“Everything okay?” he asked.
“Yeah.” She tucked a long piece of hair that had fallen from her braid behind one ear. “Just checking for a tail.”
“You think you’re being followed?” He glanced in the side mirror.
She adjusted her grip on the steering wheel. “I don’t know. One of the men I helped rescue last month was found beaten and left for dead last night in Vieux Fort. On St. Lucia. Police are calling it a mugging gone wrong, but if he was tortured for information—”
“He might have described you.”
“He might. I’m probably just beingparanoid about that one, but Glenn has been increasingly aggressive the last couple of weeks. At this point, I wouldn’t put anything past him.” Her fake engagement ring caught the sunlight and sent tiny white sparkles across the interior of the car.
“This guy’s starting to sound more like a stalker.” Why hadn’t she mentioned any of this on the phone?
“I’m honestly not sure. I take Rockley withme when I fly, so he’s not home to guard my house when I’m away. There have been a couple of times lately when I thought maybe someone had been inside, but I couldn’t find anything definitive. No signs of a break-in, nothing taken or obviously moved.”
“Jesus, Cait. Have you thought about installing cameras or security? Or checking for bugs?”
“This guy I know, a former Navy SEAL who teaches diveclasses here, came and checked for bugs and installed a nanny cam. He didn’t find anything.”
A guy she knows.A former Navy SEAL. “Why didn’t you ask the SEAL to pose as your fiancé?” He couldn’t keep the barb out of his voice.
She glanced at him. “It’s not like that. I don’t know him very well. We have overlapping clients sometimes is all. Besides,” she licked her lips, “I don’t hunt whereI live.”
Kurt scowled and watched the jungle pass by out his window. He had no right, but he didn’t like to think about her “hunting” at all.
Twenty minutes later she parked in front of a small yellow house with a green roof and shutters and a short, white picket fence around the front yard. They stepped out into the warm sun. “It’s small, but I love it. The beach is about a quarter-mile thatway, and I’m pretty close to the airport. The perfect setup.”
“You really did it,” he said, unable to keep some of the awe out of his voice.
She met him at the back of the SUV. “What’s that?”
“Your dream.” He removed his duffel bag and followed her through a small gate to the front door, which was covered in louvers. Muffled barking came from inside the house. “Becoming a pilot, starting yourown charter business in the Caribbean, having a house near the ocean.” She had managed it all.
Not that he would complain about his own circumstances. He’d lived his dream of being a PJ for four years. That was more than most people ever got. And life was still good.
She unlocked the door and looked over her shoulder with a smile. “Yeah. I guess I did.”
About fifty pounds of scruffy black dogquivered just beyond the threshold, eyeing Kurt warily even as his tail wagged with enthusiasm.
“This is Rockley,” Caitlyn said. “Ro, this is Kurt. He’s a friend.”
Rockley barked once and then approached Kurt tentatively, sniffing the hand he held out.
“Hey, buddy,” Kurt said. “Do you smell Max?”
“He doesn’t always like white men, but he seems to think you’re okay.”
Kurt petted the dog’shead and scratched behind his ears. “We’re not all bastards.” What kind of sicko would beat a dog? “He looks happy and healthy now. You’ve obviously been good for him.”
“He’sbeen good forme.” She smiled. “He’s easy to love.”
“I’m sure.” Kurt refused to be jealous of a dog.
He straightened, an elephant in a dollhouse in the low-ceilinged house that had only one exit. Despite its size and lackof egress options, the living room to his left was inviting, with a love seat and chair upholstered in light brown and the color of shallow water on the walls. Several small paintings of island scenes adorned the spaces between jalousie windows. A window air conditioner pumped out welcome cool air.
“This is nice,” he said. “Like a vacation getaway.”
She looked around with a satisfied expression.“Thanks. These don’t come up for sale very often. I got lucky.” Waving toward the rear, left corner of the house, she said, “Kitchen, obviously. The bathroom is through that door.” She pointed to a narrow doorway across from the kitchen.
