Chapter Four

 

"Isn't that just like a man! There’s nothing wrong with a woman who takes a few self defense courses, so she can protect herself. Then the first time she has to use her skills, he gets all bent out of shape and automatically labels her another Bruce Lee." Syd silently congratulated herself on sounding properly affronted as she threw her hands up an excellent portrayal of disgust.

"Bruce Lee's dead and that was no amateur throw you tried on me, honey. And don't talk to me about ‘being bent out of shape’." Ki slowly rose to his feet. He groaned as an aching pain shot up his back. "Damn, that hurt! You could have killed me!"

"Please watch your language," she requested sweetly. "There are children present. For someone who thinks he's dying, you seem to move around pretty easily."

"At least he says them in a language we can understand," Jamie spoke up. Both children stood in the doorway. Heidi yawned and rubbed her eyes.

"Why don't you kids go upstairs?" Ki suggested.

Jamie grabbed Heidi's hand and hauled her up the stairs. "Come on, they're gonna fight and they don't want us to hear them."

"We are not going to fight," Syd called after him.

"We are going to fight," Ki insisted between clenched teeth once he sensed the kids were out of earshot.

Syd tipped her head back so that she could look fully into his face. The faint lines radiating from his eyes were tight with fury, as was his mouth. His eyes blazed with the brilliancy of strong lights hitting the facets of an emerald. His anger seemed to ooze out of his very pores.

"Aren't you afraid of high blood pressure?"

"Don't mess with me," he said quietly, dangerously. “You wouldn’t like the consequences.”

"No problem." Little did he know she had faced greater dangers hi her line of work. She considered him nothing more than a pesky mosquito.

Ki advanced on her until he stood close enough to see faint dots of light dancing in her eyes.

"Sweetheart" his endearment was thickly coated with sarcasm "I've interviewed some of the most talented liars in the country. While you're very good at evading the truth, I know I can still catch you in a lie. Now, who are you?"

Not by a blink of the eye did Syd show any fear at his implied threat. She returned his gaze with a calm one of her own.

"Sydney Ann Taylor of Fairfax, Virginia. Would you like to see my driver's license for confirmation? Although I understand fake driver's licenses aren't all that difficult to obtain if you know the right people."

He didn't react to her less than subtle taunt. "Is that your real name?"

Syd stood utterly relaxed. "You know, I always thought a real name was an original name. But then I also thought my name would go better with an upper crust British accent," she said, adopting the slight nasal tones of Great Britain's royalty "Don't you think it would add something?"

Ki took that extra step that had his chest brushing her breasts. He ignored the tingle entering his body. But he didn't ignore the faint narrowing of her eyes that had to mean she felt the same thing.

Interesting, he thought, tempted to go that extra inch to see what would happen.

He really needs to learn not to telegraph his moves, she noted to herself.

It was that mental pat on the back that momentarily drew Syd's attention from what happened next. Before she could regain her grasp on what was going on between them, Ki had grasped her forearms and pulled her toward him for that extra inch.

Her breasts met a hard chest covered in flannel. She noticed her nipples first tingled then hardened at the contact. That was her first mistake. Her second was opening her mouth to say something, because Ki wasn't about to give her a chance. He angled his hips against hers, and slid his hands down her spine until they rested in the hollow of her back, then moved one around to the front of her waist.

He discovered she tasted the way she smelled. Hot, silky, with a touch of exotic spice thrown in. It was a potent aphrodisiac to a man who couldn't remember any woman ever getting him so hot so fast. He curled his tongue around hers to further savor her taste, delighted when hers returned the favor.

Syd never thought a person's head could spin until now. She felt as if she was riding a swiftly revolving carousel that refused to stop. The world was whirling around her, and the only stable thing in her universe was the man holding her in his arms. A warm musky scent invaded her nostrils, wrapping her in a blanket of need. The scent of a man in heat, her disordered brain babbled. A scent that seemed to swirl around her and blend with her own. A perfect match. A dangerous match.

She wanted to pull away from him. She wanted to regain her senses, but she couldn't. And, if truth be told, the last thing she wanted to do was stop the earthquake starting to roll throughout her body.

If Ki ever wanted to know what heaven on earth was like, he now knew. It was Syd in his arms, kissing him back. Her arms were wrapped around him. Her breast was warm and swollen in his palm, her nipple a puckered rose.

He wanted more. He wanted them to find a nice quiet place and continue this in a horizontal position. He wanted her naked. He wanted

"Wow, that is really gross!"

Syd and Ki flew apart. Syd's face was flushed, her eyes dazed as she tried to regain her self control. Ki's chest was rising up and down rapidly as he sucked in much needed air.

"Shouldn't you be upstairs, Jamie?" Syd asked with remarkable composure. She decided Ki ranked right up there with the top three kissers, and that included Sergei. She always thought he kissed better than he made love and she considered him an incredible lover.

"You two were yelling."

She didn't take her eyes off Ki as she answered her nephew's argument. "We weren't yelling."

"You don't have to yell to sound like you're yelling." He made a face. "You guys were disgusting. I'm just glad Heidi didn't see you. She could have ended up with a complex." He turned around and trudged back up the stairs.

"You're welcome," Ki said. "

She arched an arrogant eyebrow. "I don't believe I have a reason to thank you for anything."

He had the audacity to flash her a grin that was a perfect match for her arrogance. "Sure you do. Jamie was so disgusted with what he just saw he probably won't want to play doctor with the neighbor's daughter out behind the bushes for a long time. It's one less thing to worry about. My mom would agree since playing doctor used to be one of my favorite pastimes."

She shot him a ‘you've got to be kidding’ look.

"It's been a long time since you were nine, hasn't it?"

"It's been over twenty years, but boys don't change." He looked at her face with its lean cheeks flushed a deep peach color and lips moist and swollen. He wanted her in just about every way imaginable.

Her eyes drifted downward for a second, then resolutely fastened on his face. "I've heard that a cold shower works wonders with problems like yours," she said with a sly twist of the lips.

He smiled back. "Unless, of course, you'd prefer to handle it yourself."

Syd knew there were always times when it was smarter to retreat and this was definitely a time to make a quick escape!

"I better check on Jamie and make sure he wasn't traumatized," she declared in a bright voice. She turned on her heel and walked up the stairs.

"Traumatized?" Ki muttered, stung by her remark. "Hell, he ought to consider it a damn good lesson," he muttered. As he walked back to his room, he realized just how hard he'd hit the floor. "I hate to think what she would have done to me if I'd fought back."

He settled down with his laptop in place. "Damn woman. She's probably the top finalist for Shrew of the Year award."

 

SYD WALKED QUIETLY down the hallway until she stood just outside the room Jamie and Heidi were playing in.

"I don't like that man," she heard Heidi say. "He yells a lot."

"I think he likes to yell. Especially at kids," Jamie muttered.

"Why? We're not bad. I didn't wet the bed last night. And I picked up my clothes and put my toys away today."

Syd swore under her breath as she imagined tears sparkling in Heidi's eyes. She'd had an idea Jamie hadn't been pleased to see Ki kissing her. His tone confirmed it. She deliberately made noise before entering the room.

"All right, crew, we have a few hours free before dinner. Any suggestions?" she asked in a falsely cheerful voice as she stepped inside the room.

Jamie looked up with suspicion darkening his eyes.

"Aren't you already busy?"

Syd dropped onto Jamie's bed. She ignored the large lumps decorating the badly made bed. She was just grateful Jamie had made it without any prompting from her.

"Do I look busy?"

He stared at her. "You did before."

"James Taylor, you are as blunt as your dad was," she pronounced

Heidi looked up with eyes filled with tears and her tiny chin trembling. "I wanna go home."

Syd held out her arms and gathered her onto her lap. "I know, sweetie," she murmured; dropping a kiss on her forehead. "But we can't go back right now."

"'Cause Mean Mr. Leo doesn't want you to leave the agency?" She curled her arms around Syd's neck and nestled her damp cheek against her collarbone. "Jamie and me won't let him hurt you, Auntie Syd," she insisted. "Jamie can use his water pistol real good and I'll, I'll.. " It was clear she wasn't sure what she was going to do. "I'll do something real bad to Mean Mr. Leo."

"Thank you, darling," Syd replied with equal ceremony, thinking of tiny Heidi going up against the cigar chewing Leo. Now, that would be a show to watch.

"I know the two of you will protect me and I love you for it."

"You could teach us how to throw people the way you threw Mr. Jones," Jamie suggested with just a touch too much eagerness.

She inclined her head. "I will show the two of you how to protect yourselves," she agreed, privately thinking of her peace loving twin's horrified reaction to his children learning all about choke holds and knees in the groin. She wouldn't be surprised if her brother's ghost paid her a visit that very night. "But for now, what do you say we go for a drive?"

"Will it be safe? Mr. Leo won't be looking for you right away?"

From the time he began to speak, Syd had privately dubbed Jamie the worrier.

"Since he knows how I feel about snow and cold weather, I doubt he'll think of me being out here."

“’Cause he knows you don't like it," Jamie clarified.

"It's not that I don't like snow. I hate it!" She laughed, catching him around the waist and pulling him on top of his sister. The tickling match was fast and furious with Jamie squealing and vainly trying to tickle Syd in return while Heidi launched herself into the battle.

The squeals and laughter filtered downstairs to Ki as he stared at the blank screen with the blinking cursor demanding its share of attention. He looked at the papers and photographs scattered around him. All part and parcel of the Baskin case he was slated to write about. For the moment, he couldn't think of a single word.

"I'm taking the kids out for the afternoon."

Syd's announcement swept through him like a frigid blast of air. He looked up,

She stood in the doorway, dressed warmly in the cream colored sweater, jeans and boots. Her hair was tucked up under the navy knit cap. He couldn't put his finger on it, but there was something different about her. It was as if he wasn't looking at the same person.

"Is there anything you'd like me to pick up while we're out?" she asked politely.

"Who are you hiding out from?" he asked, without even being aware of the question forming in his mind.

"I ask you if you want anything and you ask me who we're hiding out from. Brilliant deduction. One goes with the other so well. Is that how you write your books? Jump from one insane subject to another? It must make it very difficult to link things together."

"Only a lawyer answers a question with another question. Except, honey, you don't look like a lawyer."

Syd thought of the law degree she had started out to attain, only to drop out to enter another area of the law.

“Why? Because I keep my distemper shots up to date? Or because I don’t look like your typical vampire?" She playfully bared her teeth at him. "That's what I like about you, Jones. You take the bull by the horns. We'll get into this later. I promised the kids an afternoon out."

"Syd, if you're leery about taking your truck, you can take mine,” he said suddenly, again speaking before he even thought about it.

She looked over her shoulder. "That's a very nice gesture, Jones. Thank you."

Ki listened to the kids' chatter as the threesome left the house. He jumped up and ran out into the living room just in time to see the Jeep roar down the driveway. Just in time to notice the vehicle sported a Nevada license plate although she had said she was from Virginia.

"Interesting," he murmured to himself.

A faint whimpering sound caught his attention. He looked down to find Bogie standing up on his hind legs with a pleading expression in his eyes and Cocoa standing beside him.

"Potty detail, huh?" Both dogs' ears pricked up at the word "Okay, why not? At least you can't talk my ear off,' He opened the front door and gestured them outside.

As Ki watched the two dogs run for trees and bushes, it finally hit him why Syd had seemed like someone else. Her body language spoke to him differently. Her clothing seemed to hang on her body differently, making her look heavier than she really was. While her hair was tucked up under the cap, a wisp of dark brown bangs covered her forehead. And her speech pattern held a slight Eastern seaboard accent that hadn’t been there before. He shook his head as he tried to figure out the puzzle.

"Maybe I'd better find out when ‘America's Most Wanted!' is on TV. For all I know, she could be their lead story."

 

"DO WE REALLY HAVE to stay back there?" Jamie asked Syd after she stopped at a drugstore to pick up children’s aspirin.

She was learning the hard way to be prepared for anything where children were concerned.

Syd didn't start up the truck right away. She draped her arms over the steering wheel and turned her head to face him. "Yes, Jamie, we do.”

"Why does Mean Mr. Leo want to hurt you?"

"He doesn't want to hurt me. He just doesn't understand that I want to quit my job.”

"Dad said you can't quit the kind of job you have," he said quietly. "And if you didn't think Mr. Leo would hurt you, why do you always look, different when we go out?"

Syd turned long enough to look in her rearview mirror. She wrinkled her nose at the dark bangs and darker-toned makeup that not only didn't suit her but did horrible things to her skin. She silently vowed she'd throw out her handy dandy disguise kit for spies the day Leo finally admitted she was an ex agent.

"It makes life more interesting." She gave her bangs a fluff and started up the Jeep. "Shall we try that playland that was advertised back there?"

"Yes!" Heidi bounced up and down in her excitement."

''Only if I don't have to play with her," Jamie muttered. But he couldn't hide his eagerness at going to the indoor playground.

“I don't want you to play with me," Heidi insisted. "If you fight we don't go anywhere." Syd mentally patted herself on the back for sounding just like a mom.

She pulled in front of a large building advertising it held Kiddie's Ville" an enclosed playland boasting every kind of play equipment for all ages.

Syd ignored requests for candy as she paid a small fee for the kids to bounce on what looked like air-filled mattresses, climb a wide net to a playhouse, dive into a room filled with multi-colored balls, and enter another room filled with various games and rides for small children.

She looked at the wall of pay phones, itching to call a few friends to find out if they knew anything about Leo's plans. But she wouldn't be surprised if he had their phones tapped. The man was relentless.

"Why he has to be so pigheaded about my wanting to quit is more than any one person can understand," she murmured to herself, laughing as Jamie got tangled up in the net and managed to get loose.

Even several hours later, Syd had trouble coaxing the kids to leave.

"Aren't you hungry?"

"Pizza!" Heidi shouted

"No, we're going back to the cabin and have a nice dinner there," she said as she ushered them outside.

There was no missing their groans of dismay.

"What if we watch a videotape after dinner?" Syd was not beyond bribery.

“‘Homeward Bound’?”

"’Snow White’!"

Syd would have preferred something with more action, but she doubted Shane and Jenny would approve of her film choices. "Either one sounds good."

"What if he won't let us watch anything?" Jamie said flatly.

"Resist those two angelic faces? No one in their right mind could do that."

"Who says he's in his right mind?" Jamie countered.

Syd shot him a droll look. "Jamie, there are days when I really wonder about you."

"Yeah, Dad used to say that, too."

 

KI ALTERNATELY SWORE and mumbled to himself as he shuffled through papers and photographs in order to find one particular piece of paper.

"What'd you do with it?" he demanded of the two dogs that had followed him into the family room where he had sorted his research material into various piles on the coffee table. Cocoa had immediately plopped himself on the floor by the couch, where Ki had to step over him every time he needed to get up, and Bogie found his niche on the couch stretched out alongside Ki's leg. Neither dog stirred at his question. "I know they're here," he mumbled around the pen stuck between his teeth, rifling through another stack of photographs. "Finally!" He held up the object of his search.

He knew his quiet afternoon was over when the dogs ran for the front door barking and jumping up.

“We’re back," Syd sang out as the door opened and the kids ran inside.

"Lucky me.”

She merely smiled at his sarcasm. "Awww, did you miss us?" she cooed.

"How could I miss you? You left your zoo behind."

"Unfortunately, I can't pass these guys off as kids wearing fur coats, although I've been tempted to try. They're better behaved than a lot of kids I've seen."

Syd pulled off her knit cap and shook her hair free.

She deftly unclipped the false bangs from the cap and tucked them into her coat pocket.

"Did you manage to escape from whoever you were supposed to?" Ki asked, tracking her movements.

"Aunt Syd said Mean Mr. Leo will never find us here because he knows she hates snow," Heidi piped up. As she realized what she'd just said, she clapped her hands over her mouth. "I'm sorry,” the words were muffled by her covering hands.

"That's all right, sweetie," Syd assured her, giving her a hug.

"Mean Mr. Leo?" Ki echoed.

"A boss who refuses to admit his employees are allowed to quit," she said crisply, shooting him a look that demanded no more questions.

"We went to a special playland that had neat stuff to play on," Heidi told Ki. "And Jamie got stuck on a net!" She giggled.

He smiled at the little girl. "Sounds like you had fun. What about your Auntie Syd? What did she do?"

"She laughed.”

Ki swung around when he saw movement out of the comer of his eye. He stiffened when he found Syd picking through the stack of crime scene and autopsy photographs he had been perusing.

He should have known there would be no horrified look of shock on her face when she leafed through photographs depicting a sick, violent mind. He was already realizing nothing could shock someone like Syd Taylor.

Syd handed them to Ki. "I always felt photos lacked the quality of really showing what happened at a crime scene." She headed for the stairs with the two dogs on her heels."I would appreciate it if you'd keep them away from the kids. I’d like them to enjoy childhood as long as possible before they have to face the stark, cruel world,"

Ki shook his head as he dropped the photos in a manila envelope and sealed it. “She's not real.”