Beneath the Secrets, Part Two (Tall, Dark & Deadly) (3 page)

“Every day?” Blake pressed. “Seven
days a week?”

“Monday and Thursday only,” Ignacio
corrected. ”The Coast Guard has a bigger presence on the weekends.
We still run the boats, but without product.”

Kara’s gaze flicked back to Eduardo
and the girl as they got up and headed toward the back. A powerful
urge to follow, to know the girl was okay, if only for now,
overcame her. “Excuse me,” Kara said. “I need to go to the ladies’
room.” She snatched up her purse and didn’t look at Blake or
Ignacio, but Kara could feel Blake’s eyes on her, hot and heavy,
and she knew she wouldn’t have long before he’d come after
her.

Quickly, Kara cut behind the bar,
following Eduardo and the girl into the hallway that led to the
bathroom and a series of offices that she’d tried to get into once
before but found locked. The hallway was empty but one of the
office doors was cracked open.

Kara eased her way to the wall by
the opening, flattening against the wall, and she could just barely
make out Eduardo’s voice. “I need the blonde,” he said. “Now.
Tonight.”

“I can’t get her here until
tomorrow night. She said she has to—”

“The boat leaves at 4am. Tomorrow
night is too late.”

“Eduardo—” The female yelped.
“Ouch. You’re pulling my hair. It hurts.”

“I said I need her here tonight. If
she isn’t on that boat that goes out you’ll be on it instead, which
means you’ll be everyone’s fuck buddy on the island.”

“I’ll find a girl.”

“That girl. It has to be her. We’ve
cleared her records already.”

Kara’s stomach rolled. She’d been
right. They were running some sort of sex operation with the women
they made disappear. She didn’t want to think about what that meant
for her personal agenda. She couldn’t. Not now, or she might lose
it and go in that office and shoot Eduardo. That wouldn’t get her
the answers she so desperately needed.

“Go get her,” he ordered, and Kara
whirled to escape and smacked into a hard body.
His body
. Her nostrils flared with
the spicy, familiar male scent of him and she knew even before her
gaze lifted that Blake was standing there.

His hands closed gently around her
upper arms, those dark brown eyes of his searching hers. “What are
you up to, Kara?” he murmured softly.

A second later, a woman yelped
behind her. Kara cringed. This wasn’t going well. Not at
all.

“What’s going on here?” she heard
Eduardo say, clearly having joined the girl.

“Looking for the bathroom,” Kara
blurted, whirling around to face Eduardo and the girl only to have
Blake’s hands settle on her shoulders, his big body pulling hers
against his.

“Yes,” he said. “Can you tell her
where the bathroom is?”

Eduardo, a tall man with short,
spiky black hair, narrowed his eyes on Kara and then let them lift
to Blake. “Behind you.”

“Right,” Kara said. “Thank you.”
She turned away and darted for the women’s restroom, while Blake
introduced himself to Eduardo.

Kara cleared the doorway to the
restroom and leaned on the sink, thankful the two stalls beside her
appeared to be empty. Her heart hammered in her chest, and not just
because that was too close a call. Because she’d confirmed what she
feared was happening to the women that had gone missing. Because
Blake’s hands on her shoulders, the protective, possessive thing he
kept doing, felt too good and too right. And because he was going
to ask questions she didn’t want to answer. Now he was going to
push her harder. The only real comfort she had in all of this was
that the missing women, one in particular, were likely alive. She
just had to figure out where they were.

The door to the bathroom opened and
she whirled around to find Blake stepping inside. “What are you
doing?” she demanded, only to find herself against the door with
Blake’s legs framing hers, his hands curving around her waist. Heat
shot through her body, fogging her brain. Damn it, no man affected
her like this until now. Why why why did it have to be
him?

“What are you doing is more the
question,” he said. “And don’t tell me looking for the
bathroom.”

Lying in this case would get her
nowhere. And she hated lying to him anyway. “I saw the open door
and heard voices. I thought I might hear something
useful.”

“You had a gun at your head once
tonight. You really do like to live dangerously, don’t
you?”

Her throat went dry. She had. He
was right. And he’d tried to save her. “You tried to get Ignacio to
point that gun at you instead of me. Why?”

Surprise flickered in his eyes.
“Why?”

“Why?”

“I told you,” he said softly. “I
might need you.” His lips quirked. “Besides, it’s what us macho men
do, baby.”

It was one of his flippant remarks
that he did so well but it was flat without the cocky attitude he’d
mastered like no one she’d ever known. There was more to this man
than met the eye, and she wanted him to surprise her. She wanted
him to be someone he wasn’t. But isn’t that what all women who got
mixed up with a man like him wanted? What they convinced themselves
was possible to justify being with a man destined to destroy
them?

And still, with that logic playing
in her mind, she found herself gently touching his face, letting
her fingers trail over the dull stubble of a new beard, her chest
tight with emotion. “Thank you.”

He reached up and covered her hand
with his. “For what?”

“For saving my life.” She wet her
lips. “I owe you.”

“You don’t owe me
anything.”

It was another unexpected answer. A
man like him would be expected to hold people captive, use
everything against them. But he wasn’t.

“I take that back,” he said. “You
owe me—”

The door moved behind them and
Blake held it shut. Kara wanted to scream with the interruption
that kept her from knowing what he’d been about to say. Before she
could find out if he would prove himself like the others in the
cartel, holding her for ransom.

“Quickly,” Blake pressed, “what did
you overhear from Eduardo?”

“Nothing.” She cut her gaze to his
chest before she could stop herself, a sure sign of a lie to a
trained eye. “I didn’t have time to catch anything. They were
already leaving the office.” She tried to push away from him. He
held onto her and damn it, her gaze lifted to his.

He stared down at her, his eyes
keen, too keen, and suddenly his fingers were under her hair,
wrapping her neck. He pulled her hard against him, his mouth
slanting over hers, his tongue stroking hers in a short, intense
kiss that she dared to let herself revel in. Too soon, though, the
door jerked behind them again and he tore his mouth from hers, his
eyes capturing hers. “You do know we’re going to talk when we get
back to your apartment, right?”

“Talk?” she asked
innocently.

“That’s right,” he assured her.
“And, depending on how cooperative you are, handcuffs may or may
not be involved.”

Kara swallowed hard, feeling heat
radiate down her spine. He meant it. He’d cuff her and torment her,
tease her, drive her to the edge of orgasm and pull her back until
she was going insane. And she just might, because there was no way
she could confess anything to him. There was too much to
lose.

“And when do you talk, Blake?” she
challenged.

“Talking isn’t my specialty, as
you’ll find out tonight.”

He pushed off the door and pulled
her around to exit before she could say more, and she had the
distinct impression he didn’t like where this conversation was
going. Even more so when he quickly pulled her into the hallway,
where they found Ignacio and Eduardo waiting on them. Somehow, she
doubted that was a good thing.

Chapter Three

“
You two need a private office or
what?” Ignacio asked.

“Yeah,” Blake said. “Yours up for
grabs?” He glanced at Ignacio. “Or maybe yours?”

“Aren’t you the funny man?” Eduardo
asked sarcastically.

“Ha ha,” Blake said. “Only I wasn’t
joking. I need an office to work out of. This seems like as good a
location as any.”

“The way he eats,” Kara commented,
“a restaurant might not be a bad idea.”

“She has a point,” Blake said
approvingly. “Food at my disposal is always a plus.”

“No space to spare here,” Eduardo
said. “I guess you’ll have to try another location.”

“Maybe in the warehouse,” Blake
countered. “Why don’t you take me on a tour?”

Eduardo crossed his arms in front
of his chest. “It’s closed for business tonight, but hey, if you
want to see a bunch of pallets, sure. We’ll take you on a
tour.”

“We’ll risk being bored,” Blake
assured him.

“Come back tomorrow night,” Ignacio
said. “The crew will be here. You can see everything.”

Or nothing, Kara thought. Tonight
was about women and sex, not drugs, and damn it, she wanted to
launch herself at both of these men and throttle them.

“That works,” Blake said,
surprising Kara. “What time tomorrow night?”

“Nine,” Eduardo said. “That lets
you see the entire process.”

“Nine it is,” Blake
agreed.

It was all Kara could do not to
gape and then object, but already Blake was ushering her away, his
hand firmly wrapping her upper arm. In a blink, she was leaving
behind a chance to see the warehouse and headed for the exit. She
had a bad feeling she wouldn’t be coming back with him
tomorrow.

The instant they were out of the
building, the cool San Francisco night air whipping around her, she
challenged him. “Why would you leave without seeing what they might
be hiding?”

Blake cut her a sideways look and
clicked the lock of the truck on the key ring. “Ignacio would have
called and told them we were coming. There’s nothing to see they
don’t want us to see.”

“Tomorrow there definitely won’t be
anything for us to see. We didn’t give them much warning tonight,
and what about getting an idea of the layout and trying to ensure a
way back in when they don’t expect us?”

He stopped at the tail of the truck
and turned to look at her. “And all of this is the thought process
of a secretary?”

She drew back slightly. “You think
a secretary can’t logically think through how to deal with a
problem? We have a theft issue.”

He scrubbed his jaw and laughed.
“Well played, Kara. You’re good. Fast-talking and sharp with your
answers. Just not as good as me. I’m not buying your
motivation.”

She ignored the remark. What else
could she do? “My gut says we need to tour tonight. We’ll discover
something we need to find.”

His lips compressed. “Because you
overheard something you didn’t tell me about.”

“No.” Damn, her voice squeaked. She
was so bad at lying to him for some unnerving reason. “Because,
like I said, my gut says so.”

“Give me more than that or we
aren’t going back in.”

She inhaled and forced it out. “We
need to go back in.”

“Not a good enough
answer.”

“Damn it, Blake—”

His grip curled around her arm and
he gently, but insistently, pulled her against him. “You’re too on
their radar and we’re going to get you off.” He kissed her, fast
and hard. “End of story.” He released her. “Now get in the
truck.”

She glowered at him, furious. She
didn’t like being ordered around. She didn’t like him playing
protector when she knew he was one of them, able and willing to
slice her throat if he gave her reason. He’d all but said so in the
truck earlier. And she was going to give him reason to do it when
he discovered her identity. Time was everything for all kinds of
reasons. What would he do if she headed back to the building
besides follow?

“Don’t do it,” he said softly,
telling her he’d read her mind. “You won’t like how I
respond.”

Kara studied him, considering the
threat, her breathing labored when it should be controlled, her
anger barely contained. She wasn’t afraid of him. No. That wasn’t
true. She was afraid of him, and how irrational he made her act.
And she was afraid of dying before she did what she’d come here to
do. “I don’t need a bodyguard, and that’s not what you were hired
to be. Mendez hired you to solve the theft problem.”

“Says the woman who had a gun
pointed at her head tonight and needed a bodyguard.”

Her fingers curled by her sides. “I
was trying to find you. I was afraid something had happened to
you.” Her stomach knotted all over again with that confession. One
minute she was thinking he was a killer, and the next trying to
protect him. She was conflicted, screwed up beyond reason, over
this man.

He arched a brow. “Were you
now?”

“Yes. You were gone too long.” She
grimaced and played the same cards he had in the truck. “Nothing
can happen to you. I might need you.”