Dangerous Curves (10 page)

He looked down at the briefs and shrugged. He wasn’t going to push her, but it was good to know she was finally going to open up to him. He just wondered what it was she had to tell him.

He heard the shower go on and tried to block the mental images that came with what would be a provocative sound. “Right.” Disgusted with his inability to get his head back on straight—and leave the other one out of it—he tugged on socks and a T-shirt in record time,
then checked out the shorts. It was a necessity, a favor. And yet thinking about her purchasing these items for him felt stupidly personal. Intimate even. “You are so gone,” he muttered.

He finished dressing, raked fingers through his drying hair and rubbed a hand across his chin, silently thanking her for thinking of purchasing a disposable razor. He tossed his old clothes into one of the empty bags, then after another lingering look at the bathroom door, stalked out into the main room of the suite and used a throwaway phone they’d picked up in the hotel.

Drew answered on the second ring. “Miller.”

“Drew, it’s Max. I need your help.”

“What’s up?”

“I’ve gotten myself into a bit of a bind.”

“We were wondering. You were supposed to have dinner with us last night. We suspected it was FBI stuff, but Allie was worried.”

“I didn’t mean to worry her. I was going to call a couple of days ago, but things went from bad to worse.”

“Tell me what you need. We can deploy immediately.”

“I need a helicopter to get us back to L.A.”

“Check. Where are you?”

“Maui.”

“Come again?”

“Maui.”

“In Hawaii?”

“Yes. It’s a long story.”

“I can’t wait to hear it. Where in Maui do you want egress?”

“Kahului Airport. How long before you can get here?”

“Give me eight hours to get there and get what I need. Is it just you?”

“No. I have someone with me.”

“Is this person hot?”

“Yes, as a matter of fact, you know her.”

“Her. Now I really can’t wait to hear. Spill it.”

“Rio Marshall.”

“What? Didn’t I just pull her ass out of Colombia two weeks ago…? Hang on. Don’t tell me you have a Colombian drug lord on your tail?”

“I don’t know if it’s a drug lord, but the Ghost is involved.”

“That fucking bastard is everywhere.”

“I know. Get here as fast as you can and, Drew…bring some firepower with you.”

“Will do. Lie low and I’ll call you when I touch down.”

“Drew, thanks.”

“Don’t mention it. I’m marrying your sister and you’re family. If you can’t trust your family, who can you trust?”

T
HE HELICOPTER LANDED AND
Jammer got out of the bird. He walked over to Eduardo, who was pacing again and swearing a blue streak.

He turned on Jammer when he saw him. “You. You’re the one who convinced me to take this woman alive.”

“What? She clocked you?”

“She got the jump on me.” He held a cloth to his cheekbone and Jammer could see the man was going
to have one hell of a shiner. This wasn’t good for that little DEA agent. But he couldn’t abandon her.

“I still want her alive and if you want all the weapons that I’ve amassed for the Libertad, you had better make sure that’s the way she comes to me.”

“This is a threat?”

“No, it’s a request, Eduardo. The Ghost is prepared to supply all the weapons you need. We won’t tolerate a loose cannon out there. So let’s think about their next step.”

“Obviously, she’ll head to an airport.”

“We’ve got all of them staked out.”

“Good, we’ll get her there.”

Jammer walked back to the waiting helicopter feeling the tension between his shoulder blades. He had to make sure Eduardo forgot about the woman and got his mind back on the matter at hand. The whole deal he’d been working on could blow up in his face if he didn’t play this scenario the right way.

R
IO RINSED THE SHAMPOO
from her hair and tried to keep her anxiety down to a minimum. When Max found out about who was really after her and why they were really in Maui, he was going to be so angry.

That suited her plan, right? He would hopefully want nothing to do with her and get out of the line of fire.

Max was too smart not to sense there had been something wrong with her. It hurt that he hadn’t trusted her to do the shopping alone. Losing his trust would be something she’d regret probably for the rest of her life.

She finished rinsing off and stepped out of the
shower, only to be assaulted by the heady fragrance of freshly prepared food. Even the smell of coffee had her stomach grumbling. She shoved aside her concerns about the situation with Max and quickly dressed. She ran a fast comb through her hair.

She stepped out of the bathroom to find the bedroom empty, but she could hear Max talking in the main room of the suite. She wasn’t sure which was more enticing, the sound of his deep voice, murmuring something to someone in the other room, or the delicious smell, but fortunately she didn’t have to choose and followed both.

There was a room service table set up and Max was standing over by the large picture window, talking on the cell phone they’d purchased. From the sounds of it, he was talking to Drew Miller. She moved over to the table, sure he would fill her in when he got off the phone. She felt another little stab of guilt, knowing she couldn’t be as sure she’d do the same, but suppressed it as she pulled a chair up to the table and sat down.

“Eat,” Max mouthed, motioning with his hand for her to eat.

She did have pretty good manners and under normal circumstances, she would have been patient, but the smell of the food made her stomach growl. She selected a piece of bacon and crunched it, sighing at the immediate pleasure it brought to her tongue. Max ended his call and joined her at the table.

“Is he coming?” she asked, putting the bacon down as her stomach tightened a bit.

“In eight hours. He’s got to catch a commercial flight
then get what he needs to get us off this island safe and sound. You going to be around in eight hours?”

“I deserved that.”

“You want to tell me now what is going on?”

“Can we do it after breakfast? I don’t want to ruin your appetite.”

He grabbed her arm. “Now, Rio. It’s long past due.”

“I’d rather not ruin my appetite.”

Max sighed.

She immediately rounded the breakfast cart, needing at least that much space separating them so she didn’t feel so overwhelmed by his presence. “Okay.” She looked him straight in the eye. “It’s not the Ghost’s men who are after us.”

Unfortunately, the barrier didn’t do much good. The man had an uncanny way of invading her personal space even when he was standing a good six feet away…with his beautiful blue eyes that seemed to touch her body like a caress and his warm male scent that filled every breath she inhaled.

She held his gaze, waiting for his anger to erupt and preparing herself for criticism and accusations. But all he did was stare at her, resentment and animosity mingling in his eyes—and something else she couldn’t fully define. Hurt? Disappointment? Longing?

Oh, yes, there was definitely a hint of longing in his expression, and it was the brief glimpse of such a tangible emotion that was nearly her undoing. Despite her necessary actions, despite his own outrage over feeling deceived, he still wanted her.

Even if he didn’t
want
to want her.

She thought her heart was going to break into a million pieces.

“But I thought that’s why the DEA wanted me to be your bodyguard.” His voice was low and rough.

“It wasn’t, Max. I didn’t really need a bodyguard.”

She let that sink in. Tears pricked at the corners of her eyes, but she resolutely shoved them away. She was going to lose him over this. She knew that a long time ago, but now that it was happening, it was too much to bear.

His mouth tightened. “But that would mean there was another reason they wanted you out of L.A. Was it another mission?”

“Yes, I was given another mission.”

“What is it? What were you supposed to do?”

“Distract you.”

She watched as the knowledge seeped slowly into his eyes. He put his hands on the serving cart and leaned forward. “Me? Why the hell…The Ghost. This has something to do with the Ghost.” He stiffened and abruptly straightened. He closed his eyes. “You baited me. Your whole story was fabricated. And I fell for it.”

His eyes said,
I fell for you.

“No, not the whole story. Everything I said really happened and it’s possible I saw the Ghost. But he wasn’t ever chasing me. I didn’t think Eduardo would come after me and neither did the DEA.”

When Max opened his eyes, Rio really wanted to run. Mixed in with the hurt and betrayal was anger she’d never seen before.

T
HE KNOWLEDGE HIT HIM
like a sledgehammer. “You were bait,” he repeated. Cursing himself for a fool. “What is this really about, Rio? And tell me the truth.”

“You were looking to find and apprehend the Ghost. You wouldn’t stop and you wouldn’t listen. It put the DEA’s whole operation in jeopardy. We have an agent deep undercover.”

“So this is what you do for the agency…”

“No! It’s not like that.” She rounded the table and stood in front of him, her chin jutting out mutinously. “What happened with you and me in the forest was what I wanted. Not because of any mission I was given by the DEA. I got involved and I shouldn’t have. I don’t go around sleeping with men to do my job.”

He glanced away and inhaled a deep breath, and when he looked at her again that harsh edge he was feeling inside hardened. He couldn’t believe he had been so duped by her. The first time in his life when he’d trusted so completely. It served as a lesson. “All those words about trust I spouted to you? They meant nothing.”

“You didn’t really trust me, Max.”

“How can you say that?”

“If you had, you’d have never pretended to go to sleep, and then followed me. I think you want to believe it’s about trust, but it’s about control for you. You should have just let me go.”

“I couldn’t let you go,” he said, his voice a hard rasp. Grabbing hold of his anger was better than facing the truth. She’d lied to him, kept up the farce even after they’d gotten so close. But not close enough. Better to be angry than afraid. Better to push her away than to cling to her when he knew he’d lose her in the end anyway.

“You were loyal to the agency. I can’t blame you for that. But I don’t understand why you didn’t trust me. After what happened between us? Don’t you think you could have confided in me?”

She released a slow breath and said, “I know what’s involved, Max. I understand your motivation. It doesn’t change anything, but I understand it. This is about Allie. He almost got her killed.”

His features tightened and he snapped, “And now Callie is going to assume her undercover identity, Gina Callahan, and will go after him once she’s well enough. I didn’t want my sister to face the monster.”

The edge to his voice made her talk fast. “I know that must be eating you up inside.”

“So the men who are after you…”

“Work for Eduardo Fuentes. We played up the Ghost stuff for your benefit, Max.”

“Yeah,” he said bitterly. “And I played right into it.”

“Max—”

“No. I don’t want your sympathy, Rio. I need some time to think.”

He stalked away from her and left the room.

Outside in the hall, he headed blindly for the stairs instead of the elevator, needing the physical exercise to burn off the heat of his anger. She’d breached his trust and he had to live with that. He also had to live with the fact that he still wanted her. There were so many obstacles between the two of them, so many issues still left unresolved…. And did he even want to pursue her after finding out she’d been stringing him along since the very first second they met? Did she have a chance with him after lying to him on so many levels?

There were no easy answers for those nagging questions, just a voice in his head that told him Rio was worth his time and effort. Whatever was between them had the potential for developing into something stronger and bigger than the both of them. But he had to admit she was right about one thing. If he’d truly trusted her, he’d have really fallen asleep and then trusted her to take care of herself.

He had to grudgingly give her credit for the way she’d handled him. He had been on a single-minded mission to stop the Ghost before Callie had to get involved in the assignment to apprehend him. He wasn’t sure anything—short of pulling him out of L.A. and giving him something else to occupy his mind—would have stopped him.

It didn’t mean he was ready to forgive Rio for her part in it. When he hit the lobby, he started to jog. Slipping out the doors he headed for the beach.

R
IO STARED AT THE DOOR,
thinking that if she stared long enough, Max would come back and tell her he
forgave her. Fat chance of that and she really should be more relieved than she was. Max wouldn’t press her for anything now. As soon as they hit L.A., he’d want nothing more to do with her.

Damn—why did that hurt so much?

You’ve known him for how long? Three days?

Wow, was it only that? It seemed so much longer. The minutes and hours of the past two days had somehow been elongated, magnified and packed densely with need and fear. It seemed like forever, and at the same time, it could never be enough.

Fatigue pulled at her and she realized that getting some sleep was a better idea than standing here and second-guessing herself. What was done, was done.

She walked over to the bed and lay down, closing her eyes.

The dream hit her again. It wasn’t so much a dream as a memory. They were at the beach, her parents and Shane. He was playing in the sand with her, packing buckets full and turning them over to form the castle.

As she played, the sky darkened and it was as if Shane shrank away from her. When she looked around, her parents had disappeared. Suddenly the storm hit, wind tore at her hair, rain lashed her skin with icy, hard pinpricks.

She called for Shane, but all she could see was a man in the shadows, that jaw, the bone structure, the powerful body.

Rio woke with a start and a headache. Her breath came in pants as the residual uneasiness of a dream hung around her. Eyes…She’d felt eyes on her, staring
from the dark. But she hadn’t been able to see his face, had only known somehow it was familiar.

It was only a dream, but the apprehension lingered as she sat up slowly and took stock of herself and the room around her. It had rained. The surface of the sliding glass door was spattered with windblown droplets. The weather system had moved on, but gray still clung to the sky.

She rubbed a hand over her face, groaning a bit as she had a headache. She didn’t know how long she’d slept.

The sheets were torn loose from the foot of the bed, the spread rumpled.

Grimacing at the taste of bitter dreams in her mouth, she picked up the phone and ordered more food and some pills to take care of her headache.

Walking over to the now-cold breakfast, she poured herself a glass of juice. But before she could bring it to her mouth, it hit her like a speeding truck.

That face. The face she’d only glimpsed at Fuentes’s—could it have been Shane?

“No, that was impossible.” They’d buried him with honors as a hero. She’d seen the casket, seen him lowered into the ground. She’d put flowers on his grave for three years. She’d cried buckets of tears, vowed to bring his killer to justice. It wasn’t possible.

But that man’s bone structure had been so much like her brother’s. She clutched her stomach as it twisted with the uneasiness of not being sure.

The juice glass fell from her suddenly nerveless fingers and pain crashed into her, her throat knotting from the shock.

Could he have been
working
for Fuentes? What could be the explanation? Was it possible her brother had betrayed them all and sided with a criminal?

He could very well be a traitor to his country, to her, to the memory of how they’d been raised.

It was too much to bear. With the emotional confession to Max about why they were really here in Maui and all the events of the last two days, Rio crumpled to the carpet, tears filling her eyes. Her world cracked, breaking foundations and tumbling her ideals.

Time slipped away as she sat there wondering, remembering, hurting, grieving. She let go of all the tears she had tried to hold on to, of all the pain she had been so afraid to feel. It came pouring out in a torrent, in a storm that shook her and drained her.

Right now she had no proof, no answers, but she intended to get them. As soon as she got back to L.A., she would confront the one man who had them. The director of the DEA, her boss.

Reeling with the information her brother could be working with Fuentes, Rio now understood: Shane was the Ghost. She really had seen the Ghost’s face, and not only that, but the DEA also knew she posed a danger to them—that’s why they made her distract Max. She could blow the whole undercover operation.

Wait a minute. Shane could be the undercover agent her boss had mentioned. She grabbed on to that thought like a lifeline. Would Shane do such a thing? Would he let her think he was dead for revenge of his own?

It was inconceivable her brother could now be on the wrong side of the law.

She needed answers. Was her brother dead or very much alive? Was he working for Fuentes or the DEA? Had everything she’d based her career on been a lie?

And she would get justice. She had to. If there was no justice, then all the suffering was for nothing. Senseless. Meaningless. There had to be justice. Even now, even too late, she wanted justice for herself and her parents.

She couldn’t put the past behind her. It would never be forgotten, she vowed as old fears and new guilt settled inside her and solidified into a new strength.

There was a knock at the door and Rio stiffened and rose quickly to the backpack. Pulling out the Glock, she concealed it behind her and went to answer the door.

The bellman with the cart for the food stood on the other side of the door. She let him in, keeping the gun out of his sight and stashing it in the backpack as a pretense to getting the tip. He silently took the other food cart and handed her the bill. She signed it, tipped him and he left the room.

There was another knock and, taking no chances, she went through the whole routine again. Instead, Max was on the other side of the door. He looked damp and gorgeous, but his lean jaw was clenched tight. His dark hair was a disheveled, enticing mess around his head, as if he’d repeatedly combed through the strands with his fingers and left them to fall where they may. He looked so sinfully sexy he literally took her breath away.

“I forgot the key card.”

Resolutely, she stepped aside and let him in.

He peered at her. “Are you okay?”

“I had a bad dream and I have a headache, but I’m fine,” she lied. She had no intention of telling Max about Shane and that he could be working with Fuentes until she figured out her own feelings. Most important, she had no proof. And would he even trust her?

That thought just added to the pain she was already shouldering.

“Are you okay?” she asked pensively.

“You mean, have I gotten over my anger?”

“Yes.”

“Somewhat.”

She walked past Max, toward the enticing smell of food, hoping he would follow.

It surprised her, the strength of her desire to run to him, to smile into his face and hope he pulled her into his arms for a kiss. Like a normal couple. She didn’t know what they were, but she doubted they were that. Too many complications. So she wasn’t sure how to act.

He fell in beside her and her entire body responded to his nearness. Near the bed he pulled off the damp T-shirt and, using the towel from his shower, dried off.

“I guess you got caught in the rain.”

“Yes. It was refreshing and cleared my head.”

With deceptive laziness, he folded his arms across his broad, bare chest and leaned casually against the door frame, his entire demeanor cautious, and his guard in place. Not that she blamed him for being standoffish with her.

His indifference was exactly what she deserved, no matter how much she hated being on the receiving end of his aloof attitude. Even when she needed his warmth,
his caring, his uncanny ability to make her feel so calm amidst the many burdens that weighed heavily on her conscience.

She picked up the hamburger and took a bite, chewing and moaning a little at the delicious tastes in her mouth.

“Looks good,” he said, his husky tone giving away the fact he wasn’t as unaffected by her presence as he’d like her to believe.

“Want a bite?” she offered.

A muscle in his cheek twitched, and a spark of anger flashed in his eyes that he’d welcome her so openly, so eagerly, when she’d kept so much from him.

“Please, take a bite,” she pleaded, knowing it wasn’t about the hamburger at all. It felt so much like Eve offering the apple to Adam, but in this case it didn’t have anything to do with the devil and everything to do with them.

She splayed her free hand against his hard, virile chest, her impulsive reaction effectively cutting off whatever he’d been about to say. Rio had the sinking feeling his next words would have been too devastating to hear.

He must have heard the raw emotion in her voice because something in his expression softened, and he reached out for the burger in her other hand and took a bite.

Without another word, she slid her flattened hand up his taut chest, along his shoulder, and curled her fingers along his nape. Silently, she pulled his mouth down to her parted lips and kissed him—soft, lush kisses that grew hotter, wetter, more daring—until with an unrefined groan of surrender he responded.

She might have been the initiator, but it wasn’t long
before Max took control, and she gladly let him. He backed her up against the nearest wall. Removing the burger and setting it down on the table, he pressed his hard, fully aroused body against hers as his mouth claimed and devoured with ravenous greed. He molded her hips in his hands, his fingers biting into her flesh through the cotton of her shorts as he shifted her closer, then slid the muscular length of his thigh between her legs, forcing them apart, forcing her to endure the strong, steady rhythm and friction against her sex.

She felt the rush of moisture, and the heat between them flared with startling suddenness—like a flame touched to dry kindling. An orgasm built, but just as her climax increased in aching need, Max pulled his mouth from hers and removed his leg, leaving her on the verge of an exquisite release.

Breathing hard, his eyes blazing hot, he held her heavy-lidded gaze with his own and began unfastening the buttons on her shirt. His fingers stroked her skin, the swell of her breast, the deep valley in between, as he slowly made his way downward to her stomach.