Diamond Bay Read online

  “Sit down so I can reach you better,” she said, taking the shirt from his hand. He held the corner of the cabinets for support as he slowly limped to the table in the dining alcove and eased himself down onto one of the chairs. Rachel carefully worked the shirt up his arm, a look of intent concentration on her face as she tried not to jostle his shoulder. When she had it in place she said, “Put your other arm in the sleeve while I keep it from pulling on your shoulder.”

  Without a word he did as she directed, and together they pulled the shirt over his head. Rachel tugged it into place, much as a mother would dress a toddler, but the man sitting motionless under her ministrations was no child in any sense she could imagine. She didn’t linger over the chore, well aware of his dislike for having to rely on her aid. Briskly she got the bread out of the oven and put it in the napkin-lined breadbasket, then placed the basket on the table and took her own chair. “Are you left-handed or right-handed?” she asked, not looking at him, even though she could feel the burning energy of his gaze on her face.

  “Ambidextrous. Why?”

  “The spoon could be difficult for you to handle if you were left-handed,” she replied, nodding at the stew. “Would you like bread?”

  “Please.”

  He was very good at one-word sentences, she thought as she put the bread on his plate. Actually, she should have thought of asking him if he could handle the razor, too, but his clean-shaven face said that he evidently could. They ate in silence for a few moments, and he really did justice to the stew. She hadn’t expected his appetite to be so good so early in his recovery.

  The bowl was nearly empty when he put his spoon down and pinned her with the ebony fire of his eyes. “Tell me what’s going on.”

  It was a demand that Rachel didn’t feel like meeting. Carefully she put her own spoon down. “I think it’s my turn to ask a few questions. Who are you? What’s your name?”

  He didn’t like the counterdemand. She sensed his displeasure, though his expression didn’t flicker. The hesitation lasted for barely a second, but she noticed it and had the immediate impression that he wasn’t going to answer. Then he drawled, “Call me ‘Joe’.”

  “I can’t do that,” she replied. “‘Joe’ is what I call the dog, because he wouldn’t tell me his name, either. Make up another one.” Driven by the electric surge of tension in the air she began clearing off the table, moving swiftly and automatically.

  He watched her for a moment, then said quietly, “Sit down.”

  Rachel didn’t pause. “Why? Do I have to be sitting down to listen to more lies?”

  “Rachel, sit down.” He didn’t raise his voice, didn’t change the calm, dead-level inflection of his tone, but suddenly it was a command. She stared at him for a moment, then lifted her chin and returned to her chair. When she merely waited in silence, looking at him, he gave a little sigh.

  “I appreciate your help, but the less you know, the better it is for you.”

  Rachel had always hated it when anyone presumed to know what was best for her and what wasn’t. “I see. Was I not supposed to notice that you had two bullet holes in you when I pulled you out of the surf? Was I supposed to turn my head when two men pretending to be FBI agents came looking for you, and just turn you over to them? Was it supposed to pass my notice that you held a knife to my throat this morning? I’m a little curious, I admit! I’ve nursed you for four days, and I really would like to know your name, if that isn’t too much to ask!”

  One level black brow lifted at her sarcasm. “It could be.”

  “All right, forget it. Play your little games. You don’t answer my questions and I won’t answer yours. Deal?”

  He watched her for a little longer, and Rachel kept her gaze level, not backing down an inch. “My name is Sabin,” he finally said, the words slowly drawn out of him, as if he begrudged every syllable.

  She absorbed the name’s sound, her mind lingering over the feel and form of it. “And the rest of it?”

  “Is it important?”

  “No. But I’d like to know, anyway.”

  He paused only a fraction of a second. “Kell Sabin.”

  She held out her hand. “Glad to meet you, Kell Sabin.”

  Slowly he took her hand, his callused palm sliding against her softer one and his hard, warm fingers wrapping around hers. “Thank you for taking care of me. I’ve been here four days?”

  “This is the fourth day.”

  “Fill me in on what’s happened.”

  He had the manner of a man accustomed to command; rather than requesting, he ordered, and it was clear that he expected his orders to be obeyed. Rachel pulled her hand from his, disturbed by his warm touch and the shivery way it affected her. Clasping her fingers together to dispel the tingling in them, she rested her hands on the table. “I pulled you out of the water and brought you here. I think you hit your head on one of the rocks that line the mouth of the bay. You had a concussion and were in shock. The bullet was still in your shoulder.”

  He frowned. “I know. Did you take it out?”

  “Not me. I called the vet.”

  At least something could startle him, though the expression was quickly gone. “A veterinarian?”

  “I had to do something, and a doctor has to report all gunshot wounds.”

  He eyed her thoughtfully. “You didn’t want it reported?”

  “I thought you might not want it reported.”

  “You thought right. What happened then?”

  “I took care of you. You were out of it for two days. Then you started waking up, but the fever had you out of your head. You didn’t know what was going on.”

  “And the FBI agents?”

  “They weren’t FBI. I checked.”

  “What did they look like?”

  Rachel began to feel as if she were being interrogated. “The one who calls himself Lowell is thin, dark, about five foot ten, early forties. The other one, Ellis, is tall, good-looking in a toothpaste-ad sort of way, sandy-brown hair, blue eyes.”

  “Ellis,” he said, as if to himself.

  “I played dumb. It seemed the safest thing to do until you woke up. Are they friends of yours?”

  “No.”

  Silence fell between them. Rachel studied her hands, waiting for another question. When none came she tried one of her own. “Should I have called the police?”

  “It would have been safer for you if you had.”

  “I took a calculated risk. I figured the odds were more in my favor than yours.” She took a deep breath. “I’m a civilian, but I used to be an investigative reporter. I saw some things in those days that didn’t add up, and I did a little digging, found out some things before I was warned not to go any deeper. You could have been a drug runner or an escaped convict, but there wasn’t any hint of anything like that on the scanner. You could also have been an agent. You had been shot twice. You were unconscious and couldn’t protect yourself or tell me anything. If… people…were hunting you, you wouldn’t have had a chance in a hospital.”

  His lashes had dropped, shielding his expression. “You’ve got quite an imagination.”

  “Haven’t I,” she agreed mildly.

  He leaned back in his chair, wincing a little as he tried to get his shoulder comfortable. “Who else knows I’m here, other than the vet?”

  “No one.”

  “Then how did you get me up here? Or did the vet help you? You’re not Superwoman.”

  “I put you on a quilt and dragged you up here, with help from the dog. Maybe he thought it was a game.” Her gray eyes darkened as she thought of the Herculean effort she had made to get him inside the house. “When Honey got here, we lifted you onto the bed.”

  “Honey?”

  “The vet. Honey Mayfield.”

  Sabin watched her quiet face, wondering at what she wasn’t