Emerald Fire. Monica McCabe

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СКАЧАТЬ the man had the most incredible ocean-blue eyes. And lashes any girl would envy, but right now those eyes glared at her with a thousand questions. It made her uncomfortable. She wanted his help, not an inquisition.

      “Why are you listed as contact person and not the wife?”

      “I’ve always been close to my uncle. I used to sail with him a lot, until he married the pirate, that is.” She was fast warming up to the new nickname for Lisa. “Now she sails with him. I’m sure he wanted someone other than his fellow sailor to be contacted.”

      He nodded in agreement with her logic. “So you got the call and rushed on down. Why not let police handle the situation? Why come in person?”

      Careful, Chloe. An investigator, and a good one if she believed his boast, would be far too observant.

      “I stopped at Uncle Jon’s first to tell Lisa,” she began. “She was furious that I got the call and not her. Funny, isn’t it? You’d think she’d be worried. Her husband just went missing.” Chloe added that to the growing list of reasons to suspect foul play.

      “A bad sign, but you haven’t answered my question.”

      The guy was certainly focused. Under different circumstances, a girl could appreciate that fact. Right now it was nothing but inconvenient. “I’m here because I’m concerned, Mr. Kane. Uncle Jon is the only decent family I have left.”

      And that was the sad truth. Still, she didn’t like the way his stare zeroed in on her, using silent intimidation to wrangle more of an explanation. It was a battle he wouldn’t win. She’d learned the hard way to keep a poker face, reveal only what was necessary. So she just stared back, calm as you please.

      He didn’t drop the Mr. Serious Intensity bit, though, and tapped on the GPS coordinates. “Do you know where the numbers mark?”

      “The general area. I left rather quickly and planned to pinpoint it once I arrived.”

      He rubbed at a heavy five o’clock shadow on his chin, an indication that he flew all night to get here, just like her. Probably on the same plane, though it was odd she hadn’t noticed him.

      “Why didn’t you give this to the Port Authority?”

      “The man had a condescending attitude,” she scoffed. “Why would I release my one trump card, knowing he’d toss it aside?”

      “What makes you think I won’t do the same?”

      “You’ve something to gain, Finnegan Kane. You can’t get much stronger motivation than money.”

      He scowled. She waited, confident she had him. It paid off.

      “We need internet access.” He stood up. “Let’s go.”

      She grabbed her bag and followed. “Does this mean you are teaming up with me?”

      “It means I need more information.”

      She hustled to keep up with his long-legged stride as they crossed to the parking lot. “Look, we both want the same thing here,” she reasoned. “You’ve heard the saying ‘necessity is the mother of invention’?”

      He glanced at her sideways. “I have.”

      “Well, she’s also the builder of good partnerships.”

      “I don’t need a partner.”

      “Yes, you do,” she insisted.

      At least, she did. Getting her feet onboard the Fire was critical, so whether he liked it or not, he was stuck with her. Years’ worth of research was on the line, and no damn pirate was going to take it from her.

      She stopped at her rental Jeep, a brilliant orange nightmare made special for tourists. “This is my car.”

      His look of pure horror had her laughing for the first time since receiving the three a.m. phone call.

      “You actually rented that thing?” he asked incredulously.

      She agreed the color was a tad gauche, but then she had no trouble finding it in a parking lot either. “It’s all they had left.”

      “Well, I’m not riding in a circus mobile.” He flicked his thumb down the row. “Mine’s down there along with my laptop. We’ll go in it.”

      He left no room to argue, not that it mattered. She’d follow him anywhere if he could find the Emerald Fire.

      They climbed into a respectable blue four-door sedan, and Finn unfolded a city map. He spent a minute studying the streets, and Chloe used the distraction to study her reluctant partner.

      He came across as no-nonsense and stuffy. Not to mention uncooperative in working together, but in her peculiar line of work, she’d handled his kind before. The most disconcerting aspect was how darkly gorgeous the man was, no doubt melting every heart from here to the moon. Midnight black hair, deeply tanned skin, and broad shoulders that amply filled the polo shirt he wore, Finnegan Kane could be a cover model for Elite Yachting magazine. How did someone with such appealing blue eyes and sexy brooding lips end up a serious-minded bounty hunter?

      A toned down version of the question hovered on the tip of her tongue, but he tossed the map on the seat between them and fired up the car. Seconds later, they were joining the traffic headed toward the center of town.

      “For the sake of speculation,” Finn said, “let’s say your aunt did it.”

      “Oh, she did it,” Chloe vowed. “I just don’t know how yet.”

      He glanced sideways at her. “You understand that’s a tall accusation. A hundred and twenty-foot-yacht doesn’t easily disappear. She’d have to be connected with the right people and have major money to spend.”

      “Well, Lisa is nothing if not devious. She probably has underworld contacts.”

      “Underworld contacts?” Skepticism laced his words.

      “Yeah, pirates, crime bosses, felons in general.” She knew what he was thinking. Her obvious dislike of her step-aunt colored her perspective. Maybe it did, just a fraction. But the growing body of evidence against Lisa was undeniable.

      “So the wife hires the job done,” he continued as he stopped at a red light. “If she’s smart, she’d order the boat taken far out into the Atlantic and sunk, leaving no chance of discovery.” The light changed, and they began to move again. “That kind of larceny comes with a high price tag. Even if she paid the fee, chances are the thugs told her it was done and sent the ten-million-dollar yacht to the black market.”

      “What happened to honor among thieves?”

      He shot her a world-weary look.

      Funny, she never dreamed that greed would be her saving grace. “Let’s hope what you say is true,” she said. “Because if the Fire is at the bottom of the sea, neither of us wins.”

      He stood to lose a big sum of money. For her, it would be a loss of historical proportions. СКАЧАТЬ