Eyes of Fire

“Thank you,” Jerry said as she looked at Liam and firmly put an arm around him. “I prefer being with—” she hesitated, then smiled and went on “—my man.”

Liam kissed her. “We’re just fine, Sam. You go on back in to that man of yours.”

Feeling frustrated, Sam went into the house. Was Jerry’s smile real? Had Liam been beating her? Some women just kept going back with a man no matter what.

Sam discovered that Adam was waiting for her at the door. Watching her.

“You can’t run off alone,” he told her.

“I just walked them out.”

“You can’t run off alone,” he repeated curtly. Then he inhaled deeply. “Come in. To the bar.”

Frowning, Sam let him lead her to the bar. Yancy was there, looking slightly ill.

“What the hell is going on?” Sam demanded.

Yancy drew a finger to her lips, then made certain that the doors to the porch were tightly closed. She nodded toward the stairs.

Sam turned to look.

She gasped, so stunned she nearly passed out.

A man was coming down the stairs. A young man with soft brown longish hair, blue eyes and an overgrown beard. He was incredibly thin, but other than that, he looked no worse for wear.

He was a man she knew very well. A man who had caused her endless hours of torment.

Because she had thought he was dead.

But he wasn’t. He was alive.

Alive and well and walking toward her.

“Sam,” he said.

He was alive! She gave a cry and streaked for him, throwing her arms around him.

He hugged her fiercely in return.

Shaking, she suddenly drew away from him. “You’re alive. You’re alive. We’ve been suffering all this time, and you’re here. Alive and well. And you didn’t try to contact us.”

“Sam, you don’t understand,” Adam began from behind her.

“No! You don’t understand!” she cried out. “This is—this is Hank. Hank Jennings. Hank! Damn you.” She hit Hank suddenly. Hit him again and again. Hank didn’t defend himself. He let her hit him.

It was Adam who stopped her at last, capturing her arms, pulling her against him.

“You don’t understand!” Sam lashed out. Hank was still staring at her, a sick look on his handsome face. “This is the man who supposedly disappeared. Who broke Yancy’s heart, who worried me halfway into an early grave. This is Hank—”

“I know,” Adam told her.

She pulled away. “How the hell do you know? How do you always know everything all the time? How do you know—”

“Sam, please, if you would just calm down….” Yancy tried.

“How?” Sam demanded. “Damn you, how do you know?”

Adam glanced at Hank. “I know Hank because…he’s my brother,” he said quietly.

Sam stared from one of them to the other. “What?” she demanded again, certain she hadn’t heard correctly.

“He’s my brother. Half brother, baby brother.”

“But—”

“It’s the truth, Sam,” Hank said wearily.

Sam took a step forward. This time she took a swing at Adam. He didn’t stop the first blow, or the second. Then he caught her wrists, saying, “Sam…”

“I don’t know what the hell is going on here, but I am sick of whatever game you horrible people are playing. I hate you, Hank, and I swear to God, I despise you, Adam. You’re a pair of bloody bastards, and the sharks should have taken you both!” she cried.

She turned and burst through the doors from the bar to the porch, determined to leave with all the swift, sure, no-nonsense speed of light.

“Sam!” she heard Adam roaring.

She didn’t care. She started to run. Not toward her cottage; that was the way he would expect her to go.

Instead she ran toward the docks, almost blinded by the tears that sprang into her eyes. What the hell were they trying to do to her?

He’d known! It was obvious, Adam had known all afternoon that Hank was there, and he’d known Hank all along. He hadn’t come to the island to help her; he’d come because Hank was his brother. And he’d probably made up everything he’d ever said about loving her because, just like everyone else, the only thing he wanted was the Beldona.

Furious, hurt beyond measure, she ran across the lawn.

And that was when the dark figure stepped out from the bushes.

All in black from head to toe.

Black ski mask.

Black turtleneck. Black shoes.

Black cloth. Saturated in chloroform.

“No!” She had a chance to shriek the single word, but then the cloth was over her face. She tried not to breathe.

But she had been running.

She had to breathe.

She struggled. Fought the arms that held her. Kicked, fought…

But she had to breathe.

Soon her arms ceased to flail. She couldn’t kick.

And, like the figure attacking her, the world around her faded, blurred and deepened….

Until it, too, was totally black.

14

“W ell, we certainly handled that well, didn’t we?” Yancy murmured dryly, looking from Hank to Adam.

Adam stared at his brother. “I should have told her.”

“I thought she’d be happy I was alive,” Hank said miserably.

Yancy lowered her head, smiling slightly. “You came through my window and nearly gave me a heart attack. We should have realized that Sam was going to have a similar reaction.”

“She’s just as mad at me as she is at Hank,” Adam said.

“Obviously,” Yancy agreed. “You two have gotten pretty close again in the past few days. She probably thought you came back because of her. Now she realizes that not only did you and Hank keep your relationship from her, you knew that Hank was here and didn’t tell her.”

“I didn’t hold out on her when we met,” Adam said flatly. “I said that I had a half brother. And I had no idea he was alive myself until I nearly had a heart attack when I saw him in the water. Which I’m still trying very hard to understand myself!”

“Damn it, Adam, if I knew more myself, don’t you think I’d share the information? I’m the reader, remember? You were always the tough guy, the one who became the cop. I just wanted to explain to Sam what had happened to me. Adam, none of this was my fault. I was kidnapped.”

Adam looked at him inquiringly.

“I found out that Justin went to the Steps the day he disappeared. Along with thinking that the Beldona was in that vicinity, he’d started to see activity out there. If he was right, others were heading for the location, and he needed to move quickly. Anyway, I was certain I’d figured out that the ship