Chapter Three

 

Syd was grateful Heidi and Jamie appeared on the scene before she seriously thought about responding to Ki's tantalizing statement in kind. After all, she never turned down a dare and Ki had thrown out an interesting one.

The children also saved Syd from going insane and throwing Ki to the ground. What she'd have done after she had him in a prone position would have depended on Ki. She had an idea that he wouldn't have resisted. She settled for a smile that would have done the sultriest feline proud and leaned forward to trail the back of her fingers down his cheek.

"That's reassuring to hear," she said in a husky voice that brought to Ki's mind thoughts of candlelight, bluesy jazz on the stereo, secluded bedrooms and soft beds. "Let me comfort you with the news that I've always kept my shots up to date. Now, why don't you pop some bread into the toaster and get out plates and silverware while I dish up our breakfast."

His green eyes darkened with deep emerald fire before he turned away and found the requested items.

"What a novelty," he commented, handing her four dishes and carrying the silverware over to the breakfast nook that looked out over the rear yard.

"What? Having breakfast?"

"No, that's nothing new. But having breakfast with a woman I didn't sleep with the night before is."

Syd prided herself on keeping cool in the most dangerous situations. She faced guns without turning a hair and once disarmed a bomb with seconds to go without fumbling. She reminded herself that if she could face some of the meanest most dangerous criminals in the world, she could handle Ukiah Jones. As long as she kept her hormones under control.

"Is breakfast ready?" Jamie ran into the kitchen, skidding to a stop beside Syd just as she picked up two of the plates.

"Yes, it is, bottomless pit. Have a seat." Syd set the plates on the table. Before she could retrieve the other two, Ki had already brought them over.

Heidi watched Ki with a wide curious gaze.

"Don'cha have to get out of your pajamas, too?"

"Oh, these aren't my-- " he bit off the explanation that he didn't wear anything to bed. No, these are my lying around the house clothes."

"Why do you lie around the house?"

"It's just an expression, honey," Syd told her. "Mr. Jones works out of his home."

Heidi turned to Ki. "How do you work out of a home? Daddy always goes away every morning to his office. So does Mommy.

Syd's face tightened at Heidi's mention of her father in the present tense, but she remained silent. She applied herself to dropping two more bread slices in the toaster while buttering the ones already done and slicing them in halves.

"Shane was a graphic artist with a large advertising firm. He used to boast that he could make even cod liver oil look good. Jenny was the saner member of the family. She was a microbiologist," she said quietly, setting the plate down and sitting down herself.

That was when Ki noticed four small bowls in one corner of the kitchen. Two filled with water and two in which both dogs had their noses buried in kibble. He slowly turned to Syd. His expression said it all. He was not pleased with her attempt to make him feel sorry enough for them that he'd let them stay.

"They have to eat, too," she calmly explained, forking up eggs and lifting them to her lips. "Eat your food before it gets cold."

"You're not my mother," he groused even as he did just that, much to Syd's amusement.

"She's not our mom, either, but we do what she says,'" Jamie explained. "Because she knows really gross ways to make us behave."

"Really gross, huh?" He looked at Syd. "What really gross methods do you use?'

"Oh, the usual," she said airily, looking at her charges with love-warmed eyes. She glanced at Ki, lowering her voice. "I am talking tortures so horrifying that if I told you about them you would never be the same again."

"She always says that!" Jamie declared with a disgusted snort. He finished his juice in one gulp, picked up his plate and silverware and carried it over to the counter. "Can I go outside?"

"I want to go, too!" Heidi jumped up and down.

Syd hesitated.

"There's nothing around here they can hurt," Ki assured her.

"All right, but put on your coats and boots," she told them. "Jamie, keep an eye on your sister. Both of you stay close to the cabin where I can still see you."

"I know, I know. Don't push her into any snow banks," Jamie muttered, walking with heavy steps as he left the kitchen with Heidi fast on his heels. "Don't tie her to any trees and don't try to sell her to anybody by saying she was left under a bush."

Now Ki knew just how limited his exposure to children was. "Are you sure he's not a thirty-year-old man in a kid's body?"

"We all have wondered that from the time he started to talk," she replied, getting up to pour herself more coffee and holding up the pot to see if Ki wanted more. When he nodded, she brought the pot over to the table and filled his cup. "Then he does something that's totally in keeping with his age, as if he's reassuring people he's a kid after all.

"Not many single women would be willing to take on two kids," he commented.

"Jamie and Heidi are very easy to take."

"Tie my hood," Heidi demanded, waddling over to Syd. With a hooded parka and heavy pants, she resembled a bright pink duckling.

Syd held up her hands, wiggling her fingers.

"What's the magic word?"

"Please." Heidi's smile was like a sunbeam.

Syd looped the cord into a bow and double knotted it. "There, now you're all safe from falling snow angels," she told her, giving her a big hug.

The little girl giggled. "That's silly. There aren't any falling snow angels."

Syd dropped a kiss on her forehead. “ Oh, yes, there are. They just keep out of sight and fall on you when you least expect it."

"Can we go out now?" Jamie queried in a long suffering tone.

"Yes, just don't --"

"Go near the Jeep. We know." He grabbed his sister's hand and dragged her out.

"Why should they stay away from your truck?"

"I don't want them to set off the alarm," she explained, picking up plates.

"I don't think you need to worry about anyone showing up and stealing your truck way out here." Ki picked up his plates. "You cooked. It's only fair I clean up."

"How does a man get the name Ukiah?" she asked curiously. "Is it a family name or what?"

"It's a family name if he was conceived in the back of his daddy’s Chevy in the town of Ukiah, California, and his momma, who doesn’t possess an ounce of imagination, decided it would be a fitting name."

Syd softened "Your dad took off. “

“The minute he heard the results of the pregnancy test.” He shrugged. “No big loss from what my mom said. My dad’s claim to fame was chugalugging seven beers in a row. He probably died of alcohol poisoning before he was twenty-one." He stared at Syd with a challenge in his gaze. "My mom was fifteen when she found out she was having me. She managed to work at a coffee shop, take night school classes so she could get her high school diploma and raise me in between."

Syd wondered if Ki knew just how much of his love for his mother showed in his voice and facial expression. "I hope you remember her with a lovely Mother‘s day card every May."

He grinned. "When I got my first advance check I told her I wanted to buy her a new Chevy. She said to make it a Buick instead. She figured one Chevy in her lifetime was enough."

"Why aren't you spending Christmas with her?"

His features softened. "I don't think her husband would have approved of me going along on their honeymoon. They got married last fall and decided to wait until now to go on their honeymoon."

After Ki rinsed off the plates and placed them in the dishwasher, he paused and looked at Syd, who was busy playing with the dogs. "You rea;;u don't intend to leave, do you?" He sounded more resigned to the fact than angry about it.

"No, I sure don't." She picked up Cocoa and combed his thick fur with her fingertips.

"And there's nothing I can say that might change your mind?"

"Not a thing."

Ki's shoulders lifted and fell with, a deep sigh of resignation. “If the kids fool around with my laptop, I will not hesitate to do them bodily harm."

Syd thoughtfully held back her triumphant smirk.

She always believed she was the better person if she acted the part of the gracious winner.

"I'll make sure they don't disturb you during your work," she replied.

Ki wanted to groan at the thought of the book. He came here because nothing was working right. He came here because he needed to be alone. When he began his book about Baskin he had no idea it would turn out to be one of the most difficult stories he'd ever tried to write. And now to top it off, he was going to have to put up with a red haired witch and two waifs playing games with his mind. His apartment in Chicago was looking more appealing by the second. Until he looked at something else that was even more inviting.

"They might as well toss me in a padded room and throw away the key, "he muttered, stomping out of the kitchen. "Next time I want peace and quiet, I'll try the North Pole."

"Wouldn't you like the last cup of coffee?" Syd called after him with studied solicitousness. All she received for her trouble was an angry mumble. "Then if you don't mind, I'll take it and make up a fresh pot for you."

She hummed a military march as she left the kitchen with the dogs fast on her heels.

It wasn’t until a moment later Ki realized the knots of tension that had been in his body for the past few months were starting to unwind. And he had a pretty good idea that Syd Taylor had something to do with it. Trouble was, he worried that only meant she was going to create other kinds of tension.

 

SYD THREW ON her black parka and went outside to her Jeep. She punched in the code to disarm the alarm, and after telling the kids to keep close to the house, warmed it up and drove it around to the rear of the cabin so she could unload the contents.

She leaned inside to push aside a couple of boxes.

As she reached forward toward an inner corner, a voice came from behind

"Need any help?"

She looked over her shoulder to see Ki standing in the kitchen doorway.

"No, thanks, there isn't anything heavy," she assured him, silently damning herself for not sensing his presence. What was there about the man that upset her internal radar?

He nodded and went back inside.

"Such a gentleman," she laughed to herself, reaching back to the comer and carefully peeling back a section of the carpet. The panel's tiny green blinking light looked like something out of a James Bond movie, but it assured her no one had found it. Syd punched the buttons below in what appeared to be a random sequence and waited to hear the tiny click before she lifted a lever. A section of the Jeep's floor slid to one side, revealing two powerful rifles and three handguns with ammunition secured next to them. Like the Boy Scouts, Syd always believed in being prepared. And the guns weren't something she could have left behind at the house or even in the small apartment she kept when she was in town. So when she left, she took them with her. She made sure everything was intact before quickly closing the panel.

"A woman can never have enough firepower," she murmured, pulling out a box filled with Heidi and Jamie's toys she had made sure to bring along. While she hated the idea of taking them from their home, she wanted to make sure they had some of their belongings with them. "Jamie, would you come help me with this, please?"

Within seconds he'd skidded to a stop by his aunt. "Isn't child labor illegal?"

"Of course it is, my little darling. I would never have you do anything that would smack of labor. So I don't want you to worry about your toys. They'll be safe locked in the Jeep." She started to take the box from him.

He moved them out of her way. "No, that's okay.

I'll help. I just hope my Game Gear didn't freeze. We shoulda brought it in last night."

"As it doesn't breathe, I don't think we have anything to worry about," Syd said amiably, carrying Heidi's box of toys toward the back door. Jamie followed.

Syd carried one box upstairs and instructed Jamie to leave the other downstairs. She'd take care of it later. He didn't waste any time in racing outside before his aunt got any more ideas.

She unpacked their duffel bags and put clothing away, then put the kids’ toys out where they could easily find them. The last thing she took care of was setting a studio portrait of Shane, Jenny, Heidi and Jamie on the dresser. Tears filled her eyes as she brushed her fingers against her brother's image.

"You can't protect the whole world, Syd," Shane told her the day she informed him she had signed up with the agency; "Why do something so dangerous? Why can't you marry Andrew and have kids?"

"Because marrying Andrew won't make me happy," she had told him. "Because I need more than playing the part of the wife of an up and coming state senator. I'm not made for that kind of life.”

"Great! One person can't save the world, Syd. I don't want to see you killed for your efforts!" he had raged at her.

"I guess we got it all wrong, big brother," she whispered to the image of her three minutes older sibling.

Syd gave each dog a rawhide chew toy, laughing as Bogie immediately trotted off with his prize searching for an appropriate hiding place. It was no secret that the small dog preferred to hide his treats. The only problem was he generally forgot where he'd hidden them. They didn't show up until someone stumbled on them behind the couch or beneath chair cushions. She’d even found them in her shoes.

She spent the next hour exploring the upstairs rooms, making sure the locks were secured on the windows and on the French doors that opened onto the second story deck. Outside, she saw a stairway leading downstairs to the rear deck and a hot tub covered with a tarp. She stood at the window for a moment, watching the kids building a snowman in the yard.

She thought of the books she'd stashed in her bag when they left Virginia. There were a large number of novels she had been intending to read and never seemed to have the time for. Inactivity was something Syd was used to even if she didn't like it. She'd staked out more than her share of arms and drug dealers during her years as an agent, and she was always able to find ways to occupy herself. But her adrenaline was always running then. She had to keep herself on her toes at all times. Anticipation pumped her up and gave her a high no drug in the world could duplicate. She felt a curious letdown and started to feel sorry for herself until she thought of the kids. No, they were more than worth her taking on a slower and safer pace of life.

She looked around for Ki but couldn't find him in the living room or kitchen. That was when she noticed the laptop computer was missing from the table. Now she had a pretty good idea where he was.

 

"IT ISN'T RIGHT that you hide out in here when it's your house."

Ki looked up from the screen covered with words that didn't make any sense to find Syd standing in the doorway,

"I'm not hiding out." He shifted from his cross-legged position in the middle of the bed to stretching his legs out in front of him. He set his computer to one side. "I tend to do my best work in a hall closet."

"Liar."

He shrugged. "Every creative mind has its little eccentricities. Mine's space. The less the better. That way my attention can't stray as easily."

Syd didn't wait for an invitation to enter. She walked in and wandered aimlessly, sliding her forefinger across the top of the dresser as if checking for dust, glancing out the window and flicking her eyes toward the closet, where the door was open several inches.

To a less discerning eye, she would have appeared to be idly curious about his room. Ki was positive she could be blindfolded and still easily name every piece of clothing visible in the closet. He'd bet she knew, to the penny, how much loose change was lying on top of the dresser. Hell, she probably could tell what color underwear he wore. If he'd had any on, that is.

Syd folded her hands against her lower spine and rested against the dresser.

"I understand you're a writer. What kind of books do you write?"

Any writer's ego was pricked when they weren't recognized. Ki wasn't any different.

"You're not a reader?"

"I like a good horror novel now and then. Psychological thrillers, too."

"I write true crime novels," he said tersely.

Her lips twitched. Now, why the hell did she find his statement amusing?

"Who have you written about?"

"I wrote Caroline Matthews's story." He named a woman who'd murdered her boss because he refused to give her a raise, then had gone on to kill everyone in her office because she believed they were part of a conspiracy to keep her from getting what was due her. "I've written about Justin Stanley."

"Wasn't he that hermit who lived in a cave high up in the Rockies? He was kidnapping teenage girls out of campsites to keep him company in his cave until he got tired of them. Did the police ever find all the bodies?"

He shook his head. "Not up in those mountains.

She nodded her understanding. “Too many places for him to hide them."

"Do you prefer the more sensational crimes or the subtle ones?"

He marveled at the way she could stand there, not moving a muscle.' "Is there such a thing as a subtle crime?"

A slight shrug of the shoulder pushed her sweater neckline down another inch.

"I always considered poison subtle;" Syd commented. "If you know what you're doing you can make it difficult to trace. There are a lot of rare ones out there that don’t have any antidotes."

Ki thought about the delicious breakfast he'd consumed. Then the second pot of coffee Syd had made. He thought of the second cup he'd just finished.

"You're good," he stated in an admiring tone. "Very good."

"I have to be," Syd said with no show of conceit. "Why?"

Her turning to look out the window looked so natural Ki had trouble believing it was deliberate. Deep down, he knew it was.

"Those kids are going to turn into icicles," she mused as she walked to the door.

Ki watched her glide across the room. He decided no normal woman walked with such grace. But there was something there. Something about her he couldn't quite put his finger on.

“What's for lunch?" he called after her, purely for the sake of saying something.

"Whatever the kids and dogs will eat."

"What about what I'll eat?"

"Something tells me you'll eat anything that you haven't had to cook yourself." Her voice drifted back to him.

"Right about now I could go for a pretty big helping of you," he muttered, picking his computer up and placing it on his lap, which suddenly seemed to have grown.

"Bogie, what have you got there? Isn't that Cocoa's?" He heard Syd's voice from the kitchen. A dog's whine answered her question. "All right, but if Cocoa goes after you for taking his toy, I won't intervene. Come on, let's get you into a puppy snowsuit, so we can go outside."

Ki couldn't resist peeking out the window. Syd had added a parka to her sweater and pulled on boots. Cocoa was chasing after Jamie, who was, in turn, chasing his sister, who squealed in mock horror.

"That kid's lungs are going to give out before the month is out,” he muttered then burst out laughing when he saw the small tan dog standing next to Syd.

Dressed in what looked like a black sweatshirt and sweatpants with his slightly crooked tail stuck through a hole in the back, Bogie danced alongside his mistress. It wasn't until he turned that Ki could see the bright red writing on his chest. Life's Short, Bite Hard.

"I wonder if that pertains to you or your mistress?"

He had no idea how long he stood at the window, watching the three humans and two canines dodge one another in a game of tag.

He might be a guy used to being alone, and liking it that way, but suddenly he wished he was out there with them.

He returned to his computer even though he still wasn't sure what angle he was going to take with this latest case. Probably because he didn't care.

Ki later discovered that lunch consisted of grilled cheese sandwiches and cream of tomato soup. Not gourmet fare but fine with him. Especially when he discovered that Syd had sprinkled bacon bits in the cheese and added a dash of Worcestershire to the soup. After lunch, she persuaded Heidi to take a nap. Jamie, occupied with his favorite Video game, was slumped on the couch. Ki decided it was a perfect time to work and an even more perfect time to question Syd a little more.

 

IT HADN'T TAKEN SYD long to realize any kind of housework wasn't her favorite activity. She preferred paper plates over china, and if dishwashers hadn't been invented she knew she would have invented one out of sheer desperation.

After lunch and getting Heidi and Jamie settled down. she returned to the kitchen with the resigned expression of a woman doomed to her fate. Luckily, the radio in the kitchen yielded a golden oldies station to listen to while she cleaned counters and washed the pans. With her hips swinging to the throbbing beat of Creedence Clearwater Revival, she handled the clean up with a minimum of fuss.

Until Ki made the big mistake of walking up behind her to tap her on the shoulder as she put silverware away.

Syd didn't stop to think. She operated on pure instinct to protect. She had programmed herself into a protective mode for so long, she momentarily forgot she didn't have to worry about the enemy. The kids always spoke to her first instead of unexpectedly walking up behind her.

She spun on her heel, the other leg slightly extended to sweep her enemy off Ills feet. Before he'd hit the floor she had planted that same foot squarely in his solar plexus.

Air was pushed out of Ki's abdomen, leaving him gasping for oxygen. From his sprawled position on the floor, he stared up at her with disbelief in his eyes. She had taken him down so neatly he hadn’t realized what was happening until after it was over. He coughed several times as he tried to take in enough air to speak. He finally managed to rasp out a few words.

"What the hell are you?"