Armed And Dangerous (The McKinnon Legends - The McKinnon American Men Book 2) (20 page)

“Keep your hands off me. Give them back, Mason,” she demanded as he held them high over his head. She kicked him in the shin.

“Ouch! Stop that!” he demanded as she tried again. “Hell no, I’m not giving them back. Not with you this emotionally charged.” He tossed them back to Enrique. “I could care less if you fall off a cliff, Barbara. It would just save me from what is looking to become a breach of contract.” What the hell was wrong with him to say something like that to her? He didn’t mean it and instantly he saw it hit an open wound, yet he could not stop. “And you accuse me of being reckless. Feel free to kill yourself, but do it on someone else's watch, Barbara. And you will not take the life of innocent people along with you just because I have hurt your delicate feelings.”

She took two steps toward him, invading his personal space. She said slowly, calmly, emphasizing her words. “Oh, don’t you worry, for one small, tiny, miniscule, second of that miserable life of yours about the legalities of this arrangement, Mason. Personally, I wanted nothing from you when we entered into this little agreement, and I want even less from you now.”

“You can just cut the melodramatic crap because it is really pissing me off.”

He really did not have time for this, he thought as he glanced over her left shoulder and watched the sun dip ever lower into the western sky.

She walked away. He caught up to her.

“Barbara, damn it, will you just stop?”

She did stop, but never turned around. She did not want him to see how deeply his words had hurt her. She wasn’t even sure why it hurt, but it did. She had never given his opinion of her or her life any thought or consideration before this mission. Why should he be able to get to her now?

Because you are in love with him, her mind mocked her.

“I’m sorry. Is that what you need to hear?” His half-hearted apology left her unmoved.

She slowly turned. God, she thought, why did he have to be so beautiful? She could see his openness, and he was showing her the man he really was deep down. He could be funny, kind, loving as well as an insensitive cur. He was all those things wrapped in a beautiful, wild, and wonderful package of imperfection. It made him who he was, a man she could love deeply.

“You really don’t have a clue about me do you,” she asked.

“Obviously you don’t think that I do and maybe I don’t, but I do want to have a clue. Show me, Barbara. Teach me,” he asked in earnest, stepping closer. He did want to know this woman. He did want to make her happy. He wanted to make her happy in a way that he did not share with the other women in his life. With all the women in his past it was short term, just living in the moment. With Barbara he was beginning to see a lifetime. The difference was stark and glaring to him.

“I’m not like all the others, Mason, who you can simply say what you think I want to hear in order to gain whatever it is you’re after. I am not an object to be possessed and conquered and tossed aside for the next bright and shiny thing that comes along.”

“What do you want from me?” He was confused.

“I. Want. The truth.” she said emphasizing her words. “I want fidelity, honesty, commitment, and sincerity. If you mean it then say it and if you don’t… well, then shut the hell up and get out of my life.”

“All right. I’ll take that hit. I’m being a jackass. I know, I am. I’m sorry, Doll. Forgive me. Please, accept my apology.” He really meant it, too. However, somewhere along the way this conversation had ceased to be about a cover to leave the camp and became more a reason she was not interested in him as a man. “Really, I am sorry, but I cannot change who I am, Barbara. And that is what you’re asking. Maybe not in so many words, but I can read between the lines.”

She did not say a word, wondering deep down if he believed he could not change or if he just did not want to change. She believed it was lack of desire for any alteration of his life. He thought his life was fine the way it is. She wanted to scream at him to open his eyes. He could not see the forest for the trees.

He had hurt her feelings. He understood that much even if nothing else was making sense to him. He wanted her to leave the jungle to be safe. He did not want her to leave him outright. That was now very clear to him. She was important to him, and he did not want to leave her with it this way between them, especially if things went badly tonight.

“And if you want to leave and go back to Dallas, I won’t stop you. We can figure out all the details when I get back once we have a chance to cool down. Just promise me you won’t leave tonight in that rundown jeep. It’s too dangerous.”

He waited for her to acknowledge. “Promise me,” he asked again.

“I won’t leave in the jeep,” she promised. Still, it left a lot of other options open.

“Good. Thank you for that.” He smiled softly at her. “If anything were to happen to you, who would I fight with?”

She shrugged. “Good question.” She was feeling calmer, and so was he.

“You’re the only woman I know with enough balls to call me like you see me.” He placed his palm at the nape of her neck pulling her close and into a full hug. “I’m not all bad, Baby Doll,” he said just before kissing her on her crown.

“I know.”

“Give me a kiss for luck. Robert is waiting and I have to go.”

She kissed him on the cheek. “And there is more good in you than you know, and I hope one day there is a woman who will be lucky enough to enjoy it.”

He studied her looking deeply into her heart and soul. “But not you,” he said the words more for his own confirmation than a question for her.

She shook her head. “No. Not me. Go. Be careful and good luck. I’ll see you in Dallas for the debrief.”

He kissed her deeply one last time and left to give Enrique his final instructions before heading off in the direction of the river. She watched until he was no longer visible, yet he was still in her heart.

She went back to the tent, went inside, and slit a hole in the back side facing the jungle. She soundlessly eased out and into the darkness. What Mason did not know was she was perfectly capable of taking care of herself and did not need a jeep, a guide, or a map to get her home.

National Police Headquarters

Panama City

Juan Redondo sat behind his desk looking intently at the reconnaissance photos. He may not be the C.I.A.; nevertheless, he was not without his sources.

He was tracking the progress of the McKinnon couple and his latest report showed their night of hunting had proven eventful.

The boar was a nice touch.

Could be real or not, he surmised. He was still withholding his judgment.

The phone rang, jarring his concentration.

“Hola,” he answered closing out the file.

“He is going on without her. Apparently, she is leaving him already.” The informant cut right to the chase.

“Hum. Do you have any idea why?”

This was interesting, Juan thought as he stroked his coal black mustache putting the phone on speaker freeing up his hands.

“Oh, yes. It was very obvious. She thinks he screwed around on her and her feelings are hurt, simple as that.”

“Has he,” he asked pointedly. Juan knew this woman, and if any man had it in him to stray she would, without reluctance or remorse, get him to do so.

“Not with me, he didn’t. And don’t think I didn’t try either. He was not rude to me, but still made it exceedingly clear he is rock solid in his commitment to the woman.”

Carmen sounded disappointed to Juan’s trained ear. He had chosen well in his informant, and there had been many times over the years that her beauty proved beneficial. Not so this time, it would appear.

Carmen did not know what to think either. She had gotten nothing out of the men short of the obvious and had been thwarted at every turn to dig any deeper into the couple’s business.

“Juan, I’m beginning to believe this is just a honeymoon gone really bad. He left with two of the men for his night dive without her.”

“Perhaps.” Juan still smelled a rat. He had been in the world of law enforcement too long to ignore the nagging feeling in his gut. Juan was sure there was more here than met the eye and those two were here in Panama for more than an adventure honeymoon.

However, he had to be cautious and make completely certain of their purpose for being here. He just could not fully place his bets on them going after Del Torres, not at this juncture. There was no motive that he could plainly see and the woman was not exactly what he would consider mercenary material even if by all accounts she was proficient in martial arts. Hell, he thought, even his wife could fend for herself quite nicely. That did not make her a spy, a mercenary, or special operations agent. She was a housewife and grandmother of three.

Carmen continued. “I am taking her back to Panama City along with Enrique tomorrow morning. Mason wants her on the first plane out.”

“You think this is an act?” he asked as he pulled the darts out of the game board on the far wall across from his desk.

“No, I don’t think so. He looked hurt by her accusations and her reactions were genuine. No woman is that good an actress, trust me, and the conversation was just too believable to have been contrived.”

So, Juan thought, as he tossed the first dart, Mason had managed to get the woman out of harms way, remove his informant from his camp, and make it look believable. Perhaps this deserved a closer look. He tossed the second dart.

“Find some reason to stall her departure, Carmen. I’ll be there by morning, but I’m making a detour first by Del Torres’ first.” One can never be too cautious, he thought as he tossed the final dart. It landed with a heavy thud expertly hitting the mark.

Barbara was in the jungle listening intently from a distance. It was then she realized where she had seen Carmen before this trip. Only at the time the woman had been in a blonde wig. Carmen was the woman who Barbara saw in the workout room reflection at the resort the night of the reception.

So, Carmen was either one of the good guys or she was one of the bad guys, but either way Carmen was not in this for Mason and the team’s best interest.

Barbara had to get word to Mason that they were in for company. She wasn’t exactly doing what he made her promise not to do, she rationalized. She left the jeep and took the kayak paddling off into the night. If luck and the night was with her, then she would make the villa before they had the National Police crashing what was going to be a very exclusive and extremely high octane party.

Barbara beached the kayak, then silently dragged it away from casual eyes. There was very little threat of a patrol from Del Torres, but the more she thought about it the more she was convinced the Panamanian National Police were on the way. It was leaving them precious little time. If the authorities were as stealthy as the S.W.A.T. teams back home, she might as well phone ahead telling Emilio they were at his door step and to just go on and shoot them.

As much as she hated using the time necessary to go the extra distance, she left the kayak a quarter of a mile away from the compound's private inlet cove. Taking every precaution, she eased her way down the rocky beach, hugging the jungle line growing right to the beach’s edge.

She surveyed the terrain. There were thirty yards from the private beach to the house, and it was wide open leaving her no cover. The wall and breakwater Del Torres had built to mark the property lines and to keep casual beach combers out would under normal circumstances prove challenging, but not insurmountable. Since Barbara had an injured leg and hip, she had to circumvent the wall and ventured back into the deeper waters past the rocky breakwater, which Del Torres had fortified with shards of broken glass and sharp lava rock. She was a strong swimmer and had a solid understanding of water survival, which saved her because the riptide was fierce, dragging her through the coral reef shredding any bare skin exposed to the elements. She washed up just on the other side of the property line where she lay motionless regaining her breath and strength as the waves continued to pound her. Camouflage clothing was actually her enemy in this environment. She was really wishing she had on something lighter to blend in with the golden sand of the beach.

She looked up at the night sky feeling certain it was going to rain soon just as Enrique predicted. She wondered if the weather would be a friend or foe. With their line of work it could go either way or both ways in a matter of minutes.

She would just have to work with the elements and use them to her advantage. There was little in the way of moonlight, and cloud cover was heavy. It would have to suffice and was better than a full moon by any stretch which would give her presence away much more quickly.

Fearing traps along the edge of the wall, she decided her safest bet was to run straight up the middle of the beach making a straight line for the nearest cover. That was when Dark Man got his first glimpse from his perch in the trees.

“Holy shit, Reese. Check it out. On the beach at your three o’clock,” Dark Man warned his buddy, speaking softly into the satellite radio with secured, scrambled channels. “Mason is going to go ballistic.”

Reese felt ballistic was going to be an understatement. Since arriving at the camp, Reese noted Mason was so wound up and agitated that he and Robert had come to verbal blows. The topic of conversation, a catalyst of that confrontation, revolved around the very woman easing up on Mason’s six.

Getting to the villa was more than just a little tense. However, once there, Reese and the others watched as their Team Leader settled in and was now his usual calm and total machine-like self. The man was a marvel, able to just turn emotion off when he had to turn the mercenary warrior on.

However, Reese wasn’t so sure Mason was going to be able to keep his cool in this instance. For whatever the reason, this woman just racked Mason’s composure, and if it were any man besides Mason McKinnon, well, Reese would have to say the man was falling like a fortress wall under intense mortar fire. However, Reese reminded himself, it was Mason, the notorious womanizer and self proclaimed bachelor, he was talking about, so there had to be some other reason this woman was under his skin. Then again, maybe not, he shrugged mentally. The next ten minutes would tell if they had the luxury of letting time do what time does best.