Risky Desires (Wolf Security Book 2), page 25
“You got that right.” Folding my arms, I leaned my back against one of the Pandanus palm branches and positioned myself so Tyler blocked most of my view of Briggs.
Tyler crouched over his battered body, and I cringed as he fished into the dead man’s tactical vest pockets. He turned to me. “Here.”
He tossed two protein bars my way.
“Hell, yes.” I yanked open a packet with my teeth and took a massive bite.
“Got a phone.” Tyler stepped away from the body but as he strode toward me, my moment of joy plummeted. The phone screen was cracked.
To my surprise, the screen lit up.
Tyler held the phone up, searching for a signal. “Damn, only one bar.”
I peered over his shoulder, watching the weak bar of reception to see if it got better.
“Only thirteen percent battery left,” he said. “Hopefully, that’s enough for one call.”
“Yeah, but it’s locked.”
Tyler marched back to Briggs and pressed the dead man’s broken finger to the screen. “Not anymore.”
“Gross, but clever.” I smirked.
"Survival doesn’t have room for squeamishness.”
“Huh. Remind me not to use fingerprint security for my phone.”
He chuckled. “Come on, let’s see if there’s a better signal on the beach.”
As we made a beeline for the ocean we could hear through the vegetation, Tyler devoured the second protein bar.
The sand was barely three feet wide and flanked by crashing waves and dense bush. It was beautiful and secluded, perfect for anyone wanting a romantic getaway, but this island was in the middle of nowhere. Anyone coming out this far would need a decent-sized fuel capacity, and that eliminated most pleasure motorboats.
Standing in the middle of the beach, Tyler made a phone call, and his back was rigid with tension as he held the phone to his ear. “Captain, it’s Tyler Kingsley.”
Relief washed through me as I heard shouts from the other end of the phone, but I couldn’t decipher the words.
“Yes, sir, we’re fine. Indiana is with me, but her dad was murdered. Listen, I don’t have time to explain. We are on a deserted island.” He spun to me. “Do you know the name of this island?”
“It’s Wombat Island. We’re on the eastern side.”
He relayed our position.
I could only hear half the conversation, but it was enough to send my heart racing.
“Captain, we were attacked by a drone.”
“What the fuck!” His captain was so loud, I heard him.
Tyler gave a summary of the explosion on Rhino, my boat sinking, and how we managed to get to this island. “We need immediate evac, sir, before the bastard behind that drone sends in more assholes to kill us.”
Tyler looked like he was seeing right through me as he squeezed the shattered screen to his ear to hear the voice on the other end.
“Understood,” Tyler said, nodding.
He ended the call, checked the screen, possibly to assess the battery life, then his eyes met mine. There was something raw and exposed in that gaze.
“It’s not good,” he said. “Levi still isn’t available, and the border force boat is still out of action. He’s contacting Aria and Air/Sea rescue and putting out a mayday call.”
“Shit. Then let’s hope the good guys find us first.”
“Agreed.” He turned his attention toward the ocean, and I followed his gaze.
All my life, the ocean has been my haven. Now, it was working against me. I had a rotten feeling that lack of drinking water was the least of our worries.
We found a shady patch at the edge of the tree line, and I collapsed into the warm sand without grace. Tyler sank down beside me, and we both sagged with fatigue as we sat in silence, watching the waves crash into the shore.
I leaned against the rough bark of a palm tree, and its shadow was a perfect palm shape on the sand a few feet away. Tyler sat against another tree and his eyes fixed on the horizon. Grit stuck to my skin and salt-crusted my lips.
Tyler tugged the device from his pocket, and as he placed it onto a massive fallen palm leaf next to him along with the phone, I noticed the nasty circular scar behind his ear.
He pulled his half-empty water bottle out of his other pocket and offered it to me.
“You still have water?” My eyes bulged. “I finished mine ages ago.”
“It’s all yours.”
My dry throat forced me to take the bottle. I drank one mouthful, and the tepid water was a balm for my parched throat. I passed the bottle back to him, and without drinking, he rested it on the leaf next to the phone.
Time stretched endlessly, and as the sun dipped lower behind the rock island at our backs, shadows lengthened along the beach. I was torn between being pissed off that Tyler didn’t open up to me like he promised and being too damn tired to care.
Hunger pains rumbled from my insides and blended with the crashing waves and the distant cry of seagulls that raced back and forth in time with the swell. I removed my booties, tipped the water out, and rested them upside down against a skull-sized rock.
“Indiana,” he said, breaking the quiet, “if I tell you about Operation Vivid, I could be putting your life at risk.”
“I know. You told me.” I dug my toes into the sand. “I never got anywhere without taking a risk, Kingsley.”
He shifted in his seat so he could share those stunning eyes of his between me and the ocean. “I was an undercover cop for three years in Melbourne. It was supposed to be a straightforward six-month assignment.”
“Nothing’s ever straightforward.”
“No. That’s true.” He huffed. “I was good at my job.”
“You still are.”
“Many would disagree.” He scanned the beach. “Look at where we are.”
“We’re alive, aren’t we?”
“Will you let me tell this?”
“Sorry.”
He chuckled, but then a hardness crossed his expression. “I witnessed some things that I can’t tell you about . . . and because of the way I handled myself, I was able to go deeper undercover.”
I tried to picture the swanky-dressed detective that I’d first met getting down and dirty as an undercover cop.
“A year into Operation Vivid, I became the personal driver for one of Australia’s most notorious criminal families. When I wasn’t driving Albert around, I drove his wife to her appointments and their boys to school and their other activities.” His hand draped over the cigar burn, and I braced for the gruesome story behind that brutal wound.
“The boys, Wesley and Owen, were twins. They were thirteen when I first met them. Man, those kids were brats.” Heaving a sigh, he shook his head. “But they were just trying to get attention. Their father . . . he—”
Tyler’s face twisted, and I thought he was going to vomit.
He pulled his knees up to his chest as if silently telling me to keep my distance while he got this story out. “I witnessed seven murders by that man. Every one of them was cold and calculated.”
He stared at the ocean, but I knew it wasn’t the vast blue he was seeing.
Hopefully, revealing this story would help him in some way. I wanted to tell him that I knew exactly what it was like to re-live witnessing a murder over and over, but he didn’t need to hear that from me right now.
“I thought their mother was a cold and calculating bitch, but she wasn’t. Nikki was trapped in a world she could never escape from. She kept up a façade to keep herself and her sons alive, when, really, she was drowning in self-loathing . . . she was a functioning alcoholic.”
He swept his gaze to me and frowned like a piece in a puzzle slotted together.
Our puzzle. Our pieces.
I nodded. “Dad did the same.”
Tyler ran his palms up his thighs, and grains of sand caught on the hairs on his legs.
“It took me three years to get all the pieces of Operation Vivid together, and I finally had concrete evidence of a shipping container full of drugs and weapons coming in.” He closed his eyes and inhaled. “The showdown was at a giant warehouse. Every man we’d been tracking was there. A big raid was organized, but I was instructed to stay away to keep my undercover identity intact. Just in case there were some loose ends that needed tidying up. But I wanted to be there when those fucking bastards were taken down. I wanted to see their faces, you know.”
“Yeah, I do know.” I clenched my jaw. “I would have given anything to be there when Dad killed the bastards who murdered Mom.”
“I was supposed to take Wesley and Owen to boxing class and make everything seem normal, but I deviated to the warehouse instead. It was stupid, but I couldn’t stop myself. I wanted to see an end to my years of work.”
He dug his thumb into the dimple in his chin then clenched his fist. “I parked the car in a side street and told the boys to stay put until I got back. I talked a police officer, Ebony, into letting me in on the action, and she gave me a police vest.”
He drove his hand through his hair. “It was madness, Indy. Bullets flying. Police yelling. Men dying. Then, Wesley appeared out of nowhere. I have no idea where he got his gun from, but he didn’t even flinch when he raised that Glock and shot me in my lower back.”
I winced as his hand brushed over the raised circular scar on his back.
“I rolled over and tried to reason with Wesley.” Tyler rubbed his hand over his second bullet wound on his chest. “He shot me here. I begged him to walk away. Begged him. When Wesley raised the gun again, I shot him in the stomach.”
Tyler put his hands over his eyes and puffed out his cheeks.
“Oh, Tyler. That’s awful.”
“I crawled to him and pulled him onto my lap, trying to stop the blood pouring out of him. Do you know what his last words to me were?” His blue eyes pierced me.
I shook my head.
“He said, you’re a cop. Like I was the worst vermin in the world. Then he tried to spit on me, but it oozed over his lip instead and he died.”
The sadness in his eyes crushed my heart.
“I loved that kid, but I couldn’t say that to him.”
I nodded. I couldn’t remember the last time I told Dad I loved him.
“The worst part was that Nikki saw me kill her son. I didn’t even know she was in the warehouse. Nikki got her arm around Ebony’s throat and used her body as a shield. I managed to get to my feet and aimed my gun at Nikki, begging her to let Ebony go. There was so much hatred in her eyes.”
He turned to me with his mouth ajar like there was something truly rotten he had to tell me, but it was chewing up his insides so much he couldn’t say it.
Tiny spider veins crept into the whites of his eyes, and I knew he was fighting his tears.
I slipped over to him and clutched his hand in mine. “What happened?”
He swallowed so loud I heard it. “Nikki slit Ebony’s throat.”
He squeezed his eyes shut, and a tear spilled down his cheek.
“Oh, Tyler, it’s not your fault.”
Sucking his lips into his mouth, he nodded. It was a long agonizing moment before he sucked in a breath. “That’s what everyone has told me, but if I’d just stayed away . . .”
“You couldn’t have known what would happen. Just like Dad didn’t know what would happen to Mom.”
A frown drilled across his forehead. “At least your dad got his justice. Blood splatter evidence proved that my bullet hit Nikki, but she got away, and both her and Owen vanished into thin air. That was two years ago.”
“Maybe she died?”
“I don’t think so. I can feel . . .” He shook his head.
“What can you feel?”
He curled his hand over my knee, and it was so tender I nearly wept, but when he looked at me, the raw pain in his piercing blue eyes made me hold my breath instead.
“Nobody prepares you for ghosts.” His voice was barely a whisper.
I sucked in the air. “I see Mom’s ghost, Tyler. All the time. I know what you’re talking about.”
He shook his head. “This is—” His head jerked forward, and he jumped to his feet. “A boat!”
I surged to my feet, and the rocky sand dug into my instep.
Grabbing my hand, he dragged me behind the tree. Peering over his shoulder, I stared at the glint on the water as the boat emerged from the shimmering horizon.
“A rescue party?” Tyler’s breath hissed with uncertainty.
“Can’t tell,” I said. As the vessel drew closer, my heart stuttered. “Son of a bitch! That’s Kane fucking Devlin.”
CHAPTER 26
Indiana
Tyler’s brows knitted together as if he were piecing evidence into place. “Isn’t that the guy whose boat you set on fire?”
I groaned. “That was an accident.”
Tyler returned his gaze to Kane’s massive yacht, which had released its anchor offshore. “This should be interesting.”
As a rubber dinghy carved a white path through the blue toward us, I said, “Kane’s a lying, sneaky bastard, Tyler. Don’t believe a word he says.”
“Copy that.” Tyler rubbed the stubble on his chin. “That won’t be hard. There aren’t too many people in this town I do trust.”
Standing with our ankles in the tumbling waves, we stood side by side, watching the boat approach. As the humming engine grew louder, my heartbeat thumped in my ears.
The boat slowed to a crawl, and the hull squeaked as Kane drove it right against the sand. Kane jumped off the raft, landing with the grace that always irked me.
“Indiana, babe, what a surprise,” he drawled with his cocky smirk that pissed me right off.
“Cut the crap, Kane,” I shot back, unable to keep the venom out of my voice. “Just get us out of here.”
“Tyler Kingsley,” Tyler interrupted, stepping forward and offering his hand. “Thanks for getting here so fast.”
“Kane Devlin.” He shook Tyler’s hand but grinned at me. “But I’m sure Indy has already filled you in on me.”
“Not really.” Tyler glared at me, maybe trying to tell me to be nice to the man who was saving us.
“How did you get stuck all the way out here?” Kane adjusted his mirrored glasses on his nose.
“It’s a long story.” Tyler was being so civil to the lying bastard that I wanted to scream.
Instead, I climbed onto the raft and faced his boat.
Tyler came to the side, and as he pushed the raft off the sand, he whispered, “Just keep it civil. This will be over in no time.”
Kane started the engine again, and as we motored toward his yacht, I tried to simmer my thumping heartbeat.
The dinghy slapped against the polished hull of Kane’s yacht, and we boarded the sleek vessel. Tyler’s steady hand on my back was the only thing stopping my world from tilting off its axis.
“Welcome aboard the Devil’s Fortune,” Kane said as he tied the raft to his yacht.
“Asshole’s Fortune, you mean,” I muttered.
“Nice boat,” Tyler commented, and then whispered in my ear, “Shush.”
“Isn’t she?” Kane beamed. “Okay, follow me. I’m guessing you two could use a drink.”
We followed Kane up a set of stairs and across a deck bathed in sunshine to the undercover seating area that I’d set on fire. There was absolutely no sign of the damage I’d caused.
“You been renovating?” I smirked.
Raising his glasses onto his head, Kane glared at me, showing his true colors. “You’re stunt cost me a fortune.”
The salty sting of the ocean air mingled with the anger burning in my chest. “It was an accident, but you still had me arrested. Bastard.”
“Your flare caught Border Force’s attention, not me.” He leaned his back against the wall and folded his arms in a smug stance that made me want to rip out his throat. “Did you set fire to Rhino, too? I always knew your anger would—”
Tyler marched to him, gripped Kane by the shirt, and slammed his back against the wall.
My heart thundered. No man had ever defended me like that.
Holy smokes . . . that was sexy.
Tyler got right into Kane’s face. “We were attacked. Indiana’s father was murdered, Rhino exploded and sank, and Indy lost every fucking thing she owns.” He gave Kane another shove, then stepped back. “Now shut up and get the engines going. We need to get out of here before the bastard who ripped Rhino to shreds comes back.”
His tone was low and dangerous.
“Indy, is that right?” The tenderness in Kane’s voice yanked me back ten years, and I hated that I remembered.
“Yeah. I bet you get a kick out of that, too.”
The humor vanished from Kane’s eyes. “Oh fuck, Indy. I’m sorry. I didn’t know. Truly. Old Smithy was a good man. I’m really sorry to hear he’s gone.”
I turned away, refusing to let him see my stupid tears.
“Listen,” Tyler said, “we need to get out of here. And we could really use a drink.”
Kane rubbed his hands down his thighs. “What would you like? Scotch, rum, coffee, water?”
“Indy?” Tyler asked.
“Water,” I said, lowering my gaze to my leg that wouldn’t stop jiggling and staring at my jagged scars.
“Coffee for me. I’ll come help you.” Tyler pressed his hand onto my shoulder. “Have a rest. I’ll be back in a sec.”
The engines started and unlike Rhino, Kane’s boat kicked into gear without the entire deck rattling. As the wind whipped my hair across my face, I ran my hand over the scars on my thigh. It was all I had left. Scars and rotten memories. Images of Mom swept across my mind: her beautiful smile when she braided my hair, the terror in her eyes when she plunged into the water beside me, her golden locket.
“Oh fuck!”
Her gold locket!
I raced to the railing and searched for Wombat Island, but it was already a dot in the distance.
Tyler returned to me wearing a change of clothes and carrying a glass of water and a packet of chocolate chip cookies. “What’s wrong?”
My chin quivered. “Mom’s locket. I left it in my wetsuit, and that’s on that stupid beach back there.”
