A\N - Ok, sweethearts, this one is bigger than the others, my gift to you. You can answer me with the same sentiment and leave me a line, make my day!

Enjoy and be sure to tell me what you think.

Chapter 10 - An Olive Grove Facing the Sea

Time flies...at least that's what they say. Two years gone as if they were months.

Life for Kyna became painfully comfortable.

One heist a year. One job. One careful detailed plan.

They became very good at what they did. Their actions were crystal with no mistakes. Jesse was a bit reckless to her taste but all in all they were truly on the top of the game.

Money was never a problem anymore. They never killed so guilt wasn't either.

"Morning, everyone." Kyna said, giving each a kiss on the cheek and a hug as she showed up at there usual place for brunch right after the latest job.

Everyone was there with the exception of Jesse who wasn't interested i that kind of things and relied fully on Jake in the matter. Scott who was in charge of their finance was present though.

"Fashionably late, K?" G smirked and the young woman took her seat next to Aj.

She just grinned in return and readjusted her sunglasses.

"Your Bellini, my lady." Aj placed a glass of peach-coloured liquid in front of Kyna as she nodded a thank-you excepting it.

"Hope I wasn't too late." She offered dismissivly as she looked at Scott.

"Not at all." He answered. "We were just getting started…"

"Yeah and before we decide on the bank…" Jake interrupted. "Kyna and I were thinking for some time now. We think we need to place something - like 5-10% - to charity."

He looked at his friends sizing their reactions.

John and G were nodding and Aj was looking at Kyna silently asking why neither his girlfriend nor his best friend included him in the discussion.

"We were just talking about random things." She said, helping the notion with her hands. "And we just realised that it would be a right thing to do. That's it."

"So we all agree."

Head nods took a round the table and next one to talk was Scott.

"Ok then. Is it 5 or 10?"

"10." Jake and Kyna confirmed simultaneously and then both grinned.

"We done here then?" G lighted a cigar.

"Pretty much. I'm placing the funds to Cayman Islands this time. Taking it there tonight, the privet jet is booked. If anyone feels like coming, be there at 9." Scott said as he gave each passes to get to the jet parking.

"Aj and I have some stuff to finish, we'll be busy for this couple days to come." G announced as Aj nodded.

"Lilly and I have plans, so thanks but…" Jake grinned as cheshire cat as Aj jabbed him good-naturally in the ribs with his elbow.

"I could use some different kind of sun so count me in." John said as he place his empty glass on the table.

"Great. Kyna?"

The young woman looked out at the countless yachts parked in their eyesight.

"I could use the solitude for a couple days." She finally said turning her head to Aj. "Plus you'll be busy."

Aj didn't say anything. His face froze with one corner of his lips in a smirk but that did not reach his eyes.

"Ok, then. Seems like we're all set. Good having business with you ladies and gentlemen." Scott stood up to take his leave and then said to Kyna and John. "And I'll see you two tonight."

When he left Kyna took out her IPad and turned to John:

"I'll book the hotel. Any preferences?"

"Bungalows. Private."

"Obviously." She smirked and the boys chuckled.

"Anyway I gotta pack and finish some business. You want me to pick you up on my way to the jet?" John stood up, picking up his jacket from the chair's back.

"No, I'm good. I'll see you there."

"I'm off, gentlemen. See you all once we're back."

-/-

Cayman Islands was paradise. The waters of the ocean transparent, the sky the most amazing shade of blue.

Kyna and John rented two bungalows that were built straight on water. There was a rather long pier from the land and at some point it forked to make a way to two different VIP wooden little cabins. The bungalows, though looking like a house of natives, inside had nothing to do with the letter. It was equipped with the latest technologies, king sized beds and half of the floor was made of glass so that guests could watch the ocean life right from their beds.

They didn't even see each other the first day: he was diving all day long and then sleeping, she was sunbathing with Pina Colada in her hand and then sleeping. Long nights of sleep. Kyna didn't have those in LA anymore. She didn't know why, she just started having troubles with a sleep pattern.

"Soooo you're going to the islands with John?" Aj said after everyone cleared the table and the couple were the only ones left.

"No, I'm going to the islands and John's going to the islands. And because we are friends and we work together it would be REALLY strange if we'd be pretending that we don't know each other." Kyna sighed as she answered.

"Sure."

"I don't understand why you're acting this way. The invitation was for everyone. You could go as well."

"But I can't." Aj bit. "Isn't it just too convenient?"

Kyna took her glasses off and looked at her boyfriend:

"I think you're enjoying this jealousy celebration."

"Do you?"

"Oh yes. Because this is the only explanation I find for why you've been doing it 24\7 lately."

"Hey!" Kyna opened her eyes at the sound of John's voice.

She was laying on the hammock in front of the entrance of her bungalow and replaying her latest fight with Aj when John swam up to her home-for-weekend and was hanging on the wooden parapet, water dripping from his wet form.

"Hey yourself stranger." Kyna smiled but didn't make a move to change her position.

"How are you enjoying the getaway?"

"Loving it so far. You?"

"Same here." John chuckled slightly. "But I start to miss human contact. Feeling like helping me up with it?"

"Hmmm…what's in it for me?" Kyna looked at her friend lowering her sunglasses just a little.

John laughed but then offered:

"How about their finest white, a whole bucket of tropical fruits and I hear their brand cheese board is amazing."

"Sounds like you want to buy me, Mr Rahway."

"Is it working?"

"I'd say so." The young woman laughed and turned back to the sun rays.

"I'll see you tonight, K!" He boomed and jumped back into the Ocean.

Kyna just smiled. She loved cheese…and wine…and fruits. And John was never a bad company.

-/-

"What did you think of me when we first met?" John asked as Kyna held out a glass of white wine for him.

"John," She said sternly but then giggled and laughed cracking. "We haven't even started drinking yet!"

He laughed too but urged for her to answer with his blue eyes.

"So we're going personal tonight? I knew you had an agenda." She took a place in front of him on the floor, a small table in-between them. "Ok…hmmm…"

Before answering Kyna took a sip of her wine while her brain registered that every single detail: the room, lighted candles, the breeze, the smell of the ocean, a small table, the taste of flowery wine very light but with just enough personage of alcohol, John, her yellow summer dress, John, the music from her iPad, the lightness, the lack of disturbing thoughts,…John.

"Ok." She shook her head slightly as if ridding herself of the thoughts irrelevant to their conversation. "I…I thought you were a douche…"

John sent a grape flying in her head. Kyna laughed and held her hands up in mock surrender.

"Sorry, ok? But you did try to hit on me with that super expensive bottle."

"I did, didn't I?" John chuckled in response as he reached for a slice of mango.

"Yes you did." Kyna smiled and stabbed a piece of brie cheese with a blue picker with a small sea horse on the end of the stick. "But if I had to be honest, my first thoughts were…too bad."

Her companion cocked his head with a silent question.

"You know all that stuff with Mazzonni was happening and knew I had no time for…" She fell quiet for a second. "I liked you."

There it was. She admitted it out loud. It was probably wine talking.

"I didn't registrar it then because that was not rational.."

John wasn't saying a thing. He knew about her: he memory, her IQ…all of that that made her different, that made her perception different. She told him herself once a year or so before. She told all the boys after that.

"I didn't know what that was. In my mind attraction was something that is calculated as well as any other action…"

Kyna finished off her glass.

"But I guess that's not an answer to your question…"

"No." John refilled her glass and his own. "I'll take it."

-\-

They killed the first bottle pretty quickly. "A good thing is that there's a lot more of those from where this one came from." John announced as he opened the next one.

"Tell me a story from when you were a kid." Kyna challenged.

"Maybe we'll stick to of-age shit?" John countered.

"Though it sounds extremely temptingeven in the matters of simple potential blackmail, I'd rather hear something more…personal."

"I don't think I have any good ones." John tried.

"See now I don't buy it!" Kyna pinched the blond in the arm as he laughed, his neck turning the lightest shade of red. "Oh oh there it is! Come on! Just one story. Don't tell me the worst one, or the most heart-tearing one, or the most embracing one. This time I'm fine with medium gear."

The blond gulped what was left in his glass and scratched the back of his head with one of his hands.

"When dad was still alive he used to take me hiking once in a while. We'd choose a place. Mountains, forests…whatever. And we'd walk…for hours, days. We never really talked…but all those hours of not saying things they were in those hikes. It just made up for everything…"

Kyna could guess that his father probably passed when John was still at a tender age. She didn't ask.

"I want to get a place in the mountains." He concluded, changing the direction of a conversation just a bit.

"Why don't you? It's not like you can't afford it now." She went with the flow of his words not swaying back to the family drama. He said enough, she was pleased that he gave out that bit.

"I will. When I find the right one." He was right there at an arm reach but his stare was fixed on something invisible…intangible…something like a memory.

-\-

"What is it?"

"I love this song.."

"Is it spanish?" John asked, listening carefully as some foreign female singer was purring in unison with a guitar.

"It is. Con las ganos." Kyna took one more sip of her wine. "You know a lot of people consider French the language of love but I find Spanish so much more sensual and…tender. It…sinks through your skin and stays there…and by the end of the song it's basically running in your veins mixing with your blood…"

Her voice was raspy as she finished. John was watching as she closed her eyes as if letting the words that he didn't understand dissolve in her body.

"Dance with me." His throat was drying. Slowly and painfully.

She opened her eyes but wasn't very fast to take him up on the offer instead just looking at him as he stood up from where he was standing backing the wooden frame of the entrance door.

"What is she singing about?" John asked as his hand slowly touched Kyna's and gently grabbing it he brought the young girl to her feet as if she was nothing more than a feather, steadying her as she swayed to the side somewhat.

"She's…" Kyna's hands felt heavy when she was about to hut them on dance partner's chest but John took one of her hands and guided it to take a place on his shoulder, then took the other one in his much larger hand and pushed it to his chest. "Why didn't I realise that there are forbidden elevators…that there are shared sins, and that you were so close. I disguise myself as you. You disguise yourself as me… And we play at being humans in this grey room…"

John's body was muscled and his hands strong. He was tall. And Kyna felt as if nothing outside of their embrace existed.

Her head slide to his steel-hard chest and his hands fell on her back as hers found their way to hug his mid-section.

"The pain sinks into my side and everything becomes blurry." They were barely swaying and she was whispering. "I'm thirsty and I'm swallowing. It hurts me not to be by your side."

John's calloused hands were surprisingly gentle. As if she was breakable, as if she was some sort of jewel…she wasn't. She wasn't pure, not any more.

She was barefoot and the difference in height was more visible but it didn't seem to bother them.

"Do you ever think of me?" John asked out in a thin air.

They were in a dangerous zone…no, they were most likely already walking on glass…sharp glass that was shredding their senses.

"I…"She stopped and he followed but didn't release her. "Let's not go there, John."

"Because I think about you all the time."

"John." She looked up to meet his eyes. "Stop."

"I've been stalking silence for the last two years, Kyna. I don't want to anymore."

Her eyes were intense, glazed with alcohol, her nostrils were burning with his smell.

"The thing is: I don't think you want to be with Aj." John stated.

TBC…