Rendezvous in Rio

by Danielle Bourdon

  She read each of Walcot’s letters aloud, for everyone to hear. Cole couldn’t decipher her mood or her emotions while she cited her grandfather’s notes. He discovered she was slowly becoming adept at subduing her true feelings. The Madalina he’d met a few short months ago would have been much more fidgety, every emotion she felt written clearly in her eyes and on her face.

  Not today.

  Today she was in control. And he was proud of her, even if she didn’t know it. This trait might one day save her life. He also wasn’t able to detect whether or not she was still angry or upset with him for leaving her in Brazil. All he’d felt when she hugged him at the airport was relief. Which meant nothing more than the control she exuded over her features would extend to situations regarding him. He’d have to wait until they were alone or they got home before he heard anything on the matter.

  Focusing in on the contents of the letters, Cole couldn’t discern any hard evidence that pointed to Walcot having the remaining two dragons. Unless he was missing something obvious, or there were clues that only Madalina would understand.

  “So what do you think, Madalina?” Cole asked, interrupting his brothers’ discourse about the letters. “What does your gut instinct tell you about the remaining two dragons?”

  She set the last letter on her lap, atop the others. Sitting in one of the cushy chairs in the well-appointed suite, a leg tucked beneath her, she looked relaxed, but her demeanor was all business.

  “I don’t know. Sometimes I think he had them all in the beginning; other times I think his old Tibetan friend wouldn’t have given one person all four last remaining dragons. So I’m not much help here,” she said, meeting his gaze.

  “What about that hidden room? Did you search everywhere?” he asked.

  “Everything on the shelves and in the trunks, yes. But we didn’t have time to look for any hidden compartments within the hidden compartments. Like what we found in his shack. The cursory once-over we did wasn’t as thorough as it could have been,” she added.

  Cole spent a moment or two contemplating the situation. Rubbing the tips of his fingers together, he glanced around the living room of the three-bedroom suite at the glass and steel and leather décor while his mind sifted through possible scenarios.

  The Chinese agents were likely upset about Brandon’s escape—not that he cared after what they’d done. Cole considered their actions hostile. If the agents were keeping tabs on his extended family for signs that more dragons had been found, then they wouldn’t stop now. He looked back to Madalina, who regarded him expectantly.

  “What do you want to do with the Rain Dragon?” Cole fully expected Madalina to give the damned thing back to the agents, just to get everyone off their backs. He couldn’t blame her, and though he was pissed about what the agents had done, knew it was the best choice for any kind of peace in the future. The agents would not relent, not one bit, if there was even a hint that another dragon might have been found.

  “Is the offer still open from Westrich? Two million, right? I’d like to sell it to him,” she said without hesitation.

  Cole wasn’t the only one stunned into silence. Damon, Sam, and Brandon stared at her as if they couldn’t believe their ears. Cole said, “Wait, what? You want to sell it to Westrich?”

  “Yes.”

  “I thought you’d want to give it to the agents,” Cole said.

  “To hell with the agents. They took Brandon. That negates any nice gesture on my part of giving it back.”

  Cole did not mistake the sudden gleam of defiance in her eyes. He glanced at his brothers, two of whom were watching him, with Sam observing Madalina. Cole knew Brandon and Damon well enough to know that they were considering the consequences of Madalina’s decision, because surely there would be consequences. If the agents found out she’d sold the dragon outright, they might retaliate harshly.

  “I’m going to revert to my feelings on the former dragon here, Madalina,” he said, switching his attention back to her. “I understand how you feel about them abducting Brandon—”

  “I’d rather not give it to them,” she interrupted, a stern expression crossing her features. “You said that Westrich wasn’t in on the attacks by the other men, that they’d gone rogue. He’s just a collector trying to collect things. I’ll sell it to him for the two million, no less. As far as I’m concerned, the agents can negotiate with Westrich.”

  Cole rubbed a hand over his mouth and chin, whiskers rasping across his skin. He needed to give Madalina some time to think this over. She was too fresh from the attacks, too raw from running and death.

  “Look, I know we’re all jet-lagged and exhausted, but this is what I propose. We take a day or two, get our breath back, then fly to Brazil and give that room a more detailed examination. We need to be able to definitively say that we don’t have the rest of the artifacts and that we don’t have any more information. We need to take ourselves out of the game here,” he said.

  “We tried that before, and it didn’t work. They’re still going to watch us because we’re the only lead they’ve got. And look what’s happened so far—they got their hands on one dragon, and nearly got their hands on another.” Madalina held Cole’s gaze, then glanced at Brandon, Damon, and Samuel. “What do you think?”

  Cole bit back a comment when Madalina appealed to his siblings. At first none of his three brothers said anything. Put on the spot, Cole knew that each one would consider their words carefully.

  “Let me just say that I understand why you want to do what you want to do,” Damon said, speaking first. “I’m not enamored of giving them what they want, either. But I’m with Cole in this particular circumstance. I think you should give it back to the agents. Will it keep them off your tail? Probably not. Like you said, you’re the only lead they have.”

  “Sell it. Screw the bastards,” Brandon said with a flippant gesture of his hand. “If they’re going to secretly stalk you after they promised they wouldn’t—or stalk me, for that matter—then you’re right. It won’t matter if you give it back or sell it; they’re going to keep an eye on you and all your correspondence. Why not get something out of it?”

  “Brandon.” Cole contained a scowl, but just barely. Leave it to Brandon to rebel against the majority.

  “What?” Brandon said, drawing himself up to full height.

  “I think you’re forgetting the point I made about retaliation. As in . . . the agents retaliating against her if she sells it to someone else. You were with them. Do you think they wouldn’t take revenge for that move?” Cole asked.

  “Find leverage, Cole. You’ve got the upper hand here. I know you’ve got to have something in your arsenal to force them to back off,” Brandon replied.

  “That’s just it, Brandon. I don’t think anything I say will make them back off.” Agitated, Cole paced through the suite. “Which is why I suggested examining that hidden room a lot more closely for clues to the final two. If we find the dragons, she can give them all back at the same time, and then we’ll be done. For good. That’s the only solution I see to ending the surveillance of us, of our family. They watched you this time; maybe they’ll surveil Damon next, or Thaddeus. Who knows?”

  “I agree with Cole. The only way to really end it is to hand the dragon over to the agents,” Sam said.

  Cole glanced at Madalina to see what effect the different opinions were having. She had a resolute, stubborn look on her face. He knew what that meant. She was going to sell it to Westrich. In a perfect world, where people didn’t harm or stalk other people, he would have absolutely backed her decision to sell it. But this wasn’t a perfect world, and the agents had proven that they were serious about getting what they considered national treasures back, no matter what. Her safety came first, just as it had during the former dragon fiasco; and faced with the same damned decision over what to do with the dragon, he chose to err on the side of caution
and return it. That, in his estimation, was the safest course of action.

  Silence descended over the room. Cole paced, waiting Madalina out, even though he knew what her decision would be. It didn’t take her more than sixty seconds to announce it out loud.

  “Can you make the arrangements, Cole? I’d like to meet with Westrich as soon as possible,” she said.

  He paced back to the window, thinking. Finally, he said, “I’ll make arrangements. Westrich will need a day or two to get his house back in order, and then we’ll pay him a visit.”

  CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX

  Madalina knew the conversation wasn’t over. When Cole’s brothers departed to make arrangements for their own rooms, a heavy silence descended. In periphery she watched Cole pace through the living area, hands in the pockets of his pants, waiting for the barrage of explanations and reasons why she should give the dragon back.

  The barrage never came. After twenty minutes of dead silence, she wished Cole would unleash the torrent she knew he was holding in. It made things awkward, put a strain on their togetherness. She wanted to be reveling in the fact that he’d escaped the gunfire in Westrich’s house, that they were both in the same country, the same time zone, once again.

  After another ten minutes of nothing, she couldn’t take anymore and said, “This is ridiculous. Are we not going to talk at all?”

  “We can talk. You haven’t said much, either,” he reminded her. Pausing near the doorway to one of the bedrooms, he leaned his shoulder against the wall. It was a casual pose that didn’t match the intensity in his eyes.

  “I know. Because I was waiting for you. I know you’re not happy.” Some dialogue, any dialogue, was better than none. She broke open the conversation by pointing out his obvious discontent.

  “It’s not about happiness, Madalina. It’s about survival. We’ve seen just how far some people will go to get what they want, and I’d rather not push the agents to the breaking point. They might decide to take the same route that rogue gang did. Shoot first, ask later. I really can’t say, since we’re not there yet. The agents still feel like they’ve got the upper hand. Hell, maybe they do,” Cole said.

  “I know. Every time something else happens, it shifts the way I think about the situation. Right after the market incident, with the gunfire and the lost security, all I wanted to do was get rid of the stupid dragon and be done with it. In my mind, the agents aren’t going to stop until they have all four dragons back. Westrich will have his hands full, but I’m sure he knows that. And honestly, it’s not my problem once we sell the dragon.” She paused, then added, “Do you really think the agents would retaliate against me because of my decision?”

  “I wouldn’t have said so if I didn’t believe it,” Cole replied. “What kind of retaliation? I don’t know. Abduction, murder, totaling the house like they totaled your old one—could be anything.”

  “Murdering me doesn’t help them, though, if they know I’m possibly the only link they have to the other dragons,” she countered.

  “They might decide the best option is to take me out, and then use threats against your parents to make you do what they want.”

  Madalina twitched in reaction. “They wouldn’t dare.”

  “And yet that’s exactly what they did with Brandon, except they just used him as a bargaining chip. They didn’t take me this time because they probably knew I had resources that you might need. The more desperate they get, the more blatant their strategy. The point is,” he said, “we don’t know what they might do next. Only that they’ve been aggressive before, which means they’ll be aggressive again if they have to.”

  Madalina withered at the thought of the Chinese agents taking Cole out just to prove a point. Do what we say, or else. She hated the control, the fear. The unknown. She was in the same situation now that she’d been in before with the Treasure Dragon, and Cole was making the same arguments now as he did then. With more experience behind him, she had to admit. Brandon’s abduction shone new light on the agents’ intent. And if she sold the dragon to Westrich and something happened to Cole or her parents, she wouldn’t be able to live with herself. She would bear the guilt of their injuries.

  It would haunt her the rest of her life.

  “That means I really have no choice. I have to give it to the agents, because if I don’t, I might be putting everyone I love at risk.” Madalina voiced her thoughts while she folded Walcot’s last letter, along with the others, and set them on a little side table next to her chair.

  “I’m pointing out probabilities, Madalina. Making sure you see all the angles in case you missed any. If you’re dead set on selling the dragon, then sell it.” He watched her from under hooded lids.

  “But I can’t.” She surged up out of the chair, suddenly unable to sit still a second longer. “I can’t, Cole, because if something happened to you or my parents, I’d never forgive myself. And if the agents totaled our house . . .” She couldn’t even think about it. Not after her last little house had been demolished during a search.

  He stepped away from the wall and intercepted her in the middle of the room. Sliding an arm around her waist, he pulled her close.

  Not expecting him to act so boldly, she set a hand on his chest and looked up into his eyes. When he spoke he commanded all her attention.

  “Look. I can understand how you must feel. You have the right to enjoy the journey Walcot is taking you on, and I know you can’t, not really, not with the danger and the threat we’re under. I’m sure that’s frustrating. I saw it on your face in Brazil. And I know you just want this part of it, the dangerous part, to be over. For the threats to end. I want that, too. We have the same goal here. That’s why I’m suggesting what I’m suggesting, regardless of the fact that I’d like nothing more than to gather up a few of the agents and kick their ass. You know? If it was just me, if this were the old days when I didn’t have you or our relationship or the house, then I wouldn’t even think of giving it back. Times have changed. You’re what’s important; you’re what matters. I feel a stronger urge to be done with the dragons than I do to fight back and risk losing you,” he said in a quiet voice.

  Reminded why she’d fallen in love with him to begin with, Madalina searched Cole’s eyes while he explained. To hear in such blatant terms what she meant to him, even though he made it clear every day, thrilled her. This was what mattered. This relationship. The odd tension of the last hour dissipated as they closed the gap of discord and reconnected. She smoothed her palm over the hard contour of his chest and curled her fingers over the top of his shoulder.

  “I’ll bite back my belligerence and give the Rain Dragon to the agents. Make arrangements like you did the last time, and we’ll get it done. I can’t do anything about the last two dragons, since I haven’t found them and Walcot hasn’t left me any more notes, but we can take care of the Rain Dragon right now,” she said.

  “You don’t want to fly back to Brazil to double-check the hidden room?” he asked, tilting his head down to brush a warm kiss across her forehead. Lifting his other hand, he dragged it through her hair above her ear.

  “To be honest, I’m tired of flying. It’s not a short trip, you know. I’d say to tell the agents that this is the last dragon, that we didn’t find the others, but that didn’t work the last time, so don’t bother.” She found the pulse in his throat and kissed her way to his jaw, drawing a low rumble from his chest. Distracted by the feel and scent of him, she nuzzled the spot just below his earlobe. His arm tightened, and he exhaled a steadying breath. She could think about her grandfather’s house, the hidden room, and the missing dragons later.

  “I’ll figure out what to tell them,” Cole said. He swooped in to kiss her mouth, taking command and control.

  Madalina gave him everything he wanted, matching the slick slide of his tongue and returning the languid but hot exploration. When he lifted his head, she chased his lips for a
last kiss.

  “As much as I’d like to take you into the bedroom or bend you over the back of the couch, I can’t let myself get that distracted,” he said with a quiet growl in his voice.

  “Why not? We’ve made our plans. There’s no need to discuss it anymore,” she said.

  “Because for all we know, the agents have been tracking us since Brandon escaped and are even now running up the back stairs to this hotel room. My brothers are on alert and keeping watch, but I won’t rest until the dragon is in the agents’ possession,” Cole said.

  His body gave off different signals than his words. Madalina didn’t mistake the growing desire in his eyes or the way he had yet to loosen his hold. Maybe they should remain on alert, watch the windows and doors, but she wanted the same thing she knew he wanted. To obliterate the last few days of tension and fear by rediscovering each other. Give in to the irresistible, magnetic pull. There had to be time for themselves, time to let their bodies say what the conversation couldn’t.

  When he swayed closer, she hooked her fingers around his nape and brought him down for another kiss. Slower, hotter, suggestive. He groaned across her tongue and squeezed her tighter against him.

  “If you keep this up,” he said into her mouth, “I’m going to throw caution to the wind and have you right here.”

  “I’m counting on it.” To emphasize her point, she dragged her nails across his nape and rubbed her hips blatantly against his.

  The next thing she knew, her spine was flush to the wall, and he had one of her legs hiked around his hips. Her last coherent thought was that he’d chosen to remain close to the door just in case. He might be giving himself to her, but he wasn’t letting his guard down completely.

  Clothes peeled away like shedding skin, falling to the floor in haphazard piles. Pinned to the wall, chest to chest, she let him maneuver her arms and legs until the only thing between them was the tide of white-hot passion. Not a stitch of clothing remained. He put a hand in her hair and braced one under her thigh, all the better to hold her in place for his first demanding thrust. She raked furrows down his back, encouraging him deeper, harder, until she writhed and panted and cried his name to the ceiling. He took his time despite the pace of his pounding, extending the pleasure, driving her to the brink again and again. He tumbled over the edge with her, finally, into a blinding climax that left stars in her eyes and a fuzzy feeling in her head. It was always like this with him, this breathless abandon, the sensation of being utterly taken. In all ways. Mind, body, soul.