by C. J. Miller
Barnett wasn’t a man to be trifled with. Acquaintances and companions who displeased him disappeared.
Barnett stood in greeting. He gestured to the seats next to him. “Mr. Moore and the lovely Alexandra. Thank you for joining me tonight. This is my girlfriend, Ruby.”
Finn held out Hyde’s chair for her and she took her seat. Finn then sat next to her and between her and Barnett. Drinks were brought and after an exchange of pleasantries, Barnett took over the conversation.
“I am embarking on an exciting new opportunity. There are fortunes to be made. Before I share my grand plan, I need something from you.”
Finn didn’t like where this was leading.
Waiters in white gloves and black ties served appetizers. The longer Finn sat with Barnett, the dirtier he felt. And not dirty in a good way. Dirty as in, “my soul is being corrupted by the second.” If he was the average of the five people he spent the most time with, with the exception of Hyde, Finn was being dragged into the depths of immorality.
“How about a show of your skill?” Barnett said.
“What did you have in mind?” Finn asked.
“Your reputation speaks to your skills as a marksman and as an explosives expert.”
He was both, though he would rather Hyde handle explosives. Hyde was remarkable with them, having a sixth sense about timing and control.
Barnett stood and picked up a plate. “Shoot this.”
Barnett pulled his arm back and let the plate spin like a disc. Finn withdrew his gun and shot the plate before it hit the wall. It shattered, pieces striking the floor.
Barnett’s brows were lifted and the corners of his mouth turned up in amusement. Ruby’s hand was over her mouth, staring at Finn.
“Good reflexes and it answers my question that you traveled armed,” Barnett said.
“Safer to assume every person I meet is armed,” Finn said.
“Even your beautiful lady?” Barnett said.
Finn touched Hyde’s shoulder, as if she’d need his protection and reassurance. “Alexandra knows how to protect herself.” Finn wouldn’t let on how skilled a spy Hyde was.
Barnett snapped his fingers and pointed to the mess on the floor. Two waiters rushed to clean it up.
At the sound of breaking glass, Finn scanned for the source. Another test?
Ruby was on her feet apologizing.
Barnett pointed at her. “You clumsy cow! That’s a five-thousand-dollar wineglass. How will you pay for it?”
Barnett was a moron if he paid five thousand dollars for a piece of glass. Finn hid his disgust at Barnett’s reaction to what was probably a slip of her hand. Barnett had thrown a plate and had Finn destroy it for no reason. He had lodged a bullet in the ceiling, an expensive repair. Barnett wasn’t a man who cared about wasting money. But he obviously enjoyed humiliating his girlfriend.
Ruby brought her hands to her mouth, and her body trembled. Hyde moved as if she planned to go to the woman’s side, but Finn clamped a hand on her forearm. If Hyde interfered, she could get Ruby killed. It had to be killing Hyde to see this. Since he had known her, Hyde had harbored a passion for protecting women who could not protect themselves. Rumors had swirled about Hyde’s actions to protect others, and Finn had witnessed it himself over the last several years.
Humiliation was survivable. As long as Barnett didn’t throw a punch, Finn would let it play out.
“I suggest you go to our room. You can make this up to me tonight.” His grin was lascivious and Ruby looked at Finn and Hyde, her face red, and then fled the room in tears.
Barnett appeared composed. This was the hair-trigger temper Finn had read about. One moment Barnett was relaxed and jovial, and the next he was tearing someone to shreds.
Hyde was seething, twisting her linen napkin in her lap and tapping the gun at her thigh, but she was keeping her facial expression in check. The rest of the meal passed without incident. Ruby did not return to the table and Finn didn’t blame her. He hoped she had found a boat and was hightailing it away from Barnett.
When dinner was over, Barnett invited Finn to his private office for drinks and cigars.
“Are you okay on your own?” Finn asked, turning to Hyde at the table. It would be like Hyde to use the time to look around the house under the guise of admiring the decor and artwork. He ran his hand down the side of her face and she leaned into the touch. Their eyes connected and heat and anticipation arced between them.
She gripped her clutch in her hands. “If our generous host agrees, I’ll enjoy some wine on the portico.”
Barnett nodded. “I like a woman who can entertain herself.”
Hyde must want to stab Barnett. Everything the man said to her sounded like a slight or an innuendo to sex. Finn credited her with staying calm. He put his hands on her shoulders and kissed her lightly. She allowed the kiss, but she didn’t return it. He sensed she wanted to and was overthinking this. Finn would break through her walls and find out what was bothering her. It was a matter of time.
“Mr. Moore? Are you coming?” Barnett asked.
Though he hated splitting up from her, Finn followed Barnett into his office.
* * *
Hyde had worked as a spy long enough to have seen every type of relationship and had learned to categorize them quickly. Some were good, some were awful and most were somewhere in between. She placed Reed Barnett and every woman he dated in the awful category. He had humiliated and verbally abused Ruby. The idea made Hyde’s blood run red-hot with rage. If there was anything that elicited a reaction from her, it was a woman in trouble.
However Ruby had come to be involved with Barnett, she had to regret it. She could feel trapped or know she couldn’t leave with her life. Perhaps she was waiting for the right opportunity to escape to safety. Or she had been someone’s victim for so long, she didn’t know how to be anything but one. Though it wasn’t the mission’s primary objective, Hyde wanted to get Ruby safely out of her entanglement with Barnett when she was ready to take that step.
In her field, Hyde was often underestimated and men tried to push her around. She had pushed back and struggled for every scrap of respect she had. She’d had examples of strong women in her life. Her father treated her mother with respect, and Hyde expected nothing less from the men in her life. After a decade of missions, her reputation preceded her. Now, when a man learned her name, they reacted with the right amount of awe.
Barnett’s butler led Hyde out of the main house to a large patio overlooking the ocean. Citronella candles surrounded her.
Ruby appeared, having changed from the orange evening gown into pink yoga pants and a matching zip-up sweatshirt. Her hair was long and loose around her shoulders. She folded her hands in front of her and lifted her head. Hyde read her discomfort in the tightness of her shoulders, but Hyde also saw strength in her eyes.
Hyde would break the ice first and let Ruby know that she was a friend. “I’m glad you came out tonight. Who knows how long the men will be talking? It’s nice to make a friend on the island.”
Ruby touched the ends of her hair. “I’m embarrassed by what happened at dinner.”
It must be her first event of this nature, or she was playing a carefully scripted part to gain empathy. Hyde didn’t let her guard down until she was sure of someone and it was rare for her to be sure of anyone.
Hyde’s plan was to be as kind as possible to get close to Ruby without giving away anything about herself or Finn. “He overreacted. I’m sure he’ll be over it by tomorrow.”
Ruby touched her bare left ring finger. “He was pretty mad.”
“He seemed fine at the end of dinner,” Hyde said.
“Whenever he gets mad like that...” She let her voice trail off.
If she finished that statement with “he hits me” or any variation of t
hose words, Hyde would kill Barnett. She and Finn would have to come up with a Plan B to destroy the rest of his network. Her retribution for Barnett was ready to be taken off its leash with the slimmest notice.
“He what?” Hyde prompted.
Ruby pressed her hands to her sides. “It’s the best sex I’ve ever had.”
Not what she’d expected, but Hyde rolled with it. She could be a friend to Ruby and leverage her for information. Allies came in handy. When the time came, she would help her escape Barnett’s network.
Hyde giggled. “They get worked up, don’t they?”
Ruby relaxed and Barnett’s staff brought a bottle of wine and glasses out to them.
Hyde accepted a glass of wine, but didn’t drink it. She brought it to her lips, but she was listening, gathering every detail Ruby was willing to share.
She needed to figure out if Ruby could help them or hurt them and if she could be trusted.
* * *
After several hours of speaking with Ruby about everything from music to travel to books they enjoyed, Hyde pretended to be drunk. She had dumped a fair amount of wine into the bushes around the patio. It was almost one in the morning, and Finn was still talking with Barnett. When Ruby begged off to get some sleep, Hyde couldn’t think of a reason to linger without raising suspicions.
One of Barnett’s guards drove her wordlessly to the villa on the beach. Hyde thanked Barnett’s guard and stumbled into the house, closing and locking the door behind her. Her feet crunched over the gritty sand that seemed to coat the brown tile floor.
Hyde swept for bugs. Thinking of Ruby, she hoped Barnett’s anger would disappear before bed. If their villa was closer to the main house, she could have kept a better eye on Ruby.
Hyde hit the shower. Ten minutes in, the sound of the front door opening and closing interrupted her thoughts. Finn was home. Hyde shut off the water. She wrapped a plush white lavender-scented towel around her.
Her time with Finn was the closest thing she’d had to a vacation in the last ten years. Finn had once needed to cancel plans with her when his mission went sideways, and Hyde had been utterly disappointed. That lingering displeasure had been an eye-opening experience. She needed Finn after a mission. It was how she bounced back from the soul-wrecking events that were her job.
When this was over, Hyde wouldn’t have Finn. Instead, she would take a vacation. A weeklong getaway to somewhere warm where she could relax without fearing for her life.
Keeping her towel around her, Hyde met Finn in the main room of the house. Achy, needy and unexpected desire swelled inside her.
He was removing his tie and it was one of the sexiest things she had seen in months. Finn in dress pants, his shirt rumpled and the sleeves rolled to his elbows, his hair askew and now the tie loose around his neck.
His brown eyes blinked at her. “I won’t be presumptuous, so I’ll ask. Were you waiting for me?”
Her clothes were hanging in the closet. “Just getting pajamas.”
“Can I watch you change?”
Seeing her naked wasn’t a novelty for him. “That’s unfair since I have no intention of letting you touch me.” The words were a boundary she needed. If she followed her impulses, she would be in his arms in minutes.
A playful expression crossed his face. He removed his tie and shirt. Buff and muscled only began to describe him. A tiger was tattooed across his side. The tattoo covered a scar he’d gotten on one of his first missions when a poacher had shot at him.
Though his appearance wasn’t the sole reason she liked Finn, it was impossible to ignore. Finn’s dark and brooding, bad-boy-meets-secret-agent, tough-guy image appealed to her.
Broad across the shoulders, tanned skin from hours spent in the sun and lean muscles that she liked to touch, beckoned to her. To feel his body tighten beneath her hands and to lie against him, his arms around her, was the safest she had felt in her life.
When she had been in the worst emotional pain in her life, she had thought about being with Finn, his arms offering comfort and security she desperately needed to fill the gaping hole in her heart and emptiness in her soul.
Her excitement slowed when she thought of Munich. Her stomach clenched and she touched her midsection, feeling like she was less than she had been before, like something important was missing. Finn was the same man she’d been attracted to six months ago. She had changed. What she wanted from him and for her life was different.
Falling into bed with Finn would be easy. If she crossed that line with him, at the end of the mission she was still alone and without a family of her own. That dream was far out of reach, but not lost to her.
Hyde was beyond the point where she could have sex with Finn for recreation and pretend it meant nothing. She couldn’t put her finger on the precise moment it had happened, but sleeping with him had become about more than sex. She cared for him and he couldn’t—wouldn’t—give her what she wanted.
She took her pajamas to the bathroom and dressed. He joined her after several minutes, changing and brushing his teeth at the sink across the bathroom. She was momentarily thrown by the simplicity. They weren’t a couple in their home getting ready for bed. They were operatives on a mission where people would die to achieve their goal and even more people would die if she and Finn failed. Hyde wouldn’t let herself get caught in a fantasy. They were working. This was not real life.
Hyde left the bathroom and tossed a bed pillow onto the settee.
“That’s where you’re sleeping?” Finn asked, turning off the light in the bathroom.
It was late, the end of a long day, and she didn’t want to have a lengthy conversation about it. “Yes.”
He sighed. “Get in the bed.”
“I’d rather have some space.”
“We slept in the same room in Montana,” he said.
“I know.” She had liked it. Too much. It had been too tempting to cross the limits she had set.
He put one hand on his hip and rubbed his forehead with the other. “When are you planning to tell me what’s going on with you? Why are you acting like this?”
“I’ve told you. I want a life with words that scare you. Words like husband and wedding and babies and mortgage.” No point in dancing around it and pretending she was okay with sex with no strings, at least not when it came to Finn.
Finn straightened. “Those words don’t scare me. They just aren’t in the cards for me.”
He sounded certain. Case closed. Not even a hint that in the future, the distant future, he may want those things. She lay on the settee and closed her eyes. She couldn’t have this conversation with him. The intense longing swallowing her to hear him say those words clarified that she needed more from him. She wanted him to say he would give her a life and home together, if not now, in time. That he was capable of being the man she needed.
“Did you see Ruby?” Finn asked. The worry in his voice prevented her from ignoring him.
A change in the subject and she let go of her foolish hope about Finn changing his mind. “I did. We shared a few glasses of wine. She was shaken, but okay. This wasn’t the first time Barnett lost his temper with her, and she seemed fine.”
Finn made a sound of disgust. “Until Barnett takes it to the next level and he gets violent with her.”
She’d had similar thoughts. “He is a wretched human being. I can’t imagine anything he does making up for how he humiliated Ruby or why she would forgive him and stay.”
Finn flopped on the bed. “If you change your mind, I’m here. I know you want to sleep next to me. I can feel it.”
Hyde shifted on the settee and stared at the ceiling. “If I get in bed with you, will you stop questioning me?”
“For now. But Hyde, I know there’s something going on and I want to understand. I want you to let me in.”
She looked over at him. He lifted the blanket and patted the bed.
She crossed the room, the floor cold under her feet. She slid under the covers with him. He didn’t reach for her and she didn’t move closer. Sharing the same bed was close enough. They had an invisible wall as a barrier and neither was ready to tear it down.
Chapter 4
Despite his many bad qualities, Barnett had the best amenities on his island. Swimming pools, golf courses, fully equipped gym, day spa, restaurants and coffee bars. It had to cost a small fortune to keep and maintain this small island for Barnett’s personal pleasure. He and Finn were meeting on one of the island’s golf courses to play a round while Hyde and Ruby had treatments at the day spa.
Finn was amused thinking of Hyde receiving spa treatments. She would be antsy and bored. Then again, golf bored him, so they were in the same boat. By pretending to enjoy an activity they disliked, but that Barnett and Ruby found enjoyable, they’d get closer to their targets. Now, if only Finn could get closer to Hyde.
He had tried. Every time he asked her what was wrong, she shut him out. It wasn’t the mission she was upset about. There was more to it and he was going crazy with her putting so much distance between them.
More to his disappointment, when he and Barnett finished their round, Finn had learned nothing except that Barnett hated to lose. Finn let him win by a few strokes, sensing he would be a bad sport, possibly to the degree of ending their partnership over it. Finn might not be learning about the business, but he was learning a great deal about Barnett. Except for his ruthlessness and utter disregard for others, Finn saw nothing that should have propelled Barnett to the top of his game.
“Feel like checking on the ladies?” Finn suggested, unwilling to pretend to suck at golf for another round.
Barnett removed his golf glove and handed it to his caddy. “Ruby needs rest after last night. She didn’t get much sleep.”
Finn made a sound of acknowledgement. Barnett’s need to make innuendo about how he and Ruby spent their time together revealed an insecurity, but Finn hadn’t figured out the specifics. His impotence, some deep-seated woman issue, his inability to satisfy a lover in bed or a combination of all three.