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The Pirate & The Adventurer & The Cowboy

The Pirate & The Adventurer & The Cowboy

Titel: The Pirate & The Adventurer & The Cowboy Kostenlos Bücher Online Lesen
Autoren: Jayne Ann Krentz
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this, but I really think I deserve an explanation, don't you?"

    "Kate, listen to me. I'll give you all the explanations you want, but first you've got to tell me what makes you think Jeff Taylor is involved in this."

    "You're not going to like it."

    "That goes without saying. Just talk. And fast."

    Kate drew a deep breath. "I found the secret to opening the wall in the castle."

    "Where?" Jared's expression was grim.

    "In Amelia Cavendish's diary."

    "Damn. I should have known. All right, go on. I take it you couldn't resist going back to the castle to see if the secret worked? Never mind. Stupid question. Of course you couldn't resist. Of course you wouldn't think of doing the sensible thing and come to me to ask me about it."

    "Why should I ask you?" Kate shot back, stung. "Every time I've tried to ask you about what's going on at the castle, you tell me to mind my own business."

    "Okay, okay, we'll argue about this later, I can promise you that. Right now I have to know what you saw."

    "I got the wall open and I took a quick look inside. I saw some crates and cartons and the wet suit and equipment Jeff uses."

    "How do you know it was Taylor's?"

    "The wet suit was yellow and black. The same colors as the suit he wore diving the other day." Kate frowned. "I suppose it could belong to someone else. Does the resort rent yellow-and-black suits?"

    "No." Jared released her and drove a hand through his dark hair. "What the hell is going on?"

    "That's what I'd like to know. Jared, if you're involved in something illegal, now is the time to tell me. We've danced around this matter long enough."

    "I've already told you, it's not illegal. But it is getting to be a damned nuisance." He stalked to the edge of the veranda and stood gazing out into the darkness for a long moment.

    "Please. What is this all about?" Kate asked.

    "It's about a favor I was doing for Max Butterfield."

    "Max? What kind of favor?"

    "It's a long story. The short version is that Max sometimes does odd jobs out here in the Pacific for the government."

    "I don't get it. He's a spy or something?"

    "Nothing that exciting," Jared said evenly. "Or that formal. He's not exactly on the government payroll. He's what you might call a stringer. He started out selling bits and pieces of information when he realized several years ago that he wasn't ever going to get around to writing the Great American Novel. Over the years he's had his uses, I guess."

    "But what was he doing here? Why were you helping him?"

    Jared reached for his jeans. "He did me a favor a couple of years back when I needed a little muscle to get rid of some rounders who decided they were going to settle here on Amethyst. He got his buddies in the department to send some professional leaners."

    "Leaners?"

    "Yeah. Leaners. You know. They lean on people." Jared zipped his jeans and started buttoning his shirt. "They asked a lot of pointed questions about tax-filing status and things like that. Made our unwelcome guests generally uncomfortable. They leaned until the troublemakers decided to go to some other island. The long and short of it is, I owed Max and his friends."

    "And he came around to collect?"

    "A couple of months ago."

    "Well?" Kate followed him as he finished dressing and stepped back into the darkened room. She grabbed her dress and held it in front of her. "What did he want?"

    "The guys he sells information to wanted him to set up a trap here on the island." Jared glanced over his shoulder, his mouth twisted wryly. "You should appreciate this part. Seems they were having trouble with some real modern-day pirates. Someone's got a racket going using the cruise ships."

    "How?"

    "They've been hijacking sophisticated electronics equipment from military and construction sites here in the Pacific. They use a small, fast boat or a plane to bring the stuff to remote islands where it's stored until the guys who are running things arrive to repackage and ship the stuff to a new destination."

    "How are the cruise ships involved?"

    "Max's friends figured out who was running the first stage of the operations, but they couldn't get a handle on the ringleader. The head man, disguised as an innocent tourist from one of the cruise ships, apparently arrives at the islands where stuff is stored. He takes care of business while everyone is souvenir shopping and then he leaves on the boat. In some cases the equipment is smuggled right on board."

    "When a cruise ship arrives,

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