Loe raamatut: «Dare To Love»

1

TEARS STUNG her eyes. Kai blinked them back and compressed her full lips to halt the threatening deluge.

“What’s the matter, Kai? Can’t you take a little good-natured ribbing?” her half brother drawled. He leaned against the door and watched her through hooded eyes. “Are we too good for you? You’ve been on Christmas leave exactly one day, and you’re already trying to escape.”

She walked out on the red brick patio, which was enclosed by a huge wrought-iron fence that guarded the multimillion-dollar house. True to form, Frank was beginning to needle her unmercifully.

“I know you find jogging a boring, plebeian pastime, Frank, but I enjoy it. And I’m not running away from anything,” she muttered, crouching to tighten one shoelace that looked suspiciously loose. Her green eyes glittered with hurt as she avoided Frank’s amused gaze. Why did it always stun her that he enjoyed torturing her with his carefully veiled barbs that appeared on the surface to be sibling teasing? Or reminding her that she was the major heir to her father’s massive oil wealth? Because, her mind railed, Frank and his two sisters, Susan and Audra, wanted it all. Well, money was only a means to an end, not a god as they worshipped it. She longed for the days before her father had wildcatted his way to this incredible wealth. Since then, money had been a constant reminder of interfamily greed and jealousy, which festered around her whenever she came home.

“Most rich women wouldn’t dream of working up a sweat.” Frank grinned. “At least you and Susan have jogging in common. She does it to keep svelte, and you do it to get away from our wonderful family atmosphere. Or do you jog just to show everyone that you’re one of ‘them’ and not one of us? A hardworking, white-collar type who picks up a paycheck every two weeks. Prejudice in reverse. God, Kai, I’m glad you come home for Christmas every year. You break up the monotony of my existence.”

She wanted to be as insensitive and cruel as Frank. He was three years younger than her own twenty-nine, and he had the emotional maturity of a three-year-old. Still, Kai was grateful to Susan for allowing her to borrow one of her jogging outfits. It was one of the few civil gestures she had bestowed on her half sister. Kai had disdained the designer suits Susan now wore in favor of a very old, worn pair of gray sweat pants and teal blue top.

It was raining. Normally Susan would have joined her for her daily three-mile trek through Royal Oaks. But not today. No, Susan hated getting wet. So Kai would take her normal route. She slowly rosé and slipped a red sweatband around her forehead. Turning, she looked out over the Royal Oaks section of Houston. It had become a meeting ground, where the old rich and the new rich rubbed elbows and lived. A mist was beginning to fall from the gray sky. Grimly she swung her attention back to Frank.

“If it wasn’t for seeing my dad, I wouldn’t bother coming down here to be the entertainment for you, Frank.” He was the least tolerable of her father’s second family. Susan was a snob. And Audra had some face-saving humanity that came to the surface in moments of weakness. Kai smiled to herself. Well, at least her father had found a sliver of happiness the second time around with Vera. And that was what counted. So Kai gritted her teeth to endure Vera’s three very spoiled children from her first marriage.

Frank’s laugh was low and taunting. “Ah, but loyal, responsible Kai has to come. You’re like that watch Paul gave you last night, Kai—predictable, stable and forever reliable.” He gazed up at the leaden sky, and an amused look lingered on his long face. “Didn’t you know the rich melt when they get rained on? Susan thinks you’re crazy.”

Kai quelled her tormented emotions. “Are you implying that we white- and blue-collar workers don’t care if we get wet?”

Frank studied the carefully manicured fingers on his soft hands. “You hit the nail on the head. Sweat or rain. What’s the difference? Both make us look disheveled.”

“Speak for yourself,” she growled. “I like good, honest sweat. I like earning a living, too.”

“You aren’t getting rich on that nursing paycheck you bring in twice a month.”

Kai swallowed a torrent of comments that would be appropriate for Frank’s needling, but that she felt were beneath her. “I consider myself rich in other ways, Frank. Ways that money could never buy. Besides, I don’t think you really care what happens to me.”

He shrugged, giving her an appreciative look. Kai was tall, well-proportioned with an inbred grace that reminded him of a ballerina. She looked positively grotesque in that set of baggy gray sweat pants and bulky shirt. Only her richly colored auburn hair, which had been captured and tamed into a ponytail, gave any contrast to the drab outfit. She looked a bit like Susan in that moment, although his sister was decidedly more beautiful.

Frank brightened as he perused Kai’s face. There were her glorious green eyes flecked with gold. And her mouth. Oh, yes, her mouth. Why hadn’t she ever married? Grudgingly he admitted she was a stunning-looking woman. Although not as pretty as his sleekly bred sisters, Kai had an unusual face that complemented her flawed attractiveness in a unique and arresting way. He would have to pursue the topic, at a later date, of why she wasn’t yet married. During breakfast, perhaps, when everyone would be present…. She always squirmed when he put her under his sights at family gatherings.

“Well, don’t be long. You know father wants you back here in time for the official ‘Welcome Home, Kai, Breakfast’ at ten.”

Kai pushed her wispy bangs out of her eyes, glancing at the watch on her wrist. It was eight-thirty. She opened the gate and then locked it with a key that she deposited in her pants’ pocket. “Three miles takes twenty-five minutes, Frank. I’ll be back in plenty of time.”

He grinned and watched her from between the wrought-iron grillwork. “Wouldn’t want you to miss your homecoming, darling.”

Kai refused to expend a glare on him. “Somehow, ‘darling,’ if I dropped over dead today, I suspect you’d celebrate.”

“That’s unkind, Kai.”

She held on to the anger that warred with the simultaneous urge to cry. She detested Frank’s continual sarcasm. “The truth always hurts,” she replied. With that, she started off at a lope down the wet, deserted sidewalk. Why did she even bother coming home? Christmas would be in three weeks, and she’d have to endure the Holts until after the holiday. Then she could escape to the serenity of her father’s Del Rio ranch for the last week of her military leave.

Hitting stride, Kai glanced down at the Rolex. It had been a gift from her father, a twenty-five-hundred-dollar gift, Susan had cattily informed her. Recently Kai had broken her other watch at the hospital. For a moment she stared down at the fourteen-carat gold and stainless steel. Her father had given it to her because of her nursing duties. Didn’t a nurse always have a reliable, practical watch? Paul had asked, smiling. A slight warmth buoyed Kai’s sagging spirits: Rolex put out another model of the same type that was made entirely of fourteen-carat gold. Her father had had the wisdom and insight to realize she wouldn’t have accepted a gift that was such an obvious symbol of wealth. Of course, Frank and his sisters would have wanted nothing less than the most expensive model. And then it would have been merely a bauble, something to coo over, flaunt and wear for a week before becoming bored with. Kai would wear this watch forever….

Grimly she bent her head as the rain began coming down more heavily. She would be soaked by the time she returned home, but she preferred the fresh air and cleansing rain to Frank’s torment.

After the first mile she was thoroughly warmed up, her legs loosened, her heart beating a strong, steady rhythm in her breast. Running was an exhilarating lift, and Kai raised her head and challenged the slash of raindrops while a smile played on her parted lips. This was a little slice of heaven!

The irritating honk of a horn intruded on her glorious reverie. Kai pulled her scattered thoughts together and looked to her left, slowing to a walk. A dark olive-green van pulled up beside her. The driver, a heavily built man, rolled down the window and gave her an apologetic smile.

“Excuse me, but we’re trying to find Westheimer Avenue. We’re new to the Houston area.” He pulled the map toward Kai as his companion handed it to him. “Could you tell us where it’s at, miss?” He unfolded the bulky map as she walked across the strip of grass to the curb. Kai leaned over, studying it intently. Finally she found the street and traced the route with her wet, slender finger.

“Sure,” she gasped, “you’re on Maconda right now, and—” She felt a sharp, stinging sensation in her right thigh and became vaguely aware that a man stood nearby. Kai blinked and straightened, her hand automatically moving to her leg. She heard the driver snarl an order. The world tilted. She frowned. What was going on? Danger! her instincts screamed. Kai tried to take a step away from the man hovering close by, but her legs refused to obey her. She gave the driver a puzzled look. He was grinning tightly, watching her as a cat would its intended prey. A small cry escaped her as she felt her knees begin to buckle.

Before blackness swallowed her, Kai saw another man emerging from the van, his face set. It was the expression in his gray eyes that registered on her spinning senses. He looked grim, his mouth molded into a hard, flat line. But his eyes broadcast a silent concern and unspoken terror for her just as she lost consciousness….

* * *

THE COLDNESS and shock of water being thrown on her face revived her. She groaned, dimly aware that her hands were tied tightly behind her. Pain was the first feeling to register in her drugged brain. The warmth trickling down her wrists toward her fingers could only be blood.

“Come on, rich bitch. Wake up!”

More water was thrown on her, and Kai struggled to gain a foothold on consciousness. She forced her eyes half-open. The nakedness of the solitary light bulb suspended from the ceiling made the grimy plywood walls seem surrealistic. She winced from the strong glare. She was a nurse, and she knew that something was desperately wrong with her. Nothing would come into focus. Voices were distorted as if they were bouncing in an echo chamber. Nausea threatened to engulf her, but she forced herself to concentrate on her current condition.

Kai was lying on her side with a wiry wool blanket beneath her. It was a bunk of some sort or a makeshift bed that she was lying on. Kai saw the legs of the two men, who were standing very close to the bed. Panic began to seep through her dulled state.

“Hey!” a man with black hair and dark brown eyes snapped. He leaned over, gripping her shoulder in a viselike hold. He gave her a shake that made her feel as if her neck would snap off. “I said wake up! Now if you know what’s good for you.”

“Easy, Bennie,” the second man cautioned. “You heard Taylor. He don’t want no rough stuff with the broad. She’s gotta be left in good condition.”

“To hell with Taylor. He’s Garcia’s boy, not mine.”

“Yeah, well Garcia is runnin’ this operation, Boyce. He put Taylor in charge, not you.”

Boyce grinned, running his hand down her wet arm, allowing it to come to rest on the long curve of her thigh. He squeezed her leg with his splayed fingers. “This ain’t hurtin’ her, Wright. Is it, honey?”

Kai felt his strong, cruel fingers massaging her thigh. Sheer terror coursed through her. She couldn’t even lash out, since her ankles were securely bound. Stiffening, she screamed weakly, but only a muffled protest was audible. The gag they had placed in her mouth was so tight that she was beginning to drown in her own saliva. Her eyes enlarged, Kai shrank back against the wall, trying to find escape. The door was jerked open, and the shadow of a third man loomed over Kai.

“Get your hands off the merchandise, Boyce.”

Boyce slowly straightened and removed his hand. “Ah, come on Taylor, ease up. I was only having a little fun.”

Kai sobbed, tears streaking down her pale, drawn face. Her vision was blurry, but she recognized those same gray eyes. Eyes that now sought her out. Trembling violently, Kai gave him a pleading look for help.

Taylor glared at the two men. “Get out. Both of you.”

“But—”

“I told you to untie her, Boyce, and make sure she was kept warm.”

“Well,” he growled, “we were gettin’ around to that.”

Taylor jerked his head. “Get the hell out there and keep watch. We don’t need any nosy security guards dropping in on us unexpectedly.”

Kai closed her eyes, barely able to maintain a thread of coherent thought. She heard the door slam shut. Moments later she felt his hand on her. Automatically she shrank from his touch, her eyes wide with terror.

He scowled, his dark brown brows dipping as he leaned over her. “I won’t hurt you.”

In seconds he had released the gag, and threw it with disgust on the dusty wooden floor. His touch remained gentle as he ordered Kai to roll over onto her stomach so that he could untie her hands.

“Damn,” he muttered.

Kai clenched her teeth. No matter how careful he was in releasing the biting ropes that bound her wrists, that wasn’t careful enough. Tears of pain squeezed from beneath her tightly shut eyes. Her wildly beating heart began to calm. Just his presence assuaged some of her fear. Who was he? Why wasn’t he like the other two? Oh, my God, Kai thought disjointedly, who are they? What do they want? The last rope gave way; suddenly her numbed, cramped arms were free. They fell to her sides as if she were a rag doll. Pain soared upward through her extremities, and Kai felt blackness engulfing her once again. Just the thought that the stranger named Taylor was nearby gave her solace as she slipped over the welcome edge of oblivion and escaped the living nightmare….

Matt knelt down beside the bunk, his hand resting protectively on the damp shoulder of her sweat shirt. She had fainted. Compressing his lips, he pushed several strands of auburn hair away from her tear-stained cheek. Dammit, this shouldn’t have happened. He knew little about Boyce except that the ex-con had a history of sexual assault. He had fought unsuccessfully to keep him off the kidnapping, but Garcia had insisted. Matt’s gray eyes narrowed. Garcia, he reminded himself. This is the last step in getting to Garcia…. As his gaze settled on her wrists, Matt winced. Boyce needn’t have trussed her like an animal.

Getting to his feet, Matt looked around the small, squalid room. There was one dusty blanket on the bunk. The room smelled musty. What unused warehouse wouldn’t? Worriedly he shifted his concern back to the woman. Had she fainted from pain or from the drug? It shouldn’t be the drug. She ought to be recovering from the effects of it by now. He leaned down, placing his fingers along the exposed part of her slender neck to check the pulse at the carotid-artery point.

His frown deepened; her pulse was rapid and weak. Her skin was clammy, small beads of perspiration dotted her forehead and upper lip. Cursing silently, Matt straightened up. Was this a drug reaction? Either Boyce had shot her up with too much of it, or she was allergic. Either way, she could end up dead. He studied her tense, drawn features, and his heart wrenched unexpectedly in his chest. She was attractive in an unusual way. Shaking himself, Matt continued to stare down at her. They had just successfully kidnapped the daughter of one of the richest oil tycoons in Houston. And the woman was affecting him in a way he never would have expected.

Angry with Boyce and disgruntled by rampant feelings Matt thought had died within him long ago, he quietly left the room. But not before shedding his own jacket and placing it across Kai’s shoulders in an effort to keep her warm.

* * *

FORTY MINUTES LATER Matt reentered the room with another blanket and a small sack of supplies. Exhaustion shadowed his gray eyes as he covered her with the blanket. Guilt plunged through him. She had curled up into a tight fetal position for protection. Tucking the blanket around her body, he felt the pulse at the base of her neck again. This time it wasn’t so jumpy. That was a good sign.

As gently as possible, Matt brought her arm up to examine it. There had been no reason to mar her flesh. Her skin was smooth, reminding him of the velvet quality of a ripe peach. Reaching down, he pulled out a bottle of antiseptic, some cotton and gauze from the sack at his feet.

Kai moaned. She had felt someone’s hand on her lower arm. Nausea brought her back to consciousness. Drowsily she forced open her eyes. She looked up only to meet his concerned pewter gaze. A rush of warmth flowed through her, and immediately Kai relaxed. She was safe with him. Though she opened her mouth to speak, only a croak came out.

His gaze grew more intense as he studied her in those heart-stopping seconds. “Water?”

Kai gave a weak nod of her head. Why did her body feel as if she’d been in an accident? She was vaguely aware of Taylor as he changed his position and gently gathered her into his arms. Kai’s head lolled against the hard, well-muscled wall of his chest. She felt as if she had sawdust in place of her bones.

“You’re weak,” he cautioned her, supporting her so that he could maneuver the paper cup to her parted lips.

Kai was conscious of his strong, slow heartbeat. It gave her a sense of stability. Eagerly she consumed four cups of water before her thirst was quenched. She felt his hand tremble as he awkwardly caressed her hair in a gesture meant to give her some comfort. Her mind told her she should remain on guard, and she stiffened in his embrace. He smelled of rain, and that combined with the masculine scent of his body was like a perfume to her reawakening senses. She saw the corners of his sensual mouth curve slightly upward.

“More?”

His voice vibrated through her, telling Kai this man was different from his companions. She groped to understand why he was being kind. And yet, he was her captor.

“N-no.”

“How are you feeling?”

“Awful….”

He carefully placed her back on the bed. “They shot you up with too much of the drug,” he said as he briskly placed the blankets over her once again. He lifted her arm and rested it across his thigh so that he could cleanse the rope wound.

Kai licked her lips and forced her jigsaw thoughts into some semblance of order. “Please, what’s going on here? Where am I?”

She stared up at him, her vision continuing to improve. His face was somewhat narrow. There was an intensity to his handsomeness. It showed in his well-placed cheekbones, which gave his face breadth. She saw his mouth tighten when she asked the questions. His nose had been broken, her nurse’s observation told her—at least twice. He glanced up briefly from his duties, and Kai detected a haunted expression in his eyes before he veiled it. She tensed then.

Matt froze, realizing he must have hurt her. “Sorry,” he said gruffly, “but these cuts have to be cleaned.”

Kai avoided his stare. “I’ll try to be braver.”

“For being Susan Easton, you sure aren’t the society witch I thought you’d be.”

“Susan?”

“Yeah. You’re Susan Easton. Or has the drug erased your memory, too?” he taunted.

“N-no. I’m not Susan. I’m Kai Easton. Susan is my half sister.”

He reared back, surprise mirrored in his expression. Then, just as suddenly, the flicker of shock was gone, and only that gray, opaque stare remained.

“Susan Easton has red hair, she is five feet seven inches tall and weighs one hundred twenty pounds. And she jogs that same route every day, seven days a week. Boyce has been keeping track of her movements for three weeks now…. He couldn’t have made that kind of mistake.” An then Matt pulled out a black-and-white photo from the pocket of his shirt. It was a poor, partly blurred photo of Susan jogging in one of her tailored outfits. He held it near Kai’s face. “You do look similar with your hair pulled back by a sweatband,” he groused, shoving the photo into his pocket once more.

“Susan didn’t jog today because it’s raining. And I just got home on leave yesterday. I borrowed one of her outfits because I forgot to pack mine.”

Matt combed his long, strong-looking fingers through his hair. “If you’re telling the truth…dammit.”

Kai would have burst out laughing if the situation hadn’t been so serious. “Did you kidnap the wrong woman?” she managed dryly.

He shrugged his broad shoulders. “It doesn’t really matter,” he muttered. “You’re an Easton. Susan just happened to be our target because she was the most visible.” Then regret came to his eyes. “You’re the physical-therapist nurse.”

“Yes.”

Ruefully Matt shook his head. “For all your red hair and freckles, you sure as hell don’t have any Irish luck, lady.”

Kai grimaced, watching as he babied the lacerations around her wrists with antiseptic. “Believe me, ever since my father remarried, my luck’s gone down the tube.” She bit back any more of a response, realizing how quickly and intimately they had established a rapport. Kai withdrew her wrist. He raised his chin, staring at her. In that fleeting second he appeared…different. Kai could easily imagine him in a military uniform or in a business suit. Everything about him shouted that he was a man who was above the act he had taken part in.

“You haven’t answered my questions. What’s going to happen to me?” she asked, her voice hoarse.

“We’ve kidnapped you for money.”

“My father will pay it. Any amount.”

“Four million?”

Kai drew in a sharp breath. “Four—”

“You’re worth it,” he muttered cryptically, reclaiming her wrist.

Anger tinged her drugged state. “But why? I’m just a nurse! I’m a U.S. naval officer who lives in Bethesda, Maryland. This doesn’t make sense, Mr.—”

“Matt Taylor’s the name.”

Her look was scathing. “Is that your real name?” What kidnapper would stupidly give her his real name? She could relay that vital information to the police once they freed her.

“That’s as close as you’re going to get.”

“At least you have some manners, even if you do have to resort to lying.”

His look made her feel as if she’d just been shot.

“Look, Kai, the game we’re playing with each other is necessary. I’m sorry we kidnapped you and not your sister.”

Suddenly Kai sobbed. It was unlike her to be overemotional. She had been a nurse for almost six years after winning her navy commission out of college. She loved her work and her patients. But this was too much. They had wanted Susan—not her. Her lips parted as tears rolled helplessly from her eyes. “I—I’ve never hurt anyone. At least not intentionally. And neither has Susan.” Well, that was a bald-faced lie. Susan effectively cut up everyone with her royally bred tongue. When she was in one of her shrewish moods, she made everyone who didn’t come up—or down—to her standards feel like a case of the urban blight. And Frank’s perverse moods made Susan’s look like the pranks of a child in kindergarten.

Kai turned her head toward the wall, trying to escape the mortification of crying in front of her captor. She felt Matt Taylor’s fingers come to rest on her chin, gently drawing her head back toward him to meet his gaze. She stared up into his anguished gray eyes.

“Believe me, no one’s sorrier about this than I am, Kai.” He brushed her cheek dry with his fingers. “You’re Easton’s daughter by his first wife.”

“Y-yes.”

A slight smile hovered at the corners of his mouth. “The love child?” He posed the question softly.

Kai winced. “Please….” Her voice was strained. “My father’s second wife and her three children remind me of the circumstances every time I come home on leave. I’m a bastard to our mutual family.”

She blinked back the tears. Why did she have the feeling he knew about love? And yet he was her kidnapper. She had seen loss reflected in the depths of his eyes as she’d spoken.