Intimate Enemies (32 page)

Her heart floated. Relief and gratitude loosened the tension in her shoulders.

He released her waist to brush hair off her face. “Are you falling in love with me, Cass?”

Yes.
Yes, yes, yes.

“I can’t. You won’t let me. Every time I head that direction, you close up. How can I fall in love with a man I don’t know? With a man who keeps secrets from me?”

“Listen.” His thumb kneaded the base of her skull, and it felt so amazing Cassie nearly lost focus. “I’m not in this for the long haul. This job is a means to an end, okay? Try not to judge me by this one situation.”

“What do you mean?”

“I mean this is a stop on my path, not a career.” Cassie pulled in a breath to shoot more questions, but Rio brought his mouth down and kissed her. He pulled back just enough to whisper, “Don’t ask. I’ll tell you when I can.”

“How long?”

“Soon.” He cupped her chin, and the way he looked at her made her heart want to break free of all its restrictions. “All I can say for sure is that I promise to make it worth the wait.”

Nineteen

Rio turned the Jeep around and headed toward Avenida Heraldo,
feeling different somehow. Deeper. More purposeful. And like the luckiest and most asinine bastard on the face of the earth. She was falling in love with him? He shouldn’t be this thrilled, feel this complete, be looking this far ahead. And it wasn’t like Cassie was particularly happy—with either him or the whole falling-in-love thing. But even the fact that she admitted the
possibility
had his heart nearly bursting in a way he’d never experienced.

“Why don’t you let me drop you at the estate?” he asked. “I’ll come back and get whatever papers you need from Raymond.”

Cassie turned from looking out the window, hand on her forehead. “I didn’t tell you who I was going to see, only the address.”

The near accusation that Rio had somehow infringed on her privacy when he’d been offering to help, and after all pretenses of privacy had been breached the night before, clipped those wings still fluttering in his chest. “I know Raymond, and I recognized the address.”

She considered for a moment, then turned her gaze out the window again. “I have to sign papers.”

He had to bite his lip to keep a snarky
you’re welcome
from snapping out of his mouth. “Fine. But I want you to consider letting
me
do some of the things you want done, Cass.”

She slanted him a wary look.

“I’m giving you a chance to trust me.” But that wouldn’t work if he didn’t keep the irritation and hurt out of his voice. It would only scare her. He forced his voice level. “Nobody watches what I do; they watch what you do.”

She cocked one brow his direction. “You’ll get me the information I need to prove Saul’s doing illegal things, things that can put him in prison, even when that information could implicate you in the same crimes.”

He ground his teeth. When he was sure he wouldn’t bark at her, he said, “I’ll get you the information you’re asking for so that Saul gets off my back about keeping you out of trouble and calms down about having you at the estate. I know what you want, Cass, and I know why you want it, but I’m confident whatever information you ask for will not contain enough evidence to send Saul to prison. I’m sure Paco had all kinds of things to say about Saul and me, but before you go investing yourself in any one tale, consider the source.”

“He said you took care of something important for him. That he owes you a favor. What did you do?”

Rio strangled the steering wheel. “I was in the right place at the right time, that’s all.”

Her shoulders deflated. She turned to look out the window. “You can go by the accountant’s office and pick up the flash drives he’s got ready for me of the estate’s books for the last ten years if you want. I’m too tired to do it today.”

His heart ached for her. He wanted to tell her to just take a vacation for two weeks, come back, and he’d have her world set right. But all he could do to bridge this horribly anxious gap between them was take her hand, drag it to his mouth for a kiss, and thread his fingers through hers for the remaining few blocks to Raymond’s office.

As they started toward the office together, she crossed her arms tight over her ribs, gaze intent on the asphalt as if she were deep in unpleasant thoughts. All Rio wanted to do was touch her. God, how he wanted to touch her. Less than twelve hours out of bed with her and he craved her more now than he had before, which he hadn’t believed possible. And it wasn’t just her body or her passion he wanted. It was the connection they had in bed. The openness she shared, the trust she showed. The real Cassie beneath her shell, beneath her fear—that was who he was addicted to. Seriously addicted.

At the building, he pulled the door open and forced himself not to run his hand over her hair as she passed through. Her attention caught on the polished slate beneath her feet on her way through the foyer, and her posture relaxed. “This is gorgeous.” She glanced at Rio. “What do you think? For the clinic entry?”

A smile lifted his mouth. A warm sensation sluiced through his chest. He loved the way she’d started asking his opinion.

“Mmm-hmm,” he agreed. “It would be great.”

She reached Santiago’s office door, turned the handle, and walked in. Rio was still looking at the multicolored slate beneath their feet when he simultaneously heard Cassie’s gasp and ran into her back.

His senses had him reaching for his weapon with one hand, reaching for Cassie with the other before he’d even put a solid thought into place. With an arm around her waist, he dragged her back through the doorway and behind him. He aimed his weapon into the office, half hidden behind the wall. Even though he didn’t see anything threatening in the waiting area, Cassie’s breathless, “Oh my God, oh my God, oh my God,” behind him, had the hair on his neck rising.

He swept the lobby toward the reception desk, inching out from behind the wall. His vision slid over bookcases, a potted plant, a file cabinet, the corner of a wooden desk, then the entire desk.

A split-second of horror caused Rio to pause his sweep. Blink. Stare.

The woman behind the desk sat perfectly still, her head dropped back, her eyes open and staring at the ceiling. Rio couldn’t look away from the scarlet gap across her neck, stretching from side to side, or the spill of crimson down the front of a snow-white blouse. His mind slid backward. His vision dimmed until the midday office turned to night on the desert floor. He saw Aurelia’s neck when he’d finally broken from his mother’s hold and run to his sister, long after her screams had stopped. He saw the blood drenching her yellow sundress.

With Aurelia’s screams still in Rio’s head, he forced himself to drop his arms and pull back. He pressed against the wall and waited while his head stopped twisting. His chest rocked with deep breaths. Sweat chilled his face and shoulders.

“Ray,” Cassie whined. “Oh God, Ray."

Rio’s vision finally sharpened. Cassie had her mouth covered with both hands, her eyes wide and distant with horror.

He gripped her wrist and pulled her close. “Stay right behind me,” he ordered. “You’re not safe outside alone.”

Cassie lowered her hands and nodded. She stepped close, and Rio pulled her across the lobby to the wall beside Santiago’s closed inner-office door. He released her arm and said, “Don’t move.” Then amended, “Unless someone starts shooting, then run like hell.”

Rio reached out and turned the door handle slowly. He took a shallow breath, pushed it wide, and swung his weapon into the room, keeping his body partially barricaded by the wall. Santiago’s form registered instantly, but Rio ignored it until he swept the office. When he confirmed no other threats were present, his gaze refocused on the man who sat behind his desk, much as the secretary once had.

Rio’s stomach jumped toward his throat, taking him by surprise. He grimaced, swallowed.

“No!” The mewl came from deep in Cassie’s throat. Anguished. Tortured. She darted past Rio toward Santiago with an outstretched hand.

Rio hauled her back by the shoulder. “What the fuck are you doing?”

“I have to check.” She shrugged from his grip while swatting at his hand. “I have to—”

“No!” He grabbed her arm. Too hard. He instantly knew she’d have bruises. “Don’t touch anything.”

“I have to!” She turned on Rio, outright terror and pleading on her face. “Rio, please.”

In that instant, Rio understood that she knew the man.
Ray
. She’d called him Ray. Ah, fuck. Rio blocked the sight of the other man with his body and pushed Cassie back by the shoulders, while scouring the outer office behind her for additional threats.

“There’s nothing to check,” he said while she struggled against him. Trying to fight her back with the numbing meds wearing off his arm and a threat still somewhere nearby stretched his temper thin. “You don’t need to see—”

“But, Rio, you don’t understand—”

“He’s dead!”

She flinched. Hiccupped a horrible sound and shrank from him. Pulled against the hand circling her biceps. He didn’t let go but pulled her into him, secured his arms around her, and softened his voice. “They’re dead. I’m sorry, baby. I’m sorry. There’s nothing you can do for them now.”

She clutched at his T-shirt, face pressed into his chest, and cried.

The sound of her sobs, the heat of her tears, the jerk of her body as sorrow racked her were too familiar. Too painful. This was all too damn wrong. This whole thing—Saul, Fermin, the terrorists, the women, Alejandra and Santos dead, Cassie dying inside. At times like this, the whole fucking world seemed wrong.

He kept one arm tight around Cassie’s shoulders and used the bottom of his T-shirt to wipe his prints off the door handle. He put his gun away, pulled the phone off his belt, and dialed the emergency operator.

“I’ve got…” He had to pause and consciously change the words that wanted to come automatically:
a double homicide
. Cassie was too sharp. She picked up on his slips into cop tendencies too easily. “Two dead bodies…in an office. The address is 815 Avenida Heraldo.”

By the time he got Cassie outside, she’d stopped crying, but the hot midday sun didn’t add any color to her complexion or stop her shivering.

“Oh God, Ray,” she murmured. “And that poor woman. Ray… Ray was…” She gestured helplessly with her hands but couldn’t come up with any words. Her face crumpled, and she blurted out, “Such a sweet man. Who would want to…?”

She stopped short. Her gaze tortured but distant, as if her mind was far away.

“Come on.” Rio guided her toward an island of grass in the parking lot and a curb beneath a lush palm tree. He wasn’t feeling so great himself. He was sweating and freezing and light-headed. “We’ll sit in the shade until they get here.”

“Saul?” she murmured as he lowered her to the curb, then crouched in front of her. She looked right through Rio in a way that made the chill inside him deepen. “Oh my God. Saul did this. Saul ordered this…”

The realization hardened in her eyes until they shone like polished glass. Every plane of her face went taut. Every angle sharpened. And Rio saw on Cassie’s face all the same rage, all the same hatred, all the same venom Rio had built for Saul over the past year.

There couldn’t have been a worse time for this epiphany. The first police car jerked to a halt across the drive, followed by another.

He gripped her arms hard. “Don’t jump to conclusions that can get you hurt. Didn’t you just tell Paco you had legal documents limiting his ability to get a ransom for you? How difficult would it have been for him to make one phone call after he left the café? Send someone over here to put an end to those documents?”

Her gaze swung up, a hint of confusion seeping in. But still intense. Far more intense than he’d expected, considering what she’d just been through.

She stood. So straight, so fast, Rio tipped backward and caught himself with one hand on hot pavement as she loomed over him. “Did Saul do this because he was afraid I’d get Mamà’s will changed? Did you…oh my God…did you
know
about this?”

He stood and reached for her. “
No
.”

“Don’t.” She stepped away, hands up in a stand-off gesture. “Don’t. I…I don’t know what’s happening.”

The cops spilled from their vehicles. Three headed for the office, guns drawn. A fourth stayed outside on the radio, slowly making his way toward Cassie and Rio. Cassie shifted her weight and inched backward.

“Cassie, stop and think about this.” If she didn’t calm down quick, her suspicions would get back to Saul before Rio could even get her home. And he never knew when Saul would just snap; when Cassie’s interference would put her squarely in line as Saul’s next victim, as it had here with Santiago. “Santiago has hundreds of clients. It could have been someone with a grudge against him. It could have been anyone for any number of reasons. This is not the time to be talking shit to the cops.”

She narrowed her eyes, tightened the cross of her arms over her chest. “Are you threatening me?”

Okay, that just pissed him off. “Cassie—” He stopped himself from blurting out…something. Something he’d regret. “You are fucking maddening.” He stepped close, lowered his voice so the cop wouldn’t hear him. “This would be a really bad time to piss Saul off with unfounded accusations.”

He turned away before he had time to read her expression—purposely. He didn’t think he could take one more glare of suspicion from her today. Instead, he intercepted the cop. Fielding questions and offering a statement gave Cassie time to think about what he’d said, let the shock wear off, and allowed her logical mind to start working again.

He watched her from the corner of his eye. She wandered ten yards away, leaned her shoulder against a tree, and rubbed her forehead. Rio answered the cop’s standard questions—what he saw, what he did, whether he touched anything.

More cops arrived, an ambulance, men in plain clothes, and, wonder upon wonders, Fermin. He stood from the car and headed directly for Cassie.