On the Edge

by Shannon Stacey

  “I’ll call Rogers,” he said after a few minutes. Charlotte’s face lit up and started packing the chess pieces away. “He’ll get you back to New York and I’ll make sure there’s a car to take you to the hospital to see Rossi.”

  She stopped, the bishop piece clutched in her hand. “You can drive me to the hospital.”

  “I’m not going back yet.”

  “Yes, you are.”

  He stood and went to the bar for a bottle of water. Mostly he wanted to be a more distant target should she throw that marble bishop at him. “Don’t pull the boss card with me, Charlotte. I did it your way and look what happened. Now we’ll do it my way.”

  “That wasn’t my way. It was a solid plan developed by Group personnel. The variables—”

  “Screw the variables. We went in half-cocked with a half-baked plan and you know it. We should have waited until the Group was solid—until Rossi was back on his feet and the dead were buried and everybody was calmed down. Then we should have hunted him down. Both of them. Of course Anetakis knew you were lying. He had a freakin’ DG agent on his payroll.”

  “We didn’t expect Ludka to actually be in the house. Double-crossings are usually handled at arm’s length.”

  “It was stupid to assume he didn’t know.”

  “Are you picking a fight with me because you’re really pissed or because you’re bored?” she demanded.

  “Both. Doesn’t change the fact that there’s no reason you can’t return to New York.”

  “How about because I don’t want to?”

  Had any woman ever been more of a pain in the ass than Charlotte Rhames? “I can’t go after Konrad Ludka with you here.”

  “And I can’t get on a plane and leave you behind.”

  This was exactly why he preferred working alone and had never been married. Partners and women wouldn’t just do what they were told. And Charlotte was both.

  “I’ll stay in this suite,” she said, walking toward him. “I’m not an idiot, Tony. I know if you’re going in hot to take him down, I’m a distraction you can’t afford. I’m not trained for that. But I’m not leaving Greece without you, and I want to be on comm with you the whole time.”

  He was weakening and he hated himself for it. What he should do was knock her out and put her ass on the Bombardier. They’d be in the air before she could do a damn thing about it. But she’d hate him for it, and he couldn’t stand the thought of that.

  “You’ll stay in this room?” She nodded. “And you won’t interfere?”

  “I won’t interfere…boss.”

  He grinned and grabbed the bathrobe sash, pulling her close. “I like the sound of that.”

  “Don’t get too used to it.”

  He kissed the unmarred side of her mouth. He’d been kissing her a lot the last few days. Stroking her hair. Rubbing her back. It was getting harder and harder to back down every time he touched her.

  Tony wanted to spend hours exploring her. Each new thing he discovered only made him want more. She didn’t like her ears touched, but she would stretch her chin up like a cat to have her throat rubbed. Her palms were ticklish, but her feet weren’t. She loved to run her fingers through his hair, lightly grazing his scalp with her nails. He was pretty fond of that one himself.

  Now he deepened the kiss, running his tongue across her lip, letting it dance across hers. She arched her back, pressing her body against his. “You’re driving me crazy, darlin’.”

  “Maybe we should do something about that.”

  Tony’s phone chirped and he let loose a string of expletives. It took every bit of his willpower not to throw the damn thing on the ground and stomp the shit out of it. “Casavetti.”

  Charlotte slid out of his grip as Gallagher started talking. “Marge got a hit on the reward line. He’s hired a small charter outfit to fly him into Berlin. Flight’s arranged for three hours from now. I sent the location to your handheld.”

  Tony dug the thing out from under a pile of DVD cases. “Confirmed.”

  “You got a plan, dude?”

  “More or less.”

  Tony could almost hear the man grinding his teeth. “This ain’t gonna be a walk in the park, Casavetti. He was one of us.”

  “My plan is to be on the plane before him. He boards, I shoot him, you pay the reward to the charter company. No conversation, no gentlemanly trading of punches. Just one dead son of a bitch. And before you ask—or Rossi asks—Charlotte refuses to get on the jet. But she’s promised to stay locked down in this room.”

  “We’d rather she be in the air.”

  Tony sighed. “This is like dating a girl with two heavily-armed and deadly big brothers, you know that?”

  “So you’re dating now?”

  Laughing, Tony looked at Charlotte across the room. She was leaning against the bedroom door jamb, fiddling with the knot of her bathrobe’s sash. “Something like that.”

  “If I wasn’t her heavily-armed and deadly big brother, I’d think you’re one lucky asshole.”

  “You’d be right.” He watched her untie the sash and let the robe slip down her shoulders. “I’ll call you back. My girl’s waiting to kiss me goodbye.”

  —

  Charlotte backed into the bedroom, giving him a come-hither look. She was definitely going to kiss him, and a whole lot more. When he walked out that door, she was going to make sure he had a powerful incentive to come back to her.

  My girl. The words had tripped so easily off Tony’s tongue, but they’d rocked her world. She liked being his girl, and she liked that he wanted Gallagher to know it, too.

  He cupped the back of her head as he lowered her to the bed. His kisses were sweetly gentle, but she could feel the effort of his restraint in his back’s trembling. She threaded her fingers through his thick hair, pulling his face closer. Her kiss was more aggressive, and she could feel the hunger rising in him.

  “You have too many clothes on,” she murmured against his lips.

  It took him less than a minute to remedy that, even with one arm bandaged. Her bathrobe was wide open and she sighed with pleasure when he settled his body gingerly over hers.

  “I don’t want to crush you,” he said when she wrapped her legs around his hips, urging him even closer. “You’re still pretty bruised up.”

  “I’m fine, Tony. I’ve been waiting for this a long time, and I don’t want you to hold back.”

  He blazed a trail of hot kisses across her breasts. “You haven’t been waiting all that long, darlin’.”

  “Years,” she whispered. “You had no idea I was secretly lusting after you while typing out your reports, did you?”

  The trail of kisses took a turn in a southerly direction. “You should have told me. We could have had comm sex.”

  Her giggle became a moan and she arched her back. “I don’t think you can do that over the comm.”

  “Not without disinfecting it first.”

  He kissed his way back to her breasts, lingered there a moment, then continued up her neck.

  “Do you know how long I’ve wanted to do this?” he whispered against her mouth.

  “I’m pretty sure the naughty schoolgirl outfit got your attention.”

  “I admit that gave me a hankering to bend you over that snazzy car of yours.” He raised his head and looked down into her eyes. His smile was as sweet and warm as his kisses. “But I’ve wanted to make love to you—to take my time loving you—since the flight over here, when you took my hand and smiled that sweet, sleepy smile up at me.”

  “Oh, you are a charmer, Tony Casavetti,” she teased, but his words lit a fire in her almost as hot as the one his touch had stoked.

  There was a crinkle of plastic—God only knew what the manager must think of them—and then he finally slid his cock into her. Charlotte moaned at the pure deliciousness that was Tony. She ran her hands over his back, loving the feel of his muscles flexing as he thrust.

  He propped his upper body on his elbows and watched her as h
e slowed, teasing her as his hips made slow, lazy circles. “You are so beautiful, darlin’.”

  “You make me feel beautiful,” she whispered.

  Tony ran his finger over her bottom lip. “I love the way you catch the corner of your lip with your eyetooth when you’re thinking hard about something.”

  He ran his finger down over her chin and she shivered, tilting her head back so he could stroke her neck. “And I love the way you wrinkle your nose when I make you drink your orange juice. And I love your laugh. You have the best laugh.”

  Charlotte slid her hand behind his head and pulled him down for another kiss as her hips arched, urging him to quicken the pace. “Please, Tony…”

  He plunged his fingers into her hair, tugging slightly as he cupped her head in his hands. His thrusts deepened, quickened, and he looked into her eyes. She caressed his face and he caught her finger with his lips, drawing it in. Sucking gently.

  Her body trembled and he rocked his hips against her. Faster. Harder. “I want to watch you come, darlin’.”

  She came, and he kissed her, absorbing her cries with his mouth as the tremors shook her body. And when he followed her over the edge, he said her name in a low, husky voice that made her body yearn for him all over again.

  Tony collapsed over her, though he supported most of his weight on his arms, and pressed a kiss to her mouth. “I’ve thought a lot about how good sex would be between us, and it was even better than I imagined it would be.”

  Charlotte sighed, perfectly content to stay just as they were. “Mmmm…I totally agree.”

  She wanted to curl up against him now and fall asleep while the afterglow still burned. She wanted to feel his naked flesh against hers, warming her, as she slept.

  But he had to go soon. Before he pulled away, heading for the shower, she kissed him again. “We’re going to do that again when you get back, right?”

  “I hope like hell we are,” he said, stroking her cheek. Then he groaned and rolled off the bed. “If I don’t get up now, I’ll never leave you. And I’ve got work to do.”

  “You’ll be careful, right?” She knew it seemed like a pretty straightforward plan, but no plan was bulletproof.

  She didn’t get any answer. He’d already turned on the shower and either hadn’t heard her, or was pretending he hadn’t. Either way, she didn’t feel good about his leaving.

  Konrad Ludka watched Tony Casavetti pull up to the front of the charter airline from the tool shed he’d chosen for its location close to the office.

  He’d chosen this particular company to approach because he’d done business with them before, and he was banking on the Anetakis name still having some juice. He’d scraped together enough cash to get their attention, with the promise of a major payoff when the job was done.

  They were expecting more cash. That wasn’t exactly what Ludka had in mind for them.

  Casavetti looked around, but Ludka knew he couldn’t be seen. He was disappointed the pretty blonde whore hadn’t come with him, but he only really needed one of them for his plan to work. And when it worked, he’d have the money and the leverage he needed to disappear.

  He let one minute pass, and then he crept from the shed. The two men in the office knew exactly what to say and do to buy him the time he needed. After keeping Casavetti talking for five minutes, they’d direct him on where he should park his car.

  The car Konrad slid under with the ease of years of practice. The little black box was triggered by remote, so he didn’t need to waste time on worrying about placement or wiring. He stuck it up inside the rear driver’s side wheel well. He wanted incapacitation, but not death.

  A dead agent wasn’t worth shit.

  Ludka was back in the shed and had the remote armed a full minute before he heard the car start.

  —

  Tony backed the sedan away from the office and swung it around. He whistled an old cowboy song as he drove.

  He was going to make quick work of this job. Get on the plane. Wait. Shoot the son of a bitch and leave.

  He’d go home to Charlotte. Make love to her again before they left for the States. Maybe he’d make love to her on the plane. Then in New York. Then he’d convince her to go home with him to Texas, where he’d make love to her some more. That was a plan he wasn’t going to mind executing.

  For now he made do with calling her up on comm. “Hey, darlin’.”

  “How’s it going?”

  “Checked in with the pilots. Everything’s still on schedule, and there’s no sign of him yet. I’m just moving the car and then I’ll board the plane and wait.”

  “It won’t be long.” She sounded pleased, and he hoped she was as eager for him to come home as he was to go.

  “No, but waiting still sucks. Maybe once I’m in position we could have comm sex while I—shit!”

  The wheel jerked out of his hand as all the glass in the car exploded. He was aware of being tilted—the car was midair. Rolling.

  “Tony?”

  It came down on its roof and Tony fell hard, smashing his head. The car was sliding, sparks shooting out as the tarmac shredded the roof.

  “Tony, what the hell is going on?”

  “Ambush,” he said calmly. He drew the S&W. Waited as the car came to a stop.

  “What do you want me to do?”

  “Be quiet.”

  He listened, expecting shouts, somebody approaching. He heard nothing. If the pilots in the office hadn’t come to investigate, they’d known the car was going to blow.

  He’d been set up.

  A vehicle was approaching from the east side. Tony considered his options, then managed to haul himself through the smashed window on the west side. With the upside-down rental between him and the approaching vehicle, he risked a look.

  Ludka, driving a generic-looking minivan, was bearing down on him. Tony aimed in on him, then had to duck when Ludka reached his arm out his open window and sprayed the rental with bullets.

  Tony held the S&W over the car and fired a few rounds. If he could get Ludka out of the van, he had a chance.

  He was still thinking that when the secondary device blew.

  Chapter Nine

  “You need to stand your ass down, Charlotte Rhames.”

  It wasn’t Gallagher, or even Alex, who hissed into her earpiece. It was Grace Nolan Rossi, and she sounded pissed as hell.

  Good. If she wanted a long distance catfight, she’d come to the right place. Charlotte had already spent ten long, wasted minutes arguing with Marge. “I will not stand down. And I can’t believe I’m hearing it from you, of all people.”

  “What the hell is that supposed to mean?”

  “You didn’t stand down when they took Danny, did you? You sure as hell didn’t stand down when it was time to go in and extract him. And you didn’t exactly stand down when Angelo Contadino was holding a gun on Alex, did you?”

  “Everything I did was within the scope of my skills and my experience,” Grace argued. “There’s not an agent here who doesn’t want you on comm when the shit hits the fan, Charlotte. You’re the best. But we don’t want you picking up a gun and going through the door with us.”

  “None of you are here to go through this door. And what the hell are you doing on comm, anyway? You’re retired.”

  “Yeah, bite me. I got a sitter. Gallagher’s ready to go, and Donovan’s on his way in.”

  “It’ll be too late.”

  “You’re going to get killed and Tony won’t be any better off for it.”

  Charlotte scrawled the last item on the scrap of paper she was working on. “You’d do it all over again for Danny and Alex. Even if you shouldn’t.”

  “Danny’s my son. I love Alex.”

  “And I’m going after Tony.” Because she loved him, dammit, and she hadn’t told him yet.

  “It’s not…oh shit.” Grace was quiet for a few seconds. “Is it a mutual thing?”

  “I don’t know,” Charlotte answered. “And I’m never goin
g to if he dies.”

  She heard Grace talking to somebody away from the microphone and she forced herself to be patient. On the one hand, it would be really nice to do this with the team’s support. On the other, it didn’t matter. She was going after Tony.

  The explosion, the gunfire, Tony’s shouts. The horrific cacophony of sound was still echoing through her ears. The only dim, little flicker of light in the darkness was hearing him struggle before his comm went down. Ludka had the skills and the opportunity to kill him outright, and he hadn’t. Tony still had a chance.

  “You win, Charlotte,” Grace said into her earpiece. “Konrad Ludka just phoned in a request for fifty million dollars. In exchange, we get Tony Casavetti back.”

  “Ransom?” That just didn’t make any sense. Taking Tony made sense in the context of a good offense being the best defense. Or even in some testosterone-laden grudge thing. But money?

  “The thing is,” Grace continued, “we traced back the call. Ludka and the GPS in Tony’s phone and his handheld say they’re in one place. But the secondary GPS you made Tony wear show him somewhere else.”

  Scenarios ran through her head at lightning speed. “So Ludka knew those could be traced, obviously. Standard procedure. He didn’t know about the one tucked under his bandage, though. So Tony’s contained somewhere else, maybe under guard or maybe just restrained.”

  “That’s our guess.”

  Charlotte took a deep breath. Then she crumpled the list she’d made and started a new one. “New plan.”

  “What the hell are you thinking?” Grace demanded. Charlotte told her, and she relayed the information to the others. “Gallagher wants me to point out that it didn’t work out so well the first time.”

  “This time I’m willing to risk it all.”

  The other woman sighed. “We’ve been in contact with Christopher Savakis, and he’s assembling a team—with Rogers, so we can’t send him with you—to hit Ludka’s current location. Apparently, he’s wanted for the murder of Hector Anetakis. Marge is handling them. Once you’re ready, I’ll be with you, Charlotte.”