St Kilda Consulting 02 - Innocent as Sin

letting go of Kayla. “What is it?”
    “A handy-dandy kidnap kit,” Hamm said. He looked at Kayla and shook his head. “You were lucky, babe.”
    “Christ. Get her out of there NOW,” Faroe snarled. “Bertone has a lot of thugs working for him.”
    Rand looked at his hand on Kayla’s wrist. “You going to run if I let go, ma petite ?”
    “Go to hell.”
    “Been there. Not worth a rerun.”
    Rand waited.
    Kayla looked at him for a long moment. Nothing about him made her nerves curdle the way they did when Bertone was near. And Rand had indeed been ready, willing, and frighteningly able to fight for her.
    Some artist.
    Hey, you wanted a third option, Kayla told herself bitterly. Looks like Rand is it.
    Oh, lucky, lucky me.
    “I won’t run,” she said. For now.
    “Then let’s get out of here.”
    Rand dropped her wrist and started walking quickly toward the wooden gate. As he walked, he rummaged in the duffel. His hand reappeared holding a small black pistol with a silencer screwed on, ready to go.
    “Sweet.” Rand smiled rather fiercely. “Bet it’s stone-cold, too. Thanks, Bertone. I’ll put your gift to good use.” He shoved it in his waistband at the small of his back, right next to the taped area that was chewing on him.
    “Was that a silencer?” Kayla asked, hurrying after Rand.
    “Sure was. Skinny is quite the dude. He came ready to party. Duct tape, handcuffs, a black cloth people sack.”
    “He wanted to kidnap you,” Hamm said matter-of-factly. “Sack you up and take off.”
    “How can you be sure?” Kayla asked, dazed.
    “If he’d wanted to kill you,” Rand said, touching the new gun at his back, “you’d be dead. A professional gun trumps an amateur knife every time.”
    She stared at him as he held the gate open for her, then looked away and slowly shook her head. “This is so not happening. Not to me. I backpacked through guerrilla territories and dopesmugglers and pythons and never once was in real danger. Now I’m a banker and I’m—” Her voice broke and she shook her head again.
    Rand tossed the bag to Hamm. “Give this to the tech guys. They won’t find any prints because he was wearing gloves, but we might as well do it by the numbers.”
    “Got it.”
    “Joe,” Rand said to his collar, “I’m either staying with her or bringing her in. Which is it?”
    “Bloody hell. Bring her in. If she goes sideways on us—”
    “Yeah, yeah, my ass is potato salad. Just remember who sweet-talked me into coming back.”
    “If I find the bastard, I’ll kill him.”
    Rand laughed, surprising himself. “Yesterday I would have helped you.”
    “But not today?”
    Rand found himself looking at Kayla. “Not today.” The same fingers that had handled the deadly gun tipped her chin gently up toward him. “I can’t explain here. No time and no place to hide. Let me take you to a place where there’s time and safety.”
    She just stared at him.
    “I promise I won’t lie to you, ever,” Rand said. “Ask me anything you want. If I can’t answer, I’ll tell you why. In return, you’ll be honest with me. Deal?”
    She was silent, then, “You are an artist, right? You didn’t just make that part up?”
    He smiled slightly. “You saw me paint. You have one of my paintings.”
    “I don’t trust what I’ve seen.” Her voice was weary and wary. Then she looked at him again, trying to read his eyes. “Who are you working for?”
    “St. Kilda Consulting.”
    “Shit Marie,” Hamm said, shaking his head. “When you takea burn, you take a big one. Faroe’s going to go right through the earphones and give you a Colombian necktie.”
    Rand ignored him, pulled the camera out of his backpack, and gave it to Hamm. The memory stick went with it. “Don’t lose this.”
    “Ten-four.”
    “Anything else?” Rand asked Kayla.
    “I have to go back to my ranch for a few things. Will you let me?”
    “If I go with you.”
    “Son of a bitch! You bring her right to the motel.”
    “But it will be dangerous,” Rand said calmly. “Your ranch is the second place they’ll look for you.”
    “What’s the first?”
    “The apartment you just rented and haven’t had time to really move into.”
    Kayla digested the fact that he knew a lot more about her than he should. “I’ll be quick at the ranch. Take a back road.”
    “Don’t even—”
    “Shut up, Joe,” Rand said. “It’s not that big a risk.”
    “The hell—”
    Rand talked over Faroe. “It will take