Athena Force: Books 1-6

by Justine Davis, Amy J. Fetzer, Katherine Garbera, Meredith Fletcher, Catherine Mann

  She opened the door to the first room on the left and found it empty. She closed the door and started toward the next door.

  “¡Parada!”

  Tory glanced over her shoulder and saw one of the guards from the elevator. She sprinted away from him around another corner, dashing into the first open doorway and shutting the door. She scanned the dark room. It was empty. I’m going to have a heart attack.

  A pair of arms came around her. A hard-gloved hand clamped over her mouth, and her head was tilted back at an uncomfortable angle. The body behind hers was hard, masculine and smelled too damned good.

  Tory knew there was no rule that bad guys had to smell bad, but she thought there should be. Her instincts took over. She lifted her left leg and brought her heel down hard on her attacker’s instep, but he didn’t even groan at the impact. Instead he brought one of his legs around hers, trapping her. She tried to move but she was surrounded by his body.

  She heard running in the hall. She tried to glance over at her captor but couldn’t until he released her jaw. Her eyes widened as she recognized the man holding her. His grip loosened as he identified her, as well.

  “What the hell are you doing here?” Bennington Forsythe asked.

  “I think that’s a question I should be asking,” Tory said. She scarcely recognized this Bennington. Instead of flawlessly cut designer clothing, he wore a black T-shirt and jeans. But the biggest change was his expression. Gone was the charming man-about-town and in his place was a dangerous man who made Tory wary.

  Footsteps sounded right outside the door. Bennington cursed under his breath. Grabbing her wrist, he pulled her across the room and into a closet.

  “Quiet,” he said in a whisper that carried no farther than her ears.

  Tory stood tensely next to her friend’s brother, her mind spinning with a totally new puzzle. Bennington Forsythe—international playboy or spy?

  Tory was still trying to process what had happened. One minute she was running from an armed guard; the next she was standing nose to nose with one of the best-known playboys in the Western Hemisphere. Had she taken a turn and stumbled into Alice’s rabbit hole?

  “Bennington, what are you doing here?”

  “Not now.”

  One of the door guards entered the room, walking past their hiding place in the closet. The door was partially open, and she could discern the shadows of the men as they searched the room.

  Their shapes were large and bulky. Tory closed her eyes and slowed her breathing the way she did for yoga, focusing very carefully on making sure that her body relaxed from the sprint into the building.

  Bennington kept his hand over her mouth. Now that the shock of seeing him was rubbing off, her training from her Athena days was kicking in. She heard the men moving in the room and knew the danger implicit in being caught. She’d been the one running from them.

  Actually she’d probably have to rescue Bennington if they were discovered. Despite his long-ago military training, the hardest he’d exercised recently would probably have been in bed with those two supermodels he’d been photographed with. She reached behind her and felt along his belt to see if he was armed.

  His thumb rubbed against her cheekbone, and for a minute Tory totally forgot everything else. They were alone in a small, dark space. Deprived of sight, she felt her other senses were on hyperalert.

  Tingles spread down her body from his caressing thumb. This was the Ben she knew. A charming Casanova with a girl in every port. God, he was an idiot to be on Puerto Isla. But she guessed he wasn’t here for the sport fishing, though it was some of the best in the world.

  The arm he had around her waist tightened, and he pulled her more fully back against him. He spread his fingers and she felt his touch at the bottom of her breast. She shifted in his arms. His hand moved up over her ribs, his touch hot through the layer of her thin cotton T-shirt.

  She stepped down on his instep again. He didn’t say a word but tightened his grip on her.

  Even though two thugs were less than a few feet from them, her mind filled with sexy images of her and Bennington. She needed some space.

  She bit his palm when he didn’t move his hand, but he didn’t drop it. She still had on her backpack so they weren’t pressed too closely together, but he seemed to surround her. He was solid muscle. Maybe he’d had more recent training than she’d thought.

  Using his grip on her, he tipped her head back and whispered straight in her ear. “Quiet.”

  The one word was a command. She nodded to let him know she’d understood. With all those muscles, even if he didn’t have martial-arts training, he’d be able to take care of one of the guys. Quickly she turned, reaching for his waist to see if he was armed or wearing a holster.

  Ben grabbed her hand.

  “What are you doing?” he asked in that soundless whisper again, his hot breath grazing her ear with each word he spoke.

  “Getting ready to rescue you,” she whispered back. Once again she reached for his waist.

  “Patton, don’t push me,” he hissed. He captured her hand in another one of his unbreakable grips.

  “Oh, why not?”

  A chair scraped across the floor in the room, and Tory froze. She strained away from Ben, ready to confront the men searching the room. But he pulled her deeper into the recess of the closet.

  “Enough.”

  She felt him move around her and saw the glint off the barrel of his gun as he pushed her behind him. So he was armed.

  The sliding door scraped along the track as one of the men pushed it open. He played the flashlight over the interior with clumsy skill. A voice called out from the hallway, and the guard turned just before the flashlight would have illuminated their spot. The guard muttered something in Spanish and retreated from the room.

  Tory waited until they could no longer hear the guards, then pushed her way past Bennington, intent on getting some answers. She stepped out of the closet and turned on him. “What was that all about?”

  “Keep your voice down—they could come back.”

  “I know that.” Damn, he’d made her forget her Athena Academy training.

  “What are you doing here?” he asked. Every line in his body was tense. He vigilantly watched the door. Tory couldn’t reconcile the man standing before her with the man she knew as Alex’s brother.

  “I’m looking for Thomas King. I came here to interview him.”

  “How did you know he was here?” His eyes narrowed, she felt caught under his eaglelike glare.

  “My boss got a call from the minister of foreign affairs, Juan Perez. I don’t think it’s been leaked to every network yet.”

  “It shouldn’t have even been leaked to you.”

  “How do you know that? And what are you doing here, Bennington?”

  Before he could answer, they heard footsteps approaching again. The person stopped outside their door, and Tory dropped into a fighting stance as the doorknob turned.

  “Stay behind me, Ben. I have a third-degree black belt in tae kwon do. I’ll protect you.”

  “Like hell. You Athena grads think you can take on the world one-handed,” Ben said.

  “We can.”

  “Not today. I’ve got a gun, and a gun trumps a black belt any day.”

  Chapter 4

  Tory didn’t like taking a back seat to Ben, but she hadn’t made it to the top of a very competitive profession by making stupid choices. And though she wasn’t sure of his abilities, he had a point—guns did trump martial arts.

  He motioned for her to stand to the left of the door as he glanced around the room. She did as she was ordered.

  He kept the barrel of his M-9 pointed toward the door. “You know how to use that thing?”

  He didn’t look at her as he took a pillow from the bed and held it in front of the gun barrel, then moved into position on the right side of the door. She realized he’d been searching for a silencer so as not to announce their presence to the guards searchi
ng the hospital for her.

  “Believe it or not, men trained outside of Athena have some ability with weapons.”

  “Did I offend your manhood?” she asked. Ben knew a lot about Athena because his and Alex’s grandfather Charles Forsythe was one of the academy’s founders.

  He did look at her this time, and even in the shadowed room she could make out his cocky grin. “Not yet.”

  He edged forward and she stayed in position, poised to attack. She remembered midnight training sessions at Athena in which she’d run through the dark, wooded area outside of teacher housing, knowing that other students, all black belts, were waiting to take her down. The exercise had honed her reflexes and stealth skills.

  The door opened and a nurse froze in the doorway. Before she could speak, Tory reached past Ben and pulled the woman into the room with them.

  “We won’t hurt you.”

  Her eyes widened and she started to scream. Tory clamped her hand over the woman’s mouth and pinched her carotid artery. The woman slumped against her. Tory took her under the armpits and laid her on the bed.

  “Let’s go,” Ben said.

  “I need to get to Thomas King. Something weird is going on with him. I can sense it.”

  “Why are you concerned about King?” Ben watched her with narrowed eyes.

  She was surprised that he knew who King was. Some pieces of the puzzle that was Ben Forsythe were morphing shape. “Why are you here in the same hospital as he is? And why are you armed? What do you know about him?”

  “Nothing really,” Ben said.

  “Or if you do, you’re not saying, right?”

  “Tory, just pretend this never happened,” he said, gesturing to the room and himself.

  “You know that as a journalist I can’t ignore this story, Ben. I’m not leaving the hospital until I’m sure King is here and he’s unharmed.”

  “The less you know the safer you’ll be.”

  “I’ve already started asking questions. And I’m not going to stop until I have this story figured out.” Tory moved past Ben, intent on searching the floor and finding out where Thomas King was.

  “I was afraid you’d say that. King’s being moved tonight.” Ben stopped her with a hand on her arm.

  She was surprised he gave her the information. “Where to?”

  “A more secure location.”

  “Ben, what are you doing here?”

  “Listen, I’m kind of busy. Can we talk later, Patton?”

  “Right.”

  Ben tucked his weapon into his ankle holster, and they left the room. The corridor outside wasn’t busy, and Ben glanced both ways before leading her toward the stairwell.

  “I don’t want to—”

  “Trust me, Patton. You’ll still get your exclusive but you need to get out of here now before those guards come back.”

  She nodded. Ben was tall and ruggedly good-looking in this light. He scarcely resembled his newspaper pictures. A beard covered the bottom half of his face, he wasn’t grinning and his eyes didn’t have that vacant expression he usually wore. In fact, he seemed like a highly trained military man.

  Funny that he’d never really looked muscular in his evening wear.

  “I thought you left the military years ago,” she said as they went down the stairs.

  “Who says I didn’t?”

  “I’m trying to put the puzzle together, Forsythe. And most of the pieces don’t fit.”

  “Then don’t force them.” He wrapped his arm around her waist and walked out of the hospital past the guards as if he owned the place.

  Once they were away from the entrance, Tory tried to move away but Ben wouldn’t let her. He pulled her against his body as they walked around the corner of the building.

  He was pressed all along the side of her body. Her face was level with his chest and she leaned her head against him for a moment, guessing that he wanted them to look like a couple as they got away. He smelled good and clean, and for a second she wanted to rest there. To let her heart stop pounding like crazy.

  Give her a lying politician or an apologetic Hollywood superstar who’d been busted for using cocaine and she was okay. But running and hiding from el policía who hated americanos made her feel vulnerable. Something she’d vowed a long time ago to never be.

  As soon as they were out of sight of the guards, she forced herself to shift away from Bennington. Hell, he was Alex’s useless brother. What the was going on here?

  She stopped and turned to stare up at him. “What are you doing on Puerto Isla?”

  “What do you think I’m doing here?”

  “It’s a little too dangerous for you to come down here to chase after your love bunnies, so I’m not sure.”

  He gave her a half smile that took her breath away. “Nice opinion you have of me.”

  “I didn’t know you cared.”

  “I don’t.”

  A patrol of two guards rounded the corner. Ben tensed and swore.

  He backed her against the wall. His mouth moved over hers with none of the skill and finesse she’d have expected of him. Instead she was overwhelmed with raw passion and a primal feeling that welled up deep in her soul.

  His free hand cupped her butt and pulled her fully into the cradle of his thighs. One of his legs slipped between hers. He had her completely protected with his body, and though the threat was imminent she still responded to the passion in him.

  It had been a long time since a man had kissed her like Bennington was doing right now.

  “Helada. ¿Qué usted está haciendo?” one of the guards called out.

  Ben lifted his head, rubbed his lips over hers one time and then glanced over at the guard who’d asked them what they were doing.

  “El intentar conseguir una cierta acción,” Ben said with a grin. Then lowered his head to hers again.

  The guard laughed and walked away, wishing Ben luck. Ben continued to hold her until the men disappeared, and she did her best to ignore the racing through her bloodstream.

  She was here on the job, dammit. And nothing—certainly not Bennington Forsythe—was going to mess with that.

  The afternoon air was thick with the smell of hibiscus, something that always reminded Tory of her mother’s house and the bushes that grew under her childhood bedroom window. She pulled back from Ben. He kept her loosely tucked to his side.

  He put on a pair of sunglasses, shielding his eyes from her. She wasn’t sure she could trust him. He hadn’t said he was in the military, and the Ben she knew could very easily be down here on a lark. Working—or rather playing—at some dangerous game that involved little or no ethics.

  “I can see why you have a reputation as a ladies’ man,” she said lightly. She edged farther away from him. But his hand on her waist stopped her.

  “There’s a lot more smoke to my reputation than substance.” She pushed his hand off. He put it back, more firmly. He scanned the area searching for something. Backup? More attackers? She didn’t know.

  “Actually, Forsythe, I’m beginning to think there’s more substance than you’d like the world to see.” That wasn’t very subtle, but she was on an adrenaline jag from her near escape with armed police.

  “There isn’t, Patton.” His voice was devoid of its earlier commanding tone. This was the Ben she’d run into a few times in Manhattan. Society’s golden boy, who flitted from woman to woman and party to party with little care.

  “Why are you doing this?” she asked. His hand still gripped her waist. She’d always been a little intrigued by Alex’s brother.

  “You heard what I told the guards,” he said.

  “Trying to get a little action? Ben, you’re hopeless.” She tilted her head back and tried to read his eyes, but it was impossible with those dark shades and his guarded expression.

  “Nah, baby. I’m just an all-American male.” He ran one finger down the side of her face. She knew he was playing her. Using the spark of attraction that had developed between them to distr
act her from the questions she was dying to ask.

  “I won’t stop asking until you tell me what you’re doing here.”

  Ben stepped away from her. He took her hand, leading her away from the hospital.

  “You’re not still on about that, are you?” he asked. He pushed his hands through his thick hair and pivoted away from her.

  “I never really left it,” she said softly.

  “Well, forget it, Tory, and forget me. Get yourself off this island as quick as you can. This isn’t the place for you. Who let you come down here?”

  He didn’t sound like Society Sam now. He was pure pissed-off male and Tory bit the inside of her mouth to keep from smiling. She wondered if he’d ever be able to fool her with his charming rogue’s smile again.

  “Ben, it’s the twenty-first century. No one let me come. My station sent me. I was promised an exclusive.”

  He nodded. “Go back to Miami. I’ll make sure you talk to King there.”

  “How can you ensure that? Are you still with the military?”

  “Never mind me. Just get back to your hotel, pack your stuff and get your sweet ass off this island.”

  “My sweet ass?” Tory wanted to smile at him but wasn’t going to. Her mind was swirling with questions and half-formed answers. She needed to write this encounter down on paper. She thought better with a pen in her hand.

  “It’s a phrase.”

  “One most guys are smart enough to keep to themselves.”

  “I haven’t heard any complaints.”

  She narrowed her eyes and stepped away from his touch. “I’m not leaving the island. This interview is my chance to reach the next level in my career. And it’s not like I don’t have the training to handle this type of situation.”

  “God save me from Athena women. Seriously, Tory, forget you saw me here.”

  “I don’t think I’ll be able to do that,” she said. There was something different about Ben in her mind now, and she knew she’d never forget his rock-hard body or his skill and knowledge in getting them away from the hospital.