Breaking Protocol

by Michelle Witvliet

  “Considering the fact that my body should be decomposing in that Colombian rainforest, anything else that happened that night is moot, don’t you think?”

  “Piper,” he intoned. “I think you know where I’m going with this. I really need to know what transpired before the place went up in flames. What were you doing there? Who were those men we found?”

  Her shoulders slumped under the weight of his probing. “I wasn’t raped or taken there against my will, if that’s what you’re thinking. Carlos’s men are more brutal than sexual, particularly the ones he sent after me. Those guys get their rocks off by shooting women, not screwing them.”

  “Well, that explains the two with clothes...”

  Piper rolled her eyes and stared at a place near the motionless ceiling fan. “All right, if you must know, I was having consensual sexual relations—” at least that’s what it started out to be, she thought as she finished, “—when the other two burst in and blasted my partner with a twelve gauge.”

  She looked away, not out of embarrassment but out of an unwillingness to catch Riggs’s certain disapproval. She didn’t need him pointing out she’d not only involved herself with a local, she’d gotten him killed. She started to tell him the rest, but she decided against it, figuring why bother at this point. Miguel was dead. He couldn’t hurt her anymore, and she didn’t want Riggs thinking she was trying to rationalize her behavior by placing blame on the victim, all of which couldn’t be corroborated. Better to leave it alone, she decided.

  Before giving him any chance to comment, she swung her feet to the floor and announced, “I gotta pee.” The second she stood, the room started swimming and her legs buckled. She sagged against the mattress and waited for her equilibrium to catch up.

  “Need help?” he offered, though he never moved to assist her.

  “The day I need help to take a leak is the day I eat my gun.” With stubborn determination, she threw back her shoulders, plucked the panties from her butt crack, and walked to the bathroom using a large dose of willpower along with a little help from the walls to get her there.

  In spite of her head-to-toe assortment of scrapes and bruises, Piper felt a whole lot better on her return where she found the room flooded with sunlight and the sharp, invigorating scent of a balmy ocean breeze. Delicate green sheers fluttered and waved on each side of the open sliding glass door in an irresistible come-hither proposition. Warm and enticing, the gentle wind drew her closer and closer to its source.

  Riggs sat on one side of a cushioned chaise with his elbows resting on his thighs and his hands dangling loosely between spread knees. His dark head was bowed and he appeared deep in thoughtful deliberation.

  “I used one of the new toothbrushes I found in the medicine cabinet,” she said, coming up behind him.

  Jostled from his reverie, he straightened his posture and drew a long, hissing breath. “Resourceful as ever,” he commented. “Anything else you need?”

  “Not at the moment,” she answered. “On second thought—you could tell me where we are.”

  Parking herself on the same chair where he sat, she swung her legs up to stretch the length of the tufted cushion and drew up one knee, resting it against the expanse of his broad back. He was a warm and real reminder that it was safe to let down her guard and relax, at least for the moment.

  “You don’t need to know.”

  She nudged him with the side of her leg. “What’s the matter, Riggs?” she teased. “You afraid I’ll call Carlos and tell him where we are so he can send his boys to finish what they started?”

  “I’d like to keep your location under wraps for now. That includes from you.”

  Riggs pushed off the chaise and wrapped his hands around the painted wood balcony railing. “I don’t like being such a hard ass about this, but it has to be done my way.”

  She choked a laugh. “Who are you kidding? You love being a hard ass, Riggs, and you do it so well.”

  “I just hope it’s good enough to keep you under Escobedo’s radar while we sort this mess out.”

  She shook her foot with obvious annoyance. “I really hate being kept in the dark like this, you know that.”

  “I do know that, but you will remain on a strictly need-to-know status until I deem otherwise.”

  “Why?” Piper demanded with a sullen pout.

  He drilled her with an icy stare. “My job doesn’t require explaining myself to you.”

  That knocked some of the surliness out of her. Riggs hardly ever pulled rank, but it always rankled when he did. “Then I’ll make it easy for both of us,” she said with a stiff jerk of her shoulder as she swung her legs down and pushed herself off the chaise. “I quit.”

  Propelling herself into the bedroom, she paced and ranted, all in the language she’d been immersed in for almost a year. When she finally ran out of steam, she looked at him with an expression of expectation. “You understand what I’m saying here?”

  He shook his head. “Not at all,” he said. “Not without a translator. My confrontational Spanish doesn’t come close to the speed at which you were running.”

  Piper just stared, her mouth moving without words like a fish out of water. It took her brain a couple of beats to process what he said before she replied. “Okay, I’ll give you a condensed, English version—you don’t have to worry about telling me a damn thing if I’m no longer part of InPro. Just point me toward the first available bus, plane, or train, and I’m out of here.”

  Carter expelled a deep, infuriated sigh and rubbed the aching scar nearest his temple. It always throbbed when he frowned, and at the moment it pulsed with a life all its own.

  This wasn’t the first time she’d threatened to quit. It wasn’t even the second, or tenth, and he seriously asked himself why he didn’t accept her resignation and be done with it. She’d always caused more problems and given him bigger headaches than the rest of his team put together. Yet he’d never seriously considered letting her go. The thought was incomprehensible.

  “Damn it, Piper, it’s not that simple. You’re under protective custody. You can’t just up and leave.”

  “Sure I can,” she shot back. “Watch me.” She wrenched open closet doors and pulled out every drawer. After exhausting every available storage option, she tossed her hands in the air in surrender and sputtered, “Okay, I give up. Where the hell are my clothes?”

  “You’re wearing them,” he answered.

  Piper stared at him for a moment, as if she hadn’t heard him correctly.

  He had other clothes for her, as well as the backpack she’d had with her when they found her, but he planned on keeping that bit of information to himself for just a while longer. He wasn’t about to facilitate her getaway.

  “You don’t really think for one second this’ll stop me,” she said as she gestured down at her skimpy attire.

  If he didn’t know better, he’d be tempted to call her bluff. But this woman had no apparent shame when it came to exposing that damn near perfect body. He knew in a heartbeat that she’d waltz out of there wearing nothing more than her gold belly chain and flowery hip tattoo if she thought the situation warranted it.

  “Will you sit down and hear me out before you do something I’m sure I’ll regret? And while you’re at it—eighty-six the fucking attitude, Jordan. I’m in no mood to deal with it.”

  Piper recognized that firm, no-nonsense tone and realized she’d pushed him about as far as she dared. “This had better be good, Riggs,” she grumbled as she bounced onto the bed and attempted to lean back on her elbows. She quickly discovered it put a little too much strain on her bandaged arm. She sat up and readjusted her position to accommodate her worst injuries.

  “Your cover was leaked by someone from inside.”

  Her brows drew together in a thought-provoking scowl. “Do you know who?”r />
  “No,” he answered, shaking his head. “Not yet.”

  A chill ran up her spine. “Any leads?”

  He shook his head again. “That’s why it’s so important I keep your location secure. You weren’t the only operative we had in Colombia. The other one is still missing.”

  “I thought the whole purpose behind those damn microchips implanted in our hides was to keep this very thing from happening while we were in the field?” She was angry, and rightfully so.

  “We discovered a flaw in the tracking system. The signals can be jammed.”

  “Jammed?” she reiterated, as if the word was foreign. “How did something like that happen? Those frequencies were classified.”

  “Which is why I concluded the leak had to be internal and the reason I had your chip removed. If the signal can be externally jammed, it can also be used to track you now.”

  She rubbed the place on her left buttock where she knew the chip had been implanted just months before she went undercover. “I’m so beat up I never noticed.”

  For the first time since waking up, she began to take a thorough inventory of her injuries. She raised her arms and tried to stretch. Wincing, she fingered the bandage wrapped around her left bicep. “What’s the story on the wing?”

  “You were lucky. The bullet tore away a chunk but didn’t hit anything vital.”

  “In other words, a flesh wound,” she said, reducing her injury to the status she felt it deserved.

  “Pretty much,” he conceded. “It’s going to be sore for a while but the doctor assured me it shouldn’t affect any function or mobility once it’s healed.”

  He left the room and returned carrying a stack of neatly folded clothing, a pair of practically new Nike cross-trainers and her beloved backpack.

  “Where did these come from?” she asked as she fingered an unfamiliar pair of black Spandex shorts lying on the top of the pile.

  “Contributions from a couple of female officers from the surveillance ship,” he said.

  Piper gave the stack of strangers’ clothes a passing glance, but it was her battered backpack that she eyed with a grateful heart. It wasn’t that her meager belongings were any better, and they certainly weren’t as plentiful, but they were hers and not someone else’s commandeered hand-me-downs.

  “Don’t bother looking for the jeans and tee you were wearing when we found you. They were cut off by the medical team who examined you.”

  “Damn,” she said. “I just got those jeans broken in.”

  Carter patted his taut stomach. “I’m getting hungry. I’ll let you get dressed while I rustle us up something for dinner.”

  “You’re cooking?” She cast him a doubtful glance.

  “Our options are pretty limited, P.J. No carryout or deliveries in the area.”

  Piper hid a pleased grin behind her fist. She always liked it when he slipped out of his hard-ass mode and called her by her nickname. Every time he did it made her feel like he was reaching out to her on a slightly more personal level, as if he’d let his guard down if only for the time it took to utter those two little letters.

  For as long as she’d known him he’d always been so reserved and inflexible in the manner in which he dealt with her, like there was some unwritten code of behavior he felt honor-bound to uphold. She supposed it had something to do with the fact that he sent her into dangerous, might-not-come-back situations and the more personal he got the harder it would be to do so. He was the same way with all his agents, but Piper always took his hard-nosed approach personally.

  “It’s either you or me on KP,” he told her from the doorway.

  “So what’s on tonight’s menu, Emeril?”

  “I thought you’d see it my way,” he said, taking that as his cue to exit.

  Chapter Three

  “This is really good, Riggs,” Piper commented, spearing the last bite of baked chicken with her fork and popping it into her mouth. She chewed, swallowed, and finished with a couple swigs of white zinfandel. “In fact, it’s downright awesome. Who knew fried wasn’t the only way to fix chicken?”

  She took another sip of wine and twirled the stemmed glass in her hand with thoughtful consideration. “Should I be drinking alcohol this soon after the HBT? I wouldn’t want you taking advantage of me or anything.” She gave him a playful wink and took another sip.

  “You’ll be fine,” Carter told her, ignoring her teasing bait. “It’s only a problem when the two are taken at the same time.”

  “Good to know.” She swiped her mouth with a paper napkin, crumpled it between her fingers and tossed it onto her empty plate. As she sat back with a satisfied sigh, a frat boy belch quickly followed. Surprise lit her eyes.

  “Pardon me,” she exclaimed, slapping a palm over her mouth.

  “I’ll consider it a compliment to the cook.”

  They sat across from each other at one end of the sleek oval teak dining table. Carter pushed his plate away, gripped his near empty longneck and brought it to smiling lips. “It’s good to see you’ve got your appetite back.”

  Piper’s posture stiffened, and she faced him squarely. “What makes you think it was ever gone?”

  He’d always admired her bravado when she was forced to face a hard truth.

  “I ate very well while I was in Colombia,” she said matter-of-factly. “Carlos had several excellent chefs on his payroll,” she informed him, her tone and demeanor a little more defensive than convincing as far as Carter was concerned. “Dinner was always at least six courses, and gourmet all the way.”

  “It sounds like you logged a lot of after-hours time with Escobedo.” For what it was worth, that bothered Carter far more than he thought it should. His own dinner sat like a lump of cold clay in the pit of his gut.

  “Practically every night,” Piper confirmed. “As his official translator and personal assistant, if he was entertaining or conducting business, I was expected to be there. I also acted as hostess in the absence of his ailing wife.”

  “Entertaining guests and hosting formal dinner parties doesn’t sound like part of Escobedo’s usual MO.”

  “I was as surprised by the discovery as you are, but he was a different man when he was on his own turf. That’s not to say he wasn’t ruthless and cruel, but I also saw a kinder, almost charming side, too.

  “So overall he treated you well?”

  Piper nodded. “Very well. In fact, surprisingly so.”

  With a sweeping glance, Carter appraised her leaner than usual frame. “So what you’re telling me is you intentionally lost weight while you were down there?”

  Her lips pursed and she gave a quick jerk of her shoulder to dismiss his observation as trivial. “It’s only a few pounds.”

  “None of which you could spare.”

  Any previous defiance evaporated and in its place there settled an expression he couldn’t quite define. When she noticed him watching her, she bowed her head, letting her hair fall around her face. “The last couple of months were pretty rough,” she said from behind the wavy, dark curtain.

  “Go on,” he prompted, abandoning all pretense of mild curiosity.

  Piper hugged her arms around her middle. “After Carlos received an anonymous tip he had an informant within his organization, I was never able to let my guard down around him. Eating three squares a day wasn’t one of my priorities. There were days it wasn’t even in the top ten.” When she eventually raised her head, a mask of serenity had settled across her features. Carter found the transition in her demeanor startling, if not disturbing. It was as if she’d flipped a switch and shut down her emotions.

  “You always had the option of getting out.”

  “No. I didn’t,” she said, shaking her head against the idea. “I couldn’t leave when I first wanted to. Then the longer I s
tayed, the harder it got.”

  “You want to explain what you mean by that?” He set his beer bottle aside and leaned forward, resting his forearms on the table.

  Piper shook her head again and pushed a lock of hair out of her face. “Not really,” she readily replied. “How about you explaining to me how you wound up coming to my rescue the very same day I decided to make a break for it?”

  He knew what she was doing. Diversionary tactics were one of her specialties. It wasn’t going to work this time, not for long anyway. But he decided to play along, hoping that his answers would bring a few from her in return.

  “I can’t explain it. Not really,” he said. “You have to remember I’d been out of the loop for most of the time you’d been away. I had to rely on other people’s reports to bring me up to speed when I returned. When I discovered there hadn’t been any communication from you in more than two months, I immediately flew to Colombia and coordinated with the surveillance ship. Everything else sort of fell into place once we secured a lock on your chip.”

  “And here I’d thought...” She bit back the rest her words. With a quick, dismissive shake of her head she said, “Never mind, it doesn’t matter.” Then she stretched across the table and squeezed his hand. “At least you never gave up on me.”

  Her impulsive gesture startled him way more than when she’d pointed the gun at him earlier. She wasn’t an overly demonstrative person any more than he was—she was more apt to kick a man in the face as kiss it—but her touch was like a highly addictive drug suddenly introduced to his system. He wanted more, and a strange wave of withdrawal prickled his skin when she pulled away far too soon to suit him. Nothing seemed more important in that split second than reestablishing the connection, but he resisted the impulse and refocused on their conversation.

  “Now that I answered your question, how about answering a few of mine.”