Safe and Assigned to Ecstasy [The Heroes of Silver Island 5] (Siren Publishing Ménage Everlasting)

by Tonya Ramagos

  She’d seen it, though. She’d known the magnetic pull she’d felt when she was around him had been mutual. She also knew he’d watched her for months after Lexie’s rescue. She’d spotted him in Cinderella’s, the club where she’d been tending bar, usually seated at a table in a dark corner. He’d always seemed to pick the times when she was the busiest to show up at the club and had always been gone before she’d gotten the chance to approach him. She’d gotten to the point that she’d been fed up with the distance he’d kept between them and had been prepared to track him down for a faceoff when she’d noticed he’d stopped coming around.

  Lexie rolled her eyes. “I know. Like I have any right to tell you to move on and get things out of your head.”

  Jennifer covered the hand Lexie had flattened on the counter with hers. “Hey, you’re trying. I’ve seen it, especially since we got to the island.”

  “There’s something about this place. And Ari, she was a little creepy at first, the way she seemed to know things about us, but she’s really great.” Lexie smiled. “I know it hasn’t even been a full day yet, but I feel like…”

  Jennifer followed Lexie’s gaze when she trailed off and turned to see the man who had been in the café last night walking to an empty stool halfway down the counter. The man shot them a grin as he sat, his attention lingering longer on Lexie.

  “Lex,” Jennifer said softly. “Are you okay?”

  “My break is almost over.” She squared her shoulders, took a deep audible breath, and let it out slow. “I can handle this. I need to take my own advice, the same advice you’ve been giving me for years. My job is to cook, but that doesn’t mean I don’t have to sometimes interact with customers, too.”

  Jennifer didn’t comment. Lexie might have been talking to her, but she was really working to convince herself of everything she was saying.

  “I’ll stop by for a drink when I get off later.” Lexie smacked the counter and smiled, though it didn’t quite reach her eyes. “And you need to go to the room and change before the people on this island start thinking you only own one set of clothes.”

  Jennifer laughed and slid off the stool as Lexie started away. She heard the man speak to Lexie and paused to listen.

  “Am I too late for breakfast?”

  “You were supposed to wait a couple of days,” Lexie reminded the man.

  “To come in for a cheeseburger,” the man corrected her. “I never said anything about waiting for French toast.”

  “Touché,” Lexie mumbled, but Jennifer swore she heard amusement lacing her friend’s voice. “I’ll tell Ari to come take your order.”

  Pleased with Lexie’s progress, Jennifer turned to leave, deciding it was time to show the people on the island she really did own more than one set of clothes.

  * * * *

  Adam didn’t waste any time getting to Silver Island. By his calculation, Boran Roumduol, or more than likely the blond-haired brown or green-eyed man Roumduol had working for him, already had more than a two-week lead on finding Alec.

  He’d been to the island once, nearly a year ago when a dead body had washed up on the shore that was first believed to be connected to a string of murders that had occurred across the southern states. He’d only stayed a few hours during that visit, but he’d learned his way around enough to know how to get to his first stop.

  He paused as he entered the island’s sheriff’s department, pulled off his sunglasses, and blinked as his eyes adjusted to the fluorescent lighting. He’d stepped into an empty room. There was no one behind the secretary’s desk or in the visitor’s chairs that lined the sidewall. At first, when he listened, he wondered if there was anyone in the building at all. Then, he heard the soft singing that drifted from an open doorway a short distance down the hall in front of him.

  He felt a grin stretch his lips as he shook his head and followed the sound. He didn’t know the song, but he recognized the voice. He was willing to bet there had been few moments in John Cabelly’s life when the man hadn’t had a song for the occasion. It sucked knowing he was about to bring one of those few moments back to the forefront of the former Navy SEAL’s mind.

  He stopped in the open doorway of the man’s office and found him sitting behind his desk, his head bent over a stack of papers in front of him. “I hear some things never change.”

  Cabelly stopped singing and lifted a brow along with his head. “And you would be one of them. Designer suit, crisp white shirt, tie, and spit-shined shoes…if you’re on my island for pleasure, you’ll want to change the digs, or you’re going to stand out like a sore thumb.”

  “Your secretary isn’t at her desk.”

  “She’s on the mainland. Her sister had a baby yesterday afternoon. She’s playing aunt for a few days.”

  “Please convey my congratulations. Mind if I come in?”

  “Of course not.” Cabelly got to his feet and extended a hand over his desk when Adam got close enough to shake it. “Are you on my island for pleasure, Special Agent Cooper?”

  Adam respected the fact that the man considered it his island as much as he respected the man himself. It was the reason he’d come straight to the sheriff’s department after departing the excursion boat.

  “I’m here because one of my agents is also here,” Adam told him as he took a seat in one of the visitor’s chairs in front of Cabelly’s desk.

  Cabelly nodded slowly as he returned to his seat. “Alec McIntyre.”

  “I take it your paths have already crossed.” Adam had only talked to Alec a handful of times since the man had settled on Silver Island. Neither time had Alec mentioned John Cabelly.

  Cabelly picked up a pen and slid it through his fingers as he held Adam’s gaze. “I make it a point to know who is on my island. I can’t tell you if he remembers me, but after the goatfuck on that last op, I damn sure remembered him.”

  The last op John Cabelly had carried out as a US Navy SEAL with Team Six. The last op that had led to the recovery of a crate of weapons that had been stolen by the Phay cartel. The last op when it had been discovered that there was a leak within the SEAL Team feeding Phay information and keeping the kingpin one step ahead of the game until Phay was finally brought down by the DEA in Silver Springs.

  Cabelly had been set up, accused of being that leak. He’d been put on leave to await a dishonorable discharge before being tossed in jail for treason. It had taken months, but the man had used that time to prove his innocence. The real traitor had been caught, but Cabelly had lost faith in the US Navy. He’d finished out his term, left the SEALs, and taken the position as sheriff of Silver Island.

  “McIntyre hasn’t been keeping a low profile, even though he was strongly encouraged to,” Adam told the man.

  Cabelly shrugged. “I’d say he’s been keeping himself low profiled enough. He hasn’t exactly been the center of attention on the island, pretty much sticks to himself, never causes any trouble or gets out of line.”

  “I have reason to believe Boran Roumduol or one of his hired guns will be coming for him.”

  Cabelly pushed a hard, audible breath from his lungs. “I can’t tell you I wasn’t worried about that when I realized McIntyre was on the island. Phay damn near had the man killed for being a plant within the cartel. After the way he betrayed Roumduol, that fucker won’t stop at damn near. He won’t stop until McIntyre’s body parts are scattered through the damn Gulf.”

  Cabelly didn’t miss a beat. The man had been one hell of a SEAL and had brought that training and experience to his job as the island’s sheriff.

  “A U.S. Marshal paid a visit to my office this morning.” Adam gave Cabelly all the information he knew, holding nothing back. If Roumduol or one of his men found a way onto the island, the sheriff deserved to know everything he’d be up against.

  When Adam had finished, Cabelly raked a hand through his white-blond hair. “That’s not much of a description to go on.”

  “Which is why the marshal’s office is having trouble a
pprehending the suspect,” Adam pointed out.

  “The fucker could already be blending in with every other blond-haired man with green or brown eyes on this island.”

  Adam couldn’t argue with that. He’d found himself scrutinizing every blond man he’d passed on his way to the sheriff’s department. “I’m assuming you haven’t had any recent troubles out of anyone.”

  Cabelly shook his head. “You know the troubles we’ve had in the past. I’ve got security so tight on this island it’s just short of being Fort Knox, but it is an island. There’s no way I can cover every square inch of it twenty-four seven, especially along the shoreline. And anything more than what I’ve already got in place is going to make the tourist leery of visiting. Lara’s done well at keeping the island’s reputation in good standing despite the troubles we’ve had, but there’s only so much she can do, too.”

  Lara Cabelly-McCormick, formerly Lara Hampton, the daughter of US Senator Lawrence Hampton and now wife of John and his best friend, Brandon “Ace” McCormick. Adam let the fact that Cabelly was sharing his wife with another man roll off him. The whole ménage and polygamous way of life wasn’t his cup of tea, but who was he to judge?

  “Have you informed McIntyre he’s likely a target again?”

  Adam doubted Alec had ever fallen off the cartel’s most wanted list but didn’t bother to point that out. “I came to see you first.”

  Cabelly’s light-blue eyes sharpened. “Are you going to tell him?”

  “You don’t think I should?”

  “The buzz around the agencies is that McIntyre remembers more about being Veansa than he does about being one of your top-notch agents. Are you sure you know where his loyalties lie these days?”

  “Positive.” Despite Alec’s checkered past and the memory to go with it, Adam didn’t have a doubt in his mind he could trust his friend.

  Cabelly relaxed back in his chair. “Then, yes, I think you should tell him. The man needs to know to watch his back, even if he does have you, me, and my deputies covering his six, too.”

  * * * *

  Jennifer’s key card wouldn’t work. She inserted it into the lock mechanism, waited for the green light to open the door, and frowned when the light stayed red and the device made a negative sounding beep. She tried again and got the same response. When they’d arrived at the resort yesterday, Lexie had been the one to use her card to get them into the room. Jennifer hadn’t thought to try the card she’d been assigned. Sighing, she pulled the card from the slot again and turned to head down to the front desk to have it checked when the door eased open.

  “You’ve got the wrong room.”

  She froze at the sound of the deep baritone voice she still heard so often in her dreams. Except, it couldn’t be the same voice, could it? Turning slowly, she saw the man fill the doorway and realized that, yes, it absolutely could be.

  “Adam?”

  Amusement danced in his vivid blue eyes. “Or maybe you don’t.”

  Her breath hissed out as her gaze took a loop over his dark hair and ruggedly handsome face before falling lower. She’d never seen him in anything except designer suits. The crisp white shirts he’d always worn had failed to disguise what was definitely a fit, muscular torso. She saw that for a fact now, because holy mother of hormones, he wasn’t wearing one of those shirts. He wasn’t wearing a shirt at all!

  Her mouth watered as her attention slid over his broad shoulders, muscular biceps, well-defined chest, and sculpted abs. He was still wearing his slacks, and the way their snug fit delineated his tapered hips and muscular thighs nearly completed the picture of a woman’s wet dream. Nearly, because the picture wouldn’t be truly complete unless he took them off, too.

  He wasn’t body-builder big, but he exuded a kind of power that couldn’t be matched. In his late forties by now, he was a little rough around the edges with an unapproachable look about him, but that didn’t disguise the fact that he was one very hot male. She’d always bet that he’d be Superman in bed, not that she’d ever gotten close enough to him to find out.

  He shifted in the doorway, giving her a quick peek of the room behind him, of the edge of the bed behind him. She was almost close enough to find out now. A few more steps and could finally discover if he really was more powerful than a locomotive after all.

  “Hello, Jennifer.”

  Her gaze snapped back to meet his, and she felt her cheeks heat at the thoughts that had just gone through her mind. Needing to clear the sexual haze suddenly fogging her mind, she gave her head a shake. “What are you doing here?”

  “I was in the process of changing before you tried to break into my room.” The amusement still dancing in his eyes filled his voice at that. “I was told I needed to ditch the suits while I’m on the island if I don’t want to stand out like a sore thumb.”

  “True,” she said slowly, “but I meant, what are you doing on the island?”

  He leaned a shoulder against the doorframe, folded his arms over his broad chest, and crossed his bare feet at the ankles. “Visiting a friend.”

  Oh, dear God. Did he have a woman in his room with him? His new pose allowed her to see a bit more of the room behind him. She quickly scanned what she could see and didn’t spot any sign of someone else being inside.

  Obviously picking up on where her thoughts had gone, Adam added, “He has a place here on the island, but it’s only a one bedroom. Since I’m not into sharing a bed with another man, I booked this room at the resort.”

  “Lexie and I have a room here, too. It’s…” She glanced down at the key card still in her hand, read the numbers printed on the front, and closed her eyes on a groan. “It’s room three-twelve.”

  Adam unfolded his arms and tapped the numbers nailed to the door next to him. “This is three-fifteen.”

  Jennifer rolled her eyes. “Yeah, I see that now. I don’t know how I got them confused.”

  His intense blue eyes warmed to a simmer, and a matching heat came from deep in her belly. “I’m glad you did.”

  She stared at him, caught off guard by his forwardness. It was in that instant that she realized something else, too. He may not have been expecting her to attempt to get into his room, but he had been expecting to see her.

  “You knew I was here,” she accused and watched the truth of that slide through his expression. “You never stopped keeping tabs on me, did you?”

  “What makes you think that?”

  Her temper sparking, she fisted her hands on her hips and glared at him. “You’re not the least bit surprised to see me, for starters.”

  “Would you believe that hiding emotions such as surprise is one of the first things they teach recruits at Quantico?”

  Jennifer cocked her head to one side and narrowed her eyes. “Is lying the second?”

  He chuckled. “Actually, they do teach that, too, and it ranks pretty high on the scale.” His expression turned serious as he added, “But I’m not lying to you, Jennifer.”

  “You aren’t answering my question either, Adam,” she countered. “I know you kept tabs on me for months after Lexie was found. Yet you always kept your distance. Why?”

  “I thought it was the right thing to do.”

  He poked his head out of the doorway as voices filled the hall. Jennifer looked to her right and saw that two men and a woman had stepped out of their room and stopped, their heads bowed to study what she presumed to be one of the maps of the island like the one she and Lexie had found in their room when they’d first arrived yesterday. When she felt long fingers close around her wrist, she jerked her attention back to Adam.

  “Come inside and I’ll finish explaining.”

  He straightened, back stepped, and gently tugged her into his room. The sound the door made as it automatically closed behind her was more like a bomb exploding than the soft click she knew it to be.

  Adam released her wrist and turned his back on her. She saw the handle of his gun poking out of the waistband of his slacks as he m
oved to the foot of the bed and snagged a shirt he’d laid on the edge. “The ring we shut down was operating out of Cinderella’s. You know this.” He glanced at her as he tugged the T-shirt over his head. “That’s where we found my agent when her cover got blown.”

  Jennifer remembered. Adam had assured her back then that Mallory Stone was the best agent on his team for undercover assignments like the one that had led them to the leader of the sex trafficking ring and Lexie’s subsequent rescue.

  “You kept working there after the investigation was finished,” he continued, “after the new owner took over and the bar was given the green light to resume business. I wasn’t positive we’d taken out all the key players in the ring, so, yes, I kept tabs on you. I watched you from afar to make sure no one came after you.”

  “And now?” She walked further into the room, stopping when she got within arm’s reach of him. “What’s your excuse for still keeping tabs on me? It’s been years. I would think it’s obvious no one has plans to come after me and, yet, you’re still stalking me.”

  Chapter Four

  His excuse was he’d allowed it to become personal. He hadn’t had a professional reason to continue to track her. Hell, he hadn’t had a sane reason to continue watching her. What he felt for this woman, the crazed attraction that haunted his mind, body, and soul for her was beyond any rationalization, but it was there.

  “I haven’t been stalking you, Jennifer. Checking in on you from time to time, yes. Making sure you were going on with your life, yes. Stalking? No.”

  She pulled her cell phone from her front pocket and held it up in front of his face. “See this? Maybe you haven’t heard of it. It’s called a cellular phone. It’s pretty nifty technology. It’s portable, most everyone on the planet has one these days, and it allows you to call and reach someone wherever they are.”