FOR THE CHILDREN Page 12

  "It was a man, hiking. He had a pack and a walking stick. He just appeared along the lake, then disappeared back into the woods." She paused, swallowing once. "It didn't look like he was paying any attention to us, then he waved to us just before he disappeared."

  "Did it look like the man on the horse this morning?"

  "I couldn't tell. He wasn't wearing a hat, though, so I did get a look at his face."

  "Would yon recognize him again?"

  "I think so."

  He rocked back on his heels, watching the twins scoop up sand as he thought. "I need to talk to Devlin," he finally said. "I'll call him and see if he has some time."

  "Right now?"

  He looked at the girls again. "Later. Right now I have some swimming lessons to give."

  Ten minutes later Abby sat on the beach and watched Damien in the water with Maggie and Casey. Snatches of words drifted to her on the wind as he stood with them in the water and showed them how to put their heads beneath the surface. A flutter of panic rose up inside her as Casey vanished beneath the smooth surface of the lake, then bobbed up, laughing, a few seconds later.

  Maggie watched her sister, then tentatively stuck part of her face in the water. Encouraged by Damien's praise, she tried it again. Within minutes both of the girls were happily dunking their faces in the lake as Damien stood waist deep in the water and watched them.

  He was so good with the girls, Abby thought. The realization stunned her for a moment, then she leaned forward intently. The man who had made it very clear that he wanted nothing to do with children was now teaching Maggie and Casey to swim. And he was doing it well. He was patient, encouraging and gentle, and he made it enough fun that both Maggie and Casey forgot the fear of the water that their mother had fostered.

  Watching him show the girls how to float made her chest tighten. His rare smile brightened the already sunny day, and his hands held Maggie afloat like she was rare, exquisite china. When Casey bounced out of the water, he gave her a grinning high five that made Abby's eyes burn.

  What had happened to Damien? Why had the smiling man standing in front of her become an aloof loner who avoided children and turned away from emotional attachments of any kind? And where had he gotten the inner strength to work so closely with the girls, despite the anguish it obviously caused him? The need to know Damien, to reach out to him, became overwhelming as she watched him with her nieces.

  If there was ever a man who needed protecting, it was Damien Kane, she thought as she watched him in the water. The rest of the world might see him as a rock, a man of strength, determination and courage, but it hadn't taken long for her to see the demons clawing at him. And to want to help him overpower them.

  "Hey, Abby, could you give us a hand here?"

  Damien's voice traveled over the water, jerking her out of her reverie. He stood with Maggie and Casey, all three of them watching her expectantly. "What do you need?" she asked, getting to her feet.

  "I'd like you to swim while I explain to the girls what you're doing." He flashed her his smile, and her breath caught in her throat. "In other words I need your body for a few minutes."

  As heat swept over her, he added innocently, "To demonstrate swimming to the girls, of course."

  "Of course," she muttered as she stepped into the water. The waves felt icy cold to her overheated body, and she walked slowly toward Damien and the twins. She finally launched herself into the water and began swimming in front of them, welcoming the shock of the cold water. Concentrating on stroking and kicking, and aware that her face was still hot and red, she didn't look in their direction. After she'd swum for what seemed like forever, Damien grasped her arm and pulled her upright in the water.

  "Thanks, Abby." His voice was quiet, and she finally looked over at him. He was still smiling, but there were lines of strain around his eyes and his arms and legs were tense and hard. And it wasn't because of her, she realized as he turned back to the girls. Most people would have missed the infinitesimal tightening of his muscles when he reached out for Maggie, but she noticed it. And wondered where he got his strength.

  "Maybe you should take a break for a while and let the girls practice," Abby said in what she hoped was a casual voice.

  Damien hesitated, then nodded. He didn't turn to face her. "Maybe so. What do you think, guys?" he asked Maggie and Casey. "Do you want to practice for a while and let me rest? I'm not as young as I used to be."

  Both girls bounced under the water without answering. "I think we can take that as a yes," Abby said, wading out of the water. "I left the towels on the rocks if you want to dry off."

  "No, thanks." He dropped into the sand and leaned back on his elbows, watching the two girls in the water.

  Abby sat down next to him. "Thank you for helping them learn to swim."

  He shrugged. "No problem. They're bright kids. They'll learn fast, then you won't have to worry so much when they're in the water."

  She wanted to tell him that she would always worry when they were in the water, but she couldn't force the words out of her mouth. Instead, she asked, "Why did you do it?"

  He shrugged again, still not looking at her. "A way to pass the time. A good excuse to hang around, get them to feel comfortable with me."

  "That's not what I meant and you know it." Abby took a deep breath, steadying herself, then continued, "I know you don't like to be around children. So why did you go out of your way to offer to teach them to swim, knowing that it would force you to spend a lot of hours with them?"

  "It's my job to spend time with them, Abby." His voice was devoid of expression. "It's the only way to protect them. And every kid should know how to swim."

  "There are a lot of other ways to protect them without teaching them to swim," she retorted. "That requires a lot of contact, and ever since we met you've been trying to avoid Maggie and Casey. Why the change now?"

  He waited so long that she didn't think he was going to answer her. Finally he said quietly, "Leave it alone, Abby. I'm not a stray like Angus that you can adopt and take into your fold. You can't wave your magic wand over me and make me all better. You don't want to know me, believe me. Just leave it alone."

  "You seemed to want to know me when we were standing in the lake earlier." She tried, and failed, to keep the pain out of her voice.

  "That was physical." His words were brutally harsh. "And I won't deny that I want you. You are a beautiful, vibrant woman, and I'm attracted to you. Hell, I'd be dead if I wasn't But that doesn't mean I want you crawling around inside my head, trying to figure out what makes me tick so you can fix the broken parts."

  His words stabbed into her like pointed shards of glass. But even through her pain Abby heard the tremor in his voice, and the fear that he tried to hide but couldn't. "I wasn't trying to intrude, Damien," she said in a low voice. "I just don't want you to get hurt."

  "It's too late for that," he muttered, then stood up and began walking toward the cabin.

  Abby scrambled to her feet to follow him. "What's that supposed to mean?" she demanded, grabbing his arm.

  He flinched when she touched him, then slowly turned to face her. "This isn't about you and I, Abby. Or have you forgotten that I'm here to protect you and your nieces? If I'm thinking about you, it means I'm not thinking about what could happen next. It means I'm not doing my job. And not doing my job could get all of us killed."

  Abby let go of his arm and took a step away from him. "You and I weren't the issue I was discussing," she forced herself to say. "I was concerned about you spending so much time with Maggie and Casey. That's what I meant when I said I didn't want you to get hurt."

  As he stood and stared at her, his eyes softened momentarily. "You don't give up, do you, Abby Markham?" It sounded like the words were dragged out of him involuntarily. "You're determined to protect me, just like you protect those girls and that cat and God knows who else."

  "Is there something wrong with that?" She jammed her hands into the pockets of her beach co
ver-up to hide their trembling.

  His eyes softened even more. "No," he said softly. "There's nothing wrong with that. But I don't need or deserve your protection. So concentrate on the people who do."

  Turning away from her, he strode into the water and splashed out to where it was deep enough to dive. He surfaced twenty yards away from the shore, then started to swim back toward Maggie and Casey. When the girls saw him coming, they bounced up and down in the water and yelled out his name.

  Abby stood on the shore and watched the three of them, seeing both Damien's smile as he approached the girls and the tenseness in his arms and shoulders as Maggie and Casey splashed out to him. He was trapped in a situation that must be sheer torture for him, every minute of the day. And there was no way she could make it better.

  Except by helping him find out what Casey and Maggie had seen, thereby allowing him to leave.

  Swallowing hard, she sat down on the rocks and dangled her feet in the water as she acknowledged that she didn't want him to leave. She didn't want him to disappear, never to be seen again. And that was just what he would do if he found the killers and arrested them. He would disappear out of their lives as quickly as he had appeared at the ice-cream store.

  Was that why she'd been stalling? Was that why she'd been so reluctant to ask the girls what they'd seen, why she had made up excuses not to ask them? Feeling thoroughly ashamed of herself, she glanced over to where Damien was standing in the water with the twins.

  "Could you come here for a moment, please, Damien?" she called.

  He said something to the girls, then swam over to the rocks. "What's wrong?"

  "Nothing's wrong. I just thought that I would go try to get hold of Janna and I didn't want to leave without telling you."

  "Good idea. If yon don't get through now, we'll try again tonight."

  Abby watched him turn away and wade over to the twins, then forced herself to walk up to the house. She glanced back one time at Damien in the water with the twins, and it hit her with a shock that this was the first time she'd ever left the girls alone in the water, even when there was another adult watching them.

  She trusted him, she realized, trusted him to keep Maggie and Casey safe. Standing on the porch of the house, her hand on the door, she watched them for a moment. She had no doubt that Damien would guard the twins with his life. And that they would be as safe from the dangers in the water as they would be protected from the men who stalked them.

  Allowing herself to watch them for another minute, Abby finally turned and went into the house. It was silent and empty without the girls' laughter and Damien's presence. Hurrying over to the phone, she dialed the number for Janna's hotel and waited for an answer.

  There was still no answer from Janna's room. Replacing the phone gently in its cradle, she stared blindly out the window as a wave of terror washed over her.

  Janna, where are you? she cried silently. What's wrong? Why didn't she answer her phone?

  It was business hours, she told herself, but the fear grew and grew inside her. What if Damien was right? What if the man who'd killed Joey had known the girls saw something? Her sister could be a hostage somewhere. Or worse.

  Dragging her feet, she headed for the door to go back to the beach. Just as she stepped out onto the porch, she heard the girls' excited voices and spotted them walking toward the house, Damien trailing a step behind them.

  "Aunt Abby, Aunt Abby!" Maggie spotted her and began to run. "I put my face in the water and floated by myself!"

  "That's wonderful, sweetheart." Abby bent down to hug Maggie, who flung herself into her aunt's arms. "You'll be swimming before you know it."

  "Damien promised he would teach us more tomorrow," Casey informed her, running up the steps. "I'm going to swim in the deep water."

  "Not quite yet, Casey." Damien's voice came from behind the girl.

  Abby sat back on her heels and smiled at them. "I'm so proud of you both." She looked up at Damien. "Thank you," she said softly. "I appreciate you teaching them to swim. It's something they need to know."

  He shrugged. "It only made sense. And besides, it was a good excuse to stick close to them and let them get to know me."

  He might shrug it off, but she suspected how much effort it had taken him to spend so much time with the girls. "Thank you," she said again softly, then turned to Maggie and Casey. "I want you girls to change your clothes and put your swimsuits in the bathroom. Then you can look at a book or play quietly for a while."

  She turned back to Damien. She was frightened for Janna, terrified in fact. But she couldn't say anything in front of Janna's children. "There's something I'd like you to look at out on the porch," she said, trying to sound casual. "Do you have a minute?"

  She stepped out of the house to join him. As soon as they were out of the girls' hearing, he turned to her, grasping her arms. "What's wrong?" he demanded.

  "I don't know. Nothing, I hope." His hands were cool from the lake, his grip strong and electrifying. She knew she should pull away from his touch, but all she could do was look at him. His eyes were dark with worry, and when she realized it was for her, she felt her breathing quicken.

  "I tried to call Janna again. She wasn't there."

  His hands tightened on her arms for a moment, then he let her go. "That doesn't mean anything, Abby." There was absolutely no inflection in his voice.

  "I know. I told myself that this is still business hours. I wouldn't expect her to be in her room. But I'm still worried."

  "There's nothing we can do. I passed along the information you gave me about her hotel. Someone will check on her."

  "I'm so scared for her."

  "I know." He touched her face once, then stepped back. "I'm going to call Devlin."

  Damien was too aware of Abby watching him as he spoke to Devlin. Her gaze felt as intimate as a touch, and he turned away. He needed to concentrate on his job. He didn't turn back to her until he got off the phone.

  "The movie theater in Cameron is showing a Walt Disney movie," he said in a low voice. "We're going to meet Devlin for dinner, then we'll take the girls to see it."

  She looked over at him, surprise on her face. "I assumed Devlin would come up here. Won't it be dangerous to go into town?"

  "I don't think so. We don't know for certain that anyone has found us."

  Abby studied his face. "Why do you want to do this? And don't tell me you love Disney movies. I may be gullible, but even I won't swallow that."

  He shrugged again, avoiding her eyes. "I need to talk to Devlin, and he can't get away right now. He's having a few problems in town. I thought the girls would enjoy a movie. What child their age doesn't? It's all part of my plan to get them to trust me and be willing to talk to me."

  "If you say so." The look Abby gave him told him clearly she didn't believe him. "I'm sure Maggie and Casey will love the idea. I'll get them ready to go."

  He watched her walk away, knowing he couldn't tell her the real reason he wanted to leave the house tonight. He did need to talk to Devlin. But spending the evening in the tiny cabin with Abby Markham would drive him slowly crazy. He'd told himself countless times that he couldn't touch her, couldn't get involved with her even in the most superficial physical way. It didn't matter. The taste of her filled his senses, and the feel of her soft, giving body was imprinted on his.

  If he had to spend the evening with her, the two of them alone and surrounded by the stillness of the warm summer night, he would go out of his mind.

  So they would go to town, meet with Devlin and see the movie. By the time they got back to the cabin, he could hide in his room with the door closed.

  But he wouldn't be able to shut Abby out of his mind so easily. She would linger there, haunting his dreams and disturbing his sleep, just as she had the past several nights. He would wake up with the taste of her in his mouth and his body hard and aching from wanting her.

  She already haunted his waking hours. If it had just been the physical wanting,
he could have ignored it. There were cold showers, and he'd had a lot of practice blocking unwanted distractions out of his life. But somehow Abby had sneaked in under his defenses with her concern for him. He couldn't remember the last person who had wanted to protect him. Even his wife had always leaned on him, always deferred to his strength.

  So he and Abby would take the girls into town and spend the evening watching the magic of Disney on the screen, rather than watching each other. All in all, he figured it was a much safer choice.

  Casey came charging out of her room, interrupting his thoughts. "Are we really going to a movie, Damien? Really?"

  She watched him with complete trust in her eyes, and he felt his heart flutter. "Of course we are. Your aunt Abby wouldn't lie to you."

  "Can we get popcorn?" She was practically dancing with excitement.

  "You bet. And maybe even soda, too."

  "Maggie," Casey shouted, "we get popcorn and soda."

  Maggie came running out of the bedroom, followed by Abby. "Can we go now, Damien?"

  "As soon as everyone's ready."

  He followed them out to the Bronco, listening to the excited chatter, their childish delight another arrow in his heart. "Go ahead and get in the truck," he muttered. "I want to make sure everything is locked."

  When he heard the truck doors open, he took a deep breath and tried the cabin door again, although he knew he'd locked it. Swallowing hard, he gripped the doorknob for a few moments while he tried to regain his composure. He was the one who'd suggested this outing, so he'd damn well better be prepared to face the consequences. And if the consequences included five-year-old children who tore his heart out, that was no one's fault but his. If he hadn't let Joey Stefanetto slip away from him, none of this would have been necessary.

  Making sure he'd left some subtle clues that would let him know if anyone had been at the door while they were gone, he turned and walked to the truck. Both of the girls were strapped into their car seats, and Abby sat in the front seat, watching him with concern in her eyes. "Everybody all set?" he said, forcing a cheerful note into his voice.