Chapter 2
“And someone with hacking skills got inside.” Cap looked like Dane felt. Disturbed. Deeply.
“Not necessarily the same person,” Dane said.
“How much do we know? Is Acer the only target or is it the unit? Is Peter—”
“I just found out. David is on his way to brief us—”
He stopped talking. Shana returned to the room.
He felt her presence behind him like a fragrant breeze the minute she walked in.
That disturbed him, too, since he could smell nothing.
Heard nothing. And yet when he turned around, there she was walking through the door with a can of Pepsi and a question on her face.
She walked past him and stopped bedside, handed Cap his can and folded her arms. The question was gone and replaced by a scowl.
The special Shana-the-beautiful scowl that he knew and loved.
It warmed him and he allowed the comfort of her caring wash over him for a beat before spoiling it with a rejoinder.
“Something on your mind, girlie?”
“What’s going on? What’s David coming to the island to brief us on?”
“Guess we’ll find out when he gets here, won’t we?”
“Spill it.” She turned to Cap. He shrugged.
Dane relented. “You don’t know Acer. From the unit.” He watched her chin rise a millimeter as if gravity were letting go or as if her chin were attached to a string called pride, or maybe resentment. She had a lot of strings attached to her.
“A sniper took a shot at him,” he said.
That effectively snapped all the strings.
She turned instantly into the powerful caring Shana-the-protector he knew and identified with deep down.
They were both pathetic. Maybe that’s why they clung to each other in a death grip with one hand—though he needed to understand better why they pushed each other away with equal desperation with the other hand.
“Are you leaving?” she asked.
He considered her, meeting her green eyes with the same intensity. He didn’t know the answer to that question. Wasn’t sure exactly how she meant it. Didn’t know how the hell she’d interpret his answer, whether she’d give it extra meaning.
“Probably.”
Cap said, “David will let us know our roles.”
“Mine too,” she said.
“Are you going to be on or off the books, Shana?” he asked, knowing he was being unfair. It’s how he was. She needed to get used to it. Or leave. His jaw ticked.
She put her hands on her hips and said, “Guess we’ll find out when David gets here, won’t we?”
Her tone mocked him. The gold specks in her green eyes looked like flames ready to leap at him and set him afire. He held his ground. Not that he would ever back down.
No, he wanted to lunge at her and maul her, ravish her, claim her, brand her as his and haul her off by her luxurious blond tresses to his beach shack-cave. He felt ridiculous. He needed to maintain control. He allowed himself a smile and kept the adrenaline-testosterone spike to himself.
“You’re letting David Young call the shots on your career, on your future?”
“I’m letting David Young make me an offer. Then I’ll compare it to yours. If you ever explain to me exactly what you’re offering.”
Now he wasn’t sure what she was asking. His heart felt like a giant bubble rising and growing and dangerously close to being obliterated.
The frantic beat came on and he felt a line of sweat on his temple.
He called on all the Zen training he had, held himself in check by a flimsy mantra. She is not yours. She is not for you.
“A partnership in a private investigation business. Simple. Nothing else to it.”
“What kind of work would we do?”
“Whatever comes along. Like the undercover surfing competition mission last summer. Like protecting Acer and tracking down the threat now. Everything is fair game.”
“Where will we work?”
“The beach shack. Where else?”
“Oh, I don’t know, Dane. Some people have offices—”
“No need. I’m set up. You know this.” He paused a beat. Got the new spike of fear stabbing his heart under control and said, “You looking for excuses? Say no.”
She said nothing. She glared at him with accusing, hurt, confused eyes. His heart sank to his gut and everything churned and she held the crank and tightened it with every beat.
“Stop it.” Cap spoke in his commanding police chief voice. “She deserves a chance to weigh her options, Dane. Back off.”
He ought to thank Cap for aiming a fire hose at him, but he was too churned up to feel anything but anger. It lessened the pain. The default emotion of choice for every self-respecting emotion-avoider. He grabbed onto it now.
“I deserve—”
He was interrupted by a deep voice sporting a no-nonsense British accent that could calm—and probably had calmed—a rabid wolf. It belonged to David Young, Chief Inspector and Director of the Scotland Yard Exchange Program in Boston. And a British legend in spite of his lack of wartime service.
“I knew all three of you would be here. I find it terribly convenient to have my audience all together in one place—in particular in a hospital room where we must all behave civilly and seriously.” He walked in and stared each of them down like he’d had an earful of their conversation just before he’d walked in.
“Please take a seat. I shall be the one standing and the one speaking.”
Dane looked at Shana and tried not to feel like a stupid teenager. But the shoe fit. She sat. He pulled up a chair, nodded at David with an eyebrow raise, lifted a boot onto the seat and leaned an elbow on his bent knee.
“The floor is yours. Tell us about Acer,” Dane said.
*****
Shana sat still to let the heat dissipate and listened to David talk.
“Acer is at your home—the beach shack? Unloading his equipment. I got a lift from there to the hospital from one of Captain Lynch’s men.” David smiled and looked straight at her.
She didn’t so much as flare a nostril in response, keeping a steel hold on the cringe of anxiety. He must know what an awkward position this put her in. The beach shack was not big enough for the three of them: her, Dane and Acer. Hell, it wasn’t big enough for her and Dane most of the time.
But who cared when a man’s life was at stake? And if he was from the unit, then Acer was another war hero. Seems she was surrounded by war heroes and legends from everywhere. And what was she?
She didn’t belong. She was the object in the room that most definitely did not belong. The element in this picture that did not fit.
That did it. It made her choice pitifully easy in spite of the suds of panic roiling up in her stomach and creating a sucking void in her chest where she needed Dane to be.
She said nothing under her boss’s scrutiny and was careful not to smile or sweat or even twitch. She took a deep breath, however, and she’d be damned if there was a problem with that. A woman had to breathe, didn’t she?
“We’ll take care of him. Shana and I.” Dane spoke to David without looking at her. He was that confident.
“That was the plan,” David said.
“What about the rest of the unit? Any threat?”
“We’re still assessing, but we don’t think so. We’ll also need you to do some of the footwork to track down the shooter and whoever is calling the shots.”
“Not the same person?”
“Not likely. At least that’s the current theory. Peter will be in touch by phone, of course. Acer will fill you in on the rest of the details when we get back to the beach house.” He paused and looked at Cap.
“I’m told you will be going home tomorrow and returning to light duty. I expect we will need to coordinate with your command on this one as well. Are you up to working with us on this?”
“Try and stop me.”
“Well now I feel better, having assembled our team.” David smiled.
Dane stood. “I’ll count on you to lead the charge.
Unofficially,” he said to Dane. “I took the liberty of ordering dinner. It will be delivered to your charming home in,” he stopped and checked his old-fashioned, very expensive wrist watch, “an hour and forty-five minutes.”
David turned to leave but when he got to the door he turned back. Shana stood and went bedside to say good-bye to Cap.
David said, “One more thing. Shana, are you working on this mission from the inside or … not?” He waited, poised to leave, expecting her to answer him right then and there. She hadn’t had time to think it through, to weigh pros and cons and consider her options. She went with her gut.
“I’m with Dane—with Beachcomber Investigations.”
“That’s what I thought.” He flashed her a wink and continued through the door.
She felt the heat of Dane’s gaze on her immediately. Or maybe it was her embarrassment or shame at the snap decision after prevaricating so convincingly before.
“Now was that so hard, girlie?” Dane taunted.
“Don’t worry, Shana,” Cap said. “You can quit any time. David would take you back in a flash.”
“What the hell?” Dane said to Cap.
“Stop it. We have work to do.” She scowled at Dane and then bent over the bed to give Cap a kiss good-bye. On the cheek. Except he reached up and held her face and brushed her lips with his.
Then he said in a near whisper, “Let me know if it gets too crowded at the beach shack for you.”
Dane whistled a loud blast and she sprung up and away from Cap.
“What the hell, Dane? Are you whistling for me? Like a dog?”
“No. Not like a dog. Like a warning.” He glared between her and Cap.
Cap grinned. Shana took up her bag and walked toward Dane. She could feel his umbrage dissipate with each step closer she took.
After a couple of beats he said to Cap, “I expect to see you tomorrow morning at the shack.”
“Will David be ordering us breakfast?”
“Shana will cook,” he said.
Her chest expanded in a hot rush and she almost lifted her hand to slap him on pure thoughtless instinct before she calmed herself. He was baiting her.
“Bring some donuts if you want food,” she said, saluted and walked out the door ahead of Dane.
A part of her wanted to keep walking. All the way to the ferry landing and onto the next boat off the island. The other part of her wished she were strong enough to do that. To make him come after her.
But then maybe it took more strength to stay. And take care of him. He was the man who saved lives. Saved her life. She owed him. She wanted him. She wanted to be the woman who saved his life.
She wondered how the hell he felt about her.