by Misty Evans
Across the table, Ryker kept checking on her, throwing intense glances her way. He seemed to be having better luck, a sheik on his left talking about nothing but weapons and ammunition. It was quite possible the man wouldn't deal directly with a woman, so Mia mentally crossed her fingers that Ryker was able to gather evidence against Karl’s illegal dealings.
More than anything she wanted to quit this charade and go upstairs with him. Give those eavesdropping through the bugs a real dose of passionate sex to listen to.
Just thinking about it made her whole body flush. In so many ways, she couldn’t believe what a brazen hussy she’d turned into on this trip.
For all his suave confidence, Ryker had a vulnerability she loved. A man who’d given up his life to take care of a kid because of a promise he’d made. A man who’d risked everything to accept this mission and try to take down one of Europe’s most notorious black arms dealers.
Too bad there hadn’t been any discussion of business so far. Networking, yes, but she didn’t have time for that casual bullshit. She needed proof Karl was in on a black-market deal and she was going to get it.
He’d been flirting with her nonstop, making her edgy and Ryker slightly livid. Ryker didn’t say or do anything but she saw a muscle jump in his cheek every time Karl leaned to whisper in her ear or pat her hand. At one point, Enya came to stand at the sheik’s side, murmuring something to him. He stood, exchanging a weighted look with Karl, and followed her out.
A man farther down the table got up and took the sheik’s seat, engaging Ryker in conversation about black market Uzis and where he could get the best deal. Mia rubbed her pounding temples. There had to be something she could do before this night was over to get Karl on the hook.
“Gaspard and I have to leave tomorrow,” she said, ready to put their host on the spot. “I’d really like to nail down a few ideas with you before we do.”
It was all she could do to spit out the next part, but maybe it was the only way to seal the deal. She leaned in close, smelling the alcohol on his breath, and tried not to gag. “I’m willing to do almost anything to work with you.”
His smile made her feel dirty. “Tonight is for pleasure.” He purred the word. “We’ll do business tomorrow, I promise.”
On the other side, Josefina grabbed her hand and motioned for her to stand. “I like a woman who knows what she wants. Come. I have business of my own to discuss with you.”
Karl's mouth turned down. “Not now.”
Josefina waved, looking down her nose at him. “I decide when, and now is the time.”
Ryker stopped talking in mid-sentence and rose from his chair. “Where are you going?”
Josefina drew her closer, snaking an arm around her waist. “Of course, you will come, but the decision lies with your wife, oui?”
Decision? Oh, thank God. Finally, they were getting somewhere. She wasn't sure where exactly but anything was better than sitting here being verbally molested by Karl and listening to endless discussions about guns.
Karl planted both hands on the table and shoved to his feet, swaying slightly. “All right, all right. Let's go.”
Josefina didn’t turn Mia's hand loose, dragging her out the ballroom to a set of elevator doors hidden under the grand staircase. Ryker was her shadow the whole way, his fingers grazing her lower back to let her know he was right there with her. They entered the elevator, Karl pushing the button for the lower level. A red laser scanned his thumbprint and they began to descend, the motion causing him to sway again and lean against one of the walls.
It was a short ride, Ryker and Mia exchanging a look. What the hell was this all about? Ryker shrugged ever so slightly, letting her know he had no clue what was up.
They stopped, a soft beeping noise filtering in. Karl once more had to put his thumb to the button and let it read his print before the doors made a soft whooshing noise and opened.
Stones, shadows, a half dirt floor. As Karl stepped out, Josefina pulled Mia behind her.
What was this place? A damp smell, laced with the scent of cleaners and stale human sweat, filled her nostrils. The air was cool but musty, layers of stones looking damp in the soft glow of a few wall sconces illuminating the narrow hall Karl led them down.
Ryker tightened his grip on her hand, and thank goodness Josefina had released her other one so Mia was not caught between them any longer. “What the hell is down here?” Ryker asked. His voice was subdued but echoed off the high ceiling.
“The original structure was once a small castle owned by a French noble in the 1500s,” Karl said. “Through the generations, the upkeep became too much and it fell into an abandoned state. Part of the structure was knocked down in the late 1800s and it changed hands a few times, eventually becoming a hotel or some other form of tourist business, keeping the partial old castle wall. The district wanted to get rid of it entirely, stating it was a hazard zone. Homeless people and vagrants constantly used it for drug deals and such. A few years ago, I bought the property and razed it. But this,”—he patted one of the stones as he walked by—“this part of that ancient castle where men were tortured and held prisoner seemed like it might have use, so I built the casino on top of it.”
A hard shiver ran over Mia's skin. She stopped and tugged on Ryker’s hand, pure, cold fear making her want to run back to the elevator, to the ballroom, maybe even all the way to America.
Gently, he drew her on, not letting her give in to her fear. His hand was warm over hers and he shot her a wink. Wasn’t he scared this was a trap? That somehow Karl had found out who they really were?
From the distant shadows, she heard male voices coming from a hallway ahead. Karl, still in the lead, stopped at the opening and nodded at someone. Then looked back at Ryker. “Ready to do a little business, Gaspard? You might be able to talk these two into a deal.”
Josefina made a rude sound and beckoned to Mia. “Let the men talk about killing things. We have more important matters to attend to.”
Like what? Mia shot a worried glance at Ryker—she didn’t want to be split from him. Not down here, where people had been held prisoner, tortured… A lump formed in her throat.
But he wasn’t looking at her. He was watching the men in the hallway.
“Ah, we were just wrapping a few things up,” one of them said, and Mia’s stomach dropped to her knees.
Hinch.
Even though she was sure he wouldn’t recognize her, she was relieved she still wore her mask. Several times during the table conversation, she’d almost taken it off. It was sweaty and made her skin itch, but she’d left it on, a layer of obscurity that allowed her to watch people, study them, while appearing to be no one in particular.
The mask, like her cover identity as JoAn, acted as a barrier, keeping her secrets. Now, looking into the eyes of Warren Hinch, seeing his counterfeit smile as he held out a hand to her, she felt totally exposed.
“JoJo?”
Ryker’s voice brought her out of her panic. Introductions. Karl was doing introductions and she was standing there staring at Hinch’s hand as if it were a viper about to strike.
She was totally frozen. There was nothing in the world that would make her shake the man's hand, yet what else could she do?
Ryker must've sensed what it would take out of her to stay in her role, stay polite, because he took both her hands in his and turned her to face him. “Mon coeur, are you all right? Is it your head again?” He faced the group of men. “She suffers from migraines.”
Thank you. She let herself sway toward him and blinked her eyes. “I'm feeling a little woozy. I should've skipped the champagne.”
His eyes told her he knew exactly what was going on. This was their chance to get the proof they needed and she expected him to be a little pissed, but he wasn't. “You should lie down.” He glanced at the others. “I'm going to take her back upstairs to our room, then we can reconvene and discuss business.”
Josefina clicked her tongue. “You poor thing,”
she said to Mia. She looked at Ryker. “Bring her this way. Let her sit down and I'll get her some water.”
“I really want to lie down,” Mia said. “Gaspard is right. We should go back to the room.”
“No! Not yet. Wait till you see what I have to show you. It’ll make you feel a hundred times better,” she insisted.
Dammit. Could she be any pushier? Mia considered taking a fall and acting as though she were about to pass out, but now that she didn't have to shake Hinch’s hand, maybe she could get to the bottom of whatever this surprise was. She had to admit, there was a part of her that was too curious for her own good.
She gave Ryker a small smile and disengaged her hands from his. “I'm okay. You stay here and talk to the men. I'll go with Josefina.” With her eyes, she echoed her words. I'm all right.
His brows knit together, his mental message clear in his eyes. You don't have to do this.
She stood on her tiptoes and kissed him. Yes, I do. We need to get to the bottom of this. Tonight.
He rubbed her shoulder, still frowning. Josefina dragged her away, and she reluctantly saw him turn to the men. “I'm looking for investors in our company, ones who are not afraid to get their hands dirty and find potential buyers on the dark web.” Cutting right to the chase. “Do you know anyone who might be interested?”
The sheik began speaking but most of it was lost to her as Josefina continued hustling her down the hall.
A noise that she knew, but seemed too strange to come from the room ahead, met her ears. Was that…?
No. It couldn't be. A fresh shiver ghosted over her skin, an aroma floating to her that was slightly familiar. And totally out of place.
“Here, now.” Josefina swept her arm around as they stepped inside. There were six beds—nothing more than cots, really—lining the edges. Two were empty, but the other four…
Oh my God. The other four.
Mia slipped off her mask. Pregnant women—three of them—the fourth no longer pregnant but still sporting a large belly. She held a tiny baby to her chest and gripped the child tighter when she saw Mia with Josefina. The baby cried softly, as if she might be squeezing too hard.
The cots held nothing more than a mattress and shabby blanket. A small trunk sat at the footboard of each, probably containing what few belongings each girl possessed.
A maid outfit was folded and hanging on the iron footboard of one of the beds. Another girl still wore hers, as though she’d just gotten off work. The waitress from Friday night.
Josefina was all smiles, her sparkling dress in sharp contrast to the dreary conditions of the room. “Do you see what I have for you?” She walked toward the woman with the newborn. The mother practically scrambled to back up, her eyes wild. “You want a baby? I will give you one.”
* * *
Mission protocol: relationships are everything
* * *
Ryker was torn. He was in the middle of a deal with a United States senator and the sheik. They were partners with Karl, the three of them having created this casino, all part of his previous mission. The dungeon basement contained several rooms full of weaponry. Military grade US guns, ammunition, dynamite, and other explosives.
As he went from case to case, he felt sick to his stomach. These weapons had been purposely stolen from the military and sold to Kaiser and his cronies. One guess who was behind it.
He turned to the smiling Senator Hinch who followed him and offered details about each case. He wanted the weapons offloaded as discreetly as possible, making sure he was never associated with them.
If Ryker hadn’t already detested the man, he did now. As he pretended to be Gaspard, nodding and acting as though he could easily funnel the weapons into buyers’ hands, all he could think was, there's a special place in hell for you.
He needed to wrap this up, get to Mia. Whatever Josefina was showing her, he couldn't imagine, but there was no telling what else Kaiser was hiding in this dungeon. For all he knew, the man had an entire 3-D printer setup that could turn out anything from sex dolls to guns. Mia had said Josefina might be a buyer or an investor for Ghost Gun. He just hoped she truly was okay. Even with the mask covering the upper part of her face, he'd seen how pale she went at Hinch’s appearance. How she'd frozen.
Between them, they’d pulled it off. She was damn tough, and he couldn't believe what an expert she was at all of this when she'd had almost zero training. She was a natural.
Which was probably the biggest reason Beatrice had picked her to find him and convince him to take down Kaiser.
“Gaspard!”
At the sound of her yelling his name, his head snapped around. Everything in him went into motion. He brushed past the three men.
“JoAn,” he called, running down the tight hallway. He burst in to the room at the end, his brain logging the dilapidated beds, the women. “What's wrong?”
Mia sat next to a young woman—a girl, really—on one of the beds, and looked up at him with a smile. She’d removed her mask and there was something in her arms, a blanket, but all he could do was look at her face and scan her body to make sure she wasn’t injured.
“Nothing is wrong.” Josefina smiled at him, arms crossed over her ample chest. She looked like she was gloating as she stood over the seated girl next to Mia.
“In fact,” Mia said, rising to stand and cooing at the blanket. “Everything is perfect.”
The synapses in his brain spun into overdrive. She was holding a baby. From the look of the girl on the bed, it belonged to her.
As Mia approached him, her back to Josefina and the others, the smile fell off her face. Her eyes were horrified, haunted.
“Meet your son,” she said through stiff lips, shifting her arms to show him the baby’s face. “Look how tiny he is. He was born yesterday. I guess that was the emergency Karl had. Catherine”—she tipped her chin toward the girl on the bed—“went into labor early. Josefina had to come quickly. But he's perfect.” She smoothed the fine dusting of hair on the baby’s head. “Just perfect.”
Everything in him went very still. The illegal adoption ring. Kaiser was running it out of the dungeon.
The man himself stumbled in, barely giving the baby a glance but smiling wide at Mia. “See? Did I not tell you I could make your dreams come true?”
Ryker felt sick to his stomach. The other girls in the room were deathly quiet, eyes downcast. One absentmindedly rubbed her very pregnant belly.
Ryker needed Kaiser to give details about the operation for Parker to record them. He hoped like hell the comm units worked in this subterranean environment.
“I don't understand,” he said to Kaiser. The man always loved to talk about his various accomplishments. “What are these women doing down here?”
Kaiser slapped him on the shoulder. “Having babies they can't take care of. They come to me because they're homeless, jobless. Some are refugees, most abandoned by their families for getting pregnant out of wedlock. They work for me until they have the baby. They can't take care of them, so I help them place the child for adoption. Off the books, you know. I find an adopter, give the mother a cut of the money, and then they’re free to continue working for me or find someplace new. They get a bonus if they recruit another girl who's in trouble.”
God help them.
The mother of the child—Catherine—spoke, her voice hoarse. “I've changed my mind. I don't want to give him up. He's my baby. I’ll pay you…somehow, I’ll find the money. Work extra hours. Anything.”
Josefina clucked her tongue. “Don't be ridiculous. You can't take care of that child. You have no husband and your family cast you out. You’d be on the streets if not for Monsieur Kaiser and myself.” She bent to get right in the girl’s face. “These people will give your son a good home, Catherine. They are wealthy, and want a baby to love and take care of.”
The girl was crying now, and when she started to rise from the bed as if to try and take the baby from Mia, Josefina put a hand on her shoulder and sho
ved her back down. “There is no backing out of your deal, and even if you could, how are you going to take care of him when you're on the street? This is no daycare, and if you don't work for Monsieur Kaiser, where are you going to get a job? Where are you going to live? Who's going to take care of him when you go to work? No one. Now stop crying and be happy he’s going home with these people. He’ll have a good life, much better than what you can provide. One day, you’ll find a husband, have another baby.”
Ryker sensed it took all of Mia's willpower not to punch Josefina in the mouth. Her eyes pleaded—she may have been a natural born spy, but she didn't know what to do at this moment.
Hell, he wasn’t too sure himself.
Ryker looked at Kaiser. “We’ll need papers for the kid. Birth certificate, a record of immunizations, other things. I don't know what else, I've never adopted before.”
“Josefina takes care of all that,” Kaiser said, waving a hand in her general direction. “If you want him, I'll make a deal, but you may have to stay an extra day to get the paperwork in order.”
“What kind of deal?” Mia asked softly.
Kaiser smiled, slick, the consummate businessman. “I want half of your company.”
“Half of Ghost Gun?” Ryker snorted. “Are you out of your mind?”
Kaiser ignored him, keeping his eyes on Mia. “A small price to pay, don't you think, for a baby?”
Mia kissed the baby’s forehead, the mother’s soft cries in the background mixing with the child’s. “For a baby, I’d give up the whole company.”
Kaiser turned a satisfied grin on Ryker. “We’ll talk specifics in the morning.”
As Kaiser turned to leave, Hinch stuck his head in, finding Ryker. “So, we have a deal about the weapons, right? If you offload these for me, I can get you more.”
