The Pirate & The Adventurer & The Cowboy

guided her through the darkness back to the tiny room at the foot of the stone stairs.

    Kate was fumbling with the first step when she felt him go very still behind her. He tugged on her arm and she obediently stopped.

    Then she heard the footsteps ringing on the stone above. Adrenaline flooded her veins all over again.

    Jared was already tugging her back down the stairs. She felt him moving about in the darkness and then she heard the faint groan from deep inside the stones. She whirled around, but could see nothing. The cool rush of air and the soft sound of water told her the wall was now open.

    Jared pushed Kate in front of him, urging her into the hidden cavern. She moved cautiously, relying on his knowledge of the place.

    A moment later she felt the rough lava wall beneath her extended palm. Jared pushed her down until she was crouching behind an outcropping of rock.

    "Don't move," he breathed into her ear. "With any luck no one will see you in the shadows."

    She knew then that he was going to try to surprise whoever was coming down the staircase. "Jared, wait." She caught his hand while she yanked the dagger out of her jeans. "Here."

    His hand closed swiftly around the hilt of the dagger. "You, my love, truly were meant to be a pirate's lady."

    He moved away from her and Kate huddled into herself. After a moment it seemed to her she heard a faint, whispering sound near the edge of the quay, as if a body were sliding into the water, but she could not be certain.

    An instant later she heard the footsteps on the staircase and then a beam from a flashlight darted into the room. It slid rapidly over the stone wharf, but did not come close to her hiding place.

    Kate held her breath as a familiar figure walked swiftly into the cavern, calling out commandingly.

    "Butterfield? You in here?" Jeff Taylor's voice reverberated off the cavern walls. "What's going on? Why did you open the wall before I got here? So help me, if you think you're going to get away with pulling a fast one on me the way you did on your government people, you're crazy. Nobody cheats me, Max baby. Nobody at all."

    The beam of the flashlight bobbed eerily about in the darkness, but it did not find Jared or Kate. It did, however, reveal the small cabin cruiser tied up at the quay near the pile of crates and cartons.

    Taylor scanned the interior of the boat and then, apparently satisfied that it was empty, he propped the flashlight on one box and began loading crates into the cruiser.

    That was when Jared staged his reappearance. Kate had to admit it was done in a suitably dramatic fashion, just like a scene out of one of her novels.

    He came up out of the water only inches away from Jeff Taylor's foot. Jared had the dagger between his teeth so that his hands remained free and in the glow of the flashlight he looked incredibly dangerous. His dark hair streamed back from his forehead and his teeth flashed around the handle of the knife. In that moment he was every savage buccaneer Kate had ever created.

    At the last instant Jeff Taylor sensed what was happening. He tried to jump back out of reach, simultaneously grabbing for the gun in his shoulder holster.

    But he was too late. Jared had already wrapped one hand around Taylor's ankle. He jerked the man off his feet and into the water. The gun sank beneath the dark surface.

    The struggle in the water was short and merciless. Even as Kate darted forward from her hiding place, Jared was subduing Taylor. By the time she reached the edge of the quay and turned the flashlight beam on the two thrashing men, she saw that Jared had the dagger's point firmly lodged near Taylor's throat. Taylor stopped struggling.

    "Stand back," Jared ordered as he pulled an unresisting Taylor out of the water. "Bring me that yellow nylon line sitting in the stern of the cruiser."

    Kate did as she was instructed and watched in fascination as Jared neatly bound his captive with a lot of very businesslike nautical knots.

    "You're a fool, Hawthorne." Taylor looked up at Jared with furious, sullen eyes. "You should have stayed out of this."

    "Tell me about it." Jared stepped back, satisfied with his knots.

    "Now what?" Kate asked.

    "Now you go back to the resort and try calling Sam again."

    She didn't like the expression in his eyes. "What about you?"

    "I'll go find Max Butterfield," Jared said. The glow of the flashlight rendered his face in stark, chilling lines.

    "No need to come looking for me,