'Keely! Get your pretty little ass in here!'
Keely winced, but luckily her mother hadn't heard the command. 'I have to go. I'm working tonight at five, so I'll call you from the pub when I get a chance. Maybe I'll get one of the boys to say hello.'
'Oh, Keely, I would love that,' her mother said, tears evident in her voice. 'I-I'll talk to you later. Merry Christmas, darling.'
'Bye, Ma.' Keely returned the phone to the beside table. She sighed softly, then rubbed the sleep out of her eyes.
'Keely!'
With a giggle, she jumped out of bed and padded to the bathroom. Like the kitchen, it was a marvel of technology, with a huge whirlpool tub and a shower stall made for two. She peered around the corner of the shower's glass-block wall and found a naked Rafe, fully aroused, his body slick with soap and water. 'You know, I'm really not a shower girl. I prefer baths.'
Rafe took a step toward her. His hand shot out and grabbed her arm. He yanked her into the shower and pulled her beneath the rushing water, then kissed her thoroughly.
'I'm going to teach you to love showers,' he said with a low growl.
RAFE SAT on the park bench on Boston Common, his cashmere overcoat open to the warmth of the noonday sun. He watched the skaters glide around in a circle on Frog Pond, remembering Christmas Day and the time he'd spent skating with Keely. If someone had told him he'd pass an afternoon wobbling around a frozen pond on skates, he would have called them a fool. But he'd actually had fun. By the end of the day, he had even become a passable skater.
He and Keely had shared so much in the past five days. But, above all, everything they'd done had been fun- from the uninhibited sex to the quiet dinners over a bottle of wine to their walks along the Charles. Rafe had never put much stock in 'fun,' but he had to admit that it added a new dimension to his life. He'd smiled more in the past week than he had in the entire year. In the annals of his affairs with women, Rafe knew that Keely would rank as his favorite. She was sweet and understanding out of bed, and wild and passionate between the sheets. And there was something about that contrast that he found completely captivating. Other women had tried to cultivate such an image, but with Keely it was real.
Still, a dark cloud continued to hang over them. Keely wasn't just any woman he'd brought to his bed-she was a Quinn. The daughter of his father's murderer. And he should be spending his time working up a decent case of disgust for his behavior with her, instead of wondering what new adventure they'd share in his bedroom that night.
So he enjoyed her body. Like she'd said, they had no claims on each other, no strings. It was purely a sexual thing and, before long, the desire would fade and they'd both move on.
'You have nothing to feel guilty about,' he muttered to himself. Rafe cursed softly. He had to watch himself. There were times when he was starting to feel like a first-class sap, thinking about Keely at all hours, wondering what she was doing, who she was talking to, whether she was thinking about him. Though Rafe was quite certain he wasn't in love, he still couldn't define exactly what he was feeling. He liked Keely. She was beautiful and sexy and intriguing and he enjoyed spending time with her.
Hell, he'd always had a one-month maximum with women, averaging two dates a week and five decent nights in bed before boredom set in. He quickly tallied up his time with Keely and was surprised to find that he'd already surpassed his normal mark.
'Hey! Are you Sam Kendrick's kid?'
Rafe looked up, startled out of his thoughts. An older man stood in front of him wearing a battered jacket and faded blue jeans. Time had not been kind to Ken Yaeger. His face was deeply lined and his thinning hair was unkempt and his teeth were badly in need of a dentist. 'I am.'
Yaeger flopped down next to him on the bench and rubbed his hands together. 'Why the hell did we have to meet here? This town is filled with heated taverns and decent whiskey. I spent enough of my life out in the cold-I don't need to spend more.' He reached inside of his jacket pocket and pulled out a flask, then offered it to Rafe. 'Care for a nip?'
Rafe pushed the flask away, shaking his head. 'How did it go?'
Yaeger shrugged. 'They were pretty interested in what I had to say. Asked why I was coming forward and I gave them some shit about my conscience. I wrote it all down for them and they told me they'd be calling me. They gotta figure out who's in charge.'
'You didn't go in there drunk, did you?'
'What difference does it make? It doesn't change the truth.'
'I want to hear it,' Rafe demanded. 'The whole story. Exactly the way you told it to the police.'
Yaeger gathered his thoughts for a moment, took another swig from the flask, then cleared his throat. 'Well, ya see, I'd been working on the crew of the
'He was planning to buy a boat,' Rafe said. 'He and my mother were saving.'
'We'd been out for two weeks and the hold was about half-full. Then the weather reports started coming in. Seamus wanted to ride out the storm and continue fishing. Your dad wanted to head in. But Seamus's word was final. Still, Sam kept at him and the weather kept getting worse and pretty soon everyone wanted to go in. Something felt bad about this run and we all knew if we didn't get off the water, we'd end up under it. It spooked us. Pretty soon, it was us against Seamus.'
'A mutiny?' Rafe asked.
'About as close as you could come. Your dad was out on deck, securing all the gear so the waves wouldn't wash it away. I was up in the wheelhouse. Seamus went out and they started yelling at each other. Sam threw a punch and caught Seamus on the chin. Seamus hit Sam in the stomach. Sam threw another cross and lost his balance on the slippery deck. Then Seamus went for him. He shoved him hard and Sam went over the side. It was black out and the storm was coming up fast. We tried to find him, but by the time we did, it was too late. That water's so cold. A guy can only last maybe ten, fifteen minutes before he's a goner.' Yaeger shuddered, then took another swallow from the flask. 'I remember what he looked like when we finally found him and fished him out. That image just doesn't leave a guy.'
Rafe stared down at his hands, feeling anger surge up inside him, and his determination doubled. Seamus Quinn was going to pay. 'Why didn't you tell the truth back then?'
'Seamus convinced us to make it appear as if he got pulled over by the line. We tore up his slicker a little bit to make it look like that's what got caught. That way he would have been killed while he was working and your ma could collect more insurance. If Sam was even partially to blame for his own death, she'd get less. And he was the one who threw the first punch. He was the one talking mutiny.'
'So Seamus covered up his part in a murder. And he committed insurance fraud as well.'
'I s'pose you could say that. Yeah, I'd say that. Fraud.'
'Was there any investigation?'
'Fishing is a dangerous profession. That's a fact everyone accepts. And all the guys on the boat were straight with the story, so that was the end of it. I kept my mouth shut and collected my pay.'
'Is there anyone else who can back up this story?'
'The cops asked me that. Walt McGill died a few years back. Johnny Sayers went down with the
'What do you expect?'
'Well, I'm not doin' this for my health. I've got expenses.'
'I thought you wanted to help my mother.'
'Hey, that don't pay the rent.'
