Chapter Four
Ryland
I watched the woman looming above me through slitted eyes. So far, she thought I was still out cold, and I intended to use that to my advantage. I hadn’t seen a female with the poachers, but why else would she be here? There was nothing on this island to attract a beautiful woman like her.
She pulled her shirt off, and then her undergarment.
What the hell did they call those things?
It didn’t matter because now I had an unobstructed view of her naked chest. Wow.
Her breasts were small, a mere handful each, but they were firm and pert, the nipples pointing upward with a decidedly cheeky tilt to them.
All in all, she had to be the cutest poacher I’d ever seen.
The dog whined softly. Darn thing probably knew I was faking it. Unfortunately, animals tended to be a lot smarter than the people they kept company with.
He didn’t appear to be aggressive but looks could be deceiving. He certainly wasn’t a small pup. Maybe part shepherd? Or Rottweiler, given the coloring. I could only hope he wasn’t a trained attack dog.
Why on earth would the gang have brought a dog with them? Poachers didn’t tend to be animal lovers. Maybe they used him to alert them to people approaching. Hell, maybe the dog was the reason I’d got shot.
Suddenly he didn’t look so harmless.
The woman leaned toward me, that underwear thing in her hand and I turned my full attention to her. Time to turn the tables on the cute little thing.
I waited until she was leaning directly over top of me to strike. Reaching out with my good arm, I grasped her wrist and twisted it, neatly flipping her over on her back and landing myself straddling her hips.
Damn, that hurt.
I barely managed to school my face into a fierce grimace.
The dog rose to his feet, growling a warning. I turned my head and growled back.
“Seriously? You’re sitting on top of me and growling at my dog instead of letting me bandage your arm so it doesn’t get infected? What kind of idiot are you?” The woman glared up at me with one eyebrow raised in question. Apparently, I didn’t look as intimidating as I’d thought.
Ignoring her remarks about my IQ, I scowled down at her. “Who are you, and what are you doing on this island?” I tried to sound as menacing as possible, but I had the sinking feeling it was going to take a lot more than a growly male to scare this woman.
“I could ask you the same question. I’ve never seen you here before and I come here a lot.” She looked kind of cute, glaring up at me. Under different circumstances I might even consider asking her out.
I gave my head a mental shake. Wow. Loss of blood was starting to affect my decision making.
The dog let out a low whimper, settling back down on his haunches. Cocking his head on an angle, he regarded me calmly. Apparently, he had decided to give me the benefit of the doubt… at least for now.
“I’m the one on top here so I get to ask the questions.” I felt the need to point out the obvious. “Who are you?”
She raised both brows, looking decidedly pissed. “Well, right now I’m a prisoner of an idiot who will probably pass out from lack of blood shortly. Unless, of course, he comes to his senses and hauls his carcass off me so I can bandage his bloody arm.”
This was not going the way I intended at all. “That’s not what I meant. What’s your name? Why are you here?” Maybe it would help my concentration if I stopped staring at her luscious stream of silky dark hair.
“I don’t think I want to answer that. How about you tell me your name and why you think it’s okay to manhandle a woman who was just trying to help you?”
The dog let out an approving woof.
“I’m the victim. I’m bleeding. Remember?” I was starting to feel like I was somehow at fault.
“Yes, and if you’d get off me, I’d be able to do something about that. You might want to consider that I’m not the one who injured you.”
“I’m not so sure about that. How do I know you’re not going to finish me off if I let go of you?”
The woman rolled her eyes. “I just told you I wasn’t the one who shot you. If I wanted to hurt you, I could have done it while you were lying unconscious at my feet.”
She did have a point. I let go of her arms and clambered awkwardly off her, favoring my injured arm.
“Okay, I get it. You’re probably not the one who attacked me. Damn arm’s starting to bleed again, and it definitely needs a new bandage. The last thing I need is to let it get infected.” I held my arm out for her inspection.
The woman got to her feet, her body language stiff and angry. She ignored me as she brushed herself off. Finally, she glanced at my arm. “No thanks. I don’t think I want to help you anymore.”
“What?” Great. Just like a female to cop an attitude when I needed her to help.
The dog let out a low woof, staring at the woman with those soulful eyes.
She glared at the dog, her arms crossed on her chest. “Seriously? After he dumps me on the ground and insults me you still think I should help him?”
Talking to the dog like he could understand her. Yup definitely a nutcase.
The dog let out another soft bark.
“Fine!” She turned her glare on me. “Get over here, and don’t get any more bright ideas. I’m out of patience. I don’t like people running all over my island, I don’t like getting shot at, and I definitely don’t like guys manhandling me.”
“Whoa.” I held up my good hand in front of me, although I had a feeling that if she decided to attack, I’d need more than brute strength to hold her off.
“I have a perfectly good reason to be on this island -- which, by the way, isn’t owned by anybody as far as I know, and I did not shoot at you.
As for manhandling you, I told you, I thought you were with the poachers. ”
She ignored this outburst, raising one of those infuriating eyebrows of hers. “Are you going to get over here, or should I assume you’ve decided to bleed to death after all?”
Maybe it was time to change my tactics. I could be charming. Women always went for my smooth talk. I’d gotten off on the wrong foot with this one, but give me a few minutes and I’d have her eating out of my hand. Symbolically, of course.
Unbidden, an image of her naked and compliant as she plucked a chocolate out of my fingers with her teeth flashed into my mind.
I shook my head. Damn. What was it about this female that kept me off balance? Must be the loss of blood. I’d never been one to let a woman get in the way of my priorities, so why was this one playing havoc with my senses? Hell, I didn’t even know her name!
“No, I think I’ll pass on the bleeding out thing.” Two strides brought me right back inside her personal space. “I take it the striptease was just to get something to use for a bandage?”
She had the grace to blush, and I found the sight absolutely adorable, not to mention novel. Women these days didn’t blush.
“I didn’t realize you were conscious, or I would have stepped behind a bush. I had no intention of treating you to a show.”
I stretched out my arm for her ministrations. “In that case I’m happy I felt the need to hide my conscious state from you. I suspect you don’t plan on repeating the performance.”
“Got that right.” She took my arm and turned it slightly to get a better look at the wound. “I don’t suppose you happen to have a needle and thread on you?”
“No.” I eyed up the bloody mess. “Just bind it up as best you can, and I’ll get it stitched up properly when I get back to the mainland.”
“Yes, sir!”
I winced at the bite in her voice. I really needed to watch my tendency to bark out orders. Women never seemed to appreciate it. “Sorry. I really do appreciate you patching me up.”
* * *
Kimberly
I held the edge of the camisole under his arm, and slowly wound the soft fabric around the wound, pulling it tight enough to make him whimper. Yeah, that really wasn’t necessary, but he needed to learn some manners. “Kimberly. My name is Kimberly. What’s yours?”
“Ryland.”
He clenched his teeth, and I felt a tiny pang of guilt. I could have been gentler.
He narrowed his eyes. “So what brings you to this lovely island?”
“Funnily enough, I come here for the peace and solitude.” I slipped the end of the belt through the buckle. “You?”
His face had that pinched look that told me he was in more pain than he intended to admit.
“Peace and solitude, huh? Today must not be one of your better trips here then. I followed a gang of nasty guys -- international poachers -- who took a convoluted route from the lovely city of Hong Kong to get here.”
My eyebrows shot skyward. “That’s quite a trip to get to an uninhabited island off the coast of Canada. I take it they didn’t appreciate your company?” I nodded at the bandage on his arm.
He shook his head. “I don’t think they even saw me. I slipped and made some noise. It stirred up a bunch of sleeping birds and one of the guys let loose with the crossbow at them. Lucky shot. For them, that is. Not so much for me. They didn’t come looking to see if they’d hit anything.”
I tilted my head. “Assuming I’m buying that story, what would a group of criminals from the exotic continent of South Asia find to interest them on a deserted island off the coast of British Columbia?”
“That’s the million-dollar question. These guys trade in rare commodities, and they aren’t picky about how they acquire them.
Right now, there’s a huge market for the body parts of some species of wild animals.
They could be hunting the animals themselves, or maybe they scheduled a meet with some local poachers on what they would have assumed was a deserted island.
One where they wouldn’t have to worry about anyone seeing them. ”
“They wouldn’t hurt…” I bit off the rest of the sentence, turning my body so he couldn’t see my face.
He grimaced. “Hurt who? Or what? They shot at me, and from what you said they took a few shots at you too, so I don’t think there’s much they’d hesitate to hurt. Certainly not a wild animal that they could piece out and sell to the stores back in Asia.”
I frowned. “I know that’s an issue farther up north, but we haven’t had any reports of poaching in this area.”
He shrugged. “Doesn’t mean it’s not happening. Just means they haven’t been caught. These guys aren’t amateurs. They’re in it for serious money, and bear gallbladders sell for a huge amount of money in Asia.”
I shuddered. Even after all these years, I found it hard to realize how nasty some people could be. “That’s awful.”
“It is, which is why I’m here. Me and my buddies have been chasing this group for a long time now, and we hope they’ll lead us to the ringleader, the big guy.
That’s the one we want. We get him, the whole thing falls apart.
If we move too soon, all we get are a bunch of hired muscle that don’t know squat about the operation on a larger scale. ”
“Are you sure? If you take out the top guy, wouldn’t one of the others just take over and keep the operation going?”
He shook his head. “Not likely. It takes connections, power, the ability to have the right people look the other way at the right time. That has to be someone high up in politics and most likely social circles as well. So far, the guys we’ve identified are only run of the mill mules -- good enough to do the grunt work or transport the merchandise but not good enough to organize the whole thing. ”
“Oh.” I know I looked baffled.
Diego crossed to my side, bumping lightly against me. He always knew when I needed him.
“It’s like he can read your mind.” Ryland stared at Diego plastered against my side.
“I don’t have much experience with pets.
Growing up, my family moved around too much and I still do, what with chasing poachers and all.
Maybe someday when I’m more settled I’ll get myself a dog.
It wouldn’t be fair to get an animal and then have to leave it all the time. ”
I gave the belt an extra tug to make sure it was secure. I was starting to like this guy, and I didn’t want to. I let go of his arm. “That should hold it for now.”
“Thanks.” He crouched down to put himself at the level of the dog and held out his hand. “What’s his name?”
I smiled then. I couldn’t help it. Diego’s tail was wagging so hard his whole butt shook. “His name is Diego. My ex didn’t bother to take him when he left, and he’s been with me ever since.”
Diego sniffed the offered hand thoroughly before flicking his tongue out to give it a quick lick. Apparently satisfied with his inspection, he sat and pushed his head against Ryland.
“He likes you.” I watched as Diego sat quietly while the stranger petted him. “Strange. He’s usually such a great judge of character. Or maybe he’s just easily swayed by a gentle touch. He is male, after all.”