by C. J. Miller
“We’ve got fourteen minutes until the deadline,” Finn said, sweat dripping down his temples.
Hyde took a cloth from her handbag and dabbed at his face. “Told you we could do this,” Hyde said. Fourteen minutes was cutting it close, but as far as they’d come, they’d make it.
They wheeled the casket onto the dune buggy and secured it with bungee cords and ropes.
On the drive to the mansion, Hyde inspected her nails and tried to keep her eyes off the man next to her. Sharing with Finn the story of their baby had unleashed a dam of emotions and she was trying to hide it. Hide it from him, from Barnett and to protect herself.
She must look a disgrace. Her hair was knotted in a messy bun, her clothes were rumpled and she was in need of a shower. In keeping with her character, she made a mental note to complain about the physical labor involved in moving the casket and demand time at the spa.
Taking a deep breath, she cleared any panicked thoughts. Showing weakness was unacceptable. She held on to her story that the body in the casket belonged to Ramirez. If Barnett smelled a lie, he would kill them.
Finn didn’t knock as he strode into the house. Barnett’s staff met them in the entryway.
“We need to see Barnett,” Finn said.
Barnett’s butler nodded and escorted them to Barnett. He was lying next to Ruby on lounge chairs poolside, drinking yellow cocktails, a tray of fresh-cut fruit set on the table next to him.
Watching them, Hyde felt a stir of irritation. She and Finn had been through physical and mental challenges over the last three days whereas the criminal was relaxing comfortably, sipping drinks. Hyde wouldn’t miss this part of the spy life. Karma was supposed to slap bad down, but Hyde didn’t think it worked fast enough.
Ruby smiled and sat up, waving. Barnett looked at his phone. He smirked. “Almost didn’t make it.”
Finn touched his bandaged shoulder. “You didn’t give us much time.”
“I assume since you are here, you’ve done as I’ve required,” Barnett said.
Finn handed Barnett a device with the money-routing information. “Casket is out front. Bank information on the device.”
The West Company deposited the money into an untraceable account offshore. Barnett would have no trouble accessing it. If he moved the money into his accounts, the action would have the added bonus of allowing the West Company to track Barnett’s accounts, too.
Barnett took the device from Finn. He called someone on his phone. Two men came from the main house and Finn reached for his weapon, his body tensed.
Despite their willingness to play Barnett’s game, she and Finn didn’t trust him. Barnett had created a difficult task to prove loyalty. They were experienced spies, but without their resources, they may have had to kill Ramirez and they wouldn’t have been able to move the money in time.
Barnett held up his hand to Finn. “They will not shoot you.” Addressing his guards and tossing them the bank account device, he said, “Confirm the identity of the body and the amount in the account.” The guards left and Barnett returned his attention to Finn and Hyde. “Have any troubles?”
His tone put Hyde on alert. He couldn’t have uncovered their identities. They were careful. The West Company were master spies. Barnett could have had his lackeys kill them.
Finn stared at Barnett. “I had three days. It wasn’t easy. I took a bullet in the shoulder.”
“Did you accomplish the task alone?” Barnett asked.
Hyde’s instincts screamed warnings. Her gun was at her thigh. She moved her fingers toward it.
Barnett knew something. He was testing them. He couldn’t know about their connection to the West Company.
“I didn’t work alone,” Finn said.
Barnett waited. Finn remained silent.
“Was she with you?” Barnett pointed at Hyde.
She and Finn hadn’t discussed how they would address her involvement if questioned about how they had found and tracked Ramirez. To this point, they were pretending she hadn’t been.
Finn nodded. “She was for the final leg of the journey.”
Barnett rose to his feet. “I want full disclosure of what happened on the mission.”
“Revealing my methods and resources weren’t part of the arrangement,” Finn said.
“If you work with me, I don’t cut other people in. I like to know exactly who is involved with my business. No subcontractors who I can’t control.”
Hyde sensed a standoff. She needed to say something or Barnett would boot them out. They’d come so far.
She stepped forward, setting her hand on Finn’s arm. “It’s okay, Finn. You don’t have to protect me or who I am.”
Three pairs of eyes swerved in her direction. Ruby’s eyes were wide. Barnett stared at Hyde, his gaze drilling into her.
Finn’s hand was near his weapon. “You don’t need to out yourself.”
Barnett was looking for them to reveal something. “I don’t like to discuss this and Finn knows that. But I sense I will have to tell you the truth if we want this business partnership to work.” She took a deep breath for dramatic effect. “My father was a thief. He taught me to be adept with a gun in a fight. So while I have no interest in being a petty crook, I helped Finn. I knew he was against the wall with the timeline and what he needed to do, so I had his back.”
Barnett assessed her. “You don’t seem like someone who gets her hands dirty.”
She lifted her chin and squared her shoulders, setting her hand on her hip. “It’s not the life I want and I’ve made that clear to Finn. My dreams are different than carrying a gun. I do what’s needed to help my man. He had three days and the task was difficult. I’ve known Finn long enough to know when he’s under the gun and I wanted to help. Making this deal would be a life changer for us. But now that you mention it, I don’t like being dirty and I want a shower and some spa time.”
Barnett stared at her. Was he wondering if she was lying? Hyde wouldn’t babble. She had said her piece. If Barnett didn’t buy their story, they would shoot their way off the island. Her fingers tingled, thinking about the gun at her thigh.
“Barnett, they did what you asked,” Ruby said. She set her hand on his arm.
Barnett’s gaze swung to Ruby. “I didn’t ask you.”
Ruby snapped her mouth shut and lowered her head. In their absence, nothing had changed between Barnett and Ruby. He was dismissive and rude, but at least Ruby was alive.
Barnett looked at Hyde and scowled at her, perhaps trying to intimidate her. “Then you aren’t the helpless damsel you pretend to be.”
“I’ve never pretended to be helpless. I am capable of protecting myself and the people I love. But don’t mistake my involvement here. I support Finn. If this is what he wants to do, I’ll be here for him.” The truth of the words flustered her.
She met Finn’s gaze. Heat flowed through her and having him close, some of her edginess dissipated and was replaced with confidence and trust. Confidence that together they could do this and trust that he had her back.
“I couldn’t ask for a better woman,” Finn said.
She hadn’t known true companionship until she had met him.
Barnett sniffed. “If the body and money check out, I’ll send someone to escort you to dinner. If it doesn’t, I’ll send someone to your villa to kill you.”
* * *
“You didn’t unpack this time,” Finn said.
While she’d showered, he’d finished sweeping the room for bugs and had turned on a device to block unauthorized signals from monitoring their room.
Even knowing they weren’t being watched, Hyde couldn’t bring up what was weighing on her mind. She kept to mission-related details. “It might not be worth it. Barnett could have wanted Ramirez dead and be happy to have us take care of
it. Our partnership with him might end here.”
Barnett screwing them over wasn’t unexpected. Barnett claimed to want Finn’s help with distribution of his drug, but Hyde wouldn’t put lying past Barnett. They were lying, too.
Finn slipped his hands into the pockets of his cargo shorts. “He’ll invite us. We bring value to his organization.”
“Do you think he believed me?” Hyde asked.
“I almost believed it.”
Hyde rubbed her eyes. She wanted to be flat-out honest with Finn and then go home. To say those difficult words that were taking her over. A future could be on their terms, compromise, bargaining and discussing. They would have to come a great distance to find middle ground.
Like she had done for the last ten years, she stuffed those thoughts away into the darkest corners of her heart.
“Was it prison?” he asked.
Her heart beat fast and she felt ill, the way she did anytime someone mentioned La Sabaneta. “What about prison?”
“You froze. In the field. Was it because of prison?”
Her time in prison would haunt her for the rest of her life. Working hard to make her peace with it, she had come a long way. But she would never get over what had happened there. “I didn’t freeze because of prison. Or maybe I did, at least in part. My time there affects every moment of my life. I wasn’t thinking about La Sabaneta.” It was Finn. She had been thinking and worried about Finn.
Finn crossed the room to her perhaps sensing she needed him. He slipped his arms around her waist. Heat spiraled between them and she didn’t want to push him away. He knew her most painful secret and he was still here. Leaning into him, it felt right and good to be in his arms. She had worried she would feel misunderstood or judged. She felt neither.
“It’s hard to imagine this life without you,” Finn said.
This life or his life? For her, it was both. He couldn’t make the same leap. “I am ready to move on from this.” But not ready to move on from him. She couldn’t think of a way to keep him in her life and walk away from being a spy.
Finn’s arms tightened around her. “I wish I could change your mind. The times I’ve spent with you were some of the best of my life. Even this mission, having you with me has been great.”
Sentimentality pulled at her heart strings. Some of her most fun adventures had been with him at her side. He was the bright spot in her days. She had deliberately shut him out of her life during a time of enormous need, and that had been a mistake.
Hyde lifted her face. Finn brushed his nose lightly against hers and then lowered his mouth and kissed her softly. He made a sound of contentment.
He leaned away. “Don’t tease me, Alex,” he said.
“I’m not teasing you,” she said. What was she doing? It was hard to think with his arms around her. Lust overrode clearheaded thinking.
He kissed her again, deeper, more thoroughly, their tongues brushing each other, his hands moving to her lower back. He pulled her against him, holding her along his long, muscular body. The kiss consumed her, and Hyde arched to be closer to Finn.
He walked her toward the bed and with every step, another article of clothing hit the floor.
When she felt the mattress at the back of her thighs, she sat, pulling Finn with her. Shirtless, he was a sight. She drank him in, the hard planes of his body, his sculpted jaw and cheekbones, the strength in the rippling muscles of his body. She lightly touched the edges of the bandage around his upper arm. “Does this hurt?”
“It’s manageable,” he said. He had refused to take heavy-duty painkillers in order to keep his thinking clear.
Finn moved fluidly, like a predator, and Hyde enjoyed that. Positioning himself over her, he let the weight of his body press her to the mattress. Her bra and panties were frustrating barriers between them.
He rocked against her, mimicking what he planned to do, reminding her of the steamy, long nights they had spent together. Heat streaked through her and she felt relaxed, as if being with him transported her to a different place. A place where only pleasure and happiness existed. Meeting him after missions was therapeutic. Even when they could only be together for a few hours, those few hours were as rejuvenating as a week at a five-star resort.
If these were their last days together, they should enjoy them and each other. That may make the heartbreak more profound when they parted ways, but based on how she was feeling, that pain would run deep. Finn’s hand brushed her hip and Hyde stopped moving.
“Stop.” She spoke the word on a whisper. All she could imagine was losing him and how taking this step would make it worse.
Finn moved off her immediately. He sat on his haunches, confusion plain on his face. His hair was mussed. Had she done that?
Before she could say anything, they heard a knock on the door.
“I thought we had a few hours,” Finn said, sounding irritated.
Barnett could have decided that she was lying and had sent a team of men to kill her. But murderers didn’t knock. Finn grabbed his gun and Hyde rose from the bed, searching for her clothes and her weapon. When she had on her shirt, pants and gun, she answered the door.
A man Hyde had never seen stood at the door. Close-cropped dark hair, clean shaven, dark eyes and shorter, but stockier, than she was, he extended a tan envelope to her and said nothing. When she took the envelope, he turned to leave.
Finn came to her side as she opened the envelope. Their shoulders brushed and heat traveled up and down her spine.
“Barnett is inviting us to dinner.” Relief washed over her.
“Does that mean we’re in?” He seemed skeptical.
“I suppose. For now.” Enough time hadn’t passed for Barnett to confirm their story and the details of Ramirez’s capture. Hyde didn’t like having that hanging over their heads. How would Barnett react if he learned that she and Finn were playing him?
Hyde closed the door and slipped the letter into the envelope. “I need to get ready.”
She wanted to put distance between her and Finn. If they hadn’t been interrupted by the door, what would have happened between them? She had put the brakes on what they’d been doing, but she couldn’t deny her attraction to Finn or the urge to connect with him in a meaningful way.
This space was too small, their history too deep. That sense of connection, that rightness, stretched between them. After this mission, she would say goodbye to Finn. Hyde kissed his left cheek. She kissed his right cheek. Then she pressed a kiss to his mouth.
A million emotions sprang up inside her when their lips met. Lust and desire escalated out of control and in the span of a few seconds, she relived some of the most amazing experiences of her life. Horseback riding in Barcelona, blueberry picking in Lima, waterskiing in Sydney, and whale watching in Hawaii, all with Finn. Finn’s sense of adventure, his bravery and his compassion were some of his best qualities. Their connection was unmatched.
Finn knew how to touch her, what she liked and how to please her. A confident and strong lover, he met her exuberance, stamina and ferocity and was gentle when she needed it.
Finn ran his hand down her bare arm and interlaced their fingers. Bringing her fingers to his lips, he kissed each knuckle and then knelt on the floor in front of her.
He was almost down on one knee, and her heart fluttered, but Finn wasn’t and wouldn’t ever propose. Family and commitment weren’t in his future. The life he had was all he wanted. She was the one who had changed and she couldn’t fault him for that. From the start of their affair, he had been honest about loving his work. Settling in one place for any length of time didn’t fit the job description.
“Round two? This time I can win you over,” he said.
He unfastened her pants and slid them down her legs. With quaking knees, she stepped out of them. His hands parted her thighs and h
e moved between them.
“Tell me to stop and I will,” he said. He had when she’d spoken the word earlier.
His whiskers brushed her inner thigh and he kissed higher to the apex of her thighs.
“Pink. Cotton. Practical and sexy,” he said.
He didn’t remove them. Her heart was pounding and she felt like she was watching him in slow motion. It would feel good to strip off every article of clothing and writhe naked in bed with him. Her emotions were a jumbled mess and she couldn’t resolve her desires with her worry.
He stood. “I wondered.” He ran his finger along the top of her underwear.
“About my underwear?” she asked.
“Whenever we’ve met in the past, you had the most incredible underwear. I wondered if that was an everyday ritual or something for me.”
Both. When she bought new clothes and shoes and packed to meet him, she thought about Finn and what his reaction would be to seeing them. She enjoyed his happiness and fascination with her. “After pretending to be a man in prison, I promised myself that when I escaped, I would take every opportunity to embrace being a woman. I like beautiful things.”
“You’re an amazing woman. Gorgeous. Smart. Talented.” His finger grazed languidly along her skin, teasing her.
“Thank you.”
“You blush when you’re given a compliment.”
“I don’t,” she said. She was in careful control of her emotions and while Finn’s praise has pleased her, she understood the limited value of flattery and compliments.
“That’s what makes you even more beautiful. You’re not vain about your looks.”
Finn rose and pressed a kiss to her lips. He didn’t deepen it. His mouth lingered against hers. Something inside her gave way and she looped her hand around the back of his neck and pulled him against her. She jumped and wrapped her legs around his waist.
His hardness pressed against her core and she moaned. She opened her mouth wider and her tongue sparred with Finn’s. Forking her fingers into his hair, she felt the silky strands between her fingers. How did he feel so good and soft, while being so hard and strong?
