Chapter Two

 

Syd determinedly kept her gaze centered on his face and not on the broad expanse of hair-covered chest or lower toward the blanket that slipped downward each time he took a breath. When caught in a difficult situation, she always believed in remaining on the offensive. This was no exception.

"None of the owners use the cabin this time of year."

Ki crossed his arms in front of his chest and studied Syd with a slow, sweeping gaze. Their fight had sent her knit cap slipping partway off her head, sending strands of red hair floating down to just above her shoulders. While her eyes were still that potent color of blue, the heavy makeup was gone, leaving her skin a translucent pearl color, and faint freckles were now visible across her nose. With a heavy knit sweater hanging loosely around her hips, leg-hugging jeans and boots, her curves weren't as evident.

"This isn't a time share, sweetheart," he drawled. "So why don't you tell me why you and the Dead End kids were breaking into my house?"

"If you're one of the owners, it's only one-fourth your house," she corrected him with a smirk, "and we've been invited to stay here."

"By whom?"

"Steve Chambliss."

Ki looked her over again. "How do you know Steve?"

"I don't, but a friend of his arranged this for us. He said there wouldn't be any problem in our staying here." Syd hated to make explanations, especially to men who looked comfortable wearing nothing more than a blanket while she had the good fortune to remember what he looked like without it. "I know that the house is jointly owned by Steve, Tripp Ashby, Ki Jones and Deke Washbum. They've been buddies who go all the way back to their hell raising days at Beckett College. Now, if you don't mind, I have two very tired children who need to be in bed." She cocked her head as she heard the frenzied barking from the front of the house. "And two very upset dogs who probably want to find the nearest tree."

Ki held up his hand like a crossing guard halting further words. Although he had to admit, sparring with this woman was the most fun he'd had in quite a while. "Well, lady, you've just met up with Ukiah Jones, and the last thing I want around here are kids and dogs. I'm out here for peace and quiet, not to listen to kids whine and cry and whatever else they do and to have dogs tearing up furniture and peeing on the carpet. You'll have to find another place. Take my advice. When you start looking, wear the blue spandex. I'm sure you'll find a room in no time."

Syd's jaw tightened as she concentrated on tamping down her fury at his callous disregard for her charges. "Do you realize what time it is?"

"Hey, sweetheart, I don't care what time it is. I wasn't the one who broke in here!"

She advanced on him with anger radiating out of every pore in her body. Every bone fairly quivered with fury. Anyone who had worked with her in the past would have been surprised, since she was always known for her cool composure in the line of fire.

"I didn't break in I was given a damn key!"

"Auntie Syd, you said a bad word again!" Jamie's voice rang out from the kitchen.

"Syd?" Ki arched an eyebrow. Humor curved his lips upward. "Well, Syd, we have a problem here. And you're it."

She was used to figuring her options in fractions of a second. The way she looked at it, this was one of those times when she needed all her wits, about her. She always stood her ground, never backed down and never took prisoners.

"Not really. It's very simple. You stay in your onefourth of the house. We'll stay in Steve's fourth."

"You don't understand. I came up here for peace and quiet so I could work. Your being around means I won't get either. Why did you come up here?"

Syd wasn't about to trust a stranger, even a good looking one.

"The children lost their parents recently," she said in a low voice. "I'm now their legal guardian and wanted to give them a change of scenery."

"What about the mutts? They lose their mommy and daddy, too? Give me a break. Sob stories don't cut with me. You're going to have to come up with something a lot better than that."

Syd sifted through the little information she had about the other three owners. "Yeah, you're Ukiah Jones. I understand he's the cynical one. Aren't you supposed to be in Chicago?"

Ki didn't like it when strangers knew his itinerary.

Especially mouthy ones with beautiful eyes. He started to say something pithy when movement in the back of the room caught his attention. He looked beyond Syd's shoulder to the two children standing under the archway leading to the kitchen. The boy held his sister's hand tightly and moved closer to her, as if to protect her. Ki closed his mouth, then opened it again, but nothing came out.

"All right, you can stay tonight. It's too late for you to find a motel room, anyway," he conceded wearily. "But you have to go in the morning."

Syd was an expert on when to speak and when to remain silent. This was most definitely the time to remain silent. She settled for nodding.

"You can use two of the bedrooms upstairs," Ki said with a small sigh, waving his hand upward.

"Thank you." The words burned in her throat.

After all, she had as much right to be here as he did, even if he did own one-fourth of the cabin. She quickly headed for the door.

"I'm sure you'll understand my not offering to help you carry in your luggage," Ki said mockingly.

Syd turned around and offered him an equally sardonic smile. "Don't worry about it, Mr. Jones. I'd hate to think of you freezing …” her gaze momentarily dropped, “yourself."

She pulled suitcases out of the back while the dogs ran around and left their marks on the moonlit snow.

"Come on, guys," she called out to them and waited for them to run into the house.

"Are we staying here with the bad man?" Heidi asked in her piping voice.

Unknown to them, Ki stood inside his bedroom, wincing as he heard the little girl's question.

"Yes, sweetie; but don't worry, Auntie Syd will protect you." She swept the girl up in her arms and tickled her tummy. Heidi squealed with laughter. "All right, time for bed. Come on, Cocoa, Bogie, bedtime," she called to the dogs as they climbed the stairs.

Ki lay in bed hearing muffled sounds overhead as the trio readied themselves for bed. He could hear chatter between the boy and girl, water running in the bathroom and eventually blessed silence.

"Oh, hell," he muttered, rolling over and punching his pillow with his fist. "I should have stayed in Chicago."

He finally fell asleep but the image of brilliant blue eyes followed him into his dreams.

 

SYD SHOULD HAVE BEEN used to sharing her bed with two dogs and occasionally a little girl, but tonight was different. She was so tired from days of keeping watch over her shoulder, of constant disguises and name changes so Leo wouldn't have an easy time of tracking her down that she felt as if she could sleep through a nuclear war.

She shivered under the cold sheets as Bogie, her Chihuahua/Yorkie, stretched out beside her under the covers in search of body heat. Cocoa, her terri-poo, lay on top of the covers curled up next to her rear end. She wondered how long it would take before Heidi showed up with her battered teddy bear in tow. The tot never failed to come in.

Every time she closed her eyes, pictures of a naked Ki flashed through her brain. A potent reminder of how long it had been since she'd been with a man who sent her senses reeling. If in fact, any man had ever affected her the way Ukiah Jones did. And for a woman in her business correction, ex-business anything that threw off her sense of self protection could prove to be dangerous.

"Auntie Syd."

She opened her eyes and turned her head. Heidi, wearing a flannel nightgown with a cartoon portrait of Aladdin and Princess Jasmine on the front, stood by the side of the bed. A dark brown teddy bear dangled from one hand.

"My bed is making funny noises," she mumbled, rubbing her eyes with a tiny fist. "Can I sleep with you?"

Syd smiled and pulled the covers back. "Come on in, sweetie." After the little girl was warmly covered, she curved her arm around Heidi's shoulders. "Is Jamie still asleep?"

"Uh huh."

When they first got ready for bed an hour ago, Heidi had insisted on sleeping with her brother. Syd knew it wouldn't last. She hadn't been insisting on Heidi sleeping in her own bed, because she knew the little girl needed a major dose of TLC. Luckily, that was something she was capable of giving. A low growl from her other side vibrated through her leg as she shifted and almost crushed Bogie. She soothed the small dog as Heidi buried her face in Syd's shoulder.

"Are we ever gonna go home?" Heidi whispered. Syd thought of the lovely home Shane and Jenny had fixed up for their growing family. Shane had set up a swing set and slide in the backyard along with a swimming pool, because Jamie had proved to be a little fish. Shane used to brag his son would grow up to be an Olympic gold medal winner. She mourned he'd never even see his son grow up.

"Soon," she replied, brushing Heidi's bangs away from her face. "Now, go to sleep."

"That mean man isn't going to let us stay here, is he?"

"You let Auntie Syd handle him, okay?"

Heidi let loose a sleepy giggle. "Then I guess we're stayin’."

Syd had to smile. Her tiny niece had so much faith in her that she knew she couldn't let her down. She closed her eyes and thought about her upcoming bout with a man with the most beautiful green eyes she'd ever seen.

 

KI WAS HAVING the best dream he'd had in years. A gorgeous woman wearing only a fur coat covering a luscious naked body was in his arms, planting wet kisses all over his face. His smile broadened as he thought about the erotic things he'd let her do to him before he returned the favor.

"Hey, honey, don't worry, we've got all night," he mumbled, wrapping his arms around her. "And I sure don't intend to rush when it's my turn."

Her whimpers of delight echoed in his ear as he laughed and pulled her toward him for a kiss. A kiss totally unlike any kiss he'd ever received. She seemed to lap him up.

Ki rose swiftly through the cotton wool of sleep and forced his eyes open. Instead of the beautiful woman in his arms, he found a dark brown dog lying squarely on his chest. He picked the dog up and stared at him.

"Hell, you're not even a female," he grumbled, putting the dog to one side.

The dog whimpered and pawed at him. His large brown eyes signaled a distress that even Ki could understand.

"Don't tell me you have to go out?" The dog's ears immediately pricked up.

"Ah, hell," Ki muttered, pushing the covers aside and swinging his legs out of bed. He quickly pulled on a pair of sweatpants and sweatshirt. "Come on." He gestured for the dog to follow him.

He swore under his breath as a blast of cold air hit him when he opened the back door. The dog ran outside and headed for the nearest tree. He only stayed out long enough to do his business before running back inside. He barked his pleasure and ran circles around Ki's legs.

"Uh uh, you want anything else, you can go ask your screwy mistress."

"Cocoa's always like that after he's gone potty."

Ki looked up to see the boy standing in the kitchen doorway. While his red flannel pajamas looked warm enough, his feet were bare and he stood on the tile floor with one foot propped on the other.

"Shouldn't you be wearing slippers or socks or something?' He pulled a bag of coffee beans out of the freezer and dug the coffee grinder out of a cabinet. There were few things Ki was selective about. Coffee was one of them. He bought whole beans and ground them fresh every morning.

"I'm sorry Cocoa woke you up. I guess he had to go really bad and couldn't wake Auntie Syd up. She was real tired last night. Auntie Syd said we aren't supposed to bug you, but I guess Cocoa didn't understand. He just does what he wants."

"Just like his mistress," Ki muttered.

Jamie sidled into the kitchen and perched on a nearby stool, watching Ki's movements with a gaze Ki felt was too solemn for a boy so young. He reached down and patted Cocoa's head. The dog nuzzled his hand and left the room.

"What are you doing?"

"Making coffee." Ki set up the coffeemaker with quick, efficient movements.

"Dad used to do it that way. He's dead. So's our mom."

Ki's hand stilled over the coffeemaker's switch. "Yeah, I thought maybe that was the case."

"Heidi doesn't understand what it means. She's only five," he pronounced with the arrogance of a mature nine-year-old. "She thinks they're off on a vacation or something, so Auntie Syd's gonna take care of us now. Although Dad said Auntie Syd's idea of taking care of anybody is pretty iffy. They were twins, so he always said if anybody could say anything they wanted about her it was him. He also said she's got a James Bond complex." He paused. "Whatever that means."

Ki hid his smile. It looked as if this kid was the best one to pump about his dear ‘Auntie Syd’.

"What's your name, kid?"

Jamie held out his hand in an adult manner. "James Allen Taylor, but everyone calls me Jamie. I was named after my grandfather. My sister's Heidi Elizabeth Taylor. I don't think she was named after anybody."

Ki swallowed another smile as he put together the various names. "I'm pleased to meet you, James Taylor." He shook Jamie's hand. "What about your Auntie Syd? Who was she named after?"

Jamie squirmed uneasily on his perch. "We're not really supposed to talk about her."

That was new. He wondered if that meant she was as crazy as she seemed last night.

"Yeah, well, I've got relatives I'm not supposed to talk about either."

"It's just because Auntie Syd's a spy," Jamie explained, clearly not remembering exactly what he was and wasn't supposed to say about her.

Ki chalked that statement right up there with his great aunt who used to believe little green men left the Mother Ship to talk to her once a month. He turned to see Jamie casting a yearning look toward the refrigerator. It brought memories of himself at Jamie's age when hunger was a constant fact of life. "

"You want some breakfast?" He opened the refrigerator and pulled out a plastic bottle of orange juice.

Jamie's head bobbed up and down. "Auntie Syd took us to McDonald's for breakfast yesterday. I told her Mom always said a person would be better off eating lard, but Auntie Syd said it was better than eating worms. Heidi started screaming that our food had worms in it, and we had to get out of there fast cuz people were looking at us real funny. And I don't mean the kind of funny where somebody laughs."

Ki coughed to cover his chuckle as he poured a glass of juice and handed it to Jamie, "Son, you've got a pretty strange family. Are the dogs at least halfway normal?"

"They're Auntie Syd's," he replied, as if that explained it all. "She got Cocoa when he was a puppy when she was first back here and later on she decided he needed company. She said Bogie picked her out the same way Cocoa chose her. She said since she had been thinking of staying all the time, she was glad she had the dogs."

"Bogie?" he frowned, pouring himself a glass of juice. "After Humphrey Bogart?"

"Amazing how everyone thinks that." Syd wandered into the kitchen with the small tan dog on her heels and Heidi and Cocoa not far behind.

Heidi dragged a teddy bear after her. She wore a heavy quilted robe over her pajamas and pink bunny slippers. Syd was dressed in black knit leggings and a forest green wool sweater that stopped just below her waist. Ki uneasily noticed that the wide neckline seemed to have a habit of sliding off one creamy shoulder as she moved. She'd looped her hair up on top of her head, although wisps escaped to caress her nape and cheeks. She didn't wear any makeup and didn't need any to accentuate her brilliantly colored eyes. What had Ki's nerve endings quivering with lust was the most haunting fragrance emanating from her skin. What was she wearing? Sex Potion Number Nine?

"Maybe it's because I never heard of a dog named after a golf term."

"Neither have I, but if it's that important for you to know, Bogie was named after a radar blip," she said in a haughty voice that Ki decided could easily grate on his nerves.

He shook his head as if he wasn't sure he heard correctly "A radar blip?"

"You know, those little blips on a radar screen that aren't really there," she went on as if he should be able to understand something that was so clear in her own mind. "The name seemed to suit him." She unerringly headed for the cabinet that held glasses. She gestured for Heidi to sit down while she poured the juice into a glass. "I figure the least I can do is cook breakfast for everyone." She opened the refrigerator door. "Ham and eggs sound all right?" As she gathered up the ingredients, she paused long enough to help herself to a cup of coffee. She breathed in the aroma before sipping. "Very good. French vanilla, isn't it?"

He nodded. "Anything else you want to take of mine?"

She found a pan and began cracking the eggs. "Not just yet. Jamie, would you put Bogie out, please?"

The tiny dog danced on his hind legs, pressing his paws against the door as if he could push it open himself. He raced outside the moment Jamie opened it.

"What the hell kind of dog is that?"

"He’s a Chihuahua/Yorkie. Cocoa, that's c o c o a by the way, is half poodle and half terrier. Although there are days when I think they're both more terrorist than terrier,"

"Whatever happened to traditional dog names like Fluffy or Spot or Poncho?"

Syd looked over her shoulder with a steady gaze. "I don't believe in tradition."

Ki leaned against the counter and sipped his coffee, deciding it wasn't so bad watching someone else cook. Especially when that someone else wore an errant sweater that kept sliding off her shoulder.

"That's easy to see. So how come you're all the way out here when you should be home for Christmas setting out milk and cookies for Santa Claus?"

"Auntie Syd said Santa could find us here!" Heidi suddenly erupted in an earsplitting screech. "Santa has to know where I am so he can bring me my Talking Taffy doll!"

Ki wiggled a forefinger in his ear to make sure it was still in working order. "Does she come with a volume control?" he muttered.

"Santa knows where you are, Heidi," Syd calmly assured her as she sent Ki a warning look. "And he'll be here Christmas Eve night."

"The kids have accents that don't belong to California," Ki went on as he delicately probed for information. "I'd say back East. Right?"

"Last I heard native Californians were a distinct minority." Syd chopped ham into small cubes and added it to the egg mixture, then began chopping cheese into tiny pieces. "Kids, why don't you go on up and get dressed before you eat?"

"That means she doesn't want us to hear what she's going to say," Jamie groused, climbing off the stool and grabbing Heidi's hand. "Come on."

Ki turned to the scratching sounds coming from the door. Syd opened it, laughing as the light tan-colored dog jumped into her arms.

"Poor baby, you must be freezing," she cooed, rubbing his sides with her hands. "I'd better get one of your sweaters out for you next time." When she returned to the stove, both dogs hovered by her legs obviously looking for handouts.

Ki was grateful to notice she washed her hands before she picked up food. While he didn't adhere to proper hygiene when he did his own cooking he drew the line at someone else hauling around a dog then not washing those same hands before handling his food.

Although he might draw not the line if she held on to the dog and that sweater slipped off her shoulder even more.

"Jamie said their parents are dead."

Her movements paused. "Yes, they are. I told you that last night."

"He also said his dad was your twin." Her head bobbed in an abrupt nod.

Ki sensed her pain even as she seemed to refuse to admit it.

"I've read that twins share a bond no other sibling could understand."

Syd turned around. "We hadn't seen much of each other in the last few years, but I knew to the second when he died because a part of me died at the same time. I gather that's what you mean. He and his wife were killed by a strung out druggie who wanted their money. It took the authorities two weeks to track me down." All because of her plans changing when she was on the trail of that agent in Lisbon. "By the time I got back, they had already been buried and the kids were in foster care because we had no other family to take care of them. Heidi refused to talk to anyone and Jamie's way of coping was to fight anyone and everyone who dared to approach him. I wanted them away from familiar surroundings so they could have a chance to heal."

Ki never considered himself a sucker. He never loaned money or his car or believed a sob story. But there was something about those eyes and steady gaze that did something to him. Not to mention the kids.

He again wished he'd stayed in Chicago.

"I came here for peace and quiet," he said without preamble. "I have work to do and I don't like interruptions. Can you promise me that I'll get peace and quiet with all of you here?"

"No," she said honestly. "But I can promise that I'll do the cooking, although I'll warn you I'm not exactly the best. And I'll keep the kids out of your way as much as possible. All I ask is that you don't advertise our presence."

Ki burst out laughing. "Advertise your presence? Lady, you sound like a covert agent."

Syd looked down at Bogie who leaned against her leg. "Nothing unusual about that. I sound like a lot of people."

"Actress?" he inquired.

She smiled. She waved a spatula in time to her words. "Role playing is very therapeutic, don't you think? It makes a person feel as if they can be anyone they want. Whether they want to be an astronaut or a cowboy or a fireman."

"Or a spy?"

"Or a spy," she cheerfully echoed. "Didn't you ever want to be James Bond when you grew up?"

"I was more into the The Addams Family, myself. I thought Morticia was pretty hot stuff."

Syd cocked her head to one side as she considered his statement. "So you're into tall and slinky?"

"No, I just go nuts when a woman speaks French."

Ki walked over and looked into the pan where fluffy scrambled eggs with bits of ham and melted cheese resided. He pinched off a bit of egg and threw it into his mouth. "This isn't bad at all."

"Of course not. Breakfast is my favorite meal, so I tend to go all out when I'm making it."

Although Ki's attention was fixed on her, and as far as he knew she hadn't budged a fraction of an inch, he would swear she had made sure she stayed out of his range. He moved closer, ignoring the growl from below. He dismissed the small dog as harmless.

"Don't worry, honey," he said, growling a little himself as he leaned over and murmured in her ear, "I won't bite."

She looked amused instead of alarmed by his provocative statement. "I'm surprised you couldn't come up with a more original line."

"Maybe so, but how many men can also assure you they haven't had to wear a muzzle in years?"