Eyes of Fire

“You scared me to death.”

“Well, what the hell was the matter with you, walking out like that?”

“I was ready to go.”

“Are you anxious to meet that guy again? Hoping he’ll be in your bathroom again?”

“Oh, will you go to hell!”

“Then what were you doing?”

“You two were still busy, so—”

“Get inside. I’m not going to argue out here.”

She had little choice. Adam had the key and turned it in the lock. He propelled her inside.

She kept moving, heading for the side of the room opposite him.

“Damn you, Sam, it should be obvious to you that you’re not safe.”

“All right! I’m sorry.”

“You damned well should be. You—”

The door was shaken by a hard knock. Sam jumped. Adam instantly flung it open. She started to cry out in protest, then saw that it was Jem on the other side.

“Great, I’m in danger, and you just fling the door open,” she said.

“I knew he was right behind me.”

“I, uh, don’t mean to be interrupting anything here,” Jem began.

“You’re not!” they both swore in vehement unison.

Adam lowered his head slightly, lifting his hands. “You’re here, Jem, so I’m out of here. See you both in the morning.” He stared at Sam. “Bright and early. We’re diving the Steps.”

“Good night to you both!” Sam snapped, heading for her bedroom. It seemed important for some reason to make her exit before Adam made his.

But once she was gone, he didn’t rush to go. Jem looked at him. “Sofa is yours tonight,” he said.

“You don’t need to—”

“Fair is fair,” Jem said.

Adam shrugged. “Okay. I’ve got to get a few things. I’ll be back in about thirty minutes. I’ll knock twice.”

“Gotcha.”

The baby started crying in the middle of the night. Yancy bolted up, hurried to the crib and looked at the infant. She had to smile as she reached for him. What a temper! His little fists were balled and waving, his mouth opened wide to give his angry screams full volume.

“You know, young man, you’re supposed to start sleeping through the night one of these days,” she said, picking him up and patting his back as she held him comfortingly against her shoulder. His screams turned to sniffles. “That’s what the baby books say, anyway. But you’re hungry, and if you’re hungry…”

She walked to the dressing table and cracked the cap on a sealed, disposable bottle of formula, balancing the baby on her shoulder as she screwed on a sterilized disposable nipple. All the prepared stuff was expensive, but worth it in the middle of the night. She adored the baby. There was absolutely nothing about him, nothing he could do, that would be too much trouble for her, but still, she was certain that even the very best parent in the entire world had to stumble around a bit in the middle of the night.

“Don’t be a little piglet. You’ll wind up with a stomachache,” she warned him, settling in the rocker to feed the baby.

Oh, God, yes, she adored him. He looked so much like his father. Thank God for Sam’s belief that human life was precious, no matter what! Thank God the baby existed. He was hers now, no matter what the situation that had brought him into the world. He was precious. Those blue eyes, that soft, soft, light brown hair.

Those eyes on her. So trustingly.

He suddenly smiled around the nipple in his mouth. Reached out little fingers toward her.

That smile, so much like his father’s…

She rocked, thinking, reminiscing. Wondering.

She realized that the baby had closed his eyes. She took the bottle from his mouth, set him over her shoulder and burped him. Then she rose and began to walk idly around the room.

She paused, certain that she had heard a sound from downstairs.

She stood dead still.

Yes…

Someone was downstairs. Someone moving around in what had been Justin Carlyle’s office.

She hesitated, feeling the thunder of her heart. It was just Jacques, she told herself.

Never, he had no interest in the office.

Should she go down?

No, definitely not! Sam would send her right off the island with the baby if she thought that Yancy had risked him in any way.

It was just Adam, she told herself. Adam had spent the entire day in the office, going through books, charts and papers. They’d all been with him. No secrecy there.

She’d heard Adam leave in a hurry earlier. She’d heard Jem follow him out. But he might have come back.

But if it wasn’t Adam…

What should she do?

Her agony of indecision was short-lived, at least. She heard a click and realized that someone had exited by the bar door onto the porch.

She pulled out the little lamb night-light that had softly illuminated her room, casting it into total darkness, then flattened herself against the wall, staring over the lawn area that led down to the docks.

She saw…nothing.

No, a figure.

But just as she caught sight of the figure on the lawn, a cloud covered the moon completely.

The figure stood just between the pools of illumination cast by the island’s night-lights. In darkness.

She could see very little. The figure was tall…. Dark…. Nothing more.

Shaking, she set the sleeping baby into his crib. Then she checked her door. Locked. Securely locked.

She set a chair in front of it anyway.

Whoever she’d seen, they weren’t coming back tonight, she assured herself as she lay down. But she didn’t sleep.

She was suddenly certain that neither Justin Carlyle nor Hank Jennings had died by any trick of nature or by accident. Both men had been murdered.

And now the murderer had come to the island to strike again.

There was a very strange place between sleeping and waking, a place where memories came to haunt her sweetly in a pleasant mist.

The day was perfect. The sun was high, strong, the air touched by the perfect breeze, keeping the summer’s heat palatable. They’d spent the day on the Sloop Bee, her father on deck, reading another of his “sources.” She’d been diving, buddied up with Adam, since it had been just the three of them out for the afternoon. They’d come across the huge manta ray that afternoon. Adam had pointed out the creature to her. She’d been determined to befriend it, to take a ride on its mighty wings. The manta had been obliging, allowing her to close her fingers over its wings, to feel its power as it whipped through the water. Soon after, Adam had joined her, laughing behind his mask. It had been the perfect dive. They’d been near the Steps, and the sea had come alive for them. Barracuda had skulked about, offering up their wicked-looking grins but keeping their distance. Brilliant yellow tangs had darted about the reefs to the southwest of the Steps, along with clowns and angelfish. The colors had been so vibrant and magnificent, the sea so excitingly alive….

She had seen everything by his side. Shared the visions, loved the underwater world with someone who loved it equally well. Back aboard the Sloop Bee, she’d described it all for her father, who had laughed, bright-eyed himself, because he understood their feelings so well. Justin had tried to tell her then what he had been working on, but she hadn’t really been listening that day.

She’d just watched him with Adam. Seen Adam’s interest. His enthusiasm. Seen Adam smile. Seen his