He paused, wishing she would deny it—tell him she loved him. That nothing else mattered. But she remained silent, holding her mug between her hands, staring down at her drink.

  “I can accept that. Once this is over, we go our separate ways. Because what I need and want from a woman is one hundred percent. I don’t think you can give it. You hold part of yourself back.”

  Finally she lifted her gaze to his. Anger hardened her eyes. “I do? What about you? You are so afraid of losing another loved one that you can’t give that hundred percent you want from me. You—”

  A knock at the front door interrupted their conversation. Kyra glanced toward the foyer, then headed for it, putting her mug on the desk on her way out of the room.

  Michael started to tell her to be careful and not open the door without checking first. He swallowed those words because Kyra wouldn’t do something like that. She was cautious in everything, including her emotions, and she still thought of herself as their bodyguard.

  The sound of Gabe’s voice drifted from the entry hall. A minute later Kyra and the police chief came into the room. Gabe looked tired, with bags under his eyes. Until right now he had never appeared his age of fifty-six. Every year was etched on his face as he stood next to Kyra.

  “I couldn’t sleep. I figured y’all couldn’t, either. We need to figure out why the killer is here. Most people would have fled the area after murdering two young men. This guy is hanging around for a reason. What?”

  “It has to do with the plans Amy and Laurie saw in the bag.” Kyra picked up her mug and sipped at her coffee.

  “What I saw didn’t look like much.”

  Michael pushed off the post. “That’s because Amy and Laurie had just started with the plans when everything happened last night.”

  “While we’re waiting for them to get up, let’s go over what we have so far. Do you want any coffee, Gabe?” Kyra headed toward the kitchen.

  “Yes.” The police chief sank into a lounge chair, his movements stiff and slow.

  “Is everything okay?” Michael asked, taking a place on the couch across from Gabe.

  “No, my body isn’t cooperating with my wants. I want to be able to run like I’m twenty. I want to be able to pull all-nighters and still be alert to do my job the next day. I don’t think I’m going gracefully into old age. I don’t know what I’m going to do about retiring with Wilson gone.”

  “You’ll find someone. Despite what has happened lately, this is a nice town to live in.” Kyra handed Gabe his mug and took the other chair.

  “Before we get started, we never had a chance to talk about what went down yesterday. Why didn’t you tell me about Amy and Laurie contacting you two?” Gabe’s probing gaze swung between Kyra and Michael. “I get it about being worried about a corrupt cop. Amy made that clear last night when I talked with her after everything was over, but Kyra, you know me. How could you think I was that officer?”

  Pain flitted into her eyes. “I—I…” She swallowed hard.

  “It was me.” Michael sat forward, his elbows on his thighs. “I made her promise she wouldn’t because I couldn’t take any chances with my sister’s life. She agreed but made it clear to me you weren’t the corrupt cop.”

  Gabe stared at him for a long time. “I’ll say this and then it will be done. I don’t believe in letting problems and anger stew for days because it doesn’t solve anything. I find it just makes things worse. We could have worked as a team to figure out who the cop was that was being paid off. I thought my years of duty would have made it clear the type of person I am.”

  Michael held his look. “I take full responsibility for the decision. I hope you can understand I had to protect my sister at all costs. I’m sorry if you’re upset by what we did. It was never meant as an offense against you but a necessary caution to keep my sister safe.”

  “Gabe, I knew it wasn’t you, but when I give my word, I don’t break it.”

  The police chief lifted his mug and sipped his coffee then put it on the small table next to the chair. “No one has ever accused me of being a touchy-feely kind of guy, but I had to tell you how I felt. Now, let’s get down to the business at hand. What is this killer here for?”

  Watching as Kyra and Gabe started listing what was known about the man still out there, Michael lounged back and listened. He loved Kyra, but her life was so different from his. After losing Sarah, he realized he couldn’t go through that kind of pain again and Kyra thrived on danger. She took risks with her life. It was a good thing they lived hundreds of miles apart because it would never work between them. She could have died last night at Wilson’s hand. He needed to shut down how he felt about her before his heart was ripped in two again.

  Later that morning Kyra shifted in the chair at the kitchen table, feeling every bit of the hardness of the seat she’d been sitting in for hours. Amy and Laurie were taking a break, the sound of their voices coming from the great room, indicating they were still arguing over details of the plans. Neither had gotten a good long look.

  Gabe hung up from talking on his cell. “They ID’d the man. He’s called the Black Mamba. No one knows his real name or where he’s from. He’s an international hit man hired by terrorist groups. The description they had was sketchy, but the black snake tattoo is what nailed it for the Feds. That’s the Black Mamba’s trademark.”

  “Any potential targets?” Kyra rose and stretched her cramped muscles.

  “The FBI are looking into several targets. The vice president is coming to Tampa tomorrow for a speech. There’s a symposium on terrorism on St. Cloud Island starting Friday with some world leaders attending and there’s a conference for oil companies meeting in Marco Island. Any of the three could be a possible target, not to mention someplace like Disney World.”

  Michael whistled. “In other words, anywhere in Florida could be a potential place for a statement if a terrorist group funded this man.”

  “Yup. So any help we can give them will be appreciated. An FBI team should be in Flamingo Cay shortly.”

  “I’m thinking Amy and Laurie have the right idea. We need a break.” Michael stood, rolled his head and began pacing.

  “I’m meeting with the sheriff in a few minutes at the station to coordinate our end before the FBI show up. I’ll be back in an hour, and we can pick up where we left off.” Gabe labored to his feet. “I’ll bring lunch back. Don’t want Ellen to have to worry about it.”

  After he left, Kyra released the laugh she’d been holding. “I think he’s figured out she can’t cook and is being as diplomatic as he can.”

  “Smart man.”

  “You’ve been pretty quiet this morning.”

  “What’s there to say? This is your area of expertise. You and Gabe have it handled. I’m not a detective and will be glad when I can get back to what I do best. I’ve learned one thing. I want to continue being a doctor. It’s what I was called to do. Like any job, there are things I wish I didn’t have to deal with, but I can’t picture doing anything else.”

  She gestured toward her face. “You do a good job. One I’m grateful for.”

  His neutral expression evolved into a scowl. “I had to take you kicking and screaming to get an MRI on your shoulder.”

  “I wasn’t that bad.”

  “You’re not a good patient.”

  “I don’t like having something wrong with me.”

  “Because you might have to depend on another?”

  “Is that what’s bothering you? For years I worked with a partner, so I know how to play nice with others. I even learned to share.” Her muscles still tight, Kyra twisted from side to side.

  “What?”

  “Opinions, theories on a case, recipes. Whatever needed to be shared.”

  “How about yourself?”

  “What’s going on, Michael? Ever since we got up this morning, you’ve been distancing yourself from me. Are you ready to share yourself? Do you still blame yourself for what happened to Sarah? Have you forgiven yourself for living while she didn’t?”

  With each question she asked, he backed away a few inches.

  “You’ve become important to me, but I think you’re still wrestling with your past. You keep throwing up roadblocks between us. If and when I ever commit myself to a man, I want one hundred percent from him, just as you do from a woman. You aren’t ready to do that, are you?”

  “Weren’t you the one who said you didn’t think marriage was for you?”

  “Is that what we’re talking about?”

  He kneaded the cords of his neck. “Yes. No. What we’ve been going through this past week has been intense, unreal, not normal—at least not for me.”

  “Believe me, I don’t normally run from a killer—not even when I was a detective.”

  “I’ve developed feelings for you, but are they really real?”

  “Ah, feelings? What kind? Hate? Like?”

  He closed the space quickly between them. “Love.”

  “But you can’t see how that could be real because Sarah has only been gone for a year?”

  “Exactly.”

  “You walked away from the accident. She didn’t. So do you have a right to go on and be happy?”

  “She’d be alive if I hadn’t insisted on going. She didn’t want to. I worked two shifts at the hospital. If I hadn’t been so tired, I should have been able to prevent the wreck somehow.”

  She curled her hands into fists to still the urge to cradle his face and kiss him until he realized it was all right to go on living. But this wasn’t the time to tell him she’d fallen for him—quickly and hard. She’d always been drawn to him, but since he was Ginny’s kid brother she’d tamped down her feelings. Now she couldn’t, but he wasn’t ready. “God has other plans in store for you. It wasn’t your time.”

  “That’s easy to say, but it doesn’t erase my guilt in Sarah’s death.”

  “And that’s the problem between us. I’ve decided to leave as soon as this is wrapped up.”

  “How about your vacation?”

  “I can’t stay.” Kyra met his intense look with one of her own. She loved him, but Sarah stood between them.

  “I remember something,” Amy charged into the kitchen and made a beeline for the table where the plans were spread out. “I’m not sure what they mean, but there were three of them on the drawings I saw.” Michael’s sister scribbled something on the paper.

  Laurie came up beside her and pointed to another place. “And one here.”

  “That’s right. There were four of them.”

  Kyra strode to the table. “What?” She stared at the paper with four X’s on it in four totally different areas. “If we knew what building this is, it would be easier, but from my time on the bomb squad, this looks like good places to plant bombs to bring a building down. Of course, that would depend on the size and type of bomb.”

  “We didn’t unroll the plans all the way. Laurie and I are pretty sure there was another wing to this building.”

  “Okay. A center building with two wings. Let’s pull up on the internet views of the location where the symposium, conference and the vice president’s speech are taking place.”

  “We don’t know if the building is one story or three or ten.”

  “If he’s planning to blow up a building, taking out the first floor could bring it all down if done right.” Kyra lifted the laptop lid and connected to the web.

  Early Friday morning, blue sky, with not a cloud in it, stretched as far as Kyra could see. She turned away from the bay window that afforded her a view of Pelican Lane and the front yard where a deputy was still camped out, guarding them. They had passed on all their information to the FBI and state police. Trying to figure out where the killer would strike had been a good way to keep them all occupied. Now, however, they were in the tenth hour of waiting.

  “I’m gonna scream if we have to stay inside much longer.” Amy stomped into the kitchen, went to the refrigerator and got a can of soda out. “When are we gonna hear anything? I feel like a prisoner.”

  “Gabe promised to call as soon as he heard anything.”

  “What if we are wrong? If it isn’t the oil companies’ conference? We aren’t that far from Miami or Key West or Orlando.”

  “Your drawing best matches the hotel where the oil companies are holding their meeting.”

  “But the meeting on terrorism makes more sense or the vice president’s speech. Didn’t Gabe say the Black Mamba worked for terrorist groups?”

  Kyra kneaded the back of her neck, tension locking her muscles. “I thought so, too, but the plans don’t match.”

  Her eyes full of uncertainty, Amy folded her arms across her chest. “What if I’m wrong? What if I cause people to die?”

  “It won’t be your fault, Amy,” Michael said from the doorway. “We’re doing everything we can to prevent a tragedy. We didn’t hire the assassin. The information you and Laurie have given the police has been invaluable. But ultimately this is in the hands of the Lord. All we can do is pray.”

  “I have been.”

  “Then you’re doing what you can.” Michael hugged his sister, his look capturing Kyra’s. “Waiting is never easy, but we should hear soon.”

  Amy sighed.

  Kyra shifted her gaze to Amy. “The FBI has set a trap for the Black Mamba. If all goes well, they will catch a world-renowned assassin and stop a tragedy.”

  The doorbell chimed. Amy gasped. Michael whirled around while Kyra hurried to answer the door.

  Gabe beamed from ear to ear. “The FBI trapped the Black Mamba in an evacuated wing where the meeting between the oil companies was taking place. He managed to escape, but he didn’t get far. The seaplane he was on crashed into the ocean. He’s dead.”

  Michael stepped out onto his back deck as dawn on Saturday pushed aside night. Another sleepless one. Because he couldn’t get Kyra out of his mind. He felt like a teenage boy all over again with a crush on her.

  He folded his length into a chair that faced the sea. He inhaled the salty tang that laced the air. The breeze stirred the palm fronds in the trees along the edge of the backyard. A bird trilled in a nearby crepe myrtle. The serenity should have been a balm after all the danger and intensity of the past week. But it didn’t soothe his soul.

  His life was in a holding pattern. Not moving backward or forward. Just going around and around in circles. He’d come to Flamingo Cay to straighten out his life and had thrown himself into his work, giving himself no time to figure out what to do. Then Kyra had come along and challenged him to give the Lord another chance. To turn his problems over to Him. To trust the plans God had for him. To forgive himself for living while Sarah didn’t.

  He opened the palm of his hand to reveal the key to Kyra’s house, the one he’d forgotten to return when he and Amy had returned home yesterday. She was leaving later this morning. He could take it to her or wait and give it back to Ellen. He didn’t have to see Kyra again.

  But he wanted to.

  Needed to.

  He loved her and no amount of excuses on why a relationship wouldn’t work between them would change that. She’d told him he needed to deal with his guilt over Sarah. He’d convinced himself that Kyra lived a dangerous life that would eventually take it. He didn’t want to be around to mourn her as he had Sarah. Cut his losses. That would be the best thing for him.

  But it wasn’t.

  So how did he forgive himself for living while Sarah died? He was driving the car. He’d insisted they go away for the weekend because he had wanted to ask Sarah to marry him in a special place.

  “You can’t sleep, either?” Amy said from the doorway.

  “No. What’s keeping you up?”

  “Laurie and her mother.”

  “Cherie is going to be all right. She’s awake and the doctors feel she will have a full recovery.”

  “She wouldn’t have been in the hospital if it weren’t for me.”

  “Why? Because you dropped your phone and the Black Mamba found it and traced your location? Cherie said he’d known about you from a surveillance camera he always sets up wherever he goes. It wasn’t your fault.” That was the second time in less than twenty-four hours he had said that to his sister. What are You trying to tell me, Lord?

  “Yes, it was. I’m the one who got us turned around in the Everglades. I agreed with the guys about exploring the cabin when they said they wanted to. Laurie wanted to leave and try and find our way home. I’m to blame for everything.”

  “Did you pull the trigger and shoot Preston and Tyler?”

  She shook her head.

  “Did you beat up Laurie’s mother?”

  “No, but—”

  “Did you want those things to happen to them? If you could, would you have stopped them from happening?”

  “Yes.”

  Michael leaned forward in his chair, his own words reaching deep into his heart to heal a wound. “Forgive yourself. Learn from the experience. You got lost in the Glades. That’s happened to a lot of people before. You wanted to explore a new place. That doesn’t surprise me. New things have always held wonder for you. You can’t change the past, but you can make something of the present and your future.”

  “I’ve never been so scared. When Laurie and me were hiding from that man, we kept talking about all the things we might never get to do.”

  “You’ve been given a second chance. All those things are waiting for you.”

  Tears in her eyes, Amy came over to him and threw her arms around him, kissing his cheeks. “I love you, big brother.”

  “Hey, you ain’t too bad yourself.”

  She clasped his hands and tugged on him. “Come on. Let’s go get breakfast at the Watering Hole. Pancakes with strawberries and whipped cream.”

  “Sounds delicious.”

  “I’ll go see if Laurie is awake.”

  Michael rose as his sister hurried into the house. He peered four houses down and spotted the hibiscus hedge along this side of Kyra’s family home. Was she up yet? Probably not but he would go see her after he got back from breakfast with his sister and Laurie.