“Right.”
She pulled out a blank page and grabbed a pencil from the coffee table, intent on showing him what she meant. “I think this might be a Caesar cipher. It had to be simple for the girls to use it, and a Caesar cipher is the easiest cipher there is: a shift in letters in the alphabet. The key is figuring out which direction and how far. I’ve been playing with it all morning. I just haven’t had enough time to work it out yet.”
He took the paper and pencil from her hand, grabbed a magazine from the coffee table as a hard surface to write on, and leaned back against the couch, drawing up his knees. His serious gaze was focused on the paper, his brow furrowed in thought.
And she smiled, not irritated he’d tried to take over, simply
amused he thought he could figure it out when Doug had never been able to, when even she was having trouble with it. “It’s all about counting—”
He held up a hand to stop her. “I get it. I’m good with puzzles. Give me a few minutes.”
She sat back with another paper and pencil and bit her lip to keep from grinning as she went back to work.
A few minutes turned into an hour, and her stomach finally growled, reminding her she hadn’t eaten yet today. She dropped her papers and stretched. “I’m going to get some lunch. Do you want anything?”
Brow creased, he grunted something she didn’t understand and continued to make chicken scratches on his slip of paper without looking her direction.
She shook her head and pushed to stand. The man never did anything half assed, she could say that about him. She wandered into the kitchen and peered into the massive refrigerator. He was determined, relentless, sometimes bordering on obsessive.
A lot like someone else she knew.
Shaking her head and the ridiculous thought away with it, she closed the refrigerator and found bread and peanut butter from the cupboard. She was just pulling her finger from the jar for a taste when her notebook smacked the granite counter at her side, causing her to jump.
She looked up into Rafe’s smug face. He closed his mouth over her finger and smiled. Her heart kicked up when he let go of her finger and licked his lips in a sleepy, sexy way that sent heat pooling in her belly.
“Berry Islands,” he said in that deep, husky voice. “Bahamas.”
Her eyes grew wide, and she darted a look at the paper where he’d made a series of marks and notes. “No way. How did you come up with that?”
He lifted the jar from the counter, found a spoon in a nearby drawer and scooped a mouthful of peanut butter. “The Le Blancs were French. You forgot to translate,
querida.
”
Translate? She looked back at him. He’d settled himself onto a stool at the counter, eating peanut butter right out of the jar. “You speak French?”
He shrugged and licked the spoon. “I traveled with the Navy. Picked up a little here and there, enough to get me by. The romance languages aren’t all that different.”
They were to her. She knew how to say
Where’s the bathroom?
and
I’ll have a beer
in Spanish, and that was it. She remembered hearing him speak Italian in Milan. The man was a never-ending puzzle.
“But where?” she asked, refocusing. There were nearly thirty islands in the Berry chain.
He dropped the spoon into the empty jar and stood. “Not sure. But it’s in there, you just have to wade through the rest of it.”
“Me?”
His smile was all teeth. “Since I did the hard part, you should be able to figure out the rest, Doc.” He reached for a map he’d stuck in the back of the notebook and smoothed it on the counter in front of her. “It’s a two-day trip by sailboat to Great Harbour Cay. I already called Hailey and asked her to bring up my boat. Didn’t figure it would be a good idea for me to be seen in Key West right now. I need to make a supply run before she gets here.”
“We’re going to the Bahamas?”
“Yep. You and me,
querida.
First thing tomorrow.” He leaned over and kissed her, smelling like fresh roasted peanuts. When he pulled back, his face was set in a serious line. “You got a bikini?”
Good God, she was having trouble following him. “We’re on the verge of finding Tisiphone, and you’re worried about my having a bikini?”
“Don’t worry. I’ll get you one.” He grabbed a pen from the counter and jotted a number on a scrap of paper. “If you think of anything you need, call me. I’ll be back in a few hours.”
He was gone before she had a chance to digest all the information.
When she heard the front door click shut, she turned back to the notebook in front of her.
The Bahamas. Tisiphone was in the Bahamas. Less than one hundred and fifty miles away. Somewhere in Doug’s journal was the exact location where Sophia had hidden the goddess. Could it really be that easy?
Something in her gut said
No way.
“He sure has a thing for that boat.”
Cleaning the kitchen after dinner, Lisa lifted her head at Hailey’s words and looked out the window above the sink. Rafe was hauling supplies onto the boat moored at the private dock just off the beach, chiseled muscles flexing in his shoulders beneath a thin blue T-shirt as he moved.
It was just a little strange. Having dinner with her new lover and his ex, listening to the way the two joked like they’d known each other forever, watching the way Hailey darted looks between her and Rafe as if she knew something Lisa didn’t. She wasn’t sure she’d ever get used to the relaxed relationship between Rafe and Hailey. Certainly didn’t understand it.
She glanced down at the pan she was drying and turned to place it in a cupboard. “How long has he had it?”
Dressed in denim shorts and a white T-shirt, Hailey sat at the kitchen table studying the maps Lisa had pieced together. Her curly blonde ponytail swayed behind her as she propped an elbow on the smooth surface and rested her chin on her hand. “A few months. He had an older boat he sold. With that and what he had left over after budgeting Teresa’s care, he bought this one.”
Lisa’s hand paused in the act of drying. He’d sold his share of Odyssey for his mother. Why hadn’t she realized that before?
Her heart slammed against her ribs, and she swallowed hard. More surprises. More reinforcement she’d pegged him wrong from the very beginning.
Forcing herself to keep working, she finished drying the
dish in her hand and put it away. “You get along well. You and Teresa?”
“Yeah. She’s like the mother I wish I’d always had. It’ll be hard on him when she goes.”
Lisa stared out at the white sailboat shimmering in the evening light and the man on deck, who had more heart than she’d ever expected.
“I have a feeling he’ll be okay, though. You’re a good distraction for him.”
“What?” Barely catching Hailey’s words, Lisa turned.
“No ‘what’ about it. I’ve seen the way he looks at you. Teresa did too. We’re not blind.” She glanced back at the map.
Looked at her like what? Lisa’s pulse kicked up. “He only wants me because of Tisiphone.”
Hailey rolled her eyes. “That’s not the only reason he wants you. Trust me, I know the man. And I can’t tell you how many times I wished he would have looked at me like that. Just once.”
Reality formed a lump in Lisa’s throat. She set her dish towel on the black granite counter. “You loved him.”
An uncomfortable silence spread over the kitchen. Hailey pushed away from the table. “I feel like some wine. Don’t you?” Without waiting for an answer, she found a bottle of cabernet in the wine cabinet. After uncorking the top, she poured two generous glasses and handed Lisa one. “Did he tell you how we met?”
Lisa took the glass, knowing a diversionary tactic when she saw one. Hell, she was a pro at the same exact thing. “No.”
“My father’s loaded. Runs a chain of five-star hotels up and down the East Coast. He also has an insatiable art-collecting habit. Buys junk all the time and never looks at it again. Pete had a client who was in the market for an abstract painting by some unknown artist out on the West Coast. Rafe tracked it down and found my father had bought it. The thing was in an attic collecting dust. It had
never been hung, and I’m willing to bet my father forgot he even had it. Anyway, to make a long story short, being the generous man my father is, when Rafe approached him about selling, he said no.”
“So Rafe stole it,” Lisa guessed.
“Yep.” Hailey lifted her wine and sipped again. “I showed up at my parents’ estate in Palm Beach unexpected the night he went after it, and I caught him.”
Lisa couldn’t help smiling. The smart international art thief had been caught by a small-town cop. Just like that. “I bet that was a surprise for him.”
“It was. And my father, even though he never liked my career choice in the first place, made a big deal about me making the arrest and getting the credit.”
“Which, I’m guessing, you didn’t want.”
“No. And when I found out what had really happened, I made sure the evidence got buried. Just to spite him.”
Lisa lifted her wine to her lips. “I take it you don’t get along so well with your parents.”
“That’s an understatement.” Hailey shrugged. “Anyway, Rafe was grateful, took me out to dinner to say thanks, and one thing led to another from there. When my father heard through the grapevine who I’d been seen around town with, he blew his stack.”
“And that made the two of you go out again.”
“Bingo.” Hailey glanced out the window at the boat. “My parents pretty much disowned me when they found out I was dating a thief.” Her voice softened. “But then he’s not your normal run-of-the-mill criminal, is he?”
“No,” Lisa said, gaze following. “He’s not.” And every day she got to know him, he was turning into more.
“He’s easy to be around, and he’s got a big heart. He’d do anything for the people he cares about, even if that means sacrificing something he wants in the process. I realized that pretty fast, and I thought it would be enough, but it wasn’t.”
“Why didn’t you ever tell him how you felt?”
Hailey turned away from the window. “It wouldn’t have made a difference.”
“You don’t know that.”
“I do.” Her voice softened. “I’m not stupid. I knew after we got home from that trip to Vegas he wanted out, but he was too honorable to ask for it. And I let it go on longer than it should have, using Teresa as an excuse. It upset him to have to ask for the divorce, because he thought he was letting everyone down, but it was the right thing for both of us.” She smiled. “Besides, I got over it, which tells me it wasn’t meant to be in the first place.”
Lisa looked down into her wine. Fifteen years later and she still hadn’t gotten over what had happened with Doug. They were obviously never meant to be together either, so why was it so hard for her? If she could go back and change the past, would she want to be with Doug right now?
No.
That reality slammed into her. What she wanted was what she already had. For so long, she’d been using the past to keep from feeling anything for anyone else. And now, because of the Furies, that was slowly changing.
Because of Rafe.
“Do me a favor.”
Wide-eyed, Lisa glanced up at a woman she didn’t want to like, but did. “What?”
“No matter what happens with Tisiphone, promise me you won’t break his heart. He’s not as tough as he looks.”
Lisa closed her eyes. Oh, crap. She didn’t need to hear that.
Hailey chuckled. “Well, I think I’ve done enough damage here. I’m going to retire to one of the guest rooms, fall asleep in a big comfy bed and dream about a tall, dark stranger. You guys just pretend like I’m not even here.”
When Lisa pulled her eyes open, Hailey was already gone. She turned and looked out the window again. Darkness had settled in. Stars twinkled in the night sky, and moonlight spilled across the water. A light shone in the
cabin of the boat, interrupted now and then as Rafe moved around inside.
Lisa’s chest tightened. If she were smart, she’d go upstairs, lock herself in a room and go straight to sleep. Because what she was feeling now was dangerous. She’d been here before, on the edge of taking a chance on a man she shouldn’t trust. And as stupid as she knew it was, she was still thinking about doing it.
“You’re certifiable,” she mumbled to herself. “How many times do you have to be kicked in the gut to get it?”
Not enough, apparently. Because her gut was telling her this time was different.
Nerves humming, she flipped off the kitchen lights and stood in the dark while she counted slowly to ten. When she finished, her pep talk still hadn’t gotten through her thick skull.
Dumb, dumb, dumb. Shaking her head, she took a step toward the door and a man that scared her more than any loaded gun.
The echo of footsteps on the deck above brought Rafe’s head up where he sat at the chart table in the cabin of the boat. Bare feet eased down the companionway, followed by two of the sexiest legs he’d ever seen.
Lisa slipped her hands into the back pockets of her short shorts. “Hi there.”
He smiled, a familiar warmth building in his belly at her presence. “Hey.”
When she took a step closer, gardenia wafted toward his nose. “What are you working on?”
He glanced at the charts in front of him. “Plotting out our course. There’s a shipping channel between here and Bimini.”
“Oh. Big ships, huh?”
“Yeah. Just trying to figure out the fastest and safest route.”
She turned to glance around the salon. Her hair looked
redder against the teak walls, her skin softer in the low light. She ran one hand over the shiny table to her left as she moved through the small room, her eyes taking everything in. “This is nicer than I expected.”
“Thanks.” He tried to imagine what she saw when she looked at it. He saw years of hard work and the only weakness he had. She probably imagined it was just a toy. Part of him didn’t want to know what she thought. Another part wanted to prove to her he wasn’t just a petty thief.
He pushed aside the thought. “You two done talking about me in there?”
She shot him a wry look over her shoulder. “Yes. Hailey went to bed.”
He leaned back against the curved navigator’s seat. “Let me guess. She told you what an ass I am.”