Chapter 6
CHAPTER SIX
Olivia stayed pressed to Travis, her eyes closed, unable to face him and yet unable to move away. He must have sensed that, too. Without speaking, he helped her get under the covers and stayed beside her.
Her face heated when she thought of what she had let him do—what she had begged him to do. She had given herself completely to him in a way she had never even been able to imagine before.
She had read in books and seen TV shows where the characters had an awkward “morning after.” This must be the one that took the prize. Even though it was still dark, it was technically morning.
She knew he caught her thought when he answered, “I wanted that as much as you did. And like you, I didn’t understand how much I was asking for.”
“But I was the only one who...” She let the rest of the sentence trail off.
“Giving you so much pleasure was...mind-blowing.”
“But...”
“When you came, I felt what you did. It was as good for me as it was for you.” He reached for her hand and knitted his fingers with hers.
She heard a teasing smile in his voice. “Now I know what an orgasm is like for a woman. You feel it all over your body...not just there.”
Even after the earthquake of a climax he had given her, or maybe because of it, the conversation was becoming much too intimate. He must have picked that up from her mind because he changed the subject. “It wasn’t just great sex. You gave me a gift. I know who I am now.”
She heard the wonder in his voice. “Being with you has changed me.”
“Changed both of us.” She felt her excitement growing. “Remember, I now know you have a boat, The Far Horizon. I even know where it is. I can go there and find...”
He didn’t let her finish the sentence.
“No.”
“Why not? Do you have something there that you don’t want me to see?”
“Of course not. But getting anywhere near my boat could be dangerous. Stay away from it.”
She was wondering how he could keep her from going there, and she knew he caught that thought as well.
“I can’t stop you. I’m pleading with you to stay away. I don’t want anything to happen to you.”
His obvious panic tugged at her. Like the same thing that happened to you?
The questions hung in the air. In the darkness, she turned to him. She knew she could go prowling through his thoughts, but she didn’t want to do it.
Calmer than she had been in days, she kept her silence and snuggled against him. She had gone through some kind of strange adjustment. When she’d first sensed him hovering around her, she’d been afraid of him. Tonight he had taken an important place in her life, and she accepted that new reality.
She would have sworn she heard him drag in a breath and let it out. Could he really do that?
“Well, I’m not exactly breathing, but I can...make it seem like I am.”
“Okay.”
She knew they were both avoiding a painful revelation.
Finally he said, “I remember more than my name. I know what happened to me.”
“Tell me.”
“It’s...brutal,” he warned.
“I need to know if we’re going to make whoever did this...pay.”
“Maybe we can’t.”
“We’re not just going to accept it.”
This time he was the one who answered, “Okay.”
She felt her heart start to pound as she waited.
“It started off like an ordinary overnight charter. Three men arranged for a fishing trip. I took them out past the bay to the ocean. When we were out there, they jumped me.”
“Who were they?”
The guy who seemed to be in charge said he was Andrew. Another was Pete. The third was Lambert.”
“What were their last names?”
“It probably doesn’t matter. I can’t believe they would turn out to be their real names. Maybe the first names they were using were even false.”
She wanted to ask more questions, but instead, a vivid picture leaped into her mind.
She saw the trio coming down the dock, dressed in jeans and polo shirts, each carrying a gym bag, as though they were ready for an overnight fishing trip out on the ocean.
Andrew and Pete were normal-sized men. Lambert looked like he could have been a linebacker for the NFL.
They seemed to be in high spirits, but he had thought there was something “off” about them.
Only when it was too late did he realize that the vibe came from nerves.
They were tasked with pulling off a big charade, and they were worried about somehow screwing it up.
It would have been easier if they could have just killed the target.
But they’d been ordered to bring him in alive.
From Travis’s memory, she saw the scene play out in her mind.
They’d all been trailing their fishing lines in the water.
When Travis had started for the companionway to bring up some beers, they’d all dropped the fishing pretense.
Lambert had snuck up behind him and grabbed his arms. Pete and Andrew approached from the front.
Even taken by surprise, Travis put up a pretty good fight.
His first response was to shake off Lambert, who had clamped on to his arms. Travis was strong, and he bent from the waist, ducking down so that he could raise the guy in the air and throw him over his head, slamming him onto the deck.
He landed with a nasty thump, howling in pain.
But the other two men moved in to intercept their target.
Even while he was fighting off the assault, Travis was still battling confusion. These guys had chartered his boat for a routine fishing trip, and now they were attacking him for no discernible reason. He didn’t know any of them. Had somebody with a beef against him sent them?
“What the hell’s going on?” he shouted.
The trio ignored his question as they went on the defensive.
“Watch out,” one of them warned. “He’s stronger than he looks.”
“Too bad we can’t just shoot him.”
“The boss wants him alive—with no sign of foul play.”
As they closed in, he grabbed Pete and managed to toss him over the side. Now it was only two against one.
Taking a fighting stance, he readied himself for another assault. Unfortunately, it came from behind.
From where he lay on the deck, Andrew kicked out a foot, tangling with one of Travis’s legs and yanking backwards.
By that time, Pete had climbed back into the boat and joined the attack again.
As Travis fought to keep his balance, the other two closed in.
A sap materialized in Pete’s hand. He brought it down on Travis’s head, and that was the last he knew until he came to, tied up in the back of what looked like a delivery van.
His head hurt like a son of a bitch, but he started trying to loosen the bonds that held him.
He had the advantage of having worked with knots all his life, and he had made good progress on his hands when the van came to an abrupt stop.
Unfortunately, there simply wasn’t enough time for him to effect an escape.
When Pete and Andrew hauled him out and saw that he was well on the way to freeing his hands, the big man gave him a slap across the face that knocked him silly. Once again, he blacked out.
He looked at Olivia, and she could sense the question forming in his mind. “It gets worse from here. Are you sure you want me to go on?”
Worse? That had been pretty bad, but she answered “Yes,” struggling to hold the word steady. To reassure herself, she burrowed closer to him and closed her eyes. His arms came up to clasp her, and he felt as solid as if...
She didn’t let herself finish the thought.
He continued the way he had begun, letting her see what had happened to him next.
He’d awakened, still dressed in his boat clothes. He was strapped tightly into a sturdy chair with a padded back and seat and tubular arms and legs. When he tested his bonds, he discovered that there was no hope of getting free.
A man who had been sitting in an easy chair got up and strode over to him. “You’re awake.”
Travis blinked and sat up straighter, trying to bring the situation into sharper focus. It seemed the men who had chartered the boat had been planning to bring him here all along.
He took in his surroundings. Except for the easy chair, the rest of the room was pretty sterile. There were several cabinets along one wall, containing medicine bottles. This could have been in a doctor’s exam room—with a standard table over to one side. He didn’t much like the setup.
“Who are you? Why the hell am I here?” he asked, struggling to keep any quiver out of his voice.
His heart was starting to pound, and he was pretty sure he was in deep trouble.
Wracking his brain, he tried to figure out why.
He’d never seen this man before. Didn’t know him.
But the guy must have some reason for having him brought here.
Was it something specific about him? Or would any victim have done?
The latter seemed unlikely since the guy had gone to a lot of trouble to capture him.
Instead of answering, the inquisitor said, “Sorry my men roughed you up.”
“Who are you? What do you want?”
“You can call me Smith, if you need a name.”
“But it’s not your real name,” Travis shot back.
His captor shrugged, and Travis didn’t like the feel of the casual gesture. He studied the man. He appeared to be in his sixties or possibly older, with salt-and-pepper hair, a lined face, and a malevolent gleam in his pale eyes. He knew he was totally in charge of this situation.
Travis might have screamed for help, but he was sure that wasn’t going to do him any good. Was there any reasoning with this guy? Had he been captured by a lunatic? Or was there some rational thinking behind this elaborate scheme?
“Why am I here?” he tried again.
“To provide me with the information I’ve been seeking.”
“And then what?”
“Then we’ll see.”
Travis didn’t like the sound of that, either, but he was completely at this guy’s mercy.
“Your mother went down to Louisiana for fertility treatments,” Smith suddenly said.
“How do you know?”
“I have the records from the Solomon Clinic. That’s where she went.”