by Debra Webb
“You.” Esteban stopped his incessant pacing and stabbed a finger in Logan’s direction. “You were the only one who sensed something was wrong. Hector or Carlos should have noticed the man’s agitation.” He shook his head. “There is no excuse.”
“I was closer to him,” Logan offered.
Esteban shook his head. “That is no excuse. Your instincts are better, that is the answer. I think perhaps the Caldarone brothers have become lax in their attitudes.”
Was this an opportunity for advancement, Logan wondered. If so, he’d take it. He’d learned nothing of value since their arrival. Esteban was far too tight-lipped even with his most trusted personnel to reveal his sources and, so far, getting near his personal computer was a bust. Logan needed to complete this mission—pronto. Erin Bailey was driving him absolutely crazy. If he had to spend one more night in that bed with her and without touching her…
He couldn’t think about that right now. He had to stay focused. Esteban was staring at him with an intensity that bordered on lunacy.
“I need new blood in key positions,” Esteban was saying. He halted abruptly and braced his hands on his desktop and leaned forward. “Like you, my new friend.”
Logan shrugged. “I’m ready to do whatever you need me to. Just name it.”
Esteban studied him closer still. “I believe you are.” Something changed in his eyes. “And your wife, she is a valuable asset as well.”
“To me, she is,” Logan said pointedly.
Esteban straightened and stroked his chin thoughtfully. “Yes, yes. Loyalty is of the utmost importance. Without loyalty a man—or woman,” he amended, “is nothing. You cannot be truly loyal and become so lax in your duties.”
“I agree.” Logan forced his posture to relax since Esteban had moved his focus beyond Bailey. Now was not the time for a display of possessiveness toward his undercover wife, Logan realized. He’d acted foolishly enough three days ago after the run to Texas. Bailey had barely spoken to him since.
Esteban sat down on the edge of his desk. “There is a very important job coming up in a couple of days. I would like you and your lovely wife to take the lead.”
Logan sat up straighter, feigning an exaggerated enthusiasm. “We’ll be ready.”
Esteban nodded. “Good. I will have the details worked out soon.”
Logan started to get up, but Esteban delayed him with a wave of his hand. “There is one thing more.”
Going on immediate alert, Logan eased back down into his chair. “That would be?”
Esteban tapped his chin and released a heavy breath. “You and your wife appear to work together quite well. I am very impressed with all that I have seen.” His brow furrowed. “But is everything okay personally? Is the honeymoon over already?”
Realization struck Logan instantly. Of course he’d known their apartment would be monitored. He’d been so concerned about what they said and did that he hadn’t considered what they didn’t say and do.
“Is there a problem?” Esteban suggested.
Well, that was just great. Apparently Logan’s epiphany had also been written all over his face. “No.” He flared his hands. “The opportunity to join your family has been a major change for us.” He lifted one shoulder in a shrug. “We’ve led a rather free lifestyle and this is definitely a radical about-face.” Logan manufactured a sincere smile. “But we’re adapting.”
Esteban acknowledged his explanation with a nod. “I can see how such a change would cause a temporary setback. Well, then.” He stood. Logan followed suit. “I will trust that things are okay.”
“Count on it,” Logan allowed graciously. “I look forward to the upcoming opportunity you mentioned. We won’t disappoint you.”
“I am sure you won’t.”
Logan left Esteban’s private office. He had absolutely no idea how he was going to pull this off. As much as he wanted her, he couldn’t…no, he wouldn’t ask Bailey to have sex with him just to please Esteban.
There had to be another way.
ERIN SLOWED to a fast walk as she rounded the back corner of the main house. She was breathing hard and sweating pretty heavily from her run. With the difference in altitude she couldn’t quite make her usual number of miles, but she wanted to stay in shape. Just in case she had to run like hell to save her hide before this was over.
God, would it ever be over?
Things between her and Logan were so tense now that being in the same room together was like skating on thin ice. One never knew when it was going to crack. They scarcely spoke except when necessary to maintain their cover. They barely even looked at each other.
But the nights were the worst. Lying in bed next to each other. Wanting…needing, but unable to even bear touching. It was truly miserable. If she dreamed of Logan’s making love to her once more, she might just explode! Or jump his bones when he least expected it.
Erin expelled a weary breath. She just didn’t know what to make of this crazy physical attraction. Logan was like the enemy really. Sure he was the good guy and was going to help her get her freedom back…but he was the one who’d gotten her into this mess. So, in effect, he was the enemy.
And she was sleeping with him.
What was worse she wanted to have sex with him almost as much as she wanted her freedom back.
Okay, maybe that was an exaggeration, but it wasn’t far off base.
“Well, well, if it isn’t Miss Athletic.”
Erin resisted the urge to roll her eyes at the sound of Sheila’s annoying voice. Instead, she forced a smile and said, “Hello, Sheila.” In this new nightmare she’d signed on for, Sheila was the bane of Erin’s existence. A real pain in the behind. “Still contaminating your lungs with those cigarettes I see.”
The woman was out of her chair and in Erin’s face before she could gloat over her own wittiness.
“You’d better be careful,” Sheila warned. She waved her cigarette close to Erin’s face. “I can make things pretty hot for you.”
Not really afraid, but too smart not to be a little nervous around the woman, Erin held up her hands. “Just kidding. Just kidding.” Sheila really hated her. Erin was pretty sure it had something to do with Esteban’s obvious interest in her.
Sheila glowered. Her ruby red lips curled in anger. “I warned you to remember your place and somehow you just keep forgetting. This is my final warning. Next time—”
“Mrs. Watters.”
The feminine voice came from somewhere beyond the terrace. Sheila and Erin both spun in that direction. To Erin’s disbelief, Esteban’s sister stepped from beneath the cover of the shaded terrace.
“I would like to speak with Mrs. Wilks privately,” she said, her voice serene, regal, just like the rest of her.
Sheila blinked, disbelief instantly defusing her fury. “Of course.” She slinked away without even a final glare in Erin’s direction.
Erin, too, was in a mild state of shock at the moment. Maria had never uttered a single syllable in Erin’s presence or anyone else’s as far as she could tell. Everyone pretended she wasn’t there. Esteban appeared to want it that way. It seemed to Erin that he treated her rather subserviently, rarely even introducing her.
“You are available to walk with me for a time, yes?”
A newly born cynicism gave Erin pause. Was this a trick question? Was she only going to get into more trouble with Logan if she said yes? Or if she didn’t, would Esteban simply kill her for giving his only sibling the brush-off? Then again, she’d love to know more about this quietly elegant lady. After all, she was in the spy business now.
Curiosity got the better of her.
“Sure. I’ve got plenty of time.” She mopped her brow with the back of her hand and suddenly hoped she didn’t smell to high heaven. She was sweating like a pitcher during the last seconds of the final inning of the game, bases loaded and only one strike to go to win. The outcome could go either way. Not unlike Erin’s own situation.
Maria turned and starte
d in the direction of the garden. At least Erin had been told there was a garden beyond the privacy fence. No one was allowed inside.
The six-foot tall stone wall that served as the fence was covered in ivy and had only one entrance as far as she could tell. An extra wide, arched wooden door and formidable looking lock kept those as curious as Erin out. She’d decided that it most likely hid a torture chamber for Esteban’s pleasure rather than a garden as she’d been told. Why would anyone keep a garden locked?
Now she knew. It was for his sister’s pleasure and he allowed no fraternization with his sister.
Maria unlocked the heavy door and led the way. She closed it as soon as Erin was inside.
“This is my first love,” she explained.
Erin could only stare, openmouthed, at the lush, lovely garden. Roses she recognized, most of the rest were foreign to her…probably indigenous to the area. Then again, she’d never had a green thumb. She’d spent all her time inside an office with only a wide-screen computer monitor and the World Wide Web to keep her company.
“It’s breathtaking.” Erin bent to smell the nearest rose, a deep crimson red.
“Those are my favorite.” Maria snapped off a long stem and offered the lush flower to Erin. “This variety is superb in many ways, color, size, fragrance, but it is even more special than an admirer first suspects.”
Erin took the rose gingerly, hoping to avoid the thorns. To her surprise there were none.
Maria smiled. “The lack of thorns makes the rose perfect. Its beauty is not marred by the threat of violence.”
Interesting. Erin decided the flower was very much like the woman who tended it, beautiful and completely harmless. Such an unexpected thing to find in this world of treachery and murder.
“I didn’t know this kind existed,” Erin admitted. Truth was she knew nothing at all about roses except that she liked to get them from a guy.
“I deplore violence of any sort,” Maria offered as she began to walk.
Erin followed, dividing her focus between the beautifully vivid scenery and the unexpectedly fascinating woman. “I guess that makes life here difficult for you.”
Silence.
Erin wanted to bite off her tongue. Why the hell had she said that? Hell’s bells, was she nuts? There was no way the statement could be taken any way except negative toward the woman’s brother.
Maria looked at her, her black eyes clear, unaccusing. “I find it very difficult.”
Relief, so profound that her knees almost buckled beneath her, rushed through Erin. “I didn’t mean that in a bad way.” Right! Another lame remark.
The woman smiled. “I know you did not. You are not like the rest. I…” She seemed to search for the right word. “I feel no malice in you.”
Erin’s pulse rate picked up. This could be good or bad, depending upon how one looked at it. The last thing she needed was this nice lady blowing her cover. “Well, I can’t claim I’m innocent.”
Maria continued forward, her gaze now on the path before them that wove through the rows of exquisite flowers. “Yes, but you are different from the others. I realized that when you refused to kill Manuel as my brother suggested.”
Damn. Erin knew that little episode was going to come back to bite her in the butt. “I couldn’t kill him for my own mistake,” she hurriedly explained. “The whole thing was my fault.”
“Few would have admitted that truth. My brother was correct.” She settled that serene gaze on Erin once more. “You are a very brave woman.”
Enough talk about her, Erin decided, far too nervous about where this might be headed. “So, how long have you lived here?” she asked, injecting a casualness she didn’t feel into her tone.
“Pablo made this our home ten years ago.”
Ten years. Had Maria never been married? Never had a life of her own away from her brother. “You’re not married?”
Another moment of silence.
Okay, so she’d stuck her big foot in her mouth again. She’d just about gotten used to the taste of shoe leather.
“No,” Maria said finally. “I have never been married. I leave home only to purchase new varieties for my garden. And even then Pablo worries himself sick until I am safely home again.”
In other words, she had no life outside the domain of her brother. She was a prisoner…just like Erin.
She had to ask. Fear of making a mistake pounded in her brain, but she ignored it. She had to know. “Do you ever resent him being so overprotective?”
Maria paused and looked directly into Erin’s eyes. “At times, but he loves me and has only my best interest at heart.” She looked to the north, seemingly far beyond the stone fence that defined this small, fiercely guarded space of hers. “It is a very cruel world. Very little is sacred. It is a constant battle for my dear brother. He works far too hard.”
Erin could only nod, pretending to agree. Old Pablo had this woman completely fooled. She thought he was only protecting her by keeping her locked away here. Worst of all, she believed him to be some sort of hardworking businessman. Erin resisted the impulse to ask her if she knew precisely how her brother earned his living. Thankfully, good sense prevailed and she kept her mouth shut.
Maria started back toward the entrance. “We must talk again soon, Sara. May I call you Sara?”
“Of course.” Erin manufactured a smile. “Thank you for sharing your lovely garden with me.”
“It was my pleasure.”
Erin headed in the direction of the guest house, her mind still reeling with what she’d learned about Esteban’s sister. But the truly scary part was that Maria had hit the nail on the head where Erin was concerned. She wasn’t like the others.
She’d have to find a way to remedy that, but first she had to take a shower.
LOGAN HAD SPENT an hour with Larry Watters and the Caldarone brothers going over the final shipment orders for the weapons they’d stolen three days ago. The one thing Logan did have at this point was a customer list with half a dozen names on it. A few he’d recognized, the rest were new to him.
Mission Recovery would get the scoop on all concerned as soon as Logan was able to get the list to Ferrelli. As the assigned guardian angel, Ferrelli would be in-country somewhere. He would be watching Logan’s every move, when he had the opportunity to make contact he would and Logan would give him the intelligence report.
He heard the muffled sound of water spraying as soon as he entered their quarters. Logan locked the door behind him and headed that way. He knew what he had to do and there was simply no way around it. Esteban was already suspicious.
The room was hot and steamy. Erin’s running clothes lay on the floor, her shoes kicked carelessly aside. She was humming something. Slightly off-key. A smile kicked up one corner of his mouth. That was just one of the little things about her that got to him. He tried to fight it, but it was useless.
He reached for the door, his gaze riveted to the silhouette behind the foggy glass. Studying the barely visible feminine curves of her body was all it took to finish him off. Arousal was instantaneous. He clenched his jaw and told himself again that he had to do this. The mission had to be top priority and their cover was essential to the success of the mission.
The realization that he was fully clothed made him hesitate. He wasn’t about to get into that shower again with his clothes on. Been there, done that. He quickly discarded his shoes and clothes, tossing them next to the others already on the floor. This time when he reached for the door he didn’t hesitate. He opened it and stepped inside.
In the middle of rinsing the shampoo from her hair, Erin’s eyes flew open and she squealed. “What the—?”
Logan closed his mouth over hers. His arms went around her and he pulled her close, forcing her to acknowledge the intimacy of their nude bodies. She pushed against his chest, squirmed in his arms, but he stilled her with his kiss. He plundered and stroked until she felt boneless against him and whimpered in surrender. Only then did he dare take h
is mouth from hers.
“Esteban is listening,” he murmured against the shell of her ear. “He’s suspicious because we’re not having a physical relationship.”
She gasped and attempted to draw away from him once more.
“We have to make this sound real,” he urged. “Trust me. I won’t…” This would be the difficult part. “I won’t let things go too far. You have my word.”
She hesitated, then nodded.
He drew back, his gaze immediately roving her body. He couldn’t help it…he had to see. She pushed the hair back from her eyes and did the same. He didn’t miss the answering spark of desire in her eyes.
Logan turned off the water and led Erin from the shower. He grabbed the fluffy towel waiting on the rack and dried her skin. He rubbed gently, teasing her skin, her nipples with the thick terry cloth. Her breathing grew more rapid, more uneven. His own did the same. He focused on the task, rather than the woman, his body already way past aroused.
He knelt and dragged the towel down each toned thigh and calf. He kept his attention carefully diverted from the wedge of silky blond hair between her thighs. He reminded himself that this was part of the job…necessary to the mission. When she turned for him, he gave the same treatment to her backside. The gentle swell of her buttocks almost snapped his control, but he fought the need pounding in his veins.
It wasn’t until she’d taken the towel and begun to dry him that he was convinced he would never survive this encounter without going too far. And he’d promised…
He led her to the bed and ushered her onto it. Whatever happened next it had to at least sound real. He lay down beside her and those big innocent eyes went even wider with uncertainty.
“Take it easy, Baby. Just let me show you how much you mean to me.”
He kissed her again, laved her lips, the innermost recesses of her mouth. Her fingers splayed over his chest, restraining, yet at the same time unwittingly encouraging. His arousal nudged her thigh. She moaned softly and her nails bit into his skin. Driven by the fever raging inside him, he kissed her chin, down the length of her creamy throat, then lower. When he reached her breasts, he traced the smooth globe with his tongue. Every instinct warned him that this was going too far…but nothing short of sudden death was going to stop him.
