by Rita Henuber
“Tell me what you can use as a weapon.”
“Basically anything. Phone and electrical cords can be used to strangle, trip and tie up. A rolled up newspaper, a magazine is better, jabbed into the Adam’s apple, nose or eye can kill. Soft tissue places are best. Never the balls—unless it’s too good to pass up.” She grinned. “If you grasp an earlobe and pull upward hard enough, the ear will come off like you’re unzipping it from the head—” she raised and lowered a shoulder, “—so I’m told. Never use a knife over-handed. Thrust underhanded like a softball pitch. Just here.” She touched herself below the breast. “The blade goes in and up into the heart. I learned three different ways to break a neck.”
“Go on,” he prodded.
“Leave a trail.”
“No, you don’t want anyone tracking you down.”
“Not that kind of trail. Signs you were there. Fingerprints up high. Prick a finger, smear blood, wipe it up. Luminol will pick it up later. Bite marks in wood or leather surfaces are good to leave also. If you’re BNR, at least your last location will be known.”
“BNR?”
“Body not recovered,” she said softly.
Those words sent a ripple of uneasiness through him. “Okay, you’ve been trained. Have you ever used the training?”
“A couple of guys who wouldn’t take no for an answer. And, I recall taking you down a few days ago.”
“I meant to defend your life.”
She shook her head.
“You have to ask yourself, will you be able to do what it takes when the time comes? And don’t doubt it will come.”
“I understand. I think I can do it.”
“No! You need to know you can do it.”
“Rico, I won’t know until I’m in the situation.”
He nodded, understanding it was the best she could give him at the moment. “Let’s get down to business and start working on details.” He removed a 9mm from the wall and broke it down for cleaning. For the first time in this job, he trusted someone. He began telling Olivia everything he knew about Silva’s operation.
“What do you think?” he asked, eyeing her carefully.
“I won’t be able to waltz in there and say I want to buy drugs with no proof I have the money. How do we handle that?”
“Smart lady. It is a problem. I can get into an account with about a hundred and fifty thousand. It’s an agency fund set up for me to look and live the part. I have over fifty grand in cash here. But if you showed Silva an account with a hundred fifty grand he would laugh at you, use you, then feed you to the fish.”
“How much do you need?” she asked in a soft voice.
“Seven hundred thousand would be nice. To make you look good we need more like a million. Might as well be five million. We have—”
“I can get nine hundred.”
“We can’t wait until you sell everything. We’ll need it before you go inside. And selling—”
“I can have it today if I can get on the net,” she interrupted, again.
Rico choked. “Where? I mean, how could you get that much cash today?” He was sure she was putting him on.
“I have it.”
“Olivia, we’d have to set up an offshore account then transfer money from your account. If the feds are looking for you—” and he was pretty damn sure they were, “—they’ll have a watch on your bank accounts.”
“It’s in an offshore account in Grand Cayman.” She shot him a look. “Close your mouth. You look silly.”
“What are you doing with an offshore account?” he managed to ask.
She clucked her tongue. “For something exactly like this. I wanted fast access if I needed to pay somebody for information. And I wanted it close, so if needed, I could fly down and back in a day.”
“Okay,” he drawled. “Next question is, where did that money come from?”
“Danny’s insurance. He had some stocks. And, before you ask, yes I do pay taxes on it.”
“Sorry, wasn’t being…”
They both fell silent.
“Can you wire the hundred grand out of your agency account?”
“Why?”
“We open a new account for you and transfer the agency money there. We open another account for me to use. You transfer your hundred in and I transfer my nine hundred. We have the million for Silva to verify. That should be enough for a down payment and to make him think I’m serious.”
“Olivia, you could lose it all. You should count on losing it. You prepared for that?”
“Yes. The money means nothing.”
Rico scratched his jaw. It could work. A thrill of excitement spread through him. He had a real chance to get the bastard that ratted him and the other undercovers out.
“If someone in the DEA gave you up, transferring the money could tip that person off.”
She did catch on fast. If it was someone inside the agency, they were screwed.
“Yes.” Rico massaged his temples. “And there’s more to think about. More to talk about before we go further.”
“Say it.”
Rico glanced at her. He’d never worked with a partner and trusted no one completely. Yet, here he was working with her, trusting her. She exuded confidence. This was the reason she’d been promoted so fast. Not because she was being used as a poster girl. She has what it takes. He slid the stool close and patted it. “Sit. There are a lot of possibilities on who set me up. One—” he held up an index finger and began ticking them off, “—my handler. Two, someone else at the DEA. Three, we share a database with other federal agencies, giving them access to undercovers operating in the area. Only a few people with high security clearances have access. Four—and what I consider least likely—is somehow Silva’s crew found me out.”
“But why? I would think that would be the most likely.”
Rico shook his head. “Until I saw the timer on the boat, I had no reason to think I’d been made. I was away from Miami for a week. I was made during that time.”
“How can you be sure it was then?”
“You said you were good at what you do. So am I. If Silva was suspicious about me I would have seen or felt something. My gut says it’s someone in another agency accessing undercover files then feeding information to Silva.”
“So, what exactly are you telling me?”
“Come here.” He did a Google search for his name and Trini’s. A lot of results but nothing relating to the explosion. Next, he searched Coast Guard drug bust and explosion with the date. Several results from newspaper and TV station pages.
“They have the story but no names. Right now I’m presumed dead. Once I transfer this money I begin leaving a trail.”
“How long do you think before it’s discovered?”
He shrugged. “Three days to two weeks, and another couple of days before it gets to Silva, depending on who the rat bastard fink is and how lucky we are.”
“If they think you’re dead?”
“The account is closed and my trying to access it sets off every alarm in western civilization.”
“I think we should go for it. It’s the only way we’ll know. If your own agency set you up the account will be closed. Someone in another agency wouldn’t report your death—it would call attention to them—and the account will be open.”
“Might as well get to it.” Rico unlocked and opened a cabinet containing computer equipment, cameras, a printer and scanner. She was right. If the bank transfer was blocked, he would have the answer. The screen lit up.
Olivia’s hand clamped down on his.
“Can they track your IP address?”
“I use two proxy servers. It would take weeks to pinpoint my location.”
Motionless they stared at the screen. She released his hand and he went to work.
They opened two new accounts. A Swiss account for him and another Cayman account—in a false name—for her. Showtime. Olivia leaned over one shoulder, her hand gripping the other. With each keystroke her
grip tightened. Tension built in his body from anticipation and the nearness of her. If her breast brushed against him once more…
“Dolphins are losing this year,” he muttered.
“What?”
“Nothing. I was talking to myself.”
Account information filled the screen. “It’s open.” Immediately he transferred the money to the Swiss account. Once it cleared, he transferred it to the account she would use. Then Rico moved her nine hundred thousand. In less than ten minutes it was done. He logged off and sat staring at a blank screen.
“Rico?”
“Yeah?” He turned in the chair.
“You’ve been on this case for a long time. Why is Silva still operating?”
How could such a simple question have such a complicated answer? “I’m good but not that good.” He gave her his best grin.
“Be serious. You may do this—” she made sweeping gesture with her arm, “—undercover stuff all the time. But I don’t. I take it seriously. It scares the hell out of me that you don’t.”
“It’s complicated, Olivia.”
“Bullshit. That’s what people say when they don’t have answers or can’t do their job.”
“Geez. Settle down. It is complicated. The legal system in this country demands a lot. Twenty-five years ago, what we have on him would put him away for life. We’re close, but close only counts with nuclear weapons.”
“That’s what I’m talking about. You aren’t serious,” she fumed.
Rico fumbled in a drawer for a hair band. When he finished pulling his hair into a ponytail he looked up. “Look, we ask a federal attorney for an indictment based on what we have we’d be laughed out of the building. If we could find an attorney who was crazy enough to file, Silva’s lawyer would slime him out in a matter of hours.”
“But how?”
“His attorney would argue he has no priors and request bail. Say it was set at ten million, Silva would have no trouble coming up with that in cash. He would leave the courthouse, get into his limo, go directly to his jet or yacht and disappear. At the very best, what we can hope for is to learn everything we can about his operations. Shut those down or make it extremely difficult for him to continue to operate here.”
“What would it take? A picture of him sitting on top of a pile of drugs?” she asked sarcastically.
“More. He could say he thought it was baby powder.”
Olivia puckered her face in disgust. “There has got to be a way.”
“Welcome to my world. It’s frustrating. We do the best we can do.”
She moved away from him. “The system stinks. You know the man is evil. He kills people. We should just kill him!”
“It’s not the system. It’s people like Silva who have ways of getting around the system. If we start skirting the system we aren’t any better than he is.”
Olivia turned on him, her eyes hard and cold.
“Don’t look at me like that. Your brother would have said the same thing.”
She reared back. “How the hell could you know what Danny would say?”
“Take it easy. You said he was a good man, a good officer. He had to believe in what he was doing. He died believing in it.”
She lowered her head.
“Olivia, I think you are overlooking something.”
“What?”
“The man who gave Danny up is just as guilty as Silva. I want to find the bastard giving agents up—who gave me up—as much as I want to stop the cartel. Whoever the informer is, he’s as dangerous as Silva. I want you to look for this guy.”
“Tell me what to do.”
“Later. It’s time for phase two.” He put equipment away and closed compartments.
“What’s phase two?”
“We brush up your dancing skills.”
Upstairs, Rico made his CD selections and fed them into the player.
“I repeat, what’s wrong with my dancing?”
“This is Miami, Olivia. Everyone dances well. You need to stand out.”
“I suppose you know how to make me stand out?” She bristled.
“You bet. You have to be ready for what Silva will do.”
“Do?”
“Silva is power hungry. He dominates people. His sexual appetite is well known. Where women and sex are involved he always gets what he wants.” The music began, and he extended his arm to her, jerking his fingers in a come here motion, inviting her to join him in the middle of the room. “When he sees you, he won’t stop until he has you in bed—or anyplace else he wants to take you.” Rico held his arms out and Olivia stepped into his embrace. He looked at her carefully. “Can you handle that when it happens?”
She circled her arms around him, pressing her palms against his back, and tilted her head to look into his face. “I have two choices—either I handle it or I don’t. I won’t let it get that far out of hand. In case you haven’t noticed, I’m not like most women.”
Oh yeah, that he’d noticed. She was the most confident, self-reliant woman he’d ever met. Intelligence and strength wrapped in beauty. Yet, he struggled with a fierce need to protect her. That and his constant state of arousal.
“I’m not the girl next door,” she went on. “I’m not interested in marriage, kids and the little house in the ’burbs with the white picket fence. When I see something I want, I don’t hesitate, I go after it. My job—” she raised an eyebrow, giving him a provocative look, “—or a man. I have sex because I want and need it.”
The tone of voice she used was authoritative and a total turn on. His dick twitched in agreement.
“I make it very clear to men I’m the one in control. That’s how it is. I don’t want sex, they don’t get it. Not from me anyway.”
“Olivia, those are men with morals, a conscience. Silva doesn’t have either.”
“Setting me up as an interested party from a drug organization in Vancouver will allow me some protection.”
“It’ll depend entirely on you. Once you’re in there I can’t help.” He didn’t like to think of her being alone, much less with Silva.
“I’m not easily intimidated. What could he possibly do?”
He released her reluctantly, taking a couple of steps back. “Stand there.” He pointed to a spot in the center of the room. When she was in place, he went to her, standing two inches away. She backed up. He moved close again.
Olivia put her hands on his chest and pushed. “Back off.”
He grinned, pressed in closer and coiled an arm around her.
She shoved again. “I said back off.”
Sensing he was about to get smacked, he stepped back. “Lesson number one. Silva is what I call a ‘space invader.’ It’s a simple thing. He invades your personal space. You back up. He gains dominance.”
“You’re crazy. You think that will intimidate me?”
“Already did. You stepped back. It has to do with our survival instinct. Someone gets that close, you’re in danger. You step back. We develop a safe zone around ourselves—say a foot, foot and a half—only letting people in that space we trust. Silva invades, lets you know he’s the one in control. I’ve seen him do it plenty of times, mostly to women.”
“What do I do?”
“Invade first. You have an advantage. You know he’ll do this. When he does, lean in. I doubt he will back away. If he does, all the better. More than likely he’ll hold his ground, but you’ll be the one who made the first move and scored points.”
Olivia nodded.
“Lesson number two, time to dance. Come on, pretty lady.” He offered his hand.
Olivia loved to dance. Growing up in Texas, close to Louisiana, she learned to dance to Cajun music. Salsa is Cajun’s big brother. Her shoulders moved first, followed by her hips. She had to move when she heard this kind of music and doubted she could be still, even if her life depended on it. Rico stepped it up, teaching her a style of salsa that had to be the most sexual dancing she had experienced. Belly to belly. Hip to hip.
Complete and total sex. He rubbed against her and showed her how to do the same. Not that she needed much instruction.
His body language became more intense, and, saying he was hot, he stripped off his shirt. He was hot all right, and hard. Forcefully, he took her into his arms and resumed dancing. Placing his lips close to her ear, he whispered what he wanted to do. His hand slid under her shirt, slowly creeping up her back, around her side and higher until his finger tips were caressing her lower breast. Was he doing this to show her what Silva would be like, or did he want her as much as she wanted him? Her belly quivered and her breath came in clipped gasps.
“You wanna stop?” he asked in a husky voice. “You sound like you’re having trouble breathing.” His lips vibrated against her ear, sending waves of chills down her body to settle in the muscles low in her stomach. “Are ya getting tired?”
Damn him. He knew it wasn’t because of the dancing.
“I’m fine.” She emphasized fine and yanked his arm. “Dance. Show me what to expect.”
As if the feel of his damp skin under her fingers wasn’t tantalizing enough, he rubbed his naked chest against her breasts sending her organs into uncontrolled spins.
“You want me?” he asked in a harsh whisper.
“No. I don’t.”
Cupping her bottom, he squeezed.
“Can I expect that to happen with Silva?”
“You bet.” He ground his hips against her. “And a hell of a lot more.” The feel of his erection caused a warmth to spread through the lower part of her body. She clamped her lips together to stifle a gasp.
“More than likely he’ll do this.” His hand traveled from her breast to between her legs. Instinctively, her body pressed against it.
“Not good. That’ll be taken as an invitation.” His grip tightened. They weren’t moving around the floor, only swaying. “This is a man you want to do business with. You want him to trust you. You have a lot at stake here. What are you going to do?” Rico spun her in a dizzying move. “Answer me.”
