There was something in his heavy voice that alarmed her, and Kristen sat up. "You know more than you're telling me. This so-called information... You have it already, don't you?" He triedtopull her back against him, but Kristen refusedtobe placated. She scrambled off the bed before he could stop her. "Tell me, dammit! I deservetoknow what's going on."

"I've got it on good authority that Salva will be showing up here in a day or two."

"He's coming?" She mumbled the words, felt a chill race the length of her spine. "And when were you going to tell me this?" He swung his legs to the floor. "I wasn't going to if I could help it."

Furious, she snapped, "I had a right to know the minute you found out. This is my life. Mine and Amanda's. I have a right to know everything, d.a.m.n you! Everything about who you really are, too."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"Don't playstupid. I know about ...about your other job."

He went very still. "Just what do you think you know?"

"'Trust me,' that's what you said. 'I'm the right man to trust.' Well, I know your secret, Blu. I know why you could make that claim. Why didn't you trust me enough to tell me?"

"Dammit!" He was off the bed in an instant. "If you know, then why in h.e.l.l did you let me-" He gestured to the bed. "We just spent hours there." He turned his back on her andwentsearchingfor his jeans.Pulling them on, he spun around. "How did you find out?"

"Your mother."

"What!" His shock was obvious. "She told you that I- What exactly did she say?"

"She didn't actually say anything." Kristen gauged his growing anger, worried now that she'd made a

grave mistake by bringing it up. "Your mother keeps a sc.r.a.pbook on each of her children. She offered yours to me to look through. There were newspaper articles and pictures. Last year when you got shot saving those kids... Well, it was all in the sc.r.a.pbook."

He swore. Crudely.

"Tell me why."

He glanced at her. "Why what? You seem to know everything. There's nothing else to say, is there?"

The look in his eyes... What was that? He was angry, but there was something else. "Blu, please. You

asked me to trust you. Can't you just trust me a little? I'm not putting you on trial here. I'm just trying to understand who you are." When he said nothing, she stomped her foot. "Dammit, Blu, talk to me!"

"I need some air." He turned to the door.

"No. No, you don't!" Kristen beat him to the door. As if she had strength enough to keep him her prisoner, she braced her hands on either side of the door jamb. "You're not walking this time! You're not! Do you hear?"

"I did what I did. I had my reasons. They weren't the best, but I made a decision and I'll live with it. This is as good a time as any, I guess, to have you find out what I am. This will be over in a few days anyway."

"Over? What does that mean?"

He jammed his hands into his back pockets. "G.o.d! Get out of my way. I need some air."

"You'll get your d.a.m.n air when I get what I need," Kristen insisted.

He gave her his devil's stare.

"That's not going to work on me. I'm not afraid of you. You won't hurt me. It's not in you to hurt me. That other man doesn't exist for me."

He went still. "Don't look at me like that. I'm no d.a.m.n hero, like those stupid newspapers claim. You think saving those kids makes everything I did all right? Believe me, it doesn't. My hands are more than just a little dirty, baby. You can't just send me through the wash a couple of times and clean me up like a pair of pants. Don't buy into that newspaper c.r.a.p. I've sent mentothe hospital with broken jaws and busted ribs. I've spilled more blood in the street than you will ever see in your lifetime. The best d.a.m.n enforcer in the city." He pointed to the bed. "You just slept with the city's finest, Angel. How does that make you feel?"

"It makes me feel..." Kristen raised her chin. "I feel lucky, and safe. Even though Salva is coming here, I feel safe with you."

Her answer stunned him, and he turned away. "You're crazy."

Crazy in love, Kristen wanted to say. But she didn't.

He wouldn't accept that from her right now. He was too busy trying to make her hate him. Why, wasn't clear. "You saved six kids from a fate worse than death. That makes you-"

"Smart." He spun around. "There was a fat reward! I did it for the money."

"So you knew about the reward when you decided to hide those kids and stay with them for four days with a bullet in your leg?" Kristen knew he didn't. The newspaper had written a separate article on one of the kidnapped children. It seemed she was the daughter of a prominent figure out east. He'd offered a sizable reward after the fact.

"Can we get off this d.a.m.n subject?"

Kristen watched him as he began to prowl the small room like a caged animal. "The paper claimed you went to work for the loanshark to save your father's fleet. It said the duFray Devils were in a financial crisis and that-"

He stopped and glared at her. "Don't be so naive. I wanted easy money and I found a way to get it."

Kristen studied him for a moment. His body was tense, his jaw set. She shook her head. "No, I don't think it was ever easy for you, Blu. I think it bothered you every day, and it still does. Maybe there was another way to get the fleet solvent, I don't know. What I do know, is that it wasn't based on easy money, or a violent man finding his niche."

He swore again, this time in a string of crude adjectives that scalded the air inside the small room. "You don't know squat!"

"I know that when you make love to me I feel like a fragile piece of gla.s.s. There is no selfishness, no violence. I don't feel frightened, or ashamed. I know that inside, you are a good man." Kristen flinched at the depth of pain she saw in his eyes. "I won't hate you, Blu. I'm angry with you for shutting me out, and not telling me the truth about this and Salva, but I can't hate the man I-"

The sound of a boat moving in fast snapped Kristen'smouth shut. She noticed that Blu didn't seem to be alarmed. "Are you expecting someone?" He didn't answer, he simply found her clothes and tossed them on the bed. "Get dressed, then stay here. Don't come up." Then he turned and left.

* * * On deck, Blu greeted Brodie Hewitt. "You're early." "Curt got away about an hour ago." "I thought I said not to let him escape until dawn.That puts everything six hours ahead of schedule." In the moonlight BrodieHewitt looked like a bada.s.sbiker who hadboughtnine lives and had spent eight.

His premature gray hair, and the age lines around his eyes acknowledged he'd once been either a hard-partying fool, or a man who had seen the dark side of h.e.l.l more than once. "I know, but the slippery little b.a.s.t.a.r.d hit Mort over the head and took off."

Blu rubbed his jaw, calculating the change into his plan. "How is Mort's head?"

"He's got a lump and a nasty headache. He feels like he's let you down. Other than that, he'll live. So now what?"

"It's a given that Curt's going to call Maland and that's what we want. It'll alljust happen six hourssooner than we first planned. We can still do it. This might even be better."

Blu wasn't going to explain why that was. He'd set the time frame for selfish reasons so he could be with

Angel a little longer. But now that she knew who he really was, it hardly mattered when Curt made his callto Maland. The time he had with her had come and gone. It was too short, but then hewould always feelthat way. He couldspend a lifetimewith her and still think it was tooshort.

"This is ah.e.l.luva plan, Blu. You sureyou wanttoplay it this way?" Blu looked out over the water. "It'll work." "It could get you killed." "Maybe." "Mort tells me she's a real looker." Blu smiled a little sadly."Oui,she's some beautifulwoman." He felt Brodie's hand on his shoulder. "Are you sure you want it this way? You don't have to be the one to face Maland. It could be me." Blu faced his friend. "Thanks, but Maland and me, face-to-face, that's how it has to be to work. How I want it to be."

"Then we'll do it like you said."

"When this thing goes down, I wantAngelin your back pocket far away from Maland. I don't want her anywhere near him."

"It's your party,mon ami. Like I said before, we'll do it any way you want it."

"Then I'll see you later."

"Wait a minute. Where are you going?"

"I need some air."

"Did you warn her that I was going to take her back to Rose's place?"

"No."

"Then don't you think-"

Blu vaulted into the boat that drifted alongside the Nightwing. "Make sure she gets to Ma's safe and sound, then meet me back on the Demon's Eye." * * * Salva Maland stood on the deck of the Princess and gazed at the yacht's figurehead. Yes, his beautiful princess was naked, her hands tied like he always enjoyed seeing her. He closed his eyes and imagined stroking her jutted-out b.r.e.a.s.t.s, mounting her youthful hip. She was perfection, his Princess, and the craftsmen who had spent months creating her flawless likeness had been a master with wood. The more time that pa.s.sed, the more Salva realized his mother had been right to warn him about the spell this lovely creature had woven around him. His craving for Kristen had become a fever inside him. She'd become his drug, and he knew-had known for three years-that she was the only woman who could sate his unusual appet.i.te. His cell phone rang. Salva reached into his pocket and opened the compact phone. "Is that you, Aldwin?" he asked as he held the phone to his ear and recognized the man's annoying Southern drawl.

"What the h.e.l.l do you want? I've just finished tearing apartthe Florida coast,and I'm in no mood to-"

"She's here."

Salva went stone still. "You have her?"

"No. But I know who does.You're not goin' to believeit, or like it much, though."

Salva's heart started to pound beneath his expensive black silk shirt. Kristen was in Algiers. How?

Why? The only way she could have found her way back there was if her memory had returned. "Then she knows who she is? She knows about being kidnapped?Aboutour deal?"

"See, that's the crazy part I don't get. If she knew her name, she would have contacted the old man. She hasn't done that. And last night she looked straight at me and didn't recognize me. How she got hooked up withhim, is a mystery."

"Him?Who are you talking about?"

"The Blu Devil. She was with duFray lastnight. I caught themtogether."

Salva was so stunned he didn't have a reply right away. Finally, he asked, "Define 'caught them together.'"

"You know, sittin' together at a restaurant. I saw duFray kiss her hand."

He was hearing the words, but Salva was alreadyrevising a new, moreheinous way, for the Blu Devilto die. The man had been a thorn in his side for a year. He'd helped send his half brother to prison and had jeopardized his lucrativebusiness. His mistake innottaking duFray out immediately was now costing him more than he had ever imagined possible-the Devil had his princess.

Seething, Salva didn't want to ask his next question, but his fixation had him by the throat. "Do you think he's touched her?"

"You mean, had her?"

Salva gripped the phone tighter.

"h.e.l.l, I don't know. I can't say it's happened, but I can't say it ain't, neither. Krissy sure turned into somethin' special."

Salva couldn't take anymore. "How much does the Blu Devil know?"

"Too much. He knows she's my sister, and he knows you killed Ben."

"How the h.e.l.l does he know that? You talked, didn'tyou, you b.a.s.t.a.r.d?"

"They tortured me."

"They?"

"I was taken to one of duFray's shrimpers and some of his men stripped me and put me in the hold with the creepy crawlies. I barelyescaped with my life. ButI didn't tell them that I'd talked with you, or that you'recomin'. You're comin', ain'tcha?"

For an answer, Salva threw the cell phone into the Gulf. A moment later, he instructed his captain to sail for the Louisiana coast.

Kristen and the Blu Devil together.Salva's ragestarted to buildlike a tropical storm. He knew thatkilling them both would be a reasonable solution to this nightmare he was living. But he also knew he couldn't live without hisPrincess.No, she was going back tothe island, and he would punish her every day for the rest of her life for leaving him. But first he would teach her the price of betrayal.

The Blu Devil was a dead man. Only before his blood was drained from his body, Salva intended to strip the skin off his back an inch at a time. And while he filleted Kristen's lover, he would make her watch.

Chapter 15.

^ When Blu arrived at the fish market at nine the next morning, the store was filled with customers, and Bessy Turner was doing her best to see to their needs. Giving the older woman a nod, he scaled the stairstothe apartment he'd grown up in. His mother came into the kitchen when she heard him enter. He noted her face was pale, but she offered him a weak smile.

"Amanda's asleep in the bedroom, and so is Kris."

"Kris?"

"I can't keep calling her Child. She has one of her own."

Blu nodded, then looked down at the black backpack that sat by the door. "I see she's packed. Did Brodie explain what's going on?"