Heart of Danger (15 page)

“Erotic romance?”

“Yeah, romance with lots of sex,” she winked. “If you don’t read suspense romance you might like that.”

He glared at her. “Honey, if it has romance anywhere in the genre I don’t read it.”

“Just checking,” she laughed as he turned to leave. She couldn’t honestly think he’d read that stuff. And what the heck was she doing reading erotic romance? She was too innocent for something like that. Then again, maybe she wasn’t. He had been seeing a completely different side to Natalia lately and he wasn’t sure the perception he had of her was completely accurate. She was sweet, innocent, loyal, but she was also a woman with needs and feelings and desires. Right now she desired him. Well hell, she had given him the go ahead so he wasn’t going to resist any longer. Tonight he was going to take her the way she wanted to be taken. Tonight he was going to make her his.

He was mid workout when his cell phone started ringing. Normally he wouldn’t bother to stop on the first attempt. Everybody knew if they had an emergency they would have to ring twice because normally he let the phone go to voicemail while he was working out. But today wasn’t normal. Today he was watching over Natalia and trying to make sure she remained safe. Every call would be answered.

“What’s up Alex?

“There was some activity at Natalia’s place last night.”

“Did the alarm go off?”

“No, they didn’t get past the backyard. I set up a tripwire to alert me if anybody came onto the property. My monitoring system alerted me about midnight.”

“Could have been a raccoon.”

“With a size eleven boot?” Alex had clearly gone to check it out, and right now Micah was hoping he hadn’t gone over there at night alone. “I checked it this morning. I just thought I’d let you know before you asked. Whoever it was must have felt the pull of the wire because the footprints don’t go past where I set up after you all left.”

Micah ran his hand along his jaw. “So they’re here and they know where she lives.”

“Looks that way. I’d really like to know how. They didn’t have her belongings so how did they find her so quickly?”

“Somebody gave them the information. I don’t know if it was somebody on our end, or somebody Down Under on the take. Doesn’t matter,” he tossed his sweaty towel into the hamper bin in the corner. “They’re here. They know where she lives and now we need to cut the defensive and go on the offensive. We need to take him out.”

“Copy that,” Alex’s tone told Micah he, too, was unhappy with sitting on the sidelines. “The guys are all in agreement that we need to make a move. Preston’s calling in some favors, and Jet is doing what Jet does best.”

“And I’m watching Natalia, so what are you doing?”

“Calling you.” Micah could hear something going in the background.

“Are you making up your special brew again? You know we were told not to do that again.”

“I’m out of the military, Micah. I can make however many bombs I want.”

Micah laughed. “Don’t let the feds hear you say that.”

“You know we might need them. And they’re more flash than bang. I won’t kill anybody—not with my bombs at least.”

“Let me know when you get more information.”

“Are you going to tell her?”

“No. She’s going through enough. I won’t add this onto her shoulders unless it’s absolutely necessary.”

“Good idea. I think we all know how much she has to deal with right now.”

“Yeah. She’ll be okay. Some time, some love, and a lot of friendship and she’ll be okay.”

“Love?”

“From all of us…you know, we all love her…oh hell,” he grumbled as he heard Alex laughing at him because of his lack of ability to string together a sentence that didn’t make it sound like he had gone sweet on Natalia. “You know what I meant.”

“Yeah, sure…of course.” He chuckled. “I’ll check in with you later.”

With an audible click of the line Micah knew the call was over. Normally that wouldn’t bother him, but normally Alex wasn’t the one getting in the last word—or the last laugh. He was sweet on Natalia. Maybe there wasn’t a reason to try to hide it. He was going to claim her body tonight and after that he planned to make sure no other man laid claim to it again. He might as well let the guys know that they had moved the relationship to another level. There wasn’t exactly a “no interoffice dating” rule. Of course she was the only female with the company and that could be why that rule hadn’t been put into place yet. None of them had looked at her as somebody that was going to be one of their romantic flings. She was just Natalia; sweet, innocent, employee who could hold her own in the office. She found what most people wouldn’t have invested the time in finding. She was smart, amazing and beautiful yet none of them had really looked beyond that to see her as somebody that they would date. He didn’t know why that was actually. Maybe because she was so quiet and reserved that she came across as the little sister in the group. Well she wasn’t coming across as the little sister now. Now, she was looking a heck of a lot like a woman he wanted to come home to every night and wake up with every morning.

He hit the weights hard, needing to get Natalia off his mind for at least another hour or so…or more like, needing to get getting between her legs off his mind for another hour or more. When he woke up with her hand softly lying between his legs it felt so good he couldn’t bring himself to wake her. Five minutes passed and the longer he waited, the bigger his problem became, but it was such a sweet torture that he just closed his eyes and took it all—until she gave that subtle squeeze that had him near coming in his pants.

“Forget the workout,” he mumbled. “What I need is a cold shower.”

Chapter Ten

“D
id you get in?”

“No,” Ramón knew telling his boss that he failed could be the difference of life and death, but lying to him would be worse. “There was some kind of trap set up. I didn’t notice until I tripped the wire. I felt it when I did it and I had to get out of there. The feds must be expecting us.”

Diego growled, “I don’t want the feds getting in our way. I want her back. Nobody leaves me.”

Ramón wished he could say his boss was just obsessed with a pretty face, but it was more than that. When she got away it made Diego look bad around the villages. Looking bad could be killer in their business because it made him look weak, and a weak drug lord was a soon to be dead drug lord. Right now, Ramón was just happy he hadn’t ended up dead himself. Being the best of the group is the only thing that had saved his hide, but screwing up again wouldn’t afford him with the luxury of life.

“I don’t think she’s there,” he admitted. “It was too dark. She could have been asleep, but I think—”

“The feds moved her.”

“I think so.”

“Well, I have friends with the feds so I will contact them again and find out where she is now. Money goes a long way in obtaining information.”

Ramón knew the truth in that statement. How many favors from both governments had Diego’s money bought? Too many to make the honest hearted happy, but their contacts weren’t of the honest hearted persuasion. They were of the fat wallets persuasion and Diego could make those wallets fatter—they would not deny him.

“We’ll find out where she is, and then we’ll go get her. When I get her back to Colombia she will pay dearly for her escape—very dearly,” he ran his fingers along the smooth blade of his knife. Ramón didn’t need to ask questions; he knew what Diego would do to her. He had seen him when he tired of the women, how he gave them to the others, some of those women went to him, and then, when they were all done Diego would carve the woman up just to hear her scream. He was a ruthless bastard, but he paid well, and as he had said, nobody left him, not even his guards. The only way out was death and Ramón had no desire to die. He would help him get this woman back to Colombia, back to his home. And maybe, if he played his cards right, he would be the first man offered a sample of her before Diego cut her up. The trick was to stay in Diego’s good graces, to not anger him, and to be sure not to screw up again. He would redeem himself with this one act, with this one mission, he would bring the chocolate goddess back to Diego and offer her up like a sacrifice on his alter, and then he would once again be on solid ground with Diego. Being on solid ground was of the utmost importance because there were several other guards just waiting for him to fall from grace so that they might take up his place as Diego’s head honcho. He worked too hard to get where he was—he killed for the position actually, and he wouldn’t lose it. He would not let anybody steal it from him.

“The plane will be ready to meet us at the designated location,” Ramón confirmed. They knew they couldn’t fly out of the same airport, or even on the same plane. Fortunately Diego’s money bought people, people with planes and the willingness to fly them back to Colombia. They would be out of the country before anybody even knew it.

“Yes, and after I contact Special Agent Michaels I will know her location. We should have her by tomorrow night, si?”

“Si senior Valdez. We shall have her. This Michaels, are you sure he will know where she is?”

“Si,” he nodded. “He has to look like a good guy to them, but he is the one who told me of the feds plan to track us. He is the one who made our coming here so easy. A few hundred thousand more in his off shore account and I am certain he will be more forthcoming with her new location.”

“Then maybe we should strike tonight.”

“No, tomorrow night would be best. It will make them all feel as if they are safe. With our plane leaving Dallas today they will assume we were on it. I have made sure of that. Tomorrow,” he slid his finger up and down the blade continuously. “Tomorrow night we will make our move while she and whoever else is with her sleeps. Tomorrow night I will take her back. Her punishment will be great. And if you prove your worth to me, Ramón, your reward will be greater.”

That’s all he needed to hear; that reassurance that he would be rewarded greatly for accomplishing this task. Natalia didn’t stand a chance. He would not let anything or anybody come between him and his reward.

“I should teach you how to shoot,” Micah finished securing the buttons on his shirt.

“No,” she shook her head. Shooting was a bad idea, at least for her anyway.

“You may not like guns, but you need to learn—”

“I have nothing against guns,” she stated. “Crazy people with guns, sure; I have loads against that, but guns in general—I hold nothing against them. I just have crappy aim. Picture me drunk off two drinks and multiply that by one thousand and you’ll understand why it’s an incredibly bad idea to put a weapon in my hands.”

“I’ll teach you. It’s not that hard. You just point and shoot.”

“I have horrible aim.”

“It can’t be that bad.”

“I was playing a game of darts with Kelly and some guy at one of the bars she took me to and I threw a dart into his shoulder.”