It Happens in Threes

by Denise Robbins

  Fear had her scrambling for the edge of the pool. Pushing water out of her way with her hands, she struggled to get to the house and safety. Before she could lift herself up two strong hands wrapped around each of her arms with a bruising grip and hauled her out of the water.

  “Let me go,” she shrieked. Kicking the air, she thrashed in his grasp. When she landed a lucky blow to his nuts, the man swore in pain. His grip loosened, her bare feet made contact with the rough surface of the cement patio. She kicked him in the shin, elbowed him in the stomach, and raced for the house.

  “Damn it, Ruby, I’ve heard of breakin’ a guy’s balls before, but it’s supposed to be a metaphor,” he hissed out, gasping for breath.

  The Southern drawl brought her to an abrupt halt. Slowly, she turned back. Her heart jumped with relief at the sight of Jacob bent in half, hands between his legs, face scrunched up in agony.

  With the realization of what she did to him, she gasped, covered her mouth. “What the hell were you doing here? I didn’t know...I was scared and thought...just wanted to get away.” Recovered from shock, she hurried back to his side, placed a hand on his shoulder in concern. “Are you all right? Can I do anything? Maybe get you some ice?”

  “Just peachy,” he ground out with a forced smile. “Do us both a favor, put some damn clothes on.”

  A breeze blew and she shivered, awareness of her nudity faded into her mind. Embarrassment rose from her chest, heated her cheeks, and brought her nipples to hard little points. Meeting his gaze, she folded her hands over her breasts, and pulled back. Eyes squeezed shut, she attempted to keep her emotions under control. She failed.

  Heedless of her state of undress, Ruby slapped her fists on her hips and lashed out with a verbal attack. “Are you out of your flippin’ mind? What do you mean put some clothes on? You scared the bejeezes out of me. You smashed through my screen door, crashed metal to the ground and chased after some fool in the woods. And you have the nerve to stand there—bend there, and tell me to put clothes on.”

  Sucking in a breath, she continued her rant. “I deserve an explanation. Who was that?” She pointed in the direction the intruder had escaped. “And why are you here hiding in my bushes like some bleeping peeping Tom?”

  At the mention of his name, her head snapped up. She stiffened and looked at Jacob. Peering at him from under the porch light, Ruby sought confirmation of her conclusion in the depth of his mist green eyes. Did she want confirmation? Did she want to know her ex-fiancé was a stalker who watched, waited, and hid out?

  “Excuse me.” Turning on her heels, she headed for the house at a slow steady pace. She didn’t want to show her fear.

  As she reached for the door, her fingers on the handle, Jake called her name. Rotating her head to the right, she eyed him. No longer bent at the waist, he stood upright and strode toward her.

  “Yes?”

  “The training and self-defense paid off.” He leaned close to her ear as he opened the door. His hand splayed across the small of her back, he steered her into the safety of her parent’s home. Ruby wondered if the government trained all their spies to push people around, even if it was done politely.

  “Who was out there, Jacob? Who were you chasing?”

  She trembled beneath his touch and Jake removed his hand from her bare backside. Whether from fear, or anger, or cold, he wasn’t certain, but he needed his mind clear in order to get the answers he needed.

  “I’ll tell you what, you go take a hot shower and throw some clothes on,” he said making an effort to maintain eye contact. Didn’t she realize she was still naked...and beautiful? “Afterwards, I’ll make us something to eat and we can discuss the whole thing.”

  “I will not.” Her hands planted on her hips, she tapped her right foot on the floor, ignored his chuckle with unmistakable impatience. “I want some answers. And I want them now.”

  Another time and someone else’s woman, Jake would think she was sexy as hell, but he didn’t want to think about that. He couldn’t.

  His head lifted to the heavens, he sighed with resignation. The soft approach wouldn’t work with Ruby. Fine with him. In one swift movement, Jake hauled her up by the waist. As he carried her into the bedroom, he willed himself not to dwell on the silky feel of her skin, the fruity fragrance of her hair. Reaching the doorway to the bathroom, he dropped her unceremoniously to her feet on the cold tiled floor.

  “Now, Ruby, honey, shugah, baby doll,” he said with a silky voice, “you will take a shower and you most definitely will put some clothes on. And if you do all of these things we’ll talk.” His arm thrust in the direction of the shower, and emphasized his words. “Go.”

  He watched her mouth open to protest, but no noise came out. Instead, she scurried the rest of the way into the bathroom, slammed the door behind her. When he heard the shower running a minute later, he checked the locks in the house then went to the kitchen to whip up something to eat. This was going to be a long night and he needed sustenance in order to make it through.

  Not only would he have to deal with Ruby and her questions, but when she realized why he was there, he would have to deal first with her anger, then with Mickey. A fact he didn’t relish at all. Mickey would be pissed when he found out someone was peeping at Ruby. More pissed someone got that close and he wasn’t able to catch the guy. It would be best if he left the fact that Ruby had been naked out of his report.

  “Jacob, come quick!” Ruby screamed from the other room. Jake dropped the coffee scoop, the grounds spilling on the counter as he bolted in the direction of the shriek. Before he could ask the cause of her distress, he noticed the computer sitting on top of the oak dresser. Ruby stood in front of it covered only in a lemon-colored towel, a look of angry bewilderment on her face as she glared at the monitor. When she glanced at him, eyes filled with anguish, he moved to her side to protect her, but she shrank back from him, from his touch.

  Jake’s fingers clenched as he stared at the image on the screen, a picture of Ruby standing in the bathroom, her clothes pooled at her feet. He wanted to roar with fury. The message attached to it read, “You forgot your swimsuit.”

  Jake moved Ruby over and tapped on the keyboard with rapid fire movement as he pelted her with questions.

  “Who sent it? Was it Thomas? What’s his handle? How the hell did he get that picture? Those are the clothes you were wearing earlier, right before you took your evening swim. Don’t you ever wear a swimsuit?”

  “Well, I thought I was alone.”

  Shocked, she stood there rooted to the floor, staring at the computer, helpless, her stomach knotted.

  Jacob’s words seeped into her head. Horrified, her irritation gained steam. Two people had been watching her. One who got away, the other was in her house, in her bedroom at this very moment. Which one infuriated her more? The peeping Tom or the secret agent who stood in front of her, his accusing eyes boring through her. Flushed with anger, she felt violated. Fury ready to boil over, she let him have it.

  “Who the hell do you think you are? You spy on me, invade my privacy without my knowledge or consent, and now have the nerve to interrogate me like one of your criminals. You should be out there catching the sick pervert who was watching me, taking pictures, and who got close enough for you to blow your cover.”

  Sucking in a huge gulp of air, Ruby continued. “I assume this was supposed to be some covert operation and you didn’t come up with this hair-brained scheme all on your own.”

  She glared at him. Green eyes shifted and glanced away, revealing the truth of her words. She knew who was responsible for the Neanderthal bodyguard being there and she was pissed as hell. She intended, no, couldn’t wait, to give him a piece of her mind. How dare he.

  She’d teach him to sic a bodyguard on her.

  FIFTEEN

  Michael checked his watch again. He waited impatiently for Jake to answer his cell phone. “Damn! Where are you Jake?”

  He had directed Jake to speak with some of his
contacts and see if anyone knew anything about Ruby’s ex-fiancé. The guy was a businessman, not a spy. He couldn’t just fade into never-never land. With the receiver hooked between his shoulder and ear, he scanned his email.

  Staring at the image and the message on the monitor, anger seethed inside him. She stood in front of him...naked. Jake’s hands on her waist, his sickening southern seductive smile on his face while she posed completely naked. Slamming the phone back into the cradle, Michael ran his white knuckled fingers through his hair and went to the balcony for some air.

  “Damn it.” He never should have trusted Jake. Just like he should never have trusted Alex. Why hadn’t he learned his lesson? He trusted this guy with Ruby’s life and there he was, seducing her. And she allowed him.

  Jake was supposed to be outside the house, not inside. He was supposed to keep an eye out for that whacko missing ex-fiancé of hers. Instead, he put the moves on her, his hands on her. If Thomas showed up, Jake would literally be caught with his pants down.

  Like opening and closing shutters on a window, Michael blinked twice clearing the image from his mind. He stared at the ocean. Leaning against the banister his hands rested on the iron rail as the battle for control raged within him.

  He wavered on indecision for a brief second then his training kicked in. He became all business. Pushing himself away from the railing, he clenched and unclenched his fists. Out of pure determination, Michael shoved aside his jealousy and headed for the computer and phone.

  This time he focused on the message attached to the image and not the picture of Ruby, his woman, naked in the arms of another man—a man he had trusted. The email read, “Trust can be deadly. You should know.”

  “You got that right, you son-of-a-bitch.”

  Recognition and a burning flash of pain knifed through him. The agonizing memory of Alex and his betrayal flooded his mind. Unconsciously, his fingers touched the scar just below his shoulder and the other across his neck. His thoughts shifted backward to the events that led up to the day he almost lost his life. At the hands of his best friend.

  Still so raw and painful, he took a deep, soothing breath and flinched as he felt the sting of the bullet pierce his skin and how the force of it made him drop to the dirt.

  A police investigation into a jewel robbery in Miami, Florida, uncovered a large money-laundering case. A family of jewelers with ties to organized crime laundered more than forty-two million dollars for the Carranza Cartel and “Emerald Czar”, the world’s largest distributor of cocaine.

  Masterminded by Michael, his team collaborated with customs to create a sting that allowed them to follow the money through multiple banks and eventually capture the thieves.

  Undercover customs agents received instructions from Colombian traffickers and relayed them to bankers in Colombia. Customs also used elaborate ruses to lure the bankers suspected of money-laundering out of Colombia and arrested them in the United States.

  Michael and Alex were able to infiltrate the Colombian traffickers through the Emerald Czar’s gemstone mining. Within two months time they obtained enough information to know when a shipment was going to move, be exchanged, or laundered. What they weren’t able to do was seize the Emerald Czar red-handed.

  They caught the break they needed when Michael went out drinking at a local cantina with one of the Czar’s henchmen who couldn’t hold his tequila shots with beer chasers.

  Two days later, Michael sat alone at an outdoor table at the same cantina waiting for the Czar to appear at the entrance of the Green Goddess emerald mine. Alex monitored from a closer angle in the brush near the mine’s opening.

  Filled to the brim with really strong coffee, Michael just about gave up for a trip to the outhouse—that’s what he thought the restrooms were due to their small, dank, dinginess—when he heard the noise. No mistaking that sound. It was the rumbling of a Humvee. Squinting into the sunlight, Michael observed armed men dismount from the vehicle.

  He radioed Alex.

  “Alex. Alex, do you see what I see? About damn time, buddy. I thought I was gonna float away if I had one more cup of this swill.”

  No response came from Alex.

  “Alex. You there? Come in Alex.”

  Static.

  “Damn.” Trees lining the way rushed by him as fear and his feet carried him faster than he knew possible all the way up the hillside.

  His heart thumped out of control. Had they seen Alex? Was he unconscious? Dead?

  When he reached the spot where Alex was supposed to be, the only thing he saw was the radio among the dead leaves and dirt. Picking it up, he noticed no damage. The Colombians must have snuck up on him. Alex rarely let his guard down. Right away the hairs on the back of his neck bristled and a knot formed in the pit of his stomach. He scanned the area, ending at the opening to the mine. There weren’t any men around, at least none he could see.

  “Damn it, Alex.”

  With slow, calculated movement, his 9mm at his side, Michael moved toward the cave in a crouched position to avoid any possibility of detection.

  According to the intelligence he’d gathered, the Czar had an office in one of the caverns for all of his meetings. Michael figured he did that because there was only one way out and if the Czar didn’t like something or someone it would be easy to dispose of a body deep down a shaft.

  At the entrance to the mine, his head cocked, Michael listened with extreme attention for voices or footsteps, movement, anything. In the shadows of the cave he heard an unexpected silence. Too much silence.

  Michael turned his head, looked up and down both sides of the cavern opening then decided to continue forward. He’d taken only a few long strides before he heard movement coming from the bushes behind him. He squinted at the rustling shrub. A familiar outline confronted him.

  The faint figure strode toward him. Michael glimpsed something dark in his hand. He didn’t need sunlight to know what it was. A gun. He backed away.

  “Stop.”

  “Why?” Michael asked.

  Silence hung over the pathway as his question echoed in the air.

  “Unfortunately, I can’t let you leave.” Alex held the gun in plain sight.

  “Why?”

  “Don’t patronize me. I’ve wasted too much time already. I have to go,” Alex said, stepping fully into the daylight.

  The sun’s heat beat down upon his friend’s back while sweat beaded on his forehead. He extended the gun with intent. “I have too much to lose.”

  Cold fury swept through Michael, his fists clenched while he watched the shooter come into a two-handed grip, the muscles in the forearms beginning to tighten. He stared in disbelief as Alex drew his finger back on the trigger. In a half second, he saw the muzzle flash red and orange, a large burst resembling a cannon.

  He tried to sidestep the bullet, but he’d waited too long, his feet glued to the earth. His friend was going to kill him. Shocked, Michael couldn’t move fast enough to avoid the bullet. He could only shudder while the round buzzed through the air.

  The bullet hit his chest. It felt as if he’d been sucker punched. He gasped for air while he spun. The second bullet hit him in the neck. His hand reached for the last sting of pain. His feet tangled, he fell face forward. Dirt flew, dust in his mouth mixed with the iron-taste of blood. Clawing his nails through the earth and the freshly stained ground, Michael inhaled the scent of summertime, mango trees and bougainvillea.

  Mustering up enough strength to turn his body over, he glimpsed the serene sky. Alex briefly eclipsed his view when he stepped over him and tapped him with a foot. Hands gripped him up under his arm pits and dragged his body further into the cave. When the dragging stopped Alex dumped him into a crevice.

  “You took mine, now I take yours,” were the last words Michael heard the man he trusted say before he walked away, dropping the 9mm Makarov like a throwaway at a mob hit.

  The words flitted in his mind as he drifted in and out of consciousness, struggling to s
tay awake, to stay alive, to understand...

  Only now did Michael remember those words. Like a squash game from hell they reverberated in his mind, bouncing against his skull from side to side, back and forth, demanding his attention. Michael woke from his nightmare with a jolt. His eyes widened. Out of the blue, with stunning clarity, realization hit like a Mack truck.

  To be certain, he read the email one more time. This time there was no doubt in his mind. Michael knew the sender better than anyone. He knew he couldn’t hide out forever. The guy liked games too much. Only this game was one to the death. But whose?

  He could take care of himself. But he wasn’t taking any chances where Ruby was concerned.

  When he dialed the cell phone this time, someone answered, sort of.

  * * * *

  The phone rang again. Instinct told her who called and she made a grab for the cellular dangling from Jake’s hip. She intended to give Michael a piece of her mind and a side order of her tongue. The Neanderthal wasn’t going to get in her way.

  “Give me that damn phone, Jake, or I’ll...” she threatened as he evaded her reach and pulled it from its belt-clip.

  “Or what?” Jake asked. “I’m the one with the phone and the gun. What do you have?” He taunted, jiggling the phone in his hand, pointing at the SIG-Sauer strapped to his muscular upper body.

  She’d show him. In one swift movement, Ruby released the knot centered between her breasts. At the loss of the sun-colored towel, the cool air of the house washed over her leaving her naked and chilled, nipples growing taut. With the terry material between her thumb and forefinger, she held it out away from her body, like a matador holds the red cape teasing the bull into carelessness and grinned up at him with knowing satisfaction.

  Jake’s chin dropped to the floor, his tongue hung out, while his free hand slapped over his eyes. Jacob distracted, she let go of the towel and snatched the flipped open phone he held.

  “She-ee-it.”

  The giggle escaped as she watched poor Jake run his hands through his hair in obvious frustration.