by Desiree Holt
Now, fear trickled through her. “Is something wrong? Did something happen?”
“Let’s put the call through and find out.”
“Damn, I’m glad to hear your voice,” was the first thing Jonas said as soon as she was connected with him. “Although, thank all that’s holy, the crisis is over.”
“Crisis?’ She gripped the phone. “What crisis?”
“We lost Barkov, the Russian we were still after. We—”
“I thought you said you had eyes on him,” she interrupted. “That you’d have him in custody any minute.”
“Yeah, well, we had a little slipup.” No one could have missed the harsh tone in his voice. “Our slipup, it’s been dealt with, and Barkov is a guest of the federal government as of ten minutes ago, along with his friend.”
Robin felt suddenly weak, and tightened her grip on the phone to stop her hand from shaking.
“B-but there’s no way in such a short time he could have found out where I am and come after me, right?”
“Right,” Jonas agreed. “And I triple checked to make sure that information is locked down tight. Doesn’t mean I couldn’t have gotten bad info or someone wasn’t lying to me. That happens more than I like to think about.”
“So, when I didn’t answer my phone, you figured the worst had happened,” she guessed. Damn. Go figure.
“Yes. Sorry. I know the possibility was minimal, but no matter how tight security is, no matter how we guard against leaks, the impossible sometimes happens. I hope Seth didn’t scare the pants off you. That wasn’t my intent.”
“I understand.” But that didn’t make what happened any easier to deal with. “I’ll still have to testify at some point, right?”
“Yes. I’m sorry. But again,” he added, “we’ll make sure you are 100 percent protected.”
Robin was beginning to wonder if that was even possible. And where could she go afterward that their friends wouldn’t hunt her down? What could she do with the rest of her life?
“Robin?” Jonas’s voice broke into her thought stream. “You still there?”
“Yes. I guess you’ll let me know when it’s safe to come home?”
“Give me a couple of days to cross all the Ts and dot all the Is and then we can bring you back.”
And go where?
“Will it be safe to go back to my condo?” If not, where could she go?
“Not at this time.” He paused. “We don’t want to risk your safety, Robin. These two Russians are just the tip of the iceberg.”
She felt like crying. Didn’t someone say no good deed goes unpunished?
“So, what are my options?”
Jonas cleared his throat. “We’re working on that right now. We’ll have something set before you leave Barefoot Bay. Give me a couple of days to set up something secure.”
Too bad she couldn’t stay here forever.
Everything seemed to be closing in on her at once. Was there even a slim chance she could make things right with Trey? And if she did, so what? She didn’t have the faintest idea of what the rest of her life would look like.
“Fine.” What else could she say?
“Put Seth on.”
Robin handed the phone back to him. “He wants to talk to you.”
She got almost nothing from Seth’s side of the conversation. Then he took the phone into the next room, and she just knew he was discussing the situation with Trey. That is, if there even was a situation left. She ought to tell Jonas to move her somewhere else. She didn’t think she could stay here with the memories of her hours with Trey, with him still here, knowing what a disaster everything had turned into.
When Seth came back into the room, she told him as much.
“Can you call him back in a while, explain it to him, and ask him if there’s somewhere else I can go until he’s set with a place for me to stay back home?”
The look of compassion on Seth’s face made her feel even more depressed. “Listen. I’m sorry I made a mess out of this. I was focused on getting you someplace safe in case all hell was about to break loose. Give me a chance to see if I can fix this.”
She shrugged. “Sure, but I don’t hold out any hope. Can you take me to my villa, please? I’d like to lie down. Then I’m going to figure out if I can find a way to get Trey to listen to me.”
But as she rode along in the golf cart, she was afraid Trey wouldn’t even let her talk to him. She’d thought what happened to them was magic, such a strong connection in less than forty-eight hours. They’d connected emotionally as well as physically, and she’d begun to harbor a secret hope that it would take them beyond their stay here. The pain in her heart was worse than anything she’d ever felt before, and she wasn’t sure she’d ever get over it.
She’d thought things were bad enough before with the Russians after her, the image of Raymond Forrester’s body burned into her brain, and the need for her to testify at the trial of his killers sitting like a loaded gun in her future. But, now, her chance for happiness had just been swept away.
Sometimes, life really sucked.
Chapter Eight
Trey thought about getting quietly drunk. He had to admit it seemed like a damn good idea. Too bad it wasn’t his style. He hadn’t done it when Laura served him with divorce papers, and he wasn’t planning to do it now. What he was going to do, instead, was call Zack Elliott, see how soon the man could fly him out of here, pack his stuff, and check out. He should have known better than to come to a place like this. Zack had meant well, giving him the brochure, but this was for couples. Apparently, he was destined not to be part of one.
He had just put his suitcase on the luggage stand to pack it and was searching for Zack’s number on his phone when there was a knock on the door. He ignored it at first. There was no one here he wanted to talk to. At least, not anymore. But the knocking persisted until, at last, in anger, he stalked over to the door.
“Go away, Robin,” he growled, as he yanked it open. Only it wasn’t Robin standing there but the guy from McBain Security. Seth Somebody-or-other.
“What do you want?” he snarled. “I’ve got nothing to say to you.”
“But I have something to say to you that I think you’re going to want to hear.”
The man moved into the room and shut the door behind him, giving Trey no choice except to back up and let him in.
“I can’t imagine what it would be, but okay. Speak your piece and get the hell out of here.”
“Can I ask you to take a breath for minute and listen to me?” Seth asked.
Trey stood with his hands on his hips, wishing this jackass would just fall through a hole in the floor.
“If I say okay, will you speak your piece and then leave me the hell alone? I want to check out, and I’m waiting for a callback on my flight out of here.”
“Yes.” Seth nodded.
“Fine. You’ve got two minutes.”
“I don’t think I’ll need even that many. Jonas Faulkner is an agent with the FBI. Robin Hanna brought them news of embezzlement and money laundering at the firm where she worked. Two of the people involved killed her boss, and she witnessed the crime. Jonas stashed her here until he figured out the best move where she was concerned. That fast enough for you?”
Trey knew he was standing there with his mouth open, but he couldn’t seem to do anything about it. Shock immobilized his body. Of all the possible scenarios he’d run through his mind after coming up here from the lobby, this wasn’t even close.
At last, he found his voice. “Is this some kind of a joke?”
Seth shook his head. “Not even close. Gabe Rossi runs an undercover operation from here that has successfully hidden people before, and he had told Jonas this was an ideal place to hide someone. Jonas has used Zack Elliott before to move people around, so it was the best course of action to have Zack fly her down here. I had to get permission from Jonas to tell you even this much, I’m sure you can understand why.”
Trey nodded. “S
he’s a witness? Who’s after her? Can you tell me?”
“Only because your records as Navy JAG eliminate you as a risk. The Russian mob, and they don’t mess around.”
Trey snorted. “No kidding.”
And what a schmuck he was, an attorney who was supposed to know there were two sides to every situation.
“Robin was prohibited from telling you the truth, although, in her defense, she did ask.”
“Did she ask you to check me out, too?
“Yes, but that’s protocol. She…has feelings for you, and she had to be sure she wasn’t making a mistake.”
Trey wasn’t sure what he should make of that. On the one hand, it raised his hackles. On the other, he agreed it was required to put her mind at ease. He studied Seth’s face.
“Feelings,” he repeated.
“Yes, and it about destroyed her when you walked away like that. Jonas has things under control, but there’s always a chance for a slipup. When he couldn’t get hold of her, he freaked.”
“Yeah, I can see how he would.”
Seth shrugged. “It’s up to you, but if it were me, I’d try to make things right with her. I mean, if you have the same feelings.”
“The reason I went off like that,” Trey explained, “is because my wife served me with divorce papers after twenty years of marriage. On the day I retired from the Navy. Then I found out the ink wasn’t even dry before she had some guy she was attaching herself to.”
“That bites,” Seth agreed. “I’ve only known Robin since she arrived here, but my instinct tells me she’s nowhere near like that.”
“I agree.”
“If you have really come to care for her in such a short time, you need to make this right. She’s out on a ledge by herself right now and probably scared to death on top of everything else.”
“Yeah, you’re right.” He sighed. Time to man up. “Think I could get you to give me a ride over to her villa?”
“You bet. Oh, and after you get things fixed, Jonas would like to talk to you about her situation.”
“Good, because I have some ideas.”
When they reached the villa where Robin was staying, he asked Seth to knock on the door.
“I’m not sure she’ll open it for me, and I wouldn’t blame her.”
“Sure thing.” He walked up to the door with Trey and rapped on the carved wood.
The last thing Robin expected or wanted was someone knocking on her door. At first, she ignored it. She had no desire to see anyone. Her eyes were red from crying, her nose red from blowing it, and all she wanted to do was curl up on the couch and cry some more. She could not believe Trey hadn’t at least listened to her explanation. Okay, she could understand his kneejerk reaction, and even feel his pain at the thought another woman had betrayed him. But then he should have let her tell him what was going on.
Maybe she could get Jonas to hide her away someplace without another human being around. Except a bodyguard, of course. She knew if he moved her from here, he’d never leave her without protection.
The knocking got louder and more persistent.
“Please go away,” she shouted. “I’m not up to seeing anyone, and I don’t need anything.”
“Robin, it’s me. Seth. Please open up.”
She sighed. Maybe he had more news for her and didn’t want to use the telephone. That could mean either good or bad.
“Okay. I’m coming.” She flipped the lock and pulled the door open.
Only, it wasn’t Seth standing there but Trey DeMarcus. When she would have slammed the door shut again, he used his foot to keep it open.
“You’re right in everything you’ve just been thinking about me, and I’m a complete ass for behaving the way I did. Please let me come in and talk to you.”
“Give him a chance, Robin,” Seth called from the cart. “He’s a good guy, despite acting like an idiot.”
Too spent to argue with him, she stood back so he could enter. She barely had the door closed and locked again before he pulled her body to his, tilted her face up, and took her mouth in a kiss that scorched her all the way down to her toes. At first, she resisted, but then her body seemed to have a mind of its own. Her mouth just opened for him, and when his tongue eased inside, she was lost.
The kiss seemed endless, and so intense, as if he was putting every ounce of feeling he had into it. When he lifted his head at last, her limbs felt like jelly, and she had to cling to him to stay upright.
“Now, we’re going to talk.”
He lifted her into his arms and carried her to the couch in the living room. He sat, arranging her on his lap. She leaned into him, absorbing his heat and his strength.
“I didn’t think I’d ever get to be with you like this again,” she murmured.
“Because I was an ass. Robin, I’m not usually on such a hair trigger.”
“I do understand why,” she told him. “I just figured you would at least give me a chance to explain. Then I wondered if maybe I was the only one who felt this connection between us. Who was amazed at what had happened between us in less than two days.”
He nodded. “As I should have. But Seth explained, and then I felt like twenty-five kinds of a jerk.”
She couldn’t help smiling. “Only twenty-five kinds?”
“Okay.” He grinned. “Maybe thirty.” Then his face sobered. “The first thing I’m going to do is take you to bed and make long, slow, delicious love to you. Then we’re going to call Jonas because I have an idea how to keep you out of what is a dangerous situation. Because while he has the two killers under lock and key, they’re only the tip of the iceberg. You need to be someplace where they’d never think to look for you.”
“And you have a suggestion where that could be?”
“I do. And I hope you like it as much as I do.”
*****
Robin thought springtime in Bozeman, Montana, was possibly one of the best seasons ever. The air was fresh and crisp without being too cool. The sun warmed you as a gentle breeze played across your face. And everything was so bright and clear.
Robin Hanna sat in a coffee shop in downtown Bozeman, waiting for Trey to finish his morning at the Gallatin County Courthouse. When everything came down about the Russians and the FBI needed a safe place for her until the trial was over, Trey insisted on taking her home to Bozeman and hiding her from the world there.
“They’ll never think of looking for her there,” he’d assured Jonas Faulkner.
She’d promised as soon as they got the final all clear from Jonas, they’d move forward with their wedding plans. As Robin pointed out, neither of them was getting any younger, and they didn’t want to waste a minute more being single. They for sure had no doubts about their feelings for each other.
Now, she was anxious to tell him about the call she’d gotten from Jonas Faulkner. She had texted him to meet her, and he suggested the coffee shop that was a favorite of many of the attorneys.
How much her life had changed since the night she saw the two Russians murder Raymond Forrester and had run to FBI Agent Jonas Faulkner for protection. If not for that, she and Trey might never have met. Now she was living in Bozeman instead of Boston, in a gorgeous home on an acre of land. Trey had accepted a partnership with a firm where two of his childhood friends were now practicing law. They wanted someone with a strong criminal defense background, and they believed his years in JAG provided him with just that. She had become friends with the wives, who had been more than happy to educate her in the joys of living in Montana.
She had kept herself busy with a number of activities, waiting for the trial to be scheduled and then to be over. Now that she didn’t have that hanging over her head any longer, she was considering her options, one of which was a job managing a local gallery. She had minored in art in college and kept up with what was what in the art world. She’d told Trey she’d had enough of the financial business, at least for a good long while.
She looked up as the door to the coffee
shop opened and there he was, all six feet of him. His black hair had more gray threaded through it, but, to Robin, it only made him look sexier. He was still in top physical shape—he told her he had to work out to keep up with his younger wife. But, to her, the fifteen-year difference seemed like nothing. It certainly hadn’t slowed down their lovemaking.
Her lips curved in an automatic smile as she watched her fiancé move toward her. As always, he bent down to brush a heated kiss across her lips before taking the seat across from her.
“I’ll bet you have news from Jonas,” he said as soon as he was seated.
“Did he call you, too? I’ll kill him. I wanted to tell you myself.”
Trey laughed. “No, but when you texted me, I had a feeling he’d called. What did he say?”
After the Russians were found guilty, they were shipped off to ADX Florence, in Colorado, a maximum security prison for the most dangerous criminals. But she knew the FBI White Collar Crimes Unit was still looking for the rest of Barkov’s group.
“Two things. They’ve finally broken the back of that particular arm of the Russian mob. Some of them are awaiting trial, and some have been deported to Russia. They just confirmed everything today, and he wanted us to know.”
“Good. I’m glad.” He reached across the table, took both of her hands in his, and gave them a gentle squeeze. “Less for us to worry about.”
She nodded. “And more for us to celebrate.”
“So, I decided to surprise you with some plans.”
“Oh?” Robin quirked an eyebrow. “What does that mean?”
“How would you like to have our wedding at Casa Blanca? They are a wedding destination spot, and we can even have another hot-air-balloon ride.”
“That’s fabulous.” Robin clapped her hands. “You are just the best.”
He pretended to pat himself on the back. “Yes, I am, aren’t I?”
“But you’re right. I couldn’t think of a better place to do this.” She studied his face for a moment. “Remember when we talked about their motto, ‘Kick off your shoes and fall in love’?”