by Desiree Holt
Maddie could do little more than moan as his first finger was joined by a second and then a third, pumping in and out of her, his thumb rasping her pulsing clit. She tightened her grip on his erection, automatically increasing her pace as Dan increased his.
“Wait.” He pulled his hand from the grasp of her internal muscles. “Condom. Don’t move.”
She could barely breathe as he stepped out of the shower, soaking wet. In seconds he was back, already rolling the condom onto his cock. He slid his hands beneath her buttocks and lifted her, draping her legs over his arms.
“Help me, Maddie,” he growled. “Show me the way home.”
Maddie reached for him and positioned the head of his cock at the entrance to her pussy.
“Do it,” she gasped, leaning back against the tiled wall for support.
Gripping her tighter he drove home with one strong thrust, slamming into her with such forces she had to grip his arms for support. Their soap-slicked bodies slid against each other as he hammered into her over and over. He held her at just the right angle so with each thrust forward he rubbed against her clit. Spears of heat shot through her until the only thing she could focus on was that point where they were joined.
“Now, baby,” he growled. “Come for me now.”
“Yes,” she cried. “Now. Now.”
One final plunge of his hips and he took her over the edge. His cocked pulsed inside her as her hungry pussy clenched him over and over again and her hot liquid bathed him. His lean fingers dug into her slick bottom as they rode the crest of the orgasm together. Maddie shook with the force of it, her entire being centered on the clutching tremors in her cunt, and the thick, heavy cock filling her.
The water had turned cool by the time the last aftershock trembled through their bodies and Dan slowly lowered her feet to the bottom of the tub. Maddie leaned forward against him, unable to release her grip on his arms, her breathing still choppy, her heart thudding erratically.
Dan smoothed her wet hair with a shaky hand. “We might kill ourselves, baby,” he said in an uneven voice, “but we’ll sure have a good time doing it.”
In response she licked his nipple, smiling at the shudder that ran through him. “Mm-hmm. But right now I think we’d better get dressed. Nikki will be calling any minute.”
He turned off the water and reached past the shower curtain for two towels. “And we need to haul ass before someone shows up here looking for us.” He brushed a kiss against her lips. “But don’t forget where we were.”
* * * * *
Dan sipped at his coffee and studied Nikki Welles. Once again they were sitting in her spacious Hill Country kitchen, exploring the snake pit they found themselves in and looking for answers. Once more Nikki had whisked them from danger. Once more, he felt stymied. Once more, he was grateful to her.
As per her instructions, Dan had driven Maddie and himself to a convenience store in the center of the small town where the dude ranch was located. They’d parked at the side where a black sedan waited for them, engine purring. Fifteen minutes later, the driver had taken them to a barren field in the middle of a high desert plain where again a helicopter lifted them to safety.
“How did the CIA ever miss you and your talents?” He wanted to know now.
Nikki laughed. “They couldn’t pay me enough to work for them.” She winked. “No offense intended.”
“I guess none taken,” he answered with a rueful grin. “But we sure could use you.”
“Ever think about coming to work in the private sector?” She slid her glance to Maddie. “Both of you?”
Dan shook his head. If we live long enough.
Nikki’s voice was casual but Maddie got a tight feeling in her stomach. Nikki didn’t throw questions like that around casually. Was she really serious? Would Dan take the bait? Would she? It would be a much more radical change for her than for Dan, but it would be interesting to consider.
Worry about that later. Right now you have to get out of the trouble you’re in.
She cleared her throat, ready to change the subject. “Were you able to find out anything about the auto dealership in Del Rio? Or the two men whose names we gave you?”
“Let’s back up a little.” Nikki pulled her minicomputer out of her pocket and tapped it with the stylus. “You know there have to be big payoffs to get those trucks over the border to the train tracks.”
Dan nodded. “No surprise there. It’s just a matter of figuring out who’s taking the money and who’s paying for the services.”
Maddie gave an unladylike snort. “I have a good candidate to suggest.”
“I agree,” Dan said. “But this seems too big a project for just one man to organize. You’ve got all the logistics of crews to deal with the merchandise and access to rolling stock to bring it to that spur to begin with.”
Nikki looked from Maddie to Dan and back again. “Absolutely. This is really high up on the food chain. High enough to mount a massive operation and high enough to put Dan in this kind of frame up.”
“That person is in D.C.,” Dan commented. “They had to have access to my computer to plant a file on it, and the power to sic the government on me.”
The tightness in Maddie’s stomach morphed into a big knot. “We’re almost in a no-win situation here. We don’t have the depth of organization to battle a crime that’s getting bigger and bigger. The only way out of danger for us is to take it down.”
“You have at your disposal all the resources of Nemesis,” Nicole assured them. “You know that.” She looked at Dan. “And trust me. They’re a lot more extensive than you might think.” She tapped her little screen again. “So let’s see what else we’ve got here. Those two idiots who chased you? You are right, Gabrian did work for that gun auction house for a few months. But he and his buddy work regularly—or did—as mechanics for Norseman Auto Dealership. So you can bet the owner, whoever it is, is in it up to his neck.”
“What do you mean, whoever it is?” Dan asked. “Couldn’t you learn his name?”
Nikki shook her head. “We’re working on it. The dealership is owned by a holding company so there are a lot of layers to this, another suspicious factor. But here’s something you can chew on.” Her lips curved in a wicked grin. “That same holding company owns another one. Norseman Import-Export in Galveston.”
Maddie lifted an eyebrow. “Same name as car dealership. Same owner?”
“From what we can find so far, it seems that way. I’ve still got my people working on learning who owns the holding company.”
“What do they import?” Dan wanted to know.
“Textiles.”
Dan had picked up his mug again, and he stopped with it partway to his mouth. “Excuse me?”
“You heard me. They import bolts of cloth made in factories in Mexico. This they then sell to manufacturers in this country who can put labels on the garments that say ‘Made in the USA’ even though the fabric comes from Mexico.”
“Well, shit.” Dan drained his mug and got up to refill it. “This is someone who has enough money and brains to run an operation as complicated as this. To get railroad cars down to that clearing to meet the trucks in the desert. To import fabric and ship it over the States? It’s easy enough to hide weapons in crates of fabric.”
“This has to go higher than a local importer,” Nikki pointed out. “Like I said, the operation’s going to turn out to be massive.”
“Okay.” Maddie got up to refill her own mug. “So weapons are smuggled into this country in crates of fabric, with bribes paid to Border Patrolmen at the crossing. Then loaded onto railroad cars and sent…wherever. They don’t even have to go to the import-export shop first before distribution. The network’s already in place.”
“And then,” Dan went on, “the guns are given away to like-minded friends.”
Maddie nodded. “Or sold to terrorist groups or whoever well under the radar.”
“Guys.” Nikki set her little gadget down on the tab
le and folded her arms. “I’d say we’re still not thinking big enough. You caught the news bulletin about the president and vice president falling ill at a private luncheon, right?”
Dan nodded. “We saw the report before we left the dude ranch.”
“The president is in critical condition. He’s been so ill the past few months from his heart attack. The vice president seems a little better, but he’s got a bad ticker, too. And if they both die, I ask you, Maddie, who’s next in line?”
The knot in her stomach morphed into a ball of lead. “Trask,” she whispered. “Nikki, you think he’s involved with this? How could he be? I mean from what we heard the president and vice president suffered from an intestinal bug. Salmonella or—” She saw the skepticism on Nikki’s and Dan’s faces. “That’s a tall order to have someone in the White House kitchens purposely put a toxin in the president’s meal. Why would you think that’s possible?”
Nikki shrugged. “We don’t have tasters like kings did in the Middle Ages. So what’s possible might not be probable.”
“Or provable,” Dan pointed out.
Nikki agreed. “I’m just saying we can’t overlook any possibility. But if what we’ve learned about the importing of weapons is true, then it would certainly make sense to have someone in Trask’s position pulling the strings. And cutting red tape.”
“But why?” Maddie frowned, torn between defending a man she’d worked for and trusted—and suddenly knowing him capable of such a heinous crime. To gain more power. “What does he get out of it?”
“A takeover of the government,” Dan said in a flat voice.
“What?” She seemed deaf and blind to the logic.
“Maddie, remember what we talked about at your house?” Dan reminded her. “About the papers retrieved from the trucks that burned?”
She nodded.
“Okay. What if all these weapons aren’t just going to a bunch of different groups, but a well-organized private militia that will be part of a treasonous takeover of the government?”
Maddie’s jaw dropped. “But that doesn’t happen here. Not ever. We have safeguards for something like that. The FBI on the job. The CIA looking at international criminals.”
Dan grunted. “Not if the people manning the safeguards are the ones planning the takeover. And you just acknowledged that if the president and vice president are out of the picture, Trask will be in the driver’s seat.”
“And if he is,” she shot back, “then there is no reason for him to be heading a takeover. He’ll be the president.” She let her eyes close, calm reason return. “None of this is proof of Trask’s involvement. We need to follow the facts. Who owns this holding company? Who is this Norseman?”
“I will continue to have my staff check that out.” Nikki promised.
Maddie rubbed her temples. “Wait, wait, wait. I know what I can do. If there’s any rumble of this at all, no matter how secretive, my father would know about it. Let me call him and sound him out.”
Dan’s fingers closed over her wrist. “Be very careful what you say to him, baby. You can’t let him think you have any information or even suspicions.”
“Don’t worry. I don’t exactly have intimate conversations with him. And of course, this is assuming that new bitch he hired as a gatekeeper even lets me through to talk to him.”
She hadn’t told Dan about her estranged and contentious relationship with her father but Nikki knew all about it.
“All right.” Nikki rose gracefully from her chair. “Let me go to my home office here and connect with my team in San Antonio. They’ve been trying to unravel the Norseman ownership and also see what they could find out about rogue railroad cars. Maddie, go ahead and call your father but be very cautious. We don’t want to give away the candy store, but we don’t want to be too late to save it from attack, either.” She looked at Dan. “And I know you’re chomping at the bit to do something, but under the circumstances you have to keep a low profile.”
“I know, I know. But I’ve got to do something pretty soon or I’ll go crazy.”
“You can hold Maddie’s hand while she talks to that asshole, Arthur Sommers. Then come on to my office upstairs and we’ll see what we’ve come up with. I have a feeling we may be running out of time.”
Chapter Nine
“Hi, Dad. I need to talk to you.” Maddie paused while static cut into their conversation.
“Madison?” Her father’s voice sounded gruff, as if he’d not had enough sleep last night. “To what do I owe the honor?”
Sunshine and roses was not what she expected of him, but tart nastiness was not on her list of paternal qualities she savored either. She gazed into Dan’s eyes and got past an inkling of her father’s suspicion of why she called. She had no time for a lot of games. “I’m concerned. I heard the news about the president and the vice president.”
“Yes, well. The president is the one we’re all worried about.”
“I know. I needed more information. I tried to get through to Trask, but the phone lines are so jammed, it was impossible. I knew you’d know the latest on the medical bulletins.”
“Where are you again?”
“Cancun.”
“Right. Mexico. This your cell phone, you’re calling from?”
“It is, yes. How is the vice president? Still getting better?”
“Not really.”
“No!” She grabbed Dan’s hand and squeezed. “Tell me.”
“The White House has put that out about him to calm everyone’s fears. We’ve lost presidents from sickness or assassination, but never both executives at the same time.”
“Are both of them in such serious condition?”
“Yes, they are, Madison. My advice? Whether you can get hold of Trask or not, just put your ass on the next plane up here, because Trask is going to need you. No matter what happens.”
“Thank you. I will.”
Her father hung up without saying goodbye.
“How did I do?” Her voice quavered as she stared at Dan.
“Wonderful.” He leaned over and kissed her forehead. “I got the gist. The VP is in serious condition, too. The White House press secretary is feeding us a line of bull to stave off panic. Damn it all! Why not treat us like adults, tell us the truth!”
Nikki appeared in the doorway, one shoulder against the jam, arms crossed. “I got the drift, too. This is not good.” She bit her lower lip and looked at the floor. “And what I have to tell you is worse.”
Dan nodded. “Shoot.”
“Norseman Holding is owned by two men. One we all know and love. Jack Starling.”
“Starling,” Dan said the name with less awe than most did. “Winged Media Enterprises. Nice little business to own. With controlling interests in three big city newspapers, a new cable station, hundreds of radio stations and a major movie studio in Hollywood and London.”
“Media. Right. Useful to have a man like that on your side if you’re interested in taking over a country by hook or by crook, isn’t it?” Maddie conjectured, taking in Dan’s and Nikki’s looks of surprise that she might be seeing things their way about Trask’s aspirations. “Who’s the other owner, Nikki?”
“Tomas Barberos.”
Maddie winced. “The Greek international shipping mogul from hell. Will cut your profits and your throat if you become his competitor.” Barberos. A very good friend of the Speaker’s. Since they had gone to Cambridge together in England. But during the past two years, she noted now with a start, she had often seen them together, heads close, voices low and discreet. Thick as thieves were the words she often used to describe their body language.
Maddie had often wondered if Trask had gotten his buddy Barberos to donate to his campaigns. Illegal to have a foreigner contribute, but so what? There were ways to hide such sums. But she had never asked. Not her purview. Trask had never intimated anything of the sort. He didn’t have to. By practice and law, a Congressman’s campaign funding was separate from his staff’s
reach. She had never seen the campaign records. Never asked. But she could try.
“What are you cooking up?” Dan asked with caution in his green eyes. “Whatever it is, I don’t like it.”
She squeezed his hand. “Yes, you do.” She glanced up at Nikki. “For once in my life, I’m going to follow my father’s advice. I’ll make an attempt to go to hook up with Trask. I’m calling his regional office here in south Texas. Someone there must know where he is. Especially with the president and vice president in such bad health.”
“Better get your story straight before you dial the number. Spin it for me, honey. Why are you calling around to find Trask?” Dan asked.
“I’m flying in from Cancun, you see. To help. To be by his side at this critical time. Offer my expertise at a time when half his staff in Washington is out on vacation. Of course, I also will have access to his networked computer. His calendar, his appointments—and all of this is linked to his Capitol office. And there, I know, is a list of donors to his campaigns.” She beamed.
Nikki smiled back. “You think Starling is one?”
“Could be. Money from Barberos would be harder to track. Either way, I have to go into Trask’s computer system to see if I can find any trace of treason.”
Dan shook his head. “Aside from the fact that this is dangerous, I don’t know that donations from either man prove any complicity in what we’re talking about here.”
“True,” Maddie said. “We need more. Damn,” she murmured, “we always need more.”
“But it’s a start,” Nikki agreed.
“I still don’t like it,” Dan barked. “I’m going with you.”
“You can’t!” Maddie put him off.
He raised his hand, his face stern. “One,” he said and raised a finger, “you might know Krav Maga, but you clutch with a gun in your hand. I don’t. Two,” he ticked off and raised a second finger, “if you are discovered mid-search, you can’t call for back up. I can. Three, if you get in there and Trask is there, you won’t be able to access anything while he’s there. And four—”
