The calls and connection to his special division had been broken. With no choice left, Erik had taken on the role he’d been playing in full force. No matter what he did, he always waited for the call to reveal his next moved. Kelly had been the one piece of the puzzle he hadn’t thought about. She was always around, always close by.
“This is insane. Are you telling me that you are in fact a cop?”
“Yes.”
Kelly stormed away and Erik cursed. It wasn’t safe for her to be running off. “Stay away from me.” She pushed him away as he made to grab her. “You’re the one who should be protecting me but you’re nothing but a guy who’s gone rogue. I’ve seen what you’ve done to people.”
Erik cursed. She would know every single sin he’d committed in his time serving under O’Donald.
“Do you think I don’t get that?” he yelled.
“You could have ended it. Put a bullet through his head or something.”
“Listen to me, Kelly.” He followed her across the sandy beach to the shady part of the island.
“No. You listen to me. I don’t trust you. I want off this island and I want far away from you.”
Erik allowed her to walk off. He’d given her a lot of information and she would need the time to think.
He walked away and sat down, burying his feet in the dry sand. Kelly sat on a rock with her feet skimming the water. His heart broke for her, for everything she’d lost and for the life she’d had to live for the past three years. If he’d known what she’d gone through, he would have stopped it when he had the time. Erik didn’t know why his men had broken their contact but he knew he was on the outside depending on the years of training to keep himself safe.
Living a life always looking over his shoulder left a lot to be desired.
Her cries broke the calm silence. Erik fisted his hands at his sides and waited until she finished. It broke him inside hearing her sadness. She didn’t deserve the pain. Out of all of this, she was the innocent.
Erik felt ashamed of his growing feelings toward the woman. He was older than her and should be able to control his need. When Kelly was around, he couldn’t think properly and in the thick of it with Arthur, he’d needed to think. She’d become a distraction he couldn’t control.
Kelly moved off the rock and walked toward him. Her eyes red rimmed and still glazed with more unshed tears.
“I don’t blame you for what happened to my mum. I want to get out of this place and get home.”
Erik nodded and together they walked back to camp.
Chapter Four
That night Kelly dreamt of her mother and the pain she must have suffered in the final days knowing what Arthur was doing to her. She woke with a start and lay perfectly still. Erik lay at her back with an arm flung over her waist.
“I take it you’re having nightmares?” he asked. His voice startled her.
The sounds of the night were of the ocean. When she got home, she wasn’t going near any beaches, ever again.
“Do you want to talk about the dreams?”
Kelly shook her head. She didn’t want to talk about her troubles. The more she talked, the more real they began to feel. The thought of her mother being killed by her father’s hand. She’d been away and there was nothing she could have done about it. If she’d been a good daughter, she’d have returned home and stopped the bad things happening to her mother.
“It might help to talk about the crash and everything.”
“Crash?” Kelly frowned.
“Yeah, the plane crash,” he said.
“I wasn’t dreaming about the crash.”
His fingers stroked the soft swell of her belly. Her senses were heightened by the darkness as each touch had her belly quivering. For years she’d tried exercise and extreme dieting trying to rid herself of the last few pounds and the horrid swell. No matter what she did, she couldn’t get rid of the damn thing and now he was playing with it.
“Could you stop doing that?” she asked.
“Doing what?”
She sighed in frustration. “Playing with my fat. I know it’s disgusting.”
His fingers stilled but he didn’t move his hand.
“Don’t ever think of your body like that,” he whispered in her ear.
Kelly sighed and allowed his touch. She supposed it was only a matter of time before it came to this. Not that she was complaining. Erik had always had the ability to arouse her when they were in each other’s company. They hadn’t been together often but out of all of her father’s bodyguards, Erik didn’t appear as dangerous as all the others. Strange, considering she thought Erik was her father’s right-hand man, responsible for all the death she’d heard about.