by Paula Graves
“You stated what you were going to do and told me it was your way or the highway.” He let go of her hand so he could trace the tempting curve of her slender waist. Letting his hand slide lower to cover her backside, he tugged her closer, until their bodies were flush.
“Oh,” she said, her eyes widening as his erection pressed against her lower belly. “You’re an impressive man, Agent Brand.”
He rolled onto his back, pulling her with him. She settled over him, her hair spilling over her shoulders in a dark curtain. “You’re so beautiful.”
She laughed. “I bet you say that to all the naked women who straddle you.”
“I don’t,” he told her as she shifted closer to where he needed her to be.
She bent to kiss him, her hot tongue sliding over his. “Thank you.”
He reached across to the bedside table for another condom before he lost the ability to think.
* * *
THEY WOKE A few hours later, took a shower together and prepared a lunch of soup and sandwiches in the cabin’s small kitchen. A gas-powered generator outside provided enough electricity to run the small refrigerator, where they’d stashed the bag of cold cuts and bottles of water they’d bought at a twenty-four-hour convenience store on their way to the cabin. Luckily, Brand also knew how to turn on the gas to run the old stove to heat up the soup.
“When this is over, I’ll settle up the bill,” he said, even though she hadn’t asked.
“I know.” She knew he would do whatever he could to make things right, to repair any damage he’d done in trying to save his own life and reputation. It was the kind of man he was.
“There’s a spy shop in a little town called Blakeville, just south of Abingdon. Tech Palace. Tiny place, but they’re well stocked with a lot of cool gadgets. And they don’t ask a lot of nosy questions.”
“I’ve got my cover story figured out anyway,” Delilah told him. “I’m being stalked by an ex-boyfriend and the cops won’t listen to me. So I want to record him harassing me without his knowing it. Virginia is a one-party consent state, so that should pass the smell test.”
“Good story. Simple and believable.” He pulled his money clip out, peeled off three hundred dollars and handed her the rest. “Use what you need.”
“I can’t take all this with me. What if something happens and we get separated? You’ll need more than three hundred dollars.”
“I have other ways of getting money. Take it. You may need it.”
She hoped she wouldn’t. She hoped she could get what she needed for a couple of hundred dollars and bring back the rest.
She hoped a lot of things. But hopes weren’t the same thing as certainty. And if something happened to separate her from Brand while she was shopping for the recording supplies, she might need every penny she could get her hands on to find her way back to him.
The thought gave her a moment’s pause. The idea that she wouldn’t find her way back to him hadn’t even entered her mind, she realized, even though logic told her it was a strong possibility. What if Brand was sending her off on this trip to the surveillance shop in order to give himself time to disappear?
She looked up to find him watching her with sharp blue eyes. “You’re not going to ditch me as soon as I leave here, are you?”
He looked shocked by the suggestion. “I would never leave you to fend for yourself against Cortland.”
“Maybe you think I’d just give it up when I got back here to find you gone. Is that what you think?”
He shook his head. “I know you’d go through with it anyway, if you thought it might prove my innocence.”
He was right. She would.
“I don’t leave my agents behind.”
“I’m not one of your agents anymore.”
“And I’m not an FBI special agent in charge anymore, either.” He reached across the table and covered her hand. “I’ll be here when you get back if it’s at all within my power. I promise you.”
She turned her hand palm up, twining her fingers with his. “Okay.”
He rose from the table, tugging her to her feet. Pulling her close, he pressed a soft kiss against her temple. “You need to get a move on. Be careful. Take back roads—you memorized the map I gave you, right?”
She nodded. “I’ll find the place. No worries.”
He cradled her face between his big hands, bending to kiss her. It was a slow, hot kiss, full of barely leashed desire and a darker, deeper emotion she was afraid to try to identify. “If anyone gives you any trouble, you get out of there, okay? Get out of there and get yourself to a safe place. You don’t worry about me, promise?”
“I can’t promise not to worry about you,” she said, helpless to hide the feelings she knew must be shining in her eyes as she gazed up at him.
He kissed her again. “Then promise to be safe.”
“I promise to come back to you safely,” she compromised.
With a sigh, he shook his head and walked her to the door. “If you’re not back here by four, I’m going to come looking for you.”
“I’ll be back by four,” she promised, and knew she’d move heaven and earth to do so. There was no way she was going to let Adam Brand leave her life one second before it was necessary.
The drive to Tech Palace took only fifteen minutes, faster than she’d anticipated, even with the brief stop she’d made on the way. The place looked like a dilapidated warehouse on the outside, with the words Tech Palace painted in peeling, faded green on the weathered brick facade. But once she entered the glass front door, she realized that the outside was pure camouflage, designed to fool anyone who might think the place was a prime target for burglary, robbery or other mischief.
Inside, four men manned the well-appointed store. The largest and oldest of the four stood at the front counter, dwarfing the narrow space behind the shiny glass display cases. He was built like a rhinoceros, and looked nearly as mean, with a broad forehead and a square jaw that looked hewn from granite. He was more than a head taller than Delilah, who was not a particularly small woman, and his shoulder span looked as if he were a football lineman in full pads. His black T-shirt was tight enough to assure an observer that beneath his clothes, he was all hard muscle.
He looked up at her approach, his dark eyebrows converging over his misshapen nose. “Can I help you?”
She tried to look afraid, though she was more fascinated by the man than frightened. She’d bet he had one hell of a backstory, and her curious side wanted to hear all about it. “I need a small recording device that can’t be easily spotted. I don’t want to have to wear a wire or any kind of bulky receiver that someone could spot. Do you have something like that? With a remote receiver, maybe?”
“I can hook you up with that.” Brand had said the people at Tech Palace weren’t the curious types, but Delilah could see that the counter clerk was very curious. “You won’t be recording a third-party conversation without consent, will you?”
“No. It’ll be a conversation between me and my ex. He’s been threatening me, but not in front of anyone else. He’s an ex-cop, and so far the police seem to believe him more than me.”
“Has he hurt you physically?” The clerk stopped in the middle of walking to one of the back shelves, turning to look at her with a fierce scowl. He looked as if he’d like to handle her problem himself.
“No,” she said quickly. “It’s not like that. But he’s a cop, and he’s threatened to frame me for stuff. Check kiting and fraud, stuff like that. He says he can plant the evidence and make me look like a hardened criminal. I don’t know how to defend myself against that if he tries, but if I could record one of his threats, I might be able to preempt him.”
The big man looked at her approvingly. “Smart girl. I’ve got just the thing you need.” He reached up to the top shelf and pulled d
own a small box. “This is a watch with a powerful video recorder inside.” He opened the box and displayed a normal-looking silver watch. “Just push this button and it starts recording. Also has four gigs of storage.”
“What powers it?”
“There’s a two-hour lithium battery inside. You can recharge it by plugging it into your computer. That’s how you download the audio and video as well. I can sell you a replacement battery if you think you’ll need it, but the installed battery should last through a lot of recharges.”
She didn’t want to take any chances of an equipment failure. “I’ll take the extra battery. I don’t know how long it’ll take to get him threatening me on the recording.”
“Be prepared, I say.” The man handed the watch to her. “Why don’t we try it on, see if I need to adjust the band for you?”
She slipped the watch over her left wrist and snapped the clasp. It wasn’t a snug fit, exactly, but it didn’t slip around when she moved her arm. “Looks like it fits.”
He showed her which of the buttons on the frame of the watch triggered the camera and microphone. “Just press that and everything starts recording. The camera is set up so that you should be able to fold your arms naturally with the watch arm in front and record everything without drawing any attention to yourself.”
“Should I charge it when I get home?”
“Absolutely, but there’s probably enough of a charge in it right now, if you run into that creep before you get home.”
She managed a smile. “Good to know.”
“You come back here if it doesn’t work out. Maybe we can think up another way for you to get that jerk off your back.”
“I appreciate the help.”
He rang up her purchase, and when she handed over the cash, he didn’t even raise an eyebrow. She had a feeling he saw a lot of cash transactions in his kind of business.
Outside, the day had warmed a bit, the sun cutting through the winter chill. A digital sign on the bank down the street, where she’d parked her Camaro, showed that the temperature had risen above fifty degrees.
The sun on her face made her feel hopeful for the first time in days, giving her a little spring in her step as she crossed the road, heading for the bank parking lot. But she stopped short a half block away.
Someone was slowly circling her Camaro, studying it from all sides.
She started walking again before she drew attention to herself, trying to assess her options.
Then she remembered the watch still fastened around her wrist.
As casually as she could, she lifted her watch hand and pressed the record button the Tech Palace clerk had shown her. She made herself keep walking toward the bank, trying not to show any signs of interest in what was happening around her car. Slowly lifting her left hand to brush her hair back from her face, she took the opportunity to sneak one good look at the man as she passed the parking lot and kept going, her heart hammering in her chest.
He was tall and lean, dressed in jeans and a long-sleeved plaid flannel shirt over a black cotton T-shirt. His hair was a little long, curling down on the collar of the flannel shirt. It was as dark as a crow’s wing, a good match to the olive skin tone of his neck. His eyes were hidden behind a pair of sunglasses, and a John Deere cap shaded the rest of his face, making it difficult to make out much about his features.
She stopped at the corner and took several deep breaths. What now? Was he just some redneck with a muscle-car fetish? Or was he connected to the people hunting Brand?
She slowly circled the bank building, reaching the parking lot from the other end. She stayed out of sight at the edge of the bank and sneaked a quick peek.
The man was gone.
The hair at the back of her neck prickled. She turned to look behind her, half expecting the man to be there. But there was no one.
She waited another minute or two, until the door of the bank swung open behind her, forcing her into movement so she wouldn’t attract unwanted attention. She continued into the parking lot, keeping an eye out for the man in the John Deere cap.
But he’d disappeared completely.
She took the time to check around the frame of the Camaro, looking for signs of a tracker or anything the man might have placed on the vehicle while she wasn’t looking. She even opened the hood and studied the engine for signs of tampering. She saw nothing.
So maybe he really had been nothing more than a car nut interested in the Camaro for its own sake, she decided as she settled behind the steering wheel and took several calming breaths. Still, she braced herself when she turned the key in the ignition, half-afraid she’d trigger a bomb.
But the only thing the ignition triggered was the smooth purr of the Camaro’s 305-horsepower engine.
She didn’t spot the man on her way out of Blakeville, but she still made a point of driving around for a while, taking side streets and circling back several times until she was reassured that she hadn’t picked up any sort of tail. She finally headed back toward the cabin, forced to drive faster than she’d have liked in order to beat the deadline she and Brand had set.
It was five till four when she pulled up by the cabin. She hadn’t even made it out of the Camaro when the cabin door opened and Brand strode out to meet her, gathering her into a bone-crushing embrace.
“Brand?” She wriggled to make him loosen his death grip on her.
His eyes blazed with a combination of relief and anger. “What the hell took so long? Four o’clock was the far outside range of our timeline.”
“I’ll explain everything if you’ll stop squeezing all the air out of my lungs!” She managed to get her hands loose and reached up to cradle his worry-lined face. “I’m fine. Everything’s okay. I just had a little scare, so I took some time to make sure I wasn’t followed back here, that’s all.”
“Okay.” He released a long breath. “Okay.”
She rose to her tiptoes and lifted her face for a kiss. He complied, lightly at first, then with a burst of passion that left them both breathless.
“Let’s go inside and you can tell me all about what happened.”
She showed him the spy watch first. “This has a two-hour charge, which should be enough to record whatever happens at the meeting. It’s both audio and video, which will be of extra value if Cortland himself meets with me.” She carried her packages over to the table where the tablet computer lay charging and pulled off the watch. While she powered up the tablet, she pulled off the watch and removed the cover of the USB connector port. She plugged it into the tablet.
“Nice gadget,” Brand murmured from just over her shoulder.
She patted the chair next to her. “Sit down and let’s see if this nice gadget really works.”
“You shot something already?” He settled onto the chair, pulling it closer to her. He smelled good. Woodsy, as if he’d spent part of his time outdoors while waiting for her to return.
“If I did this right, yes.” Following the instructions included with the watch, she pressed Play on the media player and held her breath.
A remarkably clear image showed up on-screen. Ambient sounds—vehicle traffic, the sound of her own footsteps and her accelerated breathing—came through the speakers.
“There.” She pointed at the tablet screen. The picture was a little wobbly, but she’d managed to capture the dark-haired man in the green John Deere cap. “I don’t think there’s a zoom function. If there is, I didn’t use it.”
Brand leaned closer. “He’s really giving your car the once-over.”
“I know. Gave me a scare, let me tell you.”
Brand laid his hand on her back, between her shoulder blades, his touch unmistakably possessive. Delilah tried not to let his nearness distract her but found it impossible. Even through the layers of clothes between her body and his palm, the
fiery heat of his touch spread liquid warmth through her body to settle in the center of her sex.
Would there ever be a time she wouldn’t want him?
“I swear, I’ve seen that guy before,” Brand murmured.
She looked up at him. “Where?”
“I don’t know. I don’t recognize him, exactly. But there’s something about him that’s familiar. I just don’t know why.”
“Do you think he could be connected to Cortland?”
“I don’t think that’s where I know him from.” Brand nibbled his bottom lip, his brow furrowed. “In the FBI, we see so many faces passing through—suspects, victims, APBs, most-wanted lists—it could be any one of those.”
“I didn’t find any tampering. If you want, you can go take a look at the Camaro, see if I missed anything.”
“I probably should,” he said. “I doubt you’d have missed anything, though. You were always my most observant agent.”
“Two sets of eyes are better than one,” she said with a shrug, turning back to the tablet screen. She played back the video, concentrating on the man in the cap. There was something familiar about him, she realized, but for some reason she connected it to Cooper Security, not the FBI. Maybe she’d seen his face in some dossier for a case she’d worked, but like Brand, she couldn’t place him.
Brand returned from outside. He shrugged off his leather jacket and laid it on the back of the sofa. “I didn’t find anything, either.”
She met him in the middle of the room, slipping her arms around his waist. He hugged her close. “What’s this for?”
“Does it have to be for anything?” she asked, looking up into his curious blue eyes.
A smile carved lines in his face. “No. It doesn’t.” He lowered his mouth to hers, the kiss soft and undemanding.
The molten heat pooling low in her belly began to bubble. She slid her hands beneath his T-shirt, warming her fingers on his hot skin.
He jumped a little, laughing as he dragged his mouth from hers. “Cold fingers, Hammond!”