Sea Haven 01 - Water Bound

investigated, and that didn’t leave him much time to become Levi Hammond. Fortunately, he’d already done a lot of work on his new identity using Rikki’s laptop, and if there was one thing he was exceptional at, it was creating identities. He was a ghost in a computer.
    There was no database he couldn’t find a way to hack. And his online identity—the Phantom—was well known to hackers around the world. They owed him favors and would repay instantaneously when asked.
    Levi Hammond already had a complete history, including a few parking tickets, a sea urchin diver’s license in Alaska and up and down the coast of California. He had a tender’s license, a social security number, a driver’s license, a college education and extensive travel on his passport. He also had a gun permit. He’d learned diving in Japan.
    His one problem was with the sea urchin divers here on the coast. It was a small group and most of them knew one another—or at least of one another. If he was lucky, no one would ask them about Levi Hammond until 159

    he had a chance to meet them and impress memories of him upon them, another talent that served him well. Whoever Blythe asked to check up on him would no doubt be a cop, and they’d look up his criminal history.
    “Be careful,” he said as Blythe turned to leave. “All of you. Remember, this man killed Rikki’s parents and her fiancé. He’s just as likely to go after one of you.”
    Blythe nodded. “We’ll be alert. We were prepared for this to happen.
    We all figured that if he struck at her four times, the chance that he’d do it again would be very high. All of us have security systems, smoke detectors and sprinkler systems.” She looked up at the ceiling. “Rikki’s got plenty of smoke alarms, but we couldn’t install a sprinkler system in her house.”
    “She had a nightmare the other day,” he conceded. “I saw what happened.”
    Blythe raised an eyebrow. “And that didn’t scare you off?”
    “I don’t get scared off easily,” he said. “Rikki has gifts, incredible gifts.
    If most people want to look at the surface and never see what’s inside of her, that’s their loss. I’m happy to keep her to myself.”
    “If you’re with Rikki,” Blythe warned, “then you’re with us.”
    He smiled and closed his eyes again. “I got that, Blythe, and I’m fine with that.”
    He heard her leave the room and listened to the low murmur of voices as they talked more with Rikki. He didn’t want to leave her alone with her sisters. They had indicated they were willing to give him a chance, but he knew they didn’t like it. None of them—well, maybe Lissa would prove to be his ally. She understood his nature more than the others, but even she would want to protect Rikki from a man like him.
    He respected them, even understood their need to watch out for Rikki, but he wasn’t going to let them influence her away from him. He didn’t deserve her, he knew that, but this was his one chance. He’d never met a woman who could make him lose control, who could make his body hard and his heart soft. Something had happened there beneath the sea, and if he chose to view it as a personal miracle, a second chance, then no one had the right to take it away from him—not even her sisters.
    He heard the soft footfall of Rikki’s bare feet as she padded into the room. “Lev? Do you need something for your headache?”
    He wanted to open his eyes and drink her in, but he waited. “Are they gone?” He knew they were—she was calling him Lev again. He shouldn’t allow it, but he liked the way the name rolled off her tongue so intimately.
    He craved the sound of Rikki’s voice. That soft monotone soothed him.
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    She sat on the edge of the bed and the coolness of her hand slid over his forehead. “Yes, they’ve gone home. You shouldn’t have rushed off like that without help. You haven’t even been up for more than a few minutes at a time.”
    He opened his eyes then, needing to see the proof of her concern, the soft look in her eyes, the slight frown to her mouth. He didn’t really remember much about his mother, and he’d certainly never had anyone fuss over him. He doubted if he would have tolerated or liked it from anyone else but Rikki. From her—he needed that anxiety and care.
    “We’ve got to go into a town, Rikki. I need to go to an Internet café, someplace where I can use a computer,” Lev announced. His head hurt like a son of a bitch and all