Into the Deep

At least she’d said goodbye in person this time.

Nikki’s back burned. She could feel his eyes on her as she hurried away. The clip-clop of her sandals changed tone as she stepped off the wooden dock and onto the street. She didn’t dare glance backward, but her ears strained to hear footsteps coming after her. Would he follow?

Please, God, don’t let him follow me.

Pain throbbed in her chest, a dull ache that she’d thought was long gone. Just like she thought her feelings for Ben had finally faded. Oh, she’d never forget him, that was a given. How could she, when his face loomed in her mind every day? But she’d really thought she’d gotten over her feelings for him. Or at least, wrapped them up and stored them in the deep recesses of her heart, where they couldn’t hurt her anymore. One look at him, and she knew she’d been lying to herself.

Which made it even more important that she get away from him. Her heart was no longer her own. It belonged to Joshua now.

And she would never tell Ben about the son he didn’t know existed.

TWO

A shadow moved just beyond the circle of light that illuminated Nikki’s patio. Her grip on her cell phone tightened. Was someone there? She sat straight up on the chaise longue, eyes searching the darkness, ears straining to hear anything out of place.

She heard nothing. Well, crickets and the distant sounds of splashing water and children’s laughter coming from the direction of the resort’s pool. But in the vicinity of her patio, everything was quiet. Peaceful. She forced her spine to relax.

“It’s beautiful here, Mom.” She settled back in her chair and continued her conversation. “Palm trees everywhere, and there’s an orange tree in full bloom right outside my patio. You should smell it.”

She inhaled the sweet, tropical scent deep into her lungs. Even though the sun had set half an hour ago, the air around her was still deliciously warm. After the harsh winter that had plagued Portland this year, Nikki relished the heat.

“I’m glad you’re having a good time, honey.” Her mother’s voice was as warm as the air. “What did you do today?”

Nikki’s brain conjured an image, but she pushed it away. She’d struggled all afternoon to avoid thinking about Ben. Her first instinct after seeing him had been to run back here to the condo, repack her belongings and catch the first flight home. She still hadn’t ruled out the possibility, but had finally decided to wait a day or so to make that decision. Tomorrow was her thirtieth birthday, so she might as well spend it as she’d planned, lounging in the sun, sipping chilled pineapple juice and losing herself in a good book. She’d be fine as long as she stayed far away from Key West Water Adventures, and Ben Dearinger.

She forced herself to speak normally into the phone. “I took a train tour of the island to get my bearings. Everything’s really laid-back. Cats everywhere, and chickens roaming free on the streets. Joshua would love it.” A pang of regret stabbed at her.

Mom’s voice became stern. “Don’t do that. You deserve some time alone. Joshua and I have a big week planned. He’ll be fine.”

I know. A tear pooled in the corner of her eye. But I miss him.

“What are you planning to do on your birthday?” Mom’s cheery voice refused to let her become morose.

She steeled her voice against any quivering. “I’m not sure yet. I brought my passport, in case I can find a cheap day trip down to the Bahamas or something.” She paused, missing her son more than she would have thought possible after only a few hours apart. “Let me talk to him one more time. I want to say good night.”

“Just a minute. I’ll get him.”

“Thanks. And, Mom?”

“Yes?”

Nikki swallowed against emotions that threatened to clog her throat. “I really appreciate you keeping him while I’m gone. Thank you.”

The voice on the phone softened. “It’s my pleasure to watch my grandson.” A low chuckle. “Of course, I’m going to be worn out by the time you get back. It’s been a long time since I’ve had charge of a two-year-old for a whole week.”

A clatter sounded as her mother set the phone down. Nikki heard the music of Joshua’s favorite DVD through the receiver, a cartoon about a race car. She didn’t allow him to watch it before bedtime because it got him too worked up, but apparently the rules at Grandma’s house were lax. Nikki closed her eyes, picturing him in his pj’s, hair still damp from his bath, sprawled on the floor, his brown eyes fixed on the television set.

A soft sound interrupted her thoughts. An oddly familiar sound, but out of place. She jerked her eyes open. Her gaze zeroed in on a thick bush with lush, tropical blooms that bordered the private area surrounding her patio. Its branches rustled, though not even the hint of a breeze stirred the leaves on the orange tree in front of it. The hair along her arms prickled. Was someone there?

Nikki leaped out of the chair. Muscles tense, she strained to see beyond the patio light, into the shadowy darkness. Everything was still. With an effort, she forced herself to relax. She was imagining things. Or maybe it was a cat. There were plenty of those around. No need to be alarmed.

Still, she kept her eyes fixed on the bush as she stepped inside the condo and closed the glass door.

A beloved voice piped in her ear. “Mama, Speed Racer go vvvrrrroooooommmmm!”

The strange movement forgotten, a swell of love brought a smile to her face. “He did? Tell me about it.”

She settled herself on a plush couch cushion and focused on her son’s enthusiastic retelling of the story they’d watched together a gazillion times.

But her gaze strayed repeatedly to the patio and the deep shadows beyond the orange tree.

Ben steered his bicycle through the front entrance of the Pelican Resort. He’d passed this place lots of times in the five months since he moved to Key West, but he’d never been inside. Lush foliage lined a narrow footpath beneath tall palms and mature trees with Spanish moss dripping from every branch. A half dozen two-story buildings lay scattered around the property in no discernable pattern. The randomness gave the place a casual, relaxed feel, perfect for island vacationers.

Ben hopped off the bike and walked it along the path, squinting in the dim light of decorative lanterns to read the letters mounted on the front of each building. According to the records at the dive shop, the gift certificate had been delivered to unit C-1. After a moment’s search, he found building C tucked into a quiet corner at the back of the property. Eight condos in each building, four upstairs and four down. Number one would probably be on the ground floor. A light shone in the window of a corner unit and another in one of the units upstairs.

He left the bicycle on the pavement and stepped off the path beneath the thick, 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. Why wouldn’t I be?”

He ignored her question. “May I come in?” He must have seen the hesitation on her face, because he added an insistent, “Please, Nikki. It’s important.”

Though alarm Klaxons sounded in her brain, Nikki took a backward step and allowed him to enter. When she closed the door behind him, he leaned past her to twist the dead bolt. She shot him a startled look. “Humor me.”

He offered no explanation. She followed him into the living room and watched as he stood in the center of the room to examine it from all angles. He crossed to the patio door and slid a metal locking rod into place at the top of the frame. Nikki hadn’t noticed the locking device when she came inside before.

Ben pulled the drawstring to close the curtains, then turned and nodded toward the hallway. “Mind if I take a look in the bedrooms?”

Indignant, she opened her mouth to protest, but at the look on his face, closed it again. His lips formed a rigid line, with deep creases at the corners of his mouth. It was fear she’d heard in his voice at the door. She glanced toward the closed patio curtains, and the uneasy feeling she’d experienced earlier returned.

She gave permission with a jerk of her head, but remained in the living room. After he’d investigated both bedrooms, he returned. His expression was calmer, a touch more relaxed. The muscles in Nikki’s stomach loosened a fraction.

“You want to tell me what this is all about?”

He crossed into the kitchen and checked the lock on the window before answering. “I wanted to make sure you were okay, that’s all. You know, a single woman, traveling alone. You can’t be too careful.”

The explanation fell lamely into the empty space between them. Nikki folded her arms across her chest and gave him a stern look. The same look she gave Joshua when he was being naughty.

Ben’s head fell forward. “Okay, that’s a lie. I—” He swallowed and nodded toward the living area. “Maybe we’d better sit down.”

The impulse to refuse died before she could put it into words. In all the months they spent living together in Cozumel, she couldn’t remember ever seeing him wear such a serious expression. Without a word, she retreated across the room and seated herself in the over-stuffed chair on the far side of the sofa. Ben followed and dropped onto the cushion near her.

“I looked up where you were staying.” He stared at his hands while he spoke. “When I was outside, trying to decide whether or not to knock on the door, I saw a shadow. Looked like someone sneaking around the corner of this building. I wanted to make sure you were okay.” So, someone had been there, watching her from the darkness beyond the orange tree. Nikki shuddered and rubbed her arms with her hands. “But why were you here at all?”

He hesitated, then straightened his long legs to pull a folded piece of paper out of the back pocket of his shorts. A struggle appeared on his face as he unfolded the paper. His eyes moved as he studied it. Then, with a slow movement, he extended it toward her.

She took the note. Wrinkles spidered across the paper, as though it had been crushed in a fist. The words, scrawled in blue ink, were in Spanish.

Regresa el artículo y lo seguirá siendo seguro.

Though she’d lived in Mexico with Ben for six months, she’d never become fluent in Spanish. And she hadn’t spoken the language at all in the two-and-a-half years since she moved back home. She translated the words slowly.

“Return…the article…and…” She glanced up at him. “What does lo seguirá siendo seguro mean?”

Ben didn’t meet her gaze. “It says, Return the article and she will stay safe.”

“She?” A wave of fear raised goose bumps along her arms. “Who is she?”

“There is only one she they could mean.” His hands clenched in a tight knot. “You.”

Prickles of alarm inched up her spine. “That’s ridiculous.” He glanced up at the sharp tone in her voice. “We haven’t seen each other in over two years, Ben.” Nikki forced herself to speak calmly. “Until this afternoon, we’ve had no contact at all. And that was a coincidence. I don’t know what this is about, but they must mean someone else. Your girlfriend, maybe.”

“I haven’t had a girlfriend since you left Cozumel.”

A wave of pleasure warmed her insides at that news, but Nikki ignored it. “Then a friend, or someone you work with.”

He shook his head. “I don’t think our running into each other was a coincidence at all. I think someone arranged it. Are you sure you didn’t know I was in Key West?”

“I thought you were still in Mexico.” She held his gaze and spoke truthfully. “If I had known you were here, I wouldn’t have come.”

Guilt stabbed at her when he winced. She looked away. Brutally cruel words, perhaps, but she had no choice. Their relationship had been severed some time ago, and it must remain that way.

“What is this article they’re talking about, anyway?”

“Nothing.”

“Obviously it’s not nothing if they want it back badly enough to threaten someone over it.” She narrowed her eyes. “You didn’t steal anything, did you?”

“Of course not.” His hands sliced through the air in an impatient gesture. “That isn’t important. What is important is that someone arranged for you to be here, in Key West, and we need to figure out who did it.”

“I told you earlier. I’m here on vacation. A friend from work is letting me use her father’s time-share.”

He twisted his lips, clearly not buying the explanation. “Why didn’t your friend come with you?”

“Because she hasn’t been with the company long enough to take a vacation, and her father couldn’t find anyone to rent the place this year. She’s letting me use it to celebrate my birthday. And that certificate was a birthday gift. It was a coincidence that the shop she called happened to be the one where you work.”

“You came on a vacation for your birthday alone?” The words were heavy with skepticism. “The Nikki I used to know would have gotten a group of friends together to help her celebrate. She would have had people sleeping on the couch and in sleeping bags and even on lawn chairs.”

I’m not the Nikki you used to know! She wanted to snap the words, but bit them off. The Nikki he knew had been twenty-seven, fun-loving, without a care in the world. Now she was a thirty-year-old single mother struggling to raise an active two-year-old alone, with no one—except her mother—to help ease the burden of responsibility. She’d lost touch with all her former friends, and she was too busy and too tired to make new ones. Joshua took all her spare time. And he was worth every minute.

Nikki rose from the chair and rubbed a chill out of her arms as she crossed to the kitchen. She opened cabinets until she found the one with glasses in it and took down two short ones. The pineapple juice she’d bought at the grocery store earlier was thoroughly chilled now. She wasn’t really thirsty, but she needed to do something with her hands.

Ben followed her and perched on a tall chair at the high counter that separated the living area from the kitchen. “Listen, do me a favor, would you? Call your friend. Ask her why she chose Key West Water Adventures for the gift certificate.”

Though she wanted to refuse outright, it was a reasonable request. The numbers on the stove clock showed 11:10 p.m. That meant it was only 9:10 p.m. in Portland. Allison would still be up. “Fine. I will.”

She plopped a glass of juice on the counter in front of Ben before going for her cell phone. When she returned, he sat staring at the yellow liquid with a contemplative expression. Heat threatened to rise into her face. It was Ben who had gotten her hooked on pineapple juice in Cozumel. Joshua loved it.

With jerky gestures, she flipped open her phone and located Allison’s number.

The call went to voice mail.

“She’s not answering,” Nikki told Ben as she hung up without leaving a message.

A frown creased Ben’s brow. “Isn’t that weird? Why wouldn’t a friend take your call?”

“It’s Friday night. She’s probably out on a date or something.” She set the phone on the counter and sipped from her juice glass. “I’ll try her again later, but I’m telling you, it’s a useless effort. You may not believe in coincidences, but I do.”

He placed an arm on the counter and leaned toward her. “All I know is you showed up at my work after more than two years without a word, and the same day someone shoved a threatening letter under my door. Coincidence or not, I’m staying here tonight.”

Now heat did flood her face. “That is so not happening.”

When the realization of what he’d just suggested set in, matching red blotches appeared on his tanned cheeks. His gaze dropped, and it took Nikki a moment to realize he was staring at her necklace. She plucked at the chain and held the cross between her fingers.

He cleared his throat. “I didn’t mean it like that. This condo has two bedrooms and a couch. I’ll sleep on one of them.”

A heavy silence fell between them. The thought of Ben sleeping in the same town would probably have kept her awake all night anyway. To have him in the same condo, on the other side of a door?

No.

Her fingers tightened on the cross. “What’s going on, Ben? Why are you so worried?”