Wanted (2 page)

Tierney thought
maybe she should call her folks. Then she remembered her phone was in her purse
and her purse was probably floating in the Pacific if it hadn’t been blown to
bits. She had the urge to pee, took the opportunity to use the tiny bathroom.

As she was
sitting there she heard the footsteps again. The bathroom door flew open before
she could get her
Victoria
’s Secret panties up! She stood;
bare-butted, face to hairy chest with the most gorgeous man she’d ever seen. He
was shirtless, wearing jeans and deck shoes, and shaped like Apollo in a
Romantic Era painting, his body firm and muscled, his features finely chiseled,
with lines down his cheeks and a dimple in his chin. He looked her up and down
with cinnamon brown eyes then averted his gaze while he ran lean fingers
through a mass of golden brown hair. She swore his tanned face turned ruddy.

“What the hell
… how did you get in here?”

Tierney
repositioned her panties, and smoothed her denim miniskirt as she fashioned a
quick lie. “I thought this was my dad’s boat. The Saracen. I guess I was
mistaken …”

“You must be
blind, or high on something. Get your business done while I turn the boat
around.”

He turned to
leave; she followed him out. “Wait, oh, please! I can’t go back! Someone tried
to kill me!”

He flung about,
stood tall in front of her. She was trying to mentally measure his height, made
him out to be at least six foot two.

“Are you
crazy?”

“No, just
afraid. Do you have a TV? It must be on the news by now.”

He dug through
the clothes, found a small flat screen on a table, and flicked it on. After a
bit of channel surfing he left it on the twenty-four hour news network. They
were indeed talking about Tierney. Her face was all over the screen.

“A bomb? Damn,
you must’ve made somebody real angry!”

“Yeah, I guess
I must have.” All of a sudden her eyes went wet, tears streamed down her
cheeks, ruining her mascara.

“Hey, there’s
no need for that. Come on, dry it up.”

“I’m sorry, I
can’t! I’ve been holding it in too long.”

She plopped
down on a sofa, buried her face in her hands. She felt three years old again.
Her mother, upset over some stupid thing her dad had done, left her in a ritzy
galleria, and walked off to her car. The poor child was lost for half an hour,
bumping into callous strangers. Finally her mother returned and scooped her up,
begging forgiveness. Tierney forgave her but she never forgot that feeling of
vulnerability, of being completely, hopelessly alone. It all came back to her
now. And she couldn’t stop the fear and misery from claiming her.

The man sat
down beside her; he seemed confused, frustrated.

“This isn’t
helping anything, you know. Tell me your family’s number and I’ll call them.
They need to know you’re okay.”

She glanced up
into the rich brown eyes. Hers were glistening, reddened by the tears. He began
to fidget, as if being so close to her made him uncomfortable. He smoothed her
ash blonde hair from her face.

“What’s your
name?” she asked.

“Fortune.
Ezekiel Fortune, though most people call me
Kiel
.”

“
Kiel
?
That’s kind of cool. I’m Tierney, but I guess you knew that.”

“Not until I
saw the report. I’m not one to watch reality shows. I’ve got enough drama in my
own life.”

“Are you
married?”

“No, was, once,
but that ship sailed awhile ago. You?”

“No, I’m
engaged, I suppose, though there was no real proposal, not even a ring.”

“He’s probably
wondering about you.”

“I doubt that.
I’m not too certain he wasn’t the one who planted the bomb!”

“Well, here,”
he handed her his phone. “Call your daddy and have him meet us at the dock. I’ll
get the boat turned around.”

He stood,
breathed easier once he was distanced from her. She watched him move as he
neared the stairs, made her twitch inside. God, what a man! He glanced back at
her, caught her admiring his butt. It seemed to irritate him; he climbed up to
the deck.

“I guess I’m
not his type,” Tierney sighed.

They hovered
around the marina until
Aram
and Betsy Evans showed up. Kiel
busied himself cleaning up the hull, Tierney helped him, trying not to let him
see how he was affecting her. She didn’t want to leave him. She wanted to know
him, in every way possible. To learn who he was and what he did, and how those
full lips would feel on her mouth, and just how deeply he would slide into her
if he had the chance. But he was stone cold, offering polite but vague answers
to her questions and avoiding her physically by at least two feet.

When
Aram
Evans’ Escalade Hybrid appeared Tierney was reluctant to acknowledge it. She
gave
Kiel
a hug in thanks, letting her body linger against his until
he stiffened, not in passion but from embarrassment. She pulled away, looked at
him one more time, trying to draw him upon her memory then she hopped into the
SUV and was shuttled off into the horizon.

“My God,
Tierney!” her mother almost shouted. “Why didn’t you call us right away? We
were going out of our minds with worry!”

“I’m sorry. I
was mixed up, and really scared. Wouldn’t you be if you knew someone had tried
to kill you?”

“I can’t
believe that. It must have been a mistake.”

“Now Mom, how
many red Ferrari convertibles are there on my block? It was not a mistake!”

“You’re right,”
Aram
Evans stated in a solemn voice.

The women
gasped in unison.

“
Aram
,
you don’t mean it!”

“It’s true,
Betsy. I’ve had threats from some nasty people. I didn’t want anyone to know.
The FBI has been trying to track them down.”

“But who are
they, Dad? And why are they targeting me?’

“I’m not sure
exactly who they are. But I have received some ugly emails. The people involved
seem to think I’ve made my money under dubious circumstances. They talked about
sweat shops in
China
, that sort of thing …”

“Did you?”

“Tierney …”

“No, Mom, I
want to know.”

“It has come to
my attention that several of the factories that make our clothing are suspected
of being sweat shops. I was planning to fly over there, to see for myself, but
the FBI warned me against it.”

“Lovely,”
Tierney sighed. She sat back in her seat, quiet for the rest of the ride. Her
thoughts kept traveling back to
Kiel
Fortune. She wondered what
he was doing - if he’d gone to Baja or Catalina or just stayed there at the
dock. She imagined him taking a shower in that tiny bathroom, watched him in
her fantasy as he soaped up that firm, hairy chest and his lower parts too. She
blew out her breath, trying to quell an orgasm that was spreading through her.
“I’ve got to see him again,” she thought to herself. No one had ever made her
feel the way he did. Not Istvan or the two other supposed fiancés she’d known
in her young but busy life. And he hadn’t even kissed her. But he would, he had
to – no matter what she had to do to get him. She simply had to know what it
was like to kiss
Kiel
Fortune!

CHAPTER TWO

He was still
thinking about her an hour after she’d left, and damning himself for it. She
was just a girl, one of a million in LA who thought the world owed them
something because they were born rich. Sure, she was beautiful, who wouldn’t be
with all that money at their disposal for botox treatments, hair weaves,
liposuction, etc… Still, he knew she hadn’t used any of that junk. She was
naturally pretty and naturally blonde – one glance while her panties were down
was enough to prove that. He couldn’t get his mind off that either. It’d been
too long since he’d had a woman, and every cell in his body was letting him
know it.

He opened the
fridge in the galley, brought out a cold can of beer.

“Is that your
answer to every problem,
Kiel
?”

He turned; saw a
tall gaunt man with a regulation buzz cut standing on the stairs – Joe Smalley,
his former partner in the secretive CIA unit known as Questor.

“What of it?”
he snapped then he poured the smooth amber liquid down his parched throat.

“I’m glad I
caught you before you left.”

“Did Slater
send you?”

“He did. He
wants you back,
Kiel
. We all want you back. You’re our best man
for intel.”

“There are a
dozen guys out there better than me.”

“No, there
isn’t. We need you.”

Kiel crushed
the can, threw it into a pile of others, making a metallic clank.

“I don’t need
you, Joe. Can’t you get that through your head? You guys shanghaied me when I
was eighteen, straight out of high school, for your filthy little techno unit.
I did whatever you told me to because my dad and mom had just died and I was
numb. But over the years I’ve come to hate every slimy, underhanded mission. I
have to get away. It killed Jeri, and our baby. If I don’t leave, sooner or
later … probably sooner … it’ll kill me, too.”

Smalley stepped
down into the living area. “We’ve told you before,
Kiel
… nobody
leaves Questor … alive.”

Kiel
took another beer from the fridge; popped the top.

“Don’t you
realize I’m smart enough to plan ahead? I’ve got copies of documents, all sorts
of little goodies, on a flash drive, just waiting with the right person. If I
go missing or end up floating face up in a gutter they’ll email those copies to
every news agency in the
US
!”

“We can find
the person who has them, you know that. We can make life a living hell for
anybody who’s ever crossed paths with you until the right one yells uncle.
What’s the point in that? You don’t want anyone else to be hurt because of
you.”

“No, I don’t.
The ‘right person’ isn’t really a person at all. It’s a program. And you can’t weed
it out no matter how you try. Give it up, and let me alone, Joe. All I want is
a peaceful place where I can hide away … and forget everything I did for the
last fifteen years!”

“I wish I could
help you,
Kiel
. You’re like a brother to me. But I’ve got
orders.”

“I understand
that, Joe; better than you think I do. But I won’t go back. Tell Slater … tell
him to go to Hell! And you can get off my boat!”

Smalley made a
move towards his pocket;
Kiel
grabbed a knife from a drawer and
flung it with lightning speed – it hit Smalley’s wrist. He groaned, uttered a
curse and wrapped a handkerchief around his bleeding hand.

“Damn,
Kiel
,
I was just reaching for a smoke!”

“Sure you
were.” Kiel walked over, searched the pocket, found a tiny but lethal gun with
a silencer. “That was tacky, Joe, very tacky. I thought you had more finesse.”

“Guess I’m
getting careless in my old age.”

“Right. Take a
hike, Joe.”

They stood eye
to eye, neither backing down. But
Kiel
was a master at the
staring game; Joe finally shrugged, headed back up the stairs.

“It’ll have to
be settled eventually,
Kiel
. One way or another.”

“I accept that,
Joe. And I’ll be ready.”

He followed him
up top, watched him until he was out of sight. A portly gent with an icy white
beard came waddling over to him.

“Trouble,
Kiel
?”

“Nothing I
can’t handle, Travers.”

“Yeah, I guess
you can handle just about anything. Heading out to Baja?”

“Maybe.”

“If anyone asks,
should I say something different?”

“Tell them what
you like. I’ll have to face the bastards sometime, might as well get it over
with quick.”

“I can help
you, boy, if you need a straight shooter.”

Kiel
smiled but there was no joy in the gesture. “I know, man, and I’m thankful for
the offer but I don’t think those grandkids could do without their Pappy. See
you around!”

He untied the
rope, started the engine; eased his boat out into the bay. The sun was fading,
though it wasn’t close to sunset. A veil of gauzy clouds was smothering it,
turning the air chill.

He let the
breeze ripple across his bare chest, hoped it would calm the heat rising in his
groin – that damned reality show girl. Why couldn’t he get her out of his mind?

Jeri had been
gone three long years. No one had even caught his interest in all that time. He
closed his eyes; saw her as she was then – a long, leggy brunette with the
bluest eyes this side of heaven, and a body shaped so perfectly it was like
someone had molded her out of clay to fit exactly right in his arms. Her kisses
melted him into lava; her moans drove him into a sweet kind of madness that he
never wanted to be cured of. They were magical together. And then they were
expecting – already knew it was going to be a girl. They even had a name picked
out – Mandy.

But his work –
digging into the secrets of unfriendly nations for the government – had
consequences. Someone breeched his security wall, discovered who he was. They
came after him at his house in
Virginia
on the one night he was
out playing gin with the Questor boys. Or maybe they’d known that and planned
to target Jeri all along. Didn’t matter – all that really mattered was that
they took her, and Mandy, from him forever – with a clear, clean shot.