had a jewel in it, he just took her literally, I guess. He
probably added the Goring’s wife element himself to make it seem more
interesting to you.”

“And he was too stupid to know how to open it.”

“Hey, it was hard to open. I never did get it open,” Kendon
reminded him.

“So that’s who Vinita was afraid of in that house? Some
creepy old Nazi-wanna-bes?” Sophia asked.

“These men were monsters, Sophia, and Vinita, a monster
herself, learned to fear them from an early age. Most of the original Nazis may
have died off by now, but they certainly taught their children well. These
people were just as depraved as their forefathers. Your mother was very brave
to escape with you and very brave to give you to me. I’m sorry I couldn’t have
done better with you. It’s just, well, it was all I knew.”

She felt a rush of emotion for this man that overcame their
natural reticence with each other. “You taught me to survive, Arthur, the only
way you could. There’s nothing wrong with that.”

“Not that you won’t both be retiring,” Kendon added.

“I’m going to make it all up to you, baby,” Brendan
whispered in her ear. “I swear I am.”

She pulled away, shaking her head and saying for all to
hear, “There’s nothing to make up, Brendan. It just was. It made me who I am.”

“I love you, Sophia.”

Her mouth dropped open. Actually, so did his. She wondered
if he was still drunk.

“Geez, Brendan, what a dolt you are!” Mindy chided. “You
don’t just say it right out like that in front of everybody the first time.
Man! It is the first time, isn’t it?”

“What gave you that idea? Sophia’s stunned expression? Come
on.” He pulled Sophia up from the sofa. “Everybody’s going to bed.”

“It’s not even two o’clock in the afternoon!” Mindy
objected. Then she eyed Kendon. “But maybe that’s not a bad idea.”

“Stay away from my baby sister,” Brendan warned him, walking
toward the main cabin arm in arm with Sophia. “Everybody else, make yourselves
at home. Take the skiff back. Whatever. We’ll be busy for a while.”

“I’m not a baby!” Mindy objected behind him.

“I’ll be right there, Brendan. I want to have a word with
Arthur for a second.”

As Brendan was about to strip for the shower, a knock
sounded on the door. Since Sophia wouldn’t knock, he wasn’t asking whoever it
was in.

“What?” He opened the door. Seeing who it was, he said, “I
wasn’t kidding about my sister, Kendon.”

“Don’t worry. I think she’s a little young for me.”

“Yeah. Tell that to her.”

“Anyway, I just wanted to mention this, for what it’s worth.
Sophia could have stayed behind when we went back for you. In fact, I was
convinced she and her pal there would have. The SEALs had no interest in them.
They could’ve taken the skiff and gotten away while we were busy going back for
you. But she didn’t. She was desperate to get back to save you.”

Kendon wasn’t telling him anything he didn’t already know.
But he appreciated the sentiment.

“Thanks, man. But I’m through testing Sophia. I’m taking her
at her word from now on, just as she’s taking me. I have no interest in trying
to protect myself anymore from what I really want.”

The other man nodded. “Can’t say I blame you there. Lifelong
habits are hard to break though.”

“Maybe, but we’re going to try. Both of us.”

“God, Brendan, does this mean you’re settling down to one
woman? I don’t believe it.”

Brendan scowled at his sister who had suddenly shown up
behind Kendon. She was probably stalking the poor guy. “Good bye, Mindy. Get
her out of here,” he said to Kendon. “And no offense, but you’re fired.”

“None taken. I’ll send you my bill.” Kendon grinned as he
led Mindy away.

In the opposite direction from the cabins, happily.

The rest of the party disappeared as Sophia steered Arthur
to the dining room. “I meant what I said back there.”

Arthur shrugged. “Whatever. I was laying it on a little
thick.”

She looked at him. “That was all the truth. I know it was.”

Arthur laughed. “Maybe. Truth is relative. Anyway, I can see
you’ll be retiring for the time being. Fine. I get it. He’s obviously hooked.
It’s a smart play, especially if you can get him to marry you eventually. He
knows the worst and he still seemed, ah, entranced, I guess you’d say. It’s a
smart move. As I said, maybe he’ll even marry you and with this guy it’s a
virtual guarantee he’ll cheat, which’ll up the divorce settlement if you decide
to go that way. Smart all around. I taught you well.”

She stared at the closest thing to a father she had ever
had. “I love Brendan.” It was freeing to say it out loud like that. “It’s not
the money. Can’t you understand that?”

“Save it for him, my dear. You’re forgetting I can’t be
conned. I know you.”

“No, Arthur. That’s the point. You don’t.” She kissed his
cheek. “Not really.”

As she was walking back to the cabin to join Brendan, he
called out, “You’re very much like your mother, Sophia. I could never teach
that out of you.”

She glanced back. “I think there’s more of that in you too
than you let on, Arthur.”

He shrugged. “We’ll see. Maybe when you and Beckett surface
for air you’ll find the silver gone.”

She shook her head with a smile.

Brendan was in the shower when she went into the suite.
Hurriedly shedding her clothes, she joined him, kissing him under the stream of
hot water.

“Everything okay with you and your mentor?” He wrapped his
arms around her.

“Not sure. He still thinks I’m conning you.”

“You can con me anytime, sweetheart.”

She laughed. “God knows what Arthur will steal before he
disappears again.”

“You think he’ll disappear?”

“I guess so.”

He reached for the bar of soap, rubbing it between his hands
until he’d worked up a healthy lather, and then he ran his soapy hands along
her neck, her shoulders. When he came to her breasts, he caressed them
leisurely and she arched into his touch.