Into the Deep. Virginia Smith
low-hanging branches of a tree. Long strands of lacy moss deepened his cover. He leaned against the trunk where he had a good vantage point of the corner of the building and the illuminated downstairs window.
With hands that trembled, he pulled the note out of his pocket and clutched it with a fist. Just the feel of the paper sent shivers sliding up his spine. It had been shoved under his apartment door for him to find when he got home from work. The words were proof that his first thoughts this afternoon had been right. Nikki showing up at the pier today had not been a coincidence.
Seeing her had given him the shock of his life. It was too much to believe that a woman from his past—his Mexican past—chose Key West for a vacation, and then within hours of arriving, just happened to show up at the shop where he worked. There were a dozen dive shops on the island. Why pick his? Nikki had seemed as surprised to see him as he was to see her. And she hadn’t looked all that pleased, either. Was she in league with the Reynosa cartel? He would never believe that. Was she an unwitting pawn, then? The unsettling questions had plagued him all evening.
And then he found the note.
He raked a hand through his hair, the uncomfortable lump in the pit of his stomach becoming heavier by the minute. This was the most alarming in a recent series of disturbing incidents. A couple of months ago, he came home to find his apartment had been gone through. Nothing stolen, and nothing obviously out of place, so he’d had no reason to contact the police. But the moment he walked through the door, he’d spied evidence that someone had been there. A kitchen chair slightly skewed. The mattress on his bed almost imperceptibly cockeyed on the frame. The aspirin bottle on a different shelf of the medicine chest.
Then a week later, his car was broken into. He almost never drove the thing—nobody on the island did—so he didn’t even realize it until one of his neighbors pointed out the busted window. That time he did call the cops, because he needed the police report for the insurance company. Nothing had come of it, though. Nothing had been taken from inside the car. The investigating officer told him it was probably teenagers, drunk or high and looking for something to hock.
After Cozumel, Ben wasn’t so sure.
Now he had proof that his paranoia was founded on fact.
He snatched a handful of Spanish moss and crushed it with his fist. But what could he do about it? He didn’t like living with this jumpy, paranoid feeling, searching every stranger’s face, wondering if they were on Reynosa’s payroll, but he couldn’t risk going to the police. He’d end up as gator bait, face down in a swamp somewhere. No, it was better to mind his own business until they figured out he was no threat and left him alone.
He slid the folded paper between his fingers. That had been the plan for the past few months, anyway. The note changed everything. Upped the ante to a price he couldn’t afford to pay.
A movement caught his eye, a dark place in the shadows at the side of Building C. He stiffened, his attention pricked to high alert. Was that shadowy form a person? He stared at the spot, straining his eyes to differentiate between shades of black and blacker in the foliage. Nothing moved.
His tense muscles started to relax, but in the next instant, he jerked upright. The bushes rustled, and this time he glimpsed the figure of a man. Just for a second, and then the person was gone, moving quickly away from Building C. He looked as though he’d just come from around the back of that first condo, the one with the light in the window. Thoughts whirled in Ben’s brain. Why would someone sneak through the bushes instead of walking out in the open? Kids on vacation, maybe, playing hide-and-seek? No, the figure had been too tall to be a child. A maintenance man, maybe?
At nine o’clock at night? No way.
Ben’s mouth went dry. Nikki was in that building, probably in that very condo on the end. Ben couldn’t believe her presence in Key West was a coincidence any more than he believed the man slinking away from her building was just taking a nighttime stroll through the bushes. So either the man had been visiting Nikki openly, or he’d been there for a more sinister reason.
His feet sprang into motion before he fully decided to act. He ducked under the tree branches and sprinted toward Building C. In the breezeway, his brain barely had time to register the number 1 on the door before his fist assaulted the wood. He beat the door in tempo with his pounding heart.
If anything had happened to Nikki, he’d never forgive himself.
THREE
Nikki had just pressed the button to end her call when—
Boom! Boom! Boom!
Startled, her fist tightened around the silent phone as she shrank against the couch cushion. Her gaze flew toward the front door. The uneasy feeling from the patio returned, magnified a hundredfold and swelling even further with every insistent beat on the sturdy wood. Who in the world could it be? She didn’t know a soul in Key West. No one except…
“Nikki, are you all right?”
That voice, so achingly familiar, echoed inside her like the pounding echoed through the entry hall. Ben. She hugged the phone to her chest.
Oh, Joshua, your daddy is here. I so badly want to tell him about you. But I can’t. I won’t.
She’d struggled with that decision two-and-a-half years ago, and she’d made the right choice. Ben made no secret of the fact that he never wanted to settle down, never wanted to have a family. If he’d discovered that she was pregnant, he would have “done the right thing.” He would have insisted on marrying her and settling down to help her raise their child. She couldn’t bear to force him to give up the lifestyle he loved and watch the resentment grow deeper in his eyes as each year passed.
“Nikki, it’s Ben. Open the door.”
Indecision kept her pinned to the sofa. She should have known he would follow her here. If only she hadn’t run into him on the pier. No good could come of a reunion between them.
And yet, he was part of her past, an important part. Far more important than he would ever know. She couldn’t deny that seeing him again had awakened memories—and feelings—she’d tried to bury years ago.
She stood and crossed the room to stand in front of the door.
“What do you want, Ben?” She pitched her voice loud to carry through the thick wood.
The incessant pounding ceased.
“Thank goodness.” The relief in his voice was obvious. Though why he would sound so relieved to find her at home, she couldn’t imagine. “Let me in, Nikki.”
“I—” She placed a hand on the door and closed her eyes while conflicting impulses did battle inside her. Finally, she swallowed. “I don’t think that’s a good idea, Ben. It’s late. Go home.”
“It’s not what you think.” The door handle rattled. “You’ve got to let me in. Please.”
Something in his voice weakened her resolve, something she didn’t remember ever hearing in the months they spent together in Cozumel. Was it…fear?
After one more moment’s hesitation, she twisted the dead bolt. The lock slid open with a loud click. The door swung inward silently.
Her heart launched into a traitorous thundering as she took in the details she’d been afraid to notice this afternoon. The same Ben, yet different. Or was it just that she was accustomed to seeing those lips in miniature, on Joshua’s face? The eyes that swept over her now were the identical green-brown color of her son’s, only with a depth and intensity unknown to a two-year-old. The sturdy jaw. The tiny crease just below the place where his lower lip blended into his chin. Nikki clutched the door handle and hoped he didn’t notice that her grip was the only thing that kept her from wavering on unsteady knees.
Ben’s gaze swept the room behind her. “Are you okay?”
What an odd question. She glanced over her shoulder to follow his gaze but saw nothing out of place. “Of course I’m okay.