by Tawny Weber
“You’re being targeted by a crime ring with law-enforcement connections and no scruples about murder. And you’re complaining about government-trained protection?”
Targeted? All the air whooshed out of Lila’s lungs in one fast puff.
“You found that out? That I’m an actual target?”
“I found out a lot of things. If you’re finished being pissed, I can fill you in.”
“Go ahead and fill me in on what you found out. Maybe by the time you’re done, I’ll be finished.”
Lila leaned against the side of the boat and waited for a barrage of placating bullshit.
“I haven’t pinpointed the exact criminal activity being run out of Casa de Rico, but given everything I’m seeing so far, I lean toward money laundering. The bartender, Dory Parker, runs the show, but Garcia is a part of it and in the crosshairs himself.”
“You think they’re going to kill a policeman?” Why did that shock her?
“I think he screwed up killing Rodriguez, and as soon as he takes care of the fallout, Parker will have him taken out.”
“And that’s why they’re after me? Because they think I can identify Garcia as the killer?”
“Maybe. Possibly. But I think it’s more than that.” Travis frowned and scrubbed one hand through his hair. “No, they’re targeting you because they believe Rodriguez passed you something.”
“Me?” Now Lila frowned, too. She thought back to her only meeting with the chef while he was alive and finally shook her head. “He didn’t give me anything.”
“Notes? A card? An autographed menu? Nothing?”
Lila rubbed two fingers over her temple in hopes of massaging out the information. But all she came up with was, “I paid for the meal with my credit card and he brought me the receipt.”
Travis’s eyes lit in the moonlight.
“Do you still have it?”
Of course she did. It was a business expense.
“It’d be in my laptop case, which is wherever you stashed my luggage.” She couldn’t remember there being anything written on the slip of paper. “Do you really think that’s why they’re after me?”
“I think that’s what they’re after,” he said precisely before furrowing his brow in frustration. “The only thing I didn’t get was a handle on the man who hit your hotel.”
Nope, Lila didn’t want to go there. She was sure even mentioning her father would ruin what they had.
“Look, why don’t you just focus on the guys who are trying to grab me?” she suggested. Afraid he’d ask why she didn’t think that particular guy was in on the grabbing, she lifted her chin and returned to her earlier attack. “And this time, keep me filled in on the plan ahead of time.”
“My goal is to do whatever is necessary to get you home, while keeping you safe in the process. But if you don’t like how I’m handling this, just say so.”
For the first time, Lila saw the expression in his eyes and realized she’d insulted him. His comment about being a cripple flashed through her mind, and sent her stomach careening into her toes.
Not only insulted, but quite possibly hurt.
“You’re handling it all fine,” she heard herself say as she moved close enough to slide her hands up the delicious expanse of his chest. “I don’t know what I’d do without you. You make me feel safe and protected and sure that everything will be okay.”
Every bit of that was definitely true. And because it was, she took a deep breath and forced herself to add, “My father is pretty overbearing. He tries to take over everything, to call all the shots. So I guess I just have a few issues with the idea of someone controlling my life.”
He gave her another one of those long looks. Nerves knotted in Lila’s stomach as she waited for his reaction. For his dismissal of her feelings.
“I’m not looking for control over anyone except myself,” he finally said, tucking her hair behind her ear in a gesture so tender that her eyes burned. “But my training—and I suppose, my personality—demand that when I’m faced with a threat, I do what I can to mitigate danger and safeguard lives. That’s all I’m doing here.”
Oh.
Lila wet her lips and tried to figure out why she suddenly felt let down. Of course she didn’t want him controlling her life. But being a responsibility wasn’t a whole lot better.
“You want to tell me what got you so twisted, exactly? It’s not the recon, is it?”
Lila opened her mouth to explain, but couldn’t think of any way to describe her family issues without sounding like a spoiled-brat society princess. Besides, she told herself, she’d already used up her quota of hot-guy-repelling bitchiness for one day. So she smiled instead and caressed her palms down Travis’s biceps. With a soft hum of appreciation, she tilted her head toward the hammock.
“You ever make love in one of those before?”
“Given that most of my time in one was while I was in the service, that would have required a major change,” he teased, his eyes just a little too watchful for her comfort.
He always looked as if he could see all the way into her soul, into that corner where her doubts and fears and secrets hid. So Lila did the only reasonable thing.
She distracted him with sex.
“Me, either,” she said, fluttering her lashes. “Why don’t we lose our hammock virginity together?”
Chapter 14
He didn’t like leaving Lila again.
Travis remembered the look on her face the night before. Anger and frustration looked good on her. So good that a part of him didn’t mind her pitching another fit. The makeup sex had been stellar. But it was that bone-deep hurt beneath her tantrum that’d warned him that he was treading on the ground of painful emotions.
Emotions she wasn’t willing to share.
His own emotions a turmoil, Travis watched her sleep. Dressed in a silk shirt—the woman was class all the way—her body curled into the blankets like they were a long lost lover. Her hair was like spun gold threaded with silver, rich and tempting as it splayed across the pillow. If those mermaid eyes opened, she’d give him a look of blurry confusion before blinking it away to pleasure.
She always looked so damned happy to see him. Even now, after he’d confessed that he wasn’t the Super SEAL she’d dubbed him.
Travis couldn’t remember anyone, ever, looking at him like that. Welcome and joy and trust. He didn’t know what to do with it.
So he’d do what he did know.
He’d make her and the world safer by ending the threat Parker and Garcia posed.
Still...
Travis gave Lila one last look and grimaced.
He really didn’t like leaving her.
She was going to be seriously pissed.
That her father was an overbearing, arrogant ass was irrelevant when it came to Lila’s safety.
So he did the only thing possible.
He yanked on his pants, turned his back on the woman who’d captured his heart and left to do his duty.
He’d make it up to her, he promised himself. He’d already started tugging the strings. All he had to do was wrap up this threat, see her to safety, then...
Well, then they’d see.
Even as he pulled himself up the stairs to the deck, he could hear her berating him for going. Like all things that stood in his way, he ignored it.
It wasn’t like he didn’t know how to be a team player, he silently defended when he came on deck and saw the crew he’d called in. There was nothing he valued more than teamwork. But that was with a team that knew what it was doing, one armed and trained and capable.
But as capable as Lila might be, she wasn’t trained or armed. And he worked alone now.
“You good here?” he asked Manny quietly.
“Sí. Me and Raul and Hank, we’ll anchor just offshore and make like we�
�re fishing. Senorita Lila, she’ll stay below,” Manny said, his skin so dark it was blue in the morning sunlight as he repeated Travis’s instructions back at him. “If anybody comes near the boat, we leave.”
Ignoring the foreboding itching its way down his spine, Travis nodded. That was the plan.
“You have my cell number, right?”
“Sí. Your number, and that other one you gave me for just in case.”
Yeah.
“That number is for emergencies,” Travis reminded him. “Only to be used if I don’t return.”
“By noon, right?”
Travis glanced at the sun making its slow climb over the ocean and gauged the time at half-past six. “Yeah. Noon should do it.”
With that and one last concerned look toward the cabin where Lila slept, Travis went off to get the job done.
* * *
Lila didn’t need to check above deck to know Travis had done it again. The moment she opened her eyes, she knew he was gone. After everything she’d said, he was gone.
She’d thought he might be different.
That his good qualities—and yes, he had a million of them—outweighed the overbearing ones.
She was an idiot.
After a quick trip to the bathroom and time with the hair and toothbrush, Lila yanked on jeans and a dark tee, shoved her feet into flats and stuffed all of her belongings into her tote. She didn’t have an actual plan, but damned if she was going to stay here, under orders, being ignored.
“Buenos días, senorita,” Manny greeted as soon as she’d climbed the stairs. “Breakfast?”
Her fury intensified when she recognized the two other men, who were fishing, from Manny’s photo album and realized that Travis had called in the troops for this little babysitting venture.
She wanted to toss the breakfast—and the men—over the side of the boat. But since she had twelve dollars and no credit cards to her name, Lila wasn’t stupid enough to refuse food when it was offered. She popped fruit into her mouth, grabbed a tortilla full of eggs and chorizo, then stuffed three muffins in her bag for good measure. A swig of orange juice and she was ready.
She knew she shouldn’t be mad at them; they were only doing what Travis asked. But Manny and his friends weren’t going to just let her leave.
No problem, Lila decided. She had a lifetime of getting around arrogant men’s agendas.
Manny must have noticed something in her expression because he took a step away from his pals to give her a commiserating look.
“The Hawk, he’s only looking out for your protection, senorita,” he whispered.
“Of course he is,” she said in a saccharine tone. Noting that the dingy tied to the side had a motor, she finished her plan by amping up her smile. “And I’m lucky to have you gentlemen here to look after me.”
That got a preening look from the two pals, but Manny’s suspicious stare didn’t dim. So she made a show of eating a muffin and pouring more juice. She spent a few minutes offering food all around, asking about families and generally bullshitting Manny into complacency.
As soon as she saw his shoulders relax, she went for it.
“I noticed a small leak in the cabin below. I don’t know a lot about boats, but it kind of worries me. Do you think you gentlemen could take a look?” She countered Manny’s narrow glance with a flutter of her lashes. Her dingy tone got a suspicious look out of Manny, but the other two just nodded. “Just a quick look. I know you’re on guard duty and you can’t all leave your post.”
And just like that, the suspicion faded from Manny’s face. He nodded, gestured to one of the guys.
“Hank can keep watch. Raul and I will go look for the leak.”
It wasn’t easy, but Lila managed to smother her triumphant smile. She felt a little bad since Manny had spent the previous evening filling her in on all the many household skills he had, including plumbing, and now she was using it against him.
But girls had to do what girls had to do.
With that in mind, she waited until the two men were belowdecks, then made a show of spilling the pitcher of juice. While the third man went to get something to clean it up, she went over the side and into freedom.
Now Travis would realize once and for all that she didn’t take orders from anyone.
No matter how much she cared about him.
* * *
Travis slipped into the small outbuilding at the rear of Paulo’s property, built to look like a shack on the outside, with reinforced steel walls in the inside. He had to admit that Paulo might have danced over the cautious line into paranoid land with a setup like this.
But his friend’s paranoia worked in this case, since one look through the bungalow’s window showed that the dwelling had been searched again. He’d taken that as a sign to get his ass in gear, get the intel and get back to Lila.
Lining one wall of the bunker was an arsenal. Rifles, shotguns, three pistols and enough ammo to withstand a zombie apocalypse. The other held food, because Paulo figured he might starve fighting off those zombies. A satellite communications center, electronics and a strongbox that Travis suspected held cash took up the far wall.
And there, tidily stacked in the center where he’d left it, was Lila’s luggage. After a dozen years with a duffel serving his needs, he wasn’t savvy on the names of each particular bag, couldn’t tell an overnight case from a weekender. But process of elimination, and a look inside a slender leather shoulder bag, netted him the laptop case.
Unsurprisingly, everything inside was tidily organized, making it easy to find the leather portfolio filled with notes and receipts. Embossed with Lila’s name in gold, the folder had pockets and sections, each carefully labeled. It took only a second to find the Casa de Rico receipt.
Frowning, Travis noted that Lila was right. There wasn’t anything there. No handwriting, no special message, not even a thank you. Then he noticed the series of numbers across the bottom of the small slip of paper.
A transaction number?
Or, a slow smile spread over his face, a bank account number?
He glanced at his watch, calculated the time and figured he had plenty enough to check this out. He debated for all of ten seconds going back and grabbing Lila, taking her with him. She was awake by now, and if he knew her, she was spitting flames. Taking her with him for the rest of this part of the op would go a long way to calming that fury.
It would be a simple op without much threat of danger. Make a few phone calls. Hit the bank, the cop shop and the restaurant. If he knew Lila, she’d get a kick out of being part of it.
Besides, he wanted her with him.
Travis glanced at the receipt again. This was it, the key piece that’d break this ring and end the threat. With that, and Paulo’s string pulling, Lila’s docs should be here today. Which meant she could leave.
Get back to her own life.
It was a damned good one, from what he’d gathered from their chats over the last few days. She had a kick-ass career, one she was skilled at. She had good friends who went back a ways, a killer apartment in one of his favorite cities.
Maybe she’d be interested in adding a lover to the mix. Being protective, out of work and homeless probably didn’t work in his favor, but he could change two of those three.
If she was interested.
To hell with if, he decided, shoving the receipt into his pocket and his hand through his hair. He’d make sure she was interested.
He took risks for a living—or had.
How hard could it be to dive into one emotionally?
Feeling like he’d finally figured out at least part of what he wanted to do with the rest of his life, Travis walked out of the bunker with a grin.
And his cell phone began to ring.
* * *
Scurrying around town, looking over her shoulder and jumping
at the slightest sound was definitely on her top ten least favorite things to do, Lila decided as she approached the hotel’s front desk.
“Hola,” greeted the same dark-eyed brunette Lila had seen before. “How can I help you?”
“I’d like to get a room.” Amping up equal parts charm and confidence into her smile, Lila leaned against the counter and gave her name. “You can just use the same credit card I left on file.”
“Of course.” The girl flipped open a ledger and ran her finger down the entries, then tapped a few keys on her computer keyboard. “The same room is available if you’d prefer it?”
“Actually, I’d rather try something on the other side of the hotel. A jungle view instead of the ocean this time.” Lila added an innocuous giggle for good measure. “I have a ton of work to do, too, so I’d like to make sure I’m not disturbed.”
“Sí, senorita,” the desk clerk said agreeably, handing over a key card before arching to look over the counter. “No luggage?”
“It’s being delivered.”
Lila held her breath for the entire elevator ride and fast-walked down the hall. It wasn’t until she’d closed the door and flipped the security lock that she exhaled. It took another few seconds before her knees quit their wonky dance, but as soon as they did, she crossed the room, tossed her bag on the bed and checked the balcony. There was a handy fire escape for running if she needed it. Since it doubled as a way for the bad guys to get in, she made sure the door was locked, then wedged a half-dozen of the wooden hangers in the slider so it couldn’t be forced.
Travis would roll his eyes and point out the many ways that wasn’t an efficient defense, but she figured it’d do for now. Since she planned on being out of here before dark, now was all she had to worry about.
Well, that and doing what came next.
Figuring getting this far deserved a break, Lila unpacked, then used the hotel’s amenities to take a long, hot bubble bath. Feeling clean, fresh and a little more relaxed, she debated room service but figured it was safer to stick with her muffin.