LITMIR.BIZ

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top, he pulled her to a stop. He could feel the rigid anger in her body. Or perhaps it was fear.

      Was she afraid she’d be caught in the cross fire? He had proof of her complicity. Binelli wouldn’t be after her if she hadn’t double-crossed him. If she would double-cross someone like Binelli, why not a Customs agent?

      This time, when Kelly tried to move ahead, Nick tugged her back against him. “Not so fast.” His hand crept beneath her hair as he eased her more tightly against him with the hand still holding the automatic.

      He was suddenly very aware of the soft feel of her body touching his. “I’d hate to see anything happen to you, so don’t do anything foolish.” He dropped the hand holding the gun, allowing their bodies to hide the weapon.

      “Aunt Sarah?”

      Nick heard the shift of sheets. As light leaked from beneath the closed door, he eased back, taking Kelly with him. The door opened slowly.

      The woman was somewhere in her eighties. Her white hair hung in braids on either side of her face.

      “Has something happened, dear?”

      “Just a boat problem. Nothing serious. I hope you don’t mind if Nick uses the guest room?”

      “Of course not. Let me pull on a robe and I’ll help you freshen the linens.”

      “The sheets are fine.” Kelly offered a reassuring smile. “Go back to bed. I’ll take care of Nick. I just wanted you to know we were here in case you heard us moving around.”

      “If you are certain?”

      Kelly nodded. “I didn’t expect you back until tomorrow.”

      “I missed my kitties.”

      “Of course you did,” Kelly murmured. “Good night, then,”

      As soon as the door closed, Kelly faced Nick. “Unless you’re afraid of eighty-two-year-old women and what they might do to you in your bed, you should be satisfied now, Investigator.”

      When she shoved past him, he let her go.

      Kelly waited for him at the bottom of the steps. “The bedroom’s this way.” She led him through the kitchen, then down a cramped hall at the back of the house.

      “The bed isn’t the most comfortable,” she said as she opened a door.

      The glow of the small lamp she turned on seemed to mellow the scratched and dented surface of the brass headboard. A large crucifix hung in the shadows just above and reminded him of the one over his grandparents’ bed.

      On the opposite wall, a dresser stood, topped by a mirror.

      Except for the large, boldly done oil painting of a calico cat sitting in the sculptural shade beneath a tree, the room was dated and, Nick suspected, rarely used.

      Kelly switched on the ceiling fan before facing him, her expression grim. It was the first time he’d seen her in reasonably good lighting since leaving her at the hangar. A bruise darkened on her forehead near the scalp, a cut marred the left corner of her swollen lower lip.

      His gaze traveled lower still, to the closed jacket. He knew what it covered. “Maybe I should take a look?” Without asking, he pulled the zipper down.

      She stopped him. He could feel the tremor of her hands where they loosely wrapped his wrist. “No. I’ll do it later. It’s not as bad as it looks.”

      “So he just roughed you up?”

      After several long moments in which he sensed she fought to stay in control, she answered him, her voice so low he barely heard her. “If you’re asking if he raped me, no. He was too busy showing me what could be done with a steel blade and a burlap sack.”

      She lifted her eyes to his and, making no move to cover herself, seemed to almost invite his gaze.

      Her words, the added details, made what she’d gone through that much more real for him. Though he tried not to, he envisioned the attack, the sack covering her head, a knife pressed to her throat. The anger came, as he’d known it would. Maybe even as she’d known it would.

      The blood on her blouse had long ago dried, as had the dark circles the psychotic bastard had drawn on the material covering her breasts, but the cut at her collarbone still seeped.

      The most intense wound, though, shone in her eyes. She’d been terrorized, and even now he suspected the assault played over and over and over in her head like a gritty film clip.

      Nick forced himself to look away. He’d keep her safe. For tonight. For longer if she’d let him, but he was afraid she wouldn’t. Maybe he could convince her to turn herself in, turn state’s evidence against Binelli.

      “I’m sorry,” he murmured and, lowering his hands, stepped back. Now wasn’t the time to think about the future. Right now he needed to focus on their immediate survival.

      “I dropped my phone back at the hotel. Do you carry a cell or does your aunt have one I can use?”

      “Battery is dead on mine. There’s a pay phone two blocks over. Occasionally it even works.”

      “No good. Too risky.”

      “The dive shop has one. Rod’s a good friend. He usually opens early.”

      Nick nodded.

      “In the meantime,” she said, “we should take care of your leg.”

      “Maybe we should talk first. About what you know. And exactly what it is Binelli wants back.”

      “I’ll say it one more time. I don’t know Binelli.”

      Nick rubbed his face. “You expect me to believe a criminal intelligent enough to run an operation the size of his, breaking every law on the books without leaving enough evidence for any government agency to get him off the street, doesn’t know who works for him?”

      Kelly’s chin edged up. “Do I expect you to believe it? No. I don’t even believe it.” She arched a brow. “But it’s true.”

      Nick shifted to ease the ache in his leg. “That’s bull!”

      “Okay, Nick, what evidence do you have linking me to Binelli? More photos?”

      “For starters.”

      “That’s not possible.”

      “Isn’t it?” he asked. “Since February, Binelli’s attorney has been using your airline on a weekly basis, always flying into Marsh Harbor on Fridays, back out on Sundays.”

      “Jeff Myers is Binelli’s attorney?”

      With one brow raised, he offered a hard smile. “You want me to believe you didn’t know that?”

      “The only thing Jeff Myers is to me is a fare. As far as his frequent trips, he claimed he had a boat over here. Liked to dive. I didn’t believe him, of course.”

      “Why?”

      “It’s hard to spend any time on a boat without getting a suntan, or at least a burn.”

      “Then what did you think he was doing on all those trips?”

      “Actually, I didn’t much care. But if I thought anything, I suppose I figured he had a boyfriend over here and that whatever he was doing was none of my damned business.” She crossed her arms. “What else, Nick?”

      “Past history, of course.”

      “That would play a prominent role. Do I need to remind you once more that I was never tried in a court of law, never found guilty of anything?”

      “Doesn’t make you innocent. Where did the extra fifty thousand in your account last month come from?”

      Her eyes narrowed. He’d hoped to surprise her, and perhaps he had. But there was no way for him to be certain.

      “Ben,”

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