Men-of-Action-Seres-03 -The McGregor Affair

by Capri Montgomery

  “I’ll go down with you.”

  She looked up into his eyes. He could see the small sliver of relief filter through the fear. “I don’t know if they have enough gear.”

  “I can hold my breath under water for a long time, don’t worry about me. Just relax, don’t panic because that could get you in a world of trouble down there.”

  She nodded. “I swear to God I am going to get that slimy little bastard back.”

  “Which one?” He mumbled before realizing his thoughts had escaped his mind and passed straight through his mouth.

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  “Jerry,” she clarified. “I don’t know when, I don’t even really know how, but he’s going to pay for this.”

  “London, do you really think that’s the answer?” Getting justice wasn’t out of the realm of possibility in his line of work either, but did she really want to waste her energy getting even with a man over this?

  “Yes.” Her tone of voice told him she really did believe this was worth the energy it would take for her to get back at him. It wasn’t that he was trying to negate her fear; he understood it. He didn’t think light of it in any way, but there were worse things Jerry could have done and Gavin thought maybe, just maybe, she might want to save her energy for another time.

  “You know, he hates snakes. Maybe I should ask Warren if we could do an adventure shoot at a wildlife preserve I know about…loads of snakes there.” She grinned. “I know; I helped relocate some of them there.” She got a devious grin on her face, one that told him this woman was dead serious. He wouldn’t want to be the man who crossed her; because he had a feeling she never forgot anything. She would have her revenge, maybe not today, and maybe not tomorrow, but she would have it.

  “That little snot is going to get his comeuppance. You just wait; I’ll get him.”

  He shook his head. London McGowan was going to be a handful of trouble. He wouldn’t know it to look at her, but she seemed to have a penchant for revenge. His lips turned into a slow grin. He Capri Montgomery

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  wouldn’t admit it out loud, but he kind of admired that about her.

  “Feisty,” he shrugged. “Must be the Irish in you Sweet Cakes.”

  “Sweet Cakes! I told you not to call me that.”

  “And I told you not to call me McGregor again, but you did.” She looked at him for a moment, as if trying to accesses the validity of his statement. He could tell the moment the memory hit her.

  “You can’t use that against me. I was angry about something.”

  “That wasn’t part of the deal.”

  “Don’t call me that again, or I’ll…I’ll…”

  “You’ll what?”

  “Oooh…” she frowned and tacked her hands to her hips before a slow smile spread across her lips. “I’ll make sure you get your comeuppance too.” And after she had uttered those words she pushed past him and walked away.

  “Oh hell,” he mumbled. His London had a mean streak.

  Gavin had been a rock while she had nearly fallen apart. The thought of going underwater sent her blood pressure up, which she was sure couldn’t be good for going underwater. She was contemplating pretending to pass out because that would surely delay the shoot until she could think of something else. But just as the thought entered her mind and bounced around her thought process for a little while, that’s when Gavin came up to her, wrapped his hand around her arm and gave a gentle caress.

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  “It’s going to be okay,” he had said. “I’m going down with you.” The expression on his face told her he was studying her current emotional state—distress would be the word she would have used to describe it.

  “They have extra gear and clothes?”

  “No,” he said. “I don’t mind getting wet. I’m going to be there for you. If anything goes wrong don’t panic, just relax and trust me to get to you. I promise you will be okay down there.”

  “Gavin,” she whispered. “I just don’t think I can do this. It was so dark, and cold…” Thoughts of being stuck in that well in Ireland flooded her mind. The fear she had felt not knowing if she would be found, not knowing if the water would continue to rise, not knowing if she could continue to stay above it…going into that water now felt just as frightening. She didn’t want to do it. She couldn’t do it.

  “London,” he pulled her close to his body, his head dipped and his lips captured hers in a sweet caress. The move had been unexpected, but not unwelcome. She wrapped her arms around him, pulling closer and allowing him, urging him, to deepen the kiss.

  His tongue gradually parted her lips and slipped inside her mouth—heaven, that’s what he felt like, warm and fresh. She could taste a hint of mint from the gum he had been chewing. She could feel his hand slide down her back, to that spot where, when touched, she usually went wild and now was no exception—he could have touched her anywhere and she would have craved him more.

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  The kiss stopped, not because she wanted it to be, but because he had the presence of mind to pull back. They weren’t alone. When he put enough distance between them and she actually opened her eyes she was reminded of that fact by the prying eyes glued to them. Had they been alone, had he not broken the kiss, she probably would have asked him to take her right there. There was something magically arousing about their surroundings…or maybe it was just the man himself.

  “Now that you’re relaxed we can get ready to go in the water.” He walked away from her, leaving her there wondering what had just happened. Had he kissed her only as a means of calming her down?

  She should be furious, but she wasn’t. Whatever his reasons were it was the best kiss she’d had in her entire life. She wasn’t deluding herself either—the man was a fantastic kisser. If he was that good with his mouth she imagined he would be a pistol in bed.

  “If you two are finished making out it’s time to get this show in the water,” Jerry grinned in a way that told her he had definitely arranged this shoot to get even with her for something. She wasn’t sure what. She didn’t care what. What she was sure about was that he would definitely get his.

  She wondered how he knew about her fear, but then realized it couldn’t have been a secret to anybody on set. While she had done water shots, including the kayak in the ocean while shooting in San Francisco, she had refused all ideas of doing an ocean dive. Somebody had more than likely put her objections together and came up with the The McGregor Affair

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  answer as to why either she or Warren said no every time. Why Warren suddenly changed his mind was something she couldn’t understand.

  While they didn’t know why she was afraid, Warren did. She didn’t tell many people, but she felt she owed him an explanation. He had been so excited about the possibilities of the show that he started rambling off all the ideas he had for future shows. When he mentioned white water rafting she didn’t mind. She had done that once. She didn’t love it, but she’d done it and could do it again without panic attack in tow. When he mentioned climbing, hiking, digging through bug infested mud holes she was game. When he said underwater dives she said no. She gave an emphatic, very quick, very panicked “no” and from the way he looked at her she knew he wanted a good reason to agree to such a show limiting request. She told him about Ireland. The event had been so hushed up that not even the American government had been informed.

  Nobody knew except the people who were involved in Ireland, and that’s where it stopped, and stayed, for years. She expected an ally with Warren, instead she got betrayed.

  She watched as Jerry, Michelle, and Nick walked behind the fall. They’d already shot the lead in, now it was just a matter of getting the underwater passage into the cave.

  She looked at the water in front of her. What were the odds she
could get out of this? Slim to none, and she knew that. Actually, it was more like none.

  “Trust me,” Gavin leaned in close and whispered in her ear.

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  “I trust you,” she said. She wasn’t sure why she trusted him.

  She hardly knew the man, yet she was certain he wouldn’t let anything happen to her. She was certain that he wouldn’t stand by and let her drown.

  Instinctively she took his hand. The motion reminded her of a scared child seeking comfort, reassurance, safety and support. She probably seemed like a world class damsel in distress—something she never wanted to seem like. Her mother was like some untouchable warrior when it came to holding her own and London so desperately wanted to be like her, to have her strength and courage. Until she had both she would never truly feel good enough to be a McGowan. She was doing okay thus far, except for this water shoot, under water to be exact. She wrangled snakes—pythons and boas mostly, but she had even caught a King Cobra when digging in Egypt…now if she could do that then there’s no way on God’s green earth that she should be afraid of a little water—but she was.

  Gavin gave her hand a soft squeeze. “Relax, breathe. Think of something pleasant.”

  “Something other than drowning, not being able to breathe, feeling the blood vessels in your brain start to burst—” He held up his free hand, the one she didn’t have a death grip on, to stop her from talking. “Something other than that,” he chuckled.

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  She took a deep breath, slowly exhaling as they walked toward the water, still hand in hand. She thought she heard Jack say something about Gavin moving off camera so he could start filming, but Gavin couldn’t go anywhere until she turned his hand loose and she had no intentions of doing that just yet. She reminded herself to just breathe, to just relax and breathe, not to panic.

  She started humming, as she often did when she was nervous.

  She wasn’t sure why but humming seemed to calm her enough to get through it.

  “Trust me.” She heard those words echo in her ears. She wasn’t sure if he’d reiterated her need to trust him, or if she was remembering his words. Either way she realized it was time to release his hand, and so she did.

  Submerged, she tried not to think about Ireland, about the water and darkness, and the fear. She tried hard to relax, as Gavin had repeatedly reminded her to do, to just focus on getting under the fall and into the cave. She was holding on by a thin thread when a little blue fish swam past her. Intrigued, fascinated really, by the colorful creature she found herself staring after it until it had disappeared.

  That’s when she finally noticed the marine plant life, the colorful clusters of beauty under the water. She couldn’t believe she’d allowed herself to miss seeing such beautiful things. She wondered what the ocean looked like in the great depths, but quickly decided she wasn’t ready for such a venture. She might find it interesting now, but she was Capri Montgomery

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  sure she would panic the moment she ended up either alone in the water, or in the water with somebody she didn’t completely trust.

  Jack signaled her to keep moving. Of course she had to keep moving; she couldn’t stay down there forever. Unlike Gavin, she could not hold her breath for long periods of time and she still had to swim under the waterfall, which meant she would have to go farther under the water. Deciding site seeing was best left for the times when she could view an underwater special on the Discovery channel, she moved on.

  When she reached the inside of the cave she could see the crew’s lights and she knew exactly where she needed to swim too. She also knew that Gavin had been certain to give her space so that he wouldn’t be in the shot, but not too much space where he wouldn’t be able to get to her if she needed help.

  It wasn’t until she surfaced and was out of the water that she felt fully relaxed, as if nothing bad could happen now—at least not anything that she wouldn’t be able to handle.

  Between takes she managed a moment alone with Gavin. She thanked him; although the words paled to the emotions she felt. If he hadn’t been there she wouldn’t have made it…she doubted she would have managed to get in the water. Her job would most likely end up in the can and some other adventurous beauty, one who wasn’t afraid to do a scene, would end up in her spot. She would have hated that.

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  Whether she let on or not, she really did love her job. She would miss it if she lost it.

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  Chapter Six

  “A man I can trust, that’s crucial.” Sully listened as Shaw spoke of the characteristics his “top secret” plan required. He hoped the idiot was about to hammer the final nail in his own coffin because he honest to God was ready to get out of that rat hole. He saw it everyday, the greed, the misappropriation of funds to cover one of their vacations. As if that weren’t bad enough they had allowed themselves to take on the ultimate betrayal, they were selling government projects, secrets that could undermine world security. It was unforgivable, yet he had to pretend to play by the game.

  He was tired of pretending. If he had his way he would have shot the bastards and been done with it.

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  He knew not everybody in the company was underhandedly screwing the country. He knew there were some honest men and women working there. He just wasn’t sure how many honest ones had made it to the top of the ladder. None, he would venture a guess. There was no way Shaw would let somebody honest get close enough to him to ruin his plans. The last person who had been, even remotely close to the high executives, had been Janet Donovan. She had been the one who alerted the military to the possible sale of government secrets.

  McKinney hadn’t thought much of her accusation. He had said she was probably just after money herself. There wasn’t much logic in that statement, and fortunately the others in the committee had obviously been able to convince him to get his head out of his behind and start investigating.

  The plan was to go in and audit the books, audit the products, and make sure there were no missing pieces, no missing documents, and no missing government secrets. The plan changed when Mrs.

  Donovan’s car ended up in the river. Fortunately even McKinney hadn’t thought it was an accident and he had demanded an investigation. He put Langston in charge, probably thinking he could control the decorated war hero—that had been a mistake. Langston was at a point in his career where he rarely listened to anybody. If he took on a mission he made sure that mission was as covert as possible. He hadn’t told the good senator, nor his makeshift committee just who the undercover agents would be, he had been sure to say agents and not Capri Montgomery

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  operatives because agents appeased the committee by making them think he’d hired FBI or CIA personnel. He had assured them it would be safer if they didn’t know the exact details. He had told them just what he needed to tell them, and nothing more.

  “You’re that guy,” Shaw’s words brought Sully back to the present situation. He was sitting there in conference room A, surrounded by what he figured to be the key players in this game. Ten men, all of them at the highest levels within the company—all of them had top security clearance to government projects. “You haven’t been with us long, Sully, but it’s long enough for me to see my sources about you are right. You’re willing to do what it takes to line your pockets, and ours.”

  If only he knew how much he wanted to rip his head off at this very moment. He had lost a great deal while working this assignment, add that to the fact that he hated treason more than anything else in this world, and he was ready to just kill them all. Unfortunately his orders ha
d been to bring them in alive.

  “We’ll bring you up to speed on what it is we need you to do in time. I’ll just tell you it’s big, and you’re going to be rich because of it.”

  “Rich,” he made sure his eyes gleamed with greed just as their eyes did. “That’s what I want,” he said. “Enough to buy a private island, and then some.” He grinned wide as they laughed.

  “Oh, you’ll have that and much more,” Shaw assured him.

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  “Do you want me to move some more numbers around for you?” He played innocent to their treacherous activities in order not to arouse suspicion.

  “No, this is bigger. Kevin will bring you up to speed throughout the week.”

  Kevin Doyle wasn’t the youngest of the men, but he wasn’t the oldest either. He was, however, one of the few men sitting at that table who had a family—wife, three kids, and a mistress he spent a lot of money on to keep. Yes, he knew Kevin Doyle’s life better than anybody because he had spent the past two years getting to know these men either through reading the government files on them, doing his own covert surveillance, or working with them. Sticking him with Kevin was going to be his ace in the hole. From everything he could see, Kevin was the weakest link of the men. If he could get him to renounce his allegiance to these men, then maybe, just maybe, they could take these bastards down before it was too late.

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  Chapter Seven

  Accounting for the crews’ whereabouts was becoming increasingly difficult. If Grant had managed to leave a little more intelligence behind Gavin would at least know where to focus his time.