Pawn

by Carla Cassidy

  These men also knew that Nick had worked as a security expert for the powerful, wealthy Jonas White. Nick had told them that it had been a stroke of luck that the FBI hadn't been able to tie him to Jonas's illegal activities. It had been his misfortune that, just when Jonas was going to cut him in for big money, the man had disappeared.

  That very background had given Nick enough credibility to get him into the heart of this operation. Now, if he could just identify Jimmy's boss, his work here would be done. The Feds could move in and arrest enough people to fill a small prison.

  "You sure you won't change your mind?" Jimmy asked. "I mean, what else you got to do on a Saturday night?"

  "Nothing, but I don't feel like playing tonight. I'm really tired. By the time we get finished here I'll be ready for bed."

  Jimmy clapped him on the back. "You're getting old, Nicky boy. I guess if I want to take somebody's money tonight, it will have to be a fool other than you." With a laugh, Jimmy nodded a goodbye and headed across the room.

  Nick narrowed his eyes and watched him go. Of all the men in the room, Jimmy wielded the most power, but he wasn't the man the FBI wanted.

  Although they would be pleased to lock his ass up, along with every other ass in this place, they wanted the big man, the money man…the brains of the operation.

  Every time they worked here in the warehouse Nick had the gut feeling that the big man was here, that he was smart enough, involved enough not to let anything happen that he didn't see or hear with his own eyes. But, who?

  The butcher, the baker, the candlestick maker. They were all here, but none of them seemed bright enough to be the brains behind the brawn. Whoever had orchestrated all this was not only bright, but ballsy.

  It took big ones to set up a drug operation in the middle of a small town. It took guts to wheel and deal with the local authorities and get them to look the other way.

  In all his years of working for the FBI, Nick had never seen a town as corrupt as Raymore. It was rotten from the inside out and when arrests were finally made, half the town would find itself behind bars.

  In the next couple of days each of the mules would be given a quantity of the meth to distribute to contacts around the country. Nick's contact was a Cuban street gang leader in an area of Miami known as Little Cuba.

  What the people in Raymore didn't know was that the street punk had been turned around by the FBI and the drugs he got from Nick never made it to the streets. The FBI paid for the shipment with marked money that was brought back to Jimmy.

  A wave of weariness swept over him. He was sick of these people, sick of the life he was living here. He trusted nobody, knew that to place trust in the wrong person could mean his death.

  It was a hell of a way to live. That's what Lynn had said and she had been right. When he'd first met her, he'd felt as if he was on the brink of losing his humanity.

  He'd been so focused on bringing down Jonas White he'd lost just a little bit of his soul to the job. Lynn had given that back to him with her charming innocence, her delightful laughter and her passionate love.

  When she'd left Miami to search for her roots he'd crashed into a kind of despair he'd never experienced before. He'd never known loneliness until she'd left him. And in the weeks and months following her departure he'd taken the most dangerous jobs the bureau had to offer, as if risking his life might give some meaning to it.

  Now he found himself wanting out…out of the danger, out of the stress. And that wasn't all he wanted. He wanted her. Damn, but he wanted Lynn with an intensity that made it difficult for him to concentrate, difficult for him to stay sane whenever he was around her.

  Each night when she came back to the apartment from searching the containers, she smelled wild. The scent of the night wind and the crashing waves of the ocean clung to her, but beneath the wildness he smelled her, that particular fragrance that was hers alone.

  It twisted in his gut, made the blood crash at his temples. His want of her was something raw and elemental and it ripped at him every minute of the day and night.

  And she wanted him, too. He felt it in her fingertips whenever they happened to touch him. He saw it burning in those amazing green-gold eyes of hers.

  It had been five nights since she'd tangled with the hooker and in the past five nights the tension between him and Lynn had grown to nearly intolerable heights.

  Even now, just thinking about her, Nick felt a thick, hot surge of blood coursing through his veins and his head filled with fantasies he consciously shoved away.

  The worst part about his job was that he'd been warned over and over again not to interfere if she should get into trouble. Listening to the growl of that dog coming over the speaker on her kitchen table had been difficult, but hearing the low, menacing voice of that hooker had been torturous.

  If he hadn't firmly believed she could handle herself against a streetwalker, he wouldn't have been able to stay in the apartment and not go to her aid.

  He rubbed a hand wearily across his forehead. He didn't mind risking his life here on this job, but for three hours a night as he waited in the apartment for Lynn to return safe and sound he suffered the worst kind of fear he'd ever known.

  He shoved thoughts of Lynn away as Kip Laroson ambled over to where he stood. "Heard you're not in for the poker game tonight. We were all hoping to relieve you of some money."

  Nick forced a smile as he eyed the tall, slender redhead. Kip looked like an older version of Tom Sawyer. He had open, friendly features all covered with freckles. He looked like the boy next door unless you looked deep in his eyes. Kip had the coldest blue eyes Nick had ever seen.

  "You took enough of my money the last time we played," he replied.

  Kip laughed. "Yeah, as I recall we relieved you of a bundle the last time. But, it's not like you aren't making a good living. We all are, thanks to this." Kip turned his gaze to the activity going on in the room. "Although we can't be making half of what the main man is making. I'd like to know who's behind all this."

  "Me, too," Nick replied. "Got any ideas?"

  Kip turned to look at him again. "For a while I thought it was Mayor Winslowe, but that man is too damned stupid to run the city let alone an operation like this. Whoever it is, he only talks to Jimmy and according to Jimmy he's just a voice on the phone." Kip shrugged. "I guess it doesn't matter who's in charge as long as we're all getting paid well for our work."

  "That's the way I look at it." Nick tamped down an edge of frustration. His associates at the FBI had checked out everyone in town looking for large sums of money in bank accounts, new expensive homes or cars, anything that would point to the man in charge. They'd found nothing. They were no closer now to discovering Mr. Big than they had been three months ago when Nick first breezed into town.

  The day was long and busy and it wasn't until eleven-thirty that night that Nick's head once again filled with thoughts of Lynn.

  As he backed out of the driveway of the place he'd been living for the past three months, he thought of the brief time they'd spent together at his beach cottage.

  He'd been happy there with her, happy as he'd never been before. Certainly his childhood hadn't been happy. Growing up with Joey Barnes for a father had been miserable. As Jonas had groomed Lynn to be his personal thief, Joey had tried to groom his eldest son in the business of organized crime. But, the last thing Nick had wanted to do was become his old man.

  So, he'd left the family and without telling anyone he'd become an FBI agent. On the side, he'd opened up a security business as a front, and his family thought he was doing nothing more than selling security equipment to frightened home owners.

  When he'd told his father he had no interest in following in his footsteps, he'd been cursed to hell and disowned. Nick had managed to maintain a relationship with his mother, brother and sister, but it had been difficult.

  Lynn had filled the emptiness in his life, an emptiness that had been with him since he'd been a young boy and realized his
father wasn't any kind of a role model.

  A bolt of lightning sizzled across the sky followed by a crash of thunder. He tightened his grip on the steering wheel, his gaze divided between the highway and the approaching storm.

  The storm was supposed to have moved in a couple of days ago, but had stalled out in the ocean. The weathermen had indicated that it was on the move once again and due to hit sometime tonight.

  He felt as if the storm was inside him, building and building until it would explode. But he couldn't allow that to happen. He had to remain in control.

  There was no way he intended to act on his desire for Lynn. If the circumstances before had been difficult, now they were impossible.

  He gripped the steering wheel more tightly as another flash of lightning rent the blackened skies. It was going to be a short night, for there was no way in hell he was going to let Lynn go out in this storm.

  He wasn't allowed to save her if she got into trouble, but he sure as hell could stop her from finding trouble and with nature about to vent its fury, the last place she needed to be was in that shipyard.

  LYNN STOOD at the window and watched the lightning tear across the black sky. The booming thunder rattled the window in its pane.

  Although the rain hadn't begun yet, no men stood in front of the tavern. It was not a night for man or beast to be out. A tropical storm warning was in effect for the Miami and surrounding area. Thankfully, it was just a tropical storm and not a full-blown hurricane.

  She turned away from the window and sat at the table, waiting for Nick to arrive. It might not be a night for man or beast, but she had a job to do. Hopefully there had been only a few containers unloaded that day and she could get them checked and get back here before the rain began.

  She jumped as another crack of thunder boomed overhead. She'd been on edge all day, filled with a restlessness that nothing seemed to dispel.

  The days seemed to be getting longer. She hadn't seen Tiny since four days ago when he'd brought over the coffee cake and she'd certainly not had any visitors other than Nick's.

  He'd arrive, they'd speak for a few minutes, then she'd take off for the shipyard. The minute she got back to the apartment he took off for whatever life he was living.

  As another clap of thunder resounded overhead she checked her wristwatch. Nick should be arriving anytime and tonight, for the first time since they'd begun this job, she wasn't particularly looking forward to seeing him. In fact, if she thought about it for more than a minute she would acknowledge that she was in a pissy mood.

  And it was all Nick's fault. The mixed signals she got from him made her mad. The fact that he managed to maintain an emotional distance from her both broke her heart and made her want to shake him.

  All day long she'd thought of nothing more than getting out of here and returning to her life in Phoenix. She yearned for her apartment, her routine and her friends.

  At some point over the past two days she'd come to the realization that Nick didn't want any kind of a relationship from her other than a working one. She'd lived without him for the past year and she could live without him for the rest of her life.

  This morning had started off badly. The coffeepot had malfunctioned, spilling tepid water all over the countertop. She'd made no further progress with the Spider files. And if that wasn't bad enough, she'd gotten a disturbing e-mail.

  As she waited for Nick to arrive she punched on her laptop and pulled up e-mail. She'd checked the message at least ten times during the day as if to assure herself that it hadn't been a figment of her imagination.

  There it was, just as it had been the other times she'd checked. She opened the file and stared at the message, a faint chill creeping up her spine.

  The top half of the message was a simple spider-web design with a big, black spider in the middle. The text was only one line.

  Come into my parlor said the spider to the Athena fly.

  It was signed, A.

  Even though she had seen the message half a dozen times, it still sent creepy crawlers up her back.

  Whoever "A" was, he or she seemed to be angry with the Athenas. Inviting a fly into a spiderweb was inviting the fly to die.

  What bothered her more than anything was that an enemy of Athena Academy must know that she was working on decoding the Spider files. How?

  Lynn had forwarded the e-mail to Delphi, then had spent a couple of hours trying to trace the e-mail address the note had come from. She'd had no success and had instead turned her attention back to the files. But, the message had haunted her throughout the day.

  She'd just shut down her computer when she heard Nick's knock under another drumbeat of thunder. She opened the door and as usual he swept past her and to the table, although he didn't sit. He carried with him the familiar duffel bag, which he placed on a chair but didn't open.

  "You aren't going out in this." There was an authoritative ring to his words that instantly set her teeth on edge.

  She'd already had a crappy day, she didn't need attitude from him. Besides, who in the hell did he think he was to tell her what she was or wasn't going to do?

  "Don't be ridiculous," she scoffed and tried to hang on to her temper. After all, it wasn't his fault she'd had a bad day. "I have a job to do and I certainly don't melt in the rain. It's not a hurricane warning, it's just a tropical storm."

  He sighed and raked a hand through his thick dark hair. "Lynn, I've had a bad day and I'm not in the mood to argue with you." Stress lines etched down the sides of his face and she could feel the energy that rolled off him.

  "Then don't argue with me," she countered. "Maybe I had a bad day, too, but that doesn't mean I don't do my job. How many containers came in today?"

  "It doesn't matter." The muscle in his jaw ticked. "You aren't going to clear them tonight." His eyes gleamed darkly and he straightened his shoulders as if spoiling for a fight.

  He'd certainly come to the right place, for God knew she was spoiling for one. She'd been tense since the moment she'd arrived back in Miami and suddenly that tension was on the verge of a major explosion.

  She took a step toward him. "Have you forgotten? You're just tech support on this assignment. Nobody suddenly died and made you boss."

  His eyes narrowed to dark, dangerous slits and he took a step toward her, bringing him close enough that she could smell the scent of the approaching storm, the tang of his cologne, and the underlying whisper of cigarette smoke.

  "You're right. I'm nothing more than tech support and certainly not your boss. But, you can't go out there tonight, Lynn. You have to be smart about this. The lightning is almost constant and it will make you a visible target for any guard with a gun."

  She knew he was right, but she was feeling reckless, wild. "I can run fast enough that nobody will see me despite the lightning." She turned and headed for the door.

  He grabbed her by the arm and twirled her back around to face him. For a long moment they froze and when the moment broke, his eyes shone with a depth of torment just before his mouth crashed to hers.

  Chapter 10

  Lynn had waited over a year to taste his kiss again and the moment his mouth took hers, she wrapped her arms around his neck and held tight.

  The mouth that had looked so harsh, so grim moments before was now achingly soft and tender as it plied hers with heat.

  But it didn't stay soft. With a moan he deepened the kiss, wrapping his arms around her waist as his tongue explored her mouth.

  Almost instantly a trembling swept over her body, a want so intense it nearly buckled her knees. It had been so long, so very long since she'd tasted him and felt his body pressed against her own.

  She didn't care about containers or storms, she didn't care about promises or tomorrows. All she wanted was this moment in time with this man.

  Their tongues swirled together in a wicked dance and their bodies were so close she could feel that he was already fully aroused. The thought that he wanted her as much as she wanted him
only stoked her desire higher…hotter.

  He tore his mouth from hers, the torment still in his eyes, making them appear darker and more deep-set than usual. "Lynn…we can't…" Despite the words, he made no move to physically distance himself from her. His breath was hot on her face, his hands still gripping her waist.

  "Yes we can," she replied and touched her lips to the underside of his throat as she molded her body more tightly against his. She was determined to get what she wanted and what she wanted was to make love with him.

  "It's a stormy night and I'm not going anywhere and we have three hours before you have to leave." She spoke with her lips against his collarbone then used her teeth to nibble his skin.

  He groaned, as if he found her touch almost painful. Once again she felt conflicting emotions coming from him. Although he didn't stop her, didn't try to escape her, he remained frozen in place.

  She raised her head to look at him and saw the conflict on his face. His eyes radiated a fire that threatened to consume her, but his lips pressed tightly together in an expression of faint rebellion. As she continued to stare at him his lips softened, then parted.

  If she gave him a moment to think, he'd leave. If she didn't act fast then she knew he'd be lost to her. And she wasn't about to let that happen.

  She stepped back from him and pulled her hoodie over her head and dropped it to the floor, leaving the top half of her clad only in a wispy black bra.

  He remained not moving, except for his gaze, which swept down to her breasts. Instantly her nipples hardened as if he'd touched her with his hand rather than just with his heated look.

  "Make love to me, Nick," she whispered. She reached behind her to unfasten her bra. Before she could manage the hooks, he cursed, then took a step forward and wrapped her in his arms.

  Once again his mouth crashed to hers in a kiss that both punished and delighted. His hands stroked the bare skin of her back, then slid downward to cup her buttocks.