A Coral Kiss Part 24

"I would like to take this opportunity," Jed announced grimly, "to point out that this was not my fault."

"Hah. You should never have followed Guthrie into that warehouse district."

Kelso ambled to the window and stared out into the darkness. "Why did you follow him, Glaze?"

Amy froze as she realized where all these logical questions would lead. If Jed started explaining about Guthrie, how could he avoid explaining his suspicions? And if he got as far as his suspicions, he would have to explain the box in the caves. The secrets would be out.

Jed seemed oblivious to Amy's unnatural stillness. He did seem to notice the way her fingertips were digging into his arm. In fact, he had to gently pry himself free of her grasp so he could put on his s.h.i.+rt.

"Sheer stupidity," Jed said calmly, b.u.t.toning his s.h.i.+rt. "I left the s.h.i.+p to get something Amy had stashed in the glove compartment of the Jeep. Something, uh, personal, if you know what I mean. I saw Guthrie walking along the docks in front of me and then he suddenly turned to go up into that warehouse area. I couldn't think of any good reason why someone would head in that direction." Jed shrugged. "I got curious and followed. Vaden jumped me from one of the alleys."

Kelso listened to the story in silence. It was impossible to tell whether he believed it. But they weren't on the mainland and he wasn't a big city police detective. Things were done differently on Orleana. There were basically three unwritten laws on the island. The first law maintained that men sometimes ended up in out-of-the-way places like Orleana Island because they had secrets. Kelso, himself, had taken advantage of that law. It was also understood that, unless he caused trouble, a man was ent.i.tled to keep those secrets to himself.

The third and most rigidly applied law was that in the event of trouble, locals were given the benefit of the doubt. The burden of guilt was always on the off-islanders. Because of Jed's connection with the Slaters, he was considered a local.

Amy breathed a sigh of relief when she saw Kelso nod. "Guess I'd better go talk to Guthrie. Vaden sure as h.e.l.l isn't going to tell us much. You think those two know each other?"

Hank shook his head. "Nah, I don't think so. Guthrie's a friend of Renner's. The two of them hang around together. Diving buddies. But neither of them seems to know Vaden. Vaden just sort of hangs around by himself. A loner. I was wondering how much longer he was going to stay on the island. Didn't seem to be enjoying himself much."

"He'll be enjoying himself a lot less after tonight," Kelso predicted as he walked to the door. "Gonna have a mighty sore throat for a while. See you folks later." The screen door slammed behind him.

There was a long moment of silence in the clinic room. Then Steam said casually, "Well, that'll be the end of that."

"What do you mean?" Amy asked uneasily.

Hank grinned. "h.e.l.l, Amy, old Kelso ain't hardly what you'd call a real cop. You know that. If he were, he wouldn't have wound up out here on Orleana, would he? He'll ask Guthrie a few questions, Guthrie will give him a few answers and that'll be about as far as it goes. h.e.l.l, maybe that's as far as it should go.

Guthrie's probably not involved anyway. He's just a tourist who took a wrong turn on the way back to his hotel."

"What about Vaden?" Rosie asked suddenly.

"Vaden's a drifter." Hank shrugged. "You know the type, Rosie. We've had enough of his kind here through the years. They just hop from one island to another, maybe deal a little dope, take a few odd jobs, work a fis.h.i.+ng boat now and then. He probably needed some extra cash and decided to pick on one of the tourists from the cruise s.h.i.+p. Maybe he saw Jed leave the main road and very obligingly wander off into a nice, deserted area. Too good an opportunity to miss. He followed and tried to take him."

Hank c.o.c.ked his big, bearded head at Jed. "This ain't exactly downtown L.A., but even out here a man's got to take a few precautions."

"I got the point," Jed said dryly. "Literally. You ready to leave, Amy?"

She nodded quickly. "I'm ready." She turned to Stearn. "Does he need any medication? What about an infection?"

"He'll be fine. Have him stop by in a day or two and I'll make sure everything's healing okay. Take him home now and give him a shot of brandy."

Amy nodded and seized Jed's arm to lead him out to the Jeep. "Good night Hank, Rosie. I'll see you in a day or so. It was a lovely evening up to a point."

"Drive carefully," Rosie said easily as Amy helped Jed into the pa.s.senger seat and walked around the front of the vehicle to climb into the driver's side.

"I will," Amy promised. She held her hand out toward Jed.

Without a word he dug the keys out of his pocket and handed them to her. Amy started the engine and, with a last wave at the trio in the doorway behind her, she spun the wheel of the Jeep.

"This is getting to be a bad habit," she muttered as she turned onto the winding road that led out of town.

"What is?"

"Driving you home after you've gotten into trouble playing with guns and knives. Jed, you gave me a terrible scare tonight. What happened?"

"Just what I told Kelso. I saw Guthrie leave the harbor area and take a detour through mat maze of sheds, so I followed. I lost him when Vaden jumped me."

"You could have been killed!"

"No. Vaden was too slow."

"Don't you dare try to treat this casually. This is not a casual matter," Amy stormed. In her agitation she jerked the wheel of the Jeep a little too hard going around a corner. The vehicle strayed precariously toward the jungle. Jed grabbed his door handle.

"For Christ's sake, Amy, watch what you're doing or you're going to finish what Vaden started tonight."

Amy ignored him. "Why did you make that excuse to leave the s.h.i.+p in the first place?"

"Take a guess."

She sucked in her breath. "Because Rosie said Renner reminded her of Michael Wyman?"

"Right. Renner reminded her of Wyman and Guthrie is obviously a.s.sociated with Renner. What did Renner do after I left to follow his friend?"

"Nothing. Danced a few more dances with the blonde."

"Did they leave together?"

Amy shook her head, trying to remember. "No, I think they were both still there when the waiter brought me Dr. Stearn's message. In fact, I'm sure of it. Jed, what's going on? There's no way on earth Renner could be Wyman. He's much too young. And Wyman's dead, anyway."

"I know."

"Are you sure that this time it isn't your imagination that's taken a turn toward the bizarre? Vaden's attack on you was probably exactly what Kelso thinks it was, a case of a down-and-out drifter trying to take some easy money off a tourist."

"And Guthrie's nocturnal wanderings up in the old warehouse district?"

"Who knows? Maybe he lost his way back to Hank and Rosie's."

"Sure."

"You really think something's going on here, don't you?" she asked quietly.

"I have a suspicious nature."

"Maybe we should leave, Jed."

"Not without the box." He probed his bandaged arm with his free hand. "And it'll be a day or two before I can go after it. I don't want to go down into those caves until I have the full use of both arms."

"You shouldn't do any diving untill that wound is completely healed."

"We're not going to wait that long, honey. Things are moving too quickly. I just need a day or two."

Amy gripped the wheel more tightly. "If only we knew for certain just what things are moving. So far we've got nothing but eight zipper teeth to go on."

"I resent that. What about my little adventure tonight?"

"I'll bet Kelso's explanation is the right one. Vaden will turn out to be just a dumb, dangerous drifter."

"And the fact that Renner reminds Rosie of Wyman?"

"Jed, it's been twenty-five years since Rosie saw Wyman. She said that if she hadn't been talking to me about him just the other night, she would never have thought twice about the vague similarity."

"You're forgetting the one really awkward problem in all this," Jed said coolly.

"What's that?"

"LePage. Somehow he knew about the box. That means that someone else knows. And that makes everything else that's happening very interesting."

Amy fell silent. Finally, she said, "You're very tenacious, aren't you? Once you latch onto something, you don't let go."

"Not until it's finished," Jed agreed. "I'm an engineer, remember? We like to see our projects through to completion."

"Even if you run into people like Vaden in the process?" Amy retorted bitterly. "What did you do to him tonight, Jed? Kelso said the man was going to have a sore throat."

"I've picked up some unmarketable but occasionally useful skills during the past eight years, Amy. You don't want to hear about them."

Amy heard the new weariness in his voice and refrained from asking any more questions during the drive back to the house.

Jed didn't break the silence as she pulled into the drive and parked the Jeep. He followed her into the house and sank down into one of the cus.h.i.+oned chairs in the breezy living room.

"I'll get the brandy Dr. Stearn ordered," Amy said, turning away to fetch it. She didn't like the grim, drawn expression on Jed's hard face. Steam had implied that Jed was not badly hurt, but she was determined to get the patient to bed as soon as possible. Jed needed some rest.

"Come on upstairs," she coaxed as she returned with the brandy. "You can drink this while you're getting ready for bed."

Jed studied her from under his half lowered lashes as he sprawled in the chair. "You really are sweet when you fuss over me. I think I could get addicted to it."

"Don't be ridiculous. I'm not fussing, I'm just exercising some common sense, unlike a certain male whose name will go unmentioned for the moment. Come on, up the stairs, hero. You look beat."

"Too much dancing." He took the brandy from her hand and downed half of it before he reached the first step. "I won't be able to sleep, you know, unless I'm in your bed."

"Is that a fact?"

"Yeah, it's a fact." At the top of the stairs he turned deliberately toward her room. Amy didn't argue.

A few minutes later she had him neatly tucked into her bed. She stepped back to examine her patient with a worried gaze. He lifted his lashes and she was startled to see the smoldering sensuality in his eyes.

"Come to bed, Amy."

She felt herself responding to the heat in his eyes. Without thinking she took a step toward the bed. Then memory returned. She knew that particular expression. She'd seen it before in Jed's hazel eyes. She stopped.

"What is it, Amy?"

"It's the violence, isn't it?" Amy asked, her voice husky with a curious kind of pain. "It does something to you. You get off on it. You looked at me like that when you got back from your... your trips."

Jed's hand moved so quickly Amy didn't have a chance to step out of his range. He captured her wrist.

"It's not the violence. It's you."

Her fingers wriggled uselessly in his firm grasp. "I'm not so sure. There's supposed to be some sort of psychological connection between s.e.x and violence, you know. Especially in a man's brain. Something to do with hormones, I think."

"Just another weakness in the male brain," Jed murmured, drawing her closer.

"Jed, it's not funny." She gave him a pleading look. "I don't think I want to be used as a... a release for the s.e.xual tension violence seems to generate in you. It's not exactly flattering, you know."

"Amy, you're talking nonsense. Have I ever been violent with you?"

She shook her head quickly. "No, but-"

"I wanted you very badly whenever I came back from an a.s.signment. I won't deny it. For the past few months I seem to have been functioning in a perpetual state of wanting you badly. But I waited, didn't I?

I waited until you wanted me. Until you weren't nervous of me any longer."

"Yes, I know, but-"

He gave up trying to argue the subject. Jed yanked Amy gently down onto the bed. She sprawled across his body and was instantly aware of his arousal. He was covered only by the sheet, and his powerful, smoothly muscled body was emanating a warm and vital energy.

"Jed, your arm." Anxiously she tried to lever herself off his chest.

"Forget my arm." His voice was thickening as he wrapped his good hand around the back of her head and held her still. "Why the h.e.l.l do you think I had Stearn give me a little local anesthetic? I can't feel a thing in my arm. But I sure as h.e.l.l ache somewhere else." He found her mouth, sealing what remained of her protest behind her tremulous lips.

Jed ignored the twinges that got through the fading anesthetic. The fierce, heavy ache in his groin was far stronger than the discomfort of his wound. The need for Amy had been throbbing in him since she'd burst through the clinic door, all anxious eyes and scolding tongue. He realized dimly that part of him thrived on her concern. He was growing accustomed to it, dependent on it, addicted to it, possessive of it.

It had annoyed him to hear her link his need of her with his reaction to violence. Didn't she understand that anything could trigger his desire for her? Her smile could be just as effective. Having her fuss over him was enough to start a tantalizing fantasy rolling in his head. h.e.l.l, just watching her walk across a room could inflame the slow burn that was always present in him these days.

"It was probably the dancing that did it this time," he informed her, his lips seeking the delicate spot behind her ear. He liked the way she s.h.i.+vered a little when he kissed her there.

"The dancing that did what?" She closed her eyes and sighed softly as he stroked her back.

"That got me hot."

"We barely got out on the floor."

"Doesn't take much," he murmured. "Not where you're involved."

"Oh, Jed."

"Mmm." He felt the familiar exhilaration start to flow in his veins. Her response always intoxicated him.

Didn't she realize the extent of her power over him? Probably not, Jed decided. There was a s.e.xy innocence about her that she would possess when she was ninety-five. It was built into Amy and it captivated him.