Which was absolutely ridiculous.
She’d never met this man before. And now, even though he wasn’t looking directly at her, she was feeling everything again.
He shot her a questioning glance. “You all right?”
“Yes.” She would be, she promised herself. She was going to find a way to handle this. Brie Sullivan always handled things.
“You don’t have to talk about the last six months. I didn’t mean to pry.”
Brie gave herself a mental shake as she recalled he’d asked her something. About the witness protection program. And her expectations. “No. I don’t mind.” Talking would be good. It might provide a distraction so she wouldn’t just sit there staring at him. “The worst part of being in the program is that I couldn’t get a job doing the only thing I do well. I sing.”
“Yeah.” He shot her another glance as he turned the car onto a narrow dirt road. “I know.”
Every time he looked at her, an arrow of heat shot all the way to her toes. She’d get used to it, she promised herself.
“You’re good at it, too. I checked you out.”
She narrowed her eyes on him. “You checked me out.”
“Yeah. Before I take on any job, I gather all the information I can. It’s a CIA thing.”
“So? What did you learn?”
“That Brie Sullivan became your legal name when you were adopted at the age of two. I couldn’t access anything before that because the records were sealed. Do you remember anything?”
Only in dreams and images. But she’d always liked the dreams, because in them she’d had older brothers who’d taken care of her. A nice little fantasy, she thought. But in reality, she’d had to take care of herself. What she said aloud was, “No. What else did you find out?”
“Your adoptive parents divorced three years later, when you were five.”
“Adopting me was supposed to save their marriage. I can’t imagine why anyone believes that taking on a kid will solve marital problems. My mom told me I did nothing but cry, and she blamed me for the divorce.”
“And your father? Does he blame you?”
“I never see him. When he remarried, he put the past behind him. But he did help me out financially when I was in college.”
“You graduated with honors from a school in upstate New York where you ran track and majored in voice, and you’ve been supporting yourself through a singing career ever since. That’s how I know you’re good.”
As he pulled into a parking space, he shot her another look. The gray eyes held approval. Aside from the occasional employer and the odd member of one of her audiences, approval was something she didn’t see often, not since she’d left college. Instead of heat this time, she felt warmth. The two made a dangerous combination.
“My steady employment may have more to do with my determination than my talent.”
“I figured that, too,” he said as he turned off the ignition. “It’s one of the reasons I told Maxine Norville I’d take the case.”
For a moment, there was silence in the car. Brie was very much aware of how close they were sitting. Of how easy it would be to reach out and touch him. What surprised her was how much she wanted to. She fisted her hands on her lap to keep them there.
When he lifted his hands from the steering wheel, she was sure that he was going to touch her. And she knew she wouldn’t do a thing to stop him.
“The ferry leaves in ten minutes.” He unfastened his seat belt and turned to open the car door.
Ferry.
Get a grip, Brie. They were going to take a ferry to the small hotel he’d mentioned. His mind was on business. And hers was on him. On the bright side, the biting her tongue thing was working. At least she wasn’t repeating words out loud anymore.
When Cody opened her door, she climbed out and saw that they had indeed parked at a pier where a boat was waiting. Two cars had queued up to drive on board. Cody pulled a duffel and a backpack out of the trunk and shouldered both.
“We’re not taking your car with us,” she observed.
“Avery Cooper, the hotel’s manager, is going to provide us with one. He went to college with one of the owners, Jillian Brightman, and when her life was threatened about a month ago, I was able to provide some help. When he offered the car, I took it. That way if we have to make a quick escape, we’ll still have transportation available here on the mainland.”
When she said nothing, he ran a hand down her arm. “I’m not expecting trouble. But I like to consider all the options.”
He was good at considering options, she reminded herself. And at choosing them on the spot. After all, he couldn’t have been expecting what went down in Times Square. But he’d gotten her away from it.
“One thing I should warn you about,” Cody continued as they walked toward the pier, “Haworth House has a ghost. I’ll fill you in on the ride.”
2
TO CODY’S SURPRISE, the ferry to Belle Island was packed, and the last few passengers were still boarding. All the seats on the upper deck had been taken by the time they’d reached it, so he and Brie had joined others standing at the railing.
From his vantage point, he could see the final car board the ferry. At the last minute, a motorcyclist shot into the parking lot and raised a cloud of dust before driving up the gang plank.Minutes later, the boat got underway.
“How long is the trip?’ Brie asked.
“About half an hour. See that cliff over there? That’s Haworth House.” He pointed to the tower jutting into the cloudless blue sky.
Cody was very much aware of how close Brie was—so close that when she’d turned to look in the direction he was pointing, she brushed against his arm. He felt the heat arrow right to his center. Her effect on his senses hadn’t diminished one iota from the moment he’d clasped her hand in the middle of Times Square.
He’d sized her up before he’d alighted from his cab. She was smaller than he’d figured and slim as a wand. In person, she looked much younger, much less sophisticated than the images on her Web site. In fact, in the worn jeans and T-shirt, she’d looked more like a teenager than the sexy siren portrayed in her publicity photos. The hair was different, too. In the pictures there’d been a tumble of gold curls, a sharp right turn from the no-nonsense ponytail she wore.
When he’d first seen the images on her Web site, he’d felt that tingle of awareness along his nerve endings that told him there was a strong possibility he’d be attracted to her. But even that bit of forewarning hadn’t prepared him for what he’d felt when he’d first met her eyes in Times Square.
They were a bright emerald green with the faintest trace of gold rimming the irises. When his hand had gripped hers, he’d felt an instant connection, and then his mind had emptied.
Emptied. That had never happened to him before. It was a simple meeting of eyes and palms, but in that brief span of time, he’d thought of no one, nothing but her.
Even as her hand had slipped from his, he’d known that he wanted to touch her again. All of her. And he wanted to taste her, too.
Each time they’d come in contact during their race away from New York City—each time he’d taken her arm, placed his hand of the small of her back, or brushed up against her, the desire had escalated.
He’d hoped that while she napped in the car, he’d be able to get some perspective. But the desire hadn’t ebbed one bit while she’d slept. If anything, it had increased. In fact, he’d really struggled with the temptation to put his hands on her when he’d finally parked the car.
For one minute he hadn’t been sure he’d be able to resist.
Only one thought had stopped him. Brie Sullivan needed a bodyguard right now, not a lover. The lady was in a heap of trouble. Maxine had quite a leak in her office if someone had been able to find out the location they’d picked to meet.
Thank heavens he’d insisted on Times Square, where the escape routes were multiple. And thank heavens he’d been able to jerk himself back into reality when the glass behind them had suddenly shattered.
As Brie struck up a conversation with a woman standing next to her, Cody let his gaze sweep the crowded deck, something he should be doing more often than he was. No matter what effect Brie Sullivan was having on his senses, he couldn’t let her distract him from his job.
He and Maxine had worked on a case three years ago, and she hadn’t called him since. He’d saved her witness’s life, but their working styles had clashed. He wasn’t always good at following orders—especially if they might put a client in danger. And Maxine liked to micromanage everything. She wouldn’t be at all happy that she didn’t know exactly where Brie Sullivan was now. But Cody had no intention of letting her know.
Dicky Ferrante was a man on a mission, a wanna-be mob boss with a reputation for ruthlessness. The man also had a hell of a lot of connections, thanks to his grandfather.
Add brains and an ambitious brother to the mix and it didn’t surprise Cody one bit that Dicky had waited for six months to make a move on Brie. He’d probably known all along where she was and then bided his time until the marshals brought her back to New York.
Without her testimony, the murder case against Dicky probably wouldn’t go to trial. And the high drama of taking out the star witness and escaping jail time at the last minute would no doubt impress Dicky’s grandfather.