by Honor James
“We were at each other’s throats a lot at the beginning, but I honestly think that it was just because we were attracted to each other. And believe me, there was a time or two I wanted to do the same to you, that or jump you and say to hell with it all.” Which was sad.
“I think you should have jumped me,” he said softly. Shooting her a quick look, he pulled over to the side of the road and parked again. Turning to her, he touched her cheek. “I wanted, more than once or twice, to just throw you over my shoulder and haul you off to my cave. The plans once I got you there kind of varied, again, depending on my mood toward you at that moment.”
“You should have just done that,” she told him and moved toward him after undoing her seatbelt. “I really think that you should have gone all caveman on me and drug me back to your lair and not let me come up for air until both of us were fully and totally sated and we had our shit worked out.”
“Yeah?” he asked with a grin. “Well hell, I might have to do that anyway one of these days. When we get back and after we’ve told everyone, I’ll throw you over my shoulder and take you back to my cave. Though it’s a little more comfortable than a cave, it’s pretty spartan,” he admitted with a hint of a blush on his cheeks. “Never did have any sense of decorating style, so I never bothered.”
“I think that would totally rock,” she said with a grin. Shrugging, she admitted to him, “Me either. Honestly, everything in my place is left over from the previous tenants, except my bed. I have to have my bed. Sorry, but we will have to see which one is the more comfy one, because I totally love my bed.”
“I’m betting you’ll toss that over and fall in love with mine,” he said. Then he tipped his head and eyed her up. “Then again, maybe not. You are a very contrary female when you want to be. But, I promise, I will give your bed an equal opportunity to sway my vote.”
“Ha, I bet that you will toss yours over for mine,” she teased him with a grin. “But promise me that if we come to a draw we will buy a new one, together. The two of us.” That would be huge. Them buying a bed together. There was something in the symbolism of that which had her wanting that. Weird but true.
“Promise.” He nodded. Leaning in, he kissed her and smiled against her lips. Drawing back, he checked his watch. “Well, I think we should actually head toward our meeting. We still have a little bit of leeway on the time but I want to get there—in the area, anyway—early so we can get the lay of the land. I really hate having to go into this blind.”
“Same here.” Hope buckled up once more and sighed. “I’m feeling all kinds of nervous about this, by the way. I know how silly that sounds, but there it is. I’m nervous as hell about this meeting.” And she knew it was because of her new feelings for David, well, not new, but just finally acted-upon feelings for the man. “Don’t get hurt on me, David. I mean it. I will be one pissed bitch if you do.”
“Right back at you, Hope. You stay safe or I have no clue what the fuck I’ll do.” Leaning over quickly, he kissed her once again. “I love you, Hope. Now and for all time.” Smiling, he touched her cheek and then settled back into his seat and pulled away from the curb.
“Good. I love you too.” She leaned her head back against the headrest of the luxury car and sighed. “Man this car is truly a sweet ride. It rides like a dream.” It was pure comfort and insanely quiet in the cabin of the car. It was kinda eerie, actually.
“It is, at that,” he said. “Gotta love a high-end vehicle. They do come with some damned fine perks. Course, I’ll just be happy to have my truck back. I miss driving the Beast around.” She rolled her eyes at the name of his truck. Men and their vehicles, they couldn’t just name it, they had to either name it something super girly or something out-there manly. Nothing halfway, ever.
“Lordy,” she muttered. “Well you can drive Beast around all you want. I think that I will keep my Charger, thank you very much.” She loved a Dodge, seriously anything Dodge, to be honest, but the Charger held a special place in her heart because it had been brought back from retirement and it was a beautiful piece of machinery.
“No, no, not Beast. The Beast,” he intoned, and made a couple of grunting sounds. Laughing when she just looked at him, he shrugged. “If you’re going to mock the Beast, at least get the name right. Especially since the Beast is such a beast.”
That had her laughing and shaking her head. “Good thing I love you, because otherwise I would think you were off your rocker. It’s okay though. You can love the Beast as much as you want, as long as it’s my bed you are sleeping in every night.”
“Or mine.” He grinned over at her. “But I get your point, and yes, I will always be sleeping with you in my arms, Hope, no matter what bed it might be in. I’m not letting you go again, darling. We’ve wasted enough time and I’m not losing any more.”
“That’s a damn good thing, because I was going to have to have fits if you hadn’t agreed with me.” She was teasing him, and he very well knew it. “All I know is, no more assignments away from each other. I am ready for a normal life. And I want to take you home with me so you can meet my aunt. She’s the only relative that I have left and I love her dearly, and I want you to meet her.” That was, well, huge!
He shot her a quick look, the surprise he was feeling written all over his features. “Seriously?” he asked. When he looked at her again, she nodded. Letting out a slow whistle, he shook his head. “Damn, woman, I never expected that, at all.” Neither had she, but it made perfect sense in her mind the more she thought about it.
“Well, I love you and I want a life with you, so of course I would want you to meet the other person that I feel so much for. I really do want you to meet her and know the person that helped make me who I am today. She has moments where she doesn’t recall anything, though. She’s going downhill fast, which is why I have been going back home more often than I had before. Or, when you thought I was dating more often.”
She could see him rolling his eyes at her comment, which made her grin. “You know, rubbing that detail in isn’t winning you any points, darling. Besides, I was suspicious the last time you went off the grid, if you recall. I would like to meet her though, find out how she managed to keep from strangling you so I have the same tools for the future.” Now he was the one grinning.
“Well you know.” She shrugged. “And yeah, you were suspicious enough that you had your brother follow me. Which, by the way, was seriously creepy.” Well, only because he knew just what she had been up to and she hadn’t been able to hide her issues from him. Dammit.
“I’ll live with creepy. He won’t be walking straight when I’m done with him for letting you get hurt, but that’s a different issue. I just knew something was off and, I’m sorry, but I had to know what was wrong. It was bugging me, and bugged me until you showed up at the office more or less in one piece.”
“Well, he couldn’t have known. Hell, I didn’t know. It was a total freak thing.” She just couldn’t figure out why she had been stabbed, and the name of a criminal that they had put away so long ago was used as the retribution line.
“He damn well should have been watching those around you. Instead, knowing my brother like I do, he was likely watching you.” Hmm, a slightly jealous note in his voice there. “What I don’t get is why the guy did it. When we get back, we really need to investigate that, Hope, find this guy and figure out just what the hell he’s doing invoking Cramer’s name like he did.”
“You have got to be reading my mind because I was just thinking that exact same thing. I was just thinking that we needed to figure out why this guy would whisper that Cramer sent his regards to me.” Before sliding the knife into her back. Thank god she had twisted when she had, or he would have sliced her spleen and liver and she would be dead instead of alive and in love.
“Especially since it’s been, hell”—he frowned and squinted slightly—“shit, he was one of our first cases as a team together. That’s got to be all of nine years ago now, right?” he shot her a q
uestioning look, his eyes quickly returning to the road.
“Every day of it. Actually, I think that it’s been closer to ten years. Not quite, but really close. It was our very first case together as a team. Literally our very first one.” Which was the first time she had met David and knew in that moment that she had found her soul mate, if such a thing was possible.
“Damn,” he murmured. “I can’t believe we’ve known each other for ten years already. It seems like only yesterday that you walked into the offices and had me stumbling all over myself. Hell, I wasn’t even sure I was making any sense in that first meeting, my brain was that scrambled.”
“Oh, believe me, I know what you are saying. It’s been nine years, eight months and six weeks that we have worked together, and it had been practically that long since I had a lover.” She met David and no one else felt right after that. It was him. He was her love and she had always known it. So, instead, she bought stock in batteries and vibrators.
Lifting her hand she had closest to him, David kissed her fingers. “I love you too, Hope.” He smiled against her skin. Rubbing her fingers over his cheek, he slowed the car. “I think we’re here,” he murmured, letting her have her hand back. They both began shifting mental gears, she knew, as he eased onto the lane that would take them toward the building.
She shifted back into the persona that she needed to portray and nodded. “I’m ready as well. And you know how I feel,” she whispered with a smile. “Now then, let’s get this fucking mission over so that we can go home.”
He crossed his fingers and winked before he took a moment, as he parked, to let his facade fall over his face. Tugging the keys from the ignition, he got out of the car and buttoned his jacket. Shutting his door, he walked around to give her a hand out of her seat. Flashing her a high-wattage plastic smile, he locked the vehicle and tucked the keys into his pocket.
She played her part to perfection. She was the arm candy that any multi-billionaire would love to have on their arms. She smiled that high-wattage, vapid smile that many wore when they were rolling in the money. “This place is a bit…” She hesitated for effect and then continued, “Rustic?”
“That it is,” he nodded, patting her hand gently. “But who are we to judge? After all, my dear, we are here for a meeting. And it is quite quiet and peaceful out here. Amazing, really, given the city is only a bare couple of miles from here.” She knew he was delaying going inside to give their CIA friends a chance to get in close enough to be helpful if the shit hit the fan fast.
“This is true. Oh, look.” Hope moved slightly, bringing David along with her so that she could touch a tree, again giving their team time to get into place. “It looks as if this carving has been here for such a very long time. Look.” She touched the carving in the tree and smiled. “I wonder what it says.”
Reaching out, he traced the faded lettering. “I’m not sure, but it looks old and special,” he said quietly. Letting his hand fall he smiled at her and drew her in closer to him. Checking his watch, he let out a breath. “We should likely get in there. We’ve only got a couple minutes.” And the team should be in place, was what he left unsaid.
“Okay, but after this is over, can we perhaps stop by and take an image of this carving? I would like to know what it means.” She was speaking for those that were listening from the inside of the house. Trying to play it all off. “Let’s go in for our meeting, then, shall we?”
Nodding, he tucked her hand through his arm again and led her back to the door. A look around, and he slid his sunglasses off just as they stepped inside the building. Tucking them neatly away in his pocket, he took in the interior and smiled toward the small group of men waiting for them.
When they walked inside of the home, Hope gave David’s hand a squeeze and then released him when she was approached. She looked to David when the man asked to search her. At his nod, she nodded, held her arms out and waited. “Not that high. I don’t even know your name,” she “teased” the man who was sliding his hands far higher than he should.
David was getting a similar pat-down, but his eyes were locked on the man with his hands on her. If looks could kill… Adjusting his jacket once he’d been checked, David moved to her side. Taking her hand, he drew her away from the touchy-feely guard. “Touch her like that again and it’ll be the last thing you ever do,” he said, his tone pleasant and yet hard as steel.
“It’s all right, love, he didn’t get too far up.” She glared at the man, however, and then turned her face back up to David’s. “However, if he had gone further up I think that I would have lifted my knee and broken his nose and I doubt anyone could fault me for that. Right?”
“Not in the least,” he said, leaning over to kiss her. “Had he gone up and further I would have snapped his neck. So really, he got off very easy by both of us.” Smiling to her, he lifted his head. When he turned to look at those they were meeting, his eyes went ice cold, his expression hard. “Now, are we going to attend to business, or should we take our money and leave?”
A man stepped from the shadows, everything about him screamed evil, right down to the black eye patch that he wore over his left eye. “I think we can perhaps do business.” He nodded to one of the men and then added, “Can I get you a drink while we wait for the product to be brought up?”
“Thank you, but no,” David said with a firm shake of his head. Sliding his arm around Hope’s waist, he drew her into his side and waited. He never once took his eyes off the man with the patch, leaving her to keep track of the others. Oh, she knew he had a clue where they were, but he had warned her he wouldn’t be looking away from the main guy at any time.
Hope gave David’s waist a small squeeze and laid her head on his shoulder, the signal that the man with the ice was approaching from their back.
Reaching for the case, the man with the eye patch opened the silver case and said, “I’m sure that your wife could appreciate these gems and have a fine bit of jewelry made for her far-too-beautiful body.” He let his single eye move up and down Hope’s body.
Hope looked into the case and gave the expected gasp of appreciation, when in reality all she could see were the beings that died to mine those diamonds.
David let her go and stepped forward, letting her guard his back. Holding out his hand, he accepted the gem passed to him, and then the eyeglass. Lifting both to his eye, he turned toward a window and rolled the gem through his fingers. Humming slightly, he set the gem down and picked another up randomly. Repeating this a few times, he then began to nudge them about with a fingertip, shifting them in the case into some pattern only he could see. “Your price?” he asked, not looking up from what he was doing.
“I believe that fifty million will be a fair and good price. For the quality as well as quantity you will be receiving, that would be a very fair price. Besides, for the lady, would you offer any less?” the man said with a smirk.
“The lady knows better than to just take the first dollar value brought up in a negotiation,” David said. Picking up another stone, he looked at it through the loupe and made a face, setting it aside. “Twenty-five million for all the stones. Including the ones with the blemishes.” He picked up another to peer at it.
“Twenty-seven and I will allow the two of you to walk out of here with half the stones, and your lives,” the man said, his agitation rising just a notch. “You do not come into my home and insult me as you did. The diamonds are flawless, and untraceable until you have your gemologist register them as legitimate.”
“Flawless?” David picked up the one he’d set aside and held it out along with the loupe. “Tell me that is flawless and I’ll give you forty-five, no questions asked. But if you can’t, I’ll accept your twenty-seven and all the stones.” He waited, patient and absolutely calm, his entire body screamed that he was right and the other guy was about to have to eat his own words.
The man took a glass from his own pocket and looked at the gem. Frowning, he cursed in another language and said
, “Thirty and they are all yours.” Again with the negotiating.
David set the loupe down and pressed his fingertips to the table, leaning on them slightly. Staring at him, he was silent a long, long time. “Deal,” he finally said. Straightening up he held out a hand and waited. No smugness, just a cool and calmly collected look about him. Just another deal for a rich man.
Shaking his hand, the man held a look of glee on his features and said, “Your wife will look beautiful draped in the diamonds alone. No further adornment needed for a remarkable creature such as she. You are a lucky man.” He slipped a notepad out and wrote numbers down. “Now, if you will please have the money wired into that bank account?” As he spoke, he pulled out his smartphone and cocked a brow. “Now.”
Taking the sheet of paper, David handed it to Hope. She was their money man, so to speak, for the operation. He didn’t take his eyes off Eye Patch, not once, while she did what she needed to do on her phone.
Hope did the transfer, not even blinking once as she did so. She knew that the funds would be tracked and the shell company that she was sending the money from would get the funds back. After all, there was no true money on the line. “Done,” she said, and slipped her phone back into her pocket with a smile. “Now, if you don’t mind, I would like to take our pretties and go?”
Nodding, David tipped his head until Eye Patch nodded, a glimmer of absolute glee on his face that he tried to smother. Accepting the case from him, David closed it and lifted it from the table. “A pleasure doing business with you. If we’re ever in the neighborhood again, we’ll have to arrange another transaction.”
The man nodded and moved back into the shadows, the distinct sound of something moving there in the shadows as well. A hidden passage, perhaps? Hope smiled up at David. “Now then, darling, let’s go home, shall we? I have a need to be in our bed with these covering me and nothing else.” Anything to throw the men that were watching them leaving off their games was essential right now.
