by Desiree Holt
Lindsey nodded. “Sounds like a plan.”
“We also need to find a new modeling agency.” She made a note on her tablet.
“I want to take my time with that,” Lindsey told her. “I’m not into scheduling extensive photo shoots right now. If we need one for a client, there are plenty of agencies in this area I can check out and people I can call for recommendations. And no more exotic location shoots.”
Taylor chuffed a laugh. “Amen to that. By the way, did you see that Bella Donna is shutting its doors? They’re under investigation by both the FBI and Homeland Security.”
Lindsey shook her head. “Money. Some people have the disease so bad they’ll do anything for it. A lot of people are going to suffer because of that.”
“The one saving grace,” Taylor pointed out, “is that the really good, well-known models will be grabbed up fast by other reputable agencies. But damn. What a mess.”
While they worked, they monitored both the local and twenty-four-hour television news channels and online sites, still stunned at some of the things that had been revealed. Every news source was filled with the details of the late-night raid on Frank Podesta’s multimillion dollar estate. Stock photos of Podesta were flashed on the screen at regular intervals. But the real shocker was the revelation that not only had Natalia Wainwright killed her husband, she was also the brains behind the whole thing. She was good at finding people’s weaknesses and capitalizing on them, and Podesta and Merriam, with their constant hunger for more money and power, had been ripe for the plucking.
The Miami Beach police had also executed a search on George Merriam’s house on Black Swan Island, where they’d found another group of girls hidden on Merriam’s giant cabin cruiser, drugged and locked in the main cabin. Detectives Marco Dania and Jon Alpert, who had taken part in the raid on Podesta’s mansion, had given out the information that Daisy Winston, the young girl whose body had been found on the beach, had swum from the island to escape what Merriam had in store for her.
Late in the morning, Kevin Moran, accompanied by FBI Agent Len Gerow, showed up at the house to see them and fill them in on what was happening. Noah had handed over the information they had on Alex Enescu and Ruben Madea earlier.
“Handling them will be a little more complicated,” Gerow said. “Natalia knew them from her Colombia situation. Her family is uber wealthy, but the rumor is most of their money was made from illegitimate sources. She learned about what Madea and Enescu did before she ever came to the States, and wanted some of that pie. Saw how much money could be made and set about creating her own network.”
“But you’ll still get them, right?” Lindsey asked.
“Yes, but that’s a little more complicated. We need to involve Homeland Security plus, for Parrot Cay, we’ll bring in the Coast Guard. Even then it’s iffy if we can succeed. People like Madea and Enescu are slippery as eels. They have the money and contacts to disappear and pop up again. Madea will buy another island and Enescu will hide out in Europe for a while, so we’ll put the word out to Interpol. Hopefully we’ll get them at some point, though.”
“How did Craig get sucked into this?” Taylor asked.
“She relocated to Miami for a variety of reasons,” Kevin answered, “met Craig at some swanky party and it was lust at first sight. But she also saw him as the perfect figurehead for what she wanted and Elite was born.”
Gerow said, “Craig Wainwright was a good front for her. The kind of husband she needed. Knowledgeable about upscale marketing, well connected and hungry for money. Lots of money.”
“So what happened? Why kill him? She had to know it was destroying everything.”
“It appears he became disenchanted with the whole thing.” Gerow shrugged. “The drugs and guns didn’t bother him as much as the fate of the girls that began preying on him. He wanted to quit. He’d be a loose thread out there and Natalia and her partners couldn’t have that.”
“But his death meant she lost control of Elite. How did that help?”
“Oh, she found another firm whose owner was money hungry and not bothered with scruples. She had already made arrangements to buy into it.”
“You got all the girls?” Noah asked.
Gerow nodded. “Thanks for the tip and thank you, Taylor, for making it happen. We met the plane from Parrot Cay when it landed. A surprised bunch of people got off, for sure. You know we got everyone at Podesta’s house, but I wanted to let you all know we rescued the ones at Merriam’s, too.”
“Yes. We saw everything on television.”
“More bad news, though.” Moran looked around at everyone. “We went to Jerry Ortiz’s house to question him. I’m sorry to tell you we found his body. Two bullets to the head.”
“Execution,” Gerow added. “I don’t mean to be cold, but no more than he deserved.” He sighed. “Well, I’d better get back to work. We’ve got a massive cleanup to do and it won’t be pretty.”
“What’s going to happen with Elite?” Moran asked. “You know we’ll be questioning everyone there as well as looking at some of the more questionable clients that John Martino pointed us toward.”
“We discussed it this morning,” Taylor told him. “We’re closing it down and establishing a new company, wholly owned by Arroyo. We’ll give everyone who’s cleared severance pay and Lindsey Califaro and I will cherry-pick who we want to retain to form a new agency. Right now, we’re reaching out to clients to see who we can save.”
“Well, thanks for all your help. Sorry for the mess you had dumped in your lap.”
Noah shrugged. “Goes with the territory. Arroyo will clean it up and move forward.”
After Gerow and Moran left, Noah waved everyone back to their seats at the table where they were all set up. However, they all found it hard to concentrate.
“This is like the ripple effect when you throw a rock in the water.” Taylor shook her head. “The more they find out, the more things keep coming to the surface. I’m glad I made the decision not to open Elite today and told all the staff to stay home. The press would be all over us. My people radar was really off with Natalia.” Taylor sighed. “I’ll be kicking myself for a long time about this one.”
“Don’t beat yourself up about it.” Noah squeezed her hand. “I didn’t see it either. She was a master at playing the role of the rich society wife.”
“Lindsey?” Taylor looked across the table at the other woman. “You’re okay with what I decided? Closing Elite, pruning the staff and creating an entirely new entity?”
Lindsey nodded. “I think that’s the smart thing to do. Unfortunately, the name Elite will be tainted for a long time. No matter what we do, someone will always connect it. I agree creating something new is the best way to go.”
“We’ll give everyone who passes the smell test six months’ severance,” Taylor added, “and you and I will cull the best from the group.”
“What about the clients who have campaigns in progress? I can handle them from here. I just need to make a trip to Elite to download stuff from my office computer and grab hard copies of anything.”
“Sounds good,” Noah agreed. “John, you still have stuff to do for the FBI, right? You’ll work from here, also?”
Lindsey saw the question in his eyes when he turned to her. Of course he could work from here. And maybe she’d get in one more hot night with him. Satisfy her hormones before she told him to move along. Only somehow her brain wasn’t getting the message and neither was her heart.
I won’t change my mind. I won’t.
Right.
“It’s fine,” she told everyone. “Let’s get to work.”
The day was long and exhausting, but Lindsey was grateful for the hard and consuming work that left no time for thinking about anything else. When she was focused on it, she wasn’t conscious every single minute of John’s nearness to her, or the electricity that always seemed to spark around them like a cloud of atomic dust. She had no idea how much longer he’d be staying. He ha
d people at his office in Atlanta working on other projects, people he seemed able to rely on one hundred percent. But still, that was his home and soon he’d be returning there.
She’d stopped questioning if he would try to arrange some kind of long-distance situation between them. She would never be happy about something like that. Plus, she was still convinced in her heart of hearts that when this was wrapped he’d be on his way out of her life again.
Remember. You pull the plug first.
It had become her mantra, repeating in her brain over and over.
By evening, she felt confident they had as good a handle on things as could be expected. Taylor and Noah left a little after nine o’clock and while John finished one file he was working on, Lindsey took a hot shower and changed into a sleepshirt. Then, because she really needed a few minutes to herself, she lay down on her bed and closed her eyes, trying to sort out everything whirling around in her mind.
“Are you hiding from me?”
John’s deep voice startled her and she opened her eyes to see him standing right next to the bed. His mouth curved in a very sexy grin, but the expression in his onyx eyes was a mixture of hunger, need and questions.
Lindsey blew out a short breath. “Just trying to air out my brain after today.”
“It was a real pisser,” he agreed. He kicked off his shoes and stretched out beside her.
“I think we’ll have a lot more of those before everything settles into a new routine. How are you coming tracing the rest of the money?”
“Fine, but I don’t want to talk about that. Not money, not Elite. Not any of that shit right now.”
Butterflies began dancing in her stomach. What was on his mind? Was he leaving already?
Damn it, Lindsey, you’re a corporate leader. A tough businessperson. Do not let him melt you into a puddle of mush then walk out again. You’re stronger than that. And wiser.
She hoped. But everyone had their weak spot, and too bad for her that John was hers.
“W-what do you want to talk about?”
He rested his hand on her thigh just below the hem of her sleepshirt and slowly began moving it upward. If he kept doing that, her brain would freeze and all her good intentions would dry up.
“You’ve been withdrawing from me,” he murmured, his mouth coasting over her ear. “You think I don’t notice it, but I notice every single thing where you’re concerned, Lindsey.”
“Oh. You do?” Crap.
“Uh-huh.”
Now his hand had reached her stomach and he slid the flat of his palm over her skin. Her nipples ached, the brush of the sleepshirt fabric almost painful against them, and her tiny bikini panties were no doubt already soaked. Damn it, but this man knew exactly how to flip every one of her switches.
Tell him now. Then you can have a night of outrageously erotic sex and move on.
Oh, but wait. He’s still staying here, so what about that?
But she’d realized something during the past few days, something she’d been afraid to admit to herself. There was a lot of difference between saying, “I’ll be in touch” and “I want to be with you. I was a fool last time.” Nothing was the same this time. She could tell just by the way he treated her. If she didn’t give them one more chance, she might miss out on the best thing to ever happen to her.
Go with your heart, Lindsey.
She took a deep breath and asked, “And what conclusions have you reached?”
“That I was a stupid fucking ass four years ago and what happened is still there between us like a big brick wall.” When she didn’t answer, he said, “I’m right, aren’t I.”
His hand had crept up to cradle a breast and he gave one nipple a gentle pinch, almost robbing her of the ability to think.
“Never mind.” He nipped the lobe of her ear. “I’ll talk. Then you can have your chance. Lindsey, I’m making arrangements to open an office in Fort Lauderdale.”
“What?” She jerked upright, dislodging his hand with the movement. Did I hear right? “Say that again.”
“Lie down and I will.”
She eased herself back onto the pillow, but her brain was running a mile a minute. What was going on here? An office in Fort Lauderdale? So he did mean everything he was saying?
Oh, god, please, because despite everything I’ve told myself, I’m not sure I can walk away from him.
He was back to doing wicked things to her body with his hot hand.
“You think I don’t know that what happened four years ago is still in your mind? That no matter what I’ve been saying, or trying to show you physically, you don’t trust this situation?”
He finished teasing one nipple and went to work on the other.
“I— You—”
She had to squeeze her thighs together against the force of the throbbing in her now very wet pussy.
“Right.” He pinched her nipple. Hard. “I’m not leaving this time, Lindsey. Not tomorrow or next week or even next month. Except when I have to travel to a client’s location. And I didn’t know any other way to prove to you that this time is for keeps.”
“For keeps? Are you sure? Because if you’re saying this just to get in my pants again, you can save your breath. My pants are yours and have been every night. Just not my—” She paused and took in a breath. “Just not the rest of me.”
“Not your heart, right?” he guessed. “You think I don’t know that? You think it hasn’t been driving me nuts to know how badly I screwed up? But that’s done, Linds. I want that heart and I promise you I’ll take very good care of it. Otherwise, would I be opening an office here? The one that I’ll work out of? And try this on for size.”
By now his hand had slipped between her thighs and was cupping her sex, pressing the damp fabric of her panties into her wet flesh.
“Try what?” God. She was stunned to the point she couldn’t even form a coherent sentence.
“Tomorrow I’m going to show Taylor the space I found and see if she thinks it would be good for both offices. That way you’ll always know where I am and what I’m doing.”
“What?” She tried to process it, but her heart was beating so fast. “You— That is— I mean—”
“Let’s make it official all the way. Marry me, Lindsey. Marry me so we can spend the rest of our lives together and never waste another day. Take that leap with me, because I love you and I never want to let you go again.”
And all her objections disappeared like so much smoke. What would she prove after this by shoving him away? Nothing, except her life would be empty without him. It was different this time. Even her bruised heart had to accept that. And she wanted this more than anything.
The words were out of her mouth before she could process them and make a decision.
“Yes.” She let out a long sigh and the tension eased from her body. “Yes, John, I’ll marry you, and spend the rest of my life with you.”
“Thank god,” he breathed. “Don’t move. Just—don’t move.”
In seconds he had stripped off all his clothes, yanked her sleepshirt over her head and her panties down past her feet. His eyes never left her body as he rolled on a condom. Then, kneeling between her thighs, he spread her legs, slid his hands beneath her ass and lifted her to him. In one thrust he was inside her, filling every inch of her completely.
Lindsey closed her eyes.
This is it. This is where I belong. This is what I want.
He began to move in a steady thrust-and-retreat rhythm. As aroused as they both were, it didn’t take long for them to reach the peak. A climax so strong it shook them both exploded, gripping them. The walls of her pussy spasmed over and over, milking his thick, hot, hard cock. It seemed to go on forever, and when it stopped, it left them both weak and spent.
“I love you, Lindsey. I’ve never said that to another woman. Ever. I tried to deny it but there it is. You live in my heart. Always.”
She took a deep breath, let it out in a slow stream and said the words she’d bee
n afraid to say before.
“I love you, too.”
“This,” he whispered, his lips jus touching hers. “This right here, us, together, is what we have for the rest of our lives.”
“Yes,” she agreed. “The rest of our lives.”
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Strike Force:
Unconditional Surrender
Desiree Holt
Excerpt
Slade Donovan, code name Shadow, moved silently into the room where the men on his Delta Force team waited. Tall and muscular, he was the essence of a warrior, his dark brown hair slightly shaggy with a gray thread or two showing here and there, and the expression on his chiseled face said Bring it on.
Lowering his gear bag to the floor, he dropped himself into an oversized armchair and pulled out his laptop. First things first, he told himself. Mission completed. Men all accounted for. Time to reconnect with the outside world. He turned on the machine and waited for everything to load.
He was more than grateful for the satellite setup at their base camp that allowed them all to communicate with the rest of the world. It was a great way to maintain contact with his ‘brothers’ in the many Spec Ops groups, not just on newsy items but on ways to do things better. He also kept in touch with the foreman of his ranch back in Texas and with the few friends he’d been close with for years.
While he waited for the computer to boot up, he glanced around the room at his men, the members of Team Charlie, sprawled out on the battered furniture, weary and battle-hardened. They still looked rode hard and put away wet, as the saying went in Texas. This last mission had sucked a lot out of them.
Just yesterday they had come down out of the Hindu Kush, the mountain chain that stretched from Afghanistan to Pakistan, tired, dirty and spent, although eminently satisfied. Despite the intel fuckup, the mission had been a success. One more terrorist cell destroyed, one more maniac blown to hell. And the troops fighting for the people of Afghanistan had one less bad guy—and his followers—to worry about.
