“I don’t like this.” Matías frowned. “I came down here to buy a shipment of coke I already have buyers for. Now, you want to change the deal.”
“It’s the same deal, my friend, but if you consider partnering with us, you get a bigger percent of the profits. We will sell to you for a cheaper price, but only if you do a larger volume for us.”
Matías got up and began pacing the plane. His shoes pounded on the metal floor, punctuating each step. Victor ignored him and instead stared at her, his gaze sliding over her skin as if he were stripping her of her clothes. She fought the urge to shudder and turned to watch Matías, folding her arms over herself, wishing the Columbian would go away.
“I don’t like this deal.” Matías stopped his pacing, facing them with his hands on his hips. “If you’d wanted to offer a partnership, you shouldn’t have lured me out here under false pretenses.”
Raven swallowed. Was it a good idea to tell a drug dealer with an entourage something like that? She was in over her head, that was for sure.
“I know, my friend, and I understand your concerns. I told my boss this was a bad approach, that I should do the deal we agreed to, and bring you back again to pitch you the partnership, but they say we need you now.” Victor shrugged. “Please, if you would consider it, we can get you a hotel and talk more tonight over dinner.”
“I have plans, deadlines to make,” Matías said. He was laying on the displeased act thick. Or maybe it wasn’t an act?
“They couldn’t wait one night for you to hear us out?”
Matías paced the length of the plane once more and back again. He placed his hands on his hips and stared at a spot on the floor. The seconds stretched on while they remained frozen in this tableau. Would Matías stay? Raven didn’t like the idea of leaving him alone. Sure, she knew he went into dangerous situations by himself all the time. But not right in front of her. She couldn’t leave him.
Finally, he lifted his gaze to Victor.
“I don’t like it, but it is an offer worth considering. Give Raven some time to secure the plane and we will go with you.”
Wait—what? She stared at Matías, but he didn’t glance in her direction.
Victor clapped his hands and stood. “Wonderful.”
Raven was supposed to be home tonight, so she could tell her uncle and grandfather she was taking her crop duster and leaving. She wasn’t an undercover agent, this wasn’t what she was trained for.
“I must make preparations for tonight. We want you to be comfortable. I will leave one car for you, and they can take you to the hotel.” Victor continued to relay details to Matías, but she couldn’t focus on them.
She couldn’t do this. This was crazy. She was a pilot. She flew planes, she didn’t do the secret agent bullshit. Maybe she could fly back, say there were obligations she couldn’t get out of.
“Hey, you okay?” Matías knelt in front of her. The English, more than anything else, broke her out of her trance.
“No.” She shook her head. “What’s going on?”
Victor was gone, but she could hear him talking to someone outside.
“Is there anything we need to do to lock the plane up? We’re going to have to leave it.”
“Can’t you go without me? Can’t I go home?”
Matías took her hands, his touch once more grounding her. “We only have a few minutes, and I’m sorry, but we have to do this. Please? I’ll explain it all later.”
“But—I’m not like you.” She pitched her voice low, scared to say anything else.
“I know, but I’m with you. Just follow my lead. You’re doing beautifully.” He squeezed her hands. “We’ll get a shower at the hotel, I’ll get us a change of clothes, we’ll do dinner and be out of here first thing in the morning, okay?”
“I can’t do this.” She shook her head.
“Raven—please? This is the kind of break we’ve been waiting almost ten years for. I know the plan was to stop him, but…this is bigger than us. All you have to do is sit beside me and act bored.”
It didn’t sound so bad when he put it like that. Matías would be there with her. Once Victor had gotten on a roll, he hadn’t been interested in talking to her. Maybe she could sit on the sidelines, eat her food and be completely mute the whole time.
She nodded. “Okay.”
“You good?”
“No, but I don’t have a choice, do I?”
“Not really, I’m afraid.”
She blew out a breath and stood, Matías rising with her. He drew her into a hug she desperately needed.
“I’m going to be right here with you through all of this. I’m sorry I threw it out there that we’re together, but it was the only thing I could think of in the moment.”
“No, no, it’s fine. That guy gives me the creeps anyway.”
Matías grimaced. “If you ever find yourself alone with him, get somewhere else. Promise me, okay?”
She nodded, still too shaken up to give more of a reply. Raven had never been the kind to shy away from anything, but she was out of her element. At least she had her sexy secret spy to keep her safe.
chapter three
Matías turned every lock on the flimsy door to their hotel room. It was more to ease Raven’s mind than a real security measure. One hard kick and the hinges would pop off. Still, Raven needed to feel some measure of protection and the locks were all he had to offer. The only other things in his possession were a briefcase full of money, a gun, and a phone. He didn’t even have a change of clothes or a comb on him.
They were, to a word—fucked.
“Is Victor going to be mad we didn’t take their hotel room?” Raven spoke softly, but she needn’t worry. The walls in the cheap hotel might be paper thin, but the patrons had no interest in them.
He wished he could offer her a bunker and a couple of body guards. If it were just him, he’d be fine. Danger was part of his job. But Raven? He hated that she was here, in the middle of all this.
“No, Victor won’t be angry. He would have refused a room I offered him, too. He might pretend to be offended, but I’m showing him that I am his kind of man.” Matías put his back to the door and turned to watch her. As if this change in plans weren’t bad enough, he was going to have to spend more time telling himself Raven was strictly off limits. Her smile, that laugh, they did things to him. Made his insides…shift.
She set the wire crate down on the floor and opened the gate. The dog waddled out and sat at her feet, as if he too were worried.
“How long before he needs to go out again?” Matías had to consider their security. They would be at a decided disadvantage here, with regular, unprotected trips outside. He wasn’t too concerned about the instances when he could be with her, as much as he was when he couldn’t be.
“Not for a few hours. I can take him out before…before we leave.” She glanced away. During their drive and the arguing over the hotel, she’d sat by, shaking her head or shrugging when a question was aimed at her. But her serene composure was beginning to crack.
Matías took her hand and led her to the bed.
“Sit,” he ordered.
The mattress squeaked as she sat. He knelt on one knee and took her hands in his. They were working hands that knew how to use a wrench and weren’t afraid to get dirty. She had long, delicate fingers. At some point recently, she’d painted her nails yellow. Her favorite color. A small detail he’d learned so long ago that he couldn’t remember a time when he didn’t associate the cheerful shade with her.
She stared at their joined hands, her eyes growing a bit larger. He’d found that physical contact helped ground people in stressful, unfamiliar circumstances. It was a BDSM tactic he’d brought into the rest of his life, especially when dealing with civilians or people caught up in the wrong situation.
“Take a deep breath.”
She closed her eyes and inhaled deeply.
“That’s a good girl,” he muttered.
She chuckled and opened
her eyes, her gaze a little steadier.
“You okay?” he asked.
“Do you want the truth?” One side of her mouth hitched up, and for a moment, he wasn’t in a dirty motel on a mission, he was somewhere sunny, with a brisk breeze—with her.
“Always.”
“No, I’m not okay. I’m scared, and there’s not a lot that scares me. I’ve crashed my plane, been caught up in sandstorms so strong they nearly flipped me out of the sky. This? This is freaking me out a little.”
He nodded, though he hated her answer and that he couldn’t comfort her better. “Any normal person would feel that way.”
“Well, that’s a relief.” She rolled her eyes.
The dog whined. He glanced down at the little animal, who was pressing himself against Matías’ side. If he had to be strong enough for human and animal, so be it.
“I need to call my people and let them know what’s going on. After that, we’re going to run through everything for tonight. I’m going to need you to concentrate and remember a lot of things. We won’t have another opportunity to talk freely here. We picked this hotel at random, so there’s no chance it’s bugged, but once we leave, anything is possible, so I want to make sure you know as much as you can handle. Do you need a nap, or food, or a shower before we do this?”
“Showering? In this place?” She wrinkled her nose.
“I’m sorry, I’m flying by the seat of my pants here.”
“I’ll lie down. I probably won’t sleep, though.” She seemed to have regained her cool composure.
Raven was a truly remarkable woman. He’d always marveled at how quickly she adapted. There were plenty of other people who would have crumbled the moment Victor walked onto the plane. She’d taken it in stride and adjusted, fitting herself into the role that presented itself.
In another life, she’d make a great agent.
He lifted her hands to his lips and kissed the knuckles of one and then the other. He told himself it was because they needed practice at acting like a couple, but in truth he wanted to. He always wanted to be nearer her warmth, that glow that he felt whenever he was near her. One side of her mouth hitched up and she bent her head a little in a girlish manner.
“Lie down.” He picked up Níłch’i and set him next to her, staying by the bed until she was settled, curled up on her side with the dog nestled against her chest.
The hotel room didn’t provide much privacy, but at least he knew there couldn’t be any listening devices in here. It was the main reason he’d pushed so hard to stay away from Victor’s prepared room. There was no doubt in his mind that the Columbian would have been listening to their every word.
He went into the bathroom and shut the door. The enclosed space had no vent, so it smelled slightly of metal and mold mixed together. He would not be showering here either, and his standards weren’t that high. Matías turned on the sink and bathtub faucets. As counter-surveillance measures went, they were about as low-tech as you got, but if someone were trying to listen in, all they’d hear was garbled noise.
Matías pulled out his cell phone and dialed a back-up number he’d know in his sleep. It was a backdoor number into the agency.
“Joe’s Bar and Grill,” a voice answered.
Really?
He rattled off his ID number, name, and handler to the woman on the other end of the line.
“One moment, sir.”
Matías stared at his reflection. There wasn’t enough space in this closet to take a single step, so he bounced on the balls of his feet. His tics were getting more pronounced in the field. He used to never give away anything, but instead of getting better at it, he was losing some of his edge. Which was exactly why he needed out now. His heart wasn’t in it anymore.
Eddie answered the phone, and in as short of a description possible, he relayed the events to his handler.
“The team was starting to get worried you hadn’t shown up yet. I’ll get someone on the phone to tell them to immediately stand down,” Eddie said.
“Make sure they don’t leave the site until shift change, or it will look suspicious,” Matías said. Decisions the suits, or supervisors, made weren’t always the best for field work. His handler and bosses had never seen a day of what he did, and never would.
“Good idea. Now, what are you planning to do at this meet?”
“Go. Hear him out.” Matías blew out a breath. “If we’re lucky, he’ll tell me something that will let us know where their headquarters is. Maybe then we can arrange to do the buy bust when I go to leave. He’s still going to sell the product to me, just not right now. Tomorrow, probably.”
“Okay, I’ll have the team down there on standby. Do you need anything else?”
“A change of clothes would be nice. Oh. One bad thing.”
“What’s that?”
“Raven’s still here with me. Someone needs to let her family know she’s okay and will likely be out for a while. Let me know if they need to talk to her? They’ll probably need some talking off the ledge.”
“How are you going to work her into your identity?”
“She’s my girlfriend.”
“Good, good.”
“I need to go. Sorry to make this brief, but I have a lot to prep her on.”
Matías hung up the phone and blew out a breath. Maybe he could have refused the offer from Victor, but that would be because Matías didn’t want to do it. José was a man with certain tastes who liked money. Victor’s offer was too good, which was probably why he’d made it. Matías—José—was being lured into something. What? He didn’t know yet, and likely wouldn’t be excited about it, either.
He opened the bathroom door, a rectangle of light falling across Raven’s face. Her eyes glinted. He crooked his finger, hesitant to speak more than necessary. She sat up, head tilted to one side, but got out of bed and came to him—no questions asked. He closed the door behind her and they shuffled around until she stood in front of the toilet with him by the vanity.
Raven reached past him and turned the sink faucet almost off. He hadn’t noticed the water about to run over, because he’d been too wrapped up in himself.
“What’s going on?” she asked.
“It makes it harder for people to listen in on us.”
“Yeah, I watched spy shows, I get this.” She waved to the sink and tub. “But what’s next?”
“I need to teach you everything you need to know about José Gonzales.” He crossed his arms over his chest. There were a hundred nuances that went with an identity like this one. He’d played the role of José for years, developing his character, creating likes and dislikes. How could he teach them all to her in the matter of a few hours?
Raven lowered the toilet lid and sat down.
“First, if you feel out of your element, freaked out or don’t know what to say, ask me, What do you think? It’ll be our code for me to take over and try to get us out of whatever situation we’re in.”
“Okay, got it. What do you think?” She nodded.
“My name is José Gonzales, I’m from Juarez, but I haven’t been back there in years because of some bad blood between my uncle and I. There was also an incident with the Carrillo and Fuentes families that made me leave, which is how I got into the narcotics trade. Now, for the last—”
“Wait, wait, wait.” Raven waved her hand. “How long have we been dating?”
“I…don’t know. What’s reasonable?”
“My point. Let’s say we’ve been dating a month—I’m not going to know all of that. What I will know are things like, do you tilt right, or left? How you like your pizza, your mixed drink or beer of choice. If we stick to a short relationship, I don’t have to know everything about José.”
“Do I tilt right or left?” He squinted. What was that supposed to mean?
“You know, when you kiss, which way do you tilt?” One side of her mouth hitched up in the most fascinating way.
Kissing, displays of affection—he hadn’t even g
otten that far yet. He was worried about the details.
“I…don’t know which way I tilt.” When was the last time he’d kissed someone?
“But do you get what I’m saying? There’s no way I’m going to remember who you had a beef with years ago, and really, what’s the chance they’re going to ask me? I get the feeling that to them, I’m little more than wallpaper.”
Maybe he should have let her nap a little longer. She was firing on more cylinders than he was. Then again, he’d never had to transform a civilian into an undercover agent in a matter of hours. And she had some good points. Victor would admire her, probably flirt with her and if he were really ballsy, attempt to grope her at some point, but that could be the extent of her interaction with him.
“Okay. So, where did we meet?” he asked.
“The airstrip. He already knows Hokee. Stick to as much of the truth as we can.”
They were on the same page. He nodded, a little bit of hope coming back.
“What was our first date?” he asked.
She pursed her lips. “I flew us somewhere, and you took me out to a fancy dinner.”
“Puerto Vallarta. I’ve established that I do business out of there. I bought you a dress—”
“Yellow.”
“—and we rented a bungalow for the weekend. We haven’t been apart since.”
She grinned at him. “Sounds like a great getaway.”
“It is. I’d like to actually see the place someday. Stay at the Barceló and actually get to enjoy it.” He knew the ins and outs of all the airports, who hung out in what bars, but the tourist stuff that everyone else knew was a mystery to him. Someday, he’d travel and actually enjoy it.
“What’s your favorite place you’ve been to?” Raven asked.
“Who? José or Matías?”
“You.” She chuckled.
She had no idea how confusing of a question that was. Who was he? José? Or Matías?
He pondered the question for a moment. This job had taken him all over North and South America. He’d seen places most people would only ever read about, a few that would never make it onto a map, and yet, there was only one place he wanted to be.
Entrusted: A Drug of Desire Novel Page 4
