What could she expect after what she’d done to him? Sympathy? No. Cole. She’d hurt him—on purpose—but she’d never imagined they’d end up in this situation. How could she?
Tomi licked her dry lips, fumbling for words. “Why?”
His steady gaze unnerved her almost as much as her near nudity. “I could ask you the same thing.”
Her brain—already on the fritz—blanked. “Seriously?”
Cole turned then, a massive movement of muscles with as much subtlety as a cobra ready to sink his fangs into her neck. Tomi shoved her heels into the mattress and bounced off the bed, her feet barely registering the floor. She flew to the door, numb and cold, and grabbed the handle. The door opened without hesitation and she stumbled back, surprised. Her half-second pause gave Cole just the amount of time he needed.
His arm wrapped around her waist, and before she knew it, she was back on the bed with Cole looming over her. Panic pushed her heart to near exploding and Tomi shoved his chest with all her might. “Get off me!”
In a move as surprising as the unlocked door, Cole did as she requested, moving off the bed entirely. He stalked to the door, slammed it shut, and then leaned against it. “I’ve never been more serious about anything in my life.”
A huge knot formed in her throat. Was this his way of punishing her for their past? Because she’d left him? Surely, he wasn’t still hung up on her. He was too sexy. Too devastating. And damn her for noticing. “Did you do this to get back at me?”
He threw his head back and laughed. “I haven’t thought about you in years. I was just as shocked to see you tonight as you were to see me.”
“What do you want from me?” This cold, callous side of Cole was something she’d never witnessed before. Not directed at her anyway.
“What do you think I want?”
The urge to scream nearly overwhelmed her. “I have no idea.” She tried to be sarcastic, but her voice trembled. Exhausted, terrified tears pricked her eyes. Tomi slapped the bed, rising onto her knees. “I have no idea why you were at an illegal sex slave auction! None of this makes sense.”
For the first time that night, Cole’s gaze dragged down to her chest, reminding her the diaphanous white baby doll Luis had suited her up in for the auction was still just as sheer as it had been earlier. And her treacherous body responded, her nipples tightening more, her stomach clenching despite her nerves. Her reaction to Cole was just as terrifyingly intense as it had always been.
She stumbled off the bed for the second time, dragging the quilt with her. Cole’s lips thinned. “Why were you there tonight?”
She backed up a step. “Oh, I don’t know,” she threw out recklessly, “I thought it would be fun. The idea of slavery intrigued me. So did having a room full of men stare at my naked body.”
A wave of bile rushed up her throat and she swallowed furiously. Cole’s hard expression didn’t break, didn’t show an ounce of sympathy. But at least he didn’t jump across the bed and attack her—not that she’d thought he would. Cole had never been wild or out of control. Every single thing he did was measured—as if he’d thought it over for weeks before acting. She could see the cogs turning in his mind right now, only she couldn’t fathom what he was thinking.
“Some people get a kick out of that kind of thing,” he said quietly.
A bitter, ragged cry that should have been a laugh broke from her lips. “And you think I do?”
“You’ve done a lot of things I never thought you would do.”
Her knees nearly gave out right there. He hated her…of course he did. The Cole she’d known before wasn’t there any longer; this man was a stranger, someone she couldn’t trust no matter how much she wanted to. Tomi glanced to her right and her left, looking for any means of escape. The solid, windowless walls offered little by way of inspiration.
Cole pushed away from the door, prowling around the bed like a lethal panther.
Tomi backed up one step and then another and then another until her back hit the wall and she could go no farther. As if she could ward him off, she held out her arm, palm up. When his steely grip encircled her wrist, a fresh shock of awareness zapped up her arm. Tomi braced herself, completely unsure of what he had planned.
“Were you raped?”
Of all the things she’d expected him to say, that hadn’t ranked in the top hundred. It was so shocking, in fact, that she answered him honestly and without forethought. “No.”
“Were you physically injured?”
“N-no.”
“Were you a willing participant?” Cole stood just far enough away so that their bodies did not touch—yet he maintained that steadily firm grip on her arm.
Tomi drew in a deep breath, trying to get her nerves to calm down enough so that she could think. “No.”
Cole’s gaze pinned her to the spot. She did her damnedest to figure out what was going on behind that unyielding mask, but it was impossible. Finally, when she was ready to crumble, he dropped her wrist and took a step away. Then he gave her his back and strode to the door, ripping it open. “There’s some clothes on the dresser. Get dressed. You and I are taking a trip.”
Cole shut the door, and the soft snick of the lock tumbling into place sent her to her knees. Dear Lord, what had she gotten herself into?
8
Cole paced to the window, staring at the hideous worn curtains hanging in their impromptu hideout. Miniature navy and pink flowers. The tiny farmhouse had been a godsend. His team had already set up with a fridge fully stocked with full-throttle Coke and stacks of Lunchables.
Cole sensed a shift in the empty kitchen, looked at the reflection in the glaze and stiffened. “What the hell are you doing here?”
“Got called in when Wise checked into our private hospital. Seems as though you two had a run in with El Oscuro.” Agent Stahl, a hard ass field agent without any hint of weakness or sympathy, stood in the doorway.
“And you care why? You told Wise to fuck off when he came to you for help,” Cole bit out.
“Thanks to your men securing two of the women from the auction, we now actually may have some evidence to build a case. We’re reopening the investigation.”
They’d lost the others in the melee after the auction when half the team had to break plans and back up Cole and Adam. “The hell you are.”
“You’re down two men – Wise is barely breathing and your guy, Donham, is laid up with a bullet hole in his side. You need my help.”
“I don’t need shit from you. You turned your back on Adam when he needed you most. I don’t deal with assholes.” Cole made to brush past Stahl, but he blocked his path.
“You stirred up a hornet’s nest and you don’t even fucking know it. Do you have any idea what you interrupted tonight?”
Cole got in his face. “Yeah, the illegal sale of kidnapped, terrified women. Remember, that part you didn’t care about.”
Stahl flinched, “I cared, but my boss pulled my funding and my team. I didn’t have a choice.”
“And you don’t have a choice now. I’m handling the situation.” Cole bit out.
“And are you aware that El Oscuro was planning to infiltrate Francois Moreau, a.k.a. the Frenchman’s, international gunrunning operation tonight?” Stahl said quietly.
“Shit.” Cole shoved a hand through his hair and stalked across the kitchen.
Stahl studied him with those killer see all gray eyes. “You saw him?”
“I outbid him for Tomi. Some bastard named Luis was saving Tomi as the last one up for sale.”
Stahl’s eyes widened. “Luis Despasco? The same man with family ties to the fucking cartel? We’d heard a rumor he might be involved with Oscuro. Did he try to kill you and poison Wise? Do you have any idea the size of the pile of shit you stepped in?”
Cole turned his back on the agent, squeezed his eyes shut and took a deep breath. The last thing he needed was the cartel. “We were searching for Tara, looking for intel. And trying to save the victims.”
“Well, you did save two. Tomi Tomlin and Kara McLean. The others are gone.”
Cole rounded on the agent and shoved his finger in Stahl’s face, anger raging through him. He knew he’d failed. He felt it like a goddamn gut punch. The whole night had gone to shit. But he wasn’t the only failure in the room. “You abandoned them long before I tried to rescue them.”
Stahl’s steely gaze slipped. He knew he’d screwed up. “You’re right, and thanks to you, I’ve now got the full support of the FBI to take this bastard down. “Too bad Kara McLean’s in a coma.”
“Kara isn’t awake?” Cole asked.
“No, doc thinks she had a reaction to the drugs. She’s not 100% stable yet.”
“Will she pull out of it?”
Stahl shook his head. “Can’t say, but I fucking hope so. Until then, we need to square up with your girl, see if she’s a victim or part of the operation.”
“Tomi’s not involved.” The look in her eyes on that stage had told him all he needed to know…and his certainty of her innocence had only increased after their talk in the bedroom. She’d reacted like a frightened bird that had fallen out of its nest.
“She’s got a fairly unstable background. Father dead at eighteen. Shot to death in his own house while Tomi was there. Job hopping every six months or so…”
Cole turned to see Stahl had taken a seat at the table and was shuffling a small stack of papers inside one of those off-yellow file folders the government liked to use. But Stahl wasn’t looking down—he was staring at Cole as if he could see down to his very soul.
“Sounds like every other person looking for work.”
“Until last year, when she found full-time employment as a nanny with none other than Luis Despasco. A little suspicious for the profile, don’t you think?” Stahl slowly blinked.
Cole stared back, projecting all the emotion of a blank slate. Tomi was working for Luis? Shit and double shit. None of tonight was working the way he’d planned. “It’s not about what I think.”
“On the contrary, we are hiring your firm to assist us with this mission. What you think could be of great use,” Stahl said.
He wanted to use Cole. “Hiring as in I don’t have a choice?”
“Not if you want any involvement going forward.”
“She had no family to report her missing, so Luis did exactly the kind of thing men like that always do. He exploited the situation to his benefit. Maybe he needed a new girl for the auction, and he had one right in his household.” And if Cole hadn’t been there, she would have been raped and tortured. The only woman he’d ever loved would have become some sick, rich asshole’s newest plaything.
“Why her, though? She’s old—twenty-eight—well past the prime age for a sex slave trafficker. From our source on the inside, we know Luis has been planning a hostile takeover of François’s weapons business for months. By your own report, Luis wasn’t happy when Wise won the bidding war against the Frenchman. What better way to take out Francois than by having a sex slave kill him in an escape attempt? It would give Luis access to everything he needed to take over the Frenchman’s European operation. His contacts, account information. Everything.”
“Why the hell wasn’t all of this in your original investigations intel?” Wise had pulled all the old records to help them find Tara.
“Because,” Stahl began, “We didn’t know Luis was involved until after the investigation got called off. Then we heard rumors, but didn’t have the manpower to pursue. You just confirmed the connection. Now we know Luis is involved, which isn’t good for Tomi, and we still don’t know anything more about El Oscuro’s true identity. Luis has disappeared, so has the Frenchman. She’s our only real source now. If she’s bad, we need to flip her.”
“And if she’s innocent?” Cole asked.
Stahl shrugged and then threaded his fingers together and leaned back in his chair. His points made a lot of sense, only he was wrong about Tomi.
“You think she looks like a covert operative?”
“No, she seems like a traumatized innocent. But the best ones always do.”
“Let’s quit with the ‘what ifs’ and cut to the meat of the matter. What exactly do you want from me and my brothers?” Cole was beyond pretending he had any remaining patience. One of his best friends lay in a secret hospital bed fighting for his life. Adam’s love, Tara, was still missing, and now Luis may know they were on to his operation.
He also had pictures of Cole on his surveillance system, although Cole’s past had been long erased from any records accessible by anyone below the head of the Department of Defense. When he and his brothers had completed their last official tours for the US military, they’d kept it that way. The Fury brothers didn’t exist, and as far as any official records were concerned, they never had.
Their parents, both still alive and happily married, didn’t talk about their sons to anyone outside the family. It was a setup that had always served them well.
Stahl straightened, uncurling from the chair with the predatory grace of a panther. “I want you to use your connection with Tomi’s past to find out if she’s working for Luis.”
“Our past relationship? As in our teenage crush?” Cole bit out, knowing Stahl already suspected there was more to it.
“The way you looked at her didn’t read former teenage crush.”
“I looked at her like I would any victim I pity.” And wanted just as badly now as he had before.
“Pity isn’t pissing you off right now.”
No, it’s desire, and I damn well know it.
Cole squared off with the agent, liking him less and less by the second. But if Stahl thought he could dangle Tomi in front of his face like a chocolate-covered carrot, he had another thing coming. Stahl’s manipulation would probably work on most people. But not on someone who’d been trained in the same skillset. “You want me to seduce her to pump her for intel.”
“The FBI doesn’t condone sexual acts for gain.”
“But you do.”
Stahl shrugged and strolled around the small room, but Cole didn’t move an inch. He couldn’t. He might just put a fist in Stahl’s conniving face if he did. Tomi was injured and scared and traumatized, and now his agent wanted him to use her even more.
“I want your help, I think it’s the most efficient way. I’ve got your contract right here.” Stahl pulled out a piece of white paper and laid it on the desk. “You sign the NDA, Fury and agree to my terms, I’ll let you keep working the case.”
“And if I don’t?” Cole arched a brow.
“You’re gone. I’ll handle Tomi the way I see fit.”
Shit. Stahl had him in between a rock and a goddamned granite mountain. He couldn’t abandon Tomi to this asshole. He’d chew her up and spit her out, what was left of her anyway. “Fine.”
“You can’t disclose any information about our case.” Stahl rolled a pen across the table and Cole caught it before it fell. “And just in case you need a reminder as to what will happen if you do, I’ll have your little private security firm blacklisted. You’ll lose every license to operate within the United States borders.”
“You son of a bitch.”
Stahl shrugged. “Been called worse. Thing is, I don’t care what you think, all I care about is finding the rest of those women, including retired agent Wise’s girl, who is still missing and might be severely compromised after your last-minute change in plans tonight. You owe it to Wise and to me. If we gather enough intel from the girls, we can go after the little fish and make them lead us to El Oscuro.”
“I don’t like being used, Stahl. Don’t push me.” Cole closed the inches between them, letting Stahl feel his heat. “I won’t hurt her.”
“Even if she’s working for Luis?”
“She’s not.”
“Can you prove it?” Stahl countered.
Fuck it all to hell. Cole roughly scrubbed a hand through his hair and paced away, needing to put some distance between them. Tomi h
ad always pushed his buttons—hot and hotter. Was he still blinded by her? Could his desire for the one who got away be blinding him to the truth?
Did it matter?
He didn’t have a choice. If he didn’t do what Stahl said, he’d be putting his brothers’ careers at risk. “Fine,” Cole finally spat out. “But we do it my way. Just me and her. I take her off the radar. You don’t know where—your team doesn’t know where. I’m in control.”
“No can do. I have to know where she is at all times until she’s cleared.”
“You, and just you, Stahl. I don’t know your team, and I don’t trust them.” Cole knew he was pushing the agent’s rigid boundaries, but he wouldn’t risk Tomi’s life. If she wasn’t working for Luis, she was his target. A man like that would have every murdering mercenary out for her blood. Tomi wasn’t safe anywhere.
Except with Cole.
“Deal. You’ve got three days. After that I get the intel from her.”
Cole signed the contract. Great, three days to make her trust him. Three days to convince her that he wasn’t a bad guy…even though he couldn’t tell her why he was at the auction. He’d had harder missions than that.
He just couldn’t think of one right now.
9
Tomi’s fingers hugged the leather-encased handle of Cole’s truck door, itching to pull the latch so she could take a dive to freedom.
“Tomi, don’t do it. Skin and gravel don’t mix well at fifty miles an hour.” Cole sat in the driver’s side, as casual as if they were on their way to Sunday ice cream.
Tomi felt like she’d explode any minute. “Shouldn’t you cuff me and blindfold me, so I can’t tell the cops where you are? That’s what kidnappers do.”
Even more frustrating, Cole’s sensual lips quirked up in a sideways smile that would at any other moment have made her heart skip a beat. “You’ve still got a wild imagination.”
“Wild? Imagination? I’m pretty sure you forcing me into your vehicle and taking me to an unknown location without any way to contact the outside world is the definition of kidnapping.” Maybe he’d had one too many bombs go off next to his pretty little head.
Wild Fury_Fury Security Page 9