A Dangerous Harbor (28 page)

And that was when she heard a raspy voice calling, "
Oigame
!
Tengo
sueños
."

"We're keeping him awake?"

Raul sighed and looked at his watch. "
Mineo's
bedtime. And if we don't shut up soon, he'll—"

"
Tengo
sueños
!"

"—keep it up until we do shut up." Raul stood, drawing her into an embrace. "Perhaps I have been too blunt and you need to consider? I have said what I want, but I don't know if I can stand the rejection—not tonight."

She raised her face to his. "The answer is yes, but surely not here?"

Raul smiled, his eyes crinkling at the corners as he brought his mouth down onto hers for a long deep kiss and then pulled back and said, "We keep an apartment for guests and clients at the winery. No one will be there tonight but us."

She looked at him and nodded. If tonight was all they had, she'd gladly take it.

They said little on the short ride over the mountains to where a wide valley opened up under the clear moonlit night. He drove with one hand, the other folded over hers as if reluctant to miss out on one single moment of their time together.

Following a dirt road between vineyards, she saw a cluster of outbuildings in the distance. Raul drove up to an iron gate ornately decorated with vines and grapes and an overhead arch with words stamped out in metal. "It says
Angelita
Winery," Raul said, releasing her hand long enough to punch in the numbers that made the gate swing open and drive through.

He punched the gas, and without waiting to see the gate close behind them, pulled into a cobblestone yard next to a huge barn.

He got out, came around to her side and offered her his hand. When she slid out of the car, her nostrils immediately flared to the scent of hay, horses, old oak barrels, grapes and the simple singular notes of new wine.

Raul unlocked a door and asked her to wait for him. Soon the seams of the barn leaked a warm light from within and she heard a sound as the big barn doors slid open on motorized tracks. The place was enormous, with barrels and wooden crates and tractors and forklifts.

He led her down the center and then upstairs to another level, turning off the lower lights as he pulled her into a darkened room. He hit a switch by the door and recessed lighting showed a fully furnished and very masculine apartment.
 
The walls were of a natural seasoned and grayed wood, the furniture dark brown leather couch, loveseat and a club chair and tables. Against one wall was an entertainment center and on the opposite side of the room was a compact kitchen with granite countertops and stainless stove, dishwasher and fridge.

"This is lovely."

"Thank you. It's a better than anything Ensenada has to offer when clients fly in, and besides, it keeps the negotiations here at the winery."

He stepped around a bar and brought out two wine glasses and a couple of bottles. "Last year's
Barbera
is very good, or would you rather have the chardonnay?"

"The
Barbera
, please, but first, your bathroom?"

He nodded towards a door to her right and said, "The switch is on your left." Then he smiled silently and dug the opener into the cork.

Katy opened the door, hit the switch and gasped. She had opened the door not on a bathroom, but a large bedroom with more recessed lighting and French doors that opened onto a second-story veranda. There were no window coverings to mar all the moonlight flooding into the room. She walked over to them and opened one, breathing in the night smells of the winery, then turned back into the room and walked over to the king-sized bed where she pulled back the spread.

She used the master bath and returned to the living room, where Raul was waiting for her with a glass.

He touched the rim of his glass to hers, sending a tinkle of a two-note song into her heart. "To new beginnings."

She took a sip, nodded her approval, then put it down on the bar, and taking his hand said, "The moonlight won't wait all night, Raul."

He kissed her lightly on the lips then drew back, his expression searching as he scanned her face for doubt.

She raised her chin and leveled her eyes to match his expression, then broke into a grin. "I have no doubts about tonight, Raul. Now, please take me to bed."

He smiled warmly and arm in arm they walked through the door and into the bedroom.

Chapter Twenty:

The short ride back to the marina was quiet until he drove under the portico at the hotel.

"I admit I saw your police connections as a bonus and I am grateful that you have discovered another suspect in Wallace Howard." He got out, went around to her side and opened her door, offering a hand out. Still holding her hands in his, he said, "But now I would like for you to move your boat back to Baja Naval, have your boat prepared for shipping."

"But…" She was confused by his willingness to let her go.

"I want you away from here, not away from me," he said, gesturing towards the darkened marina where yachts quietly lined the docks. "Leaving this marina will send them all a message. The case is closed and you are no longer a threat."

"Then you do think one of them killed the girl, and not Spencer?" She tried to pull her hands away, but he held on.

He pulled her into his arms and kissing her forehead, said, "The case is now too close to the Mexican cartel and they have spidery tentacles into every facet of our government and I won't have you subjected to even the tiniest bit of their interest. Besides, you and I need a real vacation. I do not keep talking parrots in my home in Puerto Vallarta. Will you consider it?"

"What about Gabe?"

"Gabe can have a bus or plane ticket to anywhere he wants," he said, kissing her cheek and then capturing her mouth for one last hungry kiss.

She was abruptly dropped back into the moment when Raul said, "Perhaps you will have an answer for me when you arrive in Baja Naval."

"Yes," she said, planting one last quick kiss on his mouth. She started to turn away, but Raul caught her hand, lifted it to his lips and said, "
Nunca
que
las
sombras
olvidaron
mis
mentes
.
" She smiled at the promise and turned away to head back to her darkened boat.

The literal translation to his comment was
Never will the shade cover my memories
, but it really meant that no matter what her decision, he would never forget her.

Walking along the marina fence in the warm moonlight, she let her hand drift over a recently trimmed privet hedge until she came upon a single red geranium sticking up like a flag above the tightly sculpted greenery. The Mexicans saw what others missed; the importance of beauty and color and life to the otherwise bland green hedge. It reminded her about what was best in the Mexican people, their generosity to the less fortunate, their courage and heartfelt love of country. This was what Raul was talking about, why he felt so ashamed that the cartels had enveloped the land in a dismal shroud of pain and suffering and no one, least of all him, seemed to be able to do anything about it.

At her gate, she noticed a bundle of rags, probably old clothes left for the dock boys, and put out a foot to toe it aside, but she recoiled when it moaned and said her name.

She squatted down next to him. "Gabe? What the hell…." There was a whiff of alcohol and the vomit that comes before passing out in the street.
 
"Good grief! Can't you show some restraint?"

"Some—somebody sandbagged me."

"Here?"

"Depends. Where am I?"

"You're at the gate of my marina. It's three a.m."

"Guess the bar closed without me… ugh. Help me up, will
ya
?"

She pulled him to his feet and with his arm anchored across her shoulder, she turned for her boat. "Try not to make any noise till we get back on board."

They lurched in the direction of her boat slip, Gabe groaning with each step.

"Can you try not to do that?"

"They kicked me in the ribs. I think one's broken."

Shocked, she started to question him, then clamped her mouth shut against any more comments, hoisted his arm up higher and in a few more steps they reached her boat.

She gave him a push up into the cockpit, but as he rolled over the side, she heard a feminine squeal.

Gabe cursed and growled something and then she heard him say, "What the hell—Leila?"

Katy scrambled in after him, hit the cockpit light and confirmed her worst nightmare.

There was just enough light for her to see her sister, her long straight blond hair bunched up on one side of her head , hands on her hips, staring open-mouthed and obviously surprised at the sight of Gabe Alexander with Katy.

"I can't believe this! You and Gabe?" Her voice was scratchy, her eyes heavy from sleep.

Gabe held onto his head and watched the two sisters out of bleary eyes. "Katy, you got any whiskey?"

"Shut up, Gabe. Leila, please, let's take this downstairs and I promise, I'll tell you everything."

Inside her boat, she reached into her fridge and tossed Gabe a package of frozen peas. "Use this on your head and no to the whiskey. I need you clear-headed."

He gingerly held the package of peas to the back of his head. "
Gonna
be a lump the size of Kansas."

Leila glanced from one to the other. "I thought I'd come down and give you a nice surprise. Poor thing, all alone in Mexico, so down on yourself at losing David to Karen
Wilke
. But I see I was off base—again."

Katy lit the stove and started the kettle. "Leila, honey, this isn't a good time."

"Oh yeah? Looks like fun and games to me." She squinted at her sister and said, "You still got the
hots
for Gabe Alexander, after all, huh?"

Gabe squinted up at the sisters. "Who's David?"

"Shut up, Gabe. Leila, just… just sit on it for a few minutes, will you?" She handed out mugs of hot water and tea bags and three ibuprofen to Gabe. "Gabe, take the pills with the tea and tell me what happened."

"I went to Antonio's." He blew at the steam on his mug and smiled shyly at Katy's sister. "Nice to see you again, Leila. You're looking beautiful as ever."

Katy tapped him on his head. "Not the time, Gabe."

"
Ow
. Okay, okay.
 
I went there 'cause one of the trailer guys said a girl from Antonio's was looking for me." Gabe, unable to forgo a chance to embellish his adventures, turned his attention to Leila. "All of them are illegals, Leila. They come from all over the southern continent, even a Russian girl last week, though she's already gone. Someone comes in the night, picks them up and they disappear into some house of horrors in New York City. You can bet she won't be coming back this way again."

"White slavers? Oh, my God! That's…."

Katy growled, "Get to it, will you, Gabe?"

"Don't nag," he said. He tossed back the three tablets with a swallow of the tea and continued. "If they try to form friendships the bosses break it up. See, two or more could work up the nerve where one may not be brave enough."

"To escape?" Leila squeaked. "That's horrible! Can't anyone break it up?"

 
"Bosses don't have to worry about that." Gabe straightened and then grimaced at the ribs. "The cops here all get a cut of the take."