Painted Walls Page 4

  Again the music morphed. A melodic wedding march swelled with the rhythm of the ocean. Goosebumps swept across Ava’s arms. The eager throng rose. She used the back of the chair and stood on weak knees. This many years later and proximity to Keen still wreaked havoc on her autonomic system. The realization stiffened her back. The time had come for her to face the past.

  First though, she wanted to look to the future…her cousin’s future anyway. Too bad her height gave her an awesome view of people’s shoulder blades. She stretched onto tiptoes, but her feet sank farther into the sand.

  “Give her a boost,” Ford whispered.

  Keen’s hands bracketed her waist.

  Breath surged into Ava’s lungs. Before she could think to protest her feet left the sand. Her hands doubled their grip on the clutch. She clamped her lips together to keep from squealing her dissent. The solid wood of the seat met the soles of her feet. Keen’s hands slipped slowly off her hips.

  She didn’t dare turn toward him to beg him to put his hands back or to yell at him for the privilege he took with her body. Judging by the heat in her cheeks, her face likely matched her hair perfectly. From years of embarrassment Ava found the wherewithal to lift her chin and otherwise act as though she didn’t want to bury herself in the sand.

  The added height brought Nathan’s bride into view. The radiant brunette, in an ivory dress worth weeping over, trained her gaze on Nathan. A gigantic smile lit her entire face and showed just how excited she was to be closing the distance between them. Ava didn’t do marriage or happily ever after, but now she was old enough that the cynic in her head was drowned out by the strings vibrato.

  When Madelyn reached the third row from the front Ava stepped down from the chair in self-preservation. She spared Keen a sideways glance and found him absently rubbing his left shoulder. They’d almost lost him. The memory of that phone call coiled her stomach.

  Ava met his gaze and mouthed, Are you okay? For being as smart as she was sometimes she was so magically stupid.

  As though he’d been caught with his hand in the till, Keen straightened. He jerked a curt nod and lifted his gaze over her head to the couple.

  Her gaze darted to them as well, but didn’t register them until the kiss heard round the world. Really. It bordered on obscene. Nathan dipped his bride low and cupped her with his body. Ava felt the heat rising in her cheeks again.

  Why had Keen chosen to sit next to her?

  Ford whooped into her ear. Ava whipped her head around to find him in Keen’s place and the man for which she blushed, gone.

  AVA STOOD next to the dance floor watching her brother dance away his troubles with two caramel-skinned beauties. Across the room her dad ushered her mom to an uncluttered corner and whipped her into a sassy foxtrot. She hadn’t seen Keen since he opened the doors to announce the couple. And that was for the best.

  A group of kids to her left—maybe high-school aged—rushed the dance floor. Their absence revealed the newest member of her family. One she’d yet to meet. Madelyn stared at the gyrating bodies and smiled. When her gaze snagged on Ava’s parents her grin doubled.

  “Don’t look too long, or else they’ll have you out there dancing until your feet fall off,” Ava warned.

  Madelyn turned toward Ava and her eyes widened for just a second. Ava didn’t fault her. Her particular color of red caught people off guard on a regular basis. She recovered quickly. “Thanks for the tip. My dance card is about full, especially in these heels.” The edge of a cream stiletto peeped out from the edge of ruffles. No wonder she towered over Ava. “Barefoot on the beach was the way to go.”

  “It was a lovely ceremony. I can’t believe you lived here and gave it up for my smelly cousin.” Ava offered her hand. “I’m Ava Shepherd.”

  “Madelyn Gar…Brewer. Well, that’s going to take some getting used to.”

  “I can’t even imagine.” Technically she could imagine getting used to a new name, but not for wedding bells and babies.

  “It’s so nice to meet you.” Madelyn gave a firm shake. “I’m glad you were able to make it.”

  “I’m just sorry we missed the rehearsal dinner. It’s Ford’s fault. I missed my flight waiting for him to show. I swear, I don’t know how my brother is so good at his job when he can’t get anywhere on time.”

  “It’s because I’m so good at my job that I can’t get anywhere on time.” Ford bumped Ava’s shoulder, jarring her thoughts for a second.

  “Always so humble.” Ava rolled her eyes and inwardly groaned.

  “Wife, I see you’ve met the hell raisers of my youth.” Nathan stepped behind Madelyn and wrapped his bride in his arms.

  Madelyn harrumphed. “I think they’re still perfectly capable of raising hell.”

  If she only knew.

  “I like her already.” Ford winked and held out his hand. “Welcome to the family.” He patted the back of her hand.

  “What kept you from free steak and lobster?” Nathan asked.

  “A loony with a pipe bomb and four hostages.” Ford crossed his arms as casually as if he were talking about a shot off the back nine.

  “You’re in law enforcement too?” Madelyn awed.

  “I can’t believe they let him in either, Madelyn.” Keen stepped into the circle. He held his hand flat at about crotch level. Ava stared at his crotch for several beats too long, and then looked at the string of lights overhead. “Yeah, they lowered the bar the day they let this kid join.”

  Ava looked back in time to see the ultra-slow-mo punches to the kidney and jaw Keen and Ford exchanged.

  Classin’ it up one day at a time.

  “Wow, the mean age just dropped a few decades.” Ava narrowed her gaze at them.

  “Oh, come on,” Keen scoffed.

  “Don’t make me make you squawk like a chicken in front of all these people,” Ford warned.

  Absolutely not. They wouldn’t dare.

  “What was that?” Keen put his hand to his ear. “The sun’s rising? The roosters are crowing.”

  They stalked toward her one step.

  Not after all these years. Not here. Not now. Please no.

  “I swear, I deal with psychopaths all day.” Ava glared. “I don’t need crazies while I’m on vacation.”

  They took another step toward her. It was official. She was one of the guys again. The newsflash should make her happy.

  “I’ll hold her. You tickle her.” Ford nodded at Keen.

  She looked back and forth between them, hoping her expression conveyed ample warning.

  “No way. Last time, I held her and got clobbered in the goods, while you ran away like a sissy.” Keen put up his hands.

  Nathan laughed at that, not stopping until tears ran down his cheeks. “He ran,” Nathan wheezed out the words, “because Ava…threatened to tell Aunt Sarah…where he kept his girlie mags.”

  Ava’s gaze swung around the group. Ford and Keen had backed off and both wrestled with their own fits of laughter. A flutter of giggles caught her unaware.

  “How old were y’all?” Madelyn asked.

  “College.” Ava clamped her lips together, fighting back an all-out laugh.

  Keen and Ford both doubled over.

  “So, Ava, what do you do that you deal with psychopaths all day?” Madelyn asked innocently.

  That took the giggle right out of her. She maintained her smile. “The Bureau.”

  “Seriously? Did y'all make a pact as kids or something?” Madelyn put her hands on her hips and looked at them each in turn.

  Seriously, did she not know?

  Nathan wove his fingers in between his wife’s. “We all have our own reasons for joining.”

  “Okay, I know why Nathan joined the Bureau. And I’m 98 percent certain you two boys joined so you could shoot bad guys. But Ava, what made you join the FBI?”

  Ava struggled to bury her surprise. “I assumed you knew.”

  Nathan’s gaze met hers full on. “It’s your story to tell, Av, not m
ine.”

  Ava stood with her mouth gaping, without a clue of what to say. This wasn’t exactly first meet conversation nor wedding talk. Nathan turned his bride around and whispered something that had Madelyn gooey-eyed. They kissed…again.

  With no safe place to look, habit had Ava reaching for her phone. A banner across the top alerted her to a missed call from Annelise. She needed to return a phone call. They couldn’t have planned a better exit strategy if they’d tried. But that’s how it was with Annie. Their friendship, as odd as it seemed to some, just clicked.

  Ava lifted her chin to address the group and found a giant had entered the circle.

  “Everyone, I’d like you to meet my dear friend, Amadi.” Madelyn clung to Nathan’s side, but used her free hand to point. “This is Kenneth Hunt, Nathan’s partner.”

  He leaned in, shook Keen’s hand, and then turned to Nathan. “I thought Dick was your partner.” The man said it in a straight face, but Ava saw the twinkle in his intelligent eyes.

  “You better be glad you’re a gigantic ninja master because you deserve an ass kicking for that.” Nathan nodded.

  Amadi’s rigid jaw cracked, revealing a brilliant smile between full midnight-black lips.

  “And,” Madelyn continued, “These are Nathan’s cousins, Ford and Ava Shepherd.”

  He shook Ford’s hand, and then turned his shrewd gaze on Ava. When someone made her brother and cousin look short, they made her look like a child. Visions of Jack and the Giant, David and Goliath, and the lion and the mouse flashed in her mind. But Amadi’s calm, sure demeanor drew her.

  The giant spoke to her cousin, but held Ava’s gaze. “Nathan, if you think I need a whooping for that, what will you think about this? Ava, might I have the pleasure of this dance?”

  She could stay in the awkward circle of Keen, two love birds, and her brother, or go with a veritable stranger. Oddly enough, she preferred the company of people who didn’t know her all that well. With strangers she could be the Bureau agent who’d put away a bunch of bad guys. With strangers she could be the fun girl who doesn’t sleep around. With strangers she could be the best portions of herself and forget the rest.

  Until they found out.

  Ava was countries away and on vacation. Why not? “I’d love to.”

  He grabbed her clutch from her hand and thrust it at Ford. “You’re going to need both hands for this.”

  “Oh Lord,” she giggled.

  Amadi dragged her onto the dance floor which had swollen with twirling, whirling, and writhing bodies since the sun had set. His wide frame cleared a path. At the center, in the safety of numbers, he turned and held gently to both her hands. His hips swaggered and rolled easily. Seductively. Her gaze flew to his face. The gentle smile remained on his lips and abated her unease…with him. If only she could get past her unease with herself.

  “Relax your shoulders.” Amadi bicycled her hands in a large circle. “Feel the music.” He moved her hands side to side. Her hips followed the motion. She caught the beat of the drums. “That’s it. Let your troubles go for now. For the night. For your time on the island.”

  “Is it that obvious I’m troubled?” she asked with a fraudulent laugh.

  “Not to most. But then most are oblivious, lost in their own highs and lows.” He lifted her hands above her head. His curling hips encouraged her own to move in turn.

  “So you’re not lost in your own highs and lows?” Ava closed her eyes. She let the music seep into her skin, into her bones, to the marrow.

  “No. I absorb the good, release the bad, and enjoy the present.” Amadi turned her to face away from him. He stayed back allowing her room to arch and sway to the beat of the band.

  Keen’s laugh cut though her euphoric haze. Her eyes bolted open. She found him and Ford grinding on either side of the two island beauties. The music drummed on without her.

  Amadi curled an arm around her middle, turned her once more, dipped her back, and then twirled her up to face him. She blinked into his amber eyes.

  “If you’re in love with him, why aren't you with him?”

  “Has anyone ever told you, you need to work for the Bureau?”

  “Only your cousin and only about thirty times.” He grinned, but held her gaze.

  She poked him in the rib. “Fine. We were young. I was scared.”

  “And now?”

  “I’m just scared.”

  He swayed her into the music again and studied her. “Do you love yourself?”

  “What?” It took effort not to jar the pace he’d set.

  “It’s a simple question. The answer is often not so simple.” Amadi spun her. “Most people love parts of themselves, but rarely the whole enough to answer unequivocally yes.”

  “Good to know I’m not the only one.” She grimaced. “What are you, the island shrink? You’re way cheaper and more effective than mine.”

  “Figure out what you have to do to love yourself, and then you can really love him.”

  “I need a drink.”

  “Nah, I need to shut up and you need to dance.”

  3

  “Holy shit. I don’t fucking believe it.” Her brother’s voice boomed over the distance he closed.

  Ava levered herself up from the beach towel. “Will you watch your mouth? There are kids around.”

  “Ahhh, they don’t speak English.” He plopped onto the sand next to her.

  “You don’t know that.”

  “Sure do. See that kid over there?” He pointed to a toddler playing in the sand. “Well that’s his nanny.” His finger trailed over to a voluptuous beauty lying next to the kid on her towel. Her fully exposed rump clad in a G-string bikini bottom gleamed under the Caribbean sun.

  Ford grinned.

  “I went to Paradise Bar with Ekene and a few others last night. She was there. There was a language barrier, but we got through it.”

  The woman with the bare bottom shifted off of her stomach and onto her finely-formed rump. She arched her back and raised her arms toward the sky, stretching in the sexiest way Ava had ever seen. Ava’s palms dampened and she swallowed hard at the lusty sight. When the woman’s arms returned to her side she cocked one behind her and turned her gaze on Ford. She gave him a flirtatious glance before returning her watchfulness to the kid.

  Ava smacked her brother in the gut, his gut being a chiseled eight-pack. “You are incorrigible.”

  His smile widened. Ava remembered back to his infancy, when that smile actually held innocence. After age one the kid had been pure mischief. Now that he was a man, the only thing that had changed was the definition of his jaw and body hair.

  Ava shook her head at him. “What is so fucking unbelievable?”

  “Wow! Besides the fact that my goodie two shoes little sister just used the f-bomb?”

  Her gaze narrowed to evil slits. “Don’t patronize me with the little sister routine. I’m older than you, not that I’ll be admitting it for much longer.”

  “My you’re feisty today. It doesn’t have anything to do with seeing a certain someone yesterday, does it?”

  Ava’s body hummed at the thought of that someone. She wiped her sweaty palms onto the towel, yanked her knees up to her chest, and hugged them.

  “Did you come out here just to ruin my tiny excuse for a vacation?”

  “You know, he left this morning.”

  Ava took the blow to the center of her chest without falling over. “If I had my gun, I’d shoot you in the pinkie toe.”

  He threw his sand-covered hands into the air. “Okay. Okay. I’m done. I just came to visit with my favorite sister before I leave for the airport. I was pretty freakin’ surprised you’re actually relaxing on the beach, no laptop in sight, no file or phone in your hand. It’s a first in...I don’t know how many years.”

  “I finished up the two reports I brought with me on the flight here. Since you weren’t on the flight to talk to me.”

  Ford didn’t say anything, but his lips scrunched to on
e side.

  “And,” Ava continued, “I have an analysis to complete on the return flight. But…I’m trying to take Amadi’s advice and find my center. Besides, you’re one to talk. You’re leaving paradise today.”

  Her arm swept through the air. From the light sapphire ocean to the lush green vegetation, vibrant colors pleased the eye. Who in their right mind would ever want to leave this place?

  “And you’re leaving tomorrow,” he countered.

  “I know. I have work to do.”

  “Ava, there will always be work for you and me. We have job security. You need to learn that there’s more to life than the job.”

  “Everybody’s a shrink now.” Her eyes rolled of their own volition. “Like what?”

  “Fun. Food. The world. Adventure. Sex.”

  If he was going to point out her short comings, turnabout was only fair play. “What about love? Commitment? A family?”

  “Point taken.” Ford cleared the air between them with a swipe of his hand. “Forget I said anything.” His phone buzzed. He pulled it from his pocket and examined the screen. “My cab is on its way.”

  “Can I borrow your phone for a second?” Ava extended her hand.

  “As long as you don’t call Keen just to hear the sound of his voice, and then hang up.”

  She yanked the phone from his hand and shoved his chest. “Shut up. That was a lifetime ago.”

  “And I’ll never let you live it down.”

  “No kidding.” She smiled in spite of her herself. “I’m trying to call Annie back. She called last night, but I haven’t been able to get in touch with her this morning.”

  “She probably wanted to see if you’d gotten laid, and then remembered who you were and that it was a waste of time. You can always tell her I got laid. So you’ll have something to talk about.”

  “You ass.” Ava ignored him as best she could and dialed. Again the line rang once, and then went to voicemail. She depressed the end button, instead of adding to her previous three messages.

  “Nothing?”

  “Straight to voicemail.”