Diamond Bay

Tod Ellis gave her his bright college smile. "It’s nice to see you again, Ms. Jones. I thought I’d check in with you, make sure everything’s okay."

It was a pretty weak excuse for driving miles out of his way. Rachel stepped around Joe and walked out to the car in an effort to keep Ellis from looking toward the house. It wasn’t likely that Kell would let himself be seen, but she didn’t want to take any chances. "Yes, everything’s okay," she said cheerfully, going around the car and standing at the door so he had to turn his back to the house in order to face her. "Hot, but okay. Did you ever find that man you were hunting?"

"No, not a trace. You haven’t seen anything?" "Not even at a distance, and Joe always lets me know if anyone’s around."

The mention of the dog made Ellis jerk his head around for a quick look as if to check Joe’s location; the dog was still standing in the middle of the yard, his eyes locked on the intruder, low growls still rumbling in his chest. Ellis cleared his throat, then turned back to Rachel. "It’s a good thing you’ve got him, living way out here by yourself. You can’t be too careful."

She laughed. "Well, actually you can. Look at Howard Hughes. But I feel safe with Joe guarding the place."

She couldn’t be certain, because of the dark glasses shading his eyes, but she thought he kept looking at her legs and breasts. Alarm skittered through her, and she had to fight down the urge to check her buttons; had she buttoned the blouse straight? If not, it was too late now, and he had no reason to think she had been in the house, kissing the very man he was hunting.

Then abruptly he laughed, too, and took off his sunglasses, dangling them from his fingers. "I didn’t come out here, to check on you." He leaned his forearm on top of the open car door, his posture relaxed and confident. With his clean-cut good looks he was accustomed to approval from women. "I came to ask you out to dinner. I know you don’t know me, but my credentials are respectable. What do you say?"

Rachel didn’t have to fake her confusion; it was real. She had no idea how she should answer him. If she went out with him it would go a long way toward convincing him she knew nothing about Kell, but on the other hand, it might encourage Agent Ellis to come around again, and she didn’t want that. Why were they still here, anyway? Why hadn’t they moved farther down the coast in their search for Kell?

"Why, I don’t know," she replied, stammering a little. "When?"

"Tonight, if you don’t have other plans."

God, this was making her paranoid! If they had seen Kell, then this could be a ploy to get her out of the house so there would be no witnesses. If not, she might make him suspicious if she acted too suspicious. All this second-guessing could drive her crazy. Finally she went on her instincts. Agent Ellis hadn’t tried to hide his male admiration for her the first time they’d met, so she was going to take his invitation at face value. If nothing else, she might be able to get some information from him.

"I think I’d like that," she finally said. "What did you have in mind? I’m not much of a party person."

He gave her his boyish grin again. "You’re safe. I’m not into the punk scene, either. I’m too squeamish to stick safety pins through my cheeks. What I had in mind was a quiet restaurant and a good, thick steak."

And a roll in bed afterward? He’d be disappointed. "You’re on," Rachel said. "What time?"

"Say, eight o’clock? It’ll be sundown by then and cooling off, I hope."

She laughed. "I would say you get used to it, but all you do is learn to cope with it. The humidity is what gets you. All right, eight o’clock it is. I’ll be ready."

He gave her a little salute and folded himself back under the steering wheel. Rachel walked back into the yard so she wouldn’t get covered with dust when he drove off, and watched until the blue Ford was out of sight.

Kell was waiting for her inside, his eyes narrow and cold. "What did he want?"

"To ask me out to dinner," she replied slowly. "I didn’t know what to say. Going out with him might keep him from being suspicious, or he could be asking me out just to get me out of the house. Maybe they’ve seen you. Maybe they just want to search."

"They haven’t seen me," he said. "Or I wouldn’t still be alive. What excuse did you give him?"

"I accepted."

Rachel had known he wouldn’t be pleased, but she hadn’t expected the reaction she got. His head snapped around, and his eyes burned with black fire, his usual cool remoteness shattered. "Hell, no, you’re not. Get that idea out of your head, lady."

"It’s too late. It might really make him suspicious if I made some weak excuse now." He shoved his hands into his pants pockets, and in petrified fascination Rachel watched them ball into fists. "He’s a murderer and a traitor. I’ve been doing a lot of thinking since I recognized him before they blew up my boat, tying together some details about things that went wrong when they shouldn’t have, and Tod Ellis is connected in some little way to every one of those plans. You’re not going out with him."

Rachel didn’t back down. "Yes," she said. "I am. If nothing else, I may be able to pick up some information that will help you"

She broke off with a gasp; he had jerked his hands out of his pockets and reached for her so rapidly that she hadn’t had time to move back. His hard fingers closed on her shoulders in a grip that bruised, and he shook her slightly, his face hard and set with rage.

"Damn you," he whispered, the words barely audible as he pushed them between his clenched teeth. "When will you learn that this isn’t something for amateurs to play with? You’re in way over your head, and you don’t have the sense to realize it! You aren’t still in college playing a game of Assassination, sugar. Get that through your skull! Damn it," he swore again, releasing her shoulders and running his hand through his hair. "You’ve been lucky so far that you haven’t blundered around and really screwed things up, but how long do you expect that luck to last? You’re dealing with a cold-blooded professional!"