Deny Tomorrow Page 14

Making her way to the pool unnoticed, Arianna climbed up through the artificial rock formation to the diving board high above. Poised there in a royal blue bikini that highlighted her smooth, dark tan, she undid her ponytail and shook her hair loose. Shapely and trim, she had the body of someone who obviously took excellent care of herself. A body that had probably caused more than one man to lose all reason when it came to her.

  From the edge of the diving board, she whistled sharply through her fingers to get everyone’s attention. With all eyes on her, she moved to the back of the board, turned and paused. She raised her hands dramatically over her head and pointed her toe like an Olympic diver. Flashing a big smile, she walked briskly forward, and in one fluid motion, came up into a handstand at the end of the board. Holding this position for one long, breathtaking moment, she kicked up and out of the stand, and propelled herself semi-gracefully down into the water below.

  Rising to the surface, she thought she was coming up in behind Juan who she intended to dunk. Instead she found herself face to face with Zach. Shocked and surprised to find him there, she flopped backward below the surface, swallowing a mouthful of water. Choking and gagging, she floundered her way to the side of the pool and quickly popped out to the sound of whistles and people yelling, “Bravo! Encore! Encore!”

  She looked back and saw Zach leaning on the side of the pool, nonchalantly sipping a beer and watching her towel off. Her pulse quickened and she felt flustered. Despite calls for an encore, she quickly grabbed her shorts and rushed back to join the lawn crew.

  She was obviously not expecting to see Zach in the pool, and it had startled her. How odd! In a way, she was actually happy to see him...glad he was home. The only thing she couldn’t figure out was why. He was the enemy. And even more curious was trying to figure out how she could have enough nerve to do that dive off the high diving board, but become flustered and weak in the knees whenever she came face to face with him. It wasn’t fear, but something about him was really getting to her.

  “Well, Zach, I must say. You have a real way with women,” Juan joked as Arianna rushed off. “Did you see the look on her face when she saw you? She looked like she’d seen a ghost. Way to impress the ladies there, bro.” He gave him a slight shove. “You’re a real Romeo.”

  “Yeah, evidently,” Zach mused and shoved Juan back. But before that, for the first time, he’d seen the side of her that had won everyone’s heart this week. She really was quite an entertainer. That move on the high diving board was gutsy as hell. God, she was fearless, and man, he was losing it when it came to her.

  Not every mission goes as planned, and this mission was coming off the rails… fast.

  Arianna hated doing housework. She also hated doing nothing. Weeding flowerbeds wasn’t her preferred outdoor activity, but it was better than sitting idly, thinking about her current predicament.

  Juan approached as she finished weeding the last section of flowers. Despite their rocky first encounter, these two had begun to build a friendship. To Arianna’s surprise, she’d discovered he was really a gentle, caring person, not at all like the brute she’d met the first night when he had wrestled her out of bed and kidnapped her. He came now to tell her she was wanted in Zach’s office.

  “Don’t worry. He won’t bite,” Juan said, seeing her apprehensive look.

  “Sure. So why am I not looking forward to going in there?” She felt like a naughty school girl summoned to the principal’s office.

  Juan offered his hand to help her to her feet. “Come on. You’ll be fine. Anyway, I seem to remember you’re pretty good at handling yourself in tough situations,” he said with a wink.

  Arianna chuckled. True, but standing up to Zach took a whole new kind of courage. They stopped in the kitchen long enough for her to wash her hands and towel off her face before proceeding down the hall to Zach’s office. As she entered, she found Lisa, Tony, and Zach waiting.

  Zach’s desk sat prominently in the center of the office in front of a large picture window through which you could see miles and miles of ocean. On the opposite wall was a floor to ceiling stone fireplace with a seating arrangement in front of it. Arianna thought this must be where they huddled when they planned such dastardly deeds as their midnight break-ins and kidnappings.

  “Thanks for coming,” Tony said, motioning toward a sofa. “Please, have a seat. Would you like something to drink?”

  “No, thank you,” she said, sitting down. She looked expectantly at Lisa, trying to read her expression… wondering what this meeting was all about. Lisa shook her head and shrugged her shoulders. She seemed as puzzled as Arianna as to why they had been summoned to Zach’s office. She glanced over at Zach who was standing behind his desk, looking out the window.

  “Well, as you’ve probably heard,” Tony began, “we’re hosting a large party this weekend. The circumstances of you two being here is a complication we hadn’t planned on, but the invitations have gone out already, so there’s no calling this off. We’ve invited you here to discuss the plan for the weekend.” He paused and looked at Zach to see if he should go on.

  Zach walked over and sat down across from the two women. Seeing he was going to take it from there, Tony moved to the background.

  “As far as your situation is concerned,” Zach began, “nothing has changed. You still cannot leave.” Then, looking specifically at Arianna, he added, “And creating some kind of scene this weekend in hopes of finding a way out of here, would be a bad idea.”

  He shifted in his seat slightly before continuing.

  “You have two options. One, you can give me your word you’ll keep quiet about who you are and why you’re here, in which case, you can move freely about as you have been. The second option is, I can lock you away in a place where you won’t have an opportunity to talk to anyone. I just need to know which option you prefer.”

  “No worries about me,” Lisa quickly added. “Arianna, you’re good, too, right?”

  Ignoring Lisa’s question, Arianna looked directly at Zach. “You know. I’ve been wondering. Who are you guys, and how long do we have to stay here?”

  Zach looked down, picked some lint off his pants, and then looked up again. “I can’t answer that.”

  “Can’t or won’t?” Arianna asked.

  Zach got up, walked to the window, and stared out to sea.

  “Just as I thought. The answer is, you won’t. I think there’s a lot you could tell us, but you won’t.” Arianna got up from the sofa and started to pace. “I don’t think I need your help anyway. I don’t want your help. I want you to let us go. We’ll leave… well, I’ll leave… Lisa might want to stay, now. But, I’ll leave, and we can forget all about this. I won’t go to the authorities, I promise. You’ll never see or hear from me again. That’s one way to solve the problem for this weekend. This could be the third option. I vote for option three.” She walked back to the sofa, sat down, and waited for Zach to answer.

  Zach continued to stare out the window. She didn’t get it. There was no worry about her telling anyone. People at the Agency could quash any story she would tell, preventing him from ever being implicated, never mind charged with any crime.

  He turned from the window and started to walk toward her but stopped and leaned back on his desk. “There is no option three, Arianna. You were in the wrong place at the wrong time, and that’s put you in a dangerous position. The FBI agent you met on the beach… he’s not an FBI agent. He thinks you can lead him to someone he’s looking for… someone he wants to assassinate.”

  He waited a minute for this information to sink in. “He wants information you can’t give him because you don’t have it, but he doesn’t know that. Right now he doesn’t know where you are, so you’re safe. And what you said a minute ago about me not hearing or seeing from you again would probably be true. That’s because you’d be dead if you left here.”

  Arianna’s mouth dropped open. She looked at Lisa and saw a shocked look on her face that matched her own. Something i
n Zach’s voice said every word he spoke was true.

  “W…what is it I’m supposed to know that I don’t?” she asked.

  That I kidnapped you in Kervistan. That I assassinated that warlord, Fasi. Or how about that I… we, all the men here—work deep undercover for the CIA as paid mercenaries. No big deal. Just a bunch of information that could get you killed. Zach sighed and walked toward the sofa, ignoring her question… a question he would never answer.

  “But there’s something else you should know,” Zach said. “This guy’s tapped your mother’s phone waiting for you to call and also staked out her house, hoping you might come home. If you were to show up there, it would be the kiss of death for both of you.”

  “My mother?” Arianna said, springing to her feet. “Is she all right? Oh, my God! What have I gotten her into?”

  “Your mother is fine,” Zach said, noting Arianna’s mounting distress. “I sent some men to watch over her. She has a twenty-four hour guard around her, but she isn’t aware of it. So far she has no idea what’s going on.”

  Looking toward Lisa, Arianna asked, “Her parents, too?”

  Zach nodded.

  She sank back down on the sofa, stunned. Her heart thundered in her chest, and she fought to stay calm as the full gravity of the situation sank in. All of these men were big time players in a game where the stakes were very high... phone taps, surveillance, counter surveillance, kidnapping, murder. She put her head in her hands, fighting back the tears welling up in her eyes. She’d never been so afraid in her entire life. She finally got it. A death sentence was hanging over her head.

  Silently Zach sat down on the coffee table in front of her. It had been a long, slow deterioration. So strong and spirited in the beginning, the stress of the past month had finally taken its toll. Reaching forward, he gently took her hands in his.

  Arianna looked up, shocked to see it was Zach tenderly holding her hands. Her first instinct was to rip them away from the man who had held her against her will and inflicted such pain on her. But at the same time, a feeling of warmth and security washed over her as he held her hands in his.

  “We haven’t found this guy yet,” Zach said, “but we will. When we do, we’ll take care of it so you won’t have to ever worry about this again. You’ll be free to go when that happens.”

  For a moment she was frozen in his eyes. His touch calmed her… reassured her that she would be all right. But as suddenly as he had taken her hands in his, he released them and walked back to the window.

  “In the meantime, Arianna, you’re safe, and your mother is safe, too. Now, do I need to say any more about the party this weekend or do you understand what’s at stake?”

  “No,” Arianna whispered. Composing herself, she rose to leave. “I understand. There won’t be any problems this weekend. Is there anything else or may I go?”

  Zach shook his head and waved her on.

  She walked toward the door but paused a moment before leaving. Turning and looking back at Zach, she said quietly, “The FBI agent, the guy at the beach… he has a tattoo.”

  Zach spun around from the window, startled by what she said.

  Tony jumped to his feet. “H…he what? Are you sure?” Tony asked.

  “His left wrist. You can see it when he turns his hand over. A black dagger.”

  “She’s right,” Lisa said. “I forgot all about that. This should help you find this guy, right?”

  “Absolutely!” Tony exclaimed. “Damn! This is exactly the break we needed to identify this man.”

  Zach gave Arianna a nearly imperceptible nod of appreciation… a subtle gesture weeks ago, she would have totally missed. But day-by-day, she was learning more and more about this quietly imposing stranger who had swept into her life that first fateful night. With that she turned and left.

  ARIANNA RUSHED through the kitchen past Pilar and Stella and headed down to the beach. She started to run and kept running until she was exhausted. Sinking to her knees, she sat there staring out to sea. Time had a funny way of changing one’s perspective. A month ago, she was obsessed with finding her kidnapper. Now, knowing someone was trying to kill her—Lisa, and both of their families as well—her kidnapping didn’t seem so important anymore.

  It was late in the afternoon when she returned to the house. She nodded and walked silently past the group who were lounging on the patio. Lisa caught up with her and followed her down into their room.

  “You were gone a long time this afternoon. Everything all right?” Lisa asked.

  “I think so. How about you? Are you okay?”

  “Not really. I’m petrified,” Lisa responded. “Really scared for you, though. I wonder what it is you‘re supposed to know, that you don’t know.”

  Arianna shrugged her shoulders. “I’ve wracked my brain trying to think what it is. I have no idea, and I can’t think about it anymore, or I’ll go crazy.”

  “I guess we should feel lucky we have Zach and Tony looking out for us.”

  Arianna nodded slowly. Her head hurt, and she felt numb. She really didn’t know what she thought anymore.

  “Lisa, I’m so sorry I caused you to get mixed up in this situation. You should have never befriended me that first day at the Cass Hotel.”

  “Don’t be silly,” Lisa said. “You had no way of knowing what was going on, and you needed a friend. I don’t regret a thing.”

  “You’re kind to say that,” Arianna said. “You’ve been a great friend.”

  “I feel the same way. Now quit worrying about it. Let’s let Zach and Tony handle this. I trust them.” She gave Arianna a big hug.

  “And hey! About this weekend,” Lisa said, changing the subject, “I guess this party is going to be a really big deal… seventy-five to a hundred guests. Tony had several dresses sent out for me to try since I obviously didn’t arrive prepared for this occasion.”

  “Nice,” Arianna said, happy to change the subject. “When do I get to see them?”

  “Soon, but you know, Arianna, you could go to the party, too, if you asked.”

  “No, that’s all right. I’ll pass.”

  “Well, uh, I was thinking,” Lisa stammered, “that, well, Zach seemed very concerned about you this afternoon. Did you ever stop to consider that maybe he might kind of like you?”

  Arianna spun around and looked at her like she was crazy. “Have you been in the sun too long? Had too much to drink maybe? You’re kidding, right? We go together like the fox and the hound. What a silly idea!”

  “I’m not so sure, Arianna. I think I detect something here. Don’t ask me why. Call it women’s intuition or whatever.”

  “No,” Arianna said, shaking her head in disbelief. “That’s okay, but I think I’ll hang around in the background with the servants this weekend. I’d like to keep my distance from these people, and when this is over, I want to walk away and forget about anyone and anything associated with this whole situation… not you, of course, but everything else.”

  “Are you sure?” Lisa pleaded. “We could have so much fun if you’d come to this party.”

  “I’m quite sure. Anyway, you’ll be with Tony, so what more could you want? But right now I have to go clean vegetables and do some prep work for the party. I promised Pilar I would do that, so I better get hopping, or I’ll never get everything done.”

  With that she hurried upstairs, totally dismissing Lisa’s suggestion about attending the party, and especially the part about Zach liking her.

  Arianna was still tired when the alarm rang Friday morning. She’d been up long after midnight cleaning vegetables and making canapés for the upcoming party. Trudging into the kitchen, she saw Stella, who along with several temporary staff workers was busy preparing for Saturday’s big affair.

  “Good morning,” she mumbled to Pilar who was pulling a pan of biscuits out of the oven. Pouring herself a cup of coffee, she savored the aroma a moment before taking her first tentative sip of the hot liquid.

  “Thanks for helping
with the prep work last night,” Pilar said. “That was a big help.”

  “I hope I never see another carrot stick as long as I live,” Arianna sighed. She reached for the basket of biscuits. “Here, I’ll take those out to the buffet.”

  Arianna stepped out onto the veranda and glanced over at the table where Zach and the rest of the group were having breakfast. A beautiful, young woman she’d never seen before was sitting next to Zach. She appeared to know everyone, and it didn’t dawn on her who this woman might be until she leaned over and gave Zach a kiss on the cheek as she got up to leave the table.

  Of course! She knew Zach must have a girlfriend, but she was shocked to finally come face to face with her. Perfectly coiffed and manicured, this woman was gorgeous.

  Arianna noticed her own hands, callused and scratched from working outdoors, her fingernails short and unpolished. She had quickly tied her hair up in her usual wild ponytail, and she couldn’t remember the last time she’d applied any make-up. All of a sudden, she felt very inadequate and completely out of place.

  She was also feeling something else. Something she didn’t want to acknowledge...a twinge of jealousy. She tried to stifle that feeling and chastised herself for having such a ridiculous thought. After all, what did she care about Zach’s girlfriend? He could have a dozen girlfriends for all she cared. She was just biding her time until she could go home and put this whole ordeal behind her.

  Lisa saw that Arianna had arrived and came over to talk to her. As they were talking by the breakfast bar, Lydia approached.

  “So, Lisa, that’s your name, right?” Lydia said, looking at Lisa. “We need to talk.” She handed Arianna an empty juice pitcher, believing her to be one of the servants. “Here. Refill this.”

  “Lydia,” Lisa began, “this is Arianna, and she’s not….”

  Arianna interrupted her. “I’d be happy to refill that for you. Is there anything else you’d like?” She didn’t care if Lydia thought she was one of the servants or not. Without comment, she took the pitcher and made her way into the kitchen.