“He didn’t.” Madrid eased off her and went to his knees beside her in the sand. “Take it easy.”
“He was going to kill us.” Jess knew it was silly, considering she’d just cheated death, but she couldn’t stop crying. “He was going to kill that innocent little boy.”
“You’re okay now.” Madrid reached for her and they rose together.
“Where’s Nicolas?”
“He’s right here. He’s fine.”
Another sob squeezed from her throat when the little boy grabbed her leg and held on. “Are there more of them?” Setting her hand against Nicolas’s soft hair, she looked around.
“No.”
“Oh God, Madrid, I was so scared.”
“You’re safe now. Both of you.”
It seemed only natural when he took her into his arms. His body was solid and warm against hers. Vaguely she was aware of him pulling Nicolas to them. The little boy was keening. Jess had one arm around Madrid. She put the other on Nicolas’s shoulder and squeezed gently.
“You’re going to be all right,” Madrid said.
But Jess didn’t feel as if she was going to be all right ever again.
MADRID WASN’T EXACTLY sure what had happened on the beach a few minutes ago, but he couldn’t get it out of his mind. Even when Angela’s boat was nearly swamped by five-foot swells on the way back to the mainland, he found himself thinking about the way Jess had felt in his arms. He didn’t know what he was going to do about it. Nothing, if he was smart. But Madrid had never claimed to be smart when it came to women in danger.
The one thing he did know was that they needed to find out who was trying to murder Jess and Nicolas. He knew they would be back to finish the job. He’d have to figure out the rest of it later.
Instead of returning to the marina where Angela had kept the Riptide in a slip, he headed south, where the beach was less rocky and he could ground the boat without fear of shattering the hull.
“Where are we going?”
He looked up to see Jess and Nicolas huddled at the rear of the boat. He’d found a slicker earlier and Jess had wrapped the boy in it. Not that it helped much. All three of them were soaked to the skin. The wind was out of the northwest and the chill factor hovered somewhere around the forty-degree mark.
“We’re going to ditch the boat and go ashore,” he said.
“How do we know they won’t be waiting for us?”
He didn’t like it that her teeth were chattering, that she was wet and exposed. It wouldn’t take long for hypothermia to set in. “We don’t.” But their pursuers were resourceful; it wouldn’t be long before they caught up.
Giving Nicolas a kiss on top of his wet head, Jess rose and crossed to Madrid. “We’ve got to get this child to a warm and safe place,” she said. “He’s been through a terrible ordeal. He’s cold and frightened and—”
“I know,” Madrid snapped. He hated seeing the little boy so ashen and silent, especially after losing his mother. The problem was he wasn’t sure what to do about it.
“There has to be someone.”
Madrid knew someone. The problem was he didn’t want to put that person in danger. But the way things were going, he didn’t think he had a choice. “I have a place in mind.”
Dawn broke with a mosaic of pastels on the western horizon. Madrid steered the open fisherman south through heavy surf, then cut east toward the beach when he saw the old fishing pier. Using the pier as cover, he beached the boat. He stepped into knee-high water and helped Jess and Nicolas from the boat, then picked up the satchel of items he’d collected at Angela’s place.
“What’s in the bag?” Jess asked.
“Let’s just say Angela was a firm believer in keeping resources handy.”
Her brows went together. “If it’s food you’re hoarding, Nicolas could use—”
“It’s not food,” Madrid cut in. “That’s all you need to know.”
“Fine.”
They trudged through sand toward the coastal road a hundred yards away. “I need to get Nicolas into some dry clothes.”
Looking back at him, Madrid noticed Nicolas’s teeth were chattering like little jackhammers. When they caught up with him, Madrid stooped and took the boy into his arms. “My body heat will help keep him warm.”
Jess blinked at him. “Good.”
Even cold and wet and frightened she was pretty. Against her pale complexion her eyes were dark and her lips were beginning to turn blue. He couldn’t stop thinking about how good she’d felt in his arms.
Berating himself for dwelling on something he had no business dwelling on, he turned right at the highway toward the small fishing village of Rocky Fork half a mile down the road. Madrid wasn’t sure if he would be welcomed there; he hadn’t exactly left on good terms some eleven years earlier.
But with an injured woman and a child in need of shelter and food, he couldn’t think of anywhere else to go. He only hoped they didn’t turn him away at the door.