by Debra Webb
Martinez leveled a savage glare on her. “All we have to do is the unexpected. When the enemy is unknown and unpredictable, you make the target unknown and unpredictable, as well.”
“And just how do you propose we do that?” She refused to acknowledge the hope his words engendered. She wanted so to believe him, but how could he possibly know? He was a cameraman, not a secret agent. No matter how tough the neighborhood he’d grown up in or how street savvy he was at saving his hide, these men were diehard terrorists.
“Martinez is right,” Townsend put in. “So we’ve come up with a plan. To date, you’ve been carrying on with your life as usual. If we go the route your uncle proposes, that’s over.”
Piper focused her attention on the G-man; she didn’t need to keep looking at Martinez anyway. Looking at him only made her want to reach out to him. To somehow promise him that everything would be all right, when she knew she couldn’t.
“In one hour we’re flying to D.C. on a private jet secured by Mr. Camp. In D.C. we’ll be staying in a hotel not far from one of the local television stations. Senator Rominski is taking a weekend trip to New York with his wife just to throw SSU off track. They won’t expect you to be in D.C. if the senator’s not there. Monday morning the interview will be done live from that station and aired right after The Morning Show and before SSU even knows you’re in the city. We’re keeping those who know your plans to a minimum. Only your news director and the senator himself will know you’re in the city.”
Piper was stunned. The interview was happening, and it was going to be televised nationwide for sure? Her uncle’s plan sounded like it might just work to keep her safe and facilitate her career. Of course, he had been in the undercover business most of his life. If anyone could devise a plan to beat SSU and keep Piper happy, Lucas could. And the interview—national. This was good. Really good…wasn’t it?
She looked at Martinez then. “Do you think it’ll work?”
He held her gaze for a long moment before he answered. So much feeling glowed there that it made her tremble inside. What was happening between them? This was about more than just sex, she decided hesitantly. It had been building since the first day she laid eyes on him.
“I think it can work,” he told her without reservation.
Piper let go a long, shaky breath. Well, that settled it. If Martinez and Lucas thought it would work, it surely would. She met Townsend’s expectant gaze. “Let’s do it, then.”
“There’s just one more thing you need to know,” Martinez said, drawing her attention back to him again.
It wasn’t good. She could tell by his closed expression. “And what would that be?”
“The Bureau has a man undercover inside SSU.” Martinez looked away for a moment before he continued. He had wiped all emotion from his face when he turned back to her. “They have some sort of grand finale planned for you. He doesn’t know what it is yet, but whatever it is that’s the reason they’ve kept you alive until now. He’s pretty sure the attempts so far are just for show. Even the one today.”
Piper’s stomach roiled. So this is what he and Townsend had been whispering about. She tried to separate rational thought from emotion, but it wasn’t working too well. We could kill you…at any moment. The memory of that threat echoed in her mind. What Martinez said was right. They were playing some sort of demented game with her. “So, they have something special planned for me,” she ventured hesitantly.
“Apparently,” Townsend answered her. Martinez had fallen silent. “We can only assume it has something to do with the interview of the senator. Since that wasn’t scheduled with your station until a few days ago, we could be entirely wrong, but that’s the thinking at the moment.”
“Or—” Martinez cut in “—they could have someone in the right place and that someone could have known the senator was planning this interview days before the station knew it.”
“That’s possible,” Townsend offered. “But the people working around the senator have all undergone rigorous security clearances and have worked with him for some time.”
“All that means is that whoever it is, has a price,” Martinez countered, his mushrooming agitation more than evident. “And SSU figured out what it is.”
Piper didn’t care what Townsend thought. She had to go to Martinez. She put her arms around his waist and leaned against his chest. When his arms closed around her she felt safe. With him holding her like this she could almost believe that this whole thing was somehow going to work out.
“Can you be ready in one hour, Miss Ryan?” Townsend asked.
She nodded, still clinging to the man who’d made love to her so thoroughly. “But I’m not going without Martinez. He’s my cameraman. He goes where I go.”
“Don’t worry, querida,” Martinez assured her, his deep voice rumbling from his chest. “You’re not going anywhere without me.”
Chapter Ten
The hotel room was dark save for the glow cast by the lamplight from the sitting room. Piper stood near the window, staring into the night. She’d said little since they boarded the Learjet and left Atlanta behind. She’d shown no interest in dinner and had retired to her room soon afterward. Ric watched from the doorway, wishing he could say something—anything—to make her smile again.
He supposed he should just let her be. But he wasn’t at all sure he could do that. She felt like a part of him now. He’d known from the beginning that something special clicked between them, and he’d wanted her more than he’d ever wanted any woman. But their lovemaking this afternoon had sealed his fate. He would never be the same again. He didn’t know how she did what she did to him, but he only wanted to be with her. And that was going to end all too soon.
Ric closed his eyes and pushed away the pain that accompanied that last thought. Their whole relationship was based on a lie. He wasn’t who she thought he was. And he had a bad feeling that she wasn’t going to understand his reasons for keeping his real identity a secret…especially after what they’d shared this afternoon. He swallowed that hard reality and opened his eyes. He’d made a mistake. He should never have taken her to bed with that deception between them. He’d had the perfect opportunity to come clean when she’d asked him how he’d learned to handle himself under fire. But he’d been a coward, taken the easy way out.
He rubbed the back of his neck and considered the next forty-eight hours. The suite they shared had two bedrooms. Would she want him to share her bed tonight? And, if she did, should he with this lie still standing between them? Townsend and Green were right across the hall in a suite of their own. Lucas had hand picked the hotel. Raine would be somewhere nearby. Though Ric was certain he wanted to, Lucas wouldn’t come near the place. He wouldn’t risk being seen on the premises and compromising Piper’s location.
Lucas and his people were working overtime in an effort to stop SSU. Ric hadn’t prayed since he was a kid and had gone to Mass with his mother, but he’d prayed today. He didn’t want Piper to be hurt in all this insanity. He wanted to protect her. Damn him, he wanted to make love to her again. His body stirred at the thought. More than anything, he wanted the chance for her to know him—the real Ric Martinez—and to forgive him for making love to her while this lie hung over their heads. He released a heavy breath, too mentally exhausted to think.
“You know,” Piper said quietly, aware of his presence now, “I still hate this city.”
“Why is that?” Martinez crossed the barely lit room and leaned against the wall next to the window so that he could look at her. “I mean, it’s not like the greatest place on the planet, but it’s not that bad.” He’d had his share of good times in the nation’s capital. None, however, that he cared to talk about at the moment. They either involved work or recreation: a Colby case; or a woman with whom he’d spent a weekend and would never see again. He was glad he’d finally outgrown that foolish need to prove he could have any woman he desired at any time he felt the urge. He settled his gaze on the only one who’d
ever made him think past the moment—made him want a future with her in it.
Piper didn’t answer his question for a while, nor did she look at him. She continued to stare into the dark night. The glittering lights from the windows in the high-rises across the street shone brightly, but not brightly enough to reach this far.
“I was eight years old when my father died,” she finally said. “We lived not far from here. In one of those fancy town houses like all the rest of the people who worked in D.C., but thought they were too good to live in the city.”
“What kind of work did your father do?” Ric already knew part of that answer, but he wanted to know more. And she seemed in the mood to talk now.
She folded her arms over her chest, but still didn’t look at him. “He and my uncle Lucas were CIA field operatives.” She glanced at Ric then. “You know, the black ops guys that aren’t supposed to exist.”
Ric nodded. He’d figured Lucas for the type.
“That’s how my mother met my father,” she went on, her gaze going back to the window. “Lucas brought him home after a mission and it was love at first sight.”
She shifted, and set her chin defiantly as if she had no faith in the concept of that kind of love. “But, as it turned out, my mother was only a mistress. He was married to his career. He loved his job more than he did either of us.”
Ric heard the disappointed little girl in her voice and his heart ached at the sound. “I’m sure the CIA required exclusive devotion,” he suggested in an attempt to throw a different light on the subject.
She jutted that determined chin out again. “It was more than that. I can’t explain it. I was too young to understand fully at the time. But he didn’t have anything at all left for us. On the rare occasions when he was home, he was simply there. He didn’t try to interact with me at all.”
“So you resented him for leaving you when he died.”
Piper laughed, but the sound held no humor. “I resented him a long time before that. I think I resented him even before I was born for making my mother so unhappy.” Piper shook her head. “Despite her perpetual state of sadness, she was completely fooled, you know. Still is. She thought he was this handsome, caring man who loved her more than anything. But the reality was that he loved his career more.”
Ric moved closer to her then. She needed to be touched; he could feel it. He tugged one hand free of her firm stance, and held it tightly. “Is that why you’re afraid of falling in love?”
“I won’t ever trust anyone that way,” she affirmed.
Ric pulled her toward him, forcing her to meet his gaze. “Are you sure it’s not you that you’re afraid to trust, querida?” She looked startled at the suggestion. “Maybe you’re afraid you’ll put your career before the man you love, just like your father did to your mother.”
The man’s perceptiveness astounded her. He was right. The notion had crossed her mind, but she had refused to consider it for long. She didn’t want to be like her father, not in that way. Though her mother had stopped grieving for her father, she still loved him. Fear and that haunting love kept her from having a relationship to this day. Piper never wanted to find herself in that perpetual state of unhappiness, whether caused by the man in her life or by her own single-mindedness toward her work.
“I guess it’s a little of both,” she reluctantly admitted. The new set of feelings his revelation invoked made her frown. No matter what else she felt, the bottom line was self-preservation. She would not end up like her mother. “I don’t ever want to fall for a guy like my father. A regular guy who has no aspirations about saving the world will be fine with me.”
Martinez trailed a fingertip along the line of her jaw, sending desire racing through her. She wanted him again. And then again after that. A smile chased her frown away. His tender touch vanquished the sadness that lingered in her soul.
“But you risk your life for what you believe in,” the man who held entirely too much power over her countered. “Why would you not allow the man you fall in love with the same leeway?”
Piper clasped his hand in both of hers. “I know it sounds selfish. But I just can’t let that happen. It hurts too much to lose that kind of man. I don’t want to fall in love with a hero, Martinez. It’s too hard to let him go when it ends.” She lapsed into silence, remembering. She finally went on when she’d gathered her courage. “One night, a long time after he’d died—” she shrugged “—I don’t know, maybe I was eleven or twelve, I woke up in the middle of the night with this feeling that he’d just been in my room.” She peered up at Martinez. “You know, like he used to do. On the rare occasions when he’d be home, he’d come into my room and watch me sleep. My mother told me it showed how much he loved me and missed me.” Piper shook her head. “But I didn’t believe her.”
“You woke up and he wasn’t there,” Martinez prodded, “and then what?”
Piper allowed the memories to come, something she rarely did. “I was so certain he’d been there. I could feel him.” She held Martinez’s hand to her chest. “So I rushed down the stairs looking for him. And I fell. Knocked myself out cold.” She touched the tiny scar on her chin. “Mother had to carry me to the emergency room. She said it was the strangest thing. There was no blood on the floor and hardly any on my clothes. But the next day she found a bloody handkerchief in the washing machine. One just like my father used to carry in his back pocket. Mother swears his ghost came to my aid while I lay there unconscious.” Piper made another of those strained laughs that lacked amusement. “But, knowing how hysterical my mother always got in a crisis, she probably used the handkerchief on me herself, then forgot about it.”
Martinez wrapped his arms around her and held her against his chest. “We all have our ghosts.”
“Still,” she began again after a long pause, “so many times I could feel him.” She frowned, remembering. “Like at my high school and college graduations. It was like someone was watching me.” She shook her head. “No, not someone—him.” She sighed, disgusted with herself for even remotely believing in such a silly notion. “What about you, Martinez?” She tilted her head to look up at him again. “Tell me more about your childhood.”
He smiled and her heart did a little tattoo. “It was very different from yours, I’m afraid, querida,” he said solemnly.
“Tell me,” she urged, wanting to know more about this man who made her feel such alien emotions.
“We were very poor. My mother and father worked in what you would call a sweatshop. The work was hard and barely paid enough for survival.”
He sighed, the sound making Piper feel sad. She asked, “Do you have any brothers and sisters?”
“One younger brother. We took care of each other while our parents worked their long hours. It was a rough neighborhood. It’s a miracle either one of us survived it.”
Piper turned in his arms and looked at him with new respect. “But you did.” She touched that handsome face, relishing in the feel of his skin. “And your brother, I suppose he was named after your mother’s other two brothers?” she teased.
Martinez grinned. “Carlos Jorge.”
“Where is your family now?”
“Carlos lives in Chicago and our parents died a long time ago.”
“I’m sorry,” she murmured. He still missed them; she could see it in his eyes. She traced his full bottom lip, thinking that one or both of his parents must have been beautiful like him. “The relationship between me and my mother has always been so awkward, I forget sometimes that it isn’t that way for everyone. She’s always abroad lounging around some resort, and I’m always glad. She doesn’t even know about this SSU thing.”
He kissed her forehead so sweetly that Piper thought she might cry. “Love is not always like that, querida.”
“Sleep with me tonight, Martinez.” She pressed her cheek to his chest, needing to feel his heart beat. “I don’t want to be alone.”
He pressed another of those gentle kisses to her hair. “D
on’t worry, querida. I promise you won’t be lonely tonight.”
THE NEXT DAY dragged by like each hour was half a lifetime. Lucas called several times to check on his niece, but he had no news. The tension got the better of Piper by that evening and she started to pace. The old hurt she had revealed to Ric last night seemed to open up and fester with every passing moment. It was as if being in this city made her ill. He wanted desperately to make her feel better. At this rate she wasn’t going to be in any shape to conduct the biggest interview of her career on Monday morning.
Ric finally understood why her career meant so very much to her. He’d thought at first that it was because she wanted to get to the top as quickly as possible, but he knew differently now. It was all she had. All she could trust, because she was in control there. Despite the poverty of his youth, he had never wanted for affection. His family had been close in spite of their circumstances. He and his brother were still extremely close. Just last year Carlos had lent Ric his brand-new SUV, and hadn’t stroked out when Ric returned it a little damaged. Okay, a lot damaged. But Ian Michaels, Ric’s mentor at the Colby Agency, had paid for the damages.
Ric had to find a way to get Piper focused on something besides her current situation. Unfortunately, sex wasn’t the answer. No matter how good it had been last night.
Townsend had come in and out all day, checking on Piper. Green loitered in the hall acting like some sort of social deviant looking for an opportunity to pounce on someone. The guy was about as claustrophobic as Piper. It was a miracle the other guests hadn’t complained. Finally, around nine, the two agents had called it a night. Ric glanced at the digital clock—9:30 p.m. He wondered if he could entice Piper into calling it an early night.
