Quick & Dangerous, page 5
“You’re Skyler McAllister. Born in France to Randall McAllister of Canada. I know your father died and left you money. I know you’re on the run and have been for quite some time. What I don’t know, and I’m hoping you’ll fill me in, is why. Why are you running? Who are you running from?”
Skyler pushed herself to her feet and backed away, fear and confusion seeping from every pore of her body. “Who. The. Fuck. Are. You?”
He closed his eyes. “I’m Roberto Cahill. Former Navy SEAL and now a private investigator.”
“Pierre Rubio sent you?” she whispered.
“No. Your brothers sent me.”
She laughed. “Now I know you’re lying. I don’t have any brothers.” She ran her hands through her hair and paced in the sand. “I knew I never should have let my guard down with you. I knew you were too good to be true. Fuck. I’ve been doing so well. And I had to let a pretty face and a nice ass get me killed.” She shrugged. “You going to kill me here, dispose of the body in the water? Or does Pierre want to finish the job himself?”
Rob could tell her bravado was all for show. The woman was absolutely terrified. She didn’t want to die. If she did, she would have given up a long time ago.
“I can tell you right now,” she continued. “Probably best to just get it over with, because I’ll put up a fight if you try to drag my ass back to France.” A slew of French poured from her lips. Most of it, he assumed, was expletives by the way she was spitting them out. For someone raised in France, her English was impeccable. Only once or twice had he detected even the faintest of lilts. He didn’t know where her mother was originally from, but perhaps her Canadian father, Randall McAllister, had stuck around enough to impress his Canadian accent on her.
She glared at him, her chest heaving, fists on her hips, mouth twisted in a pissed-off scowl.
He couldn’t stand. Couldn’t make himself bigger than her. He needed to remain on the ground, sitting and appearing nonthreatening. If he stood up and towered over her, the whole mission could blow up in his face.
“Come sit,” he said quietly, as one might speak to a spooked horse. “I’m not here to take you to Pierre. I don’t even know Pierre … personally. I’m telling you the truth. I’ve been sent by your brothers.”
She shook her head. “I don’t have any brothers.”
He patted the towel across from him. “You actually have three.”
Hope replaced some of the fear in her bright green eyes.
“You have a family. A big one. Nieces and nephews, sisters-in-law. The works.”
“H-how?”
“Your dad isn’t who you thought he was. The man led quite the life before he settled down with your mom and had you. I don’t know the whole story. But I do know he had three other children with three other women before he had you.”
“I have brothers?”
“Yes.”
“Where are they?”
“Right now, they’re all in Tahiti on the island of Moorea. They’re waiting for you. I’ve been following you for months only to keep hitting dead ends.” He smirked. “You’re good at hiding. Haven’t been given quite the runaround like this in a while.”
“Why are they there?”
“They’re billionaires and own resorts and shit,” he said, shaking his head and getting a touch frustrated at how off course they were getting.
“Billionaires …” she said with wonder.
“Yeah. Anyway, they only recently found out about you and have been searching for a while. Haven’t found much.”
“Because I deleted my existence,” she said matter-of-factly.
“You sure did.”
“How do I know you’re telling the truth? I know my dad … knew my dad. He wasn’t the type to keep brothers … siblings from me. He knew how badly I wanted a brother or sister. I’d begged him and my mom for years, but my mom wasn’t able to have any more after me.”
Rob’s heart hurt for her. The poor thing. Her world was about to come crashing down around her again, when she found out what kind of a deadbeat her dad really was. Knock ’em up, go out for diapers and never come back. She was lucky that she didn’t know the heartache of a dad walking out, a pain all of her brothers knew too well.
“Hmm?” she asked. “How do I know you’re not concocting this elaborate story about three billionaire brothers just to get me to trust you, to let my guard down? Come on, billionaires? Really?”
Figuring he’d have a struggle on his hands convincing her, he pulled out his phone. The woman was running for her life. She wasn’t going to trust easily. He got that. But he needed to prove to her he was one of the good guys.
He brought up Skype, punched in Tate’s name, then hit the call button. The squawk and warble of the connecting call broke the silence between them like a blade. Seconds later, Tate’s face appeared.
“What’s up?” he asked, holding his own phone away from his face to allow Gavin and Warren to fill up the screen as well.
“Here,” Rob said, holding out his phone to Skyler. “Meet your brothers.”
“It’s her?” he heard one of the brothers exclaim as Skyler took his phone.
“See for yourselves,” Rob called back before heading down toward the water to give the McAllisters—long-lost sister included—some privacy.
Chapter 6
Skyler
Skyler wiped the tears from her eyes as she stared into Rob’s phone. Three handsome men smiled back at her, all talking over one another as they said how happy they were to finally find her, that they couldn’t wait to meet her, and they’d make sure she was safe from whatever was haunting her.
Even if Rob hadn’t told her who they were, she would have known in her heart of hearts if any one of them had walked into the Smiling Manta dive shop that they were her brothers. Each, in his own distinctive way, looked so much like their father. She and Tate, the oldest brother, had their father’s green eyes, while Gavin and Warren had blue eyes but their father’s dark hair and longish nose. All three of them had his smile, though. That carefree, charismatic, could-sell-snow-to-a-polar-bear grin. Skyler loved her father’s smile. He was always so generous with it, offering a big grin and saying hello to anyone he walked past. She smiled at the memory of it and how his friendliness used to garner him some odd stares and curious glances as they walked down the streets of Paris.
Her dad used to joke, “You can take the Canadian out of Canada, but you can’t take the Canada out of the Canadian. I’ll say hello to whomever I please. And then I’ll say thank you, probably apologize for something and ask them who their favorite hockey team is.”
“You okay?” One of the blue-eyed brothers asked, his Aussie accent throwing her off. He looked the same age as her, but how was that possible? He’d introduced himself as Warren, the youngest of the three.
She nodded, swallowing the lump in her throat. “Just overwhelmed.”
“In a good way, though, right?” asked Gavin, the middle brother.
“Definitely in a good way.”
All three of them smiled.
“We can’t wait to meet you. The kids are so excited to meet their new auntie,” Tate said.
She blew out a breath. “Kids. Wow.”
“That’s right,” Warren said, “you have nieces and nephews.”
Skyler’s head spun. Less than fifteen minutes ago, she’d been an orphan. An only child on the run. Now, she had three older brothers and a Navy SEAL whose sole mission it was to collect her, keep her safe and bring her to her family.
“I know this is probably a lot to digest,” Tate said softly, giving her a sympathetic look. “But we can answer any questions you have once you’re here. We know you’re in danger and just want to get you safely to Moorea.”
“Why Moorea?” she asked. She’d never heard of the island. Rob had said it was in Tahiti and that her brothers owned “resorts and shit,” but she wanted to hear it from them.
“We own some real estate,” Tate said humbly. “You’ll be safe here. Safe with your family.”
“My family …” she murmured.
“We’re your family,” Gavin said solemnly.
“You can trust Rob,” Tate said. “He’s a good guy. We hired him to find you and bring you here.”
“But you’ve been giving him the runaround,” Warren said with an appreciative grin.
“An expensive runaround,” Gavin agreed.
Skyler bit her lip. “Sorry.”
All three flashed their father’s smile.
“Don’t be,” Tate said. “We’re just glad he finally found you. Money’s no object. Seriously. Your safety, however …”
“Is our main concern,” Warren finished.
The other two brothers nodded.
She just couldn’t believe it.
These were her brothers. They looked like her dad, spoke like her dad and even smiled like her dad. There was no denying it now. She wasn’t an only child.
Her wish had come true.
She had siblings.
She had a family.
“We’ll send a plane for you as soon as Rob gives word you’re on your way to Mataram,” Tate said.
Skyler nodded. She had dives booked. She had a job. Could she just up and leave?
Hasn’t stopped you before. You’ve abandoned a job and fled in the dead of night countless times.
“We understand if you have things you need to wrap up,” Tate said. “So just let us know when you need the plane.”
“Okay,” was all she could get out.
“We’re freaking you out, aren’t we?” Warren asked. “I get it. I was just like you when Tate found me and told me I had two brothers. It gets easier once we’re together.”
Skyler felt her cheeks get warm. “Thanks. I hope so.”
“We’ll let you go,” Tate said. “But keep in touch. Don’t hesitate to call us. If you need money or something, we can have it transferred in minutes. We just want to get you safely with your family.”
“Family,” Skyler said as she nodded for the umpteenth time. “Okay. Thanks.”
She glanced down to the edge of the water where Rob was mindlessly digging his toes into the wet sand. She made her way toward him. “They’re getting ready to go,” she said, holding out the phone.
His face was full of confusion as he took his phone from her. “Hey,” he said, looking at the screen.
“Take care of her,” Tate said.
Rob nodded. “Will do.”
“And thank you,” Warren added.
Rob nodded again, this time adding a manly grunt for good measure.
“We’ll see you soon,” Tate said, glancing at Skyler again, who was hanging off on the edge of the screen. She knew she needed to say goodbye; she was just struggling to process everything. How does one say goodbye to three brothers she’d just met?
Love you? Talk soon? Take care?
They all seemed wrong.
“Later, sis,” Tate said, drawing her attention back to the screen.
Rob held it out toward her so she was the only face visible on the camera. All three McAllister brothers were smiling back at her like they had been the entire conversation.
“Stay out of trouble,” Gavin said with a chuckle.
“Behave,” Warren added.
“Can’t wait to meet you in person,” Tate finished.
She took a deep breath through her nose and forced the corners of her mouth to curl up as she slowly let the air out through her lips. “Me too, guys. Can’t wait.”
Seconds later the screen went black, and Rob took his phone back.
She stood there in the sand stunned, staring at the water gently sloshing against her ankles.
“You okay?” Rob asked. His hand fell to the small of her back, and she felt herself moving up the beach back to their picnic.
Skyler nodded.
“You sure?”
“Yeah.”
“You believe me now?”
Robotically, she answered, “Yes.” It was unmistakeable that those three men were her father’s children. Her brothers. They looked so much like their father—her father, it was uncanny.
They sat down again, but she couldn’t eat.
“I know it’s probably overwhelming,” Rob said, having zero issues with his appetite and digging back into the mie goreng he’d ordered. The Barracuda made a mean fried noodle, but Skyler just wasn’t hungry.
“That’s an understatement,” she said blandly, not bothering to look at him but instead focusing her eyes out on the horizon and the sunset with its multitude of colors.
“Why don’t you start from the beginning?” he offered.
“What do you mean?”
“I mean tell me from start to finish why you’re on the run and who you’re on the run from. It might help ground you and settle everything else that’s going on in your head right now. Talk about what you do know, instead of fret about what you don’t.”
She nodded, still not bothering to look at him. At the moment, the horizon just seemed easier to talk to. She took a deep breath. “I was raised in Paris, as you know. My mother was American. She grew up in Maine. She followed a guy to France when she was fresh out of nursing school and craving adventure. She met my dad a few years later, after she’d broken up with the first guy. My dad was Canadian, older than her, but a very charming businessman who according to my mother swept her off her feet.”
“What kind of business was your father involved in?”
She wrinkled her nose. “I think importing and exporting, a lot of trade and stuff. He never really went into details about what he did, even though I asked on countless occasions. Both my parents spoke French, but we spoke English at home, as it was their native tongue.”
“Which explains why you speak it so perfectly.”
She smiled. “Except when I’m mad.”
His smile was drop-dead sexy. “Except when you’re mad. I did notice that.”
She huffed a breathy laugh, a small smile lifting one corner of her mouth. “Anyway, I had a pretty normal upbringing. Great parents. They worked a lot, but we never went without, and I always felt loved. My father died when I was sixteen. I didn’t get the notification about my inheritance until I was twenty-one, though. His lawyer and executor kept everything very hush-hush.”
“Must have been really hard on you and your mom?”
“It was. We were his family and yet kept completely out of the loop with regards to his will. Never could figure out why he did it like that. Devastated my mother.”
“Did he have life insurance?”
She brought her gaze slowly back to his face. “Yeah, a pretty decent plan, too. She ended up with a fair bit of money from that, but as for all those millions, she never saw a dime. She was especially hurt when she found out he left me ten million.”
Rob puffed his cheeks and let out a big breath, shaking his head. “That just doesn’t seem right.”
“Tell me about it.”
“I never did tell her about all the money. That even though my father left me ten million that he had a whole lot more left. I figured it would kill her.”
“Where did you think he left it?”
She scratched her head. “I honestly don’t know. A charity maybe?”
His executor didn’t have to tell her anything besides what was left to her, and he’d done just that. The man had been cold, formal and so-by-the-book that several times Skyler had wanted to snatch said book from him and chuck it at his head.
Perhaps she should have hacked into the computer system of her father’s executor and dug around a bit. Why hadn’t she thought to do that at the time?
Coulda shoulda woulda. There was no sense berating herself now. What was done was done. She had three brothers who Randall had left the other millions to. Three brothers her father had kept from her for her entire life.
Anger at her father and his secrets and lies burned like acid in her gut. It ate at her insides and made her whole body tremble with a rage she’d never felt before.
“When did you meet Petralia?” Rob’s voice shook her from her murderous fog. She blinked a few times and shook her head to clear the cobwebs. Her hands and fingers ached.
“Unclench your fists,” he whispered. “I know you’re mad. But there’s no sense getting angry at a dead guy. You’re going to meet your brothers soon and in no time, you’ll be making up for all the lost years.”
He reached over and took her hands, wedging his big, calloused thumb into her still bunched fists and gently popping her fingers out of her palm. Deep trenched from her fingernails marred her red palm and a dull ache thrummed in her fingers. With a kindness and ease she never would have expected from such a big force of a man, he massaged her fingers and hands until the circulation returned and the pain was no longer at the forefront.
Her heart rate returned to a less alarming pace and her breathing found its way back to normal.
He released her hands. She didn’t want him to.
“Better?” he asked.
With a swallow, she nodded. Embarrassed now for her little spectacle. Was that a panic attack? An anxiety attack? Was there such thing as a rage attack?
“We don’t have to continue with the story if its going to be too hard,” he offered, his light brown eyes, the same color as a cinnamon stick, held so much care she had to remind herself she’d only just met this man. She hardly knew him. Why did he care so much?
Right, the rest of the story … the nightmare. Her eyes drifted back out to the horizon. It was easier to speak about the last few horrible years of her life to the water, to the sky, to the vast nothingness, than to a man so unnerving as Roberto Cahill. She took a deep breath and continued, “I met Nico Petralia in what you Americans would call my sophomore year of college. We call it university, but as the locals say, same same. Nico was the son of a wealthy Greek shipping family. He moved to France to get some life experience before taking over the family business.”
“Which isn’t just shipping,” Rob said snidely.
She looked at him again. Worry sloshed in her belly. “I didn’t know that at the time. I was too in love.” Did Rob think she knew the Petralias were bad news before she started dating him? Did he think she was an accomplice in all this?
