by Kishan Paul
“You think I have a heart?” His lips brushed against hers with each word he whispered. “You sure about that?”
“Yes,” she whispered, her voice husky. She filled her lungs with more of his cologne and swallowed the desire brewing within. Her fingers gripped the fabric of his shirt. “What are you doing?”
“Proving to you that you’re wrong.” His mouth claimed hers before she could respond. Their connection shut her mind down while her body turned on.
He tasted of coffee and mint.
A hunger she thought she’d never experience again overwhelmed her as she tried to get her fill of him. Her hands worked their way up to the rough stubble along his face. When she opened her lips, granting him access, instead of accepting, Eddie pulled back.
“I’m sorry.” His lust-filled eyes gazed down at her.
A lust she shared. One that thrummed her veins and made her desire more of his scent, his taste, his heat, insatiable. Her hands still gripped his face.
“I’m not,” she whispered as she traced his bottom lip with her finger, savoring the way his eyes slammed shut and his breath hitched at her caress. When she leaned in and kissed him, he groaned his approval. He pressed a palm on her lower back, drawing her against his arousal while their need consumed them.
Eddie pulled away a second time, long before she was ready. Out of breath, she rested her forehead against his lips, savoring his warmth. When he backed out of her reach, a chill replaced his heat.
Ally watched him widen the distance between them in confusion. He swiped his thumb along his lip as if wiping her away. It was only then she noticed he gripped the manila envelope with her passports and IDs. The desire running through her cooled. She didn’t need to search her purse to know he’d stolen it from her while he distracted her with the kiss.
He turned his head and tucked the packet in his back pocket. “Like I said, I’m an asshole.”
Hurt and the heat of shame stung her face, but she refused to allow him a glimpse of it. Instead, she zipped her purse shut and headed for the hotel room door. “Well played. And for the record, I still believe I understand you better than you realize, Eddie. You can keep those. I have more.”
When she walked past him, he grabbed her arm. “Ice.”
Ally froze when his fingers wrapped around her skin. Hating her body’s reaction to him and herself for allowing him to manipulate her, she pulled her arm out of his grasp but hesitated at the threshold.
“Wassim knows you’re coming. He has people in every Mumbai airport waiting for you. If you show up, he will kill you.”
She nodded her understanding and made her escape.
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
COMMANDO
Eddie leaned his head against the wall of the darkened room. He’d been hiding in wait long before the couple on the other side arrived from their dinner date and listened as they worked on their dessert. A dessert that led them to the bedroom directly behind the wall he leaned against.
“You feel so good.” The deep voice of a man groaned from the bed on the other side of the wall. An announcement that was soon answered with a woman’s detailed account of her gratitude for her lover’s skills and her appreciation of his impressive size.
As much as he loved his job, there were parts of the career he despised. Hiding in the bathroom of someone’s Mumbai flat while they had sex in the other room was definitely somewhere on top of that list. Two twenty-two-hour flights in a three-day span, one to Seattle from Mumbai and then the second that had his tired ass back in Mumbai a few hours ago would be pretty high up on the list of shit work as well.
His thoughts drifted to the number one worst thing he’d ever done.
That kiss.
His face burned.
God. That kiss.
Eddie had expected her to shove his disgusting ass away. Hell, it would have made it easier to live with himself if she had. But that’s not what happened. He rubbed his lower lip at the memory of the feel of her mouth. A mouth she willingly pressed against his. He had imagined for longer than he cared to admit what it would be like to share a kiss with her. Now he knew. An explosive mix of fire, honey, and everything sweet he’d ever desired wrapped up in one sexy brown package. But the disgusting truth was, he’d forced it. Distracted her with his mouth while he stole her ID.
He lowered his head and slammed his eyes shut. Lies and betrayal were sometimes necessary evils in his line of work. But yesterday represented an all-time low. The worst part was the fact that no matter how many ways he’d re-played the scene, it ended the same. Deception. She was determined to board that plane. He couldn’t risk it. Not until he made sure all the safeguards were in place, and the players involved were ones he could trust. If her hating him and considering him a piece of shit was the price he needed to pay for her heart to continue beating, he’d pay it a thousand times over.
The bed upon which the couple in the other room played “fill my cave” thudded against the wall he leaned against, returning his thoughts to the present situation. The slamming grew harder and more frequent, forcing him to step away from the partition. And when they screamed each other’s names and the name of their maker, Eddie looked to the heavens with prayers of his own.
“Slower,” she begged as if aware of the growing impatience of the unfortunate spectator hiding in the bathroom. “Yes, like that.”
Eddie hissed while she moaned.
“I know you, baby,” her lover announced while the bed continued to groan.
It was a good fifteen minutes after the apartment was silent before his patience was rewarded with the sound of feet thudding against the floor on the other side. The owner of the feet was clearly male. Light from the bedroom briefly filled the small space when the man with the most impressive appendage his lover had ever experienced finally entered the bathroom. The room went dark again when he swiftly shut and locked the door behind him.
A second later, the lights and fan turned on, and standing before Eddie was the very person he’d come to see. Although he’d have preferred it if lover boy had put on clothes, underwear at least. Eddie assessed the operative for threat while the amused exhibitionist did the same to him.
“I finally meet the infamous, Edil Ghani,” he said as he tossed a used condom in the trash.
Eddie turned on the shower behind him and grabbed the towel from the rod, handing it to him. “When I said I wanted a face-to-face with the Commando this isn’t what I had in mind.”
“Intimidated, are we?” The naked man accepted the terry cloth and wrapped it around his waist before stretching out his hand. “It’s a pleasure to finally meet you.”
Eddie eyed the offered palm with distaste. “Seeing as how we’re both aware where those fingers have been, how about we not shake?” He shut the lid to the toilet and sat on the throne. “And nice to meet you, Naveen.”
Commando’s simper faltered for a second before it returned in full force. “You’ve done your research.” He headed over to the sink and washed his hands. “Call me Rafi, please.”
“I have, and for the record, I wouldn’t describe my feelings toward you as intimidated, especially now that I’ve met your”—he cleared his throat for effect—“little friend.” Eddie nudged his chin toward the man’s now-covered sausage. “More along the lines of shock and pity. You should probably use more soap, by the way.”
The man shook his head while he rinsed off. “You clearly need to have your eyes examined, old man, but enough about your geriatric issues.” Rafi dried his palms on the terry cloth wound around his waist. “As you can see, I’m not armed while you, on the other hand, are. Which means you have the upper hand. So tell me, what is it you want?”
Eddie grinned. “I’m not that much older than you, and bullshit. There’s a pistol taped to the back of this lovely chair I’m seated on and an impressive H&K tucked away in the cabinet to your left.”
Aside from his flinch, he gave no indication Eddie’s observations impacted him. But the reac
tion was enough. Eddie leaned his back against the tank of the toilet and crossed his arms. “I want answers.”
With a grip on his towel, Commando rested against the wall and lifted his shoulders. “Between Interpol and Sin, you’ve been briefed on what I do, and you’ve clearly done your research on me, so I’m not sure what more I can provide.”
“True on both accounts, but it’s still not enough information to risk my team.”
He nodded. “Fair enough. So, what do you want to know? My criminal background? Medical tests results. The number of women I’ve been with…”
Eddie shifted on the hard porcelain lid and stretched out his legs before interrupting. “Well, for starters, a meet entails a face-to-face in the back of an ally or car, not me showing up in a private bathroom at eleven o’clock on a Saturday night, listening to the informant having sex. And especially not while the woman he was copulating with minutes ago is still in the next room.”
The man’s grin widened. “Wassim’s offering a nice mountain of cash for your still-beating heart, so I can’t risk being seen with you in public. And, really, this is the perfect place and time. Everyone knows I’m in my apartment with her. No one will show up here tonight as long as she’s in my bed. Considering she’s had a little too much to drink along with the mild sedative I slipped her, she’s not going to be waking up any time soon. Trust me.”
“Trust doesn’t come easy for me,” Eddie confessed. And from the way both of them feigned relaxed poses, he wasn’t the only one with trust issues. “I’m trying to figure out if you’re planning on killing me to get the ‘nice mountain of cash’ Wassim’s offering.”
“Now, trust issues I have plenty of.” Rafi seated himself on the edge of the bathtub and rested his hands on his knees, visible for Eddie to see. “Which is why agreeing to work with organizations like Interpol and the FBI, who believe themselves to be God, and trying to convince myself they will be able to stop kissing their own asses long enough to actually help me has been challenging, to say the least.”
“Then why do it?”
“Mudir has too many people working for him. We’ve lost two of our best operatives in the past two months. We can’t afford to lose any more.” He went silent for a beat before he continued. “So now that we’ve both accepted we struggle with trust issues, shall we move on to how we can help each other?”
As much as Eddie believed him, he wasn’t sold. “What is it you want?”
Commando rolled his eyes. “Do you know what ASHA means, Edil?”
“I really don’t have the time to google—”
“In Sanskrit,” Rafi cut him off, “Asha means hope. Which sums up my life’s work. To give these victims hope for a free life. In Urdu, it means divine order, truth. The divine truth is no man or woman or child should ever be enslaved,” he hissed.
When Eddie opened his mouth to respond, Commando raised his palm at him. “I’m not finished. In Arabic and Swahili, it means alive, life. The one gift we all have been given by God that selfish arrogant pieces of shits out there believe they can take away from us by trying to possess us.”
From the expression on Rafi’s face, it was clear his preaching wasn’t over. Eddie let out a breath and got comfortable on the toilet seat.
“Amazing, isn’t it? How one word, that no matter where in the world you hear it, means something powerful. It’s the reason my organization has gone by the name of ASHA for over four decades. So, no matter where these victims originate, they will feel hope, truth, life. Something good when our name is whispered to them. It’s also the reason why I can’t be bought. There are unfortunates out there, praying for a hero. ASHA is that for them.”
Rafi grinned. “Trust me, it’s definitely not about the money. This is my life, my breath. The things I’ve seen, the lives I haven’t been able to save, even the ones I did save, all of them will haunt me until the day I die. Which is why I want nothing more than to add Wassim’s and Mudir’s heads alongside the others on my wall of honor. Trash like them have destroyed so many innocents and have been rewarded for doing it. I will take them down with or without your help.” He paused and smirked. “But if I have a choice, I’d opt for with you.”
Eddie waited a beat before he finally responded. “Can I speak now?”
Rafi stared at him as if trying to read his mind. “Why wasn’t visiting with the lead of my agency and Interpol’s support of me enough for you?”
Eddie pulled out the key to Rafi’s apartment and laid it on the counter. “If I’m going to put my team’s life at risk, I need to not only meet the person but understand their motives.”
The man patted his thigh. “I take it seeing me naked wasn’t enough?”
“Other than providing confirmation of your gender, no.”
“And what about everything I just said about ASHA?”
Eddie grinned. “A nice sermon. Well-written. Had passion and conviction. But a little too long.”
“Fair enough. What do you think my intent is?”
“Well, considering the old you, Naveen Persaud, walked away after his second tour as a Marine Commando with the Indian Special Forces, I’m guessing you must have had a life-altering experience during your enlistment. Maybe you saw people being trafficked and felt you failed them and, to make things right, devoted your life to the cause.”
Impressively enough, whatever impact Eddie’s words had on him, Commando kept them deep under his skin, making his face unreadable. “My detail was sent to terminate a group of Somali Pirates who’d taken over a Filipino merchant ship. We did our job, but when we started searching the ship, we found their fourteen-member crew hiding in the citadel and a dozen civilians crying for help from the hull of the ship.”
“I take it they were transporting livestock of the human persuasion.”
“They had furniture, too, but yes, children. Chained like animals. If the pirates hadn’t gotten on board, they’d have slipped by undetected. It wasn’t like I’d never seen shit like that before.”
Eddie nodded his understanding. “But this one got under your skin.”
He stared out across the bathroom. “We realized one of the pirates was still wandering the ship. I found him holed up in the captain’s cabin. A girl, at the most eight or nine, laying on the bed he hid under. He’d had a lot of fun with her before I got in there.” Rafi’s eyes darkened. “I put a bullet in his head before he tried to use her as cover. Through it all she just laid there, soaking in her own blood, staring at the ceiling. At first, I thought she was dead, but she wasn’t. In the work we do, we see things like this a lot. But this one. This one girl. There was something about the way she stared. For all intents and purposes, she was alive, but really, she wasn’t. It wasn’t just her body the shit had taken. He’d broken her soul. The world had let her down. I’d let her down. I remember walking over to her and telling her she was safe. That we’d get her home. When we called it in, I told the powers that be about the human cargo the ship carried, about the child who needed medical attention, and they said they’d notify the Filipino Government and ordered us to evacuate the ship.”
“You did because it was your direct order.”
He nodded. “I followed orders and got off the ship and left her there. I’m not sure she’s even alive.”
“Once your tour was done, you joined ASHA and evolved into Rafi.”
“Evolved.” He grinned. “I like that. And technically, they found me.”
“This doesn’t explain your interest in my team.”
“There aren’t many people who scare Wassim and Icom.” He surveyed Eddie. “You do. He wants the woman, and from what I’ve heard, you’ve gotten in his way every time. It also means you can’t be bought or intimidated, at least not by him.”
“Not really,” Eddie shook his head. “We all have a price. He just hasn’t figured out mine. Just like I don’t know if he’s figured out yours. In our lines of work, we both have learned trusting the wrong person can prove deadly.”
&nb
sp; “Sadly, this is true.”
Eddie didn’t push the topic; he had a much more important issue to address. “All the things you said about why you do what you do, it sounds great, and I actually believe you, but it also makes me not want to work with you.”
“Why?”
“People who are passionate like you will risk everything to achieve their goals. What guarantee do I have if you have to choose between your ‘passion’ and the lives of my men and the woman that you won’t let my people die?”
He nodded. “I’m the one who discovered you have a leak on your team. I am also the one who requested your assistance, and yet here I am baring myself to you. It seems you’re just as dangerous to me as I am to you. I give you the same guarantee you provide me that you won’t get me killed. Help me take down Wassim and get close to Mudir, and you have my word I will do everything in my power to keep your people safe.”
Eddie wasn’t convinced. He knew Rafi’s type all too well. “As long as they don’t get in the way of your higher cause.”
Bare shoulders lifted when he shrugged. “Let’s hope we never find out. Now, as a token of my good will and eagerness to work with you, I’ll share a piece of information you might find useful.” He nudged his head toward the bathroom door. “The woman passed out in my bed has ties to Wassim. Her name is Sanaa Khalis. Are you familiar with her?”
“Should I be?”
“Widow, forty-six with a bachelor’s in nursing. Worked at a government hospital until a year ago, when she was appointed the Dean of the University of Mumbai Nursing School.”
“I take it she wasn’t hired for her skills.”
The mostly naked man nodded. “It was gifted to her.”