by Donna Young
“You’re serious?” Tessa asked.
“Very,” Cal replied.
Esteban laughed. “I’m guessing you are not a man with a humanitarian nature, Mr. West, so what do you want in exchange for your matchmaking abilities. Money?”
“I want you to keep Julia under your protection for the next week or so.”
“What?” Julia jumped from her couch. “Are you insane?”
Esteban laughed again, at her reaction or the suggestion, Julia couldn’t be sure. “I’d have to agree with Ms. Cutting, here. You realize that you are placing the personal secretary of the United States President under the protection of—and as much as I hate the term—a drug lord.”
“That’s exactly what I am proposing,” Cal said.
“No.” Julia managed to keep the word low, but the edge was razor sharp. “I told you that I needed to go with you—”
“And I told you that wasn’t happening,” Cal bit back. “Delgado has shown his hand. He isn’t going to kill Jason until he gets what he wants from him.” Cal’s eyes locked with the drug lord’s. “Well?”
“You’ve heard that Esteban is trying to go legitimate, haven’t you?” Tessa summarized, then turned to Esteban. “What better way to add to your credibility, than to keep Ms. Cutting safe from Cristo? President Mercer would be in your debt.”
“It is an interesting prospect.” Esteban sat back into his chair and rubbed a finger at the side of his nose. “But before I consider it, I have a few questions.”
“I expected you would.”
“Why do you want Jason Marsh? He’s been compromised already.”
“A personal matter.”
“One I’ll have to insist you share, Mr. West.”
Cal’s jaw worked its muscles for a good ten seconds, then he nodded his acceptance. “Ten years ago, Jason was to Delgado what Jorgie is now—head of Delgado’s security—when an attempt was made on Delgado’s life.”
“I remember. He was shot two days after I received this.” Esteban pointed to his throat.
“I’m sure you do. Some even said you were behind it. A sort of payback because of your near-death experience.”
“They are mistaken. It was a vendetta hit, by a smaller cartel. Their leader thought to strike while the Trifecta was diluted. If I had gone after Cristo, he’d be dead,” Esteban answered matter-of-factly. “But I had no reason to. There was no hard evidence that Cristo was behind the attempt on my life.”
“Delgado spent three days in the hospital recovering from his gunshot wounds. I was sent in to finish off Delgado while he was weakened.”
“Just Delgado?” Esteban asked, his eyes narrowing.
“No. I was sent in to kill you, too,” Cal admitted wryly. “But my cover was blown before I even stepped foot off the plane. We had a mole in our house.”
“And how does Jason fit in this scenario?”
“He saved my life.”
“So you owe him. Simple enough,” Tessa stated, then glanced at Julia. “Or maybe not.”
“Does not matter, my dear. Somehow I believe Mr. West is sincere.” Esteban put out his cigar. “The day before Jason Marsh disappeared, he called me. And, just like you, he offered me an opportunity.” The drug lord’s tone remained casual but his gaze sharpened. “He offered me technology.”
“Go on,” Cal replied evenly.
“I believe your government calls it the MONGREL,” Esteban said. “Marsh agreed to give me the device in exchange for Delgado’s dead body. I had to turn him down, of course.”
“Because Delgado is a friend.”
Esteban’s laugh was harsh, sandpaper against his larynx. “No. We are not friends, but we do neighbor each other’s territory and that makes the situation…difficult.”
Tessa placed her hand on his shoulder. Without thinking, Esteban patted it.
“I didn’t take Marsh up on his offer simply because I wouldn’t have been able to keep the damn device,” Esteban continued. “Not if I wanted Jonathon Mercer to believe I am turning legitimate.”
“You could have taken it, then returned it to Mercer.”
“Mercer would never have believed I hadn’t stolen it and examined it first. He would’ve intensified his efforts to bring me down.”
“Still, we might have all been better off if you had taken Jason Marsh’s deal, darling,” Tessa murmured.
“The question is, why would Marsh steal from his own government in order to secure Cristo’s death?”
“I have no idea,” Cal answered honestly. “And since I don’t have the MONGREL, you’ll have to settle for the good word I will put in with President Mercer about your cooperation with this situation.”
“I have to think about this, West. The ramifications, the rewards.” Esteban leaned back. “Admittedly, you are making this difficult for me to refuse.”
“Revenge and a shortcut to legitimacy. All for a little protection,” Cal pointed out. “Too many people in the government are on Cristo’s payroll. Only you have the trusted manpower to keep Julia safe.”
Esteban glanced at Tessa. “What do you think, my dear?”
“I think he’s either a hell of a negotiator or that he’s in love with her.” Tessa studied Cal for a moment, thoughtful. “Or both.”
Chapter Eight
“I’m not going with Alvarez. I don’t care if he did agree.” Julia’s fatigue morphed into nervous energy. One that pricked her temper. “Why didn’t you tell me about this plan before?”
“I didn’t have time.”
Julia made a pithy remark.
Cal’s head snapped around, with eyes narrowed.
“Care to run that past me again?”
“Not really,” she replied blithely. “But it seems to me this idea stemmed from our argument last night.”
“And if it did?”
Silently she cursed the humiliation that bristled the back of her neck. “There’s no justification in leaving me behind. I have an invested interest here, Cal. Whether you like it or not.”
“I don’t have to justify anything, Julia. What I’m trying to do is complete this operation. Renalto and I need to move quickly. You’d slow us down.”
“You seem to keep forgetting Delgado thinks I have the MONGREL.”
“Don’t fool yourself, Esteban does, too,” Cal warned. “And no matter what he said, I’m sure he was more than willing to make that deal with Jason. Legitimacy or not, Esteban isn’t a stupid man. Jason just disappeared before Esteban could finalize the agreement.”
“You knew this before you decided to knock out half of Esteban’s security team with Renalto’s stun darts?”
“That’s about it,” Cal responded. “It’s imperative to free Jason before Cristo Delgado realizes you have nothing. You stay with Alvarez and keep out of my way.”
“You were telling Esteban the truth, weren’t you? You owed Jason because he saved your life.”
“I owe a lot of people, Julia,” he admitted without qualm. “Not just Jason.”
“Somehow this was different. This went far beyond a political or even an occupational favor. He told me to go to you. He wanted you to protect me.”
“Which brings us back to your relationship with your ex-husband.”
She ignored him. “He trusts you, Cal. Why?”
“Not enough to tell me about the mess he’s gotten himself into.” Cal rubbed his hands over his face and for the first time, Julia noted the tired lines.
“We weren’t friends,” Cal continued. “You can’t be when you’re…involved with the same woman.”
“Jason and I weren’t involved. It never went that deep.”
“That, he did tell me.”
Her head snapped up, her gaze pinned his. “When?”
“A few weeks after we parted ways, I ran into him at one of the D.C. bars. An English bar, owned by one of my father’s friends,” Cal explained. “I’d been drinking. He accused me of playing emotional games with you. Then proceeded to beat the hell out
of me.”
She remembered seeing Cal shortly after. The bruised cheek, the split lip. A mission gone bad, he’d told her. “Did you fight back?”
“No,” Cal admitted. “Believe it or not, there’s a certain code men follow.”
“One that forces you to get beaten by an ex-husband?”
“At the time I agreed with him.” Cal stepped toward her until only a few inches separated them. “You were a target. Nothing more, nothing less. But even I recognized that using you to gain access to your computer…was crossing a line.”
Surprised, Julia simply stared at him. Cal had never admitted to anything so human.
“Why you?” she asked. If she didn’t go with him, she’d have to tell him about Jason’s son, Argus. Despite her promise to Jason.
“Cain could have sent anyone in. How did you end up on this operation, Cal?”
“Jason went rogue a few months after our run-in at the bar. Cain realized only after the MONGREL prototype had disappeared. Because Jason helped develop the device, he became the primary suspect.”
“Jason isn’t a traitor.” She dismissed the thought as absurd. He would have never turned over that kind of device to a drug lord. “That still doesn’t explain why Cain sent you. Unless he knew that Jason had saved your life.”
“Cain didn’t base his decision on that. We both understood Jason wouldn’t hesitate to kill me if he thought I was there to blow his deal,” Cal replied. “Cain was aware that I had a… more personal connection…with Jason.”
“Personal connection?” Her head snapped up, saw the answer in Cal’s face. “Me.”
“You said you loved me,” Cal explained. “Cain was aware Jason knew.”
“But only you…” She closed her eyes against the humiliation. She’d told Cal she loved him the same night he’d stolen the information. But she’d never told Cain or Jonathon, even during the debriefing when she discovered the files had been compromised.
“I told Cain,” Cal said quietly. “When I started working for Labyrinth, he insisted on full disclosure. Remember, our relationship was business.”
“And Cain’s banking on the fact that Jason will keep you safe because I loved you?”
Neither mentioned the fact she used the past tense. Past or present, it didn’t matter.
“That’s why Jason found me at the bar. He’d heard about our affair through channels,” Cal admitted. “I confirmed it.”
“Channels?”
“Either Cain or Mercer, I imagine.”
“God, you’re all a piece of work,” she retorted, then shoved a hand through her hair, pushing the locks away from her face with frustration. “For a moment I’d thought you’d changed. That I could trust you.”
“Nothing has changed, don’t ever forget it,” Cal snapped out. “I’m the man who slept with you to have access to your security. I accessed top secret information on the computer and traded it with another country for intelligence on a terrorist sect in London.”
Humiliation crept up her spine. She stiffened against it.
“You figured it out, told your boss. My government agreed to an equal exchange of our technology and my hands were slapped. A year later, I’m an operative for the same government I stole from. It’s how it works. You were a tool, Julia. That’s all.”
Her sharp intake of breath told him he’d drawn blood. And lots of it. But Cal was beyond caring. His own needs raged within him. Cain had insisted on full disclosure because at the time, Julia had been Cal’s weakness. His Achilles’ heel.
“It’s a fact Jason still cares for you. The bar fight confirmed that.”
“That still doesn’t answer one question.”
Cal turned his back on her and walked through the living room into the small galley kitchen. “Drop it.”
“Not on your life,” she replied, following him. “Jason made sure I sought help from you. It always bothered me. You betrayed me once, why would you be the one he trusted to protect me?”
“I’ll have to remember to ask him why when I see him.”
“You already know why. But for some reason, you aren’t telling me,” she argued.
Love happened, damn it. Somewhere after the jungle and before the bar fight he fell in love with Julia. When Jason confronted him, Cal had been hurting. Jason saw it immediately.
Decency and desire warred within him, breaking through his control. It pierced the surface, tightened his features.
He stepped in, putting them hip to hip, chest to chest, her back against the refrigerator. Confusion flashed across her face, then God help him, desire ignited the amber in her eyes.
He grabbed her wrists in one hand and locked them against the door above her head. His slid his free hand behind her neck, cupped its nape and brought her up close until they were nose to nose. His hips ground against hers, making sure she understood just how much he wanted her.
Hard and hot, his mouth devoured hers, his hunger erupting into a rampage of need. He let her hands go, hoping deep down, she’d fight him.
“Stop me now, Julia. Because if you don’t I’ll take more than your body. I’ll take your pride, your love. I’ll take your bloody soul before I’m done this time,” he threatened. And give you mine, he vowed silently. “Then I’ll walk away. And I won’t look back.”
Instead, she gripped his shoulders and curved into his heat.
He growled, biting her bottom lip until she opened her mouth.
Without warning, her sweetness poured through him, morphing his cravings into a fit of hunger. Old memories of her raced through his mind. Naked pictures of them tangled in bed. Her silky skin, hot beneath his hands, trembling beneath his mouth.
Swift and ugly, his desire turned on him. It gained momentum, an avalanche of need that swept his feet out from under him, tumbling him into a dark abyss.
Desperate, he fitted his mouth tight and gathered her close, his arms locked around her in a bloody battle for restraint.
Delicate hands moved to his back stroking and soothing, even as he plunged and pillaged.
Then he tasted the salt of her tears.
He pulled back. His heart raced, his breath came in long, ragged gulps of air. Tears streaked her cheeks, ran down to her jaw.
He stole the information, turned her away from him so she couldn’t be used as a tool for revenge. Everything in the past, he’d done for her. To keep her alive.
This he’d done for himself. To escape his demons.
He ran a thumb over her lips, felt the soft kiss she left on his skin.
Her lips were swollen, nearly bruised. Her gaze solemn and God help him, full of trust.
He dug deep for the strength to shatter that trust.
“You really have no pride, do you, Julia?”
The verbal slap snapped her head back, drained the color from her face.
“You bastard,” she said after a moment, struggling to keep her voice even. For all her height, her frame was delicate, but not fragile. “And you got what you wanted, Cal. I’ll stay with Esteban. Anything is better than sharing the same air with you.”
The strength of spirit, her stubbornness rose against him. Almost overpowering him.
He’d forgotten.
Until now.
Pride for her filled his chest, but it was the self-loathing that filled his heart—that nearly brought him to his knees.
“We’ve wasted enough time.” He stepped back, sickened with self-disgust. “I’ll give you five minutes to get ready. We have to meet Renalto.”
“I don’t need five minutes.” Julia’s breath backed up in her chest, squeezed her heart until it bled out.
And when this is done, I won’t need you, she vowed silently.
Chapter Nine
The hangar predated World War I. Its sides more rust than steel, its gaps more holes than crevices.
But the building did its job. It was far enough from the airport traffic to keep under the radar, but sturdy enough to house an occasional plane.
&nbs
p; Renalto studied the plane that stood center stage. A four-seater Piper Comanche with enough rust and dents to put the old hangar to shame.
In his mind, he placed the hangar into the black-and-white backdrop of an old television show.
For the millionth time, he cursed himself for choosing the law, rather than the life of a performer.
After all, hadn’t he proven he was the consummate actor? He had the looks of the aristocrat with his long, lean bones and sharpened features. With eyes of onyx, that enticed many señoritas into his bed.
It took talent to walk the line between the lawful and the illicit, to manipulate the key players in life’s little dramas.
Leopold had been one of those people, a little voice whispered from the back of his mind.
Renalto swore. Even Leopold had been driven by greed, he argued silently. The old man had known the dangers, had taken the payment offered.
He also had died, leaving a family of five with little more than the clothes on their backs.
Uncomfortable with the thought, Renalto pushed it away. And with it, the small splinter of guilt wedged between his shoulder blades.
“This is our transportation?”
Renalto turned, grateful for the distraction. “It was the best I could do, amigo,” he said.
He waited until Cal crossed to the plane before he added, “You want something faster? We can always use your Learjet.”
Julia stepped up from behind Cal and blinked in surprise. “You have a jet?”
“A small one. Yes.” He frowned hard at Renalto. “Not that it matters.”
“Oh, it matters,” Julia cut in.
“I’ve made good investments over the years, Julia. Nothing more.” Cal walked over to the plane in three quick strides. “And I like planes. Although this one is a little outdated for my taste.”
“When was it built?” she asked, curious now.
“Mid-nineteen-fifties,” Renalto answered. Cal had eased up into the cockpit for a closer look at the instruments.
“It looks like it will fall out of the sky the minute it hits a crosswind,” Cal commented.
“It has heart.” Renalto deliberately paused and wiggled his eyebrows to Julia. “Trust me.”
