Tempest - Kris Michaels Page 0,43

been comical if he hadn’t been struggling with Pilar’s revelations. They’d shaken him to the core. Regina Grantham could very well be one of the Fates. Instead of finding a way into Stratus, they may have located one of three women he'd been given the green light to eliminate.

"What? What did I say?" Her blue eyes swung back to him. "Why did you send him away?"

"I'll call him back shortly, but if you're okay to work for a while, I want to get this information to Guardian as quickly as possible."

"Why the change of attitude?"

He turned to her and shook his head. "I'm not sure, a gut feeling. Do you have anything else?"

She slumped back and stared at her planner before she startled, patted her wrap, and pulled her phone from a pocket. "Yes, she let me access her email to send her information on this charter. I'm sure she's changed the password, but I took photos of everything."

"Perfect. Let's start transcribing each page. I'll type, you read." He opened a document and they began.

"Oh, dear God in Heaven, we won't get out of here before the turn of the century if you're typing."

He stopped with his fingers poised over the keyboard. "What?"

"Two finger pecking is all right for typing an email, but good god, there are at least sixty or seventy pages here. Let me type." She made “give me” hands at the laptop. "Go get me food and something to drink. I'm so thirsty I could drink the ocean."

He slid the computer in front of her and watched as her fingers flew across the keyboard, five times faster than his tapping, even with an injured wrist. She turned and looked at him. "Food. Water, cold and lots of it."

He chuckled and swiveled in his chair so he could get up. "Anyone ever tell you that you are bossy?"

She shifted her attention from her work. "Are you still here?" She blinked her eyes at him.

"Food and ice water. On it." He stopped at the door to the galley and glanced back. Her blonde head bent over the book, and her hands flew across the keys.

"Sorry. I didn't expect you two to get to the serious stuff for a while." Smoke came to stand beside him. "What did you learn?"

He drew a breath and shook his head. "I think her mother may be one of the Fates."

Smoke dropped back against the wall and hissed, "Are you shitting me?"

"My gut tells me I'm right."

"And if she is?"

"I'll kill her."

"Fuck, man, don't. You can let someone else take the assignment." Smoke turned and looked at him with eyes which were serious and sincere. Those two things were rare in Dan Collins' world.

"The Fates held me and tortured me. They are mine."

"You can take down the other two. Don't put a canyon between the two of you."

Tempest stared at Pilar, busily giving him the information which would sign her mother's death warrant. "There isn't anything between us."

"You know I'd appreciate it if you'd do me the courtesy of not lying to me. I've always played it straight with you. This woman is something to you, and by the look in her eyes, you're something to her, too." Smoke picked up the tray holding an array of sandwiches, chips and fruit. "Since there's nothing there, you won't mind if I make a play for her?"

Tempest slowly leveled his gaze on Smoke. Every possessive fiber in his body hummed with a confined surge of dominant fury.

"See, right there, your jealousy proves you're not only lying to me, but to yourself. Make sure you know what you're doing. Sure, you could do your job and never tell her it was you, but could you live with yourself? Would it drive a wedge between what you could have and what you end up with?" He headed out. "Drinks are in the refrigerator."

Tempest watched as Smoke set the tray down. Pilar smiled at him and laughed at something he said. A green monster the size of Kilimanjaro stirred and growled deep within him.

Could he forget the unfathomable connection between him and Pilar which kept him alive? No. Two things had fueled his survival and recovery. The first was Pilar's gentle strength when he’d had nothing left, and the second was the knowledge he would one day have his revenge on the people who'd imprisoned him. Killing her mother would cleave the connection he had with the woman whose memory had sustained him when nothing else could.

Chapter 13

Pilar rolled