Read Captain's Paradise for Free Online

love: auburn hair and green eyes. You think she’s learning about slavery from inside it?”
    “I think I wouldn’t bet against the possibility,” Raven said soberly.
    Kyle said, “Let me have the names connectedwith that nightclub. It doesn’t look as if Robin ran them through NCIC; maybe the Crime Information Center will have something.”
    Raven handed over the papers and they watched Kyle move to a computer console and begin working. All of them knew how to operate the computers and how to access an almost unlimited variety of databases; their men had insisted on their having access to as much information as possible in the event of need. And all of them had accepted that need as a definite possibility at any time. Theirs was a dangerous world sometimes.
    As they watched their friend work at the computer, Raven said quietly, “After our jaunt down to Kadeira last time, I got Kelsey to tell me all about Captain Siran; he seemed like a good person to know. He’s generally in the Miami area, and he works for Hagen only occasionally; officially he’s on the payroll of another organization. Maybe he could be our ace. And I have another source down there.”
    “Oh?”
    “Mmm. A man who generally knows what’s going on anywhere around Miami, especially if it’s illegal. He’s helped me out with information from time to time in the past.” She looked at her friend. “Assuming we decided to, we could be down there by early afternoon.”
    Teddy smiled a little. “The guys won’t like it,” she murmured. “If we go down there, I mean.”
    “They won’t like it,” Raven agreed. “But they’ll understand.”
    And that was, after all, the important thing.
    Michael Siran was annoyed at himself. He had no business accepting a partner, however temporarily, and especially when that partner seemed to possess just enough knowledge, experience, and anger to make her dangerous. He didn’t doubt she had picked up useful information as a reporter, but that hardly qualified her to play police officer or detective.
    And Michael was also annoyed at his own inclination to trust her, to talk to her.
That
was afine trait to develop in his work, a wonderful trait; he’d end up getting himself killed. It was especially galling since he knew without doubt that Robin Stuart was holding out on him. There was something she hadn’t chosen to tell him, and he didn’t like it.
    “How did your sister get herself kidnapped?” Robin was asking him.
    “Through no fault of hers,” he very nearly snapped. “She wasn’t looking for a hot story three thousand miles from home.”
    “I didn’t mean—” Robin began stiffly.
    Michael gestured abruptly, cutting her off. “Never mind. I’m sorry I said that.”
Damn. Now I’m apologizing!
He glanced aside to find Robin looking at him with the most beautiful pair of green eyes he’d ever seen, and hastily turned his gaze forward again. This wasn’t going to work, it wasn’t going to work one bit, he couldn’t even keep his mind on—
    “She’ll be all right,” Robin said, obviously trying to reassure him. “They won’t hurt her. At least …”
    “At least not badly?” he finished in a grim tone. “My sister’s in a different position from the other girls, Robin. Lisa wasn’t snatched for sale to the highest bidder. She was taken to use as bait.”
    After a moment Robin said slowly, “Bait … to catch you?”
    “To catch me,” he affirmed.
    “Then you know who has her?”
    “In a manner of speaking.” Inwardly cursing himself for telling her all this, he heard himself go on. “I’ve made a few bad enemies, but there was one in particular. Because of some work I did a few years ago, this man was exiled from his own country. He swore he’d get even, swore he’d steal what I cared about the most.”
    “Your sister.”
    “Yes. Lisa.”
    “If you knew he might try to get his hands on her—”
    “Why didn’t I do something to prevent it?” Michael felt, as