She bristled beside me. “Send it to me.” A short pause. “I don’t care,” she continued, her voice rising to a level of desperation. “Send me pictures if you have to, but I’m not going in blind.”
I watched as her face morphed between every angered emotion. Her face pinched, lips pulling into a firm, thin line as she listened to whatever Oliver said. She was like watching a tornado rip through a town. Everything about her was wild and unpredictable, and it stirred something in me I’d rather keep locked up.
A moment later, Ella let the phone fall from her hand and then shoved up from her seat. When she moved into the aisle and marched off toward the bathroom, I blindly reached for the phone, dangling from its cord, and put it up to my ear, smiling at the attendant as she passed me by.
“Ella.” Oliver’s voice barked into my ear. “Ella, listen to me.”
“No, it’s Josh,” I said as I sat up a little more.
He groaned. “You’ll need to fill her in on the mission. I hope you remembered everything you read in that file, because I’m not sending anything to either of you because files don’t leave here. She knows better than to even ask.” Oliver sounded completely put out. Even a bit wary. Which given the situation, I’d feel the same if our roles were reversed.
“Don’t worry, I’ll make sure I outline it all for her,” I said as my stomach tightened. “At least she knows the client. Filling the rest in won’t be difficult. But… what’s our cover?” Nothing had been outlined in the file, and Oliver had never told me. I’d thought he’d spoken about it with Ella since the two of them had way more experience with undercover missions.
“I’m leaving that up to you. I told Ella that the other day,” he said with a clipped sigh.
I couldn’t tell if it was his patience slipping, or if it were an admittance of some sort of defeat.
“Look, Ella knows the client better than any of us. I told her that, which was why she was supposed to come up with your cover story. Had she done what I said instead of spending countless nights up looking for that traitor, she wouldn’t be in her current situation.” He paused. “But,” he continued, his tone loosening up, “she didn’t. So now it’s up to you to fill her in. You two need to have a solid plan before you get off that airplane.”
I gripped the phone a little tighter in my hand, nodding along with what Oliver said as if he were face to face with me as I said, “Don’t worry, we’ll get it figured out.”
“Figured out?” he said, his voice heightening.
I squirmed in my seat.
“No, Josh, you better be ready to put on an Oscar-winning performance. Nail this shit down and stick with it. No matter what. Understood?”
I gritted my teeth. “Perfectly. I understand perfectly. Bye, Oliver.”
I hung up the phone and moved back into my seat, arms crossed firmly over my chest as I stared out the window, looking at the endless stretch of clouds under the belly of the plane. He wanted me to brief someone who was about as easy to talk to as a wall. Someone whose current mindset was stuck on a man who had betrayed her, and not the mission set before us.
I couldn’t help but wonder if the mission was already doomed. And if that were the case, we should just turn around and board the next flight home. To hell with the high-profile client and his spoiled daughter. As selfish as it was, our lives meant more to me.
CHAPTER 6
ELLA
Oliver’s words rang in my head. “If you would have been a little more responsible instead of wandering around here with your head up your ass, you’d know what was going on.”
He was right. And I hated it when I was wrong.
Josh. Sweet, innocent, country-boy Josh, I thought as I pressed my forehead against the wall. He’d done well on the last mission, but we hadn’t really been in play either. With little-to-no training, Josh not only would need my support, but my guidance as well. And I had no idea how to give either of those things to him when I was still trying to piece myself back together.
It wasn’t for lack of training. I had plenty of that. And plenty of field experience too. On my own. Before Trent. Once Trent and I were partnered, and then married, we were an unstoppable force.
My first mission with Josh had been a test I’d almost failed. And the only way I’d managed to see it through until the end was by pretending that Josh was Trent. It sickened me because the two were as different as night and day. Trent being a force of nature who dominated everything around him and did things his own way was nothing like how it had been with Josh. He’d stepped in when Paige had freaked the hell out and brought her around, but then he stepped back and watched everything unfold, never once trying to assert any sort of authority over everyone and everything.
Trent popping up had been something like a nightmare and a dream. It was as if by pretending he was with me, I’d somehow resurrected him. Only that wasn’t the case, because he’d never been dead.
I could still see his face as he said my name for the first time since I’d thought he was gone. When I closed my eyes, I could feel the tips of his blunt fingers, rough against my own skin. I’d loved him with everything I had. Loved him so much that when he’d died, I’d lost a piece of myself as well.
Where did that piece go? If he wasn’t gone, shouldn’t it have come back to me? Or had he selfishly claimed that too?
With a sigh, I pushed off the wall and inhaled. There was nothing to be done about it except to move forward. Once the mission was over, I’d slip out of Cole Enterprise and find him no matter what it took. And when I did find him, I’d get the answers to all the nagging questions I had.
Until then, I could hardly keep myself locked up in the tight confines of the airplane’s bathroom. Not while there was so much to go over before we landed.
Oliver was right about one thing, damn him. I needed to get it together before my actions created consequences neither Josh nor I would survive.
Head in the game, Ella.
Squaring my shoulders, I left the bathroom, determined to have a plan before we landed.
“You didn’t flush,” a prim-looking woman said as I turned sideways to get by her.
Call it ingrained sarcasm that made me pat her on the cheek as I replied, “I didn’t wash my hands either.”
She sputtered, slamming the bathroom door closed behind her.
Served her right for being such an uppity bitch.
When I sat down in my seat, Josh gave me a quick glance. Probably gauging if I’d pulled myself together or not.
I didn’t waste words of apology. There wasn’t time for any of that.
“Who’s the client? What’s our mission, and what cover did they come up with for us?” I asked.
He blinked. “Garret Baron. Keep the bride safe while we cruise the open ocean for four weeks. Cover to be determined by us,” he answered in a rush of words that hit me all at once.
“Bride? Garret Baron? Are you sure?” I asked, thinking I had to have misheard him.
He nodded. “That’s what the file said. The file also said that the bride, Allyson, is a friend of yours.” He leaned in. “How much does she know about you?”
I was at a loss for words as each thought hammered away. One chiseling into another. Of all the missions. Of all the people. And why now when my head was so damn screwed up? What karma had I projected into the world to have it bitch slap me? Carrying a cover around strangers was hard enough. But lying to someone I knew and had history with? That wasn’t in my field of expertise.
Then again, Allyson had no idea who I’d become. We’d talked only a handful of times after I enlisted in the Army and set out for boot camp. She’d been pissed at me for joining. She couldn’t understand my decision when her father had offered to send me to the school of my choosing. While I appreciated the generosity, I wasn’t a fool. Taking Garett’s offer meant I owed him. And I didn’t want to owe anyone anything. I didn’t want someone else holding the strings of my life and making me dance to their tune. She’d cried wh
en I left, and we’d promised to stay in touch. It had been almost a year since I’d last talked to her. A thought struck me then.
“Wait a minute,” I said as I turned in my seat. “We can’t just show up on her honeymoon. I wasn’t even invited to the wedding! How am I supposed to just show up and be like ‘Sorry I missed your wedding, but hey, I’m here for the party’? What was Garret thinking?”
Josh flashed a quick grin at me, clearly enjoying being the one in on the know. “The ceremony was private. Invitations for the cruise went out to the bride and groom’s nearest and dearest. We won’t be the only ones who didn’t attend the wedding. And really, the invitation is two-fold… you get to see your friend and keep her safe from the threats Garret Barron has recently received.”
I sighed. “Like that’s different from any other day. Why now, though? And why not send in his personal bodyguards? God knows he has enough of them on hand.”
Josh hitched one shoulder. “Maybe he thought having bodyguards present would attract more attention. From what the report said, we’ll be joined by about fifty or so of their friends, so it sounds like it’s going to be more of a party than a honeymoon. Besides, I can’t see how any newlyweds would want bodyguards trailing them everywhere. No privacy. But having a friend there wouldn’t put her on guard, and she’d probably go out of her way to spend time with you.”
I nodded. “Well, when you put it that way, yes, I suppose she would try her best to slip her bodyguards. She never did like having them lurking about. I guess that explains my part in it. So, what kind of ship are we sailing on?”
He leaned back in his seat, getting comfortable. “Yacht. Big ass yacht, too, called the Enchantress. Kinda sucks, though,” he said, prodding me to ask why.
I took the bait. “Why? It should be a fairly sound vessel for the open ocean.”
“No waterslides or lido deck activities,” he answered, trying very hard to keep a straight face by the way his lips quivered.
“Less chances for someone to accidentally fall overboard.” I huffed.
He rolled his eyes. “So what’s our cover? Am I gonna be an international man of mystery who speaks with a heavy Russian accent and smokes only Pall Mall non-filtered cigarettes while sipping hundred-year-old bourbon?”
I couldn’t help it. I laughed, and it spread a warmth through my chest I hadn’t felt in a long time. “You’d never nail the accent, Mr. Alabama.”
He put his hand to his chest, eyes widening as he asked, “Are you implying I have an accent?”
I snorted. “Accent? Josh, you’re about as southern as they come. Why do you sound more southern than the people in Florida? I mean, they’re as south as you can go on the US map, but they damn sure don’t talk like you do.”
He shrugged, wearing an easy grin. “No idea. Never been to Florida.”
My stomach tightened. “Where have you been then?” The more I learned about Josh, the more uncomfortable it made me. He definitely wasn’t a man of the world. How would he fit in with the high-society crowd we’d have to blend into?
He thought about it for a moment. “Alabama, obviously,” he said, holding up his fingers as he started counting off the places. “Then there’s Pennsylvania and Chicago. Barbados. And now, Salt Cay, Turks, and Caicos.
A groan slipped out before I could hold it back.
He stiffened in his seat. “You don’t think I can pull this off, do you?”
I chewed the inside of my cheek before answering, “Josh, these people… They’re… well-traveled. Versed in stock market chitchat and politics. Most them have probably traveled the world long before they even learned to walk.”
“And?” he replied as if it were no big deal.
Did he understand how hard it would be? How easy a newcomer could be sniffed out if they made even the slightest mistake?
He leaned forward, hazel eyes searching mine as a slow smile lit his face. Stretching out a finger, he ran it down the bridge of my nose as he said, “I don’t have to be a man of the world to be the one man you just couldn’t say no to.”
I pulled back, scowling. “And what is that supposed to mean?”
His smile deepened, twisting my nerves into a knot. “Tell them we’re engaged. That way, if you’re ever put into this sort of situation again with your friend, you have an out. I could be the one who got away.” He sighed dramatically, gave my nose another tap, and then sat back in his seat.
I contemplated his offer, only to realize one glaring problem. “If we’re engaged, and I’m not saying I agree to this yet, where is my ring?” Did he not understand these people? The first thing they would do was look for a ring on my finger. And it better be a good ring, too, or we’d be shunted off in the corner like the fat middle-class cousin no one talks about.
He seemed unbothered. “That’s easy enough. We can make a pit stop at a jewelry store before we go to the port,” he answered.
I chewed on my lip as a million thoughts zipped through my head. Was that the best cover? Allyson knew enough about me to know I wouldn’t bring just anyone for a four-week cruise.
Four weeks. Jesus, help me.
And damn Garret Baron for being such an over-compensating father who tossed money around like confetti. Why couldn’t he have given them one of his security-enhanced Swiss Chalets and shuttled them off for four weeks in the damn Alps?
There weren’t many options. Either we were married or engaged. Engaged was easier to work with, because Josh was right about one thing—a broken engagement was much easier to toss under the rug as a win some/lose some moment in one’s life. Thank God I’d never told her about Trent.
“Fine. Next question… where did we meet?” I said, giving myself over to the planning so all the details were hammered out and ready to be in play once the plane touched down.
CHAPTER 7
JOSH
Ella fiddled with the ring on her finger until the car pulled up into the private parking area we’d been given directions to.
Before we got out, she turned to me. “Follow my lead. Keep your answers mysterious and short. They have to believe your story. You have to believe your story. And if all else fails, just smirk like you practiced on the plane. Okay?”
I took her hand in mine. “I got this, Ella. I won’t let you down.”
Her face softened. “It’s not about letting me down, Josh. It’s about getting through the next four weeks without blowing our cover. This isn’t going to be easy. Being cooped up on a ship doesn’t give us many places to go where we can talk. At least when a mission is on land, you can make a quick exit if things start to turn. It won’t be like that once we board the ship.”
“Yacht,” I corrected, giving her the first of many of my new signature smirk.
She rolled her eyes, gave a slight laugh, and then reached out to brush back the hair that had fallen over my brow. The yellow diamond on her finger flashed in the sunlight, sending a prism of colors around us like a disco ball.
“Well, for what it’s worth, you know how to pick out a damn good ring,” she said, pausing a moment before pulling back and exiting the car.
I carried the suitcases over to where they were being tagged with room numbers from a list of names and waited as the sun beat down on my shoulders like lava. The snotty little heifer in front of me had the nerve to threaten the guy handling her bag that if so much as one scratch appeared on her expensive suitcase, he’d have to replace the complete set.
I snorted, annoyed someone could be that damn shallow. Ella wasn’t kidding when she said these people were a different breed.
She spun on me. “What are you making rude noises about?” she demanded, hands on her hips.
I pulled my sunglasses down and leveled my gaze on her, laying the southern charm on thick as I said, “Tone it down a bit, princess. There are better ways of getting new luggage to replace last year’s without having to show your ass with the help.”
She sputtered, face going tight as she eyed me with disdain. “Who
the hell are you to be speaking to me like that?”
Ella moved closer to me and put her hand on my arm, hitting the snotty bitch with a one-two punch to the ego when the humongous yellow diamond on her finger sent a sparkle over the other girl’s face, catching her in the eye. She knew what she was doing, Ella, because she went in for what I could only call the social status kill. “Coach? Very nice.”
The man holding the sheet in his hands cleared his throat to get our attention. “Name, please?”
She gave the flustered man her full attention and smiled as she said, “Isabella Kennedy.”
Beside us came a muffled squeak of surprise as the girl flushed to the roots of her bleached-white hair.
“Ah, Ms. Kennedy. On behalf of our staff and crew, we welcome you to The Enchantress. Here’s the key to your room, and…” He waved to another gentleman decked out in a turquoise polo, crisp pair of white pants, and boat shoes. “Jules will see you to your room.”
Jules was a very efficient man. He had our luggage loaded and unloaded while carrying on a rapid conversation mixed with both Spanish and English. Before we made it to our room, we knew the general layout of the yacht and all its secret nooks and crannies should we want to seek a spot to be alone. I made sure to pay special attention to that information.
“And here we are… second-best room on the vessel.” Jules beamed over his shoulder as he unlocked the door and returned the key to Ella. He stepped back, gesturing for us to enter before him.
I kept all the things I wanted to say to myself. Starting with holy shit and ending with I’m never leaving this room.
Ella moved toward the drapes and pulled them back, revealing a private balcony as Jules unloaded our luggage and then left with a jovial wave as he said, “Bon voyage.”
We had four weeks to enjoy living like royalty. Before seeing the room, four weeks sounded daunting. After seeing it, I couldn’t help but wish I could just pack up and move in for the rest of my life, and that was before seeing the rest of the room, let alone the ship.
All We Are (The Six Series Book 5) Page 3