“Damn.”She glared at me as if that were somehow my fault.“Fine.Get me away from here so the nice police lady doesn’t see you ditching me and then let me out.I can catch a cab back to my van.”
“Do cabs take dogs?”I knew I shouldn’t be baiting her like this, but she looked cute when she was angry.
“How the hell would I know?My van is parked on a side road out of town where I launched the kayak, and it’s too far for me to walk so how about you drop me there and then promise me you’re going back to Hong Kong, or Shanghai, or wherever you think you’re going to find those damn poachers.”
“Maybe I could buy you some brunch first?”I gave her my most seductive smile.“I owe you at least that after you covered for me with the Coast Guard, not to mention the excellent first aid on my arm.”
“No.”Kimberly crossed her arms on her chest and stared resolutely forward.“You don’t owe me anything and I’d just like to go home and leave this whole mess behind me.”
I sighed heavily.If I didn’t have to check in with the team to give a report on the smugglers, I’d keep at it until she agreed to something, anything but dropping her in the middle of nowhere with her dog.“Can I at least get you breakfast at one of the drive-throughs in town?”
“Oh, for heaven’s sake!Fine!If it shuts you up, have at it.I usually have a nice cappuccino for breakfast, so I suggest you give the McDs a pass and find a coffee shop.”
She sounded close to breaking into tears, which definitely wasn’t what I had in mind.Maybe it was time to shut up and quit teasing her.The problem was, I had absolutely no experience when it came to this kind of thing and I had a feeling I was just making it worse.Diego let out a long sigh and rested his muzzle on the back of the seat, staring pointedly at me.I smiled wryly.The dog might have a point.Silence might be my best bet right now.
I recalled seeing a Starbucks on the main drag when I came through town, so I headed in that direction.She might not be willing to accept anything more than a cappuccino right now, but I would make damn sure it was the best cappuccino I could find.Maybe I could sneak a muffin or scone in as well.Women liked fresh muffins, right?
* * *
Kimberly
“Some deranged psycho shot at you and you didn’t bother to mention that to the police?Are you kidding me?”Sasha hugged her knees up to her chest and stared at me with rapt attention.“Why not?”
I shrugged.Now that I was safely back home, that sounded like a perfectly reasonable question.Why had I agreed to cover for Ryland?What did I even know about him, other than he was an amazing lover?I’d bet my next month’s salary he didn’t do one-night stands very often.He just wasn’t that good at the next morning thing.Hell, if I hadn’t stuck to my guns, he’d probably be here now.I’d circled town twice and headed the wrong way out of town just to make sure he wasn’t following me.The scariest part of that was how disappointed I felt when I finally concluded that he wasn’t, in fact, stalking me all the way back to my house.
I must need my head examined.The man was awesome in the sack, so I’d lied for him.That made me a gullible idiot.
The annoying little voice in my head objected.Maybe he really was concerned with catching the poachers.Maybe sleeping with me had nothing to do with the poachers.Maybe he’d been overcome with passion, unable to resist my ample charms.
Hah!
I dismissed the voice with a flick of my head.Unless you counted curves, I didn’t have ample charms, and no one had ever been so overcome with passion for me they couldn’t control themselves.
I needed to face the truth.I’d been a very willing participant in my own seduction.I claimed to want a one-night stand, and I got one.Time to chalk it up to experience and move on.
“Kimberly?”The concern in Sasha’s voice snapped me out of the daydream.“Are you okay?”
“Yeah.Just thinking about the whole mess.If I tell you about it, you have to promise not to tell anyone about him.”
“Him?”Sasha’s eyebrows shot skyward.“This is getting juicy.Who’s the him and what’s he got to do with this?Is this the guy who shot at you?”
“No!Good lord, of course not.”I bent down to ruffle Diego’s fur, letting my hair fall forward to hide the heat I could feel rising in my cheeks.“His name is Ryland and he’s a wildlife biologist.They shot at him too, only he wasn’t as lucky as me.He got hit.”
I paused as Sasha let out a high-pitched squeak.“They only got him in the arm, but it bled a lot so he passed out and then I found him.”
“And then they shot at you?”
“No, that was after they shot at me.I think they were still looking for me, but I hid in the caves and they went the other way.”
Sasha shook her head, looking totally confused.“So you both got shot at, only he got hit and it was bad enough he passed out from lack of blood.Now it really doesn’t make any sense.You don’t just let guys like that get away with it.You call the cops and you scream bloody murder until they get thrown in jail.”
“It made more sense when he told it.”It really had.“He belongs to some international group that tracks down poachers, and he said if they got caught then they wouldn’t lead him back to the big guys and the poaching ring would just go on murdering animals for their parts so I had to pretend nothing happened so he could maybe find the bad guys and throw them in jail and then the animals would be safe.”
Wow.Talk about a long sentence.I gulped in a lungful of fresh air and watched as Sasha rose to her feet and went to the bar.“What are you doing?”
Sasha threw me a sympathetic look over her shoulder and proceeded to mix up a pitcher of sangria.“Making you a drink.From the sounds of that story, you can definitely use one.”She poured a glass of the colorful liquid and decorated it with a tiny pink umbrella.
I eyed her doubtfully.“It’s a little early for drinking, isn’t it?”
