Suddenly a Spy (7 page)

“Behave,” Jeff called out sweetly after her.
Veronica didn’t even want to think about how that was going to be
taken by the little man.

Ronnie left the reception room, entering a
long and deserted hallway. The bathrooms were down the hall and to
the left. It all seemed so stark and white, Veronica felt like she
was sneaking through an art museum. Voices from above told her
Adrianna was headed up the stairs to her right. Pausing long enough
to take off her heels, Veronica headed up the marble staircase
after them.

She kept close to the wall and continually
glanced about. Her heart was lodged firmly in her throat and
beating a thousand miles an hour. She wondered how it didn’t give
her away.

“I’m tired of excuses,” Adrianna whispered
harshly. Veronica stopped short, surprised by how close the voices
were.

“You should know as well as anyone how hard
he is to kill.”

“Is that supposed to be funny?”

“Marko called for a status update,” the man
was telling her.

“What did you tell him?”

“I gave him Sampson’s message.”

Adrianna let a string of curses fly. Veronica
wondered what the message was.

“What does he see in her? Marko would have
forgiven him for disappearing if he’d come back when the offer was
extended,” Adrianna’s voice was rife with contempt.

“I didn’t get close enough to ask the details
on his love life.”

“Did you ever consider that it was him?” a
third voice chimed in.

“No,” she answered with a little more
vehemence than necessary. “I played him, not the other way
around.”

“Of course,” the first man answered. “So this
isn’t personal for you at all?”

“Do you have anything else useful to tell
me?” she demanded.

“Marko gives you until the end of the week to
get rid of the problem. He’s headed this way after he wraps things
up in Italy. He’d like your assurance this will be handled before
he arrives.”

“Have I ever let him down before?”

Silence hung in the air. Veronica held her
breath, afraid they’d hear it.

“What about the girl?” the first man
asked.

“That’s already in motion. The silly little
princess will live only long enough to regret threatening me.”

“She thinks she’s safe because of her daddy,”
the second man sneered. “I wonder if that’s why Sampson married
her. With all those feds around she makes a good shield.”

Veronica paled at the thought. Adrianna had
mentioned Rick had a new name that first day; she now knew it must
have been Richard Sampson at some point. Was he using her? It
wouldn’t be the first time she’d been blind. She started backing
down the stairs, not wanting to hear any more. Her stomach churned;
it would be so humiliating to lose her wine and crackers on their
white marble stairs. When she made it to the last step, she paused
to put her shoes back on.

“May I help you?” Adrianna’s voice was smooth
as silk.

“I was just on my way back from the ladies’
room… my heel felt wobbly, so I stopped to see what was wrong,”
Veronica looked up to where Adriana stood.

“Bo, take a look at the lady’s shoe,”
Adrianna motioned to the brute Ronnie had seen earlier.

Ronnie shifted her weight nervously, handing
the perfectly good shoe to the man. She wondered how quickly she
could run in her current state. At least she’d die giving Adrianna
a good laugh.

“Look at that,” he held up two pieces of a
shoe for the others to inspect. “The heel came right off in my
hand. Good thing you stopped when you did, or you could have taken
a nasty spill.”

“It’s so hard to find things of quality these
days,” Ronnie stared at her shoe with a mixture of relief and
dismay. She was happy to have her story corroborated, but those had
been her favorite pumps.

“Do you need assistance getting back to your
husband?” he offered her his arm.

“I wouldn’t dream of it,” she reached for the
remnants of her shoe. “I’m already so embarrassed.”

“Nonsense, I insist,” he held the shoe out of
reach, instead offering his arm.

“As riveting as this is, I really must be
going,” the other man kissed Adrianna on the cheek. “I’ll call you
when I’m across the pond.”

“Do. Have a nice flight, love,” she kissed
his cheek back.

Obviously dismissed, Veronica took the
brute’s arm and allowed him to lead her back to Jeff. She could
tell her brother was amused and curious, but he did an admirable
job of concealing both.

“Mrs. Wilkes, what’s happened to your shoe?”
the little man fretted over her.

“I told you not to have a second helping of
dessert last night. Your poor shoe couldn’t take the strain,” Jeff
informed her.

“It appears to have succumbed to inferior
craftsmanship,” she chose to ignore both Jeff and the horrified
look on the other man’s face.

“Perhaps you should see your wife back to the
hotel,” the brute she now knew as Bo suggested.

“Of course,” Jeff nodded his head
ever-so-slightly before turning his attention to Veronica. “You
must be exhausted after your ordeal, sweetie.”

“Quite,” she agreed with Jeff and turned to
the man whose arm she still held. “Thank you so much. I seem to be
in capable hands now.”

“Glad to be of service,” he kissed her hand
and gave a slight bow. Their eyes locked for the briefest of
moments and Ronnie felt a smile tug at the corners of her mouth,
completely of its own accord. She tried to read the glint in his
eye. His gaze made her feel warm and safe. Not something she’d
expect from one of Adrianna’s associates.

“Did my eyes deceive me or was my newly
married little sister flirting back there?” Jeff asked once they
were safely in the taxi cab. “You do know he was one of the bad
guys, right? Oh, and not Rick.”

“I was not flirting,” she rolled her eyes.
“But I’m not convinced he was a bad guy.”

“Any particular reason for that?”

“Instinct.”

“Oh, well then. Let’s invite him for dinner
sometime.”

Chapter Eight

There was something about the scene before
her that made Ronnie want to believe none of the craziness had
happened. Her husband padded around their townhouse barefoot and
shirtless. His jeans hung on his hips in a way that made her mind
go momentarily blank.

“Ah. Love—you’re back from the spa just in
time. I almost have our surround sound working,” he looked up and
grinned.

Guilt settled over her like an iron cloak,
but she was determined to muscle her way through that pesky
emotion. She forced a smile. “We’ll have to get takeout and watch
Phantom
to celebrate.”

“
Phantom of the Opera
is your idea of
celebration, not mine.”

“Spoil sport.”

“How was the spa? Do you feel properly
rejuvenated and ready to forgive me?”

“I’m thinking about it,” Ronnie answered
warily. There was a mischievous gleam in his eye usually reserved
for tormenting Jeff.

“Come on. Why don’t you join me on the couch
and we’ll test it out,” he flopped on their black leather sofa and
patted the seat next to him.

“Um… sure… just let me put my bag away.”

“Well hurry up. This should be fun.”

Ronnie gritted her teeth and dropped her
carry-on and purse on the bed. He was definitely up to
something.

“What are we watching?” she settled uneasily
at his side.

“Just wait, you’ll love this,” he pushed the
button on the remote.

With a sinking feeling, Veronica watched the
inside of the Everdale Antiques flicker on the screen. The time
stamp at the bottom told her she should be walking through at any
minute.

“This is your idea of exciting
television?”

“It gets pretty good here in a second.”

And then there she was, hobbling across the
screen in all her single-shod glory. She tried not to wrinkle her
nose in distaste. The costume and camera had not been kind.

“That poor woman seems to have lost a shoe,”
she innocently noted. He looked at her as if she’d completely lost
her grip on reality.

“I have to say, my favorite part was the look
on your face when he handed you back your favorite shoe in two
pieces.”

She hadn’t felt this busted since the time
she’d snuck out of her bedroom window to go on a date with a guy
from the Naval Academy in Annapolis. She didn’t like being made to
feel like a rebellious teenager by her husband, and she certainly
wasn’t into working out any residual daddy issues with him.

“Yeah, I was pretty pissed about the
shoe.”

“You do realize he saved your life by doing
that, right?”

“Do you even want to hear what I learned? It
might be helpful.”

“No, I had someone for intel already. What
I’d bloody like is for you to stop trying to kill yourself.”

“Then let me in.”

“No. Trust me to take care of this.”

“How’d you get these tapes?’

“You’re a terrible liar. It wasn’t hard to
figure out why you were really in New York. I asked a friend to
keep an eye out for you. After the shoe incident, he figured you’d
been snooping and was kind enough to scrub the surveillance tapes.
He sent me a copy of the unedited version for laughs.”

“Right. I’ll have to remember to watch for
cameras next time.”

“Next time? Don’t you listen, woman? There is
no next time. Cross me on this and I’ll tell Sean.”

“Seriously? You’ll tell my daddy on me?
That’s real mature, Dick.”

In a flash he was on top of her, pinning her
with his body and holding both of her hands above her head with one
of his own.

“Damn it, Ron. Leave this alone,” he growled
so close their breath mingled.

Part of her wanted to injure him. Part wanted
to forget it all and have her way with him right here on the sofa.
The force of her desire and its ability to override her brain
infuriated her. It also caused her breathing pattern to change and
suddenly oxygen felt like a rare commodity. His eyes turned more
gray than green, and his own breathing became jagged, and she
knew—his body was responding to the change in hers.

And that gave her an idea. She caught his
lower lip in her teeth, delighting in the groan that elicited. She
proceeded to kiss him with the full intention of driving him
completely insane.

When every muscle in his body hummed with
desire, she pushed him back on the couch, straddling his lap to
gain better leverage. Something very primal and basic in her wanted
to toss aside the mission at hand and just see this ecstasy through
to the end.

The need was so great, she knew it was time
to make her move or all would be lost. She whispered against his
skin “teach me.”

“Oh darlin’, you seem quite accomplished
already,” his accent was so thick she could barely understand
him.

“No, my love. Teach me. If you think I’m
inept, make me better.”

“What? No,” he came out from under her as if
the couch was on fire.

“Let’s do this together.”

“You were seducing me to get what you
wanted,” his chest was still heaving.

“Isn’t that what you do?”

“That’s not the same.”

“A man-whore is still a whore.”

“And you kiss your mother with that mouth,”
he tsked reproachfully.

Seething with anger, Veronica grabbed the
first thing she could get her hands on and hurled it at him. He
batted the pillow away with ease, but was caught off guard by the
remote when it whacked him in the head.

“What is wrong with you? Would you stop
throwing things at me?”

“Stop treating me like a child.”

“Stop acting like a child.”

“I’m not. I’m acting like a woman whose
wedding day and honeymoon were ruined because her groom lied to
her. If you won’t stop holding me at arm’s length, then how am I
supposed to know that Adrianna isn’t the one telling the truth? How
do I know you aren’t just using me? Maybe you really are one of the
bad guys.”

“Do you truly believe that?” his voice was
now gentle, wounded.

“I don’t know what I believe.”

“If you don’t trust me, at least trust
yourself. Stop reacting, close your eyes, and quiet your mind.”

“If you tell me to listen to my heart, I’m
going to start throwing things at you again.”

“Do you at least understand that I’m only
trying to protect you?”

“Yes, but do you understand that I’m supposed
to be your partner in life, not your ward?”

Rick sighed, falling to his knees at her
feet. He took her hands in his and looked up at her with imploring
eyes. “Take a leave of absence from work. Go stay with your cousin
in Denver. I will come for you when it’s safe.”

“So your trip didn’t go as well as hoped?”
she couldn’t seem to help sinking her fingers into his hair.

“It’s going to take longer than I anticipated
to fix this.”

“What message did you send?”

“Excuse me?”

“They said you sent a message to Marko.
Adrianna was pretty upset about it.”

“You never answered about Denver.”

“No, I won’t go to Denver. But I am going to
call Courtney to see if Sissy, Brutus and I can crash with her
tonight.”

“I fired Courtney today.”

“What?” Ronnie shrieked.

“I’m worried someone would use her to get to
you. You need to take the dogs and go.”

“If you think I’m the kind of woman that can
go hide until you declare the coast clear, then maybe you should
have gotten to know me a little better before proposing. Heaven
knows I should have done a better job getting to know you.”

With that, she pushed him away and fled to
her room where she crammed some clean clothes into her bag with the
dirty ones. After only a moment’s hesitation, she grabbed the
Makarov pistol from her nightstand and shoved that in there as
well.