Operation London (22 page)

"I know damn well this isn't macho!  You think I'm worried about Angel seducing you?  I'm worried about him killing you!  You're not safe without me!" he yelled, getting up to pace the room angrily. He yanked his pants on and went to the front door, letting it bang behind him.

Ava listened to the hurried rush of her own breath for several minutes before she crept to the door
. An irrational piece of her thought that he might have stormed away for good. The agent in her reminded her that he wouldn't have stormed very far without his vehicle.

He was sitting on her porch looking up at the sky in wonder
.

"Hey, I meant what I said."  She leaned against the doorway gracefully, clad only in his oversized shirt.

"I know you did. I really respect you Ava," he said calmly, almost sadly. "And I really care about you. But I also know that you're in over your head, whether you can see it or not."

"I need to do this myself," she said quietly, sitting gently on the floor beside him
. She pulled her long legs up to her chin and wrapped her arms around them, staying off the cold of the night.

Miguel only shook his head
. Arguing further would only frustrate the both of them.

"I hear you, Ava
. But I don't want to end the night like this," he said, pulling her near to him. "Come inside with me and I'll make you forget we ever yelled at each other."  He wiggled his eyebrows devilishly, making her giggle with relief.

He scooped her up in his arms and marched to the bedroom, depositing her onto the bed
. He held her in his arms and made love to her until they both fell asleep, all arguments reserved for the back burner.

The next morning dawned early
. Miguel was already up and showered by the time Ava rolled out of bed.

"Ugh, what are you doing up so early?" she asked, rubbing the sleep from her eyes and yawning.

"My job doesn't require me to scale buildings and jump in and out of moving vehicles, honey. That means I have energy in the morning," he grinned, holding out a mug of coffee for her.

"Mmmm....delicious
. By the way I have never jumped out of a moving vehicle," she said adamantly. "Unless I was properly harnessed."

Miguel only shook his head and smiled, heading to the kitchen where she could smell sweet dough cooking.

"Waffles?" she cried. "Oh, I don't deserve this!"

"No, you really don't
. Maybe my magic in the kitchen will help convince you that I should escort you to Mexico," he said, still in a bright mood.

Ava's mouth tightened into a stiff line immediately
. "Miguel....."

"Just think about it," he cut her off, holding his hands up in front of his body for mercy
. "How is the case going anyway?"

Ava gasped
. "The envelope!"

"What envelope?"

"The one Cormac and Magdalene and I were after. I took it home," she cried, rushing to the car. Miguel watched her long coltish legs as she dashed down the driveway. She came back to he door with a manila envelope in her hands. "I forgot about it when I saw you," she gasped, breathing heavily.

"Well, I am pretty damned handsome," he said seriously.

Ava rolled his eyes at his adorable arrogance, then plunked down to open the envelope. In the back of her mind there was a small voice nagging her to wait for her partners. Another tiny voice told her not to let Miguel see anything that might bring up the Mexico fight again. But a very loud voice told her to do whatever the hell she thought was right. So she ripped the envelope open.

There were several pictures, all from different angles of a haggard Marie Deltore
. Ava's heart constricted as she looked at the heavily made up face of the young girl. She was sitting on a leather couch, lines of cocaine on a mirror in front of her. She had on a very tiny dress, and a man was leaning over her, watching. There was also a photo of her taking a bag and handing the man money.

"Conway wanted pictures of Marie buying drugs?" Ava wondered aloud.

"I hope she's not buying in Mexico," Miguel said suddenly, spinning around to look at Ava.

"Why?"

"It's an offense that is often punished by death in the smaller towns," he said, his jaw clenching.

They both bent over the pictures, looking at them over and over again, as if some pertinent clue would appear if they could only concentrate hard enough.

"I have to go to Josephine," Ava said wildly, once her eyes had looked until they could not look anymore.

"Her mother?"

"Yes, I need to go now!  I've been wasting time!  I should have been....."

"What Ava?" he asked, catching her around the arms and forcing her to look him in the
eye. "Should have been what?  Putting in hellish hours?  Crawling around with slime?  Investigating every avenue you could think of?  You've been doing it all, and it's wearing down on you!  Don't add guilt to the mix!"

Ava's eyes were filled with tears, though she tried hard to blink them away
. She was a professional, not some rookie following a lead. But she'd never been so intimate with her any of her clients' cases. It had always been a job, a thrill. This was a girl.

"So you don't think I should call Josephine?"

"I have a feeling Conway probably wanted Josephine to know about what's going on in these pictures. Maybe he wanted to threaten her to do something, hold it over her head that he knew about Marie's involvement with drugs. Any way you look at it, you have the upper hand by holding these pictures. I think you should consider keeping it that way."  Miguel's eyes were boring into hers, making it difficult for her to string thoughts together.

"I need to go over everything again," she said firmly
. He nodded, handing her a plate of waffles that she devoured. "I need to make sure I'm not missing any pieces."

"When are Cormac and Magdalene coming over?" he asked.

"Soon," she said, drizzling more sticky syrup onto the delicious breakfast in front of her. "How long are you staying?"

"Not too much longer
. I have a final closing meeting for the bank loan, and then I have to work a double shift tonight," he said, washing the dishes as he spoke. Ava couldn't take her eyes off of his body as he moved, keeping his actions neat and clipped. This man could make doing the dishes look sexy and manly, she thought with a tiny sigh. Why did he also have to be so infuriating?

"I hope all goes well with the bank," Ava said sincerely, bringing her empty plate to the
sink and sliding her arm around his narrow waist, kissing the firm muscles of his back through the crisp fabric of his shirt.

"It should
. I'm keeping my fingers crossed," he said, turning to catch her mouth with his, fondling her breasts with his warm, damp hands. She hadn't dressed for the day yet and her bare breasts were soft and full against his able hands, her dark nipples pricking with sensation as he ran his palm over their aroused peaks.

Ava was just feeling a groan begin in her throat when Cormac and Magdalene burst in screaming
. Miguel dropped his hands and pulled his mouth away, and he and Ava stared as the two exchanged heated accusations across the small kitchen.

"I told you already that I can handle it myself!" Magdalene bellowed, her golden curls vibrating from beneath a red scarf
. She looked very sharp and sleek in a tailored black dress and heels, her lips painted a fiery red. Cormac was trying to block his animalistic intentions and focus on what a pigheaded jerk she was being.

"Not against the likes of that scum!  I won't hear of it!" he screamed back, his spiky black hair standing on end from the constant brush of his hand through it.

"Well no one asked your friggin' opinion!  You bossy Scottish bastard!"  she roared, lunging within two inches of his face.

He stared into her pretty jade eyes, reduced to mere slits under the intense force of her anger
. She looked right back into his boiling blue ones, refusing to be cowed by the arrogance of a chauvinistic pig. Although she did admit he looked delicious in his relaxed jeans and white t-shirt. Very classic and very adorable.

"What is this all about?" Miguel asked, looking at Ava for answers
. She didn't meet his glance.

"That asshole Angel just brought this case to a new level of low!  And I won't see her acting the part of his girl toy just to get closer
. She isn't a damned decoy!"  The rage bristling off of Cormac's body made the air all around them spark.

"Angel Espino." It wasn't a question when it came out of Miguel's mouth
. It was merely a declaration of how badly he wanted Ava as far away from this madman as she could possibly get.

"Yes, Angel!  The pyromaniac bastard who burned down Piper's......"

"You have no proof of that," Magdalene muttered, hating to disagree with him on that one, but refusing to give him an inch.

"......kidnapped a young woman and has been linked to every illegal substance on the face of the planet!"  Cormac stopped and breathed heavily, his flustered appearance a testament to the strain Magdalene was putting him through.

"So you admit this guy is no good?" Magdalene asked saucily.

"Of course I do," Cormac muttered.

"And you admit that he's managed to evade law enforcement for years now?"

"With a lot of help from his indulgent father," Cormac nodded suspiciously.

"Then what fault could you possibly find with a plan that centers around tricking Angel using one of his most vulnerable weaknesses," Magdalene asked triumphantly.

"Don't you get it, Maggie love?" Cormac asked huskily
. "The plan is brilliant, no doubt about it. But his weakness isn't just women. It's manipulating and destroying women. And I won't stand by and see the women I care about treated like that for anything." 

Ava and Magdalene looked at one another for a moment, eyes locked
. They both knew why Cormac and Miguel were trying to pull them away from their plan. But they also knew that the woman who was being hurt the most was only barely a woman. Marie needed them to do what it took, and neither one was prepared to let her down.

"I know you're both worried," Magdalene said quietly
. "So here."  She slid thin pieces of paper across the table to them. "Johnny and Mark Saludo, here are your plane tickets and passports."  Two blue and gold cards bounced off of the table in front of them.

"Johnny and Mark Saludo?"  Cormac asked, his clean brow wrinkling into a mass of tanned lines
. "Honey, no one's going to believe we're brothers."

"Not brothers," Magdalene said, smiling impishly
. "Lovers. Welcome to your Cancun honeymoon, boys!"

"Lovers!" Cormac yelled, his face taking on a strange red tinge and the muscles on his neck bulging out in thick blue lines
. "You can't be serious, love!  No one's going to fall for that!"  He gave a macho nod in Miguel's direction. Miguel's mouth was hanging slightly open, his large jaw seemingly unhinged.

"Well, no one is going to believe it the way you dress, Cormac, but Ava and I will fix that!" Magdalene said happily, her green eyes snapping with excitement
. Cormac shook his head again, running his fingers aggressively through his dark hair.

"I don't know about this. What do you think, mate?" he asked Miguel.

Miguel couldn't help but grin at the irony of his Scottish friend's choice of endearment. "If I can keep an eye on Ava, consider us married." 

Ava felt something squeeze at her heart
. It pained her to admit that Miguel was the first man to go to any such lengths for her. She hardly knew how to respond to his open generosity.

"Thank you, Miguel
. I'll feel better having you around," Ava said, hoping that her own honest would be enough. They locked eyes again, and just as happened every time before, Ava felt a wash of pure heat rush through her body. This man was doing things to her that she couldn't imagine were possible.

Cormac grumbled his agreement and an ecstatic Magdalene went online to confirm the hotel reservations she had made the night before.

"How do you even know where to put us?" Cormac asked hotly.

"Only the best same sex resort for my boys," she winked
. "Plus that, I gave Angel a call late last night and he filled me in on all the goodies."

"You called Angel last night?" Ava asked, her voice a little shaky.

"Yeah," Magdalene said absently. "I didn't want him to have any suspicions about our being at Conway's last night, and I had the feeling that he's the kind of guy who adores being petted and followed by a beautiful woman. I just gave him what he wanted," she shrugged.