Cinderella Undercover

by KyAnn Waters

  “I need my shoes.”

  “You can always get another pair of black sexy-as-hell heels.”

  “Not like these. They brought you running.”

  Jaron grunted.

  Uncertainty clawed at her mind, and a ribbon of fear snaked around her heart. Had she and Jaron fucked, made love, or was it just part of the assignment for him? An ache throbbed in her core at the familiar scent of him. Six months ago, she’d loved him. Until this moment, she’d been sure she hated him. Now she just wanted him, reckless and wanton. Her nipples hardened, and her pussy clenched, desperate to be stretched and filled again.

  Tory gave herself a mental shake. This wasn’t the time to get maudlin over their past or try to surmise what might be in their future. Staying focused ensured they could figure out if they had anything, a future, friendship, or at least a working relationship beyond tonight. Alas, there would be no conversation if they didn’t get the hell out before Maxwell took them out.

  At least now she knew how he’d come into the room. The bathroom window was gone. Not just the bars, but the glass. She poked her head out into the slightly less muggy night air. The air helped to clear her thoughts. Just this morning, she’d drilled into her head that she’d needed to keep her mind alert and her legs closed. Once again, Jaron Quinn had muddled her brain and her agenda.

  Chapter Three

  “What the fuck were you doing?”

  “Trying to help,” she snapped.

  “Brilliant plan. You should’ve stuck to the one we had.” Jaron cursed, watching her cling to the edge of the building. With Tory in front of Jaron, they moved from one balcony to the next by way of a narrow ledge. They encroached on the internal heart of Maxwell’s organization.

  “Circumstances changed, and I became aware of new information.” As Tory inched along, she curled her bare toes around the ledge. “You shouldn’t be upset with me, but with yourself. Your cover is blown. So rather than chewing my ass, maybe you ought to think about kissing my ass.”

  “Believe me, I have.” Her head snapped in his direction, and he smiled. “I’m surprised I wasn’t made sooner. This assignment was fucked from the beginning.”

  “Sabotage?”

  “Can’t be sure. I’ll leave that up to Amine to figure out. But he needs to check into whoever supplied the intel on Evenson’s system. Whether you showed up or not, I had planned to upload the spyware tonight. I can’t be certain yet if your diversions are a help or a hindrance. Guess we’ll find out.”

  “Well, if you’re convinced you have the programming figured out, then plant the spyware, and let’s get out of here. I still can’t believe the ruse in the bedroom garnered us this time we need.” She huffed out a breath. “Although I can’t say it was a total ruse.”

  “Felt real to me.”

  “I suppose you didn’t feel like you could trust your acting abilities?”

  “Under the circumstances, I felt it appropriate to put my all into…our ruse.”

  “It’s a good thing I’m a better actress, or I might have actually have had to suck Rick’s cock.”

  Jaron swallowed hard. “I’ll concede you’re a better actress.” And he was glad. He’d have killed Rick before he allowed that asshole to touch Victoria.

  Jaron redirected the conversation back to their task. “I figure we have fifteen minutes to get back to the room and back into bed with Sleeping Beauty.”

  Tory gave a snort. He glanced at her and she smiled. He had to give her credit. Circumstances had become dangerous, but she held her own.

  Her dress fluttered in the breeze. Her legs and feet were bare. He clenched his jaw. She couldn’t wear her shoes and climb along the side of the building, and she’d been unwilling to leave the hooker heels behind. Jaron had the high heels fastened by the ankle strap to the belt loops in his tuxedo trousers.

  Tory pushed her hair from her face and glanced to the ground below. “It’s a long way down.”

  And it would be a painful landing. Their eyes met. “We need to be quick, but careful.”

  She nodded and continued to the next balcony. “Watch where you step. Find your balance,” he said as he helped her to stand on the railing. “It would be a hell of a fall.” Exactly three floors.

  Wrought iron bars framed each balcony and wrapped around the underside. The ornate metalwork extended out about a foot in all directions. Tory didn’t have the leg span and had to jump. He followed. “You okay?” he asked, joining her on the last balcony. He’d already set the security camera to recycle an uneventful sequence of time lapse. Unless someone looked closely, he and Victoria would avoid detection. “Ready?”

  She nodded. “Please hurry. This feels wrong. I don’t like it.”

  He didn’t either. When he’d been in the office earlier, he’d seen her go into Rick’s room from one of the monitors. He hadn’t thought, just reacted. Before he’d bailed out the window, he’d left his flash drive in the USB port. He hoped all the files had been extracted so he could just run the program, embed the spyware, and finally erase his footprints in the system.

  Standing outside the door, they listened for a moment then entered the darkened interior.

  Jaron hurried behind the desk and turned on the monitor. A series of numbers, letters, and symbols filled the screen. So far, so good.

  Movement to the left caught his eye. Tory checked the lock on the office door. “I don’t want surprises.”

  He twitched his lips. “Too late. This whole assignment has been one surprise after the next.”

  Jaron turned his attention back to the computer. A bank of surveillance monitors blinked, rotating images from around the property. Beyond big brother. Maxwell monitored every room, every corridor, and the grounds surrounding the complex.

  Two guards slumped against each other, propped up in the corner of the room. “You did this?”

  He nodded but didn’t stop working. Time was running out. “Keep your eyes on the monitors. Watch Sleeping Beauty and track the activity in the grand room. As long as the party is going strong and the women are distracting the men, there’s less chance we’ll have company.”

  “You’ve got Rick’s gun. You might just have to shoot them.”

  “Not this time, princess. We’ll be neck deep in shit if this goes bad and we’re caught. You don’t fuck with Maxwell Evenson and shooting his friends or his security detail is out of the question.”

  “You didn’t hear Rick and his crony talking earlier. They have a party planned for you tonight.”

  “That’s why we’re not sticking around for the social hour. We’re getting the hell out of here. Besides, we can’t do anything that has the possibility of coming back on ES.”

  “So what went wrong?” she asked, keeping her eyes on the monitors.

  “This is the only safe room, and it’s always manned with two guards. The programs weren’t compatible. The configuration wouldn’t let me install the spyware.”

  “Are you sure the new program will work?” She moved in behind him.

  “No, but it’s the best I could do.” He cursed and tapped a few more keystrokes.

  Tory put her hand on his shoulder. “Let me in.”

  His fingers paused in their typing. Although Jaron considered himself one of the best at his business of infiltrating drug cartels and kicking the bad guys’ asses, he couldn’t argue. Tory possessed superior computer skills. Standing from the chair, he offered it to her. She smiled and immediately started going over the code line by line.

  “This is good. If we embed your code in a rarely-used program, it’s doubtful they’d discover the backdoor.” She unraveled the nuances in the system.

  “I’ve already installed a wireless router into their monitoring system. Remote access won’t be a problem.” Maxwell used a secure internal intranet for his business dealings. With the newly-installed program, ES would be able to access secure files and monitor financial records.

  Tory clicked through the system, embedding code and wo
rking her magic. Jaron understood why Amine sent her in to help. In fact, she probably was better suited for the job. Had she not been on assignment in the Mediterranean, perhaps they would’ve worked together from the beginning on this operation.

  “Done.” She pulled the flash drive from the USB port and rebooted the system.

  “Good, let’s get the hell out of here.”

  “What about the men?”

  Jaron turned to the guards. “We’re not going to be around long enough to worry about the fallout. Thanks to you, I have no concerns about the programming. ES should be able to access the system now.” He met her stare. “Thank you.”

  “I’ll thank you if you tell me the hall is clear and we won’t have to play Tarzan and leap from balcony to balcony.”

  He chuckled. “Sorry, Jane. It’s too risky to walk out the front door.”

  “Where’s your sense of adventure?” She walked to the bank of monitors. “Jaron, look!” A flurry of activity on each screen left no doubt they’d been detected. “We’re out of time, and we need to cut our losses. We can’t go back to Rick’s room. They’re waiting for us.” She glanced over her shoulder. “What do we do? Where’s our out?” Assignment details involved addressing all possible scenarios. Best points of entry, evacuation contingencies, internal security, and external surveillance all had to be studied. Timing was critical when faced with armed guards and watchdogs.

  “My room is on the second floor. Doesn’t look like that’s an option.” Security teams crawled all over the property. “Shit!”

  Returning to Rick’s suite was no longer an option. Light flooded the room, and security roused Rick from sleep. Jaron snapped his gaze across the monitors. Security was in the corridors. The grounds buzzed with activity. One small consolation—because of the guests, the Dobermans were still kenneled.

  “Jaron!” She pointed to a screen. “They’re coming down the hall.”

  “Fuck! Go!” He scrambled across the room, threw open the balcony door and peered over the edge. Three stories. They couldn’t jump. They only had moments to make a decision.

  “Over,” she screamed.

  Decision made. Tory straddled the balcony and inched her way to the edge.

  “Careful.”

  “No shit!” She maneuvered her body until she hung by her fingertips from the wrought iron. “Get your ass over the railing, Tarzan.”

  “I’ve always admired your cool demeanor when under pressure.”

  “This is no time to be a smartass.”

  Jaron jumped the railing at the same time the office door crashed open. Tory was right. The jig was up.

  “You’re going to have to drop.” She dangled about a foot above the lower railing.

  “I can’t. It’ll break my legs.” One hand over the other, she worked her way closer to the building. Her toes barely touched the upper rung of a barred window. Letting go of the balcony with one hand, she reached behind and grasped the brick edge.

  Jaron marveled at her ability to think clearly when faced with an unacceptable situation. “Some contractor’s head is going to roll.” She used the bars securing the windows as a ladder. Hanging from the bottom of the window, she was able to step on the lower balcony. Jaron followed close behind. From the bottom window, she dropped eight feet to the soft ground below.

  Jaron followed, and then crouched beside her.

  “Where do we go?”

  He glanced right, then left. “We need to get off the property.” But that meant going into the miles of dense thicket surrounding the property without basic survival supplies and without communication.

  He’d done his homework and studied the layout of the property. This was the worst possible situation, but if they could skirt the swamps and stay in the shelter of the trees, he could get them out. “Stay low. Security is weakest on the southeast corner of the property.”

  She took his hand. “Jaron, if we get out of here...”

  “We will.”

  “When we do, we need to talk. You owe me an explanation.”

  He squeezed her fingers. “We’ll talk about everything as soon as we’re safe. But in case we aren’t—” He yanked her close, wrapped his arms around her narrow shoulders and kissed her.

  She didn’t hesitate. She demanded. Her mouth opened, inviting his tongue to tangle with hers. Gentle suction sealed their mouths, and he savored the familiar and erotic taste of her hot, moist treasure.

  Soft lips met firm pressure. He groaned, cupping her breast in his palm and rasping his thumb against her beaded nipple beneath the thin dress. He gentled the kiss, flicking softly against her mouth with his tongue. He sucked her upper lip while she nibbled his lower. God, she was a good kisser. Aggressive, yet so sweet. Her tongue played in his mouth, curling around his and coaxing him into her mouth. A sensuous slide of taste and retreat that made him momentarily forget they were running for their lives.

  “Ready?”

  She nodded.

  “Okay, stay close, stay low, and regardless of what happens, you run like hell.”

  “Like hell. We stay together. You’re special forces. Unless there’s a guy on the corner giving directions on how to get to civilization, you better make sure your ass is on mine and we both make it out.”

  That’s when he heard the dogs. “Fuck, run!”

  Like a horse at the gate, she bolted at his strong command. He followed, grateful for the grass beneath their bare feet. A better contingency plan would’ve been shoes, but they’d been blown before Tory arrived.

  Tory was fast. He stayed at her heels, jumping over flowerbeds, and ducking under branches. “Go. Go. Go.” A bullet whizzed past his head. More shots were fired. Wood splintered as they missed. The foliage grew denser, and they had to slow their escape.

  “Is there a fence?”

  “Yes, about fifty yards ahead.” They’d make it if the dogs didn’t get to them first. “Wrought iron and the top is electrified.”

  “What? How in the hell are we supposed to get over an electric fence?”

  Yeah, for the ninety seconds they’d sprinted across the property, he’d wondered the same thing. This hadn’t been his plan for extraction.

  They broke through the trees and stopped. Tory bent forward, gasping for breath. “Now what?”

  Jaron surveyed the fence, trying to find a way to cut power. A three-foot wall of concrete supported the twelve-foot metal and wire fence. Sections were roughly twelve feet across. Bolted to the concrete was a High Voltage sign.

  The barking dogs were getting close. Jaron reached forward and gripped the edge of the sign. “This is metal. We can short out one section. Help me pry it loose.”

  “They’ll know which way we’ve gone.”

  “They already know.” Muscles strained in his arms. He pulled with all his strength, but the sign wouldn’t budge.

  “Jaron, we’re out of time.”

  He pulled Rick’s gun from his back pocket.

  “Why don’t you just shoot them?”

  “I’ve got five shots. I can take out the dogs.”

  “Hand me my shoes.”

  “What? Do you need to be in heels to fight with your Aikido skills?”

  He gripped the heels, tugged, and then tossed them in her direction.

  “I can defend myself against the dogs. Do what you can with the guards.” Their eyes locked and fear punched Jaron in the gut.

  Six months ago, he’d had a conversation with Amine. At the time, he hadn’t understood the significance of what the director had been trying to tell him. Now he did. Amine had sent her into a difficult dangerous situation and Jaron had put her very life at risk.

  Tory grabbed the rubber end-point of the heel, twisted, and pulled out a three-inch metal spike. She extracted the spike from the other shoe. Obviously comfortable with the weapon she clutched in each fist, she took a defensive posture—legs shoulder width apart, her body at a slight angle.

  “Victoria, I could kiss you. Trade me.” He handed her th
e gun and took the spike from her fist.

  “You have kissed me.”

  He cocked an eyebrow. “Not where I wanted to.” Holding the spike by the rubber-tipped end, he shoved the metal point into the circuitry joint of the electrical fence.

  Sparks exploded into the night. Wires hissed, sizzled, and snapped. Electrical current arced over the fence. Fire ignited like sulfur tracing the live wires, and then burned out.

  Acrid smoke filled the air. Parts close to the circuit posts glowed.

  “Very MacGyver-esque,” she said.

  “Climb. In the middle.” He grasped her waist and lifted her onto the concrete.

  Tory handed back the gun, then she grabbed the blackened wires. Her bare toes gripped the fencing, and her fingers curled through the rungs. “The wires are hot.”

  “Tough. Climb!”

  Quick yet carefully, she scrambled to the top of the fence.

  Jaron tucked the gun in his waistband and followed. The wires were hot, but they were dead…just like he and Tory would’ve been without her shoes. That would be the last time he’d ever give her an argument over how many shoes she owned. This particular pair saved their asses.

  The dogs were at the fence before they reached the ground on the other side. Vicious, barking, salivating beasts charged the deadened section of fence. Tory didn’t flinch. The moment her feet touched the ground, she sprinted into the thicket.

  “Move your ass!” he hollered from behind her. “Don’t stop.”

  Both were trained and in top physical health, but they couldn’t run fast barefoot. Not only was it dark, but debris littered the ground. Sticks and rocks cut into the soles of his feet. Jaron knew he pushed her, but they needed to get into the denser section of the woods. They didn’t have a chance of evading Evenson’s henchmen unless they could cover their tracks by moving into the marsh.

  A quarter of a mile into their run, the ground became softer. Dirt clods crumbled beneath his feet. Another step and moist mud of the peat bog squished between his toes.

  “Are you okay?” he asked when he couldn’t hear the dogs barking anymore.